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ἘΠῚ ΠῊ
HERES
JOURNEY
THROUGH
AL BA NTIA, AND OTHER PROVINCES
OF
TURKEY IN EUROPE AND ASIA,
TO
CONSTANTINOPLE,
DURING THE YEARS 1809 anp 1810.
τ RR BY
J. C. HOBHOUSE.
LONDON: PRINTED FOR JAMES CAWTHORN, COCKSPUR STREET;
AND SOLD BY SHARPE AND HAILES, PICCADILLY; BELL AND BRADFUTE, EDINBURGH; AND N. MAHON, DUBLIN,
1813.
Londen: Printed by B. M‘Millan, tow Street, Covent Garden.
ADVERTISEMENT.
Tuzsz Letters were prepared for publication under certain disadvantages, the mention of which will not be obtruded upon the Public, except so far as it may seem requisite to account, in some measure, for the large and important contents of the Errata page, and for other appearances of neglect. The sheets of the Albanian part of the Tour were com- posed and printed when the Writer was absent from England, and had it not in his power to cor-
rect his notions and increase his knowledge, by com-
municating with intelligent friends and consulting
extensive libraries: the remaining part of the Jour-
ney was sent page by page to the press, and not pre-
viously collected in one entire manuscript volume,
so as to enable the Author to revise and polish the a ὦ
1V - ADVERTISEMENT,
whole work by acollation and comparison of its separate parts. To avoid a recurrence of the same phrases and turns of expression, was in the present case hardly possible; and he is no less aware of, than desirous in any future impression of the ensuing pages to correct, so material an imperfection. ‘The same opportunity, if it should occur, will enable him to lay aside the epistolary form, which, for a reason not material, to mention, 1s not continued beyond. the first five. or six hundred, pages, and by that amendment to eflace the change of style observable in the progress of the present compo-
sitLlom:
Those who have visited, or especially resided in the countries, and closely observed the national manners, described in the following detail, wall doubtless discover many omissions of material facts, which the more mature inspection of ‘the Author
would perhaps supply; for what my Lord Boling-
ADVERTISEMENT. Vv
broke has said of books, may be applied to the study of mankind; and a traveller of fifty, im shis commerce with foreign nations, would probably behold many things which he did not see in the
same people at twent y-three.
As to the manner in which the subject has been treated, all judgment on that head must of neces- sity be left to the reader. It will only be pre- mised, that it has been the endeavour of the Writer to give an account of what he.saw, heard, and was able to collect, rather than a statement of feelings and opinions; a narrative of facts, rather tht a
collection of essays. Having no system to esta-
. . ὅν 8 1 blish, and no partialities to communicate, he has
not launched into any effusions or sentiments which were not conceived and felt upon the spot, and amongst the people he has attempted to de- scribe; and it-is but seldom that he has deduced
arguments and hazarded conclusions, for which
vi ADVERTISEMENT,
it appeared to him his proper object to furnish onl y
the materials and the means.
This preliminary notice shall be concluded by stating, that to prevent any longer delay than has hitherto deferred the appearance of this volume, amap of Attica, and some plans designed for the illustration of the Work, have not been completed; and that the reader is referred to the plates of Anacharsis, as the best companion, although by no means an infallible guide, of the traveller in Greece.
“od
London, May 10, 1815.
CONTENTS..
LETTER 1: Departure from Malta—Approach to the Gulf of Lepante, and to Patrass— Passage between the Islands Cefalonia, Ithaca, and Santa Maura, to Pre-
yesa, PTITITITIC Litt page t
LETTER II.
Prevesa—a Description. of that Town—The Mouth of the Gulf of Arta—Actium —Short Description and Account of Prevesa—and of the Battle which placed the Town in the hands of the Tarks, φοοοθθιφθουοθθο SESSES CEG SOLEH ETO SSE ODE HOPES H SetOoereosrees 12
LETTER 111.
The Ruins of Nicopolis—Preparations for Travelling in Turkey—The Drago- man—Servants— Baggage, &c. &c.—Sail down the Gulf of Arta to Salora— The Albanian G uard of Salora, SHOCK HELE SOOS SHEE SOOT HORSE SES HHT OE OHSS OHS TODO HSIEH AH SHSOEHOSEDEDS 9}
LETTER IV.
The Presents customary in the Levant—Route from Salora to Arta—Descrip-
tion of that Town—The Site of Ambracia—Of Ambracus—Departure from
Arta, SEO ORF OED ORE OEOCE OOO SORT ORO OES OHO EO ET οὐ ED ODEDEDOLEO HET SOHO TESCO EES OSES OED OT EE EO OR OS ODE SEE SR ED OOO HES EO OH ET EO® 36
LETTSEn..y. Route from Arta to the Han of St. Dimetre—From St. Dimetre to Toannina— First View, and Entry into that City—Reception of Travellers, ..,.0.008 45
LETTER VI.
Visit to the Grandsons of Ali—Manners of the Young Mahometans—View of the Neighbourhood of Ioannina-—The Lake—Mount Tomaras—The Moun- tains of Sagori--the Route across them— Mount Pindus—Route across it to Larissa—Dodona—The Plains of Loannina—The Amphitheatre of Cherco-
vista, SOP CSHHOHHSCESOAEHHSSOO HOP SECO SEES TO FEF OSE FSEEFOLOFHTEPH ERT OEE HODES ESS HEEF ETHOS ROR OR OSLO ES ORE EEEE ERO F ese eerED 55
vill CONTENTS.
LETTER VII.
loannina—the Houses—the Palaces of the Vizier—Summer Pavilion—Popula- tion of the City —The Trade—-Annual Fair
Exports and Imporis, page 67
LETTER Vill. The Turkish Ramazan—Preparations for Travelling—Greek Peasantry—Route
from Ioannina to Zitza—Thunder Storm—The Monastery of Zitza—View from it—Inhabitants of Zitza—their Misery, .cscccsecseceee sabeanancitech Στ Βᾶς 76
LETTER IX. ᾿
Route from Zitza—River Calamas—Village of Mosure-—Delvinaki—Route from Butrinto to Delvinaki—Flocks of Goats—Albanian Wine—Route by the Plain of Argyro-castro to Libokavo—Upper Albania—Turkish Meats —Libokavo—Argyro-castro—Short Account of that City, cccssseceuseesess 86
LETTER X.
Route from Libokavo to Cesarades—Women at the Fountains—Ronte to Ereeneed—The Passes of Antigonia, called Stena—The Aiius River—Route to Tepellené, along the Banks of the River—Arrival at Tepellené, and at Ali Pasha’s Palace—Appearance of the Attendants—Prayers of the Turks— ἘΠΕ RHI OL COG ΝΙΘΒΘΊΝ, scam urusessncetahtyicacapuvenneaostutsses edenstataansaediedententsesiine 98
LETTER XI.
Visit to Ali Pasha—His Appearance—Manners—Short Conversation—Second Interview with Ali—Present from Buonaparte to that Pasha—A Palzo-castro, or Ruin near Tepellené—Last Audience of Ali—His Affability to his Sol- diers—His Rise and Progress—The Difficulties he had to encounter—His vi- gorous Measures—Administration, and present Extent of his Dominions— Offered-to be made a King by Napoleon—His supposed Revenues—His Dis-
position—Story of Zofreni—His Amusements and Morals—His want of Edu- cation, φοουοροφουφφονφφυνοφόφοθήφοοφο
LETTER XII.
Albania—Perpetual Barbarity of its Inhabitants—Early Settlement of the Scy- thians in that Country—In subjection to the Kings of Bulgaria—to the Em- perors of the Kast—Uncertain Date of the Name Albania—Its Revolutions
CONTENTS. ΙΧ
—Governed by Despots—Invaded by the Catalans—Disunited—Scanderbeg —Exaggeration of his Merits—Ottoman Conquest of the Country—LEsta- blishment of the Venetians on the Coast—Variety of Nations—The Albanians —their Origin—Asiatic Albanians—Shape and Face of the Albanians—their Dress—their Arms—their Filth—Dress of their Women—their Villages—
their Food—their Disposition and Manners, sussussesssveconeteerrnseee page 125
LETTER XIII.
Continuation of the Manners of the Albanians—Expression of their Meaning by Signs—their Liveliness—Passionate Temper—their Education—their Language—their Morals—Religion—their Nationality—their love of Arms— The Albanian Robbers—their Way of Life—and Mode of Attack—their Surgeons—The Albanian Dances—Albanians in Foreign Service—in Egypt —ltaly—the Morea—under Mustapha Bairactar—Albanian Settlers—in dif- ferent Parts of the Levant—and in Calabria, .........06 diiesdlenblbdke dddbiviskes 142
LETTER XIV.
Different Governments in Albania—The different Districts—Arta—loannina— Sagori—the Pashalik of Ocrida—Course of the River Drin—The Scene of Scanderbeg’s Battles—The Pashalik of Scutari—Antivari—Dulcigno—Lyssa —Durazzo—Berat, or Arnaut Beligrat—Ruins of Apollonia—The Pashalik and Town of Vallona—The Acroceraunians—C himera—Manners of the Whi- meriotes—Butrinto—Ruins of Buthrotum—Philathi—The River Thyamis— Margiriti—The Town of Parga—The Glykyslimen, or Port of Sweet Waters —Acherusian Lake—Ancient Geography of the Coast—Length of Epirus— Sulli—Route from Ioannina to that Place—Paramithi—Position and Extent of the Mountains of Sulli—The Villages of Sulli—Wars of the Sulliotes with Ali Pasha—their present Condition—Loru—Population of Albania—
Climate and Temperature—Tepellené, SOOO AEH TOD OLEH EE SEHD TES SEO EE OES EEO OES CEES EESOSEECe 159
LETTER XV.
Departure from Tepellen¢—Return to Ioannina—A Marriage Procession—A Turkish Puppet-Show—Ancient Coins to be met with at Ioannina—Final Departure from that City—Return to Prevesa—Disaster at Sea—Land on the Coast of Sulli—View of that Town and District, at Volondorako—Route
b
U
CONTENTS
from Volondorako to Castropsheca—to Prevesa—Sail down the Gulf of Arta —Vonitza—Utraikee—Ancient Measurement of the Gulf, ...0...... page 180 ἢ pag
LETTER XVI.
traikee—Night Scene at that Place—Route throngh Carnia—to Catoona—to Makala—Prospects from the Hills of the River Aspro or Achelotis—and of the Lake Nizeros—Ancient Remains at Aéto and at Ligustovichi—Route continued—to Prodromo—Passage of the Acheloiis—Arrival at Gouria— Route over the Paracheloitis—to Natolico—Another Route from Arta to Na- tolico—Boundary: of Carnia—Former Inhabitants--Ancient Geography— Present State—Ruins at Teeserenes—T he Shallows of Messalonge and Nato- lico—The Fishery—Conjecture as to the Formation of the Shallows—The Town and Inhabitants of Messalonge—The District of Xeromeros, or Attolia —Town of Ivoria— River Fidari, or Evenus—Ruins of Calydon—Rocks of
Chalcis and ‘appiasus—Passage to Patrass, cssssecssssenereneeeaveneenee [90
LETTER XVII.
Patrass—Its Situation—Insalubrit y—Ancient State—Destruction in 1770—Pre-
sent State—T rade—Ex ports of the Morea—Consuls at Patrass—Greek Light Infantry—English Regiment—The River Leucate—Departure from Patrass —The Castles of the Morea and Roumelia—Cape Rhium—Lepanto—Route iv Vostigza—Ancient Positiens—Vostizza—A Greek Codja-bashee, or Elder Coursing in the Morea—River Selinus—/Egium—The Plane-Tree—Veli Pasha—Population of the Morea—Digression concerning the Mainotes, 212
LETTER XVIII.
Distance from Patrass to Corinth—and to Athens——Passage across the Gulf of
Lepanto to the Scale of Salona—Circumference of the Corinthian Gulf—Ga- laxcithi—Evanthe—Route to Crisso—Salona—View at the Foot of Mount Liakura, or Parnassus—Crisso—Site of Crissa, or Cirrha—Visit to the Ruins of Delphi—Castalia—Treasures of Delphi—The Brazen Serpent at Constan- tinople—Parnassus—Ascent to the Summit of it impracticable—Route from Crisso towards Livadia—to Arakova on Parnassus—The Road Schiste—T he Three Roads—Distomo—Asprospitia—Monastery of St. Luke of Stiris—
a
A rrival at Livadia, 04 PEC Oe RP OOeD ORC LODS SORE OEIOS 100008 90 0000600000 90 0EEEDEDEEES DUO RNN0RNl DID ONOLOCEDOD 238
CONTENTS.
LETTER XIX.
Livadia—The Archon Logotheti—Rate of Living in Roumelia—Imitation of European Manners—The Cave of Trophonius—the present Appearance of the Entrance to it—Ruins of a Castle built by the Catalans—The Settlement of the Catalans in Greece—Little Impression left by the Franks on the Man- ners of the Greeks—Visit to Caperna—Ruins of Cheronéa—The Plain— Departure from Livadia—Visit to Scripoo—the Site of Orchomenos—T he Treasury of Minyas—The Lake Copais—Tlie Village of Mazee—Arrival at Thebes—View of the Theban Territory—Difficulties attending a just De- scription of Modern Greece—The Measurement of Stadia—Diminutiveness Of the Country, rrrvcescorcccresssreccsesecrsererasseverees sssvbvobsaneseccncesdénecaseoveeveee PALE TOV
LETTER XX.
Thebes—its Modern Insignificance—The Town—The Fountain Dirce—The Ruins of Pindar’s House—The Ismenus—The Fountain of Mars—Tomb of St. Luke of Stiris—An Inscription—Departure from Thebes—Route towards Athens—The Village Scourta—Passage of Mount Parnes—Ruins of Phyle— Prospect of Athers—Town of Casha—Entrance into the Plain of Athens— Arrival at Athens, <sccsescorsscocecosssssrcccssceseoens onshisstal Sqciabienes ssa din pheompiatabaags (970
LETTER XXI.
Athens—its Situation—Appearance—Present Inhabitants—Short Notice of its Modern History, csossesescsrsrerssrsessessessseseees spare sass san acasececosave avoviocesveos 289
LETTER XXII.
Antiquities of Athens—Temple of Theseus—Areopagus—Pnyx Muséum—Mo- nument of Philopappus—Odéum—Theatre of Bacchus—River I[lissus— Adrian’s Temple—Callirhoé—Stadium of Atticus Herodes—Adrian’s Arch and Aqueduct—Monument of Lysicratee—Monument of Andronicus Chyr- restes—The Doric Portico—Many smaller Remains, .....ssssreeevee πῆρ, 308
LETTER XXIII.
Ascent to the Acropolis—The Pelasgicon—The Cave of Apollo and Pan—The Entrance of the Citadel—The Propyleaa—The Parthenon—The Erecthéum b 2
As
ΧΗ CONTENTS.
A Note on Lord Elgin’s Pursuits in Greece—The Modern Citadel—The
Turkish Garrison, See eecececeosoos Ceevoaconsroes φοφούφοοοθοφοονόθουθφθούθόούνόύϑοο ϑαοφοοσθούόφοόθοοο page 335
LETTER XXIV.
Lhe Vicinity of Athens—Climate in Winter—The Gardens—T he Olive Groves —Method of Watering them—The Site of the Academy—Route to the Pirzeus—The Munychian Promontory—Country immediately to the South of Athens, ..ccoe. Mba eas acldpanbaiebybiss oouas sibs edel daa snp bie ithe soba inline henge sinter DO
LETTER XXV.
Route from Athens to Eleusis—-Daphne-vouni—Casha-vouni—The Monastery of Daphne—The Rhiti—The Thriasian Plain—Eleusis—Ruins—The Cam- bridge Ceres—Route from Athens to Salamis—The Throne of Xerxes— View from Corydallus—Salamis or Colouri—Ampelaki—Colouri—Greek Island-
ers, Seccectosseeseasee see ceccesoecce eetetssoas Soest eceeeteseocatoseteessosete COCO SHECE SEE SL OH ESE GEES REL EH OLE SEE SEES e 369 LETTER XXVI.
The Eastern Side of Athens—Hymettus—Ascent to the Monastery of St. Cy- riani, on that Mountain—The Sacred Spring—Route to Mount Pentelicus— Angele-Kipos—Callandri—The Monastery on Pentelicus—The Marble Quar- ries—Return by another Route—Remains of the Aqueduct, suseemeews 387
| LETTER XXVIII.
Route from Athens to Cape Colonni—Vary—T he Panéum—Nympholepsy— Ennea Pyrge—Keratéa—T he Caverns in Mount Parné—Route to Colonni— Return by the Eastern Shore of Attica, to Keratéa, sss ὩΣ ...... 400
LETTER XXVIII.
Route from Keratéa to Port Raphti—that Port described—Route from Raphti, through Kata-Vraona and Apano-Vraona, and by Caliva Spatha, to the Plain of Marathon—View of the Plain—Battle of Marathon—Route from the Plain to Athens—The Cave of Pan—Stamati—Cevrishia, wus 493
LETTER XXIX. Route from Athens to the Negroponte—Villages in the North of Attica—Kou- kouvaones—Charootika—Menithi-—Tatoe—The Site of Decelea—Agios Ma-
CONTENTS. xill
curius—Route across the Plains of Tanagra—Over the Asopus to Scimitari —From that Village to the Strait of the Negroponte, by Vathi—The Town of Negroponte—Visit to the Pasha—Stories relative to the Euripus—Return to Scimitari—Route from Scimitari to the Monastery of St. Meliteus on Ci-
theron, φΦουσοονοουνοθφοφφοῦ OE OS OLEH SOD SESES OES OEDS OES HOES SEHFS OES OCOS OED IOS EO OOOH SEH SETH ZEISS OCHO SEE ED ODG page 439
LETTER XXX.
Route from St. Meletius to the Ruins of Plafza, at Cockli—Gifto-Castro— Qi noé—Pass of Cithzron—Parasopia—The Positions of the Armies at the Battle of Plateaa—Doubts respecting the Numbers who fought against the Greeks—Route from St. Meletius to Megara—by Koundouri—Pass in the Mountains—Arrivat at Megara—The Derveni Choria—The Town and In- habitants of Megara—Return by Eleusis to Athens—General View of the District of Attica, and of the Peasants settled in the Villages, su... 468
LETTER XXXI.
Shape and Make of. the Modern Greeks—The Women—Their want of Beauty —Painting—Dress of the Men—and of the Women—Their Manners—A_Be- trothing—A Marriage—their Dance—Songs, &c.-—Genius— Morals—Su per- stitions—T he Evil Eye—Conformity of Practice between Greeks and Turks —Manners of the Men—Influence of Money—Behaviour to Inferiors—Os- tentation—Princes of the Fanal—Waiwodes of Moldavia and Wallachia—
404
ΠΣ ΟΝ srrreseernssresrereeeessseenes pM sncaiecdeton td ἘΠΣΉΨΕΙΕΕΙ Seen padbdssovnssdyp LEETER XXXII.
Religion of the Greeks—Ceremonies and Customs of their Saperstition—Festi- vals—Funerals—A Mahometan Funeral—Greek Cemeteries—Priests— Monks of the Order of St. Basil—Their Monasteries—The Seculars—Instances of the Superstition of the Greeks—Notion entertained of the English by Greeks and Turks—The Patriarchate of Constantinople—The Arts—Medicine—
Physicians—Exorcisms—The Plague—Use of the Hot Bath, «0 519
LETTER XXXIII. The Literature of the Modern Greeks—Their Share in the Revival of Litera- ture in the West—The Romaic Pronunciation—The Romaic, or Modern
XIV CONTENTS.
Greek~—its Date and Origin enquired into—Latter Greek Writers—Present state of Learning in Greece, &C. &C. scassneerserens Seeevercoesenvesseceasonsses page 540
LETTER XXXIV.
Patriotism of the Greeks—Their ardent Desire of Emancipation—War-Song— The Object of their Wishes=-Attachment to Russia—Views directed towards France—Their Notions of England—Chance of Emancipation—Importance of their Marine—Short Remarks on the Political Conduct of the English in the Levant, cevcsscossesen oduiabeinsiiscoesedesdswsedsese ss hence εὐλλὀνοθνοεσονόδοιδοοῤυσδβι εἷς 584
LETTER XXXV.
Departure from Athens—Passage to Smyrna— Entrance into the Gulf of Smyrna The Promontory Melena—The South Side of the Gulf—Clazomene—San- giak-Bornou—The Shoals in the Gulf caused by the Hermus—Arrival at Smyrna—Description of the City—The Frank Quarter—The Frank Society —The Consuls in the Levant—The Greeks of Smyrna—The Armenians and Jews—The Buildings—The Burying-Grounds—The Castle—The Shut-Port —The Hospital—Description of an Idiot—The English Hospital, ...... 608
LETTER XXXVI.
The Mussélim’s Summer Residence—Fruits—Sherbets—Fish—-Meats—T he [n= ner Bay—The Flat near Smyrna~Game of the Djerid—Horses of the Turks —‘ifhe Meles—Caravan Bridge—Homer’s Cave—The Site of the A®olian Smyrna—The Road to Bournabat—that Village described—The Storks— The Village of ee he ΠΝ Climate—Cranes—Chameleons — Lizards, -vsrsorserooree coosviirersscersoes cosssecosenereseivars d0dsevee ac ὐόδιυς οὐ ὐδοὶ εὐ ecWvasenddtedvadtice 629
LETTER XXXVII.
A Journey to Ephesus—Thie Route—The Han at Tourbali—A Dervish—Me- tropolis—T he Coffee Shed near Osebanar—T urcomans’ Tents—The Plain of the Cayster—The Ferry—Arrival at Aiasaluk—The Han—The Ruins—De- solation of this Spot+-The Site and Remains of Ephesus—The Temple of Diana—Return to SMYra, sooacccsseivverseecorcerseverecvcerervessrersnsercescseccessseceors O46
CONTENTS.
LETTER XXXYVIII.
Departure from Smyrna—The Coast of Asia—Cape Baba—Yughlan.Bornou— The Vale of Nesrah-Keui—Liman-Tepe— Cape of Troas—Vale of Ghicle—
i} Douk—Koum Bornou—Land in Tenedos—The Port—The Town
—The Castle—The Wine—Importance of the Island— Visit-to the Ruins of Alexandria Troas—Granite Cannon-Balls—Dilapidation of Troas—The Se- pulchre called Sarcophagus—The Baths—Effects of the late Earthquake— Site of the Town—Hot Baths of Lidgah Hammam—Port of Troas—Coun- try near Troas—Conjectures of Travellers, ssoysousssscossesnsenseeere page 669
LETTER XXXIX.
Erigate anchors off Sigéum—The Troad of Strabo—Ilium—its History—Not Troy—nor on the Site of ii—No Vestiges of Troy ever seen—-Modern Tra- vellers—No pretended Discovery of the Site until the time of Le Chevalier —Description of the Coast from Stamboul Douk to Cape Janissary— Yeni- Keui—Beshik-Tepe—Elles-Bournou—Mouth of the Dardaneltles—Ancient Geography of the Coast—Amnis Navigabilis of Pliny—Sigean Promontory —Giaur-Keui—Sigean Marbles—Sigéum—Eléus—Elles Baba-Tepe—The Protesiléam—Koum-Kale—Mouth of the Mendere River—The Thymbrek tiver—In-Tepe Gheulu—Valley of Thymbrek-Dere—Marshes of the Plain —Rivulet-of Bournabashi—Udjek-Tepe—Bournabashi—Course of the Men- dere—Callifatli Village and Brook—Banks of the Mendere, sassasseeeec! 689
LETTER XU.
Barrows—Short Account of those ancient Mounts—-Probably not all of, them actual Sepulchres—Barrows of Celtic or Scythian Origin—as well in Phry- gia as in Britain—The Phrygian Barrows appropriated by the Greeks— sarrow-Burial adopted by the Greeks, but not prevalent in the later periods of their History—The present Barrows of the ‘Troad—Liman-Tepe, Stam- boul-Douk, Beshik-Tepe, Udjck-Tepe, &c. not mentioned in Strabo—Sup- posed Tomb of Achilles—Account of its Excavation by De Choiseul Gouf- fier—Absolute uncertainty respecting the real Monument—Arbitrary adop- tion of Names for the other Barrows—fn-Tepe possibly the Atantéum— Hbcetean, αὶ 0}... 18.} 0 πο ΡΥ . CAG
CONTENTS»
LETTER XLI.
The supposed Port of Agamemnon’s Fleet—The Naval Station of the Greeks— The Mouth of the Scamander—The Site of Ninm—The Confluence of the Simois and Scamander not precisely known—Streams falling into the Men- dere—The Thymbrek—The Water of Callifatli and Atche-Keui, and the Bournabashi Rivulet—Mr. Le Chevalier’s Pseudo-Xanthus—The Identity of the Mendere and the Scamander of Strabo—The ancient Confluence of the Thymbrius and Scamander—The Thymbrek not corresponding with the for- mer, but answering better to the Simois—Uncertainty respecting that River— Palaio-Callifatli, possibly the Position of Ilium—Site of the Hiéan Village— Not at Hallil-Elly, but perhaps at or near Tchiblak—Remains on a neigh- bouring Mount—The Calli-Colone of Strabo—The Vale and Brook of Atche- Keui—The latter conjectured to be the River Thymbrius—The Erineus, the Tomb of /Ssyetes, Batieia, the Tomb of Ilus not now to be discovered— Udjek-Tepe not the Tomb of Aisyetes, as described by Strabo—Note on the Homeric Thrésmos-—Bournabashi—Tepid Sources of the Bournabashi Ri- vulet—Errors respecting them—Balli-Dahi—The Pergamus of Mr. Le Che- valier— Unfounded Conjectures respecting the Tomb of Hector, and the Re- Mains On Babli- Dahi, -i..svocccesersererseeresssesssvssssiricresereeseesseenseeeees Page 742
LETTER XLII.
The District of the Troad—Ene—Hski-Scupthu—Bairam-itche—Kas-daghy, the Cotylus of Ida—Argument against the identity of that Summit with the Homeric Gargarus—and against that of Rheetéum and Sigéum with the Pro-
montories bounding the Grecian Camp, mentioned in the Iliad—The Autho- rity of Virgil quoted—The Homeric Troy in front of Tenedos—The Geogra- phical Plain of Troy probably not that of the Iliad—The Homeric Landmarks invented by the Greeks after the Age of the Poet—No inference to be drawn from casual Resemblances between the Descriptions of them and the actual Landscape near the Banks of the Menderc—The endeavours of Writers to adjust the Poetical to the present Positions, entirely unsuccessful—Mr. Pope’s Map, and the unaccountable Remarks upon it by Mr. Le Chevalier—Con- clusion of Observations on the Troad, with an Enquiry into the Limits of the ΡΝ 708
CONTENTS.
LETTER XLII.
The Frigate leaves Cape Janissary—Sails into the Mouth of the Straits—The Port of Eleus—Cape Berbieri—An English Country-House in the Chersonese —Attempt to pass the Dardanelles—Anchor in the Bay below Chanak-Kalessi —The old Castles of Roumelia and Natolia—The Town of the Dardanelles— A remarkable Superstition—Nagara-Bornou—The Bridge of Xerxes—Aby- dus and Sestos—Swimming across the Hellespont—The Current—The Fri- gate passes the Dardanelles—The Passage of the English Fleet in 1807— Ak-Bashi Liman—Zemenic—The Practius and Percotas—/¢gos-Potamos— Note on the Meteoric Stone—Lampsacus—Gallipoli—The Island of Mar- mora—A pproach to Constantinople—Anchor under the Walls, .... page 798
LETTER XLIV.
Difficulty of obtaining Information concerning the Turks, even in Constantino- ple—Separation of the City and the Suburbs—Foreign Missions at Pera—De- parture from the Frigate—Land at Tophana—Ascent to Pera—Dogs—The Hotel—City Watchmen—Police of Pera—The Custom of parading the Streets incognito—Palaces of Ambassadors—Inglese Sarai—The Armenian Cemetery—The Amusements there—Customs called Oriental—in great mea- sure those of the Ancient W orld—Seclusion and Treatment of Women— Co-
incidence of Turkish Manners with those of the Byzantine Greeks—Prjncipal Difference between Ancient and Modern Manners—State of Turkish Women —Female Slaves, or Odalisques, of the Imperial Harem, wrsccsscreeeee 89]
LETTER XLV.
The Valley of Sweet Waters—The Plain of the Barbysses—The Woods and Vil- lage of Belgrade—Road to Buyuk-dere—The Thracian Banks of the Bospo« rus—The Town and Meadow of Buyuk-dere—The European Side of the Canal to Fanaraki—The Cyanean Isles, and Ancient Altar—The Asiatic Shores of the Bosporus—The New Castles—T he Hieron—Giant’s Mountain— The Shore to Scutari—Bourgaloue—Fanar-Baktchessi—Kaddi-Keui on the Site of Chalcedon—Kis-Kalesi, or Leander’s Tower, successes 897
XVII CONTENTS.
LETTER XLVI. Galata—The Tabagies, or Wine-houses—Yamakis, or Dancing Boys—The Tower of Anastatius—Conflagraiions—The Size of Constantinople—Popula-
tion——J ews—Armenians, CHOEE OT EE SO OLORES ODORS OES COO TOESE TOOT OES EEO EP OO EH GIO THESEUS BEC OOCROCE page 883
LETTER XLVII.
Térse-eHane—The Harbour and Docks—Visit to the Capudan-Pasha at Divan- Hane—Executions—Visit to the Ters-Hane-Emini—The Sultan’s Cypher— Russian Prisoners—Visit to the Capudan-Pasha’s Ship, the Sultan Selim— The Turkish Navyy—Martial Music—Gratitude of the Turks—and other amiable Traits of their Character—A Notice of some Points relative to the Mahometan Religion, and to its Ministers—The Mevlevi and Cadri—The Turning and Howling Dervishes, .....verssescerscesscoscesesssssensencessscee IO L
LETTER XLVIII.
Excursion to Constantinople—The Wall on the Land Side of the City—The Miracle of Baloucli—The Seven Towers—The Coffee-Houses near Yeni- Kapoussi—The Meddahs, or Tale-Tellers—Teriakis, or Opium-Haters— Koum-Kapoussi—Kebab— Balik-Hane—Execution of Viziers—The Kiosks under the Walls—Battery and Boat-Houses of the Seraglio, s.r 935
LETTER XLIX.
The Atmeidan—Antiquities of the Hippodrome—Theodosian Obelisk—The Colossus Structilis—The Delphic Serpentine Column—The Burnt Pillar— Note on the Historical Column—Three other Columns—The Ancient Cisterns —The Aqueduct of Valens—The Fountains and Baths—The Hans—Encou- ragement of Commerce in the East—Bezesteins and Bazars of Constantino-
ple, ee ecrquctosres Peorees POOPED OSLO OHS HOES SEO HE OOSE OHO OEO EEC OH OOOO TO GEEDOEI GOOCH GOL S ES EEO SEES RESO SECO EEE EEEOES 950
LETTER L. The Dgiamissi Selatyn, or Royal Moscks—St. Sophia—The Mosck of Sultan Achmet—Little St. Sophia—Nourri Osmanié—The Tomb of Constantine— and Prediction of the Fall of the Ottoman Empire—Suleymanié—Other
Moscks and Public Buildings, SOTA ODH KTH TOSSED COPS LECT EEE CEES HEHE SEES SES HH ERP OR OHH ETEROeEECS 965
CONTENTS.
LETTER LI.
The Ambassador’s Audience of the Caimacam—The Ottoman Grandees—Au- dience of the Grand-Signior—The Janissaries—The Nizan:-Djedid, or New Institution—Short Account of the Three Revolutions which dethroned the Jate Sultans Selim and Mustapha, and destroyed the Grand Vizier Bairacter
— The Conclusion, SOC S LCE HO EOE OT OLECHEE SEDO OOPS OOH SETOSO SPEED OOEO SEHD EDEFSOEO DEES ORIG H ETO SE SESS page 983
eR —
APPENDIX,
Containing—
Inscriptions at Cheronea, 1049—Inscriptions at Orchomenos, 1050—lInscrip- tions in the Charch of St. George, at Talandios in Boeotia, 1051—Explana- tion of the Inscriptions from the Panéum, at Vary, 1051—Romaic Pronun- ciation, 1054—Ecclesiastical Greek, 1068—Romaic: The History of the Kirst Old Man and the Stag, 1071—Specimen of a Romaic Romance, enti- tled, Unfortunate Love, &c. 1075—Romaic cho Song, 1079~-The Speech of Phormio, from the Romaic Thucydides, 1081—Academie fonienne, Prix Olympiadiques, 1099—Expedition to the Dardanelles, 1111—Albanian Lane guage, 1123—Fac-simile of a Letter from Ali Pasha, 1151—Fac-simile, 1152 —Greek Music, 1153.
ERRORS AND CORRECTIONS.
Page 3, for way, read weigh.
4, for Tottaco, read lottaco.
8, put the reference to place, instead of toAmerica.
10, for Guevini, read Guerini.
17, for Ario, read Azio.
18, for the Venetian Doria, read the Veneti- ans and Doria.
20, for Poukeville, read Pouqueville, ere and
in every other place.
25, for dei, read dai.
27, for A siatic, read Asiatic.
43, for Charadnis, read Charadrus.
48, for kan, in this place and elsewhere, read han,
‘53, for Talpac, read Calpac, and in 225.
60, for Lychidnus, read Lychnidus.
63, for M. Barbier du Bowage, read M. Barbié du Boccage.
64, for Paramitkia, read Paramithia.
67, for Sebastoerator, read Sebastocrator.
86, for Bishop, read Archbishop.
89, for Tarrovina, read larrovina.
90, for Tolfa, read lolfa.
Page 377, for Diana, Propylza, read Diana Propy-
lza.
878, for traverse transversely, read traverse them transversely.
384, for finds, read find.
387, for Telovouni, read Trelovount.
390, for with the small, read with small.
392, for Venus, in the gardens, read Venus in the gardens,
$94, for is, read are.
405, for natural, read human.
426, for and striking into, read which is‘in.
434, for on this side, read in the same quat- ter ; and on one side, read on one slope.
438, dele the comma after before stated.
440, for a third longer, read a third part longer.
451, for zeqin, read zequin.
481, for must always, and has given, read must always give and has given.
488 and 493, Deipnosophist, read Deipnoso- phists.
146, for puniumtur, read puniuntur. 492, for Porphrogenitus, read Porphyroge- 153, for Corypheus, read Coryphzus. nitus.
161, for Deborus’s, read Deboruses. 241, for ὕφηλε, read ὑψηλε.
263, for was, read were.
526, for ἅγιος ὅρος, read ἅγιον ὅρος.
527, for was, read were.
534, for aqueducts built, read aqueducts ori-
265, for Acciacoli, read Acciajuoli. ginally built.
281, for in this line the sepulcher, &c. read in this line were the sepulchre, &c.
801, for has, read have. 555, for Philephus, read, in two places, Philel-
306, note, for Mrs. read-Mr. phus; and in note, for Philephi, read
309, for site, read sight. Philelphi.
$12, for would, read will.
320, insert a full stop after still remain.
323, for dames, read dams.
$31, for containing, read contained.
382 and 341, for Dilletante, read Dilletanti.
361, for striking, read strikes.
538, for δινον» read οινος, 541, for Fileffo, read Filelfo.
606, for and agentem, read et agentem.
623, for renders, read render.
683, dele the reference to Homer, note f.
729, the note, lib. v. cap. 30, p. 78, edit. Pa- ris, should have been put to the preceding note.
779, for introduced their, read introduced other.
The Expedition to the Dardanelles was, when written several months past, intended for insertion, as a note to the Letter in which the forcing of the Straits is noticed ; but being judged too long for that pur- pose, was transferred to its present position in the Appendix,
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LETTERS FROM ALBANIA, ὅς. Fc.
LETTER I.
Departure from Malta—Approach to the Gulf of Lepanto, and to Patrass—Passage between the Islands Cefalonia, Ithaca,
and Santa Maura, to Prevesa.
SiR,
MY Friend and myself, after a stay of three weeks at Malta, and after many hesitations whether we should bend our steps towards Smyrna or some port of European Turkey, were at last determined in favour of the latter, by one of those accidents which.often, in spite of preconcerted schemes, decide the conduct of travellers.—A brig of war was ordered to convoy about fifty sail of small merchantmen to Patrass, the ‘chief port on the western side of the Morea, and to Prevesa, a town on the ‘coast of Albania. The Governor of Malta was so obliging as to provide us with a passage in this ship to the latter place, whence we resolved to commence our ‘Tour. 7 | 420. B
9 LETTER I.
On Tuesday Sept. the 19th, 1809, we left Malta, and on the
following Saturday, at nine o'clock in the morning δ J 89
the channel between Cefalonia and Zante, and at this time also
we were in
had our first view of Greece. You will forgive me for being thus particular in my dates, as also for every other kind of necessary egotism. ‘I'he scene before us made a considerable impression. I could not fail to note every particular of the time, place, and circumstances of such a first view, and I may be perhaps ex- cusable in endeavouring to communicate them to you.
Cefalonia appeared a chain of high rocks to the north, witha few villages scattered at their feet, and presented a prospect of universal barrenness. Zante was a low land to the south. Before us, to the east, were the high mountains of Albania and of the Morea, from which also projected towards us a long narrow neck of very low land, at the extremity of which were to be seen the remains of a fort called, as we were informed, Castel-T'ornese.
We had not much wind, and were obliged also to wait for the slow sailers of our convoy, so that it was not until seven o’clock in the evening that. we were near enough to see Ithaca, called now Theaki, which then seemed a low land with two small. hills to the north-east of Cefalonia. At seven o’clock the next morn- ing. we were m sight of the opening of the gulf of Lepanto, and not far from tke small islands called Curzolari, near which, and not.in- the Gulf itself, the battle of Lepanto was. fought. ‘The scenery which at, this moment presented itself to us, was peculi- arly agreeable to our eyes, which had been so long fatigued with the white waste of Malta. ‘To the south, not far from us, were low lands running out into the sea, covered with currant trees of
the most lively green ; before us were hills crowned to their sum-
HEFTER YP. 8
mits with wood, and on every other side, except at the opening by which we had come into this great bay, were rugged moun- tains of every shape. We were shown the situation of Patrass, but did not advance sufficiently before dark to see the town itself that evening. ‘The following night, the whole of the next day, and the mght after, | employed myself in cruising about the mouth of the bay in a boat; but on the 26th, at seven in the morning, was again on board of the brig at anchor off Patrass. Nothing could be more inviting than the appearance of this place. I had approached it just as the dawn was breaking over the moun- tains to the back of the town, which is itself on the foot of a hill clothed with gardens, groves of orange and lemon trees, and currant grounds that, when seen at a distance, remind me of the bright green of an English meadow. ‘The minarets of the ‘Turkish moscks, always a beautiful object, glittermg in the first rays of the sun, and the cultivated appearance of the whole neighbour- hood of the town, formed an agreeable contrast with the barren rocks on the other side of the Gulf. ; Though we were to proceed with a part of our convoy immedi- ately to Prevesa, we were anxious, as you may suppose, to put foot in the Morea. Accordingly my friend and myself took a walk in some currant grounds to the north of the town, until we were obliged to return by a signal from the brig, which got under way at twelve o'clock. ‘The ship was not long in getting out of the bay, and before sun-set we had a distant view of a town called Messalonge, with a singular-looking double shore at the foot of mountains rising one above the other as far as the eye could reach,
which is, indeed, the appearance of all the country to be seen to the north of the gulf of Lepanto. | BQ
LETTER I.
The next morning we were in the channel, with Ithaca to the left or west of us. ‘This island, which is but. of small circum- ference, and which is, as it were, enclosed in a bay formed by two promontonies of the great island of Cefalonia, is not so rough and rocky as the main land to the right. We were close to it; and saw a few shrubs on a brown heathy land, two little towns in the hills, scattered amongst trees, and a windmill or two, with a tower, on the heights. A small rocky island to the north-east, between this island and Santa Maura, is called Tottaco. We made but little progress during this day: indeed the boats of the brig were employed in cutting out currant boats from Ithaca, then in the possession of the French, but not very strongly garrisoned, as you will easily believe, when I tell you, that a month after- wards, when the Ionian Islands were invested by a British squa- dron, the kingdom of Ulysses was surrendered into the hands of a serjeant and seven men. In the might we saw lights in all the mountains, which they told us were fires kindled by shepherds,
& tas ve
till the beginning of October, when the autumnal rains usually commence.
On the 28th we sailed through the channel between Ithaca and the island of Santa Maura, and again saw Cefalonia stretch- ing farther to. the north. We doubled the promontory of Santa Maura, and saw the precipice, which the fate of Sappho, the poetry of Ovid, and the rocks so formidable to the ancient ma- riners, have made for ever memorable. On each side of the head-land is a large cave; the shore is very bold, and the height very abrupt, but covered on the top with a green shrub or moss. You will not expect to hear of .anyeremains of the ‘Temple of
Apollo.
whose flocks are ποῖ driven down from the hills to the low grounds ?
LETTER I. 5
At seven in the evening we anchored off Prevesa, and the Greek acting as. one of the English Vice-Consuls at that town, came on board the brig. His name was Commiuti, or Commi- niuti: he was of a tall and uncommonly handsome person and face, and dressed in the Greek fashion. We had letters of intro- duction to his brother, which he opened, but could not, I be- lieve, read: he was not, however; the less civil; but with a pro- fusion of compliments, promised to serve us to the extent of his power. We signified to him our wish to view the ruins of Nico- polis, in the neighbourhood of Prevesa, the next day. “ You shall go there with me; I will get breakfast for you at seven o'clock, or eight, or nine,” said the Vice-Consul. We told him we preferred being-off very early. ‘‘ As early as your Excellen- cies please—dopo la collazione,” added he with a smile, and lay- ing great stress on the last words, as if to show that he knew what we Englishmen liked. Indeed, in my short travels, I have observed, that a notion. obtains very generally, of our country- men being great eaters, especially of flesh, and greater drmkers. Erasmus. mentions, that ‘ to cram like an-Englishman,” was a phrase in. his time.
The 29th of September we prepared for our landing at Pre- yesa, ἃ. town opposite the mouth of the Ambracian Gulf, and built on a-neck of land in the country formerly called Epirus.
Before, however, you:commence our tour with us on the main land, I must. crave your indulgence in listening to some previous remarks, by which I shall endeavour to account for, and to ex- cuse, one of the many deficiencies that you will doubtless. discover in the ensuing details of our Albanian travels ; I mean an igno- rance of the exact extent and limits, of the course of the rivers,
6 LETTER I.
of the direction of the mountains, and of the relative position of the ancient and modern cities of Epirus, the very country
through part of which we passed. Even a school-boy is ashamed of seeming ill-read in geography. It is, however, I believe, very true, that this-country, which has been the scene of so many cele- brated exploits, and which was on the borders of, and has not unfrequently been confounded with Greece, has never been ag-
curately described. ‘The accounts of ancient geographers can hardly fail to confuse the reader. In some places they seem to allude to Epirus according to its most ancient state; in others, they talk of the Macedonian division; and sometimes refer to that partition which was made of their conquests by the Romans, and which gave to the districts to the north and north-east, be- fore attached to. Ilyricum and Macedonia, the name of New Epirus. Ptolemy includes Acarnania and Amphilochia withn its limits, which he brings down as far to the south as the mouths of the Achelois*.
It would be exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to give what at any one time were considered to be the. actual boun- daries of the country in question; and you may have ob- served, that Greek and Latin authors seem aware how little they were defined, as they make use of the expression, an Epi- rote people, rather than a people of Epirus. It was natural that a change of masters should cause a change of names; thus the districts of Lyncestis, Pelagonia, Orestis, and Elymia, were, after their reduction by Philip, called Upper, and afterwards Free Macedonia; and some gave that denomination to the country
* Lib. iii, cap. 14.
LETTER. I, Fi
adjoining, as. far as the coast opposite Coreyra*. The coast, as might be expected, has been accurately described ; though geo~ graphers are not agreed whether to begin their detail from the shores of Dyrrachium and Apollonia, or lower to the south, with Chaonia and the northern extremity of the Acroceraunian moun- tains: but Strabo, after alluding to the fourteen Epirote nations, allows. his inability to show the boundaries of their separate states, which in his time were not to be discerned: He adds ‘in another place, that this country, which, as well as. Illyricum, though rough and mountainous, had been formerly well peopled, was at the period in which he wrote, nearly deserted ; and that; where there were any inhabitants, they lived in small villages.and caves (ερειπιοις).
‘Rhus it is that the topography of the interior country. has been scarcely attempted; for though the names of many. towns have heen mentioned, and Ptolemy in. particular gives.a long list of them, yet as.to the real or relative situations of these places little or nothing seems to be known. I confess my- self also. to have found very little assistance from the perusal of those passages of Polybius and Livy, in which. the historians treat.of, the operations of the Roman and Macedonian armies in this part of the world. The lives of Pyrrhus, Flaminius, and fémilius, in Plutarch, give some positions, but are equally un- satisfactory. ‘l'he labours of modern authors, which have ilfus- trated almost every other part of the world, have done nothing towards. clearing these difficulties. Cellarius, and’ Emmius, a
much more attentive compiler, only repeat the accounts of atttient
* Strab. lib. vii.
8 LETTER 1:
writers. Mons. D’Anville felt, and ingenuously confessed, his want of information; and, on the face of his map, he invites future students to give a more accurate description of Epirus. Mr. Gibbon, to whose luminous pages a traveller im Turkey must
always refer with advantage and delight, has declared, that we know less of the country in question than of the wilds of North America*. We want.a good map of Epirus, says that historian
in another place ; an observation which he has verified by his own example, having by a loose expression in more than one place identified that country with Albania.
The same shade which involved this part of Europe in ancient times, seems never to have been dispelled during the middle and latter ages. All that we have, till very lately, known of modern Albania is, that it is a province of European ‘Turkey, bounded to the north.and north-east by ἃ chain of mountains called the Black Mountains, dividing it partly from the country formerly called Macedonia, and partly from Servia and Dalmatia ; having to the west the gulf of Venice, to the east Macedonia, ‘Thessaly, and Greece Proper ; and being terminated to the south by the gulf of Lepanto, or, according to some, the gulf of Arta. ‘This extent of country has been divided by the Venetians, 1 believe, into Upper and Lower Albania, the first being supposed to cor- respond nearly with the ancient Llyricum, and the last with Epirus. Some writers, indeed, when speaking of Albania, have alluded only to the former, which they would bound to the south by an imaginary line separating it from the latter country.
1 shall. have occasion to mention hereafter, that there does
* Note 40, page 457, cap. 67.
LETTER: 1. 09
obtain amongst the inhabitants a notion of a distinction hetween the northern and southern parts; but I have never seen a map in which the line of separation is distinctly marked ; and perhaps the whole region, even including Acarnania, may be correctly denominated Albania.
As the Mahometans themselves know nothing of geography, and as they divide the territories they possess into many petty governments, with whose limits an Kuropean traveller, or even’ resident, is not likely to make himself acquainted, it would be unreasonable to expect what might fairly be called a modern map of any part of ‘Turkey, especially of sucha province as. Albania. The uninterrupted barbarity of its inhabitants, and. the partial possession of some of its ports by the Venetians, which has. intro- duced a confused mixture of Italian amongst the Greek and Turkish names of towns and districts, have caused such difficulties in the delineation of any charts, that nothing can be more un- satisfactory than those which pretend to assist us in our survey. The best and latest modern map, that of De La Rochette, is full of inaccuracies and deficiencies, and of little or no service to the
traveller. ‘The designs or plans of the artist Coronelli, represent
only the forts and towns upon the coast, such as they were to
be seen during the more flourishing days of the Venetian repub- lic. But the present age, which seems to have favoured Gisco- veries im every art and science, has added also to our knowledge of the modern state of many countries before almost unknown. ‘he active spirit of two great nations, to whose generous emula- tion mankind, when they shail have long recovered from the de- structive struggles of the mighty rivals, shall be for ever in- debted, has in our days explored the remote regions of every c
10 LETTER 1.
quarter of the world; and it is to one of the vast military enter- prises of the French, that we owe the first attempt at a detailed account of Albania.
In the year 1798, some French officers, and members of the
Oriental Commission of Arts and Sciences, returning from Egypt in a tartan of Leghorn, were captured off Calabria by a ‘Tripoli corsair. Of these, Messrs. Bessiers, belonging to the commis- sion, Poitevin, a colonel of engineers, Charbonnel, a colonel of artillery, Guevini, a Maltese inquisitor, and Bouvier, a naval officer, were separated from their companions, and carried to Ali, a Pasha of Albania, who was then encamped at Butrinto, on the coast opposite Corfu, at that time besieged by the Rus- sians and Turks. ‘[hey were detained, but treated with distinc- tion, and employed by the Pasha for nearly two years, and during that time collected the notes which were afterwards ar- ranged by their friend Dr. Poukeville, and published, together with two other volumes on the Morea and Constantinople, written by the Doctor, who had himself, after his separation from these officers, been confined at 'Tripolita in the Morea, and in the Seven ‘T'owers.
The learned and conjectural part of the book, besides some rhetorical flourishes, from which the compiler most unaccountably considers himself to be entirely free, is certainly the worst por- tion of the performance, and must, I presume, be laid at the door of the Doctor himself. But notwithstanding all its defects, which are numerous, there is not, that [ know, any other book which the traveller in Albania can carry with him or consult, I have accordingly not scrupled to make use of the French ac- count, where it is not contradicted by my own experience and
LETTER: Ἐξ 11
information, as you will observe if you happen to have Dr. Pou- keville’s volume at hand.
I am thus explic:t with you, in order to anticipate an excuse, should you ever trace me to the source of my information; for as itis my purpose to give you the best account in my power of the country through which we passed, I shall not refuse help from any quarter, but depend upon your kindness for not treating me asa “ fur manifestus—a detected plagiarist.”
My next letter will fairly land us in ‘Turkey.
Iam, yours, &c. &e.
LETTER 1].
Prevesa—a Description of that Town—-The Mouth of the Gulf of Arta—Actium—Short Description and Account of Pre- vesa—and of the Battle which placed the Town tn the hands of the Turks. .
SIR,
WE. landed at Prevesa during a shower of rain, and with no very agreeable presentiments. ‘The foolish master of an English transport lying in the harbour, had come on board, and told us most dismal stories of the 'l'urks inhabiting the place. He had had a shot fired through his main-mast from some ‘Turkish man of war; and one day, walking in the country, a ‘Turk, to whom he had said and done nothing, turned round and fired at him.
He added, that our Resident at the Court of Ali, the Pasha of
the country, was preparing to leave Toannina, the capital, being unable to bear the insolence of the people. We picked our way through several dirty streets, to the house of Signor Commiuti. Few places will bear being visited in a rainy day, least of all a Turk town, and such a town as Prevesa.
We found the streets without flags or stone paving of any kind, resembling dirty lanes, with wooden huts on each side, exceed- ingly narrow, and shaded over-head with large rushes or reeds,
LETTER [fi 19
reaching from the pents of the houses quite across from one side to the other. This contrivance, which must be very agreeable in hot weather, did at this time only increase the gloominess of the place, and added to the inconvenience of walking, as the rain dripped from the dirty reeds, and made the paths more muiry, Add to this, the savage appearance of the ‘Lurks, each of whom carried an immense brace of pistols and a long knife, sticking out from a belt before his waist ; and the accommodation we met with at the Consul’s house, which seemed wretched to us who were just fresh from Christendom, and you will not feel inclmed to envy our. situation.
You will fancy yourself deep in the distresses of some Scottish tourist, if 1 entertain you much longer at this rate ; and yet, I assure you that, never afterwards during our whole journey, did we feel so disheartened, and inclined to turn back, as at this instant ; and indeed, had the commander of the brig been very pressing, I believe that we should have consented to go back to Patrass, where we were sure of better fare and more comfort with the English Consul-General for the Morea, who resides in that town. ‘The weather however soon cleared up, and we began to
feel more resigned to our misery, which is very laughable now, but was then wretched enough.
A circumstance just at that time occurred, which seemed to co- incide with the report made by the master of the transport ; for, looking out of the Consul’s window, I saw a young ‘Turk dis- charge two pistols over a garden-wall, to frighten some Greek ma- riners who were dancing and singing to the sound of a fiddle. The sailors, however, continued their sport; and we soon found that there was nothing malicious or unusual in the playfulness of the young Mussulman.
14 . LETTER. 11;
We dined with the brother of the Vice-Consul; the Vice-~Con- sul himself was absent at [oannina; when I was not so much struck with the dinner, and the curious way of serving it up, one dish after the other, of each of which they expect you to eat, as with Signor Commuiuti being waited upon by his father, an old man, and by one of his brothers. 1 afterwards found it to be a common practice in Greek families, for those who have no money to be retainers and attendants to such of their relations as are more wealthy ; nor does filial affection or obedience prevent a man from exacting the same duties from an indigent parent as he him- self would perform, were his father to become by any accident the richer man of the two. An excessive reverence for wealth is the distinguishing characteristic, as it appears to me, of all the inhabitants of the Levant. What could Mr. De Guys, in his silly parallel between the ancient and modern Greeks, have said to such a change of those virtuous customs which would never permit a degradation of the dignity of old age ἢ
After dinner we paid a visit to the governor of the town, who resided within the enclosure of a fort at the lower end of the har- bour, in a house belonging to Ali Pasha. We walked through a long gallery, open, as is the custom, on one side, and through two or three large rooms with naked walls, and no other furniture than a low stage running round three sides of the chamber, on which, when inhabited, the sofa-cushions are placed. In one of these barrack-rooms, for that is the name by which you will best comprehend the sort of palace we visited, we found the Gover- nor, who received us with the grave politeness that seems born with every Turk, and who gave us coffee and a pipe; which, I
believe, you know is the ceremony customary with the people of this country on the reception of visitors. The coffee is served
LETTER II. 15
up very thick, with the grounds left at the bottom of the cup, always without milk, and, except to travellers, who are supposed to be accustomed to delicacies, without sugar. ‘The cups are
very small, not made to stand, but presented in other cups of
open work, like our egg-cups or salt-cellars. ‘Tobacco, which was unknown to the Orientals till the middle of the seventeenth century, is now the universal luxury of all the inhabitants of the Levant; but the Turkey plant is not nearly so pungent and strong as that of America and the West Indies, and a habit of smoking it is immediately acquired. ‘I'he pipes are very long, the heads being made of earthen-ware, and the sticks, when they are best, of cherry-wood. In these the rich are very expensive: they adorn them with amber heads and joints, a pair of which I once saw exposed for sale at two thousand piastres, or more than a hundred pounds sterling.
The Governor could not easily be distinguished from the shabby-looking Albanian guards that surrounded him; some of them sitting down close to him, and the others standing opposite their master, staring and laughing at our conversation. Besides the Governor of the fort, there was here also an Intendant of the Marine, to whom Englishmen generally pay their respects, the port being occasionally the resort of some of our Adriatic squa- dron, but whom we did not visit, till our return to this place.
Prevesa is said to contain about three thousand inhabitants, of which one-half are Turks. Of these Turks the greater part are Albanians, and are to be distinguished as such by their dress, manners, and language, with all which I shall hereafter endeavour to make you acquainted. ‘he houses of the town are all of wood; for the most part with only a ground-floor ; and,
16 LETTER 1.
where there is one story, the communication to it 15 by a ladder or wooden steps on the outside, sheltered, however, by the over- hanging eaves of the roof. In this case, the horses and cattle occupy the lower chamber, or it is converted into a warehouse, and the family live on the floor above, in which there are seldom more than two rooms. ‘This straggling town is placed on the longest of one of the extremities of a flat biforked tongue of land, that widens towards the point, and is more narrow about three miles from the end. ‘This narrow part is the site of Nicopolis.
A bay, which runs mto the land about a mile, forms the har- bour; and the other extremity of the tongue, together with the opposite promontory, on which Anactorium, according to D’An- ville, formerly stood, composes the mouth of the gulf of Am- bracia, now called the gulf of Arta. ‘This mouth is about half a mile, or a little more, in breadth: Polybius says five stadia, and Strabo a little more than four; alluding to this interior mouth, and not to that of the harbour, which 15 formed by the point of Prevesa, and the promontory, and which is. nearly a mile in breadth. It must be exceedingly difficult for a vessel of any size to work into the Gulf; for there is no deep water, ex- cept close to the town, that on the other side being full of shoals and quicksands.
Were it not for the positive authority, that determines. the battle of Actium to have been fought within the promontory in the bay that first presents itself on the mght hand to a person sailing into the Gulf, I should be inclined to think that the action took place in the sea between Leucadia and the cape of Prevesa., The enormous vessels, of nine or ten banks of oars, in the fleet
of Antony, under which, to use the expression of Florus, the
poets an Gann
LETTER ΤΙ. 17
waters groaned, must have scarcely been able to maneuvre in the
small basin in the Gulf; and unless the battle was fought without
the bay, I cannot understand how the combatants could see the Ἢ qd
runaway Egyptians steering for Peloponnesus, as Plutarch, in his life of Antony, says they did. They might suppose them making for that quarter, but they could not see them an in- stant after they had got out of the Gulf, the exit from which is not perceived until you are close to the mouth.
Either a good part of the low land of the promontory opposite Prevesa, has been formed since the days of Augustus, which is extremely probable, or the floating castles of Antony were not so large as is usually conceived. ‘The point is not very important : it is certain that the battle was fought ; and that a naval action, for the first and only time in the history of the world, as Madame de Sevigné has remarked before me, decided the fate of an em- pire. Mons. D’Anville says, that the name of Actium is not entirely lost in Ario; but I made every enquiry, and could not learn that there was at present a village, or any place so called. The Signor Commiuti did inform me, that there was a ruin to be scen on the opposite side of the water, on a spot which we after- wards visited, and saw some trifling remains of a wall built of bricks, placed lozenge-wise, and about five feet in height, and so disposed as to appear to have been circular. I do not know who had put this notion into the head of our Greek, but he called this the wall of the Hippodrome ; and the fine flat which it might have enclosed, gives some colour of probability to the suspicion that this was the spot chosen by the youth of Ambracia and Ni- copolis for the horse and chariot race, and the celebration of the Quinquennial games, over which the Lacedemonians presided.
D
18 LETTER If.
The site of Actium itself was lower down in the Gulf, and nearer to the head-land laid down in the maps under the name of Cape Figalo; but there the ground 1s. rough and uneven, and not so well calculated for the course.
It does not appear that there was anciently any town on the
Π
site of Prevesa, of which the first notice I have ever seen is, that it was besieged by the Venetian Doria in 1572, but relieved by the Turks from the interior. Since the invention of gunpowder, such a position must have completely commanded the mouth of the Gulf, especially as there is no deep water except on the side of the town. ‘The Venetians, after repeated contests with the Turks, at last possessed themselves of this place as well as of Vo- nitza, a town in the Gulf, and of Parga and Butrinto, on the coast opposite Corfu. ‘The domain of Prevesa extended into the ruins of Nicopolis.
All these places were ceded to the French by the treaty of Campo Formio; but, during their last war with the ‘Turks, were all abandoned, except Prevesa, which the Engineer Richemont, and the General La Salcette, were ordered to protect. ‘The Pasha Ali, who had for some time kept up a correspondence with. the French, appeared at first inactive ; but in the‘end of August, A.D. 1798, some French boats were seized in the Gulf, and the Adjutant-General Roze, then ina conference with the Pasha, was imprisoned, Immediately the French prepared for. the event. The municipal guard of the town was organized ; arms and am- munition were sent to the Sulliote Greeks at war with the Pasha; and a redoubt with two pieces of. cannon was thrown up on the side of Nicopolis. On the night of the 12th November, Ali and his two sons, Meuctar and Veli, with a force amounting to about
Ἐπ ΧΗΣ λον Lt ist
LETTER If. 19
ten thousand horse and foot, appeared on the mountains imme- diately above the plain of Nicopolis. At the dawn of day the Albanians were posted on the hills about two miles above the French force, which, instead of remaining to defend the town, had marched to the site of the ruins, and were drawn up ina long line, with the redoubt covering one of their wings.
I had the account from an Albanian who was in the battle, and who confessed that the French force did not amount to more than eight hundred men, and all of them infantry. The Albanians continued some time on the hills, viewing their enemies in front. Their priests, of whom there was a great number, then began to pray with a loud voice, and the soldiers joined them in the holy exclamations. ‘lhe whole body remained waving their heads, as it was deseribed to me, and as 1 have myself seen in some reli- gious ceremonies in ‘Turkey, like a vast field of corn, and calling on the name of God with a fervour of tone and action that was soon wound up to the highest pitch of fury; as if with one voice, the word was given, ‘‘ Out with your swords!” and the Alba- man army, both horse and foot, rushed down into the plain. The French artillery, began to fire; but, in a short time, both guns and men were overturned by the ‘Turkish cavalry. ‘The rout in an instant became general; and the Albanians entering Prevesa with the French, involved many of the inhabitants in a promiscuous slaughter:—between Nicopolis and the town the plain was strewed with about six hundred dead bodies. ‘Two vessels in the harbour, full of fugitives, cut their cables, and made for Santa Maura; but one of them, from being overladen, or from mismanagement, was swamped, and went down.—T'wo hundred French, with the General La Salcette, and Mons. Ri chemont, were taken prisoners, and conveyed to loannina.
ἢ ὦ
30 LETTER If.
But the vengeance of the Pasha was reserved for the Greek inhabitants of the town, two hundred of whom were beheaded the day after the battle, in the presence of Ali himself.
The French account accuses both their Sulliote allies, and the townsmen of Prevesa, of having fired upon them during their flight. Idid not hear of this treachery, although the charge may be true; but it is excusable in M. Poukeville to shed a tear over his brave countrymen, and to record, in an amiable episode, the desperate valour of the heroic Richemont, and the fate of his friend the young Gabauri, “ connu dans Carmée par sa beauté et renommé par sa bravure.” 'The like was never heard of since the days of Nisus and Euryalus.
Since this event, Prevesa has been in the hands of Ali, who has built a fortress at the bottom of the harbour, and also raised a battery at the end of the town, commanding the entrance of the port. It is the chief sea-port town in Lower Albania, and is the continual resort of the Greek boats of the Ionian Isles, which exchange their French and Italian manufaetures for the oils, wools, cattle and timber of Albania. But you must be suffi-
ciently acquainted with Prevesa: I will now conduct you to the ruins of Nicopolis.
Pare, ste a NS
LETTER 1Π|.
The Ruins of Nicopolis—Preparations for Travelling in Turkey —The Dragoman—Servants—Baggage, §c. §c.—Sail down
the Gulf of Arta to Salora—The Albancan Guard of Salora,
SIR,.
THE ruins of Nicopolis (which we reached after riding slowly for three quarters of an hour through olive groves, and a large plain of low shrubs) are more extensive than magni- ficent, ag they cover at intervals the breadth of the isthmus, if such it may be called, from the Ionian sea to the gulf of Am- bracia: not their shadows, but themselves, stretch trom shore to shore. After entering at a breach of a. wall, which may be traced round several parts of the plains, and which may be con- jectured to have separated the city from the suburbs, we were carried by our guide, the Consul’s brother, to what be called the King’s house. ‘This is nothing but the remains of a room, on which the paint, of a dusky red and light blue, is still visible, and also a small piece of cornice. I’rom this place we scrambled on through heaps of ruins over-run with weeds and thistles. These
ruins are large masses of brick-work, the bricks of which (of that |
sort, I believe, called Roman tile) are much. thinner and longer
than those in use amongst us, and are joined by interstices of
99 LETTER III.
mortar as large as the bricks themselves, and equally durable. There is a specimen ot this sort ‘at Dover Castle. Some of these masses are standing, others lymg on the ground, and there are several spots in the plain so covered with the ruins as to be im- passable.
We went through an arched gateway, tolerably entire, in the largest portion of the wall that is yet standing ; and going to- wards the Ionian Sea, came to the remains of a theatre, in which
the semicircle of seats, raised about a foot one above the other,
is still visible, though destroyed in some places, and choked up
with earth. Underneath the theatre are several arched caves, which some one had told our Greek, were the dens οἱ the wild beasts used in the ancient games. But the arena of the theatre could not have been more than twenty-five feet in diameter, and therefore not suitable to such exmbitions. ‘I'he people, who oc- casionally clamoured for the introduction of gladiators and beasts as an interlude, would, in so small a space, have been content to do without such spectacles. Indeed the caves appeared to me to be formed by the falling of some of the brick-work.
Proceeding till we came to no great distance from the ‘sea- shore, we came to the ruins of a square building, within which, half buried in the ground, are several marble troughs: these, and the capital of one Corinthian column lying on the ground, and the shaft of another enclosed in a wall, were the only pieces of marble I saw in the ruins; but many have been carried away lately, and employed in the building of the fortress of Preveca, and some also have been preserved as a present to the English Resident at the court of Ali Pasha.
‘Turning round from the sea-shore towards the Gulf, we tra-
LETTER rit 23
versed the plain to the north of the wall, which was also in- cluded in the suburbs, but is now partly ploughed, and we came to an eminence, at the foot of the hills that terminate the isthmus to the north, not far. from. the shore of the Gulf. On this we found the remains of a theatre considerably larger.than the one we’ had. before seen, and enclosed on every side: 1 regret to have not taken its exact dimensions.. It was.of stone, and the semi- circular seats were in many parts entire: a more learned observer might perhaps have discovered the orchestra, the pulpitum, the proscenium, and all the other appurtenances of the ancient theatre; I must content myself with telling you, that it.was the least dila- pidated remain we saw in the ruins of Nicopolis. From.the emi- nence on which it stands there is the best view of the plain, and of the bay of Actium; and the tents of ‘Taurus, the general of Augustus, may have been placed on this very spot..
I have before told. you, that these ruims. being nearly all of
brick, presented us with no very magnificent spectacle ; and yet
ῳ
such was the extent of ground which they covered—about three ἡ ig
miles.in length from the sea to the Gulf, and. perhaps a mule or more from the side of Prevesa to the theatre last mentioned—that there was something of a.melancholy grandeur in the prospect before us.. Part-of the ruins had been converted into sheep-pens. Ai solitary shepherd was.the tenant of Nicopolis, and the bleating of the sheep, the tinkling of their, bells, and the croakimg of the frogs, were the only sounds.to be heard within the. circuit of ἃ city whose population had exhausted whole provinces bf. their in- habitants.. Calyden, Anactorium, Ambracia, the towns of all Acarnania, and partof Autolia, were stripped of their people and
ornaments; but. the. vanity, a. favourite one with conquerors,
24 LETTER IYI.
which raised Nicopolis by the desolation of the neighbouring
states, could not secure for it a long continuation of splendour and prosperity. ‘I'he Lmperor Julian found the city in a rapid decay ; and in the reign of Honoris, Nicopolis was the property of Paula, a Roman matron. ‘The irruption of the Goths imme- diately succeeded ; and the city of victory, which was raised by Augustus, may perhaps have been finally ruined by Alaric.
We returned from the ruins by the side near the sea over a green plain, which was the burying-place of the city, as some tombs lately discovered appear to manifest. We passed through the court-yard of a barrack, struck imto the olive-grounds, and arrived at the Consul’s house, determining to set out for Ioannina the next day.
From Prevesa to Ioannina there are two routes. One of these, taking a north-easterly direction, crosses the plain of Nicopolis, and passes over the mountains belonging to a district now called Loru, from a town of that name, at six hours distance from Prevesa: thence it runs through a valley, and afterwards over rugged hilly ground to Vrontza, a village seven hours from Ioan- nina. We were advised, being yet unprovided with a guard, not to follow this road, as the country of Loru was at that time not quite safe, and were accordingly directed to take the other route by Arta, which is considered the longest of the two journies to the capital.
But this 15 the place to give you some information as to our equipage, dnd the preparation made by us for travelling in 'Tur- key. ‘Ihis detail, into which travellers seldom condescend to enter, and which may be a little tiresome, would, however, I be- lieve, be useful to you, were you to make a tour in the Levant,
LETTER It. Z5
We had been provided at Patrass witha Greek, to serve as dragoman, or interpreter to us; he could not, however, speak the Turkish language, which it is not indispensable to know in Alba- nia, as the Mahometans of the country, for the most part, speak Greek. Doubtless, however, it would have been better to have procured a person acquainted both with the ‘Turkish and the Al- banian languages; and as such servants are to be met with at Prevesa, it would have been better if we had delayed to engage any one until our arrival at that town. 'The professional inter- preters, by which I mean those who are in the habit of being recommended to travellers, are mostly exceedingly roguish, and there is no advantage which they will not endeavour to take, espe- cially of Englishmen, who are generally suspected to have more money than wit. ‘There is a Constantinopolitan proverb which runs thus—‘* Dio mi guard: det Dragomani to mi guardero dei can.” It is as well to know this, for a great deal depends upon your choice of a dragoman. He is your managing man; he must procure you lodging, food, horses, and all conveniences ; must direct your payments—a source of continual disturbance ; must support your dignity with the ‘Turks, and show you how te make use of the Greeks: he must, consequently, be not only ac- tive and ingenious, but prompt and resolute. Now you would very seldom find a Greek deficient in the former, or possessed of the latter qualifications : in this respect, their very Cress 15 agalast them. Those who have been in Turkey, know that it is con- trary to the nature of things, fora man in the Greek habit to talk in any other than the most submissive cringing tone toa Turk ; and on this account it is always preferable to engage a
person accustomed to wear the dress of a Frank, a name that in- E
26 BETTER: 11}:
Φ
cludes. all those of whatever nation, who are dressed in the small- clothes, the ceat, and the hat, of civilized Kurope. Such persons are often to be met with at Malta, or any of the ports of the Levant ; they are natives of the islands of the Archipelago, who have lived in the service of foreigners at Constantinople, and know how to assume an air of importance, and even ferocity, in presence of a ‘Turk, with the utility of which a traveller does not become immediately acquainted. ‘I'he Greek appears to feel him- self free the moment he places the hat upon his head, and throws. away the cap, which, in our own times, and in another country, was the badge of liberty.
Our dragoman was recommended to us as the most upright of men; but we found him to be one of those servants whose good conduct does not so much depend upon their own probity, as upon the vigilance of their masters. He never lost an opportu- nity of robbing us. He was very zealous, bustling, and talka- tive ; and when we had him, we thought it would be impossible to do without him ; when he was gone, we wondered how we had ever done with him. However, he was a good-humoured fellow,
and having his mind iftent upon one sole thing, that is, making
money of us, was never lazy, or drunken, or out of the way: he was up early and late ; for he always slept upon his saddle- bags without undressing. His name was George; but he was usually called Mister George—Kire yorge (Kei Teoeys),
We had only one English servant with us, who was my Friend’s valet; for I was fortunately disappointed the day before I left London, of the man who was to have accompanied me in our travels: I say fortunately, because English servants are rather an incumbrance than a use in the Levant, as they require better
LETTER IIt. 97
accommodation than their masters, and are ἃ perpetual source of blunders, quarrels, and delays. ‘Their inaptitude at acquiring any foreign language is, besides, invincible, and seems more stupid in a country where many of the common people speak three, and some four or five languages. Our baggage was weighty ; but, I believe, we could not have done well with less, as a large quantity of linen is necessary for those who are much at sea, or travel so fast as not to be able to have their clothes washed. Besides four large leathern trunks, weighing about eighty pounds when full, and three smaller trunks, we had a canteen, which is quite indispen- sable; three beds, with bedding, and two light wooden bedsteads. The latter article some travellers do not carry .with them ; but it contributes so much to comfort and health, as to be very recom- mendable. We heard, indeed, that in Asiatic Turkey you can- not make use of bedsteads, being always lodged in the khans or inns; but in Europe, where you put up in cottages and private houses, they are always serviceable, preserving you from vermin, and the damp of mud floors, and possessing advantages which overbalance the evils caused by the delays of half an hour in pack- ing and taking them to pieces.
We were also furnished with four English saddles and bridles, which was a most fortunate circumstance, for we should not have been able to ride on the high wooden pack-saddles of the Turkish post-horses ; and though we might have bought good Turkish saddles, both my Friend and myself found them a very uncom- fortable seat for any other pace than a walk.
Whilst on the article of equipage, I must tell you, that as all the baggage is carried on horses, it is necessary to provide sacks to carry all your articles. ‘hese sacks you can get of a very
E2 ᾿
28 LETTER ΤΙ
useful land in the country. ‘They are made of three coats; the inner one of waxed canvass, the second of horse-hair cloth, and the outward of leather. ‘Those which we bought at Joannina were large enough to hold, each of them, a bed, a large trunk, and one or two small articles; and they swing like panniers at each side of the horse.
Some travellers prefer a large pair of saddle-bags, and to have a large chest or trunk, which they send round by sea to meet them, or leave at one fixed spot; but this is a bad plan: the saddle-bags will not carry things enough for you; and then to have your wardrobe at any fixed spot, binds you to one route, and prevents you from taking advantage of opportunities. As to sending baggage round by sea, it is a very hazardous expe- riment : we were detained three weeks at Gibraltar, waiting for clothes which, as we rode from Lisbon to Cadiz, we had ordered to be sent by sea.
A traveller in this country should provide himself with dollars at Malta, ina sufficient quantity to defray the charges of his whole tour in European Turkey. ‘These he will be able to ex- change without any loss at Patrass, or elsewhere, for Venetian zequins, which are golden coins, and much more portable. Having lodged your dollars in the hands of the merchant in the Levant, you may take bills, to save you the risk and trouble of carrying money, upon the most respectable Greeks in the towns through which you mean to pass. ‘This is a better scheme than that of travelling with bills drawn upon Constantinople, where the exchange is very fluctuating, and oftener against than for the English merchant. ‘The accounts in Turkey are kept in piasters. When you can get seventeen and a half of these for
LETTER: Ith 29
the credit of a pound sterling, you may consider the exchange at par.
There are several gold coins current in Turkey ; the smallest of which is a pretty coin, worth two pilasters and a half, or in some places a little more. ‘The Venetian zequin varies in value from ten to eleven piasters. Of the money made of silver, much debased, there are pieces of two pilasters and a half, of two piasters, and of one piaster: besides these, there are small coins called paras, forty of which go to a piaster, and which are very thin, and not so big as a note wafer. ‘I'he asper, which is the third of a para, I never saw; and copper there is none. It is necessary to be cautious in procuring money in ‘Turkey, as from the great variety and changeable value of the com, and also from the number of bad pieces in circulation, it is a very easy matter to be cheated, and the Greeks are generally ready to do a traveller that service.
Equipped in the manner which I have thought it necessary to premise, we procured a large boat to convey us down the Gulf, as far as a place called Salora, the scale of Arta; and, on the 1st of October, in the forenoon, proceeded on our journey. We sailed part of the way, being assisted by a strong breeze, the fore- runner of a thunder-storm that was collecting over the mountains to the north; and were rowed by- our six boatmen the remainder of the distance.
‘The Gulf runs in a south-easterly direction ; and, in what may be called the jaws of it, there is, on the northern side, a large bay, forming the long beach of Nicopolis ; and on the south, the bay of Actium and the promontory of that name, now called Cape Figalo. Beyond Figalo is the other bay, containing in a deep woody recess the town of Vonitza; and there are many cir-
30 LECT ER πα.
cular inlets or smaller bays on both sides of the Gulf. The country on every side is mountainous, but less so to the south than to the north, as, near Vonitza, there are low hills and val- lies clothed with an agreeable verdure. ‘The prospect, however, is terminated on every side with tremendous rocks; and as the entrance to the Gulf is winding, and therefore not perceptible in many points, the whole expanse of water has the appearance of a large fresh lake, and did iadeed put me somewhat in mind of Loch Lomond. A woody island, where there is a monastery, and some small rocks, with which the sea is studded to the east of Vonitza, served to strengthen the illusion.
In two hours and an half we had reached the place of our des- tination, where we had been informed we should find horses, and be enabled to proceed to Arta the same evening. Salora, about twelve miles from Prevesa by water, on the northern side of the Gulf, was the name of this place; but we were surprised, after having heard that it was the scale or port of Arta, to find that there was only one house there, and a new-built barrack at a little distance.
We landed, just in time to avoid the storm, ata little rugged pier, and put the baggage under cover, at the same time deliver- ing a letter, given us by the Vice-Consul’s brother at Prevesa, to the Greek inhabiting this wretched-looking place, which we found was the custom-house. ‘The Greek, who was collector of the duties, was extremely civil to us; but said, that there were only four horses ready, and that we should be obliged to sleep in the adjoining barrack.
After accusing ourselves for not having sent before us from Pre- vesa, in order to procure horses, we, of course, consented to what
LETTER ὙΓΤΙΙ 31
we could not prevent, and were shown into the barrack. Tis also belonged to Ali Pasha, or, as he is called throughout his extensive dominions, the Vizier, the denomination of every Pasha of three tails: it had only been built two years. ‘lhe under part of it was a stable, and the upper, to which the ascent was by a flight of stone stairs, consisted of a long open gallery of wood, with two rooms at one end of it, and one at the other. In the smgle room, which was locked up, the Vizier was accustomed to lodge when he visited the place; but the other two rooms were appropriated to ten Albanian soldiers, placed there to protect the custom-house, which it is of some importance to guard, as Salora is the chief, if not the only scale (to use a Levant phrase), through which the imports.and exports of all Lower Albania are obliged to pass, and which levies.a duty of three per cent. upon all imported merchan- dize belonging to a ‘Turk, and of four per cent. upon the goods of the Christian trader.
We were introduced to the Captain of this guard; and, as we passed that evening and the next day and night in the barrack,
we had at once an Initiation into the way of lite of the Albanian
‘Turks. It was.impossible for any men to have a more unsavoury appearance ; and though the Captain, whose name, by the way, was Elmas, was a little cleaner than the others, yet he was not much to be distinguished from his soldiers, except by a pair of sandals, and a white thin round stick, which he used in walking, and which, hke the vine rod of the Roman centurions, 1s-a badge belonging to, or affected by, the better sort of soldiers in Turkey. Notwithstanding, however, their wild and savage appearance, we found them exceedingly mild and good-humoured, and with man- ners as good as are usually to be found in a garrison.
32 LETTER τα πὶ
We put up our beds in one of their apartments, and were soon well settled. Immediately on our entrance the Captain gave us coffee and pipes ; and, after we had dined in our own room on some fish, bread, and wine, he begged us to come into his cham- ber and pass the evening with him, to which we consented. ‘The only furniture in the soldier’s apartment was a raised low stage, like that used in a kennel, and upon this, covered with a mat, we seated ourselves cross-legged next to the Captam. ‘This officer lived im a very easy familiarity with his men; but had a most perfect controul over them, and they seemed to do every thing he wished very cheerfully.
All the Albanians strut very much when they walk, projecting their chests, throwing back their heads, and moving very slowly from side to side; but Elmas had this strut more than any man perhaps we ever saw afterwards ; and as the sight was then quite new to us, we could not help staring at the magisterial and super- latively dignified air of a man with great holes in his elbows, and looking altogether, as to his garments, like what we call a bull- beggar.
After walking about in the walled enclosure of the barrack, and enjoying the last rays of the setting sun that were gilding the woody hills and the towers of Vonitza on the other side of the Gulf, we again seated ourselves at the never-failing coffee and pipe, to which the liberality of the Captain had added some grapes, and, by the help of our dragoman, kept up a conversation of some length with the Albanians.
You may suppose that an Englishman has many articles abovt him to excite the curiosity of such people ; but we found this curiosity, though incessant, to be by no means impertinent or
LETTER ITI. 35
troublesome. They took up our watch-chains and looked at them, then looked at each other, and smiled. ‘They did not ask a great many questions, but seemed at once satisfied, that the thine was above their comprehension; nor did they praise, or appear to admire much, but contented themselves with smiling, and saying nothing, except “ English goods! English goods !” or, to give it you in their Greek, “ πράγμιαϊα ᾿Ιγγλέσικα πράγμαϊα Ιγγλέσικα ἢ A glass of marascine was given to Captain Elmas, and another offered to one of his men, who refused it, being, as he said, under an oath not to touch any thing of the kind. Is not this self-denial, called kegging by the Irish? Elmas drank seven or eight glasses of amseed aqua vite, and said it gave him an appetite.
About seven, the Albanians made preparations for their supper, by washing hands. Dragoman George said, “ If these fellows did not do this they would stink hke the Jews.’—The Turks think that the Christians stink.
They placed a round table, raised on two strips of wood three inches from the ground, before the Captain, and the men sat round on mats on the floor. The supper was fish fried with oil, which they ate with their fingers out of one dish, and curded
goat’s milk with bread; but in this second course, they made use
of horn spoons,
After supper the Captain washed hands with soap, inviting us to do the same, for we had eaten a little with them. He put the ewer into my lap; but he would not give the soap into my hands, though I was sitting close to him, but put it on the floor within an inch of me. ‘This he did with so singular an air, that [ en- quired of George the meaning of it; and found, that in ‘Turkey
Er
34 LETTER III.
there is a very prevalent superstition against giving soap into an- other’s hands: they think it will wash away love.
We now smoked, ate grapes, and conversed ; and every thing was much to our satisfaction, except the habit, to which we were not then familiarized, of frequent and most violent eructation from our hosts. ‘The Turks continue at this sport so long, and are so loud, as to make it appear that they do it on purpose ; and I once heard that it is done by visitants as a compliment, to show their host that they have digested his good fare. ‘The Moors of Barbary continue croaking for five minutes. Persons of all ranks allow themselves this liberty (1 have noticed it in the divan at Constantinople) without shame or restraint; but they would look upon an indecency, however accidental, of another kind, as a pollution and an affront.
We retired to bed before ten; and the Albanians pulling out their pistols from their waist, loosening their girdles, and wrap- ping themselves up in their shaggy great coats (or capotes), lay ‘down and slept upon their mats.
It rained hard the next day, and we spent another evening with our soldiers. 116 Captain Elmas tried a fine Manton gun belonging to my Fnend, and hitting his mark every time, was highly delighted, and offered to receive it in exchange for his own ; but being informed that it was intended for the Vizier his master, he did not press the bargain.
This day we observed one of the soldiers rubbing, or rather kneading, one of his comrades forcibly on the neck and arms, and pulling his jomts. This is the Albanian cure fora cold in the limbs.
We were now quite familiar, and on very easy terms together.
LBETEE Ith. 35
In the evening they laughed and sung, and were in high spirits : one of them, as in other small societies, was their butt, and they made us the instruments of their jokes against him. We were enquiring names: one of them was ‘‘ Abdoul,” another ‘“ Yat- chee,” and a third we were told to call ““ Zourlos.” ‘his person did not seem pleased with our dwelling on his name, and it was not long before we learnt that we had been calling him ‘ Block- head,” the interpretation of the modern Greek word with which we had addressed him.
They finished our entertainment by singing some songs both in Albanian and modern Greek. One man sung, or rather re- peated in loud recitative, and was joined in the burthen of the song by the whole party. ‘The music was extremely monotonous and nasal; and the shrill scream of their voices was increased by each putting his hand behind his ear and cheek, as a whipper-in does when rating hounds, to give more force to the sound. They also dwelt a considerable time on the last note (as long as their breath would last), like the musicians of a country church. One of the songs was on the taking of Prevesa, an exploit of which the Albanians are vastly proud; and there was scarcely one of them in which the name of Ali Pasha was not roared out, and dwelt upon, with peculiar energy. Ali is, indeed, a very great man, as you will be inclined to acknowledge, if you have the pa- tience to proceed with me on my journey.
LETTER IV.
The Presents customary in the Levant—Route from Salora to Arta—Description of that Town—The Site of Ambracita— Of Ambracus—Departure from Arta.
SIR,
ON Tuesday, the 3d of October, we were up at half past five in the morning ; but it was not till eight that we were fairly off from Salora, after having presented our frend the Captain Elmas with what we were told, was the proper sum— twenty piasters. You may be astonished at a present of this kind to an Officer, especially as you may have read of travellers taking about with them cloth, snuff-boxes, guns, pistols, and other articles of English manufacture, in order to repay the libe- rality of their hosts. But let me observe, that to carry about goods for this purpose is exceedingly troublesome, and quite un- necessary, as the delicacy of no soul in the ‘Turkish empire is to be hurt by a repayment of kindness in hard money. You can- not, it is true, unless you are extremely rich, do this with the Pashas and great men; but to them it is not really necessary to make any present, particularly as the officers of their courts will sufficiently empty your purse. It isa difficult thing to know what to give on different occasions, and this embarrassment 15 one of the most unpleasant, and perpetually recurring, of any
LETTER -£V. ἢ
attending ἃ Turkish tour; but asa traveller has to make these presents every day of his journey, that he is lodged in a private house, and that is generally the case in ‘l'urkey in Europe, he must by degrees govern his conduct by something like a general rule. He will very soon learn not to measure his benevolence, by the appearance of satisfaction in those to whom he gives; for a Turk never says “'Thank-ye ;” anda Greek never cries “ Enough.” No favours are ever granted in Turkey without the hope, and ex-
pectation of reward. ‘This is true of both the Mahometans, and
the Christians, and we found it so, before we had been a week in the country.
But we must hasten to set out for Arta. We had ten horses: four for ourselves and servants, four to carry the baggage, and two, for two of the soldiers of the barrack, who were to go with us by way of guard, of which we afterwards learnt there was no necessity, the country between Salora and Arta being quite secure.
Our horses were very small and lean, apparently just caught from grass, and had no shoes, two of them being in milk, and followed by their foals. ‘These, however, were not the regular post-horses, which, as we had no direct order from the Pasha, we were not yet able to procure, but were some that had been hired for us for thirty-five piasters, at a village between Arta and Salora. ‘The post-horses themselves, though shabby-looking things, are generally tolerable-hacks, and manage very well in the steep rocky paths they are obliged to traverse.
For the first mile and a half from Salora, the road was in a north-easterly direction, on a stone causeway crossing a marsh, on which we saw flocks of wild swans, and many other aquatic
38 LETTER “IV.
birds. ‘This marsh, which extends to a considerable distance to the west, and for several miles, with some intervals of cultivation, to the north-west, is partly formed by the waters of a stream flowing from near a village in the hills, called Velistri, and cor- responding, according to the Frenchman’s geography, with the Acheron. This district, from the plain of Nicopolis, certainly was the country of the Cassopeean Epirotes. At present it belongs, partly to the territory of Arta, and partly to the canton of Loru.
Having crossed the marsh, we came into a green plain of some extent, covered in part with brushwood, and in many places so swampy, that the baggage-horses fell down repeatedly; and, as it rained violently, we had a very slow and uncomfortable mde, until we came near Arta, when the sky cleared, and the sun shone. We had passed one small village about three hours from Salora, and the road, from our leaving the marsh, had been over the plain, which was bounded on every side, except that of the Gulf, by mountains, and which, though cultivated in some spots, appeared to serve principally as a pasture for horses, and bullocks, Our last hour’s ride was through a lane pitched with large peobles, and having hedges on each side, that served as fences for vine- yards and olive groves, and gardens of orange, lemon, pome- granate, and fig-trees. Attached to some of these gardens were neat-looking cottages, and the approach to Arta, was in every respect picturesque, and agreeable.
Coming near the town, we passed! over a strong stone bridge across the river of Arta, which is in this place of considerable breadth, and very rapid, and which bending round, forms a pe~ ninsula. On this peninsula the town stands. Entering the town, we saw on our right hand, a large Greek church in a dilapidated
bw
LETTER IV. 3Y
state. We afterwards learnt, that it had been partly built with the remains of marble columns, some only of which were still to be seen inserted in the walls; the remainder having been carried away by the ‘Turks, to adorn a mosck. A little farther on, also on the right hand, and seated on an eminence, was a handsome- looking house belonging to the Vizier, and having the appear- ance, like most of the best dwellings in the country, of having been very lately built. We arrived at the custom-house at Arta about one o'clock; but, notwithstanding we had been nearly five hours coming from Salora, the distance could not have been more than twelve, or thirteen miles.
The distances in 'l'urkey are very difficult to be ascertained*, as they are measured by the time taken by a horse with baggage in going from one place to another. ‘This, to be sure, is a very un- certain measurement ; but if you allow three miles to every hour, you will be perhaps as near the mark as possible. We, however, had not gone at that rate from Salora, owing to various difficul- ties and stoppages by the way.
We rode into the lower part, or warehouse of the custom- house, which was half filled with bales of coarse woollen cloth and leather, and delivered the letter we had brought from Prevesa to the collector of the duties. He was very polite, kind, and com- municative, and showed us up stairs, where we were surprized to see the house furnished with chairs and tables, and ornamented
with old portraits ; all which signs of civilization were accounted
* Mr. Gell has been very particular in his measurements, and seems to have followed a plan which I had always adopted, before I was aware that it had been pursued by that intelligent traveller, that of carrying a watch in the he hand,
40 LETTER: (IV.
for by the place having been the property of a Venetian, and the residence of the French Consul, before that minister was _ re- moved from Arta to Joannina. Our civil Greek provided us with a house to lodge in for the mght; and a very comfortable house it was; that is, comfortable by comparison with our quarters at Prevesa, by which town it would be very unfair to estimate the interior of the country. Properly speaking, the word comfort cannot be applied to any thing I ever saw out of England, which any one in my place, who was not afraid of being taken for a downright prejudiced national blockhead, would confess.
The remainder of the day of our arrival was very fine, and we had an opportunity of surveying the town, which seemed tolerably clean, with streets partly paved, and not so narrow, as usual in the Levant, and free from unpleasant smells. ‘The bazar, or street where the principal shops were, was well furnished with the commo- dities in request in ‘Turkey. As the shops in these bazar have no windows to them, but are inclosed by wooden shutters, which, being removed in the day-time, leave them quite open, like a stall, the artisan and his goods are exposed, as it were, in the street. This, which has a poor effect when the tradesmen’s arti- cles are few, and of the common sort, produces a very gay appearance in rich cities.
Arta is not very splendid in this particular, but contains some very decent houses, and not in the oriental style, which may be accounted for by the length of time the Venetians possessed a footing in the neighbourhood. Until lately there was a conside- rable French establishment in the place, employed in the expor- tation of timber for ship-building at ‘Toulon; but the town, once
so considerable as to have given its name to the neighbouring
LETTER IV. 4]
Gulf, has declined since Ioannina has begun to flourish under Ali; who governs Arta, before the seat of an independent pasha, by aa officer of his own, with the title of Aga. ‘There are, however, still about a thousand houses (so our Greek told us), or between five and six thousand inhabitants in the town, of which not a fourth part are Mahometans, and it is still a depot of many va- luable articles of merchandize.
In the warehouses of the Greeks there are threads, cottons, un- dressed wools, thick cloths, leather, silk and cotton stuffs. But the collector of the duties informed us, that the inhabitants were become very lazy, preferring the cultivation of a few acres, which furnished them with a competence, to being engaged in trade. The pursuits of agriculture might, however, be exceedingly profi- table, for the soil in the neighbourhood produces a valuable grape ; tobacco, which is much esteemed, barley, oats, and maize, and other grains of a good quality. 'The traders of the Ionian islands also resort to the plain of Arta for their cattle, sheep, and pigs.
The Turks must have formerly considered this place of some importance, for on an eminence a little to the east of the town, there is a fortress, once of considerable strength, but now in a state of decay. ‘This we visited, having been informed that we
should there perceive some remains, many pieces of marble having been already discovered and carried away from that spot. ‘The only vestiges, however, of antiquity to be seen, were the enormous stones composing the lower part of the wall of the castle towards the east, one of which I found to be fourteen feet and a half long, and between five and six feet broad, and the remainder seemed of
the same size. It is impossible to doubt that these stones are a part οἱ G
42 LETTER TV.
some very ancient building; they have that massy character of Greek remains, which it is not easy to mistake ; for though the edifices of the ancients were not, it should seem, so extensive and large as those of the moderns, yet their component parts, the stones with which they were built, were carved of a size that we have been either not able, or not willing to imitate. This distinc- tion would strike any one entirely ignorant of architecture, and is found more in the works of the early Greeks than in those of later times, and of the Romans. The line where the old wall ends, and the modern superstructure begins, is distinctly marked, and these remains must point out the former site of some strong town, but not that of Ambracia, which was situated at a little distance from the lower bay of the Gulf, and near which, descending from Mount Stympe, and the country of the Parorei, the river Arach- thus flowed, and afforded a short passage of a few stadia from the Gulf to the city*. But Arta is between seven and eight miles from the mouth of the river, which, if it be, as Mr. D’Anville gives it, the Arachthus, should show near its banks some vestiges of Ambracia. But I did not hear of any remains in the neigh- bourhood, except in the hills to the east, called Callidromos, which had been visited by an English gentleman, whose learning and long residence in the country, will render any account that he may choose to give of Albania, of the most inestimable value to the traveller.
From the fortress there is the best view of the surrounding country. ‘The territory of Arta may be from twenty-seven to thirty miles in circumference, bounded by mountains to the north
* Strabon. lib. yii.
LETTER Iv. 435
and north-east, and also to the west; by the Gulf to the south, and by low hills to the east. The town stands at a mile anda half, or two miles distance, from the north-eastern mountains, On the other side of the low hills terminating the plain, about four or five miles to the east, there is another river, that, about six miles from its mouth, divides and incloses within its two branches, a fertile plain, called by the Italians Terra Nova, and inhabited, says Poukeville, by Jews, exiled Venetians, and some Greeks from the Ionian Isles. One might be perhaps inclined to place Ambracia somewhere in ‘Terra Nova, as corresponding more exactly with the μυκος, the lower part of the Gulf, than the plain of Arta, which is not more than fifteen miles, or half way down. In that case, the river of Arta could no longer be the Arachthus, but the Charadnis; and the massy stones of the castle would be supposed to indicate the site of Ambracus, a town near that river, and described as defended by strong walls, lying in a marsh with only one path to it, and that narrow, and constructed on a raised mole, and as being opportunely situated for the annoyance both of the territory and town of Ambracia*.
The whole of the plain is marshy ; the road of the lane through which we passed, is a raised causeway ; and the similarity of sound in the two names, will account for the site of Ambracus being for a long time mistaken for that of Ambracia. Yet all this is pure conjecture. ‘T'he hill of the fortress is like the Pyrrheum; and Livy’s description, in the fourth chapter of the thirty-eighth book, seems to allude to the very spot on which Arta now stands. But how could the historian trace the Arachthus from Acarnania? We must make an end of our enquiries.
* Polyb. lib. iv. cap. 61, G 2
44, LETTER IV.
After strolling about the town until sun-set, the Greek collec- tor joined us at our lodging, and took a dish of tea with us, which, besides its other qualities that render it the best travelling commodity in the world, 18 also a great cement of society, being a rarity in the Levant. ‘The same person provided horses to be ready early the next morning, for which we paid him beforehand, being warned, that many travellers, Albanian soldiers, and Greek merchants, had often contrived to pursue their journey, without settling for their conveyance.
We had little sleep, being disturbed by a party of Greeks fiddling and dancing in the room next to us, and were up the next morning at sun-rise; but we did not mount until eight o’clock. ‘here was a long quarrel between the different owners of the horses, respecting the weight of the baggage, and each peasant was anxious that his own beast might not be overloaded: then there was a want of ropes ; and they did not know how to put on the English saddles, which they would not place on the horse’s back, for fear of galling it, but on a high dirty pad. These difficulties occurred every day of our travels, and we never were less than two hours getting under way, as a sailor would term it—a delay sufficient to try the patience of the most enduring temper.
We dropped our soldiers of the Salora barrack at Arta, and took two more from that town, as we had to cross a mountainous country, considered at that time rather suspicious, and over which
T will proceed with you in my next letter.
LETTER V.
Route from Arta to the Kan of St. Dimetre—From St. Dimetre to Loannina—First View, and Entry into that City—Recep-
tion of Travellers.
SIR,
WE left Arta by the same road through which we had entered it, and passed over the bridge, but we then turned to the right, and took a north-easterly direction for a short time by the side of the river. We met long strings of. horses loaded with goat-skins full of wine, for it was about the middle of the vintage. We observed that the hairy side of the skin was turned inwards, and this circumstance accounted for the unpleasant strong savour of the goat in the new wine. Passing a little farther, we saw them treading out the liquor in tubs by the hedge-side, over which, the persons employed in gathering were emptying out the grapes from small wicker baskets.
Just before we left the banks of the river to the eastward, we passed on our left hand a fine cedar, and the largest plane tree I have ever seen, except that so celebrated at Vostizza, in the Morea. We now took a northern direction, skirting a large plain or marsh, that stretched down to the Gulf on the left, and was in spots covered with maize and rice. On the right were the stony hills,
that advance within a short distance to the north of Arta, and are
4.0 LETTER” ¥-
the roots of the immense mountains that fill the country from the plains of Arta, as far to the west as the Ionian Sea, and as far to the north and north-east as the plain of loannina. ‘These seem to be rather masses than ranges of mountains, and it is, therefore, almost impossible to ascertain the direction in which they run.
After two hours ride from Arta, we came to a hut on an eminence to our right, at which place was a military post, and where we had been recommended to take an additional guard with us. We halted a few minutes, and were joined by four Albanian soldiers, armed with their long guns and sabres. A little way farther on, the path left the plain, which we saw ex- tending before us, with a village at a distance; and turning to the north-east, we struck into the mountains. We travelled in a ravine, as it were, for some time ; for the hills rose abruptly and close to us on each side, and our path occasionally was along a water-course, whose banks were covered with brushwood. Just in this spot our guard, very probably for the sake of making their attendance appear to be necessary, desired us to keep close together, as this was the place, they said, where the robbers, the κλέφ]εις (a word very frequently in the mouth of an Albanian), most commonly made their attack.
