8 ATHENS. 
more like to those pictured chorece among the 
islands, there is no reason to conclude that all 
the antient features of the Grecian dance have 
been entirely laid aside. One of them is 
certainly retained in every part of Greece; 
namely, that characteristic of antient dancing 
which is connected with the origin of the 
exercise itself, and of a nature forcibly opposed 
to all our ideas of decency and refinement. It 
was probably owing to this circumstance that 
the Romans held dancing in such low estima- 
tion'. The most discreet females of Modern 
Greece, practising what they conceive to be the 
highest accomplishment of the art, deem it to 
be no degradation of the virtues which they cer- 
tainly possess, when they exhibit movements and 
postures of the body expressing, in our eyes, the 
grossest licentiousness. Possibly it may have 
been from observing such violations of decorum, 
that some travellers, in their accounts of the 
country, have calumniated the Grecian women, 
by imputing to them a general want of chastity. 
Yet there is no reason to believe that any 
charge of this nature has been deservedly 
(l) See the observation of Cicero, as cited in Vol. V. of these Travels, 
Chap. IV. p. ]eG. Octavo Edition. 
