The Fasts, Too, Of The Greek Church Produce An Ill Effect Upon The
Character Of The People, For They Are
Not a mere farce, but are
carried to such an extent as to bring about a real mortification of
the
Flesh; the febrile irritation of the frame operating in
conjunction with the depression of the spirits occasioned by
abstinence, will so far answer the objects of the rite, as to
engender some religious excitement, but this is of a morbid and
gloomy character, and it seems to be certain, that along with the
increase of sanctity, there comes a fiercer desire for the
perpetration of dark crimes. The number of murders committed
during Lent is greater, I am told, than at any other time of the
year. A man under the influence of a bean dietary (for this is the
principal food of the Greeks during their fasts) will be in an apt
humour for enriching the shrine of his saint, and passing a knife
through his next-door neighbour. The moneys deposited upon the
shrines are appropriated by priests; the priests are married men,
and have families to provide for; they "take the good with the
bad," and continue to recommend fasts.
Then, too, the Greek Church enjoins her followers to keep holy such
a vast number of saints' days as practically to shorten the lives
of the people very materially. I believe that one-third out of the
number of days in the year are "kept holy," or rather, KEPT STUPID,
in honour of the saints; no great portion of the time thus set
apart is spent in religious exercises, and the people don't betake
themselves to any such animating pastimes as might serve to
strengthen the frame, or invigorate the mind, or exalt the taste.
On the contrary, the saints' days of the Greeks in Smyrna are
passed in the same manner as the Sabbaths of well-behaved
Protestant housemaids in London - that is to say, in a steady and
serious contemplation of street scenery. The men perform this duty
AT THE DOORS of their houses, the women AT THE WINDOWS, which the
custom of Greek towns has so decidedly appropriated to them as the
proper station of their sex, that a man would be looked upon as
utterly effeminate if he ventured to choose that situation for the
keeping of the saints' days. I was present one day at a treaty for
the hire of some apartments at Smyrna, which was carried on between
Carrigaholt and the Greek woman to whom the rooms belonged.
Carrigaholt objected that the windows commanded no view of the
street. Immediately the brow of the majestic matron was clouded,
and with all the scorn of a Spartan mother she coolly asked
Carrigaholt, and said, "Art thou a tender damsel that thou wouldst
sit and gaze from windows?" The man whom she addressed, however,
had not gone to Greece with any intention of placing himself under
the laws of Lycurgus, and was not to be diverted from his views by
a Spartan rebuke, so he took care to find himself windows after his
own heart, and there, I believe, for many a month, he kept the
saints' days, and all the days intervening, after the fashion of
Grecian women.
Oh! let me be charitable to all who write, and to all who lecture,
and to all who preach, since even I, a layman not forced to write
at all, can hardly avoid chiming in with some tuneful cant! I have
had the heart to talk about the pernicious effects of the Greek
holidays, to which I owe some of my most beautiful visions! I will
let the words stand, as a humbling proof that I am subject to that
immutable law which compels a man with a pen in his hand to be
uttering every now and then some sentiment not his own. It seems
as though the power of expressing regrets and desires by written
symbols were coupled with a condition that the writer should from
time to time express the regrets and desires of other people; as
though, like a French peasant under the old regime, one were bound
to perform a certain amount of work UPON THE PUBLIC HIGHWAYS. I
rebel as stoutly as I can against this horrible, corvee. I try not
to deceive you - I try to set down the thoughts which are fresh
within me, and not to pretend any wishes, or griefs, which I do not
really feel; but no sooner do I cease from watchfulness in this
regard, than my right hand is, as it were, seized by some false
angel, and even now, you see, I have been forced to put down such
words and sentences as I ought to have written if really and truly
I had wished to disturb the saints' days of the beautiful
Smyrniotes!
Which, Heaven forbid! for as you move through the narrow streets of
the city at these times of festival, the transom-shaped windows
suspended over your head on either side are filled with the
beautiful descendants of the old Ionian race; all (even yonder
empress that sits throned at the window of that humblest mud
cottage) are attired with seeming magnificence; their classic heads
are crowned with scarlet, and loaded with jewels or coins of gold,
the whole wealth of the wearers; {10} their features are touched
with a savage pencil, which hardens the outline of eyes and
eyebrows, and lends an unnatural fire to the stern, grave looks
with which they pierce your brain. Endure their fiery eyes as best
you may, and ride on slowly and reverently, for facing you from the
side of the transom, that looks long-wise through the street, you
see the one glorious shape transcendant in its beauty; you see the
massive braid of hair as it catches a touch of light on its jetty
surface, and the broad, calm, angry brow; the large black eyes,
deep set, and self-relying like the eyes of a conqueror, with their
rich shadows of thought lying darkly around them; you see the thin
fiery nostril, and the bold line of the chin and throat disclosing
all the fierceness, and all the pride, passion, and power that can
live along with the rare womanly beauty of those sweetly turned
lips.
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