"دليل الجزيرة العربية المجلد II" [‎١‎٤‎٦‎١] (٦٨٨/٥٣٤)

for no
QARA
1461
doubted whether they are really a part of the Arab race. They are an active and well-
built people, too slender to be termed athletic and formed for agility and en
durance rather than for strength. The typical Qara face is oval, with a forehead
low but not receding, a prominent frontal sinus, and eyebrows horizontal rather than
arched. The cheek bones are high and prominent ; the nose is long ; the lips are thin,
the upper one short; and the chin tends to protrude. The Qaras have generally hand
some features and a pleasant expression.
Character, religion and language. —The Qaras appear to be excitable and untrust
worthy. They profess Islam and undergo circumcision, but they pay little atten
tion to other forms or ceremonies and are regarded as heathens by the ordinary
Arab. Their beliefs are said to relate chiefly to Jinns and sorcery, but they are classed
as Sunnis. No specimens have as yet been obtained of their language which has been
described as a dialect of Mahri.
Food and clothing. —The food of the Qaras is chiefly milk and flesh with honey,
wild fruits, roots and vegetables. They are much addicted to smoking, and the men
all carry short pipes carved out of stone. The clothing of the male sex is a piece of cloth
7 cubits long by 4 cubits broad, fringed or tasselled at the ends ; this they wrap round
their loins allowing it to hang down to their knees like a short kilt. The men wear
their hair long and secure it in a bunch by means of a leather fillet or a cord made of
their own hair ; the fillet serves upon occasion for many other purposes. The women
dress in a piece of cloth measuring 9 cubits by 2 cubits ; it is fashioned with short
sleeves and descends a little below the knee in front, while behind it trails upon the
ground ; in addition to this they throw a cloth 4 cubits long by 2 cubits wide over the
head and shoulders. Female ornaments are nose and toe-rings, armlets and necklaces
of silver ; the women divide their hair in the middle and collect it on each side in a tress
which passes behind the ear and hangs loosely over the breast. The garments of both
sexes are dark blue, being dyed with indigo, and men and women alike mark them
selves upon the cheekbones with 3 vertical cicatrices.
Mode of life and customs. —During the greater part of the year the majority of the
Qaras inhabit thatched huts, and a few of them live in small tents ; but in the 3 winter
months they occupy caverns. Certain of their cave-dwellings are of great size, accom
modating the flocks and herds as well as the families of the owners ; in some there is
an upper storey. One of these caverns at Dirbat is 150 feet in span, 50 feet high and
30 feet deep.
The Qaras keep camels, cattle, sheep and goats ; they have very little cultivatio n
They subsist chiefly by collecting frankincense and other gums but they deal also to
a small extent in hides and ghi.
The Qaras salute strangers by touching fingers with them, they do not shake hands.
Qara relations kiss one another upon each cheek by way of greeting. A distinctively
Qara custom is to slaughter a bullock at the grave on the occasion of a funeral and to
distribute the meat to the assembled poor. As a race the Qaras are quarrelsome and
addicted to mutual slaughter. The blood-feud is tempered only by the employment
of Rabi's, or third persons specially engaged as protectors, whose duty it is to" take up the
feud should the person for whose safety they are responsible be attacked while under
their protection. Qara disputes, so far as they are not fought out with arms, are settled,
by the authority of elders.
Arms. —The arms of the Qaras are a wooden, shark-skin, basket-work or metal shield,
about feet in diameter and conical in shape, which is also used as a stool, as. a head
dress and for carrying water; a throwing-stick a yard long and pointed at both ends
which they can deliver with great precision at 30 feet, causing it to turn over once in
its flight, and can also make to ricochet along the ground ; and an iron sword without
a guard, straight-bladed, 3 feet long and 2 inches broad, which they carry on the right
shoulder without a scabbard. The throw-stick, which is called Ghatrif, is made of a
specially hard wood called miat, which grows in the mountains. The sword is sometimes
of German manufacture. They also wear daggers and a few of them have muzzle
loading guns.