Page:Walter Matthew Gallichan - Women under Polygamy (1914).djvu/197

 is, the very slight particles of the persons of ladies which our lucky eyes were permitted to gaze on. These lovely creatures go through the town by parties of three or four, mounted on donkeys, and attended by slaves holding on at the crupper, to receive the lovely riders lest they should fall, and shouting out shrill cries of 'Schmaalek' 'Amlenck' (or however else these words may be pronounced), and flogging on the progress right and left with the buffalo-thong. But the dear creatures are even more closely disguised than at Constantinople; their bodies are enveloped with a large black silk hood, like a cab head; the fashion seemed to be to spread their arms out, and give their covering all the amplitude of which it was capable, as they beamed and ogled you from under their black masks with their big rolling eyes. The Arab women are some of the noblest figures I have ever seen. The habit of carrying jars on the head always gives the figure grace and motion, and the dress the women wear certainly displays it to full advantage."

The Persians are not so enthusiastic as the Arabs in their admiration for black eyes. They prefer gray eyes, or those that flash with the colour of red wine.

El-Sett Budur, in the "Arabian Nights," may be taken as a type of Eastern loveliness. Her hair was dark brown, and hung in three tresses that reached to her feet.