The Women of the Arabs Part 21

It makes me feel sad to hear a poor woman praying to a man. This El Hakim was a man, and a bad man too, who lived many hundred years ago, and now the Druzes regard him as their G.o.d. But what difference is there between wors.h.i.+pping Hakim as the Druzes do, and wors.h.i.+pping Mary and Joseph as the Greeks and Maronites do. Laia says the Maronites down in the lower part of this village sing the following song:

Hillu, Hillu, Hallelujah!

Come my wild gazelles!

He who into trouble falls On the Virgin Mother calls; To Damascus she's departing, All the mountain monks are starting.

Come my priest and come my deacon, Bring the censer and the beacon, We will celebrate the Ma.s.s, In the Church of Mar Elias; Mar Elias, my neighbor dear, You must be deaf if you did not hear.

Sit Leila sings:

I love you my boy, and this is the proof, I wish that you had all the wealth of the "Shoof,"

Hundreds of costly silken bales, Hundreds of s.h.i.+ps with lofty sails.

Hundreds of towns to obey your word, And thousands of thousands to call you lord!

Katrina is ready to sing again:

I will sing to you, G.o.d will bring to you, All you need, my dear: He's here and there, He is everywhere, And to you He's ever near.

People say that every baby that is born into the world is thought by its mother to be better than any other ever born. The Arab women think so too, and this is the way they sing it:

One like you was never born, One like you was never brought; All the Arabs might grow old, Fighting ne'er so brave and bold, Yet with all their battles fought One like you they never caught.

Im Faris asks if we would not like to hear some of the rhymes the Arab women sing when playing with their children. Here are some of them. The first one you will think is like what you have already seen in "Mother Goose."

Blacksmith, blacksmith, shoe the mare, Shoe the colt with greatest care; Hold the shoe and drive the nail, Else your labor all will fail; Shoe a donkey for Seleem, And a colt for Ibraheem.

Sugar cane grows luxuriantly in Syria, and it was first taken from Tripoli, Syria, to Spain, and thence to the West Indies and America. But all they do with it now in Syria, is to suck it. It is cut up in pieces and sold to the people, old and young, who peel it and suck it. So the Arab women sing to their children:

Pluck it and suck it, the green sugar cane, Whatever is sweet is costly and vain; He'll cut you a joint as long as a span, And charge two piastres. Now buy if you can!

Wered says she will sing us two or three which they use in teaching the little Arab babies to "pat" their hands:

Patty cake, baby! Make him dance!

May his age increase and his years advance!

May his life like the rock, long years endure, Overgrown with lilies, so sweet and pure!

And now the Sit Leila is singing again one of the Druze lullabys:

Tish for two, Tish for two!

A linen s.h.i.+rt with a border blue!

With cloth that the little pedler sells, For the father of eyes like the little gazelles!

Your mother will weave and spin and twine, To clothe you so nicely O little Ha.s.sein!

Do you hear the jackals crying as they come up out of the valley? Their cry is like the voice of the cat and dog mingled together, and Im Faris knows some of the ditties which they sing to their children about the jackals and their fondness for chickens:

You cunning rogues beware!

You jackals with the long hair!

You ate up the chickens of old Katrin, And ran away singing like wild Bedawin.

It is not pleasant to have so many fleas annoying us all the time, but we must not be more anxious to keep the fleas out than to get the people in, and as the fellaheen come to see us, they will be likely to _flea_ us too. Safita is famous for fleas, so no wonder that Nejmeh knows the following song of the boys about fleas:

I caught and killed a hopping flea, His sister's children came to me: One with drum my ears did pierce, One was fluting loud and fierce, Then they danced me, made me sing, Like a monkey in a ring.

Come O Deeby, come I pray, Bring the Doctor right away!

Peace on your heart feel no alarm, You have not had the slightest harm.

Laia is never at a loss for something new, and I am amazed at her memory. She will give us some rhyming riddles in Arabic, and we will put them into English as best we may. The first is about the _Ant_:

'Tis black as night, But it is not night: Like a bird it has wings, But it never sings: It digs through the house, But it is not a mouse: It eats barley and gra.s.s, But it is not an a.s.s.

Riddle about a _gun_:

A featherless bird flew over the sea, A bird without feathers, how can that be?

A beautiful bird which I admire, With wooden feet and a head of fire!

Riddle on _salt_:

O Arab tribes, so bold and gay, What little grain have you to-day?

It never on the trees is seen, Nor on the flowers and wheat so green.

Its source is pure, 'tis pleasant to eat, From water it comes that is not sweet, Though from water it comes, and there's water in it, You put it in water, it dies in a minute.

The door has opened down stairs, and some of Sit Leila's friends have come to see her. The moment they saw the little baby Fereed, they all began to call out, "Ism Allah alayhee," "The name of Allah upon him."

They use this expression to keep off the Evil Eye. This superst.i.tion is universal throughout Western Asia, Northern Africa, and exists also in Italy and Spain. Dr. Meshaka of Damascus says that those who believe in the Evil Eye, "think that certain people have the power of killing others by a glance of the eye. Others inflict injury by the eye. Others pick grapes by merely looking at them. This power may rest in _one_ eye, and one man who thought he had this power, _veiled one eye_, out of compa.s.sion for others! The Moslem Sheikhs and others profess to cure the evil eye, and prevent its evil effects by writing mystic talismanic words on papers, which are to be worn. Others write the words on an egg, and then strike the forehead of the evil eyed with the egg."

Whenever a new house is built, the workmen hang up an egg sh.e.l.l or a piece of alum, or an old root, or a donkey's skull, in the front door, to keep off the evil eye. Moslem women leave their children ragged and dirty to keep people from admiring them, and thus smiting them with the evil eye. They think that blue eyes are especially dangerous.

They think that the name of G.o.d or Allah is a charm against evil, and when they repeat it, they have no idea of reverence for that Holy Name.

Here is a terrible imprecation against a woman who smites with the Evil Eye:

May her hand be thrust in her mouth, And her eyes be burned in the fire!

The blessings of Mighty G.o.d, Preserve you from her ire!

Nideh sings

Upon you the name of Allah, Around you Allah's eye!

May the Evil Eye be blinded, And never harm my boy!

It is ten o'clock at night, and Katrina, Laia, Wered, and Handumeh say it is time to go. Handumeh insists that we come to her wedding to-morrow. Amin will go with them to drive away the dogs, and see that no wolves, hyenas, or leopards attack them by the way.

PART VII.

The boys of Abeih are early risers. What a merry laugh they have! What new song is that they are singing now?

There has been a shower in the night and Yusef and Khalil are singing about the rain. We say in English "_it_ rains" but the Arabs tell us what "it" refers to. They say "The world rains," "The world snows," "The world is coming down," "The world thunders and lightens." So you will be able to tell your teacher, when he asks you to pa.r.s.e "it rains," that "_it_" is a p.r.o.noun referring to "world." Hear them sing:

Rain, O world, all day and night, We will wash our clothing white.