P R E F A C E .

T H E present work does not profess to be more

than a sketch of the subject with which it deals.

For fuller informationthe reader is referred to such

comprehensive works as Ross’s Ret'

sen auf den

gr z'

eehz'

schen Inseln, Pashley’

s Tr avels in Cr ete,

G onze ’s Rez'

se auf denInselndes Thr akz'

sehenM eer es,

and Mr. Bent’s The Cyclades. These (with the

exceptionof the last-named, which was not published

whenI visited the central islands)were the constant

companions of my journeys,and I take this oppor

tunity of acknowledging the service which they have

rendered me, both as a source of information in

travelling,and as anaid incompiling this book.

T he three journeys which ar e here described were

undertakenat considerable intervals, but no great

changes have takenplace inthose regions since the

first was made. I t is tr ue that most of the ancient

b uildings in Delos have been excavated, and the

great inscriptionof G or tyna has been discovered,subsequently to my visits to those places but as the

v i P r eface.

object which I have inview inwriting is rather to

give general impressions and to indicate the objects

of greatest interest thanto enter into ar chaeological

details, I trust that my narrative will not suffer from

this cause. My accounts of the two former journeys

have alr eady appear ed inthe A cademy for 1875 and

1 886, and these ar e now republished by the per

missionof the Editor of that journal with consider

able modifications and additions. T he description

of my last journey, which embraced the northern

islands of the Aegean, Lemnos, Thasos, and Samo

thrace, is now printed for the first time ; and as

those islands have beenless fr equently visited than

the others, I have treated them at somewhat greater

length.

From a geographical point of view the islands of

the Aegean have a peculiar interest, because the

group which they form is so typical, that the name of

A r chipelago has become a descriptive term. Their

changeful history compr ises many romantic events in

ancient, mediaeval, and modern times. In Delos

and Samothrace traces still remainof the important

seats of heathenwor ship which they once contained ;and Patmos is indelibly associated with the exile of

the Apostle S t. John. T he mar ble quarries of Paros

and Thasos, the Gr otto of Antiparos, and the volcano

of Santorin, ar e all remarkable for their natural

features. T he tunnel of Eupalinus inSamos is one

of the most remarkable works which have lately been

discovered by antiquar ian research. The scenery

P r eface. v ii

a lso of the islands and the neighbour ing seas is

v aried and beautiful. Thus there is no lack of

attr activeness inthe r egionwhich I have attempted

to describe, and I shall be glad if by what I have

w rittenI succeed inpersuading other s to visit it.

The map has beenconstructed so as to mark the

positionof the chief places that ar e mentioned inthe

narr ative, and the ancient and modernnames have

b eendistinguished as far as possible by differ ences

of type.

H . F. T.

O x r om),D ecember , 1889 .

C O N T E N T S .

CRA P.

I .—D 1-:Los, Rmzm-zm, A N D T znos

A ppr oach to G r eece Syra Fir st impr essmns of

the islands D elos Mount Cynthus N ight inD elos— The Cir cular h ka ample oLA l lo

N ecr opolis o eneia D elos

eqxpto T enos

gr eat monastery The old Venetian townPanor ama of the Cyclades Italian influencesA G r eek nunnery .

I I—CRETEThe Cr etansea Khanea T ra v elling prospectsThe Cr etan ibex I ts character istics G eneralfeatur es of Cr ete Cur sor G aetulus— T r eache ry ofMurnies H agios E leuther ios S ite of CydoniaCh rysopegi S uda Bay Ruins of A pter a Cus

toms and superstitions The nor thern coast

Retimo The Cr etan dittany Route southwar d

D isastr ous conditionof the country.

I I I . (continued) .

Monastery of A r kadi D escr iption of the siege

The centr al r idge Conv ent ofA somatos A podulo—A nativ e family A str ange history The D e

moger ontia The southern coast Plainof Mes

sar a Captain G eorge Ruins of G or tyna-c

Mount IuktasMegalo- castr on’

or Candia—Leper s—Returnto Syr aG ener al r emar ks—A ppearance of the Cr etans.

IV.—Nu os, I os, A N D e mosN ax os Island of Palati—A ssociations of D ionysusD uchy of the A r chipelago The city of S anudoH istor ic familynames Channel betw eenN ax os

and Par os G r eek sailor s The south ern islandsI os Pasch v an K r ienen H is inscr iption

View of S antor in S ikinos Temple of A pollo.

25—5 I

Contents.

CRAP.

V.—Sam~om , Am panos, u rnPanosA pproach to Santor in Town of There Thev olcanic group Chief eruptions Collections ofantiquities The Kaumene Islands TherasiaPr ehistor ic dwellings Pr imitiv e art S outhernpar ts of S antor in Ancient b etoum N ames andmyths A w eird story

-

'

Antipar os D escent intothe G r otto Visit of King G eorge Par os The

mar ble quar r ies T races of wor king Return to

Syra.

VI . —Lasnos I I 9—138

S torms inthe A egean Snowymountains LesbosBay of Ier o I ts nar r ow entrance Agiasso

Ascent of Mount O lympus N ames O lympus andE lias—View from the summit A Br itish subjectBay of Kallone Meetinga poet Ruins of Pyr r haModerntownof Mytilene The ancient city

D escr iptions by classical w r iters .

VI I .—Cir ios r 39- 1 5 6

Pilgr ims bound for Tenos Earthquake in S cioThemassacr e of 1 822 Finlay’

snar r ativ e—D epopu

lation of the island— The town and har bour

Maona of the G iustiniani I ts history Inter ior ofthe island Monastery of N ea Mone S tory of its

foundation The chur ch I tsmosaics The channel of S cio Canar is and his fir e - ship WilhelmMuller

’

s poem Aytoun’

s translation S chool of

H omer .

VI I I - Su os 1 5 7- 1 77

Por t of S cala N ova The LentenFast Passage to

S amos TownofVathy Constitutionof the islandS amianwine The southern coast S trait of

Mycale Village of Tigani The ancient city—Thetheatr e Tunnel of Eupalinus M. G uer in’

s ex

ploration The discov ery D escr iptionof it I ts

cour se undergr ound O ther featur es—Thenorthernentr ance The fountain Questions connectedw ithit The temple of H er a Riv ers Imb rasos andChesios.

IX.—PATMO S 1 78—198Voyage to Patmos D escr iptionof the island—Volcenic soil Monastery of the A pocalypse—The cav e

Pictur es in the Chapel The A cts of S t. JohnS tory of KynOps the magician Johndictating his

G ospel—T r eatment inar t Ruined school buildingsMonastery of S t. John Panorama seenfromit

Suited to the APO CMWThe Lib r ary—Codex NO ther MS S . Bull ofA lex ius Comnenus The gr eat

Contents. x i

CRAP. PAG E

chur ch Relics of the founder Refectory andkitchen—‘The G ardenof the Saint —The acr opolisIslandof Le ros Connex ionw ith Egypt Satir es

onLer os—Voyage to Rhodes.

X.—Rrronr-:s 199

—9 1 3A r r iv al at Rhodes I tsmix ed population Positionof the city I ts ancient grandeur—The for tr ess of

the Knights O bjects r ecently destr oyed Chur chof S t. John The deposit of gunpowder The har

bour s G ate of S t. Cathar ine—The Jew ish quarterMoat and walls S tr eet of the Knights— The

Priories D ifliculties in the w ay of sight- seeingAntiquities in the neighbour hood Tomb of the

Ptolemies Ancient b r idge.

XL—Rrronm (continued) 2 14- 3 30

The w esterncoast S ite of Ialysos Kalav ardaA Rhodian peasant’s house S ite of Cameir osMonaste ry of A r tamiti— A scent of Mount A tabyr onView fr om the summit The chur ch Beehiv es

cased instone Woodland r egions Lindos— TheRhodianwar e Rhodianemb r oidery Remains ofthe ancient city Castle of Lindos The easterndistr ict Returnto Rhodes.

XI I.—m os 23 1- 25 0

The nor thern islands Means of communicationThe D ardanelles Imb r os and Lemnos Th eir conquest by Miltiades Connex ion w ith A thensN or therncoast of Lemnos View of Mount A thosKastro, the ancient Myr ina— A LemnianfamilyConnex ionw ith Egypt Lemnos a place of

banishment S ite of Myr ina The modernfor tr essView fr om it S hadow of A thos.

XI I I.—L smnos (continued) 25 1—274

The w arm baths Inter ior of the island—The

centr al plain Village of A tz iki Bay of Pur niaKotchino The Lemnianear th G alen’

s accountI ts use inpharmacy Belon’

s account Moderncustoms and beliefs Anantidote to poison Anex pir ing super stition The easte rn distr ict S ite

of H ephaestia H orned cocks A v olcano inLemnos I ts supposed disappear ance MountH ermaeum.

X IV.—TH ASO S 275

- 9 93

The Th r acianS ea S alonica T r anspor t of petroleum Peninsulas of Chalcidice The H oly Mountain Cavalla Thasos I ts beautiful scenery

x 11 Contents.

can. u se

The ancient city I ts sea- face The theatr e The

acropolis S h r ine of Pan The v iew S tair case

in the r ock The city w all S epulch ral monuments The necropolis.

XV.—TH A sos (continued)Thasos under the Khediv e Peculiar local cur r encyInte r ior of the Island H igh pass Theologo

An A lbanian guard The southe rnmountainsRemains at A lke The mar b le quar r ies For estr igh ts The eastern coast Kinir a, the ancientCoenyr a E x quisite woodlands Returnto Limena.

XVI .—SAMO TH RACE 3 10—33 2

Wildw eathe r Voyage to Lagos A raid onguidebooks D ede - agatch D ifficulty of r eaching S amoth r ace—The v oyage thither Finding a landingplace First impr essions Ancient har bour of

D emetr ium Village of Chor a Ruins at Palaeo

poli The ancient city E x tr aor dinary w alls

G enoese tow er s The mole S anctuary of the

Cabeir i I ts impor tance H istory of the ex cav a

tions— The sacr ed ar ea Temples of the Cabeir iT he A r sinoeum The S toa and PtolemaeumH ellenic ar ch .

XVI I .—SAMO TH RACE (continued) 3 33—3 5 4

D epopulationof S amoth r ace Conditionof the inhab itants Paper money Ibex es A learnedphysician Castle of the G atilusi — The nor therncoast The The r rna Loutr a Miner al spr ingsPositionof Zerynthos S tormy char acter of S amoth r ace — A scent of Mount Phengar i Cr est of the

island I ts ruggedness View fr om the summitWestern por tion Eastern por tion Mytho

logical associations Th e H ome r ic deities The

descent Famous fountain Returnto D ede- agatch .

35 5—362

L I ST or MA PS,E TC.

Map of the A egeanS eaMap of D elos

Crucifix of Ch rysopegi

Map of S antor inMap of PatmosThe S anctuary of S amoth r ace

THE ISLANDS OF THE AEGEAN.

CHA PT ER I .

D ELO S , RH EN E I A , A N D T EN os.

I N the forenoonof March 18,1874, I was rounding Appr oaclt

Cape Matapan in the French packet, having leftto 6mm

Mar seilles three days and a half before, the two fir st

of which had beenpassed inclear and calm weather

before we reached the Straits of Messina, but after

that time we had beentossing in‘Adr ia,

’as the sea

b etweenSicily and Gr eece was regularly called by

the Greek geographers : this, owing to the meeting

of the Adriatic and Mediterr anean cur rents, is

usually a distur bed piece of water. The lofty range

of T aygetus, which runs northward from T aenarum,

and attains its greatest elevationonthe westernside

of the valley of Sparta, formed a conspicuous object

fr om the masses of snow with which its peaks and

sides were deeply covered. A s we passed between

Cyther a and the cur ious promontory of O nugnathos,or the Ass’s Jaw, on the mainland opposite, the

B

2 The [ Stank of the A egean.

famous island looked grey and repulsive, and anything but a fitting home for the Goddess of Love .

Here we were in comparatively calm water, but

from former experience I knew what to expect on

the other side of Malea, that headland so justly

dreaded by the ancient sailor s, as the epitaphs in

the Greek Anthology cantestify. Nor was I disappointed for as soonas we had passed the chapel of

the hermit of Malea,which lies at the foot of the

promontory,we were met by a fur ious north - east

wind— the rude Kaikias of classical writers, and the

Euroclydon or Eur aquilo of S t. Paul’s voyage

which considerably delayed our pr ogr ess. Away to

the south a small island (now called Cer igotto)came

in sight,which forms the connecting link between

Cr ete and Cyther a ; and later inthe day we passed

Melos, Anti -Me los,and other islands, which wore

a har sh and uninviting appearance. I twas midnight

before we reached Syr a, the great mercantile station

inthe middle of the Cyclades, and the best starting

point for a tour in the Greek Islands. Her e

I disembarked, and joined my travelling companion,Mr. Cr owder

, who had ar r ived from Athens a day or

two before,bringing with him

, as our dragoman,Alexandros Anemoyannes, who onvarious occasions

had accompanied well- knowntravellers inGreece, as

G . F. Bowen,W. G. Clar k of Cambr idge, JohnStuart

Mill,DeanStanley

,Sir T.Wyse, and other s. T he

weather r eport fr om Athens told of bitter cold. The

steamer which conveyed my friend from the Piraeus

to Syra had beenobliged frequently to stop, owing

Delos,Rheneia , and Tenos. 3

to the danger to navigation from the thickness of

the falling snow,and snow was lying inthe streets

at Syra. We received similar accounts from otherquar ters. AnArmeniangentleman, who was one of

my fellow passenger s on the steamer,had hear d

befor e leaving England that there was deep snow at

Constantinople,and that owing to the same cause the

communications betweenthat city and the interior of

Asia Minor had beenbr okenfor some time. Subse

quently we learnt that the weather was equally severe

at Jerusalem. The pr ospects of our journey looked

most unfavourable, for the islands cannot pr operly

b e visited ex cept ina boat of moderate size, which

admits of being rowed ina calm; and this mode of

locomotionwould have beenimpr acticable insuch an

inclement season.

T he next morning,however, as if by magic, all Sy r a.

this was changed. T he wind was from the south,soft and warm

,the sky cloudless

,and the sea only

moved by a gentle r ipple. I t was a perfect Aegean

spr ing day, the only signof the previous bad weather

being the snow which cover ed the tops of the loftier

islands. Accordingly, we hired a boat with thr eemen, intending to make a trial trip to Delos

,Rheneia

,

and Tenos, and star ted from the mole of Syr a

shortly after midday. As we left the harbour,we

obtained a fine view of the town,which lies on the

eastern side of the island,about half-way between

its northern and southern extremities. I t is nowcalled Hermupolis

,and contains inhabitants

,

the most conspicuous portion being the Roman

B 2

The Islands of the A egean.

Catholic quarter, which rises steeply up the sides ofa conical hill ; this was the old townof Syra, whereas

the new town,which spreads fr om the foot of th is to

the sea, and is the busiest of Or iental stations, has

sprung up along with the commer cial activity of the

place. This is inthe most liter al sense a cr eation

of the Gr eekWar of Independence, for until 1 82 1

Syra was an insignificant spot ; but whenthe great

massacres of the Greeks inChios in 1822,and in

Psara in1824, took place at the hands of the Tur ks,it was resorted to by the r efugees from those islands.

These settler s became trader s,and by their shr ewd

ness inbusiness,aided by the central positionof this

station, they gradually r aised it to its present im

portance. No trees were to be seen, except a few

cypr esses, the gr eater part of the ground being

uncultivated,though vineyards appeared here and

ther e, and a gr eat quantity of tomatos ar e gr own.

Still the stony mountain- sides have a certainbeauty,

owing to the extreme clearness of the air,and the

contr ast afforded by the wonderful blue of the sky.

F ir sto

z'

m Passing the island of G aidar o, one of two rocky

fgj‘

fjg’

jjf islets which lie off the harbour , and in ancient

times wer e called D idymae, or‘T he Twins,

’

we

gradually saw the Cyclades open out before us.

Rheneia lay due east of us, concealing Delos

entir ely, while Myconos rose above and beyond its

nor thern end ; these,together with Tenos, ar e

visible from Syra itself. Then, as we pr oceeded,there appear ed onthe left hand, fir st Andr os, which

seems a continuation of Tenos, the narrow strait

Delos, Rheneia , and Tenos. 5

that separates them being indistinguishable ; then

the pr omontory of G er aestus inEuboea ; and at last

G yar os, the Botany Bay of the Romans,near er at

hand, and half hiddenby a corner of Syra : onther ight hand, lying along the southernhorizon, were

seenNaxos, Paros, Antipar os, Siphnos and Seriphos.

Thiswas anadmirable island view to commence with,and it was easy to distinguish the highest points

by the amount of snow which they bore : far the

gr eatest quantity lay on the south of Euboea, next

after which came Andros, and thenNaxos,while

on the rest none was visible. T he forms were

broken and yet graceful, and the afternoon sun

br ought out the beautiful shadows onthe mountain

sides which ar e so familiar to the traveller inGreece.T he general effect of the islands, especially the

more distant ones, is that of long lines onthe surface

of the sea. The length of Naxos is very conspicuous,notwithstanding its lofty mountains, while Paros

forms a single low pyramid, bearing a striking r e

semblance to the other gr eat sour ce of white marble,

Pentelicus. Tenos is distinguished by the numerous

white villages which stud its sides, while behind the

townof Tenos itself, on the summit of the ridge,there rises a remar kable knob of rock, faced with

r ed : with this we were destined to make further

acquaintance. T he picturesqueness of the whole

scene was enhanced bynumer ousy

white sails dotting

the blue sea, and by anatmospher ic illusion, which

lifted the islands out of the water.We had steered a little south of east, and inD elos.

6 The Islands of the Aegean.

about four hour s found ourselves rounding the

southernmost point of Rheneia fr om hence the

long soft line of 105 was visible between Naxos

and Paros on the horizon. T he cape is formed

of fine masses of granite, curiously honeycombed,and we subsequently discovered that both this island

and the sister isle of Delos ar e entirely composed

of this kind of stone, which is not the case with most

of the other Aegean islands ; consequently, while

the houses of the townof Delos were of granite,as we see from their r emains, the mater ials for most

of the public buildings were impor ted. The two

islands ar e now called the Gr eater and the Lesser

Deli,and run due north and south, divided by a

strait about half a mile inbr eadth, which forms an

excellent harbour, with deep water , and sheltered

from every wind. Ther e can be little doubt that

it was to this featur e that Delos originally owed

its gr eatness, for it was the fir st place where voyagers

could anchor in coming fr om the east,and thus

became a natural resort for trader s. Rowing up

this channel. at the nar rowest point we came to

an island in mid - stream,now called Rheumatiar i

or Str eam- island, which inancient times was named

the Island of Hecate . I t is highly probable that

it was her e that Polycrates thr ew across the chain,by which he attached Rheneia to Delos

,in token

of its being dedicated to Apollo ; and that Nicias

when sent fr om Athens as the leader of a festival

procession, having br ought a bridge fr om Athens

to Rheneia, and laid it in the night- time, proceeded

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

M ount

The Islands of the Aegean.

island of Hecate, we landed onDelos, near where

another small island, the lesser Rheumatiar i, lies

of? the coast ; here there were traces of quays, but

the sea has retired and left a sandy beach.

Within a gunshot of this point the ruins of the

great temple of Apollo were plainly visible, forming

a vast heap of fallenblocks of white marble but we

refrained for the moment fr om visiting these, our

object being to ascend Cynthus before nightfall.

Making our way thr ough ar bmatic brushwood of

lentisk and cistus,we dir ected our steps towards a

white wall,conspicuous from below

,which proved to

belong to a theatre, the cav ea ofwhich faces west, and

is clearly traceable, the back part being excavated in

the hillside, while the ends ar e composed of masonry

of Parianmarble. T he cour ses of stones, of which in

one place thirteenremain, ar e skilfully put together,though somewhatnarrow. The line of the scena also

is well marked. Behind this,and further up the

hillside,stood the small temple already referred to,

which has beenproved by excavationto have been

dedicated to the ForeignDivinities, i.e. to the gods

of Syria and Egypt. Here among other objects a

hieroglyphic inscriptionwas found. T he foundations

of this show that the superstr uctur e was of white

marble ; the pr onaos, naos, and analtar ar e v isible,together with amosaic pavement composed of pebbles.

In the neighbourhood of this temple there is a

curious gateway, leading into a chamber , which,whenseenfrom a distance, resembles a cavern, but

in reality is artificial, the roof being composed of

Delos, Rheneia, and Tenos. 9

granite blocks resting against one another at an

obtuse angle ; the sides ar e the natur al granite rock,which originally formed a nar row r avine. This

chamber is believed to have beena primitive sanc

tuary of Apollo ‘. We then mounted by a very

steep ascent to the summit of Cynthus, where ar e the

foundations and fr agments of another temple,the

p illars being in the Ionic style. Numer ous inscr ipt ions which have beendiscovered onthe site show

that it was dedicated to Zeus Cynthius and Athena

Cynthia. As this mountain is not mor e than3 5 0

feet above the sea, I had oftenwondered how classical

w r iter s could speak of it as lofty, especially as it is sur

r ounded by so much higher peaks onother islands ;A ristophanes

,for instance, describes it as

‘the Cyn

th ianr ock with lofty but from its steepness

and rocky character it deser ves that epithet, and

certainly it is very conspicuous from every point in

th e neighbouring seas. This circumstance, especially

if it served as a landmark to vessels coming fr om the

opensea,may also

,per haps, explainthe originof

the name of the island, Delos, or the‘Conspicuous,

’

which canhardly be otherwise thanof Greek origin.

T he view from this point is very fine,comprehending

all the islands we have alreadynoticed— the Cyclades,or

‘Circling islands,

’

of which Callimachus says

Fragrant Asterie (Delos), onevery side the islands

have encir c led thee, and formed as’

twere a band

1 S ee L ebegue’s Recherches sur D elos, inwhich v iew s and plans

of the chamber ar e giv en.

Kc’

arWileépa'

r a aér pav . N ub. 5 96.

The Islands of the Aegean.

of dancers round thee while Myconos is full in

v iew to the nor th- east, separated by a strait about

two miles wide. I t was natural,therefore, that Virgil

should represent Apollo as fastening his island to

Myconos, whenit ceased to wander onthe sea

Encir cled by a billowy r ingA land ther e lies, the lov ed r es ort

O f N eptune,the A egeanking,

And the gr ey queenof N er eus’cour t

Long time the spor t of ev’ry blast,

O’

e r oceanit was w ont to toss.

Till gr ateful Phoebus moor ed it fast

To G yar os and high Myconos,And bade it lie unmov ed, and b r av e

The v iolence of w ind and w av e3.

But what, except Roman ignorance of geogr aphy,

or perhaps the pr eference for a familiar name, should

make Virgil attach Delos to G yaros instead of the

nearer Rheneia or Syros, I donot understand. Her e ,too, the character of the island is well seen, for it is

a narrow rocky ridge, between two and thr ee miles

in length,with gr anite knolls and barren slopes ;

thus justifying the story related in the Homeric

Hymn to the DelianApollo,that Latona visited

all the richest spots in the A egean before givingbirth to her children; but all were afraid to receive

her , so that she betook herself to the small and

rugged island.

As we were descending the hill on the opposite

side from that by which we had approached, we metI ’

Aa'r epfq Ovéeaaa , a} 1437 wept 7’

dad r e v ijo'm

1:61:o h ocfio'

aw o no! 1213 xopov dmpefiditow o.

Callim. D el. 3 00, 30 1 .

2 Virg. A m. 3 . 73-

7 (Conington’

s trans ).

Delos, Rheneia , and Tenos. 1 1

the single inhabitant of Delos, anold shepher d, who

spoke a most extraordinary dialect of Gr eek. H e

did not offer to accompany us,and this our ser vant,

who was not thenw ith us, attr ibuted to his r egarding

our suddenappear ance as uncanny ; the oldman, how

ever,did not seem to be superstitious

,for the next day

whenI questioned him as to the existence of Vryko

lakas ’

or Vampires inthe island,he r eplied in the

negative. A t this I was surprised,for the Cyclades

a r e the homes of innumer able str ange beliefs, and it

is about the neighbour ing island of Myconos that

Tournefor t r elates a marvellous story of the whole

population being boulev er se’

for weeks together by

such anapparition. We passed the night insomedeserted shepherds huts

,lying ina depr ession to

th e north of Cynthus, where the gr ound slopes

gradually to the two seas, and has been sownwith

corn by the people of Myconos : these dwellings

were constr ucted of stones put together with straw

instead of mortar,while the door s were of ancient

blocks approaching one another towar ds the top.

A ll around grew the spr eading leaves and lilac flower s

of the mandrake (A tr opa mandr agor a), forming largeflat patches onthe ground. This excessively poison

ous plant, which has beena favourite with witches in

all ages,and is said to utter shrieks when its root

is extr acted from the ground, is especially common

in the Greek islands. A s I lay awake part of the

night in the extraor dinary stillness, I was able to

recall,insome measure, the crowds of worshipper s,

the v isit of the Persians, and other romantic glories

cular L ake.

The Islands of the Aegean.

of the place— thingswhich it is difficult to r ealise,when

the senses ar e incontact with the mater ial objects.

T he next morning Opened with rain, but it hadclear ed by eight o’ clock, and we descended from our

night’s lodging towards the landing- place wher e we

had left our boat. As we approached the sea, the

northernmost r uins that we met with wer e those of

the ancient city, where gr anite columns wer e lyingamong brokenfragments of walls. Beyond this was

anoval basin, about 1 00 yar ds in length, forming a

kind of pond, the sides of which were banked inby

a casing of stonework ; it is usually dry, but at this

seasoncontained a small quantity ofwater. Inancient

times it was kept full, and was called the Cir cular

Lake and the swans that were sacred to Apollo

used to float uponit. Her odotus compares it to th e

lake at Sais inEgypt. I f, aswe ar e told by Theognis2

,

itwasnear this lake that Latona brought forth he r two

childr en, thenthe famous palm- tr ee of Delos, which

is mentioned in Homer, where Ulysses compares

N ausicaa’

s beauty to it 3, must have stood here, for we

ar e told inthe Hymnto the DelianApollo 4,as well as

by Theognis, that the goddess clasped this tr ee when

inthe pains of childbirth. Callimachus, however, has

followed another versionof the story, whenhe places

that occurrence onthe banks of the In0pus5.

Near this basinis a copious spring of water,and

this circumstance probably determined the position

1r poxoetbbsMaw), H er od. 2. 1 70 .

9 Line 7 , inBergk ’s Paetae Lyn

'

ci.

3 0d. 6. 162 . Line 1 1 7.5 D el. 206.

Delos, Rheneia , and Tenos.

of the temple of A pollo. T he temenos of this is Temple

hard by to the south,and withinit the ruins of the

AM "

temple form a confused heap of white marble frag

ments,columns

,bases

,and entablatures lying indis

cr iminately together‘. They ar e of the Doric order,

and as many of the shafts ar e only par tly fluted, it

would seem that the details of the building were

never completely finished. T he wreck of so fine

a specimenof architecture is a sad sight ; but when

we consider that the place has served for a quarry

for the neighbouring islanders, and a place of pillage

for foreigners from the times of the Venetianoccu

pationto our owndays, perhaps the wonder is rather

that so much remains. Inthe south-west par t of the

area is a large square marble basis, hollowed out in

the middle, with the remains of aninscriptiononone

side stating that it was a gift from the N ax ians to

Apollo (N AE I O I A I I O A AQN I): this pedestal supported

a colossus, which was oi er th rown inancient times

by the falling of a palm- tree of bronze gilt,erected

by N icias inits immediate neighbourhood WhenSpon and Wheler v isited this island in 1675 , the

sta tue remained with the exceptionof its head,and

part of the torso,from the neck to the waist, has

1 S ince the time of my v isit the temple of A pollo has been

thor oughly ex amined by Fr ench savants. The r esults of this and

the other ex cav ations onD elos w ill be found in M . L ebégue’s

wor k alr eady mentioned, and inthe ar ticles by MM. H omolle

and H auv ette -Besnault inthe Bulletinde Cor r espondance

v ols. i—v iii. Aninter esting summary of these is contained inPr of.

Jeb b ’s paper onD elos, inv ol. i. of the j ournal of H ellenic S tudies.

Plutar ch , N e'

c. 3 .

The Islands of the Aegean.

been seenwithin the present half century,but we

could findno tr aces of it. A por tionof the ruins in

the temple ar ea towar ds the coast,which ar e inth e

Corinthian style,seem to have belonged to anen

trance colonnade to the temenos ; andnot far ofi,on

the other side of awall constr ucted by the shepherds,

ar e the prostrate columns of another por tico,built by

Philip V of Macedon. In S pon’

s time eleven of

these wer e standing,but without capitals. In th e

midst of the r uins,anemones of var ious colours

white,pink

,and lilac—wer e gr owing, and I dug up

some fine nar cissus roots to tr ansplant to England.

F or this proceeding I had good authority. O ur

serv ant informedme that J .S. Mill,whenhe travelled

with him inthe Peloponnese, besides drying flower s,

had anextra baggage mule inhis train for carryingplants and r oots.

Embar king once more, we crossed the str ait, and

landed onRheneia,at a point somewhat south of th e

island of Hecate. Both Rheneia and its sister island

ar e absolutely bare of tr ees. A t a little distance

fr om this point, onthe slopes which r ise above the

strait,is anancient necr opolis

,containing the graves

of those whose bodies wer e removed from Delos

at the time of the Peloponnesianwar . I t extends

over half a mile, and is a scene of wild desolation,worthy of the cir cle of the I nf erno inwhich Far inata

’

s

spir it emerged from its fiery tomb. Broken stones

lay str ewnabout inall directions,mixed her e and

ther e with sides and lids of sarcophagi. Usually the

graves ar e only distinguishable by depressions in

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1 6 The Islands of the Aegean.

well inpr ofile, with the straits onboth sides which

separate it fr om the neighbouring islands, and the

conspicuous summit of Cynthus. A t the end of

Tenos rises a lofty mountain, which inancient times

was called Cycnias, and still retains that name in

the form of T z ikniais. Such peaks ar e nests of

storms,and the navigationof the str aits which in

ter v ene between them and neighbouring islands

as in the similar instance of the passage between

G er aestus and Andros is extremely perilous .

Hence Aeolus was supposed to hold his cour t in

the caves of Cycnias ; and our dragomandescribed

how he had seena steamer , whenonher way fr om

Syra to Constantinople, forced inan instant to put

about at this point and runbefor e the storm. Th e

wind prevented us from steering direct for the townof

Tenos, which lies onthe westernside of the island

so whenwe reached the point, we worked our way

along with oar s, and rounded a pr omontory called

G aidar o, or Donkey,’

fr om the resemblance of its

ridge to the back of that animal,the shape of which

has suggested many names both inancient and mo

derntimes, as we see fr om the O neian’ mountains

near Corinth. From this and every other side Tenos

presents a wonder ful aspect, from the way inwhich

the mountainslopes, from top to bottom,have been

formed into terraces, mainly for the cultivationof

the vine. The wine,which is held inr epute in the

Levant, is light and somewhat sweet, and agreeable

to the taste. T he grape which pr oduces the best

is considered to be a lineal descendant of the vines

Delos, Rheneia, and Tenos.

of Monemvasia onthe east coast of the Morea,the

original Malmsey, and the wine is called by that

name at the present day.

T he town of Tenos, which is better known as

H agios Nicolas, was informer times hardly mor ethana landing- place, since the Venetianoccupants

h ad established themselves onthe ridge above ; but

now its white houses and campaniles have an im

posing effect as seen fr om the sea ; while the

monastery of the Evangelistria, which is the most

impor tant structure, with the great church in the

centre of it, towers over the whole place. Weshould notice one feature in these islands, which

causes them to present innumerable contrasts to

other parts of Greece. This is the absence of traces

of Byzantine influence. In describing the archi

tecture of the continent of Greece and of European

Turkey,it is superfluous to say that it is Byzantine

every monastery,church

,or other building con

nected with the Greek rite is, as a matter of course,built inthat style. Here

,onthe contr ary, it hardly

ever appear s,and the Italianmode of building and

corresponding architectural features ar e everywhere

predominant. S o, too, while inTurkey and Greece

proper the material of which dwelling- houses ar e

constr ucted is principally wood, in these islands

we find them universally built of stone. Whenwe

had established our selve s ina house at the back of

the town,we went up to the monastery, the ex

tensive buildings of which, occupying thr ee sides of

a quadrangle, containa school and accommodation

The Islands of the.Aegean.

for numer ous pilgrims. We were shownthe sacredpicture to which the place owes its foundation, the

elaborately ornamented church containing numer ous

v otive offerings,and the place beneath it wher e the

picture was found in the year 1824. The story

is one that r ecur s inmany countries, viz. that a

nundr eamed that aniconof the Virginwas bur ied

ther e,and onewas discovered onthe spot accor dingly.

T he great days of pilgrimage ar e Mar ch 2 5 and

August 1 5 (Old Style), and onthese the crowds of

visitors ar e very great ; on the ev e of March 2 5 ,

the steamer, inwhich we wer e going fr om Syra to

the Piraeus, was sent out of its way to Tenos for

their accommodation. There ar e no He llenic r e

mains in this neighbourhood except pieces of

columns, though the old townwas on the site of

the pr esent one,and the monastery probably oc

cupies the positionof the temple of Poseidon, who

was the patr onof the island. H er e,as often

,the

place of that de ity has been takenby S t. Nicolas,the guar dianof sailor s

,fr om whom the townis now

named. Inthe court of the monastery sever al fine

palm- trees we r e gr owing, and other s wer e to be seen

indifferent par ts of the town. Tenos is consider ed

a very healthy isla'

nd, so that many people come

ther e fr om all quar ter s for the air and water.

O n the mor row (Mar ch 2 1)we star ted onfoot,

under the guidance of a young man,one of the

family at whose house we wer e staying, to visit

the old Venetiantownand fort of E x oburgo, which

occupies the conspicuous peak above the r idge of

Delos,Rheneia

,and Tenos. 1 9

the island, that had before attracted our attentionby

its reddish hue. The path by which we ascended the

steep mountainside was inpart a paved way, inpart

a watercourse ; but at one time it must have been

an impor tant r oad,when the Venetian authorities

o ccupied the he ights above, and evennow it must

b e a considerable ar tery of communication,to judge

fr om the numerous people whom we met coming on

mules from the upper villages, and from the east

coast of the island. Onthe way our guide had a

story to tell— one of those myths of observation

w hich we meet with so frequently—about a cave

ne ar the summit which had underground communi

ca tionwith one near the sea, so that two English

menhad explor ed the way from one to the other

A s we approached the foot of the peak, we dis

cov er ed that the r ed appearance which it assumed

fr om a distance was caused by anochre- colour ed

l ich en,which thickly cover ed its face, with a pic

tur esque effect. To reach the summit we had to

ma ke our way to the back of the cliffs,wher e lies

th e r uined townof E x oburgo : the buildings of this ar e

r oofless, only one or two half- dismantled churches

b e ing still used. I ts name (E féfiovp-yo)is, apparently,a mixture of Greek and Italian

,meaning the suburb

(borgo) which lay outside the citadel. Hence we

clambered up the steep slopes inthe midst of de’

br is,

passing at intervals the massive walls,composed of

lar ge blocks, by which the accessible por tions of the

ground were defended. Until lately a Venetian

cannon remained here, but it has now been

0 2

Panor ama

Cyclades.

The Islands of the Aegean.

r emoved. The height must be about feet

above the sea, for it is somewhat lower thanCycnias,which is feet.

A s the view from the summit is the most com

prehensive panorama in the centre of the Aegean,

comprising both Europe and A sia,it may be wort h

while to describe it in detail. To commence fr om

the east : Icaros (Nicar ia), which forms a bridge

between the Cyclades and the A siatic islands,ap

pear ed compar atively near ; thencame Samos, more

distant,and the coast of Asia Minor betweenEphesus

and Smyrna ; next Chios (Scio), and Psyr a (Psara),between which and Tenos, in the middle of th e

Aegean, lay a conspicuous rock called Kaloyer o or

‘T he Monk,’ while far away to the north, beyond

the east coast of Andros, was seenthe faint outline

of A chilles’ island, Scyros. To the west of Andros

appeared the coast of Attica, near L aur eium,with

Hymettus behind, but the promontory of Sunium

was hiddenby Ceos ; more in front wer e G yar os ,and Syra with its white town. Distant againlaythe varied forms of Cythnos, Seriphos, Siphnos,Antipar os, Paros, and Naxos. We thus see the

two lines of islands which form the continuations

of the mountainchains of EasternGreece ; the one

starting from Mount Pelion,passing through Euboea

,

Andros, and Tenos, and terminating inMyconos ;the other starting from Attica and endinginSiphnos.

Betweenthese lie G yar os and Syra,while Paros and

N axos may be regarded as the meeting- point of the

two lines. Away to the south, and not visible from

D elos, Rheneia, and Tenos.

th is point, ar e the volcanic Melos and Thera

(Santorin). Perhaps the most picturesque point inth e view was the group formed by Rheneia and

D elos, with the two islets between them, and

Myconos : these lay as on a map below us, all

separate from one another, with their numerous

headlands cut out upon the surface of the sea.

After be ing accustomed to look at these objects on

a char t, where the islands resemble a handful of

pebbles, lying at random close to one another,it

was impossible not to be struck by their size and

by the spaces of sea that lay between them— an im

pressionwhich was amply confirmed by subsequent

voyages from one to the other. Intracing out these

topogr aphical featur es with the compass and map,we were greatly assisted by our native guide, who

possessed a very accurate knowledge of the lo

calities, and was fortunately unimbued with anyclassical ideas.

T he scene below us, inthe island of Tenos itself, I talianin

was most curious, and I was more thanever str uckfimm‘”

by the sight of a whole island, almost to the

mounta in- tops, carved into terraces, which gave

evidence of vast labour employed in their con

str uction. A t our feet, both to north and south,

were irr egular uplands, draining some into the

eastern, some into the westernsea, and dotted with

numerous flourishing villages, the white-washed

houses of which were surrounded by olives, oranges,and fig

- tr ees. T he appearance of these dwellings,with their flat roofs, trim gardens, and battlemented

The I slané of the Aegean.

enclosur es, is completely that of North Italy ; and

this is not to be wondered at, since the I talians he ld

Tenos between400 and 5 00 years, and it was not

until 1 7 18 that it passed out of the hands of the

Venetians. This circumstance also explains the

large number of Roman Catholics in the island,comprising more thanhalf the population. O f th e

villages that we saw from this point,those towar ds

the north belonged to the LatinChur ch, as do most

of those onthe north - east coast, while those towar ds

the south were par tly Orthodox (Greek) and par tly

mixed.

Whenwe had descended to the foot of the peak ,we struck off along the hills to the south, intending

to return by a diffe r ent route fr om that by which

we had ascended, in order to visit a nunnery, the

white buildings of which, closely clustered withina

wall of cir cuit, ar e so conspicuous onthe mountain

side, lying some feet above the sea, that they

may be seen fr om a distance of twenty or thir ty

miles. As we pr oceeded thither by an ir r egular

path, sometimes ascending, sometimes descending,we found ina hollow way a drift of snow not yet

melted. We passed some curious pigeon- houses,situated inthe middle of enclosur es

,and r esembling

cottages,with numerous holes for the pigeons to

enter, and resting- places for them onthe outside ;large flocks of these birds were flying about them .

There wer e also numer ous windmills in this neigh

bour hood. Our tr ack lay over soft mica slate, so

friable that sometimes we appeared to be walking

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24 The I slands of the Aegean.

applied to those monasteries where the superior is

changed periodically, and where, inrespect of meals

and the gener al regulationof life,‘every man is a

r ule to himself consequently they have no com

monrefectory. Idior rhythmic ladies ar e, I fancy,anadvance evenon the ideas of WesternEurope .

They work at various employments, such as makingstockings and silk tobacco- pouches ornamented with

beads these articles they sell to pilgr ims

for they ar e not allowed to go to the town. After

Visiting the chur ch, which is handsomely decorated,we were conducted to the reception- room

,where the

lady superior , sitting in the corner of the divan,which in anEastern room is the place of dignity,welcomed us

,and enter tained us with preserve of

orange,arrack

,and coffee. S he said the date of the

foundationof the monastery was not certain, but

that accor ding to tr adition it was twelve hundr ed

years old ; the antiquity of everything inthe East

is, however , greatly overrated. We learnt also fr omher that ther e ar e sixteennunneries inGr eece

,of

which this is the largest, for it contains at the present

time one hundr ed and thr ee sisters. They come

from all parts of Greece and Turkey.

Whenour visit was concluded, we descended bya steep path to the town, where we once more em

barked,and having a favourable breeze reached Syra

before nightfall.

CHA PT ER I I .

CRETE .

A r sunset onthe day after our returnfrom Tenos The Cr etan

(M arch 22) we embarked on board the Austr ian“a '

steame r,which runs weekly between Syra and

Crete, the Lloyd’ s being the only line which keeps

up communicationwith that island. T he German

name of our vessel, the S child, and that of her sister

steamer , theWien, looked strange in the midst of

G reek and Italiantitles, and sounded still more out

of place inthe mouths of our Greek boatmen. Wew ere due at Khanea, the capital of the island, which

lies onthe northern coast, not far fr om its western

extremity, at noon the following day, but the bad

ness of the weather caused us to be fiv e hours late,and gave us ample oppor tunity of justifying the truth

of the old Greek proverb,‘the Cretansea is wide

L ate inthe afternoonwe passed the promontory of

Acroter i,which forms the easternboundary of the

b ay of Khanea, and anhour later wer e lying off the

port. For some time it was doubtful whether we

could enter, for the narrow entrance has beenso

silted up, in consequence of long neglect, that the

l'

I oAh 7 6q flndv t ‘

ros.

Khanea .

The Islands of the Aegean.

passage is oftendangerous inbadweather ; the other

alternative would have beento land at Suda, onth e

fur ther side of the A croteri peninsula ; for tunately,however

,we succeeded in passing the bar . No

sooner had we cast anchor thanwe were fir st sur

r ounded and then boarded by a motley crowd of

noisy Cretans inpicturesque dr esses,interspersed

with Nubians, many of which race have beensettled

inthe island ever since the time whenit was subject

to the Vicer oy of Egypt (A . D . 1830 T h e

appear ance of the townwas striking,as its ir r egular

woodenbuildings rose up the hill sides fr om the sea,

inter spersed with palm- tr ees, mosques, andminar ets.

Ther e was no mistaking that we were inTur key.

T he whole place is surrounded by a Venetianwall

of great massiveness, and the har bour is enclosed by

extensive moles. Over the sea- gate stands the Lion

of S t. Mark. Behind, at no gr eat distance off; laythe mighty wall of the S phakianmountains, deeply

cover ed w ith snow,though the summits were veiled

by masses of cloud.

Whenwe landed, all our books,to our gr eat

indignation,were confiscated, and car r ied off for

inspectionto the r esidence of the Pasha, includingBr adshaw’ s Railway Guide, which, no doubt, was

r egarded as a highly cabalistic volume. O nenquir

ing the cause of this— for we had never been the

victims of such a proceeding inTurkey before—we

found that suspicion reigned supr eme among the

authorities,owing to the meeting of the Emperors of

Russia,Germany and Austria, which had takenplace

shortly before this time, and which was supposed to

bode no good to Tur key, and, inparticular , to the

r ule of that power inCrete. Evenour insignificant

visit, as we found onour r eturn from the interior,was interpreted as having a political meaning. I t

was discover ed from our passpor ts that I was a

clergymanand my friend an officer of militia, and

h ence the remar k was,‘What can a pr iest and a

military manwant in the island if they have no

political object

T he only locanda inthe town— a place which fr om

its filthiness was far worse than the bare walls of a

Tur kish khan—bore the highly Cretan but hardly

encouraging title of ‘T he Rhadamanthys ’

r ead

fla vour). I t had, however, the advantage of nearness

to the Br itish Consulate, from the inmates of which

w e r eceived very kind attention. Before coming to

th e island , we had oftenbeenasked whether trav el

l ing would not be dangerous there, from the wildness

of the population and the gener al disafi'

ection that

prevailed but our former experience of tr avelling in

Turkey had taught us that the tr aveller is safest in

the w ildest and remotest districts,because there he

is r espected as a strange animal,and his value in

exchange for a ransom is not known. Inanswer to

our enquiries on this head, we wer e told that anystranger would be safe inevery part of Crete, but

that towar ds the English there existed such a kindly

feeling that we should be especially well received :and this was fully confirmed in the cour se of our

subsequent journey.We learnt that anearthquake

p r ospects.

The Islands of the Aegean.

had beenfelt the night before, and that such occur

renees ar enot uncommonhere, a cir cumstance which

the inhabitants attribute to their nearness to the un

quiet volcano of Santor in. But the absorbing

subject of interest at this time was the extraordinary

severity of the season, the like of which hadnot been

felt for forty- three years. I have already spokenof

this as being r emarkable all ov er the south - eastern

portionof the Mediter r anean but the island of Cr ete

seemed to have beenthe focus of this area of cold.

The distress thus caused was ver y gr eat. T he

natives of the upland villages wer e escaping ingr eat

number s over the snow, and arriving daily in

Khanea but insome cases the snow had hemmed

them intoo closely intheir valleys to admit of their

escaping, and many of them wer e starved in their

homes.

The same cause had lately brought down sever al

of the large and rar e Cretangoats,which ar e the

representatives of an almost extinct species, from

the mountain summits, to which they have now

retir ed, and which they r arely leave. Befor e star ting

from England I had cher ished a strong wish , though

but a faint hope, of obtaining the skinand horns of

one of these valuable ibexes ; andwhenI mentioned

this to the dragomanof the Consulate, M r . Moatsos,

a Greek gentlemanwell knownfor his attentionto

English visitors,he at once presented me with a

very fine skin, taken from one which had been

killed a few days before ; this is now inthe Museum

at Oxford. I tr ied to obtainthe skull, but invain,

Cr ete. 29

for the natives, as might be supposed, set no v alue

onanything but the flesh and the skin, and conse

quently the bones ar e at once destroyed. A living

specimenof the animal, which was caught and sent

over to England by Mr. Sandwith, who was thenthe

British consul at Khanea, may be seeninthe Zoolo

gical Gardens in London. T he colour is brown,

with a dark stripe downthe back the horns ar e two

feet long, curving gently backwards, and slightly

divergent,with pointed tips. The only other places

inwhich it is knownto exist ar e the island of Anti

Melos, anuninhabited r ock to the west of Melos,

and two of the islands which runoff ina chainfrom

the extremity of Mount Pelion, viz. that called

S copelos inancient times, and thatnow called Jour a.

Inthese it is very scarce, and will probably soonbe

ex tinct ; but the specimens that have beenbrought

fr om these places, though varying in some slight

points fr om the Cretangoat, bear a sufliciently close

resemblance to it to be regarded as the same species.

Naturalists consider that it is nearest akin to the

Persiangoat,but far removed from that of Sinai and

fr om the European ibexes. I t was probably dis

per sed over all the Greek islands inancient times,and Ludwig Ross met with an engraved stone on

Melos, onwhich the figure of the animal, and es

pecially its horns, ar e very clearly represented 1.

F rom the length of the horns it seems highly prob

able that it was a goat of this class which, Homer

tells us, furnished Pandarus with a bow. O f this we1 Ross

,Reisenauf dengn

'

echischenInseln, v ol. iii. p. 2 1 .

The Islands of the Aegean.

learn,that it was formed of the horns of a bounding

wild goat which the hero had stalked and killed

among the r ocks ; that the horns were each sixteen

palms, i.e. four feet, in length ; and that they were

polished and fitted for a bow by a worker inhorn.

T he mountains of the westernextr emity of Crete

seem to be the chief abode of these animals. I t is

r eported that they ar e also found inthe range of I da,but they appear to be very rare in that r egion.

Wild goats,indeed, ar e found there; but I gathered

that these ar e a smaller kind—pr obably chamois, for

the chamois exists inmany places inGreece, and I

myself have seena herd of tenor twelve of them on

the summits of the ThessalianOlympus. Sometimes

the Cretanibexes attainto a great size. About the

year 18 19 a party of native sportsmenar e said to have

killed two, which weighed near ly seventy and ninetypounds respectively. The flesh is allowedonallhands

to be excellent eating. T he gr eat agility of the

animal,and the consequent difficulty of obtaining it,

ar e testified to by several authorities. Thus Pashley,who made a meal off the flesh of some that wer e

killed in the S phakiote mountains, says,‘T he

agr imia ( agr imi, like the GermanWild, signifiesany kind of game, but is specially used as the name

for this goat)‘ar e so active that they will leap up a

per pendicular rock of tento fourteenfeet high they

spr ing fr om precipice to precipice, and bound along

with such speed that no dog would be able to keep

up with them,evenon better gr ound thanwhere

1 lfdltov ai'ybs dyplov , l l. 4 105 .

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The Islands of the Aegean.

gather themselves up into three great groups—loftyenough to be clearly visible infine weather from

Santor in, which is sixty miles distant to the no r th.

These ar e, the D ictaeanmountains, as they were

called in ancient times,towards the east ; in the

centre I da,or , as it is now called, Psilor ites, or the

‘ lofty mountain (M l le 5p m); and to the west the

White Mountains 1, though in the interior of the

country they ar e more commonly known as the

mountains of Sphakia ’

; that being the district in

habited by the S phakiotes, who ar e famed for being

the most warlike and independent of the modern

Cretan tr ibes. T he two last-mentioned of these

mountaingr oups rise to the height of between

and feet above the sea. From what we had

heard and read beforehand we expected to find

large parts of the island well wooded, and had

pictured to ourselves such glades and dells as maybe seenonthe peninsula of Athos

,or onthe slopes

of Ossa and Pelion; but here we were doomed to

disappointment. Cultivated trees, indeed, may be

seenabundantly, especially the olive and the orange,and the fruit of the latter is so fine, that Cretan

oranges ar e famous throughout the Archipelago, and

a great quantity is exported but of natural vegeta

tionthere is extremely little, and the mountainup

lands ar e for the most part bare.

O n the morning after our arrival, having hiredG aetulus.

1 A ctual 6m in antiquity, now”A dept: Bawd, with the same

meaning.1t amw'medBaw d.

Cr ete. 33

horses, and recovered our books through the drago

man of the Consulate, we left Khanea, passing

through a gateway in the massive Venetianwalls.T he youths who accompanied our horses were two

Mahometans, named Ali and S aideh, the former a

Cretan, the latter a coal- black Nubian, with tattooed

temples and checks. His history was a curious one.

H e had beencarr ied off from his nativ e country as

a slave at sevenyears of age, and did not remember

the process of tattooing, or rather gashing, by which

his face had beenmarked,so that he could not tell

us whether it had beendone with the knife or by

fir ing. After this he had beensold sever al times to

different masters, until a Tur kish dignitary brought

him to Crete, where he obtained his liberty. H e

was a fairly intelligent fellow, and very superior to

his companion,A li. H e spoke Tur kish andArabic,

but his ordinary language was Greek,for inCrete,

alone among the provinces of Tur key, that language

is spokenby all the population,whether Mahometan

or Christian. This arises from the Mussulmans,with the exceptionof a few in the towns

,being

r enegade Greeks, who retain their native tongue.InThessaly, where the Greek population is very

numerous, the official proclamations ar e inGreek,but the Mahometans, who ar e Turkish immigrants,speak Turkish. A fter ascending a little distancefrom the town

, we found our selves on a plain of

some extent, which reaches to the foot of the Rhiz a,as the lower slopes of the S phakiote mountains ar e

called. A t the sides of the road aloes of prodigious

D

T r eachery

The Islands of the Aegean.

size were growing, the leaves of some of them reach

ing to the height of eight or tenfeet. This tract,

the soil ofwhich is very rich, is covered with extensive

plantations of olives,which

,to judge from their size

,

and the brokenwood of their trunks, must be of

great age ; among these stand kanaks or villas of

Tur kish grandees, surrounded with cypr esses and

pine tr ees, and some with r uined walls.

