They Ape The Manners Recorded Of
Mohammed, But In His Most Trifling Habits Only:
Their mustachios are cut
short, and their beard kept regularly under the scissors, because it was
the prophet's custom to do so.
In like manner they allow the end of the
turban to fall loosely over the cap; every other day they put kohhel or
antimony on their eye-lids, and have always in their hands a messouak or
tooth-brush made of a thin branch of the shrub Arak, or one imported by
the Persian hadjys. They know by heart many passages of the Koran and
Hadyth, (or sacred traditions,) and allude to, or quote them every
moment; but they forget that these precepts were given for rules of
conduct, and not for mere repetition. Intoxicating liquors are sold at
[p.205] the very gates of the mosque: the delyls themselves act in
direct contradiction of the law by loudly reciting prayers in the mosque
to their pupils the hadjys, in order to allure by their sonorous voices
other pilgrims to their guidance, carrying at the same time the common
large stick of the Mekkawys. It is also a transgression against the law,
when the intoxicating hashysh is openly smoked: cards are played in
almost every Arab coffee-house, (they use small Chinese cards,) though
the Koran directly forbids games of hazard. The open protection afforded
by the government to persons both male and female of the most profligate
character, is a further encouragement to daily transgressions against
the rigid principles of the Mohammedan law.
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