JOURNEY TO MOUNT HELICON. 119 
III. 
rest, the condition of the Albanian peasantry, <^hap. 
who cultivate the plains of Greece, is so much 
the same, and their way of living so uniform, 
that the description of a single family may apply 
to the whole community. The great plains of 
Boeotia and Thessaly may be said to surpass all 
other in the world in beauty and fertility. To 
our eyes, the plain of Boeotia appeared like one 
vast natural garden. Yet the labouring peasants, 
who are all oi i\iQ,m Albanians, (the idea of industry 
in Greece having no other association than that 
of an Albanian peasant,) complain everywhere of 
oppression : and indeed the labours of the plough 
can hardly be considered as a peaceful occupa- 
tion, in a land where the husbandmen appear in 
the fields armed as for battle. Such, however, 
seems to have been the condition of the country 
ever since the days oi Homer. When the traveller 
enters one of the houses, every thing he sees 
calls to mind the simplicity of manners which 
characterized the inhabitants of Hellas in the first 
ages of its history. The bread is always made 
into cakes, which are baked upon the hearth, 
beneath the embers : while this is preparing by 
the women, the men are engaged in peeling and 
splitting the onions to be served with it. The 
master of the house, after receiving his guests, 
as it has been before stated, takes the post of 
