Coming to the northern countries of Africa, and south western Asia, in a word, to the countries where the Mahomedan religion prevails, we find them strikingly different in this respect, from the countries just alluded to. Wherever polygamy prevails, in countries of any considerable degree of civilization, men seem jealous of any exposure of the charms tney monopolize. The Arab women show nothing of their persons but their naked feet and ankles. Trowsers, a kind of loose frock, coming just below the knees, and their veils, entirely conceal them. In Egypt, where from the earliest ages there has been great decency in female costumes, a woman, at this day, would expose any part of her person, rather than her face, and in Turkey and Persia, from the earliest times till now, the violent removing of a woman's veil was considered so great an outrage, that it is made to express the greatest that can be offered to the sex.

In these countries, women are never seen, and of course never admired, except by their husbands, or masters, and each other. They never go to church, concert, ball, or opera, as our ladies do, for display. Shut up in their harems, all their arts are used to triumph over each other, and secure the good graces of the only man to whose affections they can pretend.

The in-door costume of Mahomedan ladies is adapted to their indolent life. Full trowsers of silk are gathered over feet which have no stockings, but which are sometimes thrust into a slipper. A rich robe or tunic reaches to the knee, and, open at the bosom, partially reveals it. The sleeves are made wide and open so as to show the fore-arm. Turbans of various styles are worn upon the head, and usually in the East, rich shawls are worn like a sash around the waist, with a profusion of jewelry.

Among themselves, the Turkish ladies meet at the baths, but these are not dress occasions, for Lady Montague assures us that at one of these social parties to which she had the honor to be invited, all the ladies, and their attendants, remained for some hours talking, walking about, and amusing themselves, just as they came out of the bath, and with no more drapery than the Greek Slave or the Venus di Medici.

Lady Mary assures us further that they were extremely well behaved, and that their forms were, many of them, so beautiful, that their faces were scarcely noticed. This may be a useful hint, when, in her various changes, Fashion allows a pair of naked arms, or a well-formed bust to call attention from a homely face.

The Chinese costume is prescribed by law, and has not changed for thousands of years. There is no such thing as fashion known. The Chinese are the most modest people in the world, and their costumes correspond with this character. All female dresses are made high in the neck, and reveal only the general outlines of the form. The dresses of ladies cover their feet, and trowsers are also worn beneath their long robes. The poorer classes of females however, have dresses adapted to their employments. Some do not come below the knees, but still they wear the trowsers. In the very poorest, the female garment, where only one is worn, is perfectly decent. The costume of Chinese ladies of the higher classes, though never departing from these modest characteristics, is rich, elaborate and extremely becoming. Their hair is combed back from their faces, in the style sometimes worn in this country, and termed a la Chinois.

In treating of national customs and habits, the question is constantly recurring whether certain peculiarities are causes or effects. Was it the national modesty of the Chinese that prescribed this dress? or has the dress prescribed by the laws, which are more unalterable than those of the Medes and Persians, caused the development of this sentiment? The latter opinion is the most reasonable-and there is little doubt that a man with the power of regulating the costumes of a nation could in time produce the most striking effects upon its character. So thought Peter the Great, and so thinks the present Sultan of Turkey.

In Hindostan, the Mahomedans dress much like those of Western Asia; the women of the rich indulge in an oriental luxury of costume, but the women commonly seen abroad wear a strip of cotton cloth, which, after going around the waist so as to fall to the knee, is carried over their shoulders, so as to partially conceal their bosoms, while their otherwise bare legs and arms are ornamented

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with bracelets, and their hair is done up in a roll, and ornamented with jewelry. They wear rings in their ears and noses; and, it is said, that only custom is required to make this style of dress appear becoming.

The women of the wealthy and fashionable classes of all parts of Europe and America dress much alike; and the modes are constantly changing. The centre and source of female fashions is Paris. From that capitol, each form, each style, each pattern of female costume spreads over the world.

But among the common people, or peasantry, of the various countries of Europe, we find a great variety of costumes, which change but little from one generation to another. With slight modifications they are the same now as a century ago; and if our descriptions vary in any respect from what is true at present, it will only show what slight changes have been produced in half a century.

