DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68501#0499
THE TOILETTE IN ARABIA.
479
universal custom to knot the hair up behind, and
wrap it in a handkerchief. Caps and turbans are not
in use here. In the mountain districts the hair is left
long and loose, and is bound with small cords.
There is one universal fashion respecting beards
— they are never touched, but are allowed to grow to
their full length ; the moustaches only are sometimes
shortened. In Arabia the men’s beards are always
quite black ; sometimes, when
whitened by age, they dye them
red, but it is a fashion not
much admired or followed.
We learn from Niebuhr
that, in Arabia, the Bedouins,
or wandering- Arabs, wear onlv
a white robe, bound round the
waist with a leathern girdle,
which is very broad, and made
with one large, and several
small clasps. In both winter
and summer they have a large
goat-skin cloak, striped in black
and white. On their heads they have only a red cap,
surrounded with a piece of cloth of the same colour,
or mixed with white.
The princes also wear the same dress ; their cloak
only is different, being almost always black. Their
drawers are of linen, and reach to the lower part of
the leg. They wear slippers when at home, and
half-boots for riding. The labourers wear sandals.
The dress of Arabs of distinction in Yemen con-
sists of a pair of wide cotton drawers, with a shirt
over them. The cutlass is suspended to a broad girdle,
479
universal custom to knot the hair up behind, and
wrap it in a handkerchief. Caps and turbans are not
in use here. In the mountain districts the hair is left
long and loose, and is bound with small cords.
There is one universal fashion respecting beards
— they are never touched, but are allowed to grow to
their full length ; the moustaches only are sometimes
shortened. In Arabia the men’s beards are always
quite black ; sometimes, when
whitened by age, they dye them
red, but it is a fashion not
much admired or followed.
We learn from Niebuhr
that, in Arabia, the Bedouins,
or wandering- Arabs, wear onlv
a white robe, bound round the
waist with a leathern girdle,
which is very broad, and made
with one large, and several
small clasps. In both winter
and summer they have a large
goat-skin cloak, striped in black
and white. On their heads they have only a red cap,
surrounded with a piece of cloth of the same colour,
or mixed with white.
The princes also wear the same dress ; their cloak
only is different, being almost always black. Their
drawers are of linen, and reach to the lower part of
the leg. They wear slippers when at home, and
half-boots for riding. The labourers wear sandals.
The dress of Arabs of distinction in Yemen con-
sists of a pair of wide cotton drawers, with a shirt
over them. The cutlass is suspended to a broad girdle,