tune; and fables and impostures of this sort have, among the modern Greeks, replaced the ingenious and allegorical fictions of their ancestors. "High mountains, naked and steep rocks, occupy some points of the island. In other parts, plains and vallies are the domain of a brilliant fertility. The abundance of its wines, oil, corn, and fruits, was renowned; it still subsists, although less rich, because, far from being seconded, it has to surmount the obstacles and difficulties of a bad administration. A few districts are still well cultivated, and yield rich harvests; olivetrees there furnish a tolerable large quantity of oil, in proportion to the extent of the territority; figs are there good and very common, and the wine is still of a very good quality. That species of large grape with oval seeds, and a succulent and perfumed pulp, which the present Greeks call, ox-eye, and we raisin d'Alexandrie, there becomes of a considerable size, and very delicious. 'Among the allurements of Amorgos, we must place in the first rank the mildness and affability of its inhabitants, and the beauty of the women, who, by their charms, remind us that we are in countries, where, from time immemorial, the most amiable sex were in possession of forms the most noble and most elegant, of the bloom of brilliant colour, of an outline the most graceful, of minute attractions the most fascinating. But these handsome women clothe themselves with strange dresses, to which European eyes are not easily reconciled: and they must needs be truly beautiful to appear so under such a garb. The women of Amorgos pass a shawl, or large yellow handkerchief, made of fine wool, over their forehead and the lower part of their face, twist it round their head in the form of a turban, tie it behind, and suffer a long end of it to hang down their back. 'Among the people of the East, fashions are not, as in our western countries, ephemeral fancies, bantlings of instability and capricious luxury; they are customs lasting and ancient, whose origin is lost in the obscurity of ages, and which will still have a long continuance. If, as cannot be doubted, the usages of nations are an image of their character, we shall conceive a high opinion of the constancy of the women of Amorgos, and of all those of the other parts of Greece, who, like them, attached to ancient habits, and strangers to the versatility of fancies, have preserved their dress, however whimsical, however inconvenient even it may appear, when one is not accustomed to see or wear it. In fact it is among these women, so favoured by nature, but at the same time so indifferent as to procuring themselves garments more suitable to their shape, and better calculated for the more advantageous display of their charms, that it is common to meet with the valuable union of beauty, glowing affection, and constancy.' Our author next visited Nanfio, so famed for partridges, and then the fertile isle of Nio, the place where Homer died. 'I happened to be there on the day when the Greeks celebrate, in the spring, the festival of St. Gregory, a festival that they consecrate, in a manner, to cock-roaches, disgusting and troublesome insects, which are very common in these countries during the summer. The day before, every family ought to have laid in their stock of water and herbs; were any to be brought in on that day, it would be imagined that the house would be filled with cock-roaches. This precaution is, nevertheless, insufficient for conjuring away those insects: every head of a family must procure two or three of them, which he shuts up in a hollow reed, and throws them into the sea, at the same time uttering a thousand curses. Although long experience has demonstrated the inefficacy of this ceremony and of these imprecations, there is not a single Greek of Nio and of several other islands of the Archipelago, who annually, on such a day, does not observe them scrupulously, though not a year passes without their houses being infested with cock-roaches in the summer: so blind is superstition when time and ignorance have allowed it to take deep root ! The dress of the women of Nio is much the same as that of the women of most of the islands of the Archipelago. Their features are entirely exposed to view, their forehead is uncovered, and the shawl, with which their head is enveloped, exhibits a sort of crescent of beautiful black hair, glossy as jet, and soft as silk. I shall remark, on this occasion, that the size, and consequently the coarseness of the hair, appears to depend on the severity of the climate. Negroes have wool, and I have never seen any where hair so fine as on the head of the greater part of the women of the East. "We might make an exception against the garments of the women of Nio, and of the other islands where they are accustomed to wear any of the same description, for not reaching sufficiently low, and being repugnant to decency. Their petticoat, in fact, comes only to the knees; but in this defect of length, which, added to the forms of the other parts of the dress, has something whimsical and grotesque, there is nothing immodest. If, in our country, the idea of impropriety and effrontery accompanies a woman whose legs are not covered, at least in a great measure, by long garments, it is that the legs, although dressed, are, with our women, immediately connected with parts which are not, and which decency strictly conceals from view. But what it reproves among us, cannot alarm in the East. There, all the women are completely clothed; they