Black veil

“ The black veil, on the other hand, is most unhealthy: it harms the eyes and it injures the skin. As it rubs against the nose and forehead it is almost certain to cause abrasions, and often makes an annoying sore. ”

“ Women with dark hair and eyes and a brilliant color look well in veils with the dots larger and nearer together. If the skin is clear, white veils are very becoming, though apt to give an impression of a made-up complexion. The woman with fair hair and blue eyes, and without color, generally looks best in a large meshed black veil, with the dots—if dots are worn—far apart. A navy blue veil makes the skin look clear and fair, and a gray veil should never be worn by the pale or sallow woman.
When to Wear Gloves. ”

“ Another five minutes had elapsed, and the surgeon had resolved to explore the house, in search of some one to whom he might make his errand known, when the room-door opened, and his last night’s visitor, dressed in exactly the same manner, with the veil lowered as before, motioned him to advance. The singular height of her form, coupled with the circumstance of her not speaking, caused the idea to pass across his brain for an instant, that it might be a man disguised in woman’s attire. ”

“ In Air the colour of the veil affords no means of distinguishing the caste of the wearer. The [140] best veils, being made in the south, are consequently cheaper in Air than in the north, and this is probably the reason why Imajeghan and Imghad alike in Air wear the indigo-black Tagilmus. When a white veil is seen, it usually means that the wearer is too poor to buy a proper black one and has had to resort to some makeshift torn from the bottom of his robe.
Slaves, domestic or pastoral, do not wear the face veil at all. ”

“ Hats made to the shape of the head require no elastics to hold them on, and are not the fruitful source of headache which ready-made misfits invariably are. There is no objection to a grey felt with grey gauze veil in the summer, but black with a black veil is in better taste. Anything in the way of colour, other than grey, or, perhaps brown, is inadmissible. ”

“ The horn, if of silver, is more or less chased, or even studded with precious stones. It seems contrived to hang the veil upon, which is, in some districts, white, in some black, and of linen or silk according to the wearer’s means. It gives great beauty to the folds of the veil, and adds much majesty to the figure. ”

“ A daughter or sister wears a long veil over her face at the funeral. The length of the veil may be to her waist or to the hem of her skirt, and it is worn for from three months to a year, according to her age and feelings. An older woman wears deep black for her parents, sisters and brothers for a year, and then lightens her mourning during the second year. A young girl, if she is out in society or in college, may wear a long veil for her parents or her betrothed, if she wants to, or she wears a thin net veil edged with crepe and the corners falling a short way down her back—or none at all. ”

“ Never wear a veil on horseback, except it be a black one, and nothing with a border looks well. A plain band of spotted net, just reaching below the nostrils, and gathered away into a neat knot behind, is the most distingué. Do not wear anything sufficiently long to cover the mouth, or it will cause you inconvenience on wet and frosty days. For dusty roads a black gauze veil will be found useful, but avoid, as you would poison, every temptation to wear even the faintest scrap of colour on horseback. ”

“ A narrow strip of black is caught by a brass or silver spiral directly between the eyes. The falling veil, therefore, covers all the face below the eyes. Ladies of the higher classes wear transparent Turkish veils of costly material, and their costly silk garments are loaded with embroideries. ”

“ It is opposed to the “Tarkah” or “head-veil.” Europeans inveigh against the veil which represents the loup of Louis Quatorze’s day: it is on the contrary the most coquettish of contrivances, hiding coarse skins, fleshy noses, wide mouths and vanishing chins; and showing only lustrous and liquid black eyes. Moreover a pretty woman, when she wishes, will always let you see something under the veil. (Pilgrimage i. 337) .
229. A yellow-flowered artemisia or absinthe whose wood burns like holm-oak. (Unexplored Syria ii. 43) . ”

“ Why was his hair tinted with gold? An evil omen was golden hair in my life. Why had not the brown of his eyes crushed out and killed the blue?—for brown were his father’s eyes, and his father’s father’s. And thus in the Land of the Color-line I saw, as it fell across my baby, the shadow of the Veil. ”

“ In an instant twenty men, dark and forbidding in their black veils, sprang into their high-backed brass-mounted saddles, and with their gleaming spears held high, ready to strike, swept away down the valley to meet the new-comers. ”

“ Thus the 'beauteous scarf Veiling an Indian beauty' means the fair veil concealing a black, that is loathsome, beauty. ”

“ With these veils," cried Turgesius, "no longer delay;
Resistance is vain, we will quickly behold
Which robe hides the loveliest face in its fold;
These clouds shall no longer o'ershadow our bliss,
Let each seize a veil—and my trophy be this!"
He seized a white veil, and before him appear'd
No fearful, weak girl—but a foe to be fear'd! ”

“ We soon found that, although white veils have the chief place in old ecclesiastical costumes, the rule was for each female to put on a black one. And since, by another rule, they all immediately fell on their knees, the process of adjusting the veils, had to be gone through in that position. The unfolding, pulling, squaring, &c., of the covering, the constant fidgeting of the wearer, and her evident critical anxiety about the success of others in gracefulness, all on the hard marble floor, seemed likely, in our view, to increase the difficulties of devotion under the circumstances ”

“ The white ladies of that neighborhood agree in being indignant beyond measure. Some of them declare that whenever they meet a colored woman wearing a veil, they will tear the veil from her face. Others, mindful of the consequences which such an act of violence might draw after it under this same new order of things, declare their resolve never to wear veils themselves as long as colored women wear veils. ”

“ Low upon her horse's neck, ready to clamp a hand upon its nose if, approaching the other animal, it sought to whinny, she urged forward upon the trail she hoped would lead her to the lair of the Black Death.
When she reached the spot where she had seen the mounted man, there was no trace of him except the hoofprints of his mount in the soft mold. Calling Apollo softly, she dismounted and indicated the trail. Then she stripped a silk neckerchief, tied it to make a long leash and, fastening it to the dog's collar, remounted and urged him on the hunt. ”

