THEBES. SI 
zuomen, since nothint^ can be more difficult than chap. 
. . in- 
to obtain a sight of them; and of this indeed he ^- - 
complained*. The same reserve and jealousy 
with respect to its female inhabitants was 
perhaps characteristic of Thebes in the first 
periods of its decline. Its women are mentioned 
by Diccvarchus, as being remarkable for the 
dignity and decorum of their carriage^; and he 
describes their antient costume as corresponding 
with the same disguise in which alone we were 
constrained to view them; passing the streets 
like so many mute and moving spectres, veiled 
from head to foot, leaving nothing visible of 
their features but their eyes, and these peering 
indistinctly through two holes in the drapery 
covering their faces*. The time cannot be far 
distant when society will be upon a different 
establishment in this country; when the hidden 
treasures of Greece, of every description, will at 
least become liable to observation; and Thebes, 
(4) Ibifl. p. 331. 
(5) Ai at yvJxTxss auruv rois fityiPKri ^aat'iag fv^/Aol; (sic enim legit iS'/e/'/i. 
pro rfoe'.'ifti; puffioTi) iuf-^'/ifioArrarai n xai suv^tVi/rraTxi -rZv Iv t>) 'EAXaS/ 
yuieuKuv. Di'irarchi Status Grtrcitr, p. 16. 
(')) To rav ifiurluiD ItI rni fci^aXii; xakufiftu rmoi/'r on iirrii, uir^ip "r^off- 
tiXii'fu "hoKiit rrav to "TsotraTov xartiXTJ^^ai, c'l yap iip6<i>.fic\ ctx^unevrxi finov, 
e-i 3j Xoivk fiia» TnZ fpoffuTtu Tutrct, KXTi^tTKt Toi; //*«t/.5/;. (^n^niai o avrk 
Tx^ai X'.uxa. Ibid. 
VOL. VI r. o 
