Boy Life in Persia. BY S. G. W. BENJAMIN, Late U.S. Minister to Persia. [COPYRIGHTED, 1889, BY THE, AUTHOR.]

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 424, 30 November 1889, Page 3

Boy Life in Persia. BY S. G. W. BENJAMIN, Late U.S. Minister to Persia. [COPYRIGHTED, 1889, BY THE, AUTHOR.]

' Tin; child is father to tie man.' This famous aphorism of Woidsworth holds good in Persia no less than in other countries. It is, , therefore, not unimportant to know what is the life of uhe Persian child. MJive mo the making of the songs of a nation,' says Fletcher of Saltoun, when he would state the influences most potent towards the formation of national character. But he who moulds the education ot the child understands the principle of national development far better. Herein we see exemplified fclierealsourceof the strength of the Roman Catholic and the Oieek churches. Thoroughly original, they concern themseh es from the biith of the child with its education, instilling belief in the creed and the authority of the Church from the cradle. The Mahometans do the same, and having a very strict and elaborate religious ceremonial and law, the child from the outset ■learns that he is first of all a Mahometan. There is not an hour in the day from his birch until his death that the Mussulman is permitted to forget that whether Peivian, Arab, Tartar or Turk, he is, first of all, and at all times, and under all circumstances, a Mahometan. When a boy is born in Persia a servant runs to the father of the infant and announces the news by saying : ' Praise be to (iod the most merciful, you are the father of a boy !' • Meshallah !' replies the father, ' praise is indeed due to the one (Jod, great and merciful !' It may bo observed here that the same fervent gratitude is not exhibited on the bii th of a girl, but the atHicted father ejaculates instead in a resigned tone, 'Is that so ? then we L ghall do the best we can for her. 5 He has } an eye on the. future years when hd will be forced to cast about to place la \ mortgage on his house tor chattels in order to pay off her dowry. As soon us, tho lusty Persian lad is launched into the troublous world he is firmly bound in swaddling bands which are kept tightly swathed until he is six months old. He resembles a piece of wood rabher than anything else until he is six months old, when his tiny arms are released and ho may lie on his back in the cradle and play with' the trinkets hanging from the cross-bar of the richly carved and painted cradle to which acord is attached. The mother or nurse, sitting and knitting in the doorway shaded by great palm trees, tugs on this cord and thus rocks her boy to sleep. The naming of this possible vi/ier or shah is a matter of some consequence, but the parents are spared the difficulty of settling upon a name, a problem which has confused many a Christian household. Soon after the child's biith a molliah, or priest, is summoned, who brings a Koran with him. The child is brought forward, and the mallah opens the Koran at random. The first name that appears is the name destined for the child, if it be the name of a male ; otherwise, the book is opened again. But it may happen that the name Hassan turns up, and there may be another Hassan in the family already or in the immediate neighbourhood. Such being the case, the book is again opened, and the next name that appears is added to Ha=san, and thus the boy may be named Hassan Alee or Hassan Yusuf, as the case may be. As there is no family patronymic, the lad, in order to prevent confusion and supposing hi 3 father's name to be Mahomet, may be known as Jlussan Yusuf, the son of Maho me f . In some cases, in order to still further avoid confusion, the boy, as he grows up, may be dinbinguighed also by tho

