144 
A CRUSADE IN THE EAST. 
and eyebrows, or black paint, that made the very darkness 
there more beautiful than light elsewhere ; so liquid with nat¬ 
ural tear-drops, or the glare of the sun ; these, these it was that 
brought on the tenderness; these, and the lips which were 
parted with a smile of triumph, and looked as if they had just 
been kissed by the breath of a frosty morning, or bathed in twi¬ 
light dews, or sweetened with a stick of candy, which she hap¬ 
pened to be sucking at the moment; and her form ! it was so 
round and soft, and shook so like jelly at every step! But it 
is entirely useless to undertake a description of her undulating 
walk: it was the very poetry of motion ; rolling in her yellow 
boots as gracefully as ever rolled a Dutch galliot in the trades. 
Mashalla ! I saw no more that day. 
The Armenian women are very much superior in personal 
beauty to any I have seen in Constantinople; indeed, to any 
of the Oriental castes, not excepting the far-famed Circassians. 
The best specimens of the latter that I had the fortune to see 
were gross and expressionless in feature, and without that 
compactness and elasticity of form which the more civilized 
world has assumed to be essential in female beauty. A cer¬ 
tain obesity, very attractive to semi-barbarous people, is cul¬ 
tivated to perfection in the Circassians, and the most highly 
admired seemed to be those who bear the greatest resemblance 
to a balloon, and who are least capable of exercising the 
powers of locomotion. The Armenians, however, are tall and 
graceful, and of much greater delicacy of feature, and in form 
they approximate more nearly than any I have seen to what 
has been assumed by common consent as the standard of per¬ 
fection. I saw many in my rambles about the heights of 
Chamlula who were really fine looking women ; their dark 
hair twisted loosely under their head-dress ; their complexion 
of the most delicate texture; their eyes bright and not alto¬ 
gether expressionless, fringed with long black lashes ; and their 
forms showing to advantage in a costume resembling what 
certain of the fair sex at home have attempted to force into 
fashion in our matter-of-fact part of the world. And here, by 
way of parenthesis, let me hope that, should that costume 
prevail, it will never be followed by any attempt to introduce 
