On The Last Day Of The Operation, Each
Tiny Plait Is Carefully Opened By The Long Hair-Pin Or Skewer,
And The Head Is Ravissante.
Scented and frizzled in this manner,
with a well-greased tope or robe, the Arab lady's toilet is
complete,
Her head is then a little larger than the largest sized
English mop, and her perfume is something between the aroma of a
perfumer's shop and the monkey-house at the Zoological Gardens.
This is considered "very killing," and I have been quite of that
opinion when a crowd of women have visited my wife in our tent,
with the thermometer at 95 degrees, and they have kindly
consented to allow me to remain as one of the party. It is hardly
necessary to add, that the operation of hair-dressing is not
often performed, but that the effect is permanent for about a
week, during which time the game become so excessively lively,
that the creatures require stirring up with the long hair-pin or
skewer whenever too unruly; this appears to be constantly
necessary from the vigorous employment of the ruling sceptre
during conversation. A levee of Arab women in the tent was
therefore a disagreeable invasion, as we dreaded the fugitives;
fortunately, they appeared to cling to the followers of Mahomet
in preference to Christians.
The plague of lice brought upon the Egyptians by Moses has
certainly adhered to the country ever since, if "lice" is the
proper translation of the Hebrew word in the Old Testament:
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