But the use of the Umbrella travelled westward, and with it the custom of regarding it as a mark of dignity.
Amongst the Arabs the Umbrella was a mark of distinction. Niebuhr, who travelled in Southern Arabia, describes a procession of the Iman of Sanah. In it the Iman and each of the princes of his numerous family, caused a _madalla,_ or large Umbrella, to be carried by his side; and it is a privilege which, in this country, is appropriated to princes of the blood, just as the Sultan of Constantinople permits none but his vizier to have his caique, or gondola, covered behind, to keep him from the heat of the sun. The same writer goes on to say that many independent chiefs of Yemen carried _madallas_ as a mark of their independence.
In Morocco, according to a passage quoted by a writer in the _Penny Magazine_ from the Travels of Ali Bey, the emperor alone and his family are allowed to use it. "The retinue of the Sultan was composed of a troop of from fifteen to twenty men on horseback. About a hundred steps behind them came the Sultan, who was mounted on a mule with an officer bearing his Umbrella, who rode by his side also on a mule. The Umbrella is a distinguishing sign of the sovereign of Morocco. Nobody but himself, his sons, or his brothers dare to make use of it." In Turkey the Umbrella is common. A vestige of the reverence once attached to it remains in the custom of compelling everybody who passes the palace where the Sultan is residing to lower his Umbrella as a mark of respect. And--at all events some years back, before the Crimean war had introduced so many Europeans to Constantinople--any one neglecting to pay the required reverence, stood in considerable danger of a lively reminder from the sentry on duty.
Before concluding this chapter, it may not be out of place to make a few remarks as to the origin of the word Umbrella, as we have done regarding the thing itself. The English name is borrowed from the Italian _Ombrella_. The Latin term _Umbella_ is applied by botanists to those blossoms which are clustered at the extremities of several spokes, radiating from the common stem like the metallic props of the Umbrella. The name, as is seen, does not give the slightest idea of the use of the article designated, as is often the case with words we practical folk employ; and we might well take a lesson from our cousins German or French, who have invented distinct names for the weapon used to ward off the rays of the sun, and that employed against rain, namely,--Regenschirm, _parapluie;_ Sonnenschirm, _parasol._ These are better than our names, even though both the French words labour under the disadvantage of being hybrids, half Greek and half Latin.