Fortunate are the people who possess a dish like kuscoussoo. Any

comparison between them and the bread-eating nations is very

difficult, for they have economy and comforts which are too subtle for

calculation. The Indian has his rice and curry.[260] The inhabitants

of the Eastern and Southern portions of Europe have their dishes (not

bread) of Indian corn. The Turks, the Persians, the Tartars, the Arabs,

have their _pilaf_, which spreads from the Adriatic to the Yellow

Sea--from the Yrtish to the Indian Ocean. The domain of kuscoussoo

extends from the Red Sea to the Atlantic. It does not appear to have

been original amongst the Arabs, as indeed no farinaceous food could

be; yet it has the unmistakable impress of antiquity. Wheat is one

of those inventions or introductions which in Greece, in Egypt, in

Etruria, has a date. We know of it nowhere as original. Its modern

use is imagined to be restricted to the Northern and Western portions

of Europe. It is, however, universal in Northern Africa, and would

appear to have been original among its inhabitants; and I infer that

we are indebted for it to the Holy Land. If we have borrowed from the

Philistines the grain; we have neglected--just as with Indian corn and

rice--to borrow the proper way of cooking it. In these other grains

we cannot be brought to institute any comparison; but kuscoussoo _is_

wheat.

Bread alone will not serve as a people’s diet, and is, moreover,

expensive. We separate the parts of the flour which are adapted to one

another--and so best fitted for food--and thus the coarse bread and the

fine are equally deteriorated. By fermentation the nature of the grain

is changed;[261] and by the baking, while in that state, considerable

loss is incurred by the evaporation of alcohol, which our Excise laws

now forbid us to collect. The difference in point of economy cannot

be less than a quarter in favour of kuscoussoo; and taking it as

furnishing forth the meal without the adjuncts which our labouring

classes require, it will not be too much to say that, bushel for

bushel, the grain is worth to them the double of what it is to us.[262]

A new discovery in baking has been made in New Holland, in consequence

of the ignorance of common arts produced by the subdivision of

labour. We do not know baking afloat; and in the first settlement of

that colony, the women were from the cities, and did not know how to

bake. The bakers appear to be a moral class, for the men were equally

ignorant. The colony lived for years on biscuits, and even at the

governor’s table the guests were in the habit of bringing their own

biscuits. The convicts could not be so daintily treated: their weekly

allowance of flour was served out to them, and they were allowed to do

with it what they liked, when accident or genius led them to treat it

in this manner. Each slaked his fourteen pounds with water, and having

made it into dough, proceeded to heat and pummel it by the hour: this

huge mass of dough was then tumbled into the fire, the ashes having

been raked out to heap over it when laid in. The bread so made, is

pronounced by those familiar with it, excellent: it is called “damper,”

from damping the fire. It is not wet and sodden as might be supposed,

the manipulation, as in the kuscoussoo, rendering it palatable, and

being perhaps slightly raised by the expansion of the air driven in by

the beating which it receives with the fist.

I cannot return from this dissertation without a word on the cooking

of the two other grains from which national dishes are made--Indian

corn and rice. The uncertainties attending the condition of our own

island, increase the importance of the knowledge of the best methods of

dressing the substances that might be substituted for potatoes; and in

the art of cookery, England is behind every other people.[263]

Indian corn does not do when eaten cold. As bread, it is kneaded with

water and fired upon the griddle, and then eaten hot: as polenta it

is cooked like Scotch porridge, or eaten with milk, or it is turned

out and left to cool, and then, when wanted, is sliced and cooked on

the gridiron or fried. In these forms it is an agreeable and wholesome

food.[264]

Pilaf is a dish, which, like kuscoussoo, has its secret. I never tasted

it eatable when made by a Christian. It is rice and butter, and the

art depends in the manner of introducing the butter. Boiled with the

rice, or added in the dish, it would be no pilaf. It is only a person

deserving the name of cook, who, after several failures, might succeed.

Such a person will find all that is requisite in what follows:--

The salt must be put in the water; the pan must be thick; the quantity

of water must be adapted to the rice, which varies, so that when the

rice is cooked, the whole water be absorbed. It must never be touched

or stirred while cooking. Butter is then put in a frying-pan; the

proportions experience will teach. When it boils up, it is poured over

the rice, which sputters and swells; then one turn with a spoon is

given, and it is put on the fire for a moment, and must be served up

hot in the pan. The Mussulmans with this, end their dinner, to show

that they have not eaten to gratify appetite, but to supply want; and

they have a saying, that every pilaf a man does not eat, will rise up

against him at the day of judgment.

My attention was first turned to their diet by this people’s splendid

teeth. Nothing can better exhibit the quality of the food they

masticate. Amongst us clean teeth, except by being cleaned, is a thing

unknown. Without dentifrices, and without brushes, their teeth are pure

and clean--the sure sign that they are free from those acids, which in

us produce the greater portion of our diseases; while by the continual

strain upon the sources of vitality, they shorten life and diminish its

contentment while it lasts.

The first of blessings to an individual is health; and the next,

supposing it not the cause, sobriety. If these be of such value to the

individuals, of what value must they not be to a nation? Yet these are

points at which no constitution has ever aimed; they are beyond the

reach of legislator, philosopher, or schoolmaster; they can come only

from habit, and of this habit the cook is the original and source. It

is not without cause that man has been defined a cooking animal. It is

in the cooking of the race, that its sense is first tested, oftenest

exercised, and longest enjoyed. Rigid Lacedæmon honoured cooks as she

did victors at the Olympic games; and although no professional artist

might breathe her air, still to unbought excellence in the culinary art

she reared statues.[265]

How rational to distinguish nations, as formerly, by their food.

In ancient times the listener was not sickened with hearing about

Sclavonic or German or Anglo-Saxon “race;” neither was he distracted

with “aristocratic,” “monarchical.” When they wanted to show what

a man was, they said, “he is a fish-eater,” or a “lotus-eater.” So

the oracular response to the Spartans, “Beware of them, they live on

acorns.”

Within the last few years an immense amount of talent and science

has been brought to bear upon diet; and contrasting the works that

have been produced with anything that has gone before, one remains

in astonishment at the advantages which in this respect we possess.

Yet what is the profit? A few persons may read these speculations in

their library chairs; but what are the advantages even to these at

the dinner-tables? Come here and you will see economic food and the

healthiest people, who have no “animal chemistry,” and yet illustrate

in their practice that which we reason about in books.

One of the weightiest utensils to transport is the handmill, and one of

the heaviest occupations of the tent is grinding. How large a share it

occupied in the domestic life of Judæa, the repeated allusions to it

in the Sacred Writings bear testimony. Travellers are always struck by

the amount of labour thus thrown away. A learned commentator selects

the long continuance of this practice to illustrate the stupidity of

the human race. This is to suppose an Arab tent in the same row with

a baker’s shop, or with a farm-yard and a granary attached to it. If

they used a windmill they would have to carry it about with them; and

if a water-mill, they would require the rivulet’s attendance in their

peregrinations. The only variety in the landscape of the _Zakel_, is

here and there the tomb of a saint: the only houses are those appointed

for all living. Have they then no stores of grain?

On the spot where it is harvested it is thrashed, winnowed, and

treasured up. Holes are dug in the earth and lined with straw;

these are called _Matmores_: there the grain may be kept a hundred

or a thousand years, protected from rot, mildew, and man. By this

practice they are secured against the uncertainties of the seasons

and fluctuation in price. These reservoirs, when forgotten, may be

discovered by examining the verdure in spring, when it begins to lose

its freshness. Over the matmore the change is first perceptible,

as it is dryer beneath. Twenty years ago, four or five successive

harvests were destroyed by drought and locusts; famine and pestilence

ensued; and but for these stores the country must have been

depopulated.[266] There is an exportation of corn making at present to

Dublin;--permission has been granted for 50,000 fanegas, or little more

than a bushel;--it would cost 6_s._ 6_d._ landed at Dublin, or under

40_s._ a quarter. The last exportation of grain was ten years ago,

when Spain being in great need, permission was granted; and from the

roadstead of Dar el Baida alone, 45,000 quarters were exported without

sensibly augmenting the price.

To effect the change from the handmill to the water or windmill, the

matmores would have to be replaced by standing granaries: standing

granaries would require fixed habitations; fixed habitations would

require walled cities. In the country where I am writing, the land

would not suffice to support these, and, consequently, the extinction

of the population would be the consequence. Elsewhere, where the

land is more fertile, it would place the tribes at the mercy of the

governor, and the whole fabric would fall to pieces.

The aim of the political economist is to accumulate profit--to make

money; to turn, every way, soil and toil into the banker’s books. The

end of the legislator is exactly the reverse. He knows that the danger

to society is from the accumulations of profit. He knows that wealth

draws wealth, and engenders power, and brings the fall of states.

By legislators I mean those who have proved themselves such by their

works--the states which they have built up.

In early times we always find the chiefs possessing the greatest

ascendancy over their people. How is it they lose this authority? Is

it not when, to the influence of blood and station, _they have added_

the influence of wealth? Institutions, therefore, calculated to make

a people happy, and preserve it long, must effect the very reverse

of modern science, and must prevent the accumulation of capital, and

equalize the distribution of food.

