170 
TRAVELS IN NORTHERN AFRICA. 
CHAP. IV. 
people of Tripoli ; the lower orders wear a large shirt of white 
or blue cotton with long loose sleeves, trowsers of the same, and 
sandals of camels' hide : the shirts being long, many wear no 
other covering. When leaving their houses, and walking to the 
market or gardens, a Jereed or Aba is thrown round them, and a 
red cap, or a neatly quilted white cotton one, completes the dress : 
on Fridays they perhaps add a turban, and appear in yellow slip- 
pers. In the gardens, men and women wear large broad-brimmed 
straw hats to defend their eyes from the sun, and sandals made 
from the leaves and fibres of the palm-tree. Very young children 
go entirely naked ; those who are older have a shirt : many are 
quite bare-headed, and in that state exposed all day to the sun and 
flies. The men have but httle beard, which they keep closely 
clipped. The dress of the women here differs materially from that 
of the Moorish females, and their appearance and smell are far from 
being agreeable : they plait their hair in thick bobbins, which hang 
over their foreheads, nearly as low down as the eyebrows, and are 
there joined at the bottom, as far round to each side as the temples. 
The hair is so profusely oiled, that it drops down over the face 
and clothes ; this is dried up by sprinkhng it with plenty of a 
preparation made of a plant resembling wild lavender, cloves, and 
one or two more species, pounded into powder and called Atria; 
it forms a brown, dirty looking paste, and, combined with per- 
spiration and the flying sand, becomes in a few days far from 
savoury in appearance or odour. The back hair is less disgusting, 
as it is plaited into a long tress on each side, and is brought 
to hang over the shoulders ; from these tresses, ornaments of silver 
or coral are suspended. Black wool is frequently worked in with 
these back locks, to make them appear longer. In the centre of the 
forehead, an ornament of coral or beads is placed, hanging down to 
the depth of an inch or two. A woollen handkerchief is fastened 
