* 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.