One of their favourite dances is the old classical _syrto_, or long-drawn dance, performed on the village green. The youths and maidens don their picturesque gala costumes, and prepare for the dance, while the elderly men group themselves round the coffee-house, smoking their pipes and sipping coffee, and the matrons, with little ones, sit under the trees and gossip. A musician, with fiddle, pipe, or viol, sits on a barrel, while each youth produces his coloured handkerchief, and, holding it by one corner, presents the other to the girl at his side. She in her turn presents her own to the dancer next to her; a long line or circle is formed, and the dance is proceeded with, the youths and maidens responding to each other in the words of a song. The dress of the girls differs very much according to the locality where they reside. That of the villages near Constantinople consists of a loose, bright-coloured bodice, worn over a blouse open at the neck, and a coloured kerchief twisted round the head, from under the folds of which the hair hangs down the back in rich plaited tresses. The trousers are loose, baggy, and voluminous, and are fastened with a cord round the waist. [Illustration: A SHEKERDJIS' SHOP.] Over the bodice a bright zouave is worn, richly embroidered in gold or silver, and strings of gold or silver coins hang round the head, or as a necklace round the throat, while on the wrists are heavy bracelets. In other places it is described as consisting of "a skirt woven in stripes of silk and woollen, reaching to the ankles, with a tight-fitting bodice of the same, a cloth jacket braided or embroidered round the borders in gold thread and lined with fur, and in some districts a bright-coloured apron ornamented with needlework" (L. Garnett, "Women in Turkey"). The same writer reports that in the islands a favourite amusement on these occasions is for the girls to suspend a rope across a narrow street from the wall of their own house to that of a neighbour, and every youth who wishes to pass by must pay toll in the form of a small coin, and give one of the girls a swing, while he sings the following verse: "O swing the clove-carnation red, The gold and silver shining: And swing the girl with golden hair, For love of her I'm pining." To which the maiden replies: "O say what youth is swinging me, What do you call him, girls? For I a fez will broider him, With fairest, whitest pearls." The Vlachs that inhabit Macedonia follow principally pastoral and agricultural pursuits. They spend the winter in their mountain villages, but during the summer they lead a nomadic life in quest of pastures, and move about, gipsy-like, in caravans.