MOSLEM FEMALES.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3907, 28 January 1884, Page 4

MOSLEM FEMALES.

Tho women in Turkey havo been ordered by an imperial irade to show as little as possible of their faces. They arc hercnftoi to revert to the traditional costume oi Moslem females, and go about tho streets like bales of cloth, without even openings for the eyes. In one respect, however, this may bo called an improvement, for it is better for the impressionable tourist that ho should see the houri of Stamboul or Cairo stumbling along like a ridiculous chrysalis or rag doll, and be left entirely to his own imagination as to the personality that may be concealed inside, than that he should be tormented by the glimpse of large black oyes laughing at his hopeless scrutiny, and be made miserable by tho translucent veil that suggests a faultless face. Not that those who have been admitted to the contemplation of Turkish beauty bear out current legends on the subject, for every description of the imperial or noble harem yet published assures us that the favourites of the Turk are neither graceful, pretty, nor young; and, of course, if this is the universal rule, tho veils cannot be made too thick or the swathing too voluminous.