The Women of Malta

New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 58, 2 August 1940, Page 5

The Women of Malta

JN the two years of occupation by the French, the Maltese women thought it necessary to protect themselves from the bold glances of the soldiers, and used to throw their outer skirt over their heads. From this habit grew the custom of wearing the faldetta. This is a heavy black silk veil gathered on to a semi-circular piece of whalebone over which it is stretched like a section of an umbrella. It is

lastened on the shoulder, the heavy folds of veil being held together in the hand, The faldetta is going out of fashion, partly because it must be worn with an entirely black outfit, and it is hot, heavy and unbecoming. " Besides," as Michael, my guide, said, "it cost £4/10/-. .. It is better to wear only the hair." The majority of the women of

Malta don’t learn English, their stay at school being too brief. Michael’s wife knew none, but he was teaching his three-year-old son. He could already say, "Hullo; Good-bye, and O.K. Dad." Provided that he has a.job, the young Maltese has no need to wait if he wishes to marry, as the girl must provide, as part of her dowry, the whole of the furnishing for the home. Although the women make the lovely Maltese lace, it is the men who sell it in the tiny shops, and fine embroidery, too. Oddly enough there is no bright coloured embroidery as in other countries. The love of colour seems to be the characteristic of the boatmen alone, a legacy perhaps from their boasted Phoenician forbears. (Talk on Malta, by Miss Edna Parson, 3YA.)