For The Most Part, It Is A Well-Made
Feature With Delicate Nostrils, Below Which The Septum Appears:
In
anger they swell and open like a blood mare’s. I have, however, seen, in
not a few instances, pert and offensive “pugs.” Deep furrows descend from
the wings of the nose, showing an uncertain temper, now too grave, then
too gay.
The mouth is irregular. The lips are either bordes, denoting
rudeness and want of taste, or they form a mere line. In the latter
case there is an appearance of undue development in the upper portion
of the countenance, especially when the jaws are ascetically thin, and
the chin weakly retreats. The latter
[p.83] feature, however, is generally well and strongly made. The
teeth, as usual among Orientals, are white, even, short and
broad—indications of strength. Some tribes trim their mustaches according
to the “Sunnat”; the Shafe’i often shave them, and many allow them to hang
Persian-like over the lips. The beard is represented by two tangled
tufts upon the chin; where whisker should be, the place is either bare
or is thinly covered with straggling pile.
The Badawin of Al-Hijaz are short men, about the height of the Indians
near Bombay, but weighing on an average a stone more. As usual in this
stage of society, stature varies little; you rarely see a giant, and
scarcely ever a dwarf. Deformity is checked by the Spartan restraint
upon population, and no weakly infant can live through a Badawi life.
The figure, though spare, is square and well knit; fulness of limb
seldom appears but about spring, when milk abounds:
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