been universally recognized as the model of perfection, had not the natural originals been the frequent objects of contemplation. The loss of a distinctive physiognomy in Greece, if it ever existed in any remarkable extent, must be referred to a distant period; for if it had survived the settlement of modern Europe in its present form, it would probably have preserved to this day considerable traces of itself, and the Greeks would have been in these latter centuries a more unmixed people than most others. The men, we believe, are not generally inclined to corpulence: - an oppressive task-master has seldom a fat and heavy slave.

The superstition of the evil eye is very general at Athens; and among unenlightened nations it is probably the most universal of any superstitious belief, since many charms and fetiches in use among barbarous communities, although their general design is apparently directed against all sinistrous operations on human affairs proceeding from an occult agent, seem to have a more especial reference to this than any other agency. If it were necessary to prove the belief in such a power among civilized people, also, in an enlightened age, we might collect testimonies of it from Mr. Dodwell's marginal references: but it may be observed that many of the writers of antiquity, who are cited, speak of it as a superstition, and, if they are poets, attach this superstition to the characters of those classes on whom it sits most naturally. The tale of Glenfinlass is of modern date, and rests on the superstition of the second sight: but it will be hard on the present generation, if posterity should argue the belief of it in our times from its appropriation to the poetry of them. In the enlightened periods of antiquity, it may probably have been current among the vulgar; and, among the betterinformed, it might have about the same degree of credibility which the appearance of departed spirits has in our own days. In the well-known passage on this subject in Persius, the poet to all appearance treats it as a nursery-fable; - such, at least, is the general impression which we have received from that part of the satire. The majority of prose-writers travel over the seas for it; and in ages which gave little opportunity of comparing and sifting authorities for stories, they were usually committed to writing as they were received, and do not so much imply the author's belief in a fact as his acquaintance with the public report of it.

Of the various kinds of fascination, that which was supposed to operate on a person, especially a child, by too much praise lavished on it, is still current in some retired parts of the Scotch highlands; and it is also of high antiquity. The

fasci

fascination by "overlooking" is commonly credited by the vulgar in several parts of England; and their belief on the subject is closely allied to that of the shepherd in the Eclogues of Virgil. The remedies applied to these mischances in Greece are various, but mostly derived, like the superstition, from antiquity; the "lustralis saliva" being the most common. In our own country, we have no panacea, that we know, but the payment of a fee to a white witch, and the performance of such lustral ceremonies as may suit the fancy of this preserver against evil. Mr. Dodwell has not afforded us any particular instance of the agency of the evil eye, properly so called, but of the fascination by praise he records this anecdote:

The first place where I discovered this superstition was in the island of Corfu. I was taking a view near a cottage, into which I was kindly invited, and hospitably entertained with fruit and wine. Two remarkably fine children, the sons of my host, were playing about the cottage; and as I wished to pay a compliment to the parents, I was lavish in my praises of their children. But when I had repeated my admiration two or three times, an old woman, whom I suppose to have been the grandmother, became agonized with alarm, and starting up, she dragged the children towards me, and desired me to spit in their faces. This singular request excited so much astonishment, that I concluded the venerable dame to be disordered in her intellects. But her importunities were immediately seconded, and earnestly enforced, by those of the father and mother of the boys. I was fortunately accompanied by a Greek, who explained to me, that in order to destroy the evil effects of my superlative encomiums, the only remedy was, for me to spit in the faces of the children. I could no longer refuse a compliance with their demands, and I accordingly performed the unpleasant office in as moderate a manner as possible. But this did not satisfy the superstitious cottagers; and it was curious to see with what perfect tranquillity the children underwent this nasty operation; to which their beauty had probably frequently exposed them.

The mother then took some dust from the ground, and mixing it with some oil, from a lamp which was burning before a picture of the Virgin, put a small patch of it on their foreheads. We then parted perfectly good friends; but they begged of me never to praise their children again.'

The games in use at Athens and in Greece generally disclose their classical origin: but the sports of old and young in most European countries, if carefully traced, will be found to bear sure marks of antiquity. The similarity is perhaps more easily observed where they have degenerated, than where they have been enriched with successive improvements, as the original and elementary part of the game is more open

to

to common observation. The protection afforded by true Mussulmans to the Stork is well known: but the general familiarity with men that several birds preserve at Athens, which are not usually tame among us, is a new fact. According to Mr. D., this is particularly the case with the Hawk, whence we infer a difference in the species, which comes an uninvited but not unwelcome guest to the dinner-table; and the Swallow, though a "hallowed guest" in many countries, seems to presume more largely on his inviolability in Greece than in England. The author had ocular demonstration of the absurdity of Dr. Chandler's assertion, that Crows were never seen within the Acropolis: the ruins of the Parthenon itself "crepitant salutato nido" with this very bird: but the older traveller deemed it safer to trust to antient authority than to his own senses. The Owls of Attica would afford a longer chapter in a natural history of that country, than they furnished to Horrebow in his notice of them in his northern region, and could well afford to colonize the countries that are little frequented by the birds of wisdom. The strix passerina, a very small and tame bird, is the most common, and the same (says Mr. D.) which is represented on the Athenian coins: this was, therefore, clearly the bird of Minerva; and, whether from antient respect to so celebrated a feathered biped or for some other reason, the presence of it, perched on a house-top, is hailed rather as indicative of good fortune than as ominous of disaster. We may observe that in Greek poetry the owl (yλau) is not introduced, like the "ferali carmine bubo" of the Latins, to add effect to a melancholy tale; and no passage, indeed, at present occurs to us in which it appears under any character of good or evil omen in a Greek poet: but our memory may be defective.

