The Modern Greeks, and the Opinions concerning Them [pp. 143-165]

OPINIONS CONCERPNING THEM.
LfatinizAd, the Riomans were rather I-Iellenizedcl. Greece threw
the in,fluence of her arts, literature and philosophy over her
iron-hearted and iron-handedl subjugators. And, while it is true
that, ini the later ages. the Greek people were subject to the
TLrks f,rom 145.3-9 to 182iL, yet it is also just as true-as any
one tthat has ever lived amnong them will have found out-that
there is nothing which a Greek man or woman so detests and
esc(hes as thi e id a of internarriage or mixture of blood with
any TacLai. Nka';o Jew ever abhorred more the eating of swine, or
the mnl-"ing of hlis blood with that of Geniiies-probably the
latter with not So mruch of disgust and anlipatiy, for it amounts
to this in the case of the Greek. So it ever w-as toward the barl)ariian and, as the Greek regards hbim, beastly Mloslem. If there
be a feeling that is deep-seated in every Greek breast, it is that
of the profoundest mingled hatred and loathing for the race
with whicieh he was once, and for so long a time, brought into so
disagr,:e Lable contact. And, if any one demands whether there
may not ba fouind some fruits and proof of in-termixture, the
writer of thii, after a residence of some years among the Greeks,
not long afteL-r their counctry was rid of the Turks, is prepared to
aver that it was one of thes rarest things-almost as rare as to
meet with a negro there, left by them-to see a man or woman
who, firom any ascertcained facts of the case or from physical
appea-cances, could be known or believed to be of mixed Greek
and TuLrkish blood. The very Albaniians settled in Greece,
though thiey harve been there for generations; though they profess Christianity, and that according to thie forms of the same
church with the other inhabitants of the country; though they
thave a Greek nativity, belong to the Greek nationality, and
shared in tlie same glorious, terrible struggle with them for freedom, yet have remained, among the Hellenic populations-certainlv to a recent period-in a great measure an isolated people;
dwelling, from generation to generation, in separate districts and
viliages; using their own Sclavonic tongue, and keeping up, to
a great extent, their own peculiar customs and modes of dress;
"the Dutch" of Greece, so to speak, but not assimilating as the
Gerlmans so soon do among us, even when settled in bodies.
TYPE OF THE HELLENIC CHIXRACTER PRESERVED.
in fact, no one, as we think, who has ever resided in Greece
147
1874.]