HKB
have done, and his children and wife neglected, will be set down to their account; or that a similar proportion of their evil works will be transferred to his account.
The mother is enjoined by the law to give suck to her child two full years, unless she have her husband's consent to shorten the period, or to employ another nurse. "For suckling the child, a virtuous woman, who eateth only what is lawful, should be chosen; for the unlawful [food] will manifest its evil in the child: as the Prophet ... said, 'Giving suck altereth the tempers.' But it is recommended by the sunneh that the mother herself suckle the child; for it is said in a tradition, 'There is nothing better for a child than its mother's milk.' 'If thou wouldst try,' it is added,'whether a child be of an ingenuous disposition in its infancy, or not, order a woman who is not its mother to suckle it after its mother has done so; and if it drink of the milk of the woman who is not its mother, it is not of an ingenuous disposition.'"[285]
Children, being regarded by Muslim parents as enviable blessings, are, to them, objects of the most anxious solicitude. To guard them from the supposed influence of the envious or evil eye, they have recourse to various expedients. When they are taken abroad, they are usually clad in the most slovenly manner, and left unwashed, or even purposely smeared with dirt; and as a further precaution, a fantastic cap is often put upon the child's head, or its head-dress is decorated with one or more coins, a feather, a gay tassel, or a written charm or two sewed up in leather or encased in gold or silver, or some other appendage to attract the eye, that so the infant itself may pass unnoticed. If a person express his admiration of another's child otherwise than by some pious ejaculation, as, for instance, by praising its Creator (with the exclamation of "Subḥána-lláh!" or, "Má sháa-lláh!" &c.) or invoking a blessing on the Prophet, he fills the mind of the parent with apprehension; and recourse is had to some superstitious ceremony to counteract the dreaded influence of his envious glance. The children of the poor are less exposed to this imaginary danger from their unattractive appearance: they generally have little clothing, or none whatever, and are extremely dirty. It is partly with the view of protecting them from the evil eye, that those of the rich are so long confined to the ḥareem: there they are petted and pampered for several years; at least until they are of age to go to school; but most of them are instructed at home.