"رحلة ثانية عبر بلاد فارس، أرمينيا وآسيا الصغرى إلى القسطنطينية، بين سنتي ١٨١٠ و١٨١٦. مع يوميات الرحلة مروراً بالبرازيل وبومباي وصولاً إلى الخليج العربي. مع تقرير لإجراءات السفارة البريطانية تحت إدارة السير جور أوسيلي، البارونيت، فارس وسام الأسد والشمس، مع خريطتين ونقوش من تصميم المؤلف." [‎١‎٠‎٥] (٥١٦/١٤٤)

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
weie attended by a suite of monkies, headed by a large ape, which were
educated to pei form all sorts of tricks. They carried copper drums
slung undei 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 was 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 Kcmdak, 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. Phe midwife then pronounces the
Kelemeh Islam in 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 All 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.
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