sweetmeats and so on to match. Indeed, the
thing at last grew rather beyond a joke; for
at one house, they brought me an immense
English pint pot, insisting on my drinking
coffee, as they said, after the fashion of my
compatriots. I could only escape it by a
compliment to their national manners; which
—I need not say—I paid very readily.
People even stopped us in the street to insist
on our drinking with them.

Let me smile over my indigestion as I will,
however, I confess that there was something
positively enchanting in being seated on the
spotless sofas of those summery houses,
with their open windows,  through which
might be seen the cloudless sky and the
distant olive woods; while the west wind
came in laden with freshness and the happy
hum of the holiday-makers below. It
was poetical and touching too, to see the
beautiful Lesbian women with their large
down-cast eyes and faultless features; bringing
in their trays of sweetmeats and offering
the wine; and when they put down the
glasses, they always said, "Your health,
Lord," (??? ????? ???) in voices which were
music indeed.

The Greek is naturally clean in his dress,
his person, and his house. We never went
anywhere, but that it was plain good healthy
soap and water had preceded us. The straw
matting of the floors was quite dazzling from
its cleanliness, and not a spot marred the
snowy whiteness of the walls. Everywhere,
too, we were received with the same graceful
and innate courtesy. Our pipes were lit by
the master of the house in the Oriental
fashion, carrying first the amber
mouth-piece to his own lips; and were always
replaced, before they were half-smoked, by
fresh ones. Everywhere the mistress of the
house herself presented the glyco, and the
pure bright water, which glittered like
dissolved diamonds. I never tasted water so
sweet and delicious.

The houses, in general, here and throughout
the East, are small and confined—mere
little wooden boxes whitewashed; but those
we entered did not lack some rude attempt
at internal ornament. In most of them,
there were poor, but gaudy prints on national
subjects, and the ceilings were generally
adorned with gaily painted flowers. In one
house, I noticed a picture of Anastathius,
the hero of Thessaly, who was cooked over
a slow fire by the Turks, during the Greek
war of independence. He was represented
as struggling with three gigantic Turks,
and as I marked the strained and glowing
eyes which even children fixed upon this
picture, I thought how well calculated it was
to perpetuate animosity between the two
races. The tables and window sills were
usually strewed with fragrant herbs and
sometimes a room looked like a fairy bower
from the tasteful adornment of the mirrors
on the walls.

One thing struck me especially, and that
was, that none of the women took any part
in the pleasures of the day. The Greek, like
the Jew, to whom I often fancy he bears a
marked resemblance, is fond of decking his
womankind with jewellery, and often sinks
half his fortune in this portable form. But
he adorns them for his own eyes only, they
stay in state at home. They are beautiful
dolls, without mind, or heart, indeed, but
still beautiful as pictures are, or statues of
stone. Greek women have nearly all the
same dark, stag-like eyes, and brilliant
complexions, the same delicate hands and feet,
and the luxuriant raven hair. In figure,
however, they are the same size all the way
down, with no more symmetry than sacks
of wheat.

In staying at home, and showing
themselves rarely in public, the modern Greek
women appear to have imitated the manners
of the Turks; and, indeed, let them hate each
other ever so cordially, a conquered people
will always adopt something from the
manners of the conquerors, and women are all
aristocrats, from the Archipelago to the Bay
of Dublin. Another thing also struck me as
remarkable; namely, the total abstinence from
any rough or manly sports. The men danced
together the same Bacchanalian dances which
their forefathers footed three thousand years
ago, if there be truth in ancient urns and
vases; but there was no throwing the quoit,
no wrestling, no foot race, and perhaps not
half-a-dozen men present had backed a horse
three times in his life.

As for the dances, I regret to be obliged to
assure the antiquaries that they are very
awkward, clumsy hops, when actually
performed. Let him fancy half-a-dozen heavy
louts, aged between twenty-five and
fifty-eight, hopping about and bumping against
each other with senseless gestures, while the
last man endeavours to win some burly
bystander, aged forty-two, to make a goose of
himself in the same way. I say, let him fancy
this, and the burly bystander blushing and
sniggering like a schoolboy caught by his
sister's playfellows, and then judge for
himself

But the evening is drawing on; already
the sun sheds a mellower light over the sea
and woodland, and the distant horizon grows
golden. We have had enough of the feast.
Our guide has disappeared drunk, as all
guides do when wanted; but I have tightened
my own girths, and bitted a ragged pony or
two before to-day. I can do so again, and
then lighting our cigars, we go gossipping
homewards.

I do not know whether such little sketches
of far away life and manners as I paint
so poorly may please you; but at any rate
they are fresh from nature, and I hope
no word ever creeps into them to make any
man the worse. If, therefore, in passing
an idle half hour with the Roving Englishman,