Istanbulian woman brought

The time was, when a Turkish woman brought vivid

coloring into every scene she adorned. Her yashmak, enveloping head and face

and neck in white gauze; her ferreted enfolding her form down to the feet in

red, green, blue, pink, or any other hue she fancied; her yellow boots and

yellow overshoes, worn like slippers, made her as gay and bright as a butterfly

or a flower.

What wonderful pictures did groups of women

thus attired form, as they squatted on a red rug spread on the green grass

under the shade of cypresses or plane-trees, beside the Sweet Waters of Europe

and the Heavenly Waters of Asia; or as they sat in long rows by the shores of

the Bosporus to drink in the salt air, to watch the blue waters and the

hurrying to and fro of boats and sails and steamers; or as they floated in a

cacique over the quiet sea.

What a fantasia of color they made as they

went slowly past, seated in a long, narrow wagon (araba), its high sides bright

with punted flowers and gilded arabesque, under a scarlet awning edged with

gold fringe, drawn by white oxen, over whose heads heavy red tassels, attached

to rods fixed in the yoke, waved with every motion of the creaking wheels!

Turkish womanhood

But this feast of color has ended, and the

world of Turkish

womanhood has exchanged the brightness of summer for the

sober tints of autumn. The yashmak is now universally discarded, except by the

ladies of the imperial household who are still required to wear it, as well as

a black forded; the only bit of bright color permitted being in the matter of

the head kerchief of tulle they wear under the yashmak. In the costume of the

mass of Turkish women, the ferreted has been replaced by the charkha, a mantle

worn over the head and about the body down to the feet, drawn in slightly at

the waist.

The material and the color of the garment

differ according to the means and taste of the wearer, but the color is always

quiet and subdued. To the portion of the charkha above the eyes a dark veil is

attached, and this can be worn over the face, or thrown back over the head, as

the wearer pleases. When thrown back, a Turkish lady’s face is seen as plainly

as that of her European sister.