PERSIAN GAMES AND TOYS
It is curious to go thousands of miles to Persia--to cross vast sandy
deserts--and at last to find little skirted boys in the mudwalled
streets playing tipcat just like their counterparts in our own cities.
Hop-scotch and duck-stone too are favourite games, and kites are very
popular. The kites are large and square and fly very well, and the
boys often fly them from the roofs, sending “messages” up the string
just as our boys do. There is a regular game of “wolf” too, played
almost exactly as it is in many parts of the world by English-speaking
children. I am sorry to say that pitch and toss and gambling with cards
are very common.
There is nothing like cricket and football, but in Yezd there is a
kind of “rounders” which is played for a fortnight only at the New
Year--the Persian New Year, that is, in March. Any evening during that
fortnight if you go out into the desert just outside the town walls
you will see a crowd of men and boys, some playing, some watching. And
any day during that fortnight if you visit the women, some small boy
will proudly show his _chaftar_ or rounders stick. For a week or two
afterwards an occasional _chaftar_ may be seen but after that it is a
puzzle where they disappear to, not one is to be seen till the next New
Year.
The little girls in Persia, as everywhere else, depend largely on
dolls. The dolls are home made--rag-dolls without much shape, with
the features worked in fine cross-stitch, and dressed of course, as
Persians. Good European dolls are great treasures, even to the women,
and I knew one rich lady who had eight very nice ones all for herself.
In Shiraz they make wooden horses for the children and little models
of the _kajavehs_ or covered panniers in which women and children
often travel. In Yezd, where the workers in clay are cleverer than the
carpenters, little model _kuzehs_ or waterpots are commoner and clay
money-boxes and nightingales. Roughly moulded and gaily painted clay
animals and men too, are made in quantities--but only at the “Festival
of the Sacrifice” when a camel is sacrificed. At the time of this
festival there are stalls and shops in the bazaars full of clay toys
and toy drums, but they cannot be got at any other time of year, and
as clay animals are quickly broken they are only to be seen for a very
short time. Among the toys may sometimes be seen a figure evidently
copied from an Italian statuette of the Virgin and Child--copied by
Muhammadans without any idea of what it represents. But when all is
said the games and toys are very few in Persia, as compared with those
you are accustomed to. Perhaps they are not so much needed there. The
grown-ups are so childish that it is no great hardship to a child to
practice grown-up ways instead of playing games of its own. There is so
much in ordinary grown-up life that is really a very good substitute
for a game--the elaborate greetings to be gone through with each
person in turn according to their importance, the tea served in tiny
cups no bigger than a child’s teaset, the sweet-eating, the pressing of
roseheads into the visitor’s hand, or the more elaborate arrangement
of stiff sticks closely covered with roses, the presentation of tiny
unripe first-fruits, of melon seeds or nuts ornamented with fluffy
bits of silk, of oranges inlaid with velvet, all these would seem a
very attractive game to a child. Perhaps they really prefer to join in
the games their elders play in earnest rather than play their own in
jest. The conversation too is seldom over their heads, but generally
interests them as much as their parents. The entertainments of the
elders are of a kind to suit the children too. What child does not
enjoy the Fifth of November with its Guy Fawkes, its fireworks, and its
bonfires? and the Persians, too, have their firework day, when they
burn not Guy Fawkes, but ‘Omar, the Muhammadan leader who conquered
Persia. They do not burn him, because he conquered Persia, but because
he was _Khalif_ or head of the Muhammadans, and the Persians say that
‘Ali, Muhammad’s son-in-law, ought to have been _Khalif_ and that ‘Omar
was a usurper. There are torchlight processions, in which ‘Omar’s
effigy is carried, bonfires illuminations, and fireworks in plenty.
All the year round fireworks and illuminations are very popular, so
much so that the main work of the Government Arsenals seems to be the
manufacture of fireworks. Another very popular form of entertainment is
the _ruzehkhānī]_, or religious reading. It is considered a very pious
act for a man to have a _ruzehkhānī_ in his house in the two months of
Muharram, and his friends come in crowds and greatly prefer it to an
ordinary party. Muharram is the time of mourning for Husain and Hasan,
Muhammad’s grandsons.
The courtyard is crowded with people sitting on the ground, and as the
professional reader recites the story of the death of Husain and Hasan
the people sway their bodies to and fro to the rhythm and gradually
work up their excitement. Then they all begin to beat on their bare
chests with the open hand and raise a wail that gradually grows in
strength, till the wailing and the sound of the blows can be heard
several streets off and the tears stream down their cheeks. It is very
exciting, and grown-ups and children alike enjoy it thoroughly.
But _the_ day of the year is the day of the death of Husain when the
_nakhl_ is carried and the great passion play of the death of Husain
and Hasan is played.
This is a general holiday and all through the early part of the day,
the villagers come trooping in to the towns. The streets are now full
and processions pass along them carrying the _nakhls_ from the squares
outside the smaller mosques. In some towns, too, they carry _alams_,
or long poles with a series of handkerchiefs tied to them. When the
processions from two different quarters of the town meet there is
generally a struggle, often ending in a free fight; so both _alams_ and
_nakhls_ are now forbidden in some towns.
I only once met a procession myself, and then it most politely halted
to allow me to pass comfortably.
The smaller processions being over, everyone crowds to the large
squares to see the carrying of the great _nakhls_ of the big mosques.
The _nakhls_ are wooden frameworks carried on poles and hung on one
side with looking-glasses, on the other with daggers. Those in the
large squares are of immense weight. They are said on this day to be
carried across the square by Fatimeh, Muhammad’s daughter, but it is a
work of great merit to help her, so as many as can possibly get within
reach of the poles join in the work, and the _nakhl_ moves across the
square. But the afternoon is the best part when the great play of the
death of Husain and Hasan is acted. Then, indeed, there is wailing and
beating of breasts. “I enjoy it more than anything in the year,” one
lady told me.
One year there was a little boy dangerously ill with inflammation of
the lungs when the great day came round. It was considered quite out of
the question for any of the family to stay away from the play to nurse
him, and being a boy he was not likely to obey the woman servant who
was being left in charge of the house. “He would have been all over
the roof trying to get a glimpse of the play,” his mother said, “and
probably would have fallen off, so we had to take him.” So they took a
mattress for him, and he lay and listened to the play from a gallery,
and of course got up to watch the exciting parts. It very nearly killed
him, but they seemed to feel they had taken the only reasonable course,
and he eventually recovered.