Clothing.   119

on this framework, and receive the full benefit of the heat. Their steam passes readily upwards.

To keep Clothes from the wet.-Mr. Parkyns says, " I may as well tell, also, how we managed to keep our clothes dry when travelling in the rain : this was rather an important consideration, seeing that each man's wardrobe consisted of what he carried on his back. Our method was at once effective and simple : if halting, we took off our clothes and sat on them ; if riding, they were placed under the leathern shabraque of the mule's saddle, or under any article of similar material, bed or bag, that lay on the camel's pack. A good shower-bath did none of us any harm ; and as soon as the rain was over, and the moisture on our skins had evaporated, we had our garments as warm, dry, and comfortable, as if they had been before a fire. In populous districts, we kept on our drawers, or supplied their place with a piece of rag, or a skin ; and then, when the rain was over, we wrapped ourselves up in our ` quarry,' and taking off the wetted articles, hung them over the animal's cruppers to dry." Another traveller writes:-