Infortyminutes we r eached the dilapidated village

of Murnies, the decay of which was somewhat soft

ened by the fine or ange trees and other cultivationin

its neighbourhood. This is a place of melancholy

memor ies, for it was the scene of one of the worst of

the many acts of tr eachery of which the Turks have

beenguilty inthe island. As far as the circumstances

canbe summed up ina few sentences they wer e as

follows. A t the conclusionof the GreekWar of Independence, during which the Cretans had struggled

vigorously for fr eedom, and seemed onthe point of

forcing the Mahometans to leave the country, it was

decided by the Allied Powers that Cr ete should beannexed to the dominions of Mehemet Ali, and

assurances were given to the inhabitants by the

British Government of the system of order which

that potentate would intr oduce. Inthe summer of

183 3 the Viceroy of Egypt visited the island, and

immediately after his departure a pr oclamationwas

published,which tended to make a great part of the

landed estates throughout the country his proper ty.

To protest against this, several thousands of the

Christianpopulationassembled at Murnies,which

from its positionclose to the foot of the Rhiz a and

inthe neighbourhood of the capital, has frequently

beenthe scene of such meetings onthe par t of the

mountaineer s. After some delay,pr omises of r e

dress were given, and the assembly,which had

throughout been peacefully conducted, disper sed

with the exceptionof a few hundred men. When,however, an Egyptian squadron arrived, and the

authorities felt themselves in a stronger position,they pr oceeded to Murnies, and arr ested thirty- three

of the people who had r emained there, tenof whom

were subsequently hanged, while at the same time,

inorder to strike terror into the Christians, twenty

one other persons wer e seized and executed inother

par ts of the island. Who canwonder, after this andsimilar atrocities

,if an insurrection in Crete is

almost aninternecine struggle

From Murnies we turned aside to the monastery H agios

of Hagios Eleutherios,which we found to be a small E lem/m

building,with a church in the Byzantine style, but

without any pretensionto architectural effect. T he

object of our search here, which had caused us to

deviate from our proposed route along the north

coast of the island, was a crucifix, which is mentioned

by Pashley inhis Travels,though he gives no de

scriptionof it. Now it is well knownto archaeologists

that a crucifix inthe EasternChurch is anobject of

ex treme rarity, crucifix es having been traditionallyproscribed just as much as statues, while icons, i.e.

pictures, have beenretained. Indeed, inall the par ts

of Greece and EuropeanTurkey that I have visited

D 2

The Islands of the Aegean.

I have onlymet with two others ; one inthe monasteryof Xer opotamu onMount Athos, which is set with

diamonds, and has beenspared, as being a r eputed

gift of the Empress Pulcheria ; the other, at O ch r ida,

in Western Macedonia, the former capital of

the Bulgarian kingdom, which is regarded by its

possessor s as an unauthorised object, and is pr e

ser ved only as a r elic of antiquity, and may very

possibly have descended from the times of Cyr il

and Methodius, the apostles of the Slavonians. O n

enquiry, however, we found that this crucifix is now

kept at the Metochi (at r axtov)or dependent monasteryof Chrysopegi, and to this we pr oceeded

,after the

monks had regaled us with pr eser ve of quince. I

may remark that, though there ar e no r emains of

antiquity at Khanea except vases, lacr imator ia, and

similar objects, which ar e found in tombs in the

neighbourhood, yet it is tolerably cer tain that the

ancient city of Cydonia occupied the same site, or

one in the immediate vicinity ; and those per sons

who believe in the permanence of vegetation in

certain localities, and ar e disposed to use it as an

argument for the positionof anancient site (inwhose

number I cannot enrol myself)may adduce in this

connexionthe quinces (x vao v t’

at)which grow here, as

that tree is believed to have takenits name from this

city. Inthe course of conver sationwith the monks

I enquired about the concealed Christians that

is,Mahometans by professionwho, while they con

form outwardly to that creed, practise Christianity

secretly ; and I was told in reply that some of

these remain inCrete, though their numbers ar e

much smaller thanthey used to be, and that these

baptize their childrenand observe other Christianrites in private. I had subsequent confirmation

of this statement, and learnt that the greater

number ar e to be found onthe northernslopes of

Mount I da.

CRUCI F IX O F CH RYSO PE G I .

A t Chrysopegi—which in its turnmaintains that Chrysopegi.

it is the original monastery,while Hagios Eleu

the r ios is the dependency—we found in the church

a handsome iconostasis or altar- screen of cypr ess

wood,light in colour

,which had beenelaborately

carved by a native artist in 1865 . Behind this

the crucifix was kept,and it was produced at our

r equest. I t is about eighteen inches high, of iron,

3 8 The Islands of the Aegean.

flat, and hollow,in the shape of a Greek cross,

with a round ir onhandle at the bottom to hold it

by,while each of the other three limbs bifurcates

at the end into two lobes. Attached to the face

of this is a crucifix of silver gilt, somewhat less

than half the height of the cross, with a cr oss

piece bear ing the superscr iption INBI, only the

upr ight of the B is prolonged downwar ds so as

to form a tail. T he left foot is attached by a

single nail, but the other is left fr ee : they r est

on a scabellum,and r ound the loins is a waist

cloth. Inside the cr oss ther e is something that

rattles, and this is said to be a piece of the True

Cross. O ne of the monks descr ibed to us the

mir acles it had wrought, especially at the time of

the insurrection— stories like those which a pr e

decessor of his had told to Pashley,of a monk

having stood with it in his hand inthe thick of a

battle, whenbullets wer e whizzing r ound him,while

he r emained unhur t. Notwithstanding this,they

did not show it the pr ofound venerationwith which

such r elics ar e fr equently tr eated inGr eek monas

ter ies, and I was allowed to make a dr awing of it,

which I hardly expected,for many O r ientals have the

gr eatest disl ike to such a pr oceeding,because they

consider that the possessor of the likeness r etains

some myster ious power over the original. T he

monk also said that thr ee similar crosses exist inother

parts of Cr ete, and that this one is supposed to have

beena present fr om the Venetians : this however I

doubt,for the history of such r elics is seldom accu

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40 The Islands of the Aegean.

level ground we reached the bay of Suda, wher e

the Tur kish fleet, composed o f a frigate and some

smaller vessels, was lying. I t is a perfect land

locked harbour, and the Turks have a project for

conver ting it into a naval station; but the neigh

bour hood at pr esent has a miserable look of deso

lation; the shores ar e marshy and unhealthy, the

houses deserted, the country half cultivated, and

the people half- starved. A t the mouth of the bay,

towards the east,ar e two islands, called L eucae

in ancient times,on the larger of which the town

of Suda is now situated. The next point that we

made for wer e the ruins formerly called Palaeo

castro, but now better knownin the neighbourhood

as Aptera—a r emarkable instance of antiquarian

interest onthe par t of the natives,for Pashley was

the first to identify them with that ancient city, and

the point was not certainly determined until M .Wescher , of the Fr ench Government Mission, dis

covered an inscr iptionwhich contained the name .We ascended by a rough path along the cliffs,where the pink blossoms of the wild pear tree were

in great abundance, and the banks were star red

with white cyclamen. As we mounted, we obtained

fine views over the bay of Suda,with the Acroteri

behind it, and the wide bay of Khanea str etchingaway to the west ; on the opposite side rose the

White Mountains,deeply cover ed with snow, all

but the highest peaks of which were visible from

time to time,when the heavy masses of cloud

lifted. Whenwe reached the site of A ptera, which

is about 800 feet above the sea, we could also see

to the south-west Mount Malaxa, the ancient Bere

cynthus, and to the east the commanding pr omon

tory of D r epanon, beyond which the eye ranged

over a long line of coast, until at last the island of

D ia, in the neighbourhood of the ancient Cnossus,appeared on the horizon. O n very clear morn

ings, we were told, Santorin can occasionally be

descr ied.

Independently of its elevated position, the situa Ridm

tionof A ptera is a striking one, being a broad level,with steep sides falling away in every direction.

A t the highest point stands a little monastery, a

dependency of the great convent of S t. John the

Theologos at Patmos ; it is now occupied by one

monk only, who lives there with his mother and one

or two other persons. In the neighbourhood of

this ar e the pr incipal ruins,including a large Roman

c isternwith tr iple arches, and the wall of a building,probably a Prytaneium, onwhich ar e the inscr iptions that Pashley andWescher have copied. The

monk recollected M .Wescher 's having uncoveredthem

,but they ar e now half- concealed againby a

large straw- heap. O ne of these relates to honours

conferred onAttalus,King of Pergamus, by the

senate and people of A ptera : here the magistrates

bear the title of hosmoi, and in the Dor ic dialect

w hich is employed the place is called A ptar a.

There is also a decree inhonour of Prusias, King

of Bithynia, and several acts relating to their pr oxenia with various cities of A sia Minor, proving the

The Islands of the Aegean.

extensive commercial relations of the city 1. O nthe

southern slope is an ancient theatre,very ill

preserved, and towar ds the west ar e the finest

r emains of the city walls but these ruins have been

much over r ated, and, like all those inCr ete, ar e

disappointing to one alr eady acquainted with the

mainland of G r eece. T he shor e below was r e

garded as the scene of the contest between the

Muses and the Sir ens,inwhich the latter being de

feated lost the feather s of their wings, and when

they had thus become white, cast themselves intothe sea ; whence the city was cal led Aptera, and

the neighbouring islands L eucae. We may safelyinver t this last statement

,and say that the whole

legend is anetymological myth, or iginally suggested

by the names.

Descending fr om Apter a by a steep path onthe

sea side of the hill,we forded the r iver Khilias, and

cr ossing an olive - clad hill, r eached the town of

Kalyv es, the buildings of which skir t the shore,

and ar e now inr uins. The distr ict which reaches

inland fr om this point is called A pocor ona, and is

very stony ; onone of its highest ridges, near ly

feet above the sea,lies the village of Sultanieh,

wher e we ar r ived after nightfall,and took up our

abode in a house fragrant with the cypr ess wood

of which it was built. Notwithstanding the ani

mosity which pr evails betweenthe native Chr istians

and Mahometans in Cr ete,our dr agoman found

it difficult to distinguish between them in these1 A r chiv es des Missions

,2 S er . v ol. i. p. 441 .

villages, as they use the same language, dress, and

customs ; the Mahometans, for instance, all drink

wine. Formerly numerous intermarriages used to

take place betweenpersons of the two creeds ; now,

however, the people told us,these ar e of rare oc

currence,and ar e discouraged by the authorities ;

and whena Chr istianbecomes a Mahometan(Toapxo),the Pasha sends him away to another par t of Turkey.

Intime of war the Moslem villagers descend to the

towns to jointheir co- religionists, and ar e employed

as bashi- baz onks. I enquir ed about the Katakhanas,that being the peculiar name by which the Vampir e

is knowninCr ete and Rhodes,instead of the usual

Vrykolakas though the word is of some antiquity,be ing found in the mediaeval Gr eek poem of A

L ament onConstantinople inthe sense of ‘a destroyer.’

T he answer was that such spectres were never seen

there but that after the end of the first insurrection,

inSphakia, wher e many persons were killed, such

apparitions showed themselves, and the bodies of

the dead were seen to move about over the face

of the country. Another curious superstitionwhich

we found to pr evail in Crete is the custom of r e

garding Tuesday as a dies non; the people have the

same feeling against undertaking anything special

onthat day which English sailors have with regard

to a Friday : this prevails also throughout the islands

of the Aegean.

During this fir st day of our journey we had had The

nor thernoccasronal showers, but m the course of the night it ” a “.

set into rainheavily, and continued to do so without

44 The Islands of the Aegean.

intermissionthroughout the greater part of the follow

ing day (March consequently, for many hours

successively we were occupied inwading rather than

r iding, owing to the state of the road. We hadheard the Pasha of Crete of that time spokenof as

on the whole an enlightened man, but whenwe

found that he was er ecting a vast summer residence

at Sultanieh, we could not help thinking that the

money might b e better spent inmaking roads and

bridges, for the island suffers from nothing more

thanfrom want of pr oper means of communication.

Descending to the valley of theKarydopotamo,we fol

lowed the banks of that river, until we r eached the

so- called Hellenic bridge, a high ivy- covered arch,the foundations of which may b e of Romanwork,but the arch itself is too steep to be of that date.We crossed this, and descended a valley filled with

plane trees not yet inleaf, at the lower end of which

was a sort of gorge, where the rocks at the sides were

decor ated with pendent fronds of polypody fernof

eittr aordinary size. Close to this is the village of

Armyro,where a large brackish fountain, which

gives itsname to the place 1, forms anextensive pool,

the water from which turns some mills. O n a

neighbour ing hillock stands a large square building,which may have beena Venetianfort. Shortly after

this we reached the sea, and rode for several miles

along a sandy beach, bright with pink shells, and

intersected by numerous streams ; on the land side

rose the lofty mass of Mount Megar as, covered with1 ’

Apj.wp6 for M p vpé.

newly- fallensnow. A t the further end of this beach

the deep rapid stream of a river called Petrais makesits exit from a gorge flanked by r ed limestone cliffs,and we found it so swollenby the rainas to render

fording difficult this, however, we accomplished by

keeping close to the sea, though our baggage was in

part submerged. Thence for some distance the path

lay along the cliffs above the sea, and was as rough

and bad a track as I have seen in any country.

Behind us,the successive promontories of D r epanon

and A cr otir i hadnow come into view.

A t last we turninland, and having cr ossed a stony Retimo.

upland,reach a Roman bridge with two rows of

arches, inthe same style as the Pont du Gard nearN ismes, which spans a deep gully, and forms a

picturesque object fr om the ochre colour of its

stones, and the bushes by which it is surrounded.

Immediately afterwar ds Retimo, the ancient Rhi

thymna, comes in sight. This is undoubtedly themost str iking in its positionof all the larger towns

of Crete . I t occupies a peninsula, joined to the land

by a low sandy isthmus,across which runs the wall

of the town, surmounted with flame - shaped battle

ments ; withinthis lie the houses, which ar e inter

spersed at inter vals with tall minarets,while between

them and the sea rises a precipitous height, cr owned

by the extensive buildings of the castle. In the

b ackgr ound of the view the lower part of Mount I da

was seen, ascending ingr adual slopes, but the sum

mits were concealed by the clouds. We arrived but

just in time, for the gates ar e closed anhour and

TheCr etan

The Islands of the Aegean.

a- half after sunset. Within,the place has all the

picturesqueness of a Turkish town, being composed

of ir r egular str eets,lined with bazaar s and wooden

houses with projecting roofs and balconies. T he

por t,which lies on the easternside, is small, and

inaccessible except incalmweather.

A t Retimo we received a cour teous welcome from

Mr. T r iphylli, a Greek gentlemanto whomwe had an

introduction. H e would hardly hear of our putting

up at the khan, and entertained us at breakfast the

next morning, when, among other things, he gave us

some of what is considered the special Cretandish

a mixtur e of cheese and honey. Both ingr edients in

this,as well as the combinationitself, ar e excellent,

the cheese being the soft cr eam cheese (myz ethr a),which is one of the best products of the island, and

the honey being fr agrant of her bs. WhenI enquired

about the Cr etandittany, which was famous for its

medicinal qualities inancient times, he presented me

with a par ce l of the dried leaves and stems, as they

ar e used by the people at the present day. A

decoction of these is much esteemed in illness,especially infevers. I t is a low-gr owing her b, with

a small woolly leaf, thus cor responding to the de

scr iptionof it givenby Dioscorides ‘ : by the natives

it is sometimes called er otas,but more commonly

stamatochor ton.We hear of it inVirgil, where Venusemploys it to heal Aeneas’ wound

ThenVenus, all a mother’

s hear t

Touched by he r son’s unwor thy smar t

,

13 . 3 7 , watpalté bqum

'

ma ir idium? Zxov r a.

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The Islands of the Aegean.

a brief space inthe course of the morning, yet when

we started, a little after midday, it was raining

steadily, and it continued to do so for the rest of the

day. A t first our route lay along the shore, onwhich

the huge waves wer e plunging violently ; but after

a time we were forced to make a detour inland to

reach a bridge over the river Platanios, which it was

impossible to ford at the usual point. The meadows

onthe further side of this str eam presented a spectacle

of rare beauty from the anemones with which they

were covered. F or size, number, brilliancy, and

variety of colour I have never seen such a show.

Every tint was to be seen— crimson, rose pink, faint

pink,purple

,light mauve, and white. I f, accor ding

to the ancient symbolism,these flowers represent the

blood of Adonis and the tears of Aphrodite, both

must have beenabundantly shed here. The name

for them in the country is malahanthos. A t this

point we turned southwards,and ascended gradually

over one of the most fertile districts inthe whole

of Cr ete ; onevery side the slopes were cover ed with

olive plantations,while the or ange and the fig gr ew

inthe neighbourhood of the villages, and inthe first

of these that we reached—called A rdeli—we saw a

fine palm- tree.

I t was here that we fir st began to realise how

terrible had beenthe r esults of the last insurrection

(1866 Every village that we passed through, and

all that we could see along the hill- sides, had been

plundered, gutted, and burnt ; nothing but ruins met

the eye ; it was as if a horde of Tartars had swept

Cr ete. 49

over the face of the country . A few of these belonged

to Mahometans, but the great majority were Chris

tian; and onour arrival the miser able inhabitants

those, that is to say, who hadnot emigrated—emerged

from the lower storey of the ir houses, which they had

temporarily repair ed,half- clothed and half- starv ed.

To add to their misfortunes,for the last three years

the olive crop , onwhich they mainly depend, had

failed, and the great severity of the winter had reduced

them to the last extremity. This state of things we

subsequently found to prevail throughout the island ;along our whole route not a single village was stand

ing ; and what distressed us most was to find that

many of those who were inthis lamentable condition

we r e persons of some positionandvery fair education.

Another thing,also, we gather ed pr etty plainly, v iz .

that they would rise ininsurr ectionagainwhenthe

next oppor tunity presented itself; and this was hardly

to be wondered at, for they had nothing to lose, and

could scarcely be ina wor se plight thanthey were

inat that time 1

A t the end of four hours of gr adual ascent from

Retimo, we reached the lar ge village of Amnato, and

turned r ound to take a last view of the townonits

conspicuous peninsula, beyond which lay a wide ex

panse of the northernsea. All about here, and in

many other places, the gr ound was strewnwith

br anches of the olive- trees, which had beenbrokenoff

1 S ince this was w r itten the conditionof the people inCr etehas improv ed, inconsequence of mor e pr ospe r ous seasons and

administr ative changes. S ee below , p. 76.E

5 0 The Islands of the Aegean.

by the weight of the snow that lay onthem during the

winter ; this, however, we found to be rather a benefit

than an injury to the trees, since it has ina rude

way the effect of pr uning, which is greatly neglected

in Crete . Fr om this point we descended towards

a wide and deep gor ge, along the steep side of which

the path leads, and as it gr adually contracts the

scenery becomes fine, fr om the r ed limestone caverns,and the trees which fringe the bed of the str eam.

Near the head of this,where the valley is wildest

,

we cr oss it by a br idge, and mounting steeply, find

ourselves on an exposed plateau where, near the

edge of the r avine and fronted by a conspicuous

group of stone pines, stands the monastery of A r kadi.

NOTE ON THE CRETA N DIALECT OFMODERN GREEK.

A s w e ob tained a consider ab le amount of informationabout the modernCr etandialect at Retimo, it may b ew or th w hile for me to intr oduce her e a few r emar ksr elating to it.Whenfir st w e landed in the island, itseemed so diffe r ent fr om any Gr eek w e had heard

,and

the wor ds appear ed so clipped, that w e almost despair edof under standing it, and our dr agomanhimself, who wasfamiliar w ith most of the numer ous Modern Gr eekdialects, declar ed w ith some dismay that he could notmake out half of w hat the people said. Though ingr eatmeasur e these difficulties soon disappear ed, yet the

peculiar ities of the language ar e very str iking. A s to the

pr onunciation, the most notab le featur e is the softening

Cr ete. 5 1

of x and X; the former b eing pr onounced like tch,as

a poox e’

cpakov , a pillow ,

’

pr ostchefalon; the latter like sh,as

r ain,

’v r oshe

’

. Inthe v ocabulary, the number ofstr ange wor ds w hich take the place of those inordinaryuse is v ery gr eat, as may b e seenby the long list giv enin the late L or d S tr angfor d

’

s ex cellent essay on the

subject inv ol. i. of S pr att’s Tr avels inCr ete ; some of the

most impor tant of these w e v er ified, either th r ough

M r . T r iphylli, or by our ownobser v ation; but the mostinter esting ar e the ancient words or usagesw hich , thoughlost elsew her e , hav e sur vived in this country. Thus

,

instead of the familiar M emoi r ,‘mud,

’

we always hear dmfltd ; for 0 7 00 10 (G r atin

‘ I send,’ Wilma), inthe futur e

form 86 11am; for v dww,

‘ I am cold,

’which no

doub t is by metathesis for fitya», for the latter form is

found inthe dialect of Cyprus ; for xa r akapfiém ,I under

stand,’xa

-

r e'

xto ; fornew , a hor se,’either Kr fipa (just as in

classical Gr eek Kr ijvos' is used inthe sense of a ‘b east

or ml-

yrjpt, which is the Tur kish begir ,‘ hor se.

’ Again,th e lost f launt surviv es her e inthe futur e 831 ‘ I shall

put,’

for 821 Békco, and inthe imperative lie down,’

for whayt'

afe ; nopt'

fm (nopet'

iojuat) means I star t,’as in

e’

rrdpw a ,‘ I star ted,

’for 3¢vya ; 37 09,

‘a year ,

’w hich in

or dinary ModernGr eek only sur v iv es in the salutationnone 7 81 Er r; (ms, is commonly heard inplace of xpdmor .

Th e salutation656m,for ‘

good day’

(pr onounced evv ia),w as also new to us, together w ith the expr essionetSBlBta

(ev v iv ia), for fine w eather this is probab ly a cor ruptionof th e ancient

Monastery

CH A PT E R I I I .

CRE T E (continued).

T H E convent of A r kadi, which was once regarded

as the largest and richest inCrete, having anincomeof about £ 1 000 a year, was at this time a mass of

r uins. T he siege of this place by the Turks, and the

massacre that followed, fr om its tragic char acter,did mor e thananything else to attr act the attent ion

of WesternEurope to the Cretan struggle. Only

two of the survivors, a monk and a boy, were now

residing withinthe walls ; indeed, the rest of th e

Fathers per ished at the time of the siege,and its

present occupants had come from other monasteries.

The Super ior was a most ignorant man; his con

versationconsisted almost entirely insaying ‘ it drips,it drips (tr

-

raga , mean— a remar k that was suggested

by the pitiless rain, which penetrated so constantly

the patched-up roof of the room we occupied, that to

avoid it we were fr equently obliged to shift our

position, and it even dr opped on to our beds at

night. A t Retimo we had been told that the monastery had been rebuilt, and that we should find

good accommodation; but the truth was that only

two or three rooms were habitable, of which ours was

th e best. Throughout our tour inCrete we had to

car ry our pr ovisions with us,for the natives could not

supply us evenwith bread ; w ine, however, was to

b e had,and this was excellent. The buildings form

a single quadrangle,inthe middle of which stands

th e church ; this had beenrepaired, as also insome

measure had the western fagade of the monastery ;b ut neither of them shows any trace of Byzantine

a r chitecture, being ina debased Renaissance style,and the whole convent, at its best per iod, must have

p r esented a striking contrast to the lordly structures

o f Mount Athos. A few tall cypresses in the court

did their best to rel ieve the dismal desolation.

T he following morning,at our request

,the monk D escrip

w ho had beenpresent at the siege conducted usfizzof ’k’

r ound the building and described to us the har

r owing details. I t took place on November 19 ,

1 866. T he Christians who defended it had as

sembled there some days befor e,and for greater

safety had br ought together the women, childr en,and old menfrom the neighbour ing country within

th e walls. T he Turks approached from the side

o f Retimo, and at first their commander offered the

defenders terms of capitulation, but these were

r efused, because his soldier s were irregulars, and

th e Christians knew fr om experience that they

w ould ne ither obey orders, nor suffer anyone to

e scape. A cannon,which the besiegers had dr agged

h ither with some difficulty, was at first planted on

a neighbour ing height, but as it produced but little

e ffect onthe walls, and inthe meantime the attacking

5 4 The Islands of the Aegean.

par ties suffered greatly from the fir e of the besieged,on the following day it was brought up infr ont of

the monastery, so as to command the entrance ga te ,which they blew in. After a fearful str uggle, th ey

forced their way inat the point of the bayonet, and

commenced an indiscriminate massacr e, in wh ich

300 souls perished. The court r anwith blood, our

informant said,and was so piled with bodies th a t

it was impossible to pass fr om one side to the oth e r .

Simultaneously with this attack in front,anoth e r

band of Turks made an assault from behind,whe re

ther e was a postern; but close to it the powde r

magazine was situated, in a chamber over wh ich

numbers of monks and women and childrenwe r e

congr egated together. As soon as the besiege rs

were close to the postern, the Christians set fi r e

to the powder, and blew up all this par t of th e

building,involving their fr iends and their enemie s

incommonr uin. Large pieces of the shatter ed wa ll

r emain outside the new wall, and though most of

the Tur ks were bur ied wher e they fell, yet the bones

of others might be seenlying onthe gr ound . Inthe

midst of the massacre six- and- thir ty Christians took

refuge in the refectory, but they wer e pursued and

all killed,and their blood still stained the walls.

About sixty others collected together ina corrido r,

and begged for quarter, as having takenno part in

the insur r ection,and the lives of these were spared.

The monastery was thenfired, and many sick and

helpless per sons per ished inthe conflagr ation. T he

horrible narrative told by aneye-witness onthe spot

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The Islands cd the Aegean.

that it is considered to have great efficacy incuring

the disease of the stone, and that this is the or iginof the name. Pashley says that inhis time bottlesof the water wer e exported for this purpose even

as far as to Constantinople . We gradually came insight of the south-west buttresses of I da

,which ar e

far more pr ecipitous thananything onthe other side

of the mountain; but of the summit we saw nothingmore thantempting peeps of snow - peaks under the

clouds. In the midst of a violent hailstorm we

reached the monastery of Asomatos,or the A rch

angel, which is three hour s distant from A r kadi, and

lies in the midst of oliv e-

groves, interspersed with

numerous myr tle - bushes, ina wide r ich valley deeply

sunk among the mountains.

This convent was left uninjured during the last

insurrection, though both the Turkish and Christianforces passed by this way. I t is a very poor place

,

resembling those which we had seenonthe sides of

th e ThessalianOlympus, and consists of a single

quadr angle, surrounded by lower buildings than

those of A r kadi, while stables and other ir r egular

tenements ar e grouped on to it on the outside.

Within ar e numer ous fine orange- trees, onwhich

the fruit was still hanging, and the chur ch stands in

the centre of the area. The iconostasis of this is

finely car ved and gilt, and from the r oof hangs a

glass chandelier, which fr om its appearance must

have come from Venice. From a beam onone side

of the court ar e suspended three Venetian bells,which ar e said to have beenconcealed, and only dis

covered in 1873 ; they ar e inscribed with the dates

1 633 and 1639 respectively, and both ar e ornamented

w ith figures inr elief of our Lord onthe cross, of the

V ir gin,and of S t. John, while the smaller of the two

h as also a figure of a bishop, who the monks saidwas S t. S pir idion. T he constitutionof this society is

edior r hythmic, or onthe independent system,wher eas

A r kadiwas a Coenobia ; that is to say, it had a com

montable,stricter discipline, and a super ior elected

for life. Certainly, order was not predominant inthe appearance of the monks of Asomatos

,for they

w ore no distinctive dress, and only differed from

commonpeasants inhaving their hair unshorn. T he

H egumen, inparticular, with his burly figur e, black

b ushy beard, and bronzed countenance, would have

made anexcellent study for one of Ribera’s bandits.We were entertained in a low-vaulted apartment,

w here a blazing fir e and some of the wine of the

monastery wer e very welcome we found this liquor

palatable, for inCrete, and inthe islands generally,r esin is not mixed with the wine

,as it is on the

mainland of Greece. We were told that no boar s,

or wolves, or bears, ar e found onI da ; according to

the Cr etan legend all the lar ger wild beasts were

once for all expelled from the island by S t. Paulin ancient times the same beneficent action was

attributed to Hercules. Game also is scarce ; we

saw nothing but a few ducks and partridges and a

snipe dur ing the whole of our journey.We continued our route towards the south - east, Apodulo.

until at last, incr ossing one of the buttresses of I da,

A nativ e

The Islands of the Aegean.

we came in sight of the southernsea. Gr aduallythe Bay of Messar a opened out befor e us

,with the

headland of Matala beyond,to the eastwar d of which

appear ed a depr essioninthe hills which bor der the

coast,mar king the site of the Fair Havens.

’

A t

the same time the r ed sunset tints,seenthr ough a

dip inthe dar k mountains to the west, gave cheer ing

signs of a change in the weather . A t nightfall we

found ourselves at the village of A podulo, on the

mountain- side,and her e we determined to pass the

night. While our dr agomanwas enquir ing for tole r

able quarter s for us among the ruined dwellings, w e

r ested at the fir st cottage we came to, which consisted

of one long gr ound - floor room blackened with smoke,with a clay floor and a large kitchenr ange

,beds and

a few other r ude ar ticles of furniture,while inone

corner a sheep was tether ed . I ts occupants were

thr ee sister s,r emar kably handsome gir ls, who were

dr essed as or dinary peasants,and wer e engaged in

cooking and other domestic occupations,but fr om

their acquaintance with a purer idiom of Gr eek than

the native language wer e evidently super ior to the ir

pr esent position. They wer e per fect Italianmadon

nas,having oval faces and oval eyes fr inged with fine

lashes and surmounted by ar ched and well -mar ked

eyebr ows,the upper lip shor t

,and the nose well- cut

and slightly aquiline. Besides anupper dr ess, they

wor e the usual dr ess of Cr etanwomen,white tr ouser s

r eaching near ly to the ankle,a shor t petticoat

,and

a handker chief onthe head. Shortly afterwar ds the

mother enter ed, wear ing a cur ious cape of woollen

s tuff,which hung from the head and covered the back

and sides ; and she againwas followed by the old

father, who carried a sor t of crook, and looked a

t r uly patriarchal old man. T he parents only spoke

t he or dinary Cretan dialect. The Turks had de

s tr oyed all the proper ty of this family during the

insurrection, and this accounted for the reduced

c ir cumstances inwhich we found them living ; but

one of their relations,at all events, was onthe r oad

to for tune, and from his case we learnt how r apidly

anintelligent Greek canmake his way inthe wor ld.

A fter a little conversationthe old womanpr oduced

a large photograph, fr amed and glaz ed, representing

a good- looking gentleman in a Frank dress ; and

th is personwe learnt was one of her sons, who had

emigr ated at the conclusionof the war , andnow held

anexcellent mercantile appointment at Marseilles.We were destined, however, to a more star tling A str ange

sur pr ise. Greatwas our astonishment whenwe found

th at the old man’s sister had married anEnglish

gentleman, and was still living in Scotland. I t is

a very curious history. A t the time whenCrete wasunder the dominionof Mehemet A li, a boy and gir l

o f the Psar aki family (for that is their name, though

inCr etanit is pronounced Psar atch)were carried off

w ith many others as slaves to Egypt. Mr. H who

w as theninthat country,saw this female slave ex

posed for sale, and being struck with her beauty,b ought her and married her . Inthe course of time

th e brother also obtained his fr eedom,and became

a travelling servant (our dragomanwas acquainted

The Islands of the Aegean.

with him, having met him onsever al occasions); and

inthat capacity he once accompanied his sister and

her husband ona tour onthe Nile. Subsequently

the married couple r eturned to Crete, and established

themselves at A podulo. Ther e Mr. H built himse lf

a house, which was made over to his wife, since he

being a foreigner could not hold it inhis ownname,and at a later per iod, whenthey left the country and

took up their residence inEngland, it passed into

the hands of one of M r s. H — ’

s br others, the old

patriar ch with whom we were conver sing. This

dwelling was assigned to us as our abode for the

night,and in its half- ruined state a most dismal

habitation it was, for our room,which par took of

the nature of a cellar , was fearfully damp, possessed

no door,and was par tly tenanted by r abbits, which

seemed to have discovered the secr et of per petual

motion. O f the other childrenof the Psar aki family,besides those whom I have mentioned, one son is

the priest of the parish, while two boys live at home

and attend the village school, wher e they get the ir

educationgr atis, having only to pr ovide their books.

The D emo These schools ar e r egulated by the D emogerontia,ger ontia.

aninstitutionpeculiar to the CretanChr istians, which

consists of a representative council for a certainarea

of the country, under the pr esidency of the Bishop,and super intends the administr ationof certainpr o

per ties, makes provision for widows and or phans,and directs education. I t is now arranged that about

a quar ter of the revenues of all the monasteries shall

be handed over to the D emoger ontiae for the suppor t

of the schools. T he Psar aki boys were quick

children,and

,like the girls, under stood our Romaic

muchmor e r eadily thanthe par ents did. T he br other

inMarseilles,A lexander , was anxious that one of

them should come out to him to make his fortune,and the boy expressed h imself ready to go, but his

mother was unwilling to par t with him.

T he next morning (Mar ch 28) all our senses T/ze

were delighted by a clear sky, a br ight sun,and

a fr esh and gentle br eeze. This weather continued

dur ing the r est of our stay inthe island. T he cloud

less mountainsummits gave us quite a new idea of

the scenery, the most conspicuous being the pyra

midal form of the snow- capped Kedr os (6000 feet),which is the highest point that inter v enes betweenI da and the White Mountains. Ina ploughed field

inthe neighbourhood of the village I found the r ar e

and beautiful I r is tuber osa in flower, the gr eenish

petals of which turnoutwar ds with a pur ple lip the

gladiolus, which was gr owing plentifully along with

it, was not yet inbud . As we continued our journey

along the mountains, still towar ds the south- east, we

obtained a distant view of the island of G audos, the

Clauda,or r ather Cauda ‘

, of the Acts of the Apostles,lying far away to the west. This now belongs to the

S phakiotes. Near er to us lay an islet called Paximadi, i.e . Biscuit,

’

the name of which was evidently

derived fr om its shape. Through a depressionbetween

Kedr os and the heights that separ ate it from the sea,

1 Clauda in the A uthor ised Version, Cauda in the Rev ised

Vers ion.

P lainof

The Islands of the Aegean.

the White Mountains wer e visible, and displayed all

the featur es of anAlpine chain afterwards Psilor ites

(I da) came in sight towar ds the north, pr esenting

a vast mass of snow- fields 1. A t length, when the

last range of hills was crossed, the level distr ict of

Messar a,the r ichest in Cr ete, lay at our feet, r e

minding us of Mar athonby its cur ving sandy shor e,which fr inges the soft blue wate r of the bay, while it

is separ ated fr om the southernsea by a r ange of hills,beyond which lies the Fair Havens.’

Descending to the low ground, where the temper a

tur e was really warm, we rode at fir st over ir r egular

S loping gr ound,wher e the shepherd’s horn

,by which

the sheep ar e called together , was hear d inthe midst

of the solitudes, and thus ar r ived at the r eal plain,where or ange- tr ees wer e gr owing inthe half- ruined

villages,and the plane- tr ees wer e budding near the

watercourses. T he r ange of I da as seenfr om her e,1 The r elativ e heights of these mountains ar e r efer r ed to in the

follow ing little ballad, w h ich is inter esting also as a specimenof

the dialect of th e mountainee r s of S phakia. O bser v e the substi

tution of p for A, as indppa for dAAa, papévovo

'

z for paAévovm

w has the sound of the English 61.

s'

a Bov vd papovovm n’

é'

v e mi 6 3 01 0000301,

7 6 Kév 'r pos no.) 7 6 Ecpamav b m

’

ai’

r r év 7 6

n’

émréwsv e 7 6 2¢amavb 7pa¢1)v 1 06

Kar a’

e'r’

éaefs ‘r’d'

ppa Bov vd,’

s iyéva wan/6.01 6,

pd adv ip éva‘r b Bow b dppo Bov v b 83V Zv s.

’

Jeannarak i, K r eta’

s Volkslz’

eder,N o. 10 1 .

Th r ee mountains hav e a r iv alry , they come near to slaying oneanother

,—Kedr os, and he of S phakia

,and the thir d, Psilorites :

and he of S phakia to Psilor ites a missiv e sent— “ A base your selv es,ye other mountains, plume not your selv es incomparisonof me

like my mountainther e isno other mountain.

”

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Ruins

The I slands of the Aegean.

As both Pashley and Spratt mention in their

Travels inCrete a cer tainCaptainElias as anim

portant manat Hagins Deka, we enquired for his

house,but we were informed that he had now been

dead two years,and had beensucceeded by his son,

CaptainGeorge. T he fine old man, of whom every

one spoke interms of pr aise, had gone through all

the fighting of the late war , though eighty years of

age, but did not long survive its close. T he use of

the title of Captain, which is frequently found among

the Chr istians inCrete,is a curious concessionby

the ruler s to the amour pr opr e of the natives,for it is

assumed in times of insurrectionby the leader s of

revolutionary bands, and is subsequently recognised

official ly, as a compliment, by the authorities. Cap

tain George, a middle - aged man,with str ongly

marked features, but a more car eworn face even

thanthe majority of the suffer ing Cr etans,received

us kindly into his house, which had beencomplete ly

ruined,but was now r oofed inat the top, though

there was no floor to divide the upper storey fr om

the gr ound - room. H e was evidently ingreat poverty,

but, like many other s whom we met with,looked

super ior to his present condition. Inthe courtyard

infr ont of the house were numerous fragments of

white mar ble, and near the entr ance was a piece of

a column, and a sarcophagus with bulls’ heads and

wreaths of flowers of inferior wor kmanship,which

was used as a trough.

T he ruins of G or tyna cover a large extent of

ground, but none of them ar e either anterior to the

Romanperiod, or ingood preservation. T he city

was divided in two parts by the stream alr eady

mentioned,which takes its name

,

‘the Torr ent of

Metropolis (ras Mmpoar éxems 7 6 ¢apéyyc), from the

neighbour ing village : onaneminence onthe fu r ther

side of this was situated the acr opolis, while below

it, excavated in the hillside

,was the theatr e, which

is now analmost shapeless mass of rubbish. O p

posite to this, on the left bank,stood the church Chur ch

of S t. Titus,a building of massive stone, the pr in

5 "

cipal remaining part of which is a double apse ;fr om the appearance of the arches there must

originally have been thr ee apses,and the centr al

one has thr ee semi- cupolas. I t is certainly very

ancient,and

,accor ding to some ar chaeologists

,can

not have been built later than the four th or fifth

century. A t all events, it has the interest of associ

ation, for , as G or tyna was the Romancapital of the

island, and contained an old - established colony of

Jews 1,there is every reasonto believe that it must

have beenthe headquarter s of Titus’s ministr ations.

H e is now the patronsaint of Cr ete. The tradition

of anancient bishopric having existed onthis spot

is preser v ed to the pr esent day inthe name Metro

polis. T he remaining buildings, which lie dispersed

over the fields, ar e entir ely of br ick and rubble ;one that we saw was cir cular, another rectangular ;the largest is the amphitheatre, situated in the

ne ighbourhood of Hagins Deka, of which not

S ee I Mace. x v . 23 .

F

The Islands of the Aegean.

much more than the foundations and the shape

remain1.

Our object now was to recross the island onthe

easternside of Mount I da to the townof Megalo

castr on,or Candia

,on the northern coast ; but

before doing so we determined to make a detour to

visit a place which is knowninall the neighbour ing

distr ict by the name of ‘the Labyr inth (6 A aBt

'

v aos).

Our host,Captain George, undertook to be our

guide and accor dingly the next morning (Mar ch 29)we star ted inhis company, and for ding the str eam

close under the acr opolis of G or tyna, ascended the

hills towards the north-west, and inanhour ’ s time

reached the place which bear s that name . I t is

enter ed by an aperture of no gr eat size in the

mountainside, wher e the rocks ar e of clayey lime

stone, forming horiz ontal layers ; and inside we

found what looks almost like a flat roof,while

chamber s and passages runoff from the entr ance in

var ious dir ections. The appear ance at first sight is

that of artificial constr uction, but more probably it

is entir ely natur al, though some persons think it has

served for a quar ry. We wer e furnished each with

a taper , and descended by a passage, onboth sides

of which the fallen stones had beenpiled up ; the

roof above us var ied from four to sixteen feet in

height. Winding about, we came to an upright

1 For an account of the w onder ful ar chaic inscr iptionw hichw as discov er ed onthe site of G or tyna in1 884, the r eader may be

r efer r ed to Mr . Robe r ts’

s inter esting paper in the Classical

Review,v ol. 11. pp. 9—1 2.

stone, the work of a modernAriadne, set there to

show the way, for at intervals other passages

branched off fr om the mainone, and any one who

entered without a light would be hopelessly lost.

CaptainGeorge described to us how for three years A r efnge induring the late war (1867—9) the Christian inhabit

wa r ' hm '

ants of the neighbour ing villages, to the number of

5 00, and he among them,had lived here, as their

pr edecessors had done dur ing the former insur

r ection, to escape the Tur ks, who had burned their

h omes,and carried off their flocks and herds, and

all other property that they could lay their hands on.

H e pointed out to us the places where the stones

were piled up so as to form chambers, each of which

was occupied by a family. When I enquired, half

injoke, where their refectory (r pémca)was, he replied

that far, far within ther e was a large and lofty

central hall, capable of holding 5 00 people together,to which they gave that name

,and that there they

used to meet from time to time, and dance, sing, and

enjoy themselves. They had brought a provisionof

b r ead to eat and oil for light ; and water they oh

tained from a spr ing in the innermost par t of the

cavern, which appear s to be the only one, for we

saw no stalactites or dripping water inother parts.

T he heat, he said, was oftenvery great, owing to

th e confined air and the number of persons. After

w andering in different directions for half anhour,dur ing which time we had not penetrated into one

tenth of its ramifications, we returned to the open

The I slands of the Aegean.

Notwithstanding the modernname, and the opinion

of some scholars infavour of this place, there is no

reasonfor supposing that this was the or iginal Cretan

labyr inth. That place was inall probability a mythical conception

,like the stor ies attached to it

,

though,like many other Gr eek legends, it may have

beenattached to some geographical feature, such as

a cavern but all Gr eek writers localise the story at

Cnossus, besides which the coins of that city, of

which I obtained two in the island , bear as the i r

emblem anidealised r epr esentationof the Labyrinth .

Claudian indeed speaks of ‘the G or tynr

'

anabode o f

the by which epithet perhaps he simply

means ‘Cretan but it is quite conceivable th a t

whenG or tyna became the rival of Cnossus, th e in

habitants bor rowed the legend, and adopted th is

place as their labyr inth from its singular cor r espondence to the tr aditional idea, and that hencethe legend became natur alised here.

A scending the hillside, we cr ossed a plateau , th e

ground beneath which is mined by the Labyrinth ,

and at one point CaptainGeorge pointed out to us

the positionof the r efectory underground . H igh e r

up we obtained a view of all the snowy mounta insof Cr ete together, compr ising the D ictaeanmountains,I da

, Kedr os, and the White Mountains. I hav ementioned that Ida is now called Psilor ites ; th e

now par ted from us, and we continued to mount over

stony bar r enmountains and clayey valleys, inwhich

a few oleanders were growing,until we took leave

of the southernsea, and once more crossed the ridgeof the. island, near which is the small v illage of

H agia Barbar a. The road which descends from

hence to Hagios Thomas is excessively bad, inad

ditionto which our guide lost his way.We observedh ere what had str uck us also onthe west side of

I da,that the tracks in the nor thernpar t of Crete

ar e far worse than those to the south,probably

ow ing to the greater amount of soft soil. This r en

der s tr avelling a difficult matter during or after bad

w eather : onour journey to A r kadi our baggage

hor se once sank into the mud, and was with difficulty

extricated, and on this occasionnothing but extras

or dinary sur efootedness prevented it from falling.

T he absence of all traffic and communication, here

and everywher e , was painfully r emarkable.

Hagios Thomas occupies an,elev ated positionjust Roch - he‘wn

b e low a plateau of soft limestone rock of a light gr ey

colour, which falls to the village inpr ecipices of 40

or 5 0 feet high. Here huge blocks have fallenaway

from the face of the cliff, and lie detached close

b eneath. Inseveral of these, and also inthe rock

itself,very cur ious ancient tombs have been ex

cavated, which reminded my companion of those

of Petr a, and ar e mor e akinto the Lyciansepulchr es

th an to anything that is found inGreece Proper.O ne block has three of these invarious par ts of it,and the effect they produce is strange, fr om their

Mount

The Islands of the Aegean.

lying out of the per pendicular. They ar e all of

the same shape, being entered by a small square

headed doorway, and ar e square within, with ar ched

recesses surmounted by niches onthree sides ; the

floor is also hollowed out in parts into shallow

chambers. Nothing is knownas to the ancient citythat occupied this site, but, whatever its name, it

was probably Roman, for only Roman coins were

br ought to me by the people of the village, one of

them be ing a coinof the Emperor Gordian.

Descending againfrom this place by anintricate

path, and passing at intervals thr ough groves of

chestnuts not yet in leaf, about nightfall we arrived

at Venerato, a name which sounds as if it dated

from Venetiantimes. O nthe way we obtained fine

views of Mount Iuktas, which seems to have been

regarded as the burial - place of Zeus, for the neigh

bour ingvillagers, har dly otherwise thanthrough an

ancient tradition, give the name of ‘the Sepulchre

of Zeus (mi) Au): n‘

» p vq ov) to a r uinonits crest,and there is ample evidence that a reputed tomb

of the god was showninCrete even later than the

time of Constantine ‘. The mountain rises to the

S ee Pashley’s Travels inCr ete, v ol. i. p. 2 1 3 , w her e ev idence

is giv en to show that th is place has beenbeliev ed inthe island,at least for sev eral centur ies, to b e the r eputed sepulch r e of Zeus.While on this subject I may draw attention to the impor tantdiscov ery by M. Fab r icius of the

’

I bai’

ov dv -rpov , or cav e inMount

I da, w he r e Zeus was said to hav e been tended by the nymphsand Cur etes. This cav ern is situated near the upland plain of

N ida, mentioned abov e , w hich is betw een4000 and 5 000 feet

abov e the sea. N o inscr iptionhas beendiscov er ed by which it

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The Islands of the Aegean.

in EuropeanTur key Constantinople is spoken of

as T he City (r‘

; mats). A few persons of the upper

class prefer to call it H er acleion, using the name of

the ancient city which occupied the site. This was

the port of Cnossus,and the ruins of that ancient

capital— if so they can be called,for nothing but

a single wall remains— ar e to be seenat anhour’s

distance to the south, in a position remar kable

neither for str ength nor beauty. This last r emar k

applies also to the two other pr incipal Cretancities,Cydonia and G or tyna. As to the name of Candia,by which Megalo - castr onis better knowninWestern

Europe—it is never heard now in Crete, and as

a name for the island it never was used at all.

Though it was commonly employed by the Venetians

for the city, it is not of I talianbut of Arabic or igin,for it was givento the place by the Sar acens, when

they conquer ed Crete in the ninth century,and

constr ucted a fortified camp here, surrounded byanimmense moat (lehandak). The fame of the place

in history mainly depends on its gallant defence

against the Tur ks by the Venetians under Morosini,which ended ina capitulation in 1669. I t is still

sur rounded by the massive Venetianwalls, and in

appr oaching from the land side a deep moat has

to be crossed, and a winding passage traver sed,befor e the gateway is r eached.

Outside the gateway a number of lepers were

seated onthe ground to beg for alms. This disease

is a ter rible scourge inpar ts of Crete, and since

it is regarded as contagious, as soonas the first sign

Cr ete. 73

of it appears onthe body, the unfortunate patient

is excluded from the towns. Consequently, there

is a lepers’ village near Megalo - castrou, and we

pa ssed a similar one not far from the gates of

R etimo. T he leprosy affects especially the hands

and feet, the nose and eyes : one woman, who came

c lose to me to beg, had her hand sadly disfigured,and a painful look about the eyes. Withinthe walls

ev erything presented the appearance of anordinary

Turkish town. All the women were ve iled, but

th is did not necessarily imply that they were

M ahometans,for her e, as inone or two other towns

inTur key, the Chr istianwomen have adopted the

Moslem costume. I t is a lar ge place, containing

from to inhabitants,but the buildings ar e

poor and straggling. T he por t, which is enclosed,l ike that of Khanea, by Venetianmoles, lies onthe

easternside,and faces east, l ike the por t of Retimo.

Over a tower, which commands its entrance from

the sea,the lion of S t. Mark may be seenin two

places, and on the land side, partly entir e,and

par tly in r uins,stand the lofty arched roofs of the

docks or sheds that were used for the Venetian

galleys. During the few hour s of our stay we were

kindly entertained by our Vice-Consul, Mr. Lysi

machus Calocher ino,a man of great information

about the country,and reputed to be the wealthiest

maninCrete,his father having made much money

inthe island. Like Mr. T r iphylli, of Retimo, he

came or iginally from Cerigo. From him I learnt

that parts of the poem of E r otocr z'

tos, the most famous

The Islands of the Aegean.

wor k that has beenwritteninthe Cretandialect, ar e

still sung by the peasants,but mainly inthe eastern

districts, of which its author

,Cornar os

,was a native.

H e estimated the entire populationof Crete as from

to souls.

Returnto As we quitted Megalo - castr on,it presented an

imposing appear ance from the sea,with its minarets

and walls,backed by the striking r idge of Mount

I uktas, which is her e seeninprofile. After nightfall,

as we passed along the shore,the views of Mount

I da were fine inthe brilliant moonlight,and inthe

morning we found ourse lves once more off Khanea,

fromwhich place the White Mountains were seen

superbly clear, with shapes more shar ply cut and

bolder outlines thanthose of any other of the Cr etan

ranges. We had time to land and visit the Venetiandocks

,which r esemble those of Megalo - castr on

, and

have a place for drawing up the galleys ; after which

we walked round the eastern portionof the walls

outside, wher e the breach was pointed out to us

which had beenmade at the time of the siege by the

Tur kish cannon. After a visit to the Consul,Mr.

Sandwith, and our other friends,we embar ked again,

and arr ived the next morning at Syra.