This end is obtained amongst the Arabs, not by laws or institutions,

but simply through hospitality. No human creature enters an Arab douar

and goes without a bellyful, and of this the charge falls upon the

chief. When I obtained a new method of preparing wheat, of cooking

a dish and eating it; I also observed a new method and manner of

distributing it. The tent was like a tavern without bells. Half of

Sheik Tibi’s substance goes in kuscoussoo. It is an extraordinary thing

to see; it is slowly that the mind takes it in; it is difficult to

convey it to another--and testimony is requisite. In Mr. Davidson’s

Journal there is a corroboratory passage, which is all the more

valuable as coming from one who had no conception of the value of the

fact he recorded. Speaking of the great Sheik of Suz, he says, “The

Sheik, rich and powerful as he is, dares not shut his door against the

dirtiest beast who thinks proper to enter. The kuscoussoo, or teapot,

is a general invitation, and all may come in and feed.” This is the

interpretation of those words of Isaiah, “Thou hast clothing--be thou

our ruler,” as of the reply, “In mine home there is neither bread nor

clothing--make me not a ruler.” Of the patriarchal period in our own

state, we have a record in the title, _Lord_, which meant the giver of

bread. The word “government” is itself derived from the same source,

and to-day in the streets of Athens a beggar will approach you with

these words, “χηβερνισὲ μου--_govern_ me, _i.e._ give me food.” Amongst

the Turks, where ceremonial is the bond, _rank_ is given to bread. If

a Mussulman sees a bit of bread on the ground, he reverentially picks

it up, kisses it, and then places it in some position where it may

be seen and used, if requisite, by man or beast.[267] If the Sultan

were to come into a room where the humblest were sitting at food, they

would not rise to receive him--his dignity is effaced in presence of

the “gift of God;” thus, a mendicant may place himself at the table

of the Vizir. A person who could not be asked to partake of coffee,

who could not presume to be seen with a pipe, may be invited to sit

down to dinner. The breaking of bread, the most solemn mystery of our

faith, has, in this respect, a meaning which we cannot read. In the

East, the injunction of Christ to turn not away from him who asketh,

is universally observed.[268] We cannot observe that rule, because

we have produced such an amount of pauperism that no private charity

can suffice, and we have destroyed the practice of charity, so that

it _shall_ not suffice; then we reconcile faith and disobedience by

treating the injunction as a metaphor.

In the Moorish government, the practice of the tribes is now

reversed,[269] but still the traces are not all lost. “The Kings of

Fez,” says Marmol, “have a custom to have their food brought publicly

to the Hall of Audience, where, every morning, they receive the

compliments of the princes and the great men. After the king has eaten

two or three mouthfuls--for he never eats more in public--the dish

(of kuscoussoo) is turned from before him, and his children, or his

brothers, if they are present, approach, and each take a mouthful and

return to their places. Then the great personages and the common come

by order of their degrees, till, at last, the very porters and the

guards; for all those who are in the hall, great or little, must taste

much or little, because they believe that it is a sin to eat alone,

without offering to those who look at you. The princes and governors

in the province do each the same thing. Every one eats once a day of

kuscoussoo, because it costs little and nourishes much.”[270]

“Fill not thy belly in presence of the longing eye.” What are all our

homilies on charity to this? What all our constitutions? This is not a

proposition; it is a maxim, a rule of conduct; it is a habit--that is,

a self-enforcing law.

What is the evil eye? How should such a fancy have taken root? I once

commended a child’s beauty: the nurse immediately spat in its face.

I asked the reason; she answered, “Against your evil eye.” Pride was

there the spell, humiliation the _fascinum_. The figure of a hand is

the ordinary talisman.[271] The open hand denotes generosity, the

closed one firmness. The hand so used is neither closed nor open, two

fingers being doubled, two extended. What can this signify, if not a

measured participation of what you enjoy to prevent the longing, from

becoming the “evil,” eye? Associated as the hand is with kuscoussoo,

the emblem is appropriate. That _superstition_ has cheered many a heavy

spirit and relaxed many a girded heart, and is cheaper than a poor-law.

Thus, by the maxims, habits, and domestic practices and superstitions

which centre in and support hospitality--not the hospitality that

invites a compeer, but which confers food and raiment upon the

destitute--are the inequalities of the human condition moderated;

alike prevented from being greatly diverse, the balance is maintained

between wealth and numbers, and the classes cemented to each other. As

on the one side there can be none absolutely destitute, so can there be

none excessively rich; and in all cases riches must flow in benefits

around. It is a melancholy fact, that hospitality has disappeared in

Christendom--not in practice only, but in every thought--and therefore

are our minds a chaos, as well as our condition. Nor is there remedy.

Science may be taught, but not simplicity; and duties which we have

superseded by legislation, we shall presently prohibit by law.

FOOTNOTES:

[258] When eaten with buttermilk they use spoons, the place of which

is here supplied by enormous mussel shells--true _cochlearia_. The

savoury accompaniments are thus absorbed, and the ball acquires that

consistency which gives to the dish its zest.

[259] “When he (the Sultan) is intent upon a piece of work, or eager to

have it finished, he won’t allow himself to go to his meals, but orders

some of his eunuchs or negroes to bring him a dish of kuscoussoo, which

he sits down and eats after a brutish manner; for as soon as he has

rolled up the sleeves of his shirt, he thrusts his arms into the dish

up to his elbows, and bringing a handful from the bottom he fills his

mouth, and then throws the rest into the dish again, and so on till he

is satisfied.”--_Account of Barbary_, p. 92, 1713.

[260] They use flour, but not as bread. It is made like porridge, and

eaten with milk.

[261] The effect of fermentation on food was not overlooked by the

ancients. “Panis azymus, ou sans levain, Celse dit facile à dégirer:

les modernes _ne sont pas de cet avis_.”--Note by Pankoucke to Pliny,

l. xviii. c. 27.

[262] “Keep a man on brown bread and water, and he will live and enjoy

good health; give him white bread and water only, and he will gradually

sicken and die. The brown contains all the ingredients essential

to the composition or nourishment of our bodies. Some of these are

removed by the miller in his efforts to please the public. The loss

by fermentation and refining taken together, is under-estimated at

twenty-five per cent. 18,000,000 quarters of wheat are made into bread

annually in England and Wales: the waste is, therefore, 4,500,000

quarters, or 3,357,000,000lbs. of bread, or eight ounces per day per

man. This is nearly double the quantity of wheat usually imported; and

amounts, at 50s. the quarter, to 11,250,000_l._ sterling.”--_Pamphlet

on Unfermented Bread._

[263] “Some of our readers may, perhaps, smile at the idea that the

poor require much instruction in this art. The first and greatest

difficulty with them, they say, is, that they can get very little food

to cook. This is too true; but it is equally true that the little food

a poor family obtains is not made the best of; and that a greater

variety of wholesome, better-flavoured, and more nourishing food may be

procured by an improved system of cookery, and without any additional

expense. In many cases indeed, the cost would be less than by the

present defective method.”--_The Family Economist_, p. 10.

[264] Humboldt has decided that for maize (Zea maize) the old continent

is indebted to the new. If so, it would carry its own name, or receive

a descriptive one. Tobacco we can trace as tobacco, or as “smoke”

καχνὸς (_Tutun_). Potatoes by that name, or as “root apples:” not

so maize. The Greeks call it Arabic Ἀραποσιτι. The Turks, Egyptian

(_Missir Bogda_). On the Black Sea, it is _Cucuruzzi_. The Arabs of

Egypt call it Doura Shamee, or Grain of Damascus. The Bulgarians call

it _Callamboki_. Throughout the Indian archipelago it is known as

_Sagung_. In one of the Egyptian tombs there is a figure holding a head

of Indian corn; but this a learned writer will not admit, “because

that grain was introduced into Europe from Virginia.” Is it the _ksob_

of Negroland? the _Droueu_ and _Beshna_ of various parts of north

Africa?--See Egyptian Antiquities, Lib. Ent. Knowledge, vol. ii. p. 30;

Wilkinson, vol. i. p. 397; Crawford’s Indian Archipelago, vol. i. p.

366; Bradford’s American Antiquities, p. 418; Carette’s Algeria, vol.

ii.

[265] Formerly every private soldier cooked in turn for his mess. In

this respect, at all events, they preserved the temper and the tone of

the heroic ages, where the chiefs did not disdain to use the spit. The

revolution of February--the Labour Revolution--comes, and is followed

by a new subdivision, the appointment of forty-nine cooks to every

regiment.

[266] The Lydians had the same practice. It may account for their

enduring the long famine, which led to the emigration of the Tyrseni,

and for the provisioning of their ships.--See DRUMMOND’S _Origines_, b.

vi. c. 7.

[267] Lord Clarendon relates, that in the fire of London, a servant

of the Portuguese Ambassador was seized and roughly handled, on the

accusation of a citizen, who swore that he saw him throw a fireball

into a house, which immediately burst into flames. The foreigner, so

soon as the charge was translated to him, explained that he saw a

piece of bread lying on the ground, and according to the custom of his

country, picked it up and laid it on a shelf in the nearest house. The

house was searched: the bread was found upon a board just within the

door.

[268] “We had quarters assigned us; I with one peasant, and my comrade

with another. We had free board, and the peasants (Turkish) exercised

hospitality as though it was a matter of course.”--_Wanderings of a

Journeyman Tailor_, p. 97.

[269] One of the charges against Koulayh Wail, the first tyrant of

Southern Arabia, was, that he “monopolised hospitality.”--See _Lamgal

Alareb_.

[270] Africa, vol. ii. p. 193.

[271] “If I have witheld the poor from his _desire_, or caused the

_eyes_ of the widow to fail, or have _eaten my morsel alone_, and

the fatherless hath not eaten with me. If I have seen any perish

for want of clothing, or any poor without covering. If his loins

have not blessed me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my

sheep.”--JOB xxxi.

“Many, of course, were the Telzemi used against the evil eye. I have

selected the hand only as affording the key. The Bulla were worn by

the Etruscans, from whom the Romans copied them, as protection against

it. The Bulla (_five_ in number) were likewise in use among the Arabs,

but abolished by Islam. Most of them still wear on their necks the

ornaments of infancy.”--_Motenabbi._ These ornaments were berries of

plants, سخاب--CHREATH, _Arabe_, t. iii. p. 41.

The Phallus was also used for the same purpose.--PLINY. Three together

are sculptured on polygonal walls, in the Sabine territory at Zerui;

and in the Etruscan land at Todi in Umbria, &c.--DENNIS, vol. ii. p.

