Читать книгу Children of Persia - Napier Mrs. Malcolm - Страница 5

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A Persian baby—what a funny little mortal! It looks for all the world like a little mummy, rolled up in handkerchiefs and shawls till only its little face peeps out, and tied up with a long strip of braid exactly like a parcel tied up with string. Hasn’t it got any arms and legs? Oh, yes, safely put away inside all those wrappings and put away carefully too—straightened out and rolled up so thoroughly that it will stand up stiff and straight against the wall though it is only a week old.

How surprised and shocked the Persian mothers are to see the English babies kicking and throwing their arms about. “O Khanum, aren’t you afraid its limbs will grow crooked? Why don’t you bind them straight? Aren’t you afraid its legs will get broken if you leave them loose like that?”

So at its very start on life’s journey the poor little Persian baby is checked and prevented from growing up properly; for how can its little legs grow strong without kicking? It is no wonder that Persian babies as a rule learn to walk much later than English babies.

But perhaps the Persians are not quite so foolish as they seem when they roll their babies up in these stiff little bundles. Very likely the little arms and legs would be broken or bent if they were left loose, for many of the Persian mothers are very young—much too young to know how to look after babies. They often treat them like dolls and would very likely break them just as English girls break their dolls.

Even the grown-up mothers are often very careless. One woman I knew laid her baby, not quite a year old, on a chair, and left it there. Of course it fell off—it was sure to; and yet she did this over and over again, and a few days later dropped it into a stream of water. She was very much surprised that it began to have fits at this time, and she said she could think of nothing to account for them.

A new missionary, who did not know the ways of Persians, went one day to see another woman and found her in bed, that is, lying on a mattress on the floor under a large quilt. Her friends invited the missionary to sit on the quilt beside her, for they do not use chairs in most Persian houses. After she had sat for some time she enquired for the baby. They pointed to a little lump in the quilt, and there, close beside her, entirely covered up and invisible, was the baby, and it gave the poor missionary a terrible shock to see how near she had been to sitting down upon it. After that, she always asked to see the baby before she sat down.

A baby less than a week old was brought one day to the Julfa hospital with its face badly torn by a cat. A few days later the doctor went into the ward and found the mother smoking and gossiping with the other women, but the baby was nowhere to be seen. “Where is the baby?” “It is all right,” said the mother; “I put it under the bed.” And sure enough, a little way off, under a bed (this time an English bed) lay the poor little bundle, its arms bound to its sides, only its little face exposed, or rather half-exposed, for the torn half was covered with a dressing, while close at hand there prowled in search of food a large half-wild cat, which frequented the hospital and had slipped in at an open door.[A]

When they get a little older the babies are laid in broad comfortable leather hammocks slung between rings let into the walls of the room. Most Persian rooms have these rings in the walls. These hammocks save the Persian mothers a great deal of trouble, for a single push will set the hammock swinging for a long time and keep the baby quiet or send it to sleep.

No baby may be left alone in a room till it is forty days old.

From the very first the baby is given kaif every-day, that is, something to make it sleep; this kaif is almost invariably opium. After the first week most babies are also given tea every day, without milk but with a great deal of sugar in it, or better still sugar-candy. This is considered specially good for babies, but it takes a long time to dissolve. Both opium and tea are very bad for the baby’s digestion, so we are not surprised to find that nearly all Persians suffer from indigestion.

A BABY IN HAMMOCK

There is one Persian custom connected with babies that boys and girls of other lands would probably like to introduce into their own country. The newly-arrived baby is weighed and its weight in sweets is handed round to the people in the house, and it is supposed to bring bad luck to the baby if anyone refuses its sweets. Plenty of people always drop in when they hear that a new baby has arrived.

Another Persian rule for babies would not please your mothers at all. After the first bath no baby must be washed all over till it is a year old. One Persian lady, who was better educated than most, and had been reading about European ideas on health and cleanliness, told the missionaries that she was bringing up her little boy just like a European baby. She said she gave him a bath every day and generally let him kick instead of tying his legs up to make them straight. She was delighted and triumphant when, instead of getting crooked, his legs grew so strong that he walked at about half the usual age. But when he was nearly a year old his body became covered with sores and the missionary doctor told the mother to wash them not with ordinary water in the bath, but with a lotion. “I should never think of washing them in the bath,” she said. “His body must not be washed till he is a year old.” “But I thought,” said the doctor, “that you gave him a bath every day.” “Oh dear no,” she replied; “I don’t wash his body. It is his legs that I wash every day.”

When a Persian baby learns to talk it begins just like any other baby, so that the Persians declared with great glee that the English babies were talking Persian when they said “Baba” and “Dada.” But instead of “Daddy” and “Mummy” Persian babies call their father and mother Bābā and Nana.

When the baby is shown to anyone the mother generally remarks that it is an ugly little thing, and similarly the visitors are expected to say how ugly and dark it is, though there is no need to say it with any great conviction. It is possible to say “How ugly you are” just as affectionately as “You little darling.” But such uncomplimentary remarks are used to avert bad luck and to guard against any suspicion of the evil eye. If the visitor makes any complimentary remark she must add “Māshā’ allāh” (i.e.“May God avert it”), or the parents will be seriously alarmed, and Baby’s admirer may be held responsible for any calamity which befalls him for weeks afterwards.

Bibi Fati was the mother of four dear little children, Rubabeh, Hasan, Riza, and Sakineh, and very dearly she loved them. One day they were all gathered together for dinner when in walked a poor old beggar woman in search of a meal. She was very anxious to please the mother, and looking round at the children said: “What a nice little family you have; you are like a hen surrounded by her chickens.”

Poor Bibi Fati did not feel at all comfortable at such a complimentary speech and quickly gave the old woman some food and sent her about her business.

For a day or two all went well. Then one after another Rubabeh, Hasan, Riza, and even little Sakineh sickened and died, probably of some infectious disease, and the poor mother was left childless and heartbroken. Nothing would convince her and her neighbours that the old beggar woman had not caused the catastrophe by her admiration.

Baby girls do not get such a good welcome as baby boys. When little Ferangīz Khānum was born, her father was staying at a garden a few miles away, and no one troubled to send him word. “I would have sent a message if it had been a boy,” said the mother, “but it is not worth while for a girl. It will do when he comes home next week.”

Persian fathers and mothers are often very fond of their little girls, but there is no doubt that they very much prefer boys. The father and mother, but especially the mother, are often known by the name of their son, so much so that sometimes the neighbours know them by no other name than “the father of Hasan,” the “mother of ‘Ali.”

Perhaps one reason for preferring boys is that the girls marry so young, just as they might begin to be of some use to their mothers; and the father has to pay a sum of money to his daughter’s husband on her marriage. A son, on the other hand, does not generally marry till he is grown up, and then he almost invariably brings his little wife home and continues to live with his parents.

A greater reason is that the Persians are Muhammadans, as you have already heard, and in a Muhammadan country the men are allowed to treat the girls and women very badly, and parents who care at all for their girls must always feel great anxiety as to their future.

We shall never get the Persians to treat their girls and women much better till we teach them the religion of our loving Saviour, Who cares for us all equally and wants us to be equally kind to one another.