quite different. The upper garment is a full dress, coming
down at least to the knees, and full of pleats and puckers, and
ornamented by rows of silver and brass coins across the breast,
while the nether garment is a pair of loose, baggy pyjamas of some
dark-coloured material, usually blue or red, with very remarkable
funnel-like extremities below the knees. At this point the baggy
portion is succeeded by a tightly-fitting trouser, the piece about
twice the length of the leg, and which is, therefore, crowded up above
the ankle into a number of folds, which accumulate the dust and dirt,
if nothing worse. The Povindah women--strong, robust, and rosy from the
bracing highlands of Khorasan--are dressed almost entirely in black,
the Marwat women in blue veils and red-and-blue pyjamas, the Bannuchi
women in black veils and red pyjamas, and the women of other tribes
each in their own characteristic dress.

Even the style in which the hair is plaited and worn is sufficient
not only to indicate what tribe the woman belongs to, but also whether
she is married or unmarried. The Povindah women are very fond of blue
tattoo marks over their foreheads, while all alike are proud of the
row of silver coins which is worn hanging over the forehead. The
Hindu women plaster the hair of the forehead and temples with a
vermilion paste, not merely for cosmetic reasons, but because it is
sacred to their god Vishnu. Then, the sturdy, sunburnt faces of the
Wazir women tell tales of the hard, rough outdoor life they perforce
lead, and contrast with the more delicate and gentler faces of the
Hindus. Notwithstanding the careful way in which all except the hill
women veil their faces from masculine gaze, they are very sensitive
as to what is being thought of them, and sometimes an impudent man
meets a woman who at once closely veils herself, and remarks to his
companion: "Ah! her nose has been cut off!" This imputation, not only
on her looks, but on her character, is usually too much for her,
and she indignantly unveils her face, to cover it up again at once
in shame when she finds it was only a ruse!

The hill women rarely, if ever, wash either their bodies or their
clothes, and suffer much in the hot weather from skin troubles as
a result. The Hindu women, on the other hand, who appear to aim at
doing in everything the exact opposite to their Muhammadan sisters,
bathe on the slightest pretext, summer and winter, and often women
who carefully vei