122. Also in Lydia. See Fellows’ Lydia.

CHAPTER III.

THE HAÏK.

However extensive the culinary operations in the chieftain’s tent,

they did not absorb the whole care of his household. Simultaneously

were going on the plaiting of baskets, the weaving of stuffs, the

churning of butter, the preparing of skins, and the casting of bullets.

The mould is two pieces of slate for half-a-dozen bullets at a time.

The bow and arrow of the Numidian hunter having given way to the

musket, this might be considered, at least, a modern invention. But

no, they were slingers as well as bowmen, and in the manufacture of

leaden pellets, they were so expert, that, as Ælian tells us, Cæsar

had supplies from hence. The dwarf palm presents them with materials

for tents, ropes, baskets, dishes, &c. The plant is called _Doum_ or

_Jumard_; the fan-like leaf, _Lyzaf_, serves for baskets, and their

dishes are baskets. From the fibrous substance round the stalk or root,

_Liff_, they spin thread, which they weave for the tent-covering, and

spread out upon the ground, passing the thread with the hand. The haïks

are, of course, home-made: those for the women and children have sprigs

or lines of bright and lively colour. The weaving is more ancient[272]

than the “flying shuttle” of Job, and is done by hand, as the Cashmere

shawls, or Arras tapestry. The warp, which is very slender, is

suspended; the woof, thick and slightly twisted, is passed by the hand;

when there are colours, there is a ball for each; every colour in the

pattern, is one thread. After the thread is passed, a flat heavy iron

with short spikes, protruding like a comb, is used to beat it down,

when it gains the character of felt.

But this vestment is of too great importance in a domestic,

manufacturing, political, hygeian, and picturesque point of view, to

dispose of thus. We travel thousands of miles to see an old ruin.

Adventurer after adventurer staked his life against a glimpse of the

interior sands of Africa. Here is the swaddling bands of a race. Is it

not worth turning over and handling, and seeing what it is made of, and

how it fits?

THE HAÏK.

If Prometheus had set himself down to consider, not how many things he

could invent for man, but what single invention would serve him most,

he might have fixed on the haïk. It is not known in Arabia, Judæa, or

any part of the East. It is mentioned by no ancient writer; yet on

its intrinsic characters, I claim for it the rank of first parent of

costume. It is found in Barbary. Who then shall assign to it a date?

The region is a nook in the ocean of time, where the wrecks of all ages

are cast up, and here, like the moon, these things are found, which are

lost elsewhere.

A shuttle and loom to weave, pins to knit, scissors to cut, or needles

and thread to sew, are requisite for every other dress; the haïk

dispenses with them all. It is a web, but not wove (in the modern sense

of the word); it is a covering, but neither cut nor stitched. When Eve

had to bethink herself of a durable substitute for innocence, this is

what she must have hit upon. The name it bears is such as Adam might

have given, had he required it in Paradise, “_that which is wove_,”

i.e. _web_.

It is only a web, yet is it coat, great-coat, trousers, petticoat,

under and over garment, enough for all and everything in one. Being

but the simplest of primitive inventions, it outvies in beauty, and

overmatches in convenience the succeeding centuries of contrivance and

art: it completes the circle, the last step being not to return to,

but merely to perceive the beauty of the first conception, and yield a

barren and æsthetic applause to the perfection of the primitive design.

It is the only costume to which the language of the Bible is adapted,

or by which its metaphors are intelligible. When I had seen it, I

understood “rending the garments;” “Justice as a garment;” “girding

with power;” “robing with light,” “_clothing with a cloud_.”

Adam’s names were given, not only as a description but with perfect

knowledge of objects, which seem removed from the ken of man, until

long labour and accumulated experience had found the order and the

purpose of nature. What can be more exact as a logical definition, or

more striking as a poetic image than the “day,” (םוי)--an “agitator;”

the earth, (ץרא from צד) a “runner.” The heart derives its name from

its action, בבל; the lever, דבכ, from its weight.

The objection will doubtless be urged, that the Easterns do not change

their fashions, or lose their habits, and if the haïk ever was in

Palestine, it would still be there. I answer, two successive races have

been driven forth from the Holy Land. The first three thousand years

ago, the second nearly two thousand. Both of these, at present, wear it

in Morocco. The Jews, when expatriated, adopted elsewhere the costume

of the country wherein they settled, their own being proscribed; and

those at present found in the Holy Land have returned thither with

foreign usages, the very language being the Castilian. Thus, all that

belonged to the Philistine and the Hebrew, has been swept away, and the

original features of that most interesting of all countries have been,

by Chaldean or Egyptian, Persian or Parthian, Greek or Roman, Pagan or

Christian, utterly effaced.

The Jew under his common clothing wears a mystic garment. Why he wears

it, or when the practice arose, neither wise nor simple can tell. In

vain is the Rabbi appealed to, the Talmudist consulted to explain the

_Tisit_, which from Archangel to Suz, every Israelite puts on in the

morning and takes off at night; or of the _Talith_ which he wears in

the synagogue when he prays.[273] Yet the meaning is as plain as if

printed in an Encyclopædia.

These names do not occur in the Old Testament, and no mention is made

of them in the “Six hundred and thirteen Fundamental precepts of

Judaism,” promulgated after the return from the Babylonish captivity

to enforce and maintain the ceremonial law, and which continue to

be their code of life and manners. No mention of them is made in

the New Testament, or in Josephus, or Hecateus, or any writer who

treats of the Jews. Yet as this practice is universal, its date must

have been antecedent to their dispersion: what more clear than that,

when forbidden to appear in their costume, they preserved it in the

sanctuary, and in secret bound an image of it to their hearts? What

more touching record of the sorrows of an exiled people?[274] Linked

together by oppression, they have since clung to a practice which they

have ceased to comprehend, and the token handed down by their fathers

they respect as a religious observance or cabalistic sign, and venerate

the stuff for its fringes,[275] not for its former memory or future

promise.[276] The Tisit is a small Talith, the Talith a miniature

haïk.[277] The only difference is in the distribution of the fringes,

and in the borders: the haïk has the fringe at the ends and no border.

A blue border was enjoined by the ceremonial law. The Abyssinians wear

it still.[278]

I do not think that I need say one word more on this point; nor can

I imagine, under the circumstances, any proof more conclusive that

the haïk was the clothing of the people of Judæa. If this be not

admitted, it will have to be shown, or supposed--the one as difficult

as the other--that the successive emigrants, when they collected

here, invented a new costume, and abandoned that which they had

previously worn. I have already referred to the metaphorical language

of Scripture, applying to loose drapery, and not to fitted clothes;

such must have been the dress then worn: there is no Eastern dress

of the present day to which it will apply. It is only by forgetting

our own costume that any grave thought can be associated with the

expression, “baring the arm:” tucking up the sleeves, or appearing in

shirt-sleeves, would be a metaphor amongst us suited to a scullery or a

slaughter-house. “Girding of the loins” is nonsensical, not only with

our costume but with every other: the person is already dressed. If

the girdle be part of the dress, it is already on; a supplementary one

is not carried about. This absurdity has been felt by the translators;

for when they make Christ “gird”[279] himself to wash the feet of the

Apostles, they add, “with a towel.” The terms in Greek, περιζώννυμι,

ὰναζώννυμι, are appropriate, and describe what a Moor would do, viz.,

draw the fold of the haïk, which hangs over the left shoulder, and

passing it round the waist, _bind the whole tight_, and leave the

arms free. In like manner the expression, “the sin that most easily

besetteth us,” implies, “the fold most closely drawn around us.”

On the night of the flight from Egypt, the Jews were ordered (Exodus

xii. 34,) to bind up their kneading-troughs in their clothes upon their

shoulders. What clothes are requisite for carrying on the shoulders a

kneading trough? The haïk.

Why kneading-troughs? The Jews did not carry ovens with them. Cakes

are kneaded, one by one, on a board or stone, and then laid upon the

hot stones or embers, or griddle.[280] Such is the practice of every

nomade tribe: a kneading-trough would be of no use. It must then be

something of the same description; of course the kuscoussoo tray. Not a

tribe moves here that the women do not carry _it_ “on their shoulders,”

“in their clothes.” When that diet is used, that dish is of primary

necessity; and on that account, as likewise by its dimensions, is

worthy of being mentioned in this manner on the occasion of a sudden

flight.

The haïk and the kuscoussoo are here united. If you heard of any other

people having the one, you would inquire whether they had not also

the other. Here in one sentence is it shown that the Jews, when they

entered the Wilderness, had both.

If they wore the haïk in the Wilderness, they had it when they entered

the Holy Land; for as they did not want new clothes, so would they not

change old habits.[281] The people they drove forth were the Brebers,

who wear it to-day. The Jews went to Egypt from the Holy Land; Abraham

therefore wore the haïk; and having seen him in that dress, I can

imagine him in no other.

It belongs but to a small portion of the human family to have a change

of raiment for the night;--a striking peculiarity of this dress is its

adaptation to both purposes. It is the costume for people who live in

tents, and who cannot carry about with them bed and bedding; who must

sleep in their clothes, and who prepare for their night’s repose as

we do for a journey. Thus, the Jews were commanded, if any had taken

the raiment of another in pledge, to restore it “By that the sun goeth

down; for that is his covering only--his raiment for his skin, wherein

he shall sleep.” Leaving free circulation of air, and not suffocating

the body with its own breath, it is at once subservient to convenience

and conducive to health.

The Hebrew terms of the Old Testament, the Greek translation of them,

and the Greek terms of the New, are quite in accordance with the

inferences I have drawn from the scriptural imagery and incidents. The

words, “garment,” “raiment,” “clothes,” “coat,” are used at hap-hazard,

and we can attach to the costume of the Bible only the most vague and

confused ideas. In the Hebrew, however, there is no such disorder:

none of the names now used are indeed to be found there, but those

used, perfectly suit the Moorish costume, and by it they can alone be

understood.

