The hairstyle depicted in the first two drawings shows the shaven head with a tuft of hair worn by the travelling Arab and described by Burton in his Pilgrimage: 'When travelling, the Shushah is allowed to spread over the greatest portion of the scalp, to act as a protection against the sun; and the hair being shaved off about two inches all round the head, leave a large circular patch. Nothing can be uglier than such tonsure, and it is contrary to the strict law of the Apostle, who ordered a clean shave, or a general growth of hair. The Arab, however, knows by experience, that though habitual exposure of the scalp to a burning sun may harden the skull, it seldom fails to damage its precious contents. He, therefore, wears a Shushah during his wanderings, and removes it on his return home. Abu Hanifah, if I am rightly informed, wrote a treatise advocating the growth of a long lock of hair on the Násiyah, or crown of the head, lest the decapitated Moslem's mouth or beard be exposed to defilement by an impure hand. This would justify the comparing it to the "chivalry-lock", by which the American brave facilitates the removal of his own scalp.' (R.F. Burton, op. cit., I, p. 163)

The first two drawings may conceivably be self-portraits by Burton on the pilgrimage in 1853. Of the six additional caricatures, one ("The bird as would fight") was published in Lady Isabel Burton's AEI, opposite p. 26 under the title 'An Englishman with the "spleen" at Venice'. Another, caricaturing a British officer, includes a figure in Arab dress which may represent Burton