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 body, with curving outlines. From this period women seem to have cultivated plumpness. The chief characteristics of an Egyptian beauty were brilliant eyes, a soft skin, and a full figure. In Turkey most women desire to be fat, and they eat fattening food for that purpose. It is said that women of Eastern countries maintain the firmness of their flesh much longer than their sisters of the West.

The beards of the men in Egypt are much admired by women. A man should have a flowing beard, and a woman long hair. Herodotus states that the priests of ancient Egypt cut off their beards as a mark of sorrow and mourning. The Jews also cultivated the long beard.

Women in the harems of Cairo strive to increase the size and the brightness of their dark eyes by the use of kohl, which was a custom of the older days in Israel, and is still practised in India. To enhance the blackness and expression of the eyes Egyptian women of all classes stain the eyelids with galena. The lashes are also darkened.

The origin of veiling the faces of Mohammedan women is actually much older than the advent of Mohammed. This custom prevailed in very early times among the Arabs. In ancient Arabia men of fine and attractive countenaces wore the veil as a defence against the glance of malign spirits. Have-