A journey in Crete,such as I have descr ibed

,

leaves a profoundly melancholy impression on the

mind. Everywhere there was poverty, which in

some cases bordered ondestitution. I t was painful

evento feel that we our selves had enough to eat,

whenothers had so little ; and, if we had any com

passionto spare fr omhumanbeings, the poor starved

dogs were indeed a spectacle to move it. We wereassured, indeed, by Mr . Sandwith, who had done

everything in his power to alleviate the distress,that we saw it at its very worst

, and that there was

a prospect of a good harvest, which would mitigate

the suffering. The evil, however, appear ed to be too

deeply seated for it to be remediable by any tem

por ary influences.We found a widespread feeling

to pr evail among the people, that before tenyears

were over they would be againin insurrection, and

for this reason they did not care to repair their

dw ellings. N ow those who know the Cretans best

affi rm that, whenunmolested, they ar e a quiet, peace

lov ing people, and certainly all that we saw tended

to confirm this. The bad reputationof their fore

fathers for being ‘ liars, evil beasts, does not

apply to the present population, and we were much

struck by the few complaints we heard, and the

absence of begging. T he bearing of the people

generally in these hard times was most manly. I t

must have required a large amount of misrule,neglect

,and oppressionto br ing such a people to

such a condition. All the necessaries of life, except

w ine, were excessively dear, and notwithstanding

th e fer tility of the soil, the corn that was growndid

not suffice for the consumptionof the island . T he

t ith e was the only regular impost, but the manner

inwhich this was farmed greatly increased its op

p r essiv eness. Great injury had lately beendone by

th e intr oductionof a debased coinage, first by the

gov ernment, and subsequently by merchants, in

The Islands of the Aegean.

consequence of which the people were unwilling tor eceive the money. But causes such as these would

have beeninadequate to pr oduce such deep - seatedalienation, apart from the wholesale bar bar ities per e

petr ated by Omer Pasha’s tr oops

,which

,wer e they

not thoroughly well attested, would be quite incr edible.

‘

The Cr etans ar e usually about or a little abovethe middle height, though some ar e very tall and

well - gr ownmen. With few exceptions, they have

dar k hair and eyes, oval faces with rather a pointed

chin, full cheeks, and noses somewhat aquiline and

sometimes evenhooked the expr essionis generally

good - humoured and intelligent. T he men’s dress is

differ ent fr omwhat is found elsewher e inGreece and

Turkey, consisting of a long boot r eaching above the

calf,blue baggy tr ousers gather ed inat the knee, a r ed

sash,a white shirt, a blue waistcoat corresponding

to the tr ousers, and a jacket ; over this is worn a

S ee M . Per r ot’

s account inth e Revue des D eux Mondes,v ol.

lx x iv . p . 896. Ther e is no questionabout the facts,w h ich called

for th loud pr otests from the English , Fr ench , Russian, and

A ustr ianconsuls. Though the conditionof Cr ete at the pr esenttime can hardly be called satisfactory—w hile th ese pages ar e

passing th r ough the pr ess, it seems as if the old system of

pe r secution w as being r enew ed—yet a gr eat impr ov ement hastaken place since the per iod of my v isit. The fr esh r isingw hich I thenanticipated took place in1878 , and afte r that it w as

ar r anged that the gov ernor of the island should alw ays be a

Ch r istian, and the constitution, w hich had beengr anted tenyear s

befor e, w as allow ed to become a r eality, and w as impr ov ed and

ex tended inv ar ious w ays so as to admit a large amount of self

gov ernment. This systemhas, onthe whole, worked well.

Cr ete. 77

short capote, usually white, with a hood to cover

the head, though sometimes a skull - cap is seen.

O f these ar ticles of dress, the boots and cloak seem

to have come downfr om classical times, the former

being mentioned by Galen, who thinks their use was

suggested by the ruggedness of the Cretanmoun

tains 1

,the latter by Aristophanes, who calls it the

Kr etz'

con’. To classical students the interest of the

island consists, not inany important historical events

of which it was the scene, but in the peculiarity of

its institutions,and inits having beenthe principal

stepping- stone bywhich Phoeniciancivilisationpassed

into Gr eece.

G alen, v ol. x v iii. Pt. 1 , p. 682, ed. Kuhn.

9 A r . Thesm. 730 .

CHA PT ER IV.

N Ax os, Ios, AN D S IK IN O S .

WE were now (Apr il 2)about to enter onthe thir d

portionof our expedition,that is, to visit the southern

Cyclades,and the neighbour ing Sporades. Accord

ingly, having hired a toler ably large and par tlydecked boat, which could safe ly make the voyage

to the outlying islands,with thr ee sailor s to manage

her , we started inmost lovely weather , a continuance

of which our boatmenaugur ed fr om the porpoises

(aekqfiveg) which wer e playing about us. I t was a

dreamy,hazy day, and for some hour s, dur ing which

we wer e becalmed and had to use our oar s,the heat

was gr eat ; but late inthe afternoona fr esh breeze

spr ang up,and sped us onour way towar ds Nax os.

As we appr oached the northernextr emity of Paros,

a long line of mountains rose infront of us from the

water,while themainchainof that island lay behind ;

inone part the coastl ine retires, and forms the deep

and safe har bour of N aussa, about which ther e is

sloping ground, and a townappear ed inits r ecesses.

In ancient times this was a‘ closed ’ harbour

,the

entrance having beendefended by chains or other

barriers. T he town of Naxos,which lies on the

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The Islands of the Aegean.

which they suppor t has two large bosses projecting

fr om it ; these three stones stand alone, everything

else having fallen. From the idea that they formed

part of a palace, the island is called Palati. T h e

view of the townis picturesque, as seenthrough this

stiff fr ame,and the white marble is beautifully con

tr asted with the blue of the sky.

Infront of the little port stands anancient mole ,corresponding to that which r eaches to the island,

and between this and the shor e the water was so

shallow that we had some difficulty inmaking our

way through it. Whenat last we landed we were

sur r ounded by aninquisitive multitude, who crowded

about us with a r udeness very unusual among Gr eeks,and to escape them we made our way round the out

side of the town, but some followed us far into th e

country. O nour r eturnwe asked for the fountain

of Ariadne, and were showna remarkable source a t

the back of the town, covered inwith a large erection

ofmasonry. Inthe flat roof of this ar e two O penings

with marble about their mouths through which buckets

canbe let down, and the extensive pool formed b ythe water may be seen some distance below. A ll

the antiquities here ar e associated with Dionysus,

and eventhe wine is called after him this is white,

and agr eeable to the taste, though slightly resined.

The townof Naxos, though unimposing inits ap

pear ance, has anespecial interest as having once been

the headquarters of Italianinfluence inthe Aegean.

After the conquest of Constantinople at the time o f

the four th Crusade, the Venetians found it convenient

N ax os, I os, and S z’

laz'

nos.

to allow individual nobles of their ownbody to hold

cer tainparts of the Easternterritory that fell to them,

as fiefs of the Republic. Insome such relation, though

v ery undefined , to Venice , Mark Sanudo held the

office of Duke of the Archipelago or of Naxos, having

b eeninvested with it by the LatinEmperor of Con

stantinople. H e rebuilt the ancient townof Naxos,constructed the mole

,and er ected a tower in the

c itadel then, having confined the city to the Latins,h e obtained a bishop from the Pope, and built a

cathedral. T he government continued inhis family,and inthat of Crispo

,which was related to it, until

1 5 66, whenthis duchy was finally brought to anend

b y the Turks, after having existed 360 years. Though

th e Dukes were in reality independent, they were

always suppor ted by Venice for the sake of com

mercial influence. Their occupation was a great

cur se to the natives. A t the time whenthe duchy

w as established,these islands wer e ina prosper ous

condition; but by the Venetianmonopoly of tr ade,th e seizur e of lands by the conqueror s, and other

forms of oppression, they wer e gradually r uined.We ar e apt to be dazzled by the splendour of Venice ,

and occasionally roused to admirationby the gr andeur

of her policy ; but her treatment of her dependencies

w as systematically selfish,and her influence in the

E ast has beensecond only to that of the Turks inits

injur ious effects.

T he following morning we made our way towards

th e upper townthrough steep and tor tuous streets ;and, passing through a gateway, entered the Venetian

G

names.

The Islands of the Aegean.

Castr o, the original city of Sanudo. This forcibly

reminded me of the small Italiantowns of the Riviera ;insome places the projecting buildings almost met

above one ’s head,and it would have been l iteral ly

possible to shake hands acr oss the street ; inother

places the way for some distance was ar ched over.We saw numerous pieces of Hellenic mar ble, and

over one house a fine coat of arms was car ved, which,as we were informed, was that of the Barocci family.

The inhabitants of this quar ter, though they speak

Greek and consider themselves Greeks, ar e of the

LatinChur ch, and of Italian extraction, being de

scendants of the or iginal occupants. O ne family is

that of S ommar ipa, whose ancestors for a long per iod

were the r ulers of Par os. Historic names ar e not

uncommoninthese regions two days before, inthe

RomanCatholic quar ter of Syra, I asked a youth to

lend me the rattle with which according to custom

(for it was Holy Week)he was expr essing his aver

sion to Judas Iscariot, and on it I found his

name inscribed— Manuel Palaeologos. T he rattle

which I have mentioned is itself an instr ument

of I talianorigin, as most per sons will be aware who

have passed the week before Easter onthe Riviera,whenthe str eets ar e filled with its detestable sound,which is supposed to r epresent the r attling of Judas’

bones. The people whom we met looked superior

to any whom we had seenelsewhere inthe islands,especially the ladies, who wore black gauze veils.

The boys, too, wer e good - looking and their pale

complexions and light hair and eyes rendered them

N ax os, I os, and Sikinos.

a great contr ast to the Greeks. There is a Lazarist

and a Capuchinchurch here, and the Archbishop is

not a native, but is sent fr om Rome. T he highest

point of the town is occupied by a heap of r uins,wher e a fort— probably that of Sanudo—seems to have

stood ; from this the view was fine over Myconos,Delos, Rheneia, Tenos, and Syra to the north ; Par os

to the west and Sikinos and Ios to the south while

infront, the portal of the temple of Dionysus. onits

island formed a conspicuous object. Herodotus must

have beenthinking of some such panorama as this,when, with his usual keenobservationof geographical

features, he compared the islands of the Aegeanto

the Nile ininundation, at which time the cities alone

ar e seenabove the surface of the water‘.We started againonour southward course with Channel

a favour ing nor th wind, which carried us rapidlyfifgfi’

zwover the blue water through the channel which P ar af

separ ates Naxos and Paros. This was the scene of

an engagement between the Athenian fleet under

Chab r ias and the Lacedaemonians inB.C. 3 76, when

for the first time after the Peloponnesianwar , the

Athenians wona gr eat mar itime victory, and r egained

the mastery of the sea. Naxos shows to greatest

advantage inthe morning light, for thenthe separate

r anges of the inter ior ar e brought out distinctly, and

all the rich land along the levels and hillsides is

seen. I t is not a mere rocky ridge, like Tenos, for

we could see deep valleys running inwar ds, and

giving evidence of fer tile districts betweenthe moun1 H erod. a. 97.

G 2

The Islands of the Aegean.

tains onthe coast and the higher peaks behind. In

ancient times it was regarded as the most opulent of

all the islands 1, and at the present day it is very

prosper ous. T he emery,which was already famous

inPindar ’s time”,is still its pr incipal export. Tourne

for t, writing nearly two centur ies ago, describes its

abundance by saying,‘the English oftenballast their

ships with it.’ O nthe opposite side of the strait we

passed the townof Marmara,near the shore of Paros,

the highest point of which island,Mount Mar pessa

,

the seat of the famous mar ble quar ries, r ose above.

Greek sailors ar e usually aninteresting study, and

our pr esent cr ew wer e no exceptionto the r ule . Our

headman,CaptainConstantine— for this title he bore

inour boat’s paper s, which were inspected at ever y

island— was a strange being. A Silenus infigure, for

his punchy fr ame was nearly as br oad as it was long ;a Cyclops inface, for he was one - eyed and very ugly ;distinguished rather for grasping and cunning than

for virtue ; he never theless was good at his oar,an

exce llent sailor in an emergency,and thoroughly

well acquainted with the winds of the Aegeanand th e

shores and harbours of the islands. Plenty of sail,

plenty of way (fl'o naval, froht

’

ls‘ Bpépos)was his answe r ,

whenhis companions r emonstr ated at the amount of

canvas we wer e car rying. His views of the medical

faculty wer e worthy of Molier e When I go to the

doctor , I get ill as long as I keep away,I amwell

whenI eat much, I am well ; when little, I am i ll.’

The second, Y anni (Jack), whom we surnamed ‘the

1 H er od. 5 . 28.

2 N afla wér pa, I sthm. 5 . 107.

N ax os,Ios

,and Sikinos.

Conspirator,

’

was a handsome man, with soft eyes

and a thoughtful expr ession, but silent, and gifted with

a wi ll of his own,so that, whenever a difference arose

betweenus and them about starting or stopping or

changing our course,he was always the least disposed

to yield . T he thir d, George, who had accompanied

us also onour expeditionto Delos,was a capital good

humoured hard -working lad,whose complexionand

hair betokened some negro blood. They strongly

resembled the old Greek sailor s in their vivacity,talkativeness

,readiness inaction, freedomingiving an

opinion,and indispositionto obey any one leader ‘

.

Whenwe emer ge from the channel betweenNaxos

and Par os, we see onour left H er acleia and sever al

other small islands ; to the south - east Anaphe lies

like a shadow onthe horizon; Nio (Ios)and S ikino

ar e compar atively near in front ; and to the right

appear Pholegandro, S iphno, Antiparo, and others

less important. Again, as we enter the strait that

separ ates Nio from S ikino, the twinpeaks of Melo

ar e faintly visible inthe far west, and at last Ther asia

and Santorin, the southernmost of all, complete the

Many of the nautical terms of the G r eek sailor s ar e fr om the

Italian,as Ariana ‘ let go r cp ém rudder

’

(timone),x ov pr a deck ’

(coper ta), x apaw l rolling (ca r atar e to balance

¢ovprr ofiwa‘a storm

’

(for tuna). O ther s,like sailor s

’terms ev ery

w he r e , ar e hard to ex plain. Inpar ticular, the w or ds for easy(3a yam) and hard (inMan) ar e v ery difi cult of der iv ation

that inMM is eta M a, as some hav e suggested, is impossible,

and in the passage quoted from A r istophanes (F ax , w he r e

those w ords ar e used in hauling a r ope , they clear ly mean pullhard.

’A éora is used for ‘

a rope inConstantine Por phyr ogenitus.

The Islands of the Aegean.

number . We were more and more str uck by the

size of the islands,and the ir apparent distance from

one another . We ar e now enter ing the Sporades,though from the vague way in which the term

Cyclades was used,these outliers ar e sometimes

included in that group. A few gener ations ago

H er acleia was commonly called Raclia,Anaphe

Naphio, and Naxos Axia, and this last form we

our selves hear d used onTenos ; we observed, how

ever, that our sailor s regularly employed the correct

forms. I t seems almost a parallel to the pr efix ingand omissionof the h inEnglish, whenwe find n

prefixed in Nio,as inmany other modern Greek

names,but omitted inAxia. A s this wor d, howeve r ,

signifies ‘the Worthy,

’

it is probably an instance of

the fondness of the Gr eeks for changing the form of

a name so as to give it anintelligible meaning.

T he appear ance of Ios is very r ugged,as seen

fr om the sea ; but whenwe turned into the land

locked har bour ou the west coast, passing a small

lighthouse at the entrance, a smiling view awaited us,

for the sloping hillsides ar e formed into terraces, the

vegetationof which was forward, owing to their wes

ternaspect. T he picturesqueness of the little bay is

increased by a handsome church of S t. I rene, which

stands ona r ock above the shor e, having a Byzantine

cupola and anI talianbell - tower with tier s of arches— a style of building which seems to prevail inthese

parts : at the landing- place there a few houses,but

the town is built high above,and is reached by a

steep ascent of half- a-mile. We took up our quarters

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scr iption.

The Islands of the Aegean.

v er sy soondied out, and was not revived until 1 840 .

Pasch v anKr ienenthenfound a fresh advocate in

the eminent traveller Ludwig Ross,while Welcker ,

inanelaborate essay onthe subject,has endeavoured

to show that the whole thing was a forgery, and this

he is generally thought to have proved 1. The facts

which r emainar e these : that Ross found at Placoto

a toler ably cir cumstantial traditionremaining of the

place having beenexcavated by a str anger ; and that

BiO rnstahl,the Swede, saw at Leghornthe packages,

though as yet unpacked, inwhich Pasch v anKr ienen

had br ought over the inscr iptions he had collected in

Ios and other islands. From that time Pasch v an

Kr ienenwholly disappear s from sight ; and, like a

character in a child ’s story, was‘never heard of

afterwards,’ neither himself nor his inscriptions,

until a few years ago two of the latter, includingone from I os (unfortunately, ofno great importance),wer e discovered inthe basement storey of the Br itish

Museum,where they ar e still.

Among these amusing elements of uncertainty one

fact remains undisputed, viz. that on a stone slab

which was used as a bench in front of a church of

Hagia Caterina, inthe town of I os, Pasch v an

Kr ienenfound a genuine inscriptionwhich he copied

and published inhis book ; for this was seenby Ross

inthe same position, and though it had beengreatly

defaced by exposur e, there was enough remaining to

identify itwith Pasch v anKr ienen’

s copy. I t consists

Welcker , Kleine S chnfien, vol. iii.

N axos,I os

,and Sikinos. 89

mainly of a long list of names ; and as the intr o

ductory lines seem to containa r eference to Homer ,it is Welcker’ s opinionthat there existed in I os a

H omeric school, and that a number of its members

h ad inscribed their names onthis stone. A s nearly

forty years had elapsed since Ross’s visit, we were

desirous to know whether the inscr iptionstill existed,and with this v iew we enquired for the church of S t.

Catherine. From a dirty but civil manwho offered

to be our guide, we discovered that there were two

dedicated to that saint, a circumstance that illustrates

the extraordinary number of little churches with

w hich this townswarms ; for , as ournative remarked

w ith a tone of enlightenment,‘ inthe Middle Ages,

w henpersons were ignor ant, the pr iests persuaded

them that it was a pious thing to build so many

chur ches.’ Some of these wer e simply a tiny dome

supported by four walls,almost resembling the tombs

o f sheikhs which ar e seen in Turkey. Except in

some fiv e regular places of worship, however, ser vice

is performed inthe churches in Ios only three or

four times a year. One of S t. Catherine’ s shrines

w as inthe lower, the other inthe upper part of the

town, but at neither of them could the stone be

found ; at the latter, however, a woman said that

there had beenaninscribed stone in the positionwe

spoke of,but that it had beenr emoved by the bishop

to his house, probably to pr eser ve it. T he bishop

unfortunately was absent, and we could not obtain

admission into his precincts ; thus, as far as wewere concerned, this rel ic of Pasch v anKr ienen

’

s

S z'

hz'

nos.

The Islands of the Aegean.

investigations, l ike the rest, passed out of reach of

discovery.

Above the highest part of the townrises a steep

mass of granite, of which stone this portionof the

island is composed. We found the summit blue

with innumerable small irises (I r is szsyr znchzam),and the view of the townbelow was curious fr om the

flat roofs of the houses— a feature which is found in

most of these islands andinCrete— and the numer ous

churches interspersed among them. But what most

attr acted our attentionwas Santorin, into the str ange

basinof which we now looked for the fir st time and,softly delineated as it was

,with the lofty peak of

Hagios Elias behind, and in front the calm sea

str eaked with lines of currents, it looked to me a sort

of Promised Land,after having beenthe subject of

so many expectations. A gentlemanof N io, who

came to visit us at the landing- place, described how

he had seenit iner uptionfr om that point (the dis

tance to the new crater is about twenty miles), and

said that the effect was very striking. T he earth

quake motionfrom the volcano is not much felt here,as we should expect it would be ; and as it is mor e

felt at Melos,it would seem that the wave of move

ment passes inthe dir ectionof that island.

T he greater part of the following day (Apr i l 4)was

spent insearching for a little temple onthe island of

Sikinos, which was unknownto our sailors,and the

positionof which was incor r ectly giveninour maps.

Before leaving the har bour of I os, we saw one of our

crew beating anoctopus, which was intended for their

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92 The Islands of the Aegean.

hurry of embar king he had left his shoes behind

him. H e mounted at a splendid pace, so that in

three- quarters of anhour we found ourselv es onthe

r idge of the island, which may be about 1,5 00 feet

above the sea. Just below this, on the southern

side, stands the smal l rude temple, with walls of

har d blue l imestone, surmounted by a Byzantine

cupola, which was added whenit was converted into

a Christianchurch. Inconsequence of the pur pose

which it now ser ves the place is knownas Episcopi.

I t is a temple inantz'

s, that is to say, a simple cella ,

with two columns infr ont which stand betweenpr o

jections of the side walls ; but the intercolumniations

have now beenbuilt up with masonry. The columns

ar e in a pseudo - Dor ic style, with bases. T he

pr onaos faces west— analmost unique feature ina

Greek temple. Inside ther e is a Venetian glass

chandelier,and a Russianeagle inmarble, probably

dating from the time of the Russianoccupationof

the islands inthe last century, is let into the floor.

A portionof the cross- pieces and slabs of the ancient

roof remains. Infront of the building, to the west,there is a stone platform,

and an inscr iption inone

part of this shows that the temple was dedicated to

the PythianApollo. From the writing of this, and the

style of the architecture, Ross concludes that its date

is 200 B.c. T he steep height which rises above is

the site of the ancient city. To judge from the small

size and the ruggedness of the island it was never ,inall probability, a place of much importance ; hence

this small temple would correspond to the means of

N ax os,I os

,and Sikinos. 93

the inhabitants. We may remar k that, though the

ancient Gr eeks wer e fond of high places for their

temples,their successors inmodern times ar e even

mor e so : thus her e, while the ancient building was

p laced somewhat below the ridge, no doubt to shelte r

it from the force of the nor th wind, the moderns, not

content with converting it into a chur ch, have built

another chapel onthe r idge itself. T he island -view

f r om this point was fine onboth sides, the br oken

o utline of Pholegandr os being the near est and most

conspicuous object. After examining this we r e

turned once more to our vessel.

Appr oaeh

tor t'

n.

CHA PT ER V.

S A N TO RIN ,A N T I PA RO S , A N D PA RO S .

11 was a lovely afternoonwhenwe commenced

our voyage to the southernmost islands. T he air

was so tr ansparent that objects in Santorinwere

clearly visible, and the white town, perched onthe

r ocks that flank the inside of the crater, although

eighteen miles distant, was the object for which

we were instructed to steer. T he sky was almost

cloudless, the sea oily- calm, and the islands ex

tr emely beautiful, especially the brokenbut tender

forms of I os and Sikinos close at hand, with shadowyvalleys and sun- lit capes. T he sun set clear into

the sea, and was succeeded by the innumer able star s

of a Greek heaven. When the moon r ose,about

nine o ’clock, we had alr eady passed between the

nor thernmost capes of Santor inand T her asia, and

were str uck with wonder at the walls of rock that

were revealed by the moonlight on both sides of

the great basin. We wandered onbeneath the cliffsof Santor in, sometimes in light, sometimes inpitchy

darkness, in sear ch of the landing- place, which we

discovered at last from the ships lying there. Owing

to the almost unfathomable depth of the water there

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96 The Islands of the Aegean.

above the water , and the descent is so abrupt

that you seem able to thr ow a stone into the tiny

craft below. The houses run along the cr est, and

ar e themselves peculiar, for their foundations and,in some cases, the sides also, ar e excavated in the

tufa, so that occasionally they ar e har dly tr aceable

except by their chimneys and,owing to the absence

of timber— for , with the exception of the fig, the

cactus, and the palm, ther e ar e har dly any tr ees in

the island— they ar e r oofed with barr el vaults of

stone and cement. I t is easy to conceive how

str ange a sight they pr esent,whenseenfr om above ;

and moreover the paths and the land intheir neigh

bour hood r esemble nothing more than the English‘black country.’ Both wood and wate r have oc

casionally to be impor ted from the neighbouring

islands, for there ar e no wells, and the r ainwater ,which is collected innumer ous cisterns, does not

always suffice. Owing to the pr evalence of fine

dust, the womengo about as closely veiled as if they

wer e Mahometans, though to some extent this habit

pr evails in other islands, and may ar ise fr om tr a

ditional custom. T he populationhere struck us as

being the handsomest we had seen, and as r etaining

mor e of the old Gr eek type. T he town and the

contiguous vil lages run along the cr est for a con

sider ab le distance towards the north, until, at Mer o

vnlf,the highest point in this neighbourhood is

reached ; this commands an extensive view,and

overlooks the townof A panomer ia near the nor the rn

entrance, which is crowded together inawhite mass,

Santor in,Antz

'

par os, and Par as.

r esembling a glacier r ather thanhouses, while the

r ocks below it ar e the r eddest that ar e seenin the

island . From this positionlet us take our sur vey.

T he island of Santorin is c r escent- shaped , en

closing the bay onthe nor th, east, and south, while

onthe westernside lies the island of T her asia. T he

encir cling wall thus formed, which is eighteenmiles

r ound in its inner r im,is broken in two places ;

towards the north-west by a strait a mile inbreadth,

where the wate r is not less than 1 100 feet deep ;and towar ds the south -west by an aperture about

three miles wide, where the water is shallow, and

anislet called A spr onisi or White Island , lying in

the middle,ser ves as a stepping-stone between the

two pr omontor ies. T he cliffs, as I have described,r ise perpendicularly from the water, insome places

H

98 The Islands qf the A egean.

to the height of 1000 feet ; but towar ds the Opensea, both in Santor in and T her asia, the ground

slopes gradually away, and has beenconverted into

broad level terraces, everywher e covered with tu

faceous agglomer ate,which

,though extr aordinar ily

bare and ashento the eye, is the soil which pr oduces

the famous Santorinwine. Towards the south - east

r ises the limestone peak of Mount Elias, the highest

point of the island (1887 feet), and the only par t

that existed befor e the volcano was formed . Inthe

centre of the basin lie thr ee small islands, though

fr om this point they seem to form one ; the furthest

of which is called Palaea Kaumene, or Old Burnt

I sland the near est, Mikr a Kaumene, or Little Burnt

Island while that which lies betweenthem, and is

by far the largest of the three,bear s the name of

N ea Kaumene, or N ew Burnt Island : this last was

the scene of the great eruptionof 1866. I t is har dly

accurate, per haps, to speak of the basinas a cr ater,

for most geologists,including Lyell

,support the

view that the whole of this space was once cover ed

by a single volcanic cone,the incline of which is

represented by the outwar d slope of Santorinand

T her asia,while the positionof the crater was that

now occupied by the Kaumene islands, only at a

much gr eater height above the sea ; and that at a

remote per iod, perhaps about 2000 B. c., owing to

some sinking of the strata beneath, the central por

tionof this,extending over anarea which a Fr ench

writer compar es with that included withinthe for ti

fications of Par is at the time of the siege, fell in, by

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The Islands of the Aegean.

cast forth was car r ied by the waves to the shor es of

Asia Minor and Macedonia ; that of 1 5 73 , when

Mikra Kaumene appear ed ; that of 165 0, a fearful

eruption, which destroyed many lives by its noxious

exhalations, and ended in the upheaval of anisland

inthe sea to the nor th - east of Santor in, which after

war ds subsided and became a permanent reef below

the sea- level that of 1 707, when N ea Kaumene

ar ose ; and,within the recollection of the pr esent

gener ation, that of 1866. O f this last eruptionwe

have a descr iption from aneye-witness, Commander

Brine, who ascended onFe b . 28 of that year to the

top of the crater of N ea Kaumene, about 3 5 0 feet

high, and looked down upon the new vent, then

infull activ ity. The whole of the cone was swayingwith anundulating motionto the r ight and left, and

appeared sometimes to swell to nearly double its

size and height, and to thr ow out r idges like moun

tainspurs, till at.

last a broad chasm appeared acr oss

the top of the cone, accompanied by a tr emendous

roar of steam,and the shooting up fr om the new

cr ater to the height of fr om 5 0 to 1 00 feet of tons of

r ock and ash mixed with smoke and steam. Some

of these which fell onMikr a Kaumene at a distance

of 600 yards from the crater, measur ed 3 0 cubic feet.

This effor t ove r , the r idges slowly subsided, the

cone lowered and closed in, and then,after a few

minutes of comparative silence, the struggle would

begin againwith precisely similar sounds, action,and result 1

3 Quoted by Lyell, P r inciples of G eology, v ol. 11. p. 70.

Santor in,Antzjbar as, and Par as.

In the townof Thera we visited two collections Collections

of antiquities,belonging to M . de Cigallas and faz

mqm'

Mdme . Delenda. They contained a considerable

number of inscriptions, which have beenpublished,numer ous antiquities in glass and earthenware, an

Egyptian figure inpottery,probably brought from

Cyr ene, and one of the very large and roughly

painted vases which ar e peculiar to this island ; but

on the whole they were disappointing, particularlyas ther e were none of the prehistoric objects which

w e hoped to find. Most of these have beencarried

off,and they ar e said to be very brittle and difficult

to pr eserve. T he Spanish names of the owners of

these collections ar e noticeab le,for they ar e descend

ants of some of the Catalans who inthe four teenth

century were the ter ror of the Aegean, and par ts

of whose bands settled in var ious districts. T r a

ditions of Spanish occupation ar e to be found in

several places in Greece,

and in Cr ete Pashley

mentions a village still called S paniako for this

r eason.

Descending to the landing- place, we started to The

visit the central islands. A s we approached them

the sea took a sulphurous colour, which deepened

as we neared the shore, and the water became

warmer and warmer, until at last it was almost too

hot for the hand. T he passage betweenN ea and

Mikra Kaumene inthis part is not mor e thantwelvefeet across. Ina fur ther part of the channel some

Russian ships, which were engaged in the wine

trade, were moored to the coast onboth sides, the

The Islands of the Aegean.

place being chosen for its sheltered position, and

giving a forcible proof of the want of anchorage in

the har bour. Close to the point wher e we landed

onN ea Kaumene was a hot sulphur spring, from

which the steam was evaporating. Mounting over

loose blocks of lava and detritus,which yielded to

the foot and made the ascent far mor e difficult than

that of the cone of Etna or Vesuvius, we arr ived at

the summit,which is about 5 00 feet high. H ere

there were several small cr aters, one of which

emitted much sulphurous steam,coming out injets

mixed with smoke ; and though we stood to wind

ward,the air around us was very Oppr essiv e, and

the stones beneath our feet wer e cr acked by the

heat. T he descent on the opposite side required

the greatest car e, for a leg may easily be broken

whentreading onlarge blocks that give with the foot,owing to the loose foundationonwhich they rest.We had sent round our boat to meet us, and

passing onour r ight hand vast masses of slag that

tower from the water,and onour left the island of

Palaea Kaumene, which presents a steep face on

this side, as if it was broken off, where a strait

divides it from N ea Kaumene, we made our way

across to the south side ofT her asia. Inthis part, halfway betweentwo capes, there was said to be a pr e

historic village. A t the end of a very steep scrambleupwar d over the rocks, we found the guide whomwe had brought with us from Thera quite at fault,and were glad to meet with a shepher d—a str ange

being, with boyish looks and complexion, and grey

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The Islands of the Aegean.

fell in together. T he foundations of the dwellings

rested, not on the tufa

,but onthe lava below it ;

and here and there betweenthe stones br anches of

wild olives were found, according to a mode of

building that still prevails in the island, in order

to resist the shocks of earthquakes. Part of the

skeletonof a manwas discovered, and large vases,some containing grain, other s stone instruments very

car efully worked. Some of these vases were of fine

yellowish earth, ornamented with brownbands ; others

of smaller size wer e more elaborately decor ated, in

some cases having lines representing foliage, and

ina few instances figur es of animals ; some were of

r ed earth, without ornament ; while others, of pale

r ed earth, were of very lar ge dimensions. No imple

ments of metal were found. A t fir st it was thought

that the pottery came fr om abroad, the r ed kinds

probably from Anaphe, the other s from other islands,especially Melos but this view has beenabandoned,since the same sort of earth as that of which they

wer e made has beenfound inSantorin, though these

str ata ar e now covered by the sea’. But as some

objects inobsidian, which is of foreignimpor tation,have beendiscovered inthese dwellings, it is certain

that these early inhabitants must have had some

commerce.

I t hasnaturally beenthe subject of much discussion

what was the or igin of the very primitive ar t dis

played inthis pottery. T he late M . Dumont, who

was the leading author ity on the subject, though

Fouqué , S antorinet ses Eruptions, p. 1 25 .

Santor in,Antipar os, and Par as.

speaking with great caution onaccount of the in

sufficiency of the evidence, inclined to the belief that

it was par tly derived from Phoenicianinfluence, but

at the same time that there were evident traces of

native originality. Comparing it inrespect of date

w ith the other prehistor ic developments of ar t inthe

neighbourhood of the Aegean, he would place it

later than that at Hissarlik, but ear lier thanthose

of Ialysus inRhodes, and of Mycenae

I t remained now (Apr il 6)to visit the southernpart Southern

of Santorin,and with this object we hir ed a boat to

take us to the townof Acroteri, which lies a little

with inthe south -westernpromontory, and takes its

name from it. O nthe way, the horns of the crescent

shaped island wer e finely seen. In many places

lumps of light pumice- stone were floating on the

surface of the water. Shortly after landing below

the townwe found anintelligent lad, who undertook

to conduct us to a pr ehistor ic village inthat neigh

bour hood. This is situated in a similar position

to that onT her asia, but facing the harbour. Two

of the dwellings that composed it par tly remain,but

the others subsequently to their excavation have

beenagaincovered by a fall of the tufa cliff. These

two, which stand side by side, ar e about 1 2 feet

square,and their walls ar e composed of black lava

blocks roughly put together, while inone part they

ar e cover ed with a kind of mor tar. These remain

to the height of 4 or 5 feet, and inthe par ty-wall

is a sort of closet, inwhich cornwas found. T he

L es Cér amiques de la G r iceP r opre, pp. 74, 75 , 209.

106 The Islands of the Aegean.

boy described how six large jars (m'

doc)wer e found

inthe houses, and fragments of some of these were

still lying about. When this village was fir st dis

covered, it was believed to be of later date thanthe

one onT her asia,but now it is agr eed that it also

existed before the crater fell in Above this place

the town of Acroteri forms a conspicuous object,

from its old Venetian castle occupying a r ockyheight, with a square central tower, round which

numerous vaulted buildings ar e ranged. We then

directed our steps eastward,insearch of anancient

temple, now conver ted into a chapel of S t. NicolasMarmor ites

,as the saint is her e called, inhonour

of his mar ble sanctuary. Our road lay between

vineyar ds, and was so deep in sand from the pul

v er ised tufa, that we found it easier to walk on the

top of the rude walls of lava oneither side thaninthe path itself. Fr om this neighbourhood we oh

tained superb views of the snowy ranges of Dicteand I da, in Crete, str etching along the southern

hor izon. T he vines presented a most curious ap

pear ance, from their br anches be ing tw isted round

and round and plaited together into what resembles

a cir cular maund or hamper ; and as the stock of thetrees hardly r ises at all above the sur face of the

ground, the fields fr om a distance look as if they

were covered with gigantic birds-nests. T he strange

ness was not lessened by the leaves being now in

bud : as the summer comes on, the branches ar e

untwisted and spr ead out uponthe gr ound .

D umont, L es Ce

'

r amiques de la G r e’

cepr opr e, p. 29 .

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I Vames

The Islands of the Aegean.

keeping a double festival,for the anniversary ofGreek

Independence coincides with the Annunciation; they

were all sitting inthe streets, and were not a little

sur prised by our sudden appear ance. T he main

street was crossed by two ar chways, over each of

which hung six large bells. A t this point we were

close under the flank of Mount Elias, onthe summit

of which we could see a monastery. We then

followed the edge of the great basin, obtaining views

of the easternsea with Anaphe, the three peaks of

Amorgos,and the distant Astypalaea

,which is in

Tur kish water s ; and whenwe reached the town

of Thera, we descended once more through its steep

and slippery streets to the har bour.

After seeing what a cinder this island is, we

cannot help being astonished at its having been

colonised at an early period by the Phoenicians.

That this was the case we learn from Her odotus

who attributes the foundation of the colony to

Cadmus. This story vouches at least for the belief

that ther e was anearly settlement of that race in

Thera,and the traces of the influence of Phoenician

ar t which have been discover ed point in the same

dir ection. I t must ther efore have possessed some

sources of attraction, and one of the names by which

it was known to the Gr eeks was Calliste or ‘the

Fairest Island.’ Unless this was a euphemistic

expr ession, we canonly explain it as refer ring to

the fitness of Ther a for the cultivationof the vine,and perhaps also to the excellence of the harbour as

H erod. 4. 147.

Santor in, Antipar as, and Par as.

a shelter, notwithstanding the want of anchorage.

T he modernname is derived from its dedicationby

the Latins to S t. Irene ; Tournefor t, who some

times calls the island Sant- Erini, mentions nine

or tenchapels of that saint as existing ther e. T he

classical myth of its origindescribed it as sprung

fr om a clod of ear th presented to the Ar gonauts by

Triton Inmoderntimes, as the natur e of the soil

pr events bodies from decomposing easily, it is r e

garded as the especial home of the Vampir e, for

according to this superstition,when the soul of a

manafter death has assumed this malignant form,

his body refuses to decay. S O widely is the par

tiality of,v ampir es for Santorinrecognised, that the

Hydr iotes and Cr etans believe that they canper

manently get rid of those obnoxious visitor s, if they

canonce be transported thither. The same notion

has probably caused it to be r egar ded as a place

of pur gator ial suffering, an idea which appears in

the following weird story.‘Many years ago, it may be a hundr ed and fifty

, A weir d

a vessel was on its way to Rhodes, when it was”00“

caught by a storm in the open sea, and was in

danger , until they found a refuge in a small un

known island . There the cr ew cast anchor and

went ashore . After a l ittle while, as soonas it was

day, all at once they saw three ladenmules coming

down fr om the mountain above,bending under

the we ight of thr ee stones apiece ; but as soonas

they r eached the beach they turned round with

A pollon. A rgonaut. 4. 1 5 5 1 foll. ; 1 73 1 foll.

The I slanfi of the Aegean.

the ir loads and made for the place they had come

from, and then returned again short ly after w ith

the same loads, and did as before. This they r e

peated several times. Now whenthe sailors noticed

this strange occurrence, how that the mules went

to and fr o with their burdens without any one ap

pear ing to guide or to load them,it attracted their

attention, and they perceived that there was some

thing uncanny inthe proceeding : and one of them

inparticular, coming up to one of the mules, struck

it with the stick that he held inhis hand ; whereupon the mule turned round, and with a human

voice addressed him thus, Don’

t str ikeme,cousin.

”

And whenhe stopped, all in a fright, and gazed

at him, the mule proceeded,“You think it strange

that I call you cousin, so let me tell you that I am

no bornmule, but a manundergoing purgatory : I

am your cousin, Father M .,who oftentook away

people ’ s characters by perjury,and these ar e two

other countrymenand friends of our s (and he men

tioned their names), and they too ar e undergoing

pur gatory. T he name of this place is Kaumene,

and it is near Santor in. Whenyou return to our

country,make offerings for the repose of our souls

,

if so be we may obtain some alleviation of our

sufferings

Antipar as. During the two first days of our southward voyage

Polites, N eoq r u-r) Mv OOAo-yfa , pp. 406, 407. M. Polites

maintains that, though the doctr ine of purgatory is not admitted

by the EasternChur ch , yet tr aces of the belief in it ar e found

among the low er classes inG r eece : p. 397.

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which were lying some kids a month old . O n

the rocks at the back of this is an inscription, con

taining the names of per sons who visited the Grotto

in classical times, from which we gather that the

vulgarity of wr iting one’s name in celebr ated

places is not altogether new but the moderns, it

would seem,ar e worse thanthe ancients

,for across

the face of the inscriptionruns a hor r id palimpsest,in the shape of the initials of a manwho was herein 1 778

— probably one of the companions of M .

Olivier, the French tr aveller and author,whose

name with the same date is to be seenhard by.

The ground descends rapidly into the narrowingcavern, until a stalactitic cupola is reached, wher e

the first steep fall of rock commences ; here the

water fr om the roof was brightly dr ipping into

a shepherd ’s broken cruse,and as we looked back

the stalagmite stood out against the light like a

huge idol. T he r ope was then fastened round a

stalactite, and without further instructions we were

desired to descend . T he depth here is about 1 5

feet, but a fall would be fatal,for ther e is only just

standing r oombelow, and beyond that ar e pr ecipices

however,I found no great difficulty inletting myself

down by the r ope while keeping my feet against

the rock at r ight angles to my body. My companion

followed, and then our tapers were lighted, and

we proceeded to climb round the smooth and slipperycliffs at the side, after which came slopes of de

’

br is,

together with several faces of r ock like the former

one. I t is this steep continuous descent that dis

Santor in,Antipar as, and Par as.

tinguishes this cavernfrom others that I have seen,such as that of Adelsberg in Styria, the Corycian

cave onMount Parnassus,and that of S t. Michael

at Gibraltar. A t last we reached a place which

looked like Malebolge, for all was darkness below,and our guide disappeared down the rope to a

much gr eater depth than before ; but as we had

not, like Dante, a Geryononwhose back to descend

into the abyss, we swarmed downthe face of this

precipice also,and then found ourselves in the

Grotto. I t is a large and lofty hall,ornamented

with very fine pendent stalactites,the white forms

of which glimmer in the dim light, and if it were

brilliantly illuminated, the effect would be strik

ing; but in itself, though cur ious,it is not the

most imposing of caverns. T he depth must be

sever al hundred feet. We wer e shown the altar

where mass had been said whenKing George and Visit of

QueenOlga visited the place three years before ; George.

at that time the descent was made by ladder s. Our

ascent from Malebolge was facilitated by a rope

passed under our arms and hauled from above, and

so we regained the daylight. T he natives call the

p lace T he Refuge (x ar acpéyt), a name which I have

found applied to other subter r anea inGreece, and

which explains the use to which such caverns have

b eenput. O nthe way back I dug up a variety of

o rchids, and the natives who assisted me askedmany questions about their destination

,England.

O n the other side of the strait which separates

Antipar os from Par os a large ex tent of r ich land

Par as.

The Islands of the A egean.

was seen, while behind rose the central Mount

Mar pessa, toward which the ground slopes upwardfrom every par t of the coast.We r e - embarked, and inanhour reached Par oekia,the capital of Paros. From the size and fer tility of

the island we expected to find it a prosper ous town,but, on the contrary

,it proved the dirtiest place

we had visited on our journey : the streets were

open sewers,and everywhere full of nuisances.

As might be expected inthe neighbourhood of the

famous Parianquarries,fragments of marble were

to be seeninall directions ; pieces of cornices served

for doorsteps, and triglyphs and other ornaments

were built into the walls of the houses. The gr eatest

amount of these relics of antiquity is ona knoll on

the nor th side of the town, on which stood the

ancient acropolis ; her e drums of columns, some

Doric, some Ionic, lie inall directions, while other s

have fallen down the steep hillside into the sea.

The white marble of the temples to which they

belonged must have looked well fr om the water

in this elevated position. A por tion of the wall

of the Venetianfortr ess which occupied one side of

this height is curiously composed of drums laid

ontheir sides and slabs unequally fitted together ;within this there is a chapel of our Lady of the

Cross,and the masonry which now forms the east

end of it is almost the only ancient structure which

retains its original position. Several churches here

have incised ornaments, and other features of the

true Byzantine style of architecture, which ar e

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The Islands of the Aegean.

the year preceding our visit, a foreigner who came

to Paros cut this piece off and carried it away with

him : but subsequently, ona letter of remonstrance

being addressed to him by M. Damias, who at the

time was ignorant of the act of vandalism,he r e

turned it, and we saw it at the monastery in the

packing- case inwhich it was sent. Whenwe reachedthe point where daylight ceases, our tapers were

lighted, and the dogs that had accompanied us fr om

the convent first whined dismally,and after pr o

ceeding a little further r eturned to the upper air .

I had expected to find the quarry worked inregularshafts, but instead of this the dip of the strata has

been followed, and consequently the passage de

scends at a considerable incline, winding about in

different dir ections,and the roof slopes from left to

right. I t var ies inheight from 16 to less than3 feet,so that sometimes it is necessary to crawl onhands

and knees ; in these places the passage must for

merly have beenwider , otherwise the stone could

not have been carried out. A t one point two

hundred bats were hanging from the roof,but

fortunately they were not disturbed by our lights

had they beenaroused, theywould have extinguished

the tapers, and we might never have regained

the entrance. The marks of the tools of the old

workmenwere visible everywhere onthe r oof and

sides, the gr oov ings being about two inches apart ;the amount excavated must have been immense,for the whole place has the appearance of a labyrinth

,

andwe were toldwe might wander for a day without

Santorin,Antitar as, and Par as.

finding the end. T he marble onthe surface is not

usually white,but where it is broken it is brilliantly

pur e ; in some par ts the grain is very fine,and

I tested its hardness inbr eaking a lump inorder

to br ing away a specimen. After being fifty minutes

underground, we returned to daylight,and then

proceeded to a second quar ry, where, however, the

mar ble is somewhat inferior. Inplaces there wer e

stalactites inprocess of formation, but none were

to be compared with those of Antipar os. I t is deeply

interesting to think that these quarries furnished

the material for most of the famous Gr eek statues

that have come downto us, and for several important

temples, such as that of Apollo at Delphi,which was

rebuilt of this stone by the A lcmaeonidae .

T he scir occo (Eurus) had been blowing with Returnto

considerable force all day, but towar ds evening it Sy’ a '

incr eased to the most fur ious gale against which

I ever have attempted to stand, and corr oborated all

that our boatmenhad told us of its extremely dan

gerons char acter. O n the morrow,however, it

had lulled, and we started on our return voyage

w ith a favour ing south -west breeze. After we had

passed a danger ous rock in the middle of the sea

called the Ant (pvppiym)—the name of which recalls

the cor responding ancient name of the r ock Myrmex

off the Thessal iancoast — the wind freshened, and

it was a fine sight to see the great deep- blue waves

rolling in from the west. N or less fine was it to

watch the steering of our helmsman, Y anni, as we

1 H erod. 7 . 183 .

1 1 8 The Islands of the Aegean.

raced along with all our sails set, sometimes inthe

trough of the waves,sometimes on the cr est, but

never once shipping a sea. A t last,whenwe reached

the near est point of Syra, we suddenly darted into

calm water,and shor tly afterwar ds arrived at the

town,which had been our headquarters during

our various excursions.

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comed our arrival in Gr eek waters was not less

boisterous thanthat which we experienced inMarch,1874, for a r ude north- east wind met us as soonas

we had rounded the Peloponnese ; and during the

two days that we spent at Athens snowstorms were

trailing over the plain, and whitening the slopes

of Parnes. When we steamed down the Saronic

gulf onour way from that place to Smyrna, the peaks

of Cithaeron, Helicon, and Parnassus, which ap

pear ed above the nearer mountains, and the eastern

slopes of Mount Cyllene inArcadia, displayed their

maximum of winter snow ; and after we had passed

the pr omontory of Sunium,the fine pyramid of

Mount D ir phe, in the centr e of Euboea,presented

all the featur es of anAlpine summit. Again, the

heavy sea that we encountered as we emerged from

the strait which separ ates the nor th of Andr os from

Euboea,made us applaud the wisdomof the Homer ic

her oes, who when returning fr om Tr oy declined to

cross the Aegean from Lesbos to this point, until

they had received a favourable omenfrom Poseidon

Inconsequence of this,instead of reaching Smyrna

onMarch 2 7, as we hoped, we did not ar rive at that

place till the following morning. As the Egyptian

steamer, onboar d of which we wer e, was to touch at

Lesbos onher way to Constantinople, we continued

our voyage in her,and landed after nightfall at

Mytilene, the capital, which has now givenits nameto the whole island. We found a lodging at the

Hotel Pittacus (ferodoxe'

iov I l tr 'r axds), the title O fWhich

H om. 0d. 3 . 168 - 1 79 .

is an evidence that Lesbos has not forgotten her

wise menof old.

T he townof Mytilene is a large place of imposing L esbos.

appearance, and contains a population of

souls. I t is built partly ona peninsula, which here

projects into the sea, and par tly onthe neighbouring

gr ound and the isthmus which connects the two.

Like almost all the capital cities of the islands O fi

this coast which occupy anancient site,it is placed

on the eastern side,this positionhaving

,no doubt,

beendetermined by two considerations : fir st,greater

safety inrespect of navigation, as they were not ex

posed to the force of the open sea ; and secondly,facility of communicationwith the mainland, for the

Greek settlements were everywher e founded with

a view to commerce, and especially to the expor t

of the produce of the inter ior of the country— so

much so,that some of these islands possessed a

Per aea, or str ip of land onthe opposite coast, which

provided them with a depot, and rendered the trans

por t more easy. T he town is backed by a screen

of hills,some of them of considerable height

,the

slopes of which ar e clothed with beautiful vegetation,

and dotted with country houses. For the present,however, I will defer a mor e detailed descr iption

of the place and its site,in order that we may at

once start for the interior of the island ; for the

chief source of interest which Lesbos affords is a geo

graphical one, since it is penetrated onits southern

side by two bays, or inlets of the sea, the entr ances

of which ar e so narrow inproportion to‘

their ar ea

The Islands of the Aegean.

as to be almost a unique phenomenon. T he primary

object of our visit was to see these ; and as the

highest point in this part of the island, Mount

Olympus—for Lesbos also boasts an Olympus

stands up betweenthem, and commands a fine pano

ramic view, we purposed to make the ascent of that

mountain.

Inthe afternoonof the day following our arrival

(March having hired horses for our journey, we

left Myt ilene and ascended the heights to the west

ward onour way to the townof Agiasso, which is

situated at the foot of Olympus, fiv e hours distant.

O ur road lay through ol ive groves, and continued

to do so throughout the whole of our ride. Olive

is king inLesbos as much as cottoninManchester ;the populationar e devoted to the cultivation of it,

and oil is the chief export. Some of the trees wer e

finely grown and of great age. Inconsequence of

this,the island is called by the Turks ‘

the gardenof

the Ottomanempire.

’

A t the end of three quarters

of anhour we crossed the ridge of the nearer hills,and came insight of the fir st of the two bays of which

I have spoken,that of Iero (pronounced Yero — a

lake- like expanse of water, six miles in length by

four in breadth, extended at our feet. I t is sur

rounded by fine mountains,and over those that

bounded the shore opposite to us the peak of

Olympus, now called Hagios Elias, stood up con

spicuous.We descended to the easternside of the

inlet,and rode round its head

, but were unable at anypoint to see the entrance, notwithstanding that the

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This mountaintown—for its height above the sea

canhardly be less than1 000 feet— stands at a water

shed betweenthe two inlets, for the streams at this

point beginto flow inthe opposite direction, towards

the Bay of Kallone. T he inhabitants praise its

position, its fine air and good water, and the vegeta

tion by which it is surrounded must make it a

delightful summer resort ; the same boast was ex

pr essed onthe cups inwhich our coffee was served,‘

andwhich bore the inscr iption‘Agiassos the beautiful’

(é pat'

a I t occupies a curve inthe hills at

the head of a valley facing south -west,onthe further

side of which the summit of Hagios Elias rises ina

gr ey mass of limestone, with a buttress clothed with

pine - tr ees intervening. Whenseen from opposite,the r ed- tiled roofs andwhite stone walls of the houses

inthe town, being clustered closely together , present

a striking appear ance. I ts inhabitants, who number

7000 or 8000 persons, ar e mostly occupied in the

oil trade or the cultivationof the olive ; and at the

highest point of the townstands a large manufactory,with oil- presses of elaborate constructionanda factory

chimney. Eight years ago a large part of the place

was burnt down but it has since beenrebuilt, though

many of the houses ar e not yet finished. I t possesses

a boys’ and a girls’ school. Inthe former of these,religious knowledge, ancient G r eek, and the elements

of French ar e taught ; but those who desire anyhigher instr uction for their childr en have to send

them to the townof Myt ilene. I observed, as an

evidence that the classical spirit, which is so widely

prevalent inGreece, has not penetr ated here, that

the ir Mount Olympus is only knownas Hagios Elias,and that the Trojan I da, which is visible from many

points inthe neighbour hood, is always called by its

Tur kish name of Kaz Dagh.

