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GREEK LIFE IN
TOWN Qf COUNTRY

king's bodyguard.

GREEK LIFE IN
TOWN & COUNTRY

BY W. MILLER

WITH TWENTY-EIGHT
ILLUSTRATIONS

MCMV
LONDON : GEORGE NEWNES, LIMITED
SOUTHAMPTON STREET, STRAND, W.C.

PREFACE
In writing this little book, I have spared no pains to
make it an accurate and impartial sketch of modern
Greece, its life and its institutions. There are few
districts of the country which I have not visited, and
I have received valuable assistance and information from
Greeks of every kind and degree, from prime ministers
to muleteers, and from bishops to bootblacks. To all
and sundry I would tender my thanks for their unfailing
kindness to a warm friend of their country. I have
derived comparatively small aid from printed matter, for
there is little, even in Greek, about the Greeks of to-day.
I append, however, a list of the chief Greek publications
which I have consulted : —
Anmtal of the Ministry of Public Worship and Education,
1900-1.
Census Returns, 1896.
Budget, 1903.
Reports of the Ethnological and Historical Society, vols, i.-v.,
and part of vol. vi.
K. M. Samios : ' Pictures from the Greek Forests,' 1900.
P. Kavvadfas : ' History of the Archaeological Society,' 1900.
Proceedings of the Archceological Society for 1901 and 1902.
G. N. Philaretos : 'The Greek Constitution.'
D. S. Balanos : 'Our Church.'
The Government Gazette.
Law for Military Service.
W. MILLER.
November, 1 905.

CONTENTS
CHAPTER pAGB
I. National Characteristics ... ... ... i
II. Politics ... ... ... ... ... 2I
III. The Court ... ... ... ... ... 49
IV. The Church ... ... ... ... j9
V. Feasts and Ceremonies ... ... ... 85
VI. What the Greeks read ... ... ... 112
VII. Public Education ... ... ... ... 136
VIII. Archeology and Art ... ... ... 163
IX. Local Government ... ... ... ... 173
X. Life at Athens ... ... ... ... 183
XI. Country Life ... ... ... ... 207
XII. The Army and Navy ... ... ... 239
XIII. Justice ... ... ... ... ... 255
XIV. Women's Work ... ... ... ... 265
XV. Material Condition ... ... ... ... 276

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

King's Bodyguard ... ... ... Frontispiece
Athens from the Acropolis ... ... ... 9
General View of Tempe, Thessaly ... ... 19
The Chamber of Deputies, Athens ... .. 30
Constitution Square, Athens ... ... ... 40
Metropolitan Church, Athens ... ... 59
The Monastery of Barlaam, Meteora ... ... 65
The Monastery of St. Stephen, Meteora ... 80
The Academy, Athens ... ... ... ... 129
The University, Athens ... ... ... 144
National Museum, Athens ... ... ... ... 167
National Library, Athens ... ... ... 170
Phaleron ... ... ... ... ... .... 181
The Villa Schliemann, Athens ... ... 188
TheMoat, Corfu ... ... ... ... ... 194
Albanian Costume ... ... ... r. 207
King's Bodyguard ... ... ... ... ... 211
Entrance to the Vale of Tempe, Thessaly ... 222
General View of Kalambaka ... ... ... 229
Principal Square, Patras ... ... ... 236

List of Illustrations PAGE
Corfu. One Gun Battery and the Ship of Ulysses 239
The Old Fortress of Corfu ... ... ... 241
Larissa and the Bridge of the Peneios ... ... 256
Corfu. View on the Marina ... ... ... 261
The Railway from Diakopht6 to Kalavryta ... 268
The Kalavryta Railway ... ... ... 277
The Corinth Canal ... ... ... ... 284
The Vale of Tempe, Thessaly ... ... ... 304

GREEK LIFE IN
TOWN & COUNTRY
CHAPTER I
NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS
When we talk of the Greeks, it is necessary to draw a
distinction between -the two and a half millions of
Hellenes who live within the frontiers of the Greek
kingdom and the considerably larger number who are
Scattered over the Turkish Empire, Roumania, and
almost every part of the world, and are called by their
free brethren ' the outside Greeks.'
The present book is exclusively concerned with the
inhabitants of Greece proper; the little country which,
after losing its independence for nearly twenty centuries,
was constituted into a kingdom seventy-five years ago,
and which, though still confined within unnatural limits,
has since then been twice enlarged.
Who and what are the inhabitants of this classic land,
which stretches from Tempe to Tainaron, and from the
Ambrakian to the Pagasaian gulf? The answer to this
thorny question is to be found in the mediaeval history
of the country. The idea, with which some of the Phil-
hellenes went out to Greece during the War of Indepen
dence, that the country was still inhabited by ' Plutarch's
I B

Greek Life
men,' and the theory of Fallmerayer, now as dead as its
author, that the inhabitants of modern Greece have ' not
a single drop of genuine Greek blood in their veins,' and
that ' the Greek race in Europe has been rooted out,' are
equally erroneous. The truth appears to be, that despite
the great Slavonic immigration which undoubtedly took
place in the dark ages of Greece, the Hellenic race
gradually assimilated and Hellenised the immigrants.
Here and there we find traces of the Slavs in the names
of such places as Vostitsa, the mediaeval name of Aigion,
Charvati in Attica and Charvati near Mycenae, and
Velestino, the birthplace of the heroic Regas and the
scene of the modern battle. Occasionally one finds in
the modern language such obviously Slavonic words as
dobrbs, meaning ' good ' (I remember that my landlady
in Andros always used to say that the weather was
dobrbs), and one meets Greeks called Dobroyannes ; but
even the vernacular speech does not contain any con
siderable Slavonic element.
The Greeks themselves repudiate with the utmost
warmth the idea that they are Slavs; and to ardent
Hellenes the theory of Fallmerayer is as hateful as it
was welcome to zealous Panslavists. When, last year,
through an indiscretion of the Italian Foreign Office, a
most undiplomatic report on Greece and its people,
based on that scholar's hypothesis, and drawn up by the
Italian Minister at Athens, was discovered at Naples
and published in Greece, the popular indignation was
such that the Minister was recalled. The Greeks are
justly tenacious of their Hellenic descent, and nothing
is further from their desires than to be represented as in
any way, however remotely, connected with their hated
rivals, the Balkan Slavs.
There are few phenomena more curious than the con
tinuous existence of the Greek race through all the vicis
situdes of two thousand years. Modern research has
now shed light into the dark places of mediaeval Greek
history, and we know now that, alike under Byzantine

in Town and Country
governors, Frank princes and dukes, Venetian baillies,
and Turkish pashas, the Greeks went on transmitting
their religion, their noble language, with the admixture
of some inevitable foreign elements, and their ancient
traditions from one generation to another. It always
seems to me that the average Greek of classical times
must have had most of the characteristics of the modern
Hellenes. I say advisedly ' the average Greek,' because,
owing to the circumstances of our classical education, we
are unconsciously led to believe that all the ancient
Greeks were men of extraordinary genius — a mistake as
absurd as to suppose that all the contemporaries of
Shakespeare were men of his standard. I suspect that
the average Athenian, whom Aristophanes knew and
drew, was not very different from the modern frequenter
of Zacharatos' cafi and the Constitution Square. The
Kleon of the satirist and of Thucydides had his counter
parts in Athens during the war of 1897; the 'wily
Odysseus' of Homer has many a representative in the
Greek islands to-day.
Even in small details the resemblance is striking.
While travelling in the interior, one is always accosted
by every Greek whom one meets with the question,
' Where do you come from ? ' just as in the ' Odyssey '
the traveller is always confronted with the demand,
'Who of men and whence art thou? Where are thy
city and thy parents?' No men, and few women, are
so curious as the provincial Greek. No sooner has
he made your acquaintance, than he administers a long
string of questions about your nationality, profession,
family, object in travelling, place of residence, probable
duration of stay, and so forth, and administers these,
sometimes awkward, questions in the most abrupt manner,
so that, short of a point-blank refusal to reply, there is
no escape. I remember how, on the only occasion when
I declined to answer a question, my refusal created great
indignation, for the Greek regards it as his right to know
all about the stranger. If you have a wife, he will ask
3

Greek Life
in what year you were married, and how many children
you have ; if you are a journalist, he will ask what news
paper you represent ; if you have any piece of luggage
which strikes his attention, he will ask how much you
paid for it. Once^ on the way up to Volo on the steamer,
a young Greek whom I had invited into my cabin in
sisted on knowing the price of all my belongings. On
another occasion, at Argos, I stopped to ask the way of
a Greek woman ; with the same breath she told me the
way and asked whether the lady with me was my wife or
sister. If the stranger be engaged in making a purchase,
however small, the curiosity of the natives becomes in
tense ; they are eager to hear him speak Greek, eager, too,
to learn how much he is going to pay. Nineteen persons
once collected to see me make a bargain for a carriage
from the Piraeus to the ferry opposite Salamis ; at Salona
twenty-nine bystanders watched me buy three lemons for
ten leptd, or less than a penny ; a negotiation for horses
at Sparta filled the street; the arrival of my wife and
myself at Andritsaina brought the entire population out
of doors. When staying in a country inn, as soon as one
has left one's room the innkeeper's female belongings
often invade the apartment, and ransack one's luggage
out of sheer curiosity. Returning on one occasion rather
earlier than usual, we found our room full of people,
who were not in the least embarrassed by our presence,
and who withdrew only after a strong hint. At mona
steries, I have known the monks invade my apartment at
the most inconvenient hours, to see what I was doing ;
and an entire household once turned out to see a friend
of mine take a bath; curiosity had been aroused by his
inexplicable desire for a large quantity of water! It
must be confessed that this intense curiosity is at times
very tiresome, and at first one is inclined to resent being
catechised as to one's affairs. But the Greeks regard
this painful process as only a way of showing a polite
interest in the stranger's welfare, and are perfectly willing
to impart similar information about themselves. It has
4

in Town and Country
never occurred to them that in ' Europe ' such a system
of interrogatories would be regarded as the height of
impertinence. The extreme politeness and hospitality of the Greeks
in their intercourse with strangers make travel in their
country more delightful than anywhere else. A foreigner
receives all over Greece as a matter of course the best place
at public shows, and is at once requested to step to the
front with a polite cry of Oriste (' This way, please '), if
he shows any bashfulness. If he has to wait at a station,
the station-master or the clerks will ask him to take a
seat in the office. On steamers he has the best cabin
placed at his disposal ; if all the cabins chance to be full,
some courteous Greek will at once offer to vacate his
berth in favour of the stranger ; if it be a day voyage, as
likely as not the captain will place his own cabin at the
foreigner's disposal. All Greeks, rich and poor, are alike
in this respect. I remember on one occasion how, during
a voyage among the Cyclades, the officers and engineer
of the little steamer invited us to share their meal, going
voluntarily without a large part of their food rather than
that we should have no lunch. In one of the islands I
have frequently observed a still more curious form of
hospitality, that shown by tradespeople whose business it
is to sell liquor, and who yet insist on 'treating' the
foreigner free of cost, or at least giving him somethmg
extra as a present. In- every island the children offered
us flowers, without expecting payment or begging for
money. In only one case were we asked for bakshish —
a practice which I have heard Greeks deplore and dis
courage in their offspring, and for which they have to
employ a Turkish word, so foreign is it to tl|e Greek
character. Even at Athens, where strangers are common,
the post-office clerks will invariably serve the visitor
first, and he is always invited to the front at a big
Te Deum in the cathedral. In the country, the well-to-
do tradespeople, whose manners are admirable, will put
you up in their houses when there is no inn, feed you on
5

Greek Life
the best of what they have, and disturb their rest in
the night in order that you may catch your steamer in the
small hours of the morning. Under such circumstances
the only recompense possible is to send a small present
to the children of your host. In the islands, the poorest
peasant will ask you into his clean and tidy cottage, give
you cognac, coffee, and a glass of water, after the invariable
Greek fashion, and offer you walnuts, which he will crack
for you, or whatever else may be in season. Poor, thread
bare, village priests will implore you to accept their
hospitality, and at every monastery the stranger is
welcomed, fed, and lodged to the best of the monks'
ability. After a course of venal Swiss hotel-keepers and
gold-laced porters, Greek hospitality, which gives freely
and asks nothing in return, is, indeed, a blessed thing.
The intensely democratic feelings of the Greeks are
especially striking to Englishmen with their aristocratic
ideas. Class distinctions do not exist in Greece; one
man may be better educated, or richer, than another,
but that does not prevent the more ignorant or the less
affluent from treating the other on absolutely equal terms.
Snobbery is a quality almost unknown among the Greeks,
hence one of the main difficulties of governing the
country. Titles are prohibited by the Constitution, and
although the Corfiotes still use their old Venetian
prefixes of nobility at Corfu, they are described as plain
Mr. and Mrs. at Athens. At Andros, the old famiUes,
who called themselves Archontes, still exist, but are
dismally poor, ' poorer than the man who walks behind
the mule,' as it was put to me ; and most of the Athenian
Archontic families, who formed a separate class in
Turkish times, used the Byzantine double eagle on their
monuments,* and were alone permitted to call their sons
Alexander, are now extinct. Thus, socially and politically
alike, Greece is as good an example of absolute democracy
as can be found anywhere. One is expected to shake
* There is an Archon's tomb with a double eagle on it at the
Monastery of Kaisariane. 6

in Town and Country
hands with servants, guards, porters, and peasants, who
may at times address one in the ceremonious form of
' your worship,' but who not unfrequently lapse into the
familiar second person singular, and always behave as
persons of equal rights and equal duties. I remember
that once, at Megara, the small boy of the refreshment
room where we had been sitting, climbed up into the
train at the last moment and offered us his hand, which
we warmly grasped ; a luggage porter at Lavrion gave us
a similar token of friendship at parting.
Democracy in Greece is, however, far more agreeable
socially than it would be in England, because of the
admirable manners of the people. Your muleteer sits
down to dinner with you, and talks and behaves like a
gentleman ; he may offer you, as once happened to me,
an introduction to his brother, who is a barrister in the
next town. This incident is an excellent example of
how society is composed; one brother studies and
becomes a lawyer, the other does not study and remains
a peasant ; both are agreeable companions, the peasant
perhaps rather more so, because less spoilt by European
culture than the barrister.
One unfortunate result of this extreme democracy, so
firmly engrained in the Hellenic character, is the dis
inclination to obey a leader, and the consequent tendency
to split up into cliques and groups. The Venetians truly
said, ' Every five Greeks, six generals.' Again and again
the daily life of Greece shows examples ofthe impossibility
of forming clubs, companies, or anything which requires
co-operation and the subordination of the individual to
the whole. Two Greeks will do badly what each separately
will do well. Like all democratic peoples, ancient and
modern, the Hellenes have an intense distrust of one
another, and this is an immense hindrance to the develop
ment of the country. For this reason Greek companies
cannot be formed to exploit its universal resources, and
such matters as that must be left to foreigners. Jealousy,
so characteristic of democracies, is another Hellenic trait ;
7

Greek Life
and in the hypercritical atmosphere of Athens it would be
almost impossible for any native writer to obtain general
recognition during his lifetime. Like most very critical
persons, the Greeks are extremely sensitive to criticism,
not only of themselves, but of their country. No one
abuses the institutions of Greece so much as the Greeks
themselves; but they justly resent the unfavourable
remarks of a foreigner.
There is one question upon which the Greeks are
peculiarly sensitive — that of the language. There are in
Greece two forms of Greek, that written by the news
papers and spoken, with some modifications, by the edu
cated classes, and the vernacular, which contains a number
of Italian and Turkish words, and dispenses with the
more elaborate grammar of the elegant language. The
former is called the katharevousa, or 'pure' language,
the latter the demotikt, the ' popular,' or, more scornfully,
the chydaHa, or 'vulgar' idiom. Between the partisans
of these two forms of Greek there rages a war which knows
no mercy. No subject, not even the Bulgarians, arouses
such fury in an assembly of Greeks as this. Not long
ago, two professors became so excited, owing to a differ
ence of opinion on the language question at Zacharatos'
cafe, that they fell upon one another with their sticks, and
had to be separated by the spectators. I have seen one
worthy Greek beside himself with indignation at the mere
idea of any one preferring the vulgar to the pure speech.
The ' Gospel Riots ' of November, 1901, which led to the
fall of the first Theotokes Ministry, largely arose out of
the indignation of the students and others at the translation
of the New Testament into the vernacular, and I have
heard almost uneducated people express strong opinions in
favour of keeping the text of the Gospels in the original
Greek. In November of 1903, Athens was convulsed,
because the ' Ore"steia ' of u^Eschylus had been adapted
and presented at the theatre in a modern Greek version
by M. Soteriades, which was considered to contain vulgar
expressions. Professor Mistridtes, a familiar figure at
8

in Town and Country
Athens and an apostle of purity in language and beauty
in form, delivered an incendiary speech, the students
marched out in defence of ^Eschylus, a riot took place,
in which an innocent onlooker from Alexandria was killed,
and the Ralles Ministry, in order to prevent worse dis
orders, forbade any further performances of the offending
trilogy, which the students had threatened to interrupt,
on the ground that it was nothing less than sacrilege
to distort the pure language of the tragedian. Professor
Mistridtes was, indeed, threatened with proceedings for
inciting to a breach of the peace ; but he retorted by
accusing two of his colleagues, Professors Lampros arid
PoHtes, of injuring the language, and thereby the national
interests, by introducing new phrases in their writings
and lectures.
Shortly afterwards, the news that an essay on the
language question, by Professor Krumbacher, of Munich,
the eminent Byzantine scholar, who holds unorthodox
views about modern Greek, was about to be translated and
published in the Marasle library, caused a fresh ferment.
The amusing part of this controversy is, that the very
same persons who denounce the vulgar language often
use it themselves in their unguarded moments, and even
wheh arguing heatedly in defence of the pure speech.
The papers represented Professor Mistridtes himself as
using colloquial phrases to his sick daughter, when she
suddenly called out from her bed to her affectionate
father that she was very ill. The voice of nature had
triumphed over the voice of literature. A distinguished
Greek historian, who writes, and strongly supports, the
pure language, has used common words when talking en
dishabille with me, and I know another Greek, whose
language is one mass of colloquialisms and Tift-kish words,
yet who is one of the most zealous opponents of the
vulgar tongue ! Some Athenians, who know little of
the country, will even go so far as to say that ' every
one now talks the pure language.' A visit to North
Euboia, where many Turkish phrases are to be found, to
9

Greek Life
the Cyclades, where the long Venetian influence has left
traces upon the language, to the Ionian Islands, where for
the same reason the islanders interlard their Greek with
Italian phrases, or to any of the villages in Attica, where
a dialect of Albanian is still spoken by the older people,
would suffice to dispel this pleasant illusion. Yet there
is no doubt whatever that the katkarivousa is gaining
ground, and it is, I believe, destined to prevail. Buchon
remarked, as far back as 1840, that, immediately after the
reconquest of their freedom, the Greeks began to purify
their language, and he noticed how rapidly the process
had proceeded. But since his time, and especially during
thelastdecade, the progress has been much more rapid. All
the school books are written in the pure idiom, practically
all the newspapers — except one or two unimportant prints
— are published in more or less pure Greek, and the
compulsory military system is a powerful force for dis
seminating that form of the language. Since 1894, the
extremely vulgar language used by M. Psichares, a Greek
who lives in Paris, and who is one of the chief advocates
of the vernacular in literature, had the effect of producing
a strong reaction in favour of the pure tongue, which
had been somewhat losing ground till his extravagances
of diction disgusted people.
One of the greatest difficulties which faces the literary
exponents of the vernacular, men like M. Psichares and
M.Palamas,is,that the peasants, who speak it, have naturally
a very small vocabulary, mainly composed of words for
simple things. Consequently, as soon as the writers leave
dialogue and come to description, they have to invent
words, often not Greek at all, to express their ideas, their
phraseology thus becoming more artificial than that of the
most extreme purist. Moreover, while the cultured Greeks
naturally prefer the pure language, the newly educated,
proud of their attainments, like to use the more elaborate
grammar and the longer words of the katharivousa,
especially before strangers. Peasants have again and
again used to me the classical, rather than the vernacular,
10

in Town and Country
words for common objects of daily life — for it is there
that the difference between the two forms of the language
is most marked. But it must be remembered that, with
all their differences, they are both Greek. The Greek
language has never been dead; there has never been
any period from the time of Homer to the last number
of the Asty when Greek, in some form or other, was
not a living, spoken language. Some classical scholars,
who know little about mediaeval Greek literature, are
apt to describe the katharfaxntsa as a wholly modern,
artificial growth. Such a statement is only partially true.
Modem Greek is the legitimate descendant of mediaeval
Greek, as that was of New Testament and classical Greeks
A modern Greek scholar can read without difficulty such
a work as the ' Chronicle of the Morea,' which was
probably written iri the first half of the fourteenth century.
What Frenchman, without long previous study, could read
the old French romances of the same period? So, not
without reason, the modern Greeks always regard them*
selves as of the same speech as the ancients, even though
they have lost the ancient infinitive, middle voice, dual
number, and optative mood. ' I have no feeling for
Latin,' a very clever Greek once said to me, ' but the
Greek classics are always at my pillow ; I feel, as well as
understand, them ; they are my own language.' For that
reason the Greeks very properly resent the gratuitous
advice about their language given to them by learned
but pedantic foreigners, usually Germans. No foreigner,
however good a classical scholar, can feel the niceties of
Greek like a native ; and it is surely as absurd for the
professors of Germany to dictate laws of syntax and pro
nunciation to the Greeks as it would be for the same
gentlemen to teach us how to govern our colonies.
For my part, I think that both the pure language and
the vulgar have their merits. The former is more elegant,
the latter more forcible and more vigorous. The former
would aim at ignoring all foreign influences, the latter
preserves those interesting traces of Latin and Turkish

Greek Life
rule which, like the Frankish towers of the Morea and
the crumbling mosques of Thessaly, are an integral and
romantic part of the history of Greece. When we con
sider how careless most Englishmen are about their own
language, it is impossible not to admire the zeal of the
Greeks for a pure speech ; but this is apt to make them
pay more attention to the style than to the matter of
their literary productions. When a Greek author has
declaimed to a circle of friends a passage of his new
book, the highest praise that can be bestowed upon it
is to say, ' What beautiful language ! '
The fervid patriotism of the Greeks is a trait which
has marked influence upon all their pohtical opinions.
Almost all, who have not lived in the sobering atmo
sphere of cynical Europe, believe in the ' Grand Idea ' of
a Great Greece, which shall comprise the scattered forces
of Hellenism in the Levant. Greece has made enormous
pecuniary sacrifices for her ' enslaved ' children in Crete,
and, in a less degree, in Macedonia. Two years ago at
Athens money was readily forthcoming in subscriptions for
the Macedonian Greeks, and again and again the starving
Cretan refugees have been fed by Athenian charity.
Athens owes most of her fine public buildings to the
splendid munificence of the Greeks who have made
money abroad. The National Library, the Observatory,
the Zappeion, the Stadion are instances. The Greeks
of Epiros are specially remarkable for their generous
contributions to the capital of the race, especially in the
department of education. There have been examples
of Greeks, like the brothers Zappa, who have remained
single in order, to 'marry the nation' and endow her
with all their worldly possessions. The late M. Syngrds
has earned the title of 'the national benefactor' by his
gigantic endowments of every kind, and to have those
three magic words inscribed in gold letters on his white
marble statue is the dream of many a rich Hellene.
For the ' national benefactors ' have a pardonable desire
to let their fellow-countrymen know what great things

in Town and Country
they have done for the cause of Hellenism, and the
plastic Greek language lends itself to elegant formations,
embodying the name of the donor in the title of the
institute which he has founded. This form of recogni
tion takes the place of baronetcies and peerages in our
system of rewarding philanthropists. The lavish generosity
of the 'outside Greeks' has, perhaps, had one disad
vantage — that of inducing the free Greeks to rely too
little upon their own exertions. A good result is, that
the Hellene from abroad is not disposed to give large
sums to Greece, unless he has some security that they
will be well administered. I heard of such a case not
long ago. As elsewhere, patriotism in Greece in its
extreme form becomes Chauvinism, a disease which
absolutely incapacitates its victims from seeing any but
their own view of international politics. On the Mace
donian question most Greeks are Chauvinists ; they are
only willing to hear their own side of that difficult racial
problem, and they are, with rare exceptions, so strongly
prejudiced against the Bulgarians, that argument is hope
less, and the philosophic politician who thinks that there
may be something to be said on both sides is apt to
find himself labelled as a Bulgarophil.
On this particular question, as in their patriotic views
generally, many Greek? are liable to lose all perspective.
You will hear politicians talk about Alexander the Great,
and base arguments on his Macedonian realm, as if he
were a contemporary of M. Delyahnes, and I once
listened to a very ^hard-headed currant merchant from
Patras solemnly denouncing Demosthenes as a bad patriot
and a traitor to Greece, because he had called Philip of
Macedon ' a barbarian,' and thereby injured the Greek
argument that all, or most, of the Macedonians are
Greeks. A similar lack of perspective leads many worthy
Hellenes to believe that Europe in general and Great
Britain in particular are constantly interested in their
affairs. It is hard to persuade them that the advance
ment of Hellenism is not the first of British interests,
J3

Greek Life
and that our colonial policy is now of more concern to
most Britons than the Eastern question.
On the subject of Greek honesty Europeans are too
apt, in my opinion, to judge of the whole Greek nation
by the cosmopolitan inhabitants of big cities — a mistake
committed by the Roman satirists in their time. In my
numerous journeyings about Greece, I can only remem
ber one outrageous attempt at extortion, and that at a
place spoilt by tourists. The country people are, in my
experience, extremely honest, often refusing to take
money for services rendered, and usually charging small
prices, or at any rate willing to take them. For the
Oriental practice of asking a higher figure than the
vendor intends to accept merely represents ' the higgling
of the market.' Even a long argument over the price to
be paid leaves no rancour behind it ; the Greek regards
such a process as the natural way of doing business ;
and, when it is over, he will ask you to take a cup of
coffee, or offer to show you the sights, just as if you had
accepted his first proposal without demur. Where, how
ever, the stranger is assisted by a native in making a
bargain, he usually does worse than if he relies upon his
own unaided efforts. The native naturally leans to the
side of his fellow-townsman, with whom he has to Uve
all the year round, rather than to that of the stranger,
whom he will probably never see again, and it is not
always easy to demur politely to his judgment. I have
never had anything stolen by Greek servants. I have
had my belongings ransacked from motives of curiosity,
but have never found anything missing.
Besides the Hellenes, there are several other races
represented in Greece. Of these the most numerous is
the Albanian, which forms a large and valuable element
of the population, which made the last great stand
against the Turks before the conquest of the Morea, and
furnished some of the most heroic combatants to the
cause of Greek freedom. As is natural, we first hear of
the Albanians in Akarnania and Aitolia, the Greek
H

in Town and Country
provinces nearest to their own country, whence they
emigrated across the Gulf of Corinth to the Peloponnesos.
Their first appearance there was in the latter half of the
fourteenth century, when Manuel Kantacuzends, Despot
or Governor ofthe Byzantine province which took its name
from Mistri, gave them lands in the centre and south
west of the peninsula. A little later, under the Despot
Theodore Palaiologos I., 10,000 Albanian families took
up their abode in the Peloponnesos. In Thessaly they
were able to dispute the ground with the Wallachs early
in the fourteenth century, and a hundred years later
they were welcomed as colonists in Attica by Antonio
Acciajuoli, Duke of Athens, who wished to repair the
ravages made by plague and Turkish invasions. During
the Turkish rule in Athens we find them settled in the
vicinity of what is now the large military hospital ; when
Hadji Ali fortified Athens at the time of the great
Albanian raid into Attica in 1778, the gate which he
made at that point was called ' the Albanian gate ' after
this colony, and Albanians still live in that quarter. At
the present time a large part of Attica is inhabited by
that race; the names of such villages as Sp^ta, Lidsia
(a corruption of Liosa), Liopesi, and Boua are Albanian.
At Eleusis, the. birthplace of iEschylus, the population
is Albanian, speaking both Greek and a very corrupt
Albanian dialect, quite different from the language spoken
in Albania itself, but unable to write Albanian. Perhaps
the reason for this may be that given to me by an
Albanian from Spetsai. There is no written Albanian
language, he said, because, according to the story, a man
wrote the letters of the Albanian alphabet on the leaves
of vegetables, which he put upon his donkey. When,
however, he was not looking, the ass ate*the leaves,
letters and all ! * The children at Eleusis, and in other
Albanian settlements, are, of course, taught Greek in the
schools, but their parents still talk their mother tongue to
* Of course, there are in Italy newspapers written in Albanian ;
but I am told that the real Albanians cannot understand them.
is

Greek Life
them at home. No doubt, the marvellous power of the
Greek language will in the end prove too strong for the
Albanians to resist. Even among the Albanians there are
Greek oases. Thus, Megara is a purely Greek town in
the midst of an Albanian population, which is also
numerous in Boiotia and the Peloponnesos. With some
notable exceptions, the Albanians are rare in the islands.
There their chief abodes are Hydra and Spetsai, those
two heroic islands of the War of Independence; in
classical Salamis I have heard the Albanian inhabitants
talking their own language ; and, after the total devasta
tion of Aigina by the Turkish corsair, Barbarossa, in the
sixteenth century, and the abandonment of the curious
inland town of Palaiochora, they obtained a footing there.
The destruction wrought by Turkish corsairs during the
latter part of the Venetian rule in Euboia led to the
introduction of Albanian emigrants from Thessaly into
the southern end of that great island, and a similar cause
produced the repopulation of Northern Andros, the only
island of the Cyclades which now has an Albanian
element, and that still concentrated in the north. Corfii
has an Albanian village, Kanalion Arvanitikdn, the home
of the exiles from Souli, where Albanian is spoken.
Though they possess so few Albanians, the Cyclades
are, with the Ionian Islands, the chief seat of the Latin
race in Greece. The families, who still preserve the
Italian names, and in some cases the Roman Catholic
religion, of their ancestors, are the descendants of the
Venetian adventurers who carved out for themselves
island baronies after the partition of the Eastern Empire
at the time of the Fourth Crusade. When it is remem
bered that the Latin Duchy of Naxos existed for over
350 years, and that two of the Cyclades, Mykonos and
Tenos, remained in Venetian hands down to less than
200 years ago, while the Ionian Islands ceased to be
Venetian so recently as 1797, at which time Corfu had
been for 400 years a Venetian possession, it is easy to
understand the survival of the old Latin families in those
16

in Town and Country
parts of Greece. As a rule, they are now sunk in poverty,
little alleviated by the old escutcheons on their houses at
Naxos, by their family-trees, and by their splendid historic
names, recalling the golden age of the Venetian aris
tocracy. In Euboia, I have not been able to find traces
of a single Frankish family, though one doctor at Chalkis
rejoices in the Christian name of Venezianos. But there
are still Crispis in Naxos, Delendas and De Cigallas
(Dekigalla in Greek) in Santorin, and Ghisi elsewhere,
while Venetian names are very common in the Ionian
Islands, especially in Corfu and Zante. At Syra there is
a separate Catholic town, the home of the Latin settlers
who came there long before Hermoupolis was founded.
In other places, however, many of the Latin families have
become members of the Orthodox Church.
Of Latin origin, but of very different habits, are the
Koutso-Wallachs (the " lame " Wallachs) — a race of
nomad shepherds, chiefly found on the slopes of Pindos
in summer, in Boiotia in winter, and on the banks of
the Aspropotamos. The origin of the Wallachs, called
"lame" because of their "lame" and halting speech,*
is one of the most debated points of Balkan ethnology.
Some regard them as the descendants of the Thracians,
but the most usual account is that they are the off
spring of Roman legionaries who spread into Macedonia
and Greece from the country on the south bank of the
Danube, whither Aurelian had withdrawn the Roman
soldiers from Dacia proper, and they are claimed by
the Roumanians as brothers. In the latter part of the
thirteenth and the first few years of the fourteenth
century, they were sufficiently important to give the name
of Great Wallachia, already used by the Byzantine historian
Niketas two generations earlier, to the principality which
had Neopatras, near Lamia, for its capital, while the name
of Little Wallachia was conferred upon Akarnania and
Aitolia. Most of the Koutso-Wallachs whom I have
* For the same reason they are sometimes called Tsintsars, because
they say tsints for chinch (cinque). 17 C

Greek Life
met speak Greek, and not Wallach. But at Kalabaka
in Thessaly and other places there are Wallachs who also
speak the latter language, which is of Latin origin, and
differs very little from ordinary Roumanian.
Despite the long Turkish domination, there are very
few Turks now residing in Greece. At Chalkis there are
still one or two Turkish families, protected by special
stipulations, and I remember once seeing there a Turkish
lady very thinly veiled. Before the war of 1897 there
were Still a number of large Turkish landed proprietors
in Thessaly, where the Turks had been established many
years before their conquest of the other parts of Greece,
and where the Turkish feudal, or timariot, system was
first introduced. But since the retrocession of that
province to the Greeks by the treaty which followed the
Turkish victories, they have nearly all left their tchifiiks
and emigrated. One mosque upon the old dismantled
citadel is far more than sufficient for the needs of the
very small congregation of the faithful at Volo. All the
old Turkish-lookmg houses in the charming village of
Upper Volo are now inhabited by Greeks ; two of the
villages on the way to Tempe, which were entirely
Turkish seven years ago, have now lost nearly all their
Turkish inhabitants; at Trikkala not a single Turk
remains, and in a long railway journey across Thessaly
I saw only three altogether ; even Larissa, formerly the
stronghold of Turkish influence, had only thirty or forty
Turkish families when I was there three years ago, and
has probably still fewer now. The reason is not that the
Greeks are intolerant; far from it. But national pride
forbade the Thessalian begs to stay on after their co
religionists had been deprived of the fruits of Edhem's
victories. Moreover, the Mussulman finds it difficult to
marry his daughters in the land of the Giaours ; every
where, in Bulgaria, in Servia, even in Bosnia, the story
is the same. Most striking of all, the Cretan Mussulmans,
of the same race and language as the Christians, and in
many cases comparatively recent converts to Islam,
18

GENERAL VIEW OF TEMPE, THESSALY.

in Town and Country
have dwindled away since the establishment of Cretan
autonomy from one-third to one-ninth of the population.
Soon the ruined mosques and the landed system will be
the last traces of the Turk in Thessaly.
The Jew and the Greek have never been friends ; and
though Benjamin of Tudela found Jews there when he
visited Greece in the twelfth century, and I have seen
many Jewish inscriptions near Sparta, the Hebrew
colonies there are usually insignificant, and only found
in places where the Venetians had settled, and where
trade was accordingly brisk. There is a small Jewish
community at Athens, and a much larger one at Corfu,
where a part of the town is called Hebrciikd, and where
the Jews number about three thousand. There are also
Jews at Zante, at Chalkis, and at Volo. Of late years
there has been only one outburst of the old mediaeval
feeling against them, which found vent in a serious anti-
Jewish riot at Corfii in the early nineties.
On the south-east of the Peloponnesos at Leonidi,
and in a few villages near it, there still linger the
fragments of a curious race — the Tzdkones — which speaks
a language of its own. Opinions differ as to the origin
of this interesting people. The Tzakones have been
regarded as Slavs, or as the descendants of serfs, but
are almost identical in name with the Lakonians. Dr.
Deffner, of Athens, the highest living authority on their
language, regards them as the descendants of the
Lakonians, and calls their speech * New Doric' It has
the digamma in some words, and employs the Doric
a for the Attic rj. We read of them as early as the
middle of the thirteenth century, and the Byzantine
satirist Mazaris, who wrote in 141 6, mentions them among
the inhabitants of the Morea. One of this interesting
people taught me the equivalents for a few ordinary
articles in Tzakonic, which bore slight apparent re
semblance to the Greek names. The schoolmaster will,
of course, in time remove the last traces of the Tzakonic
language from Leonidi; but Dr. Deffner thinks that it
19

Greek Life
will linger on for a couple of centuries more in the
mountains. Gipsies, who are mentioned among the inhabitants
of the Morea in the fourteenth century, may be seen
here and there, and their Greek name, a corruption
of ' Egyptians,' lingers in Gyphtbkastro, the splendid
Hellenic fortress which commands the road between
Athens and Thebes, and is found in two other places
similarly called. I once saw an encampment of nut-
brown gipsies near the Megara station, and another on
the battlefield of Chaironeia. From the fact that the
gipsies are often smiths, those who work at that trade
are colloquially called yu^roi.

20

in Town and Country

CHAPTER II
POLITICS
It is impossible to write about Greek life, whether in
town or country, without saying something on the subject
of politics ; for they affect every profession, every trade,
and almost every family to a degree unknown in other
lands; they form the constant topic of conversation,
whenever two or three Greek men are gathered together ;
and one of the first questions which the visitor from
Athens is expected to answer, whether in the mediaeval
monastery or in the peasant's cottage, is ' How goes the
Government?' An impartial account of the Greek
political system, not only as it exists on paper, but as
it really works, is, therefore, an essential prelude to any
description of contemporary life in Greece.
When, after the creation of the modern Greek kingdom,
it became necessary to organise a Government, the
national and democratic feelings of the people soon
chafed under the blundering paternal administration of
the well-meaning but tactless Bavarians, who had ac
companied King Otho to assist him in the work of
governing his subjects on German lines. The constitu
tion of 1843 first gave the Greeks the doubtftil blessings
of parliamentary politics, and bestowed upon them the
luxury — for in the case of a country newly emancipated
from the Turks it is a luxury — of party government,
when all efforts should have been directed to the material
development of a land so long neglected and devastated
21

Greek Life
by nearly a decade of continual warfare against its former
masters. Twenty-one years later, the present constitution
of 1864, more democratic still than that of 1843, and
drawn up at a period of great national excitement, provided
the Greeks with a political machine of such an advanced
type, that the most radical of other contemporary forms
of government seems conservative beside it.
Under this charter, which has now been forty years in
existence, and has, therefore, been amply tested by
experience, Greece is governed by a single chamber,
classically styled the Boule, at present composed of 234
members, elected by 71 electoral districts for a term of
four years. In practice, however, the duration of a
legislature is considerably shorter, for during the forty-
one years' reign of the present king there have been
sixteen Parliaments. A deputy must be a Greek
citizen, from the constituency which he represents, or
else established in it for at least two years before his
election, must have enjoyed civic and political rights for
two years, and must not be under thirty years of age.
This last proviso, owing to the inaccuracy and uncertainty
of the registration of births, sometimes gives rise to
disputes, as, for instance, on the election of a young
Corfiote deputy, M. Alamanos, not long ago. No paid
official and no mayor can be also a deputy ; but officers
of the army and navy in active service are eligible,
being merely placed en disponibilit'e during the duration
of the legislature to which they were elected, and re
ceiving no officers' pay during that period. Any officer
who wishes to stand for Parliament is entitled, one
month before the elections, to five and a half months'
leave of absence. This eligibility of officers for Parlia
ment is one of the worst features of Greek politics. It
ruins discipline; for the spectacle of an inferior officer
criticising and occasionally quarrelling with his military
superior, the Minister of War, is not edifying. Recently,
all Athens was agog over a duel between the then Minister
of War and one of his predecessors, arising out of a heated
22

in Town and Country
passage of arms in the Boule. All sensible persons desire
the exclusion of officers from active political life, and
seven years ago the then head of the War Office told
me it would be one of his first reforms.
The deputies are elected by direct, secret, manhood
suffrage, and the elections take place on the same day all
over the country. . Candidates for Parliament have to pay
the sum of 200 dr. for the returning officer's expenses.*
But the merely legal expenses are nothing as compared
with the actual expenditure at many parliamentary elec
tions. One prominent statesman, who has been more than
once Prime Minister, has lost all his fortune in politics ;
another much of his, and all the leading men become
poorer by going into parliamentary life. One of the
most costly items of a candidature is the duty of standing
godfather to the children of constituents. M. Rilles is
said to have a thousand godchildren in Attica, who are
doubtless one source of his vast popularity there; another
politician, temporarily out of Parliament, M. Dragoumes,f
is said to have two hundred, and every godchild
costs the candidate from 30 to 50 dr. at least, often far
more. Carriages and treating soon run into money, and
travelling expenses for the candidates and their friends
mount up, when it is a question of going long distances
in districts where there are neither railways nor steamers.
Of course the cost of elections vary according to the
place, and the pocket of the candidate. A rich man is
expected to spend freely, and if he does not, he is apt to
be defeated. One election at Santorin cost 5000 dr.,
the last at Andros cost 70,000 dr. ; at the Piraeus, an
expensive constituency, the expenses may be reckoned
— so an ex-candidate tells me — at 25 dr. a vote.
Moreover, political' committees very rarely gay a poor
candidate's expenses, as they do in England ; and, in a
country where a party leader has no peerages to bestow,
* The drachma varies in value ; at present (Feb. 20, 1905) the
£ is worth 32 dr. 30 1.
t Elected at the head ofthe poll for Attica, March 5, 1905.
z3

Greek Life
he cannot expect huge subscriptions to the party funds
from wealthy brewers and rich tradesmen with social
ambitions. In Greece all falls on the candidate ; and
if he be a barrister, as he frequently is, he is expected,
when he becomes a deputy, to plead gratis for all his
constituents. No wonder that one deputy died leaving
debts to the tune of 500,000 dr. On the other hand, all
deputies are paid, though not on a lavish scale, receiving
1800 dr. for the ordinary session, and a sum fixed by a
committee of the Boul'e with the approval of the Minister
of Finance, usually 1500 dr. or 1000 dr., for the ' special
session,' should such be found necessary ; not unnaturally,
it is usually found necessary, alike by Ministers who wish
to please their supporters and by supporters who think
their services worthy of an extra honorarium. The pay
ment of members, especially when the number is so large
as 234, is a heavy item in the Greek budget — 898,200 dr.
in 1903. But it must be remembered that deputies from
the provinces, often local doctors or lawyers, have to
leave their work for a considerable part of the year and
live, at extra expense, in Athens.
In principle, all Greeks would admit that their Parlia
ment is too large. M. Mavromichales, when proposing
the reduction in the number of deputies two years ago,
told the House that no country in Europe had so many
parliamentary representatives in proportion to its popula
tion as Greece. The Constitution ordains that the
number shall never be less than 150, and the late
M. Trikoupes actually reduced it to the constitutional
limit in 1886. M. Theotdkes tried in vain to imitate him
last December. Moreover, a more equitable division of
seats is required. Thus the three privileged constituencies
of Hydra, Spetsai, and New Psara" still retain, in spite of
M. Trikoiipes's temporary reduction oftheir representation,
the quite disproportionate number of three, two, and two
members respectively, which was granted them in 1844
and 1847 m reward for the heroic services and sufferings
of their inhabitants during the War of Independence. But,
24

in Town and Country
needless to say, while every one is in favour of reduction
in the abstract, no one wishes to see his own constituency
sacrificed. The only electoral reform which seems likely
to be effected, is the separation of the Piraeus from the
rest of Attica. At present, the thirteen Attic members
are the largest number from any single constituency, and
include such prominent men as M. Rallies, General
Smolenski, and M. Levfdes,* who has been called by his
critics the Theramenes of modern Greek politics. ,
The government is carried on by a Cabinet of seven
Ministers, who represent, respectively, Foreign Affairs,
War, Marine, Justice, the Interior, Education (including
ecclesiastical affairs), and Finance. Each of them is
paid at the rate of 9600 dr. a year, while the Prime
Minister draws an additional salary of 4800 dr. No
pension attaches to the ministerial office, and where an
ex-Minister has a pension, as, for example, M. Delyahnes,
it is not by virtue of his long political services, but in his
capacity as a former civil servant. It is enormously to
the credit of Greek Prime Ministers, that though poorly
paid and usually men of small means, there is not a
single instance on record of their having enriched them
selves at the cost of the State. Most of them have died
poor, most have lived poor also. There is one Ministry,
however, which is usually bestowed upon a man of large
means — that of Foreign Affairs. Such rich men as MM.
Skouloddes and Skouze's were both helped to that position
by the feeling that a Foreign Minister ought to be very
well off, and M. Karapahos, who has held other minis
terial portfolios, is also wealthy. Ministers need not be
deputies, an example being M. Konstantinides, the late
Minister of War ; in that case, they may speak but not
vote in Parliament.
The formation of a Ministry is a most difficult task.
A Prime Minister has only six portfolios to allot, and
the applicants for them are legion. Hence he soon
learns the truth of the saying attributed to Louis XIV.,
* Defeated March 5, 1905.
25

Greek Life
that for every favour bestowed he made one man ungrateful
and twenty discontented. In Greece a dissatisfied place-
hunter does not, as in England, go through the farce
of having qualms of conscience when he leaves his
party ; he frankly states that he has ' ratted ' because he
has not received office, and goes over bag and baggage
to the Opposition. No one is in the least scandalised at
such a rapid change of front, because politics in Greece
have nothing to do with principles, but are wholly personal.
Thus, in M. Theotdkes's late Government there were
two Ministers who had been returned at the previous
election as supporters of M. Delyahnes, and one of these
politicians has held office in almost every Ministry, and
has made the tour of almost every party. But this is
not the only difficulty in the way of Cabinet-making. In
spite of the talk about Hellenic Union, there is in Greece,
as in united Italy, a vast amount of particularism, so that
every part of the country expects to be represented in
the Cabinet. Thus, if two able men come from the
same region, it requires an effort of courage to include
both of them in the Ministry. When, for example, M.
Theotdkes gave office to three lonians, his opponents
and his supporters elsewhere professed to be scandalised.
Now that forty years have elapsed since the union of the
Ionian Islands, the Greeks of ' old Greece ' are ceasing
to regard their inhabitants as strangers ; but, all the same,
M. Theotdkes is the first Ionian to hold the post of Prime
Minister, and such a thing would not have been regarded
as proper not many years ago.
Hard as it is to form a Ministry, it is harder still to
keep it long in office. During the present reign there
have been fifty-four administrations, and the late Parlia
ment, elected in November, 1902, had seen five. The
causes of this ministerial instability, which is good for
the newspapers but ruinous to the country, are of the
essence of Hellenic politics. There being no burning
differences of principle between parties, parliamentary
life becomes a struggle between rival leaders, each of
26

in Town and Country
whom has his faction behind him, which he must placate
with the spoils of office when he comes into power. Bad
as this system was formerly, there was at least some
stability about administrations when public life was a
duel between M. Delydnnes and the late M. Trikoupes.
Then there were only two parties, the former having for
its emblem a piece of cord, the latter the olive-leaf,
and majorities were both larger and more compact.
The great personality of M. Trikoupes, dominating
politics, was often able to secure long periods of office
for his party, to the great benefit of the country,
which now bitterly regrets the premature death of that
extraordinary man — the ablest statesman of modern
Greece, and one of the ablest of modern Europe. Since
his death, his old rival has lost his hold upon his own
followers, while new factions have arisen, so that it is
almost impossible for any party to obtain a sweeping
majority at the polls, or, if it has obtained it, to keep it.*
Simultaneously with the decline in influence of the
party leaders there has been a corresponding increase in
that of the local magnates, which has added a fresh in
stability to ministries. The 'people, say, of Chalkis vote
at an election for M. Boudoiires, not because he is a
supporter of this or that leader, but because he is their
biggest local man, who will remember them when he is
in powerby favours judiciously bestowed ; consequently,
if his nominal chief excludes him from the Cabinet, he
will go over to the Opposition, and take his constituency
with him. In a clannish district, like Mdne, the most
powerful of statesmen would have no chance against the
local chief. There is no Central Liberal or Con
servative Association to keep a recalcitrant member in
order by working on his local committee, no 'jwhip ' to
keep him straight in the House, nor do the party chiefs,
with the exception of M. Delyahnes, ever make political
* M. Delyannes obtained a large majority at the elections of
March 5, 1905 ; but it will doubtless fall to pieces ere long, as on
the last occasion. 27

Greek Life
tours over the country, so as to spread their influence in
places where they are less known. Hence the local
politician has it all his own way, and he, of course, thinks
first of local needs. The Constitution expressly says that
' the deputies represent the nation and not their constituency
only;' but this is mere theory. Not long ago several
members for a certain district withdrew their support
from the Cabinet of the day solely because it would not
grant various favours to their constituents. Thus, from
the very inception of its career, a Ministry is almost
certain to lose support from personal, or, at best, pro
vincial motives. Unhappily, the Constitution has provided
the discontented deputy with a sure means of blackmailing,
or punishing, a Ministry which will not accede to his
demands. This is the ridiculous provision, which more
than all else paralyses Parliament and puts a premium
upon obstruction and political blackmail, fixing the
quorum at one-half of the total number of deputies plus
one, i.e., in the present Legislature, 118. Ministerial
majorities being nearly always slender, nothing is easier
than for disappointed ministerialists to remain in their
constituencies and refuse to help in constituting the
quorum. This is an everyday practice, so common as
hardly to cause comment. I knew one member who
stayed away from his duties for months at a most critical
time, when every vote was needed, simply because the
Premier had refused to give a post to one of his friends.
On another occasion, an important emissary was hastily
despatched to implore an absent deputy, who was offended
with the Government, to return to the fold on his own
terms. On its side, the Opposition not infrequently stays
away in a body, so that no quorum can be formed; while
much valuable time is wasted almost every sitting in read
ing over and over again the list of members, on the motion
of some obstructionist, to see if there is a quorum. Until
the quorum is reduced — and constitutional amendments,
such is the drawback of an unelastic written Constitution,
are not easy — the Greek Parliament is doomed to sterility.
28

in Town and Country
But the radical defect of the Greek political organisa
tion, which lies at the root of all its numerous abuses, is
what the Americans call ' the spoils system.' In Greece,
as in the United States, the maxim that ' to the victors
belong the spoils ' is carried out to its full extent. With
a few exceptions — such as the teachers in the elementary
schools and the university professors — practically every
official in the country is liable to dismissal, or removal
to a less desirable post, on the accession of every new
Government to power. Hence the whole civil service
of the country is affected by party politics, and every
official, however petty, has to follow attentively the
political barometer at Athens, because his bread depends
upon its movements. Just as the candidate for the
American Presidency promised his) supporter that ' If
you will get me into the White House, I will get you
into the lighthouse,' so the Greek Minister enters office
pledged to the lips to appease this and that influential
friend and that friend's minor satellites. Day by day,
after a ministerial crisis, the official printing-press groans
with lists of judges moved to make way for political
adherents, of wretched teachers in the intermediate
schools deprived of their ill-paid posts at the instance
of ministerial partisans, of civil servants discharged in
favour of others more in touch with the new Ministry.
Even the most unlikely posts, such as that of librarian of
the National Library, are given for party services, and the
two principal factions have each their candidate, who
is installed there when his friends come into office.*
The effect of this system is disastrous to all sound
administration, and the Greeks of all parties condemn
it — in the abstract — and practise it when they have the
chance. Ask any man from Tempe to Tainaron what
is the reason of any public abuse, and he will at once
reply, ' rousph'etia ' (' favours ') — the Turkish name still
* One of them, M. Roides, author of the novel, ' Pope Joan,'
lately died, but a successor was forthcoming in the person of M.
Kampouroglos, the eminent historian. 29

Greek Life
preserved for this Turkish practice of giving billets to
political supporters at the cost of national efficiency.
Go into ariy Government office any day of the week,
and you will find the Minister's ante-room besieged by
hungry applicants for some miserable tide-waitership,
which they know that they will lose at the next turn of
the wheel. These are the victims of over-education, the
men who should have been peasants or tradesmen, but
have had that literary education which has fitted them
for nothing but place-hunting, the hangers-on of ministries,
who lead a precarious existence when their friends are in
office, and live (God knows how) when they are out.
The story is told of a former Premier that one day an
idle and impecunious supporter asked him for a post.
' What do you want to do ? ' said the great man. ' Why,
nothing, of course,' was the prompt reply. ' I have the
very thing for you,' replied the Minister ; ' I will give you a
pole, and you shall scare the birds off the telegraph-wires.'
Even Ministers themselves — one would imagine — must
loathe a system which imposes upon them such continuous
and thankless labour. Harassed from morning to night
by applicants for posts, they cannot devote their minds to
the thorough study of the proposals before Parliament, so
that great questions such as army and fiscal reform have
to await the solution of such trifles as what official is
to be exiled to Karpenisi, or who is to be made usher in
a Hellenic school at Larissa. Yet these trifles are the
very life and death of Hellenic ministries. There can be
no salvation for Greek public life till there is a permanent
civil service, and officials are appointed for life, and not
at the caprice of political partisans. This, more than all
else, would raise Greece in the scale of nations and assure
her future, both at home and abroad. For assuredly
Macedonia will be won or lost for Hellenism not so
much by the Army or Navy as by the good administration
of free Greece. On the day when Greece can say, ' I am
a model of good government in the East,' she will have
done more to convince a sceptical Europe of her capacity
3°

THE CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES, ATHENS.

in Town and Country
to administer yet greater destinies than if she spent millions
on the latest rifles and the latest submarines.
Under these conditions a politician who comes into
office — it cannot be called power-^-scarcely finds it a bed
of roses. Yet, such is the innate love of politics in the
Greek, that men of high character and assured social
position make large sacrifices of both time and money
for the brief and barren honour of parliamentary leader
ship. Among the five recognised party leaders there are
striking examples of this. M. Za'imes, who has been
twice Prime Minister in name, and whose little party of
thirty has made him, even when out of office, more than
once the real arbiter of the Government, is a man of ample
means and scholarly tastes — he was the first person in
Greece to buy a copy of Mr. Kenyon's edition of Bac-
chylides — who rarely speaks, is never interviewed, and
spends most of his time fishing at Aigina. He is the
best example of a tendency very noticeable even in ultra-
democratic Greece — the preference of the people, ceteris
paribus, for a man who belongs to what we should call ' the
old Whig famihes.' M. Zai'mes, whose family has long
been connected with Kalavryta, is not only the nephew
of M. Delyannes, to whom he has been long opposed,
but the son of a former Prime Minister, and the grandson
of a prominent figure in the War of Independence. Thus,
possessed of an historic name (derived from the fact that
one of his ancestors held a zaim, or fief, in Turkish days),
he was sure, like a Cavendish or a Russell in England, of
a favourable reception in political life, which he embraced,
just as many a Whig noble has done, because one
member of the family had always been in politics.
Such a man is, it need hardly be said, a most valuable
conservative force.
His usual ally, M. Theotokes, the King's favourite
Minister, belongs to a good Corfiote family (hence the
nickname of ' Count ' applied to him in allusion to the
Venetian titles still in use at Corfu), and was made to
shine in society. It has been said that, if women had
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Greek Life
votes, this good-looking, courteous, Corfiote gentleman
would be Premier for life, and he is certainly the most
distinguished-looking statesman in Greece. A faithful
lieutenant of the late M. Trikoupes, who made him
Minister of Marine in 1886, he is now the leader of
the remains of the Trikoiipist party, and has thrice held
the Premiership, once for nearly three years, once for
only a fortnight. But M. Theotdkes, perfect gentleman
as he is, lacks the strong will and the assiduity of all great
statesmen. On two occasions, during the ' Gospel Riots '
of 1 90 1 and during the Pyrgos riots of 1903, his nerve
failed him, and he fell before popular clamour. He
prefers Athenian salons to the drudgery of office, into
which he was on the last occasion forced against his will
by his hungry supporters.
Energy, force of character, and ceaseless activity are
all represented in the person of M. Delyannes, the ' grand
old man ' of Greece, the ' Grandfather,' as he is colloquially
called. No one can help admiring the physical and
mental powers of this veteran politician, who has sixty-two
years of public life as civil servant and parliamentarian
behind him, and who, in spite of the eighty-four years
which those who know him best ascribe to him — for
there is some doubt as to his exact age — walks far
younger men off their feet in his rambles about Kepbisia,
sits up all night during a budget debate in the Boulk, is
never missing at any public function, and at the last
election traversed land and sea — and that sea the ^Egean
— in winter to make political converts. Surpassing even
Mr. Gladstone's record, he has been five times Prime
Minister, but his tenures of office have been usually short
and stormy. He was in power at the time of the blockade
of 1886, and at the outbreak of the war of 1897, and in
the opinion of the more respectable people in Greece his
name stands for political disturbances. I have heard him
described as ' the evil genius of Greece,' but he has enthusi
astic admirers, not only in the Peloponnesos, but among
the bootblacks' of Athens, who nearly all come from his
32

in Town and Country
native district of Gortys, in Arkadia, and who cheer him
as he leaves the chamber, and follow his carriage to his
modest abode at No. 26, Third of September Street. He
has chosen an appropriate address, for September 3
was the date of the revolution of 1843, which gave Greece
a Constitution, and M. Delyannes is never tired of avowing
himself a supporter of the Constitution, and declaring it
to be in danger — when he is not in office. During the
last election, while their revered leader was uttering these
admirable sentiments from his balcony to students,
bootblacks, and others, adjuring them to 'be vigilant
guardians of the Constitution,' others of his followers put
his constitutional doctrines into practice by tearing up
a number of boards used for fencing off buildings in
course of erection, and beating members of the less
aggressively constitutional party upon the head with
them. This exploit has earned M. Delyahnes the
perpetual epithet of ' board - carrier ' in Romebs, the
Greek Punch, and has endeared him still less to the lovers
of order. He has recently advanced the remarkably
frank opinion that ' obstruction does not dishonour, but
honours, parliamentary government.'
M. Delyannes has made little mark as a constructive
statesman, but he is a consummate 'old parliamentary
hand,' who knows all the arts by which democratic
assemblies are governed. He has, however, shown
marked want of tact when dealing with the Crown, as,
for example, when two years ago he allowed his Minister
for War to introduce a measure abolishing the military
office held by the Crown Prince, without previously
acquainting the King with its contents. He is not
beloved at the Palace, and of late he has somewhat
lost his old power over his followers, some thirteen of
whom abandoned him in a body when he was last
Premier. Still, summoned for the fifth time to form a
Cabinet last December, he remains a disturbing force in
politics ; no demonstration fails to evoke a speech from
his balcony, nor does he ever forget to acknowledge every
33 D

Greek Life
salute and recognise every humble face when he appears
in the streets. On such occasions, ' off goes his bonnet
to an oyster-wench, a brace of draymen have the tribute
of his knee.' In private life he is the pink of politeness,
and he once gave a rude British diplomatist a lesson in
manners. He has visited, sometimes on mule-back, the
various archaeological sites of his country. Wedded to poli
tics, he has remained a bachelor, and his domestic affairs
are watched over by a faithful niece. He is studiously care
ful in dress, is rarely without a flower in his coat, and is one
of the few Greek statesmen who always wears a top hat.
Of the two other party leaders, M. Ralles is the most
jovial and, I think, the frankest statesman in Greece. Of
supposed Republican leadings — typified by the soft brown
' Republican ' hat which he always wears — he yet saved
the Crown at a critical moment during the war, and has
been twice its first Minister. He is a prodigious worker.
When last in office, he gave up twelve hours a day to the
two departments which he had united in his own person,
still finding time to take regular lessons in English (his
favourite hobby), and to feed his menagerie of pet animals.
A lawyer in large practice, he loses pecuniarily by taking
office, and, being one of the few Ministers who has made
a stand against the appointment of political partisans,
irrespective of their capacity, to Government posts, he
has found his adherents dwindle away. Outside of Attica,
he has no following. His warmest admirers could not
describe him as a dandy ; but he is always smiling, he is
a kind-hearted man, and a thoroughly good fellow. M.
Leonidas Deligedrges,* who has a small party of nine, is
a man of much reading, a serious politician, and a
weighty speaker, who does not hesitate to speak his
mind freely, even in the highest quarters.
The coexistence of these five parties, all called after
their chiefs, greatly increases confusion in political life,
and inevitably leads to deals and intrigues. New parties
* Defeated, like the late M. Trikoupes ten years earlier, at
Mesolonghi, March 5, 1905. 34

in Town and Country
may at any time arise on some personal issue, and the fissi-
parous tendency, everywhere characteristic of democratic
institutions, is in Greece accentuated by the national tem
perament. For all Greeks are keen critics, every one
— down to the cabman or the waiter — considers himself
competent to pronounce judgment on high questions of
finance and foreign policy, and not a few believe that they
have in themselves the makings of a leader. Still, perhaps
owing to that jealousy of fresh talent in a country where
every one considers himself as good as every one else,
perhaps owing to the conservative feeling in favour of
politicians with historic names, it is not easy for younger
men to force their way to the front. There is assuredly
no lack of cleverness in the Bouli — there are clever
speakers, clever financiers, clever tacticians. What is
lacking is that force of character, that strength of purpose,
without which, whatever be his other qualities, no man
can be a great statesman.
It must be admitted, however, that Greece is a far
more difficult country to govern than Great Britain. In
the first place, it lacks an aristocracy, and no one in this
world is less of a snob than the Hellene. Now, whatever
its faults may be, snobbery greases the wheels of govern
ment to an enormous extent, and is one of those passions
to which an Anglo-Saxon party manager often appeals
with success. Moreover, if parliamentary institutions are
to work well, it is desirable that large sections of the
community should be so engrossed in their own affairs
as to pay little heed to politics pure and simple. But
the Greeks are almost all born politicians, to whom
political discussion is as the breath of their nostrils, in
short, a nation of journalists, with little or none of that
saving leaven of stupidity which makes so much for the
real strength of a people. I once met a worthy man in
Andros, who remarked to me, ' We are not interested in
politics, but in planting our potatoes ; Greece is largely
uncultivated, it would be better if people cultivated the
land, instead of seeking small places.' But such men
35

Greek Life
are few ; were there many of them, Greece would be both
easier to govern and better governed.
The opening, or ' consecration,' of the Boul'e is a big
social function, which military members attend in uniform,
and Ministers in dress clothes, while ladies have places
in the body of the House as well as in the galleries.
The oldest member (in point of age, not of parliamentary
standing) presides till a new President has been elected ;
and, as age is always an uncertain quantity in Greece, the
installation of this temporary chairman often leads to
unparliamentary scenes. It happens that each of the
two principal parties — the Theotokists and Delyannists —
is the proud possessor of a veteran who claims to be the
Nestor of the assembly. On one occasion a scuffle
ensued between their respective partisans, in the course
of which an ink-pot fell into the holy water provided for
the opening ceremony. On the eve of another opening
day the Delyannists, whose Methuselah was on the spot,
while his competitor was at his island home in Kephallenia,
were so confident of victory that they ordered the
presidential carriage to be at his house next morning, and
allowed him to retire peaceably to his bed. When, how
ever, he arrived at the Boul'e in the morning, he found
his aged rival, hastily summoned by telegraph, already
ensconced in the chair, which he had been occupying
since the small hours. Once, too, an outgoing Speaker
declined to hand over the keys, and the Boul'e had to be
broken into by a locksmith. When once the temporary
President has been installed, there begins at 10 a.m.
the solemn consecration, and a prayer, lasting altogether
twenty minutes, is offered up by the Metropolitan of Athens,
the other ecclesiastical members of the Holy Synod, and
some priests. After this is over, the Premier, followed
by the other Ministers in turn, steps up to a table placed
in the centre of the floor, on which is a large gilt bowl
containing holy water, kisses the cross held out to him
by the Metropolitan, and receives from the latter a slight
blow on the head with a little branch dipped in the
36

in Town and Country

water. The other deputies remain in their places, the
Premier then ascends the tribune to read the Royal
decree convoking Parliament, and the proceedings
terminate. At the next sitting the election of the
Speaker, who is freshly elected every session, takes place
— an important political event, because it is regarded as
a test of party strength.
The names of the deputies are first called over, to see
if there is a quorum, in the alphabetical order of their
constituencies, beginning with Aguia. The list is of
interest to the historical student, as showing how old
names still survive. Thus a Crispi still represents Naxos,
governed by the Crispi dynasty of dukes in the Middle
Ages; a Vitali is member for Venetian Tenos; a De
lenda represents one of the two famous Latin families of
Santorin ; an Alamanos, recalls the Provencal house of
Aleman, to which Greece owes the castle of Patras and
the bridge of Alemana, near Thermopylae. Classical
names are to be found just where we should hope to
find them; a Corfiote member is called Alkfnoos, a
deputy from Ithake Telemachos. After the list has
been read, new members are sworn in by a priest, who
is in attendance, and cries of ' Worthy, worthy ' resound
from the semi-circle of benches. Two tellers are now
chosen ; two ballot-boxes are placed on the tribune,
and the list is called over again. All the members
for the same constituency advance in a body and drop
a paper containing the name of one candidate — the
voting being secret — into one of the boxes, while one
of the tellers drops a ball into the other to check the
numbers, which are also checked by the clerk at the
table, who crosses off each member's name as he votes.
When all have voted, the balls and papers are counted,
the list added up, and the result read out by the temporary
president, who at once yields his place to the successful
candidate. As members file out, a demonstration awaits
the leaders and their nominees on the steps and in the
courtyard, and Attic wit sparkles in the mouths of students,
37

