90 
A CRUSADE IN THE EAST. 
muddy according to the season, abounding in streams of filth 
from the house-doors, and over-run with miserable dogs, as in 
most of the cities of the East. In the poorer parts of the 
town, the houses are mere hovels of mud; the filth is such 
as to render it difficult even to pass through ; and the in¬ 
habitants are in the most wretched condition. The bazaar 
or market-place is perhaps the most pleasant place of resort 
for the stranger who wishes to study the manners and cos¬ 
tumes. Here all the country people come with their mules 
and packs of produce, and here are gayly-dressed idlers loung¬ 
ing about, in all the glory of silks, and sashes, and swinging 
petticoats. The “ shaggy capote,” referred to by Byron, is 
seen on all sides, and shaggy enough it is, being made of 
sheep-skins, and dirty enough too, in all conscience; for the 
country Greeks (town Greeks are above shaggy capotes) live 
in their sheep-skins as they do in their own skins, neither of 
which they are in the habit of washing more than once or 
twice in a life-time. In all their rags, however, and in all 
their filthiness, these degenerate sons of glory are fine-looking 
fellows, with bold, prominent features, eagle eyes, and com¬ 
manding forms. Some of the handsomest men I ever saw 
were Greeks, dressed in the Albanian costume. The free, 
graceful bearing, the manly stride, the undaunted air of self- 
reliance, the expression of energy and intelligence in every 
feature, struck me as something admirable. It is a little re¬ 
markable that even the lowest classes of the men are hand¬ 
some, yet not one in a thousand of the women even comely 
in form or feature—at least of such as are seen in ordinary 
places of publiq resort. 
On a Sunday afternoon, during my stay in Athens, I went 
to see the king and queen—not to call upon them personally 
at their palace, because I had heard of a difficulty that had 
originated in a matter of etiquette between a party of Ameri¬ 
cans and the royal party, not long before, and I was resolved 
to keep clear of trouble by seeing them in public. There 
was an exhibition of rope-dancers in the open space near the 
Hotel d’Angleterre. At an early hour the place was crowded 
with spectators—Greeks, Italians, French, Germans, English, 
