GARMENTS-BIBLICAL EXAMPLES. For the head there is, first, the 169 'Arŭkiyeh or Takiyeh, a cotton cap fitting closely to the head, whether shaven or not. If the head is shaved, a soft felt cap is often worn under the takîyeh. Tarbush or Fez, a thick red felt cap. The best come from Algiers. Turban, a shawl of wool, silk, or cotton, wound round the tarbush. The Turks now wear nothing but the fez, and many Arabs nothing but the tarbush, with its long tassel. Others have a small colored handkerchief (mandeel) tied round the tarbush. The Bedawîn have a heavier article, woven with golden tissue, thrown over the tarbush, and confined there by a twisted rope of goats' or camels' hair, called 'Akal. This is a picturesque and very distinctive article in the costume of a genuine Arab of the Desert. For the feet there is, first, Jerabat or Kalsāt, socks or stockings of every variety. Kalshin, inner slippers of soft leather, yellow or black. Surmaiyeh, shoes, commonly of red morocco. Bābuje, a kind of half slipper, answering in part to the ancient sandal, which is not now used. Jezmeh, boots of red morocco, very stout and clumsy. There are many variations and additions to this list in different parts of the vast regions inhabited by the Arab race; they are, however, only slight departures from the general types and patterns given above, and need not be described. The Mamlûk dress is considered very graceful by Europeans. It is the official costume of the army and navy of Egypt, or was in the days of Mohammed Ali. To the Biblical student, these matters are specially interesting so far only as they throw light on the sacred Scriptures; but this they do in very many passages. For example, it was the 'aba or meshleh, I suppose, with which Shem and Japheth covered the nakedness of their father.' It was the jibbeh that Joseph left in the hands of that shameless wife of Potiphar, called Zuleîka, according to Moslem tradition." This jibbeh may answer to the mantle which fell from Elijah, and was taken up by Elisha;3 to the cloak, in the precept, If a man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. The coat is probably the sulta. It was this jibbeh that our Saviour laid aside when he washed the feet of the disciples. It can 1 Gen. ix. 23. 2 Gen. xxxix. 12. 32 Kings ii. 8, 13. be so worn or taken off, or torn in grief or rage, as to answer every mention of it in the Bible. The same remark applies to the zunnar or girdle, to the surmaiyeh and bābûj-the shoes and sandals-and, in fact, to all other articles of dress which we have described. By the time of Moses, the costume, I presume, had attained to about its present state among tribes purely Oriental; I mean as to pattern, not as to the number, nature, and DRESS OF SYRIAN OR EGYPTIAN LADY. quality of the materials. These have greatly multiplied and improved, both in variety and fineness of fabrics. The toilet of the ladies corresponds in most respects to that of the men, As with, of course, cer- FEMALE ATTIRE-HEAD-DRESS. 171 thus it went on enlarging, until their toilets became as complicated and mysterious in Jerusalem as they now are in Paris or New York. In the 3d chapter of Isaiah we have a catalogue, about as intelligible to the English reader as the Hebrew seems to have been to our translators: Cawls, round tires like the moon, sweet balls, mufflers or spangled ornaments, tablets or houses of the soul,1 etc., etc., etc. It would require half a volume to discuss these names, and then they would be about as unintelligible as when we began. I can not muster sufficient courage to enter minutely into the female costume, nor is it necessary. It varies from that of the men mostly in the veils, which are very various, and in the head-dress, which, with the tarbush for the basis, is complicated by an endless variety of jewels and other ornamental appendages; these, however, appear in the engravings, and can be better studied there than on the persons who wear them. You will not easily get permission to inspect them there. To ask it would be, in most cases, a serious insult. It is a remarkable fact, that after the first mention of coats in Genesis iii. 21, we hear no more about garments of any kind for sixteen or eighteen hundred years. Shem and Japheth, after the Deluge, had a garment so 1 Isa. iii. 18-23. large that they laid it on each of their shoulders, in order to cover the nakedness of their drunken father without beholding his shame. Several hundred years later-in Abraham's day-we read of shoes, and of raiment presented to Rebekah; and she covered herself with a veil when Isaac met her. Later in life, she had goodly raiment of her son Esau with her in the house. Then comes the coat of many colors, the occasion of sad calamities to Joseph; Reuben, not finding the lad in the pit, rent his clothes-the first time this action is mentioned. Jacob also rent his; and, in after ages, this expression of grief becomes common, as the fabrics out of which the garments were made became of a finer texture, and more easily torn. The materials first used were skins of animals, and many people are clothed with them at this day. Afterward linen and woolen fabrics were invented, and coarse cloth woven from the hair of camels and goats. Silk is mentioned in Proverbs xxxi. 22, and in Ezekiel xvi. 10, 13, but I suppose hemp is meant. There is no reason to believe that Solomon's "virtuous wife" was acquainted with silk; nor was cotton known to the Jews until after the captivity. Possibly the mas or masi of Ezekiel was cotton. The Egyptians, and of course the Hebrews, were early skilled in embroidery with tissue of silver and gold; and Orientals are still extravagantly fond of embroidered garments. As to finetwined linen, so celebrated among the Israelites in the wilderness and elsewhere, we must understand the term relatively. All Egyptian linen is coarse, and always was, to judge from the wrappings of ancient mummies, even of kings. The favorite colors, as every reader of the Bible knows, were blue, and purple, and scarlet, and the same taste prevails in Syria, and in the East generally, to this day. Let us turn philosophers in a small way while we look farther into these Oriental manners, customs, and costumes. Search deep enough, and I believe you will generally find that the customs of every people are the joint result of many causes acting together—a great network of necessity and CUSTOMS AND COSTUMES. 173 compensation. The Oriental costume, for example, is light and loose, because the climate is warm. They do not sit on chairs, because they are hard, perpendicular, and uncomfortable, and the relaxed system in this country requires an easier and more recumbent posture to insure rest and refreshment. Under these circumstances, tight garments are very inconvenient and incongruous. Then, as you observe, they scrupulously drop their slippers, shoes, or boots at the door when they enter a room, and keep on their head-dress. This seems strange to us, but it is necessary. As they sit on the mat, rug, or divan, with their feet under them, shoes would soil both couch and clothes, and, besides, would make a very uncomfortable seat. The demands of decency and the calls of comfort introduced and enforced the custom of dropping the shoe at the entrance into the sitting-room, and it was thence extended to every place entitled to respect. From this to the idea of defilement from the shoe was but a step, and certain to be taken. Hence the strict requisition to put it off on entering temples and sacred places of every kind. Mohammedans have preserved this idea in all its force, and you can not enter any of their mosques or holy shrines with your shoes on. This custom was probably established in Egypt before Moses was born, and he was trained up to regard it as obligatory. When, therefore, God appeared to him in the burning bush, he needed only to be reminded that the place whereon he stood was holy ground, to make the direction to put off his shoe at once intelligible and reasonable. And, so long as the Oriental custom of sitting on the mat or rug |