Our four men continued with us for two hours, till we came to a part of the road where there was a village in the bosom of a hill to the right, prettily interspersed with trees and gardens, and having a house belonging to the Vizier. Here the guard left us to return to their station, telling us that our own two soldiers and
ourselves (for we were well armed) would be sufficiently formi- dable to put us out of all apprehension for the rest of the road. The Vizier had almost cleared this part of the country of rob-
LETTER V. 47
bers ; but there were still some suspicious spots, through which a traveller, whose purpose it is to proceed, and not to fight, would choose to provide a guard. ‘That which we had _ passed was one of them, and we were afterwards told of another.
We had as yet travelled in a narrow valley; and just as we came toa spot where the hills seemed to stop all farther progress, we ascended a mountain-path to the north, and in a short time stopped to refresh at one of those fountains which are so common all over ‘l'urkey. ‘Turning round, we had a fine prospect of the plain of Arta, and of the Gulf at a distance, looking, as it were, through an immense telescope, or vista, formed by the hills on each side of the road we had passed.
At one o’clock we moved forwards, still ascending, and came to a place where there was a path over the country to the nght (the north-east), to Zeitoun, a port near Thermopyle; and also another to the left, down the mountains to the country of Sulli, and Parga, and the coast of the Ionian Sea. ‘The scenery on each side of us was most beautiful, the hills being covered with lofty forests ; but before us the road appeared to lead through a country much more bleak and rocky. It began to rain a little.
George, our dragoman, told us this spot had formerly been very famous for robbers, and complained that our guard ought not to have left us; and just as we entered a small wood, a gun was discharged at a short distance from us. I had a little before seen a shepherd on an eminence above us, stalking “ gigantic” through the mist, and was told that it was he who had discharged the musket; and, indeed, we soon came to where two other shep- herds were standing near the path; but a person who had his notions of the pastoral life from a visit to Salisbury Plain, and from the pleasing pictures of an Arcadian romance, would never
48 LETTER V.
have guessed at the occupation of these tremendous-looking fel- lows. ‘They had each of them pistols, and a large knife, stuck in their belts; their heads were covered, and their faces partly shaded by the peaked hoods of their shaggy capotes; and leaning on their long guns, they stared eagerly at the Franks and the umbrellas, with which they were, probably, as much taken, as were we with their uncouth and ferocious appearance. ‘Their flocks of sheep and goats were feeding at a distance on the sides of the hills; but several of their large rough dogs, with their pricked ears and bushy tails, were roused by our presence, and howled at us as our train of horses wound along the path close by them.
These dogs are not unlike the true shepherd breed of England, except that they are larger (being as big nearly as a mastiff), and have their heads more sharp, and their tails more curled and bushy ; and, whatever change may have taken place in the men of the country, they have not degenerated from their Molossian ancestors.
We soon saw another country-lodge of the Vizier’s to the right, with a few trees round it, and a small church near it; and we
then came, ima short time, to a chasm in the road, made by a
winter torrent.
Winding along the sides of the hills, we passed a hamlet of three or four houses and a church, that is, a small stone house contain- ing one room, with only one small window, and only to be dis- tinguished by a stone cross rudely carved over the door. ‘They told us that service was performed at this place about once in two months, and that then it was resorted to by the inhabitants of the hamlets within eight or ten miles.
At half past three we arrived at a kan by the road-side, where
LETTER V: 40
was a yard and stable, a barrack for passengers to sleep in, and a little wine-house. At this place four paras are demanded for a toll from every Greek passenger. ‘I'he road, which had been for three hours very mountainous and romantic, and generally on an ascent, now led us down into a plain, in which we again saw some signs of partial cultivation, fields of maize, now and then a single house with a garden, and a solitary labourer beating the mast trees. In an hour we began to ascend again, and the path was very stony, and across several rivulets. We met two parties of armed s\lbanians, and these were the only travellers we had en- countered during our day’s ride.
The evening came on, witha drizzling rain, very dusky, and at last quite dark. We saw a blazing light at a distance, which they told us was the han, where we were to stop for the night ; but as we approached it, stumbling along a rough descending
path, we were assailed by several dogs, and found that the light
was the fire of some shepherds, whose black shadows we saw near the blaze at a little distance. However, in half an hour we turned into the gate of the han, ourselves and the baggage drip- ping with ram. ‘This was about half after seven o’clock ; so that the distance between Arta and the han may be nearly thirty-five miles, chiefly in a northern direction. ‘There are few parts of the road, except where it has been paved, in which a person witbout baggage might not go at a good pace; and it was made, where there is any making in it, by Ali Pasha about nine years ago. The han, called the han of St. Dimetre, had a very good stable, as is the case with most of these places, at one end of which a party of travellers had established themselves, preferring it to the room in the han itself. We ascended by the wooden H
50 LETTER V,
steps to the chamber, of which we thought we were to be the sole tenants; but as our beds were putting up, four Albanian Turks and a priest entered, and soon gave us to understand that they were to be our fellow-lodgers, ‘This room was not more than twenty feet long and ten feet broad, and our own party were seven; however, it appeared that the others were the first occupiers, so we established ourselves on our beds at one side of the hearth, and the Albanians seated themselves on their mats at the other. We had some eggs boiled in the small wine-house attached to the han, and were preparing to get a fire lighted, when we were told that there were some merchants’ goods under- neath, which would be endangered by such a proceeding, as the burning wood might drop through one of the many holes in the floor.
Our chums turned out to be a mission from the Vizier, with letters to General Bessieres at Corfu, who, it seems, had been slow in paying his Highness for the provisions with which the French troops had been furnished from Albania. We had some conversation with them. A young Corfiote, who had come with us from Arta, told one of the Albanians, that he would certainly be taken by an English cruiser in his way to Corfu. ‘“ No;” returned the fellow, who seemed very surly and ill-natured—“ 1 am going ina ship of the Vizier’s.’——“ That does not signify,” said the other, ““ the English care for nobody’s ships; they won’t let you go to Corfu.” “ I am not afraid,” replied the Albanian angrily; ‘‘ Captain ——” (the English resident at Ioannina) ἐς and these two gentlemen are pledges for me.”
A little after hearing this agreeable assurance we went to bed ; and the rest of the party lay down on their mats. ‘There were twelve
LETTER VY. δ)
of us in the room ; and every one, except the priest and the Cor- fiote, slept with his pistols at his head-side. This, however, on the part of the Albanians, was not so much out of caution as custom ; for there was not the least real cause for alarm or sus- picion; but the fashion was new, and somewhat disagreeable to us.
A little before day-light I was awakened by the rising of the surly Albanian, who got up, and going out, returned with a jug of water, with which he began gargling and spitting most vio-
lently, at the same time whirling around, as if to air himself. This was his only toilet. He then lay down and took a nap till day-light, when he, and the remainder of the mission departed.
In the morning it rained very violently, and we did not set off until nine o’clock ; when, however, the showers were sufficiently lasting and heavy to wet us through. We had begun our Alba-
nian tour a month too soon, as you will see by our present, and subsequent disasters from bad weather.
The road was through a green plain, to the westward of north, in many places cultivated, and every where spotted with flocks of sheep and goats. This plain to the right, and before us, seemed to extend to a great distance, until terminated by a mountain, or rather a vast chain of mountains, that were half hidden in the clouds. ‘To the left were, at about two miles dis- tance, green hills; on the side of which we saw two villages. We contmued for three hours on the plain, approaching the moun- tains ; and after riding up a gentle rising for another half hour, had our first view of Ioannina, and of the lake on which it stands. A gleam of sun-shine afforded us an opportunity of contemplat- ing the fine prospect of the city and its neighbourhood. The
H 2
Mi LET Re σὺ
houses, domes, and minarets, glittering through gardens. of orange and lemon trees, and from groves of cypress—the lake spreading its smooth expanse at the foot of the city—the moun- tains rising abruptly from the banks of the lake—all these burst at once upon us, and we wanted nothing to increase our delight, but the persuasion that we were in sight of the Acherusian lake, of Pindus, and the Elysian Fields. But we had not yet perused the topography of Poukeville.
We soon entered the suburbs, after having passed a new-built house of the Vizier’s on our right, inclosed within a wall of some extent. On our left hand were ‘l'urkish tomb-stones, and shops to the right. As we passed a large tree on our left, opposite a butcher’s shop, I saw something hanging from the boughs, which at a little distance seemed to be meat exposed for sale; but on coming nearer, 1 suddenly discovered it to be a man’s arm, with part of the side torn from the body, and hanging by a bit of string tied round one of the fingers.
Before you set down the ‘Turks as a cruel, savage people, on hearing this, you will recollect, that a stranger passing through Temple-Bar fifty years ago, might have concluded the English to be of the same character. We learnt that the arm was part of a robber who had been beheaded five days before, and whose re- maining quarters were exposed in other parts of loannina.
After riding at least a mile through the streets, we came to the house of the English resident, for whom we had been provided with a letter by the Governor of Malta, and found that a house had been prepared for our reception. ‘T'o this place we repaired, and were received with a most profound politeness by Signor Nicolo, the owner of the mansion. Our quarters were very
LETTER: V3 5.
comfortable, and our host, a Greek, who had passed several years at ‘I'rieste, and who spoke Italian very fluently, was kind and attentive.
I had searcely dressed myself, when I was informed that a secretary of his Highness the Vizier, and the Greek Primate of the city, had called to congratulate us on our arrival. I went in the first to receive them, and was quite overwhelmed with the many fine things said by the Secretary, who spoke French; he told me, that his Highness had been aware of our intention to visit loan- nina; that he had ordered every thing to be prepared for our reception ; that he was sorry to be obliged to leave his capital, to finish a little war (une petite guerre) in which he was engaged, but that he begged we would follow him; and lastly, that an escort was provided for that purpose, to be ready at our com- mand. The Primate, whom, I was told, I might know to bea very great man, by the enormous size of his talpac, or cap, spoke not a word, but bowed very frequently. When my friend came in, the same compliments and _ information were repeated to him ; and as we were not at that time acquainted, that these were usual honours, nor with the Greek manner of ex- pression, we were not a little surprised, especially when we learnt that all our provisions were to be daily furnished to us from the Vizier’s palace.
The Secretary and the Primate left us, as they said, to give the necessary orders, and wishing to observe the Frank ceremony of pulling off the hat, were exceedingly awkward in lifting up their immense caps with two hands, and adjusting them again upon their heads. ‘I'hey were some time also at the door of the apartment shuffling on their outward shoes, which, according to
LETTER V.
>
5
oriental etiquette, as you perhaps know, are always put off on entering an inner apartment ; so that the poorer class of people have their feet naked, the middling wear a sock or stocking, and the rich have a thin boot without a sole, reaching a little above their ancles, which, when worn by a Turk or privileged Greek, is yellow or scarlet, but in all other cases blue, or some dark colour. The delay caused by this adjusting of the outward shoes, after a man has taken his leave, has a very bad and em- barrassing effect; and one is sensible of this when a Greek is making these preparations; but the composure and dignity of a Turk are not hurt by his complying with this or any other custom.
I take the liberty of introducing this sort of remarks, trifling as they are, with a reference to the time and place in which they occurred to me, and after mentioning the occasion which gave rise to the observation. ‘This appears to me a better plan than _ that of classing every thimg under separate heads, and I have ge- nerally adhered to such an arrangement. You will tell me if I am wrong.
lam, ἄς. &c.
LETTER VI.
Visit to the Grandsons of Ali—Manners of the Young Maho- metans—View of the Neighbourhood of Ioannina—The Lake — Mount Tomarus—The Mountains of Sagori—the Route across then—Mount Pindus—Route across it to Larissa— Dodona—The Plains of Loannina—The Amphitheatre of
Chercovista.
SIR,
WE passed the few days that we remained at Ioan- nina, previous to our visiting the Vizier at his quarters, very agreeably, and with a variety of occupations which is seldom to
be enjoyed by travellers, and which, even in this place, would
not, perhaps, have lasted long. ‘The second day of our arrival, we paid a visit to the young son of Mouctar Pasha, who is the eldest son of Ali, and who has distinguished himself so much in the present war with Russia. We waited upon him at the palace assigned to his father ; and he received us, though he was a boy of only ten years old, with a polite unembarrassed air, desiring us, with a gentle motion of the hand, to sit down near him. His preceptor, a grave old man, with a beard reaching to his knees, sat in the corner opposite to him, but did not interfere in the con- versation. The Bey, for that was his title, though he was a little
50 LETTER VI.
inquisitive as to some parts of our dress, and was highly delighted by a handsome sword worn by my friend, yet preserved his dig- nity and gravity, nor could we observe but very little difference between his manners and those of his aged tutor.
When we had taken coffee and sweetmeats, we expressed a wish of seeing the palace, for the Bey was lodged in what ap- peared to be one of the outward and inferior apartments ; and our young host sent immediately to desire his father’s women to retire into the inner apartments of the harem, that, we might have an opportunity of seeing the rooms. As he was walking out of his chamber very sedately before us (for it is, I believe, a point in ‘Turkish etiquette, that the guest should enter the first, but retire the last), one of the shabby looking Albanian guard in waiting upon him, embraced him very tenderly ; and in the whole of the conduct of his people towards him, there was a singular mixture of familiarity and respect.
‘The palace had one long, well-floored, open gallery, with wainscots painted in much the same style as our tea-boards. In one compartment was a tawdry representation of Constantinople, a favourite subject, and one which we recognised in almost every painted house in Turkey. We saw several rooms, not only hand- somely, but very comfortably fitted up, especially those which we were informed were the winter apartments. ‘I'he coverings of the sofas were of richly-wrought silk ; the floors were spread with the best Turkey carpets: and if the windows, which were large and deep, and of clear Venetian glass, had been furnished with curtains, there would have been nothing wanting to complete the elegance of the chambers. Except that one of the rooms was furnished with a marble recess, containing a bath and fountain,
LETTER VI. ST
the whole palace seemed fitted up in the same style, which is easily accounted for, by the circumstance, that in Turkey there are no rooms set apart for sleeping, but all are indiscriminately used for that purpose, as each chamber contains a closet or cup- board, in which are deposited the mats or quilts, that constitute the whole of the bed of the Orientals.
The little Bey was highly delighted at shewing his father’s pa- lace, and now and then seemed inclined to throw off his Turkish reserve. He shewed us his watch, and two or three other little ornaments ; but when I was going to put my hand on a small silver box in the shape of a heart, hanging round his neck by a chain, he shook his head, and said, “* No! No!” I found this was an amulet or charm, and that his tutor had lost no time in beginning the religious part of his pupil’s educatién. 'The Bey spoke Albanian and Greek, and was now learning to write and read ‘Turkish and Arabic. We took our leave, and the youth was as graceful in this ceremony as he had been on our entering the room.
Upon a similar occasion, when we visited another of the grand- sons of Ali, we had an opportunity of observing that these man- ners were not peculiar to himself, but belonged to all Mahometans of the better sort, who, generally speaking, have completed their education, as far as relates to behaviour in society, before they have ceased to be children. Mahomet, son of Veli, Pasha of the Morea, and second son of Ali, was of a lively air, and was said to possess the genius of his grandfather: accordingly, though only twelve years old, he was in possession of a pashalik, He was living in the palace of Ali. He did the honours with the same ease as his cousin, and after sitting a short time, proposed
I
58 LETTER VI.
a visit to a younger brother of his, who was at a house belong- ing to their father Veli.
A messenger was sent before us, and we set out on horses caparisoned with gold housings, whilst some officers of the palace, with their wands and silver sticks, preceded us. As the young Pasha passed through the streets, all the people rose from their shops, and those who were walking stood still, every body pay- ing him the usual reverence, by bending their bodies very low, touching the ground with their nght hand, and then bringing it up to their mouth and forehead (for the adoration of the great 18, in its primitive and literal sense, still preserved among the Orien- tals). The Bey returned the salute by laying his right hand on his breast, and by a gentle inclination of his head.
When arrived at the court of Veli’s palace, he suddenly touched his horse’s sides, and galloped round to the steps, where his brother, a boy of seven years old, was standing to receive him, On meeting, clining their heads over each other’s shoulders. After pipes and
they embraced in a very ceremonious manner, in-
coffee, we proceeded to see the apartments; and, as we were walking along, the youngest boy forgot himself a little, and began to skip about ; when he was immediately checked by the Pasha, who said, ‘* Brother, recollect you are in the presence of a
2) .
stranger; walk more quietly.” ‘Ihe other instantly obeyed ; and it was not a little astonishing, to witness such counsel, and so ready a compliance, in children of so tender anage. 1 have introduced you into so young company, that you may not be surprised at the conduct and carriage of the men amongst the
Turks.
On the 8th of October we were favoured with four of the
LETTER VP. 59
Vizier’s horses, to ride into the country, and we went into the plain, over part of which we had passed on entering the city. We were taken to the spots most favourable for viewing the beau- tiful picture before us. Imagine to yourself a large sheet of water, of ten or twelve miles in length, and at least three miles in breadth, inclosed, on one side by green plains, an extensive city, and along succession of groves and gardens, and on the other, by a chain of lofty mountains, that rise almost abruptly from its banks. Such was the appearance of the lake of Ioannina, and its surrounding scenery. A stay of a fortnight, during two visits, gave us an opportunity of satisfying our curiosity, in be- holding the same object from different points; yet 1 am sure that I shall not be so particular as I could wish, im conveying to your mind an adequate notion of the town and its neighbourhood.
The lake extends, in length, from about north-west to south- south-east. In it there are two woody islands, one large towards the southern extremity, and the other much smaller, nearly opposite to a triangular peninsula which contains the Vizier’s pa- lace, and is defended by a fortress. ‘The northern end of the lake loses itself in a reedy marsh, over which there is a stone causeway, and it is closed by some gardens belonging to the Vizier, where he has a summer palace for the ladies of his harem. The southern extremity extends into a hilly country, and forms at last a small river, that, after being lost for some miles, rises at a village called Velistri, and runs into the marsh on the banks of the gulf of Arta. ‘This is the Acheron of Poukeville, who has also found out an Avernus to receive his infernal stream. But the Acheron did not flow into the Ambracian, but into the Thes-
protian gulf.
60 LETTER VI;
In a little bay, opposite to the islet and to the fortress point, there is a spring of very cold water dripping from the rock; and it is near this stream, or under the spreading branches of a neigh- bouring tree, that an artist would probably place himself, to take a view of the city.
The French writer, who is determined to finish his picture, talks of a river, called by the people of the country Cokytos, which, after flowing under ground, rises at Perama, a ““ maison de plaisance” belonging to the Vizier. The existence of Cokytos and Perama is possible, but I never heard of either the one or the other; and when Poukeville gravely asserts, that the inhabi- tants of Ioannina call their neighbouring plains the ““ E/yszan Fields,” I must entreat you to put no faith in him.
It is singular, that there is no mention made by the ancient geographers, of any lake in the interior of this country, except in the neighbourhood of Lychidnus, a town one hundred and twenty miles to the north of Ioannina, and now called Ocrida. Mr. D’Anville, in placing the Acherusian lake near the sea, and com- municating with the Glykyrs-Limen, or port of sweet waters, sometimes also called the Thesprotian gulf, followed the decisive authority of Strabo*, who, if he did not see the spot himself, might have copied from Livy, and from ‘Thucydides, to the last of whom I would refer you, that you may determine, whether the position of the lake of Ioannina be reconcileable with that of the ancient laket. I should be loth to be as positive against, as
* Lib. vii. + Lib. viii. cap. 24.
| « φ ~ ot / Nn ~ p ἔσ], δὲ λιμὴν» καὶ πόλις ὑπὲρ avloy κεῖται ἄπο θαλάσσης, ἐν τὴ Ελαιαήιδι τῆς
Θεσπρωϊίδος Ἐφύρη. ἔξεισι δὲ παῤ αὐήὴν ᾿Αχερουσία λίμνη ἐς τὴν θάλασσαν.---1 1}. i. cap. 46.
LETTER VI, ΟῚ
Poukeville is in favour of, their identity; yet Ioannina is, by his own confession, twenty-five leagues from the sea.
The whole of the country to the north, north-east, and east of the lake, is a mass of mountains, consisting apparently of two ranges, the one of which runs from north to south, and the other in a direction from north to south-east. ‘lhe first of these vast chains is called Zoumerka, corresponding, it would seem, with the ancient Tomarus; and the latter mountains, now known by the name of Metzovo, can be no other than Pindus itself, for they are the boundaries between this part of Albania and the plains of Thessaly. Between Zoumerka and Metzovo, and running nearly parallel with the lake, but more to the north, are the lofty hills of Sagori, whose flat summits, spread into exten- sive plains, point exactly at mount Lingon, as it is described by Livy, in following the retreat of King Philip before Fla- minius*,
To go into the country of Sagori, the traveller must pass a bridge crossing a small river that runs into the northern end of the lake ; and in four hours, or twelve miles, from Ioannina, he first enters that district. In twelve miles more, he arrives at a monastery dedicated to St. Klas; and again, in twelve other miles, at the town of Sagori, which is in a direction north-east from Ioannina. ‘This route is taken by the merchants travelling into Wallachia, as being more secure than that which leads through the plains of ‘Thessaly by Larissa. The tops of Pindus are more
* Inde........in montem Lingon perrexit. Ipsi montes Epiri sunt interjecti Macedoniew Thessaliaque. Latus quod vergit in Thessaliam oriens spectat ; septentrio a Macedonia objicitur, vestiti frequentibus sylvis sunt, juga summa campos patentes, aquasque perennes habent.—Lib. xxxiii. cap. 13.
62 ΤῊ ΤΙ vr
7 oS ami a tiv + Ae
than a day’s journey from the lake. It is but seldom that they
gentleman who had been so
are not hidden in the clouds; but a fortunate as to perform that exploit in a clear day, informed me, that the prospect from that eminence was more extensive than any he had ever seen; and he had ascended Olympus. Poiy bins speaks of a lull in Epirus, from which both seas might be dis- tinctly seen.
Metzovo is socalled, from a town of that name, consisting of fifteen hundred houses, and lying in the route from Ioannina to Larissa. ‘This route is given with great apparent accuracy by Pou- keville: it leads during three hours along the lake, then for an hour across a mountain in an easterly direction ; passes over a bridge of the river that flows to Arta; continues for five hours, but more southerly, along that river, then over another hill an hour and a half, and reaches Metzovo; afterwards it goes easterly, for two hours, over the mountain Metzovo, to Malacassi, a village, and still ascends for an hour, till it crosses a stream that falls into the Salembria, or river Peneus. ‘[his stream it tollows for three hours, and reaches a han called Kokouliotiko (the Gomphi of Poukeville); it then passes Stagous, a town of a thousand houses, re-crosses the river of Malacassi, and runs over a vast plain, in ten hours from the han, to '‘Triccala, the ancient 'Tricca of Thessaly, and now the chief town of a small province. From ‘Triccala the road continues on the plam m an easterly direction, till in nine hours and a half it reaches Larissa, having, in five hours, passed Zarko, a town of eight hundred houses, and, in an hour and a half more, a village called Koutzochero, near which it crosses the Salembria.
Between the roots of mount Metzovo, and the southern extre-
LETTER VI. 63
mity of the lake, are two lower hills, to the first of which a few insignificant remains, supposed to be those of Cassiope, the name of an inland town as well as of a port of Epirus, have given the appellation of the Cassiopean hills. The other, our French author has chosen to call the little Pindus. But although the licence granted to the fancy of his nation may suffer him to wander through his Elysian Fields, and sport with the Grecian Muses on their favourite hill, still he cannot be permitted to profane with conjecture the venerable shades of Dodona. “ΑἹ a village,” says he, ‘‘ four leagues to the north-east of Ioannina, begin the hills of Sagori, and the forests of Dodona*.” But these groves are not to be distinguished from amidst a thou- sand woody recesses that shade the mountains of Albania; and the prose of the traveller is less sober than the poetry of bis har-
monious countryman.
Ce sont passés ces temps des réves poetiques
Ou homme interrogeoit des f6rets prophetiques, Ou la fable créant des faits prodigicux
Peuploit d’étres vivants des bois religieux. Doone inconsuliée a perdu ses oracles,
Les vergers sont sans Dieux, les forets sans miraclest.
Nor can his auxiliary (M. Barbier du Boccage) be allowed to fix the oracle of Jupiter at the village of Protopapas, three leagues
to the north-north-west of Ioanninay. We must be content to
* Voyage en Albanie, page 54. + Delille, Trois Regnes de la Nature, canto vi. 1 Description et Histoire de VAncienne Epire, prefixed to the Travels in
Albania.
64 LETTER VI.
know what Homer has told us, that it was situated in a distant and inclement region, amongst a barbarous people, who washed not their feet, and who lay upon the bare ground* ; or at most, we can only learn that it was placed somewhere at the foot of mount ‘lomarus, in the country first belonging to the Thespro- tians, and afterwards to the Molossians+-.
ΤῸ the south-west, the west, and the north-west, of Ioannina, the country is plain for the most part, though occasionally inter- rupted by low hills and spots of rising ground. We passed through the length of this flat, and I should conceive it to be about twenty-five miles, beginning a little beyond the han of St. Dimetre, and concluding at a village called Zitza. Its breadth varies from one to three or four miles, and it is terminated to the south-westward by hills belonging to a district whose chief town is called Philathe, and which is on the route from Ioannina to the districts of Paramitkia, and to those of Margariti, Parga, and Sulli, on the coast of the Adriatic, nearly opposite to Corfu.
But I will leave the notice of these places to another opportu- nity, and proceed to inform you, that in the whole extent of the country of which 1 have given you so imperfect a sketch, there is only one important remnant of antiquity: this we visited. It is in the neighbourhood of a village called, as well as I could catch the sound, Chercovista, and about four hours in a direc- tion nearly south-easterly from the city. The road is first through
the plain, and then ascends, over some low rocky hills, into a wide valley, terminated by woody hills called Olintza. Here,
before arriving at the principal ruins, there are evident traces of
lliad, lib. xvi. lin. 233, et sequ. + Strab. lib. vii.
LETTER VI. 65
ancient buildings; but the amphitheatre, which soon presents itself, is indeed magnificent, and, for a ruin, very entire. The stones that compose it, are of that massy size, which I have before remarked to be the characteristic of Grecian architecture. The breadth of the area is fifty-six long paces, and the rows of seats are in number sixty-five, each seat being in depth more
than a foot. ‘This is a very inadequate description of an anti- quity of such importance ; but you will be pleased to hear, that it has been exactly measured, and represented in a most accurate design, by the hand of an artist. A marble vase has been dug out from the area of the amphitheatre, and is now in possession of the gentleman to whom I have before had occasion to allude.
The conjectures of a scholar would be busily employed in assigning some classical name to the site of the magnificent ruin of Chercovista; but he might, after every enquiry, be obliged perhaps to content himself with thinking, that he had viewed the sole remaining vestige of the ancient splendour of Epirus, of the seventy cities, which a decree of the Roman senate despoiled in one day, and at the same hour, of their wealth, of their orna- ments, and of their people*. However, although we may believe, with Plutarch, that every one was horror-struck, when a whole nation was involved in ruin for the sake of a plunder, which, being divided, gave to each soldier only eleven drachmas+}-; yet
*'Polyb. lib. vii. “T. Liv. lib. xiv. ‘cap. 84.
+ Plut. in vit. ASmylii.—However, all Epirus was not depopulated, but only those parts which had favoured King Perseus, as we learn by an ex pression of Livy; for that historian, after detailing the account of this cruelty, soon talks of the rest of the Epirotes—‘ reliquorum Epirotarum” are bis words, Mr. Hume, as well as Plutarch, seems to have fallen into the inaccuracy of stating
these 150,000 as the entire population of all Epirus. See Essay on the Popu- lousness of Ancient Nations.
fo © Te ae hie oe eI ea 66 LETTER V
= .
the smallness of the booty, and of the number of the captives <150,000) enslaved by the conquerors, allows but a scanty, and not a rich population, to each of the cities destroyed; and it is probable, that some one of them would have been particularized, had it been one-third as extensive as modern Loannina; but to that place, after giving you a short respite, I will, in my next Letter, at length return. Iam, &c. Kc.
LETTER VII.
Toannina—the Houses—the Palaces of the Vizier—Summer Pavilion—Population of the City—the Trade—Annual Fair
— Exports and Imports.
THE existence of such a city as Ioannina seems, till very lately, to have been almost unknown, and yet, I should suppose it, after Salomika and Adrianople, to be the most consi- derable place in European Turkey. It has never been my good fortune to meet with a notice of it m any book of an early date, except once in the ponderous history of Knolles, who, with an accuracy usual in such a writer, tells how the Sultan Bajazet the First, took the city of Ioannina in A‘tolia*. Poukeville has somewhere discovered, that it was founded by Michael Lucas Sebastoerator, and by the despot ‘’homas, and conquered by Amurath Bey, general to Sultan Amurath the Second, in 1424. This account I am unable to confirm, or to contradict, and shall therefore speak only of its present state.
‘he city stands on the western banks of the lake, at about two miles from its northern extremity. In its utmost length it may * History of the Turks, p. 205.
EZ
.Q Wn + — UC LETT ER VEL.
ml ν᾿’
be perhaps two miles and ἃ half; and in breadth, though in some places it is much narrower, nearly a mile. Immediately near the lake it stands on a flat, but the north and north-western parts of it are built on slopes of rising and uneven ground. Δ triangular peninsula (of which mention has before been made) juts into the lake, and contains the residence of the Pasha, being defended by a fortification and a tower at each angle. ‘The entrance to this fortress is over a drawbridge. ‘There is one street which runs nearly the whole length of the town, and another that cuts it at right angles, extending to the fortress. ‘I’'hese are the principal streets.
The houses are, many of them, large and well-built, containing a court-yard, and having warehouses or stables on the ground, with an open gallery and the apartments of the family above. A flizht of wooden steps under cover of the pent of the gallery, con- nects the under and upper part of the houses. ‘Though they have but a gloomy appearance from the street, having the win- dows very small, and latticed with cross bars of wood, and _pre- senting the inhospitable show of large folding doors, big enough to admit the horses and cattle of the family, but never left open, yet the yard, which is often furnished with orange and lemon trees, and in the best houses communicates with a garden, makes them very lively from within, and the galleries are sufficiently ex- tensive to allow a scope for walking in rainy weather.
The Bazar, or principal street, inhabited by the tradesmen, is well furnished, and has a showy appearance. ‘The Bizestein, or covered Bazar, is of considerable size, and would put you in
mind, as perhaps I have before observed of these places, of Exeter- Change.
A DANCING GI
Linton Liblished by James Cauthorn, 24 Covkspur Steck |
LETTER VII. 69
Besides the palace in the fortress, and the two I have men- tioned in my last Letter, allotted to the two sons of Ali, there is another summer residence of the Vizier’s in the suburbs, at the north-west end of the town. It is built in the midst of a garden, in a wild and tangled state, when we saw it, but abounding with every kind of fruit-tree that flourishes in this favoured climate— the orange, the lemon, the fig, and the pomegranate. It is in the form of a pavilion, and has one large saloon (I think an octa- gon), with small latticed apartments on every side. The floor of the saloon is of marble, and in the middle of it there is a fountain containing a pretty model, also in marble, of a fortress, mounted with small brass cannon, which, ata signal, spout forth jets of water into the fountain, accompanied by a small organ in a recess, playing some Italian tunes. ‘The small rooms are furnished with sofas of figured silk, and the lattices of the windows, as well as the cornices, are gilt, and highly polished. The shade of an orange- grove protects the pavilion from the sun, and it is to this retreat that the Vizier withdraws during the heats of summer, with the most favoured ladies of his harem, and indulges in the enjoyment of whatever accomplishments these fair-ones can display for his gratification. Our attendant pointed out to us, in a recess, the sofa on which Al was accustomed to sit, whilst, on the marble floor of the saloon, his females danced before him to the music of the Albanian lute.
In a field adjommg the gardens, and surrounded with high walls, are a few large deer and antelopes. ‘The pavilion and its gardens bespeak ἃ taste quite different from that of the country, and most probably the Vizier was indebted to his French prisoners for the beauties of this elegant retirement. We were told it was
the work of a Frank.
70 LETTER VII.
Beyond the pavilion there are gardens belonging to the prin- cipal citizens of Ioannina, and as most of these have a summer- house in them, they seem to make a part of the city, which, from its great apparent extent, might be thought to contain a very large population. But the Mahometans never make any efforts to ascertain the exact number of inhabitants in any town or dis- trict, and it was only during our stay in Turkey, that the Greek priests of one city were persuaded, for the first time, by a Scotch gentleman, to keep a regular registry of births in their district. This makes every thing that can be said on the population of Toannina, mere conjecture. Some informed me that it contained eight thousand houses, others did not make the number of inhabi- tants amount to more than thirty-five thousand. I should think this is the: lowest possible computation. Of this number, whatever it be, one-tenth perhaps are Mahometans, and the remainder Chris- tians, with a few Jews.
The Christians of loannina, though inhabiting a part of Albania, and governed by Albanian masters, call themselves Greeks, as do the inhabitants of Arta, Prevesa, and even of many villages higher up in the country: ‘They neither wear the Albanian dress, nor speak the Albanian language, and they par- take also in every particular of the manners and customs of the Greeks of the Morea, Roumelia, and the other christian parts of Turkey in Europe and Asia. As, however, the appellation Romeos, or Roman, (once so proud a title, but now the badge of bondage) is a religious, not a national distinction, and means a Christian of the Greek church, and as many of the Albanians are of that persuasion, and denominated accordingly, it is difficult to avoid confusion, in giving to the various people of the country
LETTER VII. 71
their common names. ‘To prevent, however, any mistake, I shall always use the words Greek and Albanian, with a reference, not to the religion, but to the language and nation of the persons, whom I may have occasion to mention. At the same time, I shall indulge myself in the opposite licence, of putting the word Turk as a religious denomination, which, though an undoubted vulgarism, is prevalent amongst the Greeks of the Levant, and does not, as far as I could see, give that offence to the Mahome- tans, of which I have somewhere read.
The Greek citizens of Ioannina appear a distinct race from the inhabitants of the mountains, and perhaps are sprung from ancient settlers, who may have retired, from time to time, before the suc- cessive conquerors of Peloponnesus and Greece, into a country where, although enslaved, they were less exposed to perpetual ravages and toa frequent change of masters. Many of them boast of their ancestry, and I was told that there was in the city a school-master, whose family had taught for 300 years suc- cessively, the eldest son always taking upon himself the profes- sion. I would not wish. you to believe in this long line of peda- gogues, but before you laugh at the notion of a family of school- masters, you should recollect, that we have, in our own country, an instance of the same thing, and that, after all, an hereditary scholar is not a more strange being, than an hereditary legisiator.
‘The Greeks of loannina are, with the exception of the priests, and of some few who are in the employments of the Pasha, all engaged in trade ; and many of the better sort pass three or four years in the merchant-houses of ‘Trieste, Genoa, Leghorn, Venice, and Vienna, which, in addition to the education they receive in. the
72 LETTER VII.
schools of their own city, where they may learn French and Italian, gives them a competent knowledge of the most diffused modern languages, and adds also to the ease and urbanity of their address. They have, indeed, introduced as much as they dare of the man- ners of Christendom, and, as our host, Signor Nicolo, informed us, once aspired for a moment, to the establishment of a theatre for the performance of Italian operas. Some of them, after esta- blishing an intercourse with their own city, settle in the sea-ports of Roumelia, and in the towns of Moldavia, Wallachia, and Hun- gary; but they generally return home, as the policy of Ali con- trives to oblige them to leave part of their family in his dominions, and, indeed, the wealthy merchants cannot leave the country, or even the city, without. his express permission. They are not indulged with a ride into the country without a notification of their purpose. ‘The annual revenue which the Vizier draws from his capital, amounts, say they, to 250,000 piasters.
There is a fair which lasts a fortnight, held once a year on the plain, a mile and a half to the south-east of the city; and during this time, ali the tradesmen are obliged to leave their shops in the Bazar and Bizestein, which are shut, and to set up booths in the
plain. This the Vizier finds a very good method of getting at
some knowledge of the actual property of his subjects. ‘The fair was held during our residence in the city, and opened on the 8th of October, when we passed through it on horseback. The booths, occupying a great extent of ground, are built, and fitted up exactly as in England, and are divided into rows much more regular than the streets, and each allotted to some particular merchandize. ‘There is also a piece of ground
LETTER ° Vit. 715
for the cattle, sheep, and horses, and several plots of green sward for the parties of dancers, who continue their amusements during the whole mght.
Here are the goods imported from the Ionian Islands, and the ports of the Adriatic formerly, but now mostly from Malta, in Scla- vonian vessels under the Turkish flag; they are landed at Prevesa, Salora, Vallona, and Durazzo, and thence conveyed on horses to Joannina. Our blockade of the Adriatic must soon cut off these sup- plies, and, as an inglish merchant disdains such petty traftic, Alba- nia may soon be in want of the greater part of them. Still, how- ever, there are caps from ‘Trieste, Leghorn, and Genoa, and some coffee and sugar from the first of these places. [Xnives, sword- blades, and gun-barrels, glass, and paper, are brought from Ve- nice, but the three first of these articles are sold in all the little sea-ports of Albania, without passing through loannina. ‘The gold and silver thread used in their embroidery, is obtained: from Vienna.
Cloth of French and German manufacture is sent from Leipsig. This is the chief article of importation, as it is from this fair that all the richer Greeks and Turks, not only in Albania, but in great part of Roumelia and in the Morea, supply themselves with the loose robes and pelisses of their winter dress. English cloth is in
the highest estimation, but seldom to be met with here, or even
at Smyrna and Constantinople, on account of its great price. The best of the cloth sold at Ioannina was not equal to the worst of that manufactured in England, and was of a coarse thin texture, and very badly dyed. The articles of exportation are, oil, wool, corn, and tobacco, for the ports of the Adriatic and Naples; and, for inland circula- 3
74, LETTER VII.
tion through Albania and Roumelia, spun cottons from the plains of Triccala, stocks of guns and pistols mounted in chased silver, both plain and gilt, and also embroidered velvets, stuffs, and cloths, which are here better wrought than in any other part of Turkey in Europe.
Large flocks of sheep and goats, and droves of cattle and horses, are collected from the hills both of Lower and Upper Albania for the fair. Of these, all but the horses, which are dispersed in the country, are sold into the Ionian Islands. The woods of Albania, before the French revolution, furnished Toulon with timber for ship-buildmg, and Marseilles imported into the coun- try the French colonial produce. But both these traffics have long ceased, and if the trees of Mount Tomarus, or the Acroce- raunians, are in future to “‘ descend to the main,” they will swell the squadrons of the British fleets.
It is in vain that the watchful jealousy of Napoleon has adopted the advice of Poukeville, and removed the station of the French agent from Arta to Joannina, in order to counteract such a measure, appointing, at the same time, that gentleman himself, to carry his own plans into execution, This minister was at his post during our stay in the city, but, as he gives no countenance to the nation at war with his master, we had not the satisfaction of seeing him. I am sorry to say that he does not bear his diplomatic faculties meekly about him, nor possess the urbanity so characte- ristic both of his nation and his former profession, This I should not have mentioned, had he not, with a rudeness that has already been noticed by a late intelligent writer (I mean Mr. Thornton), indulged himself in some personal and national reflections, which do but little credit to his character, either as an author or a gen-
LETTER VII. {5
tleman. ‘The noble enmities of two great nations do not authorize such petty detractions.
I was not able to learn the extent of the commercial dealings of the merchants of Ioannina; but the balance of trade is in favour of Albania, and is paid in Venetian zequins.
The Greeks of this city are as industrious as any in Turkey, and their embroidery, the art in which they excel, is executed very neatly; but there was no one who could mend an umbrella in the whole place ; and only one man, a poor Italian, was capa- ble of making a bedstead. ‘The only encouragement an able me- chanic would meet with, would be employment at the Vizier’s palace, without receiving any emolument. This is, of itself, sufficient to put a stop to every exercise of ingenuity.
Lam, &c. &c.
Lg
LETTER VIII.
The Turkish Ramazan—Preparations for Travelling—Greek Peasantry— Route from Ioannina to Zitza—Thunder Storm— The Monastery of Zitza—View from it—Inhabitants of Zitza —their Misery.
AS it is my purpose to speak at this time rather of the Albanians than of the Greeks, and as whatever is peculiar to this latter people, is to be found in the inhabitants of that part of Greece which we afterwards visited, I shall hasten to commence our journey with you into the upper part of the country, where his Highness the Vizier had fixed his quarters.
We were a little unfortunate in the time we chose for travel- ling, for it was during the Ramazan, or Turkish Lent, which, as it occurs in each of the thirteen months in succession, fell this year on October, and was hailed at the rising of the new moon on the evening of the eighth, by every demonstration of joy: pistols and guns were discharged in every quarter of the city. The Turks continued firing long enough to exhaust their cartridge-pouches, and as they used balls, according to custom, the Greek inhabi- tants closed their window-shutters and remained at home; a pre- caution very necessary, for two bullets passed within a very audible
LETTER VIII. Tt
distance of our host’s gallery. ‘The minarets of all the moscks were illuminated, and every thing seemed to show that the ap- proaching season was not considered as one of penance, but de- voted to merriment. In truth, although during this month the strictest abstinence, even from tobacco and coffee, is observed in the day-time, yet with the setting of the sun the feasting com- mences, anda small repast is served ; then is the time for pay- ing and receiving visits, and. for the amusements of ‘Turkey puppet-shows, jugglers, dancers, and story-tellers. At one o’clock in the morning, after prayers, the dinner commences, and the carousal lasts till day-break, when the ‘Turks retire to rest, and do not rise till mid-day.
We were, therefore, as I said, unlucky in hitting on this time for travelling, for we were frequently a long time before we could rouse the people who were to assist us in our progress, and were. besides often disturbed by the heavy drum beaten at midnight to call the Mahometans to the mosck.
We were a stronger party on this journey than we had been in travelling to [oannina, for we were accompanied by his Highness’s Secretary, of whom you have before heard, and by a Greek Priest, who not having his annual compliment of piasters for the Vizier, was journeying to him, to explain the cause of his default: it seems he was a relation of the Secretary’s, and on that score joined company with us. We were also furnished with an Alba- nian soldier, belonging to the city guard. His name was Vasilly, and he afterwards continued in our service. It was the province of this man to take care that the Vizier’s guests (so they called us) were properly treated and accommodated on the road, and he became a very important personage in our suite. The intendant
78 LETTER VIILi.
of the post provided us with five saddle-horses, and a post-man, called in Turkey ἃ sourgee, to look after them; and for these, which were to serve us till our return to loannina, we were not to pay a settled price, but to make the intendant a present.
Had we at that time been provided with a positive order from the Vizier, we should have been also furnished with horses of the post to garry our luggage; but, as it was, we had a command in writing from Mehmet Effendi, governor of Ioannina, addressed to the heads of all the villages where we were to stop; and these were to get us as many horses as we might want. Exeept from Frank travellers, the peasants seldom get a farthing for their beasts, and their labour in attending them; and as these orders are frequently given, they constitute one of the most heavy grievances of the poor, and are a great check to agriculture. It is with great difficulty that the villagers are forced into this ser- vice: neither the prospect of payment, nor blows, sometimes, are sufficient to make them produce their beasts, and we were witness to many unpleasant scenes.
Vasilly, though he was a Christian, yet being a soldier in the Vizier’s service, considered himself to have a right over the backs of the peasants; and, against positive orders, would have occa- sional recourse to sticks, and even stones. When reprimanded, he shrugged up his shoulders and exclaimed, “ xwpss τὸ ξυλο οἱ Ῥωμαιοι dev καμινδν κανένα πραγμά, which you will perhaps discover, dis- guised as it is in the vulgarity of the modern idiom, to mean ‘The Greeks will do nothing without the stick.’—The most compassionate traveller, if it should ever come to the dilemma,, whether these people should be beaten, or he be stopped in his journey, would not, I believe, hesitate a long time in his elec-
LETTER VIII. 79
tion; but then we are apt to think that the business could be done without going to such extremities: the Turks, however, say not; and, such is the force of habit, those of the Greeks I have seen, seem almost to confirm the opinion.
These preliminaries being noticed, you must be informed, that on the eleventh of the month (October), we left Ioannina at one o’clock in the afternoon, and proceeded towards the north- western end of the city. After passing out of the suburbs, we crossed a wide ditch and mound, that had been made about twenty years past by Ali, as a defence for his city; and that for- merly surrounded the whole of the land side of loannina, but was, at this time, in many places, and especially towards the road to Arta, scarcely apparent.
After riding an hour (or three miles) westerly, we passed on our right hand a green hillock, with some few remains of old walls on the top of it. ‘The spot is called “ Kathevaki.” Ina long narrow plain to the left, were tents pitched in a range of vineyards belonging to inhabitants of Joannina, who were them- selves superintending the gathering of the grapes. As we pro- ceeded, there were several villages on each side of us; and, twe hours from our setting out, on the left hand of the road was a house belonging to the Vizier, called ‘ Karkopoule,” to which part of his harem occasionally retire.
In three hours we came toa large tract of marshy flat land, in several parts of which there were workmen building, by the Vizier’s orders, low bridges, to make the country passable in winter, On the top of a low hull to the left, was the country re- sidence of a Turk of great consequence. It had but a very poor appearance, not looking better than a han, and standing on the
80 LETTER VI1i.
crag of a rock, without even a garden; yet it was to the daughter of the owner of this mansion, that young Hussein Bey, the grand- son of Ali, was athanced.. It is not, however, in fine houses that the ‘Turks take a pride; they are very easily lodged; and are satisfied with what would appear to a I’rank a want of every arti- cle of common furniture.
We were nearly an hour crossing the marsh, when we came to a han of the meaner sort, and at this place, the road, which had before been very good, turned into some low stony hills. The sourgee had galloped on forwards to prepare us a lodging at the village, where we intended to stop for the night; and after passing the han, the Secretary, Vasilly, and myself, rode on be- fore the rest of the party. ‘The pass through the hills lasted half an hour; and after travelling an hour more over a slippery plain, we arrived at the village just as the evening set in very dark, and the rain began to pour down in torrents. My I’riend, with the baggage and servants, was behind, and had not been in sight for some time.
After stumbling through several narrow lanes, we came, at last, to the miserable hovel prepared for our reception. ‘The room was half full of maize in the stalk; the floor was of mud, and there was no outlet for the smoke but through the door. However, the Secretary, having laid down his wallet, and spread his carpet, “ after the manner of eastern nations,’ seated him- self on one side of the blaze, and 1 took up my quarters in the other corner. - Vasilly was dispatched into the village to procure eges and fowls, that would be ready, as we thought, by the ar- rival of the second party. But an hour passed away and no one appeared. It was seven o'clock, and the storm had increased ta
LETTER. ΥΥΣΙ. 81
a fury I had never before, and, indeed, have never since, seen equalled. The roof of our hovel shook under the clattering tor- rents, and gusts of wind. ‘The thunder roared, as it seemed, without any intermission; for the echoes of one peal had not ceased to roll in the mountains, before another tremendous crash burst over our heads; whilst the plains, and the distant hills (visi- ble through the cracks of the cabin), appeared in a perpetual blaze. The tempest was altogether terrific, and worthy of the Grecian Jove ; and the peasants, no less religious than their an- cestors, confessed their alarm. ‘The women wept, and the men, calling on the name of God, crossed themselves at every repeated peal.
We were very uneasy that the party did not arrive; but the Secretary assured me, that the guides knew every part of the country, as did also his own servant, who was with them, and
that they had certainly taken shelter in a village at an hour's dis- tance. Not being satisfied with this conjecture, I ordered fires to be lighted on the hill above the village, and some musquets to be discharged: this was at eleven o'clock, and the storm had not abated. I lay down in my great coat; but all sleeping was out of the question, as any pauses in the tempest were filled up by the barking of the dogs, and the shouting of the shepherds in
the neighbouring mountains.
A little after midnight a man, panting and pale, and drenched with rain, rushed into the room, and, between crying and roar- ing, with a profusion of action, communicated something to the Secretary, of which I understood only—that they had all fallen down. I learnt, however, that no accident had happened, ex- cept the falling of the luggage horses, and losing their way,
M
82 LETTER VIII.
and that they were now waiting for fresh horses and guides. ‘Ten were immediately sent to them, together with several men with pine torches; but it was not till two o'clock in the morning that we heard they were approaching, and my Friend, with the Priest and the servants, did not enter our hut before three.
f now learnt from him, that they. had lost. their way from the commencement of the storm, when not above three miles from the village; and that after wandering up and down in total ignorance of their position, had, at last, stopped near some Turk- ish tomb-stones and a torrent, which they saw by the flashes, of lightning. ‘hey had been thus exposed for nine hours; and the guides, so far from assisting them, only augmented the contu- sion, by running away, after bemg threatened with death by George the dragoman, who, in an agony of rage and fear, and without giving any warning, fired. off, both his pistols, and drew from the English servant an involuntary scream, of horror; for he fancied they were beset by robbers.
I had not, as you have seen, witnessed the distressing part of this adventure myself ; but from the lively picture. drawn of it by my Friend, and from the exaggerated descriptions of George, I fancied myself a good judge of the whole situation, and should consider this to have been one of the most considerable of the few adventures that befel either of us during our tour, in Turkey. It was long before we ceased to talk of the thunder-storin in the plain of Zitza (the name of our village); and 1 have told you the anecdote, that you may see how little dependence is to be placed, in cases of difficulty, upon Greek guides, or servants in general, who, to say the truth, confine all their. energy and resolution. to talking, but in, action are noisy, wavering, and timid; se much
LETTER Viit. 83
so, indeed, that in this country it is absolutely necessary to be always accompanied by a soldier, to enforce obedience, and to
make the rest of the attendants do their duty against their will.
After the fatigues and disasters of the night, we resolved to stay one day at Zitza, to dry and refit our luggage. By mid- day the weather was very fine, and we strolled out to take a view of the country.
A little above the village, which 15 itself on the steep side of a hill, there is a green eminence crowned with a grove of oak trees: that has been chosen, like almost every other beautiful spot in these parts of the world, for the site of a monastery. Immediately under the monastery, there is a large well-built house of the Vizier’s, but there is no one who would not pass by the palace, were it ten times more splendid, to reach the neighbouring grove. Perhaps there is not in the world a more romantic prospect than that which is viewed from the summit of the hill. The fore-ground is a gentle declivity, terminating on every side in an extensive landscape of green hills and dale, enriched with vineyards, and dotted with frequent flocks. Many villages, and the groves with which they are sheltered and adorned, appear on the sloping sides of the surrounding hills, The view is every where closed by mountains, but between those to the north-west, there is a glimpse of a long and verdant plain in the distance, and of the windings of a river called the Calamas. The mountains to tne north, part of Zoumerka or Tomarus, which are tne nearest, are woody to their top, but disclose some wide chasms of red rock. Those to the north-east, the hills of Sagori, seem a long ledge of rocks, running nearly from west to east; to the east is Pindus, verging to the south-east, ‘To the south are the Sulliote moun-
M 2
$4 LETTER» VILL.
tains, and to the north-west, but in the farthest distance, are those of Chimera, the Acroceraunians. Neither loannina nor its lake are visible, though Zizta cannot be more than fourteen miles from the city.
We went into the monastery, after some parley with one of the monks, through a small door plated with iron, on which the marks of violence were very apparent, and which, before the country had been tranquilized under the powerful government of Ali, had been frequently battered in vain by the troops of rob- bers, then by turns infesting every district. The Prior of the monastery, a humble, meek-mannered man, entertained us in a warm chamber with grapes, and a pleasant white wine, not trod- den out, as he told us, by the feet, but pressed from the grape by the hand ; and we were so well pleased with every thing about us, that we agreed to lodge with him on our return from the Vizier.
Zitza is a village of about one hundred and fifty houses, inha- bited by Greek peasants, and not having one Turk in the place, except the man employed to take care of the Vizier’s house. It is not, however, the jess oppressed on that account, as we had an opportunity of observing, for the Secretary was inspector of some of the villages, and accordingly the Primate, or first man of the place, who was dressed in a woollen jacket, and looked like an English waggoner, but was well mannered, came before him toa give in his accounts.
The Papas, or secular priest of the village, a miserable-looking creature, in whose house we were lodged, and who performed every menial office of his family, complained to the Secretary, that the assessment of the Primate was too high, especially as the best lands of the village belonged to the monastery, which paid
LETTER VIII. 85
no regular tax. The poor Priest, with a disconsolate humble tone, declared that the annual sum, 13,000 piasters, being paid, they had hardly sufficient remaining out of the produce of their labour, to support themselves and children.
Fimployed in the cultivation of a rich soil, and in the tending of numerous flocks, their wine, their corn, their meat, the fleeces and skins, and even the milk of their sheep and goats, all were to be sold to raise so exorbitant a tax: they were starving in the midst of abundance; their labour was without reward, their rest without recreation ; even the festivals of their church were passed over uncelebrated, for they had neither the spirits nor the means for merriment.
It was impossible not to believe every word that was uttered by the poor fellow, who, whilst our dragoman was interpreting his tale, looked eagerly upon us, and still preserved the same pitiable air and action, with which he had told _ his story. He wished us to believe him, and, indeed, his own appearance and that of his fellow villagers, bore forcible testimony to the truth of his assertions. However, there was nothing to be done but to try if Al would consent to take less than the thirteen thousand plasters, and we never heard how the matter ended, or whether the burthens of Zitza were alleviated.
Tam, ἄς. &c.
LETTER IX.
Route from Zitza—River Calamas—Village of Mosure—Deloi- naki—Route from Butrinto to Deloinaki—Flocks of Goats —Albanian Wine—Route by the Plain of Argyro-castro to Libokavo—Upper Albania—Turkish Meats—Libokavo—Ar- gyro-castro—Short Account of that City.
WE left Zitza at nine o’clock in the morning of the ninth, and proceeded in a direction at first north-west by north, through vineyards running up the sides of the hills, and yielding, as they told us, and as is usually, I believe, the case in such situa-~ tions, a finer grape than that which is found on the plains. We then crossed a barren hill, and, in two hours, entered a valley, studded with clumps of trees, and divided by the river Calamas, whose windings we had seen from the monastery. Our friend the Secretary told me, this was the ‘“‘ Acheron,” 1 suspect his autho- rity to have been “ Meliteus,” a modern Greek geographer, who was a bishop at Athens about the beginning of the last century, His book contains both the ancient and modern names of places, and although strangely incorrect in many instances, even as to the neighbourhood of the very city in which he lived, yet as it is the only one of the kind, it 18 useful to travellers. Unfortunately, it
LETTER ΙΧ. 87
is a thick folio, and not very portable. The Calamas, as it runs towards the Port of Sweet Waters, may have some pretensions to be the celebrated river of the infernal regions.
Near the entrance of the valley we saw a fall of the river, not very high, but rolling through a grove of trees, with a small mill perched on the top of the left bank. Continumg for half an hour through this valley, with the river at our left, we passed a han on our right hand; and, shortly afterwards, crossed’ a bridge over the Calamas, which is here very rapid, and in breadth about the size of the Avon at Bath. ‘The plain, which till this time had been flat and broad, now began to be more narrow, and inter- spersed with woody hillocks ; and we: passed at the foot of high hills. to.the left, covered with trees. We were here shown a house of the Vizier’s, embosomed in a nook half way up the steep, and surrounded by asloping lawn, A few spots of ground that had been cleared, were cultivated, and converted into vineyards and wheat-grounds, and large flocks of goats were browsing on the shrubs through which our path lay; so that we seemed approach- ing to the country of a more happy people than those we had left behind: at Zitza. But whatever were our reflexions, they were interrupted: bya thunder-storm, which, with the deluge that had been. poured. down on the night of my Friend’s adventure, ren- dered the road almost impassable; for the torrents, streaming down the hills, had more than once nearly carried away our lug- gage horses,
When-we arrived, at half past’ one o’clock, at a little village called Mosure; we were told thet the rains would prevent our proceeding that- day; and‘we-accordingly took up our lodging at the house of ἃ poor Priest, who, notwithstanding what has been
88 LETTER ΙΧ.
said of the appearance of the country, seemed to have as much reason to be miserable as the people whom we had just left. Here also we saw a house belonging to the Vizier; indeed the village itself, they told us, was his private property, and the half of ail produce was paid to him, besides the absolute dis- posal of the labour of the peasants. ‘The villagers were, many of them, employed in felling timber m the mountains, which, after being cut into planks, is passed down the Calamas to the coast.
The day cleared up, and gave us leave to see some very fine mountain scenery. ‘The valley, which runs from north-east to south-west, appeared to terminate a little to the north of our village ; and the view of the river was lost at a short distance to the south-east. Immediately opposite, to the south of Mosure, was a huge rocky hill called Papinghi, and having a summit so singularly shaped, as to appear like a fortification with battle- ments and turrets. Papinghi must be part of Zoumerka, and the direct road from Ioannina would lead across it to Mosure ; but the mountain being impassable, the traveller is obliged to go fourteen or fifteen miles in a westerly direction to Zitza, and afterwards due north for ten or eleven miles to this village ; the latter part of the journey being in a very bad path, easy to be lost, and mistaken for a goat track,
At this place we were worse lodged than at our last village ; and the mud floor of our hovel was overrun with every descrip- tion of vermin. You have seen an Irish cabin, and 1 need not
be more particular. We had only a journey of three hours for our day’s work, on Saturday, October 14, and therefore did not set of till one o’clock in the afternoon, when we went northwards,
LETTER . LX. 89
through forests of oak, leavmg the Calamas to the right hand, aud in littke more than an hour skirted a small plain and lake, also to the right. From the south-west end of this lake, it is not improbable that the Calamas flows, although we could not see it, as our view was intercepted by a low hull, and a small fortress (or rather barrack) of the Vizier’s, called Tarrovina. The people with us knew nothing about the matter.
Leaving the plain and a small han to the left of the road, we again began to ascend gradually; winding through thick woods, still northwards, for an hour, when we found ourselves suddenly at the top of a deep precipice, with a prospect, to the left, of a succession of woody hills rising one above the other, and of Del- vinaki, the town where we were to stop, at the bottom and ex- tremity of the chasm to.the right. ‘There was a path to the left, by which those who do not stop at this place save an hour’s dis- tance, as it communicates directly with the road, which is seen winding up the precipice on the opposite side. We dismounted, as the descent was rugged, in many parts very steep, and over- hung with large masses of loose rock ; and we were half an hour before we entered the town.
Here we were more comfortably lodged than on the preceding nights; for Delvinaki, besides a house belonging to Ali, has seve- ral neat-looking cottages, and is, on the whole, a clean town, containing, as we were told, three hundred habitations, peopled by Greeks. Of these, the greater part are employed in cultivat-
ing the. ground, or in attending their flocks on the neighbouring
hills; but a few of them style themselves merchants, as they
‘k from Constantinople, Salonica,
bring small wares on horsebac and loannina, and sell them in the inland towns of Albania and Roumelia. These merchants are necessarily absent from their
XN
90 LETTER IX.
own houses the greater part of the year; but Ali, pursuing the same plan as at Ioannina, detains their wives and children at home, as a security for their return, and thus profits by their enterprise, without risking the loss of his subjects; for there are few instances where these traders have not returned to enjoy their petty wealth, as far as a Greek can enjoy it, in the bosom of their families.
I do not know whether you recollect, that the famous Sha-
Abbas founded the city of Tolfa purposely for the families of travelling Armenian merchants; and by that, which appeared, at first sight, an act of humanity, secured a great additional in- flux of wealth into his dominions. * Delvinaki, besides being on the road to northern Albania, is also on one of the routes from Butrinto, the ancient Buthrotum on the Adriatic, to loannina. From Butrinto it is seven hours, in an eastern direction, to Delvino, a town of eight thousand inhabitants, and the seat of a Pasha of two tails, now subdued by Ah.
From Delvino it is three hours, north-east, to the village of Nivitza ; and thence, seven hours more, and in the same line, to Delvinaki.
We were told that the Vizier had stayed three days at this town, which he had left eight days before our arrival ; and that most probably he was at the town of Libokavo, where we should arrive the next day.
After the fowls, eggs, and grapes, that always composed our meal, I rambled up a green lane at the back of the town, till the ascent became very steep, when, turning round, I enjoyed a prospect on every side magnificent, and whose beauties were heightened by the last rays of the setting sun tinging the woody
LETTER τς. Ο1
summits of the opposite mountams. A rivulet, that was col- lected from a hundred little streams into a pebbly channel, sparkled at intervals through the underwood 1m the valley.
‘The vintage was just finished, and horses, cows, and asses, were browsing on the lower grounds; whilst the goats, whose trespass amongst the early vines is equally dreaded by the mo- dern, as it was by the ancient Greek, were now rioting at large in the vineyards on the steeper sides of the hill. These pretty animals make a conspicuous figure, and are often the sole living objects, in an Albanian landscape. ‘They are to be met with in the most unfrequented spots, in the depth of forests, and on the tops of mountains, in places so remote from any human habita- tion, that the traveller would suppose them wild, did he not see their long herds descending to the villages at the close of day, and were he not reminded of their familiarity with man, by the tinkling of their bells at mght, close to the little window of his cottage.
The flesh of the kid is esteemed as much as that of the lamb in Albania. ‘The goat milk is made into the hard cheese which constitutes a chief article of food throughout Turkey in Europe, and which is, in this country, made in sufficient quantities to allow of a trifling exportation. Each of the skins, by a very sim- ple process, is so sewed together as to hold and preserve the new wine, which in the villages is never put into any other bottle, and seldom lasts beyond the next vintage.
Wine of a year old is mentioned as a rarity. ‘That which is made in quantities, and kept in casks, in Ioannina, or other large towns, is mixed with pine, resin, and lime, and weakened with water, ‘The Greeks consider that the resin gives the strength
N 2
O2 LETT Bae: ὅλ ΚΣ
which the water takes away, and that the lime refines the liquor ; but it is to this process that a very unpalatable harsliness, gene- rally to be met with in Greek wine, is to be attributed.
We left Delvinaki at nine o’clock in the morning, and in order to regain our road, were obliged to ascend and descend zig-zag stony path on the side of the chasm opposite to which we had come down the evening before to get to the town. This took us about half an hour, and when we had got into the direction we had left, we proceeded to the north-west, through a woody. country, not at all cultivated or cleared im any part that was visible. We crossed a torrent where were the broken remains of a bridge, and the path led us over a wilder but less woody country, until in three hours from Delvinaki, we came at once upon a very wide and long plain, running from south to north, well cultivated, divided by rails and low hedges, and having a river flowing through it to the south. On each side of this plain was a ridge of barren hills, but covered at no great intervals, on
the western or opposite range, with towns and villages, that ap-
peared, like the goats of Virgil, to hang upon the rocks. ‘T’hese,
iD ie ae
we were told, were in the district of a large city called Argyro- ee a
castro, which we saw indistinctly at a great distance, as we ad-
‘ed to the north along the side of the.bills, that form, as it
} c ν a. Seer od ey Ra 1 ὺ ere, the eastern bank of this extensive plain.
Ls A ale , atn a village where Ἐπ τὰν : Ι αν Orn o clock we came to ἃ village where ποτ was a han.
tlere we stopped, and as we were seated on our mats taking some refreshment, an Albanian handed round several specimens of snuff, for in this village, they informed us, there is the most extensive snuff manufactory of any im European Turkey. ‘The
snuff is also reckoned to be of the best quahty, and the Albani-
LETTER IX. 09
ans, who are exceedingly addicted to this luxury, affect to de- spise that which is made any where else but at this village, of which I forget the name. ‘The tobacco plant grows in great quantities in the neighbourhood, both in the plain and on the sides of the hills.
After resting an hour we remounted, and continued in the same northern course. [νον appearance announced to us that we were now in a more populous country. We met parties of tra- vellers both on horseback and on foot: the plain was every where cultivated, and not only on the side of Argyro-castro, whose mina- rets we could now discern, but also on the hills which we were tra- versing, many villages were to be seen. ‘lhe dress of the peasants was now changed from the loose woollen brogues of the Greeks, to the cotton kamisa, or kilt of the Albanian, and in saluting Va- silly they no longer spoke Greek. Indeed you should be informed, that a notion prevails amongst the people of the country, that Albania, properly so called, or at least, the native country of the Albanians, begins from the town of Delvinaki; but never being able, as I have before hinted, to learn where the line of boundary is to be traced, I shall content myself with noticing the distinc- tion in the above cursory manner.
We were joined by a small party of Turks on horseback, one of whom pointed out, at a little distance from the snuff manufactory, a hill to the right, on which were, he said, the remains of ancient walls, as also some few other remains a little farther to the left, in a grove of trees. ‘These 1 visited, and from the size of the stones, I should judge them to be antique: they were lying in heaps on the ground. After riding two hours along the side of the same: hills, we arrived at Libokavo, and entering the suburbs, enquired
O4. LETTER IX.
if the Vizier was in the town; when, to our surprise, we were told by three or four people, that they did not know: one thought he was, another that he was not in the place. ‘hese were not Greeks, but ‘Turks, the most lazy and incurious race of beings
as you must think, when these fellows did not know whether absolute sovereign of the country, who moves about with no small retinue, was or was not in their town.
We proceeded to the house of a relation of one of Ali’s wives, and there learnt that the Vizier was farther up the country, at his native town of 'l'epellene. At the house of this Turk, in an outer room, separated from the chambers which contained his family, we were lodged during our stay at Libokavo, and the good- humoured Mussulman endeavoured to render us as comfortable as possible. As, during the Ramazan, he took his first meal after sun-set, he ordered it to be served up for our dinner, and gave us his company.
You must have already read enough about the Turks, to know the sort of viands usual at their tables: but I must
say of them, that many are very palatable to an English taste,
much more so, indeed, than those to be met with in Portuguese and Spanish cookery. ‘T'here is a dish of chopped mutton, rolled up δ ith rice highly seasoned, called yprazk, and a large thin pasty of fowl, or spinach sprinkled with sugar; both of which are very commendable. Oil is not often used, but butter, which, it must be confessed, is now and then very strong, and would be called by us, grease. ‘he sherbet is but a very poor liquor, being only sweet water sometimes coloured with marygold flowers, and a few blanched almonds swimming on the top of it. Itis handed round
at the conclusion of the dinner, and either drunk out of the bowl, or
LETTER (xX: 95
sipped with large horn spoons. ‘The boiled and roast are always done to rags, to suit not only the taste, but the convenience of a people, who do not eat with knives and forks, but with their fingers, making use of a thin crumplet instead of a plate, and each man tearing off his portion from the joint before him, with his right hand only, for his left is supposed to be employed on ser- vices that render it very unfit to be thrust into a plate containing common stock. ‘The pilaf, or buttered rice, the standing dish of Turkey, and which is often brought in twice at the same dinner, is not very palatable to a person unaccustomed to the taste of it.
Our fare at Libokavo was various and good; but we were not well lodged during the mght, for the whole party, thirteen in number, slept in the same room with us, as, this being a Turkish town, we could not procure quarters for our attendants in any other house. Nearly the whole of the day after our arnival, it rained so violently as to prevent our proceeding towards ‘Tepel- lené, but we were enabled between the showers to walk out and survey the town and the adjoining country.
Libokavo is built on the steep side of a hill, and, with. several moscks, contains about a thousand houses inhabited by ‘Turks, many of whom are not natives of the country, but only settlers, and wear the long ‘Turkish dress. ‘They are for the greater part farmers of the neighbouring plain, not traders, and the bazar 1s but ill furnished. ‘The houses are built, most of them, of stone, and are of the better sort, bemg surrounded with gardens of
orange, lemon, and pomegranate trees. ‘The town 1s governed by Adam-Bey, the son of a sister of the Vizier’s, and, together with the whole district on the same side of the plain, is in perfect.
subjection to Ali.
JO LETTER IX.
Of Argyro-castro, which is very visible about nine miles to the north on the opposite hills, I learnt that it is a city supposed to contain twenty thousand inhabitants, chiefly Turks, being the capital of a Pashalik of two tails, and of a very populous district, bounding to the east and north-east the country of the Chi- meriotes. It was not, when we were in the country, in subjection to Al, but nominally under the power of Ibrahim, Pasha of Vallona, the Prince with whom Ali was then at war, and whe was besieged in his last fortress of Berat. It was expected, how- ever, that the city, which has been more than once attacked by Ali, would, together with its whole district, fall immediately into his hands after the reduction of Ibrahim.
What we saw of the plain may be about twenty-five miles im length, running nearly in a straight direction from south to north; but another branch of it, which turns off to the north-westward, a little above the city, and continues as far as the shore of the Adriatic above Vallona (Aulon), may add to it an extent of fif- teen or twenty miles. ‘I'he river, which has no other name than the river of Argyro-castro, flows from Mount Zoumerka through the whole length of the plain, and appears to correspond with the ancient Celydnus.
With that supposition,, the traveller might be inclined to look for some vestiges of Hadrianopolis, Amantia, and Antigonia ; towns which flourished under the Romans, and which were placed somewhere in the country watered by the Celydnus. Indeed, the Greek gentleman accompanying us, called Argyro-
castro itself occasionally by the name ot Threanopolis, which,
after dropping the first syllable, would be the modern Greek
pronunciation of Hadrianopolis; and I see that M. de la Ro-
LETTER ΙΧ. 07
chette, in his map, has given the modern city the two names. But Meletius, the geographer before mentioned, places Antigo- nia on the site of this town*, and affirms Thryinopolis to be a ruin marking the site of Drys, an ancient town of the Molossi, and givinga title to a Bishop within the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of Ioannina}. Pouqueville, on the pretended authority of the same author, but without being supported by him, declares Delvinaki to be no other than the ancient Omphalon. The singular position of this latter place, in a deep hollow, may give some grounds to suppose that it was once called the navel of Epirus. Iwas assured that there were no remains of any kind at Argyro-castro; but 1 regret that the state of the country, and our situation as friends of Ali, did not permit us to visit the city, and obtain personal know- ledge of the fact.
® Αντιγόνεια; λέγεται tavoy ᾿Αργυρόκαστρον, κτιϑεῖσα ὑπὸ τῷ ᾿Αντιγόνον, καὶ σώξεται.---Ἡ ΠΕΙ͂ΡΟΣ. p. 316. + HMEIPOE. pp. 314, 315.
Route from Libokavo to Cesarades--Women at the Fountains— Route to Ereeneed—The Passes of Antigonia, called Stena —The Aous River—Route to Tepellenée, along the Banks of the Raver—Arrival at Tepellené, and at Ali Pasha’s Palace —Appearance of the Attendants—-Prayers of the Turks— The Chanter of the Mosck.
ON leaving Libokavo (October 17th), we descended into the plain; and, before we could again get into our northern direction, were obliged to cross several wide and deep trenches, cut to drain the low grounds. After having regained our path for an hour and an half, we came suddenly upon a rapid river flowing out of a valley in the mountains to the east, in a westerly course, but soon turning to the north. As we were to pass the night in a village in the mountains to the right of our road, we were obliged to cross this river, which we accomplished with con- siderable difficulty; for it was then deep and broad, though, in general, as we heard, very fordable. After the passage of the stream, we went over some deep ploughed lands; and, in three hours from Libokavo, began to ascend the hills in a north-wes- terly direction. We saw, what might be called, a chain of vil- lages along the mountains, most of them half way up their sides,
LETTER X. 99
and apparently inaccessible. The hills on the Argyro-castro side, seemed exceedingly bare; but those to which we were bending our steps were woody, covered with flocks of goats, and in many spots cultivated, and sown with maize.
It had been very late before we re-commenced our journey, so that after we had been in the hills an hour, it grew dark. We mistook our path; the baggage-horses began to tumble; and, when we were half way up the mountain, we were obliged to stop in a wood, where we were bewildered, and quite ignorant of our position. ‘I'wo or three of us, however, determined to make for the first village, and procurea guide; for we had been some time going up and down craggy precipices, without seeming to advance towards our point.
Not to alarm you with another adventure, we were all housed at seven o'clock in the evening, having been five hours coming from Libokavo—a distance of not more than nine miles. At coming into the village, we were agreeably surprised by getting to a neat comfortable cottage, where we were received with a hearty welcome by the Albanian landlord, who, it turned out, was per- sonally acquainted with the Signor Secretary. ‘The name of the
village was Cesarades, inhabited, except a few houses, by Chris-
tians.
In this place every thing was ona very different footing from what it had been in the Greek villages. We experienced a great deal of kindness and attention from our host; but saw nothing in his face (though he was a Christian) of the cringing, downcast, timid look, of the Greek peasant. His cottage was neatly plas- tered, and white-washed, and contained a stable and small ware- room below, and two floored chambers above, quite in a different
0 2
106 LETTER ‘X.
style from what we had seen in Lower Albania. It might certainly be called comfortable ; and in it we passed a better mght than any since our departure from Loannina.
In the morning we found ourselves in a very exalted situation ; and just opposite us, to the west, we hada good view of the city of Argyro-castro. We had a guide given us to show the best path (for the ways had been broken up by the torrents), and left Cesarades at ten o'clock in the morning. We continued de- scending and ascending in the same direction as before, that 15; to the north, still keeping on the sides of the mountains, and at twelve o'clock we saw another village, situated as high as that which we had left ; but it was not till some people had been sent down from this place to open a passage for us, that we could pro-~ ceed towards it. We were a little surprised that these pioneers were all women; and, as 1 recollect, two of them were young and handsome. ‘I'hey handled their pick-axes and spades with great alacrity; and having assisted us, by rolling down some stones and earth, that impeded our progress, into a torrent, pre- ceded us to their village.
Before reaching it, we passed a large fountain, where there were many women washing with sticks and stones, in the Scotch fashion, and drawing water. Indeed no where in those parts of Greece or Albania that we visited, are any but the very better sort of females exempt from these employments; and as the fountains are often at some distance from the towns, the latter 1s, by no means, an easy task; for 1 have frequently seen them look- ing very faint under the weight of their large pitchers, one of
which they carry on the head, and the other in the hand. ‘The
men are never at the fountains; but the aged matron, and the
LETTER: ¥: 10]
tender maid, are still employed in the same labours which occu- pied the females of Homer’s time; for when Hector reminds his faithful Andromache that she would be obliged, in her future
bondage,
«ἐς to bring
‘© The weight of waters from th’ Hyperian spring,”
it is but probable, that she had occasionally performed the samie duties in the days of her prosperity. It was not the drawing of water which was to be, perhaps, the hardship, but doing it (πόλλ᾽ αεκαζομένη) very much against her will, and (πρὸς ᾿αλλης) under the command of a mistress. You may add to this, that the ancients knew nothing of menial offices ; for the Princess of Phceacia washed her own clothes, and the familiar of the divine King of Ithaca was a swine-herd, also divine. But the parallel shall be carried no farther.
In a short time we passed through the village we had seen: it was called Toxarades, and contained about one hundred and fitty houses, inhabited, with the exception of two or three ‘Turkish families, by Christians. In an hour and a half we went through another village, Lokavo, also on the heights, and about the same size as the others, and inhabited by Christians; and by half after three we came to a third, called Ereeneed, where we were deter-~ mined to stay during the night, as we should not have been. able to reach another resting-place before dark.
We were not so well lodged as we had been the night before ; but as Ereeneed was inhabited partly by ‘Turks, partly by Chris- tians, and the best house in the place belonged to one of the for- mer people, we could not so easily have been admitted to better.
102 LETTER xX.
accommodations. We had come the whole day at a very slow rate ; and from Cesarades to this village, I should think the dis- tance not more than ten miles.
On leaving Ereeneed, on the morning of the 19th, at ten o'clock, we descended from the hills, and got into the plain, through which, in a north-westerly direction, ran the river we had crossed in going from Libokavo to Cesarades. We conti- nued along its banks for some time; the path very bad and sloughy, and occasionally through coppices of low brushwood. In two hours we were at what might be called the northern ex- tremity of that branch of the valley of Argyro-castro through which we had held our course; and we found ourselves at the entrance of a sort of defile, with the river on our left hand, and mountains near us on our right. ‘The hills on the other side of the river were abrupt precipices, clothed with thick woods.
Though not a vestige of the ancient cities that may have once flourished in these regions are to be now seen, yet the traveller would still endeavour to compare the descriptions of historians with the appearance of the country around him ; and the straights into which we now entered, might perhaps remind him of the passes near Antigonia, by the Greeks called rea (Stena), which some passages of Polybius* would point out as leading from Epi- rus into Illyricum+-, and which were illustrated by a battle fought
* Polyb. lib. ii. cap. 5. The expedition of Scerdilaidas into Epirus.
+ Strabo, indeed, expressly reckons the Athamanians and Atintanes (living near the Celydnus) amongst the Epirote nations, inhabiting a wild country, and difficult of access, upon the borders of Illyricum: and it appears that the latter were certainly of that people; for when the Epirote army retreated from the Illyrians at Phoenice, in Chaonia, Polybius (lib. it. cap. 5) says, they fell back upon the Atintanes.
LETTER xX. 10S
between Pyrrhus and Antigonus*, and by some military positions occupied by King Philip, before he was routed by the Consul
IJaminius.
In the river which “ flows (I quote from my own journal and from Livy-j-) in a narrow valley, having only a little path along its banks,” he would perhaps recognize the Aous, that ran from Lacmon, the summits of Pindus, forming one of the boundaries of Macedonia, and falling into the Adriatic sixty stadia below the eity of Apollonia. Every thing, indeed, seems to correspond with the position of the “ passes:” here are the hills on each side, Asnaus and /Hropus, where Philip was encamped; and in proceeding farther down the river, where it struggles through its narrowest banks (ubi in arctissimas ripas. cogiturt), any one would suppose himself to pass over the very spot fixed upon for the conference between the King and the Consul.
Before the Romans attempted the passage over the formerly pathless mountains of Chaonia, as Florus§ calls them, and the Aous winding through precipices, they had penetrated into Ma-
army, in the face of an enemy, over such a country, would seem to any one who had seen the positions, almost impracti- cable, yet Pyrrhus had done the same thing before, and, what would appear more incredible, contrived to make use. of his ele- phants.
Had we traced back the river up the valley from which we had seen it issue, we might have been able to know enough of the country to the eastward, to assist our conjectures ; as it is, you.
* Plut. in vit. Pyrrhi. + Book xxxii. cap. 5.
t Book xxxii.-cap. 10. § Bib. i. cap. 7:
104 LETTER χα.
must be content with those already offered to your notice, and proceed with us on our route.
After travelling down the valley an hour, we came in sight of a bridge, and saw crossing it a large party of soldiers, and some ‘Turks on horseback, attending a covered chair or litter. A little after, to our great surprise, we were met by acarriage, not ill- made, but in the German fashion, with a man on the box driving four-in-hand, and two dirty Albanian soldiers standing on the foot-board behind. ‘They were fioundering on at a trot through the mire; but how it would be possible for them to pass over part of the road by which we had come, we did not at all under- stand. However, the population of whole villages was ordered out to help it along, and we heard afterwards of its safe arrival at Libokavo. This carriage had, as they told us, conveyed a lady of the Vizier’s harem to the bridge, where she was met by the chair (a large sedan), in which she was to be carried on men’s shoulders to ‘l'epellene.
At three hours and a half from Ereeneed we crossed the bridge, which was of stone, but narrow, and of a bad construc- tion, being so high in the middle, as to render it adviseable to dismount in passing over it. Immediately after getting across, we went along a path on the ledge of a steep precipice, with the river, which was broad (perhaps seventy feet), deep, and very rapid, rolling underneath. As we advanced on this bank of the river, we saw the hills to the east spotted with flocks of sheep and goats, and having a line of villages as far as the eye could reach. One of these, of the name of Korvo, more romantically situated than the others, was crowned with a dome and minaret rising from amidst a grove of cypresses. ‘The hills, on the side
LETTER ΣΧ. 105
of which we were passing, were covered with wood, but without any villages, for they were not sufficiently high.
In two hours from the bridge, the river began to widen consi- derably, and a little way farther it was augmented by a stream of some breadth, flowing out of a narrow valley from the north- east. Not long after the junction of the rivers, the whole stream appeared as broad as the Thames at Westminster Bridge, but looking shallow in many places, with gravel banks above the water. Soon afterwards we had a view of ‘Tepellené, the termi- nation of our journey, which we saw situated immediately on the bank of the river, and, in three quarters of an hour, we entered the native place of Ali.
The streets of the town, through which we passed, were dirty and ill-built ; but every thing that had before attracted our atten~ tion was presently forgotten, when we entered through a gate- way in a tower, and found ourselves in the court-yard of the Vizier’s palace.
The court at Tepellené, which was enclosed on two sides by the palace, and on the other two sides by a high wall, presented us, at our first entrance, with a sight something like what we might have, perhaps, beheld some hundred years ago in the castle-yard of a great Feudal Lord. Soldiers, with their arms piled against the wall near them, were assembled in different parts of the square: some of them pacing slowly backwards and forwards, and others sitting on the ground in groups. Several horses’, com- pletely caparisoned, were leading about, whilst others were neigh- ing under the hands of the grooms. In the part farthest from the dwelling, preparations were making for the feast of the night;
and several kids and sheep were being dressed by cooks who were P
106 LETTER X.
themselves half armed. Every thing wore a most martial look, though not exactly in the style of the head-quarters of a Chris- tian general; for many of the soldiers were in the most common dress, without shoes, and having more wildness in their air and manner than the Albanians we had before seen.
On our arrival, we were informed that we were to be lodged in the palace; and, accordingly, dismounting, we ascended a flight of wooden steps into a long gallery with two wings, open- ing into which, as in a large English inn, were the doors of seve- ral apartments. Into one of these we were shown, and found ourselves lodged in a chamber fitted up with large silken sofas, and having another room above it for sleepmg; a convenience scarcely ever to be met with in Turkey. His Highness (for so the Pashas of three tails are called by their attendant Greeks) sent a congratulatory message to us on our arrival, ordering every thing to be provided for us by his own household ; and mention- ing, at the same time, that he was sorry the Ramazan prevented him from having our company with him at one of his repasts. He ordered, however, that sherbets, sweetmeats, and fruits, should be sent to us from his own harem.
At sunset the drum was beat in the yard, and the Albanians, most of them being ‘lurks, went to prayers. In the gallery, which was open on one side, there were eight or nine little boxes fitted up with raised seats and cushions, between the wooden pil- lars supporting the roof; and in each of these there was a party smoking, or playing at draughts.
I had now an opportunity of remarking the peculiar quietness and ease with which the Mahometans say their prayers; for, in
the gallery, some of the graver sort began their devotions in the
LETTER X. 107
places where they were sitting, entirely undisturbed and unno- ticed by those around them, who were ctherwise employed. ‘The prayers, which last about ten minutes, are not said aloud, but muttered sometimes in a low voice, and sometimes with only a motion of the lips; and, whether performed in the public street or ina room, excite no attention from any one. Of more than a hundred in the gallery, there were only five or six at prayers. The Albanians are not reckoned strict Mahometans; but no Turk, however irreligious himself, is ever seen even to smile at the devotions of others; and to disturb a man at prayers would, in most cases, be productive of fatal consequences.
In the evening we were visited by two physicians of the Vizier’s household; one of them, dressed in the Frank habit, a native of Alsace, and a very agreeable man, the other a Greek, who spoke the German, French, Italian, Latin, Turkish, and Albanian lan- guages. ‘The Frank gentleman, as we were informed, was very much in the confidence of the Vizier, and was -reputed to be a man of ability. It was a question not to be asked him, but one would like to have known, what possible inducement could have settled him in Turkey, especially as he was the son of a physi- cian of great eminence at Vienna. ‘These physicians are in con- stant attendance upon Ali; who, however, a short time before our arrival in the country, had requested and obtained the assist- ance of two English surgeons from our Adriatic Squadron, but without finding much benefit from their advice.
‘The day after our arrival was fixed upon for our first audience of the Vizier, and we passed the evening chiefly in the company of the two physicians.
We were disturbed during the night by the perpetual carousal
p 2
108 LETTER X.
which seemed to be kept up in the gallery, and by the drum, and the voice of the ““ muezzinn,” or chanter, calling the ‘Turks to prayers from the minaret of the mosck attached to the palace. This chanter was a boy, and he sang out his hymn in a sort of loud melancholy recitative. He was a long time repeating the purport of these few words: “ God mostingh! I bear witness that there is no God but God: I bear witness that Mahomet is the Prophet of God. Come to prayer; come to the asylum οἵ salvation. Great God! ‘There is no God but God !’—The first exclamation was repeated four times, the remaining words twice, and the long and piercing note in which he concluded this confes- sion of faith, by twice crying out the word “ hou*,” still rings in my ears.
Ya-hou, meaning he who is, is the Mahometan periphrasis for the ineffable name of God, as was the word Jehovah amongst the Jews. Dean Swift hardly knew this when, satirizing the brutal qualities of the human species, he gave that name to his slave of the Houyhnhnms.
But you must be impatient to see Ali himself, and my next shall conduct you into his presence.
lam, ἄς. &c.
* The simple confession of faith is this: ‘* La illah—illah—Llah, Mehem- med resool ullah—There is no God but God, and Mahomet is his Prophet.”
LETTER XI.
Visit to Ali Pasha—His Appearance—Manners—Short Conver- sation—Second Interview with Al——Present from Bonaparte to that Pasha—A Paleo-castro, or Ruin near Tepellene— Last Audience of Ali—His Affability to his Soldiers—His Rise and Progress—The Difficulties he had to encounter— His vigorous Measures—Administration, and present Extent of his Dominions—Offered to be made a King by Napoleon— His supposed Revenues—His Disposition—Story of Zofreni
—His Amusements and Morals—His want of Education.
ABOUT noon, on the 12th of October, an officer of the palace, with a white wand, announced to us that we were to attend the Vizier; and accordingly we left our apartment, ac- companied by our dragoman and by the Secretary, who put on his worst cloak to attend his master, that he might not appear too rich, and a fit object for extortion.
The officer preceded us along the gallery, now crowded with soldiers, to the other wing of the building, and leading us over some rubbish where a room had fallen in, and through some shabby apartments, he ushered us into the chamber in which was Ali himself. He was standing when we came in; which was meant as a compliment, fora Turk of consequence never rises,
110 LETTER XI.
to receive any one but his superior, and, if he wishes to be con- descending, contrives to be found standing. As we advanced towards him, he seated himself, and desired us to sit down near him. He was ina large room, very handsomely furnished, and having a marble cistern and fountain in the middle, ornamented with painted tiles, of the kind which we call Dutch tile.
The Vizier was a short man, about five feet five inches in height, and very fat, though not particularly corpulent. He had a very pleasing face, fair and round, with blue quick eyes, not at all settled into a ‘Turkish gravity. His beard was long and white, and such a one as any other ‘lurk would have been proud of; though he, who was more taken up with his guests than him- self, did not continue looking at it, nor smelling and stroking it, as is usually the custom of his countrymen, to fill up the pauses of conversation. He was not very magnificently dressed, except that his high turban, composed of many small rolls, seemed of fine gold muslin, and his attaghan, or long dagger, was studded with brilliants.
He was mightily civil; and said he considered us as his chil- dren. He showed us a mountain howitzer, which was lying in his apartment, and took the opportunity of telling us that he had several large cannon. He turned round two or three times to look through an English telescope, and at last handed it to us, that we might look at a party of ‘Turks on horseback riding along the banks of the river towards Tepellené. He then said, ““ that man whom you see on the road is the chief minister of my enemy, Ibrahim Pasha, and he is now coming over to me, having de- serted his master to take the stronger side.” He addressed this with a smile to the Secretary, desiring him to interpret it to us.
LETTER ΧΙ. 111
We took pipes, coffee, and sweetmeats, with him; but he did not seem so particular about these things as other ‘lurks whom we have seen. He was in great good humour, and several times laughed aloud, which is very uncommon in a man of conse- quence: I never saw another instance of it in ‘Turkey.—Instead of having his room crowded with the officers of his court, which is very much the custom of the Pashas and other great men, he was quite unattended, except by four or five young persons very magnificently dressed in the Albanian habit, and having their hair flowing half way down their backs: these brought in the re- freshments, and continued supplying us with pipes, which, though perhaps not half emptied, were changed three times, as 15. the custom when particular honours are intended for a guest.
There are no common topics of discourse between a Turkish Vizier and a traveller, which can discover the abilities of either party, especially as these conversations are always in the form of question and answer. However, a Frank may think his Turk above the common run, if his host does not put any very foolish interrogatories to him, and Ali did not ask us any questions that betrayed his ignorance. His liveliness and ease gave us very favourable impressions of his natural capacity.
In the evening of the next day we paid the Vizier another visit, in an apartment more elegantly furnished than the one with the fountain. Whilst we were with him, a messenger came in from “ Berat,” the place which Al’s army (of about five thousand men) was then besieging. We were not acquainted with the con- tents of a letter, which was read aloud, until a long gun, looking like a duck-gun, was brought into the room ; and then, upon one
of us asking the Secretary if there were many wild fowl im the
112 LETTER: “Xl;
neighbourhood, he answered, Yes; but that for the gun, it was going to the siege of Berat, there being a want of ordnance in the Vizier’s army. It was impossible not to smile at this war in miniature.
During this interview, Ali congratulated us upon the news, which had arrived a fortnight before, of the surrender of Zante, Cefalonia, Ithaca, and Cerigo, to the British Squadron: he said, he was happy to have the English for his neighbours; that he was sure they would not serve him as the Russians and French had done, in protecting his runaway robbers ; that he had always been a friend to our Nation, even during our war with Turkey, and had been instrumental in bringing about the Peace.
He asked us, what had made us travel in Albania? We told him, the desire of seemg so great a man as himself. ‘“ Aye,” returned he, “ did you ever hear of me in England?” We, of course, assured him, that he was a very common subject of con- versation in our country; and he seemed by no means inacces- sible to the flattery.
Iie showed us some pistols and a sabre ; and then took down a gun that was hanging over his head in a bag, and told us it was a present from the King of the French. It was a short rifle, with the stock inlaid with silver, and studded with diamonds and bril- liants, and looked like a handsome present; but the Secretary informed us, that when the gun came from Napoleon, it had only a common stock, and that all the ornaments had been added by his Highness, to make it look more like a royal gift.
Before we took our leave, the Vizier informed us, that there
were in the neighbourhood of 'Tepellené some remains of anti- quity—a palzo-castro, as all pieces of old wall, or carved stones,
LETTER ΧΙ. 11
are called in Albania and Greece, and said that he would order some horses for us to ride to it the next morning.
According to his advice, we went on Sunday to see these ruins, which are very trifling, being only a few bits of wall, as it appeared to me, not ancient, ona hill about five miles to the north-west of 'Tepellene.
In the evening of the same day, we paid his Highness our last visit. He then asked us which way we intended to go; and we told him, it was our wish to get from Ioannina into the Morea. Ile appeared to be acquainted with every road, and all the stages, and the state of the country most minutely. He said, that we could not go by the common road through 'T'riccala, as that part of the country was infested by large bands of robbers; but that we might go through Carnia, crossing the gulf of Arta at Salora, or going to the head of the Gulf; and that, as that country was
also suspicious, he would give us orders to his several military
posts, to take as many guards as might be necessary. In case, however, we should not like to go through Carnia, he furnished us with an order to his Governor at Prevesa, to send us in an armed galliot to Patrass. He also gave usa letter to his son, Veli, Pasha of the Morea, and wished to know if he could do any thing to serve us.
We only asked permission to take our Albanian Vasilly to at- tend us whilst in Turkey, which he readily granted, and asked where the man was. On being informed that he was at the chamber door, he sent for him, and accordingly Vasilly entered ; and, though with every proper respect, still was not embarrassed, but, with his hand on his left breast, answered the Vizier’s ques- tions ina firm and fluent manner. Ali called him by his name,
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114 LETPER. Xa.
and asked him, why, being at the door, he had not come in to see him? “ for you know, Vasilly,” added he, ““ I should have been glad to have seen you!” He then told him that he was to attend us, and see that we wanted nothing, and talked a good deal to him about the different stages of our route, summing all up by telling him in a jocose way, that if any accident happened to us, he would cut off his head; and that we were to write, mentioning how he had behaved. Shortly after this, and having agreed to give his Highness some relation of our travels by letter, we withdrew, and took our last leave of this singular man, of whom this may be the place to give you a short account.
Ah was born at Tepellene, about the year 1750; for he is now past sixty years old, though he carefully conceals his age; and, notwithstanding a disorder which is considered incurable, still carries the appearance of a healthy middle-aged man. His father was a Pasha of two tails, but of no great importance. ‘The most considerable Prince at that time was one Coul Pasha, a Vizier, and lord of great part of Albania. At the death of his father, Ah found himself possessed of nothing but his house at 'Tepel- lené ; and it is not only current in Albania, but reported to be even the boast of the Vizier himself, that he began his fortune with sixty paras and a musket. Our attendant Vasilly (whose authority I should not mention, had it not been. confirmed by
every thing I heard in the country) assured me, that he recol- lects, when a boy, to have seen Ali (then Ali-Bey) in his father’s cottage, with his jacket out at elbows; and that, at that time, this person used to come with parties from 'l'epelleneé in the night, and seize upon the flocks of the villages at enmity with him.
By degrees, however, he made himself master first of one vil-
LETTER XI. 115
lage, then of another, and amassing some money, increased his power, and found himself at the head of a considerable body of Albanians, whom he paid bv plunder; for he was then only a great robber, or one of those independent freebooters, of whom there are so many in the vast extent of the ‘Turkish empire. It was not, however, without great difficulties and reverses that he continued his career, as you will think, when you hear what was said to me also by the same Vasilly ; for on telling this man that the Vizier seemed well acquainted with him; “ Yes,” he replied, *““ he ought to be well acquainted with me; for I have come down with the men of our village, and broken his windows with shot, when he did not dare to stir out of 'Tepellene.”—‘ Well ; he was asked, “ and what did Ali do to the men of your village ?” ‘* Nothing at all; he made friends with our chief man, persuaded him to come to 'T'epellené, and there roasted him on a spit ; after which we submitted (προσκυνήσαμεν).᾽
Ahi at last collected money enough to buy a pashalik (not that of Ioannina, but one of less importance), and being invested with that dignity, he was only more eager to enlarge his posses- sions; for he continued in constant war with the neighbouring Pashas, and finally got possession of Ioannina, of which he was confirmed Pasha by an imperial firman. He then made war on the Pashas of Arta, of Delvino, and of Ocrida, whom he sub- dued, together with that of Triccala, and established a very pre- ponderating influence over the Agas of Thessaly. Giaffar, Pasha of Vallona, he poisoned by a cup of coffee, in a bath at Sophia ; and he strengthened himself by marrying his two sons, Mouctar and Veli, to the daughters of Ibrahim, the successor and brother of Giaffar: since that time he has made war on Ibrahim himself,
Q 2
116 LETTER XI.
and added considerably to the territories of Ioannina, by curtail- ing those of his relation.
During this progress, he had been, more than once, called upon to furnish his quota of troops to the imperial armies, and had served in person against the Germans and Russians ; but he knew his countrymen too well, ever to trust himself at court. He never would accept of any great office, and always found some pretence to avoid giving his personal attendance on the Grand Vizier of the day, who, it is known, had many orders to arrest him. Stories are told of the skill and courage with which he counteracted several schemes to procure his head—a present that would have been most acne Die to the Porte ever since the commencement of his career: however, he fought against Pas- wan Oglou, under the banners of the Sultan ; and on his return fron: Widin, in the year 1798, was made a Pasha of three tails,
Vizier. He has had several offers of being made Grand Vizier.
He next contrived to procure pashaliks for both his sons; the
younger of whom, Veli, who resembles his father in his capacity
and ambition, saved money enough in his first post to buy the pashalik of the Morea, with the dignity of Vizier, for three thousand purses of five hundred piasters each. [is eldest son, Mouctar, of a more warlike, but less ambitious turn than his brother, has of late supplied his father’s place at the head of the Albanians that have joined the armies of the Porte; and has greatly distinguished himself, as you must have heard, in the present war with Russia.
The difficulties which Ali had to encounter in establishing his
power, did not arise so much from the opposition he met with
LETTER: ἘΠ 117
from the neighbouring Pashas, as from the nature of the people, and of the country of which he was determined to make himself master. Many of the parts which now compose his dominions, were peopled by inhabitants who had been always in rebellion, or had never been entirely conquered by the Turks; such as the Chimeriotes, the Sulliotes, and the nations living amongst the mountains in the neighbourhood of the coast of the Ionian Sea. Besides this, the woods and hills of every part of his government were, in a manner, in possession of large bands of robbers, who were recruited and protected by the villages ; and who laid large tracts under contribution; burning and plundering the districts under the Pasha’s protection. Against these he proceeded with the greatest severity: they were burnt, hanged, beheaded, and im- paled, and have disappeared from many parts, especially of Upper Albania, which were before quite subject to these outlaws.
A few months before our arrival in the country, a large body in- festing the mountains between Ioannina and 'T'riccala, were defeated. and dispersed by Mouctar Pasha, who cut to pieces a hundred of them on the spot. ‘These robbers had been headed by a Greek Priest, who, after the defeat of his men, went to Constantinople, procured a firman of protection, and returned to Ioannina, where the Vizier invited him to a conference, and seized him as he was leaving the room. He was detamed, and well treated, in prison, until a messenger could go to and return from Constantinople, with a permission from the Porte for Ali to do what he pleased with his prisoner.—It was the arm of this man which we had seen suspended from the bough, on entering Ioannina.
It is by such vigorous measures that the Vizier has rendered many parts of Albania, and the contiguous country, perfectly.
118 LETTER ΧΙ.
accessible, that were before annually over-run by robbers; and consequently by opening the country to merchants, and securing their persons and goods, has not only increased his own revenues, but bettered the condition of his subjects. He has built bridges over the rivers, raised causeways across the marshes, laid out frequent roads, adorned the country and the towns with new buildings, and by many wholesome regulations has acted the part of a good and great Prince, without perhaps a single other mo- tive than that of his own aggrandisement.
