Democratic Sentinel, Volume 13, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 January 1889 — Arabian Babies. [ARTICLE]

Arabian Babies.

A baby’s first toilet in Arabia consists in winding a bandage about its body after it has been bathed and perfumed. The little creature is then placed on its back, its arms and feet are straightened, and the entire body is swathed to the sLojlders. In this position it remains motionless forty days, but the bondages are removed

| twice a day that the child may have a | bath. The Arabs believe that this process will make the body straight for life. If the child be a girl, on the seventh day after her birth, holes, usually six in number, are pricked in her ears, and when she is two months old heavy gold rings are attached to them, to be worn throughout her lifetime, except during periods of mourning for relatives. On the fortieth day the child’s head is shaved. This operation is considered a very important one, and thirty or forty persons are witnesses of it for the performance of certain rites. The disposal of the first hair is regarded as a very weighty matter; it must not ba burned or carelessly thrown away, but buried, thrown into the sea, or hidden in some crevice of a wall. This fortieth day marks the turning point in the child’s life. Heretofore it has only been seen by its parents, the slaves on duty, and a few intimate friends of the family; now, however, it may be seen by anybody, and is regarded as fairly launched on I the tide of existence. Several charms are attached to its body for protection against the “evil eye”—boys -wearing them to a certain age and girls still I longer. The favorite charm consists I of a gold and silver locket worn on a i chain.