Travels Of Richard And John Lander Into The Interior Of Africa For The Discovery Of The Course And Termination Of The Niger By Robert Huish
- Page 432 of 1124 - First - Home
An
Enormous Protruding Belly, And A Huge Misshapen Head, Are The Two
Features, Without Which It Is Vain To Aspire To The Rank Of A
Courtier, Or Fine Gentleman.
The form, valued perhaps as the type of
abundance and luxury, is esteemed so essential, that where nature has
not bestowed, and the most excessive feeding and cramming cannot
supply it, wadding is employed, and a false belly produced, which in
riding appears to hang over the saddle.
Turbans are also wrapped
round the head, in fold after fold, till it appears swelled on one
side to the most unnatural dimensions, and only one half of the face
remains visible. The fictitious bulk of the lords of Bornou is still
further augmented by drawing round them, even in this burning
climate, ten or twelve successive robes of cotton or silk, while the
whole is covered with numberless charms enclosed in green leathern
cases. Yet under all these incumbrances, they do sometimes mount and
take the field, but the idea of such unwieldy hogsheads being of any
avail in the day of battle, appeared altogether ridiculous, and it
proved accordingly, that on such high occasions, they merely
exhibited themselves as ornaments, without making even a show of
encountering the enemy.
With about three hundred of this puissant chivalry before and around
him, the sultan was himself seated in a sort of cage of cane or wood
near the door of his garden, on a seat, which at the distance
appeared to be covered with silk or satin, and through the railing
looked upon the assembly before him, who formed a kind of semicircle,
extending from his seat to nearly where the English were waiting.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 432 of 1124
Words from 117726 to 118007
of 309561