HENNA  AND  KOHEUL  AMONGST  THE  ARABS. 
59 
ON  THE  USE  OF  HENNA  AND  KOHEUL  AMONGST  THE  ARABS. 
By  M.  Berthekand. 
Cosmetics  are  employed  amongst  the  Arabs  with  a  double 
object ;  being  not  only  designed  to  augment  beauty,  but  to  pre- 
serve health.  Nearly  all  the  women,  particularly  the  Kabyles, 
and  a  great  number  of  the  natives  of  both  sexes  belonging  to  the 
higher  classes,  stain  the  hands  and  feet  with  henna.  This  sub- 
stance, which  is  the  flower  of  the  laivsonia  inermis,  finely  powder- 
ed and  diluted  with  a  little  water,  is  applied  to  the  extremities 
before  going  to  bed,  a  soft  linen  rag  afterwards  enveloping  the 
parts.  The  next  day  we  will  find  these  portions  of  the  body 
stained  of  a  yellowish  brown,  and  this  coloration  will  last  for 
a  long  time  (twenty  days,)  so  that  it  is  not  necessary  to  repeat 
its  application  very  often,  notwithstanding  the  frequent  use  of 
baths,  &c. 
Henna  seems,  as  it  were  by  tanning  the  skin,  to  increase  its 
tenacity,  and  it  also  diminishes  its  transpiration,  and  preserves 
its  delicate  sensibilities  against  all  sudden  changes  of  tempera- 
ture. These  advantages  are  so  real,  that  the  Arabs  use  the 
henna  as  a  dressing  to  all  wounds,  even  with  their  horses.  The 
lawsonia  inermis  certainly  deserves  to  be  introduced  under  very 
favorable  circumstances,  into  the  materia  medica.  I  have  often- 
times witnessed  its  good  effects  in  Algeria,  especially  in  those 
distressing  cases  of  foetid  sweating;  of  the  feet.  I  have  seen  its 
application  every  week,  result  in  entire  relief. 
These  cosmetics  are  considered  of  so  much  importance  by 
Mussulmen,  that  there  are  laws  which  thus  speak  of  them.  "It 
is  a  duty  binding  on  the  husband  to  furnish  the  woman  with  those 
cosmetics  which  custom  has  received  and  acknowledged  as  useful, 
as,  for  instance,  the  koheul  for  the  eyes,  ointment  and  oil  for  the 
hair,  henna  for  the  head,  hands  and  feet ;  also  those  instruments 
which  are  necessary  for  anointing  the  head  and  body,  &c." 
Henna  also  possesses  another  value  with  these  nations.  The 
flowers  are  employed  to  perfume  their  clothes  and  their  houses, 
and  both  of  these  are  very  much  in  need,  as  a  general  rule,  of 
some  such  process. 
In  the  cities,  women  paint  themselves  with  saffron,  or  with  an 
ointment  (rusma,)  containing  an  arsenical  base  which  is  sometimes 
