Lady Burton's notes on henna, 1884, Syria

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Posted by Catherine Cartwright Jones on February 03, 2000 at 20:00:14:

Some more from "Body Marking in Southwestern Asia"
Mrs. R.F. Burton, , The Inner Life of Syria, Palestine and the Holy
Land, 1884, p. 67:
"Henna is mixed with lime-juice, burht nuts and other things, and it
stains the hands, feet and fienternails. Brides, and especially
Mohlem brides are ornamented with moons and all sorts of devices in
henna. They will dye a pet lamb. My servants stain for ornament my
white donkey and my white Persian cat, but is us mostly used for human
hair. "

From 1798, Sonnini, p. 294, "The practice of dyeing the fingers with
henna is common in Syria, where certain women have a mind that their
hands should present the sufficiently disagreeable mixture of black
and white. The belts which the henna had first reddened become of
shining black, bu rubbing them with a composition of sal-ammoniac,
lime and honey. "

(Most of the henna I've seen in illustrations from 900 to 1700 Syria
shows the ammonia-blackened henna.... including one bride with
entirely blackened hands. Other illustrations show fingertip dip and
line patterns, and sometimes detail easily as complex as contemporary
work from India, but in ammonia black. However, there was one time
when a circular area of henna wrapping from the front to the back of
the hand, below the little finger , was fashionable ... around the
13th century. I tried that, and it's cool because your skin 's uptake
of henna changes across area, so you can do patterns that take
advantage of the tonal shift.)

Anyone need medieval Syrian patterns? For SCAdian meets coming up?
Email me.... they're free....

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