"Wit In A Woman,"
Exclaims One Man, "Is A Habit Of Running Away In A Dromedary." "Allah,"
Declares Another, "Made Woman Of A Crooked Bone; He Who Would Straighten
Her, Breaketh Her." Perhaps, However, By These Generalisms Of Abuse The
Sex Gains:
They prevent personal and individual details; and no society of
French gentlemen avoids mentioning in public the name of a woman more
scrupulously than do the misogynist Moslems.
After a conversazione of two hours my visitors depart, and we lose no
time--for we must rise at cockcrow--in spreading our mats round the common
room. You would admire the Somali pillow [29], a dwarf pedestal of carved
wood, with a curve upon which the greasy poll and its elaborate _frisure_
repose. Like the Abyssinian article, it resembles the head-rest of ancient
Egypt in all points, except that it is not worked with Typhons and other
horrors to drive away dreadful dreams. Sometimes the sound of the
kettledrum, the song, and the clapping of hands, summon us at a later hour
than usual to a dance. The performance is complicated, and, as usual with
the trivialities easily learned in early youth, it is uncommonly difficult
to a stranger. Each dance has its own song and measure, and, contrary to
the custom of El Islam, the sexes perform together. They begin by clapping
the hands and stamping where they stand; to this succeed advancing,
retiring, wheeling about, jumping about, and the other peculiarities of
the Jim Crow school.
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