WOMEN UNDER POLYGAMY
Many are fair-skinned, and all have beautiful and expressive eyes, with arched eyebrows.
The following is an appraisement of Persian loveliness by Shereef-Eddin Romi, quoted by Havelock Ellis[1]:—
"A Persian treatise on the figurative terms relating to beauty shows that the hair should be black, abundant, and wavy, the eyebrows dark and arched. The eyelashes also must be dark, and like arrows from the bow of the eyebrows. There is, however, no insistence on the blackness of the eyes. We hear of four varieties of eye: the dark grey eye (or narcissus eye); the narrow elongated eye of Turkish beauties; the languishing or love-intoxicated eye; and the wine-coloured eye. Much stress is laid on the quality of brilliancy. The face is sometimes described as brown, but more especially as white and rosy. There are many references to the down on the lips which is described as greenish (sometimes bluish) and compared to herbage. This down and that on the cheeks and the stray hairs near the ears were regarded as very great beauties. A beauty spot on the chin, cheek or elsewhere were also greatly admired and evoked many poetic comparisons. The mouth must be very small. In stature a woman must be tall and erect, like the Cyprus or the maritime pine. While the Arabs admired the rosiness of the legs and thighs, the Persians insisted on white legs and compared them to silver and crystal."
The cultivation of physical beauty is an important part of a Persian girl's education, and the standard of bodily perfection is somewhat exacting. Nevertheless, as several travellers testify, facial loveliness and symmetry of form are not the sole attractions. Very frequently a plain woman, possessed of sprightliness and amiability, is more cherished by a husband than
- ↑ "Psychology of Sex" series, "Sexual Selection in Man," Havelock Ellis.
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