This is a subject which, more than any other, re quires the aid of pictorial illustration to render the details intelligible. Having provided ourselves with these, our further observations will most ad vantageously take the form of explanations of them, and of comments upon them.
Under the notion that the desert costume belongs to the patriarchal period, the precedence is here given to it. Only the outer articles of dress are distinctive, those which are worn underneath being similar to other articles worn by the town and peasant classes, and which as such will be hereafter noticed.
The annexed cut (No. 219) represents, in fig. 2, a Bedouin, or desert Arab, in the dress usually worn in Asia ; and fig. i represents a townsman in a cloak of the same kind, adopted from the Arabs, and worn very extensively as an outermost covering in all the countries from the Oxus (for even the Persians use it) to the Mediterranean. The distinctive head dress of the Bedouin, and which has not been adopted by any other nation, or even by the Arabian townsmen, is a kerchief (kejeli) folded triangularly, and thrown over the head so as to fall down over the neck and shoulders, and bound to the head by a band of twisted wool or camel's hair. We forbear at the moment from inquiring whether this was or was not in use among the ancient Hebrews. The cloak is called an abba. It is made of wool and hair, and of various degrees of fineness. It is sometimes entirely black, or en tirely white, but is more usually marked with broad stripes, the colours of which (never more than two, one of which is always white) are dis tinctive of the tribe by which it is worn. The cloak is altogether shapeless, being like a square sack, with an opening in front, and with slits at the sides to let out the arms. The Arab who wears it by day, sleeps in it by night, as does often the peasant by whom it has been adopted ; and in all probability this was the garment similarly used by the ancient Hebrews, and which a benevolent law, delivered while Israel was still in the desert, for bade to be kept in pledge beyond the day, that the poor might not be without a covering at night (Exod. xxii. 27). This article of dress appears to have been little known to biblical illustrators, al though it is the principal and most common outer most garment in Western Asia. This singular the abba respectively, is indicated by the direction of their importation into Egypt. The hykes are
imported from the west (i.e., from North Africa), and the abbas from Syria. The close resemblance of the above group of real costume to those in which the traditionary ecclesiastical and tradition ary artistica] costumes are displayed, must be obvi ous to the most cursory observer. It may also be noticed that the hyke is not without some re semblance, as to the manner in which it was worn, to the outer garment of one of the figures in the neglect has arisen from their information being chiefly derived from Shaw and others, who describe the costume of the Arab tribes or Moors of North ern Africa, where the outer garment is more gene rally the bourizoos (No. 219, fig. 3), a woollen cloak, not unlike the abba, but furnished with a hood, and which is sometimes strangely confounded even by well-informed persons with a totally different outer garment worn in the same regions, usually called the hyke, but which is also, according to its 'mate rials, quality, or colour, distinguished by various other names; and writers have produced some con fusion by not observing that these names refer to an article of raiment which under all these names is es sentially the same. Regardless of these minute dis tinctions, this part of dress may be described as a large woollen blanket, either white or brown, and in summer a cotton sheet (usually blue or white, or both colours together). Putting one corner before over the left shoulder, the wearer brings it behind, and then under the right arm, and so over the body, throwing it behind over the left shoulder, and leaving the right arm free for action. This very picturesque mode of wearing the hyke is shewn in fig. 2 (No. 220). Another mode of wearing it is shewn in fig. 3. It is sometimes thrown over the head as a protection from the sun or wind (fig. 1), and calls to mind the various passages of Scripture in which persons are described as covering their heads with their mantles (2 Sam. xv. 30 ; I Kings xix. 13 ; Esther vi. 12). This article of dress, ori ginally borrowed from is known in Arabia, and extends westward to the shores of the Atlantic, being most extensively used by all classes of the populatton. The seat of this dress, and of Egyptian family, supposed to represent the arrival of Joseph's brethren in Egypt (No. 220, fig. I).