nd to gain afresh the
favour of their sovereign, immediately adopted a similar attire. Scissors
were busy, and down (or up) were the skirts reduced to a minimum length.

As in other countries, fashions in men and women are copied from the
Court, and so the women from one end of Persia to the other, in the
cities, took up the hideous custom. One of the principal points in the
fashion is that the skirt must stick out at the sides. These skirts are
occasionally very elaborate, with heavy gold braiding round them, richly
embroidered, or covered all over with small pearls. The shape of the
skirt is the same in all classes of women, but of course the difference
lies in the material with which the dress is made.

Under the skirt appear two heavy, shapeless legs, in long foreign
stockings with garters, or in tight trousers of cotton or other light
material--a most unseemly sight. When only the family are present the
latter garments are frequently omitted.

Perhaps the only attractive part of a woman's indoor toilet is the neat
zouave jacket with sleeves, breast and back profusely embroidered in
gold, or with pearls. It is called the _yel_. When lady friends are
expected to call, some additions are made to the costume. A long veil
fastened to the belt and supported on the projecting skirt hangs down to
the feet. Sometimes it is left to drag behind. It is quite transparent,
and its purposeless use none of my Persian friends could explain. "The
women like it, that is all," was the only answer I could elicit, and that
was certainly enough to settle the matter.

Persian women are extremely fond of jewellery, diamonds, pearls and
precious stones. On the head, the hair being plastered down with a
parting in the centre and knot behind on the neck, a diadem is worn by
the smarter ladies, the _tadji_. Those who can afford it have a _tadji_
of diamonds, the shape varying according to fashion; others display
sprays of pearls. The _tadji_ is a luxurious, heavy ornament only worn on
grand occasions; then there is another more commonly used, the _nim
tadji_, or small diadem, a lighter and handsome feathery jewel worn
either in the upper centre of the forehead, or very daintily and in a
most coquettish way on one side of the head, where it really looks very
pretty indeed against the shiny jet black hair of the wearer.

Heavy necklaces of gold, pearls, turquoises and amber are much in vogue,
and also solid and elaborate gold rings and brace