Title: Women of all nations, a record of their characteristics, habits, manners, customs and influence;
Year: 1908 (1900s)
Authors: Joyce, Thomas Athol, 1878-1942 Thomas, Northcote Whitridge, 1868-
Subjects: Women
Publisher: London, New York (etc.) : Cassell and Company, limited
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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ilybuilt, rather than svelte, she is inclined toover-stoutness, and her build produces in middle age a tendency to become somewhatunpleasantly coarse and fat. Her feet andhands are small, but the latter are inclinedto be somewhat too stumpy and fiat und(>r-neath. Her joints are, as compared witlithose of Europeans, mar\ellously small andsupple. On the other hand, it must beremembered that the Malay standard of awomans comeliness is not ours; and it isat least interesting to see how well theMalay description of a beautiful woman em-phasises the chief jwints of a typicalspecimen of the race. Her brow, as we read in many Malaypoems and romances, should be like the one-day-old moon, her eyebrows arched likethe curved spur of the fighting-cock or likewaved handwriting—anyone who is ac-quainted with the long and delicate curvesof the Arabic caligraphy as employed by theMalays will appreciate the vividness ofthis comparison. Her cheek should re-semble the soft, smooth side of the mango-

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MARRIED MALAY_ WOMAN OF TRENGGANU. Dressed in a short jacket [baju) of Kelantan make, with two sarongs in place of skirls, one worn above the other. 196 WOMEN OF ALL NATIONS fruit ; her nose should be hke an openingjasmine-bud, or a freshly-sharpened reed-pen (the converse of the Shakespearian read-ing of his nose was as sharp as a pen,which latter was hardly intended, perhaps,as a comphment). Her ear should be likea fading lotus or water-lily ; her luxuriantraven-black hair like the crisped blossom-shoots of the areca-palm. Her neck shouldhave a triple row of dimples ; her breastsshould be full and ripening, and her waistlissome as the stem of a flower. Her heelshould be of a perfect oval, like the eggof a bird ; her fingers should resemble thelance-like leaves of the lemon-grass, or taperat both ends like the quills of the porcupine.Her eyes should be as the splendour of theplanet Venus, and her lips like the crimsonfissure of a bursting pomegranate. Before betrothal, some represent

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