While the etiquette of modesty is thus subject to an endless variety of details, every nation and tribe enforces its own ideal of propriety as the only correct thing.  In Tahiti and Tonga it would be considered highly indecent to go about without being tattooed.  Among Samoans and other Malayans the claims of propriety are satisfied if only the navel is covered.  “The savage tribes of Sumatra and Celebes have a like feeling about the knee, which is always carefully covered” (Westermarck, 207).  In China it is considered extremely indecent if a woman allows her bare feet to be seen, even by her husband, and a similar idea prevails among some Turkish women, who carefully wrap up their feet before they go to bed (Ploss, I., 344).  Hindoo women must not show their faces, but it is not improper to wear a dress so gauzy that the whole figure is revealed through it.  “In Moruland,” says Emin Bey,

“the women mostly go about absolutely naked, a few only attaching a leaf behind to their waistband.  It is curious to note, on meeting a bevy of these uncovered beauties carrying water, that the first thing they do with their free hand is to cover the face.”

These customs prevail in all Moslem countries.  Mariti relates in his Viaggi (II., 288): 

“Travelling in summer across the fields of Syria I repeatedly came across groups of women, entirely naked, washing themselves near a well.  They did not move from the place, but simply covered the face with one hand, their whole modesty consisting in the desire not to be recognized.”

Sentimental topsy-turviness reaches its climax in those cases where women who usually go naked are ashamed to be seen clothed.  Such cases are cited by several writers,[9] and appear to be quite common.  The most amusing instance I have come across is in a little-known volume on Venezuela by Lavayasse, who writes (190): 

“It is known that those [Indians] of the warm climates of South America, among whom civilization has not made any progress, have no other dress than a small apron, or kind of bandage, to hide their nakedness.  A lady of my acquaintance had contracted a kindness for a young Paria Indian woman, who was extremely handsome.  We had given her the name of Grace.  She was sixteen years old, and had lately been married to a young Indian of twenty-five, who was our sportsman.  This lady took a pleasure in teaching her to sew and embroider.  We said to her one day, ’Grace, you are extremely pretty, speak French well, and are always with us:  you ought not therefore to live like the other native women, and we shall give you some clothes.  Does not your husband wear trousers and a shirt?’ Upon this she consented to be dressed.  The lady lost no time in arranging her dress, a ceremony at which I had the honor of assisting.  We put on a shift, petticoats, stockings, shoes, and a Madras handkerchief on her head.  She looked quite enchanting, and