410 FROM THE VALE OF TEMPE, • 
CHAP, marks of a premature old age ; and all the 
^ Grecian women exhibit a matronly appearance 
long before they enter into the marriage state. 
Some of them are, it is true, exceedingly beau- 
tiful ; and Nature seems to have been more 
lavish in the distribution of female charms 
among the Grecian than among the jilhanicm 
women ; because the Albanian women have 
almost all of them the complexion and the fea- 
tures of gipsies : but then the former seldom 
display the natural beauties which they possess ; 
they make their appearance disguised by cos- 
metics and paint, and by the artificial ornaments 
of false hair ; tricked out, at the same time^ by 
all sorts of finery, and smelling of essences and 
of musk. The Albanian women are fond of 
finery, — and, indeed, where are the women, 
unless in highly civilized society, who are not 
fond of it? — but the Albanian finery consists, 
principally, in a display of colours strongly 
contrasted; and their dress is remarkable for 
the scrupulous attention to cleanliness by which 
it is distinguished. As the costume is uniformly 
the same, a description of the dress worn by 
one of the Albanian women will serve to give a 
general idea of the appearance exhibited by all 
of them. It consists of the following articles of 
