brought from Cairo by the travelling native merchants,
among which, those most in demand axe oil of roses,
oil of sandal-wood, an essence from the blossom of a
species of mimosa, essence of musk, and the oil of
cloves. The women have a peculiar method of
scenting their bodies and clothes by an operation that
is considered to be one of the necessaries of life, and
which is repeated at regular intervals. In the floor of
the tent, or hut, as it may chance to be, a small hole
is excavated sufficiently large to contain a commonsized
champagne bottle ; a fire of charcoal, or of simply
glowing embers, is made within the hole, into which
the woman about to be scented, throws a handful of'
various drugs ; i she then takes off the cloth or tope
which forms her dress, and crouches naked over the
fumes, while she arranges her robe to fall as a.
mantle from her neck to the ground like a tent.
When this arrangement is concluded she is perfectly
happy, as none of the precious fumes can escape, all
being retained beneath the robe, precisely as if she
wore a crinoline with an incense-burner beneath it,
which would be a far more simple way of performing
the operation. She now begins to perspire freely in
the hot-air bath, and the pores of the skin being thus
opened and moist, the volatile oil from the smoke of.
the burning perfumes is immediately absorbed.
By the time that the fire has expired, the scenting
process is completed, and both her person and robe
are redolent of incense, with which they are so
thoroughly impregnated that I have frequently smelt
a party of women strongly at full a hundred yards’
distance, when the wind has been blowing from their
direction. Of course this kind of perfumery is only
adapted for those who live in tents and in the open
air, but it is considered by the ladies to have a
peculiar attraction for the other sex, as valerian is said
to ensnare the genus felis. As the men are said to
be allured by this particular combination of sweet
smells, and to fall victims to the delicacy of their
nasal organs, it will be necessary to give the receipt
for the fatal mixture, to be made up in proportions
according to taste : G-inger, cloves, cinnamon, frankincense,
sandal-wood, myrrh, a species of sea-weed that
is brought from the Bed Sea, and lastly, what I
mistook for shells, but which I subsequently discovered
to be the horny disc that closes the aperture
when a shell-fish withdraws itself within its shell;,
these are also brought from the Bed Sea, in which
they abound throughout the shores of Nubia and
Abyssinia. In addition to the charm of sweet perfumes,
the women who can afford the luxury, suspend
from their necks a few pieces of the dried glands
of the musk cat, which is a native of the country;
such an addition completes the toilette, when the
coiffure has been carefully arranged.
Hair-dressing in all parts of the world, both
civilized and savage, is a branch of science; savage
negro tribes are distinguished by the various arrangements
of their woolly heads. Arabs are marked by
similar peculiarities, that have never changed for