8 
JOURNEY FROM 
the Turkish costume has occasionally been questioned and denied, 
we will venture to add our testimony in its favour to that of all the 
most experienced travellers in Mahometan countries with whom we 
have ever been acquainted : so far, at least, as the adoption of it is in 
question, in places where the principal persons in power, and the 
bulk of the population are Mussulmen. If it were only on the score 
of convenience, we should in most cases recommend it ; and it is cer- 
tainly the best calculated to prevent interruption, and all the nume- 
rous annoyances arising from idle curiosity and the prejudices of an 
ignorant people. 
On our return, one morning, from a visit to the Bazar, where we 
had been making some purchases necessary for our journey, we found 
our apartment occupied by the Bedouin Arabs who had been ap- 
pointed by the Bashaw to attend us to Bengazi. They had been 
ranged by our servant on chairs round the room, on which they did 
not appear to sit much at their ease ; and some of them had relin- 
quished their exalted situation for the more convenient level which 
the chairs themselves occupied, that safe and comfortable position, 
the ground : here they squatted themselves down with true Arab 
dignity, and soon found themselves much more at home. There was 
little in the dress of these sw^arthy personages by which one might 
be distinguished from the rest. An ample baracan, fastened in the 
usual Arab manner, partially displayed the large, loose sleeves of a 
cotton shirt, more remarkable than usual for its w^hiteness ; a piece 
of distinction which is, by Arabs, considered necessary only in 
towais, and on visits of more than ordinary ceremony : from a lea- 
