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  • From: MarianneLuban AT aol.com
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Birthing stones
  • Date: Wed, 4 Aug 2004 17:51:20 EDT

In a message dated 8/4/2004 1:16:58 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
colin AT s-m-i-t-h.com writes:


> I would be very interested in any explanation of the exact function of
> the object or why they might be called "stones" in Exodus.

They were not stones but bricks. In the Egyptian language "being on the
bricks" means being about to give birth. The "birthing stool" in ancient
Egypt
was a structure made of bricks with a hole in the seat. The pregnant one
didn't
sit on the seat but squatted on it. From underneath this "throne", a
midwife
would catch the baby as it descended. Two other women supported the pregnant
mother on either side, presumably encouraging her to "push". As a mother of
four daughters, this whole thing seems pretty uncomfortable to me--but I
suppose the Egyptians figured gravity would help the child descend from the
womb--instead of having the woman lie on her back. My surmise is that the
lady in
labor did lie down most of the time until the last minute, when she was
helped
onto the "bricks". At least I hope so! As to the stones--maybe where there
were no bricks available, something was rigged up from stones--but it
couldn't
be done in an emergency because the stones would have had to be cut and
dressed
so that the whole structure wouldn't collapse while the poor lady was
squatting there.

As long as we are on delicate matters, I'll tell you about some other AE
habit. Men did not stand to urinate. They squatted. The women stood. Hard
to
believe--but that's what Herodotus said--and since there were no "outhouses"
and the Egyptians were a people not given to modesty in much of anything, he
probably saw this with his own eyes.

Marianne Luban




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