“ Whether he has a silk or soft hat, he is certain to wear a veil tied round it. This precaution is adopted when he makes up his mind to come to Switzerland, I think, because he has read that a veil is necessary to protect the eyes from the snow-glare. There is probably not one traveler in a hundred who gets among the ice and snow-fields where he needs a veil or green glasses: but it is well to have it on the hat; it looks adventurous. The veil and the spiked alpenstock are the signs of peril. Everybody—almost everybody—has an alpenstock. ”

“ Now the colour of people depends a little on the colour of their blood, for there is a network of tiny veins in the lower part of their skin, but it depends even more on millions of little specks of yellowish and brownish paint which lie in the upper part of their skin. A negro may be as black as your hat outside, but his blood is red all the same, and he looks black because the little specks of paint in the upper part of his skin are very dark and hide the red blood behind them. ”

“ The veils are made of grenadine, crepe, georgette crepe, or net bordered with crepe. The borders are about three inches wide. It is a matter of taste whether or not a face veil is worn with the long veil. No one but a widow wears a a iong veil. The face veil for deep mourning is plain mesh and dered with crepe, one and one-half inches wide. One may have the border of the face veil grosgrain ribbon if preferred. In fact, the crepe is not used on the veil unless the hat is trimmed with crepe. ”

“ I have seen men forgo the real pleasure of wearing a silver ornament or a new face veil in order to lend them to a less fortunate companion whose general appearance was more ragged, or whose means and opportunities did not allow him to secure anything to smarten his turn-out. ”

“ Darwin had given serious attention to veils he would have remarked that the wearing of them has developed new expressions of countenance among women. When they wrinkle,—I mean the veils,—the wearer has a way of pursing her lips to push the silken gauze free from the end of her nose, having accomplished which, her fingers gently pull the thing into subjection from the lower hem. ”

“ Round the head a handkerchief is wound, which spoils the effect of all the rest: but a woman in the East is never seen with the head uncovered, even in the house; and when she goes out, the veil, as we call it, though it has no resemblance to a veil, is used to conceal the whole person. ”

“ By perusing the various accounts given us by travellers in the East, it appears that great importance is attached to the veil. The strictness with which the ladies keep their faces covered and hidden from the sight of men, is common in the East, for they are generally of the most exquisite beauty; and would take it as the greatest insolence which could be offered to them, should their veils at any time be drawn aside.
"Veil answers to the Hebrew word tzaiph, translated by a veil, a scarf, or mantle, with which the eastern women [pg 182] covered their head and face. ”

“ From the French voile, meaning a veil, a light fabric usually more or less transparent, intended to conceal the features in whole or in part or to serve as a screen against sunlight, dust, insects, etc., or to emphasize or preserve the beauty. The custom of wearing veils had its origin in the early ages in the desire of semi-savage man to hide away the woman of his choice, and is a survival of the ancient custom of hiding women that is found even down to the present day in Eastern countries. Voile is a transparent, wiry material with a square mesh. ”

“ In the first place the ceremonial significance to which I have already alluded is very apparent, and in the second place the comparatively late age at which the veil first begins to be worn is curious in an Eastern people, where physical development takes place early in life. ”

“ So it is impossible to mistake the blood of one animal for another or of one race, like the white race, for that of another, like the black. In fact the physical characteristics by which some physicians profess to detect the presence of negro blood are held by other authorities to be valueless. But not so with this test."
"And you have discovered in this case?" I asked.
"That the blood on the bandage from the face of that woman who escaped was not the blood of a pure Caucasian. She shows traces of negro blood, in fact exactly what would have been expected of a mulatto." ”

“ I vow and declare that if the shot he fired had cracked the sky he could not have been more frightened. The great black bird gave a yell so terrible that it curdled the very blood in his veins and made his hair stand upon end. Away it flew like a flash—a bird no longer, but a great, black demon, smoking and smelling most horribly of brimstone, and when the soldier gathered his wits, there lay the feather cap and a little, round, black stone upon the ground. ”

“ Bleeding by nicking the under surface of the tail does very well where no great deal of blood is required, but it is not to be thought of if the veins of the face or neck can possibly be opened. These are to be taken in preference to a vein on the leg, as they are much more readily got at. ”

“ The clumsy black spectacles—with the glasses broken and mended with black sealing-wax—with which he covered the horrible sight presented by his burnt eyes, seemed of themselves to darken him, and take away every touch of life and mobility from his worn face, white as old wax, which might have been taken for that of an old man or one far gone in consumption, if it had not been for the intensely black hair, and the figure, which, though below the middle height, was broad in the chest, and all muscles and sinews. ”

“ The light by multiple reflection from its substance is more and more absorbed, and the familiar intense black is the result. A piece of this material, placed upon cloth or silk, always appears, and is, the blacker. In choosing velvet for such experiments, care must be taken not to use a blue black. The dead black is the proper one to select. ”

“ A veil or two is very useful, as the wind is often high and biting, and I was much annoyed with wisps of hair around my eyes, and also with my hair coming down while on horseback, until I hit upon the device of tying a brown liberty silk veil over the hair and partially over the ears before putting on a sombrero. ”

“ As to those veins which are most profitable to work, it must be remarked that the most suitable location for the vein is on the slope of the mountain facing south, so its strike is from vn or vi east to vi or vn west. According to the above-mentioned directions, the outcrop of the whole vein should face north, its gesteins ausgang toward the east, its hangingwall toward the south, and its footwall toward the north, for in such mountains and veins the influence of the planets is conveniently received to prepare the matter out of which the silver is to be made or formed. ”