Morocco presents an infinite variety of pieces of dress. These are

at first bewildering,[282] but may be reduced to the three vestures

already mentioned--a tunic, a pair of drawers, and a haïk; to which

is added as accessory, a girdle, a cap, and a pair of slippers. The

drawers, _shewal_, are put on first. Then the sleeveless tunic,

_Inshwarwan_, reaching over the hips; over this the richly embossed

and embroidered belt, _Indum_,[283] and over all the haïk: the drawers

and girdle exactly correspond with those mentioned in the Bible. For

all other garments, two words only are employed, תנתכ, _kitonet_,

whence the word “cotton,” and also “coat,” this is the χιτωὺ of the

Greeks--the sleeveless tunic of the Moors, and הלמש, _shemlah_; this

is the ἱμάτιον of the Greeks, the toga of the Romans, and the haïk of

the Moors. It was woven among the Jews by men and women. It was in

this that the Jewish women were to bind their kneading-troughs: it

was in this the poor man slept, and therefore it had to be returned

when taken in pledge “by that the sun went down.” The kitonet might be

retained.[284]

The haïk was the dress, not of the Jews only, but of the Canaanites,

including among these the Phœnicians; it was wholly different from

the costume of the Egyptians, and--as we have now the opportunity of

minutely knowing--from that of the great Assyrian empire, which lay to

the east, and had spread over the north and west of Asia. Neither does

it appear to belong to the Arabs. They wear it indeed now in Barbary,

but not in their own country, and it is not likely that the change was

there.[285]

The Greek robe was white.[286] It was put on as a clothing, and was

at the same time a covering such as might be used to sleep in at

night.[287] It was not put on to fit as a dress.[288] It was ample

in its folds, and fell to the feet.[289] It covered them all over.

But citation of authorities is superfluous. Look at the statue of

Demosthenes.

But the Greeks may have invented it. The Greeks were copiers or copies;

they improved what they received, but in the beginning they were wild

and rude. This dress belongs to early simplicity, and to the people

who from the first were pre-eminent in poetry.

But, taking it as if it were no more than letters or science, then

if we find it both in Greece and Judæa, must we not hold it to be

derivative in that country which in other respects has been the pupil,

and primitive in that country which in other respects has been the

mistress? Greece, when visited by the adventurers from the Holy Land,

was in the rudest condition in which man could have existed, in regard

to everything except the bright spirit of that race, the first light

of which shone in aptitude for such teaching. Bloodshed was not the

vehicle of “civilization,” nor lances the heralds of a faith. The

fugitives and strangers who taught them how to sow and to weave, they

made, while living, princes and chiefs, and worshipped when dead, as

heroes. The Phœnicians introduced the costume of Greece, as they did

her letters and her religion.

The resemblance is so evident between the toga and haïk, that the only

question is, “Was it original or borrowed?” and if borrowed, “whence

did it come?” As the Greeks stood to the Phœnicians, so did the Romans

to the Etruscans. Critical inquiries had already traced that people

to Canaan: recent discoveries have made us familiar with them. Their

tombs, into which a lady has conducted us, transport us to the life and

manners of the Old Testament. A traveller in Barbary might take them

for the ancient sepulchres of this country. In the tombs you have over

and over again the haïk.

The Etruscans were merely a colony: they recorded the date of their

arrival, and kept the birth-day of their city. It has been a question

recently raised--whence they did come. Müller brings them from the

Alps: Mrs. Hamilton Grey, from Africa.[290] The toga must have been, of

necessity, in the country from which they came, for they did not come

naked. Had the haïk been then as now restricted to Barbary, I should

at once admit the African derivation. But it is traced to Lydia.[291]

A cast of one of the rock tombs in the British Museum, exhibits

sculptured groups the size of life, with the colours still remaining,

which shows us, as in a mirror, this ancient Phrygian people. There

is the toga: it is worn over the head; men and women wear it alike.

It is a group of Moors. Two boys appear; the head is shaved, with the

exception of a tuft of hair on the crown! one of them carrying the

oil-bottle and strigil. No other ancient people shaved the head; we

only hear of it among the people of Mauritania, and that in respect

to the children. The Moors, as I shall show, had the bottle from the

earliest times. These boys are perfectly naked, while all the others

are dressed. To-day, among Easterns and Mussulmans, and, to their

infinite disgust, the Moors alone preserve the ancient practice of

bathing naked.

The same peculiarity is observed in the Etruscan tombs: the noble

youths served naked at their entertainments. Thus, with the strigil,

the toga would serve to suggest Lydia or Lycia as the source of

the Etruscans, if Herodotus had not recorded the tradition, or the

Etruscans themselves had not claimed this ancestry. This tomb enables

me to say that the manners of ancient Phrygia (I use as a general name

that of the chief of the states of Asia Minor) are, at the distance

of three thousand years, preserved with a fidelity of imitation, or

an identity of character, in modern Barbary, such as at the interval

of thirty years can scarcely be reckoned on in Europe. The toga and

the strigil are indeed common among other people; but the shaving

is a peculiarity, the value of which I will show elsewhere; and the

preservation, singly in Morocco, of the whole of those features which

this tomb presents, must go far to identify the ancient inhabitants

of the western districts of Asia and Africa, or the Phrygians and the

Brebers, and supports my derivation of the name Africa from Phrygia,

which I imagine was given to the latter country, while Breber was given

to the Phrygians; that is, that the names, severally preserved in Asia

and Africa, were then common to the two countries and people.

Toga, from tego, to cover: ancient as is the epithet, it could not be

original, for it was the coat of peace, and they commenced as banditti.

They were not a nation, but a city of aliens and refugees. I know

not what the Romans could call their own, save the master-spirit of

selection and retention, as the Greeks had of curiosity (περιεργία) and

embellishments.[292]

We have traced the course of the haïk along the shores of the

Mediterranean; found it clothing Solomon, Hannibal, Pericles, Amalek,

and Porsenna. We have carried it back to Hercules, to Abraham, and

his fathers before him. Here is a monument of antiquity, to which the

Propylæa of Memnon and Palaces of Ninus are modern structures. If in

Pheleg’s time we know the earth was divided, when were the costumes?

When the division took place, the original was reserved to the elder

stock. If the clothes were varied with the tongues, then again must

this one have kept its Edom dialect. Through Babel over the Flood, and

dropping there all its associates from amongst the devices of man, or

the works of his hands, it strides backwards alone till it reaches

the first family’s solitary cot, where it grew between Eve’s soft

fingers. We find it still the chief work in the far West of Eve’s fair

daughters;--no pauper child has sighed over its fibres, nor have the

spindles begun their turning to the dismal tinkling of the factory bell.

Haïks are like leaves of trees--you never see two alike:--as sentences

are interminable, yet the syntax one, so have haïks their grammar. They

are of all textures--of many substances--plain, striped, yet uniform.

Silk and cotton are mixed together; both are mingled with wool; they

are alternated in stripes. The texture varies from felt to sarcenet,

from coarse blanketting to gauze; there is the massive fold defying

the tempest--the gossamer wing trembling with a breath; colours are

not excluded, gold is not forbidden. The most beautiful specimen of

workmanship and taste I ever saw, was a white haïk with a deep border

of gold.

The haïk of the men is absolutely and undeviatingly white. Colours

are reserved for children, sometimes also for women, but they are

associated always with the idea of indulgence and distinction. Thus was

distinguished the daughter of David, Tamar, and this was what aroused

the jealousy of Benjamin’s brothers, and when the last of the Ptolemies

was saluted king of the Romans, he too received from the senate a coat

of many colours.

To put on the haïk, it is dropped on the ground; one corner is lifted

and brought over the left shoulder, and held upon the breast by the

right hand. Then, by stepping backwards, the fold passes behind, and

is brought under the right arm round in front. Another step across it,

and it is behind again; then taken by both hands outstretched, it is

brought over the head, measured so as to be left hanging low enough on

both sides for the play of the arms. The end is then thrown over the

left shoulder and hangs down the back. There are no ties, no buttons,

no separate parts: the drapery is wrapped round with the sole fastening

of its own folds. Dispensing with so many adjuncts, it supersedes all

intermediaries. It is made under the tent; there is no tailor wanted;

no shopman, no dealer, required; this is the link between a national

costume and a people’s well-being. The Spaniard’s cloak, of which the

style consists in the lap thrown over the left shoulder, is a mixture

of the haïk and the bornoos: to this day the Spaniard looks upon the

want of a cloak as the want of decent covering;--to be without a cloak

is, as it were, to be naked.

Great as is the distance between the attire of Europe and that of

the East, not greater is the distance between its magnificence and

the dignity of that of Numidia. The excellence of all other costumes

resides in their own composition. There is not one which does not

strain or coerce the human frame into its own design. The excellence

of this is, that it follows nature, neither designing to embellish nor

endeavouring to conceal; it reveals, but does not expose; it covers,

but does not disguise.

The antique is, however, only present where all the subsidiary garments

disappear, and the haïk remains the sole clothing: there protrudes

an arm and part of a leg, or the breast is heaved, or sometimes the

whole outline of one side is visible; for the drapery is shifted in

all conceivable ways, and according to their occupations; so that

there are passing before you, and called up, as you look around, all

the celebrated statues or groups of antiquity. One of these, which

has remained most strongly in my eye, occurred in a boar hunt. While

watching in my cover, a rustling called my attention to a neighbouring

clump, and there stood an Arab; his gun resting on an edge of rock,

his haïk unwound from both shoulders, and secured by a cord of plaited

palmetto over the shoulder, as is often seen in the ancient statues;

the drapery falling behind and extending over the ground; the left limb

advanced, slightly bent, and exposed to mid-thigh, where the drapery

swept to the ground. Here was a statue, and yet a man; not a model set

up in a studio, and the form of the antique adapted to a modern musket!

