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DOJIESTIC MANNEBS OF THE PKTTSSIANS.

But we forget, in tlie fary of our disgust, to place thereader in tlie same circumstances as ourselves, and to give hima definite notion of what these same " Wickel-kinder" really are.

Among the sliady walks of tlie " Glacis " outside the forti-fications tliat environ tlie town of Coblenz, you may see dozensof tliem any fine day, carried by their Westerwald wet-nurses,whom you may know by the long, broad, black ribbons,Streaming from the crown of their head. At the first glanceyou have a notion that the nurse is carrying a cushion in herarms, for you perceive merely a white pillow-case with a deepfrill or border to it. As you approach, however, you discoverthat a wretched little infant is packed up in the squab some-how, for you can just see its tiny ball of a head—and itshead only, mind !—peeping out of what is called the "Steck-bett" and which, literally rendered, means the bed into whichthe child is stuck. After the first impression has worn off,the apparatus appears to be more like a large squab of awatch-pocket, into the fob of which the poor little infant hasbeen crammed.

Now, with your permission, gentle reader, we will play thePettigrew, and proceed to unroll this tiny Deutsch mummy.In the first place, what is called the " StecJc-bett," is not veryunlike, but much larger than, the large slipper used with us incarriages for thrusting the feet into during cold weather. Theentire body of the infant is stuffed into this apparatus, which isusually made up of carpet and covered with a white dimity orcoloured chintz case.

On removing the stiff shell, as it were, we find that thepoor little being within it is wound round and round withbandages, after the fashion of a brigand's legs; so that as thehead only of the wretched infant is seen above tlie hard roll,that gradually tapers off towards the feet, the Wickel-kindstrikes you as the very model of a baby Caryatides.