all wear drawers, which permit them not to embarrass their legs by long petticoats. "The Turkish women, and the female Greeks of the large towns, make use of long and ample drawers, which come down to their heels; they even wear them double: the under pair is of linen or cotton, and that which appears is of linen or silk. The drawers of the women of the Archipelago are plain, short, and most commonly made of cotton. Like those of the Turkish women, and rich female inhabitants of the cities and towns, they are in like manner confined, above the hips, by a girdle of knit silk or cotton, passed through a noose, and fastened in front by a long running knot: they are also very ample; but they do not reach beyond the knee, under which they are confined with strings that are covered by the stockings. The women are in the habit of tying these strings so tight, at the top of the calf of the leg, that their impression becomes sufficiently deep and broad to admit the finger. This custom of clothing themselves more completely has, methinks, great advantages for the health of the women: adopted by ours, it would save them from a crowd of disorders, which may very probably have no other cause than their having neglected it, and by this, decency would, doubtless, be no loser. 'Subterraneous commotions, convulsions, and other phenomena, terrified the men of these countries, at different times, and produced on the land changes more or less considerable, till the year 1743, when another island suddenly appeared above the surface of the waters. In order to distinguish it from the former, which is the larger, the Greeks have named it Micri Kammeni, or the Little Burnt Island. Lastly, at the beginning of the century which has just elapsed, a new islet appeared between the Great and the little Kammeni, about a league from Santorin. It was on the 23d of May, 1707, at break of day, that were perceived the commencements of this other production of the same month, there had been felt at Santorin, two slight subterraneous fires which burn in these parts. On the 18th of the same month there had been felt at Santorin, two slight shocks of an earthquake. No great attention was paid to them at the time; but, in the sequel, there was reason to suppose that, at that moment, the new islet was beginning to detach itself from the bottom of the sea, and to rise towards its surface. Be this as it may, some Greeks belonging to Santorin having, very early in the morning, seen the first points of the growing island, imagined that these might be the remains of some shipwreck, which the sea had brought during the night. In hopes of being the first to avail themselves of them, they hastened to reach them; but, no sooner had they discovered that, in lieu of pieces of a floating wreck, these were black and calcined rocks, than they returned, quite frightened, publishing every where what they had just seen. The fright was general in the whole island of Santorin; it was well known there that these sudden appearances of new lands had always been attended by great disasters. Nevertheless, two or three days having passed without any thing fatal happening, some of the inhabitants of Santorin came to a resolution of making observations on the very spot. Having landed, curiosity induced them to proceed from rock to rock; they found every where a sort of white stone which might be cut like bread, and which so well imitated it in figure, colour, and consistency, that, with the exception of the taste, it might have been taken for real wheaten bread. What pleased them and astonished them more, was a quantity of fresh oysters adhering to the rocks, a circumstance very uncommon at Santorin. While these Greeks were amusing themselves with eating the oysters, they all at once felt the rocks move, and the ground tremble under their feet: terror soon made them abandon their repast, in order to jump into their boat, and row away as hard as they could pull. This shock was a motion of the island, which was increasing, and which at that moment, visibly rose, having, in a very few days, gained near twenty feet in height, and twice as much in breadth. "This island daily became higher and broader, and in a short time, a most brilliant and beautiful eruption took place, the subterraneous thunders going off in long rockets, sparkling with a million of lights. The thunders were so loud, that two persons could not hear each other speak. This was followed by violent earthquakes.' Symptoms so frightful,' says our author, convulsions so violent, which nothing can resist, and which mock the power and the precautions of mankind, were, doubtless, sufficient to strike the superstitions and weak imagination of the Greeks. The new island is in their eyes the work of hell; demons have there established their abode; they there set up a dreadful uproar; and, impelled by a diabolical malignity, they make a pastime of letting go the cables of vessels which mariners have the temerity to make fast to it. The Greek bishop of Santorin goes thither sometimes, to display the power of exorcism; and though the noise does not discontinue, and vessels and boats are as frequently set adrift, the prelate enjoys the satisfaction of seeing his credulous flock thoroughly convinced of the efficacy of his pious ceremonies. But this uproar which holy water cannot appease, is owing to the very nature of the new island. It is sometimes the hollow and deep roaring of the volcano, and almost always the shock of the waves against the partitions of cavities entirely |