knot before, and a long veft, which they hang on their fhoulders, lined with wool or fur for cold weather. By following the lower occupations, they procure, not without difficulty, a pittance of profit to fubfift them, to pay their tributemoney, and to purchase garments for the festivals, when they mutually vie in appearing wellclothed, their pride even exceed ing their poverty. The lordly Turk and lively Greek neglecting pafturage and agriculture, that province, which in Afia Minor is occupied by the Turcomans, has been obtained in Europe by the Albanians or Albanefe. These are a people remote from their original country, which was by the Caspian fea, fpreading over and cultivating alien lands, and, as of old, addicted to univerfal husbandry and to migration. It is chiefly their bufinefs to plough, fow, and reap; dig, fence, plant, and prune the vineyard; attend the watering of the olive-tree; and gather in the harveft; going forth before the dawn of day, and returning joyous on the clofe of their labour. If fhepherds, they live on the mountains, in the vale, or the plain, as the varying feafons require, under arbours or theds covered with boughs, tending their flocks abroad, or milking the ewes and fhe-goats at the fold, and making cheese and butter to fupply the city. Inured early to fatigue and the fun, they are hardy and robuft, of manly carriage, very different from that of the fawning obfequious Greek, and of defperate bravery under every difadvantage, when compelled by neceffity or oppreffion, to unite and endeavour to extort redrefs. Their habit is fimple and fuccin&t, reaching to the knees. They have a national language, and are members of the Greek communion. The Christians, both Greeks and Albanians, are more immediately fuperintended by the Archbishop, and by the two Epitropi or curators, who are chofen from among the principal men, and venerable for their long beards. These endeavour to quiet all difputes, and prevent the parties from recurring to the fevere tribunal of the Cadi or Turkish judge, watching over. the commonweal, and regulating its internal polity, which ftill retains fome faint and obfcure traces of the antient popular form, though without dignity or importance, The fee was now poffeffed by Bartholomew, a Walachian, who had lately purchafed it at Conftantinople. He was abfent when we arrived; but on his return to Athens, fent us a prefent of fine fruit and of honey from M. Hymettus; and came to vifit us at the convent, on horseback, attended by a virger and fome of his clergy on foot, He was a comely and portly man, with a black thick beard. A A traditional flory was related to us at Smyrna and afterwards at Athens, to illuftrate the native quicknefs of apprehenfion, which, as if tranfmiffive and the property of the foil, is inherited even by the lower claffes of the people. perfon made trial of a poor fhepherd, whom he met with his flock, demanding, awo ; xal 7; και τις ; και ποσα. From whence? and where? and how? and how many? He was answered without hesitation, and with equal brevity, w' Abnvas, as Anßadio, sodap, nas erlaxooia. From Athens Athens, to Livadia, Theodore, and five hundred. In the citizens this aptitude not being duly cultivated, inftead of producing genius, degenerates into cunning. They are justly reputed a moft crafty, fubtle, and acute race. It has been jocosely affirmed, that no Jew can live among them, because he will be continually out-witted. They are confcious of their fubjection to the Turk, and as fupple as depreffed, from the memory of the blows on the feet and indignities, which they have experienced or feen inflicted, and from the terror of the penalty annexed to refiftance, which is the forfeiture of the hand uplifted; but their difpofition, as antiently, is unquiet; their repofe disturbed by factious intrigues and private animofities; the body politic weakened by divifion, and often impelled in a direction oppofite to its true intereft. They have two fchools, one of which poffeffes a fmall 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. The liberty of the fair fex at Athens is almoft equally abridged by the Turks and Greeks. Their houfes are fecured with high walls, and the windows turned from the ftreet, and latticed, or boarded up, fo as to preclude all intercourfe, even of the eyes. The harám, or apartment of the Turkish women, is not only impenetrable, but muft 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 cuftom to turn to the wall and ftand ftill, without looking toward them, while they pafs. 