Omaha daily bee., 1889-11-03

her eyebrows and blackenS her teeth,
and this eyebrow shaving aud teeth
blacking is ono of the most disgusting
of the old customs in Japan. The emp
ress and the ladies of the court are dis
couraging it, and its days are probably
numbered. 1t originated. 1 am told, in
the desire of the husband to show that
she cared nothing to make herself at
tractive 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 prin-
ciple 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 bar
Der tomorrow, think what havoc the
| ugliness produced would cause in the
families owning the eighty thousand
odd unmarried girls in Massachusetts.
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,
aud their locks stand up like black or
gray bristles out from their cream-col
Ored faces. A Siamese buttercup of
sixteen, with her plump, yellow cheeks,
her bright black eyes, and her 1.-the,
symmetrically formed frame, loosely
clad in the Siamese sarong, is a 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 her hair makes you think
of the saucy page boy of the stage. Take
the same girl thirty years later. Her
plump cheeks are sunken, her cheek
bones stand out and her jet black eyes,
Gull and lifeless, look out of hollow
| sockets. The skin of her forehead is
stretched with wrinkles like the cor
rugatiOns of wash board, and over
this stands out this short white or gray
hair. Her mouth has been discolOred
and spoiled with betel-nut chewing,
and her collar bone is the frame upon
which the parchment-like skin of her
person seems to hang. The old women
of Siam are the homeliest old women in
the world, and If one married a Siamese
girl he would need to keep barrel OF
BrOwn-Sequard elixir on hand. This
aging is most rapid in the lower classes.
where the work is hard and the customs
of the people tend to make old age
come quickly.
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 they reach man hood, and
the ceremony of cutting it off is one of
the greatest events OF the child's life.
The hair cutting of a prince belonging
to the royal family costs thousands of
dollars. A great feast is given and the
barber who does the work receives
valuable present. He clips the locks
with golden shears and shaves the spot
with "a gilded razor. When the heir
apparent to the throne is shaved in this
way the whole nation rejoices. There
is n grand festival at Bangkok, in
which the royal white elephants
take part and feasting goes on
for days. Poorer children have
this hair-cutting done at Buddhist
temple, and the priest acts as barber.
The Buddhist priests all over the east
shave their heads. and there are &c, 900
bare pated priests in Bangkok alone.
All OF the males in the Kingdom are
supposed at some time in their lives to
become priests, and everywhere you go
you see these bare-headed, baid-headed,
yellow-skinned anatomies stalking
about, with yellow sheets wrapped
around their otherwise naked frames.
The Burmese are
PROUD OF THEIR LONG HAIR
and both women and men let their locks