Ear ly the next morning (Mar ch 30)we started to Am " ! Of

make the ascent of the mountainwith a native of the fizz “

p lace for our guide. Though an elderly man,he

p roved a good walker, for he went at a steady pace,and didnot stop till he reached the summit. Another

o f the inhabitants joined our company inmaking the

pilgr image ; for inthis light the ascent is regarded,since there is a chapel dedicated to the Pr ophet

E lijah near the summit, which is frequently visited

by pilgrims from the surrounding country, and ser

v ice is held there onthe festival of the saint. Our

guide, who seemed an intelligent man,told us that

o r iginally he hadbeenengaged inthe oilmanufacture ;b ut that

,having beenruined by the fir e

,and having

a large family, he had beenfor ced to leave his home

for fiv e years, inor der to seek employment else

wher e (he had beenusher ina school), but that lately

h e had beenable to return. Descending the steep

s tr eets, we cr ossed a stream at the bottom of the

town, and mounted on the other side by a winding

path inthe midst of chestnuts. Whenwe emerged

from these, we entered ona regionof openpasture

land, inwhich the blue squill (S eilla bifolia) was

growing, together with the yellow blossoms of a

G agea. This extended to the foot of the peak,

which rises steep and bare inmasses of brokenrock.

The Islands of the Aegean.

T he path, which is we ll marked throughout, ascends

this transver sely on the southernside as far as the

chapel of the saint, which is built a litt le way below

the summit at the eastern extr emity of the r idge .

Before reaching the chapel we met anold shepherd,who feeds his flocks her e insummer

,and thr ough

out the year is employed as a guardianof the sacr ed

place, which he visits occasionally to see that every

thing is inor der. H e pr esented us with a handful

of blue hyacinths,which were very fr agr ant, but

proved to be gardenflowers, for they were grownin

a small enclosure close by the building, which was

backed by the rock, and sheltered from the north

wind by a low wall. T he little chapel is nicely kept,and has pictures of saints onits iconostasis

,including

one of the Jewish prophet.

I t is wor thy of notice, as we have now before us

aninstance of a mountain,which was called Olympus

inantiquity, and at the present time bears the name

of Hagios Elias—and the same thing is tr ue of the

more famous Thessalianmountain— how frequentlyboth of these names recur inmountainnomenclature .

O f the modernappellation this has often been r e

marked— indeed, no tr aveller inGreece can fail to

notice it ; but it is also the fact that inAsia Minor,incontinental Greece, and inthe islands, there were

as many as fourteenmountains called Olympus in

ancient times, so that the name seems to have been

almost generic. A s to the reason which caused

Elijah to be associated by the Greeks with loftysummits, the view has frequently beenpropounded

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Hagios Elias, the ancient L epethymnus, forms a fine

object. Thr ough a depression to the westward O f

this,the promontory of L ectum,

the southernmost

point of the Trojan territory, appeared. In the

distant view the object which at once attracted the

eye was Mount I da, rising above the bay of Adr a

myttium ina lofty r ange,the upper par t of which

was clad in snow. In 1861,my companionand I

had looked down from its summit on the peak on

which we were now standing, and we thennoticed

that the bay of Kallone is visible from thence between

the two heights of Lesbos. In fr ont of the bay of

Adr amyttium lay the gr oup of small islands called the

H ecatonnesi, and following the coast downwards we

could see the terr itory of A tarneus and the deep gulf

of Elaea. Towards the south was the bay of Smyrna,which was bounded onone side by the promontor y

of Phocaea, and on the other by the massive head

land of Mimas, the huge pr oportions of which and its

power of attracting storms‘ caused it to be personified

by the ancients as a malevolent giant. Westward of

this, ands epar ated from it by a strait, rose the lofty

Chios,and as anoutlier fr om this againthe smaller

Psyr a, which inmoderntimes has become famous as

Psara, onaccount of its gallantry inthe Gr eekWar

of Independence, and the massacres which attendedits r uinby the Tur ks. The distant islands towards

the nor th— Imbros, Samothrace, and others in the

ThracianS ea—were excluded by thenor thernranges

of Lesbos. After having studied this instructive view1 I ts H omer ic epithet is twentie s.

for some t ime, we returned to Agiasso by the same

route by which we had ascended.

O nour returnto Agiasso, we were informed, to A Br itish

subj ect.our surprise, that an Englrshmanwas desrrous of

paying us a visit. This proved to be Mr. Pr ocopios

Constantinides, anative of the place, who had lived for

sixteenyears inAustralia, and had beennatur alised

there, so that he was a British subject. H e had also

spent four years inLondon. Having inher ited lands

inthis neighbourhood from his father,he now resided

here ; but he assured us that his favourite reading

still was English literature, especially Shaksper e,Byron

,Scott, and Macaulay. H e presented each of

us with a pretty coin of Mytilene, bearing onthe

reverse the lyre, anemblem to which that city had

a rightful claim as being the birthplace of Alcaeus

and Sappho. T he poetic ar t is still represented in

Lesbos,for he informed us that M . Demetr ios Ber

nardakis, the author of Maria D ox apatr i,’

a drama

of the period of the Frankish occupationof the Pelo

ponnese, and other tragedies, who is one of the fore

most poets of modernGreece, andwas once pr ofessor

at the University of Athens, now resides inMytilene .

O f him we shall hear more presently. His brother,M . Gregorios Bernar dakis, the editor of Plutarch’s

Mor alia, and author of other contributions to classical

scholarship, is director of the gymnasium in that

town.

The same afternoonwe started for the ruins of the Bay of

ancient Pyrrha, which was one of the most important

cities inthe island. They ar e situated onthe shore of

x

The Islands of the Aegean.

the Bay of Kallone,betweenfour and fiv e hours dis

tant from Agiasso ina north -westerly direction. A t

firstwe descended for a long distance through anar row

valley bordered by olive- gr oves, leading our hor ses

the gr eater part of the way, onaccount of the steep

ness of the road. Whenat last we reached more level

gr ound,our pr ogress was evenmore impeded by the

stony natur e of the sur face, the tr ack being oftenlost

altogether, either ina watercourse,or inthe midst of

brokenfragments of rock where horses’

feet left no

trace. I t was anextremely solitar y region, and a few

shepher ds were almost the only persons we met in

the course of our ride ; but it was rendered pictur

esque by the pine trees,which once

,inall probability,

formed part of a dense forest, but now ar e scatteredat intervals over the face of the country

,though they

ar e more thickly clustered inthe valleys. A t last theBay of Kallone appeared, andwe descended to it justwhere a steep rocky hill r ises from the water’s edge .

This was the site of Pyrr ha,and the place still bear s

that name. T he bay is consider ably larger thanthat

of Iero,being tenmiles long by six wide ; and the

passage by which it is entered is broader, though still

very nar row. Inconsequence of this it was called,inancient times

,the Euripus Pyr r haeus. Both these

pieces of water have deep soundings ; and this har

bour,inparticular

,would afford safe anchorage for

a fleet of any size .

As this place is very seldom visited, we enquir ed

before leaving Agiasso whether we should find anyaccommodation and wer e told that there were a few

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The Islands of the Aegean.

owing to the oppressiveness of the taxationof the

Turkish government. For the same reasonthe culti

vationof the olive is carried onwith great difficulty ;but inthis case there is another and more powerful

cause of depreciation, inthe low price of oil, owing

no doubt to the competitionof rock oils, which inthe

South of France also is r apidly causing the olive to

beneglected. T he agr eeableness of anevening spent

insuch good company was enhanced by a lar ge fir e

of olive wood, which was lighted inour honour ; for ,though the day had been cloudless, the wind still

blew cold from the nor th- east. During the whole of

our stay inL esbos, however, I was struck with the

pur ity of the air and the transparency of the sky,

which invested objects with a remar kable brilliancy.

Inancient times the island was famed for the salubrity

of its climate.

The next morning (March 3 1)was spent in ex

plor ing the site of the ancient Pyr rha. The hill

which it occupied forms a narrow rectangular table

of land, running from west to east, and gradually

sloping upwards fr om the shore, until it reaches a

high point, where the masses of brownrock fall in

steep precipices towards the valley at the back . O n

seeing it from that side onthe previous day we had

beenstruck with its suitableness for a Hellenic city.

T he two sides also ar e flanked inmost parts by sheer

walls of rock. Inconsequence of this the place would

seem to have required but little ar tificial defence ;anyhow, but few traces of walls r emain. T he best

preserved portionof the fortifications is inthemiddle

Lesbos. 1 33

of the easternface of the acropolis, overlooking the

valley already mentioned, at a point where the ascent

from below is somewhat easier thanelsewhere ; here

six or sevenirregularly horiz ontal courses of masonry

remain. But the most remarkable construction is

what appear s to be the base of a tower half waydownthe slope onthe north side, where unshaped

blocks of enormous size ar e rudely, but evidently

artificially, piled together. The greater par t of the

area is covered with olive tr ees, and growing under

these I found some specimens of a pr etty pink orchis

with branching flowers (O r chis saccata). This city

was ruined and deserted before Strabo ’s time, and

the suburb which he speaks of as thenexisting was

situated onthe shore inthe directionof the modern

booths. Some traces of its buildings ar e visible near

the foot of the hill, and inthe water may be seenthe

remains of a mole, which formed the harbour that he

mentions Pyrrha is now resorted to for the cuttle

fish and mollusks which ar e caught there ; and as it

was now the seasonof Lent, numerous boats were

lying there inreadiness to transport these to other

places about the bay. T he fishes of the Euripus

Pyr r haeus, especially the shell - fish and polypi, ar e

frequently mentioned by Aristotle inhis H istory ofA nimals. The octopus at the present time is a con

sider able article of food inthe island, andnot among

the lower classes only. A t the r estaur ant which we

frequented inthe townof Mytilene it was entered

113 . 2. 4, p. 618.

M oder n

My tilene.

The Islands of the Aegean.

onthe menu as one of the dishes, and we heard it

ordered.

During the afternoonwe rode back to Mytilene in

six hours and a half,the first part of the way being

over open country,sprinkled with pine trees, like

that which we had traversed on the previous day.

From this we descended to the head of the Bay of

Iero, and followed our former route to the city.

I t remains now briefly to describe the modern

town,and to investigate the site occupied by the

ancient city. I t is a place which deserves our

attention,onaccount both of its former splendour,

which caused Horace ina well - knownode to class

it with Ephesus, Rhodes and Corinth, and of the

important historical events of which it was the scene,especially the Athenian siege, which occupies so

prominent a positioninthe narrative of Thucydides,and the dramatic story of the escape of its inhabit

ants from massacre on that occasion. I t has been

already said that a peninsula here projects into

the sea,having the opposite coast of Asia Minor

full inview, and that it is joined by an isthmus to

the ground behind,which r ises somewhat rapidly

towards the interior of the island. T he city is

composed of two por tions, the mediaeval castle,which covers the summit and a gr eat part of the

northerndeclivities of the peninsula, and the modern

town, which is built onthe isthmus and the slopes

oneither side of it. T he castle is anextensive and

pictur esque structure, having inner and outer lines

of walls, with bastions, r ound and angular towers,

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The Islands of the Aegean.

strait, ar e finely seeninone view from the heights

behind the town.

I f we desir e to understand the appearance of th e

city inantiquity, we must r emember that what is now

a peninsula was thenan island,and was separ ated

from the mainland by a narrow channel. I t i s

difficult at first to realise this at the pr esent time ,because no trace of these features remains ; but by

following the mainstr eet of the town, which runs in

a straight line from one harbour to the other, and i s

per fectly level, we could see that the change might

easily have ariseninthe course of ages. The canal

was a natural one, but was afterwar ds artificially im

pr oved . Onthis island the original city was placed,and its citadel continued to be the Hellenic acropolis

allalong ; but the walls couldnot thenhave descended

to the water’s edge as they do now,for the northern

harbour is spokenof by D iodorus as lying outside

the city.’ A s the populationof the place increased,

it extended to the mainland, inwhich directionits

area must have been much greater than it is at

present. The northernharbour , as we learn fr om

Strabo was pr otected by a breakwater. This is the

samewhich remains, though ina dilapidated condition,at the present day. From the silence of the geo

grapher w ith regard to any artificial protectionof the

southernharbour , we may conclude that it was unde

fended ; and it was less inneed of a mole,inconse

quence of its being enclosed withinthe buildings of

the town, and sheltered from the wind. Owing to

cient city .

113 . 2 . 2, p. 61 7.

Lesbos.

its two harbours, and the channel between them,

Myt ilene had a gr eat advantage inrespect of com

merce and navigation, since vessels could thus appr oach inany wind , and could pass from one side of

the city to the other. There canbe little doubt, also ,that at that time the har bours penetrated further

into the land,and consequently that the interval

betweenthem was less thanat present.

Our best authority for the ancient topography of gast r itteam by

th ls place rs D rodorus, who descr rbes 1t 1nconnex1ondw imz

with the events that preceded the battle of Ar

ginusae‘

. His account, which is much clearer than

that of Xenophon, is evidently derived from one who

was well acquainted w ith the place ; and it has been

acutely conjectured that this was Ephorus, who was

a native of the neighbour ing Aeoliancity of Cyme 2.

D iodorus says that Conon, incommand of anA the

nianfleet which was coming from the north, being

hard pressed by the Spartans under Callicr atidas,took refuge inthe por t of Mytilene, the entrance to

which he obstructed,and defended to the best of his

abil ity. But whenhis opponents forced their waythrough, he escaped to the har bour ‘

within the

city,’ while the Spar tans occupied the har bour which

was‘outside,

’

but still anchor ed close to the city.

Inor der to ex plain these pr oceedings, he describes

the channel which separated the old portionof the

city from the new ,evidently implying that Conon

1 D iodor . 1 3 .

S ee Gonz e’

s ex cellent monogr aph , Reise auf der Insel L esbos,

1 3 8 The Islands of the Aegean.

must have passed thr ough it. This account is cor

r oborated by Str abo, who speaks of anisland, which

contained part of the city,lying infront of the two

harbours by Pausanias, who, whendescribing th e

r iver H elissonas inter secting Megalopolis, compar es

it to the channel which r anthrough Mytilene 2and

by Longus, the author of the story of D aphnis and

Chloe, the scene of which is laid in Lesbos, who

speaks of the bridges of polished white stone that

spanned this channel 3 .

A t nightfall,onA pril 1 , we embarked on board

the Balkan, a Fr ench steamer of the Fraissinet line ,and reached Smyrna the following morning.

S trabo,lac. cit. Pausan. 8. 30. 2 .

3 i. 1 .

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140 The Islands af the Aegean.

more. We could not trace any outward signs of

illness among them, though the object of the pil

grimage is inmost cases to obtainthe cure of some

disorder. The captain’s wife told us that once,whenthey were conducting devotees to this festival

from the Macedoniancoast, one of the passenger s, a

woman, was sufficiently crazy to make her timid

about her ; but that onthe r eturnjourney she seemed

better, and her r elations maintained that she was

cured. They presented a motley appearance, as they

lay about in picturesque groups on carpets and

mattresses, or crouched inthe most sheltered places

they could find to screen them fr om the cold wind .

Great good - humour pr evailed among them,even

whenthey had to shift their positions inconsequence

of the sea washing over them ; but later on, when

we passed the promontory of Karabournou, the

ancient Mimas, and reached more openwater, their

sickness was a pitiable sight. Inreally bad weather

this human cargo has to be deposited inthe hold

(ther e is only one small cabin), and the hatches

ar e battened downover them,the sequel of which

proceeding is, happily, left to the imagination. Wehad started at 3 p.m.

,and it was midnight before we

reached the townof Scio. The vessel lay to in the

offing ; and, inaccordance with the unconventional

habits that prevail at these intermediate stations,we let ourselves downher side by a rope into the

boat which was to take us ashore—no easy pr ocess

ina tossing sea. Whenwe reached the harbour wefound it full of vessels, which gave evidence of con

siderab le commerce. L ater in the night the gale

freshened, and we thought with compassionof the

pilgr ims ontheir way to Scala Nova.

The day after our arr ival (April 3)was the fifth E ar th -

o

anniversar y of the great eart hquake inScio, one ofgit

,

” m

the most terr ible visitations of moderntimes owing

to its suddenness, which gave the inhabitants no op

por tunity for escape. O nthat occasionthe greater

part of the capital, and most of the villages on the

easternside of the island, were shakendown, and

several thousand lives were lost. A correspondent of

the Times, wr iting shortly after the disaster, said

The townlooks as if it had beensubjected to a ter r ib lebomb ar dment ; hundr eds of houses have been tr ansformed into a shapeless mass of ruins, under which liebur ied anunknownnumb er of v ictims. A major ity of

the r emaining houses, alr eady cr acked and r oofless, mayfall at any moment.

’

We found that the greater part of the place had

beenrebuilt in the interval,though insome of the

streets ruined dwellings were still to be seen. The

restor ation, however, hadnot extended to the interior

of the island, for the country districts were a scene of

universal ruin, for which, notwithstanding all that I

had heard beforehand, I was not prepared.

Ch ios has been indeed a most ill- fated island. Themassa

During the GreekWar of Independence it suf

fer ed more than any other spot from Moslem

fanaticism ; for in 1822 nearly the whole of the

inhabitants were either massacred or car ried off

into slavery. The Chiotes at this time were an

The Islands of the Aegean.

industrious and peaceable population, but, unfor

tunately for them, they were goaded into revolt by

a band of Samians who landed there, and besieged

the Turkish garrison in the fortress. I t was in

every respect a most il l- considered attempt, and

when the Turkish capitan- pasha, Kara-Ali, ap

pear ed near the coast with his squadron, har dly anyattempt was made to resist the landing and the

advance of the Ottoman troops, who were aided

by a body of volunteers from the A siatic shore .

What followed is thus related by'

Finlay in h is

The vengeance of the Tur ks fell heavy onChios. T h e

unfor tunate inhab itants of the island wer e gener allyunarmed

, but they wer e all tr eated as r eb els, andr ender ed r esponsible for the deeds of the Gr eeks w hohad fled. Inthe city the w ealthier class oftensucceeded

inob taining pr otectionfr omTur ks inauthor ity by payinglarge sums of money. Inthe meantime the poor w er e

exposed to the vengeance of the soldier s and the fanatics .

T he bloodshed, how ev er , soonceased inthe town, foreventhe fanatic volunteer s beganto comb ine pr ofit w ithvengeance. They collected asmany of the Chiots as theythought would b r inga good pr ice inthe slave -mar kets ofAsia Minor , and cr ossed over to the continent w ith theirbooty. Many Chiot families also found time to escape to

difi'

er ent por ts inthe island, and succeeded inembar king inthe Psar ianv essels, which hastened to the islandas soon as it was known that the capitan-

pasha had

sailed past Psar a.‘Th r ee thousand Chiots r etir ed to the monaster y of

A ghios Minas, fiv e miles to the southward of the city, onthe r idge of hills which bounds the r ich plain. T he Tur kssur rounded the buildingandsummoned themtosur r ender .

The menhad little hope of escapingdeath . T he women

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disease and want. This tr agedy, the cir cumstances

of which have beendescr ibed with much pathos by

M r . Biké las inhis story of L aukis L ar as,produced

the same effect at that time as was produced of late

years by the Bulgar ianmassacr es, in rousing the

indignation of Europe against Turkish barbarity,

and thus ultimately pr omoting the cause of freedom.

T he positionof the town inmany respects r e

sembles that of Mytilene, for it lies onthe east coast

of the island,facing the mainland, and extends for

some distance along the shore, with a spit of land,onwhich stands the old Genoese castle, projecting

into the sea in front of it. I t is also backed by a

range of mountains, but these retire further from the

sea and ar e barer of vegetation than those behind

Mytilene, for they form part of the chain which

intersects the island fr om nor th to south, and which

from its steepness obtained for it the Homeric epithet

of ‘rocky ’

(muraxéw aa). The harbour,for there is

no bay, is formed by a half -ruined mole which runs

out fr om the extremity of the castle onits southern

side, together with another which extends towards

it from the shore. This is now submerged, with the

exceptionof a lofty brokenmass of masonry at the

endwhich the inhabitants call T he Old Lighthouse

(7 6naha th ¢auép1). T he principal article of export is

the spirit called mastic, which is famous thr oughout

the A egean; we afterwards saw huge flasks of this

being takenonboard the steamer inwhich we made

our r eturnjourney. T he gum from which it is made

exudes from the stems and branches of a shr ub

which is mostly gr owninthe southernpart of the

island, in the same way as I have seen the gum

tragacanth inAsia Minor and Armenia dropping

from the A str agalus v erus ; and like that plant, the

mastic tree is scored with incisions by the natives

during the summer that the gum may flow out, with

a view to its being collected.

T he castle which has been mentioned was the Mama} atfortress of the Giustiniani, whose Maona, or joint izzstock company, governed Chios for more than two

hundr ed years. T he constitutionand history of this

body offer many points of resemblance to those of

our own East India Company ; and it has been

described as the first example recorded inhistory

of a mercantile company of shareholder s exercisingall the duties of a sovereign, and conducting the

territorial administration in a distant country. In

the year 1 346 the Genoese admir al,Simone Vignosi,

fitted out a fleet of twenty-nine galleys, with the

object of conquer ing the island fr om the Greek

empir e. T he treasury of the republic, however, was

at this time so exhausted that the funds necessary

for the expeditionwere subscribed by pr ivate citizens,who we r e guaranteed against loss by the state.

After the conquest had beeneffected, the subscr ibers

were formed into a Maona, and the shareholder s

in this were recognised as the proprietors and

governors of the island for the period of twenty

years, during which time it was to be inthe power

of the republic to pay off the debt and resume the

grant of the island. This, however, wasnever done ;

The Islands of the Aegean.

and the power of administr ationof the shareholders

became permanent. A change also took place in

the compositionof the Maona. T he original societyhad farmed out the revenues to another Genoese

company,but serious quarrels arose between th e

two bodies, and these reached such a pitch that the

government interfered ; it was then arranged that

the member s of the old Maona. should be bough t

out, and that the powers which they possessed should

be tr ansferred to the farmers. This body was called

the new Maona, and the majority of the shar eholder s

init assumed the name of Giustiniani.

During the fir st century after this system was

established the prosperity of the company was

very great. T he mastic that was produced inthe

island, and the alum that came from the mines at

Phocaea onthe mainland, yielded immense profits

and all the most important posts inthe administration

were filled by members of the Maona. N or was it

for the time injur ious to the natives. The population

of Chios at this period exceeded souls, the

Gr eeks were secured inall the r ights and privileges

which they enjoyed under the Byzantine emperors,

and no tax could be imposed without their consent.The government was less rapacious, and it affor ded

better securities for the lives and properties of its

subjects, thanthey had enjoyed under the Palaeologi

and it was milder than the governments of the

Knights of Rhodes and the Republic of Venice.

But inthe cour se of time the great subdivisionof

the shares tended to irnpov er ish the holder s, and the

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first hour of our ride was spent inascending west

war ds from the city along water courses or over rough

slopes, which were wholly uncultivated, except here

and ther e where small gardens had beenmade in

the v alleys ; in these we observ ed that the vegeta

t ionwas more advanced than we had found it in

Lesbos, and some of the fruit trees were infull leaf.

A fter many windings we reached a gorge, above

which r ose precipices of grey and r ed limestone,while the lower slopes were covered with pine trees.

T he ascent now became extremely steep, and would

hav e presented great difficulties to any but the sure

footed horses of the country. These, however,carried us safely at anunusually rapid pace, for we

were not encumbered by baggage, and inless than

two hours we reached the monastery.

This building is situated onan irregular level at

least 1 000 feet above the sea. I ts position is ex

quisite, for close at its back rise the highest summits

of this part of the island, clothed with beautiful v ege

tation, and towar ds the east, inwhich dir ectionit

faces, there is a charming view of the deep- blue sea

far be low and of the mainland beyond, fr amed like

a vignette betweenthe sternrocks which flank the

gor ge . Inits flourishing days the monastery must

have presented animposing appear ance from its ex

tensive structures compactly massed together, and

from the houses that form a smal l village in its

neighbourhood ; these latter were intended par tly

for women, who ar e not allowed to enter the

establishment, and partly for those who come to

Chios.

visit, or to worship at, the holy place . Now, alas !

it is a sight of dismal ruin, for its buildings have

been half destroyed by the earthquake, with the

exception of the church and the refectory, which

escaped owing to the strength of their walls ; and

eventhese ar e not wholly intact.

T he history of the foundationof this convent is S tory of z'

ts

as follows. In the middle of the eleventh centuryflw ‘wim'

three hermits, N iketas, John, and Joseph, established

themselves ina cave high up in the mountains of

Chios,and while dwelling there frequently saw a

light proceeding from a place in the neighbour ing

for est, which however vanished whenever they ap

pr oached it ; so they determined to set the tr ees on

fir e,feeling sure that, if this portent came from G od,

the tree inwhich it appeared would not be con

sumed. This they did, and when the r est of the

wood was burnt down,there remained a myrtle

bush,from which was suspended a picture of the

Virgin. The pious fathers removed this pictur e to

their cave, but the sacr ed object refused to remain

ther e, and miraculously returned to the myr tle, near

which in consequence they built a humble chapel

for its reception. Now it happened at this time that

the futur e emper or of Constantinople,Constantine

Monomachus, was living inexile inLesbos, and it

was r evealed to the three hermits that he would be

raised to the throne . Accordingly they repaired to

him,and communicated to him what they had learned

with r egar d to his futur e destiny. A t fir st he was

incredulous, but whenthey had overcome his doubts,

The Islands of the Aegean.

and hadnarrated to him their discovery of the icon,which they compar ed to the history of Moses and

the burning bush, he promised, at their r equest, that

if their pr edictioncame tr ue, he would build onthe

spot a splendid temple to the Virgin. N ot long

after this, the Empress Zoe, having become a widow

for the second time, gave Constantine her hand inmarriage

,wher eupon he fulfilled his vow. The

building was finally comple ted by Theodor a, the

sister of Zoe. T he name of the convent, The N ew

Monastery ’

(N e’

a Mém), reminds us of that of N ew

College at Oxford,fr om its permanence in spite of

the lapse of ages. A t pr esent there ar e sixty monks,but befor e the earthquake they number ed a hundr ed .

As they possess consider able proper ty in the lower

country , they have hopes of rebuilding their convent,notwithstanding the lar ge sum of money that will be

requir ed .

T he Hegumen and some of the superior monks

gave us a friendly gr eeting, and conducted us to see

the church, which stands inthe centr e of the cour t.

I t is entered thr ough a modernpor ch at the west

end this leads into the outernar thex or ante - chapel,

which is lofty and has three cupolas,but is without

ornament, except that inthe centr e of the floor there

ar e patterns in opus A lex andn'

num. T he second

nar thex,which is enter ed from this, is low, and the

domes in its roof have no windows or other

openings ; the centr al dome contains in its upper

part a repr esentationof the Vir gin, and figures of

saints standing ina circle below, while other por

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The Islands of the Aegean.

other compar tments ar e inLatin, the title of this one

is inGreek, and is the same as that which I havegivenabove. T he mosaics throughout the chur ch

of N ea Mone ar e coeval with its foundation, and the

figur es ar e stiffly designed in sombr e colour s ona

gold ground. Mutilated though they ar e,they well

deserve a visit, for this mode of decor ation is rare

inthe neighbour hood of the Aegean indeed, except

at Salonica,har dly any other mosaics canbe found

to rival them. We subsequently saw the refectory,which is now disused. I t is a long, bare r oom, down

the centre of which r uns a single table, built of stone

and brick,and cover ed with slabs, and the seats on

either side of it ar e constr ucted inthe same wayan arr angement which I had never before seen

except inthe rock - hewnmonasteries of Cappadocia.

The island of Scio is singular ly destitute o‘

f clas

sical r emains ; in fact,the only relic of antiquity

that is found init is the so- called School of Homer.

This object is situated near the sea- shore, about fiv e

miles northward of the town, and towar ds it we now

bent our steps. Whenwe had reached once more

the bottom of the gorge , we str uck along the moun

tainsides at a gr eat height above the sea, following

terrace paths,which commanded views of extr eme

beauty. The townof Scio and the gardens in its

neighbour hood,with the lower slopes of the moun

tains, lay beneath us, and beyond the blue str ait

rose the strange peninsula that intervenes betweenit and the bay of Smyrna, the nor thernpart of which

is the range and headland of Mimas, while in the

Chz'

os.

centre is the deep gulf of E ryth r ae . T he northern

extr emity of the strait is defended by a breakwater

of islands,but the narrowest part is towards the

south,wher e lies Cheshmeh

,the scene of one of

the greatest ex ploits in the GreekWar of Inde

pendence. There it was that the Turkish fleet was

lying, whenConstantine Canaris appr oached it, andattached his fir e- ship to the admiral ’s flagship, which

inthe space of a few minutes was a mass of flames.

T his event appear ed like anact of retribution for

the massacres inChios, for it took place inthe June

of the same year inwhich they happened. T he

following account of it is takenfrom Finlay

Onthe 18th of June, the last day of Ramaz an, inthe Cana r is

year 1822, a number of the p r incipal offi cer s of the and

O thoman fleet assemb led on boar d the ship of thefirm zp.

Capitan-

pasha to celeb r ate the feast of Bair am. T he

nigh t w as dar k, but the w hole Tur kish fleet was illuminated for the festival. Two Gr eek ships, which had

b eenhugging the land dur ing the day, as if bafiled by thewind in endeavour ing to enter the Gulf of Smyrna,changed their cour se at dusk, w hen their movementscould b e no longer obser v ed, and bor e down into the

midst of the O thomanfleet . O ne steer ed for the Bo-

gunship of the Capitan-

pasha, the other for the 74 of the

Reala Bey. Both these ships w er e conspicuous inthedar k night by the var iegated lamps at their mast - heads

and yar ds. The tw o Gr eeks w er e fir e - ships. O ne was

commanded by Constantine Kanar es, the her o of the

Gr eek Rev olution. I t is super fluous to say that such a

mandir ected his ship w ith skill and cour age . Calmlyestimating every cir cumstance of the moment, he r anthebow sp r it into anopenpor t, and fixed his ship alongsidethe Capitan-

pasha, as near the bows as possib le, so as to

The Islands of the Aegean.

b r ing the flames to w indwar d of his enemy. H e thenlighted the tr ainw ith his ownhand, stepped into his boat ,w her e all the cr ew w er e r eady at their oar s

,and pushed

off as the flames mounted fr om the deck. The sails andr igging, steepedintur pentine and pitch ,w er e immediatelyina b laz e, and the Tur kish cr ew s w er e far too muchastonished at the sudden conflagr ation to pay anyattentionto a solitary boat which r ow ed r apidly into the

shade. T he flames, dr ivenby the wind, rushed th r oughthe open por ts of the lowe r and upper decks, andfilled the gr eat ship w ith fir e r oar ing like a furnace .

Those onboar d could only save their liv es by leapinginto the sea. Kar a- A li jumped into one of the boats that

was b r ought alongside to r eceive him, but b efor e he could

quit the side of his ship he was struck by a falling spar

and car r ied dying to the shor e

This exploit was followed by a second and similar

one in the November of the following year , when

Canar is set fir e to a Tur kish line - of- battle ship, that

was lying betweenTenedos and the mainland, near

the anchor age which has subsequently become

familiar under the name of Besika Bay. The two

daring deeds attr acted the attentionof Europe, and

were celebr ated in verse by the German poet,Wilhelm Muller

,who in1824. composed anepitaph

onCanar is,which might ser ve after his death . T he

hero,however

,postponed the occasionuntil 1877,

whenhe died as Pr ime Minister of Gr eece . As the

or iginal poem is not as well known, per haps, as it

ought to be,I intr oduce it her e, together with

A ytoun’

s spir ited tr anslation

KonstantinKanar i heiss’

ich , der ich lieg’

indieser G r aft,Zw ei O smanenflottenhab ’

ich fliegen lassen indie Luft.1 Finlay , v ol. v i. pp. 25 8 , 9 5 9.

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1 5 6 The Islands of the Aegean.

stands a rough mass of limestone rock, the upper

surface of which has been artificially levelled,forming a table twenty- fiv e feet across. On one

side of th is a stone bench is cut, and near the end

which is furthest from the sea a mass of rock is left,which looks as if it had formed the base of a statue .

Inthe last century, whenChandler saw it,this sup

ported a seated figur e of Cybele, with a lioncarved

on either side and on the back of her chair . T he

name of the School of Homer which was attached to

it is purely fanciful. A t the present time ne ither

the statue nor any tr ace of ornament remains.

Fr om this spot we made our way to the city, which

we reached at nightfall ; and the next morning,

finding that a Gr eek steamer was in the har bour

r eady to start for Smyrna, we returned once more

to that place.

CHA PT ER V I I I .

S AMO S.

T H E most convenient route by which Samos may Por t ofbe reached is by way of A yasolouk (Ephesus) and N ow .

the por t of Scala Nova, from which, with a favouring

wind, it is thr ee or four hours’ sail to Vathy, the

capital of the island. Accor dingly, as this was the

next point for which we intended to make, on the

morning of Apr il 5 we took the tr ainby the Aidinrail

way from Smyrna to Ayasolouk, and after spending

some hour s inexamining the now well - knownruins,

proceeded onhorseback to Scala Nova. Our road

at first skirted the plainof the Cayster , and then

turned southwar d over low hills, commanding beauti

fulviews of the gulf of Scala Nova, fr om the northern

shore of which rise th e fine mountains of the main

land,with Chios appearing beyond, while the opposite

side is bounded by the lofty br okensummits of Samos.

I t was from these that the island received its name,for Strabo tells us that inearly times the wor d samos

signified a height 1

; it is inreality of Phoenician

or igin,and is found in connexionwith settlements

of that people in Samothrace and elsewher e. The

townof Scala Nova lies ina fold of the hills above a

1 S tr abo, 8. 3 . 19, p. 346 66pm): infl ow 1dW1].

The Islands of the Aegean.

creek which is pr otected from the sea by a small

headland, while in fr ont of it is an island,sur

rounded inits whole cir cuit by a wall, with a square

for t occupying the highest point inthe centre. N ot

withstanding its Italianname it has a thoroughly

Turkish aspect, pr esenting a strong contr ast to anything that canbe seen.in the islands. T he houses

ar e closely packed'

together,but when seen from

the hills above it appears a large‘

place, containingat least 6000 or 7000 people ; the Mahometans form

the major ity of these,and occupy the Kastro, or

for tified enclosure, and some of the subur bs towards

the inter ior, while the Chr istianpopulation, includingseveral hundred Armenians in addition to the

Gr eeks, inhabit the steep declivities that overhang the

port. This quarter is singularly pictur esque, since

the houses seem piled onone another , and their upper

storeys,which ar e of wood and sometimes elabor

ately car ved, project above the pr ecipitous streets

at a variety of angles so as almost to meet inthe

middle. T he khan inwhich we were housed was

a r egular caravanser ai, with anextensive court sur~

rounded by stables, above which on two sides r an

a wooden gal lery, giving entrance to numerous

chamber s. Within the Kastro was a similar, but

more ancient, building with pointed arches of brick

work, which seemed to be frequented by the Ma

hometantraders.

Hitherto our visit to these parts had been ao

companied by a cold north- east wind, though the

sky was cloudless ; it now went round to the west

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The Islands of the Aegean.

dashed the waves over our bows, became too much

for our little craft, so that our captainwas glad to

make for a creek inthe northernshor e, intending to

wait ther e till midnight, at which hour, so the sailors

assured us, the wind would fall. We landed, and

wandered about the low hills inthe neighbourhood,meeting only a few Turks, the inhabitants of a

village onthe mountain- side above, whower e collect

ing grass for their cattle but we afterwards learned

that this distr ict is one of the worst in respe ct of

br igandage onthe whole of the coast of Asia Minor.

T he islands, fortunately, ar e fr ee from this cur se,because withina restricted area which offers no out

let a highwaymancan easily be hunted down. In

the latter part of the day the wind became so violent

that we wer e well contented to be inshelter , but our

crew were not mistaken in the ir weather for ecasts.

Whenmidnight came, I hear d one of them who had

beensleeping, rouse himself and say to the other s

using the old Biblical Greek expression— ‘the sea

has ceased (c’

xén'aae f; Gamm on). We then star ted,and found the bay so calm that it was a difficult

matter to make any way, until towards daybr eak a

kindly br eeze ar ose and carried us acr oss to Samos,and up the long and narrow fiord, at the head of

which Vathy stands.

This place, which, like the chief towninmodern

Ithaca, and several other spots inGreece, takes itsname from the deep waters of its harbour, has

withinthe present century become the capital of the

island, instead of the townof Chora,which lies on

Samos.

the southernside, not far from the ruins of ancient

S amos. I t consists of two parts, which ar e called

Upper and Lower Vathy ; the former of these is

situated onsteep slopes at a distance of more than

half a mile from the sea, while the latter, which is

the centr e of commerce, and the place of residence

of consuls and merchants, is grouped round the

port. I ts long and well- built quay is anobject of

which the inhabitants ar e justly proud, for , with the

exceptionof that of Smyrna, there is no other that

can rival it on the coast of A sia Minor. Shortly

after landing, we made the acquaintance of the

British consul,Mr. Marc, and inhis company we

paid a visit to the Prince of Samos. Ever since Constitu1832 this island has beenvir tually independent of

the Porte, for it enjoys a constitutionof its ownand

regulates its own affairs, and its governor, who

bears the title of Prince, though he is appointed by

the Sultan, must be a Christian, and is not remove

able at pleasure, like the ordinary Tur kish governors.

A small Turkish garrisonresides inthe place, but it

is merely nominal. T he island is allowed to have a

flag of its own, the colours being r ed above and blue

below, with a cross in the lower part. I t pays a

fixed annual tribute to the OttomanGovernment, but

most of this, we were told, is expended onimprove

ments inthe island. The ex periment of establishing

such a principality was an interesting one, and it

seems to have thoroughly succeeded : being freed

from Tur kish misrule the inhabitants ar e contented

and prosperous—this at least is what we were

M

The Islands of the Aegean.

assur ed on the spot, and all that we saw tended to

corroborate it. T he present Prince is Car atheodor i

Pasha, who was one of the representatives of the

Porte at the BerlinCongress, and at one time held

high office at Constantinople. H e is a thoughtful

looking manof about fifty years of age. We foundthat he spoke English well, and he conversed with

us for some time inthat language.

T he principal expor ts of Samos ar e carobs, oil,

and wine—the last-named ar ticle being far the most

impor tant. This I discovered tomy cost onar riving,for some or chid - plants (S er apz

'

as cor dz'

ger a), which Ihad dug up in the course of my wander ings onthe

previous day, with the view of transporting them to

England, wer e promptly sequestr ated for fear lestthey should introduce the Phyllox er a— a pr oceeding

which would not have sur prised one onthe fr ontie r

of France and Italy,where evenanorange is not

allowed to pass, but which seemed strange inthis

remote island. T he natives, however, depend so

much onthe proceeds of their vineyards that even

potatoes ar e for bidden to be imported. A ll the

Samian wine is somewhat sweet with a slight

muscat flavour, and it bear s mixing with a large

quantity of water ; it is exported to Genoa, and also

to Hambur g and Bremen, and is used for doctor ing

other wines. Some old wine with which Mr. Marc

regaled us was of a splendid quality,and almost a

liqueur. WhenByron, inhis song,‘T he Isles of

Greece,’

exclaimedFill high th e bow l with S amianw ine

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The Islands cf the Aegean.

onthe shore. Before descending to it, we left our

horses for a while inorder to explore some ruins

which were close at hand ; these belonged to the

acropolis of the original city, befor e its circuit was

extended so as to include the loftier heights towards

the west. T he portion of the walls which is best

preserved is onthe easternside, and this is insome

parts composed of polygonal stones carefully fitted

together ; inone place there is a gateway, the head

of which is formed by courses of masonry approach

ing one another.T he inhabitants of Tigani have showntheir enter

prise by constructing a handsome quay round the ir

harbour,and ar e now engaged inrepairing and com

pleting the two ancient moles which pr otected it ; th e

longer of these, which faces the open sea, is th e

breakwater of which Herodotus spoke in terms of

admirationina passage which will be quoted her e

after1. I t was no doubt the shape of the enclose d

port that suggested its modernname of the Frying

pan’

(myémov), a descriptive appellation which is

found applied to a headland in Lemnos, and to

a small peninsula west of the T aenar ianpromontory

inthe Peloponnese inancient times also, according

to Pliny 2, there was a small island near Rhode s

called T eganon. T he warmth of the climate is

shown by the palm- trees which grow there, and

during the night a few mosquitoes made their ap

pear ance. We were lodged ina large disused warehouse belonging to Mr. Marc ; and here we had the

1 H er od. 3 . 60.3 H ist. N at. 5 . 3 1 , 36.

pleasur e of meeting Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Bent,

who occupied other rooms in the same building ;they wer e engaged inexcavating some of the tombs

that lie outside the city walls. The warehouseappar ently had beenoriginally intended for storing

oil, for inthe court behind it there were lying thirty

nine earthenware oil- vessels of such dimensions that,had they beenset upr ight, they might easily have

accommodated forty thieves save one.

Directly after our ar r ival we started to visit the The an

ancient city of Samos, the walls of which we had“ mt a ty .

seenfr om the old acropolis onthe opposite side of

an intervening valley, reaching ina long line down

the north- eastern side of a lofty hill. T he line of

th is hill runs parallel to the shore, and the city was

built on the slopes which descend from its broad

flank to the water, but the fortifications enclosed the

whole of the ridge , including the summit at the

westernend, the height of which is between700 and

800 feet. The point which we first made for was the

little monastery of ‘Our Lady of the Cave ’

(H am-

yin

Emkm fi), which forms a conspicuous object with its

white walls and dark cypr esses high up onthe bare

south face of the hill. O nreaching it we were wel

comed by anold monk, who told us that this convent

is a dependency of a larger monastery inAmorgos,and showed us the cave, which descends for some

distance into the rock behind, and was evidently an

ancient quar ry. Withinit is a little chapel, from which

the place derives its name. We thenmounted to

a depressioninthe ridge, where was another quarry,

The I slanw of the Aegean.

and immediately oncrossing it came upon the city

walls, which ar e twelve feet thick and have towers

at intervals. These we followed up to the summit,wher e, near the north -west angle of the fortifications,ar e the finest remains, consisting ofnumerous courses

of masonry, the massive blocks of which almost rival

the wor k of Epaminondas at Messene . From this

point the walls descend the mountain side, and ar e

traceable at intervals until they r each the sea ; at one

point, not far below the summit, a large tower , the

best preserved of all these outwor ks, now stands

alone, though it once formed part of the fortifications.

In r eturning to Tigani, we made our way down

the r ough hill- side until we reached the theatr e, which

is situated a little way below the monastery ; the form

of this is clear ly traceable , and the ar ches r emain

which supported the scena, but few of the seats ar e

intheir original position. The dimensions ar e small,consider ing the size of the city. I t commands a won

der ful View over the Spor ades and the neighbour ing

coast of Asia Minor. Looking from it,We canpictur e

to ourselves Polycr ates proceeding from the har bou r

inhis galley to drop in the sea the ring, which has

added so gr eat anelement of romance to his story ;or

,extending our view a little fur ther, we canmake

ourselves present at the battle of Mycale, which was

fought on the shor es of the strait. Immediately

below the theatre, the hill- side breaks into easier

declivities, and it was her e that the upper part of the

ancient city stood, for the gr ound above is too steep

to allow of being built over. This is what Strabo

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have disappeared. T he first personwho attempted

a systematic explorationwas M. Guerin, the author

of a book on Patmos and Samos, who visited thisisland about 185 3 . H e r ightly judged that the

source of water should be made the starting- point

inthe investigation, and discovered that there was

a copious spring about half a mile from the nor thern

foot of the lofty hill onwhich the city was built

that is,towards the interior and away from the sea.

By digging inthe ne ighbourhood of this he found

anunderground passage, leading inthe dir ectionof

the hill- side, inwhich were ear thernpipes intended

for the passage of water ; and though it was much

blocked up from the soil having fallenin, he traced

it nearly to the foot of the hill. H e was forced,however, to discontinue the work before ar r iving at

that point, and consequently did not reach the tunne l

which Herodotus describes. A fter all, the r eal dis

cov ery was made by accident, and on the opposite

side of the mountain.

Sevenyears ago a priest from the neighbouring

monastery of Hagia Tr iada,called Cyril

,who pos

sessed a piece of gr ound not very far from the

ancient theatre which I have described,chanced

to find anopening,which led into the tunnel near

the point where it issued from the mountain- side ;and so great was the enthusiasm aroused inSamos

by this discovery that a large sum of money was

soonforthcoming with the object of clearing it out

and restoring it. A s yet, owing to the magnitudeof the task, th is has not been fully accomplished,

but enough has beendone to give anaccurate idea

of the work, and to confirm the statements of

H er odotus. We now know that the water was

carried underground the whole way from the spr ing

to the heart of the city ; fir st by the passage which

M . Guerinexplored, thenby the tunnel through the

bowels of the mountainwhich Herodotus describes,and finally by another passage in the directionof

the port. There were also independent entrances

at either end of the tunnel. The first intelligence

of this discovery was sent to the A CA D EMY by Mr.Dennis from Smyrna shortly after it was made ; and

the place has since beendescribed by Mr. Bent both

inthe ACA D EMY and the ATHEN A EUM 1

; andwith gr eat

fulness of detail by M . Fabr icius intheM z'

tthez'

lungen

des dentschen ar cha‘

ologzlschen I nstitutes inA then1.

T he following account is that of a passing traveller,and for more exact information I may refer the

reader to the authorities above mentioned.We started for the tunnel in the company of a 13mm;Chor ophylax or gendarme, who proved to be a mostm

" of

painstaking guide. Befor e reaching it we found

sitting under some trees two monks, one of whom

was Cyril, the discoverer of the entrance ; they

volunteered to join us, and with this admirable

escor t we ar r ived at the opening, which I have

mentioned. Candles were now lighted, and when

we had descended a little way into the ground, we

entered a narrow passage constructed with large

1 A cademy ,June 9 , 1883 ; A thenaeum, June 1 9 , 1886.

1 Vol. ix . pp. 163 foll.

I ts eonr se

gr ound.

The Islands of the Aegean.

hewnstones, the upper of which were cut angularly

so as to form anarch ; after passing through this,

ina short time we found ourselves in the tunne l.

This was an excavation sevenor e ight feet wide,the sides of which curved somewhat outwar ds and

about two- thirds of its width was occupied by a foot

way, which r analong by the wall onour left- hand

as we proceeded north -westwar ds in the dir ection

of the sour ce, while the r est of the space was taken

up with the channel for the water, the sides of which

descended per pendicular ly to a depth of thir ty feet.

This was not Openthr oughout, for spaces r emained

at intervals wher e the rubbish which had choked

it hadnot beenr emoved. Inthe pr ocess of clear ing

it the pipes which served to convey the water were

found at the bottom. T he height of the r oof of the

tunnel var ied indifferent par ts,for insome places

it was eight feet high, or evenmor e while inothe r s

we had for some distance to stoop inwalking. The

roof was not arched but flattened,though r ounded

at the angles ; and its sur face,though

,like that

of the rest of the tunnel, it had beencut to a fairly

smooth face, was oftenridged owing to the char acter

of the rock, as we discover ed whenour heads came

into contact with it inplaces wher e our attentionwas

diverted by the r isk of slipping into the water- cour se .

T he Chor ophylax and the second monk did not

accompany us for any great distance, but Cyril

conducted us as far as a point where a considerable

quantity of water had collected on the path, and

about which were the remains of stalactites. When

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We now retraced our steps, but before we r eached

the entrance we noticed a number of cuttings or

niches inthe side of the rock,which pr obably were

resting- places for lamps,since ear thenwar e lamps

wer e found in them ; and in one place a deeper

hollow had been made, concerning which it has

beenconjectured that it was intended to receive the

tools of the workmen. Near the point where the

transverse passage by which we entered meets the

tunnel, a sectionof the rock was left, so as to form

a wall across the passage ; her e no doubt there was

originally a gate,for at the side it was pier ced by

a hole, through which a per sondesir ing admission

might call. During the fo r ty minutes that we r e

mained underground we found the air warm,but

nowhere close or foul. T he tunnel is continued

by a subterraneanpassage, which runs par allel to

the mountain- side inthe dir ectionof the port ; this

has been excavated as far as the theatr e, but its

exit into the city has not yet beenfound. I ts course

may be tr aced above gr ound by the stone- cased

openings, resembling large vents, that form the

heads of the shafts, through which, both inancient

and moderntimes, the ear th and rubbish wer e r e

moved from below.

The point that we next made for was the northern

entr ance of the tunnel ; and inor der to r each this

we cr ossed the mountainunder the guidance of the

Chor ophylax , and descended to a point beneath the

nor th-west angle of the city walls, wher e another

opening had beenmade. By this the roof of the

undergr ound passage leading fr om the spring has

been broken through from above,just where it

makes a sharp turnat its junctionwith the tunnel ;the tunnel itself is blocked with debr is a little wayb eyond its mouth. Inthe steep hill- side close above,an arched entrance, flanked with stone walls, has

b eendiscovered,corresponding to that thr ough which

w e had first passed onthe southernside,only her e

th e gallery is longer , and r uns at fir st above the

tunnel, instead of striking it transversely. Wepenetrated into it for a quarter of anhour

,until

th e passage became extremely narr ow, and the

w ater that had collected in it reached nearly to

our knees ; her e it appeared useless to proceed

further, and turning round with some difficulty,we

r eturned to our starting- point. Inone place a hole

inthe floor,which in the dim light of our candles

r equired to be passed with gr eat care, seemed to

communicate, through a shaft or otherwise, with the

tunnel below ; but we had no means of discovering

where is the ultimate point of junctionof the two.

T he underground passage which br ought the water

fr om the spring has been completely cleared out,

so that it is possible to pass from one end to the

other. Owing to the nature of the ground its coursewas very irr egular, for it was carried round the

heads of two small valleys,where we traced it from

outside by the Openings of the shafts, which wereconstructed inthe same way as those which I have

already described. T he fountain, which is close The

to the commencement of the passage, but has nowf

ountain

The Islands of the Aegean.

no communication with it, l ies beneath a small

chapel of S t. Johnthe Baptist ; the reservoir which

contains it,is of ancient construction. Inthe middle

of the floor of the chapel there is a square wooden

cover, and when this is removed the water canb e

seenwelling out ina large volume.

Two questions natur ally suggest themselves incon

nex ionwith this interesting wor k. First ; what was

the object of boring such a tunnel, with enormous

expenditure of labour, thr ough the rock, when, so far

as the positionof the gr ound is concerned, the wate r

might have beencar ried inanopenchannel round th e

flank of the mountain into the city ? We naturallyconjecture that it was to secure the water supply in

case of war ; but thenwe ar e met by the difficulty

that the springwas situated some wayoutside thewalls,and consequently was in the power of anattackingforce. I canonlysuggest that the sourcemayhave been

completely concealed fr om view,and at the time of

M . Guer in’s visit it was so, for inor der to discover it

one of the flags of the pavement had to be removed.

