The village was just like the one we had left, only rather larger.  The streets were narrow and unpaved, but very fairly clean.  The vine grew outside many of the houses; and there were some with sign-boards, on which was painted a bottle and a glass, that made me feel much at home.  Even on this ledge of human society there was a stunted growth of shoplets, which had taken root and vegetated somehow, though as in an air mercantile of the bleakest.  It was here as hitherto:  all things were generically the same as in Europe, the differences being of species only; and I was amused at seeing in a window some bottles with barley-sugar and sweetmeats for children, as at home; but the barley-sugar was in plates, not in twisted sticks, and was coloured blue.  Glass was plentiful in the better houses.

Lastly, I should say that the people were of a physical beauty which was simply amazing.  I never saw anything in the least comparable to them.  The women were vigorous, and had a most majestic gait, their heads being set upon their shoulders with a grace beyond all power of expression.  Each feature was finished, eyelids, eyelashes, and ears being almost invariably perfect.  Their colour was equal to that of the finest Italian paintings; being of the clearest olive, and yet ruddy with a glow of perfect health.  Their expression was divine; and as they glanced at me timidly but with parted lips in great bewilderment, I forgot all thoughts of their conversion in feelings that were far more earthly.  I was dazzled as I saw one after the other, of whom I could only feel that each was the loveliest I had ever seen.  Even in middle age they were still comely, and the old grey-haired women at their cottage doors had a dignity, not to say majesty, of their own.

The men were as handsome as the women beautiful.  I have always delighted in and reverenced beauty; but I felt simply abashed in the presence of such a splendid type—­a compound of all that is best in Egyptian, Greek and Italian.  The children were infinite in number, and exceedingly merry; I need hardly say that they came in for their full share of the prevailing beauty.  I expressed by signs my admiration and pleasure to my guides, and they were greatly pleased.  I should add that all seemed to take a pride in their personal appearance, and that even the poorest (and none seemed rich) were well kempt and tidy.  I could fill many pages with a description of their dress and the ornaments which they wore, and a hundred details which struck me with all the force of novelty; but I must not stay to do so.