A Moorish Woman's Life

Category:Islam
All Moorish women's lives are not alike any more than 
all British, French or American women's lives are 
alike, but the following true incidents in the lives of some 
Moorish women I have known give a very true picture 
of the ordinary, year in year out, life of a Moorish 
woman. 
But before getting on the subject of the Moorish woman we must have a look at the life of the Moorish 
girl. So we will begin at her birth and follow her on, 
step by step, till she is grown up. All the particulars 
I give here refer to life in the one inland city which I 
know well â€” there may be little differences in other parts 
of the country in the life of girl or woman. A Moorish 
girl's birth is announced to the world by the women of 
the house in which she is born uttering two-ear-piercing 
shouts of joy (^'luluing" this screaming is called, tho' 
there is no resemblance to the soft sound of ^'lulu" in the 
harsh shout) with a short space between the two so as to 
render them very distinct to the neighbors; for a boy's 
birth is announced by three such shouts, a boy being of 
much more importance than a girl; though as a rule, the 
girl is made very welcome, too, and sometimes there is 
great joy that a baby is a girl, especially if the mother 
already has several boys living, or if she has had many 
boys, even though they are not all alive. 
I know one mother with three boys living and three 
dead; one died of smallpox and the two others were 
weakly ill-nourished babies who lived only a short time; 
but she was firmly convinced that her children died because someone had cast the evil eye on her on account of 
her excessive good fortune in having given birth to so 
many boys, and she was very, very anxious lest her next 
baby should also be a boy and so the evil eye's effects 
continue. She often called upon God to requite any who 
had "eyed" her and insisted that nothing else killed her children. The next baby was a girl, and she is now a fine 
child of over two years, having been well nourished by 
a black nurse whose ebony son makes a picture with the 
little ivory girl â€” for Kinza (a treasure) is very fair-skinned. 
But sometimes the girls are very unwelcome. There 
is a family living near us who have four little girls and 
one boy, and the last little girl had a very bad reception; 
even the mother said, "I don't want her, I don't like her 
â€” I'll never like her." The only sign of rejoicing in the 
house was over the mother. The mother-in-law and 
slaves said, "Well, at any rate â€” praise be to God that she 
has got over it, but we wanted a boy." The father even 
shed tears when he heard of her birth. She is now a 
pretty baby of some six months and is probably doing 
what the Moorish saying says a girl does â€” i. e. : "A boy, 
when he is born, is in the very centre of the liver (the 
liver is the seat of the human aflfections) but sometimes 
works his way out to its extreme edge. A girl, when 
she is born, is on the extreme edge of the liver, but she 
works her way into its very centre." When the baby is 
eight days old there is held a great reception of friends 
and relatives â€” a sheep is sacrificed for her and she receives her name â€” this eighth day feast is called the Sabaa 
or "Seventh," probably because it marks the beginning 
of the second set of seven days in her life. It sometimes 
goes on for several days. The first morning is given up 
to men guests who come very early to a very fine breakfast feast and are present at the offering of the sheep which is slaughtered in the beautifully tiled courtyard â€” 
the one who slaughters it having first inquired the name 
of the baby and mentioning her name as he kills the animal. The mother is in a room at hand with a curtain 
covering its doorway. This part of the ceremony (i. e. 
the slaughtering and naming) is called the Akeka or 
"Separation" because the child is "separated" or distinguished from all the rest of the family by having a 
separate name bestowed upon her. The Moors never 
name a child for a living person ; but, if its grandfather 
is dead, then the first boy in a family is called for him; and also, if the grandmother is dead, the first girl is called 
usually, for her; otherwise the custom is to call the first 
boy Seedi Mohammed (for the Prophet), and the first 
girl Fatma (for his daughter) ; in this case it does not 
matter if these names are also the names of the children's parents, for the children are not considered as being named for them. 
After the men guests have dispersed the women arrive. If the family is wealthy enough to have a very 
grand Sabaa the women stay for a number of days and 
bring with them their babies and children who are too 
small to be left at home, and also slaves to look after 
the children. They dress up in different clothes and 
jewels each day â€” most of the things being borrowed 
for the occasion â€” and sit in state in the courtyard each 
afternoon, while hired women musicians sit on mattresses 
in the centre and play all sorts of instruments made of 
coarse earthenware with parchment tightly stretched 
across their open ends. Some of them play the violin; 
these are considered superior musicians. 