The influence of Ali extends far beyond the limits of his domi- nions, and is feared and felt throughout the whole of European Turkey. It would, however, be very difficult to give the actual boundaries of his present dominions ; for in the extent of his ter- ritory, there is occasionally to be found an isolated district, which still resists his arms; and his attempts on the neighbouritg Pashas are not always attended with success. Two months after our visit to ‘Tepellenc, he made himself master of Berat; but my Friend has written to me from Athens, that the Pasha of Scutari has retaken the city, and reinstated Ibrahim. But Ali may be again victorious; and, should he live, will, 1 doubt not, be master of nearly the whole of Albania.
At present, his dominions extend (taking Ioannina for a centre) one hundred and twenty miles to the north, as far as the pashalik of Ocrida ; to the north-east and east over Thessaly, and touching the feet of Mount Olympus; to the south-east the small district of Thebes, and part of that attached to the Negroponte, bound his territories ; which, howeyer, on this side, include the popu- lous city of Livadia (Lebadea) and its district, and will soon, it is expected, comprise Attica, and afterwards the above-mentioned
LETTER: XL. 119
country. ᾿1Ὁ the south he commands as far as the gulf of Le- panto, and the Morea belongs to his son. ‘The Ionian Sea and the gulf of Venice, are his boundaries to the south-west and west, and to the north-west the pashalik of Scutar, and the banks of the Drino; but on this side, the pashalik of Vallona intervenes. Parga, on the coast opposite to Corfu, belongs to the French, and the Chimeriotes can scarcely be said to depend entirely on his authority.
‘Throughout the whole of the country so bounded, the impe- rial firman is but little respected ; whilst a letter with the signa- ture of Ali (of which, as a curiosity, 1 send you a fac-simile), commands unlimited obedience. ‘The Vizier is now absolute lord, as-a Greek of Ioannina told me, of fifty small provinces; and should his projects of aggrandisement succeed, the countries which anciently composed the southern part of Illyricum, the kingdom of Epirus, part of Macedonia, the whole 'I'hessalian territory, Eubza, and all the Grecian States, will be under the dominion of a barbarian who can neither write nor read. His tyranny is complete; although the form of subjection to the Porte is still preserved, and he furnishes his contingent of men to the Ottoman armies, and pays, besides, a certain part of his tri- bute to the Grand Signor.
As he advances to the north-west, he will be in possession of the frontier towards Dalmatia, which the views of the French must.render a most important post, It is confidently asserted, that Napoleon has offered to make him. King of Albania, and to
support his independence against the Porte; but, if this be true, he has had the prudence to refuse. a crown, which would be rather the badge of bondage than of power, and of late the Em-
120 LETTER: -2B
peror has talked of thundering down upon Albania from his Illy- rian provinces.
What actual resistance Ali would be able to oppose to such an enemy, it is not easy to foresee; with all his power, he has sel- dom kept in his pay more than eight thousand soldiers at any one time ; but as every Albanian understands the use of the gun and sabre, and as religious or other prejudices, might cause the whole population to rise in arms under so fortunatea chief, the passage of the mountains might be impracticable to the French—to the soldiers who crossed the Alps.
All the Albanians, even those who have not yet submitted to his power, speak with exultation and pride of their countryman, and, by a comparison with him, they constantly depreciate the merits of others. We frequently heard them say, when talking of some other Pasha, “‘ he is not such a one as Ali—he has not such a head.” But his death might destroy all hope of union and resistance.
The early acquisitions of this extraordinary man were made by force of arms ; but his latter aggrandisements have been generaliy accomplished by the proper disposal of his treasures, which are reported to be very great, but the probable amount of which it is impossible to calculate. Of the tenth of all produce collected for the Porte, the Vizier has, at least, a fourth part; he has also near four hundred villages his own property; and, besides, claims trom all towns and districts, arbitrary sums for protection. I have seen a computation, which sets down his revenues at 6,000,000 of piasters, independent of those casual levies, and the presents which are made to him by his Christian subjects. Add to this, that all his work is done gratis, and his kitchens and
LETTER XI: 19]
stables furnished by the towns where he has any establishment. He not only gives free quarter to himself and retinue in his nu- merous expeditions through his dominions, but his soldiers, who only receive about twelve piasters a month from him, are found in bread and meat wherever they go, by the inhabitants of the towns and villages; so that he is able to reserve much of his money for emergencies, for bribing the ministers of the Porte, and buying his neighbours’ territories. He is not at much ex- pence in purchasing the male or female slaves of his household; for with these he furnishes himself from the families of the robbers whom he executes, or compels to fly. We overtook a man car- rying to Tepellené a boy and girl, who had been just found in the cottage of a robber.
Of the natural disposition of Ali we had no opportunity of forming a judgment, except by hearsay ; and it would be hardly fair to believe all the stories of the Greeks, who would represent him as the most barbarous monster that ever disgraced humanity. Certainly no one but a man of a ferocious and sanguinary dispo- sition, would have been able or willing to tame the people whom he has brought into subjection: not only beheading, but impal- ing and roasting, might be necessary to inspire that terror of his name, which has of itself, in many instances, given peace and security to his dominions ; for large bands of robbers have sub- mitted voluntarily, and been enrolled amongst his soldiers. Exe- cutions are now but seldom seen in lLoannina; but during the Sulliote wars, twenty and thirty prisoners were sometimes be- headed at one time in the streets of that city. Such cruelty shocks your humane feelings; but ‘‘ voila comme on juge de tout quand on nest pas sort: de son pays.” It is not fair to appre-
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122 LETTER ΧΙ,
ciate the merits of any man without a reference to the character and customs of the people amongst whom he is born and edu- cated. In Turkey the hfe of man ts held exceedingly cheap, more so than any one, who has not been in the country, would believe ; and murders, which would fill all Christendom with hor- ror, excite no sentiments of surprise or apparent disgust, either at Constantinople or in the provinces; so that what might, at first sight, appear a singular depravity in an individual, would, in the end, be found nothing but a conformity with general prac- tice and habits. You may, therefore, transfer your abhorrence of Ali to the Turkish nation, or rather to their manners ; yet I almost accuse myself of a breach of the forbearance due from a guest to his host, when I relate to you two melancholy tales, which are very well known, and are secretly talked of at Loannina.
The wife of Mouctar Pasha, daughter of Ibrahim, was a great favourite with the Vizier; who, upon paying her a visit one morning, found her in tears. He questioned. her several times as to the cause of her grief, which she at last reluctantly owned to be the diminution of his son’s affection for her. He enquired, if she thought her husband paid any attention to other women f She answered, Yes. ‘The Vizier demanded who they were; and upon this, the lady (quite at random, it 18 said) wrote down the names of fifteen of the most beautiful women, some Greeks
some Turkish, in the city of Ioannina. ‘The same night they were all seized in their houses, conveyed to the palace in the for- tress, thence carried in boats on the lake, and after being tied up in sacks, were thrown into the water.
I fear there is no doubt of the truth of this story ; for on men- tioning the matter to our attendant, Vasilly, he said it wasa fact;
LETTER XT. 123
and that he himself, belonging at that time to the city-guard, was one of the thirty soldiers employed to seize and destroy these unfortunate females. It may seem strange, that thirty men should be found capable of performing such an office; but the Albanians despise the sex; and our soldier defended the action, which, said he, was a very good one, for they were all bad wo- men. It is not impossible, that this ruffian seriously considered himself as having been concerned in the suppression of vice.
The fate of the beautiful Zofren: is still the subject of a lament- able ditty, which we heard first at Ioannina, and afterwards at Athens. ‘The story goes, that it was the misfortune of Zofreni, a Greek lady of Ioannina, the most lovely of her sex, to be admired at the same time by Ali and by one of his sons; and that she contrived to conceal this double attachment from both her lovers, till the Vizier recognized upon her finger, a ring which he had given to his son’s wife. Upon this discovery, the angry father left her abruptly, and gave the fatal orders. Zofreni was drowned the same night. She was only seventeen years of age.
Here again is a trait of Turkish ferocity, rather than of a savage disposition peculiar to Ali; for there is nothing unusual in this manner of punishing women: Bairactar, the famous Grand Vizier, disposed of many of Sultan Mustapha’s harem by the same death, in order to decrease the expences of the seraglio, or, as some say, to punish them for supposed court intrigues.
After what has been stated, you need scarcely be informed that Ali mdulges to the full in all the pleasures that are licensed by the custom of the country. His harem is said to contain three hundred women. His other gratifications cannot be very various or refined.
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124 LETTER XI.
Amongst the attendants at Tepellené we saw the Court fool, who was distinguished by a very high round cap of fur; but, unlike the ancient fools of more civilized monarchs, this fellow is obliged to confine his humour to gambolling, cutting capers, and tumbling before the Vizier’s horse, when his Highness takes a ride.
In his younger years Ali was nota very strict Mahometan ; but he has lately become religious, and entertains several Der- vishes at his court ; yet he does not at all relax in his ambitious efforts; and having no use for books, employs all the hours that he is absent from his harem in designs of future conquest. He is still an active horseman, and there is scarcely a village in his dominions which he does not visit once a year. I believe him, from good authority, never to have received even the education usually given to the Albanians. Besides his native tongue, he talks Greek fluently, but of the Turkish language he knows very little ; and, like Justin and 'Theodoric, the contemporary lords of the Eastern and Western Empires, has raised himself to his present power, without perhaps knowing the letters of any al- phabet.
He is doubtless a great man; but without saying or knowing that he is the worthy successor of Pyrrhus, whom, according to one author*, he is accustomed to call Piros, and, as another will have it+, Bourrhous. But he that does not smile at Mr. Eton, may believe Doctor Poukeville.
Yours, &c. &c.
* Survey of the Turkish Empire, page 373. + Voyage en Albanie, page 24.
LETTER XII.
Albania—Perpetual Barbarity of its Inhabitants—Early Settle- ment of the Scythians in that Country—In subjection to the Kings of Bulgaria—to the Emperors of the East—Uncer- tain Date of the Name Albania—Its Revolutions—Governed by Despots—Invaded by the Catalans—- Disunited—Scander- beg—Exaggeration of his Merits—Ottoman Conquest of the Country— Establishment of the Venetians on the Coast—Va- reety of Nations—The Albanians—their Origin— Asiatic Al- banians—Shape and Face of the Albanians—their Dress— their Arms——their Filth—Dress of their Women—their Vil-
lages—their Food—their Disposition, and Manners.
THE countries composing Albania, seem, in parts, to have been peopled by an almost uninterrupted succession of barbarians. Illyricum. and Epirus are not often. mentioned by historians, without a notice of the peculiar ferocity of their inhabitants. It was not until the reign of Tharrytas, King of the Molossians and Thresprotians, from whom Pyrrhus was fourth in descent, that the Greek manners and language were ins
126 LETTER XII.
troduced into the country* ; which, as it was divided into several petty principalities and republics, could, after all, never have been more than partially civilized. As to the Illyrians, Polybius calls them the enemies of ail nations, and no more civilized than the Thracians or Gete ; and Livy accounts for the superior fero- city of one of the four Roman divisions of Macedonia, by the inclemency of their climate, the infertility of their soil, and the vicinity of the barbarians}.
But the Romans took advantage of the many fine harbours of Illyricum, and the road called the Ignatian, of uncertain date and origin, which led from Apollonia and Dyrrachium, through Lychnidus, Pylon, and Edessa, over a tract of two hundred and sixty-two Roman miles, to Thessalonica, may have served to civi- lize the interior of the country.
The desolation of Epirus, which (as has been before men- tioned) afforded, in the days of Strabo, no better habitations for her people than ruined villages{, may not have continued long after the time of that writer. ‘The Emperors extended their care to this part of their dominions ; and Amaniia and fiadrianopolis are said to have been flourishing towns in New Epirus.
Yet we hear of the decay of the cities of this region as early as the reign of Julian; and it is probable, that there was but little booty left to satisfy the avarice of Alaric, when, in the year 396, he laid waste Illyricum and Epirus, and settled in the country with his Goths, after having been declared Master-gene-
* Plut. in vit. Pyrrhi.
+ Liv. lib. xlv. cap. 30.
+ See page 7, of this Book, where the words “ and caves,” together with the Greek quotation, were, by mistake, inserted in the text.
LETTER XII. 187
ral of the province by the feeble Emperor of the East. The coast also had been before, and continued for a century to be, subject to the piratical invasions of the Vandals of Spain.
The Bulgarians and Sclavonians, who, after wandering in the plains of Russia, Poland, and Lithuania, had advanced to the north bank of the Danube, in the reign of Justinian made almost annual incursions into Illyricum, destroyed her cities, and spread their devastations even as far as Corinth. During the dis- tresses of the lower empire, beginning as early as the eighth cen- tury, the ancient inhabitants of the country of which I am speak- _ing, may be supposed to have been nearly extirpated ; for the epitomizer of Strabo, whom (if [I may be allowed to do what Swift calls, ** quote quotation on quotation’) I shall adduce, from a note of Mr. Gibbon’s on an observation of Mr. Dodwell’s, has this remark: ‘‘ and now Scythian Sclavi inhabit (or perhaps cul- tivate) the whole of Epirus, and Greece nearly, and Macedonia, and Peloponessus*.” Under this name were comprehended all the nations who either preceded or followed the irruption of the Huns until the twelfth century; and as the Caspian gates were in possession of a King of the Scythian ‘Tartars, the Bul-
garians may have pushed the Asiatic Albanians betore them
into Europe+. But the strength and importance of the country in question, were increased by the settlement of the Scythian strangers. In
the ninth and tenth centuries, the Bulgarians, who included the
* © Kas νυν de racav Ἤπειρον και EAAada σχεδὸν καὶ Maxedoviay καὶ Πελο- πονήσσον Luvbas Σκλαβοὶ veuovlas.”— Decline and Fall, &c. note 15 to cap. 53. + Chandler mentions the European as the descendant of the Asiatic Alba-
nians.
128 LETTER ‘XIi.
two* Epiruses in their powerful kingdom to the south of the Danube, of which Lychnidus, now Ocrida, was the capital, were the first that, in the year 924, put a stop to the imroads of the Magiar, or Oriental ‘Turks; and it is singular, that their poste- rity, or the posterity of a tribe in subjection to them, were the last to yield to the Ottomans, part of the Mahometan descend- ants of the same Huns. '
After the reduction of the Bulgarian kingdom by Basil, the second Emperor of that name, the emigrated Scythians, formerly in subjection to that power, who had been converted to the Christian faith, served in the armies of the Eastern Empire. But they had been independent settlers long enough to change the names of the provinces they inhabited; and though it might be impossible to fix the exact date of the alteration, it must seem that as early as the eleventh century, when Rascia, Servia, Bos- nia, and Croatia, began to supplant the ancient denominations of the countries of this part of Europe, the name of Albania also was attached to Epirus, to the southern part of Illyricum, and to some districts formerly belonging to Macedonia.
The date of this appellation may, however, have been much earlier. Mr. D’Anville, talking of the southern Illyricum, says, “* we know that the name of Albania extended to this country ; and an Albanopolis, which Ptolemy gives, appears to exist in Albasano.” It is certain, at least, that from the period above noticed, we find mention of an European Albania, which, as we have before seen, is, though not quite accurately, indiscrimi- nately used for Epirus.
* An expression of Mr. Gibbon’s, cap. 55, p. 543, quarto edit.
LETTER XII. 129
We read that Robert Guiscard, in the year 1081, after beating Alexius Commenus, at the battle of Durazzo, marched into Albania.
At the partial conquest of the Greek Empire by the Latins, this country, except Durazzo and Scutari, the ancient Scodra, the chief place of [llyricum, and some towns on the coast, which fell into the hands of the Venetians, was governed by a powertul usur- per, Michael Angelus, a bastard of the blood-reyal of the Constan- tinopolitan Emperors. ‘Theodorus Angelus, his successor, dispos- sessed the Venetians of Durazzo, and withstood the forces of Peter, the third Latin Emperor; and when the empire was recovered by the Greeks, Albania was one of those states, whose Despots, a title inferior only to that of Emperor, were in reality independent, and were courted into the alliance of the Imperial family.
In the year 1270, the coast was invaded bya small body of Catalans, in the service of Charles of Anjou, which laid siege to Arnoot Beli-grat, or the city of the White Albanians; and dur- ing the two hundred and fifty years that intervened between the Latin and Turkish conquest of Constantinople, the whole coun- try, as well as Greece, was split into many small principalities, whose temporary union under George Castriot, or Scanderbeg, called Prince of Epirus, or of Albania, was capable of resisting for twenty-four years the whole force of the ‘Turkish arms.
Mr. Gibbon, with the scepticism so natural in a philosopher, and so necessary for a historian, seems to doubt the wonderful exploits of this Christian hero: he will not rank him amongst the great men who have deserved without wearing a crown; and he prefers the Turkish story of Cantemir to the marvellous nar- ration of the contemporary biographer, Martinus Barletius, the monk of Scutani*. But though we may smile, when we read that
* Decline and Fall, cap. 67
5
oO “ 190 LETTER. ΣΉ:
the warrior fought with such violence that the blood started trom his lips; that he slew three thousand ‘Turks with his own hand, and killed with vexationa Sultan who, in truth, died peaceably at Adrianople ; yet, when least credulous as to the account of the deeds of Scanderbeg, we shall collect, that the Albanians were then able to support that claim to desperate courage, which has been always, and is still, attached to their character.
After the death of Scanderbeg, in the year 1406, the province fell into the bands of Mahomet the Great, who, with an army of eighty thousand men, besieged and took Scutari; but in the reign of his successor Bajazet, it was partly recovered by John Castriot, assisted by the Venetians, and also by one John Cher- novich, an Albanian Prince. The ‘Turks, however, finally esta- blished themselves in the reigns of Sultans Soliman, and Selim the Second, notwithstanding the efforts of the Venetians, who made good some landings, but were afterwards obliged to retreat.
Since that time, those, whom the historian Knolles calls, ‘ the savage people of the Acroceraumians,” have, at the least instiga- tion of the Christian powers, been ready to fly to arms; and the final establishment of the Venetians in some towns on the coast, and in the Ionian Islands, prevented both the entire conversion of the Albanians to the faith, and their subjection to the power, of the Ottomans.
From what has been premised, it may be suspected that Albania must be inhabited by a mixture of different nations—composed of the descendants of Greeks, Romans, Goths, Vandals, Spa- niards, Italians, Bulgarians, and Ottomans. ‘This is very true ; and a difference of manner and disposition, religion and language,
distinguishes the inhabitants of the various districts: yet it 15 that
which may, I presume, be called the Scythian character, that
LETTER XII. 131
prevails throughout these mountainous regions, and it 15 of him, whom the Turks called Arnoot, the Greeks Alvanetes, and we Albanian, or Albanese, that I purpose to give some account.
Whether the Arnoot be a descendant of the people formerly inhabiting the country between Iberia and the Caspian Sea, will hardly be decided by any acquaintance with his present character. As little is it to be supposed, that the Albanians are acquainted with, or even hazard a guess at, their own origin. Yet Pou- queville avers, that there prevails, he knows not how, a notion amongst them, that they are of French descent; and indeed, what he tells of them in one respect, might be said, even by a liberal enemy, of his own countrymen—* Qn les voyait avides des perils... . mais, quelque fussent les evenements, ils ne manquent jamais de s’en attribuer le succés, et sur tout ils seraient bien gardés d’avouer une defaite*.” It is certain, that some Gauls were formerly found in Epirus: they formed a band of merce- naries in the armies of the Kings of Macedon, and in those of the Epirotes. A body of them in the pay of Pyrrhus, plun- dered the royal treasury of AXge+-; and some others, to whom the strong city of Phznice, on the coast of Chaonia, had been entrusted, betrayed the place to the pirates of Illyricum ἢ.
But from such ancestors, neither a Frenchman nor an Albanian would be very anxious to prove his descent. It is true, that there are a few French words in their language. I find it however dis- tinctly asserted by Meletius, that the Albanians are neither of Illyric origin, nor from the nation of that name in Asia, but sprung from the Celts who came to Tapygia in Italy, and thence passed over to Dyrrhachium, and dispersed themselves in the
ἃ Pouqueyille, p. 19. + Plot. vit. Pyrrhi. 1 Polyb. lib, ii. cap. 4. s 2
132 LETTER XII. neighbouring country*. The English editor of the Periegesis of Dionysius, also presumes that Albania was so denominated from the Albani, enumerated amongst the nations of Macedonia by Ptolemy}; and it will be recollected that the name was found amongst the people of Italy
A reference to the eleventh book of Strabo, will enable us to Judge whether there is any similarity between the Asiatic Alba- nians, such as he describes them, and the modern Arnoot ἫΝ
The Albanians are generally of a middle stature, about five feet
Ξ six inches in height. They are muscular and straight in their.make,
* AABANIA. pp. 395, 306.
t See v. Illyris in Indic. Perieg. p. 434, edit. Hill, Lond. 1679.
ὁ The principal points observable in the geographer’s account of the Asiatic Albanians, are the following: ‘‘ ‘They were attached to the wandering life of a shepherd, and to the amusement of hunting. Simple and honest in their man- ners, they had but little money amongst them, were unacquainted with weights and measures, and unable to count beyond a hundred. They were unskilful in agriculture, and knew little of the art of war, although maintaining an army
of forty thousand foot and twenty-two thousand horse. They worshipped Ju- piter and the Sun; but the Moon was their principal deity, and to her they sacrificed human ‘victims, who were sometimes the pricsts themselves. For of these many are seized with asacred enthusiasm, and foretell fulure events, and whosoever amongst them, being more possessed than the others, becomes a soli- tary wanderer in the woods, him the chief priest catching and binding with a holy chain, feeds daintily for that year, and then he being produced as a sacrifice to the goddess, is, together with the cther victims, anointed and slain.”
They inspected the carcass of the man-thus sacrificed, for the purpose of di- vination; and after laying it in some public place, jumped upon it for a lustra- tion. ‘They reverenced-old age; but neither mourned nor mentioned the dead, with whom they buried whatever little money they had possessed. Before they were conquered by Pompey, they were divided into twenty-six states, each have ing a separate ruler, and language peculiar to itself. They were handsome and tall, and we find by another account, that they had generally blue eyes.
ALBANIAN.
London,Published by James Cawthorn ~ 24, ¢ cokspur Slreel 2522.
LETTER XI. 153
but not large; and they are particularly small round the loins, without any corpulency, which may be attributed to their active life, and also to the tight girdle they wear round their waists. Their chests are full and broad, and their necks long. Their faces are of a long oval shape, with prominent cheek bones, and a flat but raised forehead. ‘The expression of their eyes, which are blue and hazel, but seldom quite black, is very lively. ‘Their mouths are small, and their teeth of a good colour, and well formed. ‘Their noses are, for the most part, high and straight, with thin but open nostrils. ‘Their eye-brows are arched. They wear no hair on the fore part of their heads, but suffer it to flow down in large quantities from the top of the crown: it is generally in curls, but when straight and long, it is most admired. They have small mus- tachios on the upper lips; but shave off the whole of the beard at the same time that they perform that operation on the fore part of their crowns, which is about once a week.
The colour of the Albanians, when they are young, is a pure white, with a tinge of vermuillion on their cheeks; but labour, and exposure to heat and cold, gives a dusky hue to the skin of the bodies, though their faces mostly preserve a clearness of complexion. ‘They have the practice, so commonly prevalent in many nations, and which Strabo remarks as the custom of the Hlyrians, of making figures on the skin: of their arms and legs, by punctures, which they colour with gunpowder, exactly similar to the marks seen on our sailors.
The common picture of Scanderbeg, in Knolles’s History of the ‘Turks, is not a bad representation of the general look of his nation; but the drawing which I have inserted is ill done, and is only introduced as a specimen of the Albanian dress.
The Albanian women are tall and strong, and not ill-looking ;
ἣ τ" τὺ τττ 134, LETTER i X21.
but bearing in their countenances all the marks of wretchedness, of bad treatment, and hard labour. |
The dress of the men is well adapted to the life of a moun- taineer. ‘I'he picture inclosed, represents that of the better sort of people; but the common kind is entirely white. The shirt is of cotton, as well as the drawers; but every other part of the habit of coarse woollen. . It is but seldom that they wear any thing on their feet, except on particular occasions, when they put on the sandal shown in the drawing. Almost every Albanian can make his own clothes; and, for the article last mentioned, he carries about with him a small quantity of red leather, cat-gut, and packthread, and a large needle, wrapt up in part of the pouch containing his cartridges. ‘The bottom of the sandal is of goat-skin, the open-work on the top of cat-gut. ‘The mantle is mostly longer than the one in the print, as is the shirt, and is of white woollen, with the shag left upon it. Besides the small red cap, resembling the cup of an acorn, on the crown of the head, those who can afford it, add a shawl, bound round in the turban fashion, and in the winter drawn over the ears, and tied round the neck. But that which constitutes their chief defence against _the weather, and forms their bed, whether in the cottage or the field, is a large great coat, or capote, with loose open sleeves, and a hood which hangs in a square piece behind, but, when put over the head, is fastened into form by means of a long needle, or sometimes the ramrod of a pistol. The capote is of shaggy white woollen, or of black horse-hair; and:one might. think it to be peculiar to this people, for (as my Friend put me in mind) our poet Spenser has given to one of his personages a
ἐς huge capoto Albanese-wise.”
LETTER: X1ni 19
Round their waists they wear a coarse shawl, drawn very tight by a leathern strap or belt that contains their pistols; and ἐς ungirding of their loins,” by the loosening of this belt, is, with
pulling the capote about them, the only preparation they make for going to sleep at night. In the summer they often walk about without their mantles and upper jacket, having the large sleeves of their shirts hanging loosely over their arms.
‘The poorer people carry only one pistol in their belts, but it is their constant companion ; and when they can afford to have the long peaked handle of it worked in rough silver, they are not a little proud of their weapon. ‘They are not so particular about the barrel or the lock ; for most of these pistols, when fired, if they do not burst, lacerate the hand very badly.
The curved sabre, which is chiefly worn by those in the actual! employ of a Pasha, is kept as sharp. as a razor; but the handle of silver is so rough as to tear the hand of a person unaccustomed to wield such a sword.
‘The long gun is to be found in every cottage in Aibania: the peasant carries it with him either when he tends his flock, or tills his land. It is the weapon in the use of which he considers him; self to excel, and he regards it both as his ornament and his de- fence. ‘The gun-barrels, however, are thin and ill made, and the locks are of the rudest manufacture, the works being generally on the outside. Owing to this circumstance, and as the powder is large-grained and otherwise very bad, the Albanians are not good marksmen, although they never fire without a rest, and take a very deliberate aim.
Besides the pistols, their belts contain a knife in a case, the handle and sheath of which, are often attached to each other by
three or four rows of small silver chains—an ornament of which
136 LETTER XII.
they are very fond, as they have several of them hanging round their necks, some with amulets, others with silver snuft-boxes, or watches in large shagreen cases, at the end of them.
But there is an article of which they are very careful and proud, and which they often wear, even if they are incapable of making any use of it. ‘This is a small hollow instrument, generally of copper, but sometimes of silver, a quarter of an inch thick, and ten or eleven inches long, having at one end, which is larger than the other, an ink-stand, and containing a pen. ‘They call it in modern Greek “ calamaro.” ‘They carry it in their girdles next to their pistols and knife, and adorn it, as well as their other trinkets, with a silver chain.
The whole Albanian costume, when quite clean and new, 15 incomparably more elegant than any worn in the Turkish empire, and it may be made very costly. ‘The Agas, who can afford such an expence, to their other two jackets add a third without sleeves ; and all three of these suits being of velvet, richly worked with inlaid gold or silver, the body of the dress has the appear- ance, and, indeed, almost the stiffness of a coat of mail. And this circumstance, I suppose, made Mr. Eton talk of the ‘ rich armour of the son of the Pasha of Yanina,” which was stripped from his body on the field of battle, and presented by the Sul- liote ambassadors to the Empress Catharine*.
But the common clothes of the Albanians are of a most un- savoury appearance. Few amongst them have more than two shirts, and many only one; so that this material part of their dress, as well as the drawers, is often quite black, and falls to shreds upon their backs, from accumulated filth and constant
* Survey of the Turkish Empire, p. 355.
LETTER: XV. 137
wear, From such a habit, and the practice of sleeping dressed upon the ground, it is to be expected that the thick woollen jackets, mantle, and capote, must shelter every species of ver- min; and, indeed, though from the Grand Signor to his lowest subject, there is not, perhaps, one person in ‘Turkey quite free from a kind of animal, which, when multiplied, becomes the cause and symptom of an incurable disease; yet, as the physi- cian of Ali assured me, ““ Le pou des Albanais est le plus gras et le plus gros du monde.” ‘Vhey will often, without any shame or concealment, brush these insects by dozens from their clothes, and it is quite impossible to travel amongst them without being visited by so unpleasant a companion.
The dress of their women is very fantastical, and different in different villages. ‘Those of Cesarades were chiefly clothed in red cotton (I never obseryed the colour elsewhere), and their heads were covered with a shawl, so disposed as to look like a helmet with a crest, and clasps under the ears. ‘I'he women of Ereeneed were in white woollens, and the younger ones wore a kind of skull-cap, composed entirely of pieces of silver coin, paras and piasters, with their hair falling down in braids to a great length, and also strung with money. ‘This is a very prevailing fashion ; and a girl before she is married, as she collects her portion, car- ries it on her head. The females do not appear more cleanly than the men.
The habitations of the Albanians are mostly very neat ; and though their cottages have seldom more than one floor,’ and that of mud, yet they are regularly swept, and being well built, are perfectly dry. It is true, that the fire is on the floor, and that the hole meant to be a chimney is not always so well con- trived as to prevent the room from being smoked.
fi
198 LETTER® itt.
Their household furniture is not composed of many articles, but is quite sufficient for their wants. A large cireular tray of thin iron and tin, on which they eat, and which they scour very bright ; a pan to mix their meal in; a wooden bowl or two, and a few horn spoons; some jars for oil and wine, a small copper coftee jug, and a brass lamp; three or four mats of white rushes, and one stool; around block of wood, about a foot high, on which the tray is placed ; are all the articles usually to be seen in their cottages, and these are kept either in a neat deal cupboard, or wooden chest.
Their houses have generally two rooms; and in one of these they keep their maize in the stalk, or their grapes, which they sprinkle with salt to preserve them. ‘The traveller Sonnini, who had seen an Albanian town on Mount Olympus, proposes it as the best model for village-buildings. ‘The houses are not heaped together, but each of them has a garden. ‘That in which we were lodged at Ereeneed, had attached to it a piece of ground, containing some roods cultivated for the tobacco plant, a vine- yard, and a fruit and vegetable garden: round the whole was < high stone wall, and the house itself was in an inner yard, also inclosed by another wall, so as to form a sort of fortification ; indeed, we saw several holes at regular distances, through the walls of the room in which we lay, and were informed they were for the use of the gun.
Each of the villages we saw had, also, a green near it, shaded with a large tree, and set apart for the holiday amusements of the peasants. In part of this green 15 a circular piece of paved ground, on which the corn is trodden out by eight or nine horses.a-breast, which are driven round, tied by a cord to a stake fxed in the middle of the circle. ‘This is an universal practice
LETTER KII. 190
in Turkey, and the same plan is followed in Spain and Por- tugal.
The principal food of these people is wheaten or barley bread, or cakes of boiled or roasted maize, cheese made of goats’-muik,
rice mixed with butter, eggs, dried fish, olives, and vegetables.
On holidays, kids and sheep are killed, and fowls, of which there are great plenty every where; but the proportion of animal food is considerably less than that of the other part of their diet. They drink wine, both Mahometans and Christians, as also an ardent spirit extracted from grape-husks and barley, called rackee, not unlike whisky. It is but seldom that they spare any milk from their cheeses. Indeed, cold water is what they chiefly drink, and of this they take large draughts, even in the heats of summer, and during the most violent exercise, without expe- riencing any inconvenience from the indulgence. Coffee is to be met with in many houses, and now and then the rossoglios of Italy, and the liqueurs made at Cefalonia and Corfu.
Although the Albanians are generally temperate, and can live on a very spare diet, yet that is because they preter saving their money for the purchase of arms and trinkets; for they will eat of whatsoever is laid before them by another person, not only freely but voraciously.
In common with all the inhabitants of the Levant, they love money, of which they make little hoards, and then spend the sum all at once, either upon pipe-heads, silver mounted pistols, shawls, snuff-boxes, watches, or handkerchiefs. Of this latter article they, now and then, wear two or three at a tune hanging from their belts. ‘They are avaricious, but not misers—being not so much desirous of keeping, as greedy in collecting riches.
on
140 LETTER (XT:
An Albanian Turk was asked in our hearing what he liked best— Wine? No—Pistols? No—Women? No, no-—What then? ‘“ Why,” replied the young man with great frankness, “ T hike money best; because with that I can get all those things you mention, whenever, and as much of them, as, I want.”
Thus, in the pursuit of riches, there is no toil or danger which they will not encounter; but they prefer the life of the soldier to that of the husbandman, and with much greater alacrity support the labours of war than those of agriculture.
They are very inexpert in cutting down their corn, every kind of which is reaped with a sickle, and never mowed with a scythe. Their plough is as simple as that of Virgil. It is composed of two curved pieces of wood, one longer than the other: the long piece forms the pole ; and one end of it being joined to the other piece about a foot from the bottom, divides it into a share, which is cased with iron, and a handle. ‘The share is, besides, attached to the pole by a short cross bar of wood. ‘I'wo oxen, with no other harness than yokes, are joined to the pole, and driven by the ploughman, who holds the handle in his left hand, and the goad in his right. But, although the furrow is not more than an inch and a half deep, and the exertion requisite is conse- quently very slight, yet the Albanian at his plough is a complete picture of reluctant labour.
‘Thus in many parts of the country the sowing and reaping of the harvest is Celegated to the women, the old and the infirm, and only those labours which require the strength and skill of man, such as the felling of timber, and the cultivation of the
vineyard, fall to the lot of the young mountaineer.
Averse from every habit of active industry, it is with less unwil-
LETTER XII. 141
lingness that he wanders on the mountains or in the forests, with his flocks and herds; for the life of the shepherd is a life both of laziness and peril. But his supreme delight, when unoccupied by the wars of his Pasha or of his village, is to bask in the sun- shine, to smoke, to eat, to drink, to dose, or to stroll slowly round the garden of his cottage, tinkling his tuneless lute. Yet though idle he is still restless, and ready to seize his gun, and plunge into the woods, at the first summons of his chief. —Strange inconsistency in human nature! says 'Tacitus*, when the same men are so fond of indolence and so dissatisfied with repose.
lam, &c. &c.
* De Morib. Germ. cap. xy.
LETTER ΧΙ.
Continuation of the Manners of the Albanians—Expression of their Meaning by Signs—their Liveliness-— Passionate Temper —their Education—their Language—their Morals—Reli- gion—their Nationality—thew love of Arms—The Albanian Robbers—their Way of Life—and Mode of Attack—thew Surgeons—The Albanian Dances—Albamans in Forergn Ser- vice—in Egypt—Italy—the Morea—under Mustapha Bai- ractar—Albanian Settlers—in different Parts of the Levant called Wallachians improperly—and in Calabria.
4...
THE same distaste of trouble, of which mention has been made in my last Letter, seems to be apparent in a sin- gular habit, prevalent with the Albanians, of expressing their meaning by short signs instead of words. ‘Take one or two in- stances :-- one of them is asked, whether there is any fear of robbers in such a road, and he means to say that there is no cause for alarm, he pushes his little red cap over his eyes, as much as to say, a man might walk there blindfolded. Some- times, instead of saying, ‘‘ No, not at all; not the least in the world ;” he puts the nail of his thumb under his upper fore-teeth,
and draws it’out smartly, making the same kind of sound as we
LETTER _X¥EI. 143
employ in place of the interjection, alas! It is not very easy to know when they mean to answer in the affirmative, and when in the negative, as a shake of the head serves both for no and yes. But the sluggishness, or rather the hatred of work, observable in this nation, by no means carries with it that grave and torpid tir which is seen in the generality of the Turks. On the con- trary, they are lively, and even playful; and though their home sports are not of the active kind, yet they show their delight at their Turkish draughts and other sedentary games, by loud bursts of laughter, and other signs of childish joy. ‘They are very furious also in their expressions of like and dislike ; and as they have but little command of their temper, and prefer at all times open force to fraud, they make no study of the conceal- ment of their passions. We once saw one of them offer to run a dirk into his arm, upon the mention of the name of a Greek girl, with whom he was deeply smitten ; for he drew his weapon, and, turning up his sleeve, exclaimed, ‘* Shall I do it? shall I do it ?”——What satisfaction he could suppose this cutting himself could giye to his mistress, it is not easy to conjecture. But this is a practice also of the Greeks, who perform the sacrifice, not with the amorous transport of the Albanian, but out of mere
gallantry, in the presence of their Dulcineas, serenading them and drinking to their healths.
There is nothing more sanguinary in the character of the Alba- nians, than in that of the other inhabitants of the Levant ;
though, as they live under no laws, and each individual is the redresser of his own wrongs, bloodshed cannot but frequently occur. A blow is revenged, by the meanest amongst them, with the instant death of the offender: their military discipline admits
144 LETTER xIIt.
of no such punishment, and their soldiers are hanged and behead- ed, but never beaten. ‘The custom of wearing arms. openly, which has been considered as one of the certain signs of barbarity, instead of increasing, diminishes the instances of murder, for τῷ 15 not probable that a man will often hazard an offence, for which he may instantly lose his hfe. ‘They are not of a malignant dis- position, and when cruel, with the exception of some tribes, it 18 more from sudden passion than from a principle of revenge. ‘Treachery is a vice hardly to be found amongst them; such as have experienced your favour, or, as their saying is, have eaten your bread, and even those who are hired into your service, are entirely to be depended upon; and are capable often of the warmest and most devoted attachment. ‘Take, by the way, that this fond fidelity is more observable in the Mahometan, than in the Christian Albanians.
There are very few of them who cannot speak Greek, and, as their own is not a written language, a great many write and read that tongue. ‘'hese are very proud of their acquirements, and so far from thinking it necessary to conceal their education, display their learning as ostentatiously as their valour. Were an Alba- nian to sit for his picture, he would wish to be drawn, like the admirable Creichton, with a sword in one hand and a book in the other.
The ‘Turkish language is known but to very few, even of the Mahometans amongst them. Of the Albanian language, there is collected for your inspection, almost the first specimen ever put
to paper. ‘The basis of it is said to be Sclavonian, mixed with a
variety of other tongues, of which the ‘Turkish is most predomi- nant, though the modern Greek, the Italian, the French, and
LEPTFER Χ͵ΤῚῚ.: 145
even words that sound like English, have a share in the composi- tion of this strange medley. ‘The infinitive seems to be formed by the syllable ἐϊ.
I feel no great inclination to speak of the morals of the Alba- nians. ‘Their women, who are almost all of them without educa- tion, and speak no other than their native tongue, are considered as their cattle, and are used as such, being, except the very superior sort, obliged to labour, and often punished with blows. ‘They have, in truth, rather a contempt, and even aver- sion for their females, and there is nothing in any of their occa- sional inclinations, which can be said to partake of what we call the tender passion. Yet all of them get married who can, as it is a sign of wealth, and as they wish to have a domestic slave. Besides, as in most parts of the country the females are not nearly so numerous as the other sex, the bride often does not bring a portion to her husband, but the man to his wife, and he is obliged to get together about a thousand piasters, before he can expect to be married.
A young fellow, being asked by us if he was going to get a wife, shook his head, and said he was not rich enough. Some time afterwards he came to us in great glee, with a letter in bis hand from his father, part of which he read to us, couched in
these very words: ‘* I wish you to come home—TI have got a wife
for you.” Just as if he had said, I have got a cow for you.
‘Though the Mahometans amongst them veil their women, and conceal them in their harems, they are said to be less jealous than other Turks, and they seldom have more than one wife. In short, their habit of life, which forms almost all of them into bands of soldiers or outlaws, appears to render them quite independent of
Ἢ
146 LETTER XIII.
the other sex, whom they never mention, nor seem to miss_ in their usual concerns or amusements.
‘he same babit is productive of a system, which is carried by them io an extent of which no nation, perhaps, either modern or ancient, unless we reluctantly except the ‘Thebans, can furnish a similar instance. Not even the Gothic Taifali (1 refer you to Gibbon for their depraved institution*) could be quoted against this assertion, and you should have sufficient proof of its truth, were | not aware of the propriety of the maxim approved, or pro- bably invented by the great Latin historian. ‘* Scelera ostendi oporteat (dum puniumtur) flagitia abscondi+.” After this infor- mation, you may consider it very singular that the Albanians are exceedingly decent in their outward manners and behaviour, never admitting an immodest word or gesture in their conversation, nor indulging in that kind of talk, which is the delight of some, even above the lower orders, in more civilized parts of the world. But this is a part of Mahometan discipline, and though it may appear ἃ necessary concomitant of their strange system which destroys the natural equality of the sexes, is surely to be admired and imitated.
You may be aware that the Christian religion, if the degrading superstition of the Greek church can deserve such a title, has been far from extirpated by the Mahometan conquerors of Albania. ἰάνθη in the upper country, where the ‘Turks are most predomi- nant, several villages of Christians are to be found. On the coast nearly all the people are of that religion, some of them being of the Latin church.
* Decline and Fall, cap. 25. + Tacit. De Morib. German. cap, xii.
LETTER XIII. 147
The Turks are not strict in the observanee of the Mahometan law, though I never heard any of them swear by Christ*. The Christians adhere pretty closely to the tenets, but pay no sort of reverence to the ministers of their church, whom they abuse openly and despise, because they are not soldiers, and are considered to be slaves, being usually Greeks by nation.
Lady M. W. Montague, whose book is so commonly read that you will scarcely pardon me for quoting rather than referring to it, talking of the Arnoots, says, in her agreeable manner— ** 'Y'hese people, living between Christians and Mahometans, and not being skilled in controversy, declare that they are utterly un- able to judge which religion is best, but to be certain of not en- tirely rejecting the truth, they very prudently follow both. ‘They go to the moscks on I'ridays, and to the church on Sundays, say- ing, for their excuse, that they are sure of protection from the true Prophet; but which that is, they are not able to determine in this world.”
‘his may have been true in the days of our accomplished coun- trywoman, but I could not learn that there is now to be found an instance of so philosophical an indifference, or rather of so wise a precaution. [lowever, it is certain that the Christians, who can fairly be called Albanians, are scarcely, if at all, to be distin- guished from the Mahometans. . ‘They carry arms, and many of them are enrolled in the service of Ali, and differ in no respect from his other soldiers. ‘There is a spirit of independence and a love of their country, m the whole people, that, in a great measure, ddes away the vast distinction, observable in other
* Voyage en Albanie, 149.
ry O
a <A
148 LETTER” X11.
parts of Turkey, between the followers of the two religions. For when the natives of other provinces, upon being asked who they are, will say, “ we are ‘Curks” or, ‘ we are Christians,’ a man of this country answers, “ 1 am an Albanian.” ‘Ihe salute also, and the shaking of hands, is as much observed between a Turk and Christian, as between two Turks or two Christians. Nationality, a passion at all times stronger in mountaineers than in inhabitants of the plains, is most conspicuous in their character. If one of them 1s travelling from home, and hears of a countryman resident near any place which he may pass, though he has never seen cr heard of the man before, he will go out of his way to visit him. 1 have several times witnessed the delight they manifest at an accidental meeting of this kind; it is much more apparent than the emotion of two Lnglish friends on such an occasion. But their whole manner is very affectionate, and when, after a short absence, an Albanian happens to light upon an acquaintance, he gives him his right hand and kisses him on the cheek, which is also repeated at parting, when, if they have passed
upon the road, each, after they have got to a little distance, fires
off his pistols and his gun.
No foreign country, nor new sights, can take away from them the remembrance and the love of their mountains, their friends, and their own villages. ‘They are perpetually recurring to them, and making invidious comparisons between their native place, and every thing about them in other countries. ‘They consider that all other men, whether Turks or Christians, are cowards if opposed to their countrymen ; and, in fact, as they have long been ac- counted the best soldiers in the Turkish empire, they have some reason for the pride which can be discerned in their poorest pea-
LETTER ΧΙΤΕ. 149
sants ‘The strut of one of them, and the air of defiance which he puts on, with his hand on his sabre and his red cap a little on one side over his forehead, are such, as no one who has once seen them, would ever forget.
All of them are warriors, and equally capable of using the sword and the long gun; the latter weapon, when slung across their right shoulders, they carry without any apparent effort, running up their hills with great ease and agility. As all of them carry arms, it is not easy to distinguish a soldier in service from ἃ pea- sant ; though perhaps the surest distinction is the sabre, which, as has been said, is seldom worn publicly, except by those in the employment of their Pasha. However, most of their cottages are furnished both with this weapon and with pistols. Nor are their arms for show, for, until very lately, (and in some parts it is the case even now), every district was either upon the defensive against the bands of robbers, or was in alliance with them, and in rebellion against the Pashas of the Porte. Some of almost every village have belonged to these bands, and as no disgrace is attached to plundering upon so large a scale, it is very common to hear a man say, ‘* when I was a robber.”
It is early in the summer that these banditti, in bodies of two, five; and seven hundred, and sometimes even of a thousand, as- semble under some formidable chief, and leaving the towns and villages where they have separately passed the winter, retire to the summits of the most lofty mountains. ‘The recesses of Metzovo, and of the hills now called Agrapha, at the bottom of the gulf of Arta, which command, as it were, the passes from Greece and Thessaly mto Albamia, are amongst their most favourite haunts.
‘They live some in caves, but many of them in the open air, under
VV
WA 10
no other covering than their capotes. The flocks of the shep-
herds, who are in concert with them, supply them with meat, and in the night-time they steal down singly into the villages in
their alliance, and procure bread. No violence is used on this te
occasion ; the messenger taps gently at the door of the cottages, and whispering the words, ‘** Bread, bread,” (psome, psomeé) 15 immediately understood by the peasant, and provided with what he wants. A traveller has some chance of being awakened in his humble lodging by one of these midnight visitants; but would hardly guess what sort of character, or whose purveyor, he really was. ‘Their drink 1s water only, and they are very parti- cular in the choice of their springs. ‘hey have spies throughout the country, to give them notice of the approach of an enemy, or of any whom they may plunder; and, as they are always on the alert, they move instantly, on such intelligence, from the tops of the hills, and occupy the passes in the woods.
In their mode of attack they are extremely cautious. ‘They lie patiently, and in dead silence, perhaps for hours, covered with jeaves, behind stones, in the water-courses, or in the thickets, on each side of the road. ‘They suffer their prey to get into the midst of them, when, if the party be armed or numerous, they fire upon them suddenly without rising, and continue to do so, unless beaten, until they have made their adversaries throw down their arms, and ask for quarter. In that case, the prisoners are then gagged, and bound, and plundered ; and if there be them a man of consequence, the robbers make him write friends for a ransom of so many thousand pilasters, and, if the money arrives, they release him; if it does not, they
head, or keep him amongst them until they disperse.
LETPER XHEII, 151
If there is no probability of their being resisted, they start up at once, without firing, and seize their plunder. Resistance 18 often made with success, and with very little bloodshed ; for, on the first shot being fired, the attacked run different ways, get behind stones and trees, and return the fire upon the robbers, who, unless they are very superior in number, do not attempt to dislodge them with the sabre, but continue under cover, or re- treat.
An English gentleman travelling in the country, had the op- portunity of seeing one of these skirmishes: he told me the story at Ioannina. He was escorted by thirty soldiers of Al’s. In passing a road, with a rocky hill on one side and a wood on the other, thirty-five Albanians suddenly made their appearance: the guard instantly began to climb up the hill, and get under cover of the rocks; firing from behind the stones, and striving with their adversaries, which should get the most elevated station to defend. ‘They continued jumping from crag to crag, dropping down, and firing at each other for twenty minutes, leaving the Iinglishman in the road, till, at last, the two parties discovered that each of them belonged to the Pasha, and that they had mu- tually mistaken each other for robbers. During the whole con- test, not one of either side had been even wounded. However, it 15 not owing to cowardice, but custom, that they always fight in this manner, as well in open warfare as in these petty battles in their own mountains, except where they have any cavalry em- ployed, or where, as in the affair of Prevesa, there is a great disproportion between the numbers of the enemy and their own force. But their fights are not always bloodless: whatever was
done against the Russians during the last campaign, was done by
Mouctar Pasha and his Albanian troops.
152 LETTER XII
The life they lead in the course of their profession as plun- derers, enables them to support every hardship, and to take the field, when in regular service, without baggage or tents of any kind If badiy wounded, they leave their corps, and retire to their homes until they are cured, when they return to the field. Many amongst them know how, in their rude manner, to heal a wound, and set a bone, and they even attempt the more delicate operations of surgery.~~The French Consul at Athens was per- suaded to trust a very valuable lite in the hands of one of them, and was so fortunate as to be relieved by the complete reduction and cure of a hernia, under which he had long laboured.
After the tops of the mountains become untenable from the snow and rain of autumn, these bands of outlaws leave their haunts, and usually separate; many of them going into the towns of Livadia, ‘Thebes, Athens, the Negroponte, and also over to Corfu, and to Santa Maura, where they live upon their plunder, or go into some employment, which they always quit on a stated day in the spring.
Robbing and siealing are reckoned two entirely different things. Very few amongst them are ever guilty of the latter vice; not so many, perhaps, as of the lower orders in many other nations. Not only the youth of the Albanians 15 exercised in arms, but their manhood, and even their advanced age; and it is not till years and infirmities have made them decrepid, that they become the constant tenants of their cottages.
Although lazy in the intervals of peace, there 1s one amuse- ment of which (as it reminds them of their wars, and 1s, in itself, a sort of friendly contest) they partake with the most persevermg energy and outrageous glee. I allude to their dances, which, though principally resorted to after the fatigues of a march, and
LETTER X-ITd.
during their mghts on the mountains, are yet occasionally Le
iaves. O
diversion on the green of their own vil ‘There is in them only one variety: either the hands of the party (a dezen, or more, in number) are locked in each other behind their backs; or every man has a handkerchief in his hand, which is held by the next to him, and so on through a long string of them. ‘The first is a slow dance. ‘he party stand ina semicircle; and their musicians in the middle, a man with a lute, continue walking trom side to side, accompany- ing with their music the movements, which are nothing but the
bending and unbending of the two ends of the semicircle, with
some very slow footing, and now and then a hop.
But m the handkerchief dance, which is accompanied by a song from themselves, or which is, more properly speaking, only dancing to a song, they are very violent. It is upon the leader of the string, that the principal movements devolve, and all the party take this place by turns. He begins at first opening the song, and footing quietly from side to side; then he hops quickly forward, dragging the whole string after him ina circle; and then twirls round, dropping frequently on his knee, and rebounding from the ground with a shout ; every one repeating the burden of the song, and following the example of the leader, who, after hopping, twirling, dropping on the knee, and bounding up again several times round and round, resigns his place to the man next to hun. ‘The new Corypheeus leads them through the same evo- lutions, but endeavours to exceed his predecessor in the quick- ness and violence of his measures; and thus they continue at this sport for several hours, with very short intervals ; seeming to de rive fresh vigour from the words of the song, which is perhaps changed once or twice during the whole time.
x
154 LETTER XII.
In order to give additional force to their vocal music, it is not unusual for two or three old men of the party to sit in the middle of the ring, and set the words of the song at the beginning” of each verse, at the same time with the leader of the string; and one of them has often a lute to accompany their voices.
You should have been told, that this lute is a very simple in- strument—a three-stringed guitar with a very long neck and a small round base, whose music is very monotonous, and which is played with, what you will excuse me for calling, a plectrum, made of a piece of quill, half an inch in length. The majority of the Albanians can play on this lute, which, however, is only used for, and capable of those notes that are just sufficient for the accompamment and marking the time of their songs.
‘The same dance can be executed by one performer, who, in that case, does not himself sing, but dances to the voice and lute of a single musician. We saw a boy of fifteen, who, by some variation of the figure, and by the ease with which he performed the pzrouette, and the other difficult movements, made a very agreeable spectacie of this singular performance.
There is something hazardous, though alluring, in attempting to discover points of resemblance between modern and ancient customs ; yet one may venture to hint, that the Albanians, from whomsoever they may have learnt the practice, preserve in this amusement something very similar to the military dances of which we find notice in Classic authors. At the same time, one would not, as several French travellers have done, talk of the Pyrrhic dance of the Arnoots. Look into Xenophon for a de- scription of the Greek and barbarian dances with which he en- tertained some foreign ambassadors, and you will fix upon the
Persian, as bearing the nearest resemblance to the modern dance ;
~ Ὁ
werd
LETTER OXI
for in that, the performer dropped on the knee and rose again, and all this he did in regular measure to the sound of the flute*,
In the account given of the armed dances of the Laconians, you might also recognise the curious contortions and twirlings of the Albanians, whose sudden inflexions of the body into every posture, seem indeed as if they were made to ward and give blows.
But to return to the characteristic of this nation. Their love of arms is so ardent, that those who may fear too long an inter- val of peace in their own country, enter into the service of the Pashas in every part of the Turkish empire. The guard of the sacred banner from Mecca to Constantinople, used to be en- trusted to one hundred and fifty of them, armed and dressed in their own fashion. ‘The traveller Browne saw them pass through Damascus in procession. Kgypt is at present in their hands, under a Bey, a friend of Ali Pasha’s ; and it was, ina great mea- sure, their troops who compelled our unfortunate army to retreat from that country.
‘The Stradiotes, or Albanian cavalry, made a conspicuous figure in the old Italian wars ; and the coast, to this day, has furnished the Kings of Naples with a regiment. Some of them we have seen in our service at Malta.
The famous Ghalil, commonly called Patrona, was an Alba-
* Τέλος de τὸ Περσικὸν 'wpytiro κροτῶν τὰς πέλτας καὶ ὥκλαζε, καὶ ἀνίστατο, Kab ταῦτα πᾶντα ἐν ῥυθμῶ wpos τὸν αὐλὸν επόιει.--- δ. 6. Xenop. Cy. Anab, p. 426 ; where, in a note, there is a reference to Meursius’ Laconian Miscele lanies, book ii. chap. 12, which describes the armed dance performed—** cum omni corporum flexu ad inferendos et declinandos ictus.” To learn the Pyrrhie dance, was part of the duty of the Roman legionary soldier.
ον
~
13¢ LETTER XItt.
΄.
nian. This man, though acommon seaman and ἃ pedlar, headed the insurrection of 1730, in which Sultan Achmet III. was de- throned, and with a success of which neither ancient ner modern history can furnish another instance, remained for three weeks absolute master of Constantinople.
The Morea has been perpetually disturbed by those of this restless people, who have been either long settled in the country, or who (since they were called in to quell the insurrection of the Greeks in the year 1770) have constituted the guard of the Pasha ot ‘Tripolizza. ‘These formerly amounted to about six thousand ;: they are now under Veli Pasha, not quite so many. [ἢ the year 1799 they marched from Napoli di Romania, and were near sur- prising the city of '[ripolizza itself.
The troops with which Mustapha Bairactar opposed and quelled the Janissaries, were principally Albanians; and since the death of that daring Vizier, the appearanee of one of this nation in the streets of Constantinople, as it was once formidable, is now displeasing, to their late enemies. A man boasted, in my hearing, that a friend of his had made jorty Janissaries fly before him, and that any Arnoot could do the same. Without believ- ing the enormous superiority, you may by this form some notion of the spinit of the people.
But all these mountaineers who enter into service abroad, de- pend upon a return to their own country. Those belonging to the Pasha of the Morea have more than once attempted to force the guard of the Isthmus; and some, who were in a Sicilian regi- ment in our pay, on finding that they were enlisted for life, oc- casioned a yery serious disturbance in the garrison at Malta.
You will be pleased to recollect, that what has been said of the
Albanians, relates only to those who are natives, or, at least, im- mediately sprung from natives of Albania; tor there are settle- ments of this people to be met with in other parts of ‘Turkey m Kurope, and in the islands, who are nothing but miserable labourers, employed to attend the flocks and tll the grounds of the rich ‘lurks and Greeks. ‘here are many of them in the dis- trict of Livadia, and in-that of Attica, who can speak no other language but their own, and are all Christians; their ancestors having, most probably, left the mountains when the ‘Lurks first entered into Albania, or having been settled there since the first irruption of the Sclavonians into Greece.
These have been improperly called Wallachians, by travellers, whose errors have been copied by more accurate writers*. Gib- bon, in his Sketch of Modern Athens, calls them by that name, although he might have rectified the nustake by looking into Chandler, who is, however, himself incorrect, in saying that they wear a different dress from the Greek peasants, and are of a dis- tinguished spirit and bravery. The woollen jacket and loose brogues are common to both, though perhaps the cotton kilt may be occasionally found amongst the former people; and as for their superiority to the other villagers, it seemed to me that they had assimilated with the surrounding slaves.
You may read in Tournefort,. that Marco Sanudo, Duke of
* Yet the positive Mr. De Pauw insists that these people are Wallachians, and descended from the Roman colonies settled by Trajan in Dacia. [ἢ proof of this, he refers to a-note of Mr. D’Anville, in vol. xxx, of the Academy of Inscriptions, and to a work called ‘* tats formés apres la chute de Empire Romainen Occident.”’ A view of these authorities might make me alter my opinion; but not being able to consult them, I have followed the conviction produced by my own experience,and the opinton, universally prevalent amongst these settlers themselves, that they are Arnoots.
158 LEFTER ἌὙΥΤι.
Nio, one of the small islands of the Archipelago, sent for Alba- nian families to cultivate his little dominions ; and the same anec- dote will serve to show you, what sort of reputation all people of this name possess in the Levant; for Mr. Sonnini, determined to find no fault with his favourite Greeks, and being obliged to own that the Archipelago is infested with pirates, can only account for the circumstance, by referring all the robberies to the Albanians settled by Duke Marco at Nio.
But the ἔδει is, that these colonists, except in their patience of fatigue and frugality, have but little of the spirit of the moun- taineers of Albania, and are looked upon by them as a different race of people. Some of them are to be found to this day in Calabria, whither they retired when the Castriotes were invested with a Neapolitan dukedom. 'They were seen by Mr. Swinburne, and were found to have preserved the language and manners of their nation. ‘They amounted in his time, a little more than thirty years ago, to one hundred thousand, their ancestors hay- ing continued to emigrate as late as the reign of Charles the Fifth. They lived in about a hundred villages or towns, the chief of which was Bova, thirty miles from Reggio. ‘The men were able to talk Calabrese ; but the women, like those in Alba- nla, were acquainted with no other than their own language. All but those in the province of Cosenza were of the Latin church ; and a college founded by Pope Clement ΧΕ]. at St. Benedetto Ullano, in Upper Calabria, supplied the priesthood with ministers. ‘They wore the Albanian dress. The men were poor and industrious, the women modest. The priests were held in the nghest reverence and estimation.
ἴδ. &c. ἄς.
LETTER. XLV,
Different Governments in Albania—The different Districts—
Arta—Loannina—Sagori—The Pashalik of Ocrida--Course of the River Drin—The Scene of Scanderbeg’s Battles—The Pashalik of Scutari—Antwari— Dulcigno— Lyssa— Durazzo —The Rivers Mattia, Semne, and Crevasta—the Ans or Polina—its Course from Tepellene—Berat, or Arnaut Beli- grat—Ruins of Apollonia—The River Salnich—The Pasha- lk and Town of Vallona—The Acroceraunians—Chimera-— Manners of the Chimeriotes—Butrinto—Ruins of Buthro- twm—Philathi—The River Thyamis—Margiriti—The Town of Parga—The Glykyslimen, or Port of Sweet Waters— Ache- rusian Lake—Ancient Geography of the Coast—Length of Epirus—Suli— Route from Ioannina to that Place—Para- mithi—Position and Extent of the Mountains of Suli—The Villages of Suli—Wars of the Sulliotes with Ali Pasha— their present Condition—Loru—Population af Albania—Ch-
mate and Temperature—Tepellene.
SPECIMENS of almost every sort of government
are to be found in Albania. Some districts and towns are com- manded by one man, under the Turkish title of Bolu-bashe, or
160 LETTER τιν.
the Greek name of Capitan, which they have borrowed from Christendom. Others obey their elders ; others are under no subjection, but each man commands his own family. The power, in some places, 1s in abeyance; and although there is no appe- rent anarchy, there are no rulers: this was the case, -in our time, at the large city of Argyro-castro, ‘There are parts of the coun- try, where every Aga or Bey, which perhaps may answer to our ancient country squire, is a petty chieftain, exercising every right over the men of his village. ‘The Porte, which, in the days of Ottoman greatness, divided the country into several small pasha- liks and commanieries, is now but little respected, and the limits of her different divisions are confused and forgotten; but the powerful despotism of Ali may, for his life-time, destroy all dis- tinctions, even as yet to be seen in the governments, and conse- quently in the character of the various inhabitants of Albania.
This leads me to speak of the different districts of this impor- tant province.—Of Arta and loannina I have given you an im- perfect sketch. Both those cantons are chiefly inhabited by Greeks, and are in complete subjection to Ali.
Immediately to the north of Ioannina, the mountains of Sagori are peopled by Greeks, whose villages were long considered inde- pendent, and even now rather enjoy the protection than feel the power of the Pasha. ‘I'he Sagorites, who live on the flat summits of the hills, anciently called Lingon, are most of them petty traders, and their commerce with foreigners has given them a gentleness of manner and disposition, to be found in no other inhabitants of Albania. heir chief town, Sagori, is about thirty- six miles, or twelve hours, from Joannina. ‘The north-western
declivities of the mountains of Sagori, which verge towards the
LETTER XIV. 161
valley of 'Tepellenc, are peopled by Albanians of a savage tem- per, whose women, says Poukeville, are warriors.
To the north and north-east, beyond Sagori, 1s the pashalik of Ocrida, which extends along both sides of the river Drin, the ancient Drilo. ‘This river rises in the northern extremity of the mountains of Sagori, and, after running twenty-four miles to the north, . falls into the lake of Ocrida: thence it proceeds, still northwards, till joined by another river, the White Drin, when it goes to the south-west, and forms part of the boundary towards Dalmatia and Bosnia: at last it flows south, and falls into the Adriatic a little below Lyssa.
The Albanians of the pashalik of Ocrida are reckoned some of the most ferocious and the best soldiers of the whole province. They are nearly all ‘Turks, having but a few Christian villages amongst them. It is in some part of their district, I believe, that the Geghides inhabit, notorious as the most savage tribe in the country. We saw some of them at Tepellenc; they were distinguished by dusky red jackets, and red shawls, and had come to pay their court to Ali, the real, though not the reputed, mas- ter of great part of their pashalik.
The Bosnian Turks, their neighbours, are equally renowned for barbarity and valour.
This part of the country was the principal scene of the exploits of Scanderbeg; but a traveller would be disappointed, who should look into the life and deeds of that hero, as described by Barletius, and expect to find all the places alluded to as the thea- tre of his actions. Crdia, his capital, that so long resisted the arms of Amurath and Mahomet, is now a miserable village: it is twenty-seven miles from Durazzo. Dibra, one of the ancient Deborus’s, on the Drilo, called by the biographer the chiet town
Ww a
162 LETTER - XIV.
in Epirus, and seventy miles from Croia, is a very mconsiderable place. But Dayna, a town, and Mocreas, a valley, on the fron- tiers, Oronoche, in the country of Dibra, the plains of the lesser Tyranna, near Crdia, Petrella, Petra Alba, Stellusa, andthe impregnable Sfetigrade, perched like an eagle’s nest on the top of
a rock near Dibra—all these places, which witnessed the triumphs of the modern Alexander, would, I fear, be in vain sought in the most correct topography of Albania. In the account of Bar- letius, which I read as detailed by Wnolles, never having seen the original, I find that the hero rode from the neighbourhood of Lyssa, on the Adriatic, in one evening, to the top of a mountain called Tumenist, whence he might see the plain of Pharsalia, and that he returned to his camp at midnight. Is it possible to re- concile this story with the geography of the country ἢ
Το the west of the pashalik of Ocrida is that of Scutari, or Iscoudar, which is bounded to the south by the chain of moun- tains above 'l'epellene, and to the north by the country of the Monte-negrins, or the black mountaineers. It is extensive, and comprehends the fine plain washed by the Drin, as far as the city of Durazzo to the south. It is obliged, by the regulations of the Porte, to furnish six hundred soldiers to the Ottoman armies, and is reckoned the eighth under the Beglerbey of Ro- mania. Scutari itself is twenty-one miles from the sea, to the north of the Drin, on the banks of a river called Boiana by the Venetians: it contains twelve thousand inhabitants, with a few exceptions, all ‘lurks, and is at present governed by a Pasha, who 15 a restless and turbulent man, and the only counterpoise to the power of Ali. Not far from the city is the lake of Scutari, the Labeatis palus, the most considerable in Albania.
Antivari, the most northern Albanian town on the coast, is the
LETTER XIV. 163
port of Scutari, and the depot of the valley of the Drin, the chief manufacture of which is shoe-leather. It is inhabited en- tirely by ‘Turks, all seamen, as are the people of the neigh- bouring town of Dulcigno, which is in possession of six thou- sand pirates, who issue, as the Illyrians did of old, from the
same port of Olcinium, to plunder the merchant ships of all nations.
The Dulcigniotes, and those of Antivari, enter into the naval service of the Barbary powers, and are the only Albanians who have the least acquaintance with the management of a ship, or willingly trust themselves at sea. A few armed galliots belong- ing to Ali, and usually moored in the port of Prevesa, are man- ned by some of these people. They are accounted cruel and treacherous. A Dulcigniote ship fell in with the small vessels under convoy of the brig of war that conveyed us to Prevesa, and immediately began firing amongst them; but was soon silenced, and brought to, by a shot from the man of war. The Captain and crew, between thirty and forty men, when brought on board, said they were saluting the fleet; and on this plea, after being confined a day or two, were released at Prevesa. The ship was furnished with six small guns, and crammed with mus- kets, swords, and pistols. ‘I'he looks of the sailors were suffi- cient to condemn them; but they hada pass from Ali Pasha, which the English cruisers are directed to respect.
Following down the coast, we find the Venetian towns of Lyssa, or Alessio, and Durazzo*. After Durazzo, are the mouths of the rivers Mattia, Semne, and Crevasta. ᾿ΓῸ these succeeds the river of Tepelleneé, which is laid down in the modern maps as the Vooussa, though I never heard it so denominated by the people of the
* Durazzo is in the latitude of 41 degrees 27 minutes. An ancient author
calls it the key of the Adriatic. y 2
Fad 104 LETTER XIi¥.
country. ‘This river, a short time after it passes Tepellené, begins to widen, and flows westward till it falls into the Adriatic.
T'welve hours distance from the native place of Ali, on the north bank of the river Crevasta, is the town of Berat, the Alba- nan Belgrade, and the Elyma of Mr. D’Anville: it is considered the strong-hold of the pashalik of Vallona, and is defended by a fortress mounting forty cannon. On the south bank of the rivet above the Crevasta, close to the sea, is a town called Cavailla, whence is exported the finest timber of Albania; and at a little more than a mile from the north bank of the Crevasta itself, at about seven miles from the shore, is the small town of Polina, where a few ruins denote the site of the celebrated city of Apollo- nia. ‘I'he whole interior of these districts belongs to Ali, who, whilst we were at 'Tepellené, had reduced Ibrahim, Pasha of Val- lena, to confine himself in Berat. Whilst at Athens, we under- stood that Berat itself had submitted ; and that Ibrahim had fled to Vallona, whose walls had become the boundaries of his territory.
The detail in Meletius* makes the river near Durazzo the ancient Panyassus and modern Spirnazza; the succeeding stream, the Ap- sus, now the Cavrioni; the next the Loos, or Adus, at present the Vooussa; and the last, the Celydnus, now called the Salnich: but this topography cannot be correct, for he puts Apollonia on the Vooussa, although that river is the nearest on the coast to the north of Vallona.
Vallona}, once Aulon, is a town and port at the bottom of a gulf, anciently called the Gulf of Oricum, and supplies Upper
* AABANIA, pp. 306, 307. + Vallona is called by the Italians La Vallona. <A chart of the gulf, and of
the neighbouring country, was laid down in 1690, by a Venetian engineer, named Alberghetti.
LETTER) XLV: 195
Albania with the articles of Italian manufacture in use amongst the natives—gun and pistol barrels, glass, paper, and Calabrian capotes. It exports the oils, wools, gall, nut, and timber, of the surrounding country. It is inhabited chiefly by Turks; yet in this place, as well as along the whole coast, even from Ragusa, are found some Christians of the Latin church, whose ecclesias- tical superior is the Bishop of Monte-negro.
Immediately to the south of Vallona, begins the mountainous district of Chimera, the Chaonia of the ancients. A narrow strip of high rocks runs into the sea towards the north, whose point is called Glossa by the Greeks, and La Linguetta by the Ita- lians. At the bottom of the gulf, inclosed by this projection, are the ruins of the fortress of Canina, on a rock, once garrisoned by the ‘Turks, and a small port answering to Oricum, into which flows a river that has its source in the tops of Pindus*. ‘The Chimeriote mountains extend along the coast as far as the district of Butrinto, and are bounded on the east and north-east by the hills of Argyro-castro.—There are several petty ports where Chi- mera, Panormus, and Onchesmus, were formerly situated. Of these Panormus, now the Porto Palermo of the Italians, is the most considerable. Chimera once had a fortress defended by three hundred Turks, who, in the year 1570, during the reign of Sultan Selim the Second, were expelled by the mountaineers. Reading the transactions of the same reign, you will find men- tion of the town of Cestria, or Suppoto, on the coast-}.
The Chimeriotes near the sea, are many of them Christians, but in the interior they are nearly all Turks. ‘hey are very bar-
* Herod. Calliope, iii. 93. + Knolles, p. 819.
166 LETTER XIV.
barous and warlike; and though all of them are at peace with, or perhaps almost under the subjection of Ah, their different vil- lages are in a state of perpetual warfare with each other. Inha- bitants of those savage rocks, which the fancy of ancient poets has delighted to paint in the most terrific colours, they appear the ferocious offspring of a rugged soil. ‘They are distinguished, even in a land of barbarians, for the singular cruelty and impla- cability of their disposition. ‘They never lose sight of their re- venge. Amongst them a murderer is pursued by the family of the deceased: neither time nor future benefits can obliterate the injury, which can only be expiated by the blood of the offender, or of one of his kin. ‘Thus the protection of an individual often becomes the concern of his village; and the friends of the pro- voked party also flying to arms, the enmity spreads from families to towns, and from towns to districts. ‘The men of one moun- tain watch those of a neighbouring hill, and neither sow nor reap, nor tend their flocks, singly or unarmed. Should one of them wander beyond the precincts of protection, he would be stalked, like a deer, and shot without seeing lis enemy.
The Chimeriote Christians would voluntarily enter mto the service of any foreign power; and as the Captains of their vil- lages have some of them great influence, it would be no difficult matter to raise a strong body of forces in the country. We saw a Chimeriote at Malta, a person of great address, who had come to that island with an offer of raising three thousand men instantly for the service of the British government.
The soil in the valleys of Chimera yields olives and maize in
great quantities, but not many vines. ‘The inhabitants contrive to lay as much of the produce of their lands, as, with the
LETTER XIV. 107
fleeces of their flocks, and the gall-nuts and timber of their forests, enables them to supply themselves with arms, and carry ona small traffic at Vallona, and Porto Palermo, and in the small ports of their coast.
To the south of the Chimeriote mountains is the district of Butrinto, bounded to the east by the pashalik of Delvino, a town twenty-one miles distant. Butrinto (near which, if we may credit Poukeville, are to be seen some remains of the “ lofty” city of Buthrotum) was so long in the possession of the Venetians, that the inhabitants of the town and neighbourhood are, for the most part, Christians of the Latin church ; and there is a Roman Ca- tholic Bishop established in the place, who is equally protected by his present master, Ali, as he was by the French. Near the town is a village called Mauroli, to the south of which runs a river, Pavla, and to the east another small stream, both of them emptying themselves into a lake once named Anchises, now Pe- lotti, I suppose from the old port Pelodes. his I copy from the account of the French officers, who, it seems, were more fortunate than A‘neas in finding both the Simois and the Xan- thus of Helenus; for the Trojan hero saw only the former river; the channel of the Scamander was unwashed by any wave.
From Butrinto, going along the coast of the very narrow sea that separates Corfu from the main land, the traveller arrives in three hours at Keraka, the principal port of the inhabitants of a district, whose chief town is Philathi, and which, as the word imports in modern Greek, abounds in olives. ‘I'he Philathiotes inhabit, for the distance of sixteen or seventeen miles to the pastward, both banks of a river, that appears to correspond with
168
LETT ER ays
the Thyamis of Thucydides* and Strabo}. ‘The 'Thyamis sepa~ rated Thesprotia from the district of Cestrine, and flowed near the Acherusian lake. ‘I'he Philathiotes are stated to amount to between six and eight thousand, mostly Christians, who are kept in awe of Ali by a guard of soldiers quartered in_ the villages of Gomenizza and Sayades, a little farther to the south on the coast. ‘They transport their oils, and the flocks and herds with which their country abounds, to Corfu; nor can all the vigi- lance of our cruisers cut off their supplies of provisions from the French.
‘The east and south-east of Philathi, a country, which an acci- dent gave us the opportunity of seeing at a distance, 1s a moun- tainous district, belonging to a town called Margiriti, inhabited principally by Turks, and scarcely in subjection to the Pasha of foannina. Margiriti is governed by a Bolu-bashe, or Captain.
On a peninsula jutting out from the district of Margiriti, is the town of Parga, which is fortified, and has two ports. It stands on the south corner of the Glykyslimen, or Port of Sweet Waters, in groves of orange, lemon, and olive trees, and coniaiis eight thousand inhabitants, who are chiefly Christians, and of both churches. Parga was put into the hands of the I’rench by the treaty of Campo Formio; but they, in a great measure, left the inhabitants to defend themselves against Ali, after the battle of Prevesa, though they have since been established in the town, and call it under their protection. Parga is the only place in this quarter, that has been able to resist the arms and arts of Ali. ‘Their Sulliote allies were not so fortunate; but the Pasha has his
* Thucyd. lib. i. cap. 47. t Strab. lib. vie
LETTER XIV: 169
attention still fixed upon this town, and will probably succeed in his designs.
The character of the Pargotes is amongst the worst of the Albanians: their connexion with the Christian states has taught them only the vices of civilization, and they are not less ferocious, but are become more refined in their cruelty and violence. ‘Their town is the refuge of many of the robbers whom Ali has driven from the mountains.
Towards the head of the Glykyslimen, now called Port Veliki, is a reedy marsh, which runs some distance into the land. Time may have produced a communication between the fresh waters and the sea; and I cannot help thinking, although no lake is now to be seen, and notwithstanding the positive assertion of Pouque-~ ville, and of the learned person who laid down the maps of Ana- charsis; that ancient and modern charts have been correct in placing the Acherusian lake at the head of this bay. It is, how~ ever, but fair to mention, that Pliny* says, that the Acheron, after leaving the Acherusian lake, flows ras six miles to the Ambra- cian Gulf, and that Mr. Barbie du Boccage is supported by Me- letius, who says there are two Acherusian lakes in Epirus-f.
From the extremity of the Acroceraunians to the mouth of the Ambracian Gulf, a distance of thirteen hundred stadia (one hun- dred and sixty-two Roman miles and a half), and the greatest length of ancient Epirus, the whole line of coast has been mi- nutely noted, and we might expect to find ourselves familiar with every port and heacland.
When not far from Parga, we saw the promontory of Chime-
* Lib. iv, cap. 1. + HIISIPOS. pp. 317, 319. Z
170 LETTER XIV.
rium above the town, and the small islands called Sybota, the scene of the first action fought in the Peloponesian war. ‘The features of nature may have undergone but little change since the time the Corinthians encamped on the promontory; but it would be a vain endeavour to look for even a vestige of the town of Buchetium. near the headland, of Cichyris, formerly Ephyre, at the head of the Glykyslimen, or of Pandosia, near the Ache-~ rusian lake, or Elatria and Batic, inland cities of the Cassopean Epirotes. Strabo calls this a favoured region. Buthrotum wasa Roman colony; and Atticus had an estate and villa which he called Amalthea*, somewhere in the neighbourhood of the modern town of Parga.
The first mention I find of that place, is in the transactions of the reign of Sultan Solyman the Magnificent. A village near it produced the famous Pasha Abraham, who conquered Arabia, Assyria, and Mesopotamia, and by the help of Barbarossa, re- duced Tunis and Algiers. The posts of Ali advance close upon Parga, and make part of the guard chosen to preserve the con- quered territory of Sulli, of which district, though it will be fore- stalling the account of what we saw when thrown upon that coast, I will now tell all 1. have been able to collect, previously noticing the contiguous district. of Paramithi.
This place, called also Agio-Donato and Aidoni by the Turks, 15: the chief. town of a mountainous district about thirty-six miles in circumference, containing fifteen thousand. inhabitants, formerly living in independent villages, but now governed by. Captains all undenan Aga, appointed by Ali. The account given,
* Epist. Cicer. lib. i. Ep. 13; ad Att.
LETTER XIV. 171
in the Survey of the Turkish Empire, of the Paramithiotes, re- presents them to be cruel and revengeful, living under no govern~ ment, but every family administering justice amongst themselves ; it declares that some of them are Turks, some Christians, but not strict in either religion; intermarrying with each other, and boiling a piece of mutton and a piece of pork in the same pot for the wife and husband of different persuasions; and it adds, that they are peculiarly addicted to catching Franks and other strangers, and selling them in the public market. At present, however, they are not to be distinguished from any other of the subjects of Ali, and a tra- veller might appear in the market of Paramithi without being an article of merchandize.
From Paramithi there are three roads, one to Margiriti; an- other to Parga; and a third, of twelve miles, to Sulli.
The mountains of Sulli extend thirty miles from north to south, and about the same length transversely. ‘Towards the east they have the district of Arta, and to the south-east, and south, that of Loru: between them and the shore, is a strip of land called Fanari. Philathi and Paramithi are to the north and north-east. At the eastern foot of the mountains there 1s a plain of some ex- tent, where there are four villages. ‘I'he whole country contains eighteen villages. ‘There are on the side of Nicopolis two distinct summits of hills, The highest post, where there is a building that appeared to me like a fort, is called Laka, on the top of a coni- cak mountain inaccessible on every side but one, where the approach
to it is a small winding path cut out of the rock. <A little below
Laka, is Sulli itself, called Mega, or Kako-Sulli. Below Sulli is
Samonissa, a fort; then Tripa (the cavity) a principal post, sur-
rounded by a rampart: or wall; below Tripa is Klysoura ; and am
172 LETTER XIV
> 1
next to that Skoutias, on the brink of the ravine formed by the two hills. ‘There are other villages, all of them on the top of formidable mountains: Kiafa, near Sulli, Agia Pareskevi, Zagari, Perikati, Vounon, Zavoukon, Panaia tou Glykos, and Milos.
The contest between Ali and theinhabitants of these mountainous villages continued thirteen years ; and the wars of Sulh and Parga are recorded in a work, written in modern Greek by a Sulliote, and printed at Paris, which I have seen. It talks of the summers and winters of the war, but in other respects is not much in the style of Thucydides,
The Sulliotes are all Greek Christians, and speak Greek, but wear the mountain habit, and have a much greater resemblance to the Albanian warrior than the Greek merchant. However, they have always been esteemed by the Greeks as the prime soldiers, and hopes of their faith ; and in the scheme presented to the Empress Catharine in the year 1790, for a general insurrec- tion of that nation against the Turks, Sulli was fixed upon as the seat of congress, and the place from which the confederate army was to commence its march.
When the peace between Russia and ‘Turkey abandoned the Greeks to their fate, and the squadron of the famous Lambro Canziani, who himself fled into Albania, was dispersed, the Sul- liotes prepared for an attack from Ali; and that Pasha, in the year 1792, after pretending a design on Argyro-castro, and get- ting into his power one of their chiefs called Giayella, suddenly fell upon the open plains, and forced the people to evacuate the villages and fly into the mountains. Ali made several attacks on Kiafa and Tripa, but was obliged to retreat with loss, and was
followed by two thousand Sulliotes, even into the plains of Ioan-
LETTER Xt¥v. 173
nina, when some sort of terms were agreed upon by the two par- ties, which were soon broken, and a desultory warfare recom- menced between them.
In the year 1796, Ali again marched a large force into the plains, and destroyed the villages, but was again repulsed. But having at last got possession of some heights, and built towers commanding the defile, and continuing to advance higher up to- wards Sulli, the inhabitants began to yield to his perseverance. A dissension arose amongst the chiefs, and some of the fighting men, bribed, it is said, by Al, withdrew, and though it would have been impossible to carry the posts by storm, they all sur- rendered successively. Sulli itself, in the year 1803, admitted the troops of the Pasha. Agia Paraskevi was the last to capitu- late. It was garrisoned by three hundred men, commanded by Samuel a priest, who during the evacuation, blew up the place he had so gallantly defended. During this continued contest, Ali is said to have lost thirty thousand men, and the Sulliotes five thousand. ‘I'he number of the latter, who, by agreement re- tired to Parga and Corfu, were about four thousand. The war was carried on with musquets, in the Albanian fashion already described. Ali latterly also brought some cannon to the siege,
which were to have been directed by the French officers his pri-
soners ; but these gentlemen at that time contrived to escape to Corfu; and it is probable the artillery had not so powerful an effect as the money of the Pasha.
Mr. Eton, or Mr. Eton’s dragoman, was a little credulous, in recording that four thousand men, all but one hundred and forty, who were made prisoners, were killed in one action; and indeed he invests these wars with an importance most extravagant,
174 LETTER XIV.
and disproportionate to their real magnitude. Yet whilst these rocks were invested by the Albanians of Ali, many gallant actions were performed, which the author. of the wars of Sulli and Parga, must hope will go down to posterity with the deeds of the heroes of Marathon and Platea.
The women were not less active than the men, and children of a tender age partook of the spirit of their parents. The son of the captive Giayella, a boy of twelve years of age, had been de- livered by his father as a hostage and pledge of his return from the mountain, and was, on that promise being broken, sent pri- soner to Ioannina. He was brought before Veli Pasha, who ad- dressed him fiercely : ‘‘ Robber, do you not know that my father will burn you alive ?’—* Yes,” replied the boy, ““ and I also know, that if my father takes you prisoner, he will do the same to you.” Giavella was killed in the war, and this magnanimous child was not destroyed, but sent back to his friends.
It would be tedious to be more particular in detailing the un+ successful struggles of this people. Acts, though of the most determined active or passive courage, in order to be worthy of record, must be performed in a certain cause, age and nation, and must be, besides, accompanied with other virtues. Were it not so, the lives of the Pirates might be put upon the same shelf with Cornelius Nepos, for Miltiades himself was not a more de- termined warrior than Black-beard, who received fifty-six wounds in the battle which cost him his life.
It must be allowed that a great deal may be done by askilful anna- list, to rescue from oblivion any events, however unimportant in their
effects; and if these wa rshad been recorded by the same pen which has related the noble struggles of the Patriots of Saragossa, the
LETTER XIV. 175
valour of the Sulliotes might have been as common a topic of ad- miration as the perseverance of the Spaniards. As it is, Captain Giavella, and Captain Bogia, the heroes of the modern historian, must be ranked, notwithstanding the efforts of Mr. Eton and this frail memorial, with the many brave men who have perished un- known.
There are now about two thousand of Ali’s soldiers quartered in the different villages of Sulli, and that town itself maintams three hundred of them. Yet such of the people as still cultivate the country are treated with much lenity. They are not obliged to give free quarter to travelling soldiers; their horses and cattle are not taken without previous payment, and they are never beaten. ‘The conquest of Sulli has put Ali in possession of the coast as far as Prevesa, and we proceeded in perfect safety with a small guard through that country, which Pouqueville describes
as independent, and consequently impassable. It makes part of the district of Loru, which lies between Sulli and the gulf and territory of Arta, and stretches towards the plains of Ioannina. This district, which is called by the Italians Paése di Cassopeo, is very mountainous. Its inhabitants are Greeks, who, though overawed by the presence of some Albanians‘in the Vizier’s service, are favourers of the troops of robbers that sometimes appear in
their mountains.
T shall leave what I have to say of Carnia, though it may be called a part of Lower Albaria, until we pass through that coun- try; and as something has before been said of the distriet of Arta, and of that immediately in the neighbourhood of Ioannina, I have communicated all I have been able to learn of the different parts of Albania. Would that my information were more full
176
and particular, and free from those deficiencies, of which I am myself more sensible, than most people who have not travelled in the country can pretend to be.
on I
IT would not venture to make an estimate of the population of the whole country, but perhaps some guess may be formed of the amount, by what has been said of the places we visited. Upper Albania, begin where we will, either above Delvinaki or at 'Tepel- lene, is more generally populous than the country to the south. The Greeks will assert that three hundred thousand Albanians, might on an emergency appear in arms. But Perseus, who pos- sessed the whole force of the Macedonian monarchy, and who, after twenty-six years of peace, collected the largest army seen since the times of Alexander the Great, could get together only thirty-nine thousand foot, and four thousand horse soldiers. ‘The standing army of Scanderbeg consisted of eight thousand horse and seven thousand foot. ‘There may be some excess in the computation above stated, yet a population of a million two hun- dred thousand of all ages and sexes, that is, four times the number of men able to carry arms, is not disproportionate to the size of the country.
Upper Albania. is laid down by a modern geographer as one hundred and ninety miles in length from north to south, and ninety-six in breadth from east to west. ‘The length of Epirus,
or Lower Albania, bas been already stated, and Mr. [lume says, it may be in circumference altogether about twice as big as York- shire*.
* Essay on the Populousness of Ancient Nations.
LETTER XIV. 177
The temperature of the whole province is generally mild, ex- cept that in the height of sammer the heat at loannina is very op- pressive. In the spring there is seldom much rain, or a continued drought. ‘The autumnal rains last for about four weeks, with in tervals of clear weather, and the close of the season is very fine. The sky is then without a cloud, and the middle of the day is as warm as that of an English June, so much so, that on the fifth of November we bathed in the gulf of Arta. ‘The mornings and evenings are a little chill, but without any cold fogs or musts. The winter lasts about two months, and during that time there is much snow on the higher grounds, but the frosts are seldom οὗ any long duration.
[oannina, as Poukeville reports, is subject in the spring and autumn to tertians, for which the vicinity of a large stagnated lake may account, but, generally speaking, Albania may be called a healthy country, especially the upper part of it, where, we heard, that instances of longevity were by no means uncommon, At Ereeneed we were shown an old manand woman who had both passed their hundredth year.
Fhe island in the lake of Ioannina is said to be subject to earth- quakes; and our ['rench authority affirms, that every October, the inhabitants upon it are alarmed by more than thirty agitations, accompanied by the sound of loud subterranean explosions. We were in the city just at the stated period, but these terrific con- vulsions did not return during our stay in the country.
The physicians of Ioannina, and in the large towns, are Grecks ; but surgical cases are referred to. the Albanians, as was before alluded to, and these rough operators sometimes attempt the cure even of general diseases by violent topical applications. You have seen the
Aa
1
=
“ἢ
8 LETTER XIV.
treatment for a cold in the limbs, in my third letter. ‘They havea singular a remedy for a fever. ‘he patient stretches out his arm, and the doctor runs his thumb forcibly along the principal artery from the wrist up to the shoulder. ‘his he repeats several times, till he has thrown the man into a profuse perspiration, whom he then covers up warmly, and considers in a fair way of recovery ; nor is he often deceived, as the opening of the pores in such cases
must, I suppose, but seldom fail of producing a favourable effect. τς so ae RTE treme — —
But during this very long digression, you may have forgot that you last left us at Tepellenc, with a short account of which town, forgotten in its proper place, I shall conclude this Letter.
It is inhabited partly by Christians, partly by Turks, and is said to contain between four and five hundred houses, of which there did not appear to be one of ihe better sort, except the Vizier’s palace, which covers a good deal of ground, and contains a spacious harem. ἰ[ is the most favourite residence of Ali, and there are always some of the ladies of his household living on the spot, as well as a large establishment at all times ready to re- ceive his Highness. In this palace, it is reported that Ali pre- serves the greatest part of his treasure, and, if you believe the Albanians, some of the inner rooms are piled up to the top with jewels and coin. ,
The town stands on a rocky knoll immediately over the river, which, in this place, is broad and deep, with high banks on both sides. ‘There are remaining an arch and a half of a bridge opposite
the town, which Ali has in vain endeavoured to repair. An Hng-
lish renegado, considered skilful in these matters, came from Con-
LETTER XIV. 179
stantinople to inspect the work, and assured the Vizier, that the bottom of the river, and the banks, being of loose sand, the buttresses would always be undermined, and carried off by the autumnal floods. ‘Thus, those who come from Berat, if they do not cross ina boat, must go round by the bridge which we passed
in our journey to ‘l’epellene. Tam, &c. ἄς.
LETTER XV.
Departure from Tepelleneé—Return to Ioannina—A Marriage Procession—A Turkish Puppet-Show—Ancient Coins to be met with at Ioanntna—Final Departure from that City—Re- turn to Prevesa—-Disaster at Sea—Land on the Coast of Sulli—View of that Town and District, at Volondorako— Route from Volondorako to Castropsheca—to Prevesa—Sail down the Gulf of Arta—Vonitza—Utraikee—Ancient Mea- surement of the Gulf.
AFTER settling accounts with the great officers of the palace, all of whom, from the Chamberlain to the Fool, came for a present, we took leave of our friend the Secretary, and hav- ing an express order upon the post throughout the Vizier’s domi- nions, took, besides the five horses we had brought from Ioan- nina, five others from 'Tepellene, to assist us back to the Capital. The Secretary said we might expect great things from these horses. ‘* Vanno assolutamente correndo.” ‘Their extraordinary velocity was a trot, when forced to their speed, of five miles an hour.
The priest who had come with us to the Vizier, also made one of our party back.
The first day we went about twenty miles, and slept in the vil-
LETTER: Xv. 181
lage of Lokavo, in the hills, which we had passed in our way to Tepellene.
The second day we descended again into the plain, continuing along the banks of the river, which we crossed; then, having the town of Libokavo on our left, and keeping ‘out of the hills, as the waters had subsided, and striking into the same road by which we had come from Delvinaki to Libokavo, we arrived at the former place by sunset. Our journey this day might be about thirty miles. We slept in the same house that had before lodged us.
The next day we returned as far as Zitza, perhaps twenty-five miles, and took up our abode in the monastery on the hill. On the day after, the 26th of October, we got back to the house of Signor Nicolo at Ioannina. ‘Thus, although we had been nine days in getting to Tepellené, we were only four coming back; and the journey, which cannot be quite a hundred English miles, might, notwithstanding the badness of the paths, be performed very easily in three. ‘The -'Tartars, or couriers, are not half that time upon the road. However, as there is no point gained by hurrying over acountry one has never seen before, and may never see again, we did not at all regret having made so slow a progress.
‘The weather, during our return, was very different from what it had been on our former journey. ‘The storms had ceased, and the sun shone in the middle of the day as hot as with us at mid- summer. ‘I'he vintage was now entirely over, and the maize was collected into the villages. ‘The flocks of goats, and sheep, and the herds of small cattle, had all been driven from the tops and sides of the hills, into the warmer plains. The ploughing for the early crops of the ensuing year, had also commenced.
We passed our time at loannina, both before and after our
182 LED TER: ve
visit to Tepellené, most agreeably ;—a sail upon the lake, a ride into the country, or a stroll through the Bazars and Bizestein, occupied our mornings, and our evenings were passed at home in the conversation of our host, or abroad in visits to the principal people of the town. We were one evening gratified by the sight of a marriage procession, which, as the ceremonies of the Greek Christians of Albania seem to be carried to a more ridiculous height than those of the other parts of ‘Turkey, I will attempt to describe. A Slave of the Harem, and an Albanian Officer, a Christian in the Vizier’s service, were the parties.
First, the bridegroom passed through the streets-attended by a large party of men with fiddles, and with many others carrying lanterns of coloured paper, and he proceeded to fetch his bride from the Seraglio of his Highness. Half an hour afterwards we saw the whole party moving along to the house of the bridegroom. ‘The streets were full of people. At the head of the procession was the bridegroom with his band of musicians and lantern-bearers, followed also by a long crowd of men. Next came six young girls, splendidly dressed in gold and silver stuffs, with their long hair flowing over the shoulders; twoof them carried infants in their arms. {hen appeared a woman more richly habited, carrying on her head a small red trank, containing the portion with which the bride, ac- cording to custom, as belonging to the Harem, had been presented by Ali himself. Behind her came the bride herself, to whose ap- pearance it is impossible for me to do justice. It was some time before we were thoroughly convinced that what we saw was not some doll dressed up for the occasion. She had scarcely any per- ceptible motion, except a slow march from side to side, and she resembled more than any thing else I can recollect, the wax figure of Queen Elizabeth in Westminster Abbey, for not only
ΠΥ ΤΕ: XV. 1838
her dress, but herself was to the full as stiff. Her face, not a muscle of which moved, was daubed with a mask of white and red paint, and she seemed cautious not to alter, in the least, the po- sition of her head, for fear of throwing offa high cap studded with pieces of gold money. Ter left hand was held by an armed Al- banian magnificently drest, and her right by a Greek priest. Be- hind her was a vast crowd of women, with music and lanterns. ‘The procession moved so slowly, and the number of people was
so great, that the street was not clear of them for nearly an hour.
The marriage had taken place in the morning, but the bride had returned to her apartments, that she might be carried off in triumph during the might.
This procession, the most grand and ridiculous of the many | saw in ‘l'urkey, is something more in the Albanian than the Greek taste, and has therefore not been deferred till I came to speak of the latter nation.
An evening or two before our departure from Joannina, we went to see the only advance which the Turks have made towards scenic representations. ‘This was a puppet-show, conducted by a Jew who visits this place during the Ramazan, with his card per- formers. ‘lhe show, a sort of ombre Chinoise, was fitted up ina corner of a very dirty coffee-house which was full of spectators, mostly young boys. ‘The admittance, was two paras for a cup of coffee, and two or three more of those small pieces of money put into a plate handed round after the performance. ‘I'he hero of the piece was a kind of punch, called Cara-keus, who had, as a traveller has well expressed it, the equipage of the God of Gar- dens, supported bya string from his neck. The next in dignity was a droll, called Codja-Haivat, the Sancho of Cara-keus; a
184 LETTER XV.
man and a woman were the remaining figures, except that the catastrophe of the drama was brought about by the appearance of the Devil himself in his proper person. ‘The dialogue, which was ali in ‘Vurkish, and supported in different tones by the Jew, I did not understand ; it caused loud and frequent bursts of laughter from the audience ; but the action, which was perfectly intelligible, was too horribly gross to be described. If you have ever seen the morrice-dancing in some counties of England, you may have a faint idea of it.
If the character of a nation, as has been said, ean be well ap ight, this puppet-show would place the Turks very low in the estimation of
preciated by a view of the amusements in which they del
any observer. ‘They have none, we were informed, of a more de- cent kind.
Ea
There are now not a few inducements which may probably cause many intelligent travellers of our own country to visit Ioan- nina, and Albania; and from thei investigation the world will doubtless be informed of many interesting particulars before unknown.
The vicinity of the islands now in our possession, the peaceable state of the country under the government of Ali, the good cor- respondence that prince maintains with the English, and the wish of exploring regions so Jong involved in complete obscurity, and, fis it were, lost out of the map of Europe, will aid and prompt their enquiries, and we shall soon be as well informed with respect
to the people and country of Albania, as we have been for some time on the head of Greece and other provinces of Turkey.
LUST ERY wv. 150
Joannina itself affords a safe and agreeable residence to tra- vellers. ‘Uhe Greeks are of the better sort, and well instructed in the manners and Janguages of Christendom; one of them, a school-master of. the name of Psallida, may be called a learned man. [16 teaches the modern and ancient Greek, the Latin, Italian, and. French languages, to about a hundred scholars, and has, besides, established a reputation by publishing a philo- sophical treatise on the Immortality of the Soul, dedicated to the Empress Catharine.
The curiosity of the antiquary would be gratified by many valuable coins, which are to be met with in the hands of Greek collectors. ‘The series of Macedonian Kings might easily be made up, and though not very rare, these medals are very eel tiful and perfect. ‘The golden Philip, the “ regale numisma,” 18 very common; and there is a report that three hundred of them were lately discovered in one earthen jar. ‘lhe coins at Joannina, however, are not to be purchased so cheaply as those in Greece. A collector in that city has twenty-seven, I think that is the number, of very rare pieces, which he will not sell separately, and he asks a large price for the whole. No one likes to pass through such a country without collecting a little, and yet, as there is generally some person residing in the towns to whom every thing 1s first shown, a mere passing traveller has but a poor chance of getting what.is very excellent. In the villages indeed he may occasionally meet with something rare, before the peasant has carried it to the town ; for immediately on the arrival of a Frank, every thing in the shape of a medal or cut,stone, which the country people
may have found, is brought to him; a ridiculous prockamation to that effect being often made by order of his dragoman, and he has b
80 LETTER XV.
perhaps, an antiquity of George the ‘lhird’s time, presented for his Acceptance, or an ancient cameo cut by a Parisian jeweller. My own seals, which were dropped near [oannina, may serve to enrich the siore of some future collector.
On the third of November we left the city and the lake, not to return: and were the one the ancient Cassiope, and the other Acherusia, as certainly as Cellarius and Poukeville have asserted them to be, we could not have parted from them with greater regret. ‘he Priest was still of our party, ‘and we had also the company of an Albanian Captain, a ‘Turk, who joined us, as he said, for the love of the English.
We returned to Salora, on the gulf of Arta, sleeping the first night at the han of St. Demetre, and the next at Arta. At Salora, we had intelligence that the country of Carnia was up in arms; that bodies of robbers had descended from the mountains of ‘T'ric- cala and Agrapha, and had made their appearance on the other side of the gulf, at a custom-house belonging to the Vizier, called Utraikee, where they had killed two men.
