Puslapio vaizdai
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Village in Greece, with Mount Pentelicus in the background.

THE MODERN GREEKS.

Greek Type, Peasant.

By Thomas D. Seymour.

HE ancient Greeks united to form a nation only when they combined in opposition to the Persian Empire. While the Greeks of to-day are distracted by many factions and interests, they are united by their pride in their ancestry and their hatred for the Turk. When these emotions are aroused, Greece has but one mind.

Emulation of their ancestors has been a great stimulus to study for the Greeks of to-day. The new government had hardly been set up at Athens when a university was established on the German model, and with several German professors, in 1837. The university was ready made and fully developed, but few students were prepared to enter it. Since then, Greece has delighted in cherishing schools of every kind, but better provision is still made for the higher edu

cation than for the intermediate and lower. Free tuition at the university, and the slight expense of the actual necessaries of life at Athens have induced many poor Greeks to study law, when they should have been preparing for life as farmers or mechanics. This has unsettled politics somewhat, but has not been an unmixed evil. The university is now one of the largest in the world, with more than three thousand students, of whom at least half are from lands beyond the borders of the kingdom. Most of its professors have pursued studies in Germany or France, and many of them are brilliant and learned men. It has received large gifts; its museums and laboratories are endowed by private generosity.

The foundations of female education in Greece were laid by honored missionaries from America, who established themselves at Athens before this city was made the seat of the Greek government. Dr. and Mrs. Hill lived to enjoy the retrospect of half a century of usefulness. Their school educated about two thousand Greek women, many of whom have occupied stations of high rank and influence. Near the university now stands the Arsakion, a seminary well endowed for the higher education of women. The number of Greek women who can read and write is far larger now than it was twenty years ago. Sixty years ago they were as ignorant as most women in other parts of the Turkish empire.

The literature of the Greeks is still ar

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tificial, consisting largely of translations paper editor who made Greek names for from the ancient Greek, or from modern the principal objects at an international languages, in the literary idiom. Few exposition. Even "gas," which is itself and brief works are published in the a made-up word, and which has been form of the language which most Greeks speak. The fullest collections of the songs and stories of the people have been made by foreigners. The Greeks have been so busy in founding a nation that they have had no time to develop a national literature or school of art.

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With the expulsion of the Turkish tyranny, the Greeks strove to cast forth the Turkish words which had been adopted into the language. With the emulation of their ancestors' deeds, grew the desire to speak as their forefathers had done. Words which had been unused for centuries were brought again into service. Ancient names were revived for districts and towns; the Morea is again Peloponnesus, Kastri is again Delphi. Even official forms have been resuscitated; the legal orations of antiquity and the old lexicographers have been searched, in order to secure the fitting

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terms for the use of the law courts. The Supreme Court of Greece is the Areopagus, and the Senate is the Boulé. Names of things which were unknown to the ancients have been translated literally from other modern languages, often forming compounds which would be unintelligible to Plato, who would not suppose that a "spirit-manufactory" could be a distillery. The Greeks hold as a benefactor of their language a news

Greek Hospitality.

adopted into all modern languages, including the Greek-the word "gas" is not used by the newspaper writer, but aerophōtion, air-light. Curiously enough, the newspapers are the chief supporters of the literary language; they are diligent in their affectation of, and approach to, the classical idiom. The vocabulary and the general outlines of the syntax of the ancient language are used in Athens to-day. But this language is more or

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View from the Acropolis looking toward Hymettus, with the Arch of Hadrian and the Columns of Zeus Olympius in the foreground and centre.

speech of the people became more and more corrupt under foreign influences, and by natural process of decay. But at the beginning of this century an attempt was made to revive the general use of Attic Greek. At first a conscious effort was needed, but the newer generation of the better educated families has been familiar from youth with the restored language, and treats it as a vernacular. No unpolitical subject is more burning in Greece now than the question which is the true language of the time. The translations of the New Testament have become more and more classical. As an example of newspaper Greek, the story is told of an Athenian lady who left with a newspaper an advertisement of the loss of her white dog (aspro skyláki), which she failed to recognize in the classical terms (leukon kynarion) of the newspaper!

Almost all the inhabitants of Greece belong to the "orthodox " Eastern Church, which separated from the Church of the

about forty bishops; the Church recognizes no higher ecclesiastical title, but the bishop of the capital of a province is called an archbishop, by courtesy, and the Bishop of Athens is the Metropolitan. The churches in the country are generally cheerless, and often dilapidated. The Greek priest (pappás) is married, but is not allowed to marry a second time. He is said to be assiduous in the care of his wife, since he knows that he can never have another. He often has a large family and a small income. His fees constitute his salary. He is generally a peasant, and lives like the other peasants-tilling his fields, teaching school, or perhaps keeping a small shop. He has little education. Only in recent years have theological studies prospered at the university. The bishops are promoted from the monks, not from the priests; if by chance the priest attains special distinction, and is made bishop, he is obliged to separate from his wife.

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few miles to the west, is another monastery of the humblest sort; the door is not high enough for a tall man; the building has rooms for only three or four monks, and everything but the clear, cold water indicates squalor and indifference to comfort and cleanliness.

The most important Greek monasteries are those on Mount Athos, that of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, and that on Mount Sinai. These have dependencies, or branches, in Greece.

The Greek religious services are generally held early in the morning, before the heat of the day. After them, the pappás is a prominent figure in the throngs of idlers, prominent because of his long black gown, his tall steeple-hat (without a brim), and his long, untrimmed black hair and whiskers. His office does not assure him special respect. He is far from having the social position accorded to clergymen in Protestant or even in Roman Catholic countries.

Lent is observed very strictly by the

Greek Church. To be without flesh food would be no deprivation from usual comfort for most of the people. Not only fish, but also eggs and cheese are forbidden, at least on the strict days of Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

After the dreary and exhausting season of Lent, Easter is warmly welcomed. It is the great festival of the Church year. It is the season for family gatherings and for friendly gifts. Houses and boats are painted, and clothing washed, in preparation for the celebration. No family is too poor to have a roast lamb for Easter Sunday, and the streets and squares of the towns are filled with flocks of lambs. The whole air of the city is redolent with their savor on Easter morning. Hungry family groups collect about the fire as the lamb is spitted in the open air, all watching and assisting at the operation.

The Greeks are very religious in some outward observances, and especially quick in their resentment of the insinuation that they are in need of con

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