Here it is a twist of dyed wool,
there a bit of common rope, three or four feet long.
Some of the Arab
tribes use a circlet of wood, composed of little round pieces, the size
of a shilling, joined side by side, and inlaid with mother-of-pearl.
The Eastern Arabs wear a large circle of brown wool, almost a turband
in itself. In Barbary, they twist brightcoloured cloth round a rope,
and adorn it with thick golden thread.
[FN#21] Generally written "Thar," the blood-revenge right, acknowledged
by law and custom. (See Chapter xxiv. post.)
[FN#22] Gold, however, as well as silk, I may be excused for repeating,
is a forbidden article of ornament to the Moslem.
[FN#23] The silver-hilted dagger is a sign of dignity: "I would silver
my dagger," in idiomatic Hijazi, means, "I would raise myself in the
world."
[FN#24] Niebuhr has accurately described this article. It is still worn
in the Madras army, though long discarded from the other presidencies;
the main difference between the Indian and the Arab sandal is, that the
former has a ring, into which the big toe is inserted, and the latter a
thong, which is clasped between the big toe and its neighbour. Both of
them are equally uncomfortable, and equally injurious to soldiers,
whose legs fight as much as do their arms. They abrade the skin
wherever the straps touch, expose the feet to the sun, wind, and rain,
and admit thorns and flints to the toes and toe-nails.
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