404 



MODERN EGYPT. 



brows, and hair with a black colour, and they are dressed in the 

 costume of the higher order of Arab women. I saw an example of 

 this in the dress worn by the wife of an Italian merchant at an en- 

 tertainment given in Alexandria by the English commander in chief. 

 The dress with the ornaments was valued at two thousand pounds. 

 Her hair was remarkably long, and was divided behind into about 

 forty tresses ; each tress was plaited, one half of it being adorned with 

 Venetian sequins, the other half with a string of pearls; at the bottom 

 of each tress was an emerald. The ornaments were placed at equal 

 distances in all the tresses. When the hair is not long enough to 

 extend to the extremity of the waist, it is lengthened by silk of the 

 same colour. The head-dress was composed of a scarlet skull-cap 

 with a black silk tassel in the centre, and nearly covered with different 

 ornaments set with small rubies and emeralds. Round the head was 

 a kind of turban formed by handkerchiefs, one placed upon another, 

 until they projected as much as the brim of a man's hat. In the 

 front of this turban was a handsome diamond ornament, and little 

 gold chains with brilliants were festooned from the bottom of it over 

 the side of the face and ears. She wore a handsome but ill-formed 

 necklace of pearls, in the centre of which was seen an emerald valued 

 at three hundred pounds. On her body was a close vest of superb 

 cloth of gold with long sleeves ; at the opening of which for the hands, 

 appeared an ornament similar to ruffles, made of a manufacture com- 

 mon in the East of striped silk and gauze. This vest reached from 

 the bosom to the ankles nearly, and fitted close over the trowsers, 

 which were made of striped satin and silk of Damascus manufacture. 

 Over the vest she wore a garment like an open gown without a train, 

 made of very fine fawn-coloured German cloth trimmed with narrow 

 gold lace. The whole of the dress had an elegant and singular 

 appearance. This woman with her husband and family was then at 

 Alexandria, going to Italy to reside there, her husband having made 

 a handsome fortune in Cairo. It was probably the last time she 

 would wear that dress, and she was unusually fine. 



Some of the Coptic women are fair and beautiful. The features 



