BEAUTY

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 155, 27 March 1926, Page 16

BEAUTY

AS OTHER NATIONS SEE IT There is a hackneyed tale that an -’’Oriental in an English country town happened one day to pass the fat woman of the fair in the street, whereupon, after one dazzled glance at the mountain of flesh that waddled by, he fell to the pavement quite overcome, murmuring: “Now, Allah be praised, who has permitted me to see such beauty before I die I” ' If this is true, the Oriental cannot have been an Arab—at least, not a cultivated Arab. It is certainly true that Arabs, Turks, and kindred peoples hate feminine scragginess, but they intensely admire supple and willowy figures. The best proof of this is that the student will find certain classic phrases, faithfully reflecting the Arab ideal of women’s beauty, included in his primer. “An arm of alabaster,’’ “lips red as the kermes” (red fig), “almond-shaped face,” “gazelle eyes,” “tress, of jet falling to the knee,” "figure of a young palm.” This calls up no mean illusion -of a white-skinned, black-haired maiden with a figure that, like the young palmtree, sways in the wind, so slim and light it is! The Slav, on the other hand, demands no perfection of shape or colouring in a woman. Above all things, he worships the face that expresses character. To him no eyes convey a message unless they burn with temperamental fire. There is a certain famous Rhssian dancer whose smalll, sallow, almost simian features are only, redeemed by blazing dark eyes and an entrancing smile. To her compatriots she is a type of perfect beauty, but the most that the average Englishman can say of her is that she has an “interesting” face! To the Englishman regular features, beautiful hair, and a fresh complexion are' indispensable. He will still call a girl a beauty if she is narrow-chested and stooping, provided her face is prettv enough; the expression of that face 'to him is unimportant.

As for the French—those connoisseurs of the feminine—the most perfect face would fail to please them if it were coupled with a shapeless figure. A lovely ankle and wrist, an eloquent eye, and a still more eloquent tongue—these command Gallic homage. Would a Turk have admired blonde

Grecian Helen? Would swart Cleopatra have enslaved a Briton ? Probably not I It is just as well, .perhaps, that one man’s beautv is another man’s betc noir. Were.'it not so, this distracted globe would be fuller still of love-mad swains and deserted husbands. As; it is.:

If she be not fair for me, -What care I how fair she bet

The tea-cosy has passed through many changes of x style, but until recently it has not been improved upon in . any practical way. Now, however, a combined cosy and teapot stand is ■ . made which appears to be a very neat and useful invention. The frame or stand, which is covered by the cosy, is made of aluminium, and js strong but light in weight. The cosy opens, much like a handbag, from the top, the teapot' being set down on the stand and covered by closing the sides of the cosy. In appearance this cosy looks like any other; in fact, it can be made up in any style, or from any material, as the framework is obtainable without the cover, but the invention is seen at its best when made up, and there are ' some beautiful specimens shown in the shops. It keeps the teapot away from the tablecloth, and is in every way as efficient as the ordinary cosy, but is far more useful.