Europe, meaning in Thrace, when he makes Jupiter cast his eyes back from surveying Mount Ida, upon the land of the horse-feeding Thracians and the closely fighting Mysians.'

Concluding Remarks.

We learn from these passages that a very general opinion prevailed among the Greeks, according to which many of the principal nations of Asia Minor were of Thracian origin. In this number are included the Phrygians and the Mysians. But there are so many historical proofs of the antiquity of the Phrygians in Asia, and of their connection with other Asiatic nations, that we are compelled to regard them as immemorial inhabitants of Lesser Asia. With respect to the Mysians we may draw the same inference, from their known affinity to the Lydians.

But the ancients must have had some ground for the generally prevalent opinion which connected these nations with the people of Thrace; and the most probable conclusion seems to be that it took its origin from the known resemblance between the customs and habits, the religious rites and ceremonies, and, above all, the dialects used by the inhabitants of Thrace and those of the interior of Lesser Asia. These analogies are equally applicable on the supposition that the Thracians went originally from Asia, as on that which represents the Asiatics as a colony from Thrace. The high antiquity, and the greater cultivation of the Asiatic states, afford a strong argument in support of the same conclusion.

SECTION VIII.-Of the Physical Characters of the Nations described in the preceding Sections of this Chapter.

Paragraph 1.-Of the Wallachs.

The Wallachs, who, as we have seen reason to believe, are the descendants of the ancient Getæ or Dacians, and the only existing representatives of the Thracian race, the admixture of Roman blood having perhaps been too inconsiderable to produce

* Strabo, lib. vii. 295.

any material change, are still a people peculiar and distinct from all the other inhabitants of the countries on the Lower Danube. The common Wallach, as we are informed by a late traveller, differs in a decided manner from the Magyar or Hungarian, as well as from the Slaves and Germans who inhabit the borders of Hungary. They are generally below the middle height, thin, and slightly built. Their features are often finely shaped, their noses arched, their eyes dark, their hair long, black, and wavy: their countenances are often expressive of cunning and timidity. They seldom display the dull, heavy look of the Slovak, and still more rarely the proud carriage of the Magyar.

Mr. Paget was struck by the resemblance which the present Wallachs bear to the sculptured figures of ancient Dacians to be seen on Trajan's pillar, which are remarkable for long and flowing beards.*

Paragraph 2.-Of the Albanians.

The Albanians are very different people in physical character from the Wallachs. They have been fully described by M. Pouqueville, from whom I cite the following passages:

"The Albanians, who may be called the Scythians of the Turkish empire, have but few wants. Their houses are nothing more than a ground floor: they sleep upon mats or thick cloaks. Little sensible to the variations of the atmosphere, they lead a life equally laborious through the whole year. Easily contented, they live principally on milk, cheese, eggs, olives, and vegetables; they eat occasionally salt fish. Sometimes they bake bread, but often eat their corn or maize boiled. Their common drink is wine. This is the fare of the country people: the dwellers in towns are better fed.

The Albanian shepherds, likewise warriors, are clothed in coarse woollen stuffs. Sober and active, they are content when on journeys or at their labour with a little boiled rice or corn: singing and dancing are their relaxations from fatigue, and a

* Paget's Travels in Hungary and Transylvania, vol. ii. p. 189, et seq. Lond. 1839.

band of soldiers is seldom seen without a mandolin-player and a singer: they have often besides a story-teller.

"A very great difference is observable between the native Albanians and the Greeks who are inhabitants of towns in their country. Hippocrates remarked that mountaineers are tall in stature, courageous, and laborious. Such are the Albanians: they are seldom less than five feet nine inches in height, and are very strong and muscular. They have oval faces, large mustachos, a ruddy colour in their cheeks, a brisk animated eye, a well-proportioned mouth, and fine teeth. Their neck is long and thin, their chest broad: their legs are slender, with very little calf.

