The present natives of Judea resemble the other Turks, being only a little more brown than those of Constantinople, or on the coasts of the Black Sea, in like manner as the Arabians are more brown than the Syrians, from their situation being more southern.
It is the same with the Greeks. Those of the northern parts are more fair, while those of the southern islands, or provinces, are brown. Generally speaking, the Greek women are more handsome and vivacious than the Turks; they also enjoy a greater degree of liberty. Carreri says, the women of the island of Chio are fair, handsome, lively, and very familiar with the men; that the girls see strangers without restraint; and that they all have their necks uncovered. He likewise says, that the Greek women have the finest hair in the world, especially in the vicinage of Constantinople; but that those whose hair descends to the heels, have features less regular.
The Greeks consider large eyes, and elevated eye-brows, as a very great beauty in either sex; and we may remark in all busts and medals of ancient Greeks, the eyes are much larger than those of the ancient Romans.
The inhabitants of the Archipelago are excellent swimmers and divers. According to Thevenot, they are trained to the practice of bringing up goods which have been sunk into the sea; and that in the island of Samos, a young man has no chance of obtaining a wife, unless he can dive eight, and Dapper says twenty, fathoms. The latter adds, that in some of the islands, as in Nicaria, they have a strange custom of speaking to each other at a distance, and that their voices are so strong, that when a quarter of a league, nay even a whole league asunder, they maintain a conversation, though not without long intervals, as after a question is asked, the answer does not arrive for several seconds.
The Greeks, Neapolitans, Sicilians, Corsicans, Sardinians, and Spaniards, being situated nearly under the same line, are uniform in point of complexion. Those people are more swarthy than the English, French, Germans, Polanders, Moldavians, Circassians, and all the other inhabitants of the north of Europe, till we advance to Lapland; where, as already observed, we find another race of men. In travelling through Spain, we begin to perceive a difference of colour even at Bayonne. There the women have a complexion more brown, and eyes more brilliant.