The female costumes of the French peasantry vary greatly in the different departments; but all, even those of the most uncultivated districts, have a certain air of piquant coquetry. There is a low, tightly fitting bodice, showing the bust to advantage, which is partially concealed by a kerchief or chemisette. The skirt is generally made full and worn gracefully, and is short enough to reveal the foot, ankle, and generally a part of the leg. The arm is seldom entirely covered. A neat apron is almost invariably worn. Caps of various picturesque patterns are most common, but in one or two departments small straw hats add to the elegance of a dress that seems ever pretty and becoming. The dress of females of the laboring classes in Great Britain was formerly as pretty a costume as could be desired. The substantial shoes, neatly gartered stockings, good stuff petticoats, modest kerchief and neat little cap or gipsy hat of the British peasant girl, formed, with her rosy complexion, fair hair and blue eyes, one of the sweetest pictures that can be imagined; but there are few such costumes now to be seen, we fear, in what once was merry England.

The Dutch female costume is heavy and inelegant. Thick petticoats are put on, one over the other, with little regard to symmetry. Dress is worn for its uses, rather

than for adornment, as coquetry is no part of the character of this substantial and practical nation.

In Switzerland and the German States we find a great variety of female costumes, some of which are elegant and fanciful, others awkward and grotesque. Hats of various forms, made of chips or straw, are worn-the dresses are short, to give such freedom as is requisite to women employed in active labors; and the ornamental, though of a rude and sometimes ungraceful character, is by no means disregarded.

In Switzerland, the hair is almost universally braided and allowed to hang down the back, in one or more plaits -the hat, whether flat and broad as an umbrella, or with a pointed crown, is worn jauntingly, and full white sleeves, with a bodice of a darker color, cover the arms.

The female costumes of the vicinity of Vienna, and of Bavaria, are much like the English, with a greater variety of head dress. Some of these are extremely becoming.

In Poland and Southern Russia, the national costumes assume an oriental character. The robes are long and flowing. The head is covered with a turban, and the ornaments are rich and showy. We must not forget that all oriental women paint. In Russia, a high color is considered the chief beauty, and it is laid on without stint. So that a woman is fat, she has no fear but that she can make herself handsome. In Russia, the word which signifies belle, means red virgin!

The costumes of Southern Europe are of great variety and singularly picturesque. What, for example, can be more ravishing than the costume of the pretty girls of Minorca? A purple bodice or waist, with long and well fitting sleeves, buttons up in front, but towards the neck is left open, and turns over, revealing a fine chemisette. The dark hair hangs in ringlets down the neck, and over the head is thrown a dark mantilla or robazilla; the skirt of yellow or other fanciful color, hangs very full and reaches just below the knee, while beautiful, close fitting red, blue, or green stockings, clocked with a different color, and neat embroidered shoes, a fan in one hand, and her rosary in the other, complete the costume.

Some of the pretty Spanish costumes resemble the

above, only that the dresses are worn much longer; but as a general rule, the Spanish costumes are dark, and of a more sober character. The mantilla or reboza is quite an indispensable article of female costume. The female costume of Catalonia is, however, as gay and fanciful as could be desired.

The women of Italy, instead of cap, bonnet or turban, wear upon their heads a towel, which is neatly folded and hangs down, displaying at its ends long fringes of different colors. The dress of Venetian ladies partakes of the sombre colors of the Spanish, and the elegance and coquetry of the French. The costumes of Modern Greece are a singular jumble of the classic, the modern European and the Oriental.

There is no extensive country in the world in which the whole people dress so much alike or so well as in the United States. We have no such thing as a national or a provincial costume. In other countries, while the few people of fashion dress according to the changing modes of the times, the great mass of the people follow the various customs of their forefathers; but here we have no exclusive circle.

All dress in fashion, from our great cities to the smallest villages, and from one end of the Union to the other, and instead of a few thousands, we have twenty millions of fashionable people, whose tailors, dress-makers and milliners closely follow the latest modes of Paris. The foreigner looks round with surprise, and asks, where are the common people-where are the peasantry? He finds at length that he is in a nation of sovereigns, and that the court circle includes the entire population.

The American and European female costumes of fashion are continually changing in slight degrees, yet it is remarkable that each style, while worn, appears graceful and becoming, while it no sooner glides into an opposite style, than it looks strange and uncouth to us. Recall for example the fashion of from eighteen to twenty years ago. The dress, without the recent fulness around the hips, flared out at the bottom, and was so short, as scarcely to cover half the calf. The arm sleeves were like two large balloons, and stiffened out with whale-bone, or stiff millinet,