s well shaped--but it is not perfection, mind you--and
generally does not perform its duties in a creditable manner. It has
nearly all the drawbacks of civilised noses. Partly owing to defective
digestive organs and the escaping fumes of decayed teeth, the nose,
really very well shaped in young children, generally alters its shape as
they get older, and it becomes blocked up with mucous matter, causing it
unduly to expand at the bridge, and giving it rather a stumpy, fat
appearance. The nostrils are not very sharply and powerfully cut in most
cases, and are rounded up and undecided, a sign of pliant character.

Women have better cut and healthier noses than men, as they lead a more
wholesome life. In children and young people, however, very handsome
noses are to be seen in Persia. The sense of odour is not very keen in
either sex; in fact, it is probably the dullest of all Persian senses,
which is not unfortunate for them in a country where potent smells
abound. In experimenting upon healthy specimens, it was found that only
comparatively strong odours could be detected by them, nor could they
distinguish the difference between two different scents, when they did
succeed in smelling them at all!

A Persian woman is not seen at her best when she is dressed. This sounds
very shocking, but it is quite true. Of all the ugly, inartistic, clumsy,
uncomfortable, tasteless, absurd female attires, that of the Persian lady
ranks first.

Let us see a Persian lady indoors, and describe her various garments in
the order in which they strike the observer. First of all one's eye is
caught by a "bundle" of short skirts--usually of very bright
colours--sticking out at the hips, and not unlike the familiar attire of
our ballet girls--only shorter. These skirts are made of cotton, silk or
satin, according to the lady's wealth and position.

There are various versions of how such a fashion was adopted by Persian
ladies. It is of comparatively modern importation, and up to fifty or
sixty years ago women wore long skirts reaching down to the ankle. The
skirts gradually got shorter and shorter as the women got more
civilised--so a Persian assures me--and when Nasr-ed-din Shah visited
Europe and brought back to his harem the glowing accounts of the ladies'
dress--or, rather, undress--at the Empire and Alhambra music-hall
ballets, which seem to have much attracted him, the women of his court,
in order to compete with their European rivals, a