Page 193 - Neglected Arabia Vol I (1)

■

The Bounds of their Habitation
Mus. John Van Kss
"And lie made of one every nation of men to dwell on all the face of
the earth, haviny determined their appointed seasons, and the hounds of
their habitation; that they should seek after Cod if haply they mit/ht feel
after Him and find Him”—Acts 17:20-27.
T HIS is a clay when 1 make a round of calls on some of my former
school girls, so we will begin at this house on the creek, which
would have a lovely view it all the windows were not so tightly
closed and shuttered, giving it almost the look of a blind house. We
go into the little hall-way, past the door-keeper who sits half asleep,
cross-legged on his bench, lingering a Moslem rosary, and in through a
heavy inner door which leads to the women’s quarters. Nothing blind
here! The inside courtyard is full of bustle and life, one black serving
woman washing clothes as she squats on her heels on the stones in front
of her copper tub of suds, another in the smoky kitchen, busy over rows
of pots bubbling on charcoal tires and sending out most savoury aromas;
a Jewess peddler of small wares coming down the stairs, chuckling over
the good bargains she has made and the last bit of gossip she has
retailed, with her pins and tapes, to the residents of the harem. Up
the stairs we go and into a little room which overlooks the court yard.
It is spread with rugs and cushions and here, sitting near a charcoal
brazier of beaten brass, we lind the mistress of the house, a stout and
pleasant-faced Arab lady whom we used to call Um Yusuf (Mother of
Joseph), but whom since her return two years ago from the pilgrimage
to Mecca it is courteous to address as Hajjia.
We exchange the customary salaam and kalaam with her. literally
greetings and talk, and then she calls out loudly “Bedrea, oh. Bedrea!
Come, come quickly! Here is your teacher come to see you !” And then
comes in my dear ex-pupil, thcWajjia’s daughter-in-law, whose pretty
Arabic name means hull Moon, and whose face is beaming almost like
one. In her arms she bears proudly her beautiful three-months-old baby,
as chubby and winsome and well cared for a mite of humanity as one
could lind anywhere in Arabia or America. “There," she exclaims, as
she dumps him in my lap, “doesn’t he smell like a rose? lie has just
had his bath." He does indeed, and 1 agree most heartily, while thc
baby surveys me with a solemn black-eyed stare. “Well," says his
grandmother, the Hajjia, “I certainly did think it would kill that baby
to be washed all over every day in this cold weather—his head, too!
Hut Clod is great!" “I do everything just as you and the lady doctor
told me," continues Bedrea, “Bath, clean clothes every day, powder,
everything." She is torn between a desire to boast about the baby’s
splendid condition, and the Arab superstition that such remarks will
bring down the evil eye, “tempting Providence," as it is called in more
favored localities.
We talk for some time about the baby’s future, how he is to go to
school as young as possible, never be absent, and never, never use swear
words or other bad language, and he sits cooing and gurgling in my
12