TREATMENT OF INFANTS. 
105 
before and two similar behind. Others of his troop were dressed in the 
same way ; all looked grotesque: and I conjectured that nothing could 
give one a better idea of satyrs and bacchanalians, particularly as they 
were attended by a suite of monkies, headed by a large ape, which were 
educated to perform all sorts of tricks. They carried copper drums 
slung under the arm, which they beat with their fingers and the 
palms of the hands ; some snapped their fingers, making a noise like 
castagnets, others played the tambourine, and when all this was put into 
motion, with their voices roaring in loud chorus, the scene unique. 
The Persians expressed their surprise at the little bustle that attended 
the birth of an European child ; for among them, when a woman feels 
the pains of labour, she not only calls the mamache^ or midwife, (who is 
generally an old woman,) but also all her friends and relations, who gather 
round the bed until the delivery of the child. They then wash it, clothe it, 
and swathe it in a long bandage, called the Kanddk, that entirely encircles 
the child from its neck downwards, keeping its hands pinioned to its sides, 
so that it can stir neither hand nor foot. They then place it under the 
same bed-clothes with the mother. The midwife then pronounces the 
Kelemeh Islam \n the ear of the child, which is the profession of the Mus¬ 
sulman faith. That which the Shiahs pronounce is, God is God, there is 
but one God, Mahomed is the Prophet of God, and Ali the Lieutenant of God; 
and in virtue of which the child is received among the number of the 
true believers. But it is remarkable, that immediately after this they 
perform a ceremony which may be supposed to have an indistinct re¬ 
ference to Christianity ; for in the room where the child is born, the 
midwife takes a sword and with the point draws a line on the four walls 
of it, — when one of the women in attendance enquires what are you 
about ? the other answers, I am tracing a tower for Mariam and her 
child : -— whence this originates, or why it is retained, I could never 
learn. But it is worth while to observe here an odd coincidence between 
the practices and feelings of the Persians, and those of the modern Jews, 
as they are described by Buxtorf. * The Jews also scrawl their walls at 
the birth of a child, and have a mortal aversion to Christian midwives. 
* See Syna. Jud. 
P 
