Page:The Tamils Eighteen Hundred Years Ago.djvu/138

Rh green leaves tied to a string round their waist. The wives of wandering minstrels called Pânar, who accompanied their husbands during their travels, are described as perfectly nude. In fact, nudity does not appear to have been a disgrace in ancient India.

The Tamil women wore their hair in a peculiar fashion. They divided it into five parts, twisted or plaited each part separately, and tied up the five tufts allowing the ends to hang down the back of the head in the manner they considered most graceful. They seem to have bestowed much care on the training of the hair, for it is stated that it was the custom for young girls to crop their hair with scissors, so close as to expose the skin of the head leaving five small tufts far apart from each other: and as the girls grew up, they gradually extended the tufts till they covered the whole surface of the head. This custom of women dividing their hair into five parts, before tying it up, still exists, as I understand, amongst the Burmese. It was never adopted by the Aryan women, and has now disappeared altogether amongst the Tamils.

All classes, both of men and women, applied oils to their hair. The women frequently used scents in dressing it, and ornamented it with a variety of flowers and jewellery.

Both sexes perfumed their persons with different kinds of fragrant oils, and adorned their skins with a variety of powders, of a red or yellow colour. The women painted their eyelids with a black pigment. In the houses of the higher orders, incense of benjamin, and other odoriferous gums was generally burnt. Although their clothing was scanty, the Tamil people indulged in a profusion of ornaments. Various ornaments worn round the neck, arms and waist formed the most splendid part of their costume. The chieftains and wealthy landholders wore a necklace of precious gains or pearls, and massive armlets made