This idea is render ed probable by the fact that the

water was car ried underground to the foot of the

mountain. I f th is was the case, the existence of the

source, and pr obably that of the tunnel also, must

have beena state secr et, confined to a few persons

otherwise the city would have beenat the mer cy of

every traitor. Secondly ; what explanationis to be

givenof the extr aordinary depth of the water-way,which so far exceeds all the requirements of the sup

ply To this questionthe only satisfactory answer

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The Islands of the Aegean.

of the columns of the easternend,and especially of

the north- eastern angle ; part of the white mar ble

floor, and the bases of some of the columns that

belonged to the interior of the building, have also

beenuncover ed. I t seems to have faced east and

west, and to have beena dipteral octastyle of the

Ionic order, with a frontage of 165 feet ; it must thus

have beenone of the lar gest Greek temples— pro

bably the largest existing inthe time of Her odotus,if the building which he mentions corresponded in

size to this one. T he remains which we see appear

to be of a later date, with the exception of the

standing column,which may have formed part of

the or iginal structure. This object, however, forms

a very puzzling featur e, for it is not fluted,and its

broad, bulging base, together with part of the drum

above it, ar e channelled with a number of horizonta l

flutings varying insize. I t consists of twelve white

mar ble drums without the capital, while the base i s

of grey mar ble. A peculiar effect is pr oduced by

the drums being ir regularly super- imposed onone

another, having been shaken out of place by an

earthquake,or— according to an old story which

Tournefort mentions,and which still finds its sup

porter s—by cannonballs fired at it by the Tur ks.

A small vessel happened to be lying off the beach

close by,having just been ladenw ith car ob- pods,

which were destined to b e exported to Savona, near

Genoa. As this was on the point of starting for

Tigani,our Chor ophylax preferred to avail himself of

this mode of transit, while we ourselves returned on

Samos. 1 77

foot along the seashore. A t no gr eat distance from

the temple we reached a clear stream, which was of

sufficient width to render wading necessary. This

is now called Potoki,and was inancient times the

Imb r asos, onthe banks of which

,according to the

local legend which is givenby Pausanias,Her a was

b ornbeneath a bush of agnus castus 1. Further on,

as we approached the site of the ancient city, we

crossed two others, both of which admitted of being

jumped. They belonged to the ancient Chesios,from the neighbour hood of which river the western

quarter of the city was called Chesias, while the

eastern portion, which included the original acro

polis, wasnamed Astypalaea. Betweenthese str eams

and the city walls lay the tombs, which Mr . Bent was

at this time exploring. Inthe course of the afternoon

we once more reached our head- quar ters at Tigani.

1 Pausan. 7. 4. 4.

C H A PT E R IX.

PA TMO S .

I N passing from Samos to Patmos we leave a

land of classical archaeology for one the interest of

which is wholly Biblical and ecclesiastical. Before

the Christianer a the name of Patmos only occurs in

a few passages of ancient writers, and of its history,if it had one, nothing is known; it was when it

became the place of banishment of S t. John the

Divine, and the scene of his apocalyptic vision, that

it once for all attracted the attentionof mankind.A t the present day it is one of the least accessible of

the Aegeanislands, for owing to its remote position

and the unproductiveness of its soil no steamers

ever touch there. Inorder to reach it we engaged

a good - sized decked vessel, for though we hoped

after visiting it to arrive at the neighbouring island

of Leros in time for the Austrian packet which

touches ther e on its way from Smyrna to Rhodes,

yet it was necessary to be prepar ed for a longer

voyage, since, if the weather was unpropitious, we

might be forced to continue our course southwards

to Calyrnnos, or evento Cos. Early onthe morning

of Apr il 9 we left the harbour of Tigani ; and a

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The Islands of the Aegean.

but its outline is brokenup by innumerable promon

tories enclosing landlocked creeks, so that,when

seenfrom above, it presents somewhat the aspect of

a strange polypus. I ts length from north to south is

about eight miles, and its area - is rugged and br oken;but the most marked peculiarity is that it is almostdivided intwo inthe middle

,for inthis part

,within

a distance of little more thanhalf a mile fr om one

another, ar e two isthmuses only a few hundred yards

wide, and rising but slightly above the sea - level. O n

the southernmost of these the seala is situated, while

between the two stands the steep hill onwhich the

acr opolis of the Hellenic city was built. T he narrow

waist thus formed ser v es for a boundary line to

determine the domainof the monastery, for while

the southernhalf of the island belongs to the monks,the northern part is the possession of the civil

community. A t the time of the foundationof the

convent no womenwere allowed to pass this limit,but withina short period the restr ictionhad to be

abandoned. T he soil of which the island is composed Volcanicis everywhere volcanic and very bar ren

,and its

coasts ar e flanked by r ed and grey rocks, which ever

and anonbreak into quaint pinnacles. The absence

of running water is shownby the numerous wind

mills, and there ar e only three or four wells inthe

whole area the want of these, however , is made up

for by cisterns, and the inhabitants ar e never obliged

to import water,as sometimes happens inSantorin.

T he male population ar e chiefly employed in the

sponge fishery, which is carried oninmany of the

Sporades. The island is most commonly knownby

its mediaeval name of Patino, in like manner as

Astypalaea is still called A str opalaea, and Carpathos

S carpanto.

Leaving our baggage to be carried up to the Mammymonastery of S t. John, which is a mile and a half Apocalypse.from the seala, we ourselves pr oceeded to the smaller

monastery of the Apocalypse, which occupies a steep

positiononthe mountain- side about one- third of the

distance inthe same direction, and is the spot pointed

out by traditionas the scene of the Revelation. I t is

entered from the back, and from this point the visitor

descends among a variety of buildings by numer ous

stone staircases, the steps of which ar e forty in

number. A t the lowest point, though still at a con

The Islands of the Aegean.

The cav e. sider able height above the valley below, is the cave

which forms the chapel of the Apocalypse. This is

entered through a church dedicated to S t.Anne, which

is built outside and par allel to the mouth of the cave,and consists, like the chapel, of two parts— anar thex or

por ch,and the sacr ed building itself. T he z

’

eonostasz'

s

at the fur ther end of this chur ch is ornamented with

pictures of S t.Anne, of our Lord, and of the Panagia,and is surmounted by anelaborate rood - scr een, while

against the outer wall a representationof the Entomb

ment, richly embroider ed onvelvet, is hung in a

glass case thiswas a gift from Russia. T he chapel

of the Apocalypse, which is formed by the bare sides

and r oof of the cave,is about twenty- two feet in

length by fifteenfeet inbr eadth. Inone part of the

roof a rent is pointed out, where the r ockwas broken

at the commencement of the Revelation,and fr om a

somewhat deeper cleft inthis the Divine voice is said

to have proceeded ; nor does the process of identifica

tionst0p here, for a hole inthe wall close below this

is believed to have been the place where S t. John’ s

head lay.

T he pictures inthe z’

eonostasz'

s of this chapel ar e

worthy ofnotice. Inthe left hand compartment is a

Jesse tree, inwhich the Virginand Child ar e the

most prominent objects but figures of prophets

and saints ar e seenin the br anches. T he central

picture representsour Lord appearing to S t. John,who lies at his feet as dead . Inthis

,Christ is seated

inthe midst of sevenangels, who bear intheir hands

sevenchurches, while a candlestick stands infront of

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ignor ant of the position, size, and nature of Patmos

he makes it nine days’ sail from Ephesus, and con

ceiv es of it as a large and populous island, hardlysmaller thanSicily. T he story commences with the

departure of Johnfrom Judaea ona missionto the

province of Asia, onwhich Prochorus accompanied

him,and after describing his sojourn at Ephesus,

relates infull detail his banishment to Patmos and

residence there. Two of the incidents that ar e

mentioned deserve notice here, because they will be

referred to later on.

The first of these is the contest of S t. Johnwith

Kynops, amagicianwho inhabited a cave ina desolate

part of the island. I t runs as follows. Whenthe

priests of the temple of Apollo inPatmos found that

Johnwas converting allthe leadingmentoChristianity,they came to Kynops to request him to put anend to

his influence ; and inconsequence of this, Kynops,in the pr esence of a great multitude, displayed his

magical powers ina var iety of ways as a challenge to

John, and finally cast himself into the sea, intending

to reappear fr om it, as he had done onseveral former

occasions. But John, extending his arms inthe form

of a cross, exclaimed, O thou who did’st grant to

Moses by this similitude to overthrow Amalek, O

Lord Jesus Christ, bring downKynops to the deepof the sea let him never more behold this sun, nor

converse with living men.’ And at John’ s word

immediately there was a roaring of the sea, and the

water formed inaneddy at the place where Kynops

went down, and Kynops sank to the bottom, and after

this reappeared no more from the sea. The name of

the magician is now attached to one of the southern

promontories of Patmos, a wild and precipitous

locality, and inone part of it a cavernis shownwhich

is reported to have beenhis dwelling- place.

T he other incident relates to the compositionofj ohndie

S t. John’s Gospe l, which is associated with the”ting I n}

Apostle ’s departure from the island at the end of his

term of banishment. Whenthe people of Patmos,

whom he had converted. found that he was about to

leave them, they begged him to deliver to them in

writing a nar rative of the mir acles of the S onof

God which he had seen, and of His words which he

had heard, that they might remainsteadfast inthe

faith. Prochorus thennarrates how he went with

Johnto a tranquil spot by a low hill a mile distant

from the city ; and, after long fasting and prayer,Johncaused Prochorus to seat himself by his side

with paper and ink, and then,standing and looking

up steadfastly into heaven, dictated to him the

Gospel, commencing with the words,‘ Inthe begin

ning was the Word .

’

The interest of this story

which is in direct contradiction to all the early

traditions relating to this Gospel—arises from its

hav ing beena suggestive subject for early works of

ar t. The figur es of anaged man,who is standing, T r eatment

dictating to a youth who is seated, in the midst ofm ar t“

rural surroundings,ar e found, for instance, in a

Greek MS . of the Gospels intheVatican, figured in

Agincourt’ s H istory of A r t (Painting. pl. lix ), inthe

Codex E bner ianus inthe Bodleian, inthe facsimile

The Islands of the Aegean.

fr om anArmenian MS. inProfessor Westwood ’s

P alaeogr aphz’

a S acr a , and inone of the MSS. inthe

monastery at Patmos. Strange to say, in the nar

r ativ e of Prochorus inits original form,ther e is not

a wor d about the Apocalypse. Insome of the later

MSS . of the‘Acts of S t. John,

’ however, ther e is an

interpolated passage, evidently adapted from the

story of the compositionof the Gospel, inwhich that

book is said to have beendictated by the A postle to

Pr ochorus ina cave in Patmos. I t was thus,no

doubt,that the grotto which we have visited was

fixed uponas the scene of this event, and it is pos

sible that the pictur e onthe z'

eonostasz'

s is intended

to describe it. I t is noticeable, that inthe Guide to

P ainting of Dionysius of Agrapha, which from an

unknownper iod of the Middle Ages to the present

day has determined the mode of tr eatment of sacred

subjects inar t inthe EasternChurch, it is prescribed

that‘

the scene both of the Revelationand of the com

positionof the Gospel shall be a cave ; but whereas

inthe latter subject Prochorus is to be introducedas the scribe, in the former the Apostle is to be

r epr esented alone 1.

Just outside the entr ance gate of the convent of

the Apocalypse stand the ruined buildings of a school

which formerlywas r esorted to bynumerous students

from the neighbouring islands. About thirty years

ago it was given up, owing to the competitionof

schools that had sprung up elsewhere. Leaving

this, we now proceeded upwards by a rough road

1 D idron, Manuel d ’I eonogr aphz

’

e ehr e'

tt'

enne, pp. 9 3 8, 304—307.

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The Islands of the Aegean.

of these we heard inthe middle of the night, callingthe community to prayers, after the door of each

chamber had first beenvigorously knocked,and the

semantr on, or alarum used inthe Greek Church, had

been sounded in the cor r idors. The number of

monks is thirty, and they ar e all natives of Patmos.They possess farms inCrete, Samos, and Santorin,but at the present time they complainof poverty.

T he foundationof the monastery dates from the

latter half of the eleventh century, when a monk

named Ch r istodoulos, who had beenan inmate of

several convents, and found none of them suffi ciently

strict intheir rules to satisfy his ownascetic tem

per ament, obtained from the Emperor Alexius Com

nenus a concessionof the island of Patmos, confirmed

by a goldenbull, that he might establish there a com

munity regulated according to his ideas of monastic

life.We ar e expressly told that for some time before

the island had beenuninhabited, and this fact must

be takeninto account inestimating the value of the

local traditions.

T he panorama from the roof of the monastery, to

which I ascended onthe morning after my arrival, is

truly wonderful. T he greater par t of the strange

island, with its varied heights and irregular outline,is visible, and, along with it, the wide bay, which is

embr aced by its rocky arms. Toward the nor th ap

pear ed the level line of Icaria, the peaks of Samos,and the promontory of Mycale ; and, inthe opposite

direction,the island of Leros, beyond which rose the

fine summits of Calymnos while inthe openexpanse

of the Aegean to the west lay Amorgos, and the

distant volcano of Santorin. Inadditionto this, the

sea was studded with numerous islets, and these,together with the inter v ening spaces of deep blue

water , formed the pervading feature of the scene.

Such was the view which, with frequent changes from

day to night, and fr om sunshine to storm,must have

beenpresent to S t.Johnat the per iod of his banish

ment ; and it is an inter esting questionwhether the

impressionwhich it made uponhim is traceable in

the imagery of the Revelation. T he subject is one

which may easily lead to fanciful speculation; and

DeanStanley,whose mind was singularly Open to

local influences, and could tr ace their wor king with

great felicity, inthis instance seems to have yielded

to the temptationinaneloquent passage onPatmos

inthe Notices appended to his S ermons inthe E ast 1.

Ther e he goes so far as to suppose that the dragon,and the beasts with many heads and monstrous

figures,were suggested by the serpentine form of

the island and its rocks contorted into fantastic and

grotesque forms. Still the refer ences to the sea in

the Apocalypse— evenif we exclude fr om considera Suited to

tion, as we ought to do, those passages wher e the

sea is introduced, like the earth and sky,as one of

the constituents of creation— ar e frequent and str iking ;and still more so is the introductionof the islands

(Rev . vi. 14 : Every mountainand island wer emoved

out of their places xvi.20 : Every island fledfor these objects rarely occur inBiblical imagery,

1 p. 230.

The Islands of the Aegean.

and inthe Old Testament the expression‘the isles ’

signifies rather a regionthana feature ingeogr aphy

or landscape. But evenif we hesitate to admit the

direct suggestiveness of such points as these,we

may, at least,feel that the scenery of this island

,

from its gr andeur and wildness,and the sense of

space and solitude which it conveys, was well suited

to form a background inthe mind ’s eye of the seer

for the wonderful visions of the Apocalypse.

The first place of interest inthe monastery which

we visited was the libr ary. This is a spacious and

airy room, and the books ar e ar ranged incases along

its walls, so that it pr esents a very different appear

ance fromwhat Dr. E. D. Clarke described, whenhe

saw it at the beginning of this century, and carried

off some of the most valuable of the works that it

conta ined. A t the present time its most precious

treasur e is the famous Codex N .,a quarto MS. of

the sixth century, with double columns, wr ittenon

pur ple vellum in uncial letters in silver,with the

names of G od and Christ in gold. The por tionwhich is here preserved consists of thirty- three

leaves, and contains the greater par t of S t. Mark ’s

gospel ; but its interest is increased by the fact that

other fragments of the same MS .,containing portions

of the other gospels, exist elsewher e— six leaves inthe Vatican, four inthe British Museum,

and two at

Vienna. Strange to say, the MS. which resembles it

most nearly, both inits externals and its text, is the

Codex Rossanensis which belongs to the monas

tery of Rossano inCalabria, not far distant from the

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inthe latter of the two the pictur e of S t. John is

wanting : inthe former he is r epresented , as I have

already descr ibed, as dictating the gospel to Pr o

chorus. We wer e also showna semi- uncial MS. of

the wor ks of S t. Gr egory of N az ianz us with the date

942 ; this was much defaced by damp. Not the least

interesting object is the original bull of Alexius Com

nenus,authorising the foundationof the monastery.

T he dimensions of this ar e about 9 ft. long by 16 in.

wide,and it is onpaper

,which has beenmounted on

linen; the writing is large, and the emperor ’s signa

ture, and wor ds inserted by him,ar e inr ed ink.

L et me now descr ibe the gr eat chur ch of the

monastery. This is entered through anouter porch,or pr oaulion, which runs the whole length of the

west end of the building, and is open to the court,being supported on the outer side by mar ble

columns. Inone part of this ther e is a rude font,intended to contain the holy water that is used

on the festival of the Epiphany. I ts walls ar e

fr escoed with sacred subjects, among which maybe seen the war rior saints, S t. George and S t.

Demetrius,and S t. A r temius with Constantine and

Helen. Inone part stands Alexius Comnenus in

robe and crown, bear ing a cross inhis hand ; in

another the magicianKynops is thr owing himself

into the water, while on the opposite side of the

pictur e is the aged S t. Johnwith his followers.

Inthe easternwall of this corridor there ar e three

doorways,two of which lead into the chur ch, and the

third into a chapel of S t. Ch r istodoulos. The

Patmos.

church is entered through a nar thex, and is ex

t r emely dark, the only light being that which is

admitted fr om the cupola and through a side chapel .T he central dome is supported on four pillars

,and

contains a fresco of the Saviour ; the floor beneath

i'

s ornamented with stone mosaic. T he iconostasis

is r ichly carv ed with figures, fr uit, and flowers, and

the lecterns ar e inlaid with tortoise - shell andmother

of- pearl. There ar e two ancient paintings of S t.

John— one large and the other small— but both

much defaced by time and the devotionof worship

pers and a small triptych of the period of the

founder is shown, with very delicate paintings of

Scr ipture subjects. In the chapel the body of S t.

Ch r istodoulos l ies ina niche which has beenhol Relics cfthefouna

’

er .

lowed out inthe side wall it I S enclosed m a case,but the face is v isible. His shoes and his staff ar e

preser ved as rel ics ; the former ar e made of coarse

brown leather, and much worn, while the latter

a pater itsa—is in two parts,one of which has the

cross- piece attached to it, which is sometimes used

for leaning on during serv ice in the monasteries.

T he monks also show the chainby which S t. John

was bound as a prisoner but the spurious character

of this, as of all the memorials of S t. John inthe

island,is made more conspicuous by the genuineness

of most things connected with the founder.

T he refectory is a large and lofty room, with a Refectory

vaulted roof and central dome, and a long stone 233 mtable runs downthe middle, resembling that which

we noticed at N ea Mone inChios but the seats

0

The Islands of the Aegean.

here ar e of wood, resting at inter vals upon stone

supports. I t is now disused, owing to the systemof commonmeals having beengivenup, but somefrescoes remain to testify to its former grandeur .

Adjoining it is a kitchen of equally massive con

struction, with a single fir eplace surmounted by

a chimney running up to the top of the monastery,

like a r ude funnel of irregular shape.

Whenwe left themonastery we descended towards

the western coast of the island, until, at the end

of half anhour, a creek came inview,and onits

shore a small level of cultivated land,which is

knownby the name of ‘T he Gardenof the Saint ’

(6 xfinoc r ot) 6m'

ov). I t measures about a quar ter of

a mile each way, and contains a chapel and a few

dwelling- houses ; but the fame which it enjoys is due

to its possessing one of the few fountains in the

island,and this is said to have issued from the

ground inanswer to the prayer s of S t. Chr istodoulos.

From this point we made our way along the rugged

slopes until we r eached the inlet at the back of the

seala, on the further side of which rises the height

that was occupied by the acropolis of the ancient

city. T he situationof this, as I have already de

scribed, is remarkable, since it stands betweentwo

isthmuses and two seas. Whenwe arrived at its

foot, we proceeded to climb its steep south-western

face, and not far from the summit came upon

the remains of fortifications, which were mainly

formed of polygonal blocks roughly put together ;but whenwe had crossed over to the opposite side ,

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she was surrounded by a swarm of little tubs, most

of them manned by three boys apiece, all of whom

screamed at the top of their voice, appar ently inthe

hope of disembarking some stray passenger. So

numer ous were the boats and so tightly packed, that

we had some difficulty inforcing our way onboard .

I t seemed strange enough that so fine a packet as

the Vesta should put into so insignificant a port

as this,but during our stay inRhodes the anomaly

was explained to us. I t appears that the inhabitants

of Leros ar e possessed of some wealth, and that

latterly many of them have settled inA lexandria,and have become shopkeepers ther e ; and incon

sequence of this, the community inEgypt have found

it worth their while to guarantee the Lloyd ’s company

a sum equivalent to £ 1 000 sterling annual ly, oncon

dition that they carry oncommunications for them

with the ir native island. This is a good instance of

the commer cial enter pr ise of the insular Greeks.Inancient times the citizens of Leros were the

victims of a malicious epigram,which was aimed by

the poet Phocylides against one of their number ,called Pr ocles. I t r anthus

They ar e bad to a man, ar e the people of Leros ;To a man

, ex cept Pr ocles—and he too’

s fr om Ler os 1.’

A poet of their own,Demodocus, attempted to

1 The gnomic poems of Phocylides w er e subsequently quotedinthis form, Kat 7 686 l tiam ; hence the epigram runs

Kal 7 66: w vAfbear A épcot lea/tol' m’

tx 6 p27 , 8s 8’

06°

mit/r es 1mmI I ponAéov s'

Ital H poxxérjs A ép ws.

S trabo, 1o. 5 . 1 2 , p. 487 ; compar e Bergh’

s note inhis Poet. Ly r .

G r . p. 3 3 8.

divert this so as to apply to the people of Chios,

but apparently without much effect. We ar e told

that if you throw plenty of dirt, some of it will stick,and satir ical epigrams seem fr om their nature to be

the form of l iterary dirt which sticks most easily

and most permanently. This appears to be true

in the present instance, for this gibe,which was

uttered by Phocylides in the six th century before

Chr ist, is recorded against Leros by Strabo, who

wrote in the Augustan age . T he Greeks of the

present day have not beenless malicious thantheir

predecessor s. L er a is the modernword for filth,

’

and consequently Ler os, filth (Ae'

pos Aépa) has

become a regular pr ov erbial expr ession. I t came

naturally to the lips of our Athenian travell ing

ser vant, as we approached the island .

Our voyage to Rhodes car r ied us past many ih

ter esting objects. A t first our View was attracted

by the islands on our right, those which form a

chain between the extremity of Samos and the

T r iopian pr omontory. T he northern portion of

these is formed by Patmos and Leros ; thenfollows

Calymnos with its long and gr aceful line of summits

and at the end of the chainlies Cos ina tr ansverse

position to the others. This splendid island isintersected throughout its whole length by a back

bone of mountains, which rises to a number of lofty

peaks inthe centre ; and its northernslopes, which

ar e cultivated to a great height, appear remarkably

fertile. T he houses of the city line the shor e for

a considerable distance at its eastern extr emity.

198 The Islands of the Aegean.

T he remark which has beenmade w ith r egard to

Lesbos, that the site of its capital was chosenwith

a view to its facing the mainland,is true also of all

the larger islands off this coast—of Chios,Samos

,

Leros, Cos and Rhodes. O n the left hand we pass

the headland withinwhich lay Halicarnassus ; and

shortly afterwar ds the huge towers of the castle of

Budrum, which was built by the Knights of Rhodes

on the site of that city,ar e clear ly seen, notwith

standing that they ar e twelve miles distant. Then

the land r ecedes, where the deep bay of H alicar

nassus—one of those r emarkable inlets in which

the multiform coastline of the west of Asia Minor

seems to r each its highest development towar ds

this angle intervenes between the promontory

just past and the T r iopian headland. T he last

named cape is by far the most pr ominent feature in

all this r egionowing to its magnificent succession

of broken heights. O nits extremity the ancient

Cnidos was situated ; so that at this point we ar e

inthe midst of one group of the towns which formed

the Dorian hex apolis—Cos, Cnidos, and H alicar

nassus, and the thr ee others we ar e about to visit

in Rhodes. During this part of the voyage the

steamer is forced to pursue a devious cour se, in

consequence of the easternextremity of Cos be ing

thrust inbetween the two promontor ies. The sun

now set, and night had fallensome time before we

approached the port of Rhodes.

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and a Jew— a crew that well represented the nagionalities which inhabit the place. T he languages that

°

may be hear d at the por t ar e very motley, for the

Jews, as inSalonica, ar e descendants of those who

were expelled from Spain inthe time of Ferdinand

and Isabella, and speak a corrupt form of Spanish

and Italian, which, during the last thir ty years, has

been r apidly superseded by French in the Levant,is still pr evalent here. Onlanding, we wer e con

ducted to the suburb of Neo-Mar as,which lies to

the.

nor thwar d of the city, and is the residence of

the foreign consuls and the RomanCatholic popu

lation. T he gates of the city ar e closed at night,andno Chr istians ar e allowed to remainwithin th

walls, so that the Gr eeks, who occupy shops ther e,ar e obliged to quit the place at sunset. Until about

for ty year s ago ther e was a further regulation,that

onFr idays all Chr istians should leave before noon,inconsequence of a pr ediction, or a prevalent idea,that the city would sometime be retaken by the

Christians ona Fr iday,whenall the faithful were

at their pr ayer s. We wer e at once struck with the

balminess of the climate, and the air was ladenwith

th e scent of orange- blossom. T he next morning

(April 1 2)we found that eventhe plane - tr ees were

partially in leaf, and the numerous palms testified

to the temperatur e of the South. A r esident in

formed us that he had only once had a fir e lighted

in his house dur ing the previous winter. T he’

pleasant climate, no doubt, was one of the chief

attractions of the place inRomantimes.

T he city ofRhodes is situated close to thenor thern Of

most extr emity of the island, facing the mainland,with a nor th - easte rnaspect. Infront of it ar e three

harbour s,which were originally separated fr om one

another by small spits of land ; but these were

subsequently impr oved and strengthened by moles

so as to affor d pr otectionagainst the sea. Fr om the

shore the ground rises gradually inthe form of an

ancient theatre, the highest point be ing towar ds the

west, wher e it overlooks the sea in the opposite

direction. This hill- which now bears the name

of Mount Smith,because the house that stands on

its summit was the r esidence of S ir Sydney Smith

in 1802,at the time of Napoleon’s Egyptian ex

pedition—was the positionof the ancient acropolis.

But it is by no means a commanding height, and

this is pr obably the reasonwhy no city was built

here at anear ly per iod for the site was unoccupied

until towards the close of the Peloponnesianwar

(13. c. whenthe inhabitants of the three leading

cities of the island,Lindos

,Ialysos

,and Cameir os,

agr eed to abandon their homes and found a city in

common. In other r espects the position is ad

mir able for a commer cial station, onaccount of its

harbour s, its nearness to the mainland, and its being

a natural point of departur e for Egypt and the East.T he later glories of the place, when it became the

str onghold of the Knights of S t. John, and one of

the bulwarks of Chr istianEurope against the Otto

mans at the height of their power,have almost

eclipsed its ancient fame. Y et Strabo speaks of its

The Islands of the Aegean.

grandeur as being surpassed by no other city, and

hardly equalled by any1. I ts commer ce

,its political

institutions,its school of oratory, and its school of

sculptur e,enjoyed awor ld-wide renown2. I ts strength

was so gr eat that it endur ed a siege by Demetrius

Polior cetes inB. c. 304, and triumphantly repulsed

h im,though he brought all his for ce against it for

the space of a year. N or canwe forget that it

became the residence of many great men; that

Cicero studied there, and that Tiber ius chose

it as his place of voluntary exile. O f the magnifi

cence of that time l ittle remains beyond the Hellenic

foundations of the moles,and the numerous sepul

chral monuments of gr ey marble— resembling small

r ound altars or pedestals of statues— which ar e met

with inthe city and the suburbs.

But as a specimen of a mediaeval fortress the

existing city is almost unr ivalled ; and the objects

that r emain ther e, notwithstanding the ravages of

time, illustr ate inanimpr essive manner the organisa

tionof the Or der of the Knights of S t. John. T he

enormous moat,wide and deep, and faced onboth

sides with stone ; the solid walls, with towers at

intervals,forming sometimes a double

,and at the

highest point,where the palace of the Gr and Master

stood,a tr iple line of defence, and drawnina hor se

shoe form over the sloping heights fr om either side

of the central har bour , and along the line of the

1 S tr abo , 14. 2 . 5 , p. 65 2 .

1 Aninter esting account of the mercantile law of Rhodes, its

system of ar b itr ation, and similar points, w ill be found inProf.

Mahaffy’

s G r eek L ife and Thought, ch . x v .

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The Islands of the Aegean.

flash of lightning that struck an adjoining minaret.

T he neighbour ing palace of the Grand Master, which

was alr eady ina ruinous condition,was still further

damaged by the same catastr ophe, so that now only

the lower stor ey remains.

I t is aninter esting questionatwhat per iod, and by

whom,the powder was stored inthis ne ighbourhood,

for the Tur kish authorities at the time of the explosion

were ignorant of its existence. A t fir st itwas suggested

that it was deposited there whenRhodes was besieged

by the Ottomans in 1 5 22 and that this was the

act ofAmar al, the chancellor of the Order , who turned

tr aitor thr ough jealousy in consequence of L’

I sle

Adam being pr efer r ed to him as Gr and Master , and

might have concealed a quantity of the gunpowder

belonging to the besieged, inor der to hastenthe fall

of the place. To this view, however , ther e ar e two

objections, which appear to be fatal. In the fir st

place,there is no historical evidence of the conceal

ment of the powder , and without that we ar e inthe

r egion of conjectur e ’. Secondly

,the doubt not

unr easonably suggests itself,whether it is possible

for gunpowder to r etainits explosive power for mor e1 M. G uer in, w ho propounded th is ex planationof the ex istence

of the gunpowder inthe pr eface to the second editionof his f le

de Rhodes, Speaks of hav ing found contempor ary mentionof the

concealment of the powder , but he giv es no auth or ities for this

statement. M r . Tor r , the author of Rhodes inModernTimes , tells

me that he has r ead th rough ev ery contempor ary r ecord that he

could find, but has beenunable to discov er anything to this effect.

The charge against Amar al w as, not that he had concealed anypowde r dur ing the siege , but that he had beenr emiss inb ringinginpowder befor ehand.

thanthree centur ies. This questionhas been sub

mitted to S ir F. Abel, the highest author ity on

explosives in this country ; and his opinion is

that,though gunpowder may retain its explosive

pr oper ties for an indefinite period,pr ovided that

it is so packed and enclosed that moistur e cannot

have access to it, yet it is scarcely probable that

packages such as were available at that period,even

if they wer e inthe first instance fair ly impervious to

moisture,could have preserved this essential featur e

for so long a time. I t follows that the attr active view

which would invest this gunpowder with a historical

interest must b e set aside ; and we must content

ourselves with the mor e prosaic supposition, that it

was deposited inthe vaults underneath the church at

some comparatively recent per iod, and was subse

quently for gotten.

Anaccount of awalk whichwe took one day through

the city may serve, better thanany detailed descr iption

,to illustrate the character istics of the place.

Starting from our Christiansubur b onthe northern

side,we have onour left the fir st harbour

,that of the

galleys, which was outside the enceinte of walls, but

was defended bya str ong round tower at the extr emity

of the mole, called the Tower of S t. Nicholas, which

was erected by the Spanish Gr and Master, Zacosta.

I t has beenconjectured that this for t occupies the

site of the famous Colossus ‘, but M r . Torr2 inclines to

the view that that statue stood onthe low gr ound at

1 N ewton, Tr av els and D iscover ies in the L evant, v ol. i. pp. 1 76,Rhodes inA ncient Times, p. 97 .

The Islands of the Aegean.

the south-west corner of this harbour . The notion

that it bestrode the har bour is purely fabulous.Wenext pass thr ough the gate of S t. Paul, over which

stands a figur e of the saint, holding inone hand a

sword,in the other the volume of the Gospel ; like

all these figures and escutcheons, it is car v ed inlow

relief on a slab of bluish gr ey mar ble. This gate

leads, not into the city itself, but into the cir cuit of

wal ls which enclose the gr eat harbour,or har bour of

commer ce ; of the moles that defended this, the

nearer former ly bore the tower of N aillac, already

mentioned,while from the further

,on the eastern

side, rises the tower of S t. John.

Thr ough the wall which borders this har bour the

city is entered by the finest of all the gates,that of S t.

Cathar ine, which is surmounted by a figur e of that

saint,standing between S t. Peter and S t. John the

Baptist it is flanked by two r ound towers,and has

fine machicolations, and a place for the por tcullis.

Immediately within this, on the right hand as we

enter , is the cr oss wall, which separated off the

northernportionof the city, or Castello, which was

reserv ed for the Knights, and occupied about one

third of the entire area, fr om that part which was

inhabited by the citizens. N ot far off, onthe left

was the Chancery, or Palais de Justice, part of the

facade of which r emains ; it is appr oached by a flight

of steps. T he architecture of this,as of all the other

buildings,is Gothic, and forms a strong contrast to

the Byzantine style of the ecclesiastical structures,and the Saracenic military architecture, which prevail

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The Islands of the Aegean.

harbour, that of A candia, l ies, while the English

reached from S t. John’s gate to the tower of S t.

Mary. T he defences in this part ar e especially

str ong, the second or outer line, and the bastions,be ing of very solid constr uction. Outside the moat

is anold Tur kish cemetery,wher e lie the bones of

those of the besiegers who fell dur ing the siege .

Traver sing this,and skirting the moat, we pass first

St. Mary’s tower, which is distinguished by a r elief

of the Virginand Child built into the outside of the

masonry ; then the Spanish tower and that of S t.

George ; and finally r each the Amboise gate, which

received its name fr om the Gr and Master, Emery

d’

Amboise, who erected it. T he intermediate space

was defended successively by Spain, Auvergne, and

Germany, while the Fr ench wer e responsible for the

long line which reached to the sea at S t. Paul ’s gate,and Portugal undertook the defence of the harbour

and its adjacent towers.

Re - entering the city by the Amboise gate, and

passing through successive lines of fortification by

winding ways,intended to protract the defence, we

find ourselves in the upper part of the Castello,or city of the Knights

,wher e stood the church of

S t. John, the palace of the Grand Masters, and, be

tween them, the Lodge of S t. John, inwhich was

the commonhall of council ; the last-named‘building

faced directly downthe street of the Knights. This

famous street, which descends ina straight line by

a gradual slope towards the por t, is disappointing in

the effect which it produces onthe eye, owing both

to the rough brown stone of which the buildings

ar e composed, and to the pr ojecting latticed frames

of wood,which have beenthrownout by the Tur kish

families who dwell ther e. But fr om a histor ical point

of view it is the centre of interest inthe place, since

it contains the Pr ior ies, which were the headquar tersand places of meeting of the differ ent nationalities,and the ir escutcheons and those of their most dis

tinguished mencaninmany cases be seenon the

facades. By far the handsomest is that of Fr ance,which occupies a centr al positionon the nor thern

side of the str eet,and is adorned with the arms and

car dinal’s insignia of D’

A ubusson, who successfully

defended the city against the attacks of Mahomet I I,

and with those of the not less heroic, though less

fortunate, L’

I sle Adam. To an Englishman,how

eve r,the most interesting monument in this str eet

is one of the least conspicuous— a little chapel, only

the outer wall of which is visible, together with a

groined niche for a statue r eached by a flight of

small steps ; this was called the English chapel, and

has the arms of England sculptured onits walls. I t

is now a mosque. This stood higher up than the

French Priory, and quite separ ate from that of England, which was at the bottom of the str eet, and had

a chur ch of S t. Cathar ine attached to it ; but of these

little r emains inits or iginal condition. Opposite to

the English Pr iory was the Hospital of the Or der ,a large building of r ude but massive constr uction,with a deep Gothic portal, and a cour t inside . This

has beenconver ted into a barrack. T he small back

P

The Islands of the Aegean.

streets also, that run off from the str eet of the

Knights,pr esent a variety of interesting featur es.

Her e numer ous flying buttresses ar e found, which

were intended to resist the shocks of ear thquakes,and vaulted passages, and winding alleys, with

shields and qua int bits of ornamental wor k ap

pear ing at interv als. T he photogr apher or the

lover of the picturesque might find a greater

charm in these than even in the mor e dignified

buildings.

Sight- seeing inRhodes at this time was not alto”w my gether an easy matter. For three or four year s

befor e we visited the island great difficulties had

beenplaced inthe way of travellers who wished to

view the inter esting objects there. I t was for bidden

to walk onthe walls, and any one who stopped for

more thana minute to notice an object was hailed

by a sentry. To attempt to sketch was danger ous.

T he ancient buildings also withinthe city wer e not

allowed to be enter ed. The explanationof this was,that since the war with Russia the Turks had been

suspicious of plans be ing taken of their fir st- class

for tresses, and or ders had at last beenissued,which

should r ender this impossible. Rhodes, though in

capable of serious “defence, was ranked among these ,and ther efore these r ules and r estrictions were made

to apply to it. A t the per iod of which I am speakingthe feeling of jealousy was unusually strong, because

of a r eport which had beencir culated insome Eur o

peannewspaper s,that England was negociating to

have the island of Rhodes ceded to her ; and the

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which has received, though without much reason,the name of the ‘Tomb of the Ptolemies,

’ deserves

especial notice onaccount of its size. I t forms infact a mound to itself, the ground - planof which is a

square, and it must have beenpiled up with earth so

as to form a pyr amid. The surface of the rock out

of which it was formed was or iginally ornamented on

all four sides, but owing to portions of it having fallen

away, the northernface is the only one at all per fect.

That towar ds the south is completely r uined, and an

immense mass of it,which was probably detached by

anearthquake, lies face downwards ina neighbouring

ravine with one of its colonnettes still visible. What

r emains of the ornamentationof the northernside is

a row of columns half engaged inthe r ock. As the

entrance door does not stand in the middle of this

face, the idea has been suggested that there mayhave been other chamber s enter ed fr om the other

sides. This door leads into a vestibule with a large

sepulchral niche cut inthe r ock both to r ight and

left,and this againconducts into a spacious squar e

inner chamber , containing ten smaller, but deeply

cut,niches at the sides, though some of these ar e

now almost destroyed. I t is natural to suppose that

such a vault was the bur ial- place of some gr eat

family.

A ncient After examining this we descended towards the

sea, where the same ravine which is spanned higher

up by the aqueduct is crossed by another and older

br idge of two very solid arches, only one of which

could have beenused for the passage of the water.

Rhodes. 2 1 3

I t is constr ucted of large rectangular stones, fitted

together without mor tar , and for this reason has

sometimes been regarded as Hellenic work. The

use of the ar ch,however, was so r ar e among the

Greeks, that it is perhaps safer to refer it to Roman

times.

C H A P T E R XI .

RH O D E S (continued).

O r the tendays thatwe spent inRhodes, fiv e were

devoted to the inter ior of the island, our object be ing

to visit the sites of the ancient cities of Ialysos,Cameir os, and Lindos

,and to ascend A tabyr on,

which is the highest and most central mounta in.

For this expeditionwe hired mules— for horses ar e

r arely found in Rhodes,— and each of these was

accompanied by his owner, for they were very careful

of their beasts, and declined entrusting them to anyone of their number. During the first day of our

journey (April 1 3)we were inthe neighbour hood of

the westerncoast. Leaving our subur b, we followed

the shore, from which rise huge blocks of con

glomerate rock ; and further onwe passed by the

road- side rows of tall cactuses, which inthis island,as inSicily

,ar e used for hedges. T he menwhom we

met coming to the townw ith their asses and mules

all wore high boots reaching to the knee,like the

Cr etans and some evenof the womenand children

used them. Anhour’ s riding fr om the city br ought

us to a place called Tr ianda, where a space of level

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from Helion de Villeneuve, the second Grand

Master. T he name is undoubtedly ancient, for it is

mentioned that the Tur kish for ces put in ther e

before the final siege.

Near Villa Nova we made our midday halt ina

hollow of the hillside,where a number of fountains

gush out from beneath a group of fine plane - trees,while infront the eye ranges over mulber ry- trees and

other fresh vegetationto the blue sea,with the bold

coast of Car ia inthe distance. T he heat of the sun

was now sufficiently great tomake rest welcome inso

pleasant a spot. Whenwe resumed our journey, our

route led acr oss anextensive plain, for the hills her e

r ecede to some distance fr om the sea : a gr eat part

of the country was r udely cultivated,but the villages

appear ed poverty- str icken. A t the end of six hours

from the townwe reached Kalavarda, which is the

nearest village to the r uins of Cameir os. Our enter

tainer at this place, to whom we had anintroduction

from our obliging Vice - Consul, M r . Biliotti,had

served as super intendent of the works to M r . Alfred

Biliotti, now the British Consul inCr ete, when, in

company with a Fr ench gentleman,M . Salzmann

,he

devoted sever al year s to the explor ationof this site .We found him an intelligent man,for he spoke

French, having been in Paris with M . Salzmann

during the siege, and he had also beeninMr .Alfr ed

Biliotti’

s employ whenhe was Consul at Trebizond,and had travelled with himas far asVaninA r menia.

Notwithstanding this, he seemed to have returned

with perfect contentment to the life of a simple

peasant,and his house

,which he and his family gave

up to us for the night, consisted, like all the country

houses inRhodes, of a single room.

As this house was a favourable specimenof the A Rhodian

nativ e dwellings, it may b e worth while for me to

describe it. I t was lofty, and nearly square, with

massive stone walls and a clay floor. Inthe centr e

stood a str ong upr ight pole, with a long cr oss- beam

resting onit,and the r oof was formed by poles laid

acr oss from this to the two walls, while above these

againsmaller branches and r ods wer e placed trans

v er sely. T he wholewas cover ed with a layer of clay,

stamped down. Against two of the side walls wer e

erections of wood, fiv e feet above the floor, onwhich

the family sleep, so that they liter ally climb up into

the ir beds beneath these, and also inother parts of

the room,wer e cupboards, the woodwork of which

was neatly carved in patterns. A t one angle was

the fir eplace, with a large hearth in front of it,

raised nine inches above the floor ; r ound this the

family sleep inthe winter. A basket suspended from

the roof contained the bread, which is thus pr eser ved

from the inr oads of mice and ants. Mattr esses and

cover lets made up the furniture. There was also a

rack for plates,but, as it happened to be cleaning

day, these had temporarily beenput away. T he use

of plates as wall- ornaments, which is character istic of

the famous Rhodianwar e, is quite a Rhodiancustom,

though those which the peasants now possess, since

they have parted with their ancestral treasures, ar e

modernand of no value . Ina house which was in

The Islands of the Aegean.

no r espect superior to this one I counted seventyplates hung onone wall.

A t the time of our arrival our host was absent ,

working inthe fields, so we engaged another native ,

who had takenpart inthe excavations, to act as our

guide. T he site of Cameir os is at a place called

Hagios Minas, three miles to the west of Kalavarda .

Inorder to r each it, we first crossed by stepping

stones a str eam,which

, to judge from the width of its

bed, must, at cer tainseasons, be a violent torrent, and

after twomiles came to some excavations, whe r e there

had beentombs inthe clayey soil ; similar gr aves ap

pear ed at inter vals for anothermile, forming a sort of

necr opolis. T he light colour of the ear th throughout

this neighbourhood seems to have suggested th e

Homer ic epithet of the place, white (dp A t

last we came to the site itself, which is thickly strewn

with fr agments of potte ry, while at the highest point

Hellenic walls have beenexcavated ; fr om this th e

gr ound slopes in terraces towar ds the sea. A t the

back of the acropolis passages flanked by massive

walls, which meet at anangle above,ar e visible at

several points at a considerable depth be low the

level of the soil ; these seem to have belonged to a

water cour se which supplied the city. Aninscription

containing the name of Cameir os was found on the

spot, and, like that of Ialysos,is now in the British

Museum. T he discovery of it was of gr eat impor

tance, for , pr ev iously to this,two other localities

one on the eastern,the other fur ther south onthe

westernside O f the island— had beensuggested as

Cameir ot .

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A scent

A tabyr on.

The Islands of the Aegean.

souls inall. T he name of the monastery suggests

the idea that it may stand onthe site of a temple of

A rtemis and this has been cor roborated by th e

recent discovery of an inscription to a pr iest of

A r tamis (this is the Doric form of A rtemis)at a place

only a mile and a half distant 1.

T he hegumen provided us with a room for th e

night,and thenat our request pr ocured for us a boy

who might act as our guide to the summit. This lad,

though he was only fr om twelve to fourteenyears of

age , proved to be anexcellent walker, for he was as

active and sur efooted as a goat,and he seemed to find

the way by instinct. Ther e was no path beyond what

our young companionextempor ised, and for the fir st

hour the ascent was very steep and rugged ; at one

period a gr ove of ilexes must have covered this face

of the peak, but now only spar se copses and isolated

trees r emain. Whenwe arrived at the shoulder of

the mountain, the ground became more lev el ; and

fr om this point to the summit,which we r eached in

another half- hour, the sur face of the soil is simply a

wilderness of rocks and fragments of hard grey stone .

Intwo or thr ee places there wer e small basins filled

with soil which affor ded scanty herbage, and besides

sheep and goats wemet with a few cattle, and onthe

summit itself were a hor se and half- a- dozenmules.We also put up several partridges. O n a lowe r

summit, a quarter of a mile distant from the highest,

and but little infer ior to it inelevation, ar e the rude

remains of a temple of grey limestone, consisting of1 Bulletinde Cor r espondanee helle

’

nique, v ol. ix . pp. 100 , 10 1 .

the foundations of the outer walls and part of the cella,but har dlymore thanits shape canbe traced. I t was

dedicated to Zeus, ofwhomPindar speaks as‘holding

sway on the r idges of A tabyr ion A t one time a

part of it was converted into a chape l of S t. Johnthe

Evangelist, but now this also is inruins. The height

of the summit, accor ding to the Admir alty Chart, is

40 70 feet. The name A tabyr on, or A tabyr ion—now

cor r upted into A taI r o— is also found inSicily, and is

of Phoenician or igin,being

,in fact

,the same as

Tabor,which mountainis called A tabyr ionby Greek

wr iter s.

T he view fr om this point is very str iking, for it com

prises the whole island of Rhodes, set inthe sea. T he

ar ea Over which the eye wanders is a very undulating

one,being intersected by r anges ofvar ied form,

among

which thr ee mountains stand up conspicuously and

thr ee r iver s can be seenwinding their way to the

coast, two on the eastern, and one onthe western

side. Beyond the southernextremity of Rhodes the

long brokenoutline of Car pathos was visible ; but

the Cretanmountains, which in clear weather ar e

with in view, wer e now concealed. During our

ascent we saw thr ee fine snow- clad summits at thr ee

separ ate points onthe mainland of Lycia, and also

the island of Syme and the coast beyond it but

these were obscur ed by gather ing mist befor e we

reached the top. T he inter est of the view detained

us longer thanwas prudent, and whenwe started to

1 01. 7 . 160 .

The Islands of the Aegean.

return, we were for a time enveloped in clouds .

These soon disper sed ; but as we were on th e

eastern, and ther efor e the dar k, side of the peak,and the sky had been clouded over, we found th at

the light was r apidly failing us. However, whenw e

were inthe middle of the worst part of the descent,

where owing to the sharp edges of the rocks, and th e

loose fr agments that lay about, the utmost car e was

requir ed to avoid anawkward accident, the moon

shone out br ightly, and by her favouring light we at

last ar r ived at the monastery . We had the mor e

reason to rejoice at this,when

,a little befor e mid

night, we hear d a violent storm of thunder and

lightning raging on the summit, and the hail and

wind battered the shutter s of our dwelling.

T he church, which stands in the middle of th e

squar e enclosure of the monastery, r esembles inits

appearance and arr angement most of the chur ches

that we had hitherto seeninRhodes, and these ar e

different from the or dinary type of chur ches that is

found in the islands. In shape it is a simple

rectangle, with four plainwalls, except that a small

apse projects at the east end, and at the west there

is a porch which runs the wholewidth of the building.

T he roof is a single vault,— a featur e which in the

villages forms a contrast to the flat roofs of the

houses,— and a sort of clerestory is formed by round

topped dormer windows, three of which rise on

either side. Withinthere ar e stalls for worshippers

all along the side walls, and over the porch stands a

women’s gallery, with a screen to separate them

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L indos.

The Rho

The Islands of the Aegean.

crossed the neck of a promontory, which projects far

into the sea with a tower at its extr emity, and some

little way beyond this, inascending a low height, we

caught sight, first of the conspicuous castle- r ock of

Lindos, and shortly afterwards of the dazzlinglywhite Buildings of the town

,lying ina depressionim

mediately beneath us. This place,which r etains its

ancient name, is the most striking inits positionand

appearance of all the cities of Rhodes. In some

respects it recalls Ragusa, since it r eaches fr om one

to the other of two har bours,and is enclosed between

the mountain- slopes onthe land- side and a peninsula ,which juts into the sea, and bear s the towering castle

rock. T he harbour toward the nor th is the lar ger ,and is par tly defended fr om the east wind by two

islands that lie infront of it ; the southernhar bou r

is a small basinwith a very nar row entrance. T he

flat- r oofed town, whenseenfrom above, lying between

these, pr esents a peculiar appearance. Many of the

houses date fr om the time of the Knights, who ar e

known in the island as Cavaliers and

occasionally as Cr usaders (E r avpodxipm). These man

sions canbe distinguished by their ornamental door

ways and windows, with pointed ar ches and Gothic

ornaments, but not a few ar e partially r uined,for Lindos has gr eatly shrunk in size, and now

contains less than800 inhabitants. As in the town

of Rhodes, substantial flying buttresses ar e thrown

across the streets as a defence against ear th

quakes.We were conducted to the house of a native

Rhodes. 225

gentleman, M . Vasiliades,to whom we had anintro

duction from Mr. Biliotti. T he courtyard round

which this was built was covered with a tessellated

pavement of pebbles, a mode of ornamentationwhich

is commonin the island ; in some dwellings even

the rooms ar e floor ed with them,and the patterns in

which they ar e arranged ar e often elabor ate. In

several of the rooms also the walls were hung with

p lates of the Rhodianware, which is so highly pr ized

by collectors ; they were for sale, but most of them

were damaged, and the owner was well aware of the

money value evenof these, as infact is the case with

the possessors of such articles, including the peasants,wher ever they ar e to be found. This ware has often

beencalled Lindos ware, inconsequence of a lar ge

proportion of the specimens having beenobtained

fr om that place or its neighbour hood . T he cor

respondences which it pr esents with the earth

enwar e of Damascus, especially in respect of the

flower s which recur on these pieces,pr ove clear ly

that the ar t was introduced into the island fr om

further east ; and the period of the Knights seems

to have beenthe time at which it flourished ther e,but it continued to exist for a century and a half

after their departure . These plates were regarded

all along by the inhabitants as an heirloom in

their families, and they were suspended onthe walls,but were never used. Each plate is pierced with two

holes with a view to hanging ; and it is a curious fact

that this custom existed inantiquity,for the earliest

dishes from Cameir os, dating from about 700 B. c.,

Q

Remains

The Islands of the Aegean.

ar e pier ced injust the same way1. The other fo

of ornamental wor k which was produced inRhodes,and of which specimens may still be obtained there,is embr oidery of silk upon linen. The ar ticles

which ar e enr iched inthismanner ar e chiefly cur tains,hangings

, table - covers and the like. These wor ks of

ar t ar e also thought to have beenpr oduced in the

time of the Knights. The patterns intr oduced ar e

oftenbeautiful,and though the linenis usually stained

and sometimes wornfr om age, the colour s of the silk

retaintheir richness.

