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The dress a barracan, neatly wrapped round, with a cover of dark blue cloth for the head, sometimes coming over the lower part of the face, as in the men. They are not very fond of beads, but often have shells suspended to the ears as ear-drops. Being obliged to postpone their departure for ten days, in consequence of the indisposition of Hateeta, Dr.
A light-limbed, jolly-looking old fellow, in a barracan jacket and gaiters, with a smirk of welcome, and a very sharp, red nose, that seemed to promise good cheer, opened the door with a promptitude that indicated a hospitable expectation of my arrival. There was but little light in the hall, and that little lost itself in darkness in the background.
My bed was a simple mattress laid over a piece of matting, which latter was spread on the hard earth or sands of The Desert, as it might be, with a small sofa cushion for a pillow. After I had laid down the mattress, I then covered myself up with a large woollen barracan or blanket, very thick and heavy, and over this was also drawn a dark-blue European cloak.
The Spaniards take a great quantity. Tanned skins, especially the red, or Morocco, are exported at ten per cent, ad valorem. Slippers pay a dollar the hundred. The haik or barracan is exported in great numbers to the Levant by the pilgrims. The vessels, also, that carry pilgrims from Morocco, return laden with these and other native manufactures.
The men have but a single barracan to cover them, one or two may have a shirt; the children are nearly naked; and the women wear a woollen frock, charms round their necks, armlets, and anclets, sometimes throwing a slight barracan or sefsar round their heads and shoulders. I observed, however, that often women wear great leather boots, made of red leather or camel's skin.
A young man of the tribe, who was tending some sheep in the valley, came to visit us. He was a fine, cheerful fellow, with an open countenance, well dressed, having, besides his barracan, red leather boots, trousers, and a shirt. All his tribe, according to his account, are so dressed.
The Arabs, as they arrived, were all sent to him by Boo Khaloom, and their presentation has a form in it, not much in character with their accustomed rudeness: they all come armed with their long guns, and the same girdle which confines their barracan, contains also two long pistols; the chief enters, and salutes, dropping on one knee, and touching the stranger's right hand with his, which he carries afterwards to his lips; he then says, "Here are my men, who are come to say health to you."
The first specimen of inhabitants we saw on arriving was a group of naked children with their mother, who covered herself up in her barracan on our approach. The children were nearly all females, and even those of not more than three or four years of age seemed wonderfully developed. They had formed a house out of a thick bush of wild palms over the well.
The dates all being deposited in store-houses in the town, may account in some degree for the multitude of these insects, which in a few minutes fill every dish or bowl containing any liquid. The costume is here the same as that of the Bedouins, consisting generally of a shirt and barracan, a red cap, and sandals. A few, whose circumstances allow of it, dress in the costume of Tripoli.
These things will come back to one's memory years and years after they have been forgotten. When I read the squib, I little imagined I should ever visit Mourzuk, and yet the visit could be traced readily enough as resulting from my anti-slavery labours in Malta and the Mediterranean. Mustapha stopped at the gate to make his toilet, and I lent him my barracan to make on entering the city.
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