AND LOWER EGYPT. 2%) 



The idea of a very fat woman is almost always 

 associated in Europe with that of softness of flesh, 

 of the flattening of forms, of defect of the elasti- 

 city of the contours. It would be a mistake to 

 think this is a representation of the women of Tur- 

 key, in general, where they all endeavour to get 

 into flesh. It is, in the first place, indubitably 

 certain that the women of the East, more favoured 

 of nature, preserve longer than others their firm- 

 ness of flesh ; and that attractive property, added 

 to the softness, to the fairness of their skin, to 

 the freshness of their carnation, renders them very 

 agreeable, very desirable masses, when their em- 

 bonpoint is not carried to excess. 



Moreover, there is no country in the world 

 where the women carry farther an attention to 

 cleanliness, than in those countries of the East. 

 The frequent bathings, the perfumes, the employ- 

 ment of every art that can soften and embellish 

 the skin, to preserve all their charms, nothing is 

 neglected, and the most minute details succeed 

 each other with a scrupulous exactness. Such 

 pains are not thrown away. Women are no 

 where more constantly beautiful ; no where is the 

 talent of seconding nature better understood ; no 

 where, in a word, are women more skilled, nor 

 more practised in the art of retarding and of re- 

 pairing the ravages of time ; an art which has its 



t 4 principles 



