y a string attached to a wallet made of rushes
neatly plaited of small strips skinned from their outside after
they had been for some time exposed to the heat of the fire;
which being thrown on her back, the string passing under one arm
and across her breast, held the soft rug in a fanciful position
of considerable elegance; and she knew well how to show to
advantage her queenlike figure when she walked with her polished
yam stick held in one of her small hands and her little feet
appearing below the edge of the rug" (W. Dunlop, "Australian
Folklore Stories," _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_,
August and November, 1898, p. 27).

A Malay description of female beauty is furnished by Skeat. "The
brow (of the Malay Helen for whose sake a thousand desperate
battles are fought in Malay romances) is like the one-day-old
moon; her eyebrows resemble 'pictured clouds,' and are 'arched
like the fighting-cock's (artificial) spur'; her cheek resembles
the 'sliced-off cheek of a mango'; her nose, 'an opening jasmine
bud'; her hair, the 'wavy blossom shoots of the areca-palm';
slender is her neck, 'with a triple row of dimples'; her bosom
ripening, her waist 'lissom as the stalk of a flower,' her head;
'of a perfect oval' (literally, bird's-egg shaped), her fingers
like the leafy 'spears of lemon-grass' or the 'quills of the
porcupine,' her eyes 'like the splendor of the planet Venus,' and
her lips 'like the fissure of a pomegranate.'" (W.W. Skeat,
_Malay Magic_, 1900, p. 363.)

In Mitford's _Tales of Old Japan_ (vol. i, p. 215) a "peerlessly
beautiful girl of 16" is thus described: "She was neither too fat
nor too thin, neither too tall nor too short; her face was oval,
like a melon-seed, and her complexion fair and white;; her eyes
were narrow and bright, her teeth small and even; her nose was
aquiline, and her mouth delicately formed, with lovely red lips;
her eyebrows were long and fine; she had a profusion of long
black hair; she spoke modestly, with a soft, sweet voice, and
when she smiled, two lovely dimples appeared in her cheeks; in
all her movements she was gentle and refined." The Japanese belle
of ancient times, Dr. Nagayo Sensai remarks (_Lancet_, February
15, 1890) had a white face, a long, slender throat and neck, a
narrow chest, small thighs, and small feet and h