CHAP. XXV. Ancient and present State of Athens, with the Character, Manners, Customs, and Dress of the Inhabitants.

ATHENS has on the West side of the plain, the mountains Aegaleos and Parnes; on the North, Brilessus; on the North-east, about six miles distant, Pentele; and next the Aegaean sea, Hymettus. The clouds, attracted by some of these mountains, antiently furnished a variety of prognostics for the weather; while clouds above the mountains on the side of Hy­mettus, portended ruin. If in the night, a long cloud guided it beneath the top, the rain generally continued for some days. A long cloud resting on Hymettus in winter, pre-signified a violent storm. At the setting of the seven stars, called Vergiliae, lightning about Parnes, Brilessus, and Hymettus, if all were compre­hended, denoted a great storm; if two, a lesser; but if Parnes alone, severe weather. A storm ensued, if clouds enveloped that portion of Parnes, which was towards Zephyrus or the West.

[Page 19]A day or two after the storm before-mentioned, says Chandler, the capuchin, as we were conversing by the window of his apartment, put his hand incau­tiously on the frame, and suddenly withdrawing it complained of a painful puncture; a Turk who was with us, on examining the wall, found a scorpion of a pale green colour, and near three inches long, which he crushed with his foot, and bound on the part affected, as an antidote to its own poison. The smart became inconsiderable after the remedy was applied; and as no inflammation followed, soon ceased. The sting, if neglected, produces acute pain, attended with a fever and other symptoms for several hours, until the pa­roxysm is over; when, the malignity of the virus, as it were decaying, the patient is left gradually free. Some preserve scorpions in oil, in a vial, to be used, if that which commits the hostility should escape; though it seldom happens, but on turning up a log or stone, another may be found to supply its place.

Athens was the parent of philosophy as well as of eloquence, and had three celebrated Gymnasia without the city, the Academy, the Lyceum, and Cynosarges; from which, as many sects dated their origin, the Platonic, the Peripatetic, and the Cynic; followers of Plato, of Aristotle, and of Antisthenes. Zeno, instituted the Stoic philosophy in the portico [Page 20] named Poecile; and Epicurus had his garden in the city.

The academy was in the suburb without Dipy­lon, distant from Athens only three quarters of a mile. It was once the possession of a private person named Academus, who gave it to the people. Hip­parchus, son of Pisistratus surrounded it with a wall. Crinon drained the low grounds near it. The spot, parched and squalid, was improved and rendered very pleasant. The walks were shaded with tall plane trees, and cooled by running water. Before the en­trance was an altar of love. Plato commenced teach­ing at the academy, then reputed unwholsome. After­wards he preferred a small garden by the Colonus Hippius, his own property. The Lacedemonians spared the academy when they ravaged Attica; but Sylla, wanting timber for machines, cut down the grove there and at the Lyceum. The successors of Plato in the academy, enjoyed a considerable reve­nue; which, in the subsequent ages, was greatly aug­mented by legacies, from persons desirous of contri­buting to the leisure and tranquillity of the philosophic life. The little garden of Epicurus, was near the academy. The teacher of ease, it is recorded, was the first who introduced that species of gratification, the enjoyment of the country in town.

[Page 21]By the destruction of Dipylon and the city-wall, we are deprived of the ancient boundaries of Athens; and the town, besides being reduced in its extent, furnishes a variety of avenues to the plain. More­over, the mansions of the illustrious dead, like the the bodies which they covered, are consumed and have disappeared. Time, violence, and the plough, have levelled all without distinction; equally inat­tentive to the meritorious statesman, the patriot, the orator, and philosopher; the soldier, the artist, and physician. Atticus is described by Cicero, as pleased with recollecting, where the renowned Athenians had lived, or been accustomed to sit or dispute; and as studiously contemplating even their sepulchres. The traveller will regret that desolation interferes, and by the uncertainty it has produced, deprives him of the like satisfaction; but, in the style of the antients, to omit the research would merit the anger of the muses.

It has been observed, that without Dipylon, the road branched off towards the Piraeus and Eleusis, as well as the academy. The road to the haven and to Eleusis, divides now not far from the temple of Theseus; and is nearly in the same direction as for­merly. On the right-hand of the Eleusinian road, is a way which leads to the site of the academy. The Turkish Aga has lately erected a house, in or near it, [Page 22] with a large garden, and a plentiful fountain by the road side; supplied, it is likely, by the channels which conduced to the coolness and verdure of the old suburb.

We proceed now to the Gymnasia, on the other side of Athens; the Lyceum and Cynosarges.

The Lyceum was sacred to Apollo, a proper patron, as an antient author has remarked, the God of health, bestowing the ability to excel in gymnastic exercises. The image represented him as resting after fatigue, with a bow in his left hand, his right-arm bending over his head. The Gymnasium was erected by Lycurgus, son of Lycophron. The militia of Athens paraded there, and were instructed in the management of their horses, shields, and spears; in forming the phalanx, and in all the established modes of defence.

Cynosarges was but a little without the city-gate. There was a temple of Hercules; on a summit near was the tomb of Isocrates. Philip, who reduced the city to require aid from the Romans, encamped by Cynosarges, and set fire both to that place and the Lyceum.

[Page 23]The Lyceum was beyond the Ilissus. The site is now marked by a well and a church, and many large stones scattered about. Cynosarges was not far from the Lyceum; and perhaps on the same side of the Ilissus with the city, where is now a garden near this bed and by the road. The artificial currents of water having ceased, the environs of Athens are be­come more bare and naked, than they were even after the devastations of Philip and Sylla.

Athens maintained under the Romans, its reputa­tion for philosophy and eloquence; and continued, though subdued, the metropolis of learning, the school of art, and the centre of taste and genius. The Gymnasia, and the gardens of the philosophers were decorated with the capital works of eminent masters, and still frequented. The fierce warrior was capti­vated by Greece and Science; and Athens humanized and polished the conquerors of the world. But Sylla greatly injured the city, by transporting to Rome the public library, which had been founded by Pisistratus, carefully augmented by the people, removed by Xerxes into Persia, and restored long after by Seleu­cus Nicanor. The spirit of learning drooped on the loss; and the Roman youth, under Tiberius, were sent to study at Marseilles, instead of Athens. Even there the barbarous Gauls joined in the pursuit of eloquence and philosophy. The sophist, as well as the [Page 24] physician, was hired to settle among them; and the na­tion was civilized by the Greek city.

The emperor Hadrian, embellished Athens with a noble library, and a new gymnasium, and restored science to its ancient seat. Lollianus, an Ephesian, was first raised to the high dignity of the sophistical throne, which was afterwards filled by Atticus Herodes, and other eminent and illustrious persons. The num­ber of professors was increased by Antoninus the phi­losopher, who had studied under Herodes. His esta­blishment consisted of thirteen; two Platonists, as many Peripatics, Stoics, and Epicureans, with two Rhetoricians and Civilians; and a president stiled Prefect of the Youth. The student proceeded from the philosopher to the rhetorician, and then to the civilian. A yearly salary of about four hundred and sixty-eight pounds, was annexed to each of the philoso­phic chairs; and one of a talent to those of the civi­lians.

Education now flourished in all its branches at Athens. The Roman world resorted to its schools, and reputation and riches awaited the able preceptor. The tender mind was duly prepared for the manly studies of philosophy and eloquence. Age and pro­ficiency were followed by promotion. The youth was advanced into the higher classes, enrolled with the philosophers, and admitted to their habit. The [Page 25] title of sophist was conferred on him, when mature in years and erudition; and this was an honour so much affected, that the attainment of it almost fur­nished an apology for insolent pride, and extravagant elation. It was a custom for the masters to inscribe on marble, the names of their scholars. Some speci­mens of these registers are preserved in the Oxford collection, and many fragments are yet extant in Athens.

At this period Athens abounded in philosophers. It swarmed, according to Lucian, with clokes and staves and satchels; you beheld every where a long beard, a book in the left-hand, and the walks full of companies, discoursing and reasoning The cloke, or Tribonium, was the habit of all the orders. The general colour was dark, but the Cynic wore white, and, with the Stoic, had the folds doubled. One shoulder was bare; the hair hanging down; the beard unshaven. The Cynic, with the Stoic and Pythagorean, was slovenly and negligent; his cloke in tatters, his nails long, and his feet naked. The Cynic was armed with a staff, as a defence from the dogs, or the rabble. The sophist was adorned with purple, and commonly polished, as well in dress and person, as in manners and language. It behoved the professor, as Lucian affirms, to be handsomely clothed, to be sleek and comely, and above all to [Page 26] have a flowing beard, inspiring those who approached him, with veneration; and suitable to the salary he received from the emperor.

A learned father, who was cotemporary with Ju­lian, at Athens, has described the manner in which the Novice was treated on his arrival there, with the ceremony of initiation. He was first surrounded with the pupils and partizans of the different sophists, all eager to recommend their favourite master. He was hospitably entertained; and afterwards the stu­dents were allowed to attack him with rude or inge­nuous disputation, as each was disposed. He was next to be invested with the habit. A procession in pairs, at equal distances, conducted him through the Agora, to a public bath. An opposition was feigned on their approach to the door, some calling out and forbidding his admission, some urging on and knock­ing. These prevailed. He was introduced into a warm cell, washed, and then clothed with the Tribo­nium. He was saluted as an equal, on his coming out, and re-conducted. No one was suffered to ap­pear in that dress at Athens, without the permission of the sophist, and this ceremony, which was attended with considerable expence.

The philosophers were long as distinguished by their aversion to Christianity, as by their govern­ment. [Page 27] It is recorded of Justin Martyr, that he preached in the Tribonium, to which he had been admitted before his conversion. The establishment of Christianity deeply affected the prosperity of Athens. A gradual desertion of the place followed. Minerva could no longer protect her city. Its beauty was violated by the Pro-consul, who stripped Poecile of its precious paintings. It was forsaken by good fortune, and would have lingered in decay, but the barbarians interposed, and suddenly completed its downfall. When the Goths were in possession of it, in the time of Clodius, they amassed all the books, intending to burn them, but desisted on a repre­sentation, that the Greeks were diverted, by the amusements of study, from military pursuits. Ala­ric, under Arcadius, was not afraid of their be­coming soldiers. The city was pillaged, and the li­braries were consumed. Devastation then reigned within, and solitude without its walls. The sweet swain; the vocal nightingales, as the sophists are fondly styled, were heard no more. Philosophy and eloquence were exiled, and their ancient seat occu­pied by ignorant honey-factors of mount Hymettus.

Athens, after it was abandoned by the Goths, continued, it is likely, for ages, to preserve the race of its remaining inhabitants unchanged, and uniform in language and manners. History is silent of its [Page 28] sufferings from later incursions, from wars and mas­sacres. Plenty, and prospect of advantage, produces new settlers; but, where no trade exists, employ­ment will be wanting; and Attica was never cele­brated for fertility. The plague has not been, as at Smyrna, a frequent visitant; because the intercourse subsisting with the islands, and other places, has been small, and the port is at a distance. The plague, de­scribed by Thucidides, began in the Piraeus, and the Athenians at first believed that the enemy had poi­soned the wells. If from inadvertence the infection be now admitted into the town, the Turks, as well as the Greeks, have the prudence to retire to their houses in the country, or to the monasteries; and it seldom prevails, either so long or so terribly, as in cities on the coast.

A colony of new proprietors was introduced into the city by Mahomet the second; but the people se­cured some privileges by their capitulation, and have since obtained more by address, or money. The Turk has favoured the spot, and bestowed on it a milder tyranny. The Vaiwode purchases his go­vernment yearly, but circumspection and moderation are requisite in exacting the revenue, and the usual concomitants of his station are unceasing apprehension and danger. The impatience of oppression, when general, begets public vengeance.

[Page 29]The Turks of Athens are in general more polite, social, and affable, than is common in that stately race; living on more equal terms with their fellow-citizens, and partaking, in some degree, of the Greek cha­racter. The same intermixture, which has softened their austerity, has corrupted their temperance; and many have foregone the national abstinence from wine; drinking freely, except during their Ramazan, or Lent. Some too after a long lapse have re-assumed, and rigidly adhere to it; as suiting the gravity of a beard, and the decorum of paternal authority. Se­veral of the families date their settlement from the taking of the city. They are reckoned at about three hundred. Their number, though comparatively small, is more than sufficient to keep the Christians fully sensible of their mastery. The Turks possess from their childhood, an habitual superiority, and awe with a look the loftiest vassal. Their deportment is often stern and haughty. Many in private life are distinguished by strict honour, by punctuality, and uprightness in their dealings; and almost all by ex­ternal sanctity of manners. If they are narrow-minded in the extreme, it is the result of a confined education, and an avaritious temper is a natural con­sequence of their rapacious government.

The Greeks may be regarded as the representa­tives of the old Athenians. On our arrival in the [Page 30] Piraeus, an Archon came to meet us. The learned reader may perhaps be struck by that respectable title, and annex to it some portion of its classical im­portance; but the Archons are now meer names, ex­cept a tall fur cap, and a fuller and better dress than is worn by the inferior classes. Some have shops in the Bazar, some are merchants or farmers' of the public revenue. The families styled archontic, are eight or ten in number, mostly on the decline. The ordinary habit of the meaner citizens is a red skull-cap, a jacket, and a sash round the middle; loose breeches or trowsers, which tie with a large knot before; and a long vest, which they hang on their shoulders, lined with wool, or fur, for cold weather. By following the lower occupations, they procure, not without difficulty, a pittance of profit to subsist them, to pay their tribute-money▪ and to purchase garments for the festivals; when they mutually vie in appearing well-clothed, their pride even exceeding their poverty.

The lordly Turk and lively Greek neglecting agri­culture, and even pasturage, this department which in Asia Minor is occupied by the Turcomans, has been obtained in Europe by the Albanians or Albanese. These are a people remote from their original coun­try, which was by the Caspian Sea, spreading over, and cultivating alien lands; and as of old, addicted [Page 31] to universal husbandry, and to migration. It is chiefly their business to plough, sow and reap; dig, fence, plant and prune the vineyard; attend the watering of the olive-tree; and gather in the harvest; going forth before the dawn of day, and returning joyous in the evening, on the close of their labour. If shepherds, they live on the mountains, in the vale, or the plain, as the varying seasons require; under arbours or sheds covered with boughs, tending their flocks abroad, or milking the ewes and she-goats at the fold, and making cheese and butter to supply the city. Inured early to fatigue and the sun, they are hardy and robust; of manly carriage, very different from that of the fawning obsequious Greek, and of very desperate bravery, under every disadvantage, when compelled by necessity or oppression. Their habit is simple and succinct, reaching to the knees. They have a national language, and are members of the Greek communion.

The Christians in Athens, both Greeks and Alba­nians, are more immediately superintended by the archbishop, and by the two epitropi or curators, who are chosen from among the principal men, and venerable for their long beards. These endeavour to quiet all disputes, and prevent the parties from recurring to the severe tribunal of the Cadi, or Turkish judge; watching over the commonwealth, and regu­lating [Page 32] its internal policy, which still retains some faint and obscure traces of the ancient popular form, though without dignity or importance. A traditional story is related at Athens, and in the East, to illustrate the native quickness of apprehension; which, as if trans­missive and the property of the soil, is inherited even by the lower classes of people. A person made trial of a poor shepherd whom he met with his flock, demanding in Greek, from whence he came, where go­ing, who he was, and the number of his flock, thus; from whence? and where? and who? and how many? He was answered without hesitation, and with equal brevity, in the same language. From Athens, to Livadia, Theo­dore, and five hundred. In the citizens this aptitude not being duly cultivated, instead of producing ge­nius, degenerates into cunning. They are justly re­puted a most crafty, subtle, and acute race. It has been jocosely affirmed, that no Jew can live among them, because he will be continually outwitted. They are conscious of their subjection to the Turks, and as supple as depressed, from the memory of the blows on the feet, and indignities which they have expe­rienced, or seen inflicted, and from the terror of the penalty annexed to resistance, which is the forfeiture of the hand uplifted: but their disposition, as an­ciently, is unquiet; their repose disturbed by factious intrigues and private animosities; the body politic weakened by division, and often impelled in a di­rection [Page 33] opposite to its true interest. They have two schools, one of which possesses a small collection of books, and is entitled to an annual payment from Venice, the endowment of a charitable Athenian, but the money is not regularly remitted.

The liberty of the fair sex at Athens, is almost equally abridged by the Turks and Greeks. Their houses are secured with high walls, and the windows turned from the streets, and latticed, or boarded up, so as to preclude all intercourse, even of the eyes. The haram, or apartment of the Turkish women, is not only impenetrable, but must not be regarded on the outside with any degree of attention. To ap­proach them when abroad, will give offence; and in the town, if they cannot be avoided, it is the custom to turn to the wall, and stand still, without looking towards them, while they pass. This mode of car­riage is good breeding at Athens.

The Turkish women in this city, claim an ex­emption from their confinement, on one day only in the week; when they visit their relations, and are seen going in companies to the baths, or sitting in the burying grounds on the graves of their friends, their children, husbands, or parents. They are then enwrapped and beclothed in such a manner, it is im­possible to discern whether they are young or old, [Page 34] handsome, or ugly. Their heads, as low as the eye-brows, are covered with white linen, and also their faces beneath; the prominency of the nose and mouth giving them nearly the visages of mummies. They draw down a veil of black gauze over their eyes, the moment a man or boy comes in view. They wear short loose boots of leather, red or yellow, with a large sheet over their common garments, and ap­pear, as in Constantinople, very bulky.

The dress of the Greek matrons, is a garment of red or blue cloth, the waist very short, the long pet­ticoat falling in folds to the ground. A thin flowing veil of muslin, with a golden rim or border, is thrown over the head and shoulders. The attire of the virgins is a long red vest, with a square cape of yellow sattin hanging down behind. They walk with their hands concealed in the pocket-holes at the sides, and their faces are muffled. Sometimes they assume the Turkish garb. Neither prudence nor modesty suffers a maiden to be seen by the men before she is married. Her beauty might inflame the Turk, who can take her legally by force, to his bed on a sen­tence of the Cadi, or judge; and the Greek, if she revealed her face to him, even unwillingly, would reject her as criminal, and with disdain.

[Page 35]The Albanian women, in Athens, are inured early to hard living, labour and the sun. Their fea­tures are injured by penury, and their complexions by the air. Their dress is coarse and simple; a shift reaching to the ancle, a thick sash about the waist, and a short loose woollen vest. Their hair is platted in two divisions, and the ends fastened to a red silken string; which, with a tassel, is pendant to their heels, and frequently laden with pieces of silver coin, of various sizes, diminishing gradually to the bottom. Among these the antiquarian may often dis­cover medals of value. They are seen carrying water on their backs, in earthen jars, with handles; wash­ing by the fountains, or assembled by the Ilissus, after rain, with the female slaves of the Mahometans, and other servants; treading their linen, or beating it with a piece of heavy wood, spreading it on the ground or bushes to dry, and conveying it to and fro in panniers, or wicker-baskets, on an ass. Their legs and feet are generally bare; and their heads hooded, as it were with a long towel, which encircles the neck, one extremity hanging down before, and the other behind. The girls wear a red skull-cap, plated with peraus, or Turkish pennies of silver per­forated, and ranged like the scales of fish.

The Greek will sometimes admit a traveller into his gynecaeum, or the apartment of his women. [Page 36] These within doors, are, as it were, uncased, and each a contrast of the figure she made when abroad. There the girl, like Thetis, treading on a soft carpet, has her white and delicate feet naked; the nails tinged with red. Her trowsers, which in winter, are of red cloth, and in summer of fine callico, or thin gauze, descend from the hip to the ancle, hanging loosely about her limbs; the lower portion embroidered with flowers, and appearing beneath the shift, which has the sleeves wide and open, and the seams and edges curiously adorned with needle-work. Her vest is of silk, exactly fitted to the form of the bosom, and the shape of the body; which it rather covers than conceals, and is shorter than the shift. The sleeves button occasionally to the hand, and are lined with red or yellow sattin. A rich zone encom­passes her waist, and is fastened before by clasps of silver gilded, or of gold set with precious stones. Over the vest is a robe, in summer lined with ermine, and in cold weather with fur. The head-dress is a skull-cap, red or green, with pearls; a stay under the chin, and a yellow forehead-cloth. She has bracelets of gold on her wrists; and, like Aurora, is rosy-figured, the tips being stained. Her necklace is a string of zechins, a species of gold coin, or of the pieces called byzantines. At her cheeks is a lock of hair, made to curl towards the face; and down her back falls a profusion of tresses spreading over her [Page 37] shoulders. Much time is consumed in combing and braiding the hair, after bathing; and, at the greater festivals, in enriching and powdering it with small bits of silver gilded, resembling a violin in shape, and woven in at regular distances. She is painted blue round the eyes; and the insides of the sockets, with the edges, on which the lashes grow, are tinged with black.

For colouring the lashes and socket of the eye, they throw incense, or gum of Labdanum, on some coals of fire, intercept the smoke which ascends, with a plate, and collect the foot. This, says Chandler, I saw applied. A girl sitting cross-legged as usual, on a so [...]a, and closing one of her eyes, took the two lashes between the fore-finger and thumb of her left hand, pulled them forward, and then thrusting in, at the external corner, a bodkin, which had been immersed in the foot, and extracting it again, the particles before adhering to it, remained within, and were presently ranged round the organ; serving as a foil to its lustre; beads contributing, as they say, to its health, and increasing its apparent magnitude.

The improvement of the mind and morals, is not considered as a momentous part of female education at Athens. The girls are taught to dance, to play on the Turkish guittar, and the tympanum, or timbrel, [Page 38] and to embroider, an art in which they generally excel. A woman skilled in reading and writing, is spoken of as a prodigy of capacity and learning. The mother of Osman Aga, a Turk, says Chandler, who visited our house, was of this rare number, as he often told us; so terrible for her knowledge, that even Achmet Aga her kinsman, had been seen to tremble when he received her annual visit. In com­mon life, the woman waits on her husband, and after dressing the provisions, which he purchased, eats perhaps with a female slave; the stately lord feeding alone, or in company with men.

Provisions of all kinds are good and cheap, at Athens. The frequent and severe fasts, imposed by the Greek church, have an influence on the market. The Christians are often, by the tenets of their reli­gion, confined to vegetables, or to things without blood; such as snails, which they gather from the streets, the cutle-fish, or sea-polypus. The latter, called by the Greeks octopodes, from the number of its feet, is beaten to make it tender; and, when boiled, is white, like the tail of a lobster, but has not much flavour. Hares, game, and fowl, may be purchased for little more than the value of the powder and shot. Oranges, lemons, and citrons, grow in the gardens. The grapes and melons are ex­cellent, and the figs were celebrated of old. The wines [Page 39] are wholesome; but the pitch infused to preserve them, communicates a taste to which strangers are not perfectly reconciled.

When the figs ripen, a very small bird, called by the Italians, becea-figo, by the Greeks sycophas, ap­pears, and is continually settling on the branches of the tree, and pecking the fruit. If frightened away, they return almost immediately, and a person sitting in the corn, or concealed by a thicket, may fire with little intermission.

They are eaten roasted entire, each in a vine leaf, and are accounted a great delicacy. When the olives blacken, vast flights of doves, pigeons, thrushes, and other birds, repair to the groves for food. Wild turkies are not rare. The red-legged partridge, with his numerous brood, basks in the sun, or seeks shade among the mastic bushes. They are fond of the ber­ries in the season, and have then a strong, but not disagreeable taste, In winter, woodcocks abound; descending, after snow, on the mountains, into the plain; especially on the side of the Cephissus, and as suddenly retiring. If the weather continues severe, and the ground be frozen, they enter the gardens of the town in great distress, rather than cross the sea; and are sometimes taken with the hand. Snipes, teal, widgeon, ducks, and the like, are also foundin plenty. [Page 40] A horse or ass is commonly provided by sportsmen, who go in a party, to bring home what they kill.

Hares are exceedingly numerous. Calling is prac­tised, in still weather, from the latter end of May, to about the middle of August. Three or four men in a company, stand silent and concealed, in a thicket, with guns pointed in different directions. When all ready, the caller applies his fingers to his lips; and sucking them, at first slowly, and then faster, produces a squeak­ing sound; when the hares within hearing rush to the spot. In this manner many are slaughtered in a day. One of my companions, says Chandler, with two or three Greeks, who were adepts, killed eleven; among which was a female big with young. These animals are said to assemble together, to leap and play, at the full of the moon; and, it is likely, the shep­herds, who live much abroad, observing and listening to them, learned to imitate their voices, to deceive, and make them thus foolishly abet their own destruc­tion.

The wild beasts which find shelter in the moun­tains, greatly annoy the shepherds; and their folds are constantly guarded by several large fierce dogs. The person who killed a wolf, was entitled, by a law of So­lon, to a reward; if a female, to one drachm, about seven-pence halfpenny; if a male, to five drachms. [Page 41] Afterwards a talent, or one hundred and eighty pounds sterling, was paid for a young wolf; and double that sum for a full grown. The peasant now produces the skin in the Bazar, or market, and is recompensed by voluntary contributions. Parnes, the mountain to­wards the Cephissus, is haunted, besides wolves, by deer and foxes, as it formerly was by wild boars and bears. The sportsmen lie in ambush by the springs, which they frequent, waiting their approach in the dusk of the evening. Pliny mentions the deer bred about Parnes and Brilessus, as remarkable for four kidneys, and the hares as having two livers. The latter peculiarity, in some which we purchased, was much noticed by our Swiss, who once brought the two livers for my inspection The youth of Athens were anciently trained to hunting, as a useful and manly exercise.

A place, where the fair sex bears no part in society, will be justly supposed dull and uniform. Indeed, a Turk is generally a solemn, solitary being; with few vi­sible enjoyments, except his pipe and coffee. The for­mer is his constant companion. It is his solace on the sopha; and, when squatting on his hams, as he is some­times seen, in the shade, by the door of his house: or in a group, looking on, while the horses, which are staked down with a rope, feed, in the season, on the green corn. When he is walking, or riding, it is car­ried [Page 42] in his hand, or by an attendant. The tube is of wood perforated, commonly long and pliant; and sometimes hung with small silver crescents and chains, with a mouth-piece of amber. The bowl is earthen, and a bit of alse wood put into it, while he is smoak­ing, augments his pleasure, yielding a grateful per­fume. A silken embroidered bag is usually tucked in at his sack, by his side, and contains tobacco. His horse, his arms, and haram are the other chief objects of his attention. He is grave, sententious and steady, but fond of narrations, and not difficult to be overcome by a story.

The Turks, in this city, observing we did not use the sign of the cross, and being informed that we disapproved of the worshipping of pictures or images, conceived, says Chandler, a favourable opinion of us. Their abhorrence of hog-flesh is unfeigned; and we derived some popularity from a report, which we did not contradict, that we held it in equal detesta­tion. Several of them frequented our table. The principal Turks came all to our house at night, while it was Ramazan or Lent, when they fast in the day­time; and were entertained by us, with sweat-meat, pipes, coffee, and sherbet, much to their satisfaction, though distressed by our chairs; some trying to col­lect their legs under them, on the seats, and some squatting down by the sides. When we visited them, [Page 43] adds Chandler, we were received with cordiality, and treated with distinction. Sweet gums were burned in the middle of the room, to scent the air; or scattered on coals before us, while sitting on the sofa, to perfume our mustaches and garments; and at the door, on our departure, we were sprinkled with rose-water. The vaiwode, at certain seasons, sent his musicians to play in our court. The Greeks were not less civil; and at Easter we had the company of the archons, in a body. Several of them also ate often with us, and we had daily presents of flowers, sometimes per­fumed, of pomegranates, oranges and lemons fresh gathered, pastry, and other like articles.

The Turks have few public games, or sports. We were present at a foot race, and a wrestling match, provided by a rich Turk, for the entertainment of his son and other boys, who were about to be cir­cumcised. A train, headed by the vaiwode, and pr [...]niple men on horses, richly caparisoned, at­tended by the boys, who were all neatly dressed, their white turbans glitering with tinsel ornaments, to a place without the city, where carpets were spread for them on the ground, in the shade; and a multi­tude of spectators waited silent and respectful. The race was soon over, and the prizes were distributed; to the winner a sufficient quantity of cloth for an upper garment; to the next a live sheep; to the third [Page 44] a kid; to the fourth a huge water-melon. The com­pany then removed to a level spot, the ruin of the temple of Jupiter Olympius, and formed a large circle. The wrestlers were naked, except a pair of close drawers, and were anointed all over with oil.

Some Arabian and black slaves, who had obtained their freedom, and were settled at Athens, had a feast on the performance of the rite of the circumci­sion. The women danced in a ring with sticks in their hands; and turning in pairs, clashed them over their heads, at intervals, singing wildly to the music. A couple then danced with castanets; and the other swarthy ladies, sitting cross-legged on a sofa, began smoaking.

Athens was anciently enlivened by the choruses sing­ing and dancing in the open air, in the front of the temples of the gods, and round their altars; at the festival of Bacchus, and on other holidays. The Greeks are frequently seen, engaged in the same exercise, generally in pairs, especially on the anniver­saries of their saints, and often in the areas before their churches. Their common music is a large tabour and pipe; or a lyre and tympanum, or timbrel. Some of their dances, are undoubtedly of remote an­tiquity. One has been supposed, that which was [Page 45] called the Crane, and was said to have been invented by Theseus; after her escape from the labyrinth of Crete. The peasants perform it yearly in the street of the French convent, at the conclusion of the vin­tage; joining hands, and preceeding their mules and asses, which are laden with grapes in panniers, in a very curved and intricate figure; the leader waving a handkerchief, which has been imagined to denote the clew given by Ariadne. A grand circular dance, in which the Albanian women join, is exhibited on certain days, near the temple of Theseus; the com­pany holding hands, and moving round the musicians, the leader footing and capering until he is tired, when another takes his place. They have also choral dances.

Marriages are commonly announced by loud mu­sic, at the house of the bridegroom. A Turk or Greek neither sees nor speaks to the maiden before­hand; but for an account of her person and disposi­tion, relies on his female relations; who have op­portunities of seeing her in their visits, and at the bath. The Turk, when terms are adjusted with her family, ratifies the contract before the Cadi, or judge, and her presents. If he be rich, a band of musicians pre­cede a train of peasants, who carry each a sheep, lamb, or kid, with the horns gilded, on their shoul­ders; and these are followed by servants, with co­vered [Page 46] baskets on their heads, containing female orna­ments, money, and the like, for her use; and by slaves to attend her. Years often intervene, before he requires her to be brought to his home. The streets through which she is to pass, are then left free; and she is conducted to his house, under a large canopy, surrounded by a multitude of women, all wrapped in white, with their faces muffled. If a Turk finds a pair of papouches, or slippers, at the door of his haram, it is a sign that a stranger is within, and he modestly retires. That apartment is even a sanctuary for fe­males flying from the officers of justice.

The Papas, or priest, reads a service at the Greek weddings, the two persons standing and holding each a wax taper lighted. A ring and gilded wreath, or crown is used; and, at the end of the ceremony, a little boy, or girl, as previously agreed on, is led to the bride, and kisses her hand. She is then, as it were, enthroned in a chair, and the husband remains at a respectful distance, with his hands crossed, silen and looking at her; until the women enter and take her away, when the men carouse in a separate apart­ment. Her face and hands are grossly daubed over with paint; and sometimes the corehead and cheeks are bedecked with leaf-gold.

[Page 47]The Albanians convey the bride to the house of her husband, in procession, on horseback, with a chid astride behind her; a loose veil or canopy concealing her head and face; her fingers laden with silver rings, and her hands painted red and blue, in streaks. Their dress is a red jacket, handsomely embroidered, with a coloured turban. The entertainments, on these occasions, consist of a great variety of dishes, chiefly pastry; ranged in summer, under a long low ar­bour, made with boughs; the company sitting on the ground. When the bride is to be removed to a place at a distance, some women dance before her to the end of the town.

The wife of a Turk, who lived near us, dying, we were alarmed, says Chandler, on a sudden, with a terrible shriek of women, and with the loud expos­tulations of the husband. She was carried to the grave at day-break. The Greeks bury in their churches on a bier. The bones, when room is wanting, are washed with wine, in the presence of the nearest male relation, and then removed. I was present at a funeral entertainment, provided by one of the archons, whose daughter had been recently in­terred. The procession set out from his house, be­fore sun-rise, headed by a papas, or priest, and some deacons, with lighted candles; the women who were left behind, screaming and howling. One man [Page 48] bore a large wax-taper, painted with flowers, and with the portrait of the deceased in her usual attire, and hung round with a handerchief of her embroi­dering, in gathers. Two followed, carrying each on their heads, a great dish of parboiled wheat; the surface, blanched almonds, disposed in the figure of a dove, with gilding, and a border of raisins and pomegranate kernels. These, on our arrival at the church, were deposited over the body. The matins ended, with a service appropriated to this ceremony, and read by the priest near the spot. The dishes were then brought round, and each person in his place took a portion, and was afterwards helped in turn to a small glass of white brandy, called raki, or of wine. The wax-taper, with the handkerchief, was suspended from the cieling, as a memorial of the girl represented on it; and some peraus, or silver pennies, were distributed to the poor who attended.

The Turks are a people never yet illuminated by science. They are more ignorant than can easily be conceived. The leisure of the Greeks is chiefly em­ployed in reading legendary stories of their saints, translated into the vulgar tongue. This, and their nation, they style the Romano. It has a close affinity with the ancient language, which they call the Hel­lenic; but the grammar and syntax are much cor­rupted. They speak rapidly, and curtail many of [Page 49] their words, which are farther depraved by incorrect spelling. Their pronuciation differs widely from the English. They have no knowledge of the old quan­tity of syllables, but adhere to the accents, and com­pose verses in rhyme, with great facility. I enquired for manuscripts, and was told of some belonging to the monastery of S. Cyriani on mount Hymettus. These were shewn me, with several books printed by Aldus, negligently scattered on the floor, in a loft at Athens, where the Hegumenos, or Abbot resided.

Credulity and superstition prevail at Athens, and all over the East. The traveller may still hear of Medeas, women possessed of magic power, and ex­pert in various modes of incantation. Amulets, or charms, are commonly worn to repel any malignant influence. Children are seen with crosses, or thin flat bits of gold, called phylacteries, hanging about their necks, or on their foreheads. The Turks in­scribe words from the Koran. The Greeks confide in holy water, which is sprinkled yearly on their houses, by a priest, to purify them, and to drive away any daemon, who may have obtained entrance. The insides of several of their churches are covered with representations of the exploits of their saints, painted on the walls; extravagant, ridiculous, and absurd beyond imagination. The old Athenian had [Page 50] a multitude of deities, but relied chiefly on Minerva; the modern has a similar troop headed by his fa­vourite Panagéa. He listens with devout humility to fanciful tales of nightly visions, and of miracles vouchsafed on the most trivial occasions. The re­port is propagated, and if, on examination, the for­gery be detected on the spot, the remoter devotee continues in his conviction, and exults in the con­templation of the solid basis, on which he conceives his faith to be founded. In the first year of our re­sidence in the Levant, says Chandler, a rumour was current, that a cross of shining light had been seen at Constantinople, pendant in the air over the grand mosque, once a church, dedicated to St. Sophia; and that the Turks were in consternation at the prodigy, and had endeavoured in vain to dissi­pate the vapour. The sign was interpreted to por­tend the exaltation of the Christians above the Ma­hometans; and this, many surmised, was speedily to be effected; disgust and jealousy then subsisting be­tween the Russians and the Porte, and the Georgians contending with success against the Turkish armies. By such arts as these are the wretched Greeks pre­served from despondency, rouzed to expectation, and consoled beneath the yoke of bondage.

Before we quit Livadia, it may not be amiss to mention Delphos, the modern Castri, which was [Page 51] much resorted to by the ancients on account of the temple of Apollo, and the dark cave from whence the Pythian priestess used to deliver her oracles sitting upon a Tripos.

Delphos, or Delphi, says Chandler, was the chief and most illustrious city in Phocis. Its sanctity was deduced through a long succession of ages, from a period involved in fable and obscurity. The influ­ence of its god has controlled the councils of states, directed the course of armies, and decided the fate of kingdoms. The antient history of Greece, is full of his energy, and an early register of his authority.

The oracular power was supposed to reside in a deep cavern, with a small and narrow mouth, said to have been discovered by goatherds, who were inspired by the vapour which arose out of it, and prophesied as from Apollo. A lofty tripod, decked with laurels, was placed over the aperture. The Pythia or Priest­ess, after washing her body, and especially her hair, in the cold water of Castalia, mounted on it to re­ceive the divine effluvia. She wore a crown of laurel, and shook a sacred tree which grew by. Sometimes she chewed the leaves; the frenzy which followed may be attributed to this usage, and the gentle or more violent symptoms to the quantity taken. In one instance, the paroxysm was so violent, that the [Page 52] priests and suppliants ran away, and left her alone to expire, it was believed, of the god. Her part was un­pleasant, but if she declined acting, they dragged her by force to the tripod. The habit of her order was that of virgins. The rules enjoined temperance and chastity and prohibited luxury in apparel. The sea­son of enquiry was the spring, after which Apollo was supposed to visit the altars of the Hyperboreans. Delphi was conveniently situated for the conflux of votaries lying in the centre of Greece, and, as was then imagined, in the centre of the universe. The god prospered in his business. His servants and priests feasted on the numerous victims, and the riches of his temple were proverbial, even before the wars of Troy.

The enclosure of the temple was of great extent, and filled with treasures, in which many cities had consecrated tenths of spoils taken in war, and with the public donations of renowned states in various ages. It was the grand repository of ancient Greece, in which the labours of the sculptor and statuary, gods, heroes, and illustrious persons were seen col­lected and arranged; the inequalities of the area or acclivity, contributing to a full display of the noble assemblage.

[Page 53]It was the opinion of Wheeler, that no mountain in Greece was higher than Parnassus, on the side of which this city stood; that it was not inferior to Mount Cenis among the Alps; and that, if detached, it would be seen at a greater distance than even Mount Athos. The summits are perpetually increasing, every new fall of snow adding to the perennial heap, while the sun has power only to thaw the superficies.

The water of Castalia, from which the Pythia, and the Poets who versified her answers, were believed to derive a large share of their inspiration, descends through a cliff of Parnassus; the rocks on each side high and steep, ending in two summits; from one of which, the Delphians threw down the famous Aesop. By the stream within the cleft, are small broken stairs leading to a cavity in which is water. Close by, at the foot of the eastern precipice, is a bason with steps on the margin, once it is likely the bath used by the Pythia. The water is limpid and exceedingly cold. Returning from the village, says Chandler, in the even­ing, I began to wash my hands in it, but was instantly chilled, and seized with a tremor, which rendered me unable to stand or walk without support. On reach­ing the monastery, I was wrapped in a garment lined with warm fur, and drinking freely of wine, fell into a most profuse perspiration. This incident, when Apollo was dreaded, might have been embellished with [Page 54] a superstitious interpretation Perhaps the Pythia, who bathed in this icy fluid, mistook her shivering for the god.

Adjoining to Parnassus, is Helicon, one of the most fertile and woody mountains in Greece. On it the fruit of the Arbutus, or Strawberry-tree, was uncommonly sweet; and the inhabitants affirm, that the plants and roots were all friendly to man; and that even the serpents had their poison weakened by the innoxious qualities of their food.

The muses were the proprietors of Helicon. There was their shady grove and their images; with statues of Apollo and Bacchus, and Linus and Orpheus, and the illustrious poets, who had recited their verses to the harp. The vallies of Helicon, are described by Wheeler, as green and flowery in the spring, and en­livened by pleasing cascades and streams, and by fountains and wells of clear water. The grove of the muses was plundered under the auspices of Con­stantine the Great The Heliconian goddesses were afterwards consumed in a fire at Constantinople, to which city they had been removed. Their ancient se [...]t on the mountain is not ascertained. Narcissus too is forgotten. The limpid bason in which he gazed, was shewn in the Thespian territory; and the flower into which he was changed, continues to love and [Page 55] adorn its native soil. It abounded in that region, and was very fragrant in the month of April.

Thiva, the ancient Thebes, was the capital of that subdivision of Greece, called Boeotia. The town is not more than three miles in circumference at present, and is inhabited chiefly by Greek christians. Of its ancient grandeur no vestiges remain. It produced several great men, particularly Pindar, Epaminondas, Pelopidas, and some say Hercules and Bacchus. Ac­cording to the poetic fiction, it was in this city that Amphion charmed the stones by the music of his harp, to march and place themselves in the walls.

Of Plataea likewise, situated between Thebes and Athens, where Pausanias, who commanded the Lace­demonian army, obtained that signal victory over the Persians, which ruined the ambitious designs of Xerxes against Greece; scarce any remains whatever are to be discerned.

CHAP. XXVI. A Description of the Morea, called Peloponnesus, by the Ancients.

THE Morea, is almost an island, but joins to the continent, or country of Proper Greece, by a narrow neck of land, called the Isthmus of Corinth, so famed for the Isthmian games, celebrated there in honour of Neptune. It anciently consisted of the following small kingdoms, Sicyon, Argos and My­cene, Corinth, Proper Achaia, Arcadia and Laco­nia. Its present name of the Morea, is said to be derived from Morus, a Mulberry-tree; either from its resembling the leaf of that tree in shape, or from the great number of mulberry-trees it produces.

The chief rivers in it are, 1. the Carbon, anciently the Alpheus. This river the poets feigned to pass under the Ionian sea, and rose again in Sicily. It rises from the mountain Stymphalus, taking its course through Arcadia, and being joined by the rivers Celadon and Amyrinth, falls into the Ionian sea. 2. Eurotas, which rising in Arcadia, passes through [Page 57] Laconia, or Lacedaemon, and discharges itself in the bay of Colochina. 3. Styx, one of the rivers of Hell, according to poetic fiction, whose waters are so excessive cold, that the drinking of them endangers a man's life. It is to the extraordinary qualities it pos­sesses, of corroding iron and copper, that the old poets have called it the river of Hell. The Morea has not only several mountains, but also many fertile and delightful plains. At the treaty of Carlowitz, the Turks ceded all the Morea to the Venetians, but in the year 1715, again dispossessed them of it. It is divided into four districts.

Saccania or Romania Minor, contains the ancient cities of Corinth, Sicyon and Argos.

Corinth, by the Turks, called Gereme, is a celebrated town at the foot of Acro-Corinth, on which stands a castle, having a most beautiful prospect on every side. The original name of this city was Ephyra, with the addition of Heliopolis, or city of the Sun; and Bima­ris, which signifies a place lying between two seats. It was anciently one of the finest cities in all Greece, and abounded in stately buildings; such as temples, palaces, amphitheatres, porticos, monuments, baths, and other works; all ornamented with pillars, cor­nices, and pedestals, whose singular decorations gave rise to the appellation of the Corinthian order, with [Page 58] numbers of statues by the greatest masters. But its edifices being demolished at present, and the spot on which it stood, filled up with little gardens and fields; it looks much more like a village than a city: and what is still worse, is frequently exposed to the descent of the Corsairs. It is, however, the seat of a Greek archbishop. The Christians here, from some passages in St. Paul's epistles, appear to have been very nu­merous.

