peopled the famous Phanar quarter of
Constantinople—dress in the French fashion, and ride
in English saddles. They speak a refined dialect
of Greek; they know French and often several
other languages; they resemble other Europeans.
Their wives are ladies who procure their gowns
from Paris. In a hundred years, more or less,
there will be no more Pallicares. At present
the whole Greek race is divided into two nations,
one of which is insensibly amalgamating with
the other. The black coats will be the lords of
the future.

Between the Pallicares and the Phalariots,
but nearer to the latter, must be classed the islanders.
They are all either sailors or merchants; generally
both at once. They wear the red cap with a
particular fold, the short vest and immense pantaloon
of the Turks. It is a fact worthy of remark that
the pretended national costume of the Greeks is
borrowed either from the Turks or the Albanians.
King Otho, to prove his patriotism and to make
himself popular, used to wear on holidays the
dress of a Slavonian people; and the sailors of
Hydra, to distinguish themselves from the
barbarians of the west, adorn their persons with a
Turkish costume.

All Greeks, of whatever condition, and of
whatever origin, shave their cheeks and chin,
and retain the moustache. They let their beard
grow when they are in mourning. Dandies who
wear whiskers after the European cut are
unfavourably looked upon by good citizens. It is
good taste amongst the Pallicares to tighten the
waist. They are stay-wearing men, and, as the
Greek race is as lean and sinewy as the Turkish
race is stout and heavy, on beholding the people
assembled in a public square, you might fancy
yourself in the midst of the wasps of
Aristophanes.

With the rich Pallicares, domestic life is
not without a certain grandeur. One day, at
Mistra, M. About went to present a letter of
introduction to a young deputy who had
received a completely French education, who
speaks French, who goes to the Chamber in a
European dress, but who, in the country,
scrupulously observes the ancient customs of his
native land. The person sought for had left
home in the morning, and would not return till
evening, but might be found in the public
square. His mother received the visitor with
the cordial dignity of a Penelope doing the
honours of her palace to one of Ulysses's guests.
She was surrounded by five or six servant
women, to whom she distributed their respective
tasks. Beneath the portico, a score of young
men, armed and unarmed, played, chatted, or
slumbered: they were friends or relatives of the
family. It was like dropping into the Odyssey
—into the midst of that heroic life of which
Homer has given so exact a portrait that you
may verify it every day.

The beauty of the Greek race is so
celebrated, and travellers so confidently expect to
find in Greece the progeny of the Venus of
Milo, that on entering Athens they believe
themselves mystified. The Athenian women
are neither handsome nor well made; they have
neither the intellectual countenances of French,
the full and opulent beauty of Roman, nor the
pale and morbid delicacy of Turkish women.
In the town, nothing is to be seen but ugly
females, with snub noses, flat feet, and shapeless
waists.

The reason is, that thirty years ago Athens
was only an Albanian village. Almost the
entire population of Attica then consisted, and
still consists, of Albanians. Three leagues away
from the capital are villages which scarcely
understand Greek. Athens has been rapidly
colonised by men of every nation and every race;
which explains the ugliness of the Athenian
type. Handsome Greek girls, who are rare,
are only to be met with in certain privileged
islands, or in secluded recesses of the
mountains, where invasion has never penetrated.

The men, on the contrary, are handsome and
well-made throughout the kingdom. Their lofty
stature, their slender person, their lean countenance,
their long and aquiline nose, and their large
moustache, give them a martial air. They
sometimes retain up to the age of seventy their small
waist and their easy and graceful carriage.
Corpulence is a misfortune unknown to them.

The pure Greek race is dry, sinewy, and sharp,
like the country which maintains it. The draining
of a few marshes would suffice to suppress all
epidemic fevers, and to make the Greeks the
healthiest people in Europe, as they are the
most temperate. The consumption of one
English labourer would supply, in Greece, a
family of six persons. The rich are perfectly
satisfied with a dish of vegetables for their
repast; the poor, with a handful of olives or a
morsel of salt fish. The whole nation eats meat
once a year—at Easter.

Drunkenness, so common in cold countries,
is an extremely rare vice amongst the Greeks.
They are great drinkers; but water-drinkers. It
would make their conscience uneasy to pass a
fountain without drinking at it; but if they do
go to the public-houses, it is to gossip. The
cafés of Athens are full of customers, and at all
hours; but they consume no strong liquors.
They call for a halfpenny cup of coffee, a glass
of water, fire to light their cigarettes, a
newspaper, and a set of dominoes; with that, they
will amuse themselves the whole day long.
During two years' residence, M. About never
once met with a man drunk in the streets,
and believes that all the drunkards in the kingdom
might be counted very speedily.

If sobriety were not natural to the people, it
would be imposed upon them by the climate.
Under a burning sky, a few drops of liquor
suffice to prostrate a man. The English garrison
at Corfu, says M. About, gets tipsy every day
with its ration of wine; the French sailors
stationed at the Piræus, fancying they are only
taking refreshment, fuddle themselves
abominably; and if ever the Russians become masters
of Greece, they will be obliged, under pain of
death, to condemn themselves to sobriety.

It may be stated that the Greek people have