CYPRUS. 49 
sorts of ill-selected ornaments, the women chap. 
of Cyprus are handsomer than those of any '- y ■> 
other Grecian island. They have a taller and 
more stately figure; and the features, parti- 
cularly of the women of Nicotia, are regular 
and dignified, exhibiting that elevated cast of 
countenance which is so imiversally admired 
in the works of Grecian artists. At present, 
this kind of beauty seems peculiar to the 
women of Cyprus: the sort of expression ex- 
hibited by one set of features may be traced, 
with different modifications, in all. Hence 
were possibly derived those celebrated models 
of female beauty, conspicuous upon the statues, 
vases, medals, and gems of Greece; models 
selected from the throng of Cyprian virgins^ 
who, as priestesses of Fenus, officiated at the 
Paphian shrine ^ Indefinite as our notions of 
beauty are said to be, we seldom differ in 
assigning the place of its abode. The same 
charms which, in former ages, gave celebrity 
to the women of Circassia, still characterize 
their descendants upon Mount Caucasus; and 
while we point out the natural residence of 
beauty, we may refer to countries where it 
never was indigenous. Foremost in the liiSt 
of these, may be mentioned Egypt. The 
(2) *' ubi templum illi, centumque Sabaeo 
Timre calctit ane, sertisque reccntibus halant." 