The fertility of the country round Corinth, was alluded to by the witty oracle, which answered a per­son who enquired, what he should do to become rich; that he needed only to get all the land between Corinth and Sicyon.

The city of Corinth, says Chandler, stands on the isthmus, on the side of the Peloponnesus, a situation once peculiarly happy, from which all its ancient prosperity was derived. Its ports were commo­diously disposed by nature, to receive the ships of Europe and of Asia, and to render it the centre of their commerce. The circumnavigation of the Pelo­ponnesus, was tedious and uncertain to a proverb; whilst at the isthmus, not only their cargoes, but, if requisite, smaller vessels could be transported from sea to sea. The isthmus, in the narrowest part, was only five miles over. Corinth held the keys of the [Page 59] peninsula, and taxed both the ingress and egress, re­sembling in some measure in this particular, the cita­del at the entrance of the Crimea. The Isthmian games likewise, by the concourse of people at their celebration, contributed to its opulence, which was immense. The temple of Venus, possessed above a thousand female slaves consecrated as courtesans. The prodigality of the merchants made the place so expensive, that it was a saying, not every man could go to Corinth. The citadel was called one of the horns on which Philip was advised to lay hold, in order to secure the heiser, or the Peloponnesus. It has also been styled one of the fetters of Greece.

Various attempts have been made to open a com­munication between the Ionian and the Aegean sea, by a navigable cut through the isthmus. The project was adopted by Demetrius Poliorceles, but his sur­veyors found the waters in the Corinthian gulf, much higher than on the opposite shore, and were of opi­nion, that Aegina and the neighbouring islands would be flooded, and the canal be unserviceable. It was revived by Julius Caesar and Caligula. Nero com­menced a fosse from Lechaeum, and advanced about half a mile. Atticus Herodes was ambitious of en­gaging in it; but, as Nero had failed, was afraid of offending the emperor by asking his permission. "All those, says Pausanias, who have endeavoured to ren­der [Page 60] the Peloponnesus an island, have been prevented while labouring to divide the isthmus. It is manifest where they began digging, and the rock is untouched. As it was made originally, it remains, and is now a continent.—So difficult is it for man to force nature." The vestiges of these fruitless efforts which Pausanias saw, in the second century, says Chandler, are still extant

In the district of Zachonia or Braccio di Mania, which formerly comprehended Laconia and Arcadia, stands Lacedaemon or Sparta, now named Misitra. It is supposed to have been founded a thousand years before the building of Rome: the form of the city was circular, and its circumference about six miles. Few cities ever attained such a height of military glory. The Spartans received their laws from Lycur­gus; the two chief magistrates had the title of kings, but were in reality subject to the senate; they were afterwards governed by five magistrates, called the Ephori, who were deposed by Cleomenes, but, he being subdued by the Macedonians, Laconia became a province to that city.

The modern town of Misitra, is an episcopal see, and consists of four divisions; the town, the castle, and two large suburbs. The town lies at the foot of the castle, and consists of two spacious streets, with several others crossing them at right angles. The old [Page 61] market-place is beautified with a noble fountain, and a church built out of the ruins of Minerva's temple. Here are also the ruins of the gallery, or portico, built in memory of the victory obtained over the Persians, at the battle of Plateae, with some remains of the temples of Helen, Hercules, and Venus Armata; all built of white marble. Without the walls are still to be seen the grove of Plane-trees, where the Spar­tans held their annual games and exercises.

Of Olympia, situated on the borders of the river Alpheus, scarce any vestiges are to be seen. This place was rendered excessively illustrious in the times of antient Greece, by the power and reputation of its princes; by the oracle and temple of the Olympian Jupiter; and by the renown of the Agon, or games, in which to be victorious, was deemed the very sum­mit of human felicity.

The Jupiter of Olympia, was accounted sufficient to immortalize its maker Phidias. It was of ivory and gold, the head crowned with olive. In the right-hand was a statue of victory; and in the left, a flower­ed sceptre, composed of various metals, on which was an eagle. The sandals were of gold, as was also the vestment, which was curiously embossed with lilies and animals. The throne was gold, inlaid with ebony and ivory, and studded with jewels, intermixed with [Page 62] paintings and exquisite figures in relievo. The image impressed on the spectators an opinion, that it was higher and wider than it really measured. Its magnitude was such, that though the temple was very large, the artist seemed to have erred in the propor­tions. The god sitting, nearly touched the ceiling with his head; and suggested an idea, that if he were to rise up, he would destroy the roof. A part of the pavement before it was of black marble, inclosed in a rim of Parian or white, where they poured oil to preserve the ivory.

Pasaunias declares, that a person may see many things wonderful to tell of, among the Greeks; but that the Olympic Agon, or games, with the Eleusinian mysteries, partook in a special manner of the deity. The former grand exhibition was conducted with pro­digious solemnity.

From the silence of Homer, it has been argued, that the four great spectacles of games in Greece, either did not exist when he wrote, or were in no repute. That of Olympia, however, deduced its origin from remote antiquity, and continued to a late period, un­dergoing several alterations.

The computation of time by Olympiads, which began about four hundred years after the destruction of

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[Page 63] Troy, was used until the reign of Theodosius the Great; when a new mode of reckoning, by indictions, or from the victory of Augustus Caesar at Actium, was introduced; the Olympic games, with general assem­bly, were abolished; and the image made by Phidias, was removed to Constantinople. Jupiter and Pelops were banished from the seat, which they had possessed for ages. Olympia has since been forgotten in its vici­nity, but the name will be ever respected as venerable for its precious aera, by the chronologer and his­torian.

CHAP. XXVII. The Islands in Greece, forming part of, or adjoining to, the Cyclades.

THE Grecian islands may be divided according to the seas in which they lie; namely, in the Archipelago, the Mediterranean, and the parts about Candia and the Ionian sea, as it was anciently called.

We shall first treat of the islands in the Archi­pelago, formerly called the Aegean sea, but receiv­ing [Page 64] its present name from the Greek, Arkos chief, and Pelagos a sea; it being the longest and principal sea in those parts. This sea separates Europe from Asia to the North and West, washing Romania, Macedonia, and Greece; and to the East, Natolia and Asia Minor. It is interspersed with many large and small islands, com­prized by ancient geographers, under two general names. Those which form a kind of circle round Delos, are called Cyclades. i. e. the circle islands; but those which lie farther off from Delos, and are scattered all over the Archipelago, they call Sporades, i. e. the scattered islands.

Delos, the centre of the Cyclades, is situated in twenty-five degrees East longitude, and thirty-seven degrees North latitude, of an oblong figure, near twice as long as it is broad, and about six miles in circum­ference. It hath the South part of Mycone on the West; the channel between it and Tinos, on the North; and the island of Rhenia on the East. It is called little Delos, or Zdeli in the plural number, including the island of Rhenia. The reason of its being so ce­lebrated by the ancients was, that this island was held to be the birth-place of Apollo and Diana. The islands, therefore, about it, sent thither priests, sacrifices, and choirs of virgins, instituting great and public festi­vals to their two deities. The number of their su­perstitious Cyclades was at first but twelve, but after­wards [Page 65] comprehended most of the islands in the Aegean sea. Upon the destruction of Corinth, the wealth and trade of that city, seemed to be transferred hither, it being much frequented, from the safety of its har­bours, and the convenience of its situation, being in the centre between Europe and Asia; but more espe­cially on account of its immunities and freedom, from customs and impositions. There are still great heaps of ruins on this island, some of which belonged to the temple of Apollo, as appears by the trunk of his statue still remaining. This god has been handled so rudely, that they have left him neither hands, feet, nor head; but his locks hanging round his shoulders are still to be seen, having marks in each curl, where apparently jewels had been set; his girdle also appeared to have been richly adorned, and on his left shoulder was a light mantle. The statue was four times larger than life; the shoulders being six feet broad, and the rest of the trunk proportionable. On the declivities of the hills are some very beautiful fragments of por­ticos and other ancient buildings.

The greater Delos, is separated from the lesser, by a channel about five hundred paces in breadth, and is about eighteen miles in circumference. The moun­tains are not very high, and afford excellent pastu­rage: the vallies would produce corn and wine if they were cultivated, but this island, like the other Delos, [Page 66] is entirely deserted; except, that the inhabitants of Mycone send over shepherds with large herds of cattle, which they are frequently obliged to transport back to their own island, to preserve them from the pirates that infest these seas. Tournfort relates, that he saw near one hundred and fifty altars among the ruins, which then made a very stately appearance. They were mostly three feet and a half in height, and about three feet in diameter. The harbour of this island is called Port Mastick, from the great number of mas­tick trees growing near it.

Mycone lies about three miles to the East of the Lesser Delos, and is nearly thirty miles round. There is scarce a well in the country, and very little wood. The soil produces corn, wine, and figs, and some few olives. They make five and twenty, or thirty thou­sand hogsheads of wine every year. The number of inhabitants in this island, are computed at three thousand. Most of the men follow a seafaring life, and have the character of being pirates. The plun­der, at least, is brought to this island by other pirates, who keep their wives and mistresses here. The wives of the seamen, are for the most part temporary ones; the women, in general here, being more in repute for their beauty than their chastity. A tra­veller relates, that the captain of a vessel he sailed with, purchased a young girl from her parents, who,

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[Page 67] with seeming reluctance, suffered herself to be carried on board, and was followed by a great number of young girls, from eleven to fifteen years of age, nearly a hundred, to the sea-side, not to prevent the rape, but to give indications by the wantonness of their gestures, how much they wished to have been carried off in like manner. The day following, the captain gave an entertainment to his officers, as if it had been his wedding, having dressed the girl in a rich white Ve­netian habit. The dress of the women of Mycone, is very singular, and scarce reaches below their knees. The men wear large trowsers gathered below the knee.

Most of the inhabitants, are Christians of the Greek church, and have magistrates of their own; but an officer of the Turks comes annually to collect the tribute they are obliged to pay to the Porte. A cadi also frequently visits them, and holds a court in the island, that those who may have any disputes may bring their causes before him to decide; and the Greeks, it seems, are frequently so ridiculous as to come before this tribunal, in preference to submitting their causes to be decided by their own magistrates. There are no less than fifty Greek churches in this island, with several monasteries and a nunnery. The convents of this island, however, are mostly deserted, [Page 68] the people here not appearing very fond of a monas­tic life.

The island of Naxia or Naxos, lies fifty miles to the South of Mycone, and eight miles East of Paros; it is of an oval form, and nearly an hundred miles in circumference. There is but one town which lies on the South-side of the island, and about forty villages, inhabited by Greek and Latin Christians, of whom the former are most numerous. The prejudices which the Greeks and Latin Christians are scarce to be conceived; the Turks, however, make no distinc­tion between them. On the arrival of the smallest Turkish galliot, the Christians dare not appear with­out a red cloth upon their head, like the meanest galley slave: but, as soon as the Turks are gone, the Naxian nobility resume their former pride and con­sequence, covered with their velvet caps, and discours­ing of nothing but their families and pedigrees. The ladies are no less vain than the men, and are to be seen returning from the country after the vintage, with a train of thirty or forty females, some mounted on asses, and others on foot; one carrying a pair of stockings, another a towel, a third a dish; and there the ladies wardrobe and furniture is exposed to public view. She, herself, makes her entrance into the city at the head of this cavalcade, whilst the husband brings up the rear. The Naxian nobility remain, for the [Page 69] most part, at their country houses, inviting one ano­ther but seldom, and occupying themselves in hunt­ing and other rural diversions. The villages are not very populous, there not being above eight thousand inhabitants in the island: they have, however, two archbishops, one of the Romish, and the other of the Greek church. The capuchins have a convent in Naxia, and apply themselves with great zeal to make proselytes from among the Greeks; for, as to con­victing the Mahometans, there is no instance of their attempting to convert any Mussulman to christianity, so severe is the punishment inflicted by the Turks, on those who endeavour to make proselytes among them. The Greek archbishop has a handsome revenue, and the islands of Paros and Antiparos, are within his juris­diction.

The people here, elect their own governors as in most of the other islands, but are sometimes visited by a Cadi, to whom they may appeal as the last re­source. They are also annually visited by an officer to collect the taxes, which amount to ten thousand crowns a year and upwards. The meanest Turkish officer, who comes on the island but occasionally, is in a manner governor, whilst he remains there, and will order whom he pleases to undergo the bastinado. At these times, all the controversies of the islanders, about their quality and precedence, seem to vanish. [Page 70] Every one officiously makes his court to the haughty Turk, and endeavours to insinuate himself into his favour. The common people seem to lead as merry, and as thoughtless lives here, as in other islands: they derive themselves from Bacchus, and have plenty of good wine; and if they are slaves, they are the merriest in Europe.

Among their antiquities is still standing a beautiful marble gate, in the midst of a heap of magnificent ruins, upon a rock in the sea, at a small distance from the castle. This is said to have been the palace of Bacchus; but Tournfort is of, opinion, they are the remains of a temple dedicated to that god. Dia, the highest mountain in the island, which signifies the mountain of Jupiter, formerly gave name to the island. Towards the base, on a rough block of marble, is an inscription, signifying that this was the mountain of Jupiter, the preserver of flocks; and a grotto is shewn to strangers, where it is pretended the Bacchants celebrated their orgies.

About six or seven miles to the west of Naxia, is the island of Paros, which is about forty miles in circumference. It is famous for its extraordinary white marble, and had also most excellent artists for working it. Those celebrated antiques called the chronicles of Paros, are marble, having Greek in­scriptions [Page 71] performed on this island, and bought in the year 1627, by Thomas Howard, earl of Arundel; who in 1667, made a present of them to the uni­versity of Oxford; and they are now called the Arun­delian, or Oxonian marbles. The inscription is the most authentic piece of ancient chronology, be­ing made two hundred and sixty-four years before the Christian aera, and contains a space of above three hundred years.

They contain the most remarkable Greek epochs, from the reign of Cecrops, who was the founder of the Athenian monarchy, to Diogenes the Archon; and it is from this monument we became acquainted with the foundation of the most famous cities in Greece, and are informed when their greatest men flourished.

The town of Parichia seems to stand on the ruins of the ancient Paros, the walks and houses being de­corated with several fine marble remains of that city, besides the monuments in the adjacent country. The panagia, or Madonia, without the city, is both the largest and most splendid church in the Archipelago. In this island, besides a great number of churches and chapels, are several considerable villages. A large fleet may lie conveniently and securely in the harbour of St. Maria, but the common anchoring [Page 72] place for the Turkish navy is Drio, on the west side of the island.

Antiparos, about a mile from Paros, is a flat rock, about sixteen miles in circumference covered in some places with a stratum of vegetable earth, which producs corn enough for about sixty or eighty families, who inhabit a small village about a mile from the sea; there is very little in this island de­serving notice, except a very remarkable grotto, about forty fathoms in height, and fifty in breadth; the roof forms an arch embellished with fret-work, and in some places there are bunches of grapes, fes­toons, &c. of a surprising length, or something resembling; on the right and left are formed several little closets or cabinets; and among other things there is a large pavilion, formed by productions, so exactly representing the roots, branches and heads of cauliflowers, as if nature intended to shew how she operates in the vegetation of stone. All these figures are of white marble, transparent and crysta­lized, and many of them covered with a white back, which if struck against, sounds like copper. There are also several columns of marble, planted like trunks of trees, on the tuft of a little rock; these stones of marble certainly vegetate, for not a single drop of water ever falls into the place, and if it did, [Page 73] it is not conceivable how a few drops falling from a height of twenty-five or thirty fathoms, should form cylindrical pieces, terminating like round caps.

Adjoining to Paros, is Santorini, or St. Erini. It is eight miles in length, and as much in breadth, and almost covered with pumice-stone, whence the soil in general must be dry and barren; it is however greatly improved by the industry of the inhabitants, who have turned it into a garden. It affords a great deal of barley, plenty of cotton, and large quantities of wine; in which, and their cotton manufactures, their trade consists. Fruit is scarce, except figs, and they have neither oil nor wood. They kill their beeves but once a year, and then they put the flesh in pickle, which in time makes it very hard. The inhabitants are all Greeks, and about ten thousand in number. Pyrgos is the capital town. They have but one spring in the island, which obliges them to preserve the rain-water in cisterns.

Acroteri, adjoining to the above, is an island much talked of in natural history. It appears to be only a pumice-stone incrusted with a fertile earth; and according to the accounts of the ancients, rose in a violent earthquake out of the sea, as a volcano. The same origin had four other islands near Santorini, and the sea here is of such a depth, as not to be fa­thomed [Page 74] by any sounding-line. The first of these islands rose out of the sea, after a violent earthquake, in the year 906, before the birth of Christ; and in the beginning of the eighth century, a new island suddenly appeared, with a terrible explosion, which shook all the neighbouring islands, and adhered to the former island, which thereby became considerably enlarged: at the same time showers of pumice-stones were cast up to a vast distance on all sides. The second island, which lies a little without the harbour of Santorini, sprung from the sea, in the first cen­tury after the Christian aera. In the year 1573, a sudden fire burst out of the sea, and soon produced a new island, to which was given the name of the 'small Burnt island.' In the years 1707 and 1708, a fourth island rose like a volcano, attended with an eruption of fire, concussions, a crash like the loudest thunder, and a noisome smoke, and has been gra­dually increased by additional rocks.

Cytheria, a small rocky island between Candia and the Morea, is remarkable for nothing, but hav­ing been attributed by the Poets to be the birth-place of Venus, and of Helen, whose enlévement by Paris, occasioned the siege of Troy.

Melos, situated likewise in the Archipelago, be­tween Candia and the Morea, but more to the [Page 75] North, is of considerable extent, and said to contain about twenty thousand inhabitants. This island is one hollow spungy rock, which the salt water enters by a great number of subterraneous passages; and, mixing with the sulphur which abounds here, occasions almost continual fires. The hollow rock of Melos, is a kind of natural stone, gently warming the super­fices of the earth in most places, and thereby causing it to produce the choicest fruits, particularly grapes, figs, and melons, the best in the Archipelago; so fer­tile is the soil, that it never lies fallow; one year it produces wheat, another barley; a third, pease and beans, melons, &c. Their fields are like so many gardens, separated from each other by stone walls. For eatables, besides butcher's meat, they have fowl, fish, and game in great plenty. Though they live in a sickly unwholesome air, and upon the surface of a burning lake, as it were, which they may expect every day should break out and destroy them, and their country; they are as merry as Greeks, used formerly to be, and indulge in the good things they thus abun­dantly possess; neither the sickness, the Turkish tyranny, nor burning caverns in the bowels of the island, can digest the spirits of the merry Meliotes. The inhabitants of Melos are generally seafaring men, and serve as pilots to ships which sail in the Archi­pelago. The chastity of their women is equal to that of the ladies of some other sea-ports. Tournfort [Page 76] says, they are arrant coquets, and use the powder of a sea-plant to give a ruddiness to their complexion; but it soon destroys their skin and spoils their beauty. They wear drawers like the rests of the females in the Levant, which seem a very necessary part of their dress, their petticoats scarce reaching to their knees.

There are two Turkish magistrates in the island, the Cadi, and the Waivode; the one a civil, and the other a military officer; but their principal employ seems to be, to take care that the Sultan is not de­frauded of his duties, and to extort as much as they can from the poor Greeks, to fill their own pockets. The Greeks have here, as in the other islands, the pri­vilege of electing their own magistrates, who decide all controversies among them, though sometimes they are so indiscreet as to appeal to the Cadi, and make an infidel their judge.

The modern name of this island, says Savary, is Milo or Mile. Anciently it had a town of the same name built by the Phenicians. That maritime people, attracted by the beauty of the port, undoubtedly made it an emporium of their commerce. In early anti­quity, this island enjoyed perfect freedom. The Athe­nians, unable to bring the people of Melos to declare in their favour in the Peloponnesian war, made a de­scent upon their coasts, and laid all waste before them [Page 77] with fire and sword. Twice did they fail in their en­terprize, but returning with more numerous forces, they laid siege to Melos, and having reduced the be­sieged to surrender at discretion, according to Strabo, put to the sword every man capable of bearing arms. They spared only the women and children, whom they carried into captivity. This atrocious action makes us blush for humanity, and dishonours the Athenian name. But war was then carried on with a barbarity of which we have now no example. Re­publics know not how to pardon, and always carry their vengeance to excess. Lysander, the Lacedae­monian general, having in his turn subdued the Athe­nians, obliged them to recal the colony they had sent to Melos, and restored to the island the wretched re­mains of its inhabitants.

The island lost its liberty, when the Romans aspir­ing to the empire of the world, conquered the whole Archipelago. In the partition of that monarchy it fell to the Eastern emperors; was afterwards govern­ed by its own dukes, and finally was conquered by Solyman II. Since that period, it has groaned be­neath Ottoman despotism, and is completely deprived of its importance.

Tournfort, says Savary, who visited this, island in 1700, gives a delightful description of it. The earth, [Page 78] constantly heated by subterraneous fires, produces, almost without intermission, wheat, barley, cotton, exquisite wines, and delicious melons. S. Elic, the most beautiful monastery in the island, and situated on the highest ground, is surrounded by cedars, and orange, lemon, and fig-trees. The gardens are water­ed by copious streams. Olive-trees, which are rare in other parts, are very numerous round this monas­tery, and the adjoining vineyards, furnish excellent wine. In a word, all the productions of the island are of incomparable excellence. Its partridges, quails, kids, and lambs, are in high estimation, yet extremely cheap.

Could Tournfort, adds Savary, return to Milo, he would no longer find the beauteous isle he has describ­ed. He would still see the feathered alum with silver threads, suspended from the roofs of caverns, frag­ments of pure sulphur filling the crevices of the rocks; numerous mineral springs, hot baths, and the same fires which in his time heated the bosom of the earth, and rendered it so fertile. But, instead of the many thousand Greeks paying the capitation, he would now find, on a surface of eighteen leagues in circum­ference, only about seven hundred inhabitants. He would sigh to behold the finest parts of the country without cultivation, and fertile vallies changed into morasses. Milo has assumed a very different appear­ance [Page 79] within the course of the last fifty years. The plague every where propagated by the Turks, has cut off the greatest part of its inhabitants; and the detesta­ble government of the Porte, and the oppressions of the Captain Pacha, have completed its destruction. At present, the want of labourers prevents their giving a free course to the water; which, stagnating in the valleys, turns fetid, and infects the air with putrid ex­halations. The salt marshes, which have multiplied for want of care, have produced the same effect. If to their inconveniencies the sulphureous vapours, which arise on every side, are added, it will not be surprising, that the inhabitants of Mile are tormented with violent fevers during three quarters of the year. Nay, possibly, they will be under the necessity of totally abandoning their country. Their complexions are universally of a yellow, pale, and deadly hue; nor is the look of health to be found in any one of them. The prudent traveller should take care to make but a short stay in this unhealthy country, if he would not expose himself to a fever. Only to sleep a single night in the island, nay, even to pass a day there, is sometimes sufficient to contract that di­sease.

An enlightened government, says the above author, might remove these calamities which have so depo­pulated Melos. Its first care ought to be, to esta­blish [Page 80] a Lazaretto, and prevent the approach of in­fected vessels. Canals should then be cut to drain the marshes, from which arise pestiferous exhalations. The island would re-people, for the sulphureous va­pours are not what most render it desolate; it pro­duced them equally in the time of the ancients, yet it was extremely populous. To the description, therefore, of the Turkish government, and its detesta­ble politics, must we attribute the destruction of the island of Melos. Let me not be accused, says Savary, of painting the Turks in colours blacker than they deserve. I have travelled through their empire, I have seen the injuries of every kind which they have done to the sciences, the arts, and the human race; I see them carrying the plague, from island to island, from country to country, without suffering their eyes to be opened by the example of every other nation; and shall I not raise my voice against the abominable indifference of this barbarous people! Shall I not inveigh against their destructive fatalism, and endea­vour to find words sufficiently forcible to paint the crimes and horrors of their government; the enemy of the human species, which has destroyed more men by its odious tyranny, than ever fell by the sword of the most cruel conqueror! At the sight of these me­lancholy spectacles, my heart groans, and is filled with indignation; my blood boils in my veins, and I could wish to excite all Europe to combine against these [Page 81] Turks, who, descending from the mountains of Arme­nia, have crushed the nations in their passage, and waded through rivers of blood to the throne of Con­stantinople. Nor have the beautiful countries they inhabit, been able to soften the ferocity of their cha­racter. Power is their law, and justice their sabre.

Adjoining to Melos, is the little island of Argen­tiera, formerly famous for its silver mines. The soil is extremely dry, and destitute of springs; nor is there any water but what is collected in cisterns, or brought from Melos; the hills, vales, and the whole country stript of trees, do not offer a single shade from the sun. The Venetians, during their war with the Turks, cut down all the olive-trees, and did irreparable da­mage to the island; nor do the present inhabitants dare to make fresh plantations, lest they should draw on themselves heavier impositions.

Argentiera presents nothing but rocky hills, desti­tute of verdure, and vallies producing worthless shrubs, and thorny thickets. The vales are generally cover­ed with a white and fat clay, called by the ancients Terra Cimolia, (Fuller's earth,) and which the inha­bitants employ instead of soap, to wash their linen. This barren soil seems but ill adapted to agriculture; yet the industrious islanders make it produce them a subsistence. They sow barley and wheat in the be­ginning [Page 82] of autumn, which is the rainy season, and reap in March. Their vineyards on the hill-sides, fur­nish them with fruit only for the table. They pro­cure their wines from Santorini, Milo, and other islands of the Archipelago. They rear poultry and flocks of goats and sheep, the flesh of which is ex­cellent. The country affords them quails, hares, and partridges in abundance. The women knit cotton stockings, and the men employ themselves in fishing and navigation. Excellent fish are taken round the island, especially the Roujet, which is very delicate eating.

The little tribe which inhabits Argentiera, is com­posed of about five hundred persons. Their enjoy­ments are not many, but thanks to their industry, they want none of the necessaries of life. This little island does not groan under the immediate oppressions of the officers of the Porte; here are no Agas nor Cadis. The Turks would not venture to reside here, as there is no fort to prevent the Maltese from mak­ing them prisoners, whose privateers come hither, from time to time, to spend in feasts, entertainments, and pleasures of every kind, the money they have taken from the Mahometans. This is a tribute they pay to the pretty women of Argentiera. In a word, the Greeks who inhabit this rock would be happy, were the Captain Pacha but to forget them in the [Page 83] annual contributions he levies, frequently with bar­barity, on the islands of the Archipelago.

The dress of the Greek women of Argentiera, is, in some particulars, a little whimsical. In France and England, a neat leg and small foot are in high estima­tion, but the belles of Argentiera are of a different opinion; they swell out their legs by wearing several pair of stockings, and appear as if they were booted, which strange kind of ornament they consider as an essential part of dress; and lest it should be lost to the eye their garments do not descend above two inches below the knee. These too are so contrived, as absolutely to spoil their shape, and render it im­possible to form any idea of the beautiful proportions with which they were formed by nature. In other respects they are cheerful, lively, and handsome. If it be represented to them, that they disguise by such preposterous ornaments, some of the loveliest of their charms, their answer is, "Our grandmother did so before us; and we do but follow their custom."

Thermia lies to the North-east of Melos; it re­ceives its name from the hot-baths which are in the island. This island is not so mountainous as many others, and the soil being well cultivated, yields plenty of barley, wine, and figs; but wheat and oil are very scarce. It is computed there are about six thousand [Page 84] inhabitants in the island; they have a Greek bishop residing in the city of Thermia, the capital, in which there are fifteen or sixteen churches, and several con­vents. There are a number of hot springs in this island; the ancient baths were situated in the centre of a valley, the fragments of which are still remaining. On the island are still visible, the ruins of two cities; one of which on the South coast, must have been of extraordinary splendor.

A few miles to the West of Thermia, lies Zia or Ceos. In this island are many remains of antiquity. It is about fifty miles round. Carthea is now the only city remaining; it is situated on the side of a hill, and the flat roofed houses, rising gradually, form a kind of theatre; the roofs of the houses are the only streets there are to walk in. The valley near the town, contains innumerable pieces of broken columns, or pedestals. The first will admit the largest vessels. The ruins of the city of Ioulis, occupy an entire mountain. An ancient temple is still to be seen; the columns of which, have their shafts half plain and half fluted. From this temple, there is a descent from the sea-shore, by a noble marble stair-case; at the foot, is the statue of a woman without arms or head, but the drapery exquisitely fine; it is supposed to be the goddess of Nemesis. In this island likewise, are the remains of a road paved with flat stones, ex­tending [Page 85] three miles in length, and supposed to have been made, when Greece was in its flourishing state. It is said, that this country having formerly been very populous, a law was enacted, if any person lived above sixty years, that it should be lawful to poison him, or put him to death by any other means. And it is said, the natives had such an indifference for life, that they very chearfully resigned it.

Syra is another small island to the East of Zia. The principal city is built round the sides of a little steep hill in the form of a pyramid, at the distance of a mile from the port, where stood the ancient Syros. In this island, the Romish clergy boast of a great supe­riority in numbers, over those of the Greek commu­nion. The people of this island are also said to be of a character very different from that of their neigh­bours; being persons of strict piety and honesty, as well as diligence, and improving their manufactures to the utmost.

Andros lies fifty miles North-east of Zia, and is in circumference about an hundred miles; its length, however, is much greater than the breadth. The principal town is situated near the sea, and called the port of the lower castle; its ancient monuments shew it was built on the ruins of some magnificent city; though nothing can be more despicable than the pre­sent [Page 86] buildings, considering the materials of which they are constructed. The dress of the women of this island, like that of the other islands, is not very be­coming; their petticoats scarce reaching to their knees, and their shifts coming down still lower; they generally wrap themselves up in five or six gowns, and wear large rolls of cloth about their waists like far­thingales. The sleeves of their gowns are so very ample, that they reach almost to the ground: on their legs they wear white cloth stockings, with slippers in­stead of shoes for their feet: a piece of linen is wrap­ped round their heads, which likewise covers their breasts. The usual garb of the men, is a vest and a red cap; and instead of shoes, they wear pumps, or slippers, a custom very prevalent in the East.

This is one of the most fertile islands in the Archi­pelago, yielding great plenty of wine, oil, and barley, with some wheat; but their principal riches consist in silk. Their mountains are covered with the arbu­tu [...]-trees, from which they distil a spirit, as they do from their mulberries.

On the ruins of the ancient Paleopolis, situated on the brow of a hill near the sea, are seen the fragments of a solid wall, with columns, chapitres, bases, and inscriptions, mentioning the senate and people of Andros, and the priests of Bacchus. The trunks of [Page 87] several statues likewise bespeak the hand of some masterly engraver; but the different members have been mutilated by the Turks, who have an utter aver­sion to images. Near the temple of Bacchus was a fountain; which, according to tradition, on certain days, every year flowed with wine instead of water.

Tine, or Tinos, lies about a mile to the South-east of Andros. This island is about sixty miles in circum­ference; it is well watered, and produces great quan­tities of corn, wine, and fruit; and particularly silk, of which the inhabitants make stockings and gloves. They dress here in a more decent stile than that of the other islands, following the Venetian fashions: this island having been longer under the dominion of the Venetians than any other in the Archipelago. From the castle, is a noble prospect of the adjacent isles.

CHAP. XXVIII. Other Islands of the Archipelago.

HAVING now taken a cursory view of those islands, which either make part, or are adjoin­ing to the Cyclades, we propose to treat of the other [Page 88] islands in the Archipelago; most of which, either lie near, or are considered, by many geographers, as be­longing to the Asiatic coast, Negropont, and one or two others excepted.

Stalimene, anciently Lemnos, is an island in the North part of the Archipelago, of a quadrangular figure, each side being from five and twenty, to thirty miles in length; and is equally distant from the coasts of Romania, Natolia, and Macedonia. The prin­cipal source of wealth in this island, is a mineral earth, called Terra Lemnia, which is said to be an excellent medicine for healing wounds, expelling poisons, stop­ping dysenteries, &c. and a great preservative against infection. It is made up in little bags, and sealed by the Turkish officers; after which, it is permitted to be vended and exported.

The Greeks begin to collect it on the 6th of August. with much superstitious ceremony. There is only one hill which produces it; the surface of the ground being dug up, they easily find the vein, resembling earth cast up by worms; after as much being taken up as the priests approve and put into bags, the ground is covered over as before, and some bags of this earth are sent as presents to the Grand Signior, and the rest sold to the foreign merchants by the Sanjiac, or his deputies. The inhabitants [Page 89] keeping this earth in their houses without his per­mission, are punished with death.

When the Venetians possessed this island, there were between forty and fifty towns and villages upon it, and the island was well inhabited, but at present it is very thinly peopled. It was upon this island that the poets feign Vulcan to have fallen, when kicked out of Paradise by Juno, for his deformity; and that being lamed in his fall, he was called Lemnius, and worshipped by the people of the island as a decrepid deity.

The island Tenedos, which lies between Lemnos and the continent of Asia, is chiefly rock, but fertile. It was anciently reckoned about ten miles in circum­ference. Its position near the mouth of the Helle­pont, has given it importance in all ages; vessels bound towards Constantinople finding shelter in its port, or safe anchorage in the road, during the Etesian winds, and in foul weather. The emperor Justinian, erected a magazine, to receive the cargoes of the corn-ships from Alexandria, when detained there. This building was two hundred and eighty feet long, ninety broad, and very lofty. The voyage from Egypt was rendered less precarious, and the grain preserved, until it could be transported to the ca­pital. Afterwards, during the troubles of the Greek [Page 90] empire, Tenedos experienced a variety of fortunes. The pirates, which infested these seas, made it for many years their place of rendezvous; and Othman seized it in 1302, procured vessels, and from thence subdued the other islands of the Archipelago.

The port of Tenedos has been inclosed in a mole, of which no part appears above water, but loose stones are piled on the foundations to break the waves. The bason is encompassed by a ridge of the moun­tain. On the South-side is a row of wind-mills, and a small fort; and on the opposite, a castle by the shore. The houses, which are numerous, stand at the foot, or on the slope of an acclivity; with a flat between them and the sea, formed partly by soil washed down from above. They reckon six hundred Turkish, and three hundred Greek families. The church belong­ing to the latter, is decent.

We found here but few remains of antiquity, says Chandler, worthy notice. We perceived on our land­ing, a large and entire Sarcophagus, or stone coffin, serving as a fountain; the top stone, or lid, being per­forated to admit a current of water, which supplies the vent below; and on one side is an inscription. Near this was part of a fluted column, converted into a mortar for bruising corn; and in a shop was a remnant of tessellated pavement then recently disco­vered. [Page 91] In the streets, the walls and burying grounds, were pieces of marble, and fragments of pillars, with a few inscriptions.

In the evening, this being Sunday, and a festival, we were much amused with seeing the Greeks, who were singing and dancing, in several companies, to music, near the town; while their women were sitting in groups, on the roofs of the houses, which are flat, as spectators; at the same time enjoying the soft air and serene sky.

We were lodged much to our satisfaction in a large room, with a raised floor matted, in which we slept in our clothes, in company with two Jews and several Greeks; a cool breeze entering all night at the latticed windows, and sweetening our repose.

In these countries, on account of the heat, it is usual to rise with the dawn. About day-break, we received from the French consul, a Greek, with a respectable beard, a present of grapes, the clusters large and rich, with other fruits, all fresh gathered. We had besides, bread and coffee for breakfast, and good wines, particularly one sort, of an exquisite flavour, called Muscadell. The island is deservedly famous for the species of wine which produces this delicious liquor.

[Page 92]Mitylene, anciently Lesbos, situated a few leagues from Elca, in Lesser Asia, is of considerable extent, and though some part is mountainous and barren, it has many fruitful plains, which produce plenty of corn. The chief town is Castro, anciently Mity­lene, having a strong garrison to protect the island against the pyrates, which infest very much these seas. In this island are said to be upwards of a hundred villages. It has given birth to, and been the residence of, some of the greatest men of antiquity. Theophrastus, and Phanios, disciples of Aristotle, were natives of this island. The famous Arion, also was born here; whose skill in music charmed the Dol­phins, so that they carried him safe to the shore. Epicurus read lectures at Mitylene, and Aristotle re­sided there for many years. Though few islands indeed have produced men of greater genius, yet all their grave lectures it seems could not reform their morals; it being a proverb in Greece, when speak­ing of a profligate fellow, to say, he lived like a Lesbian.

In this island there still subsists two very singular institutions. The first is, that all estates, both real and personal, descend to the eldest daughters; whereby all the males, and the younger children of the female line are disinherited. This custom is of very ancient date, and is said to have been consented [Page 93] to by the males, out of love to their sisters, and to procure better establishments for them. The Myty­lenians, says Guys, informed me, that the men would have no difficulty in getting their right of inheritance restored, if they chose to claim the benefit of the Turkish law, which admits the children of both sexes to an equal share in the parents fortune. But the man, who should attempt to promote his interest by an appeal to a foreign power, would for ever ap­pear infamous in the eyes of his countrymen.

The other is, that in a small town, about three days journey from the capital, every stranger, upon his arrival, is compelled to marry one of the women; even though his stay should be for a night only. They generally present a maiden to him, whom he must absolutely espouse. Or, if he should prove to be a man of great property or importance, several females are presented, and he has the selection of one of them. Travellers of inferior rank have no choice, but must accept the lady offered to them; who, in that case, is generally the oldest and plainest in the district. A priest then appears, who performs the marriage ceremonies with great solemnity; a nuptial feast is prepared; and the new married couple pass the night together. The husband may, if he pleases, depart the next morning. If he has any money, or valuable effects, and chuses to make his [Page 94] ephemeral wife a present, it is received, and indeed expected. But if he should not, he may still pro­proceed upon his journey without molestation. The lady thinks herself sufficiently obliged to him, for having delivered her from the reproach of virginity; which it is ignominious either to retain, or even to surrender to a Mitylenian. The preservation of the lady's honour depends upon her being first married to a stranger. It is of no consequence whether he re­mains with her, or ever returns. At the expiration of a year, she may contract a new marriage with any man that presents himself; and should the for­mer husband appear, he would have no legal claim whatever upon account of his previous marriage. The first is, that a woman cannot marry to advantage, until she has had intercourse with a stranger. This custom is said to be of most ancient date, and the only alteration the teachers of the Christian religion have been able to effect is, that the cohabitation shall be preceded by a marriage according to the forms of the church now established there. By this compro­mise, the priest, the bride, and all parties quiet the scruples of their conscience.

The island Chios, now Scio, is by Strabo reckoned one hundred and twelve miles and an half in cir­cuit; and about fifty miles from the island Mitylene. The principal mountain, called anciently Pelinaeus, [Page 95] presents to view a long lofty range of bare rocks, re­flecting the sun; but the recesses at its feet, are dili­gently cultivated, and reward the husbandman by their rich produce. The slopes are clothed with rich vines. The groves of lemon, orange, and citron trees, regularly planted, at once perfume the air with the odour of their blossoms, and delight the eye with their golden fruit. Myrtles and jessamines are interspersed, with olive and palm-trees, and cypresses. Amid these, the tall minarets rise, and white houses glitter, dazzling the beholder.

Scio shared in the calamities which attended the destruction of the Greek empire. In the year 1093, when robbers and pirates were in possession of several considerable places; Trachas, a Turkish malecontent, took the city. In 1306, this was one of the islands which suffered from the exactions of the Grand Duke Roger, general of the Roman armies. The city was then seized by the Turks, who came before it with thirty ships, and put the inhabitants to the sword. In 1346, the Genoese took the city, and kept in possession of Scio about 240 years. They were de­prived of it by the Turks, in 1566, but the Chiotes in general, were still indulged with numerous and ex­traordinary privileges. They consisted of two par­ties, differing in their religious tenets; one of the Greek persuasion, which acknowledges the patriarch [Page 96] of Constantinople as their head; the other of the Latin or papists, which enjoyed a free toleration under the Turks, their priests celebrating mass as in Christendom, bearing the sacrament to the sick, going in solemn procession, habited, beneath ca­nopies, with censors in their hands, to the year 1694. The Venetians then attacked and took the castle, but afterwards abandoned it on a defeat of their fleets. The Latins, who had assisted them, dreading the punishment which their ingratitude de­served, fled, with their families and the bishop, and settled in the Morea. The Turks seized the churches, abolished the Genoese dress, and imposed on their vassals badges of their subjection; obliging them, among other articles, to alight from their horses at the city gates, and at the approach of any, even the meanest, Mussulman.

The town of Scio and its vicinity, resembles from the sea, Genoa and its territory, as it were in mi­niature. The ancient city had a good port, and sta­tions for eighty ships. The present, which occupies its site beneath Pelinaeus, is large, well-built, and po­pulous. A naked hill rises above it, with a house or two on the summit, where was the Acropolis of the Greeks, and afterwards the citadel of the Genoese. The port has an ordinary or ruinous mole, like that of Tenedos, almost level with the water. The town,

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[Page 97] says Chandler, appeared to us a collection of petty palaces, after the hovels of mud we had seen on the continent of Asia.

The beautiful Greek girls are the most striking ornaments of Scio. Many of these were sitting at the doors and windows, twisting cotton or silk, or employed in spinning, or needle-work, and accosted us with familiarity, bidding us welcome as we passed. The streets on Sundays and holidays are filled with them in groups. They wear short petticoats, reach­ing only to their knees, with white silk or cotton hose. Their head-dress, which is peculiar to the island, is a kind of turban, the linen so white and thin, it seemed to be snow. Their slippers are chiefly yellow, with a knot of red fringe at the heel. Some wore them fastened with a thong. Their gar­ments were of various colours; and their whole ap­pearance so fantastic and lively, as to afford us much entertainment. [See the plate, which exhibits the dress of the females of Scio, Naxos, and Mity­lene.] The Turks inhabit a separate quarter, and their women are concealed.

We returned to the ship at night, says Chandler, the Dragoman and Chiote lighting us with long paper lanthorns, to the boat, which waited at the beach. A great number of ghaunt dogs were collected by [Page 98] the shambles, which are at the outskirts of the town. They barked furiously at us, but were chid and re­pelled by our guides, whose language they under­stood. The public, we are told, maintains them; and they assemble when all is quiet. It is observable, that these animals were of old a like nuisance, being the Lemures of the ancients, who used to pacify them with food. The Arcadians in particular were accustomed to carry bread from their table, on ac­count of the nightly terrors, or the dogs, which they expected to assail them in the streets.

Prosperity is less friendly to antiquity, than deser­tion and depopulation. We saw here no stadium, theatre, or odeum; but so illustrious a city, with a marble quarry near it, could not be destitute of those necessary structures, and perhaps some traces might be discovered about the hills of the Acropolis. A few bas-reliefs and marble, are fixed in the walls, and over the gate-ways of the houses. We found by the sea-side, near the town, three stones with in­scriptions, which had been brought for ballast, from the continent of Asia. The Chiote, our attendant, was vociferous in his enquiries, to little purpose. We were more than once desired to look at a Ge­noese coat of arms for a piece of ancient sculpture, and a date in modern Greek for an old inscription.

[Page 99]The most curious remain is, that which without reason has been named, The School of Homer. It is on the coast, at some distance from the city, north­ward, and appears to have been an open temple of Cybele, formed on the top of a rock. The shape is oval, and in the centre is the image of the goddess, the head and an arm wanting. She is represented as usual, sitting. The chair has a lion carved on each side, and on the back. The area is bounded by a low ruin or seat, and about five yards over. The whole is hewn out of the mountain, is rude, and in­distinct; and probably of the most remote antiquity.