"The women who bring this race of semi-barbarians into the world partake in the vigour of their organization. They do not live in the indolence of harems, but labour hard, and not less than the men earn their bread with the sweat of their brow, and frequently share the dangers encountered by their husbands and sons. Their features are strong: their muscles firm, and endowed with great elasticity: they are little subject to disease, and preserve the freshness of youth much longer than the women of Greece. They continue to become mothers till an equally advanced period of life with the women in the more northern countries. They sleep upon the same mats with their husbands, are like them clothed with coarse woollen garments, and often march with their legs naked during the most rigorous cold of Albanian winters."

Some tribes among the Albanians are said to be remarkable for fair or flaxen hair and blue eyes,* but it has not been observed whether these families are distinguishable in dialect from those who display a different complexion.

Paragraph 3.-Of the Greeks.

The ancient writers have made us tolerably well acquainted with the physiognomy and other personal characteristics of the Greeks. The epithets of ξανθοί, πυῤῥοὶ, κυανοχαίται, γλαυκώπιδες, and many others, indicate that the same variety of complexion existed formerly among the Greeks, which we recognise in

* F. Ritter von Xylander, ubi supra, s. 291.

other nations in the south of Europe, especially in countries where the climate is varied by differences of situationand of level. It seems that in this respect, as well as in the beauty of form, for which the old Greeks were noted, the modern Greeks, their posterity, still resemble them. M. Pouqueville assures us that the models which inspired Apelles and Phidias are still to be found among the inhabitants of the Morea. They are generally tall, and finely formed: their eyes are full of fire, and they have a beautiful mouth, ornamented with the finest teeth. There are, however, degrees in their beauty, though all may be generally termed handsome. The Spartan woman is fair, of a slender make, but with a noble air. The women of Taygetes have the carriage of Pallas when she wielded her formidable ægis in the midst of a battle. The Messenian woman is low of stature, and distinguished for her embonpoint: she has regular features, large blue eyes, and long black hair. The Arcadian, in her coarse woollen garments, scarcely suffers the regularity of her form to appear, but her countenance is expressive of innocence and purity of mind. Chaste as daughters, the women of the Morea assume as wives even a character of austerity. The Greek women in the time of Pouqueville were extremely ignorant and uneducated. Music and dancing seemed to have been taught them by nature. The favourable traits of character among the Greeks in general are in part attributable to their early education. We are assured that the children are left to grow in full liberty, like the robust plants which adorn their native soil. They are not subjected to the harsh treatment which the children of the lower classes experience in more civilised countries, nor are their countenances expressive of any kind of painful sentiment.

The same writer has described the inhabitants of Sparta. He says, "The Laconians differ in manners and address from their neighbours the Arcadians: the latter carry the scrip and crook, and lead a perfectly pastoral life; the inhabitants of Sparta, on the contrary, fond of combats, are of a lively and restless character, and are easily irritated." M. Pouqueville speaks of the long flaxen hair of the women of Sparta, their majestic air and carriage, their elegant forms, the regularity

of their features, animated by large blue eyes bordered with long eyelashes. "The men," he says, "among whom some are blonds,' or fair, have noble features, are of tall stature, masculine and regular features." They have preserved something of the Dorians of Sparta even in their defects. They have an innate propensity to rapine.

The same writer has described in another part of his work the curious race of Mainotes as differing considerably from the other inhabitants of the Morea. They are a mixed people, and are not to be considered as of the genuine posterity of the Hellenes.

The remains of Grecian sculpture are well known to display the finest and most expanded form of the human skull. It has been supposed indeed that "the Grecian profile" has been exaggerated or drawn from the imagination, but Blumenbach, in a memoir in the Goettingen Transactions, and in the notes to his sixth Decade, has refuted this opinion. He thus describes a Greek skull in his collection :-" Forma calvariæ subglobosa, maxillæ superioris ossibus sub narium aperturis ferè ad perpendiculum coadunatis, jugalibus ossibus modicè et concinnè declivibus, "artificum laudatis proxima signis." This Greek skull, and one belonging to the ever barbarous and unintellectual race of Georgians, are said to be the most beautiful in his whole collection, consisting of 170 crania of different nations.

J. Rickerby, Printer, Sherbourn Lane.