Otherwise their existence is very simple, and the way they spend their days is adapted to nature and very healthy. An Arab gets up early and also quickly. This is due to two reasons. The first is that he does not usually sleep in a bed, but on a rug on the floor with another rug over him; the second is that he does not wash on rising, and he very often goes to sleep in his clothes. How many times have I been away in out-of-the-way places with Arab friends, either shooting or attending sheep-markets; coffee has been ordered for five A. M. They have somehow vaguely wakened me at four-forty-five, and at four-fifty-five my companions have appeared, all dressed, to ask why I wasn’t ready! And my reply has always been the same: “Because I have a strange and curious habit of undressing when I go to bed and of shaving when I rise.” And it _is_ considered a strange and curious habit. But that does not mean that these Arabs are dirty in their persons—far from it. Before and after meals they wash their hands and faces, before their prayers they do the same; sometimes they take a bath. Regularly once a week they go to the _hammam_, or steam bath, where there is an unlimited quantity of hot water, and where they wash from head to foot, and there is nothing cleaner than washing in a Turkish bath. Moreover, there are first-rate masseurs who for a moderate fee take pounds of fat off the patient in an hour. What I have never been able to discover is how often the average Arab changes his underclothing. The exterior dress is often sent to the laundry and I have an idea that in many cases the change is made four times a year, at the various seasons. Speaking of clothes, it may perhaps interest the reader to know of what an Arab’s garments consist: Next to the skin there is a shirt; there are socks, there are sometimes drawers, a pair of baggy trousers and leather slippers, rather like unfinished pumps and not embroidered as may be supposed. Embroidery on shoes is considered effeminate and can only be worn on the long red boots used for riding. Over the shirt is usually a sweater and over that a jacket; it may be a smart embroidered affair with many buttons, or it may be a simple tunic, or it may be a European coat, but it does not matter much as it is entirely covered by the _gandourah_, which is like a long white nightgown with a low neck, made of wool or silk or cotton. On the head is a turban which consists of three separate pieces—the _gannoure_, which is the high framework made of felt on which is placed the _chech_, which entirely covers it, surrounds the face, covers the neck, and is tucked away inside the coat. Round the _chech_ is wound either a band of silk or else the camel’s hair cords, known as _khiete_. The origin of the wearing of cords was for the purpose of always having a rope handy to attach to any receptacle to draw water from the wells in the Sahara.