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 vifit their relations, and are feen going in companies to the baths, or fitting in the buryinggrounds on the graves of their friends, their children, hufbands, or parents. They are then enwrapped and beclothed in fuch a manner, it is impoffible to difcern whether they are young or old, handsome or ugly. Their heads, as low as the eye-brows, are covered with white linen, and alfo their faces beneath; the prominency of the nofe and mouth giving them nearly the vifages of mummies. They draw down a veil of black gause over their eyes, the moment a man or boy comes in view. They wear thort loose boots of leather, red or yellow, with a large fheet over their common garments, and appear very bulky. The drefs of the Greek matrons is a garment of red or blue cloth, the waift very fhort, the long petticoat falling in folds to the ground. A thin flowing veil of muflin, with a golden rim or border, is thrown over the head and fhoulders. The attire of the virgins is a long red veft, with a fquare cap of yellow fattin hanging down behind. They walk with their hands concealed in the pocket-holes at the fides, and their faces are muffled. Sometimes they affume the Turkish garb. Neither prudence nor modefty fuffers a maiden to be feen by the men before fhe is married. Her beauty might inflame the Turk, who can take her legally, by force, to his bed, on a fentence of the Cadi or judge; and the Greek, if The revealed her face to him even únwillingly, would reject her as criminal and with difdain. The Albanian women are inured early to hard living, labour, and the fun. Their features are injured by penury, and their complexions by the air. Their drefs is coarfe and fimple; a fhift reaching to the ancle, a thick fafh about the waist, and a fhort loose woollen veft. Their hair is platted in two divisions, and the ends faftened to a red filken ftring, which, with a taffel, is pendant to their heels, and frequently laden with pieces of filver coin, of various fizes, diminishing gradually to the bottom. Among thefe the antiquarian may often difcover medals of value. They are feen carrying water on their backs, in earthern jars, with handles; washing by the fountains, or affembled by the Iliffus after rain, with the female flaves of the Mahometans and other fervants; treading their linen, or beating it with a piece of heavy wood, fpread ing it on the ground or bushes to dry, and conveying it to and fro in panniers or wicker baskets on an afs. Their legs and feet are generally bare; and their heads hooded, as it were, with a long towel, which encircles the neck, one extremity hanging down before and the other behind. The girls wear a red skull-cap plated with peraus of Turkish pennies of filver perforated, and ranged like the fcales of fish. There the girl, like Thetis, treading on a foft carpet, has her white and delicate feet naked; the nails tinged with red. Her trowfers, which in winter are of red cloth, and in fummer of fine callico or thin gaufe, defcend from the hip to the ancle, hanging loosely about her limbs; the lower portion embroidered with flowers, and appearing beneath the fhift, which has the fleeves wide and open, and the feams and edges curiously adorned with needle-work. Her vest is of filk, exactly fitted to the form of the bofom and the fhape of the body, which it rather covers than conceals, and is fhorter than the fhift. The fleeves button occafionally to the hand, and are lined. with red or yellow fattin. A rich zone encompaffes her waift, and is fastened before by clafps of filver gilded, or of gold fet with precious stones. Over the veft is a robe, in fummer lined with ermine, and in cold weather with fur. The headdrefs is a fkull-cap, red or green, with pearls; a ftay under the chin, and a yellow forehead-cloth. She has bracelets of gold on her wrifts; and, like Aurora, is rofy-fingered, the tips being ftained. Her necklace is a ftring of zechins, a fpecies of gold coin, or of the pieces called Bizantines. At her cheeks is a lock of hair made to curl toward the face; and down her back falls a profufion of treffes, fpreading over her fhoulders. Much time is confumed in combing and braiding the hair after bathing, and, at the greater feftivals, in enriching and powdering it with fmall bits of filver gilded, resembling a violin in fhape, and woven in at regular distances. She is painted blue round the eyes; and the infides of the fockets, fockets, with the edges on which the lafhes grow, are tinged with black. The Turkish ladies wear nearly the fame attire, and ufe fi milar arts to heighten their natural beauty. For colouring the lathes and focket of the eye, they throw in cenfe or gum of Labdanum on fome coals of fire, intercept the fmoke, which afcends, with a plate, and collect the foot. This I faw applied. A girl, fitting cross-legged as ufual, on a fofa, and cloting one of her eyes, took the two lafhes between the forefinger and thumb of her left hand, pulled them forward, and then thrufting in, at the external corner, a bodkin, which had been immersed in the foot, and extracting it again, the particles before adhering to it, remained