[279] Commentators are misled by the sword-belt, and the inner girdle over the tunic. Thus; there is mention of the girdle of Elijah and of John the Baptist, remarkable because of leather (2 Kings i. 7, 8; Mark iii. 4), and because they wore no haïk. The Moors, though they do not “gird” themselves with girdles, wear one, but it is under the haïk and over the tunic, and has a remarkable buckle. A buckle, as the sign of royalty, was sent to Antiochus by Jonathan Maccabees. No other Eastern people has a girdle and buckle. Drawers, such as the Levites were enjoined to wear, complete the Moorish dress. [280] “Ephraim is as a cake not turned.”--HOSEA, vii. 8. Niebuhr (_Arabia_, vol. ii. p. 132) draws the distinction. In the towns, he says, they use ovens, like us; in the tents, a hot plate of iron. [281] Abulpheda says, “that he (Abdallah, the calif, the son of Sobeir) wore a suit of clothes for _forty years_, without pulling them off his back, but doth not inform us what they were made of.”--_History of the Saracens_, vol. ii. p. 349. This he believes to be incredible; of course it is so with teased wool, machinery-spun thread, and tailored clothes. I have seen a home-made Highland plaid, in excellent condition, after nearly twenty years’ constant wear. [282] The _sulam_, or _bournoos_, is a cloak with a hood. The _gelab_ (from an ancient Persian word for _scales_) is the sulam sewed in front, and with short sleeves, through which the arms can be put at pleasure. It was the dress of the Essenians; is the monkish dress, and as such is respected by the Mussulmans. It varies according to the district, and is in colours--narrow stripes of brown and yellow, of blue and white, of blue and black, with here and there lines of white. In the winter these garments are doubled or trebled, and the haïk is worn over all. The sulam is the dress of the soldiers. [283] This is sometimes replaced by the very beautiful Moorish sash, _huzam_. [284] Gen. xxxvii. 3; Judges v. 30; Sam. xiii. 18; Exod. xxii. 26, 7; Deut. xxiv. 13; Job xxii. 6; Matt. v. 40.