The People Of
The Hedjaz Delight In Dress Much More Than The Northern Mohammedans; And
The Earnings Of The Lower Classes Are Mostly Spent In Clothes.
When a
Mekkawy returns home from his shop, or even after a short walk into the
town, he immediately
Undresses, hangs up his clothes over a cord tied
across his sitting-room, takes off his turban, changes his shirt, and
then seats himself upon his carpet, with a thin under-cap upon his head.
In this dishabille they receive visitors; and to delineate a Mekkawy, he
should be represented sitting in his undress, near a projecting latticed
window, having in one hand a sort of fan, generally of this form, [not
included] made of chippings of date-leaves, with which he drives away
the flies; and in the other, the long snake of his Persian pipe.
[p.185] On feast-days they display their love of dress in a still higher
degree; from the richest to the poorest, every one must then be dressed
in a new suit of clothes; and if he cannot afford to buy, he hires one
from the dealers for two or three days. On these occasions, as much as
one hundred piastres are sometimes given for the hire of a dress, worth
altogether, perhaps, fifteen hundred or two thousand piastres. No one is
then content with a dress suited to his station in life, but assumes
that of the class above him. The common shopkeeper, who walks about the
whole year in his short gown, with a napkin round his loins, appears in
a pink-coloured benish, lined with satin, a gold-embroidered turban, a
rich silk sash, worked with silver thread, and a djombye, or crooked
knife, stuck in his sash, the scabbard of which is covered with coins of
silver and gold.
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