Turban

“ A thick turban encircles his brow. He is tall and slender one moment, corpulent the next, according as the wind inflates his robe or escapes and allows it to collapse.
What a feast of color! And you notice that somehow these changing combinations always result in harmonies. One feels the same effect as though he were listening to a clash of barbarous instruments in a sweet, wild melody of the desert.
There goes a chocolate-colored Nubian, in a terra cotta tunic, carrying a shining copper kettle under each arm. His glistening feet and legs are bare. ”

“ Now, this cold weather, they are wrapped in poshteens, with or without sleeves, of very dubious cleanliness. A good serviceable garment descends from generation to generation. An enormous dark-blue puggaree encircling a little red cap forms their turban. But the headman of a village, in a richly-embroidered poshteen, ‘the woolly side in,’ like the immortal Brian O’Lynn—magnificent gold and blue turban, and long silver-mounted matchlock, is as handsome and picturesque a looking fellow as you could wish to see. ”

“ A fragment of soft silk, gleaming with gold, and a red turban were means sufficient for him to conjure up his charming and fanciful land of Turks. Sometimes even simple mortals—wood-cutters, peasant girls, and gipsies—come into his pictures, that the sunbeams may play upon them, while their picturesque rags form piquant spots of colour. ”

“ Harkness and other of the earliest writers state that the Todas never wear any covering to the head, and there is little doubt that the practice has been adopted during the last century.
At the present time a man always removes his turban when performing any act of reverence (see Fig. 10) and when crossing one of the sacred rivers.
Mr. Thurston mentions that on his first visit, the man whom he chose as his guide adopted the turban in honour of his appointment, and my guide, Kòdrner, although much younger than most of those who wore turbans, also adopted this custom when he was with me. ”

“ Under the dark fixed frown eye glitters like a serpent's.
Nearly all wear the same Indian dress; the thickly folded turban, usually white, white drawers reaching but half-way down the thigh, leaving the knees and the legs bare, and white jacket. A few don long blue robes, and wear a colored head-dress: these are babagees-priests. Most of the men look tall; they are slender and small-boned, but the limbs are well turned. They are grave—talk in low tones, and seldom smile. ”

“ The turban is the universal head-covering.
The women don loose trousers, and red or yellow iron-heeled boots, like those of the men; but over all they throw a long blue garment, which, if not tucked up under the girdle, would depend some inches below the ankles. A large blue shawl descends below the knee. Round their heads they twist black shawls, turban-wise, or they [Pg 248] wear the red fez, with a small silk handkerchief wound about it; and on the top of this, a kind of wreath made of short black fringe, worn like a diadem, but leaving the forehead free. ”

“ The two boys slipped away through the crowded street, dodging between lumbering wagons drawn by oxen, called buffaloes, and pushing their way through a crowd of folk dressed in a great variety of costumes, all in gay colours and with queer gaudy turbans on their heads. The turban forms a very important part of the dress of the Hindu, and Chola could tell by the colour and shape of each man's turban to just what caste each man belonged and what business he was in. There are many of these castes, or classes, of Hindu people, and each caste keeps strictly to itself. ”

“ A Benares gold turban, or a Bengal muslin, spotted in gold, should be worn over a turban of this sort; they are too flimsy to set properly of their own accord. A long fine Cashmere shawl forms into a beautiful turban. ”

“ I was much struck with the immense variety of turban on the men, and the choli and headgear on the women. Some of the turbans were of the size of a moderate round tea-table. Others fit the head tight. Some are worn straight, and some are cocked sideways. ”

“ When the turban is worn it is always of the pagri form, never the amāmāh. Hindus wind the pagri in various ways as described for Mussulmans, but the angles are formed over the ears and not from front to back. Mahrattas wear flat red pagris, with a small conical peak variously shaped and placed. The pagri is known in different parts of India as pāg, phentā, phag, phagdi and many other names. In Bengal a sort of turban is worn which can be taken off like a hat. When Hindus wear caps or topis they resemble those worn by Mahommedans, but they never wear the fez, tārbūsh or irāni topi. ”