We had it in our power either to procure a guard at Prevesa, and venture through Carnia, or to get into a galliot of Ali’s, and go by sea to Patrass. We waited, however, a day, for advice from Prevesa, with our old acquaintances at the barrack, and then received intelligence, that an Albanian Bey was about to set out, and collect all the armed men of the district, and hunt the robbers from Carnia, and that we might, if we pleased, attend him upon this gathering. However, we made up our minds to go by sea, and proceeding ina boat to Prevesa, we presented the Vizier’s order to the governor, who immediately prepared a
allot for our passage.
i
—
ΤΕ Wi XO
We slept one night at Prevesa, and got on board the next day in the forenoon.
The galliot was a stout vessel, about fifty tons burden, long and narrow, with three short masts, on each of which she carried a large lateen’ sail of the sort universally used in the Levant. She had forty men and four guns. All the sailors were ‘Turks, except four Greeks, who turned out to be the only persons on board who knew how to manage even a boat. There were several Captains; but he that was called the first captain, was a Dulcigniote, a mild-mannered man, who sat very com- posedly smoking, and playing with a string of beads, called a comboloio, which is a favourite solitary pastime both of Mahome- tans and Christians, no man above the common sort being without his bead roll.
At twelve o'clock we weighed anchor, but ran aground in getting out of the harbour. Upon this the Captain proposed staying till next day. However, we begged him to try again, and accord- ingly by one o'clock we were out of the port with a fair wind, hoping that we should soon double the head-land of Santa Maura. But we found that the Leucadian promontory was equally the terror of our ‘l'urkish seamen, as it had been of the Grecian navi- gators ; for though we had afine breeze, to all appearance quite fair, yet something, which we knew not of, occurred, and by four o’clock we were pronounced in distress. ‘The Captain said we should be obliged to put into Santa Maura, then in the bands of the French, if we did not tack directly. ‘This caused a great deal of bustle, and in putting about, the mizen-sail split from top to bottom. ‘I'he wind blew a little stronger, and there was a heavy swell. ‘The Captain put his comboloio in his pocket. ‘The sailors
were nearly all, except the Greeks, sick, and retired below, BbD2
188 LETTER ΧΥ.
We were now steering directly for Corfu, as all hope οἵ getting round the Cape had been given up. At sun-set it blew fresh, and the rolling of the sea shook us so violently, as we were very badly steered, that the greatest alarm prevailed. ‘The Captain
wrung his hands and wept. George our dragoman, at every
@ heel the ship took, called loudly on the name of God, and when
the main-yard snapped in two, every thing was given up for lost. The guns also broke loose, and the foresail was split. ‘Lhe ship lay like a log on the water, and the ‘Turk at the helm contrived to keep her broadside to the sea, so that 1t was not improbable she might have been swamped. ‘The Captain being asked what he could do, said, he could do nothing.—‘“* Could he get back to the main- land 3"---ς If God chuses,” was his answer.—‘* Could he make Corfu ?”—-“* If God chuses.”—In short, there was nothing left, but to request he would give up the management of the vessel to the Greeks. He said he would give it to anybody. ‘I'he Greeks then soon got us into a better plight, and rigging a small stay-sail between the mizen and the main, and another between the main and foremast, and taking down the yards, helped the ship along more easily. ‘[hey steered us back upon the mainland of Albania, keeping as close to the wind as possible, to prevent being driven to Corfu; and the sea and the wind abating, they brought us, about one o'clock in the mornmg, to an anchor at the entrance of a bay.
At the dawn of morning we found ourselves nearly within musket-shot of the land, which was craggy and woody, with high mountains in the distance. Our Turks began all of them to smoke, without taking the least notice of what had happened, or thinking of repairs; and this beg the termination of the Ramazan, and the first morning of the Bairam, a feast which
LETTER XV. 189
lasts three days, they all, according to a custom singular enough to us, kissed and embraced each other with great
ceremony and affection, the Captain receiving the salute from all
his men.
In a short time, three or four men with guns appeared on the rocks, and shouted to us, to know who we were. ‘The Cap- tain answered, and hoisted a large red ensign; and after some more halloomg, two boats came out of the bay and made for Paxos, which island, as well as Antipaxos, was not far from us. Part of Corfu, and an opposite promontory, were also very visi- ble. ‘Some apprehensions were entertained of these boats being French privateers, for we were within a few miles of Parga ; it turned out afterwards that the Paxiote sailors had thought we were an English cruiser, and would not therefore venture out until assured of the contrary.
In the afternoon, by the advice of the Captain, we determined to make the best of our way back to Prevesa by land, and we therefore disembarked ourselves and chattels in the bay, near a little custom-house, taking the second Captain with us, as he seemed to prefer the perils of the land to those of his own element.
‘The bay in which we landed was one called Fanari, imme- diately contiguous to the district and mountains of Sulli. We sent for horses to the nearest village, and when they arrived, after waiting a long time on the beach, we proceeded through a thick wood, and caught a sight of a plain, and the town of Parga, to our left. We were not more than half an hour in reaching a village called Volondorako, where we were well received by the Albanian primate of the place, and by the Vizier’s soldiers quar- tered there. But our cottage was a miserable tenement indeed.
190 LETTER XV
We found that a wreck, which we had seen in the bay, was that of a prize made shortly before by our Corfu squadron, and that the midshipman who had been cast away in her, had slept five nights before in the same house ; and having been enabled to pro- ceed to Prevesa by the assistance of the Albanians, had presented them with the wreck of his vessel. But the proper intention of the young Englishman (afterwards approved by his Captain) had been frustrated by the Greek Vice-Consul at Prevesa, who got an order from the governor of that town for the ship, pretending that all English wrecks were his property. ‘The Albanians at Vo- Jondorako complained to us bitterly of this, and certainly they had some reason to be dissatisfied.
In the morning we had a view of the country, and saw the mountains of Sulli to the east, on the opposite side of a long plain running north and south. ‘The town of Sulli itself was also visible on the crag of a rock three parts up the mountain; and a little to the south, below the town, was a fortress built by the Vizier during his wars with this place. Near this was a village calied Castrizza, where are some few remains of ancieut walls. ‘L'be whole plain seemed well cultivated,-abounding with arable lands, but having no vineyards.
Whatever I could learn on the spot of this territory, so cele- brated in the annals of modern Greece, has been already com- municated ; I shall only add, that the force of arms appeared still necessary to preserve the conquests of Ali; for there were thirty soldiers quartered in our small village of about thirty houses.
We were a long time in procuring horses, but at last icft Volon- dorako at one o'clock in the afternoon, provided with guides, and
LETTER XV. 191
with three of the Albanian guard. On leaving our cottage, the re- mainder of the guard saluted us by firing off their muskets, hold- ing them in one hand, and giving them just elevation sufficient to let the balls whistle over our heads. Our Albanians returned the compliment, and there was a great mutual shouting, till we had struck into the woods out of sight.
Our road took us to the south over woody hillocks for two hours, when we came near the sea-side, still over hilly ground. Then descending nearer the shore, we passed under a castle be- longing to Al, on the summit of a steep rock close to the sea, in a part of the country called Hreenosa. Similar towers, and ruins of towers, of l'urkish and Venetian construction, are to be found, it is said, all along the coast from Butrinto. We saw one more, further on towards Prevesa.
We terminated one of the most beautiful rides we had ever taken, by passing through groves of adrachnus, or strawberry-tree, whose apples, called by the Greeks, “* Comara,” were hanging from the boughs in large red clusters, interspersed with the berries of many other fragrant shrubs with which this region abounds. It was sun-set before we reached the village in which we were to halt.
It was called Castropsheca, upon a height, at a little distance from the sea, and was rather of the better sort, for our cottage had a wooden floor raised one story from the ground. It was in- habited by Greeks.
At twelve the next day we set out again; and after a short ride through a wood, and crossing a small river, we came to the sea-shore, with a barren flat country to our left, and continued for some time going round a large bay, till we came to the beach
on the sea-side of Nicopolis. Here my Friend and myself rode
102 LETTER XV.
off to pay a last visit to the ruins, winlst our baggage proceeded
{ directly to Prevesa, at which place we all arrived at sun-set.
From Volondorako to Prevesa, the path is very bad and intri- cate, till the approach to the latter town, and is about nine hours’ journey-—not more, perhaps, than twenty-four miles.
A reference to ancient geography seems to point out the bay of Fanari as the lesser port between the Glykyslimen-and the mouth of the Ambracian gulf, called Comarus*, from which a straight line drawn to the gulf on the side of Nicopolis, made a distance of sixty stadia, or seven and a half Roman miles. ‘The large bay, round which we rode on the second day, answers to the de- scription of the wider port alluded to by Strabo, as a mile and a half from Nicopolis. Yet the distance of Comarus from the Gulf, does not appear reconcileable with that of Fanari to the same point. However, the extreme badness of the roads may have made our journey appear much longer than it really was, and as we passed along by far the longest side of the triangle, may almost account for the difference. ‘The whole coast, from Butrinto to Prevesa, 15 calied by the Venetians, Vaielitia, or Va- letitzia.
We had now no choice left, but that of going across Carnia, we therefore provided ourselves, by the Governor’s assistance, with thirty-seven soldiers, of whom there were three Bolu-bashees, or Captains ; and we also procured another gallipt to take us down the gulf of Arta, to the place whence we were (0 commence our land journey.
Our whole party got on board the vessel, which was a sort of
* Strabon. lib. vii,
LETTER XY. 198
row-galley, at one o'clock, Monday, the 13th of November, and passing round the promontory of Cape Figalo, continued sailing with very little wind, and rowing, until we got off the fortress
ζ
y Υ
of Vonitza, which was at sun-set. Here the Captain, who, rather to our astonishment, was the same Dulcigniote that had com- manded on our late disastrous expedition, said we might as well wait for the morning breeze, so that we were some time near Vo- nitza, and advanced but little during the night.
Vonitza is a small town, inhabited by Greeks, whose chief trade consists in boutaraga, or the roes of fish, salted and pressed into rolls like sausages. ‘The fortress, which was by the French given up to the Porte, or rather to Ali Pasha, is not very strong, and is garrisoned by a small body of Albanians.
The sun rose over the hills of Agrapha, at the bottom of the gulf, and we advanced gently with the sails and oars, keeping not far from the southern shore, under a range of woody hills, vith some few cultivated spots, but no villages to be seen. It was not until four o’clock in the afternoon that we arrived at Utraikee, situated in a deep bay surrounded with rocks and woods, at the south-east corner of the gulf, which stretches eight or nine miles farther to the east, and must in its whole length be at least as long as described to be by Polybius and Strabo. It is true, that the historian mentions the length directly, as being three hun- dred stadia, or thirty-seven Roman miles and a half*, and the Geographer uses the expression circle, yet by this word he must be supposed to mean the longest diameter, not the circum- ference, though the word (κυχλος) in other places of the same
* Polyb. lib. iv. cap. 69. + Strab. lib. vii. Cc
194 LETTER Xv.
author, is used as synonimous with the latter expression*. Poly- bius has added, that the breadth is, in parts, equal to one-third of the length of the gulf. Doubtless the site of Utraikee, was one of the many good ports, with which it is said, by Strabo, to abound; even now, 1t 1s the occasional resort of some of the boats from the islands, which exchange their commodities for the wools and skins of Carnia. We saw several sail of these small merchant- men proceeding towards ‘Terra Nova, and the lower end of the guif.
The gulf of Arta, in the time of Barbarossa, was the rendez- yous of the Turkish navy, maintained to overawe the armaments of the Christian Powers in the Italian seas; but I am not aware that it was ever navigated by any large ship of war of the modern construction.
Tam, ἄς, &c.
* After writing the above, I find that Casaubon, in his Commentary on Strabo, has compared the two passages without a remark ; so that κυκλος must be considered to bear the same meaning as κολσοὸς would have donc, though it is, wherever clse I have seen it in this author, to be understood in the sense of
ee, Se ι Ἂ =e ἊΝ 1 ee | repiodoc, ττεριμέτρος, OF oTpoyyvacc, his usual words.
LETTER XVI.
Utrakee—Night Scene at that Place—Route through Carnia— to Catoona—to Makala—Prospects from the Hills of the River Aspro or Acheloiis—and of the Lake Nizeros—Ancient Remains at Aéto and at Ligustovichi—Route continued—te Prodromo—Passage of the Achelous—Arrwal at Gouria— Route over the Paracheloitis—to Natolico—Another Route from Arta to Natolico—Boundary of Carnia—Former In- habitants—Ancient Geography-—Present State—Ruins at Teeserenes—The Shallows of Messalonge and Natolico—The Fishery—Conjecture as to the Formation of the Shallows— The Town and Inhabitants of Messalonge—The District of Xeromeros, or Altolia—Town of Ivoria—River Fidari, or Evenus—Ruins of Calydon—Recks of Chalcis and Tappiasus
—Passage to Patrass.
AT Utraikee there was only a custom-house and a
barrack for soldiers, both of stone, close to each other, and sur-
rounded on every side, except to the water, by a high wall. We
bathed in a little cove near the house; but were prevented from ces
196 LETTER XVI.
strolling any farther, as the woods were suspected to be yet in- fested by the robbers, who had, five days before, appeared in a body of thirty-five men, and carried off a Greek and a Turk, before the guard had time to shut the gates of the yard. They pointed out to us a small green spot, at the bottom of the bay, where, in the sight of, and asa bravado to, the ten soldiers shut up in the barrack, they shot the ‘Turk, and stoned the Greek whom they had taken.
In the evening the gates were secured, and preparations were made for feeding our Albanians. A goat was killed, and roasted whole, and four fires were kindled in the yard, round which the soldiers seated themselves in parties. After eating and drinking, the greater part of them assembled round the largest of the fires, and, whilst ourselves and the elders of the party were seated on the ground, danced round the blaze to their own songs, in the manner before described, but with astonishing energy. All their songs were relations of some robbing exploits. One of them, which detained them more than an hour, began thus—** When we set out from Parga, there were sixty of us:” then came the burden of the verse,
φ' n
Robbers all at Parga! Robbers all at Parga!”
~ nw
a“ “~
KaAggleis ποῖε Tlupya ! Kasgless mele Παργα |””
φι “᾿
and as they roared out this stave, they whirled round the fire, dropped, and rebounded from their knees, and again whirled round, as the chorus was again repeated. ‘The rippling of the waves upon the pebbly margin where we were seated, filled up
LETTER xXV¥i. 197
the pauses of the song with a milder, and not more monotonous music. ‘The night was very dark, but by the flashes of the fires we caught a glimpse of the woods, the rocks, and the lake, which, together with the wild appearance of the dancers, pre- sented us witha scene that would have made a fine picture in the hands of such an artist as the author of the Mysteries of Udolpho.
As we were acquainted with the character of the Albanians, it did not at all diminish our pleasure to know, that every one: of our guard had been robbers, and some of them a very short time before. ‘The most respectable and best mannered Bolu-bashee with us, had been, four years past, a very formidable one, having had the command of two hundred upon the mountains behind Lepanto, but he had submitted with his men, and was now in the service of Ali. It was eleven o’clock before we had retired to our room, at which time the Albanians, wrapping. themselves up in their capotes, went to sleep round the fires.
We were off at half past eight the next morning, when we took ten other soldiers from the barrack, besides our own party, as for the first two hours there were some notorious passes in the woods through which our route lay. Approaching these spots, fifteen or twenty of the party walked briskly on. before, and when they
had gone through the pass, halted until we came up to them. We travelled to the south amongst thick forests, with now and then a small opening, through which, hs ion botdes, were to be discerned a plain and low hills. In one or two green spots near the road, were ‘l'urkish tombstones, generally under a clump of trees and by the side of a stone fountain, the resting place of the tra-
veller.
108 LETTER XVI.
Having passed the woods, the ten men returned to Utraikee, and we got into an open country. We passed over a low hill, on which was a small village, and a barrack for Albanian soldiers, and leaving this to the left a ttle, ascended some more rising
ground toa village called Catoona, where we arrived by twelve
o'clock.
It was our intention to have proceeded farther this day, but our progress was interrupted by an affair between our Albanians and the Primate of the village, for, as we were looking about us, and horses were collecting to carry our baggage, as we had drop-~ ped those from Utraikee, after a torrent of words from one of the soldiers, swords were suddenly drawn, and guns cocked, and upon this, in an instant, and before we could stop the affray, the Pri- mate threw off his shoes and cloak, and fled so precipitately, that he rolled down the hill and dislocated his shoulder. It was a long time before we could persuade him to come back to his house, where we were lodged: when he did return, he said he did not care so much about his shoulder, as for the loss of a purse with fifteen zequins, which dropped out of his pocket during his tumble. The hint was understood.
Catoona, inhabited by Greeks only, contains twenty houses, but most of them of the better sort, well built with stone. The Primate’s house is a very good one, neatly fitted up with sofas. Upon a knoll in the middle of the village is a school-house and yard, and from this spot there is a very extensive view. ᾿1Ὸ the west are high mountains called Vounstos (that is, the hills), rang- ing from north to south near the coast. ΤῸ the east, there 18 also. a grand mountain prospect in the distance, but nearer there is seen a green valley, and a considerable river winding through a
LETTER Xvf. 199
long line of country. ‘This river is the Achelotis, now called the
Aspro, or White river. ‘The modern name of the lake is Nizeros, and it is about six miles, they told us, in length.
We had much difficulty in procuring horses at Catoona, so that we were not off until half past eleven the next morning, and did not travel more than four hours that day, toa village called Makala. ‘The path was southwards, tolerably good, through a woody country at first, but on mounting the hill on which the village stood, the prospect widened on every side, and we again saw the lake, the river, and the plain, stretching far down to the south.
Makala is a well-built stone village, containing about forty houses, separated from each other, inhabited by Greeks, a little above the condition of peasants, whose wealth consists im large flocks of sheep of a thick coarse fleece, that is sold into Albania and the Morea. He with whom we lodged was a grave impor- tant gentleman, calling himself a merchant, and keeping a secre- tary. The houses we saw in Carnia were much better than any we had seen in the villages of Albania. ‘The one we slept in at Makala, had very much the appearance of ove of those old man- sions that are to be met with in the bottoms of the Wiltshire Downs. There were two green courts to it, one before, and the other, round which there was a raised terrace, behind the house. ‘ke whole was surrounded by a very high and very thick wall, that shut out the prospect entirely, bat was perfectly necessary in.a country frequently overrun by large bands of robbers in their way from the island of Santa Maura to the mountains of "τος cala and Agrapha. ‘The operations of some of these outlaws were visible im ihe ruins of a large house, which was pulled down by
Or
ETT eo a" NY ὦ Sh i fv he av ὡς
them about twenty years past, after a determined opposition from the inhabitants. ‘The possession of Santa Maura by the Eng- lish, will much tend to free Carnia from these depredators.
Krom the highest point in the village we were shown two pieces of wall, which our host assured us were remains of antiquity. One of them was ona hill to the west, called Ac€to; and another on a hill to the east, overlooking the Aspro, and by name Ligusto- vichi. J should not forget, that on this eminence there was, sus- pended from a stake, a piece of thick curved iron hoop, which, when struck by ahammer, also hanging from the stake, serves to call the Greeks to church, and also to alarm the country when the robbers appear ; for the melancholy noise may, in the silence of the night, be heard in the surrounding woods and vallies for many miles. ‘This is the church bell universally used in the Le- vant. ‘There is an exact picture of one in ‘Tournefort.
We were detained at Makala a day, because horses could not be found to carry us on, which delay our Albanian, Vasilly, as- sured us was owing to the disuse of the stick; but on the 18th of November we set out at ten o'clock in the morning.
We went through woods along a craggy tangled path to the south, and at half past twelve, passed a village of a few huts ealled Prodromo ; after which, going a point to the eastward of south, we struck into deeper woods of oak, which lasted, with hardly one opening, for five hours, until we found ourselves at a village of huts only a quarter of a mile from the banks of the Aspro. In the course of our journey through the forest we
lighted upon three new-made graves, which, as our Albanians passed, they pointed at, crying out, “ Sir, the robbers!” and not long after this, as the whole party of them were passing along
LETTER XV i. 201
in a string, on something being seen in the gloom of the woods, they rushed amongst: the trees to practise their manceuvres, but found nothing to attack. ‘They seemed to apprehend some danger during the whole day ; they were unusually silent, and did not always keep in the path, but beat about amongst the bushes on either side.
We had once a view through the woods, of the large town named Vraichore, on the left bank of the Aspro, probably about ten miles higher up the river than the place at which we crossed.
The stream of this river was very broad and rapid, and deep, not so broad as the river at 'Tepellene, but of a much larger body of water. However, although the sun was set, we passed over in a well-contrived ferry-boat, to a decent village, partly of 'Turk- ish, partly of Greek families, called Gouria, where we passed the night.
From Utraikee to Gouria, over a country which it had taken » us altogether fourteen hours and a half to traverse, we did not meet or pass a single traveller of any description, and we only saw one more village than those through which we passed. The whole of Carnia appeared to us a wilderness of forests and un-
peopled plains. All our route, except a few miles, was, as de- scribed, through thick woods of oak; but what we saw of the fEtolian side of the Achelotis, seemed very different, less woody
and hilly, and abounding with tracts of luxuriant cultivation. Leaving Gouria the next morning, we changed our southerly for an easterly direction, and continued at first through a plain of corn-fields near the banks of the river, which, we soon left on our right, and continued. in a rich open country, sometimes over stone causeways, and between the hedges of gardens ‘and pd
202 LETTER xVI.
olive-groves, when we were stopped by the sea. What we had passed over from Gouria, was that fruitful region formerly called Paracheloitis, which was drained, or, according to one of the prettiest allegories of ancient mythology, torn from the Achelotis by the perseverance of Hercules, and presented by the demi-god for a nuptial present to the daughter of Oéneus. ‘This was the horn, whose plenty was the prize so often disputed by the rivals of Acarnania and AXtolia. The water at which we now arrived might more properly be called a salt-marsh than the sea, ora shallow bay stretching from the mouth of the gulf of Lepanto into the land for several miles. At the spot where we stood, it was about a mile and a half broad, and not more than two feet deep. Half way over was the town of Natolico, rising out of the water; and to this place, after dismissing our horses, we passed over in several punts, of which there were a great number plying to and fro.
We were treated at first rather cavalierly by the Albanian go- vernor of the town, who, however, on being spoken to a little decisively, and presented with the signature of his master Ah, provided proper lodgings, and billets for our soldiers. We found out, that during our altercation with the governor, a Greek, who had been nominated English Vice-Consul of the place, had sat by without saying a word, or letting us know that there was in the town any such character, to whom we might apply. But the inattention of this man was made up for by the civility of a Jew physician, who told us—I recollect his expression—that he was honoured by our partaking of his little misery.
At Natolico we staid one night. It is a well-built town;
the houses of wood, and chiefly of two stories, about six hun-
LETTER XVI. 903
dred in number; inhabited by some few Turks, but principally by Greeks, who are small merchants, dealing in the coarse wool- lens made from the fleeces of Carnia, and in boutaraga, with which their marsh supplies them. ‘The water flows through many of the streets, which have wooden causeways on piles.
There isa route from Arta to Natolico, which we had been advised to avoid, on account of the turbulent state of the coun- try. It passes through the district called Macrinoro, under the mountains of Agrapha, and in a country where, near a river, once the Inachus, and something more than six hours and a half* from Arta, one might expect to find some ruins of the Amphi- lochian Argos. ‘The first stage is to a place called Pandi, seven hours from Arta: thence to Natolico is twelve hours. ‘The route passes through Mila, a village; then in two hours to Vraikore, a considerable town on the left bank of the Achelous, before no- ticed, commanded by an Aga, or Bey, in subjection to Ali, who gave usa letter to him, and the residence of a Greek Bishop. After Vraikore, and five hours from Natolico, is Katoki, a village. The road is, for the greater part, on the left bank of the Ache- louis, and in a flat well-cultivated country.
Carnia is bounded on the land side by the Aspro, and by a branch of that river, called in some maps the Inachus, which, flowing in a curved direction into the bottom of the gulf of Arta, separates it from the .district of Macrinoro. Its length from north*to south is about forty-two English miles, and its breadth thirty-two. As Natolico is not to be reckoned within its limits, it cannot be said to contain one considerable town, and perhaps it is the least populous of any district of European ‘Turkey.
* Livy (lib. xxxviii. cap. 10) says, twenty-two Roman miles. pd 2
204. LETTER XVI.
This country formerly included Leucadia, and its capital, in- deed, was Leucas*, situated (not where the town of Santa Maura now stands) on the narrow flat, five hundred paces long
and ¢
me hundred and twenty paces broad, anciently joining the main land to the peninsula, afterwards connected by a bridge ;
but it appears never to have played a considerable part in the flourishing days of Greece. 'T'hucydides-} speaks of the Acarna- nians as one of those nations, which, as well as the Locri Ozole, and the A%tolians, continued in his time the barbarous practice of wearing arms—a sign of their old habits of plunder. As auxiliaries (all but the Leucadians and Anactorii) of the Athe- nians, they performed some actions recorded in the history of the Peloponnesian war; but their contests were chiefly with the Atto- lianst, until, in the decline of Athens, they dared, with the assistance of King Philip, son of Demetrius, to insult that vene- rable city. ‘They were the last to desert the alliance of the Ma- cedonian monarch ; but three years after their invasion of Attica, and a few. days after the battle of Cynoscephale, they yielded to the arms of the Romans§. Under the protection of their con- querors, their country flourished, until nearly depopulated by the decree of Augustus, on account of their supposed partiality to the cause of Antony, and in order to form the new colony of Ni- copolis. However, their towns were never very numerous OF large, and the greater part of the people lived in villages.
Not to reckon Leucas, or any: places beyond the Acheloiis, though from that river to the Evenus was peopled by Acarna- nians||, their principal town was Stratus, on the Achelots, two
* Strab. lib. x. + Thucyd. Hist. lib. i. cap. 5. $ Liv. lib. xxvi. cap. 25 § Liv. lib. xxxiii. cap. 16. ἢ Strab. lib. vill.
LAMM NY - +3 Ὸ -α LETTER XVt. 900
hundred stadia from the mouth of the river*; Nova ἤηθα was-at seventy stadia; A‘niade, at the mouth of the Achelots, and on the entrance of the Corinthian gulf, not more than a hundred stadia from the opposite point of Araxus in the Peloponnesus. Anactorium was within the gulf, forty stadia from Actium, which was at the mouth of the gulf of Ambracia, though Mr. D’An- ville has placed Actium within Anactorium. On the west was Palerus, then Alyzia, fifteen stadia from the sea to the east of Leucas; and, near that, the promontory and port of Hercules, with a temple, whence a sculpture of the Labours of Hercules, by Lysippus, was transported to Rome, on account, says Strabo, of the solitude of the spot where it was placed. The port and promontory of Crithote were lower down. on the coast, The islands of the Echinades were also accounted belonging to Acar- nania. ‘They were all of them, except Dolicha, which has there- fore been supposed to be the site of Natolico, rough barren rocks, the most. distant. of them only fifteen stadia from the main. We went near them in our first passage to Prevesa, as well as to the small sharp rocks once called 'Thoas, and now Curzolari. Inch- Keith, in. the Firth of Forth, would be a fertile domain to any one of them, and would certainly be a more populous kingdom than all of them put together, for they have no inhabitants. Yet ‘Lhoas, and the Echinades, sent their King Meges, equal to
* Stratus is said by Strabo to be half way between Alyzia and Anactorium, which is irreconcileable with the two positions. Mr. Barbié du Boccage solves the difficulty, by reading Αντίῤῥιον,
+ See Letter I1. of this volume, where Mr: D’Anville is followed. That geo- grapher goes, I suppose, by what Thucydides says of Anactorium, that it was ἐπὶ τῷ στόματι Te’ Aumpaning x0AT?.— 10. i. cap. 55.
900 LETTER XvVt.
Mars, with forty ships to the siege of Troy. Astacus was a town not far from AXiniade.
I know of no particular mention of the country from the times of the Roman to the ‘Turkish conquest, when there is a mere no- tice taken of the Princes of Acarnania, as of the Princes of Al- bania. It was conquered, or rather overrun, by Bayazet the First, at the same time with Peloponnesus and Greece. Since it came to the hands of the ‘Turks, it has had one or two important places. Dragomestre, placed by D’Anville on the site of Astacus, was once a considerable town with a strong fortress, but is now only a mi- serable village, and a post for fishing-boats. Port Candeli is in a deep bay, sixteen miles and a half to the south of the gulf of Arta. Port Petala is at the mouth of the Aspro. The position of Vonitza you are already acquainted with: there is a small river running into the bay, at the bottom of which it stands.
Carnia is peopled entirely by Greeks. 'The Albanians amongst them are soldiers of Ali Pasha, quartered in their country to pre- serve them from the robbers, and to keep them in allegiance. They trade chiefly through Natolico.
T’his last mentioned place we left the day after our arrival, and sending on our baggage in punts, proceeded by land to the next stage, a town called Messalonge. ‘The distance is only three hours, to the south, on a rugged road under low stony hills until the last part of the ride.x—At two hours from Natolico, on a hill to the left of the road, are some remains of an ancient wall. The spot is called at present ‘Teeserenes, or some such name. A little way from Messalonge we were met by the Greek, holding the office, which must be almost a sinecure, of Vice-Consul for the English Nation, and were conducted by him through the town
LETTER XVI. 207
to his house, where we had a comfortable lodging, and staid two nights.
Messalonge is situated on the south-east side of the salt-marsh, or shallow, that extends between two and three miles into the land below Natolico, and six miles about beyond Messalonge itself, into the gulf of Lepanto. The breadth of the bay formed by these shallows, may be, in an oblique direction from Messa- longe towards the north, to the other side, not far from the mouth of the Aspro, about ten miles. At the extremity of the shallows, towards the deep water, for several miles in circuit, there are rows of stakes, and also, at intervals, some wicker huts raised on poles, forming, as it were, a line between the sea and the bay, and appearing to those sailing down the gulf like a double shore*. Within this fence, there is a very valuable fishery, and many boats are stationed for that purpose in the marsh.
The port of Messalonge will not admit any vessel drawing more than three feet water, nor is there sufficient water for those of more than five feet any where within the marsh. All vessels or boats, whether going in or out of the bay, are obliged, for want of depth, to pass close to a smail fort, built on piles, where there 1s a cannon or two mounted, and where a ‘Turkish guard
resides, to see the passes of those who enter or leave the fishery.
The fort is called Basilida, and is five miles beyond the town. Whether the name Echinades applied to any of the sandy flats now covered by water, and whether the modern town of Nato- hco can be said to stand on that one of them called first Duli- chium, and then Dolicha, will, it appears, admit of some doubt:
* Letter I.
208 LETTER: ‘XVI.
their very name would seem to decide to the contrary. Yet the last-mentioned island is excepted from the character of rugged sterility attached to the other rocks. Some of them were by degrees joined to.the continent, and all of them would have been so annexed, had not the discontinuance of cultivation, when the people were transplanted to Nicopolis, diminished the quantity of slime deposited by the Achelous near the shore: so at least says Pausanias*. It seems to me, that these shallows must have been formed by the gradual junction of the lake Cynia, and perhaps of those of Melite and Uria, with the sea, as well as by the sand washed forwards by the continued torrents from the mouths of the river. ‘The lake of Cynia, which, toge-
ther with those of Melite and Uria, was not far from the city of
‘Eniade, was sixty stadia long and forty broad, and had a com- munication with the sea}. No such inland lake is at present to be seen, nor did 1 hear of any answering to the position of Melite (which was half the size of Cynia), or of Uria, one fourth as large; so that it 1s not improbable, that the whole may have been combined to form the present appearance of the ma Messalonge.
Messalonge was formerly the seat of a Pasha of two tails, but is now under a Governor in dependence upon Ali Pasha. The inhabitants are partly Greeks, partly ‘Turks, in number about five thousand. ‘They subsist chiefly on the fishery, where the red mullet is taken in quantities sufficient to supply many parts of Roumelia and the Morea with the boutaraga, and caviar, made from their roes. None of themare very rich, but several possess
* Pausanias Arcad. p. 493. + Strab, lib. x»
LETTER XVI. 209
about five thousand piasters per annum—~a good income in that country. ‘The houses are chiefly of wood, and two stories high. ‘he bazar is furnished with some neat shops, and the streets are paved. Both Messalonge and Natolico are to be reckoned amongst the best towns in Roumelia; and, except Patrass, they carry on the most extensive trade with the islands, of any ports in that quarter of the country. ‘That part of Roumelia to which they belong, is called Xeromeros (the ancient A‘tolia), of which, as we saw only a small portion of it, I shall say but little.
It is all, I behteve (except the town of Lepanto, called by the Greeks Epacto, which is governed by a Pasha of two tails), in the hands of Ali; and both as to its population and productions, is ἃ very Important district. Five hours from Natolico, and about the same distance from the Aspro, is the town of Ivoria, of some size, on the site, according to D’Anville, of Pamphia, a village not more than thirty stadia from Thermus, the former capital of Autolia*. ‘The exploits of the A‘tolians towards the close of Grecian history, which occupy so considerable a portion of Polybius and Livy, have illustrated the geography of their country, so as to afford no little degree of certainty to the conjec- tures of a modern traveller.
That part of the country which we saw to the south-east, and
which forms the north side of the entrance to the gulf of Le- panto, is very mountainous. Ina fine valley on the other side of the hills to the east, at the back of Messalonge, we had a view of the river Fidari, the ancient Evenus. Between the Evenus and the immer mouth of the gulf at Antirrhium, were the extre-
* Polyb. Hist. lib. v. cap. 7, which passage traces the march of King Philip into /tolia, and gives many positions.
Ee
210 LETTER XVI,
mities of the mountains called Chalcis, Near these was the vil- lage Lycirna, from which, to the city of Calydon, on the Evenus, was a length of thirty stadia, three quarters more than three Ro- man miles*, Poukeville, I know not on what authority, states the ruins of Calydon to be found a league from Messalonge: perhaps he alludes to the walls at 'Teeserenes. Next to the hills of Chal-
cis were those called Tappiasus. One of these presents a very
singular appearance : it is a large red rock, and is rent from top to bottom, with a huge chasm, into the bowels of the mountain. It could not fail to attract the notice of any one sailing towards Patrass.
On the 23d of November, we left Messalonge in a small- decked vessel, called a trebaculo, after having dismissed all our Albanians, except one, who was taken into service as a compa- nion to Vasilly. His name was Dervish-Tacheere : he was a'Turk. At parting with him, all his companions embraced him, and ac- companying him to our boat, fired off their guns as a last salute to the whole party.
We were two hours in passing out of the shallows. As we showed our pass at the fort of Basilida, we stopped a few minutes, and had an opportunity of looking at the huts built on stakes in the water, which serve as habitations for those who watch the fishery. Three or four rows of stakes are planted before each of them, to break the force of the waves rolling in from the deep water in stormy weather ; but, notwithstanding this precaution, neither the huts, nor Basilida itself, appear secure tenements for any animals not amphibious, and they seemed the more wretched
* Strab. lib. x.
LETTER. XVI. 211
to us, as we passed them on a rainy day, and saw the. waves washing over them at every gust of wind.
The distance from Basilida to Patrass must be about fifteen miles; for we were two hours and a half making the passage, with several squalls and a strong breeze in our favour during the whole time.
Patrass must be reserved for my next Letter.
fam, &o. &c.
LETTER XVII.
Patrass—Its Situation—Insalubrity— Ancient State—Destruc- tion in 1770—Present State—Trade—Exports of the Morea —Consuls at Patrass—Greek Light Infantry—English Regi- ment——The River Leucate—Departure from Patrass—The Castles of the Morea and Roumelta—Cape Rhium—Lepanto — Route to Vostizza—Ancient Positions—Vostizza—A Greek Codja-bashee, or Elder—Coursing in the Morea—River Seli- nus-—Agium—The Plane Tree—Veli Pasha—Population of
the Morea—Digression concerning the Mainotes.
WE had, for some time, been very eager to reach Patrass, in hopes of finding letters from England, and for the purpose of making certain necessary repairs in our baggage, which we had deferred until our arrival at this place. Like other tra- vellers, we had fixed upon a point where we were to commence a general reform, and lay in new stores to aid our progress ; and, as usually happens, we were disappointed, for there were not at Pat- rass half so many nor so excellent artisans, as our dragoman George, himself native of the town, had given us reason to expect. To complete our disappointment, the only tailor who knew how to make a Frank dress, was gone to Zante, at the pressing instance
of some officers of the garrison.
LETTER XVII. A115
However, we were most hospitably entertained by the English Consul-General for the Morea, and his relation the Imperial Con- sul, son of the gentleman who for many years transacted the Eng- lish affairs at this port, and who has an honourable place in several books of travels. After a long disuse of chairs and tables, we were much pleased by those novelties at the agreeable entertain- ments given us by these gentlemen.
I have, in another place, given you a sketch of the situation of Patrass. Nothing certamly, can be more pleasant than the imme- diate vicinity of the town, which 15 one blooming garden of orange and lemon plantations, of olive-groves, vineyards, and currant- grounds. ‘The fruit-trees, and the vines, clothe the sides of the hill behind the town, to a considerable height: the currants are on the flats below, and run along the line of coast to the south, as far as the eye can reach. Both on the plain and on the sides of the hills, there is a great quantity of the small shrub called glyko- rizza by the Greeks, and which is our licorice.
The town itself stands on a steep declivity of the mountain, now called Vodi. The higher part of it is a mile and a half from the port, and in that quarter are all the best houses, surrounded, as usual, with gardens. At the top of the whole is a large old Turkish fortress, which is perfectly useless, and is, so said the Greeks, put in a state of defence, by being white-washed at the beginning
of every war. To supply the deficiencies of the citadel, the ‘Turks
have lately placed a few cannon on the beach, at a litiie distance from the custom-house. During the last war with Russia, a line of battle ship and‘ a frigate threw some shot into the town.’ ‘The’ ‘Lurks depend upon the new battery, for future protection from such an insult.
iA LETTER: ΧΙ ΤᾺ:
Notwithstanding the beauty of the situation, Patrass is not ἃ very desirable residence, on account of the contagious fevers and agues with which it is occasionally visited. In the mornings and the evenings of the autumnal season, the lower part of the town, and all the surrounding flats are enveloped in a thick fog, which we experienced in our visit, and found it to throw a chilly damp- ness even to the upper quarter. Yet you may recollect from a passage in one of Cicero’s letters to his freedman ‘T'yro, that Patra was, in his time, recommended as a resort for invalids, and that Tyro himself paid a visit to 1t on account of its known salubrity, They told us, that in summer the heat 15 insupportable ; indeed, whilst we were there, the weather was so warm as to render bathing very agreeable on the first of December, though the summits of Mount Vodi were covered with snow.
On arriving from Albania in the Morea, you quit a region little known at any time, for one which the labours of ancients and mo- derns have equally contributed to illustrate, and after wandering in uncertainty, you acknowledge the aid of faithful guides, who direct every footstep of your journey.
Pausanias alone will enable you to feel at home in Greece, and though the country he describes has not had quite so long a time to undergo a change, as Poukeville imagines (for the author of the Periegesis did not write two thousand years ago*), yet it is true, that the exact conformity of present appearances with the minute descriptions of the itinerary, is no less surprising than satis- factory. ‘The temple and the statue, the theatre, the column and the marble porch, have sunk and disappeared. But the vallies and
* En lisant Pausanias on ne peut s’imaginer qu’ il cerivit il-y-a deux mille ans, — Voyage en Morée, page 226.
BETTER -XVI2. 915
ςς of more value
the mountains, and some, not frequent, fragments than all the rude and costly monuments of barbaric labour,” these still remain, and remind the traveller that he treads the ground once trod by the heroes and sages of antiquity.
‘To traverse the native country of those, whose deeds.and whose wisdom have been proposed to all the polished nations of every succeeding age, as the models which they should endeavour to imitate, but must never hope to equal, with no other emotions than would arise in passing through regions never civilized, is un- natural, is impossible! No one would roam with the same in- difference through the sad solitudes of Greece and the savage wilds of America; nor is the expression of feelings, which it is the object and end of all liberal education to instil and encou- rage, to be derided as the unprofitable effusion of folly and affec- tation.
Patre was distinguished by the notice of Augustus, who col- lected its citizens, scattered by the A‘tolian war against the Gauls; and settling amongst them some of those whe had fought with him at Actium, dignified the city with the title of a Roman colony. Some of the cities of Achaia were made tributary to the Patrenses, and they continued to flourish long after the de- cay of the neighbouring states. ‘They were rich in the monu- ments of ancient art. Pausanias enumerates nineteen or twenty temples, besides statues, altars, and marble sepulchres, to be seen in his time in the city, the port, and the sacred groves. He mentions also an odeum, or music theatre, the most magnificent of any in Greece, next to that of Herodes at Athens. But there is not a vestige of antiquity to be met with either in or near
Patrass, in which the worship of St. Andrew, who was crucified
216 LETTER XVII.
in the place, has succeeded to that of Diana Laphnia, the Olym- pian Jupiter, and the Bacchus of Calydon.
‘The modern town, which, from the Italian corruption, is called Patrass, but by the Greeks is still written Patra, has been the scene of many sanguinary contests. It made the best defence in the year 1447, against the ‘l'urks, of any place in the Peloponnesus. In the year 1532, it was taken and ransacked by Doria; and in 1687, Morosini gained a victory over the Ottoman armies near its walls. But of all the distresses suffered by this devoted city, perhaps the last was the most terrible.
It was freed by the temporary success of the Greek insurgents in 1770, from the yoke of the ‘Turks; but the appearance of the Albanians, who rushed through the passes of the isthmus to the assistance of the Mahometans, soon decided the fate of the place. An army of ten thousand, both horse and foot, entered the town through every avenue. It was not a contest, but a carnage. The houses were all burnt to the ground; not a Greek capable of bearing arms was spared.
The son of the English Consul, with about seventy of the wives and daughters of the principal inhabitants, obtained with difficulty permission from a body of Albanians, who were break- ing open the doors with hatchets, to retire to the fortress. In passing through the yard of the citadel, they saw it strewed with bodies without heads. A Turkish commander, who knew the young man, assisted him to escape in a barque with his fugitives to Zante, whither the other Consuls and Franks had before fled. Not only Patrass, but the surrounding villages were levelled to the ground ; and that part of the Morea called by the Venetians the Duchy of Clarenza, of which this place was the capital, was
LETTER XVII. 5717
for some time an unpeopled wilderness. Yet it has recovered in the course of forty years from the fire and sword of the Alba- nians, and Patrass may now be considered the most flourishing town in the peninsula. Napoli and Coron, once preferred on account of their superior salubrity, are now upon a gradual de- cline.
Patrass is one of those towns which is governed by a Bey, as well as Coron, Modon, Navarino, Misitra, Argos, and Corinth, places of which any map of the Morea will give you the position. It contains about eight thousand inhabitants; of which one thou- sand are ‘lurks, and the remainder Greeks, with a few Jews, and also some Franks, who are under the protection of the Con- suls of foreign powers, and are not only free from all extortion and oppression, but do not pay even any tax to the ‘Turkish go- vernment, unless a duty of three per cent. upon imported goods
may be so called. It is also frequented by many of the Greek
islanders, who, with their large loose breeches, wear hats, to give themselves the air of freemen. ‘These come for the butter, cheeses, wax, wines, and fruits, which are sent from the ports of the Morea to Smyrna, Constantinople, and the islands of both seas.
The exports of Patrass are very considerable, consisting principally of oranges, olives, cotton from Lepanto, but, above all, currants, which are here laden for the supply of every part of Christendom. ‘I'he quantity of currants exported annually from the Morea, amounts to eight millions of pounds weight. This is what Poukeville has asserted; and his volume on the Morea, being collected by himself during a long residence in the country, and being the last account written on the subject, is de-
Ff
218 LETTER XVII.
serving of every attention. The more that gentleman is ac- quainted with facts, the less, as might be expected, does he in- dulge in fiction ; and as he possesses all the inquisitiveness of his countrymen, and seems to write without prejudice, or the vain desire, so manifest in some I’rench authors who have preceded him, of displaying himself more than his subject, his information will be found generally correct.
‘The trade formerly carried on between the Morea and the Ita- lian ports, in Dutch or Danish vessels, must now necessarily, in great measure, be diverted to Malta.and Sicily, to England and America. Besides currants, eight cargoes of corn have been an- nually exported, two of wool, five or six of oil, one or two- of suk, cotton, leather, vermilion, and gall-nuts. Convoys of thirty and forty vessels arrive from Malta with all the articles wanted in the Levant ; coffee, sugar, indigo, cochineal, sulphur, and with silk and gold lace, cloth, hardware, and other manufactured goods of England and France. Patent London shot may be bought, of all numbers, in most towns of the Morea. Besides the convoys from Malta, there are English ships which come directly from Hull and Bristol, and are employed solely in the currant trade. ‘The balance upon the imports and exports 15 alleged to be one-fifth in favour of the Morea, which is received in silver coin. Of this, two millions of plasters go as tribute to Constantinople, one million is taken by the Pasha of Tripolizza, and the remainder, about one million ninety-three thousand seven hundred and fifty piasters, is the profit of the rich Greeks. The Frank residents are, as the authority before mentioned well observes, only a sort of brokers, who get a per centage upon the intercourse. ‘The most considerable of this latter description in
LETTER XVII. 219
the Morea is Mr. Strane, the English Consul, and Mr. Paul, the Imperial Consul.
Besides these gentlemen, there are the French and American Consuls for the Morea settled at Patrass ; and, owing to a system of hostility which, I am sorry to say, has been introduced since the new order of things in France, there is a little war carried on under the several flags of the different nations. Whilst we were at Patrass, the I’rench agent sent an official notice of the peace between Austria and his master; and this was replied to by a bulletin containing an account of the capture of two French line of battle ships, and a convoy, off ‘Toulon.
A Consul in the Levant is a person of great importance, having a chancellor, as he is called, and secretaries, janissaries, and other dependants attached to him, being inviolable in his person and property, and supposed by the Turks to possess an unlimited authority over the people of his own nation, extending even to imprisonment and death. ‘The French gentleman, before alluded to, seemed, indeed, to be one of those Consuls who, as Voltaire said, fancy themselves to be Roman Consuls, being consequen- tial and decisive to the last degree. He happened, whilst we were in the country, to lose his sword at some place on his way from 'T'ripolizza ; and on complaint being made to the governor of Patrass, the town and district where the accident happened were put in requisition to find it, or furnish his Excellency with another. An anecdote that not only shows the temper of
a
Mr. Vial, but the influence of the French in the Morea. His
large tri-coloured flag was hoisted on every occasion for triumph,
and, not unfrequently, on reports of his own invention ; and this zeal and activity, though exerted in a manner which one cannot Ff2
220 LETTER’ ‘XVII.
help thinking a little unjustifiable, have still certainly some effect upon the ‘Turks, and, in some measure, further the views of the Great Nation.
Tt was this gentleman who gave instant notice to the gevernor of Patrass, of the attempt making in the Morea by three men in English pay, to raise recruits for the new Zantiote regiment, now called in our army list, the Greek light infantry *, and brought about the tragical exit of one of the persons employed on that service. It is certain, that no Einglish government would know- ingly encourage the recruiting of our armies in the territories of foreign states. Yet this is not the first time that interested agents have made a similar effort, and brought disgrace upon the British character. A Frenchman in our employ, was arrested in the exe- cution of the same scheme in the dominions of the Emperor of Austria. Yet this happened whilst a gentleman, who would scorn
* Thefirst serv ice this Macedonian Legion, about which such a ridiculous parade was once made in our papers, was ordered upon, was the storming of the French lines at Santa Maura. They were marched up in our way of warfare, and continued in good order until the batteries opened upon them, when they fell upon their faces, and attempted to dig holes for themselves in the sand. The English who were their officers, in vain endeavoured to raise them, and being left standing alone, were nearly all killed or wounded. ‘The gallant young man at whose wish the experiment had been tried, and who now commands them, was shot in thearm. ‘This was no time to trifle. A company or two of the thirty-fifth were marched up, and carried the place in an instant. I had this
account from an officer of rank who was on the spot. It was unreasonable to suppose, that English pay or English discipline had given these troops English intrepidity. They should have been allowed to fight in their own fashion. The habits of men are not so suddenly changed ; and, allowing these warriors a due share of personal courage, it should have been recollected, that it had never been their custom to expose themselyes to open fire.
LETTER XVII. 291
every unworthy practice, was at the head of foreign affairs. He knew nothing of the matter.
Thus it is, that the resources of our country are often trusted to unworthy hands, and though no secretary of state would him- self connive at sending an emigrant I'renchman kidnapping into the dominions of an ally, yet such a person was sent upon such a mission.
During our stay at Patrass, which lasted eleven days, we took two or three rides into the neighbourimg country. A little more than two miles from the port along the shore to the south, is a small river, whose course can be discerned for some distance in a valley between abrupt hills to the south-east. ‘The present name of this river is Leucate; but the river, on that side nearest to the town, was called the Glaucus, according to Pausanias, and the next, the Leucas, which comes so near to the modern name.
At this place we dismissed our dragoman, and took into our ser- vice another Greek, a native of the island of Syra, and inhabitant of Constantinople, who wore the Frank habit. He spoke Turkish, Greek, French, Italian, and bad Latin, the last of which lan- guages he had learnt at Rome, having belonged to one of the choirs. His name was Andreas. ‘The pay of a servant of this
description is from two to three piasters a day, with provisions and
lodging.
On the fourth of December, in the afternoon, we left Patrass. ‘The road, which was much cut up by the torrents, at first led us to the north, towards the castle on the cape, formerly called
293 LETTER XVII,
Rhium, distant from the town about five miles and a half*. We could ciscern from the road the other castle, called the castle of Roumelia, as the other is named that of the Morea, at the other side of the strait, which m breadth was reckoned five stadia, three hundred and eighty feet more than half a mile}. ‘Ihese castles, sometimes called the Dardanelles of Lepanto, were buiit by Sultan Bajazet in the year 1482; they were taken. by the Venetians in 1576; blown up by the Turks in 1687, but again restored by them. ‘hey seemed strong, but we were informed that the fortifications were entirely neglected, and that the walls were used as an enclosure for sheep. Near the castle of the Morea is a village of thirty or forty houses, surrounded with gardens ; and on the other side, towards Patrass, is the ceme- tery of the Christians who were slain in the battle of Lepanto. Directing our course to. the east, after leaving the castle on our left at a mile distance, we soon had a view of the town of
Lepanto, on the north of the gulf. It presents a singular ap- pearance, being seated on the steep declivity of a hill, and hav-
ing two walls termimating ina vortex, which is crowned by a castle, commanding the town and harbour. The fortifications are strengthened by four walls, which run crossways from one side to the other in parallel lines, and have caused the appearance of the place to be compared to a papal crown. I cannot say the simile struck me; but 1 read of it in Dr. Chandler’s travels. Lepanto was first fortified by the Venetians. 'The entrance to the harbour, which is small and circular, and not capable of con- * Fifty stadia, according to Pausanias ; forty according to Strabo, 110, xx. ;
but perhaps he means the town. + Ὅσον δὲ were crediay ἀπολείπουσαι ropSuor.——Strab. lib. viii,
LETTER XVII- 985
taining ships of any burden, is scarcely perceptible at a distance. ‘The present number of inhabitants is about two thousand, mostly Greeks, workers in morocco. ‘The governor of the place is a Pasha of two tails; but his dominions extend only a small dis- tance from the town.
You scarcely need be informed, that Lepanto is on the site of the ancient Naupactus, of which name the modern Greek appel- lation, Epacto, seems to be a corruption.
Our road took us over rough uneven paths, and through thick woods, sometimes close to the shore, and at others over the feet of high hills to our right, that projected into the gulf, and thus afforded no road along the beach. We travelled due east. It was half past seven, and had been long dark, before we arrived at a solitary han on the shore, where we put up for the night. From Patrass to the han, we had passed only one house on the road, and saw no other village than that near the castle of the Morea. ‘The road was very bad the whole distance.
The next day, after walking about most part of the morning on the beach, and viewing the grand mountain scenery on the other side of the gulf, we left the han, and travelling through a more level and open country, and crossing ἃ wide torrent in a situation answering to that of the ancient river Bolineus, arrived, in a little more than three hours, at the town of Vostizza, which we had seen for some time on a tongue of land jutting into the culf, shaded at the back with groves of tall trees, and inter- spersed with orange and lemon gardens, glittering with their ripe
fruits. Between Patra and Aigium, on whose site Vostizza is sup- posed to stand, there were the river Meilichus, the river Chara-
99
peas LETTER XVII.
drus, the city Argyra, the river Selemnus (once a shepherd, but aiterwards a stream, whence the neglected swain and the for- saken nymph drank oblivion of their former passion), the river Bolineeus, and the city Bolina; and also the city Rhypes, a little above the road, which was a military one, something more than three of our miles from Aégium. Of the three cities, as Rhypes was not inhabited when Strabo wrote, and all were ruins in the time of Pausanias, it is no wonder tuat there is not a vestige remain- ing. ‘The rivers also, with one exception before noted, are sunk into streams, which we skould call by no other name than that of winter brooks. A promontory, which should be Drepanum, shuts out the view of Vostizza till one is arrived within six miles of the town; for Drepanum, though put by some maps nearer to the cape of Rhium, is said by Pausanias to stretch into the gulf from the place where the Bolinus flows, and both the pro- montory, and the torrent we crossed on our second day’s jour- ney, correspond to that description*.
The whole distance, by the shortest road, from Patre to /Zgium, was one hundred and ninety stadia, something more than swenty-one miles and a half. The sail round the shore was forty stadia longer. It was first to Rhium fifty stadia, to Port Panormus fifteen, to the walls, called, of Minerva, fifteen, to Port Erineus ninety, to A‘gium sixty 7.
The gulf, which, as far as Vostizza, is rather narrow, swells beyond that point into a considerable sea.
An hour before we arrived at the town, we had our first view
* But Strabo, in Book viii. says, that the back part of the promontory Rhian was called Drepanum.
+ Pausanias-Achaic. p. 441 and 442,
LETTER XVII. 995
of Parnassus, now called Liakura, on the other side of the gulf. rising far above the other peaks of that hilly region, and capped with snow. ‘lhe two tops, however, were not discernible; nor did I ever observe that peculiarity during the three weeks we were within sight of the poetic mountain. ‘lhe spot whence the summit may be most distinctly viewed, is in the neighbourhood of the isthmus of Corinth.
Vostizza contains between three and four thousand inhabitants, chiefly Greeks, who trade in raw silk, cheeses, currants, hides, eums, rackee, the small fishes called sardinias, and boutaraga. The hard cheeses of Vostizza are accounted the best in the Morea. The town and its district are governed by a Greek Codja-bashee, or elder, as are three others of the twenty-four cantons into which the Morea is divided, Caritene, Sinano, and Vasilico. We were lodged in the house of the Codja-bashee at Vostizza, who, notwithstanding his title, was a very young man, not twenty years old, by name Andreas Londo, the son of a Greek in the highest esteem with Veli Pasha, and acting the
part of his chief minister at ‘Tripolizza. We could in an instant
discover the Signor Londo to be a person in power: his chamber was crowded with visitants, claimants, and complainants ; his secretaries and clerks were often presenting papers for his sig- nature; and the whole appearance of our host and his house- hold presented us with the singular spectacle of a Greek in au- thority—a sight which we had never before seen in ‘Turkey. The Codja-bashee was not quite five feet in height, and, without any exaggeration, his cap, or talpac, was very near one-third of that measure. He studied, as much as possible, to give himself the reserved air of a’‘Turk; but his natural good-humour and liveliness frequently burst through the disguise, and displayed
Gs
226 LETTER XVII.
him in his real character, of a merry playful boy; so much so, indeed, that before we left his house, we had more than once prevailed on him to throw off his robes and cap, tuck up his sleeves, and. attempt several feats of agility, such as jumping over chairs, tambling, and sparring, with which latter exercise he was so highly delighted, that he now and then started up, called in one of his secretaries, and knocked him down on the sofa, as a trial of his skill. Being under no restraint from a supe- rior, he showed the true bent of his disposition, which, perhaps, would be, in better days, that of the Greeks in general ; for he was passionate, enthusiastic, childish, important, and a little osten- tatious ; but polite, kind, and hospitable, and showing many evi- dent traits of an amiable mind.
We were comfortably lodged, and handsomely entertained, by him. His house was large, and built on stone arches, the ascent to it being by a wooden staircase. It contained two wings, the right hand one of which was occupied by the females of the family, whom, by the way, we never once saw in ten days; the ieft hand apartments consisted of the room of audience, and of a back chamber, where we slept. The gallery connecting the two wings had a dining-room in the middle; the culinary con- cerns were carried on in a place to which the entrance was on the right of the dining-room ; and a door, on the left of that apart- ment, opened into a small closet, which might as well have been elsewhere. The room of audience was well fitted up with fine sofas, a rich carpet, and sash windows, a great rarity. In the dining-chamber were tables and chairs. We were told the house altogether was the best of any belonging to a Greek in the Morea.
The table kept by the young Londo was good, as far as a
LETTER Xxvit. 927
&
Greek cook can prepare a dinner. ‘The meat was stewed to rags. They cut up a hare into pieces to roast. I do not recollect that any of the flesh dishes were boiled*. The pastry was not good, being sweetened with honey, and not well baked; but the thick ewes’ milk, mixed with rice and preserves, and garnished witn almonds; was very palatable. ‘The boutaraga, caviar, and macaroni pow- dered with scraped cheese, were good dishes. But the vegeta- bles and fruits, some of which the luxuriant soil furnishes without culture, were indeed delicious, and in great variety. ‘There were cabbages, cauliflowers, spinach, artichokes, lettuces, and cellery, in abundance; but the want of potatoes was supplied by a root tasting like sea-cale. ‘I'he fruits, which were served up at the conclusion of the dinner, and before the cloth was removed, were oranges, olives, pears, quinces, pomegranates, citrons, medlars, and nuts, and lastly, the finest melons we ever tasted. ‘These last fruits were, however, not grown in the Morea, but brought from Cefalonia, where alone, and in one spot only of the island, so our host told us, they come to so great a perfection. ‘T'o transplant them has been attempted, but they lose their flavour in another soil. We were too late for the summer fruit in the Morea; but, in my opinion, the peaches, cherries, apricots, nectarines, and even the grapes, in the Levant, are inferior to those grown in the open air, or in hot-houses, in I:ngland; for the Greeks, either not knowing, or too lazy to engraft, have never attempted to improve the quality of their trees. ‘The green fig ts reckoned a great delicacy, but to me it seemed tasteless.
* Servius, ina note on line 710, of the first book of the ΖΕ ποῖά, pretends, that Homer’s heroes never ate boiled meat; but Lambert Bos cites Athenzus, lib. 197, to prove the contrary, and settles so important a point.
Gg 2
298 LETTER ΧΎΥΨΤΙΣ
The dinner hour at Vostizza was four o’clock ; and the supper, formerly the most important meal, but now gradually, in com- pliance with the fashions of Christendom, supplied by coftee, was entirely dispensed with, In the morning, a cup of chocolate, with fried buttered bread in strips, was handed to each, and no breakfast-table was set.
‘The Codja-bashee rose about eight o’clock, and generally passed his morning, until twelve, in the concerns of his office, or with the females of his family, or at church: then he mounted his horse, and went into the country to hunt, or called on the Turks or Greeks of the town: after dinner he passed some time in’ bu- siness, or in his “ gynaceum,” with the ladies: the latter part of the evening was spent in our company, until eleven, when he retired to rest. During the whole day the pipe was seldom:out of his mouth, not even when he was on: horseback. Being one day informed of the approach of the Hinglish Consul from Patrass, he went out to meet him in form, with two of his longest pipes, and they both rode into the town smoking. ‘This 15. considered he most ceremoniaus way of receiving a stranger of distinction.
We accompanied our host on one or two coursing parties, and were mounted on some good horses out of his stables. An Ling- hsh sportsman would not fail to laugh at the manner in which this civersion is taken in the Morea. We had with us four wire-haired greyhounds called Lacouni (canes Laconici), three mongrel poin- ters, and several curs: we beat about the bushes, making as much noise as possible, with a large party of men on foot and horseback, and the moment the hare was started, all the dogs set off thridding the bushes, of which there were large clumps on the plain, bark- wg and running both by sight and smell. The hare was lost for
LETTER XVII. 229
a moment, then found again, and after a short run killed. It was of alight grey colour. During our search for hares we put up many woodcocks, with which both the Morea and Koumeliaabound in the winter season.
‘Fhe eountry behind Vostizza, and to the south-east of it as far as the mountains, about six miles distant, is cultivated, and divided into corn grounds, but very stony, and interspersed with brush- wood. ‘Through the plain from a narrow opening 10 the hills, flows a river, broad but not deep, over which there is a bridge. If Vostizza be /Kgium, this stream is the Selinus. Immediately to the east on the shore, there are large groves of olive-trees: on the west, below the cliff on which the town stands, is an extensive flat covered with brushwood, through which runs a small fordable stream, that may be either the Pheenix or Meganetes, mentioned by Pausanias. On the beach under the town, is the enormous plane tree that was notorious in the time of Chandler. One of its largest branches, as thick as the trunk of most trees, has lately fallen off, and many of the other boughs are supported by long beams of wood. Under the shade of it we sawa large vessel building, by which you may judge of the size of the tree itself.
The only remains of antiquity at the modern AZgium, are two fragments of brick wall sunk in the earth, partly of the kind called opus reticulatum, or net-work, and partly of the same sort as those specimens composing the ruins of Nicopolis. What has been considered as denoting the site of Vostizza to be exactly that of the city once celebrated as the place of assemblage for the states composing the Achzan League, is a fountain of clear water, bursting from many stone mouths near the plane tree ; for A gium is described as having been at a short distance from the shore, and
supplied with good water from plentiful springs.
930 LETTER XVII.
The Turks burned A.gium, says Dr. Chandler, by which I suppose he means, Vostizza, in 1536, and put the inhabitants to the sword, or carried them away into slavery.
Kither from inclination or policy, the Greeks in the Morea are favoured to an unusual degree by their present Pasha, the son of Ali. Veli employs many of them about his chief concerns, and, what is strange if it be true, is said to profess much greater esteem and confidence for those of his Albanian guards who are Christians, than for the Turks amongst them. ‘The Vizier, for he is a Pasha of three tails, is a lively young man; and besides the Albanian, Greek, and ‘Turkish languages, speaks Italian, an accomplishment not possessed, I should think, by any other man of his high rank in Turkey. It is reported that he, as well as his father, are pre- paring, in case of the overthrow of the Ottoman power, to esta- blish an independent sovereignty. But all such rumours appear to me highly absurd and unfounded; for to judge from the little I have seen, no Turk, if he contemplates the possibility of the re- treat of the Sultans from Constantinople, would make up his mind to live, much less can hope to reign, surrounded by the Infidels. It is more probable that Veli, knowing how often the dominion of the Morea has been disputed, and how constantly the attention of the Christian powers has been, and is fixed upon his pashalik, is willing to court the favour of the great majority of his sub- jects.
‘The present population of the Morea has been laid down at four hundred thousand Greeks, fifteen thousand Turks, and four thousand Jews; in this computation the Mainotes are not in-
cluded*.
* Poukeville, Voyage en Morée, p. 234.
LETTER XWVIT. 231
Having mentioned the Mainotes, I cannot refrain from digress- ing a little, to speak of them more at length.
So early as the reign of Constantine Porphyro-genitus, the Ileuthero-Laconians (who had been enfranchised from the domi- nion of Sparta by a decree of the Roman Senate, a liberation which was afterwards particularly confirmed by Augustus *) had acquired the name of Mainotes. ‘They continued the worship of the Pagan deities five hundred years after the rest of the Roman empire had embraced Christianity. The arro- gant author of the philosophical dissertations on the Greeks, to give a baser origin to this people, has reckoned amongst their ancestors some of the foreign satellites of the monster Nabis, who were driven, says he, from the city of Sparta by the army of the Achean League. But in the account of that transaction by Livy, I find no positive mention of any settlement made by the auxi- haries of that tyrant in the twenty-three maritime cities of La~ conia, which were separated from the dominions of Sparta. Mr. Gibbon, with more reason, as it appears, inclines to: rank some of the much-injured Helots amongst their progenitors ; and, if it were a point worthy the trouble of establishing, the Spartans themselves. might, I think, be proved to have transfused some of their blood into the veins of the people of the neighbouring towns. When Sparta (for it was then called by that name) was given up by Thomas Paleologus to Mahomet the Great, those
* Mr. De Pauw accuses Pausanias of “ excessive ignorance” of history, in referring the establishment of the Eleuthero-Laconians to Augustus; yet it remains a doubt, whether the Laconian states were known by that name until the decree of that emperor. Mr. De Pauw’s date is 559, U. C.; but the peace between the Romans and: Nabis was in 557, and the death of that tyrant in 560, U. C. Liv. lib, xxxivy. cap. 39, et lib. xxxy. cap. 35.
we LETTER XVII:
Grecks who were unwilling to live under the Turks, may be sup- posed to have fled into the recesses of ‘l'aygetus, and to have set- tled amongst the Mainotes.
But although the true descendants of the ancient Greeks, if any where to be found, should perhaps be sought for amongst the mountains of Maina; yet the character of this people has at all times been such as would reflect no honour upon a noble ori- gin, but would make one suppose them sprung from the Sclavo- nian robbers who overran the Peloponesus in the eighth cen- tury. Cape Tenarus, now called Matapan, the most southern extremity of the Morea, has at all times been inhabited by savages, who have not only infested the neighbouring seas with their piracies, but have massacred those that have been ship- wrecked on their rocks.
A place on the coast, called now Vitulo, a corruption of the name of A‘tylos, an ancient town on the shore of the Messenian gulf, has sometimes been considered the capital of Maina; but Marathonisi, a town on the coast to the east of ‘Taygetus, con- taining five hundred inhabitants, 1s now the residence of the chief of the Mainotes; and Vathi, a strong post, with a castle, the property of one of those petty princes who dispute the possession of the country, is considered as next in importance to the prin- cipal town. ‘The inhabitants of no other district, however, have ever been reckoned so cruel and ferocious, as those of the hilly strip of land denominated by the Venetians Bassa Maina. The well known character of these ruffians has gained for them in the Morea the name of Cacovougnis, or the villains of the mountains. ‘They live in huts, most part of them near a Turkish fortress called ‘Turcogli Olmionas, and a perpetual exposure to
LETTER XVII. ISO
the sun, and the sea air, has given them a tawny complexion, which adds to the ferocity of their whole appearance.
It appears, that about the year 1474, a person styling him- self Nicephorus Commenes, son of David, the last Greek Em- peror of Trebizond, retreated to Vitulo, and had the address to persuade the Bishop, who was in a manner the head of the Mainotes, to acknowledge him as an Imperial Prince, and con- firm him under the title of Proto-geronte, or First Senior, as the chief of the nation. ‘The Proto-gerontes, and their subject rob- bers, continued independent of the Sultans, who paid no atten- tion to an obscure and barren corner of their vast empire, until the complaints of the inhabitants of Modon and Coron, and of those of Misitra, the town not far from Paleo-chori, the site of Sparta, and the seat of a Sangiac, awakened the indignation of the Turks. In 1676, the Mainotes of the north were attacked, but they would not stand the contest ; for they fled, to the num- ber of four thousand, into six large ships, four of which were lost near Corfu. ‘The remaining twu arrived at Corsica, where the fugitives settled ; and some of their descendants have been recognised by late travellers in that island.
Amongst the fugitives to Corsica, was a family distinguished by the appellation of Kalomeros; and to the exact identity of this name with that of the French Emperor, may be attributed,
in great part, an opinion current in the Morea, that Buonaparte
is by descent a genuine Mainote. And, indeed, when the views
of the French unceasingly directed towards the shores of the Me-
diterranean induced them in 1797 to inquire into the actual’ state
of Maina, this conqueror, who was then preparing to sail for
Egypt, addressed an epistle to the C7tzzen, chief of the Mainotes, Η ἢ
9284, , LETTER xVII.
in which he declares the bearers of his letter (most probably some Corsican fellow-countrymen) to be of Spartan origin*.
After the flight of the northern Mainotes, amongst whom were the Proto-geronie, one Stephanopoulo, and the Bishop of Vitulo, with many of his chief monks, the Cacovougnis, fled to the summit of their steepest rocks; and on being deserted by their chiefs, abo- lished the office of Proto-geronte, and created four Captains of the whole nation, whose heirs, whether male or female, were to succeed to their power. No farther back than the year 1765, a widow of one of these Captains, by name Demetria, spread consternation amongst the 'l'urks of Misitra, and stopped the communication be- tween that town and Modon. The Mainotes were still independent of the Porte ; they lived entirely on plunder ; and their caloyers, or monks, issued from their cells to partake of their booty, and encourage their rapacity ; so that no ship, under whatever flag, approached the rocks of Matapan without caution, and providing
* Le Général en Chef de Armée d’lialie an Chef du Peuple libre de Maina.
CiITOYEN,
Jai regu, de Trieste, une lettre, dans laquelle vous me témoignez le désir d’étre utile ἃ la Republique, en accueillant ses batimens sur vos ports. Je me plais ἃ croire que vous tiendrez parole avec cette fidélité qui convient ἃ un de- scendant des Spartiates. La Republique Francaise ne sera point ingrate a Pégard de votre nation; quant ἃ moi, je recevrai volontiers quiconque viendra me trouver de voire part, et ne souhaite rien tant que de voir régner une bonne harmonie entre deux nations également amies de la liberté.
Je vous récommande les porteurs de cette lettre, qui sont aussi des déscendans des Spartiates. S’ils non pas fait jusq’ici de grandes choses, c’est qu’ils ne sont point trouvés sur un grand théatre.
Salut et fraternité,
BuoNAPARTE.
ΠΕ ΕΝ. XVil. 935
against an attack. At the same time, they addressed the Chris- tian Powers to support them in their opposition to the Porte, until the Russians invaded the Morea in 1770, and carried the town of Misitra, in which the Mainotes committed the most frightful excesses, but afterwards deserted their allies, and caused, (such is the accusation of the Russians), the failure of the whole expedition. However, a body of them, amounting to two thou- sand men, advanced to the relief of Patrass, but were repulsed with great slaughter.
Since that period, the Mainotes have sometimes been consi- dered in subjection to the Pasha of 'T'ripolizza, and at others as independent.
Their :nutual dissentions have favoured the views of the Turks ; and the ambition of a youth named Constantine, a little before our arrival at Athens, introduced some soldiers of Veli Pasha’s mto the fortresses of a part of Maina, to the prejudice not only of the former governor of the country, but that of the liberties of the whole people. ‘The other chief, however, still maintained him- self in the fastnesses near Bathi, and carried on a predatory war with his rival. ‘Torn by these intestine feuds, and yet willing to retain the shadow of independence, the Mainotes would willingly make every sacrifice in behalf of any foreign power, and, notwith- standing former failures, have made an application to their new neighbours the English.
A deputation from them had arrived at Zante, and offered their service to our garrison. But, at the same time, they seem desirous of submitting, and of being considered subjects of the Porte. <A Scotch gentleman, whom we encountered several times on our’l'our, and in whose entertaining work the letter of Napoleon has been
Hh 2
230 LETTER XVII.
already given to the public, assured me that he had seen a formal proposal, drawn up by the Bishop of Vitulo, in which, upon cer- tain conditions, the Mainotes offered to become tributary to the Sultans. ‘The principal article was, that they should be the collectors of their own tribute, without the interference of any ‘Turk. My informant added, that the memorial was written in a style truly laconic; but of this, I hope we shall have an oppor- tunity of judging for ourselves, as 1 am promised a copy of this document. I own myself incredulous, though desirous enough to see, in what terms the descendants of the Spartans have made a voluntary surrender of their liberties.
Whilst, however, their fate is undecided, they suffer all the dis- tresses of anarchy, and their barbarism is increased by their mis- fortunes. No Turk, without a large armed force, can travel in their country; but a Frank, by putting himself under the protec- tion of their Bishop, or one of their Captains, may be secure against all danger.
They still render the navigation of the Archipelago in small boats, very perilous, and they mak occasional descents on the main land. My fellow-traveller, ona visit to Cape Colonna, ran a chance of being surprised by a party of twenty-five of these pirates, who were lying hid in the caves below the cliff on which are the ruins of the temple of Minerva, but would not venture upon the attack of twelve men well armed with guns, pistols, and sabres. ‘Two Greeks, who were their prisoners at the time, and were afterwards liberated, gave an account of their delibera- tions on the subject.
Such are the people who must in some future time co-operate in, what has been called, the deliverance of Greece, Without
LETTER XVII. 237
ho
believing that they are man-eaters, a story propagated by the ter- ror of the ‘Turks, you will not think them very honourabde allies ; and an inspection of the rocky spot which they occupy in the map of the Morea, will give you no exalted notion of the importance of their aid.
LETTER XVIII.
Distance from Patrass to Corinth—and to Athens—Passage across the Gulf of Lepanto to the Scale of Salona—Circum- ference of the Corinthian Gulf—Galaxcithi—Evanthe— Route to Crisso—Salona—View at the Foot of Mount Lia- kura, or Parnassus—Crisso—Site of Crissa, or Cirrha— Visit to the Ruins of Delphi—Castalia—Treasures of Delphi —The Brazen Serpent at Constantinople—Parnassus—A scent to the Summit of it wmpracticable—Route from Crisso to- wards Livadia—to Arakova on Parnassus—The Road Schiste —The Three Roads—Distomo—Asprospitia—Monastery of St. Luke of Stiris—Arrival at Livadia.
THE point to which we wished to direct our steps-was Athens, and had it not been our desire to visit Delphi, we should probably have travelled to that place by the shortest road, keep- ing on the south side of the gulf, and passing across the isthmus directly into Attica. From Patrass to Corinth is reckoned a journey of twenty-four hours. ‘The road from Vostizza passes through Vasilico, which travellers have decided to be on the site of Sicyon, about three hours from Corinth. From the isthmus to Megara is nine hours journey, and from Megara to Athens eight.
LETTER XVIII. 239
When Pococke travelled, there were two ruins, apparently antique, between Vostizza and Vasilico; the first, a piece of thick wall on the shore, belonging, it is supposed, to the ancient Helice, forty stadia from A“gium, and twelve from the beach ; the second, about six miles from Vasilico, and more than a mile from the water on a hill, corresponding with AXgira.—The whole coast had been anciently shaken by violent earthquakes, a cala- mity to which other parts of the Morea are now also much sub- ject: Coron has, on that account, been of late years not a safe residence, and has therefore been partially’deserted.
A strong easterly wind, by no means unusual at the end of autumn, setting out of the gulf of Lepanto, detained us until the 14th of December at Vostizza, when we got into a strong Cefalonian boat, with fourteen men and. ten oars, and made the best of our way towards the scale of Salona, at the head of the deep bay called the Crissean gulf, though that name has been indiscriminately applied to the whole sea from the isthmus to the mouths of the Evenus.
It was half past ten in the morning before we left the shore. We crossed the gulf in an oblique direction to the north-east, and came, by half past one, to the beach of a small bay in Rou- melia, where we anchored, and the boatmen cooked their dinner. We saw a small village ona hill to our left, called Petrinizza ; and between us and the village, a mile distant, was a han on a road leading from Lepanto to the town of Salona. In an hour we were off again, and the wind failing us, our sailors rowed close under the land, keeping towards the east, and tracing all the creeks and windings of an uneven shore. In many places we skirted the feet of high rocky cliffs, the resort of innumerable
112
ww
240 LETTER XVIII.
flocks of wild pigeons, that were frightened from their crevice: by the dashing of the oars, and whistled round us in every direc- tion. In three hours we saw another village in the hills, which had a wild and barren appearance. We continued along a bold rocky shore until seven o'clock, when we pulled into a small creek, where there was a fishing-boat, and near which some men were_ sitting round a blazing furze fire, under a hanging rock. Here also our boatmen refreshed themselves for an hour. ‘They then began rowing stoutly, and in a short time doubled a head- land, which was the last before we entered into the gulf of Salona. We afterwards went northwards ; and skirting the land, at first came to a small bay with a good harbour, which we crossed, and soon passed by the town and port of a place called Galaxcithi, where some little trade is carried on, and where we saw the masts of some large trebaculos swaying about in the moonlight. After this we went near a little island, also in the mouth of a deep bay, on which there was a church, and we arrived at twelve o’clock at night at the scale of Salona, where there was only a custom- house and a very miserable han, already so occupied that there was only one room for our lodging, and that nearly full of onions.
From our entrance into the gulf of Salona to our arrival at the scale, which is nearly at its extremity, we had been four hours constantly rowing fast, and this must give a length of sixteen miles to the bay, which is also very broad at its mouth, and swells into the land in several other small harbours on both sides*.
‘he unskilfulness of ancient mariners regarded a lake of little
more than two hundred and fifty-six miles in circuit, as a formi-
* 'The Carinthian gulf has a perimeter, from the Evenus to Araxus (Cape Papa) of 2240 stadia.”—Strab. lib. oct. p. 336, edit. Casaub. | )
LETTER XVIII. 94,1
dable expanse of waters, and the Corinthian gulf was sometimes called the Crisszean, sometimes the Alcyonian sea.
Galaxcithi, three hours and a half from Salona, has been said to be on the site of Evanthe, a town inhabited by the Locri Ozole.
Evanthe sent out a colony to the promontory called Zephy- rion, in Italy, a little after the foundation of Syracuse and Cro- tona™ ; it must, therefore, have been a city of some size. ‘There are no remains at Galaxcithi, and perhaps the conjecture has no probable grounds of support.
‘The morning after our arrival we sent for horses from Crisso, a town not more than an hour’s ride from the han.
On leaving the scale we went northwards, and proceeded a short way over a rising ground, called by Chandler a root of Cirphis, the mountains whose ranges formed the eastern side of the gulf of Crissa. We then came suddenly in view of a very romantic prospect. Before us was a well-cultivated corn plain, bounded by Parnassus, and interspersed with extensive groves of olives ; to the right was an opening in the mountains, appearing at first like a chasm, but enlarging by degrees into a valley, through which there ran a small river. ‘Advancing towards Crisso, we had a prospect to the left between. the hills of the large town of Salona, the capital of the district, containing two thousand ‘Turkish families. It stands on the brow of a hill, as did Amphissa, the ancient town on whose site it is said to be placed-++. The last part of our ride was up an ascent, tor Urisso 1s
placed on the. roots of Parnassus.
* Strab. lib. vi.; called by Pausanias /Eanthéa ; ‘ near to Naupactus.”— Phoc. p. 680. + Keira καὶ πολίσμο ἐπὶ ufrrs.——Paus. Phoc. p..686. It was one hundred anc,
twenty stadia from Delphi, a little more than thirteen miles and a half,
94,2 LETTER ἘΥΥΙΙΣ
Crisso is a poor Greek town of three hundred houses; but it is the seat of a Bishop, to whom we had a letter from the Consul- General at Patrass. We did not, however, lodge at his house, but at that of two very decent women who gave us a comfort- able apartment.
The modern town does not stand on the site of Crissa, after- wards called Cirrha, which was the maritime town of Delphi, and sixty stadia from that place; a distance sufficient to allow of a memorable war between the two cities*. Crissa, after a stout resistance to the Amphictyons, was taken possession of for Apollo, by poisoning the waters of the Plistus, the river we had seen in the valley which supplied the town7. There are, how-
ever, no remains to be seen lower down than where the town now
stands, except. a few pieces of wall. Neither the temple of
Apollo, nor the Pythian hippodrome, have left a vestige on the plain where they stood.
The writings of well known travellers, and the accurate though popular work of the Abbe Barthelemy, have rendered even the unlearned reader so familiar with the ancient wonders of Delphi, that i shail do littie more in this place than minutely note what | myself saw, when conducted to the spot by a Greek guide from Crisso, on the 16th of December, 1809. ὁ
On that day we ascended the mountain on horseback, up a very
* Strabo speaks of Cirrha and Crissa as two cities, and says, Cirrha was eighty stadia from Delphi, p. 418; but this wasa more ancient town, destroyed by the Crisseans, and not the Cirrha, which Pausanias says was sixty stadia from Delphi, so that Casaubon need not have tried to reconcile the two mea- surements, by saying, that the eighty stadia alludes to the channel or course of the Plistus from Delphi; besides, the Plistus is only a torrent, and does not flow from Delphi.
+ Pausan. Phocic. p. 684.
LETTER. XVIII. 943
steep craggy path to the north-east, which obliged us often to dismount. We could see for some time nothing but the bare rocks which we were climbing, for the summits of Parnassus were totally invisible, and cannot at any time be seen by those who are in that position. 7
After scaling the side of the hill about an hour, we saw the first remarkable object, which is a large piece of rock on the left, a little above the path. This apparently has been loosened from its base, and contains an excavation, the shape of which being a segment less than a semicircle, like the mouth of an oven, wide but not deep, with a sort of trough below, denotes it to have been a sarcophagus.
Ascending a little higher, we saw another immense stone, or rather mass of stones, also on the left, and of a regular shape, that seems to threaten the passengers below.
Behind one of these fragments, the murderers employed by Perseus to kill Eumenes may have lain concealed before they en- deavoured to overwhelm him with pieces of rock from above. The description given by Livy* answers most exactly to the spot, and might have been written yesterday by an actual observer of the positions.
Just beyond the fragments, we climbed up, to the left of the path, toa small cave facing the west on the side of the hill, In this there are three sepulchral cavities, one on each side, and over the oblong troughs where the body was placed, 15 a niche which may have contained the lamp, or the small ornaments occasion-
* Adscendentibus ad templuma Cirrha priusquam perveniretur ad frequentia
edificiis loca, maceria erat. ab leva semitze paulum extans a fundamento, qua singuli transirent, &c. &c.—Liv. lib. xlii. cap. 15.
944. LETTER XVItIT:
ally deposited in the ancient tombs, and discovered in some of them at this day. Some of these troughs are of a length and depth suflicient to make one suppose that the bodies they con- tained were not burnt, but buried entire, or at least that their bones were disposed into their proper places, and not thrown to- gether into the urn, according to the common practice.
Proceeding up the steep, we soon had a view of Castri, a small mud town situated a little to the east of a circular hollow in the mountain, round which are the rows of seats belonging to the Pythian stadium. But the casing of Pentelic marble, with which this building was adorned by Atticus Herodes, has disappeared, and the original structure of Parnassian stone, alone remaining, has the look of fragments of old walls rising a little above the earth, in a regular order one over the other. Each stone is about two feet and a half in length, and of a proportionate breadth and thickness*. Above Castri is a perpendicular rugged rock; below it is a steep descent into the vale of the Plistus, on the other side of which are the stony, flat, hills of Mount Cirphis.
After the first sight of the town we turned to the left hand, towards the stadium, and were led to a cave immediately on the left of the path. In this cave there are, asin the one described, three sepulchral cavities, but the arches and niches are larger, and more carefully worked, and the troughs are longer than in the
* Any atiempt to ascertain the true length of the Pythian stadium, fixed by Mr. D’Anville at four-fifths of the Olympic stadium, or five hundred Greek feet, from the remains at Castri, would, such is the state of the ruin, most pro- bably be unsuccessful. M. Spon has observed, that it is shorter than that whose circuit is now seen at Athens. It appeared to me considerably so ; but the form
is also very different, being semicircular, whereas, that of Herodes at Athens is in the shape of an oblong horse-shoe.
LETTER XVIII. CAD
other tombs. 'T'o the entrance of it, which is an arch high enough for a man to stand upright, the Castriotes have adjusted a wooden door, so that it serves as a dark stable for two or three of their cattle. Over the tomb, opposite the entrance, is the carved head of some animal, so much battered as to be scarcely dis- tinguishable, but looking like that of a horse, a well-known sepulchral ornament. Above the tombs, on the side, are oval niches. Our conductor informed us whilst in this cave, that we were standing over a pit which he had seen open, and knew to be fifty (σηχεις) cubits in depth. ‘That this was the cavern whence the Pythia recerved the divine subterranean vapour, does not seem at all probable; yet the people of the country have fixed upon it for the sacred spot; “ for,” said our guide, “ here the Greeks worshipped, in the days of Apollo, the king of these places.”
A. few paces below the cave, to the right, is a small church de- dicated to St. Elias, built on a spot of flat ground, where 15 a large piece of ancient wall, with fragments of carved marble, and the capitals of two columns inserted in the work.
On the left of the cave, beside the path, there is a seat cut out of the rock, for the refreshment of those who have climbed the mountain.
Going into the town of Castri, which is about two hundred paces beyond the cave, but a little lower down in the hill, we were taken to a hovel, in a dark room of which, half unders eround, there was a piece of rough wall several feet in length and height, entirely covered with ancient inscriptions, quite undecy- pherable in the situation where they are placed. ‘They register,
says Chandler, the purchase of slaves, who had entrusted the K k
440 LETTER XVIII.
price of their freedom to the God, containing the contract be- tween Apollo and their owners, witnessed by his priests, and by some of the Archons.
We next scrambled up the dirty lanes of the town to two stone fountains, one above the other, of modern workmanship, and of the same sort as are to be met with all over Greece. 'They are both supplied, as a woman of Castri told us, by the same stream—the once prophetic spring Cassotis.
From this spot we descended gradually towards the east, and leaving the town, in half a quarter of a mile found ourselves in a position, where, turning suddenly to our left, we saw an immense cleft rending the mountain from the clouds down to our feet. Down the crags of this chasm, a stream trickled into a stone basin sunk im the earth just above the path, overflowing whose margin, and enlarged in its progress by other rills, it was seen falling over the rocks into the valley beneath. We clambered up into the chasm by means of some grooves cut in the rock, but almost worn away by the dripping water, as far as it was possi~ ble to go; and here, if any where, being literally ‘‘ dipped in dew of Castaly ;’ for this was the immortal rill, and we were sprinkled with the spray of the falling stream; here we should have felt the poetic inspiration.
But the evening began to close in upon us, and we descended into the path we had left.
Just above the basin, in a niche of the rock, is a small hut, which is called the church of St. John, and which contains part of the shaft of a large fluted column of marble, with a marble slab.
In a little grove of olive trees, on a green plot a few yards
CL:
LETTER XVIII. 54
below the basin, is ἃ monastery of the Panagia, or Holy Virgin, which we entered. Here are two marble columns, about eleven feet in height, supporting the shed of a pent that stretches out from the chapel. On one of them was scratched ABERDEEN, 1803 ; and in another place, more carefully cut, H. P. Hore, 1799. ‘There is something agreeable in meeting even with the name of a countryman ; and I know not if we did not contem- plate these inscriptions with greater pleasure, than that which 15 seen on a piece of marble wedged into a low wall close to the columns, and which is still very visible, though the letters are wearing fast away. ‘This is a fac-simile of it: the letters are rudely cut.
AL §loA4 XAVER
The simple sepulchral inscription so common amongst the Greeks, “ ASacides—Farewell.”
Under the window of the sacristy, behind the altar, there is also the following inscription in good preservation, and nicely carved :
XPHETOS LX
APQToy OF XEA AOZAAPEIZAIO‘£ VIEAAYCIQTH:E HTQN ΤΕ HPO>
K k 2
248 LETTER: XVIII.
You will pardon me for troubling you with this latter unim- portant inscription, which may have been often noticed before, though Chandler, who has got the former, says nothing of it in his ‘T'ravels.
Beyond the monastery, and from the path approaching Castri from the east, are to be seen some sarcophagi, and niches in tie mountain similar to those on the other side of the town.
Perhaps it may increase the interest in perusing this account of the present appearance of Delphi to believe, that the basin below the church of St. John is that in which the Pythia bathed, before she ascended the sacred tripod; that the cleft in Parnassus is the one which divided the two summits of the poetic hill; and that the monastery stands on the site of the Delphic gymnasium,
Dr. Chandler’s conjectures as to the first point, were somewhat confirmed by washing his hands in the cool water of Castalia, when he was seized with a shivering fit. We drank deep of the spring, but (I can answer for myself) wethout feeling sensible of any extraordmary effect.
Leaving the monastery to return to Crisso, we did not pass a second time through Castri, but took a path a little below the town, when we came, in not more than a hundred yards, toa long piece of ancient wall, built of the same rough stones as the other before-mentioned, and entirely covered with inscriptions, some of which have been copied by the well-known Mr. Wood. The letters are still very visible ; but there are so many breaks in the stones, which are honeycombed with age, that the whole in- scription, had we had time to copy it, would be as difficult to be understood as the meaning of the KI that is the subject of Plu- tarch’s treatise.
LETTER XVilIl. 9440
Near this wall was the shaft of a marble fluted column about three feet in length, lying neglected on the ground, the last we
saw of the few remains of those masterpieces of art, which ren-
dered Delphi the delight, not only of all the Greeks, but of the
other most polished nations of antiquity, and a residence worthy
of the god to whom it was consecrated.
On the whole, you would I think be disappointed with the situa-
tion of this place, which is so hidden in a nook, or a sort of _na-
tural amphitheatre ahont a mile up the mountain, as to afford a
prospect neither of the depth of the precipice below, nor of the
height of the rocks above. You would be very much at a loss
to guess where a town of nearly two miles in circumference could
have been placed, for there are not more than two small spots
of level ground, any where within the circuit of the present re-
mains. You would look in vain for the ‘ woods that wave,” as,
except in the little olive-grove surrounding the monastery, there
is not a single tree on the rocks either above or below. The
laurel has been again transplanted to her native Tempe. If, how- ever, forgetting the poetic raptures you expeeted to feel in the bosom of Parnassus, you should consider only the object which the Greeks must have had in view in offering their wealth, and the richest. productions of art, at this favourite shrine, you would at once allow, that no place.could have been selected better adapted for the security of their united treasures, than the steeps of Castri, which to an open enemy must be pertectly inaccessible. Indeed, though Delphi was often plundered, yet when a serious resistance was made, the Gauls under Brennus, as well as the Persians of Xerxes’ army, were repulsed, and did not dare to advance into the fastnesses of the mountains. The same object
of security induced the Greeks to fix their other maguificent
950 - LETTER XVIII,
temple of Apollo on the island of Delos, which modern travellers have described as one mass of rugged rocks,
Before it was pillaged by the Phocians, Delphi was reported to contain more wealth than all the rest. of Greece pat together, and these sacrilegious invaders carried off gold and silver, amounting to ten thousand talents, equal to 1,937,500 pounds sterling, yet there were so many materials left for the plunder of more power- ful robbers, that neither Sylla, nor Nero, who at once transported five hundred brazen images to. Rome, canid exhaust the sacred treasury. <A very large collection of some of the finest specimens of ancient painting and sculpture, together with the sacred tem- ples themselves, remained to excite the admiration of Pausanias, who must have visited Delphi nearly two hundred years after the oracle had fallen into contempt, for the power of Apollo did not long survive the Grecian confederacy to which it had owed its importance ; and though the Pythia was consulted by Nero, and was once heard to speak in the days of Julian, yet, her re- sponses were disregarded long before the age of Cicero*, and had begun to yield to the Sybilline books, the aruspices, and the ob- servers of omens and astrological signs, brought into repute by the prevalence of the Roman superstition. It was not, we may sup- pose, the sanctity of the place which preserved so many monu- ments of ancient art from the rapacity of the first Latin conque- rors of Greece, but rather an ignorance of their true value in those warriors. I need only allude to the common anecdote of Mum-~ mius, as related by Velleius Paterculus+-. ‘The golden, the silver, and even the brazen ornaments of the temple, were stripped by suc-
* Car isto meda jam oracula Delphis non eduntur, non modo nostra xlate,
sed jam din, ut nihil possit esse contemptius ?—Cic, De Diy. lib. 2. cap. 57, t Hist. lib, i. cap. 13.
|
LETTER XVILIi 95]
cessive plunderers, but the marbles were spared, and the greater part of them may be believed to have been crushed under the falling fragments of the mountain, or sunk into the ground ; for I believe there is not in the collection of any antiquary, a statue or a bust, that can be proved to have once stood in the 'l'emple of Delphi.
One only of the masterpieces which adorned this sacred place’ can be said now to remain. But that is by far the most ancient and the best authenticated Grecian relic at present in existence. ‘The triple-twisted serpentine column of brass, whose three heads supported the tripod dedicated by the Greeks, after the battle of Platea, to Apollo, is still to be seen, though mutilated, in the spot to which it was conveyed from Delphi by Constantine, to adorn the hippodrome of his new capital. 'The column, as much of it as is seen above ground, is now about seven feet in height, and of a proportionate thickness. It is hollow, and the cavity has by the ‘Turks been filled up with stones.
IIR Ie .
Parnassus is not so much a single mountain, as a vast range of hills, which was once the western boundary of Phocis, and the line of separation of the Locri Ozole and the Locri Opuntii and Epicnemidi, and is now the limit between the district of Salona and that of Livadia. ‘The two tops have a sort of poetical exist- ence which one would not be inclined to dispute; but the summits of the crags separated by the chasm of Castalia, must have been those dedicated to Apollo and the Muses, and to Bacchus, as the mountain itself is not notorious for this singularity.
252 LETTER XVIII.
To go from Castri to the tops of Liakura, there is a rocky path, beginning a little to the east of the ruined stadium. For the first hour the ascent leads up.a water-course; there is then a plain to the right, in the direction of the summits of the Casta- lian precipices. ‘These and some other flat spots were cultivated in the twelfth century* by some Jews, who, to the number of two hundred, lived in Crisso, and gave the name of Jerusalem to a village on the mountain. The path continues to ascend a hill covered with pines; then passes through a plain, four or five miles in compass, to the foot of a craggy peak, where there is a strong bubbling spring called Drosomgo, flowing into a lake a quarter of a mile to the south-east. Higher than this no travel- ler has ventured to go; the peak 1s covered with perpetual snows; and Wheler, who went to the spots mentioned, thought the ex- treme summits, called Lycoréa formerly, as high as Mount Cenis. They were anciently reckoned sixty stadia above Delphi, by the nearest path, and that could be ascended on horseback most part of the way, as far, at least, as the great Corycian cave, which evaded the search of the famous English traveller, and has not, that I know of, been ever discovered. ‘The summits of Par- nassus, says Pausanias, are above the clouds, and upon them the Thyades perform their mad orgies to Bacchus and Apollot.
* Voyage of Benjamin of Tudela, translated into French.
+ To this cave the Delphians retreated when the barbarians invaded Phocis, and were so completely concealed, that, as safe as the Corycian Cave, became
afterwards proverbial in Greece; and we sce it so used in the fragment of Cebes.
t Phoc. p. 672, edit. Xylander.
ῳ WAY TT Wry AO ΠΡ ὶ Tne) ΤῊ ΤῸ 1 Τα Uy
εν". eee ae
BETTER “XVIEL. 253 At present, they are the summer retreats of the Albanian rob- bers, who issue thence upon the plains of Thessaly and Autolia, but are seldom known to lay waste the country to the east, now called the district of Livadia. ‘Their fires are seen by the pea- sants in the villages below, and are not extinguished until the snow has whitened the rocks above the ruins of Castri.
The day after our visit to Delphi, we set out from Crisso, in order to proceed towards Livadia.
The road led at first down into the valley, and then through some gardens belonging to the Greeks of Crisso, in a south-east direction, and by the side of the small stream of the Plistus. We continued for an hour in this very narrow valley, with the preci- pices of rocks, under Castri, hanging over our heads, and now appearing very stupendous.
Certainly itis from the valley of the Plistus that the appearance of Parnassus is the most stnking; and the ancient Greek travel- ler, who believed it the favoured mansion of his gods, and the centre of the universe, and from this position saw the rocky sum- mit rising in a blaze of light into the clouds, must have been
agitated by a mingled commotion of piety and fear*.
ey ERS , Y Tw AG pT LON ETP πυρὸς ͵ oN aig Δικόρυφον σέλας, υπὲρ axpwy f / Βακχείων, Διονύσω ” , ν Ὶ ly Owe Ses ὥ καθαμέριο» σάζεις \ 7 Tov πολυκορπον δ᾽ 4 Cw , Οὐ»άνθας ἱεῖσα βότρυν 255 Pat Seay 2 ε΄ “OnE FT VT PH ὁροχοῦτος " \ Q ~ Ουρειῶν TE σκοπίου Vewys καὶ τι Ae Xb τ. λ. Ευριπ'. Dow, Xoo I,
Li
954 LETTER XVIII.
Several caverns are to be seen in the sides of the rock, some of which may be supposed artificial.
Leaving the valley, we began to ascend the side of the moun- tain, in order to get to the village where we were to sleep. Ina little time, we had a view of Castri, to our left, and rather behind us. We crossed the stream of the Plistus, which, in its passage down the hill, turns two large overshot mills. rom the first muil, close to which we passed, the torrent was conveyed down several small precipices in wicker troughs, and then over an aqueduct of two arches, connecting two hillocks. ‘The side of the mountain is here covered with vineyards, and the valley with groves of olive trees.
We continued in a slanting direction, ascending a very rugged steep, till we came to where a path from the northwards, that leads from the summits of the mountain, crosses the road, or ra- ther forms an acute angle with it. By this path Wheler de- scended, after his ineffective search for the Corycian cave. We were now much higher than the position of Castri; the rocks of Mount Cirphis appeared like ἃ plain on a level with us; yet we still ascended, until we arrived, in four hours from Crisso, at Arakova, which is the most considerable town on Liakura. It is built of stone, and contains, perhaps, three hundred and _ fifty houses, of the poorer sort, inhabited by Greeks.
We were here lodged with females, wha were very attentive and obliging, and did not seem so terrified at our Albanians as had been the people of the other villages. ‘They danced at our request, and their performance was succeeded by that of our men in the usual style. ‘The music wasa large drum, which, in our eottage, was louder than thunder, and was beaten without any
LETTER XVIII. 255
regard to time, or the motions of the dancers. A squeaking pipe was also added to the entertainment; it sounded like the most unharmonious bagpipe, and the person who played on it, either from the quantity of wind required for the instrument, or for effect, made the most frightful contortions.
