350 SOCIAL STATE OF THE ARABS. 



mon abba is without sleeves, resembling a sack, with 

 openings for the head and arms, and requires so little 

 art in the making that blind tailors earn their liveli- 

 hood by this employment. Public taste, however, is 

 occasionally more capricious, especially as to the head- 

 dress, which is often expensive, and in a hot coun- 

 try must be extremely inconvenient. A fashionable 

 Arab will wear fifteen caps one above another, some 

 of which are linen, but the greater part of thick 

 cloth or cotton. That which covers the whole is 

 richly embroidered with gold, and inwrought with 

 texts or passages from the Koran. Over all there 

 is wrapped a sash or large piece of muslin, with the 

 ends hanging down, and ornamented with silk or 

 gold fringes. This useless incumbrance is considered 

 a mark of respect towards superiors. It is also used, 

 as the beard was formerly in Europe, to indicate 

 literary merit; and those who affect to be thought 

 men of learning discover their pretensions by the 

 size of their turbans. No part of Oriental costume 

 is so variable as this covering for the head. Nie- 

 buhr has given illustrations of forty-eight different 

 ways of wearing it. The Bedouins use a keffie, 

 or square kerchief of yellow or green cotton, with 

 two corners hanging down on each side to pro- 

 tect them from the sun and wind, or to conceal 

 their features if they wish to be unknown. A few 

 rich sheiks wear shawls striped red and white, of 

 Damascus or Bagdad manufacture. The Aenezes 

 and some other tribes do not use drawers, which 

 they consider as too effeminate for a man ; and they 

 usually walk and ride barefooted, though they have 

 a particular esteem for yellow boots and red shoes. 

 In Mecca and other large towns the winter-suit 



