8 JOURNEY FROM

the Turkish costume has occasionally been questioned and denied,

we will venture to add our testimony in its favour to that of all the

most experienced travellers in Mahometan countries with whom we

have ever been acquainted : so far, at least, as the adoption of it is in

question, in places where the principal persons in power, and the

bulk of the population are Mussulmen. If it were only on the score

of convenience, we should in most cases recommend it ; and it is cer-

tainly the best calculated to prevent interruption, and all the nume-

rous annoyances arising from idle curiosity and the prejudices of an

ignorant people.

On our return, one morning, from a visit to the Bazar, where we

had been making some purchases necessary for our journey, we found

our apartment occupied by the Bedouin Arabs who had been ap-

pointed by the Bashaw to attend us to Bengazi. They had been

ranged by our servant on chairs round the room, on which they did

not appear to sit much at their ease ; and some of them had relin-

quished their exalted situation for the more convenient level which

the chairs themselves occupied, that safe and comfortable position,

the ground : here they squatted themselves down with true Arab

dignity, and soon found themselves much more at home. There was

little in the dress of these sw^arthy personages by which one might

be distinguished from the rest. An ample baracan, fastened in the

usual Arab manner, partially displayed the large, loose sleeves of a

cotton shirt, more remarkable than usual for its w^hiteness ; a piece

of distinction which is, by Arabs, considered necessary only in

towais, and on visits of more than ordinary ceremony : from a lea-