THE MODERN GREEKS


Have preserved dances in honour of Flora. The wives and maidens of the
village gather and scatter flowers, and bedeck themselves from head to
foot. She who leads the dance, more ornamented than the others,
represents Flora and the Spring, whose return the hymn they sing
announces; one of them sings--


"Welcome sweet nymph,
Goddess of the month of May."


In the Grecian villages, and among the Bulgarians, they still observe
the feast of Ceres. When harvest is almost ripe, they go dancing to the
sound of the lyre, and visit the fields, whence they return with their
heads ornamented with wheat ears, interwoven with the hair. Embroidering
is the occupation of the Grecian women; to the Greeks we owe this art,
which is exceedingly ancient among them, and has been carried to the
highest degree of perfection. Enter the chamber of a Grecian girl, and
you will see blinds at the window, and no other furniture than a sofa,
and a chest inlaid with ivory, in which are kept silk, needles, and
articles for embroidery. Apologues, tales, and romances, owe their
origin to Greece. The modern Greeks love tales and fables, and have
received them from the Orientals and Arabs, with as much eagerness as
they formerly adopted them from the Egyptians. The old women love always
to relate, and the young pique themselves on repeating those they have
learnt, or can make, from such incidents as happen within their
knowledge. The Greeks at present have no fixed time for the celebration