Also tob, tope. [a. Arab. thaub (locally pronounced tōb, sōb) a garment.] A length of cotton cloth (see quot. 1889), worn as an outer garment by natives of Northern and Central Africa, and in some parts used as currency.
1835. Court Mag., VI. 34/1. His coat of divers colours, his decorated tobe, the panther skin he bestrode, his uplifted arm and threatening spear were seen throughout the field.
1843. McWilliam, Med. Hist. Niger Exped., 87. The articles exposed for sale were bags of salt…, tobes of various colours, country cloths [etc.].
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Tob, a piece of Dammour cotton cloth, sufficient to make a shirt, which passes as a currency money in Nabia.
1867. Baker, Nile Tribut., xiii. 333. The old Abou Do being resolved upon work, had divested himself of his tope or toga before starting.
1872. W. H. D. Adams, Land of Nile, IV. i. 278. They [Nubians] have no currency of their own; glass beads, coral, cotton, tobs or shirts, and samoor or cloth, they receive as money.
1889. Edin. Rev., Oct., 391. It consists, for men and women alike, of a ‘tobe,’ or straight piece of cotton cloth,… two breadths wide, and some twelve feet long, draped … about the body, and fastened on the left shoulder.
