12 illustration(s) from this book
NOTE 19.--_On the opinions of the Arabs respecting Female Beauty._ The
reader should have some idea of the qualifications or charms which the
Arabs in general consider requisite to the perfection of female beauty;
for erroneous fancies on this subject would much detract from the
interest of the present work. He must not imagine that excessive fatness
is one of these characteristics; though it is said to be esteemed a
chief essential to beauty throughout the greater part of Northern
Africa: on the contrary, the maiden whose loveliness inspires the most
impassioned expressions in Arabic poetry and prose is celebrated for her
slender figure: she is like the cane among plants, and is elegant as a
twig of the oriental willow.[47] Her face is like the full moon,
presenting the strongest contrast to the colour of her hair, which (to
preserve the nature of the simile just employed,) is of the deepest hue
of night, and descends to the middle of her back. A rosy blush
overspreads the centre of each cheek; and a mole is considered an
additional charm. The Arabs, indeed, are particularly extravagant in
their admiration of this natural beauty-spot; which, according to its
place, is compared to a globule of ambergris upon a dish of alabaster or
upon the surface of a ruby.[48] The eyes of the Arab beauty are
intensely black, large, and long; of the form of an almond: they are
full of brilliancy; but this is softened by a lid slightly depressed,
and by long silken lashes, giving a tender and languid expression, which
is full of enchantment, and scarcely to be improved by the adventitious
aid of the black border of koḥl; for this the lovely maiden adds rather
for the sake of fashion than necessity; having, what the Arabs term,
natural koḥl. The eyebrows are thin and arched; the forehead is wide,
and fair as ivory; the nose, straight; the mouth, small; the lips are of
a brilliant red; and the teeth, "like pearls set in coral." The forms of
the bosom are compared to two pomegranates; the waist is slender; the
hips are wide and large; the feet and hands, small; the fingers,
tapering, and their extremities dyed with the deep orange-red tint
imparted by the leaves of the ḥennà.[49] The person in whom these charms
are combined exhibits a lively image of "the rosy-fingered Aurora:" her
lover knows neither night nor sleep in her presence, and the
constellations of heaven are no longer seen by him when she approaches.
The most bewitching age is between fourteen and seventeen years; for
then the forms of womanhood are generally developed in their greatest
beauty; but many a maiden in her twelfth year possesses charms
sufficient to fascinate every youth or man who beholds her.