herself with a huge peacock-feather fan, one maid is busy over her hair; a second holds the round metallic mirror before her; a third stands ready to extend the jewel box whence she can select finger rings, earrings, gold armlets, chains for her neck and hair, as well as the indispensable brooches whereon the stability of the whole costume depends.  When she rises to have her himation draped around her, the directions she gives reveal her whole bent and character.  A dignified and modest matron will have it folded loosely around her entire person, covering both arms and hands, and even drawing it over her head, leaving eyes and nose barely visible.  Younger ladies will draw it close around the body so as to show the fine lines of their waists and shoulders.  And in the summer heat the himation (for the less prudish) will become a light shawl floating loose and free over the shoulders, or only a kind of veil drawn so as to now conceal, now reveal, the face.

Children wear miniature imitations of the dress of their elders.  Boys are taught to toughen their bodies by refraining from thick garments in cold weather.  In hot weather they can frequently be seen playing about with very little clothing at all!

36.  Footwear and Head Coverings.—­Upon his feet the Athenian frequently wears nothing.  He goes about his home barefoot; and not seldom he enjoys the delight of running across the open greensward with his unsandaled feet pressing the springing ground; but normally when he walks abroad, he will wear sandals, a simple solid pair of open soles tied to his feet by leather thongs passing between the toes.  For hard country walking and for hunting there is something like a high leather boot,[*] though doubtless these are counted uncomfortable for ordinary wear.  As for the sandals, simple as they are, the Attic touch of elegance is often upon them.  Upon the thongs of the sandals there is usually worked a choice pattern, in some brilliant color or even gilt.

[*]Actors, too, wore a leather boot with high soles to give them extra height—­the cothurnus.

The Athenians need head coverings even less than footgear.  Most of them have thick hair; baldness is an uncommon affliction; everybody is trained to walk under the full glare of Helios with little discomfort.  Of course certain trades require hats, e.g. sailors who can be almost identified by their rimless felt caps.  Genteel travelers will wear wide-brimmed hats; but the ladies, as a rule, have no headgear besides their tastefully arranged hair, although they will partly atone for the lack, by having a maid walk just behind them with a gorgeously variegated parasol.