Eleven clothes-shops. In these various articles of dress are sold every
morning by public auction. The greater part of those dresses are of the
Turkish fashion, adopted by merchants of the first and second classes,
with some trifling national variations in the cut of the clothes. During
the period of the Hadj, these shops are principally frequented for the
purchase of the Hiram or Ihram, that mantle in which the pilgrimage is
performed, and which consists generally of two long pieces of white
Indian cambric. Here, too, the Hedjaz Bedouins come to buy the woollen
abbas, or Bedouin cloaks, brought from Egypt, on which country they
entirely depend for this article; and thus they seem to possess the same
indolent character as most people of the Hedjaz; for it is customary
with the wives of other Bedouins to fabricate their own abbas. Here,
also, they bring Turkish carpets of an inferior quality, which form an
indispensable article of furniture for the tent of a Sheikh. In these
shops are likewise retailed all other imports from Egypt necessary for
dress, as mellayes, cotton quilts, linen for shirts, shirts dyed blue,
worn by the peasants, red and yellow slippers,
[p.38] used by the more opulent merchants, and by all the ladies, red
caps, all kinds of cloth dresses, second-hand cashmere shawls, muslin
shawls, &c. &c.