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here to it, as suiting the gravity of a beard, and a decorum of paternal authority. Several of the families date their settlement from the taking of the city. They are reckoned at about three hundred. Their number, though comparatively small, is more than sufficient to keep the Christians fully sensible of their mastery. The Turks possess from their childhood an habitual superiority, and awe with a look the loftiest vassal. Their deportment is often stern and haughty. Many in private life are distinguished by strict honour, by punctuality, and uprightness in their dealings; and almost all by external sanctity of manners. If they are narrow minded in the extreme, it is the result of a confined education; and an avaricious temper is a natural consequence of their rapacious government.

The Greeks may be regarded as the representatives of the old Athenians. We have related, that, on our arrival in the Piræus, an archon came from the city to receive us. The learned reader was perhaps touched by that respectable title, and annexed to it some portion of its classical importance; but the archons are now mere names, except a tall fur cap, and a fuller and better dress than is worn by the inferior classes. Some have shops in the bazar, some are merchants, or farmers of the public revenue. The families, styled archontic, are eight or ten in number; mostly on the decline. The person who met us, was of one reckoned very ancient, which, by his account had been settled at Athens, about three hundred years, or after Mahomet the Second. His patrimony had suffered from the extortions of a tyrannical vaiwode, but he had repaired the loss by trade, and by renting petty governments. The ordinary habit of the meaner citizens is a red skull-cap, a jacket, and a sash round the middle, loose breeches or trowsers,

which tie with a large knot before, and a long vest, which they hang on their shoulders, lined with wool or fur for cold weather. By following the lower occupations, they procure, not without difficulty, a pittance of profit to subsist them, to pay their tribute-money, and to purchase garments for the festivals, when they mutually vie in appearing well-clothed, their pride even exceeding their poverty.

The lordly Turk and lively Greek neglecting pasturage and agriculture, that province, which in Asia Minor is occupied by the Turcomans, has been obtained in Europe by the Albanians or Albanese. These are a people remote from their original country, which was by the Caspian Sea, spreading over and cultivating alien lands, and, as of old, addicted to universal husbandry and to migration. It is chiefly their business to plough, sow, and reap; dig, fence, plant, and prune the vineyard; attend the watering of the olive-tree; and gathering the harvest; going forth before the dawn of day, and returning joyous on the close of their labour. If shepherds, they live on the mountains, in the vale, or the plain, as the varying seasons require, under harbours, or sheds covered with boughs, tending their flocks abroad, or milking the ewes and she-goats at the fold, and making cheese and butter to supply the city. Inured early to fatigue and the sun, they are hardy and robust, of manly carriage, very different from that of the obsequious Greek, and of desperate bravery under every disadvantage, when compelled by necessity or oppression, to unite and endeavour to extort redress. Their habit is simple and succinct, reaching to the knees. They have a national language, and are members of the Greek communion.

The Christians, both Greeks and Albanians, are more im

mediately superintended by the archbishop, and by the two epitropi or curators, who are chosen from among the principal men, and venerable for their long beards. These endeavour to quiet all disputes, and prevent the parties from recurring to the severe tribunal of the cadi or Turkish judge, watching over the commonweal, and regulating its internal polity, which still retains some faint and obscure traces of the ancient popular form, though without dignity or importance. The see was now possessed by Bartholomew, a Walachian, who had lately purchased it at Constantinople. He was absent when we arrived; but, on his return to Athens, sent us a present of fine fruit and of honey from M. Hymettus, and came to visit us at the convent, on horseback, attended by a virger and some of his clergy on foot. He was a comely and portly man, with a black thick beard.

A traditional story was related to us at Smyrna, and afterwards at Athens, to illustrate the native quickness of apprehension, which, as if transmissive and the property of the soil, is inherited even by the lower classes of the people. A person made trial of a poor shepherd, whom he met with his fock, demanding, απο τους και του ; και πως; και ποσα. From whence? and where? and how? and how many? He was answered without hesitation and with equal brevity, απ' Ατηνας, ως Ληβαδία, Θεόδωρος, και πεντακοσια. From Athens, to Livadia, Theodore, and five hundred. In the citizens this aptitude not being duly cultivated, instead of producing genius, degenerates into cunning. They are justly reputed a most crafty, subtle, and acute race. It has been jocosely affirmed, that no Jew can live among them, because he will be continually out-witted. They are conscious of their subjection to the Turk, and as supple as depressed, from the memory of the blows on the

feet, and indignities which they have experienced or seen inflicted, and from the terror of the penalty annexed to resistance, which is the forfeiture of the hand uplifted; but their disposition, as anciently, is unquiet; their repose disturbed by factious intrigues and private animosities; the body politic weakened by division, and often impelled in a direction opposite to its true interest. They have two schools, one of which possesses a small collection of books, and is entitled to an annual payment from Venice, the endowment of a charitable Athenian, but the money is not regularly remitted.

CHAP. XXVI.

Care of the female sex at Athens-Dress of the Turkish women abroad-Of the Greek-Of the Albanian-Dress of the Greek at home-Manner of colouring the sockets of their eyes -Their education.

THE liberty of the fair sex at Athens is almost equally abridged by the Turks and Greeks. Their houses are secured with high walls, and the windows turned from the street, and latticed, or boarded up, so as to preclude all intercourse, even of the eyes. The haram, or apartment of the Turkish women, is not only impenetrable, but must not be regarded on the outside with any degree of attention. To approach them, when abroad, will give offence; and in the town, if they cannot be avoided, it is the custom to turn to the wall and stand still, without looking toward them, while they pass. This mode of carriage is good breeding at Athens.

The Turkish women claim an exemption from their confinement on one day only in the week, when they visit their re

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lations, and are seen going in companies to the baths, or sitting in the burying-grounds on the graves of their friends, their children, husbands, or parents. They are then enwrapped and beclothed in such a manner, it is impossible to discern whether they are young or old, handsome or ugly. Their heads, as low as the eye-brows, are covered with white linen, and also their faces beneath; the prominency of the nose and mouth giving them nearly the visages of mummies. They draw down a veil of black gause over their eyes, the moment a man or boy comes in view. They wear short loose boots of leather, red or yellow, with a large sheet over their common garments, and appear very bulky.

The dress of the Greek matrons is a garment of red or blue cloth, the waist very short, the long petticoat falling in folds to the ground. A thin flowing veil of muslin, with a golden rim or border, is thrown over the head and shoulders. The attire of the virgins is a long red vest, with a square cape of yellow satin hanging down behind. They walk with their hands concealed in the pocket-holes at the sides, and their faces are muffled. Sometimes they assume the Turkish garb. Neither prudence nor modesty suffers a maiden to be seen by the men before she is married. Her beauty might inflame the Turk, who can take her legally, by force, to his bed, on a sentence of the cadi or judge; and the Greek, if she revealed her face to him even unwillingly, would reject her as criminal and with disdain.

The Albanian women are inured early to hard living, labour, and the sun. Their features are injured by penury, and their complexions by the air. Their dress is course and simple; a shift reaching to the ancles, a thick sash about the waist, and a short loose woollen vest. Their hair is platted in two

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