Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-11-03

shown by her sex in any country OF the
world. The most of her beauty how
ever. disappears With maldenhood. When
she is married she shaves of her
eyebrows and blackens her teeth, and this
eyebrow shaving and teeth backing is one
of the most disgusting of the old customs OF
japan. The Empress and the ladies of the
court are discouraging it, and its days are
probably numbered 1t originated, I am
told. in the desire of the husband to show
that she cared nothing to make herself
attractive to others after she was married,
seeming to lose sight of the fact that she
might make herself disgusting even to her
husband. 1t is on the same principle that
widows shave their heads in Japan, and that
old maids shave off their eyebrows in order
to show that they have given up all hope of
marriage. Suppose every old maid in the
United States should put her forehead into
the hands of the barber tomorrow, think
what a havoc the ugliness produced would
cause in the families owning the eighty
thousand odd unmarried girls in Massachu-
sets.
SHoRT-HAIRED SIAMESE GIRLS.
Siam is the land of the short-haired girl
All of the women of this country wear their
hair from one to two inches long, and their
locks stand up like black or gray bristles
ont from their cream-colored faces. A
Siamese buttercup of 16, with her plump,
yellow cheeks, her bright, black eyes, and
| her 1.-THE. symmetrically formed frame,
loosely clad in the Siamese sarong, is q
| beauty. notwithstanding that her black hair
| Is short. and that her teeth are Redeemed with
betel-nut chewing. She is as straight as an
arrow and as graceful as gazelle, and her
hair makes you think of the saucy page boy
| of the stage.
The children of Siam have their heads
shaved with the exception of a lock on the
| crown. This is not allowed to be touched
until thew reach manhood, and the ceremony
of cutting it off is one of the greatest events
of the child's life. The hair-cutting of q
| nrince belonging to the royal family costs
| thousands of dollars. A great feast is given,
and the barber who does the work receives q
valuable present. He clips the locks with
Golden shears. and shaves the spot with q
eilded razor. When the heir apparent tc
the throne is shaved in this way the whole
nation reioiees. There is a grand fes
tival at Bangkok, in which the royal whitC
elephants take part, and feasting goes OF
for DAYS. Poorer children have this hail
cutting done at Buddhist temple, and thu
priest acts as barber. The BUDDHIST prlest
all over the East shave their heads, anC
there are 10000 bare-psted priests in Bang
kok alone. All of the males in the king
dom are supposed at some time in thei
lives to become priests, and everywhere yov
90 you see these bare-hesded, bald-headed
yeIiow-skinned anatomies stalking about
with yellow sheets wrapped around thei
otherwise naked frames.
IoNG-HAIRED BURMESE.
The Burmese are proud of their lonI
hair, and both women and men let thei
locks grow as long as they will They ar
very superstitious as to the day for washing
the head. and they consider it unlucky +
wash the head on Mondays, Fridays, o
Saturdays. They will not cut their hair Of
. Mondays or Fridays, nor on their birth
! davs, and as the birthday of the Burmal
, comes once a week, many of the people ar
! restricted 10 TOUR days Tor ,haIr-eutting
! They have many superstitions in regard +
their hair, and this is the same in Chin
? and Korea. It is legend in China that n
thick-haired man has ever held the plac