“ The married women among them wear a kind of turban, generally of white, wound around their heads, while the younger ones as often as not go bareheaded, though they sometimes wear a handkerchief. They age very quickly, and the peachlike complexions and velvety dark eyes, which are most alluring, soon wither and dim. ”

“ I had purchased for the worthy Potail a handsome turban and waistband, and had prepared for him a number of other articles, one of which was an English pistol, which he had sent word by a Thug that I was to purchase for him. As soon as I arrived, I went into the village to him, and in his own house tied the turban on his head, presented him with the gifts I had prepared, and added a purse of twenty rupees.
"Ha!" said he, "what now, Meer Sahib? you are not used to be so liberal. What bunij have you, that you are come with it to my poor place, to give it a worse name than it has already?" ”

“ A man dressed after the fashion of the wealthy native gentleman of Calcutta, half European, half Oriental. But for the somewhat exaggerated white turban which covered his head, there was nothing about his apparel which need have attracted attention in the streets of Panompin or any other city in the East, save in one particular—the whole lower portion of his face, from the nose down, was concealed behind a black silk covering that extended high up on the cheeks, being secured by cords passing around the ears. ”

“ Above the forehead a mass of tangled undergrowth and ferns bears a strong resemblance to an Oriental turban. An eye is plainly indicated by a bit of light-colored stone, and altogether the face has a sinister leer, that, in an ignorant age, might easily inspire the fears of a superstitious people. ”

“ The man is not entirely naked; always there is a bit of white rag, a loin-cloth; it amounts to a bandage, and is a white accent on his black person, like the silver band around the middle of a pipe-stem. Sometimes he also wears a fluffy and voluminous white turban, and this adds a second accent. He then answers properly to Miss Gordon Cumming’s flash-light picture of him—as a person who is dressed in “a turban and a pocket handkerchief.”
All day long one has this monotony of dust-colored dead levels and scattering bunches of trees and mud villages. ”

“ Ladies sometimes wear a small turban with a gold tassel on the crown of the head. For the open air the head is covered with a turban, in front of which is a small shade, which, by means of a spring, falls down and protects the eyes and face from the sun. ”

“ The people of the villages on that part of the coast, and particularly those of the town of Rizeh, are sailors and fishermen. They are wild, reckless, handsome fellows, wearing short open jackets of scarlet or blue, with zouave trousers, purple or yellow sashes bound around their waists, and a knotted black turban with the tasselled ends hanging down over their shoulders. ”

“ The turban, especially, so identified in idea with the Moslem, was generally abandoned, except in the western provinces, where it continued in use among people of rank and wealth, and those holding places under government. A woollen cap, red or green, was commonly worn as a substitute; probably the same kind originating in Barbary, and known by the name of Tunis or Fez, which at the present day is worn throughout the East, though generally under the turban. ”

“ Sport. Mag. reprint 1873, ii. 178.
[1882.—"Presently the large square 'pug' of the tiger we were in search of appeared."—Sanderson, Thirteen Years, 30.]
PUGGRY, PUGGERIE, s. Hind. pagṛī, 'a turban.' The term being often used in colloquial for a scarf of cotton or silk wound round the hat in turban-form, to protect the head from the sun, both the thing and name have of late years made their way to England, and may be seen in London shop-windows. ”

“ After the Fanal succeeds the district of Blachernæ, where the wall, which runs from sea to sea, meets the harbour, and impends over it with its lofty battlements. From hence it reaches to Eyoub, and that singular factory is seen on the water’s edge, so peculiar to the present state of Turkey. A distinguishing characteristic of the turban was a small red cap, called a fez, which covered the crown, and round which the turban was wound. ”

