106 
COINCIDENCE WITH JEWISH CUSTOMS. 
Quando mulier Judaica gravida est, jarnque tempus, ut infantem in lucem 
edat, appropinquavit, turn vero locus ille, in quo puerperium fieri debet, 
rebus necessariis omnibus instruitur ; quo facto, paterfamilias cretam 
in manus accipit, lineamque circularem in cubicido facit ad parietes 
omnes, scribitque super janua et interius et exterius ad parietem quem- 
libet, &c. The object against which these are used as charms, is a 
night-hag or screech owl — Spectrum diabolicum in forma muliebri ; 
which will otherwise kill or run away with the infant on the eighth 
day — the circumcision. 
The apprehensions concerning the Christian midwives are almost as 
strong as in the case of the female spectre. Quamprimum strix licxc, 
seu mulier nocturna, e cubiculo bannita profiigataque est, obstetricem 
Christianam accersere nequaquam permissum est ; — that is, unless a 
Jewish performer is not to be found. Obstetrices enim Cliristianoe eis 
suspectce sunt, verenturque Judcei ne liberos ipsorum nascentes non 
satis solerte excipiant, vel eosdem vita inter nascendimi emungant, &c. 
The Persians, as Mohamedans, profess indeed some respect for the 
author of Christianity, though Christians are always dogs to them ; and 
after all, the tower for Mary and her son may be intended as a confine¬ 
ment for them, and to prevent their future influence on the faith of the 
new born Shiah. 
On the day of the woman’s confinement, a certain food is prepared 
for her, of which all those present at the birth partake, and portions of 
it are also sent to all her other friends. The third day after her delivery 
she is taken to the bath, where she makes the ablutions and purifications 
prescribed by the Mahomedan law, and which may be read in detail in 
Chardin and d’Ohson. The Eastern women sufier little from parturition, 
for the better sort of them are frequently on foot the day after delivery, 
and out of all confinement on the third day. They are sometimes deli¬ 
vered “ ere the midwives come in unto them,'' Exodus, ch. i. v. 19.; and 
the lower orders often deliver themselves. I knew an instance where 
a peasant’s wife in Turkey, who was at work in a vineyard, stepped 
behind the hedge, delivered herself, and carried the child home slung 
behind her back. 
See Harmer, vol. iv. p. 434. 
