BEAUTIFUL WOMEN.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCIII, Issue 10599, 7 March 1895, Page 3

BEAUTIFUL WOMEN.

(Mascot,) In every country of the world & different, standard of female beauty ia eet up, and ifc must have been the knowledge of this fact that made B philosopher remark that every women in ,the world, whatever might be her peculiarities of form and feature, might be beautiful in the eye? of someone.

Apart from nature, however, from all time women have used artificial means for increasing their charms, and the quaint methods to which they resort are, after all, only on a level with the rouge and pearl powder of n beauty of Western Europe or United States.

The women of Japan are lovely with gilt teeth, those of the Indies prefer them stained red, while the beauties of Guzurat invariably stain them red. In. Greenland the women colour their faces with blue and yellow pigments, and the prettiest Muscovite girl must daub her fresh, clear skin with coarse red and white paint before she can hope for admiration. The smallness of the feet of the Chiness ladies is too well known to need more than a passing reference. In Persia an aquiline nose is an essential to both male end female beauty, and not int'requeuly out of a family of sons the succession to the crown hss bean determined by the shape of the claimants’ noses. In Persia red hair is viewed with horror, end ia always dyed. In Turkey, on the contrary, it is counted a great beauty, and the women use quantities of henna to alter the tints of their naturally raven locks. In some countries the mothers break the noses of their daughters to render them attractive, while in others the heads of newly-bom infants are bounds between boards to make them grow either elongated or cquare. The female Hottentot, in addition to being enormously fat, must, if she would wra a lover, garnish hor ample person with the reeking entrails of oren and sheep. In China, where moat eyes are narrow and long, a small round eye is considered an extraordinary beauty. Chinese girls pluck their eyebrows to msko them very fine. The Turkish women paint their eyebrows with gold. At night the effect ia very odd, but not exactly displeasing. An African beauty must have very small oyef, pouting thick,lips, a lunge nose perfectly fiat, and a jetty skin, which from constant oiling positively glitters in the sunshine. According to European ideas of feminine charms a nose ring is an objectionable superfluity. The Peruvians, however, think otherwise. They pierce the noses of their women, and hang thereto a weighty ring, the thickness of which to the rank of their husbands. Among the Hindoos the fashion of nese-bering is vary prevalent. Very often a number of perforations are made, through which are hung tiny rings of green jade, silver, gold, turquoises, or crystal beads strung upon a fine wire, rings of glass, copper, ivory, or, in fact, any material that may come to hand, Ears are also bored to an extravagant extent iu some countries,and often a dusky beauty will have the entire rims of both pais garnished with innumerable rings of gold or silver. Among the Maoris-the principal art of self -beautification is tattooing. A young Maori girl of high degree ia frequently

tattooed on evory inch of her body in the most marvellous designs and _ colours. Among other tribes it is considered a.' powerful adjunct to the mere charms of nature to slash the face, arias, and breast of a giii with knives, and to keep thfl cuts so mado open for a Jong time, until they heal up in a aeries of frightful cicatrices, all edged and puckered. Bad, yellow, and white paint are the principal toilet articles of a North American Indian belle. . # ■ In Spain the youngest and freshest girls paint and powder most absurdly, while in Venice the celebrated Titian rod ■ hair in still the height of fashion and biant-y, and as such ie obtained &t th® endless cost of time and trouble. The groat aid to femalo beauty, the headdress, is carried in eomo countries to or. absurd idea of extravagance. The Hottsntols mix oarth and grease-with their wool until the whole mass attains the hardness and weight-of a hugs .piece of wood. ... Tho women of the island of /Natal are when young decorated with a cap froin six to ten inches high, according to their rank, made from the solidified fat/of oxen. The hair is than trained over this, and affixed to it by'more grease, the erection remaining undisturbed for their lives. The fashionable headdress of tha Mgantsea is even more absurd. They carry on their heads* piece of board over a foot in length and about gix inches wide. Their hair is drawn over end round this board, and then covered with war. They enu neither lean back nor lie down without keeping their necks quite straight. Twice a year tha wax is melted from the hair by a hot fire, and the hair is combed, cleansed, and than redressed as before. . Painting tho eyes and eyelids is considered a great aid to-the fasdnatious of the female orbs. A Circassian to be really lovely must, in addition to being very corpulent, have golden hair and jot black Inohas. Ale, stiffened with kahl kohl, is also used by tha Persian and Armenian women to lengthen their syer. Tha bazaar women and xtHutch girls of moot Eastern countries dye- their finger-nails with henna, and whore they wish to be thought great ladies they allow their finger-nails to grow to immenso length, aud keep them in finelywrought gold sheaths. Among tha Jews the woman when married shave their heads aud wear black wigs. In other countries the two top front teeth of a married woman are drawn.