Page:The Chinese Boy and Girl.djvu/42

Rh All the relatives and friends are invited and every one is expected to take dinner with the child, and, which is more important, to bring presents. If the family is poor, this day puts into the treasury of life a day of happiness and a goodly amount of filthy lucre. If the family is rich the presents are correspondingly rich, for nowhere either in Orient or Occident can there be found a people more lavish and generous in their gifts than the Chinese. All the family can afford is spent upon the dinner given on this occasion, with the assurance that they will receive in presents and money more than double the expense both of the dinner and the birth of the child. If they do not "come" they are expected to "send" or they "lose face." Among the middle class, the presents are of a useful nature, usually in the form of money, clothing or silver ornaments which are always worth their weight in bullion.

The name given the child is called its "milk" name, and is supposed to last only until the boy enters school. Whether boy or girl it may answer a good part of its life to the place it occupies in the family whether first, second, or third.

If a girl she may be compelled to answer to "Little Slave," and if a boy to