The ladies in Japan gild their teeth; and those of the Indies paint them
red. The pearl of teeth must be dyed black to be beautiful in Guzerat.
In Greenland the women colour their faces with blue and yellow. However
fresh the complexion of a Muscovite may be, she would think herself very
ugly if she was not plastered over with paint. The Chinese must have
their feet as diminutive as those of the she-goat; and to render them
thus, their youth is passed in tortures. In ancient Persia an aquiline
nose was often thought worthy of the crown; and if there was any
competition between two princes, the people generally went by this
criterion of majesty. In some countries, the mothers break the noses of
their children; and in others press the head between two boards, that it
may become square. The modern Persians have a strong aversion to red
hair: the Turks, on the contrary, are warm admirers of it. The female
Hottentot receives from the hand of her lover, not silks nor wreaths of
flowers, but warm guts and reeking tripe, to dress herself with enviable
ornaments.
In China, small round eyes are liked; and the girls are continually
plucking their eye-brows, that they may be thin and long. The Turkish
women dip a gold brush in the tincture of a black drug, which they pass
over their eye-brows. It is too visible by day, but looks shining by
night. They tinge their nails with a rose-colour. An African beauty must
have small eyes, thick lips, a large flat nose, and a skin beautifully
black. The Emperor of Monomotapa would not change his amiable negress
for the most brilliant European beauty.
An ornament for the nose appears to us perfectly unnecessary. The
Peruvians, however, think otherwise; and they hang on it a weighty ring,
the thickness of which is proportioned by the rank of their husbands.
The custom of boring it, as our ladies do their ears, is very common in
several nations. Through the perforation are hung various materials;
such as green crystal, gold, stones, a single and sometimes a great
number of gold rings.[65] This is rather troublesome to them in blowing
their noses; and the fact is, as some have informed us, that the Indian
ladies never perform this very useful operation.
The female head-dress is carried in some countries to singular
extravagance. The Chinese fair carries on her head the figure of a
certain bird. This bird is composed of copper or of gold, according to
the quality of the person; the wings spread out, fall over the front of
the head-dress, and conceal the temples. The tail, long and open, forms
a beautiful tuft of feathers. The beak covers the top of the nose; the
neck is fastened to the body of the artificial animal by a spring, that
it may the more freely play, and tremble at the slightest motion.
The extravagance of the Myantses is far more ridiculous than the above.
They carry on their heads a slight board, rather longer than a foot, and
about six inches broad; with this they cover their hair, and seal it
with wax. They cannot lie down, or lean, without keeping the neck
straight; and the country being very woody, it is not uncommon to find
them with their head-dress entangled in the trees. Whenever they comb
their hair, they pass an hour by the fire in melting the wax; but this
combing is only performed once or twice a year.
The inhabitants of the land of Natal wear caps or bonnets, from six to
ten inches high, composed of the fat of oxen. They then gradually anoint
the head with a purer grease, which mixing with the hair, fastens these
_bonnets_ for their lives.