A rope was made fast to the ceiling, by which the woman held, and hauled on it during her travail: at the same time the bystanders supported her under her armpits.[91]
It has occurred to all travellers, among people styled uncivilized, to observe with how much less pain and trouble the process of gestation and parturition goes on than among ourselves and other so called polished nations: as also how little care is bestowed on women during the days succeeding childbirth in comparison with the nursing they are said to require with us. But, what is more extraordinary still, such women, so neglected, seem to be less liable to bad accidents than those over whose welfare, physicians, midwives, nurses, and fond and foolish husbands, have watched with tender and unremitting anxiety. Does not this, or ought it not at least, to awake some doubts in our mind, as to which party pursues the right method; and whether over-officious zeal in some and mercenary motives in others have not tended to make of a natural act a very complicated and artificial one? for otherwise it would imply a defect of wisdom in our Creator to have left the great work of peopling the earth subject to the control and help of man. There are daily examples occurring of parturient women, whether with a view to hide their shame arising from a guilty connection, or whether from accident of warfare, or navigation, who are left without aid from their own sex or obstetrical assistance from the other: yet they bring their offspring into the world in safety, and are often observed to recover from this (certainly) painful act, quicker than if delivered by the rules of art. But these are partial and individual instances, and are nothing in the account with whole nations, where the office of accoucheur or midwife is hardly known, and where women think no more of bringing a child into the world, than of the maturation of a boil, which, when ripened, will heal and discharge its contents as a matter of course.
In a cold climate, and among a disgusting people, Dr. Clarke in his travels in Scandinavia (p. 403) says—“The journeys with raids (sledges) are of course liable to danger and to the utmost degree of fatigue: yet women, far advanced in pregnancy, are often the drivers; and such is their easy labour in parturition, that childbirth hardly occasions any interruption to the progress of the raid.”
In England, the causes of unfavourable gestation and parturition, together with the subsequent danger to which women are supposed to be liable, I consider to be, first, stays; secondly, neglect of exercise and its consequences in impeded functions of the bowels; thirdly, the medicating of sickness; fourthly, unnecessary interference of accoucheurs; fifthly, heated rooms and the want of fresh air; sixthly, hurried and forced delivery; seventhly, hot beds; eighthly, unnecessary and prolonged confinement.
As there were no enclosed fields in the country, cattle turned out to graze were tended by a herdsman. Hence the place of herdsman to a village was of some importance in the eyes of the peasants, and was annually assigned to a man of approved vigilance. For this service he received by the year, from each owner of a pair of oxen, one mid and a half of wheat; for sheep and asses something less; and thus in proportion for all animals that graze. Every day, when daylight appeared, he walked through the village, and each cottager drove out of his cottage-stable his ass, goats, or oxen, which he purposed to send to pasture that day. The herd was thus assembled, and the herdsman, called in Arabic râay, conducts them afield, taking care to prevent them from straying into corn-fields, vineyards, and the like. For such trespasses he was fined according to the decision of the natûr (or overseer) of the village. The natûr was always known by a stout stick, which he carried about with him; and his chief employ was to patrole day and night through the corn fields, orchards, vineyards, &c., to see that no damage was done.
Women seldom mixed in public diversions. On one occasion, after I had resided some time in the village, and was in some degree looked up to, Butrûs, a peasant, came running into my cottage, with a stick in his hand, and out of breath. “For God’s sake,” (cried he) “there is my niece, Mariam, in the street, among a parcel of strange men, skipping about to a fellow who is beating a drum;—do interpose, sir, and send her away. The village will get a bad name, and they will say of her that Bint Sulyba (the daughter of Sulyba) is a street-walker.” This anecdote will serve to show the kind of demeanour which was expected in women, even of the lowest class, and in a small village. In France, an itinerant piper, in a similar place, would have all the lads and lasses dancing around him, and the old folks looking on.
It was about the 20th of February, 1814, that Lady Hester took possession of the monastery of Mar Elias, and I of my cottage at Abra. I had added to it a second cottage for a servants’ room, opened a larger door, and endeavoured to make it habitable. Lady Hester’s establishment was now very much reduced. As Beaudin recovered but slowly, she hired for a time, as interpreter, the same Damiani whose house we had inhabited.[92] Pierre was gone home to Dayr el Kamar, and had sent down as cook in his place a woman named Um Risk, who remained, as it will afterwards be seen, three years with her ladyship. Mariam had gone back to Latakia, and Stefano, who was in love with her, had followed her. I might be accused of inserting very frivolous details, were it not that the domestic incidents which, in travelling in Europe, would be but a counterpart of what occurs in every man’s family every day, are here often novel, and always serve to render the picture of Turkish manners more complete. Lady Hester had no horses and no grooms: she rode out daily on a small ass, and was now fast recovering from the debility which successive illnesses had brought upon her.
In the mean time, people were busy in their conjectures as to the reappearance of plague. It had not discontinued raging at Damascus, and St. Jean d’Acre was said to be newly infected. Every reason led to suppose that it would reappear at Sayda this year: we accordingly prepared for it in the manner usual in the country. In times of insecurity, whether from plague or insurrection, or any other cause, the markets were in part or entirely shut up, and he who had not had the precaution to provide against such contingencies found himself sorely straitened. It is with this view that annually a store is made, sufficient for the year’s consumption, by every family that can afford it. About two hundred head of poultry were bought, with some sheep and lambs; rice, flour, wheat, figs, raisins, in fact everything that could be called dry stores, was laid in, enough for six or eight months, with oil, butter, candles, soap, &c. Thus provided, it was considered that, in a spot so retired, and so out of everybody’s way, we could not very easily be exposed to danger. We were precisely like the crew of a well-victualled ship at sea: we had everything necessary within the walls; with this advantage, that instead of salt beef and hard biscuit we had abundance of fresh provisions. Individually, I must confess I did not look forward to this confinement with much satisfaction. Solitude is no disagreeable thing with a good library: rather otherwise; but books were not to be procured; Lady Hester never had any, and I had lost mine in the shipwreck.
Endowed with a very active mind, and convinced that neglect alone of many common precautions against the introduction of the plague caused the loss of a great number of lives, her ladyship bethought herself of writing to the Emir Beshýr, to advise him how to guard against its encroachments. She considered that the establishment of a patrole, which should watch all the outlets of the mountain, would be sufficient to keep out persons suspected of infection; and she suggested that a post should be established, as in Europe, by which all letters should be transmitted to and from the mountain, subject, in every direction where danger lay, to be fumigated or immersed in vinegar. Some correspondence passed on this subject, and M. Beaudin was sent to explain what was not clearly understood; but nothing was adopted otherwise than had been customary in former cases. It is not unusual for Europeans, impressed with the notion that the Turks are an ignorant people, to offer them advice on many subjects, which, after all, are connected with a country with whose government, manners, usages, and climate they are unacquainted, and in which they arrive as strangers.
A month passed away at the monastery without any particular occurrence. I built a wall round my cottage, as a farther protection against danger from the plague, in imitation of Lady Hester, who had built one round her residence. The rains had occasionally been very violent, and the roofs of two cottages fell in from the additional weight given by a thorough soaking to the mould with which they were covered. There was not a roof in the village that was not leaky.