Greek Life
bootblacks, and cabmen at the expense of renegade
politicians. There is no longer the same picturesque appearance
about the chamber as in the days when Boiilgaris —
' Artaxerxes,' as Queen Amalia used to call him — was
wont to mount the tribune in the baggy trousers of the
islands and intimidate the deputies by just letting them
see a corner of the royal decree dissolving the Legislature
emerge from the pocket of his coat. The rows of black
coats and billy-cock hats are relieved by only two
members in the fez and fustanella, MM. Balaskas of
Karditsa in Thessaly, and Matalas of Sparta, and by M.
Ralles's brown wide-awake. Before the retrocession of
Thessaly to Greece, in 1898, there were two Turkish
landowners from that province who had seats in Parlia
ment, but there are no Turkish deputies now. The only
Oriental feature about the scene is provided by the strings
of beads, which many members swing about in their
hands, and which make a curious accompaniment to
the voice of the orator who happens to be speaking.
A deputy may address the House from either his seat
or from the tribune ; the best speakers prefer the latter
course, but it has the disadvantage of placing them with
their backs to the chair and the diplomatic gallery, which
is usually, however, tenanted by unofficial strangers.
Interruptions are frequent, and the presidential bell is
often called into requisition. Duels, arising out of
personal incidents in the course of debate, occur so
often as to become monotonous, and last year the
Minister for War, a fine soldier but a most hypersensitive
politician, publicly challenged one of his predecessors
who had criticised him from the tribune. The duel,
fortunately bloodless, as these encounters usually are,
took place next day, and the first person to congratulate
the Minister was his colleague, the Minister of Justice !
None of these gentlemen were called upon to resign
their seats. Sometimes the language of ardent partisans
is scarcely parliamentary, unless judged by Austrian
38

in Town and Country
standards. Not long ago an Opposition member told
one of the Ministers that he ' changed his opinions more
often than his shirt.' But the tone of the leaders is
usually courteous to each other ; and, though Government
and Opposition have separate smoking-rooms, political
rivals meet at social entertainments without embarrass
ment. Obstruction is, of course, rampant, and all-night
sittings not uncommon. Their effect on the nerves of
members is very noticeable, and even the abstemious
Greeks must suffer hunger on these occasions, as they
have no House of Commons' kitchen upon which to fall
back. In normal times the sitting ends before dinner,
or, at latest, at ten o'clock.
The greatest iriterest is manifested by the people in
the proceedings of Parliament. Before and during each
sitting the courtyard is crowded with spectators, and the
galleries are usually full. Politics are the morning and
evening pabulum of Athens, and the debates are minutely
followed in the papers. But, intensely amusing as Greek
politics are as a game, vividly as they recall the discus
sions of the ancient Athenian democracy, they are, con
sidered as a serious business, fatal to the real progress
of the country. Commercial men complain of the too-
frequent elections, parliamentary and municipal — which
are sheer joy to the 'man in the street' — and oppose
premature dissolutions on the ground that they are bad
for trade and diminish the revenue returns. If a company
happens to have a Bill which it is anxious to pass through
Parliament, its task resembles that of Sisyphus, owing to
the constant changes of Ministry. When it has laboriously
rolled its stone through the ministerial ante-chamber, where
its path may require some considerable smoothing, right
up to the Minister's desk, the Cabinet may sudienly fall,
and back goes the Bill to the bottom of the ministerial
hill. Moreover, owing to obstruction and abstentions,
many days of parliamentary time are annually wasted, so
that much-needed reforms cannot be passed. If there is
one question upon which all parties are agreed, it is that
39

Greek Life
of Army reorganisation. Yet, though eight years have
elapsed since the war, the Army still remains almost
unrefbrmed, simply because a drastic measure cannot be
passed through the Boul'e. This defect in their parlia
mentary institutions — and it is not confined to Greece
alone — has become so patent that there is a movement
on foot, headed by M. Esslin, for a permanent civil
service, and for the convention of a national assembly
to revise the Constitution. Last spring there was even
talk of a petition, asking the King to suspend Parliament
for five years. But it is impossible to conceive of the
Greeks without political questions to talk about; and,
of course, the party leaders would vigorously oppose any
interference with 'the liberties of the people.' At the
same time, wellwishers of Greece cannot help seeing
that parliamentarism is, for her, an expensive luxury,
which hinders her expansion in the Near East
And this brings us to the burning question of Greek
politics — the 'Grand Idea.' It is impossible for the
Greeks, with their splendid traditions and their long and
glorious history, to forget the great days of the Byzantine
Empire — an institution unjustly calumniated by those
who know nothing about it. They believed, and down
to 1870 or 1878 they were justified in believing, that
one day a revived Greek Empire would rise on the ruins
of Turkey, that Epiros, Macedonia and Thrace, Asia
Minor, Crete, and all the ^Egean islands would, together
with the present kingdom, compose a mighty realm,
whose capital would be the city of Constantine. They
talked, and still talk, of the millions of Greeks under
Turkish yoke as ' enslaved Greece,' whose emancipation
it was the aim of 'free Greece' to secure. In those
days even European statesmen, devoid of all sentiment,
and undazzled by the glamour which affects the judgment
of those to whom Hellas means so much more than
prosaic protocols, regarded little Greece as the universal
legatee of ' the sick man.' But, though ' the sick man '
is a chronic invalid, despite the temporary fillip which a
40

CONSTITUTION SQUARE, ATHENS.

in Town and Country
strong dose of steel gave to his system eight years ago,
Greece has no longer undisputed claims to the succession.
Russia, by the revival of the long dormant Bulgarian
Exarchate in 1870, by the abortive, but never-forgotten,
treaty of San Stefano in 1878, and by the erection of a
Bulgarian Principality, which was largely her work, in
me same year, has created a rival to the Greeks, whom
the latter hate a hundred-fold more than the Turks.
For in the ' schismatic ' Bulgarian they see a young and
vigorous competitor, while they feel that sooner, or later,
the Turk will go. No one who has not mixed freely
with the Greeks has any idea of the intense animosity
which they feel against the Slavs of Sofia, who would
take from them what they honestly believe to be their
inheritance in Macedonia. Nature has made the two
peoples mutually antipathetic. The volatile, versatile,
intellectual Hellene despises the steady, plodding Bul
garian peasant. He asks whether the boors of the Balkans
have universities, observatories, a noble literature, a
mellifluous language? Finding none of these things, he
denies to them the qualities of a great nation, forgetting
that governing peoples, the British and the ancient
Romans, are rarely pre-eminently intellectual. In their
hatred of the Slavs, the Greeks have latterly entered into
terms of political cordiality, somewhat interrupted by
the Smyrna incident of last spring, with the Turks ; and
Christian Europe, which has repeatedly allied herself —
which the Greeks have not done — with the Moslem from
the days of Francois I. to those of the Crimean War,
has held up her hands in pious horror over this 'un
natural union.' No doubt, it would be admirable if all
the Eastern Christians loved each other. But they never
have, and they never will, nor in that point do they
greatly differ from their Western brethren.
It is unfortunate that Greece should have lost the
sympathies of Europe, in consequence of her anti-
Bulgarian and pro-Turkish attitude; but it is not easy
to see what else she could have done for the protection
4i

Greek Life
of the Macedonian Greeks and for the safeguarding of
her future prospects. Every Greek would rather that
Macedonia should remain Turkish than become Bul
garian, for the latter alternative would mean the death
blow to Panhellenism. Meanwhile, Greece has no
supporters in Europe, while Bulgaria has enjoyed the
sympathy of England, to the great indignation of the
Greeks, and the support of, at least, unofficial Russia.
In vain has the Helknismbs Society, of which M.
Kazizes, a Greek from 'enslaved Greece' and ex-
president of the University, is the head, tried to convince
Europe, by the medium of that eloquent missionary, that
Macedonia is numerically, and should be politically,
Greek. This body, founded in 1892, has been, since
1895, when M. Kazazes first became its president, the
most vociferous exponent of the ' Grand Idea.' Started
by non-politicians, belonging to no party, and not directed
by any of the party chiefs, it aims at ' the inquiry into,
and fostering of, the just rights of Hellenism,' which,
translated into plain English, means, as one of its
directors frankly avowed to me, the driving out of the
Turk and the revival of the national spirit — appropri
ately indicated by the emblem of the society, a phcenix
rising from its ashes. Of late, however, it has been
more anxious to keep out the Bulgarian, as the most
pressing foe of Hellenism. The society numbers more
than 10,000 members, drawn from Greeks in all parts
of the world, even so far off as Australia, but mainly
from 'enslaved Greece.' The annual subscriptions are
low — 12 dr., in paper for members in Greece proper,
in gold for those from outside, and only 2 dr. for
students of the University and of industrial and technical
schools, whom it is specially desired to attract — but
wealthy Hellenes abroad contribute with their customary
generosity. There are branches in the provinces and
beyond the frontiers of the kingdom, and missionaries
are sent secretly to spread the doctrine of Hellenism in
various parts of Turkey. It may be doubted, however,
42

in Town and Country
whether the means of the society are commensurate with
its vast desires — the annexation of Epiros, including
Joannina and Avlona, as far north as the river Ados ;
the whole of Macedonia proper, which the Greeks limit
to the two southern vilayets of Monastir and Salonika ;
Thrace, Constantinople, Asia Minor, and all the islands.
To achieve this programme, which would meet with
opposition from Austria, Italy, Russia, Bulgaria, and
Germany, as well as Turkey, the society needs something
more than eloquent speeches, a well-written monthly
magazine, and an imposing array of pamphlets, No
one can help admiring the apostolical fervour of its
leaders, the faith in Divine Providence, arid the unshak
able belief in the justice of their cause which some of
them display. But their president, since he has visited
Europe, has confessed to me that it is of no use to
talk about Alexander the Great ; the main thing necessary
is a better and bigger Army, upon which he has latterly
been concentrating his labours.
Other and more practical persons place more faith in
the workings of diplomacy for the furtherance of Greek
aims than in the tours and anti-Bulgarian speeches of
M. Kazdzes and the missionary efforts of his friends.
The one branch of her public service upon which Greece
spends lavishly, in proportion to her means, is the diplo
matic. The most important post, that of Constantinople,
carries with it, including the allowance for receptions, a
salary of 54,000 dr. a year. Every one agrees that this
is necessary, in view of the peculiar relations between
Greece and Turkey and the expensive character attaching
to all negotiations with the Sublime Porte. Six other
Ministers, those in Paris, Berlin, London, Vienna, St.
Petersburg, and Rome,* receive 44,000 dr. apiece, and
here stern economists would make large reductions.
Many Greeks are apt, I think unjustly, to blame their re
presentatives in Europe for the lack of sympathy lately
shown to the Hellenic claims in Macedonia. But the
* At present there is only a charge" d'affaires in Rome.
43

Greek Life
real reason seems to me to be rather with the Greeks
themselves, who have relied too much upon the good
offices of the Great Powers, and too little on their own
exertions at home. Besides, in the King they have the
best of all ambassadors for Europe, just as at Con
stantinople the Macedonian Greeks have a spokesman
in the Oecumenical Patriarch. In addition to these
higher grade posts, there are Ministers at Bucharest and
Belgrade with salaries of 31,200 dr. each, and agents at
Sofia and Cairo, paid 21,000 dr. apiece. Five consuls
are apportioned to Macedonia alone.
There is, however, a small number of persons in
Greece, including at least one statesman of experience,
who think that the pursuit of the 'Grand Idea' is a
chimera, and that Greece would do well to take Switzer
land for her model, make her mountains and islands
and deep blue gulfs into pleasure resorts, convert her
classic sites into museums, develop the natural resources
of the country, cease to spend large sums of money on
the Army and the Navy, and await quietly till the day of
Turkish dissolution arrives, when a benevolent Europe
may give good little Greece some fragments of the spoil as
the reward for keeping quiet. No doubt, such a policy
would reduce taxation and make Hellas a paradise for the
cultured foreigner and the unambitious native, but tlie
vast majority of Hellenes have no wish to become a
southern Switzerland. They dream of Basil the Bulgar-
slayer, smiting Tsar Samuel hip and thigh, of Nikephoros
Phokas freeing Crete, ' the great Greek island,' from the
Saracens, of the last Constantine dying in defence of
Constantinople. Greece may have the dimensions — it
has more than the attractions — of Switzerland, but it also
has the appetite of Russia. When the Greeks are no
longer patriotic, they will cease to be Greeks. In their
long-drawn agony of twenty centuries of foreign rule,
amidst all the barbarian waves that swept over them,
they never ceased to be that.
How does Greece regard the Great Powers which
44

in Town and Country
make up the Concert of Europe? The answer is not
easy, for the real feelings of the country are not always
those of officialdom, nor has the Court always the same
Sympathies as the people. With ' the three protecting
Powers' — Great Britain, France, and Russia — which
watched over the cradle of young Hellas, the relations
are naturally closer than with the other trio. Despite
occasional unpleasant incidents, even yet not forgotten,
such as the cession of Parga in 1819 — I know one worthy
man who is anti-English for this reason alone — and the
recent pro-Bulgarian demonstrations of our clergy, which
have been much resented in Greece, the Greeks like the
British better than any one else. In my journeyings all
over the country I have found this Anglophil sentiment
universal. To be received hospitably, it is enough to be
a foreigner ; to be received enthusiastically, it is necessary
to be an Englishman — ' a countryman of Byron, Canning,
and Gladstone,' as an excellent Andriote once put it, in
a speech which he addressed to me at a wedding banquet.
But these sentiments are not reserved for after-dinner
speeches alone. Athens has statues of Gladstone and
Byron, and streets named after them, and the memory of
the latter, than whom no man ever knew the Greeks
better, lives green where one would least expect to find
it. I remember once in a restaurant at Kalamata
examining a print on the wall depicting Lord Byron's
funeral oration over Marko.Botsares. At once, the pro
prietor, a stout, prosaic-looking man, whom no one would
have suspected of sentiment, stepped towards the picture,
clasped his hands in pathetic gesture, and, with a far-away
look in the eyes, stood for a time in rapt admiration of
the great Philhellene, which finally found vent in a fervid
apologue on the virtues of England. On anothir occa
sion, travelling by train to Tiryns, I got into conversation
with the guard, who, on discovering that I was an
Englishman, shook me by the hand, said that Great
Britain was the truest friend of Greece, and that the
affection of Greece for England was founded not, as I
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might think, on dynastic ties, but on popular sympathies.
Even in (the Ionian Islands, where our rule was not
always popular, many will tell one that they were
materially better off under our protectorate, and I have
heard lonians regret the union on that ground. Yet the
cession of Cyprus is regarded as our duty — when we have
put the island into thorough order. While the merits of
Gladstone have always been recognised by the Greeks,
recent events have made them deeply grateful to Lord
Salisbury for having frustrated the ' big Bulgaria ' of the
treaty of San Stefano. During the Boer War, Greece
was one of the few countries which espoused our side,
and it is with regret that the Greeks have seen the
diminishing interest taken by our Governments in the
Eastern question.
France also has claims on Greek gratitude, which has
lately found expression in a monument, erected by a
native of Nauplia, to the French who fell in the War of
Independence. With regard to Russia opinions differ.
The Royal family, or, at any rate, the Queen, Princess
Nicholas, and Princess Marie, naturally sympathise with
that country ; and those who wish to be in favour with
the Court profess to hold the same views, and attended the
more or less official Te Deums at the cathedral on behalf
of the Russian arms in the Japanese war. For trade
reasons the corn merchants of the Piraeus also organised
doxologies for their friends at Odessa. The Church is
apt, too, to sympathise with the great Orthodox Power,
and others are grateful to the Tsar for his services in
stopping the war of 1897. But Greeks, as a rule, make
no secret of their animosity to the nation which they
believe to be hostile to their expansion in Macedonia,
and which, since 1870, has endeavoured to foster Slav
interests at the expense of Hellenism. The same people
who will attend a Te Deum officially will tell you afterwards
that they did so as a matter of form ; one old Greek even
went so far as to say to me that the Russian reverses in
the East were the judgment of Heaven upon Russia for
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in Town and Country
the way in which she had treated Greece. Generally speak
ing, the Hellenes love or dislike foreign Governments
and statesmen in proportion to their Philhellenism —
a natural standard, when it is considered that Greece
has, from its position, to walk warily, and is anxious not
to offend any of the Great Powers. Austria they view
with suspicion, as a possible occupant of Albania and
Macedonia; Germany they regard as guided by selfish
motives, and during the war of 1897 no foreigner was
so unpopular at Athens — not even the Sultan — as the
Kaiser. As for the Sultan, he now sends presents to
King George, entertains young Prince Christopher when
the latter passes through Constantinople, decorates M.
Delyahnes and his niece, and makes himself agreeable to
the Greeks, though, since he has had less to fear from the
Bulgarians, he has shown, as in the Smyrna incident, less
regard for the Hellenes. But the latter are perfectly
aware that this is merely policy, and their present im
proved relations with Turkey are due, not to greater love
for the Turk, but to intenser hatred of the Bulgar.
Finally, in Italy they see a possible rival for Epiros, and
the Italian propaganda at Joannina and Avlona, that
coveted harbour which would close the mouth of the
Adriatic, are causes of alarm. The unwisdom of the late
Italian Minister in writing, and the still greater unwisdom
of the Italian Government in publishing, his absurdly
inaccurate essay on Greece, aroused a storm of indigna
tion, only allayed by his recall. But the sensitiveness of
Hellenic patriotism is evidenced by the Press campaign
against an Italian picture-postcard of the Cretan gen
darmerie surmounted by a lion of St. Mark, and by the
dismissal of an Italian teacher in Crete, who had been
guilty of using school-books containing exffressions
hostile to Hellenism. The present attempt of the Italian
Government to exclude Greek wines from Italy is a further
source of friction.
With the one other non-Slavonic State of the Balkan
Peninsula — Roumania — Greece has been of late years on
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Greek Life
friendly terms. A commercial treaty, the meeting of the
two Sovereigns at Abbazia, and the visit of the Roumanian
students to Athens were the outward tokens of this
friendship. Two years ago, the Roumanian colours were
hoisted on public occasions, and the Athenian shops
contained allegorical pictures of two noble dames —
Greece and Roumania — armed cap-d-pie, and standing
hand in hand. Both States have an equal dread of
Russia, both dislike Bulgaria, and both desire that the
Macedonian question shall not be solved until their
respective positions in Macedonia are stronger. But the
Koutso-Wallachs of that debatable land are an apple of
discord between them, and of late the Roumanian propa
ganda, both there and in Epiros, has led the Greek
enthusiasm for Roumania to cool.
In political matters we must not judge Greece too
hardly, certainly not by that lofty standard which English
men set up — for others. If the parliamentary system is
not a success in Greece, it is not universally esteemed
nowadays in the West. Had the country been thoroughly
organised, as Bosnia is being organised, by thirty years
of resolute government, and had representative institu
tions been then gradually introduced, it would have been
materially better off to-day. But parliamentarism having
been prematurely developed, with all the evils of log
rolling and place-hunting in its train, it is impossible to
go back now. King George is not the man for a coup
d'etat ; and, if he were, absolute monarchy is unworkable
in a country which has no aristocracy. Pure, unmitigated
democratic government, such as exists in Greece, has
certainly some unlovely aspects; optimists can only
hope that they will be transitory, common sense suggests
that they might be modified.

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in Town and Country

CHAPTER III
THE COURT
Monarchy in Greece differs widelyifrom what it is in
England, and the Greeks find it hard to understand the
deep interest which the Anglo-Saxon race takes in the
doings of crowned heads. It is related that, when
the German Emperor visited Athens, he was surprised
at the absolute lack of enthusiasm of the Athenians as he
drove through the streets. He was told by his Royal
hosts that such was the usual reception accorded by
the Greeks to sovereigns and princes, and the expla
nation was perfectly correct. The Greeks, especially
those of the capital, are indifferent to the charms of
Royalty, which have so striking an attraction for British
democrats and American republicans. They regard their
monarchy as a useful institution, which, it would be
unwise to abolish, but they have none of the deep-
seated loyalty which the British people shows to the
throne. Since Greece became a kingdom, her sovereigns have
been foreigners — Otho a Bavarian, King George a Dane,
— for the example of Capo d'Istria, assassinated at
Nauplia, showed that Greeks would not submitj.to be
ruled by a Greek. Otho was devoted to his adopted
country; always, even after his expulsion, wore the
national dress ; went about constantly among his people,
and took the keenest interest in every minute detail of
government. But he interfered too much in political
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Greek Life
affairs, and so he and his talented queen — the greatest
benefactress modern Greece has ever had — died in exile.
King George, as a very distinguished Greek statesman
once said to me, has constantly before him the fate of
Capo d'Istria and Otho. Once only has his life been
attempted — for anarchists do not flourish on Greek soil, —
once, for a moment, during the war of 1897, his throne
was in danger. But throughout his long reign of over forty-
one years he has been careful to avoid the mistake of both
the Corfiote President and the Bavarian King— that of
doing too much. According to many of his subjects, he
has gone too far in the opposite extreme- — that of doing
too little. He has made a rule of being an absolutely
constitutional king, an amiable figure-head, so far as
internal politics are concerned. Being human, he has, of
course, his likes and dislikes. Every one knows that he
regards M. Delyannes much as the late Queen Victoria
regarded Mr. Gladstone, receiving him as a Prime
Minister with reluctance, and not exhibiting undue grief
at his fall from office. But, with that exception, he
usually allows his politicians to fight among themselves,
and distribute places to their followers, as they please —
an arrangement which accords well with his tempera
ment. Those who know him intimately say that he is
not one of those who love to bury themselves in State
papers; and, when the late Empress Frederick was his
guest, she worried his life out of him by constantly
asking him questions about all sorts of matters con
nected with the administration of his kingdom. Yet he
is a pleasant, affable, and thoroughly democratic ruler,
who knows his Greeks — if not Greek — thoroughly, and is
perfectly well aware of their views about the throne and
its present occupant. Like all other public men in Greece,
he has his ups and downs of popularity. It was at its
lowest during the war, when the Royal coachmen went out
in plain liveries, the Royal portraits were hidden away in
drawers in the shops, and people ostentatiously turned
their backs on the Queen as she drove past. It was at its
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in Town and Country
height after the attempt upon his life; at present it is
normal. There is one department — foreign affairs — in which the
King has rendered important services to Greece. His
greatest source of strength, as even the most critical of
his subjects admit, lies in the number and influence of
his relatives. His father is ' father-in-law of all Europe,'
one of his sisters is Queen of England, and another has
been Empress of Russia. Every year, at Copenhagen, he
meets the rulers of those great nations and pleads with
them the cause of Greece. The Greeks know full well
that the arrest of the Turkish army on its road to Athens
in 1897 and the appointment of Prince George as High
Commissioner of the Powers in Crete in 1898 were due to
their King's family connexions, not to the philhellenic
sentiments of the Powers. But they think that in Greece
itself he might have done more than he has. With the
exception of his Peloponnesian progress the year after the
war, he has hardly ever travelled in the country. Again
and again I have been told in important provincial
centres that the King has never been there. Years have
elapsed since he visited Syra, though his yacht lies handy
at the Piraeus, and he has only twice set foot in Livadia,
the most flourishing town in Boiotia. He has a charming
villa at Corfii, which he sedulously avoids, so that beau
tiful island is made to feel the loss of money which was
spent there when it was the seat of the British Lord High
Commissioner. In the last three years he has unveiled
the statue of Didkos, the modern Leonidas, at Lamia, has
visited Naxos on his name-day, has attended the man
oeuvres in Boiotia, and has opened the new railway to
Chalkis — not a great record, when compared with what
King Edward of England sometimes does inta week.
But King George always spends four months, sometimes
rather more, out of the country altogether, travelling in
Europe and taking the waters at Aix-les-Bains. These
tours have, no doubt, diplomatic results, for the King is
a good diplomatist; but if he occasionally took his
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Greek Life
cure at one of the Greek baths — and there are plenty
of them — he would induce others to go there, and thus
money would be spent locally, and, incidentally, the
accommodation would be improved. When one considers
what Roumania owes to its energetic Sovereign, it seems
possible that Greece, had her King taken more personal
interest in the country, might really have become — what
he promised on his election that he would try to make it —
' the model kingdom of the Near East.'
When not at Athens, the King resides at Tatoi, a pretty
but unpretentious place near the classic Dekeleia, which
he bought from the late General Soutzo. There he lives
like a country gentleman, and at one time the Royal
butter and the Royal wine produced on that estate found
a ready market at Athens. More than a quarter of a
century ago, he began to erect a villa at the old Turkish
capital of the Peloponnesos, Tripolis, a place which has a
cold summer climate. A couple of years back, I saw the
still unfinished walls, about ten feet high, and, though the
municipality has since then bought the neighbouring land
and presented it to the King, with the request that the
building might be completed, he is not likely to spend his
summers in the centre of the Morea.
The King is a rich man, although he has a large family.
The nation pays him annually the sum of 1,125,000 dr.,
an amount fixed by the 42nd article of the Constitution.
In addition to this, Great Britain, France, and Russia, the
1 three protecting Powers,' undertook, by the treaties of
1863 and 1864, to hand over to him the annual grant of
^4000 each out of the amount which the Greek Treasury
was pledged to pay them yearly. Being a good man of
business, and enjoying the benefit of excellent financial
advice, he is understood to have considerably increased
his fortune by fortunate speculation. Educated not to be
King of the Hellenes, but to be an officer in the Danish
Navy, he cannot be expected to possess deep knowledge
of archaeology. He is not an orator, and his speeches
are laconic in the extreme. He is, however, an assiduous
5*

in Town and Country
patron of the drama, and rarely misses a first night at the
Royal Theatre, which is his creation. He is a clever man
of the world, he gives himself no airs, and may be seen
driving down to Old Phaleron almost daily, feeding the
animals at the zoological gardens there, and walking about
with his family along the shore.
Queen Olga is a kind-hearted, benevolent woman,
deeply religious, and interested in all good works, particu
larly in hospitals and the relief of suffering. But, like
many other good people, she is deficient in tact; and,
though she has lived so many years in Greece, she is just
as much a Russian as when she first set foot on Greek
soil. While respecting her deep love of her own country,
her subjects think that it goes too far. When she drives
down four times in one week to visit the Russian men-of-
war at the Piraeus, yet never goes on board Greek vessels,
the tongues of the critics are wont to be loosed. During
the 'Gospel Riots' of 1901, she was accused of having
urged the translation of the New Testament from political
motives, and the mob even went so far as to shout, ' Down
with the Russian ' under the Palace windows. When she
returns from her annual outing in Russia, there is no
display of enthusiasm, but during the present war there
has been considerable sympathy with her. Still, she will
never attain the popularity of her beloved daughter,
Alexandra, too early cut off by death. Princess Alexandra
was worshipped by the people ; for, as one of them said
to me, ' she was a real Greek.'
By far the most popular and also the most able member
of the Royal family is the Crown Princess Sophia. From
the moment that she came to Greece, she identified
herself with the country ; during the war, she stoutly
championed its cause, despite the opposition of her
brother, the German Emperor; she is the leading spirit
of the society for reafforesting Greece ; she is interested
in all useful movements. Though a martinet, prompt
to spy out a dirty belt or a missing button at a review,
she is kind to the people. Less affable than the Queen,
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who dislikes ceremony, she knows how to maintain her
dignity even in democratic Greece. When her day comes,
she will doubtless render still greater services to the nation.
The Crown Prince Constantine — the Diddochos, or
' successor,' as he is always called (for no one in Greece
uses the title ' Duke of Sparta ') — has never looked the
same since the war, for the mismanagement of which, as
is now generally admitted, he was unjustly censured.
Since that time his face has worn a set expression of
anxiety, which, even at the theatre, never leaves it. He
looks older than his father, who is a very young man
for his age, and he is said by those who know him well
to be a slow but conscientious worker. Unlike the
King, he has had a Royal and a military education ; he
attends popular lectures on history; he is interested in
the Army, about which, so both officers and soldiers
have assured me, he holds sound views; he is not
a jobber, but is said to show a lack of moral courage
when it is a question of removing officers from their
posts. It must be confessed that the position which he
has of late years occupied as general administrator of
the Army is a difficult one for the future King. As
M. Limprftes, then Minister for War, pointed out two
years ago, when proposing the abolition of this office,
he is bound to give offence, so long as he is responsible
for the removal of officers. One good result of his
official position is that it compels him to inspect troops
in different parts of the country, and thus to travel about.
As he has sons, the succession is secure in the direct
line, and each generation will make the dynasty more
Greek. While the Queen receives nothing from the nation,
the Diddochos has an annual allowance of 200,000 dr.
He possesses the fine estate of Manolada, through which
the train passes between Patras and Pyrgos; but his
time is chiefly spent in his large palace at Athens, or in
his villa in the Royal grounds at Tatoi". During his
father's annual tour abroad, he has latterly acted as
Regent, but is wont to defer important decisions till the
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in Town and Country
King's return. Being a member of the Orthodox Church,
he has, of course, the great advantage, which his father
does not possess, of professing the same religion as his
future subjects.
It is unnecessary to speak of his next brother, Prince
George, because his career is, for the present, connected
with Crete rather than Greece. The third son of the
King, Prince Nicholas, married to a wealthy Russian,
Princess Helen, is credited with literary and artistic
taste; he has written a comedy, and plays lawn-tennis
at the three courts below the Temple of Olympian Zeus.
The King's fourth son, Andrew, is the husband of
Princess Alice of Battenberg, or Alike, as the Greeks
call her, who has already won many hearts at Athens by
her charms of appearance and manner, and her previous
acquaintance with modern Greek. When she arrived,
the Akropolis was lighted with Bengal fire, and she had
a warmer reception than most members of the Royal
family; but it was quite eclipsed by that accorded to
M. Kazdzes, the peripatetic apostle of Hellenism, the
same evening. Princess Marie, the King's only living
daughter, resides in Russia, since her marriage to the
Grand Duke George; and Prince Christopher, the
youngest of the family, is still in sailor suits. At
present, the question of supporting the King's younger
sons is not acute ; but tentative attempts have been made
to suggest grants for Princes Nicholas and Andrew.
Greece can scarcely be expected to maintain a large
Royal family ; and this is a problem which will assume
increasing importance later on. The King is a good
family' man, who has worked hard for the advancement
of his sons. But there will not be a Cretan governorship
for each of the cadets of his family, nor are Epiros and
Macedonia likely to require their services. None of the
princes stand on ceremony ; they take after the Romanoffs
in their love of romping, and no one could describe
them as prigs. Smartness is not much esteemed at the
Court. The King is not dressy, usually driving out
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in naval uniform, sometimes in a soft, black felt hat.
The Queen is not extravagant in the matter of clothes,
and is usually much less smart than the elegant ladies
of Athens. Even on State occasions, such as the open
ing of the exhibition of women's work at Chalkis, I have
seen her eclipsed in respect of frocks by the provincial
leaders of fashion.
The Court entertains but little, and there is only one
big function at the Palace during the year — the Court
ball on January 2 (O.S.), to which about twelve hundred
people are invited. Under these circumstances, it is a
gigantic squash, and dancing, except for the Royal part,
is difficult. Comparatively few ladies go, as a ball-dress
costs ^20, and there is only one Palace ball a year at
which it can be worn. Those ladies who do not mind
the expense are collected together in one part of the
large ball-room to be presented to the Queen ; next is
a huge mass of officers, then an outer ring of civilians,
almost every one of whom is wearing a decoration. I
never realised before what an immense number of Greeks
had received orders ; even in this democratic land, where
titles are forbidden, crosses and ribands are not despised.
With the exception of the two rows of ivzonoi, who Une
the entrance-hall, not a single person wears the national
dress, so that the ball has no peculiarly Greek charac
teristic, for the programme is European, consisting of
quadrilles and the usual round dances. When I was
present last year, although the guests arrived at nine,
the Royal party did not enter the room till half-past ten ;
then a Royal quadrille was formed, in which the diplo
matists and other celebrities took part, conspicuous
among them M. Theotdkes, who looked a courtier to
the manner born as he talked to his partner, the Queen.
From the gallery above the children of the Crown
Princess looked down upon the scene.
The King's sons are not infrequent guests at the houses
of rich Athenians, and they are constantly seen about in
public, the Diddochos usually driving with his wife. The
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in Town and Country
King, finding that the title of Duke of Sparta aroused
discussion in the Bouli, has abstained from the tempta
tion to connect Thebes, or Corinth, or Argos with the
names of his younger sons. Both Prince Nicholas and
Prince Andrew have had, like their eldest brother, a
military training ; Prince George has admiral's rank ;
and, before he went to Crete, was often described as a
bluff sailor prince. But the responsibilities of Cretan
politics seem to have made him grave and middle-aged.
The chief functionaries of the Court are, as Mr.
Anthony Hope would say, two 'long things ending in
-poulos,' MM. Paparregdpoulos and Papadiamantdpoulos,
to whom the King is much attached. Of late times,
however, he has usually taken with him on his European
journeys M. Thon, a Palace official of German extraction,
who has considerable financial ability. The wits say that
M. Thon's name is less of a stumbling-block at European
post-offices than the sesquipedalian signatures of his
colleagues ; it has also the rare merit of being indeclin
able. The people about the Court are a class quite apart
from the politicians, but they enjoy no special social
status among the people, though they receive polite
attentions from foreign rulers. The Royal family is very
popular with its servants, who stay for years in its employ,
and when the old English nurse died, the King and her
former charges, the Princes, bore her bier to the cemetery.
But in this free country, even the Royal coachmen, like
the other Athenian drivers, do not shave their moustaches.
Not long ago a revolution below stairs was reported from
the palace of Prince Nicholas, who lives in considerable
style, because the scullions were requested to shave, lest
hairs should fall into the soup.
The Palace is not the property of the King* but of
the nation ; and, as the Bouli is not always anxious to
spend money upon it, it is not particularly well kept up.
It lacks bath-rooms, the front blinds are usually at all
angles, and the wooden garden railings apparently date
from Otho's time. The garden, created by the late
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Queen Amalia, is the most delightfully cool and shady
spot in Athens, where the 'Attic bird' may be heard,
where fine trees may be seen, and where the eye may
rest upon things green. As Athens has no park, the
King generously throws open his garden to the public
three times a week. No one can say that the Palace,
though large, is a beautiful work of art; at least, we
may be thankful that the Bavarians refrained from pitch
ing the Royal residence, as was at one time suggested,
upon the Akropolis, where the ducal house of the
Acciajuoli held its court in the fifteenth century.

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in Town and Country

CHAPTER IV
THE CHURCH
Before the outbreak of the War of Independence, the
Greek Church was practically the representative of the
Greek nation ; its head, the Oecumenical Patriarch, was
really the national leader, and the Orthodox religion was
the depository of the most hallowed traditions of the people,
the safeguard of its venerable language, the touchstone
by which the Christian rayah of whatever race was dis
criminated from the Mussulman. Since then the political
importance of the Church has much diminished. The
re-establishment of the Bulgarian Church under an
Exarch of its own in 1870 has divided the authority of
the CEcumenical Patriarch in Macedonia with a hated
rival, while from the moment that Greece became an
independent kingdom it was obvious that her Church
could no longer safely recognise as its chief ecclesiastical
authority a personage who resided in Constantinople, and
was liable to be influenced by the Turkish Government.
After long years of wrangling, the Patriarch at last, in
1850, recognised that the Greek Church in Greece was
autocephalous, and, when the Ionian Islands, Thessaly, and
the district of Arta were subsequently added *to free
Hellas, their bishops and Churches joined the independent
ecclesiastical organisation of Greece. The Oecumenical
Patriarch, though still the head of the Greeks in Turkey,
has therefore no rights whatever in the internal govern
ment of the Church in Greece, though, as a sign of the
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union between the two Churches, he still sends the holy
oil, which he consecrates once a year, on the Thursday
before Easter, and from time to time, as on the occasion
of the ' Gospel Riots,' he may write a letter expressing his
views on some point of doctrine.
The government of the Orthodox Church in Greece
is now vested in the Holy Synod, a body consisting
of the Metropolitan of Athens, who is ex-officio its
president, four bishops, and a Royal Commissioner,
and any one who can penetrate behind the altar in
the Metropolitan Church at Athens may see the five
marble seats joined together, on which its five ecclesias
tical members sit when they meet for the consecration of
bishops. There are thirty-two episcopal sees in Greece,*
of which the first is that of Athens, as being the metropolitan
see. Of these sees thirteen are at present archbishoprics ;
but by a law passed five years ago it has been enacted
that, after the deaths of the present holders, these sees
shall all become simple bishoprics. As some of the
archbishoprics are of considerable antiquity, there is
naturally some local feeling against this attempt at unifor
mity, and a recent political manoeuvre to abolish the
ancient see of Kythera aroused much indignation in that
island. At present, however, about one-third of the
Greek sees are ' widowed,' as the Greeks picturesquely
put it, owing to the death of their occupants and the long
delay in the appointment of their successors. These
appointments are made by the King (in spite of the fact
that he is a Lutheran), who selects one out of the three
names sent up to him by the Holy Synod. A bishop must
be at least thirty years old — he is generally a very vener
able-looking man — and, as he must be either a widower or
unmarried, he is usually chosen from the monasteries.
* Athens, Livadia, Amphissa, Mesolonghi, Arta, Karpenisi,
Lamia, Trikkala, Karditsa (in Thessaly), Larissa, Volo, Chalkis,
Nauplia, Hydra, Corinth, Tripolis, Demetsana, Patras, Kalavryta,
Pyrgos, Kyparissia, Kalamata, Gytheion, Sparta, Kythera, Corfu
Argostoli, Levkas, Zante, Hermoupolis, Thera, Naxos.
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in Town and Country
This unfortunately presupposes as a rule a small degree
of culture; but the present Metropolitan of Athens,
Theokletos, who studied in Germany, is a man of good
education, and is interested in the burning question of
instructing the clergy. The bishops are, with one excep
tion, the only functionaries of the Church who are paid
by the State. The Metropolitan of Athens receives
6000 dr. a year, and 3000 dr. more in his capacity of
president of the Holy Synod, the four other ecclesiastical
members of which are paid 2400 dr. each. Each of the
surviving archbishops has a salary of 5000 dr., each of
the eighteen bishops a salary of 4000 dr. Besides these
exalted personages, the only clerics who are paid are the
small staff of ' preachers.' These men are chiefly
employed in Lent — for sermons are rare at other seasons — •
and receive 200 dr. a month each. It is greatly to the
credit of the Greek Government that it also pays the
heads of the Mussulman religious communities in
Thessaly, assigning 3000 dr. a year to the mufti of Larissa
and 1800 dr. to each of the three muftis of Pharsala,
Trikkala, and Volo.
It each diocese there is an episcopal court, which
judges the clergy accused of offences against the canons
of the Church. This court is usually composed of the
bishop, as president, and four other members, whose
titles are derived from the spacious and punctilious
Byzantine times. Should one, or all, of the above be
unable to attend, his, or their, place is taken by one or
more of the four supplementary members. All these
offices are called by the old Byzantine name, 6<£«aa,
which was borrowed from the Latin officio.. Sometimes,
however, these persons call themselves in modern parlance
' officers,' a term usually applied to those who l§old high
positions in the Army Or Navy.
While the bishops in Greece have no longer the
political influence which they possessed in the Turkish
times, and which still belongs to their colleagues in
Turkey, great respect is paid to their office. They are
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Greek Life
addressed in high-sounding superlatives, men stoop to
kiss their hands, and they look most imposing in church,
with their long beards, their jewelled mitres, the cross
and the image of the Saviour on their bosoms, their
episcopal staffs, and their rich robes, every one of which
has a meaning, signifying the justice and power of the
bishop, as well as the purity, submission, and continence
of the priest.
Below the bishops come the archimandrites, who are
also unmarried; the priests, who, like the bishops, must be
at least thirty years old; and the deacons, who, before they
are consecrated at the age of twenty-five, have served as
sub-deacons and readers in the churches. It is the duty
of the reader to read the Epistle, that of the deacon to
read the Gospel. The three grades of bishop, priest, and
deacon are distinguished during the service by some
garment peculiar to each rank in the hierarchy. That of
the deacon is the stole on his left shoulder, that of the
priest is the sleeveless over-garment, those of the bishop
the vestment with short and broad sleeves and the stole
round the neck. But the most characteristic part of
the Greek clergy's dress is the brimless stove-pipe hat,
which they wear even in the blazing sun of a Hellenic
summer. As its name (kalfymmwvchion) denotes, this
most unsuitable head-dress for a southern climate at one
time did really ' cover the neck,' but it has long ceased
to afford that protection. It is said that its lack of a
brim is due to a Turkish regulation.
The condition of the ordinary Greek priest is, as a rule,
one of abject and dismal poverty. Being unpaid by the
State, he has to live as best he can, and support his wife
and family — for he is a married man — on the fees which
he receives from his flock for baptisms, marriages, and
funerals, and which are usually paid in kind after arrange
ment with the parties concerned, and on presents at
Easter. In the country he may be seen tilling his field,
scarcely, if at all, distinguishable, in culture or wealth,
from the poorest peasant of the village. He is not allowed
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in Town and Country
to keep a shop; but his son* is not unfrequently the
proprietor of the local inn or general store, and he may
often be seen there fraternising with the other men of the
hamlet on equal terms, for he enjoys no social superiority
whatever by virtue of his cloth. Grossly ignorant of
books, forbidden to attend either theatres or concerts,
often chained all his life, as a poor priest I once met in
an Andriote village plaintively remarked, to the spot
where he was born, but with all the Greek peasant's
shrewdness and hospitality towards strangers, he is a
unique figure in the world's gallery of religions. Of course,
the town clergy are better off than those of the villages ; at
Athens a priest, under favourable circumstances, may gain
by fees as much as 200 dr., or even, in exceptional cases,
500 dr. a month, and at the Piraeus and Patras perhaps not
much less; but I know of one country 'living' — if such
a term may be used without absurdity in Greece — whose
holder, the father of a family, considers himself well off
on ^30 a year, eked out by gifts of loaves from his parish
ioners on feast-days, and an occasional meal at the house
of a rich neighbour. The repairs to the church are,
fortunately, defrayed by the local community ; and three
ecclesiastical commissioners, of whom the Demarch is
chairman, look after its affairs.
The blank ignorance of the clergy is the darkest point
in the ecclesiastical system, and it is curious that a nation
so enthusiastic about education should almost entirely
neglect that of its priests. For the whole priesthood of
Greece there are at present only two ecclesiastical schools
— the Riz&reion at Athens, and a similar academy lately
founded at Arta — for those which formerly existed at
Corfu, Chalkis, and Tripolis have all been suppressed,
and that which Capo d'Istria founded in the monastery at
Poros has long since vanished. As there are only ninety-
five pupils at the Riz&reion, and of these only 15 or 20
per cent., according to the most liberal computation (that
* A Greek proverb : ' Priest's son, the devil's grandson,' might
indicate that these holy men's offspring are worse than the rest of us.
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Greek Life
of the director), become priests, while the rest, having
obtained an excellent education, go into more lucrative
professions, it will be seen that the annual output of
instructed priests is almost infinitesimal, even if we allow
for a few who study in Germany, and those who haye
gone as far as the Hellenic school or gymnasium. The
director frankly admitted to me that the reason why so
few of his pupils wished to take orders was that the
Government paid the clergy nothing, which proves that
the Greek Church, so long as the present system prevails,
will rarely obtain the services of the most enlightened
men. So far as it goes, indeed, the Rizdreion is one of
the most admirable training schools in Greece. The
eponymous heroes of this establishment were George
Rizares and his brother, who came from Zagori, in Epiros,
and made money in Russia, which was bequeathed in
1840 for the purpose of founding a college for priests.
Opened by Otho in 1844, the school possesses a fine
block of buildings in the Kephisia road, where cleanli
ness — not always a conspicuous mark of the Greek priest
hood — is regarded as next to godliness, and excellent hot
and cold baths, with an abundant water-supply, are pro
vided for the pupils. The school is situated in a pretty
garden, where in summer they conduct their studies
under the trees, while the classic Ilissos, when it has any
water, washes the garden wall. Altogether an ideal place
for meditation on things divine.
The pupils, who may be easily distinguished by the
blue initial of the Rizdreion on their black caps and
robes, and by their long hair, fastened up behind with an
elastic, which gives them quite a girlish look, are at
present divided into boarders and day students, but during
the present year the latter will be abolished. Their ages
range from fifteen to twenty years, and they must be able
to produce on entrance a certificate of having studied at
a Hellenic school. The course lasts five years, corre
sponding to which there are five classes, and is mainly, but
not exclusively, theological; Greek, Latin, French, and
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in Town and Country
Hebrew, physics, geography, and ancient, Byzantine, and
modern Greek history being also studied. There is a
special room where the pupils study sculpture, and they
may be often seen in great black masses on the Akropolis
or at the columns of Olympian Zeus of an afternoon,
listening to lectures on the masterpieces of classic art.
Gymnastics are practised, under a special instructor, in
the gymnasia of the college ; there are classes for ecclesias
tical music — a vexed question in Greece just now, — and
the whole day is filled up in one way or another, from 4.30
a.m., when the students get up, to bedtime at half-past
nine. The fees for those who are not on the foundation
amount to 70 dr. a month, food, clothing, and medicine
included, and the pupils can remain in residence all the
year, if they like, though there are two months of holidays
in July and August. But the foundationers are compelled
to refund the amount of money expended on them during
their course, in the event of their not embracing the
clerical profession after all — a very necessary precaution,
as we saw. Those who remain firm in the resolve to
become priests go on to the theological faculty of the
University. When they become priests they often change
their names, and a Nicholas will turn into a Nikodemos,
or a George into a Gerisimos. As in most educational
establishments of Greece, many of the pupils (forty-eight
out of the whole number last year) come from ' enslaved
Hellas,' and when I visited the school, it even included
two Copts, which was due, perhaps, to the fact that the
learned director, Nektarios, is Metropolitan of Pentapolis.
Though managed by a council of ten members, the
Rizdreion is under the supervision of the Ministry of
Education, Such being the meagre provision for the education of
the clergy, the average aspirant to the priesthood has to
learn his business mechanically by listening to those who
are already priests and seeing how they conduct the
service. Bad as this system is — for enlightened Greeks
see clearly that the Church will lose its hold on the
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Greek Life
educated if its ministers continue to be left in darkness —
it has yet this advantage, that the village priest, who
usually knows nothing of culture, is content to remain a
peasant among peasants. Were his intellect awakened,
did he feel the new wants of the educated man, would he
be willing to pass his life in remote spots, where from
year's end to year's end he would never hold communion
with another kindred mind ? In morality, the standard
of the Greek clergy is very high ; their lives may be dull
and squalid, judged by our standard, but they have, for
the most part, known nothing better; why, then, it may
be argued, inspire them with a discontent which cannot
be divine? Besides, to provide the funds for clerical
education on a thorough scale, it would probably be
necessary to confiscate, as was done in Roumania by
Prince Couza, the funds of the monasteries, upon which
many modern-minded Greeks already cast covetous looks.
The Greek monasteries have already been very much
reduced in number. In 1833 they numbered no less
than 593, of which 412 were dissolved in the following
year, as having been either abandoned or as not having the
proper number of monks. At the present time there
are 171 monasteries, 9 nunneries, and 34 ' unorganised '
monasteries. The monasteries contain 1574 monks,
631 novices, and 910 servants; the nunneries, eight of
which are in the islands, are inhabited by 1.17 nuns,
71 novices, and 32 servants. Thus it will be seen, as
is perhaps natural in a country where the female popula
tion is considerably less numerous than the male, and
where, therefore, marriage is the normal female profession,
that nuns are very rare. The monk, like the priest, is
usually a peasant, almost wholly devoid of learning, but
keenly interested in politics. As he may, and not unfre
quently does, move from one monastery to another, he
has often seen something of the world, of his world at
least I have visited, I suppose, nearly a score of
Greek monasteries, and I have always found the monks
immensely excited about the last party move at Athens,
66

in Town and Country
while quite indifferent to questions of theology or
history, even that of their own monastery. Ask a monk
if there is a library, and he will usually say that it was
destroyed by the Turks ; ask him the age of the church,
and he will generally answer, ' a thousand years,' or ' six
hundred years ' (why ' six hundred ' specially, I have never
made out) ; but produce a newspaper from your pocket,
and he will at once become absorbed in it. I remember
once, at the fine monastery of Phaneromehe on Salamis,
being very anxious to eat my lunch undisturbed, I
attained this object by the simple expedient of providing
my two monastic interlocutors with two Athenian papers
of that morning, containing the news of a change of
Ministry. Silence ensued forthwith, and the worthy
monks remained engrossed in the doings of M.
Theotdkes until I was ready to see the fine Rhodian
plates immured in the walls of the church.
On the other hand, monastic knowledge of theology
may be judged by the remark of a monk at Meteora,
who told me that ' King George was under the Pope.'
Occasionally one may find an Hegoiimenos — I recall such
an instance at the monastery of St. Nicholas in Andros —
who takes the keenest interest in all the treasures of the
place and knows a great deal about them ; too often, the
worst enemy of the monastery's artistic and historic
memorials is the abbot himself. He who goes to Greek
monasteries expecting to find learned men will be dis
appointed ; but nowhere else can he live and move and
have his being in the veritable spirit of the Middle Ages,
where wild-looking, unkempt figures stand around him,
where culture and comfort have no place, and where,
after a long day of perfect peace, the simantron calls
to evensong.* In my judgment, Greece will make a
* The simantron is usually a piece of an iron hoop, hanging from
a tree in the courtyard, which is struck by an iron hammer. Occa
sionally it and the hammer are of wood ; once I saw two rails
fastened together at an acute angle to serve the purpose. It is a
survival of the times when the Turks prohibited the use of bells.
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Greek Life
mistake if, from purely utilitarian motives, she abolishes her
quaint, historic monasteries. Undoubtedly, the monas
teries are not popular ; the Press is lynx-eyed to seek out
and publish monastic scandals, and charges of immorality
and financial corruption are frequently being brought by
it against this or that Hegotimenos. There is a general
idea that the monks lead useless lives — many, indeed,
become monks simply in order to have nothing to do,
save attendance at service in church and work in the fields
or gardens of the monastery. But the monk does not
always shirk the duties of a citizen. I once met a worthy
brother of the monastery of Palaiokastrizza in Corfu, who
had served — and he was not the only instance — as an
irregular in the war of 1897. He was working quietly in
the fields with his pruning-hook, made, no doubt, out of
his disused sword, but his eyes flashed as he spoke of the
Turks whom he had slain, and he would return to the fray
at once, so he told me, should war break out again. But in
other monasteries the monks will tell you that it is better
to live under the Turk, who harasses the monasteries
less than the free Greek Government. To the traveller,
in a land where inns are few and far between, their
hospitality, if simple, is welcome. The beds may be
boards, as is so often the case in the country khan, and the
food the inevitable lamb, and, if anywhere near Easter,
the hard-boiled, crimson-stained pace egg ; but there is
nothing to pay, though the visitor, of course, puts the
equivalent of his food and lodging in the box of the
church, and in some places gives a trifle to the servants.
Many a time have my wife and I — for ladies are admitted
to most monasteries in Greece — sat at the monastic board,
while the Hegoumenos would pick from the dish with his
own fork the tit-bits and put them on our plates.
Some of the monasteries have a large amount of
property ; as, for example, Megaspelaion, the monastery
in the ' Great Cave,' and Galatalce in Euboia, which
receives a royalty from an Anglo- Greek company on every
ton of magnesite worked on its land. Several of them
68

in Town and Country
were conspicuous subscribers to the recent Macedonian
relief fund, those of Pentele and Petrike giving large
sums. I remember hearing of a doctor who had studied
medicine at the expense ofthe former of these monasteries.
Others, however, like the famous monasteries of Meteora,
to which the visitor ascends by a swinging ladder, or by
the almost worse alternative of a net and rope, have lost
nearly all their estates.
The monasteries are of two kinds, Ccenobitic and
Idiorhythmic, the difference being that in the former the
monks have their meals together. The abbot, or
Hegoumenos, as he is called, used formerly to be elected
for life. I was told at St. Stephen's, one of the Meteora
monasteries, that the last Hegoumenos had held that office
for forty-nine years. Nowadays, however, the abbot is
elected for four years, with the right of being re-elected at
the end of his term. If there are more than six monks,
they have the privilege of electing their chief; if less,
then he is nominated by the bishop of the diocese.
Finally, the whole monastic system is under the control of
the Ministry of Education and Ecclesiastical Affairs.
The spiritual influence of the Church seems to be less
than it was among the more educated, and neither men
nor women are fanatical ; but in the country districts the
externals of religion, especially in the matter of fasting,
are observed to an extent unknown at Athens. Even there
almost every one will cross himself as he passes a church,
and the rustic muleteer will pause to make obeisance at
every tiny shrine by the roadside. No one who is
merely acquainted with fasting as practised by Roman
Catholics has the least idea to what lengths mortifica
tion of the body can go in Greece. There are four
long fasts in the year — (i) Forty days beforfe Christ
mas, from November 15 (O.S.) to December 24; (2)
Lent, 'the Great Fast,' as the Greeks call it, which
lasts forty-eight days, from ' Clean Monday ' to Easter ;
(3) the Fast of the Holy Apostles, from the Monday
after ' All Saints' Sunday ' (the Greek name for the first
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Greek Life
Sunday after Pentecost) to the feast of SS. Peter and
Paul on June 29 (O.S.); (4) from August 1 to 15
(O.S.), ' the Falling Asleep of the Virgin,' as the Greeks
picturesquely call it. During these four long fasts the
Church enjoins abstention from meat, butter, eggs, oil,
and cheese, and fish is also prohibited, except during
the fasts before Christmas and the Holy Apostles, on
Palm Sunday, and on the Annunciation of the Virgin,
unless (as happened last year) the last-named festival
chances to coincide with Holy Week (' the Great Week,'
in Greek parlance). The term ' fish ' is, fortunately for
the fasters, somewhat laxly interpreted to mean those
species which have a backbone, so that caviar, cuttle-fish,
and sea-urchins are frequently eaten even during these
strenuous periods of mortification. After this exhaustive
list of prohibited dishes, there remain over vegetables,
bread, olives, and fruit, and upon this simple fare the
pious Greek has to support body and soul as best he can.
But we have not yet exhausted the Ust of fasts in the
Orthodox calendar. In addition to Wednesdays and
Fridays throughout the year, there are further fasts on
January 5 (the Eve of the Epiphany), on August 29 (the
Beheadal of St. John the Baptist), and September 14 (Holy
Cross Day).
Moreover, during the week before Lent, by way of a
gradual preparation for the rigours of that great fast, the
Church orders the eating of cheese, and similar things
made from milk, whence the name ' Cheese-eating Week.'
Even the Church, however, allows some exceptions from
these terribly severe regulations. Very small children,
the sick, and those travelling are exempt; soldiers, in
time of peace, fast only during the ten first and ten last
days of the long fasts, in time of war not at all. In
practice, too, the observance of the fasts depends very
much upon the personal feelings of the people. Well-to-
do persons at Athens scarcely fast at all, or content them
selves with abstention during the first and last weeks of
the long fasts ; occasionally, they will fortify their bodies
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in Town and Country
with so much food on the eve of a fast, that they have to
call in a doctor and mortify the flesh by medicine next
day. But in the country the fasts are much more
rigidly observed, especially by the poor. I have travelled
in out-of-the-way districts during Lent, and found that I
also was compelled to abstain from meat, simply because
there was none to be had at that period, for no one
thought it worth while to kill. For that reason Lent in
the country is a time to be avoided, for the question of
the commissariat, never very easy off the beaten track,
then becomes acute, and the traveller, like the African
shepherd in Virgil, must ' take everything with him.' It
is impossible not to admire the powers of endurance
displayed by the strict country folk, under such trying
circumstances. I remember once going from Andritsaina
to Diavolitsi — a ride of eleven hours over very rough
mountain-paths — during ' the Great Week,' accompanied
by two muleteers. They walked the whole eleven hours
upon nothing more substantial than one of the Greek
rolls and one small glass of fotsindto apiece, and started
back to Andritsaina the same evening. Nothing would
induce them to share my tinned beef ; and on another
occasion I found my guide obdurate to both eggs and
cheese. It must be remembered, of course, that at all
seasons the Greek peasant is abstemious to a degree
almost incredible to Englishmen, and the splendid air of
Hellas enables people to undergo what would be impos
sible in our climate. But, all the same, these excessive
fasts cannot fail to be bad for those engaged in active
work. I have been much struck by the depressed
appearance of even the monks at these times, while
women, who lack the constant stimulant of cigarettes, are
worse off than the men in places where the^, too, have
to work.
The Orthodox Church is singularly tolerant, provided
it is let alone. Proselytism is specially forbidden by the
first article of the Constitution, and the Greeks are very
much of the opinion of the Turks, that a disbeliever in one
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Greek Life
religion will never become a good believer in another.
Thus, the voluntary conversion of the Princess Sophia,
who not unnaturally wished to be of the same creed as
her husband and children, while it displeased her brother,
the German Emperor, did not please many of the Greeks.
One of the reasons why Roman Catholicism is so
unpopular among them is the suspicion that it wishes to
proselytise, and it is said that Mgr. Delenda, the head of
the Greek Catholics, has assured the new Pope that any
thing in the nature of a propaganda here, such as was
favoured by Leo XIIL, is out of the question. With
the Anglican Church the Greek is in communion, and I
knew an English chaplain who always had his stall
assigned to him in the Greek place of worship, when
he cared to attend, and who read the Gospel in Enghsh
on Easter Sunday. The prospects of union between the
Orthodox and Anglican Churches are one of the ordinary
commonplaces of conversation with a Greek priest,
though to most people a chasm seems to separate the
elaborate Greek ritual from our Low Church. To
Roman Catholics and Bulgarian Exarchists, however, the
Orthodox Greeks will scarcely concede the right to be
described as ' Christians at all.' I once remarked to
some Greeks, who had asked me why Great Britain
supported the Bulgarians, that it was because they were
Christians. ' Christians ! ' was the indignant reply ; ' they
are not Christians, but schismatics, savage beasts, bar
barians ' — and the other terms of abuse usually lavished
on those hated rivals of Hellenism. On another occasion,
in Euboia, I heard a Greek ask whether some Mace
donians employed there were ' Christians or Bulgarians.'
A friend of mine at Syra told me that his wife, a Roman
Catholic, once said to an Orthodox servant, who had used
the phrase ' we Christians ' of her own co-religionists,
' What, then, am I ? ' to which the servant replied, ' I don't
know.' On the other hand, the Greeks who are Roman
Catholics are apt to be equally exclusive. One of them,
when asked by my friend, ' Are you a Greek ? ' promptly
72

in Town and Country

answered, ' No, a Catholic,' which recalls the Ulsterman
who indignantly cried, 'I am not an Irishman, I am
a Protestant.' The saints play a very important part in Greek life, and
their functions and names often prove that they are the
legitimate descendants of the old Greek gods, the new
religion having been grafted on to the old. Every
steamer has its eikdn of St. Nicholas in the cabin, before
which a tiny lamp is kept burning, and a church or
monastery of that patron-saint of sailors often stands on
or near the site of a temple of Poseidon. Helios, the
sun-god, has been succeeded by the Prophet Elias, whose
chapels crown almost every eminence in Greece; the
Virgin has replaced Atheni P&rthenos, and the Parthenon
in the Middle Ages was the Church of St. Mary, whether as
a Greek cathedral or as a Latin minster ; St. Dionysios
has dethroned Didnysos, St. George and the Dragon are
the Christian version of Theseus and the Minotaur, so
that the Theseion naturally became in Christian times the
Church of St. George. When in trouble, or at sea, a
Greek woman (who is invariably a bad sailor) may be
heard calling on the Virgin, where her English sister
would invoke the steward, and ' My Virgin ' is a common
cry of amazement or horror. Each place in Greece has
its local saint ; Corfu boasts of St. Spirfdon, after whom
almost every Corfiote is called, Kephallenia of St. Gerdsi-
mos, Zante of St. Dionysios, Kythera of the Virgin of the
Myrtle-tree (in this case the representative of Aphrodite,
whose favourite isle it was), Patras of St. Andrew, and so
on. On the festival of its patron-saint, not only does each
place celebrate the event, but all its absent sons and
daughters established in Athens will gather together on
that day at a special service in honour of the |ioly man,
who forms a local bond of union between them. Particu
larism is still strong in Greece ; a Greek will talk of his
native island or province as his patris, and those from the
same region are apt to be clannish. The local saint's day
is the expression of this feeling. Thus on the festival of
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Greek Life
the Virgin of Kythera all the Kytherians in Athens,
including the proprietor and a score of the employes of one
well-known hotel, assembled at the Metropohtan Church
to render praise to their holy benefactress. The most
favourite church for such ceremonies is, however, that
of St. Irene, where I have seen two of these impressive
celebrations, that of the Kephallenians in honour of St.
Gerisimos, and that of the Corfiotes in honour of
St. Spiridon. The church, and especially the eikon of the
saint, was decorated with flowers, and there was scarcely
room to move for the crowd of worshippers, chiefly men
of all sorts, from smart officers to weather-beaten boat
men. The local bishop, who was in Athens, presided in
his mitre and gorgeous robes, and during the ceremony
large baskets of loaves, decorated with flowers, were
brought in and blessed by him. These loaves had been
provided at the expense of the islanders whose festival it
was, and each loaf bore five stamps. At the end of the
service they were cut up into pieces, and each island
family received a portion. Still more striking are the
processions in honour of St. Spiridon in Corfu itself.
Four times a year his body is borne through the town
with military honours, to commemorate his deliverance of
the island from Turks, pestilence, and famine.
Besides the saints, there is a lower category of saintly
persons who have the adjective ' blessed ' applied to them.
Thus, besides St. Luke the Evangelist, there is the
'blessed' Luke — a hermit of the tenth century, the
golden age of Greek monastic foundations — who is the
eponymous hero of the splendid monastery of Hdsios
Loukas near Stiris. To this latter class, too, belongs the
' blessed ' Philothee, a religious and educational enthusiast
of the sixteenth century, whose remains are buried in the
so-called Old Metropolitan Church at Athens. Some
times, too, there is more than one saint of the same name,
for example, the two SS. Theodores, whose festival is on
the same day.
The services of the Church, complicated as they seem
74

in Town and Country
to foreigners, are full of historic interest to those who
will take the trouble to study them. There is not a vest
ment nor an implement used which has not its meaning.
Of the former I have spoken ; the latter are even more
significant. Take, for instance, the Communion service.
The knife, used to cut the sacred bread, is in the form of
a lance's head, and is called 'the lance' (logche), from
that which pierced the side of Our Lord; the paten
(agios diskos) represents the manger of Bethlehem;
the curious implement, in form exactly like the ' cage '
at croquet, with a star on the top, which is placed on
the paten, so that the covering may not touch the bread,
is called ' the asterisk ' (asteriskos), and recalls the star
in the East ; the larger covering, which the priest places
over both paten and cup, the so-called 'air' (aer), is
symbohcal of the ' clean linen cloth,' in which Joseph of
Arimathsea wrapped Our Lord's body; the vessel for
heating the water which is poured into the chalice before
the priest communicates (zeon) symbolises the water
which flowed from His side ; and the sponge used for
wiping the chalice represents that offered to Him by the
soldiers. Most significant of all is the bread used in the Holy
Communion, covered with a mass of symbols. In the
middle of this holy bread is a circular stamp, within which
is a Greek cross, the upright portion of which is divided
into three large squares, each of which is subdivided into
four smaller squares. In each of these smaller squares
are inscribed two capital letters, 12, X2, NI, KA ('Iijo-ovs
Xpioros viiaj, ' Jesus Christ conquers '). In the left arm
of the cross is a large triangle, representing the Virgin ; on
the right are nine smaller triangles, symbolical of the nine
orders of the saints — Archangels and Angels, the Baptist
and the Prophets, the Apostles, the Great Teachers and
Hierarchs, the Martyrs, the Hermits, the Holy Physicians
SS. Kosmas and Damian (the Anargyroi or moneyless, so
called because they took no fees), the Sainted Fathers,
and the saint of the day. The large central square,
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which represents Our Lord, is called ' the lamb ' (amnos),
because he was led ' like a lamb ' to the slaughter. This
square is first cut off by the priest, who then pierces the
smaller square, marked NI, which forms the left bottom
corner of it, in memory of the piercing of Our Lord's side ;
the large triangle is then cut off, and laid on the paten
beside ' the lamb,' in honour of the Virgin, as are also the
nine small triangles, one by one, in order that both she and
those whom they represent may mediate on behalf of the
congregation. Finally, other portions of the bread are
placed below
them, on behalf
of the quick and
the dead. Thus
the preparation
of the elements is
from first to last
one mass of sym
bolism. So also
are other acces
sories of the
Church. There
are curious em
blems carried in
processions,which represent
Angels with six
wings, the ' sleep
less' lamp, which is the light of Our Lord, and the
double and treble candles (dikeron and irikeron), used for
the blessing, which stand respectively for the two natures
of Christ and the three Persons of the Trinity. On the
wall there may be seen hanging a curious piece of
embroidery, containing a worked representation of Our
Lord in the tomb; this is called the Epitdphios, and
is used at the service on Good Friday.* Another
* A fine specimen is that at Phaneromene in Salamis, worked in
1709. 76

in Town and Country
embroidered emblem ofthe Church is the so-called 'eagle,'
depicting an eagle with outstretched wings above a city.
This is employed at the consecration of a bishop, who
recites the Creed standing on this circular mat, and who
should keep watch over ' the city,' which is his diocese,
yet soar aloft heavenwards, like ' the eagle.'
Every church contains a bishop's throne, in which
Christ is supposed to be ever present, and old places of
worship usually have a fine marble two-headed eagle,
the emblem of the Byzantine Empire, let into the floor.
There are always two receptacles, one for the holy oil,
the other for the holy bread, consecrated on Maundy
Thursday for extraordinary use throughout the year, such
as the sacrament of a sick person in extremis. The
eikons are, of course, always a prominent feature, though
of varying artistic merit, and the eikonostasis with its
three doors is sometimes tawdry and sometimes a magni
ficent piece of work. To my mind that in the church of
the Monastery of St. Nicholas in Andros, which shows
the influence of Venice, is the finest in Greece. The
conclusion of the Iconoclastic controversy, which began
when Leo the Isaurian issued his famous edict, ordering
the removal of the eikons, and which lasted till their
final restoration by the Empress Theodora in the year
842, is still annually commemorated on ' Orthodox
Sunday,' as the first Sunday in Lent is called. In the
churches of monasteries one generally finds some relic
encased in a silver box, such as the skull of Timdtheos,
Archbishop of Euboia, at Pentele, and the wax represen
tation of the Virgin and Child, said to be the work of St.
Luke, at Megaspelaion. During service there is a supply
of tapers on sale just inside the door, and the incomer,
putting his penny in the tray, lights his taper atid places
it on one of the large candlesticks.
The services of the Church, when well performed, are
grander than those of Rome, and the splendid language
in which the Orthodox have couched their prayers for
centuries is peculiarly impressive. Twice every day the
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priest holds services in the church, in the early morning
the so-called 'midnight' service, followed by matins;
at three in the afternoon 'the ninth hour,' which is a
prelude to evensong. The ordinary service on Sundays
and saints' days is the Liturgy of St. Chrysostom ; but
that of St. Basil the Great, of which it is an abridgment,
is employed ten times a year — on five Sundays in Lent,
Thursday and Saturday in Holy Week, Christmas Eve,
New Year's Day (which is the feast of St. Basil), and the
eve of the Epiphany. The still longer Liturgy of St.
James is now only to be heard in some places on October
23, the festival of the saint. A fourth liturgy, that 'of
the Pre-sanctified,' is used on Wednesdays and Fridays
throughout Lent, except Good Friday, and also on Mon-
. day and Tuesday in Holy Week. Women occupy a very
subordinate place in church ; at Athens they are placed
at the sides, at the Metamorphosis Church at Syra they
are restricted to the narthex and passage outside, and in
the country they are often stowed away in a gallery. In
theory the old difference between the catechumens and
the faithful is preserved. Thus the liturgy is still divided,
according to ancient usage, into two parts — that ' of the
catechumens ' and that ' of the faithful,' from which the
former used to be excluded ; at the solemn moment when
the elements are uncovered, the deacon still cries aloud,
'The doors, the doors' — a survival of the admonition
to the door-keepers to see that no catechumen entered ;
and church architecture still adheres to the narthex — the
vestibule where the catechumens stood. Standing, indeed,
must be the posture of the whole congregation throughout
the service, except in some fashionable churches, where
a few chairs are provided for the weak-kneed. The sole
support usually to be found is in the stalls along the
sides, upon which one can rest one's arms as on crutches.
In fact, they are merely an evolution from crutches, as
may be seen from the specimens of the latter still pre
served in the Museum of Christian Archaeology at Athens.
The singing varies, as it does everywhere; in some of
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in Town and Country
the fashionable churches at Athens it is excellent; in
some country churches it is a sore trial to the musical
visitor. The nasal intonation, so characteristic of the
Greek method of reading the Gospel, is apt to sound
monotonous to Western ears, but a church which has the
unique inheritance of the original language in which the
Evangelists wrote is greatly to be envied, and is justly
tenacious of its privilege. The sermons delivered in
Lent are voted by Greek critics to be of inferior quality,
and they attribute this to the deplorable state of clerical
education. Some of the ancient hymns, still used on
special occasions, are splendid pieces of composition.
Such is the Ak&thistos, so called because the people of
Constantinople sang it, 'without sitting down,' in the
church at Blachernai, to commemorate the deliverance
of the city from the Avars and Persians in the year 626.
This fine hymn, composed by the Patriarch Sergios,
consists of twenty-four stanzas, corresponding to the
twenty-four letters of the Greek alphabet ; the first word
of the first stanza begins with A, the first of the second
stanza with B, and so on in alphabetical order. Six of
these stanzas are sung on each of the first four Fridays
in Lent, and on the fifth Friday the whole twenty-four
are repeated. In the same week, but at the Wednesday
evening service, is sung the ' Great Canon,' a long
didactic poem by Andreas, Archbishop of Crete in the
eighth century, which proves by examples from sacred
history that virtue is always rewarded and vice always
punished. The hymns and services for all the movable
feasts which depend on Easter are contained in two
separate books, which are to be found in every church.
The former comes into use ten Sundays before Easter, on
the ' Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee,' so called,
like not a few Sundays in ecclesiastical phraseology,
from the subject of the day's Gospel. On that day the
people say, ' the Triodi opens,' and the book remains in
use down to Easter, after which it is replaced by the
Pentekostarion, which contains the services to Trinity, or,
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Greek Life
as the Greeks call it, 'All Saints' Sunday.' The first
week after Easter is named ' renewal week,' because we
should become ' new men ' after the Paschal festival, and
on the Friday in that week takes place the feast of ' the
life-giving spring,' in remembrance of a healing spring
found in the Church of the Virgin near Constantinople.
The Sunday after Ascension Day is called after 'the
holy Fathers ' of the first Council of Nice, and the
following Saturday is the ' Sabbath of Souls,' when
the Church holds a solemn memorial service for the
dead. The day before the second Sunday before Lent
is another of these ghostly ' Sabbaths,' when people go
out in numbers to the cemetery, and official Athens,
represented by the mayor and other authorities, pays its
respects to the memory of the departed. Besides these
general commemorations of the dead, there are always
three memorial services (mnemosyna) held for every
departed person, at intervals of forty days, six months,
and a year after death. The wheat cakes used on these
occasions are symbolical of the Resurrection. I once
was present at the second of these services in the town
of Andros ; the proceedings, which were short, began at
the close of the ordinary service ; the dead person's
relatives stood round a sort of wooden platform draped
with black in the centre of the church, on which was
placed the cake, and the rest of the congregation assisted
respectfully at the ceremony. Generally speaking, the
Church is connected with most phases of Greek hfe, at
least externally. At times its thunders are invoked as
aids to justice. Thus, I knew of a case where the Holy
Synod cursed, by request of the owner, a person unknown
who had stolen some corn. At the dedication of public
buildings the clergy are always present ; no state func
tion is complete without an official Te Deum at the
cathedral, and no Greeks thought it in the least curious
that the Metropolitan of Athens should go out in state
to bless the inauguration of a new brewery at Patisia !
Fancy the wrath of our temperance societies if the
80