After the dancing, the good folks of the cottage sent for a boy out of the village, who had been to Malta, which place, it was evident from their manner, that they all looked upon as the Ultima Thule. ‘They showed him to us as a sort of wonder, and ap- peared to question him, if we were like the kind of men he had
seen on that island. | On the morning of the 18th of December, we left Arakova,
and kept, for half an hour, in an easterly direction, along the side of the hill, a little on a descent. Looking before us to the south- east, as far as we could see, we beheld what appeared the sea, but which afterwards turned out to be the Theban plains, and the Jake Copais, covered with a white mist. We began to descend, and observing the place we had left, Arakova seemed just under the clouds, amidst the snowy crags of the mountain, which was here and there spotted with dark forests of pine.
We were now ἴῃ. ἃ green valley, where were large flocks of sheep, and goats, but no appearance even of a single hut. ‘The road still answered to the description of that called Schiste, or the Rent, for we were, as it might be, inclosed by Parnassus on our left, and the stone hills of Cirphis on our right hand.
The geographer Meletius talks of some large sepulchral stones, denoting the spot where Laius and his attendant were buried by Damisistratus, King of the Platzans. These, if they are still to be seen, escaped my observation.
1}
256 LETTER XVIEI.
We travelled in this vale, eastward for two hours, and south- ward for another hour, until we came to where three roads meet: one, from the north-east, from Caperna, three hours distance, on the site of Cheronéa and passing by a village still called Thavlea, nearly the modern pronunciation of Daulis; another, from the south, from Livadia; and the third, on which we were travelling, from Castri. Would you not have felt inclined to exclaim, “ Here Laius was killed by O&dipus; here are the three roads, and the
Pid
narrow pass between the triple path:
~ , ὦ i τρεις PERE UC OI bs boule tee νὼ
‘ \ > ~ € ~ *& wore ee KK στενωπὸς ἐν τριπλαῖς ὁδοῖς Ἐς
After this spot, which, wherever the fatal accident happened, the poets certainly had in their eye, the valley widens to the south-westward, and the hills which inclose it to the right become low and flat. We continued, for a short time, by the side of a brook, which flows from the same direction as the path from Caperna and Daulis. We crossed the brock, and struck inte a path to the east, leaving our former road, which we saw stretch- ing over the plain ta the south. In an hour from where we turned off, our guides informed us, that this road arrives at a town called Distomo, which Meletius has placed on the site of Ambryssus, a conjecture confirmed by the observation of travellers -+-.
* Oud. Tue. 1410. + Chandler discovered the name of the city, more properly called Ambros- sus, upon some inscriptions, which are thus given in Meletius. On one stone:
LETTER XVITITI. 257
From Distomo to Asprospitia, so named from some white buildings once standing on the spot, is two hours to the south. Asprospitia 1s on a bay of the gulf of Lepanto, and has been laid down on the position of the ancient Anticyra, though that city may be put rather farther, on a spot now called Sidero Kauchid.
The port is frequented by small corn vessels.
An hour and a half to the eastward of Distomo, two hours from the sea, and four from Livadia, 1s the monastery of St. Luke the Less, a summary of whose pious, unprofitable life, is given in Dr. Chandler’s 'T'ravels. He flourished in the tenth century ; he is called, ‘the glory of Hellas,” and is worshipped on the 7th of February*. I regret that we did not visit the monastery, which
/ 7 ~ 4 Avroxparopa Καίσαρα Μαυρώλιον Κομοδὸν Αντωνξινον Αὐτοκράτορος , > a Ξ ~ ᾽ “ ’ Καίσαρος A. Σεπτιμίς Σεουήρε Περτίνακος Σεβαςῦυ A’paGsxov Α᾽διαβηνικο- παρϑικου, μεγίςου ἀδελφοιν, ἡ Πολις Αἰ μβρωσσέων ᾿επὶ τῆς οἰρχήῆς
, ~ > ΄ af ͵΄ > ἀντέρωτος TOU ὠντέρωτος HOS ἐυτυχεστῶτου τοζηϑου, ον oe οἱ EWMGEANDIY, oe “ρος
Tov ᾽αρχοντος ψ β΄.
On another stone: Avroxparopa Νέρωνα Tpainvov Καισαρὰ Σεβαστὸν Γερμανικὸν, Ἢ Βουλὴ καὶ ὁ Anos Αὐμβρωσσίων.. +.
And on other stones also :
ὡ a? 7, ἔν y > Nanaios Αμβρωσσέων Αἰμφίδαμος Lapumt, Ist, AvouBs, apicadacs oe» r / 7 / ᾽ / πιριᾶον 5, Καλλιςράτα yy Ἀπόλλωνι ,)γνικίας. . 5) E weppedsiroy χᾶιρε.
* Chandler, cap. Ixiii.
LETTER XVIIl1.
was built with the ruins of the ancient town of Stiris*, and con- tains a church, once the pride of Greece, and even now splendid in decay. It was built by the Emperor Romanus, son of Con- stantine Porphyro-genitus.
After quitting the road to Distomo, we again got into a rocky
path, between hills, with some intervals of wild, uneven moor- lands. In this country we continued three hours, when we saw some hedge inclosures, and gardens, on our left; and passing through a lane, over a path, raised, im many places, on stone causeways, we arrived, in another hour, at the end of our day’s journey, at Livadia +.
* Part of an inscription, alluding to a fountain under the town of Stiris, 15 on one of the stones of which the monastery is built :
~ ~ \ ~ Ἂ ᾽ 9 / f Θεῦις, Σεβαςῦις, καὶ τῇ Πόλει, καὶ τὸ ᾿Ἐποίκιον Ξενοχράτης καὶ Ἐ᾿υμαρίδὰς
Aes 3 φῳῷ 2 7 \ XN ~ of ? x ἀνέθηκαν ἔκ τῶν ᾿ἰδίων, καὶ τεὴν rav ὕδατος ἐισα γωγὴν.
The ruins of Stiris are still called Stiri, or Palezo-Stiri.
+ From Cheronéa to Panopza, a town situated in a pass in the mountains (near a village now called Agios Blasios), and protecting Phocis, on this side, from the incursions of the Boeotians, was twenty stadia, or two Roman miles and a half; from Panopza to Daulis, seven stadia*. Amongst the remark- able objects to be seen on this road, was the sand-like clay, out of which man was made by Prometheus; it was in large masses, near a rivulet, perhaps that which we crossed in this day’s route. Also, the grave of nine acres of the: giant Tityus, whose magnitude Pausanias thinks worthy of belief, because Cleon, the Magnesian, avers, that incredulity is the child of ignorance, he himself having scen, at Gades, a man of the sea, five acres in length. From Daulis to the tops of Parnassus, the way was a little longer, but not so diffi- cult as that from Delphi. On the road from Sajona to Zeitoun, on the straits of Thermopyle, is the town of Turco-chorio, or, as it is called by the Turks,
* Pausan, Phoc. p. 614, et seq.
LETTER XVIII. 259
“ Esed,” to the north, half north-north-east, of the summits of Liakura. To the north of Turco-chorio, at a smail village called Leuta, are marks of the ancient Elatia, not far from the confines of Thessaly, whose capture by Philip awakened the Athenians to a sense of their danger. The expedition of the Consul Flaminius into Greece, gives the position of this, as well as of many other of the towas of Phocis, and is accordingly referred to by Pausanias.
At Leuta were seen the following inscriptions :
/ / ld tS , \ ἃ \ , A’vroxpatopa Καίσαρα Μώρκον Αὐρήλιον A’ytwveivov Εὐσεβὴ Σεβαστὸν τὸν Μέγιστον»,
ἡ Βουλὴ καὶ ὃ Δῆμος Ελατέων. On another stone: ἐπὶ Ρώμάιω φίλω Καλλιδώρα, On another : Νέμεια E’gerov, ΑἾδριανία β᾽.
The sites of several of the cities of Phocis are determined by Meletius. Lilza, one hundred and eighty ‘stadia from Delphi, is now called Souvala ; Amphiclea, sixty from Lilea, Dthadthi; Tithronéum, fifteen stadia from Amphiclea, Palea Thevoe, or Velizza; Drymeza, twenty stadia from Tithro« néum, Agia Marina; Abe, twenty stadia from Elatia, Modi; and Hyampolis, is still Hyampali.
LETTER XIX.
Livadia—The Archon Logotheti—Rate of Living in Rowmelia—
Imitation of European Manners—The Cave of Trophonius—
the present Appearance of the Entrance to it—Ruins of a Castle built by the Catalans—The Settlement of the Catalans in Greece—Little Impression left by the Franks on the Manners of the Greeks—Visit to Caperna—Ruins of Cheronéa—the Plain—Departure from Livadia—Visit to Scripoo—the Site of Orchomenos—the Treasury of Minyas—The Lake Copais— The Village of Mazee—Arrival at Thebes—View of the The- ban Territory— Difficulties attending a just Description of Modern Greece—The Measurement of Stadia—Diminutive-
ness of the Country.
LIVADIA is on the site of the aneient Lebadéa, the Midéa of Homer, a town of considerable note in Beeotia, built on the side of a hill, which was between Mount Helicon and the territory of Cheronéa.
The modern town, which is written by the modern Greeks, Lebadéa (AsPadsia), is on a declivity, and it requires some climb- ing to reach the upper part of it. It contains fifteen hundred houses, of stone, many of them very good ones: one hundred
LETTER XIX. 961
only of the families are Mahometans. Yet there are six moscks
in the place, as well as six Greek churches.
Livadia has given its name to great part of the country, which is sometimes called Greece Proper, and was the Achaia of the Romans. It is a place of considerable trade, and the residence of several wealthy Greeks. ‘I'he house at which we were lodged belonged to one of the richest subjects in Roumelia, and was spacious, and handsomely furnished.
The name of this gentleman was Logotheti, though, more properly speaking, that is only a title, which, from having desig- nated the receivers of the finances of the Greek empire, is now applied to those who are appointed managers of the revenues of the church. He was also one of the rulers of his own nation, or a magistrate, who is dignified with the appellation of Archon, one of the vain names which still adhere to the modern Greeks, and serve to remind us of those to whom they were once attached. The peculiar distinction of an Archon 15 a high fur cap, some- thing in the shape of a mitre, and yellow boots or shoes, which, as well as some other of the favoured rayahs, he is by the Turks permitted to wear, instead of the dark purple and brown*.
The Archon Logotheti had a numerous retinue of servants, two or three secretaries, several priests who officiated as domestic chaplains, and a family physician, making in all an establishment of fifty persons. Yet he himself assured me, that the whole annual expence of his household did not amount to more than twenty thousand piasters, about eleven hundred and forty-two pounds sterlmg. ‘This will afford some means of making a com-
parison between the rate of living in the Levant, and our own.
* See page 54m Mm
262 LETTER XX.
Our host told me, that he had sent cargoes of cotton and oil to London, and was surprised to see the accounts returned to him; ‘* which,” said he, ‘‘ being made up in English pounds, made my bargains look very insignificant indeed.” The Archon was oppressively polite, and fell into an error for which he may well be forgiven; he would show us that he was ac- quainted with the manners of civilized Europe, and accord- ingly he brought his wife and family from their seclusion to introduce them to us; nay, he would have her and the little family dine with us, a ceremony which we could well have ex- cused, as the Archontissa had made but little progress under the tuition of her husband, and, being evidently doing what she was not accustomed to, filled us with terror and confusion. De Tott has not exaggerated, when he says, that, in the Levant, a lady, to imitate European customs, takes up an olive in her fingers, and afterwards sticks it on a fork.
At Livadia we remained the greater part of three days, and took the opportunity of seeing the only curiosity in the town which travellers are directed to notice; this is the entrance of the cave of 'Trophonius.
Behind the town, in a chasm of the mountain shaded with groves of trees, there is a small stream, which falling over the rocks, forms a pretty cascade, and flows, a little to the east into the plain below. A short way from the inner recess of the chasm, and a few yards above the river, on the right (west) there is an artificial hollow in the rock. ‘The cave at the entrance is a semi- circular arch, much resembling the mouth of an oven, and pre- serves the same form throughout its whole depth, being regularly excavated out of the rock, and having a surface not on the descent but horizontal. It is high enough to admit a person walking up-
LETTER XIX. 263
right, and the depth of it may be a little more than twelve feet, that ascribed to it by Pausanias, whose minute description an-
swers most exactly to the present appearance of the place*.
But this cave was only the entrance by which those who went to consult the oracle of Trophonius approached to the interior cavity. The hole, through which the descent was by a ladder,
was just big enough to admit a man’s body, but after sliding a short distance, the consultant was hurried downwards, with his knees to his chin, and as if drawn intoa whirlpool of waters; so that it is evident, that in order to practise their mysterious jug- gling, the priests must have excavated much of the inner part of the hill. But these interior caverns, if they still remain, have now no entrance to them, except a very small hole, which there is to the left of the arch, may be supposed, as the Greeks affirm it does, to lead into them. ‘The inside of the cave has been black- ened by the smoke of the fires, kindled there by the women who wash in the river below.
This river was anciently called the Hercyna, and of its two springs, which were, as they are now, in the chasm of the moun- tain at no great distance from the cave, one was named the foun-
* In the chasm on the banks of the Hercyna at the back of Lebadea, was a sacred grove, in which was the temple of Trophonius, or the Trophonian Jove ; and achapel of Ceres. An unfinished temple of Proserpine the Huntress, and Jupiter, was on the hill, anda temple of Apollo. The oracle was above the grove. At the entrance of the cave was a circular step of white stone, less than two cubits high : on this step, whose surface was a vestibule to the cave, were two brazen obelisks, between which was the mouth of the cave, like an oven, four cubits wide, eight cubits deep. It was the work of Dedalus. The statue of 'Trophonius, personifying Avsculapius, was by Praxiteles.—Pausa. Beeotic. 602, 603.
Mm 2
964 LETTER XIX.
tain of Oblivion, and the other that of Memory. For Lethe, though a river in the infernal regions, was, above ground, only a spring: nevertheless modern poets have talked of it as a stream.
It was one of the obligations of those who visited the cavern of 'Trophonius, to write down every thing they had seen or heard; but as this duty is not still in force, one would not feel much inclined to give a detail of its present appearance, which, though in form and symmetry, much the same as it must have been in the second century, would not call from a medern such encomiums as have been bestowed upon it by Pausanias*. The skill and harmony, with which, to the last degree of ingenuity, it was constructed, would not save it from total neglect, were it not for the former repute of the unerring oracle, the last which was heard to utter the decrees of fate.
On the top of the roek, above the cave, is a ruin that more forcibly reminds one of the latter miseries and degradation of Greece. ‘This is an old castle, part of which still serves the Turks for a fortress, and which was built by the Catalans.
These barbarians, called by the Greeks Amogavares, first en- tered into the service of the emperors of Constantinople, and Roger de Flor, who commanded a great body of them in 1303, was made Duke of Romania by Andronicus the elder, and after- wards created Cesar. But they were not willing to be dismissed from the armies and pay of the Greeks, and seized Gallipoli, by which they made themselves masters of the Hellespont. ‘They then marched through Thrace and Macedonia, encamped for a year on the plains of ‘Thessaly, then passed the straits of Ther-
* Boot. page 603.
LETTER XIX. 265
mopyle, and established themselves in Greece ; of which they continued in possession for the remainder of the fourteenth cen- tury; when they were first partially dispersed by the Florentine Acciacoli, and afterwards totally expelled by the armies of Ma- homet the Great. ‘The Sultan Bajazet the First, had before been more lenient ; he suffered the widow of a Spanish chief, who was mistress of the recesses of Delphi, to retain her possessions, but he accepted of her daughter as a reward for his generosity.
‘The independent chieftains, Irench and Italians, as well as the Spaniards, who ruled in Greece during the interval between the Latin and the Turkish conquests of Constantinople, filled the country with their strong holds, of which several vestiges yet re- main, though not entire, as at Livadia. Walter de Brienne, Duke of Athens and 'Thebes, is said to have himself had thirty castles, all of which, together with his dukedom, he lost in a great battle fought on the banks of the Beeotian Cephissus against the main body of the Catalans *.
These ruims are the only traces left in Greece of her Latin conquerors, who, though in possession of the country during two hundred and fifty years, failed to make the least impression upon the manners and customs, much less upon the disposition and prejudices, of their subjects.
There is nothing of the frank discernible in the Greeks of
Roumelia: notwithstanding their long connexion with the barba- rians of the west, they retain inviolated those habits of living, and the manners which we are accustomed to call Oriental, and which they did not learn from the ‘Turks, but had derived, as.
* Knollos says, the Asopus.
266 LETTER XIX.
might easily be proved, from the immemorial usages of their re- motest ancestors. But of this elsewhere.
From Livadia we rode to a village called Caperna, near the site of Cheronéa.
Cheronéa has been said by Strabo to be near Orchomenos, and Pausanias calls it in the neighbourhood of Lebadéa, which has made some persons suppose it to have been in the way from the last-mentioned place to Thebes; but it is directly out of the road to the north, and at no inconsiderable distance, according to Grecian measurements, from each of the two cities.
From Livadia it may be about eight of our miles. The coun- try through which the road passes, is neither hilly nor yet a plain, but wild and rugged, and for the most part covered with brown heath and low brushwood. Soon after the first view of the large open country, the road turns to the left, and brings the traveller first to the mud village of Caperna, of about thirty houses, in the hollow of a hill, and then to the site of Chzronéa itself.
This town appears to have been situated under and upon a rocky hill once called Petrarchus, near the north-east foot of Parnassus. The sole remains at present visible are some large stones, six feet in length, in the ruins of a wall on the hill, and part of the shaft of a column, with its capital; the seats of a small amphitheatre, cut out of the rock, on the side of the same hill; in the flat below, a fountain, partly constructed of marble fragments, containing a few letters not decypherable; some bits of marble pillars just appearing above ground, and the ruins of a building of Roman brick. Meletius has copied some inscrip- tions, to be seen in his time in two churches, which are not at
LETTER XIX. 267
present to be found*. Pausanias speaks of two trophies erected by Sylla, and of a large lion of marble, placed over the tomb of the Thebans who were slain in the battle against Philip. I ob- served nothing like what might be taken for an artificial tumulus
near the place. Immediately before the hill Petrarchus, to the north, is the
fatal plain, which, commencing three or four miles beyond Ca- perna, from the roots of Parnassus, runs from west to east, to the village of Scripoo, near the site of Orchomenos, about seven
miles distant, whence it spreads into a wider plain, more to the south. Opposite to Caperna, it is about two miles in breadth, ἃ dead flat, with not a tree to be seen upon it, and being of so great an extent, forms a striking contrast for the traveller who has just emerged from the mountains of Phocis. No spot in the world can be better calculated for deciding the quarrels of nations There does not appear to be even a mole-hill to impede the ma- neeuvres of hostile armies, and there is space sufficient for a slaughter ten times more considerable than that of the myriads who fell before the Macedonian and the Roman conquerors.
The northern side of the plain is bounded by a chain of low hills, interrupted by two or three vallies. ‘They seem to belong to the mountains called Acontius, which stretched from Orcho- menos sixty stadia to Paropotamu, a village five miles from Che- ronéa, in the vicinity of Phanote, and five stadia from the river Cephissus}-, on a little hill, commanding the pass from Beeotia.
* For these, see Appendix.
+ The Cephissus flowed from the town of Lilwa, under Mount Aéta, in Phocis, one winter day’s journey, or one hundred and eighty stadia, from Del- phi; from Lila to Amphiclea, fifty stadia; thence to Tithronum, on a plain,
668 LETVER ΧΙΧ.
into Phocis. On the other side of these hills, is the valley watered by the Cephissus; a branch of which, a small stream, divides the plain of Cheronéa*.
The day after our visit to the poor remains of the birth-place of Plutarch, we left Livadia, and set off for Thebes, or, as it is pronounced by the modern Greeks, who have mostly rejected the old plural terminations in the names of places, ‘Theva (Θήβα). We sent our baggage by the straight road, but proceeded ourselves to Scripoo, which took us considerably out of our w ay.
From Livadia to Scripoo, between seven and eight miles, the road is north-east-by-north, over a flat, for the first hour close to low hills on the left, and for the last hour over part of the Chz- ronéan plain. Before the town itself, which is a very poor one, inhabited by Greeks, there is a river of no great size, over which there is a stone bridge. It has no name at present ; indeed there are very few streams that have any known to the country people,
fificen stadia; to Drymea, twenty stadia; Elatia, or Elatéa, one hundred and eighty stadia, opposite Amphiclea. As far as Elatia, the course is from north to south-east, thence more easterly. Strabo adds, that from this place it flows near Paropotamii and Phanote, by Chzronéa, through the country of Orcho- menos and Coronéa, into the lake Copais; but this cannot be reconciled with present appearances, if the conjectures of all travellers be at all well founded. Coronéa must have been much more to the south than the course of the Cephis- sus. All the maps of Boeotia appear to be incorrect; Thebes is placed too much to the south, and Orchomenos too near the lake Copais.
* A small stream, formerly called Boagrius, but now Gavrids, rises also near Lilza (Sonvala), and receiving the Cephissus, now the Mavroneri, flows on to the lake Topolias, formerly Copais. The Gavrias, the name of the united streams, is offen quite dry, and at other times overflows the plains. —Extracted from Meletius.
LETTER XIX. 269
and one is frequently provoked by having the same answer to all questions of, What do you call that water? “ The river,” (τὸ ora), and by repeating the query, one has the same reply, ἐς It is called the river.”. A Greek of Livadia said he had heard it was named Mavro-Potam, the Black River, which looks as if , it were the stream of the Melas, “ seven stadia from Orchomenos, between that town and Aspledon, in the lands called Eudeeilos.” I did not see enough of the country to decide whether it was the Cephissus itself.
Behind Scripoo are craggy hills, on one of which, about a mile off, is an old tower, one of the Latin ruins. There is a certain persuasion in the country, that the town stands upon the site of Orchomenos, which, though its inhabitants lived originally more to the south-east in the plain, was_ finally obliged to retire before the continual encroachments of the lake Copais, and settle at the foot of the hill Acontius. Our host at Livadia, who is the owner of the lands in the vicinity, gave us a letter to Scripoo, addressed, “ To the People of the Signor Logotheti, in Orcomenos.” ‘There are, however, no remains at Scripoo decisive of the site of the ancient city. All we were taken to see, by a monk of the place, was a church, at alittle distance to the east of the town. In the walls of this church are some pieces of carved marble, on one of which is a sepulchral inscription:
ΑΘΕΝΟΔΩΡΟΣ
Θ. Φ APIZTEA XAIPE
An inscription, in very large letters, is seen on some stones which run round the whole of the back part of the building, or Nn
LETTER XIX.
the semicircle of the sanctuary, at about a foot and a half from the ground. It was:so hidden by rubbish, which we could not remove, that only parts of it could be read. It seemed to record agrant of one of the Cesars, I think Adrian, if I recollect right ;
10 doubt, however, it has frequently been copied.
Lying on the ground, near the church’ door, is a marble nearly
eight feet long, nine inches: wide, and:three in thickness, inseribed in very legible characters, with alist of the victors:in the games given at Orchomenos in honour of the Graces, and! called Chari- tesia*. ‘This inscription is given in. Meletius’ Geography, as: well as that of a similar stone;.formerly lymg near the other, but tran- sported into England,. I believe,. though: into: whose collection: I know not. ‘The stone is in two pieces;. but it would be-very. diffi- cult to remove it, as no» horse would: well: bear: the weight of either part, and as there is no other conveyance in the country-/.
Between the church and'the village, there are two very large flat stones, forming the entrance of a hole in-the side of a:hillock, that has been filled up with earth. We were directed) to consider these as the remains:of the very ancient building called. by Pau- sanias the 'l'reasury of Minyas, King of the country,.and grand- son of Neptune; one ofthe wonders-of Greece. It was arched, and the top was formed by a single stone, artfully adapted to the lateral walls, and shaped so as to be a kind of dome in minia- ture.
There is nothing else remarkable at.the modern Orchomenos, except a living curiosity, which 15 seen by most visitants. ‘This is a shepherd, named Demetrius, the fattest man I ever saw, who,
* This inscription will be noticed in the Appendix.
+ Yet, since writing the above, I learn that it has been carried away by an English traveller.
LETTER XIX. 271
in the summer, passes the hottest hours of the day up to the neck in the neighbouring river. This practice, not only does not injure him, but has become by habit so necessary to him, that he de- clares he should not, without it, be able to support the rage of the summer sun.
To the north and north-west of Scripoo, are low hills; to the west, the plain which stretches to Caperna; to the south-west, south, and south-east, an uninterrupted flat, partly a green plain, and partly divided into corn and cotton grounds, and vineyards. ‘I'o the east and north-east, three or four miles distant, is the lake once called Copais, from the town of Cope, on its northern extre- mity, and now, the lake of Livadia, or, according to some maps, lake Topolias.
In passing from Scripoo, to join our baggage, over the plains to the south for six or seven miles, we were very near being swamped in the bogs formed by the inundatiens of the lake branch- ing out into wide ditches and fens over the flat grounds. ‘T’hese inundations are ascribed by Pausanias to the violence of the south winds prevalent during the winter season. “In summer, the Greeks told us, the lake itself is nearly dry. We could just dis- cern it, at a distance to the east, though with some difficulty, as the whole of the country was teeming, and was half hidden in a thick mist, the ancient characteristic of Beotia.
After crossing the Orchomenian plain, we got into the direct road from Livadia to Thebes, and turned to the left, (east by south): low hills were on.our right; on one of them was a ruimed tower. We passed over a rivulet, flowing round the foot of a
little rocky knoll.
We did not overtake our servants and baggage until after night-
fall, when we found them rambling in the low hills to the right of
Nn ὦ
LETTER XIX.
nS
27
the road. They had lost their way, and were firing guns by way of signal, which were answered by the Albanian in our company, and soon brought us together.
We arrived after dark at a very poor village in the hills, called Mazce, belonging to the Archon Logotheti, and inhabited, as are most of the smaller places in this district, by Albanian pea- sants, of the class already noticed.
Mazee is reckoned four hours distance from Livadia, in a direction a little to the southward of east. It contains fifty huts, which hold much more than the usual proportion of inhabitants, about five hundred. Most of those whom we saw were females; they told us that the males were scarce in that part of the country, and that, therefore, contrary to common custom, no woman could get married without bringing about a thousand piasters to her husband.—Accordingly, several of those whom we saw, in com- pliance with a fashion, before noticed, were collecting their por- tion on their hair; and the tresses of a pretty young girl amongst them hung down nearly to her feet, entirely strung with paras from top to bottom. Yet, though in a starving condition, and passing, as they assured us with tears in their eyes, whole days without food, neither the mothers nor the daughters will strip off any of the ornamental com which has been once assigned for the portion-money, so much does their hope of a future good over- come their feelings of a present suffering.
On Friday, December 22d, after travelling four hours to the east from Mazee, we arrived at Thebes, whose cypresses and moscks, rising from between the hillocks on which the town is built, are visible from alow hill over which the road passes three hours before it enters the place. With the exception of this hill, the whole road from Livadia to Thebes is over flat plains,
LETTER XIX. 2738
for we need not have digressed into the hills to the right, had we not been obliged to find out some village in which to pass. the night.
A person standing on a small hill, which is a few paces to the south of the modern city of Thebes, has the following view of the surrounding country:—From immediately beyond the town, to the east, the ground rises into bare, rugged inequalities, not high enough to be called hills, beyond which there is a plain, well cul- tivated, called the plain of Scimitari, (anciently that of ‘Tanagra), bounded by the strait of the Negroponte to the east, and to the south by the Attic mountains, now named Ozea, and a ridge of mount Elatias, or Citheron. ‘To the south, the ground rises by a gentle ascent, and then falls nto another large plain, bounded by Citheron, and stretching to the south-west. ‘Through this plain, as well as through that of Scimitari, runs a river, now without a name, but formerly the Asopus; the ruins of Platea are to be seen about six miles to the south-west of ‘Thebes, near a village called Coch. ‘To the west, is the flat plain of Thebes ; and far off, beyond Livadia to the south-west, is seen the mountain Zagari, the modern name of Helicon. ‘l’o the north-west the Theban plain is separated from the flats overflowed by the lake, by a stony hill, not very high, at seven or eight miles from the town. In this direction the view is terminated by the snowy summits of Parnassus. ΤῸ the north, and to the north-east, in which direc- tion there is a road to the town of the Negroponte, there is an uneven plain *, washed by a river that flows not tar trom Thebes.
* These should be the amfractus viarum vallesque interject, which con-
cealed the approach of the two thousand Roman Hastati until they came close to Thebes, and surprised thecity. Yet Flaminius had comé from Phocis, and in
Φ74, LETTER ΚΊΧ.
This is terminated by mountains, once called Ptoiis and Messa- pius. ‘The eastern extremity of the latter 1s bounded by the strait to the north of Euripus.
In the description of ancient Greece, every name of every brook, grove, and hillock, served to preserve the memory of her demigods and heroes, to whom her sons, as they believed, were indebted for their origin and their fame; thus Strabo and Pau- sanias, more especially, have presented us with works, no less his- torical, than geographical. It may, besides, be observed, that the diminutiveness of the country, which might seem to lessen its im- portance, is well concealed by their measurements; for the dis- tances which would appear nothing when reduced to our miles, sound very considerable when reckoned by stadia*. On the other hand, a person delineating the topography of modern Greece, is obliged to put down the ill-spelt names of miserable villages, badly measured, and insignificant distances, and mountains, plains, and rivers, without any name by which to distinguish them from each other; so without a map the greatest accuracy and minute-
that direction the plain of Thebes is an uninterrupted level; nor is there to the north any such uneven ground within two miles of the modern town.—See Liv. lib. xxxiii. cap. 1.
* The stadium of 125 Roman paces, commonly in use, contains 604 of our feet, besides some inches and a fraction, say 604 feet. There are 5280 fect ina mile, which is five less than 604 Χ 832, so that to reduce the measurement by stadia to about our miles, we should divide by eight and three quarters. When in the course of these Letters, the word mile is made use of, an English mile is meant. I recollect being much struck with the perseverance of that student who was said to walk forty stadia and back every day, for the purpose of hear-
ing a philosophical lecture—it did not enter into my head, that this was only nine miles and a little more than a furlong.
LETTER XIX. 975
ness in the account of the traveller is likely to cause a confusion in the head of the reader, who may after smile, at hearing so much about such trifling journies*.
A man might very easily, at a moderate pace, ride from Livadia to Thebes and back again between breakfast and dinner, particu- larly as he would not have a single object to’ detain him by the way ; and the tour of all Beeotia might certainly be made in two days without baggage. The diminutiveness of these classical countries will appear more striking, when we come into the vici- nity of Athens.
Becotia is singularly destitute of any marked remains of anti- quity, consequently the modern traveller has but little to assist his conjectures. A short extract, however, from ancient geo- graphers, may be of some little service, and shall be subjoined to
my next Letter. * And even in the case of a traveller adding a map to his book, some mis-
takes may arise. Mr: Barbié du Bocageé says, that he cannot reconcile Whe- let’s'chatts of Phocis and Bootia with the journal of that author.
LETTER XxX.
Thebes—its Modern Insignificance—The Town—The Fountain ~Dirce—The Ruins of Pindar’s House—The Ismenus—The Fountain of Mars—Tomb of St. Luke of Stiris—An Inscrip- tion—Departure from Thebes—Route towards Athens—The Village Scourta—Passage of Mount Parnes—Ruins of Phyle— Prospect of Athens—Town of Casha—Entrance tnto the Plain of Athens—Arrival at Athens.
THEBES has been, in a manner, blotted out of the page of history since the last battle of Charonéa between Sylla and 'Taxilus. In the time of Strabo it had the appearance of a village, which was the case with all the other Beeotian cities, ex- cept Tanagra and 'Thespiz. Onchestus, Haliartus, Coronea, and other towns, once of considerable magnitude, were almost in ruins, and hastening fast to decay. In the second century, the whole of the lower town, except the temples of ‘Thebes, had fallen to the ground, and the citadel alone, no longer called Cad- méa but ‘Thebes, now continued to be inhabited. It never appears to have recovered its importance under the Emperors, though it must have been of some size; for, in the year 1173, it contained two thousand of the Jewish nation only, who were the
best workers in silk and purple of any in Greece, and had amongst
LETTER xx. ore
them some of the most learned rabbins of the age*. At the Latin conquest, being, as well as Athens and Argos, totally incapable of making the least resistance, it was attached to the territory of Attica, and ruled by a follower of Boniface, Marquis of Mont- serrat, one Otho de la Roche, a Burgundian, who had the title of Duke of Athens, and Grand Signor, or Sieur of Thebes. But it was for a short time separated from the other state by the will of the Florentine Acciajuoli, who gave his Athenian dukedom to the Venetians, but left Thebes to his illegitimate son Francus. This
prince, by the expulsion of the Venetians, soon reunited the prin- cipalities, and they continued in the same hands until the final establishment of the ‘Turks in Greece, when the liberties of Thebes, if she might then be called free, had the fortune to survive, fora short time, those of her ancient rival; for the last of the Acciajuoli
* Voyage du Benjamin, fils de Jonas, p. 9, --«-«ἰ-...
The following Note contains a short summary of the topography of part of Beeotia, collected from ancient geographers and modern travellers, independent of the remarks of Meletius, which are given by themselves, as they do not coin- cide with the observation made by the actual surveys of Wheler, Chandler, and other writers.
Tanagra was fifty stadia from the strait of Fuboea, under a hill called Cerycius; mention will be made of it elsewhere. Thespiz was situated under Helicon; forty stadia higher up was Ascra, the birth-place of Hesiod ; on Hes licon was the grove of the Muses, whose statues, as well as those of the early Greek poets, were removed thence by Constantine the Great ; on the left hand of this was the fountain Aganippe; Hippocrene was twenty stadia farther up the mountain. In the confines of the Thespian territory, was the Village Hedonacum, and the fountain in which Narcissus gazed. The sea-port of Thespiz was Creusa, now called the port of St. Basilio; the town of St. Ba- silio itself is near the site of Thespiz, about an hour from the sea. Travelling from this place to Thebes, Sir George Wheler saw ruins called, as usual,
00
278
was suffered to remain Lord of Beeotia, after he had lost Athens, but was carried off mm the same year, 1455, by the command of Mahomet the Great. Since that period, though occasionally ha- rassed by the incursions of the Franks for some time in _posses- sion of Eubcea, the Theban territory has remained in subjection to the Sultan, who governs it by an Aga, called by the Greeks a Waiwode: it is, however, considered as attached to the pashalik of the Negroponte.
Thebes is a very poor town, containing about five hundred houses, mostly of wood, and inhabited chiefly by ‘Turks. It has two moscks and four churches... We slept two nights in the town, and were lodged in the house of a Greek bishop. There is nothing worthy of notice in this place; though a public clock, certainly without a rival in this part of Turkey, is considered by
Palzo-castro, and supposed by Chandler to be Haliartus. Beyond the har- bour of St. Basilio is that of Livadostro, to the east, which gives the name to the deep recess formed by the promontory once called Olmiw. Near Livados- tro, at a spot called Castri, are the ruins of Thisbe, a town eighty stadia from Bulis, on the confines of Phocis and Bocotia. To the westward of Livadostro, a high rock juts into the sea, beyond which is the harbour and town of Cacos, once Typha: near this are the roots of Helicon, or Zagari. Four miles to the west of Castri, and five or six from Cacos, Wheler found ruins, which Chandler supposes to be on the site of Coronéa.
The cities in the neighbourhood of the lake Copais, or Cephissus, were Acrephia, Phoenicis or Medeon, Onchestus, Haliartus, Ocalea, Alalcomenz, Tilphosium, and Coronéa.—Acrxphia, or Acreephium, was behind the moune iain Ptoiis, which was at the back (north-east) of the field called Tenericus, and the lake Copais: Onchestus was on a hill towards the territory of Hali- artus, the Campus Tenericus, and the lake, fifteen stadia from the mountain called Sphinx : it was the seat of the Amphictyonic assembly. Near it was
LETTER ἀκ. 279
the pedple of the place, and pointed out to travellers, as a great curiosity. ‘Uhe bishop directed us to visit the fountain of Dirce, and the ruins of Pindar’s house, dnd ani old Greek church. I ace cordingly walked about a quarter of a mile to the south-east of the town, keeping by the side of a ravin, through whichruns a very small stream, which Wheler calls the Ismenus. Coming toa chasm in an eminence from which the stream flowed, I there found a fountain, which has been dammed up so as to make it twenty feet in length, ten in breadth, and five deep in the middle, where there is the shaft, about a foot high, of a small marble pillar. The water was tepid, as I found by bathing mit. To the left of the fountain, in a sort of quarry, were fragments of some building buried in the earth, and these, say the Greeks of Thebes, are the remains of Pindar’s house. Some traveller, I presume, has told them this,
a town called Medeor, on the hill Phoenicius, and one hundred and forty stadia from a place of the same name on the Crisswan gulf. Haliartus was on a narrow spot, between the mountain and the lake Copais, near the rivers Permessus and Olmieus, flowing from Helicon, and a reedy lake. At Hali- artus was the tomb of Lysander; fifty stadia (north-east) of Haliartus was Mount Tilphosium ; Ocalea was thirty stadia from Haliartus—the small river Lophis flowed through its territory ; Alalcomenz was thirty stadia from Ocalea, near or upon Mount Tilphosium ; Coronéa was situated on a high spot near Helicon, not far from Lebadéa, forty stadia from Mount Libethrius, and twenty stadia from Mount Laphystium, from which ran the river Phalarus into the Co- pais. It seems that the hills, in which is the village of Mazee, must be part of Mount Libethrius; and that somewhere on the right hand of the road from Livadia to that place, one might look for the site of Coronéa: Haliartus may have been on the left in the plain farther on than Mazee. The low hill, three hours from Thebes, appears in the position of the mountain of the Sphinx ; and ona rocky eminence, at no great distance from the west, one might expect to see some vestiges of Onchestus, The plain at the foot of this hill, to the
002
280 LETTER XxX.
on the authority of Pausanias, who says, -that ‘ after passing the river called Dirce, are the ruins of Pindar’s house;”’ but the wate: of Dirce was more to the west, near the gates Neitis and Electris, and if the stream in the ravin be the ismenus, which it must in- deed appear to be, the fountain would be that which the above author mentions to have been sacred to Mars. A considerable hillock to the right, just beyond the suburbs of the town, seems to strengthen the conjecture, and to correspond to that which was to the right of the gate Homolis, opposite the Ismenus, and dedi- cated to the Ismenian Apollo. :
‘The stream of the river has been much diminished, by the means taken to make part of its waters flow in an artificial channel, for the sake of turning an overshot-mill about a hundred paces below the fountain. We stepped across it with ease, and, had
south, now part of the great plain of Thebes, may have been the Campus Te- nericus, or portion of Tencrus, where was a large temple of Hercules Hippo- dotus ; to the left (south) of this must have been the site of the grove of the Cabirian Ceres and the Cabirt, twenty-five stadia from the gaie of Thebes, called Neitis, by the way which led perbaps a litle to the southward of west : fifty stadia to the left (south-west) of the Cabirian grove was Thespia ; at the gate Neitis was the tomb of Menzceus, where the battle between Polynices and Eteocles was fought, in the part of the city called Syrma Antigones. The gate that led towards Platza was called Electris; it must have been, therefore, next on that side to the gate Neitis, and looking about to south-west by south ; between the position of these two gatcs there is a high hillock. One may also pretty well ascertain the position of the gate Pretis; for the road to it led to Chalcis, that is about to the north-east. This would be the quarter for the an- tiquarian to commence his researches; for here was the theatre, the temple of Bacchus, the tombs of Zethus and Amphion, the stadium, and (to the right of the stadium) the hippodrome, in which was the tomb of Pindar. On the whole of the road to Chalcis there were monuments, temples, and the remains of ancient.
LETTER: xx. 981
we walked through it, should not have been wet above the ancles.
Returning from the fountain, I was conducted to the remains of a Greek church, on an eminence not far from the left bank of the rivulet, and a little distance from the suburbs of the town. This church was in a very dilapidated state; it had no door, and the roof was in parts uncovered, yet it contained a treasure, to which I should be almost afraid that the Greeks of ‘Thebes cannot well substantiate their claim. ‘This was a stone sarcophagus of considerable dimensions, not under ground, but in the nave of the church, covered with a massy slab of marble, and supposed to
contain the precious remains of St. Luke, the Saint of Stiris.
cities. In this line, the sepulchre of Menalippus; the three large stones denoting the grave of Tydeus; the sepulchres of the sons of Giidipus; theiice, fifteen stadia, the tomb of Tiresias ; seven stadia to the left of a village called Teu- messus, the ruins of Glissas, under a mount (Hypaton), and near the river Thermodon ; the ruins of Harmatos and Mycalessus were also visible from the road; the plain under Mount Hypaton was called the Ionian, and belonged to
the Thebans.
All the aid which Meletius affords towards understanding the comparative topography of Beeotia is, that Mount Cythzron is now called Elatias; Mount Helicon, Likona or Palaoyoona; Thespiz, which once had a bishop, Kakosi, forty miles to the south of Thebes, where there are some massy ruins of ancient walis, and the following inscriptions :
2. oy Δακικὸν Παρϑικὸν Υὔπατον τὸ Β : M’ Οὔλπιος Βράχας ΕἾ πιφανιανὸς φιλοκᾶισαρ, καὶ δι. Tiot avrov of / af r Z, ς 7 ᾽ , Ovamsos Δημοσθένης, Ovaries Κράτων, καὶ as Suyarépes Οὐλπία Εὐπορία; > 4, / ~ 4 O'vAmia Βροχίλλα; ‘ex τῶν ᾿ἐΙδίων. os aeees
{)n another stone ; Λαδάμιας.
982 LETTER xx. ;
Yet though the principal bones of the glory of Hellas were care- fully preserved on the spot which had been the scene of his sanc- tity and mortification, all his relics were not confined to one tomb. The monastery of St. Liaura, on Mount Athos, possessed a portion of St. Luke; and the same biessing may, perhaps, have beer granted to the more neighbouring sanctuary at Thebes.
Whatever may be the justice of its pretensions, the holy coffin is regarded with great reverence. In a hole which has been scooped out under the projecting cornice of the slab, there is a lamp, which itis the duty of a monk to keep perpetually burning, but which was not lighted when I saw it. ‘The powder from the marble is considered to possess potent medicinal qualities, espe- cially in affections of the eyes; and our Albanian Vasilly, after crossing himself most devoutly, scraped off a quantity of it into his tobacco-box.
There is a large marble pillar, without either base or capital,
Creusa, the port of Thespie, Saranti—Thisbe, Gianiki—Sipha, Livados- tro—Coronéa, the seat of a Bishop under the Archbishop of Athens; Kamari,
on a hill, with a very few remains, except some inscribed stones to be seen in ἃ couple of Greek churches near the spot. On one:
Πόπλιον Αἴλιον Α᾽ δριανὸν ἡ Βουλὴ καὶ ὁ Anos.
On another: Θεὸν Δ'᾽ δριανὸν ἡ Βουλὴ καὶ ὁ Δήμος tminaAoumevyys—and very many with the χαῖρε.
Alalcomene, between Coronéa and Haliartus, is now Emenz—Haliartus, Pas Ixopanagia or Tridoueni—Platza, CoclimEleuthere, Petroyeraki—Scolus, be- tween Cocli and Thebes—Oropus, Oropo—Delium, Delis—Aulis, Carababa— Anthedon ; under Mount Messapius, Lukisi—Larymne, Larnes (here are some purgative springs, which the people of the country drink twice a year, in May and August, and are sometimes cured, sometimes killed, says Meletius)—Ala,
LETTER ~ XX. 983
wedged into the wall of the church; and another ruined edifice of the same kind, a little distance from the church of St. Luke, con- tains some pieces of carved marble, parts of pillars, broken capi- tals, and piain stones, inscribed in characters not intelligible, except, perhaps, they could be taken down from their present position. Part of an inscription I read was Latin, and of 8 modern date.
The Greeks have done a service to antiquarians, by heaping up into the composition of their churches all portable remains, not however so much, it must be owned, from a knowledge of their value, as from a preference of the materials, and the size of the marbles of which they are generally composed.
Our Greek bishop showed mea flat piece of marble in his Ρ Ρ
dividing Beeotia and Locris ; Hagios Joannes ho Theologos, under the village of Mallesine. This is in a district called Talandios ; and in a church dedi- cated to St. George, is an inscription (given in the Appendix), pointing out that the spot was anciently the sacred portion of Asclepius. Potnix; some ruins a little more thana mile from Thebes, on the road towards the Negro- ponte—-Teumessus; ruins farther on in the same line—Glisas; ruins on a hill about a mile beyond Teumessus—Tanagra, Tenagra—The river Lophis is that which flows to Kanavari, near Thebes—The Melas, the Mavropotamo, near Scri- poo. The modern geographer here, as well asin other places, appears to have given some scope to conjecture in this survey, and in the course of his detail now and then contradicts himself, for example, Petroyeraki is here said to be on
the site of Eleuthera ; in tracing the Megaris, it is made (and properly) to be (Enoé. He says, in the chapter from which these extracts are made, that Athens is fifty miles from Thebes ; and in his description of Attica, that Thebes is forty miles from Athens. I suspect him to have taken but litile pains to assist his topography by personal experience, but rather to have followed ancient authorities; for he calls Oropus forty-four miles from Athens, a blunder copied: from the Antonine Itinerary, it not being above twenty-four.
284 LETTER Xx.
court-yard, a foot and:a half long and half a foot wide, containing an inscription, which I copied as far as the letters were legible, but the greater part of them had been worn away by the service to which the marble had been put: when I saw it, it was lying under the pump, half covered with mortar, the mixing of which was the use to which it had latterly been applied, and would have been so had it contained an ode of Pindar’s.
We had some difficulty in procuring horses at Thebes, as we were not provided with a travelling firman from the Porte, and as we had now left the dominions of our patron Ali, and were in the territory of Bekir, Pasha of the Negroponte. However, we at last accomplished this pomt, and set out late in the day for Athens.
The road took us across the rivulet in the ravin, and near the tepid. fountain, which we left to the right, and proceeded for two hours over a plain to the south-east, well cultivated, but without a single tree. We then crossed the Asopus, a small stream, ata bridge called Metropolita, in a situation near about the site of Erythre, whence the troops of Mardonius were encamped, along the banks of the river, as far as Hysie, on the confines of the Platean territory, and near which the Greek forces were also stationed when Masistius was killed by the Athenian horse*. We here found ourselves at once in another kind of country ; for the soil, which had been before rich and deep, was now rocky and light, and we began to scale low stony hills, going to the south- south-east for three hours.- We passed a small marshy plain, and then ascended a zig-zag path on a rock, which is a low ridge of
* Herod. Calliope. cap. xxii. et seq.
LETTER XxX. 285 Mount Elatias, or Citheron. When we got to the top we had the ruins of a small tower on ἃ crag to our left. Descending a little, we came at once upon a green plain, about four miles in length and two in breadth, running from west to east. On enter- ing this plain, we left on our right hand a small village, with a church of some size, and proceeded eastward for an hour, when we arrived at a most miserable and_ half-deserted village, called Scourta.
Here we passed our Christmas Eve, in the worst hovel of which we had ever been inmates. The cows and pigs occupied the lower part of the chamber, where there were racks and mangers, and. other appurtenances of a stable, and we were put in possession of the upper quarter. We were almost suffocated with the smoke, a common calamity in Greek cottages, in which the fire is generally made in the middle of the room, and the roof, having no aper- ture, was covered with large flakes of soot, that sometimes show- ered down upon us during the night.
The next day we crossed the plain, which has here and there a vineyard, and continued in a southern direction for an hour, until we came into some pine woods, on the side of hills that terminate the plain to the east as well as to the south, and which are a part of the Attic mountain once called Parnes, but now having dif- ferent names in different ranges—here it is called Casha. ‘The path was very bad indeed, up rugged ascents, through woods of pine, not thick, but covering the whole mountain as far as we could see before us. Depending from the boughs of the pines, and stretching across from tree to tree so as to obstruct our passage, were the pods, thrice as big as a turkey’s egg, and the thick webs of a chrysalis, whose moth must be far larger than any
Pp
286 ' LETTER Xx.
of those in our country. We now went more to the south-south- east, still amongst hills, and generally upon the ascent. We once caught a view, from the summit of a precipice, of the strait of the Negroponte. We passed over a part of the path called “ Kake Scala,” or the Bad Steps, where it leads over some large slippery stones on the ledge of a rock to the left, and has a little wall to the right, which is not high enough to prevent a horse from falling over into a torrent that rolls beneath the preci- pice. Kake Scala is not wide enough for more than one horse to pass at a time, and the rider generally chuses to dismount—it lasts about fifty paces.
At half after two, having been travelling very slowly for four hours, just as we had got to the summit of the mountain overlook- iiig a deep glen, one of our guides called out, ‘* Affendi, Affendi, to chorio,” Sir, Sir, the town! ‘This word chorio we had so often heard applied to the villages on our route, that we were not a little surprised, upon looking up, to see in a plain at a great distance before us, a large town rising round an eminence, on which we could also discern some buildings, and beyond this town, the sea.
This was our first view of Athens; and you, my friend, who by this time will not think me apt to fly into frequent raptures, you will yet give me credit for feeling some little enthusiasm at the sight of such an object. On a rugged rock, rising abruptly on our right, were the remains of ancient walls, composed of massy stones, and encompassing the summit of the hill. ‘These cannot but be the ruins of Phyle*, a fortress commanding one of the
* Phyle was a strong fortress, one hundred stadia from Athens, belong- ing to the tribe of Atnis.—Xenop. lib. ii. de Reb. Gr. c. 8. Note to Cor-
PETTER: καὶ 287
passes, froni Beeotia into Attica, and famous for having been the resort of those Athenians who destroyed the thirty tyrants. But not Thrasybulus himself could from these hills have surveyed his own Athens, the object of all his patriotic efforts, with more ar- dour and affection, mixed with a not unpleasing melancholy, than were felt by him who is now employed upon this imperfect re- lation.
The ruins are now called Bigla Castro, or the Watch-tower.
From this spot we began to descend, and soon lost sight of Athens in the windings of the hills, which now became more steep, and clothed with thicker woods. Our road was a zig-zag
rocky path, along the side of a precipice, overhanging a deep ra- vin, on the other side of which was a stream flowing through an artificial channel cut out of the rock, ora kind of half-natural aqueduct. Descending an hour and a half, we came by four o'clock to the Greek town of Casha, where the houses were of stone, and well built, and where we had been recommended to pass the night, if we could get so far from ‘Thebes the first day.
After leaving Casha, we went eastward through some olive- groves, where is a monastery, and passed by a gentle slope into the plain of Athens, which, however, we did not again see until we had turned round a low hill, when it rose before us to the south, and distinctly showed us its citadel, and another hill near it, with what appeared a tower on its summit. The new object was the Museum and the tomb of Philopappus.
nel. Nep. Life of Thrasyb. It is noticed by Strabo, p. 396, edit. Xyland, as one of the places in Attica worthy of mention, from the memory of the trans- action alluded to above.
Pp 2
‘The plain, after the wild unpeopled regions through whieh we had passed, appeared highly cultivated, and it was of considerable extent, with a belt of olive-groves running from the extremity of it behind us as far as the eye could reach towards the city and the sea. It was, besides, intersected with several broad, well- beaten roads, and every thing seemed to announce that we had passed into some more favoured country, saved, by a happy ex- ception, from the desolation of surrounding tyranny. Vineyards and corn-grounds, green even in this season, were on both sides of us, and from these the peasants were returning in long trains after their winter labours, and wished us good evening as we passed.
In something more than two hours from Casha, we entered the olive-groves, and crossing a bridge over a river, the Attic Cephis- sus, traversed them obliquely for an hour, when we came again into the open plain. In one hour more, travelling on the same fine road, we arrived at the city walls, and passed under one of the arched gateways into the open space before the town. <A few minutes brought us into Athens, at half after eight in the evening of Christmas day, 1809, and we proceeded immediately to the house where our countrymen are usually lodged, and where we
found an English traveller to congratulate us on our arrival.
LETTER XXI.
Athens—its Situation—A ppearance—present Inhabitants—Short Notice of its Modern History.
MUCH gereater hardships and perils than it can be the lot of any traveller in European Turkey to undergo, would be at once recompensed and forgotten on arriving at Athens—you there perceive an agreeable change in the aspect of all around
you; the Turk, subdued either by the superior spirit of his sub-
jects, or by the happy influence of amore genial climate, appears to have lost his ferocity, to have conformed to the soil, and to have put on a new character, ornamented by the virtues of hu- manity, kindness, and an easy affability, to which he attains in no other quarter of the Mahometan world. After having, in the course of your journey, been constantly on your guard against the outlaws of the land or sea, you feel that you may throw aside all unpleasant apprehensions, and, free from the cumbrous attend- ance of soldiers and servants, indulge in the contemplation of Athens, not, indeed, such as she was, but venerable from the recollection of her former renown, and still possessed of many ob- jects worthy of admiration*.
* Athenas plenas quidem et ipsas vetustate fama, multa tamen visenda ha- bentes. ‘These expressions, the encomiums of Livy, may be applied, even now, to modern Athens.
290 LETTER XXI.
Were there no other vestiges of the ancient world than those to
be seen at this day at Athens, there would still be sufficient cause left to justify the common admiration entertained for the genius of the Greeks. Ifthe contemplation of the productions of anti- quity, such as they are seen in the galleries of princes, or the cabinets of the curious, affords so pure a delight, how much more gratifying must it be to behold the stupendous monuments of the magnificence of Pericles and the skill of Phidias, still standing on the very spots on which they were originally fixed, by the united taste of the statesman and the artist. ‘hese noble master- pieces still retain their grandeur and their grace, and towering from amidst their own ruins, and the miserable mansions of barbarians, present a grand, but melancholy- spectacle, where you behold, not only the final effects, but the successive progress of devasta- tion, and, at one rapid glance, peruse the history of a thousand ages.
You must be already so well acquainted with the antiquities of this city, from examining the designs of modern artists, and the exact descriptions of celebrated travellers, who, from the days of Nointel and Wheler up to this period, have laboured to acquaint the world with the ancient remains to be seen on the spot, that you will hardly require from me a particular detail of the wonders of modern Athens; but as the desolations of time, and, of late years, the spoliatory taste of some amateurs, have caused many decays and dilapidations, I shall, in a cursory manner, and per- haps with less precision than the subject demands, attempt to notice the present appearance of the Athenian remains.
But before I proceed to these particulars, let me describe some circumstances attendant on our residence in the place, and take a view of the present state of the town itself.
LET TRE’ R17. 291
During our stay at Athens, we occupied two houses, separated from each other only by a single wall, and through this we opened a door-way. One of them belongs to a Greek lady, whose name is Theodora Macri, the daughter of the late English Vice- Consul, (for we are represented at Athens), and who has to show many letters of recommendation, left in her hands by several English travellers. Her lodgings consisted of a sitting-room and two bed-rooms, opening into a court-yard where there were five or six lemon-trees, from which, during our residence in the place, was plucked the fruit that seasoned the pulaf, and other national dishes served up at our frugal table. ‘The site of this house is easily distinguished at a distance, as there is a tall flag- staff rising from the yard; and on this the English Ensign, in the time of the late Vice-consul, used to be displayed. The person at present holding that sinecure is a Greek, whose name, like that of our host at Livadia, is Logotheti. He, of course, called upon us on our arrival, and, together with Mr. Lusieri, Lord Elgin’s agent, attended us on a visit, always customary, to the Waiwode, the Turkish Governor of the town, whom we found a well-mannered man, with more information than is usually pos- sessed by those of his nation, and who, having served with our forces in the Egyptian wars, was somewhat partial to our country- men—his name and title were Suleyman “ga.
Mr. Lusieri, the only one remaining of the six artists settled during three years by my Lord Elgin at Athens, contributed to render our residence more agreeable; and the same attentions were paid to us by Mr. Fauvel, the i‘rench Consul, well known to the public as the coadjutor of Mr. Foucherot, and gratefully re- membered, I believe, by every traveller, who, for these twenty years past, has visited this part of the iuevant.
2902 LETTER XXI.
It was, however, during our stay in the place, to be lamented, that a war more than civil, was raging on the subject of my Lord Elgin’s pursuits in Greece, and had enlisted all the Frank settlers and the principal Greeks on one or the other side of the contro- versy. ‘The factions of Athens were renewed.
A. few days after our visit to the Governor of the town, we pre- pared for an inspection of the Acropolis, by sending the usual present of tea and sugar to the Turk who has the command of the fortress erected on that hill, and who is now called the Disdar. The gates of this citadel have of late been shut upon all those who do not settle this important preliminary ; and the Disdar has, not unfrequently, exacted a present previous to every visit; an extor- tion justly complained of to me by a French Gentleman, who averred, that it had put a stop to the researches of many inge- nious travellers, that could not afford such repeated demands upon their purses.
Before these particulars were adjusted, we took every oppor- tunity of surveying the modern town.
Athens is placed at the foot of the rock of the citadel, as re- presented in the annexed picture, which is exceedingly correct in every particular, and must serve better to give an idea of its situa- tion and appearance than the most minute and animated descrip- tion. ‘The view is taken from the foot of a craggy hill, once called Anchesmus, on which was formerly a small temple of Ju-
piter, and where there is now a chapel dedicated to St. George.
It is about three quarters of a mile from the walls of the city, in a north-easterly direction from the Acropolis. There are no houses to the back or south of the citadel, which included the Ceramicus within the walls (a populous quarter. of ancient Athens), but onevery other side the city stretches into the plam, and more
SSS SS SSS SS - - τὰς:
ENS,
‘ff ( P i WE ¢ Υ n0¢ VOCE led
LETTER ‘XXI. 903
particularly to the north and north-west. It was in’ modern
times so subject to the incursions of pirates and robbers, that it has been surrounded with a wall, about ten feet high, with aper-= tures for the use of musquetry. These walls, about forty years ago, were enlarged and repaired, and now comprehend a much wider space than when Chandler wrote, taking in two antiquities, the temple of ‘lheseus and the arch of Adrian, not included in their circuit, according to the plan which he has given of the city. he gateways to the wall, six in number, were formerly always closed at night, but the gates are now removed. The open space between the walls.and the city, one hundred and fifty or two hundred yards in breadth, -is laid out in corn-grounds, and there are gardens attached to most of the principal houses. I walked round these walls at a brisk pace in forty-seven minutes— a circumstance which conveys an idea of the size of their circum- ference, and of the city itself.
‘The number of houses in Athens is supposed to be between twelve and thirteen hundred; of these, about four hundred are inhabited by Turks, the remainder by Greeks and Albanians, the latter of whom occupy about three hundred houses. There are also seven or eight Frank families, under the protection of the French Consul. None of the houses are well built, nor so com- modious as those of the better sort of Greeks at Toannina or Livadia ; and the streets are all of them narrow and irregular, a peculiarity remarked in ancient Athens, even during the days of her splendour*, In many of the lanes there is a raised cause- way on both sides, so broad as to contract the middle of the
* By Dicearchus, who wrote a short time affer the death of Alexander. 94
294 LETTER XxI.
street into a kind of dirty gutter. The bazar is at a little dis- tance from the foot of the hill, and is far from well furnished, but has several coffee-houses, which at all times are crowded by the more lazy of the Turks, amusing themselves with drafts and chess. It is formed by one street, rather wider than usual, in- tersecting another at right angles; anda little above where the two meet, is an ornamented fountain, the principal one in the town, supplied by a stream, which is brought in artificial channels or stone gutters, from a reservoir under Mount Hymettus, at about a mile anda half distance. ‘The water found in the wells be- longing to the town is generally brackish ; lukewarm in winter, but cold in summer.
The house of the Waiwode is of the poorer sort, though the entrance to it would become a palace, as it is between the co- lumns of that antiquity distinguished by the name of the Doric Portico. That of the Archbishop is the best in the town, con- taining within its precincts a spacious yard and garden.—T'here are only four principal moscks with minarets in the city, although there are eleven places of worship for the Turks. ‘The number of Christian churches is out of all proportion to the Greek popu- lation; thirty-six are constantly open, and have service con- stantly performed in them; but, reckoning the chapels which are shut except on the days of their peculiar saints, there are nearly two hundred consecrated buildings in Athens. ‘The me- tropolitan church, called the Catholicon, is the only one of these that can be accounted handsome, and the temples, neither of the
Mahometans nor the Christians, add any thing to the appear- ance of the town.
The Greeks of Athens are, as has been remarked, less op-
LETTER XKKI. - 205
pressed by the tyranny of the Turks than those of any other part of the empire; and, notwithstanding the lamentation of some classical philanthropists, who have deplored that a people unconquered by Kerxes, should become the portion of an AXthio- pian eunuch, the Athenians have been benefited by the resolu- tion, which they adopted about the middle of the seventeenth century, of putting themselves under the protection of the Kislar Aga, by paying a voluntary tribute of thirty thousand crowns to that officer; for the Waiwodes appointed since that period, have felt themselves so much dependent upon the good-will of their subjects, who, by a sacrifice of part of their wealth, have it in their power to remove him, that they have generally treated them with justice and lenity. ‘The Greeks have, indeed, more than once revolted, and expelled their governor; and, in one in- stance, they drove an unpopular master into the Acropolis, be- sieged him in that fortress, and, lastly, cut him to pieces on en- deavouring to make his escape.
About fifteen years before our time, a Waiwode, by name
Hadj Ali Chaseki, presumed to treat them with great rigour,
and to extort from them large sums, part of which he employed in buying a great extent of olive-groves, and in the erection of a magnificent kiosk, surrounded with spacious gardens, which are still seen near the site of the Academy. After repeated and un- availing complaints (for Ali was befriended by the chief Archon of the city), nearly half of the inhabitants of Athens retired into the villages, where (like the seceders on the Aventine mount) they continued for three years, until the tyrant was removed, at first to Rhodes, and then to Constantinople, where he lost his head. Many of the Athenians at this day are as familiar with the Alba- aq 2
296 LETTER: XK.
nian language as with their own; an acquirement to be ‘referred to the period of their voluntary exile amongst the peasants of At- tica, nearly the whole of whom are Albanian colonists.
The government of the Waiwode continues nominally only for one year, but frequently lasts nine or ten, according to the satis- faction expressed by his subjects. He interferes but little with the management of the Christians, and generally contents himself with the receipt of the tribute which is collected by the Codja- bashees or Archons—the immediate rulers, and, it should seem, the oppressors of the Greeks. ‘Tbe Archons have been, until lately, eight in number; they are at present only five, whose names, not quite so agreeable to the ear as the Cleons or Phor- mios of antiquity, are Stavros-to-maras, Nicolettos, Capitana- chis, Zingaras, and Zakarichas ; another person, by name Logo- theti, the friend of Hadji Ali, was formerly an Archon, but be- ing now considered English Vice-Consul, no longer holds that station. ‘here are six secretaries attached to the Archons; but T did not learn that the whole of these rulers ever assemble at any stated time, or have any regular system, for the transaction of business.
The regular tax transmitted from Attica to the Porte, is be- tween seven hundred and seven hundred and fifty purses (three hundred and seventy-five thousand and three hundred and fifty thousand piasters); but the Codja-bashees, under various pre- tences, exact as many as fifteen hundred purses; and as they never give any account to the people of the manner in which their money has been disposed, do not fail to enrich themselves by the surplus amount. ‘Threats, and sometimes punishments, are em- ployed to wring from the peasants their hard-earned pittance ;
LETTER ΧΧΙ. 207
and such is the oppressive weight of the tyranny, that the mur- murs of the commonalty have frequently broken out into open complaints, and even a complete revolution, involving the destruc- tion of the Archons; and an establishment of a better order of things, has been meditated by the more daring and ambitious amongst the oppressed. An unfortunate malcontent, who, in fond recollection of better days, has given to his three sons the names of Miltiades, Themistocles, and Alcrbiades, talked to me of this glorious project (ro καλο πραγμα). ‘The Turks,” said he, ** will be on our side, if we get the better; but, alas! the influence of money is all-powerful; and Demosthenes himself, were he alive, and (like me) without a para, would not have a single listener.” He added besides, that their priests, a powerful body, would espouse the cause of their Codja-bashees.
The Archbishop of Athens, whose ecclesiastical dominion ex- tends over Beeotia, and even into some parts of the Peloponesus, exercises an absolute authority over the whole of the clergy of his see, and has a prison near his house for the confinement of offen- ders, whom he may punish with the bastinade, or in any degree short of death. His place is purchased of the Patriarch, and is
consequently the object of many intrigues, which not unfrequently terminate in the expulsion of the incumbent, and the election of
another archbishop. Popular clamour has also sometimes dis- placed such of these priests as have exceeded the usual bounds of
extortion*.
* Tread, in the Life of Meletius, prefixed to hisGeography, ASnvator. os. 7) b ee \ YA ri s > es ε we ? 7 7 \ Ν / βουλόμενοι τὸν ἴδιον ᾿Αρχιερέω ὥποδιωξαι ὡς ἀχρηςον ἐζήτησαν ὠντον dia γνήσιον τοὺς Αἰρχιερέα, ον καὶ δέδωκεν auTois ὃ τε Κωνςαντινεπόλεως Πατριάρχης.
The custom, it appears, has not been confined to Athens; the same biographer,
298 LETTER XXI.
Some of the Athenians are fond of tracing back their pedigree, which, however, according to their own account, they are unable to do beyond the Turkish conquest. The name Chalcocondyles was, till lately, the one held in the greatest repute; but the person who at present professes himself to be, on his mother’s side, a de+ scendant of the family, has not assumed the appellation. The character of the modern inhabitants of this town does not rank high amongst their countrymen, and the proverb which is to be seen in Gibbon, I heard quoted against them in their own city— “As had as the Turks of Negroponte, the Jews of Salonica, and the Greeks of Athens.” A French resident, who had lived amongst them many years, talking to me of their propensity to calumniate and supplant each other, concluded with this lively expression, “ Believe me, my dear Sir, they are the same canaille as they were in the days of Miltiades,”
We were not amongst them long enough to discover any very unamiable traits by which they may be distinguished from other Greeks, though I think we saw in them a propensity to detraction and intrigue. Whatever may be their talents this way, they are now chiefly employed in debating whether the French or English, nations inhabiting countries unknown to their ancestors, shall de- prive them of the last memorials of their ancient glory. ΤῸ retain them themselves never, I believe, is an object of their wishes.
The Greeks of Athens are all of them employed in carrying on a small commerce, by exporting part of the produce of their lands, and receiving in return some Italian, and, of late, English
te ip ες αι δον νει ρε ἐν περ το κε λεαν,
a little farther, talks of a certain Clement, Metropolitan of Ioannina ἐκδημήσαντος, an expression savouring of ancient Greece.
LETTER XXI. 299
manufactured goods, together with corn. One Athenian trader - has accompanied his merchandize as far as London. ‘The olive- trees still continue the principal wealth of Attica, and between three and four thousand barrels of oil are usually exported in a year ; though, in a very abundant season, perhaps once in twenty- five years, there is a much greater quantity shipped from the Pireus. In 1808, it surpassed more than twenty times that amount; and a Greek, who had given two thousand piasters for eighty trees, the preceding year, gained two thousand five hun- dred by a single gathermg. ‘There is a small quantity of butter, cheese, silk, honey, resin, and pitch, besides some cattle, also sent annually out of Attica.
The families of Franks settled at Athens, some of which have intermarried with the Greeks, are those of Mr. Rocque, Mr. An- drea, Mr. Gaspari, his relation Mr. Gaspari, and Mr. Louis; to these may be added, two establishments, one belonging to Mr. Lusieri, and the other to Mr. Fauvel, the French Consul. These gentlemen, with the exception of the two last, chiefly support themselves by lending money, at an interest from twenty to thirty per cent., to the trading Greeks, and in a trifling exporta- tion of oi. They add, it must be supposed, considerably to the pleasures of a residence in this city, by their superior attainments and the ease of their manners. ‘The gentlemen amongst them, all but Mr. Andrea, wear the Frank dress; the ladies, that of the country. ‘They have balls and parties in the winter and spring of the year, in their own small circle, to which the principal Greeks are invited, and particularly during the carnival, when they and many of the inhabitants arein masquerade. We were present at that season, and were visited by a young Athenian in an English.
300 LETTER: XX.
uniform, who was highly delighted with his metamorphosis. ‘The most favourite fancy of the Greeks seemed to be that of dressing themselves up like the Waiwode, the Cadi, or other principal Turks, and parading the streets with attendants also properly habited. One more daring humourist of my acquaintance, on one occasion mimicked the Archbishop himself as if in the ceremony of blessing the houses, but found the priests less tolerant than the Mahometans, for he was excommunicated.
The French Consul, the head of the Nation, as the Franks are called, has long enjoyed a high degree of consideration at Athens, whose inhabitants have, for some time, felt a lively interest in every thing relative to the affairs of France. At a short distance from the Doric Portico, over the door of a house formerly belong- ing to the Consulate, there is a bas-relief, representing Liberty with her spear and cap, encircled with a laurel wreath, and the inscription, ““ La Republique Frangaise.” Amongst so many memorials of the ages, when the inhabitants of this city were a great aud independant people, I was not a little struck with being thus reminded of the former freedom of another republic, also overthrown, and no less to be numbered with the things that have passed away, than the long-lost liberties of the Athenians.
The French have had a Consul established at Athens since the beginning of the seventeenth century, and the Jesuits of Paris settled a Missionary in the country about the year 1645. The
Capuchins also began their pious labours on the same spot in 1658 ; and, eleven years afterwards, one of them, Father Simon, purchased the building which includes the famous choragic monu- ment of Lysicrates, commonly known by the name of the Lan- tern of Demosthenes, and which still continues attached to that
LETTER xxI. 301
mission. ‘he Jesuits, whose convent was in the quarter of the town near the Catholicon, have many years ago retired to the Negroponte.
The Roman Catholic service is performed for the Franks in the Capuchin convent. ‘The present Padre 15 an intelligent man, who, besides the duties of his holy office, is occupied in instructing from twenty to twenty-five or thirty of the sons belonging to the Frank families; he has fitted up the circular chamber formed by the monument of Lysicrates, with shelves that contain a few volumes of choice books.
The world was indebted to one of the early Missionaries for the most circumstantial account of the antiquities of modern Athens, in the work of the Jesuit Babin, published by Spon in the year 1672; and if the Propaganda Society has not had to boast of many Turkish or. Greek converts, they may at least reflect with pleasure, that their Ministers in this quarter of the Levant have been gratefully remembered by many travellers, to whom, from, and probably long before, the days of Chandler, to the present period, the Capuchin convent at Athens has afforded a secure and agreeable residence.
Until within a few years, a journey to Athens was reckoned a considerable undertaking, fraught with difficulties and dangers; and at the period when every young man of fortune, in France and England, considered it an indispensable part of his education to survey the monuments of ancient art remaining in Italy, only a few. desperate scholars and artists ventured to trust them- selves amongst the barbarians, to contemplate the ruims of Greece.
But these terrors, which a person who has been on the spot Rr
802 LETTER XXI.
cannot conceive could ever have been well-founded, seem at last to be dispelled: Attica at present swarms with travellers, and several of our fair countrywomen have ascended the rocks of the Acropolis. So great, mdeed, has been the increase of visitants, that the city, according to a scheme formed by a Greek once in our service, will soon be provided with a tavern, a novelty surely never before witnessed at Athens. A few more years may furnish the Pirzeus with all the accommodations of a fashionable watering- place.
It is scarcely necessary to account for the eagerness to visit the city of Minerva. In addition to other attractions, there is a consideration which cannot fail to increase the interest of survey- ing such an object: dating the settlement on the Acropolis from Theseus, which is later than generally allowed, three thousand and forty-six years have elapsed since Athens began to fix the attention of the civilized portion of mankind, and, for more than half that period, it continued, through all the gradations of increas- ine prosperity, unrivalled glory, and splendid decay, te furnish materials for the historian, the poet, and the orator, of every succeeding age. From the reign of Justinian until the thirteenth century, very few notices of its existence have been discovered by the researches of the learned. Spon and Chandler could only discover, that it supplied Roger, King of Sicily, with silk-worms and silk-workers, about the year 1130; and a late writer, who has given himself some credit for the success of his enquiry, has only been able to add to this information, that, about the year 590, a Byzantine historian talks of the splendour of the Atheman Muses of his age, and that, in the reign of Constantine the Seventh, Chases, Prefect of Achaia, was stoned to death m a church at
LETTER XXII. 303
Athens*. Yet during these unnoticed ages, the city may be conjectured to have maintained at least its present size; for, when
the accounts remaining, of the irruption of the Latins, again fix our regards on Greece, we find it of sufficient importance to be made the head of a state, comprising Thebes, Argos, Corinth, and part of Thessaly; and its western Princes of the fourteenth century, if they did nothing worthy the panegyric of the sober historian, have still been the heroes of romance, as from them, Boccace and Chaucer, and after their example, Shakspeare, have borrowed their “‘ Theseus, Duke of Athens.”
It cannot be thought that the town has increased since the Turkish conquest; so that he who at this day surveys the hill of the Acropolis, has the view of a site which has been covered with the habitations of men, and maintained, probably without intermis- sion, a population of eight or ten thousand souls, for more than thirty centuries; a fortune to which no other spot, that I know of, in the world can justly pretend, and which a view of its revolu- tions and disasters must render still more surprising.
From the invasion of Xerxes to the irruption of Alaric into Greece, in 396, Athens changed masters at least twenty-three different times, and, during this period, the town was twice burnt by the Persians; the suburbs, and every thing valuable in the vicinity, destroyed by the second Philip of Macedon; the port, suburbs, and the whole city, nearly levelled with the ground, and all its ornaments defaced by Sylla; the Acropolis plundered by
* The first anecdote is extracted from the work of Theophylactus Simocat- tus; the second, from Leo the grammarian. The travels of the author who has made use of them, Mr. Chateaubriand, unfortunately did not come to my hand until the principal part of these Letters was already composed.
304 LETTER XXI.
Tiberius, surprised and ravaged by the Goths in the reign of Claudius; and lastly, the city and territory utterly ruimed, and stript of every portable curiosity of value by Alaric.
In the ages during which we are ignorant of its fate, it may have suffered by the many competitions for the eastern empire: on the opening of its renewed history, we find it besieged by Sgure*, a petty Prince of the Morea, in 1204, but successfully defended by its Archbishop, Michael Choniates, the brother of Nicetas the historian. It was then taken by Boniface, Marquis of Montserrat, who appointed one of his followers, Otho de la Roche, a Burgundian, Duke (Δουξ) of Athens, a title borne by its Governor since the time of Constantine the Great}. After be- ing in the hands of the son and two grandsons of Otho, it was seized by a Prince of the house of Brienne, who married a female of the line of the last possessors of the sovereignty, and whose son, Walter, was the Duke of Athens and Grand Signior of Thebes, who lost his crown and his life on the banks of the Ce- phissus, fighting against the Catalans. In this fatal battle, the army of the Athenian Prince amounted to nearly fifteen thousand men, a number which might make us suppose that the vigour of this Grecian state was renewed, did we not know that the troops serving under Brienne, were all either Frenchmen, or other mer- cenaries, most of them of the same nation as the enemy. Amongst
* This person, whom Mr. Chateaubriand mentions on the authority of Nice- tas, may be he whom Chandler calls a General of Theodorus Lascares.
ὑ Οἱ Η γεμὼν τῶν A’ Syvov ἔλαβε παρα tov μεγάλου Κωνςαντίνου τῖτλον (what a word for the ear of an Hellenist) Μεγάλου Δουκὸς καϑὼς καὶ ὁ τῆς Πελοποννήσε τὸ τὰ Πρίγκιπος, ὁ δὲ τῆς Βοιωτίας, καὶ τῶν Θηβῶν τὸ Μεγάλα Πριμικηρίος, ἣν
Usepov κατὰ φορὰν τῆς λέξεως, Μέγαν Κύριον ἐκάλουν .---Μοϊεί. Attic.
LETTER .xXI. 305
the other noble victims of English valour who bled in the field of Poictiers, is mentioned a titular Duke of Athens, the son of the unfortunate Walter.
The claims of the Catalans, who remained tyrants of the place for a few years, seem to have been merged in Delves of the house of Arragon. I have been unable to understand Chandler, when he talks of the taking of Athens by Bajazet, subsequently to the incursion of the Catalans, The Sultan, if he did make himself master of the city, which does not appear, must, I should believe, have preceded those invaders.
During the latter part of the fourteenth century, by a sad reverse, of which there are examples in the fortune of states as well as of indiyiduals, Athens was a fief of the kingdom of Sicily, and then fell into the possession, whether by gift or con- quest is not distinctly known, of a Florentine, Reimer Acciajuoli, who bequeathed it by his will to the Venetians. During the reign of Reinier, Amurath the Second besieged and_ took the city, but soon retired, leaving it in the possession of the same prince.
The Venetians were driven from Athens by Anthony, Signior of Thebes, natural son of Reinier, and the dukedom continued in his family, but frequently disputed by competitors of the same kindred*, until Omar, a general of Mahomet the Great, seized
* Anthony was succeeded by Nerius; Nerius was dethroned by his brother Anthony the Second, but recovered his dominion after the death of that prince. The widow of Nerius reigned after her husband, but was, with the assistance of the Turks, expelled, and afterwards poisoned at Megara, by Francus, son of Anthony the Second, the last Duke, who, after a year’s reign, was deprived of
his dominions, first of Attica, and afterwards of Boeotia, and finally strangled by order of Mahomet. It is said that Athens, in her last extremity, when be-
306 LETTER ΧΧΙ.
upon the city in 1455. But this was not its last distress; it was plundered and sacked by the Venetians in 1464; taken, after a bombardment by the army of the same nation, under Morosini, in 1687; and, lastly, besieged and again recovered by the Turks, in 1688.
That Athens should still remain a well-peopled city, after such repeated miseries, is surely somewhat astonishing; and, indeed, from the Turkish conquest by Mahomet, until about the year 1584, it was believed in Christendom to have been almost de- serted*. At that period, the learned Martin Crusius-+ published his T'urco-Grecia, which contained two letters, one from Zygo- malas, a native of Nauplia, in the Morea, the other from Ca- basilas, an Acarnanian, both of whom attempted to describe the state of the city, and its remaining antiquities. But long after that time, and so late as the beginning of the last century, a very learned author wrote thus, in summing up its history :—
sieged by Omar, refused the assistance of the Latin Princes, who demanded the conversion of the heretic Greeks as the price of their aid. All the latter revo- lutions of Athens are detailed in a work called Atene Attica, by Fanelli, writ- ten at the beginning of the last century, which is referred to by Chandler; it was lent to me, at Athens, by the kindness of Mrs. Fauvel.
Atene Attica contains a plan and a picture of Athens, as it was besieged by Morosini, and also some rude cuts from wood, representing all the Dukes who successively governed this state.
* There are four authors quoted in the introduction to the travels before men- tioned, who talk of Athens as in that deplorable state: Nicholas Gerbel, in 1550; Dupinet, in 1554; Laurenberg, in 1557; and the geographer Ortellius, in 1578, who says of it, “6 nunc casule tantum supersunt qnedam.”
+ Kraus, professor of Greek and Latin in the university of Tubingen.
LETTER xxI. 307
“9 Lastly, in the year of our Lord 1455, it was so despoiled by the ‘Turks, that it is now no longer a town, but a village, under the dominion of that people, who have given it the name of Setines *.”
Butif the mere existence of the town, after the revolution of so great a portion of the ages of the world, excites our wonder, we must be more surprised that it contains at this day, more ob- jects of admiration than would be displayed by an assemblage of all the monuments of ancient art to be found in every other part of Greece. )
* Lamb. Bos. Antiq. Grec. p. 29,
LETTER XXII.
Antiquities of Athens—Temple of Theseus—Areopagus—Pnyx Muséum—Monument of Philopappus—Odéum—Theatre of Bacchus-- River ILlissus—Adrian’s Temple—Callirhoe—Sta- dium of Atticus Herodes—Adrian’s Arch and Aqueduct— Monument of Lysicrates—Monument of Andronicus Chyr-
restes—The Doric Portico—Many smaller Remains.
DURING our residence of ten weeks at Athens, there was not, I believe, aday of which we did not devote a part to the contemplation of the noble monuments of Grecian genius, that have outlasted the ravages of time, ana the outrage of barba- rous and antiquarian despoilers.
The Temple of ‘Theseus was within five minutes walk of our lodgings; for the site of it I must refer you to the annexed pic- ture, where it appears entire, which is almost its actual state; for, excepting the sculptures on the back and front porches, and the roof, which is modern and vaulted, the outside of the build- ing has been but little affected by the injuries of four-and-twenty centuries*, and is, to this day, the most perfect ancient edifice in
* It was built a little after the battle of Marathon, fought four hundred and ninety years B. C.
LETTER XXII. 309 the world. In this fabric, the most enduring stability, and a sim- plicity of design peculiarly striking, are united with the highest elegance and accuracy of workmanship; the characteristic of the Doric style, whose chaste beauty is not, in the opinion of the first artists, to be equalled by the graces of any of the other orders. A gentleman at Athens, of great taste and skill, assured me, that after a continued contemplation of this 'l'emple, and the remains of the Parthenon, he could never again look with his accustomed satisfaction upon the Ionic and Corinthian ruins of Athens, much less upon the specimens of the more modern spe- cies of architecture to be seen in Italy.
A person accustomed to the cumbrous churches of Christen- dom, those laboured quarries above-ground, spreading over a large irregular space, would not be struck with the site of the Grecian temples ; on the contrary, he would think them rather small. The Theséum 15 ouly one hundred and ten feet long, and forty-five feet broad, and appears less than it is in reality, from the proportion of the columns, which, though only eighteen feet high, and without bases and plinths, are nine in circumference at their lower extremities. But the materials of the building being of a sort which we are accustomed to think most costly, and the inunitable skill of the artist becoming more apparent at every in- vestigation, the first shght disappointment is succeeded by the purest admiration.
The four-and-thirty columns of this Temple, and their entabla- tures, as well as the steps of ascent, and the walls of the cell itself, are of the finest Parian marble, the natural colour of which may be perceived where the stone has been recently broken, although its general surface has been tinged by the hand of Time with a pale
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yellow hue. ‘The shafts of some of the columns, (whose tambours, as has been discovered by the fragments of the Parthenon, were not united by any cement, but by a sort of leaden or iron cramp), and especially the corner ones on the right of the Pronaos, have been disjointed by earthquakes, but are not yet sufficiently injured to threaten a speedy fall. The flutings of many of them have been broken by stones, and other species of injury, as is the case - with the figures in mezzo-relievo on the metopes, and those of the frizes of the western porch of the ‘Temple.
The sculpture on the western front, the posticum, though it has been struck with lightning, is in the best preservation. he promi- nent figure, of Theseus killing a Centaur, who is struggling on his back, wants the head and a right arm, but the body of his enemy is very entire. ‘I'woof the Centaurs laying a large stone over one of the Lapithe ina pit, are, as they were noticed by Chandler, less injured than the other figures. Is not this the fable of Ceneus, who, when he could not be otherwise slain, was buried alive? ‘Two figures with shields, supposed to be Hercules and Tolaus descending into Hell, have lost their heads, arms, and legs. ἣν, The whole of the sculpture of the heséum has been modelled by Lord Elgin’s artists, as well as by the I’rench agents, but the noble Ambassador did not suffer any part of it to be separated from the building, and for this forbearance he gives himself all due credit. ‘The opposite faction assert, that the endeavour was made, but interrupted in the outset. I could not decide on the motive, but was contented with the fact.
‘¢ Blest be the great for what they took away, (ς And what they left me.”
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The cell of the Temple, the outside walls of which were an- ciently adorned with paintings by Micon, and where the modern Greeks formerly drew pictures of their Saints, now quite effaced, is converted into a church, dedicated to St. George, but, with the exception of the festival of that Saint, is never opened, unless to gratify the curiosity of travellers. ‘The door to it, on the south side of the church, is but small; it is plated with iron, which is perforated or indented, in every part, with pistol and gun bullets. The pavement on the inside having been removed, the floor is of mud; and, in the middle nearly of the building, there is a small sepulchral mound of earth, like those in our church- yards. ‘This is the grave of Tweddle. <A slab of marble, with an inscription, is in preparation, at my Lord Elgin’s expence, and under his direction. An epitaph for such a person, and to be placed in sucha spot, must be a work of some nicety. The in- terior of the church has a melancholy appearance ; the walls are quite bare, and the pictures of Saints in the sacristy, or oval re- cess, erected in the eastern porch, are of the most pitiful kind. The round marble with the four faces of inscriptions, three of which were copied by Lord Sandwich, and made it appear to have belonged to the Prytanéum, still remains in the south corner of the western front.
The Theséum stands on a knoll of open ground, cultivated for corn, between two and three hundred yards from the town, and not more than twenty yards from the wall of modern Athens. Under the slope of the hillis one of the gateways, through which those who live to the north of the Acropolis take their road to the Pireus. :
A person walking from the Temple towards the Acropolis, and
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passing out of this gate, if he still keeps in the direction of the walls, would immediately ascend the craggy hill of the Areopagus. This hill is very uneven, consisting of two rocky eminences, on the lowest of which is a small chapel, dedicated to St. Dionysius the Areopagite. A cave below this chapel, always shown by the Athenians, and which contains a cold spring, perhaps the fountain mentioned by Pausanias as being near the ‘l'emple of Apollo and Pan, on the descent from the Acropolis, is no otherwise curious, than as being reported by the devout Christians to have given shelter to St. Paul. The Areopagus is within a stone’s throw of the craggy sides of the Acropolis, which is mentioned, that you may not attach too important a signification to the words moun- tain, hill, valley, and rock; for, in fact, the scene presented by the city, and the immediate vicinity of Athens, is a landscape in miniature, the most lovely in the world, indeed, but by no means corresponding with the notions of those who are acquainted with the vast exploits, without having beheld the country of the Greeks. There are no remains of any ancient building which may have been the place of assembly on the Areopagus, although that cele- brated court continued to exist to a late period, as Rufius Festus, Proconsul of Greece during the reigns of Gratian and 'Theodosius, is called an Areopagite.
The ground at the west of this hill is a hollow valley, which is inclosed on the other side by the sloping concave ascent of ano- ther eminence, less rocky than that of the Areopagus, but covered only with a very thin 5011. ‘This hill, though considerably inferior in height to the Acropolis, is, in the ancient descriptions, ranked amongst the Attic mountains, under the name of Lyca- bettus. The region between the Areopagus and Lycabettus, was
LETTER XxII. 313
part of the old city, and included within the walls, which may be yet traced over the brow of the last-mentioned hill. ‘The part in the valley was the Cele of Athens, the Hollow; and above this, there are very evident vestiges of Pnyx, the place of public as- sembly, ‘hese are immediately fronting, (westward), the Acro- polis, in the concave slope of Lycabettus, which, in this place, presents the appearance of being hewn perpendicularly, so as to form the cord of the semicircular arc.
In the middle, or rather ina niche of this part of the hill, there are two pieces of wall, composed of stones of an immense size, meeting in an obtuse angle, in which there is a flat area, raised upon a flight of four or five steps. ‘I’his appears to have been the Bema of the orators, or at least the platform.on which the pulpit was raised, after the conquest of the city by Lysander,, when it fronted the Acropolis, and had no view of the sea. ‘The ground has been cleared away in severa] parts, so as to show other por- tions of the same wall, by the activity of Lord Elgin’s agents, who would have obtamed much praise, and escaped a good deal of obloquy, if they had confined themselves to such labours and researches,
Just above the stone platform 18 the brow of the hill, whence there is a view of the Pirzeus, the peninsula of Munychia, and the whole line of coast. The west side of Lycabettus falls, by an easy descent, into the large plain of Athens. Ccele, the area of Pnyx, the sides and summits of Lycabettus, are ploughed up and cultivated, where there is any soil on the rock. ‘They were co- vered with the green blades of wheat and barley, as early as the
month of January; and, on the clear warm days which often
occur in the depth of an Athenian winter, swarmed with trains of
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Greek and Turkish females, clothed in their bright-coloured hoods and mantles, some strolling about, others sitting in circles, with their children playing on the Turkish guitar, and dancing before them. As the season advances, many of the poorer sort of wo- men are seen in these corn-grounds, picking the wild salads and herbs, which constitute so material a part of their diet during the long fasts of the Greek church.
In the middle of February, the corn was a foot high, and then, to crop its luxuriance, the horses of the ‘Turks were tethered in the fields, amongst the standing barley, and were continued in the pasture for a fortnight or three weeks.
Nothing can be more full of life than the picture to be viewed, particularly on this side, close to the walls of Athens. A pleas- ing object, and one which I have often encountered in my ram- bles near the town, was a ‘well-drest boy, generally a ‘Turk, leading, in a coloured string, a favourite ram*, whose horns were crowned with flowers, and sometimes playing or struggling with him, in an attitude often represented by ancient sculptors. It is usually towards the Bairam, the Mahometan festival, and the Christian carnival, that these pretty animals are thus adorned, previous to their sacrifice. ‘The children attending their mothers in their walks, are also often followed by tame lambs.
To return to our survey: on. your way from the city-gates towards Pnyx, before you come to the side of the hill, there is on the right hand, an assemblage of low crags, separated from
* Poukeville says, that in the Morea the shepherds will call a ram Tityrus! If he were to travel in Ireland, he would as gravely swear that the peasants of that country call a pig ‘* Horace,” and without being far from the truth,
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Lycabettus by a small gap in the rocks. On these crags is a little Greek chapel, and at the lower end of them, towards the Areo- pagus, is a smooth descent, which has been worn even and slip- pery, by the effects of a singular persuasion prevalent amongst the females of Athens of both religions—the married women con- ceive, that by sliding uncovered down this stone, they increase their chance of bringing forth male children; and I saw one of them myself at this exercise, which appeared to me not only dis- agreeable, but indeed rather perilous.
Above the steps of Pnyx, keeping rather on an ascent to the right for a hundred paces, you reach the highest part of Ly- eabettus, where there is a windmill; on which spot, as Chandler was informed by an eye-witness, the Venetians, in 1687, placed four mortars and six pieces of cannon, when they battered the Acropolis *.
To the south of the steps of Pnyx, lower down, but at no great distance in the side of the hill, are the three artificial exca- vations, looking hike square caves, conjectured by Chandler to be the sepulchres of Cimon the father of Miultiades, and of his mares, thrice victorious at the Olympic games. When Lycabet- tus was supposed to be the Areopagus, these were thought to be the prisons of that court, and are so laid down in the plan of Athens attached to the Atene Attica of Fanelli.
Descending from the Cimomian sepulchres into the hollow val-
ley, Cole, you arrive at the rocky ascent just under the Acro-
* The same traveller places the Persian camp on this spot; but Herodotus, lib. viii. Urania, cap. 52, expressly says, that it was on the mount called by the Athenians “ the Hill of Mars.” The fact is, that what Dr. Chandler calls a part of Lycabettus, was thought by early travellers to be the Areopagus.
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polis, covered with tomb-stones, one of which 1s erected to the memory of a pious Mussulman, who has also a tomb at Con- stantinople and at Smyrna, and is believed occasionally to revisit the earth, and appear amongst the true believers.
Turning again to the right (south-west), and having the Acro- polis at your back, you proceed, for a short time, over a flat, now ἃ corn-ground, and then begin to ascend a steep hill, sepa- rated from Lycabettus by a rocky hollow, through which there 15 a path from the Pireus to the city. ‘his hill, much higher than Lycabettus, is that once called the Muséum, a half cannon shot from the Acropolis; and, on the top of it, is the monument, visible at a great distance, going by the name of the tomb of Philopappus*.
What is now seen of this structure is of very white marble, the substructure of which being partly above ground, gives it a height of twelve or thirteen feet. Its form is that of a very elip- tical curve; and the concave part of the ruin, looking towards the Acropolis, contains two oval niches, in each of which there is astatue, one of them (that on the mght) being seated ina chair. A square column is between the two niches, and the base of this pilaster represents, in very prominent figures, as large as life, a person drawn in a chariot by four-horses, with a procession in front, and a Victory following. The figures have all lost their heads, and the horses’ legs are broken ; but the sculpture, though
* Philopappus lived in the time of Trajan, and it is thought probable, from part of an inscription containing the words, ‘‘ King Antiochus, son of King Antiochus,” and from Pausanias (Attic. p.46), who calls this the tomb of a Syrian, that he was a descendant of the Kings of Syria, settled by Pompey at Rome.
LETTER XXII1. 317
of a late date, is very bold and animated. To the nght the mo- nument is entire, but, to the left, in ruins; the marbles compos- ing it jutting out, so as to form a set of steps for any one who may wish to climb to the higher part of it, and view the orna- ments more closely. The part destroyed, it is thought, contained a third niche, and completed the structure ; the remaining por- tion seems in such a condition as to be likely to fall with the first earthquake. Many parts of the marble are covered, not to say defaced, with names of travellers. The name of an artist, Ro- maldi I think, who travelled with Mr. Dodwell, is, with an un- pardonable vanity, written up in half a dozen places. A picture taken from this spot, would comprehend all the south-west of the city, and, with the annexed sketch, complete the view of Athens.
Here the Venetians, under Morosini, had also a mortar, and one of the bombs fired from it was fatal to some of the sculpture on the west front of the Parthenon. ‘The same spot had been
before selected, as a position calenlated to overawe the city, by
Antigonus and Demetrius Poliorcetes, who fortified its summits.
The Muséum contains nothing else worthy of notice, except two sepulchral cavities, much of the same kind as those of Del- phi, scooped out on the south side of the hill.
Passing down from the Muséum towards the Acropolis, and keeping a little to the right, you come into a flat piece of ground, which stretches along the southern rocks of the citadel, and was that portion of ancient Athens called ‘‘ the Ceramicus within the City,” but is now ploughed, though but with little advantage to the husbandman, as the soil is very thin, and covered in many places with small fragments of marble, and other ruins of ancient buildings ; a circumstance no one wil wonder at, who has looked
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into the mention made of this portion of ancient Athens by Pau- sanias*. In this place we were shown several marks of late ex- cavations, undertaken chiefly by Lord Elgin, who had the good fortune to find there a stone with an inscription, in elegiac verse, on the Athenians who were slain at Potidea.
At about a furlong and a half from the foot of the Acropolis, the plain of the Ceramicus 15 terminated by the small gravelly channel of the Ilissus, a river, as Boccace calls the Sebeto, “5 quanto ricco d’onor tanto povero d’acque ;” and which, during our winter at Athens, notwithstanding some rain and snow, was never swelled even into a temporary torrent. ‘The channel, how-
ever, may not in former times have been always so entirely dry ; for water is discovered, ata little depth, by digging into the stony bottom, which may be more shallow now than formerly, and choked up by the accumulation of the surrounding ruins. But the Ilissus, if full to the margin, could never have been
more than an insignificant brook-+-.
Going directly from the Muséum towards the Acropolis, in order to pass close under the rock, you arrive at the western angle of the hill, and at once see the remains of the theatre built by Herodes upon the site of the Odéum of Pericles. These are not of marble, but of stones of large dimension, and preserve exactly the same appearance as when described by Dr. Chandler forty years ago. ‘The entrance to the area of the ruin is still
* Attic. p. 7, begianing τὸ δὲ xwpiov ὁ Κεράμεικος.
+ I see, that on the strength of these pools of water, to which the Albanian women of Athens resort to wash their clothes, Mr. Chateaubriand attacks Dr. Chandler, who laughed at the traveller Le Roi, for representing the Ilissus as fine flowing river, with a respectable bridge across it,
LETTER XXII. 319
from the citadel, to which one of the walls, formerly the inner one of the Proscenium, serves as an outwork. What is to be seen of the seats of the Amphitheatre, which, in order to make use of an advantage frequently resorted to by Grecian artists, are scooped out of the side of the hill, is chiefly on the right or west side of the area, the falling rubbish and mould having blocked up those on the other parts of the semicircle. The cord of the arc is about eighty-two long paces.
This, though the original building was of great magnificence, is not a striking ruin, but of a very stable construction, and has served asa model for the study of architects. The very little depth of the scene shows the use to which the theatre was put ; not for the representation of plays, but for the contests in music at the Panathenzan festivals. ‘The three rows of arched windows, one above the other, seem more in the Roman than in the Gre- clan taste.
As you proceed from the Odeum by the rugged track close to the foot of the Acropolis, in the same direction (to the east), the naked rocks, crowned with the projecting battlements of the cita- del, are seen high above you to the left. ‘There is some soil and sloping crags about half way up the hill, to which point you can climb, but above this the rocks rise perpendicularly, and are inaccessible.
A hundred paces from the Odéum, there is to be seen, half hidden in the cliff, what looks like the foundation arches of a pro- jecting part of the fortress above. ‘They have been thought part of an ancient portico leading to the Music ‘Theatre. :
Unless directed to observe them, you would hardly notice these
ruins, nor would you pay much attention to the site of the Theatre Tt 2
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of Bacchus, which occurs at a little distance from the south-east angle of the Acropolis, were it not for the ancient vestiges placed on the rocks above. ‘The circular sweep of the seats, indented into the side of the hill, is scarcely perceptible, nor did I observe the stone-work at the extremities, extant in Chandler’s time. But some of the monuments above the Amphitheatre still remain Three pilasters of the Corinthian order, supporting an entabla- ture, are standing against the flat mouth of a large cave in the side of the hill, which is now closed up, and converted into a church, dedicated to Panagia Spiliotissa, or Our Lady of the Ca- vern. Over the middle pilaster is an inscription, above which the architrave has some relievos of laurel-wreaths; on the top of the whole, in the middle, was the statue, sedent, thought by Stuart to be the personification of the people, from the word ΔΗΜΟΣ in the inscription to the right, and considered by Chandler to be the statue of Niobe*; but at last determined by my Lord Elgin, who has placed it in his museum, to be the image of the bearded, or Indian Bacchus. ‘The statue had no head so early as 1676, and is dressed ikea female}. His Lordship has also taken away the very ancient sun-dial which was to the left of the statue.
