LETTER xxxn KURDISH CLOTHING 353

slightly receding; the brow broad and clear; the hands
and feet remarkably small and slender.

The women when young are beautiful, but hard work
and early maternity lead to a premature loss of form,
and to a withered angularity of feature which is far from
pleasing, and which, as they do not veil, is always en
Evidence.

The poorer Kurds wear woollen socks of gay and
elaborate patterns; cotton shoes like the gheva of the
Persians; camlet trousers, wide at the bottom like those
of sailors; woollen girdles of a Kashmir shawl pattern;
short jackets and felt jerkins without sleeves. The
turban usually worn is peculiar. Its foundation is a
peaked felt cap, white or black, with a loosely-twisted
rope of tightly - twisted silk, wool, or cotton wound
round it. In the girdle the klianjar is always seen.
Over it the cartridge belt is usually worn, or two
cartridge belts are crossed over the chest and back.
The girdle also carries the pipe and tobacco pouch, a long
knife, a flint and steel, and in some cases a shot pouch
and a highly-ornamented powder horn.

The richer Kurds dress like the Syrians. The under-
garment, which shows considerably at the chest and at
the long and hanging sleeves, is of striped satin, either
crimson and white or in a combination of brilliant
colours, over which is worn a short jacket of cloth or silk,
also with long sleeves, the whole richly embroidered in
gold. Trousers of striped silk or satin, wide at the
bottom; loose medieval boots of carnation-red leather; a
girdle fastened with knobbed clasps of silver as large as
a breakfast cup, frequently incrusted with turquoises; red
felt skull-caps, round which they wind large striped
silk shawls, red, blue, orange, on a white or black ground,
with long fringed ends hanging over the shoulders, and
floating in the wind as they gallop; and in their girdles

VOL, II 2 A