Jewelled “Bazūbund,” containing talismans, are often worn on the upper arm, while among the lower orders and South Persian or Arab women nose-rings are not uncommon, and at times bangles, or anklets of beads, on the ankles.
The face on all important occasions—as at entertainments, weddings, etc.—is usually much painted, save by young ladies in the heyday of beauty. The colour is very freely applied, the cheeks being reddled, as are a clown’s, and the neck smeared with white, while the eyelashes are marked round with kohl (black antimony). This is supposed to be beneficial to the eyes, and almost every woman uses it—very needlessly, as the large languishing eye of the Persian belle needs no adventitious aid. The eyebrows are widened and painted till they appear to meet, while sham moles or stars are painted on the chin and cheek—various in their way, as the patches of the eighteenth-century belles: even spangles are stuck at times on the chin or forehead. Tattooing is common among the poor and villagers, and is seen among the upper classes.
The hair, though generally hidden by the chargāt, is at times exposed and plaited into innumerable little tails of great length, while a coquettish little skull-cap of embroidery or shawl or coloured silks is worn. False hair is common. The Persian ladies’ hair is very luxuriant, and never cut; it is nearly always dyed red with henna, or black with indigo to a blue-black tinge; it is naturally a glossy black. Fair hair is not esteemed, and I have been asked to condole with ladies in their grief in being the possessors of fair locks. At Ispahan so universal is this feeling that a young half-caste lady having beautiful golden hair, dyed it on her marriage to a pre-Raphaelite auburn, to please her Baghdadi husband.
Blue eyes are not uncommon, but brown ones, like those of the full-blooded Jewess, are the rule: a full-moon face is much admired, and the possession of a dark complexion termed “nummak” (salt) is the highest native idea of beauty.
Most Persian women are small, with tiny feet and hands. The figure, however, is always lost after maternity, and they wear no support of any kind.
A very short jacket of gay colour, quite open in front, and not covering the bosom, with tight sleeves with many metal buttons, is usually worn in summer: a lined outer coat in cold weather.
In winter a pair of very short white cotton socks are used, and tiny slippers with a high heel; in summer in the house ladies go often barefoot.
The rest of the costume is composed of the “tūmbūn,” or “shulwar;” these are simply short skirts of great width, held by a running string; the outer one usually of silk, velvet, or Cashmere shawl, often trimmed with gold lace, according to the purse of the wearer; or among the poor, of loud-patterned chintz or print. Beneath these are innumerable other garments of the same shape, and varying in texture from silk and satin to print.
The whole is very short indeed; among the women of fashion merely extending to the thigh, and as the number of these garments is amazing, and they are much bouffée, the effect of a lady sitting down astonishes the beholder, and would scandalise the Lord Chamberlain. As the ladies are supposed, however, to be only seen by their lords in these indoor dresses, there is perhaps no harm done.
Indecency, too, is very much an idea, for a Persian lady, who will thus expose her extremities and the greater part of her trunk, will carefully veil her face, showing nothing but the eyes. The ladies of rank, however, have no shame of any kind, and display very redundant charms. The indoor costume of the Persian lady is in fact exactly that of the corps de ballet, but shorter: while in winter, an over-mantle like the “kolajah” or coat of the man, and with short sleeves, lined and trimmed with furs, is worn; this gives the costume a peculiarly graceful appearance.