OUR YOUTHS' DEPARTMENT

Evening Star, Issue 8084, 7 December 1889, Page 2 (Supplement)

OUR YOUTHS' DEPARTMENT

Girl Life in Persia. [By S. G. W. Benjamin, lale U.S. Minister to Persia.] Her eyes are black as sloes—of course they are black, for blue eyes are considered unlucky in Persia; her skin is a rich, warm, delicate brown that overlays tho round plump features, tinged with a tint of rose where the dimples are or should be; the silky bair is dark as the plume of the raven that crowns the head of the little girl baby who was born but yesterday in that quiet dwelling *t the foot of Mount Elborz. The mollah, or priest, has already been to the house, and in the presence of her father has turned over the leaves of the Koran or Mahomedan Scriptures, and hit on the name of Fathimeh, tho daughter of Mahomet the Prophet; so Fathimeh is to be the name of the new-born babe. She is a Persian, and in Persia will Bhe live, for it is only with the special permission of the Shah that a Persian woman can live out of her native land.

She is but a day old, but an amnlet has been already hung on her neck containing a tiny scrap of paper on which is inscribed a passage of the Koran, intended to ward off mischief from djirena or evil spirits. For the same reason if any of the neighbors look in to see the little stranger and express Admiration of her beauty, the nurse requests them to spit in the baby's face lest the influence of the evil eye should lurk in what might be the praise of envy or jealousy. A tiny white cap of open embroidery also covers the infant's hair, and her limbs arc swathed tightly in swaddling bands. When Fathimeh is five or six months old the bands are gradually removed and her hair is dyed with henna. The first application turns it to a bright orange red; the second wash turns the hair to a rich blueblack. The finger and toe nails, the soles of the feet and the palms of her hands are also dyed yellow with henna. This is not done entirely for beauty, as Europeans often imagine, but rather to toughen tho skin. This is especially necessary with the soles, as moat women in Persia go barefooted in the house.

When little Fathimeh is old enough to toddle about she has a present of red Blippers embroidered with tinsel, but rarely wears them at play, for they are an encumbrance. When she is two or three years old, however, sho begins to wear a mant'o, an article of dress that she will wear until her death, whenever she steps out of the house, whether to sport in the garden or play or walk in the street. This awkward dress she wears attached to her head, and it reaches to her feet. While she is a child it is worn loose, and flies behind when she runs ; bat when she reaches the age of eleven the mantle is drawn over the face excepting over the eyes, which are protected from the gaze of any but her own family by a tiny lattice work, exquisitely embroidered, of whits silk. While still a child little Fathimeh sits in the gate, and sometimes plays with the boys of the neighborhood, and thus, perhaps, forms a passing acquaintance with her future husband. If her parents were peasants she would accompany them to the fields, and aid in picking the fruit or gleaning the harvest. But as her parents are well-to-do city folk of some means, she is soon taught that her destiny is to be a life almost as secluded as that of a nunnery. Her days are to be passed within the seclusion of the anderoon, or women's quarter of the house, where sho resides, whether it bo her father's or her husband's anderoon. If the former, by the time Fathimeh is nine years old her days are passed in apartments where her only society is that of her mother, sisters, and brothers, and the female slaves of the household. Occasionally other little girls pay her a formal visit, and they pass a serious afternoon eating cucumbers and confectionery to a degree that would speedily kill off most American children. In Persia, those who are unable to bear such irregular diet die early; the survivors become so hardecud they are able to endure anything. This is a simple way of avoiding the necessity of heavy doctor's bills, which is, perhaps, an advantage in a country where the physicians are the most barefaced quacks. If Fathimeh's father has several wives, which it is greatly to bo feared is the case, then she also has her half brothers and sisters aB playmates, and a merry time they have of it. The anderoon is entirely separated from the rest of the establishment within an enclosure of its own, and each wife with her family occupies a distinct portion of the anderoon. It is built around a square courtyard surrounded by high walls so that no one may look into it, nor is any neighboring house parmitted to look into the anderoon court, whether from the roof or from windows. Nor are there any windows in the anderoon itself that face the street. Thus you see that the anderoon and its courts are entirely shut out from the world.

