Edward Daniel Clarke in 1816: Greeks are indolent, profligate, vain, obsequious, ostentatious, poor and dirty and Albanians are industrious, independent, honourable, cleanly, and hospitable

Edward Daniel Clarke in 1816: Greeks are indolent, profligate, vain, obsequious, ostentatious, poor and dirty and Albanians are industrious, independent, honourable, cleanly, and hospitable

Cited:

“EUROPE ASIA AND AFRICA. BY EDWARD DANIEL CLARKE LL.D. TO THESSALONICA. 321 CHAP. XI.

“[…] day was spent in comfort and repose. Future travellers in Greece will do well to profit by our experience, with respect to the Albanian peasantry,—a race as distinct as possible from all the other inhabitants of the country. We never had reason to complain, when we consented to forego the accommodation offered in Greek houses for a night’s lodging beneath their humbler sheds.

The Greeks are, for the most part, indolent and profligate, vain, obsequious, ostentatious, poor and dirty. The Albanians are industrious, independent, honourable, cleanly, and hospitable. They are a hardier and a healthier race; passing their lives, sub dio, either in the fields or upon the mountains: their sons possess a manlier disposition than the offspring of the Greeks, who are always effeminate; and the daughters of Albanians are not characterized by those relaxed habits and that early fading which may be observed in the Grecian damsels. A girl of… […]

(Marginal notes visible: “Greeks compared with Albanians.” and “Women.”)

Source

Edward Daniel Clarke. “Travels in Various Countries of Europe, Asia, and Africa (from the section on Greece, in Part the Second / Section on Greece, Egypt, and the Holy Land). p.321

Different editions exist (e.g., London editions by T. Cadell and W. Davies, American reprints), with slight variations in volume numbering and pagination. The quoted passage appears in Volume 2 or 3 of the Greece section (often cited around p. 321 in certain printings). Full digitized versions are available on Internet Archive (search for “Clarke Travels Greece” or similar titles).

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