Those kind of Hats makes them look taller, and also more Matron-like, though they are easily blown off their Heads, by a blast of Wind, or by any light Motion they fall off themselves.
When they appeared to us in this Dress, I thought they resembled Clytemnestra, or some Hecuba or other, in the flourishing Time of Troy, coming upon the Stage. This Sight suggested to me some pious Meditations, viz. How frail and mutable a Thing that which is called Nobleness of Birth, is; for when I asked of some of these Lasses, they that seemed to be the handsomest among them, concerning their Stock and Lineage, they told me, They were descended from the Chief Nobles of that Country; and some of them were of a Royal Progeny, though now it was their Fate, to marry Herdsmen or Shepherds: For Nobility is very little esteemed in the Turkish Dominions. For, I my self did afterwards see at Constantinople, and other Places, some Descendants from the Imperial Families of the Catacuzeni, and the Palæologi, living more contemptuously among the Turks, than ever Dionysius did of old at Corinth; nay, the Turks esteem no Men for their Birth, but only for their own perform’d Accomplishments, excepting only the Ottoman Family; for that they have a high Veneration, upon Account of its Original.
It is thought that these Bulgarians had their Original from Seythia, near the River Volga, and that they changed their Habitations and came into these Parts, when other Nations, either compelled by Force, or prompted by Choice, changed theirs; and that they were called Bulgarians, i. e. Volgarians, from the River Volga, aforesaid. Upon this Transmigration, they fix’d their Habitation upon those Parts of Mount Hæmus, that lie between Sophia and Philippopolis, which are Places naturally strong; where they, for a long Time, baffled all the Power of the Grecian Emperors, and killed Baldwin the Elder, Earl of Flanders, then Emperor of Constantinople, after they had taken him in an hot Skirmish. Yet, for all this, they were not able to resist the Power of the Turks, but were overcome and miserably enslaved by them. They use the Illyrian, or Slavonian Tongue, as the Servians and Rascians also do.
Before a Man descends into that Plain that lies over against Philippopolis, he must go through a Forest and a craggy Mountain, which the Turks call Carpi Dervent, i. e. The Gate of the strait or narrow Passage; but in the Plain before-mentioned, we met with the River Hebrus, having its Original from the adjoining Mountain Rhodope. Before we could pass the said Straits, we saw the Top of Mount Rhodope all cover’d over with deep Snow. The Inhabitants, as I remember, call it Rulla. From hence flows the River Hebrus, as Pliny says, and Ovid also affirms the same in this Distick.
Qua patet umbrosum Rhodope glacialis ad Hœmum,
Et sacer amissas exigit Hebrus aquas.
Where Icy Rhodope ope’s to shady Hœme,
And sacred Hebrus wants part of her Stream.
In which Verses, the Poet seems to intimate the Shallowness of that River for want of Water. For though it is a great and famous River, yet, in most Places it is fordable: For, I remember, in my return from Constantinople, we forded over it near Philippopolis, to an Island on the other Side, where we lay in Tents all Night; but it happened, that the Waters swelled that Night by reason of Rain, that next Morning we could not repass the River, to come into the Road, without a great deal of Trouble.