045. "Her Clothing Is Silk and Purple"

"Her Clothing Is Silk and Purple"

(Proverbs 31:22) "SHE maketh herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple."

King Lemuel tells us that all the household of a virtuous woman "are clothed with scarlet." Girls and women will spend all their spare time making beautiful garments, embroidered and spangled with gold, silver, and flowers. In several homes I visited, the women with great pride showed me their wardrobe of from a dozen to twenty very heavy outer garments, all hand work. Some of them were made before their marriage, some belonged to the mother or even to the grandmother. They were only worn on great festivals, like Christmas or Easter, when they just sit in state to receive their friends, and pass around coffee and pipes. One can scarcely understand why so many fine garments, when you consider their humble occupations; for, daily, except on these big occasions, you find them sweeping out the kitchen, boiling the pot, collecting thorns for the fire, and doing all the hard work of the home and the field too, or going to market to sell the vegetables they have raised. The woman eats her meals after her husband and his friends have finished, just sitting on the ground with her small children around her, outside the room where the men had their meal and are now smoking and talking.

She wears her hair in a large number of braids, which hang down the whole length of her back, with money tied to the end of each braid, which together with what she wears on her forehead would be worth fifty dollars or more. All through the long braids you would see charms and evil eye beads.