408 
X, 
V 
FROM THE VALE OF TEMPE, 
CHAP. Ali Pasha has not been able to extirpate, and 
who sometimes lay the villages under contri- 
bution. 
Cleanly 
Cottages 
of the 
Albanians. 
When our Tchohodar returned from the Agha, 
he had orders to procure lodging for us in the 
little cottage of an Arnaut, or Albanian peasant : 
and here we found a cabin, small indeed, but 
in neatness and cleanliness it might have vied 
with the dwelling of a Dutch boor. The floor 
consisted of the hard and well-swept earth; and 
the walls were covered with a yellow plaster, 
kept so clean, that it was without spot. This 
being the evening of the twenty-Jlfth of December, 
our thoughts were directed homewards, to our 
beloved country, in the recollection of the 
happiness and social mirth diffused around the 
hearths o^ Englishmen, by the annual recurrence 
of their greatest festival. We had no reason 
to complain, either of our fare or of our accom- 
modation. We were regaled, it is true, in no 
spacious apartment ; nor had we any other seat 
or couch than what the bare earth afforded ; 
but this we had been long accustomed to prefer 
before the sofas and cushions of the Tnrks or 
Greeks, which always swarm with vermin. As 
for our banquet, we must have been indeed 
