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Khartoum (Sudanow)-The Social customs that were practiced by the Sudanese who live along the Nile or near itover the past century, rolled up some change due to variables of time and vicissitudes age and variability. some are still practiced even today in some parts of the riverain Sudan ,as brand Professor Abdullah Tayeb said, who collected and wrote many of these habits in Articles in the magazine (Sudan notes and records), a magazine concerned with documenting the life and history of Sudan.

Professor Abdullah Tayeb show in these articles, which he wrote it in 1955 -1956-1964-1998 years, the customs of the people of Sudan in the Nile valley from Woman's pregnancyup to marriage .

The Professor Abdullah Tayeb Institute for the Arabic language, University of Khartoum, recently published this set of articles after being translated by Mohamed Osman Makki.

D. Siddiq Omar Siddiq Director of the Institute, the importance of this articles and its place in the studying of Sudan Folklore motivated us to translate it in to Arabic.

He goes on saying it is One of the venerable knowledge which accounted for, as a multitude of research, was (Sudanese Folktale) which he wrote in Arabic, then he translated it into English with his own pen, not mentioning his other encyclopedic works, such as what he wrote in a research connected to the Sudanese colloquial Arabic Language to the Academy of Arabic Language in Cairo, and the scattering works of interest, in the numerous articles in magazine and lectures.

Abdullah Tayeb said himself ," Even as I now write this paper ,most of us are aware of the rapid change that are daily transforming Sudanese life from that of a medieval community deeply rooted in tradition, to that of an Afro-Arab nation newly born under the impact of western civilization-Many styles and modes of life-as I knew it in my boyhood-have completely disappeared, Many are in the process of fading away, And some, very few indeed, can still be described in the distant villages and among the more conventional homes. It is in the interest of students of sociology, anthropology and history to make a record of all these, before the final break-up of the old patterns takes place and new fashions and ways of living and behavior prevail.

And we will publish them on (SUDANOW) pages in this thread, and we'll start onset also began by Abdullah Tayyib himself, a customs relating to pregnancy and pre-and post-natal and related nifaas. then evolve with it in human life at the stage of early childhood, games, boyhood, education, work and marriage.

On the last issues we spoke about the customs, From Birth to Puberty Birth and Early Infancy. Then about the child, here we will starts with:

the child' hair

^{The Hair}

^{The hair of the child was given special regard. The hair of a newly-born male was dedicated to the hair-saint of the father's clan; the hair of newly-born female was dedicated to the hair-saint of mother's clan . Presumably, the hair of a child was thought to belong to the patron-saint, and it was the duty of the parents to give it back to him at the earliest possible opportunity .}

^{If the patron-saint's tomb happened to be on the other side of the river, the child could not be taken there before it was seven months old> There was seven months old. There was a taboo against taking children across the river before the age of seven months-probably a relic of the ancient Pharisaic worship of the Nile. This taboo came to apply to all rivers of the Sudan.}

^{If the saint's tomb happened to be far away-say a day's journey or two days journey by donkey-the giving back of the hair, that is to say cutting it at the tomb, would be delayed until the child became older and more able to stand a long ride. As in this case it was unpractical to allow the hair to grow without being shortened from time to time, the front part of the head only would be left untouched. When the child was at last taken to the tomb, a kid or a lamb would be killed, presumably as a substitute for the hair that had been cut prior to the visit. It is interesting to note that people who lived near the tomb of their patron-saint, very often were satisfied by removing a small portion of the hair at the tomb and finishing the rest when they retuned to their homes. No animal sacrifice would be made, but presents of dates and corn would be taken to the tomb. These would be collected by the traditional "harras" (keeper of the tomb).}

^{Some claim would have more than one patron-saint to whom hair was dedicated. For instance, in shirayk), the front hair was dedicated to "Hamdallah, the back hair to 'IjilAbu Sa 'idah' In this and similar cases, two journeys had to be made. And if the visit were delayed until the child was seven or eight, two sacrifices had to be offered. Hair saints were believed not to forgive any negligence. Stories are told about women who had to make the journey to a distant tomb in order to appease the patron-saint who caused to be ill because the hair sacrifice had not been made.}

^{Often; when a child became ill, the help of a powerful saint, other than the patron-saint, was invoked and a portion of the hair was promised, to be cut at his tomb. On the recovery of the child, a plait of hair-called "gambur"- would be left to grow until a journey was made to the tomb of that sainrm where it would be removed. An animal sacrifice – a ram or a he-goat-would be offered on the occasion, together with presents for the keeper. Sometimes in desperation parents would invoke the help of a distant saint to cure a child. The child would have to go on pilgrimage later in life to the saint's tomb and shave his "gambur" there. One hears about men who had to make such pilgrimages at the age of thirty or even later than that. "gambur", whoever, were sometimes allowed to}

^{The Changing of Milk-teeth}

^{When children began to lose their milk-teeth, they would throw each one as it came out towards the rising sun, together with one grain of corn and piece of charcoal, saying:}

^{O,eye of the sun,}

^{Take the tooth of the donkey}

^{And bring me the tooth of the gazelle}

The grain of corn probably represented the white tooth and the charcoal the black decay which blemished it.

First Ornaments

At the age of seven moths, a boy-child would be adorned with a silver disc worn at the end of a string round the neck, alled "hfidah", which was supposed to have magical power, as certain magical formulas were inscribed on it. It was removed when the child became five years old or so .

Sometimes, when the life of a small boy was thought to be threatened because of the recent death of one or two brothers (as perhaps would happen during an epidemic), one of his ears would be pierced with a silver or iron ornament. This was probably originally meant to disguise a boy as a girl and thus deceive the Angle of Death.

Scars

There were two kinds of scars, homoeopathic and ornamental. The former were called "naddara" (literally: seers). These were little cuts infected on the temples to relieve (or rather distract from) the pain caused by sore-eyes. The latter were called "shulukh", plural of the Arabic word "Shalkh", which means origin. These were big cuts on the checks made horizontal or perpendicular according to a traditional pattern. They acquired to have been originally intended as tribal marks. But they acquired an important ornamental value in the case of girls, so much so that a girl who was not scared in her childhood, would, in spite of the pain, demand to be scarred for the sake of beauty when she became conscious of these things in her adolescence.

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