The wines of Scio have been celebrated as aiding digestion, as nutritious and pleasant. They were much esteemed by the Romans. Hortensius hoarded them; and Caesar, who was as generous as magni­ficent, dispensed them freely to the people at his triumphs and sacrifices. It is related, that the cul­ture of the vine was introduced by a son of Bacchus, called Oenopion, or, The Wine-drinker, whose sepulchre remained here in the second century; and that red wine, with the making of these liquors, was invented by the Chians. A rugged tract named Arvisia, was particularly famous for its produce, which has been extolled as ambrosial, and stiled a new nectar. We were treated with a variety of choice specimens, [Page 100] and it may be questioned if either the flavour, or qualities once so commended, be at all impaired.

To the peculiar possession of the Arvisian wine, no longer talked of, has succeeded the profitable cul­ture of the Lentiscus, or mastic tree. This em­ploys, as we were told, twenty-one villages; which are required to provide as many thousand okes of gum annually, for the use of the seraglio, at Con­stantinople. They procure it by boring the trunk with a small sharp iron, in the summer-months. In October their harvest is conveyed with music into the city, and lodged in the castle. The cadi, and officers who attend while it is weighed, have each a certain portion for their perquisite. The remainder is delivered to the farmer, or planter, to be disposed of for his own advantage. The Greeks of these villages have a separate governor, and enjoy many privileges. In particular they are allowed to wear a turban of white linen, and their churches have each a bell to call them to prayers, an indulgence of which they speak with much glee. The Asiatic la­dies are excessively fond of this gum, which they chew greedily, believing it good for the breath, and attributing to it various other excellent qualities.

Negropont, the ancient Eubaea, on the opposite coast, is the largest island in the Archipelago. It is [Page 101] ninety miles long, and about twenty broad. On the south-west side of the island the strait is so nar­row, that it is joined to the continent of Attica, by a bridge. The walls of the town are two miles in circumference, and the suburbs where the Christians inhabit, are extensive. The Captain Bashaw, or Admiral of the Turkish fleet, is the viceroy of this island, and the adjacent parts of Greece; where he has a deputy, and a fleet of gallies generally lie in the port. What is very singular in this island, is the irregularity of the tides in the Euripus; the strait which separates this island from the continent of Attica.

The tides are regular from the last three days of the old moon, to the eighth of the new; the ninth day they become irregular, and continue so to the thirteenth; the fourteenth they are regular again, and continue thus to the twenty-first; when they be­come irregular again, until the twenty-seventh. When they are irregular, they flow twelve, thirteen, or fourteen times, and ebb as often in the four and twenty hours. When the tides are regular, they observe the same rule according to the moon, as the tides in the ocean. But there is this difference at all times between the tides of the Euripus, and those of the ocean; that the tides of the Euripus never rise above a foot, whereas those of the ocean, in [Page 102] some places, rise twenty-four feet, in others not more than one foot. Between the ebbing and flow­ing of the Euripus, is a small space, where the water seems to stand still, which it is not observed to do in the ocean.

CHAP. XXIX. Rhodes.

THIS famous island is situated between the thirty-sixth and thirty-seventh degrees of Northern latitude, about sixty miles North-east of the island of Candia, two hundred and fifty to the West of Cyprus, and about twenty miles South-west of the continent of Asia Minor.

On our approach to this island, by the narrow strait that separates it from the continent of Asia Minor, a new scene, says Savary, presented itself to our view: an innumerable multitude of swans and cranes, sailing on the waters, and ranged in files, like soldiers in order of battle. Each of these [Page 103] files were upwards of a quarter of a league in length, and we counted thirty of them all swimming in a similar direction. The head of this army terminated in a point, and resembled the prow of a ship. They all kept their posts, notwithstanding the motion of the waves, with which they alternately rose and fell; their plumage, of a dazzling white, formed an ad­mirable contrast with the transparent greenness of the waters. Farther on, we discerned another troop, disposed in the same manner, all having their heads turned towards Africa, to which they steered in concert.

These birds, at the approach of winter, fly the snows and ice in the North, to seek a milder climate. They first arrive at the Black Sea, where they re­main for a time; and when the cold begins to in­crease too much there, again take their departure with a northerly wind, traverse Asia Minor, and rest a while on the shores of the Mediterranean. They afterwards pass this sea, partly by swimming, and partly by flying. In this manner they reach the coasts of Africa, and especially Egypt; where the great lakes Menzala, and Buelos, furnish them abun­dant food. There they remain all winter; but the storks, which appear to be fond of a still warmer climate, quit these lakes in November, proceed to­wards the Said, and end their journey at the lake [Page 104] Maeris, and the canal of Joseph. They free the country from innumerable frogs, insects, and rep­tiles, which abound in the marshes. Such is the regular progress of these birds. On a signal given from their leaders, these winged navigators rise in the air, and fly all together, directing their course towards the South. To cleave this element with more facility, they range themselves in the form of a triangle, the vertex of which is a very acute angle. What wisdom is displayed in the actions of creatures which to us seem destitute of reason! Fortunate, perhaps, in not possessing that faculty so frequently abused by man; they do not counter-act the views of nature, and enjoy, without alloy, that portion of happiness assigned them by the Creator.

Rhodes is about fifty miles in length, from North to South, and nearly half as much in breadth. An­cient historians assert, that it was called by the Greeks, Rhodes, from the great quantity of roses produced in it; Rhodes, signifying in that language, a rose. The poets feign it to have received its name from Rhoda, one of the daughters of Apollo, by Venus.

Several authors assert, that this island was formerly covered by the sea; and that it raised its humid head above the waters, and became an island; but they do [Page 105] not fix the time of this event, which is lost in the ob­scurity of ages: tradition however has preserved the memory of the fact, and the gravest writers of anti­quity have admitted it as certain. Delos and Rhodes, says Pliny, those celebrated islands, arose out of the sea. Ancient annals assert, says Pindar likewise, in one of his odes, that at the time when Jupiter and the immortals divided the earth, Rhodes had not yet appeared in the midst of the sea; but was still con­cealed in the profound abysses of the ocean. Philo attributes this event to the diminution of the waters of the sea; and, were this opinion well-founded, most of the islands of the Archipelago, being lower than Rhodes, must have had the same origin.

It is much more reasonable to imagine, says Savary, that volcanic fires, (such as in the fourth year of the one hundred and thirty-fifth Olympiad, threw up from the abysses of the ocean, Theracia, and Thera, the modern Santorin, and which, in our time, have raised above the waters, seven little islands near them) gave birth, in the remote ages of antiquity, to Rhodes.

In its center is a high mountain, which com­mands the whole island. It is called Artemira, and I imagine it to be the Mount Atabyris, says Savory, of Strabo. On it formerly was a temple of [Page 106] Jupiter, now no longer in existence; but its place is supplied by a small chapel, to which the Greeks make pilgrimages. Mount Artemira is very steep, so that it is impossible to ascend it on horseback; and on foot it takes four hours to reach the top. When there, we enjoy a most magnificent prospect. On the edge of the horizon, towards the North-east, we discover the summits of Mount Cragus; to the North, the high coast of Caramania; to the North-west, the small islands of the Archipelago, which appear like luminous points; to the South-west, the summit of Mount Ida, capped with clouds; and to the South, and South-east, the vast expanse of waters which bathe the coasts of Africa. This extensive prospect varies every instant, as it is more or less illumined by the rays of the sun; and exhibits a moving scenery, which astonishes and delights the beholder. After contemplating this grand picture, the eye looks down with pleasure on the island, which rounds it­self beneath our feet; and here and there we per­ceive, on the tops of the most lofty hills, ancient pines planted by nature, that in ages past formed thick forests, which the Rhodians carefully preserved for their navy. At present these trees are not very nu­merous, as the Turks make use of them to build the Grand Signior's caravelles, and cut down without ever planting. Their solitary shades are at present [Page 107] the retreats of wild asses, which are remarkable for their surprising swiftness.

Beyond these first heights we meet with various amphitheatres of eminences, which become gradually lower, till we reach the sea. The hills in general are covered with thorns, or brambles; but on some of them we find vineyards, which still produce the perfumed wine in such request among the ancients. This wine is very pleasant to the taste, and leaves an exquisite flavour in the mouth. The Rhodians added the luxury of drinking it out of voluptuous cups. It would be easy to multiply these vines, and cover with them hills of a great extent, which are now lying without cultivation.

On the shady summit of Mount Artemira, a great number of springs arise, which fertilize the plains and vallies. Around the villages, we find a few cul­tivated spots, and orchards; where the fig, pome­granate, and orange-tree, though planted without regularity or taste, afford pleasing shades. The peach-trees, which in the time of Pliny produced no fruit at Rhodes, are at present very fruitful; but the peaches they bear have neither the flavour nor the delicious juice of ours, as in this country they knew nothing of the art of grafting. The palm flourishes here, as in the days of Theophrastus, but produces no [Page 108] fruit. There seems to be a certain line drawn by nature for each species of tree, beyond which some will not grow at all, and others become barren.

In passing over the island, we traverse, with regret, beautiful vallies, without finding so much as a village, a cottage, or even the smallest traces of cultivation. The bottoms of the rocks are covered with wild roses. Myrtles in flower perfume the air with their delicious emanations; and tufts of the laurel-rose adorn the banks of rivulets, with their beautiful flowers. The inhabitants suffer the earth to nourish an infinity of useless plants, without endeavouring to direct, or profit, by its fecundity.

This island enjoys the happiest temperature ima­ginable, and its air is pure and salubrious. No epi­demical disorders are known, but what are imported from other countries. The westerly winds, which prevail for nine months in the year, moderate the heats of summer; and in the winter, ice, snow, and even hoar-frost are unknown. In the dullest day the sun disperses the clouds, and shews himself, at least, for some hours; through the whole year he enlightens the island with his beneficent rays, fertilizes the earth, and purifies the air, which is naturally humid. "Ti­berius" says Suctonius, "made a stay for some time [Page 109] at Rhodes, so enchanted was he with the beauty and salubrious climate of the island."

Ancient Rhodes seems to have surpassed all the cities of the world, in beauty and magnificence. Strabo, who had travelled through several countries, and had seen Rome, Alexandria, Memphis, and the most celebrated cities of Asia, preferred Rhodes to any of them. "The beauty," says he, "of its har­bours, streets and walls, and the magnificence of its monuments, render it so much superior to all other cities, as to admit of no comparison." Aristides likewise adds, "Within the walls of Rhodes, we ne­ver saw a small house by the side of a large one. All were of the same height, and the same order of ar­chitecture; so that the whole city seemed but one single edifice. Wide streets crossed it from side to side; and these so well disposed, that from whatever part it was viewed, the prospect was truly magnificent. The walls and towers of a wonderful extent, height, and beauty, above all, excited our wonder. The lofty summits of the latter, served as a pharos to ma­riners. Such indeed was the magnificence of Rhodes, that without having seen it, the imagination cannot possibly form any conception of its grandeur. All the parts of this immense town, mutually connected with each other, and most beautifully proportioned, formed a perfect whole, of which the walls were the [Page 110] defence and ornament. Rhodes was the only city, of which it might be said, it was fortified like a place of war, and decorated like a palace."

To this description we must add superb temples, whose porticos were enriched with paintings of the first masters; a multitude of colossuses, and statues of astonishing workmanship; a magnificent theatre, extensive arsenals, and fleets arriving from every part of the world, to pay the tribute due to the arts, from wealth. Pliny, after enumerating the most famous colossal statues of antiquity, adds, "But none of these are to be compared to that which the Rhodians dedicated to the sun. This Colossus was the work of Chares, a pupil of Lysippus. It was seventy cubits high, (about one hundred and five feet) and was thrown down by an earthquake, fifty-six years after it was first erected. In this state its appearance is still astonishing. Few men are able to grasp the thumb; and its fingers are larger than entire statues usually are: where it has been broken, we may discover, within-side, deep cavities filled with enormous stones, which the artist had introduced, to render it firm on its base. It is said to have been the labour of twelve years, and that it cost three hundred talents; a sum which the Rhodians had gained, by the sale of the warlike machines left by Demetrius, before their walls, when he raised the siege. This city contains an hun­dred [Page 111] other colossal statues, less indeed than this, but each of them superb enough to render any city illus­trious, where they were erected. To these are to be added, five gigantic statues of the gods, the invalu­able works of Bryaxis.

Some modern historians, wishing to add something to the marvellous, have pretended the feet rested on two rocks, at the entrance of the harbour; and that vessels passed with all their sails set, between its legs. This fable deserves no regard, since it is contradicted by the silence of antiquity. On the contrary, histo­rians who mention the fall of the Colossus, as well as those who saw it, testify that it was lying on the ground. Strabo says, "The Colossus of Rhodes, overthrown by a violent earthquake, and at present lying on the ground, has its knees broken. The Rhodians are forbidden, by an oracle, from raising it up. This colossal statue, the most beautiful ever consecrated to the gods by man, is placed among the seven wonders of the world." Had it been situated at the entrance of the harbour, it must have fallen into the sea, says Savary; which circumstance they would not have omitted. It was still in its fallen state, in the days of Pliny; as it likewise was, till the reign of the Emperor Constans; when Moawiah, general of the Caliph Othman, taking Rhodes, des­troyed this statue; which had well deserved to be [Page 112] enumerated among the seven wonders of the world. He sold it to a Jew, who conveyed its fragments to Emesa, on nine hundred camels, nine hundred and thirty-two years after it was first erected. Constantine Porphyrogenetus says it was sold to a Jew at Edessa, and increases prodigiously the number of camels, which carried off its fragments, making them amount to thirty thousand.

The arts seemed to vie with each other, to con­tribute to the embellishment of Rhodes. Painting likewise disputed the palm with sculpture. The tem­ples contained a multitude of admirable works, among which, says Strabo, "two pictures of Protogenes were particularly admired; the one representing Jalysas, and the other a satyr, standing upon a column, with a partridge at his feet. The latter picture, being ex­posed to public view, the bird attracted universal ad­miration; so that the satyr, in the finishing of which the artist had employed his utmost attention and abi­lities, was almost entirely disregarded. The wonder and applause of the spectators was still more increased, when, on bringing some partridges before the picture, they began to call, as soon as they perceived the painted bird; to the great delight of the multitude. Protogenes was so mortified at the preference given to what be intended merely as an ornament, that he [Page 113] requested permission, from, the prefect of the temple, to efface the partridge, and actually did efface it."

Pliny thus describes the picture of Jalysus, men­tioned by Strabo. "The most beautiful of the works of Protogenes, is the picture of Jalysus, which is still to be seen in the temple of Peace, at Rome. To secure it, if possible, against the injuries of time, the painter placed four layers of colours one over the other, hoping that if the upper ones should decay, the lower would still remain. In this picture we see a dog exquisitely painted; chance having conspired with art to render it perfect. The painter, after finishing every part of the animal, and having sur­mounted every difficulty, was so far satisfied with his work; but one thing still remained, which he despaired of being able perfectly to express; this was the froth which whitens the mouth of a dog when panting; to represent this defied his utmost art, and in every attempt he only seemed to depart further from nature. The foam appeared always painted, and never natural. He was the more mor­tified, as he was never satisfied, with any thing less than what might be mistaken for nature itself. Often did he efface his colours, and as often change his brushes, without success. Irritated at the im­potence of his art, he peevishly threw his spunge against the picture, which, by accident, struck the [Page 114] mouth of the dog, and disposed the colours more happily than his utmost skill had been able to effect, chance for once happily imitating nature."

Protogenes, and Apelles, his cotemporary, imi­tated nature so perfectly, that their pictures seemed living and animated beings. Let it not be imagined, however, that the artist born with the happiest ta­lents, can ever attain this high degree of perfection, without prodigious efforts. Genius must be seconded by the most persevering labour, and a profound knowledge of every science allied to his art. Proto­genes was seven years in finishing the picture of Ja­lysus; and, if Pliny may be credited, during the whole time lived entirely on lupins, lest by too much in­dulging his appetite, he should obstruct the activity of his mind.

Do not imagine that Rhodes contained only a small number of excellent paintings. The porticos of its temples were decorated with pictures of infinite value. "The possession of one only of these immortal works", says Aristides, "would have sufficed to render any city illustrious."

The sciences and literature ever go hand in hand with the fine arts. For the cultivation of these also were the Rhodians distinguished. Their schools [Page 115] attained so high a degree of celebrity, that they were resorted to by some of the greatest men of Rome; among whom were Cato, Marcus Brutus, Cicero, Cassius, Caesar, and Pompey.

To what must we attribute the flourishing state of the Rhodian republic? To the fertility of the soil, the beauty of the climate, or the excellent situation of the island? These advantages no doubt contri­buted to, but were not the efficient cause of, the wealth of the Rhodians, which was owing to the goodness of their laws, and the wisdom of their go­vernment, the only solid foundations of the glory of empires. "We cannot too much admire", says Strabo, "the care with which the Rhodians preserve their excellent code of laws, and the wisdom con­spicuous in the whole constitution of their republic, and especially in the management of their navy. This has long preserved to them the empire of the sea, which they have freed from pirates, and has secured to them the friendship of the Romans."

Rhodes was the emporium of every trading na­tion. The mariner who touched there, says Aristides, "beheld with astonishment several harbours, formed by art, of piers of stone, which advanced far into the sea. One of these received the vessels from Ionia; another those from Caria. Here a mole of­fered [Page 116] shelter to the fleets from Egypt, Cyprus, and Phoenicia, as if expressly formed for each respective city. Near to the ports, arsenals reared their lofty heads, and astonished the beholder with their mag­nificence."

The Rhodians were worthy to inhabit this city. Their morals were mild and amiable, and their manners polished without affectation. When they appeared in public, they were remarkable for the gravity of their deportment. They were not seen loitering in the streets, but seriously reproved fo­reigners whom they saw strolling about in incon­siderate idleness. At their tables, civility and urba­nity presided; and all excess was banished. They conversed in a free and friendly manner with their guests, and never mortified them by assuming airs of importance. "These are the virtues", says Aristides, "which render your city so renowned. These raise you above every other nation, and at­tract the love and admiration of every people. Your ancient and truly Grecian manners render you far more illustrious than your ports, your walls, or your arsenals."

Such a people could not but be humane. As for myself, says Savary, I doubt, whether men possess a right to put other men to death, though guilty of [Page 117] enormous crimes. The Rhodians, however, spared their fellow-citizens, the horror of these bloody tra­gedies, which dishonour our cities. Far from pre­paring scaffolds in public places; far from hiring despicable mercenaries to publish in the streets sen­tences which condemn unhappy wretches to the flames, or to the wheel; the law prohibited any exe­cutioner from entering Rhodes. Even the sentence of death was pronounced without the walls of the city. And they would have considered it as impiety, to stain their streets with human blood.

Ancient writers nevertheless, particularly Athe­naeus, reproach the Rhodians with vices inseparable from great wealth, luxury, and voluptuousness. "They build", likewise, says Stratonicus, "as if they were immortal, and serve their tables with as much profusion, as if they had but a few days to live." The vessels they made use of in their repasts, were of an exquisite invention, and greatly renowned for the pleasure they gave in drinking. In their composition they employed myrrh, the flower of an odoriferous reed, saffron, balm, amoma, and cina­mon baked together. Anacreon reciting the number of his mistresses says, "for Rhodes, write down two thousand." And we find the ancients call it the city of gallantry.

[Page 118]The government of Rhodes was always repub­lican. At first the supreme power was lodged with the people. The nobles afterwards got possession of it, and formed an aristocracy. But they did not abuse their power. Humanity led them to succour their fellow-citizens. They took care to prevent that wretchedness which is so destructive to popula­tion; and created magistrates, whose sole employ­ment was to prevent, or relieve, the necessities of the poor; to provide these with wholesome food, and employ them in the public works. This excellent regulation secured tranquility to the state, which never experienced those violent convulsions that at length overthrew Athens and Rome.

It was against this city, according to Diodorus Si­culus, that Demetrius advanced his moving citadel of wood, plated with iron, to batter down its walls. This edifice, called the Helepolis, was of a prodigi­ous size; it had nine stories, and might be moved every way. Catapultas were employed against the walls, which threw prodigious stones, and beams of an immense size, headed with iron; while battering rams, two hundred feet in length, and worked by a thousand men at once, were shaking them with re­peated strokes. A multitude of archers, placed on the top of the moving tower, showered down their arrows on the besieged. Thirty thousand soldiers [Page 119] were employed to put the Helepolis in motion. The courage of a free people, however, triumphed over the fleets of Demetrius, the numerous army he had in pay, and all the military talents this great captain displayed, during a whole year, in his various attacks.

In fine, ever observant of their laws, and careful to maintain the commerce, to which they owed their power, they remained independent till the reign of Vespasian, who first reduced this island to a Roman province. The power and riches of the inhabitants then disappeared; and since that time, Rhodes, like Candia, has been only one of the fine islands of the Archipelago.

The modern town, built on the ruins of the ancient city, occupies only a quarter of its extent, and pos­sesses no remarkable antiquities. Not even the smallest remains of the theatres, temples, and porticos, are to be discovered. Statues, colossuses, paintings, all have been carried off. To wide and skilfully dis­posed streets; to those regularly ranged edifices, where each front presented the same order of archi­tecture, have succeeded narrow and winding lanes, and houses without taste, regularity, or decoration. Were a Rhodian, of the days of Alexander, to re­visit his native city, he would find himself absolutely [Page 120] a stranger, he would not recollect the smallest monu­ment, but must imagine himself transported into a country inhabited by barbarians.

The knights of Rhodes, have left various traces of their residence in the island. Their armorial ensigns, and some busts of the grand masters, sculptured in re­lief on marble, decorate the front of several buildings. The walls and towers they erected, still subsist, and bear the glorious mark of an obstinate defence. The church of St. John has been converted into a mosque. The vast hospital, in which Christian charity received the faithful from all parts of the world, and furnished them with succours, at this day serves as a granary for the Turks. The barbarians suffer it to go to ruin, as well as the government-house, in which we find an­tique marbles and columns.

Rhodes has only two harbours. The smallest faces the East, and is called Darca. Rocks at a small dis­tance from each other, in the front, block the en­trance, and only leave room for one vessel to pass. Moles raised on each side defend it from every wind. The Turks, who since the conquest of the island, have not removed from it a single grain of sand, suffer it gradually to choak up. There is only water enough for merchant ships, and even these are obliged to unload a part of their cargo before they can enter it. [Page 121] Ships go thither to careen, and caravelles are built there for the Grand Signior. This handsome bason might be made fit for the reception of large vessels, if the same means were employed to clear it, as are used at Marseilles and other ports.

The other harbour is large, it bears the name of Rhodes; and in this frigates of thirty guns may an­chor. Vessels are here defended from Westerly winds, which prevail the greatest part of the year. North, and North-easterly winds blow full into the harbour, and when violent, ships are in danger of driving on the rocks, or against the walls of the town. Though Rhodes has retained none of its ancient splendor, its advantageous situation, on the point of a promontory, its houses disposed in the form of an am­phitheatre, the solid structure of its walls, and its towers advanced upon the shoals, give it an air of strength and importance to mariners as they approach the city.

The island of Rhodes contains two cities; the ca­pital of the same name, and the ancient Lindus. Of the three cities founded, according to the ancient fable, by the children of the sun, Lindus alone has left any remarkable vestiges. Calirus and Jalisus, mentioned by Strabo, are totally destroyed. "Leaving Rhodes," says Strabo, "and sailing on with the coast to the [Page 122] right, the first city we arrive at is Lindus, situated on the South-side of the island, and opposite Alexandria. The traveller then admires the famous temple of the Lindian Minerva, built by the daughters of Danaus." Cadmus enriched it with magnificent offerings. The inhabitants, here, consecrated the seventh ode of Pin­dar's Olympics, which they inscribed in letters of gold. The ruins of this noble edifice, are still visible on an edifice near the sea. The remains of its walls, which were built with enormous stones, discover the Egyp­tian taste. On the highest part of the rock, we per­ceive the ruins of a castle that served as a fortress to the town; it occupied a large space which is now filled with rubbish.

The modern Lindus, is situated at the foot of this hill; a deep bay, which runs up far into the land, serves it as a harbour. Before the building of Rhodes, this port was resorted to by the fleets of Egypt and of Tyre. It was enriched by commerce; and a wise government, profiting by its harbour and situation, might still render it a flourishing city.

The soil of Rhodes is dry and sandy, but the nu­merous springs with which it is watered, render it ex­tremely fertile. Corn thrives here admirably. Its yellow and heavy grain, affords a flour as white as snow, which makes excellent bread. If half of the [Page 123] country capable of growing it were cultivated, the Rho­dians would have far more than sufficient for their consumption, and might export to foreign countries. But the Turks are no cultivators; and the Greeks, dis­couraged by the fear of not enjoying the fruits of their labour, let the finest fields lie barren. It is cer­tain, that a single word from the Pacha, would enrich the country with the treasures of agriculture. He is absolute, and has but to assure the husbandman of his protection; but he knows not whether he shall him­self be in place to-morrow, and would be fearful of labouring for the advantage of his successor. Besides, a still more powerful reason prevents him from en­deavouring any improvement: the misery of the country constitutes his wealth. Rhodes not furnish­ing sufficient corn for the support of its inhabitants, he sends to purchase the grain of Caramania, at a low rate. He has this conveyed to market in small quan­tities, to enhance the price. But what is still more oppressive, is, that the rate fixed for the first bushel of the new crop, serves as the standard price for all that is sold during the remainder of the year. This infamous monopoly, which rapidly enriches those who are concerned in it, is productive of the most fatal con­sequences to commerce, agriculture, and the industry of the inhabitants. What, indeed, can be expected from a nation in want of the first necessaries of life? What exchanges can they make with foreign coun­tries, [Page 124] if their own be insufficient for their support, and they have neither art nor manufactures? And, indeed, the universal poverty, and frightful depopu­lation of the island, are indelible proofs of the vices of the government.

There are computed to be seven thousand families in the island; which, reckoning five persons to a fa­mily, gives thirty-six thousand inhabitants nearly; of these, two-thirds are Turks, and the remainder Greeks. But the island is more than forty leagues in circumference. Here then is a vast space, occupied by fewer people than is contained in a moderate town in England. The state of the revenues of the island, perfectly corresponds with the small number and poverty of the Rhodians.

TABLE of the Revenues of the Island of Rhodes.

[Page 125]Here then we have ninety thousand piastres, which the island produces the Grand Signior; from which we must deduct 55,500 piastres, employed in paying the guards of the towns and villages, the inspectors of estates, repairs of the mosques; and bread and soap distributed to the poor. So that the Grand Signior receives only 34,500 piastres.

A piastre is equal to half-a-crown English.

From this calculation, the accuracy of which may be depended on, it appears, that this large island pro­duces less to the Ottoman emperors, than many estates of only some miles extent in this country, are worth to their possessors. Let it not be asked what is be­come of that powerful people, who, profiting by their advantageous situation, their forests, their har­bours, and the fertility of their country, covered the Mediterranean with their victorious fleets;—they have lost their liberty, and with it science and national genius. Rhodes now only affords a few indigent wretches without commerce, arts, or industry; be­cause they can have no property, who wander over the desolate plains of this once flourishing island.

The Turks born in this island, are of a milder disposition, and possess more politeness and urbanity, than in the other provinces of the empire. Less ex­posed [Page 126] than the Greeks to the rapacity of the great, and peaceably enjoying their property, they lead a happy life in the bosom of their families; and among them, we meet with chearfulness, integrity, and social manners. The Greeks live under the same sky; but accustomed perpetually to crouch beneath the iron sceptre that crushes them, they become hy­pocritical, deceitful, and dishonest. The proudest of mankind in prosperity, and equally mean and cringing in adversity. They are infected with all the vices which are the consequence of servitude; yet, compelled as it were by the force of climate, they sometimes indulge in merriment. Their joy, however, is not the mild and tranquil joy of the Turks, but a clamorous and irrational mirth; the festivity, in short, of slaves; who, forgetting for a moment their wretch­ed condition, dance amid their chains.

The Pacha is the governor-general of the island. He possesses absolute power, and presides at once over civil justice, and military discipline. He no­minates to employments that fall vacant; sentences to death, and is to watch over the maintenance of good order. All private litigations are, as in the other islands and governments, decided before the tribunal of the judge, called the Cadi. His decisions are without appeal. He partakes also of the ecclesiastical jurisdiction with the Mufti.

[Page 127]The Greeks and Jews have a chief named the Mon­teveli, who is their intendant general; and has the regulation of the capitation tax. He decides all dif­ferences that arise among them, without its being ne­cessary to have recourse to any other jurisdiction. When the Cadi has condemned a Greek or Jewish debtor to pay the money due to his creditor, he sends his sentence to the Monteveli; who, if he thinks proper, carries it into execution.

The Rhodians have no troops in their island. They are not warriors. Knowing themselves incapable of resisting the weakest enemy who may attack them, in time of war they hire soldiers from Caramania, to defend their city. These are undisciplined troops, who abandon themselves to all the excesses of a blind ferocity, and are more to be dreaded by the inha­bitants than the enemy.

CHAP. XXX. Candia.

THE ancient Crete, called also Macaron, or Macaronesus, i. e. the fortunate island, in al­lusion to its fertility and the purity of the air, is one of the largest islands in the Mediterranean, being in length above two hundred miles, and in breadth, in some parts, about sixty. This island, which in some measure separates the Archipelago from the Mediter­ranean, is formed by a long chain of mountains, extending from West to East, says Tott, and may be considered as a continuation of those which, from the North of the Adriatic, pass over the Morea, and appear again in Caramania, where they join Mount Libanon. The mountains standing thick together on the South-side, among which Mount Ida, that fa­mous mountain of antiquity, towers far above the rest, render this island almost inaccessible towards the Mediterranean, whence the North-side derives all the advantages of culture, of which a bad soil can be susceptible. It is likewise to the excellence of the climate, that it owes the richness of its pro­ductions.

[Page 129]Among all the countries I have seen, says Savary, there is none whose temperature is so healthy and so agreeable as that of Crete. The heats there are not excessive; and violent cold is absolutely unknown in the plains. The winter, properly speaking, begins only in December, and ends in January. During this short season, snow never falls in the plain, and rarely is the surface of the water frozen. The name of winter is given to these two months from the heavy rains, the cloudy sky, and violent North winds, which blow at this time of the year. No sooner is the month of February past, than the earth is adorned with flowers and harvests. The rest of the year is almost one continued fine day. We never experienced, as in France, says the above author, those cruel returns of piercing cold, which nip the opening flowers, destroy the fruits of the year, and are so prejudicial to delicate constitutions. The sky is continually serene, and the winds mild and temperate. The glorious luminary of the day runs his majestic course through the azure vault, and ripens the fruits of the hills and plains. Nor are the nights less delightful: a delicious coolness then pre­vails; and the air, less charged with vapours than with us, discovers a greater number of stars to the observer. The blue vault of heaven sparkles with gold, diamonds, and rubies, which seem to dart forth brighter fires. Nothing can be more mag­nificent [Page 130] than this spectacle, which the Cretans enjoy for ten months in the year.

To the charms of so delightful a climate, are added other advantages, which enhance their value. The island of Crete has hardly any marshes. The waters there are never stagnant; but flowing from the sum­mits of the mountains, in innumerable streams, form delightful fountains, or small rivers which lose them­selves in the sea. The elevation of the ground causes them to have a rapid course, and they form neither lakes nor ponds. For this reason, insects cannot deposit their eggs in them, which would be carried into the sea; and the inhabitants are not tormented, as in Egypt, with those clouds of gnats, of which the sting is so painful. For the same reason also, the air is not loaded with those dangerous va­pours which rise from the marshes in wet countries.

The hills and rising grounds, are clothed with va­rious species of thyme, savory, serpolet, odoriferous rock-roses, and a variety of plants. Myrtles and lau­rel-roses border the rivulets which meander through the vallies. On every side the country presents groves of orange, lemon, and almond-trees. The Arabian jessamine blooms in the gardens, which in the spring are decorated with beds of violets. Vast fields are covered with saffron; wild dittany, [Page 131] which has a very fragrant smell, lines the crevices of the rocks: in a word, the mountains, vallies, and plains, exhale, on all sides, aromatic odours, which perfume the air, and render it delicious to respire. Clouds, ice, and snow, are afflicting objects, which throw a mournful veil over the face of nature; they present to the eye, gloomy images, and excite in the mind melancholy reflections, and painful feelings in the heart. Nay, not unfrequently, they are in­jurious to the health, and produce a general indis­position. But a clear sky has an effect the very reverse.

When we travel through different countries, or even through distant provinces of the same kingdom, the change of air is perceived in a very sensible man­ner. This impression indeed is greater or less, ac­cording to the greater or less degree of sensibility of every individual; nor does it wholly depend on the accidental circumstances of cold or heat. We feel in respiring the vital element, an odour, a taste, a savour, which vary according to circumstances, and the varieties of climates and seasons. These sensa­tions produce pleasure, or an uncomfortable feel­ing, as they are suitable, or contrary, to the actual state of our constitution; nor are we to esteem this extraordinary: the exhalations from the earth, waters, plants, and flowers, incorporate with the atmo­sphere, [Page 132] and compose the air we breathe. Every man of understanding, therefore, who has any regard for his health, ought not to be indifferent concerning the choice of his habitation; as, on it, in a great measure, depends the preservation of that most va­luable blessing.

The instant I landed on the coast of Alexandria, says Savary, I enhaled a fiery air, with which I was nearly suffocated; I felt a moist and debilitating heat, which rendered me languid, and deprived me of all strength of body, or vigour of mind. I concluded it was impossible I could live in such a country; but a copious perspiration presently taking place, the violent heat of my blood diminished, and I soon found myself greatly relieved. In the beginning of the spring, when the orange-trees round Damietta were in flower, and filled the atmosphere with their fragrance; when heat, as yet only moderate, left the body in possession of its energy and activity, I tasted, in the most lively manner, the charms of so delicious a temperature, breathed with rapture a fresh and perfumed air, and every pulsation of the heart was an enjoyment. This pleasure, though every moment repeated, never produced satiety.

In the same places, when in the month of July, the husbandman had turned up the mud of the mo­rasses, [Page 133] to plant his rice, the atmosphere became loaded with exhalations, which oppressed the breast, and obstructed respiration. The faces of the inha­bitants were discoloured; sickness became general; and, had not the northerly winds, which prevail at that season, chased away the malignant vapours, and the earth been very soon covered with harvests, the most violent distempers would have ensued.

In fact, so large a river as the Nile, flowing through, and periodically inundating Egypt, cannot but render the air humid, which moderates the heat of the sun, and renders the country habitable. The air there is very salutary to the lungs; disorders of the breast are unknown; and Galen, who studied at Alexandria, and was well acquainted with the na­ture of the climate, sent thither all his patients with pulmonary complaints, and they commonly found the cure they sought.

The beauty of man, his powers and his health, depend in general on the climate he inhabits; his food, and the nature of his occupations. In Crete, the Turk who is not tormented by ambition, or the thirst of wealth, whose mind is never occupied by the chimeras of intrigue, who knows not envy, nor exhausts himself in the pursuit of sciences, to which we too often sacrifice our health; the Turk who [Page 134] lives on wholesome and simple aliments, and passes his days amid the flowery fields he cultivates, grows and rises into a Colossus. The salubrity of the air he breathes, the sweet temperature he enjoys, the delightful scenes perpetually before his eyes, and the peaceful life he leads, all contribute to strengthen his body, and preserve his vigour, even beneath the snows of age. Hither the sculptor, devoted to his art, and emulating the ancients, should come in search of models. He would see young men of eighteen or twenty, six feet high, who possess all the graces peculiar to their time of life. Their muscles have still a little plumpness, which will soon assume a bolder character; their cheeks, gracefully rounded, display an animated carnative, and their eyes are full of fire.

In men arrived at maturity, the features and out­lines are more developed. Their legs are naked; and when their robes are lifted up, the muscles ap­pear boldly prominent: their arms exhibit those signs of strength, which were visible in those of the ancient athletae: their shoulders are broad, their chests full, and their necks never straitened by the ligatures, which from infancy confine those of the Europeans, retain all the beautiful proportions as­signed to that part by nature: no tight breeches or garters bind the legs below the knee; that part of [Page 135] their leg therefore is never distorted or contracted, nor is the knee too prominent. In a word, all their limbs, unaccustomed to the fetters which confine our motion, and which habit alone could render sup­portable, preserve their natural form, and that ad­mirable symmetry which constitutes male beauty. When they stand erect, all parts of the body pro­perly support each other. When they walk, they move with an air of dignity, and bodily strength and firmness of mind display themselves in every gesture. Their majestic eye announces that they are ac­customed to command. Pride and severity, may sometimes be apparent in their looks, but never meanness.

The Mahometans, who inhabit the island of Crete, are such, says Savary, as I have here represented them. They are in general from six feet to six feet five inches high. They resemble the ancient sta­tues; and in fact such were the men the artists of antiquity took for their models. In a country where the men are so remarkable for bodily strength, and dignity of aspect, it may fairly be concluded, that the women cannot be wanting in beauty and the graces. Their dress does not prevent the growth of any part of their body, but is accommodated to those admirable proportions with which the Creator has decorated the most lovely of his works. All [Page 136] are not handsome, all do not possess charms; but some of them are extremely beautiful, particularly among the Turks. In general the Cretan women have a luxuriant bosom; a neck gracefully rounded; black eyes, full of fire; a small mouth; a nose per­fectly well made, and cheeks which health tinges with the softest vermillion. But the oval of their faces is different from that of the women in Europe, and the character of their beauty is peculiar to their nation.

During the first year or two of my travels in the Eastern countries, accustomed as I had been to the elegant head dress of the ladies of France, I could not endure the black hair of the Oriental women. So difficult is it for reason to disengage itself from the fetters of habit. But after more mature reflec­tion, their long black locks, artificially plaited, with­out either powder or pomatum, appeared to me well calculated to heighten their beauty. The ebon co­lour of their hair seemed to give more lustre to the fairness of their complexions, and the glow of their cheeks. The rose-water, with which they wash their hair, exhaled an agreeable perfume; and I was de­lighted with the natural beauty of their tresses. I then changed my opinion, and could not help wish­ing that the European women would not spoil one of [Page 137] their most charming ornaments with the colours of art, so much inferior to those of nature.

The Greeks, says Savary, who inhabit the island of Candia, partake indeed with the Turks, the ad­vantages of a serene sky, a pure air, and a happy temperature; but they are oppressed by tyrants. They live in perpetual anxiety and apprehension, and frequently terminate their miserable lives in despair. Excepting the Spaehiots, who are less exposed to tyranny; these unfortunate beings have neither the lofty stature, the strength, nor the beauty of the Turks. The stamp of servitude is visible in their faces; their looks are crouching, and their features distorted by knavery and meanness. Such is the character of those Cretans, who were once so jealous of their liberty; those experienced and intrepid warriors, who were courted by all na­tions; and those friends to the arts, which they cul­tivated amid their shady groves. At present, cow­ardly and indolent, they live in debasement, and we may read in their degraded countenances, that they are slaves.

The island of Candia does not produce a multitude of reptiles. Very few serpents, and those only small ones, are to be found in it. The ancients affirmed, that this beautiful country contained no noxious [Page 138] animals. Pliny excepts the tarantula, which Belon, who has written on the natural and artificial curiosities of Greece, calls Phalangion. They assert its poison is mortal. It is a sort of spider, almost an inch long, with a scaly coat. It hollows out in the sides of little eminences, a pretty deep hole, which it covers with a strong web of cross threads glued together. This little passage, at the bottom of which it lodges, is closed externally by a valve, that prevents the rain from penetrating; and which it opens when going in quest of insects, and closes again when it re-enters. If two or three of these tarantulas are shut up in a glass phial, they sting each other, and die soon after.

The quadrupeds of the island are not mischievous; we neither meet with lions, tigers, bears, wolves, nor even foxes; in short, no dangerous animal. The wild-goats are the only inhabitants of the forests, which cover the high mountains, and have nothing to fear but the gun of the hunter. Hares are found on the eminences and in the plains. The sheep feed in safety on the various species of wild thyme. They are folded every evening, and the shepherd sleeps in peace, free from the dread of seeing death and havock spread among his flock by wild beasts.

It is a happiness for the Cretans, that they are neither troubled with musquitos, nor have any thing [Page 139] to apprehend from the poison of serpents, or the fe­rocity of wild beasts. The young and lively maiden may dance upon the grass, without finding, like Eu­rydice, a viper concealed among the flowers. The ancients ascribed these singular advantages to its being the birth-place of Jupiter. "The Cretans, says Aelian, celebrate in their songs the bounties of Jupiter, and the favour he has granted their island, his native and nursing land, of being free from every noxious animal, and of not even nourishing those which may be brought into it."

Among the medicinal plants, dittany holds the first rank. It is astonishing, how highly the ancients have extolled its virtues. Theophrastus, who gives us the received opinions of his time, says, "Of all the known plants which the earth has produced, dittany is the most precious." The father of medicine, the celebrated Hippocrates, ordered an infusion of it to be given in several disorders of women, and especially during the pains of a difficult labour. For this reason, the statue of Diana, was, according to some writers, crowned with dittany.

I shall not here repeat, says Savary, in his descrip­tion of this island, with several authors, that the wild goats when wounded by the arrows of the hunter, freed themselves from them by eating this precious [Page 140] plant; that it possessed the virtue of healing them, even when the arrows were poisoned; and that its odour was so powerful as to drive away venemous reptiles; and destroy them, if it only touched them. These accounts are evidently exaggerated; but we are pos­sibly, on the other hand, too indifferent to the real utility medicine might derive from this plant. Its leaf is extremely balsamic, and the flower diffuses a delicious fragrance. The inhabitants, at present, apply it very successfully on many occasions. An in­fusion of the dried leaf, with a little sugar, yields a liquor more pleasing to the palate, and more finely flavoured than tea. It immediately removes languor of the stomach, and restores it after digestion.

Dittany is peculiar to the island of Crete, and is not to be found in any other country. It grows in the crevices of the rocks, and at the foot of precipices. Pliny has not sufficiently discriminated it; "Dittany, says he, has slender branches, resembles penny-royal, and is hot and rough to the taste; its leaves only are made use of; it has neither flower, stalk, nor seed." Virgil's description is more conformable to truth. "This plant bears shagged leaves, which are crowned with purple flowers. The wild goats find in it a remedy, when wounded by the winged arrow."

[Page 141]In a country where the air is extremely pure, dis­orders are not frequent; there are no epidemical diseases in this island. Fevers are, indeed, frequent in the summer, but not attended with danger; and the plague would never make its appearance, had not the Turks destroyed the lazaretto's, erected by the Venetians. Since then, it has been brought occa­sionally by the ships from Smyrna and Constanti­nople.