THE MONASTERY OF ST. STEPHEN, METEORA.

in Town and Country
Archbishop of Canterbury attended a licensed victuallers'
dinner !
The Roman Catholic Church in Greece is mainly
represented by the descendants of those Venetians who
settled in the Cyclades and in the Ionian Islands after
the partition of the Eastern Empire at the time of the
Latin conquest of Constantinople. When we remember
that the Catholic Duchy of Naxos lasted down to 1566,
that the lion-banner of Venice waved over Tenos and
Mykonos down to 17 14, and that the Ionian Islands
remained Venetian till the downfall of the Republic of
St. Mark in 1797, it is no wonder that descendants of
the Latin families, bearing great historic names, are still
to be found in those places. At present there are seven
Roman Catholic sees in Greece. Of these, three are Arch
bishoprics, viz. Athens, Naxos, and Corfii, the Archbishop
of Athens being the head of the Roman Catholic Church
in Greece, as the apostolic delegate of the Pope. The
present Archbishop, Mgr. Delenda, who belongs to an
old Latin family of Santorin, is the fourth personage who
has held this position. Under the diocese of Athens come
Athens itself (with 6000 Roman Catholics), the Piraeus
(with 1500), Patras (with 7000), Lavrion (with 1000),
Volo (with 400), and Nauplia (with 50). The Arch
bishopric of Corfu is estimated by Mgr. Delenda's secre
tary (to whom I owe these official figures*) to contain
5000 Roman Catholics. Besides these, there are the
bishoprics of Syra (with 8000), Tenos (with 6000), and
Santorin (with 400). Andros, to which a priest comes
from Tenos twice a year, has only seven Catholics
altogether. One former and very ancient bishopric,
that of Zante with Kephallenia, containing n 00 Roman
Catholics, now administered by the Archbishop of
Corfu, is at present vacant. These figures make up
the total of the Roman Catholics in Greece to 36,630,
of whom the largest individual community, and also the
* Confirmed independently for the Cyclades by the Bishop of
Syra. 81 G

Greek Life
most curious, is that of Syra, the capital of the Cyclades.
There, Roman Catholics and Orthodox live quite apart
in two separate cities, placed on opposite hills, each of
which is crowned by a rival church — the brand-new
Orthodox Church of the Resurrection, and the older
Roman Catholic Church of St. George, which seems to
look with scorn on its mushroom counterpart. For the
larger Orthodox town of Hermoupolis dates only from
the War of Independence, when fugitives from other
places took refuge there ; while Syra was ' the most
Catholic isle of all the Archipelago' when Tournefort
visited it two centuries ago, at which time it contained
almost as many Roman Cathohcs as now, but only seven
or eight Orthodox families, and only a single Orthodox
priest. At present in Upper Syra all are Roman Catho
lics except fifteen or twenty persons, and at Hermoupolis
all are Orthodox save 400 Roman Cathohcs — so sharp
is the historical and topographical division between the
two towns, which from a distance seem united in one
mass. The annals of the Archipelago during the Turkish
domination were often stained by the quarrels of the two
creeds, whose mutual jealousies had caused the downfall
of the Latin Duchy. But at Syra the relations between
them are good ; the Roman Catholics of the upper town
go down to work in the lower, and intermarriages, though
few, have latterly been increasing. When they occur,
the Roman Catholic is usually the man, and the children
are brought up in his faith.
The Roman Catholic priests are all taken from Greece,
though one here and there — like the Bishop of Syra,
M. Darmanin, who is a Corfiote and a British subject by
birth — may be of Maltese extraction. They generally
study at the Propaganda in Rome, and speak exceUent
Italian — an accomplishment not usual except among
lonians. There are two Roman Catholic schools at
Athens— one for boys; one for girls, under the direc
tion of nuns — and a seminary for priests. Owing to
the greater facilities for learning French, not a few
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in Town and Country
female teachers in Greek public schools come from the
Roman Catholic girls' schools. At Naxos, there is the
Commercial School of the Holy Cross, of which mention
will be made elsewhere. Where, as at Upper Syra, the
children are almost exclusively Roman Catholic, the
public elementary schools for boys and girls alike receive
their religious instruction from a Roman Catholic priest,
who is paid by the Greek Government. Various Roman
Catholic religious bodies have long had representatives
in Greece, and carry on educational work. At Syra
there are seven Jesuits, who give lessons gratis; and
two French schools conducted by nuns — the Sceurs de
St. Joseph and the Sceurs de St. Vincent de Paul — who
take girls and small boys up to the age of ten. These
schools and the Roman Catholic hospital receive a
grant from the French Government, which is the tra
ditional protector of the Eastern Catholics. But the
most important Roman Catholic school in the Levant
is that at Loutri in Tenos, also carried on by nuns.
There are nuns at Corfu and at Santorin, where the
Lazarists have a small school ; there are Jesuits at
Tenos, Capuchins at Kephallenia, and Dominicans at
Santorin. The interests of all these bodies and of the
Roman Catholics of Greece find expression in the fort
nightly Catholic Review, Harmonia, published at Athens.
The Roman Catholic services are in Latin, and even
the Gospel is read in that language. The prayet-books
are, however, in the two languages; but I have seen
Roman Catholics using the curious old prayer-books, in
which the Greek text is printed in Latin characters.
These are called Chiotika, because they originally came
from Chios ; they must be difficult to read, befause the
Greek words are all spelt as pronounced. Roman
Catholic servants at Syra always say their prayers in
their own homes in Latin, even when they do not
understand a word of that language — perhaps for that
reason it seems to them more solemn and awe-inspiring.
The other religious bodies are but slightly represented
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in Greece. There is at Athens a 'Greek Evangelical
Church,' of which M. Kalopothikes is the head, and
there are English churches at Athens and Corfu — the
latter once the Ionian Parliament — and English services
at the Piraeus and Patras for members of the small
British colonies and for casual sailors. The King, who
used at one time to attend the English Church, now has
a Lutheran service in the Palace. The Jews have their
rabbis in the few places where they are at all numerous,
and are at present seeking to build a synagogue at
Athens; while the waning Mussulman population of
Thessaly has its muftis — subsidised, as we saw, by the
Greek Government.

84

in Town and Country

CHAPTER V
FEASTS AND CEREMONIES
Feasts and festivals are an important element in Greek
life, and the customs connected with them usually take
us back to Turkish, and often to classical, times. Prac
tical people sometimes complain that they are a hindrance
to business; but they retain their hold on the people,
and afford a picturesque contrast to the grey monotony
of our humdrum Western existence.
The most important festival for the individual is his
name-day, which takes the place of the birthday with us
— an arrangement which often leads to doubt as to the
age of one's friends. Most Greeks being called after some
patron-saint, their name-day coincides with his festival.
Thus the name-day of every Deme'trios is October 26,
and that of all the Catherines is November 25 ; the
Nicholases keep theirs on December 6, the countless
Spiros (including almost all Corfii) celebrate Decem
ber 12, the Constantines and Helens May 21. As there
are several festivals of the various saints called John, a
member of the innumerable army of ' Yannis,' the familiar
form of Ioahnes, and the commonest of all Greek names,
can choose his name-day from among them ; But that of
St. John the Baptist on January 7 (O.S.) is the most
popular. An Emanuel keeps his name-day at Christmas,
while those numerous Greeks who have pagan names,
such as Leonidas or Xenophon, keep theirs on All
Saints' Day. 85

Greek Life
Owing to the number of saints in the calendar,
scarcely a day passes without one of these celebrations.
In the morning the newspapers will contain lists, long
or short according to the popularity of the saint, of
those who are, and those who are not, keeping their
name-day. Sometimes these announcements are in
serted by the persons concerned, sometimes by their
friends. We are then treated to such gems as these —
' The open-hearted shop-walker, M. Spyros L. Kolovds,
keeps his festival to-day. I pray for him many years. —
E. M.' ' The graceful little angel, Andreas, son of
M. Chardlampos Gaze"s, keeps his festival to-day.' ' The
most excellent youth, Deme'trios Nanikds, hat-maker,
and the most charming little Deme'trios Simigdalds are
keeping their festival to-day. We pray for them many
years. — Ch. G.' ' The printers of the Neon Asty with
their whole souls pray many years for the sympathetic
director of M. Paraskevis Lednes's printing-press, M. N.
Regas.' It is the custom to call upon one's friends upon
their name-days, and to wish them verbally or on a
visiting-card, ' Many years.' Cakes and flowers are
often sent, and on the day before a popular saint's day,
such as St. Deme'trios, the shops are crowded with
attractive offerings of this kind. Public men, such as
the Demarch of Athens, have huge receptions on their
name-days, when their houses are turned into conser
vatories of flowers. Nothing could better show the
unimportance of the birthday as compared with the
name-day than the fact that the Demarch's name-day,
which is the feast of St. Spiridon (his name being Spyros),
is made the occasion for an ovation, while the King's
birthday, which falls on the same day, passes almost
unnoticed. Quite apart from the notices in the papers, it is not so
difficult as it might appear for Greeks to remember the
Christian names of even not very intimate friends. Sur
names, except in the case of a few old families, such as
the Archontes of Athens, scarcely existed before the War
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in Town and Country
of Independence. Accordingly, people were, and still
are, frequently called by their Christian name, or its pet
diminutive, 'Metso' for Deme'trios, 'Yanni' for Io-
annes, and so on. Thousands of Greeks go through
their lives with no other appellation. In one hotel I
knew at least half a dozen Yannis, and the proprietor
was always known to his intimates as ' Kyr Yanni '
(gallice, ' Monsieur Jean.') So common is this particular
name, that one proverb says, ' Cut a piece of wood, and
you'll make a Yanni,' and another depreciatingly relates
how ' Forty-five Yannis are equal to the sense of one cock-
a-doodle.' Even now most Greek surnames are either
patronymics, like Papamichaildpoulos (' the son of
Michael, the priest') and Apostolides ('the son of
Apdstolos '), or indicate trades, such as Petal&s (' black
smith '), Metaxas (' silk-weaver '), or imply some physical
or mental peculiarity, such as Kephal&s (' large head '),
Makroyahnes (' long John '), Delyahnes (' mad John ').
I heard of a man from Tenos, who went to Sumatra, and
was accordingly nicknamed Soumatras, which in due
course became his surname. Owing to this system of
coining surnames, great confusion arises between those
of the same name. Thus after a murder, or any other
sensational case, the papers are flooded with disavowals.
Not long ago, hundreds of persons wrote saying that they
were not the gentleman of the same name who had been
arrested in the gallery of the Bouli for disturbing the
proceedings. Many old Italian and one or two Spanish
surnames, relics of the Frankish domination, still survive,
especially in the Cyclades. Delagrammatica, Gyzes,
Foscolo, and Dekigallas (the Greek form of the Spanish
De Cigalla) are examples. An official lately at the Piraeus
is called Bene-Psaltes (where the first half of the name is
Italian). Sometimes Greek Christian names and sur
names are alike magnificent; a tradesman at Syra is
called Leonidas Palaioldgos, thus combining in his
nomenclature the heroes of both Thermopylae and Byzan
tium. In other places, Palaioldgos, Laskaris, Komnends,
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and even Theoldgos are used as Christian names ; Beli-
sdrios appears as a Christian name in the Peloponnesos,
both Nelson and Hamilton (minus the ' h ') at Syra.
Among the Catholics there may be found such typical
Italian Christian names, sometimes effectually disguised
by their Greek spelling, as Pius, Natales, Larezos, Zdrzes
(Giorgi), Tzouannes (Giovanni), Gkiouzepos (Giuseppe).
Theoldgos has its female counterpart — Theologma, at
Santorin ; and among other curious names for women
I have noticed Arginousa, at Santorin; Episteme, at
Athens ; and Loxe", at Mykonos. Such familiar classical
names as Antigone and Penelope are as common as
Demosthenes or Thrasyboulos. One soon becomes
accustomed to the shock of finding them apphed to per
fectly commonplace persons.
Engagements, like name-days, are often announced in
the papers. A Greek gentleman of my acquaintance
published that of his daughter in this simple form :
' Yesterday evening, in a close family circle, Miss Ange-
like' Pardde and M. G. Rddios, second lieutenant, and
grandson of Generals P. Rddios and Gennaios Koloko-
trdnes, exchanged their pledge.' Sometimes a more
florid style is preferred. Thus : ' Two noble hearts, the
noble and promising youth, M. P. Ch. Kdntos, of Gerald,
in Lakedaimon, and Miss Theodoroula P. Poulika^ou, a
lady of exceptional gifts and complete education, one
of that ancient and great family of Lakedaimon, have
exchanged a ring as their pledge. Their numerous
friends, sprinkling the well-matched couple with the
fragrant white flowers of the almond tree, pray that their
crowning (wedding) may be speedy. Pan. GiannaTcos,
Ath. Sta'ikopoulos.' The father of the bridegroom ex
changes the rings — for the man also wears a wedding-
ring — and delivers a short address on the duties of mar
riage ; refreshments follow, and in the country there is
a dinner, healths are drunk, and the guests clink their
glasses. In Corfu, as soon as a peasant girl is betrothed,
she wears a vast mass of false hair, padded out at the
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in Town and Country
side of her face and braided with strips of red material.
The hair thus used is so worn all through married life,
and goes down from generation to generation. It may
be easy to break off an engagement, or it may be re
garded as a deadly affront. Three years ago, a cause eelebre
arose out of the jilting of a girl of good family by a
member of Parliament. The lady's brothers demanded
satisfaction, and publicly insulted the deputy by twisting
his moustaches in an hotel, and a bravo, who had been
hired to protect the deputy, shadowed and shot one of
them as he was on his way home. Engagements are
usually very short.
A Greek wedding, as it is performed among the middle
and upper classes, scarcely strikes a foreigner as a religious
ceremony at all. Though the Church deplores the
practice of marriages in private houses, it has become
usual, except among the peasants, who are still married
in church. Smart weddings take place at night; one
very fashionable marriage, at which I was present, that
of Miss Aspasia Mavromichale, daughter of the states
man, to M. Ioannes Ralles, son of the ex-Premier, did
not begin till 9.30 p.m. The ceremony was performed
at the house of the bride; a table was set out in the
ball-room to serve as an altar, and the Metropolitan of
Athens, another bishop, and three priests conducted the
long religious service. This always consists of two parts,
the betrothal and the crowning, which used formerly
to be celebrated on different occasions, but are now per
formed on the same evening. Two large candles, about
five feet high, tied with white ribands and orange-blossom,
were first lighted, and held by the bride's brother and a
lady, while the bridegroom in dress-clothes and.the bride
in a white tulle veil and white satin dress stood side by
side at the table, on which lay a copy of the Gospels.
The Metropolitan, taking the two rings, made the sign of
the cross with them on the book, and then touched the
foreheads of the young couple with them thrice each,
saying at the same time the words, ' Ioannes, the servant
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of God, is betrothed ; ' ' Aspasf a, the servant of God, is
betrothed,' and finally putting the rings on their hands.
Then the bride's best friend, herself a married lady and
a cousin of the bridegroom, changed the rings three
times, a function sometimes performed by the best man.
The second part of the ceremony then began. Psalms
and prayers were read, while one of the priests held the
triple candle, which is used in church services, on one side
of the table, and another the double candle on the other
side. Then the Metropolitan took the two crowns, which
are always tied together with white ribands, and placed
them, thus united, on the heads of the bride and bride
groom. This ancient custom signifies the honour due to
the state of matrimony, and it may have been impressive
in the days when Greeks all wore the national dress.
The crowns were then in keeping with the picturesque
costume, as I had an opportunity of seeing that same
evening in a picture of the marriage of M. Mavromichales'
grandfather in the presence of old Petro Bey, who was
too rheumatic to stand, and sat through the ceremony.
But a man in dress-clothes looks ridiculous with a crown
on his head, and the spectacle was all the more absurd
that evening, because the bridegroom's crown was much
too small and had to be banged down over his head to
make it fit. Every one, including the Metropohtan, was
convulsed with laughter at this incident; and, indeed,
the unhappy bridegroom at that moment reminded me of
a bank-holiday excursionist on Hampstead Heath. The
crowns were then changed by Lieut. Mahos, the best
man, and his lady colleague. The Metropolitan there
upon approached the bridal pair with a cup of wine,
which is not consecrated when the marriage takes place
in a private house, and gave them some of its contents
with a spoon three times each, the best man also receiv
ing a spoonful, but only once. There followed a prayer,
that the bridegroom might be magnified like Abraham and
the bride like Sarah, and the ceremony concluded with a
procession round the table, the young couple walking
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in Town and Country
round it thrice, followed by the best man and his assistant,
and being pelted with rose-leaves as they walked. A
reception wound up the evening, at which all Athens was
present : MM. Delyannes and Deligedrges were talking
politics in a corner; M. Rdlles, father of the bridegroom,
was all bonhomie, as usual : there were diplomatists ablaze
with decorations, and hosts of Athenian ladies chattering
in French to each other, as they so often do. But all
these adjuncts of a fashionable salon made the religious
service seem the more out of place, and as most people
talked all the time, while the priests were roaring out the
prayers in stentorian tones, there were no marks of reve
rence. Indeed, disputes sometimes arise between the
guests and the priests, and Athens was not tong ago
scandalised because an ex-Minister of War had had angry
words with an Archbishop, who had requested him to
make less noise. After congratulating the newly married
pair and their parents, each guest received, at the close
of the reception, a small bag of silk or muslin containing
sweets ; if the recipient be unmarried, the words ' at your
own' (wedding) are usually added. At another less
fashionable wedding at which I was present the cere
mony began at four in the afternoon, and after the service
all the relatives of the family kissed each other and the
bride and bridegroom, saying at the same time, ' Long
life to you ! ' Great importance is always attached to
the best man, and the papers, in recording weddings
under their society news, usually add that 'So-and-So
exchanged the crowns.'
Country weddings are naturally more picturesque. In
Euboia, for instance, a peasant girl, before she can be
married, must have three costumes, one for everyday,
one for Sundays, and one for festivals, as well as rugs
and the like. When all has been arranged, the bride
groom goes to fetch her with as many of his friends as
he can muster, and the marriage takes place at his
village. All are mounted on mules; a musician goes in
front playing the bagpipes ; then the bridegroom and his
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friends ; then the bride, who has been taken by apparent
force from her mother, and who may not speak or move.
Her young playmates walk on either side of her mule,
and her father, brothers, and other male relatives follow
on their beasts. Last of all there comes what is more
important than even the bride — her dowry, packed on
mules, with rugs, quilts, bags, scarves, distaff, spindle,
etc., all spread out to make as brave a show as possible.
At a wedding in Euboia the bride wears a bright rose veil
of gauze, otherwise the ceremony is the same as else
where. After the service, the couple are pelted with
comfits as they walk, wearing their crowns and each
carrying a candle. Outside the church the young men
fire a volley, and some one carries their crowns on a
tray in front of them home. On arriving at his house,
the bridegroom enters, and shuts the door. Then the
bride is lifted three or four times across the back of her
mule, which has a perfectly new rug spread over it. The
bride is next led to the closed door, and smears some
honey in a patch about the middle of it. Retiring a
little way, she takes a pomegranate, and aims at the spot
of honey until she breaks the pomegranate against it ; if
some of the seeds do not stick to the door, it is con
sidered unlucky. At last the bridegroom opens, and
offers her bread and salt, which she accepts, and, dipping a
small piece of the bread into the salt, eats it, without, how
ever, crossing the threshold. Even then the preliminaries
are not over; for she must touch water and oil before
she may enter. The bridegroom now lifts her over the
threshold, and places her in a corner with her back to
the wall, while all her goods and chattels are piled round
her. There she remains, without speaking or moving,
all the time that the bridegroom and his friends are
feasting, and so long as there is a guest in the house.
Even then she may not raise her eyes, much less speak,
till the bridegroom gives her leave. In Corfu, where
each village has its own special dress, a ghl who marries
into another village adopts its costume. In Kephallenia
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in Town and Country
the bride's mother-in-law throws rice, when she receives
the bride, on the steps of the house, in order that the
latter may ' strike root there ' — a punning allusion to the
two Greek words for rice and root.
The Church does not permit men to marry before
the age of fourteen, or women before that of twelve.
Peasant girls' fathers begin to look out for a husband for
them when they are about fifteen ; in some parts of the
country eighteen or nineteen is the usual age when women
marry. The chances of matrimony, in town and country
alike, depend upon the amount of the dowry, for, as a
rule, marriage in Greece is simply a matter of bargaining.
The girl's father goes to the father of the man whom he
has selected for his daughter, and offers so much, and
then the two fathers haggle over terms together. Some
time ago a marriage had been arranged in Syra, and the
dot had been fixed at 100,000 dr. The guests had been
invited to the wedding, and all was ready ; but, at the
last moment, when the priests were waiting to begin the
service, the bridegroom insisted on having the money in
cash first. The bride's father offered him an I.O.U. for
the amount which he promised to pay in two days' time ;
but his future son-in-law refused the offer. Then 80,000 dr.
down and the balance in two days were proposed to
him ; but again he declined. So the service had to be
postponed, and the guests kept waiting for two hours,
while the poor father went round raising the balance of
20,000 dr. ! On another occasion, a very beautiful girl was
told to marry an old man, whom she had never seen.
When he arrived, she declared that he was a horror, and
that she could never marry a man with such a head. A
few hours later she was praising the beauty of his teeth
and the charm of his manner, and the same evening she
was betrothed to him. As in this case, it often happens
that a girl does not know her fianc'e at all before she is
engaged to him ; but there have been instances where a
girl has refused to marry a man whom she has barely
seen. I know of one Greek lady, educated in England,
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who insisted on marrying for love, and in conducting her
love affairs in English fashion.
Besides its materialising effect on matrimony, the
dowry system induces young men, who can never hope
for high salaries, as such things rule in Greece, to spend
their time in hunting for a wife with a large dot. Where
there is no father, it becomes the duty of the brothers to
provide it. A Greek servant, who waited on me, had
given his sister a dowry out of his hard-won savings, and
a lad, who wanted his master to take him to England,
stated that he would come back to Greece when his
sister was of marriageable age and find her a husband.
Brothers sometimes become old bachelors, simply because
their sisters do not marry, and it is considered desirable
in the country that girls should marry in order of age.
The ordeal of being married in Greece is sufficiently
trying ; but the sufferings of the two principal performers
do not end with the ceremony. Honeymoons are not
common, except among Europeanised Greeks, and even
then an interval of a few days may elapse between the
wedding and the journey, during which the young couple
go out into society. But in the country there is a much
more strenuous time before the newly married. While
staying in Andros, I was bidden to a portentous wedding
entertainment, given by the bride's father two days after
the wedding, and which began with a dinner at 2 p.m.,
and went on till about two next morning. I declined the
dinner, but turned up for the dance in the evening, at
which both the bride (still in her wedding-dress) and
bridegroom took part, dancing Greek and European
dances for hours. No wonder she looked tired.
Marriages being almost always a pure matter of
business, it is no wonder that divorces are common
among the well-to-do townsfolk, nor that they are easily
obtainable — for a consideration. I heard of a case
where the husband, after seven years of married life,
grew tired of his wife, and obtained by bribery (the usual
method) a dissolution of his marriage on the ground that
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the lady was his second cousin. He then proceeded to
marry his first cousin — a degree of relationship which
comes within the prohibited degrees of the Orthodox
Church. Funerals usually take place the day after death, and
the deceased man's family announces its loss and the
time and place of the obsequies by means of huge, black-
edged notices affixed to the street walls. A Greek
funeral strikes Europeans as uncanny, owing to the usual
(but not invariable) practice of carrying the dead person
with his face uncovered through the streets. The origin
of this is said to be that under the Turks arms were apt
to be smuggled in empty coffins, in which the dead man
was supposed to be confined. But there was a law of
Solon, ordering corpses to be exposed as far as the chest
when they were carried to burial, in order to prevent foul
play. The funeral service is partly at the dead person's
house, where the Trisagion hymn (so called because the
word ' Holy ' occurs three times) is sung, partly in church,
where the corpse is placed with its face to the East, and
partly at the grave, where the Tris&gion is repeated. At
the moment when the funeral procession leaves the
house, a pitcher or other piece of crockery is broken
outside the door. If the dead man be a member of
some institution, such as the Parnassbs, its members
precede the rest of the procession ; then comes the lid
of the coffin, borne upright, and covered with black or
white material and adorned with streamers of black or
white, according to the age of the deceased, white being
used in the case of children and young girls. There
follow the priests, chanting the Tris&gion, and carrying a
cross, eikons/and banners. After them comes trje coffin,
sometimes in a hearse, sometimes carried. A public
functionary, or an officer, will lie in his coffin in full
uniform, his decorations being carried behind on a
cushion ; a private person is laid out in his best clothes.
The boots of the dead are always put on, in token of his
long journey, but they are removed before burial. A
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friend of mine once saw, at a funeral in Euboia, a piece
of money placed in one of the deceased's hands — a
curious survival of the obol to serve as passage-money
across the Styx — and in some villages of Greece a piece
of pottery with four of the letters of Our Lord's name
(IS XP) stamped upon it is similarly used. The
memorial services and the ' Sabbath of Souls ' have been
already described. Mourning, in the shape of a black
hat-band, is worn for a year after the death of a brother
or sister ; after the loss of a husband or wife, the survivor
never leaves off mourning, unless he or she marries again.
In all cases, it is very long and strict, and furnishes a valid
reason for going nowhere.
A baptism lasts about an hour, and may be performed
in church or at home. The priest turns the baby towards
the east, blows thrice on its face to chase away the evil
spirits, seals it with the sign of the cross, and utters four
exorcisms against temptation. The godfather or god
mother, in response to the thrice-repeated question of
the priest, renounces for the child ' the devil and all his
works,' and recites the Creed. The priest then blesses
the water, which is tepid, and blows upon it, pouring in
oil, which he has also blessed. It is the duty of the god
parent to rub the baby with oil all over its body before
handing it to the priest, who then plunges it thrice in the
font, while he thrice recites the baptismal formula. At a
christening at which a friend of mine officiated as god
mother at Topolia, in Boiotia, she was requested both to
blow and spit upon the child three times after it emerged
from the font — a curious survival of an ancient super
stition, which regards spitting as a charm against the evil
eye. The priest next anoints the baby in different parts
of its body, and holds it up to the altar three times if it
be a boy. When the baby has been dressed, its god
parent carries it round the font three times, accompanied
by the priest, and holding a candle in his other hand.
The Epistle and Gospel and a few words addressed to
the child conclude the ceremony, and the bystanders
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congratulate the godparent with cries of ' May it live,'
and repair to eat the inevitable roast lamb at the parents'
house. The peasants of Kephallenia, where there are
many curious customs connected with the birth of chil
dren, believe that their babies become healthy if they
are baptised before the bier of St. Gerdsimos, the patron-
saint of the island, in the monastery of Omala\ Before
it has been christened they call it 'dragon' (drdkos ;
feminine, drdko ; a word used also for beasts, such as the
famous lion of the Piraeus, now in Venice). If several
children have died young, they christen the next boy
Stdthes or Stamates, that he may ' stop ' the run of ill-
luck, or else Polychrdnios (' the rnan of many years ') ;
the corresponding female names are Stathoula, Stamo,
Stamoula, Stamatoula, or Zo6. A Kephallenian poem
says that a sensible man is born on a Tuesday, an exile
on a Thursday, and the local superstition regards a birth
on Christmas Day or Good Friday as of evil omen, but
on Easter Sunday as most fortunate. The custom of
placing an eikdn of Hagios Eleutherios on a woman's bed
is a survival of the supplications to Eileithuia, whose
place as the guardian of childbirth the saint has taken.
The peculiar relationships of a koumpdros (feminine,
koumpard) , for which there is no one English equivalent,
arise out of both the ceremonies of marriage and baptism.
A koumpdros is the name given to the person who
changes the crowns at a wedding, and who usually be
comes the godfather of the married couple's first child.
But the man or woman who acts as sponsor at the bap
tism of a child becomes, ipso facto, koumpdros (or koum-
p&ra) of the child's family and of all its relatives ; not,
however, of the child itself. I have also heard the
peasants address the wife of their koumpdros as koum-
pdra, even though she had married after her husband
had acted in that capacity. The office is, as we saw,
frequently discharged by politicians for electoral pur
poses, but it may at times lead to awkward results. For
instance, the ruffians who committed the Marathon
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murders two years ago happened to have as their koumpdros
the banker and politician M. Skouzes, who has property
there. They accordingly repaired to his house at Athens
as soon as the murder was out. But English residents
in the country generally find it desirable, even though it
involves some expense, to accept the part of koumpdros,
when the peasants in their employ desire it.
The solemn ceremony of adopting a brother, which,
under the name of pobratim, exists in Servia, is now rare
in Greece, where it prevailed in Turkish times, and was
witnessed by Buchon in the early years of Otho's reign.
A case, however, was reported from Thessaly last March
in which the religious union of the parties was sanctioned
by the village priest. If one of the ' brothers ' dies, the
other has the right of being the guardian of his family.
Christmas is a less important festival than either New
Year or Easter. On Christmas Eve boys go about the
streets of Athens with little boats, singing a quaint song,
called the kdlanda, and composed in the ' political '
metre. After wishing the drchontes ' good evening,' the
poem goes on to tell of the birth of Christ, the adora
tion of the Magi, and the Massacre of the Innocents,
and winds up with injunctions to the drchontes to ' take
a little sleep,' and then to ' get up and run to church,'
not forgetting the singers, who wish them ' many years.'
Needless to say, a collection follows the song. In
the Peloponnesos and some other parts of the coun
try the peasants kindle a Yule log on Christmas Eve
(ko&tsouro), which is allowed to smoulder till Twelfth
Night, in order to keep off the evil spirits,* or kalikdntzaroi,
who are walking the earth during those twelve days to
plague good Christians; in some places, however, the
log is only allowed to burn for one night. In some of
* Kampouroglos, the best living authority on Turkish Athens
and its customs, thinks this word means ' sharp-tailed,' and was
applied to the idolaters, who were represented as devils with sharp-
pointed tails, as in the pictures, so common in Greek churches, of
Hagia Marina and the demon.
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in Town and Country
the northern villages of Lacedxmon a plate of figs and
walnuts is placed in the churches as an offering to the
mother of Our Lord on the eve of His birth, and the
custom of preparing a kind of sweetmeat like a pancake
is almost universal in the Peloponnesos that night. Our
plum-puddings are replaced at Athens by the so-called
christopsoma, which are ordinary Greek rolls, with the
addition of walnuts and almonds. Christmas Eve is one
of the ten occasions when the liturgy of St. Basil is used ;
but, except for a few hymns, the Christmas Day services
are the same as on ordinary Sundays. Our Boxing Day
is called ' the assembling of the faithful to praise the
Virgin.' The last day of the old year is a much more festive
occasion. In Athens in the afternoon a sort of tumultuous
carnival takes place in the Hermes Street, which recalls the
Befana at Rome. All the foot-passengers have whistles,
rattles, and similar instruments of musical torture, and
the noise is hideous. At the same time the orphans
from the Hadjikosta Orphanage, each armed with a
whistle, and the band of the Musical Society march
through the street Showers of paper confetti of various
colours fall in all directions, sprinkling ladies' hats with
a purple or crimson rain ; long strings of paper, called
' serpents,' are shot up on to the balconies ; and every
one who meets a friend cries out ' many years' to him.
Later on, ships are carried round for collecting- money,
and in the evening bands of musicians come and play in
the houses and hotels, singing the old song, ' St. Basil is
coming from Cassarea ' — for his festival is on the morrow.
It is said that if people refuse to give them money the
singers retaliate by inserting abusive verses about them
in the song. On the same night, too, takes place the
ceremony of cutting ' St. Basil's cake ' — a large, circular
mass of brioche with almonds and walnuts upon it, which
is solemnly Cut open, shortly before midnight, by the
head of the house. . Sometimes a franc, or even a gold
piece in large houses, is put into the cake, and the person
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receiving the piece which contains the franc is supposed
to be going to have a lucky year. In the country, after
cutting the cake, a fine pomegranate is thrown violently
on the ground, so as to scatter the seeds. It is the
custom to present these cakes to friends and acquaint
ances, and one New Year's Day my wife and I were so
overwhelmed with Basilbpetta that we lived on httle else
for a week.
At dawn of New Year's Day the trumpeters and
drummers of the garrison sound the reveille in the Con
stitution Square, twenty-one guns announce sunrise from
the Hill of the Nymphs, and the military bands march
round the city playing. At ten o'clock there is a Te
Deum in the Metropolitan church, at which the whole
of the Royal family, the Ministers, and the Diplomatic
Corps are present. The fine body of the ivzonoi, in then
picturesque dress, forms the most striking feature of the
Royal procession, which is met in the doorway of the
cathedral by the Metropolitan, who presents to each
member of the Royal family the Gospels to kiss. There
is no enthusiasm displayed by the people on these
occasions, though there is a large crowd round the church
door. After the service, a reception is held at the
Palace at 11.30, when all the civil and ecclesiastical
authorities of every kind, from the Cabinet Ministers and
the Holy Synod to the director and professors of the
Rizdreion, present their congratulations. At twelve o'clock
the officers of the Army and Navy offer their New Year's
wishes to the Royalties, and half an hour later the ladies
go to the baise-main, or cheirophilema, of the Queen. This
is the only occasion in the year on which Queen Olga wears
Greek dress, and some of the ladies also appear to kiss
her hand in gauze skirts and veils, with coins round their
foreheads. Characteristically enough, the bystanders,
outside the Palace, may be heard to express their pre
ference for European toilettes. All day long the Athenians
are busy shaking hands and exchanging wishes for ' many
years,' either verbally or by means of visiting cards;

in Town and Country
and the sun sets, or, as the Greek phrase picturesquely
has it, ' rejoins his kingdom,' amid the roar of twenty-
one guns. New Year's Day is not, however, altogether
a day of rejoicing. For then every one with whom one
has had business dealings expects tips; trays are laid
out for paper notes in the barbers' shops ; the men who
deliver the papers before breakfast leave printed cards
upon one, couched in some such language as follows :
'The distributors of the Asty pray for its subscribers
a fortunate and happy New Year ; ' some newsvendors
even drop into poetry, and distribute a crimson sheet of
verse, containing the time-honoured announcement that
' St. Basil is coming,' and reminding each customer that
they have to toil in all weathers, while he can lie at ease
in bed. Then the emissaries of one's bookseller will re
mind one of their past services; the baker's man will
make application for money; and the lamplighters will
drop a card at the door, with a picture of the implements
of their profession upon it Besides these calls upon
the purse, the shops invite the passer-by to go in and
purchase the New Year's presents, or bonamddes, with
which then windows are crowded. The day after New
Year comes the Court ball, which has already been
described. A very curious ceremony takes place at Epiphany,
or ' The Lights,' as the Greeks call that festival. This is
' The Blessing of the Waters.' The best place to see this
is at Syra, where a lot of shipping is sure to be collected
in the picturesque harbour. On the day beforehand, the
priests go about blessing the houses with holy water and
basil, and the Roman Catholics of the island observe
the same custom before their Epiphany. On the eve of
the festival, the boys of the town parade the streets with
lanterns, singing another of the religious songs appropriate
to these seasons; and next morning, at about eight,
service begins in the big Church of the Transfiguration,
in the middle of which a platform has been erected, and
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Greek Life
baptism of Our Lord. After the liturgy, the officiating
clergy, together with a layman in dress clothes, the so-
called ' servant,' mount the platform, and the Epistle and
Gospel, referring to the event of the day, are read. Then
the archimandrite (or the bishop, if there be one) utters
a prayer, blessing the water contained in a large silver
urn, surmounted by a dove, which is placed upon the
platform. The church, when I saw it, was densely
crowded with all conditions of people, from the local
deputies in top-hats and dress clothes to island boatmen
and old sea-dogs who had made many a voyage. At
the end of the ceremony there was a general rush with
glasses to secure some of the blessed water. A proces
sion was then formed down to the harbour. Soldiers
with fixed bayonets stood on either side of the way, a
band struck up music, and the priests in their rich vest
ments, accompanied by men bearing the cross, the
symbols of the six-winged angels, and silver-plated
lanterns, moved slowly along. In the water an open
space had been left clear, into which numbers of people
dived, as soon as the procession arrived, while all around
the rigging and decks of the gaily flagged ships and the
seats in the barges and boats were crowded with eager
onlookers. Then the archimandrite threw the cross into
the open water, and a struggle ensued for its possession.
The fortunate captor afterwards carried it round the
town, collecting money as he went. He will often get
as much as 400 dr. , so that it is no wonder that men are
eager to compete for the prize. Even veterans, suffering
from weak hearts, will plunge into the water, though no
Greek bathes for pleasure in January. Till the waters
have been blessed, no steamer can sail, and there is a
theory that fine weather follows the benediction. Starting
for one of the other islands immediately afterwards, I
was tied up there for nine days by continuous tempests !
Compared with the ceremony at Syra, that of throwing
the cross into the Athens reservoir is tame.
The carnival at Athens is now mainly reduced to the
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in Town and Country
performances , of men in masks and fancy dresses on
improvised stages in the streets, of tight-rope walkers,
and of boys in dominoes. There is, however, one
survival of the Turkish times (indeed, M. Kampouroglos
sees in it a relic of the Bacchic procession), in the shape
of the camel — a wierd-looking beast — formed by a number
of persons, who are made up, as on the stage, to imitate
a camel. Besides this artificial camel, which stalks about
the streets, there is also a bear, and sometimes real camels,
which are rarely seen in Greece, except on the road
between Itea and Salona. The most curious feature of
the last carnival was the famous maskaras, Grivas, a real
wag, who had invented a telling satire on the proposed new
taxes. He was seen pressing another man, representing
the people, under a wine-press, while from the mouth of
his victim were hanging his last drachmai notes !
Another strolling player recited impromptu poems from
his platform; thus do Thespis and his cart survive in
modern Athens. During the carnival there was the same
battle with paper confetti as on the last day of the year,
and at night bands of masked men in dominoes sang
songs in the streets. They may enter into any house,
provided that one of the party gives his real name and
vouches for the rest, and they often avail themselves of
this liberty. On the last day of carnival — -in Greece a
Sunday — there is great animation in the Constitution
Square, and the demand for carriages is such that one
costs as much as 8 dr. an hour. In the evening there is
usually a masked ball at the Municipal Theatre; last
year, however, the best carnival balls were at Syra and
Zante. On the first day of Lent — ' Clean Monday,' as it is
called, because people are then ' cleansed ' by firayer and
fasting — all Athens sallies forth, some to Kephisia and
other places in the country, others to the hills overlook
ing the temple of Olympian Zeus (as did their ancestors
in Turkish times), and eat their Lenten fare out of doors.
This simple festival is still styled the koulouma; it is
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also colloquially called, ' Cutting the nose of Lent.' In
the afternoon, at the Theseum and at ' the Columns,' as
the Athenians call the temple of Olympian Zeus, there
are country dances, in which the shepherds, the milkmen,
and the 'evzonoi take part. The conjunction of the
shepherds and the milkmen seems to point to this being
a survival of a feast of the pastoral god Pan.
None of these ceremonies possess the importance of
Easter, which is par excellence the great day of the Greek
calendar. Indeed, of late years large parties of Greeks
have gone by special steamer to the Holy Land at that
season to keep their Passover at Jerusalem, and so main
tain the traditional connexion between Athens and the
Holy Sepulchre. At the early morning service of Good
Friday, which begins on Thursday night, the so-called
' Twelve Gospels ' are read, that is to say, twelve passages
from the four Gospels relating to the Passion of Our
Lord, viz. five from St. John, four from St Matthew, two
from St. Mark, and one from St. Luke. On Good Friday,
as at Christmas and Epiphany, the so-called 'Great
Hours ' take the place of the ordinary ' Hours,' which are
usually read at 6, 9, 1 2, and 3 o'clock, and which include
one passage from each of the Gospels at each ' Hour.'
The whole population visits the churches in tum on Good
Friday, and on this occasion the silk or satin cloth called
the Epitdphios, on which is embroidered a representation
of Our Lord in the tomb, is placed on a sort of bier
in the centre of the church and adorned with the floral
offerings of the devout. In the evening the 'Burial
dirge ' is chanted. At about 8 p.m., or rather later, pro
cessions issue from the different churches, preceded by
torch-bearers and a military band, playing a funeral
march, in the pauses of which muffled drums are beaten.
The people, every one carrying a candle, throng the streets
to see the solemn procession pass, lamps are put in the
windows and balconies, and many of the houses are
illuminated with coloured lights. Athens presents a fairy
spectacle. The priests are all in their most gorgeous
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in Town and Country
robes ; one carries a book of the Gospels, reading a
passage at stated intervals, another bears aloft a great
cross ; behind them comes the sacred bier, and ever and
anon there drones through the air the cry of Kfrie El'eison.
As the priests approach, the spectators raise their candles,
and the climax is reached when, almost simultaneously,
all the processions defile into the large square of the
Constitution. I shall never forget seeing this eleven years
ago, on the night of the great earthquake, when panic-fear
increased the solemnity of the moment.
The chief Easter service begins shortly before midnight
on Saturday; the streets are again illuminated, and the
route from the Palace to the cathedral is gay with flags,
for the Royal family always drives down to this function.
A temporary dais is erected in the cathedral square, and,
on this, shortly before midnight, the Royalties, the
Metropolitan, and the chief dignitaries take their stand,
holding lighted candles. On the stroke of midnight there
is a slight pause ; then the Metropolitan cries, ' Christ is
risen,' to which the people respond, ' He is risen indeed.'
Suddenly there is heard the roar of one hundred and one
guns, all the bells ring, and every one rushes off to break
the long Lenten fast. Each household sacrifices a lamb,
according to the biblical injunction, and sprinkles the blood
' on the two side-posts and on the upper door-post of the
house.' Once, when spending Easter at a little country inn
at Olympia, after this observance had been carried out, we
were invited into the stick-house to see the paschal lamb
roasted on a wooden spit over a fire of pine-wood, the
spit being slowly turned by one of the servants. Mean
while, we were provided with a crimson pace-egg and a
roll apiece. On another occasion I saw the soldiers of
the Nauplia garrison roasting their paschal larrrbs in the
streets. Roast lamb — at all times the piece de resistance
in Greece, where there seem to be lambs all the year
round, but no mint sauce — is apt to pall upon one at
Easter-time. Immense numbers of these animals are then
slaughtered, and for days there is nothing else to eat.
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Once, travelling shortly before Easter, I found that the
lateness of the train was due to the innumerable lambs
which it had on board ; and every road into the capital is
then white with snowy fleeces, as the shepherds drive their
flocks to market. Last Easter it was calculated that more
than 80,000 lambs came into Athens. It is at this season
that the capital becomes positively dangerous from the
habit of recklessly discharging fire-arms in token of joy.
Easter is, indeed, best seen in the country, where every
one greets the passer-by with a ' Christ is risen, ' to which
the other replies with the corresponding formula.
There, in the afternoon of Easter Sunday, one may see
rustic dances, such as I witnessed at Droiiva, on the
lovely hill above Olympia. Peasants in fustanellas danced
with clerks in neat serge suits from Pyrgos or Patras,
who were home for the holidays, and one man led the rest
of the performers with a handkerchief in his hand, which
the nearest to him grasped. As they all moved round in
a circle, they sang melancholy and rather monotonous
songs. One of these ditties reminded me of the ' Idylls '
of Theokritos. It was supposed to be a dialogue between
a swain and a country girl. ' I will give you two apples,'
says the young woman ; ' No, I want your body,' sighs the
ardent lover. ' I will give you four apples,' replies the
maiden, to which the youth answers as before. Mean
while, the older villagers, who were seated in a row
watching the performance, treated us, with the usual
hospitality of the Hellene, to retsindto at their expense.
About three o'clock the bells of the litde church began
to ring for ' the Second Resurrection,' as they call this
afternoon service, intended for those who could not attend
the previous night. In towns the portion of the twentieth
chapter of St. John, which is the Gospel appointed
for this service, is read in as many different languages as
the priest can muster. An Enghsh clergyman, formerly resi
dent at Corfu, used to attend at the Greek church on this
occasion and read the English, and, I believe, the French
and German versions, and my Greek prayer-book contains
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in Town and Country
versions in Russian, Albanian, Serb, Arabic, Turkish,
Latin, French, Italian, German, English, and Armenian —
all, however, printed in Greek type. In a village church,
such as that of Drouva, the priest wisely contented him
self with the original Greek of the Evangelist. After
having read the Gospel, he advanced with the book into
the centre of the church, whereupon every man present
approached to kiss it. There followed a general demon
stration of brotherly love, from which this service derives
its second name of agdpe. After kissing the book, the faith
ful worshippers pretended to kiss the priest on both cheeks
and on his forehead, without really touching him, whereas
the kisses which they subsequently bestowed upon each
other were genuine enough, and resounded through the
church. This ceremony concluded, the priest went up into
the gallery, where all the women were collected, and where
the same curious rite of kissing the book was performed,
with somewhat less solemnity than among the male
worshippers on the floor of the church. A general giggle
heralded his approach, but the ladies were not expected
even to make pretence of kissing him ; they contented
themselves with kissing each other.
Every visitor to Athens goes to see the dances at
Megara on Easter Tuesday, when that shadeless, rather
squalid town is full of life and movement, and the
Megarian women, in their finest costumes, perform those
traditional exercises which have been handed down
through so many generations. Sometimes the women
dance by themselves, forming a long line and clasping
each other's hands; sometimes a man will lead their
dance with extraordinary capers, which contrast strangely
with the measured steps of the ladies ; or else the men,
united by handkerchiefs, which they hold in thiir hands,
will go through the steps of a monotonous measure. Not
the least curious part of the Megara dances is the rich
collection of gold Turkish coins — heirlooms handed down
in the local families — which the women wear on their
breasts and foreheads. The musicians at country festivals
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and weddings often receive from the bystanders large
sums of money, such as ioo dr. notes, which they stick
in a fringe under their hats, so that the notes pro
ject. Next morning, however, they have to return the
notes, receiving only a percentage of the full value. The
object is to give the uninitiated an enhanced idea of the
donors' munificence ; it may also serve as a testimonial to
the performers' capabilities, on the same principle that the
salary of an actress is always exaggerated in the English
Press. Independence Day, March 25 (April 7, N.S.), the
anniversary of the unfurling ofthe sacred banner by Arch
bishop German6s of Patras at Kalavryta in 182 1, is a
national celebration all over Greece. In Athens patriotic
addresses are delivered at the Parnassbs literary society
and elsewhere, cannon are fired, the Athenian carriages
are decked with little flags, and the Royal family attends
a Te Deum at the cathedral, as on New Year's Day,
receiving afterwards congratulations at the Palace. A
special commemoration is usually held by the natives
of Kalavryta, who form a considerable colony in the
capital. The National Festival is on the same day as that of
the Annunciation, and the celebration of the latter at
the Evangelistria Church at Tenos is to my mind the
most interesting function in the Levant. Nowhere else
can so many costumes be seen in one place, for Tenos
is the Greek Lourdes, and people come thither not only
from free Greece, but from the Turkish islands, from
autonomous Samos, from the coast of Asia Minor, and
from the seaboard of Macedonia and Thrace, in painted
caiques or in modern steamers, and clad in those local
habiliments which still linger on in the remoter islands.
The women may be seen bedecked with coins which
have been in their families since the lion-banner of St.
Mark ceased to wave over Tenos nearly two centuries
ago, while their petticoats and shoes are of a kind now
unknown in the centres of Greek civilisation. Here and
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in Town and Country
there, in the midst of the dense crowd, one may hear a
few words of English, spoken with an American accent,
from some Tenian in European dress, who has wandered
far afield. It is a great day for the hawkers of beads
and other trinkets, for the itinerant vendor of sweets,
who is so familiar a figure in the Levant, and for the
sellers of that highly coloured pictorial literature so dear
to the Greek populace. Allegorical figures of the late
Queen Victoria and the heads of other friendly Powers
raising Crete from the ground, of the Athenian students
defending the original text of the Gospels with their life-
blood, and the like catch one's eye, as one fights one's
way up the steep street to the shrine, while side-shows of
every kind solicit the coppers of the sight-seers. The
two little inns are crowded to the last mouse-hole, and
old Abraham Foscolo — a descendant of some Venetian
Jew who settled long ago at Tenos — rakes in the shekels
at the ' Beautiful Greece.' The courtyard of the cathe
dral and the marble steps, flanked by two weird Venetian
lions, are crammed, even on the vigil of the festival, with
the faithful, who have come to seek miraculous cures
from the Virgin, just as, of old, the sick repaired to the
shrine of Asklepios at Epidauros.
Inside the church, priests, at fixed intervals, hold up
crosses to be kissed and platters for contributions, while
others write down the names of those who wish to take
part in this or that ceremony. Down in the crypt below,
in an atmosphere that might be cut with a knife, lie
huddled in rags or rough frieze coats aged and decrepit
persons who are bent on sleeping the night there, just as
the patient in the ' Plutus ' of Aristophanes passed it in
the shrine of the god. Hard by, a miraculous fountain is
besieged by the devout, who know that there the famous
image ofthe Virgin was found in 1821, and seek health
from its healing waters. I have heard it said by educated
persons that for certain nervous complaints the visit to
Tenos is efficacious ; to believe, in fact, is to be cured.
At any rate, as in classic days at Epidauros, a cure is
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effected now and then, and no one hears of those who
go away unrelieved. At night the httle town presents a
strange spectacle. Along the main street, as well as in
and round the church, and even in the trees, the pilgrims
sleep, wrapped up in their cloaks ; the front of the church
is a blaze of light, and the ships are illuminated. Next
day comes the procession through the town, and then it
only remains to count the takings. When I witnessed
the festival, the visitors were estimated at 60,000, and
there is a second pilgrimage on August 15 (O.S.). Two
years ago the revenues of the church were 98,000 dr. and
its expenditure 93,000 dr. When we consider how much
money the pilgrims must spend in the little town, we
cannot wonder at the regret, expressed to me by a native
of adjacent Andros, that the faithful no longer come to
worship in the ruined old church at Palaiopolis in that
island, whither, before the days of the Evangelistria at
Tenos, they were wont to journey.
St. George's Day (April 23, O.S.), which is also the
name-day of the King, is celebrated all over the Hellenic
wofld with the usual services, salutes, and discharge of rifles.
On May 1 (O.S.) all Athens goes forth into the country, as
the Athenians did in Turkish times, and pass the day out-
of-doors. It is then that the garlands are hung outside
the houses ; they may be taken down, and burned, on
June 23 (OS.), the eve of St. John the Baptist's birthday,
when boys still keep up the old pagan custom, condemned
by the Church as far back as the year 692, of leaping on
bonfires, as a means of purification. But more usually
the garlands remain hanging on the houses for a whole
year, and may be still seen even in winter, when they
are a mass of withered leaves.
Ascension Day is another pleasant outdoor festival,
which may be best seen at Corfu. Outside the town, in
the direction of Cannone, there is a delightful meadow,
called Andlepsis after the festival, at the foot of the little
church of Hagia Marina. There, at ten o'clock on the vigil
of Ascension, the people may be seen eating and drinking
no

in Town and Country
at improvised booths, while a few musicians discourse
the British and other national airs till long past midnight.
Next afternoon the festival is resumed. Beneath the
olive trees, there are boys roasting lambs in rows on spits
of wood, and a roaring trade is done in ginger-beer — a
Corfiote speciality and a legacy of the British protectorate
— and in coloured pastry baked in the shape of weird
figures of men on horseback and women with gigantic
ruffles. Here one sees the Greek pan'egyris at its best,
and in the fairest setting. The blue sea is covered with
the white sails and awnings of the pleasure-boats ; beyond
the channel are the bare mountains of Southern Epiros ;
and in the distance the still unmelted snows of the
Albanian Alps. All over the greensward are groups of
peasants — the women gorgeously dressed in boleros of
red, or black, and gold, with lace veils. One has a red
fez with a long golden tassel hanging from it; another
wears a row of huge silver balls on the front of her jacket,
a pair of enormous gold ear-rings, and a veil of orange
hue. A priest and his wife, peasants both, arrive from
the country, while a few ivzonoi, in their summer costume,
enliven the scene. Everywhere order prevails ; no riot
ing, no drunkenness mars the peaceful rustic festival,
which has survived through all the four centuries of
Venetian rule, and, though of late years unpatronised by
the beau monde of Corfii, lives on with all the tenacity of
Hellenic institutions.

