“The women of Circassia,” says Struys, “are also exceedingly fair and beautiful. Their complexion has the finest tints, their forehead is large and smooth, and, without the aid of art, their eye-brows are so delicate, that they appear as curved threads of silk. Their eyes are large, expressive, and full of fire; their noses finely shaped, and their lips perfect vermilion; their mouths are small, and constantly expressive of smiles, and their chins form the termination of a perfect oval. Their necks and breasts are admirably formed; their stature is tall, and the shape of their body easy; their skin is white as snow, and their hair of the most beautiful black. They wear a little black stuff cap, over which is fastened a roller of the same colour; but, what is truly ridiculous, the widows, instead of this roller, wear the bladder of an ox, or a cow, blown out as much as possible, which disfigures them amazingly. In summer the inferior classes wear nothing but a shift, which is open down to the middle, and is generally blue, yellow, or red. Though tolerably familiar with strangers, they are faithful to their husbands, who are by no means jealous of them.”
Tavernier says also, that the women of Comania and Circassia are, like those of Georgia, very shapely and beautiful; that they retain the freshness of their complexion till the age of 45 or 50; that they are all very industrious, and often employed in the most servile offices. In marriage these people possess an uncommon degree of liberty. If the husband is not contented with his wife, and he makes his complaint first, the lord of the district sends for the wife, orders her to be sold, and provides the husband with another. If the woman complains first, her husband is taken from her, and she is left at her freedom.
The Mingrelians are said to be as beautiful, and as well shaped as the Georgians or Circassians; and, indeed, they all seem to be of the same race. The women of Mingrelia, says Chardin, are very handsome, have a majestic air, their faces and forms are admirable, and have a look so engaging as to attract every beholder. Those who are less handsome, or advanced in years, daub their eye-brows, cheeks, forehead, nose, and chin, with paint; the rest only paint the eye-brows. They bestow every possible attention to their dress, which is similar to that of the Persians. They are lively, civil, and obliging, yet full of perfidy, and there is no wickedness they will not put in practice, in order to obtain, to preserve, or get rid of a lover. The men have likewise many bad qualities. They are all bred up to thievery, which they make a business and amusement. With infinite satisfaction do they relate the different depredations they have committed, for which they are extolled, and derive their greatest glory. In Mingrelia, falsehood, robbery, and murder, they call good actions; whoredom, bigamy, and incest, virtuous habits. The husbands are little disturbed with jealousy; and when he detects his wife in the actual embraces of her gallant, he has only a right to demand a pig from him, which is his only atonement, his only revenge; and the pig they generally eat between them. They pretend it is a very good and laudable custom to have a number of wives and concubines, because they can have a greater increase of children, whom they can sell for gold, or exchange for goods or provisions. The Mingrelian slaves are not very dear. A man from the age of 25 to 40 is purchased for 15 crowns, and if older for eight or ten, a handsome girl, from 13 to 18 for 20 crowns; a woman for 12 crowns; and a child for three or four.
The Turks, who purchase a vast number of these slaves, are so intermixed with Armenians, Georgians, Turcomans, Arabs, Egyptians, and even Europeans, it is hardly possible to distinguish the real natives of Asia Minor, Syria, and the rest of Turkey. The Turkish men are generally robust, and tolerably well made, and it is rare to find a deformed person among them. The women are also commonly beautiful, and free from blemishes; they are very fair, because they seldom stir from home, and never without being veiled.
According to Belon, there is not a woman in Asia whose complexion is not fresh as a rose, whose skin is not fair, delicate, and smooth as velvet. Of the earth of China, diluted, they form a kind of ointment, with which they rub all over their bodies before they bathe. Some likewise paint their eye-brows black, while others eradicate the hairs with rusma, and paint themselves eye-brows in the form of a cresent, which are beautiful when viewed at a distance, but quite the reverse when examined more closely. This custom is very ancient. Among the Turks, he adds, neither men nor women wear hair on any part of the body, the head and chin excepted; that they use rusma mixed with quick lime, and diluted in water, which they apply before they go into the warm bath, and so soon as they begin to sweat in thus bathing the hair rubs off with the hand, and the skin remains soft and smooth, as if there had never been any upon it. He remarks further, that in Egypt there is a shrub called Alcanna, the leaves of which dried and powdered make a reddish yellow colour, which the women of Turkey use to colour their hair, hands, and feet. With this they also tinge the hair of their infants, and the manes of their horses. The Turkish women employ every art to add to their beauty, as do also the Persian, but the articles they use are different, as the men of the former prefer red, and those of the latter brown complexions.
It has been pretended that the Jews, who came originally from Syria, and Palestine, have the same brown complexion they had formerly. As Misson, however, justly observes, the Jews of Portugal alone are tawny. As they always marry with their own tribe, the complexion of the parents is transmitted to the child, and thus with little diminution preserved, even in the northern countries. The German Jews, those of Prague, for example, are not more swarthy than the other Germans.
The present natives of Judea resemble the other Turks, being only a little more brown than those of Constantinople, or on the coasts of the Black Sea, in like manner as the Arabians are more brown than the Syrians, from their situation being more southern.
It is the same with the Greeks. Those of the northern parts are more fair, while those of the southern islands, or provinces, are brown. Generally speaking, the Greek women are more handsome and vivacious than the Turks; they also enjoy a greater degree of liberty. Carreri says, the women of the island of Chio are fair, handsome, lively, and very familiar with the men; that the girls see strangers without restraint; and that they all have their necks uncovered. He likewise says, that the Greek women have the finest hair in the world, especially in the vicinage of Constantinople; but that those whose hair descends to the heels, have features less regular.
The Greeks consider large eyes, and elevated eye-brows, as a very great beauty in either sex; and we may remark in all busts and medals of ancient Greeks, the eyes are much larger than those of the ancient Romans.