Manchurian Books

These people have a wild appearance, and their clothing consists of
only a dark-brown mantle. The men have a part of this drawn between
the legs, and another part hung round them; the women completely
envelop themselves in it; the children very commonly go quite naked
until the twelfth year. The colour of their skin is a dark brown,
the face slightly tattooed: both the men and women braid their hair
into four plaits, which hang down upon the back of the head and
temples. The weapons of the men are stout knotted sticks; the women
are fond of adorning themselves with glass beads, mussel-shells, and
coloured rags; they also wear large nose-rings.
They are all divided into tribes, and are under the dominion of the
Porte, to whom they pay tribute; but they acknowledge allegiance
only to the sheikh elected by themselves, many of whom have forty or
fifty thousand tents under their control. Those tribes who
cultivate land have fixed dwellings; the pastoral tribes are
nomadic.
Half-way between Bassora and Baghdad, the lofty mountain chain of
Luristan becomes visible.


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