in

Greek Life

CHAPTER VI
WHAT THE GREEKS READ
The answer to the question, 'What do the Greeks
read ? ' must be, ' First and foremost, the newspapers.'
There is no other country where the Press plays such an
important part in the life of the people, whose avidity for
printed matter in the form of the daily journals shows
that the tastes of the Hellenes have not altered since the
days when the author of the Acts of the Apostles
described the craving of the Athenians ' to hear some new
thing.' Since, eighty years ago, Byron's ' typographical
colonel,' Leicester Stanhope, started the first Greek
newspaper at Mesolonghi, journalism has, indeed, gone
far in Greece. Every day modern Athens produces
thirteen newspapers, ten in the morning and three in the
afternoon ; and I once knew the daily total reach fifteen,
or little less than the number of morning and evening
journals which Fleet Street provides for a capital many
times larger than that of Greece. But, whereas in London
the average man reads one, or at most two, papers a day,
the Athenian devours every journal which comes to his
hand. No article in any organ of the Athenian Press
seems to escape his notice, and, on one occasion, having
been requested to write an account of travel in Greece
for a leading Greek daily, I was surprised to find that,
wherever I subsequently went, allusion was at once made
to the article, and every one at once informed me where
I had been and what my views were on the state of the

in Town and Country
country. With the improvement of the means of com
munication, the papers of the capital penetrate all over
the provinces ; and, outside of Athens, only two towns,
Volo and Patras, possess the luxury of a daily local Press.
Even Syra and Corfii, though, like most Greek provincial
centres, they have papers of their own, are content to
forego a daily issue, relying upon the steamers to bring
them the latest newspapers from Athens. In the case of
Corfii this is all the more remarkable, because for three
consecutive days in every week there is no communication
with Patras. Except, therefore, for purely local news,
Greece is mainly dependent upon the Athenian Press for
its information and its opinions.
Unlike our London newspapers in these days of the
'new' journalism, the Greek journals are primarily
political, for the excellent reason that politics are the
almost all-engrossing interest of their readers. Some
months ago, a leading Athenian daily plaintively re
marked : ' If we were to publish articles on the commerce
of the country, the development of its resources, the
planting of its bare mountains, and the improvement of
its material condition, we should sell about fifty copies ;
but if we give the latest rumours of an impending political
crisis, the probabilities of a dissolution, or the chances of
a compact between two party leaders, our circulation
goes up by leaps and bounds.' Moreover, Greek politics
being a question of persons rather than principles, the
political articles of the Greek Press are mainly con
cerned with party manoeuvres, with the growing discontent
of this or that disappointed deputy, and with the meetings
of the faithful followers at the house of this or that party
chief. But, intensely political as it is, the Greek Press is
hardly ever abusive in the tone which it adopts "to mem
bers of the opposite side, and the private life of prominent
statesmen is never dragged into the arena of journalistic
discussion. Indeed, of all the Athenian papers, two only
are avowedly subsidised party organs, whose business it
is to praise, right or wrong, the policy of their respective
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leaders, and to blame, but always without personal vitu
peration, that of their respective opponents. These two
journals are the Proia, which is the official organ of M.
Delyannes, and the recently founded Hemeresia, which
represents the views of M. Theotdkes. The other news
papers are apt to change sides with rapidity; and a
journalist who praises a statesman to-day may censure
him to-morrow. But, whether praised or censured, the
Greek politicians are certain of constant daily advertise
ment, and no morning passes without their names being
brought before the notice of the public.
Next to Greek internal politics, foreign poUtics form
the chief staple of the Press. When the war broke out
between Russia and Japan, the excitement in Athens was
so intense that most of -the papers brought out 'extra
specials,' in the shape of small fly-sheets, containing the
latest lie about the Japanese victories, and the Constitu
tion Square used to ring every evening at seven o'clock
with the shouts of the newsboys offering these startling
' telegrams ' for the modest sum of five leptd, or less than
a halfpenny apiece. The word ' telegram ' must usuaUy
be placed between inverted commas when employed in
reference to the foreign news of the Greek Press. With
its slender resources, no Athenian paper can afford the
expensive luxury of foreign, much less war, correspon
dents, authorised to send long telegraphic messages at so
much a word. But, as the European papers reach Corfu
more than thirty hours before they arrive in Athens, it is
the custom to have a correspondent there, who at once
telegraphs all the important foreign news to the offices of
the papers in the capital. DaUy telegrams are also
received by 'The National Agency,' a telegraphic
association corresponding to Reuter in England, but
subsidised by the Government and usually entrusted to
the hands of a Government supporter. At present it is
under the management of M. Parrdn, husband of the
leading lady novelist of Greece. When, however, on
Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, the European mail
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in Town and Country

arrives at Athens, the foreign, and particularly the
English, newspapers are gutted for news, and on the
following morning all the Athenian journals publish long
accounts of the politics and events of the outside world.
Keenly interested in, and well, if somewhat superficially,
informed about European affairs, the Greeks sometimes
amaze one by the familiarity which they display with
British politics and political personages. Nor is this
familiarity confined to those who are well-to-do or
specially well educated. Happening once at an hotel
at Nauplia to see in the visitors' book the name of the
son of the then British Colonial Secretary, I remarked on
the fact to an attendant. The latter at once took up
the subject with profound knowledge, not only stating
exactly what office his late visitor then held in the British
Government, but giving, with dates, a brief sketch of the
changes of British Administrations since the general elec
tion of 1892. How many 'educated' Englishmen, I
wonder, could give a coherent account of, say, French
politics since the fall of Jules Ferry? Yet this was by
no means an isolated instance. A casual acquaintance
on a steamer, a Greek of the shopkeeping order, once
discoursed to me on the career of the Duke of Devon
shire from the time when, as Lord Harrington, he was
chosen to lead the Liberal party, and told me that his
favourite reading was the speeches of Sir William
Harcourt ! But, in writing and talking about European
and especially. British politics, Greek newspapers and
their readers are apt, from their intensely national feel
ings, to imagine that the furtherance of Hellenic interests
is, or at any rate should be, one of the principal aims of
the Great Powers. ' We are glad,' wrote a leading
Athenian editor at the close of the Boer War, 'that the
struggle in South Africa is over, because now England
will be able to do something to assist Hellenism in the
Near East' So our public men are usually classified
according as they are reputed to be Philhellenes or
not, and the smallest sympathy with Greek aspirations
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Greek Life
displayed by a prominent British politician is eagerly
chronicled by the Athenian Press. On the other hand,
the friends of Bulgaria in England are ruthlessly pilloried
as ' Slavomaniacs ' or ' philo-Bulgars,' than which there
is only one more abusive term in the political vocabulary
of Greece, that of ' old Bulgarian.'
Speaking from an acquaintance with the Press of the
principal European countries, I think that the Greek
newspapers are among the most wholesome and the least
scandalmongering. With the exception of two small
illustrated ' rags,' modelled on the pornographic prints
of Paris, which aroused much indignation in Athens, the
Greek Press is extraordinarily free from immoral and
suggestive matter, nor is it given to chronicle the small-
beer of the palace, after the fashion of certain journals
nearer home. There is usually a small section devoted
to ' Athens day by day,' in which the arrival and departure
of eminent strangers, the audiences of Ministers with the
King, and similar events are briefly narrated. The leading
articles are often extremely cleverly written, showing a
wide range of reading and a command of the plastic
Greek language which cannot fail to dehght all save
those European pedants who can see no graces in any
Greek but that of the ancients. All Greeks — and, after
all, they are better judges of their own language than
German professors — will tell one that the style of the
Press has grown purer and purer every year. Nor is this
the case with the political articles alone. Some of the
light dialogues on social topics, such as those of
M. Episkopdpoulos in the Neon Asty, are quite master
pieces in their way, showing what can be done with the
flexible Greek language in the hands of a clever writer.
Another feature of most Athenian papers, which reflects
credit on the sub-editor, is the column of curious facts
and anecdotes culled from the world's Press, and narrated
in the most condensed form — ' news in a nutshell,' as the
Greeks alliteratively call it.
Each of the Athenian papers has its peculiar charac-
n6

in Town and Country
teristics. The Asty is a highly respectable organ, Con
servative in tone, and is taken in at the palace. Its
London correspondence is exceptionally well informed,
and its editor, M. Anninos, is a caricaturist of the first
order. His coUeetion of comic portraits of the diplo
matists, who have been at one time or another familiar
figures in the Athenian world, is absolutely unique.
While M. Anninos represents the old journalism, M.
Kaklamahos, editor of the N'eon Asty, is on the side of
the new. His paper, which sprang into existence three
years ago, in consequence of a schism at the office of the
old Asty, is brightly written, and on all public questions
may be trusted to take the opposite view to that of the
journal from which it has separated itself. The oldest
Athenian daily is the Times (Kairoi), a paper now in its
thirty-third year, somewhat smaller in shape than the two
journals just mentioned. Corresponding to our Daily
Mail and Daily Express in regard to matter, style, and
tone are the Skrip and the Forwards (Emprbs), which are
merely rawypapers, and are not addicted to articles. Like
the twin pioneers of halfpenny journalism in London, these
two Athenian papers were the first to introduce the journal
at 5 leptd to Greece, with results that have been financially
disastrous to the whole Greek Press. Even previous to
that innovation, Greek journalism had to contend against
the high price of paper, caused by the heavy duty which
the late M. Trikoupes had imposed, and which has been
only slightly diminished since his time. Advertisements
are relatively few, and all subscribers expect that theirs
should be inserted gratis, so that, though the Greek
papers usually consist of only four, or at most six pages,
there was little profit on the sales. The circulation,
too, is small, for the largest of any Greek paper is only
15,000 a day. Occasionally a prominent deputy, who
has been briefly reported, will pay for a verbatim account
of his speech, which sometimes appears several days after
its delivery, but is presumably intended for local consump
tion in his own constituency. There have been instances
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Greek Life
of sinister profits on the part of the less scrupulous of
editors, such as the blackmailing of big Corporations at a
critical moment in their career. But there are black-
sheep among the journalists of all countries, and London
certainly cannot afford to throw stones at Athens. Such
was the state of affairs when halfpenny journalism was
launched at Athens, and the experiment made by the
Skrip and the Emprbs forced several of then competitors
to reduce their price to the same level. The result was
so disastrous that there has recently been a return in the
case of some leading journals to their original price, and
the N'eon Asty and the Akrbpolis have reverted to 10
leptd, which the old Asty had never abandoned. Yet
even so, it is hard to see where the profit can come
in; for the sale and distribution of Greek newspapers
is the monopoly of one man, M. Zangdres, the W. H.
Smith of Hellenic journalism, who, from being a simple
lotistros, has risen to be the proprietor of a newspaper
agency which practically controls the sale ofthe Press. So
powerful has he become that, when one very independent
editor declined to bow to his terms, he so successfuUy
boycotted the sale of that editor's paper in certain out
lying parts of Greece, that in the island of KephaUenia it
was impossible to purchase a single copy. In this
ex-bootblack, whom I have interviewed with admiration,
Greece has a great organiser whose talents are worth
many speeches. He told me that he had even gone to
Paris to study newspaper distribution; but his mouth
watered when I described to him the bookstall monopoly
of Messrs. W. H. Smith & Co. On every copy of a
paper sold in the streets the lo&stroi get i£ leptd for each
5 leptd journal and 2£ leptd for each 10 leptd journal, so
that the margin of profit to the proprietor seems infini
tesimal. At least, however, newspaper offices are
inexpensive, telegrams cost practically nothing, journalists
are remunerated even worse than in London, and the
management, where there are so few advertisements,
cannot be onerous. 118

in Town and Country
While the Skrip and the Emprbs are chiefly read for their
news, the Akrbpolis is one of the few Greek newspapers
which cultivates a taste for general, non-political articles.
M. Gabrilides, its editor, constantly throws open its
columns to the discussion of economic or social subjects,
such as Greek enterprise in Egypt, and prison or army
reform; and his frankness on the last-named subject
before the war gave the glaziers a considerable amount
of employment on his office windows. He was recently
arrested for criticising the Monarch in the interests
of the Monarchy. His journal, which is written in
a less pure Greek than the Asty and the Kairoi, has
served in its long career of twenty-five years as a
school for most Athenian journalists, who have thence
migrated to found more or less ephemeral papers
6f their own. Besides the morning papers already
mentioned, there are two others, the Athens and the
Chrbnos, both of which are, usuaUy illustrated. Indeed,
most of the Athenian journals publish illustrations and
maps from time to time, both being not unfrequently
borrowed from the London Press. Of the three evening
papers, the best is the Hearth (Hestia), which, after having
been a literary periodical, became a daily eleven years
ago. Its rivals are the Flash of Lightning (AftrapS), the
only Athenian paper which was strongly anti-Russian at
the outbreak of the present war, and the Evening
(Hesperini), a stalwart partisan of M. Delyannes and
his party.
It is sometimes said that the best Greek newspaper is
not published at Athens at all, but at Trieste, whence
issues the New Day (N'ea Hem'erd), a journal graver, more
ponderous, and less influericed by local considerations than
its Athenian confreres. This organ of Hellenism has num
bered many distinguished writers among its contributors,
but another newspaper has now arisen to cater for the
special wants of those Greeks who live outside Greece
proper. This is the Krdtos, a journal published at
Athens twice a week, and edited by an officer's son, for
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Greek Life
which reason it is largely read in military circles. It is
the only Greek newspaper belonging to shareholders, it
is strongly supported by the Greeks of ' enslaved Greece,'
is devoid of party bias, looks at Greek politics with an
air of detachment, and attacks all the political leaders
in the interests of patriotism. Eminent professors, such
as Professor Karolfdes, contribute to its columns, and it
is a very serious exponent of Pan-hellenism.
But the most remarkable of all Greek journals is the
weekly comic paper Romebs, an absolutely unique product,
which has no rivals either in Greece or elsewhere.
Romebs is entirely the work of one man, M. Sour£s, who
writes the whole of it in verse from the date at the top of
the first page to the one or two advertisements at the foot
of the fourth. Its contents are always in the form of a
dialogue between two Athenian lay-figures, like our Punch
and Judy, called respectively PhasoulSs and Perikletos,
who discourse with inimitable cleverness on the events of
the week. M. Soures is never known to miss a point,
and nothing occurs, whether in Parliament, in society, or
at the theatre, upon which his two puppets have not a
word to say. And they say it in the strangest mixture of
tongues — Homeric or ^Eschylean phrases, cheek-by-jowl
with the slang of modern Athens, Turkish and Italian
words elbowing elegant modern Greek ; in short, a com
bination which makes Romebs the most difficult of all
papers for a foreigner to understand. The metre is
usually the favourite ' political ' jog-trot of so much
mediaeval and modern Greek poetry, of which we have
specimens in English, occasionally varied by lyrics. For
' 20 years,' as he informs his readers, M. SourSs has ' sat
in the land of the Parthenon,' yet his wit is never stale,
nor are his lines ever insipid. Making fun of aU the
politicians alike, he never wounds, and bitterness is
unknown to his pen. Perikletos and PhasoulSs have
nicknames for them all. M. Delyannes is ' the grand
father,' or ' the carrier of boards,' in allusion to the
wooden arguments applied by his supporters to the heads

in Town and Country
of their opponents at the last election. M. Theotdkes is
' the Count ' (in Corfu there are still surviving the old
Venetian titles), or ' the Corfiote.' M. Zafmes is ' the
fisherman,' because of his favourite sport ; ' the mute,'
because he seldom speaks, or ' the man with the mous
tache,' a phrase which explains itself. M. Rdlles figures
in Romebs as ' the Republican of the yellow hair,' and his
soft hat is prominent in the rough caricatures, one of
which is always a feature of the paper. It is read at the
Palace, yet it has not forgone an occasional laugh at the
Royal family, at the too frequent visits of the Queen to
the Russian men-of-war, and at the unfortunate general
ship of the Crown Prince in Thessaly. More recently the
exploits of Miss Duncan, the American lady who tried by
her example to convert the Athenians to ancient Greek
dress, and the war in the Far East have furnished
M. Soure"s with fresh subjects for his satirical verse. The
Aristophanes of modern Athens, he set himself one
summer the vacation task (for at that season he suspends
the publication of his paper) of translating the master's
Lysistrata into the Greek of to-day. Every Saturday
morning about ten o'clock the streets ring with the cries
of ' The Romebs of Soures,' and in the evening men
meet together to read aloud the current number and
expound the allusions.
In addition to the daily Press, Athens also produces a
number of weekly journals. Of these the most curious is
the little sheet called Pdtria, the object of which is to
stimulate patriotism and religion. Founded three years
ago, this small paper is published every Saturday, and
20,000 copies of it are distributed gratis. It is recom
mended by the Ministries of War and Marine to all the
naval and military authorities, and contains lives of
national heroes and scriptural passages. This strange
experiment has, however, already resulted in a deficit of
nearly 8000 dr. ; but the Government has promised to
assist the good work. The Contest is a weekly paper,
dealing with national and Pan-hellenic questions. The
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Reformation is a family and religious journal. Various
localities, such as the Cyclades and Epiros, whose inhabi
tants form considerable colonies at Athens, have weekly
organs : The Voice of the Cyclades and of Athens, and
The Voice of Epiros; and there are two weekly
reviews, interested in economic questions, Economic
Greece, a first-class paper, on the lines of our Economist,
and The Economic Chronicle. Themis is the weekly
organ of the legal profession, and Syra publishes a
medical journal. Several weekly papers appear either
wholly or partially in French. Of these the oldest is
Le Messager dAthenes, now in its thirtieth year, the
editor of which, M. Stephanopoli, writes of Greek
affairs from an international standpoint. Le Progres and
Le Courrier d' Orient are Franco-Greek papers; and
Le Bulletin d' Orient is a broad-sheet whose editor,
M. Andreades, publishes no articles, but only news.
The Edification of Children is, as its name denotes, a
children's paper; while female journalism is represented
by The Ladies' Newspaper, which is edited by the
novelist Madame Parreh, and is written by women for
women. The Navy has a bi-monthly organ, called
Nautical Greece, and the Society for the Protection of
Animals is also represented once a month by a small
paper of its own.
Greece has at least one fortnightly illustrated Uterary
review, the Panathenaia, which reflects great credit on
its producers. The illustrations are exceUent, the literary
matter is of high quality and well chosen, and the
paper on which it is printed is much superior to that
usually employed by Greek publishers. The Attic Iris
is a somewhat similar publication, and other Uterary,
artistic, and scientific reviews are the Propylaa and The
Orient, which appear once a month. Among the
learned publications, the Journal of the Historical and
Ethnological Society deserves special notice. This
valuable periodical, if such it can be called, for it is
published at irregular intervals, is a perfect mine of
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in Town and Country
information about the folk-lore, customs, and character
istics of mediaeval and modern Greeks. Up to the
present, five volumes and part of a sixth have been
issued by the Society.
As may be inferred from what has been said about
the finances of the Greek Press, the career of a journalist
in Greece is even less enviable, from the material stand
point, than elsewhere. There are many bright wits and
at least one genius at work on the Hellenic papers, but
their rewards are small, and their labours herculean.
For, except in the case of the newspapers at Patras,
which have come to an agreement on the subject of
Sunday rest, the staffs of the Greek dailies know no re
pose, save for four days in the year — the day after
Christmas, January 2 (O.S.), the first day of the Greek
Lent, and Easter Monday. Thus there are no Saturday
nights off duty, and under such circumstances existence
becomes hard for all, and well-nigh intolerable for married
men. No wonder that a leading editor has recently
urged the abolition of Sunday editions. But combina
tion is nowhere so difficult as in Greece, where cut-throat
competition is the order of the day in journalism, as in
everything else ; nor, in a country where all salaries are
low, and where there is a boundless supply of young men
who have had a literary education, and who are briefless
barristers with quick wits and nimble pens, can the ordi
nary journalist hope for riches. Most of them — so a
journalist of many years' experience tells me — have heavy
debts, while in Greece, as in London, the writer for the
Press seems to be more and more chosen because of his
youth. Recently, an elderly Greek journalist was seen
blacking boots in the Concord Square.
In most countries, after the Press, the favoiirite read
ing of the people is usually fiction. But in Greece this
is by no means the case. True, the newspapers usually
publish daily feuilletons, translations, for the most, part, of
English and French novels, such as the works of Hall
Caine, Marie Corelli, and Jules Verne, and these find
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Greek Life
many readers. But, except the newspapers, nothing is
so eagerly read as history. On this point publishers and
men of letters are alike agreed, and it is, indeed, obvious
to all who have observed the Greeks selecting books.
But no more striking proof of this national love of
history, and especially Greek history, can be found than
that of a leading Athenian publisher, with whom I once
discussed the subject. Paparregdpoulos' great ' History
of the Greek Nation,' a huge work in five volumes, which
traces the varying fortunes of Hellenism from prehistoric
times to the establishment of the Greek kingdom, is now
in its fourth edition, and, since 1885, at a low estimate,
between 13,000 and 16,000 copies of it have been sold,
while it has lately been issued in parts to subscribers.
Professor Lampros' as yet unfinished Greek history went
out of print at once, and the same learned author sold
1 500 copies Of his ' Lbgia.' The translations of Macaulay
and Curtius, in the ' Marasld Library ' (a series of original
works and translations, published at the expense of
M. Marasles, a rich and patriotic Greek — the terms are
almost synonymous — of Odessa), were sold out at once.
M. Phexes, of ./Eolus Street, who is perhaps the most
wideawake of Greek publishers, and who is a very
shrewd judge of what the public wants, has accordingly
given up novels and gone in for history and science.
Journalism tells the same tale, for there is no depart
ment of it so well paid as the historical articles and the
memoirs of historical personages and statesmen which
frequently appear in the Press.
The same thing may be observed in the lecture-
rooms, whether of the University or of the Parnassbs
literary society. Crowds of ladies and gentlemen wUl
go to hear the eloquent Professor Lampros deliver a
series of popular addresses on the mediaeval relations
of Athens and Florence, while in the class-room of the
learned Professor Karolfdes grown-up men may be seen,
no less than students of the faculty, eagerly listening to
the philosophy of world-history. Rich and poor are
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in Town and Country
alike anxious for historical information. During an ill
ness in Athens, my Greek servant offered to lend me a
book, which he had purchased out of his wages, and, on
my thankful acceptance of his offer, brought me a long
history of the Cretan insurrections. One day, spying an
old Greek, who was a relative of my landlord, poring
over and making elaborate notes from a bulky tome, I
inquired what he was studying, and was told that it was
a history of the Orthodox Church in Byzantine times.
On another occasion I found that a small boy, whose
business it was to run errands, had expended a portion
of his exiguous earnings on a historical tragedy, in five
acts, on The Sortie from Mesolonghi, which he at once
lent me to read, and upon the merits of which he was
most desirous of hearing my opinion.
Under circumstances so favourable to the publication
of historical works, it is no wonder if Greece can boast
of modern historians of distinction, who deserve to be
better known in Europe. It has been my pleasant lot
to read most of their works, and they usually combine
great learning with an agreeable and easy style. No one
has yet surpassed in this — with us — too rare combination
the late M. Paparregdpoulos, a self-taught man, whose
monumental ' History of the Greek Nation,' now further
elucidated by the notes of its latest editor, Professor
Karolfdes, is a masterpiece of which any nation might
be proud. In the romantic field of Greek mediaeval
history, Professor Lampros has made valuable researches ;
while M. Sathas, besides publishing, at the expense of
the legislature, a ' Mediaeval Library,' and nine volumes
of 'Memorials of Greek History,' illustrative of the
Venetian rule in Greece, culled from the Venetian
archives, has told the story of ' Turkish* Rule in
Hellas.' The previously almost unknown subject of
Athens under the Turks has been copiously illustrated
by M. Deme'trios Kampodroglos in three volumes of
documents, and in three more of a ' History of the
Athenians,' from the Turkish conquest down to the
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Greek Life
campaign of Morosini. This work is a perfect mine of
information on all that concerns, not only the pubUc
events of the time, but the daily lives, the customs, the
songs, the religion, and the dress of the Athenians during
the first period Of Turkish rule. The whole Turkish era
at Athens has been exhaustively and pleasantly described
by M. Philadelpheus in a recent book, which represents
the labour of half a lifetime. M. Bikelas, the eminent
novelist, is also known to English readers by his
' Seven Essays on Christian Greece,' in the translation
of the late Marquess of Bute. Corfu has produced
three historical scholars in the persons of the late M.
Romands, who wrote on Frankish rule in Greece, and
on the Greek Despotat of Epiros ; M. Idromehos,
author of a life of Capodistrias, and a brief history of
his native island ; and M. Brokings, who has written of
that eccentric Philhellene, Lord Guilford. The story
of the modern Greek kingdom has been usefully narrated
by M. Kyriakides in his ' History of Contemporary
Hellenism,' which takes the narrative down to 1892 ;
while M. Evangelfdes has described ' The Events after
the Fall of Otho,' as well as that unfortunate monarch's
reign. But, for various reasons, the least studied, one
might say most avoided, page of modem Greek history
is that devoted to the first king of free Greece. There,
as elsewhere, the saying of Guizot holds true, that ' the
history of the day before yesterday is the least known.'
Halfway between history and geography come the
admirable, but now unfortunately discontinued, mono
graphs of M. Meliarakes, the secretary of the Historical
and Ethnological Society, on the past and present of
different parts of Greece, such as Kephallenia and Ithaka,
Corinth and Argolis, and several of the Cyclades. M.
Meliarakes has also published a work of much research
on the ' History of the Empire of Nice and the Despotat
of Epiros' — the two Hellenic creations which arose on
the Latin conquest of Constantinople, and served to keep
Greek influence alive. Something is now being done
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in Town and Country
towards the publication of the memoirs of distinguished
Greek families, such as the Roma family of Zante, and
most of the "chief places in Greece have each their local
history. Among other works of information, the Al
manacks — publications somewhat on the lines of Whitaker
and Hac?tette — are also largely read. Special success has
attended the admirable series of little manuals published
by the 'Society for the Spread of Useful Books,' of
which M. Bikeias is the president. Founded in 1899,
under the auspices of Princess Sophia, this Society aims
at the diffusion of elementary but useful and practical
knowledge, and strives to awakeri the love of reading.
Every month it issues a fresh volume, the price of which
is so small — only 40 leptd — as to be within the means of
the poorest. Five dozen of these admirable little books
had been published down to the end of last year, and in
the first five years of its work the Society disposed of
560,000 copies of its books. The most successful of
them all has been ' Our Church ' — an admirably succinct
yet accurate account of the meaning and origin of all the
sacred vessels, services, feasts, and fasts of the Orthodox
. Church, to which I personally owe a debt of gratitude.
Of this tiny volume 25,000 copies have been sold. Some
idea of the scope of these booklets may be gathered from
such titles as ' The Life of Queen Victoria,' ' The Little
Plutarch,' ' Russia/ and ' Egypt' One volume of the
series — ' The Duties of a Citizen ' — has been ordered by
the Ministry; of Education to be read in schools, and
volumes have been bought for the Navy by the Minister
of Marine, and for the Army by the Minister of War.
Cheap as they are, they are usually illustrated, and the
composition is not entrusted to literary hacks, but is
undertaken by the leading Greek men of lettess. M.
Bikeias, Professor Karolides, M. Meliarakes, M. Ch. Anni
nos, the dramatist, and M. Drosmes, the novelist, who is
secretary of the Society, have all contributed to this series.
One volume, on the forests of Greece, is by M. Samios,
the head of the Forest Department. There are agents
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Greek Life
for the sale of these handbooks all over Greece, and the
Society enjoys the privilege of sending them post free not
only in that country, but also in Crete. In the small
villages of the Morea you may see the little red volumes
of the Syllogos. I found a box of them in the hall of a
Patras hotel, and a pile of them in a bookshop at Syra ;
and a humble shepherd of Ithaka was seen reading one
while he pastured his flocks. In fact, in most country
bookshops there is little but translations of bad French
novels and the books of this Society to be obtained. In
addition to this series, the Syllogos is also publishing a
'Children's Library,' of which only two volumes have
as yet appeared. One of these, a translation of Ander
sen's ' Fairy Tales,' is from the pen of M. Bikelas, who, as
he says, is ' working for the next generation.'
Coming to fiction, one notices that the Greeks prefer
translations of foreign novels to the home-made article.
The most popular novel in Greece is ' Les Trois Mousque-
taires ' of Dumas pere, which figures in most Greek cata
logues. Another general favourite is ' Les Miserables ' of
Victor Hugo. Sue's ' Wandering Jew,' and the Rocambol
series of sensational novels by Ponson du Terrail are also
widely read, and both Victor Hugo and De Musset are
much bought for presents. Ladies usually read French
and English novels, such as George Eliot and even Kipling,
if, as often happens in well-to-do Athenian families, they
have had English governesses. I know one Greek gentle
man who actually commenced the study of English with
the author of ' Stalky and Co.'
Of the native novelists and writers of short stories, M.
Dem6trios Bikelas is the best known to English readers.
Of Macedonian origin, after spending twenty-four years in
London as a business man, he retired when he had made
money, and has since devoted himself to the production,
translation, and distribution of good literature. His best-
known book is 'Loukes Laras,' originally published as
a serial in 1879, and translated into French, German,
Italian, Danish, and English, the English translation being
128

THE ACADEMY, ATHENS.

in Town and Country
from the pen of M. Gennadios, ex-Minister- of Greece in
London. This novel describes the adventures of a young
Chiote, who flees from his native island soon after the
outbreak of the War of Independence, and wanders about
the Cyclades in search of a safe retreat. There is nothing
heroic about the hero, who is panic-struck in the camp
at Nauplia, and frankly confesses that he is fit for com
merce only. An element of romance is, however, supplied
by his affection for an orphan girl, whom he ransoms
from a Turkish harem with some buried treasure, and
then marries, finally settling, like so many Chiotes, in
England. More interesting than his career are the short
stories, which, under the title of ' Tales from the ^Egean,'
have been translated into English, and which give a curious
picture of life in the Cyclades. Unlike most Greeks, M.
Bikelas has travelled in Greece, and the result of one of
his excursions is a delightful series of letters descriptive
of a tour ' From Nikopolis to Olympia ' (' De NicopoUs k
Olympie '), published in French. As a translator, he is best
known for his Greek version of several of Shakespeare's
plays in the ' political ' metre. But to an English reader
that workaday measure seems to fall short of the sublime
grandeur of Hamlet and Macbeth.
Next to M. Bikelas, the best-known writer of fiction is
his colleague — M. Drosfnes. Nearly a quarter of a century
ago, M. Drosines, who is still in the forties, varied his
study of law and philosophy at his native University of
Athens by writing verses under such imaginative titles as
' Spider's Webs,' ' Stalactites,' and the like. Combining
the ideal and the practical sides of literature, he passed
two years in Germany studying art and the organization
of publishing houses— an accurate knowledge of which
might have spared many an author a sea of* troubles.
Returning to Greece, he became director of the Hestia,
at that time a literary periodical, and continued in
the direction for several years after it had been trans
formed into a daily paper. Seven years ago he left it
to start a bi-monthly educational periodical, 'National
129 K

Greek Life
Education,' which seeks to carry out Horace's precept
of combining amusement with instruction, and has held
the post of secretary of the Society for the Spread
of Useful Books since its foundation. Like M. BikeTas,
he is, therefore, labouring for the intellectual welfare of
the rising generation, and two volumes of the Society's
series, 'Bees' and 'Birds,' are his work. His name
is, however, generaUy associated with short stories — a
branch of literature more cultivated in Greece than the
novel. The best of these has been translated into English
by Mrs. Edmonds under the title of ' The Herb of Love,'
as well as into German. It may be recommended to
those who wish to learn something of the curious
customs of Euboia, where the scene is laid. This same
fertUe writer has also described 'Three Days in
Tenos,' and has published 'Rural Letters,' 'Stories and
Reminiscences,' and two books for children — 'Fairy
Tales ' and ' Narrative of a Combatant' That two of
the leading men of Greek letters should not think it
beneath their dignity and unworthy of their talents to
write healthy books for the young is one of the most
refreshing signs of modern Hellenic literature, which may
save young Greece from the 'penny dreadful' and aU
its horrible effects.
By some critics, however, both the above-mentioned
authors are considered as rather European than Greek in
their ideas. According to this school, the best writers of
really living Greek stories, breathing the sea and mountain
air of Hellas, are MM. Moraitfdes and Papadiamantes,
both of whom write in the pure language. Unfortunately,
their best work lies buried in the files of the Akropolis
newspaper, whence few have the courage to disinter them.
Another writer of short stories, collected under the title
of ' Tales of Eventide,' is the versatile M. Episkopdpoulos,
whose social sketches in the Nebn Asty have been already
mentioned. His originality may be due to the fact that
he owes little to schools and colleges, and he is therefore
free from the academic taint which modem Greece, in
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in Town and Country
its zeal' for learning, is apt to regard as the hall-mark of
literature. To me, at any rate, it seems that the chief
danger of Greek letters at present is that same desire of
imitating great masters which paralysed so much of
Byzantine literature. To conclude the list of those who
write short stories, the names of MM. Xendpoulos and
Karkavftsa may be cited, the latter of whom has dared to
write at least one tale, ' Old Loves,' in the vernacular.
For the novelist who deals with peasant life, this question
of the language is by no means easy. To make a villager
of northern Euboia talk in the katharhousa would be as
absurd as to present GEdipus on the stage in the every
day garb of the modem king; yet for the descriptive
portions of the tale the limited vocabulary of the peasant's
language must inevitably fail. Enough has been said to
show that, in the department of the short story, Greece
has not a few representatives. Any one who wishes to
read specimens of this branch of literature may be recom
mended to get the admirable collection called 'Greek
Tales,' containing portraits of the authors as well as
selections from their works, by M. Kasddnes.
Greece has just lost one of its leading novelists by the
death of M. Roides, the author of the famous historical
novel, ' Pope Joan.' The novel is, however, much less
cultivated than the short story, though there is one Greek
lady novelist, Madame Kallirrhde Parre"n, whom we have
already seen as editress of a lady's paper. Madame
Parrdn has written three novels, which she calls collec
tively ' The Books of the Dawn,' and individually, ' The
Freedwoman,' 'The Witch,' and 'The New Contract'
She writes in pure Greek, and perhaps the best passage in
her novels is that descriptive of the Olympic Games of
1896, with their culminating excitement — the victory of a
young Greek shepherd in the long race from Marathon.
Besides her novels, Madame Parre"n has published two
volumes of impressions, 'A Year's Life' and ' My Journeys.'
As a Worker in the cause of Greek women, she has also
composed two popularly written books on their condition
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Greek Life
in the prehistoric age, and during the Turkish and
modern period of Greek history. Greek authoresses are,
however, few as yet; one lady has written educational
works and translations, another has published a political
pamphlet on the Roumanian claims in Macedonia.
For the entertainment of the poor or the less educated
reader, an enterprising publisher, M. Konstantinides, has
successfully catered with his ' People's Library,' a series
of books, costing a halfpenny, a penny, or twopence, of
which 'The Orphan of Chios' may be taken as a
favourable specimen. School-books are a very profitable
source of revenue to the publishers, not so much on
account of their price, which is usuaUy low, but because
of the constant changes, involving the purchase of new
primers and manuals. Such a burden has this ridiculous
system become that M. Sties, the Minister of Education
in the third Theotdkes Ministry, proposed to make school-
books a Government monopoly, so that the price of each
book would be fixed by the Minister. He calculated in
his speech on the subject (February 3, 1904) that every
child of an elementary school spends 4 dr. 80 lepta on
books per annum, every pupil of a HeUenic school
15 dr., and every scholar in a gymnasium 20 dr., involving
a total annual expense of 1,600,000 dr. He added that
the publishers, not content with their gains from the
frequent changes of books, ordered the worst quality of
paper from abroad, so that the life of a book should be
as short as possible !
The classical school of Greek drama is now best repre
sented by M. Bernarddkes, a native of Mitylene, who has
studied the dramatic literature of many lands, and imitates
Shakespeare, without the master's fire. He has chosen
his subjects from various periods of Greek history.
Merbpe is taken from ancient Greece, Euphrosyne from
the Court of Ali Pasha of Joannina a century ago. In
Maria Doxapatri he has borrowed his characters from
the French conquest of the Morea in the thirteenth
century; the two conquerors, Guillaume de Ghamplitte
132

in Town and Country
and Geoffroi de Villehardouin, are among the dramatis
persona, and the heroine, who gives her name to the play,
is the daughter of an Arcadian Archon. He has also
written a Byzantine play on the promising subject of
Nikephdros Phokas — the great general who reconquered
Crete from the Saracens in the tenth century, and was
rewarded by the Imperial diadem, — and this drama was
represented in Athens on March 1 9, 1 905. M. Bemardakes
is also one ofthe many dramatists who have selected Faust
for their theme, and he is at present engaged on a transla
tion of Euripides. Another dramatic author, whose style
is, however, considered to be ultra-refined — for he discards
the ordinary modern negative and the 66. and va. of con
temporary prose for the ancient equivalents — is M. Klebn
Rangabes, the Greek Minister at Berlin. M. Rangabe's,
who is Scotch on his mother's side, is a son of the well-
known diplomatist and man of letters, who wrote novels
and some very readable ' Memoirs,' and who pleaded the
cause of Greece, together with M. Delyannes, at the
Berlin Congress. The son produced last spring, at
the Royal Theatre in Athens, at great expense — which, in
his case, was no obstacle, — a Byzantine drama, originally
published under the title of ' The Iconoclasts,' but re
christened ' The Isauroi,' from the Imperial dynasty of
that name. One may doubt whether the furious theo
logical controversy which raged over the worship of
images in the eighth century is a suitable subject for the
theatre. The temptation to bring the Athenian Empress
Irene, who is the leading character in the play, on the
stage of her native city was perhaps irresistible to an
author, who, like his creation, is connected alike with
Byzantium and Athens, and is steeped in Byzantine lore.
But in spite of a splendid spectacle and great* if some
what misplaced, learning, the play was voted as wanting
in real flesh and blood. The saying of a character in
Lessing's Der junge Gelehrte might be applied to the
classic school of modem Greek dramatists — ' Thou hast
read dead books enough — give a look now into a living one.'
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Greek Life
Among playwrights who have chosen modern themes
are M. Charalampos Anninos, not to be confused with his
namesake, the editor and caricaturist, and M. SourSs, of
the Romebs, who has written several levers de rideau.
But in Greece, as in England, the drama flourishes best in
adaptations and translations. Thus, M. A. Vlachos has
rendered the CEdipus Tyrannus of Sophokles into modern
Greek, and M. Constantine Hadjdpoulos has translated
Goethe's Iphigenia in Tauris. A French play on the
latter subject has recently been written by M. 'Jean
Moreas,' a Greek author of great promise, who lives in
Paris, and whose real name is Pappadiamantdpoulos.
M. Mahos has presented the Antigone in the garb of the
Common language, and the disturbance caused by the
modern version of the ^Eschylean trilogy, the Oresteia, by
M. Soter&des, has been already mentioned; Besides M.
Bikelas' versions of Shakespeare, M. Kaklamahos of the
N'eon Asty has prepared the Winter's Tale for the Greek
stage. Of course, French comedies, alike in translations
and in the original, are common in a city where most
educated people speak French. Even Ibsen has been
played at Athens in a Greek version.
Surveying the field of contemporary Greek Uterature, it
cannot be said that it is a paying profession to the author.
Except newspapers and history, the Greeks read little, and
the novel or volume of short stories seldom has a pecuniary
success. When we consider that free Greece is a smaU
country, and that the strict Turkish censorship, notably
at Smyrna, prevents, or a least greatly hinders, the circu
lation of Greek books among the large Hellenic population
living in the Ottoman Empire, it will be seen that an
author who writes in Greek appeals to a very limited
public. Roumania and Egypt were, and the latter still is,
the best market for his wares, and a Greek man of letters
once told me that he had sold most of his books in those
two countries. Yet, in spite of the almost certain lack of
pecuniary profit, the cacoethes scribendi is strong among the
Greeks. There is probably no country whose pubhc
i34

in Town and Country
men are so fond of pamphleteering, and a call upon an
eminent Hellene in quest of information upon one point
of interest is apt to be followed by an avalanche of
printed matter, which he has at one time or another com
posed upon various other subjects of no immediate
importance to his visitor. These pamphlets often show
considerable research ; but, as a rule, what Greek critics
consider most is correctness of style rather than subject-
matter. Modern Greek literature has not yet produced a
great original genius ; indeed, it would be as difficult for
him to be recognised as such during his lifetime by his
intensely critical fellow-countrymen as it was for a saint to
he canonised till long after his death. But in historical
scholarship the Greeks have made remarkable progress,
and, in the domain of journalism, they have produced a
Press which is neither vulgar, nor prurient, nor unfair to
its political opponents. That a nation so keenly intel
lectual will one day show us the immortality of Greek
genius in a language which, if at times mutilated, has
never died is scarcely a Utopian idea.

1-35

Greek Life

CHAPTER VII
PUBLIC EDUCATION
The enthusiasm of the Greeks for learning is one of
those national characteristics which cannot fail to strike
any one acquainted with the attitude of the British parent
and his athletic progeny towards the acquisition of know
ledge. Even in the dark days of the Turkish domination,
a Corfiote, by founding at Venice a Greek school, the
Flangineion, which still perpetuates his name, created an
educational centre, whence instructors were gradually
disseminated over the Greek communities ; and educa
tion was one of the first cares of the modem Greek
kingdom. The French scholar Buchon, certainly no
obscurantist, who visited Greece seven years after the
accession of Otho, remarked that the Greeks wanted to
be well educated before they had the necessaries of hfe.
' Greece,' he wrote, ' seems to desire before aU else
academicians, philosophers, and poets ; later on she will
produce carpenters and locksmiths.' * The same
tendency, occasionally checked by those who have seen
the dangers of an intellectual proletariate, has gone on
since Buchon's time, and the old Greek song of the lad
who stole out, in the evil Turkish days, by the Ught of
the moon, ' to study letters, God's poems,' is stiU true of
the poor Greek boys, who will practise heroic self-denial
in order to learn; while sacrifices scarcely smaller have
been made by others, who have denied themselves
* Buchon : ' La Grece Continentale et la Moree,' p. 85.
136

in Town and Country

marriage and other luxuries, in order to bequeath large
sums for educational purposes.
The educational system at present in vogue recognises
three grades of public schools — the primary, or deme
schools, the Hellenic schools, and the Gymnasia.
According to the latest figures, courteously supplied to
me by the Ministry of Education, there are 3123 public
primary schools, with 189,903 pupils of both sexes. It
may be remarked, in passing, that except in very small
places, the education of the two sexes is conducted in
separate school-houses, and this remark applies to all
three grades of schools. Accordingly, out of the primary
schools above mentioned, 523 are for girls, who frequent
them to the number of 39,745. The girls do not go out
to school in such numbers as they might, because many
old-fashioned parents think that education is bad for
their morals, and unfits them for domestic life, and it is
only in recent years that there have been many elemen
tary schools provided for them. The instruction in the
pubUc primary schools is carried on by a staff of 4055
teachers. Elementary education is compulsory; but, till late
years, owing to want of funds, the Government was not
very strict in enforcing the law ; indeed, in Thessaly, the
latest acquisition to the Greek kingdom, where the in
habitants are all cultivators of the soil, and are more
anxious than most Greeks that their children should
follow in their footsteps and remain on the land, there is
still a large amount of illiteracy, and attendance at school
is by no means universal. Poverty is, however, no bar
to elementary education, for the parent is not called upon
to pay a single leptbn for the instraction of his children in
the deme schools. Those institutions are maintained in
three different ways. In some places, such as Athens,
Patras, and other rich towns, the demes defray the whole
cost out of the municipal funds. In other demes, the
resources of which are not so large, the expense is
divided between the municipalities and the State. In yet
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a third class of demes, those which are very poor, the
State supports the whole burden of the elementary schools.
Thus the requirement ofthe Constitution is fulfilled, which
states (Article 16) that the Government shaU contribute
to elementary education ' in proportion to the necessities
ofthe demes.' The Budget for 1903 contained an item of
1,526,900 dr. for elementary education, of which 1,200,000
dr. went in the form of subsidies to the poorer demes. Of
course, poUtics exert their baneful influence here as in
most other departments of Greek life, for deputies are
apt to demand fresh schools (with corresponding Govern
ment subsidies) for places in their constituencies, not
because they are wanted, but to please influential local
men or for the purpose of rewarding their friends. Often,
too, a schoolmaster of the first class, who of course
receives a higher salary, is appointed to a school where
one of the third class would do as well.
The deme schools fall into two divisions, the so-caUed
' common schools,' which contain only four classes, and
where the curriculum extends over four years, and the
' complete schools,' which have the full complement of
six classes, and where the pupil remains six years. These
latter, however, exist only in the capitals of the twenty-six
prefectures (nomoi) into which Greece is now divided,
and in the larger of the subordinate towns, the capitals of
the former, but now abolished, sub-prefectures. Boys
and girls are expected to begin their attendance at the
elementary schools from their sixth year, and the
curriculum is the same for both, except that the girls
learn needlework. The subjects taught in the ' common
schools' include religion — Roman Cathohcs and Jews
having their own separate religious instruction — reading,
writing, arithmetic, geography, ancient and modem Greek
history, singing, and drawing. It is very important to
notice that the reading-books are all written in the pure
Greek now in vogue, from which the ordinary phrases of
the vernacular are rigidly excluded, so that a boy who has
always heard water called nerb and bread psomi in his
138

in Town and Country
parents' cottage will suddenly find himself confronted
with the classical equivalents, hydor and drtos, when he
embarks on his first reading-book. Some schoolmasters
even complain that the language is at times so archaic as
to be quite unintelligible.
The effects of this determined attempt to make the
Greeks speak the pure language cannot fail to become
more and more apparent. An elderly man of letters
recently remarked to me that his manservant, educated
at a deme school, spoke better Greek than his master,
and I have repeatedly found not only that the younger
men among the poorer Greeks speak much better than
the older generation, but that they like to show off in
conversation the fine phrases which they have picked up
at school. I remember a coachman at Athens once
rebuking me for using the vernacular, instead of the
classical, word for ' mountain ; ' he said that it was a
shame to corrupt the language, and went on to discourse
on the relative difficulty of Herodotus and Thucydides !
Fancy a London cabman remonstrating with a fare on
the use of slang, and comparing Macaulay with Carlyle !
As regards history, that of ancient Greece is first studied
in the third year, that of modern Greece in the fourth.
In the 'complete' schools the pupils begin mediaeval
Greek history ; indeed, the fifth year's course includes a
little handbook, by no means a bad one either, containing
a brief account of the fortunes of Hellas, from the date
of its conquest by the Romans down to the period of
its regeneration, and including brief biographies of
the principal heroes of the War of Independence. Of
course, Such manuals must of necessity be scrappy;
but they are intensely patriotic, rather than severely
impartial, in tone, gloating over the defeat of the
Bulgarians by Basil ' the Bulgar-slayer,' in the eleventh
century, depicting the Turk as mostly black, and pointing
out, in conclusion, that Macedonia, Thrace, Asia Minor,
the Turkish islands in the iEgean, Crete, and Epiros
still await their liberty. It is significant, in the light of
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Greek Life
modern politics, that in the maps used to teach geography
in the elementary schools, the region between the Danube
and the ^Egean is described, not as 'The Balkan' but
' The Hellenic ' Peninsula. And in the maps which show
the extent of Hellenism, Cyprus is put down as a Greek
island. On this point Greeks are convinced, but polite,
when talking with Englishmen. I was once asking the
director of a large Gymnasium whether many of his pupUs
came from 'enslaved Greece.' 'Yes,' he repUed, 'from
Macedonia, Karpathos, and Cyprus — if you will aUow me
to include Cyprus in " enslaved Greece." ' These maps
are often bought from the 'Society for the Spread of
Greek Letters,' of which M. Zaimes is president ; but the
sphere of this society's operations is mostly ' unredeemed
Greece,' to which it supplies didactic books and maps
gratis ; from it the young Greek of Asia Minor, Mace
donia, Epiros, and Cypras receives his notions of
historical and modern geography. I have noticed that
some of the maps used in the schools of Greece require
bringing up to date, railway communications being
sometimes omitted and sometimes anticipated, after the
fashion of that English guide-book, which nine years ago
gave the still unfinished Piraeus-Larissa line, stations
and all !
In the two highest classes of the ' complete ' elementary
schools the pupils read some of the easier ancient Greek
writers, such as Xenophon and ^Esop, and also study
botany, geometry, and a little geology. EngUsh readers
alarmed at this comprehensive programme of studies
will learn with relief that, by a recent law, gymnastics
are compulsory for all, giris as well as boys, except those
physically defective, in all public and private schools, for
at least three hours a week, and that regularly once a
month all the pupils are enjoined to take more or less
long walks, accompanied by their masters. The same
enactment provides that every school shall have a gym
nasium attached to it, and maintained at the cost of the
State, and that whenever possible swimming shall be taught
140

in Town and Country
to all schoolboys, and that those in the upper classes of
the intermediate schools shall practise rowing and shooting
at a target. Every year, during the last weeks of Lent,
gymnastic competitions are held, in which all the schools
take part. Thus the old Hellenic ideal of education, as
consisting of mousike and gymnastike, being revived ; if
more attention be paid to the latter, it will be well for
the future of a race, which, in the towns, seems in danger
of losing the splendid physique of the old fustanella-
wearing peasants of the Peloponnesos. There are no
half-holidays in the Greek schools, but on the great
festivals of the Church they are closed, and there is a long
summer vacation from June -fe to September f^-, when
the scholastic year for all the public schools begins.
The teachers in the deme schools are of three classes :
the so-called demodiddskaloi, who form the highest class,
and who must have studied for three years in one of the
four training colleges which have been founded at Athens,
Tripolis, Larissa, and Corfii ; the grammatistai, who have
studied only one year; and the grammatodiddskaloi,
the lowest class, who are eligible if they have passed
through the Hellenic schools. Fortunately, the numbers
of the highest class are increasing every year, while those
of the two other classes show a corresponding diminu
tion. The female teachers are expected to have spent
seven years at the Arsdkeion, or girls' college at Athens,
to which I shall allude directly. From the pecuniary
point of view, the prospects of an elementary school
teacher cannot be described as alluring. The director
of a deme school receives no more than 150 dr. a
month, a directress the miserable monthly pittance of
120 dr., and even these sums are not always regularly
paid. Hence their lives are a struggle for a»bare sub
sistence, though in one very important point the lot of
the elementary schoolmaster is much better than that of
the higher members of the teaching profession. For he
cannot be arbitrarily dismissed, except for bad conduct,
and therefore enjoys a security such as his better-paid
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Greek Life
colleagues, liable to be shifted or cashiered according to
the political exigencies of the Minister of Education,
cannot boast. The beneficial results of this practical
fixity of tenure are seen in the desire of the elementary
schoolmaster to improve his mind. Most of the sub
scribers to the Greek ' Encyclopaedia,' pubhshed by a weU-
known foreign firm at Athens seven years ago, were
drawn from this very class. But the social position of
the teacher, even in democratic Greece, is not good,
though it is improving in the towns, and Greeks are apt
to look down upon a lady who earns her bread by teach
ing. I heard of a case not long ago where the ordinary
prefix of ' Mrs.' (kyrid) was scornfully refused to a lady
teacher; and there are instances of Greeks of smaU
means who have lived in England, and have endeavoured
to add to their income by teaching in Greece, finding then
residence in the latter country under such conditions
unpleasant. As regards the supervision of the deme schools, there
is a council for the purpose in each prefecture, composed
of the bishop, the director of the Gymnasium, or the
head of the Hellenic school in case there is no
Gymnasium, the inspector, and two members of the local
community, one of whom must belong to a learned
profession, while the other must be either a merchant
or a manufacturer. The inspectors are almost always
men ; indeed, there are only three ladies in the whole
of Greece employed in the inspection of schools.
Next after the deme schools come the HeUenic schools,
of which there are (according to the latest figures) 276,
with 18,080 pupils. The name is somewhat misleading,
because, in one sense, all Greek schools are ' HeUenic ; '
but it has been bestowed upon these particular institutions
because of their specially classical curriculum, on the
analogy of the German Lateinsckulen. Here the average
age of the pupils is from twelve to fifteen years; but
attendance is voluntary. As, however, the pupU pays
only 8 dr. a year in fees, and the State makes up the rest,
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in Town and Country
expense constitutes no bar to the prosecution of studies
beyond the elementary stage. The Hellenic schools
usually consist of three classes (in some small places only
one or two) ; but the two highest forms of the ' complete '
deme schools are reckoned as equivalent to the two
lowest of the Hellenic, so that a capable pupil, who goes
on from the former school to the latter, is usually placed
at once in the second, or even the top class. When they
have the full complement of three classes, these schools
are called scholarcheia, and the director blossoms out into
a full-blown scholdrches, in the magnificent vocabulary of
official Hellas. The full course here is three years,
and the curriculum, which is fixed by the Ministry of
Education, provides for from twenty-seven to thirty hours'
work a week. Both Roman Catholic and Orthodox
pupils hear sacred history lessons in class ; the Jews only
that of the Old Testament ; theology proper is taught to
the Catholics at home by teachers of their own creed — an
important provision, as the Cyclades, where there are
many Roman Catholics, have the largest number of
Hellenic schools, — to the Jews by their own Rabbis.
Among profane subjects are mathematics, orthography,
calligraphy, drawing, physical science, geography, modern
and ancient Greek, the last named having, as is natural,
the lion's share, or from seven to eight hours a week of the
curriculum of these pre-eminently classical schools. The
pupils grapple with the dual number, the optative, and
the other lost riddles of the ancient grammar, and read
^Esop, ^Elian, and Xenophon. The historical course is
mainly the same as that for the two highest forms of the
' complete ' deme schools, and includes ancient and some
part of modern Greek history, stopping short, as usual, at
the reign of Otho. The study of foreign languages
begins with the second class of the Hellenic schools,
when the young Greek applies himself to French for two
hours a week. In the highest form, one hour a week is
set apart for Latin — a subject of dubious value for the
heirs of ancient Greek literature. Latin literature being
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Greek Life
admittedly, at best, an excellent copy of the Greek
classics, it may be asked why young Hellas should pore
over the ' ^Eneid ' when it counts the ' Iliad ' among its
national heirlooms. Accordingly, there is a movement
in Greece for the abolition of Latin. In the Hellenic
schools three hours a week are appropriated to gymnastics,
which are practised for an hour every other day, and the
above-mentioned law enforcing physical exercises applies
to intermediate no less than to elementary education.
The directors of the Hellenic schools are paid from
200 dr. to 250 dr. a month, a subordinate schoolmaster from
100 dr. to 250 dr.; but neither the one nor the other can
hope for fixity of tenure, for, unlike the staff of a deme
school, they are at the mercy of the Minister. Moreover,
the whole position of the HeUenic schools is at present
uncertain. Following out a policy which had for some
time been under discussion, M. Sti.es, the Minister of
Education in the Theotdkes Cabinet of last year, pro
posed to abolish the Hellenic schools altogether from
September, 1904, thus effecting an annual saving to the
State of 800,000 dr. In their place, he advocated com
pulsory attendance at the deme schools for six years, and
the addition of another class to the Gymnasia. Thus,
the Hellenic schools would be absorbed between the two
grades on either side of them; the two lower forms
would be thoroughly merged in the two highest of the
' complete ' elementary schools, the highest class would
become the lowest of the Gymnasia. Needless to say,
vested interests are strongly opposed to this drastic
reform, which has for the present been dropped.
The highest grade of public schools is represented by
the Gymnasia, which, together with the HeUenic schools,
compose what is called 'intermediate' education. Of
these there are forty, with 4459 pupils. The curriculum
here lasts four years, corresponding to the four classes
into which the pupils are divided. Even here the pupil
pays nothing except an entrance fee of 15 dr. for the
first six months, and 10 dr. for the second six months of
144

THE UNIVERSITY, ATHENS.
(By permission of the English Photographic Co., Athens.)

in Town and Country
each year, the State paying the rest ; so that, except for
the cost of school-books, which devolves on the parents,
we may say that not only elementary but also both
grades of intermediate education are practically free.
The course in the Gymnasia is pre-eminently classical
and theoretical. Out of the thirty-one to thirty-five hours
a week devoted to work, ten are assigned to ancient
Greek, and two or three more to Latin, while French,
the only modern language taught in any of the public
schools, has only three hours set apart for it. Here the
pupils study the chief masterpieces of their ancient
Uterature : Thucydides and Plato, Homer, ^Eschylus,
Sophokles, the orators, and ' the easier parts of Aristotle '
— if any part of that philosopher can be so described.
In Latin they are not so far advanced, studying Caesar,
Cornelius Nepos, Livy, Sallust, and Cicero among the
prose writers, and Ovid, Horace, and Virgil among the
poets. I once attended the Latin lessons of the boys at
the Varvdkeion — a typical Gymnasium at Athens, founded
sixty years ago by M. Varvdkes, who, like most of the edu
cational benefactors of Greece, was a native of Epiros, and
whose statue is outside the Zippeion — and I found them
grinding through the sorrows of Dido much in the same
way as our own public schoolboys. Sacred history and
theology, mathematics (including geometry, and trigono
metry in the highest class), botany, zoology, philosophy,
and logic in the top form are among the minor subjects.
In the last year the pupils study the geography of the
world; and in history the Gymnasium course includes
both Greek and general European history, that of Greece
down to the War of Independence, that of Europe down
to 1815. Five hours a week are devoted to gymnastics.
It should be added that the monthly salary of thadirector
(gymnasi&rches) of one of these schools is but 350 dr. to
360 dr. a month, those of the men below him 200 dr. to
300 dr. Needless to say, their careers are at the mercy
of the Minister of the day.
Such is the condition of public elementary and
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Greek Life
intermediate education. The defects of the system are
threefold. From the point of view of the teachers, whUe
those engaged in the deme schools enjoy practical fixity
of tenure, those whose business it is to impart inter
mediate instruction are never safe. Ministries in Greece
come and go with extraordinary rapidity; the present
Parliament, elected in November, 1902, has already
seen five changes at the Ministry of Education. One
has but to look at the huge hsts in the daUy Official
Gazette of schoolmasters moved or removed, often in
winter-time, to reahse how insecure is the post of an
unhappy schoolmaster.* A friend of mine, a thorough
Athenian, miserable in the country, found himself moved
one day by a Minister, upon whom he had no claims,
to a remote vUlage in KephaUenia. By means of as
siduous ante-chambering at the Ministry during his
vacation, he secured his restoration to Athens; but
scarcely had he returned when a fresh crisis brought
into office a markedly hostile Minister, who at once sus
pended him altogether. It is true that the travelling
expenses of officials, when moved without their own
desire, are borne by the State, but that constitutes a
heavy burden on the impoverished Exchequer.
The worst of this system, however, is that the teacher
must, in his own interest, ever keep one eye fixed on
Athens ; whether he likes it or no, he must become a
politician, for to him politics are his bread-and-butter,
and he cannot feel a deep interest in a class of boys
whom he may have to hand over to a successor of
another political colour to-morrow. The pupils them
selves resent the removal of a popular master. Not long
ago the boys of the Varvdkeion went round to the news
paper offices, and complained that the Government had
removed then director and had left them without teachers,
owing to the frequent changes consequent on the accession
* As RomeSs wittily said, in its address to the recent Congress of
Schoolmasters at Athens : * Whoever of you lives in free Greece
is often moved in mid-winter.' 146

in Town and Country

to office of a new Minister of Education. They were
followed by a deputation of five lads in sailors' suits from
the third class of one of the Hellenic schools, who pro
tested that they had no mathematical tutor, and so would
cut a poor figure in the examinations ! Both these
juvenile deputations, with characteristic Greek behef in
the power of the printed word, urged the Press to espouse
their cause ! The Minister has himself admitted the
badness of this system, for part of his scheme of reform
was that the personnel of the schools should be placed
under the philosophical faculty of the University, that
the masters should be appointed by him from those who
hold its diploma, and that he should have the right of
moving or removing them only on the proposal of the
faculty. A second glaring defect is the frequent change
of books. So highly centralised is Greek education, that
in all three grades of public schools, subjects and hours
are fixed by the Ministry, and in the case of both the
deme and Hellenic schools it also issues lists of the
books which must be used. Every year a competition is
held for the writing of school-books, which benefits no one
but the successful authors and the publishers. A reading-
book now before me states that by a decree of the Minister
it is ordered to be used for five years in the second
class of all elementary schools, and that is the usual life
of a school-book, though it may be less. Moreover, a
good manual may sometimes be changed for a bad one,
and there is no one recognised grammar of the language,
so that it may happen that a chUd changes grammars
two or three times. To publish school-books is so lucra
tive, that in order to save expense to both parents and
teachers, it has been proposed that school-books should
be a State monopoly and that the Minister should fix the
price of each book.
A further defect in the public school system is the
cost to the State. I have already given the amount of
Government subsidies to the deme schools; the cost
of intermediate education is naturally far more, for here
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the State has to bear almost the whole burden, amount
ing in the Budget of 1903 to 2,557,512 dr. Besides, the
extreme cheapness of intermediate education to the pupU,
owing to the low fees, naturally increases the ranks of the
intellectual proletariate. Many go on to the Hellenic
schools simply to obtain places in the Civil Service,
and thus the disease of place-hunting, which is sapping
the Greek body politic, is actually nurtured by the State
itself. The wiser Greeks see this themselves ; but, as
a leading statesman once said to me : ' I agree with you,
but I dare not oppose education, for fear of being called
an obscurantist' For education is stUl the great fetish
of Greece, where to ' know letters ' is considered to be
of more value than a system which develops character
and makes men less learned but better citizens and more
independent. In the case of female education the same
defect is apparent ; hence in the country districts the
shrewder people sometimes oppose the estabUshment
of a school for girls. In one respect, indeed, the Greek
public schools have the faults of our own : it wiU have
been noticed that, with the exception of French, modem
languages are absolutely neglected, and it was only in
the very practical island of Andros, which has commercial
relations with England, that I found provision made for
the teaching of English in the school.* But the Andriotes,
prosperous and hard-headed shipowners, are less political
and .far more practical than most Greeks, caring less for
culture than for solid comfort. The Alliance francaise
has, however, evening classes at Athens and Syra for
teaching French, and four years ago a similar institution,
the Alleanza italiana, subsidised from Italy, started teach
ing Italian in the capital of the Cyclades.
As an instance of the religious toleration which
characterises the educational policy of the Greek
Government, it may be mentioned that the State grants
subventions to both the Jewish and the Mussulman
schools at Larissa.
* A recent decree orders it to be taught to the naval cadets.
148

in Town and Country
In addition to the public schools, Greece also possesses
211 private elementary schools (of which 147 are for
girls), with 8710 pupils, and 16 private intermediate
schools, with 1 149 pupils, of which the college at Corfu,
called after Capo d'Istria, is a good example. If a child's
parents so desire, he may enter one of the private
elementary schools, instead of a deme school ; and the
subjects taught are exactly the same in the private
schools, elementary and intermediate, as in the public
establishments of the corresponding grade. They are
chiefly frequented by the children of parents who live
in ' enslaved Greece,' and who therefore cannot look
after their children personally, and by the offspring of
those free Greeks who are sufficiently undemocratic to
desire more select companions for their children. It is
said, however, that the results are not altogether satis
factory ; the private school imparts more ' parlour tricks '
to its pupils, but fits them less well for the battle of life,
and the qualifications, moral and intellectual, of the
proprietor are apt to be an unknown quantity, because
any one may found a private school if he can obtain a
Royal decree for the purpose.
Two institutions for the education of girls deserve
special notice — the Arsdkeion and the Hill School, both
at Athens. Some sixty years ago, M. Arsakes, a wealthy
Epirote from Joannina, a place to which, as a Greek
historian has truly said, ' Greece owes the regeneration
of education,' * gave a considerable sum for founding an
educational society, which, with the aid of a Government
subsidy, owns the Arsdkeion and its three branches at
Patras, Larissa, and Corfu, containing between them an
annual total of nearly 1800 pupils. There is a Kinder
garten preparatory to the other grades, and (he pupils,
when six or seven years old, enter the elementary school,
organised on the lines of the deme schools, passing
thence, if they stay on, at the end of four years to the
intermediate division, the course in which lasts four
* Paparregopoulos. 149

