Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 June 1880 — Perslan Ladies. [ARTICLE]

Perslan Ladies.

The bath la the greatest pleasure pad luxury—we might almost caH it necessity of life-pof the Persian women. They spend the greater part of their leisure time there; indeed, the Eastern ladies regard the use of the bath almost in the light of a religious duty. The bathroom in Persia ia uie temple,the newsroom, the drawing-room—all in one. The women make appointments to meet there, and they tattle and gossip away their sweet nours there, sometimes spending from seven to eight hours at a time in the carpeted saloon attached to it, —where, and in the bath, they tell stories, relate anecdotes, eat sweetmeats, smoke the naighileh (or pipe), and embellish their beautiful forms with all the fancied perfections of the East, —dyeing their hair and eyebrows, and curiously staining their ftur bodies with a variety of fantastic devices, not nnfreqnently with the figures of trees, birds and beaßta.sun. moon, and stars. The day on which the ceremony of the bath rises into a high religions exercise, according to the Persian women, is “the last Friday of the blessed month of Ramazan when, according to their own special etiquette, they ‘fought to dress superbly, and perfume themselves, and put on their best ornaments, and go to the porticoes of the mosoues.” There they “sit down and stretch out their feet, and every one must light twelve tapers, and in doing this care must be taken to lift the hand high above the head, so as to raise up the veil, as if ly accident, and thus display their beautiful faces.”- All the twelve tapers must be lighted by each maiden, and where one of the tapers is left unlighted, it is regarded as an unlucky omen. “Further, it is not at all necessary that, in lighting the tapers, silence should he observed. On the contrary, lovely women should always let their sweet voices be heard.” Such is the law of the Persian sages. ,