An Arab baby is such a funny little creature! In Christian lands babies,
as soon as possible, are given a warm bath and dressed with comfortable
clothing. But in Arabia the babies are not washed for many days, only
rubbed over with a brown powder and their tiny eyelids painted round with
collyrium. They are wound up in a piece of calico and tied up with a
string, just like a package of sugar. Their arms are fastened by the
bandage so that they cannot possibly move them. The Arab mothers say that
if the arms and legs of babies were left hanging loose the poor things
would never sleep. A small, tight bonnet for the head completes the baby's
wardrobe. A few blue beads or buttons are sewn on the front of this cap to
keep off the evil-eye, for Moslem women all believe that if a stranger
looks at a baby it may turn sick and die.
On the day when the baby is named a sacrifice is slain and eaten and
silver offerings are given to the poor, equal to the weight of hair on the
infant's head. The poor baby's hair is all shaved off to be weighed in the
balance. Poor people who cannot afford this offering omit the custom.
Charms are placed on the arms or around the neck of the child. A few
verses from the Koran are written out and put in a leather or silver case
and also tied around the arm or neck of the baby. If the child shows signs
of illness the mother makes it swallow some of the Koran. That is, a
portion is written out and the ink is washed off with water and this dirty
water is taken by the patient. A prescription was sent to me once when I
was ill by a Moslem _mullah_, or teacher, of this character and he was
quite certain I would recover if I drank it. I am glad to say I got better
without the ink medicine.
[Illustration: DATE-STICK CRADLE.]
When the baby is forty days old and has received its name a new date-stick
cradle is triumphantly brought home from the market and the new baby
placed in it. And then Master or Miss Arab will get such a violent rocking
that no Christian baby could stand. The ground is uneven, for there are no
wooden floors in Arabia, and the rockers are nearly straight so that you
can imagine it is not the pleasantest thing in the world to be rocked in
an Arab cradle. In the picture you can see just what a date-stick cradle
is like.
Arab babies cry a great deal; what with sand storms and flies and other
insects they generally have sore eyes and apparently need strong treatment
to make them quiet and give their mothers and sisters time to grind the
wheat and churn the butter. Everything is made fresh each day in an Arab
household. The rice must be cooked for the daily meal, the wheat ground
for bread, and the milk put into the leather churn. These people have no
ice chest, not even cupboards, many of them, so the coffee is freshly
roasted and pounded in a mortar for breakfast. The flour is taken to the
hand-mill and butter comes out of the churn every day fresh. Then the
mother will have to draw the daily supply of water and wash the few
clothes at the well. The better classes have their slaves to do the hard
work but the Bedouin women and the poor have to do all the toil and never
get a rest. Rich and poor are alike in not having any intellectual
pleasures. Few can read and even those who can read, are able to read only
the Koran and the Moslem traditions. The children have no primers or
picture-books, and no Arab mother ever has a newspaper or a magazine. She
has never heard of such things. Arab women do not know anything of the
many interests and pleasures that occupy the time of women in Christian
lands.
[Illustration: WOMEN GRINDING AT THE MILL.]
Would you like to know how they make bread in Arabia? First the wheat is
sifted and cleaned and then it is put into one of the hand-mills. It
consists of an upper and nether millstone with a hole in the upper one and
a wooden handle. Two women usually sit and grind because the stone is
heavy and they love to talk while they work. One swings it half way and
the other pulls it around. Then the coarse flour is taken out and put into
a bowl with water and salt and mixed to the right consistency. A piece
of this dough is then taken between the hands and gradually beaten until
it is about the thickness of a book cover and twelve inches in diameter--a
round, flat cake of dough. The oven is usually under ground and is shaped
like a large jar with the mouth above the ground a little. A fire is built
_inside_ the oven and when the sides of the oven are quite hot the fire is
allowed to die out. Then the large pan cakes of bread are deftly clapped
on to the side of the oven until the space is covered and one by one the
cakes are taken out when done. In some houses they have a shallow oval pan
which is placed over an open fire and on this the cakes are baked. The pan
is put on the fire upside down, so even here we are again in Topsy-turvy
Land. Twenty or thirty of these flat loaves are baked at one time, for a
hungry Arab can eat five or six at one meal.
[Illustration: BEDOUIN WOMEN EATING THEIR BREAKFAST.]
Now the men come in to eat the food that the housewife has prepared. With
a short prayer called _bismillah_ they begin and then shove the rice and
meat or the bread and gravy into their mouths as fast as they can.
Whatever is left when the men get through is for the women. You can see a
group of Arab women in the picture eating their meal from one common dish
in front of their tent. They use their hands instead of spoons or forks
but get along very well and always wash before and after their simple
meal.
Now the women always have to wait on their husbands and eat by themselves.
When things get right side up in this dark land we hope to see the whole
family sitting down together and taking their meal with joy and
thanksgiving.