Greek Life
more. Above that is the training coUege, which grants
certificates, as we saw, to female teachers in public schools,
and which gives theoretical and practical instruction in
the art of teaching during its three years' course. The
girls of the intermediate division study the usual subjects
of that branch of education, including ancient Greek,
with such authors as Xenophon, Thucydides, Plato, and
Homer. The higher classes embark on psychology
and philosophy. Modern European as weU as ancient
and modern Greek history is included in the course.
Of modern languages French is alone compulsory; but
the Athenian ladies owe their proficiency in that and
English, which many of them speak extremely well,
rather to their private governesses than to their lessons
in school. Singing, for which there is also a special
academy at Athens, known as the Otffion, is compulsory
in all — painting only in the higher classes — but the piano
is optional Nor are more practical subjects neglected.
Thus sewing and household work are taught, there are
gymnastics three hours a week for aU the classes, and a
lesson in hygiene is given by a doctor. The fees vary
according to the requirements of the pupUs. Those who
both eat and sleep at home pay from 5 dr. to 25 dr. a
month ; those who eat at the school but sleep at home
pay from 20 dr. to 40 dr. ; while the boarders pay 100 dr.,
which includes everything, not excepting books. The
organisation of the Arsdkeion is very democratic, and
the institution was at one time the favourite school for the
girls of all classes ; but the tendency has grown up even
in democratic Greece for the best families to send their
daughters to private schools, so that the Arsdkeion is
neither so fashionable nor so flourishing as it once was.
Another remarkable institution for female education
is the Hill School for Girls, founded as far back as 1831
by the American missionary after whom it is caUed. Its
beginnings were humble, as befitted a time when Athens
was not yet the capital. It was started in an old Turkish
house; in fact, the earliest lessons were imparted in a
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cellar, as houses were few and hard to obtain. Four
years later it was moved into the delightful house which
it stiU occupies, and its present directress is Miss Mas-
son, a niece of the founder's wife, so that continuity of
management has been preserved. The distinctive note
of this school is that, though owing its origin to a
missionary, there is no attempt whatever at proselytising,
and no one dislikes proselytising more than the Greek.
So far from interfering with the religion of the pupils,
the directress encourages it, and there is a small Greek
church on the premises, where on Sundays a Greek
priest officiates. Of the many Greek services that I
have attended none has struck me as more simple and
more interesting than this, where the girls take the part
of the reader and assist as servers at the altar, and
where the priest delivers — what is rare nowadays in
Greek churches — a sermon, straightforward and practical
on a text from the Gospel of the day. At present the
Hill School contains 36 boarders and 161 day pupils.
Most of them come from ' enslaved Greece,' and the
cleverest, it is observed, are usually from there; while
Thessaly, which may yet save Greece from the fate of
the over-clever by supplying that stolid element sc
necessary to the success of nations, sends those who
are least successful at book-learning. The ages of the
children, all of whom except about three are girls, range
between five and seventeen, and there are ten classes.
Here, too, the Government prescribes the hours of work.
All learn modern Greek, French, and English (this last a
great advantage which the Hill School possesses over its
rivals), and the five upper classes are initiated into ancient
Greek also. When I visited the school I found the girls
in the highest class reading Sophokles with thfir master.
All the classes have gymnastics for three hours a week.
One of the most curious spectacles in Athens is the
night-school for poor boys, which forms a section of
the Parnassbs Literary Society. While walking about the
streets in the daytime, the visitor to the Greek capital
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cannot have failed to notice the little shoeblacks
(loitstroi), who form such a prominent feature of street-
life, poring over a tattered book in their spare moments,
and using their blacking-boxes as a reading-desk. These
lads are preparing their evening lesson for the Parnassos
school, where instruction is given every night, except
during the three summer months and on great festivals
of the Church, between the hours of 6 and 8.30 p.m.,
to boys who are engaged in earning their living during
the day, and who therefore do not frequent day-schools.
Attendance is purely voluntary, but such is the thhst of
the young Hellene for learning that there were 2149
poor boys on the school hsts during the last scholastic
year for which I have been able to procure the figures,
of whom no less than 725 were shoeblacks and 495
servants. The boys are mostly between the ages of
ten and fifteen, but the school accepts pupUs from seven
to twenty, who are divided into five classes, arranged,
as in our public schools, in parallel divisions, as other
wise they would be unduly large. The boys have no
expenses to pay, except that of then books. Beginning
in the lowest class with learning to read, they rise in the
highest to the study of Xenophon in a modem Greek
version. There is no apathy or bashfulness about these
eager learners. When a stranger is present every boy
in the form is anxious to show off what he can do, and
I recall the zeal which a tiny Macedonian from Vodena
showed in spelling out his book, and the conscious pride
with which the older boys first read aloud a passage of
' The Anibasis,' and then, closing the text, gave in their
own words an excellent summary of what they had read,
answering at the same time the geographical and other
questions of the master. Besides Greek, religion, mathe
matics, Greek history, physiology, calligraphy, drawing,
singing, gymnastics, and geography are taught, and a
map of the Hellenic world (with Cyprus, of course,
marked as part of it) hangs in every class-room to instil
patriotism and the ' Great Idea ' into the minds of these
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juvenile politicians. As I looked around, however, on
their thin, eager faces, marked already by the struggle
for a livelihood, I felt that their bodies rather than their
minds were in need of food. Yet care is taken of their
health. The school has its doctors, medicine is given
free, and much attention is paid to cleanliness. Every
week a member of the managing committee visits the
school. As we have seen, the main fault of Greek education
is that it is too literary, and tends to produce officials
and members of the learned professions rather than men
of business. Of late years, this error has begun to
become apparent; some have even left the University
for commerce; and several schools have been founded
for technical education. One of these is the Industrial
and Commercial Academy of M. Rousdpoulos at Athens,
which, during the eleven years of its existence, has done
something towards turning the attention of young Greece
to the bread-and-butter sciences. It consists of a pre
liminary school, where the elements of a good general
education are given, and of six special technical schools,
divided between agriculture, manufactures (such as oil,
wine, and soap), commerce, mining, engineering, and
the mercantile marine, the course in each of which is two
years, the annual fees for the preliminary school being
325 dr., and for each of the six technical schools 385 dr.,
while board costs 1200 dr. more. In the preliminary
school no Latin is taught, but such practical languages
as French, English, and Italian. The Academy has at
present 220 pupils, from Crete and Macedonia as well
as Greece, and 36 professors; it deservedly enjoys the
patronage of the King, himself interested in industries,
and receives an annual subsidy from the municipalities
of both Athens and the Pirasus. I am told that its
pupils have no difficulty in finding posts in private com
mercial and industrial concerns, and do not join in the
hunt for Government employment. A more recent insti
tution, the Athenian School of Trade and Industry, has
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the same object. Here, also, there is a preparatory
class, and the rest of the school is divided into a com
mercial and a technical side, the course in each of
which is three years, and the annual fees from 260 dr. to
410 dr. for each of the two branches, according to the
class in which the pupil is placed. On the commercial
side, the main subjects are French, English (with Italian
as an optional subject), political and commercial geo
graphy, physics, chemistry, the elements of commercial
law, political economy, the elements of civil and consti
tutional law, and the law relating to the custom-houses.
There are also exercises in banking; but the director
pointed out to me one flaw in the curriculum, which is
universal in Greece, namely, the lack of any instruction
in Turkish — a language most useful to Greek consuls
and men of business in the Levant On the technical
side, the course includes applied physics; chemistry in
general, and as applied to manufactures ; agriculture,
especially with regard to the production of currants, oU,
and wine (in which Greece has fallen behind for lack of
proper scientific methods) ; and practical French and
German. Last year the school had about eighty pupils
from free and ' enslaved ' Greece, including a small
contingent from Crete, and it not only receives a small
subsidy from the municipality of Athens, but has been
recommended to the notice of the local authorities of
Greece and Crete, and to the Greek consuls abroad, by
the respective Governments of those two countries.
Besides these two private technical academies, there
are two commercial schools, supported by the Govern
ment, which, however, at present gives no more than
6000 dr. for commercial education in the whole of
Greece, one at Athens and the other at Patras; while
Kephallenia, an island noted for the shrewd business
instincts of its seafaring inhabitants, of whom the late
M. Vagliano, of London, was a type, possesses a similar
institution, founded and maintained by the late M. Pet-
ritzes. M. Marasl£s, of Odessa, the founder of the
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library which bears his name, has also given a sum of
money for erecting another commercial school. There
is also the French Catholic Commercial School of the
Holy Cross at Naxos, which is under the special pro
tection of the French Minister at Athens. Greece has
one purely mathematical school, corresponding in status
to one of the classical Gymnasia; its pupils alone are
eligible for the Polytechnic, which has been aptly de
scribed as ' the practical University of Greece,' and
which, it is almost unnecessary to say, was started by a
body of Epirote Greeks. The Polytechnic is worthy
of its name; it gives instraction in 'many arts,' and
within its walls the practically minded Greek may learn
mechanics, engineering, telegraphy, and shorthand.
The Greek Agricultural School is at Halmyrds in
Thessaly, and agricultural stations exist at Athens,
Larissa, Mesolonghi, Patras, Kalamata, and on the
island of Vido in the harbour of Corfu, which old
British officers will remember as the site of the costly
fortifications which we blew up when we evacuated the
Ionian Islands. It has been proposed to increase the
number of these stations ; but there are not wanting
critics who contend that they are a faUure and a needless
expense. Unfortunately, there are too many people in
Greece of the same opinion as a clever Hellene, who
once said to me, ' The Greek is fit for something better
than manual labour.'
The apex of literary education is the University of
Athens, which was founded as far back as 1837, or soon
after Athens became the capital. It is divided into five
faculties : theology, law, medicine, philosophy, and mathe
matics, the last including also a pharmaceutic school, the
course for which is three years, or one year less than that
for the four older faculties. By far the most favourite
study with the undergraduates is that of law, hence the
enormous numbers of briefless barristers in every Greek
town; medicine is a bad second; philosophy (which faculty
includes philology and history, as well as philosophy
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proper) comes third; and theology is easily last, as is
only to be expected from the deplorable condition of
theological training in Greece. Mathematics only last
year became a separate faculty. The labours of the
students cannot be described as exhausting, unless they
choose to make them so, for there is only one exami
nation, and that at the end of the four years, and
extremely few are 'ploughed.' It is true that the
student has to obtain a certificate to the effect that he
has attended the courses of his professors, and for each
of these certificates he pays 2 dr. a year ; but, as there is
no check upon his attendance, he may, and frequently
does, stop away in the country altogether, without putting
in an appearance at lectures till the moment for paying
the fee arrives. Not long ago, I heard of a case where
a student passed one of his examinations by proxy.
Lecturers with a reputation, such as Professors Karolides
and Lampros in history, easily fiU their class-rooms, not
only with students, but with adults ; and even foreigners,
as I know from personal experience, may attend them.
Taken as a whole, indeed, the professorial staff of the
University is a very able body of men, and the reason
may be found in the fact that, though they are appointed
and paid by the Government, they very rarely lose their
places when a change of Ministry occurs. There have
been only two instances in recent years of the removal
of a professor for political causes, and on both those
occasions there was little short of a revolution among
the students, for the professors are usually popular with
their pupils, and are, indeed, apt to pander to their
opinions, so as to curry favour with them, after the
manner of some ' popular ' proctors nearer home.
In the Budget of 1903 the State expended 533,830 dr. on
the University, and in former years it has devoted an even
larger sum to academic education. The fees of the
students are so small that they are a very slight hindrance
to those who desire a university education. In addition
to the small sum required for the certificate of attendance,
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there are two fees — one of ioo dr. for the first six months
of each academic year, and one of 60 dr. for the second
six months, amounting for the full four years' course to no
more than 640 dr. ; and an examination fee of 250 dr. for
the legal and medical faculties, and of 150 dr. for the
other schools; finally, the diploma costs 50 dr., so that
a university career, in Greece, from first to last, costs,
in fees, well under ^30, or about the amount which
some Oxford colleges levy in the shape of ' caution-
money ' from their undergraduates. On the advantages
of University education in Greece there are two very
opposite opinions. Of course, the enthusiastic educa
tionists, of whom Hellas has many, including naturally
those who have worked their way up to professional
chairs from the humblest beginnings by dint of praise
worthy self-sacrifice, regard academic laurels as an object
before all else to be sought, and point to the University
as one of those institutions which place Greece in the van
of culture in the Near East. There are, however, many
more practical men, who see that the University is pre
paring an intellectual proletariate, which is a grave
national danger; and the Government foolishly en
couraged this tendency by ordaining that all its officials
should have a diploma. One meets Greeks in the
humblest stations who have had a University career, and
have found that it led to nothing. I knew one hotel
interpreter who had been an undergraduate, and recently
a student turned bootblack to earn his living, amidst the
applause of his fellows. The late M. Trikoupes, in his
educational policy, as in so much else, the wisest states
man of modern Greece, was so convinced of this evil
that eleven years ago he put a tax, in the form of a stamp,
on all entries to the University.
At the present time a reaction against University
education seems at last to have set in, consequent on the
growth of technical schools, and the number of students
has fallen off. Thirteen years ago it was 1500 more than
it is now, and the latest available figures show a total of
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only 2356 undergraduates, or an average of about 600
freshmen a year. Of this total about one-third comes
from ' enslaved Greece,' and it is this factor among the
students which gives the University its real importance,
and which makes it the spoiled child of Greek Govern
ments. For every Greek from beyond the present
frontiers of the kingdom who has studied at Athens
goes back to his native town or vUlage imbued with the
' Great Greek Idea,' of which he thenceforth becomes
a missionary. It is among these Athenian graduates,
the doctors and the lawyers of ' unredeemed Greece,'
that the flame of patriotism bums most brightly, and we
can, therefore, scarcely wonder that no punishments are
meted out to students who indulge in political demonstra
tions, or that the Prime Minister turns a sympathetic ear
to the Macdonian alumni, who ask to be relieved from aU
fees, on the ground that their homes have been devastated
by the Bulgarian bands. But if the University of Athens
is a centre of Hellenism all over the Balkan Peninsula
and yet further afield, it is none the less a terror to
statesmen. Soon after its foundation, old Kolokotrdnes
shrewdly said, pointing to the University, and then
indicating the Palace in the distance, ' This house will eat
up that one '¦ — a prophecy perhaps fulfilled when Otho
fell, in 1862. At the Gospel Riots of November, 1901,
when the first Theotdkes Ministry had to resign, the
students were the principal cause of the disturbances
which led to its resignation. More recently, in the
winter of 1903, their zeal in the cause of pure Greek,
assiduously fanned by one of the professors, found vent
in another riot, and forced the Ralles Government to
stop the performances of the Oristeia of jfEschylos in
the version of M. Soteriades at the theatre. For this
reason some think it would be better if the University
were at Corfu, so that the students would be removed
from the exciting neighbourhood of the legislature.
Unfortunately, political demonstrations, in which they
are usually solidly unanimous, and an occasional
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jollification, form their chief diversions ; for games do not
play the same part in University life at Athens as at Oxford,
and gymnastics are looked upon as a nuisance. During
the first two years of their course they are now, however,
forced by law to go to the ' academic gymnasium ' at
least thrice a week, and unless they are regular in their
attendance they do not receive their certificates. The
director, having been in England, is very strict, and his
capacity and independence have so far enabled him to
keep his post, whether Ministries come or go, and so
to render invaluable services to the physique Of studious
Hellenism. Generally speaking, student life at Athens
presents no special features. There is no longer any
thing like the versatile and highly developed academic
organisation of the fourth century after Christ, of which
Libdnios and Gregory Naziazends have left us such a
curious picture. There is now little or no corporate hfe
among the undergraduates ; the nearest approach to it are
the clubs and societies which those from the same part of
Greece form among themselves. But there are no
matches between them, as would be the case in England.
Nor is there any difference in status between ' men ' of
the first, second, third, or fourth year ; even the ' fresher '
is at once the equal of his seniors in the general estima
tion, according to the democratic principles so deeply
implanted in the Hellenic breast. There being no
colleges, but the University being merely a teaching
and examining body, the students may live where they
like — in hotels, rooms, or as they please; those from the
provinces are usually to be found at the ' Cafe" de Gam-
betta,' opposite the University. All alike enjoy absolute
liberty. Perhaps for that reason they are — except in times
of political excitement, or when the language qufestion is
under discussion — a harmless and inoffensive body of
young men, hardly, if at all, distinguishable from the
crowd, for hitherto they have worn no distinctive badges,
caps, or dress. Recently, however, there has been a
movement in this direction, and the students are seeking
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for special privileges, in the shape of reduced fares, from
railway and steamship companies.
The University year begins on October ^, when the
professors resume their lectures; but the students are
enrolled in September. Every year a fresh rector is
installed, and his installation is one of the chief events of
the Athenian winter. He is by no means necessarUy
an entirely academic personage. One of the most recent
rectors, M. Kazdzes, was at the same time president of
the patriotic society Helknismbs, and made a political
tour of Europe on behalf of the Greek claims to Mace
donia while he was still in office. But the great day of
the University year is January 30 (O.S.), the festival of
the three hierarchs and great teachers of the Church,
SS. Gregory, Basil, and Chrysostom. On that day the
annual commemoration of the University is held in the
Metropolitan Church. The Minister of Education and
all the professors are present, a memorial service is
sung for their dead coUeagues in the impressive Greek
fashion, and one of the present staff delivers an address
from a dais to the large congregation.
At present Greece has, fortunately, only one University ;
but she is threatened with a second. Forty-six years
ago a Greek named Daboles, domiciled in Russia, de
vised his whole fortune of 255,000 roubles for the
furtherance of Greek education. The money was de
posited in a Russian bank, there to accumulate tUl 1906,
when it was to be devoted to founding a University ' in
the then capital of Greece.' In 1849 it seemed by no
means so improbable as it does now that Constantinople
would once more become the capital of a revived Greek
Empire, and that was, of course, the idea of the testator.
The question now arises, what will be done with the
money when, in a year's time it falls due? If it must
be expended on another University, which no one wants,
Athens can scarcely be selected for its site. Perhaps,
as the testator was a friend of Capo d'Istria, and desired
the foundation to be called, after him, the ' Capodistreion,'
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it may be erected at Corfu, the native place of the
unfortunate President of Greece, thus reviving that
Ionian Academy of which our eccentric countryman
Lord Guilford was the founder and hierophant, but
which ceased to exist when the Seven Islands were added
to Greece.
Modern Greece has begun to see that it is necessary to
train the body as well as the mind ; so, as gymnastics
now form a part of Greek education, it has been found
needful to found an official ' School of Gymnasts,' in which
those who wish to teach gymnastics are trained. Even
the demodiddskaloi and the female teachers are obliged
nowadays to learn gymnastics, and there are two im
portant gymnastic clubs at Athens — the ' National ' and
the ' Pan-hellenic.' The latter possesses a gymnasium on
the Patesia road at Athens, to which any one can go
on payment of a modest drachma a month. Here races
and exercises are organised, and the management was
lately entrusted with the task of awarding two prizes,
offered by a couple of Bombay Greeks, for the best and
most harmonious development of the human body.
There is a special section for girls, who practise the
Swedish system of exercises, under the direction of a
committee of ladies. In summer the Athenian gymnasts
may be found diving, swimming, and rowing at Phaleron,
and they also frequent the shooting-gallery, the patriotic
inscription on which catches the traveller's eye at Kalli-
thea. There are now some forty or fifty of these
gymnastic clubs scattered over Greece, wisely encouraged
by Government subsidies. Presently they will doubt
less be able to dispense with such aid, as the love of
athletics grows. Already one of them, so I am told, can
afford to spend ^500 a year. The energies of these
clubs are focussed by a ' Central Union of Athletic and
Gymnastic Bodies,' which are entitled to take part in the
annual ' Pan-hellenic Games,' ordered to take place every
year during the first week after Easter in the Stidion.
When that enormous building is at last finished, it is
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possible that the Olympic games may also be held there
at regular intervals. The first celebration of them, in
1896, was a great success, and the victory of a young
Greek shepherd in the Marathon race has not been
forgotten. But, for one reason or another, there has
been no repetition of the games at Athens, and the com
mittee has now postponed them till 1906.
Outdoor sports do not flourish in Greece, although
cricket, a relic of the British protectorate, is still played
(with the British terminology) at Corfu. But, as a
famous foreign athlete, long estabUshed in the country,
once said to me, ' the Greek is not a sportsman.' There
is all the more reason for hoping that the Greek peda
gogue will bear in mind that provision of the law of
1899, which says that 'gymnastics are one of the most
important lessons in all schools.'

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CHAPTER VIII
ARCHAEOLOGY AND ART
Greece, more than any other country, lives upon its
splendid past, and, accordingly, the preservation of its
classical monuments and the discovery of long-buried
treasures of ancient art, which in some places would be
regarded as a harmless hobby, is there a recognized and
integral branch of the national existence. The Greeks
are perfectly well aware that the vast majority of their
foreign visitors are attracted by the monuments of ancient
Hellas, and they are shrewd enough to see that the latter
are a valuable political asset, as well as a splendid artistic
heritage. The HeUenes, in the words of the practical
Roman, have ' often been saved by their ancestors ; ' and,
even in these unsentimental days, the possession of the
Parthenon is of more use to Greece than all the debates
of the BouH. No wonder, then, that much attention is
paid by the State to archaeological researches, or that
foreigners are encouraged to found archaeological schools
and make excavations, with the proviso that no works of
art shall be taken out of the country.
The Archaeological Department is placed under the
Ministry of Education, and its director, ' the general
ephor of the antiquities,' as he is officially styled, has
long been M. Kavvadfas, who has also been recently
elected to an honorary chair of archaeology at the Uni
versity, and is at the same time secretary of the Greek
Archaeological Society. Under M. Kavvadias are four
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other ' ephors,' three assistants, an architect, and fifty-one
' guardians ' of the antiquities. Relatively to its means,
the Government is liberal in its grants to archaeology.
M. Kavvadfas receives 5760 dr. a year, or rather more than
the salary of a Greek Lord Justice of Appeal, and in the
Budget of 1903, 132,540 dr. were spent upon this depart
ment. But Greek archaeology has a far larger source of
revenue than any mere Government grant. Quite early
in Otho's reign, in the same year that saw the foundation
of the University, the Archaeological Society sprang into
existence. True to their zeal for culture, even in the
troubled times of Capo d'Istria, an archaeological museum
had been started by the Greeks at ^Egina, then the seat
of government, of which the Corfiote historian, Moust-
oxidi, was the first ' ephor.' No sooner had Athens
become the capital, than Pittikes, the first predecessor
of M. Kavvadfas, founded a museum there, and three
years later the Archaeological Society originated in a
meeting on the sacred rock of the Akropolis. In 1874
the funds of this society, and with them the cause of
archaeology, received an immense impetus by the institu
tion of a lottery for its benefit, and in 1887 this lottery
was made a monopoly of the society. At first only
100,000 tickets a year were allowed to be issued, but
this number was subsequently increased to 225,000, an
increase which tripled the society's revenue. The lottery,
being till last year the only one in Greece, was very
popular with all classes, quite irrespective of its object.
The tickets are sold in the streets by the shoeblacks at
1 dr. apiece, and the drawing takes place four times a
year, when all Athens rings with the announcement of the
results. The first prize is as much as 25,000 dr. ; the next
two prizes are of 3000 dr. and 2000 dr. each, the fourth of
1000 dr., the fifth of 500 dr., the next 50 of 100 dr. each,
and the following 200 of 50 dr. each. The average net
yield of the lottery, after deducting the prizes and the
commission on the sales of the tickets, was till lately
rather more than 250,000 dr. annually. But the society's
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monopoly has now been destroyed by another lottery for
the Navy. It remains to be seen whether the subsequent
permission to increase the number of tickets to 600,000
a year and to reduce the price to 1 dr. will compensate
for this loss.
The lottery may, or may not, be bad for public morals ;
but the proceeds have been well spent. Down to the
year 1 901, it had yielded a net profit of 2,817,128 dr., and
in the course of its career the society had spent up to
that time 2,022,495 dr. on excavations and the preserva
tion of monuments. Among the former may be mentioned
those at Epidauros, Mykenai, Eleusis, Rhamnos, Sounion,
Eretria, Aigina, Thorikos, Lykosoura, Ithome, Amorgos,
Syra, Kephallenia, Dimini in Thessaly, Marathon, and on
the Akropolis. The society has lately built the museums
at Chalkis, Thebes, and Delos, and has restored the Lion
of Chaironeia and the pillars of the temple at Bassae. For
mediaeval sites it has also done something : it has propped
up the fine church at Daphni, and some of the splendid
Byzantine buildings at Mistri, and has voted a sum of
money for the restoration of the magnificent monastery
of Hdsios Loukas, between Delphi and Livadia. It
also publishes an Archmological Journal and an Annual
Report. Of the foreign archaeological schools, the oldest is the
French, founded as far back as 1846, which receives in
its palatial buildings not only French, but also Belgian
and Dutch students. Its chief excavations have been
those at Delphi and Delos — perhaps the two most famous
sites laid bare by the archaeologist — and it has also under
taken similar, if less striking, work at Amorgos, Santorin,
Nemea, Corinth, Elateia, Thespiae, Orchomenos, Man-
tinea, Tegea, Mistra, and Daphni. The costly ntonograph
of one of its members, M. Millet, on the last-named
church could only have been produced in a country so
generous towards learning as France. But the French
do not spare money where archaeology is concerned ; on
a single year's work their school lately expended over
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£4000; and, when their long task at Delphi was com
pleted, at a cost of ^32,000, the French Minister of
Education came over himself to visit the scene of their
excavations. Next in point of seniority comes the German Archaeo
logical Institute, founded in 1874, whose director, Dr.
Ddrpfeld, is one of the institutions of Athens, where he
has resided for many years ; even those who do not
accept his theories on the site of the Enneikrounos and
the identity of the Homeric Ithake with Santa Maura
are carried away by the charm of his style ; for, unlike
many learned people, he is an agreeable, as weU as an
erudite, lecturer. But then he is no Dryasdust; he
began life as an architect ; some think he might have
been a great advocate. His annual ' Island cruises ' to
the chief archaeological sites of the ^Egean are the Ger
man counterpart of those organised every spring by Pro
fessor Ernest Gardner ; and every one goes to hear his
lectures on the Parthenon. Needless to say, the Germans
have done their share of excavation in Greece. On
Olympia alone — then chef d'oeuvre in this respect — their
Government spent about ,£40,000, and the Reichstag
gives an annual subvention with no niggard hand to the
Institute. The American School began its existence in 1881,
and has the large excavations at Corinth to its credit,
and those at Eretria and at the Herceum of Argos,
besides less important work. It is supported by the
American colleges and universities, and is fortunate in
receiving larger financial assistance than its neighbour,
the British School.
The latter is now nineteen years old, and is, next to
the Legation, the most important British institution in
Athens, for it is both intellectually and socially a most
agreeable centre under its present director, Mr. R. C.
Bosanquet, and his wife. As in the case of the adjacent
American School, the Greek Government gave the piece
of ground for the site on the slopes of Lykabettds ; but
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NATIONAL MUSEUM, ATHENS.

in Town and Country
the boon of a decent road up to the twin schools has so
far been denied. In addition to the main building, there
is in the grounds the 'Macmillan hostel,' built in 1897,
which contains the library of the late historian Finlay,
a mine of information for all that concerns the mediaeval
and modern history of Greece. At the ' hostel ' students
are admitted to reside at the small cost of 20 dr. a week
for their room, and other persons engaged in research,
at the still very moderate figure of 30 dr. As a memorial
to the late Mr. Penrose, the first director, a library is now
being built, to which the books in the main building
will be ultimately transferred. But the chief want of the
British School is funds. It has at present a Government
grant of £500 a year, which has been renewed for a
second term of five years ; that amount, with the con
tributions of the subscribers, brings its total revenue up to
a trifle over £1500, out of which it spent last year about
£550 on excavations. Greeks have often expressed to
me their surprise that the richest country in the world
does so little for archaeology, and their surprise is justifi
able on practical no less than scientific grounds. For
these schools, if adequately endowed, greatly enhance
the prestige and influence of their respective countries
in the Levant The French understand this so well, that,
in addition to their Archaeological Institute, they are now
founding a school at Athens for the teaching of French
to the youthful Hellenes. Yet Great Britain lags behind.
Still, in spite of its exiguous resources, our school has
excavated the theatre at Megalopolis, and has dug
successfully in the islands of Melos and Cyprus, at Abai,
Velestino, and Kynosarges, and at the three sites of
Palaikastro, Praisos and Petros in Crete. It is now
proposed to make a systematic exploration of Lafeonia.
Besides the four above-mentioned schools, the Austrians
have also an Archaeological Institute, which has, how
ever, as yet no local habitation, though the Greek
Government has lately given it a site ; and the Russians
are desirous of starting a similar establishment, which, one
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may hope, will devote itself to the far-too-much-neglected
field of Christian archaeology. There is, indeed, a Greek
society which was founded with that object, and its
learned secretary, M. Lampikes, the highest Greek
authority on the' subject, has journeyed over Greece in
quest of ecclesiastical lore and remains. The results of
his travels may be found partly in the small but interest
ing collection of priestly robes, ' asterisks,' ' disks,' and
other pieces of ecclesiastical furniture now stowed away
in a room of the National Museum, and partly in the
two volumes of the society's Journal. But Greece might
do far more for this branch of archaeology. Fine churches
and monasteries are being constantly aUowed to fall
into ruin through neglect, like the historic monastery of
Kaisariane', at the foot of Hymettos, or are being wantonly
injured by the vandalism of some ignorant monk — such as
a recent Hegoumenos, who whitewashed and destroyed
the quaint frescoes of the monastery of Galatike in
Euboia, perhaps the most beautiful site in all Greece ;
or a recent Metropolitan of Athens, who aUowed the
frescoes of the monastery of the holy Philothe'e to perish
at the hands of the workmen who were building his new
residence. One day, too late, perhaps, the Greeks wiU
realise that Venetian lions and Byzantine paintings have
their interest as well as classical fragments, and that even
an age when cwro governed the accusative is not without
its merits. Meanwhile, in spite of the patronage of the
Queen, the Christian Archaeological Society lacks funds,
for the smash of the Mavro-Valaoriti bank at Athens two
years ago involved it in heavy loss.
The National Museum at Athens is so well known
that it needs no mention here ; like all other museums in
Greece — and nowadays, wherever important excavations
have been made, a local museum is usually erected —
it is free. Greece scorns to adopt the Italian system of
exacting payment for every single visit to every collection
of antiquities. If she did so, she might reap a consider
able income ; but every Greek to whom I have mentioned
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in Town and Country
the subject repudiates such an idea. The custodians
of the various antiquities up and down the country are
usually well informed about the objects committed to
their charge, always polite, and entirely free from the
fussy intrusiveness of the tout. The old guardian of the
excavations at Eleusis may be taken as typical of the
class. He has a true love of the statuary in the museum ;
he will point to a lovely little statuette, the head of
some Greek Mary Anderson, and remark that ' it seems
as if it could talk ; ' he will surprise you with a quotation
from the Homeric hymns at the fountain of Kallichoros,
and knows as much about Hadrian as about the present
condition of the place where he lives. Often the
custodians wear the picturesque national dress, and when
one sees them thus clad, among the ruins of some lonely
temple, one realises what Greece looked like two genera
tions ago.
One of the most interesting bodies in Greece, but one
of which the average foreigner knows nothing, is the
Historical and Ethnological Society, which has for its
aim the study of mediaeval and modern Greek history,
and possesses a fair number of books and exhibits. In
its collection of portraits, the whole epic of the War of
Independence may be studied as it can be studied no
where else. The cunning old Klephts, the daring sea
men, and the astute Phanariotes of Finlay's or Trikoupes'
history look down upon one from the walls. Here, too,
you may see the real helmet of Kolokotrdnes ; the remains
of the clock which Lord Elgin so generously gave to
Athens after filching the Elgin marbles ; the armour of
the Frankish chivalry, who fell fighting against the
Catalans in the swamps of the Boiotian Kephissos ; and
the pencils which were found on Otho's table after his
abdication. Even more valuable for the student of
social life in Turkish times are the splendid costumes,
now, alas ! all but gone, of the ^Egean island women
and their lords.
As is natural in a place where so much store is set on
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Greek Life
culture, Athens is well provided with libraries. That of
the Bouli, to which foreigners are courteously admitted,
and which has been freshly arranged, is very rich in all
that relates to Greece ; while the National Library, which
was founded by M. Vagliano, the famous Kephallenian
millionaire, and his two brothers, would reflect credit on
any city. There is a considerable library at Corfii, and
collections of books at Kephallenia and Zante; whue,
by a curious freak of fortune, two small hill-towns of the
Peloponnesos, Andritsaina and Demetzana, are provided
with libraries. All these receive grants from Govern
ment. It should be added, that there are considerable
historical treasures still buried in the archives of the
Ionian Islands, and that the ' revolutionary families ' of
Greece are only now beginning to publish the papers of
their ancestors, who played so prominent a part in the
War of Independence.
If modern Greece cannot boast of artists who can
vie with the celebrities of ancient times, she is not devoid
of either sculptors or painters. The best sculptor is said
to be M. Philippdtes ; in the next category come M.
Sochos, who designed the new statue of Kolokotrdnes,
which, after long and heated discussion, has at last been
erected in the little square near the Boule. This incident
was typical of the divisions which arise over small matters
in Greece. The Peloponnesians declared that their fellow-
countryman's memory would be insulted unless his statue
were placed in the Constitution Square ; others objected
that that site had been reserved for a national monument
to all the heroes of the War of Independence, Kolo
kotrdnes among them; the sculptor's views as to the
anaglyphs led to a further controversy; the committee
declined to resign, when requested to do so by the mayor.
Other sculptors of merit are MM. Vroutos, Konstantin
ides, Thomdpoulos, Bonahos, Karakatsahes, Demetriou,
Joahnou, and Demetriides. It is a curious fact that
most of the best sculptors and painters come from the
island of Tenos, because of the long Venetian influence
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NATIONAL LIBRARY, ATHENS.

in Town and Country
there. Thus, the late M. Gyzes, the best painter of
modern Greece, was a native of that island. Now that
he is dead, the first place among living Greek painters
is awarded by good art critics to M. Liitras, who is,
however, no longer young. Among genre-painters and
portrait-painters are M. Jakovides, director of the
National Picture Gallery, and MM. Roi'los, Mathid-
poulos, Geranidtes, Oikondmou, Kontdpoulos, Othonaios,
and Phrixos. The chief marine-painter is M. Volonikes,
who lives at the Piraeus ; he has resided in Germany and
Austria, and the Austrian Emperor bought his picture
of the battle of Lissa. MM. Prosalehdes and Hadjes
also take the subjects of their pictures from the sea.
Among landscape-painters may be mentioned MM. Phokas
and Hadjdpoulos, and Mile. Laskarfdou. All the three
best water-colour artists haU from Corfii — MM. Giallinas,
Bokatsiaves, and Skarveles. Besides Mile. Laskarfdou
there are several other lady artists; and no fewer than
eighty ladies exhibited at the exhibition of women's
paintings held some four years ago. The best is, I
am told, Mile. Fldra, and three other ladies, caUed
Aspridtou, Anna Papadopoiilou, and Maria Skoiiphou,
are also good artists ; the first of this quartette is not, how
ever, a native of Greece, but of Bourgas in Bulgaria ; the
second is also well known as having made the designs
for the school of needlework founded by Lady Egerton,
wife of the British ex-Minister in Athens. There is an
art school for ladies in Sophokles Street, and also a
department of fine arts at the Polytechnic. Art exhibi
tions are usually held every year at the Zappeion or the
Parnassbs, so that many tilings are sold in Athens. Of
public collections of paintings, the most promising is the
National Picture Gallery, to which rich Greeks from abroad
are beginning to send, contributions ; not long ago it
received sixteen pictures from a Greek lady living in
Russia. The best private collection is that of M.
Skoulotfdes, in his fine house in the Constitution Square.
There are also a great many old pictures in the Ionian
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Islands, dating from the Venetian times. Art does not
enjoy any large amount of Royal patronage, for Prince
Nicholas is the only artistic member of the Royal family,
having painted a little himself. So far there is no school
of architecture ; although some of the public buildings
are in a style suited to the country and its associations,
the domestic architecture of Athens, with some exceptions,
leaves much to be desired.

f7'

in Town and Country

CHAPTER IX
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Municipal government is not, like parliamentary insti
tutions, a comparatively new thing in Greece. Long
before the Turkish conquest Hellenic communes had
existed, and the conquerors wisely abstained from de
stroying the local liberties of the people. Thus, when
the Greek kingdom was formed, there was, at any rate,
a considerable fund of administrative experience to be
found in the Hellenic communities. Under Otho, Greece
was divided into eleven prefectures (nomoi), subsequently
increased, after the additions to the kingdom under his
successor, to sixteen. Six years ago, however, M.
Theotdkes, then Prime Minister for the first time, re
organised the local administration, bringing the number
up to twenty-six, in order — so it is said, not without
reason, by his opponents — to strengthen his local
influence, and to provide places for his supporters. The
reform has been, from a financial standpoint, a mistake ;
ten extra prefectures mean a considerable addition to
the Budget ; yet, a vested interest having been now
created, neither M. Theotdkes nor his critics (when they
are in power) feel strong enough to attack the Franken
stein which he created. For a country of the size of
Greece, these numerous administrative divisions are
quite superfluous ; indeed, an able party-leader once
assured me that there ought to be only five prefectures,
corresponding to the five natural divisions of the country
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Greek Life
— the Peloponnesos, Continental Greece, Thessaly, the
Ionian Islands, and the Cyclades. In that way, he said,
not only would money be saved, but a better class of
man would be found holding positions of such greatly
enhanced importance.
At the head of each prefecture is the nomarch
(nomdrches), who is appointed by the King, on the
proposal of the Minister of the Interior. In practice,-
there are two kinds of nomarchs — those who are ad
ministrators by profession, having risen from the lower
grades of the Civil Service, and the political species,
usually Government supporters, who have lost their seats
at the last election, and are compensated in this way.
It need hardly be said that the former class of nomarchs
are much superior in experience and knowledge of
administration to the latter ; but, unfortunately, after
every change of Ministry, many nomarchs are dismissed
in favour of ministerial favourites, and not long ago a
Premier rewarded an unknown man, who had been his
host during an electoral tour, by making him a nomarch
when he came into power. Sometimes the Ministry,
instead of actually dismissing a nomarch whom it views
with disfavour, removes him from a good nomarchy to a
bad one, sending him, for example, from busy Volo to
inaccessible Karpenisi. But though a Government
nominee, while his tenure of authority lasts, the nomarch
is — as a very experienced statesman once said to me —
' a little emperor.' His powers, which are regulated by
an enactment of 1845, still regarded as a model of what
a law should be, are very wide. In his Uttle kingdom
he represents not only the Minister of the Interior, but
the whole Cabinet, so that his authority extends into
every branch of administration. ' The nomarchs,' says
one article of this decree, ' are subordinated to each of
the Ministries,' though, of course, they are most directly
concerned with that of the Interior. They carry out the
law relating to conscription, look after the preservation
of order and the public safety, see to the prisons, the
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in Town and Country
hospitals, the cemeteries, and the various local philan
thropic establishments, care for the poor and the orphans,
take measures against fires, floods, and dangerous beasts
(including Bulgarians), try to prevent the spread of
infectious diseases, and superintend the lighting of the
streets. The improvement of agriculture, the planting
and protection of trees, the maintenance of the public
buildings and the public roads, and the draining of
marshes do not exhaust the long list of their duties.
Theirs it is to check the abuse of the freedom of the
Press, to superintend the administration Of the funds by
the demes, to take the census, and to watch over emigra
tion. A nomarch may have relations with foreign consuls
resident in his prefecture, and therefore represents the
Foreign Office. He has to protect freedom of conscience
and prevent proselytism, to look after the administration
of ecclesiastical property, to improve education, to see
that the scholastic laws are enforced, to inspect all the
schools of his district, to preserve ancient works of art
and to prevent their exportation — functions which are
his in virtue of his dependence upon the Ministry of
Education and Ecclesiastical Affairs. He aids the tax-
gatherers, thus assisting the Minister of Finance. He is
compelled by law to travel through his district twice a
year at least — no easy task in the case of the nomarch
of the Cyclades ; he may not leave it without the per
mission of the Minister of the Interior, and at the end of
the year he has to send in a report to that functionary
on his past administration. For these manifold duties
he receives the annual salary of 4800 dr. Six of the
nomarchs are, however, paid an extra allowance of
200 dr. apiece a month ; ten others an extra monthly
allowance of 150 dr. each. It cannot be said jthat this
remuneration is exorbitant.
Since the reform of 1899, eparchies, which were sub
divisions of the prefectures, have ceased to exist, so that
there is nothing between the latter and the demes. Of
these there are 439, which fall into three classes, according
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to population. Sometimes a deme embraces one town
or large village ; often fifteen or twenty hamlets form a
single deme. In demes of the first class the municipal
council consists of eighteen councUlors and six deputy-
councillors; in those of the second it is composed of
twelve councillors and four deputies; in those of the
third it comprises eight councillors and two deputies.
All these councils are elected by manhood suffrage for
four years, the municipal elections always being held in
September, though the municipal year does not begin,
nor do the new councillors enter upon their functions,
till December i (O.S.). Each candidate for election
must first pay a sum of 25 dr. to cover the expenses
of the returning officer. They may impose local rates,
which usually amount to a 2 per cent octroi on aU the
articles imported into the deme; for example, a pair
of boots bought at Athens will be Uable to an octroi if
sent to the Piraeus. This system may seem vexatious,
but, judged by the absurdly high Enghsh standard, local
rates are low. They are not specially apportioned, as
with us, so much for education, so much for lighting, and
so on, but are lumped together. The municipal councils
have also the right to contract loans ; thus the munici
pality of Patras has raised a loan of 5,000,000 dr., and that
of Corfii has borrowed a large amount from the National
Bank for the new theatre ; but, in such cases, the consent
of the nomarch must first be obtained. An appeal, how
ever, lies from his decision, in case of refusal, to the
Minister of the Interior.
At the head of the deme stands the demarch, elected
at the same time and in the same manner as the council.
His election in large towns, such as Athens and the
Piraeus, causes the greatest excitement; and in remote
islands, which are shut off for days from communication
with the central Government, the demarch is a far more
real and important personage than a Prime Minister, who
may be here to-day and gone to-morrow, while the local
ruler is in power for four years certain, and may be
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in Town and Country
re-elected. I once witnessed a very thrilling municipal
contest at the Piraeus, which may be taken as a specimen
of these local conflicts. The returns for the September
election had been invalidated on the ground of persona
tion and the recording of dead men's votes, but the same
two rivals once more met to contest the office of mayor,
while three others, men of straw, were also candidates.
The voting began at dawn and ended at sunset, though,
if there are many competitors, three hours extra are
allowed by law. At the Piraeus the votes were recorded
in nine public schools, but in Athens, and most other
places, churches are also used for the purpose. In order
to become an elector a man must be at least twenty-one
years old, and have served his time in the army, or else
have a proper legal exemption from service. Illiteracy
is no bar to electoral rights, but it is now no longer
common. ' One man, one vote ' is the rale alike for
parliamentary and municipal elections, but in the former
a voter may choose whether he will vote in the place
where he lives or in that where he was born, while in the
latter he has no such choice. In both classes of elections
the method of voting is the same, and was adopted from
the system prevalent in the Ionian Islands during the
British protectorate. As soon as a voter enters the room
he gives his name to the clerks, who cross it off the list
of voters, unless he has mistaken his poUing-station — for
those whose names begin with certain letters have to
vote at certain places. He then proceeds to the boxes,
of which there is one for each candidate, with his name
and photograph above it. The candidate, or his repre
sentative, may stand behind his own box, and calls out
his own name as the voter, whose name is also shouted
out, advances. At each box the latter is handed a
buckshot by the person behind it, which he drops into
the box. The box is divided into two parts, marked
outside respectively ' No ' and ' Yes,' the former being
painted black, the latter white, and inside there are
two canvas bags, into one of which the vote drops.
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Greek Life
The law orders strictly secret voting, but fanatical
partisans often 'vote with the right hand' to show
that they are voting against the candidate, and some
even shout out ' I can't ! ' as they vote at the box of a
candidate not to their liking. After the voting is over
the shot are emptied into a wooden board with holes in
it, which contains five hundred pellets ; a false bottom is
then pulled out, the balls all fall into a tray below, and
five hundred more are put in. The votes are counted
by a committee of five and a secretary, but with all these
precautions, as one of them told me, it is difficult to
prevent personation in a rapidly growing commercial
centre like the Piraeus, with an electorate of fourteen
thousand, drawn from all over Greece. In this election,
for example, one candidate was a native of Syra, his
rival hailed from Mine, while the chairman of the com
mittee was born in Kythera. This makes it hard to
know all the voters by sight, and the difficulty is in
creased by the fact that electoral committees are usuaUy
composed exclusively of professional men, whereas com
mittee men who were large employers would at least
know their own workmen. If objection be raised, the
validity of the demarch's election must be ratified by the
law courts, and if disturbances or irregularities can be
proved, the electors may lose their right of voting for
three years — which is in most cases no penalty at aU, as
the elections recur normally only once in four years — but
there is no disfranchisement of a town where wholesale
corruption has existed.
Outside in the streets there are the usual concomitants
of English elections. At the Piraeus, numbers of carriages,
bedecked with banners and portraits of the candidates,
drove about the streets, and the friends of one of them,
an engineer and a large captain of industry, went about
shouting ' Hammer !' (the emblem of his business) and ' All
with the master ! ' Riots are unhappily frequent, and that
day one man was shot and three wounded.
The demarch, whose importance varies, of course, with
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in Town and Country

the size of his municipality, has very extensive duties.
He is chairman of the ecclesiastical commission of each
church in his deme, he looks after local education, public
works, the local philanthropic institutions, the lighitng
and cleaning of the streets, and the embellishment of the
town or village community over which he presides. At
Marathon one of his duties is to look after the historic
Mound. We may best examine the magnitude of his
powers in the person of the ' demarch of the Athenians '
(not, be it observed, 'of Athens'), M. Spyros Merkodres, an
administrator of high ability and untiring industry, who is
one of the very few almost universally popular public men
in Greece, and who was last September year triumphantly
re-elected by a large majority for a second term of four
years. It is a curious sight to attend the morning re
ception of the Athenian mayor. In a fine room of the
municipality, adorned with portraits of petticoated
pallikars of the heroic age, you will find all sorts and
conditions of people awaiting an interview — peasants in
costume, Europeanised burgesses in black coats, here
and there a deputy or a journalist. M. Merkodres is a
tall man of good presence and business-like habits, who
gets up at daybreak to attend to his duties, and is never
missing at a public function, whether it be a Te Deum
on behalf of the Russian arms at the cathedral, a big
performance at the municipal theatre, where his box faces
that of Royalty, or the reception of a Princess at the
station. He once asked me to accompany him to the
christening of a baby as far afield as Marathon — for,
like all public men, he has hosts of godchildren — and
on his name-day all Athens paid its respects to him,
and floral offerings filled his house. He is fully conscious
that, as mayor of the Athenians, he represents not only
the capital of Greece, but the centre of Hellenism and
the resort of the whole cultured world. During his last
term of office he carried out a number of reforms, such as
the. direct collection ofthe rates by officials of the deme,
instead of the old practice of putting them up to auction
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Greek Life
and handing over the task of collection to the tax-farmer
who made the highest offer, the conversion of the
municipal debt, and a more accurate system of register
ing births, marriages, and deaths. The embeUishment of
the Mansion House, the improvement of the road to the
cemetery, and the erection of a vegetable market were
among his claims to re-election. Nor did he forget
archaeology, for it was at his instance that the munici
pality generously subscribed for the restoration of the
famous ' Treasury of the Athenians ' at Delphi.
There are two vital questions of municipal government
at Athens — water and the maintenance of the roads —
which have not yet been solved. It has been said that
the twin plagues of the Greek capital are 'dust and
politics ' (la politique et la poussiere), and there is rarely a
long cessation from either. The scheme for bringing
water from the Thriasian plain has been abandoned after
considerable waste of time and money, and the more
ambitious proposal, to tap the Stymphalian lake, is at
present in abeyance. The demarch apphed himself to
the less heroic, but more practical, remedies of cleaning
out the old aqueduct, which has supplied Athens with
water since the time of Hadrian, and of purchasing water
belonging to private individuals. There is a consider
able amount of water at some depth below the surface
even in Athens, which at present is allowed to be wasted ;
but nothing like a thorough water-supply for the needs of
the growing capital can be secured till the Government
takes the question up and brings water either from Lake
Stymphalos or from the river Melas in Boiotia. To take
the water of Kephisia, even if that were an adequate
remedy, would ruin that pretty suburban pleasaunce for
the benefit of the parched capital. A preliminary
arrangement has lately been made between the demarch
and a foreign engineer for increasing the water-supply at
a cost of 4,000,000 dr., to be paid out of the money left
by the late M. Syngrds for that purpose. At present
the best drinking-water is brought in large, picturesque,
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in Town and Country
earthenware jars from either Maroiisi or the ' Ram's head '
spring at the monastery of Kaisariane", and every day
carts full of them traverse the streets and sell the water
at 80 lepti a jar. Meanwhile, lack of water causes the
inadequate watering of the streets. Unfortunately, the
roads of Athens, by a truly English arrangement, are not
placed under the same authority. Some belong to the
municipality, others to the State, and the former contends
that it does its work of watering and repairing better than
the latter. An unprejudiced European can only say that
the streets of Athens reflect no great credit on either. It
was once cruelly said that ' the Greeks wanted Macedonia,
but could not keep up a decent road to the Piraeus.'
They still want Macedonia, but for the last ten years the
road from the Peloponnesian station has been a disgrace
to any capital calling itself civilised. The moment one
leaves it — and this is the stranger's first impression of
Athens — one's carriage falls into a gigantic hole — ilfaut
toujours passer par Id. M. Merkoiires should look to this
— but perhaps the hole is the property of the State.
The Athens municipality alleges, not without reason,
that its resources are relatively slender for the work that
it has to do. According to the latest figures, furnished
me by the municipal authorities from the budget estimates
for 1905, its annual income amounts to 3,651,022 dr., and
its expenditure to 3,642,847 dr., leaving a balance of
8175 dr. Of this expenditure the chief items are for
the deme schools, public works, lighting, the interest on
the municipal loans, and hydraulic works, the last-named
involving two years ago a rise in the water-rate.
Demarchs are paid, but on a low scale, and the
Athenian mayor is the only one who has an allowance for
receptions and entertainments, and a carriage provided
for him. No mayor is eligible, during his tenure of
office, for a seat in Parliament, but municipal elections,
like everything else in Greece, are apt to be fought partly
on party lines. In his absence, the demarch is repre
sented by his deputy {pdredros), of whom there are six at
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Greek Life
Athens, and in demes which include a number of widely
scattered villages there is usually a deputy in the more
important of these. The village mayor and his deputy
are still in many places clad in the fustanella, and a
notable feature of theatrical entertainments at Athens is
the splendid old pallikar, who is mayor of Akrata, on the
Gulf of Corinth, and whose magnificent scarlet and white
costume attracts more attention than the play itself. In
the country, the demarch ' will usually find rooms for
the traveller, if there is no inn, or even put him up at his
own house in case of need. He is ever willing to
conduct him round the local sights ; he may even — as
once happened to me — introduce him to the local
council, and invite his views on the Macedonian
question.

182

in Town and Country

CHAPTER X
LIFE AT ATHENS
No other city in the east of Europe is in the least like
modern Athens. There, more than anywhere else, the
very old and the very new are placed in sharp contrast —
the Parthenon and the cathedral, the temple of Olympian
Zeus and the Zippeion, Stidion Street and the Street
of Tombs. More classical than Constantinople or
Salonika, Athens is also more European than Sarajevo
or Belgrade. Byzantine Athens, save for a few churches
and a few frescoes inside the Parthenon, has passed
away ; Frankish Athens, once so flourishing, has all but
perished with the Frankish tower of the Akropolis;
Turkish Athens lingers on in three or four mosques,
converted to base uses, in the mihrab within the Tower
of the Winds, in a few houses, and in the picturesque
bazaar. But, otherwise, there is little left to bridge over
the chasm of centuries which separates the days of
Perikles from those of Otho and his successor. We
know now that there was never a period when there was
no Athens; but the traces of those intermediate ages
must be sought in the manners and customs of the
Athenians rather than in. the scanty monumepts of Latin
and Turkish domination.
The growth and development of modern Athens has
been extraordinary. When it became the Greek capital,
now seventy-one years ago, it contained only 162
houses ; at the last census, nine years ago, it contained a
*&3

Greek Life
population of 1 1 1,486, or, including the suburban villages,
128,735 — a total surpassed by two cities alone in Eastern
Europe, Constantinople and Bucharest. Marble palaces,
covered with the crimson blossoms of the BougainvUlier,
now line the Kephisia road ; the broad boulevard of the
University, fringed by a row of costly public buildings,
represents Athenian culture, just as the wide thorough
fare of Stidion Street is the centre of Athenian trade.
In recent years, rich Greeks who have made money
abroad, and especially in Egypt, have come to spend
it in the intellectual and political capital of HeUenism,
raising the prices and the standard of living, but raising
fine houses and spending money freely at the same time.
Others, again, permanently settled in distant lands, have
given of their abundance to enrich, perhaps not always
to beautify, the capital of the race : such were the
brothers Vagliano, who, at the suggestion of Queen
Olga, built the National Library; the brothers Zippa,
who founded the Zippeion for the encouragement of
Greek manufactures ; the late M. Averoff, the giver of
the marble Stidion ; and Baron Sfna, who erected the
Observatory. The wide, shadeless streets and the glare
of the marble houses may not be so well suited as narrow
lanes and Turkish buildings to the heat of summer; it
might have been better if the plan of modern Athens
had been made in Byzantium rather than in Germany.
But, undoubtedly, it can boast houses — that of M.
Skouloiides in Constitution Square; that buUt by M.
Pesmatzdglou in the Kephisia road; that of Mrs.
Schliemann, ' the palace of Ilion,' in University Street ;
and that of M. Mavromichales in the Amalia boulevard,
for example — which no European capital would scorn to
own. But there is no prospect without a cloud, and in
the case of Athens the cloud is of dust. The 'thin soU '
of Attica has not grown deeper since the days of Thu-
cydides, and the lack of water makes it impossible to
cope with the myriads of fine particles, which penetrate
into the most hidden recesses, and carry infectious germs
184

in Town and Country
hither and thither. In a high wind an Athenian street
resembles the desert during a sand-storm; in ordinary
times it is thought necessary to station small boys with
feather-brushes to flick the boots of the visitor as he
enters a hotel. The ordinary Athenian has his boots
cleaned many times a day ; if he had only a penny in
the world, he would spend half of it on having his shoes
polished and the other half on a paper to read during
the operation. Hence the vast army of bootblacks who
form so marked a feature of Athenian life, and who are
constantly knocking their boxes to attract the notice
of the passer-by. They are excellent little boys, ex
tremely honest, industrious — often amassing large sums of
money with which they support their relatives at home
in Gortynia (whence they mostly come) — and eager
learners at the Parnassbs night-school. They run errands,
sell papers and lottery tickets, act as porters, and make
themselves generally useful.
The centre of life at Athens is the Constitution Square,
where are the best hotels, the best cafe, and ample room
to sit out-of-doors and talk politics. Here, every morning,
when the King is in residence, and the guard up at the
Palace changes, you may see the people reverently
salute the flag, as it is carried past to the accompaniment
of music. The cabmen stand up on their boxes and
take off their hats, and the customers inside the big cafi
at the corner rise, in token of respect to the national
emblem — a spectacle all the more curious because there
is, as a rule, no great demonstration at the theatre or
elsewhere when the King or any other member of the
Royal family is present. Here, in the bright afternoons
of winter and the pleasant nights of summer, the tables
and chairs are occupied by a crowd of Athenians, while
others walk to and fro. A garden, called ' ofthe Muses,'
and planted with orange trees, whose bitter frait is never
stolen, forms a rare attraction in treeless Athens.
Despite its modern houses, Athens has still oriental
characteristics. There are the flocks of goats — the Athens
18S

Greek Life
milkmen — strolling about the streets with the inquisitive
eye which the Greek goat, a true HeUene, always pos
sesses. The roads are in places distinctly Turkish, and
the donkeys, laden with ruddy grapes at vintage-time,
burdened with golden oranges in the winter, give the
place an Eastern aspect. There are the peasants in
from the villages of Attica, clad in their fustanellas and
driving in their spring-carts or soiistas, with the myste
rious hand invariably painted upon them.* Here and
there are islanders in baggy trousers, picturesque excep
tions to the mass of townsfolk in European clothes, or
a tall Cretan, or a Cypriote lace-seller, in long boots.
One very oriental figure of the Athenian streets is the
old mad musician, who plays on a pipe made out of the
barrel of the gun with which, years ago, he accidentally
killed his son. The poor old fellow daily drones his
ditty, and sells his own photograph on one of the picture-
postcards to the benevolent bystander. Down in the
Plika, a quarter which preserves the name which it bore
at the time of Spon's visit more than two hundred years
ago, there are still quaint old Turkish houses standing
back in secluded courtyards with little gardens — far more
enviable houses than the marble palaces of the wealthy,
especially as the Plika is the healthiest part of the city.
One of these houses in Hadrian Street, with which I am
acquainted, is a veritable rus in urbe. ' Shoe Lane,' the
bazaar where Greek purses and shoes are bought, though
less picturesque than the similar market at Lamia, might
be in any Turkish town, and the oriental custom still
prevails of having separate quarters for leatherwork and
for ironwork, while in another part of Athens all the
butchers' shops are together. Another curious relic,
* I 'must have asked fifty Greeks, including the makers and
drivers of these carts, the meaning of this hand ; none could tell
me, some had never noticed it. The usual reply was that they
* supposed it showed the way the cart was going.' I imagine it is
a survival of some very ancient symbol against the evil eye, such as
one finds in Tunisia. 186

in Town and Country
often threatened, but not yet destroyed, to make way for
a carriage-road round the Akropolis, is the colony of
poor houses which nestles under the north wall of that
'sacred rock.' This is the so-called Anaphibtika, origi
nally founded by emigrants from the small and distant
island of Anaphi. Though no longer exclusively tenanted
by the natives of that island, many islanders still live
there, and the houses have the flat roofs so characteristic
of the little towns in the Cyclades. Up at the Ana
phibtika, I have found the old mediaeval name for the
Akropolis, 'the castle,' still surviving among the small boys.
Less fortunate in this respect than Belgrade with its
leafy Topchider, Athens has no park, though the Royal
garden serves as such on the days when it is open to the
public. Much has, however, been done in late years for
the garden round the Zippeion, on which the Govern
ment spent 20,000 dr. two years ago, and which has
become a delightful promenade of a warm evening.
Another sum of 20,000 dr. was also laid out for the
maintenance of other gardens and for similar objects,
and every year a considerable amount is put down in
the budget for the beautification of Athens and its
surroundings. There is a botanical garden on the
Sacred Way which still bears the name of ' the Hasekes,' *
of Hadji Ali, the tyrant of Athens in the last quarter
of the eighteenth century, who first planted it.
The olive-grove on the road to Daphni still flourishes,
though Kolonds is now a howling wilderness, and there
are a good many trees on Ardettos and on the further
banks of the Ilissds. The late Queen Amalia began to
plant Lykabettds and the approach to the Akropolis,
and Princess Sophia, following in her footsteps, wishes
to have the work continued. The lower pait of Lyka
bettds has now been planted and fenced in, and the
Princess, her husband, and their children planted the
slope leading up to the monument of Phildpappos, near
the so-called 'Prison of Sokrates.' There the trees,
* ' Hasekfe ' was the name of the Sultan's body-guards.
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Greek Life
though never watered, are doing well, and have been
enclosed by wire. Small plants, which, on the ground
of economy, are preferable to seed — for the latter could
never survive the six months' summer drought — usually
live, and grow fast in this climate. But the work of
planting Athens is very expensive. There is the cost
of fencing, which often exceeds that of planting ; for
instance, to fence one piece of ground alone cost iooo dr.
Yet this expense is inevitable, for the first instinct of
the Greek when he sees a tree is to cut it down. Out
side one of the Athenian churches there used to be a
fine tree, beneath which, in the warm evenings, the priest
was wont to sit. I had often seen him there, until one
evening as I passed I found that the tree had been hewn
to the ground, though Athens can UI spare a single
shrub. Out at Kolokynthou, one of the shadiest and
most agreeable of suburban resorts, where fine palms
and leafy poplars and pleasant gardens mark the neigh
bourhood of the Kephissds, a splendid tree was felled
for no reason whatever, and all over the country it is
the same. An even greater expense is that of buying
up the land. Near Phildpappos it costs 10 dr. a metre,
and the owners refuse to sell the lower part of the land
there, except at a high price. When it is proposed to
go on with the planting of the ground leading up to the
Akropolis, private owners with many years' titles sud
denly appear and claim compensation. Still, however,
the work is slowly proceeding. A nursery has been
started at Pankriti, between Athens and Hymettds, and
a hill close to was being planted when I visited the
spot. As small trees from this nursery are sold to the
public at 5 lepti apiece, any Athenian can purchase them
extremely cheap for his own garden. There is also a
plan for making a big park in ' the Plain of Mars,' and
there has been talk of clothing the slopes of Hymettds
with trees. But for all these things money is wanted.
A Greek millionaire, who, finding Athens dry and dusty,
would leave it green and shady, would confer a greater
188

'*=*».

THE VILLA SCHLIEMANN, ATHENS,

in Town and Country
boon upon it than if he erected a whole forest of marble
statues or endowed it with some new institute, branded
with his name in golden letters, as 'benefactor of his
country,' over the entrance. After all, the soil is not
ungenerous. It is amazing to see how the terribly burnt-
up surroundings of Athens suddenly become green in
November and December after the rains. In the latter
month, I have even seen grass growing, as in Plato's
time, near the banks of the Ilissds, and upon the Areo
pagos itself.
The population of Athens, as might be expected in
the case of a city which has grown so rapidly, is com
posed of elements from all parts of the Hellenic world.
Besides a host of people from the provinces who have
established themselves in the capital, there are numbers
of Cretans, often distinguished by their names ending in
¦akes, just as the termination -opoulos marks the Pelo-
ponnesian, and -akos the Maniate. Cretans abound in
the army (M. Limprites, an ex-Minister of War, was a
Cretan, for example), in the administration, in domestic
service, and in commerce (for instance, the governor
of the National Bank). One part of the Piraeus is called
to. Kp-ijTiKd, and is a regular Cretan colony, and it is esti
mated that there are altogether about 50,000 Cretans in
Greece. Hence the intense sympathy felt for ' the heroic
island,' which, from first to last, — so a leading economist
informs me — has cost the mother country 200,000,000
gold francs of debt, and has enormously crippled
her efforts in other directions. Not a few prominent
Athenians — M. Bikelas in literature and M. Dragoumes
in politics — are of Macedonian origin, while M. Kazazes,
the apostle of Pan-hellenism, and M. Karolides, the
eminent historian, were both born in the Turkish Empire,
and the latter had to learn Greek as a foreign language.
Many of the marble-workers in the quarries near Athens
came from the Turkish island of Karpathos, most of the
Athenian masons are Bulgarians, and all over Greece
the bakers come from Epiros. 189

Greek Life
Some of the old Athenian families, whose names we
meet in the history of Athens under the Turks, still have
representatives. There is, oldest of all, that of Chalko
kondyles, which boasts its descent from the last, and not
the least, of the Athenian historians. There are the
Venizeloi (according to M. Kampodroglos, of Italian
origin), who kept learning alive at Athens in the Turkish
days. There are also a few descendants of the Phana-
riote families, which came here after the confiscation of
much of their property by the Turks at the time of the
War of Independence. One doctor can boast a family
tree showing his descent from one of those Venetian
dynasties which held sway in the Cyclades before the
Turkish conquest. M. Kyriakoules Mavromichales,
the present Minister of War, is head of the famous
Maniate clan, which is mentioned in connexion with
that rugged land in a Venetian document of 1690, and
the former chief of which was the celebrated Petro —
last hereditary Bey of Mine in the Turkish times. In
his fine house at Athens, M. Mavromichiles has a re
markable collection of his ancestors' portraits, which
form an eventful page in the modern annals of Greece.
There is old Petro Bey — a striking likeness to the
present head of the house; there are the two Mavro-
michilai who slew Capo d'Istria at Naupha, and perished
on the scaffold for their deed; there, too, are several
portraits of the great Napoleon, whom the people of
Mine claim as one of themselves, and who fostered the
idea when he meditated the conquest of Greece.* AU
around hang the arms which the politician's ancestors
used against the Turks or in their constant blood-feuds,
while the mansion is furnished in European style. But
* The idea is not so far-fetched as it seems. The village of
Cargese, in Corsica, has been long inhabited by a colony of
Maniates, whence Napoleon chose the two emissaries, the Stephan6-
pouloi, whom he sent to Greece. His name, according to the
Maniate version, is simply a translation of the Greek kalb mJros
(Buonaparte). 190

in Town and Country
M. Mavromichales owes his wealth, as he says, not to
his paternal pedigree, but to the lucky accident that his
mother, a Soutso, one of the great family which gave
a prince to Wallachia, had large Roumanian estates.
He is the only rich Greek of old Greek lineage. As a
rule, the historic families are poor — one of them is even
forced to sell its heirlooms; while the wealthiest resi
dents are MM. Skouzes and Pesmatzdglou, the bankers ;
M. Stephanos Skouloiides, who made his money in
partnership with the late M. Syngrds at Constantinople ;
M. Karapinos, the present Minister of Justice, who
excavated Dodona, and has given his fine collection
to the National Museum; M. Serpieri, whose wealth is
due to the discovery of the passage in Strabo which
alludes to the silver-mines of Lavrion ; Mrs. Schliemann,
widow of the famous excavator of Troy and Mycenae ;
MM. Averoff, Melas, Kalligas, and Psycha.
Except in cosmopolitan society, such as that of the
various legations and of the thoroughly Europeanised
Greeks who take Paris as their model, there is very little
entertaining. The Greek bourgeois will ask you to his
house, but very seldom indeed to a dinner-party. A
friend of mine, during ten years' residence in Athens,
was only once invited to dine in a Greek's house, and
his host told him, as a great compliment on that occa
sion, that he would never ask any one else. It is not
that the Hellene is inhospitable, far from it ; but he does
not understand hospitality in that way, and, besides, he
often takes his meals out. In Greece under the Turks,
as in Italy to-day, it was not the custom to ask
strangers to meals; and the Greek neither expects, nor
perhaps cares, to be so invited. Another reason for
this lack of entertainments at home is the faft that at
Athens almost every one of moderate means moves once
a year, on September i (O.S.). The reason for this
annual flitting is the frequent rise in rents, and the
natural discontent of hypercritical human nature with
what it has got. It is rare to find a man at the same
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Greek Life
address for more than twelve months, unless he owns
his house; and, as a natural result of this migratory
habit, furniture is reduced to a portable minimum and
walls are none too thickly covered. Society, among real
Greeks, is further hampered by the semi-oriental posi
tion which women still occupy among them. If one
goes to take light refreshments or to pay a caU in an
Athenian house, the ladies usuaUy congregate and talk
of purely female matters in one part of the room, and
the men discuss politics or literature in another. One
can thus rarely speak to one's hostess at all, except on
arriving and departing. With rare exceptions, the Greek
woman has no subjects of conversation except of an
absolutely domestic character, and she is content, for
the most part, to play the useful but humdrum part of
Martha to her lord and master. It is possible to know
a man for years and not to know his wife, and I have
heard of one case where a husband went a step further,
and shut up his wife in truly Turkish fashion. Of course,
the cosmopolitan Athenian ladies are more like society
dames elsewhere, but they are not typical of genuinely
Greek womanhood. As an Athenian matron remarked
to me, the women are only slowly emerging from the
obscure position which their grandmothers occupied
during the Turkish domination.
Leases at Athens are usually annual, the landlord
paying for the repairs. The Government imposes a
tax on houses, amounting to about 5 per cent, on the
rental, assessed on the number of rooms and the position
of the house. Where a house is the property of the
occupier, the percentage is calculated on what it would
let for. The assessment is not unfrequently made when
the occupier is out ; the assessor can then get hold of a
servant, and induce her to expatiate on the number of
the rooms, the advantages which ' this desirable residence '
possesses, and so on. There is, however, a right of
appeal against his assessment. House rent, as in most
capitals, has gone up in recent years; but the cost of
192

in Town and Country
living as regards meat and vegetables has not much
increased of late. Owing, however, to the high scale
of duties, all imported articles are very dear. European
hats, clothes, and similar things cost much more than
in London. Moreover, at present the metal drachma
is reckoned at the Greek custom-houses as equivalent
to i'45 dr. in paper; whereas its real value, owing to
the fall in the exchange, is only 1*29 dr.* Even in
the good shops in the Hermes and the Stidion streets
bargaining prevails; but after higgling over a piece of
silk in oriental fashion, it is pleasant to hear the victorious
seller wish his victim ' health to wear it ' as he cuts it off.
Female servants come mostly from the Cyclades, the
best from Andros and Tenos. When they have saved
money they usually return to their native islands, and
easily find husbands, thanks to the attraction of their
earnings. Later on, they often go back to Athens as
wet-nurses. As many of them enter European families
at Athens they introduce Western ideas into their island
homes. This may delight lovers of ' progress,' but it is
having the effect of destroying the curious old customs
and ceremonies for which the Cyclades were famous.
I remember once asking a Europeanised servant-girl
from Mykonos whether the death-wails, of which Mr.
Bent wrote so well twenty years ago, still survived in her
native islet. She replied that she had never heard of
them, and looked with scorn on such old wives' fables.
Another inevitable result is the disappearance of costume
from Andros. In the hotels of Athens, female servants
are only kept as a concession to Europeans, and then
only in infinitesimal proportion to the men-servants. The
latter I have always found polite, obliging, honest, and
most entertaining. During an illness my m»n-servant
used not only to lend me books, but would keep me
company when I was alone at dinner by standing and
retailing for my benefit all the news which he had
gleaned from the evening papers. When there was no
* 1-24 dr. (April 15, 1905.)
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Greek Life
news he would say, ' There is great tranquUhty to-night,'
and would discourse of other topics. Greek servants,
when people do not give themselves airs, but treat them
as intelligent beings, will unburden to them all their
family history, their ambitions, and their views on things
in general. They are often very well informed; being
Greeks, of course they are politicians. During the war
of 1897 they used to put down the dishes at table and
rush out to discuss the situation. If they hear any one
talking politics they will at once approach, and eagerly
prick up their ears to glean what he is saying. Some
times they may bear very distinguished names. At one
hotel in Athens, where nearly all the servants come from
Kythera, the chief cook is called Deme'trios Veneres,
the Greek form of Venier, and may not unlikely be a de
scendant of the ducal family of Venice, which ruled over
that island of Venus (its ancestress) in the Middle Ages.
Athens, producing little, draws its supplies from far
and near. The early vegetables come from Syra, the
best veal from Naxos, the finest oranges from Kalamata.
The flowers which one sees for sale in the streets are
from the suburbs of Patesia and Ambelokepoi; cartloads
of splendid cauliflowers may be seen on their way from
Eleusis through the Pass of Daphni ; and in the season
I have never passed Megara station without being asked
to buy a fine hare. The ' sacred rock ' of the Akropolis
produces a mustard plant, from which an excellent
salad is made, and in February numbers of women
may be seen collecting herbs and digging up roots
on the Pnyx and near the monument of PhUdpappos,
which they cook and eat. The best honey comes from
Karystos in Euboia: much is also produced on
Tourko-Vouni, near Athens. Hymettds is no longer
the great honey mountain; but I have seen a colony
of basket beehives covered with leaves near the
monastery of St. John the Hunter on one of its spurs.
A fair local wine, both red and white, comes from the
vineyards on the slopes of Parnes, and is called Sdlonos,
194

THE MOAT, CORFU.

