2-979-576 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Desert Route - Girl of Beyrout, 1857. 'The young lady who is reclining against the wall of the fountain, her water-pot resting on a stone against which she herself leans, is the daughter of a shopkeeper at Beyrout...[She] is a fair specimen of the general run of Beyrout beauty; her features and hands are good, and so are her feet, though ensconced in those unseemly yellow shoes trimmed with red bows; she wears stockings, which is a certain indication at Beyrout of being well to do in the world; her dress is a chequered-pattern Damascus silk, and. the shawl round her waist is of Tripoli manufacture. A thin white muslin cloth is thrown over her cap and handkerchief, in the arrangement of which Beyrout belles expend no little time; this muslin serves to envelop her face on the approach of any native gentleman, according to long-established usage'. From "Illustrated London News", 1857.