3G0 THE HUNTING GKOUNDS 



cloth, white or yellow linen tight-fitting trousers, 

 yellow boots, and shirt-like tunic, bound with gold 

 or silver lace, having on each side of the breast 

 cases made of morocco for holding cartridges. 

 Their arms are a kind of rifled matchlock, pistol, 

 sabre, and broad, heavy, double-edged poniard. 

 Their chiefs or nobles, however, present a much more 

 brilliant spectacle when in full dress, being clad, 

 like our knights of old, in coats of mail composed 

 of rings of steel joined together with the most 

 beautiful workmanship, and armed with damas- 

 cened sabres, daggers, and richly-ornamented pis- 

 tols, often inlaid with gold. 



Their women have long been celebrated for their 

 extreme beauty, the harems of Constantinople being 

 kept supplied from the descendants of slaves, though 

 not, as is generally supposed, from the families of 

 the free tribes. They are of slender and elegant 

 figures, with regular features, white skin, and dark 

 brown or black hair, with blue eyes. They are in 

 general neither reserved nor confined, but at the 

 ao-e of ten or twelve years they are incased in a 

 broad leathern band tightly sewn round the waist, 

 which they wear until marriage. Over a low-cut 

 chemise they wear a long laced jacket with wide 

 trousers, and they heighten their beauty by paint- 

 ing their eyebrows with a preparation of antimony 

 called "soormah," and stain the nails of the toes 

 and fingers with henna. Their hair is generally 

 plaited and falls down the back, and a small sheep- 



