106 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



revives in the persons of the ladies, and gives a 

 Lydian softness to all that they do. Whether you 

 mark the Armenian matron, languid from her siesta, 

 seeking the breeze at her lattice, or the more active 

 Frank maiden at the hour of her evening promenade, 

 you are ever struck with the idea of grace and poetry. 

 But chiefly is it pleasant to mark them -when the un- 

 ruffled sea and cloudless moon invite them to \vander 

 on the marina, and embark on the waters when the 

 hot sun has persecuted the day, and evening first 

 allowed to breathe freely. There is the bay alive 

 with boats, and resonant of music and laughter, and 

 the shore alive with gay promenaders. There are 

 certain seasons when it might be presumed that the 

 Smyrnists divorce night from sleep ; for often have I 

 listened to the cheerful sound till long past midnight, 

 and still has some passing boat brought music to con- 

 tribute to my dreams. Or take your hat and wander 

 forth at evening to the banks of Meles, where Homer 

 sang whose waters have washed the feet of the epic 

 father, and say whether Homer's self would not ac- 

 knowledge these groups as worthy of the soiL 



Now this is all pleasant exceedingly, but to enjoy 

 this sort of thing sustainedly one should not have an 

 English constitution. We are a phlegmatic set, to 

 whom such zests should be dealt out homoeopathically, 

 else do we soon begin to criticise and take exceptions. 

 Now it so happens that we had entered upon the ex- 

 perience of this delectability with every good disposi- 



