The Colour Of The Mekkawy And Djiddawy Is A Yellowish Sickly Brown,
Lighter Or Darker According To The Origin Of The Mother, Who Is Very
Often An Abyssinian Slave.
Their features approach much nearer to those
of Bedouins than I have observed in any townsmen of the East; this is
particularly observable in the Sherifs, who are gifted with very
handsome countenances; they have the eye, face, and aquiline nose of the
Bedouin, but are more fleshy.
The lower class of Mekkawys are generally
stout, with muscular limbs, while the higher orders are distinguishable
by their meagre emaciated forms, as are also all those inhabitants who
draw their origin from India or Yemen. The Bedouins who surround Mekka,
though poor, are much stronger-bodied than the wealthier Bedouins of the
interior of the Desert, probably because their habits are less roving,
and because they are less exposed to the hardships of long journies. The
Mekkawy, it may be generally said, is inferior in strength and size to
the Syrian or Egyptian, but far exceeds him in expressive features, and
especially in the vivacity and brilliancy of the eye.
[p.183] All the male natives of Mekka and Djidda are tattooed with a
particular mark, which is performed by their parents when they are forty
days of age. It consists of three long cuts down both cheeks; and two on
the right temple, the scars of which, sometimes three or four lines in
breadth, remain through life. It is called Meshale.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 253 of 669
Words from 68951 to 69200
of 182297
