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WOODEN GIFTS
(from the original and authentic Cedars wood of Lebanon)
Lebanese peasants
By simply looking at the man of this mountain village, each detail in his whole being reveals the zeal and the marks left by his harsh way of life, his customs and his environment: sharp and piercing eyes, an imposing moustache, and a broad and proud tanned face. Of massive stature, robust, with flexible and solid legs, he is dignified and rough like a well planted oak.
For this race of peasants, the physical force developed naturally since childhood is more of a vital need than a mere exhibition of muscles: It is needed everyday there, in the fields, to transport harvests, to lift large bags of corn or potatoes to raise and place them on the back of the mules, to break and cut stones for construction, to fix large beams on the roof of their house, etc.
The village woman adheres to the features and the character of her companion. Well built, not very slender, with long hair and red cheeks, she is the valiant mother of a family of five or six children. She cooks, washes the household clothes at the fountain, fills the jars with water, weaves and sews; she kneads the paste, cooks the bread and picks the grape, the figs and the olives. She dries, following ancestral processes, the provisions which will be consumed in winter, and form May to September, she raises the silkworm and reels its cocoon.
It is the family, and not the couple which forms the social core, under the patriarchal authority of the grandfather, the father or the elder son. But the role of the mother within the family home gives her the high hand in the household affairs.
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