Evening star., 1902-08-09
ANCIENT COSMETICS.
Face Painting an Art of Almost Pre-
historic Origin.

From the London Dressing Table.
The fashion of painting the face dates
from time immemorial and is of no modern
growth; therefore, the dressing table of
the Notwithstanding woman, with its cos
metlcs and its face powders, is really no
new thing; but since the use Of cosmetics
in any liberal degree was out of general
favor for years the lavish revival of the art
of face painting may justly be considered
modern.
What first inspired women to paint their
faces is unknown, but the fashion NAV
have had its origin in a custom of the saw
ages of prehistoric times, who colored their
bodies with brilliant or duh pastes as the
case might be, in order to render them
selves fascinating to the women or repul-
slVe to their enemies in battle. 1t is re-
corded that amid the remains of the ear
Hest peoples fragments of limonite-a bril-
lant red-and Of manganese ore-whicf
produced black-have been found and Her.
odotus says: When the Ethiopians go to
war they rub half of the body with plaster
and the other half with vermillion"
Face painting is believed to have been in
vogue 1000 B. c., for We are told that in
the tombs of women belonging to the old
est Chaldean civilization Jumps of black
coloring stuff, which served to paint the
eyebrows, We're found.
The Bible makes several illusions to the
use of cosmetics among the women folk
We read of painted Jezebel looking out at
a window on the arrival Of Jehu at Jezreel,
and jeremiah says: I'm vain you paint
the circle Of your eyes with antimony
your lovers will despise you" We are re-
minded, too by modern writer that "the
author Of the Book of Enoch assures us
that even before the deluge the angel Azael
had taught the daughters of men the art Of
painting the face" These biblical allu-
sons to the vanities of women suggest
modern love iS
too deeprooted to be easily overcome, and
may, in fact, be regarded as an inheritance
from some Of the earliest peoples
In the use of antimony there was origi-
nally no doubt a motive other than vain
one, the eyebrows and eyelashes being
blackened in order to shield the eyes from
the dazzling light, in the same way that
Indian mothers today protect the eyes of
their babies with kohol. The ancient Egyp-
tians were great patrons of the use of
paint for toilet purposes, and the Greek
women at an early date painted themselves
with rouge. Max Beerbohm, in his De
fense of Cosmetics" tells US that ''at Rome,
In the keenest time of her delingolade.
great ladies. according to Lucian, did not
scruple to squander all they had upon un-
guents from Arabia
The use of rouge in Rome was originally
reserved for religious purposes-to paint
the statues of the gods on festal days. In
the time of the Caesars face painting was
carried to excess by the Roman women,
who tricked themselves into greater charm
by the aid of their paint boxes, so that it
was said Of them, 'two-thirds of the wo-
men are shut up in paint boxes" Poppaea
the unhappy wife of the Emperor Nero,
introduced a celebrated cosmetic known as
Poppaean paste, which was composed of
bread and flour and asses milk, and for
the making Of which she kept a train of
asses. The paste was of so thick a con-
sistency that the face when spread with it
was like plaster.