name of the town or village where he was born. And thus he may have the complicated cognomen of Hassan Yusuf, Fon of Mahomet of Tabreez. In the signing of letters or official and legal documents such a complicated name might prove quite burdensome. Henco every Persian, from the Shah to the lowest camel-driver, instoad of writing his name, aflixes his seal on which his name is engraved. This is not done w ith sealing-wax,, the cutting not being deep, but by rubbing ink on the soal, slightly wetting the paper on the back and then pressing the seal on the damp spot. All persons in authoiity have new seals engraved each year bearing the date of the year. For a person to use the seal of another is equivalent to forgery, and punishable by severe penalties, sometimes even with capital puni&hment. Tt follows that the art cf cutting seals is carried to a high degree of perfection in Persia, where it has been practised since the earliest times. ' But my 5-oul wanders ; I demand it I back,' to pursue our inquiries into the child life of tho young Persian, When the lad is three or four year? old he comes under the barber's hand?. As he is rather young to have a beard the query arises, What has the barber to do with him ? The ceremonial law requires that the head of every male Mahometan should be .shaved and kept smooth during life. , Hence comes the custom ot wearing turbans and keeping the head covered in the house, and the dishonour considered to apply to the Christian custom of uncovering in tho presence of a ' supoiior or indoors. Tho Turks bhave fj),e .entire head excepting a tuft on the top of the crown whert-with the Archangel Gabriel may lift the faithtul out of their graves at the bound of, the last trump. But the Persian boy is, only shaved from the forehead to the nape ot the ncik, a large tuft being left over each ear. Hence the most dignified and ha-idsome Persian gentleman looks simply ridiculous when he removes his head covering. When our Persian boy is eight years old it ig time to think of seiious things'. Up to that time he lias played in the garden or in the street lanes, as much with girls as with boys, his lodging being in tho women's quarter of the dwelling with" his mother and sisters. His spoits are ball, kite-flying, hide-and-seek or tchitik. The last is a game not infrequently played also by Ameiican laclb. It consists of a stick rest•ing on '$ stone. Tho upper end being struck smartly by a bat, the stick springs into the air, when it is struck across tho Hold by another lad, who bats' it back. Failing to hit it, the second striker is out. This is one of the oldest and most common games of the Ea^t. Jackstones i* 1 also a tavuurite Persian game, especially because it requires little effort and can be played on warm days in the shade of the vines, when the heat of the sun makes it well-nigh impossible to venture out of the shade. When the Persian boy is nine or ten his father calls him to his side, caresses him, stroke" his face, and says, ' Light of my eyes, my young lion, it is time for thee to be studying the book. God willing, we vi ill mak£ of- thee a vizier ; thou shalt have hoises, and men-servants', and handmaidens, and summer places,-and hunting grounds, and fiho crowd shall make obesianco to thee in the market-place,. In any case there is work-befoie thee, whether thou become a baker's apprentice or a great vizier. Thou must go to school, theil I will apprentice thee to some artisan ; say thy prayers and perform thrice ablutions fi\e times daily and oft repeat the name 'of tho Propliet, and let no silver slip through "thy tingeis through foolishnecs ; so bhalt thou be happy. Now go, my son, with my blessing ; but remember, if thou art lazy and forgcttost these counsels of mine, thou 3halt eat much stick. There, go now, I wish to smoke awhile and count my bead.--.' An American lad after such an admonition would doubtless reply, ' Yes, pop !' but" not so the Pc stan boy. Always reverential towards his parents, however naughty and wayward he may be, he replies, 'As my father wills, so Shall it be, and to Allah be the glory !' The school where the average Persian lad pursues his rudimentary studies is most likely an open booth in the bazaar, a portico facing a little garden, or, perhaps, simply a mat under a plane tree in the centre of the village. In any case there are no seats, but merely rugs spread over the earthem floor, on which the pupils sit in rows on their knees and heels. The teacher is most likely some superannuated greybeard rmllah, Wearing a pair of tjog^les and wielding a long rod, which he waves ominously over the heads of tlie pupils. He al?o sics on his knees, but has a'cushion for his back. There is no separate instruction of classes or pupils, but -the master reads out the letbon and the scholars repeat it after him. Like the leader of a choir, his practised oar detects the pupil who fails to respond or mispronounce.-^, in which case the latter is let oh" easily if he i& merely called the ' misbegotten son of a burnt father.' The writing leason is somewhat moi o complicated. There are no desks ; each pupil carries a roll of embossed paper and an inkhorn. The latter contains the pens, made of a small brown reed, whose nib is cut slanting, and a box of ink which is thickened by a quantity of tangled thread. When the lesion begins the lad takes out a sheet of the paper and lays the inkhorn on the floor at his right. The paper is held in the left hand and the writing is from right to loft. The line 3 do not run straight aoross the paper, but diagonally, and if the pajje proves. too, contracted then the-H>argin is all written c-yer in smaller letters, bufrorily -one side of th.c paper is "Written itpbiHn any case. ' Af tergraduatingat this school the Persian boy goes to college, if ho comes of a good family and is intended for official or priestly pursuits. The college i?, however, alto- . gether another affair from such an institution in America. The se&sions are held, in the cloisters of the mosques, and the instruction is almost entirely by precept or lecture. The course of studies is in Oriental literature, the law based on the Koran, philosophy and theology aa considered by the Oriental mind. Of science the student learns little or nothing, although we would qualify this statement as regards the new royal college at Teheran, where some of the instructors are Europeans and modern science is taught with some efficiency. There was a time, a thousand years ago, \ when astronomy, mathematics andmedicine I were known in Persia at least as well as in Europe, but the Oriental mind does not naturally take to the exact sciences, preferring speculation, mystic philosophy and poetry. But if our Persian lad comes of the middle and lower classes he is far more likely to be apprentice to a mechanic or merchant or to follow the plough. If his father is a peasant, then at an early age the boy. goes forth to the fields, tends the cattle, opens the watercourses for irrigation, sows the seed in the furrows, watches the watermelon patch, and as he becomes strong enough guides the primitive plough over plains where his primeval ancestors tilled the soil 5,000 years ago. The plough that he usofe is the same that they used, a sharp, wooden stake dragged by a humpbacked cow. If he is to be an appientico, he is called a chagird. Whether lie is to be a trader, a baker, a blacksmith, a bricklayer, an artist or the like, ho niu&b beyin by a thorough

apprenticeship. As a carpenter ho will learn to sit on the ground in the street and hold the plank he saws between his toes, the saw being drawn towards him in cutting. If he is to be an artist, he mu3C learn to make papier maehe, on which most of the decorative pictures of Persian art are painted, he must learn to mix water-colours', mako varnishes, and fill-in the designs of his master, and then be shrewd in p"eddlrng the mirror cases and inkhorns covered with rich and beautiful designs. During the middle -of the clay for the greater part of the year our young apprcn-* tice is not required bo, work, owing: to the' heat. For several hours he lies on the shady side of the street and sings to himself, amatory songs, or plays checkers or jackstones, or smokos the kalian oi* water-pipe, or takes a light bunch of grapes, salad and bread ; then he says hie prayers, rolls his bald head under his arm and sleeps — we \yiA\ we could say the sleep of i the just, but this is somowhat uncommon in Persia as in some other countries. \\ hen the boy is fifteen or sixteen he begins to think of taking to ihim^olf a wife. The extra expense of living wjfcff a family is not necessarily great in that o|)pMtfc> abel then, too, his wife brings him r- dowity.'' By seventeen, at least, behold him with a household of his own. If wealthy, by eighteen he may perhaps liavo two or three wives. Harmony seems to prevail in this youthful establishment, and tlicro we leave the Persian youth, postponing to a future', occasion an account of hiB youthful bride. S. (I. W. Benjamin", Late United States Minister to Persia.