resin than in other parts of Greece, except what is drank by the poorer classes, which is a villanous compound, and like most other marketable commodities, bought by weight: the chief food of these classes consists of a coarse yellow polenta made of arabositi, which looks very like a rice-pudding*; under an idea that it might resemble it also in taste, I once purchased a lump for a para, and was nearly choked by the first mouthful, being obliged to wash it down with a most nauseous draught of resined wine from the same shop, almost as bad as spirits of turpentine.

The climate of Ioannina is more variable than is generally found in Greece: in the summer the heat is quite oppressive: the winter is sometimes very rainy, at others extremely cold, and the inhabitants, who at one season of the year clothe themselves in the lightest apparel, at the other wrap themselves up in robes lined with furs: the common people preserve their shivering limbs from the severity of the weather beneath cloaks of thick homespun fleecy cloth. Earthquakes are common, and most frequent in the autumn: they sometimes throw down the houses, and the fish have been known cast out of the lake upon dry ground.

Amongst the maladies generally prevalent in large cities, fevers of all kinds are common at Ioannina, especially nervous ones: these arise chiefly from insalubrious dwellings, dirty habits of life, accumulation of filth in the streets, deficiency of wholesome nutriment, and above all from the great number of Albanese troops which are quartered by the vizir upon the houses of the citizens: this is, without exception, the most grievous and vexatious imposition to which these poor people are subject; and nothing tends so much to corrupt their morals and to vitiate their manners: indeed all domestic comfort and

* This polenta resembles the μáza apolyain of Hesiod, a cake made of milk and maize for labouring people. Athenæus mentions a maize cake as the food of the lower classes, who could not afford to buy bread. (Lib. xiv. 663. 6.) Such an one as eat it was sometimes called μalaypérns, which signifies a voracious fellow, that would devour any thing that came in his way. Lib. xv. 686.

28

CRUEL INSTANCE OF ALI PASHA'S TYRANNY.

purity of life must necessarily be destroyed in that family upon which ten, twenty, thirty, or even forty of the most abandoned soldiery are quartered, who join, both officers and men, in the most wanton exercise of power without any responsibility or dread of punishment: sometimes they are sent for the very purpose of gratifying the vizir's resentment, whether just or unjust. The venerable old Turkish gentleman whom I have before mentioned as having been sent to play at chess with Mr. Parker, had been obliged for many months to support fifty of these soldiers; they had broken every window in his house, destroyed all his furniture, torn down his portico for fire-wood, and obliged him to reside in the confined apartments of his harem, from whence not a female of his family dare stir out; and all this for some imaginary offence which he had given to the pasha: yet this person was universally considered the most inoffensive and amiable Mahometan in Ioannina. Such are the blessings of tyranny!

CHAPTER II.

Marriage Procession of Giovanni Melas-Marriage Feast and various Entertainments-Reflections upon the State of Female Society in Greece-Story of Phrosini-Story of Gelisem-Marriage Ceremonies -Albanian Wedding.

OUR friend Mr. Cockerell had not left us many days before we had opportunities of witnessing many interesting and curious scenes, in the enjoyment of which we would most gladly have had his participation. One of these was the marriage feast of Giovanni Melas, a young Greek merchant, one among the best educated, most intelligent, and most respectable men of the city. It was on a Saturday evening that we went with Signore Nicolo to view the nocturnal procession which always accompanies the bridegroom in escorting his betrothed spouse from the paternal roof to that of her future husband: this consisted of near a hundred of the first persons in Ioannina with a great crowd of torch-bearers and a band of music. After having received the lady they returned, but were joined by an equal number of ladies, who paid this compliment to the bride; these were also attended by their maid-servants, many of whom carried infants in their arms dressed in prodigious finery. The little bride who appeared extremely young, walked with slow and apparently reluctant steps, according to custom, supported by a matron on each side and another behind*. The streets were crowded with people, among whom

*This ceremony may throw some light upon the expression of St. Paul, yuvāka reρidyεw (Cor. i. ix. v. 5.) misunderstood by many commentators.

30

MARRIAGE FEAST AND ENTERTAINMENTS.

Signore Melas threw several handfuls of money at the door of his dwelling: we ourselves were here introduced to him, and with great politeness he ordered the band of music to accompany us back.

