Page:The Moslem World Vol XI.djvu/46

26 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—most of the things being borrowed for the occasion—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"