Shaw Mentions Them
Under The Name Of The Capsa-Sparrow, But He Is Quite Wrong In Making
Them As Large As The Common House-Sparrow.
He adds:
"It is all over of a
lark-colour, excepting the breast, which is somewhat lighter, and
shineth like that of a pigeon. The boo-habeeba has a note infinitely
preferable to that of the canary, or nightingale." He says that all
attempts to preserve them alive out of the districts of the Jereed have
failed. R. has brought several home from that country, which were alive
whilst I was in Tunis. There are also many at the Bardo in cages, that
live in this way as long as other birds.
Went to see the houses of the inhabitants: they were nearly all the
same, the furniture consisting of a burnouse-loom, a couple of
millstones, and a quantity of basins, plates, and dishes, hung upon the
walls for effect, seldom being used; there were also some skins of
grain. The beams across the rooms, which are very high, are hung with
onions, dates, and pomegranates; the houses are nearly all of one story.
Some of the women are pretty, with large long black eyes and lashes;
they colour the lower lid black, which does not add to their beauty,
though it shows the bewitching orb more fully and boldly. They were
exceedingly dirty and ragged, wearing, nevertheless, a profusion of
ear-rings, armlets, anclets, bracelets, and all sorts of _lets_, with a
thousand talismanic charms hanging from their necks upon their ample
bosoms, which latter, from the habit of not wearing stays, reach as low
down as their waists. They wrap up the children in swaddling-clothes,
and carry them behind their backs when they go out.
Two men were bastinadoed for stealing a horse, and not telling where
they put him; every morning they were to be flogged until they divulged
their hiding-place.
A man brought in about a foot of horse's skin, on which was the Bey's
mark, for which he received another horse. This is always done when any
animal dies belonging to the Beys, the man in whose hands the animal is,
receiving a new one on producing the part of the skin marked. The Bey
and his ministers and mamelukes amused themselves with shooting at a
mark. The Bey made some good hits.
The Bey and his mamelukes also took diversion in spoiling the appearance
of a very nice young horse; they daubed hieroglyphics upon his shoulders
and loins, and dyed the back where the saddle is placed, and the three
legs below the knee with henna, making the other leg look as white as
possible. Another grey horse, a very fine one, was also cribbed. We may
remark here, that there were very few fine horses to be met with, all
the animals looking poor and miserable, whilst these few fine ones fell
into the hands of the Bey. It is probable, however, that the Arabs kept
their best and most beautiful horses out of the way, while the camp was
moving among them.
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