This is a favorite Oriental mode of abuse. It is supposed that an indignity offered to a man’s mother will give him greater pain than one offered to himself. “Strike me,” said the servant of Mungo Park, “but do not curse my mother.” Sir W. Ouseley tells of a man who, seeking for wine, put to his lips a bottle of some nauseous medicine, and immediately cursed, not the man who made the disgusting draft, but all the female relatives in whose welfare he had the greatest interest; his wives, mother, daughters, and sisters (Burder, Oriental Customs, No. 312). Professor Hackett, having incautiously approached a large flock of sheep for the purpose of getting a better view, was assailed by the three women who were watching them, with “a volley of words almost terrific.” They cursed his father, his mother, his grandfather, and all his ancestors (Illustrations of Scripture, p. 106).