But a malady, which though less dangerous than the plague, has something even more hideous in its symp­toms, infects this beautiful country. I mean the le­prosy. This disorder had its ancient seat in Syria, whence it has passed into many of the islands of the Archipelago. It is contagious, and instantly com­municated by the touch. Those unhappy wretches, who are attacked by it, are confined to little huts, built on the sides of the highways; from which they are not allowed to come out, or converse with any person. They usually have a small garden round their cottages, that supplies them with vegetables and poultry; with which, and the alms they receive from passengers, they drag on a miserable existence. Their bloated skin is covered with a scaly crust, full of red and white spots, which occasion intolerable itchings. They beg relief in a hoarse and hollow voice, at the very sound of which you are apt to shudder; their [Page 142] words are scarcely articulate, as the disorder is inter­nally destroying the organs of speech. These wretch­ed spectres gradually lose the use of their limbs; and live till, the whole mass of blood becoming corrupt, death is the consequence of putrefaction. No sight can be more melancholy or more shocking, than that of a leper; no torments are comparable to those that he endures.

The rich are not attacked by this malady, which confines itself to the lower class of people, and par­ticularly to those among the Greeks, who observe strictly their four lents, and live, during that time, on nothing but salt fish, pickled olives, and cheese; and drink copiously of the thick heavy wines of the island. It is possible this diet may inflame and thicken their blood, and at length be the cause of the leprosy. I am led to suspect this, says Savary, from having observed that this disorder never manifests itself among such of the Turks as are rich enough to pro­cure animal food the whole year, with rice and vegetables; nor even among the Greeks, who in­habit the mountains, and eat plentifully of sallads, fruits, and milk.

Elated with having been the birth-place of Ju­piter, and proud of her hundred cities, Crete long continued more powerful than the other islands of [Page 143] the Mediterranean. At present her glory is eclipsed. Time has not spared a single one of all her cities, of which we see nothing but the ruins. Candia is the modern capital, and has given its name to the island.

The three cities, Candia, Canea and Rhetimo, are the seats of the three Pachalies, into which the Otto­man government has divided this island. The first, who enjoys the title of Seraskier, has pre-eminence over the other two.

Candia, says Savary, is the seat of the Turkish go­vernment. The Porte usually sends thither a Pacha with three tails. Here also the principal officers and different corps of the Ottoman soldiery are assembled. This city, so rich, populous, and commercial, under the Venetian government, is greatly fallen from its ancient grandeur. The harbour, which is a hand­some bason, where ships are sheltered from every wind, is daily filling up, and at present only capable of receiving boats and small vessels, lightened of a part of their cargo. Those freighted by the Turks at Candia, are obliged to proceed, almost in ballast, to wait for their loading in the ports of Standia, four leagues distant, where it is brought to them in small barks. These difficulties, which the Turks do not [Page 144] endeavour to remedy, are very detrimental to com­merce; which, accordingly, has extremely declined.

Candia, greatly embellished by the Venetians, is divided into strait streets, and decorated with well-built houses, a handsome square, and a magnificent fountain; but contains, within its extensive walls, only a small number of inhabitants. Several quarters of the town are almost deserted. That of the market is the only one in which we perceived activity or af­fluence. The Mahometans have converted the great­est part of the Christian temples into mosques. They have left, however, two churches for the Greeks; one for the Armenians; and a synagogue for the Jews. The capuchins have a small convent, with a chapel, in which the French vice-consul hears mass; for, at present, he is the only person of that nation who re­sides at Candia, the French merchants having retired to Canea.

The river to the west of Candia, was anciently called the Triton; and near its source, Minerva was born of Jupiter, whence is derived the epithet Trito­genes. Beyond is a river, on whose banks, according to the fables of antiquity, Jupiter celebrated his nup­tials with Juno. In the space of more than half a league round the walls of Candia, we do not meet with a single tree. The country beyond abounds in [Page 145] corn and fruit-trees, and the adjacent hills, covered with vineyards, yields the malmsey of Mount Ida, worthy a place at the table of epicures. This wine, little known in France, is perfumed, of a very agree­able flavour, and in high estimation in this country.

At no great distance from Candia, are the ruins of Cnossus, called by the Greeks Cnossou. This was the royal city of Minos, who established there the seat of his empire, and gave those wise and admirable laws so justly boasted by antiquity. This city, says Strabo, was a league and an half in circuit, and long con­tinued one of the most celebrated of the island. United with Gortyna, Polybius, mentions, that it gave law to almost all Crete; but falling afterwards into misfortunes, Gortyna and Lyctos profited by its de­cline, and Cnossus was for a time stript of almost all its splendor; but soon repairing these losses, again resumed its station amongst the most flourishing cities of Greece. The Romans, to secure their conquests, established a numerous colony there. At length, in the thirteenth year of the reign of Nero, the whole island suffering by a violent earthquake, Cnossus was totally destroyed. The lightning, during this tremen­dous calamity, says Philostratus, did not proceed from the clouds, but from the earth, and the sea retreated seven stadia. Several tombs, according to Suidas, burst open; in one of which was found the works of [Page 146] Dictys of Crete, containing die events of the Trojan war.

From that time, the lofty Cnossus, humbled in the dust, has never risen from her ruins; but heaps of stones, ancient walls half demolished, the remains of edifices, and the name of Cnossou, which the spot it stood on still retains, enable us to assign its ancient situation. These ruins were, no doubt, much more considerable before the building of Candia; because, as they were so near, it may well be supposed the Ve­netians made use of them, as materials for the ram­parts and houses of that capital.

About four leagues to the South of Candia, on the summit of a very deep mountain, are a heap of stones, half eaten away by time, which the inhabitants of the country call the tomb of Jupiter. The third Jupiter, says Cicero, son of Saturn, who was king of Crete, has a tomb in that island. Jupiter having ended his days in Crete, his relations, in obedience to his last commands, erected a temple and tomb to his memory. The temple still subsisted in the days of Plato. This philosopher, who was well acquainted with the places he describes, speaks of it thus in his first book of laws. "The road which leads from Cnossus to the cavern and temple of Jupiter, is very pleasant. We con­tinually meet with alleys of large tufted trees, whose [Page 147] foliage shelters us from the scorching heat of the sun. If we proceed still further, we find woods of cypress-trees, of surprising height and beauty; by the side of which, are delightful meadows, where travellers may repose and converse."

From all these authorities we may conclude, that a man called Jupiter, who, by great actions, merited well of his subjects, and on whom divine honours were bestowed, died in the island of Crete; that a temple was erected to him, which has been destroyed by time; that a tomb was shewn with an inscription on it, till the time of the Roman emperors; and that, at present, there is to be seen about three leagues from Cnossus, an eminence, commonly called mount Icarus; on the top of which, the inhabitants of the country point out a heap of stones, which they call the tomb of Jupiter. As for the sacred cavern in which he was brought up, and to which Minos repaired every ninth year, to converse with his father, and receive his laws, it may be presumed not to have been far distant; but, says Savary, we did not see it.

In the mountains, and on the road from Candia to Canea, is a convent of Greek monks, possessing ex­tensive lands, which the Turks have left them, on con­dition of their exercising hospitality towards all tra­vellers, which they commonly do with a tolerable [Page 148] good grace. Both riders and horses are lodged and supplied with provisions. These houses, in a country where there are neither inns nor caravanseras, are of great use. Without them, the traveller would be obliged to carry with him a load of baggage, and every necessary of life.

As soon as we alighted at the above convent, says Savary, several children came to take our horses by the bridles, and walk them about for a quarter of an hour, before they put them into the stable. This custom is constantly observed in Crete; they never shut up the horses when in a sweat, but always make a rule of walking them about in the open air. Hence, the Cretan horses are strong, healthy, and never tire. They boldly clime the steepest rocks, and descend the same into the vallies, without stumbling.

A magnificent repast was served up to us. The superior set before us most exquisite wines, the pro­duce of the hills round the monastery, on which we bestowed the highest commendation. After supper, we were conducted to a spacious hall, where we per­fectly well enjoyed the pleasures of repose. To shew respect to the French consul, in whose company we were, they had allotted him a separate apartment, and placed two full decanters by his bed-side. In the morning he wished to wash his mouth, and pouring [Page 149] out some of the supposed water, found it to be white wine. He took the other decanter and filled his glass, but this proved to be pure brandy. No doubt, says Savary, these good monks are accustomed to make libations to the god of sleep, or to console themselves for his rigours with the bottle.

Canea, anciently Cydonia, the principal residence of the merchants and factors in the island of Candia, is well laid out; the principal street is as strait as a line, and the squares are decorated with fountains. It possesses no remarkable edifices. The greatest part of the houses have only one story, and are built with terraces: those which are round the harbour, are ornamented with galleries, which afford a most charming prospect. The harbour admits ships of two hundred tons burthen; and if deepened, would afford good anchorage to the largest frigates. It contains, at present, about sixteen thousand inha­bitants.

The Turks who inhabit Candia, are not so implicit­ly submissive to the orders of the Grand Signior, as those of the other provinces of the empire. They mutually support each other against the tyranny of the Pacha, and refuse to bow their necks to the yoke of despotism. Inrolled as Janissaries at their birth, they compose the principal soldiery of the island; and it [Page 150] would be dangerous to drive them to revolt. When their governors have been guilty of oppression, they have been known to have recourse to arms, and de­mand vengeance. Of this, there was of late years, a very remarkable example; the Pacha of Canea, had a kind of deputy, who, like the rest of those in office, made use of every means to amass wealth, and drew on himself the detestation of the people. The Greeks did not dare to murmur, but the Turks were not so patient; they brought their complaints before the governor, but either because he had a real friendship for him, or was a sharer in his plunder, he would not listen to them; when, on a sudden, soon after, says Savary, who was then at Canea, we heard a great tumult in the town. The Janissaries ran through the streets, sabre in hand, crying. To arms! And, as in such circumstances, foreigners are always in danger from a licentious populace; we kept ourselves shut up in the consular house, waiting the event.

The house of the officer of the Pacha, which was a spacious building lately finished, was opposite to ours, on the other side of the harbour. This was presently filled with upwards of five hundred persons, pillaging and destroying every thing that fell in their way. Some tore out the sashes, and threw them upon the quay; others mounted on the terrace, broke down the parapets; while some were returning loaded [Page 151] with furniture. A great number of them were dili­gently searching to discover the object of public hatred; and in less than two hours the whole house was emptied, and half demolished.

An enraged multitude always proceed to excesses, which no one can foresee. The soldiers took pos­session of a high fort, which commands the town, whence they could thunder on the castle of the Pachas, against which they pointed several heavy pieces of cannon; and, after leaving a guard at the port, proceeded in a body to demand justice, resolv­ing in case of refusal, to bury their governor under the ruins of his palace. The whole town followed with dreadful shouts, which reaching the ears of the Pacha, who was an old warrior, rendered respectable by many gallant actions, he had himself conveyed in an arm-chair into the middle of his court-yard, and when he saw the storm approaching, and that the fu­rious populace were preparing to break down the gates, ordered them instantly to be thrown open. At the sight of this venerable old man, who had a long white beard, the mutineers were struck silent, and the most daring among them seemed motionless with astonishment. At length, none venturing to speak, "Well, my good people", said the governor, "what do you ask of me"? They all cried out, we must have the head of your deputy. "He is fled", [Page 152] replied the Pacha; "but if you find him, I abandon him to your vengeance; return to your duty, lay down your arms, and let every man go peaceably home". This firmness awed even the most mutinous, and a rebellion, which might have had fatal conse­quences, was appeased in an instant, by the courage and prudence of a single man. He had, however, concealed his favourite, and in the night, sent him on board a ship, which immediately set sail for Con­stantinople. After his departure, things returned to their usual channel, and peace was once more restored within the walls of Canea.

Quitting Canea, the traveller sees before him the white mountains, at present called the hills of Spha­chia. This chain of eminences is in height second only to Mount Ida, which is the most extensive in the island. They form in front of Canea, an im­mense rampart; the summit of which is lost in the clouds, and seems to separate that city from the rest of the island. The lowest chain is but two leagues from the town, and may be about six hundred yards high. Between that and the second, opens out a vast plain, three leagues in diameter, and of considerable length; this intermediate chain is far higher than the former. Beyond are lofty peaks; to which, without doubt, the name of the white mountains were given, from their being, during a part of the year, covered [Page 153] with snow; which collecting in heaps, in the deep vallies on the North-side, hardens, and never melts: the inhabitants cut it in large pieces, which they bring to Canea, in the night, and thus enjoy the luxury of drinking iced liquors in the hottest days of summer.

These mountains are an appanage granted by the Grand Signior to the Sultana Valida, and are en­tirely independent of the government of the Pachas. The Sultana sends a person she can confide in, to govern them, and collect the tributes. The Greeks, who inhabit them, are called Sphachiots; they rear nu­merous flocks of goats and sheep, keep bees, and make excellent cheese, which has the taste of Parmesan.

The Sphachiots confined to their mountains, are more distinct from the different nations who have possessed Crete, than the inhabitants of the plains; they speak a dialogue less corrupt than the rest of of the Candians, and have retained several customs of their ancestors, and certain peculiarities of their ancient character. When Belon travelled among them, they were the best archers in the island; they had very large bows, and displayed more address, strength, and courage, than the other Greeks. Even since the musquet has succeeded to the bow, they are [Page 154] not less skilful in the use of the latter; and in general are excellent marksmen.

Of all the Cretans, the Spachiots alone have re­tained the Pyrrhic dance; this they perform, clad in their ancient dress; that is to say, a short robe bound with a girdle, breeches and buskins; a quiver filled with arrows is fastened over their shoulder; a bent bow hangs on their arm, and by their sides they have a long sword. Thus accoutred, they begin the dance, which has three measures. The first marks the step, and they change feet in dancing, like the Germans; the movements of the second are more lively, and resemble the dance of the inhabitants of Lower Brittany, in France; during the third mea­sure, they leap backwards and forwards, first on one foot, and then on the other, with great agility. The dancers, who answer them, imitate the same steps, and sing and dance with them to the same tune. In the course of this dance, they perform various evo­lutions; sometimes forming a circle; at others, di­viding and ranging themselves in two lines, and seeming to menace each other with their weapons. Afterwards they separate into couples, and appear as if defying their antagonists to the combat; but in all their movements, their ear is true to the music, and they never vary from the measure.

[Page 155]In the ancient Cretan republic, the people were divided into two classes; that of the youth, and that of mature manhood; this division is still preserved among the Sphachiots, but not in the purity of the first institution. Formerly the young men were sub­ject to the reproof of the aged, and obeyed them; at present they wish to command. This want of proper subordination has been productive of great misfortunes to the whole nation. During the last war with the Russians, the Turks imagined that the inhabitants of Sphachia intended to give up the island to their enemies, and pretended that some Russian ships, touching at the Southern-side of the island, had formed a treaty with the Sphachiots. This was enough to make the Mahometans take up arms. They marched to the number of eight thousand, and climbed, without difficulty, the first chain of moun­tains; but it was not so easy to scale the second, and a handful could have prevented them. The class of men proposed to fight, and defend their rocks; but the youth, no doubt, seduced by the promises of the Turks, advised submission; and while their fathers were making head against the enemy, had the base­ness to introduce them by secret paths, to the sum­mits of their mountains. The moment they appeared, the Sphachiots took to flight, and concealed them­selves as they could, in caverns of the rocks, and among precipices. The Mussulmen cruelly abusing [Page 156] their victory, destroyed whole villages, massacred many of the inhabitants, and carried off a great number into slavery, without sparing either men, women, or children.

Near Canea is the convent of Acrotiri, a frightful solitude; in the environs of which nothing is seen but dreary rocks, and at their feet the wild thyme, briars, thyme with the odoriferous flowers, the laudanum, and a few strawberry-bushes. The Nuns here are not cloistered, and make no other vow than that of virginity. Each chuses a companion, and thus coupled, they reside in small houses, built round a chapel, to which a Greek priest comes to say mass. These couples perform all the mutual offices of friendship, assist each other, and possess in common, an inclo­sure, more or less considerable, appropriated to the double cell. This is their garden and orchard, in which we find orange, almond, and olive-trees. They likewise keep bees, which are not shut up in hives, and have no covering but planks laid cross-ways on two posts; beneath which shelter, these industrious creatures deposit their honey and wax. The first combs are the largest, and gradually diminish to a point. They are all in the shape of an inverted pyramid, and it is surprising how fast they are made by the bees. The honey of these insects is pro­duced from the flowers of the different kinds of [Page 157] thyme, and an infinity of odoriferous plants and shrubs, with which the country is covered; nor can any honey exceed it in purity, or fragrance.

But to return to our nuns; I have already said, that, united in pairs, they inhabit a building consist­ing of three or four apartments. Each of these little dwellings contains various conveniences within itself. They have here likewise a vast cistern, a necessary precaution, on an eminence, without water, a wine­press, an oven, and one or two looms for making linen. They generally rear silk-worms, and gather cotton, which is an annual plant in this country. One of the sisters spins, while the other weaves, and some of them knit stockings. When they have provided themselves with what is necessary for their own use, they sell the remaining fruits of their in­dustry in the town.

In their cells is neither sumptuousness nor mag­nificence; we find only convenient utensils, and ab­solutely necessary furniture, which is kept neat and clean. In a word, these nuns, without being rich, enjoy a comfortable subsistence, for which they are indebted to their industry. Chearfulness is their constant companion, and we see among them no me­lancholy faces. In general a younger sister unites herself with an elder than herself, to solace and re­lieve [Page 158] her from the burthen of the more laborious employments. I frequently, says Savary, visited a Greek lady, who every year passed a few weeks in this monastery, and always found among them vo­luntary nuns; a mildness, modesty, and liveliness very remote from that sour and austere character, absolutely inconsistent with virtue.

At the moment I am writing, adds the above writer, Acrotiri contains within its narrow precincts, the de­crepitude of age, the vigour of riper years, and all the charms of youth. I have seen three of these females well deserving to employ the pencil of a skilful painter: a nun of an hundred and nine years old, another of thirty-six, and a novice of sixteen. The first bent like a bow, with difficulty hobbled along by the aid of a small staff, and seemed every moment ready to sink with feebleness. She had still preserved all her senses, though blunted, and in a kind of stupor. To extract any conversation from her, she must have a a glass of cordial, or of excellent wine, which gra­dually revived her heart. She told us, she was born in the village of La Sude, which was then in the pos­session of the Venetians; and recollected the different times that fortress had been besieged by the Turks, their throwing the bombs upon the roofs of the houses, and the terror it spread among the inhabitants. After [Page 159] the taking of the fort, she retired to this convent, where she had resided near fourteen years.

The second was tall, with an animated countenance, and elegant features; her air was majestic, her eye-brows black, and her eyes sparkling; but the roses of her cheeks, and the lilies of her complexion began to fade. She was still handsome, but her beauty was the beauty of maturity; the delicacy and softness of blooming youth was evidently past, and each succes­sive day robbed her of a charm.

But the third, to conceive a just idea of her beauty, one must have seen her; the powers of description are totally insufficient to convey it. Unite in ima­gination, all the charms which sometimes adorn the fairest of nature's works, in all their delicacy and perfection, in all their astonishing harmony and grace, and it will give but a feeble image of the novice of Acrotiri. Her features had uncommon animation, and her eyes sparkled with a lustre that seemed more than human, and which it was impossible to sustain unmoved. How indescribable must have been her smile, would this beauteous virgin have consented to smile. Transcendant as were her charms, her dress was of the most simple kind; yet it seemed as if no ornament might be added, that could embellish her. Every action, every attitude, made her appearance [Page 160] still more lovely. Absolutely unconscious of her beauty, she waited with apparent pleasure on the nun, whom she considered as her mother, and anticipated all her desires. Her whole air and manner were free from the slightest tinge of affectation; she appeared absorbed in sublime ideas, and only aspired to be re­ceived among the nuns of Acrotiri. I cannot deny, says Savary, that I was sensibly concerned, at the thought of so many charms being for ever buried in the depth of a sad solitude; and that she, who seemed born to give the highest felicity to some favoured mortal, should be separated for ever from the society of man.

Let a painter try what his art can effect, and if he would represent the bloom of youth, the maturity of riper years, and old age in her decrepitudes, let him pourtray the three females I have endeavoured to describe. But he will fail in the attempt. To succeed, he must, like me, have seen the originals. The imagination only traces with fidelity what the eye has observed. Then genius meditates and composes, and by its powers, become creative; for perfectly to represent such objects, is rather to create than to imi­tate. This was the perfection to which Protogenes attained. The froth on the mouth of the panting dog, appeared to him imitated and not natural. An ordinary artist would have been satisfied, but the [Page 161] Rhodian painter aspired to the perfection of nature; that is, to be like her Creator.

Rhetimo, anciently Rhitymna, the third chief city of the island, and residence of a Pacha; is a hand­some town situated on the entrance of a rich and fertile plain. It is not large, and scarcely contains six thousand inhabitants. A citadel built on a rock, which projects into the sea, would be sufficient for its defence, were it not commanded by a high hill, from which, it may be battered with artillery. The har­bour, which is nearly choaked up, is only capable of receiving barks and small vessels. The Turks never trouble themselves to prevent, or repair, the ravages of time, and behold with unconcern, the most useful works become heaps of ruins. Their harbours, there­fore, are every where filling up, and the commerce they attracted deserts them, to seek more commo­dious situations. The French had formerly a vice-consul at Rhetimo, to which place the ships of Mar­seilles came to take in oil; but, for a long time past, they have not been able to approach the town, and the government have withdrawn an officer, that can now be of no use.

It is, nevertheless, much to be wished, that the port of Rhetimo may be restored. The plains round it, abound in various productions, and oils, cotton, [Page 162] saffron, and wax, are extremely plentiful; all which dif­ferent branches of commerce would become still more extensive, could the inhabitants convey their produce to a foreign market. Their gardens produce the best fruit in the island. Their pomegranates, almonds, pistachio nuts, and oranges, are excellent. Here we find the apricot-tree, that produces the mich-mich; a fruit of an exquisite fragrance, and yielding a delicious juice. It is a kind of alberge, but more mellow, and smaller than that of France.

CHAP. XXXI. (In Continuation.)

FIVE leagues from this town, an immense country opens, between the western extremity and Mount Ida, and the first chain of the white moun­tains. In this large valley is the village of Mar­guerites, the most populous of any in the island, which contains about ten thousand Greeks, who cul­tivate the rich adjoining plains, and would carry their oils, grain, and other commodities to Rhetimo, if [Page 163] they had a harbour. This village, or rather town, is but two leagues distant from the northern sea, and not far from the road to Candia. Close to it flows a small river, which falls from the mountains in cas­cades. The charming temperature, and varied pro­ductions of this beautiful country, invited the Vene­tians to settle there. They had built country-houses in this district, where they passed a part of the year; several of which are still to be seen; but it is with regret we find them occupied by ignorant Greeks, or barbarous Turks. Nothing remains but the ruins of those gardens which art designed, and nature delighted in decorating with a perpetual succession of flowers and fruits.

The Turks in this island, do not reserve in their houses, separate apartments for every person of the family; the women only have distinct chambers; the men sleep together in spacious halls, on matrasses spread on the carpeting, and provided with sheets and a blanket. Agreeable to this ancient custom, says Savary, in his travels through the island, we were shewn into a large room, round which our beds were placed on the ground. Only two centuries ago, says the above author, it was usual even in France, for the whole family to pass the night in the same apartment; since that time, our manners have undergone a great change; they have infinitely more delicacy and con­venience; [Page 164] nay, perhaps more decency; but are they more social?

Describing his reception, and an entertainment at a country-house of a Turkish nobleman, our author adds, the table was spread in the garden under the shade of orange-trees. Six of these beautiful trees, planted in a circle, united their branches, which had never been mutilated by the shears, and formed over our heads a roof impenetrable to the rays of the sun. In the middle of a very hot day, we enjoyed in this arbour, which nature has so profusely embellished, a delicious coolness. On every side, flowers hung in garlands over the guests, and formed a crown for each. The brightness of their colours, their exqui­site odours, the beauty of the foliage gently agitated by the zephyrs; every thing conspired to make us imagine ourselves suddenly transported to some en­chanted grove. To complete the whole, a beautiful stream which descended from the adjoining hills, passed under the table, and contributed to preserve the pleasantness and coolness of our arbour; on each side of us, we beheld it gliding over a golden sand, and winding its crystal stream through the garden, in which a great number of small canals had been dug, to convey its water to the orange, the pomegranate, and almond-trees; which repaid, with interest, the moisture they received in flowers and in fruits.

[Page 165]The table was now served; the Aga had en­deavoured to provide for us suitable to our taste; we were presented with all the utensils common in France; and our host himself conformed to our cus­toms. Knowing that we were used to take soup, he supplied us with a great dish of roast-meats, covered with a delicious jelly. Round this were bartavelles, almost as large as our hen; there were, besides, ex­cellent quails, a roasted lamb, and hashed meat dressed with rice, perfectly well seasoned. The wine cor­responded with the excellence of the rest of our en­tertainment; we were served with vin de loi, malm­sey of Mount Ida, and a sort of perfumed red wine, equally agreeable to the smell and the taste. The vin de loi is rather bitter, but leaves an agreeable flavour in the mouth, and excites a gentle warmth in the stomach. The malmsey of Mount Ida is more unctuous, more agreeable to the palate, and not less fragrant.

Our good patriarch, wishing to imitate his guests, and take his glass in defiance of the prophet, had sent away his servants and his children. Laying aside the Turkish gravity which never condescends to smile; he chatted with much vivacity, and frequently asto­nished us by the penetration of his understanding, the aptness of his replies, and the justness of his ideas. When the dishes were removed, we were presented [Page 166] with Moka coffee and pipes. The pipes made use of here, are of jasmine, and the part applied to the mouth of amber; their enormous length entirely takes away the pungency of the tobacco, which, in Turkey, how­ever, is mild; and, being mixed with the wood of aloes, produce a vapour neither disagreeable nor in­commodious, as in other countries.

As soon as the great heat was over, he called his sons, and ordered them to attend us on a shooting party; we descended into a plain, where we found plenty of quails, and had the pleasure of killing many without fatigue. The darkness which now advanced over the hills, brought us back to the house, and as the nights in this climate are as clear and fine as the days are beautiful, we supped in the arbour of orange-trees. Rarely do we enjoy this luxury in France; the night air has always a degree of chillness that makes us shudder; or a copious dew falls injurious to health. In Crete, these inconveniences are not felt. The sky was without a cloud, the coolness agreeable, and the air so calm, as scarcely to disturb the light of four large wax tapers, which illumined the foliage in a thousand different ways, and the varied productions of which, produced lights and shades of an admirable effect. The condensation of the air had collected the fragrant perfumes of the flower and shrubs, and every sense was delighted.

[Page 167]This Turkish nobleman possessed several other country houses. That to which we were invited, he only occupied in the spring; for he passes the violent heat of the summer in a charming retreat, situated among the mountains. Then, while the sun scorches up the plain, and the whole atmosphere seems on fire, he enjoys a delicious temperature; and beholds the country round him clad in verdure, and covered with fruits and flowers.

During the whole time we passed at his seat, we ex­perienced from him nothing but the utmost politeness; he made us no great compliments, but studied our tastes; and we were sure of finding on our table, the dishes to which we seemed to give a preference. One morning rising before my companions, and walking among the neighbouring orchards, I perceived this ve­nerable Mussulman standing near a fountain contiguous to the house; he was washing his face and hands, and chaunting the first chapter of the koran, that is to say, one of the finest hymns ever addressed by man to the supreme Being. He seemed infinitely absorbed in the adoration he was paying to his Creator; and I conceived, says Savary, a favourable opinion of a man, who fulfilled with so much dignity, the first of all duties.

[Page 168]Such is the life led by the rich Mahometans, in Candia; they pass three-fourths of the year on their estates, and repair in winter to the town, to sell the superfluity of their produce, which procures them very considerable wealth. Content with their pos­sessions, they aspire after none of the public employ­ments which might endanger their safety; but see them without envy in the possession of strangers. Uncontrolled monarchs on their own estates, they command and receive implicit obedience. Possessing the handsomest women in the island, they bring up their numerous offspring in the respect and submis­sion due to the chief of the family. These Mahome­tans, enjoying without pain, anxiety, or ambition, all the bounties offered them by nature, pass their days in tranquility and happiness; and retain, even in a very advanced age, almost unimpaired good health.

The Greeks, notwithstanding the contemptible state of debasement to which they are reduced, still retain a pride and vanity, that can only be equalled by their ignorance. Of this we had a striking instance, at the convent of Asomatos; in the mountains bordering on Mount Ida, where we halted one evening, says Savary, in our journey through Crete; the superiors of which, thinking to amuse us, proposed after supper, that his priests should chaunt the Kyrie eleison. We accepted his proposal; and immediately a number of children, [Page 169] deacons, and sub-deacons, made their appearance; and, on a signal given, began the Kyrie eleison. They sang through their noses, and produced so frightful a noise, that it was with the utmost difficulty we could refrain from laughing; but, at length, they concluded their discordant jargon, and we clapped our hands in applause. We were now in hopes this entertainment was ended, but he begged us to go through the same ceremony in French. On this, a young man in our company struck up a lively song, and we all joined chorus. The superior and his brethren, were delighted with the sprightliness of our Kyrie eleison, but affirmed, their music was more solemn and majestic; to which we readily subscribed. These incidents, says our author, seem trivial; but nothing can better describe the character of the people we visit. The good cheer, choice wines, and excellent beds we met with, were entirely owing to a little well-timed complaisance, and the incense offered to the vanity of our host.

The next morning we intended to have breakfasted at Arcadi, the handsomest monastery in the island; and, as it was only three leagues distant, we expected to reach it in good time; but the roads were dreadful. We continued ascending, for an hour and an half, before we came to the first chain of heights, that run parallel with mount Ida, and on which Arcadi is built. We met with steep paths, cut out of the [Page 170] rock; and our horses were obliged to clamber up steps of marble and granite, without slipping, or stumbling, otherwise we must have been dashed to pieces on the stones, or tumbled headlong into the torrent. I do not exaggerate, says Savary, the horror of the roads we had to pass. The first time a man unaccustomed to such ways travels into Crete, he imagines his life in danger at every step, but more experience soon relieves him from his fears: for there is no place so dangerous and dreadful, but may easily be passed with the mules and horses of the country.

We were repaid for our fatigues, by the beauty of the prospects which every where presented them­selves to our view. We traversed whole woods of strawberries and privets, which never lose their ver­dure. Firs, of a prodigious height, rear their heads amid the snows, and are the haunts of herds of wild goats. In the vallies the course of the waters is traced by tufts of myrtle, some branches of which were in flower, and mingled the verdant lustre of their foliage with that of the laurel-rose. The sheep were feeding on the brow of the rocks; and the cot­tages, surrounded with clumps of trees, formed landscapes, the eye was never wearied with admiring. Sometimes these prospects were sufficiently near to discriminate every object; and at others, distant and [Page 171] obscure, presented only light shades, pleasingly sketched in the horizon.

After a fatiguing journey of three hours, we ar­rived at the convent of Arcadi; where the superior received us politely, and ordered breakfast to be prepared. This monastery, situated in mount Ida, possesses very extensive tracts of land, which are care­fully cultivated by its numerous monks; and the oil, corn, wine and wax, produced on them every year, amounts in value, to considerable sums. The good fathers live much at their ease, and are very hos­pitable to travellers.

The apartments of this monastery are built round a large court, in which is a handsome church, whi­ther the Greeks of the neighbourhood repair to di­vine service. Among this numerous body of monks, there are but few priests; (the greater part of them do not enter into holy orders) but some in quality of brethren, and are employed in the most fatiguing labours of agriculture. We visited the cellar, in which a former traveller (Tournfort) reckoned a hun­dred casks of wine; but we saw only forty barrels full; these, however, were of a stupendous bigness. Into this cellar the superior descends at the end of every vintage; and the following is the very singular form of his benediction on the wine. "O Lord God, [Page 172] who lovest men, look down on this wine, and on those that shall drink it. Bless our casks, as thou didst bless the well of Jacob, the pool of Siloam, and the drink of thy holy apostles. O Lord, who didst con­descend to be present at the wedding of Cana, where by changing of water into wine, there manifested thy glory to thy disciples, send now thy holy spirit on this wine, and bless it in thy name. Amen."

After a plentiful breakfast, we desired to see the library of the convent, of which we had heard so much from the good monks. It was, as they said, the most valuable, numerous, and complete in the island; we expected therefore to have found some literary treasures; or, at least, the best authors of ancient Greece. They conducted us into an apartment, where we saw about two hundred old volumes, ranged on shelves, and covered with dust, which did not seem to have had the honour of a visit for many a day. They consisted in general of books of devo­tion, sermons, and controversial divinity. After turning over a great number, without finding any thing that merited our attention, except a manuscript Homer, which they would not sell, we went to re­turn our thanks to the superior, and continued our journey.

[Page 173]In our way to these convents, we travelled along the sides of the hills, which terminate mount Ida, to the Southward. Two chains of these hills, formed between us and that mountain, a double amphitheatre, above which it reared its majestic head. We could perceive large clouds of a shining whiteness, ranging themselves around its summit, and circling it with a silver crown; which, illumined by the sun, shone with a wonderful splendor. These clouds, obeying the law of attraction, after encompassing for several hours the head of the mountain, fell in imperceptible drops on all the surrounding objects, and entirely disap­peared; others succeeded, and were dissipated in the same manner.

This attractive power, which forces the clouds to­wards the tops of the lofty mountains, is the origin of springs, fountains, streams, and all the rivers of the globe. In the higher regions of the air, where the rising vapours are condensed by cold, the water of the clouds is converted into hail and snow; but, if they attain only a moderate height, when the cold is not very great, they fall in mists, rains, and copious dews. When the hills are covered with fruits, the springs and rivulets become more numerous, as the leaves of trees possess the peculiar property of attract­ing the humidity diffused throughout the atmosphere. To procure water for a dry country, nothing more, [Page 174] therefore, would be necessary, than to plant fruit-trees on the hill-tops. When we find the ancients bestowing, the name of rivers on the Glaucus and the Zanthus, which run through Asia-Minor, and are now little more than inconsiderable brooks, we are tempted to suspect them of exaggeration. But, if we reflect, that the hills where these rivers rise, are, at present, stript of their trees and soil, and no longer oppose a barrier to the passage of the clouds, though formerly crowned with lofty forests, which attracted them around their tops, and drew from them all their mois­ture; we shall find no difficulty in believing, that they, as well as many others, at present, but insigni­ficant rivulets, might anciently, when fed with more copious supplies, well deserve the appellation of rivers.

The diversity of landscapes, which constantly charmed the eye, made us forget the dangers to which we were exposed. For the space of a league, we rode along the slope of a very high hill. On one side, the ground was as perpendicular as a wall; and on the other, was the channel of a torrent, two hun­dred feet deep, through which the water rushed over the large flint stones, with a violent noise. The path at last grew so narrow, that when once fairly entered, it was impossible to dismount, but at the risk of throwing both ourselves and the horses into the abyss [Page 175] below. In many places, this road was not more than a foot and a half wide; though on the brink of a tre­mendous precipice, which no one could look down without shuddering. We were now convinced of the excellence of our horses; not one of which so much as made a false step. They seemed to feel the danger, trod with caution, and examined where to put their feet. In a wet place, however, mine made a false slip, and tottered for a moment on the brink of a pre­cipice; but keeping my seat still firm, he recovered himself.

Mount Ida begins near Candia, and stretches from East to West, as far as the White Mountains. It ex­tends from the Northern to the Southern Sea, and is the highest in the island. In many parts of it, snow lies all the year. From its summit, we may discover the sea of Crete, and that of Lybia. The eye wanders over an immense horizon, and discerns many of the scattered islands of the Archipelago; such as Cytherea, Milo and Argentum.

In summer when the snows are melted, vast plains, situated on the declivity of the mountains, afford ex­cellent pasturage for the flocks. On that part of it, opposite to Candia, are forests, consisting chiefly of maple and green oak. The Southern sides abound with the strawberry-tree, privets, and rock-roses. The Eastern [Page 176] brow is beautified with cedars, pines, and cypresses; but on the West, its perpendicular sides present nothing but piles of rocks inaccessible to scale. It is enriched with an infinity of other plants, which would delight the botanist; such as the true melliot, the yellow flowered marjoram, &c. Abundant streams flow on every side from its summit. Some rush in torrents into the vallies, while others water the plains, which produce luxuriant harvests; or, distri­buted by art, maintain fecundity in the innumerable fruit-trees which go round the villages.

The labyrinth, as it is called, runs under a moun­tain at the foot of Mount Ida. The opening of it is natural, and not wide. We had brought with us, says Savary, the thread of Ariadne, that is four hun­dred fathoms of twine, to explore it. To discern our way amid this gloomy abode, we each carried a flambeau. Two Greeks bore the clew, which they unfolded or wound up as occasion required. At first, we lost ourselves in different allies without an open­ing; but, at length discovered the true passage, which is on the right as we enter. We arrive at it by a nar­row path, and are obliged to creep on our hands and feet, for the space of an hundred yards, the roof being extremely low. At the end of this narrow passage, the ceiling rises suddenly, and we were able to walk upright, in the midst of the impenetrable darkness [Page 177] that surrounded us, and the innumerable ways which struck off on each side, and crossed each other in dif­ferent directions Sometimes we were stopped short by a passage without an opening; and at others, after long circuits, were astonished to find ourselves at the cross-way from which we had set out. Frequently, after encircling with our cord a great extent of rock, we were obliged to wind it up, and return the way we came. It is impossible to describe to what a degree these passages are multiplied and crooked; some of them form curves, which lead insensibly to a vast empty space, supported by enormous pillars, whence three or four passages strike off, that conduct to op­posite points; others, after long windings, divide into several branches: these again, extend a great length; and, terminated by the rock, oblige the traveller to trace back his way. We walked with precaution in the doublings of this vast labyrinth, amid the eternal darkness that reigns through it, and which our torches could hardly dispel. The precaution we had taken, of proceeding with the thread of Ariadne, and of fastening it at different distances, lest it should break, allowed us to advance further than Belon, Tournfort, and Pocock. We observed, in several parts of the middle avenue, the cyphers 1700, written with a black pencil, by the hand of the celebrated botanist. An extraordinary circumstance, which he remarks, and which we admired no less than he had done, is the [Page 178] property possessed by the rock, of presenting the names engraved on it in relief.

After straying for a long time, in the fruitful ca­vern of Minotaur, we arrived at the extremity of the alley, which Tournfort followed. There we found a wide space, with cyphers cut in the rock, none of which were of an earlier date than the fourteenth century. There is another, similar to this, on the right. To arrive at this place, we had run out almost all our line, that is to say, about twenty-four hun­dred feet, without reckoning our various excursions. We remained three hours in the labyrinth, conti­nually walking, without being able to flatter our­selves with having seen every thing.

Several authors, among whom are Belon and Pocock, pretend, that this labyrinth is no more than a quarry; from which, stones were brought to build the city of Gortyna, situated at many miles distance; the mag­nificent ruins of which, are still visible. Mr. Tourn­fort has satisfactorily confuted this opinion; he has proved, that the stone of this cavern is too soft to be fit for building; and that it would have cost immense sums to convey it across the steep mountains, that lie between the labyrinth and that city. It might have been much more natural for the inhabitants, to pro­cure their stone from the mountains, in the vicinity of [Page 179] Gortyna. It is much more probable, adds Mr. Tournfort, that nature produced the labyrinth, and that the passage at the entrance, has not been altered, to shew posterity what was the state of these subter­raneous channels, before they were enlarged by the hand of man.

But for what purpose, says Savary, was this laby­rinth intended? And was it there that the Minotaur was confined? The discovery of truth, obscured by the lapse of time, gives pleasure to the reader, and amply recompenses the labour of investigation.

In the first place, it is certain that this immense cavern is not the labyrinth formed by Daedalus, on the plan of that of Egypt. All the ancient writers attest, that the famous work of that celebrated archi­tect, was situated at Cnossus. John Tzetzes, very satisfactorily describes this famous edifice, and in­forms us of the use for which it was intended. "Daedalus, the Athenian, made for King Minos, a prison, from which it was impossible to escape. Its numerous windings, were in the form of a snail, and it was called the labyrinth." This labyrinth subsists no longer. It was, indeed, already destroyed, in the days of Pliny. An antique gem, corresponding with this description of Tzetzes, is still to be seen. [Page 180] Let us proceed to examine that which is still exist­ing.

Taurus, was the name of one of the principal men of Crete; who, possessing the advantage of a fine person, and having acquired great renown by his military exploits, Pasiphiae, wife of Minos, king of Crete, became enamoured of him, and had a son by him: upon discovering that transaction, Minos would not, however, put him to death; but, according to ancient history, confined him to the mountains to serve the shepherds. In these solitary abodes, he grew wild and fierce, and lived by robbery, and steal­ing sheep from the flocks. Having learnt, that Minos had sent soldiers to take him, he dug a deep cavern, which he made his place of refuge. At length, the king of Crete sent him such criminals, as he wished to punish with death. His ferocity, and this employ­ment, no doubt, procured him the name of Minotaur, and induced poets and painters to represent him as a monster, half a man, and half a bull. An ingenious emblem, having reference to his birth, character, and odious services.

Theseus arriving in the island of Crete, says Plutarch, Ariadne fell desperately in love with him. She bore him a son, and taught him how to escape from the winding passages of the labyrinth; and he slew the [Page 181] Minatour. To distinguish this cavern, from the fa­mous edifice built by Daedalus, at Cnossus, Claudian called it the labyrinth of Gortyna, the usual abode of the Minotaur. Of the labyrinth of Cnossus, Claudian says, "it forms different circuits, which are neither inferior to the art, with which the labyrinth of Gor­tyna, the usual abode of the Minotaur is built, nor the windings of the river Maeander."

We have now thrown all the light we have been able upon this wonderful cavern of antiquity, and shall leave our readers to form their conjectures; only begging leave to remark, that it seems to us singu­lar, that the antique gem of the labyrinth of Cnossus, should have the figure of a Minotaur in the centre.

The origin of Gortyna is uncertain; the opinions of authors varying on this subject. It is, however, of the slightest antiquity. Homer speaks of it, as of a powerful city defended by walls. It was a flourishing city when Lycurgus travelled into Crete. Plato tells us, it was built by a colony from Gortyna, a city of Peloponnesus. The Lethe, this river so celebrated in antiquity, ran near Gortyna. It was called Lethe, because Harmonia, the daughter of Venus, forgot her husband Cadmus, on its banks.

[Page 182]The ruins of Gortyna, cover a vast extent of ground, and enable us to form some idea of its an­cient magnificence. Such of its monuments, as still subsist, are not of the highest antiquity. One of the most remarkable, is a gate built with large bricks, which have been formerly covered with free stone. This edifice is of a considerable thickness, and presents an extensive front. It cannot be supposed, more ancient than the time, when Ptolemy Philopater, un­dertook to rebuild the walls of Gortyna. Beyond this gate, we find a large open space, in form nearly of a parallelogram, on each side of which, is a double row of pedestals. The bases of the marble are buried, and the tops appear above the ground. The order in which they are ranged, gives reason to conjecture, they were part of the portico of a temple. At dif­ferent intervals, we meet with heaps of rubbish, and columns of marble and granite, buried up to the middle of their shafts. The capitals lie near them, broken off, but several of them have none. Near the farther end of these ruins, on the banks of that beau­tiful river, where Harmonia forgot Cadmus, we enter a church, one side of which is destroyed. This is probably the ancient cathedral founded by Titus, the disciple of St. Paul.

