696 



GREECE. 



Gold and silver trimmings are worn to excess ; and bracelets of precious stones or strings of 

 gold coins round the arm and neck. The younger girls often let their hair fall down their 

 bar-ks, and it is combed over their brows and cheeks. A little red cap with a gold tassel, stud- 

 ded with zechins, is fixed on one side of the crown, in which girls wear a bunch of flowers 



Greek Woman spinning. Mthcn/uii Peiifunl. Greek fVoman. 



and matrons heron plumes, or jewels. In many places, the young women dye their hair an 

 auburn color, with the plant called henna. The females when abroad are muffled up in a cloak, 

 and they wear a veil, which is, however, not scrupulously closed. 



IS. Language. The modern Greek has so much resemblance to the ancient, that in gene- 

 ral a native will comprehend what is said to him in the original language, if spoken according 

 to the modei'n pionunciation. There is, however, some dilierence of construction. Italian is 

 common. 



19. Jllanner of Building. On this subject the Turks, the Arabs, and the Greeks them- 

 selves, have left us little to describe. The villages have been destroyed, and the habitations 

 wantonly razed, in the same barbarous spirit that cut down hundreds of thousands of ohve trees. 

 The houses are of brick, stone, or wood, are whitewashed, ,and have terraces, but they are 

 seldom large. At present, however, manj^ of the poorer class, who have suffered in the deso- 

 lation of the counliy, live in hovels and other temporary shelters. At Napoli and some other 

 towns, the houses are many of them Turkish, the basements being occupied as stables, which 

 are imagined to keep off the plague. The churches are numerous, beyond all parallel in other 

 countries ; but many of them are mere oratoiies open only on a particular holj'day. Thej' are 

 generally small, and built of stone, without much pretension to elegance. 



20. Food and Drink. The food of the greater number consists principally of bread and 

 vegetables, and all use a simple diet. Pilaf, or rice boiled with a little meat or butter, is com- 

 mon, and in the pastoral districts yagourte, or milk, coagulated in a particular way by lemon 

 juice. There is little animal food consumed ; mutton is preferred to beef. In the numerous 

 fasts, the food is principally olives, garlic, and fish. Wine is not scarce, but it is not used to 

 much extent. Temperance is the national virtue. Tobacco is much used and chiefly in 

 smoking. A visiter to a family of wealth, is always offered a pipe, water, coffee, and sweet- 

 meats. 



21. Diseases. The whole of Greece is subject to pestilential fevers, which lose none of 

 their malignancy by the means adopted for cure. The ignorant seem to think, that sickness is 

 the visitation of a demon, and charms and exorcisms are employed to dislodge him ; and these 

 ceremonies are but faintly assisted by jalap, manna, and salts, given in the smallest quantities. 

 The physicians are ignorant, except a few who have been educated In the west of Europe- 

 There is some leprosy and elephantiasis, which is seldom attempted to be cured. In autumn, 

 the people in many places shut themselves up, and will hardly look into the street. Plague, 

 the most terrible of all maladies, is personified in the form of a decrepit hag, that sometimes 

 comes at midnight to the window, and knocks. 



22. Traveling. There are few foreigners who travel in Greece, and these generally visit 

 the remains of antiquity. There are no roads in the Morea for carriages, though there are 

 some traces of ancient ways. Travelers generally go with mules and carry their own beds, 



