Although This Latter Example Of The
Result Of Science Is Not The Actual Hair Of The Wearer, It Adds
An
Imposing glow of wisdom to the general appearance, and may
have originated as a necessity where a deficiency of sagacity
Had
existed, and where the absence of years required the fictitious
crown of grey old age. A barrister in his wig, and the same
amount of learning without the wig, is a very different affair;
he is an imperfect shadow of himself. Nevertheless, among
civilized nations, the men do not generally bestow much anxiety
upon the fashion of their hair; the labour in this branch of art
is generally performed by the women, who in all countries and
climes, and in every stage of civilization, bestow the greatest
pains upon the perfection of the coiffure, the various
arrangements of which might, I should imagine, be estimated by
the million. In some countries they are not even contented with
the natural colour of the hair, either if black or blonde, but
they use a pigment that turns it red. I only noticed this among
the Somauli tribe; and that of the Nuehr, some of the wildest
savages of the White Nile, until I returned to England, where I
found the custom was becoming general among the civilized, and
that ladies were adopting the lovely tint of the British fox. The
Arab women do not indulge in fashions; strictly conservative in
their manners and customs, they never imitate, but they simply
vie with each other in the superlativeness of their own style;
thus the dressing of the hair is a most elaborate affair, which
occupies a considerable portion of their time. It is quite
impossible for an Arab woman to arrange her own hair; she
therefore employs an assistant, who, if clever in the art, will
generally occupy about three days before it is satisfactorily
concluded. First, the hair must be combed with a long skewer-like
pin; then, when well divided, it becomes possible to use an
exceedingly coarse wooden comb. When the hair is reduced to
reasonable order by the latter process, a vigorous hunt takes
place, which occupies about an hour, according to the amount of
game preserved; the sport concluded, the hair is rubbed with a
mixture of oil of roses, myrrh, and sandal-wood dust mixed with
a powder of cloves and cassia. When well greased and rendered
somewhat stiff by the solids thus introduced, it is plaited into
at least two hundred fine plaits; each of these plaits is then
smeared with a mixture of sandal-wood dust and either gum water
or paste of dhurra flour. On the last day of the operation, each
tiny plait is carefully opened by the long hair-pin or skewer,
and the head is ravissante. Scented and frizzled in this manner,
with a well-greased tope or robe, the Arab lady's toilet is
complete, her head is then a little larger than the largest sized
English mop, and her perfume is something between the aroma of a
perfumer's shop and the monkey-house at the Zoological Gardens.
This is considered "very killing," and I have been quite of that
opinion when a crowd of women have visited my wife in our tent,
with the thermometer at 95 degrees, and they have kindly
consented to allow me to remain as one of the party. It is hardly
necessary to add, that the operation of hair-dressing is not
often performed, but that the effect is permanent for about a
week, during which time the game become so excessively lively,
that the creatures require stirring up with the long hair-pin or
skewer whenever too unruly; this appears to be constantly
necessary from the vigorous employment of the ruling sceptre
during conversation. A levee of Arab women in the tent was
therefore a disagreeable invasion, as we dreaded the fugitives;
fortunately, they appeared to cling to the followers of Mahomet
in preference to Christians.
The plague of lice brought upon the Egyptians by Moses has
certainly adhered to the country ever since, if "lice" is the
proper translation of the Hebrew word in the Old Testament: it is
my own opinion that the insects thus inflicted upon the
population were not lice, but ticks. Exod. viii. 16, "The dust
became lice throughout all Egypt;" again, Exod. viii. 17, "Smote
dust . . . it became lice in man and beast." Now the louse that
infects the human body and hair has no connexion whatever with
"dust," and if subject to a few hours' exposure to the dry heat
of the burning sand, it would shrivel and die; but the tick is an
inhabitant of the dust, a dry horny insect without any apparent
moisture in its composition; it lives in hot sand and dust, where
it cannot possibly obtain nourishment, until some wretched animal
should lie down upon the spot, and become covered with these
horrible vermin. I have frequently seen desert places so infested
with ticks, that the ground was perfectly alive with them, and it
would have been impossible to have rested on the earth; in such
spots, the passage in Exodus has frequently occurred to me as
bearing reference to these vermin, which are the greatest enemies
to man and beast. It is well known that, from the size of a grain
of sand in their natural state, they will distend to the size of
a hazel-nut after having preyed for some days upon the blood of
an animal. The Arabs are invariably infested with lice, not only
in their hair, but upon their bodies and clothes; even the small
charms or spells worn upon the arm in neatly-sewn leathern
packets are full of these vermin. Such spells are generally
verses copied from the Koran by the Faky, or priest, who receives
some small gratuity in exchange; the men wear several of such
talismans upon the arm above the elbow, but the women wear a
large bunch of charms, as a sort of chatelaine, suspended beneath
their clothes round the waist.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 34 of 149
Words from 33760 to 34771
of 151461