“ The Turkish turban worn in Egypt is of a more elegant mode. The Syrian is distinguished by its width. The ’Ulama, and men of religion and letters in general, used to wear, as some do still, one particularly wide and formal, called a “mukleh.” The turban is much respected. In the houses of the more wealthy classes, there is usually a chair on which it is placed at night. This is often sent with the furniture 29of a bride, as it is common for a lady to have one upon which to place her head-dress. ”

“ One day the boys were rabbit-shooting and we were acting with the doctor's daughter. I had spoilt the game by running round the kitchen-garden wall instead of being discovered—as I was meant to be—in a Turkish turban, smoking on the banks of the Bosphorus. Seeing that things were going badly and that the others had disappeared, I took a wild jump into the radishes. On landing I observed a strange gentleman coming up the path. He looked at my torn gingham frock, naked legs, tennis shoes and dishevelled curls under an orange turban ”

“ The turban is smaller, and wound so that the fringes conceal both sides of the face. They have adopted the Persian “qaba,” a short tunic not reaching to the knee, and over it often wear the “sardari” or plaited frock-coat, but made in a bright-coloured velvet.
As one comes south the dress becomes more like that of the Arab. The workmanlike costume of the north, where the man is, so to speak, in his shirt-sleeves all the time, is replaced by a long tunic reaching to the ankles, over a white shirt, the sleeves of which, made like “bishop-sleeves,” touch the ground. ”

“ A red turban hangs droopingly on one side, and their waistcoats are loaded with large silver buttons, the only remains of their uncommon wealth during the war, when this little island was endowed with a fictitious importance, it can never hope to resume. ”

“ Their arms are chiefly large sabres and long bucklers. The men wear a piece of cotton cloth wrapped round their heads, the ends of which hang down behind, and adorn this species of turban with a variety of flowers. Their women wear a close habit, and a cotton mantle over their shoulders, having their arms bare. ”

“ They place one of their turbans on the head of the sheep or fowl that was sacrificed, as soon as the head falls on the ground. If the turban turns to the right, it is considered a good sign, the goddess having permitted them to proceed on the expedition; if to the left, they return home that night. Hanumān is also consulted in such expeditions, and the way in which it is done is as follows. ”

“ Like the men, they wore a black turban, one end of which hung down behind over their chignon. Their hair was drawn back from the face, in the Burmese fashion, but the chignon was placed higher up on the back of the head. Their forehead was higher than it was broad, their cheek-bones high, their nose and mouth well formed, the nose slightly expanding at the nostrils, and their face was a decided oval. Thin silver hoops, about three inches in diameter, hung from the lobe of each ear, and round their necks they wore finely plaited cane necklaces. ”

“ This is necessitated by the custom of raising the mattresses used for seats on divans, and by sitting at table on European chairs with the legs dangling in the cold. The turban has nothing of the gracefulness of its Moorish counterpart, being often of a dirty-green silk twisted into a rope, and then bound round the head in the most inelegant fashion, sometimes showing the head between the coils; they are not folds. Heads are by no means kept so carefully shaved as in Morocco, and I have seen hair which looked as though only treated with scissors, and that rarely. ”

“ The tassel on the top is the handle, by which [171] the good believer is lifted, by the angels, into Paradise!
When Taff noticed the variety of rich colors, and the beauty of the fashion of the Saracen headdress, he decided to name the new flower the Turk’s turban.
Now the word for this is tulipan, or tulip, for short. Thereupon Taff collected the seeds of this turban flower and when the war was over, he brought them to Flanders and planted them in his garden. Soon he had a tulip farm, and then orders came in, from all parts of Europe, for this wonderful flower. ”

“ Not satisfied with this curious coiffure they add to it by wrapping around the outer cap a large piece of muslin ornamented at the ends with silk or golden fringe, which stream loosely on the shoulders.
A plume of white heron’s feathers is the distinctive badge of a chief among the Uzbek Tartars.
Throughout the East the turban is generally worn, its height being a mark to denote the rank of the wearer. In color it is generally of the most brilliant hue, and of richly embroidered materials. ”