We admire the mechanism of a joint, and then invent clothing which

shall deprive it of its play, and ourselves of its use! Here nothing

interferes with the freedom of the limbs, or disturbs the mechanism of

the frame and its action. It is plastic to the hand, to relax or gird,

as the occasion may require. Each figure as he stands before you is a

statue, and each change of attitude, a study.

When we raise a statue to a hero, we eschew our own dress--the dress

he wore. Our fancy weaves for him a haik: we borrow the majesty of its

large folds, although we have never beheld the splendid simplicity of

its dead colour. It is the dress for kings and patriarchs.[293]

The exposure of the body to the air does not give the impression of

cold in the way that those whose clothing has a similar character or

integuments will suppose; whoever has worn the kilt will know this.

The fact is, that the air supplies warmth, and when freely circulating

round the body, a sort of respiration takes place through the skin,

which, while conducive to strength and health, supplies that light and

agreeable sensation which belongs to a costume, where there is clothing

enough to secure warmth, and freedom enough to admit air. Of the value

of this freedom we have a striking illustration at home, and to which

no other country in Europe affords a parallel. The butcher-boys and the

Blue-coat school boys go about without that covering to, or protection

for, the head, which for all other degrees, and in all other countries,

is deemed essential to health and comfort. Do they suffer from being

bare-headed? No. What then is the value of our prophylactics, and what

do we know about the management of ourselves? Nay, children suffering

from all sorts of diseases and weakness are cured, and they cease to

complain when their heads cease to be covered. As to comfort, they all

prefer it, as every one does prefer the simplest things, when, by some

accident, the chain is broken of that servitude of manners which we

have forged for ourselves.

Now that we have our portraits taken by the sun’s rays, and numberless

scientific men are tracing the effects of light on the functions of

animals and the growth of plants, separating the parts of rays, and

finding in them agencies of so many, so powerful, and such distinct

kinds--it may not be absurd to speak of the merit of a costume that

admits to the body light, as well as air. We are always in the dark. On

light and heat a series of experiments have been reported to scientific

societies by fifty philosophers; but none of them has ever thought of

letting his own toes see the sun. Modern science always overpowers me

with melancholy--so much light in the focus, and such darkness in the

hemisphere! Contrast the majestic ignorance of primeval times; then,

grand with so much ease; now, with so much toiling, mean.

Those members which have to support the weight of the rest, deserve

peculiar care, and might even claim exclusive favour, but they are

more wretched than the rest. Our poor feet are doomed to a dark

dungeon, from the cradle to the tomb. Never are they suffered to look

upon the sun, never allowed for a moment to touch the earth; once a

day, perhaps for a few moments, they get a glimpse of the subdued

light of a closed chamber, or perceive round corners of a table,

the artificial glare of a wax taper; that respite over, they are

straight again, rammed down into their cases. After this, they are

vilified; their very name is mentioned with repugnance, and their sight

associated with indecency. No revolution is to set them free, no change

of fashion to break their chains: hopeless drudgery, unrequited toil,

supercilious scorn are their fate, and the care which is bestowed upon

them is to pervert their nature, to disfigure and deform them, and

make them even to themselves a shame. The man is no gainer, who treats

his feet with such injustice; and the costume no slight benefit which

prevents him from doing so.

If the standard of taste sink, we expect from the gifted spirit an

effort to raise it. Alas! it is they who weigh upon and degrade it.

The workshop of the artist:--does one recall the figures which adorn a

Moorish encampment.

But the heaping up of drapery, and the loading of gold “for effect,”

which the royal academician steps back to admire, leaves the end of

costume out of view. That end must be attained in all perfection. It

must be a clothing for the figure, as well as a drapery for the eye;

and of this no artist--and indeed no master--has had the thought. As to

colour, it is the same, with the exception of the appropriation of blue

and white in the Spanish school to the vesture of the Virgin. There is

no more discrimination exhibited in a gallery of master-pieces, than in

a tailor’s or a milliner’s shop, and, in fact, the cant of the virtuoso

has passed to the showman in the shop.

How different the Greeks! Their draped statues still exist: their

paintings have disappeared, but a Roman critic bewailing the same

confusion, points out to his compatriots, the primitive[294] colours of

the master-pieces of Apelles, Protogenes, Zeuxis, and Theron.

But the sensitiveness of the poet may have supplied the blank left by

the artist, or virtuoso. I take one as a specimen. “The Greek,” says

Schiller, “is to the greatest degree accurate, true, and circumstantial

in his descriptions; but he shows no more heartfelt interest in the

beauties of Nature, than in the account of a dress, a shield, or a

preparation for war.” No more! If he felt for the beauties of nature,

as he did for his costume, his armour, and the great event of war, how

immeasurably would he have left behind the modern German’s whining

sentimentalism about rainbows and groundsel. To this the German and the

modern are reduced, because war has become a secret and a trade; our

weapons a matter of commissariat and costume--a covering fit for apes.

FOOTNOTES:

[272] Much akin to this is the weaving among the Red Indians. “The hair

of the buffalo and other animals is twisted by hand, and made into

balls. The warp is then laid, of a length, crossed by three small,

smooth rods, alternately beneath the threads, suspended on forks at

a short distance above the ground. The woof is filled in, thread by

thread, and pressed closely down. The ends of the warp are tied into

knots, and the blanket is ready for use.”--HUNTER’S _Captivity_, p. 289.

[273] “When the Jews come to receive the king, none but the person who

carries the Book of the Law shall wear Talith, or the cloth over their

clothes; nor in carrying a corpse for interment are they to wear it, or

chant in the streets.”--_Cortes of Toledo_, 1480, Sect. 117.

[274] The Emperor of Russia has published a ukase in favour of the

Jews, to put an end to the invidious distinctions in dress. The Jews,

though wearing no longer that of Judæa, look on the boon as the hardest

of their trials.

[275] If two threads of the fringe were worn, it was worthless.

[276] There is a Jewish prayer for the restoration, beginning, “Bring

us in peace from the four corners of the earth, and lead us safely to

our land.” As they repeat it, _they hold the four corners of the Talith

to the heart_.

[277] Plates of the Talith are given in “Modern Judaism,” pp. 69, 70,

80. The small Talith, which among the European Jews is worn like the

scapula, over breast and back, has in Morocco no aperture, and is worn

crosswise, exactly as the haïk is put on.

[278] In Prisse’s “Egypt and Abyssinia” there are figures which might

be taken for Roman senators, only that the border is blue instead of

red.

[279] Commentators are misled by the sword-belt, and the inner girdle

over the tunic. Thus; there is mention of the girdle of Elijah and of

John the Baptist, remarkable because of leather (2 Kings i. 7, 8; Mark

iii. 4), and because they wore no haïk. The Moors, though they do not

“gird” themselves with girdles, wear one, but it is under the haïk and

over the tunic, and has a remarkable buckle. A buckle, as the sign of

royalty, was sent to Antiochus by Jonathan Maccabees. No other Eastern

people has a girdle and buckle. Drawers, such as the Levites were

enjoined to wear, complete the Moorish dress.

[280] “Ephraim is as a cake not turned.”--HOSEA, vii. 8. Niebuhr

(_Arabia_, vol. ii. p. 132) draws the distinction. In the towns, he

says, they use ovens, like us; in the tents, a hot plate of iron.

[281] Abulpheda says, “that he (Abdallah, the calif, the son of Sobeir)

wore a suit of clothes for _forty years_, without pulling them off

his back, but doth not inform us what they were made of.”--_History of

the Saracens_, vol. ii. p. 349. This he believes to be incredible;

of course it is so with teased wool, machinery-spun thread, and

tailored clothes. I have seen a home-made Highland plaid, in excellent

condition, after nearly twenty years’ constant wear.

[282] The _sulam_, or _bournoos_, is a cloak with a hood. The _gelab_

(from an ancient Persian word for _scales_) is the sulam sewed in

front, and with short sleeves, through which the arms can be put at

pleasure. It was the dress of the Essenians; is the monkish dress, and

as such is respected by the Mussulmans. It varies according to the

district, and is in colours--narrow stripes of brown and yellow, of

blue and white, of blue and black, with here and there lines of white.

In the winter these garments are doubled or trebled, and the haïk is

worn over all. The sulam is the dress of the soldiers.

[283] This is sometimes replaced by the very beautiful Moorish sash,

_huzam_.

[284] Gen. xxxvii. 3; Judges v. 30; Sam. xiii. 18; Exod. xxii. 26, 7;

Deut. xxiv. 13; Job xxii. 6; Matt. v. 40.

[285] In one of the poems of Shanfara, the Cid of the Arabians, this

passage occurs:--“I will not rest till I have raised the dust on

every one who wears _kissa_ or _bourd_, of the tribe of Salaman.”

This is interpreted to mean that he would lay low the men of note.

The word _bourd_ occurs in various places. St. Augustine, speaking

of a presbyter, vain and worldly-minded, describes him as “_burda

vestitum_.” In Genesis xxxi. 12, the word is used to designate the

variegated lambs; and in the Gaelic is translated by the word which

they use for “tartan.” It would thus appear to convey rather the idea

of colour than of form. Shanfara might have said, if speaking of the

Highlands, “Every man who wears _tartan_,” as distinguished from the

shepherd plaid. _Kissa_ may have a similar meaning--black and white.

It is nowhere mentioned as a dress. _Kisson_, the name of the “ancient

brook,” is supposed to be connected with κίσσα of the Greeks, or

magpie, (black and white). _Kissa_ may also be _fringe_; for _tzetzith_

(fringe), is cabalistically equal to _kisee_ (throne).

[286] Vestes candidæ. Lutatius Ann. on the Thebaid.

[287] ἔνδυναί τε καὶ ἐπιβάλλεσθαι.--POLLUX., 1. vii. c. 13.

[288] οὐκ ἐνεδύοντο ἀλλ ἐπερονῶντο.

