In the land of the lion and sun, or, modern Persia : $b Being experiences of life in Persia from 1866 to 1881Wills, C. J. (Charles James)
History
In the land of the lion and sun, or, modern Persia : $b Being experiences of life in Persia from 1866 to 1881
Wills, C. J. (Charles James)
Iran -- Description and travel; Wills, C. J. (Charles James), 1842-1912 -- Travel -- Iran
Silver is only worn by the very poor: coral only by negresses.
Necklaces and bracelets are much worn, and numerous chains with
scent-caskets attached to them; while the arms are covered with clanking
glass bangles, called “Alangū,” some twenty even of these hoops being
worn on an arm.
Jewelled “Bazūbund,” containing talismans, are often worn on the upper
arm, while among the lower orders and South Persian or Arab women
nose-rings are not uncommon, and at times bangles, or anklets of beads,
on the ankles.
The face on all important occasions—as at entertainments, weddings,
etc.—is usually much painted, save by young ladies in the heyday of
beauty. The colour is very freely applied, the cheeks being reddled,
as are a clown’s, and the neck smeared with white, while the eyelashes
are marked round with kohl (black antimony). This is supposed to be
beneficial to the eyes, and almost every woman uses it—very needlessly,
as the large languishing eye of the Persian belle needs no adventitious
aid. The eyebrows are widened and painted till they appear to meet, while
sham moles or stars are painted on the chin and cheek—various in their
way, as the patches of the eighteenth-century belles: even spangles are
stuck at times on the chin or forehead. Tattooing is common among the
poor and villagers, and is seen among the upper classes.
The hair, though generally hidden by the chargāt, is at times exposed and
plaited into innumerable little tails of great length, while a coquettish
little skull-cap of embroidery or shawl or coloured silks is worn. False
hair is common. The Persian ladies’ hair is very luxuriant, and never
cut; it is nearly always dyed red with henna, or black with indigo to
a blue-black tinge; it is naturally a glossy black. Fair hair is not
esteemed, and I have been asked to condole with ladies in their grief
in being the possessors of fair locks. At Ispahan so universal is this
feeling that a young half-caste lady having beautiful golden hair, dyed
it on her marriage to a pre-Raphaelite auburn, to please her Baghdadi
husband.
Blue eyes are not uncommon, but brown ones, like those of the
full-blooded Jewess, are the rule: a full-moon face is much admired, and
the possession of a dark complexion termed “nummak” (salt) is the highest
native idea of beauty.
Most Persian women are small, with tiny feet and hands. The figure,
however, is always lost after maternity, and they wear no support of any
kind.
A very short jacket of gay colour, quite open in front, and not covering
the bosom, with tight sleeves with many metal buttons, is usually worn in
summer: a lined outer coat in cold weather.
In winter a pair of very short white cotton socks are used, and tiny
slippers with a high heel; in summer in the house ladies go often
barefoot.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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