* skin.
The poorer class of Arabs of our times make use of mats in
their tents; and other inhabitants of these countries, who
affect ancient simplicity of manners, make use of goat-skins.
Dr. R. Chandler, in his Travels in Greece, tells us, that he
saw some dervishes at Athens sitting on goat-skins; and that
he was afterwards conducted into a room furnished in like
manner, with the same kind of carpeting, where he was treated
with a pipe and coffee by the chief dervish. Those that are
at all acquainted with Oriental manners, in these later
times, know that their dervishes (who are a sort of
Mohammedan devotees, a good deal resembling the begging
friars of the church or Rome) affect great simplicity, and
even sometimes austerity, in their dress and way of living.
As these dervishes that Dr. Chandler visited sat on
goat-skins, and used no other kind of carpet for the
accommodation of those who visited them: so it should seem
that the Israelites in the wilderness made use of skins for
mattresses to lie upon, and consequently, we may equally
suppose to sit upon in the day time, instead of a carpet.
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