[289] πέπλοι ποδήρεις, EURIP.; ἔλκεσιπέτλους--τανύπεπλον--ἄμφι δε

πέπλοι πίπτανται. HOMER.

“Omnis vestis apud Græcos aut ἐπίβλημα aut ἔνδυμα est; aut amictui,

aut indutui. Ἑνδύματα sunt quæ ad corpus prepali hærent, atque indutio

corpus comprehendiens. Ἑπιβλήματα vero, quæ et περιβλήματα palliorum

omne genus quod cæteris vestimentis circumjecta et superjecta vago et

libero discursu eas ambirent.”--SALMASIUS _ad Tertull. de Pall._

Livy, 1. 8; Flor. 1. 5; Plin. viii. 74. ix. 63; Diod. v.; Macrob. Sat.

1. 6; Testus _Verbo_ Sardi, Serv. ad Æn. ii. 781; Isidori Origines, 1.

xix. c. 20.

[290] Mrs. Hamilton Grey’s object has been to make their affiliation

coincide with their character; but identifying the inhabitants of Lydia

with those of the Holy Land, their derivation from Lydia presents no

difficulty.

[291] Dennis, Etruria, Intr. p. xlii.

[292] The pallium and the toga were two distinct dresses, but worn

together, as the haik and the sulam, by the Moors, the one is put on

for the other, or the one with the other. The paludamentum was a small

haïk, worn over the armour and fastened on _either_ shoulder with a

brooch, like the Scotch plaid: it was not so long as the plaid, and

hung down.

[293] The finery of a modern Moorish grandee is thus described by Mr.

Hay: “The Basha was reclining on a rich carpet, supported by round

velvet cushions, embroidered in gold. He was dressed in a pale green

caftan, over which was a fine muslin robe. He had wide trousers, of a

light-coloured yellow cloth. His girdle was of red leather, embroidered

in silk, with a silver clasp. He wore on his head the common Fez cap,

circled by a white turban, and over all fell a transparent haïk of the

finest texture. In his hand he held a rosary. His manners were graceful

and gentlemanly, and a pleasant smile gave an agreeable expression to

his features. The father of this potentate was Basha over half the

empire, and proved a good friend to the English during the war on the

Peninsula, when we depended much on West Barbary for the supply of our

armies, and also of our fleets in the neighbouring seas.”--_Western

Barbary_, p. 110.

[294] The rule laid down by Pliny may be observed in the two groups

in the Alhambra. Selection of colour, and _representation_ of colour

are different things, which if Fuseli had perceived, he would not have

given himself the trouble to show that Pliny did not understand what he

spoke about.

CHAPTER IV.

A BOAR-HUNT.

We thought we might now dispense with the precautions to secure

our property before going to rest, to which we had been hitherto

constrained; but were surprised, while making our beds, at the sheik’s

entering with a heavy chain to secure our fowling-pieces round the

tent-pole. Intending to convey a compliment, we resisted; but he got

angry. He did not understand suspicion of his Turks, and understood

nothing else of any other people. The chain for picketing our horses

would have served for the anchor of a boat of ten tons. Every horse is

secured with iron: there is either a shackle to two feet or a chain

to one leg; the end under the master’s pillow, although in the inside

of a circle, which no one can enter without passing through a tent or

between two, in each of which there is at least one dog. One lives

thus in constant extremes. The same person is at one moment the object

of affection and confidence, at another of fear and suspicion. The

Arab lives in the full glare of the light of the passions; as he is a

statue in his figure, so is he an epic in his mind. It is not only not

base to rob, but, as one of them expressed it, “to carry off a horse

is a sign of being a man;” yet this man was trusty as a sword, and

faithful as a dog. So the basis of all law resides in contract--not the

“contract social,” of Jean Jacques, but the real word of man, surely

known and truly pledged--in a word, the third commandment.

This contract is contained in the salutation. The “salem alillum” is a

preliminary and a question. “Is there peace?”--on the affirmative, the

salutation follows.[295] The Turk has converted into a distinction

between creeds that which was the parley on the approach of two

disciplined bodies.

Our word _greeting_ comes from the mutual hailing of the sea-kings’

ships. “I greet with grith;” we translate “I greet with peace.” Greet

has still preserved in the North its original meaning--of crying or

hailing.

Two Greek lines have preserved to us a distinction between the forms

of the Arabs and the Phœnicians, which throw light on their respective

character. The latter had dropt the “Salam” as not requisite for their

avocations and mode of life--

Ἀλλ’ εὶ μὲν Σύρος ἔσσὶ Σαλὰμ, εὶ δ’ οὔν σύγε Φοῖνιξ

Αὔδονες, εὶ δ’ Ἐλλην χαῖρε, τὸ δ’ αὐτὸ φράσον.[296]

Nothing is more dignified than the dumb show of a Mussulman in

salutation. The right arm is raised and the open hand is laid upon

the breast. Such a habit would make any people graceful and courtly.

This is the common form; the more refined is called “Gemenas,”[297]

and consists in carrying the hand to the mouth, touching the lips with

the points of the fingers and then the forehead with a simultaneous

inclination of the head and body--the meaning is vulgarly interpreted,

“I kiss your words and treasure them up in my brain This is the salute

to a superior. To an inferior, the hand is carried to the lips and

then to the breast, or it is raised to the breast only--the shades are

infinite.”

The visit ended by a discussion upon government. It was always the same

question--does the sultan of the Christians seize the property of a

man because he is rich? When answered in the negative, they smiled and

remained satisfied (because they themselves know no other evil) that we

enjoy the most perfect felicity. Then, after a pause the inquiry will

come--if there be any chance of the English occupying their country?

Such things are apt to lead Europeans into the mistake of fancying such

a country easily conquered.

In the morning we started in a southerly direction to visit a spot from

which the sheik had formerly brought a remarkable specimen. We found

the block from which he had taken it lying in a field. I was giving

directions to dig around that I might ascertain whether it was _in

situ_; when they, fancying I desired to move it, despatched a messenger

for a couple of camels. While I was at work, a sulam fell over me,

and on clearing myself and looking up, I saw a stranger on horseback,

and found myself bound to refuse no favour he should ask. Elisha and

Elijah immediately came before me. Elisha, when the mantle is thrown

on him, asks no questions, but leaves his twelve pair of oxen. The

stranger said, “Cure me.” I answered, “God alone can cure.” He then

took his sulam, and, throwing it over my shoulders, brought the collar

part of it close round my neck, and kissed my head. If a criminal can

throw a sulam on the Sultan, or on the ground before him, he has taken

sanctuary and cannot be put to death.

Soon afterwards I observed some singular black rocks, which proved to

be masses of iron: close by there was a hard limestone containing very

fine and beautiful madrepores. Two thick layers of the metal stood up

in fragments some feet above the ground. We traced it in one direction

for about three miles, when it was again covered by the horizontal

sand-stone. They told us that in the other direction the same black

stone was found in great quantities; in fact, in the cultivated fields

the stones were iron, realizing to the letter the description of the

Promised Land--a land flowing with milk and honey where the stones

are iron, and from the hills of which copper[298] is melted. We found

a good deal of slag, but the working had been merely superficial. I

afterwards obtained a specimen of lead from the same neighbourhood.

We returned to our home in another place. We had left the camp crowning

a knoll. We found it in the evening settled on a plain. Two other

douars along our route had also moved, and in the same direction, and

we passed one of the migrating bodies. There were neither men nor

horses, nor any cattle used in tillage. These were, as usual, employed

in the fields. This business belonged to the women and children. The

tents and utensils were laden on the spare cows and camels. Every

creature that could carry, from the camel to the goat, was put in

requisition, and you might see, as when flying before Pharaoh, “their

kneading troughs in their clothes upon their backs.” The men returned

from their work in the field, without the loss of an hour, to their new

abode. By these removals the country for five miles was like a fair.

The pasturing flocks, too, were falling in; and at our new pitching

ground we had five douars within two miles. We counted them, as if they

had been so many vessels that had taken shelter in the same creek with

ourselves.

We diversified our geological pursuits by dragging a valley for boars,

but were unsuccessful: they were, however, round us in thousands;

their digging and rooting equalled the ploughing of the natives. We

could not take ten steps in any direction without walking on the earth

they had recently turned up, and their industry was prosecuted to

within a hundred paces of the douar. It was with some difficulty that

we regained our geological specimens, for the Arabs had entered into

the spirit of the science, which consists in making collections. The

expedition reminded me of Dr. Buckland’s equestrian lecture at Oxford.

Hitherto a scrutinizing look at a stone had been supposed to endanger a

man’s head.

I feel some compunction in obliterating what to my fellow-travellers

are absurd prejudices; to me they are valuable records, like the

disregarded fragments of some antediluvian creature, by which at

the opposite sides of the globe the parts of a common stratum may

be identified. This same prejudice guarded against Phœnician and

Carthaginian the mineral wealth of Mauritania, while they were ravaging

that of Spain. In the settlement of Mauritania made by Augustus, which

was followed by four centuries of repose and prosperity, no traces

of its mineral wealth appear, whilst the Roman world was supplied

periodically with wheat from its fields. An ancient law forbade the

working of gold and silver mines within the confines of Italy. There

was reason in this. The facilities we have devised for centrating

wealth have rendered of easy accomplishment things which men, had

they been wise, would have surrounded with every obstruction. Until

the funding system commenced, wars of aggression could be carried on

only by a government which possessed a store of gold.[299] It was not,

therefore, merely the depopulation of a district which was associated

with the working of mines, but the loss of liberty; for the conqueror

abroad became inevitably the tyrant at home.

For the purposes of commerce Africa required no gold. Throughout

that region there is to be found a process for adjusting exchange, at

once the most simple and the most perfect; such as the plainest man

would have first hit upon, such as the profoundest mathematician would

have at last devised. It is a “standard of value.” I mean not that

perversion to which we give the name, but an ideal standard in which

all objects are alike rated, be they money, be they merchandise.

