DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11636#0291
262
TRAVELS IN UPPER
especially in the country, have no other clothing
but a species of large tunic with sleeves, extremely
wide, and which serves at once for gown and shift;
it is open on both sides from the arm-pit down to
the knee, so that the movements of the body are
easily seen through the apertures ; but women
there are little concerned about that, provided the
face is not exposed to view.
It is not sufficient for opulent and idle women
to be adorned with so many natural charms; they
must besides endeavour to increase and set off
beauty by the assistance of the arts of the toilette,
which is likewise with them an object of superior
importance. But this art consists entirely in an-
cient and invariable usages: fashion never de-
ranges the uniformity of their practices, never in-
volves them in caprice upon caprice; and if an-
cient and unchanging modes be a proof of slight
advancement toward perfection, may it not like-
wise be affirmed, that a restless versatility in fa-
shion is a symptom of degeneracy in those whom
it torments ?
The most remarkable trait of beauty, in the East,
is large black eyes, and it is well known that nature
has made this a characteristic sign of the women
of those countries. But, not content with these
gifts of nature, those of Egypt employ every effort
of
TRAVELS IN UPPER
especially in the country, have no other clothing
but a species of large tunic with sleeves, extremely
wide, and which serves at once for gown and shift;
it is open on both sides from the arm-pit down to
the knee, so that the movements of the body are
easily seen through the apertures ; but women
there are little concerned about that, provided the
face is not exposed to view.
It is not sufficient for opulent and idle women
to be adorned with so many natural charms; they
must besides endeavour to increase and set off
beauty by the assistance of the arts of the toilette,
which is likewise with them an object of superior
importance. But this art consists entirely in an-
cient and invariable usages: fashion never de-
ranges the uniformity of their practices, never in-
volves them in caprice upon caprice; and if an-
cient and unchanging modes be a proof of slight
advancement toward perfection, may it not like-
wise be affirmed, that a restless versatility in fa-
shion is a symptom of degeneracy in those whom
it torments ?
The most remarkable trait of beauty, in the East,
is large black eyes, and it is well known that nature
has made this a characteristic sign of the women
of those countries. But, not content with these
gifts of nature, those of Egypt employ every effort
of