055. "My Children Are With Me in Bed"
"My Children Are With Me in Bed"
"Trouble me not; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee bread." The village home has only one room, and here all the family sleep. Very often three or even four generations and perhaps widowed sisters and aunts, live together in one house. The house is divided into two parts, one part raised a few feet above the rest. This highest part is used by the family for a kitchen, dining room and living room by day, and a bedroom at night. The lower part is the room for the animals. In the summer they sleep in the open, but the rest of the year, when night comes the man puts the animals in the house with the family. They tell you that the breath of the animals helps to keep the family warm. At night you see the ox and a donkey or two, a few goats and perhaps a dog, all sleeping below the family. When dark comes, because they go to bed soon after sunset, the people spread their mats or quilts on the floor, and all living in the house lie down in their clothes together and sleep. For the father to rise to attend to the needs of a neighbor would awaken the whole household, so the man had a far better excuse than we might at first think he had.