CILA RA 
frequently been fhewn the eldeft 
daughter parading it through the 
town in the greateit fplendour, while 
her mother and fifter followed her 
as fervants, and made a melancholy 
part of her attendant train. 
The fons, as foon as they are of 
an age to gain a livelihood, are 
turned out of the family, fometimes 
with a fmall prefent or portion, 
but more frequently without any 
thing to fupport them; and thus 
reduced, they either endeavour to 
live by their labour, or, which is 
more ufual, go on board fome trad- 
ing veffel as failors or as fervants, 
remaining abroad till they have got 
together {ome competency, and then 
returning home to marry and to be 
hen-pecked. Some few there are 
who, taking advantage of the 
Turkifh law, break through this 
whinifical cuftom, who marry their 
Calogrias, and retain to themfelves 
a competent provifion; but thefe 
are accounted men of a fingular 
and even criminal difpofition, and 
are hated and defpifed-as confor- 
mifts to Turkifh manners, and de- 
ferters of their native cuftoms; fo 
that we may fuppofe they are few 
indeed who have the boldnefs to 
depart from the manners of their 
country, to adopt the cuftoms of 
their detefted mafters, and to brave 
the contempt, the derifion, and the 
hatred of their neighbours and fel- 
low-citizens. 
Of all thefe extraordinary parti- 
culars [ was informed by the French 
conful, a man of fenfe and of in- 
difputable veracity, who had re- 
fided in this ifland for feveral years, 
Cult  B Ress 63 
and who folemnly affured me that 
every circumftance was true; but 
indeed our own obfervation left us 
‘without the leaft room for doubt, 
-and the fingular appearance and 
deportment of the ladies fuily e- 
vinced the truth of our friend’s 
‘relation. ‘In walking through the 
town it is eafy to perceive, from the 
whimfical manners of the female 
‘paflengers, that the women, accord- 
ing to the vulgar phrafe, wear the 
breeches. They frequently ftopped 
us in the ftreets, examined our drefs, 
interrogated us with a bold and 
manly air*, laughed at our foreign 
garb and appearance, and fhewed 
fo little attention to that decent 
modefty, which is, or ought to be, 
the true charaéteric of the fex, 
that there is every reafon to fup- 
pofe they would, in fpite of their 
haughtinefs, be the kindeft ladies 
upon earth, if they were not ftriét- 
ly watched by the Turks, who are 
here very numerous, and would be 
ready to punifh any tranfgreffion of 
their ungallant laws with arbi- 
trary fines. But nature and native 
manners will often baffle the efforts 
even of tyranny. In all their 
cuftoms, thefe manly ladies feem to 
have changed fexes with the men. 
—The woman rides aftride—the 
man fits fideways upon the horfe. | 
Nay, I have been affured that the 
hufband’s diftinguifhing appeliation 
is his wife’s fmily name,—The 
women have town and country 
houfes, in the management of which 
the hufband never dares interfere, 
—Their gardens, their fervants, 
are all their own; and the. hufband, 
* In the nineteenth epiftle of the firft book, Horace applies an epithet to Sappho, 
which might with great aptnefs be given to her prefent countrywomen » 
“ Temperat Archilochi Mufam pede mafcula Sappho," 
E 3 from 