In my anxiety to entertain my geological companions, I was nearly

involving the community in war. I had given directions for sheep to be

bought for the party for supper. They came to me presently to say that

the sheep were ready, but that the people would take no money. I then

sent a Jew servant of Mr. Seraya, to one of the other douars to buy

them. Soon after there was a great commotion. Seeing him return with

the sheep, and suspecting the intention, several of our tribe had run

for their muskets, and sallied forth to drive the other people back who

presumed to sell food to their guests.

A boar-hunt was settled for next morning. The plough was abandoned, and

every man mustered with his gun. Preceded by a tamborine, we marched

along the front of the other douars, and each poured forth its troop,

amidst great and fierce excitement. There was yelling, running, and

firing. My course was impeded by the sick and maimed who were brought

and laid down before me. I could do nothing for them; and they were

only jostled by the crowd. After we had cleared the douars, we were

summoned to the top of a tumulus. A circle was cleared, and a man

of another tribe came forward; they all held up their hands in the

attitude in which the Tyrian Hercules is represented, and following

the chief or priest, pronounced these words, “In the name of God, we,

this day, are brothers; if any man’s hand be on his neighbour, may the

hand of the Most Merciful be on him; if no man has evil thoughts, may

our work be prospered.” The beaters, of whom there were about a hundred

boys and old men, were told off, and we set forward, with nearly four

hundred guns, dropping parties to crown the winding heights. The

station assigned to us was the brow of a hill! I started without parley

for the gorge below, but as soon as the soldiers divined my intention,

they (having come mounted) gave me chase as if I had been an escaped

felon. There was no want of boars; we saw them hopping out of our way,

and they all, of course, got off. Not often has a pig kept so much good

company waiting without disappointing any one of his supper; for if we

had killed a score not one of the party would have cooked a morsel.

Mr. Seraya having early withdrawn, I remained amongst this concourse

the whole day without the means of understanding or uttering a single

word, and yet, though I was not aware of it at the time, this was the

wildest people in the whole of Morocco. There was nothing here of

the fanaticism or hatred of Europeans which characterizes those of

the north. They did not so much as know the common terms of abuse

which in Mussulman countries are applied to Christians. They gave us

and received from us the salutation of peace. As we were returning,

they were all picking up flat stones about the size of a man’s hand,

and one after the other came to me with his stone. I had no means of

comprehending what they said, and imagined that this was an effect of

the expedition of the day before, and that they had all been bitten

by the geological mania. We presently assembled in a little dell, and

they went and threw their stones on the opposite side. One of these

was set up on an old stump, and I saw what we were to be about. We sat

down in a semicircle, in front of which each in succession, taking off

his shoes, advanced, and after saluting the company, fired, and then

again saluted and withdrew. There was no avoiding the trial. They set

for us the very smallest stones, and we fired without advancing from

our places. M. L. and myself hit the mark in succession, and were

vociferously commended, but we declined a second trial. Their muskets

might be called rampart pieces. To cock one of their guns (there is no

half-cock) is like arming an arbalette, or stringing a bow. In taking

aim, they stretch out the left arm as far as they can reach, and hold

out the right elbow higher than the ear, and in this awkward attitude

are a long time levelling.

After a good deal of powder had been expended, a great many stones

shattered, and a great many jokes cracked on those who missed them, we

wended our way back to the douar from which, with all the marching,

running, scaling of steep sides, and plunging into deep dells, we had

not been five miles distant during the whole day.

On our return a dance was proposed, and carried by acclamation. An

old woman set about pulling up the lilies, and clearing from other

incumbrances, a piece of sward outside the circle. Two girls rushed

up with kuscoussoo sieves to beat as tambourines;--these are sheep’s

skin, pierced with holes, and called sonag.[300] A woman seizing

one of the cooking jars drew off her slipper, and striking the open

mouth with it, we had at once a tum-tum. The girls and women danced

to the sieves and the jar, but beating time, as well as all the

company, with their hands and uttering a cadenced cry. The shuffling

of feet was most extraordinary, all pressing into the centre round

the chief performer, who sang and rattled a tambourine. The dance was

interrupted whilst he sang, and then they kept marking time by their

hands meeting alternately at the height of the face and breast. The

whole party joined in beating time and singing the choruses.[301] The

singer commenced each stanza with that peculiar and indescribable,

though never-to-be-forgotten, bird-like jerk of the head, with which

the Spanish dancers throw off. Here in the germ was all the Spanish

castanet dance, song, &c.

It being proposed to stop, the girls exclaimed “Not till the cows come

home.” So off they went again until the sun dipped under the horizon.

The crowd dispersed in an instant, not, however, before we had thrown

some coins into the tambourine. The minstrel gallantly distributed

them to the girls who had distinguished themselves. Some one brought

him a skirt full of raisins and walnuts, which were heaped into his

sieve. This he distributed amongst the younger portion of the audience.

There was then a good deal of kissing of his head and hands, and so

we dispersed. I afterwards learnt that the castanet is in use amongst

the tribes of the interior.[302] They have also a castanet of metal,

and double. The striking of the hands is not, as in other parts of the

East, the hollow of the fingers of the right hand upon the palm of the

left; it is the two palms that are brought to make a sharp clack. They

produce a variety of sounds and exhibit a variety of evolutions.

Living in a circle engenders peculiar habits. When a man is wanted, (as

was often the case in arranging hunting parties,) his name is called

quietly, as you sit within your canvass walls, thus: “Eh! Hamed!” If

there is no answer, the call is repeated; then some one in the next

tent takes it up, and right and left you hear “Eh! Hamed,” and round it

goes till the man is found. If you want to buy anything, you go into

the middle of the circle, and call out, “Who has milk to sell?--let him

come.” “Who has eggs?”[303]

In the centre of each douar, there is a tent set apart as a mosque,

with a fire burning before it, and there we were without difficulty

admitted while our tent was getting ready. It is also used as a school

as--late and early--we could testify. If Arabs are not taught foreign

tongues, they do learn to use their own. Each douar besides its sheik

has its Cadi and priest or schoolmaster. The tents of the persons of

distinction are black, the others brown; there are white marks upon

them, to distinguish respective ranks; _seven_ for the principal.

The tent covering is in the longest forty feet, and somewhat less than

twenty in width. It is in stripes lengthways, for the convenience of

carriage. This cover is stretched over a transverse bar, supported

by two upright poles in the form of the Greek letter Π, under which

generally hangs a curtain which divides the tent into two parts, each

about fifteen feet square. The poles are ten or twelve feet high,

the extremities of the covering coming to within two feet of the

ground, where sometimes bundles of rushes are placed. The tent may be

easily enlarged by adding a stripe or more to the covering, and then

stretching out the hanging parts, but that would require the uprights

and the pins to be strengthened. Thus, Isaiah (chap. liv. 2), “Enlarge

_the place of thy tent_, and let them stretch forth the curtains of

thine habitations: spare not; lengthen thy cords and strengthen thy

stakes.”

The stripes are unlaced when they remove their encampment and rolled

up. The length of the tent is facing the centre of the circle. The form

seems to have undergone a change. The gable, which is now transversely

placed, must have formerly run through the length. At least so alone

could the description of Sallust be correct, “Oblonga incurvis

lateribus tecta, quasi navium carinæ.”--The tents were formerly

transported on waggons.

FOOTNOTES:

[295] “Their manner of saluting the stranger is the same as that of

the Jewish patriarchs, and of the people amongst whom they lived, as

described in the Old Testament. When a stranger approaches the tent

of an Arab, he begins by examining to which side it is turned, then

bringing himself opposite the entrance, he approaches with slow steps,

until he has come within a hundred passes; then he stops, with his

arm in his hand ready for defence. He turns his back to the tent, and

waits till he is seen, and some one approaches him; he then prostrates

himself twice to the earth, and adores. On this a man of the tent takes

water in a wooden vase, and advances towards him;--it is generally the

chief of the family who does so, or his eldest son; and if there are

no men, it is one of the women advances with the vase or something

else, to eat or drink, if they have it; if not, they bring a skin or a

piece of wove stuff, to accommodate the stranger. When they have come

within a few paces of him they say, ‘Is it peace?’ and he answers, ‘It

is peace;’ and then they say each to the other, ‘May peace be with you

and your family, and all that you possess.’ Then touching each with his

right hand the hand of the other, they carry it to their lips, which

is as much as if they kissed each other’s hand. I presume it is from

this custom that has come the complimenting use amongst the Spaniards,

who on meeting say, ‘I kiss your hand;’ and if to a lady, ‘I kiss your

feet.’”--RILEY.

[296] Meleag. Anthol. 1. 3, c. 25.

[297] There may be some connexion with the jemmas of the Greeks, as

designating the salutation with which such holy places were entered.

To ‘adore’ is to carry the hand to the lips. The Indians adore the sun

by standing up, not as we do by kissing the hand.--PLINY. The modern

Greek uses προσκύνω for the Turkish jemmas. In any modern language a

periphrase would be requisite.

[298] In Sus they run copper by lighting fires.

[299]

“Blest paper credit! last and best supply!

That lends corruption lighter wings to fly!

Gold, imp’d by thee, can compass hardest things,

Can pocket states, can fetch and carry kings.

A single leaf shall waft an army o’er,

Or carry statesmen to some distant shore;

A leaf like --’s scatter to and fro

Our fates and fortunes as the wind shall blow.”--POPE.

[300] Pennant saw in the island of Rum (1769) the _Quern_ or _Bra_

in use, and “instead of a hair sieve to sift the meal, they have an

ingenious substitute, a sheep’s skin stretched on a hoop, and bored

with small holes, made with a hot iron.” “Singing at the quern” was

then out of date, the lairds compelling them to grind at his mill, and

the miller being empowered to break the querns wherever he found them.

