Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah & Meccah — Volume 2 by Sir Richard Francis Burton
page 88 of 559 (15%)
page 88 of 559 (15%)
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cities, but the leucous does not exist. The crinal hair is frequently
lightened by bleaching, and the pilar is browner than the crinal. The voice is strong and clear, but rather barytone than bass: in anger it becomes a shrill chattering like the cry of a wild animal. The look of a chief is dignified and grave even to pensiveness; the respectable mans is self-sufficient and fierce; the lower orders look ferocious, stupid, and inquisitive. Yet there is not much difference in this point between men of the same tribe, who have similar pursuits which engender [p.81] similar passions. Expression is the grand diversifier of appearance among civilised people: in the Desert it knows few varieties. The Badawi cranium is small, ooidal, long, high, narrow, and remarkable in the occiput for the development of Galls second propensity: the crown slopes upwards towards the region of firmness, which is elevated; whilst the sides are flat to a fault. The hair, exposed to sun, wind, and rain, acquires a coarseness not natural to it[FN#8]: worn in Kurun[FN#9]ragged elf-locks,hanging down to the breast, or shaved in the form Shushah, a skull-cap of hair, nothing can be wilder than its appearance. The face is made to be a long oval, but want of flesh detracts from its regularity. The forehead is high, broad, and retreating: the upper portion is moderately developed; but nothing can be finer than the lower brow, and the frontal sinuses stand out, indicating bodily strength and activity of character. The temporal fossa are deep, the bones are salient, and the elevated zygomata combined with the lantern-jaw, often give a deaths-head appearance to the face. The eyebrows are long, bushy, and crooked, broken, as it were, at the angle where Order is supposed to be, and bent in sign of thoughtfulness. Most popular writers, following De Page,[FN#10] describe the Arab eye as large, ardent, |
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