382 



THE ARAB. 



Abyssinia, is a simple hopless beer, made from 

 maize or holcus. Drunkenness amongst the poor 

 is very properly punished only when it leads to 

 crime. It is singular that the late Sayyid, who 

 never touched an intoxicating drink, should have 

 been so tender to an offence with which Moslems 

 usually deal so barbarously. 



The Arab's head-dress is a Kumm eh or Kofiyyah 

 (red fez), a Surat calotte (Alfiyyah), or a white 

 skull-cap worn under a turban (Kilemba) of 

 Oman silk and cotton religiously mixed. Usually 

 it is of fine blue and white cotton check, embroid- 

 ered and fringed with a broad red border, with 

 the ends hanging in unequal lengths over one 

 shoulder. The coiffure is highly picturesque. 

 The ruling family and grandees, however, have 

 modified its vulgar folds, wearing it peaked in 

 front, and somewhat resembling a tiara. The 

 essential body-clothing and the succedaneum 

 for trowsers is an Izar (Nguo ya ku chini), or 

 loin-cloth tucked in at the waist, 6 to 7 feet long 

 by 2 to 3 broad. The colours are brick-dust and 

 white or blue and white, with a silk border 

 striped red, black, and yellow. The very poor 

 wear a dirty bit of cotton girdled by a Hakab or 

 Kundavi, a rope of plaited thongs ; the rich pre- 

 fer a fine embroidered stuff from Oman, supported 