Above the cave, and in a position which requires some climb- ing to reach, just under the walls of the citadel, are two Corin- thian pillars, one, three or four feet lower than the other, standing without any other structure attached to them, and having trian- gular capitals, formerly the bases of tripods.
Leaving the Theatre of Bacchus, you descend to the modern walls of the town on your left, close to which the ground is
® Pausan. Attic. page 37.
+ Whether there are any signs of a beard detached from the head, I know not.
LETTER XXTt. 39T
ploughed and sowed, and then arrive at one of the gateways, whence there isa road that leads south of the plain towards Cape Colonni, the Sunium promontory. At a few paces to the left of this road, near the gateway, is a circular pavement, an aloni, or corn-floor, of the kind so commonly seen in Greece.
Beyond this gate the walls project, aud you have to pass round an angle of them, in order to arrive at a. ruin of inconceivable magnificence directly before you to the east.
After leaving the walls, and passing over corn-grounds, rugged and interrupted by ravins, at about a furlong distance, you come to a flat paved area, evidently artificially raised, as may be seen from some foundation walls on the eastern side, and towards the channel of the Ilissus, which passes at a hundred paces to the south. On this stand the sixteen fluted Corinthian columns, of the building finished by Hadrian, called by some the Pantheon, and by others the ‘Temple of Jupiter Olympius. heir site is exactly indicated by the pillars at the left extremity of the ad- joined picture.
The stupendous size of the shafts of these columns, (for they are six feet in diameter, and sixty feet in height), does not more arrest the attention of the spectator than the circumstance of there being no fallen ruins on or near the spot, which was covered with a hundred and twenty columns, and the marble walls of a temple abounding in statues of gods and heroes, and a thousaud offerings of splendid piety. About fifty years ago there was another co- lumn standing, which was thrown down to build a mosck near the market-place, and so entirely removed, as not to have left a single fragment of its marble on the area below. ‘Two of the columns fronting the east still support their architraves; and the remains
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of a small modern cell of common stone, which, as Chandler ob- served, must have been erected when the tops of the pillars were accessible from the surrounding ruins, are still seen above the capitals of the two next to the Ilissus. ‘To this the Greeks and Turks direct your attention, and declare it to have been the habi- tation of a Saint; alluding to a hermit of the sort called Stylites, whose conspicuous penances were once not uncommon in many parts of Christendom. In the tenth century, there was anothe: instance of these voluntary mortifications at Patrass, where a being, who preserved only the figure of man, was seen on the summit of a column, fixed, without motion, for ten years, sup- ported by the bread and the water daily administered to him by the charity of another holy monk, afterwards the famous St. Luke of Stiris.
The solitary grandeur of these marble ruins is, perhaps, more striking than the appearance presented by any other object at Athens, and the ‘l'urks themselves seem to regard them with an eye of respect and admiration. 1 have frequently seen large par- ties of them seated on their carpets in the long shade of the columns.
At about fifty paces from the western side of the area on which the ruins of Hadrian’s ‘Temple are standing, there is a path that leads to the channel of the Ilissus, and conducts you into a wide rocky ravin, close to the bed of the river. Here, after rain, are some pools of water in the hollows, which are frequented by the poor women of Athens for the purpose of washing clothes. Just above the ravin are the ruins of a Turkish fountain; and,
near this, isa pulpit of white stone, whence the Imaums, on par-- ticular occasions, harangue the assembled multitude.
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In the month of March, on the year of our visit, an extraor- dinary drought had alarmed the Athenians for their future har- vest: prayers and holy rites were performed in this place for nine successive days, three of which were devoted particularly to the Mahometans, three to the Christians, three to the strangers and slaves. ‘I'he people were collected in the ravin, on the corn-fields, and under the columns. ‘I'he Mahometan priest supplicated for all, and the whole assembly, of all conditions and persuasions, were supposed to join in the prayers; but it was contrived bya little address, that the animal creation should appear to second the entreaty of the Turks, for, just as the turbaned worshippers bowed themselves with one accord to the ground, and called upon the name of their gad, tho lambs of a large flock collected near the spot, who had just at the instant been separated from the ewes, began to bleat, and were answered by their dames. I know not that any one was deceived by the scheme, but the devouter Muse sulman may perhaps have believed that the distresses of the sheep were just as worthy to be made known, and as likely to move the compassion of the deity, as the complaints of the Christians.
The ruined fountain seems to have been once supplied by the stream that now flows through artificial channels in the ground into the town, and is collected into two large reservoirs, at a quar- ter of a mile to the north of the ravin. A small stream, either the overflowings of the reservoirs, or a scanty spring rising. in the bed of the river, is generally seen to trickle down the crags, until lost in the gravelly bottom of the Ilissus. This spring has still preserved its ancient name of Callirhoé, and the inhabitants of that part of Athens which stretches towards the columns of Hadri- an’s ''emple, and is the quarter of the Albanians, are called in the
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songs of the peasants, Callirhiotes, from their custom of frequent- ing these pools in the bed of the Llissus. Callirhoé once supplied the large marble reservoir in this dell, constructed by Pisistratus, the apertures of whose nine pipes, which gave it the name of En- neacrunus, were visible not many years ago, but are not at pre- sent to be discerned.
The small Ionic 'lemple, standing forty years past on the other side of the Ilissus, at a short distance further up to the east, and determined by travellers to be the Eleusinium, where the lesser mysteries were performed, has now disappeared, but a shaft or two of a column is seen, wedged into the wall of a little Greek church near the spot, which may belong either to that Temple or to that of Diana Agrea, ance also on nearly the same position.
Following the channel of the Ilissus, about a furlong higher up you reach the site of the marble Stadium of Atticus Herodes. Nothing now remains of this costly structure, except some rub- bish, and many pieces of marble raked up by the plough, yet the cavity artificially formed in the side of a low hill still pre- serves the ancient shape, that of an oblong horse-shoe, of this ancient place of exercise; and the area, which is now a corn- ground, having been measured, has been found to be contained in anarc of six hundred and thirty English feet. But this does not allow for the marble-work, nor for the seats, one row of which may have advanced into the body of the Stadium. Not far from the top of the Stadium, in the slope of the circular range of seats, is ἃ cavern, which, after one or two windings, leads out into the open country at the back of the hill. In this there are no marks
of arch-work, or any species of masonry, yet its position has led
LETTER XXII. 325
former investigators to consider it the private way by which the principal spectators entered, and the unsuccessful candidates in the
games retreated from, the area.
On visiting this cavern, your recollections of past times would, for a time, give way to reflections caused by the sight of some present objects. ‘I'he first day I visited the place, I observed a flat stone in the side of the rock, strewed with several bits of co- loured rag, broken glass, flour, and honey, and a handful or two of dry pease. As I was going to examine them, a Greek in com- pany exclaimed, ‘* Don’t touch them, Affendi, they are the Devil’s goods—they are magical.” On enquiry, he assured me that some old women of Athens, well known to be witches, came often to this cavern in the dead of the night, and there performed their incantations, leaving these remnants for offerings to the evil spirit. Another person most seriously informed me, that this was not all, for that these same enchantresses had been often seen during a midnight storm, skimming off the foam of the sea where it rolls against the long pebbly beach, near the ancient port of Phalerus. ‘These witches, (a decrepid creature was pointed out to me as one of them), are hated and feared by Greeks and Turks, and make use of their supposed art to extort charity from the credulous and terrified females of both nations.
Crossing the bed of the Ilissus, at the spot where the marble bridge, (of which there is not now a vestige left), leading from the Stadium to the other side of the river, once stood, and leav- ing the Corinthian columns to the left, in order to return to the city, you pass over some rough uneven ground, ploughed where there is any soil, and in many places strewed with small pieces of marble, the remnants of New Athens, or that addition to the
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326 LETTER XXII,
old city which was built by the Emperor Hadrian. Keeping a little to the right, you strike into one of the roads to the town, in which continuing a short time, you come to where it divides, one branch going to a gateway not far from the columns, and the other passing nearer to the foot of the hill Anchesmus, whence the view is taken, to another gateway. The first of these is formed by a marble archway, called Hadrian’s Arch, from the fa- mous Greek inscriptions on the frize above, showing it to have been one of the boundaries between Old and New Athens. The part of the structure above the frize, presenting a fagade, with two small columns, and other ornaments of the Corinthian order, is supported by the arch, and, being out of reach, is not much injured.
The other gateway, to the north, in the walls of the modern city, which in this part stand nearly on the site of the old walls before the Peloponesian war, is covered by a flat piece of carved marble, that, in the year 1765, constituted the frize and archi- trave of the remains of a marble facade, consisting of two [onic columns, and a small portion of the arch that stood at the foot of the hill Anchesmus, and denoted the position of a reservoir collecting the waters of an aqueduct, begun by Hadrian and finished by Antoninus Pius. The letters IMP. CAESAR. T. AELIVS, and the word cONSVMMAVIT, underneath, may be easily read from below, but the intervening line in smaller characters,
AVG. PIVS. COS. 111. TRIB. POT. II P. P. AODAEDVCTVM IN NOVIS,
requires @ nearer inspection. The stone containing the remainder
of the inscription, supplied by early travellers, is now no where to be found.
LETTER ΧΧΓΙ͂Ι. 327
No other antiquity occurs without the modern city, except the shaft and capital of one column of the Corinthian order, just at the outside of the suburbs to the north-west, between the gate looking towards Thebes, and that near the ‘Temple of Theseus. Whether this column may not be the only remaining vestige of the ruin considered part of the Prytaneum, and having, in 1738, ten columns yet standing, and a marble wall (represented in the Ruins of Athens) I cannot at all decide; but I was told that there had been, not many years past, an antiquity of some im- portance on the spot, and that a Greek church had been pulled down lately, which stood upon the same area. This may have been the church of Great St. Mary, mentioned by Chandler.
The antiquities to be seen within the town, are the choragic monument of Lysicrates, the Temple of the Winds, and the Doric Portico, or the portal of the new market-place. It is sin- gular enough, that the two last of these should not be mentioned by Pausanias, and, although too considerable to be overlooked as insignificant, be still a portion of the comparatively few remains to be seen at this day.
The peripteral ‘Temple, with a dome supported by six fluted Corinthian columns, or the monument of Lysicrates, called by the modern Greeks and (after them) by travellers, the Lantern of Demosthenes (®avapi του AnuooSevovs), which is situated under the eastern extremity of the Acropolis, and supposed to be in the line of the ancient street of the ‘Tripods, is the less subject to injury, on account of being attached, as before mentioned, to the Capuchin convent. The good Padre has divided it into two stories ; and the upper one, just capable of holding one student at his desk, serves as a small circular recess to a chamber at the
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aD € τ 328 LETTER XXII.
left wing of the convent, from which it is separated by a curtain of green cloth. Only half of this structure, which, like other monuments of the same kind, was only designed as a pedestal for a consecrated tripod, is to be seen from the street, the remaining half of it being inciosed within the walis of the garden, and of the convent itself. ‘The intercolumniations of stone, a modern addition, take away from the effect originally produced by the elegant proportions of this monument ; but you would be pleased with its excellent state of preservation, notwithstanding its very great antiquity, which may be dated so far back as the second year of the 111th Olympiad, 330 years before the Christian era. An exact model of it was, some years ago, constructed and placed at the Louvre, and casts of the whole monument, with those of the minute sculpture on the circular architrave, have lat- terly been taken by my Lord Elgin’s artists. ‘The shape of the choragic monument of Lysicrates, can alone account for the strange appellation attached to it by the moderns; and it appears, that an antiquity of the same description, also in the direction of the street of the Tripods, standing in the middle of the seven- teenth century, was known by the name of the Lantern of Dio- genes.
‘The monument of Andronicus Chyrrestes, or the octagonal tower called the Temple of the Winds, placed in an obscure part of the town, and very likely to be overlooked, is much in the same state as described by the writers of the last century. It is far from being a striking piece of architecture, and the pyramidi- cal form of the roof, together with the figures representing the eight winds, are of a very heavy kind of sculpture ; besides
which, the marble of the building has become so dark by age,
LETTER XXiI. 329
as to look like coarse black stone. The wind Zephyr, a winged youth, scattering flowers from his bosom, is the figure now most entire. ‘This portion of the octagon fronts the lane (for it does not deserve the name of a street), and is the only conspicuous part of the monument visible to those who are not within the court-yard of the house in which it is inclosed. ‘The religion of the Mahometans, like that of the Christians in other instances, has helped to preserve this fabric; for the interior of it has for many years served asa place of worship for the turning Der- vishes, who perform their ceremonies every Friday, and a speci- men of whose holy exercises we had an opportunity of witnessing at Constantinople.
The Doric Portico, which, from an. inseription on the archi- trave, has been called the fagade of a temple dedicated to Au- gustus, is on the left hand of a yard attached to the Waiwode’s house ; and part of the building being hidden within the court of a neighbouring dwelling, only one of the four fluted Doric co- lumns composing this. ruin, is to be seen from the street, and without getting into a private house belonging to a'Turk. The proportions of these columns are much larger than those of the Thes¢um, but their marble is not of so fine a colour, being almost black.
The conjecture of Chandler, that this portal served as an en- trance into the new Agora, built, after the destruction of the old one, on the other side of the Acropolis, by Sylla, received, in the opinion of that traveller, much support from the inscribed marble still to be seen in the walls of a house, to the left hand, close to the ruin, which contains, in very legible characters, some regulations of the Emperor Hadrian’s, with respect to the exporta-
eed 350 LETTER. XXIiT.
tion of oil; but although this marble is of considerable size, it may still have been brought from any other part of the town, and can hardly be said to determine any thing with respect to the remains, to which it is now, perhaps accidentally, ad- joining.
This concludes my notice of the stable antiquities of the town of Athens; but before I proceed to conduct you to the Acro- polis, it would be as well to remark, that there are many de- tached pieces of carved stone, and marble, inserted in the walls and over the doorways of the modern houses, which arrest the attention of any one who walks the streets, besides such a variety of portable curiosities, as would require more skill and learning than I am possessed of, usefully to illustrate.
These are generally about a foot square, and adorned with small, and not highly finished sculpture, some representing a pro- cession, others a man sedent, with another standing, who has hold of his right hand, taking the last adieu, and having the χαῖρε underneath. ‘There are many with single figures in the same bas-relief, well executed, containing the name of the dead ; one of them, indeed, which I saw, had not only the name of the deceased, and of his father, but, what is very uncommon, of his trade. A most perfect specimen of the usual subject, the vexps- δεῖπνον, or funeral supper, is in my possession. It contains two figures of men recumbent on a couch, under which is a coiled serpent in the act of raising himself, perhaps denoting the cause of the death of the deceased, or an Esculapian emblem; a female sedent at the foot of the bed, is presenting a cup; and a boy, in the farther end of the piece, in a spirited and elegant attitude, seems to have been pouring out wine in a flagon. The head of a
LETTER XXII. 331
horse, the animal sacrificed to Pluto, is very prominent in a small compartment by itself in one corner of the sculpture.
Besides these sepulchral monuments, there are lying in the courts of many of the houses, the small marble pillars, a foot or two in length and four or five inches in diameter, which were the
Στῆλαι erected over the ancient tombs, and containing inscrip-
tions sometimes, but oftener the simple name, or at most the name of the tribe to which the dead belonged: there was one lying in the yard of our lodgings. A great many of them, with their tops rudely carved into the shape of a turban, are stuck up on the graves in the ‘Turkish burying-grounds, especially in that between the rock of the Acropolis and the Muséum.
Fragments of statues, pedestals, capitals of columns, are still to be seen in the walls of the buildmgs; but the most valuable specimens have been removed by collectors. The sun-dial, and the Gymnasiarch’s chair, were taken by Lord Elgin from the court of the Catholicon, where they stood in the time of Chandler.
The marble cistern, or Attic measure for liquids, is yet re-. maining in the yard of the archiepiscopal house.
Notwithstanding the eager researches, and the extensive col- lections of all travellers, learned and unlearned, there are still daily discovered in Athens and its neighbourhood, particularly at the Pireus, many smaller antiquities, which are very interest- ing to any person even moderately versed in ancient literature. We had the opportunity of seeing many lately-found vases (of that kind for the honour of whose invention the ‘Tuscans have been made the competitors with the Greeks), which, though not so large as those collected from. the excavations of Lord Elgin at Athens, in the supposed tombs of Antiope and Euripides, and.
$32 LETTER XXII.
at Aigina, Argos, and Corinth, were yet very beautiful speci- mens of the arts, and, besides, suggested one: or two curious facts. In one of them, a foot perhaps in diameter, and half full of burnt bones, was a small thin strip of iron, on which was carved the name and the family of Solon. J am not aware that this record of the dead has before been noticed in the sepulchral vases.
The figures on the outside of another vase, much. less, - but more perfect, which were (as Mr. Lusieri remarked to me) de- signed, though with the greatest freedom, and perhaps by the hands of a common artist, yet with a spirit and truth not to be imitated by any modeyn artist, represented Charon ferrying two shades over the Styx ; and it was observable, that his boat was, to the nicest point of resemblance, exactly the same in shape as that now in use at Constantinople.
Small busts and fragments of statues are not unfrequently dug up in the grounds in the neighbourhood, or found in the wells. Some of the latter, lately discovered, show faint traces of colours, and prove beyond doubt, what late writers have endeavoured to esta- blish, that the earlier ancients had the practice of painting their sta- tues* ; which, though it may seem extraordinary, is not so much so, as that some of them should be composed of various mate- rials, marble, wood, ivory, and gold: however, we know this to
* A.L. Millan, in his memoir ona bas-relief of the Parthenon, notices this fact, observing, that the ground of the statues was generally blue, the hair and some parts of the body gilt; and the most accomplished antiquarian of the age, ina late magnificent work printed by the Dilletante, has treated of the same subject, and would be consulted with great advantage by every scholar and man of taste.
+ The Minerva of the Platzeans, made from the Marathonian spoils, had a
a face, hands, and feet (the work of Phidias) of marble; the other parts of the statue were of gold and wood.—Paus. Beeot.
LETTER XXII. 533 have been the case, as well as that their figures were dressed in different suits of materials, which were sometimes changed or embellished on particular days. ‘The eyes of most of the marble, and of nearly all the bronze heads, were of some sparkling stone, or else were tinged with a sort of encaustic colouring. Pausanias
speaks of a statue of Minerva, that had sea-green eyes, like Nep-
tune; indeed, it.does not seem at all improbable, that the epi- thets of Homer and Hesiod were strictly attended to, in the con- firmation and colouring of the representations, afterwards con- structed by the Grecian sculptors, of their numerous divinities,
Amongst other small antiquities discovered (as almost, all of them are): by excavating tumuli, I recollect being shown a. Flora of so singular a sort, as to establish, perhaps, the opinion, that the ancients. were acquainted with the sexual system of plants; for the upper part represented a female, with her mantle in front full of flowers, and the lower a male figure *.
Mirrors and other utensils of the toilet, alabaster lacrymato- ries, or rather those sepulchral phials which either contained essences, or, perhaps, the cleansing of the bones when washed in wine and milk, are frequently brought to the city by the pea- sants, who are aware of the anxiety of the Franks to obtain such relics, One of them sold me a very beautiful specimen of the
* Τὸ ἄμετρον ὠνδρεῖον ἀντῇ supported the folds of the mantle. This sort of representation is a favourite sepulchral emblem: I have seen at Athens, a little Bacchus holding up a large bowl in the same manner. The satyrs on monu- ments seem a type of this principle—the opposite to that of corruption.
+t See Remarks on Antiquities, Arts, and Letters, during an excursion in Italy in the years 1802 and 1803, by Jobn Forsyth, Esq. London, 1813, p. 328; a work written during a long captivity, which it ought to terminate.
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54 LETTER: XXII.
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first-mentioned curiosity for one piaster. One singular remnant of ancient times, in my small collection, | cannot forbear to men- tion: it is a sling-lead, exactly the shape of an almond-shell, weighing nearly a quarter of a pound*, having on one side the figure of a thunderbolt, and on the other the word AEZAI (‘lake this), in very plain letters. Another of these, in the possession ofan English gentleman, has the word ΦΙΔΙΠΠΩ, “το Philip;” so that the piece of unlucky humour recorded of Aster, who inscribed on an arrow— to Philip’s right eye,” was either not very original, or was afterwards commonly imitated by the witty Athenians.
The silver tetradrachm, and. a great variety of Athenian and other coins, may be collected with very little trouble; but for detailed observations on these and similar objects of curio- sity, I must refer you to the works of professed antiquarians, having by the foregoing hints endeavoured to awaken, rather than to satisfy, your curiosity ; and feeling that. I have been able to do little more than the pedant, who produced a single brick as a specimen of a whole building.
* Within seven pennyweights.
LETTER XXIII.
Ascent to the Acropolis—The Pelasgicon—The Cave of Apollo and Pan—The Entrance of the Citadel—The Propylea—The Parthenon—The Erecthéum—A Note on Lord Elgin’s Pur- suits in Greece—The Modern Citadel—The Turkish Garri-
807.
THERE are two roads of ascent to the gate of the citadel; one over the burying-ground to the left of the Odé.m, the other up a steep ill-paved path, commencing from about the middle of the back of the town. ‘There is a wall, making an out- work to the citadel, on your right hand, all the way as you ad- vance towards the entrance of the fortress. Just after you enter the gate of this outwork, there 1s a niche on the nght, where, in 1765, was a statue of Isis. A modern stone fountain is a little above this, and hither the inhabitants of the citadel come for water, as there is no well on the hill.
As you proceed upwards, the rock of the Acropolis 15 imme- diately over your left hand, and there is a little soil at the lower part of the steep acclivity, which has been ploughed, but now produces no grain, as the masses of rubbish and large stones falling from the rocks above, must have rendered all labour abor-
tive. Yet this, as we must give credit to the comments on the | Xx 2
LETTER XXIIFE.
earlier history of Athens, was the portion allotted to the people. called Pelasgi, who fortified the Acropolis, and were afterwards expelled from Attica for their conduct to the Athenian virgins. The Pelasgicon cannot be more than an acre in extent, and that spread on the rocky sides of a steep hill; a confined territory for a people who dared to rouse the vengeance of the Athenians, and who were thought worthy of a particular execration by the Del- phian oracle.
On the left hand also, about half way up the hill, is the cave of Apollo and Pan, which would not be observed, were it not for the stories of ancient mythology which it calls to mind. It is small, and by no means deep, and retains nothing remarkable but two or three square ledges, contrived, most probably, for the reception of votive tablets. The altar of Pan was raised by Kvander the Arcadian, in a similar recess in the side of the Pa- latine hill.
Above this spot, near which the Persians sealed the walls of the Acropolis, the path climbs the hill, taking a direction rather
; } ᾿ εἴς Be UH Op Υ ced, τυ rs τ to the left, and you arrive at where a gate in the wall, to the
right, leads out over the Turkish burying-ground: ascending
thence, straight to the east, you come to the first gate of the citadel, which is furnished with large wooden doors, seldom shut : passing through this, there is, on your right, a small wooden building, and immediately, on the same side, you look into the area of the Odéum.
You pass on upwards to the second gate, the wooden doors of which are shut at night, and entering, have on your right hand an open shed, where a guard of ‘Turks is stationed. Advancing beyond the second gate, you still continue to ascend, but inclin-
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ing to your left, until you see at your right the ruins of the Pro- pylea, and turning round, pass close under them, to get further up into tke Acropolis. You turn again to your left, under a square tower, built partly by the Venetians, partly by the Turks, out of the mass of marble remains. ‘The lower part of it is now used as a prison, and has a small iron door of entrance to the dungeons, but was in 1070 a powder-magazine.
You then pass to the left, at the back of the ruins of the Pro- pylea, and see three of the five door-ways. originally behind the columns. of that building, and constituting the ancient entrances to the Acropolis. ‘The intercolumniations of the colonnade, an hexastyle, have been walled up, and a terrace, mounted with a battery of cannon, has been raised on a level with the top of the pillars, formed of rubbish and the ruins of the roof, cell, and columns, of the portico of the Propylea, destroyed by the Ve- netians in 1687.—The 'l'emple of Victory, once on the right of the Propylea, was blown up in 1656; the last memorial of its existence was carried away by Lord Elgin, who, from a wall belonging to a rampart attached to the tower, obtained the frag- ment of sculpture, supposed by Chandler to represent: the battle of the Amazons, but decided at last to be the combat of the Athenians and Persians. But a room, to which the entrance is through a hole in the wall, and whose roof-is part of the cell of this Temple, is still notorious for the wonder men- tioned by Chandler, the miraculous hght*. ‘There was a tower, corresponding to that on the opposite wing, standing over the ‘Temple of Victory, when Wheler travelled, but this quarter is now buried under accumulated ruins, and choked up amongst the
* This light is transmitted through a piece of the transparent stone called Phengites.
o wr ~~ <r - 7 338 LETTER xXxIII.
mean white-washed cottages belonging to the few inhabitants of the citadel. ‘The painted building (οιχημα Exon γραφας), on the left wing of the Propylea, is also destroyed, but part of it serves as a foundation for the tower before-mentioned.
On the right, as you advance beyond the tower towards the site of the Parthenon, in a poor house, lives the Disdar, or go- vernor of the castle.
The Parthenon stood on the highest flat area of the hill of the Acropolis ; and, when the temples on every side of it were stand- ing, whose ruins now serve as foundations for the modern build- ings, this magnificent structure appeared to crown a glittering assemblage of marble edifices; and the eye of the Athenian, sur- veying from below the fair gradation of successive wonders, rested at last upon the colossal unage of his Goddess, rising majestic from the summit of her own Temple, the genius of the Acropolis, the tutelary deity of Athens and of Greece.
The ascent to the citadel itself was by a long flight of steps, beginning nearly from the Areopagus. ‘'he very walls of the fortifications were crowned with an ornamental entabiature, parts of which still remain ; and these, and every other structure, were of the purest Pentelic marble. No wonder then that the Acro- polis, in its whole circuit, was regarded as one vast offering con- secrated to the Divinity. ‘The portion of the Parthenon yet standing, cannot fail to fill the mind of the most indifferent spec- tator with sentiments of astonishment and awe, and the same re- flections arise upon the sight even of the enormous masses of marble ruins which are spread upon the area of the Temple. Such scattered fragments will soon constitute the sole remains of the Temple of Minerva.
If the progress of decay should continue to be as rapid as it
LETTER XXIII. 339
has been for something more than a century past, there will, in a few years, be not one marble standing upon another on the site of the Parthenon. . In 1667, every antiquity of which there is now any trace in the Acropolis, was in a tolerable state of pre- servation*. ‘his great Temple might, at that period, be called
entire :—having been previously a Christian church, it was then a mosck, the most beautiful in the world. At present, only twenty-nine of the Doric columns, some of which no longer
support their entablatures, and part of the left wall of the cell, ‘remain standing. ‘Those of the north side, the angular ones ex- cepted, have all fallen: the dipteral porches, especially the Pro- naos, contain the greatest number, and these retain their enta- blatures and pediments, though much injured.
In the interval between two of my visits to the Acropolis, a large piece of the architrave belonging to the exterior colonnade of the Pronaos fell down; all the sculptures from the tympanum
* The Sieur Deshayes (the first who travelled to Athens, and who saw the Temple of Victory aimost perfect) in 1625; Nointel and Galland, in 1674; Spon and Wheler, in 1675 and 1676; Lord Winchelsea in 1676, and Vernon; all of whom visited Athens previous to the siege of the city by Morosini, saw the Acropolis, less changed, perhaps, from its ancient state, than it has been from the condition in which it then stood, in the short period subsequent to the days of those travellers. Pococke, Lord Sandwich, Leroi, Stuart, and Chan- dler, beheld only the ruins of ruins, many of which have since perished—etiam periere ruine. Even M.de Choiseul’s second work, when published, will repre- sent many remains not at present to be seen, for he travelled in 1784; and though Mr. Fauvel, who has been occupied at intervals since the year 1780, in assisting the compilation of Mr. de C.’s Voyage Pittoresque, will be able to add the description of some smaller antiquities to the account of those before known, yet very many of the grand monuments of art, for which Athens has been before visited, have within these ten years disappeared.
340 LETTER XXIII.
of this porch have been destroyed ; and the trunks and broken arms of two figures, incorrectly supposed Hadrian and Sabina, or two deities with the heads of those persons, are all now re- maining of the grand piece of sculpture which represented the birth of Minerva, and Jupiter in the midst of the assembled Gods. The figure of the Victory, which was on the right of Jupiter, has been recovered by Lord Elgin’s agents, who demo- lished a ‘Turkish house close to the north-west angle of the Tem- ple, for the purposes of excavation, and found it, as well as small parts of the Jupiter, the Vulcan, and the Minerva, underneath the modern building, where they had lain since the Venetians had unsuccessfully attempted to remove them in 1687*.
Many of the sculptures on the ninety-two metopes of the peri- style, representing the battle of the Lapithe and the Centaurs, particularly those on the entablature of the south side, were almost entire in 1767. I believe there is not one now remaining: the last were taken down by Lord Elgin.
All that was left of the sculpture on the eastern porch, the contest between Minerva and Neptune, has been carried off by the same person. ‘The marks of the separation are still very ap- parent. Ignorant of the cause, I pointed them out to Mr. Lu- sieri himself, who informed me of the fact, and showed the places in the pediment whence the two female colossal statues, the Nep- tune, the ‘Theseus, and the inimitable horse’s head, still remem- bered and regretted by all at Athens, had been removed. Such of the statues as had before fallen, had been ground to powder
* The ropes by which, under the direction of General Koenigsmark, the workmen were lowering them, broke, and many fine figures were dashed to pieces. Lord Elgin has reaped the advantage of the sacrilege of the Venetians.
LETTER: ΧΧΙΙΥ. 34)
by the Turks. It is but fair to mention this fact, at the same time that the other circumstance is recorded.
One hundred and seventy of the six hundred feet of bas-relief sculpture on the frize of the cell, representing the Panathenzan procession, remained entire in the time of Chandler. A portion of it, containing seven figures, was taken down from its situation by M. de Choiseul Gouffier, and is now in the Napoleon mu- seum. I know not whether the collection of our Ambassador contains any of this precious sculpture, too exquisite not to have been executed according to the design, and under the superin- tendance, of Phidias himself*. Most part of that portion of it on the wall of the Pronaos, yet remains; and by means of a ruined staircase, once belonging to a minaret built against one of the columns of that portico, I managed to get on the top of the colonnade, and by leaning at full length over the architrave, had a sufficiently close inspection of the work to be convinced, that this sculpture, though meant to be viewed at a distance of forty feet at least from below, is as accurately and minutely exe- cuted, as if it had been originally designed to be placed near the
eye of the spectator}. Some equestrian figures are remarkably
entire, and retain to this day the animation and freshness with which they issued from the hands of the artist.
Within the cell of the Temple all is desolation and ruin; the shafts of columns, fragments of the entablatures, and of the
* Ictinus and Callicrates were the scholars of Phidias, who were more par- ticularly the architects of the Parthenon.
+ The learned author, however, of the dissertation prefixed to the great work lately published by the Dilletante, seems to think, and perhaps correctly, that the distant effect was alone intended and studied.
at
342 LETTER XXIII.
beams of the roof, are scattered about on every side, but espe- cially on the north of the area, where there are vast piles of mar- ble. I measured one piece, seventeen feet in length, and of pro- portionate breadth and thickness. ‘lhe floor, also of marble, has been broken up towards the eastern front, and in the south- east angle of the area, is the wretched mosck, as well as some stone-work of the Greek church, into which the Parthenon was formerly converted. A dent in the floor is pointed out as being occasioned by the shell which blew up a powder-magazine, and destroyed the roof of the ‘Temple, when bombarded by Morosini.
Besides the vast magnitude of the marbles composing the Par- thenon, which, perhaps, is more easily remarked in the fallen ruins than in the parts of the building yet standing, there is an- other just cause for admiration, in the exquisite care and skill with which every portion of the architecture appears to have been wrought. ‘The work on the Ovolos and Cavettos is as highly finished in the fragments of the enormous cornices, formerly placed at so considerable a height from the ground, as the minute parts in the lower portion of the building. The same uninter- rupted perfection is observable in the flutings of the shafts, in all the mouldings of the capitals, and particularly in the tambours of the fallen columns, whose surfaces are smoothed to such a de- gree of exactness and nicety, as to render the junctures of the blocks almost undiscoverable.
‘he part of the area the most clear from ruins, is towards the north-west angle, and the western entrance, where the grooves in the floor, formed by opening and shutting the folding-doors of the Temple, are still very discernable. Faint marks of the painted saints, with which the. Christians disfigured the interior of their
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LETTER XXIII. 3435
Pagan edifice, are just visible on the walls of the south side of the cell.
Of the Opisthodomos, the Athenian treasury, at the back, or eastern portico of the Parthenon, there are now no traces to be seen; but Lord Elgin’s agents discovered some columnar inscrip- tions, before alluded to by Chandler, of great antiquity*.
Descending from the ruins of the Parthenon to the north, you pass through a lane or two of white-washed cottages in ruins, before you come to the remains of the Erecthéum, and the ad- joining chapel of Pandrosos. In that portion of the Erecthéum which was dedicated to Minerva Polias, the columns of the front porch are standing, but without any part of their entablature, and unsupported by the walls of the cell, the whole of the south side of which was destroyed during the short war between Eng- land and Turkey, and now lies in heaps at the back of the columns, and in the area of the Temple. ‘I'he corner one of these columns, the best specimen of the Ionic in the world, with its base and capital, has been removed by Lord Elgin to England. The re- mainder will soon fall.
The marble of this ruin is of a virgin whiteness, and the work-
mauship, as the structure is very diminutive in comparison with
the specimens of the Parthenon, isa still more exquisite example
than that ‘Temple, of the polish and edge which were given to all the parts of Grecian architecture. The line of no pencil can
excel the delicate accuracy of contour in the swell of the torus
* The whole length of the Parthenon was two hundred and eighteen feet, and its breadth ninety-cight feet and a half, reckoning the flight of three steps upon which the structure was raised. The columns were forty-two feet high. The Opisthodomos was separated from the anterior nave of the Temple by a wall.
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3544. LETTER RXTE
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and the ornaments of the base; and_the hand, in passing repeat-
edly over the marble, seeks in vain for the slightest inequality, or even roughness, on the surface.
The proportions of this joint Temple are but small; when nearly entire, in 1736, the whole building was but sixty-three feet in length, thirty-six in breadth, and not twenty feet high, but the Erecthéum is, in its kind, as complete a proof of the genius and skill of the Greeks as the ‘T'emple of Minerva.
From the columns of the Temple of Minerva Polias you come to that portion of the building which was dedicated to Neptune and Erectheus, and where the wall of the cell is still standing, and, by the help of modern masonry, now serves as a powder- magazine for the supply of the citadel. Here the pillars support, in part, their frize and cornice, as highly finished as the bases of the colunins, but much of the shafts of the columns is hidden by the modern wall that fills up the intercolumniations. Within the building, in a part composing the vestibule of the Temple of Neptune, is some fine architecture, consisting of an Ionic door, which was designed by Lord Elgin’s artists, but is now not to be seen.
On passing round the portico, you have on your left the marble wall of the cell entire; and at the end of this, there is a plece of plastered wall, now fillmg up the open-work of the small Chapel of Pandrosos, between the images that yet remain of the famous Caryatides which supported the entablature of the building. ‘There is one of these images before you come to the corner of the chapel, and the angular one remains, but the place of the next, which Lord Elgin has transported to England, 15. now filled up
with mortar, so that there are now only three of the four statues
LETTER XXIII. 345
originally supporting this front looking towards the Parthenon. One of the Caryatides had been carried away, or destroyed on the spot, before the year 1736. On the plaster wall, on the west side of the chapel, these words have been very deeply cut:
QUOD NON FECERUNT GOTI HOC FECERUNT SCOTI*.
The mortar wall, yet fresh when we saw it, supplying the place of the statue now 1n the noble Ambassador’s museum, serves as a
comment on this text.
* This eulogy of the Goths alludes to the unfounded story of a Greck his- torian, who relates that Alaric, either terrified by two phantoms, one of Mi- nerva herself, the other of Achilles, terrible as when he strode towards the walls of Troy to his friends, or struck with a reverenual respect, had spared the treasures, ornaments, and people, of the venerable city.
This may be as good a place as any other, to say a word on the proceedings of the person whose conduct is contrasted with that of the barbarian.
We heard, I fancy, every thing that could be alleged by either party on both sides of the question, and being on the spot when the most furious strug- gles were made by both the French and English to gain their point, may be better judges of the facts than those who have since. examined the matter at a distance from the scene of action.
My Lord Elgin’s agents are not accused on account of any of their excava- tions, or carrying off the numerous articles they discovered by those proceed- ings: their rifling of ancient tombs, and pulling down modern houses to get at buried remains, was on all hands allowed to be a fair and laudable proceed- ing, as was also the modelling of the reliefs and other sculptures. The part of conduct objected to, was the not being content with the casts, which was all ihe French wanted or obtained when in power, without the possession of the originals, and by that means hastening the decay, and defacing the ancient monuments, so as for ever to diminish considerably the gratification of future travellers and artists.
The injuries seem to be these :—The taking off the metopes, the statue over
." “ν᾽ ᾿ = ow . ve 340 ; LETTER ΧΧΙΠΙ͂ν
The Erectheum was sacred in the eyes of the ancient Athenians. and may still be regarded with veneration by the modern travel- ler, as being the spot where Minerva contended with Neptune; and the triple building must appear, even to us, in some degree
the Theatre of Bacchus, and the statues of the western pediment of the Par- thenon ; and the carrying away one of the Caryatides, and the finest of the co- lumns of the Erecthéum. No other come, I believe, within the limits of cen- sure—no other marbles were detached.
It may be enquired, what excuse can be offered for such a spoliation? It is answered, the French De Choiseul Gouffier detached part of the frize of the Parthenon many years past. Some of the persons employed in collecting for his museum, and assisting his projects, still remain at Athens, and have the same views, which nothing but inability have prevented them from accomplish- ing; they had evena plan for carrying off the whole of the Temple of The- seus!!! They only complain because they envy our success, and would them- selves have been masters of the same treasures. To this the others reply, ‘¢ With the exception of De Gouffier, no one of us ever injured the temples—we have often had it in our power—we went to great ex pence in modelling and de- signing, which would have been unnecessary, had we resolved to take the ori- ginals—you, yourselves, when you first seitied here, professed πὸ more; we looked on without opposing you; we were your friends—you have not only robbed, but treacherously robbed !’’
The answer is, ** We are no robbers, we bought, and dearly bought, every article. Admitting your facts, we only took that which would have been de- stroyed by the Turks, and which was in a state of dilapidation—it was better the sculptures of the Parthenon should be preserved in a museum in England, than ground to powder on their own bases—we took nothing from the Theséum, because it was exposed to no such eminent peril.”
The last retort of the French is, ‘“* The case was the same with respect to both ; but having been prevented from ruining the latter, you take merit to yourselves for a moderation which was not voluntary. When you talk of buy- ing the right to deface the finest remains of all antiquity, you seem to put out of the question all the proprieties which might in such a case be expected to regulate the conduct of the artist, thescholar, and the gentleman.”
LETTER! MXILUI. 547
sanctified by the superstition, which believed that each portion of the 'l'emple retained some undoubted evidence of that memorable event. ‘I'he heaven-descended statue of the protectress of the city was religiously preserved in her own fane; the mark of the trident, and the salt fountain bursting trom the cleft whence the horse issued from the earth, and where the murmur of the sea was often to be heard, were long pointed out near the altar of Nep-
This is, as well as I recollect, the sum of every thing adduced on cither side, and reduces at once the question to the two points—Would the French have removed, or endeavoured to remove, the ernamental sculptures alluded to? or, if they would not, were those precious remains likely to have been speedily destroyed by their barbarian masters?—It is certain, that if the Turks remain for many more years in possession of Athens, every valuable anti- quity will be entirely destroyed. But the French contemplate the chance of Greece being soon attached to the. dominions of Napoleon :—in that case, not even our nationality would prefer a possession of some of their broken parts to their integrity in the hands of an enlightened enemy. It is not the vanity of being the owners of sucha treasure, but the wish to advance the fine arts in civilized Europe, that.should influence the conduct of any collectors; but without enquiring into motives, it is pretty evident, that an infinitely greater number of rising architects and sculptors must derive benefit from these studies, if they can be pursued in a museum at London or Paris, than if they were to be sought in the Turkish territories; and surely, we can hardly complain, if they are to be found in our capital. Present travellers may feel a little morti- fication, and those who are utterly incapable of appreciating the merit of the remains in question, wherever they may be fixed, will join in the fashionable clamour of the day. I have said nothing of the possibility of the ruins of Athens being, in the event of a revolution in favour of the Greeks, restored and put into a condition capable of resisting the ravages of decay; for an event of that nature cannot, it strikes me, have ever entered into the head of any one who has seen Athens, and the modern Athenians. Yet I cannot forbear men- tioning a singular speech of a learned Greek of Ioannina, who said to me,
348 LETTER XXIIF.
tune; and the chapel of Pandrosos preserved within its sacred inclosure, as late as the time of Pausanias, the trunk of the olive which had given victory to the goddess, and a name to the city of Athens.
Below the Erectheum there is a battery, where there are two cannons, which are used by the ‘Turks to announce the Bairam, or any extraordinary intelligence from the Porte. This battery immediately overlooks the town, presenting a better view of it than any other quarter of the Acropolis, and I have seen several Turkish ladies, on a fine day, walking on this side of the ramparts,
and leaning over the battlements, to enjoy the amusing murmur
that rises from the city below.
The part of the citadel where the modern fortifications are most entire, is to the east, a few paces below the posterior front of the Parthenon, where they were refitted about fifty years ago. Look- ing out through one of the embrasures, you there find yourself
‘¢ You English are carrying off the works of the Greeks, our forefathers—pre- serve them well—we Greeks will come and re-demand them.”
A curious notion prevailing amongst the common Athenians, with respect to the ancient statues, is, that they are real bodies, mutilated and enchanted into their present state of petrifaction by magicians, who will have power over them as long as the Turks are masters of Greece, when they will. be trans- formed into their former bodies. ‘The spirit within them is called an Arabim, and is not unfrequently heard to moan and ‘bewail its condition. Some Greeks, in our time, conveying a chest from Athens to Pireus, containing part of the Elgin marbles, threw it down, and could not for some time be prevailed upon to touch it, again affirming, they heard the Arabim crying out, and groaning for his fellow-spirits detained in bondage in the Acropolis. It is to be added, that the Athenians consider the condition of these enchanted marbles will be bet- tered by a removal from the country of the tyrant Turks.
LETTER ΧΧΙΙῚ 349
at the verge of a very cousiderable precipice, with the Albanian quarter of the town in the depth below, at a distance which much diminishes every object.
The craggy cliffs on this side of the citadel afford the most im- posing view of the Acropolis, and are in appearance so inaccessi- ble as to strike any spectator at once with the improbability of the notion entertained by Stuart, and now adopted by Mr, Fau- vel, of the eastern front having been the principal entrance of the Parthenon: for, as that fagade is almost immediately over the rocks, the ‘Temple, if its door was to the east, must have had the look of-being unapproachable. ‘The first conjecture of Spon, who ‘saw the contest of the rival deities in the remains of the figures on the eastern pediment, has not, I think, been shaken by any late discoveries*. If it should be stated, that the well- known description in Ovid evidently points at this pediment of the Parthenon, and that therefore the principal front was on the same side, it may be answered, that, in describing the contest of Mi- nerva with Arachne, it was more to the poet's purpose to allude to the former victory of the goddess than her birth, which was the subject of the sculpture on the anterior front.
The crevices of the rocks on this side of the citadel contain the nests of innumerable flocks of daws and crows, which hover
* See the argument stated in Critical Observations on Anacharsis, by M. Barbié du Boccage, in note to plate xix, representing the two pediments of the Parthenon, such as they were in 1674.
+ The Scholar who has drawn up an account of Lord Elgin’ Pursuits in Greece, has decided the ‘“‘scopulum Mavortis” of Ovid (Metam. lib, vi. fab. 2), not to mean the Areopagus, but the eastern cliffs of the Acropolis.
ZZ
350 LETTER XXIIl.
round the hill, but are thought never to soar above the Par- thenon™.
You can continue to go round the ramparts to the south of the Parthenon, overlooking the Theatre of Bacchus, without being interrupted, except by the ruins of four or five ‘Turkish cottages, and blocks of fallen masses, until you come nearly parallel to
the western front of the ‘'emple, where the way is completely
* This was an ancient superstition. Dr. Chandler, by no means a credulous personage, says, that he never saw a crow mount above the summit of the ‘Temple; but the margin opposite to this remark of our traveller, in a copy lent to me at Athens, contained these words, ‘‘ J’ai vue des milles sur le Par- thenon.” I affirmed the same to a resident at Athens, a gentleman fond of aus thorities, who said, ‘¢ ‘he daws you may have seen; not the crows.”
+ Itshould have been remarked, that in Stuart’s Ruins of Athens, the Odéum is called the Theatre of Bacchus, as it had before been by Wheler, who sup posed the semicircular area under the cave of Panagia Spiliotissa to have been part of a Gymnasium constructed by Thrasyllus, and looked upon the remains of Pnyxas the Odéum; but Dr. Chandler’s opinion has been here followed, notwithstanding the later authority of the plans of Anacharsis, which adhere to Stuart’s disposition of the antiquities in question. The only difficulty which Chandler appears not to have surmounted, is the vicinity of the Odéum to En- neacrounos, placed by himself in the dell near the [lissus, and, therefore, ne- cessarily near the south-east angle of the Acropolis, not the south-west angle. The words of Pausanias are express: πλησίον de (τξ Q’deiz) ess κρήνη καλοῦσι χαὶ ἀντὴν ΕἸ νγνεώκρουνον. However, the grotto containing the tripod engraved with the story of Apollo and. Diana slaying Niobe’s children, mentioned by the same author as being above the seats of the spectators, corresponds exactly with the chapel of Panagia Spiliotissa, and as I could not observe any cave (although Wheler did) above the other theatre, seems to me almost to settle the controversy. The 28th cap. lib. iv. of Meursius’ Attic. Lectiones, collects all ihe ancient mentions of the Odéum—built by Pericles, burnt by Sylla, and re- stored by King Ariobarzanes. Atticus Herodes has by some been thought te have constructed a third theatre.
LETTER XXIII. 351
choked up by large masses of ruins, and a few mean houses, the beginning of a quarter of the citadel in which the Disdar 15 1 } lodged
Lig
and some of the soldiers with their families belonging to the garrison. ‘hese soldiers, called Castriani by the Athenians, are only one hundred and twenty-five in number, and of these the
greater part, when not on duty, live in the town below. ‘The only
service of the Castriani is, to holloa out several times during the night, to inform the citizens below of their vigilance, and to fire the cannon and display the fire-works usual on their festivals, from the battery under the Erecthéum.
The citadel, which even in modern times was considered a for- midable fortification, and is called by one writer (Nich Gerbhel*), ‘‘arx munitissima,’ would now be unable to make any resistance. There are only twenty-seven cannons mounted throughout the whole fortress, and of these only seven are fit for service. Three of them are of a great length; they were presented by the late Sultan Selim, and are placed on the battery over the Propylea. The Disdar is an officer of no consideration, his pay being only one hundred and thirty piasters per annum, (his soldiers have only ten), and he is subject to the orders of the Waiwode of the city.
It is not difficult, in viewing the walls of the citadel, to trace the Greek foundation, and the Turkish and Venetian super- structure of the ramparts. On one or two of the parts, where there was no necessity for modern fortification, the old Athenian walls are all that are to be seen, and continue the sole defence of the rock. ‘This is the case on the angle to the north-west, near
the site of the Temple of Victory. In this part Antiquarians have
* Ina book called ** Pro Declaratione Picture sive Descriptionis Sophiani 3 4 libri septem,’” which I have never seen.
oO ig 7 Z L a
852 LETTER. XxX NILI,
seen, or fancied themselves to have seen, the successive architec- ture of three different periods, the Cecropian, the Pelasgic, and that of the age of Pericles.
From every quarter of the Acropolis there are the most agree- able prospects: that from the top of the Propylea, which looks towards the Pireus, is the most extensive, but so soft and blended, in the nearest fore-ground and the farthest distance, as to seem an unbroken perspective, from the corn-fields, vineyards, and olive-grounds of Athens, over the long line of coast, and the smooth expanse of the Saronic Gulf, to the high lands of Salamis and gina, and the faint outlines of the Peloponesian hills.
The flat space on the rock of the Acropolis is not more than eight hundred feet in length, and about half as many in breadth * ; a small extent for the site of the primitive city of the Athenians -, but an area of great size, when considered as the base only of temples and marble palaces, containing not a single structure which might not be justly denominated a masterpiece of Art.
* ΤΊ should be understood, that in the few occasional hints at the proportions and sizes of some of the Athenian antiquities, I have not quoted from any notes of my own, but from former details, which may be found to differ with the measurements of those travellers, whose works I was, at the time of writing these Letters, unable so consult.
+ On account of its having been the primitive city, the Acropolis continued,
even inthe time of Thucydides, to be called Πόλις, the city. Καλεῖται.
νι ε , ᾿ ~ ’ e \ ? / / . ee κα! ἢ Αὐκρόπολις μέχρι TBOE ἔτι νπο A’ Sevotwv 7oAts.— Lib. 11, Cap. ὃ;
LETTER XXIV.
The Vicinity of Athens—Climate in Winter—The Gardens—The Olive-Groves—Method of Watering then—The Site of the Academy—Route to the Pireus—The Munychian Promon-
tory--Country immediately to the South of Athens.
THE neighbourhood of Athens abounds in pleasant rides; and the roads, which are numerous, are generally broad and well beaten. Notwithstanding we were in the country dur- ing the depth of winter, the weather was never so inclement as to prevent an excursion on horseback, and scarcely a day elapsed without our riding to some distance from the city. For this pur- pose we were furnished with horses belouging to the Post, one of the few institutions which are well regulated in Turkey ; and before our final departure, there were, I fancy, very few spots in Attica with which we were not perfectly acquainted, from repeated visits during more than two months residence in the city.
Having alluded to the climate, let me observe, that to the northern constitution of an Englishman the Athenian winters are not, commonly, so rigorous, as, from ancient accounts, you might be led to expect. After having found it agreeable to bathe, a little before Christmas, at ‘Thebes, where a poet of the country describes the cold to be so excessive as to freeze up the spirits of all nature, both animate and inanimate, and to inflict upon man
354 LETTER 2XX1LY¥:
himself the miseries of a premature decay *, it will not be sup- posed that the inclemency of Attica was to us such as to be severely felt.
T’he winter in this country. generally sets in about the begin- ning of January, and in the middle of that month the snows begin to fall. ‘They were a little earlier in 1810, and, being ac- companied with a strong north-east wind, made the cold rather unpleasant for two or three days, and drove large flights of wild turkies and woodcocks into the plain close to the city. After the snows are down, which seldom are seen for more than a few days, except on the summits of the mountains, where they remain about a month, there are three weeks of fine weather, frosty and cold in the mornings and evenings, but with a clear blue sky, and the sun shining hotly in the middle of the day. The natives then wear their warmest pellices, and burn large fires of wood, brought into the city by the peasants who dwell on the sides of Mount Parnes. Rain falls, but scarcely ever with any violence, in the middle of February; and, at the end of that month and the be- ginning of March, if there is no frost, the north-west wind blows furiously; I found it to be so high on the 23d, and the two fol- lowing days of February, as to be unable to walk without great difficulty; but I cannot say that I experienced that debility, and those effects on the nervous system, which are said to attend this much-dreaded tempest, the Sciron of the ancient Athenians 7".
* Hesiod. Epy. και Hy. + Pliny «Nat. Hist. lib. ii. cap. 46), talks of the Sciron, as a wind peculiar to Attica—‘* Ut Atheniensibus Sciron, paulum ab Argeste deflexus, reliqux
Greciz ignotus.” Baron de Riedesel, in his Voyage au Levant, p. 291, gives Atttica the cli.
LETTER XXIV. 355
The spring commences about the end of the same month, and
at that period, and sometimes earlier in the year, the sky is over- cast with hot heavy clouds, which settle-on Parnes and Brilessus, the mountains to the north of Athens, and are the certain signs of an approaching thunder-storm, and occasionally of earthquakes. This was the case on the 13th of February. These signs were known and consulted by the ancient inhabitants of this region, who, by repeated observation of the summits of their hills, one of which, Hymettus, is close to Athens, became such adepts in meteorology, as to regulate their conduct by their prognostica- tions. A transparent vapour on the tops of Hymettus is accom- panied by a strong sirocco, or south-east wind, as Τ have myself observed, and at that time the sky becomes less clear than usual, notwithstanding there are no black clouds, and the weather, although the sun is not to be seen, is oppressively warm. Such part of the marble ruins as are exposed to this wind, are found to have suffered a more rapid decay than the remainder of the edifices ; but nothing can be a better proof of the general dry- ness of the Attic air, than the wonderful state of preservation in which the most delicate, as well as the most ancient, portions of the remains are at this day found, after having been exposed to all varieties of weather for more than two thousand years.
The corn in the plain of Athens, which is cut in May, is very high at the beginning of March; and then also the vines begin to sprout, the olive-groves to bud, and the almond-trees, of
which there is a great number in the neighbouring gardens,. are
mate of Petersburgh, and avers, that the snows remain on the mountains eight months out of the twelve. The Baron was at Athensa week in Aucust; and no one would think, from perusing his book, that he had been there at all.
3450 LETTER XXIV.
so covered with their white and purple blossom, as to impart their varied hues to the face of the whole country. ‘The spring vege- tables may also be procured at that early season, particularly lettuces, of which a large bundle can be bought for a para.
The region immediately to the north and north-west of the city, a plain of an irregularly oval shape, is interspersed with small vil- lages, hidden in shady groves; and the modern Athenians, who are equally fond with their ancestors of the luxury of a summer retreat, and who are induced, both by custom and temperament, ‘to prefer vegetables and fruits to less cooling diet, reckon nearly a thousand gardens in the circuit of their small territory. 'To many of these there are attached kiosks, or country-houses, ill-constructed in- deed, being the lower part. of them of mud, and the upper of badly jointed planks, but still capable of affording an agreeable shelter during the intolerable heats of summer. Some of these gardens are near villages, under the hills at some distance from the city, such as Kevrishia, the ancient Cephisia, at the foot of Mount Pentelicus, and Callandri, in the same quarter.; but the large tract of them is in the long line of olive-groves which form the western boundary of the plain of Athens. ‘The district wa- tered by the Cephissus, in the neighbourhood of the site of the Academy, and the Colonus Hippius, about twenty minutes walk from the gate leading to Thebes, is to the south called Sepolia, and to the north Patisia, and is divided into those extensive grounds which are particularly allotted for supplying the city with fruit and vegetables, and are for the most part not cultivated by their owners, but let out to the peasants of the villages. A large garden of an acre and a half, was pointed out to me as being let annually for two hundred and fifty piasters.
The olive-groves of Athens are also on this side of the city,
3 LETTER XXIV. 397
but they extend fur beyond Sepolia and Patisia, both to the north
and south, and run in a curved line of seven or eight miles in length, and of an unequal breadth, from one to three miles, com- mencing not far from the northern extremity of the range of low hills called Anchesmus, and ending a mile and a half, perhaps, from the Munychian promontory. ‘They must have increased, even in extent, since the time of Chandler, if the description of that traveller is, as usual, correct; and they told us at Athens, that the number of trees planted of late years had been very con- siderable, and having been set too thickly, had much injured the old woed.
Besides this large olive wood in the plain of Athens, there are other groves in the neighbourhood of several of the villages ; and in addition to thirty-six olive-presses-in the capital, there are eight others in various parts of Attica, of which you will hear in another place*.
The Cephissus, a sort of ditch-stream, almost dry in summer, and in winter only a torrent, flowing from Cephissia, under Mount Pentelicus, passes through the extent of olive-groves and gardens, each of which it serves, by turns, to water. ‘The watering of the olive-groves commences the 24th of September, and ends the 6th of April, and is effected by raising 2 low mound round eight or nine trees, and then introducing the stream through dykes, so as to keep
the roots and part of the trunks under water for the necessary length of time. Each owner waters his grove for thirty or forty hours, and pays a para a tree to the Waiwode, or to him who has farmed the
revenue from that officer. During this period, the peasants con- There are two at Koukouvaones; one at Menithi: one at Casha: two at
Yerika ; two at Keratéa; villages whose sites will be mentioned hereafter.
Sua
58
struct huts with boughs, and are mutually watchful, both day and night, neither to lose their own portion, nor allow to others an unfair abundance of the valuable streams. I have several times seen their fires amongst the trees; and, as they watch in parties, and mix, as usual, much mirth with their employment, have heard the sound of their voices, and the tinkling music of
their guitars, on returning to Athens from an evening’s ride.
The precious water of the Cephissus is the property of the Waiwode only during the season of watering the olive wood; for the remaining months the owners of the gardens, in a proportion settled by long usage, divert the stream into their grounds for one, two, or three hours, in a week or fortnight, according to the bargain at which they have hired or purchased their land. The same jealousy is manifested on this as on the other occasion. The instant that the stream is turned into the required channel, a public inspector, who is called ““ Dragatis too nero,” and is always in attendance, turns his hour-glass, and the gardener also measures the time in the same manner, other Greeks frequently being present to prevent coljusion, and cut off the rivulet imme- diately on the expiration of the stipulated hour. Besides this periodical irrigation of the gardens, those who can afford to pro- cure such an advantage, buy water from the owners of several reservoirs, which have been constructed amongst the gardens, and on the banks of the Cephissus..
‘Throughout the whole range of the olive-groves and gardens, ἡ are to be seen small remains, sepulchral stele, shafts of columns, and particularly the marble mouths of ancient wells, which retain the deeply-indented marks of the ropes used in letting down and raising the buckets. A very beautiful specimen of one of
LETTER XXIv. 359
them is now in a large garden at the side of the river, twenty minutes walk beyond the Colonus Hippius. It is a foot and a half high, and, near the rim, ornamented with festoons in ele-
gant sculpture, and serves for the mouth of a well, perhaps the
same for which it was originally constructed. ‘The bucket lying by it isa dried gourd, scooped out, and attached to a rope of twisted hay.
One might fairly expect to meet with something to satisfy the curiosity of the antiquarian in every part οἵ this celebrated re- gion ; for not only Athens, but Attica, was the handywork of the Gods and ancient heroes*, and no less abounding in the mo- numents of former splendour than the city itself. Polemo Perie- getés composed four books, consisting solely of a catalogue of the gifts dedicated in the Acropolis ; and, says Strabo, it would have required as many more to mention those contained in the other parts of the city, and in the towns. Yet, by a perverseness of fortune, the very supereminence and celebrity of Attica, have prevented her towns and positions from being so minutely de- scribed as those of other parts of Greece, and the geographer has said but little of this territory, because afraid of entering into too extensive a detail, and of telling what was universally known. The work of Pausanias informs us, however, of the chapels and statues, and points out the tombs of the illustrious dead, imme- diately in the vicinity of the capital, and adds to the gratification to be enjoyed whilst roaming over the pleasant walks on every side contiguous to modern Athens.
In passing from the town towards the site of the Academy and
* Hegesias in Strab. p. 396. SA 2
360 LETTER XXIV.
the Colonus Hippius* (which is now a small rocky eminence, just
out of the olive-groves, about north-north-east from the Acropolis, with a Greek chapel on it), you would be pleased with the thought, that you are treading on the graves once filled with the ashes of Thrysabulus, Pericles, Chabrias, and Phormio+, whose inscribed monuments, as well as those of all the great men (except the heroes of Marathon) who fell in battle, were carefully preserved, and pointed out to the enquiring traveller, many ages subsequent to the period that witnessed their glorious exploits. ‘They were seen by Pausanias, in the second century, in the way from the gate Dipylon to the Academy, and in the gardens, and about the Co- lonus Hippius: not far from the Academy was also shown at that time the tomb of Platot. Several temples were erected in and about the celehrated Gymnasium just mentioned ; but no mate- rial remains have been discovered in that quarter, although small fragments of marble have been ploughed up in the corn-fields now occupying its site.
The gardens of Epicurus, which were on the way to the Aca- demy, not far from the gate Dipylon, have not left behind them a single trace of their marble schools, or even of their groves. The space they covered is now an open plain οἱ corn, rather on the descent towards the olive woods.
The road leading from Athens to the Pireus, is from the gate to the north of the Temple of Theseus. A few paces from this gate, a path going to Eleusis, branches off to the mght from the main road; and, shortly after, another path, also to the
* To Colonus Hippius Gidipus fled. On it wasa temple of Neptune; it
was ten stadia from the city. Meurs. de Populis Attice. KoAwvoc. t Paus. Attic. p. 50. + Paus. Attic. p. 58.
LETTER. XXIV. $61
right, striking through the olive-groves to Salamis. ‘The road, whose direction is about west-south-west, then continues for half an hour over a corn-plain, skirting the olive-groves to the right, which it then enters, and continues to traverse a little more than half an hour, having on the left hand vineyards and gardens, with here and there a mud cottage. Issuing from the olive-groves, it passes, on a stone causeway, over a bare plain, in many places marshy.
In this. part, the long walls may be traced on the right very dis- tinctly, many large fragments of them being apparent above the ground. The exact breadth of these walls, which wus sufficient to allow two carts to pass eachother on the top of them, cannot, I should think, be found from the remains; but the enormous size of the single stones would justify a belief in the supposed dimen- sions of the whole work. They are joined together, like the marbles of the columns, not with any cement, but with clamps of iron and lead, which, with their own weight, might have been sufficient to unite walls even of so great a height as forty
cubits *.
Advancing farther towards. the sea, the ground is more stony,
and the plain in parts uncultivated, and the road ascending a low rocky hill, brmgs you at once upon the Piraeus, which is called by the Greeks, Draco, but by the Franks, Porto Leone, an hour and a quarter’s. walk, as. I found it, from Athens.
Nothing in the present appearance of the Pireeus, would enable
* Tt was originally intended to make the walls eighty cubits in height. The length of the wall to Phalerum was thirty-five stadia; of the exterior wall of the city, forty-three stadia; of the long wall to the Pireus, forty; aud of the wall including Pirzus and the Munychian promontory, sixty..
362 LETTER XXIV
you to suspect that it was once a flourishing port, the emporium of a great state, itself a city, and abounding with temples, por- ticos, and other magnificent structures.
The triple port is not very apparent, the recess on the right hand, the ancient Zea, being like a marsh, and that on the left, Cantha- rus, towards Munychia, of but little depth. ‘The deepest water is at the mouth of the third interior port, the Aphrodisus of the old Pirzus. One does not know what to think of the size of the ships composing the fleets which were anchored in this basin; and yet so late as the time of Constantine, two bundred ships of war were collected in the Pireus. ‘The Athenian fleet cousisted at one time of three hundred* ships of three banks of oars. We saw an Hydriote merchant vessel, of about two hundred tons, anchored in the port, for the purpose of carrying off the Elgin marbles, and she seemed too big for the station. Yet Wheler judged it capable of containing forty or fifty of the great ships of his time, which is sufficient only to convince me, that the size of vessels has been very much enlarged during the last century and a half. An English sioop of war was warned that she would run aground if she endeavoured to get in, and was therefore obliged to anchor in the straits between Salamis and the port once called Phoron+. The direction of the harbour
* Meursius Attic. Lect. cap. 1, corrects those places in ancient authors which mention four hundred.
+ Port Phoron is about fifty minutes walk from Draco, at the other side of the projecting land which forms the western quarter of the port of Pireus. The country between is rugged and bare. In a grove of olive trees, on an eminence not far from Draco, on the left of the path going to Phoron, are some remains of an ancient wall.
LETTER XXIV. 363
is from north-west to south-east, and the whole length of it, from the outer mouth to the innermost recess, is not a mile and a
quarter. There is an inner and an. outer harbour: the entrance to the
inner is made more narrow by stone-work projecting from both sides of the mouth. At the bottom of the harbour is a wooden quay; on which there is a poor custom-house, and a magazine for stores ; on the left, under the rocky grounds of Munychia, is a monastery dedicated to St. Speridion, together with a wooden building, formerly used as a warehouse for the goods of the Frank merchants. Some excavations made at Pireus, especially to the west of the harbour, on some high rocky ground, have been at- tended with success, and produced some antiquities in good pre- servation.
On the 18th of January, my fellow-traveller and myself made the complete circuit of the peninsula of Munychia. ‘ We passed round by the monastery. A little beyond this place, winding by the shore on a stony path, we were shown, on the left hand above, the seats of a small amphitheatre cut in the rock: conti- nuing till we came to the eastern mouth of the Pireus, we saw several very large stones, like part of a pier, built to contract the inner mouth of the harbour; for there was a similar pier on the other side, near the water's edge.
The site of the tomb of 'Themistocles is supposed somewhere in this quarter, and the modern Athenian guides point it out to you, but it is not very observable. It is a sepulchral excavation in the rock, without any covering, at the point of a craggy tongue of land, on the right hand as you sail into the Pireus, probably the Cape Alcimus, whither the bones of that great statesman and
LETTER XXIV.
general were conveyed from Asia. The tomb was formerly like an altar™.
We went round the peninsula as near the shore as possible.-—-
Munychia is high and rock capable of cultivation only in a
few spots. Besides the port, the peninsula is indented with four small bays: above the second, which is opposite to the island Aigina, are several barrows; the fourth is in a precipi- tous part of the rock. Stones and rubbish, all that is left of the habitations with which the whole promontory was once covered, lie about in heaps on many parts of the surface. ‘The remains of the fortification may be traced nearly all round, as far as the port of Munychia; but the eastera side of the third bay shows the most entire portion of the old wall. ‘The old harbour of Mu- nychia 15 of a circular form: there are several remains of wall run- ning into the water, and a piece of pier is to be seen at each side of the mouth of it; so that the entrance, as well as the whole port, is smaller than that of Pireus. If the harbour once con- tained four hundred ships, each vessel must have been a wherry?.
hrection of the port is from south to north. ‘The Munychian walls cannot be traced farther than the eastern side of the harbour; to make the circuit of them at a quick foot’s pace, took us just an hour; and in going round the arc of the whole promontory, including Phalerum, we were twenty minutes more. ‘The land between Phalerum and Munychia is high and rocky. On a cliff
between the two ports, we saw a singular excavation in a frag-
> > / Ἃ > Ἂς ~ , * Κρήπις ἐστιν ἐυμεγέϑης, καὶ τὸ περὶ ὠυτὴν βωμοειδὲς, τάφος τὸ Θεμιστοκλέες. —Plut. in Themist. vit. fine. + Sylla burnt down the famous arsenal of Philo, in Munychia, 9 αυμαζομένον
ἔργον, says Plutarch, in his Life of that Roman.
LETTER XXIV. 365
ment of rock standing upright, looking like a porch, and having
a pilaster on each side, and cornice above, very rudely cut, or perhaps defaced. It was seen by Chandler, who compares it to a sentry-box.
Phalerum is of an elliptical form, smaller than Munychia ; and the remains of the piers on each side the narrow mouth are to be seen. ‘I'he line of its length is from east to west, that of its breadth from north to south. One solitary skiff was moored in it under the hill, instead of the fifty ships of Menestheus, appointed for their voyage to the shores of του. On the north-east side of the port the land is high and rocky, until you come to the fine sweep of the bay of Phalerum, perhaps two miles in length, and terminated on the north-east by a low promontory, once the pro- montory Colias*, where was a temple of Venus, on the site of which there is now a small church of St. Nicholas, and a spot called ‘l'res-Pyrge, from some towers not now to be seen; sup- posed by Wheler to be part of the remains of Anaphlystus.
Ata part of this bay the sea is nearest to Athens, being exactly south-south-west from the city, but apparently farther than twenty stadia, the formerly supposed distance. ‘I'he shore of the bay of Phalerum is shelving, and, in the calmest day, the tumbling of the waves upon the pebbles produces a loud murmur; a circumstance, as my fellow-traveller observed to me, that might have made this beach the resort of Demosthenes, when he wished to accustom himself to the clamour of a public assembly.
In the bay, not far from the port of Phalerum, a small rivulet eozes through the sand, which is the only outlet from a fresh-
* The clay from this neighbourhood was preferred to any other for the use of
the potteries, Q
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366 LETTER XXIV.
water lake and marsh, two miles and a half in length, which 1s near the shore, and into which, in former times, both the Ce- phissus and Ilissus used to empty their scanty streams. What part of the first river is not absorbed in the olive-groves, now crosses the road to the Pireus into this lake. The lake is now a favourite resort of water-fowl, and, in hard seasons, supplies the city with wild geese, ducks, and other aquatic birds. Just beyond, in the way to the city, begins a long line of vineyards and cotton- grounds, together with a garden or two, which join the olive- groves to the west, and to the east have an open plain, divided, where the soil will bear culture, into wheat-fields. ‘The separa- tion of the gardens and other grounds is made by mud banks; the wheat-fields have deep ditches between them. At the point where the gardens, vineyards, and olive-groves join, to the right of the shortest road from Pireus, and in what would have been the road from Munychia, there are large cisterns, a mile and a half, perhaps, from the city. A country-house or two is near the spot, belonging, I believe, to those who watch the cisterns, and furnish the water to the gardens and vineyards.
‘The weeping-willow seen in 1765, or another siinilar tree, still continues to hang over the principal cistern and the marble fount. ‘The ground to the east of the cisterns, in the way to Athens, is quite open, and ploughed up every where, till you come to the back of the hill Lycabettus and the Muséum, when it is, in parts, too rocky to be tilled. There are two roads from the cisterns, one leading to the right, by the course of the Ilissus, to the south of the Acropolis, the other to the great road from the Pireeus.
In this quarter of the country you may vary your rides in every
LETTER XXIV. 367
direction. From the Pireeus, but especially from Munychia, and from the vineyards near the lake, the approach to the city 1s very beautiful; and as the remaining columns of the Parthenon appear in a line, and so disposed as not to show the ruined portion of the temple, and as you catch a view of the entire Theséum, you may fancy yourself approaching to ancient Athens.
To the south-west and south-south-west, between Athens and the sea, the country is open and bare, of a very uninviting appear- ance, only partially cultivated, and having a rocky soil, quite covered in many spots with a low sweet-smelling shrub, like wild- thyme, that seems peculiar to Attica, and perfumes the air, pro- ducing a flower of which the bees are very fond, and which gives the flavour, perhaps, so peculiar to Attic honey. Ata ruined farm- house, a mile and a half from Athens, in the middle of the down, are many bee-stands, which are profitable to the owner, who re- sides in the city, and seldom visits the hives, except in the swarm- jng and gathering season. A marble lion, somewhat mutilated, but of good workmanship, is lying near the bee-stands neglected.
0 the south and east of this farm, in the open plain, and nearer the shore, are several lonely houses, very high, of stone, for security’s sake, and here are remains of two square towers, now not inhabited, but once built to guard against the incur- sions of the pirates, Mainotes, and others, who have often landed, and carried off plunder to their boats, and are even now a little dreaded. Two villages are near these towers, surrounded with high walls, inhabited by Albanians.
The gardens and vineyards belonging to these villages, one of which is called Dragonisi, are at a little distance nearer the shore, and all enclosed with high mud walls. There are some low bar-
$B 2
ar : & 368 LETTER: XXIV;
rows to the east, near these gardens, where Anchimolius and the Lacedemonians, who were slain on their invasion of Attica in the time of Hippias and Hipparchus, are supposed to have been buried. ‘These barrows point out the site of Alopece, a town eleven or twelve stadia from the walls of Athens, and the native town of Socrates*. In this part of the plain there are several mouths of ancient wells, all filled up with earth within a foot or two of the top. ‘There is no direct road to these villages, but a path leads to them, to the right of the road that goes to the south towards the Sunian promontory.
From beyond the promontory of Tres-Pyrgz, or Colias, the shore is rocky and abrupt, but not high. ‘The stone is a sort of sand-stone, very soft, and worn into singular shapes by the washing of the waves: in one place. there is a large hole broken away through a-little projecting cliff. The plain immediately near the shore is quite bare, and intersected with frequent ravins, and a broad water-course, as wide as that of the LIlissus.
‘To inform you respecting that part of the territory of Attica beyond the olive-groves and gardens of Athens, I shall, in my next, take from my journal an extract of some expeditions we made in that quarter to Eleusis and Salamis.
‘ \ 9 , an 58 \ - ~ “ 3 ~ ~ e « .“ * Kai Ayximorts tio ragar τῆς Ἀττικῆς A’Aorennos ayxe τὰ Ἡρακλῆι!δ τὲ
ἐν Kuvocapyet.—-Herod. Terp. cap. 63.
LETTER XXYV.
Route from Athens to Eleusis—Daphne-vouni—Casha-vouni— The Monastery of Daphne—The Rhiti—The Thriasian Plain
Eleusis—Ruins—The Cambridge Ceres— Route from Athens
to Salamis—The Throne of Xerxes—View from Corydallus—
Salamis or Colourr—Ampelaki—Colouri—Greek Islanders.
ON the 15th of January we mounted our horses rather earlier than usual, and set out on that one of.the roads from Athens, which has the site of the Academy and the Colo- nus Hippius a little to the nght, and is, on the whole, in a west- north-westerly direction. We rode for nearly twenty minutes before we entered the olive-groves, passing through which for half an hour, we came to the Cephissus: over this river, or ditch-stream, we crossed ona small ill-constructed bridge ; and, after riding through some more olive-groves, and near the ruins of a Greek church, in which a carved marble, or two, is.to be seen, and also an ancient well, we got into a wide open plain, partly a sheep pasture and partly green with corn: at a distance on our right was the road by which we had come from Thebes, by Casha, to Athens. On our left, the plain stretched towards the sea-coast to the west of Pireeus, which, however, was not visible, owing to the inequality of the ground ; before us were
low hills, running from north-north-east to south-south-west, the
370 VETTER Σχνι
sides of which were only partially cultivated, and of a very sterile appearance. A lonely house, with a few ruined churches, might be seen here and there, but no village. We soon crossed the plain, which seemed a continuation of the sloping hills in front of us, and, ascending by a gentle acclivity, entered through a gap, which is visible from Athens, and which divides the hills on the left, (south), once named Corydallus, from the range on the right which juts out from the great mountain Parnes, and was called Egaleon. Corydallus has now the name of Daphne-vouni, or the Laurel Mountain, from the shrubs of oleander (called by the modern Greeks πικραδαφνη, or bitter laurel) with which it abounds, and /Egaleon is Casha-vouni, from the large village of that name, which gives its denomination also to the south-west range of the great mountain Parnes, whose northern summits are called Ozea.
The travellers who have supposed Daphne-vouni to be Aiga- leon, appear to have been induced to that belief by the conjecture, that it was through this gap, that the Lacedemonian army, under Archidamus, marched into that part of Attica called Cecropia, leaving, says the historian, Mount Agaleon on their right hand*. But there is another gap in the hills, two or three miles farther up to the north, near the village of Casha, which leads directly from the Eleusinian territory into Attica, and which answers, it seems to me, more clearly to the defile alluded to by Thucydides. Issuing from the mountains, Archidamus passed through Cecro- pia, a slope at the foot of the hills, two miles, I should think, in trans- verse breadth, and encamped at Acharne +}, the largest town next to the capital, only sixty stadia from Athens, and, indeed, in view
* Εν δεξιὰ ἔχοντες τὸ Αἰγάλεων Cpos.—Thucyd. Hist. lib. ii. cap. 19.
Ὑ Χώριον μέγιστον τῆς Arrixns.—Ibid.
EETTER XXV. 371
of the city; a circumstance which must be a sufficient answer to such as suppose Casha only a corruption of Acharne, for ‘that village is four hours, and not visible from the Acropolis*,
Daphne-vouni stretches to the shore opposite Salamis, and there
is no separation in the mountain, which will allow of the northern range having been called AXgaleon and the southern part. of it Corydallus.
Soon after we had advanced into the hills, (where, however, the path is level enough, and was probably rendered so by art, in order to facilitate the procession of lacchus on this part of the Sacred Way), we turned more southwards; and continued in the defile, with bare mountains on our right, and woody hills on our left, until, in about two hours and a half from Athens, we arrived at a large monastery, romantically situated in, a long recess, at the foot of a high rugged hill, whose pines almost hang over the building. This monastery 15 called Daphne, and though much venerated, and supposed the most ancient in the country, has nothing to detain you. ‘The exterior of the building has more the appearance of a place of defence than of a religious retreat, as the court-yard is.surrounded with a wall at least twenty feet high, the angles of which are furnished with towers. Yet this pre- caution has not, been sufficient to preserve the monastery from the visitations of the ‘Turks, who frequently make it their baiting- place, as may be seen from the disfiguration of a Mosaic picture of our Saviour on the cupola of the church: the eyes of the figure are perforated with bullets. Only one monk ever. resides
* Wheler says, ten or a dozen miles, and we were from four o’clock to half- past eight on the road from the village to the city.—De Pauw, vol. i. cap. 5, to support his opinion with respect to Casha being a corruption of Acharne, contracts the distance to mear seven.
3
ῳῳω
72 LETTER XXV.
in the place, who, as the peasant that had the care of the church told us, was gone to pass the winter in town, (#5 τὸ Xep'), meaning Athens.
The monastery being placed directly on the sacred way from Athens to Eleusis, has been conjectured to stand nearly on the site of a temple of Apollo; and two Ionic columns, which were wedged into one of the walls, have been said to belong to a temple of Venus, whose site is pointed out by a piece of wall of rude masonry a little further on the road.
From Daphne, Lord Elgin conveyed a shaft, two capitals, and a base, and nothing antique is now to be seen at the monastery, except a stone tomb.
Leaving Daphne, we began to travel on an easy descent, and had at once a vista opened upon us, presenting a view of the sea, closed by two forked hills, those called Kerata, or the Horns, immediately behind Eleusis, and the high mountains of the Isthmus in the back ground.
We continued in a westerly direction through a narrow valley: on the right-hand, nearly opposite the piece of ancient wall above- mentioned, we saw marks of tools upon the rock, which had some grooves and ledges cut on a flat surface, evidently smoothed by art, The grooves appear the-same as those in the cave of Pan, and were therefore most probably constructed for the votive tablets of such as journeyed to the ‘l'emple of Ceres. ‘The posi- tion of the hill answers to that of the painted rock of Pausanias.
In half an hour, beyond Peecile, as it was once denominated, we found ourselves at the extremity of the valley, and at the water-
side. Here we saw the shaft of one of the lonic columns, of very white marble, and the flutings highly finished,- lying entire, in a wooden trough, ready for exportation, on the beach.
LETTER XXV. 373
Our postman said it belonged to the English, but whether to Lord Elgin or not, I did not learn. We turned directly to the right, the north, and came full upon a large circular basin, looking like a lake, the entrance from the sea not being easily discerned, as the islandof Salamis, lying west and east, closed up the mouth of the bay. At the other extremity of the bay, tothe west, we saw the village of HEleusis. We crossed a short passage of stony road, cut out of the foot of the rocks, close to the water's edge, and called, like similar paths, Kake Scala, and then came upon a
sandy beach, having on our right a small salt-water lake, dammed
up by a low wall, and communicating with the sea by two chan-
nels, whose streams turn two over-shot mills at a little distance from each other.
Leaving the mills, we crossed two or three rivulets of brackish water, oozing through the sand, which Wheler and Chandler have called the Rhiti, or Salt Streams, the ancient limits between the Athenians and Eleusinians, consecrated to Ceres and Proser- pine, and supposed by Pausanias to find a subterranean passage through Beeotia and Attica, as far as from the Euripus of Chal- cis*. Beyond these streams we did not encounter any river similar to that which Wheler +-, coinciding with Pausanias, calls the Eleusinian Cephissus, but turning to the left, again westward,
* Pausan. Corinth. p. 129. Attic. 70. + A Journey, &c. quart. p. 426. Seneca talks of the rapid waters of this river in his Hippolytus, Act I. Scene i.
Quz saxoso sola Parnethi Subjecta jacent, et que Thriasis Vallibus amnis rapida currens Verberat unda.
νῷ
374 CETTER XXV
rode over an extensive plain, quite flat, and so marshy in many places, that a stone causeway has been raised upon it for the security of travellers. This plain, near the shore a green pas- ture, but cultivated towards the foot of the woody hills to the north side of it, is six or seven miles in length from east to west, and three or four in breadth. It is evidently the ‘lhriasian plain, and the part of it which we traversed, answers to that tract in it called in very early times, the kmgdom of Crocon*. We con- tinued upon it for an hour, and saw on the left of our path some pieces of wall belonging to a church, which in 1765 was standing, and preserved the marbles of an ancient monument, together with an inscription. ‘Thria, or Thro, a town of the tribe of Oenis, which gave the name to the plain, was probably higher up on the side of Parnes, and nearer the Rhiti.
On turning to the left (just an hour and a half from Daphne), to direct our steps round the sweep of the shore to Hleusis, we observed a path leading off to the western extremity of the plain, and ascending the monntains by which it is en that end in- closed. ‘This is one of the roads travelied by those who come to Athens from the towns and villages on the sides of Mount Elatias (Cithzron), and is sometimes preferred by those who wish to reach that city from Thebes, to that which passes by Casha over Parnes. I had afterwards an opportunity of tracing the higher part of this route, and found it to correspond exactly with that by which the Lacedemonians entered into Attica in the in-
* Bactasia Kpoxwvos. 866 the description of the Sacred Way, leading from the Thriasian gate, afterwards called Dipylon, by Mount Peecile, across the Rhiti, and the Thriasian plain to Eleusis, in Pausanias, “‘ sacs καὶ ἐπ᾿ BAgvowe εξ Adnywy,” p. 67 et seq. usq. ad. 71, fol. edit.
DRTTER XXV. 375
cursion before mentioned. A path branches off from the main road, by the Sacred Way, to Athens, a little nearer to Eleusis than the Salt Streams, and leads to Caliva, a village, and to Casha, εξ the opening in the hills which, according to my
hypothesis, d divides Aigaleon from Parnes.
In severa! εἰμ across the plain to the north-west, as far as the bottom of the hills, before we turned southwards towards Eleusis, we saw fragments of an ancient aqueduct; and in half an hour we came to the village itself, which is put down in the maps, Lefsina, but which I never heard called any thing else at Athens than Elefsis, the modern pronunciation of the ancient name.
Eleusis is a miserable village of thirty mud cottages with flat roofs, inhabited by Albanians; besides which, there is one high square house, or tower, the occasional residence of a Turk, who superintends the peasants, and owns some part of the neighbour- ing plain. It is comprehended in the territory of the Waiwode of Athens, which, on this side, extends one hour, or three miles, beyond the village to the west.
Kleusis is finely situated, at about half a mile from the sea, on the declivity of a long hill, which stretches from the extremity of the mountains still called Kerata, running from north-east to south-west, and making the separation between Attica and the Megaris. ‘There are sufficient remains to make it probable that great’ part of this hill was originally built upon, though at present there is nothing to be seen on it but the fragments of an old tower, and a piece of wall.
Looking to the east from the modern village, you have before apn the bay, closed in front by Corydallus, and to the right
by Salamis, with two islands before it, the Pharmacuse, one
yi ) 6 ὁ
a
376 LETTER’ ΣΧΥ-
much larger than the other, and now called Megala, and Micra Kira. ‘To the south-west there is a tongue of land, the western end of the bay, and beyond this, the mountains of the Morea are seen rising in the distance.
To the north-west, in an angle between Kerata and the hill of Eleusis, is a small valley, according to Wheler and following travellers, the Rharian plain, where Triptolemus first taught the art of ploughing and sowing. Every part of the Thriasian plain, over which we passed, inclosed by Parnes and A\galeon to the north, north-east, and east, is distinctly seen from the hill, and forms the most extensive portion of the land prospect.
The remains of the ancient Flensis are now very insignificant: some small stones, and pieces of rubbish standing upright, appear scattered about under the village, on the slope of the hill, and near the sea, and on one side of an inlet on the beach are frag- ments of a pier. ‘The site of the great Temple of Ceres includes most of the modern village, but many decays must have inter- vened since the time of Chandler, who seems, from his account, to have been able to measure the area and proportions of that magnificent building on the spot. The breadth of the cell, says he, is about one hundred and fifty feet, the length, including the Pronaos and portico, two hundred and sixteen feet, the diameter of the columns, which are fluted, six inches from the bottom of the shafts, six feet and more than six inches*. The peribolus, or inclosure, which surrounded it on the north-east and on the south side, measured three hundred and eighty-seven feet in length from north to south, and three hundred and twenty-eight in
* Chandler’s Travels, p. 190.
LETTER? KXV. 377
breadth from east to west. I did not see that the walls of the temple or of the inclosure can be now traced. ‘he body of the remains, belonging, it has. been. thought, to the Temples of Diana, Propylea, and Neptune, and to the gateway of the great inclo- sure, 1s now all on one small space in the middle of the village, and there are three or four entire portions of marble columns, just appearing above ground, fluted, and apparently of the dimen- sions alluded to, besides the mouth and part of the rim of a large marble vase, buried in the ground, and a fragment, also of marble, with the bas-relief of a'Triton. Close by, we were shown the spot on which the Cambridge Ceres had so long lain half-buried in the earth. In the wall of a church, at another part of the village, is an Ionic capital. ‘There are besides two inscribed marbles, one of which seems to have been a pedestal*, and stands by itself, and the other is wedged into the walls of a house. ‘T’he inscriptions copied by Wheler, 1 was not shown. Some picces of ancient wall are to be seen under the square house belonging to the Turk, The largest portion of wall yet standing is on the rock above, where is.the old tower, and on which was the citadel of Eleusis, forming a protection on the north-west side to the temple; but the remains of the temple “ in antis,” seen by Chandler on this spot, either have disappeared, or entirely escaped my obser- vation. It is well known that the Cambridge Ceres, mutilated as it is, was supposed both by Greeks and ‘Turks, from a tradition, to be a sort of talisman, on which depended the fer- tility of the lands of Eleusis; but the Thriasian plain has lost nothing of its former abundance since the removal of this precious
* Sce Appendix, for the inscription on the pedestal.
878 LETTER xxv.
relic by our accomplished and amiable countryman, and the in- habitants of Eleusis, who pointed out to me the trench whence it had been dug, evinced no signs of regret for their loss. At Eleusis, coins are very frequently found by the peasants, and one of them showed me the foot of a stocking quite full of them, out of which I selected about five and twenty.
A very few years will accomplish the complete destruction of the scanty remains that are to be seen at this once celebrated spot, and the former existence of the temples may, in some future age, be as problematical as the object of the mysteries, of Eleusis.
The other route which I purposed to make you acquainted with in this Letter, is that from Athens to Salamis, now called Colouri.
The road takes you nearly in a westerly direction, leaving that leading to the Pireus, and another to the gardens, on the left. You enter the olive-groves in twenty minutes, and traverse trans- versely for more than an hour, going through a part of them where they are very thickly set, and have the waters of the Ce- phissus flowing through them in many trenches. After the olive- groves, the road is a little on the ascent over a plain, open and barren, except in some few cultivated spots. ‘The mouths of an- cient wells, and fragments of stone-work, are visible near the path, just as it reaches the top of the slope, and leaves a small eminence to the right hand, about half an hour from the olive-groves. From this point the road continues on the descent, in an open country of corn-fields and vineyards: a lone cottage, surrounded with trees, is on the left; in half an hour you arrive at the foot of a bleak rocky hill, and the shore of a bay, formed by the
back of the promontory which is the western side of the Pirus and a tongue of land jutting out from the rocks on the right, on
LETTER XXV. 379
whose front there is part of an old tower. This is the port Pho- ron.
You cross the base of this neck of land, and then pass, not far from the shore, at the foot of a ridge of bare rocks that runs parallel with the coast.
These rocks have now no name: they are part of the promon- tory stretching from Mount Corydallus; and in a niche about half way up, late antiquarians have supposed themselves to have discovered the spot where Xerxes sat in his silver-footed chair to behold the battle of Salamis. The niche is about opposite to the long rocky islet in the mouth of the strait, once called Psyttalia, and now Lipsocattalia, where the four hundred Persians were cut to pieces by the Greeks during the action.
During one of our several rides to this part of Attica, a dis- tance of seven or eight miles, I took an opportunity of ascending these stony hills, and traversing the heights above the strait in every direction. From the first: summit, the side nearest Athens, where the throne of Xerxes has by some conjectures been placed, the battle could only be partially seen; but from the middle of the second eminence, in which is the niche alluded to, every part of both fleets, as well as the minute circumstances of the action, might have been distinctly beheld. Those who have placed the throne a mile farther down to the north-west, on an eminence of Mount Corydallus, cannot have a correct notion of the positions, as from that point, the whole of that part of the line where the Athenians and Pheenicians were engaged, must have been hidden behind the projecting rocks of the promontory; and the ship of Artemisia endeavouring to escape from the mouth of the strait, and sinking the opposing galley, the action which called forth the
380 LETTER ΧΧΥ.
famous exclamation of Xerxes, could not, from that point, have been beheld at all by the Persian King*.
From the summit of the highest rock of Corydallus I had a view of Athens to the east; the Pirzeus was to the south-east, on my left; before me, to the south, was Augina; Salamis, with its bays and. diminutive towns, lay, as in a map, at my feet; the town of Megara was visible to the west-south-west, farther up on the right, in the Saronic gulf; whilst Eleusis, with its spacious basin and spreading plain, appeared under the mountains to the north- west: an extensive prospect, yet a space how circumscribed, to contain the ruins of so many cities, once the capitals of flourish- ing states. The friend of Cicero, sailing up the gulf to Megara}, with justice contemplated this melancholy scene, as one that must diminish the magnitude of private distresses, and check the indulgence of individual sorrows, by presenting, in one view, the abject and calamitous condition of whole cities, and many nations.
* Some accounts place the throne on Kerata, above Eleusis (which, it seems, made Wheler suppose it to have been on either Megala or Micra Kera), and others on the mountain which they name A‘gialus, meaning that hill (also called A®gilus) where was the Demos A®gilia, and which, under the name Fégaleon, 1 fancy to have been incorrectly confounded with Corydallus. Yet it is true, that the whole range from the modern village of Casha to the straits of Salamis, seems to have been indiscriminately called by both names; and, that one author, Pliny, enumerating the Attic mountains, has mentioned Agia- lus, and omitted Corydallus. Plin. lib. iv. cap. 7, Montes (Attice) Briles- sus, A‘gialus, Icarius, Hymettus, Lycabettus.
+ *¢ Ex Asia rediens, cum ab AXgina Megaram versus navigarem, cexpi regiones circum circa prospicere, post me erat Avgina, ante Megara, dextra Pireus, sinistra Corinthus; que oppida quodam tempore florentissima fuerunt, nunc prostrata et diruta ante oculos jacent, &c.”—Cic, Epist. ad Famil. lib, iv.
LETTER XXV. 981.
But if such reflections were suggested to Sulpicius, more than
eighteen centuries ago, with what feelings must the modern tra- veller behold the same prospect, when all these famous towns are, indeed, nothing but the lifeless carcasses of once animated bodies, prostrate, crumbled in the dust, without a sign of their ancient vigour and beauty.
‘The road to the passage over the strait of Salamis, continues at the foot of the rocks at a short distance from the shore, for about a mile, when it comes to a projecting piece of land, where are remains of an ancient cistern; and, above that, two or three large stones, that have been supposed part of an Heracléeum, or ‘Temple of Hercules. A path continues to wind round the rocks beyond this point, until it joins the road to Eleusis by Daphne, after having doubled a second headland. This was anciently Am- phiale, attached to a town of that name, famous for the stone quarries in its neighbourhood. ‘The passage from the main-land to Salamis was here only two stadia, and Xerxes intended to have thrown a mole across it. A modern pier, of a rude construction, serves for landing and embarking the horses passing to and fro over the ferry. The ferry-boat here used is very large, with sails, and well made; we put our horses into it very easily. ‘The direct passage is not much more than a quarter of a mile, yet when the wind sets down the strait to the west, it is not easy to cross; and
I was nearly an hour on returning from the island, as the ferry- boat was only managed by two men.
Passing over, you have a view of the western side of the long tongue of land projecting from the island to the north-east, and formerly called the Dog’s Tail (Cynosura), and by the Ita- lians, Punto Barbaro, on which, at this day, are some stones, thought
3D
ὅδ LETTER: EXY.
to.he part.of. the substructure of a trophy raised by the Greeks after the victory; but as you approach nearer to the island, the view of, the point is. shut out by another projecting piece of land, forming one side of a bay, at the bottom of which is a pier, where the ferry-boat unloads. On the right, entering this bay, is a green islet, on which a few cows and small horses are fed, but where there is not a single habitation, though there are two churches.
On my excursion to Coloun, after landing at: the pier, and, with some difficulty, getting the horses out of the boat, I ascended a rising ground, and passing over a gentle ascent, came, in half an hour, to.a village of, about eighty houses, inhabited by Albamians, and called Ampelaki. The houses here were more neat and regularly built. than those. of the villages on the main-land, white, and with flat-roofs. The neighbourhood of; Ampelaki has. not a single tree; the soil is dry and rocky, and chiefly laid out in the cultivation of the. vine. A. stony hill overlooks the village to the south; and the rays of. the. summer's sun, reflected on the flat unsheltered cot- tages, renders the. residence very unbealthy in summer; and, in- deed, on, the 3130 οἵ January, the heat appeared. to me quite oppressive.
Strabo mentions, that the harvest in Salamis had ended before that on the main-land begun.
The site of the more ancient city of Salamis is near the shore of the bay enclosed to the east. by Cynosura, an hour to the south-east from Ampelaki. ‘The walls, four miles in circumference, might be.traced fifty years ago; but, my guide assured me, were at.present not to be seen. Some inscribed marbles haye been re-
moved-thenee to the village, where they are still to be seen, parti-
LETTER "RV. $88 cularly one, strliin exceec dingly good preset ‘vation, over the porch of the chureh-door, which 1s'mentioned < id was copied by Chandler. Ina wall near this church, was a fragment of marble, having ‘on it, in alto-relievo, a nakedileg of ‘the most perfect sculpture, ap- parently part of a whole ‘figure. Several efforts were ‘made "(Ὁ obtain this marble, but the owner of the wall would not be per- suaded to part with the piece.
It is necessary for travellers to be somewhat circumspect’in their endeavours to procure any sculpture or inscribed marbles, and to conceal, ina measure, their eagerness to be possessed of them, as both Greeks and Turks suppose that the ranks would have too much sense to offer large sums for blocks of stones, were they not very precious in some way or the other, -either as amu- lets, or concealing gold or jewels. It is not long since a Turk, digging in his garden near Athens, discovered a statue of Venus Accroupie, nearly as large as life, of white marble, and scarcely mutilated. A Frank, to whom it was shown, incautiously offered fifty zechins for the masterpiece. ‘The ‘Turk refused the sum, and broke the statue in pieces, to search for the treasure which
he supposed it to contain: the parts were put together afterwards
as wellas possible, and a cast taken from it, which was shown to me, was sufficient to prove what a loss the fine arts had sustained, by the injury done to a piece of sculpture which would have had but few rivals amongst the relics of antiquity. A peasant of Salamis
wore on his finger a ring, mounted with a most beautiful cameo,
δ. and, though himself ready to sell it, was prevented by his wife, who regarded it as a talisman, effectual against evil spirits.
From ‘this village we rode, about half an hour, over an open country of corn-fields and vineyards, to the town of Colouri, from 3D 2
384 LETTER! XXvV.
which the island now takes its name. This is a larger and much more wealthy place than Ampelaki, having about seven hundred houses, and there are a few shops in the bazar, together with three or four coffee-houses. It is situated a little to the westward of the bottom of a gulf that runs seven or eight miles into the island, and being at least three miles broad, gives it something the shape of a broad horse-shoe. The inhabitants of Colour1 ate partly Greeks, partly Albanians, but have no'T'urks amongst them, except such as may come to traffic; being governed by their own Codja-bashees, and paying only a certain tax annually to the Porte, under the jurisdiction of the Captain Pasha, or High Admiral, the immediate lord of all the islands, and also of some districts on the main-land.
The tribute of the Colouriotes is four thousand oches of pitch, for the use of the arsenal of 'Tophana at Constantinople ; and this they collect, not only in Salamis, but any where on the main-land, often near Smyrna, passing over to Asia in bodies of three and four hundred at a time, and encamping in the forests until they have furnished themselves with the necessary supply.
It was easy to see, that the condition of the Greeks of Colouri was preferable to that of those on the main-land ; they had more the air of freemen, and of those who were permitted to enjoy the fruits of their industry ; yet their freedom from immediate re- straint is not always so agreeable to a traveller as the obedience of their continental countrymen.
Several wherries, employed in fishing for red mullet, which abound in the straits, and about the island of Salamis, and which finds subsistence for some natives of Athens, and much of the population of Colouri, AXgina, and Megara, were lying on the
WETTER Xxv. 385
beach under the town. It was my wish to proceed in one of them which came from A‘gina, on a visit to that island ; and I accordingly agreed with the master of the kiéque, fora passage to that island in his boat, manned with ten men, and ready to depart the same evening. Some money was advanced to the Greek, to victual, as he said, his boat. After waiting some time, we walked to the beach, where nothing was prepared, and only six of the sailors would consent to go. The bargain was broken; and the boat being too large to be managed by so few men, I was disappointed of my voyage. My attendant demanded the plasters he had given in advance; but here he was mistaken, for the Greek declared, that he and his men had been dining and drinking on the money, and that, though he was extremely sorry that the men he had engaged had changed their minds, yet he could not return what he no longer possessed. ‘The man, on being threatened with an appeal to his superiors, said he belonged to gina; the Codja-bashee of Colouri declared he had no con- troul over him; and accordingly we parted, not a little, on our parts, enraged by the provoking coolness of the Greek, who, on our going away, most politely thanked me, and wished me good evening (υχαριστὼ cas ΑἸυϑέντι, κάλη ᾿σπέρα σας).
