“It is strange that they do not shave their heads as do our people,” Chebron said.
“But I do not,” Amuba laughed, “nor Jethro.”
“It is different with you,” Chebron replied. “You do not labor and get the dust of the soil in your hair. Besides, you do keep it cut quite short. Still, I think you would be more comfortable if you followed our fashion.”
“It is all a matter of habit,” Amuba replied. “To us, when we first came here, the sight of all the poorer people going about with their heads shaven was quite repulsive—and as for comfort, surely one’s own hair must be more comfortable than the great wigs that all of the better class wear.”
“They keep off the sun,” Chebron said, “when one is out of doors, and are seldom worn in the house, and then when one comes in one can wash off the dust.”
“I can wash the dust out of my hair,” Amuba said. “Still, I do think that these Israelites wear their hair inconveniently long; and yet the long plaits that their women wear down their back are certainly graceful, and the women themselves are fair and comely.”
Chebron shook his head. “They may be fair, Amuba, but I should think they would make very troublesome wives. They lack altogether the subdued and submissive look of our women. They would, I should say, have opinions of their own, and not be submissive to their lords; is that not so, Rabah?”
“The women, like the men, have spirit and fire,” the foreman answered, “and have much voice in all domestic matters; but I do not know that they have more than with us. They can certainly use their tongues; for at times, when soldiers have been here to take away gangs of men for public works, they have had more trouble with them than with the men. The latter are sullen, but they know that they must submit; but the women gather at a little distance and scream curses and abuse at the troops, and sometimes even pelt them with stones, knowing that the soldiers will not draw weapon upon them, although not infrequently it is necessary in order to put a stop to the tumult to haul two or three of their leaders off to prison.”
“I thought they were viragoes,” Chebron said with a laugh. “I would rather hunt a lion than have the women of one of these villages set upon me.”
In a few miles cultivation became more rare; sandhills took the place of the level fields, and only here and there in the hollows were patches of cultivated ground. Rabah now ordered the slave leading the two fleet dogs to keep close up and be in readiness to slip them.