These ruins do not appear suitable to what might be expected, from the grandeur and magnificence of [Page 183] Gortyna. But we must consider, that the finest mar­bles have been carried off; that we see, in adjacent villages, ancient columns employed in making gates for the Turkish gardens, and that the greatest part of its ornaments are buried under the earth, which is considerably raised. If the ground were dug into, and proper researches made, we should certainly find statues and valuable antiquities. At present the husbandman passes his plough over them, and covers with his harvest, the ruins of the palaces and temples of Gortyna. Such is the destiny of ancient cities. They are the work of man, and perish like himself. Those which in ages past were the ornament or terror of the world, Thebes, Memphis, and Babylon, are now no more. Can we imagine, that London, that noble city, which contains within itself all the arts, and innumerable inhabitants, will exist for ever. Can we doubt, that the curious traveller shall one day wander amid heaps of rubbish, in search of the situation of her temples, and her palaces? Let us console ourselves: that period is still very re­mote.

This island is governed by three Pachas, who reside at Candia, Canea, and Rhetimo. The first, who is always a Pacha of three tails, is, as it were, the viceroy of the island. He is invested with the su­preme power, has the inspection of the forts and [Page 184] arsenals, nominates to vacant military posts, and to the governments of La Sude, Grabusa, Spina Longua, and Gira Petra. The governors of these forts are called beys. They have under them a governor of the castle, and three general officers; one of whom is general of the artillery, the other of the cavalry, and the third of the Janissaries. The council of the Pacha consists of a Kyaia, who has great influence in all public affairs, and likewise of the principal officers of the army in the district.

The great officers of the law are the Muphti, the supreme head of religion, and the Cadi. The for­mer expounds the law, relative to the partition of property among children, inheritances, and mar­riages; in a word, all those laid down by Mahomet, in the Koran; and decides on every thing respect­ing the Mahometan religion. The Cadi cannot pass sentence in disputes originating in these laws, until he has obtained in writing, the opinion of the Muphti. His office therefore is to receive declarations, com­plaints, the presents of individuals, and to decide in the common cases of litigation. The Pacha must consult these persons, before he can legally put a Turk to death; but when he has attained the dignity of three-tails, he often raises himself above the laws, and at once dictates the sentence of death, and orders it to be carried into execution by his own authority.

[Page 185]Each mosque has its Imam, a sort of curate, who performs divine service; and school-masters are dis­tributed in different quarters of the town. These men are generally respected in Turkey, and bear the title of Effendi, a title of honour bestowed on persons considered as deserving respect.

The garrison of Candia consists of forty-six com­panies, composing an army of about ten thousand men. All these troops are not in the town, but would be collected in an instant. They receive their pay regularly, and punctually, every three months; except the Janissaries, whose officers alone are paid. The different appointments of officers in this militia, do not depend on the Pacha. All promotions are regulated by a council of each company, consisting of the officers on duty, and the veterans. These posts can only be held two years; except that of captain, which is purchased at Constantinople, and held for life. The Ousta, or cook, is continued likewise in his employment, as long as the company are contented with his services. There is a chaplain, or Iman, to every company.

The garrisons of Canea, and Rhetimo, regulated on the same plan, are much less numerous. The first consists of about three thousand men, the other of fifteen hundred. But as all the male children of [Page 186] the Turks become members of the corps of Ja­nissaries, at their birth, this number would greatly augment in time of war. There is not much indeed to fear from them, the greetest part having scarcely ever seen a musquet fired. They are never exer­cised in military evolutions, and are totally ignorant of that dreadful art, which in our days has been brought to such perfection; and which, reduced to certain rules, triumphs without difficulty over blind force and numbers.

A Pacha, of Canea, who distinguished himself in the last war with the Russians, was desirous to try the skill of the gunners of that garrison. He ordered a bark to be anchored, at the distance of half a mile from the walls, and a large barrel placed on the deck. The sea was perfectly calm, and the mark exceedingly distinct, but notwithstanding a reward was offered to the person who should knock it down, the gunners kept firing the whole day, without touching either the barrel or the bark.

The Pachas of Canea, and Rhetimo, are not less absolute within the limits of their governments than the Pachas of Candia. They enjoy the same pri­vileges, and their council is composed of the same officers. These governors are only intent on rapidly enriching themselves, and use every means of ex­torting [Page 187] money from the Greeks, who are oppressed in a manner not to be described. But to say the truth, these unhappy people stretch out their willing necks to the chain that weighs them down. Their envious disposition is continually arming them against each other. If one of them has the good fortune to acquire a little property, others endeavour to dis­cover something of which to accuse him before the Pacha, who avails himself of these dissentions to rob both parties. It seems as if the Greeks, debased by their misfortunes, were no longer capable of a ge­nerous sentiment; nor are they in the least amended by the cruel examples they have every day before their eyes.

It is not therefore surprising, that under this bar­barous government the number of Greeks should daily diminish. At present Crete is supposed to contain, at most, only one hundred and fifty thousand Greeks, sixty-five thousand of whom pay the capitation; a tribute paid to the Grand Signior by all his subjects not Mahometans; but levied, as we have before ob­served, only on men arrived at maturity, women and children being excepted. The Turks, though they have only possessed the island one hundred and twenty years, or thereabouts, not being subject to the same oppression, have multiplied and flourished on the ruins of the vanquished. Their number [Page 188] amounts to two hundred thousand. Is it not asto­nishing, says Savory, to find so few inhabitants on this island, which is above two hundred and fifty leagues in circumference? May not this diminution of men be considered a sufficient proof of a destruc­tive government?

The hundred cities of Crete have been celebrated by the writers of antiquity; and geography has pre­served to us their names and situations. Several of these contained thirty thousand citizens; if there­fore, we allow six thousand to each, this calculation for the hundred cities, will give six hundred thou­sand inhabitants: we may also estimate the Cretans dispersed in the towns and villages at the same num­ber; which, added together, will make twelve hun­dred thousand. This cannot be esteemed an exag­gerated calculation. When the Venetians were in possession of the kingdom of Candia, it is said to have contained nine hundred and ninety-six villages.

Thus we find, that when Crete was a free coun­try, it maintained near a million more of inhabitants than it does at present. But since those happy times, this unfortunate island has been deprived of her laws by the Romans; groaned under the disastrous reigns of the corrupt princes of the Lower Empire; been ravaged by the Arabs, during a hundred and twenty [Page 189] years; exchanged their government for that of the Venetians; and at length has been finally subjected to the despotism of the Turks; who, in all the coun­tries they have conquered, have occasioned a fright­ful depopulation.

When Candia was in possession of the Venetians, the towns of Siria, Gira Petra, Sisims and Sphachia, were crouded with inhabitants; at present they are wretched villages, with ruined fortresses and har­bours, nearly choaked up. Candia, the capital of the kingdom, was very populous, and carried on an extensive commerce in wines, corn, silks and wax. It was indeed a second Venice, but is now almost deserted.

It is true, that the Turks, during a five and twenty years war, destroyed many thousands of the Cana­dians; and that the plague, the constant attendant of their armies, followed them into this island, and was the destruction of a still greater number; but if the Ottoman government had considered men of any importance, it might have been able in the course of a whole century of peace and tranquillity, to re­pair their ravages.

The Turks have left the Greeks the free exercise of their religion, but do not allow them to repair [Page 190] their churches and monasteries, without permission, which is only to be obtained by money, and brings in considerable sums to the Pachas. They have, as formerly, twelve bishops; the principal of whom as­sumes the title of Archbishop of Gortyna. He re­sides at Candia, which is the seat of the metropolitan church. Nominated himself by the patriarch of Constantinople, he fills up all the vacant sees of the island. He bears the triple crown on his tiara; signs in red; and is responsible for all the debts of the clergy. To fulfil these engagements, he levies heavy contributions on the other bishops; and espe­cially on the monasteries. He is acknowledged as chief of the Greeks, whom he protects as far as his feeble influence extends. To him the government applies in matters of importance; and he alone, of his whole nation, has the privilege of entering a town on horseback.

It may not be here amiss to give some account of the ancient government of this island, so celebrated in antiquity; a government that Lycurgus took for his model in the institution he framed for Lacedemon; and which Strabo has thought an account of, not un­worthy his pen, and preserved its leading features in his immortal work.

[Page 191]Ten magistrates were annually chosen in a na­tional assembly, by the plurality of voices, who were called Cosmi. They had the management of war, and all the most important business. They possessed the right of choosing counsellors from among the old men; and these, in number twenty-eight, com­posed the senate of Crete, and were chosen from among those who had passed the office of Cosmi, or persons eminently distinguished by their merit and unimpeached integrity. These senators held their dignity for life; great deference was paid to their opinion; and nothing finally determined without consulting them. The wisdom of the Legislator had intended them for a counterpoise to the ambition of the ten chiefs, whose power was still farther circum­scribed, by limiting the duration of their magistracy to one year.

This precaution did not end here, as the votes of the people might be improperly obtained, and their choice consequently fall on a person unworthy of so honourable a post; he very wisely provided, that whoever should disgrace the dignity of the Cosmi, might be removed, either in an assembly of the people, or by his colleagues only. So excellent a constitution caused Plato to say, "The republic which approaches too much to a monarchy, and that which admits too unrestrained a liberty, are [Page 192] equally remote from the just medium. O Cretans! O Lacedemonians! Ye have avoided these two rocks, and established your states on the most solid foundations."

Nothing can be more simple than this form of go­vernment. A free people, conscious they were un­able to govern themselves, name magistrates, into whose hands they transfer their authority; these chiefs, invested with regal power, elect senators to aid them with their counsels; which counsellors again can decide nothing of themselves; but their office is perpetual, which encreases the respect paid them, and enables them to extend their knowledge and information. The ten chiefs of the republic have a powerful motive to incite them to act worthy the honourable station in which they are placed; as, on the one hand, they are checked by the fear of disgrace; and on the other, encouraged by the hope of one day becoming members of the national council.

This republic, which was as ancient as the siege of Troy, still flourished in the time of Julius Caesar. We know of no other of so long continuance. The Legislator founding the happiness of the Cretans on liberty, gave them laws and institutions fitted to form men capable of defending their freedom. All [Page 193] the citizens were soldiers, and all exercised and ex­pert in the art of war; for we even find that fo­reigners resorted to Crete, to be exercised in that art. "Philopoemen", says Plutarch, "not enduring to remain inactive, and ardently desirous of ac­quiring knowledge in the profession of arms, em­barked for Crete; where, having exercised himself among that warlike people, well versed in every mi­litary art, and accustomed to lead a frugal life, he returned to the Achozans, and so much distinguished himself by the knowledge he had acquired, that he was immediately appointed general of the cavalry."

On the other hand the Legislator, persuaded that conquests were usually only acts of violence and in­justice, which frequently enfeeble, and almost al­ways corrupted the morals of the victorious nation, endeavoured to prevent the Cretans from trying to subdue foreign countries. And from the time the government of the country first became republican, till it was attacked by the Romans, we never find the Cretans to have attempted any foreign invasion; an honour reserved exclusively to them among all the people celebrated in history. Individuals might indeed serve in the armies of other states; the kings and princes of which, knowing their bravery and skill in archery, strove who should first induce them to enter into their pay; as each was desirous to have [Page 194] in his army a body of Cretan bowmen, since the whole world could not produce any more expert. "The arrows of Gortyna", says Claudian, "hap­pily directed, carry certain wounds, and never fail."

The love of war did not extinguish in the Cretans that exquisite sensibility which made them cul­tivate and encourage the fine arts. "The Cretans displayed their munificence to Homer, by giving him a thousand crowns; and, glorying in a generosity not to be surpassed, preserved the memory of their du­ration, by a public inscription. In Crete, adds Ptolemy, men are still more anxious to cultivate their minds, than to exercise their bodies. There­fore, when discord reigned among them, the voice of wisdom, and the charms of poetry, brought them back to reason. Thales, of Gortyna, the instructor of Lycurgus, was one of their most celebrated phi­losophers, poets, and legislators; and he most suc­cessfully applied his knowledge and talents to re­store concord to his fellow-citizens. "His poetry", says Plutarch, in the life of Lycurgus, "consisted of discourses in verse, exhorting the people to unanimity and obedience to their superiors; he possessed the art of conveying, in the most harmonious metre, the most solid and beneficial instruction. So great was the effect of his poetry, that his hearers, who found their understanding as well as their ears, equally per­suaded [Page 195] and charmed, gradually suffered all their ani­mosity to subside; and, enamoured with the blessings of peace, which he painted in the most lively co­lours, forgot their intestine hatreds, and ranged themselves under the standard of concord." Men, over whom poetry and music had such power, could not he enemies to pleasure: and we accordingly find it to have been a custom with them to mark their happy days with white stones, and their unhappy ones with black. At the end of the year, they ex­amined the number of these stones, and only esteem­ed themselves to have lived the days denoted by the white ones. Hence the inscription frequent on their tombs: He lived so many days; he existed, so many.

At length the fatal period arrived, when the Ro­mans, elated with their victories, and proud of their power, aspired to the empire of the world, and would no longer admit of any distinction among the surrounding nations, but that of slaves or subjects. Since that period, that is, during a space of nineteen hundred years, the Cretans have ceased to be a na­tion, and have gradually lost their courage, their virtues, their sciences, and their arts. This deplo­rable debasement can only be attributed to the ex­tinction of their liberty. So true is it, that man is born for liberty; and, that deprived of this support, received from nature to sustain his weakness, his ge­nius [Page 196] expires, and his courage languishes, till he sinks to the lowest point of degradation.

The olive-tree, that precious tree, consecrated to Minerva, has almost disappeared from Attica. The Albanians and Turks, who have alternately ravaged Greece, seem to have been intent on destroying it. Within twenty years, they have cut down two hun­dred thousand feet of these trees. Thus has the Morea, so rich and flourishing, when possessed by the Venetians, become a poor and miserable country.

The island of Crete, has not in this respect suf­fered the same fate. The olive-trees, which delight in a sandy soil, a mild temperature, and the vicinity of the sea, grow in abundance on the hills, and in the plains. The cold is never severe enough to in­jure them, and the heat is always sufficient to ripen their fruit. We meet with some that seem co-eval with the soil that bears them; they grow to a vast size, and attain the height of fifty feet. Their pro­duce constitutes the chief wealth of the inhabitants, and their principal branch of commerce. The crops, however, are not equally abundant; in two years, one is generally excellent, and the other moderate. Exclusive of the prodigious consumption of oil by the inhabitants, besides what the Turks of Canea, instructed by a native of Provence, make use of in [Page 197] their manufactories of soap, which they export throughout the Levant, the Turks annually load four and twenty ships with oil.

The inhabitants of Candia had no manufacture in their island; and it is not long since a native of Pro­vence taught them to make soap, of which they have now several manufactories at Canea. This betrayer of his country's interest, has greatly injured the trade of Marseilles.

The total exports from the island of Crete, Savary estimates at little more than a hundred thousand pounds; which is very inconsiderable for an island of such great extent. The island, says the above au­thor, does not contain a sufficient number of in­habitants for all the lands to be cultivated. Plains of three or four leagues extent, and watered by fer­tilizing streams, are frequently to be seen without the slightest traces of cultivation. The indolent Turk passes his life in the midst of his possessions, with­out thinking of improvement; and should the Greek obtain permission to clear out a piece of ground, after bedewing it with the sweat of his brow, at the moment he is to enjoy the fruit of his industry, his powerful neighbour wrests from him, the produce of his labour.

[Page 198]When the kingdom of Candia was under the go­vernment of the republic of Venice, it produced great quantities of grain; amply supplied the wants of the inhabitants; and made considerable exporta­tions to foreign countries. At present the island is obliged to import corn. This is not to be attributed to any change of the soil, which is still warmed by the same sun, and watered by the same streams. The tyranny of the Turkish government must alone be considered the cause.

Corn, says Pcysonnel, is not scarce in Candia, the plains of Messara, and several other parts of the island, furnish it in great abundance, and the annual har­vests are quite sufficient for the maintenance of the inhabitants; but, as the corn is incomparably fine, the Agas export a great quantity: European, Turk­ish, and Greek vessels, are perpetually engaged in this illicit commerce; on which account, Candia is frequently obliged to depend on the Morea for sub­sistence. Oil, and soap, indeed, compose the two principal branches of commerce in this island; but, it likewise produces an infinity of articles of import­ance, as very fine silk, wax, honey sufficient, cotton for the consumption of the country, and cheeses; which a contraband trade exports to Egypt, the coast of Barbary, Italy, and Provence.

[Page 199]Objects of the last importance, adds Savary, which would infinitely extend the commerce of the Cretans, are almost totally neglected. The mulberry-tree thrives admirably in the island; and nothing would be more easy than to rear silk-worms. The little cotton which is cultivated there, is of a very fine quality; and the wool, though not remarkable for its fineness, is so for its quantity; yet there is not a single manu­facture in the country, which may employ these va­luable materials! Little attention, therefore, is paid to the silk-worm: cotton and flax are cultivated in small quantities; and never will it occur to the imagi­nation of a Turk, that under a mild and favourable sky, which would allow the flocks to be folded the whole year in the open air; it might be possible, by paying due attention to their feeding, and properly crossing the breed, to obtain wool, even equal to that of Spain.

What advantages might not a polished nation derive from an island, which, after satisfying the most essen­tial wants of man, would still farther supply him with every thing that contributes to utility, ease, and even luxury! How might they extend their various branches of commerce! What benefits might they not derive from manufactures calculated to give them value! The delicious wines of the country, so little known, would be in request over the whole world. [Page 200] Forests of pines, oaks, and cedars, under proper ma­nagement, would be of use for ship-building. The husbandmen, excited by the hope and certainty of enjoying the fruit of their labours, would clear out vast tracts of waste land, now abandoned to sterility; would sow every species of grain, increase their plan­tations, and after enriching the state, live in plenty, in the bosom of their numerous families. Men would multiply without end, and in the finest climate in the world; villages, and impoverished towns, would again become populous cities; the arts would again return to their native country, and again flourish; in a word, the superb island of Crete, would once more revive from her ashes. To produce this extraordinary, this happy change, nothing is necessary but the encourage­ment and protection of a wise government.

These reflections are not the dreams of a heated imagination, or of a traveller who has hastily passed through the country; but of one who continued in the island fifteen months; who visited its mountains and the plains; who was well acquainted with its produc­tions; who knows in what they are susceptible of im­provement, and who can take upon him to assert, that in the whole world there is no country that combines so many real advantages. The lofty trees of the frozen regions, crown the summits of the mountains, while less lofty hills are covered with the fruit-trees [Page 201] in our climates; the declivities are embellished with vineyards, producing wines equally various as agree­able; the vallies abound in trees bearing delicious fruits; many of which thrive under the torrid zone, while the plains are enriched with every species of grain the earth can produce. Let it be observed too, says Savary, that nature has placed the finest harbours on the East, West, and North sides of the island, as if its commerce was destined to extend to every quar­ter of the globe.

CHAP. XXXII. Cyprus.

THIS island has made such a conspicuous figure in the page of history, that an account of it must prove highly interesting to those, who are fond of researches into the situation of remote nations. It lies under the fifty-second degree of East longitude, and the thirty-fifth of North latitude, between the coast of Syria, and that of Cilicia, at present called Caramania; being in the most Easterly part of the [Page 202] Levant. This country was formerly known by a great many different names. Pliny calls it Acamantis, Cerastis, Asphelia, Amathusia, Macaria, Cryptos, and Colinia. In other historians, it may be found under the denomination of Chetime, Erosa, Paphos, and Sa­lamis; and in the poets under that of Cythera: the latter made it the birth-place of Venus, and the abode of the graces; hence, those charming descriptions which they have given of it; and those enchanting scenes, of which, according to their account, it was the theatre. Their ingenious painting has perpetuated the illusion; and the names of Pathos, Cythera, and Amathonte; those spots, more peculiarly consecrated to the goddess of pleasure, still awaken the most agree­able and delightful ideas.

It contained formerly, nine kingdoms, tributary to Egypt, and soon after to the Romans. From the emperors of the West, it passed to those of the East; but was taken from them by the Arabs, under the reign of Heraclius. A prince of the family of the Comenii, fired with ambition, seized on the whole island, and established himself sovereign of it. In 1191, our Richard I. deprived him of it, together with his life. Being afterwards sold by this monarch to the Templars, difference of religion caused the in­habitants to rebel against their new sovereigns; and, the knights apprehending they should not be able to [Page 203] retain possession of it, delivered back the island to Richard, who renounced it in favour of Guy de Lusig­nan. In 1480, it came under the dominion of the Venetians, and was taken from them the succeeding century by the Turks.

This beautiful island is about two hundred and twenty miles in length; sixty-five in breadth, and about six hundred in circumference, including the gulphs. A chain of mountains, the highest of which are Olympus, St. Croix, and Bussavent, divide it from East to West.

The largest of its plains is that of Messarea; where the wandering eye loses itself, in an extent of eighty miles in length, and thirty in breadth; while a variety of objects add to the pleasure arising from a view of this immense horizon.

There are few rivers, or torrents here, the beds of which, even in winter, are not entirely dry; and this arises from the great scarcity of rain. The heavens are, as it were, of brass; and historians assert, that in the reign of Constantine, no rain fell in this island for the space of thirty years. It may easily be conceived, how injurious a drought of such continuance, must have been to vegetation.

[Page 204]There were formerly in this island, a great number of cities; of which, at present, nothing remains but the names, and a few ruins. There are some, for the ancient situation of which, it would be in vain to search. Famagusta, and Nicosia, are the only places of importance; unless Larnic, where the European merchants have their factory, may be classed in the same rank. Besides these, Cyprus contains seven citadels, which are commanded by the same number of governors.

This island has produced many great men, distin­guished by their birth, their virtues, and their know­ledge. Strabo does not hesitate to say, that in this respect it is superior to most of the Grecian islands.

Some authors assert, that the air of this island is bad and unhealthful. This prejudice, prevents many strangers from remaining long enough in it to make the experiment. But those who have inhabited the island for a twelvemonth have been convinced of its wholesomeness, and of the error of ancient writers.

Tertian and quartan fevers are, it is true, very common and very obstinate in Cyprus, and in all the Levant; but these do not so much arise from the ma­lignity of the air, because it is easy to avoid them. The excessive heat of the climate, causes an abundant [Page 205] perspiration. If people in this situation, are so im­prudent to expose themselves to the least breath of wind, the pores become shut, and perspiration is stop­ped, which infallibly brings on a fever. Another cause of these fevers is, the immoderate use of strong liquors, and fruits, particularly cucumbers and melons. Even the inhabitants seldom escape this epidemical disorder, especially in summer; but by slight bleeding, and leaving nature to herself, they are cured without physic, or any other regimen, than that of abstaining from fruits.

This island was formerly, one of the richest and most fertile in the world. It abounded with mines of gold, silver, copper, iron, marcasite, rock alum, and even emeralds; but of these ancient productions, nothing remains besides the remembrance, and the places from which they were procured. The present government fetters curiosity, and forbids every kind of research. Some centuries ago, a great quantity of oil was made here; but in the time of the Venetians, a spirit of speculation abolished that useful branch, and the cultivation of olives was abandoned for that of cottons. Saffron, rhubarb, and other valuable pro­ductions, are at present totally neglected. Deer, roe­bucks, asses, wild bears, and a great number of the most beautiful pheasants, once enlivened the plains of Cyprus; but they are now all destroyed; and it would [Page 206] seem as if these animals had refused to embellish a country, which is no longer the seat of liberty.

The principal productions of the island are, at present, silk, cotton, wool, nutmegs, wines, turpen­tine, kermes, laudanum, wheat, barley, coloquintida, pitch, tar, glass-wort, salt, St. John's, bread, timber, umbre, and green earth.

The soil here, likewise, produces pulse and all kinds of wild herbs; a knowledge of which, would be a va­luable acquisition in botany; but there are few trees, and consequently few fruits. Nature, however, to make amends for this loss, has been exceedingly lavish in flowers; and the most beautiful and delicate plants of Italy, France, and Holland, may easily be natura­lized. Hyacinths, anemonies, ranunculuses, and nar­cissuses, both single and double, which require so much care in Europe, thrive even upon the moun­tains without cultivation; and render the beautiful plains of this island, like an immense parterre. Nothing can be more agreeable than to walk near the spots where they grow, at sun-rising, and sun-setting; when the odoriferous particles, put in motion by the heat of the sun, or condensed by the coolness of the evening, convey to the organs of smell, a mixture of every perfume: it is then that the enchanting dreams of fa­bulous antiquity are realized; and that this island [Page 207] seems still the abode of pleasure, and birth-place of love.

Among the wild flowers, there is one called me­lissa, or the bee-flower, which indeed has the shape of that industrious animal: its root may be ranked among the class of bulbous plants. The juice of it is an excellent specific for healing wounds.

The Cypriots cultivate a plant, which they call chenna; which is as tall and big as the pomegranate, and resembles it in its trunk and branches; its leaves are like those of the myrtle, and its flowers like a bunch of grapes in blossom. An oil is extracted from the fruit, which has all the properties of balm. The leaves, either dried or green, when boiled in water, communicate a beautiful orange dye to cloth or stuff. The Cypriots use it for dying their hair, which once impregnated with this colour, retains it for a long time after. The Turkish, and some of the Greek women, rub their nails and the palms of their hand with it; from an idea that it will render their skin white, and give a higher bloom to the carna­tion of their cheeks. In every country of the world, one part of the women have endeavoured to add to the graces of nature, and the other to repair her faults; all the scents and cosmetics invented by quackery, have been often put to the proof; but [Page 208] they have never been able to cure the insurmount­able credulity of the sex.

The Venetians, when masters of this island, used to paint their horses; but this custom is only con­tinued in regard to white greyhounds and sheep.

For want of hands, great part of this island is uncultivated, and produces nothing but thyme and other odoriferous herbs, which perfume the sur­rounding atmosphere. The luxuriance of nature, left to herself, sufficiently shews what happy effects agri­culture would have on these fertile desarts.

In the side of a mountain, near Paphos, is a ca­vern, which produces the most beautiful rock crystal. On account of its brilliancy, it has been called the Paphian diamond: it is cut and polished in the same manner as other precious stones. People are forbid, under severe punishment, to carry away the smallest piece, and the mountain is surrounded with guards.

A similar prohibition has been made respecting the stone amianthus, or asbestos, of which there is a quarry, near the village of Paleandros. Incombus­tible cloth, it is said, has been made of it; and fire, instead of diminishing, increases its whiteness. This fact, founded on the relation of Pliny, and Dioscorides, [Page 209] is in the opinion of the moderns, one of those errors so common in the philosophy of the ancients. The Greeks, at present, call this stone caristia, and some others the cotton stone.

There are found here also red jaspers, agates, and three different kinds of stone. The hills nearest to Larnic, consist wholly of tale, which serves for the composition of that plaister used in all the houses of the country.

No wild animals are seen here but foxes and hares: the odoriferous plants on which the latter feed, give their flesh an excellent taste, and a most agreeable fla­vour. Hunting is the chief diversion of the Euro­peans in this island; and they maintain, at a very great expence, horses, and packs of hounds. No season can check their activity; troops of hunters repair to the field, by break of day, and pursue, without intermission, their fugitive inhabitants.

The most common of the winged tribe are rails, partridges, snipes, quails, and thrushes. Of water-fowl, there is great abundance. Rails and par­tridges cost about two-pence a-piece, snipes are something dearer, as the inhabitants account them a delicacy. All other birds are so cheap, that they are rather given away than sold. The beccaficos, and [Page 210] ortolans, are remarkably fat; and so numerous, that the peasants think they make a good market when they can dispose of them at the rate of a penny a dozen. They are generally caught in greatest abun­dance near the village of S. Nappa; a part of which they carry to the city, parboiling the rest, and putting them into vinegar, with some ingredients proper for preserving them. In this manner they keep them a whole year, and sell them at the same price as the rest. The grand vent for these birds is among the Europeans of Larnic, who send them to France, England, Holland, and various parts of the Ottoman empire. There are exported every year from this island, four hundred barrels, containing from two to four hundred birds in each. The usual method of dressing them in Cyprus, is to split them in the middle, and put them on the gridiron, with a slice of bread, and a little parsley: when broiled in this manner, they make a most delicious meal.

In the months of July and August, the fields are covered with flocks of vultures; but it appears this island is only a resting place in their passage to some other country. All other birds, the beccafico not excepted, lay their eggs here, though it is pretended that none of their eggs were ever seen in the island; but this is no more true with respect to Cyprus, than [Page 211] of a thousand other places, where the same thing has been asserted with as little foundation.

Among the venomous animals is a kind of serpent, the Greek name of which signifies the deaf-snake; its bite is mortal; the body is about two feet long, and an inch in diameter; the colour is black and yellow, and it has two small horns on its head. The Greeks have given it a very improper name, it being by no means deaf. It generally frequents corn fields; and the reapers, besides wearing buskins, six small bells to their scythes, in order to frighten it away. This precaution would be entirely useless, if nature had deprived it of the organs of hearing. At the village of Tremitice is a Greek family, in whom the virtue of curing this bite is hereditary. I saw two people wounded, says Mariti, apply to a relation of this family, who cured them merely by touching them. All those who despised this remedy, became victims to their incredulity, and died some time after. It is certain that all the virtue consists in a secret known only to these people; for, in touching the wound, they dexterously apply a certain powder, which causes a most acute pain, but it vanishes in a moment.

The tarantula of Cyprus, is a kind of spider, of a brown colour, inclining to a black, and covered [Page 212] with long hair; its bite is not mortal, but it is dan­gerous; and often occasions excruciating pain, ac­companied with a fever.

That of the galley is incurable. This is a thin flat animal, about a foot and a half long; of a yellow colour; and furnished with a multitude of legs, which it moves uniformly, like the oars of a galley; hence it has acquired that name.

There is here also a black serpent, about a yard, or a yard and a half long; but it is not venomous; people take it in their hands without danger; and, having stripped off its skin, broil the flesh, which is said to be extremely well tasted.

The horses of Cyprus are not proper for the course; but at Paphos, there are some highly esteemed for their pace, called ciapcun; a kind of accelerated trot, which they will continue for six hours together, over hills and plains, without fatiguing the traveller. The asses have the same pace, as well as the mules, which are reckoned the best in the whole Levant.

The oxen here are lean, and of a small size. The Greeks never eat beef; they hold it as a maxim, that the animal which tills the ground, is the servant of [Page 213] man, and the companion of his daily labours, and, ought not to be used for food.

The mutton is juicy and tender: the tails of some of the sheep, which are remarkably fine weigh up­wards of fifty pounds; and there are many that have three, or even five horns. Nothing can be more beautiful than the flocks of goats seen in this island. The great cleanliness of this animal, the variety of its colours, and its spotted skin, afford a spectacle truly interesting. When suspended from a rock, or traversing the plains, its agility, and wanton gambols, form an agreeable contract with the dignity of other animals.

The greyhounds here, are excellent for the chace, and the lightning is scarce more rapid than their flight; no sooner have they darted forward, than they are seen on their prey; and, on this account, those who wish to enjoy long sport, take care to chuse the heaviest. Greyhounds of a good breed have their ears and tail white, and exceedingly soft; their thighs long, nervous and robust; and the rest of their body red.

CHAP. XXXIII. Cities, Manners and Customs, &c.

HAVING now given a general view of the face of the country, in this celebrated island of an­tiquity, and of its productions; we shall proceed in this chapter to speak of the different cities; and the manners and customs of the inhabitants.

Nicosia, Farmagusta, and Larnic, seem at present the most important towns in this island. Of the an­cient city of Cithera, so celebrated in the works of the poets, and consecrated to the goddess of beauty, no vestiges remain; nor are there any of the ancient Pathos, which contained the celebrated temple of Venus, and was, together with the city, destroyed by an earthquake.

Nicosia stands in the centre of the island, in the middle of a vast plain, and is surrounded by hills and mountains; which bound it on all sides, at the dis­tance of ten miles.

From the time of Constantine, till 1567, the cir­cumference of this city was ten miles; but the Vene­tians [Page 215] reduced it to three, and fortified it, thinking by this means the conquest of it would be more dif­ficult. Nothing was respected: they even demolished temples, palaces, and the most beautiful monuments; and the gloomy policy of this people soon reduced Nicosia to a heap of ruins. There are still to be seen the foundations of a citadel, erected by king James I. of the Lusignans, and the remains of a con­ventual church, in which were buried several sove­reigns; and among others, Hugo IV. to whom Boc­cace dedicated his book on the genealogy of the gods.

A river, named Pedicus, ran through the ancient city; but in 1567, its course was changed. At pre­sent it is almost entirely dry; and the little water seen in it during winter, refreshes the neighbouring plains.

The city of Nicosia, under the family of the Lu­signans, was the residence of the kings, and the see of an archbishop. It contained a great many mo­nasteries, three hundred churches, and a number of palaces and public buildings. The year 1570, was fatal to this city. In the month of June, of the same year, the Turks entered Cyprus, with a nu­merous army, and after a siege of forty-five days, in which the inhabitants performed prodigies of valour, Nicosia was taken by a general assault. Of fifty thou­sand [Page 216] people, who had retired within the walls for shelter, twenty thousand were massacred, and the rest put in irons.

Between the gate of Famagusta, and that of Paphos, are several tombs raised on a bastion, one of which, exceedingly beautiful, and of the finest marble, is said to be that of the officer, who first planted the Ottoman standard on the walls.

The most beautiful edifice in this city, is, without doubt, the church of St. Sophia, where the kings of Cyprus were formerly crowned. It is built in the Gothic style, and consists of three large naves. It contains the tombs of the Lusignans, and of several ancient Cypriots, and noble Venetians. As age has effaced the inscriptions, they are absolutely unintel­ligible; and the figures on the stones are so much mutilated, that they cannot be distinguished.

The church of St. Nicholas, is, at present, the be­sisten, a kind of hall, where all sorts of provisions are sold. The principal merchants likewise assemble here, to transact business. When I beheld a croud of these merchants assembled, in this ancient temple, says Mariti, I could not help reflecting on that strange succession of events, which puts conquerors into the place of the conquered; converts a church into an [Page 217] exchange; and makes an abode of peace, set apart for prayer and devotion, the centre of all the petty interests of mankind.

The seraglio, is the palace of the Muhassil. The entrance is through a large court, around which, are various buildings; and at the bottom, the stables. This edifice is built in the Gothic taste, and was the royal residence in the time of the Christians: it has ex­perienced so many changes, under a succession of bashaws, that its original appearance is almost destroy­ed. In the neighbouring square, is a Turkish foun­tain, affording excellent water, for which this city is famous.

From the ruins of the ancient buildings, some idea may be formed of what this city originally was; it plainly appearing, the streets were spacious enough to display the magnificence of the palaces and building with which it was embellished. This mode of building has been neglected, and there is now no regular plan. The greater part of the houses are perfect huts, which destroy the charm arising from uniformity, and make a ridiculous contract with the superb structures near them.

The principal officers of the porte, to superintend the government of the island, reside in this city. It [Page 218] is also the residence of the principal Greek and Armi­nian families; who, by their different employments, depend on the Turkish government.

The chief branch of trade is cotton, cloth, manu­factured in the city, though most of the other manu­factures are carried on in the neighbouring villages. The Turkey leather of this place, has a more brilliant and lively colour than that of Barbary; and the painted cottons, instead of losing their splendor, by being washed with soap, become more beautiful. The dye of the Bucassins, a kind of stuffs, is com­posed of a mixture of the root of Boia, and ox's blood; this red colour, well imprinted, never fades.

The country about Nicosia, is lively and animated. From the top of the ramparts, may be seen a great number of hamlets and villages; some of which, are very populous and flourishing. The inhabitants do not confine themselves to agriculture; but spin cotton, and manufacture cloth, which they afterwards sell in the capital. The greater part of these villages, are ornamented with Greek churches, and groves of mul­berry-trees, which were formerly more numerous than they are at present.

The mulberries in Cyprus, are planted at an equal distance from each other, in strait lines; and, forming [Page 219] a small square grove, composed of one, two, three, and even five thousand plants. They are somewhat more than five feet in height, and about two feet in circum­ference. These trees grow naturally taller; but at Cyprus, the people lop the branches, that they may have the leaves to give to their silk worms. Thus, these trees are not suffered to grow old, nor does the pruning knife even respect their first shoots: care, therefore, is taken every year to plant new ones, in order to supply a sufficiency of leaves. No other at­tention is paid to them, than to water them once or twice a day in summer. A small reservoir, made in the form of a vase, is dug round each tree; and the water being conveyed into it, by small canals, serves to refresh the roots.

The city of Famagusta, was formerly called Ar­sinoe, from the name of the sister of Ptolemy Phila­delphus, who laid the foundation of it. The name of Famagusta, comes originally from Amocusta, which signifies built in the sand; and was given it, on account of the thin sandy earth that surrounds it. This city is situated on the eastern coast of the island; it is built on a rock, and is two miles in circumference. The walls are thick, strongly built, and flat on the top. They are surrounded by a deep ditch, cut out of the solid rock, and are flanked by twelve enormous towers; the sides of which, are four paces in thickness, [Page 220] and enclose a circle five paces in diameter. In 1571, this city, which may be called the key of the island, was taken by the Turks, after a siege of ten months. The Ottoman army consisted of two hundred thou­sand men. In the ten months, during which the siege was carried on, the Turks fired five hundred and forty thousand bombs. At present, the remains of them may be seen in the neighbouring gardens and fields; and in the ditches, which surround the city, where they are still lying in heaps.

We may form some idea of the bravery of the Ve­netians, from the number of Turks who were killed before the place. The garrison consisted of scarcely four thousand men; and yet they destroyed above seventy-five thousand Turks.

Famagusta, in its external appearance, is still in the same state as formerly. The ditch is entirely dry; and the walls are in good condition, except a few towers which were damaged by the enemies can­non, and which have not been repaired.

The interior part of the city, exhibits a very ruin­ous appearance. The number of churches demolished is immense. A very small spot only, contained two hundred; whereas, at present, there are scarce so many inhabitants in the whole city.

[Page 221]At the distance of six miles from Famagusta, stood the ancient Salamis, which owed its origin to Teucer, whom his father drove from the island of Salamis, his native country. This illustrious exile, when at a distance from the spot which had given him birth, wished, at least, to have an image of it, and built this new Salamis, mentioned by Horace. No edifice has survived the wreck of time, that can give us any idea of this city. Nothing is to be seen but scattered co­lumns; heaps of stone embrowned by age; and the ruins of a building, supposed to be a temple.

Salamis can boast of having produced a great number of illustrious men. It was the country of Aristo, the historian, of whom Strabo speaks. Solon, one of the Grecian sages, is believed to have been originally from this city. Cleobulus was born at Sa­lamis, as was Neocrion, who commanded the naval army of Alexander the Great; cum multis aliis.

Larnic, distant from the port of Salines, about half a league, is situated to the North of the ancient Ci­tium; and even occupies a part of the ground on which it once stood. It lies in the Southern part of the island. Its origin is not precisely known; but may be attributed to the proximity of the sea, and the ma­terials found in the ruins of Citium. The port of Salines, is one of the most flourishing in the kingdom; [Page 222] this is owing, no doubt, to its happy situation, and its proximity to Larnic, the centre of the commerce of Cyprus. This place was formerly resorted to by people from all countries; and the Cypriots still re­gret those days of splendor; when, amidst so many nations, customs, and different languages; each of them could, like the ancient philosopher, call himself a citizen of the world. Since that period, things are greatly changed. When I beheld this harbour, says Mariti, at present deserted and called to mind its ancient celebrity, I imagined I saw the bed of a dry river; and that the multitude of foreign names, in­scribed and confounded on the neighbouring stones, were like those numerical signs, which, long after the annihilation of its waters, are an evidence of its former abundance.

The town of Salines, which stands on the borders of the sea, extends much further in length than in breadth. The citadel built by the Turks, in 1625, is furnished with a great many pieces of artillery taken from the Venetians. This fortress, full of fissures, and embrowned with age towards the sea, is falling fast into decay; whilst its ancient walls are almost hid by a multitude of plants; the offspring of time, the tender and delicate shades of which, form a charming contrast with the dark and gloomy colour of its ruins.

[Page 223]The adjoining city has been described, by most travellers, only as a pretty considerable town; but, if we observe, that it is the storehouse of commerce for the island, and that it holds the second rank in the kingdom, though dependent on the government of Nicosia; it will be allowed, we may be justified in styling Larnic a city. Besides, it is also the seat of a Greek bishop; and the place where the European con­suls have fixed their residence.

However this may be, says Mariti, it is the most agreeable town in the whole island; for, I know nothing more interesting, he adds, than a commercial city. I experience a secret pleasure, in seeing a vast concourse of citizens and foreigners, labouring in concert for the happiness of mankind; and making, of any metropolis, a magazine for the whole world. In my eyes, the exchange is a vast assembly, where all nations have their representatives. Factors, in the commercial world, are what ambassadors are in the political: they negociate affairs; sign treaties; and keep up a useful correspondence, between rich so­cieties of men, divided by seas, and living at the two extremities of the earth. I have often contemplated, with a pleasing emotion, an inhabitant of Japan, dis­cussing his interest with a citizen of London; or a subject of the great Mogul, entering into contract with a Russian. I was fond of being among these nume­rous [Page 224] agents of commerce, distinguished by their dress, their manners, and their language; and all searching for the same point by different routes. Here I beheld a body of Armenians; there an assembly of Jews; and a little further a group of Dutchmen. I became in succession, a Dane, a Swede, a Frenchman; or, rather I was a citizen of the world.

All the buildings in this city, are modern; and it contains no monument of remote antiquity. The mosque was formerly a Latin church, and is the only Turkish place of worship in Larnic. The Greeks have here three churches, in which the people assem­ble three hours before day; for all their religious ce­remonies must be finished before sun-rise.

Every Greek and Latin church is surrounded by walls. The entrance is through a gate about three feet and a half in height; which is made so low, in order to prevent the Turks from introducing horses, and other animals into the inclosure.

Public edifices are all constructed of stone. Every other building is formed of bricks, composed of a mixture of chopped straw, and moist earth, dried in the sun. The cement used, is nothing but the same clayey earth, with the addition of a little fresh straw. Such, in general, is the construction of all the houses [Page 225] in the kingdom, except in a few villages, where stones are very common.

The earthy colour of these bricks gives them, ex­ternally, a dismal and melancholy appearance; and travellers are agreeably surprized, to find the inside of the houses airy, and commodious: the walls are whitened with a composition of tale.

These houses have only one story above the ground-floor: the roofs are formed of earth, mixed with clay; and the crevices, produced by the heat in summer, close of themselves, during the rains in winter. They are about nine inches in thickness; and are supported by large beams, over which are laid very thin laths, covered with mats made of reeds; they are, how­ever, not proof against a continuance of wet weather; and the inhabitants are under the necessity of giving them continual repair. Houses built after this man­ner, have, at least, one advantage; which is, that they resist earthquakes. Sad experience has taught the Cypriots, to prefer them to houses built of stone. They are paved with very soft white marble, which easily exfoliates. Every house has a garden; the cul­tivation of which, is the principal amusement of the Cypriots.

