DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6551#0088
RETURN FROM UTTER EGYPT.
57
the character of being turbulent, and gave the French
a good deal of trouble. The Sheik pays a duty to the
Pacha, but has hitherto contrived to prevent the ad-
mission of any troops, and to avoid the conscription.
Strangers however at present are well received. Besides
the usual crops of cotton and doura, &c, henna grows
here in abundance; it is a shrub about four feet high,
and has a small red flower, the dye is produced from
the leaves when dried and pulverised.
The women were dressed in the usual manner, but
their heads were covered with an extraordinary quantity
of castor oil, they wore very large ear and nose rings,
and a long leathern strap round their necks, to which
were attached the wooden keys of their houses, amulets,
and a small bag for money, and other valuables. I
bought several scarabasi, and other trifling antiquities,
which were strung on their necklaces. The children
were entirely naked, excepting a leathern strap round
their waists, and some of them had their hair tied up
in small bunches with strings of coloured beads. One
of the men was picturesquely dressed in a long robe,
with a scarf over his shoulder; a round shield, made of
a thick hide with a knob in the centre hung round his
neck; and he carried in his hand a straight sword similar
to those used by the Christian knights in the crusades.
The ruins at Wady Taffa are situated on a stony
plain elevated about twenty feet above the river, to
which it gradually descends in sloping banks covered
with verdure. The plain is surrounded by barren hills,
and on an eminence to the southward the house of the
Sheik seems to occupy the site of an antient building.
57
the character of being turbulent, and gave the French
a good deal of trouble. The Sheik pays a duty to the
Pacha, but has hitherto contrived to prevent the ad-
mission of any troops, and to avoid the conscription.
Strangers however at present are well received. Besides
the usual crops of cotton and doura, &c, henna grows
here in abundance; it is a shrub about four feet high,
and has a small red flower, the dye is produced from
the leaves when dried and pulverised.
The women were dressed in the usual manner, but
their heads were covered with an extraordinary quantity
of castor oil, they wore very large ear and nose rings,
and a long leathern strap round their necks, to which
were attached the wooden keys of their houses, amulets,
and a small bag for money, and other valuables. I
bought several scarabasi, and other trifling antiquities,
which were strung on their necklaces. The children
were entirely naked, excepting a leathern strap round
their waists, and some of them had their hair tied up
in small bunches with strings of coloured beads. One
of the men was picturesquely dressed in a long robe,
with a scarf over his shoulder; a round shield, made of
a thick hide with a knob in the centre hung round his
neck; and he carried in his hand a straight sword similar
to those used by the Christian knights in the crusades.
The ruins at Wady Taffa are situated on a stony
plain elevated about twenty feet above the river, to
which it gradually descends in sloping banks covered
with verdure. The plain is surrounded by barren hills,
and on an eminence to the southward the house of the
Sheik seems to occupy the site of an antient building.