The government of the Imam is much more gentle than any Moorish government in Arabia or Africa; the people too are of gentler manners, the men, from early ages, being accustomed to trade. The women at Loheia are as solicitous to please as those of the most polished nations in Europe; and, though very retired, whether married or unmarried, they are not less careful of their dress and persons. At home they wear nothing but a long shift of fine cotton-cloth, suitable to their quality. They dye their feet and hands with [200]henna, not only for ornament, but as an astringent, to keep them dry from sweat: they wear their own hair, which is plaited, and falls in long tails behind.
The Arabians consider long and straight hair as beautiful. The Abyssinians prefer the short and curled. The Arabians perfume themselves and their shifts with a composition of musk, ambergrease, incense, and benjoin, which they mix with the sharp horny nails that are at the extremity of the fish surrumbac; but why this ingredient is added I know not, as the smell of it, when burnt, does not at all differ from that of horn. They put all these ingredients into a kind of censer on charcoal, and stand over the smoke of it. The smell is very agreeable; but, in Europe, it would be a very expensive article of luxury.
The Arab women are not black, there are even some exceedingly fair. They are more corpulent than the men, but are not much esteemed.—The Abyssinian girls, who are bought for money, are greatly preferred; among other reasons, because their time of bearing children is longer; few Arabian women have children after the age of twenty.
At Loheia we received a letter from Mahomet Gibberti, telling us, that it would yet be ten days before he could join us, and desiring us to be ready by that time. This hurried us extremely, for we were much afraid we should not have time to see the remaining part of the Arabian Gulf, to where it joins with the Indian Ocean.
On the 27th, in the evening, we parted from Loheia, but were obliged to tow the boat out. About nine, we anchored between an island called Ormook, and the land; about eleven we set sail with a wind at north-east, and passed a cluster of islands on our left.
Arab of Lohein, Tribe Beni Koreish.
Heath Sc:
London Publish’d Decr. 1st. 1789. by G. Robinson & Co.
The 28th, at five o’clock in the morning, we saw the small island of Rasab; at a quarter after six we passed between it and a large island called Camaran, where there is a Turkish garrison and town, and plenty of good water. At twelve we passed a low round island, which seemed to consist of white sand. The weather being cloudy, I could get no observation. At one o’clock we were off Cape Israel.