=Carrying Children.= The babies were carried upon the back of some member of the family, quite often an older brother or sister and sometimes these were not over five or six years of age. The baby was tied upon the back of the one carrying it, face front, head and feet out, and even in quite cold weather. The babies soon learned to hold on and thus they looked out for themselves so as not to be dropped by the one carrying them. "The mother bears the bairns, but the children carry them. Each preceding child, as it grows older, must lug the succeeding baby on its back till able to stand. The rearing of a Japanese poor family is a perpetual game of leap-frog."[120] =Adoption and Inheritance.= There was a great desire, especially in feudal times, to have a male heir to keep up the ancestral line, which otherwise would be a disgrace to the family. There being no male heir, it might be that a son would be adopted in early life to grow up as the heir, or he might be adopted with the idea of his marrying one of the daughters later, or there might be no formal adoption but a young man would marry a daughter and give up his own name and take that of the family and thus become the heir. The childless wife, if not divorced, would often care for the adopted child as if her own, which care would be reciprocated by the adopted son in her old age. In feudal times, in case a man should die leaving no children, either natural or adopted, his death was concealed till the lord gave permission for him to adopt a son, and not till then was his death announced, for otherwise the lands escheated to the lord. =Power and Duty of Father.= As in Rome, the family was the unit in feudal times in Japan, and the head of the family held complete power. He had the full control of the persons and property of his children and he could do with them as he chose, only being held back by that most binding of all laws--custom. Yet, as he had great power, so had he great responsibilities, as he was responsible to the state for the doings of his family. =Amusements.= Old Japan was a realm of sports. It was a nation of players. There seemed not to have been any distinct line of demarcation between the amusements of the children and those of the adults. The grown-up people entered with zest into games which were in many cases the same and in many others similar to the games of the young people. There were numerous holidays and festivals, on which days the whole nation of people seemed to give themselves over to the toy-sellers and showmen and story-tellers and musicians and games and plays--to a time of general enjoyment. Perhaps there was never any other people or country in the entire world at any time that took as much interest in the pleasures of their children as did the old Japanese.