Next day, being Sunday, we understood that the Archbishop of Ioannina attended at the house of Signore Melas to place the tinsel crowns upon the heads of the new couple, light the tapers, put the rings on the fingers, and perform all the other tedious ceremonies of a Greek wedding. The consummation of the marriage rite and the unloosening of the mystic zone is deferred till the third day of the ceremonials.

On this day a grand nuptial entertainment was given, as is usual, to which all the particular friends and connexions of the bride and bridegroom were invited. In the evening we sent our congratulations to Signore Melas, with an intimation that if agreeable we would pay our respects to him personally on his marriage. This, as we had foreseen, was considered as a compliment; the band of music was sent to precede us to the house, at the door of which we found our host waiting to receive us from thence he led us into the festive chamber and introduced us to his guests, I mean to the male part of them, since, as it has been before observed, in this semi-barbarous country the sexes are separated at all convivial entertainments; a custom which, more than every other, stops the progress of refinement, throwing over the amusements of society languid insipidity or tainting them with sottish degradation. We found Signore Melas's friends, after having partaken of the equal feast, pouring out copious libations to the rosy god, and singing hymeneal songs to the discordant harmony of fiddles and guitars. All rose up at our entrance, receiving us with every mark of attention, and seating us at the upper end of the divan, one on each side of Signore Alessio, the governor of Zagori, a great favourite with the vizir, who it seems acted for the bridegroom as master of the ceremonies*.

He was the chief bridesman or rapávvμpos on this occasion.

MARRIAGE FEAST AND ENTERTAINMENTS.

31

In the interval between our introduction and supper, a fool or zany was called in to divert the company by acting with a clown a kind of pantomime, the ludicrous nature of which consisted in practical jokes and hard knocks upon the clown's pate, which strongly excited the risible faculties of the spectators.

We were much more pleased with the next species of entertainment, which consisted of an exhibition of the Albanitico or national dance of the Albanian palikars, performed by several of the most skilful among the vizir's guards who had been invited to the feast. The evolutions and figures of this exercise served to display the astonishing activity and muscular strength of these hardy mountaineers, who grasping each other lightly by the hands, moved for a time slowly backwards and forwards, then hurried round in a quick circular movement according to the excitement of the music and their own voices, whilst the coryphæus or leader, who was frequently changed, made surprising leaps, bending backwards till his head almost touched the ground, and then starting up into the air with the elastic spring of a bow, whilst his long hair flowed in wild confusion over his shoulders*. After

This Albanitico has been considered by many as a remnant of the ancient Pyrrhic dance: but it is astonishing how ancient authors differ amongst themselves regarding the nature of the Pyrrhic, which seems generally allowed to have had its origin in Crete, or at least to have been first made known to the rest of Europe from that island. Την Πυρρίχην πρῶτος ευρε Πύρριχος Κυδωνιάτης Κρὴς τὸ γένος. Nic. Damasen. de Mor. Gent. in Stobæi, Serm. xlii. See also Lucian, who refers it to Crete, though he derives it from the sacred dances of the Curetes: de Saltatione, § 8. Aristoxenus, quoted by Athenæus (lib. xiv. c. 7.) says it was an invention of Pyrrhicus, a Spartan at Lacedæmon, and calls it a military exercise: but as the laws and constitution of this country were brought from Crete, a mistake concerning the origin of a custom might easily arise. Strabo asserts (lib. x. p. 701, ed. Ox.) that the Pyrrhic was different from the armed dance, ¿vonλíos дpxýσis, and Aristophanes refers it to a species of that lascivious and immodest dance called the Kopca, for delighting in which Philip of Macedon is so severely upbraided by Demosthenes and hence the satirical poet condemns all those who practise it to punishment in the infernal regions, Ran. 153. Most authors however consider the Pyrrhic as a military dance, and many ascribe its origin to Pyrrhus the son of Achilles, who is said greatly to have excelled in it. From a consideration of all circumstances I should think it not improbable that there were two kinds of Pyrrhic, the one a vile lascivious movement, the other a marly and martial exercise: and this latter was chiefly practised at Sparta, where children were taught it at the early age of five years; and of this latter Pyrrhic it is not improbable that the Albanitico is a remnant, since we learn from Lucian that the Spartans in their dance began like wrestlers, catching fast hold of each others hands, which practice was called aspoxεipioμoç. It is also singular that amongst the Mainotes or Eleuthero-Lacones, as they are called, the Albanitico or military dance is still best performed and held in highest repute. In the wild