Page:Travels & discoveries in the Levant (1865) Vol. 1.djvu/231

Rh that I was taking notes of their dresses, an aged crone stepped forward on behalf of her sex, and initiated me into the arcana of Rhodian toilette with a frankness which left nothing for the imagination.

A Rhodian contadina may be thus described: her head is covered with a Fez cap of red cloth; outside which a shawl is wound round the crown of the head; outside the shawl again a muslin veil hangs down from the back of the neck in true antique style, with an inner veil appearing underneath it. On the front of the head is a gold or silver ornament of a triangular form fastened to the shawl; in the centre is a large garnet, and from the base of the triangle hang ornaments, suspended by little chains. This kind of ornament is clearly of Byzantine origin.$80$ So much for the head-dress.

With regard to the rest, the innermost garment is a shift, falling nearly to the ancles; then comes a garment without sleeves, reaching about half-way down the leg, under the skirt of which the edge of a pair of trousers is just visible. Over this is worn a jacket with sleeves. Round the waist is a girdle, loosely and gracefully tied, though I cannot say that it had any of the magic influence which Homer attributed to the cestus of Venus.

Quaint Turkish slippers, turned up at the toes, and clean white stockings complete this dress, in which, as in most things in the Archipelago, there is a mixture of classical and Turkish fashions.