The classical antiquities of Lindos, which we visited

the next morning inthe company of M . Vasiliades’

son, ar e found, partly inthe townitself, and partly in

the acr opolis above. In the southernpart of the

towntowards the smaller har bour ar e the substruc

tions of a temple,consisting of a massive wall, finely

built of rectangular blocks of a closely gr ained

limestone ; half- a- dozen cour ses of this r emain, but

of the temple itself ther e is no trace. Immediatelyabove this stood the theatr e, whichwas inpar t carved

out of the rock inthe hillside, a planadopted by the

Greeks whenever the gr ound allowed of it and por

tions of the curved r ows of seats may still be seen.

O nthe landside of the town, opposite the acr opolis,the lower part of the cliffs is broken into caverns,and one of these has been converted into a burial

place. Above the entrance a Dor ic entablature, with

tr iglyphs, was carved, below which stood a number

of small columns,engaged inthe r ock, but the central

1 Tor r , Rhodes inModernTimes, p. 86.

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228 The Islands of the Aegean.

Knights,however

,did not do things by halves,

and their fortifications were car ried all r ound the

summit,without reference to the inaccessible natur e

of the cliffs. T he approach was onthenorthernside,wher e the fall is least abr upt ; here there a r e thr ee

gateways,which lead successively thr ough thr ee lines

of walls, and the third of these, by which the castle

itself is entered, is very deep from back to fr ont, and

has pointed arches inside ; within this, two dr ums

of ancient columns ar e placed oneither hand, and

appear to have served for the stations of soldiers on

guar d. I t is a curious feature that another entr ance

at this point led to the upper storey of the gateway,for a long flight of steps is attached to the outer wall,and from the top of this it would seem that a draw

bridge or woodenladder afforded anentr ance. Close

to this gate stood the most important buildings—a

church of S t. Johnthe Baptist, and the residence of

the commander of the fortress,below which ar e

extensive subterranean chambers. In one of the

rooms a hearth remains, the plaster over which bears

a central figur e of S t. Johninfresco, with shields of

various dignitaries oneither side of it. A t sever al

points withinthe castle there ar e vast cisterns,and a

passage for the defenders runs round inside the

battlements. T he rest of the area is a mass of r uins.

T he palm- tree, which forms a conspicuous object in

theview ofLindos inS ir Charles Newton’s Tr av els and

D iscov er ies, isnow reduced to a bare staff, having been

struck by lightning during the year preceding our visit.

O ur returnjourney fr om this point occupied two

Rhodes.

days, during which the route lay through the easternThe

distr ict of the island. For a while we were near the(1mm,

rocky coast, but we soonstruck inland, and during

the remainder of the first day wer e tr aversing a richer

country thanwe had yet seen, for the streams were

numerous, and the level land through which these

flowed was laid out in olive groves and orange

gardens,and we passed thr ough several villages in

their neighbourhood. These were built with curious

uniformity, each being composed of one or two

perfectly straight streets, the houses of which were

contiguous,and corresponded exactly to one another.

Theywere one - storeyed andflat- r oofed,and contained

a single room every doorway was surmounted by a

pointed arch,and the window and chimney of each

occupied the same position,so that they resembled

the cells of a Carthusianmonastery . A t last we

ascended to anupland plain,the whole of which was

under cultivation, and onone side of it lay the large

village of A rchangelos, which we had noticed as

forming a conspicuous object inthe view from Mount

A tai‘

ro. Here we obtained a lodging for the night in

the house of a peasant woman, which resembled in

shape and arrangement that at Kalavarda which I

have already described, except that here the roof was

supported by a stone arch across the middle of the

r oom. The hill above the village is crowned by a

fort built by the Knights ; but it is ofno gr eat strength

or size, and the interior is much ruined : on the

side towards the entrance anescutcheonhas beenlet

into the wall.

Returnto

The Islands of the Aegean.

The scenery through which we passed on the last

day of our journey, though it was neither wild nor

r ich, was always var ied, and from every point

mountains of striking form were inview. A s we

descended from the plainof Archangelos,we passed

a place wher e the r ocks for some two hundred yar ds

had beencarefully cut inancient times so as to form

a road. A t midday we rested under a plane- tree in

the neighbour hood of a vaulted building,which

seems to have beenintended to serve for a halting

place, for water has been conducted to it fr om a

point a little distance off by means of a covered

conduit,and here pours for th into a mar ble basin.

A neighbour ing height bear s the name of Er emo

kastr o, and is said to have r uins upon it. Our

approach to the city was betokened by the increasing

luxuriance of the vegetation,and this sign was

confirmed by the appearance of mosques in the

villages, for the Tur kish populationof the island is

almost entir ely congregated in the capital and its

neighbourhood . A t lastwe caught sight of the circuit

of walls,with numer ous minar ets ; and thr eading

our way, first thr ough lanes gay with the blossoms

of the judas - tr ee,and afterwar ds betweenhigh walls

,

the gateways inwhich revealed the handsome houses

and pleasant gardens of the wealthier inhabitants of

the suburbs,we reached our r esting- place inRhodes

,

and the end of our expedition.

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The Islands of the Aegean.

Marseilles onboard one of the French M essager ies

steamers, which was bound for Constantinople, andafter touching at Syra and Smyrna, before daybr eak

onthe following Fr iday reached the townof the D ar

danelles, which lies halfway up the famous str ait.A fter the vessel had obtained pr atique, I was be ingrowed ashor e, somewhat depr essed by the chilly air

and the ashencolour of sea and sky,whenby the

dimlight of dawnanother boat was seenapproaching

inthe opposite direction, and as we came abr east of

it a cheery voice shouted myname inaninterrogative

tone. To this I r esponded as cheerily,for I knew

that it proceeded from my old servant, and that thus

far my arrangements for a start were successful. I

was soon established at the Xenodocheion— one of

those shabby hostelries which ar e found inmost of

the trading - ports of Tur key, andwhich, despite their

unpr omising appearance, usually have cleanbeds.

Her e I was informed of another circumstance which

greatly facilitated my proceedings. A s none of the

main lines of steamers touch at any of the islands

which I pr oposed to visit, I expected to be altogether

at the mercy of the w inds and waves in r eaching

them moreover , the Thr aciansea, as I knew both

from its traditional character and from what I had

read inbooks of tr avel, is apt to be dangerous at

this seasonof the year, and the prospect of being

wind - bound for a long spell of time is never an

attr active one. But of all these islands Lemnos was

the one inreaching which I anticipated the gr eatest

diffi culty, onaccount of its remoteness, and of the

Lemnos.

w ide spaces of sea which separate it from any of the

ports onthe mainland. I twas therefore anagreeable

sur prise to learn, that two years before this the

steamer s of anOttomancompany had begunto touch

there, and that one of these vessels would leave the

Dardanelles onthe following morning. O f this I at

once determined to avail myself, and the remainder

of the day was spent inobtaining tesht r e’s or Turkish

passports,in providing myself with some Tur kish

money,and inmaking other pr eparations. I maymen

tion, as the result ofmy exper ience, that for anexpedi

tion such as I was about to undertake the notes of

the Bank of France ar e the best mediumof exchange,for evenwher e money- changers will not accept them,

they can be negociated at their full value at the

agencies of the steamers. In the townof the D ar

danelles— a long, straggling successionof houses

the only thing of interest is its manufactur e of

earthenware, which is famous throughout the Levant.

Specimens of this ware may be seeninthe shops, and

the forms of the vessels ar e oftengr aceful, though

they hardly rise to the level of wor ks of ar t. T he

Tur kish name of the place, Chanak- kalesi or Pottery

Castle, is der ived fr om this industry, and from the

powerful for tress which here guards thenar rowest part

of the strait.

T he steamer whichwewere expecting, the‘Plevna,

’The Bar

had beendelayed onits way from Constantinople bydamlk s'

a violent scirocco, which had beenblowing for twenty

four hours, and it was midday onMarch 23 befor e

we star ted. The deck was cr owded with Tur kish

234 The Islands of the Aegean.

soldier swho wer e bound for Salonica, andwith other

passengers of various nationalities. I t was anun

pleasant day, for the wind had shifted to the nor th

east, and was accompanied by anovercast sky and

driving r ain but its dir ectionwas favour able to our

voyage,and by its aid the swift cur rent car r ied us

rapidly downthrough the gr adually widening channel .

Oftenas I have passed this ocean- stream, I never

cease to wonder at its strangeness as the connectinglink between two gr eat seas ; and the numerous

vessels,carrying the flags of different countr ies,which

sail on its water s,r emind the traveller what anim

portant r oute of commer ce it has beeninall periods,but especially since the foundationof Constantinople.

O f the two shor es,that towar ds the Thr acian

Cher sonese rises somewhat steeply, while the slopes

of the Asiatic coast ar e mor e gentle, though they ar e

backed by high hills at no gr eat distance off. A t

last the heights of Rheteium and S igeium appeared

onthe left, and betweenthem the Tr ojanplainwas

visible,the Ujek - tepe

,or so- called Tumulus of

Aesyetes,on its westernside be ing the most con

spicuous object inits neighbour hood. Here,at the

edge of the plainnear the mouth of the Scamander ,where Homer descr ibes the Gr ecianfleet as being

stationed,now stands the fort of Kum- kaleh, which

together w ith its Eur opeansister form the warder s of

the entrance. We passed through the outlet whichis guar ded by these

,and were soon tossing onthe

openAegean.

A t first the view onevery side was grey and misty ;

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The Islands of the Aegean.

which were more remote. The cur rent of the

Hellespont itself contributed inno slight degree to

that result, for it sets with great force inthe direction

of those islands. A native of Lemnos, with whom

I conversed onthis subject onboard the steamer ,fur ther remarked

,thatwith a north wind it is carried

towards Lemnos, but towards Imbros whenthe w ind

is fr om the south.

Inpassing from the mouth of the Hellespont to

Lemnos we have been following in the wake of

Miltiades, and ar e forcibly reminded of the quaint

story of the proceeding by which he brought that

island under the dominionof Athens. O ne of the

atrocities, which caused Lemniandeeds to be a

by-word thr oughout Greece, was the massacre by the

Pelasgians of Lemnos of the A thenianwomenwhom

they had carried off fr om A ttica, and their children.

Inconsequence of this the Lemnians fell under the

curse of heaven, and when they consulted the

Delphic oracle onthe subject, they were ordered to

give the Athenians whatever satisfaction they r é

quired. They came to A thens, and expressed their

desir e to make amends for the wr ong that they had

done ; whereuponthe Athenians replied by anacted

parable, and spreading a table with anabundance of

good things, desired them to surrender their country

to them ina similar condition. To this unqualified

demand the answer of the Pelasgians was, When

a ship comes with a north wind from your country to

our s ina single day, thenwill we give it up to you.’

Y ears rolled on, and thesenegociationswer e probably

half for gotten, until the ThracianChersonese becamea possessionof Athens, and Miltiades, who r esided

there, conceived the idea of conquering this valuable

island. Inorder to provide himself with a pretext

for doing this—were it not for the peculiarly sophis

tical character of the Greek conscience,which rejoiced

inquibbles of this natur e,we might regard the whole

transactionas a grim jest— he took advantage of the

Etesianwinds to sail fr om E laeus inthe Cher sonese

to Lemnos and then, proclaiming to the inhabitants

that he had fulfilled his part of the agr eement, since

the Chersonese wasAtheniansoil, required that they

should surrender according to the ir promise. They

refused and resisted, as Miltiades hadno doubt anti

cipated, butwere subjugated withoutmuch difficulty1

From this time onward Lemnos and Imbros were

mor e closely associated with Athens thanany other

islands inthe Aegean. Their populationfurnished her

with mercenaries. When Cleon boasted to the

Athenians of the ease with which he could subdue the

Lacedaemonians inS phacter ia, he offered to aecom

plish this with the Lemnians and Imb r ians who wer etheninthe city, together with a few other light- armed

troops 1. Eveninthe Sicilianexpeditionwe find them

employed onthe Athenianside“. The islands them

selves, together with Scyr os, formed stepping- stones

inthe line of communicationwhich led from Athens

to her possessions inthe Chersonese,and secured to

her the trade of the Black S ea : inwhich respect (to

compare small things with great)they held the same1 H er od. 6. 1 3 8

—140 .1 Thuc. 4. 28.

1 Thuc. 7 . 5 7 .

The Islands of the Aegean.

positioninthe colonial and mercantile policy of that

state,which is occupied by Gibraltar and Malta at

the present day insecuring the transit of vessels and

troops fromGreatBritainto India andAustralia. A the

niancolonists established themselves there ingreat

numbers ; and at last these dependencies were so

completely identified with the mother country, that

inthe Attic law - courts a suit inImbros or Lemnos 1

became another name for a fictitious plea to justify

non- appear ance ina suit at Athens. So, too, inthe

most amusing of Terence ’s plays,the Phormio, which

was adapted from one of the Greek plays of the N ew

Comedy,the story turns on anAthenian

,

citizen

having two wives, one at Athens and the other in

Lemnos, the latter of whom he used to visit on

pretence of superintending the farms which his

Athenianwife possessed there. T he coins of Imbros

bear the familiar Athenian emblems,the head of

Pallas and the owl and at the present day almost the

only attractionwhich that island offers to visitors

except woodcock- shooting,which inthe seasonocca

sionally draws spor tsmenfrom Constantinople— ar e

the ancient inscriptions, built into the walls and

pavements of churches and pr ivate dwellings,which

inthe majority of cases bear the names of Athenian

citizens, together with that of the deme of Attica to

which they belonged.We were now approaching Cape Plaka, the north

easternpr omontory of Lemnos, which is separ ated

from the nearest point of Imbros by an inter val1 ’

Ip fa , Ama lia 65m).

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The Islands of the Aegean.

there arose a peak which had not appeared before,and the height and steepness of which caused me to

exclaim with wonder . I knew it could be nothing else

thanMount Athos,but for the moment this seemed

impossible,for that mountainwas fifty miles distant

,

and the object that I now beheld, be ing cut off by

the sur rounding mists both from land and sea,looked

huge inits propor tions. T he people of Lemnos seem

to take their weather forecasts from Athos,for they

told me that whenthe clouds rest onits summit they

expect the north wind, but the south wind whenthey

hang halfway up the peak. I t was dark whenwe

r ounded Cape Mur tz ephlo, the north -westernpoint

of Lemnos, and about anhour before midnight we

caught sight of the glimmering lights of Kastro,the

chief town, which is situated near the middle of its

westernside. As soonas our vessel had cast anchor

inthe little harbour, and we were rowed ashore,we

obtained practical evidence that Lemnos is but l ittle

visited, for we could hear of no inn, and a long de

bate ensued among the officials at the landing- place

as to where we could pass the night. Ultimately we

were installed ina half- empty house at some distance

off; one room inwhich was occupied by a young

Greek, a merchant’s cler k, while the rest, though

somewhat dilapidated in respect of windows and

shutters, was at our disposal.

T he town of Kastr o,or rather the fortified en

closure from which it receives its name, occupies

a striking position, which marks it out as the

natural capital of the island . I t is situated on a

Lemnos.

r ocky peninsula, which projects westward into the

sea from the recesses of a bay, and rises steeply in

its centre to a height of feet. O ne ither side of

the nar r ow isthmus which joins it to the mainland

there is a rather exposed harbour , and that which

lies towards the north is flanked by the Greek, that

towar ds the south by the Turkish, quarter. This

peninsula was inancient times the site of the city of

Myrina, and isno doubt the place which is meant by

Homer when he speaks of the ‘well- built townof

Lemnos The inhabitants of the moderncity amount

to 3 000, while the populationof the entire island is

r eckoned at of whom 5 000 ar e Turks. T he

people generally, I was assured both by natives and

by other Greeks who ar e r esident among them,ar e

peaceable and orderly. Lemniandeeds ar e now

at all events unknown. My ownsubsequent ex per i‘

ence taught me that they ar e everywhere friendly to

strangers, and not‘ rude of speech,

’

as Homer says

their predecessors were 1. I may mention that the

name of S talimene,though inmost modernmaps it is

givenas the appellationof the island,is now wholly

unknown, and only that of Lemnos is used.

As I was desir ous to visit the castle before pro A L emnian

ceeding into the interior of the island, onthe morning

aftermy ar rival I called onthe Br itish consular agent,Mr. L ambir is, who is also the vice - consul for the

kingdom of Greece, inorder to obtainanintr oduc

tionto the Turkish governor. I found him occupying

1 A ijpvov , évmipev ov m oMeOpov . 0d. 8. 283 .

1olxem is A fmvov ner d Elm-ms dypwtpdtvovs. 0d. 8. 294 .

R

The Islands of the Aegean.

a spacious and well - furnished house inthe middle o f

the Greek quarter, and he also owns a country house ,

situated ina pleasant gardeninthe outskirts of th e

town. H e received me warmly, and offered me th e

usual refreshments of sweetmeats, cold water and

coffee, which were handed, according to the gr aceful

custom which prevails in Greek families, by the

daughter of the house. This young lady and he r

brother spoke English, having both resided for a

year inEngland, while the father and mother were

only acquainted with Greek. S he was married, but

her husband was at this time absent inSmyrna ; he r

two pretty children, Helene and Gregorios, we r e

very English - looking,and one of them

,who was six

years of age, was soon to be sent to England for

education. To my sur prise I discover ed that the ir

governess, who was living in the family,was an

English girl. I t appeared that she had left England

some year s before from the desir e of visiting for eign

countr ies,and had resided three years inSmyrna,

after which she accepted the offer of this engage

ment : but, as Kastro is a place of few resources,and she was the only English person there

,I was

not sur prised to learnthat she found it inexpressibly

dull, and was most anxious to returnto England.

All the informationrespecting Lemnos which I had

gathered from books of travel had ledme to suppose,that owing to its remote position it was a poverty

strickenisland, and behindhand inall the arts of life .

This,I have no doubt, was formerly the case, but it

cer tainly is not so at the present time. I soondis

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The Islands of the Aegean.

they enjoy gr eater freedom inreligious worship than

is found inmost parts of Turkey, for the use of these

is generally forbidden; and whereas informer times

the erectionof handsome places of worship was not

allowed, the present metropolitanchur ch at Kas tro is

a Spacious and imposing edifice.

L emnos a Another English - speaking personwhom I met in

1mm L emnos was M . Jourdain, to whom I was intr oduced

by Mr. L amb ir is. H e was the son of a French

father and a Greek mother, but he seemed to regard

himself as Greek by nationality. H e informed me

that at one time he had beena correspondent of th e

D aily Telegr aph inBulgaria, and he had beenem

ployed onMount Athos inconnexionwith the dispute

that arose between the. monasteries and the Rou

maniangovernment, inconsequence of the confiscation

of the pr operties which the monks had previously

possessed, or at least administered, inthe Danubian

Principalities. From him I learned that Lemnos has

long beena place of banishment for political offende r s

inTurkey. T he most important exile who is now

l iving there is Sadik Pasha, who was Grand Vizie r

at Constantinople some tenyears ago. His banish

ment was connected, I bel ieve, with the fall of Midhat

Pasha,some letters of that minister having been

found, or said to have beenfound, inhis possession.

H e has now resided inLemnos for eight years, and

is almost forgottenat the capital. Another personin

the same position, who came to visit me during my

stay inKastro, was once a dragomanand travelling

servant of some repute at Beyr out, inwhich capacity

Lemnos.

he had been in the service of many Englishmen.

His name is Assad Smart,and he is a native of

Syr ia, and a member of the Or thodox Church. Hisownaccount of the circumstances of his banishment

was this : that onsuspicionof complicity, which heentirely denies, insome plot for an insurrectionof

the Christians inSyria, he was seized, and, without

any trial or the statement of any definite charge, was

put onshipboard and conveyed to this place. I t is

curious to find that there is stil l in‘

the Aegeanan

island which performs the same office which Gyara

did under the Romanempire, though happily it is a

less dreary abode thanthat desolate spot.

Accompanied by the consul’s son,I now proceeded S iteof

to visit the Turkish governor, to whose jurisdictionMy' ma '

Samothrace, Imbros and Tenedos ar e also subject,while he is himself subordinate to the Pasha of

Rhodes, who is governor- general of the Turkish

islands inthe A egean. I explained to him my desire

to see the castle, inorder to explore the site of the

ancient city, but for this he said it was not inhis

power to give leave, sin‘ce admissionto that place

depended on the military commandant who resided

withinit. Accordingly a messenger was despatched

to that functionary to obtainhis permission. Wewaited nearly anhour for a reply, during which time

coffee was served, and I was able to obtainsome

useful informationfrom the governor and his retinue,especially about the Lemnian earth,

’ which was

famed for its medicinal qual ities both inancient times

and throughout the Middle A ges, and the locality of

246 The Islands of the Aegean.

which I hoped to examine. A t last,whenour con

v ersation and our patience were exhausted, I

determined to proceed to the castle, onthe chance

of being allowed to enter. The approach to the

fortifications is very striking, for the gr anite rock s

of which the peninsula is composed rise steeply and

stand out inthe most fantastic forms, and inmany

places ar e stained bright yellow by patches of lichen.

T he mediaeval walls, ofGenoese construction, enclose

a wide area,running round the peninsula at about

two- thirds of its height from the sea, and above this,

at the summit, there is anupper castle or keep : on

the northernside, where the slope of the ground is

least precipitous, a lower line of strong for tifications

is carried along somewhat above the leve l of th e

water. T he isthmus betweenthe two har bours forms

a ridge where it abuts against the r ocks, and at the

back of this there rises a conspicuous knoll,which

falls abruptly on its eastern side toward the leve l

ground wher e the Greek and Turkish quar ters meet

one another . Close to this ridge, and not far from

the entrance gate, stand the only remains of the

ancient city of Myr ina— a splendid piece of cyclopean

masonry, occupying a steep positiononthe hillside .

Th e huge blocks of which it is composed ar e laid in

irregular courses, ranging from three to fiv e, and

between these at intervals smaller masses were

introduced. I measured one of the blocks, and

found it to be six feet and a half in length by

three feet in he ight. Immediately below this

wall there is a curious wide -mouthed cavern,

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A thos.

The Islands of the Aegean.

Inthe par t which I visited the only objects of interest

were a large plainsarcophagus of white mar ble, and

pieces of columns of the same mater ial, apparently of

the Byzantine period. I was r ewarded , however, bythe str iking view which eventhe lower slopes of th e

peninsula command. Towards the nor th the coast

of Lemnos was visible as far as the headland of

Mur z ephlo, while to the south beyond the near e r

promontories the island of A I Strati (Hagios Eustr a

tios)was inview. This island was called Neae in

ancient times 1, and though it forms an insignificant

object onthe map, as seenfrom this point it has an

imposing appearance. O n the landside fields and

vineyards extend inthe immediate neighbourhood of

the town,and behind these r ise bar e r ocky heights

,

among which that of S t. Athanas ius, with a chape l

on its summit, is the most conspicuous. Towards

thenorth-west Athos towers above the sea,but at th is

time it was half shrouded incloud.

T he sight of this peak recalls the statement which

was widely circulated inantiquity, that its shadow

reached as far as Myrina, or, to give it inthe circum

stantial form with which Sophocles invests it, that it

overshadowed the back of the bronze cow which stood

inthe market- place of that city 1. The same idea is

introduced by later poets ”; and ultimately it passed

1 S ome author itiesmaintainthat it was H alonnesus.

”A005 metric“ tom Anwfas Béas. Soph . F r ag

'm. 3 48, ed.

D ind.

1 A pollon. A rgonaut. 1 . 60 1 -

4

hp: 83 maaoyévoww”A00; til/fr et)“nokciwq

Opqut , 07 60007 daéapo0¢ A ijwor loiio‘ar,

Lemnos. 249

into a proverb, concerning those who damage the

r eputationof others by their owneminence. Con

sider ing that the interval which separates the two

places is about forty miles, the thing is animpossi

bility ; but it is not difficult to conjecture how the

idea arose. The shadow of every high and solitary

mountainof conical shape is projected to a distance

in the morning and the evening when the sky is

clear ; and having beenonthe summit of A thos at

sunrise,I have seen that effect produced by it

in a distinctly marked pyramid stretching far to

the west over sea and land. This feature could

har dly fail to have been remarked in ancient

times by those who navigated the neighbouring

seas. Again,at one period of the summer the

sun is seenfrom this part of Lemnos to set'

behind

Athos : of this I was assured by a resident in

Kastro who had noticed it ; and it may be inferred

from Conz e ’

s remark, that on July 2 he saw the

sungo down a little to the right of that moun

tain1 This also must be a striking sight,and

one that would appeal to the imagination. Inthese

500010 is ( 7 81th h er trior okos (SA/eds dutiaoac,

dxpor dr p nopmpij made no) fodxpt Mvpt'

vqs.

S tat. Theb. 5 . 5 1 (speakingof Lemnos)Ingenti tellurem pr ox imus umb ra

Vestit A thos.

1 Conz e, Reise auf den Inselndes Th r akischenMeer es, p. 108 .

Belon, w r iting inthe six teenth century ,affirms that he saw th e

shadow of A thos fall onLemnos on June 2 .—O bser vations de

pluswur s S ingular iteis, pp. 5 8, 5 9.

25 0 The Islands of the Aegean.

two facts we have the data from which the belie f

may have arisen. T he desire of completeness,which is characteristic of the humanmind

,would

r eadily supply what was wanting to amplify the

fable.

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The Islands of the Aegean.

has a gr eat effect in increasing appetite ; and it is

said that, whenonce a personhas dr unk of it, he

desires to drink more. A t the time of myvisit there

were no bathers but during the summer,I was told,

a great number come, and those who cannot b e

accommodated withinthe building ar e lodged inrude

tenements attached to the baths.

A t this point a steep ascent commences, which

leads to the water shed of the westernpart of th e

island,and whenwe had reached this, we wound

about among the declivities of the mountains for

more than an hour before we began to descend .

From these uplands the water flows in three dir ec

tions,for we had followed up one stream from th e

neighbourhood of the town, and shortly after leaving

this we crossed another that runs southward inth e

directionof the inlet of Kondia,which penetrates the

island near its south-west angle later still we passed

a third, which finds its way into the bay of Mudros.

T he mountainof Hagios Elias,which rises behind

the baths,here forms a conspicuous object, and far

away to the south is seen the still loftier Mount

Phakos,which inter venes betweenthe two inlets just

named. None, however, of themountains inLemnos

attaina great elevation, for the highest is that inthe

neighbourhood of Cape Mur z ephlo, which only

reaches 1400 feet. A t last the great undulating plain,which occupies the centre of the island, opens to

view, bounded by lower heights in the directionof

the easterncoast. Towards its fur ther extremity it

is almost divided intwo parts by the bays of Mudros

Lemnos.

and Purnia, which penetrate far into the land fr om

the southernand the northernseas. Inthe distance

the imposing forms of Samothr ace and Imbros ar e

visible. Numerous villages lie scatter ed over this

area, and the windmills which stand onthe low hills

in their neighbour hood betoken the absence of

running water. Some of the farms ar e the pr operty

of the monks of Athos— a fact of which I first became

aware inanunpleasant manner many years before,fr om the staleness of the eggs which wer e set before

me inthe monastery of Lavra ; for these, as I dis

covered ou enquiry,had beenimported fr omLemnos,

since hens, like other female cr eatur es, ar e excluded

from the Holy Mountain.

Thr oughout this plain the gr ound is extensively Thecentr al

cultivated, corn, wine and tobacco being the chief 1)law

products ; and in some places the land had been

r endered so moist by irrigation, that it was necessary

to deviate from the path inor der to secur e a safe

footing for the horses. The soil is light and powdery ,

and appears remarkably fertile but, notwithstanding

this, the entire absence of trees—with the exception

of a few fig- trees and other fruit- trees in the neigh

bour hood of the villages I did not see one inthe

whole island— imparts anaspect of gr eat desolation

to the scene ry. Inconsequence of this the houses

ar e everywher e built of stone, and stone walls ar e

used inplace of hedges. T he wood that is r equir ed

for burning is imported fr om Thasos ; but generally

in the country distr icts br aziers ar e employed for

heating the apartments, and for these small brush

A tz ihi.

The Islands of the Aegean.

wood is used . T he peasants wer e now busilyemployed in tilling the soil and wherever the

groundwas newly turned, numerous large gulls were

flying about, and gave evidence by their presence of

the proximity of the sea. Inall the waste lands

flocks of sheep and goats wer e feeding. T he dr ess

of the shepherds who accompanied them was peculiar ,consisting of a white tur banwound r ound the head ,

awhite shir t and baggy trousers with a black woollen

belt fastened r ound the waist, a jacket of sheepskin

with the wool turned inside, leather leggings, and

mocassins of hide.

A t the end of four hour s’ r iding from Kastr o I

reached the village of A tz iki, which is situated in

the middle of the plain. Here I obtained night

quarter s inthe school- house, a place of abode which

is oftenavailable inthese islands, for the building is

the property of the community, and there is usually

a vacant apartment in addition to the school - r oom

and that occupied by the master. After I had settled

in, some of the inhabitants hospitably offered to

provide me with a mor e comfortable lodging ; but I

was too well satisfied with the positionof my humble

quarter s at the extr emity of the village, and the

independence which I thus enjoyed, to be per suaded

to leave them. O ne of the chief men, however, who

was desirous of showing me a bas- rel ief of Byzantine

workmanship which had lately been discovered,conducted me to his house, and I was sur prised at

the appear ance of its neatly furnished rooms, which

were altogether super ior to what is usually found in

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25 6 The Islands of the Aegean.

island which I carried away with me was a gloomy

one. As we crossed the low he ights at the back of

the village, we soonr eached a point where both th e

remarkable inlets ar e visible ; that of Mudr os is b yfar the deeper of the two, and is distinguished by its

windings,and by the numerous small headlands

which pr oject into it from either shor e. A t last we

descended to the hamlet of Kotchino 1,inthe inne r

most r ecesses of the bay of Purnia, where a numbe r

of shops (payécm)have beenerected onthe seashor e

inthe neighbour hood of these stand the r emains of a

considerable mediaeval castle, which is mentioned

by Chalcocondylas, the Byzantine histor ianof the

fifteenth century ,as having beensuccessfully defended

by Constantine Palaeologus,the futur e emperor of

Constantinople, against a Turkish for ce which be

sieged it by land and sea11 While we were there

we wer e overtakenby a guar d, who had beensent by

the Pasha to serve as anescor t. I dismissed him

w ith compliments and thanks,since per fect secur ity

r eigned inthe island ; but onthe following day two

other s met me whenr eturning from A tz iki to Kastro ,and accompanied me on the way. I shrewdly

suspected that they wer e intended to spy out my

pr oceedings, for at the pr esent day every tr aveller

from WesternEurope is regar ded by the Turks as

entertaining designs for excavation,which is str ictly

forbiddenunless special ly authorised by the govern

1 S o pr onounced, though the pr oper spelling of the name is

Kéttmr o.

1 Chalcocond,Book v i. p. 306. ed. Bonn.

Lemnos.

ment ; and this I found to be the view takenby the

natives of my military escort.

As the scene of the digging for the Lemnianearth Kotchino.

is near to Kotchino, I now enquir ed for some one

who could conduct us to the place ; and I was

fortunate insecuring the serv ices of anoldmanwho

had passed his life inthis neighbour hood,and was

consequently familiar with the traditions respecting

it also,being a potter by trade, he was accustomed

to make vessels of this material. Notwithstanding

his years, he was anexcellent walker, and he after

wards accompanied me to the site of H ephaestia. I

found that he had visited Mount Athos, and was

acquainted with sever al of the monasteries. Under

h is guidance we now made our way to the spot.

Before proceeding further, however, inmynarrative,it may be well for me to give some account of this

earth, to which anextraor dinary interest attaches

owing to the permanence of the belief initsmedicinal

qualities, and of the customs which have beenasso

ciatedwith it. There is the more reasonfor dwelling

onthe subject now,because withina few year s the

local knowledge of it is doomed to extinction.

T he principal ancient writer s who have givenan‘

The

account of the Lemnianearth ar e Pliny, Dioscorides,and Galen1

: but the two former obtained their

informationat second - hand,while Galen, ina truly

scientific spirit, investigated the matter for himself,

1 Pliny, H ist. N at. 29 . 5 , 5 3 3 , and 3 5 . 6, 5 14 ; D ioscor . D e

Mater . Med. 5 . 1 13 ; G alen. D e S impl. Med. 9 . 2,v ol. x ii. pp.

169- 1 76, ed. Kiihn.

account.

The Islands of the Aegean.

and voyaged to Lemnos in order to make his

enquiries onthe spot. S o great was his interest in

it, that after failing inhis fir st attempt to reach the

place onhis way from Asia Minor to Rome— the

captain of the vessel inwhich he sailed having

landed him at Myrina, and refusing to wait while

he visited the interior of the island—he included

Lemnos inhis returnjourney, and onthis occasion

dir ected his course to H ephaestia, inthe neighbour

hood ofwhich city he was informed that this material

was found. By Dioscorides it is called simplyLemnianearth (Amer ica but Galenand Pliny

apply to it the names of L emnian r ed earth (q v la

palms, L emnia rubr ica), or Lemnian seal ’ (Aqui la

ampa‘

yis), the latter of these terms being derived from

the stamp which was impressed uponit, and without

which it was not allowed to be sold. T he thr ee

writers mention a great variety of disorders for

which it was a remedy, but they all agree inregard

ing it as anantidote to poison,and as a cure for the

bites of serpents. According to one traditionPhiloo

tetes, whose wound arose from the last-named cause ,was healed by using it 1. I t was both taken as a

medicine, and employed inexternal applications.

Galen, who lived inthe second century after Chr ist,has left us a circumstantial account of the place

from which the earth was taken, of the cer emonies

observ ed onthe occasion, and of the mode of its

preparation as a drug. H e describes the hill on

which it was found as having a burnt appear ance ,1 Philost. H eroic-a, 5 . 2.

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Belon’

s

The Islands of the Aegean.

of it as a present to distinguished men1. When

Lemnos was regained by the Turks from the

Venetians in the year 165 7, Mohammed Kiup r ili,who commanded on that occasion

,sent word to

Adr ianople to the Sultanthat he had wonthe island

where the ‘ sealed earth was found 2. A further

proof of the value which was attached to it is giv en

by its being largely counter feited. Belonspeaks of

some kinds as being sophistiqué es and Thevet in

his Cosmogr aphz'

e da L ev ant (date I 5 remarks 3,

L es Juifs la falsifient beaucoup, quand ils la v en

dent a ceux qui ne la connoissent.’ InWestern

Europe it was knownfrom anear ly period as ter r a

sigz'

llata ; but the original Greek term sphr agis also

found its way into the pharmacopoeias of the West,where it appears in such corrupt forms as lempm

'

a

fnjgdos, and evenh'

ma f r agz'

sWe ar e fortunate inpossessing, for the sixteenth

century,a descriptionof the digging of the earth,

and of the cir cumstances attending it, from the pen

of a wr iter not less obser vant thanGalenwas inhis

time. This was the Fr ench tr aveller , Pierre Belon,whose name has beenalready mentioned, and who,

1 Belon, O bser vations deplusz'

eurs angulan'

tes, p. 5 1 .Von H ammer

,Gcschichtc des O smam

'

schenRafe/us, v ol. iii.

p. 483 (9p. 5 9 .

4 A Ipha’

fa, a Medieo-Botam’

cal G lossaty , ed. Mowat, in the

A necdotal O x om'

ensz'

a,pp. 96, 9 19 . T he compiler of the G lossary

r emar ks, ‘L empm'

a fiz'

gdos term est sigz’

llata.

’F r igdos is a

cor ruption of a¢pa7 faos, the genitiv e case being used, as Mr .

Mow at has pointed out to me, onaccount of the form employedina doctor ’s prescription.

Lemnos. 261

like the Greek physician, came to Lemnos with the

ex press purpose of investigating this subject Then,as now,

the locality was a hill inthe neighbour hood

of Kotchino, which place he names, though heWasunder the mistaken impressionthat the castle ther e

formed part of the ruins of H ephaestia. O nthe hill

side were two fountains,of which the one on the

r ight hand of the ascent was perennial, while that to

the left dried up inthe summer time . N 0 tr ees grew

uponit, except a carob, anelder, and awillow, which

over hung the perennial spr ing ; nevertheless, the

cornflour ished which was sownuponit. This last

statement is indirect contradictionto that of Galen

onthe same point but it is quite conceivable that in

the cour se of so many centuries a cover ing of mould

may have formed there. The earth was dug fr om

the upper part of the hill,but this took place only on

one day of the year, the sixth of August, in the

pr esence of the Turkish governor of the island and a

large concour se of people. The ceremony com

menced with a mass, which was said by the Greek

priests and monks ina little chapel at the foot of the

h ill ; and at the conclusionof this they mounted the

declivity, and the soil was removed by which the

opening inthe ground, leading to the peculiar vein

of earth, was closed. This entrance was so deep,that from fifty to sixty menwere required to clear it.

Whenthe medicinal earth was reached, the monksfi lled a number of sacks with it, and made these over

to the Turkish author ities, after which the soil which

0

1 Belon,O bser v ations

,chaps. as , 9 3 , 9 8, 29.

The Islands of the Aegean.

had beenremoved was once more replaced. The

greater part of the earth was despatched to the Sultan

at Constantinople, but a certainportionwas sold to

merchants onthe spot, and those who took par t in

the digging were allowed to carry off a small quantityfor their private use. Inno case, however, was anyone allowed to sell it until it was sealed. I t was

made into small cakes,and of these Belon saw

numerous Specimens of various shades of colour, but

the prevailing tint was dull r ed. In his book h e

gives representations of the seals that were used.

L et me now describe the place which I saw,and

the O bservances of which I received an account.

The excavation to which I was conducted by mylocal guide is situated ona small space of near ly

level ground, somewhat below the summit of a hill

about two hundr ed feet above the sea, and less than

a mile to the southward of Kotchino. A t the foot of

the last ascent befor e it is r eached there is a springcalled Phtelidia, over which anogive arch of stone

has beencut at the point where it from the

rocks. WhenI enquir ed whether th

fountaininthe neighbourhood, my

tioned one called Kokala, which rises onthe oppositeside of the hill. T he ground is everywhere clothed

with turf,but is otherwise devoid of vegetation. The

cavity from which the sacr ed earth (dytouxama, as itis universally called by the Gr eeks) is taken, is aninsignificant hole, about fifty feet incir cumference

and tenfeet deep, the bottom of which is now fi lled

up with dry stalks of thistles. The sacred earth is

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The Islands of the Aegean.

sacrifice (hour ban), of the flesh of which they afte r

wards partook,while fish was pr ovided for th e

Christians, who wer e prohibited from eating meat at

that season, owing to its falling inthe fast of fourteen

dayswhich precedes the festival of the Virgin. Tradi

tion,he said

,afiirmed that sometimes two or three

thousand persons wer e present, and inhis father’ s

time as much as sevenmules’ load of the ear th was

carried away, to be sent to Constantinople. I t was

there made into pieces of the size of tablets of soap ,and was stamped with the government seal.

T he locality which I have mentioned is evidently

the same which Belonvisited, and probably cor re

sponds to that described by Galen. The r esemblances betweenthe ancient and the moderncustoms

and beliefs ar e also very striking. The sacr ed cha

r acter attached to the earth and the religious auspice s

under which it was removed, the offerings made on

the occasion, the guarantee of genuineness provided

by the seal , and the confidence which was placed in

its efficacy as a medicine, ar e featur es commonto

the earlier and the later accounts, and seem to pointto anunbr okentr adition. To these one more maybe added, which is not the least curious. I hav ementioned that the ancient authorities agr ee in t e

gar ding it as anantidote to poison. A t the present

day small bowls ar e made onthe spot of thismater ial,and ar e bought by the Turks, who believe that a

vessel made of this clay neutr alises the effect of anypoisonthat is put into it. I purchased several of

these from the potter, and each of them is stamped in

L emnos.

fiv e places with the government sea], which bears in

Arabic char acters the same inscriptionwhich Belon

mentions as being used in his day— tinmachtum,

i. e. sealed earth.’ This seal, he informed me, was

obtained for him from Constantinople twenty yearsbefore by anexiled Pasha, who desired that a num

ber of these bowls might be made for him.

Notwithstanding the long durationof this time Anexpir

wornbelief, it is evident from the neglect into which time ’

it has lately fallen, that er e long it will be a th ing of

the past. For sever al years the Turkish governor

has ceased to attend, and, following his example,first the khodzas and thenthe priests absented them

selves, and no lamb is now sacrificed. Last year

only twelve per sons were present. Though the

tablets were to be bought in chemists’ shops in

Kastro at the time of Conz e’

s visit to the island 1

in 185 8, I enquired invain for them ; and neither

the existing governor , nor any persons of the younger

generation, had hear d of this r emedy. Inthe eastern

parts of Lemnos, however, it is sti ll inuse for feversand some other disorders, for the women possess

nuts of it, which they string like the beads of a

rosary ; these they grate incase of illness, and take

a teaspoonful of the powder inwater. N ot long ago

the pr oprietor of the hillside applied for leave to

plough over the spot and sow it with corn and

though for the time this was not allowed by the

government, yet, when the annual celebration has

come to anend, the prohibitionwill safely be ignored ,1 Come

,Reise, p. 12 1 .

The Islands of the Aegean.

and from that time forwar d the locality itself will be

forgotten. This sudden eclipse of what was once

an important medicine is par tly due, no doubt, to

the progress of medical science eveninthese r emote

regions ; but perhaps it may also have beencaused

by the discovery that it is devoid of efficacy. That

this is the case at the present day has beenpr oved

by ananalysis of its component parts 1. Whether itwas so with the original rubn

'

oa we have no means of

learning.

Returning to Kotchino, we now struck off north

wards over the hills inthe dir ectionof a place which

is knownas Palaeopoli. As we rode along I noticed

a village with a minaret rising above it, and found on

enquiry that it was called A ipati, i. e. Hagios H ypatios : it is a rar e instance of a Chr istianvillage

having passed into Turkish hands, for until lately it

possessed a mixed population,but the Christians

gradually withdrew,and now but few families r e

main. Further on, the easterncoast came inview,at a point where a large shallow salt- lake, which is

separated by a bar from the outer sea,displayed its

white sur face ; this my guide at first called by its

Turkish name of Touzla (tons, Turk. for‘salt but

D r . D aubeny (OnVolcanos, p. 3 73)makes th e following state

ment : Onanalysis it is found to consist mer ely ofS ilex

A lumina

O x ide iron

Water

N atron

Lime and Magnesia aninappr eciab e quantity.

’

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268 The Islands of the Aegean.

falls abruptly, and the peninsula terminates ina low

rocky promontory, called Tigani or‘the Frying-

pan.

’

There ar e no remains of anacropolis at Klas, but all

along the ridge the foundations of a wall ar e tr ace

able, and this I followed downthe slope from west

to east,until it came to anend just where there is a

steep descent to the entrance of the little bight which

forms the innermost portionof the harbour. Through

the greater part of its cour se only one layer of stones

was visible,and nowhere more thantwo ; the width

at the point where I measured it was four feet and

a half; and the blocks of which it was composed were

of no great size. These, no doubt, ar e slight traces,but they ar e sufiicient to identify the city to which

they belonged with H ephaestia. We know that

formerly Lemnos possessed only two towns 1, and

one of these, Myrina, is certainly to be placed at

Kastro : the only other locality inthe island where

remains of anancient city have beenfound is Palaeo

poli,and most of the marble blocks, which have been

used for building inother parts, ar e said by the in

habitants to have beenbrought from thence. This,

we maynaturally conclude, was the site of the second

of the two, H ephaestia ; and the majority of the coins

which have beenfound onthe spot bear the name of

that place 1. T he position, though not very strong for

defence,was serviceable for purposes of commerce,

since it lay inthe recesses of a fine bay, and possessed

a commodious harbour of its own.

1 The epithet Black s w as applied to it for this r eason.

1 S ee Conz e , Reise, p. 1 18.

Lemnos.

O nthe following day I returned to Kastro, after H orned

passing another night at A tz iki ; but before leaving

that village I had anopportunity of seeing a speci

men of what ar e regarded as among the greatest

cur iosities of the island, its horned cocks. Whenfirst I heard of these I tr eated the story with some

incredulity ; but th is morning one of them was

brought for my inspection by the children of the

place. Undoubtedly it had two horns,growing

one above the other ; and these ar e nothing else

thanthe spurs, which, by a process which must in

volve some cruelty, ar e removed from the legs and

planted inthe head. T he fowls that ar e treated in

this manner ar e called capons (stamina), and ar e famed

for their size and flavour. They ar e exported to

Constantinople, where they fetch as much as a

medizdze‘

(3 s. Inthe sixteenth century, onthe

other hand, Lemnos was noted for its chestnut

ponies, which ar e specially mentioned by Belon1

the breed, however, must have become extinct, for

I did not see one of that colour during my stay.

I t remains now to notice the reputationwhich this 4 volcano

island enjoyed inantiquity as a centre of volcanicmm s’

agency, and to enquire how far this is r econcilable

with what we find at the present day. I t is difficult

to doubt that volcanic phenomena displayed them

selves here insome shape or another, owing to the

various forms of testimony which imply it. O ne

of the early names by which L emnos was called

1 Belon, O bser vations, p. 5 8.

270 The Islands of the Aegean.

is A ethaleia, or the Fire- island.’ I t was closelyconnected with the worship of the fir e -god, H e

phaestus ; on it he was reputed to have fallen,whencast downfrom heavenby Zeus 1, and it be

came his favourite place of abode onearth 1. Hence

he was fr equently styled the Lemniangod, and the

island was regarded as sacred to him, and one of

its two cities, H ephaestia, bore his name. Three of

the Attic dramatists make mentionof its fires. By

Aeschylus it was regar ded as the place from which

Prometheus stole the fir e which he gave to man

kind 1. Sophocles inone passage of his Philoctetes

represents that hero as calling its flames to witness

his wrongs 4, inanother as praying that he may be

delivered from his agony by being cast into them,

and evenpointing to them, as if they were within

view 5. InAristophanes a violent flame is spoken

of as a Lemnianfir e We must not forget thatat the time whenthese author s wr ote Lemnos was

anAthenianpossession so that, evenallowing for

the idealism of the Attic drama, there is considerable

pr obability of a groundwork infact for these poetical

conceptions. The name of the burning mountain1 H om. l l. 1 . 5 94. H om. Cd. 8 . 984.

1 Cic. Tusc. D z'

sp. 9 . 10 , 9 3 , Veniat A eschylus Quo modo

fer t apud eum Pr ometheus dolor em, quem ex cipit ob fur tum

Lemnium and the quotationfrom A ccius w hich follows.

S oph . Phil. 986, (b Amwfa xodwno) 7 6 mynpar és aéAas

5 Ibid. 800 , 76 Angela: dvanakovp évp ” pl

(yummy.

A r . Lysé t. 9 99 , 300, nda‘

rw 7 c A rjpwov v b t ap

1 067 0 1 601; pnxavf).

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272 The I slanfi of the Aegean.

shoal,which lies off the easterncoast, and believed

that inthis he had discovered the traces of,Mount

Mosychlos. A conjecture such as this,if unsup

ported by other evidence, would carry little weight

with it but inthe present instance there ar e certain

facts which corrobor ate the hypothesis. Inthe storyof Philoctetes mention is made of an island called

Chryse 1

,and this is stated to have beeninthe im

mediate neighbourhood of L emnos 1. This island

had disappeared before the time of Pausanias, who

gives the following account of the occurrence.

‘The

island of Chryse, inwhich Philoctetes is reported to

have suffered from the bite of the serpent, was at

no great distance from L emnos ; this they say was

submerged by the sea, and disappeared in the

depths H e thendescribes how another island

called Hiera, a name which was commonly applied

to land which rose from the sea, subsequently

emerged inits place. Now the shoal just mentioned,

which is delineated inChoiseul- G oufiier ’

s plan,and

with greater accuracy inthe English Admiralty chart,corresponds in its outlines to a consider able pr o

montory projecting fr om the easterncoast,and an

island lying beyond it. These would not unsuitably

represent Mount Mosychlos and the island of

Chryse Unfortunately, up to the present time

neither the Shoal,nor any part of Lemnos, has

been ex amined by a scientific geologist, and in

1 S oph. Phil. 969 , 9 70.

1 Saph . F r agm. N o. 3 5 9 , 6 A iyweM om1"

dyxwippons adya .

1 Pausan. 8. 33 , 4.

Lemnos.

default of such testimony it is impossible to speak

with confidence onthe subject ; but the fact that a

submergence has takenplace, as the result of volcanic

action,inthe neighbour hood of the island, renders

this conjecture the most probable explanation at

which in the existing state of our knowledge we

canar r ive.

Closely connected with this questionis the further M ountflcr

one of the positionof the mountainor promontory”mm" 1 ’

called H ermaeum. I t has beenalready mentioned 1

that this is usually identified with the north- east

promontory of Lemnos, Cape Plaka, but the dir ectevidence which canbe pr oduced either for or against

this view is surprisingly small. T he name occur s

only in two passages in classical authors— ih the

descriptionof the fir e- beacons in the Agamemnon,and in the closing scene of the Phdoctetes 1 ; and

neither of these, if taken by itself, canbe said to

determine anything. As regards the former—we

Should certainly expect that the site chosen for a

beaconwould be a lofty point, and this is the case

w ith all the other stations which Aeschylus enumer

ates ; whereas both Cape Plaka itself and the groundin its neighbourhood ar e insignificant in elevation.

From this point of View Mount Skopia, the con

spicuous summit that rises behind Cape Mur z ephlo,has far greater claims to consideration1

. On the

1 S ee abov e, p. z 39.1 A esch . Ag. 9 83 ,

‘

Eppai‘

ov Alt os ; S oph . Phil. 145 9 ,‘

Eppai‘

ov

b'

pos.

1 InSmith and G r ov e ’

s A tlas the H ermaeanmountainis placed(w ith a query)at this point.

274 The Islands of the Aegean.

other hand, it is in favour of Cape Plaka that it

stands in the direct line between I da and Athos,that it projects far into the sea, and that it is the

nearest point inthe island to the Troad . With these

elements of uncertainty in the subject, whenit is

considered in connexionwith what Aeschylus im

plies, we may perhaps approach nearer to a solution,

if we regard it inrelationto the preceding question

of the positionof the burning mountain.We haveseen that Sophocles conceived of Mosychlos as

being within sight of Philoctetes’ abode,and the

same pr oximity is attr ibuted to Mount H ermaeum,

whenthe her o speaks of it as having r e- echoed his

groans 1. Thus,from a comparison of the two

passages,we discover that these two mountains

were situated at no great distance from one another .

This at once destroys the claims of the north-western

cape,because there is no ground for believing that

a volcano ever existed in its neighbourhood, and

we seem forced to fall back on the old view that

Cape Plaka is the most suitable locality. Philoctetes’

cave,which has become a reality to us through the

poet’s descr iption, was no doubt a creationof his

fancy ; but if the supposition given above is true,

he must have conceived of it as existing near the

promontory among the cliffs of the easterncoast.

