'IRAQ AND THE PERSIAN GULF' [‎233r] (470/862)

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PEOPLE 345
bers, and lentils, and also numerous fruits, while elsewhere melons
and gourds may be found. Date-juice syrup (dhibs) and honey are
the sweetening agents. Meat—lamb, kid, camel, chicken, or occasion
ally gazelle—is a rarity, being eaten once or twice a week or only at
festivals. Other luxuries are coffee (gahwa), sweetened tea (chat),
sugar, and very long and mild cigarettes. Araq, a strong spirit
distilled from dates, is drunk only in small towns and cities and never
by strict Moslems. German officers in 1941 commented on the
inadequacy of this diet, as issued to the Iraqi army, for fighting men.
Meals are normally eaten without the use of implements sitting
on the ground around a great tray on which the food is piled. But
liquids such as buttermilk are served in bowls and ladles; tea and
coffee in small glasses.
Fuel is very scarce, particularly in the plains. Timber shipped
down the rivers by kellek or shakhtur is expensive, and much use is
made of dried dung, camel thorn, and date fronds.
Clothing
Formerly in Iraq a man’s rank and religion could be told by his
headgear; hence the importance of this topic. Now European dress
has made disastrous incursions into city life and high society, though
the sidara or national hat fortunately replaces the bowler. In the
countryside native dress is worn. But even in Baghdad Moslem dress
is as common as European, and ladies of high society who wear
‘Paris fashions’ at home usually don the Arab costume out of doors
or as an over-dress. European dress is increasingly common for
both sexes in schools and institutions.
Arab dress is fairly uniform. Men wear a long cotton shirt or
dishdashi buttoned to the throat over a cotton vest and pants, and
covered by a light brown cloak of camel-hair or wool, the aba. The
head is covered by a white, or black and white, or red and white cloth,
the kaffiya, held in place by a brown or black coil of wool or rope, the
agal. Feet are bare or covered by sandals of home-knitted string
tops and leathern bazaar-made soles. Shaikhs wear a white kaffiya
with an agal of silver or gold thread, and a long tight over-garment,
the zibun, which has long sleeves and opens unbuttoned in front.
Women’s dress does not differ greatly from the men’s. Out of doors
one vast shapeless aba is worn over the shoulders and another over the
head, enveloping the whole person. Beneath this on special occasions
a fine zibun is worn over the dishdashi. Indoors the zibun is covered