"Why, he says, they made a tinkling with their feet' how was that?"

"That is clear;-they used to wear ornaments of gold, or silver, or other metals, on their ankles. Rauwolf tells us that the Arab women whom he saw in going down the Euphrates, 'wore rings about their legs and hands; and sometimes a good many together, which, in their stepping, slipped up and down, and so made a great noise.' In Persia and Arabia,' says Sir John Chardin, they wear rings about their ankles, which are full of little bells. Children and young girls take a particular pleasure in giving them motion; with this view they walk quickly.'

"It seems too, father, that the Eastern women wore large rings in their ears, as well as round their ankles."

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They did, and do to this day. Travellers

tell us there is a variety of ornaments for the ear. Some of the Eastern ear-rings are so small, and go so close to the ear, as leave no vacuity between them; others are so large as to admit the fore-finger between; these are adorned with a ruby between two pearls strung on the ring.'-' I have seen some of the larger ear-rings,' says Sir J. Chardin, with figures upon them, and strange characters which, I believe, may be talismans or charms. Indians say that they are preservatives against enchantments. Perhaps the ear-rings of Jacob's family, which he buried with the strange gods, were of this kind,"" Gen. xxxv. 4.

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The

"Another traveller assures us that the rings in the ears of the chief's wife of a valley near Mount Sinai were of silver, and of so great a circumference, that a person might have put his hand through them.

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"Forbes, in his Oriental Memoirs, gives a very curious description of the dress of a Hindoo lady. Their dress,' he says, 'is peculiarly becoming, consisting of a long piece of silk or cotton tied round the waist, and hanging in a graceful manner to the feet; it is afterwards brought over the body in negligent folds; under this they cover the bosom with a short waistcoat of satin. Their long black hair is adorned with jewels and wreaths of flowers; their ears are bored in many places, and loaded with pearls; a variety of gold chains, strings of pearl, and precious stones fall from the neck over the bosom, and the arms are covered with bracelets from the wrist to the elbow; they have also gold and silver chains round the ankles, and abundance of rings on their fingers and toes; among the former is frequently a small mirror. I think the richer

the dress, the less becoming it appears; so that a Hindoo woman of distinction always seems to be overloaded with finery."

"There are very strange things, father, among these ornaments, which you have not noticed, they are nose-jewels. Did ever any body wear jewels in the nose?"

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Certainly; it was a very ancient custom, and it is in fashion in some parts even to the present day, among women in all classes of society. A traveller describing his wife, says, that she adorns herself with all kinds of rubies, emeralds, and pearls, as the manner is in the East, with the exception of certain ugly rings of very large size, set with jewels, which, in truth, very absurdly it is the custom to wear fastened to one of their nostrils like buffaloes; though it is an ancient custom in the East, which, as we find in the Scriptures, pre

vailed among the Hebrew ladies even in the time of Solomon. These nose-rings, in complaisance to me, she has left off; but I have not yet been able to prevail with her cousin. and sisters to do the same; so fond are they of an old custom, be it ever so absurd, who have been long habituated to it.'

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Bishop Lowth observes, from Chardin, that it is the custom in almost all the East, for the women to wear rings in their noses, in the left nostril, which is bored low down in the middle. These rings are of gold, and have commonly two pearls with one ruby between them, placed in the ring. I never saw,' says this traveller, a girl or a young woman in Arabia, or in all Persia, who did not wear a ring after this manner in her nostril.""

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"I should not like a lady, if she were ever so fine, who had a ring in her nose."