69.—FÊTE OF THE TEMPLE OF JUPITER, ATHENS.
“This admixture of which the Athenian population is composed is a curious study.
“On the Sunday, everybody leaves the cross roads in front of the Beautiful Greece to frequent the esplanade of Patissia (a corruption from Pachiscliah); the men stroll about talking together, and the women, abandoning their household gods for this day only, follow a few paces behind them. The crowd walks round and round a kiosk till a military band placed there has finished playing, and then goes home; not into the house, however, but into the streets, for during the warm summer nights nearly everybody sleeps al fresco. These sleepers advertise their presence by a continual hum, which is a kind of internal monologue, an echo of the day’s conversation, for the Greeks still remain the wittiest and the most eloquent chatterers in the world.”
We place side by side with the Greeks the Albanians, whose language has some relation to Greek. Concentrated in the mountains of their country, they appear to be the lineal representatives of the ancient inhabitants of these districts. They are the descendants of the ancient Illyrians, mixed up with the Greeks and the Slavonians. Restricting themselves almost exclusively to the profession of arms, the Albanians constitute the best soldiers of the Ottoman army. Their numbers scarcely reach two millions, although Albania is of great extent and contains several rather important towns.
Albania, part of Turkey in Europe, bounded on the north by Montenegro, Bosnia, and Servia, on the east by Macedon and Thessaly, on the south by the kingdom of Greece, on the west by the Adriatic and Ionian seas, constitutes the pachaliks of Janina, Ilbessan and Scutari. It possesses three seaports, Durazzo, Avlona, and Parga. The most important towns are Scutari, Akhissar, Berat, and Arta.
Semi-barbarians, partaking more of the pirate and the brigand than of the cultivator and the labourer, the Albanians pass their lives in a state of petty warfare among themselves.
| P. Sellier, p.t | Imp. Dupuy, 22, R. des Petits Hôtels | G. Regamey, lith. |