Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-02-04

years, and some of the awestruck peni-
tents carried that badge of degradation
night and day, and might have consent
ed to surrender their teeth, as we'll as the
privilege of snarling, but at the mere
mention OF an order to curtail their pig
the flames of revolt would
nave blazed out more fiercely than ever.
n Buddhist missionaries used to
boast that they could make converts re-
nounce all their earthly possessions, but
In China they We're probably discreet
enough not to attack worldly ~vanities
with the edge of a razor.
The Turban fashion, though slightly
less Ugly, is almost as foolish from a
standpoint of comfort and hygiene. II
a warm climate it greatly aggravates the
alillctlons OF the vertical sun without
mitigating its glare, and would seem al
together more suitable for the natives of
the higher ATTITUDES, yet it's benefits are
experienced only by a few million high
landers of the Caucasus and the Afghan
NeVadas. Nine-tenths of the urban
Wearers are inhabitants of the tropics.
me absurd fashion prevails in Persia,
Mohammedan, HindOStan, Asia Minor,
Egypt, the MOslem Soudan. and all along
the south coasts of the Mediterranean
even in the seaports of Morocco, where
IiS oullIlIltI neat gets so fearful that
steamers. scudding along with a favor
able breeze, have now and then to re-
verse their course i. e., steam in the
teeth or the win for a few hundred knots
TO save their deck hands from sunstrokes.
In Darfotir, too, the thermometer often
rises to 120 degrees F. in the shade. but
the followers of the prophet stick to the
contrivance that keeps their heads in
a stew of perspiration, and pity the ig-
norance of the Ab%yssinian misbelievers
who prefer to go bareheaded. Burkhardt
on his foot tour through the interior of
Arabia, found all sheiks, teachers and
prosperous traders heavily turbaned,
and came to the conclusion that the Gus
tom is considered a badge of orthodoxy,
but admits that devotion could hardly
be put to a severer test. 1T seems as
strange he says, las if some Scandi-
navian messiah had persuaded his disci-
pies to trudge barefoot through 20 inches
of snow"
Turban wearing, however, was in vogue
centuries before the birth of Mohammed,
and one might suppose that the survival
of the fittest would gradually have pre-
vailed against the worship of the Gus
tom, but it has done nothing of the kind.
Five hundred and thirty years before
the beginning of our chronological era,
King Cambyses Of Persia landed a large
army in Lower Egypt, and the next day
encountered the defenders Of the Delta
and Pelusium, where his tactics finally
triumphed, but 100 years later the skulls
Of his soldiers could still be distinguished
from those Of the Egyptians. The latter
being accustomed to go b~areheaded,
their ~brainboxes had defied the ravages
of time, while those of their urban
wearing conquerors had down
to the jaWbones.
To adjust a turban in the proper fash
inr ,o11,ipoe nrnatiop and n1tjancp and
laziness, if not common sense, has in
duced the modern Turks to compromise
the grievance by means Of a fez, orig
inally puckered. in imitation of a folded
head shawl, but now mostly worn
straight, like the skull cap Of the German
students.
The mere sight of that heresy makes
true believers groan with dismay, and
the orthod Arabs denounce their con-
uuerors with terms including an epithet
which literally means scandal heads.
The father of the present shah Of Per-
STA, too, passed for a skeptic, because
h used to wear a tasseled fla cap, and
occasionally even DOTTED it in the pres
ence of distinguished foreign visitors,
while his vizier stood shrouded IKE a
, mummy of the past.
Turbans probably originated on the
chilly tablelands of central Asia, where
they proved useful enough for eight
months in the year; but how shall we
account for the cumbrOus waist scarIS
which the Brahmin Hindoos persist IN
wearing through the warmest summer OF
their bake-oven climate? A belly oand
of that sort requires from 20 to 60 yards
of dry goods. and Sir Samuel Baker, in
relating the wild freaks of his hunting
expeditions, mentions the capture OF a
young elephant by means OF a rope
twisted from the endless coils of calico,
which he made his coolies unWrap for
hat purpose. Yet a learned Brahmln
made a fairly plausible apology for that
custom by assuming the mpossibility OF
preventing the use of s~uperfuous tegu-
ments. eff a surplus of that sort must
be tolerated. he says, lit is fortunate
enough if it's habitues do not use 1t IN
a manner to impede the freedom or thelf
motions. Waist wraps do not hinder
their Wearers from running, climbing OF
swimming, and are out ana out less oi
an cumbran tina the afm-lhcoil-
moding toga which the Intelligent Greeks
and enterprising Romans continued 'o
wear for so many centuries.
TT would be a mistake to suppose that
MongOlian females are compelled to GRIP
pie their feet-perhaps as mlschleVous
,Jacuuemont suggests, by husbands wish
ing to impede the ~escapades or thelf pet
, ter halves. Girls of s or 9 years already
yearn to fall in line with the Waddllne
procession of fashion worshipers, and
will not stop teasing until their little toes
have been doubled up like the claws OF
a chilblained chicken.
Soudanesc virgins, too, feel ill at ease
till their cheeks have been properly sac
rificed and covered with permanent swell
ines. resembling buttons on the collar OF
q dress coat. They appear to consider an
unbuttoned face an absolute lndecency