A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 08Kerr, Robert
History
A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 08
Kerr, Robert
Voyages and travels
All the Arabs in this island are soldiers, being in a manner slaves to
the _snakee_ or prince, whom they attend and obey all his commands, some
few of them having fire-arms. Every one of them wears a crooked dagger
at his left side, like a wood-cutter's knife, without which they must
not be seen abroad. They have also thin broad targets, painted. The
dagger-handles and sheaths of the better sort are ornamented with
silver, and those of the ordinary people with copper or red latten.
These Arabs are tawny, industrious, and civil, of good stature, and
well-proportioned in their limbs, having their hair long, and covered
with turbans like the Turks, and a cloth round their waist hanging to
their knees; having seldom any other apparel, except sometimes sandals
on their feet fastened with thongs. They either carry their sword naked
on their shoulder, or hanging at their side in a sheath. They are fond
of tobacco, yet are unwilling to give any thing for it. Some of them
wear a cloth of painted calico, or some other kind, over their
shoulders, after the fashion of an Irish mantle or plaid; while others
have shirts and surplices, or wide gowns, of white calico, and a few
have linen breeches like the Guzerats. Some of their women are tolerably
fair and handsome, like our sun-burnt country girls in England; and they
are all dressed in long wide smocks down to the ground, made of red,
blue, or black calico, having a cloth over their heads, with which they
usually hide their faces, being very dainty to let themselves be seen,
yet are scarcely honest. Though the men be very poor, and have, hardly
enough to serve their needs, yet their women, of whom some men have
four, five, or six, are much laden with silver ornaments, and some with
gold. I have seen one, not of the best, who had in each ear at least a
dozen great silver rings, almost like curtain rings, with as many of a
smaller kind; two _carkanets_ or chains of silver about her neck, and
one of gold bosses; ten or twelve silver _manillias_ or bracelets on
each arm, each as thick as a little-finger, but hollow; almost every
finger covered with rings, and the small of her legs covered with silver
rings like horse-fetters. In all these ornaments they jingle like
morrice-dancers on the slightest motion. They are, however, seldom seen,
being kept very close by their jealous husbands. They delight in beads
of amber, crystal, and coral; but, having little wherewith to buy them,
they either beg them, or deal for them privately. The children, except
those of the better sort, usually, go entirely naked till of some age.
They are married at ten or twelve years old.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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