The Body Is Also Marked,
But With Smaller Cuts, So That The Child Is Covered With Blood.
Ali Bey
was told by some Meccans that the face-gashes served for the purpose of
phlebotomy, by others that they were signs that the scarred was the
servant of Allah’s house.
He attributes this male-gashing, like
female-tat[t]ooing, to coquetry. The citizens told me that the custom
arose from the necessity of preserving children from the kidnapping
Persians, and that it is preserved as a mark of the Holy City. But its
wide diffusion denotes an earlier origin. Mohammed expressly forbad his
followers to mark the skin with scars. These “beauty marks” are common to
the nations in the regions to the West of the Red Sea. The Barabarah of
Upper Egypt adorn their faces with scars exactly like the Meccans. The
Abyssinians moxa themselves in hetacombs for fashion’s sake. I have seen
cheeks gashed, as in the Holy City, among the Gallas. Certain races of
the Sawahil trace around the head a corona of little cuts, like those
of a cupping instrument. And, to quote no other instances, some Somalis
raise ghastly seams upon their chocolate-coloured skins.
[FN#11] Sayrafi, money-changer; Sarraf, banker; the Indian “Shroff,”
banker, money-changer, and usurer.
[FN#12] When speaking of the Meccans I allude only to the section of
society which fell under my observation, and that more extensive
division concerning which I obtained notices that could be depended
upon.
[FN#13] The editor of Burckhardt’s “Travels in Arabia” supposes that his
author’s “sect of light extinguishers” were probably Parsees from Surat or
Bombay.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 313 of 630
Words from 84402 to 84679
of 175520
