The Women, Who, Owing Probably To The Number Of Female Slaves, Are Much
The More Numerous, Appear Beautiful By Contrast With Their Lords.
They
have small heads, regular profiles, straight noses, large eyes, mouths
approaching the Caucasian type, and light yellow complexions.
Dress,
however, here is a disguise to charms. A long, wide, cotton shirt, with
short arms as in the Arab's Aba, indigo-dyed or chocolate-coloured, and
ornamented with a triangle of scarlet before and behind--the base on the
shoulder and the apex at the waist--is girt round the middle with a sash
of white cotton crimson-edged. Women of the upper class, when leaving the
house, throw a blue sheet over the head, which, however, is rarely veiled.
The front and back hair parted in the centre is gathered into two large
bunches below the ears, and covered with dark blue muslin or network,
whose ends meet under the chin. This coiffure is bound round the head at
the junction of scalp and skin by a black satin ribbon which varies in
breadth according to the wearer's means: some adorn the gear with large
gilt pins, others twine in it a Taj or thin wreath of sweet-smelling
creeper. The virgins collect their locks, which are generally wavy not
wiry, and grow long as well as thick, into a knot tied _a la Diane_ behind
the head: a curtain of short close plaits escaping from the bunch, falls
upon the shoulders, not ungracefully. Silver ornaments are worn only by
persons of rank.
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