Page 77 - Neglected Arabia Vol 1 (2)

(c

From the Cradle to the Grave

Mrs. Cj. J. Penminus

T HE cradle is a crude little date-stick structure with a few 1 I
rags in it to take the place of the mattress. The little mother,
sitting on the door jerking the cradle, may be as young as
eleven, if this is her first baby. Whenever the little baby cries
the mother picks her up and nurses her. The mother is rather nervous
when visitors want to see her baby, lest they cast an Evil Eye on her.
For protection the little girl wears amulets containing bits of the Koran
written out by a Mullah, and perhaps teeth of a young gazelle tied to
the cap, and iron anklets on her feet. The baby is dressed in a simple
black gown, which must not be hemmed if the mother hopes to have
more babies. She never gets a little outfit ready in preparation for
her baby, so the baby is at first bundled up in a few rags and later
some one makes the dress. The eye-lids are blackened at once and
for two weeks the baby is swaddled. Powdered jasmine leaves are
the local substitute for powder.
The mother has rather a hard time the first months as she is not .
allowed any, or only the least little bit of water to drink for a month,
if her husband is at home, or for forty days if he happens to be gone.
She does her best for the little baby, Inti site has never beard of
daily baths or of any routine about feeding and sleeping bouts. She
is sadly ignorant about the treatment of the little baby ailments, and
foolish and weak in letting the teething baby eat whatever she wishes,
unripe cucumbers, and green fruit, or heavy cakes. The result is a
very high infant mortality. Perhaps the majority of the little babies
Thai are carried from their cradles to their graves, die at weaning time,
when about two years old. In so many cases the mother could have
been spared this grief, if she bad had a little more knowledge 0r
medical advice.
Most of the Bahrein children grow up with plenty of freedom and
very little home training. On the street and at home the little girb
hear and see far too much of evil and vulgarity. When about eight
years old, only the minority of girls are sent to a neighborhood teacher,
generally an old woman, who gathers some fifteen children around
her, the boys on the one side, the girls on the other, and teaches them
the Koran. Each pupil comes in turn to sit beside her while she
points out the lesson, word for word, and then sends the child back
to practise with the others, till her turn to read with the teacher conic*
around again. The stick is in frequent use to help both memory and
manners of the children. It would be considered a family disgrace i|
a girl learned to write. Why should she want to write and to whom.1
Few learn to read well enough to be able to read from any other
book, many don't even finish the Koran. Nothing in this school
courx
can be considered training for life, or proper food for the imagination
or mind.
When she is about seven, the little girl may learn to pray, and bhv
feels very big when she is allowed to spread her mat and go through
all the forms of Mohammedan prayer beside her mother or
k'rand-