adorned with gold coins and ornaments. A small
tarbush is worn on the back of the head, sometimes having a plate of
gold fixed on the crown, and a handkerchief is tastefully bound round
the temples. The women of the lower orders have trousers of printed or
dyed cotton, and a close waistcoat. All wear the long and elegant
head-veil. This is a simple "breadth" of muslin, which passes over the
head and hangs down behind, one side, being drawn forward over the
face in the presence of a man. A lady's veil is of white muslin,
embroidered at the ends in gold and colours; that of a person of the
lower class is simply dyed blue. In going abroad the ladies wear above
their indoor dress a loose robe of coloured silk without sleeves, and
nearly open at the sides, and above it a large enveloping piece of
black silk, which is brought over the head, and gathered round the
person by the arms and hands on each side. A face-veil entirely
conceals the features, except the eyes; it is a long and narrow piece
of thick white muslin, reaching to a little below the knees. The women
of the lower orders have the same out-door dress of different
materials and colour. Ladies use slippers of yellow morocco, and
abroad, inner boots of the same material, above which they wear, in
either case, thick shoes, having only toes. The poor wear red shoes,
very like those of the men. The women, especially in Upper Egypt, not
infrequently wear nose-rings.

Children, though often neglected, are not unkindly treated, and
reverence for their parents and the aged is early inculcated. They are
also well grounded in the leading doctrines of Islam. Boys are
circumcised at the age of five or six years, when the boy is paraded,
generally with a bridal procession, on a gaily caparisoned horse and
dressed in woman's clothes. Most parents send their boys to school
where a knowledge of reading and writing Arabic--the common tongue of
the Egyptians--is obtainable, and from the closing years of the 19th
century a great desire for the education of girls has arisen (see S
_Education_).

It is deemed disreputable for a young man not to marry when he has
attained a sufficient age; there are, therefore, few unmarried men.
Girls, in like manner, marry very young, some at ten years of age, and
few remain single beyond the age of sixteen; they are generally very
prolific. The bridegroom never sees his future w