A Brighter Day Begins with His Word.

James Hastings • SECTION 684

Section 684

← A Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels — Volume 1

2. The clothes of the ordinary /eWa/i, or peasant in modern Palestine, are five in number, — shirt, cloak, girdle, shoes, and head-dress.

The shirt or kamis is a simple straight garment, extending from the neck almost to the feet, with short, or sometimes long, loose, sleeves. It is usually of calico ; it may be of linen. Among th.&fellahin it is white, among the Bedawln (who often go about in nothing else) it is dyed blue. It is usually open in front more than half-way to the waist, but IS brought together at the neck by a button or knotted thread. It is worn night and day.

Over the shirt is fixed the zimnAr or girdle, a most necessary article of clothino;. It may be of leather, with buckles, or woven of camel's hair, or of brightlj'-dyed silk or cotton. The woven belt is wound tightly two or three times round the waist, and is fixed by tucking the free end into the belt itself. In the girdle is carried, as in NT days (Mt 10', Mk 6"), the money, often knotted into a corner of a handkerchief, and also the pen and ink of the learned or the dagger of the fighter. When the man is ' girded ' for work the kamis is hitched up to the tightened belt, as high as the knees. 'The upper part of the shirt is commonly drawn up loose above the girdle, so that a consider- able space is left between the chest and the shirt. This IS known as the ubb or ' bosom,' and in this are carried many things ; for example, the bread and olives for the midday meal, the seed or corn for sowing (Lk &^), or, in the case of a shepherd, a newborn lamb or kid (cf. Is 40").

In order of importance next comes the head- dress, of which two distinct types are in daily use— the turban and the kiifiyeh. Under both of these is worn the tekktyeh or 'arSktyeh, a small plain close-fitting cap of felt, wool, or even cotton ; this is commonly not removed even at night. When one has worn thin, a new one is placed on the top, so that two or three layers are quite usual ; and between the layers the fellah keeps small papers of value. When a turban is worn, the red fez or tarbush is placed over the skull-cap, and the leffeh or turban is wound round its sides. The leffcli among the fellahtn is usually of parti- coloured cotton or silk, red and white or yellow being common. In the towns it is often orna-

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mented with yellow silk worked in patterns ; while the haj who has made the Mecca pilgrimage, and the Druse, wear plain white ; and tlie shcrif or 'descendant of the prophet' wears green. The other form of head-dress is more ancient and the more primitive : probably it is more like the peasant dress of NT times. It consists of a kufiych or large napkin of white or coloured cotton or silk, as much perhaps as a yard square, folded diagon- ally to make a triangular piece, and laid on the head with the apex backward ; and the 'akdl, a rope-like circle of camel's hair, laid double over the top of the head to keep the kufiych in position. The free ends of the kufiych are wound round the neck according to taste, being used on journeys in the hot sun to cover, at times, all the face below the eyes. It is a most efficient and practical head- dress, especially when worn over a felt tckkiych. The napkin referred to in Lk 19-" may have been of the same nature, and the napkins of Jn 11" 20', though used to cover the face of the dead, may have been made for the head of the living.

These three garments are the essentials ; in such will a man work all day, and, if very poor, even go journeys ; but in the latter event he would be an object of pity unless he had a,n'abd or cloak. This is made of camel's or goat's hair or of wool, and among the frllahin. is usually of white and brown in stripes or of plain brown. The superior qualities are often white or black. The ordinary 'aba is made of a long rectangular piece of material, with tlie sides folded in and sewn along the top ; it is thus very square, when new, across the shoulders. It 1ms no sleeves, and though there are slits just below the upper corners through which the arms may be put, it is almost always worn resting over the shoulders and upper arms. It extends half-way between the knees and the feet. During sleep, especially on journeys when the traveller has no betl, it is made to ctiver the whole person, the man either wrajiiiinu it round him, or, if there is a sack or mat on w liitli to lie, curling himself under it as under a blanket.

Shoes are to-day almost universally worn ; but a, fellah \\AW\ a new pair of shoes will often, when outside the town, prefer to .save his shoes from wear and tear by carrying them. Sandals are still worn, but not commonly as formerly, when the sandal seemed to make the simplest foot-gear (Mk 6»).

Public-domain historical reference work (1906–1908); OCR text from Internet Archive. Historical scholarship and terminology reflect its era; OCR may contain errors. Verify quotations and current scholarly claims independently.

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