BALACLAVA. 
229 
near Naples, which has been laid open; being chap. 
quite as narrow, and being also paved after the 1 « — 
same manner ; only the materials of the Balaclava 
pavement consist of variegated red and white 
marble, instead of lava. The appearance of the 
stones proves that the marble of Balaclava is 
susceptible of a very high polish. The shops 
are also like those of Pompeii; and the inhabitants, 
as in that city, are all of them Greeks. Their 
uniform adherence to the antient costume of 
their country, although a little theatrical, autho- 
rizes the allusion. They wear helmets; but 
these being made of green and of red morocco, 
and not a little greasy with use, cause the Greek s 
of Balaclava to exhibit rather a caricature, than 
a correct portrait of their progenitors. The 
fruit-market here is a very good one, particularly 
for melons. We entered one of their melon 
shops, containing about two thousand water- 
mellons, heaped into a regular square mass : these 
were selling for ten copeeks the dozen ; less than 
a halfpenny each. The water-melon of the Crimea 
does not grow to half the size it attains at Naples ; 
but its flavour is nearly the same. At Cherson, 
farther towards the north, it grows as large as in 
Italy. Vines cover the porticoes of all the doors 
in Balaclava : so rapid is the growth of that plant, 
that, within two years, if they told us the truth, 
a vine yielded two bushels of grapes. They 
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