It was not so much the cheating, to which most of the lower orders of any people who live by the sea appear to be inclined, but the unblushing manner of doing it, that gave me no very favourable impression of the Greek islanders.
The whole length of Salamis, from east to west, has been reckoned between nine and ten miles, and the breadth of it, in- cluding the bay of Colouri, cannot be much less. It has only
one river, formerly the Bocaras, but now called 'Tokolias.
886 DETTER sox.
The island seems:uncultivated, except in the narrow vallies: be- tween the ‘hills, near ‘Colouri and: Ampelaki, where wheat and parley are grown. ‘T’here are some thin pine forests on the sum- mits of the mountains, as well as a-variety of ‘low shrubs. A monastery, to the south-west of Colouri, is the most agreeable spot in the island, being shaded with a few trees, and watered by a plentiful spring of pure water. ‘he monks are the richest per- sons in Salamis. Athens is still considered the mistress of the island; most of the inhabitants have some dealings in the city ; and the ferry-boat is generally employed during the whole day in transporting backwards and forwards the peasants of Aimpe- laki and Colouri, with the riches of their vineyards and their fields, and the soap-ashes, procured from the leutisc, which is plentiful in the island. —Jhe women of Salamis are of a fine shape and handsome face, superior to the Athenians of the same condition. They have the free ingenuous air, without any of the vulgarity of the peasant, and their whole manner is a happy mixture of the sprightliness of the Albanian, and the politeness of the Greek female.
LETTER XXVI.
The Eastern Side of A thens—Hymettus—A scent to the Monas-
tery of St. Cyriani, on that Mountain—The Sacred Spring, —Route to Mount Pentelicus—Angele-Kipos—Callandri— The Monastery.on Pentelicus—The Marble Quarries— Return:
by another Route—Remains of the Aqueduct.
HAVING endeavoured to give you:an ideaiof: the country westward of Athens, I. shall’ now: proceed to the other side of the city, and‘extract whatever may appear necessary from the notes made on our many excursions to that quarter.
To the south-east. of Athens; the country 15 intersected by Mount Hymettus, which approaches within three mules of the city, and is divided into two ranges: the first running from east- north-east to west-south-west; and the second, forming an obtuse angle with the first; and having a direction from west-north-west to east-south-east. ‘The first range, Hymettus, properly so called, ends about'four miles: from: the promontory Zoster, now Halikes; but‘the hills on the other-side of a gap, through which runs the road leading to the Sunian promontory, seeming like a continua- tion of the same mountain, have been named the lesser Hymettus. The great range is now called Telo-Vouni; that on the other side of
the gap Lambra-Vouni, from the ruins of a town, one of the ancient
388 LETTER XXVI.
Lampras* (the καϑύπερϑεν, or upper), once called Lambra, but now known only by the name of E:limbos, and containing thirty cottages.
Hymettus is neither a high nor a picturesque mountain, being
a flat ridge of bare rocks. ‘The sides of it, about half way up, are covered with brown shrubs and heath, whose flowers scent the air with a delicious perfume ; the wild thyme is in great abun- dance, but there are only two stands of bee-hives on the moun- tains, and very little of the real honey of Hymettus is to be now procured at Athens, where it is still justly prized for its superior flavour, and a certain aromatic odour peculiar to the plants of this place, a list of which is given by Sir George Wheler: a small pot of it was shown to me asararity. From the city to the highest part of the mountain is a walk of three hours. Half way to this point, there 15 ἃ monastery dedicated to St. Cyriani, which we visited on the 16th of January.
We took the road leading from the gate of Hadrian’s arch, over the corn-grounds, to the eastward; left the Corinthian co- lumns on our right, and continued for a mile, perhaps, approach- ing towards the bed of the Ilissus. We had on our left hand, a little before us, the village of Angele-Kipos and its olive-groves. We soon came to where two ravins join, and form a rocky dell, where in winter there are generally small pools of water.
This is what travellers (after the conjectures, well founded as they appear to me, of Wheler +-) have agreed to call the junction of the two rivers the Eridanus and the Ilissus. We left it on our
* There were two Lampras, both of the tribes Ercctheis, one near the sea, the other inland ; in one of them was the tomb of Cranaus, the ancient Athe- nian King.
+ Before the time of Wheler, the Cephissus was called the Eridanus.
LETTER XxVI. 389
right; and in a few minutes crossed the channel of the Ilissus*, which winds from the north-eastern extremity of Hymettus, and riding over some drv rocky ground, came to the ridanus, or rather to a deep ravin witaout any water, along whose banks we conti nued, on an ascent bare and rugged, until we came to a lonely metochi, or farm-house ; we then crossed the ravin, and got upon the sides of Mount Hymettus, riding on a perpetual slope through thin olive-groves, up to the site of the monastery of St. Cyriani, called: Cosbashee by the ‘Turks, inclosed in a nook of the moun- tain, with the ravin of the river running through olive-groves, at the bottom of a dell beneath. The monastery of St. Cyriani has nothing worthy of notice, except four shafts of marble columns, supporting the dome of the church. ‘lhe ruin from which these were saved, was probably that of the Temple of Venus; for the foun- tain, probably the sacred spring in the neighbeurhood of the'l’emple, which the Athenian matrons used to frequent for its medicinal vir- tues, is still to be seen a little above the monastety. To this we were conducted by one of the monks. There are three artificial basins, or stone troughs, receiving a water very clear and cold; they are one above the other; that in the middle is inclosed in an arched grotto, possibly part of the foundation of the ‘lemple of Venus—
* The Ilissus, says Strabo (p. 400), flows from the region above Agrez and the Lycéum, and the fountain, which Plato has commemorated in his Phe- The site of Agrz is determined by that of the fountain Callirhoé, before noticed, It was a suburb without the walls, lower down to the south than the Stadium of Herodes, beyond the river, With respect to the Lycéum, also in the same quarter, nothing now remaining seemed to me to point out its an- cient place; the large stones now existing on the road to the south, more than a mile beyond the Ilissus, supposed by Chandler to have belonged to the walls inclosing that Gymnasium, answer, it strikes me, much better to the Cynosarges, which was without the gate Diocharis, and not far from the barrows near the
drus.
Demos of Alopece. JE
590 LETTER xxVI,
five feet wide, eight high, and twelve high. There is at the end of the cave a niche, and under this, to the right, almost covered with a large slab of stone, is the spring.
The miraculous virtues of the water have survived the temple, and the worship of Venus. Our conductor told us, that once a year, on the feast of Panagia, many of the Greek females of Athens repair to this grotto, light up the niche with the small wax-tapers, as offerings to the Virgin, and then drink and wash in the spring, which eases the pains of child-birth, and is an- nually blessed from above by the descent of two doves, who play round the fountain, and re-ascend to heaven. 'The man assured us, to remove all incredulity, that a Despotes, a monk of Cyriani, had seen them himself; but that he was, indeed, the most holy man in the whole country. The vicinity of the sacred spring was anciently called Pera, signifying, perhaps, beyond the river.
When Procris suspected her Cephalus of inconstancy, she traced his footsteps to the side of a sacred fountain, near the purple hills of Hymettus, and saw the green bank, whose soft herbage still remained impressed with the vestige of his lovely form. ‘ The arbutus, the rosemary, the laurel, the dark myrtle, ** the leafy box, the frail tamarisk, the slender cytisus, and the graceful pine, united their varied foliage, which, together with the blades of long grass, trembled under the gentle pressure of the rising breeze.” ... . “ When next he left her embraces, to follow the chace on Hymettus, she hastened to the woods, and leaving her maidens in the valley below, advanced into the recesses of the grove towards his favourite retreat* ... .”
9 8
* Ovid. de Arte Aman. lib. iii.
“ Est prope purpureos colles florentis Hymetti ‘6 Fons sacer.....”
LETTER XKXVI- 391
The holy spring, the hill, the valley beneath, seéiii t6 fik upon the scene of the fatal adventure ; but, on out wittéer visit to the spot, the wild shrubbery was no longer to be 868, aid the purple tinge of the mountain’s side was changed into a mofe sdthbre hue.
At a quarter of a mile from the fountain, of the side of the hill to the westward, is a ruined chapel of St. Marc, in which the monks of Cyriani are buried. It is on a most elevated spot, commanding.a view of the whole plain of Athens, and having in the fore-ground of the picture, the waving line of low hills which lie at the foot, and are the roots of the larger mountain.
There is a way to ascend Hymettus on horseback, but the direct path above Cyriani, is accessible only to foot passengers.
The position of the mines in this mountain, in whose cavities the best honey was formerly found, and of the marble quarries, has rather been guessed at than actually discovered: the cave shown to Chandler, seems to have belonged to neither.
Hlymettus was reckoned amongst the cantons of Attica, but of what tribe is unknown: it had on its summit an image of Jupi- ter, instead of which single statue there are now fifty chapels or consecrated caves.
Mount Pentelicus, at this day called Pendele, and sometimes Mendele, must be, 1 should think, one-third higher than Hymet- tus, and its height is the more apparent, as it rises with a peaked summit into the clouds. The range of Pentelicus runs from about north-west to south-east, at no great distance from the eastern shore of Attica, overhanging the plain of Marathon, and mixing
imperceptibly, at its northern extremity, with the hills of Briles- sus, now Called, as well as part of Mount Parnes, Ozea. The highest peak of Pendele is in a direction east-north-east from Athens ; and from the foot of the mountain to the city, is about
3 EQ
two hours and a half, between seven or eight miles. An object of curiosity to all travellers are the marble quarries of Pentelicus, which supplied not only Athens, but many other parts of Greece, with the precious materials of their temples, stadiums, and statues.
There is a monastery, the most wealthy in Attica, which stands on the side of the mountain, and is generally used as a baiting- place by those who visit the quarries.
The road leads through the gateway, covered with the marble of Antoninus’s aqueduct. It continues over the corn-grounds, having the hill of St. George immediately on the left; two white pillars, with an inscription, at half a mile distance, are on the left of the path, erected by a Turk, who shot his arrow from one point to the other. In half an hour it comes to some olive-groves, having to the right the junction of the Eridanus and Ilissus, and two stone reservoirs, by which Athens is supplied with water.
In these olive-groves is a monastery dedicated to St. Michael, called Agios Asomatos*. ‘I'wo Corinthian capitals are in the walls of the church, supplied, perhaps, from the Temple of Venus, in the gardens formerly in this quarter. Not far beyond the olive- groves is a village, called Perivole, or Angele-Kipos, hidden in pleasant groves of olive and cypress, and in gardens of orange and lemon, and other fruit trees, on the south side of the low range of Anchesmus. It is the nearest of the villages to which the inhabitants of Athens withdraw during the summer heats. There is a stone causeway runs the length of the gardens; and two fountains, with marble facings, are in the middle of the vil- lage, on the right of the path.
Angele-Kipos, small as it is, has still a history attached to
* The modern Greeks do not attend to the aspirate, and Agios is here spelt as they pronounce it, without the H.
LETTER XXVI. 398
it; for the inhabitants of Pallene, a town to the north near Pen- telicus, would not intermarry with the natives of Angele of the tribe Pandionis, on account of their treachery as far back as the time of ‘lheseus*.
After this village the country is quite open and bare, and the soil light and stony, but it is ploughed and sowed in many parts, and there is in some spots a vineyard. Low, fragrant, shrubs are in abundance.
The low and stony range of Anchesmus is on the left of the road: to the right, a wide plain, between the north-east end of Hymettus and Pentelicus, opens upon you as you advance, and is seen stretching down far to the south. A road runs across this plain, which is called the plain of Spatha, to the eastern shore of At- tica: 1tis the same district which modern travellers have mentioned with the name of Mescigia. An hour beyond Angele-Kipos, the path goes through a larger village, of a hundred houses, surrounded with olive-groves, called Callandri, and from this spot emerges again into the open plain, continuing for half an hour along the side of a water-course, until it comes to the foot of the hills. Here large flocks of goats, tended by a caloyer, or monk, are seen cropping the scanty herbage on the sides of the mountain. Ascend- ing the mountain, you soon come into pine-woods, and other ever- greens, and arrive at the monastery itself in three hours from Athens, having travelled in-a direction about east-by-north.
This building is in a niche of the hill, surrounded by an olive- grove, through which a copious stream falls down a pebbly chan; nel into the plain below. A green plot before the door of the monastery is shaded by a spreading plane-tree. |
* See W heler, 470; and Chandler, 171.; but Plutarch, in his Life of The- scus, says this of the Demos Agnous, of the tribe Acamantis.
394 LETTER XXXVI:
The entrance into the square court of the building is, as usual. through a small door, plated with iron. Three sides of the court are fitted up with small cells, white-washed, and swept very cleaii; that of the Egoumenos, or abbot, has sofas and a carpet, for the reception of strangers. A well, and a tree, from which the iron hoop that calls them to prayers is suspended, is on one side of the yard. In the middle of the square stands the church, the inte- rior of which is plastered in every part with gilt, and bespeaks the wealth of the fraternity.
The monastery owns several metochis, or farms, in different parts of Attica, in the superintendance of which the numerous body of monks are dispersed over the country; so that there are seldom more than five or six at a time at Pendele. The original tribute of this monastery, paid to the support of the mosck of Valide, at Constantinople, was six thousand pounds weight of honey, at five dollars a quintal, and has not, that I heard, been since increased.
When we visited the place, the monks seemed to live well, and set before us a repast of eggs, dried olives, and honey, with a wine of an excellent flavour, anda palatable rossoglio; yet they called themselves poor, and seemed afraid lest we should carry away with us an opinion of their being in a flourishing condition. Such a report might imcrease the tax which they pay to the Porte for protection.
From the monastery to the marble-quarries is a distance of forty minutes, the path climbing the mountain to the north, through thick woods of evergreens, over very steep and unequal ground, but having here and there the appearance of a track for- merly much used. It is not possible to go the whole way on
horseback.
»
LETTER XxXVI, 395
You come suddenly on the caverns, the entrance to which is
at the bottom of an angle formed by two precipices of marble,
evidently smoothed by art, and cut into their present form for the sake of the materials. ‘These precipices are hung with ivy, which overshadows the mouth of the caverns. On a ledge, half way up, of the one on the left hand, with neither a descent or ascent tq it, is the small stone house which Chandler supposed a station for the centinel at the quarries, but which the modern Greeks believe to have been the abode of an ascetic, and, as it seems to me, with more probability; for the masonry appears of a much later date than would correspond with the conjecture of the traveller.
Before you enter the caves, the caloyer that attends you from the monastery, strikes a fire, and lights up several small wax tapers and strips of pine, for torches; which, however, are not necessary. until you get to the lower part of the recess. On entering, which ean be done without stooping, you see at once two small stone sheds, overgrown with ivy, with mouths like that of an oven. If these were habitations for the workmen, nothing could be con- trived more inconvenient. I should rather think them remains of the stone-work of forges employed in making and refitting the necessary tools.
On the right of these sheds you ascend, by a flight of three steps, to two ruined chapels, cut out of the rock, on whose sides are the faint traces of painted Saints. ‘Through an aperture which served for a window to one of them, and which 1s latticed by the overhanging ivy, there is a view of the extent of country beneath. ‘The choice of cemeteries, tombs, and solitary caves, amidst the depth of forests, for the purposes of religious worship, which was a subject of reproach against the early Christians, and
96 LETTER ΧΧΥῚ.
was adopted at first by necessity, was afterwards continued by in- clination, and a veneration for the spots made holy by ancient piety. In Turkey, the cause which originally drove the Lucifugaces to these recesses, still exists, and the sacred mysteries are, on the day of the Saint to which they are dedicated, at this time performed in the hollows of rocks, and in many other spots as wild and re- mote as the quarries of Pentelicus.
The Greeks in our company, crossed themselves most devoutly at entering and quitting the ruined chapels.
Proceeding lower down, the cavern widens, but is not very high; water distills from the roof, which 1s marble of the most beautiful tinge, a faint rose-colour, and fretted with a thousand petrifactions. ‘Turning down to the rnght, the excavation be- comes more picturesque, worked into many fantastic shapes, and adorned with arches and slender pillars, some of them complete, others nearly formed, with the drop trembling from the white icicle above towards the rising crystal below. On the left of the inner recess is a small hole, which you are directed to enter. ‘This you do on your knees, with a light, and sliding down for some time, through an aperture only large enough to admit your body lengthways, you come to ten steps, and descending these, to a cavity where you can stand upright, and where many names of travel- lers are scored and traced in smoke upon the stone. Below this spot, two or three steps farther, is a spring of cold water, the well formerly in use for working the marble quarries.
It is probable, that the last time these quarries were resorted to by the Athenians, was when Herodes built his stadium. After that period, the ruins of ancient buildings might have been sufficient to supply whatever marble materials were wanted for new works.
LELTER 3 XVI. 397
Fither the petrifactions have obliterated the marks of the tools,
in the interior caverns, of those excavations were only used as a
shelter to the workmen, the perpendicular precipices without, being
the surface whence the marble was cut away,
The means used to transport the enormous blocks of marble which were used in the edifices of Athens, from such a spot as the Pentelican quarries, must remain a secret to the moderns. It does not seem to me possible, that carriages of any description could ever have ascended so far up the hills; and as the me- chanical knowledge of the ancients was perhaps not so consider- able’as we generally believe them to have possessed, the labour must have been infinite, to convey entire such masses, nearly two miles down the steep sides of a mountain.
‘wo monstrous fragments are still to be seen in the path, a little below the quarries: these are cut into a shape somewhat circular, the angles being smoothed off, and might lead one to suppose that the blocks were thus prepared to facilitate the rolling of them down the hill, or gently pushing them with levers, a pro- cess somewhat difficult, but not impossible, when the descent was more regular, and the path more carefully cleared.
But the difficulty of transporting the marbles down the moun- tain, could not have been greater than that of raising them up the hill of the Acropolis; and, lastly, elevating them to a great height, after being carved, without any injury to the finest sculp- ture, into their positions in the building. One piece of marble alone, part of the roof of the Propylea, is twenty-seven feet long and seven wide, with a proportionate depth. The stupendous architraves of Hadrian’s Temple must have been raised sixty feet from the ground; and yet these are trifling, in comparison with
3F
398 LETTER XXVI.
.;
the Egyptian gramites, which one cannot believe to have been raised by engines, any more than the vast buildings of massy stones seen by the Spaniards on their first arrival among the Pe- ruvians, a people who knew not the use of iron, but, after smooth-
ing their materials against each other, had recourse to the lever
alone for the whole work.
I fancy that those who are well qualified to speak on the sub- ject, are now a little sceptical as to the exploits of Archimedes, and think, that the ancient Greeks were not acquainted with any engines to raise stones toa great height, particularly as those described by Vitruvius, have been judged of very inadequate powers. “ If the work was low,” says Mr. Perrault, in his famous parallel, « they lifted the blocks on their shoulders; if high, they raised sloping mounds of earth level with their work, on which they rolled them up to the necessary height*.” ‘hey were, perhaps, more laborious, but certainly less skilful than the moderns.
But to leave this speculation, and return towards Athens. In order to vary the ride from the monastery of Pentele, you may return by a road almost as short as that through Angele-ipos, and, after leaving the village of Callandri, turn to the right, and cross at the extremity of the low range of Anchesmus, going, for about two miles over heath and scantily-sowed land, to a water- course. Anchesmus is then on your left; before you, and on your right hand, you have an open country, skirted with large woods of olive-trees, a continuation of the groves on the plain of Athens.
Behind is a village in olive-trees, Muruffe; and higher up,
* Parall. page 118.
LETTER XXVI. 399
under Pentelicus, Cevrishia, one of the most considerable country towns in Attica, and which is seen afar off, being distinguished
by the dome and minaret of mosck. Cevrishia will be noticed
hereafter; it is three hours from Athens.
After travelling about half a mile on the side of the water- course, you see a massy portion of the remains of the aqueduct founded by Hadrian, to convey water from the northern ex- tremity of Pentelicus, across a gap in the western end of Anches- mus, to New Athens. Some arches of a considerable height cross the bed of the water-course; they are in ruins, but afford a very good specimen of the magnificence of the entire structure. Half a mile below these arches, you meet with a similar remain, but with piers more perfect, also crossing the bed of the water- course, and in a direction nearly parallel with the former, so as to induce an opinion that there were two branches to the northern end of the aqueduct.
Not long after these second remains, the path turns to the left, and strikes into olive-groves, where are a few mud _ houses, when it crosses the Cephissus over a bridge, which is itself a small aqueduct, and is used, together with some wicker troughs, to turn two over-shot mills.
On emerging from the groves, you have Athens full in view before you, and pass, for the remainder of the distance, over ἃ. plain of corn-grounds into the city; except that at half a mile from the walls, you pass through a hollow, having Anchesmus on your left, and on your right a high rocky mound, looking like a frag- ment loosened from the neighbouring hill.
LETTER XXVIII.
Route from Athens to Cape Colonni—Vary—The Panéum— Nympholepsy—Ennea Pyrge— Keratéa—The Caverns in Mount Parne—Route to Colonni—Return by the Eastern Shore of Attica, to Keratéa.
THE two following letters shall contain an account of a visit we paid to Cape Colonni, and the plain of Marathon.
On the 19th of January my fellow-traveller and myself left Athens, accompanied by our Albanian Vasilly, and a native of Athens, called Demetrius Zograffos, a young person, who, having lived some years at ‘T'rieste, spoke Italian, and wore the Frank habit. We had two baggage horses and two led-horses, which, together with our own four, were conducted by two sourgees, or postmen.
‘It was half past eleven when we left the city. We took the road directly south, crossing the bed of the Ilissus, and, in half an hour, arrived at some large cut stones, regularly placed. 'I'hese have been before noticed, as well as the supposition of Chandler, that they are vestiges of Alopece: the barrows are αἵ ἃ little dis- tance in the plain to the right. In another hour, after turning a little more to the east, and keeping nearer to Mount Hymettus, we came to some more large stones, like the foundation of a wall, and the mouth of an ancient well :
other barrows are at the nght hand,
LETTER XxVII. 401
The enumeration given by Strabo of the towns of this part of Attica, near the shore, refers these few remains to A‘xone, the town of the tribe Cecropis, the evil disposition of whose inhabi- tants became proverbial, and added another verb to the language, synonimous with “ to slander and to abuse*.” Hymettus dimi- nishes in height at this point, and runs south-south-east.
We now turned east-south-east, over uneven stony ground, through a gap in the mountain, which stretches about three miles farther into the sea, to form the promontory Zoster-+, now Halikes; and, for the last hour, riding through thickets of low pines and firs, we arrived at Vary, a metochi, or farm, be- longing to the monastery of Agios Asomatos. Here are five cottages, at the best of which lives the caloyer, who has the superintendance of the farm. With this monk we made _prepa- rations for staying during the night; but leaving our luggage, set out immediately to visit the Panéum discovered by Chandler,
and alluded to, it is probable, by Strabo, as being in the neigh- bourhood of Anaphlystus, of the tribe Antiochis, where was the
Temple of Venus Colias. We arrived at this celebrated cave, riding northwards over woody knolls, and climbing a hill, near the top of which is the entrance, not very easy to find. <A servant of the caloyer’s attended us to the spot with fir-torches, and pre- parations for striking a light.
* A ἰξωνέυεσϑαι.
+ After A°xone was the long promontory Zoster. At Zoster was the altar of Minerva, Apollo, Diana, and of Latona, who was believed to have brought forth her children on that spot, or, as others relate, to have loosened her zone, whenge the name of the place.—-Paus. Attic.
402 LETTER XXVIII.
You descend perpendicularly into the first landing-place in the cavern, by means of three branches of a tree fallen near the spot. At the landing-place you see two apertures; one to the left, a little precipitous, and the other before you, down an easy descent, where you may walk upright. Here the fire is prepared, and the torches kindled.
Here are some large letters, the first specimens observable of the several very ancient inscriptions to be seen in the cave; they are carved on the rock, which is cut down perpendicularly. Im- mediately on the left hand, going downwards, is what looks like a lion’s head, but carved very rudely, and disfigured ; on the right is a defaced inscription. Descending lower, you have pe- trifactions hanging from above, and rising from below; one repre- senting a small entire pillar, as high as the top of the grotto, is particularly striking. Beyond this the cave turns to the left, and you come to the lowest part of it, where 1s a spring of water collected in a small artificial basin. ‘Turning from the well to ascend to the other aperture, and on the left on the side of the rock, you see a figure in relief, as iarge as life, very rudely cut, and seeming to represent a man with some instruments in his hand, apparently looking one way, and walking the other. The earth has been heaped up nearly as high as the knees of the figure, but when it has been cleared away, both the feet have been found to be turned inwards.
I took a sketch of this singular piece of sculpture, which, from the letters employed in the inscriptions, has been considered of extreme antiquity, prior certainly to the adoption of the Tonic alphabet by the Athenians. At the same time, it would not, I conceive, be just to suppose, that this strange figure 18 a speci-
LETTER XXVITI. 403
men of the first rude essays made by the Greeks towards the art in which they afterwards produced such noble master- pieces.
Archidamus, the Pherzan, whom the inscriptions discover to have been the maker of the grotto, and who seems to be repre- sented with the implements of his labour, may, most probably, have not been a sculptor by profession. What sort of tool he carries in his left hand is not very discernible, but that in his right appears more suitable for digging than carving.
Above the figure, on the left side of it, are two inscriptions giving, in two places, one under the other, the name of the owner of the cave, and the original of the image.
Above this spot, towards the entrance, is an oval niche, with small steps before it. On the right of this, is a headless statue in a chair, much mutilated, and supposed to represent Isis, the Egyptian Ceres; and at the right of the statue is a mishapen block of stone, which Chandler considered an Ithyphallus, but which would not, without a previous hint, strike any one to be the resemblance of that impure symbol. Between the niche and the Isis is a stone rudely inscribed on both sides, from which the traveller before mentioned copied the purport of these words— ** Archidamus the Pherzan and Chollidensian, made this dwelling for the Nymphs ;” and ‘ Archidamus the Pherean planted the garden for the Nymphs.” The oval niche may be supposed to have contained a statue of Pans from the inscription ITANOS, still extant underneath.
By comparing my own draught with the state of the inscrip- tions in the time of the above traveller, I find that some of the characters have been defaced since that period, when they were
404. LETTER ΣΧΥΤΙ.
such as they are represented with the annexed figure, but very rudely cut.
On the Rock above the Landing-place.
APREAHMP EO 4 Up 4b jz. AP+EAHMOS HPAIOSONY® "7729 AP+EAAMOS OAHPTOSePAA αὶ J AISINYM®ON ; ANTPONEZHPT H=ATO
Above the left Aperture, on the descent to the Cave. AP-+EAAMO ς ἤ ΟΦΕΡΑΙΟ.5 , ;
“ἡ pposite to the first UY) % YW My 727
Uy Uff
2) 6 "25.33.2. Juscription.
APIO S 1 WM On one side of the Stone, beneath the Isis. On the other side of the same Stone. AAMOZHO@ER AP+-EAEMO SH 5 KAT ONNIvI AIOSKAI+OL AIZEDVTVZEN AESTAINYM
- SOILKOAO Under a Niche. [ANos
Twice inscribed under two Niches.
APOAAQNOS ΕΡΣΘ
See the Appendix.
LETTER XXVII. 405
Above the Isis, are two names of travellers, cut deeply into the stone, and carefully, Fauver, FoucnEeror; our Greek pointed at them as antique inscriptions.
To the left of the sedent statue, and at no great distance above the figure of Archidamus, is the aperture out of the cave, which is ascended by steps cut out in the rock, slippery, and much worn, and requiring a little climbing to mount.
Many of the petrifactions of this cavern are in more natural shapes than the rude pieces of sculpture described ; and the grow- ing spars and crystals were the admiration of the shepherds, who looked upon the stone as endowed with a principle of animation, forming itself into arched grottoes and couches by the side of pure fountains, at the command, and for the gratification of the Nymphs. ‘The pious rustic conceived himself to have witnessed the handy-work, or perhaps the persons, of the deities of the woods, in their most favourite recesses ; and a wish to conciliate their favour, or avert their wrath, prompted him to improve their habitation. A small trench, cut out of the rock, and filled with earth, was planted with a few flowers or herbs, and became their
garden, and the rude figures or emblems of such gods as were
thought to preside over the country, were selected as fit objects to ornament or consecrate the holy grotto.
The votary was believed, and doubtless believed himself to be possessed, and an epithet was found out, and attached ta his name, which at once expressed the excess of his piety, or per- haps his passion; for the nymphs were known not only to permit, but solicit the love of mortals. He became a nympholept; and furnished another tale, to be magnified by the credulity of the
religionist, and adorned by the fancy of the poet. After his 3G
GS rrr > war er w 400 LETTER XXVII.
death he was revered, and perhaps, like Trophonius, worshipped ; and, having been deluded himself, in his turn contributed to the folly of others. ‘Thus, when some credit was attached to such a disease, many were found willing to confess themselves so deranged, and we learn, that nympholepsy was epidemic amongst the people in the neighbourhood of a certain cave in Citheron.
The subterranean worship of the ancients, embraced not only that of the Nymphs, of Bacchus, Priapus, Ceres, and Pan, but that of Apollo, Mercury, and other deities. Jupiter himself had a cave on Mount Ida, in Crete; and one was shown by the Phrygians of Themisonium, before which were the figures of Hercules, Apollo, and Mercury, who had conducted the inhabi- tants to this secure retreat during the irruption of the Gauls *. But the sylvan deities were the usual tenants of these grottoes : for them, as for the fairies of modern superstition, “‘ the bowl was duly set;” and one of the inscriptions in the Panéum near Vary, directed those who visited the place to Offer.
The ancient Athenians followed the precept of 'Triptolemus, directing them to worship the gods only with the productions of the earth: and the niches in the holy caves, the earliest of tem- ples, were cut to receive the cakes of meal and fruits, the oil and wine, of which the humble offerings consisted, and which were believed to administer to the wants of the divinities. So con- vinced were the people of the actual presence of those whom they adored, that their grottoes had two entrances, one of which was reserved for men, but the other for immortals}, This particularity
* Pausa. Phocic. p. 671. ὙΓΑλλ᾽ Αϑανάτων ὁδὸς eoriv.—-OATZZ,. Ν,
LETTER XXVII. AOT
was observed of the caves in Ithaca, and near Heraclea, and that of Archidamus has been described as having a similar contrivance. The left-hand entrance is certainly artificial.
The Panéum near Vary contains nothing, like Homer’s cavern, “ wonderful to behold,” but is, perhaps, the most ancient vestige of the religion of Greece in existence, and will, most probably, be pointed out to the enquiring traveller, long after the last eo- lumns of the Parthenon shall have fallen to the ground. 'The Grotto of Archidamus will outlast the Temple of Pericles.
The cave is now the resort of the shepherds, who, however, have done it no further injury, than blacking the roof and sides of it, at the first landing-place, with the smoke of their fires.
Returning from this spot, we had a view of Cape Zoster, or Halikes, and of the assemblage of small islands called Cambo Nisia, before us; to the left, at the farthest distance, was the pro- jecting land of Attica, and a promontory which shuts out the
view of Sunium, called Katapheke. Before this promontory lay a rocky island, whose name is now Gaidaronisi, but was anciently the Fosse of Patroclus.
We passed the night at Vary; and as it was very fine, the moon shining bright in a clear sky, rambled about for some time on a terrace near the house, which has been paved, and is made use of for an aloni, or corn-floor, and which is mentioned by Chandler. ‘There is something exceedingly agreeable in the mi- nute descriptions of that traveller, to those who journey over the same spots which he visited.
Before our departure from Vary, the next morning, I walked out towards a bay a little below the village, over some cultivated land, where, amongst several bushes, there are the evident traces
3G 2
A «] elle a. ee = ΩΣ 408 LETTER RXVIK
of an ancient town. In one place were the shafts of three small marble columns, standing in an inclosure, apparently the ruin of a church. In another was a large circular basin, or trough, and the mouth of a fountain, alsoin marble. At Vary, lying by the side of a smali church, is a marble lion, nearly as large as life, with the legs of a man bestride him. ‘The head and legs of the lion, as well as the body and feet of the rider, are wanting; but what remains, particularly the swell of the loins of the animal, is of fine workmanship. On each side of the church-door is a sepulchral inscription, on a circular piece of ornamented marble.
ΗΝΙΝΠΟΣ ΡΙΣΤΟΜΑΧΗ. ΑΙΠΠΟ ΒΟΥΛΑΡΧΟΥ͂
‘These have been taken from the ruins of the place below. I did not see the inscription which recorded a native of Anagyrus*, and caused the supposition, that the site of the Attic town of that name was on the flat below Vary. Below these remains, nearer the shore, are some salt-pits.
Ata little past twelve, we set forwards on our journey, and rode for an hour, south-south-east, through woods of pine; we then entered some hilly grounds, and turned east-south-east, also through pine woods. Here we met large droves of oxen belong- ing to the metochi of Vary; they were of a kind smaller than the Scotch cattle, and generally black.
* Anagyrus was a town of the tribe Erectheis; it contained a temple of the Mother of the Gods: it was the name also of a plant of a most pungent odour ; and of a hero, whose signal vengeance in punishing some neighbours, who had insulted his Gods, or clse the nature of the plant, gave rise to the Greek proverb,
A’vayupov κινεῖν
LETTER XxXVII. 409
We had lost sight of the sea soon after leaving our village. In half an hour we crossed near the extremity of a plain, extending far up to the northwards. ‘his plain is that of which mention has been before made, under the name of the plain of Spatha, and which is separated from the district immediately near Athens by the range of Hymettus.
A mile out of our road to the left of the north, we saw several square towers in ruins, called Ennea Pyrge ; but the number of these unsightly structures is Jess than that which gave them their denomination. We rode to them, and found nothing worth no-
tice. On a slope of a hill, at some distance, we saw the large
village of Marcopoli, containing three hundred houses, more to the northward, in the same plain of Spatha. ‘The plain is open and well cultivated, having besides, tracts of pasture land, covered with flocks and herds: it is bounded by Pentelicus to the north,
and by some high lands, which form the shore of Attica, to the east.
In Ennea Pyrge, I do not recognize the “ruins of ἃ town built on a rock,” to which Sir G. Wheler has given the same name, and has conjectured to be the site of the lower Lampra. This spot is several miles inland, and the coast is not to be seen from it, on account of a ridge of low hills, which terminate it to the south. It appears to me to be rather that which he calls a desolate church, near the site of Anaphlystus*.
We rejoined the baggage horses at a small village, ‘ Kalivia KKouvara ;’ our direction was then south-east, in an open culti-
* In another place, Anaphlystus was, by mistake, put for Limne, which Wheler supposed on the site of Tres Pyrgaz, near the promontory Colias; yet D’Anville has placed Anaphlystus near Colias.
410 LETTER XXVII.
yated plain. In half an hour we came to the head of another large tract of flat open country ; a village, Kouvara, was on our left, at the side of some low hills; mountains, called Parne, were on our right, running parallel with our route.
Travelling onwards in the plain for another half hour, we ar- rived, at three o'clock, at the village of Keratéa. Here we put up for the night in a large mud cottage belonging to the Codja- bashee.
Keratéa is inhabited by Albanians, and contains about two hundred and fifty houses. Three or four of the peasants are of the better sort, and reputed rich, they being themselves the owners of the neighbouring lands, and not renters, as is the case at almost all the villages of Attica, where the common tenure is, that the peasants shall pay one-half of the produce of their lands and their stock, whatever it may be, to their landlords, and, out of the remainder, raise their taxes for the Porte, their contributions for their own priests, and support themselves. Every expence devolves upon the tenant, who, by the undefined terms of his tenure, becomes almost the slave of his landlord; and, on pre- tence of having made large profits, is liable to repeated extortions, as moieties due to his master.
Keratéa is at the foot of the range of mountains now called Parné, which are not a continuation of Hymettus, as represented in most maps, and yet have not been, that I am aware, distin- guished by any ancient name, unless they are a part of Laurium.
A little before the sun was set, I climbed some distance up the hill, from which I had a very commanding prospect, including the southern extremity of the Negroponte, Macronisi or Long Island, near the eastern coast, as far as Sunium, and several
LETTER XXVII. 411
islands to the south of that promontory. Attica at this point
appeared very narrow, the eastern shore running from north-
north-west to east-south-east. 'The two ranges of Hymettus were very distinctly seen, lying in the direction before described.
The soil in the neighbourhod of Keratéa is very light and stony, and gives but a scanty return to the husbandman ; indeed, the general multiplication of grain in Attica is five and six for on», and never more than ten.
Chandler thought Marcopoli to be Potamus; and, from some remains seen by Wheler, supposed Keratéa to be Thoricus ; but a port, still called Therico, is about an hour and a half dis- tance to the south-east. It is probable, that most of the modern towns of this country may have been built on or near the site of the ancient places, for the conveniency of making use of the ruins; but there is something a little too arbitrary in fixing upon the few vestiges occasionally seen, as certain remains of the towns distin- guished by particular mention in ancient authors: they may very easily be the marks of one of thé many Attic towns of which we only know the names.
The two days after our arrival at Keratéa were so rainy, as to induce us to defer our expedition to Cape Colonni until fairer weather ; but [ took the opportunity of a few hours sunshine, to climb up the mountain Parné, in search of a cave, of which we had heard many wonderful stories from our host. Demetrius, the Athenian, and an old man as a guide, accompanied. We ascended for some time, and turning round the eastern extre- mity, came to the south side of the range. ‘The clouds hanging on the side of the hills retarded our progress; but after scram- bling up some way in the mist, we again found ourselves in the
412 LETTER XXVII.
light. The sun shone above head in a clear blue sky; and whilst the country below seemed like an expanse of white water, the ground where we stood, and the summits of other mountains, had the appearance of innumerable islands rising abruptly from the sea.
Arriving with much difficulty near the top of the range of hills, we came, after along search, to the mouth of the cavern. A fragment of impending rock almost concealed the entrance. We leapt down on the first landing-place, and there struck a light, and having each of us taken a pine-torch in our hands, together with a supply οἵ strips of the same wood, let ourselves down through a very narrow aperture, where there was a choice of two entrances, to the right or left. Creeping down still farther, we came at once into what appeared a large subterranean hall, arched over head with high domes of crystal, and divided into long aisles by columns of glittering spars—in some parts spread into wide horizontal chambers, in others terminated by the dark mouths of steep recesses, descending, as it seemed, into the bowels of the mountain.
The vast magnificence of nature was joined with the pleasing regularity of art. We wandered from one grotto to another, until we came to a fountain of pure water, supplied partly by a stream that trickled down the petrifactions depending from the roof, and partly by a spring bubbling up from the rock below. By the side of this basin we loitered some time, when, as our torches began to waste, we resolved to return; but after exploring the labyrinth for a few minutes, we found ourselves again at the fountain side, and began, not without reason, to be somewhat alarmed ; for the guide here confessed, that he had forgotten the
LETTER XXVIII. 418
intricacies of the caverns, and knew not how we should ever re- cover our path.
We were in this situation, roaming through ranges of the cavern, and now and then climbing up narrow apertures, totally ignorant of our position, for many minutes, and the last strip of fir was consuming, when we saw the light gleaming towards us, and directing our steps that way, arrived at the mouth of the cave. Had our light been extinguished, there would have been but little, if any chance, of our escape. ‘I'he splendour and beauty of the scene would have vanished with the last blaze of our torch, and the fairy palace been at once converted into a dark inextricable cavern, a dungean, and a tomb. The mind can- not easily picture to itself any “‘ slow sudden” death more terrible, than that of him who should be buried in these subterranean solitudes, and after a succession of faint hopes and eager efforts, sink at last, subdued by weakness and despair.
The peasants of Keratéa informed us, that this cave, which is well known, and talked of in Attica, but has not, I fancy, been
mentioned by any traveller, has within it a thousand suites of
grottoes, extending, as they believed, through the centre of the
mountain below their town. ‘The spar, with which it abounds, is of the purest white; and they told us, that some travellers had carried away several horse-loads of it. ‘The wolves frequently resort to it, and we were advised to carry our pistols in readiness for a rencounter with one of these animals.
I did not observe any marks of carving in the rock, or any thing which might lead one to suppose that this cave had anciently been dedicated to Pan or the Nymphs; yet its size and magnifi- cence render it a dwelling much more suitable to the rural deities than the grotto of Archidamus.
Q ;x 2ΠΗ
414 LETTER XXVITI.
Returning from the cave, we went into a farm, where two or three caloyers reside. It is on a steep declivity, about half way up the hill, and is sheltered by a grove of olive trees. A small chapel of St. John is within the inclosure; and near this is an arched grotto, with a cold spring in a large stone basin sunk in the earth, supplied by a stream that distils, in perpetual drops, from the roof of the cell. ‘The basin is large enough to serve the purposes of a bath, and is so used by the caloyers (who have adjusted to the mouth of the grotto a rude wooden door) during the violent heats of summer. ‘The water trickles from above, like the streams of a continued shower-bath, and must have the same agreeable effect, without the violent shock produced hy sudden aspersion..
I should not forget to tell you, that the monk who showed us
the grotto, pointed to this distillation asa standing miracle, per- formed by the saint in the neighbouring chapel.
The day after the ascent of Mount Parneé was so continuedly ramy, as to prevent our proceeding from KSeratéa ; but the morn- ing after (January 23, 1810) we set out, at half past nine, for Cape Colonni, leaving our baggage, as we intended to return to the village the same night. We took first a direction south-south- east, over rough barren ground, until, in half an hour, we turned the extremity of the mountain Parné. At this spot there were two roads ; one, towards the south, to the port Therico, the other, west-south-west, to a village called Katapheke. ‘This latter route we took; and proceeding over woody knolls, kept more to the south-west and south-south-west, coming at last to a flat plain, terminated by a bay with a cape, and a small island before it to the west.
Here, ina marshy flat near the sea, were some large salt-pits.
LETTER XXVII. 415
I take a promontory, to the west of the bay, to have been Asty-
oT ] r midis at - a ἢ τευ τ αὶ - paliea, which was that next to Zoster, immediately to the south
of the town of ‘hore or Thore, and an island, facing it, may be that once called Eleusa.
Proceeding a short time by a water-course, we turned to the south-south-east, and keeping the sea for a quarter of an hour in sight, went over a rocky hilly path, until we came to Katapheke, a village of a few huts, which gives its name to a long promon- tory that stretches beyond it far into the sea, and is the next pro- jection to the west of Cape Colonni. Katapheke is reckoned four hours from Keratéa, the route very circuitous and rough, but we were only an hour and forty minutes performing the distance.
After leaving this village, the path took us over woody hills, until we came to a solitary metochi, standing in the midst of the wildest mountain scenery, when we struck more southward, along the course of a dry river, having in front of us huge perpendicu- lar precipices, covered with pines and other evergreens, running east and west. In order to get round this range, we continued a little more to the right, until we came nearly to the sea-shore, and turning again to the east, and climbing over the foot of the hills, had our first view of Cape Colonni, and the ruins of the Temple of Minerva.
We rode for some time over a rough uneven path, just above the sea-shore, until we came to along bay, at the west side of which was a small rocky island. On this rock the waves burst, though it was nearly calm, with a loud murmur, and covered the shelving sides with white foam.
After riding along the bay, we passed upwards to the site of the ruins, by a steep, but not very long ascent, and climbing
3H 2
416 LETTER XXVII.
over the remains of an ancient wall, which has fourteen rows of massy stones still standing, came to the remains of the Temple of Minerva Sunias.
The proportions of this Temple may be judged of by that part of it which is still standing, and it appears to have occupied nearly the whole of the level ground on the promontory. It was of the Doric order, an hexastyle, the columns twenty-seven feet. in height ; the whole edifice being of very white marble, and of the most perfect architecture. Nine columns, without their entabla- tures, front the sea, in a line from west-north-west to east-south- east; three are standing on the side towards the land, the north ; and two, with a pilaster next to the corner-one of the northern columns, towards the sea on the east, and on a line with the last column but one of the nine on the south-eastern side. Some large fragments of the cell are scattered about in the western front, and the ruins of a pilaster, which was thrown down about sixty years ago, lie in heaps at the front towards the east. ‘These are covered with the names of travellers.
The whiteness of the marble has been preserved probably by the sea vapour, in the same manner as T'rajan’s triumphal arch at Ancona, near the mole, immediately on the beach, retains a freshness and polish superior to any remains in more inland situa- tions.
‘The rock on which the columns stand is precipitous, but not inaccessible, nor very high; it bears a strong resemblance to the picture in Falconer’s Shipwreck ; but the view given in Ana- charsis, places the Temple just i the wrong position. Here is another steep craggy neck of land, stretching from the east. side of the cape to the south-south-east.
LETTER XxVII. 417
T’o the north-west, under the brow of the rock, is a circular ereek, which was formerly the port of the town Sunium. The fragments of wall before noticed, are part of the fortifications with which that town was surrounded during the Peloponesian war. Sunium, belonging to the tribe Leontis, was considered an important post, and as much a town as Pireus, but cannot have been very large; yet Euripides, in his Cyclops, talks of the “ rich rock of Sunium,” by which he might allude to the wealth of the Temple, but hardly to the fertility of the soil.
The view from Cape Colonni presents, on the west, the pro- montory ISatapheke, and very near to that headland, the abrupt rocky island, now called Gaidaronesi, but whose ancient name was the Fosse of Patroclus, as it was once surrounded with a wall by an Egyptian admiral of that name, to defend the coast against Antigonus, the son of Demetrius*. It is now uninha- bited, and entirely a desert ; without a herb or shrub upon its rugged surface: it was formerly in repute for the great quantity of ebony wood which it produced. Beyond Gaidaronesi is ἃ smaller island, Archinda, formerly Belbina.
The view to the north, or the land side, is. terminated very soon by high and abrupt hills, covered with pines, and abounding in marble. ‘ihese hills. were formerly the mountain Laurium; and it should seem, that about the promontory Katapheke was the town Laurium, which is. mentioned as being near to the island Patroclus}+. One or two of the shafts of the ancient silver mines, for which this mountainous region was so celebrated, have been discovered in.a small shrubby plain not far from the sea, on the
* Paus. Attic. p. 1. t Paus,. Attic. p, 1.
ALS LETTER XXVIII.
eastern coast; and a specimen of ore, lately found, was shown to me at Athens.
The whole of the country, from the plain of Athens to Sunium, on the side both of the Saronic gulf and the Aigean sea, com- posing the strip of land that forms the southern extremity of At- tica, was called Paralos, or the Maritime. It was laid waste on both sides towards Peloponesus, and towards Eubca and Andros, in the second year of the long war*, On the east, quite close to the land, is the island Helene, called Macronesi, or Long Island, running from south-south-west to north-north-east, narrow and rocky, and forming a sort of roadstead between its own shore and the coast of Attica, for several miles.
Beyond Macronesi is Zea, then ‘Thermia, and next Serpho; all Jong low land, lying in a line successively, so as to have the ap- pearance of one large island, stretching to the south. In the utmost distance in the same direction, is the island St. George. The high lands of Argolis, about the Cape Scylleum, that form the other extremity of the Saronic gulf, are also visible, at a distance computed to be about two or three and twenty miles +}-. The spear and the crest of the statue of Minerva Polias, in the Acropolis, might be seen from Sunium, a straight line of nearly thirty miles; such, at least, is the assertion of Pausanias, which no one, who has seen the positions, can at all credit. ‘Those who have supposed the old Athenians endowed with a sight so subtle and extensive, as to enable them to distinguish objects at a far greater distance than any amongst us of the present day, will not, however, believe them to have had the faculty of seeing
* Thueyd. Hist. lib. ii. cap. 54. + Wheler, p. 423.
LETTER XXVIlI. 419
through opposing hills. ‘The transparency of the air in the cli- mate of Attica, might, indeed, account for very extensive powers of vision: a late traveller, Mr. Humboldt, relates, that on the mountains of Quito it is not difficult to distinguish, at a distance of seventeen miles, the white cloak of a person on horseback. But the range of Hymettus prevents even the promontory Su- nium itself from being seen from the Acropolis, and let the height of the gigantic statue have been ever so enormous, it could hardly be so considerable as to over-top the neighbouring mountains.
After remaining about an hour and a half on the cape, under the columns of the Temple, we set out to return to Keratéa by the eastern coast of Attica, not keeping quite close to the shore, but going over a hilly road, through woods of pine, low cedars, and bushes of lentisc, until we came to a bay or port, passing by some wells, called, as is the port, Passia Pegathia, the Pasha’s Fountain; and, in an hour from Colonni, to Gaidaromandra, a large double port, the horns projecting far on each side, the largest and more southerly port having a direction from north-east to south-west ; the smaller one, whose mouth is only a few yards across, and choked by a bar of sand, lying from east to west.
From Gaidaromandra, after riding about three miles. over a barren country, near the sea, we passed a port called Panorma, large and open, the southern cape stretching farther than the northern, and lying from east to west: between this place and the last port are the shafts of the silver mines, a little out of the way on the left of the road. At the back of port Panorma there 15 a salt-marsh.
In little more than half an hour, we came to the port Therico, not passing close to the sea; so that we did not observe another port, called Agastirachia, between Panorma and this last place.
120 LETTER XXVITI.
Therico is a large open port, in a direction from east-north-east to west-south-west, fronted by the northern extremity of Macro- nesi, and a point to the north of north-west from Sunium. On the south-west, west, ane north, there is a marshy plain of some
extent, terminated on every side by hills, the highest of which are to the south, where one may suppose was the point called Besa*, on Mount Laurium. The most considerable branch of the silver mines reached from the monument of 'Thrasyllus, on Lau- rium, to Besa, and was defended by the fortress of 'Thoricus to the north, and Anaphlystus to the south, at equal distances from Besa, which height it was proposed also to fortify, as an addi- tional security.
In some bushes in the plain, not far from the port, we saw afew large fragments of marble columns, the remains, as the traveller Le Roi thought, of a very ancient temple, and upon a small stony eminence to the north, a piece of wall, a vestige, it may be presumed, of the fortifications of 'Thoricus.
Thoricus was a considerable town, of the tribe Acamantis, receiving its name from 'lhoricus, a Cyprian, and supposed by the ancient Athenians to have been the country of Cephalus. It is mentioned by Strabo, as between Sunium and Potamus.
We struck into the plain to the north-west, and came to a vil- lage of a few huts on a woody knoll, and then went north-north- west through a pass in the hills; after which, we passed over some extent of ground, up a brow covered with cinders, the remnants of the mines, a branch of which may have been in this quarter. Pieces of ore, chiefly of copper, with a small portion of silver, are occasionally picked up by the peasants on this spot. No incon-
* Xenoph. report, p. 928, edit. Leunclav.
GETTER, REVEL. 49}
siderable quantity of valuable metal was, as we learn from Sir G. Wheler, collected hence, and actually worked by the Greeks at Athens, about a hundred and fifty years ago”*.
We continued on our journey, over bare stony ground, inter-
spersed with heath and low shrubs, until we arrived at the point
where the road joined the path we had taken in the morning, at the extremity of the range of Parne, and came, at half past four, to Keratéa, having made a circuit, as computed, of twelve hours.
Throughout the whole of this large tract of country, we had seen only three small villages and one solitary farm; in all not thirty houses. It does not appear that this district was ever much peopled: the slaves who worked the mines of Laurium, formed by far the greatest part of its population, and the few towns on the coast were inhabited by fishermen ; for the barren-. ness of the soil, except in a few spots, would not admit of pastu- rage or agriculture. The people of Paralos were thus entirely attached to the sea, and were the best sailors in Attica; even their religious festivals partook of their nautical habits, and, in- stead of the dances and the processions of the Panathenea, they had galley-races round the Sunian promontory, in honour of the Minerva who presided over their temple. Except those of Ana- phlystus, who were esteemed for their manufactures of vases, the Paralians were not excellent in any art unconnected with their way of life, and as the naval dominion of the republic declined, diminished both in numbers and importance: an insurrection of the slaves of the mines, about the year 650, U.C., completed the destruction of this district, and all its towns were soon after in a manner deserted.
* Wheler, p. 448. 91
422 LETTER ΧΧΥΤΥ,
The creeks and caves with which this angle of Attica abounds, afford a retreat to the Mainotes, and other pirates of the Grecian seas; and, as you may recollect, from an anecdote in my seven- teenth Letter, a visit to the ruins of the Temple of Minerva Sunias is not, at all times, unattended with peril. ‘The peasants, however, generally keep watch on the tops of the hills overhang- ing the coast, and the approach of any suspicious boats is notified to the villages, which are immediately secured against surprise. Keratéa itself was, about the beginning of the seventeenth cen- tury, plundered by a large body, and Jeft in ruins. ‘ This has. been,” says Wheler, “ an ancient and great city, and did pre- serve itself considerable, until destroyed by the corsairs, about fifty or threescore years ago. They had their Epitropi, or Ar- chontes, until then, who did wear high-crowned hats, like those of Athens*.”
* A Journey, p. 448.
LETTER XXVIII.
Route from Keratéa to Port Raphti—that Port described— Route from Raphti, through Kata-Vrdona and Apano-Vrdona, and by Caliva Spatha, to the Plain of Marathon—View of. the Plain—Battle of Marathon—Route from the Plain to
Athens—The Cave of Pan—Stamati—Cevrishia.
A'T twelve o’clock, on the 24th of January, we left Keratéa, in order to proceed to Marathon; but as it was our wish to take a view of port Raphti, we sent on our baggage the direct road by Marcopoli, going ourselves towards the coast, in an easterly and east-north-easterly direction®. For half an hour
we rode over a cultivated plain, and then turned north-east amongst
hills, continuing amongst which for another hour, we had a view of port Raphti, through a vista formed by high woody moun- tains. We wound down these hills by a steep and craggy path, until we came to a torrent-bed, and a few huts constructed with
boughs of trees; and then keeping by the side of the water-course,
* Between port Therico and port Raphti, there are four small fishing har- bours: J. Vrisaki, 2. Turco-liminia, 3. Thascalio, 4. Kake-Thalassa. One of them was large enough to receive the Lacedemonian fleet (Thucyd. lib. viii. cap. 95), perhaps the port of Potamus, a Demos of the tribe Leontis, frequently mentioned by ancient authors. The tomb of Ion, if a barrow, may still remain, and point out the site.
[2]
VES
494, LETTER ΧΧΨΥΨΤΙΙ.
Ds v ᾿
through pine woods, we reached the sea-shore in a little less than two. hours from Keratéa, travelling down an easy slope to the port.
Raphti, the ancient port of Prasie, about fifteen miles from Athens, isa much more commodious as well as a larger harbour than Pireus ; and being, as it were, scooped out of the feet of high hills, crowned with forests of a perpetual verdure, affords not only a secure but a most romantic retreat.
Prasiz was of the tribe Pandionis, and well known by being the place whence the mysteries of the Hyperborean Apollo were annually carried by the Athenians to Delos: it contained’ the sepulchre of Erysicthon. Some ruins of the town were seen by Wheler, which have now disappeared.
It has a double port, and one basin is called the little, the other
the great Raphti. The little Raphti is to the south, and lies in a direction from
east-north-east to its opposite point in the compass: its shape 18 circular. On its southern extremity is a peninsular neck of land, with a high hill just above, that may be seen at a great distance, and on the same side, in the mouth of the whole harbour, 1s a steep rocky island, on which we saw very plainly a colossal statue.
This island has been visited by travellers, and the statue been described to be of white marble, sedent, on a pedestal eight feet high. The head and arms of the statue are broken off, but when entire, it is conjectured to have been twelve feet in height*, and to have once served the purpose of a Pharos. ‘The modern Greeks supposed it to represent a tailor cutting cloth;-; a subject, it must be confessed, not lkely to be chosen by the taste of an
* Chandler, p. 157. + Wheler, p. 447. P'amrns, in Romaic, signifies a tailor.
BETTER. XXVIII. 425
ancient sculptor. Farther in to the north, is a small low green island, and on this there was once another statue of a female, ser- viceable, perhaps, in pointing out the mouth of the larger har- bour. A narrow range of rocks divides the two ports.
The larger Raphti 15 ἃ very considerable basin, of an oval shape, extending to the north-north-west, and sheltered from every quar- ter of the compass.
As we were passing round the shore of the lesser port, we heard the barking of some dogs, and a shout from a shepherd, and look- ing about us, saw a large dun-coloured. wolf galloping slowly through the bushes, a little to the left of us. ‘The mountains of Attica, particularly Parnes, formerly abounded with these animals, as well as with bears and wild boars. We were told that wolves were very common, and that boars were occasionally killed, but of the bears we heard nothing. ‘The flocks are guarded by the large shaggy dog, before described as being found in Albania ; but a wolf is too strong for one of them, and you see the shep- herd accompanied sometimes by four or five. The hard weather drives the wolves into the plains, but they are. seldom bold enough to show themselves in the open day, though in the moonlight nights they will sometimes penetrate not only into the folds, but even into the village gardens. ‘They are now and then, though but seldom, tracked in the snow to their dens in the mountains, and shot by the shepherd, who les in ambush near the mouth of their caves.
Advancing towards the greater Raphti, we hailed a little fishing boat, that was under the range of rocks dividing the two ports ; but the Greeks, as soon as they saw us, mistook us for Turks, and rowed off, until they were persuaded to come back by the
420 LETTER XXVIIl.
ae vy
friendly tones and intreaties of our Athenian, Demetrius. We dismounted, and lighting up a fire, by means of the flint and steel which the passion for smoking induces almost every Levan- tine to carry about him, partook of some dried fish, of the sort most commonly met with on these coasts. This fish is the sea- polypus, about the size of a small lobster, and has eight legs in rings, on which account it 1s called octo-podes by the Greeks, though the Lingua Franca name is volpe. It is beaten to make it tender, and a little salt being thrown over it, dried, and some- times eaten raw, but more commonly fried with oil. The flesh is white, but tough and insipid. ‘This and the cuttle fish constitute a chief part of the food of the Greeks during such of their fasts as exclude them from eating any thing but vegetables and blood- less animals.
After our refreshment, we passed along part of the beach of the larger Raphti; then left the sea, and took a path to the north-west, through grounds beautifully wooded, with. intervals of cultivated land, and having much the appearance of an Eng- lish park, or ornamented farm; after this, we soon came into the upper part of the plain of Spatha, where are Ennea Pyrge and Marcopoli, before mentioned, and in an hour passed by a small village, Kata-Vraona, belonging to the monastery Pendele, and striking into the direct road from Keratéa to Marathon.
Shortly after Kata-Vraona we passed Apano-Vraona, also mm the same fine plain, and pursuing our route, saw the village of Spatha on our left, not far from Hymettus: Pentelicus was before us, and the high tops of Parnes were visible afar off, concluding the prospect. i
1, S~9
From lower and upper Vraona the path took us to a village
LETTER XXVIII. 427
also in the plain, called Caliva Spatha (meaning, I fancy, a village
subordinate or belonging to Spatha); here we turned amongst
woods, to the north-north-east, having Pentelicus verging towards
us on our left, and a range of low rocks. to our right. We inclined more to the north-east; and then again northwards, ascending some hilly ground, a root of Pentelicus, which, run- ning into the sea, forms the promontory once called Cynosura. It was then five o’clock, and we had been two hours and a half coming, at a brisk pace, from Raphti. From the brow we had a view of the plain and long beach of Marathon, extending before us to the north, and travelled under a range of Pentelicus on our left, at some distance from the shore, over barren ground. En- tering the plain on this side, the flat appears to be the most ex- tensive under the hills before you to the north; and the promon- tory of Rhamnus, called Chersonesus formerly, but now Stome, stretching out into the sea on that side, formsa fine bay, which im- mediately strikes you, at a distance, as having been the place where the Persians landed, and the scene of the glorious battle: indeed, not. knowing the situations, [ travelled on to the village before us with that idea, and was entjrely unaware that we were, whilst riding over a green narrow plain, passing the very spot we had come to visit. it was rather dusky, anda high mound on the right hand of us almost escaped our attention, nor could we see it sufficiently distinct to recognize it for the barrow of the Athenians.
We saw two collections of wretched huts; one at the extre- mity of the plain, with a rumed tower, and’the other on the brow of a low eminence, beyond a small river: To this latter place we directed our steps, and, crossing the stream, arrived there, together with our baggage-horses, which we had) overtaken, at
half after six in the evening.
428 LETTER XXVIII.
The morning of the next day was employed in examining the positions of the plain of Marathon; a hillock before the cottage where we slept, afforded a view of the whole country. Every topographer that I have had it in my power to examine, seems to have mistaken the spot where the battle took place; and though I despair of being as minute or as intelligible as I could wish, it is my intention to speak a little in detail of the scene which the most glorious action of all antiquity has rendered so renowned.
The village at present called Marathonas, is in a kind of recess between the hills, about a mile to the back, the north, of the Albanian cottages: it is inhabited by a few Turks, and surrounded by gardens. A river, once called the Charadrus, flows from the village, and passing towards the cottages, winds on before the hil- lock ; taking a turn to the west-north-west, and flowing in that direc- tion, until it is lost in a large marsh or lake, which extends under the woody hills that form the isthmus of the promontory Stome. The Charadrus runs close to the ruined tower and the cottages. On the western side of the river, where there is the ruined tower, is a low rugged hill, about a mile and a half in extent, lying north and south, and forming the left bank of the narrow valley that reaches as far as Marathon. It is a little more than a quarter of a mile from the Albanian cottages and the hillock.
The plan of the battle in Anacharsis, places the Greeks too much to the north, and in a situation where it 15 impossible they should have been drawn up in the closest order. But the position of the armies is to be looked for lower down, and in the narrow strip of plain which has the sea on one side and the range of Pen- telicus on the other quarter to the west, extending, with some in- terruption, perhaps eight miles, from the Albanian cottages to the southern entrance, on the road by which we came to the spot.
LETTER XXVIII. 4.29
A mile from our hillock is the shore, which, in this spot, turns off in a north-easterly direction, to form the promontory of Rhamnus. Proceeding for two miles directly down the plain, to the south, with the coast ranging to the left, at half a mile’s dis- tance from the shore, is the large barrow, about fifteen feet in height and thirty paces in circumference, which, upon most pro- bable grounds, is supposed to have been the tomb of the Athe- nian heroes. It stands alone in a dead flat, so as to be very con- spicuous, not only to those who are travelling in the plain, but even to vessels sailing in the channel between the Negroponte and the main. <A perpendicular cut has been made into the earth on the top, by some antiquarian researcher: such a relic might surely be spared! Standing with your back to the sea upon this bar- row, you see a flat valley running north-west from the long plain, and having Pentelicus on the south, and the low rugged hill on the north. At the west end of this valley is a small village, *‘ Vraona,” on the site nearly of the ancient Brauron, celebrated for the worship of that Diana, whose image was transported thi- ther from Tauris by Iphigenia, and afterwards carried away by Xerxes.
It appears to me, that the Athenians were drawn up a little within the mouth of this valley, with the low rugged hills, from which the trees might be felled to impede the Persian cavalry, on their left, and a torrent, that stills flows from Vraona into the plain to the south, on their right. The Greek camp was in the field of Hercules, not far, it may be conjectured, from the mo- dern village, for some ancient trenches are still visible in that quarter. ‘The western extremity of the flat valley approaches near the modern Marathon, from which it is only separated by
3K
430 LETTER: ΧΙ
am ¥ -
the end of the low hill, the site, it is probable, of the Hera- cléum.
The Greeks and the Persians were, before the battle, nearly a mile from each other, and the lines of the two armies were in extent equal.
This description corresponds only with the entrance of the valley of Vraona; in any other part of the plain the Persians would have out-flanked the Greek forces. ‘The Athenians, who were broken in the centre, were pursued up into the country (ἐς τὴν μεσόγαιαν ), and the same valley is the only open space which will allow of such an expression. ‘The troops who were victorious in the wings, closed upon the barbarians, and cut off their retreat: here then the battle was most sanguinary; and one of four barrows, three small and one larger than the rest, a little to the south of Vrdona, may be the tombs of the Platewans and slaves who fell in the action.
Less than a mile to the south-east of the large barrow, and close to the sea, is a spot of ground, not very large, formed into an island by the stagnation of the torrent which flows from the valley of Vraona, and which seems to be that once named Era- sinus. ‘I'he marsh surrounding the island may be easily passed.
In this place there are several stele, or sepulchral pillars, five of which are standing, and the others lying on the ground: the length of one of them is eight feet and a half, and the circumfe- rence five feet two inches: they have no inscriptions. Here also is ἃ square marble, looking like a pedestal; and, in a pool of water in the same island, ts the headless statue of a female sedent, of fine white marble, and exquisitely wrought.
* Herod. Erat. cap. 113.
LETTER XKVYIIL. A31
The barrow of the Athenians had upon it sepulchral pillars, recording the names and the tribes of the Athenians who were slain in the battle*. ‘The remains in the small island are by some supposed to refer to these monuments; and the large bar- row, still to be seen, is consequently thought to be that of the Plateans, the other having been undermined, and fallen into the marsh. Some little vases, and other ornaments usually found in tombs, have been discovered by a gentleman of Athens, who has excavated on the spot. No ancient topographer appears to have been sufficiently minute in his description, to enable us to decide on this point; and the pillars, and other relics, as well as the marsh, seem to have escaped the observation of modern travellers: I find nothing of them in Chandler. It is possible they may have been brought from the ruins of Probalinthus, the town to the south of Marathon, next to Myrrhinus. ‘The lake into which the Persians were driven by the victorious Greeks, was that formed by the Charadrus, under the hills of the isthmus of Rhamnus ; and it seems probable, that the barbarian fleet was drawn upon the shore from the point of coast below the large barrow, round the sweep of the bay, under the lake itself.
When the Medes left their ships, they had this marsh on their right, and when drawn up farther in the country, had also the town of Marathon on that side. Jn the hurry and confusion of retreat, those who had to gain the gallies farthest up this bay, ran into the swamp, and were cut off.
Beyond the Albanian cottages where we were lodged, towards the marsh and the promontory to the north-east, the plain seems
* Paus. Attic. p. 60. 3K 2
482 LETTER
highly cultivated, and well wooded to the point of the promon- tory. Buffaloes are fed in the pastures, near the marsh, and there is a fishery, abounding in large eels, belonging to the ca- loyers of Pendele, on the shore.—At a fountain, near a church, on the side of the marsh, Sir G. Wheler saw some ruins, which he believed to denote the site of Tricorythus, the town next to Marathon on that coast*. Beyond the ruined church a mile, is Chouli, an Albanian village; and three or four miles farther to the north is T'auro-castro, or Hebreo-castro, on the site of Rham- nus, a town of the tribe A‘antis, sixty stadia, by the sea-coast, from Marathon, where are still to be seen the remains of the famous 'l'emple of Nemesis, and the trophy of Parian marble, erected by the Athenians after their defeat of the Medes. Modern authors have been sceptical with respect to the num- bers said to have fought on the plains of Marathon, but there appears to be no exaggeration in the account given of this great battle by Herodotus. ‘The valley of Vraona, and the width of the plain, from the mouth of that valley to the shore, is certainly sufficient for an action between one hundred and twenty thousand men; but when Lysias reminded his Athenian audience of those,
their immortal ancestors, who fought at Marathon against fifty
myriads of barbarians, he must almost have supposed that not one of those whom he addressed could have ever visited the scene of action, a distance calculated to be only ten miles, or he must have drawn upon their vanity and patriotism for belief. Yet the funeral oration of this orator was delivered not much more than a
* Strab. lib. ix. 399.
, 3 t Πεντήκοντα μυριάδας Sparigv—eLys. Επιτάφ.
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LETTER XXVIEL 433
century after the battle ; and subsequent authors have upon this, or some other authority, magnified the forces of the Medes to a number which the whole plain of Marathon could scarcely have contained. Justin sets them down at six hundred thousand.
After having spent some time in viewing the plain from several spots, and in riding to the lofty barrow, and the ruins in the marsh, we set off from that quarter to return to Athens. The baggage had been sent forwards early in the morning.
Going north-west from the barrow, towards the valley of Vraona, ina short time we passed by the remains of a church. From this place we took a northerly direction towards Marathon, and arriving at the banks of the Charadrus, had the ruined tower and a few houses on our left, and the Albanian cottages to the right. We crossed the river, which, for a Grecian stream, is considerable, and kept along its banks for ten minutes, when we came to the village, called Marathonas, as, indeed, are the two collections of cottages lower down in the plain.
On the east side of Marathonas there is some flat ground, where the ancient town may have stood, and two fragments of an old arch are still seen in one of the gardens. ‘The village has a pros- pect down a narrow valley, inclosed by low hills on the western side, and high precipices on the eastern bank ; and through this valley the river flows, inclining to the west. ‘The barrow, the whole extent of the long plain, the ridge of rocks composing the promontory Cynosura, at the southern extremity of it, and the high cape above Raphti, are also visible from Marathon. At
the back, the north of the village, are lofty hills, part of the chain of mountains which form the northern boundary of the
plain of Athens, and rest, on one side, on the extremity of
4
LP EE
434 LETTER XXVIII.
y τί
Pentelicus, and on the other on the verge of Parnes. On this side was the mountain Brilessus, and the whole region was de- nominated Diacri. The eminences of different hills had their separate names; and in this district was Mount Icarus, whose sides abounded with the most productive vineyards of Attica. On one side of Icarus was the Demos of Dedalide, of the tribe Cecropis ; on the other, that of the verdant Melene*, of the tribe Antiochis, on the borders of Beotia. The hill imme- diately behind Marathon was called the mountain of Pan.
From Marathon we passed on westward, crossing the river a second time, and inclining a little out of the road to the north, to look at the cave of Pan, which, though mentioned as a curio- sity by Pausanias, has nothing in it to detain you for an instant. Below this cave, which 15 about a mile from Marathon, are some large stones, similar to those seen on the Wiltshire Downs com- monly known by the name of the ““ Grey Wethers ;” and under them a strong spring bubbles up, which, conducted through an artificial channel, turns a mill, and afterwards falls mto the Cha- radrus.
I take these stones to be the petrified sheep belonging to the woman of Nonoi, and the headless statue in the marsh may be the female herself, whose metamorphosis is recorded by Chandler. But the fate and misfortune of this personage 1s now forgotten, and our guides pointed both at the statue and the stones, without relating so edifying a tale-f.
* Tcarii, Celeique domus, viridesque Melenz.—Stat. Theb. lib. xii. lin. 619. + ‘* In the vale, which we entered, near the vestiges of a small building, pro- bably a sepulchre, was a headless statue of a woman sedent, lying on the ground. ‘This, my companions informed me, was once endued with life, being
LETTER XXVIIE. 435
I'rom the cave of Pan we left the banks of the river, which flows to the north-west be:ween two lofty mountains, whose sides are a mass of precipices of cragey red rocks, and whose summits are clothed with thick forests of pine. Our course now took us
to the west-south-west, upa most steep and rough ascent, through
woods of evergreens, and amongst shrubs of myrtles, oleander, and laurel-roses.
In an hour and a quarter we came to Stamati, an Albanian village, surrounded by a few acres of open cultivated ground, cleared: in the midst of a wilderness of woods. The path was, from that place, not so hilly, but still very rugged, directing us to the south-west. A range of Pendele was directly facing us, and lying from north-west to south-east; Parnes was at a distance on our right, and between us and that mountain were woody knolls, rising one above the other. In a little time we turned the point of Pendele, and went to the south-south-west, travelling ᾿ down a gradual slope, and on a better road, but still through pine forests. Before us we saw the coast about the Pireeus, and part of the olive-groves: Athens was hidden from us by the hill An- chesmus.
ESE AEE EAL i ET LVI LE A AE LL SS aS SRS an aged Jady, possessed of a numerous flock, which was folded near that spot. Ter riches were great, and her prosperity was uninterrupted: she was elated by her good fortune. The winter was gone by, and even the rude month of March had spared her sheep and goats. She now defied Heaven, as unappre- hensive for the fature, and as secure from all mishap; but Providence, to cor- rect her impiety and ingratitude, commanded a fierce and penetrating frost to be its avenging minister—and slice, her fold, and flocks, were hardened into stone. ‘This story, which is current, was also related to meat Athens. The grave Turk cites the woman of Nonoi, for so the tract is called, to check arro- gance, and enforce the wisdom of a devout and humble disposition.” —Chand- ler’s Travels in Greece, p. 167.
S6 LETTER XXVitI.
In an hour from Stamati, but going faster than ordinary, we arrived at the village of Cevrishia, whose name 1s but a little altered from that of the ancient town Cephisia, of the tribe Erec- theis, on the site*of which it now stands. This place is the most favourite retreat of the ‘lurks of Athens during the summer and autumnal months, and is alone, of all the villages of Attica, adorned with a mosck: it contains about two hundred houses. In the middle of it isan open space, where there are two fountains, and a large plane-tree, beneath whose overhanging branches is a flat stone, so carved into squares as to serve for a draught-table, and round which the Turks are seen sedately smoking, or engaged at their favourite pastime.
Cevrishia is at the foot of Mount Pendele, on a gentle decli- vity, surrounded on every side with olive-groves, and watered by several rills from the mountain, the sources of the smaller branch of the Cephissus, which, after supplying the many fountains of the village, and being dispersed through the neighbouring gardens and groves, unite at last in one pebbly channel, and flow into the plain and olive-woods of Athens. This delightful spot stiil conti- nues to answer the agreeable description given of it by one who who had here often wandered through the long and shady ave- nues, or rested by the side of the pure glassy stream, overflowing the margin of the marble baths in a thousand rills, which mingled their murmurs with the music of the birds*. Even the modern Cephisia might be thought worthy the partialities of such an en- comiast as Aulus Gellius.
The marbles presented to the University of Oxford by Mr. Dawkins, were brought from this village; and I had the good
* Aul. Gell. lib. i. cap. 2, et lib. xviii. cap. 10.
LETTER xxXVIII. 457
fortune to procure from the same spot a marble head, as large as life, which, as it appears from the hole in the neck, has belonged to an entire image. A ‘Turk had placed it over the arch of the gateway in his court-yard, and seemed to say that he knew where the body was to be found; but on enquiry, he had, we learnt, been misunderstood. ‘lhe bust is that of a young man, with the hair short, and curled in an elegant and highly-finished style. From the manner in which the eyes are formed, the antiquity of the sculpture may be judged to be no earlier than the times when the Romans were settled in Greece ; and it 1s not at all improbable, that the head may be one belonging to the many statues which Atticus Herodes erected to the memory of his three young friends in the shady solitudes of his villa at Cephisia*.
- From Cevrishia we proceeded entirely through olive-groves, to a village about an hour’s distance, called ‘‘ Muraffe;” small, and built of mud chiefly, but in an agreeable situation, and watered
by a branch of the Cephissus, whose banks are, a little below, shaded by tall trees of white poplar.
From Muraffe we went through Angele-Kipos to Athens, by a route already described.
‘The baggage-horses had arrived half an hour before, and had been six hours on the road from Marathon to the city. This time can with great difficulty be reconciled with the measurement an- ciently allowed for the distance between the two places, which, at the utmost, was laid down at only one hundred stadia, but, gene~ rally, was called eighty stadia, or ten Roman miles. Meletius, who is, very unaccountably, more incorrect when treating of
* See the account of this, Tib. Claudius Atticus Herodes by Spon in Wheler, p- 375. Ὁ,
ETTER XXVIIL.
L
Attica than of other parts of Greece, calls Marathon thirty-
five miles from Athens*. ‘The usual allowance, before stated, as coming pretty near the truth, of three miles to a Turkish hour, would make this journey eighteen miles; but when it is consi- dered, that half of the distance is over steep and very difficult ground, the two. statements may come rather nearer to each other ; and if we suppose, what is likely enough, that there was formely a nearer road to Marathon by Vraona, the difference will be considerably diminished. However, from comparing the ancient distances with the ‘Turkish hours, particularly in Attica, where I paid most attention to the watch, [ must confess myself to have overstated the length of ground, by reckoning three miles to each sixty minutes, and that, perhaps, generally speaking, two and a half would be the more correct calculation. he baggage-horses, or as the Greeks distinguish them, τὰ ἄλλογα μὲ τὰ φορτώματα, get on but very slowly, except in the plainest roads, and proceed with diffi- culty through the woods, on account of the manner in which they are loaded, their burdens projecting from each side, like panniers. At the same time it may be remarked, that the an- cients themselves may have sometimes mis-stated their measure- ments, especially as they occasionally differ amongst one another even in small distances ; 50 that a traveller need not always attri-
bute each slight discrepancy to his own inattention and neglect.
* A’rrini, p. 552. The distance, however, is put in figures; aud 35 may be an erroy of the press for 15,
LETTER XXIX.
Route from Athens to the Negroponte—Villages in the North
of Attica—Koukouvaones— Charoottka—Menithi—Tatoé—
The Site of Decelea—Agios Macurius—Route across the Plains of Tanagra—Over the Asopus to Scimitari—From that Village to the Strait of the Negroponte, by Vathi—The Town of Negroponte—Visit to the Pasha—Stories relative to the Euripus—Return to Scimitari— Route from Scimitari to
the Monastery of St. Meliteus on Citheron.
IT being my wish to pay a short visit to the town of Negroponte, as well as to some part of the district of ‘Thebes, which we had before not seen, I set off (eb. 8) at nine o'clock in the morning from Athens, accompanied by our Albanian Va- silly, the Athenian Demetrius, and the necessary number of baggage and led-horses. Lord Byron was unexpectedly detained at Athens ; so that you will attribute any additional defects in the narration of this short tour, to the absence of a companion, who, to quickness of observation and ingenuity of remark, united that gay good humour which keeps alive the attention under the pres- sure of fatigue, and softens the aspect of every difficulty and danger.
We rode for about two hours, mostly through the olive woods of Athens, northwards, until we came to Koukouvaones, a village 3L2
440 EETTER XX¥FX,
of thirty houses: passing this, we soon crossed a large chasm, in which the greater branch of the Cephissus flows, and which, a little above where we passed it, takes an abrupt turn towards the hills a little to the north-west of Cevrishia. A few evergreens grow on the sides of the chasm; and an overshot mill is pleasantly situated amidst a small grove, on the ledge of one of the rocks. Between the skirt of the olive-groves and the village Koukou- vaones, are two or three barrows; and one of them was pointed out to me as containing lumps of yellow earth, used by the painters at Athens. There is a village, by name Charootika, of
two hundred houses, under the hills between Cevrishia and Kou-
kouvaones.
We inclined to the eastward of north, and saw on our left the road leading to Menithi, the largest country town in Attica, having three hundred and fifty houses; and, still farther to the left, that which goes to Casha, and the villages under Mount Parnes. For two hours, after passing Koukouvaones and the Cephissus, the road lay through an open plain, covered with heath and low shrubs: Parnes, clothed with green woods, verged more towards us on the left, and united itself to the hills stretch- ing to the northern declivities of Mount Pentelicus, which form the boundary, on this side, of the plain of Athens. We ascended these hills for an hour, and came to a stone fountam on a woody knoll, where, under the shade of a thick ilex, travellers spread their mats, for the purposes of refreshment or repose. The place is called 'Tatoé, five long hours, at a good pace, from,Athens, from which it bears exactly north-north-east, having a view of the city and the whole plain, as far as the Pirzeus. Ona hillock, above the fountain, are some remains of an ancient wall. A path strikes off
LETTER XXIX. 441
through the hills to the east, to Oropo, the ancient Oropus, com- puted about four miles from ‘l'atoe.
From Athens to the foot of these hills is about twelve miles, the whole way over a plain; but the flat, anciently included in the district belonging to the city, and called, for distinction, Pe- dion, the Plain, has been considered by some travellers as ending with the olive-groves, about six miles to the north of Athens; which extent, with the addition of the distance from the capital
τὰ ' 1 igs: to the shore, gives a length of nine miles to the whole plain. Po-
cocke thought nine miles the length, and six miles the breadth, of the district in question. He appears to me to have under-rated the dimensions in both instances; the flat more properly terminates where the channel of the Cephissus takes a turn towards Cevrishia, perhaps eight miles from the city. Beyond that place, towards Casha, Menithi, and ‘T'atoé, the aspect of the country is more bare and wild, and, under Parnes to the north-west, answers to the de- scription of the district attached to Acharne ; and some vestiges of old wall, and one or two wells, which are to be seen three miles nearer than Casha to Athens, may point out the site of that town.
The region on the slope of Mount Parnes, formerly called Pzeonia, has now the name of Panagia, from a rich monastery at the foot of the hills.
Decelea, memorable for having given its name to one of the many wars.of the Athenians and Lacedemonians, was somewhere in the direction of Tatoé, as it commanded the great road’ leading from Athens to Oropus and to Chalcis, by which the corn of Eu- θα was conveyed to the city. Some pieces of wall, above the
fountain, may probably have belonged to a watch-tower placed 1a ? Ν Η 5
442, LETTER XXIX,
this important pass; but ‘T'atoé is more than one hundred and twenty stadia, fifteen Roman miles, from the city, and is besides too far from the plain, on which (though some of the works were visible at Athens*) part of the Lacedemonian fortifications were built. 1 neither heard of nor saw any other remains, except the wall above 'Tatoé.
For an hour and a half after leaving the fountain, we conti- nued travelling slowly through the hills belonging to the moun- tain anciently called Brilessus, in the region of Diacria, over a precipitous path, amidst thick woods of evergreens, until we had got to the north of the high range of Mount Parnes, which we now saw towering into the clouds in the distance. We passed a solitary church, Agios Macurius, by the side of a torrent. The modern territory attached to Athens, is on this side bounded by a line which runs from a point two hours to the north of Casha to this church, and then stretches to a village, Calamas, an hour to the south of Oropo, turning thence towards Marathon. ‘The earliest of our travellers gives the name of Agios Macunius to these hills, which were then guarded by Albanians, and, by a strange mistake, calls them a part of Mount Parnassus +-.
From Agios Macurius we began to descend, going more to the north, until we found ourselves on an open and extensive plain, with a high tower in our view, to the north-west, at a distance reckoned about four hours from the foot of the mountain. We went northerly for an hour and a half, through a well-cultivated country flocks of goats were browsing amongst the low shrubs,
* Thucyd. lib. vii. cap. 19.
+ Francis Vernon, in his Letter to the Royal Society, written Jan. 10, 1676. See Philosophical Transactions abridged, vol. iii. p. 456.
LETTER XXIX. 443
and many peasants were labouring in the corn-fields. ‘Two or three villages were visible on the sides of the hills to the south, tormerly belonging to a range of Citheron, and mixing with Brilessus and Parnes. "ὁ the east was some rising ground, which prevented us from seeing the sea near the port Oropo ; but the high land of the Negroponte, about the site of the ancient Eretria, seemed a part of the main; and indeed, the strait at this point is not seven miles in breadth. ‘The passage from Eretria. to Delphinium, the port of Oropus, was only sixty stadia.
We crossed the Asopus at a ford, where it was a muddy tor- rent winding through brushwood. Just below where we passed the river, it flows between two rocky hills. [ἢ ἃ short time the road divided, one path going to Negroponte, northwards, the other to the north-west, towards Thebes, not far from the banks of the river. We continued on the latter for an hour in the plain, vith low hills on our right, when we took a direction more to the north, and came to the ruined tower. ‘This stands on an emi- nence, and though of no very early date, is composed of stones apparently taken from the ruins of some ancient building. It is square, of considerable dimensions and height, the substructure of large stones, the upper part of brick. It may have been one of the castles of the Latin Princes, or perhaps a ‘Turkish watch- tower, built to prevent a surprise from the fleets of the Ve- netians. . It commands a view of the whole of that part. of Beeotia to the east of Thebes; and the hillocks, at the back of that town, are visible from it in the north-north-western point. The Asopus is seen to wind from the west-north-west. ‘Che appear- ance of all the adjacent plain is from this pomt very pleasing, and varied with slopes of rising ground, crowned with tufts of shrubs,
AAA LETTER XXIX.
It is probably that portion of Bceotia which once belonged to the powerful city of ‘Tanagra*, whose territory stretched from the neighbourhood of Oropus, along the shore of the strait, as far as Aulis, and included the lands of several ruined cities more inland, towards ‘Thebes.
Beyond the tower, a short distance only, there is a small vil- lage called Cinoe. ‘his we passed, and going northwards for an hour and a half, arrived at the village of Scimitari. This place consists of eighty houses, inhabited by Greeks, and 1s the pro- perty, though not in the territory, of Ali Pasha: it is reckoned five hours from ‘Thebes, and three from the Negroponte. ‘T’o the east of it, at a little distance, is a large tract of corn-fields, lying on gentle swellings of the plain, and through these, a broad beaten road, with some parts of it paved, leads to the village.
In a small church there are two or three of the old sepulchral stones, with the usual inscription, Χαῖρε, but without any names.
We passed the night at Scimitari, and the next morning, leav- ing the baggage behind us, set out for the Negroponte, intend- ing to return the same evening. ‘The morning was very misty, but the sky cleared up towards the middle of the day. ‘The road was at first to the north, over uneven downs; cultivated near the village, but soon terminating in heaths intersected by several ravins. On one of them was a small rivulet, whose direction answers.to that of the torrent 'Thermodon, which flowed by 'Ta- nagra. Before us we had a view of the strait, and οἵ ἃ plain,
* Tanagra was thirty stadia from Oropus, and fifty from the sea.—Paus. Beeot. p. 571; Strab. lib. ix. p. 403. Wheler believed himself to have dis- covered the remains of Tanagra at Scamino, a village on the Asopus, three
hours from Egripo.
LETTER XXIX. 445
under the high hills in the island Eubora, covered with olive- groves.
We turned rather to the left as we approached the shore, and passed by a village, Vathi, crossing over the channel of a small river which runs near it into the strait. Vathi is close to the shore, and to a bay, formerly called the Deep bay, from which the mo- dern village has, I suppose, received its name. When we came to the shore, we continued winding along a very rocky path, close to the sea. We took our course round a small bay, surrounded
by low stony hills almost to the water’s edge, and having the
mouth of ancient wells visible near the beach. ‘This was the site of Aulis, whose port would contain but fifty ships; so that it is likely that the Grecian fleet anchored in the bay called the Deep. ‘The site is similar to the description in Strabo, a rocky spot (werpwdes xpiov), which is not now, as it was in the second century, watered by the fountain of Diana, nor shaded by the fruitful palm-tree. When Pausanias visited Aulis, they continued to show a piece of the plane-tree mentioned in Homer, and the knoll on which the tent of Agamemnon was fixed; but the place was almost deserted, and the few who still continued to live there, worked at a pottery*: at present it is entirely barren, and there is not a peasant’s house nearer than the village of Vathi.
It was some time before we caught a sight of the town of Ne- groponte-+, or (as the Greeks call it, from a corruption. of the word Euripus) Egripo, as it is placed on the north-east side of a
* Paus. Beeot. p. 571. + The Frank name of Negroponte is doubtless, as Wheler has conjectured, . . - 5 \ of derived from the confounding of the three Greek words, ἑἰς τὸν ΕἾ γριπον, pro- ? \ τ ῦ . , nounced croy ΕἾ γριπον, into one sound.
ΓΦ
oO M
446 BETTER: (XXLX.
broad flat peninsula, which, projecting into the bays on the main: land, makes the windings of the strait, in some places, look like inland lakes, in others like rivers, as the breadth enlarges or dimi- nishes. ‘lhe outlet into the broader arm of the sea does not at all appear, and both the port of Vathi, and that of Aulis, are completely land-locked. ‘This circumstance, in some measure, diminishes the surprise which might otherwise be felt at seeing the extreme narrowness of the Euripus itself, at the point where the island and the main are joined by a bridge.
In half an hour after the bay of Vathi, keeping by the edge of the water, we doubled the north-eastern extremity of those hills which we had seen from our village, and which, now called 'Typo- Vouni, were once the mountain Messapius: we then crossed over a projecting tongue of stony ground, and going for some time on a road partly paved, arrived in another half hour at the Euripus. On an eminence on the mainland we saw a white fort, called Ca- rababa, commanding the bridge, and, indeed, all the fortifications of Negroponte. The sea had, in this place, every appearance of a river; and the banks, on the Beeotian side, were rather high and rocky. We dismounted, and led our horses over a narrow wooden bridge, about fifteen paces in length, to a stone tower in the middle of the strait, of an odd circular shape, like a dice- box, large at bottom and top, and small in the middle; the mouths of immense cannon appearing through round embrasures, about the upper rim. Going through an arch in this tower, we
passed on to a bridge, also of wood, and a third longer than the other, standing over the principal stream, for such may the Euripus strictly be called. We then entered a large castle, where
several ‘Turks, bristled with arms, were lounging about ; and con-
LETTER XXIX. 447
tinuing for some time through that part of the town which is within the works of the fortitication, came to another wooden bridge, as long as both of those over the Kuripus, and crossed over the moat, a broad reedy marsh, into the suburbs of Negro- ponte, which are much more considerable than the city within
the walls. The Turks of this place are the most brutal, if common fame and a proverb before mentioned, do not belie them, of any in the
Levant ; and as their character prevents travellers from visiting the town, they are so unused to the sight of a Frank, that, on the appearance of one in the street, the boys scream after, and follow him, and the men abuse him, and call him Dog and Infidel. This was all the inconvenience I experienced; though I must confess, that there was something so very different in the air of these Mahometans, and of those I had lately lived amongst, that I should not have considered a long stay in the town at all desirable.
The Waiwode of Athens had given me two letters, one to the Vizier, Bakir Pasha, another to a rich Aga, at whose house, though he himself was not at home, I put up for the short time I remained in the place, and was treated with every attention by the people of his household.
I had not been more than a few minutes in the house, before I was visited by the Greek Secretary to the Pasha, to whom I de- livered my letter, saying, at the same time, that I could not stay to pay his Highness a visit. A Greek of the island of Tino, who wore the Frank habit, covered with along cloak, being physician to the Pasha, also called to pay his respects. He had been a merchant, under the Imperial protection, but failed, and then
3M 2
4.48 LETTER XXIX.
turned physician, when the Pasha retained him for bis own use ; much against the will of the man, it seemed, as he told me, “ I am not a slave—but, though I have been here eighteen months, his Highness will not let me go; yet he pays me well; I have a pound and a half of meat allowed me daily, and some piasters at the end of the year.” With this person, accompanied by my attendants, I took a walk about the town.
The houses are mean and low, the streets narrow, and the bazar of the poorest sort. ‘I'here are but very few Greeks in the town, and no one representative of any Christian power: there was once an Imperial Consul, and also a French resi- dent ; but on some suspicion being entertained of one of them with respect to some ‘l'urkish females, a body of ‘Turks: sur- rounded his house, and, after some resistance, cut him to pieces; the other Frank of course fled. ‘They told me, as well as I recollect, that the number of houses in Egripo was about eight hundred.
Τὸ the east of the town there is a sort of inclosure or defence, of low pales: on the north is an eminence, from which you have . the best view of the country, and of the high mountains at the back of the town, whose summits are covered with perpetual snows. From the highest ridge, whichis called Daphne, Athens, Megara, and the whole of the south of Greece, soa ‘Turk assured me, appear as if laid out immediately below. ‘The land to the north and east of the town is open, but well cultivated ; that to the south covered with fine groves of olive-trees, and interspersed with
orange and lemon gardens; the interior of the town is not so well
furnished in this respect as most ‘Turkish cities. ‘lhe place is con-
sidered extremely unhealthy, and during the summer the heats
LETTER XXIX. 449
are almost insupportable: at that period the Turks remove their families to small houses in the groves farther down, to the south.
As 1 was walking through the town on the side towards the castle, several grave ‘Turks, apparently in office, with the Greek Secretary at their head, approached me, and said that the Vice- Governor of the place desired me to visit him. I excused myself for some time, but was at last obliged to comply, and accordingly went through the usual ceremony of pipes, coffee, sweetmeats and sherbet, in a small room with this ‘Turk, who was pleasant and obliging. :
Whilst in his chamber, the Grammiaticos, the Secretary, enter- ed, and said that the Vizier himself expected to see me. I could not, 1 would not go; I was in a travelling dress, and covered with dirt by ridmg. No excuses would do—the Vizier was holding a Divan on purpose!! ‘The Greek became pressing and impertinent ; and, accompanied by Demetrius, the Physician and Secretary, and several men with white sticks preceding, I pushed on through a crowd to the door of the audience-chamber. Here was a fresh difficulty—the Secretary told me I must enter without my boots, and kiss his Highness’s slipper. Had this ceremony been usual, no one would have been more ready to comply than
myself; nay, I would not on any account have dispensed with
the latter point of respect, but should have insisted upon it as earnestly as did Dr. Moore’s young patron, the Duke of Hamil- ton, upon saluting the Pope’s toe; but being sure that it was merely a malicious piece of information invented by the Greek, to vex me for my backwardness in visiting his master, and that no Frank traveller had ever done as much to any Pasha, | demurred, and
was trying to retire, when the Secretary went into the audience-
450 LETTER ΧΧΙΧ-
chamber, and returning immediately, said that the Pasha would dispense with the form. I knew the whole was a pretence, but prepared to enter; and really not wishing to dirty his carpets with my bocts, which were plastered with mud, pulled them off, putting on, however, not to bate any thing on the important point of dignity, a pair of yellow slippers.
The room where the Pasha received me was very small, and crowded with his ‘Turks in office, magnificently dressed, quite as well as himself—the certain characteristic, according to Cervantes, of a great man. ‘ihe sofa on the left was occupied by three or
four visitors apparently ; that to the right, except a corner on which the Vizier sat, was vacant.
His Highness made a motion for me to sit down near him. The Tiniot Physician served as interpreter. ‘I'he Pasha, taking his pipe from his mouth, said I was welcome—then stopped again—and a little after said the same thing; which he repeated, after an interval, a third time. This I understood to be highly ceremonious ; and, indeed, his attention was very marked. ‘The pipes and coffee were thrice repeated ; sherbets, sweetmeats, and, to crown the entertainment, perfumes and rose-water were also subjoimed to the former part of the treat.
The Pasha was very inquisitive, as usual, and when I rose to go away, begged me to sit down again: it was with difficulty I excused myself from staying that mght at Egripo, and partaking of a feast to which he invited me. He asked, what he could do for me, and whether I had seen every thing in the place; he added, ‘“* You have looked at the castle from without—there is nothing worth seeing in the inside of it.”
You must take, by the way, that the Turks are exceedingly
X XIX. 451
jealous of any one visiting the works of these fortifications ; and will suffer no Frank, without a firman from the Porte, to inspect them: this I knew, and replied, that I was much pleased with the outside, but did not wish to look at the interior of the build- ing. He then asked, what I had come to see? (the curiosity of travellers is a constant source of surprise, and of a little contempt,
ἐς the town and its
amongst the ‘lurks) and was answered, situation, which were reported to be very beautiful ; and also the
strait, a great natural curiosity.” ‘This last object was not clearly
understood ; and when, as an explanation, 1 added, that it was the stream of water under the bridge to which I alluded, the visages of all in the room put on an air of astonishment, mixed with a certain smile, chastised by the gravity of their looks, alto- gether indescribable ; and the Vizier asked me, with a great deal of naiveté, whether I had no water of that sort in my own couns try? adding, that England being, as he heard, an island, he
should have thought we had great plenty. I endeavoured to in- form him, that it was not the saltness of the water to which I alluded, but the flux and reflux. That this did not serve me in any stead was evident from the continued surprise marked in. the faces of all present; but his. Highness assured me, that I should have the proper attendance to convey me to the bridge, where I might view the object of my journey.
Shortly after this I withdrew ; and returning down stairs, Saw. my attendant Demetrius besieged by all the fine drest men who had officiated in the room, and who, the moment he epened his purse, to make the customary presents for me, thronged about him, and so frightened him, that he parted with every zeqin in his pocket, amounting to between_eight and nine guineas Their
4δ9 LETTER ΧΧΙΧ,
clamour and importunity was such, that he had forgot the pru-
dent and usual plan of calling for the pipe-bearer, the pages car-
rying in the coffee, sweetmeats, sherbet, and perfume, and giving
1
to each five piasters: indeed, he was altogether terrified, and had some excuse for his alarms.
But the most ridiculous part of the proceeding was to come, and one which I am rather loth to detail, as the principal charac- ter in the farce was unwillingly acted by, or rather forced upon, myself.
Several of the Pasha’s soldiers were waiting without in the yard, and these, preceded by two of the most reverend-looking personages of the whole court, Chiauses, or Chamberlains, with white wands, and their beards hanging down to their waists, ac- companied me in a sort of procession towards the bridge. We had some distance to walk ; the crowd gathered as we proceeded, and in a short time our train filled the street. We walked very slowly, the two majestic conductors being saluted respectfully by fifty people whom we met, and very leisurely returning the salam and usual oveisance.
The passengers and surrounding crowd perpetually questioned my attendants as to the object of the procession, and were told that a Frank was going to look at the water. I could hear the Turkish words signifying “ Water, Water,” a hundred times re- peated.
I advanced to the bridge with all my suite, went half way across it, and looking over the railings half a minute, turned round to one of the grave chamberlains, and said 1 was satisfied ; when he and his companion bowed profoundly, and, without saying ἃ word, turned on their heels, and marshalled and preceded the
LETTER XXIX. 453
attendants back to the house where 1 had left my horses, a great crowd following as before.