However, these quarters are by no means as dreary as one might imagine; for the court is laid out with parterres filled with an extraordinary profusion of flowers, chiefly roses, asters, pinks, lavender, oleander, and marigolds. It is densely shaded also with lindens* china trees, poplars, plane trees, and pomegranate trees, the latter a most exquisite addition to every garden where it grows, with its bright green glossy leaves, its lovely flame-colored blossoms, and rich red globes of fruit. Hidden in this wealth of foliage the bulbul or nightingale warbles its enchanting strains, not only during the still watches of the moonlit night, bnt often during the hush of a drowsy summer day. In the centre of the court there is an immense tank, into which the water often runs for hours with a grateful music, being afterwards drawn off to irrigate the garden. But it is never empty, and around its brim tho children play, and the doves alight to strut and coo, and the ducks float on the surface. Around the courtyard are arranged the various apartments of the anderoon, rarely more than one storey, and having a flat roof; they are protected from the sun's rays by broad verandahs, supported by graceful pillars, and another tank in the centre of the verandah. When visitors call, fountains in the middle of these tanks toss their silver spray, and give a delicious coolness to the air.

The chief meal of th 9 day is in the evening, after the sunset prayer has been announced from the lofty minarets. Fathimeh's father then withdraws from the duties of the day and seeks the seclusion of the anderoom with his family. Dinner is sorved to him on the floor. It is brought in on a large disc of whitened copper, and consists chiefly of soups, highly-seasoned ragouts, rice, sweetmeats, and tea. The lord of the mansion eats alone. His wife looks on, while, seated on his knees and heels, lie leans over the dishes and carries the food to his mouth with a bit of the thin bread of the country, hollowed between his fingers like a spoon. If he is in a pleasant mood, he calls Fathimeh to his side and puts a choice titbit ia her mouth, saying: " Eat, my lamb, it is good for thy health, God willing."

After he has dined his wife or a handmaiden brings him a basin, a ewer of rosescented water and a towel, and laves his hands. His lordship then arises and reclines on a divan in the corner by the window, and his kalian or waterpipe is brought to him. While he thus takes his ease Fathimeh and her mother in turn take their meal and then proceed to regain the husband and father, and perhaps smoke with him. All smoke in Persia, from the youngest to the oldest.

When bedtime arrives the process of retiring to the land of Nod is simplicity Itself. A pile of bedding in tho corner of the sleeping room is unrolled on the rugs covering the floor; there are no sheets but only counterpanes, and in winter heavy quilts. Divesting herself of her outer clothing, Fathimeh folds and places them in the niches in the wall called tachtehes, which Berve the purpose of closet and table in most Persian houses.

Fathimeh is awake early by the summons to rise for morning prayers, which sounds Boon after dawn over the city and country, or she may be aroused still earlier by the horn of the hah-hahm bashee or bathmaster announcing that the public baths are ready. Those who do not have private steam baths at homo go to the public baths. The men go at all hoars from dawn until noon. The women resort to them in the afterr/oon, No Christian is ever permitted to enter these

baths, which are carefully preserved for the faithful.

Going to the p'ublis bath is one of Fathimeh'S greatest diversions from the earliest childhood. At least once a week her mother takes her there. They make an afternoon of it. Fathimeh has her fingers freshly died with henna, and he? hair, which has grown very long, is plaited into innumerable small braids, which are expected to last without recombing until her next visit to the bath. These days at the bath are an education to the little girl now rapidly approaching womanhood. With the exception of a few lessons with the needle or on the guitar, or in the making of preserves, the little maiden has had no other education except what sho gains from hearing older people of her own sex converse. And thus, when sho is at the bath and hears the women talking while embroidering or smoking after tho ablutions are over, she learns much from their conversation of life in the outside world of Persia, and sho will need all the information she can acquiro, for if she ever learns to read and write, which is not likely, it must be after she is married. That marriage is her inevitable destiny she learns as soon as she can talk. Thera are no old maids in that country. When she is eleven or twelve years old the question of finding her a husband is earnestly discussed. The matter is settled between the parents of the bride and gro»m, the most difficult point to arrange being the amount of the dowry to be paid with the bride. If this is the first marriage of the prospective husband then he also is young, not over sixteen or seventeen. The marriage is accompanied with great pomp, and the festivities last several days, after which the bride is taken to her new home at the hoad of a long procession crowding tfir narrow streets, marching to the sound of horns, pipes, and kettle-drums. And there we leave the little brido, hoping she will have at leaßt her share of wedded bliss.