The Greek traces that exist in the living people of Provence are
few, but distinct. There is, in the first place, the type of beauty
particularly associated with the women of Arles. As a rule, the
Provencal woman is not beautiful; nor is she very willing to admit
that her Arlesian sisters are one whit more beautiful than she. The
secret of their fame is interpreted by her in the stereotyped remark,
"C'est la coiffe!" But the coif of Arles, picturesque though it is in
its stern simplicity, could not change an ugly face into a pretty one,
and the wearers of it are well entitled to the honour they claim as
their birthright. Scarcely due attention has been paid to the good
looks of the older and even of the aged women; I have not seen their
equals save among a face of quite another type, the Teutonic amazons
of the Val Mastalone. In countries where the sun is fire, if youth
does not always mean beauty, beauty means almost always youth. M.
Lentheric thinks that he detects a second clear trace of the Greeks
in the horn wrestling practised all over the dried-up lagune which the
fork of the Rhone below Arles forms into an island. Astride of their
wild white steeds, the horsemen drive one of the superb black bulls of
the Camargue towards a group of young men on foot, who, catching him
by his horns, wrestle with him till he is forced to bend the knee and
bite the dust. The amusement is dangerous, but it is not brutal. The
horses escape unhurt, so does the bull; the risk is for the men alone,
and it is a risk voluntarily and eagerly run. So popular is the
sport that it is difficult to prevent children from joining in it. In
Thessaly it was called [Greek: keratisis], and the bull in the act of
submission is represented on a large number of Massaliote and other
coins.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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