ATHENS. 3 
of his acquaintance ; and our Consul invited us chap. 
to a ball, given in honour of a couple betrothed v y ■> 
to each other. Many of the Athenian ladies are 
very handsome. Until the period of their 
marriage, the greatest care is used in adorning 
their persons, and in preserving the beauty of 
their complexions : but they are almost as 
much secluded from common view as the 
incarcerated virgins of the Turkish charems. 
Every house belonging to a Greek of any 
consideration has its Gynccctum ; and unless 
a stranger be intimate enough with the master 
of a family to penetrate to the retirement 
set apart for its female relatives, he may come 
and go without meeting any one of them. 
It has been believed that this custom among the 
jithenicins, of shutting up their women^ is an imi- 
tation of the manners of their Turkish lords ; but, 
in fact, it was the original practice of the antient 
inhabitants of the city, and it has continued 
among their descendants until the present day. 
When any one of the Athenian ladies ventures 
into the streets, either upon the occasion of a 
public festival, or in her way to and from a 
public bath, she makes her appearance veiled, 
and so wrapped up, that it is impossible to 
judge either of her person or of her age : and 
B2 
