Manchurian Books

There are only fifty or sixty Europeans living there.
The town is partly situated on both sides of the Tigris, but chiefly
on the east. It is surrounded by fortified walls of brick, with
numerous towers at regular intervals; both walls and towers,
however, are weak, and even somewhat dangerous, and the cannons upon
them are not in good condition.
The first thing that it was necessary for me to provide myself with
here, was a large linen wrapper, called isar, a small fez, and a
kerchief, which, wound round the fez, forms a little turban; but I
did not make use of the thick, stiff mask, made of horse-hair, which
covers the face, and under which the wearer is nearly suffocated.
It is impossible to imagine a more inconvenient out-door dress for
our sex than the one worn here. The isar gathers the dust from the
ground, and it requires some dexterity to hold it together in such a
way as to envelop the whole body. I pitied the poor women greatly,
who were often obliged to carry a child, or some other load, or
perhaps even to wash linen in the river.


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