For leaflets and Children’s Magazines see Bibliography for Chapter II.
Much valuable material will be found for this and the following chapters in all the earlier text-books of the Central Committee on the United Study of Foreign Missions. These books, studied with special reference to The Child, will bring new light and interest to their readers.
CHAPTER II.
THE CHILD AT HOME
“Train up a child in the way he should go.”
A Mohammedan home in Persia—A heathen home in Africa—A Christian home in Zululand—The home the centre of a nation’s life—Christianity’s gift to non-Christian homes—Greatness of the task—Disorderly homes—Moral influences—Need of teaching the mothers—Lack of proper discipline—Lack of innocence coupled with appalling ignorance—Sex knowledge—A missionary mother’s “dream”—Position of fathers—Fathers transformed by Christianity—Motherhood—Christian wives and mothers—Child marriage—Betrothal customs—Dying child-wife—Child widows—Homes of the world need Christ—Vocation of a missionary wife—Missionary homes.
Scene One: A Mohammedan home in Persia.
A Mohammedan home in Persia.
The women’s apartments opening onto an inner court-yard present an animated scene, for some ladies from another harem have come with children and servants to make a call; i.e., to spend the afternoon, drink unlimited quantities of tea and pussy-willow-water, smoke unnumbered cigarettes alternating with the water pipe, and nibble at sweetmeats and fruits provided in large abundance. The greetings are conducted with due decorum by women and children, and then, while the servants and concubines of the home move to and fro with the proper refreshments, and while the children dispose of large quantities of sweets, the gossip of the neighborhood is discussed with animation. The conversation,—no, it cannot be repeated here, for it is not fit for the printed page; but little girls sit eagerly drinking it in, and little boys stop in their play to wink at each other with knowing looks as they catch the drift of the talk. A mere baby crawls up to attract his mother’s attention and, not succeeding, slaps her with all his tiny might as she sits on a cushion on the floor. “Oh brave boy! oh splendid boy! just see how he hits me when I do not listen to him!” And the little boy is hugged and his wishes are granted while he learns well his lesson of the inferiority of a woman,—even his mother. Presently a little girl begins to scream vigorously, having been pounded and scratched by a small boy in the party. The lad is rewarded for his manliness with a big piece of saffron candy, but the girl, being a visitor, must be consoled; and so the delightful promise is made: “Never mind; stop crying, and we will find you a nice husband. Now wouldn’t it be fine to arrange a marriage for her with the son of ——?” and so the whole matter is discussed in the child’s hearing, and she too learns her lesson,—that the one ambition of a girl must be to get married as early as possible, and the more valuable she is, the greater settlement must her prospective husband make upon her, to be paid in case he wishes to divorce her.