PAINTING THE BYES. 
399 
Ibu family: as it is observed among some who have no 
trace whatever ofislamism, in their religious or domes- 
tic customs, we may conclude it to have been intro- 
duced along with the others to wliich we have already 
called attention. That it was practised from the 
earliest times, appears on the evidence of Herodotus, 
who says that its origin, both among Egyptians and 
Ethiopians, may be traced to the most remote anti- 
quity, but he knew not from whom it might have 
been borrowed. From inscriptions and devices on the 
monuments of Upper and Lower Egypt, Sir G. Wil- 
kinson, thought it must have been in use long before 
the arrival of Joseph or the Exodus of Moses, and it 
continued to be more or less kept up to the latest 
times, so that when their country was overrun by the 
disciples of the prophet, that institution at least ac- 
corded with the impostor’s views. 
Another practice, which being common also to the 
Arabs of later times, might be supposed to have 
had its origin in the spread of Mahommedanism in 
Western Africa, — we allude to painting, or rather 
colouring the eyelids of the women and children, with 
preparations of galena or antimony; a fashion very 
generally met with among many of the Negro people 
we arc referring to — and at Iddah, we were not a 
little surprised to find metal and leather bottles very 
similar in shape to the Kohl bottles of the Egyptians, with 
styles or hodkins, for the purpose of applying the pig- 
ment; and at Oameroons and Binibia, far removed 
