THE ARABIAN RACE. 



237 



pancy. They appeared to have preserved more of the primitive He- 

 brew customs, than I have seen among their brethren in other coun- 

 tries. Their style of architecture, offered unexpected analogy to the 

 ancient Arabic as depicted on the Egyptian monuments; the build- 

 ings being devoid of arches and of all curved lines, but having square 

 towers with battlements, and at each story a projecting ledge. 



The men wore long side-locks, reaching from above the ear to the 

 shoulder ; and these may perhaps constitute " the corners of the 

 beard," in the passage of Scripture which has sometimes been dif- 

 ferently interpreted. The women had their eyelids and eyebrows 

 painted, and they wore a large silver ring in the nose, and numbers 

 of similar ones in the ears : children sometimes had their ears folded 

 downwards with the weicrht of the rings inserted around the margin. 

 Education, as among the southern Arabs, was general ; and all the 

 children attended school. 



In this scorching climate, the Jewish complexion, instead of being 

 in any degree florid, presented a universal tinge of yellow ; but it was 

 obviously ligliter than the hue of the common Arabs of the country. 

 Some of the boys had a coarse expression of countenance combined 

 with flaxen hair; reminding me of faces seen occasionally in North- 

 ern climates, and at variance with the usual Jewish physiognomy. 

 I do not remember on any other occasion, meeting with flaxen hair 

 among the Orientals. 



It would seem, that the Hebrew is not altogether a dead language 

 with the Jews of Aden ; but they commonly use the Arabic, which 

 they write with the Hebrew character. I obtained from them a copy 

 of the Pentateuch, "written at Sanaa, in the Interior;" and I saw 

 another work in the Hebrew character, which " had been brought 

 from Bagdad." It was said, that the Aden Jews, refused to hold com- 

 munion with their Indian brethren who had been brought to the place 

 by the English, and that they worshipped apart. 



The Jews at Mocha, lived outside the walls of the town, in a vil- 

 lage by themselves; and they consisted of artisans, especially builders, 

 as at Aden. Notwithstanding a residence for many successive gene- 

 rations, the complexion remained lighter, and the beard longer, than 

 in the Arabs of Mocha. 



With respect to the Jews of Abyssinia, geographical considerations 

 would lead us to suppose, tliat tliey were originally derived from 

 Southern Arabia, rather than by the route of Egypt and the Nile. 



(iO 



