A Picture from the Countryside: The New Baby

Mrs. Nahla Marwa Shuman is one of the most devoted social workers, whom marriage and work have not turned aside from continuing their activity in the cause of public service and the raising of the standard of family and society.

And here she is — after marrying the agricultural engineer Hasan Suleiman and settling on her chick-raising farm at Hizzin, near Baalbek — here she is, working with the women of the neighboring villages to improve their livelihood and their standard of health. And from time to time Nahla sets down for us her useful observations on country life...

I went into Umm Said's house to see her new baby; he had completed only two weeks of age.

The room was dark, because its two windows had been shut fast, glass and wood, lest the child take cold — and he had already caught a heavy cold.

It was expected that I should help Umm Said and prescribe something for her child so that he might be cured of his cold. So I set about examining the child closely — he was warm; he wore sufficient clothing and was covered with a warm blanket, and the stove was giving the room heat enough. I fell into perplexity, and was on the point of asking Umm Said to visit the doctor with her son, when my glance chanced to fall beside the child's bed, and I saw a piece of cloth on which fine earth had been spread. I asked the reason for this earth being there, and the mother answered me with all faith and confidence:

'This earth I put for my baby between his thighs when I change his diaper.'

I nearly went mad; I could not believe what my ears were hearing, and I began to question her, asking for more explanation about this earth. She said that his muscles would grow strong when he grew up if we put the earth on him, and that this earth absorbs everything and so keeps his skin sound.

She had scarcely finished speaking when I understood exactly why the child had caught cold.

I know a great deal about the superstitions and beliefs of country folk, but this use of earth was new to me — and it pained me.

I needed no more than a half hour's sitting with Umm Said and Abu Said, going over with them the harm of using this earth and its consequences, before they were convinced and put a little talcum powder in the earth's place.

A few days later, on my weekly visit, I found that the child's cold had improved and he was near recovery. And as I bade Umm Said good-bye that morning, I thought:

The country folk are simple souls, and their knowledge is limited; but the fault is not their fault.

And it would be a sin to leave them to themselves.