As soon as a Turkish child is born it is enveloped in a tiny chemise and Libardé, or quilted jacket of many colors, bound with a swathe; its limbs are pulled straight down, and then imprisoned in a number of quilted wrappers and tightly bandaged all over by another swathe, giving the unfortunate mummified being the appearance of a Bologna sausage. A red silk cap is placed on the head, ornamented with a pearl tassel, one or two fine gold coins, and a number of amulets and charms against the evil eye.
These objects consist of a head of garlic, a piece of alum, a copy of one or two verses of the Koran plaited in little triangles and sewn in bits of blue cloth, and a number of blue glass ornaments in the shape of hands, horseshoes, etc. The baby, thus decked out, is next placed in a fine square quilted covering, one corner of which forms a hood, the other three being crossed over its body; a red gauze veil, thrown over the whole, completing its toilette. After the child’s birth a state couch is prepared on a bedstead used for the occasion, decorated with the richest silks, the heaviest gold embroideries, and the finest gauzes of the East. The bed is first covered with a gauze sheet, worked with gold threads; five or six long pillows of various colored silks, covered with richly-embroidered pillow-cases, open at the ends, occupy the head and one side of the couch; one or two yorgans, or quilted coverlets, heavily laden with gold embroidery, occasionally mixed with pearls and precious stones and the under-sides lined with gauze sheets, are thrown over it. On this bed of state the happy mother is placed, at no small sacrifice of ease and comfort. Her head is encircled with a red Fotoz, or scarf, ornamented with a bunch of charms similar to that placed on the head of the child, the garlic insinuating its head through the red veil that falls on the temples. A stick, surmounted by an onion, is placed in one corner of the room, against the wall.
When these preliminary arrangements have been made, the husband is admitted, who, after felicitating his wife on the happy event, has his offspring put into his arms; he at once carries it behind the door, and after muttering a short prayer, shouts three times into the baby’s ear the name chosen for it. He then gives back the infant to its mother, and quits the room.[19]
For several days (the exact time depending upon the mother’s health) water, either for drinking or ablutionary purposes, is not comprised in the régime imposed upon the invalid, whose lips may be parched with thirst, but not a drop of water is given to her. Sherbet, made from a kind of candied sugar and spices, varied by a tisane extracted from the maidenhair fern, is the only drink administered. Turkish ladies, after confinement, get little rest; the moment the event is known, relations, friends, and neighbors crowd in, and are at once permitted to enter the chamber and partake of sherbet, sweets, and coffee, not even abstaining from their inveterate habit of smoking cigarettes.
On the second day a great quantity of this sherbet is prepared, and bottles of it sent to friends and acquaintances by Musdadjis,[20] also an invitation to the Djemiet, or reception held on the third day. The house on this occasion is thrown open to visitors, invited or uninvited. Dinner is served to the former, and sherbet to the latter. Bands of music are in attendance to receive and accompany upstairs the most distinguished guests, who arrive in groups, preceded by servants bearing baskets of sweets prettily got up with flowers and gilt paper and enveloped in gauze tied up with ribbons.
The guests are first conducted into an ante-chamber, where they are divested of their Yashmaks and Feridjés (veils and cloaks) previously to being introduced to the presence of the invalid. The latter kisses the hands of all the elderly hanoums, who say to her, “Mashallah, ermuli kadunli olsoun.”[21] Very little notice is taken of the baby, and even then only disparaging remarks are made about it, both by relatives and guests, such as Murdar (dirty), Chirkin (ugly), Yaramaz (naughty). If looked at it is immediately spat upon, and then left to slumber in innocent unconsciousness of the undeserved abuse it has received. Abusive and false epithets are employed by Turkish women under all circumstances worthy of inviting praise or admiration, in order to counteract the supposition of ill-feeling or malice underlying the honeyed words of the speaker, which are sure to be turned against her in case of any accident or evil happening to the subject of the conversation.
As soon as the visitors have departed a few cloves are thrown into the brazier, to test whether any ill effects of the evil eye have been left behind. Should the cloves happen to burst in burning, the inference is drawn that the evil eye has exerted its influence; the consequences of which can only be averted by some hair from the heads of the mother and child being cut off and burnt with the view of fumigating the unfortunate victims with the noxious vapor. Prayers and sundry incantations, intermingled with blowings and spittings, are made over the heads of the stricken creatures, and only desisted from when a fit of yawning proclaims that the ill effects of the Nazar (evil eye) have been finally banished.
The party suspected of having given the Nazar is next surreptitiously visited by some old woman, who manages to possess herself of a scrap of some part of the suspected person’s dress, with which a second fumigation is made.
Among the lower orders, coffee, sugar, and other provisions frequently replace the baskets of sweets; and if the father of the child is an official, his superior and subordinates may accompany these with gifts of value. The poor, who cannot afford to give dinners, content themselves with offering sherbet and coffee to their visitors. With the poor the third, and with the rich the eighth, day is appointed for the bathing of the mother and child. There is a curious but deeply-rooted superstition, accepted by all Turkish women, which imposes upon them the necessity of never leaving the mother and child alone, for fear they should become Albalghan mish, possessed by the Peris. The red scarves and veils are, I believe, also used as preservatives against this imaginary evil. When a poor person is unavoidably left alone, a broom is placed by the bedside to mount guard over her and her child.
If the ceremony of the bath takes place in the house, the Ebé Kadin and a number of friends are invited to join the bathers and partake of luncheon or some other refreshment. When the ceremony is carried out at the public bath, the company march there in procession, headed by the Ebé Kadin carrying the baby. Each family sends a carpet and the bathing linen tied up in a bundle, covered with embroidery and pearls sometimes amounting in value to 30l. or 40l. The mother and child are naturally the chief objects of attention. The former, divested of her clothing, is wrapped in her silk scarf offered to her by the Hammamji Hanoum (mistress of the bath), puts on a pair of high pattens worked with silver, and is led into the inner bath, supported on one side by the Hammamji and on the other by some friend, the baby in the charge of the Ebé Kadin bringing up the rear. Hot water is thrown over it, and it is rubbed and scrubbed, keeping the company alive with its screams of distress. This concluded, the infant is carried out, and its mother taken in hand by her Ebé Kadin, who, before commencing operations, throws a bunch of keys into the basin, muttering some prayers, and then blows three times into it. A few pails of water are thrown over the bather, and after the washing of the head and sundry manipulations have been performed she is led to the centre platform, where she is placed in a reclining position, with her head resting on a silver bowl. A mixture of honey, spices, and aromatics, forming a brownish mess, is thickly besmeared all over her body, and allowed to remain about an hour. Her friends surround her during this tedious process, and amuse her with songs and lively conversation, every now and then transferring some of this composition from her body to their mouths with their fingers. The spicy coating thus fingered gives to the lady a singular zebra like appearance; but, though not becoming, it is believed to possess very strengthening and reviving powers, and it is considered a good augury even to get only a taste of it. What remains of this mixture after the friends have been sufficiently regaled is washed off.