As Many As 2000 Slaves
From The Former Place, And 4000 From The Latter, Are Annually Shipped
Off To Mocha, Jeddah, Suez, And Maskat.
It is strange that the Imam of
the latter place should voluntarily have made a treaty with us for
The
suppression of this vile trade, and yet should allow so extensive an
importation to his dominions.
[FN#25] More will be said concerning the origin of this strange custom,
when speaking of Meccah and the Meccans.
[FN#26] The word Tarbush is a corruption from the Persian
Sarpush,—“head-covering,” “head-dress.” The Anglo-Saxon further debases it to
“Tarbush.” The other name for the Tarbush, “Fez,” denotes the place where the
best were made. Some Egyptians distinguish between the two, calling the
large high crimson cap “Fez,” the small one “Tarbush.”
[FN#27] In India, as in Sind, a lady of fashion will sometimes be
occupied a quarter of an hour in persuading her “bloomers” to pass over the
region of the ankle.
[FN#28] In the plural called Jadail. It is a most becoming head-dress
when the hair is thick, and when—which I regret to say is rare in
Arabia—the twists are undone for ablution once a day.
[FN#29] Plural of “Hurrah,” the free, the noble.
[FN#30] See vol. i., p. 436, ante.
[FN#31] This appears to be, and to have been, a favourite weapon with
the Arabs. At the battle of Ohod, we read that the combatants amused
themselves with throwing stones. On our road to Meccah, the Badawi
attacked a party of city Arabs, and the fight was determined with these
harmless weapons. At Meccah, the men, as well as the boys, use them
with as much skill as the Somalis at Aden. As regards these feuds
between different quarters of the Arab towns, the reader will bear in
mind that such things can co-exist with considerable amount of
civilization. In my time, the different villages in the Sorrentine
plain were always at war. The Irish still fight in bodies at
Birkenhead. And in the days of our fathers, the gamins of London amused
themselves every Sunday by pitched battles on Primrose Hill, and the
fields about Marylebone and St. Pancras.
[FN#32] Alluding especially to their revengefulness, and their habit of
storing up an injury, and of forgetting old friendships or benefits,
when a trivial cause of quarrel arises.
[FN#33] The sentence is passed by the Kazi: in cases of murder, he
tries the criminal, and, after finding him guilty, sends him to the
Pasha, who orders a Kawwas, or policeman, to strike off his head with a
sword. Thieves are punished by mutilation of the hand. In fact, justice
at Al-Madinah is administered in perfect conformity with the Shariat or
Holy Law.
[FN#34] Circumcisio utriusque sexus apud Arabos mos est vetustissimus.
Aiunt theologi mutilationis hujus religiosae inventricem esse Saram,
Abrahami uxorem quae, zelotypia incitata, Hagaris amorem minuendi
gratia, somnientis puellae clitoridem exstirpavit.
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