106 



THE BANYAN. 



is the effect of a diet which embraces only bread, 

 rice, and milk, sweetmeats, vegetables, and clari- 

 fied butter. Their skins are smoother and their 

 complexions are lighter than the Arabs' ; their 

 features are as high though by no means so thin. 

 They wear the long mustachio, not the beard, and 

 a Chinese pig-tail is allowed to spring from the 

 poll of the carefully shaven head. These top-knots 

 are folded, when the owners are full-dressed, 

 under high turbans of spotted purple or crim- 

 son stuff edged with gold. The latter are com- 

 plicated affairs, somewhat suggesting the oldest 

 fashion of a bishop's mitre ; bound round in fine 

 transverse plaits, not twisted like the Arabs', and 

 peaked in the centre above the forehead with a 

 manner of horn. Their snowy cotton coats fit 

 close to the neck, like collarless shirts ; shawl- 

 girt under the arms, they are short-waisted as 

 the dresses of our grandmothers ; the sleeves 

 are tight and profusely wrinkled, being nearly 

 double the needful length, and the immaculate 

 loin-cloth displays the lower part of the thigh, 

 leaving the leg bare. Their slippers of red 

 leather are sharp-toed, with points turning up- 

 wards and backwards, somewhat as in the 

 knightly days of Europe. 



Another conspicuous type is the Baloch mer- 



