(a) The annexed cut represents, in flg. 2, a Bedouin,
Modem Arab Dress of the Desert Tribes.
or desert Arab, in the dress usually worn in Asia ; and fig. 1 represents a townsman in a cloak of the same kind, adopted from the Arabs, and worn very extens- ively as an outermost covering in all the countries from the Oxus (for even the Persians use it) to the Mediterranean. The distinctive head-dress of the Bedouin, and which has not I een adopted by any oth- er nation, or even by the Arabian townsmen, is a ker- cliief (keffeh) folded triangularly, and thrown over the head so as to fall down over the neck and shoulders, and bound to the head by a band of twisted wool or camel's hair. The cloak is called an abba. It is made of wool and hair, and of various degrees of fineness. It is sometimes entirely black, or entirely white, but is more usually marked with broad stripes, the colors of which (never more than two, one of which is always white) are distinctive of the tribe by which it is worn. The cloak is altogether shapeless, being like a square sack, with an opening in fh>nt, and with slits at the sides to let out the arms. The Arab who wears it by day, sleeps in it by night, as does often the peasant by whom it has been adopted ; and in all probability this was the garment similarly used by the ancient He- brews, and which a benevolent law, delivered wbUe Israel was still in the desert, forbade to be kept in pledge beyond the day, that the poor might not be without a covering at night (Exod. xxii, 27). This article of dress appears to have been little known to Biblical illustrators, although it is the principal and
COSTUME
532
COSTUME
most common outermost garment in Western Asia. This singular neglect has arisen from their informa- tion being chiefly derived from Shaw and others, who describe the costome of the Arab tribes or Moors of Northern Africa, where the outer garment is more generaUy the boumooa (fig. 8), a woollen cloak, not unlike the abboy but furnished with a hood, and which is sometimes strangely confounded, even by well-in- formed persons, with a totally difl^rent outer garment worn in the same regions, usually called the J^ke, but which is also, according to its materials, quidity, or color, distinguished by various other names ; and writ- ers have produced some conftision by not observing that these names refer to an article of raiment which under all these names is essentially the same. Re- gardless of these minute distinctions, this part of dress may be described as a large woollen blanket, either white or brown, and in summer a cotton sheet (usual- ly blue or white, or both colors together). Putting one comer before over the left shoulder, the wearer brings it behind, and then under the right arm, and so over the body, throwing it behind over the left shoulder, and leaving the right arm free for action. This very picturesque mode of wearing the l^ke is shown in fig. 2 of the accompanying cut. Another
Various Methods of Wearing the Modem Arab Mantle or Hyke.
mode of wearing it is shown in fig. 8. It is sometunes thrown over the head as a protection frx)m the sun or wind (fig. 1), and calls to mind the various passages of Scripture in which persons are described as cover- ing their heads with their mantles (2 Sam. xv, 80 ; 1 Kings xix, 18; Esther vi, 12). This article of dress, originally borrowed from the nomades, is known in Arabia, and extends westward to the shores of the Atlantic, being most extensively used by all classes of the population. The seat of this dress, and of the abba respectively, is indicated by the direction of thair importation into Egypt. The hfkes are imported from the west (i. e. from North Africa), and the abbas from Syria. The close resemblance of the above group of real costume to those in which the traditionary eccle- siastical and traditionary artistical costumes are dis- played, must be obvious to the most cursory observer. It may also be noticed that the hyke is not without some resemblance, as to the manner in which it was worn, to the outer garment of one of the figures in the Egyptian family, supposed to represent the arrival of Joseph*s brethren in Eg3rpt (above).
(6) We now turn to the costumes which are seen in the towns and villages of south-western Asia.
In the Scriptures drawers are only mentioned in the injunction that the high-priest should wear them (Exod. xxviii, 42), which seems to show that they were not generally in use ; nor have we any evidence that they ever became common. Drawers descending to the middle of the thighs were worn by the ancient Egyptians, and workmen often laid aside all the rest of their dress when occupied in their labors. As &r
as this part of dress was used at all by tbe HeSsevi it was doubtless either like this, or similar to th» which are now worn in Western Asia by all, eaeqi some among the poorer peasantry, and by many of ^ Bedouin Arabs. They are of linen or cotton, of aa^ breadth, tied around the body by a numxng ^na^. « band, and always worn next the skin, not ove- fti shirt, as in Europe.