in Town and Country
not after the great legislator and sage, but after a leading
Athenian vine-grower. The King's vintage, called by the
classic name of Dekeleia, and grown on his estate at
Tatoi, has somewhat deteriorated since the vineyard
passed out of his Majesty's direct supervision. Tour
la Reine, or, as the wine-lists phonetically.' spell it,
Tourlarkn, is an agreeable light beverage, and several
good brands come from the German 'Achaia Wine
Company's' estate near Patras. But most of the Greek
wines, except the native retsindto, are rather spirituous.
WhUe the Greeks, especially in the remote country
districts, are a long-lived race, there are signs of physical
deterioration among those who have always been town
dwellers. When I was staying in Andros an old man
died there aged 113; I know of an old lady still living
in Kythera at the age of 105 ; and an entertainment
was recently given at Athens in honour of the oldest
doctor in the army, aged 107, who had taken part in
the War of Independence. The splendid old men of the
Peloponnesos, their fine physique set off by the fustanella,
have, however, few rivals among the smaU, Europeanised,
' street-bred people.' The plague of Greece, in country
and capital alike, is consumption. The year before
last, out of a total of 3330 deaths at Athens, 640, or
about 19 per cent., were due to this fell disease. Yet
a foreign expert has stated that the islands of Aigina,
Hydra, and Spetsai are probably the best sanatoria in
Europe for consumptives. Poros is the favourite station
for Greeks troubled with lung complaints, owing to its
delightful climate, and a Greek of my acquaintance has
for the same reason gone to live in Aigina. Yet, despite
these climatic advantages, Greece shows annually a long
tale of victims to phthisis. A leading doqttor and a
practical landowner, both of whom I consulted as to
the cause, made the same reply — the carelessness of the
people. Yet the Greeks are extremely frightened of
infectious diseases. There is no country where quaran
tine is more rigorously enforced, and a few cases of
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Greek Life
small-pox (euphemistically called 'blessing') arouse an
alarm in the Press. It will scarcely be believed, but it is
nevertheless true, that there is no hospital of any kind
at Athens for infectious diseases, though, when funds
are forthcoming, it is proposed to open one building of
the children's hospital for juvenile infectious complaints.
Meanwhile, a stranger who is so unfortunate as to con
tract an infectious disease is reduced to seek the shelter
of some private house. A consumptive hospital is also
much wanted, and Mrs. Schliemann is endeavouring to
raise funds for that purpose. There is also a scheme for
a sanatorium on the east slope of classic Taygetos.
Another very prevalent disease is stone, from which
even children suffer. As regards the women of Athens,
I think their maladies are usually due to lack of exercise
and fresh air. When they are indisposed they are apt
to think that their last hour has come, and they remain
indoors for days en dishabille, receiving visits of con
dolence from their friends. Let it but rain a little,
and no Athenian, male or female, will go out. In wet
weather no one goes to the theatre, the consumption
of tobacco diminishes, and the receipts of Zacharitos's
cafi fall off by one-half. Even the peasants of Euboia
refuse to work in the rain. Yet the same Greeks, who
are afraid of a little moisture, and think that their end
has come when they are laid up with a cold, will bear
severe pain and undergo dangerous operations with
astonishing fortitude. During the war of 1897 the
English doctors and nurses told me that they were
amazed at the endurance of their patients, and at the
immense amount of pain which they could bear without
anaesthetics. On such occasions Greeks seem to have no
nerves. Fortunately, Athens is provided with excellent
surgeons and physicians, though the medical profession
is hugely overstocked, and fees are low. A doctor's
legal honorarium is 2 dr. — a sum fixed by a law of
1833 — his usual fee 5 dr., which to a European may
become gold francs. A first-class surgeon will charge
196

in Town and Country

10 frcs. a visit. But many families adopt the plan of
paying 200 dr. a year to a doctor (in the provincial
town of Lamia the annual fee is as low as 100 dr.),
whether they are well or ill. This practice naturally
increases the number of malades imaginaires.
Despite the advance of education, there is still a good
deal of superstition, even at Athens. Last February a
miracle-working eikdn of the Virgin in a blacksmith's
shop in Menander Street attracted crowds of people, and
various cures were reported. That particular part of the
city has always been associated in the popular traditions
with the healing art. Not far off is the little church
called St. John of the Column, because it is built round a
column, which was originally part of an ancient temple,
and which projects through the roof of the church. The
populace still believes that fevers are buried beneath this
column, and it is the custom for people to fasten shreds
of their garments upon it, or, as it is called, ' to bind their
fever on to the column,' St. John the Baptist being
specially connected in Greece with the cure of fevers.
On one occasion, when I was suffering from a bad leg, a
Greek lady who saw it insisted upon spitting on it to
avert the evil eye; the same lady once told me that,
despising the warnings of her Kytherian maid-servant,
she had killed a snake in her house ; before the year was
up, her mother died. During the war of 1897, an officer
carried in his pocket as a charm a piece of the true
cross, which his family had received from a bishop.
Among all Greeks Tuesday- — the day when Constantinople
was taken — is regarded as an unlucky day, so much so
that when M. Andre" arrived on a Monday from Paris to
put together the famous bronze statue of ' the Youth of
Antikythera,' he was not allowed to begin work, as he had
wished, on the following day. Even the King has his
superstitions, too ; for when M. Theotdkes last took office,
in December, 1903, his Majesty would not allow the Mini
sters to be sworn in that day, because it was a Friday.
The servants of a friend of mine considered it unlucky to
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take soap from her hand, and no one will ever buy
brooms or be married in May. The women will never
sell eggs after sunset, nor yeast at night. M. Bikelas
tells me that when he built his house at Athens, he found
that the builder had thought it necessary to kill a cock
and sprinkle the foundations with its blood — an idea
which may be paralleled from the legend of the bridges
at Arta and at Visegrad in Bosnia, and of which
several instances could be given from different parts of
Greece. In respect of amusements, the ancient home of the
drama possesses two theatres — the Municipal and the
Royal. The former, erected at the expense of the late M.
Syngr6s, is a large building surrounded by vast numbers
of boxes. But it is badly constructed, looks bare and
comfortless, and is extremely cold. The latter owes its
existence to the King. Some ten years ago the Greeks
of London (conspicuous among them the RaUis) placed
a large sum at his disposal; with this and the gradual
addition of a considerable amount out of his own pocket,
he was able, four years ago, to build this new theatre
on the model of the Royal at Copenhagen. Its situation
in a street on the way to the Peloponnesian station is not
good, but it is a nice, well-furnished little theatre, with
seats for a thousand spectators, four boxes, a splendid
foyer, which can be used as a ballroom, and an iron stage.
The theatrical season begins on November i (O.S.), and
lasts six months. The company of the Royal, which
consists of twenty-five persons, is, however, paid aU the
year round at rates varying from ioo dr. to 500 dr. a month.
There is no Government subvention, and without the
King's generous subsidy of 100,000 dr. a year the theatre
would not pay. It has a large ripertoire, and some of its
actors and actresses are of considerable merit. M. Fiirst,
a Greek whose father was a German, is the best exponent
of tragedy, and M. Zinos of comedy ; among the actresses
Mile. Frankopoiilou, Mme. Nfka, Mile. Kotopoule, and
Mile. Tiven are most esteemed. M. Tavoulires is a
198

in Town and Country
good actor who has lately been in America and London.
Athens has also frequently the opportunity of seeing the
best European talent. Duse has acted there in Italian,
and Sorma in German, and Rdjane delighted the natives
by appearing in classic dress. The winter before last, an
American lady, Miss Duncan, drew large audiences to both
the theatres by her ancient dances, danced in the garb of
the Periclean age with bare feet, while her brother, clad also
in ancient Greek costume, stood at the receipt of custom.
In addition to these two theatres, there is ' the New Stage,'
a dramatic troupe which contains two good actresses. It
has no fixed abode, travelling in Egypt and other centres
of external Hellenism in the winter, and playing in the
summer theatres of Athens during the rest of the year.
Of these summer theatres, Athens has some eight or ten,
and they are very popular. Occasionally they indulge in
transpontine melodrama, and I remember seeing a
flaming advertisement of a blood-curdling episode in
modern Greek history : * ' The Brigands' Reign of Terror
(1854-56), or Daveles the Arch-brigand : in four acts and
nine tableaux.' They are never suggestive, for the Greeks
dislike the pornographic drama. They threw cushions at an
indecent chanteuse, who had been engaged at the Athens
Exhibition of two years ago, they were indignant at the
too Parisian performance of a Danish actress lately at
the Royal, and it was considered doubtful whether they
would tolerate the scanty attire of Miss Duncan — a lady
who was too natural to suggest impropriety. There
is no capital where vice is so little conspicuous as at
Athens ; perhaps, however, it is an example of the late
Mr. Lecky's theory that domestic bliss suffers where there
is no other outlet for men's passions. With the exception
of two illustrated rags, one of which was prosecuted for
indecency, and the now almost universal Parisian post
cards, there is little to corrupt the morals of the passer-by.
* Daveles was killed by Megas at the classic a,XL0"'rii 6S6s, where a
monument still marks the event. Lives of him are often on sale in
the streets. 199

Greek Life
As a distinguished Greek novelist once said to me :
' We are not yet sufficiently civilised to be immoral.'
Besides the theatres, there are frequent lectures on a
great variety of subjects during the winter at the Parnassbs
literary society, which has a fine lecture-haU, a stage for
amateur theatricals, and a well-stocked reading-room.
Royalty patronises these lectures, and the best society
may be seen there, listening to discourses on mediaeval
history, literary topics, or sponge-fishing. Like the
Italians, the Greeks are good lecturers, and they are not
slow to criticise the halting speech of some Englishmen
who have addressed them. Of outdoor amusements, in
winter the most fashionable is ' fox-hunting,' so called — a
species of hare and hounds, in which one person on
horseback acts the part of the fox, and is pursued by
others, also mounted. The Royal family is often present
at this sport. In summer, there are horse-races at a
place on the road to Menidi, sarcasticaUy called Podo-
niphte, because there is never sufficient water there to
' wash the feet' So terrible is the dust on that occasion,
that wives cannot recognise their husbands or children
their parents in the grimy creatures who drive back
from the racecourse, and gentlemen, leaving Athens in
black frock-coats, return attired in the more fashion
able grey. The principal square and the chief street
are provided with arches for illuminations, and they
are lighted up on great occasions. When, as on the
night of Princess Alice's arrival the year before last, the
Akropolis is illuminated with red and green lights, the
effect is fairy-like, and the great Parthenon stands out
as if a second Morosini had set it ablaze. To visit it
by moonlight is the aim of every traveller.
The cafis are, of course, the favourite meeting-place of
the male population, where, over a cup of Turkish coffee
and a glass of water — invariably served with it — politics
may be discussed from morning to night. There are,
indeed, some habituis who come early in the morning and
remain all day, and the ' Senate of Zacharitos,' so called
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in Town and Country

from the best cafi, that at the corner of Stidion Street
and Constitution Square, usually sits till 3 a.m. playing
billiards and discussing the affairs of the Greek and
other nations. During the Russo-Japanese war it has
been the constant practice of these cafi strategists to draw
pencil plans of compaign on the tops of the marble tables.
At last, the waiters of Zacharitos, so it was said by some
wag, induced a publisher to issue a war map, in order to
save themselves the trouble of constantly sponging the
marble slabs !
Though public opinion outside Corfii is strongly
opposed to the conversion of that charming island
into a Levantine Monte Carlo, yet there is a great
amount of gambling at Athens, and there are many
regular gambling-hells. ' Mouse ' — a Corfiote game —
takes the place of 'bridge' with us, and the papers
complain that it has paralysed all rational conversation,
and that, as soon as people arrive at a house in the
evening, they are set down to play it. In Corfu it has
long been the rage; even during the war of 1897 I
remember it was the chief distraction of ardent patriots,
and when the Corfiote deputies are in Athens for the
session, they play their favourite game in the intervals
of supporting M. Theotokes. Ladies, as well as men,
fall victims to the ' mouse '-trap.
The Athenians rarely walk, if they can possibly drive,
and, indeed, there are few walks at Athens. They will
take the tram up Stidion Street rather than go on their
legs, and stare in amazement at the pedestrian feats of
Englishmen. As a consequence of this, the average
Athenian knows little of the country, which he is apt to
regard as a wild and savage region, where no sensible
person who can enjoy town life would care to go. An
Athenian lady, who had married an Englishman, once
said to me : ' Now that I have an English husband, I
shall see something of Greece.' Another Greek lady of
means is considered quite eccentric because she spends
much time on her property in Euboia ; and when one of
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our countrymen, who has a fine estate in that island,
invited the late head of the Athens police to stay with
him, the latter declined the invitation with the remark
that he could not possibly stay in the country for more
than six hours at a time. A typical Athenian expressed
great surprise that I was not bored by a similar visit, and
I have heard M. Za'imes blamed for living so much in the
country, at Aigina and Rhion.
The means of locomotion in Athens are excellent.
Besides the trams, there are the curious little vis-d-vis
carriages, to seat four, which ply up and down Stidion
Street, and in which any stranger may take a single
seat for 10 lepti, as in an omnibus. The ordinary
carriages, for some reason which is not obvious, never
have less than two horses, and usually have the British
arms on the carriage doors. The Uttle Greek horses are
very wiry; the bigger horses come from Hungary or
Servia. In cold weather they look very gay, with bright
woolly rugs thrown over them. The horses in carts and
trams often suffer from being overloaded, and unfortunately
the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals can
do little, because it has no law behind it. When a kind-
hearted deputy introduced such a proposal, his feUow-
members laughed at him as a ' crank.' However, the
society publishes a monthly magazine, and organises
entertainments for children, whom it is also sought to
interest in animals by appropriate stories in the
elementary reading-books. But to bring chUdren up
with pet animals, especially dogs, is regarded as extra
ordinary. Foreign dogs do not thrive in Athens ; they
suffer from the heat. There is nominaUy a dog-tax,
which, in practice, is rarely exacted; but in order to
keep down the number of dogs, an official, called the
' executioner,' occasionally goes through the city, armed
with an instrument like a huge pair of pincers, with which
he seizes stray curs, and places them howling in his cart.
Last spring the whole official world was disturbed, because
the child of a Minister was bitten by an unknown dog ;

in Town and Country
the head of the police was made to resign, because he
could not find the suspicious animal, whose mistress refused
to reply to heart-rending advertisements in the papers, and
' the executioner ' was let loose on the canine tribe.
Rabies is not uncommon, and there is a Pasteur institute
for its treatment ; but it is not always easy to persuade
the peasants to go there.
The fashionable drive at Athens is that to Phaleron,
which the King takes almost daily ; the straight new road
there, recently finished at the expense of the late M.
Syngrds, and called after him, is the smoothest and bestr
near the capital. It is a paradise for cyclists, for whom
the surroundings of Athens have hitherto had few charms.
The Kephisia and the Marathon roads were their best
tracks, though by no means perfect; when once one
cycles along the less-frequented paths, one is apt to stick
in the sandy furrows, or, in the proximity of the town,
to puncture on the edge of one of those petroleum-tins,
which have been truly called ' the sign of Hellenic civilisa
tion in the East,' and out of which the versatile Greek
makes water-jars, houses, and everything else. Among
Athenian ladies cycling is no longer fashionable. Lawn-
tennis is played by smart people, diplomatists, and others,
at the three courts beneath the temple of Olympian Zeus ;
and the British have a golf-links. In summer the bathing
at Old and New Phaleron is a pure delight, and the latter
spot has become the Brighton of Athens, with the advan
tage that it is cheaply, easily, and quickly reached by steam-
tram or train. Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays are
the aristocratic days there, when the beau monde may be
seen disporting itself on the pier, admiring the foreign
men-of-war, which are often anchored there, or lunching
at the Aktaion, the fine new hotel, fitted up ki Turkish
style with admirable taste, which was erected by M.
Pesmatzdglou, the director of the Bank of Athens, at a
cost of 2,500,000 dr. Phaleron, however, lacks trees ; and
many think that a far pleasanter plage might be made
at Vouliagmehe — a delightful spot thirteen miles from
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Athens in the direction of Sunium. Vouliagmehe (' the
filled-up place,' so called from a lake of clear, green water,
which has 'filled up' what looks like the crater of a
volcano) has many advantages : a good, sandy beach,
ample wood, a beautiful bay with an island opposite, and
the protecting arm of an isthmus to shelter it on the side
towards Phaleron. But it lacks drinking-water, and is
at present merely a. plage en criation — a few bathing-sheds
in the lake, a row of bathing-houses facing the sea, two
or three dwellings, a church, and an inn. If the Phaieron
tram were extended here, it would doubtless be developed.
Kephisia, the rival of Phaleron, has abundant water and
shade. In summer the well-to-do Athenians follow the
example of Herodes Atticus, and reside in then villas
there; a large public garden, poetically called 'The
Grove,' has lately been laid out near the station, whence
frequent trains, at low fares, take business men into the
capital. At Marousi, a little nearer in, whence comes
' the immortal water,' which one sees sold in the streets
of Athens, some families pass the hot weather; others
take lodgings at Menidi, near the foot of Parnes, and a
leading Athenian doctor advocates the founding of a
sanatorium on that cool mountain, and the construction
of a funicular railway up its sides. Sir Edwin Egerton,
when our Minister in Greece, brought Aigina into notice
as an agreeable spring residence, and some dust-choked
citizens go to watery Andros and other ^Egean islands in
the summer. But the aim of the rich is to visit ' Europe,'
of which they often know more than of the natural
beauties of their own country. An Athenian who voyages
eastward in his vacation, like M. PapamichaUdpoulos,
who has written a recent book of travel on the cities
of the Euxine, is regarded as a veritable Argonaut.
Beggars are much less numerous at Athens, and also
much less importunate, than in Rome. They have the
picturesque habit of imploring the passer-by to give them
alms in the name of the saint whose festival it may
happen to be. The same mendicant has adjured me to
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in Town and Country
help him in the name of St. Spiridon on December 12,
and in that of St. Deme'trios on October 26. The custom
of wearing arms, which Thucydides says was obsolete
among the Greeks of his day, is unfortunately very pre
valent, and leads to many accidents and some assaults.
The law forbids the carrying of firearms ; but the law is
one thing and the practice another. Most of the people
in the cafis wear revolvers, and since the irregulars of
1897 sold their arms they have been far too cheap.
Happily, drinking is a rare vice in Greece — in fact, I
never remember seeing a drunken Greek, — but in some
districts, where foreign companies pay men more than
the usual earnings of a peasant, the wages are apt to go
in the spirit called ouzo. Some workmen are accustomed
to spend most of their money on one day, rows naturally
ensue, and revolvers are drawn. But at election-times
and at Easter there is much reckless firing in the
streets, and there are many casualties; for the Greek
loves to show his joy by the discharge of ball cartridge
on high-days and holidays, and does not always look
where he is shooting. I remember once at Olympia,
on Easter morning, the cook of my hotel produced a
Mauser rifle, loaded with ball, and let fly at random ; and
an Athenian paper, commenting on the butcher's bill of
the Easter festivities, remarked that ' more Greeks than
lambs had been slain.'
The port of Athens, the famous Piraeus, has once
more recovered its ancient importance, and bids fair to
have a future which will far exceed what ThemistoklSs
could ever have anticipated for it. Its growth has been
even more astonishing than that of Athens. I have been
told by old Greeks that they remember the place when
there was hardly a single house there; and^Dodwell,
when he visited it nearly a century ago, found ' some
times not a single boat within the port;' when Otho
landed in 1834, it had only one house and eight wooden
magazines ; long after the establishment of the Greek
kingdom it was less important commercially than Patras
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Greek Life
or Syra. It has now passed all its rivals ; at the last
census, in 1896, it had a population of 42,169, second to
that of the capital alone, and it has increased rapidly
since that date. It is pre-eminently a cosmopoUtan place,
where you may see jinscriptions in many languages, and
its inhabitants are natives of every part of Greece —
except the Piraeus. Their absorption in commerce may
be judged from the fact that then town actuaUy boasts
a newspaper which has no political news, and business
men of the Piraeus have been known to deprecate too
frequent elections. Its harbour is the busiest and the
most picturesque in the kingdom. Caiques from every
part of the Archipelago are drawn up to the quay,
with their sterns, which serve as shop-counters for the
sale of their cargo, turned to the land. Here is one
flying the red and blue Samian flag, and converted into
a floating emporium, for the sale of fhe sweet Samian
wine. Here is another laden with oranges from Crete ;
farther out are the flags of half a dozen European
countries. Round the harbour are the agencies of steam
ship lines, and there is the market-place — a study in itself,
with its strings of onions and red pepper- pods, and its
vast quantities of white and slimy octopus of aU sizes.
A few big merchants live at the Piraeus; but it is not
such an agreeable residence as Athens, and the com
munication by train is so frequent, cheap, and rapid, that
most prefer to go backwards and forwards to their daily
avocations. Some day the two towns will doubtless form
one continuous mass of houses, for the interval of open
country between them has grown less, though the develop
ment of Athens has latterly been rather in an inland
direction.

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ALBANIAN COSTUME.

in Town and Country

CHAPTER XI
COUNTRY LIFE
The Greek has in all ages been a lover of the town. It
is difficult to make the Athenians understand how any
educated person can wish to live for long in the country,
and very few well-to-do Greeks have country seats where
they pass a portion of the year. Yet in the whole of
Greece there are only, between twelve and sixteen towns
with a population of more than 10,000, and of these the
capital alone has attained to the dignity of six figures.
Accordingly, a large part of the total population lives in
villages and hamlets, scattered about the land.
Among the country-folk, as a rule, the best qualities,
physical and moral, of the race are to be found. It is
astonishing how many eminent personages have come
from Akarnania and Aitolia ; the best pupils in the
schools, so a schoolmaster once told me, are those from
the out-of-the-way district of Kynouria, in the Eastern
Peloponnesos. One generally notices that the finest men
in the country districts are those who continue to wear
the national dress, while the younger generation, which
has more usually discarded it, seldom produces such
splendid specimens of humanity as one sees among the
seniors. The modern Spartans, for example, who hardly
ever wear the national costume, preferring the black tail
coat ancl bowler of the West, despite the absolute un-
suitability of black for the Hellenic climate, are mostly
undersized men ; physically, at least, not ' such as the
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Greek Life
Doric mothers bore.' It is observed, too, by Greeks
themselves, that when a man takes to European dress,
he leaves far more than his national clothes behind him.
M. Bikelas tells a story of a travelling variety show which
wrought much havoc among the natives of Karvassara
on the Ambrakian Gulf; it was found, however, that the
victims of the ladies' charms were all men who had
adopted European garments (and vices to match), while
the fustanella-wearing population did not allow its snowy
dress to be contaminated by the tinsel and tights of the
itinerant stage.
The old costume is much more commonly worn in some
places than in others. At Thebes there is a great deal still
to be seen, in keeping with the Turkish-looking houses of
the main street. In the mountainous region round Nau
paktos it is predominant, and the Albanian viUages of
Attica furnish the capital with numbers of fustanella-
wearing men and picturesquely clad women, who come
into town in their soustas. For this reason, strange as it
may seem, the capital is one of the best places for seeing
the costume. The Albanian population of Salamis has
a curious female garb — a skirt with many tucks and
pretty gauze veils. The Wallachs wear the fustaneUa
in summer, and baggy white trousers in winter; then
shaggy, grey woollen coats are a distinctive part of
their costume; their women usually wear then skirts
suspended from the hips. The fustanella is never worn
in the islands, except in Euboia; the proper insular
costume consists of very full breeches, the baggy por
tion of which hangs down between the legs, stockings,
a scarf round the waist, a sleeveless jacket, and a
scarlet fez, with a blue tassel. But in many of the
Cyclades — at Syra and Andros, for example, — there is
hardly any costume left, and the islanders dress in
European fashion. The garments worn by the peasants
of Euboia, as I saw them on the occasion of the
Chalkis exhibition, were the finest that I have noticed
anywhere. The women were laden on neck and waist
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in Town and Country
alike with mediaeval and Turkish coins, which had
long been heirlooms in their families. Their white,
home-spun petticoats, edged with coloured embroidery ;
their long, sleeveless coats, sometimes white, sometimes
coloured, according to the taste of the wearers, and
showing the embroidered sleeves of their under-gar-
ments; their zouaves, and their smart aprons, worked
in some cases to match the sleeves ; their girdles, with
enormous clasps ; their cummerbunds, wound round the
hips; their headdress of a yellow handkerchief; and
their high-heeled shoes — all these contrasted agreeably
with the ' European ' finery of the Chalkidian ladies of
quality. What a relief, too, after the top-hats and dress-
clothes of the male notabilities, who waited on the King,
to gaze on the snowy fustanellas of the old peasants !
Wherever the costume is general, the women of each
village have a special handkerchief, differently arranged
on the head according to the place whence they come,
by which they can be easily distinguished. In Euboia,
owing to the establishment of several foreign companies,
the men have taken to wearing hideous caps of German
manufacture. The proper Greek shoes are the tsarbuchia,
turned up at the toes, with a tassel on the tips ; but the
excellent and very cheap boots of Athens are supplant
ing them fast. I have noticed a very curious and simple
form of sandal in the Eastern Peloponnesos, which con
sists of a piece of leather, used as a sole, and a thong
of leather over the heel of the foot and round the instep.
The edge is also drawn in with a leather thong, and this
primitive shoe has no heel. Of course, in the present
transition period, one sees the most grotesque combina
tions of Greek and ' European ' dress on the same person —
' European ' overcoats over fustanellas, and simUar mon
strosities. It is much to be regretted that the King,
unlike his predecessor, who always wore the fustanella,
even after his deposition, does not encourage the national
costume by his example. He is said, however, to have once
expostulated with some islanders on their abandonment
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Greek Life
of their picturesque garb, and he lately expressed his
pleasure at meeting a village mayor in the fustaneUa;
the Diddochos drives about with a gorgeous fustaneUa-
wearing attendant on the box of his carriage, and Prince
George has tall Cretans in Cretan costume with him on
his frequent visits to Athens. But the day wUl come
when our prosaic dress will be universal in Greece,
Progressive men, unfortunately, consider it a mark of
civilisation and of ' European ' culture to wear trousers and
black coats, while the ladies look to the Parisian dress
makers for their inspirations.
With the costume, many customs are passing away.
Tenos still preserves the ancient practice of the ' evening
sitting,' or sperokdthisma, a gathering of old people, usually
in the evening, for the purpose of telling stories. Some
of these Tenian tales, which have been published by a
local schoolmaster, are veritable romances of palpitating
interest. The belief in the evil eye is still very prevalent. At
Syra a wooden cross is naUed on the bow of a boat as
a preventive. To admire a child is considered as certain
to bring misfortune upon it, and an elaborate system of
divination is practised, to discover whether the infant win
escape. A friend of mine at Syra one day found his
servants burning charcoal in front of his baby, and throw
ing cloves into the fire. On inquiry, he was informed
that some one had incautiously said that it was a pretty
child, and they accordingly feared that it would die.
Fortunately, the cloves did not burst with the heat— a
sure sign that the evU eye will have no effect ! In Euboia
I found that it was regarded as unlucky to meet a priest,
and the people with whom I was considered it desirable
to tie a knot in their handkerchiefs for every parson
whom they met. This is called 'tying up the priest,'
and is supposed to prevent the holy man from doing
mischief. ' European ' dancing has now supplanted the Greek
measures in some of the islands. At a wedding ball

king's bodyguard.

in Town and Country
at which I was once present in Andros the Greek syrtos
was danced for my benefit. One of the gentlemen took
a handkerchief, which he offered to a lady ; then each of
them slowly revolved, the woman holding the handker*
chief by the two corners, and always keeping her eyes
on the ground. On such occasions, it is the custom for
the gentleman to give about 5 dr. to the musicians for
every one of his partners. In Euboia the old games are
going out, and the peasants spend their time and wages
in drink instead. But drunkenness, as I have already
pointed out, is an uncommon vice in Greece, even though,
according to the proverb, wine should be drunk undiluted
with water for eight months of the twelve. ' Drink wine
without water in all the months that have r, with water
in those that have not.' In food, too, the Greeks are
most abstemious. Some peasants eat meat only twice
or thrice a year ; but there is much less poverty among
them than in Italy.
As a favourable exarnpler of a Greek village', I may
take that of Achmet Aga, in North Euboia, the property
of our countryman, Mr. Noel, whose father bought the
estate in 1832, at the time when the Turks left the island.
The houses are mostly one-storied, with wooden shutters
instead of windows, and the bread is baked outside,
where an oven is usually to be found. We step over
the recumbent forms of the pigs, who are basking in the
sun before the cottage, and enter. In each house there
is a low wall, behind which the animals Sleep at night,
for the peasants, like Eumaios, the swineherd in the
' Odyssey,' do not like to be away from them. It is
only when the houses have two stories that the animals
sleep below. Dried onions, maize, quinces, and other
country products hang from the roof, and there are
always eikons fastened on the walls, with a lamp in
front of them. In one cottage I saw no less than four,
representing St. Paul, St. Deme'trios, St. Basil, and St.
Modestos, the protector of oxen. The houses, like all
those that I have visited, are clean. The rent of each
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cottage is a bushel of wheat a year; part of the land
is farmed by the landlord, and the rest let out to the
peasants, who pay a portion of the produce as rent, so
that these transactions are all in kind. On a sunny slope
rows of beehives, made out of the trunks of trees, and
covered with leaves, can be rented by them at 20 lepti
apiece. The lord of the manor is everything to his
tenants; and not only they, but the inhabitants of the
whole countryside, come to him for medicine when they
are ill, bringing fowls or grapes as an offering for advice
when they or their families are in trouble. The post
master, who gets 20 dr. a month, is his cook and coach
man combined ; his overseer is the village mayor. The
Greek church was built by his father ; and the priest, a
man of more education than most, able to speak a few
words of French picked up at a gymnasium, is a frequent
guest at his house, which he blesses on the first of every
month. In the Peloponnesos and in Continental Greece the
viUages, owing to their mud walls, have an ah of squalor
which is lacking in the islands. The little towns of
the Cyclades, with their snow-white, flat-roofed houses,
reproduce a style of architecture which one sees in
Tunisia and in the coast towns of Apulia, Barletta, and
Monopoli — a style more Eastern than Italian. At Thera,
for example, life is mainly conducted on the house-tops ;
one man's vineyard is on the roof of his abode, so mat
he sleeps beneath his own vine. In that volcanic island,
too, down by the water's edge, may be seen rock
dwellings in the holes of the strangely coloured cUffs, in
which the fisher-folk live, like the Spanish gipsies in those
near Guidix and at Granada. Hermoupolis, though no
longer the important place that it once was, is one of the
best examples of a clean provincial town, supplied with
very fine municipal buildings, a spacious square, the
excellent ' Apollo ' theatre, a market which is a picture
in the season of lemons and oranges, and an agreeable
promenade, the so-called Vapbria, where the townsfolk

in Town and Country
take the sea-air in the evening or attend the open-air
theatre in the summer, when Syriote society usually
migrates to its villas at the pleasant bay of Delle Grazie.
The tortuous arched lanes of the upper town of Naxos
remind one of the rock-villages of the Riviera.
Many of the houses in Mykonos are full of old
Spanish furniture, the proceeds of blockade-running long
ago, and I remember one bachelor establishment there
which was beautifully furnished. Andros has features
peculiar to itself. Alone of the Cyclades, and, with the
exception of Ithake and Kephallenia, alone of Greek
islands, it possesses a fleet of cargo-steamers, plying
to Cardiff and Newcastle, twenty-eight in all, with two
more in the shipbuilding yards of the Tyne, which
belong to the reigning clan of Empeirikos, of whom
there are fifty in the little town. These seafaring men
have taken the place of the drchontes. They are an
oligarchy of ship's captains, owning and sailing their own
vessels, so that Andros, better than any other place,
enables us to understand Hydriote society in the palmy
days of that heroic island. Every public building, from
the new fountains to the new church in course of erection,
owes its existence to the family of Empeirikos, and a large
new hospital and house for the aged rejoices in the name
of the Empeirikeion. In this little town there is an air
of solid comfort and stability, and the old sea-captains,
from the demarch downwards, remind one of the similar
class in the North of England ports more than of other
Greeks. Over some of the houses ships carved in
marble show the occupation of their owners ; and inside
the furniture is solid, and the walls are hung with pictures
and photographs of members of the Empeirikos family,
who in the summer dine together in numbers at one
another's country residences out at Mehetes — a paradise
of rushing waters, lemon-groves, and maidenhair ferns.
In Andros it is the custom to regale the visitor on
delicious local jams — rodozdchari, or ' sugar of roses,'
and bergambnte, a small, young fruit, like a lemon in
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Greek Life
colour and an orange in shape, which has a strong scent,
and has the effect of rendering its recipient temporarily
speechless by entirely filling his mouth. Up in the
interior one may stUl see the towers of the drchontes,
with little projections at the top for cannon, and aU the
arrangements for pouring boiling oil upon the heads of
corsairs. Most of the towers have now been converted
into dwelling-houses by the addition of outside stair
cases; but the old doorway, far above the ground, the
only access to which was by a wooden ladder, is stUl
visible. In some of the smaller Cyclades Ufe must be
monotonous in the extreme. Thus the; total population
of Gyaros, the Botany Bay of the Roman Empire, which
has only a few fig-trees and two sohtary wells, consists of
four men, who live there summer and winter, and tend
their goats. The island belongs to the town of Syra,
which lets it out for about 2000 dr. a year. Delos has
no other inhabitants than the two guardians of the
excavations, who come over from Mykonos.
The conditions of agricultural hfe vary greatly in
different parts of Greece. The great plain of Thessaly,
destined by nature to be the granary of the rest of the
country, is productive even now — it had a splendid harvest
two years ago — and might be made more productive
still under a better system of land tenure. At present
the land is in a few hands — those large estates which
originated in Turkish times, — and the peasant is little
better than a serf. He has to pay one-third of his corn
and cereals in kind to his landlord, and has therefore
small incentive to work; but he has to give up none
of his apples, and enjoys the free right of pasturage. It
has been proposed that the Government should buy large
properties in Thessaly, and convert the serfs into
peasant proprietors. It has already paid ^80,000 for
the Stephinovik estates, which it lets out to middlemen,
who receive one-third in kind from the cultivators. A
better hydraulic system and the draining of marshy
214

in Town and Country
districts would also do much for Thessaly. Owing to the
competition of Russian corn, the Thessalian farmers have
not been able to reap the full benefit of their harvests,
and their representatives in Parliament advocate a
protective duty, which has been strongly denounced by
the Delyannist Press at Athens, on the ground that it
would increase the price of bread. But, as it is, the
Thessalian farmers are well off. Some idea of the
capital at their disposal may be gathered from the fact
that a very large part of the money subscribed by private
individuals to the Piraeus-Larissa loan was put down by
one patriotic landowner in that province, which is, of
course, anxious to have railway communication with
Athens. At present, however, the freight and fares of
the steamers between Volo and Piraeus are ridiculously
low, owing to cut-throat competition, which prompts
rival lines to ran their boats on the same day, and even
at the same hour, and goods can be shipped one day at
noon, and unloaded the next day at four or five p.m.
The present state of things is peculiarly beneficial to
Volo, one of the most rapidly increasing towns in Greece,
which is the dibouchi of the bulk of the Thessalian trade,
which at the last census had outdistanced Larissa, and
is now beheved to be the fourth or fifth largest town in
Greece. That its inhabitants are prosperous is shown,
not only by the number of new and expensive houses
which have sprung up there, but by the demand for
foreign goods, which, owing to the exchange, are an
expensive luxury, only to be purchased by the well-to-do.
When, however, the Piraeus-Larissa line puts the interior
of Thessaly into direct communication with the south,
without the necessity of sending its produce down to
Volo, things may change. Some, indeed, think |hat food
may then become dearer in Thessaly. Meanwhile, it is
the only part of Greece where I have seen numerous
advertisements of British and American agricultural
implements. There the names and products of Ransome
and McCormick frequently greet one familiarly from the
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Greek Life
walls of restaurants and in the waiting-rooms of stations.
A pleasant feature of life in Thessaly is the settlement of
rich Thessalians at Ano Lechonia, near Volo, who, after
having made money in Egypt, have returned and built
themselves spick-and-span villas in the midst of luxuriant
fruit-trees on the shores of the beautiful Pagasaian gulf.
Once Lechonia, with its abundant supply of water and its
magnificent plane-trees, was the most Turkish of all
the places round Volo ; now it has become a suburban
pleasaunce of the Greeks.
In Thessaly in summer and in Boiotia in winter one
meets the nomadic Koutso-Wallachs, who form such a
strange and picturesque element in the life of Greece.
My wife and I were once invited to a repast in the
winter settlement of one of these Wallach clans at
Ougkra, a place situated close to Lake Paralimne, near
the Boiotian Karditsa, and presented together with
the lake to the monks of the Sagmatas monastery by the
Emperor Alexios I. Komnends in 1 106. The chief of the
clan, who was our host, is described on his visiting-cards
as archipoimin, or ' arch-shepherd ; ' but in' the vernacular a
Wallach headman is usually called tsillingas. This particular
' arch-shepherd,' Georgios Spyro Akrivikes by name, was
a man of about forty, and of progressive ideas, perhaps
imbibed at the Athens University, where he is said to
have been educated. He is the first of his tribe to build
a house — a modern arrangement which his old father
would never sanction — and it was in this edifice, just
finished, that we were entertained. There were coloured
rags, the handiwork of Akrivikes' women-folk, upon the
floor, with reed matting beneath them, and pUlows.all
round the walls, against which we reclined, for chairs
were entirely lacking. After our host's wife had offered
us the usual brandy and coffee, a table, about fifteen
inches high, was brought in, and we sat on a couple of
pillows at this very hospitable board, to eat a dinner
composed of partridges, turkey, sardines, chicken,
radishes, fish, Thessalian apples, cheese, and red retsindto.
216

in Town and Country
We asked Akrivikes to allow his younger brothers to
sit down and eat with us ; but this he would not allow,
' for I am the eldest,' he said ; so, while he sat and ate,
they had to stand and wait — a striking example of the
patriarchal rules existing among the Wallachs. Even
after dinner, though he smoked himself, he would not
permit one of his brothers, to whom I had offered a
cigarette, to smoke in his and our presence — as used to be
the case among old-fashioned Greek families also, where
the sons were not allowed to smoke before their father.
After dinner we inspected Akrivikes' winter settlement —
a collection of huts, round in shape, very comfortable
inside, and very well and closely constructed of reeds
and branches. But our host objected to huts as a place
of residence, because they burn so easily in a wind.
From fifteen to twenty families formed his little kingdom,
and on the journey from his summer quarters on Agrapha,
some six hours from the Thessalian Karditsa, from forty
to fifty horses transport his clan and its belongings
during its long march of twenty days. The women
insist on moving up to Agrapha in the summer, because
the water and air there are so good ; and on this summer
outing Akrivikes takes a teacher with him, whom he
keeps at his own expense, so that the children may not
run the risk of catching infectious diseases by attending
the pubUc schools ! In the winter he allows them to go
to school, but they return to the parental huts for the
week-ends. This ' arch-shepherd ' is a rich man, though he wears
the fustanella ; and the silver ornaments of his women,
which were laid out for our inspection, formed, together
with a silver bowl and the silver cartridge-cases of his
men, a curious and valuable collection. One* of the
cases was dated 1807, and bore a portrait of Hellas being
crowned by Epiros and Thessaly ; others were older, and
had upon them Athena and her owl. The chief has
a house at Thebes, where he banks, and becomes surety
for many of his friends. On one of their journeys his
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Greek Life
Wallachs had as much as 15,000 dr. with them, and Akri
vikes' father, whom he succeeded at the latter's death in
the headship of the. clan, had 20,000 dr. stolen from him
by brigands in Agrapha in 1882. The property of the
clan is managed and controlled by the ' arch-shepherd,'
and the whole system of Wallach life is thus based on •
primogeniture. These wandering WaUachs, in the midst
of democratic Greece, are governed by aristocratic prin
ciples, though Akrivikes takes a keen interest in Greek
politics, and electioneers vigorously for his friends at
Thebes, cherishing aspirations for the mayoralty of the
Boiotian Karditsa for himself.
Near Moulki, close to the ancient Haliartds, we visited
another Wallach chieftain, who is less advanced and of
an older generation than Akrivikes. Kolovds ('lop-
tailed '), as he is called, is a fine old feUow of about
eighty, who lives in houses, as he proudly told us, at his
summer quarters near Karditsa, in Thessaly, and who
descends to Boiotia, a journey of from eighteen to twenty
days, with all his belongings, in winter. When I saw him
he was suffering from the cold, for he had chosen an
exposed place for pitching his tents; and the huts, in
which he passes the winter, were not yet up, for he had
only just arrived, and a hut takes from three to four days
to build. We sat in a row under his tent, drinking coffee
and rum, and eating walnuts, while the old man spoke
with animation about the times of Otho, and the lack of
pasturage nowadays, owing to the increase of cultivated
land. He was looking forward, he said, to the com
pletion of the railway, when he could go to Karditsa in a
day, and he asked about politics in Athens, and what the
Ministry was doing. Like all the WaUach chiefs, he is an
hereditary official, and looked a veritable patriarch of the
Old Testament, with his three sons and numerous grand
children. Though not so rich as Akrivikes, he gave us
water in a silver cup, which was a marvel of art. The
Byzantine double-eagle, two snakes, a lion, and other
emblems were embossed round the rim and on the
218

in Town and Country
bottom, while the antlers of a stag rose up out of the
centre through the water. He told us that he had three
of these cups, very inferior examples of which I have
seen in the silversmiths' shops of Hermes Street.
Kolovds, Akrivikes, and the latter's brothers all spoke
excellent Greek, but no Wallach, which in Greece is
spoken only by the Koutso-Wallachs about the Aspro-
potamos and in the prefecture of Trikkala.
The most primitive conditions of society are still to be
found in Mine, the central of the three prongs of the
Southern Peloponnesos. The Maniatai boast that they
are the descendants of the ancient Spartans, and during
the Turkish times their submission to the Sultan was
merely nominal, their tribute consisting of as much
money as would lie on the flat blade of a sabre, and'
being always presented in that way. Mine, like Zante
and Corsica, still preserves the vendetta ; but in both the
latter cases the custQpi was introduced by colonies from
Mane, and under Venetian and Corsican influence it
has been altered, and the Maniatai consider that the
Zantiotes do not play this savage game according to the
time-honoured rites which still obtain in the country of
its origin. No Maniate will kill his enemy without
notice, while in Zante it is not considered unsportsman
like to shoot him at sight and sans phrase. M. Kyria-
koules Mavromichiles, head of the leading family of
Mane, has kindly explained to me the elaborate usages of
the vendetta in his native district, and they have certainly
changed but little since Lord Carnarvon visited Mane in
1839. The vendetta was the unwritten law of the land
at a time when no written law existed, and, as embodying
primitive ideas of revenge as 'a wild kind of justice'
(to use Bacon's phrase), it had at that period its good as
well as its evil side. It is still the duty of a murdered
man's whole family to take the law into their own hands,
and they always endeavour to kill the best member of
the murderer's family. ' The murderer,' as the local
saying has it, 'owed blood.' Under no circumstances
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Greek Life
are women killed; not only so, but M. Mavromichiles
tells me that he remembers being in Mine during a great
feud, which lasted for months, when the towers in which
the people dwell were shut up closely, and the shutters
fastened, so that only the loopholes were left open for the
inmates to fire out of. Yet all the time the women went
in and out to get water and other necessaries for then-
male relatives inside. Nor are the women the only
individuals who enjoy special protection during a blood-
feud. If two families are at war, a third person, in no
way related to either of the hostile clans, but whom both
respect, may freely accompany any member of either of
them, and this person, called xevgdltes from the verb xevgdzo
(' I accompany '), confers immunity upon his comrade,
even though the latter be the murderer himself. More
over, if a member of one ofthe beUigerent famUies comes
out of his abode to conduct a guest, he is aUowed to
return unmolested. Nor may a Maniate kill his enemy
outside Mine. When, on one occasion, a Maniate broke
this unwritten law of the vendetta by stabbing his foe in
Stidion Street, the whole of the murderer's famUy came
specially to Athens and apologised profusely to his
victim's relatives for what their kinsman had done. The
end of a blood-feud is called an Agdpe. In order to
bring about a reconciliation it is necessary that every
member of the murderer's clan must come and beg
forgiveness. When they are all assembled, then chief
kneels down, and the injured person asks him the
questions: 'Will you do what I say? WUl you throw
yourself into the sea if I ask you ? ' After the reconciUa
tion, the mother of the last murdered man must adopt
the murderer as her own son. An instance of this
extraordinary practice, which to civUised nerves would
seem to provide a skeleton at every feast, occurred not
long ago ; indeed, the murderer in such cases promises
to be more to the poor mother than her own son. This
solemn Agdpe is never broken ; once, indeed, it is said,
a man disregarded it, and from that day the Maniate

in Town and Country
expression for Punic faith, ' the treachery of Michalaki,'
has been taken from the name of the treacherous one.
Terrible as the laws of the vendetta are, they have had
the effect of rendering attacks and insults rarer in Mine, so
M. Mavromichiles tells me, than elsewhere, because the
people know the awful consequences. So the vendetta
has been a conservative measure for the preservation of
order. Even now, though it is legally forbidden, it con
tinues ; happily, it is no longer as common as it was,
but it still has the result of placing distinguished Maniate
statesmen in difficult positions when they are responsible,
as Ministers, for enforcing the law of the land upon their
primitive countrymen who have been guilty of enforcing
that of Mine.
Like the Albanians, the Maniatai have many chivalrous
qualities. A woman can travel all over Mine, and will be
sure of her countrymen's respect. Indeed, the bloody
annals of Mine's struggles against the Turks show that
the fine Maniate women have proved themselves as
courageous as the men, and have always been well able to
defend themselves. Hospitality has always been a Maniate
trait. If a stranger appeals to a Maniate for protection,
his host wiU allow himself to be killed rather than break
the code of honour by giving up his guest. Clannishness
is naturally characteristic of such a people. A corporal in
the army tells me that he once had a Maniate soldier
with him who fell ill, and who was supported by the
other Maniates in the regiment as if he had been their
brother. This spirit distinguishes them in politics also ;
they will log-roU for each other, and thus, as they hang
together, they usually manage to obtain good posts in the
Civil Service. But they would not be Greeks if they
were not divided into political factions — that j^of the
Mavromichilai, who support M. Delyinnes, and that of
the Koumoundouroi, who are for M. Theotdkes. At
elections, whether municipal or political, they are
fanatical partisans, and I remember the warm advocacy
of the Maniate colony of the Piraeus on behalf of their

Greek Life
fellow-countryman, M. Kritsiles, at the last election for
the mayoralty there.
Mine is the poorest part of Greece, a land of stones,
like Montenegro; indeed, the Maniatai have the Mon
tenegrin legend that, when God was creating the world,
the bag containing the stones -burst over their country.*
Owing to the poverty of the soil there is Uttle work to be
had, and that little is mostly done by the sturdy women,
for the men, though of fine physique and not unlike the
Cretans in stature, will only consent to labour with theh
hands if they are very poor. Some go to the Piraeus,
where they condescend to work in the factories, or to
Lavrion, where they find employment in the mines;
others, but these are chiefly drawn from two out of the
five districts which compose Mine, try theh fortune in
America. But place-hunting is the favourite profession
of the male population. Not a few Maniatai become
officers in the army, and the Maniate soldiers are among
the few Greeks who remain on after theh two years of
compulsory service, and quahfy as non-commissioned
officers. A special reason for this is that many are sent
from Mine to the Piraeus when they are very young, and
therefore lack the incentive of most other Greeks to
return to their native villages, especiaUy as the latter
offer so small a chance of a liveUhood. Moreover, like
all mountaineers, they like fighting as a profession.
The only products of this sterile, treeless land are oU
and quails. The former is of good quality, and is sent
to the Piraeus by the merchants of Aredpolis, or Td Koind,
as it used to be called, the capital of Mine. The quails
are caught in only two or three places — one of which,
Porto Quaglio, has received its name from the bird — at
a certain season pf the year, and are sent to MarseiUes,
and the natives often have to live on the lupins which
grow among the rocks of their bleak country. Mine has
still preserved several fiscal privUeges. It pays no taxes
* The Kephallenians have the same legend ; only in their case
the bag contained not stones, but lies !
222

ENTRANCE TO THE VALE OF TEMPE, THESSALY.

in Town and Country
on professions or buildings ; indeed, the only tax levied
there is a duty on the oil exported. Owing to the
poverty of the inhabitants the costume has disappeared ;
but every house still has its rifle, the men always go
about armed, and, despite the destraction of towers by
order of the Bavarian Regency, many of those curious
fortifications still remain. The home-keeping Maniatai,
who have been little contaminated by the outside world,
have a different accent from the rest of the Greeks, and
use many foreign words ; but in Mane, as elsewhere, the
schoolmaster is abroad, the natives are keen about learn
ing, and the natural result wUl be the gradual assimilation
of their tongue to the Greek spoken in other parts.
Corfiote life and society differ greatly from that of the
mainland. Corfu has been blessed with the fruits of the
earth and the beauties of nature since the time when
Homer placed there the marvellous gardens of Alkinoos,
yet in few parts of Greece does such general poverty
prevail. Alike under Venetians and British, posts were
created for the Corfiote aristocracy in the town, which
was also the centre of social life and amusements, and
thus a general distaste for country pursuits was produced
At present, I believe, only four of the Corfiote land
owners live on their estates, and absenteeism has had its
usual bad results. The smallness of most of the pro
perties in the island makes the profits exiguous, and the
system of paying in kind makes them hard to realise.
The landlord or his agent must go in person to assess
the amount ofthe produce, usually one quarter, due to him,
and has then to seU it, as best he can, in the market at
Corfu. Besides, the island has only two main products,
wine and oil, and when these fail there is nothing upon
which to fall back. In addition to the uncertainty of the
olive-crop, which is not annual, the size of the" Corfiote
olive trees, which renders them so beautiful to the tourist,
increases the difficulty of gathering the olives, and the
lack of pruning diminishes their productive power. The
peasants lack capital for improvements, and, if they
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Greek Life
borrow money from the local usurers, have to pay the
ruinous rate of i dr. per month for every 5 dr. lent, or
240 per cent, per annum ! There, as elsewhere in Greece,
there is need of a Land Bank, from which they could
borrow at a more reasonable rate ; for the very lowest
interest in other parts of the country at which they can
obtain a loan is 20 per cent.
Besides, in the case of wine-producing districts, such
as Corfh, the national outlet of which is the south of
Italy, the export to that district has been recently much
diminished by Italian custom-house regulations ; Ger
many, however, now takes by far the largest quantity of
Corfiote wine. In the Ionian Islands, as in Mine, there
is a special system of taxation, which has survived the
union with Greece, and which, though often impugned
by deputies from the mainland, still remains the law.
By this system, which was introduced in 1803, during the
brief Russian protectorate of the Seven Islands, and was
maintained during the long British supremacy, the only
tax is a duty of 22*2 per cent, on all wine and oil ex
ported. One curious result of this arrangement is that
the Jews, of whom there are about three thousand in
Corfii, not being engaged in the cultivation of land, but
in trade, pay no taxes to the State at aU. It is said in
favour of the system that there is no leakage in the
collection of the duty.
The Corfiotes, and the lonians generally, resemble
the Italians more than the Greeks in many ways. They
cling to their Venetian titles, they have more aristocratic
ideas and more Western polish, and they are not regarded
with universal favour by the men of ' old ' Greece, who
apply uncomplimentary names to them. The Corfiotes
are fond of the drama — they have two theatres, one of
them perhaps the finest in Greece, and erected at huge
expense, — they delight in music, and they like show. On
a fine summer evening the parade near the water's edge
will be covered with smartly dressed ladies, who spend
little on their houses, and reserve their finances for the
224

in Town and Country
promenade. The Corfiotes have a grievance against the
King for so rarely visiting their beautiful island — in my
opinion the most lovely spot in Europe — and many
profess to regret the material losses which they have
sustained since the departure of the highly paid British
officials, who spent money so freely there. At present
Corfu is very poor ; it is one of the few places in Greece
where beggars abound, and I once counted seventy
mendicants assembled outside the British parsonage to
beg for alms. Occasional visits from the British Mediter
ranean Fleet enable contractors and tradesmen to make
money, and there is talk of growing cotton on the re
claimed land in the centre of the island ; but the usual
cry is that it is neglected, and of late times there has
been talk of converting it into a second Monte Carlo,
if the Greek Government will give its consent. The
Athenian Press has been markedly hostile to this scheme,
but in Corfu there seems to be a general desire, with
some notable exceptions, for the roulette. At present
a casino is being erected on land adjoining the old
British cemetery, which has been transformed into a
garden. The life of the Greek sponge-fishers is more dangerous
than that of their fellow-countrymen. They all come
from the islands of Aigina, Hydra, and Spetsai, from the
picturesque little town of Trikeri at the entrance of the
Pagasaian Gulf, and from Hermione and Kranidi in
Argolis, Hydra supplying the largest number, and Aigina
the next largest. Those from Hermione and Kranidi
use the harpoon, or a species of drag-net fastened on to
a sharp iron instrument; the others employ a diving
apparatus, which is made in France or at the Piraeus,
and costs about 2000 dr. for each complete suit.
Aigina, where the sponge-fishing has been established
for about forty or fifty years, and where the International
Sponge Importers' Company has an office and an
English manager, sends out every season some forty-five
boats provided with diving apparatus, and carrying from
225 Q

Greek Life
nine hundred to a thousand men, the average being
about twenty to each boat They always start on ' Clean
Monday,' and usually return about the end of October ;
but some come back on the feast of the Holy Apostles
(June 29, O.S.), and then go out again. The boats are
of three classes — the first class having ten divers each,
the second six, and the third three or four. The business
is managed on the profit-sharing principle. The boats
of the first class are divided into ninety shares, of which
thirty belong to the captain, five to each diver, and one
to each sailor ; those of the second class have from
seventy to seventy-five shares ; those of the third from
forty-five to sixty. The divers usuaUy receive part of
their money before they start. Exceptional arrangements
are also sometimes made, and the proportion of shares
occasionally varies ; thus a diver sometimes has six
shares instead of five, or he may receive a regalo, or
special gift, and a sailor may have two-ninetieths instead
of one-ninetieth of the profits of a first-class boat.
During the season the divers on the best boats make
about ^75 net, on those of the second class about
,£50 net, and on those of the third class from ^40 to
^50. Most of them save money, with which they buy
plots of land and plant vineyards ; some of them become
captains, and have laid by a capital of ^1000. One
former diver, now living at Aigina, has saved as much as
^3000, and is building two new boats. But there is
also the reverse of the medal. Owing to the careless
use of the diving-dress, numbers of the divers are afflicted
with paralysis, and so rendered unfit for any other occu
pation. Much difference of opinion exists as to the
statistics, as is naturally the case where vested interests
are concerned. The version of those pecuniarily inter
ested in the fishery is, that among the men who go out
from Aigina the deaths from paralysis are five or six a
season ; on the other hand, a naval officer, who read a
paper on this subject last year, and who has studied it
on the spot, has stated that 85 per cent, of the divers are
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in Town and Country
more or less paralysed. No less than thirty-six deaths
are said to have occurred last season. It is certainly
astounding, when the dangerous nature of this occupation
is considered, that no doctor goes out with the boats,
and that there are no Government regulations for the
control of the fishery. All that is done is to send a
couple of vessels belonging to the Navy, the Krite and
the Pdralos, fitted up as hospital ships, to the north coast
of Africa during the season.
The Queen, whose heart is always open to the cry
of the suffering, intends to build a hospital at Tripoli for
the disabled sponge-fishers. She is also anxious to save
them from the hands of usurers, who advance the money
required for fitting out and provisioning the boats,
usually ^1200 for a boat of the first class, and who levy
interest at the rate of 24 per cent. With this object she
has asked the National Bank to lend the requisite amount
at 4 per cent. According to present arrangements, the
divers are to remain under water for 15 minutes at a
depth of 20 fathoms, for 10 minutes at 25 fathoms, for 6
minutes at 30 fathoms, and for 4 minutes at 35 fathoms.
The divers generally begin their arduous profession be
tween the ages of eighteen and twenty, and go on to about
forty-five, in one or two cases even longer than that. It
is perhaps not to be wondered at that theirs is not a
hereditary profession. Yet the diver is regarded as a
good match, and the name of ' mechanician,' which is
bestowed upon him, is said to be an attraction to the girls
of the sponge-fishing islands.
The fishery grounds are mostly off the coast of Tripoli,
but the Turkish Government does not permit fishing
within'the three miles' limit — a prohibition little regarded
in practice. They extend as far west as Tun|s, but the
best sponges come from the African coast west of
Alexandria. Fishing also goes on in the Gulf of Taranto,
and off the coasts of Sardinia, Sicily, and the Lipari
Islands. Only the third class of boats fishes off the
Greek coast, for Hellenic waters have been dragged
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again and again, so that the sponges are almost exhausted
there. The regulation of the sponge-fishery is not easy ; for
the very class whom it is desired to aid, the divers, does
not desire the abolition of the diving apparatus, because
it would mean the loss of its livelihood. About three-
fifths of the population of the places whence the divers
come support themselves by this traffic, and theh repre
sentatives in Parliament naturally view Government
interference with suspicion. But, under proper control, .
it is believed that the diving-dress could be rendered
innocuous. Emigration is rapidly draining the resources of many
country districts, and it is difficult to see how it can be
diminished. It is calculated that one-half of the male
population of Arkadia has emigrated, and some viUages
in the districts of Gortys and Mantineia are consequently
quite deserted. M. Phikiores, a Spartan deputy, recently
told the Bouli that emigration to America had made
labour very scarce in his constituency. From Kalamata
comes the same story. When I was there the British
Vice-Consul informed me that he could not get men, even
at high wages, to work on his land, and more than 6,000
left his district in one year, most for America, some
for the Transvaal ; yet both the Eurotas vaUey and the
Messenian plain are very fertile, and the latter may be
called the Garden of Greece. The mania for emigration
has also spread to Elis and the rest of the Western
Peloponnesos, so that the richest parts of Greece are
those which furnish most emigrants. Many of the miners
of Lavrion have gone to the United States. In Euboia
I found that the best part of the population had left, or
was leaving, for the El Dorado of America. One viUage
in that island, I was told, would be abandoned by its
inhabitants as soon as spring came and they could start
for the United States, and about ten peasants were
embarking every week at the port of Limne alone. So
keen are the people of Euboia about emigration, that
228

GENERAL VIEW OF KALAMBAKA.

in Town and Country
one man, who had been prohibited from landing in
America owing to lack of the necessary funds, returned
to his native island, borrowed the amount, and prepared
to start again for the United States. It must be con
fessed that the Greek peasant has a strong motive for
emigration across the Atlantic. For a man who, in
Euboia, for example, earns only 3 or 4 dr. a day, can
command $2 (or 16 dr.) a day in the United States.
Being a Greek, he is extremely frugal, and is able to
save a large proportion of his wages. In America his
food costs him only 1^ dr. a day, and he is thus able to
remit a considerable balance to his family, which he
almost invariably leaves behind him. His prosperity
becomes known at home, and his fellow-villagers are
kindled with the desire to go and do likewise. The
usual practice is to send one son first, and, as soon as he
has made enough, he sends money home for the next
son's fare out. In this way many villages are com
pletely stripped of their young men. There are, however,
few emigrants from Thessaly and the district round
Naupaktos, for there the people are more conservative
in their ideas; the Thessalians wish their children to
cultivate the great plain, as they have done. From the
Cyclades the emigration is not so much to America as to
Smyrna and Constantinople; and from the so-called
' Frankish villages ' of Tenos, while the women go as wet-
nurses or cooks to those towns or to Athens, returning,
however, and marrying in their native island, the men
emigrate as marble-workers to Alexandria or to Turkey
and Roumania at the rate of at least five hundred every
summer, coming back at the end of two or three years.
Among the Ionian islanders there is a great difference
in regard to emigration. The Corfiotes prefiet- to starve
at home rather than grow rich abroad ; while the Kephal-
lenians, who have a less fertile island, are bold seamen
and ready to go wherever money can be made ; and the
Ithakans have furnished a contingent of emigrants to
the Transvaal. The Greek Press has latterly become
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alarmed at the increase in emigration, and the latest
figures show that in twelve months 14,376 emigrants
r arrived in the United States from Greece, nearly aU of
them men in their prime, between the ages of fourteen
t and forty-five, and the vast majority of them labourers
and peasants.* The one good thing about this emigra
tion is that the absent Greek never forgets his native
land, to which he aspires to return apres fortune faite, and
to which he remits what he can. It is calculated that
1 the total annual remittances home of the Greek emigrants
'in America amount to 15 millions of drachmai, and in
One year the Kephallenians abroad sent ;£i 00,000 back
to their native island. Not long ago, an old Pelo-
ponnesian presented a draft for ^70 from America at
one of the Athenian banks, and informed the cashier
that in his district the peasants had been enabled to
pay off their debts and lock up a nice sum of money
in their boxes out of the savings of theh children — he
himself had three — in the United States.
If Greece is being gradually deprived of her cultivators
by emigration, she has already been denuded of many of
her forests. The bareness of the Greek mountains is
one of the aspects of Hellenic scenery which most strikes
the stranger; and those who have seen nothing but
Attica are apt to make the hasty generaUsation that this
is a country without trees. Such is not, however, the
fact. I have nowhere in Europe seen finer plane trees
than those on the estate of our countryman, Mr. Frank
Noel, at Achmet Aga in North Euboia, and one of them
measures fifteen metres round. Mr. Noel fines men who
cut or injure the trees, often however remitting the fines
when the peasant appeals to his feelings. But, even
with all his personal supervision, he cannot prevent them
occasionally lighting a fire inside a hollow trunk, and
some years ago a forest conflagration destroyed the
woods on one of the adjacent hills. There are great
* In the first ten months of 1903 there left Greece 11,933
emigrants, of whom only 428 were women.
230

in Town and Country
forests of pine and beech in Agrapha and on the slopes
of Pindos in Thessaly; Akarnania and Aitolia have
beautiful trees ; there are two large woods on Taygetos,
and in Corfu the olives are allowed to grow into forest
trees. The glades of Pelion are still wooded as in the
time of the Argonauts ; but bare is the spur of the great
straggling mountain where they met. Kephallenia,
despite the bare appearance which it presents when one
lands at Argostdli, has forests inland ; but of the other
Greek islands only two, Keos and Poros, are wooded,
the former having a forest of oaks, the latter producing
pines. There are some fine oaks on the estate of the
Diddochos at Manolida, between Pyrgos and Patras, but
fire has there, too, wrought destruction. Altogether, it
is calculated by M. Samios, the head of the Forest
Department, that there are still 20,000,000 strimmata
(about 5,000,000 acres) of woods, including small bushes,
in Greece; but vast areas of the country are almost
treeless. Various agencies have concurred to cause the
destraction of the trees. The ravages of corsairs in the
Turkish times are largely responsible for the havoc
wrought in the Cyclades and on the Greek coast-line,
which, with one exception, on a part of the west coast of
the Peloponnesos, is absolutely bare. The reckless use
of the trees for firewood is another cause ; I have even
seen a woman picking boughs off the shrubs in the
Zippeion garden for that purpose. The forest fires,
lighted by the peasants to provide herbage for their
flocks of goats, are, however, far more detrimental, for
they often do immense damage before they can be
stopped. The goat is, in fact, a deadly enemy of the
tree or shrub, which he strips of any leaves that he can
reach, and he can climb high. Besides, his name is
legion. In proportion to its population, Greece has
more goats than any other country ; there are 119 goats
to every 100 Greeks, which brings up their numbers
to over i\ millions, and in the country they are ubiquitous.
But to reduce the number of goats would inflict upon
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Greece an economic injury as great as the loss of its
trees, nor would it be possible to enforce such rules for
muzzling the goats as the Austrians have carried out
round the Bocche di Cattaro.
A special cause of injury to the pines is the practice
of tapping them, often in an unscientific way, for resin,
which is allowed to collect in a hole cut in the trunk,
and then used for impregnating the wine. At the same
time, the Attic pine, I am told, has so much resin in it
that tapping is necessary, else it becomes a mere pine-
torch only waiting to be ignited. On the King's estate
at Tatoi the trees are tapped high up, and the resin is
carefully gathered in a little box, like a dove-cote, which
does not disfigure the trunk. Moreover, the Greeks, as
a race, care nothing about trees unless they produce
fruit, and the usual instinct of the Hellene is to cut down
a tree when he sees one. Even statesmen who should
know better, like MM. Delyinnes and Ralles, can see
no irreparable harm in a forest fire. ' The trees spring
up again,' they will tell you, which is exactly what
the trees do not, if a second fire, as is not improbable,
follows speedily on the first, and bums up the young
saplings, seed and all. The loss of the forests is espe
cially bad for a country with the topographical and
geological formation of Greece. Being mostly moun
tainous, it is liable, after rain, to be swept by torrents
which carry all before them, and, in a few hours, overflow
the banks of what was before a dry river-bed. Were
there forests on the mountains, the force of the rains
would be broken and the water more gradually and
evenly distributed, the violent winds would be modified,
and the landscape, already beautiful, would become more
beautiful still. Besides, a country which has no coal,
needs wood, and for that purpose re-afforestation must
be systematically carried on.
This has long been apparent to those few interested
in the subject, and, as far back as 1836, the Bavarian
Regency forbade the cutting of timber. I have before
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' in Town and Country

me a whole volume of legislation passed since then for
the protection of the forests, but most of it has remained
a dead letter. Quid leges sine moribusl is a saying
nowhere truer than of Greece. Even religion has been
invoked in aid of the forests, and the Holy Synod has
ordered the priests to read aloud its censure of those
who are guilty of forest fires. There is a Forest Depart
ment at the Ministry of Finance, the chief of which,
M. Samios, author of a charming little book, ' Pictures
from the Greek Forests,' studied forestry in Germany.
He told me, as an example of the feeling of the average
Greek towards his work, that when he decided to take
it up as a study, instead of law, people laughed at him
and said that it was 'not a science.' The great want
of his department is lack of funds, and being placed,
not under the Minister of the Interior, but under
the custodian of the public purse, that official naturally
desires to cut down its expenses. On one occasion,
when M. Delyinnes was in office and rigid economy was
the order of the day, ai#um of ^30 was all that was
allowed for replanting during a whole year. M. Simios
points out that Greece is far behind Roumania in the
number of her forest officials, having only 38 higher,
and 399 lower functionaries, most of them officers and
men of the country police; in the proceeds of her
public forests, which yield only 9 lepti per strimma
(about one-fourth of an acre) ; and in the annual amount
devoted to forest work, which is at the rate of 250,000
dr. or 2\ lepti for every strimma of public forest.
There is also at present a great want of men who know
the business; but this will, no doubt, be remedied in
time, when the pupils from the technical school at
Vytfne near Tripolis, of whom there are t*enty-five
every year, enter into the service. If the forests were
public property, the labours of the department would be
facilitated. Private interests are, indeed, a serious bar
to re-afforesting. For thirty years constitute a good title,
so that the peasants object to give up land for planting
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Greek Life
when they have had the use of it for grazing during that
period. For instance, in December of 1903 the dasarch
(or forest official) of Elis decided to replant that part of
Olympia which Ues between the excavations and the hUl
and village of Drouva. The peasants at once pro
tested that they had enjoyed the right of pasture there
for many years, and threatened resistance.
The work of the Forest Department has found, how
ever, a powerful advocate in the Princess Sophia, who
takes the keenest interest in its labours, and is president
of a society called the Forest-lovers' Union, founded
in 1899, with an influential committee at Athens and
local committees in various parts of the country. It
sends seed to its provincial correspondents, and its
programme for 1903 included the re-afforesting of 3000
strimmata. One year it started a festival, like thefesta
degli alberi in Italy, when every one plants a tree; but
this salutary institution speedUy collapsed. StiU, the
interest shown by the Princess is unabated : three or
four years ago, the director of the Copaic Company
was bound by the terms of his contract with the Govern
ment to plant a certain number of strimmata on the
slopes of Helicon, in order to please her. Every two
months a technical review gives the latest details of
forestry. For agriculture in general something has been
done by an Agricultural Society, founded in 1901, under
the patronage of the King ; and there are subsidised
agricultural stations at Tiryns, Patras, Mesolonghi, Mes-
sene, Vytine near Tripolis, on the island of Vido off
Corfu, and in Boiotia and Elis. But, as I have already
said, these stations are regarded by some critics as more
ornamental than useful.
It is a great descent from the palatial caravanserais
of the Constitution Square at Athens to the humble
country khan. In many places, where 'Europeans' do
not often go, you cannot eat where you repose or
repose where you dine, for the Greek is apt to divide
inns into two classes: 'hotels of sleep' and 'hotels of
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in Town and Country
food' — a survival of the oriental method of travel,
according to which the traveller brings all his food
with him, and is simply provided with a room in which
to sleep. I specially avoid using the term 'bed,'
because, until quite recently, it was customary, even
in well-to-do, middle-class houses in Greece, for the
inmates to sleep on mattresses spread upon the floor.
I remember seeing the children put to bed on the floor
in this way in a smaU tradesman's house at Limne,
and the parents then sleep, as they say, 'in the midst
of theh bairns.' People now living at Livadia can
well remember the time when beds were first intro
duced there ; but the practice has now become general,
and I have often seen neat iron bedsteads being con
veyed on the Greek steamers by soldiers and others
of the same class to country towns. On the subject
of cleanliness much nonsense has been printed in the
guide-books. As the result of my experience, I have
only once found the beds of a country inn swarming
with vermin. On that occasion all efforts to slay the
animals by peppering the sheets failed ; but on the second
night an application of insect-powder to the mattress
underneath proved far more efficacious. There was
reason to believe that the dirt in that case was due
rather to the fact that the landlady was a slattern than
to any national peculiarity, for elsewhere I have been
most agreeably surprised by the cleanliness of even
village khans. Besides, the place in question boasted
of being a 'hotel' in an important town, and shortly
after our stay was honoured by the presence of the then
Prime Minister and his mother.
Where, in a khan, there are several beds in a room,
it is desirable to pay for all of them in ordel to avoid
the intrusion of other travellers, perhaps in the middle
of the night. To keep out the host and the members
of his family- is not always easy. Their curiosity impels
them to inspect the visitor's luggage and to watch the
different processes of his toilet ; and where, as is often
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Greek Life
the case, there are no glass windows, but only wooden
shutters, which must be. opened in order that one may
see to dress, the other inmates of the khan are apt to
stroll to and fro along the wooden gallery which usually
runs outside the various guest-chambers and communi
cates direct with the courtyard below. Even the most
scantily furnished khan generally provides a pair of
slippers, a piece of soap, and a hair-brush (!) for the
use of its guests. As for washing arrangements, the
more ' European ' estabUshments have basins and jugs
in each room ; but in less civiUsed quarters a metal
water-jug, with a very narrow spout, like a coffee-pot in
shape, is placed in the passage, together with a basin
of the same material covered with a perforated lid. One
traveller then pours a little water over the hands of the
other, who soaps himself as best he can, and then renders
the like service to his companion. For such accom
modation prices are not, as a rule, high : about 2 dr.
(is. $d. at the present rate of exchange) per bed a night
may be put down as a fair average; whUe in the
monasteries, of course, there is no fixed charge, but the
visitor places something in the box of the church, and,
in some places, is expected to give a small sum to the
gate-keeper and to the servant who has attended on
him. It may be mentioned that tipping in Greece need
never be on a lavish scale, for the Greek waiter is not
the same greedy creature that one meets in some ' Euro
pean ' countries. Gifts of cigarettes and newspapers are
often more appreciated by attendants than money, and
the latest news from Athens will at once establish
friendly relations with the provincial Greek, be he the
head of a monastery or the traveller's horse-boy.
Food at Greek country inns consists mainly of variations
on the theme of lamb. How the Hellenic lamb is ever
allowed to grow up to mutton's estate is one of those
problems which the wit of the ' European ' cannot solve.
Wherever you go, unless it be during the season of
fasting, lamb always figures on the bill of fare, usually in
236

<
a

¦31 «

in Town and Country
more forms than one. Roast lamb is the favourite dish ;
but the advance of Western ideas has not yet suggested
the addition of mint sauce. Boiled lamb is also common
— in fact, the animal is to the Greeks what beer is to
the German student, or water to the teetotaller. Vege
tables, except tomatoes and radishes, are unaccountably
scarce, and butter practically unobtainable, except in
Thessaly. Jam is a good substitute for it, but it always
gets loose among one's clean linen. The delicious little
vegetable marrows, stuffed with meat and rice, the
universal pilaf, and the rich moussakd are tasty dishes,
while lait cailli, as the French call it, appears under the
Turkish name of yiaourti, and, eaten with sugar, tempts
the traveUer to demand a second help. The cost of food
in the country is very small, for practically everything is
produced on the spot. In Thessaly, especially, one can
live well for almost nothing. As an example, I may
append my bill for two dinners at the best restaurant at
Larissa : —
2 portions of lamb and marrows
2 „ „ yiaourti 
2 oranges 
2 breads ... 
2 large portions of local, red, unresinated wine

or about is. ^d. for two persons at the then rate of
exchange, is. yd. at the present.
The absolute peace of the country in Greece is like
nothing else in Europe. There is an inexpressible charm
about the stony mountains, whose sole denizens are the
goats, with here and there a shepherd in his coat of
fleece and his savage but faithful sheep-dog, a worthy
descendant of the Molossian hounds. For hours at a
time you may ride over rocky paths without seeing a
village and without hearing a sound, save that of an
occasional goat-bell. Who can forget the midday halts
beneath the plane trees by some stream of pure water,
237

Dr.

