In Which We Discuss Hitty: Her First Hundred Years
Written by Rachel Field, illustrated by Dorothy Lathrop

HITTY Her First Hundred Years

Week of May 10, 2010

Chapter Eight:  In Which I Am Lost in India:

Hitty definitely has some trials and tribulations ahead of her.  First, the dramatic rescue at sea.  The Prebles and crew are very grateful to be alive and to be aboard a ship heading toward Bombay.

Upon reaching civilization again, the first order of the day was a shopping expedition to purchase proper clothing.  Hitty receives a red coral necklace and Phoebe felt quite sure she would be "quite a Queen of Sheba" among dolls.  However, the fates intervene again and Hitty is lost forever to the Preble family when Phoebe drops her to the ground. 

Life does go on for Hitty.  She is put into service as a sort of image while traveling with a snake charmer and his cobra all over India.  Hitty felt very discouraged at this lifestyle and had abandoned all hope of rescue and felt she would end her days in heat and dust, "far, far from my native State of Maine."  Hitty fears her life is doomed to this ending, but realizes while she is writing her memoirs later in life that it "only goes to show how little any of us can tell about our own futures."  Unbeknownst to Hitty, her life is about to take another dramatic turn when, once again, she is rescued, this time by some missionaries as a gift for their daughter, Little Thankful. 

DISCUSSION:

I wonder if when Captain Preble's ship sailed he had any intention of being anywhere near India. I don't think it was mentioned in the book. Where are the South Seas in comparison to India? Time to dust off the Atlas book and take a look. I love geography so this is no hard task. Somehow I'm not sure Kate would have liked the thoughts to going to India, but a lot of women went out there with their husbands in those days.

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In the edition of the book I'm reading, there is Lathrop's full-page sketch of Hitty with the cobra.  I noticed for the very first time that Hitty was NOT wearing the coral beads ... or so I thought.  But a closer examination revealed them, two beads just barely showing above the neck of her dress on one side.  I believe that most of us assume these beads are tightly fitted to her neck, but I now realize that they may have been much longer and hung down as a bead necklace would if we were to wear such a necklace.  After all, if they were to fit on Hitty somehow, they have to be a bit longer to go over her head.  Any of us who have strung our Hittys some beads knows that they have to be longer or strung on elastic to fit over her head.  If we use string or cord rather than elastic, we can either leave them long, or literally fit them to Hitty as we string and tie off to make them fit like a choker.  The book seems to describe them as already assembled: "There was even a string for me, of round red coral.  Our guide swore it had been intended to be worn as a nose ring, but it was a perfect fit for my neck."  When I think about that, I have to wonder if the beads were long enough in a string to go around her head so that they could not be chocker style but would hang down and be longer.  Then I thought about wearing that “string” as a nose ring, and wondered, also, how that would work: perhaps they were wired like a choker to fit on and off? That didn’t make as much sense to me, though silver wire would be common enough to Indian jewelry. Did they somehow loop over a piece that pierced through and held a small string of beads in a loop?  There is no way to really determine that.  Anyway, the business of Hitty’s coral necklace obsessed me.  I wanted to see how Lathrop pictured them, but the pictures didn't always follow through consistently.  I had to look hard to find the necklace in many pictures, where they barely appear.  I wondered if Lathrop and Field bought this necklace for Hitty themselves and added it to her store of things after they purchased her, and so that this detail was perhaps added to the story and to some of the pictures as well.  In some ways, this idea is reinforced by the daguerreotype picture at the front of the book which shows her wearing the beads.  In that picture, the beads are not red as in the book’s text, but more of a soft salmon pink or coral colored.  Perhaps Lathrop depicted her in the beads as they actually were in color which might not have been red as the book says they were.  It’s a curious think.  I think all my Hittys have those coral beads around their necks, generally as chokers, but if they had to go over her head my Hittys may have assumed a choker look rather than a string of beads which the book suggests.  Also, my Hittys’ collection of chokers is divided in color:  about half wear red, and the other half wear a salmon pink like in the daguerreotype. What do the rest of you think about this: choker or string of beads?  Red as the text or salmon in the daguerreotype?

In my search of pictures and mentions of coral beads in the book, I finally figured out when and how Hitty lost her coral beads, but I’ll save that for a later chapter.

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I checked out the Cobra picture and you are right, only a couple of the beads are shown.  In Chapter 9, in her picture with the dolls, the necklace definitely hangs down and the dance picture shows a longer necklace.  The also look longer in the mouse picture. 

In the bridal picture, she has a choker on.  Where did the beads come from?  They were previously scattered and lost but unless I missed it while scanning through quickly this AM, I saw no mention of her pearls being repaired.  As detailed as the making of the bridal gown was and the materials used, it seems odd that there is no mention of the beads. 

The head shot on the last page also shows a choker version of the necklace.  You are right, there is a bit of an inconsistency here with the whole necklace issue. 

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I asked my son yesterday if there was enough cat food left, and also what color the bag was. He told me it was a red bag, and I asked if DH had changed their food again. Then he brought me the bag, and it was actually orange, the same brand as always.    Deep salmon coral seems likely to me, and I think many people would call it red.

I wondered about the nose ring reference too, so I googled, and actually they look like they would make a perfect Hitty necklace, but they aren't technically a string. However, on Hitty they would look like a string of beads.

I imagine the visit to the bazaar as being rather magical and very exciting, perhaps dizzying with all the exotic colors, designs, scents, sounds, tastes, and buskers.  It would be hard to know where to look or stop next.

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The book is specific that the beads were strung, so I keep thinking it would actually be a string.  I’m still trying to figure out how the string would fit over Hitty’s head.  And not to give anything away, but later Hitty’s string of beads is portrayed as an actual string, so….  After all that excitement of the day and Hitty’s new coral beads, it’s a shame it all came to an end of her and Phoebe.  Interestingly, the section of the book with Hitty and Phoebe took up nearly half the book. 

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I think if it was supposed to be a nose ring, the beads were strung on a wire loop with a hook in the back. I do not think a nose ring would have been constructed with thread and I cannot imagine anything very long as a nose ring even in India. If you could imagine a little silver wire hoop that hooked in back with coral beads strung on it, I think that would be what it would look like. However, if I were making a doll a necklace back then, I probably would have strung them on thread, made the necklace short and tied it in the back or string them on wire.

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Susan, there seem to be varying shades of red to pink to orange coral.  Some of my Hittys have coral necklaces and some do not.  I think I should definitely string some for those that don't have any.  To me, the necklace is an important part of Hitty's belongings.

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Half the book was taken up with Phoebe and Hitty, and Hitty was lost or left behind four times by Phoebe:  at the church; berry picking where she was taken by a crow; forgotten on a burning ship; and dropped to the ground in India.  She was also taken by the Indians on the island but through no fault of Phoebe.

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I think the bride necklace has always been a bit controversial.  I hate to push ahead to that chapter, but I suspect they are pearls, though there is no mention of pearls in the text that I recall.  Aren't pearls traditional bridal attire?  They were in my family.

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I believe you are right.  I believe the ladies made the necklace for her, because it would be traditional.  She looks so beautiful in the gown they made with the pearls.  Miss Hortense and Miss Annette were so meticulous, they would never have a Hitty bride with no necklace, at least in my opinion.

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