ΤῸ each of these great courtiers, whose furred cloaks were worth more than all my travelling wardrobe, and to whom, had I not known the Turks pretty well by that time, I should have been afraid to have offered any present of money, I gave a zequin, a little more than half-a-guinea; and for the receipt of this they bowed as gravely as ever, and returned slowly to the palace, walking, as is the fashion of the higher orders in Turkey, with their toes turned inwards.
You may be sure, that, after this ridiculous adventure, I did not stir out of the Aga’s house until my horses were ready to leave the town, nor attempt to have any other sight of the water than that which 1 got going to and returning from the island.
What I witnessed of the Euripus was, that the stream flows with violence, like a mill-race, under the bridges, and that a strong eddy is observable on that side from which it is about to run, about a hundred yards above the bridges; the current, how- ever, not being at all apparent at a greater distance, either to the south or north. Yet the ebbing and flowing are said to be visible at ten or a dozen leagues distance, at each side of the strait, by marks shown of the rising and falling of the water in several small bays in both coasts. ‘The depth of the stream is very inconsiderable, not much more than four feet.
It was with difficulty that I could get any account of this phe- nomenon. ‘I'he 'Timiot Doctor told me, that, “ per Dio, he had never been to look at it; but that, if any one had told me that the change took place more than twice in twenty-four hours, he fancied the person had lied.” ‘The Secretary said it changed seven times in that space of time; and one of the Turks guarding the
3N
54
tower between the two bridges, and living on the spot, averred it altered its course five times, favouring me at the same time with the cause of this miracle.
‘“ Not a great many yéars ago,” said he, ‘ this water was like any other part of the sea, and did not flow at all; but a Hadji, (that is, a holy Turk, who had been to Mecca) being a pri- soner in that tower, when the Infidels bad the place, and con- fined in a dark cell, where he could see nothing but the water below, through a hole in his dungeon, begged of God to send him some sign by which he might know when to pray. His re- quest was granted, by the change which immediately took place in the flowing and reflowing of the stream ; and since that time, the current has altered its course at each of the five seasons of prayer.”
The man told this story with the air of a person who believed
it himself; yet it was clear enough, that, though having daily
opportunities of so doing, he had never thought about ascertain- ing whether the tide did change at day-break, at mid-day, two hours and a half before sun-set, at sun-set, and an hour and a half after—the five times prescribed by the Mahometan law. If the fellow was not laughing, of which, as he spoke to me through an interpreter, 1 could not be a very adequate judge, he gave surely as strong an example as could be well imagined, of the dis- inclination so apparent in the followers of all ridiculous supersti- tions, to.convince themselves of the folly of their credulity. He might any day have found out that the tale was not true, and that the Hadji had not obtained permission of God that the course of the sea should be altered at the five periods settled for offering up the prayers of the believers, Yet, with the feelings of a true devotee, he preferred to propagate, rather than to examine,
LETTER XXIX. 4,55
the holy fable ; and, in spite of evidence forced upon his constant notice, would not trust himself with a suspicion of its falsity.
Had Aristotle hit upon 80 easy a solution of this wonder, he would have addressed himself to a people as religious, and conse- quently as credulous, as the Turks.
The account which Wheler copied from the Jesuit Babin, and collected on the spot, although not from his personal experience, he not being long enough in the place, was, that it was subject to the same laws as the tides of the ocean, for eighteen days of every moon, and was irregular, having twelve, thirtecn, or four- teen flowings and ebbings for the other eleven days, that is, that it was regular for the three last days of the old moon, and the eight first of the new, then irregular for five days, regular again for the next seven, and irregular for the other six. ‘The water seldom rose to two feet, and usually not above one; and, contrary to the ocean, it flowed towards the sea, and ebbed towards the main-land of '’hessaly, northwards. On the irregular days it rose for half an hour, and fell for three quarters; but when regular, was six hours in each direction, losing an hour a day. It did not
appear to be influenced by the wind. ‘This detail, however, which I conclude to be correct, does not attempt to account for the irregular changes, nor for the difference of number in those irre-
gular changes.
I feel myself quite unqualified to speak on such a debated point; and shall, therefore, only add what was told me by a Greek of Athens, who had resided three years at Egripo. He said, that he considered the changes to depend chiefly upon the wind, which, owing to the high lands in the vicinity of the strait, is particularly variable in this place. The two great gulfs, for so
SN 2
4.56 LETTER XXIX,
they may be called, at the north and south of the strait, which present a large surface to every storm that blows, and receive the whole force of the Archipelago, communicate with each other at this narrow shallow channel; so that the Turipus may be a sort of barometer, indicative of every change, and of whatever rising and falling of the tide, not visible in the open expanse of waters, there may be in these seas. I did not, however, see any marks of the water being ever higher at one time than at an- other.
He added, that he observed, that when the wind was north or south, that is, either up or down the strait, the alteration took place only four times in the twenty-four hours; but that when it was from the east, and blew strongly over the high mountains behind Kgripo, the refluxes took place more frequently, ten or twelve times; and that particularly immediately before the full of
the moon, the turbulence and eddies, as well as the rapidity of the stream, were very much increased. ‘l'here was never, at any season, any certain rule with respect either to the period or the number of the changes.
Those of the ancients who inquired into this phenomenon, were aware, that the story of the Kuripus changing its course always. seven times during the day, was unfounded; and the account given of it by Livy*, corresponds, in some measure, with that, of my Athenian informant. ‘The bridge which anciently con-
* Nam et venti utriusquz terre prealtis montibus subiti ac procellosi se deji-. ciunt, et fretum ipsum Euripi non septies die, sicut fama fert, temporibus statis reciprocat; sed temere in modum venti, nunc huc nunc illuc verso mari, velut. monte precipili devolutus torrens rapitur.x—Tit. Liv. lib. xxviii. cap. 6
LETTER XXIX. 457
nected the main and the island was. considerably longer than that which at present serves the same purpose™*.
We are informed, that the strait was made more narrow by a dyke, which the inhabitants of Chalcis constructed to lessen the passage ; and it is by no means improbable, that the whole of the flat on which the fortified part of Egripo now stands, and which is surrounded on the land side by a wide. marsh, was formerly eovered by the waters of the Kuripus.
I did not hear of any remains of the ancient Chalcis, in or near the modern town; the castle, and some of the oldest houses, re-. tain signs of the old Venetian buildings; and some very large stones. in the works look as if they once belonged to more superb edifices.
‘This island was considered-one of the most important of the pose. sessions of Venice, in the prosperity of that powerful republic; and one of the memorials of former greatness, displayed at this day at St. Marc’s, is the standard of the Kingdom of Negroponte. The capital town, for many years after its reduction by Maho-. met the Second, was the usual residence, and under the imme- diate command, of the Capudan Pasha, the High Admiral of the Turkish fleets.
The Turks have a constant apprehension that some effort is in-.
tended against this island by the Christian Powers, and are con-
sequently, as hinted before, ridiculously cautious about the forti-
fications of Egnipo. My sourgee, or postman, told me, that he had been witness to an unpleasant scene in this place. A Frank traveller, having a
+
x vo ᾽ Ἁ ra] . . * Bors καὶ ἐπ᾽ ἄντῳ γεφύρα δίπλεϑρος. --ς- Θέτι. lib, ix. Ρ. 403.
4.58 ᾿ LETTER XXIX.
firman from the Porte, visited the castle, and was about to retire. when the Captain of the Turkish guard stept up to him, and asked him for his Imperial licence for seeing the place. ‘The Frank gave him what he desired ; upon which the ‘Turk, perusing it very seriously, asked him if he had no other order ; and being answered in the negative, exclaimed, “‘ I see here a permission for you to come into the castle-—but none for you to go out !” and, so saying, he shut the gate, and confined the traveller for some days, as a warning to him for the future to repress his curiosity.
I have since heard of a similar transaction having taken place in Candia, with the addition, that the Frank, an Hnglishman, resisted, and was killed. ‘The Turks of both islands bear much the same character for ferocity and hatred of strangers; but the Candiote is the more lively and spirited of the two, and his nation supplies all the best sailors in the ‘Turkish fleet.
In addition to their other vile propensities, the Negropontines are distinguished, amongst a nation of sensualists, by that horrid perversity of taste, which an ancient historian has superadded as a disgusting trait to his finished picture of a villain*, and which appears an unwarrantable excess in the eyes even of the Orientals themselves.
The island is now, as it was formerly, valuable, on account of
* Xenophon (Cyr. Anab. fin. lib. ii.), in his character of Menon the Thes- salian. Yet with what coolness does this Greek talk of the more usual enor- mity of his age and country. (See his story of Episthenes, p. 532). He nei- ther expresses, nor wishes to excite, any abhorrence, but opens his narrative simply, ΕἾ πισϑένες de mv τὶς Ο᾽λύνϑιος παιδεραστῆς ...... and afterwards, ὁ δὲ Σεύθης γελῶν.
LETTER XXIX. 459
the extraordinary fertility of its soil, and the quantity of corn with which it supplies the adjacent countries. ‘I'wenty for one is mentioned as the common return of grain*.
From Egripo we returned, by a shorter way than that which we had traversed in the morning, to Scimitari, crossing a cleft in the hills before we came to Vathi, a little beyond the port of Aulis, most probably in the exact direction’ of the road which
formerly led from Chalcis to Thebes. ‘I'he very ancient city of
Mycalessus, not far from the sea, and surrounded with extensive fields, (ευρυχορον Μυκάλησσον, is the expression of Homer), was in this quarter of Beeotia, which afterwards came under the power of Tanagra, a city independent long after the authority of Thebes had declined. Vast numbers of coms have been found by the peasants of this village in ploughing up the neighbouring plain. A large collection was presented to me; one of them was a copper coin of 'Tanagra; it had been found near a spot called Grematha, one hour and a half to the south of Scimitar.
Returning to my village, and waiting for some refreshment, 1 attended a burial. ‘The dead was a poor woman who had been alive when I left the place in the morning. She was carried na rug into the little church, and laid down on the floor, with nothing but a thin strip of cotton tied about her. ‘lwo caloyers performed the service over her in a hasty manner, when she was carried out, and put into a trench not deeper than two or three feet. Before putting her in the grave, they tied sandals to her feet, which, when she was laid in the earth, were adjusted by a man who jumped into the pit and placed them upright, like those of a
* The Tauric Chersonese, however, produced thirty.—Strab. lib. 7, p. 311.
+ Phin. cap. 7, ** Tanagra, liber populus.””
460 LETTER. XXIX.
recumbent statue on a tomb: the same person, taking a small flat stone, on which one of the priests had made the sign of the cross, laid it upon her breast, and immediately after, with the assistance of others, covered the body with earth. ‘There were six old women attending as mourners, but they, as well as the rest of the congregation, seemed rather merry than sad, behaving with a levity which I was proceeding to remark upon, when one of them said, ‘“* Why should we weep for her, she was an orphan; she was sixty years old; how can any one care for such a person?” It is impossible to answer a question, dictated by sentiments so frequently felt, though so seldom confessed, by the generality of mankind.
The day afterwards, my party proceeded on the road towards Megara, determining so to contrive the journies, that I might sleep the first night at a monastery situated in the southern declivities of Citheron, and from that place visit the ruins of Plateza. :
The path lay to the south, for an hour and a half over a plain whose corn-lands are attached to the village of Scimitari; it then passed under a low hill, the spot called Grematha, round which, particularly to the south and east, are several pieces of an- cient walls, besides some remains of a large building on the summit. If this place be not too far from the sea, it answers tolerably to the site of Tanagra, and the hill above may be that once called Cerycius. . It is west from the tower near Ainoé, and south-south-west from ‘Thebes. :
The road from 'Tanagra to Platea, two hundred stadia, was rough and mountamous. Ata little distance beyond Grematha, we crossed the Asopus, and came directly into the mountains, a
da
LETTER XXIX. 461
range of Eilatias, or Cithaeron, and soon passed a ruined chapel on a knoll. In this chapel are parts of the shafts of four small marble columns, which have given the spot the name of Castri. The
road then lay to the west-north-west. Ofna height above to the
left, south-east, we saw a village, Mavromati. Still ascending, and turning more westward for about an hour, we got into a narrow valley, with rocky hills on each side, and continued through this, in a path which was only a goat-track, for another hour, when we came upon the road we had before travelled from Thebes to Athens, having on our left the ruined tower *.
Instead of remaining in the same direction, westward towards Platea, and so travelling through that part of Boeotia which was called Parasopia, we turned into this road, and crossing the low rocky ridge of Citheron to the south, went over the western extremity of the plain of Scourta, passing by the village of Spalise. We then went again to the westward, and got in half an hour into the mountains. Cithzron here is very high, and covered with thick woods, chiefly of pine, which have given it the modern name of Elatias.
There was no direct path to the monastery of which we were in search, so that we soon lost our way, and parted, some of us keeping high up on the brows, and the others striking lower down, directly across several narrow valleys and chasms, towards the point whither we directed our steps. I gave my horse to one of the postmen, and, seeing a building rising above the trees on the ledge of a rock at some distance, made towards it, penetrating into a woody dell, where two torrents from the opposite hills
* See Letter xx.
90
452 LETTER XXEX.
united their streams, and rolled down a steep precipice into thie
plains below. I had gone too quick for Demetrius, who was left
behind me amongst the woods. It was a still evening, and no. other sound was to be heard but the gentle dashing of the torrent, at whose brink I was stooping down, when the echoes of Cithe- ron were at once awakened by the shouting of my attendant, and starting up, I heard my name repeated as if in thunder, from every corner of the vast amphitheatre of woody hills around me- Immediately afterwards the man himself appeared; and being questioned as to the cause of his alarm, said, “1 was afraid, Sir, that you might have been encountered by some wild beast: the mountains are full of them.”
. Twas not perhaps quite so apprehensive of the wild beasts, that is, the wolves, as Demetrius, but wishing to reach the monastery, proceeded to climb the ascent before us. We soon overtook a monk anda little boy, driving an ass laden with faggots up a steep zig-zag path through the woods, and taking them for guides, ar- rived, after a good deal of fatigue, at the end of our day’s journey.
It was some time before we could gain admittance; and had not Demetrius made himself known to a Monk who held parley with us from one of the casements, we should not have been suffered to enter. My Athenian, who knew this fraternity pretty well, told them at first that we only wanted to see their church, one of the curiosities of modern Greece, and extolled as such in Mele- tius’ Geography. Whilst, however, we were surveying the inte- rior of that building, they were told we intended to pass the might with them; when they asked, who were coming behind of the party, and were answered an Albanian, a Christian. Vasilly at
LETTER XXIX. 463
this moment entered the church, and confirmed the report, by crossing himself very devoutly. ‘They then frankly confessed, that had they beheld this person before we had been let in, they would certainly not have opened their gates, especially as, seeing that we were not in the high-way, (βασιλικὴ στράτα), they had some suspicions of us, and were afraid of being entrapped, as they had been a week before, to be the unwilling hosts of a very large party for many days: as it was, however, they accommodated us with a room in one of the corners of their quadrangular building,- and were attentive and hospitable.
Agios Meletius, for so it is called, is placed on a green area half way up the sides of Citheron, the only flat spot to be found in the mountain, which, both above and below the monastery, is amass of vast precipices, shaded with dark forests of pe. A green vale of some extent, at the foot of the mountain, covered with flocks and herds belonging to the Monks, aad the road to Megara, winding over the opposite hills to the south, are seen from this spot, but the surrounding woods shut out the view on every other side.
The building is larger than that on Mount Pendele, or any other monastery which we visited, but is of the same rude and massy con- struction, with only one iron door of entrance, and several casements, or rather loop-holes, in the upper parts of the wall, which serve the purpose of windows for the cells, and also of loop-holes, whence musquetry may be successfully used on an emergency. ‘The Monks are supplied with guns and other arms, and unless taken by surprise, could never be forced to admit any body of men, however large. ‘The experiment has frequently been tried by parties of Albanians, travelling from Thebes through the Mega-
ris into the Morea, who have always been repulsed.
QO f < a , ws
4.64 LETTER XXIX.
‘hese stout saints should be in number fifty, but at present there are only ten resident caloyers, and five more superintending distant metochis. Tor the recruiting of their order, they have
established a small school in the monastery, and ten or twelve boys are instructed in all the accomplishments which are neces- sary for their intended profession, that is, to read the ritual of the Greek church ina quick sing-song tone. ‘These lads are well fed, clothed, and lodged by the Monks; and their parents have all the care and expence of their children taken at once off their hands, besides being sure that they will be comfortably esta- blished in this life, and secure of a bright reversion in the next world.
The church of St. Meletius has a dome, supported by pillars of red marble, generally supposed porphyry. Before the sanctuary are two octagonal pilasters, of the same material, and four smaller pillars of marble support the dome of the holy recess. ‘Ihe Monks, who before had had some dealings with Demetrius as a painter, consulted him, in my presence, about a scheme they had in view, of taking down these marble pillars,and supplying their place with four of wood. ‘These, they observed, would better bear and dis- play the gilding, with which they intended to adorn the whole interior of the building!!! The pillars are of a size that shows they must have been taken from some remains near the spot; and in a grove a little below the monastery there is a grotto and a bath, apparently ancient and perhaps belonging to some chapel sacred to one of the deities of Cithazron, from which the marbles may have been removed to the church of Meletius. There is a sepulchral inscription on a stone inserted in the wall on one side the church door.
't seems that the ancient, as well as the modern Greeks. were
LETTER XXIX. 465
fond of fixing their habitations in the highest accessible spots on the sides of their mountains, consulting at the same time their health and their security. he latter object has been par- ticularly attended to by the Monks, who, at the same time that
they have selected almost every beautiful spot, either in the val- lies, or on the slopes of woody hills, for the site of their unnum- bered monasteries, have also fixed some of these holy retreats on the very peaks of the highest rocks, whither it does not appear how it was possible to convey materials for erecting their cells,
There is amongst the ranges of Mezzovo, or Pindus, at no great distance from a han, called Kokouliotiko, the supposed site of Gomphi*, a high rock with nine summits, called Meteora, and on each of these peaks, which are in a cluster together, is a small monastery. Meteora, being im the road leading from [oan- nina to Triccala and Larissa, the Monks of these aérial habitations have contrived to secure themselves from all surprises, or unwel- come visitants, by cutting down those ridges of their rocks by which they first ascended them, and all the monasteries are now perfectly inaccessible. ‘The Monks who leave the society for the sake of purchasing provisions, or on other necessary occasions, are let down from the summits of the mountain in baskets, to the highest landing-place, perhaps a hundred feet below, and, on their return,. are drawn up into the monasteries by the same con- trivamce,
One may surely be at a loss to guess what charms life can have for a caloyer of Meteora, a prisoner on the ridge of a bare rock. Security 1s not acceptable on such conditions. Yet, from amongst
* Letter vi. p. 62,
4.56 LETTER XX
the varieties of human conduct, we may collect other instances of voluntary privations equally unaccountable, and produced, inde- pendent of habit or constraint, by original eccentricity of mind. A Monk of St. Meletius, sitting with one or two others of his order in my cell, and taking a glass or two of rossoglio, which we usually carried with us in our canteen, confessed to me, that he never had in his life felt an inclination to change his place, and having from his childhood belonged to the monastery, had sel- dom wandered beyond its precincts: “ For four years,” said he, « Thave not gone farther from the gate than the grotto in the rove, and perhaps another four years may pass before I go down into the plain. I am not fond of travelling, yet some of us pre- fer being abroad, and Hadji there has been to Jerusalem; for myself, I do not wish to remove from this spot, and would not go even to one of the farms of our monastery.”
The Monk who spoke was one-and-twenty years of age, in the bloom of health. Hadji, or the saint who had made the pil- grimage, assured me, that the young man had spoken the truth, and added besides, that he was as ignorant as an infant, whispering something in my ear, which was a decisive proof of his innocence. The same pilgrim, a shrewd young fellow, seeing my surprise, con- tinued to declare, that the propensity of this young Monk to re- main for ever on the mountain, was singular, but not so singular
as the bent and disposition of some others whom he had known.
ςς There is,” he added, “a caloyer of our monastery, who seldom speaks to any of us, and is never in his cell, except during a few hours in the night. The whole of his time is passed with our oxen, which he tends, and to which he has taken such a fancy, that he will suffer neither beast nor man, not even one of us, to
LEPTER XXIX. 4607
approach their pasture, but drives away the intruder with stones.
He will not let any other herdsman assist him in attending the cattle, and our abbot humours his inclination, which every day grows more violent.” |
We have read of the Boskoi, or grazing saints, who once swarmed over the plains of Mesopotamia; but it does not appear that those fanatics lived with the herds like my monk of St. Meletius, or afforded quite so strange an example of the follies and madnesses liable to arise amongst members of a community, associated on principles contrary to common sense, and regulated according to a system in direct opposition to the general habits and nature of
man.
LETTER XXX.
Route from St. Meletius to the Ruins of Plataa, at Cockli— Gifto-Castro—Cinoé —Pass of Cithearon—Parasopia—The Positions of the Armies at the Battle of Platea—Doubts re- specting the Numbers who fought against the Greeks—Route from St. Meletius to Megara—by Koundouri—Pass in the Mountains—Arrival at Megara—The Derveni Choria—The Town and Inhabitants of Megara—Return by Eleusis to Athens—-General View of the District of Attica, and of the
Peasants settled in the Villages.
EARLY in the morning of the 11th of February, the Monks, as they were requested, roused my party, presenting me at the same time with a smaii piece of consecrated bread, the remainder of what had been used for the mass which they had celebrated at the dawn of day. ‘The baggage was left at the mo- nastery, and the surgee and Vasilly accompanied me on a visit to the ruins of Platea, close to a village whose name is Cockli, on the other side, the north, of Cithzron.
Having with some difficulty descended the hills, we got into a long valley, called the plain of the Calivia of Koundoun, the name of a large village in the vicinity. This plain, which 1s partly a green pasture, and partly cultivated and divided into
corn-fields and vineyards, extends westwards for perhaps eight or
LETTER XxX, 469
nine miles; and near the extremity of it, under an amphitheatre ef woody hills, is a village called Villa. It corresponds in every respect with the small territory which belonged anciently to Eleu- there, and was attached first to Beeotia, but afterwards to Attica.
‘Travelling on in this valley to the west for two hours, we turned off into a pass between the hills, on the right, in order to cross the mountain Citheron, and thus got into the line of road which was anciently the only route from 'Ihebes to Megara. A path across the hills near Villa, to the south-west, was that leading directly from the isthmus, and the one by which the Lacedemo- nian army marched from the Peloponesus, and penetrated through the Eleusinian territory into Attica.
Immediately on entering the pass, we saw, on a rocky brow to the nght, the remains of an ancient fortress, consisting of five low towers, and a strong wall running a quarter of a mile, per- haps, round nearly the whole summit of the rock.
I cannot but suppose these to be the remains of C&noé, the
strong frontier town between Attica and Beeotia, which was be- sieged by the Spartan General in the first year of the Pelopone- sian war*. ‘There were two towns of this name in Attica: one belonging to the district 'T'etrapolis, near Marathon, of the tribe Afantis; the other, that which we saw, near Eleuthere, and of the tribe Hippothoontis.
The ruins, I know not why, are now called Gifto-Castro, or the Gipsies’ ‘Tower. There are no traces of any houses within the circuit of the fortifications; but the towers and walls are remarkably entire, and convey a very correct notion of what, according to the system of Greek warfare, was the most
᾽ Lend 7 Ὁ nd \ ¥ ce ne «Οἰνόη ovo ἐν μεϑορίοις τῆς Αττικῆς καὶ Βοιωτίας ἐτετείχιστον ὅζς.-τ:
Thucyd. Hist. lib. ii. cap. 18.
3 P
470 LETTER BBR
effectual method of fortifying a town. A wall built round the. summit of a rock, would, it must seem, be the first kind of strong place invented, and the addition of towers would be the next im- provement, and one e with which the engmeers of antiquity would be likely to be satisfied, as entirely sufficient for all the purposes of defence. ‘The Spartans were considered as the most mexpert of all the Greeks, in the besieging of towns; and the army of Archi- damus, though furnished with engines and other means of attack, failed to reduce this place ; which, however, was no great proof of their want of skill ; for CEnoé was by no means, as a late writer*, before referred to, asserts, a trifling fort, but one as well qualified to resist attack as could well be constructed. From the towers which remain, and which are square, it appears that these parts of the work were not raised at equal distances from each other, but at every point where the nature of the ground required an angle in the walls. They are not much higher than aman, and will not contain more than two persons standing upright.
A little farther up the pass, beyond the ruins of Oinoé, is a foun-.
tain erected by some benevolent Turk, who, according to usual prac- tice, has recorded his generosity in golden letters on the stone above the spring: it is called Petroyracke. In twenty minutes after this, we left the road leading to Thebes towards the north-north- east, whose highest point was once called Τρεῖς Κεφαλαὶ, the ‘Three
Heads, and struck into a rough mountain track, continually ascend- ing, to the north-west. We were half an hour in this direction
* De Pauw, sec. 8, tom. i. A circumstance which occurred after the battle of Platza, isa much stronger proof of the incapacity of the Spartan in this respect, which, indeed, was a part of their discipline. They were unable to force the wooden intrenchment of the Persian camp, until the Athenians came ΒΡ to their assistance.
471
before we got to the top of this ridge οἵ Citharon, when we had at once a view of the plains of Beeotia. ‘lhe minaret of one of the moscks of ‘Thebes was visible, peeping above the low mounds to the south of that city: Zagari, or Helicon, was to the west- north-west, and Liakura, or Parnassus, was just apparent, rising into the sky at the northern extremities of Helicon; Citherom ranged onwards as far as the eye could reach to the west; the
green plains of Platea, the scene of the great battle that esta-
blished the liberties of Greece, were lying directly below, rather to the left, and a fine open country, the ancient Parasopia, and the district belonging to the city Erythre, extended under the foot of the hills to the right. ‘The river Asopus divided into two branches, which, uniting, form a long island, once called Oeroe, opposite to Platea, not half a mile in breadth, was seen winding through the whole of this large flat.
I shall endeavour to give you an account of the positions, with a reference to the battle*. Descending the hill for ten minutes, you have on your right a small village, Calivi, at the foot of the hills. ‘This was the second position of the Greeks, who, march- ing from Erythre along the roots of Citheron, and passing Hysie, into the Platean territory-;-, placed themselves on that spot to prevent the Persians from penetrating into Attica or the Peloponesus, by the great road from ‘Thebes through the pass of Τρεῖς Κεφαλαὶ, which, just beyond Calivi, is seen, looking like the bed of a torrent, running through a chasm in the hills.
Calivi is one hour and a half from Platea. Not far from the
* Mr. Barbié du Boccage’s plan, in Anacharsis, of these positions, seems entirely wrong. He has put the pass of Τρεῖς Κεφαλαὶ to the west, instead of to ihe east, of Platea.
+ Herod. Calliope, cap. 25.
42 LETTER ΧΧχ.
village, half ἃ mile below in ΠΕ plain, near ἃ solitary house, i a spring, with great probability the same which supplied the fountain Gargaphia, the very spot where the Greeks were en- camped. About a mile to the north-west of the fountain, the two branches of the Asopus reunite. Sloping to the westward down the sides of the mountain, a little more than a mile beyond Calivi, you come to a rivulet flowing down a ravin; and on a hillock above, you see some large stones disposed into a square. It is impossible to doubt, but that the rivulet is the Molois, to which the Lacedemonians retired, at the same time that the Athenians passed into the plain towards the island Oeroe, and the confe- derates to the walls of Platea, near the Temple of Juno: the stones on the hillock may be the remains of the chapel of the Eleusinian Ceres. This position is half ἃ mile up the sides of Citheron, on very uneven marshy ground. ‘The whole force of
the Persians crossing the Asopus and the plain near Gargaphia, ascended the roots of the mountain, and brought the Lacedemo-
nians to action on the banks of the Molois. The Greek allies of
the Persians went into the plain, and were there routed’ by the Athenians.
Continuing for another mile, still along the sides of the moun- tain, you arrive at a small remain, similar to that above the rivu- let, and which may be the vestiges, either of the Temple of Juno Citheronia, or the heroic monument of the Platazans who were slain in the battle.
In less than half a mile beyond, but downwards towards the plain, you meet with the first remains, on this side, of the walls of Platesa. The path leads under these, and, passing a fountain, takes you round a kind of terrace, surrounded in many parts with the walls of the ancient city. The size of Plateea may. be computed
LETTER xxx. 473
exactly by what is left of these walls, whose circuit: seems to have been about a mile. Very large stones, apparently part of the foundations of houses, are scattered upon the area of the terrace, but there are no marble remains. This terrace is directly under the highest summits of Citheron, which in this spot impend in woody precipices over the site of the city. ‘The ground above the ruins.is very rugged and steep, and the pine-forests advance within a short distance of the plain. When we visited the place, the summits of the mountain were capped with clouds of snow, which formed a fine contrast with the dark woods beneath.
In a niche of the hills, to the west of the site of Plata, is the village of Cockli, containing a few wretched huts. Beyond is.a small plain, running west-south-west, bounded to the south by the range of Citheron, and to the north by some low hills, separating it from the plain of 'Thespie*. This I should suppose to be the pass anciently called the Straits of Platea, through which lay the road to Leuctra. Nearly opposite Cockli, there is a small bridge over one of the branches of the Asopus, a very insignificant stream. ‘The land in the island Oeroe, near this bridge, is high and rugged, and the point where the river divides itself into two branches is not visible from Cockli.
Notwithstanding the circumstantial account, and the particular enumeration of the forces of the two nations engaged in the battle, given by Herodotus, no traveller who has seen the scene of action, which is to. this day recognizable by most undoubted signs, can fail to suspect the Grecian historian of some exaggeration. The whole conflict must have taken place ona triangular space, bounded by the road from Thebes into the pass of Citheron, five miles, the base of Citheron three miles, and the road from Platza to
£ Wheler, book vi. Pp. 475,
474. LETTER “XXX.
Thebes, six miles. The Greeks were one hundred and ten thou sand; the Persians, with their confederates, three hundred and fifty thousand. But the most severe part of the action, and in which, reckoning both Lacedemonians and Persians, nearly three hun- dred and fifty thousand troops were engaged, was fought on the ravin, in marshy steep ground amongst the hills, where, notwith- standing the account informs us that the cavalry of Mardonius were the most active, it seems difficult to believe that a single squadron of horse could have manceuvred.
From Gargaphia to the Molois is but little more than a mile, and, according to the historian, the whole of this immense body fought in less than that space, for Mardonius advanced into the hills to encounter Pausanias. I should fancy that such an extent of ground would not contain such numbers, although ranged in the deepest order of which the ancient tactics allowed; and the Persians did not advance in any order at all, but confusedly *. The fifty thousand allies of Mardonius and the Athenians might have fought in the plain between the Asopus and the foot of the hill, which, however, according to modern tactics, would not admit of even that number of troops to engage.
It does not appear that any part of the action, except the forcing the Persian camp, took place beyond the Asopus, so that not half of the space above mentioned was occupied by the troops of either party during the action. In short, it is impossible to reconcile the positions with the detailed account transmitted to us
by the Greeks of this immortal victory: yet an ingenious anti- quarian would do much towards such an object, and volumes of controversy might be produced on both sides of the question.
* "Ours κόσμῳ οὐδενὶ κοσμηθέντες, ὄντε τάξι. --Ή ογοά, Call. cap. 59.
LETTER XXX. 47 ὅ
“= . “4 ‘ ἢ ᾿ 1 aw Bis i fest τὸ may appear sacrilege to entertail Goubts which must
diminish the lustre of Grecian heroism, I beg you to recollect, that even the more sober page of Latin history has been occa- sionally viewed with the eye of scepticism, particularly in Italy, on the scene of some of the exploits of the earher Romans. ‘Tome after tome has been ushered into the world on such dis- puted points, and one large quarto, the work of a learned anti- quary, is occupied solely in treating of the Caudine Forks. The daring mendacity of the Grecian annals, became proverbial amongst the Romans, who supposed that this ingenious people owed much of their martial fame to their poets, rhetoricians, and historians, whose eulogies, and whose records, first of all, per- haps, only flattered their vanity, but by degrees appeared well- founded, and obtained every credit amongst a people who were interested in beheving them to be just and impartial. The war- riors of Italy, after some acquaintance with the merits of the Greeks, were willing to pay. all respect to their artists, and to their writers; they were content.to become their pupils; but. having found their soldiers unable to check them for a moment in the career of victory; and, indeed, having beheld their most famous states previously enslaved by foreign tyrants, and the sup- pliants, rather than the antagonists of Rome, they could with diffi- culty entertain any exalted notion of their military prowess. ‘Ihe examples which the Roman youth were directed to study, by day and by night, were the writings, not the actions of the Greeks: yet, to the latest ages, the natives of this illustrious country con- sidered their ancestors as affording models of the highest excel- lence, not only in the arts of peace, but of war, and as. worthy of being ranked with those conquerors who had subdued the world. With what triumph does the great author of the Parallels
476 LETTER XXX.
attribute the glory of Athens to the exploits of her heroes, rather than to the genius of her writers. ‘“ ‘This it was,” exclaims the exulting Cheronean, “ that raised the state to glory, this raised
her to greatness; for this, Pindar calls Athens the prop of
Greece; not that she roused the Greeks by the tragedies of
her Phrynicus and her Thespis, but that the sons of the Athe-
nians first at Artemisium, (such is his expression), laid the splendid foundation of liberty; and at Salamis, at Mycale, at
Platea, having established in adamantine security the freedom
of Greece, transmitted it to the rest of mankind *.”
The author of this panegyric is, however, obliged to confess, in another place +, that in his time, the whole of Greece could hardly furnish three thousand fighting men; a number that, according to ancient history, was once supplied by Megara alone.
There seems no way of accounting for the Ιαιρ armies brought into the field by the Greeks during their civil wars, except by supposing that every man capable of bearing arms was occasion- ally a soldier. By what other means could the ‘Thebans arm seventy thousand troops to fight the Lacedemonians? When Justin t lays down the number of soldiers which could be arrayed
* Taura τὴν πολὶν ἡγειρεν εἰς δοξαν, THUTH εἰς μεγεϑοςγ ev τουτοις Πινδάρος ἐρεισμια ang EAAados προσειπε τας Αθηνᾶς» ουχ, ὅτι THIS ᾧὥρυνικου τραγωδιαις καὶ Θεσπίιδὸς ὠρϑουν τοὺς EAAnvas, ἀλλ᾽ ὅτι mpwrov (ὡς φησιν autos) ἐπ᾿ Δρτεμισίῳ παιδὲς Αϑη- varwv ἐβάλοντο φαεινὴν κρηπιδ᾽ edevdnpias, ἐπὶ τε Σαλαμῖνι καὶ Μυκαλῃ καὶ Πλα- ταιαις ὥσπερ ἀαδαμαντινοι στηριξαντες ἐλευϑεριῶν τῆς Ἕλλαδος παρέδοσαν τοις ἄλλοις
ἀνϑρωποις *.—Plut. πότερον Adevatos xara πολεέμον. κι το Δ. Reiske edit. vol. υἱΐ. p. 379.
+ Essay on the Failure of the Oracles. ~ Lib. ix. cap. 5.
* The words quoted are not in that part of Pindar’s works which remain.
LETTER XxX. 4ἀτ7
in the time of Philip of Macedon, by the whole Grecian confede- racy, without reckoning Laconia, at two hundred thousand infantry and fifteen thousand cavalry, he must, as Mr. Hume, in the essay before quoted, has observed, be understood to allude to all those who could bear arms. In truth, the heavy armed were, properly speaking, the only regular soldiers, and the light troops, as it appears from the most ancient details of battles, were considered
as attendants upon the great effective force.
Ta the battle of Platea there were seven helots, with the requi- site accoutrements attached to every Spartan*, and about one light-armed soldier to each individual of the other troops, making in the whole sixty-nine thousand five hundred of this kind of force; many more than half of the whole confederate army. Thus we may feel inclined to credit the statement of the numbers of the Greek forces said to be engaged in their famous battles, but must be allowed to doubt a little with respect to the myriads of the Barbarians, which, on the evidence of their own writers, they are generally believed to have overthrown.
The different amounts of the Persian army who fought at Ma- rathon, as transmitted to us by various authorities, are of them- selves sufficient to justify such an incredulity. But I will con- clude these hints, which were suggested by a view of the Platean plains, and return to the monastery of St. Meletius.
The day after my visit to the ruins of Platea, we set out for Megara, going first down the mountain, through thick woods of evergreens into the plain. Crossing this, we got into the public
road leading from Thebes to Athens, Megara, and the Morea,
* Herod. Call. cap. 28 et 29. 3 Q
478 LETTER XXX.
and inan hour came to where a path branched off to the leit, towards the first of those places, through Eleusis. In half an hour from this point, going over low, bare hills, we passed Koun- douri, a considerable village on the top and sides of a hillock under a mountain to the south-west, and not shaded by a single tree. Thence we began to ascend, and travelled through pine- forests for an hour and a half, until we had gained the brow of the mountain.
Looking back from this spot, we had a view of the monastery of St. Meletius, and found we had gone in a south-south-westerly direction. Here the road divides, one branch of it to the night, towards the Isthmus, across the high mountains called the Der- veni, the other more to the south-west, to Megara. We de- scended a winding path, and now and then, through openings in the woods, caught a view of the Athenian plain and Mount Pen- telicus to the left in the distance, and the country about Hleusis nearer to us in the same quarter.
In a little time we passed one of the stations of the guard which is kept throughout the mountains bordering on the Isthmus. Eight or ten stout young men were smoking in a hut made of green branches; one of them brought us a jug of water, the usual present, and another, slinging his gun across his shoulder, was preparing to attend us, but was dismissed with a small piece of money by Vasilly, who declared we had no occasion for his ser- vices, there being no robbers in all the district.
‘This guard was just at the mouth of a very narrow pass between two perpendicular rocks, one of which, on the right hand, dis- played a huge rent, like a long cavern, in its side. When we entered the pass, we had travelled four hours from the monastery,
LETTER XXX. 479
and we then went directly south-west, still amongst woods of ever- greens and fragrant shrubs, with occasional glimpses of the sea and the castle of Megara. Issuing in about an hour more from the hills and forests, we came at last upon an open cultivated plain, and turning westward, arrived in another hour at the town of Megara, where we took up our lodging for the night.
Megara contains a thousand houses, only six hundred of which are inhabited, rather of a mean construction, many of them being built of mud, and all of them having low flat roofs. It is situated
on two narrow -ridges of a low eminence; on the top of that toe the west, on which the principal number of houses stand, is a large square tower, and on the other, a windmill. The surround- ing plain is extensive, twenty miles perhaps in circumference, being bounded to the south by the line of coast running west from the port once named Niseea, now Dodeca Ecclesiais, (which is
small, and of the shape of a horse-shoe, two miles from the city), to the north by a long chain of circling mountains, now the Long Mountains, Macriplayi, branching off north-westward from the hills of Kerata towards the western extremities of Citheron and the bay of Livadostro, and on the south-west by ἃ very high range of hills, resting on the extremities of the northern moun- tains, formerly Gerania, and now called Derveni Vouni, or the Mountain of the Guard. The declivities of the hills named Ke- rata, or the Horns, are the north-eastern and eastern boundary of the plain. Near the port is a hillock, with a tower on the top of it, the site of the citadel of Niszea; and there is a small green island at the mouth of the harbour, the Minoa of the ancients.
The whole of the Megaris is now frequently called Derveni, from a singular policy of the Turks, who have constituted all the
9 ὦ
480 LETTER xxx.
population of this mountainous district, inhabiting seven towns, called Dervent Choria, of which Megara is the largest, and Koundouri the next in size, into an armed guard, to prevent the egress of any unpermitted persons from the Morea through the Isthmus. ‘There is in the road through the mountains a perpetual guard, but every cottage and all the solitary monasteries are sup- plied with guns, and on the least alarm, which is easily communi- cated by smokes and fires on the summits of the hills, the whole of the Megaris, from the Isthmus to the passes of Citheron, is in a state of defence.
About forty years ago, a large body of six or seven thousand Albanians, who had been called in to drive the Russians from the Morea, endeavoured to retire with their plunder, against the orders of the Pasha of ‘T'ripolizza. ‘The alarm was given to the Derveniotes, so they are called, and every path and outlet being instantly occupied by the Greek peasants, who were happy enough to be employed against Albanians and ‘Turks, very few of the fugitives escaped; many were killed by the Monks of St. Me- letius, endeavouring to fly through the unfrequented tracks of Citheron between the two roads from ‘Thebes to Athens.
‘Fen years ago a similar attempt was made by a hundred and fifty Albanian 'Turks, who were dissatisfied with the pay of the Pasha of the Morea, and not one of them escaped, ten being killed, and the remainder sent in chains to 'Tripolizza.
‘This institution has succeeded completely ; and such is the vigi- lance, courage, and honesty of these Greeks, that a snuff-box Jost in their mountains would be probably very soon recovered. The Derveniotes seem to be a superior race to any other of the Greek peasantry; the putting arms into their hands, and taking
i
LETTER XXX. 481
away almost all the controul of their masters from before their eyes, (for they are under the command of the Capudan Pasha, or High Admiral, and have only one ‘lurk amongst them, called the Derven-Aga), have given them the erect gait and air of freemen. The greater part of them are sprung from Albanian settlers, but all are acquainted with the Romaic language, and by a long establishment in the country, have adopted all the feel- ing and prejudices of the Greeks. ‘The decided superiority which their knowledge of the country must always, and has given them over any opponents, has naturally raised their notions of their own prowess to a great height, and they speak of the ferocious Turk and the martial Albanian with contempt. Although at pre- sent in the service of the Porte, and exempted from part of the burdens to which the Greeks are subject, paying only one hun- dred paras a man for haratch; or capitation tax, yet they com- plain of being obliged to give quarters to the people in the service of the Pashas of the Morea, when passing through their country ; and it is easy to, see that the Derveniotes would be a most for- midable instrument in the hands of any power who might attempt to revolutionize European.Turkey. ‘Their whole number, that is, all those amongst them capable of carrying arms, was stated to me, though I believe somewhat loosely, at three thousand;.a body certainly sufficient to prevent the Morea from affording, or receiving, any supplies, im case of a general insurrection of the Greeks. Besides, the Derveni Choria, two or three of. the vil- lages of Attica are considered as forming part of the guard ;
this is the case with Casha, and the Albanian peasantry of that
district are reckoned more courageous and spirited than those of other parts of the country.
482 LETTER XXX.
Megara retains no vestiges of its ancient importatice, except some pieces of wall, just visible above the surface of the earth at the back of the hills; yet many sepulchral and other inscriptions, and some fragments of carved marbles, are to be seen in the walls of the church and of some of the houses. All the inscriptions have been copied, and four of them taken down by Wheler are also given in Meletius, and a collation of the two authorities shows the incorrectness of the Romaic geographer*. ‘Three headless statues of females are in possession of a priest, who removed them from a ruin on the road between the town and the port, where they were seen by an English traveller in 1738. Pieces of marble are found in such quantity amongst the rubbish, particularly on the hill of the tower, that the women of Megara, many of them, grind their corn on a flat slab of it, making use of a large roller of the same material to crush the grains and reduce them to flour.
In the flat below the eminence on the north side of it, is a fountain, with some fragments of marble near it, half buried in the earth. ‘This spring is conjectured to have been within the cir- cuit of the ancient city, and sacred to the nymphs called Sith- nides. ‘I'he modern well has lately been filled up by the male
inhabitants, who accuse the water of having some properties productive of an inclination to incontinence in their wives and daughters. ‘The females of Megara seem therefore to be rather of a mixed reputation, which was, if I recollect right, the charac- ter of the ancient Greek ladies of this town.
* Sabina, the wife of Hadrian, is, in Meletius, Σαβελινα, and the word apupvaoy, in one of the dedicatory inscriptions, which gave rise to the doubts of Wheler, is changed for Παμφιλος in the Geography.
LETTER XXX. 485
ray
his place, formerly almost deserted on account of the fre- quent incursions of pirates, and burnt by the Venetians mn 1687, appears for several years to have been increasing in size. In 1738 there were only a hundred houses, and Chandler talks of it as a miserable village. ‘The richness of the soil in the sur- rounding plain abounding in vineyards and cotton grounds, but chiefly with large tracks of corn land, has, however, drawn toge-
ther an increase of population ; and the vacant houses at Megara
will, it is probable, be gradually occupied by fresh mhabitants.
We staid but one might at Megara, and then left it to re- turn by Eleusis to Athens; a short ride of a few hours if per- formed without baggage-horses, and, according to the longest computation, only twenty-seven miles in length: I was only five hours on the journey, leaving the attendants behind as soon as we passed Kileusis.—The Athenian generals, who were sworn to invade the territories of Megara twice a year, bound themselves to no very arduous or protracted enterprise, but one which, it seems, might be performed any day betwixt the hour of break- fast. and dinner.
The extreme diminutiveness of Greece, a fact so often alluded to, may make some readers suspect that they, and the rest of the world, have fixed their admiration upon a series of petty and in- sigmificant actions, scarcely worthy of a detail, or of finding a place amongst the histories of empires; but others will only feel an increase of esteem and respect for a people, whose transcendant genius and virtue could give an interest and importance to events transacted upon so inconsiderable a spot of earth. Greece Pro- per scarcely contained more space than the kingdom of Naples occupied formerly om the continent of Italy, and Sicily is consi-
484. LETTER ΧΧΧ.
dered as large as Peloponesus*. Alcibiades might well be at a loss
to find, not only Attica, but even Greece itself, ina map of the world; yet the history of mankind refers for many ages to little else than the affairs of this indiscernible portion of the globe, and what is said of the Barbarians, is generally introduced only to complete and illustrate the Grecian annals. ‘I'hus, in the early Greek writers, we find not a single mention of the Romans; a silence that has had the effect with many young students, of inducing them to believe, that the history of the former nation begins about where the most important part of that of the latter terminates; it does not at first enter into their heads, that any of the great men of the two coun- tries were cotemporaries, and the exploits of Camillus and Epa- minondas are not supposed to have been performed in the same age. ‘They are, to be sure, at once set right by a view of the Chronological Chart ; but old impressions are only corrected, not altogether effaced, and are apt, in spite of conviction, to regain at times their former influence.
The exclusive attention of the more ancient Greek authors to the antiquities of their own nation, and their general inattention to and ignorance of every thing relative to other countries not im- mediately connected with themselves, afforded the antagonist of Apion a good deal of room to display his ingenious acrimony. It is not without some triumph that Josephus cites the historian Epho- rus, as having supposed Spain to be a single city+.
Even after the Romans had forced this people to acknowledge that they were not the only warriors in the world, and had perform- ed exploits which they might condescend to record with an Hel-
* D’Anville’s Geog. article Greece. + Josephus, book i. in answer to Apion.
LETTER xXx. 485
lenic pen, they still appear to have thought that they had a just claim to a monopoly of all the wit and learning of mankind. ‘The influence their arms had been unable to obtain, was established by their language, “ whose empire was spread from the Adriatic to the Euphrates.” ‘They seem to pay no attention to the daily incense offered them by their conquerors and pupils. ‘* There is not, I believe,” says the author whose words I have quoted above, “from Dionysius to Libanius, a single Greek critic who mentions Virgil or Horace; taey seem ignorant that the Romans had any good writers*.”
I will now give our route from Megara towards Athens, as far as Eleusis. ‘The road was, for the first hour and a half, towards the south-east, inclining to the shore, chiefly through low woods of evergreens; it then took us more to the eastward, and wound under hills close to the water, still leading through
green forests. ‘T'he hills are ranges of the mountain Kerata, and
the two tops are visible at a distance to the north-east. In another hour and a half the path passes round a bay, where there is a solitary cottage and a boat-shed. From this place the tower above Eleusis is in sight, and the tongue of land forming the south-western extremity of the bay of Eleusis, is seen. stretching before you into the sea: Salamis. appears close to this point, and closing up the wide mouth of the bay. From this spot travellers ascend the extremities of the mountain Ke- yata, and passing at the back (the west) of the tower of Eleusis, come, in an hour, into part of the plain of Eleusis, at the foot of the mountain.
* Decline and Fall, vol. ii. p. 48. © aR
a
A86 LETTER XXX.
From the back of the tower the path leads through a green valley, on a slope between low hills, until it arrives in the open
country. A spring is still to be seen in this valley ; this is the Flowery Well where Ceres reposed, and the valley is the Rharian plain. The path to Athens then strikes off over the Thriasian plain, leaving the village of Eleusis to the right, and passing through the ruins of the aqueduct.
Were it not for the conjectures of former travellers, and the power put into every one’s hands, who is in possession of a Pau- sanias, of indulging in the same pleasing speculations, travelling in modern Greece would be an irksome and unsatisfactory labour.
The weather, from my departure on the 8th to my return. on the 13th of February, had been very favourable; though, according to report, there had been a violent storm of rain at Athens on the 10th. The 14th was. very hot, and the sky quite clear; the 15th seemed intolerably sultry, and a few dark vapours were seen collecting round the brows of the moun- tains; the next day was equally hot, and the tops of Parnes were enveloped in heavy motionless clouds. At half after eleven at night, as I was writing the substance of this letter in our little sitting-room at Athens, and my fellow-traveller, better employed, was sitting opposite to me, a noise, like the rushing of a torrent, suddenly roused our attention: the dead stillness of the night rendered every sound more unexpected and more distinct; the branches of the lemon-trees in the court-yard shook “ without a wind ;” and instantly afterwards the door of our chamber swung open, and the whole building began to totter. At this moment one of the servants rushed into the room, and exclaimed, that the house was falling! ‘The shaking, however, was but gentle,
LETTER XXX. 487
aud did not last more tham two seconds, having been more alarm- ing in its approach than diangerous in its consequences. We after- wards learnt that chis earthquake had thrown down several hun- dred houses at Canéa in C:andia, and we ourselves saw some effects of its violence amongst the ruins of Alexandria 'T'roas.
I have now done my best to make you acquainted with modern Attica, as well as with the country immediately adjacent ; and in this review I have made nzention of all the small towns, together with the number of houses; they are supposed to contain, in order to furnish some clue towards computing the present population of the country.
Besides the villages before enumerated, the number of whose habitations, taken altogether, do not quite amount to two thousand, it should be understood, that there are, perhaps, as many as fifty hamlets of ten, twenty, and thirty cottages, which, together with the monasteries, may add between seven and eight hundred houses to the former number. According to this com- putation, Athens and modern Attica may be supposed to contain about twenty-five thousand five hundred inhabitants of all ages and sexes.
The ancient territory consisted of two hundred and fifty square
miles; but the district now belonging to the city is somewhat smaller, as it is bounded to the north by Brilessus, and not by the Asopus, and as the valley before described, once attached to Eleuthere, is now part of the Derveni-Choria. Yet this deduc- tion from the extent is not considerable enough to be even men- tioned in comparing the present and ancient population, which, according to the most moderate reckoning, was at least two hun- dred and eighty-four thousand: Atheneus, indeed, in his Deip- 3R 2
488 LETTER XXX.
nosophist, has put down the slaves alone at four hundred thou- sand; a number which, as it may be supposed to include all those who were found in Attica, and who worked the triremes and merchant vessels of the republic, may not appear such an enormous exaggeration, as it has been alleged to be by our phi- losophical historian*. When Mr. Hume conjectured that a cypher had been accidentally added to the original sum, he must, if he spoke literally, have not reflected at the moment, that the modern representations of numbers are not found in the text of Greek books. It is not impossible, however, that forty may have been written instead of fowr myriads.
Nearly all the villages of Attica are under the subjection of the Waiwode of Athens, and contribute to his revenue. ‘The only ex- ceptions are Menithi, half of which furnishes a tax for the mamte- nance of a certain number of spahis, or cavalry soldiers, for the seryice of the Imperial armies ; Charootika, which belongs to a mosck at Constantinople ; and Spatha, which is part of the por- tion of one of the Sultanas.
‘The peasants living in each of these small towns, are, as before mentioned, a distinct race from the Greeks, being all occupied in cultivating the ground, tending the flocks, collecting the gall- γι, and felling the timber in the mountains. They are of a hardy constitution, and a robust make, and patient both of hunger
and fatigue; their manners are extremely simple ; and being con-
* Essay on the Populousness of Ancient Nations.
+ See Note E. 6. to vol. ii. of Brougham’s Colonial Policy, where this ob- servation is made, in a comment on Hume, the general argument of which 1 have been unable entirely to understand—but, in such cases, the fault may be on the side of the writer or of the reader.
LETTER XxX. 489
tent with their own cottages, like Virgil’s shepherd, they consider the. city of the Faithful itself by no means superior to their own country town.
A peasant of Casha, returning from Constantinople, was over= heard to complain to a friend—‘* What a place is that city! I wanted to get some of our sandals and shoe-thongs there, and they had none; and as tor faggots, charcoal, and pitch, our town lras ten times as much!”’—There is in some parts of their beha- viour a singularity quite ludicrous in the eyes of a stranger. You shall have one scene from the life, although the humour is lost without printing the manner as well as the conversation of the party. A Greek, on his way to Athens, overtakes a peasant drivin, his little horse loaded with fire-wood. ‘* How much do you ask for those faggots?” says he. ‘'T'wenty paras.”—* I'll give you fif- teen.” ‘The man never looks-up, but, addressing himself to his beast, says, “1 won't do, it won’t do; go on.”—** Seventeen paras, then.” ‘ Heigh! heigh!” says the other to his horse,
{ς
“Ὡς ροῦ on, get on.” Fighteen paras.” “Turn round!” ex- claims the fellow, still speaking to the beast, “ they shall go for nineteen.” The Greek nods, and the other drives his poney along with him to his house.
‘Fheir common dress is of white woollen, like that: of the labour- ing Greeks, but they have habits for their festivals of extreme
magnificence, and of a fashion altogether antique in many re- spects, even more so than that of the Albanians. ‘I'he upper part of their dress exactly resembles a breast-plate, not being buttoned before, but fastened with strings behind. ‘The shawl, which they twist round their heads, is always variegated, and οἱ the brightest aues, and the prevailing colour of their jackets is a dark red, ‘The
490 LETTER XXX.
clothing of the women, who generally are barefoot, and are as enured to labour as the men, is very homely and grotesque; con- sisting of a long shift, a thick yirdle wrapped several times round the waist, a short straight-cut woollen jacket, and a coarse w hite shawl, like a towel, with the corners hanging down before and behind, on the head. ‘They are carried to be married on horse- back, covered with a long veil, and with a child placed astride before them.—The whole nation are of the Greek church, and many of them enter into the religious houses, and become ca- loyers.
The language of these peasants is a dialect of that spoken by the Albanians of Epirus; and as I was not aware, during my stay in Attica, of the fact mentioned by Wheler, that they call themselves Vlachi, I saw no reason for supposing them emigrated Walla- chians, and descendants of those Roman colonists of Dacia, aban- doned by Aurelian, who being swept away into Scythia by the retreating hosts of either Huns, Avares, Magiars, or Bulgarians, were carried back, after the revolution of centuries, by the re- turning wave of barbarian inundation, into their own country. It does not seem a consequence, that the name Vlachi should decide them to be Wallachians ; for Valachi, or Vlachi, is a deno- mination applied by the Greeks to the other Scythian settlers. Thus the people inhabiting the mountains between the Drave and the Save are called Morlachi, or Mauro-Vlachi; and yet their language partakes in nothing with that of the Wallachians.
Since the last allusion which is to be found in these Letters to the disputed point concerning the real origin of the peasants of Attica, I have had the opportunity of consulting that memoir in the thirtieth volume of the Academy of Inscriptions, and the
LETTER ΧΧΧ. 491
Kissay of Mr. D’Anville’s (Etats formés aprés la chute de ’Em- pire Romain), which Mr. De Pauw recommends as decisive of the ignorance of taose who have called this people Albanians : yet in neither of these works is there a word respecting the pea- santry of this part of Greece, except this single quotation from Wheler—* Wheler, dans la seconde. partie de son voyage dit avoir rencontré sur le chemin de ‘I'hébes ἃ Athénes et vers le Mont Parnés qui sépare la Béotie de ’Attique, Vhabitation d’un peuple qui se donne le nom de Vlaki*.”
Wheler’s words are as follows: “ After this we began again to ascend ; and at last went up a rocky hill, by a very bad way, until about noon we got to the top of it, to a village called Vlachi, which is the name the Albaneses call themselves by in their own language}. If the English traveller be correct, not these villa- gers only near. Mount Parnes, as Mr. D’Anville has it, but all the Albanians, call themselves Vlachi; and the quotation proves nothing at all, except, indeed, that Wheler himself evidently supposed the people in question to be Albanese. The moun- taineers of Epirus do, indeed, consider these peasants as by no means of the same race with themselves, although they call them Albanians, and converse with them with facility in their own lan- guage. Had we penetrated high enough, we might have deter- mined whether they actually belong to the people dispersed over the northern boundaries of Greece.
The country inhabited by the southern Valachi, properly so called, 18 composed of the contines of Macedonia, Thessaly, and Epirus; comprehending Edessa, Castoria, as well as Larissa,
* Vol. xxx. p. 251, Acad. Inscrip. + Wheler, book iy. p. 333.
AO2 LETTER XXX
Pharsalia, Demetrias, in the low grounds of Thessaly, and the eastern declivities of Pindus, where the people are by the Greeks named Cuzzo Vlachi, or Lame Vlachi.
The Scythian nation, to whom they were attached, and by whose name they were a long time known, were the Patzinaces or Patzinacites, most probably alluded to by Strabo as the Peu- cini, who, inhabiting the mouths of the Danube in the reign of Augustus, were found in that of Constantine Porphrogenitus on the banks of the Volga, whence being driven by the Uzes, they displaced the Magiars, or Oriental Turks, from the vicinity of the Etel-Cusu, or lesser Volga, and afterwards spread themselves along the north side of the Danube. In the reign of Constantine Mo- nomachus, about the middle of the eleventh century, they passed this river, and penetrated into Bulgaria and Thrace ; where, in 1123, they were routed in a great battle by John, son of Alexius Commenus, and a multitude of them were forcibly settled in the western province of the empire before described, which, a short time afterwards, was known by the name of Moglena, and Me- galo-Vlachi. They differ in no point from the other Scythian settlers, and these shepherds, emigrated from the plains of Tar- tary, are discovered by their language alone to be of Roman ori- gin, and descended from ancestors, who may be traced through
a succession of adventures as singular as any to be found in the history of mankind*.
* ¢¢ Nos sumus de sanguine Romano,”’ is, in the language of Vlakia, ‘ noi sentem de sangue Rumena.” Joannitius, who reigned about the beginning of the thirteenth century, and is called by Villehardouin, Imperator Bulgarorum et Blacorum, is reminded, in a letter to him by Pope Innocent III. of his Roman origin; and it appears, that the transplanted Romans of Dacia were
LETTER XXX. 408
distinguished at first amongst the Scythians, by the name of Viakes, which may have referred to their language, as, by a curious coincidence, the Hun- garians, Polanders, Croatians, and Servians, give, at this time, the Romans and the Italians, whose dialect is thought by them to be nearly approaching to the Latin, the denomination of Vlakes.
There is a country, to the north of the Caspian Sea, in Tartary, called by the Tartars Ilak, which is the same as Blac, (for that people cannot pronounce the letter B), and is named by Roger Bacon, Great Blacia. Both Wallachia and Moldavia, as well as part of Transylvania, are inhabited by the same people. Moldavia is known to the Turks by the appellation of Kara Iflak, and to the Greeks as Mavra-Vlachia; signifying in both tongues Black Viachia. Mr. D’Anville has thought that he can discover something like the name of the Scythian Patzinaces, or Pyeczinigi, as they are called by Lieut- prand, in Εξαρχος Πλαγήνων, the present title of the Metropolitan of Wallachia. See “6 Sur les Peuples qui habitent aujourd’hui la Dace de Trajan,” in the thirtieth volume of the Academy of Inscriptions, p. 237.
τος του αδήδηων..
The following Note refers to the words, “96 Athenzus, in his Deipnosophist,”
in page 487, of this Letter, and was omitted by mistake in putting to the press.
Κτησικλῆς δ᾽ ἐν τρίτη χρονικῶν (τῇ πέντε) καὶ δεκάτη πρὸς τᾶις ἑκατὸν, φησὶν, Οὐλυμπιάδι Αϑήνησιν ἐξετασμὸν γενέσϑαι ὑπὸ Δημητρίου rou Φαληρέως τῶν κατοι- κούντων τὴν ᾿Αττικήν καὶ ἑυρεϑῆναι Αϑηνάιους μὲν δισμυρίους πρὸς τοῖς χιλίοις, μετόι- Hous δὲ μυρίους, ὀικετῶν δὲ μυριάδας τεσσαράκοντα .--- Ποῖ ρπο5, lib. vi. cap. 103, edit. Schweighaeusar, p. 543, vol. ii.
In a subsequent sentence, Athenzus proceeds to inform us, that Aristotle, in his Polity of the Atginzans, says the slaves of those islanders amounted to four hundred and seventy thousand.
LETTER ΧΧΧΙ.
Shape and Make of the Modern Greeks—The Women—Their want of Beauty—Painting—Dress of the Men—and of the Women—Their Manners——A Betrothing—A Marriage—their Dance——Songs, §c.—Genius— Morals — Superstitions — The Evil Eye—Conformity of Practice between Greeks and Turks — Manners of the Men—Influence of Money—-Behaviour to Inferiors—Ostentation—Princes of the Fanal—Waiwodes of
Moldavia and Wallachia—Codja-bashees.
TRA V EL- Writers are in one respect the very reverse of Prophets, for whatever honour they gain is in their own coun-,
try. In the regions, and amongst the people whom they profess to describe, not only their errors, but their partialities, and the cause of them, their want of attention and assiduity, their blind eredulity, and the weakness of the authorities on which. they have confided, are too well known to allow them the enjoyment of any great reputation. Whilst they are satisfied with tracing their routes, and narrating their adventures, they may write without fear of contradiction; but when they quit that safe track, to launch into general description or disquisition, they must prepare to be re- peatedly accused, and, indeed, not unfrequently convicted, of error, and more especially by those who have made the same
LETTER XXXI. 495
journey with themselves. Notwithstanding, however, this dis- cernment’ of difficulties, which I may not be at all qualified to encounter, and although I shall, by sucha plan, be obliged to make use of some observations suggested in other parts of the Levant, both before and after our visit to Athens, it is my inten- tion to choose this place for saying as much of the general cha- racter and customs of the Greeks, as my short residence in the country enabled me to collect.
It cannot appear at all surprising, that in their habits of life the modern Greeks should very much resemble the picture that has been transmitted to us of the ancient illustrious inhabitants of their country. Living on the fruits of the same soil, and under the same climate, apparently not changed since the earliest ages, it would be strange if their physical constitutions, and in some measure their tempers, were not very similar to those of the great people whom we call their ancestors ; and, in fact, I take their bodily
appearance, their dress, their diet, and, as I said before, their
tempers, to differ but little from those of the ancient Greeks. There is a national likeness observable in all the Greeks, though, on the whole, the islanders are darker, and of a stronger make than those on the main-land. ‘Their faces are just such as served for models to the ancient sculptors, and their young men in particular, are of that perfect beauty, which we should perhaps con- sider toosoft and effeminate in those of that age in our more northern climate. Their eyes are large and dark, from which circumstance Mavromati, or Black-eyes, isa very common surname: their eye- brows are arched; their complexions are rather b own, but quite clear; and their cheeks and lips are tinged with a bright vermilion. The oval of their faces is regular, and all their features in perfect pro-
2 « 3&2
Med
400 LETTE RS BRT,
portion, except that their ears are rather larger than ordinary: the hair is dark and long, but sometimes quite bushy, and, as they shave off all the hair on the fore-part of the crown and the side of the face, not at all becoming: some of the better sort cut off all their hair, except a few locks twisted into a knot on the top of the head. On their upper lips they wear a thin long mustachio, which they are at some pains to keep quite black. Beards are worn only by the clergy and the Archontes Presbuteroi, or Codja-bashees, and other men of authority. ‘Their necks are long, but broad and firmly set, their chests wide and expanded, their shoulders strong, but round the waist they are rather slender. Their legs. are perhaps larger than those of people accustomed to tighter garments, but are strong and well made. ‘Their stature is above the middling size, and their make muscular but not brawny, round and well filled out but, not inclined to corpulency.
Both the face and the form of the women are very inferior to those of the men. ‘Though they have the same kind of features, their eyes are too languid, and their complexions too pale, and, even from the age of twelve, they have a flaccidity and looseness of person which is far from agreeable. ‘I’hey are generally below the height which we are accustomed to think becoming ina female, and when a little advanced in life, between twenty-five and thirty years of age, are commonly rather fat and unwieldy.
That there are no exceptions to this general character, I do not, of course, mean to advance; but that I did not myself see
any very pretty Greek woman during my tour, I can_ safely assert. ‘The females of the better sort, however, do not at all
neglect the care of their charms, but make use of washes and paints to improye the lustre of. their complexions: they have even
497 a curious form of prayer which deprecates the injurious tanning of the March suns. They colour the inside of their eye-lashes, some with,a mixture of antimony and oil, called in Turkish, surmeh; others. with the soot made of the smoke from the gum of Labda- num, and they throw a powder in the corners of the eye to add to its brilliancy. The white paint used by them is made of powdered cowries, or small shells, and lemon-juice ; the red, from the roots of the wild lily, washed four or five times, and then dried,. and pre- served in close pots. The powder is itself white, but when rubbed with the hand into the cheek, gives a vermilion tinge which does not wash out, and is thought not to injure the skin. This must be owned a good exchange for the thick coat of white-lead which covered both the face and hosom of the Athenian ladies. of old. ‘The effect of this painting is not, as far as.I saw, at all agree- able, though the Greek ladies themselves must think it very im- posing, for on the most important ceremonies, such as betrothing, and marrying, the bride is daubed with thick coats of colours, laid on without any. attempt to resemble nature. Occasionally also,, but,more particularly at Constantinople, they wear patches ; a custom, if not derived from ancient authorities, brought, Γ sup- pose, from Christendom. Of all the paradoxes of Mr. De Pauw, that which respects the ancient Greek females seems to me the best founded. If the pre-
sent women, particularly of Athens, are at all to be considered the
representatives of those of former times, their appearance will not
make any one entertain an exalted notion of the beauty of the Greek ladies of antiquity. I am inclined with that author, also to attribute the astonishing influence of the Greek courtezans, and what he calls depravation of instinct, partly to the same cause, Had
408 DETTER. SRK
the women generally been beautiful, the whole of Greece, young and old, soldiers, orators, and philosophers, would not have been prostrate at the feet of Aspasia or Lais, Phryne or Pythonice, nor have fallen so entirely, perhaps, into the other more prevailing enormity. Such of the women as 1 have scen from the islands of the Archipelago, with the exception of the Sciotes, are more plain than those on the main-land.
An author* of Observations on the Levant, thinks that the Venetians and T'urks have adulterated the Grecian blood: but if that were the case, the degeneracy would be seen in the males, as well as in the females; which is far from being the case. After all, the point is a matter of taste, and you perhaps might find those sufficiently handsome, whom I have been unable to admire. I beg to mention, that in this part of my detail I have in my contemplation the Greeks of the main-land, and particularly the
Athenians, in whose town we resided longer than in any other
part of Turkey.
‘The dress of the Greeks is not at the first sight to be much dis- tinguished from that of the Turks, nor is there any difference in the habit of those in power, except that, instead of the turban, the head is covered with an immense calpac. A cotton shirt, made like a woman’s chemise, cotton drawers, a vest and jacket of silk or stuff, a pair of large loose brogues, or trowsers, drawn up a little above the ancle, and a short sock, make the inner part of the dress: the part of the garment next added is a long broad shawl, often highly worked, and very expensive, wrapped in wide folds round the loins. In one corner of this girdle the poorer
* Tl paroit que les Vénétiens et les ‘Turcs out dénaturé ce beau sang par toute la Gréce.—Reidesel, Voyage au Levant, chap. iii. p. 250.
LETTER XXX.1: 499
people, especially in travelling, both Turks and Greeks, conceal their money, and then wind the shawl round them. A common fellow in Turkey, might as properly as the soldier in Horace, talk of the loss of his zone as of that of his money; but the better sort of people have adopted the use of purses, which, together with their handkerchiefs, watches, and snuff-boxes, they carry in the bosom, between the folds of their vests. It is a sign of importance much affected by them, to have this part of their garments distended to a great size, so as to appear full, not only of trinkets, but papers. ‘The gown with loose sleeves covers the other part of the dress, and this, when in the presence of a Pasha, or other great man, they wrap modestly about them, concealing their hands, joined below the waist, in the sleeves, and resting their chins on their bosoms. The rich have many changes of gowns, some of stuff and satin for the summer, and others of cloth for the winter, both
trimmed and partially lined with ermine or furs, of which the dark are the most precious. ‘The Codja-bashee of Vostizza, who affected magnificence, changed his pelisse when he went out to ride. The privileged Greeks may put on robes of any dye except green, the favourite colour of Mahomet, and that now worn by his supposed ‘They have liberty, as before related, to
descendants, the Emirs. wear slippers or quarter-boots of yellow morocco.
‘The common people have their brogues descending but a little below their knees, with bare legs, and a slipper pointed and turned up at the toe. If they have a gown, they seldom: use it: the sailors have nothing but a short jacket. On their heads they wear in the summer the little red skull-cap. of the Albanians, to which, in the winter, some of them add a coarse white, or dark-striped shawl, tied round like a small turban.
Of the dress of the females there is an annexed specimen. It varies not materially from the Turkish, of which there is so exact an account in my Lady M. W. Montague’s Letters. ‘The annexed
500 LETTER XXXI.
drawing represents a Constantinopolitan lady, and will appear to approach very nearly to the Frank dress, which is very much the case, not only at the capital, but in every town where any strangers have fixed their residence. ‘The vest fits quite close to the bosom, but becomes larger and wider a little below the waist. The gown, which is sometimes made of fine flowered silk, flows off loosely behind, and the sleeves of it, which widen and are slit towards the waist, are made much longer than the arm, and are turned back. ‘There is sometimes a ribbon, or other girdle, under the bosom, but the zone, a rich shawl, embroidered with gold and flowers, is nevertheless worn, loosely resting on the hips, and either tied in a spreading knot, or fastened before with a large plate, ornamented with false or real jewels.
The female zones do not, like those of the men, wrap many times round the body, but only once, and are put for ornament, not use, as they do not bind or support any part of the dress. On account of this particularity it may be observed, that when Diana is called bis concta, she is meant to be represented not (as some have rendered the words) with two zones, but witha twzce-wrapped girdle, which was a very unusual precaution*. ‘The double cincture is found in figures of Amazons, and in other ancient statues where the lower one is omitted, the fold and compression of the garments still re- main: but the band of the breast (Sophocles calls it μαστῶν περονίς) is not to be confounded with the low zone, which, from the days of Homer, was always. the characteristic of the Grecian female 7".
* Nec bis cincta Diana placet, nec nuda Cythere, Illa voluptatis nil habet hac nimium. Auson. Epig. 39. See De Guys. lett. ix.
+ Mr. Forsyth, in page 321 of his Remarks on Antiquities, &c. in Italy, has restored the epithet βαϑύζωνος to its proper meaning, but he seems to me to have mistaken the point of the double cincture.
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LETTER XXXI. 501
The modern cestus, exactly similar, if we may trust descriptions, statues, and medals, to the ancient, is not, in my mind, an agree- able ornament; it gives an appearance, with the band under the bosom, of a double waist.
The whole dress of the richer females is swoln out and orna- mented with gold and silver trimmings to a very disagreeable excess. ‘They wear bracelets of precious stones, and strings of gold coins, round their arms and necks. ‘The head-dress of the younger girls is tasty; their hair falls down their backs in pro- fusion, generally straight, but sometimes platted for the sake of adding false tresses, and is combed straight over their foreheads and the sides of the cheeks: a little red cap with a gold tassel, studded. with θα απ, is fixed on one side of the crown, and adorned, by the girls with flowers, by the matrons with heron’s feathers, or a bouquet of jewels.
It is at Athens, and I believe elsewhere, a very prevailing fashion, for the young women to dye the hair of an auburn colour with the plant called Hena. ‘The matrons, by another process, give a dark black tinge te their tresses. When abroad, the Greek ladies are muffled up in a wrapping-cloak, much like the Turkish, ex- cept that they have not a square merlin hanging behind, and, in- stead of a hood over the face, generally wear a long veil, which, however, they frequently throw aside when not in the presence of any Turks.
In the inland towns, and even at Athens, the Greeks seldom admit a male stranger to a sight of the females of their families, who live in a separate part of the house, and in some cases are as closely confined as the ‘Turkish women. Before marriage, they
are rarely, sometimes never, seen by any male except of their own
ΣΤ
LETTER: XXXfY.
family, but afterwards enjoy the privilege of being introduced to people of their own nation, and to travellers, A young lady, the sister of Signor Nicolo, at Ioannina, to whom we had made a present of some Venetian silks, sent word to us, that she re- gretted, that not being married, she could not kiss our hands in. person, but begged that it might be done by proxy by our drago- man, who brought the message. We had not asight of her during our stay in the house. When in the interior apartments, a young woman divests herself of her outer robes, and, in the summer season, may sometimes be surprised reclined on a rich carpet or sofa, with her feet bare, and her whole form rather shaded than concealed by trowsers of gauze, and a thin muslin, cymarr.
ΠΑ few friends, and perhaps a Frank stranger, are sometimes in- vited to the first public ceremony in which a young girl is concerned, that is, her betrothing to her future husband, who generally has never seen her; and we ourselves were once asked to a supper where there was music and dancing on an. occasion of this kind. The girl, (called ἡ νύμφη), was sitting in the middle of the sofa, covered with paint and patches, having a sort of crown on her head, and stuck round with jewels and gold chains on every part of her dress. .We were regularly led up and presented to her, as were the other guests, and she kissed our hands. Her own female relations, and those of her future husband, were sitting on the other parts of the sofa. The mother of the young man, who was not present himself, put a ring on the finger of the maiden, and, as her son’s proxy, kissed her cheek, a ceremony by which the betrothing takes place. The marriage, we were told, would not be performed
perhaps for more than a year, as the youth was engaged in trade
LETTER ΧΧΧΙ. 503
J Γαδ Gm a ip Be Ρ i} L ΡΥ ‘ aAmnatant f. + at séme/ distance, until he could amass a competent fortune to
maintain his wife. The nuptial ceremony, notwithstanding the undoubted anti-
quity of some of its usages, 15, like most of the rites of the Greek church, exceedingly mean, and, to a person unaccustomed to the sight, ridiculous. ‘The bride and bridegroom stand near the altar, holding a lighted candle in their hands. The priest, who stands facing them, reads and sings a service, and then taking two rings, and two garlands of flowers sprinkled with gold leaf, puts them on the fingers and the heads of the couple, then repeats and chaunts, and changes both ihe one and the other. This interchange is repeated several times, with great rapidity, and accompanied by gabbling and singing, until at last the rings are left on the fingers which they are intended to fit, and the garlands are finally jaid aside, without being suffered to adorn the head either of the man or the woman. Some bread, which has been blessed and marked with the sign of the cross, is broken and eaten by the bride and bridegroom, and a cup of wine is presented first to one and then to the other, after which the girl hands round some of the same cake, together with rossoglio, or rakee, to the persons present, and if she is not of high condition, receives a piece of money from each of the visitors, for which she kisses their hands. This is the last part of the wedding, and the carrying away of the bride to her husband’s house happens the same, or the next day, when there is a procession, much like that which we witnessed at Joan- nina. ‘The evening is concluded with music, dancing, and a feast, in which fruits, and especially nuts (an ancient nuptial delicacy), form the chief part of the repast.
At Athens we saw a bride accompanied home by at least fift
$ ho
ΤΡ
¥
504 LETTER XXXII.
young girls, in pairs, dressed in white, and their heads crowned with flowers, preceded by musicians, with guitars, rebecks, and fiddles : she was going to the house of some female friend, where she was to remain until the procession of her husband arrived to attend her to his own home.
The preceding usages we witnessed ourselves; there are others attached to the same important ceremony, of which we could only hear or read, such as the bathing of the bride in triumph on the night before the wedding, and the walking at the threshold of the hus- band’s chamber, over the covered sieve, which, if it does not crackle beneath the foot of the bride, renders her chastity suspected. This second custom is mentioned by several writers, and may really obtain, but I did not hear of it, nor of the forbearance of the bridegroom on the night of his nuptials, alluded to by Mons. de Guys, in his sixteenth letter.
There are very few instances of second marriages amongst the Greeks, nor of any man, except a priest, remaining single for life.
The women can seldom read or write, but are all of them able to embroider very tastefully, and can generally play on the Greek lute, or rebeck. ‘Their dancing they learn without a master, from their companions. ‘T'he dance, called Χόρος, and for distinc- tion, Romaica, consists generally in slow movements, the young women holding by each other’s handkerchiefs, and the leader set- ting the step and time, in the same manner as in the Albanian dance. ‘The dancers themselves do not sing; but the music is a guitar, or lute, and sometimes a fiddle, accompanied by the voice of the players. When, however, men are of the party, there is ἃ
male and female alternately linked, and the performanee ts more
ψ'
LETTER XXXI.
animated, the party holding their handker
heads, and the leader dancing through them, in a manner which, although at the time it reminded me only of our game of thread- the-needle, has been likened by some observers to the old Cretan labyrinth dance, called Geranos, or the Crane. When the amuse- ment is to be continued throughout a night, which is often the case, the figures are various; and I have seen a young girl, at the con- clusion of the dance described, jump into the middle of the room, with a tambourine in her hand, and immediately commence a pas seul, some favourite young man whom she had warned of her in- tention, striking the strings of the guitar at the same time, and
regulating the dance and music of his mistress. We once prevailed
on a sprightly girl of fifteen to try the Albanian figure, and her complete success on. the first attempt showed the quickness and versatility of her talents for this accomplishment. Notwithstanding the want of education amongst the females, most of them are acquainted with a great number of songs, or recitatives, accompanied with tales, which are combined some- thing in the manner of Sir Philip Sidney’s Arcadia, and appear to have no end, being taken up by different, individuals of the party for hours together. The author of the comparison between the ancient and modern Greeks, tells his friend, that when hearing these alternate story-tellers, he would fancy himself in company with the Minyeiades, beguiling with varied discourse the useful labour of their hands*, A person who had never heard of the daughters of the King of Orchomenos, would think himself enter- tained with a string of ballads, all repeated in the same tone, and
* Utile opus manuum yario sermone, &c.—Ovid. Metam. lib, iy.
506 LETTER ΧΧΧΙ.
interrupted only by a recitation of their long and melancholy titles. That such a thing may never be wanted more, I shall insert a few Specimens of songs and tales when 1 come to speak of the modern Greek language.
Whenever the Greek women have the advantages of acquiring any unusual attainments, they evince great quickness of under- standing. At Smyrna and Constantinople, where there are great numbers of them in the families of the Dragomans, and others ‘connected with the Consuls, Ambassadors, and foreign missions, they speedily acquire the modern Janguages, and sometimes a partial knowledge of the literature and accomplishments which distinguish the females of civilized Europe.
With respect to their moral character, it is what may be called amiable, and would appear very strikingly so to those of our sex who admire a woman for her weaknesses, and love her the more in proportion as she seems to call upon them for support and pro- tection. ‘They are assiduous housewives, and tender mothers, suckling their infants themselves ; and, notwithstanding the boast- ings of travellers, I must believe them generally chaste. ‘That loose females may be found amongst them is not, of course, to be denied ; but, if not their own inclination, the institutions of their country, similar to those which have always prevailed in Greece, have a strong tendency to preserve their virtue. They have no other scope for the exercise of the good qualities of either head or heart, than the circle of their family, and, what-
aid . ever secret power they may possess, are never heard of as in-
fluencing any public transaction. A man may travel through Greece, and, unless at his particular desire, not see a single
Greek lady.
LETTER XXXI; Tike their sex in ἃ
possible, than the men, believe all the absurd dogmas and fables of their church. Ominous dreams and celestial revelations, as might be expected, more frequently visit the women than their husbands, though they are by no means uncommon even with both sexes. Some of their superstitious observances savour ex- ceedingly of paganism, as might be proved, were it not tedious to set-in array those passages of ancient authors which record and allude to similar customs.
The ceremonies at child-birth, where the attendant is always a woman, are very mystical. ‘The lamp burns before the picture of the Virgin during the labour; and the cradle is adorned with embroidered handkerchiefs, jewels, and coins, as presents to the four fairies who preside over the infant. When the child is born, he is immediately laid in the cradle, and loaded with amulets: and ἃ smail bit of soft mud, well steeped in a jar of water properly
prepared by previous charms, is stuck upon its forehead, to ob-«
viate the effects of the Evil Kye; a noxious fascination, proceed- ing from the aspect of a personified, although invisible demon, and consequent upon the admiration of an incautious spectator, The Evil Eye is feared at all times, and supposed to affect people of all ages, who by their prosperity may be the objects of envy. Not only a Greek, but a Turkish woman, on seeing a stranger look eagerly at her child, will spit in its face, and sometimes, if at herself, in her own bosom; but the use of garlic, or even of the word which signifies that herb (cxopdov), 1s considered a sove- reign preventive. New built houses, and the ornamented sterns of the Greek vessels, have long bunches of it depending from them,
508 LETTER’ XXXII.
to intercept the fatal envy of any ill-disposed ‘beholder: the ships of the ‘Turks have the same appendages. In fact, there is a great conformity of practice in many particulars, observable between the two nations.
The ancient Greeks introduced their arts amongst their Latin conquerors; the modern have given their masters, the Turks, a taste for their follies. ‘There is, as was always the case, a strong attachment in this people to their own usages, and an unabating alacrity and vigour in the exclusive preservation of them, which gives ap appearance of sincerity to their professions, and con- sequently of credibility to their faith, and which, although it prevents them from learning any thing from the commerce of more enlightened nations, renders them very capable of being instructors of a people as ignorant as themselves. Thus the Turks, who despise the power, have imperceptibly im-~ bibed the habits of their subjects; and if they: have caught
from them nothing but some of their customs and superstitious
rites, it is, 1 suppose, because there was nothing else for them to learn.
‘Those who compiain that the ‘Turks did not become the pupils of their captives, and derive from them the same advantages as were obtained for the Romans by the fortunate possession of Greece, must surely have, by some strange infatuation, persuaded themselves that the Greeks of the age of the last Constantine vere the same as those of the days of Aratus. But, for my own part, 1 see much greater parity between the Romans who served with Mummius, and the Ottomans led by Mahomet, than be- tween the Greeks who witnessed the burning of Corinth, and those who survived the last conquest of Constantinople. Let me
LETTER XXXI. 509
add, with Mr. Thornton*, that whatever was worthy imitation, was imitated by the Turks. They saw and admired the structure of Santa Sophia, and built the future moscks, with which they adorned the Imperial city, on the same magnificent model--.
The manners of the Greeks would be very engaging, were it not that they have an air of obsequiousness and insincerity, par- ticularly striking to the eye of an Englishman, but perhaps not so offensive to the natives of those other countries, in which civilities are carried to a greater excess than amongst ourselves. They are assiduously attentive, and perform the rites of hospitality with good humour and politeness: at the same time, it must be con- fessed, that no person can be sure, that a speech of one of this people, however inviting in its beginning and progress, will not conclude with the horrors of a petition. ‘To have an adequate notion of the meanness and impudence to which man may be im- pelled by the love of money, one should travel in the Levant.
There is nothing which is not venal with the Turks, and there is nothing possessed by the Greeks which they will not sell. That the master should be eager to increase his wealth, in a country where wealth alone is power, is not to be wondered at; but that the slave, who cannot buy either authority, freedom, or protec- tion, should feel the same passion, must seem extraordinary, . and only to be accounted for by the circumstance of the Greeks being
* Present State of Turkey, p. &.
+ It seems strange that Mr. Eton, in his Survey of the Ottoman Empire, should copy the account of Mahomet the Second turning Santa Sophia into a stable and banquetting-room, and cutting the throats of several hundred pri- soners in the very church, from such a writer as Knolles, when he had before him the authorities collected by such a writer as Gibban.
Q
XU
510 LETTER XXXII.
all traders, and consequently governed by the sordid avaricious habits and principles generally to be found in that class of men. The first, and oftentimes the only commendation bestowed by a Greek upon a neighbour, or other person, is, that he 15 rich, and has many, many, aspers (πλουσιος sivas, exe woAAa, πολλα, eorex); and, without any exaggeration, poverty and folly are really convertible terms. ‘Talking one day about a young man, whom we had known at Ioannina, a person present exclaimed, that he was a dull fellow! _‘‘ On the contrary,” said I, ‘* he seemed to me to be excessively agreeable and well-informed.”—* I know him better
than you, Signor ;” was the reply, ‘ for all his talk, he has not a farthing in his pocket.”
The Greeks are, as was said, all traders in some degree. In the district of Athens, indeed, as well as in that of Livadia, and many parts of the Morea, the cultivation of the earth is left to the Albanian colonists, and every Greek has. either a shop, or
is employed in wholesale dealings. ven those who are com- monly called the Princes of the Fanal, at Constantinople, that is, those from whose families the Waiwodes of Wallachia and Moldavia have been chosen, are engaged in merchandize. ‘This cireumstancé, together with the Turkish oppression, and the want of hereditary dignities, occasions a kind of equality amongst them, and does away with all those distinctions which are so rigorously observed. in England—I say in England, because 1 believe there is no country in the world, where all the grada- tions of rank are so uniformly observed and kept separate as amongst ourselves. It is true, there are various ways by which a man may rise, but until he has risen, he must be content to consort with people only of his own condition.
LETTER XXXI. 51}
i was one day a little astonished at the house of Signor Nicole at loannina, to see a tailor who had just been measuring one of us, come and seat himself in the room where we were all sitting, and, by the invitation of our host, take a dish of coffee, to which he was helped by the Signor’s brother with the usual ceremonies *. There is nothing that implies familiarity, and, at least temporary equality, so much as eating together ; but according to the cus- toms of both Greeks and 'Turks, in many points exactly similar, and which may be called Oriental, the very lowest person is often indulged in this liberty by his superiors. A great man travel- ling does not havea table spread for himself alone, but some of his attendants always partake with him round the same tray. I recollect that one of the young Pashas at Ioannina, insisted upon our servant George sitting down at the foot of the sofa opposite to him, and taking coffee and sweetmeats at the same time with himself and his guest. It must, however, be recollected, that as almost all in ‘Turkey receive the same sort of education, and con- sequently imbibe somewhat the same manners, there is in that
country none of that awkwardness and confusion in society, which
arise amongst us when a person of inferior quality is admitted by sufferance into better company than he has been accustomed to keep. Neither our dragoman nor the tailor would have been dis~ tinguished by a stranger from the company about them by any want of ease, or other deficiency in their manners.
‘There is an air of great kindness, and even of ceremonious at- tention, in their treatment of servants and dependants ; and whena
* The following was the republican formulary on the cards of the late Presi- dent of the United States : “ΠΣ, Jefferson requests the pleasure of ’s company to dinner,” &c. &c. θυ 2
512 LETTER XXXE.
rich, or, in other words, a great man, meets an inferior in the street, he not only returns his salute, but goes through the whole round of those complimentary inquiries which are always usual upon a casual rencounter, and prefatory to any other conversation. 'I'wo Greeks will ask one another how they are, with the same inquiries after their wives, daughters, sons, family, and affairs, twenty times over, before they begin to converse, and often when they intend to separate instantly. They stand with their right hands on their hearts, bowing gently for five minutes together at this ceremony, which is nothing more than our How-d’ye-do; and alucky sneeze from either party will interrupt and prolong the compliments ; for, on that occasion, the other bows and begs God’s blessing on you, which is returned four-fold. Ina large company a sneeze stops the conversation, and calls forth the benedictions of all pre- sent, many crossing themselves at the same time*.
Though the Greeks are avaricious, they are not miserly, but on the contrary, are not only fond of show, which is in some cha- racters found to be compatible with extreme parsimony, but are profuse and generous. ‘Their fear of the Turks makes them gene- rally cautious to confine their magnificence within the walls of their own houses; yet a desire of displaying their wealth and taste, has overcome the prudence of many of their nation. A’ Greek,
named Stavraki, in the middle of the last century, who possessed
*& ~~ \ / / 3 / δὲ ς ~ / len * Tovroy δὲ λέγοντος πταρνυτᾶι TH, ἀκουσᾶντες GE OF THPATIWTA πῶντες fic Oppat
/ \ ‘ . eee ἡ προσχυνήσαν τὸν Jéov.—Anab, lib. iii.
This sneezing, Xenophon declared to be the sign of Jupiter the Saviour, and it considerably assisted him in per- suading the Ten Thousand to follow his counsels. Jt is the first and strongest instance [ at present recollect, of the custom of making an obeisance after a sneeze, now pretly much-diffysed’in many parts of the world.
DETTER XXXI. 5158
the favour, and in some measure the confidence, of the Sultan himself, against all advice of friends, built a most magnificent house on the banks of the Bosporus, whose exterior splendour was such as to attract the attention of the ‘Turks. Stavraki was arrested and destroyed, but the end of this unfortunate man did not deter another Greek from immediately occupying the same fatal mansion.
At Constantinople, and in the vicinity, it 15 the exclusive pri- vilege of the Mahometans to paint their houses of a lively colour; those of the Jews are black, those of the Armenians and Greeks of a brown, or dark red. A Greek physician, who had suc- cessfully attended a late Sultan, and was asked to name a rea- sonable gratuity or favour, only requested the liberty for himself and his son to paint his house in what manner he chose, and lke that of a Turk. . The. mansion was pointed out to me, and shone conspicuously, of a bight red, amongst the surrounding: dusky habitations. It is in one of the villages on the European side of the Bosporus, ‘Lhe chief Dragoman to the.Porte has a large house, which he has. painted of three colours, so.as.to make. it look like three houses, that no passing 'Purk may. be struck with the presumptuous dimensions of his mansion.
Those of the Greeks who have the privilege of riding on horse- back in the streets of Constantinople, and their number is very few, are exceedingly proud of that pre-eminence, and take every opportunity of showing their superiority.
The great men affect an unconcerned liberality. The Drago- man to the. Porte, who is called Prince, came on board the fri- gate which carried away the late English Ambassador from Con-
stantinople, and after a. few minutes conversation with his Excel.
514 LETTE RY) KROL
jency, retired. As he was stepping down the ladder, he put his hand in his bosom, and, without ceremony, or looking at his present, returned it shut into the hands of one of the boys at the accommodation ropes; who, examining the gift on deck, found it to be eight or ten pieces of gold, of the small Byzantine zequins, worth about three shillings each. I was standing near him myself, and could scarcely resist the impression which he had meant no doubt to make, namely, that he was accustomed frequently to part with his money on the same occasions, and with the like ostenta- tious unconcern.
But a short time before, we had seen the same Prince interpret- ing between his Excellency and the Caimacam, or Vice-Vizier of Constantinople, with a humility altogether affecting. He was clothed in a coarse gown, miscalled a robe of honour, and so much the more shabby when contrasted with the splendid garments of the ‘Turks, and the fine pelisses distributed to the Ambassador and some of his suite; and he performed his office in a tone so low, that he was with difficulty heard, even by those next to him, in- troducing some affected hesitations, to show his awe and terror of his masters. It should be told, however, that this singular piece of adulation is practised by the Turks themselves when in presence of the Sultan, and that a ready and clear elocution would be thought presumptuous before the Lord of the Empire. The Caimacam, in the audience-chamber, when replying to the Ambassador on behalf of his Imperial master, who sat motionless on his throne beside him, not only spoke in the lowest tone,. but boggled, and stopped so long and frequently in his speech, hold- ing up his head with the air of a boy out in his lesson, that the Sultan prompted him audibly twice or thrice. ‘This was not pro~
LETTER ΧΧΧΙ. 515.
duced by any real forgetfulness, but was only affected as a mark of humble confusion.
On the same day, in the Divan, the Greek Prince was obliged to stand, from four in the morning until ten, during the attendance of the Ambassador upon the Caimacam ; and when his Excellency and his numerous suite were seated round various tables at dinner, overcome by fatigue, but not permitted to be seen resting himself on a sofa in such a place, he slipped into a corner of the chamber, and sinking on the floor, fell asleep; whilst three Greeks, his atten- dants, stood before the spot, that he might not bediscovered by the Turks. I saw him by aceident, and pointed him out to another person present. He was seated on the ground, supported by the corner of the wainscot, his black beard resting on his bosom, his face pale, and his eyes closed ina deep sleep, but every other fea- ture unchanged, and impressed with the traits of terror and per- petual constraint. A mournful picture of the wretchedness of dig- nified slavery !
This Prince is one of the most exalted Greeks in the Turkish empire, and there is no higher dignity than that which he enjoys, except the governments of Wallachia or Moldavia. Indeed:he. was once, in 1802, promoted to the latter principality, when the Russians interfered in the nomination of the Waiwodes of the two provinces, and may perhaps again be raised to the same rank.
Notwithstanding the perpetual humiliation attendant upon the office of Dragoman to the Porte, and the very uncertain tenure by which the mimic sceptres of the two provinces are held, there is no effort omitted by the Greeks of the Fanal to arrive at these
posts, and they are as active in their intrigues to circumvent each
other, and to obtain the acquiescence of the Porte, as if the ob-
516 LETTER XKXKI.
jects of their ambition were honourable and permanent, instead of disgraceful and insecure. The Turks, who gain by the rivalry, encourage the contention, and dispose of the offices without re- serve, to the highest bidder. ‘I'he money expended in the attain- ment of the dignities, is soon supplied by the bribes and extortions of the elected candidate.
The Dragoman of the Porte has the opportunity of recom- mending to posts of profit and honour, and for his good word, as
well as for every interference in court intrigues, receives an adequate remuneration. The Waiwodes of Wallachia and Moldavia levy
vast sums by arbitrary taxation, which, as they have the power of life and death, and enjoy for a time sovereign authority, cannot be resisted by their distressed subjects.
In no situation does a Greek appear in so unamiable a light as on the throne of Bucharest or Yassy. The events of the Rus- sian war may work a considerable change in the constitution of the two provinces, and the entire subjection of one or both of them by the arms of the Muscovites, will cut off from the subject Greeks the grand objects of their ambition. The plots and in- irigues of the Fanal will then be confined to obtaining the office of Dragoman. ‘The elevation to either of the three places, how- ever short a time the person may be in possession of his dignity, confers the title of Prince; and this has created the Greek nobi- lity, if such it may be called. The antiquity, however, of these noble families is not very great; the first Dragoman of the Porte of Greek extraction, was Panayot, physician to Kioprili, who by his artifices persuaded Morosini to surrender Candia. Before that period, the post had been supplied by foreigners and renegadoes.
EFETTER XXxXY¥. 517
Nicholas Maurocordato, the first Greek Waiwode of Walla- chia, chosen by the Porte, was elected about the beginning of the last century, after having been plenipotentiary for the Sultan at Carlovitz. It is true, that some families boast a more noble de- scent from the sovereigns of Constantinople, for the name of Cata- cuzenus has been once assumed by two Wallachian Greeks; but, as it appears, without their having had any just pretensions to that distinction.
The Princes of the Fanal are, when abroad, to be distinguished from the rest of their nation only by their beards and yellow slip~ pers*, and the privilege of riding on horseback; but when at home, they still continue to enjoy the semblance of authority, by giving titles of office to their servants, and by being sur- rounded by a crowd of flatterers and dependants. Their wives and daughters are fostered in every luxury, and all the soft pomp of the Asiatics; a privilege which, unless they have been unfairly
charged with calling their servants “‘chiennes” and “ bétes-+,” im- proves neither their tempersnor their manners. The little I enjoyed of their society left no very agreeable impression on my mind.
A love of pomp 1s a distinguishing characteristic of the Greeks, and as the policy of the Turks has allowed them alone, of all the rayahs, or subjects not Mahometans, to fill offices of power and trust, they fail not to display this unenviable distinction.
‘The Codja-bashees, to whom the municipal controul of some districts, particularly in the Morea, is entrusted, support an
* One of the first acts of the late Sultan Selim’s reign, was to cut off the head of a common Greek whom he met when incognito, wearing yellow slippers. He staid to see the execution performed. Yet so vain are ihe Greeks, that they will run this fatal risk in order to be taken for their betters,
t+ Pouqueville, Voyage en Morée, p. 253.
518 LETTER XXXII.
enormous household, whose members are dignified with titles, not attached to the dependants of an English Duke. They have their kalo-iatros, or physician, their grammaticos, or secretary, with an assistant clerk, their tartars, or couriers, and five or six priests, as family chaplains, besides numerous servants in every department, amounting to forty or fifty persons in family. ‘The title by which they are usually addressed in writing, is, ‘* Most Honourable and most Noble Sir *.”
These Codja~bashees have been accused as being masters more severe than the ‘lurks; a degenerate race, insolent, proud, mean, with all the vices of slaves, and repaying themselves for the in- jurious treatment of their masters, by becoming monopolists, in- formers, and public robbers. Such sweeping censures are always to be suspected as having been prompted by personal pique, and founded upon individual example rather than national character; yet I fear that many originals of this unfavourable picture might be found amongst the archons and elders of the Greeks.
Hadj: Ali, the tyrannical Waiwode of Athens before-men- tioned, could find only one person to assist him in his extortions, and this man became his counsellor and friend, and discovered to him the real property of some of his countrymen who had hither- to contrived to conceal their wealth. He was the Archon of Athens, before mentioned, a ruling elder of the church, and who formerly called himself English Vice-consul. But the Archon Londo, of Vostizza, isa character altogether as amiable as that of the Athenian is disgusting, and it remains to be discovered, which of the two is the exception, and which the general rule.
3 , * ᾿Εντιμότατος κἂι Evysvioraros Κύριος Κύριος.
+ Pouqueville, Voyage en Morée, p. 106.
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