Page:Suakin, 1885.djvu/43

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support these ornaments had no qualms about the destruction of beauty, for if they had bored them with an augur they could not have been more roughly done. Some of the women I saw, and who were not troubled with any superfluous clothing, had their hair done in curious fashion; the commonest way, though, appeared to be to wear it in a great number of veiy thin, straight twists, about as thick as an ordinary pencil. These twists were about six inches in length, and each one preserved in a thick plastering of grease. The men's heads were much more curious, though; I noticed some who wore the hair frizzed till it stood out fully six or eight inches on either side of their heads. This extraordinaiy thick growth, half hair half wool, was then parted over each ear and round to the back of the head, the hair below the parting being brushed downwards and outwards, and that above the parting upwards. A long wooden pin or thin stick was run through the top part of this erection, and the effect was complete. The Arab boys had their heads shaved with the exception of one tuft of hair, which was allowed to grow long, and this tuft was generally on the side and towards the back of the head, and gave them a very rakish appearance. Many