within, and were prefently ranged round the organ; ferving as a foil to its luftre, befides contributing, as they fay, to its health, and increafing its apparent magnitude. The improvement of the mind and morals is not confidered as a momentous part of female education at Athens. The girls are taught to dance, to play on the Turkish guittar and the tympanum or timbrel, and to embroider, an art in which they generally excel. A woman killed in reading and writing is fpoken of as a prodigy of capacity and learning The mother of Ofman Aga, a Turk who frequented our houfe, was of this rare number, and, as he often told us, fo terrible for her know ledge, that even Achmet Aga her kinfman had been feen to tremble, when he received her annual vifit In common life the woman waits T HE generality of the Mexicans went naked. The emperor himself and the nobles were only covered with a kind of man tle, compofed of a piece of fquare cotton tied on the right fhoulder. They wore fandals on their feet. The women of the lower fort for their whole apparel had only a kind of fhift with half fleeves, which fell on their knees, and was open at the bofom. Common people were prohibited from raifing their houfes above the ground floor, and from having either doors or windows. Moft of these houses were built of earth, and covered with boards, and had no greater fhare of conveniency than elegance. The infide was covered with mats, and lighted with torches of fir wood, though they had wax and oil in abundance. Their beds were made of plain ftraw and coverlets of cotton. For their feats,' they had only little facks of palm leaves but it was their cuftom' to fit on the ground, and even to eat in that poiture: Their nourishment, which confifted confifted rarely of animal food, had little diverfity and little delicacy. Their most ordinary aliment was maize made into a pafte, or prepared with various feafonings. With these they joined the common herbs found in the field, which were not too hard, or had not a bad fmell. Cocoa diluted in warm water, or feafoned with honey or pimento, was their beft liquor. They had befides thefe, other liquors, but not of an intoxicating quality: for all ftrong drinks were fo rigidly prohibited, that no one could ufe them, without a particular permiffion from government, which was granted only to the fick and aged. It was on certain folemnities alone, and in public labours, that each perfon had a quantity allowed in proportion to his age. Drunkennefs was confidered as the moft fcandalous of vices. Perfons who were found in this fituation were shaved in public, and their houfes were pulled down. If they exercifed any public office, they were deprived of it, and declared incapable of ever holding it again. It is a matter of aftonishment, that men who had fo few wants fhould ever fubmit to the yoke of flavery. That the citizen accuftomed to the indulgencies and conveniences of life, fhould purchase them every day with the facrifice of his liberty, is not the leaft furprifing; but that people to whom nature offers more felicity than the focial chain that unites them, fhould calmly fubmit to flavery, and never think that there is frequently but a river to cross in order to be free; this would be for ever inconceivable, if we did not know how much habit and fu perftition render men infenfible to the feelings of nature. The Mexicans are now lefs unhappy. Our fruits, our corn, and our cattle, have rendered their food more wholesome, agreeable, and abundant. Their houfes are better built, better difpofed, and better furnished. Shoes, drawers, shirts, a garment of wool or cotton, a ruff, and a hat, conftitute their drefs. The dignity which it has been agreed to annex to these enjoyments, has made them better economifts, and more laborious. This cafe, however, is far from being univerfal; it is even very uncommon in the vicinity of the mines, towns, and great roads, where tyranny feldom fleeps: but we often find it with fatisfaction in remote parts where the Spaniards are not numerous, and where they have in fome measure become Mexicans. The inhabitants of the province of Chiapa are diftinguished above all others. They owe their fuperiority to the advantage of having had Las Cafas for their teacher, who originally prevented them from being oppreffed. They surpass their countrymen in fize, genius, and strength. Their language has a peculiar foftnefs and elegance. Their territory, without being a better foil than the reft, is infinitely richer in all forts of productions. They are painters, muficians, and dexterous in all arts. They particularly excel in fabricating thofe works, pictures and ftuffs of feathers, which have never been imitated elsewhere. Their principal town is called Chiapa dos Indos. It is only inhabited by the natives of the country, who form a community confifting of four thoufand |