1 mud bl r ijs hum-6pm

‘

Eppaiov b'

pos r apéwempev épolor bvov dw ivmrov xemafop émp. II . 145 8—1460.

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The Islands of the Aegean.

famous canal through the isthmus of that peninsula

and most schoolboys have heard of Thracianblasts,and of gales from the Strymon I determined

ther efore to avail myself of the facilities offered bysteamers ; and through these two courses lay open

for me—e ither to return to the Dardanelles by the

same vessel inwhich I had come, and to make

a fresh start from that place ; or to embar k on a

coasting steamer of the Bell ’ line, which was

expected soon to touch at Kastro on its way to

Salonica and Cavalla,the port on the mainland

which is opposite Thasos. In either case a longde

’

tour was unavoidable, but the dislike of r etracingmy course

,together with the desire of once more

beholding Mount Olympus,turned the scale in

favour of the latter plan. The Hilda, which is

the largest boat belonging to the Bell company,arrived towards the middle of the day after myreturn from the interior, and I at once went on

board of her . The captain reported such rough

weather onhis way fr om Smyrna, that he had been

compelled to put in for the previous night to the

small harbour of Petra in the north of L esbos, and

he r ather regretted evennow that he had quitted it.

Whenwe started again, the vessel rolled heav ily

in the trough of the waves, and continued to do

so until we entered the Thermaic gulf ; but she

made good way, for early the next morning we

reached Salonica.

A s the islands, and not the coasts, of the Aegean1anal dab 2rpvp6vos pokoiiom, A esch . Ag. 19 9 .

ar e the subject of the present work, it hardly fal ls

within its scope to describe this famous city. I t

may suffice to say that I spent the day in renewingacquaintance with its antiquities, which ar e among

the most remarkable inthe Levant. Three of its

churches— S t. George, or, as it is commonly called,the Rotunda, with the ancient mosaics inits dome ;S t. Sophia, which is a reproduction on a smaller

scale of the great church at Constantinople ; and,finest of all, S t. Demetrius, a basilica with a nave

and four aisles, not unworthy of comparisonwith

the cathedral of Monreale—ar e objects of the

greatest importance inthe history of ar t and there

ar e others only second ininterest to these. I made

my way from one to another of them ina downpour

of r ain, which caused rivers of muddy water to rush

through the steep and ill - paved streets. The upper

quarters of Salonica—which is the Genoa of the

East inits position, though a great contrast to that

noble city in respect of cleanliness and imposing

houses—ar e hardly altered from what they wer e

at the time of my last visit in1865 ; but the modern

quay,which has been constructed since that time,

is truly magnificent, and both in its length and in

the noble view over the gulf which it commands

may almost r ival that of Smyrna. A S evening came

on, a beautiful effectwas produced by the illumination

of the minarets, of which this city boasts a great

number. I t happened to be the commencement

of the month preceding the Ramaz an, and onthat

ev ening, as on every night of the sacred month

lea rn.

The Islands of the Aegean.

of fasting, the gallery which runs round each of

these aer ial structures is hung with a circlet of

lamps.

I t had beenarranged that we should leave Salo

nica at nightfall, but owing to the large amount of

merchandize which had to be takenon board, we

did not start until daybreak the next morning. One

of the chief items inthe cargo was petroleum,large

quantities of which hav e been imported into Turkey

from the wells at Baku on the Caspian, ever S ince

that place has beenconnected by r ailway with the

Black S ea. Considering the way inwhich this is

conveyed, it is surprising that ser ious accidents

ar e not caused by it. On th is occasion the cases

which contained it were piled to a gr eat height

on the deck on either side of the engine- room,

so that if a v iolent lur ch of the vessel had burst th e

fastenings by which they were secured, they would

have come into immediate contact with it : to which

it may be added, that some of the cases were so

leaky, that whenever we came to anchor in the

course of our subsequent voyage, the sea onboth

sides of us was covered with the oil which exuded.

When I called the attentionof one of the officers

to this, he readily admitted the possibility of danger,but justified the proceeding by asserting that, though

it was constantly being done, no evil consequences

had as yet arisen. Owing to its abundance the

Russianpetroleum has for the time the advantage

over the A merican rock- oils inthese parts ; but it

seems to be thought that the latter, owing to their

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The Islands of the Aegean.

We now rounded the bold bluffs inwhich it terminates, and towards the middle of the afternoon

found ourselves approaching A thos.

I t was a pleasing surprise to me to learnthat we‘

were to have a near er view of the Holy Mountain,since the captainhad undertaken to land two pas

senger s and some merchandize at the port of Daphne,which is situated towards the middle of the western

coast of the peninsula. A s we headed for this place,one after another of the monasteries came inView ;and it was amusing to find that I involuntarily

became the oicer one of the party, for no one else

onboard, except anagent of the Austr ianLloyd’s

whowas now onhis way thither, had ever set foot on

the Mountain of the Monks. To commence from

the north—fir st appeared D ocheiar eiu, conspicuous

with its lofty tower, and Xenophu, the walls of

which ar e washed by the sea ; then the Russian

monastery, which has gr eatly increased inS ize S ince

I v isited it in 1861 , and by its vulgar buildings,including a huge erection like a manufactory on

the shore, forms a strong contrast to the picturesque

Byzantine str uctures ; and on the heights above

Daphne stood Xer opotamu, or the Torrent,’ by the

side of which a str eam was descending incatar acts

through the r iver- bed from which the monastery takes

its name. Thenfollowed S imopetr a, the most won

der ful of all, perched ona rock at a he ight of seven

hundred feet ; and, where the precipices become

more and more abr upt towards the southern end,S t. Gregory, beneath the cliffs close above the water ;

S t. Dionysius, the buildings of which ar e closely

packed together within their encircling wall ; and

finally S t. Paul, which is withdr awn from the sea

inthe recesses of a deep ravine. A S we coasted along

after discharging our cargo,we passed close to the four

last -named monaster ies, and at intervals we could

descry onthe declivities large bushes of cytisus or

coronella, which diversified the landscape with their

patches of yellow colour. Finally, we rounded the

base of the great peak, the cliffs of which have been

inall ages the terr or of sailors. T he sea in this

part is very deep, and as there was but little motion

on the water, the vessel was able to keep close in

to Shore. The peak itself was veiled with clouds,but through the openings in these snowy summits

from time to time appeared. When we reached

the eastern side, Shortly befor e dusk, we caught

sight of Lavra, one of the largest and most imposing

of all the monasteries, which occupies a commanding

position onone of the lower buttresses. O n the

slopes around it lay its numerous dependencies

and r etreats and below, at the sea- level,stood a r ound white-washed tower, which guards

the ‘arsenal,

’

as the monks call their little port.We now drew away from land, and struck across

to Cavalla, which place we reached at 1 1 o’clock,and cast anchor until morning.

Cavalla, which occupies the site of the ancient Cav alla.

Neapolis, the port of Philippi,presents a highly

picturesque appear ance,as seenfrom the sea. T he

peninsula which it occupies rises steeply to a lofty

The Islands of the Aegean.

summit surrounded by a battlemented castle, and at

the northernend, where it joins the mainland, the

rocks descend abruptly,but ar e separated only by

a slight interval from the heights beh ind. T he de

pressionthus formed is spanned by a fine Byzantine

aqueduct of two, and insome places of three, tiers of

arches. The outer walls of the townfollow the line

of the cliffs at some l ittle distance above the sea, and

immediately surmounting them,inthe centre of the

western side, stand the colonnades and domes of

the charitable and educational institutionfounded by

Mehemet A liof Egypt, who was anative of the place .

T he remainder of the area within, extending upwards

to the castle and as far as the point of the peninsula, is

covered by pictur esque woodenhouses, from among

which spiry minarets ar e seento r ise. The fine bayat the head of which Cavalla stands is environed onthe land S ide by a wide sweep of mountains, while in

the opposite directionthe view is closed by the long

line of Thasos, which forms a barrier to protect it

from the opensea.

Towards that island we now directed our course

(March .Though the Hilda was not to stop

there, yet inpassing through the channel that separ

ates it from the mainland, onher way to the por ts

that lie further to the east, she would skirt its shores ;and consequently the captainagreed for a small extra

payment to land me at the port of L imena, which is

situated near thenarrowest part of the strait. Inless

thantwo hours from leaving Cavalla we found ourselves approaching this place, and could descry a tall

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The Islands of the Aegean.

suddenly brightened ; and for the rest of the day,and during the three next days, which I devoted to

the explorationof this, the most beautiful island in

the A egean, I enjoyed a cloudless sky. The contrast

presented by the scenery to what I had beenaccus

tomed to inL emnos was inall respects complete .

Inthe place of grey and somewhat shapeless moun

tains,here were lofty ranges, sharply cut outlines,

and rocks of white marble grain; instead of treeless

expanses, extensive tracts of forest land ; instead of

scanty brooks, full and clear streams ; and the wholeof this radiant landscape was illuminated by a br il

l iant sun. The newly fallensnow which remained on

the summits added a further element of beauty to the

views.

T he ground inthe neighbourhood of Limena forms

a triangular plain, about two miles inwidth along the

sea- coast,and a mile and a half in length, where it

retires among the wooded mountain S purs,which

diverge from a conspicuous summit towards the

south, and enclose it oneither side. T he eastern

portionof this plain, together with the neighbouring

heights, reaching as far as the little promontory,were occupied inancient times by the city of Thasos,the capital of the island ; wh ile the western part,which was far the more extensive of the two

,was

devoted by the inhabitants to a necropolis, which

from its size and the Splendour of its monuments

must have been almost unrivalled inantiquity. I

commenced by following the line of the coast towards

the neighbouring headland, and as I passed the

mediaeval tower already mentioned, I could see that

it was composed of fragments of Hellenic masonry,for in some places portions of triglyphs had been

built into it. T he closed har bour,wh ich lies in its I tssea -f ace.

neighbourhood, inall probability occupies the site of

the ancient port, for traces of the old foundations of

the pier s ar e still visible. Betweenthis and the pro

montory the r emains of another br eakwater, which

projects into the sea at right angles, and must have

formed anadditional protectionfor Shipping, appear

be low the surface of the water ‘. A S we passed along

the low he ights which overlook this, I noticed a stele

lying pr ostrate by the roadside, which bore the figure

of a maninbas- relief, now much mutilated, and an

inscriptionrecording that it was a votive offering to

Nemesis 1. The personwho dedicated it, Euemeros

the son of Dionysios, was no doubt a sailor, for

several similar inscriptions have beenfound inthe

island, either praying for safe - conduct ona voyage,

or returning thanks for deliverance from the perils

of the deep. They bear witness alike to the stormy

nature of the neighb our ing seas, and to the super sti

tious dr ead with which the traders of that period

encountered them. T he rocky peninsula at the

extremity of the promontory is separated from the

ground behind by so deep a depression as to be

almost an island. I t is called by the natives

1 These seem to be th e har bour s r efer r ed to by S cylax , w hen

he says, 0600s vfiaos Ital ubk ts, not A tpém 860'

7 06e b ( isnAa or bs,

Pm'

plus, 67 .

1 En’

rrjyepos A tov voiov N epc'

oec 66x67 .

The Islands of the Aegean.

O b r iokastro 1or

‘Jews’ castle,’

a name for ancient

sites which is of commonoccurrence inGreece, and

is said to have or iginated inthe permission, which

the Frankish conquerors of the country accorded to

the Jews, to settle for trading pur poses inthe suburbsof their towns.

From this point we began to mount the ridge of

the hill which leads to the acropolis, and before longcame upona considerable fragment of the ancient

wall, which followed this direction. Like all the

masonry inThasos, it was composed of white mar ble,the grainof which was visible wherever the stone

was fractured ; and the blocks were usually laid in

horizontal courses, though insome places they were

polygons neatly fitted together. When we had

reached the height of perhaps 300 feet, my guide

conducted me to the theatre, which is S ituated inasteep positionjust within the line of walls, facing

Cavalla, and commanding, as so many Greek

theatres do, a fine view over the sea. I t has been

partially excavated, but is ina very r uinous condi

tion. Part of the wall of the scena remains, and

behind it ar e the piers of a colonnade, fragments of

which—small columns, triglyphs, and other orna

ments—ar e strewnabout inthe neighbourhood. A t

the back of the orchestra the S labs of the podiumwhich supported the front rows of seats lie on the

ground, and most of these bear one or two letters

inscribed on them in large Greek characters. O f

the seats themselves very few occupy their or iginal1 A cor ruptionof ‘

EBpazbnaor po.

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The Islands of the Aegean.

entertained by the Genoese chieftainTicino Zach aria,who

,to use the words of the chronicle,

‘

put at our

disposal the castle and all that it contained, and

treated us magnificently.’ T he depr essionwhich

inter venes between this and the centr al height is

defended by a wall composed of enormous blocks ;indeed, the masonry throughout this part is ex ces

siv ely massive, and elicited expr essions of wonde r

from my young companion, who again and aga in

exclaimed,How did they get these stones into

their place T he central summit was also occu

pied in Hellenic times by a rectangular fortress,and one of the blocks of this which I measured waseleven feet inlength : at the north-west angle th e

ground is supported by a wall of twenty paralle l

cour ses.

As we approached the last of the thr ee heights, Isaw in front of me a wide but shallow niche, sur

mounted by a low arch,the whole hewninthe rock,

which had beenartificially S loped inorder to facilitate

the appr oach to it. O n the face of the rock at the

back of this niche, which might roughly be compar ed

inform to the tympanum inthe pediment of a temple,several figures carv ed in low relief ar e tr aceable.

Those towards the right of the spectator ar e

almost obliterated ; but in the centre Panis r epr e

sented with horns onhis head, ina S itting posture

and playing the syr inx , and on the left hand stand

three goats, one behind the other,with their faces

turned towards him. O n the slope of the niche

there ar e other traces of ornament. This little shrine

is aninteresting sanctuary of the Shepherds’ divinity,and is all the more impressive at the present dayfr om the solitude in the midst of which it is found.

T he hill above commands a superb view of the The v iew .

sur r ounding landscape. Towards the north str etches

the coast of Macedonia and Thrace, separated from

T hasos by spaces of blue sea,and directly opposite

lies the wide alluvial plainformed by the r iver N estus,while in the middle of the intervening strait the

island of T hasopulo, or Baby-Thasos,

’

forms a

conspicuous object. T he lofty mountains on the

mainland ar e readily distinguishable by their wh ite

summits ; especially Pangaeus— the alta P angaea of

Virgil— to the west of Cavalla, and further inland

the still higher O r belus, which displays a gr and

snowy mass. Onthe other hand appear the wooded

heights and graceful bays of the eastern coast of

Thasos,with Samothrace inthe distance. T he an

cient city, which occupied the inter v al betweenthe

acropolis and the Shore, and the westernwall of

which is traceable from this point almost throughout

its whole length, must have beena radiant sight with

its white marble buildings ; and still more str iking

must have been the effect of the necropolis,the

monuments of which extended in long lines across

the neighbouring plain. m g to the cool northern

breezes which the townenjoyed, it was no doubt a

delightful and salubrious abode insummer.

A S the knoll onwhich we were standing is the $ taz'

r case

most elevated of the three summits, it is sur prising

that there ar e no.

traces of fortifications uponit, or

U

The Islands of the Aegean.

of any wall connecting it with the central heigh t.

Still,it is impossible to suppose that a point which

must have been the key of the whole position

could have beenleft undefended, especially as th e

line of the city walls r ecommences at the foot of its

westernprecipices. T he descent of those precipice s

is accomplished by means of a staircase inthe rock,the like of which I do not remember to have seenin

any other Hellenic citadel. T he steps of which this

is composed, to the number of twenty- three, ar e

carried inzigzags downthe face of the cliff; and ar e

for the most part cut in the rock, but the lowest

flight is supported by a wall of six courses of

masonry. T he stone stair case by which the acr o

polis of O r chomenus inBoeotia is reached, is a

greater work than this, S ince it is composed of

ninety- four steps ; but it does not wind in this

remarkable manner. Fr om the foot of the cliffs we

followed the fortifications downwar ds, until I was

arrested by the sight of anextraordinary object

the figur e of anenormous nose and eyes, with the

eyebr ows,but without any other featur e, engraved

onthe face of a large recumbent block of stone.

This weird - looking emblem was probably one of

those symbols, which were used by the Greeks for

the pur pose of averting the evil eye and other

sinister influences. Just below this the wall makes

a Sharp turn, and at the angle is a gateway covered

in by a prodigious stone, but the upright blocks

which form its sides ar e now deeply buried in the

earth.

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Early the next morning I was againonfoot inth e

company of the same guide, inorder to explore the

necropolis. Following the line of the shore almost tothe point where the hills descend to the sea at the

westernextremity of the plain,I reached a mauso

leum, our knowledge of which is also due to Mr.Bent 1. This consisted of a large marble chamber

,

erected ona platform which is reached by four row s

of steps ; and it would appear that this chamber

was originally surmounted by another storey, for

triglyphs and drums of Doric columns,which must

have belonged to it, lie about inits vicinity. An

inscriptionshows that the personinwhose honour it

was erected was called Philophr on, and the sar co

phagus which remains underneath the building was

no doubt his tomb. T he vault in which it was

placed canbe approached through anopening, now

nearly filled up, onthe easternside of the platform.

Several of the objects which surrounded the building,including some inscriptions, have been removed

S ince Mr. Bent’s visit, but a portionof the body of a

marble lionstill remains. Inthe immediate neigh

bour hood of the mausoleum stands another sarco

phagus, resembling in Shape that of Poliades, but

smaller, and supported on a lofty pedestal ; it was

the tomb of a lady, Aelia Macedonia, and commem

orates her honours and the offices which she held .

Having inspected these, I struck across toward the

head of the plain through extensive olive- gardens

and amid brushwood and undergrowth, inhopes of1 S ee his descr iptioninthe Classical Review, vol.i. pp. 9 1 0, 9 1 1 .

finding the monument of the brothers Eurymenides

and Antiphon,which Conze has described. Shortly

after arriving at the first hills I discovered the

broken fragments of a mausoleum,such as he

mentions,and among them a bas- relief representing

a man ina S itting posture ; but the inscriptions in

e legiac verse and other interesting objects had

disappeared . This time I returned to Limena with

a sense of disappointment, arising from the insignifi

cance of the remains of what was once a collectionof

splendid monuments. The work of destructionhas

proceeded during long ages, and especially in the

present century, for Baron v on Pr okesch -Osten,

who visited Thasos in 1828,speaks of seeing more

than fifty of these sepulchres 1. Many fine tombs,no doubt, still remainbeneath the surface of the

ground, andmay be brought to light by excavation

but these will hardly suffice to recall the former

glories of the place.

1Quoted by Conz e , Reise, p. 18.

under the

C H A P T E R XV

T H A sos (continued).

BEFORE starting for the interior of Thasos I pa id

my respects to the Bey, who is the representativ e

of the Khedive of Egypt. I t seems strange at fir st

sight that a district which forms anintegr al part of

the dominions of the Porte should be practical ly

in the possession of a vassal potentate ; but th e

arrangement dates from the time of Mehemet A li,and ar ose from his connexion with this part of

Turkey, for , as I have alr eady stated, he was a

native of Cavalla. Among the inhabitants it is r e

ported that he beganlife as a sailor inthis island ;but, whether this is true or not, it is certainthat

he cherished a strong affection for it : and when

he rose to power, he obtained it as a gift from the

Sultan. The same privilege has ever since been

continued to his successors. In consequence of

this the natives enjoy a considerable amount of

independence, for , with the exceptionof the retinue

of the Bey and a few soldier s, there ar e no Ma

hometans resident among them. They ar e also

lightly tax ed ; for there is no capitation tax , nor

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The Islands of the Aegean.

is believed to be of ancient date. T he disadvantages

of it ar e apparent to every one ; what its adv ant

ages may be, I leave to political economists to

determine.

Having hired three mules, which were accom

panied by a young muleteer called Petro, I started

at 1 1 A . M .,in the enjoyment of brill iant sunshine

and fresh invigorating air . Our course lay due

south, in the direction of the pyramidal summit,which I have already mentioned as being con

spicuous from Limena, and whenwe had reached

the head of the plain, we entered a lovely valley

filled with pine - trees. I t was not long before I

discover ed what ar e the principal products of the

island, for first there met uS a mule ladenwith two

large pigskins full of oil,onits way to the port, and

shortly afterwards we passed a long row of beehives,which were ranged by the side of the road ina

sol itary place, where no dwelling seemed near . T he

hives were cylindrical baskets of wickerwork, with

a covering of earth, and a large stone onthe top of

each. Inadditionto timber, oil andhoney ar e largely

exported from Thasos. A t the head of the valley

there followed a long ascent toward the shoulder of

the mountainbehind ; and when this was reached,a beautiful view broke upon us of a bay of the

eastern coast, flanked by wooded heights, w ith a

wide plaininfront covered with olive- trees. O nthe

westernS ide rise the loft iest summits of the island,culminating in the central peak of Hagios Elias

,

which reaches a height of more than 3000 feet ;

and all along the face of these the rocks descend,first in steep precipices

,and then in gentler

S lopes, towards the plain. The path now wound

gradually downwards,and at the end of two hour s

from Limena we reached the village of Panagia,which was formerly the residence of the Bey. The

four hundred houses of which it is composed ar e

clustered irregularly withina theatre - formed valley,inthe midst of scenery truly A lpine inits grandeur.

The traveller has no need to enquire into the em

ployment of the inhabitants,for the whole place

reeks of oil,and the numerous clear streams that

rush through the streets ar e doubtless utilized in

the service of the oil-mills. An hour ’s further

descent brought us to another village, Potamia,where we rested for our mid- day meal.

A t this point a pass commences, which leads over H igh pass.

the flank of Hagios Elias into the interior of the

island. To reach the summit three hours ar e r e

quired,and during the latter part of the way the

ascent is so steep that our baggage mule required

frequently to rest. Altogether it is a remarkable

mountain route, and the material of which the road

is composed is everywhere white marble, though

the rocks frequently appeared black from weathering.

A ll about the lower slopes numerous violets were

in flower, but after a time the only blossoms that

remained were the blue squills, and owing to the ele

vationand the steepness of the ground, the pine - trees

became very sparse along the declivities. Behind

us inthe distance the great plainof the N estus and

The Islanfi of the Aegean.

the mountains of Thrace wer e very imposing, but in

the opposite dir ection a far mor e beautiful S ight

awaited me. Whenwe had cr ossed the r idge,which

must be more thantwo thousand feet above the sea,

there Opened out a wide view over the southern

part of Thasos and the openAegeanbeyond : this

was divided intwo by a loftymountainimmediate ly

facing us, and the spaces of blue water enclosed

betweenth is and the nearer he ights oneither hand

presented to the eye two exquisite vignettes, inone

of which the conspicuous object was the colossa l

peak of Athos, inthe other the massive Samothr ace,whose snow- capt summits rose above the mist that

obscur ed its base .

Fr om the ridge a long descent leads to Theologo,which is the chief place inthe centr e of the island,and was at one time its capital. I t is har d to say

why the site which it occupies should have been

chosen for a village, for the valley inwhich it lies

is a ‘mar ble wilderness,’

the S lopes oneither hand

being cover ed with nothing but bar e blocks of stone .

T he houses ar e r oofed with S labs of this material

in place of tiles. Per haps the positionmay havebeen selected because it is intermediate between

two spaces of ar able gr ound inthe upper and lowe r

parts of the valley, bor der ing onthe str eam which

inter sects it. T he inhabitants appear ed poor , but,notwithstanding this, ther e is a large school of r ecent

constr uction. I was conducted to the Konah or

official r esidence, a crazy building of unpromising ex

ter ior , inwhich, howev er ,'

a cleanroom,which formed

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The Islanfi of the Aegean.

the road, where he dismounted, he expected another

of the company to lead it. Whenhe wanted water,he despatched one of the country people to fetch it

for him. H e walked de licate ly inhis mocassins in

true Albanianfashion, andwas too pr oud to enquire

his way for fear of betraying his ignor ance. Petro

designated him as ballast (aaBuapa, L at. sabur r a),that is to say, good- for -nothing and this was

a fair descr iptionof his character.

Leaving Theologo, we crossed the stream,inthe

mountains.neighbour hood of which grow enormous plane - tr ees,

and ascended the opposite mountain- S ide. This

was so stony that there was practically no track

along it,and a way had to be extemporised over the

rocks. A t the head of this desolate region we

reached the pine - for est,and for a long time con

tinued to wind inand out of most beautiful dells at

a great height above the sea. T he scenery of this

part is not inferior to that in the nor th of the island,for behind this enchanting foreground the peak

of Athos,her e thirty milesdistant, rises fr om the

A egeanto the height of 6400 feet, white with[snow

onitsnor thernface and from its foot the peninsula

of the Holy Mountain, and the neighbouring coast

as far as the mouth of the Strymon, extend along

the hor izon. Inthe westernpart of Thasos, which

from this point we overlook, the most striking ob

ject is the wooded summit ofHagios Matz, the name

of which is a corruptionof Asomatos, i. e. the Arch

angel. This district I did not propose to visit,because it contains no objects of interest. A t the

end of anhour and a half’s riding we cr ossed the

ridge,and came insight of a vast expanse of the

open sea, w ith the islands of Lemnos, Imbr os and

Samothrace. T he turf beneath our feet was here

sprinkled with the delicate blue flower s of dwarf

for get-me-nots. A break-neck descent now com

menced over steep broken rocks,where riding was

impossible andwhenthe foot of these was r eached,for two hours more the way led over gentler de

cliv ities, until at last the strange peninsula of Alke 1

came inS ight beneath us. I t resembles a long and

nar r ow island, lying parallel to the coast and close

to it,but is joined to the mainland by anisthmus near

its easternextremity. T he little bay thus formed,which is conspicuous fr om above with its clear green

water, provides a commodious har bour for ships

which come hither to fetch timber for expor tation.

A t the time of my visit a vessel of some S ize was

lying moored to the shor e.

T he pr incipal remains of antiquity in this neigh Remains

bour hood ar e found on the near ly level isthmus.

Her e was appar ently the r esidence of those employed

inthe quar r ies, for invar ious par ts the outlines of

dwell ings and fr agments of walls ar e visible onthe

sur face of the gr ound . Near the centr e stands a

large sarcophagus, r esembling inmost respects those

at Limena, though partly bur ied in the ear th,and

much brokenat the S ides. O n the slab which faces

west is engr aved a long and gr aceful inscr iptionin

elegiac ver se, of which ten lines were visible at the

1 The name is A lke , not A like , as Conz e giv es it.

302 The Islands of the Aegean.

time whenit was copied by Conze, but now the four

last of these ar e concealed by r ubbish : the four fir st

have long beenso much obliterated as to be unintel

ligible. T he subject is a lament for the untimelydeath of anunwedded gir l, whose bones the sar co

phagus contained. T he most important r uins ar e

those of a temple, which have recently beenbr ought

to light by the indefatigable spade of M r . Bent.

These ar e S ituated close to the sea onthe easternside

of the isthmus, j ust where it abuts against the penin

sula. The steep slope which intervenes betweenthe

platform onwhich the temple stood and the wate r ’

s

edge is ina r uinous state, but it is evident that the

building was approached onthis side by a number of

steps, composed of massive blocks of stone . O ne

of these I measur ed, and found it to be twelve feet in

length. Two chamber s belonging to the temple have

been excavated, and a wall of large rectangular

blocks has beenlaid bare onits south side ; but her e

as at Limena, many of the objects that have late ly

beendiscovered have beenremoved. Two inter esting

inscr iptions, however, r emain. O ne of these r ecords

a votive offer ing to Athena and Her acles for safeconduct ona voyage, dedicated by a member of a

guild of mer chants. The other, which is a list of

public officer s, contains certain titles of magistr ateswhich ar e otherwise unusual 1. A t the time of

G onze ’s visit, no source of water was knownto exist

1 S ee Mr . H icks’s r emarks on Inscriptions fr omThasos

,N os. 1

and 1 4, in the j ournal of H ellenic S tudies, v ol. v iii. pp. 41 0 , 41 5also M r . Bent

’

s account of their discov ery, ibid. pp. 43 4, 43 5 .

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seaweed, and the stone, wher ever the water reaches

it, has assumed a dark hue ; but elsewher e it is

dazzlingly white, and the places from which the huge

blocks were takenar e visible, with the marks of the

workman’s instruments at the sides, forming line s of

drilled holes and groov ings. A t one point a dr um of

a Doric column, which was be ing wrought into sh ape

on the spot before r emoval,remains rooted in the

stone.

T he routewhich I followed inreturning toT heologo

lay southward of that by which I had come, and

traversed somewhat less rocky ground. A t no great

distance from Alke, near the Shore, I stopped to

examine the remains of a square Hellenic tower

constructed of massive masonry, fiv e or six courses

of which remaininplaces ; and further onanother,circular inform, was visible ona lofty knoll. There

ar e said to be many of these at intervals along the

coast,so that the island inancient times must almost

have been defended by a chain of forts. After

leaving the sea,for a considerable distance we were

oncemore traver sing the forests ; andhere at inter vals

we found felled trees lying by the path, inr eadiness

to be transported to the nearest point onthe shore.

After having beensquared, each trunk, we wer e told,is dragged by two oxenalong the mountainpaths

until it reaches its destination, and considering how

narrow andwinding these ar e, the process canbe no

easy one. The forest land is partitioned betweenthe

neighbouring villages but whereas formerly the

inhabitants possessed the right of cutting timber

where they liked, at pr esent the pr ivilege is r estr icted,and while they ar e allowed to carry off as much as

they need for building purposes, the government

requir es that a payment S hould be made for felling

large trees for exportation. I nowhere saw traces of

for est fir es, such as fr equently ar e caused inGr eece

by the recklessness of the natives, who by this means

either mor e easily extr act the resinfr om the trunks,or else improve the next year’ s crop of grass, which

springs up abundantly wher e a conflagr ation has

takenplace. This may perhaps be explained by the

employment of for est- rangers who ar e

appointed by the different communes to guard their

r ights against encr oachment. This institutionexists

also inGreece, but ther e the guar ds ar e apt to wink

at the destr uctionthat is committed.

I had planned my returnjourney to Limena so as Theeastern

to include a visit to the easterncoast of the island,because according to Herodotus the gold mines

,

which wer e an impor tant sour ce of the wealth of

the Thasians,wer e situated inthat distr ict, or , as the

histor ian himself expr esses it, facing Samothr ace1.

For this por tionof the way, which is rar ely tr avelled

evenby the inhabitants,a fr esh guide was requir ed.

Taking leave of the fr iendly Subashi, I ascended the

valley behind T heologo for some distance in the

ne ighbour hood of the stream,and thenstr uck off

eastwards inthe directionof the r idge, which here ,as above Alke, breaks into steep faces of r ock where

the descent towar ds the sea commences. The line1 H er od. 6. 47.

X

The Islands of the Aegean.

of these gaunt precipices appearing above and inthe

midst of the forests, especially when seenfrom the

sea, amply justifies Archilochus’ descr iptionof Thasos

as an ass’ s backbone,covered with wild wood 1

We now looked downona bay, in the recesses of

which lies a small plainhemmed inby the mountains,while in fr ont it is partly S heltered by an island .

Descending onfoot,I r eached the forest, and followed

the path that winds downward thr ough it in the

midst of most enjoyable sur r oundings. T he calls of

the goatherds to the ir flocks,the tinkling of the goat

bells,the cur ling wr eaths of smoke fr om the char coal

burner s’ fires, and, as anaccompaniment to these,the whisper ing pines, the running str eams, and the

expanse of blue sea, formed the perfectionof r ur al

life and scenery. T he plain is covered with olive

trees, the extr aor dinary age of which is S hownby

the size of their gnar led and twisted trunks and the

turf beneath them was star r ed with pink anemones

and the blue heads of the gr ape hyacinth.

The name of this district (for there is no village)and of the neighbouring island is Kinira, and inthis

we find a clue to the position of the mines, for

Her odotus says that they wer e situated between

A enyr a (A t'

impa) and Coenyr a (Koiuvpa), and the

difference betweenthe latter of these and the mode rn

name disappears in pronunciation. T he name of

A enyr a has per ished, and together with it all tr ace

1656 8

’

66 7’6vov pdxcs

fem/cw “Ans d'

ypc'

qs lmor ecpfis.

A rchil. F r agm. 18 , inBergk'

s Poetae Ly r ioi Gmeoi.

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The Islands of the Aegean.

a wonder how the mules canforce a passage through

them. Inthe middle of this expanse of under gr owth

we reached a small clearing on the mounta in side,which bears the name of Palaeochor i fr om a village

which is now deser ted. I enquired for ancient r uins,but none were known to exist ther e . A t last we

emer ged from our delightful wilderness into the

forest, wher e we found more level tracks. I had

beenastonished at the precision— resembling a form

of intuition— with which our guide had found his

way through this difficult district, notwithstanding

the per plexity of diver ging paths but the mystery

was solved whenhe explained that at one time of

his life he had beenemployed inthese parts as a

forest- ranger . T he ne ighbour hood of the pine - tr ees

is said to be good for the pr oductionof honey, and

inone place I saw as many as fifty w icker beehives.

T he old manwho guar ded them—anideal Theocr i

tean shepher d with a tall c r ook— said that he had

in all a hundr ed of these in var ious parts of the

forest. T he valley of Panagia now opened out once

mor e befor e me with a white beach fringing the

coast ; and ina glenleading downto it I halted for

a while under a plane - tree from which gushed a

limpid str eam.

Shortly before arriving at this point I had dis

missed my guide , since we had reached a part of

the country with which Petro the muleteer was

acquainted, having come thither onformer occasions

for wood . The S ubashi’

s dog had followed us thusfar on our way, and I supposed that he would

Thasos. 309

returnwith the guide, but to my surprise I dis

cover ed that he had remained with our party, and

he continued to accompany us for the r emainder of

the day. I afterwards learnt that he was anhabitue’

of the island, and that he oftenmade the journey

from Theologo to Limena and back on his own

account.We now descended to the sea near the

Scala or landing- place of Potamia, wher e there was

a small pier and a newly- built warehouse, and then

crossed the plain by circuitous ways, in or der to

avoid the freshly irrigated maize fields. In the

stagnant water the fr ogs wer e S inging br ehehehex

hoax hoax as clear ly as inthe days of Aristophanes,the two notes being quite distinct from one another.

T he view of Hagios Elias fr om the Shore is very

fine, for the entire face of its pr ecipices is visible,reaching downto the two villages of Potamia and

Panagia which nestle beneath them. Leaving the

plain, we ascended to the latter of those places,wher e we rejoined our former route ; and before

evening, after anagreeable ride of eight hours, I was

once more at Limena.

CHA PT ER XV I .

S AMO T H RA CE .

DUR I N G my wander ings inThasos I had enjoyedsuch halcyonweather that it seemed impossible that

a change could suddenly take place ; and accor dingly,onmy returnfrom the interior, I arranged with the

captainof a small mer chant vessel that he should

convey me across to Cavalla the following day.

During the night, however, a strong south wind

arose, and in the morning I was informed that it

was useless to attempt the passage, because, though

we might get across, it would be impossible to land

owing to the unprotected char acter of the roadstead .

When I asked insome surpr ise what happened tothe tr ading steamers under such circumstances, the

answer was, that they ar e thenunable to land the

goods and passengers that ar e booked for Cavalla,and ar e obliged to pass that place without stopping,and sometimes to take refuge in the harbour of

Limena, which is shelter ed from the south wind.

T he insecurity of the ports inTurkey, the result of

centuries of neglect, involving as it does continualuncertainty as to the possibility of reaching one ’s

destination,is a serious inconvenience to the travel

ler . I have already referred to this in connexion

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rounded by marshes. Gr eat car e is here r equired

even for small craft in reaching the shore,since

ther e is only one narrow passage thr ough the shal

lows ; larger vessels ar e forced to remain in the

offing. I was well satisfied not to be doomed to

a long sojourninthis scene of desolation. O nthe

following day a Turkish steamer arrived,and inher

I proceeded to Dede- agatch, which is the nearest

point onthe coast to Samothrace.

O nlanding at this place I r enewed the exper ience

which I had had inCrete fifteenyear s befor e. All

my books—six teeninnumber—were takenfromme

by the custom- house officers, on suspicionof the ir

containing passages hostile to the Ottomangovern

ment. A fter the lapse of some hours my dragoman

was able to recover most of these, but the three

guidebooks—Mur r ay, Joanne, and Baedeker— wer eretained, Murray be ing r egarded as especially ob

jectionab le, on the gr ound that it Spoke in un

favourable terms (which it does not)of the Tur kish

administration of Crete. Even the next morningthese officials wer e still obdur ate, so nothing r e

mained for me but to require that the books should

be takento the governor of the place, inorder thathe might pass judgment upon them. To him ac

cordingly I went,incompany with the Br itish Viceconsul, Mr. Misser, who obligingly undertook to

arrange the matter for me. T he governor was an

educated man, who spoke French fluently, and after

a brief inspection of the condemned works he r e

stored them to me without further difficulty.

Samothr ace.

Dede - agatch is a place which sooner or later may D ede

r ise to importance as anentr epot for the trade of the

inter ior, since it is connected by a branch railway

with the mainline from Belgrade to Constantinople.

This br anch diver ges fr om a point near Adr ianople,and follows the valley of the Maritza (H eb rus)for

the gr eater part of the distance to the sea. A t pr esent

the amount of communicationis limited, for only one

trainruns each way every two days. T he village of

Dede -agatch is entirely a creationof the railway,for

until the spot was chosenfor a terminus not a single

house existed there, and it partakes of the unin

ter esting character of all such places of sudden

growth. A t the back a plainof about thr ee miles

inwidth reaches to the foot of the mountains, which

ar e anoffshoot fr om the Despoto Dagh or Rhodope,the principal chaininthe inter ior. The cultivators

of this plainar e Bulgarianpeasants,but the waste

ground is occupied by the flocks of Wallach and

Bulgar ian shepherds, who remain there during the

winter months, but inthe warmer seasonmigrate to

the higher r egions. Onthe outskirts of the village

numer ous camels, destined to convey merchandise to

the inland districts wher e the r ailway does not pene

trate, might be seensquatted onthe ground.

During the two days that followed my arrival no D ificultyhope presented itself of my r eaching Samothr ace. $ 33

1 1”

The sky was clear , but the wind blew str ongly from tho-ace.

the south -west,and it was exactly inthat quarter

that the island, her e twenty miles distant, rose from

the water , like a sea- girt castle frowning defiance.

The I slands of the Aegean.

There wer e numer ous large caiques onthe Spot,well

fitted for such a voyage ; but these wer e now wind

bound, and lay closely wedged together in the tiny

port. A t last my ser vant came to informme that an

English steamer of the Joly-Victor a Company, the

Semir amis, had ar rived ; and as I was aware that

these vessels will sometimes for a consideration

deviate from their regular cour se, I made enquiries

of their agent whether they would accommodate me

on this occasion,and at what char ge. The fir st

demand was eighteen pounds, but by judicious

negotiation this was ultimately r educed to fiv e— a

not unr easonable sum, seeing that the steamer ,which was bound dir ect for Smyrna, would have to

make a conside r able detour . O n these terms thebargainwas str uck, and I embarked without delay.

To my sur pr ise I found that my involuntary deten

tioninDede - agatch had wonfor me anhonour able

reputation. I t was curr ently r eported in the place

that I was going to discover a gold mine, or at the

least a coal mine,inSamothr ace and one of the

inhabitants requested permissionto accompany me,in or der that he might have some shar e in the

pr ofits.

The v oyage As soonas we wer e under way I confer r ed with”T he"

the captain, a bur ly good - humour ed Gr eek, as to the

place wher e I S hould be landed. H e had not him

self visited Samothrace, and was unacquainted with

its coast— in fact, no steamer s ever touch there ,and dur ing the winter very few sailing vessels

so the English Admir alty char t was pr oduced, and

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The Islands of the Aegean.

further on, just where a spit of sand, which is in

reality the extreme point of the island, formed a

shelter fr om the waves. This time our signal was

more successful, for Shortly afterwards by the

‘muffled moonlight ’

we could see a small boat,rather lar ger than a coracle, approaching, row ed

by two boys. Into this myself, my servant, and

my baggage wer e stowed, not without difficulty

and we rowed away to the shore,while the steamer

disappeared into the darkness. I landed on the

beach, and at last was able to congratulate myself

onhav ing set foot inSamothrace.

T he next questionwas where to find a lodging for

the night. Ther e was no pier by the shor e, to sug

gest that it was a fr equented place ; and fir st the

contents of the boat, and thenthe boat itself, requir ed

to be dragged over a high bank of shingle, which has

beenthrownup by the waves. When this was sur

mounted,we found a dozencaiques of various S izes

drawnup out of reach of the sea, and behind these ,at the distance of a few stones’ throws, was a r ow of

one - stor eyed houses,consisting of one room apiece .

A s itwas Sunday, the occupants of these had betaken

themselves to the village, which is anhour and a half

distant, to enjoy their holiday, and had locked up

their dwellings. O ne room,however, which formed

the bar and gener al r endez - vous of the place, was

open; and inthis we found a number of the sailor s

to whom the caiques belonged, sitting round a stove.

From them we learnt that the bakehouse,which stood

at the end of the row, was vacant, and that the fir e was

not lighted. I t was a somewhat gr imy abode, and

somewhat airy, owing to the numerous apertures

th r ough which the wind could enter ; but we wer e

soonestablished there. Indefault of other fasten

ings the door was closed by an ironcrowbar which

w e found within.

T he next morning Opened bright and clear. We Ancienthar bour

could now see that we wer eWl th lna cur v e of the D am.

level Shore,close to the promontory of Acroteri ; and

this spot,though it is exposed to the full force of the

norther ly and north-westerly gales, is the safest

landing- place in Samothr ace. There can be little

doubt that it is the harbour of D emetr ium, which is

mentioned both by Livy and Plutarch inconnexion

with the story of the fate of Perseus, the last king

of Macedon. A fter the ruinof his cause at Pydna,that sover eignbetook himself with a large amount

of tr easur e to Samothrace, inhopes of findingan

asylum inthe sanctuary there ; but whenthe Roman

fleet under Cn. Octavius took up its stationinfront

of the city, and Perseus discover ed that he was about

to be expelled as a sacrilegious persononaccount of

a murder which he had committed, he arranged with

O r oandes,a merchant of Crete, that he Should take

h im onboard his ship, and convey him to the coast

of Thr ace. O r oandes, however,‘behaved like a

Cretan andwhenthe treasure was safely embarked,made off to his native island, leaving the king

lamenting on the Shore. T he place where this

vessel lay, and at which the king hoped to have

1 Kprrno'

pé‘

aw ipe “ , Plut. A emil. Paul. cap. 96.

The Islands of the Aegean.

embarked after stealing out by night from the ne igh

bour ing city, is descr ibed as D emetr ium,a harbour

by a pr omontory inSamothrace 1 T he fact that so

open a r oadstead is the best available Shelter for

Shipping, justifies the remar k of Pliny, that Samo

thrace is ‘the most harbourless of all the Greek

islands 1

Village of The only means of transport that could be found

wer e two ponies. O none of these the baggage was

fastened, and as George, my dr agoman, was not a

good walker, I mounted himonthe other,andwent on

foot myself until we approached our destination, th e

village of Chora, whenI took his place and entere d

in state. T he ground over which we passed was

rough and stony, and inits look and colour r ecalled

rather the soil of Lemnos thanthat of Thasos : as

the village, which is the only inhabited place in

the island, stands at a height of several hundr ed fee t

above the sea,the ascent to it, though gr adual, is

long. I ts appearance, when it suddenly comes in

view close at hand, is very striking. I t occupies a

cur v e in the steep mountain- slope, which forms a

complete horseshoe, lying at the foot of two con

spicuous peaks of r ed and gr ey granite, while on

one side stands forth a mass of ochr e- colour ed r ock,

crowned by the br okentowers of a Genoese castle .

T he choice of such a S ite is amply justified by its she l

ter ed situationat the head of the cultivated gr ound,

1 D emetr ium est por tus inpr omontor io quodam S amoth r acae ;L iv . 45 . 6.

1 Vel impor tuosissima omnium ; Plin. H ist. N at 4. 1 9 . 9 3 .

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The Islands of the Aegean.

of Chor a. The schoolmaster, M . Christos N . Rhego

pulos, proposed to accompany me and explain the

positionof the buildings ; and I gladly accepted his

offer, for , like many of his class,he was a well

educated and intelligent man. H e was born at

D imitz ana in north -westernArcadia, and had r e

sided for some time inSmyrna ; but onreceivingthe offer of a permanent post in this island

,he

migrated thither, and, having been inweak health

befor e,had derived great benefit fr om the bracing

air O f Samothrace. H e was thoroughly conver sant

with the excavations that had beenmade,since he

was on the spot at the time,and was personally

acquainted with those who took par t inthem. More

over he,or rather the school

,possesses a copy O f

the gr eat work which gives the result of those ex

cav ations, the A r chciologische Unter suchungen aufS amothr ake of Prof. Conze. This was a pr esent

from the professor himself, and is a great boon to

the traveller, because the book contains the onlycor r ect account of the Hellenic buildings, and at the

same time is too bulky to be carried ona voyage .

Conze is remembered by most of the inhabitants,and is gener ally spokenof by his Christianname ,Alexander (6 M éeavapos). I subsequently made the

acquaintance of the Greek who acted as his foreman

insuperintending the excavations.

As I devoted more than one visit to the ex

amination of this place, it may give the reader

a clearer idea O f the remains if I describe them

without reference to the order inwhich I saw them.

Samothr ace.

They consist of two parts, the city and the sanctuary,for the latter was not included withinthe walls. The

city, which was of triangular form and cover ed a very

extensive ar ea, had a northernaspect,and occupied

a steep positionbetweena jutting Spur of the moun

tains and the sea. A t the summit, which is a mass

of r ocks,ther e is no definite acr opolis indeed, the

nature of the ground formed of itself a sufficient

defence : but at one point a deep depr essionbetween

the cliffs, which might have beenr eached by esca

lade,has beenclosed by a high cyclopeanwall. On

the eastern side, fr om the summit to the sea, the

pr ecipices ar e S O steep that no for tifications wer e

r equir ed but her e also,just at the commencement of

the final ascent, a similar gap is occupied by a wall

with a we ll - built postern,which is cover ed by thr ee

enormous stones, laid across par allel to one another.

Towards the west the hillside slopes mor e gr adually,and her e a low butwell-mar ked r idge is followed by a

continuous line of wall. This is the wonder of the E x tr a

place, and the massiveness of its primitive masonry is walls.hardly sur passed by that ofTiryns. Like that

'

for tr ess,

it is composed of enormous stones piled irregularly

together , and no rubble is used to fill the inter stices

betweenthem. Four gateways r emainonthis side

inthe lowest O f them, which led from the city to the

sanctuary, the walls oneither hand ar e preser v ed to

the height O f fifteenfeet ; inanother , which occupies a

returnof the wall, the courses of masonry approach

one another at the top, and the lintel is formed by one

huge unhewnstone. About half-way downthere is

Y

The Islands of theAegean.

a tower, the regular hor iz ontal courses of which con

trast w ith the other work, and seem to belong to a

more recent period, though their solidity shows that

they ar e still primitive. These fortifications of the

city of Samothrace ar e referred to by a Latinauthor,inconnexionwith the rites which were celebrated

intheir neighbour hood, as ‘the ancient walls of the

Corybantes A t the present day the whole ar ea is

most desolate,its only occupants being goats, which

find a scanty pasturage onthe stony soil.

Near the foot of the easternridge, just whe r e it

begins to fall p recipitously to the sea, stand three

towers of Genoese construction. The uppermost of

these, which is also the tallest, gives evidence of

having beenbuilt of Hellenic materials by the frag

ments of friez es and fluted columns of white marble

which ar e embedded in it. Her e also, until a few

years ago, were several inscriptions relating to the

pilgrims who visited the neighbouring shrine. I t

would be foolish to lament the removal of such

monuments to the museums of Europe ; and inthe

present instance, though there was no fear of injury

ffom the hands of the inhabitants, yet the votive

tablets wer e not intheir original position, and could

therefore be carried O ff without scruple. Still, the

traveller may be allowed to r egr et that he cannot

inspect on the Spot the lists of ‘pious initiated

(mic—nu and still more the representations

(now in the L ouvre) of rows of dancing figures,linked hand inhand

,which reveal to us something

1 Moenia anfiqua Corybantum; Pr iscian, Per iegesis, 5 46.

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The Islands of the Aegean.

have mentioned did not exist inantiquity, and thus

the space withinwhich ships could lie would have

beengr eater thanat the present day ; but evenso,

as there was nothing like a natural harbour , the

accommodationmust have beenextr emely limited .

This appears the more strange, whenwe take into

account the violence of the storms which agitate

these seas.We may now proceed to the sanctuary, which wassituated westward of the city, outside the walls.

But befor e investigating the buildings which it con

tained, a wor d Should be said with regar d to the

wor ship of which it was the home. Ther e is noneed

for us to discuss the various theories which have

beenheld onthe subject of the Samothr aciangods

S O much I may say, that to me it seems most

probable that they were pr e- Hellenic divinities,

which passed under the influence of the Phoenicians,

and were finally adopted and assimilated by the

Greeks. This view agr ees with the statement O f

Herodotus that these myster ies wer e intr oduced by

the Pelasgi 1, andwith the fact of their wide diffusion,for they wer e found not only in the neighbouring

islands of Lemnos and Imbr os, and inthe Troad,

but also inPhrygia. Again, that this cult was affected

by Phoenicianbeliefs and forms of wor ship is pr ovedby the name Cabeiri, which is evidently derived from

the Semitic habzr ,‘great —a title applied by the

Phoenicians to their leading divinities— for the

Cabeiri were known to the Greeks as the Great1 H er od. 9 . 5 1 .

Samothr ace.

Gods (p eyékoc seat). T he existence of this influence

does not seem improbable, whenwe consider that thename Samos (for Samothrace is the ‘Thracian

Samos,’

and is so called inHomer 1) is of Phoenician

origin,and that other settlements of that race existed

close by,inThasos and onthe Hellespont. The

r ites thus framed, and the corr esponding tenets,would easily be adapted by the Gr eeks, though

even in ancient times great differ ences of opinion

existed as to which of the Hellenic deities corr e

sponded to the Great Gods O f Samothrace. This

ambiguity would natur ally be fostered by the mys

te r ious character of the wor ship, the secrets of which

wer e only communicated to the initiated ; and this

secr ecy, inturn,was more easily maintained from

the island which was its centre being so difficult of

access. I t was due also inpar t to its positionon

the confines of Eur ope and Asia, that it became the

meeting- point of Western and Eastern forms of

religion.

T he influence exercised by this place as a devo [ ts im

tional centre was extraordinary. After Delos, it”mm“

number ed mor e votar ies thanany other spot inthe

Aegean. As a place of pilgr image it occupied in

ancient times somewhat the same position as the

neighbour ing Athos does at the present day. How

gr eat its r epute must have beenwe discover from

the numer ous votive inscriptions which have been

found ther e, andwhich imply the existence of a much

larger number inantiquity. T he major ity of these1 I I. 1 3 . 1 9 .

The I slank of the Aegean.

proceeded from cities inA sia Minor, but some were

set up by states onthe Europeancoast of theAegean1.

