II. 
48 CYPRUS. 
CHAP, a brown colour to tlie whitest locks, and also 
tinge their eye-brows with the same hue. The 
most splendid colours are displayed in their 
habits, which are very becoming to the girls of 
the island. The upper robe is always of scarlet, 
of crimson, or of green silk, embroidered with 
gold. Like other Greek women, they wear long 
scarlet pantaloons, fastened round the ankle, and 
yellow boots, wdth slippers of the same colour. 
Around the neck, and the head, they wear a 
profusion of gold coins, chains, and other trin- 
kets. About their waist they have a large belt 
or zone, hanging very low, and fastened in front 
by two large and heavy polished brass bucklers, 
or bosses^; some of which we saw nearly as 
large as a barber's bason. They endeavour to 
make the waist appear as long as possible, 
and the legs, consequently, short. Naturally 
corpulent, they take no pains to diminish the 
size of their bodies by lacing, but seem rather 
vain of their bulk; exposing their breasts, at 
the same time, in a manner highly unbecoming. 
Notwithstanding the extraordinary pains they 
use to disfigure their natural beauty by all 
(l) See " Douglas on the Remains of Antient Customs among tbe 
Modern Greeks," for a proof of the antiquity of this kind of ornament. 
The two bosses thus worn by Greek women are shaped like antient 
shields, and are so placed as to suggest, by their critical situation, a 
notion of their being worn as bucklers of protection. 