We will speak of one only of the insect tribe, the tettix; which seems to claim our notice from its association with classical poetry, and which Mr. Dodwell thus briefly describes :

• It frequents the plains and olive groves, and is never found in cold or mountainous regions. It is totally different from the anpis, or locust; as it is formed like a large fly, with long transparent wings, a dark brown back, and a yellow belly.

The tettix is originally a caterpillar, then a chrysalis, and is converted into a fly late in the spring. Its song, which it makes with its wings, is much louder and shriller than that of the grasshopper. Hesiod terms it the musical tettix: Anacreon, Theocritus, Diogenes Laertius, and others, praised the sweetness of its song; and Plutarch says, they were sacred to the Muses. According to Elian, only the male tettix sings; and that in the hottest weather.

• According

According to Aristophanes, they only sing during one or two months in the year.'

"Resonant arbusta cicadis" is the expression of Virgil: but Anacreon describes it as singing Δενδρέων ἐπ' ακρῶν, which does not seem so improbable when we recollect the state of the insect, that of a fly, at the period when it becomes musical. * Mr. Dodwell has not remarked on the emblematical use of it by the Athenians; which is singular as an omission in a writer who really appears to omit nothing, although it may be observed that he is generally more particular in his description of places and the objects which they contain, than of men and their customs.

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To conclude the subject of modern Athens: sumed to be at present increasing in population and civilization, and to contain about 12,000 inhabitants, about ninetenths of whom are Greeks: but we have seen the population rated at rather a higher estimate, about 14,000. The present tendency to increase has not probably been progressive for any great length of time, since some travellers of the seventeenth century are cited by Mr. Dodwell, who place the existing population of their days on a higher scale than that which is taken at this time. Of the domestic habits of the people but little has been said, and we believe but little is known. We presented to our readers, on a late occasion, a slight view of the interior of a Greek house, which may, we presume, be of rather general application. Modern travellers in Greece usually take up their quarters in the chief towns, at the residence of some Frank family, probably Italian, while convents and the consuls of different nations accommodate others. The British consul, indeed, we believe is a Greek, and receives visitors to board with him: but, as he in some measure attempts to regulate his table according to the customs of the country which he represents, his family-arrangements afford no criterion of those of his neighbours. He is universally known by the name of Logotheti, but this is in

*In a subsequent part of his work, Mr. D. describes the note of this insect as peculiarly shrill and unpleasant, having himself, on a hot day, experienced the charms of a full concert of them. With due respect to Aristophanes, we must make one more exception from our rule of exclusion in favour of the Attic frogs. Mr. D. thus writes respecting them: The common frogs of Greece have a note totally different from that of a northern climate, and there cannot be a more perfect imitation of it than the Brekekekex koax koax of Aristophanes :' so that a chorus of frogs is not fabulous, or not necessarily so.

reality

reality an official and not a family appellative. His office, from which he takes this designation, appears from Mr. Dodwell to be hereditary, and his real name is Komatiano.

Of the existing state of literature at Athens, and its improvement, we receive no particular information from Mr. Dodwell, beyond the general assurance of some little resuscitation in the culture of the powers of the mind. Mr. Williams, to whose publication we have more than once adverted as the most recent on the subject, speaks of a society entitled the poμouro, into which all well-informed strangers who visit Athens may be admitted; and the principal object of which is to afford the benefit of a foreign education to as large a number of the Athenian youth as the funds of it may allow. He describes the library of the institution as increasing in books, the majority of which are owing to British liberality. The persevering endeavors of the Earl of Guildford have not been confined solely to the septinsular republic: for he has attempted, by donations and other means, to excite in the minds of the Athenians an attention to the useful arts, which must precede the study of those that are more exclusively ornamental; and we trust that he has not made ineffectual efforts. The artists at Athens, who have been employed by so many travellers in executing drawings, are mostly if not entirely foreigners: but the force of their example, especially if their art be well rewarded, must necessarily operate on the natives when their minds. shall be a little better prepared to receive benefit from it. The impulse must first be applied in the islands; whence we may confidently expect that it will gradually find its own way on the continent, notwithstanding the intolerant tyranny of the Turkish government. Such excitement has indeed been already given; and, in the great promoter of improvement among the modern Greeks, we see so much perseverance united with sound judgment, that we cannot but consider the auspices for the future as very flattering. All travellers confess that the modern Greeks are by no means deficient in natural quickness and ability. To us it has indeed often appeared rather remarkable that so much has been preserved than that so much has been lost; and that the memorials of former greatness, with which this unfortunate people are surrounded, have so long continued to exert the influence which they undoubtedly hold over their lively feelings. Their own forms of religious worship have almost as debasing a tendency as the pressure of Turkish power; and they have had nothing to counteract these potent agents but the imperfect recollection of the past, aided by

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