Lept&.

I

0

...

5°

40

20

ine

5°

'otal 2

60

Greek Life
or the welcome hospitality of some wayside cabin, where
the shepherds will make way for the strangers at the fire
and offer them wine out of their scanty earnings ? It is
in the country, in the customs of the peasants, in theh
often Homeric phrases, in the noble outlines of the bare
hills, in the ' countless smiles ' of the blue waves, that
ancient Greece, the Greece of one's school-days, comes
back to one. It is on the crag of Akrocorinth, on the
Larissa of Argos, or on the castle-crowned rock of
Mistri, where the tortoises are crawling about amid the
ruins of Venetian, Turkish, and Byzantine buUdings, or
in the remote solitude of the monastic cloister, that the
grand romance of mediaeval Greece becomes a living
thing. And it is in the pass of Dervenaki, or on the
bridge of Aleman — that new Thermopylae — that one
realises the modern epic of Greece's regeneration. It is
sometimes said that the Greeks care little for beautiful
scenery ; they certainly need not go beyond their own
doors to seek it. The day may come — absit omen —
when their lovely country wUl be exploited, its conditions
made regular, its paths smoothed, and its freshness
spoiled. Meanwhile, Hellas preserves her eternal youth,
her ethereal atmosphere, and her primitive ways.

238

in Town and Country

CHAPTER XII
THE ARMY AND NA VY
Since the close of the long struggle for independence,
Greece has had only one war — that of 1897. But that
short conflict revealed defects in the army of such a nature
that since then military reorganisation has been the cry
of all political parties. It was, and is, generally felt that
if Greece is to play a prominent part in Eastern affairs
she must have better weapons, better officers, and better
trained soldiers. But reforms proceed slowly in all
parliamentary countries ; since the war ended, seven
Ministries have come and gone, programme after pro
gramme has been put forward, and yet the organisation
of the army remains practically what it was before the
first shot was fired on the Thessalian frontier. The
Theotdkes Ministry did, indeed, carry an army measure
in 1904, but it remains to see how it will work; and
the new rifles and cannon have not yet been selected.
All Greek subjects between the age of twenty-one and
fifty-one are liable to personal military service. There
are, however, certain exemptions. In the first place,
those who have physical defects rendering them unfit for
service, and those who have been found guilty of criminal
offences are excluded. Secondly, those are exempt who
are the sole or principal support of their families. In
this category come the eldest of a family of orphans ; an
eldest son whose father is dead and whose mother has
married again and has a second family; the only or
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Greek Life
eldest son of a widow ; an only or eldest grandson when
the grandmother is a widow and has neither son nor son-
in-law alive ; and an only or eldest son whose father is
living. If, in the above cases, the eldest son is blind or
has some incurable disease which renders him incapable
of earning his living, or if he has a family of his own to
support, then his next brother enjoys his right of exemp
tion. Those who come under this category must pay
fines varying from 50 dr. to 155 dr. for their exemptions.
Thirdly, there are the ministers of the Orthodox and
every other recognised religion, and five Jews for the
service of every synagogue. For the same reason the
pupils of the Rizdreion and the students of the theological
faculty of the University are exempt, provided that they
really take orders. The standard of height for the army
is 1 "54 metres (abouts ft- * m-)> but those otherwise
competent who are too short enter the auxiliary services.
In general, the Greek soldier is a small man.
After deducting those who are exempt for the above
reasons, there are about 23,000 young men liable for
service every year. But in time of peace, and in order to
save expense, it is not thought necessary to caU up so
large a number. Lots are accordingly drawn, and those
who draw low numbers are called up, while those who
draw high numbers are placed en disponibiliti, and are
liable to be called up if wanted. They pay a fine of
160 dr., a part of which is returned to them if they are
called up, in proportion to the length of their service.
An officer of experience tells me that the number of men
usually wanted is about 7250 a year; under the new
law of 1904, it will be about 13,000. In 1903, accord
ing to the official statistics furnished me by the Ministry
of War, the peace strength of the army consisted of
1876 officers, 4670 non-commissioned officers, 15,130
soldiers (of whom 3323 were employed in the country
police), and 665 musicians and trumpeters— a total of
22,341. The new army law of 1904 will increase it to
about 28,000. Compulsory service lasts for two years
240

'ii.mo:> .it) ssoni.i.Mo.i ino 1111.1.

in Town and Country
in the active army, ten in the reserve (ephedreid) of the
active army, eight in the national guard (ethnophrourd),
a body which is mobilised only in time of war, and ten in
the reserve of the national guard, which is called out only
when an invasion has taken place, or is imminent. The
men of the national guard are called up for exercises,
never lasting more than fifteen days, in the fourth and
last year of their service. Thus, on a war footing, ac
cording to the official estimate furnished to me, the Greek
army consists of 150,000 men.
The conscript begins his two years of service in the
active army on October 1 (O.S.), about which time the
streets of Athens are full of peasants in costume,
accompanying their sons to the capital. On joining, he
receives 1 dr. 40 lepti to pay for his brushes, soap, and
other toilet articles. As, however, this amount was fixed
long ago when 1 prices were lower, and as the articles in
question now cost 5 dr., the unhappy conscript starts
3 dr. 60 lepti in debt, and, as his pay is small, it takes
him some time to work off the amount. The nominal
daily pay is 46 lepti; but as out of this 30 lepti are
deducted for food and 1 leptdn for the military chest, the
net amount is only 15 lepti. The Government pays
22 lepti a day for each soldier's bread, a further 10 lepti
for his other food, and 25 lepti for his washing. The
food is not bad, and quite as good as the ordinary soldier
gets at home. It consists of morning coffee, a dinner of
meat with soup or vegetables, and cheese for supper.
On fast-days in time of peace — there is no fasting for
the army in time of war — special food is provided. The
Government does not pay much for the soldier's clothes.
He is allowed only one uniform a year, in which he has
to do all his work. With few exceptions,|Greek soldiers
cannot endure carrying knapsacks on their backs, pre
ferring to stow their ammunition and other impedimenta
round their bodies. Judged by a British or an Austrian
standard, the Greek soldier does not look smart ; but he
is usually quite presentable, and under the circumstances
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that is much to his credit One class of soldiers,
however, the ivzonoi, have higher pay — 12 lepti a day
more — and a different uniform from that of the others.
The Military Council decides who shall serve in
this picked corps, always selecting men accustomed to
wear the fustanella. They mostly come from Agrapha,
Lidoriki, Kalabaka, and such mountainous regions; a
few are from Arkadia. As they are chiefly from frontier
districts, the frontier guards are very appropriately drawn
from their ranks; and as their uniform is picturesque,
they always serve as the King's bodyguard. They wear
the fustanella, the fez with a blue tassel, and in winter
a blue overcoat, pleated round the waist so as to stand
out over the fustanella, and tightly confined by a belt
In the summer, when the overcoat is discarded, they
appear in all the glory of their fuU shirt-sleeves and theh
white zouaves, the latter elaborately embroidered in
black, with the lightly attached sleeves flapping Uke
wings behind. They have long white stockings with
garters below the knee, and red shoes with blue tufts
on their turned-up toes. The fustaneUas of the ivzonoi
are even fuller than those of ordinary Greeks, which
frequently measure twenty-one yards round the bottom,
and taper off by means of small gores to the waist. The
evzondki, as he is familiarly caUed, enjoys great prestige,
and during the war was always in good order. Indeed,
it is said that when the German Emperor visited Greece
he advised the King to convert aU his soldiers into
ivzonoi. Like all Greeks who have once worn the fusta
nella, the ivzonoi have a peculiar swinging walk. So
much of a habit does this* become, that a friend of a
leading politician once said to me that he could easily
tell by the statesman's gait that he had worn the fustanella
in his early days. The best soldiers in the army are
said to be Koutso-Wallachs from Thessaly and the banks
of the Aspropotamos ; they form a numerous contingent,
but they never remain after their two years are up, as
they want to get back to tlieir flocks and herds. The
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in Town and Country

healthiest soldiers are the Arkadians, small but wiry,
while the least healthy are those from the islands.
As soon as a conscript arrives he must learn to read
and write, if he has not already acquired those accomplish
ments. Even still, despite of the spread of education,
many of the men from the villages near Athens, Hydra,
Spetsai, two or three places in Gortynia, and the north
of Andros speak only Albanian when they become
soldiers, and have to learn Greek. As the pure Greek
is invariably taught in the army, compulsory military
service furnishes an additional means of propagating that
form of the language, in which the military orders and
regulations are couched. I have even seen the obsolete
future used in an army order appended to. the Ministry
of War. The soldier is very clever and learns very
quickly; indeed, though the period of instruction is
practically only eight months, he masters all the duties
of his profession within that time. During his two years'
service the soldier may exercise his trade, if he has one,
but not for his own benefit. If, for example, he is a
tailor, he may keep his hand in by making military
uniforms. Religious opinions are respected with the
usual toleration of the Greek Government, and the
Catholic soldiers go to the Catholic church on Sundays.
It is sometimes said that the evil result of conscrip
tion is that it makes the men fond of town life, and
unfits them for country pursuits after their time is up.
But I am assured by both officers and non-commissioned
officers that this is not the case. The Greeks do not, as
a nation, like a military career, and the service is not
popular with them. Few remain in the army after their
two years' service has expired, and nearly all of those
who come from the country want to go "back to their
own homes; for many of them Athens possesses no
charm. Even of those who voluntarily remain, few
stay long, and one seldom sees old soldiers. Besides,
the number of men admitted to voluntary service may
not in time of peace exceed a thousand — a number
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which may, however, be indefinitely increased in time
of war.
The position of the Greek officer is widely different
from that of the British. In democratic Greece, where
there are no class distinctions, and where every one is
as good as every one else, the officer has no adventitious
dignity attaching to him in virtue of good birth, but is
simply and solely judged on his own merits, and judged,
too, by a preternaturally critical set of men. During the
late war the effects of this democratic principle were
sometimes apparent Soldiers ordered to execute a
certain manoeuvre, instead of obeying blindly, paused to
consider whether their officer had given the right order.
Under such circumstances discipline is naturaUy more
difficult to maintain than with us. Absolutely no dif
ference whatever is made in the service between an
officer of good family and the son of a peasant One
late Minister of War, a capable officer who kept clear
of politics, was of very humble origin; and a weU-
conrtected officer of artillery tells me that his old orderly,
who had gone into a branch of the service where
promotion is quicker, is now his superior in rank. A
common soldier can become an officer by passing through
the school of the non-commissioned officers, where he
has to undergo examinations. But for those branches
of the service where special knowledge is required, such
as the engineers, he must qualify by a course of study
at the Military College. The pay of officers is not high.
A general of brigade and a colonel receive 560 dr. a
month ; but there are only six generals of brigade and
thirty-one colonels in the army. A lieutenant-colonel
is paid 480 dr. a month ; a major 440 dr. ; a captain
300 dr. or 240 dr., according to his standing ; a lieutenant
180 dr. ; and a sub-lieutenant 160 dr. The total cost
of the army, according to the miUtary budget of 1904,
was 20,755,498 dr. (or ,£642,585 at the present rate of
exchange), including the various sums spent on military
education. 244

in Town and Country
Visitors to Athens are usually struck with the great
number of officers whom they see in the cafis and about
the streets, and draw the conclusion that the army is
enormously over-officered. But I am assured that this
is not the case, and that in the late war there was, on
the contrary, a lack of officers. It must be remembered
that three-quarters of all the officers are stationed at
Athens — a system which tends to make the idle officer
into a loafer, while it displeases the energetic man who
is fond of his profession, and would prefer a country
garrison town if there were plenty of work to do there.
Unfortunately, in most provincial towns, except at the
present time in Thessaly, there is little employment for
the garrisons, so that the officers are apt to suffer from
ennui. Moreover, the number of officers appears to be
large because the effective strength of the army is, as
we saw, at present small ; whereas if the numbers of the
army were increased by calling up the men who had
drawn high numbers, and by calling out the reserve, the
total of the officers would remain the same, and the
proportion of officers to men, which is now about one to
thirteen, would be much diminished. The apparent
number of officers is also increased by the fact that those
who have retired usually continue to wear their uniforms.
The limit of age for retirement in the army is higher than
in the navy, and seems extended to an absurd length,
for a colonel need not retire before sixty-eight, a captain
not till fifty-six.
The army contains Greeks from ' enslaved Hellas,'
as well as natives of the kingdom. There are a number
of Cretans in the service, and a recent Minister of War,
M. Limprftes, hails from ' the great Greek island.' While,
however, Cretans have always been admittef, the number
of Macedonian Greeks in the army is much smaller,
though I am acquainted with one military man from
Macedonia, and he tells me that he knows several more.
It is pointed out that Greece has made a mistake in not
encouraging Macedonians to serve, and that she should
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have imitated the example of Bulgaria, for the Bulgarian
army is full of Macedonian officers and men, who naturally
have the keenest sympathy with, and a good local know
ledge of, the condition of that debatable land. Such
men become the trained leaders of any insurrectionary
movement, and form a strong bond of union between
their free brethren and the country which they aspire
to free. Curiously enough, there are two Turkish officers
in the Greek army ; they are both Christians.
The army system is vitiated, like most Greek institu
tions, by politics, which greatly impair its efficiency.
The greatest flaw is the practice of changing the officers
of the Staff at the Ministry of War with each change
of Ministry — that is to say, every few months. I have
already alluded to the unwisdom of allowing officers to
enter Parliament, whereby the soldiers in the gallery
may witness the edifying spectacle of a lieutenant deputy
criticising the Minister of War. Two Ministers of War,
General Smolenski and M. Konstantinides, have ex
pressed to me their dislike for this interference of officers
in politics, and the latter wisely declined to become a
deputy — an honour which the hero of Velestino would
have been wiser to refuse. Recently, General Smolenski
publicly announced that he would bring in a bUl to
prohibit the candidature of officers belonging to the
active army ; but it has unhappily gone the way of most
army reforms. If there were more professional work
for the officers they would be less inclined to enter
politics, which they often take up after the fashion of
the British aristocrat because they are bored with having
so little to do. A more technical defect in the military
system is the lack of a special champ de manoeuvres and
of a proper ground for artillery practice and rifle-shoot
ing. But the Greek soldier, though he has little training
in shooting, is, as a rule, a good shot, especially when
he comes from the country districts, where the sight of
the people is excellent. In the clear atmosphere of
Greece it is possible even for those who are not
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in Town and Country
long-sighted to distinguish objects at great distances. I
was once present at some rifle-practice at the butts on the
spurs of Hymettds, and was struck by the good shooting
of the men at different ranges. Manoeuvres of the
different garrisons take place annually, and the Crown
Prince, in his capacity of General Administrator of the
Army, travels about the country from time to time to
inspect the troops stationed at various places.
In time of peace, the organisation of the army, consists
of the Ministry of War with its different departments;
the General Administration of the Army, which is en
trusted to the Crown Prince; and three divisions, the
headquarters of which are Athens, Larissa, and Meso-
longhi, and which are each subdivided into four districts.
In time of war, the number of divisions will be doubled.
It was proposed by the last Delyinnes Ministry in 1903
to abolish the office of General Administrator, which is
apt to conflict with the Ministry of War, and which
places the future King of Greece in the unenviable
position of having to make appointments and remove
officers, thus exposing himself to criticism, and incurring
the certain risk of making enemies. Under the present
arrangement, a Minister of War, if he disagrees with
the General Administrator, must either resign or take the
unpleasant step of persisting in his views ; while, if he
agrees with the Crown Prince's opinions, his enemies in
Parliament represent him as the mere mouthpiece of the
Court. But the proposal for abolishing this dual direction
collapsed, partly owing to the tactless way in which the
King and the Crown Prince were treated by the Ministry,
partly owing to the interest which the Crown Prince takes
in all that concerns the army. At any rate, he has thus
an occupation which enables him also to see a good deal
of the country. Chancing to be at Larissa on the
occasion of his annual visit of inspection to that im
portant military station, now only eight miles as the crow
flies from the nearest part of the new Turkish frontier, I
found that his arrival was regarded with enthusiasm, and
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that the town, which had been associated with one of the
least glorious episodes of the war, was decorated with
flags in honour of the unfortunate commander. But it is
generally agreed now that the Crown Prince was more
sinned against than sinning in the conduct of that
straggle; and at least one eminent military critic has
exempted the Greek soldiers from the obloquy then cast
upon them.
Each of the three divisions of the army is composed
of the commander with his staff, of two brigades of
infantry, one regiment of cavalry, one regiment of
artillery, one battalion of engineers, and two of ivzonoi.
Each brigade of infantry consists of two regiments, each
regiment of three battalions, and each battalion, whether
of infantry, engineers, or ivzonoi, has four companies.
Each cavalry regiment contains four squadrons, and each
regiment of artillery is composed of three mountain and
five other batteries, which the new law increases to six
and eight respectively. There are three coUeges for mili
tary education. The most important of these, the Wool
wich of Greece, is that of the Evelpidon, which in 1903
had fifty-one pupils and eleven professors. Youths who
have received a certificate from one of the Gymnasia are
eligible, after an entrance examination, for this academy ;
the course is five years, embracing different practical and
professional subjects ; and, on passing the final examina
tion, the cadets can enter any branch of the army with
the rank of sub-lieutenant. The college for non-com
missioned officers is open to the latter after examination ;
the subjects of study are, of course, military, and, at the
end of the three years' course, successful students take
the rank of sub-lieutenant in the infantry or cavalry. For
a commission in the artillery or engineers the five years'
course at the other college is essential. The late M.
Trikoupes established a school for the officers of the
reserve at Corfu ; those who have taken their degrees at
the University are eligible for admission to it; they
remain a year, studying military subjects, after an
248

in Town and Country
examination in which they receive the rank of reserve
sub-lieutenant in the infantry or artillery ; after a year's
service in those arms, they pass into the reserve of the
active army. In addition to these three military colleges,
the State sends a few higher officers abroad to be further
educated at its expense. One officer of my acquaintance
studied at Woolwich.
There are several military hospitals, one at Mesolonghi,
one in the old Venetian fortress at Corfu, and two in
Athens. The first military hospital in Athens has been
much improved since the war; it has on its staff four
nurses, all English, except one Corfiote lady, who was
trained at the Middlesex Hospital, whereas before the war
no woman had ever been employed there. The nurses
are under the special patronage of the Princess Sophia,
who takes a great interest in their work. They tell one
that their chief difficulty is to make the men go to bed
and keep quiet. ' We shall have all the trouble of taking
off our clothes,' is the usual response of the patients, who
would rather lie in a corner with their cloaks around them.
There is a large powder-magazine, in which women are
employed, on the road to Daphni ; during a recent army
debate some critics expressed the opinion that it was too
near the sea. The military bakery at Athens has been
placed by an act of little less than sacrilege in an old
Turkish mosque, which is now recognised by the best
authorities to have been none other than the Orthodox
Metropolitan Church of Athens during the whole of the
Frankish period, at the close of which it was converted
into a mosque by Mohammed II.
The work in other countries done by the police falls
in Greece almost wholly on the soldiers. The infantry
always pass a year in the country police, an/1 this arrange
ment has the defect that young soldiers with very little
training have to perform the arduous duties of policemen.
Of police, properly so called, there are very few indeed
in the country towns, and not more than four hundred,
divided into six divisions, in the capital. They are ali
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men who have been soldiers, and they are badly paid.
This fact, with the dangerous nature of their occupation,
does not tend to make service in the force popular. The
Athenian policeman, despite his helmet and his blue
uniform, is not an imposing person, and he lacks the
authority of his London colleague. But he is, like the
rest of his countrymen, scrupulously polite to the stranger,
whom he is always ready to place in the best position at
all public shows or processions.
At the present moment army reform is in the ah. The
late Theotokes Ministry proposed the reorganisation and
rearmament of the military forces at a cost of 40 millions
of drachmai. The interest on, and Uquidation of, this sum
was to be provided out of a new ' Treasury of National
Defence,' for the use of which the proceeds of various
new taxes were to be ear-marked. But while most Greeks
desire the army to be made efficient, many think that the
funds should be provided by drastic economies in the
Civil Service, rather than by the imposition of fresh taxes.
This is the policy of the new Delyinnes Government.
One thing is clear : if Greece wishes to have a larger and
better-equipped army for the realisation of her ' Great
Idea,' she must be prepared to pay for it.
The Greek navy disappointed the expectations of
those who remembered the historic exploits of Kanares
and Miaoules, by its inaction during the late war; but
that is one of the riddles which has not yet been solved,
though not a few solutions have been offered. Whether
the fleet abstained from bombarding Smyrna and Salonika
for fear of damaging Greek property, or was prevented
from action by the Great Powers, or by some other
agency, is of purely historical interest now. Since
Turkey began to pay attention to her miserable fleet, the
Greeks have also showed increased interest in the state of
their navy. At present they have three men-of-war, the
Psard, the Hydra, and the Spitsai, called after the three
' nautical islands,' whose prowess was so famous during
the War of Independence. These three constitute the
250

in Town and Country
division which executes naval manoeuvres. An ex-
Minister of Marine lately stated that, though they were
good fighting ships, their guns were slow-firers, requiring
thrice the normal rate of time to fire a shot. The crew
of each of these three men-of-war consists of 26 officers,
114 petty officers, 303 sailors, and 8 mechanics — a total
of 451 apiece. Besides these, there are two smaller
armoured ships, the King George, which is 38 years
old, and the Queen Olga, aged 37, which is now used
as a training-ship at Poros. Altogether, including gun
boats and torpedo-boats, and small craft of all kinds, the
total of the navy amounted to 45 vessels in 1903 ; but it
must not be forgotten that the mercantile marine of Greece
consisted at the same time of 1241 vessels of 30 tons
and over. The whole cost of the navy, as set down in
the Budget of that year, amounted to 7,312,375 dr.
(or £226,389 at the present rate of exchange).* The
question of boilers has lately been agitating the public
mind, and it was declared by some that those of the
three men-of-war were obsolete. But a British expert
who examined into the question at Malta reported that
repairs were all that was required. A committee of
naval officers has, however, lately stated that only the
three men-of-war and five of the torpedo-boats are of any
value for active service. A higher naval officer has
accordingly advocated the building of three more men-of-
war, six torpedo-destroyers, and twelve torpedo-boats.
Of course, the efficiency of the navy is simply a question
of money, for the Greek sailors have always had a high
reputation. Ever since 1866 a Society for the Formation of a
National Fleet has existed for the purpose of collecting
money from Greeks all over the world to be spent on the
navy. Some of the most eminent names in Greece have
been connected with this society ; all the leading survivors
of the War of Independence were original members ; Sir
Richard Church, that famous Philhellene, whose memory,
* 8,587,710 dr. (or £265,873) in that of 1904.
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together with that of young Clement Harris, stiU lingers
in the English Church at Athens, was on the original
committee ; the son of the great Kolokotrones was the
first president, a post now held by Prince George. The
patriotic Admiral Nikddemos left all his property and his
house in Hypereides Street to the society, which in 1878
contributed a large share of the money for the purchase
of the Admiral Miaoules. In rgoo a Treasury of the
National Fleet was founded at the Ministry of Marine ;
its sources of revenue are derived from anchorage dues in
all Greek ports, amounting to 500,000 gold frcs. a year,
from dues for the use of the cistern at the Arsenal at
Salamis, from the sale of disused materials of old war
ships, wood, and the like, and from the collections made
by the committee of the society. Young Greece is being
invited to subscribe its mite, for there are coUections in
the public elementary schools. The society's property
is now worth between 7 and 8 millions of drachmai.
Its secretary, M. Papamichailopoulos, is a man who is
ever ready to serve the true interests of his country,
whether by encouraging gymnastics, by reminding the
Greeks of their kinsmen on the Euxine, or by working
for a better and bigger fleet. The society has appro
priately taken for its emblem the bust of Themistokles,
for its motto the wise saying of Perikles, that a navai
force cannot be improvised on the spur of the moment.
Quite recently, as already stated, the Minister of Marine
in the last Theotdkes Government carried a proposal for
establishing a lottery on behalf of the fleet, consisting of
r, 000,000 tickets at 3 dr. apiece, with 2000 winning
numbers and a first prize of 100,000 dr. This has already
much interfered with the monopoly hitherto enjoyed by
the Archaeological Society, and the navy will flourish at
the expense of archaeology. Situated as Greece is, it is
by no means clear whether she will not gain more by her
antiquities than by her ironclads.
The sailors for the navy are taken from the maritime
populations of the islands and of seafaring places on the
252

in Town and Country
coast, like Galaxidi, on the Gulf of Corinth; men, so
chosen, are, of course, exempt from service in the army.
The naval conscripts, after taking the oath at the Arsenal
at Salamis, go for three months' preliminary training to
the Naval School at Poros — a very fine building, where,
during a recent visit, I found five hundred of them at
work. Those who cannot read or write are educated
there, and afterwards receive posts as ordinary seamen ;
while the others are trained to fill more responsible
positions, such as that of steersman. After their three
months' training they all return to the Arsenal at Salamis,
and are placed in a division of the fleet which is about
to execute manoeuvres, whence they are permanently
transferred to their respective ships. For naval cadets
there is a training-ship, the Hellds, which has had its boilers
and engines removed, and is very old. It is stationed at
the Piraeus, and at present contains forty cadets, who must
enter before they are sixteen, and who are divided into
four classes. They perform cruises, for the purpose of
learning practical seamanship, in the Admiral Miao&les.
The total personnel of the navy, as set down in the
Budget for 1903, amounts to 3936 — viz. 427 officers,
916 petty officers, 2159 sailors, 394 mechanics, and the
40 naval cadets. The pay of naval officers is as follows :
a vice-admiral receives 14,400 dr. a year; a commodore
11,160 dr. a year; a captain 634 dr. a month; a com
mander 452 dr. a month; a first lieutenant 312 dr. a
month; a second lieutenant 220 dr. a month; and a
midshipman no dr. a month. Twenty-five years' service
entitles petty officers and sailors to pensions, for which
their wives and children are also eligible.
The Arsenal was originally at Poros — one of the most
beautiful spots in Greece, overlooking ajlarge expanse
of water, formed, as it were, into an inland lake by the
island and the mainland, and approached by two narrow
channels at either end. I was told at Poros that the
townsfolk were alarmed lest their houses should be
bombarded in the event of war, and that they petitioned
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the Government to remove the Arsenal elsewhere. Their
prayer was heard, and they now regret the loss of business
which the removal has entailed. In 1878, as an inscrip
tion in the monastery of Phaneromene in Salamis informs
the traveller, the Arsenal was established at that fine
building, the monks having to emigrate to a farm of
the monastery. But the harbour of Phaneromene is
exposed, and water was scarce ; so, after four years, the
Arsenal was moved to another part of Salamis, nearer the
Piraeus, and within sight of the scene of the historic
battle. Let us hope that its memories may inspire the
navy to do likewise.

»54

in Town and Country

CHAPTER XIII
JUSTICE
As might be expected from a nation so quick-witted, the
law is a profession which has great fascinations for the
Greeks, and a network of tribunals, too numerous, perhaps,
for its real needs, has been spread over the country.
The highest Court of Justice in Greece preserves the
great name of the Areopagos, and its full staff consists of
a president, a vice-president, sixteen other judges, two
officials, the eisangelet'ts and his deputy, who have no
equivalent under the English judicial system, but corre
spond to the Staatsanwalt in Germany, and a clerk.
But a quorum of the Areopagos, in any case, consists
of seven judges, the clerk, and one of the two above-
mentioned officials, whose duty it is to sum up and
present the case impartially to the judges when the two
counsel have been heard on either side. In Greece there
exists a right of appeal in criminal cases, so that they, as
well as civil appeals, came before the Areopagos. The
Areopagites, as they are called, are appointed by the
King on the proposal of the Minister of Justice, and are
irremovable. Thus, holding their office for life, they
are happily unaffected by changes of Ministry. They
are selected from the judges of the five Courts of Appeal,
which are immediately below them. Besides its civil
and criminal appellate jurisdiction, the Areopagos, like
the Supreme Court of the United States, has to decide
whether laws passed by the Bouli are in conflict with the
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Constitution. This Court sits every Monday to hear
civil appeals, and every Saturday to try criminal appeals,
from September if to June if. 0ver four hundred of
the former, and about three hundred of the latter come
before it during the course of the year. Despite its
august name and splendid associations, the Areopagos
is not an imposing tribunal. Its abode in a rather
commonplace house in Stidion Street reminds one of
the squalid surroundings of the Supreme Court of Appeal
for the whole British Empire. Neither judges nor counsel
wear robes, nor headgear of any kind ; but I have been
struck by the expedition of the proceedings and the
business-like character of the speeches, which, when I
have been present, have lacked aU rhetorical flourishes.
The decisions of the Areopagos are pubUshed, Uke our
law reports. Judged by our high standard of judicial
remuneration, the salaries of the Court are ridiculously
low; indeed, the Greeks say so themselves, and one
Areopagite of my acquaintance complains bitterly that
even the highest judges in Greece have to struggle for
a bare living. The president is paid 7200 dr. a year,
the vice-president 6000 dr. ; the eisangeleus has 7200 dr. ;
his deputy, like each of the Areopagites, receives 5400 dr.,
and the cierk only 2880 dr. How those who have no
private means can live on these miserable salaries is a
question which might be put to our Lords of Appeal.
Immediately below the Areopagos come the local Courts
of Appeal, or epheteia, of which there are five : at Athens,
Patras, Nauplia, Corfu, and Larissa respectively. They
have jurisdiction in most civil cases, except those of small
importance, but, with one or two exceptions, are not
occupied with criminal appeals. The judicial quorum is
five in each Court. The president of each of these Courts
receives 6000 dr. a year; each of the judges (of whom there
are in all forty-six) 4800 dr. They are appointed for life,
but can be, and are, moved about from one Courtto the other
for political reasons. There is a feeling that they should
remain five, four, or at least three years in the same place
256

LARISSA AND THE BRIDGE OF THE PENEIOS.

in Town and Country
Next in the scale are the Courts of First Instance, or
protodik&a, of which, since M. Theotdkes increased their
number during his first Ministry, there are nine in the
Peloponnesos, seven in Continental Greece, four in Thes
saly, four in the Ionian Islands, and two in the Cyclades ;
or, in all, twenty-six, the number of the prefectures. This
number is regarded by many as much too high ; it is said
that some of these Courts have little to do, and that money
might be saved for the army by cutting them down. On
the other hand, it is retorted that justice must be brought
to the doors of the people ; but the real argument against
a reduction is the extreme unpopularity of such a step in
the particular localities affected. Small towns acquire
fresh importance and gain pecuniarily by being made
the seat of a Court of First Instance; for that reason
Corinth has named one of its streets after ' George
Theotdkes,' and Livadia rejoices at the expense of
Thebes since the lawyers migrated from the old to the
new Boiotian capital. So, while deputies are in favour
of a reduction of the number of these Courts in the
abstract, scarcely any one dares to urge that the one in
his own constituency should be abolished. The total staff
of these Courts consists oftheir 26 presidents, paid 4860 dr.
a year each; of 103 puisne judges at 3600 dr. a year each ;
and of 55 puisne and deputy judges at 3300 dr. a year
each. They are appointed for life, but can be moved
from one place to another. Their jurisdiction includes
more serious criminal cases, when there must be five
judges on the bench ; civil cases where the damages
claimed exceed 500 dr. ; and commercial cases above the
value of 8oodr., inasmuch as the special Commercial Courts
were abolished some ten years ago. In all civil cases
the judicial quorum is three.
Below these tribunals come the County Courts, or
eirenodikeia, which are 350 in number, and which have
a single judge apiece. They decide civil cases below
the value of 500 dr., and commercial cases below that
of 800 dr. The judges of these Courts are not appointed
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for life, but are removable at the pleasure of the Minister
of Justice. There are also two minor criminal tribunals
(plemmelodikeia and ptaismatodikeia), answering to our
police-courts, and a legal council, which advises the
Cabinet on moot points of law.
The jury system exists only in criminal cases, the jury
being composed of twelve men, as with us. It works
well in Athens, but not in smaU places, where every one
knows every one else. There the jury, being chosen
from the locality, is apt to be biassed, and, like juries all
the world over, is almost certain to be ignorant and
incapable of weighing the evidence. On the other hand,
the system of appointing the judges after examinations
is said to prove successful. A candidate for judicial
office must pass five or six examinations before the
judges and the law professors of the University, and, as
these examinations are stiff, his knowledge of law, at any
rate, is tested. But even here politics often intervene,
and the Ministers speak a word in season on behalf of
their favourites. Moreover, as a man can become a
judge at the age of twenty-five, he has to gain his prac
tical experience at the cost of the unfortunate litigants.
It will thus be seen that, broadly speaking, Greek
justice is much in the same state of dependence upon
politics as was the English bench in the days of the
Stuarts. Yet, in spite of the bad practice of shifting
judges from place to place, there are a few who have
contrived to remain stationary for twenty years. There
has been a marked improvement in the administration of
the law, especially during the last fifteen years, and there
is a great difference between the quality of the older and
the younger judges, the latter being much superior.
There are, I am told on good authority, few cases of
bribery, which used to be mostly prevalent among the
older men. Where it is now chiefly found is among
witnesses. A friend of mine once told me, however, of
a distinguished judge, before whose tribunal he had an
important case pending, and who, a few days before the
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case came on, called upon him and significantly remarked
that he had a son who wanted a comfortable place, such
as it was in my friend's power to bestow !
We must remember, however, that, as a Greek
philosopher remarked, it is easy to practise virtue when
one is well off. The Greek judges are badly paid ; they
do not receive their full pension till after thirty-five years'
service ; they have only a proportionately smaller pension
for a shorter tenure of office ; they have expensive law
books to buy ; in most cases they may be moved to
undesirable places at the whim of the Minister, in some
they may lose their posts altogether. Can we, with our
highly paid and immovable judiciary, expect the same
standard from the miserably salaried Greek judges ? And
have not we, too, in the bad old days, had our Scroggs
and our Jeffreys ? The Greeks have the remedy in their
own hands ; if they want a pure, independent judiciary,
they must place it above temptation, and out of the
baneful sphere of political influence. Greek justice has
also the usual oriental defect of dilatoriness. A small
police-court case, in which a friend of mine was inter
ested, took exactly a year to come on ; a further develop
ment of it is still proceeding leisurely.
Barristers simply swarm, and, as a leading member of
the Areopagus once said to me, ' They are like the
plagues of Egypt.' Every year their number increases,
wholly out of proportion to the growth of litigation. In
1865 there were twenty-five lawyers at Patras, there are
now three hundred ; at Athens their total is as high as
eight hundred; at Pyrgos there are some seventy; at
little Sparta twenty-seven. Yet the prizes of the pro
fession are not such as those which lure our young
graduates to the Inns of Court. The lefading Athenian
barrister makes 45,000 dr. a year ; about five or ten more
make large incomes ; and the rest earn a bare subsist
ence, or do much as briefless barristers in other countries
— swell the ranks of journalism, the great army of place-
hunters, pohtical adventurers, et hoc genus omne. Of
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course, as with us, many become barristers with no inten
tion of practising, but in order to use their professional
position as a means of obtaining a post under Govern
ment Criminal cases are better paid than civil, and in
a great criminal cause cilebre of 1902 — which arose out
of a broken promise of marriage, and in which a Thes
salian deputy, an Athenian editor, and a bravo from
Mine were all concerned — the fees were very high.
With the exception of the criminal lawyers, barristers
cannot move about from one part of the country to the
other to practise.
Let us see what work there is for the bar to do.
Taking the last official report of the Ministry of Justice,
the annual number of cases tried before the lower Courts
of Appeal was 4515 ; before the Courts of First Instance,
40,267 ; and before the County Courts, 109,949, as well
as the business in the Areopagos. The most usual
crimes are homicide and wounding, with which the daUy
papers abound ; but the cause is hardly ever alcoholism,
which, as we saw, scarcely exists as yet in Greece, and
the motive is rareiy gain.
The frequency of these crimes of violence — so a
leading criminalist informs me — is due chiefly to the fact
that those guilty of them escape unpunished, owing to
the influence of their political friends in Parliament.
The death penalty exists, but it is usually converted
by the King into imprisonment for life, and the last
Minister of Justice was opposed to it on principle. In
one year only fourteen men and one woman were sen
tenced to death, and forty-one men and one woman to
imprisonment for life. In the case of women the com
monest crime is that of murder, generally the murder of
the husband, and the usual motive is jealousy. It is
noticeable that of seventy-two inmates of the women's
prison at Athens a large number are undergoing punish
ment for this offence, and of this number, lawless Mine,
where primitive ideas of justice still prevaU, sends the
largest contingent. According to the prison statistics,
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in Town and Country
which do not, however, take the total of the population
into account, the prefectures which have the greatest
number of male criminals are the currant-producing dis
trict of Elis, rich Achaia, and well-to-do Messenia, while
poor and mountainous Eurytania has the least. Crime
is most prevalent between the ages of twenty and thirty ;
most of the criminals were peasants or shepherds, only
six were priests, and out of the 6039 prisoners nearly
half were uneducated, and very few were well-educated
men. Of the women prisoners, almost all were illiterate.
Brigandage has ceased to concern foreigners since the
terrible affair at Pikermi in 1870, but it occasionally
troubles wealthy Greeks. The Government offers a
price for the head of a brigand, and two were recently
shot, one while drunk, the other while eating with his back
turned, in the Copais district. Three years ago a brigand
named Pandpoulos carried off the son of a wealthy
currant merchant, M. Stavroldpoulos, from Aigion to the
mountains near Megaspelaion. The true story was told
me by a member of the family, which was called upon
to pay a large sum in gold — not easily procurable in
Greece — to the brigand. A slightly smaller sum than
he had claimed was packed on mules and sent to him,
and he thereupon demanded, with terrible threats, a
larger sum than the original amount. Meanwhile, he
looked after the spiritual welfare of his prisoner, a young
gentleman rather careless in his attendance at church, by
making him say his prayers night and morning, adding
that it might be his painful duty to kill him that day.
Finally the young man escaped, and the brigand was
taken at Patras, with most of his money unexpended.
The peasants regarded him as rather sinned against than
sinning. He is now doing time at Pajamidi, whence his
victim's family fear that political influence may one day
set him free to wreak his vengeance upon them.
For the enforcement of the death penalty, which in
Greece takes the form of decapitation, the country pays
two executioners, who have themselves been criminals,
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and who have been pardoned on condition of accepting
that unpleasant office. When not employed, they reside
in the picturesque island fort of Bourzi, opposite Nauplia.
At Nauplia, too, is the largest of all the prisons which
the country possesses. No convict station can be more
picturesque, few more curious, than the old Venetian
fortress of Palamidi. After toiling up countless steps
one reaches the prison, whence one is conducted to the
top of a species of bear-pit, within which the prisoners
are disporting themselves. The Greek convict seems at
all times a jovial creature, not in the least ashamed of
his position. At Itea I once saw some of them land,
pass the time of day with their friends, and sit down to
play the fiddle before being escorted in a cart to the
prison at Salona. At Palamidi the appearance of a
stranger is the signal for a rapid movement among the
inmates. Long poles, to which little boxes are attached,
are at once handed up to the edge of the ramparts, and
a chorus of voices urges the traveller to buy the objects
which the prisoners may employ their time in making —
for here, and in some other prisons, they work when
they feel inclined and not compulsorily. Their work
manship is astonishingly skilful, and quite Phoenician in
character : — Pausanias tells us that the people of Nauplia
came originally from Egypt. Wooden cigarette-holders,
apparently representing oriental chariots driven by
oriental charioteers, but said to be the prisoners' con
ception of the tourist driving in a Victoria ; dolphins,
such as Arion might have ridden, intended to form the
curly end of a shepherd's crook ; eikons and rosaries, all
form part of their stock-in-trade. One of the better-
behaved prisoners is allowed to step up and act as
middleman, and a brisk bargain takes place. When, at
last, terms have been arranged, the purchase-money is
placed in the seller's box, which descends into the pit.
In one of the prisons at Athens there are openings in
the lattice-work of the windows, through which the
prisoners put their hands and beg for money as one
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passes. Palamidi contained 612 prisoners, including
23 guilty of homicide, when I was last there.
Altogether there are thirty-four penal prisons and six
houses of correction for those condemned to heavy
penalties, the best of which is at Corfii, and was founded
by the British ; the next best is that at Kephallenia,
also dating from the British protectorate ; the others
are old, and not brought up to date. In Athens there
are good new prisons for women and for juvenile
offenders. The women's prison was built in 1901 at the
instigation of the Queen, who is very much interested in
this question, out of money provided by the Tsar. It is
well managed by a committee of six men and three
ladies, and all the prison officials are women, except a
priest, an accountant, and a gardener. Even the doctor
is a woman. The inmates who cannot read and write
are obliged to learn, whatever their age. They are all
employed in different kinds of work, which is sold, and
one-half of the profit is credited to the prisoner, and
placed to her account in the prison bank ; the prisoners
are not allowed to have any money in their possession,
but out of this fund they may direct remittances to be
sent to their relatives, provided that they leave a sufficient
balance to pay for their own fares home when they are
discharged. The State allows 35 lepti a day a head for
their maintenance. Each sleeps in a separate cell, but
in the daytime one class of criminal is not kept apart
from another. Twice a week their relatives may visit
them and talk to them through a grating, but gifts of
food are not allowed, and wine is forbidden. The
prisoners are mostly well-behaved, especially those who
have received life sentences, and are therefore resigned,
as is the oriental fashion, to their fate, though usually
quite unrepentant. It is not thought necessary to keep
a guard on the premises. But even behind the bars of
the women's prison politics have a disturbing effect.
When the inmates are told by their visitors of an im
pending change of Ministry, they become excited with
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the hope that their male relatives will bring influence to
bear on the politicians to get them out. Imprisonment
is at times apt to be merely nominal. A friend of mine
during his arrest pending trial went out to a ball, and
danced with the daughter of the Crown prosecutor; a
leading journalist, who was refused bail, was not thereby
prevented from taking the air alone at Kephisia !
The greatest flaw in the whole system is that the over
seers of the prisons all depend upon politics, and con
sequently take no interest in their work, because they
may lose their places whenever there is a change of
Ministry. Reformers advocate their permanent appoint
ment, and a system of examinations for the prison
officials, whose election is now in the power of the
deputies. At present, too, there is no separate depart
ment which deals with prisons, but merely a section of
the Ministry of Justice. Money is not lacking for the
purpose of erecting systematic prisons, for the late M.
Syngrds left about 2,000,000 dr. for that object. But the
money has been lying idle for the last five years, though
a commission was appointed to inquire into the working
of the prisons. Here, as elsewhere — cherchez la politique.

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CHAPTER XIV
WOMEN'S WORJiT
' The Greek woman,' once wrote a leading Athenian
journal, ' is interesting because she is neither European
nor oriental.' According to British ideas, her present
position in the life of Greece is certainly very different
from that which the female sex occupies in the West.
With the exception of the cosmopolitan and Europeanised
section of Athenian ladies, who talk French among them
selves, and imitate Paris in their dress and manners, the
Greek woman is socially almost a nonentity. At Greek
houses in Athens the gentlemen and the ladies sit apart
and converse upon the topics supposed to befit their sex.
In the country the women will sometimes sit down at
table with the guests, but more often they will wait upon
them, while the men of the family join in the repast
The peasant women may be seen working in the fields,
ploughing, and clearing stones off the roads. In some
parts of Greece they share the work with the men ; in
others, the whole of the work falls upon them, and they
are nothing better than the slaves of the family. Where
this is the custom, the peasant girl merely changes her
master by marriage. While she toils, her husband smokes
and talks politics ; while he sits at his ease, she goes out
to fetch water at the well, and carries it home on her
head with marvellous agility. About Sparta one sees the
wives of the herdsmen, at the time of the annual migra
tion of the flocks to the higher pastures near Tripolis,
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toiling up the slopes, with their babies slung in a sort of
quiver on their backs. In districts where emigration to
America is common, the women almost always remain
behind and look after their husbands' work. The natural
result, where the brant of the work falls upon the female
sex, is that they become prematurely worn out. In many
places one never sees a woman who has preserved her
good looks after the age of twenty-five. Yet the fine
ladies of smart Athens society are often very pretty.
There is not the same opening for female domestic
servants as in most other countries. In parts of the
Peloponnesos there is a prejudice against them, and the
servants themselves do not, as a rule, wish to remain in
the countiy when once they have lived in a town. As
in the sixteenth century, so now — the best women ser
vants come from the Cyclades. In the provinces there
still prevails the curious custom of engaging women as
servants for ten or fifteen years, on the understanding
that they are to be paid no wages, but that when they
marry, they are to be provided with a dowry by theh
employers. If they leave before marriage, they forfeit
all claim to compensation; but, in the event of their
death before matrimony, their relatives step into theh
places as claimants to the dot. Should a servant so
engaged commit theft, her mistress is absolved from all
liability to provide the dowry. Such servants are called
psychokbrai, or 'adopted daughters,' and are practically
members of the family. Hotels, even in Athens, have
few posts for women, and in the country inn, except in
places like Olympia, where tourists go, one hardly ever
sees a chambermaid.
There is a movement for encouraging handiwork among
women, which began at Agrinion, in Aitolia, a place
chiefly known for its excellent tobacco, where a Women's
Congress and an exhibition of female work were held
in 1896. A second women's exhibition was opened by
the King at Chalkis in 1902, to which great importance
was attributed by the Press, as a sign of the progress
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in Town and Country
made by the movement. I then had an opportunity
of seeing what the Greek women could do, though the
exhibition was not representative of the whole country.
The clou of the whole show was an extraordinary piece
of needlework, called the 'Othello,' and representing a
scene from the Shakespearian play. So cleverly was the
work done that it exactly resembled a picture; yet the
young girl who was responsible for its production —
the daughter of a doctor at Trikkala — had never studied
painting. She had spent eighteen months over the
' OtheUo,' and had turned out what was a masterpiece
of its kind ; but for ^200, the price asked for it, one
could purchase a fine picture. The best objects in the
exhibition were the pieces of embroidery and white
needlework, and the little island of Skyros, where Thetis
once concealed AchUles in woman's attire, showed itself
still conspicuous for the excellence of its female garments.
Some of the Theban carpets were also worthy of notice ;
but, on the whole, it struck me that the exhibition would
have been better if modern designs had not been usually
chosen. When the Greeks keep to the ancient style of
work, which existed in their country under the Turks,
they are very successful in making a really artistic article.
When, on the other hand, they aim at imitating ' European'
workmanship, they produce, at best, a good imitation.
No less than four hundred and seventy women are
employed in the four silk manufactories of Kalamata,
a place famous for that industry, specimens of which may
be seen at Athens. Silkworms are reared in the houses
of the Messenian town, and the silk manufactory is also
carried on by the nuns of the convent of Higios Kon-
stantfnos, whose silk handkerchiefs and scarves are worth
purchasing, but after a bargain — for the nuns^are first-rate
women of business. Those of the Roman Catholic nun
nery at Tenos employ their time in making the ornaments
of coloured beads — a survival of the Venetian occupation
¦ — which one buys there.
Greek ladies are very philanthropic, deeply interested
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in hospitals and similar institutions, especiaUy since the
war. Even at the present stage of female evolution in
Greece, a considerable amount of public work is done,
and done well, by women. Several institutions at Athens
were started by them, and are under their control. There
is the 'Union of Greek Women,' in Academy Street,
founded in the year of the war by Mme. Parren, the
novelist. It now consists of five sections — a seminary for
seventy or eighty women teachers; an industrial school
for over two hundred girls ; an organisation for the
support of old servants and of girls about to be married ;
a department for the care of the sick poor in theh own
homes, for the disinfection of houses where infectious
diseases have occurred, and for the prevention of tuber
culosis; within the scope of this section come lectures
on the treatment of the sick, to whom medical advice is
given gratis. Finally, the Union supports the widows
and orphans of those who fell in the war, out of money
given by the King. For the female poor there also
exists an excellent institution, under the management
of two ladies, the ' Workshop of Destitute Women,' which
is at once a technical school and a manufactory. It
employs more than four hundred women and children
who have come from all parts of Greece to live in
Athens; the younger children are taught reading and
writing in the morning, and needlework later on ; the
older girls are engaged in embroidery, and in the
manufacture of silk, lace, carpets, and curtains ; the old
women comb, card, and spin wool. Food is provided
out of one of the countless bequests left by the late M.
Syngros, the Greek millionaire, who has received, and
so justly deserves, the coveted title of ' Benefactor of
the Nation.' Ladies pronounce the work of the ' Poor
Girls,' as this institution is colloquially called, to be most
creditable, and the prices are fair, considering that every
thing is hand-made. There is a branch establishment
at Poros.
A lending library, which contains many French and
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in Town and Country
English, as well as Greek books, was founded by three
ladies — only one of them, however, a Greek — ten years
ago, and is under the patronage of the Crown Princess.
It is now the property of Mrs. Kephala, a philanthropic
lady well known in Athens. In connexion with the
library, there is a depot where women's work may be
exhibited, sold, and ordered.
At the end of 1896 a soup-kitchen was opened at
Athens. The Government made an arrangement with
Mrs. Kephala' to provide the Cretan and Thessalian
refugees who thronged the capital at the time of the war
with daily dinners at 10 lepti a head. For three or four
months as many as from 29,000 to 31,000 of these meals
were served every day, the cost being from 7 to 8 lepti
each. Similar soup-kitchens were also organised for the
8000 refugees at the Piraeus, and for those at Xerochdri
in Euboia, and a couple of years ago Mrs. Le Mesurier,
a Corfiote lady married to a Philhellenic British officer,
started one for the relief of the hungry poor of her native
island. At present there is only one soup-kitchen in
Greece ; it is near the Varvikeion at Athens, and was
built by the Princess Sophia, its president. It distributes
food at 10 lepti a portion, or 20 lepti with meat.
An excellent Athenian institution, which is managed
by a committee consisting of one gentleman and four
ladies, and presided over also by a lady, is the orphanage
for girls (corresponding to the Hadji-Kdnsta orphanage
for hoys), founded in 1855, and called the Amalfeion,
after the late Queen Amalia, whose place as patroness is
now filled by Queen Olga. Twenty years ago a new
building was added, and in 1897 the adjoining hospital
was buUt at the cost of the late M. Syngros, and furnished
by his wife. That universal benefactor of, Greece also
left the orphanage a million drachmai, and the village
of Oropds, where a branch orphanage has been con
structed, tb which the girls are sent by batches of 40
at a time for change of air. At the Athens orphanage''
there are 137 girls, not, however, all orphans, but in
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some cases children of very necessitous people. Most
of them come from the capital, practically all from
Greece proper. The younger inmates have lessons in
the morning during the first two years of their residence,
and follow the ordinary course of the ' HeUenic ' schools,
devoting the rest of the day to different kinds of manual
work. All learn sewing, embroidery, and lace-making ;
they plait all the straw for their own hats, make the
materials for their own dresses, and the dresses them
selves, and, in fact, produce almost everything required
for their own use, doing their own washing and ironing as
well. They may remain in the orphanage up to the age
of twenty-three ; but, as occasion offers, they are placed
in the world. Most of them become ladies' maids or
sewing-women, and earn better wages than ordinary
servants. They usually marry at once, when they receive
dowries from the institution ranging from iooo dr. to
2 ooo dr., if the match be suitable. The orphanage is
most methodically arranged ; it has its own church and
hospital, and is in every respect well managed, under the
guidance of the directress and the sub-directress. Both
it and the boys' orphanage, as well as the Evangelismds
hospital, have just benefited by a bequest of 400,000 dr.
from a large merchant of Athens, M. Eliides.
A committee of twenty ladies also manages the ' Home
for Incurables' at Athens, an institution started long
ago ; and the ' Home of St. Catherine ' is under female
administration. This latter establishment provides, at
the cost of 30 dr. a month per head, a home for girls
desirous of studying in the schools, or of working as
milliners or in other ways in the shops of the capital.
Two important Athenian hospitals are directed by ladies
— that for children and the huge Evangelismds, for
both men and women. The children's hospital, started
by the Princess Sophia at Goudf, a short distance out
of Athens, in 1900, and called in consequence Hagfa
Sophfa, is under her special supervision. The committee
is composed of ladies, and the directress, Mile. Klonire,
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in Town and Country
is a Greek who received her training in the United States,
and who has under her a staff of five Greek nurses,
addressed as ' aunt ' by the children. It is very difficult
to obtain nurses in a country where the women regard
such work as beneath their dignity, and where those who
take it up are, like all women who work for their living,
viewed with disdain. It is therefore impossible to
induce any one to be trained as a nurse without payment,
which begins at the rate of 20 dr. a month, and rises by
degrees to 50 dr., food and uniform being free. The
nurses, however, never go out in their professional dress.
They are considered to be very capable ; indeed, if the
Greek girl can be persuaded to become a nurse, she is
found to perform her duties admirably. The daily
charge for a nurse, when she can be spared for outside
work, is 10 dr. a day, a comparatively high figure, spe
cially fixed by the Princess to raise the nurses in public
esteem. It is hoped that in time the hospital will have
a nursing-home. It subsists on voluntary contributions,
on the benefactions of the late M. Syngros and others, and
on the small amount (1 dr. a day) which it receives from
the paying patients, who, however, form the minority. Its
buildings are very complete ; indeed, the visitor to these
Athenian hospitals, accustomed to the generally easy
going methods of Hellenic life, is surprised to find so
much system about them. They strike me as perhaps
the best organised department of Greece. Yet even into
the hospitals political considerations are allowed to enter.
One day the Queen, visiting a hospital at the Piraeus,
asked that a patient in whom she was interested should
be placed in a vacant bed there. She was, however,
informed that the bed in question formed part of the
private preserve of that local political party to which the
patient did not happen to belong, so that it was impos
sible to execute the Royal suggestion. The two parties
had made a compact, dividing the hospital between
them, and this sacrosanct arrangement could not be dis
turbed ! This incident led her Majesty to found, with
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Russian money, a local hospital, where she could do
as she pleased.
The great Evangelismds hospital is about twenty years
old, and enjoys the special patronage of the Queen,
who is a constant visitor. Its directress is a Dane, but
Greek ladies compose the committee of management. It
has about three hundred patients, some paying and some
non-paying, and there are out-patients as well as those
inside. The hospital is very complete, it contains a
theatre for male students, has a good staff, and has
received large benefactions, including one from the
inevitable M. Syngros.
I have elsewhere spoken of the women's prison; it
remains to mention the Royal Hellenic School of Needle
work, started by Lady Egerton, wife of our former Minister
in Athens, to enable the ThessaUan refugees to make
money by weaving. From these small beginnings the
school has grown into a big institution of a permanent
character, for the purpose of teaching Greek women
embroidery and lace-making. The present buUding at
Athens was erected on ground in the Michael Voda Street,
belonging to Madame de Riancourt, a French lady of
ardent Philhellenic sentiments, who lives in Athens,
where she is a prominent figure in society, and the cost of
construction was defrayed by the King, who is the patron
of the school. All the original work, the designing and
so forth, is done at the Athens school ; the five branches,
which are at Koropi in Attica, Aigina, and Corinth, and
in Kephallenia and Crete, have each a speciality. Thus,
at Koropf, where the Albanian women had long been
accustomed to embroider the bottoms of their dresses,
the girls are employed in embroidery; at Aigina, they
make fine lace, copied from Milan point; at Corinth
they are specially engaged in fine white linen work.
The total number of girls employed amounts to about
500, of whom some 120 are at the Athens school, and
there is no lack of a constant supply, for more girls than
are wanted are always ready to enter the establishment.
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in Town and Country
They are taken at the age of ten and upwards, and for
the first year receive no pay ; subsequently they are paid
according to their qualifications, usually by the piece. It
is sought to imitate Greek and such Italian work as was
done in Greece in Frankish times. Some of the designs
used are Byzantine, some come from Knossds and
Mycenae. One day a lady bought a belt made at the
school, which she thought was the dernier cri ; she was
surprised to learn that the design had been copied from
one of the objects unearthed by Mr. Evans at prehistoric
Knossds. The school has a shop in Athens for the sale
of its work, and during the tourist season its business is
very brisk; it has also an agent in Cairo, and Liberty
has undertaken the sale of its products in London.
Since Lady Egerton's departure from Athens, Princess
Nicholas has accepted the presidency of this institution.
Some ladies have exercised much influence in politics.
Miss Sophfa Trikoupes was a powerful assistant of her
brother during his long career, and devoted her whole
efforts to the furtherance of his political aspirations. The
two nieces of his chief rival, M. Delyinnes, one of whom
is now dead, were powerful agents in procuring places for
would-be officials whenever their uncle was in office, and
when he was decorated two years ago by the Sultan his
niece was not forgotten. In municipal politics, the success
of M. Damal^s in the election for the Piraeus mayoralty
is attributed largely to the popularity of his wife. But,
though they read the newspapers, and are, in the Mace
donian question, quite as fanatically anti-Bulgarian as the
men, perhaps more so in some cases that I have known,
the Greek women have no burning desire for political
rights, and the older political leaders are all opposed to
the idea. Female suffrage is not within the range of
practical politics, nor is it likely to be, and out of their
own homes such work as women do is in other depart
ments than political agitation. Mme. Parrdn, the novelist,
who is one of the most prominent leaders of the cause of
women, has herself told me that what she seeks for her
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sex is not political rights, but work. But she has no
desire to still further overcrowd the market, already filled
to overflowing with the intellectual male proletariate, by
adding to it a number of highly educated women.
Owing to the fact that in Greece there is an excess of
men over women in the population, despite the large
drain upon the numbers of the former owing to emigra
tion, there is no probability of a large class of unmarried
women arising, as in England. Marriage is regarded by
^ the Greeks as the one and only natural profession of their
female belongings ; provided that she has a dot, no Greek
woman need despair of matrimony, and a lady who works
for her living is regarded much as she was a generation
ago with us. Accordingly, so far, the number of women
who have studied at the University is very smaU. Medi
cine and philosophy are the only subjects which they have
taken up, for no woman has applied for admission to
either the legal or theological faculty. Up to the present
year seven ladies have received the degree of M.D. at
Athens : the example was set by two MUes. Panaghiotatou;
and three other ladies, all of whom passed, were not slow
to follow ; two more are now studying for their medical
degree. Besides these, Miss Kalopothike, a lady doctor
of eminence at Athens, may be reckoned among women
who have studied medicine, though she took her degree
in Paris. Two ladies have also taken degrees in pharmacy
at the University. Two others, Mile. Stephandpoli,
daughter of the editor of the Messager ctAthenes, and dis
tinguished by a pamphlet on the Roumanian claims to
Macedonia, and Mile. Adamiidou, have received the
diploma of the philosophical faculty, the former of whom
was, I believe, the first lady to apply for admission at
the University some eighteen years ago. The female
students have proved to be the most law-abiding, and
have never taken part in riots or disturbances. Their
work has been of a high quality, as is only natural, for
none but picked women have so far studied. In the
whole of Greece there are only three ladies engaged as
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in Town and Country
inspectresses of schools; at the Piraeus there is a
flourishing girls' school kept by a Mile. Diamantopodlou.
At the Educational Congress held at Athens last year
the ladies took a prominent part Of women's work in
journalism and literature I have already spoken.
Thus it will be seen that, while the vast majority
of Greek women are regarded almost in the light of
domestic animals by their lords and masters, and seem
to be satisfied with their oriental position, there are, even
in Greece, the germs of a movement for their advance
ment towards a Western standpoint.

