The Arabs paint their arms, lips, and different parts of their body, of a deep blue, which they penetrate into the flesh by means of a kind of needle contrived on purpose, and it can never be effaced. This custom is also common among the negroes who traffic with the Mahometans. Some of the young girls among the Arabs paint various devices on their bodies, of a blue colour, which is done by vitriol on the point of a lancet, and this they consider as an embellishment to their beauty. La Boulaye says, that the Arabian women of the Desert paint their hands, lips, and chin, of a blue colour; that in their noses they mostly have gold or silver rings, of three inches in diameter; that though born fair, they yet lose all their complexion by being constantly exposed to the sun; that the young girls are very agreeable, and immoderately fond of singing; that their songs are not melancholy and plaintive like those of the Turks and Persians, but more strange, they raise their voices as much as possible, and articulate with prodigious velocity. "The Arabian princesses and ladies," says another traveller, "are very beautiful, and being always sheltered from the sun, are very fair. The women of the inferior classes are not only naturally tawny, but are rendered much more so by the sun, and are of a disagreeable figure. They prick their lips with needles, and cover them with gunpowder, mixed with ox-gall, by which the lips are rendered blue and livid ever after. In like manner they prick the cheeks, and each side of the mouth and chin. They draw a line of black along the eye-lids, as also on the outward corner of each eye, that it may appear more expanded, for large and prominent eyes are considered the principal beauty of the Eastern women. To express the beauty of women, the Arabs say, "She has the eyes of the antelope." To this animal they always compare their mistresses; and black eyes, or the eyes of the antelope, never fail to be the burden of their love songs. Than the antelope nothing can be more beautiful; and it particularly discovers a certain innocent fear, which bears a strong resemblance to the natural modesty and timidity of a young woman. The ladies, and women newly married, blacken the eye-brows, and make them unite on the middle of their forehead; they also prick their arms and hands, and form upon them figures of animals, flowers, &c. They also paint their nails of a reddish colour. The men paint the tails of their horses with this colour. The women wear rings in their ears, and bracelets upon their arms and legs." To this account it may be added, that the Arabs are all jealous of their wives, and that, whether they obtain them by purchase or carry them away by force, they treat them with, mildness and even with respect.