274 TRAVELS IN UPPER 



polished. It is a known fact, that the disciples of 

 Mahomet are in the habit of divesting themselves 

 of every covering of hair : the very men, with 

 whom mustachios are an ornament, and a long 

 beard a distinctive sign, reject every excrescence 

 of this kind on any other part of the body, and 

 the inhabitants of Egypt, of whatever description, 

 have adopted the same taste. In former times, the 

 priest alone shaved the whole body every third 

 day, in order, says Herodotus, that no vermin, nor 

 filth of any kind, should be generated on men 

 devoted to the service of the gods •. In modern 

 times, every Egyptian shaves himself in like man- 

 ner, and they are not much the less for that preyed 

 on by vermin. The generality only make use of 

 the razor for this operation, which they frequently 

 repeat. Others, as in Turkey, employ a depilatory 

 which the Turks call rusma, and the Arabians nou- 

 ret, a very ordinary drug, and which is sold for a 

 trifle. It is not, as has been believed, a mineral 

 substance, found in a state of complete prepara- 

 tion, as a depilatory, it! the bowels of the earth. 

 It stands in need of an artificial preparation, and 

 of an alloy, in order to attain the requisite pro- 

 pert) 7 . In truth, Bellonius, the first who has de- 

 scribed (at Cuta, in Galatia) the source of a mineral 

 which they call rusma -\-, adds, that the mineral 



* Herodotus, Larcher's translation, book ii. § 3. 

 ■\ Observ. book iii. ch. 33. 



alone 



