VILLAGE LIFE IN THE HOLY LAND 



261 



it is reversed and we men say, 'O Pre- 

 server, protect me from my wife's dis- 

 pleasure!' Women never in former 

 times were seen riding, but today it is a 

 common sight to find a woman astride 

 of a donkey, and the other day I met one 

 so mounted, and she was even singing 

 aloud until she caught sight of me." 



the birth of the: baby 



When the fellah or peasant child is 

 born, its tender skin, without being 

 washed, is rubbed with olive oil and salt. 

 For seven consecutive days it is re-oiled, 

 and when a week old gets its first bath 

 and is again oiled, and each week until 

 it is forty days old the bath is repeated. 

 In some localities they consider it unsafe 

 to bathe it before it is forty days old. 



Into the little eyes they put drops of 

 liquid tar, and when two days old begin 

 the periodical application of kohl. This 

 is a dye used to blacken the eyelids of 

 not only babies, but of women and some- 

 times also men, and is considered both 

 beautifying and beneficial to the eyesight. 

 They believe the tar to be a preventive of 

 weak eyes, and that a child who has not 

 been salted will develop into a weakling. 



How old a custom this salting is can be 

 seen from Ezekieks reproachful words 

 to Jerusalem : "And as for thy nativity, 

 in the day thou wast born . . . thou 

 wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at 

 all."* 



Swaddling clothes like those of Bible 

 times f are still in use. A small shirt is 

 the only real garment put on, around 

 which may be wrapped some old rags, 

 care being taken to keep the arms tightly 

 pressed against the sides. 



A cap, perhaps decorated with a blue 

 bead or some charm to keep off spirits 

 and the evil eye, completes the apparel 

 (see page 314). 



When one looks at a child, before ad- 

 miring it or speaking of it, in order to 

 avert a calamity, one must say Bismallah 

 (in the name of Allah), or "May Allah 

 encircle you !" or "May the evil eye be 

 frustrated !" 



Mortality among the babies is great 

 and is not to be wondered at, for in view 



* Ezekiel 16 : 4. 

 t Luke 2 : 7. 



of the rough treatment they receive, it 

 becomes a question of the survival of the 

 fittest. 



how the: baby is carried 



In the Judean mountain districts a 

 cradle is often kept for the baby while 

 at home, and a sort of small hammock is 

 used to carry the child around in when 

 out-of-doors. The mother when going 

 to work in the fields will be found with 

 this hammock, called hiddil in Arabic, 

 on her back suspended by a rope which 

 passes across her forehead, often with 

 nothing indicating that life is in it except 

 an occasional squeal from one end. 



It is a common sight when passing 

 through the bazars to find a baby in this 

 sling hung on a small nail or on the lock 

 or bolt of a turned-back shop door, while 

 the mother sits in the street behind the 

 basket of produce she is selling, seem- 

 ingly unmindful of her child's hazardous 

 position. 



When in the fields she erects a tripod 

 of sticks, from which she suspends the 

 hammock, and she protects it from the 

 rays of the sun by covering it with one 

 of her garments. 



In the Samaria district and along the 

 plain of Sharon a crudely decorated 

 wooden cradle is the fashion and is car- 

 ried by the mother on her head wherever 

 she goes. 



We cannot refrain from narrating a 

 story heard from an eyewitness. 



The genii capture a baby, a true 



STORY 



A woman of Abou Shoushey,J wak- 

 ing up late one morning and picking up 

 the cradle in haste, started off for the 

 harvest fields. 



She had no more than entered the nar- 

 row path between the stretches of stand- 

 ing grain when she felt her babe leap 

 from the cradle on her head and heard 

 it glide rapidly through the wheat. 



Terror - stricken and trembling, she 

 screamed for help, calling to the men to 

 pursue the genii that had taken her babe. 



$ Abou Shoushey is ancient Gezer, which was 

 given by Pharaoh as a dowry to his daughter 

 when she married King Solomon. 



