Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 17.djvu/531

Rh Nile, in distinction from the Abiad, or clear Nile. Kirchhoff believes that the race-kindred of these people are to be found among the dark-brown tribes of eastern Egypt and Abyssinia, and the Hamitic branch of the Caucasian race, and maintains that they ought to be considered as a people of some cultivation. They all squatted on their heels when they sat down. It was interesting to notice how, when they sewed, they threw the cloth over the left knee, and held it fast between the first and second toes of their right foot. They spent the day in a round of sleeping, smoking, talking, and strumming upon their five-stringed (otherwise very primitive) guitars, alternating these idle occupations with the important daily business of dressing their



hair. They did not put fresh tallow upon their stately head-dress every day, but they performed punctually for each other the mutual service of arranging the cushion, using the wooden pin a foot long, with which it was fastened, as the instrument. The looking-glass was used industriously, for the inner eyelids could not be painted without it. They cleansed their teeth regularly with a short light stick of the aràk-plant, which they had brought with them from home for the purpose. Beyond this they washed themselves but little. Each one carried his "Allah" on his upper arm, a small casket inclosing a text from the Koran as an amulet. Their feet were protected with sandals, while their heads were uncovered, and they wore a small silver ring in the lobe of their right ears, and a chain of colored pearls on their necks. A belt containing the dagger was worn over their white dress, which they knew how to draw around them with considerable artistic grace.