On the day of the Akeka the baby receives its first bath ; 
up till then it had been wrapped in soft rags and smeared 
with oil and henna, etc., but now it is dressed in little 
bright silk garments just the shape of its mother's, and 
then is swaddled in a long brightly colored band which 
is rolled round and round its body from the shoulders to the feet, its little arms having been first placed very exactly flat against its sides and the sleeves pulled down so 
that no creases or wrinkles are left which might hurt 
it or cause it discomfort. It is then wrapped in a soft 
silk or muslin shawl, embroidered round its four sides 
and an end of the shawl is tied on its head with a piece 
of embroidery to match; its eyelids and eyebrows are 
blackened and its hands tinged with henna. It is now on show and the old nurse sits in the mother's room and receives the pieces of silver money which admiring friends and relatives place on the baby's brow as it lies on her knee. Up till this time the baby had not been shown to visitors lest the evil eye should be cast upon it, and now each one who sees it says, "To the Praise of God" or some such ejaculation as she looks at the little one, and this ejaculation is supposed to keep away the effects of the evil eye. 
When the baby is a few weeks old she is taken by her 
mother, (if the mother is not one of those who are never 
allowed out of the house in day time) or by some woman 
friend, to visit the tomb of the patron saint of the town ; 
or to the tomb or to the shrine of some other saint if the 
baby is being specially dedicated to any saint or order; 
and when she is a few months old, either she is taken 
to Dar Ettabeebat ("the missionaries' house") or the 
tabeebat is asked to come to her father's home that she 
may be vaccinated or "have the smallpox taken out of 
her," for her friends recognize that she must have one 
of three kinds of smallpox â€” "God's smallpox," i. e., 
smallpox â€” or "Ettabeebats smallpox," i. e., vaccination â€” 
or "bought smallpox," i. e. inoculation which is hardly 
practiced now but used to be done by the Jews who 
charged a certain sum of money for doing it. There are 
now also, in all parts of the French Protectorate, dispensaries where children can be vaccinated free. 
Then when the little one (whom we will call Kinza) is 
about three years old she begins to attend Dar El Maalama" (or the Mistress' House) where she is taught the 
special trade of the "mistress" who has been chosen to 
instruct her. The trade may be embroidery on linen, 
muslin or silk with the cross stitch which comes out the 
same on both sides ; or it may be the more quickly worked 
"Eastern" embroidery, something like crewel work; or 
plain sewing; or lace making; or machine sewing; or 
fringe making; or slipper embroidery with gold thread; 
or the heavy gold embroidery 01 saddles, etc.; or the 
knotted silk work of coverings for reins and trappings 
for horses and mules; or preparing boards for book-bind- 
ers; or, more rarely, reading and reciting the Koran and 
writing. There are not here as yet any schools opened 
by the French for native girls; the people are not desirous to have their girls taught to read or write; for, 
they say, "It is not good for women to know more than 
just what is necessary to enable them to pray." There are very good French schools for Jewish girls in the 
Mellah or Jewish quarter, and it is quite a pleasure to 
see the pretty tidy little things in their black and white 
checked overalls and their hair neatly tied with a scarlet band of ribbon. But Kinza at the same age is already 
veiled and goes about the streets with a white muslin 
^^litam'* drawn tightly over her face, crossed at the back 
of her head and drawn again over her forehead so leaving only her eyes to be seen. However, at three, when 
she begins to go daily to "DÂ«r El Maalama^^ she is too 
small to bear the veil and also too small to use her needle 
aright, so she learns to sit and watch the older children 
sew or embroider, and after a little she is promoted and 
allowed to thread their needles for them; then she can 
be trusted with a needle and silk and is put to the task 
of "filling in," that is crossing the simple stitches which 
the mistress or bigger girls have put in to trace out the 
pattern to be worked. And woe to Kinza if she makes 
a mistake, for one false stitch puts the whole pattern 
wrong, and naturally the Maalama is very angry. 
Kinza attends Dar El Maalama till she is about twelve 
or thirteen, then she is considered too old to go out daily 
and is provided with an embroidery frame at home and 
begins to teach other little ones who come to her, as she 
used to go to Dar El Maalama. She now either takes 
in work to do for others, or sets to embroider her own 
trousseau, if her father is well enough off to buy the silks 
and muslin which she needs, before he has received the 
money which the bridegroom's people will pay him on 
her engagement, and which all will be returned in bedding and embroidery when she is married. Kinza's 
wedding things are now being prepared, even though it 
may be she is not yet engaged, for she is almost sure to be 
married off, as her parents arrange all about it, and it 
is not her business. As one father here answered, when 
he was asked what his daughter said about a marriage 
he was arranging for her â€” "She I" he said, "she doesn't 
say anything; it's not her business." 
:S. M. Denison. 
::Fez, Morocco.