_ 154 _ Item: The island is five hundred and fifty miles around; it has many towns, villages and hamlets and two or three seaport-cities, all peopled by Greek Christians and some Venetians, fair-skinned people, good-looking, courageous and daring. They wear jerkins, capes and hats like ourselves, and boots. The women are in general somewhat dark, for the land is very hot; they wear small white linen skirts with many pleats over others made of cotton, with bodices sewn on to them; these have an opening a hand wide at the front, as one edge does not meet the other. They wear half-breeches in fine cloth with leather, wooden-soled slippers; and on their heads small caps which cover only the crown, into which they gather their hair, with lace on top, loose, large and fine; their chemises are low-cut, without collars, and show their breasts. The noble ones are fair-skinned and beautiful, and they are not confined like Turkish women. They go to the orchards and gardens for diversion and visit each other in carriages in the Italian manner. They do not cover their faces with either shawls or veils. Item: There is another kind of soldier spread about the island, and these are horsemen. (There is much breeding of horses, and they are like? tuontos) called stradiotas, light horsemen, and there must be about three thousands of
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