Their dress is more
picturesque, their eyes are carefully darkened with Kohl, and they wear
sandals, not slippers.
They are, according to all accounts, a turbulent
and somewhat fanatic set, fond of quarrels, and slightly addicted to
"pronunciamentos." The general programme of one of these latter
diversions is said to be as follows. The boys will first be sent by
their fathers about the town in a disorderly mob, and ordered to cry
out "Long live the Sultan!" with its usual sequel, "Death to the
Infidels!" The Infidels, Christians or others, must hear and may happen
to resent this; or possibly the governor, foreseeing a disturbance,
orders an ingenuous youth or two to be imprisoned, or to be caned by
the police. Whereupon some person, rendered influential by wealth or
religious reputation, publicly complains that the Christians are all in
all, and that in these evil days Al-Islam is going to destruction. On
this occasion the speaker conducts himself with such insolence, that
the governor perforce consigns him to confinement, which exasperates
the populace still more. Secret meetings are now convened, and in them
the chiefs of corporations assume a prominent position. If the
disturbance be intended by its main-spring to subside quietly, the
conspirators are allowed to take their own way; they will drink
copiously, become lions about midnight, and recover their hare-hearts
before noon next
[p.184] day. But if mischief be intended, a case of bloodshed is
brought about, and then nothing can arrest the torrent of popular
rage.[FN#38] The Egyptian, with all his good humour, merriment, and
nonchalance, is notorious for doggedness, when, as the popular phrase
is, his "blood is up." And this, indeed, is his chief merit as a
soldier. He has a certain mechanical dexterity in the use of arms, and
an Egyptian regiment will fire a volley as correctly as a battalion at
Chobham. But when the head, and not the hands, is required, he notably
fails. The reason of his superiority in the field is his peculiar
stubborness, and this, together with his powers of digestion and of
enduring hardship on the line of march, is the quality that makes him
terrible to his old conqueror, the Turk.[FN#39]
[FN#1] When travelling, the Shushah is allowed to spread over the
greatest portion of the scalp, to act as a protection against the sun;
and the hair being shaved off about two inches all round the head,
leaves a large circular patch. Nothing can be uglier than such tonsure,
and it is contrary to the strict law of the Apostle, who ordered a
clean shave, or a general growth of the hair. The Arab, however, knows
by experience, that though habitual exposure of the scalp to a burning
sun may harden the skull, it seldom fails to damage its precious
contents. He, therefore, wears a Shushah during his wanderings, and
removes it on his return home. Abu Hanifah, if I am rightly informed,
wrote a treatise advocating the growth of a long lock of hair on the
Nasiyah, or crown of the head, lest the decapitated Moslem's mouth or
beard be exposed to defilement by an impure hand.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 126 of 302
Words from 65770 to 66310
of 157964
