, 1888-11-09
TYPES OF BEAUTY.
SO Possibility of Arriving at Any Stand
ard-Some Odd Ideas.

ard-Sone Odd Ideas.
Various, indeed, are the opinions held
by n wide diversity of races regarding
their beauties, though it is often difficult
for people bred under another sky to
share their enthusiasm. The Circassian
women, who nave a sort of conventional
reputation for loveliness, are affirmed by
those who know them best to be far from
worthy of their celebrity. Short legs,
glaring red hair, faces so long and mar
row that their heads seem to have been
squeezed bet veen two boards and fiat
tened, noses out of proportion to the rest
OF the catures and compilations of q
dull, lead like hue, scarcely constitute
beauty according to our standard. The
Moors and the Tunisian Jews regard cor
pulence as absolutely essential to beauty,
and the inmates of rich mems harems are
stuffed with nutritious food, like Stras-
bourg geese for the market. The Chi
nese poets sing of the dcformed feet as
golden lilies" and the rocking of their
women in attempting to walk as the
waving of a willow"
Other races nave equally odd ideas of
what constitutes loveliness, for they ''im-
prove their persons by flattening their
foreheads, tattooing their skins, cutting
off their fingers, filing their teeth or
dyeing them black, blue or tartan, paint
ing their bodies, Sitting their ears, com
pressing their waists, putting stones, bone
or metal through their lips, cheeks, or
ears, and in n dozen other ways trying to
enhance the poor prentice work of nature.
4 Felatah lady dyes her hands and feet
with hennah, stains her teeth alternately
blue, yellow and purple, n here and
.l.... l.s,-- l.f. - a.. -.t,-.l ~. 49,.
ellis her eyelids with sulphuret of anti
mony. and dyes her locks with indigo.
The Hydah woman inserts a plug of
wood or ivory through her lower lip until
it represents the hideous appearance of a
fleshy shelf over her chin. A Chinese or
q Siamese lady cultivates long nails. A
Hottentot belle cannot get her nose fiat
enough, or a Parsian beauty hers high
enough.
On the northwest coast of America nc
reproach is more bitter than for one In
dian girl to tell another that ''your mo
thcr vas too lazy to flatten your head"
Tattooing is almost universal among half
civilized or savage races; in New Yea
land the Maori women, before they began
to imbibe European prejudices, even tat
sooed their lips, lest they should have
the reproach of being red. Some
races slit their ears until they hang in
loops on their shoulders. Others insert
huge rings and other ornaments through
the cartilage of their noses. The Louisi-
ade Islanders regard the lid of a sardine
box as a particularly neat piece Of jew
CRY, and even European women have
not yet ceased to suspend bits of stone
and metal through the lobes of their ears.
There is, in truth, no possibility of ar
irving at any standard of beauty, the
points" of which would not do injustice
TO some of the competitors. Even among
the whites there are various ideas OF
what constitutes good looks. Like man
ners and morals, beauty Is very much o
matter of sky. Just as an Indian told q
traveller what n comfort his son was to
him, because ''he could steal moro horses
than any boy of his age" so a western
frontiersman assured a visitor That his
daughter was the finest girl in the
settlement, for she could 'heft a barrel
of pork and lick her weight in wild
cats. London Standard.