MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 



491 



other sex. As a proof of the total 

 want of education araong the 

 Creek women, I cannot help 

 adding, that I have often heard at 

 Constantinople, even from the 

 mouths of those who bore the title 

 of princesses, the grossest language 

 used towards their servants, such 

 as would not be endured among 

 ns but from the very lowest dregs 

 of the people. It is not difficult, 

 from this specimen, to form an 

 idea of the charm which such sort 

 of female society presents to Eu- 

 ropeans of polished countries. 



A belief in sorcery or witchcraft, 

 that great stumbling-block of the 

 human understanding in all ages 

 and climes, is exceedingly pre- 

 valent in modern Greece. A num- 

 ber of old Sibyls, withered sor- 

 ceresses of the race known among 

 us by the name of Bohemians or 

 Egyptians, the refuse of Thessaly, 

 a country celebrated in all times 

 for female magicians, are in high 

 repute in every part of the Morea. 

 They explain signs, interpret 

 dreams, and all the delirious wan- 

 derings of the imagination. Re- 

 verenced, feared, caressed, nothing 

 is done without consulting them ; 

 nor is it difficult to conceive how 

 unbounded an empire these im- 

 postors obtain over imaginations as 

 ardent, united with minds as little 

 cultivated as characterize the Gre- 

 cian women. 



A young woman wishes to know 

 \rhat sort of a husband she is to 

 have. She consults one of these 

 oracles of fate, who gives her a 

 pie seasoned with mint and other 

 aromatic herbs gathered from the 

 mountains. This she is to eat at 

 night without drinking, and go to 

 bed immediately, iirst hanging 



round her neck, in a little en- 

 chanted bag, three flowers, one 

 white, another red, t.nd the third 

 yellow. The next morning she 

 puts her hand into the bag and 

 draws out one of the flowers : if 

 it be the white, she is to marry a 

 young man ; if the red, one of a 

 middle age ; if the yellow, a 

 widower. She is then to relate 

 what she has dreamt in the night, 

 and from her dreams the Sibyl 

 draws omens, whether the hus- 

 band is to be rich, and whether 

 the marriage is to prove happy or 

 not. If the predictions be not 

 accomplished, no fault is ever as- 

 cribed to the oracle ; either her 

 orders were not exactly observed, 

 or the Evil-eye, has rendered her 

 divinations abortive. This Evil- 

 eye, the Arimanes of the ancients, 

 is a daemon the enemy of all hap- 

 piness, the very name of whom 

 terrifies even the most courageous. 

 According to the Greeks, this 

 spirit or invisible power is grieved 

 at all prosperity, groans at success, 

 is indignant at a plentiful harvest, 

 or at the fecundity of the flocks, 

 murmurs even against heaven for 

 having made a young girl pleasing 

 or handsome. In consequence of 

 so strange a superstition, no one 

 thinks of congratulating another 

 upon having handsome children, 

 and they carefully avoid admiring 

 the beauty of a neighbour's horse, 

 for the Evil-eye would very pro- 

 bably at the same instant afflict 

 the children with a leprosy, or the 

 horses with lameness. The power 

 of this genius even extends to 

 taking away treasures of every 

 kind from those by whom they are 

 possessed. If, however, in com- 

 plimenting the beauty of the chil- 