[301] “As soon as the evening breeze begins to blow, the song resounds

throughout all the land. It cheers the despondency of the wanderer

through the desert; it enlivens the social meeting; it inspires the

dance, and even the lamentations of the mourner are poured forth in

measured accents. Their poetry does not consist in studied and regular

pieces, such as, after previous study, are recited in our schools and

theatres: they are extemporary and spontaneous effusions, in which

the speaker gives utterance to his hopes and fears, his joys and

sorrows. Specimens are wanting of the African verse; yet, considering

that its effusions are numerous, inspired by Nature, and animated by

national enthusiasm, they seem not unlikely to reward the care of the

collector. The few examples actually given favour this conclusion. How

small a number among our peasantry could have produced the pathetic

and affecting lamentation, which was uttered in the little Bambarra

cottage over the distresses of Park! These effusions, handed down

from father to son, contain all that exists among them of traditional

history. From the songs of the Jellemen of Soolimani, Major Laing was

enabled to compile the annals of this small kingdom for more than a

century.”--_Discovery and Adventure in Africa_, p. 350.

[302] Castanets.--Crotola are found in Egyptian tombs.--DENNIS, vol.

ii. p. 45.

[303] Compare this with Rev. xxii. 17: “And let him _that heareth_ say,

Come,” &c.

CHAPTER V.

THE TENT AND “HOME.”

Few sounds awaken more pleasing associations than the tent of the

Arab. Palace, castle, tower call up visions of events; but “tent”

drives the imagination back upon itself to discover in its own nature

the resemblances and the method of the noblest men and the simplest

manners. The tent, not the camel, is the ship of the desert; the

moveable home that makes the strangest spot familiar, the wildest

habitable. One other word alone can be placed beside it--our English

“_Home_.”

Engaged in this reflection I inquired the Arabic name, and was

answered, _Heyme_! Home is in English an exotic. It is used adverbially

as well as substantively. It applies in a manner inconsistent with a

fixed abode, and evidently pertains to the system of Celtic ministry

and nomade habits, rather than to feudalism. It belongs to a family

with a moveable habitation.

Home stands by itself as the name of a place--“Ham House,” “the Ham

Town,” as in Nort_ham_pton, Notting_ham_, Bucking_ham_, _Ham_pstead.

I had observed that such names generally applied to a low, or a

protected site. In the Highlands of Scotland, within the memory of

man, the pasturage was distributed between the two seasons; the cattle

being taken to the higher regions in the summer, the lower portions

being reserved for their support during the winter. The _shieling_ was

erected for the farm service in the summer; the homestead, or _hame_,

was the winter abode; I had, therefore, concluded that home or hame

was derived from _hyems_. I had been struck by a similar analogy in

the Turkish word for castle, _kishla_, from _kish_. Winter was first

applied to the solid buildings of the winter farm as contrasted with

the _yazin_, or light shielings erected on the summer pasturage.

This word, so peculiarly English, is not confined to England. It is

used nearly in our adverbial sense throughout the north of Europe, and

in our topographic sense in France. There is _Ham_, _de Ham_, as the

names of places, and every village is their _hameau_.

In Africa we have the same thing. _El Ham_, the name of a place

(Algeria). _Hamma_ (Breber) for village, or quarter of a town. In

Judæa, _hammoth_, _hamma_, Laga.[304] The home of Arab independence is

_Tihama_.[305]

There could not be in French, English, German, Latin, Greek, Hebrew,

Arabic, and Breber, a word implying both a state of weather and a

habitation, by accident. In the early times there was no difficulty in

transferring usages and names. Each region was not replenished, nor

each tongue complete.

_Hayme_ may come either from heat or cold; it may mean “the hot” or

the “shady” place. Chem or Ham, also, is hot. Ham was the name given

to Egypt from its black soil. In northern India, Hima is cold.[306]

Home serves as protection against cold and snow--against sun and

heat. The tent may appear to us, with our city habits, the most

primitive of dwellings; but in considering the matter I should, I

think, have arrived at an opposite conclusion, even if we had not

had another distribution laid down in the oldest of books. There is

first the emblem of a garden--a refuge under its bowers; next, in the

person of Cain, comes the planting of seeds; then follows close, Abel

tending the most peaceable of milk-giving animals--sheep. A third

generation arrives, who make dwellings: they build a city. A period of

multiplication elapses, and then Adah bears unto Lamech, Jabal, the

“father _of such as dwell in tents and have cattle_.” The nomade life

was, therefore, a variety; and the subjecting of cattle to the plough

was the second agricultural state, where wandering and shepherd tribes

settled themselves down on pleasant lands which they had discovered,

or in territories they had overrun. Jabal’s brother was Jubal, the

inventor of the harp and minstrelsy. Joyousness then followed the tent;

and immediately after comes industry with its forges and its cares, its

sweats and profits; and Tubal Cain taught men to smelt and puddle, and

presented them with brass and steel.

The Moorish tent is quite different from the Arab. It is of white

cotton, and of the ordinary form of the officers’ tent in all European

armies. The curtain is more upright, and the roof slants up. The

mechanism is different. The cover and the curtain are in separate

parts. The roof spreads out with a fringe hanging round it; if shade

only is required the curtains are not added. It stands as a large

umbrella; the stem nine or ten feet high, and the top thirty feet in

circumference. Against high winds they have guys or stays, which,

like our cables of a ship, they lay out to windward. The operation

of pitching commences with securing those stays, which are three in

number; then the cords of the umbrella are spread, and then the curtain

is fitted round. It is between five and six feet deep, of double cloth,

strengthened by thin rods like the bones of ladies’ stays, and one to

each cord of the roof. This curtain is in one piece--is carried in a

roll, and when fitted, the roll is set upright, and the right side of

the place left for the door, and so unwound and laced all round till

it is brought to the door on the other side; it is then fastened below

by small pegs. There is a strong binding round the top, and this, with

the rods, gives solidity to the edifice, without in any perceptible

degree increasing the weight or cumbersomeness for carriage. It is

much more easily managed from being in two parts, and the superior and

moveable stays are of the greatest advantage. Having cut out tents,

and having more than once had to repair the loss of them by the work

of my own servants, I am, perhaps, qualified beyond most dwellers in

houses to speak on the subject. Putting aside magnificence or grandeur,

and having in view use and adaptation, I may say I never knew what

a tent was until I had seen those of Morocco.[307] It is ornamented

with a golden ball; the flaming sword on the cloths of the roof and

the valance imitates the crenulated top of a battlement. The colour of

these devices is blue.

In the description of the Jewish Tabernacle we have exactly the Moorish

manner of pitching. Blue is the first colour mentioned; purple and red

follow. But these may have been added as distinctive to the sacred

tent, as they were to the priestly garments; and as blue distinguished

the common clothing of the Israelites, so might it be expected to be

the mark of his tent. The manner of lacing the curtain to the roof is

precisely that described in Exodus, xxv. 45: “Thou shalt make loops of

blue upon the edge of the one curtain from the selvage in the coupling,

and also on the other curtain. Fifty loops shalt thou make in the one

curtain, and fifty loops shalt thou make in the other, so that the

loops shall take hold of one another.” These fifty loops were to be of

the length of twenty-eight cubits, so that they would be ten inches

apart. This is precisely the manner in which the curtain of the Moorish

tent is fitted to the roof, loop through loop all the way round, and

the loops are not far from the above distance; and, probably, in the

larger fittings of the Sultan’s establishment, they coincide with the

dimensions laid down by Moses.

While at Rabat I had failed in every endeavour to see the Shereffean

encampment. I at last was gratified, as on quitting the city we passed

through it. I, however, neglected to take note of it in these nightly

memoranda, having been too absorbed by the new life that was presented

to me.

Ten thousand cavalry--the horses picketed close down, or rather packed,

in front and rear of the line of tents--were encamped in one enormous

and unbroken figure. It was an oblong, lengthways stretching east and

west. The centre was kept clear and unencumbered, and there stood the

Sultan’s tents, though untenanted by him: the appearance presented was

that of a miniature fortress, in the centre of a clear esplanade--the

wall or curtain about nine feet, the turrets at the corners a little

more; the cornices pointed to represent the crenulated battlements.

Over this the tops of seven or eight turrets appeared, their golden

balls glittering in the sun.

After the description I have given of the curtains or wall of my

own tent, stiffened with lath and pointed to imitate a battlement,

this enclosure of the Sultan’s will be easily understood, and it

corresponds, even to the dimensions, with that which surrounded the

tabernacle of the Jews in the wilderness, which was an hundred cubits

long, fifty broad, and five high; the length was also from east to west.

END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.

LONDON:

Printed by S. & J. BENTLEY and HENRY FLEY,

Bangor House, Shoe Lane.

FOOTNOTES:

[304] The Jews, even after their sojourn of centuries in the Holy

Land, did not lose the habit of dwelling in tents, and probably, as

here, there was a city and a nomade population; as, for instance, “The

dwellers in tents,” Psa. lxxxiii. 6. “The tents of Israel,” Zech. xii.

7. “The tents of Kedar,” Song i. 5.

[305] “Tihama, the abode of the sons of Maad. There they came for the

winter.”--_Song on the death of Koulayb_. Tihama is derived from تهم

Taham. See Edressi, _Georg._; Drummond’s _Origines_, vol. iii. p. 260.

Ham’am--bath--is derived from the same word.

[306] An equally near approach is _caldo_, cold. In the Greek,

_Phrygia_, “burnt up”--the Latin, _frigus_.

[307] I find that this is much the plan used in India, even to the

ornaments.

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Transcriber’s Notes

Obvious errors and inconsistencies in punctuation have been corrected.

Page 14: “none of the lascivousness” changed to “none of the typo for

lasciviousness”

Page 272: The author used the wide version of final-mem in םרע. This

has been replaced with the regular version.

Page 422: “Without dentrifices” changed to “Without dentifrices”