150 LliBADEA. 
CHAP, admitted upon the raised part of the floor or divdn : 
V ..,. > below the divan, near the door, are collected 
meaner dependants, peasants, old women, and 
slaves, who are allowed to sit there upon the floor, 
and to converse together. A certain inexpressi- 
ble article of household furniture, called chaise 
percee by the French, is also seen, making a con- 
spicuous and most disgusting appearance, in the 
room where the dinner is served ; but in the houses 
of rich Greeks it is possible that such an exhibi- 
tion may be owing to the vanity of possessing 
goods of foreign manufacture : the poorer class, 
whether from a regard to decorum, or wanting 
the means of thus violating it, are more decent. 
The dinner being over, presently enters the 
'va-4,M. 'Vd-^oo^og, or Homer of his day, an itinerant 
songster, with his lyre, which he rests upon one 
knee, and plays like a fiddle. He does not ask 
to come in, but boldly forces his way through 
the crowd collected about the door; and 
assuming an air of consequence, steps upon the 
divdn, taking a conspicuous seat among the 
higher class of visitants ; there, striking his 
lyre, and elevating his countenance towards the 
ceiling, he begins a most dismal recitative, 
accompanying his voice, which is only heard at 
intervals, with tones not less dismal, produced by 
the scraping of his three-stringed instrument. 
