A pilgrimage to the temples and tombs of Egypt, Nubia, and ...

NUBIAN WOMEN. 193
were occasionally reduced to great hardships
whenever the Memlooks intercepted the arrival
of provisions from the other side of the river.
However, he was ultimately relieved by a force
coming from Lower Egypt, which raised the
siege, and the Memlooks took their definitive
departure for Dongola, where, after murdering the
native sovereign, they established themselves. It
was after this successful campaign against them
that the residue of their body who remained in
different parts of Egypt received Mohammed
All's permission to return to Cairo, where, as I
have already related to you, they were sacrificed
to his cold-blooded policy.
The women in this part of Nubia uncover their
faces, and wear cotton drawers fastened at the
ankle ; the girls, until they are marriageable, no-
thing but the girdle of leathern fringes I have
already described to you. Their hair is separated
into innumerable meshes, each of which is twist-
ed round a thin piece of tightly curled wood-
shaving, and nevei' undone or combed ! These
spirals are steeped in castor oil, upon which the
dust collects and remains until it is washed off by
a fresh application of grease ; being very profuse
and cut square at the bottom, these Nubian
coiffures of twisted hair look exactly like enor-
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