392 



MODERN EGYPT. 



time in listless indolence. The dress of the poorer Arabs, consists 

 simply of a pair of loose blue or white cotton drawers with a long 

 blue tunic, which serves to cover them from their neck to their 

 ankles, and a small red woollen skull-cap, round which they occa- 

 sionally wind a long strip of white woollen manufacture. They are 

 sometimes so poor as not to be able to purchase even this last article. 

 By means of his tunic or long loose outer garment of dyed cotton, 

 the wealthy Arab conceals from the proud and domineering Turk, 

 a better and a richer dress, consisting sometimes of the long and 

 graceful Moslem habit of Damascus silk, covered by a fine cloth 

 coat with short sleeves, and at other times, particularly among the 

 Alexandrians and those connected with the sea, o? a blue cloth short 

 jacket, curiously and richly embroidered with gold, and white trow- 

 sers reaching just below the knee, the legs bare. 



The articles of furniture in the house of an Egyptian Arab are 

 extremely few. " The rooms of all people of decent rank have a 

 low sofa called a divan, extending completely round three sides of 

 the room in general, and sometimes to every part of it, except the 

 door-way ; but is most commonly at the upper end of the chamber. 

 On this divan the hours not devoted to business or exercise are 

 passed. It is about nine inches or a foot from the floor, and is 

 covered with mattresses ; the back is formed by large square cushions 

 placed all along the wall touching each other, and these are more or 

 less ornamented according to the wealth of the owner. The beds 

 are generally laid on a wicker work strongly framed, made of the 

 branches of the date tree*, tooiry Ik t&v <r7r0iSiy.au rou (pptvdtos, or of 

 mattresses placed on a raised platform at the end of the room. This 

 latter mode is the more general custom. For their meals they have 

 a very low table, around which they squat on the mats covering the 

 floor, and in houses of repute I have seen sometimes this table of 

 copper thinly tinned over. They have no other furniture except 



* Mentioned by Porphyry, De Abst. lib. iv. in speaking of the Egyptians. 