[Page 226]Among the private houses are some, which, on ac­count of their grandeur, and the richness of their fur­niture may be considered as palaces. Such is that of the English consul: it contains a saloon capable of receiving five hundred people; and is ornamented with ancient tapestry, and excellent paintings. All the other apartments equally beautiful, look, for the most part, into a delightful garden, kept in excellent order.

The houses of the Greeks and Turks, are gene­rally pretty large and spacious; but built in a whim­sical stile, and laid out in an irregular manner.

Those who travel in the East, cannot help observ­ing how inferior architecture is there, to what it was formerly. In this art the Orientals produced won­ders. Without mentioning the tower of Babel, the foundations of which, according to an ancient writer, were still existing in his time, like a vast mountain, what could be more worthy of admiration than the walls of Babylon, its hanging gardens, and temple of Belus, the height of which, divided into eight sto­ries, of a furlong each, was consequently a mile; and on the summit of which was erected the observa­tory of this proud city? To which might be added, that immense rock, cut into the figure of Semiramis; [Page 227] whilst some smaller ones represented tributary kings prostrated before her.

Many learned men have indeed ranked these won­ders of art amongst the fables of antiquity; but their incredulity, in this respect, is founded upon nothing else than the impossibility of erecting such monuments at present. The ancients certainly enjoyed advan­tages we have not. The earth was exceedingly fer­tile, and the greater part converted into pastures, which require much fewer hands than agriculture. There was scarcely any commerce to employ the active part of mankind; few arts and sciences to en­gage the attention of the sedentary and contempla­tive; and besides this, monarchs were absolute; and, when they went to war, they put themselves at the head of all their people. We are told, that Semi­ramis carried with her three millions of men; and yet she found herself before an army still more nu­merous. Is it surprising then that this queen, on her return from war, as she could with a single word, command all that multitude, should have executed these wonders of her imagination? In these climates also, a succession of seasons was unknown; and winter never fettered the activity of the labourer. Amongst other advantages might be reckoned the bitumen; which, according to historians, covered the surface of the earth; and this species of cement, furnished [Page 228] by nature, is probably the same which the Scriptures tell us was employed in constructing the tower of Babel. Do not the pyramids of Egypt correspond with the descriptions given of them by the ancients? Nor have I the least doubt, says Mariti, but that an ingenious traveller might still discover some remains of that famous labyrinth which covered a whole province, and which, in its vast circumference, con­tained an hundred temples, dispersed through its different divisions. The Chinese wall is also one of those constructions which make a considerable figure in the scale of human industry: and were not this monument of oriental grandeur still extant; would it not be classed among the number of historical fables and chimeras? The doubts started respecting the existence of these prodigies of art, attest much less the wisdom of our criticism, than the narrow and confined sphere of our modern conceptions.

The water of Larnic was formerly very bad, and the destruction of the ancient aqueducts of criticism was greatly lamented. A bashaw, zealous for the good of the public, caused new ones to be construct­ed; and these kept in proper repair, continue to distribute throughout the city, the excellent waters of a spring from the neighbouring village of Arpera.

[Page 229]The city is governed by a Digdaban, or commissary. This is the second office of dignity in the island; and the power of appointing a person to fill it up, is vested in the governor-general.

The pretorian palace is the residence of the Cadi, and of the president of the Codgias. These Codgias are virtuous old men, whose counsels are listened to with attention, and followed with punctuality.

The sentences passed in this tribunal are only pro­visional; but in some cases of little consequence, no appeal can be made: in those of importance, the af­fair is referred to the tribunal of Nicosia, which de­termines in the last instance.

Three hours after sun-set, the guard of the culaches, otherwise called the watch, issues from the palace of the Digdaban: its business is to preserve peace among the inhabitants; and whoever walks abroad at that hour, without a light, is made a prisoner. Subjects of the empire are conducted to the public prisons; and Europeans to the palace of their consul: when they have committed no other crime, they are discharged, on paying a small acknowledgment to the guard.

In the city of Larnic, or rather in the whole king­dom of Cyprus, there are people belonging to six Eu­ropean [Page 230] nations; French, English, Tuscans, Neapo­litans, Venetians, and Ragusans. Each have their respective consul, except the Tuscans; these are under the protection of the English consul, who is honoured even with the title of vice-consul of Tus­cany. There are here also Imperialists, Danes, Swiss, Dutch, and Genoese. But as all these have long ceased to carry on commerce by themselves, they entrust their commissions to correspondents; whom they, among the other nations, have established in this island.

In the neighbourhood of this city, are a multitude of cisterns, covered with a viscous kind of cement, im­penetrable to oil; which were formerly, as it is said, vast reservoirs for containing that liquid. This ce­ment, is a mixture of marine salt, lime, and boiling oil.

The country round Larnic is not the most pleasant in the island, the soil being extremely barren. The sun falls almost perpendicular on these parched fields; and while the fatigued traveller breathes a scorching air, he searches in vain for some grove; the shade of which, may afford him shelter to recruit his exhausted strength. If the fields, however, are dry and barren, the orchards are rich and fruitful; they are remarkably pleasant, and watered by small canals formed in the earth. The gardens are equally beau­tiful, [Page 231] and abound with all kinds of flowers: the citron and the orange-trees thrive in them wonderfully.

Though this island does not seem to possess many considerable cities; according to Mariti, it abounds with beautiful villages, some of which, are almost as large as towns, and very populous. Among others, he describes in glowing terms, the village of Piscopia, near the ancient Cythera. This village, says he, is one of the most flourishing places in Cyprus. It abounds in citron, orange, and olive-trees; the trees are watered by a multitude of springs, and the scenery around is delightful. The pleasantness of the abode seems, as it were, to have been transfused into the souls of the inhabitants, who are sprightlier, and more ami­able than in any other part of the kingdom. They have lively imaginations, which renders their conver­sation most agreeable; they paint, rather than speak; and their comparisons like that nature, which furnishes them with images, breathes an air of delicacy and grace.

Dale, another village to the South of Nicosia, is like­wise described by Mariti, in animated terms. This vil­lage, says he, is delightfully situated on an eminence; and is rendered still more pleasant by the vicinity of a number of small groves. Its waters are remarkably limpid; and the banks are ornamented with a thou­sand [Page 232] odoriferous herbs; which enamel the plains, and diffuse an agreeable fragrance throughout the sur­rounding atmosphere. Sweet marjoram, is above all, very common. This plant, and the spot where it grows, are elegantly introduced by Virgil, in that charming picture he gives, of innocence reposing peacefully in the bosom of beauty, in a rural and solemn retreat. Dale, was formerly called Idalicum, and one of the four villages consecrated to the god­dess Venus, as she herself says, in the tenth book of the Aeneid.

CHAP. XXXIV.

HAVING now furnished the cities, towns, and villages in this island; we will proceed to the people, their character, customs, manners, and amuse­ments. With respect to their persons, the Cypriots are, in general, tall and well-made; they have also a noble and agreeable air; and, in their manner of living,

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[Page 237] are very sober and temperate. The women, says Mariti, have nothing beautiful but their eyes; their features are destitute of delicacy; yet they have always been held in the highest estimation for their charms; and it is from among them, that our writers of love-songs select their models: but it must be confessed, that the European ladies have no occasion to be proud of the comparison, few of them being remarkable for their beauty. In stature, they are like the men; very tall, of an amorous disposition, and much inclined to indolence and voluptuousness. They, for the most part, attain to a good old age; and it is no uncom­mon thing to see great grandmothers become tired of widowhood, and enter again into the bands of Hymen. All the Greeks are fond of pleasure; but the Cypriots give themselves up to a degree of licentiousness and consider the gratifying of their inclinations as an act of religion.

The people of this island, dress nearly in the same manner as the inhabitants of Constantinople. The ladies are distinguished by nothing but their light and lofty head-dress. This is a very ancient fashion, and has hitherto been preserved in the island. Their dress, according to the Cyprian taste, is much closer than that used by the Turks; and consists of a small vest, and a petticoat of red cotton cloth. Their robe is of cloth velvet, or silk: it is a long piece of stuff pro­ceeding [Page 234] from the shoulders, which passes below the arms, and hangs down to the ground. It does not meet before, and leaves that part of the body entirely uncovered. Their shifts are of silk, and manufactured in the kingdom. They wear breeches, or a kind of drawers; and to half boots, of yellow leather, are fixed, towards the ancle, sandals, which serve them for shoes. They have no stays; a plain vest of cot­ton marks out their shape, and preserves the pliable­ness of the body. Over the whole, is thrown a very fine shift, or light veil, with which their modesty is not contented; and to which, they add one made of some kind of stuff, less delicate and transparent. Around their necks, they have gold chains; and their arms are ornamented with pearls and jewels. Their head-dress, is an assemblage of beautiful printed mus­lin handkerchiefs, arranged so, as to form something like a helmet; to the extremities of which, they affix another handkerchief folded into the shape of a tri­angle, and suffered to float over the shoulders. This kind of helmet, raises them a foot and a half, and gives them a theatrical and gigantic appearance. These pyramidical head-dresses, so fashionable in this island, offend against taste and good sense. The head of itself, is the master-piece of nature; and these foreign ornaments destroy its effect: it occupies the highest and most conspicuous part of the human [Page 235] figure. Nature has omitted nothing that could em­bellish the face; she has spread over it a fresh and delicate complexion; and rendered it still more strik­ing, by the beautiful enamel of two rows of teeth. She has made it the seat of smiles and modesty. The brilliant sense of seeing animates, and enlivens the scene. On each side are suspended, the organs of hearing; and the least motion in the human body, becomes the agreeable source of enchanting ex­pression. She has given it attitudes, graces, and mo­tions; of which, words can convey but an imperfect idea. The hair hangs over it; and, like a floating shade, sets off its beauty to admiration. In short, she has imprinted in it, the seal of perfection; and the head serves, in some measure, as a cupola to the most elegant of her works. To overload it, there­fore, with superfluous and preposterous ornaments, is to destroy its admirable proportion; and substitute, in the places of real beauties, childish and ridiculous toys. Among the Cyprian ladies, the greater part of the hair is concealed under these ornaments; they, however, divide it on the forehead, and extend it over each temple towards the ears. Behind, they suffer it to fall in ringlets; and those who have a great quantity, form it into eight or ten tresses. They are passionately fond of perfumes, especially on the head, which they cover with all kinds of flowers. The ca­tholic ladies in the island, are remarkably coquettish, [Page 236] and take great pains to display the elegance of their dress; their eyes seem to invite adulation; and the opinion they form of those around them, is decided by their slowness, or readiness to gratify their desires.

The character of this people, and the ideas they seem to have formed of love, is different from that of European nations. That ecstacy and delirium, that union of souls, which leads us into a kind of intoxica­tion, which deifies in our eyes, the object of our af­fections, and renders love a divine emotion, and an indissoluble chain, is never known here. All the dif­ferent shades of sensibility escape them. They feel nothing of the moral influence of love; and are ac­quainted only with its unbridled fury: it is a want which they gratify, and not a sentiment which hurries them away. A European always embellishes the object whom he loves; and every day, and every mo­ment, discovers in her new charms, and new graces; he multiplies them, as one may say, and experiences, even in constancy, all the pleasures of variety. Such is love, in temperate regions, where the two powers of which man is formed, are in harmony; and where the physical sensation is subordinate to the moral sen­timent. But, in those countries, where the irresistible, and continual action of a scorching atmosphere, destroys the harmony of these two powers; the violence of [Page 237] the sensation, extinguishes the energy of the senti­ment; and man yields to the most impetuous of pas­sions, and not to the mildest of affections.

As an instance of debauchery of manners in this island, Mariti mentions, the adoration paid by the women to the Abdales. These are pious vagabonds, or a sect of Turkish monks, who wander from one town to another, without any fixed residence. No sooner has an Abdale arrived in any town, than all the women go to visit him; they flock round him, and even make frequent assignations with him, without the least scruple; and some even do not blush to sub­mit to his desires in the middle of the streets, while a simple cloak conceals from view, those superstitious orgies; resembling in this respect, according to Bruce, the inhabitants of Abyssinia; who, like the Cypriots in their amours, seem lost to all sense of modesty.

We shall now give a description of a Cyprian hunting match; which, though chiefly remarkable for the extra­ordinary discipline of the dogs, may not be displeasing to many of our readers. We have already remarked, the Cypriots are remarkably fond of hunting. Gal­lantry, hunting, and the cultivation of their gardens, seem to constitute the whole of their amusements. A sportsman, however, in this island, seldom goes out alone, to pursue a feeble animal with his fusee, and a [Page 238] couple of dogs. The Cypriots love exercise; but they wish to enliven their excursions, with jollity and mirth: they, therefore, go in large parties, mounted on horses, and accompanied by whole packs of dogs. The hunting match, at which I was present, says Mariti, was a very brilliant one, it being that of the governor. On our arrival in a spacious plain, inter­spersed with clumps of mulberry-trees, some ruins, and thick bushes, the sportsmen began to form a ring in order to enclose the enemy. The barrier consisted of guards placed on horseback, with dogs in the in­tervals. The ladies of the greatest distinction in Ni­cosia, with a multitude of other people, stood on a little hill, which I also ascended; and from that emi­nence enjoyed the amusement, without sharing in the fatigue. The governor and his suite were posted in different parts of the plain; and, as soon as the ap­pointed moment arrived, the hunt was opened with the sound of musical instruments. Part of the dogs were then loosened; which, ranging through the bushes and underwood, sprang a great number of rails, par­tridges, and woodcocks. The governor began the sport, by bringing down one of these birds; his suite followed his example; and the winged tribe, into whatever quarter they flew, were sure of meeting instant death. I was struck with the tranquillity of the sta­tionary dogs; for, notwithstanding the instinct with which they were naturally spurred on, not one of [Page 239] them quitted his post; but the rest ran about in pur­suit of the game, and the plain was cleared in an in­stant. The scene now changed; a hare started from a bush; the dogs pursued; and, while she made a thou­sand turnings to avoid her enemy, they met her at every point. She, however, often defeated the grey­hounds; and I could not but admire the sagacity of these animals, which, disdaining the assistance of those which were young and inexperienced, waited until some of the cunning old ones opened the way for them, and then the whole plain was in motion. During this scene, the beauty of the season, the cheerfulness with which I was surrounded, the barking of the dogs re-echoed a thousand times from the hills, the cries of the hunters, and the sound of the horns, exalted my imagination; and kept me, I may say, in a kind of en­chantment. When the poor animal was just going to be a prey to his enemies, the governor rushed for­wards, and throwing a stick before the dogs, they all instantly stopped, and not one of them ventured to pass the signal. One of the swift greyhounds being then let loose, pursued the hare, and having come up with it, carried it back; and, jumping on the neck of the governor's horse, placed it before him. The go­vernor took it in his arms; and gave orders if it con­continued alive, to shut it up in his park, where he maintained many other prisoners taken in the same [Page 240] way. Such was the humanity of this governor, a Turk, who thought it his duty to preserve an animal, which had afforded him so much amusement.

CHAP. XXXV. Religion, Government, Population, and Language.

RELIGIONS are very much diversified in this island: the Turks never carried their tyranny so far, as to attempt to render theirs universal. Had this moderation been adopted by all sovereigns, it would have saved abundance of human blood, and not have so frequently placed a greater distance between the members of the same nation, than is to be found between people separated by immense seas, or inac­cessible mountains. The greater part of the inhabi­tants are Greek schismatics. Besides a multitude of Armenians, there are here a great many Maronites; whose religious customs, differ little from those of the Roman catholics. The Latins are far from being so [Page 241] numerous, and consist only of Europeans, and the brotherhood of St. Francis, known throughout the Levant, under the name of the fathers of the Holy Land.

The Turks here have a mullah, who is also in some measure the chief of the law; the Greeks, an arch­bishop, and three bishops; the Arminians, a bishop; the Maronites, a high-priest; and the Latins, two rectors; one for the French, and the other for the Italians. Religious toleration in this island, is ex­tended to all nations.

There are very few English in it; and doubtless it is, for this reason, that they have neither a church, a chapel, or a minister of their religion. Should they happen to multiply, they will endeavour to procure all these things. Here, as elsewhere, it is known that man is by excellence, a religious being; and that re­ligion is the strongest bond which attaches a people to their sovereign, by exhibiting him as the representa­tive of the Deity. We have spoken pretty fully of the Mahometan worship, under the article of religion in Turkey; we shall, however, offer some strictures from Mariti, on their mode of preaching in Cyprus.

Were we to judge of their discourses from ours, we should form a very false idea of them. The Mussul­man's [Page 242] eloquence, admits nothing of the common place kind. Less diffuse, and less ornamented than the Eu­ropean oratory, every foreign idea, and every useless expression, are carefully banished from it. A Turkish sermon, is a continued series of maxims and senten­ces. The minister never attempts to prove dogma's, which no one doubts; nor does he ever address him­self to the audience as to unbelievers. Morality is the basis of their discourses, which contain regulations for conduct, in every circumstance of life, and con­solation for every kind of misfortune to which men may be exposed. The person of the orator, is as simple as his discourse; and the profligacy of his con­duct, never destroys the beauty of his morality. A young voluptuary, is never seen declaiming against effeminacy and pleasure; an opulent dignitary, preaching the contempt of riches; or an elegant beau, satyrising vice and luxury. These ridiculous contrasts, so common, and yet so little taken notice of in Europe, would highly offend these people who are fond of simplicity: they would believe, one ridiculed both them and their religion; and the latter is an object upon which a good Mussulman will never suffer raillery.

The kingdom of Cyprus, was for a long time go­verned by a bachan; but when the island began to lose its ancient splendor, its expences became excessive, [Page 243] and the people were so oppressed by taxes, that they complained of this burthen, and begged the Ottoman Porte to give them, instead of a bashaw, a muhassil, or simple governor. This request was complied with; but the Cypriots, by changing masters, were not freed from oppression; and, being equally harrassed under the muhassil, they again complained, and petitioned for a bashaw. All their supplications were, however, useless; and they still continue to groan under a yoke they once thought less severe, and less burthen-some.

The revenues of the kingdom, are abandoned to the Grand Vizier, who farms them to the highest bid­der. The purchaser, furnished with a special man­date from the Grand Signior, countersigned by the minister, arrives in his government; and, like the clouds that precede tempests, and conceal all those scourges that desolate our plains; the presence of this subaltern despot, impresses universal terror, and pre­sages every evil.

If interest be here, as it really is, the sure path to preferment; it is also the only rule, which regulates the actions of the great. There is nothing to check these avaricious governors. They fall on the people with fury; and their subtle tyranny invents a thou­sand means to get possession of their wealth, and ex­tort [Page 244] from them the fruits of their industry. Every day gives birth to some new tax; and the governor, after having fattened on the substance of the people —after having enriched the agents of his cruelty, and become the object of public execration; retires loaded with gold, and maledictions, and gives place to a new purchaser; who, to make himself amends for a bad bargain, thinks, that he is entitled to exercise equal rapacity, and oppression. The consequence is, that this beautiful kingdom is reduced to the most de­plorable condition, and drained of all its specie. In no country whatever, are taxes more accumulated. Altogether, they amount to about two hundred pias­tres, for each citizen. Capitation, throughout the whole Turkish empire, is forty piastres; and it was only by a special favour, that it was here reduced to twenty-one.

Gold here, is the universal agent; and every thing is purchased by it, says Mariti, even to the blood of the citizens. The law, it is true, orders an assassin to be put to death; but the criminal, by paying a few hundred piastres, easily avoids its vengeance. The fine for murdering a man, between thirty and thirty-five years of age, is five hundred piastres.

The tribunals to which all civil and criminal cases are referred, are called Mehemes. The president of [Page 245] these tribunals is, in the capital, a mullah; and, in towns, or large villages, a cadi.

The military government of the island, is in the hands of the ali-bey, a general of the cavalry; and the aga-janissary, commandant of the infantry. Their respective captains are called, zaim, and cioluagini. There ought to be three thousand horses in the island, and about eight thousand janissaries; but there are scarce ever more than an hundred of the former, and two thousand of the latter. The pay, however, is always the same, and is received by the commanders.

When the Turks conquered Cyprus, they reckoned in it besides women, children, and old people, seventy thousand men, subject to capitation. Such was always the number of its inhabitants, in the short mo­ments of its splendor and glory. But, despotism hav­ing over-run this rich island, its sources of abundance are dried up, and its population is so much decreased, that the number of inhabitants scarce amount to forty thousand. This calculation is, perhaps, not very ac­curate; it being difficult to ascertain the exact num­ber of inhabitants, either in Cyprus, or in any coun­tries of the Levant. The Orientals do not, like the Europeans, keep a register of births and deaths; no notion, therefore, can be formed of this population, but, from the number of those paying taxes, and who are not above a third part of the whole.

CHAP. XXXVI. Commerce of Cyprus, and its Wines.

THE three principal articles of commerce, in the island of Cyprus, are cotton, silk, and wine. The cotton, on account of its whiteness, softness, and the length of its filaments, is accounted the best in the whole Levant. The high price at which it sells, is a sufficient proof of its superiority over every other kind used in Europe, and of the intrinsic value of this staple commodity of the island.

The season of sowing this plant, is the month of April. The ground destined for the reception of the seed, is prepared much in the same manner as that for corn. As soon as the plants appear above ground, the weakest are pulled up, and none left but those which are strong and vigorous. The crops are col­lected in the months of October and November; and, as some time is necessary before the seed can be freed from its cover, or husk, the first exportation does not [Page 247] take place till February or March, in the year fol­lowing.

It is accounted a good crop, when the whole pro­duce of the kingdom amounts to five thousand bags. About half a century ago, the island produced eight thousand; and, under the government of the Vene­tians, thirty thousand.

Silk, is another important branch of the commerce, of the island of Cyprus. The method of breeding silk-worms here, is almost the same as that employed in Italy; but, it is not subject in Cyprus, to those in­conveniences which arise from a variation of the at­mosphere; the season at that epoch, being always beautiful and favourable. The quality of the silk, depends on the places where it is collected. The finest and whitest, is that produced in the environs of Famagusta and Carpassia. The orange, and sulphur-coloured, is made in Cythera, or the villages beyond the northern mountains; and that of a gold-yellow colour is produced in the territories of Paphos, and the adjacent country. The Turks purchase the greater part of the orange-coloured silk, for which they pay a piastre more, and send it to Cairo. The people there, are remarkably fond of this colour; and the silk, be­sides, is capable of being spun into much finer and more delicate threads. This island produces, one [Page 248] year with another, twenty-five thousand bags of silk.

The whole quantity of the best wines, made annually in Cyprus, amounts to forty thousand jars, or ten thousand barrels, Italian measure. Each jar contains five bottles, Florence measure.

The principal part of the wine trade, is carried on with the Venetians; for the wines of Cyprus, are drank at Venice, even in the Coffee-houses. These people, however, are not the nicest in their choice; since the wine which they purchase, is never above eighteen months old; the price, consequently, is very low, being never more than a piastre a jar. A piastre, according to Mariti, does not amount to quite three shillings, English. Other writers, make it equivalent to four shillings. The wines exported to other coun­tries, are from five to six years old.

Almost all the wines on the island, are sent to Lar­nic; which, in all the ports of the Levant, is known to be the grand magazine for this commodity. They are transported in leather bags; and as they serve to hold indifferent as well as good wines, they are pitched with very little attention.

[Page 249]Hence arises that pitchy smell, observed in the new wines of Cyprus; which might be much less, were care employed in pitching the skins: as a proof of this, it may be remarked, that in the country where the vessels are better prepared; the wines have not the same strong smell, as those transported to the city.

After it has been kept some time, it begins to lose its pitchy smell; and when it has attained to the age of twelve or fifteen years, it loses it entirely.

Subterranean cellars are not known at Larnic. The cellars there, are all above ground, and very long and narrow. The casks are placed upon joists, or on small walls, raised about a hand's breadth from the ground. These cellars are called kilaw; and it is not thought of any importance, in respect to the qua­lity of the wine, to build them towards any one point of the horizon more than to another. They have very little light; and the openings that admit it, are constructed in the extremity, opposite to the passage; on each side of which the casks are ranged. They are never opened, but when it is necessary to perform some operation on the wine. New wine, when taken from the skins, is put into earthern vessels, and not removed into casks, till after the expiration of a year.

[Page 250]It is for the most part customary, not to fill each cask entirely; a certain vacuum is left in them; and if they were only half full, the wine would sustain no injury.

Cyprus wine does not leave, on the sides of the vessel in which it is contained, that calcareous brilliant crust, which we call tartar. It, however, deposits at the bottom a certain sediment, which partakes of a black, red, and yellow colour; and which, in drying, acquires the consistence of a soft paste, and assumes the colour of Spanish snuff.

The price of the best wines, is generally from two to three piastres; that of new wines, or those made within the course of a year, is, as we have before ob­served, only one piastre. They have also an ordinary wine, which is never more than a quarter of a piastre, per jar; and in many villages, not above half that sum.

Strabo, the geographer, describing the island of Cyprus; in the end of his relation, passes a high en­comium on its wines.

Pliny, the naturalist, reckons them among the most valuable wines of the earth.

[Page 251]The vineyards of Cyprus, says Gregory le Grand, are the most fertile of all those that I know; and their wines, which are in great request in all commercial countries, are a sure source of riches.

Aponius admires the size of the grapes; the abun­dant and delicate juice of which, perfumes the mouth.

One is surprized to read, in a relation printed at Bologna, in 1572; that Selim II. emperor of the Turks, without respecting the talim, went to conquer Cyprus, in order that he might be master of its wines.

This prince, had wasted his youth, in the effeminacy and debauchery of the seraglio; and the laurels of his predecessors, appeared to him objects of contempt, rather than envy; as being too dearly purchased by the fatigues and dangers of arms. A question, how­ever, put to him, by one of his women, changed in an instant his pacific disposition. Some excellent Cyprus wine, with which the favourite was not acquainted, being served up to them, during a voluptuous repast; she found it so delicious, that she asked Selim from what place he had procured it, and whether the for­tunate soil that produced it, was contained within the vast extent of his empire. The sultan finding himself humbled by this question, suddenly quitted his new [Page 252] favourite; and having convoked his council, appointed Piali, admiral of his gallies; and Mustapha genera­lissimo of his forces; and gave orders for all his troops to be assembled, and hold themselves in readiness to receive his commands. "I propose," said he, "to conquer Cyprus; an island which contains a treasure, that none but the king of kings ought to possess.

This expedition is described, in a very interesting manner, by father Angelo, of the order of St. Domi­nic, and vicar-general of the Holy Land. He re­sided at Cyprus, at the time when Nicosia was taken.

We are almost tempted to smile, when we find [...] historians telling us, that Selim undertook this enter­prize, from motives of glory.

Another monk, called Stephen Lusignan, who was also a witness to the defeat of the Cypriots, in some measure confirms this fact, which we have related. He says, that the Ottomans having in their re­searches, discovered some wine eighty years old, sent it with great care to the seraglio, as the most valuable part of the booty. These wines were reserved for the sick; and to give an idea of their quality, father Stephen, tells us, that they kindled in the fire like oil.

[Page 253]There is no longer any of these wines in Cyprus. The oldest that can be found, are those preserved under ground in earthen vessels; their age, in gene­ral, does not exceed twenty, or twenty-five years; and there would be none even so old, were it not for the custom which the Christians have, at burying one of these vessels, at the birth of each child, to be served up afterwards at their marriage. This wine, whatever may be the fate of the child, is never em­ployed in commerce.

I do not know, says Mariti, what may have been the properties of those wines, eighty years old; which were formerly very common in the island; but I can assert, that those kept at present for twenty years, cure several diseases; and even some that are inveterate, as I myself have experienced.

Having been attacked for two months with a ter­tian ague, which degenerated into a quartan, I was beginning to despair of my condition, when a Cypriot, whom I accidently saw, made me acquainted with the remedy usually employed in such cases; which is only a glass of old wine, drank when the fit encreases. Having followed this prescription, I soon fell asleep; and when I awakened, I found myself perfectly well, and was never troubled more with the disorder. Such cures belong to the marvelous, no doubt; but they are, [Page 254] nevertheless, true; and appear very simple to the Cypriots.

Cyprus wine is also employed, with equal success, for cleansing wounds. If a rag is dipped in a glass full of this wine, and applied to the injured part, it becomes a salutary balm; which does not fail soon to heal the wound, and cause it to close entirely.

These wines are not equally good at every season of the year. If the spring and summer are favour­able to them, the winter is prejudicial to them in cold countries; they appear then, to have lost all delicacy and flavour. On this account, connoisseurs take the precaution to place them near the fire before they are drank.

In warm weather it is of utility, towards their pre­servation, to put them into cool cellars. As every place suits them equally; they will keep as well on a wooden, as on an earthen floor.

By pouring Cyprus wine from the bottle, it may be easily known whether it be old. When certain oily particles are found adherent to the glass, it is a sign of age: wine clarified by art, is too much enervated to produce that effect. It is not so easy to determine whether it be genuine, because it may be adulterated [Page 255] a thousand different ways; the most usual is, to mix it with muscadines and perfumes. To prevent any fraud in this respect, nothing is better, than to learn from what part it comes, and never to purchase but from merchants of known probity.

CHAP. XXXVII. Of the modern Greeks, their Character, Manners, Customs, Dress, &c.

A Greek gentleman is, without doubt, the most haughty and conceited being in the universe. Those men, who by their birth or fortune, hold the first rank among the Greeks, are called kings; as the women, who excel in beauty, are denominated queens. The kings of ancient Greece were so numerous, in­considerable, and vain, that during the reign of the emperors, the nobility might well stile themselves kings; which title they accordingly assumed, and it remains with them to this day. Anciently the same [Page 256] appellation was given to the powerful and the rich. Horace calls them the sovereigns of the earth. Terence, in conformity to the Greek language, gives to all the ladies of a certain rank, the title of queens. "Not­withstanding your rank and your income, you may pretend what you will, says Martial to Maximus, we are equal. I sup with you, you supped with some one else last night. I am coming to pay my court to you this morning, you have already done so before me. I accompany you as my patron and king, and you likewise attend in the suite of another. But it is enough to be a client, without being the proud ser­vant of any one. He who can be king in his own house, does not stand in need of another."

The Greeks, ever vain and ambitious, give more commonly the title of archondas, and archondisa; that is, of prince and princess, to those distinguished by their rank or opulence. This word comes from the Greek word archose, which signifies a prince. The archers at Athens, succeeded the sovereigns; the second bore the name of king; and that of archon, has been since given to the first lords of the emperor's court. From hence the title of archondas is taken up by such, among the modern Greeks, as pretend to a supe­riority over the rest of the people.

[Page 257]There are no chimnies in the Greek houses. A brazier is made use of to heat the apartments, and for those persons, to warm themselves by, who are cold. This custom is very ancient all over the East; the Romans had no other, and the Turks have pre­served it. The brazier was placed in the middle of the apartment, and dry wood burned in it, with torches to give light: it was placed, as at present, upon a tripod; lamps did not come in use till long after.

To protect the face from the inconvenience and heat of the brazier, the tendour was invented: this is a square table, under which the fire is placed, and is covered with a carpet, which reaches to the ground; over this is thrown a silk covering, more or less va­luable, round which the company sit, either on a sopha, or on the carpet. This utensil is chiefly in use among the ladies, who in winter sit near it the whole day, occupied in embroiderings, and receiv­ing the visits of their friends.

Embroidery is the chief occupation of the Greek women, they go out but little, and those that are obliged to labour for the support of their families, like our spinners, work from morning to night, to­gether with their children and their slaves. The pic­ture [Page 258] of the industrious woman in Virgil's eighth book of his Aeneid, is an exact copy after nature.

I have been, says Guys, an eye-witness of this liv­ing picture. The lamp of a female embroiderer, my neighbour, was lighted before day-break; and all her young maidens were seated early at their work, and enlivened their labour with songs.

We are indebted to the Greeks, for the art of em­broidery, which is of very ancient date, and was car­ried by them to the utmost degree of perfection. The Cretans, particularly, excelled in this art. When the talents of a young slave were mentioned by the ancients, to be skilful in embroidery was all that was requisite; they worked then as they do at present, in the apartments with their mistresses.

Agamemnon, disputing the fair Chriseis, with Achilles, says, I should prefer her even to Clitemnestres, the queen; nor is she inferior to her, either in beauty, in wit, or in her skilfulness at all kinds of embroi­deries.

The ladies of the highest rank prepared the wool for embroidering themselves, and had no other oc­cupation.

[Page 259]The Trojan women, when their town was besieged, seized with a rage for fighting, wished to lay aside their spindles, and embroidery, in order to take up arms. The prudent Theano stops them, and says, "Return home, I entreat you, and resume your em­broidery, and other such like occupations; and confide to men, the task of driving away the Greeks, and pro­tecting you."

Homer is frequent, in his eulogium on the Grecian embroideries. Antinous says, he presented to Penelope a mantle; the embroidery of which was very elegant; and the colours variegated with great art and skill.

What the same poet says, of the veils embroidered by Helen and Andromache, has given rise to a discus­sion, whether these embroideries were embossed. Although this art has made great progress, by seeing what was done now; some conjecture may be made of what was done in ancient times. I do not think, with the author, of the origin of laws, that they had re­course to painted patterns. The design was drawn as it is at present, upon the silk, or linen; and the em­broiderer shaded it with her wool, of different colours: nature being the great model. The embroidery at first, imitated the most simple flowers, of one or two co­lours; and, by degrees, those that were more varie­gated. Figures, and a mixture of shades, were intro­duced [Page 260] in proportion, as the art of dying colours, and working them, were brought to perfection. It is cer­tain, that all the women in Greece embroidered; and that the men deemed it an honour to wear the gar­ments that had been worked by them.

Quintus Curtius, in his history of Alexander the Great, acquaints us, that this prince having received a quantity of stuffs, and rich garments, after the fashions of his country, sent them to Sysigambis, with the slaves who had worked them; desiring she might be ac­quainted, that, if she approved of the presents, her daughters might be taught how they were to be worked, in order to fill up their time, and make presents of them when finished. At these words, the tears which fell from her cheeks, shewed the little value she set on them; and how injurious she thought the compli­ment that was paid her; there being nothing which the women in Persia, think a greater disgrace, than to employ themselves in works of this kind. Alexander finding she was mortified, went to see her, and told her, that the robe which he wore, was not only pre­sented to him by his sister, but even worked by her; from thence, says he, you may judge, that the custom of my country has misled me.

The custom is still kept up in all the Greek families of any rank, of considering the person, who nursed [Page 261] either the master or mistress, as part of the family. Among the ancient Greeks, a woman, who had brought up the daughter of any person of rank, always con­tinued with her, even after marriage; and was con­sidered as her governess, her confidant, and counsellor. It is for this reason, that, in the ancient Greek tra­gedies, a princess scarce ever appears upon the scene, without being accompanied by her nurse. This cus­tom is so well kept up, that the modern name of nurse, paranama, is even more expressive than the ancient, and signifies second mother. She is always kept in the house, after having nursed one of the children; and is, in some measure, from that time, incorporated as one of the family.

The Greek ladies still refuse to suckle their children, in order to preserve their beauty, their breasts, and even their health, which they consider as likely to be affected by it. They have ever been told, that their ideas, in this respect, were erroneous; and, that they made themselves no better than step-mothers, by thus abandoning their children, to the care and nourish­ment of strangers. The force of example and custom, has prevailed over all these reasons. There is nothing that has been written in the present age, on this in­teresting subject, more forcible, than the discourse of a Greek philosopher; preserved to us, by Aulus Gellius, and which is well worth being related. This [Page 262] philosopher went to pay a visit, to the wife of one of his people; a person of high rank, who had just been brought to bed. When the first compliments were over, he enquired of the mother of the lady, if her daughter proposed to suckle her infant. God for­bid, replied the mother! would you have my daugh­ter, after the pain she has undergone, take upon her, so irksome and disagreeable an office? Ah! madam! replied the philosopher, let her not be a half-mother; and, after having borne for nine months in her womb, and nourished with her blood an unformed being, whom she never saw nor knew, refuse the milk which nature has given her, to a human being, who is come forth into the world, whom she sees, who exists before her eyes, and implores her assistance by the most af­fecting cries.

After the nurse, come the slaves and the servants. The female slaves are still treated, as they were in an­cient times, with great humanity and gentleness; and, after a certain time, have their freedom given to them. They assist their mistress, as they used to do formerly, in their embroidery, and do all the business of the house. Ariadne, when she was abandoned by Theseus, exclaimed, from grief: how gladly she would be reduced to the condition of her servants. She consented, like a slave, to make the beds; to prepare the frames for the needle-work; to carry, even on her shoulders, a very

[Page]

[Page 263] heavy pitcher; and, to give her dear Theseus water, to wash himself, before he sat down to table.

The servants do not remain at home, when their mistress goes out; they are obliged to follow her; and this custom is still in practice among the Greeks. Za­leucus, disciple of Pythagoras, and legislator of Locres, in Italy, his native country, to repress the luxury and vanity of the nobles, enacted a law, that no woman of quality should be attended by more than one servant, except she was drunk.

The numerous attendants, which accompany a Gre­cian lady, is, in Greece, what a fine equipage is in England; with this difference, that no woman of any character, can go out alone; she must, at least, have one servant with her. Those of high rank, whose vanity induces them to make an ostentatious display of their grandeur, have many slaves to follow them.

I have already said, that the daughters were scarce ever permitted to go out, not even to church, till they were married. This last custom, is not so scru­pulously adhered to in the present age; they dare not, however, appear even now in the company of men, except in the presence of their parents. Nausicac says to Ulysses, 'which of us, without the permission of her parents, would appear in public with a man, before she [Page 264] was married?' Such were the wisdom and simplicity of manners in ancient times. How very different are those of the present age!

The wise Phocydides said, "keep your daughters closely shut up, and do not permit them to appear, even at the threshold of your doors, till they are married."

The young Greeks amuse themselves with different games; they pass their time in embroidering, or, in looking at passengers through the blinds of their win­dows; which are so contrived, as to enable them to see without being perceived.

They have also in Greece, another ancient custom, which is to present their hands to their daughters, their slaves, and others, who are their inferiors, to kiss. Euripides makes Alcestes, in the tragedy, call all her women about her, by name, one after the other, and hold out her hand to them that they may kiss it.

After the kissing of hands, the greatest mark of respect in the East, when, accosting a person of su­perior rank, is, to kiss or touch the hem of his gar­ment, and then to approach the hand to their lips. This is the manner in which the Turks salute their [Page 265] patrons; and, for a Turk to permit an inferior to kiss the skirt of his garment, is considered, as taking him under their protection. On this subject, I was wit­ness, says Guy, to an act of great generosity and hu­manity, on the part of a Turk.

The late Marquis de Villeneuve, after having con­cluded a treaty of peace, between the emperor and the grand signior, went to the audience of the sultan at the arsenal. Two French slaves, perceiving the ambassador, made their escape, and went and threw themselves at the feet of the ambassador, begging him to redeem them. Their master came up, and M. de Villeneuve, having asked him, how much he required for their ransom; they are free, replied the Turk, and were no longer mine, from the instant they had the good fortune to kiss the robe of the French ambassador. M. de Villeneuve, struck with the subimlity of this sen­timent, which charmed all the spectators, pulled out a very fine watch, which he had in his pocket, and presented it to the generous Mussulman.

The young girls, in Greece, have among them, a game, which consists in kissing each other on the eyes, whilst they take hold of the ears. This tender and af­fectionate mode of kissing, is very ancient. Tibulius, in his elegies, notices it. Natusque parenti oscula com­pressis auribus eripiet: lib. 2. eleg. 5. 'And the child [Page 266] snatches from his parent, kisses, seizing him by the ears.'

I do not like Alcippus, says a shepherd in Theo­critus; because, when I gave him a very handsome pigeon, he did not take hold of me by the ears and kiss me.

CHAP. XXXVIII. Dress.

LUCIAN represents the Greek ladies at their toilets, surrounded with many attendants; some of them held the glass; others, a ewer full of water. Then came the drugs, which serve to darken the eye-brows, to paint the cheeks and the lips; then the chains, necklaces, bracelets, ear-rings. In short, they were covered with gold and jewels, from head to feet. In the present age, there would be rather some­thing to add, than to diminish from this description: [Page 267] all these ornaments still subsist, and particularly the gold chains, which make a very necessary appendage to the dress of the Greek ladies. In going back to the times of Homer, we find the same embellishments for the toilette. The deity, who afterwards fabricated the buckler for Achilles, had not before disdained amusing himself, in making ornaments of this sort.

When my mother, says Vulcan, ashamed of having brought me into the world so deformed, had thrown me into the sea, that I might have been for ever con­cealed in its abyss, I should have suffered a great deal, if the beautiful Thetis, and Eurynome, the daughters of Ocean, had not picked me up. I remained nine years in a deep cave; occupied in making for them, brace­lets, agraffs, necklaces, buckles, rings, and aigrettes for the hair. Hom. Iliad. b. 17.

The ladies formerly, as at present, wore their hair tied, and much longer than the men.

Leucippus, says Pausanias, let his hair grow, to make a sacrifice of it to the river Alpheus. After having tied it in the same manner as the girls, he put on fe­male attire, and went to see Daphne, who was deceived by the disguise.

[Page 268]The head-dress of the Greek ladies, especially when it is low, is generally set off by a heron's feather; and they then place in front, another small black feather, or a coloured one; frizzing the hair round with a low curl.

May not these feathers bear some relation to the ancient custom, spoken of by Winkleman, in his beau­tiful collection of antique monuments? The Muses, had a dispute about singing, in the island of Crete, with the Syrens, who challenged them to a trial of skill, and were conquered. The Muses, as a punish­ment for their temerity, cut their wings, and affixed to their head-dress, one of their feathers as a trophy. The Greek women, therefore, may have received this ornament from the Muses. They are fond, at least, of representing them; when they dispute with each other, as they do at present, who shall carry off the prize in singing; or, when they sing couplets alternatively; a sort of entertaining combat; the object of which is, who shall recite last, and gain the victory over the others.

Besides, they have different sorts of head-dresses, more or less ornamented, which they vary many ways. Sometimes their hair falls in tresses down their shoul­ders; it is often curled up all round the head, or neg­ligently tied up with flowers.

[Page 269]The mitre, which the women wore formerly, had little fillets; which, coming down by the cheeks, tied under the chin.

The Greeks have the same kind of ornament at present, embroidered in gold, with fringes. They call it the Mahoulika; and it generally announces some in­disposition.

The Greek ladies, have ever been fond of covering themselves with jewels. The buckles of their girdles, their necklaces, their bracelets, are enriched with them; and, although they are fond of adorning their hair with the finest flowers of the spring, diamonds are intermingled with the jessamin and roses. They often dress themselves up, when they have no inten­tion of going out, or of being seen, merely to con­template themselves. These ornaments are never laid by, but for some deep and indispensable mourning; or, for some poignant cause of grief.

Thus, the celebrated Sapho, writes to Phaon: 'I have not dressed myself out since your absence, nor even taken the pains to comb out my hair. I wear no rings on my fingers, no gold in my hair; I do not perfume myself with the essence of Arabia; my dress is neglected, and without ornament; for, whom should I wish to please?'

