Alexandria Gazette

MEMORANDA OF A TOUR IN THE EAST.

European Correspondence of the United States Gazette.

Greek Women-Social Tyranny.

The imagination is so much excited by the encomiastic strains of the Greek poets, and of their modern imitators, upon the beauty of the descendants of Helen, that we expected, at every step, to be dazzled with their brilliancy. Even in Corinth, which once bore the palm of female beauty-Corinth, the Circean charms of whose daughters caused many a tyrant Ulysses to forget his Penelope-that Corinth, of which Anacreon sung in his time-

"For beauteous nymphs it bears the sway,
For none so beautiful sure as they"

ODE 32.

Even in this lauded Corinth, we did not see a female face that was even comely. The traveller naturally turns from the view of nature, to her fairest works of mortal mould and for my part, fine scenery and bright climes appeared to lose a part of their attractions, and nature to be miserly of her fair gifts, when the face of woman was not as beautiful as the soft lakes and mountains among which she dwelt, and as radiant with the unclouded light of peace and love, as the sunny skies which o'er-canopied her land. It may be a conceit, but it always seemed paradoxical to us, to expect to find a country where the beauty of nature was not mirrored back from the face of woman.

We must attribute the present dearth of female beauty in Greece to the miseries of war, and the hardships of a country where, within a few years, the husbandman tilled his fields, armed to the teeth and the wife reared her children, and kindled the household fires in the depths of mountain caves, from which she was sometimes called forth, like the Maid of Saragossa, to direct the murderous engines of war, or raise the drooping courage of her husband and sons. There is also something in the present hard lot of the Greek women, that claims our sympathy. The women in Greece are obliged to submit to the hardest toil and are kept in a subjection little creditable to their lords. They participate not only in the labor of the fields, but are obliged to perform some of the severer kinds of labor which task even masculine strength. The peasant women at Athens have the appearance of fifty. Bronzed by the sun, and disfigured by excessive labors, their shrivelled features sadly disappoint the enthusiast the traveller, who expects to meet in every female face a Zoe or Hadee.

The Greeks still retain the worst feature of the social tyranny of the Turks. Women are kept in the strictest seclusion, and debarred male society, except that of their nearest relations. Even in the tender affairs of love, they cannot act without restraint. Marriage is nothing more than a bargain, arranged between the bridegroom and the parents the wife. The disinterested feelings of a young girl are rarely consulted, and she is obliged to give her hand to one whom she meets for the first time at the altar.

Instead of being the companion of her husband, she becomes his slave. The little society that exists in Greece, is extremely masculine, from the absence of the softer sex; and cannot but think that the rough and harsh manners that prevail, would be softened and refined by the social charms of women. The Greek ladies of the higher classes of society are not wanting in personal attractions, and their quick and brilliant imaginations would serve as a foil to the present somewhat dull and lethargic temperament of society in Greece. But a visible improvement is now taking place. Society begins to open its portals to her who constitutes its brightest ornament, and imbues it with all its elegance and purity. A few Greek ladies now venture to social intercourse, and as time and European influences weaken existing prejudices the number will increase. The female school of Mr. Bill, at Athens, will have a happy effect in this point of view. The return of so many young girls to their families, with their natural graces heightened by mental accomplishments, will materially affect the tone of society, and must, in the end, should similar schools be established, restore woman to her legitimate supremacy.