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CHAPTER XV
MATERIAL CONDITION
Before the year 1869 Greece did not possess a single
railway; in that year the capital was joined with the
Piraeus by the little local line, which has been extended
in recent times to the very heart of the city, and which
now has metropolitan stations at the Theseion, at
Monasteriki, and at the Concord Square, the present
terminus. The Athenian portion of this line is partly
underground, and since last September the whole 10
kilometres have been worked by electricity, so that
trains now run every quarter of an hour to New Phaleron
and the Piraeus, and vice versd, instead of every half-
hour, as formerly. This line has a double set of metals,
and has a very large passenger traffic, owing to the
cheapness of the fares and to the constant communication
between the two largest towns in Greece. According to
the latest return of the Greek Home Office, the net
annual profit on the working of this railway was rather
more than .£22,000, the gross receipts (less railway tax)
£53.746. Greece at the present moment has 1332 kilometres, or
832$ miles, of railways in working order. Of the six com
panies which own this mileage among them, the largest is
the Piraeus-Athens-Peloponnesos Company, the Spap, as
it is called by the amalgamation of its initials, which goes
from the Piraeus by way of Athens to Corinth. At Corinth
the line divides : one section continuing along the south
shore of the Corinthian gulf to Patras, and then striking
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THE KALAVRYTA RAILWAY.

in Town and Country
southward to Olympia, the other going through Argos and
Tripolis to Kalamata. Both bifurcations have numerous
branches. From the Corinth-Kalamata sections there
are offshoots at Argos to Nauplia, at Bilale to Megalopolis,
and at Asprochoma to Nisi. From the Corinth-Olympia
line there are branches from Diakophto to Kalavryta, the
only cog-wheel railway in Greece ; from a wayside station
between Patras and the terminus to the popular baths of
Kyllene and to Kyllene itself ; and from the station
of Alpheios, near Pyrgos, to the Kalamata line at
Zeugalati, with a short piece of line from one of the
intermediate stations to Kyparissia on the west coast.
This branch, which was inaugurated three years ago,
opens up a fruitful district, hitherto only accessible by
sea, and completes the circuit of the Peloponnesos, so
that circular tickets are now issued by the company.
Its mileage now reaches the total of 460 miles (74o-5
kilometres), and on paper this sounds a good deal ; but
there are still places of importance in the peninsula which
have no railway communications. Sparta constantly
clamours for a line, and a concession was granted some
years ago for extending the railway from Olympia to
Karytaina ; but this undertaking has not been begun.
To make railways in. the mountainous interior is very
costly, and near the coast the railway company, in spite
of its low fares, has to compete with the still lower steam
ship rates. But, in spite of these disadvantages, and
of a loss of over £2300 on the new Kyparissia branch,
its last annual balance-sheet showed a net profit of over
£19,400. In short, every one now recognises the wisdom
of the late M. Trikoupes in pressing on railway construc
tion, and a Greek once remarked to me that the loudest
opponents of his railway policy were thfe first to use his
lines for the purpose of their election campaigns against
him. A third railway company, that of Attica, runs from
Athens to the suburban resort of Kephisia and also to
Lavrion. Though the railways of Attica are only forty-six
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miles in all, yet the marble quarries of Pentelikon and
the mines at Lavrion give them considerable importance ;
but their last annual profits were only some £8000. A
concession has been granted for another line in Attica,
from the capital to Pentele, on the slopes of Pentelikon,
but the concessionaires have, so far, done nothing,
and there is a scheme for a mountain-railway up Pames.
A small company owns the line, eight miles in length,
which connects Pyrgos with its port of Katikolo. But
this piece of railway barely pays expenses, showing a
balance of no more than £400 on the annual working.
It is at present inconvenient for through passengers,
because it has a separate station at Pyrgos, instead of
joining the Peloponnesian system ; but it is proposed to
unite them shortly. Its receipts mainly depend on the
currant crop.
Northern Greece had, till last year, only two rail
way companies, both disconnected with one another
and with the southern lines. One of them, the North-
Western of Greece, which joins Kryoneri, the port
of Mesolonghi, with the inland town of Agrinion — a
distance of thirty-nine miles — made a profit of no more
than £1000 last year. The mountainous character of
the country between Agrinion and Karditsa, the nearest
point of the Thessalian railway, renders any idea of a
junction with that system out of the question, for such
an extension could not possibly pay in that thinly popu
lated region. The Thessalian Company's line, opened
in 1884, is in many respects the best in Greece; its
carriages and its Belgian locomotives are good, and the
service most business-like ; it was till lately second only
in length to the Peloponnesian, and has a mileage of
127 miles. The last annual profits of the Thessalian
railway were over £33,000. From Volo, a short line of
seventeen miles runs along the arm of the Pagasaian gulf
to Meleaf, and it is also proposed to make a branch
across to Zagori, on the Gulf of Salonika.
The much-discussed Piraeus-Larissa railway was begun
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in Town and Country
as far back as 1890 by Messrs. Eckersley & Co., of
Westminster, and was to have been ready ten years ago.
Then the work was interrupted, and Sir Weetman Pearson,
the eminent contractor, went over to Athens and offered
to make the line out of his own pocket, on certain con
ditions. This offer the Greek Government declined, and
ultimately the BatignoUes Company, of Paris, took up
the great task. The first section of this, the most im
portant of all railway undertakings in Greece, was opened
with much ceremony by the King at Chalkis in March,
1904. At present the line is open for traffic from the
Piraeus to Dadi, with a branch from Schesmatiri,
near Tanagra, to Chalkis — altogether 128 miles, and
is finished as far as Brallo. The branch to Chalkis —
a place hitherto only accessible from Athens by an
immense drive or by a sea- journey of from twelve tc
twenty hours (I have had personal experience of both
the longer and the shorter passage), but now brought
within three hours of the capital — has already answered
so well, that the company is running two trains a day at
low fares in each direction. It shortens the journey not
only to Chalkis, but that to Thessaly, and there was
talk by those who know nothing of Greek steamers of
a ' boat-train,' which would find a quick steamer waiting
for it every morning at Chalkis. A daily postal service
with ' Europe ' vid Salonika might thus have been
secured; but Greek steamers do not meet trains, and
the temptation of the steamship companies is rather to
time their boats to leave Chalkis before the train arrives,
so that passengers for Thessaly may be compelled to go
all the way by sea. But, at least, it is possible to go to
Chalkis and back in a day. I have heard it said, how
ever, that the trade of that little town,* like that of
Patras and other places on the railway, will be injured
by the line, because the inhabitants will now buy almost
everything they want at Athens. The Copais Company
has already benefited by having the rail to Livadia,
but the Livadians complain that their station is too far off.
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From outside Livadia the track crosses the historic plain
of Chaironeia to Dadi and Brallo. At Lianokladi there
will be a junction, whence a short branch of about twelve
miles will diverge to Lamia with its two ports of Hagia
Marina and Stylida. The main line will join the present
Thessalian railway at Demerlf, near Pharsala, 189 miles
from the start It is in the section between Brallo and
Demerlf, now under construction, that the greatest diffi
culties are to be found ; for, whereas there are only two
tunnels between the Piraeus and Brallo, there are forty-
three between there and Demerlf, and that at Brallo is
considerably over a mile long — a record for Greek lines.
The sections between Lianokladi and' Brallo and the
branch to Lamia and Stylida are being made by British
engineers. There is a new station at Athens, and a mole
with a gare maritime will be constructed at the Piraeus.
From Demerlf there were three courses open to the
company — to go direct across the plain of Thessaly to
Larissa, thence through the Vale of Tempe to the present
Macedonian line at Gida, between Salonika and Mona-
stir; to go to Larissa and thence vid Tyrnavo to Veria
on the same line ; or to follow, with a new gauge, the
present line from Demerlf to Kalabaka, and thence to
strike through the mountains to a point near Monastir.
The third alternative would be very costly, and in winter
the line would be blocked for two months by the snow.
Unfortunately for the lovers of the picturesque, the
route through Tempe has been chosen, and negotiations
have begun with Turkey for the construction of the line
beyond the frontier. The Turkish Government is said
to have strategic objections to a lme near the sea, and
all negotiations with it are lengthy. Moreover, who can
say what the Sultan's relations with Greece will be when
the time for making the connexion arrives ? The Greeks
hope that when the line is completed, not only will they
have a daily post to and from Europe, but that the
Indian mail will pass through the Piraeus, which will
then supplant Brindisi, and become a centre for the
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in Town and Country
trade, not only of the Levant, but of countries further
afield. But there are critics who think that the railway is
being constructed on wrong principles, and too cheaply
to attain that much-desired object. For a fast Indo-
European service two things are essential — a strongly
built line, adapted for heavy international traffic, and the
enlargement and improvement of the Piraeus harbour;
whereas the present plan will provide merely a slow local
line, suitable for light traffic alone.
In respect of construction the Greek lines fall into
three classes — those built at the cost of the State ; those
built by private capital, such as the Attica, Katikolo,
and Athens-Piraeus lines; and those built by private
capital, with a kilometric guarantee from the Govern
ment, which takes a share of the profits, such as the
Volo-Meleaf railway. All have a gauge of i metre,
except the last-named line, which is only o'6 metre wide,
the Diakophto railway, which has a gauge of 075 metre,
and the Athens-Piraeus and Piraeus-Larissa lines, which
have one of 1*44 metres. I can testify to the good
management of the passenger department, the universal
civility of the officials, and the cheapness of the tickets.
Unless the traveller desires express speed, he has nothing
to complain of on the Greek lines, while in the last ten
years there has been a great increase in the number of
railway buffets. No one need starve on a journey by
train in Greece. The worst part of the railways is the
wretched station accommodation. Thus Patras has
neither platform nor station, unless the shed in which
tickets are taken can be so described. The. line runs,
without wall or fence of any kind, through the streets ;
and as the train moves very slowly, crowds of loafers,
touts, and hotel porters swarm on to the footboards and
remain there till at last the engine stops. The Pelopon
nesian station at Athens, situated at the end of an awful
road right outside the city, and infested with people who
are apt to indulge in a free fight over the passengers'
luggage, is quite unworthy of any capital. In addition
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to the railways, there are also steam-trams from Athens
to Old and New Phaleron, the matiriel of which sorely
needs renewal, and from Volo to Anavros ; there is also
an electric tram from Patras to Iteai. Public auto
mobiles have been tried, but have failed; and the few
motor-cars used in Greece are the property of the Royal
Princes and one or two foreigners. Perhaps they might
answer in Thessaly.
But the steamboat is the most popular mode of con
veyance in a country with the configuration of Greece.
Speaking from a very large experience of Greek steamers,
I can only describe them in the phrase appUed by the
Latin poet to woman — varium et mutabile semper. There
is only one way of catching a Greek steamer — to sit
down with your luggage on the quay until it appears, and
then to go on board.
No information about steamers, even from the mouths
of the agents themselves, can be accepted as trustworthy,
for the simple reason that the Greek steamer is a law
unto itself. Its movements depend entirely on the
amount of cargo which it has to load or discharge, and
that cannot be ascertained beforehand. Above aU,
beware of the fatal word amisos (' immediately ') ! If
you are told that you must go on board ' immediately,' as
the steamer will start at 4 p.m., be sure that it will not go
before 7 p.m., and you will have the pleasure of surveying
the shore from the deck without the chance of returning
there. For in not a single Greek port, indeed, nowhere
in the Levant, does the steamer run alongside the quay ;
that would injure the time-honoured rights of the boat
men, with whom a bargain must be made every time
that you land, and every time that you go aboard. On
one occasion I had to wait twelve hours, as the boat,
due to leave Kalamata at 9 a.m., actually left at 9 p.m. ;
on another, I had to rash down to the shore half-dressed,
because the captain had decided, as there was no cargo,
to start considerably before his usual time. Once, when
I had paid for my ticket to go by boat from Chalkis to
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in Town and Country
Volo, and was about to ascend the ladder of the steamer,
which was advertised to start immediately in that direc
tion, I was forbidden to step aboard, because the captain
said that he had just received orders to steam in the
opposite direction ! The King's yacht had run aground,
and my steamer had been ordered, to the no small
inconvenience of the passengers, who had to pay their
fares twice over, to help in hauling his Majesty off the
sandbank on which he had stuck.
These are experiences of steamers in summer ; but in
winter their vagaries are even worse. Once, going up to
Chalkis at that unsettled season, I was induced to take
the train to Lavrion and there await the evening boat, in
order to avoid the usual tossing off ' the Columns,' as
'Sunium's marbled steep' is colloquially called. The
steamer was supposed to arrive about midnight, so,
having made arrangements to be summoned as soon as
it hove in sight, I retired to sleep in my clothes on the
greyish sheets of the local inn. That night, as the sea
was rough, the steamer pursued its way up channel with
out stopping ; so I had to wait twenty-four hours more
amid the spoil-banks of Lavrion for the next boat.
Once more I lay down in my clothes; at midnight I
was aroused with the glad news that it had arrived.
Hastening down to the shore, I was speedily undeceived ;
it was the boat ofthe same company, but in the opposite
direction. Next morning, after two nights without
undressing, I returned sadder and wiser to Athens, and
made a fresh start from the Piraeus. From there the
steamer started twelve hours late, and on arriving at the
lighthouse just outside Chalkis, the captain declined to
go on until the moon rose. At last I was landed in the
dark at about half-past four, having altogether taken
three days and a half to reach a place now accessible by
train in three hours.
But worst of all is a journey to the islands in mid
winter. Intending to spend four days — the interval
between two steamers — on one of the Cyclades, I was
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compelled to stay nine, because the harbour was inacces
sible to vessels when the north wind blew. Even after
nine days, I only escaped because the Government tele
graphed to the nomarch of the Cyclades to send out
any steamer he could find in any weather to collect
Ministerial deputies to form a quorum at Athens. The
vessel sent was the oldest of all Greek steamers, the
historic Panhellinion, which ran the Cretan blockade in
1866, and was even then not in her first youth. Syra is
the only island in the Cyclades which has an almost
daily service, and as it is the headquarters of the New
Hellenic Company, the boats start from there with
tolerable regularity. I have even known them arrive
punctually at the Piraeus. But for most voyages one
has to place one's faith — if one has any left — in the
' John ' boats.
'John' is a great institution in Greece, and no one
knows him by any other name. Many years ago, two
worthy Scots, Messrs. John McDowall and Barbour,
started a steamship line, whose headquarters are at the
Piraeus, and whose agencies are now spread all over the
Greek seas. Their names were turned into Greek, and
as Mr. McDowall's Christian name came first, and as
every one in Greece is known colloquially by his Christian
name alone, 'John' was universaUy adopted as the
popular designation of the company. Accordingly, you
will read in the papers and hear on the quays that the
' John ' is starting at such an hour, and the agent will
introduce himself as the representative of ' John.'
As foreign steamers are not allowed to carry passengers
between Greek ports — you cannot take the Austrian
Lloyd, or Italian boats from Patras to Corfu except by
buying a ticket to the next foreign port beyond it, Santi
Quaranta or Brindisi — the Greek lines have a monopoly.
But their preposterous system of cut-throat competition
destroys their profits. As the boats of rival lines usually
start on the same day, and as nearly as possible at the
same hour, one is accosted in the street by the respective
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THE CORINTH CANAL.

in Town and Country
agents, 'whose brisk competition enables one to make
one's own terms. I have thus paid a ridiculously smaU
fare for a voyage of some nineteen hours, and I have
heard of Greeks going from the Piraeus to Volo for a
drachma. It is even said that a well-known banker in
Athens was carried gratis, and received his lunch in
addition, by a company which was resolved to have his
patronage. Occasionally, however, this rivalry is danger
ous to life and property, as when two steamers, racing
against one another, collided in the harbour of Ithake some
twelve months ago. Except for the advantage of the better
food and sleeping accommodation, there is nothing to be
gained by taking first-class tickets. For by day all three
classes stroll about all over the ship, and the first-class
deck is often almost entirely monopolised by those who
have paid for only second or even third-class places. A
very determined English friend of mine once resolved to
put this matter to a practical test. He took a third-class
ticket for a steamer on the Corinthian Gulf, and then
ensconced himself on the first-class deck. When the
ticket-collector came round to collect the tickets, he at
once asked my friend why he had only a third-class
ticket. The phlegmatic Englishman promptly replied
that he was ready to pay the difference, if all the other
persons on the deck who had second or third-class
tickets were compelled to do the same. The ticket-
collector, who knew that not a single passenger had paid
the first-class fare, prudently let my friend alone. By
night the third-class passengers invariably sleep and
perform their few ablutions on the lower deck ; and if
the sea is the least rough, the women, who are miserable
sailors, usually lie all day in a state of hopeless sea-sick
ness. Even those from the islands never become
accustomed to the sea. When, as happened to me once,
the steamer is full of soldiers, the decks at night present
the appearance of a battlefield strewn with dead bodies,
as the men sleep there under the stars. On that occasion
the vessel was a cattle-boat, as well as a troop-ship, and
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every inch of space forward was filled with oxen and
sheep. After such a voyage, the cleaning of the decks
is a labour somewhat akin to that of Hercules in cleansing
the Augean stables. Yet just before Easter the Greek
steamers are made to look as clean as possible ; at other
times they leave much to desire in that respect. But
the food provided is good, and the staff always does its
best for the stranger.
The Corinth canal, which twelve years ago became a
reality after all the schemes and attempts of twenty
centuries, has grievously disappointed the hopes formed
of it. Though it has been traversed by large vessels, it
is now only used by small steamers, and bigger craft
prefer the enormous dttour round Cape Matapan. The
canal is too narrow for safety, there is a strong current
through it, and the dues are very heavy.
In the country, the usual means of communication, in
default of a regular carriage, are the sousta, or light spring-
cart, and the mule. The sousta has two seats in front
and two behind. It is always open, and therefore to be
avoided in wet weather ; but when new it presents a smart
appearance, as it is usually painted in some bright colour,
and invariably has a hand, pointing like a finger-post, on
one or both sides. In Corfii I have noticed that the
carts have no hands on them ; instead, they bear the
names of places, such as ' Hellis.' In Andros, vehicular
traffic is unknown, and the dustcart is replaced by a
donkey, which carries two panniers on his back. In all
the mountainous parts of Greece the mule is the only
means of conveyance. When ridden by a stranger, it is
always accompanied by a muleteer, who trudges along
on foot, and thus its pace is restricted to his, and never
exceeds three miles an hour ; indeed, distances are
usually reckoned at the rate of 5 stddia to the hour, and
the milestones are sometimes marked in that way. It
will, however, be found that a mule's rate of progress is
much faster uphill than down, and much faster uphill
than that of a horse ; while, in going down, and indeed,
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in Town and Country
in most respects, he is to be preferred. I have never
known a Greek horse or mule gallop or even canter ; if
he did, it would go hardly with his rider, because there
are usually no stirrups, only a cord, called euphemisti
cally a ' stirrup ' or skdla, and there are no reins, only a
halter, which is sometimes held by the muleteer, who
also carries a goad, and sometimes by the eques
trian. Leathern saddles are unknown; the rider must
bestride a high wooden erection, which is a survival
of the Turkish times. When covered with rugs, this is
not uncomfortable, and is best ridden, even by men,
sideways, as is the custom of the peasants, who swing
their heels against the animal's ribs as they sit, in order
to increase its pace. At Syra the donkeys have very
smart saddles, studded with nails at the back and front,
and quite different from those on the mainland. Every
where the mules, horses, and asses wear strings of blue
beads round their necks, as a safeguard against the
evil eye.
The muleteer, or agoydtes, is one of the most delightful
characters in Greece. He is generally an inquisitive
and, in return, communicative person, who asks your,
and vouchsafes his own, family history, and is deeply
interested in all your movements and belongings. He
cannot understand the British peculiarity of walking uphill
in order to spare the beasts ; but if you magnanimously
dismount, he will instantly mount your steed himself.
As he knows the whole countryside, he is very useful
in obtaining one shelter. He may be the possessor of
a splendid classical name, such as Leonidas, and some
times has a stentorian voice, which makes the valleys
and hills resound with his cries. One of our muleteers
announced us when we arrived in a village as 'lords,'
and sat down to dinner with us in the eveping. At
lunch the agoydtes, with the innate politeness of the
Greek peasant, will always turn away while his employers
are eating. His charges — 7 dr. a day for man and
mule are the usual price — are moderate. In short, he
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is a thoroughly good feUow, and the memories of my
various agoydtai are among the pleasantest which I cherish
of the Greek provinces. To travel, as the Greeks say,
' with animals,' is to learn to know, and to love, their
country. In respect of trade, the Piraeus is now by far the most
important place in Greece. It has quite outdistanced
both Patras and its old rival, Syra, whose commerce
sprang up like a mushroom at the time of the War of
Independence, when the fugitives from the Turkish
islands founded Hermoupolis and made it the mart of
Greece. Various causes have contributed to the decline
of Syra, once the entrepot of the other islands, and ' the
Liverpool of the Levant.' The steamers now take goods
direct to most of the Cyclades, without trans-shipment,
and the railways on the mainland have also injured it ;
the through line to Europe, when finished, will injure it
still more. Its population has now diminished, as many
of the inhabitants have emigrated, in quest of work, to
the Piraeus and elsewhere. Syra, however, retains, in
addition to its tanneries and weaving and spinning mUls,
one industry of which it retains the monopoly — the
manufacture of so-called ' Turkish delight' This industry
was introduced by one of the refugees from Chios in
1822; but all attempts to establish it elsewhere have
failed, for the superiority of the Syra loukoumi is due to
the water of the island, and even there only the water
of certain springs is suitable. Loukoumi was originally
made of otto of roses and Chian mastic ; at present it is
composed of sugar (imported from Austria), starch, vanilla,
mastic from Chios, and pistachio. In the appaUing heat
of one of the manufactories, I was initiated into the
different grades of the sweetmeat. There are three
qualities, the best of which contains twelve aromas, and
the second only two ; the lowest quality is distinguished
from both the others by the complete absence of almond
flavouring. Each year about 140 tons of 'Turkish
delight ' are produced at Syra. 288

in Town and Country
Another important industry of the Cyclades is the
emery of Naxos, admitted to be the best in the world.
The rules for working it are very curious. The labourers
of the emery villages of Apeiranthos and Koronis possess
the hereditary right of extracting it; by an express
regulation of the Government they are compelled to be
married; hence, they often marry very young indeed.
Two years ago, 840 of them were employed in the work.
Their names are all inscribed in a list drawn up by the
two local mayors, and they receive 2 dr. 40 lepti for
each canfar (56 kilogrammes) of emery. But their pay
is often irregular; favouritism is rife, and sometimes
a workman can only get his money by paying a com
mission of from 20 to 25 per cent, to a middleman, who
obtains it for him. The Naxian emery has been declared
a Government monopoly, and placed under the Inter
national Control ; six years ago a depot was established
at Syra, which works well; and the emery is there
sold at 106 frcs. 50 c. per ton. Two of these islands,
Seriphos and Kythnos, produce a considerable quantity
of iron ore, which mostly finds its way to England;
Melos sends us manganese, and Santorin exports volcanic
cement, or pozzolana, to work which a British syndicate
has been formed.
Two other British companies are engaged in exploiting
the mineral resources of Greece. One of these, the
Anglo-Greek Magnesite Company, has quarries of white
magnesite in Euboia, in which it employs about 500
Greeks at an average wage of about 3 dr. a day.
The lovely monastery of Galatike, near Limne, from
which the company holds a concession of about 4000
acres on a long lease, receives a royalty of so much per
ton, and the company also has a smaller consession near
Chalkis. It has constructed a small railway of about ten
miles in length— the first and only line in Euboia — and
last year shipped some 25,000 tons of magnesite from
its depot near Limne to Great Britain and other countries.
The other company, Marmor, Limited, now possesses
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quarries in various parts of Greece — at the back of
PenteUkon, and in the islands of Skyros, Tenos, and
Euboia. I once spent a day among the quarries of
Pentelikon, to which a small private line, nine miles long,
ascends from the Kephisia station, the last part of the
climb being accomplished by steep inchned planes.
About 500 men of various nationalities, Greeks, mostly
from the Turkish island of Karpathos, Italians, and
Montenegrins for police work, find employment on the
classic mountain, and the difficult and delicate work of
bringing the great blocks of marble on wooden sledges
down the mountain paths is entrusted to picked men
from Carrara, who receive the high wages of 10s. a day
for that job, which they will only perform in dry weather.
From the company's quarries has come the marble for
the restoration of the Erechtheion and the Parthenon,
for the seating of the Stidion, for the Royal bath-rooms
at Windsor, for Lord Brampton's chapel in the Roman
Catholic Cathedral in London, and for the town-haUs
of Westminster and Belfast. Mr. Brindley, an English
man, owns some very ancient quarries of verde antico
between Larissa and Tempe, whence came the pUlars of
the above-mentioned cathedral. The export of Greek
marble, and especially of that from the quarries of Skyros
and Pentelikon, is daily increasing, owing to the patronage
of the German Emperor. No less than five important
statues recently erected in Germany have been quarried
on Pentelikon.
A part of Boiotia forms, as it were, a little kingdom,
paternally governed by the Copaic Lake Company,
which, thanks to Scottish industry and intelligence, has
carried out the great schemes of drainage inaugurated
by the prehistoric Minyae at Orchomends, and temporarily
achieved by Alexander the Great. Throughout the
Middle Ages, except for a few works of the Frank Dukes
of Athens, the Copaic lake was left to its own devices,
and it was not till 1883 that a French company actually
resumed the long-neglected task of draining it In 1886,
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in Town and Country
however, this company, in which both French and
Greeks had invested their money, came to grief, and
in the following year the work was taken over by a
British company, which finally completed it, after a total
expenditure of £763,000 by itself and its French pre
decessor. The main canal is 33 stddia, or about
20 \ miles, in length, and by means of this artificial
waterway the river Kephisds is tapped and thus pre
vented from forming a marsh. The water is conducted
through the canal and then through a tunnel into a small
lake called Likeri, and the overflow of that lake passes
into another sheet of water, Paralimne, which occasion
ally, though not often, overflows through another tunnel
into the sea opposite the island of Euboia. This arrange
ment now works well, in spite of a serious, inundation two
years ago ; and, in driving along the shore and over the
bed of what was once the historic Copais, one is amazed
at the spectacle of fertility all around. Malaria, formerly
the scourge of this district, though still existent, has been
much diminished. The company has dealt with the
reclaimed land in the most systematic manner. The
eastern portion is its freehold property, while it has
obtained the usufruct of the remainder for ninety-nine
years. The whole of the drained area now under cultiva
tion amounts to 120,431 strimmata (or 30,108 acres).
The larger portion of this area, consisting of 109,454
strimmata (or 27,364 acres), is leased to tenants, among
them being a small British company, The Copais Farms,
Limited ; the balance of 2744 acres has been reserved
by the Copaic Lake Company for its own model farms.
Besides that part of the drained area under cultivation,
there is a large tract now used for grazing by cattle,
sheep, and swine. As there are no natural boundaries
in the vast plain, the whole area of the estate is artificially
divided into eleven divisions, each of which is sub
divided into sections of 1000 strimmata (250 acres),
marked off by iron rails, and each of these again into
twenty-five plots of 40 strimmata each. This is the usual
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amount of a holding; but many tenants have several
such plots, while others rent smaller pieces of more than
10 strimmata. The tenants, who mostly live in the
neighbouring villages, and come down to work on their
plots, pay a rental in kind amounting to 20 per cent of
the produce, which works out at from gs. to 13^ per
acre. It has been found, however, that in the case of the
land rented by The Copais Farms Company, the yield
is some 20 per cent, more than that of the peasants'
allotments, owing to the modern methods of cultivation
employed. Wheat, barley, rye, beans, maize, mustard
and rape seed, lucerne, and cotton are all produced on
the bed of the COpai's. A rent of £180 a year is derived
from fishery rights in the>canals and the river Melas, and
the making of butter is contemplated on the lines which
King George adopted with so much success on his farm
at Tatoi. Hitherto the main difficulty in the way of
farming has been that of transport, for there has been
no means of communication with Athens, except by road.
But the Piraeus-Larissa railway is now open as far as
Dadi, and its track runs past the company's property,
while there is a station at Moulki, close to the company's
headquarters in the district. Moreover, the growth of
Livadia, since it became the provincial capital, will in
time increase its powers of consumption.
The company is regarded with gratitude by the
villagers round what was once the Copais, and it is
pleasant to witness the kindly feeling which exists
between them and its employis, who are much in request
at christenings and other family gatherings. In one
hamlet it has built a new flour-mill for the inhabitants,
who had previously to trudge several miles with theh
corn. At Skripou it has considerable workshops, which
give abundant employment to the natives ; and at Kriba,
near Moulki, halfway between Livadia and Thebes, a
garden, a nursery, and another workshop, as well as two
trim houses for the use of the manager and his assistants,
have formed an oasis of European civilisation out of a
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in Town and Country
wilderness. At Livadia the company has another house,
and elsewhere there are smaller establishments. One
cause of the company's success is its absolute inde
pendence of party politics, which in Greece get mixed
up with all large commercial undertakings, if run by the
natives, who cannot refrain from trying to exercise poli
tical influence. When the Copais had Greeks at the head
of it, such was the case there also. As the efforts of the
then directors were directed against M. Delyinnes, that
statesman revenged himself, on his return to power, by
fining the company a large sum for the non-completion
of its works. Mr. Steele, the present manager, and his
predecessor have, however, carefully abstained from
mixing in the squabbles of local politicians, though hot
partisans still accuse them of intervening in elections.
Of course, all is not plain sailing at the CopaTs. The
Greek peasant is apt to be litigious, like the Athenians
of Aristophanes' days, and the company has had many
lawsuits, chiefly arising out of claims of dwellers on the
shores to the newly drained land. Once an earthquake
destroyed a neighbouring village, and one of the parish
elders, groping among the d'ebris of his ruined home,
discovered an old horn, from which emerged a mildewed
document. On minute examination, the document turned
out to be a firman of a Sultan of the sixteenth century,
awarding the Copaic lake to the men of the village in
question. The ' rustic simplicity ' of the worthy Boiotian
at once spied a chance of making a good case out of the
lucky discovery ; the earthquake seemed to him to have
been a blessing in disguise. A lawyer at Athens, to
whom he sent the precious parchment, naturally took
the same view, and the villagers claimed and forcibly
occupied the drained and reclaimed land. Proceedings
were taken by the company, which found it a by no
means easy matter to serve its writs upon the recalcitrant
villagers, who declined to accept service. Even when it
had been effected, and the Court had decided in favour
of the company, the rustics were with great difficulty
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induced to acquiesce in this decision. Their cattle
continued to graze on the company's land, and the
Government was slow to send soldiers from Chalkis.
But the manager then took the law into his own hands,
and anticipated the tardy foot of justice by raising a
body of volunteers, shooting some of the cattle, and cut
ting off the water-supply. Then the King intervened on
behalf of the company, and urged the prompt despatch
of a military force. Fortunately, bloodshed was avoided,
and the villagers, yielding to the inevitable, appointed a
committee of five from among themselves to accept, in
the name of the community, the adverse decision of the
Court Incidents of this kind have not checked the
success of the undertaking, and the three-quarters of a
million which has been flung into the Copaic marsh
has begun to yield a reward.
Tobacco is produced at Agrinion, at Nauplia, at
Argos, in Thessaly, and elsewhere. PersonaUy I like
the Greek tobacco, which is mild and extremely cheap.
But, owing to its dryness, it does not keep weU, and,
when exported, is therefore mixed with Turkish. The
Agricultural Company to which I shall allude presently
has, however, imported seed from the famous planta
tions of Xanthe and Kavalla, and is growing tobacco on
its large estates in Phthiotis.
The oranges of Greece are far superior to those which
one gets in Italy. Those of Kalamata are the finest I
have ever seen, except the famous Jaffa variety, and are
all juice, with the thinnest of skins. Nowhere in Greece
are they so plentiful as in that favoured spot. Bananas,
too, flourish at Kalamata, which, protected as it is by
the mountains from the cold winds, may perhaps one
day become the Nice of the Near East. Lemons are
exported from Andros to the Transvaal and elsewhere,
but they now fetch only 6 dr. a thousand, instead of
30 dr. Messenia produces figs, somewhat inferior, how
ever, to those of Smyrna, and the silks of Kalamata find
a market in France. Sugar is being manufactured in
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in Town and Country
Thessaly. Indeed, upon the development of Thessaly,
the natural granary of Greece, which already produces
from two-and-a-half to four million bushels of wheat a
year, some competent observers believe the economic
future of the country largely to depend.
But of all Greek exports,* by far the most important
are currants — a fruit which has great influence upon the
political as well as the economic life of the country.
Indeed, it may be doubted whether the currant has
proved to be a blessing or a curse to Greece. The
present currant crisis dates from the late seventies, when
the ravages of the phylloxera in France had caused a
large demand for that fruit, which is used for making
wine and brandy as well as for plum-puddings and
mince-pies. A rise in prices naturally followed, and the
peasants, eager to profit by it, cut down their fine old
olive trees, which their ancestors had planted in the
Venetian days, abandoned grazing, and set to work to
plant currant-vines wherever they would grow. As a
result, the production of currants has increased three
fold. By 1 89 1, however, France had so far recovered
as to put a duty on currants ; Germany and Russia did
the same; and, owing to over-production, an acute crisis
followed in Greece, which was at its worst at the close
of 1894. It was impossible to restore the vanished
olives, so artificial measures were taken to limit the
output, and so keep up prices. This system is as follows.
Once a year, the chairmen of the Chambers of Commerce
and the headmen of the currant districts meet at the
Ministry of Finance under the presidency of the Minister,
and estimate the amount of the crop for the current year.
Under existing circumstances, as a leading financier once
said to me, ' a good crop is the greatest curf e for Greece.'
* The official figures of the Ministry of Finance give the total
exports for 1902 as worth 80,136,829 frcs., of which cnrrants were
responsible for 23,098,629 frcs., minerals for 18,150,850 frcs., and
olive oil, wine, and tobacco for 4,181,207 frcs. For the same year
the total imports amounted to 134,891,301 frcs.
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To meet such a lack of consideration on the part of
nature, the so-called Retention Law of 1899 was passed,
which permits as much as 20 per cent, of the total annual
crop to be retained, if it is thought desirable. In that
case, every merchant who sells a hundred tons of currants
must produce a certificate to the effect that twenty tons
have been retained ; this amount is sold locally to dis
tillers. Such is the system, which, except in the case of
the coffee-trade of Brazil, has never been adopted outside
of Greece. The result is the opposite of what is sought.
Prices having been artificially raised by the Retention
Law, those who have not previously grown currants are
tempted to put down their inferior land in currant-
gardens. As the currant-vine takes four years to bear,
all goes well till that period has expired ; then once
more there is a glut of currants in the market, prices
fall again, and some of the merchants demand yet more
stringent remedies, such as the raising of the percentage
of currants to be retained above twenty. The fact is that
the Retention Law does not benefit the growers of the
best class of currants (those between Aigion and Corinth),
but does benefit the producers of the worst qualities (those
of Pyrgos and Kalamata), who ought really to be dis
couraged from growing currants at all. Two years ago a
fresh proposal was made. A British syndicate, of which
the leading spirit was M. Deme'trios Delyannes, a nephew
of the present Premier resident in London, was formed for
the purpose of purchasing the entire crop, estimated at
150,000 tons, for twenty years, at prices varying accord
ing to the quality of the currants. In consequence of
the protests of the British, German, Italian, and Dutch
Ministers, and the agitation of the London grocers, who
thought that the scheme would raise prices for them, the
' currant monopoly,' as it was called, failed to gain ac
ceptance ; but riots followed at Pyrgos, and the second
Theotdkes Ministry fell, rather than suppress them by
force. Since then another scheme has been put forward,
to which the British Government would only consent if
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in Town and Country

Greece pledged herself to give us certain reductions of
duties. But the currant question remains unsolved. It
affects Great Britain and the United States, as well as
Greece, for they are the largest purchasers of Greek
currants. Greek wines have not had the success abroad which
they might have obtained if more care had been taken
by the natives in their preparation. The only big enter
prise of the Germans in Greece — the ' Achaia ' Com
pany, near Patras, which has a London agency — is
devoted to the manufacture of wine, and produces some
agreeable vintages, such as Mavrodaphne, a species of
port. A company, with a capital of 2,000,000 dr.,
has been founded, under the auspices of the National
Bank and the Bank of Athens, for promoting viticulture
and agriculture, with headquarters in the capital and
branches at Kaiamata, Tripolis, Myloi, and other places.
Its Kalamata branch, started about four years ago, is
the largest establishment of the kind in Greece. A huge
amount of wine is produced on the fertile Lelantian
plain between Chalkis and Eretria, and exported to
France. I remember once landing at the quay at Chalkis
and finding it covered from end to end with huge casks
of wine, which a French agent was despatching to Cette.
The Attic wines have been already mentioned. Mr.
Toole possesses large cellars in Kephallenia, whence
wine, largely for ecclesiastical purposes, is shipped to
Europe, and the vintages of Ithake and the vino santo of
Santorin are strong. The last-named island also pro
duces a sweet liqueur made of Kalamata bananas, which
seems to commend itself to the taste of ladies. The
champagne of Tripolis is said to be drunk at the Palace.
A considerable quantity of wine is also made at Kala
mata and elsewhere from dried currants — a very simple
process, merely involving the addition of water and a
little alcohol — and sent to Italy. But the Italian custom
houses have recently raised objections to the importation
of this compound. Generally speaking, the ancient
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practice of putting resin into many of the Greek wines,
though it makes them keep well, unfits them for most
'European' palates. The largest quantity of resin is
produced by the Megarid, Corinthia, and Attica; and
travelling along that portion of the Peloponnesian railway
at vintage-time, I have seen hundreds of barrels with a
tuft of pine-leaves emerging from theh bungholes.
Retsindto is usually better in quality, besides being
much cheaper, than the bottled wines, which are apt to
be alcoholic and do not keep well, if transported on
horses or mules. They are, however, obtainable in the
Ionian and ^Egean Islands (except in the Albanian part
of Andros), in Thessaly, and the larger towns of the rest
of Greece ; but in other parts retsindto is the only bever
age. As it has various degrees of resin, one can begin
with the slightly tinctured white variety, and then gradu
ally accustom one's palate to the taste. Enghsh residents
in Greece find it an excellent stomachic, and often drink
it by preference; and the Crown Princess has been
known to offer it at her table to the unsuspecting
' European ' visitor, who fancies, at the first draught,
that he has swallowed -a dose of furniture polish by
mistake. The most strongly resinated kind is the dark
red, which politeness at times compels one to take in
monasteries or other places where one is a guest.
Fortunately, water is abundant in some of the Cyclades,
notably in Andros, ' the watery isle,' and in most parts of
the Peloponnesos, though not in Attica and Boiotia, and
in this land of enthusiastic water-drinkers it is everywhere
excellent. That of Kalamata is considered specially
good. The Greeks will discriminate as nicely between
the respective merits of neighbouring springs as a con
noisseur between the vintages of different years, and the
traveller soon learns to measure his journey by the dis
tance from one well to the next. The greatest care is
taken with the springs even in the mountainous parts of
the Peloponnesos, and a little runlet is usually provided,
from which the thirsty wayfarer may drink. Milk, almost
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in Town and Country
entirely that of sheep and goats, may be had cheap.
Of Greek cognac, which is not to be despised, there are
numerous brands, while masticha is the specially native
liqueur. Ginger-beer survives at Corfu and Zante — a
relic of our rule.
Andros produces an excellent table-water, which, as
the EngUsh advertisement on the label epigrammatically
states, ' is superior to its equals.' I once visited the old
well at Apoikia, whence this Sariza water flows, and
where it is used by the peasants to water their trees. Its
medicinal qualities were discovered some fifteen years
ago, and its sale is now a monopoly of two prominent
islanders, who send about a thousand demi-johns a month
to Athens, and have begun to export it to England.
Greece is very rich in mineral waters. The baths of
Aidepsos in North Euboia, Kyllene on the west coast of
the Peloponnesos, Loutriki near Corinth, Me"thana on
the volcanic peninsula opposite Aigina, and Hypite near
Lamia, are popular resorts. Thermopylae is a primitive
spa — very different from the ' European ' conception of a
health resort — consisting of a few low bathing-sheds, two
small natural baths, surrounded by boards, and the five
very hot springs which have given their name to the spot.
For sea-bathing Greece has unrivalled facilities, of
which she makes comparatively little use. Even in the
first week of June the Corfiotes are reluctant to take a
dip in the sea, and the baths there are officially opened
only a few days earlier. Yet no bathing can compare
with that of the Greek seas ; the extreme saltness of the
water, its deep blue, and the rocky coast, with white spits
of sand here and there, make swimming or paddling here
a delight, such as our sad northern waves and dreary
watering-places cannot afford. The only dfawback is an
occasional shark scare. A number of those man-eaters
were recently seen at Limne in Euboia ; m the British
days they were known to devour swimmers at Corfh.
Greece is never likely to become a manufacturing
country on a large scale. Nature, which has given her
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iron, has denied her coal, except the lignite of Euboia,
and this has to be imported from England, Turkey, or
Belgium. A coaling station for steamers has been estab
lished on the island of Keos. At Livadia the abundant
water-power is used to drive a number of cotton-mills,
and classic Eleusis has a large soap-manufactory.
It is impossible to obtain accurate information — figures
are not the strong point of Eastern nations — as to the
present population of Greece, especially as there has
been no census since 1896. The inhabitants of the
kingdom were then returned as 2,433,806, of whom more
than half (1,266,816) were males. Emigration may,
however, have somewhat modified the proportion of men
to women since then. Of the provincial towns, Patras is,
of course, the most important, but Volo and Kalamata
have been latterly making rapid progress ; their imports
are larger than they were, and it is estimated that they
have now more than 20,000 inhabitants apiece. Pyrgos,
which is always vocal at currant crises, is supposed to
contain about 15,000 persons. Few of the famous classic
sites are now large towns. Corinth, once talked of as
the capital, is only a big village of mainly one-storied
houses, chiefly remarkable for its curious street nomen
clature — a mixture of old and new, sacred and profane.
The street of the Apostle Paul is crossed by that of The
Three Powers (Great Britain, France, and Russia) ; there
is a street of Aratos cheek-by-jowl with that of George
Thedtokes ; there is a street called after Timoleon, and
one named Lord Moakron, though who his lordship can
be I cannot imagine ; can it be a misprint for Cochrane ?
But I am told that, commercially, Corinth has no
future. The currant-trade finds its outlets at Aigion and
Patras ; the railway and the canal have made it possible
to travel through without stopping, whereas formerly the
Isthmus was the natural place to break the journey.
Archaeology is, therefore, the best hope of the Corinthians,
and their future lies in their past.
Sparta is an absolutely modern town, dating only from
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in Town and Country
1834, and consisting of two or three long streets with a
few cross lanes and a nice square — the invariable feature
of every Greek city. Thebes has come to be what it
was in the time of Pausanias : ' the Akropolis alone and
its few inhabitants.' But its main street, with its shady
trees and wooden shops, is most picturesque, and the
Thebans possess a supply of water which Athens might
envy. The supremacy over Boiotia has, however, passed
from Thebes to Livadia ; the railway has greatly injured
the Theban coaching industry, and rents at Livadia have
risen since it became the provincial capital. Argos is, in
fact, the only famous classical city, except Athens and
the Piraeus, which is now a considerable town, with a
population over 10,000. As agreeable places of residence
in the provinces, the palm must be given to Corfu,
Chalkis, Nauplia, and Kalamata.
There is only one workmen's town in Greece, that
which has grown up beneath the tall chimneys and huge
spoil-banks of smoky Lavrion, and which reproduces, as
far as it is possible to do so beneath the blue sky and in
the sun of Hellas, the conditions of our own black
country. Here, alone in Greece, the thin edge of a
labour question sometimes makes itself felt, and latterly,
owing to a crisis in the lead-mines, numbers of men have
been dismissed. Two big companies, one French and
one Greek, now carry on operations at Lavrion, while
there are several smaller concerns in the neighbourhood.
In 1903 the total output, which amounted to 304,168
tons of ore, was less than usual, owing to the smaller
demand, and for the last half of the year the Greek
company paid no dividend.
The condition of the Greek currency is at present very
remarkable. In 1885 the drachma was at par, and really
worth a. franc; but the excitement caused by the Eastern-
Roumelian question in that year led M. Delyinnes to
reintroduce the forced paper currency, which has con
tinued ever since. The currant crisis of December,
1894 — January, 1895, provoked a currency crisis also,
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and at that time the exchange went up to 187^ (or 46 dr.
87 lepti to the £) — the highest figure that it has ever
reached. In 1898 it fell as low as 143^; but this
record has been beaten by the figures of last year;
on June 13 last it stood at 128 (or 32 dr. to the
£).* It now stands at 129I (or 32 dr. 30 lepti to
the £). The present low rate of exchange is largely
due to the want of elasticity in the circulating medium,
and to the remittances of emigrants. The paper in
circulation issued for the Government amounts to
68,779,000 dr., plus notes of 1 dr. and 2 dr. to the value
of 13,000,000 dr.; in addition, on their own account,
the National Bank circulates 60,510,000 dr. and the
Ionian Bank 6,800,000 dr. in paper, making a total of
149,089,000 dr. Out of this, however, the International
Control, which aims at the reduction of the paper, has
burnt in June and December of every year since 1900
the annual amount of 2,000,000 dr., while no fresh
Government notes have been issued since the Control
was started in 1898. In the quiet season of the year the
existing currency suffices ; but when, as the year before
last, there was a splendid harvest, the lack of money is felt,
especially as the Thessalian farmers often keep consider
able sums locked up, and do not bank them. Owing to
the distrust which one Greek has of another, credit
cannot take the place of cash, cheques are almost un
known, while money cannot be obtained in gold from
Europe by the banks, because people are afraid of losing
by the fluctuations of the exchange if they send it to
Greece. To the foreigner, who brings money from
Europe and spends it in the country districts of Greece,
the exchange is a great benefit ; but in Athens and Corfu
most hotels charge foreigners in gold, so that there is
nothing gained, and the price of all imported articles is
very high. Rapid fluctuations are most inconvenient,
and a lady may find that, between the date of ordering
* On April 17, 1905, itfellstill lower — to 123! (or 30 dr. 93 lepti
to the £). 302

in Town and Country
and paying for a dress, the exchange may have dropped
considerably. Gold and silver are never seen ; the only
coins in circulation are nickel and copper, and the i dr.
and 2 dr. notes are often tom and dirty. The former
custom of cutting 10 dr. notes in half to make two fives
has happily disappeared; but the excellent silver and
nickel Cretan currency is superior to anything that
Greece can show. One of the minor difficulties in the
way of union is that Cretan salaries are paid in silver,
Greek in paper. The Cretan nickel is accepted in the
mother country.
There are now only two banks of issue in Greece — the
National Bank and the Ionian Bank; the former cele
brated its 6oth anniversary amid general rejoicings
three years ago ; the latter dates from the British protec
torate of the Ionian Islands, and its shares are largely
held in London. There was talk of restricting the
privilege of issuing notes to the National Bank after
1905, when an arrangement, made when we ceded the
Islands, and renewed in 1880 for twenty-five years, would
have expired. But this idea, against which the Ionian
Bank protested, has been dropped, and the privilege has
been extended to 1920, unless in the meanwhile it is
bought by the National Bank.
Since 1898, Greece has perforce submitted to an
International Commission of Control with regard to
certain of her revenues. This was the price which she
had to pay for the action of the Powers in arresting the
Turkish army and in securing the evacuation of Thessaly.
The Commission consists of six members, representing
the six Great Powers, and to it are assigned, for the pay
ment of the interest on the External Debt, the revenues
from the various Government monopolies, from the
tobacco and stamp duties, and from the import dues at
the Piraeus. The collection of these revenues and the
administration of the monopolies are entrusted to a
Greek company, the Soci'eti de Rigie, which is itself
under the control of the Commission. The foreign
3°3

Greek Life
bondholders are thus protected against a repetition of the
disastrous financial crisis of 1893. From the Greek
standpoint, the Commission is sometimes regarded as an
interference with the internal affairs of the country, and in
the autumn of 1903, when M. Rilles was Prime Minister,
a dispute . arose as to the rights of the Commission with
regard to appointments on the staff of Greek officials
engaged in superintending the assigned revenues. But
all would admit that Greek finance has improved since
the establishment of the International Control. Among
the chief sources of revenue are the pubUc and ecclesiastical
lands ; such as the Stephinovik estates in Thessaly, and
the baths of Me'thana, which have just been let by
public auction for ten years; the State monopolies of
cigarette-paper, playing-cards, matches, salt, and petro
leum; with the Post-office, telegraphs, and telephones,
which are now concentrated at Athens in a handsome
central building. Since the State' ceased to prohibit
all illustrated post-cards except its own, the public has
shown a preference for the private cards.
The so-called land-tax yields 60 per cent, of the total
amount levied by direct taxation. Its name is some
what of a misnomer, for, besides grazing-lands and
orchards, it is also imposed on animals used for the
plough, 'the fruits of Demeter,' as the Greeks pictu
resquely describe cereals, forest products, oil, vines,
currants, and figs. The yWd of the tax on currants was
put down in the last available Budget at about 4,000,000
dr. The other direct taxes consist of so much a
head on donkeys, horses, mules, and camels, a progres
sive tax on all buildings worth more than 240 dr. a
year, estimated to produce 3,100,000 dr., and a tax on
occupations and professions, varying according to the
particular occupation, which is assessed at 3,350,000 dr.
According to the present law relating to this last tax,
declarations must be made between January 1 and
January 20 (O.S.), together with a statement on the
paper by the proper official that the person making the
3°4

THE VALE OF TEMPE, THESSALY.

in Town and Country

declaration has paid the tax of the last year. A special
return is made by the vendors of spirituous liquors.
The declaration contains the names of any partners and
assistants, and the demarch's notice, bidding the people
to make it, is published in the Press, placarded on the
walls, and read in churches. The fortunate Greek
citizen pays no income-tax, which is only imposed upon
limited companies.
The main defects of the fiscal system from the point
of view of the Government are the irregularity with which
the taxes are paid and the large leakages which occur.
Thus every year the actual revenue falls far short of the
amount estimated in the Budget, occasionally causing a
deficit. This is particularly the case with those taxes
which the State collects itself; those, on the other hand,
which are farmed out do not suffer from this drawback
to the same extent, while in the Ionian Islands the
estimate and actual result tally. But the tax-farmers
wring from the people, especially from the ignorant
peasants, more than they should, and thus the taxpayer
pays much more than the Treasury receives. ' In no
other country, perhaps,' says a Greek specialist in finance,
' has the system of farming the taxes worked more dis
astrously.' In Greece, as in Italy, the burden falls
heaviest upon the poor, while the rich pay comparatively
little. Smuggling, too, is naturally rife in a country with
the high protective tariff and jagged coast-line of Greece,
and is responsible for a further considerable loss to the
Exchequer. So long as sugar, for example, costs, owing
to the heavy duty, i dr. 80 lepti the oke, it will be
worth while for smugglers to sell it — as a friend of
mine once saw them doing in Euboia — for 1 dr. It has
been suggested that the Government would do well to
buy twenty swift revenue cutters to suppress this traffic,
and that the initial expense would soon be covered by the
larger yield of the duties.
Greece has, to a great extent, her future in her own
hands. She possesses many blessings— a fine climate
fo 3<>5 x

Greek Life
splendid scenery, priceless artistic treasures, a clever and
attractive population. She has achieved much in the
seventy years since Otho landed on her shores. One
negative blessing, granted to some less-favoured nations,
she lacks, a blessing which, as has been said, constitutes
the happiness of Eastern nations — the lack of politics.
In Greece, perhaps more than elsewhere, the material
advance of the country depends upon the measure in
which the petty manoeuvres of politics are subordinated
to the general well-being. We British have every reason
to desire that Greece shall be not only free but strong,
that she shall be not only the voice but the arm of civi
lization in the East. But it is upon her own efforts that
her future depends, not upon the benevolence of this or
that Great Power.

306

in Town and Country

INDEX

Achmet Aga, 211
Adoption, 98
Agdpe, 107
Agoydtes (muleteer), 287, 288
Agricultural school and stations,
'SS. 234
• Air,' the (6 cbjp), 75
Ak&thistos, hymn, the, 79
AirSpolis newspaper, the, 119
Albanians, 14-16
Alice, Princess, 55, 200
AmaKeion orphanage, the, 269
American Archaeological School,
166
An&lepsis (Ascension Day), no
An&phiotika, the, 187
Andrew, Prince, 55, 57
Andros, 6, 16, 35, 213, 214,
298, 299
Anglo-Greek Magnesite Com
pany, 289
Animals, Society for the Pre
vention of Cruelty to, 202
Anninos, M. Ch., 127, 134
Anninos, M. Th., 117
Appeal, Courts of (epheteta), 256
Archaeological Society, 163-165
Archbishoprics, 60
Archimandrites, 62
Architecture, 172
Archontes, 6, 213, 214
Areopagos, the, 255, 256
Army, 239-250
Arsdkeion, 141, 149, 150

Arsenal, 253, 254
* Asterisk,' the, 75
Asty, the, 117, 118
Austria (relations with), 47
Austrian Archaeological Insti
tute, 167
Ball, court, 56,
Banks, 303
Baptisms, 96, 97
Barristers, 259, 260
Basildpetta, 100
Beggars, 204, 225
Bernardakes, M., 132, 133
Bikelas, M., 125-129, 189, 198,
208
Bishops, 60-62
'Blessing of the Waters,' 101,
102
Bonamddes, 101
Boot-blacks (loiistroi), 185
Bosanquet, Mr., 166
Boule", the, 22 et seq.
Bread, the Holy, 75, 76
Brigandage, 261
British Archaeological School,
166, 167
Bulgaria, Greeks and, 41, 42,
47. '89
Byron, Lord, 45
1 Canon, the Great,' 79
Carnival, 102, 103
Catholics, Roman, 72, 81-83

3°7

Index

Cheirophilema, 100
Christian Archaeological So
ciety, 168
Christmas, 98
Christopher, Prince, 47, 55
' Clean Monday,' 103
Gommunion Services, 75, 76
Constantine, Crown Prince (see
Diddochos), 54, 56, 210, 247,
248
Consumption, 195
Control, International Com
mission of, 302-304
Convicts, 262
Copaic Lake Company, 290-
294
Corfiotes, 223-225
Corinth, 300
Corinth Canal, 286
Courts, Episcopal, 61
Costume, 207-210
Cretans in Greece, 189, 245
Crime, 260, 261
Curiosity, Greek, 3, 4
Currant question, 295-297
Currency question, 301-303
Cyclades, life in the, 212-314
Cyprus, 46
Deacons, 62
Delige6rges, M. Leonfdas, 34
Delyannes, M. Theodoros, P.,
2S"27. 31-34.47. 50, 120,221,
232, 233, 247, 250, 273, 293
Demarchs, duties and election of,
63, 176-182
Deme schools, 137-142
Demes, 175, .176
Democracy, 6, 7
Diddochos, the (see Constantine,
Crown Prince), 54, 56, 210,
247, 248
Diplomacy, Greek, 43, 44
Divorce, 94
Doctors, 196, 197
Dogs, 202, 203
Dcirpfeld, Dr., 166

308

' Double candle ' (to Stxripov), 76
Dowries, 93, 94
Dragoiimes, M., 23, 189
Drama, the, 132-134
Drinking, 205, 211
Drosines, M., 127, 129, 130
Duels, 22, 38
' Eagle,' the, 76
Easter, 104-107
Education, intermediate, 142-
145
 , primary, 137-142
Egerton, Lady, 272, 273
Eirenodikeia (county courts), 258
Elections, 23, 39, 177, 178
Emery, 289
Emigration, 228-230
Engagements, 88, 89
England (relations with), 45, 46
English churches, 84
Entertaining, 191, 192
Epiphany, 101, 102
Epiros, 41, 42, 47, 48
Episkop6poulos, M., 116, 130
Epitdphios, the, 76, 104
Esslin, M., 40
Evangelismds hospital, 270, 272
Evelpidon, college of the, 248
Evil eye, 210, 287
Evzonoi, 56, 242
Exchange, 193
Executioners, 261, 262
Fallmerayer's theory, 2
Fasts, 69-71
Fire-arms, 205
Food, 236, 237
' Fox-hunting,' 200
France (relations with), 46
French Archaeological School,
165, 166
Funerals, 95, 96
Gabrilides, M., 119
Gambling, 201
George, Prince, 55, 57, 210, 252

Index

German Archaeological Insti
tute, 1 66
Germany (relations with), 47,
X9-7Gipsies, 20
Gladstone, Mr., 45, 46
Goats, 185, 231
Godchildren, 23
Good Friday, 104
' Gospel Riots,' the, 8, 32, 53,
60
' Grand Idea,' the, 40-44
' Greek Evangelical Church,'
the, 83
Gymnasia (schools), 144, 145
Gymnastics, 161, 162
Handicraft, 266, 267
Health, 195, 196
Helen, Princess, 55, 273
Hellenic schools, 142-144
Hellenismis society, 42, 43, 160
Hill School, 150, 151
Historical and Ethnological So
ciety, 169
Historical works, 125, 126
History, love of, 124, 125
' Home of St. Catherine,' 270
Honesty, 14
Hospitality, 5, 6
Hospitals, 249, 270-272
IDROMENOS, M., 126
Inns, 234-237
Ionian Islands, 45
Italians in Greece, 16, 17
Italy (relations with), 47
'Jean Moreas,' M., 134
Jews, 19, 84
'John' boats, 284
Judges, 258, 259
Juries, 258
Kaklamanos, M., 117, 134
Kalanda, the, 98
Kattkantzaroi, the, 98

Kallymavchion, the, 62
Kampouroglos, M., 98, 125
Karapanos, M., 25, 191
Karkavftsa, M., 13 1
Karolfdes, Professor P., 120,
124, 125, 127, 156, 189
Kasdones, M., 131
Kavvadfas, M., 163, 164
Kazazes, M., 42, 43, 55, 160
Kephala, Mrs., 268
King George, 44, 50-53, 55, 58,
60, 195, 197, 203, 209, 234,
268
Kot'douma, the, 103
Koumpdros, a, 97, 98
Koutso-Wallachs, 17, 48, 216-
219, 242
Krdtos, the, 120
'Lamb,' the (& a/i.ii6s), 76
' Lambs,' Easter, 105, 106
Lampakes, M., 168
Lampros, Professor Sp., 124,
125. 156
' Lance,' the (^ \6yxv), 75
Language question, 8-12
Leases, 192
Levldes, M., 25
Libraries, 170, 268
Limprftes, M., 54, 189, 245
Liturgy of St. Basil, 78
,, of St. Chrysostom, 78
,, of St. James, 78
,, of ' the Presanctified,' 78
Lottery, archaeological, 164, 165
,, naval, 165, 252
Macedonian question, 13, 40-
44
Mane, customs of, 219-223, 260
Marasle" Libraryji24
Marie, Princess, 55, 60, 61
'Marmor, Limited,' 289, 290
Marriages, 90-95
Mavromichales, M. K., 24, 184,
190, 191, 219-221
May Day, 1 10

3°9

Index

Megara dances, 107
Meliarakes, M., 126, 127
Merkoiires, M. Sp., 179-181
Metropolitan of Athens, 36
Ministry, the, 25, 26
Monasteries, 66-69
' Mouse,' 201
Muftis, 61
Muleteers, 286-288
Name-days, 85, 86
Names, 86-88
National festival, 108-1 10
National fleet, Society for the
Formation of a, 251, 252
Navy, 250-254
Nla Hemira, 1 19
Needlework, Royal Hellenic
School of, 272, 273
Nion Asty, 117, 118
New Year's Day, 100, 101
„ Eve, 99, 100
Nicholas, Prince, 55, 57
Nomarch, duties of a, 174, 175
Novels, 128-131
Nurses, 271
Odeion, 150
(Ecumenical Patriarch, 59, 60
Officers, 244, 245
' Outside Greeks, the,' 1
Painters, 171
Palace, the, 57
Palamas, M., 10
Papadiamant6poulos, M.,57,204
Papamichail6poulos, M., 252
Paparreg6poulos, M., 57
Parliament, 22 et seq.
ParnassSs, the, 151-153, 185,
200
Parren, Mme., 122, 131, 268,
273
Parties, political, 26, 27
Paten (i 8710s Slanos), 75
Patria, the, 121
Patriotism, 12, 13

' People's Library,' the, 132
Philadelpheus, M. Th. N., 126
Piraeus, growth of the, 205, 206
Planting, 187, 188
Plemmelodikeia (police courts),
258
Police, 249, 250
Politeness, 5
Polytechnic, the, 155
' Poor Girls,' the, 268
' Preachers,' 61
Prefectures (nomoi), 173-175
Press, the, 1 12-122
Priests, 62, 63
Prisons, 262-264
Private schools, 149
Proselytism, 71, 72
Protodikeia (Courts of First In
stance), 257
Psichares, M., 10
Psychokdrai (' adopted daugh
ters '), 266
Plaismatodiketa (police courts),
258
<Jueen Olga, 50, 53, 56, 100,
227, 269, 271, 272
Quorum, the, 28
Railways, 276-282
Ralles, M. Demetrios, 9, 23, 25,
34. 38. 232. 3°4
Readers, 62
' Renewal week,' 80
Resemblance to ancient Greeks,
3
Resin, 232, 298
Rizdreion, the, 63-65, 240
Rofdes, M., 131
Rom eos, 33, 120, 12 1
Roumania (relations with), 47,
48
Russia (relations with), 46
* Sabbath of souls,' 80
Saints, 73, 74
Samios, M., 127, 230, 233

310

Index

Sathas, M., 125
School for needlework, 171
Sculptors, 170
'Second Resurrection,' the, 106
Simantron, the, 67
Servants, 193, 194, 266
Silk manufacture, 267
Skouloiides, M., 25, 171, 184,
191
Skouzes, M., 25, 191
Smolenski, General, 25, 246
Smuggling, 305
Snobbery, lack of, 35
' Society for the Spread of
Greek Letters,' 140
' Society for the Spread of Use
ful Books,' 127, 128, 130
Sophia, Crown Princess^53, 127,
234, 249, 269-271
Soures, M., 120, 121, 134
Soiistas, 186, 286
Speaker, election of, 36, 37
Sperokdthisma, 210
Sponge-fishing, 225-228
Staes, M., 38
Steamers, 282-286
Stephanovik estates, 214, 304
St. George's Day, no
Superstitions, 197, 198, 210
Syngros, M., 12, 180, 191, 198,
203, 264, 268, 269, 271, 272
Synod, the Holy, 36, 60
S'yrtos, the, 211
Taxes, 192, 224, 304, 305
Technical schools, 153-155
Tenos, festival at, 108-110

Theatres, 198, 199, 212, 224
Thebes, 301
Theotokes, M. Georgios, 8, 24,
26, 31, 32, 56, 121, 173, 197,
201, 221, 239, 250, 252, 257,
296
Thessaly, 18, 214-216, 295
Thon, M„ 57
Tobacco, 294
1 Treble candle ' (to rpiKijpov),
76
Trees, destruction of, 230-234
Trisdgion, the, 95
Turkey (relations with), 41, 47
' Turkish delight,' 288
Turks in Greece, 18
' Twelve Gospels,' the, 104
Tzakones, 19
' Union of Greek Women,' the,
268
University, the, 155-161, 274
VARVAKEION, the, 145, 146
Vlachos, M., 134
Water, 298, 299
Water question, 180, 181
Wines, 47, 194, 195, 297, 298
Women, 192, 265-275
XEVGALTES, 220
Zaimes, M. Alexandres, 31,
121, 140
Zappa, MM., 12

THE END

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