[Page 270]What Sapho did for her lover, the Greek women, with much more propriety, do for their husbands; and, in their absence, most of them take no pains in orna­menting their persons.

In speaking of the ornaments and jewels, of the Greek ladies; we will bring to our reader's recollec­tion, an anecdote preserved to us by Plutarch. An Ionian lady, a friend of Phocion's second wife, and who was on a visit to her, took great pains in displaying her jewels to her; which consisted in bracelets and necklaces, ornamented with gold and precious stones. She replied to her, my only ornament is Phocion; who, for these twenty years, has been general of the Athe­nians.

Among the modern Greek ladies, might be found similar traits of sentiment, if there were but any Phocions.

To form some idea of the excess, to which luxury has carried the Greek women, we must hear what St. Chrysostom says on the subject, respecting the women of his time. "Besides, says he, their ear-rings, they have other jewels, to ornament the extremity of their cheeks. Their eye-lashes, and their whole face, are covered with paint. Their petticoats are netted with gold threads; their necklaces are gold; they likewise [Page 271] wear thin plates of gold on the wrists. Their shoes are black, very shining, and terminated in a point: (the form of the shoe is still the same, but the colour is changed). They ride on cars, drawn by white mules, with a numerous train of slaves and attendants."

The Greek women, of the present day, when they would go to any distance, not chusing to make a dis­play of their diamonds in the streets, have them carried with them, to put on before they enter the house, where they are going, and take them off before they return, when their visit is over. This is a very an­cient custom.

Another proof of adherence to ancient customs, in the Greek ladies, is the fan, and the manner of which they make use of it. This fan is very large, circular, composed of peacocks feathers, and has an ivory stick; in the centre, is a small glass. The ladies carry it into the country; and when fatigued with the heat, they repose themselves on a sofa; a slave takes the fan from his mistress, and ventilates the air with it to re­fresh her.

Athenaeus describes this fan, and scites some verses from Anacreon, where this poet giving the portrait of one Artemon, a voluptuous and effeminate man, says, [Page 272] he carries with him a round fan, with an ivory stick, which serves him for a parasol like the women.

In Achaia, on a marble tomb, of which Pausanias gives a description, is seen, says this writer, a young person of great beauty, seated in an ivory chair; and near her, one of her attendants, who holds a large fan, or parasol over her head.

The use of the veil, is of very ancient date; since, it has been discovered in times of remote antiquity. The veil, that symbol of modesty, which not only conceals from the prying eye, certain defects; but tends, likewise, to make beauty more attracting; which seems to announce modesty, and cover the in­nocent blush of timid youth; this degagée ornament, has ever been a favourite with beauty and the graces. No reproach can be cast on the Greek ladies, for not having faithfully preserved it. It makes, as formerly, an essential part in their dress, and distinguishes the different ranks. That of the mistress, and the servant; of the free woman, and the slave, are very different. There is an art in adjusting it, to veil themselves de­cently and agreeably.

A young beauty, who veils her face, says a Greek poet, is but the more ardently sought after; and ex­cites in her lovers, great eagerness in concealing her­self [Page 273] from their looks. This useful lesson, is as ancient as the world, co-eval with beauty and the veil. The Romans, who were no less severe in their injunctions, imposed on the women not to appear in public, with­out being veiled.

This veil, covered, as at present, the head and a part of the body; it was, consequently, very long: and, it was, no doubt, from its length, that it obtained the appellation of Macrama.

Yet the Greek veil does not cover the face in the same manner, as that of the Turkish women; for this reason, the modern Greeks make use of this latter, to conceal themselves with more care; especially when they go to any distance, or in parts inhabited by the Turks.

In the East, the veil seems to have been as ancient as the world. Abimelec, king of Gerar, restoring Abra­ham his wife, tells him, that he shall add some flocks and slaves, of both sexes, to attend her. "For you, Sarah, continues the king, there are a thousand pieces of silver, which I commit to the care of this man, whom you call brother. It is proper to furnish him with a sum sufficient to purchase a veil, suitable to the condition of one so respectable as yourself; that your servants may always remember, that you are the [Page 274] spouse of your master; and to let all strangers know, that you are a married woman. Never forget, that by neglecting that mark of distinction, common to per­sons of your rank, in this country, you have exposed yourself too much."

The value which king Gerar put upon this veil, calls to mind what Plato says, that there were in Persia, large provinces; one of which, was called the girdle; and the other, the queen's veil; because, in fact, their revenues were appropriated to the expence of the veils and girdles of the queen.

The origin of the veil is referred, by the Greeks, to modesty and bashfulness; properties which partake equally of timidity. A very pleasant story is told on this subject, recorded to us by Pausanias. "About thirty furlongs from the city of Sparta, Icarius placed a statue of modesty, to perpetuate the following in­cident."

Icarius, having married his daughter to Ulysses, en­treated him to fix his residence at Sparta, to which Ulysses would not consent. Disappointed in his wishes, he made a similar application to his daughter, and en­treated her not to abandon him; and seeing her ready to depart with Ulysses, for Ithaca, he redoubled his ef­forts to detain her; nor could he be prevented from [Page 275] following them. Ulysses, wearied with his importu­nities, told his wife, that she was at free liberty, either to return with her father to Sparta, or to go along with him to Ithaca. On hearing this, the beautiful Penelope, it is said, blushed; and, without making any reply, threw a veil over her face. Icarius understood her meaning, and let her go with her husband. But, moved at his daughter's embarrassment, he consecrated a statue to modesty, on the spot where Penelope had thrown a veil over her face; that henceforward it might be a universal symbol of delicacy with the fair sex.

The veil worn by the Greek ladies, is generally of muslin, bordered with gold. That of the common people, of a coarser sort of plain muslin. It is always white; such as the monuments of old, represent the veils of Hermione and Helen.

The modern Greeks (the men) wear a sort of scarf about the neck; which, occasionally, goes over the head, and serves to screen it from the wind and rain. The women also wear one of a similar kind, but of a finer stuff than that of the men. They use them against the inclemency of the weather.

The girdle, in ancient times, as well as the present, was considered, by the eastern people, as an essential [Page 276] part of dress. David speaking of the punishment due to an impious man, and a calumniator of his neighbour, adds:

"He cloathed himself with cursing, as with a rai­ment. Let it be as the cloke that he hath upon him, and as the girdle, he is always girded withal."

The Greeks wear a girdle, like the inhabitants of the East. That of the women, which is richer, and more luxuriantly ornamented, is considered as a very important part of dress. The girdle was, with the an­cients, a token of the bride's virginity; and, after the celebration of the matrimonial rites, hung up in the temple of Diana, from whence it was taken down, and carried away by the bridegroom, as soon as he became legally entitled to it; that is, when the perfect con­summation of the marriage was effected.

The embroidered girdle of the Greek ladies, is fre­quently fastened by a buckle, with diamonds, or eme­ralds, resembling that of Venus, which Homer describes so brilliant, and which was also quilted and em­broidered.

Nothing is more ancient among the Greeks, than consecrating the girdle at their marriage.

[Page 277]The Greeks, and Turks likewise, to this day, wear a girdle, in order to fasten their purse; into which, they put the money they receive, or chuse to carry about them. This custom is so ancient, that speaking of a man who has lost his all, they say, he has lost his girdle.

CHAP. XXXIX. Diversions, Entertainments, and Festivals.

THE Greeks have ever been a people devoted to festivals. The greatest solemnities of religion are but so many occasions of public rejoicing; and they celebrate them accordingly, with all the splendor of temporal festivity. On these occasions, their piety is not so conspicuous, as their attachment to sublunary joys. In the time of St. Chrysostom, the ancient Greeks had, for occasions of magnificence, tables surrounded with a border of massy silver, and in the shape of a C. Such, at present, is the form of their tables in Greece; but they are no longer ornamented with silver; and cushions placed round for seats. Conversation has no [Page 278] longer any charms for them. Their sole delight is to eat, and that to excess. The ancient Greek term for a repast, signified an assembly of per­sons eating and drinking together; an idea very different from what the Romans conceived of those entertainments; such a meeting by them was called convivium; or, a circle of persons uniting at table to entertain each other agreeably. Cicero has not neg­lected to make this distinction, in speaking of convi­vial meetings. "The supreme enjoyment of life, says the Roman orator, is, according to my idea, to pass our convivial hours with worthy men, of a facetious disposition, by whom we are esteemed. I would not be understood, he adds, to mean the sensual pleasure of the table; but that harmony of mind, and freedom of sentiment, which arises from an assembly of familiar friends. These only can form the pleasures of a re­past. Accordingly, we Romans, in giving to our feasts a name, which signifies the act of living together, have certainly described it much better than the Greeks; who, in their denomination, though of one word, express simply the act of eating and drinking, without any allusion whatever to society.

The Greeks still drink to excess in their entertain­ments; their festivals seldom finishing, until the guests are unable to proceed. The Romans, when they used [Page 279] any excess of this kind, called it pergraecari, i. e. to drink after the manner of the Greeks.

In ancient Greece, the lovers of wine, like those of the present age, challenged each other to trials of drinking. When Alexander conducted his army into Persia, his officers abandoned themselves to the great­est excess, in company with the natives, who were re­nowned for their abilities, in supporting the most un­bounded libations to the god of wine.

They always drink their wine unmixed, says Spon; and when in company, the toast and the glass circulate together.

The custom of singing at table, is very ancient with the Greeks. Each in his turn, drinks to the health of his mistress, and generally repeats it, in conformity to the number of letters contained in her name. Theo­critus, in the fourteenth book of his Idyll, gives the description of a rural feast, which is the exact repre­sentation of a modern repast.

Those entertainments given in the country, are called relaxations of the mind; to which are joined, the amusements of playing and dancing: a table being provided, accorded to the number of the guests, in shape like the Greek letter Π. The most distinguished [Page 280] persons, place themselves at the bottom, and are im­mediately joined by the master of the feast, who in­stantly fills a bumper to the health of his friends, who pledge him respectively in their turns. Lambs stuffed and baked, with the skins drawn on, are served up, and are the principal dishes. Pitchers of wine go round in pretty quick succession. The guests grow warm, and presently the buffoon comedians enter. Songs set to slow, grave tunes, usher in their sports; the music presently becomes more sprightly, and free­dom of sentiment goes round. Some seize the lyre, while others rise to dance. They generally begin first a dance performed by one or two persons. This dance being brisk, and performed with a bounding step, re­sembles the rigadoon very much; which, indeed, ap­pears to be of Greek origin. They then proceed in irregular figures, which cannot well be described, until the whole ends in a general confusion.

Honey is in very great estimation with the Greeks. That gathered on mount Hymettus, was anciently con­secrated to the use of religious festivals. It is now much coveted by them, even in the state in which it is taken from the hive.

Olives, which Greece, and the country about Athens, in particular, furnish in great abundance, are much in request with this people. They give the [Page 281] same name to pickled olives, as the ancients. Cakes of meal, also form a part of the Greek feast, and are in great request with them. Homer mentions, that in his time, they were always prepared by the women. It is the same now. On the eve of Easter, and other great festivals, these cakes are always sent by the Greeks, as presents to each other.

The ancient custom of eating their corn parched, or roasted, which must necessarily have preceded the present method of bruising, or grinding it, still sub­sists. In Greece, Turkish corn in the grain, and chick­pease, boiled, are a very general food.

It is among the common people we must always look for ancient manners. They refine but little, and are ever tenacious of the traditions handed down to them by their ancestors; and so much attached to them, that they bear with them the force of so many laws. In the reports of the modern Greeks, we find not only the ancient excess, and simplicity of beha­viour; but also those festal crowns, which paint in such lively colours, the heart-felt joy of the jocund re­vellers. Lovers also, ornament their heads with crowns of flowers, and make garlands of them; which they afterwards hang in wreaths, and various festoons, over the doors of their mistresses. When a Greek crowns himself with flowers, it denotes that he carries the [Page 282] livery of love; or, that he is engaged in some festive debauch. Such was the crown worn by that young rake Polemon, at Athens; of whom, a pleasant adven­ture is related by Diogenes Laertius. 'Sallying forth one day, after a debauch, and hot with the juice of the grape; he stumbled, unexpectedly, into the school of Xenocrates. His dress, though ill-suited to the taste of a philosophic academy, for he was crowned with flowers, perfumed with essences, and tricked out with all the arts of foppery, was no impediment to his mix­ing in an assembly of so contrary a character. Taking a seat in the midst of the philosophers, he began to in­terrupt the order of their school, by ill-timed ques­tions, and ridiculous observations. Xenocrates, with­out any alteration of features or manner, changed the subject he was then upon, and turned all his rhetoric, into an attack upon the folly of intemperance. His oratory had such an effect on the young libertine, that his reason immediately returned to him. He tore the crown from his head, and threw it on the ground, at the feet of Xenocrates: stung with a sense of shame and remorse, for his past conduct, he was unable to bear the sight of those about him; but wrapping himself in his cloke, he at once concealed his fully and himself. Converted by this means, to the love of philosophy, he soon became one of his most assiduous disciples.

[Page 283] Athenaeus informs us, that the gallants of his time, decorated the doors of the fair they admired, with flowers; in the same manner, that the doors of their temples were adorned. It is no doubt, from thence, that the modern Greeks derive the custom of crowning the doors of their own, and their mistresses houses, an­nually, on the first of May. On this day, the young men present themselves before the doors of their fa­vourite ladies, walking to and fro, endeavouring to draw them, at least, to the windows, by songs and in­struments. In ancient times, on these occasions, the young men even addressed the houses, where the fair resided, in the most plaintive and moving terms. Some­times in cases of obdurate treatment, when urged to desperation, they have not refrained from bursting open the doors. But other lovers, more patient under their sufferings, quietly contented themselves with lay­ing down at the threshold of the door, which continued shut on purpose for their preclusion.

Nothing, says Guy, has offered me greater pleasure, and entertainment, than the Greek dances. Every country has some peculiar dances to itself, and Greece is not deficient in that particular; on the contrary, it has a great variety. The Greeks have some dances expressive of their national character, which must be of very ancient extraction; and, as it were, hereditary to them. They are easy to learn; imitation supplies [Page 284] the want of masters. Dances composed of many steps, and intricate figures, requiring great attention and precision, are easily forgot; but the common dan­cers of every country, being more simple, gay, and easy, are never lost; because, frequently repeated. These last are practised at every festival. The young men and women are ambitious to excel in them; and the old people delight to be spectators of their per­formances; even children in their infancy, who can scarce walk with firmness, kick about their little heels in imitation of the dancers.

A company of Greeks, in the country villages, old and young, hand in hand, dancing and singing verses, writ for the purpose, in a style of altercation, brings to remembrance the Lacedemonian choirs, when the old men attack the youth in these words:

To which the youth answer:

The children too, bear their part in the ceremony, crying out with their little shrill voices,

The passion of the Greeks for dancing, is common to both sexes; who neglect every other consideration, when they have an opportunity of indulging that pas­sion. We find a passage in Herodotus, which might serve as a lesson against the extravagant length they sometimes carry it.

Clysthenes, prince of Syconia, having declared, he would marry his daughter to that person who should possess the greatest valour, invited to his court, all those who might aspire to an alliance with the prin­cess. He proposed his guests should pass some time with him, that he might be the better able to ex­amine into their characters. The two Athenians who were candidates, became his favourites, and princi­pally Hypoclides, son of Tysander, one greatly re­nowned for his courage.

The day being come on which he was to make his choice, he gave a superb entertainment to the suitors for his daughter. After the repast, they began to sing; a free circulation of the bottle ensued, and the guests became exhilarated. Hypoclides desired the per­formers to play a serious dance; in the execution of which, he seemed to take more delight himself, than [Page 286] he afforded the spectators. Clysthenes attended to the whole, but seemed to take no notice. Hypoclides, after resting awhile, ordered a second table to be brought, in which he exhibited a dance after the Spar­tan manner, and afterwards fell into the Athenian figures. At length, being elevated to a most extraor­dinary pitch, he presented the company with a dance, which consisted of holding up the hands and clapping them. Clysthenes, who had by this time conceived the greatest aversion for the dancer, could no longer con­tain his indignation at such ridiculous behaviour, but calls out to him to desist, with these remarkable words: son of Tysander, thou has danced away a wife. A young Greek of the present age, heated by dancing and wine, would be likely to commit the same excess as Hypoclides, and dance away his marriage.

This exercise, is, doubtless, of all countries, and of all ages; but the Greeks have carried it to greater ex­cess than other nations. Among them, the dance was formerly one of the gymnastic sports. It entered into the science of physic, and was prescribed by the fa­culty on many occasions. Even the military schools admitted it into their practice. All conditions of peo­ple were fond of it. In the end, it was introduced as part of the ceremony at festivals. It gave life and spirit to those meetings. The poets themselves, re­cited and sung their verses, dancing at the same time: [Page 287] Plato, Aristotle, Xenophon, Plutarch, Lucian, Athenaeus, and all the most famous Greek authors of antiquity, have written in favour of dancing. Anacreon, the prince of jollity and pleasure, was always fond of dancing; he even practised it in his old age. Aspasia, whose very appearance was capable of exciting the most agreeable sensations in the minds of all beholders, charmed Socrates so much with her dancing, that he could not refrain from imitating her. "You laugh, says Socrates to his friends, because you see me danc­ing like young people. You think it ridiculous then, to practise so salutary an exercise, and which tends to render the body light? Am I then to blame, for en­deavouring to diminish, by dancing, the corpulent state of my body? You do not know, perhaps, that Charmides, who is here, surprised me the other day, when I was dancing in my own house? It is true, said Charmides, and I was so astonished, that I thought at first you were out of your mind; but, when I had heard what you now repeat upon dancing, I was im­patient, when I returned home, to endeavour to imi­tate you." Aristides, notwithstanding what Plato said, danced at a feast given hy Dionysius, the tyrant. Scipio Africanus, after their example, entertained some com­pany at his own house with a dance, in which strength and agility were united. Cornelius Nepos, who wrote the life of Epaminondas, describing the great qualities [Page 288] of his hero, expatiates on his talents for music and dancing.

If men valued themselves for excelling in this art, it must be an essential qualification for women. It was from seeing Helen dance at the festival of Diana, that Theseus and Perithous conceived the design of running off with her.

Dionysius, the geographical poet, mentions certain dances which the Greek women of Asia Minor prac­tised on the banks of the Caistor. "You will see, says he, the women dressed in their richest girdles, performing the dances made for the festival of Bacchus, composed of figures in a circular form, and executed with the greatest regularity and neatness. The girls also join in them; the delicacy of their form, the ele­gance of their motions, and the gracefulness of their robes, gently waving with the wind, presenting a most enchanting sight to the spectators.

The modern Greek ladies, are equally capable of giving satisfaction to those who come to gaze upon them. Formerly, the dances represented the actions and manners of the people; for which reason, Lucian lays it down as a rule, that a dancer, to excel in his art, ought to be well instructed in the fables and his­tory of the heathen deities.

[Page 289]At all their festivals, they sung the praises of the divi­nity they met to celebrate; and the dances which fol­lowed the songs, described the principal actions of the god. Among others, they danced the triumph of Bacchus, and the nuptials of Venus; the love of Diana and Endymion; the judgment of Paris, and Europa's passion for Jove. All these dances were so many moving pictures, where the gestures and step, the mo­tions of the limbs, and the inflexions of the body, de­scribed the most interesting situations; in short, all the movements the human body was capable of.

The dancers who now exhibit in the streets or fields, and run about hand in hand, represent those ancient dances, which composed part of the public worship. The modern Greeks never celebrate any festival, or solemnity, without dancing round the altar; or, at least, about the temple, agreeable to the custom of their ancestors.

The Greeks had different chorusses of songs and dances. The orbicular choir, which sang the Dithy­rambi, and danced to that species of song in praise of Bacchus, had a particular figure which it also per­formed. Sometimes the hands were extended, at other times folded together; and, at last, they danced round the altar. Since the decline of the Greek thea­tre, these choirs are reduced to a meer round-about [Page 290] figure, which the Greeks still use. They continue the same method, of extending and folding the hands, dancing sometimes to the sound of the lyre; at others, to the chanting of hymns; but not round the altar of Bacchus, and the rest of their gods, as formerly: the modern Greeks fix upon some towering oak, and crown it with flowers, and other decorations; under the shadow of which, they celebrate their most so­lemn festivals, renewing the ancient orgies, with the same licentiousness and excess.

The present age very often exhibits an exact image of the ancient choirs of Greek nymphs; and when they dance, hand in hand, round the meadows, or in the woods, recall to mind those ancient descriptions given by the poets of Diana, and her choir; whether on mount Delos, or on the banks of Eurotas, as Virgil says, she leads the mazy dance, accompanied by the nymphs of her train.

The Eleusinian women, instituted certain dances, which they practised about a well called Callichorus. These were accompanied by songs which they sung in honor of the goddess.

In the like manner, says Guys, I have seen in Prin­ces-island; the young women, who were assembled round a well in the evening, to draw water, suddenly [Page 291] strike up a dance, while others sung in concert to them. Aristotle observes of the public wells, that they serve as cements to society, uniting the citizens of each village, in the bands of friendship, by the social intercourse of so frequently dancing together round them. He adds, the ancients composed verses, which were sung by the people, while they drew water, and were called songs of the well.

The ancient Greeks had their nuptial dances, as well as the present age. Musaeus, mentioning the secret marriage of Hero and Leander, says, it was performed without the customary dances. "The nuptial bed, it is true, was prepared, but the hymenaeal songs, the epithalamium, and the torch, were omitted."

The principal dances, now in fashion among the Greeks, are the Candian, Greek, Arnatic, Walla­chian, Pyrrhic, and the country dances.

The first two are very much alike; one appears to have been copied from the other, except that the airs are different. A young woman always leads in both, holding in her hands a handkerchief, or silken string.

The Candian is the most ancient of any of them; we have an account of it in Homer, in his description of the famous buckler of Achilles.

[Page 292]"After enumerating many of the subjects described on that wonderful piece of art, Vulcan, says he, repre­sents a dance of admirable variety, very similar to that which the ingenious Daedalus invented, in the city of Gnossus, for the lovely Ariadne. The young men and women join hands and dance together. The women, being dressed in robes of fine stuff, have also crowns upon their heads. The men wear beautiful habits, of the most brilliant colour. Sometimes the whole set close in a circle, and dance round with so much ra­pidity and justness, that the motion of a wheel is not more swift and even. At other times they separate; and, dividing into parties, describe an infinite number of turns and figures in their movements."

The Candian dance of the moderns, is nearly similar. The air is soft and tender, and begins with a slow tune, but presently after grows more lively and ani­mating. She who leads the dance, performs a num­ber of figures and traverse lines; the variety of which, produces a very agreeable and interesting spectacle.

From the Candian, sprung the Greek dance, which the islanders are yet very fond of, called Ariadne's dance; see the plate, which exhibits the temple of Minerva, now standing. In this dance, the men and women begin with the same steps and figures, but se­parately; and, joining afterwards, mix together with­out [Page 293] any order or regularity. The woman who leads the dance, after chusing a partner, takes him by the hand, and presents him with one end of a ribband, or silken string, holding the other herself; the rest of the dancers pass and repass under this string, (being gene­rally of a considerable length) one party as if flying, and the other seeming to pursue. The movements th [...]n become slower, and the whole party forms into a circle; the conductress, after many turns, and changes of situations, rolls, as it were, the whole set about her. The dexterity of the lady, consists in quickly disengag­ing herself from this embarrassment, and appearing again at the head of the dancers, who are very nume­rous and by this time placed in ranks. Waving her hand with an air of triumph and exhultation, she re­poses the ribband as at the beginning.

It will readily occur to our learned readers, that the idea of this dance, was taken from the labyrinth of Crete. Callimachus, in his hymn to Delos, mentions it, and says, that Theseus, who invented it first, led the dance himself.

Eustathius, in his strictures on the eighteenth book of the Iliad, says, that anciently the men and women danced in separate parties, and that Theseus was the first who mixed them together, in the dance performed by the youth. He made the young men and maidens, [Page 294] whom he had saved from the Cretan labyrinth, dance before him together, in the same manner as Daedalus had instructed them apart.

In the monumenti Antichi, of Winckleman, an antique vase is described, where Theseus is represented before Ariadne. The hero has in her hand, the famous clue of thread, by which he escaped from the labyrinth of Crete; Ariadne, habited in the dress of a dancer, with a caftan, or Greek robe, has a string in both her hands, precisely such as the modern dancers use, when they lead the Greek dance.

The Arnatic, is another dance belonging to the Greeks. It is of a very ancient date, and peculiar to the military. Formerly, the Greeks had many dances of this kind: they even engaged the enemy fighting. Diodorus, the Sicilian, relates the same of the Lusita­nians.

The Arnatic, is led by a man and a woman. The man, with a whip in one hand, and a stick in the other, runs about animating the rest, from one end of the set to the other, stamping with his feet, and smacking with his whip; while the others, joining hands, follow him with the same kind of step, but not so violent.

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[Page 295]The Pyrrhic is the true military dance, and has the honour of claiming its descent from Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, who sustained such a long war against the Ro­mans. There are many dances which bear this name. Xenophon, speaking of the Thracians, who exhibited at the festival of their prince Seuthes, says, a dance was performed by armed men, with a kind of jumping step, to the music of flutes; one party attacking very dex­terously with their lances; while the other, with equal address, parried the thrusts with their shields. The poor subdued Greeks, of the presentage, have nothing to do with these dances; but their masters, the Turks, have thought proper to adopt them in their exercises; and are now the only people in Greece who exercise the Pyrrhic games. The music of the Pyrrhic dance, as performed at present in Constantinople, is pleasing. A few remains of this dance, says Guys, are, however, yet to be found in that part of Greece, called Mag­nesia, and at Misitra; a country rendered famous by the Spartans. It is inhabited by a savage people, of Greek descent, governed by their own laws; who, conscious of their inability to attack a powerful em­pire, which, if provoked, might crush them, are con­tented with preserving their independence, and are now become the most daring pirates of the Archipelago.

The Ionian dance; which, according to Athenaeus, was performed when the parties were a little exhila­rated [Page 296] by wine, may not be improperly mentioned in this class, notwithstanding it was more gentle and re­gular. It has a kind of tripping step, which is much in fashion at Smyrna, and in Asia Minor; where a taste for lascivious dances always predominated. The Turks take great delight in these dances.

The Greeks have also the Wallachian dance, which is of very ancient date, in the country from whence the name is borrowed. This dance, which has but one uniform step, and different from every other, is very pleasing when well executed. This dance, most probably, is descended from the Dacians; who, for­merly inhabited Wallachia.

The games, or pastimes, are nearly allied to the dances. By games, we do not mean those celebrated ones, which were the epochs of the most glorious ages of the Greeks: they no longer exist. It is only of the pastimes of the modern Greeks, of the amusements of their young people, and even of their children, that we intend to treat. It will be necessary, however, to advert to the inferior pastimes of the ancients, to shew, that the origin of our most trifling amusements, may be traced back to the earliest ages. From the ancients, we derive the game of even and odd, and other similar ones. Ludere par impar, equitare in arundine longâ. Hor. Sat. iii. lib. 2.

[Page 297]The Lydians, according to Herodotus, pass for the inventors of these games, and their origin is singular. Hunger had as great a share in giving birth to them, as indolence. The Lydians, under the reign of Athis, were afflicted with a cruel famine; and, to avoid the violent exercises, which excited a keener sense of hun­ger, they invented the games of dice and osselets, which are still in use among the Greeks. It is played with little shells, and in a box, where the respective players have their points before them. They call it the Mangala.

The game of tennis, is likewise of Lydian extraction; a fatiguing game, which does not appear to correspond much with their intentions; except, that it helped, from the eagerness it excites to, what we call, kill time. The honour of inventing the game of chess, is, by the ancients, universally attributed, and from the same cause, to Palamedes. The lovers of Penelope, passed their time in the court of Ulysses, in playing at this game. They made use of dice and pebbles, and each had a set of his own. A mark was placed in the mid­dle, which they called Penelope. This was the object at which they were all to take aim; and the players were ranged in equal numbers, at a considerable dis­tance, and opposite to each other for that purpose.

[Page 298]The top, or gig, which Horace calls a Greek game, was formerly in great use.

The game of cross, or pile, bore anciently, the name of head, or ship; the coin, at that time, being struck with the head of Janus on one side, and a vessel or ship on the other. The word pile, comes from the Greek word pilos, which signifies a ship.

The game we call even or odd, was by the Greeks, called artios mon. They made use of nuts, al­monds, or pieces of money. The Romans, according to Horace, were fond of this game; equitare in arundine longâ, or riding on a stick, is a play which has been practised in all countries. Agesilaus and Socrates, are known to have amused themselves among the chil­dren, in running about with a long reed between their legs.

Nuts afforded the ancients a variety of games, which still subsist with some little variations; indeed, it is not possible that such simple and voluntary games, should have any fixed existence. Ovid has been very minute in his account of them.

The Greeks celebrate the festival of the spring, with great enthusiasm, as announcing the return of the zephyrs and roses. On this occasion, the children [Page 299] at Rhodes, demanded a tribute, and had a play and song, which they still preserve. From thence, no doubt, comes the present custom with us, of demand­ing a tribute on the first of May; not for the swallow, as formerly, but for the pretty maiden, who is dressed out in her finest gown, and decorated with all the flowers of the spring.

The children of Rhodes, went about in companies singing and dancing, and demanded a gift of those they met, for the swallow that was newly arrived; from thence, the festival had its name, from the Greek word Clidonia, or the swallow. Their song began in this manner:

The saw, is a game much in vogue with the Greeks. The youth of both sexes, particularly the girls, take great delight in it, while the fine weather lasts; and as they balance themselves, repeat alternately, such airs as they have been taught to sing. The Greeks called this game aioras; and the Latins, oscilla.

Another game of the ancients still in use, is to draw a circle upon a large table, or on the floor; and to win, it was necessary to throw a die, or small pellet, [Page 300] from a considerable distance, into the middle of the circle. Sometimes a quail was put into it; and he, who, by striking him with the finger only, made him quit the circle, so that the bird passed the boundaries of it, either in retreating back, or in touching the ex­tremity of it with the tip of his wings; if he extended them he was the winner. They likewise practise ano­ther play with the quail, by tying it to a little stake, and taking every one a stick in his hand; each in his turn, being blindfolded, is obliged to go twenty or thirty yards from the bird; and if, on his return he can hit the bird, he is conqueror.

The Greeks still play at blind-man's-buff; an an­cient, and formerly, an universal game all over Greece. It was formerly called muinda. They put an earthen pot into the hands of the person who was muffled; the others run about provoking him, and crying out, Who has the pot? He answers, Midas has it, and the person he can lay hold of, is obliged, in his turn, to be blinded and take it.

The Greeks still continue the hop. He who goes furthest on one leg, without resting, is the winner. The likewise fold the leaves of roses and poppies, into the shape of little bladders, in order to smack them upon the forehead; and, by the noise they make, judge of the degrees of affection in their lover.

[Page 301]The paintings of Herculaneum, recal to mind the barbarous custom of whipping and beating children; which, unhappily, is the practice of our schools, as well as the Greek. What sort of fathers must those be, who commit, to a stranger, the power of inflicting at his own will, an ignominious and public chastise­ment upon their children? Who would have suppo­sed, this practice could have prevailed in any nation, except where rigorous punishments were used in cor­recting slaves? I have seen, says Guys, the parents in Greece, hold out the rod to their children when they offended, as if no method could be devised, but that of punishing them like slaves. From the Greeks, is derived that shameful practice of schoolmasters; who, so indecently, bare the backs of innocent children. At the same time, that they impress marks of the great­est cruelty upon their tender bodies, they render their minds callous to that sense of shame, which should ever predominate in liberal minds. Here then we have, the origin of those torturing instruments, so lavishly inflicted by the pedantic tyrants; which Mar­tial, not improperly, calls sceptra pedagorum. The cus­tom of ancient Greece, was to fasten the child to a post, or to have him held by some person, in the Eng­lish method of horsing, while the master was mauling his flesh. This species of punishment, was called catomium; a custom, which, to the reproach of man­kind, has ever since been in practice. Perhaps, to [Page 302] glut the sanguine dispositions of those masters, who are are desirous of making reprisals on the backs of others, for what they had suffered on their own; these wretches exercise the same inhumanity in their turn on the tender delicacy of youth; which, on the con­trary, demands all possible indulgence and regard.

To discover the success of their amours, the Greeks no longer apply the leaves of roses; which, as Ana­creon informs us, they did by smacking them between the hands, and which the children do at present; it is the Clidona, which now discovers every thing, and the oracle which the Greek youth consult.

On the evening of the day appointed for this ce­remony, two girls, to whom the management of it is confided, apply to the young men and maids, desirous of being concerned in it; from each of whom, they are to receive a pledge of some kind or other; such as a ring, a piece of money, &c. which are afterwards put into a vase. These conductresses, then fill the vase with water, from some sacred fountain, and cover it with myrtle and laurel leaves, observing the most pro­found silence during the whole time. The vase is afterwards exposed in the open air, and carefully at­tended till the next morning. The parties concerned being then assembled, one of the vestals opens the vase, while the other sings, or recites a couplet of lines, [Page 303] composed for the game, which is called the overture of the Clidona. Each person in turn, is now required to recite a Greek distich, while they draw one of the pledges from the vase: this distich, is considered as an answer to his or her enquiry, to whom the pledge be­longs. Sometimes, when many of the parties are dis­satisfied, all the pledges are again put into the vase, and the game re-commenced. This is but a repeti­tion of the first play; except that the players, often­times being soured and disgusted with a second instance of ill fortune, divest themselves of all regard to de­cency, and utter such abandoned sentiments in the couplets they recite, as to oblige all those to retire, who have the least sense of delicacy.

The young Greeks, of both sexes, know by heart a great number of these couplets and songs, of all kinds, which they repeat with wonderful facility. There are also tragedies written in modern Greek; which only serve to shew the great difference, between the an­cient and modern Muses.

The custom of bathing, so frequent among the an­cient Greeks, is not less so among the moderns. It is practised, at present, with all the minutioe of former times. Besides the public baths, which are generally much frequented, persons of condition have them in their houses. They pass immediately from the bath [Page 304] to the couch, on which they take their repast; from thence, most probably, came the ancient custom of eating in a careless recumbent posture.

The Greeks took but one repast in the four and twenty hours, which was in the evening; and the use of the bath immediately preceded the entertainment. A practice continued through succeeding ages to the present time. The attachment of this people, to local customs, is worthy of imitation. The ancients never used any but the hot baths. The Turks and modern Greeks follow their example.

"We are fond of magnificence, in dress, says Al­cinous to Ulysses, delight in the hot baths, in gallantry, and in dancing." The modern Greeks may say the same. If the use of hot baths is pernicious to beauty, as it is generally represented to be, the force of custom must be wonderful; since the women have ever fol­lowed the ancients in this particular. But it is cer­tainly very salutary to the constitution, and particu­larly to that of old persons, whom it strengthens, in­stead of enfeebling; by facilitating that gentle and necessary perspiration; which, otherwise, is with dif­ficulty performed, by reason of the dryness of their skin; the pores of which, are closer than those of younger men. It is certain, the use of the hot bath prevents many of those disorders, which attack men [Page 305] of an advanced age; and that disorders of the breast are very rare among this people.

The Greeks and Turks, particularly the women, make use of a glutinous kind of earth, to wash their head and hair with, while in the bath. It is found in the islands of the Archipelago, and on the coast of the Black Sea. The Greeks formerly used the same kind of earth, for washing linen; and it supplied the place of soap. Pliny takes notice of the Ghian earth, which the women, he says, made use of for the hair and skin. It is used by the modern Greeks, for the skin; which, by gently rubbing, it renders softer and more smooth. Ghio, anciently Cius, is a city of Bythinia, near the gulf of Mondagna. Belon, who travelled through Greece, in 1546, in a discourse, entitled, Que les femmes de Turquie sont belles par singularité, et nettes comme perles, mentions a passage of Dioscorides, that this earth, which softened the skin, gave also a freshness to the complexion.

The Greek women bathe, at least, once in every month; formerly, the laws prescribed it oftener. — At the neomenia, or new moon, they never failed to per­form this obligation.

An intended bride, on the eve of the nuptial day, is conducted to the bath with great ceremony, and with the sound of several instruments.

[Page 306]When Naomi, in the bible, instructs the young widow Ruth, how to appear to advantage before Boaz, to induce him to marry her; she says to Ruth— "Wash thy feet, therefore, and anoint thee, and put thy best raiment on."

CHAP. XL. Marriages, Midwifry, Paternal Affection, and Hospitality.

WE may easily conclude, that a people devoted to festivals, could not proceed to solemnize the marriage, without adding all the brilliancy and decorations, of which, such an event is susceptible. Among the most savage nations, we find, that men ce­lebrate the day on which they form a lasting attach­ment with the fair, as the most joyful and important of their lives. But, to exhibit marriage under the most pleasing aspect, we should present it with simplicity of manners; and, accompanied with the gaiety, purity, [Page 307] and innocence, with which that rite was performed in the earliest times. The Greeks of the present age, adverting to the customs of the ancients, have re­tained most of the ceremonies, which were formerly used in the celebration of nuptials. They considered an early entrance into the marriage, as the indispen­sable duty of a good citizen; and, therefore, engaged in it very young. The laws of Sparta, were extremely rigorous, in marking those for infamy, who remained in a state of celibacy. At Sparta, upon the celebra­tion of a certain festival, the women were permitted to seize the young men who remained unmarried; to drag them before the altars, and to chastise them with whips.

The chaste Theognis told the Greeks, "That he was the richest and happiest man, who possessed a gen­tle and virtuous wife. But why consult philosophy, which often becomes embarrassed, and falls into an un­certainty worse than the darkest ignorance? A young man applying to Socrates, for his opinion, whe­ther he should marry or not, was told by the philoso­pher, 'That, to which ever opinion he adhered, he would infallibly repent. If he preferred a life of ce­libacy, that he would not enjoy the pleasure of having children of his own, and that his wealth would go to a stranger. If he took a wife, that he might expect eternal vexation and endless strife. If she was well [Page 308] dowered, incessant reproaches must be expected on that head. The pride also of her relations, and the tongue of his step-mother, would become insupport­able; and, if handsome, that he would have to dread her gallantry, and be in continual doubt as to the pa­ternity of his children.' After this, says the sage, ‘'Let him judge if he can, and chuse if he dare.'’

Themistocles being asked by a rich man, who had an only daughter, whom he should prefer as a husband for her; a man of character without a fortune; or, one who was rich, but a scoundrel. I should rather, re­plied Themistocles, have a man without money, than money without a man.

The modern Greek has no philosophers to con­sult; and, therefore, no deliberations about marriage. Hence, population is better promoted among the Greeks than the Turks. The latter also, living under a military government, destroy without remorse, but never think of repairing. From this cause, the most considerable cities of Greece, have never been re­built by their conquerors. Beneficence and vanity, have, indeed, produced among the Turks, a few pub­lic edifices. But, in a country where property is held by such precarious tenure, they can have no idea of perpetuating any possession; nor can they contemplate [Page 309] the situation of their posterity, with satisfaction or tranquility.

In the mean time, the Greek, the Armenian, and the Jew; people that abound in the Turkish empire, and whom the Turks hold in such contempt, as not to fear the number of their slaves, abandon themselves to their natural inclinations. These confide in the hope of a numerous posterity, who shall, at some fu­ture period, recover all those territories which the conquerors of Greece have ravaged from them. Marriage must, of course, be an institution favourable to their hopes; and celibacy is, accordingly, very rare among them.

The modern Greeks have no fixed seasons for the celebration of their nuptials. The ancients usually celebrated them in the month of January; from thence, called Gamelion; but they have, as formerly, mediatrices whom they still call Proxenetes; and these are as necessary as ever. For the young women being almost constantly immersed in the Gynaeceon, a man can decide on the merits of the lady, who is proposed to him, only by the report he receives from the me­diatrix. The moment a lady has dropped her veil to any man, he is engaged to her beyond the power of retracting.

[Page 310]Anciently, the possession of a woman was only to be purchased, by a term of actual servitude to the father. That imposition was afterwards removed, and the ser­vitude converted into certain presents. Still, says Montesquieu, the custom prevails among the Greeks, that he who marries, should purchase his wife by pre­sents made to her parents.

A Greek, says Guys, no doubt, always makes presents to the bride; these, however, are neither obligatory, nor as the purchase of his wife, but spontaneous. He would not, most probably, have taken her without a portion suitable to her condition.

The ancient Greeks, always scrupulous observers of the primitive laws of marriage, abhorred bigamy. Euripides makes Hermione, in the tragedy, say, "It is contrary to good order, that two women should be at the same time under the dominion of one man." Cha­rondas went further in the code he formed for the Thurians. These, according to Diodorus, he directs, that those who bring a stepmother to their children, should be excluded the public councils. He judged, that men capable of rendering such an ill office to their family, could have no good intention towards their country. "For, says he, if the first marriage has been happy, there they should stop. On the con­trary, if it has been miserable, they must be mad to [Page 311] risk a second engagement." The Greeks of the pre­sent time, though less free than their ancestors, would not submit to such a restraint as the Thurian code imposed.

Unequal matches were as common, in former times, as in the present. "A man of rank, says Theognis, stoops to espouse a rich woman who dis­honours him; and a virtuous girl, marries a villain for his wealth. They, the good and bad, are promis­cuously joined; and, from thence springs a degenerate race."

Telesicles, father of the famous Archilocus, tarnished the lustre of his birth, by a disproportioned marriage with Enipo, a slave. The Greeks, says the Abbé Sewin, in commenting on this passage, beheld unequal al­liances with sovereign contempt; and the shame was often reflected on their children. Modern Greeks, call the offspring of such marriages, the children of a slave. They observe exactly, the ancient precept, si vis nubere, nube pari; if you will marry, marry an equal; so well illustrated by the epigram of Calli­machus, and carefully avoid disgraceful alliances.

Among the Greeks, the ceremony of marriage is preceded by festivals. The ancients, called them prolusoria, the same appellation that they gave the [Page 312] preludes of the solemn sacrifices to Juno and Diana. Marriage, says a shepherd of Theocritus, brings neither cares nor vexation, but is always attended by mirth and festivity.

Homer has described the ceremonial of nuptial pageants, on the famous shield of Achilles. The bride and bridegroom going from their house, are received by numbers of persons, ranged in the most exact order, who conduct them through the streets with a blaze of torches; the air resounding with the chant of hymeneal songs. Some precede, others follow the procession, dancing to the melody of flutes and trumpets.

The Greeks still observe the same disposition in their nuptial processions. Numerous attendants, and music, are always to be found upon these occasions. The processions are generally opened, to the harmony of a variety of instruments, and with dancing. The bride profusely adorned, with looks abashed, pro­ceeds in a solemn pace, supported by her friends and nearest relations; during which, the epithalamium is performing. The bride, formerly, wore a red or yellow veil; a custom still continued by the Arme­nians. This veil, called flammeum, covers the head, and descends almost to the feet.