Philip of Macedonand his wife Olympias ar e known

to have beenamong the initiated 1. Germanicus was

only prevented by unfavourable weather fromvisiting

the Shr ine 1. I t is interesting also to reflect that,

whenS t. Paul touched at this place onhis way fr om

Troas to Neapolis during his second missionaryjourney

,this form of worship existed infull vigour.

T he first excavations on this site were made in

( awn-

ms.1863 by a French explorer, M . Champoiseau ; and

his labour s were rewar ded by the discovery of the

statue of Nike, which is now one of the glories of

the Louvr e. Three years later much more extensiv e

investigations wer e undertakenby MM. D'

eville and

Coquar t, of the French School of Athens ; and th e

results of these were published inthe A r chiv es des

M issions for 1867. But the great work of all,by

means of which the whole of the ruins were laid

bare, and the character of the var ious buildings wasfinally determined

,was carried out under the

auspices of the A ustr ian government by Professor

Conze and his colleagues, MM . Hauser, Niemann

and Benndorf, inthe course of two expeditions in

1873 and 1875 . T he history of the ir discoveries,

and a full discussionof all the points connected with

them,will be found inthe two magnificent volumes

of Unter suchungen auf S amothr ake already men

1 S ee the inscr iptions inConz e , Reise, pp. 63 -

7 1 .1 Plutar ch , A lex . 9 .

1 Tac. A nn. 9 . 5 4.

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The Islands of the Aegean.

extremity of the area. Insignificant though theyar e, yet their waters have car ved out very deepchannels, which ar e flanked by steep banks oneither

side. These banks ar e supported here and there

by walls and steps, which ser ved to secure the

foundations of the edifices that surmounted them.

T he spaces that interv ene betweenthese channe ls,forming

, as they do, ir r egular levels—and in par t

also the neighbouring slope towar ds the east—were

chosenas the sites for the buildings, which inthis

manner were enclosed withinnatur al boundaries.

Being outside the walls, they must have tr usted for

protectionto their sacredness.

T he most important portion of this area is that

which inter venes betweenthe middle and the eastern

torrent- bed,for though the ground her e is lower

than elsewher e, yet it is the most central in its

position. In the southernportionof this stood a

large Doric temple, which, to judge from the fr ag

ments that remain, must have beena very handsome

edifice. T he mater ial of which it was constr ucted

was white marble, though the foundations, like those

of all the buildings in this sanctuary,ar e of the

rough stone of the country. I ts ar chitecture shows

that it was er ected in the early per iod of the

Ptolemies, who were the greatest benefactors of this

Shrine. This was the later temple of the Cabe iri.

To the north of this, and standing at a consider able

angle to it,was the older temple of those deities,

which was smaller thanthe other , and, though ver y

little of the superstructure r emains from which to

Samothr ace.

judge, must have beenmuch ruder. A t its fur ther

end, wher e the ground is lower , it was supported by

a wall of polygonal stones. I t was to this building

that the bas- r eliefs of dancing figures, alr eady men

tioned, or iginally be longed, for cor r esponding ones

wer e found in its area during the excavations. I t

is not improbable that this temple continued to be

inuse after the handsomer building had beener ected.

That they were dedicated to the Cabeiri is shown,par tly by their being the only temples in this sanc

tuary, and partly by a remarkable featur e which was

discover ed inboth of them. This was anopening

in the floor,communicating with the earth below,

which is known from the analogy of other temples

inwhich this peculiar ity occurs, to have beenused

for offerings to the deities of the nether wor ld, among

whom the Cabeir i wer e reckoned. In the larger

temple this was found inthe pavement of a sort of

apse at its southernend, and is semi- circular inform.

Inthe smaller temple there ar e two such towards the

middle of the cella,one semi- cir cular, the othernear ly

rectangular. Unfortunately for the traveller, these

ar e now once more concealed under mounds of earth.

Northward again fr om the Older temple ar e the

ruins of a circular building, the foundations of which”now”

ar e visible thr oughout half their circuit, thir teen

courses remaining onthe westernside. T he original

Shape, which is clear ly seen in these , is traceable

also in the cur ved outline of some of the mar ble

blocks that lie in r uin above. Other stones ar e

ornamented with figures of bulls ’ heads, and onone

The S toa

macum.

The Islands of the Aegean.

is a fragmentary inscr iption, from which we learn

that the edifice was dedicated to the Gr eat Gods bya daughter of one of the Ptolemies. I t was or iginallysuggested by M . Deville, and his view is now

generally accepted, that this lady was Ar sinoe, the

daughter of Ptolemy Soter, who took r efuge in

Samothrace from the violence of Ptolemy Ker aunos,the mur derer of her sons. Hence the building is

now known as the A r sinoeum. What use it was

intended to ser ve is not clear, but, though it was

dedicated to the Cabeiri, it does not seem to have

beena temple.

Ina parallel line with these thr ee buildings layother s onthe higher level betweenthe centr al and

the westernstream. Towards the south, ina corre

sponding position to the two temples, is the base

ment of an extensive structure, very long in pr o

portion to its breadth,which appears to have

beena Stoa ; and nor thwar d of this, opposite to the

A r sinoeum, there is a large square ar ea,composed

of rough blocks, but almost devoid of any tr ace of

the edifice which it supported. T he Nike of the

Louvre occupied a commanding site to the south

east O f the Stoa. Besides these, one building r e

mains to be noticed,which is situated onthe further

S ide of the easternstream. T he numerous fr agments

which here cover the gr ound show that it was r ichly

ornamented, and the channellings of the white

marble columns pr ove that it was of the Ionic order.T he inscription on the fr ieze, which still remains,though br oken into several pieces

,tells us that it

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3 3 2 The Islands of the Aegean.

and the shepher ds used to shelter their Sheep within

it. O n such occasions, undoubtedly, it must have

greatly r esembled a dungeon.

The effect of this entir e gr oup of buildings, when

they were standing, must have beenvery imposing ;but it is difficult to r econstruct them inimagination

on the spot, since not a single column occupies its

original position. Still harder is it,inthe midst of

the pr esent desolation to repeople the place with

the cr owds of wor shippers who must once have fr e

quented it.

CHA PT ER XV I I .

S AMO TH RA CE (continued).

T H E inhabitants of Samothr ace number at the Depopula

present day about two thousand souls, and with the“0” ‘3f

exception of the shepherds who roam over the ”W“

mountains, all these ar e concentr ated in the one

village of Chora. T he scantiness of the population

is,however , a thing of comparatively r ecent date.

A t the time of the fir st conquest of the island by the

Turks,indeed

,in 145 7, the island must have been

almost denuded of its people, for we ar e told that the

wealthy inhabitants were taken to Constantinople,the youngest and healthiest were sold as slaves, and

only the poor est r emained behind to till the soil 1

but inthe cour se of time other settler s seem to have

ar rived, for at the beginning of this century it is

supposed that the number amounted to tenthousand,though this is pr obably an exaggerated estimate .

But it was at the commencement of the Gr eekWarof Independence, in189 1

, that the greatest disaster

fell uponthe place . O nthat occasionthe people of

Samothrace declared themselves free from the

1 Finlay, H istory of G r eece, v ol. v . p. 5 9.

3 34 The Islands of the Aegean.

Turkish rule, and for a time they remained infancied

security ; but after the lapse of four months, on

September I of that year, a Tur kish force landed

on their S hores, and after defeating the insur gents

massacred all the adults who did not escape to the

mountains or by sea, and carr ied the children as

S laves to Constantinople. Subsequently, it is com

puted, thr ee hundr ed of those who fled by sea

returned, and a hundr ed more from the mountains,but the island has never recovered from this cata

strophe. I had the opportunity of inspecting a register,made for purposes of taxation

, of the Greek inhabitants

of the island inthe year 183 5 , with their pr oper ties

the number of families was then 3 1 5 , but this

represented only about 5 00 persons, S ince many

houses had but one or two occupants. The Tur kish

residents have also declined innumbers only thr ee

or four families of that r acenow remain, and they have

neither a mosque nor a school. Informer times they

sent their childr ento the Greek school, but latterly

they have w ithdr awnthem. Whenthis -Mahometan

colony is extinct, which before long it probably will

be, a memorial of it will remainina little cemetery,with simple headstones of white and grey mar ble,just above the village. One result of this depopula

tionis, that themajor ity of the present inhabitants ar e

of recent introduction, and Speak ordinary Modern

Greek ; while the language of the Shepherds, who

probably date back to a very considerable antiquity,

is the most remar kable of all the ModernGr eek

dialects, and retains some Hellenic words which

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The Islands of the Aegean.

that few of them reach old age, owing to the sever ity

of the winter, the exposure they suffer at that season.

and the want of fuel. The island is administer ed by

a Mudir, who is subject to the governor of Lemnos.

They have little to complainof inthis r espect, except

that the taxes ar e Oppr essive . Whenfir st I reached

Samothr ace the office of Mudirwas vacant, but befor e

I left a governor arr ived, and he was a Chr istian.

Ecclesiastically, the island is subject to the bishop O f

Mar oneia onthe opposite coast of Thr ace. The r e

ar e usually 1 30 children in the school, but at the

time of my visit only half that number attended,owing to the prevalence of a bad infectious cough,which inthe cour se of a few months had caused as

many as a hundr ed deaths. Fr om my room inthe

school - house I used to watch the scholar s, mostly

bar e- footed,assembling to their lessons at the sound

of an iron gong or semantr on. In Lemnos the

people of Samothr ace have the r eputationof being

rough and boorish,but for my ownpar t I exper ienced

nothing but civility from all classes.

T he money that is inuse inSamothrace is hardly

less curious thanthat of Thasos. Indefault of small

Turkishmoney,a paper currencyhas beenestablished,

consisting of small squares of thin cardboar d,on

which ar e printed the name of the island with that of

the principal chur ch,and the value of the piece.

Some of these notes, or tickets, have beensent from

Constantinople, but other s ar e made inChor a itself.T he smallest, which ar e about an inch squar e

,ar e

equivalent to tenpar as, or a half- penny. I doubt

Samothr ace.

whether the A ustrian Tyr ol in its most advanced

days of paper currency ever quite equalled this.

Another curiosity, besides some Specimens of these, I bex es.

which I brought away with me, is a native stool

formed of a rough S lab of wood,18 in. long by 8 in.

wide, which has beenplaced onthe arch of a pair of

ibex horns, so that the whole thing forms a tripod,supported by the r oot and the extremities of the

horns. The seat is fastened onby strong ironnails,which have beenruthlessly driventhrough the wood

into the curving horns. The horns measure three

feet inlength, and ar e capable of supporting a great

weight. T he ibexes ar e found in the desolate

mountains inthe easternpart of Samothrace, and ar e

perhaps of the same kind as those which exist inthe

Taurus inAsia Minor. T he kids ar e sometimes

captured by the natives, and ar e car ried to Constanti

nOple as pets by the Turkish governor s when they

quit the island but I am not aware that they have

attracted the attentionof anynaturalist. N ot having

seenthe animal myself,I am unable to say whether

it resembles the Cretanibex.

I t was a surprise ina remote island like Samo A learnedthrace to meet with a manas learned as M . Phardys,

”y ’ imm

the physicianof Chora. H e is a native of the place,but

‘

at tenyears of age he went abroad, and only a

few years ago returned to his family. H e speaks

Fr ench fluently, having lived for some time inMar

seilles and he also passed two years inCor sica, as

manager of a school for the Greek colony which for

two centuries has beenestablished in that island.

2

The Islands of the Aegean.

The h istory of that interesting colony which he has

lately published is by far the most authentic account

of it that has yet appeared ; and as I had myself

v isited the CorsicanGreeks, we had inthem a topic

of common interest. O ne day he produced for my

inspectionwhat prov ed to be a post- card from Mr.

Gladstone. I t appear ed that M . Phar dys had sent

a copy of a former work of his (onGreek accentu

ation, I think) to the English statesman, and r e

ceiv ed this acknowledgement of it. Since, however,he was unacquainted with English, he had never

deciphered its contents ; and as the signatur e, to say

the truth, was somewhat hieroglyphical, he had not

quite certified himselfwhether it waswhat he believed

it to be. Great, therefore, was his satisfactionand

his gratitude, whenI identified the hand-wr iting, and

translated the communicationfor him. Many years

ago a monk in a monastery on Mount Olympusastonished me by saying that he was aware that the

late Lord Derby had tr anslated Homer but to meetwith a post- card from Mr. Gladstone onSamothraceappear ed to me more wonderful still.

The mediaeval castle, which forms so conspicuous

anobject in Chora, was erected by the G atilusi,whom we have already heard of inthe other islands

of the northernsea ; and onitswalls ar e inscriptions,which, like that inthe fortress at Lemnos, containthe emblem of the Palaeologi, with whom they wereconnected bymarriage. T he family of the G atilusiar ea typical specimenof the stout- hearted, har d- handedmerchant- princes of the West

,whose influence pr e:

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The Islands of the Aegean.

ar e much frequented. The scenery of this part is

the most agreeable wh ich the island has to S how.

The mountains gradually recede from the water ’s

edge, and form a plainhalf- a-mile inwidth, which is

covered with an aromatic undergr t of arbutus,

myrtle and tr ee - heather, while the Shor e is fr inged

by agnus castus bushes : beneath this shrubbery the

brake - fernwas now putting forth its fronds, and the

courses of the brooks were marked by numerous

plane- trees. A t the back the ground is clothed with

oak - scr ub,and rises with increasing steepness to the

foot of the precipices, above which tower the highest

peaks. T he pines, which form so conspicuous a

featur e inThasos, ar e here entirely wanting. Inthe

glades and clearings numerous ponies had been

turned loose, and were feeding ina half wild state.

O n our return journey the two lively boys who

accompanied our mules set to work to catch one

of these— a hopeless task, as it seemed at first S ight

but the boys were more knowing than the ponies,

and they soon secured their pr ize,which they

mounted, and rode until we left the shore .

A t the further extremity O f this level distr ict, just

wher e the hills once more appr oach the sea, the

Baths ar e situated, onone side of a clear stream of

some S ize. Betweenthis river and the seanumerous

fruit- trees give evidence of human cultivation, and

among them stands a two- storeyed house, and har d

by it a sort of Shanty with four chambers : these ar e

the only permanent provision for visitors, and the

majority of the bathers live either in tents or in

Samothr ace. 341

booths constructed from the branches of trees. A

little way off a waterfal l, which had beenswollenby

the late rains, was plunging downthe steep cliffs.

T he place was now completely deserted, but during

the summer, which is the bathing season, it is

resorted to by numer ous patients—among them by

M . Misser,the consul at Dede - agatch, who comes

hither with his family. Favoured as it is by the cool

norther ly breezes, it must be a delightful resor t for av ie champetr e. Just before I entered the house in

order to rest for a while,a sight unexpected at this

time of year presented itself—a snake three feet long

lying close by the door. I t was ina half torpid state,and was easily dispatched. T he name which the

natives give to this kind of serpent is saita,the

Modern Greek word for arrow (cairn, sagitta).

Within the house were numerous woodenbeehives,which ar e formed of sections of tr unks of tr ees

hollowed out. I had seensimilar ones inthe north

west of Spain, inwhich country also Southeynoticed

them, and he has introduced them as a local featur e

of the A stur ias in his Roder ic/e. In Samothrace

they ar e the only sort of hive inuse, and form a

marked contr ast to those of the neighbour ing island

of Thasos, which ar e univer sally of wicker . In

the ancient world both kinds wer e employed, as

we know fr om the poets and from writer s on

husbandry 1 .

1 S ee Var ro, D e Re Rustic-a , 9. 6 ; Columella, 3 . 16. 1 5 : and

compar e Virg. G eorg. 9 . 45 3 , v itiosaeque ilicis alv eo,’and 4. 3 4,

alv ear ia v imine tex ta.’

The Islands of the Aegean.

T he miner al springs ar e situated on the further

side of the stream,at the foot of the r ising ground,

and the whole of this locality is per vaded by a strong

odour of sulphur. Here I found a source too hot

for the hand, and the water was very salt to the

taste. Anopenchannel communicates betweenthis

source and a building,now r uined, which from its

mixed courses of brick and stone looks as if it dated

from Byzantine times : within this ther e is a deeptank, about thirty feet long by twenty wide, full of

greenwater, which has become tepid by exposure to

the air . I t is said that withinthe tank itself there

ar e additional springs. This place, such as it is,affords the chief accommodationfor bathers. T he

surplus water from the Spring is discharged over

a sloping face of rock,which it has thickly en

crusted with a coating of sediment,insome parts

of a rich brown, in others of a green hue. A t

one point this crust overhangs, leaving a hollow

Space behind.

Positionof The gr eatest puzzle in the topography of SamoZ‘U 'dho"

thrace is the positionof a town called Zerynthos,with a famous cavern sacred to Hecate 1

. This

seems to have been situated on the northerncoast

of the island, but no place has as yet beendiscovered

which canbe identified with it. I t has recently been

suggested 1 that the neighbourhood of these baths is

1 S ee the r eff. inBaumeister ’

s note to the H omer ic H ymnto

D emete r , l. 9 5 , and in O wen’s note to O v id

’

s Tnlstia , book i(smaller edition), p. 9 1 .

1 By Mr . S tuar t- G lennie inthe Cantaup. Rev . vol. x li. p. 849 .

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The Islands of the Aegean.

believed that from its positionit must command one

of the finest panoramas inthe A egean but such an

expeditioncanonly be made under favourable con

ditions. A t last, onthe fourth day ofmy stay (A pril 1 1)anOppor tunity presented itself, for the wind had fallen

and the sky was cloudless. I had engaged as guides

two menof about thir ty years of age, who proved to

be capital companions and excellent mountaineer s.

They were clad in blue jackets, baggy trousers

reaching to the knee, brownstockings, andmocassins

of hide, fastened over the instep by innumerable

straps ; the advantage of these last over my Alpine

boots in crossing slippery rocks was an unfail ing

topic with them during the day. O ne of them,who

was excessively dar k in complexion, was called

Maniates,because his grandfather had come from

Maina (the T aenar ian peninsula in the south of the

Peloponnese), and had married and settled here.

Starting at A .M ., we passed the crest of the hill

which lies directly behind the highest,houses of the

v illage, and ascended gradually in a southerly

direction, overlooking the fertileground towards theAcroteri, inthe ne ighbourhood of which the br ightsur faces of three salt- lakes were seen. After a timewe rounded a mountain- spur at a point where a deep

gorge lay below us, and turning eastwards, entered

a vast semicircular basin, which is surrounded by

the highest summits. Opposite to us was our desti

nation, Mount Phengar i, or the Moon which in

ancient times bore the name of Saos or S aoce ; and1 «winis the only word for

‘moon inModernG r eek.

Samothr ace.

to the right, on the further side of the gorge, rose

the lower, but still elevated, peak of Hagios Elias,beneath which a spot was pointed out to me, which

marked the position of the famous fountain of

S phidami, the only one in the upper part of the

r ange. But the most striking feature was the wild,bare, forbidding wall of gr ey precipices, broken

a long the ir upper ridge into rude battlements, which

surrounded the whole area. With these we were

destined to become intimately acquainted, for we

ultimately made almost the complete circuit of them.

A t the end of an hour from our departure we

r eached the last spring which was to be met with on

this S ide, and rested to drink. Here begana steep

ascent through groves of oaks not yet in leaf— the

remains, we may suppose, of those for ests, which

caused Homer to designate Samothrace by the

epithet ‘wooded Up to this point we had followed

th e tracks of the wood - cutter s, but as we emerged

fr om among the highest trees these came to anend,and we found ourselves on the Openmountainside.A t first the oaks were replaced by juniper bushes,but before long these also ceased. A few friendly

flowers still relieved the barrenness— blue squills,b r illiant yellow crowfoots, and above all golden

cr ocuses, such as I had formerly found onParnassus

and onthe mountains of the Peloponnese. A t

we reached the first patch of snow.

I could now see clearly that my guides were not

acquainted with any definite r oute ; but they knew1 265400

O

illwlamjs emixlqs, I I . 1 3 . 1 9 .

Cnest ofthe island.

The I slands of the Aegean.

the point inthe ridge which they ought to make for ,and towards this they directed their course. Winding inand out O f small gorges, and at last ascendingv ery steeply, at we reached the crest, and

looked down on the northern part of the island,where the Baths

, or rather the houses intheirneigh

bour hood, lay immediately below us. The amount

of snow onthis side was much greater thanonthat

by which we ascended, where it was found only in

the rifts here ther e were large sheets of it, wherever

the slope was sufficiently gentle to allow of its rest

ing. I now began to r ealise that the expedition,which before starting I had expected to find aneasy

one— for though Samothrace attains the greatest ele

vation of all the Aegean islands after Crete, the

height of Phengar i is only 5 9 48 feet—would give me

a really hard day’s work. A t Chora no one had any

idea of the time it would occupy, but all agreed th at

it was necessary to star t very early (orpo t, apart); and

as inthe distant views of the island which I had O b

tained both from Lemnos towards the south, and

from Dede- agatch towards the north, I had been

struck with the steepness of the upper precipices, I

might have concluded that the crest must be very1“meeed narrow, andwould present some difficulty. Inorder

to reach the summit, it was necessary to follow the

ridge,now onone side andnow onthe other, accord

ing as the ground allowed, climbing up and down

with hands and feet, and passing inand out through

the br okenjagged masses, which at times were com

posed of rotten stone, untrustworthy to the hand .

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The I slands of the A egean.

and promontories,which had become so familiar to

me, were most delicately traced and the white salt

lake onthe easterncoastwas especially conspicuous,with the bay of Mudros penetrating far into the land,and the tiny headlands which project into it. Behind

and above Lemnos A I Str ati appeared, and beyond

that againinthe same line was the form of another

and larger island. Whenfirst I noticed this inth e

course of the ascent I fancied that my eyes we re

deceived ; but now it was quite clear, and the object

was unmistakeably Scyros, the island of the gr eat

Achilles. To the right of these were two of th e

islands which run O ff from Mount Pelion, and th e

coast of Thessaly was seeninfaint outline. He r e

the pyr amid of Athos interposed, looking compara

tiv elynear, though inreality sixty miles distant ; and

stretching into the sea beyond it was the extr emityof S ithonia. To the nor thward of these a long linewas formed by the peninsula of the Holy Mountain

,

and above it appeared inthe extreme distance—no

cloud, assuredly, but the Sharply- cut outline of a

white mountain. I t seemed incredible, considering

that the whole width of the Aegean intervenes— but

it was nothing else than the long snowy Olympus

(paxpds éydmcpos'mvpnos). Next followed the pyramidal

heights of Thasos, and onthe mainland the summits

of Pangaeus and O r belus. A ll along towards the

north str etched the coast of Thrace, backed by the

chainof Rhodope,as far as the valley of the H eb rus,

which her e is close at hand, and seemed to be exten

,siv ely flooded. The mouth of the river recalled the

Samothr ace.

story of Orpheus’ death, which Virgil and Milton

have celebrated inundying verse

Whenby the r out that made the hideous r oar

H is gory v isage down the str eam was sent,D ownthe swift H eb rus to the Lesbian shor e.

A s we look from our present point of view, where

Imbros and Samothrace ar e seento intervene between

the mouth of the H eb rus andLesbos, it seems strange

that the Lesbianshore Should be mentioned. Milton,however, was not inerror

,for he was following the

ancient tradition, which related that the head and

lyr e of Orpheus were carried to Lesbos a storywhich

simply embodied ina poetical form the fact, that

T er pander , the founder of Greek music, was bornin

that island.

Towar ds the east the viewwas far less clear. T he E astern

long gulf of Saros (Melas Sinus), which forms thepomon'

innermost angle of the north- east of the Aegean, was

close at hand,butno part of the sea of Marmor a was

visible, nor the Dardanelles— though that narr ow

piece of water is probably concealed at all times.

The plainof Troy and the mountains inits neigh

bour hood were dimly seen, but the long range of I da

appeared behind, though its highest point, G argarus,was Shrouded incloud. O ff the coast lay Tenedos,and behind it the heights of Lesbos projected far

into the Aegean. Imbros was at our feet, and a

most graceful island it appeared, with its winding

shor es and rolling hills, which, though not low in

themselves, seemed insignificant as seen fr om this

elevation. T he beauty of these island views was

Mytho

The I slands of the Aegean.

greatly heightened by the tranquil sea of pur est blueinwhich they were set. A S to Samothrace itself, I

canonly describe it as a huge boulder planted inthe

sea. The fertile ground at its western end,indeed,

has a smiling appearance, and towards the south,where the landing- place of Ammos, the only one on

that side of the island, is marked by itswhite shingle ,there is a small plaingreenwith olives : but for the

rest, I have rarely seensuch a bare stony wilderness

as that which met the eye at every turn.

T he view which we have now been sur veying15 associated inmany points with the early mytho

logical stories of the Greeks. D iodorus has pre d

ser ved for us th e legend, that Samothrace was

visited by the great flood which occurred whenthe

waters of the Euxine ov erflowed their limits, and

forced their way first through the Bosphorus, and

afterwards through the Hellespont, into the A egean.

By this inundationthe lower par t of the island was

submerged, and the evidence of this was found in

later times, with a felicitous anachronism,in the

capitals of columns which fishermenused to bringup intheir nets. S o high did the waters rise, that

the inhabitants fled for security to the mountain

tops,and it was only through their prayers to the

Gods that the progress of the deluge was stayed.

Hence the Samothracians enjoyed the r ight O f

calling themselves antediluvian1. But it is in the

I liad especially that we find the neighbouringislands and seas connected with the movements of

1 D iodor . S ic. 5 . 47.

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The Islands of the Aegean.

a different route,which led southwards towards

Hagios Elias,along a ridge that runs transversely

to the mainchain. This was far mor e difiicult than

anything we had yet experienced, and the moun

taineer ing skill of my guides was put to the test.We made our way downdeep gullies, and alongsteep faces of rock

,inpassing which they showed

admirable judgment in determining what places

were practicable. I t was three o ’clock when, afte r

scrambling down the flank of Hagios Elias by a

rough screes, we reached the fountainof S phidami

(n) swan), which, as I have already said, is situated

onthe opposite side of the cir que of mountains to

that by which we had approached it. This spr ingis famed for its salubrious qualities, but the wate r

had no mineral taste, and was deliciously fresh .

I t has also the reputation—not unknown in the

case of some other sources 1 —of becoming colder as

the heat of the sun increases, so that inthe middle

of the day it is icy- cold. Just below this we r e

entered the oak - forest, and were glad to find wood

cutters’ tr acks and easier walking. Here we’

were

joined by three charcoal - burners, all ofwhom carried

tall shepherds’ crooks, as also did one of my guides.

Those who ar e engaged inthis occupationstart from

the village every morning, and returnevery evening,notwithstanding the distance. Descending at last

into the gorge above which we had passed inthe

morning, we found a clear stream overhung with

plane- trees, inthe bed of which were lar ge stepping1 S ee H erod. 4. 18 1 .

Samothr ace.

stones. The place is called the Ford—a statement

which I insert incompl iance with the injunctions

of one of my companions, who, having seenme

jotting downnotes in the course of the day, said

peremptorily,Put it down, put it down, the Ford

(7'd r o, ypdwe r o

,I‘uifiaflpo : t. e. A tdfiadpov). After a

steep ascent on the further side, we pursued our

course by a level track along the sloping ground ;and thus about sunset (6 P.M .) I returned to Chora,the pastoral staffs following inprocessioninS ingle

file.

T he next morning the wild weather had reasserted Returnitself, and for for ty- e ight hours the wind increased to D ede

"

inviolence, battering the house which I occupied,and almost banishing sleep. A t last it moderated

its force, and the sunonce more shone ; so, finding

inthe village a Turk,who owned a good caique and

had the reputationof being an experienced sailor,I agreed with him to convey me across to the main

land. The schoolmaster and the physician, together

with the newly arrived governor and others among

the inhabitants, kindly escorted me to the outskirts

of the village, where I took leave of them, and rode

down to the landing- place of Kamariotissa. An

hour and a half were spent inpreliminaries, while

the little vessel was being ballasted with shingle and

launched but atmiddaywe were under way, carrying

with us the mails of Samothrace, which ar e, as might

be supposed, occasional.’

T he wind was inour

favour, and fiv e hours’ sailing over a rather tossing

sea brought me once more to Dede- agatch . There

A a

3 54 The I slands of the Aegean.

I found the barques tightly wedged together inth e

port,just as I had left them a week before ; and I

learnt, moreover, that in the interval two caiques,

which were trying to reach the place, had gone down

with their cr ews inthe sight of the people onth e

Shore. Without the help of the Semiramis I shouldnever have reached Samothrace.

Two days more elapsed before I had any op

por tunity of leaving Dede- agatch. O nthe third daya wel l- appointed A ustrianL loyds steamer arrived,

the accommodationof which appeared magnificent

after my recent experiences. On boar d of he r I

once more passed the Dardanelles, and was final ly

landed at Constantinople.

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3 5 6

sanctuary of, 3 9 4 ; temples of,

3 9 8 .

Callimachus,onD elos

, 7, 9 .

Calymnos, 197.Cameir os

,site of

,9 18 ; H omer ic

epithet of,9 1 8.

Canar is,his fir e - ship

,1 5 3 .

Candia,or iginof the name , 79 ;

siege of, 7 9 .

Captain, title inCr ete, 64.

Car acalla , ar ch dedicated to, 9 9 1 .Catalans, 10 1 , 9 87.Cav alla , 9 8 1 .Cav e of the A pocalypse, 189Chalcidice , 9 79 .

Champoiseau, M ., 3 96.

Chanak- kalesi,9 3 3 .

Cheshmeh , 1 5 3 .

Chesios, r iv e r, 1 77 .

Chios, 140 foll. ear thquake in,

14 1 ; massacr e in, 149 ; townof, 144 channel of

,1 5 9 .

Choiseul- G oufi er , on Lemnos,9 7 1 .

Chor a, townof,in S amos, 1 75 ;

inS amoth r ace, 3 1 8 .

Chr istodoulos,S t., 183 , 1 88

r elics of, 193 ; his garden, 194.

Ch ryse , island of,near Lemnos

,

9 79 .

Chur ch of S t. JohninRhodes,destr oyed

,9 03 .

Cicer o, studied inRhodes, 9 09 .

Cir cular lake,inD elos, 1 9 .

Cnossus, coins of,r epr esenting

the Labyr inth,68 ; site of

,

7 9 .

Cocks w ith horns, 969 .

Coeny r a, 306.

Cold in the spr ing inG r eece , 9 ,28 ) 5 5 , 1 20 7 2 5 5 °

Colossus of Rhodes,9 05 .

Concealed Ch r istians in Cr ete,

3 6.

Conz e,on the Lemnian ear th ,

9 65 ; on the Site of H ephae

stia,

967 ; on Thasos,

9 93 ,

309 ; onS amoth race, 3 90 , 3 96.

Cos,197 .

Cr etan, dialect of ModernG r eek,5 0.

Index .

Cr ete, general featur es of

, 3 1

or anges of, 3 9 ; G r eek univ ersally spokenin

, 3 3 ; disastr ous

conditionof, 48 ; populationof

,

their char acter, 75 ; ap

pear ance and dr ess, 76.Crucifix of Ch rysopegi, 3 7.

Cultiv ation,of the v ine inTenos,

16 ; inS antor in, inS amos ,

169 ; of the orapge inCr ete ,

3 9 ; of the oliv em Lesbos, 1 9 9 °

in Thasos,9 96

°

O f mastic inCh ios, 144.Cur r ency

,local, inThasos, 9 9 5

inS amoth r ace , 3 3 6.

Cyclades, the islands r ound D elos,9 .

Cyclopeanwalls,O f Myr ina

, 9 46 ;of S amoth r ace , 3 9 1 .

Cycnias , Mount, in Tenos, 16,

Cydonia,Site of, 3 6.

Cynthus, Mount , ruins on,8, 9

its conspicuous char acter, 9 .

Cypr ess, used for building inCr ete

, 49 .

Cyr iacus of Ancona , on S amoth r ace , 3 9 3 .

Cyr il, discov e r er of the tunnel inS amos

,168

D .

D ardanelles, town of, 9 3 3 ; the

str ait , 9 34 ; cur r ent of, 9 3 6.

D aubeny , D r ., on the Lemn'

ear th,9 66.

D’

A ubusson, Cardinal, 9 09 .

D ede - agatch , 3 1 9 , 3 5 3 .

D elos, a gr anite island, 6 or iginof its gr eatness, 6 ; attached

by Phoebus to G yar os andMyconos

,10 .

D emetr ium,har bour of

, 3 1 7 .

D emoger ontia inCr ete , 60 .

D ialect,of Cr ete , 5 0 ; of Sphakia,

69 ; of S amoth r ace , 3 3 5 .D idymae, islands, 4.

D iodorus,onthe city ofMytilene,

1 3 7 ; on the abor igines of S amoth race

, 3 3 5 onthe flood,

3 SO .

Index .

D ionysius of Agr apha, G uide to

Painting of,186.

D ionysus, associatedwith N axos,80 .

D ioscor ides, on the dittany, 46 ;

on the Lemnian ear th,

9 5 7,2 5 9

D or ianhex apolis, 198.D uchy of the A r chipelago, 8 1 .

E

Ear thenwar e,of Rhodes, 9 9 5 ; of

the D ardanelles, 9 3 3 .Ear thquake , in Cr ete

,9 7 ; in

Melos, 90 ; in Santor in, 100 ;

inChios, 14 1 r ar e inLemnos,9 7 1 .

Egypt, insular G r eeks in,196,

9 43 .

E lias,Mount, in S antorin, 98

°

inLesbos, 1 9 5 , 1 9 8 ; inPatmos1 79 ; inRhodes, 9 19 ; inL emnos

, 9 5 9 ; inT basos, 9 96 inS amoth r ace, 3 45 ; ex tensiv e useof the name

,1 96 ; similar ity to

H elios,1 9 7.

Emb r oidery, of Rhodes, 9 9 6.

Eme ry,ex por ted from N axos,

84 .

English chapel inRhodes, 9 09.E r otocritos

,poem

,sung inCr ete,

73Eur ipus Pyr rhaeus, 1 30, 1 3 3 .Euroclydon

,or Euraquilo

,the

w ind,9 .

Ev il eye, emblems intended to

av er t, 9 90.

Ex oburgo, inTenos, 18.

F.Fab r icius, M.,

onthe Idaeancav e,70 ; on the tunnel in S amos

,

169 .

Fair H av ens,site of

, 5 8.

Finlay,onthemassacr e inChios

,

1 49 ; on the Maona of the

G iustiniani, 1 45 ; on Canar is’

fir e - Ship,1 5 3 .

Flow ers—mandrake,1 1 narcis

G .

G alen, on th e Cr etanboots, 77 ;onthe Lemnianear th , 9 5 7—9 .

G atilusio,family of

,in Lesbos,

1 3 5 inLemnos, 9 47 ; inSamoth r ace

, 3 3 8 ; history of, 3 3 9 .

G audos,island

,61 .

G enoese,inChios

,145 inTha

sos,9 88 ; inS amoth r ace, 3 18 ,

3 9 9 .

G er anos,cape of Patmos, 1 79 .

G iustiniani,inChios, 145 .

G oats, see Ibex es.

G oldmines of Thasos, 3 05 , 307 .

G or tyna, ruins of, 64.

G othic ar chitectur e in Rhodes,9 06

,9 09 , 9 9 4.

G r eat G ods, of S amoth r ace, 3 9 5 .

G r otto of Antiparos, 1 1 1 .G uerin, M.

,167, 9 04 .

G yaros, 5 .

H .

H agios Thomas, tombs at , 69 .

H agins D eka, 63 .

H alicarnassus, 198.H eb rus, r iv e r

, 3 1 3 , 3 48 MiltonO H , 3 49

H ecate, island of, 6.

H ellespont, cur r ent of, 9 36.

H ephaestia , 9 5 8, 9 61 , 967.

H ephaestus, his connex ionw ithLemnos, 9 70.

H er aeum,inSamos, 1 75 .

A a g

sus, 14°

asphodel,1 5

°

anemone ,

I ris tubemsa, 61 ; I r issisynnchium, 90

° S cilla bifoliams, 29 7 , 3 45 G agea M m1 9 5

° O rchissaccata,1 3 3 ; S er a

pias cordiger a , 169°

, cistus, 9 19 ;cyclamen

,9 19

° peony,

9 19 ;forget

-me -not, 30 1 ; cr ow foot,

3 45 3 m s ”WM, 3 45

Fcr est- r anger s, 3 05 , 308.Fcr ests—pine , 130, 9 19 , 9 9 3 , 9 84,

304 1 03 117 3 45 °

Fountain, becoming cooler as the

sunbecomes hotter , 3 5 9 .

Frogs, note of, 309.

35 3

H e rmaeum, Mount, inLemnos,9 73 , 9 74

H e rmupolis, capital of Syra, 3 ;its or igin, 4.

H e rodotus, onthe lake inD elos,1 9 ; on the islands of the

A egean, 83 ; onN ax os, 84 ; onPhoenicians inTher a, 108 onthe antiquities of S amos, 164,167 ; on the gold mines of

Thasos, 305 .

0

H e r oum,inS antor in, 107 .

H ier a, v olcanic island near Lemnos

,9 79 .

H igh places, fondness of the

G r eeks for , 93 .

H ippocrates, on the theatre inThasos, 9 87 .

H istor ic family names in the is

lands, 89 .

H omer , his bur ial- place in I os,

87 onthe palm- tr ee inD elos,1 9 ; onthe heroes crossing theA egean, 1 9 0 ; onLemnos, 9 4 1on S amothr ace , 3 45 ; on the

islands of the Thr acian sea,

3 5 1 .

H oney , expor ted fr om Thasos,9 96.

H orned cocks inLemnos, 969 .

H ot Spr ings, inLesbos, 1 9 3 inLemnos

,9 5 1 ; in Samoth r ace ,

3 49 .

H ouses, flat- r oofed, 9 1 , 1 79 , 3 19 ;

ex cav ated intufa, 96 ; of Rhodianpeasants, 9 1 7.

H unt, D r . , onthe v olcanic cha

racter of Lemnos, 9 7 1 .I.

Ialysos, site of, 9 1 5 .

Ibex es, in Cr ete, 9 8 ; inSamoth r ace , 3 3 7 .

Ida , Mount, inCr ete , 69 ; intheT road, 1 9 5 , 1 9 8 , 3 49 .

Ier o, bay of,1 9 9 .

Imb rasos, r iv er , 1 77.Imb r os, 9 3 5 , 3 49 associatedwith

A thens, 9 3 7.Inopus, r iv er in D elos, its legendary connexionw ith the N ile,7 .

Index .

Insur r ectioninCr ete, 48, 67 , 7 5 .

Ios, 86.

Islands of the A egean, their ap

pear ance, 5 ; absence of Byz antine influence in

,1 7 ; th e ir

Siz e,9 1

,86.

I uktas, Mount, 70 .

J.Jews, inRhodes, 9 00 , 9 07 .

Joly-Victora line of steamer s ,I 39 , 3 14

K.

Kalav arda, 9 16.

Kallone,inlet of

, 1 9 7, 1 99 .

Kamariotissa, 3 1 5 .

Kastro , capital of Lemnos, 9 40 ,

9 46.

Katakhanas, Cr etanname for th eVampir e , 43 .

Kaumene islands, 98, 10 1 .Kedros, Mount, 61 .Khanea

, 96, 74.

Kinir a, 3 06.

Knights of S t. John, inRhodes9 09 , 9 9 4 ; their for tr ess, 909

str eet of, 9 08 ; their for tifica

tions at Lindos, 9 9 8 .

Kotchino, castle of,9 5 6 ; defend

ed by Constantine Palaeo

logus, 9 5 6 ; place of the Lemnianear th

,

’9 5 7.

KynO ps the magician, inPatmos,184

L.Labyr inth near H agius D eka ,

66 ; not the or iginal one , 68 .

Lagos, 3 1 1 .Latin Church , influence of inTenos, 9 9 inN ax os

,83 .

Lemnianear th, 9 5 7 foll. ; anah

tidote to poison, 964.Lemnos, 9 3 5 , 3 47 ; associated

w ith A thens, 9 3 7 ; its peculiargeogr aphy , 9 5 9 ; absence of

tr ees in, 9 5 3 ; its modernconnex ion w ith Egypt, 9 43 ; a

place of banishment, 9 44 ; its

v olcanic char acter inantiquity,9 69 .

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360

O r ange, cultiv ationof,inCr ete

,

3 9 .

O r belus, Mount, 9 89 .

O r pheus, h is head and lyr e car

r ied to Lesbos, 349 .

O ssa,Mount, 9 79 .

P.

Palaeopoli, inLemnos, 966, 967inS amoth r ace , 3 19.

Palati,island of

, 79 .

Fallene,peninsula of

,9 79 .

Palm- tr ees inthe Cyclades, 87 .

Pan, sh r ine of, inThasos, 9 88.Pangaeus, Mount

,9 89 .

Panor amas — fr om Tenos, 9 0 ;fr omN ax os

,83 ; fromO lympus

in Lesbos,1 9 7 ; fr om Patmos,

1 88 ; fr omA tabyr oninRhodes,9 9 1 ; fr om the acr opolis of

Thasos, 9 89 ; fr om the south

of Thasos,9 98 ; fr om the sum

mit of S amoth r ace , 3 47 .

Paper money,used on S amo

th r ace, 3 36.

Par oekia,1 14.

Par os, 5 , 84, 1 14 ; quar r ies of

,

1 1 5 .

Pasch v anKr ienen,Count, 87.

Patmos, 1 79—1 8 1 ; scenery of

,

suited to the A pocalypse , 1 89 ;acr opolis of, 194 .

Pausanias,onthe connex ion be

tw een D elos and the N ile, 7 ;

onMytilene , 1 3 8 ; onthe b ir thof H er a inS amos, 1 7 7 ; onthedisappear ance of the island of

Ch ryse,9 79 .

Perseus, King, on S amoth race,3 1 7 .

Petroleum, transpor t of, 9 78.Phar dys, M ., 3 3 7 .

Phengar i, Mount, ascent O f, 3 44v iew fr om, 3 47.

Ph iler emo, site of Ialysos, 9 1 5 .

Philoctetes,site of his cav e on

Lemnos, 9 3 9, 9 74 supposedto hav e been cur ed by Lemnianear th ,

’

9 5 8 .

Philip of Macedon, initiated at

S amoth race, 3 9 6.

Index .

Phocylides,his epigramonL e r os,

196.

Phoenicians,m Cr ete , 77 in

The ra , 108 ; inS amos, 1 5 7 inS amoth r ace

, 3 9 5 .

Pilgrimage to Tenos, 1 8,1 3 9 .

Pindar,on the temple on A ta

byr ium,9 9 1 on D iagor as O f

Rhodes, 9 9 7 .

Plaka , cape inLemnos, 9 3 8 , 9 7 3 .

Pliny, onthe dittany, 47 ; onth eLemnianear th

,9 5 7 ; onS amo

th r ace, 3 18 .

Poliades, monument of, 9 9 1 .

Polycr ates,6, 163 , 166 .

Pool of S iloam, conduit of, 1 7 1 .

PoseidononS amoth race, 3 5 1 .

Poz z olana, ex por ted fr om S antorin, 103 .

Pr eh istor ic dw ellings inS antor inand Ther asia ,

103 , 1 05 .

Pr imitiv e ar t inthe A egean, 104 .

P r ince of S amos, 161 .Pr ior ies of the Knightsof Rhodes ,

9 09 .

P r iscian, on the w alls of S amoth r ace , 3 9 9 .

Pr ochorus, legends r elating to ,

Psar a, 1 9 8 .

Psilor ites (the Cr etanI da), 69 .

Ptolemaeum, at S amoth r ace, 3 3 1 .

Ptolemies, so- called tomb of, 9 1 9 ;th eir buildings at S amoth r ace ,

3 9 8—3 3 1 .

Purgator ial sufi'

er ing, story of,

109 .

Purnia, bay of, 9 5 5 .

Pyr r ha, 1 3 0 , 1 3 9 .

uar antine inG r eece, 1 5 .

uar r ies,in Par os, 1 1 5 ; in

Thasos, 3 03 .

R .

Rattle , use of, 89 .

Resur r ection, the , how r epr e

sented inG r eek ar t, 1 5 1 .Retimo, 45 .

Rheneia,necropolis of, 14.

Index .

Rhodes, island of, its pleasantclimate , 9 00 .

Rhodes,city of, 9 01 populationof,

9 00 ; its ancient grandeur , 9 09 .

Rhodian peasant’s house , de

scr iptionof, 9 1 7.Rhodian w ar e , 9 1 7, 9 9 5 emb roide ry , 9 96.

Rithymna, 45 .Rock oils , intr oductionof, 1 3 9 .

Ross,onPasch vanKr ienen, 88 .

Russians in the A egean, 87, 99 ,1 87, 9 47 , 9 80.

S .

S ailor s, G r eek, 84, 1 5 9 ; their

nautical terms,85 .

S aint John, legends concerning,inPatmos

,184 foll.

Saint Paul, ex pelled w ild beastsfr om Cr ete

, 5 7 ; touched at

Samothr ace, 3 96 .

S alonica,9 76 ; its chur ches, 9 77.

S alzmann,M .

,his ex plorationof

Cameir os,9 16

, 9 19 .

Samos, originof the name, 1 5 7constitution of

,16 1 ; w ine of

,

169 ; ancient city of, 165 .

Samoth race,

9 3 5 ; difiiculty of

r eaching it, 3 1 3 ; its har bour

less character, 3 1 8 ; city of

,

3 9 0 ; sanctuary of, 3 9 4 foll. ;a centr e of storms, 3 43 ; its

bar r enness, 3 5 0.

Santor in, 94 foll. ; absence of

w ells in, 96 ; descr iption of

,

9 7 ; e ruptionsof, 99 ; pr ehistor icdw ellings in, 1 05 ; names andmyths of

,1 08.

S anudo, inN ax os, 8 1 .

S aoce, Mount, 3 44.

Sar cophagi, 9 9 1 , 9 99 , 30 1 .

S cala N ov a,1 5 8.

S chool of H omer,

’1 5 6 .

S chools,G r eek

,60

,1 9 4, 9 43 ,

25 5 .298, 3 19, 3 3 6

Scio, see Chios.S cir occo w ind

,1 1 7, 9 3 3 .

Scylax , onthe har bours O f Thasos

,9 85 .

361

T .

Temples—of A pollo inD elos, 1 3 ;of A pollo in S ikinos, 9 1 ; of

the G oddessQueeninS antonn107 ; of H era in S amos, 1 75of Zeus onA tabyr ium, 9 9 1 of

A thena at Lindos,

9 9 7 ; at

S cy ros, seen from Samothr ace,348.

S ealed ear th ,’

9 5 8 foll.

S emantr on, 188, 3 36.S epulch r e of Zeus

, 70 .

S hr ine of Pan,9 88 .

S ikinos, 90 ; temple in, 99 .

S imbulli,antiquitiesnear , 9 1 1 .

S ithonia, peninsula of, 9 79 .

S kopia, Mount, 9 73 .

Sommaripa, family of,89 .

S ophocles, on the shadow of

A thos, 9 48 ; on the Lemnianfir e

,9 70 ; on the island of

Ch ryse, 9 79 onthe H ermaeanMount

,9 73 .

S panish language, spoken inRhodes

,9 00.

Spanish names in the islands,1 0 1 .

S phakia,mountains of, 3 9 ; dialectof,69 .

S phidami, fountain, 345 , 3 5 9 .

S ponge fishery in the S por ades,1 8 1 .

S por ades, 86.

S tair case cut in the rock,Thasos, 9 90.

S tanley, D ean, onPatmos, 189 .

S telae, 9 85 , 9 9 1 .

S trabo, onPyr r ha, 1 3 3 ; onMytilene, 1 3 6, 1 3 8 ; onthe meaning of samos

,1 5 7 onthe w ine

of S amos, 163 ; onth e city of

S amos, 167 ; on Le r os, 196 ;

onthe grandeur of the city of

Rhodes,9 0 9 .

S tr eet of the Knights inRhodes,

Suda, bay of

, 40 .

Suspicion in Turkey, 96,

147 ,9 10, 9 47, 9 5 6, 3 1 9 .

Syr a, 3 .

362

A lke, 3 09 ; of the Cabeir i at

S amoth r ace, 3 9 8.

Tenos, 16 foll. ; a place of pil

gr image , 18 ; numerous RomanCatholics in

,

Thasos, 9 89 beautiful sceneryof, 9 84 ; city of

,9 84 foll. ; sub

jcet to the Khediv e, 9 95 gold

mines of, 3 05 .

Theatr es—ih D elos, 8 at A pter a ,49 ; at Samos, 166 ; at Lindos,9 96 at Thasos, 9 86.

Theologo, 9 98.

Theoph r astus, onthe dittany, 47 .

Ther a, townof, 95 .

Ther asia,1 09 ; pr ehistor ic dw ell

ings in, 103 .Therma Loutr a, inLemnos, 9 5 1inS amoth race, 340.

Th r acian sea, stormy char acter

O f)3 3 9 7 2 75 1 285 ) 3 5 3 °

Tigani, 164, 968.

T imber , ex por ted fr om Thasos,

Titus, patronsaint of Cr ete, 65 ;

chur ch of, 65 .

Tmolus,Mount , 1 5 9 .

Tombs, on Rheneia,

1 4 ; at

H agios Thomas, 69 ; near the

city of Rhodes, 9 1 1 at Lindos,9 96 ; near H ephaestia inLemnos, 9 67 .Tongues of the O rder of S t.JohninRhodes

,9 03 , 9 07 .

Tour de N aillac inRhodes, destr oyed, 9 03 .

Tournefor t,the trav eller

,1 1

,109 ,

1 76.

Touz la, salt lake, 966.

T r iO pianheadland, 198.T r oy , plain of, 9 34 ; seenfr omS amoth race, 349 .

Index .

Zerynthos, 349 .Zeus, bir thplace and sepulch re ofinCr ete, 70.

TH E E N D .

Tuesday, supe rstitionabout, 43 .

Tunnel, of Eupalinus in Samos,167 foll. inS amoth r ace , 3 3 1 .

Turkish por ts,neglectedconditionof, as. 1 3 5 , 199 , 3 10.

V.

Vampir e superstition, 1 1 , 43 . 1 09 .

Vathy ,160.

Vener ato, massacr e at, 7 1 .

Venetians, in Tenos, 19 inCr ete

,9 6

, 5 6, 79 ; their policyinthe A egean, 8 1 .

Villa N ova, inRhodes, 9 16.Vine , cultiv ationof

,inTenos, 16

inS antor in, 98 ; inSamos, 169 .

Virgil, on D elos, 10 ; on the

Cr etan dittany , 46 ; on bee

hiv es, 3 41 .

Volcano,of S antorin, 9 8

, 9 7anciently inLemnos, 969.

Volcanic soil of Patmos, 1 8 1 .

W.

White Mountains inCr ete, 3 9 ,69

;68

1 74Winds—Kaikias or Euraquilo, 9 ,

1 9 0 ; Eurus or scirocco,1 1 7 ,

9 3 3 ; of the Thr aciansea, 9 75 ,3 5 3

Wine m the islands not r esined,

5 7 ; Malmsey w ine inTenos,16 ; w1ne of D ionysus inN ax os,80 ; w ine of S antor in, 98 ; of

S amos, 169 .Wood imported, inSantor rn, 96inLemnos

,9 5 3 .

Z.

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