ath the property is divided among his children, each
male child taking two shares to each one share for every girl's part,
after one-eighth of the whole property has been paid to the deceased's
widow, who is entitled to that amount by right.

Most praiseworthy union exists in most Persian families, filial love and
veneration for parents being quite as strong as paternal or maternal
affection. Extreme reverence for old age in any class of man is another
trait to be admired in the Persian character.

CHAPTER XX

Persian women--Their anatomy--Their eyes--_Surmah_--Age of
puberty--The descendants of
Mohammed--Infanticide--Circumcision--Deformities and
abnormalities--The ear--The teeth and dentistry--The nose--A
Persian woman's indoor dress--The _yel_--The _tadji_ and other
jewels--Out-of-door dress--The _Chakchur_--The _ruh-band_--The
_Chudder_.

Persia, they say, is the country of the loveliest women in the world. It
probably has that reputation because few foreign male judges have ever
seen them. The Persians themselves certainly would prefer them to any
other women. Still, there is no doubt, from what little one sees of the
Persian woman, that she often possesses very beautiful languid eyes, with
a good deal of animal magnetism in them. Her skin is extremely fair--as
white as that of an Italian or a French woman--with a slight yellowish
tint which is attractive. They possess when young very well modelled arms
and legs, the only fault to be found among the majority of them being the
frequent thickness of the wrists and ankles, which rather takes away from
their refinement. In the very highest classes this is not so accentuated.
The women are usually of a fair height, not too small, and carry
themselves fairly well, particularly the women of the lower classes who
are accustomed to carry weights on their head. The better-off women walk
badly, with long steps and a consequent stoop forward; whereas the poorer
ones walk more firmly with a movement of the hips and with the spine well
arched inwards. The neck lacks length, but is nicely rounded, and the
head well set on the shoulders.

Anatomically, the body is not striking either for its beauty or its
strength or suppleness. The breasts, except with girls of a very tender
age, become deformed, and very pendant, and the great tendency to fatness
rather interferes with the artistic beauty of their outlines.

The skeleton frame of