DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12249#0331
HOUSEHOLD OCCUPATIONS AND DIETARY,
295
Tlie women never divest themselves of these in any
of the occupations of their daily life; and they wear
them alike when carrying water from the well or river,
baking bread, or kneading the manure of cattle into
cakes for fuel— an employment still more incongruous
with bracelets, necklaces and rings.
Besides these duties, a little sewing, and twisting
wool into thread with the hand-spindle, they have
almost no other household work to perforin, for the
dietary is generally so simple as not to require any
of the preparation of cooking. It consists almost
entirely of bread, milk, and raw vegetables, chiefly
onions, rarely accompanied by any sort of animal food.
Although not altogether confined to festive occasions,
this last is not often to be seen among them except
at such times; and then also unleavened cakes sodden
with butter, and coffee are added to the feast. In
short they five as frugally as the peasantry of most
hot climates, and many colder ones, partly, no doubt,
from the dictates of nature, partly from the necessities
of their condition; and what may seem wretched in
their housekeeping is not now the consequence of
downright misery or want. It is true that occasion-
ally in former less prosperous times, they have been
reduced to the lowest pitch, which even they could
endure and live. But at present, although they have
certainly no excess of this world's goods, they have
enough for their humble wants, and may even be
accounted as, for them, tolerably well off. Nearly all
of them are the owners of such live stock as I have
u 4
295
Tlie women never divest themselves of these in any
of the occupations of their daily life; and they wear
them alike when carrying water from the well or river,
baking bread, or kneading the manure of cattle into
cakes for fuel— an employment still more incongruous
with bracelets, necklaces and rings.
Besides these duties, a little sewing, and twisting
wool into thread with the hand-spindle, they have
almost no other household work to perforin, for the
dietary is generally so simple as not to require any
of the preparation of cooking. It consists almost
entirely of bread, milk, and raw vegetables, chiefly
onions, rarely accompanied by any sort of animal food.
Although not altogether confined to festive occasions,
this last is not often to be seen among them except
at such times; and then also unleavened cakes sodden
with butter, and coffee are added to the feast. In
short they five as frugally as the peasantry of most
hot climates, and many colder ones, partly, no doubt,
from the dictates of nature, partly from the necessities
of their condition; and what may seem wretched in
their housekeeping is not now the consequence of
downright misery or want. It is true that occasion-
ally in former less prosperous times, they have been
reduced to the lowest pitch, which even they could
endure and live. But at present, although they have
certainly no excess of this world's goods, they have
enough for their humble wants, and may even be
accounted as, for them, tolerably well off. Nearly all
of them are the owners of such live stock as I have
u 4