But aside from mere poetical comparisons, we find the Arabs had a well-ordinated law of beauty, which even a Greek sculptor could scarcely have found fault with, although more severe in some respects than the Hellenic ideal. The Arab's estimate is based on a consummate knowledge of comparative artistic anatomy, the rare knowledge of an accomplished stockraiser applied to human anatomy, physiology and osteology. So minute, indeed, are the descriptions of female beauty in the old Arabian poets that they can seldom be faithfully translated; the general idea can alone be given. There were recognized laws of beauty for every finger of the hand, every separate toe of the foot. Every dimple had a special name. That of the chin was called _nounah_; that at the corner of the lips, _rababah_; the little hollow of the upper lip, immediately beneath the nasal cartilage, _djirthimah_; the hollow of the throat, between the collarbones, _thograh_; the dimple of the thumb-joint, near the wrist, _kouit._ Furthermore, there was not merely one recognized type of beauty; there were several types. A woman was called _melihah_, beautiful, only if so charming that every time looked at she seemed more graceful than before. A woman was called _djemilah_ if merely pretty,--if seeming to be exquisitely lovely at a distance but only graceful near by. The curve of beauty--the magical line whose secret is popularly supposed to have been known only to the Greeks, was also known to the Arabs, though they did not perhaps ever succeed in expressing it in ivory or marble; and could only find poetical comparisons for it in the undulation of waves or the rounded outlines of the sandbillows. Lips slightly pouting apart, so as to show a pearly gleam within, were also considered a beautiful possession. 'Why are thy lips so sweetly open?1 asks a desert poet of his beloved. 'Eh!' she replied, 'when the fig ripeneth to give its honey it openeth; the rose openeth also when the dew cometh to kiss it.' Complexion was also a subject of æsthetic study,--especially in regard to smoothness and clearness of skin, being compared to ivory rarely, often to the shell of the ostrich-eggs,--a simile used by Mahomet in his description of the girls of Paradise.