Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/492

460 COSTUME [ORIENTAL. 41 most of the ornaments enumerated, probably, indeed, the whole of them, if we were acquainted with the exact mean ing of the Hebrew words, are still to be traced in the costumes of Eastern women inhabiting the same country. Many appear to be mentioned in the Assyrian inscrip tions among objects _ of tribute and spoil brought to the king." With this FIG. 14. "Outdoor Costume of modern Syrian aeference to the Women. dress and ornaments of the female inhabitants of Syria at the present day, of whom two groups are represented in figs. 13 and 14, the fol lowing brief but graphic passage from the same writer s Nineveh and Baby- lon (p. 472) may consistently be asso- ciated. On approach ing Baghdad, the -low banks of the Tigris the river .itself gradually be coming wider and FIG. 15. Modern Syrians. wider, and its stream being almost motionless were seen to " swarm with Arabs, men, women, and naked children. Horsemen and riders on white asses were hurrying along the river side. Turks in flowing robes and broad turbans ; Persians in high black caps and close-fitting tunics ; the Bokhara pilgrim in his white head-dress and way-worn gar ments ; the Bedouin chief in his tasselled keffieh and striped aba ; Baghdad ladies, with their scarlet and white draperies FIG. 16. Modern Syrians. FIG. 17. Bedouin, fretted with threads of gold, and their black horse-hair veils concealing even their eyes ; Persian women wrapped in their sightless garments ; and Arab girls in their simple blue shirts, all were mingled together in one motley In the costume in common and constant use at the present day, as well by men such as is exemplified in the groups shown in figs. 15 and 16 as by women in the towns and villages of Syria, may be discerned the transmitted representations of the general character and aspect of the .attire of the same regions in remote centuries; as, in like manner, the patriarchal dress of ancient Israel may be assumed to have had its primitive type in a great measure reproduced in our own times in the long coarse shirt, the ample striped aba of camels hair (the coloured stripe that alternates with the white one, denoting the wearer s tribe), and the red and yellow keffieh, folded and tied in hereditary fashion about his swarthy face and over his neck and shoulders by the Bedouin Arab of the desert (fig. 17). ORIENTAL. If it may be said, as it may certainly be said with truth, of Oriental costume both in its general character and its specific details, that it is distinguished, in contrast to that of the ever-changing West, by the pervading and character istic unchangeableness of the East, equally true it is that the vast populations which throng the wide expanse of the earth s surface included in " The East," comprehend in their numbers the inheritors and the wearers of costumes exhibiting in many peculiar and distinctive features an almost endless variety. At the same time, precisely as a distinct recognition as well of the range as of the appli cability and the significance of the one term " The East " suggests no confusion of ideas respecting different Eastern realms and peoples, so also all Oriental costume so far bears the impress of Eastern requirement and association as in a certain degree to admit of a single general classi fication. Thus, unlike to each other in not a few of their personal qualities as any two human beings well could be, and differing also in many decidedly marked particulars in regard to their costume, the nomad Bedouin of Arabia in every essential respect is no less a true and truly typical Oriental than the most gorgeously attired and, after his fashion, the most refined of the native potentates of Hindustan. So, also, notwithstanding the points of difference between their costumes, the costume as well of the one as of the other is unmistakably Oriental. The same may be said of the dresses of the different races that inhabit Hindustan. And they all share an equally true Oriental brotherhood, and especially in exter nals, in however decided a manner and degree each race may bear its own distinctive impress even in those very externals, with the natives of Japan and China and Burmah, of Persia, Arabia, Modern Egypt, Armenia, and Turkey, and with other Eastern races also that need not to be here particularized. Unless when circumstances reduce their attire to proportions so scanty as scarcely, if at all, to exceed that of the savage tribes who inhabit some tropical dis tricts, or when influenced by some exceptional conditions, all Orientals are more or less inclined to wear loose and long and flowing garments ; their trousers, when any are worn, are very large and gathered in at the ankles ; they have their heads habitually covered, whether with a turban, fez, or some variety of cap of a local hereditary style; their feet, when not bare, are very lightly equipped ; they delight in white fabrics, mingled with such as exhibit the most brilliant colours and the richest designs; and they indulge in an abundance and variety of personal ornaments. Also a general resemblance prevails between the costumes of the two sexes. The decorative arts of China and Japan, always national both in the selection and the treatment of their subjects, in connection with certain universally esteemed varieties of their manufactures, have familiarized the world AJth the typical characteristics of the costumes worn by all ranks and classes in those countries. Recent events have caused the more remarkable costumes of India to become well known through several popular publications ; and the same may also be said concerning the costumes of other Oriental nations, and those of them more particularly

which are nearest to Europe and have the closest relations