[Page 313]The splendid torch of Hymen; that torch, so well known and celebrated by the poets, even to conse­cration, as an emblem of marriage, still maintains its place among the modern Greeks. This torch blazes in their processions, and is an attendant afterwards on the bridal bed. There it is placed, to wait the ar­rival of the new married pair; and remains until the whole is consumed. If, by any accident, it should become extinguished, the most unfortunate presages would be drawn; to prevent which, unremitting vigi­lance is used. The sacred fire could not be more at­tentively watched by the vestals.

Among the ancient Greeks, the nuptial torch was carried by the mother of the bride. It was her office to prepare, and adorn the bridal bed; she officiated as pronuba, and led the bride to her chamber: as the nearest relation, she acted likewise as paranymphus, and conducted the bridegroom in like manner.

The pronuba and paranymphus, are represented by the modern Greeks, in the persons of the marriage sponsors, who accompany the married pair through every part of the ceremony.

The bride and bridegroom, before their presenta­tion at the altar, are each adorned with a crown, or chaplet; which, during the ceremony, is changed by [Page 314] the priest. He first presents the man with the crown taken from his wife, and then delivers that of the man to her. This ceremony, which has its origin from the ancients, is still practised by the moderns.

The greatest part of the dowry consists in precious stones, and in magnificent dresses, which are exhibited with uncommon ostentation.

In this, they follow the ancient Greeks. Hermione says, in Andromache, "The ornaments of gold which now adorn my head, and that variety of robes I pos­sess, came to me neither from Achilles, nor from Peleus, I brought them from Sparta. Menelaus, my father, presented them to me, with a dowry still more consi­derable; to the end, that I might speak with freedom."

The Grecians celebrate their marriage feasts, with various diversions of dancing, and play. Vaulters, and tumblers, are provided at those times, to enter­tain the guests, with exertions of strength and agility. Homer paints a scene of this kind, in a manner much resembling the moderns. Telemachus, and the son of Nestor, arrived at the court of Menelaus, whilst he was celebrating the marriage of his daughter. They found him at table among his friends; the palace re­sounding with the cries of joy, mixed with the melody of various instruments, and the loud chorusses of the [Page 315] singers. One performer, distinguished in a circle, introduced, says a poet, by the skilful touch of his lyre, the most divine harmony; whilst the vaulters, and buffoons, by dances of agility, surpassing belief, astonished and delighted the whole assembly. This species of dancing, was, in subsequent times, deemed licentious: and the council of Laodicea, held about the year 367, thought itself obliged to prohibit such kind of dances, at the celebration of nuptials.

Among the Greeks, a widow seldom re-marries. According to Pausanias, second marriages were forbid­den by the ancients. He says, also, that Gorgophona, who married Oebalus, was the first instance of a woman es­pousing a second husband.

The modern Greeks are, by their religion, solemnly enjoined continence, the first night of marriage. The fourth council of Carthage, held after the defeat of Gildon, in 398, at which, St. Augustin, with one hun­dred and fourteen bishops, assisted, directed, that the married pair, out of respect to the holy sacrament of marriage, should, on the first night, observe the most rigid forbearance of nuptial pleasures.

A bride bears the same appellation among the modern Greeks, by which she was distinguished among the ancients. She is called, by those of her [Page 316] own family, from the Greek word neumphae, nymph. Penelope says, in Ovid's epistles, that, "Nymphs speak­ing of the brides, joyfully bear their offsprings to the altars; that the gods may preserve their husbands." Grata ferunt nymphae, pro salvis dona maritis.

The art of physic is not only exercised by the women, in most of the Greek islands; but the deli­very of women in child-birth, is their peculiar pro­vince; the appearance of a surgeon, on such occa­sions, being extremely obnoxious to the Greek women. Montesquieu, who has made the most profound re­searches into ancient customs, has not omitted to re­late the account of a young female Athenian; who, when the republic had proscribed the practice of phy­sic, or midwifry to that sex, disguised herself in the habit of a man, to learn the obstetric art, that she might be enabled to relieve the women from the em­barrassments they suffered, in being compelled, to seek assistance from men, on occasions of child-birth: their delicacy being so great, in such cases, that many of them perished for want of assistance. The young fe­male Athenian, found no reason to complain of want of business, in her newly acquired art; on the con­trary, the whole practice of the faculty centered in her: from whence suspicions, which were soon after verified. She was brought before the court of the Areopagus, to answer for her conduct. Agnodice, [Page 317] for that was her name, had no great difficulty in justi­fying her proceedings. She confessed the disguise, but produced the most authentic testimony, of her having assumed it, generally, for the benefit of human nature; and of her friends in particular. The jus­tice of the court, admitted her excuse; the proscrip­tion was taken off; and the women were permitted to follow the profession without restraint, which they have ever since continued to practise. A midwife, is a character greatly esteemed by the modern Greeks.

Conjugal affection is to be found in as great a degree, among the modern Greeks, as in the descriptions we meet of it, in the times of ancient Greece. All that Claudian says, of the dignity of the mother, who, by that title alone, preserved the same rank in her hus­band's affections, which the attractions of her youth had before obtained, is exactly verified in the present age.

Paternal affection, and filial affection, are also vir­tues still subsisting, and without the least diminution in Greece. They shone, it is true, with greater lustre in the first ages; because poets paid more attention to them. Homer, when he describes the joy of Ulysses, at the prospect of his safety, after having been floating a long time on the waves, compares it to that of a child, beholding its father, whom it tenderly loved, [Page 318] restored to health, after a long and desperate illness, which had reduced him to the brink of the grave. 'And such, says Homer, was the joy of Ulysses, when he first got ashore.

Hospitality is another virtue, in which the Greeks are never deficient. The arrival of a stranger, puts the whole house in gala, and the best apartments are destined for his use.

The primitive christians were the first who practised hospitality, after the example of the Greeks and Ro­mans. Among the latter, inns were frequented, but by the lowest class of vagabonds only. Persons of distinction, or reputation, never travelled without let­ters of recommendation, to all the towns through which their affairs required them to pass. The per­sons to whom these letters were addressed, always re­ceived, and lodged such travellers in their houses. This intercourse of recommendation, as the Abbé Fleury observes, became, in process of time, hereditary to the different parts of Greece and Italy; and joined the natives in the strongest bands of friendship and al­liance. They even regarded hospitality as a duty of religion. Jupiter himself, presided at the hospitable feast. And not only the table provided for the guests, but the person of the stranger, was sacred in all places.

[Page 319] Diodorus relates, that Gellius, the richest man in Agrigentum, retained a certain number of domestics, for the express purpose of inviting all strangers, to come and take up their lodgings at his house; and, that several of his fellow-citizens followed his example in a certain degree.

CHAP. XLI. Funerals.

HAVING now seen the Greeks on their days of festivity and marriage; we shall draw a por­trait of them in tears, lamentation, and sorrow. Such, indeed, are the transient passages of this short life, that one generally follows on the footsteps of the other. In Greece, we no sooner quit the jocund revels of the laughing meadows, but we encounter some dreary walk, planted on either side with the mournful cypress. It is, sometimes, even pleasant to repose under its gloomy shade.

[Page 320]Follow me into that house, says Guys, where the piercing cries of the slaves, and domestics, proclaim the approach of death! See'st thou not a woman; who, swooning, is supported in the arms of her atten­dants? She is a distracted mother, whose daughter has this instant given up the ghost. Her grief too mighty to be endured in silence, forces its way in loud exclamations. Her attendants answer with bitter sighs, and floods of tears. Hear her cries:

'O my child! my daughter! Thou who first gave me a right to the tender name of mother! Thou, who no sooner sawest the light, but, crying, I received thee into my arms; art now deaf to the cries of thy pa­rent! These cries, shall pierce the very inmost recess of the tomb, where thou art going to descend; even the highest heaven shall hear them! It is thy mother calls. My child! My child did I say? My soul, my life; the prop of my existence! And, can'st thou abandon me thus? Has life forsaken thee in the strength of thy age, and in the flower of thy youth? No, thou only slumberest. A profound and tranquil sleep has seized thee. It is I who die; grief has rob­bed me of life. O sleep of death! Eternal sleep! Night more horrible than the close of creation! Thy shadows surround me; thou has ravished from me a daughter, who will never return! Let me follow her; re-unite me with all I held dear in the world! Bar­barians, [Page 321] why do you interrupt me? Why do you pre­vent me? I go to seek my child; she is waiting for me. Hark! She calls! She is not dead; for pity's sake do not undeceive me! At least, I will embrace her cold-clay corse. Perhaps, the mother's touch may raise it again to action; renew the springs of life! —Oh heaven! no!—The cries of death, and the dis­mal echo of bewailings, too fatally pronounce my error. Now, now, they tear her from me.—Stop your your hands, barbarians.—I go.—Support me, my dearest child. I come, Thou draggest me with thee into the tomb of death!"

The afflicted mother, in this state of distraction, fol­lows the funeral procession. The nearest relations and friends attend it, as heretofore; women and girls, with hair dishevelled, and weeping, follow. Being arrived at the place of interment, their tears then flow most copiously. This also agrees with the ancients, as re­lated in the first scene of the Andrian.

The Greeks conform to the ancient custom of washing the body before interment; in which, they are followed by the Turks. They hire, as formerly, a certain number of women, who walk in procession before the body; tearing their hair, and singing the praises of the deceased. In Euripides, they will not believe the death of Alceste; because the proxy for the [Page 322] people, or the choir, says, "I see no water prepared to wash the body; no tearing of hair; neither do I hear the cries of women; circumstances which always make part of the funeral obsequies."

At present, when a death happens, the women of the house cry without ceasing; and, for a consider­able time, refuse either nourishment or sleep. For­merly, the women expressed their grief on these oc­casions, by plucking off their hair, and rending their garments. The gentle Hero, perceiving the body of her dear Leander, floating at the break of day, upon the sea, begins to tear her vestments; and, with the most piercing cries, takes leave of the world. Then, plunging into the sea, she shares the fate of her be­loved husband.

The myrmidons, and Briseis herself, tore off the hair, and covered the tomb of Achilles with it. The Greek women still act the same part; but this is now principally confined to hired mourners.

The Greeks formerly conceived, that injustice was done to the deceased, by keeping the body a long time, above ground. At present, interment follows the death with all possible expedition.

[Page 323]When a virgin dies, the body is dressed in the rich­est habits of the deceased; and the head crowned with flowers. The women throw roses, and scatter scented waters on the bier, as it passes along the streets.

Anciently, the corpse was decorated with several crowns of flowers, as marks of triumph; to shew, that the deceased had, at length, surmounted the mi­series and vexation of life. For which reason, a corse was called, estephanomenon, i. e. "crowned." The survivors of the famous Greek soldiers, who served under Xenophon, in Asiatic Thrace; after hav­ing buried their deceased friends, erected a CENO­TAPHIUM, and a grand funeral pile, on which they scattered crowns of flowers. Xen. de Cyr. Exped. l.vi. c. 5. In Aristophanes, a woman says, "Receive this crown from me. A second, and a third, let me present you with this. Charon waits for you." These crowns are described in the bas reliefs of M. de Pey­sonnel, as are also the nuptial crowns. In the collec­tion of Comte de Caylus, is a similar bas relief. Menius lying dead, appears crowned by his son: Neopolis, his wife, who died some time before, also lies crowned by one of her relations.

We must not omit the funeral feasts. Demosthenes, in his harangue for Ctesiphon, where he so vain-glo­riously boasts of being chosen in preference to Es­chines, [Page 324] and other fountains of eloquence, to deliver the funeral oration, for those who were killed at the famous battle of Chaeronea, says, "Not to the pub­lic voice alone, am I obliged for my election to this honourable office. The parents and brothers of the deceased, whose duty it was to take charge of their funeral obsequies, joined their unanimous suffrages, that I should be appointed. Even the funeral repast, which our religion has enjoined, shall be conducted at the house of the deceased's nearest relation, was made under my roof. Upon whom, indeed, could their honours be so properly conferred, as upon him who had the care of their eternal fame."

The funeral feast is neglected by the modern Greeks. The nearest relation is charged with the preparation; and these terminate the funeral cere­mony.

Parents, we have already remarked, always follow their children to the tomb. On such interesting oc­casions, the public expect to be witnesses of the pangs felt by an inconsiderable parent. Sappho, to express her sorrows in the absence of Phaon, tells us, she has pierced the air with her cries; and torn the hair from off her. To paint the excess of her grief in stronger colours, she compares herself to a mother, follow­ing [Page 325] the dismal procession of her child's funeral, over­whelmed with misery, and dissolving in tears.

In Greece, they mourn a considerable time for their children. The custom is very ancient in this country. Among numberless examples, one may suffice. And this Eschines has furnished us, in that speech, where he employs all his art to render De­mosthenes obnoxious to the Athenians. "This wretch, speaking of Demosthenes, in less than seven days after the death of his daughter, and before he had paid one tribute of sorrow to her memory, or any of those duties, which nature and the laws of his country re­quire, appeared publickly, crowned with flowers, and habited in the splendid dress of an assistant at a festival; thereby most scandalously violating every ordinance of the gods and men. Not even the remembrance of that precious gift, which the immortals had bestowed on him, and the only opportunity he ever enjoyed of being called, by the tender appellation of father, could restrain him from so gross an act of impiety. I speak not with a design to insult his misfortunes; but to make the world acquainted with his true character."

The learned notes of M. Tourreuil, who has trans­lated this author, prove, by many quotations from the Greek writers, that parents always wore mourning on the death of their children. Iphigenia, preparing [Page 326] for the sacrifice, says in her prayer, "Do not after my death, either cut your hair, or assume the habit of mourning." She asks the same favour of her sisters.

Thus, to whatever side we turn our attention, we shall find, that this people resembled each other in all ages. The Greeks of the present age, are the Greeks of any past period. And yet this truth, says Guys, stands in need of new proofs, to undeceive those, who still think that merit is only to be found among the ancients.

The tombs of the Greeks, like those of the Turks, and other oriental nations, are situated on the high-roads leading into towns and villages. They are not surrounded with walls, but are, nevertheless, a sacred asylum for fugitives.

We have hitherto spoken of their customs, as merit­ing our attention from their antiquity; but, with re­spect to their tombs, we may observe, that if they are always out of their towns, it is because reason, and the natural order of things, has pointed out this as their proper situation, that the abode of the living might be distinguished from that of the dead. In Greece, the temple where the Eternal is adored, will never be found sullied, as with us, by the infection of dead bodies. The incense burnt in our churches, seems more properly applied to dissipate the pestiferous ex­halations, [Page 327] which arise from putrefactions, than to the holy purposes of divine service. If some great men, as a token of peculiar benefits conferred by them upon mankind, have anciently received the honour of in­terment in cities; if the emperor Constantine, from a motive of piety, directed his body to remain after death, in the church of the holy apostles, which he himself founded; if, since that time, the same dis­tinction has been granted to a few bishops, and other persons of exemplary life; if, indeed, the emperor Leo, granted permission to bury in churches; the prac­tice has been so much abused in succeeding ages, that the continuance has been forbidden by several of the ge­neral synods or councils. Not merely to maintain the dignity of the church, but to guard the lives and health of its faithful children. This practice is now, however, pursued to a shameful excess, in Catholic, as well as Protestant countries. The ancient Greeks most scrupulously observed this wise law, which pro­hibited interment in their temples; or even within the walls of their cities. The marble, the ornaments, and the epitaphs on the tombs, distinguish the rank and oc­cupation of the deceased. On the tomb of a sculptor, will be found a chissel; arms on that of a soldier; and so of the rest. This custom is of long standing among the Greeks.

[Page 328] "Meniskus," says Sappho, "decorated the tomb of Pelagus his son, who was a fisherman, with an oar and a net; instruments expressive of his dangerous and laborious calling."

Thus, the ghost of Elpenor says to Ulysses; "Erect a tomb to my memory, near the sea, that my disastrous fate may be made known to the traveller. Do not forget also, that an oar be engraved thereon, as a mark of my profession, and of the services I rendered you in my life-time.

Archimedes, according to Plutarch, desired his re­lations to put no ornament on his tomb, but a cylinder and a sphere, which were to serve him likewise for an epitaph.

The modern Greeks still preserve that simplicity in their epitaphs, which was so characteristic of the ancient ones.

The Indian philosopher, who threw himself into the flames at Athens, in the presence of Augustus, and to the great astonishment of the Greeks, had no other epitaph on his tomb, than this simple inscription:

"Here are deposited, the ashes of Zarmano Choegas, an Indian of Bargosa; who, according to the custom of his country, encountered a voluntary death."

[Page 329]Most of the ancient inscriptions shew what respect the Greeks entertained for the ashes of the dead, and the tombs that enclosed them; we find an example of this at Thyatira; attested by Smith, Spon, Wheeler, and Peysonnell.

"Fabius Sozimus, caused this tomb to be erected near the consecrated olive-tree, which stands in the Chaldocian field, by the side of the great road, at the entrance of the city, for the reception of himself and his dear wife Aureliana Pontiana, and for them alone. Should any impious person dare to violate this foun­dation, he will not only incur a fine of thirteen hun­dred denarii of silver, but suffer the punishment as­signed by the laws, to those sacrilegious felons, who disturb the ashes of the dead, to rob their tombs."

This species of robbery, was formerly very com­mon. In the time of S. Chrysostom, the prisons were filled with malefactors, committed for that offence. The ancient Greeks forbad the interment of many persons in one tomb; except they were of the same family. The epitaphs which still remain, inform us, that penalties were affixed in cases of disobedience.

Though the magnificence of tombs is produced, in many instances, from the cultivation of vanity and riches; we shall find them oftener the recompense [Page 330] due to valour and merit; and in particular to those heroes, who have signalized themselves in the service of their country. Cyrus, bewailing the fall of Abra­datus, to Panthea, promises, in order to console him, that he would erect a superb monument to the me­mory of their deceased friend.

Who can read, without emotion, the following in­scription, upon an ancient tomb at Thebes?

"My father and mother honoured my corpse with their tears, performing, around my insensible tomb, the customary funeral rites; but, my soul is gone to the mansions of the just. My father was an Italian by birth, named Adeus; my own name Nedymus; and, without vanity it may be said, I died regretted of many. I lived only a few years, being born to enjoy but a short life, by the cruelty of an inconstant age. We must all submit to fate. Kings themselves are not exempt from its laws. My father Zosimus, who sighs incessantly after my immortal soul, caused this epitaph to be inscribed on my tomb."

The ancient epitaphs, frequently contained a short description of the personal beauties of the deceased. An instance of which, may be still seen at Athens, on the tomb of a young woman, called Cilitia Charitopis, who died in the flower of her life. "Her hair was of [Page 331] a light colour, her eyes soft and languishing, her com­plexion of snow, &c.

Exclusive of these tombs, they have small grave-stones; which anciently, as at present, served merely to acquaint the reader with the name of the person buried there.

"At Athens, says Pausanias, those brave citizens, who fell in the service of their country, were interred by the side of the road that leads to the academy. Their tombs are known by pillars set up for that pur­pose; whereon are marked, the names of the deceased, and the places of their nativity."

Can we turn our eyes towards those immense plains, once covered with flourishing cities; the seat of arts, the glory of the universe; but now strewed with the ruins of temples, and the dreary monuments, inclosing the remains of that great people; can we, I say, be­hold them without shedding a tear of regret, at the in­stability of human grandeur?

Life is held by the most brittle tenure; youth, full of liberty and dissipation, mispends the present hour, regardless of the future. Man arrives at maturity of judgment, but by slow degrees; and then the remain­ing part of life is too short, to make an advantageous [Page 332] use of the acquisition. The instant he comes to the perfection of his reason, his powers decline. For nature is always in motion, she must either advance or recede. In this position, all things are involved. Every being bears in its progress, the cause of its de­struction. The fruits of the earth, having gained a a perfect maturity, begin to corrupt. The most stoical insensibility would be moved, at the sight of the devouring havock death has made in this country.

The tribute of a tear, to the remembrance of our departed friends, is justly their due. Faithful to this principle, the Greeks deplore, from time to time, the loss of those who have been dear to them in life; either by an affectionate sight, or a tender tear, vented on the tomb of the deceased. How different from the formal ceremony, observed by us, on such occa­sions; and that, by the injunction of our religion? But what surprize is there in our being so much es­tranged from nature; we, who reject with indig­nation, as gross and indelicate, every circumstance ca­pable of exciting our natural sensibility.

During the time that the Greeks celebrate the fes­tival of Easter, which is attended with great splendor, one day of that season, is also set apart, for a visit to the tombs; when they resort in great numbers, to bewail the loss of their friends and relations.

[Page 333]The Greek women of the present age, are satisfied with tearing some hair from their head and spreading it on the tomb. Formerly, their long and beautiful tresses, were always a devoted victim to their relations and friends. That beautiful ornament, the hair, of which the sex were so tenacious on all other occasions, was offered without reluctance at the tomb. They cut it off close to the head, and deposited it upon the monument.

"Here lie," says Sappho, "the ashes of the lovely Timas; who was snatched from the altar of Hymen, to inhabit the gloomy regions of Proserpine. Her companions lamented her death, with the usual de­monstrations of sorrow. The fine sacrifice of beau­tiful hair, scattered about her monument, are precious tokens of their grief."

A sacrifice of this kind, considering the estimation in which the fine flowing tresses of hair were held by the Greeks, was no equivocal mark of tenderness and grief. O! charming prospect! says Guys, how many precious moments have I passed, in contem­plating the tombs of Greece! Yes, my imagination has hovered over their whole extent, like those me­lancholy birds, that take so much delight in fluttering round them.

[Page 334]Yet do not imagine this view of mortality, among the scattered tombs, is altogether dismal and forlorn. The species of horror, such a spectacle impresses on an honest and gentle mind, is greatly alleviated by the variety of surrounding objects. Curiosity, and hu­manity, find a sweet satisfaction from the inscription; which give, as it were, language to the tombs; and where, too often, unfortunate mortals receive the first recompence of their virtues from society. Envy being silenced, the veil is then removed that kept merit and justice asunder. How much is it to be regretted, that artifice, lying, and hatred, should poison so many of the springs of life! On the tomb only, can we expect our virtues to be blazoned; and even then, we must stand indebted to the piety of our relations, or the fidelity of our friends, for this act of justice. An agreeable walk, is generally the avenue to these monuments; where our principal dwelling-place is already marked out. This scene, in some degree, unites us again to our friends; from whom, fate seemed to have for ever separated us. And, indeed, never fails to furnish very useful reflexions.

CHAP. XLII. Of the Religion and Superstition of the Greeks.

THE whole Greek church, including every sect, is of considerable extent, containing not only the christians of the Turkish empire, who, in many parts, are more numerous than the Mahometans; but also the Muscovites, Russians, Cossacs, Ethiopians, Abyssinians, Circassians, Georgians, Mongrelians, and the inhabitants of the different islands in the Mediter­ranean and Archipelago. We shall here treat of those under the Turkish dominion, who are governed by four patriarchs; the chief of which resides at Constan­tinople; the second at Antioch; the third at Jeru­salem; and the fourth at Alexandria. Though these four sees are independent of each other, that of Con­stantinople is considered as the principal, because it is under the eyes of the Ottoman court.

The investiture of it is generally given by the grand signior, or his vizier; notwithstanding this, the Greeks acknowledge it. This dignity, as we have already [Page 336] observed, in our account of Turkey, is sold to the highest bidder; and, after having obtained possession, he is not sure of retaining it long, if he cannot find means of furnishing considerable presents to the Turkish government. To be able to accomplish this, he draws as much money as he possibly can, from the clergy, and people belonging to his jurisdiction; He, likewise, endeavours to save enough to enable him, if disgraced, to lead a life of ease, indolence, and tranquility.

His jurisdiction is very great, and extends, not only over all the Turkish provinces in Europe, and the islands of the Archipelago, but likewise over most of the provinces in Asia Minor. In his letters missive, he stiles himself, by the mercy of God, archbishop of New Rome, Constantinople, and Oecumenical pa­triarch.

The patriarch of Antioch, has Syria, and Mesopo­tamia, under his jurisdiction; and stiles himself, by the mercy of God, patriarch of the great city of Antioch, and of all the East. His usual residence is Da­mascus.

The patriarch of Jerusalem, has Palestine, and part of Arabia, under his jurisdiction; and stiles himself a before, and patriarch of the holy city of Jerusalem, [Page 337] and all Palestine; sometimes he is stiled patriarch of Jerusalem, the holy Mount of Sion, Syria, Arabia beyond Jordan, Cana of Gallilee, and of all Pa­lestine.

The patriarch of Alexandria, whose jurisdiction ex­tends over Egypt, Lybia, and part of Egypt, stiles himself, by the mercy of God, pope and patriarch of the great city of Alexandria, and Oecumenical judge, sometimes Oecumenical patriarch; it having been the chief see before Constantine, and founded by St. Mark; from whence, Alexandria is frequently called the throne, or seat and chair of that apostle. His usual residence is Grand Cairo.

These three patriarchs are appointed by the Ba­shaws. The other sects of christians, have also their patriarchs; such as the Armenians, Maronites, Jaco­bins, &c.

The second rank in the hierarchy is occupied by the arch-bishops and bishops, under the inspection of their respective patriarchs. Though careless respect­ing religion, and dissolute in their private life, says Mariti, these prelates require, that those who either write or speak to them, should address them with the title of your holiness, and your blessedness. The first belongs to patriarchs, and the second to bishops. To [Page 338] add a lustre to their office, their menial servants are generally in deacon's orders.

They cannot be reproached, however, with neg­lecting their dioceses. They begin their visitation every twelfth-day, and do not disdain to enter even the poorest cottages. How noble these visits would be, did they not proceed from interested motives! The pontiff, in the name of Heaven, draws from the unhappy peasant, all his money; and leaves him nothing but a useless benediction. For this reason, while the rest of Europe complain they never see their bishops, the inhabitants in Turkey lament they see them too often.

The religious orders of S. Basil, S. Elias, and S. Marcel, have, from time immemorial, enjoyed the ex­clusive privilege of furnishing bishops and patriarchs. These monks make the same vows of poverty, fasting, obedience, and chastity, as those of Europe. They are forbidden by their regulations, to say mass; but, in order to become pontiffs, they forget this prohibi­tion. And I could easily see, adds Mariti, they paid as little attention to their other vows.

I must, however, do them justice to say, that their whole lives are not spent in contemplative idleness. [Page 339] They cultivate their own lands, and exercise useful callings.

Confined to the most rigorous fasting, they live on pulse; and never eat fish, but on days of great solem­nity. One may readily guess, that this austere life is not followed by their chiefs.

The latter are known by the title of igumenos, which answers to that of Abbé.

The first order among the Greeks, conferred upon those who devote themselves to the service of the church, is that of reader, called anagnostis; the only duty of which is, to read the sacred scriptures to the people, on festivals.

The next order is, that of the psaltis, or chanters; which conducts immediately to the deaconship, and sub-deaconship.

When a person is admitted into this second order, he is permitted to marry, but only once. The can­didate must chuse for his spouse a chaste and beau­tiful virgin; and the reason the Greek canons give for this, is, that a minister who corresponds with angels, ought not to profane his flesh with vice and ugliness. The candidate has not the sole right to [Page 340] judge of these three points; he is obliged to conduct his young sweetheart to the bishop of the diocese, and ask him in a humble manner, if she appears to be chaste, beautiful, and a virgin. When the prelate really thinks her so, he smiles, kisses her cheek, and gives her his be­nediction. On the contrary, when he finds her disagree­able, his blessedness says to the candidate, "Return to the Holy Ghost; and by that it may enlighten thee."

A married priest, is forbidden to enter the bed of his spouse, the evening before he administers the sa­crament; and the wife is forbidden to appear in church without a veil, left the sight of her charms should divert the attention of her husband from his duty.

The breviary of the Greeks is divided into seven parts; and the daily prayers would take up some several hours, were the whole recited, which is scarce ever done.

The churches are, as in Europe, divided into a nave and a choir. Old churches have a porch and a ves­tibule.

The church is surrounded with several rows of benches, as far as the entrance of the choir. These [Page 341] benches are pretty much like those in our churches; except that they are higher and narrower, and have no footboard, because the Greeks never kneel. They make devotion to consist in frequent salutations, and inflections of the body. Few sit down; as they prefer remaining, with their elbows leaning on the arms of their benches.

Custom has established it as a rule, that the women should be separated from the men. A barrier, in the form of an orchestra, is raised in the lower part of the church; behind which, the former are placed; and there are certain days in each month, on which they must not even pass the vestibule, or the first door of those churches, which have not a portico. They are forbidden likewise, on these days, to kiss the images of the saints.

The manner in which the Greeks make the sign of the cross, is not different from that of the Roman Ca­tholics; except that they unite the thumb, and the middle fingers, in the form of a triangle, pressing the other two down to the palm of the hand.

Baptism is performed by immersion; and children are plunged three times into the water: it is custo­mary to present them for baptism, the eighth day after their birth.

[Page 342]After baptism, the priest anoints the child's fore­head, eyes, nostrils, mouth, ears, breast, hands, and feet, with holy unction, and immediately after gives it the sacrament.

Auricular confession is practised among the Greeks, and is become an object of great profit to the priests; as people do not receive absolution, unless they pay a certain sum, in proportion to the enormity of their transgressions. Should fate have condemned a per­son to absolute indigence, says Mariti, he can find no minister who will condescend to hear him. What then must those do, who, thinking confession necessary, possess no money? Prostrated on the steps of the church, they must beg the rich to give them a small alms, and thereby enable them to be delivered from their sins, and save their souls.

It is amusing to hear the Greek casuists. The fol­lowing is a case of conscience; the solution of which may appear very singular. If a penitent accuses him­self of having committed a theft, the confessor asks him, whether the person robbed, is a Greek or an European. In the first case he is absolved, upon making restitution; but in the second, he is considered as not having finned, by dividing the produce of the robbery with the confessor.

[Page 343]The sacrament costs a piastre, and holy unction the same. To procure a ready sale for the latter, the priests persuade the people, that the consecrated oil confers both health of body, and purity of soul.

Such of the assistants as wish to communicate, go and place themselves before the principal door of the sanctuary; and the priest, laying the book of the ritual upon the head of each communicant, presents them in their turn with the consecrated bread and wine.

There are reckoned to be four principal Lents in the Greek church, in the course of the year. The first precedes Easter, and continues two months. Milk and fish are allowed in the first week, but for­bidden in the other seven. Certain kinds of fish, such as oysters, and some other shell-fish, are excepted from this prohibition. The law, which forbids fish only, because they contain blood, considering these as not possessed of any.

In the second Lent, which is forty days before the nativity of Christ, fish of every kind is allowed.

The third Lent begins on Whit-Monday, and ends on St. Peter's day. It was instituted in memory of the apostles; and its duration depends on the advance­ment, [Page 344] or retardation of Easter. During this Lent, milk is permitted.

The last is solely intended in honour of the Vir­gin Mary. It begins on the first day of August, and ends on the day of assumption. This Lent is ob­served with more strictness, than any of the rest, on account of the great respect entertained for the mother of Christ.

Old men, children, women with child, and even the sick, are not exempted from observing these four Lents; and so great is the superstition of the Greeks, that they think it less heinous to rob, prostitute them­selves publicly, or even to commit murder, than to transgress their precepts for fasting.

The modern Greeks hold seven sacraments. Bap­tism, unction, the eucharist, penance, holy orders, marriage, and prayer.

The laity are enjoined to receive the communion four times every year; and this is never omitted, at least twice a year; namely, at Christmas and Easter. It is received fasting, at the third hour of the day, or about nine in the morning. The communicants take it standing, and bending at the same time, their bodies, but they never kneel. That those who are sick or [Page 345] dying, may not want this comfortable viaticum; a suf­ficient quantity of bread is consecrated on Holy Thurs­day; which being dried over a chafing dish, is put into a box of silver, or wood; and, being inclosed in a silk case, is hung up behind the altar, with a lamp or two burning before it. If the priests have occasion to make use of it, they moisten it with wine, before they carry it to the house of the sick communicant.

Every person is obliged to confess four times a year, except the poor; of whom it is required, only once in Lent. From very devout people, a monthly confession is expected. If a person dies before he has received absolution, he is considered to be in a desperate state; but should he die excommunicated, his corpse is sup­posed to feel the dismal effects of it in the grave; and that it will grow hard, and swell like a drum, while the sentence of excommunication is in force; this, the Greeks say, is occasioned by the devils entering into it. The bishops, when they prohibit any thing in their briefs, particularly threaten the offenders, that after death they shall swell, and be undissolved; but, when the excommunication is taken off, then the body will dissolve and return to dust.

The ceremony of anointing the sick with oil, is another of their sacraments, and similar to that of ex­treme unction with the Roman Catholics.

[Page 346]How shall I describe to you, says Guys, the religion of this people? It has, no doubt, experienced the same revolutions with the Greek empire. Like every thing else in this nation, we find it obscured with the darkest ignorance, and the grossest superstition. The Greek religion has retained no part of its original in­stitution; except the ceremonies, ornaments, and solem­nities, serving as signs by which it may be known.

The religion of a people, conducted by the most il­literate priests, who scarcely know how to read, at best, can only be expected to preserve the exterior form and likeness, of what it originally was. Thus, the glorious light which once shone upon this people, and dissipated the darkness of paganism, and its absurd tenets, is dwindled into a glimmering resemblance of its former splendor.

The ignorance of the clergy, necessarily includes that of the nation. The gaudy trappings of their priests; the festivals and ceremonies, with a few or­naments for the monasteries and altars, are all that re­main to the poor captured Greeks; the Turks, indeed, have continued the use of their churches; and beyond these they have no religion. This nation, the parent of Polytheism, fraught with the pagan principles of the ancient Greeks, continued even in the first ages of christianity, to multiply the objects of devotion; [Page 347] though they had the happiness of knowing the true God. Abandoned formerly, to the opinions and errors of their philosophers, they had found in the gospel, and in christian morality, what philosophy had in vain attempted to unfold. Human curiosity, ill satisfied with the lights of faith, which would subdue reason, and the pride of mortal judgment, endeavoured to as­similate with christianity, the ancient doctrine of the two principles of a good and evil genius; errors to which the Greeks had been invariably attached. From hence, innumerable heresies, and a multitude of sects, have been engendered in the bosom of the Greek church; which still continues to be the nurse of error and falshood.

The history of the emperors, who, from the time of Constantine, until the separation between the Greek and Latin churches, were oftener engaged in theolo­gical disputes, than in managing the political concerns of the empire, may be more properly called, the his­tory of commotions and civil wars, on account of re­ligion. At length, the Greek clergy, educated in the principles of eternal controversy, were silenced by the last conqueror of Greece. Mahomet II. contented himself with naming a patriarch, and graciously left the free exercise of their religion to this poor, un­done, subdued people; which put an end to those dis­putes, so repugnant to the military fanaticism of the [Page 348] Turks; for Mahomet, the prophet, an absolute despot, who pretended to be inspired, having established his religion by force of arms, ordered every one to be­lieve, and would have no arguments.

Under such masters, how could the Monks, and Greek priests, ever trembling, and having no longer opportunities to exercise themselves in disputation, cultivate theology and letters. We may from thence conclude, that the modern Greeks having no fit pas­tors to guide them in their religion, have added to that which they profess, all the traditions and prac­tices which credulity and custom could preserve; and, by their attachment to ancient usages, have re­tained innumerable superstitions. In a word, these people are credulous in proportion to their ignorance: thus we find them, excessively attached to prodigies, auguries, omens, and dreams; as they are also con­stant observers of fasts, and other customs derived from their ancestors.

The Greek religion is now become that of the Russian. The latter, towards the end of the tenth century, received a metropolitan into their kingdom, who was sent by the patriarch of Constantinople, to baptize and instruct them. In process of time, that patriarch became supreme of the Russian church; but in the year 1667, the Russians shook off their de­pendance [Page 349] on the Greek hierarchy; without intro­ducing the least innovation in its doctrine. Thus, the Greeks and Russians profess the same religion; and the priests of both nations are habited alike; but these are the only particulars they hold in common with each other.

Austere and frequent fasts, the customs of public prayer, and of assembling in church before sun-rise; the dread of being excommunicated, and of an exclu­sion from the assembly of the faithful; in short, the greatest respect for their patriarch and the bishops, are usages which the Greeks have retained from the pri­mitive Christians.

But to go still further back, we must examine the re­ligious festivals, which they celebrate in the country villages; they will call to mind the bacchanals, and the devotion of the ancients, for a sacred fountain, or an ancient forest; which were, with them, objects of veneration and worship.

The Greeks have still their venerable caverns, and their consecrated waters. They go in crouds, on cer­tain days of the year, and drink of them; and these days have the honour of being numbered among their religious festivals. The borders of these fountains are ornamented with little pieces of linen or stuff, as trophies of the virtues of the spring, in having restored [Page 350] so many to health. They observe the same method of returning thanks to the saint they chanced to invoke, in any calamity or disorder; and, if the event proves propitious, an offering is made of a bit of stuff, or some little trinket, affixed to the images. The cre­dulity of the ancient Greeks, and of the heathens in general, with respect to all sorts of presages, is well known. The oracles, those lying instruments, were not sufficient for their purpose. They had recourse to fate, to divination, and to fortuitous expressions; to all of which they yielded the most implicit faith. The Greeks still draw presages from a thousand in­cidents, which happen accidentally. Thus, a taper or candle, which chances to emit a spark, announces the arrival of some person they expected.

Chance expressions, and particularly those of in­fants, had the force of an oracle with the ancients. The epigram of Callimachus, on this subject, is much admired. "A stranger, says he, consulted the sage Pittacus, of Mitylene; which, of two young women who were offered him in marriage, he should take for a wife. The estate and rank of the first, were suitable to his own; but the other was much his superior in both. Pittacus, instead of answering the question him­self, pointed out with a stick, to some children who were whipping their tops in the public square, and bid him take his answer from them, which would clear up [Page 351] his doubts." The stranger approaching, hears them call out to each other—take your equal.—These words were sufficient, he sought no other oracle, but took the woman, whose circumstances assimilated the nearest to his own, and was happy.—Profit by the ex­ample, says the poet, and marry with your equal. This tract, which paints in such strong colours, the sweetness and simplicity of the ancients, is really in­teresting.

The Greeks have also their good and evil days. The fortieth day is sacred to lying-in women; who never go out before the expiration of that term. An­ciently, it was celebrated by them as a festival; and, before the arrival of this period, the women were not allowed to enter into the temple; and even now, a certain time must elapse before they are admitted into it.

Their attachment to superstitious and vulgar pre­judices is not weakened, we may be certain, by long custom. Few nations have any good reasons to offer in justification of their particular habits; precedent and usage is the only answer they have to give. A detail of all the superstitious practices of the Greeks, would be enormously voluminous, and consequently tiresome. We shall mention those only, which are their present characteristics.

[Page 352]The ancient superstitions are described by Theo­phrastus; the modern Greeks have rather augmented, than diminished their number.

S. Chrysostom relates the bigotry of his own times, which still remains to the present age. "Nothing can equal, says this author, the women in these parti­culars, with respect to their young children. The instant one is brought into the world, all the lamps of the house are lighted; and the infant is called by the name of some person who has lived to a great age, to procure long life for it. They tie threads of scarlet about their hands, to preserve them from accidents. The women-nurses, and sometimes the slaves, go and put their fingers into a kind of clay, which is found at the bottom of the baths; with which they mark the forehead of the child, in order to avert from it the evil sight, or envy. Some write on the hands of the child, the names of rivers and streams; while others make use of ashes, tallow, and salt, for the like pur­pose." All this is done to avert the evil sight which they dread to this day.

A quick imagination, easily inflamed and nursed in a system of vulgar errors and fables, that exaggerate every thing, cannot but be susceptible of the slightest impressions. "Accordingly, adds the same reverend father, their souls are always occupied by the most [Page 353] terrible apprehensions. Going out this morning, says one, such an accident happened which portends the most grievous misfortunes. My rogue of a valet, says another, on presenting me my shoes, gave me that for the left foot first, a sure sign I shall sustain a loss, or an affront. A third informs you, that he came out with the left leg foremost, an infallible token of mischief."

The modern Greeks, are subject to the same weak­nesses, the same fears, the same credulity. In study­ing a nation, in following the people step by step, we find in all climates, that they exactly resemble those who went before them. What we say of individuals, is true of whole nations.

Nothing more strongly characterizes the credulity of a people, than the faith they place in dreams, and their manner of interpreting them. Pliny's astonish­ment, at the credulity of the Greeks, was very natural. Religion has destroyed the famous oracles of Greece; but reason has not done her part, in assisting to di­minish the credit given by the Greeks to dreams. An­cient authors, of the greatest reputation, have treated them in the most serious manner; while the lively imagination of the poets, who, like lovers, are the creators of their own fancies, have not given them such a favourable reception in their minds. If some [Page 354] of the great writers of antiquity have joined in a be­lief of the efficacy of dreams; others, of no less autho­rity, have rejected them, as delusive imaginations of the brain, signifying nothing.

Plutarch, as assiduous in relating the dreams, as the bon mots of the great men, whose lives he writ, says, that Sylla, in his writings, asserts, nothing was more certain than the intelligence given to mankind in their dreams.

Augustus, in consequence of a particular dream im­posed upon himself, the ridiculous and superstitious drudgery, to assume, on a certain day of the year, the character of a mendicant, holding forth his hand to receive alms from the passers by. Whence comes it, so much weakness should reside in a soul of such su­perior nature?

The famous dream of Cicero in his exile, which an­nounced to him a speedy and glorious return, though it was verified in every particular, did not alter the sentiments of that great man respecting dreams. He was of opinion, they were not deserving credit, be­cause one, among numbers, should be realized, any more than that a notorious lyar should be believed who had spoken truth.

[Page 355]The attachment of the ancients, to this species of superstition, was almost general among the people. A set of gods were established, whom they worshipped under the title of Dii somniales. The modern Greeks, have also certain rules and methods for interpreting dreams; which, no doubt, came to them from the an­cients. There are numbers of old women, who pro­cure the means of subsistence, in exercising this mys­tery. I made a point, says Guys, of visiting some of the profession, in order to be acquainted with their method; a single example of which, will be sufficient to elucidate it.

A young Greek, applying to one of these oracles, said, "I dreamt a stranger came to me, and presented me an aigrette with several flowers; after lighting a slam­beau, he disappeared." Here is the whole of the mystery, said the old Sibyl, whom she consulted. The aigrette, signifies you shall be married; the lighted flambeau indicates, that the time is near; and the number of flowers, mark the number of children that you will have." Thus spake the oracle. I desired no more, says Guys, nor did I ever take the trouble to enquire into the verification of his prophecies. In general, the rule is to interpret the dreams upon a contrary footing. These sinister accidents indicate good fortune; while the day, which succeeds a plea­sant [Page 356] dream, is a day of sorrow to the person who has dreamt it.

The Greeks, in order to obtain propitious dreams, prepare themselves, as formerly, by fasts. A young maid, tempted by an ardent and impatient desire, to know her destiny by marriage, will not eat of any thing on the evening she proposes to make the essay, except a piece of dirty cake; which, however, she must not accompany with any kind of liquor, left the charm should be interrupted: she then takes three clews of thread, of different colours; white, red, and black, which she places under her pillow. After this preparatory arrangement, the man who first appears to her, and presents her something to drink, is to be her husband. When she wakes, she is to take one of the threads promiscuously from under her pillow. The black, prognosticates her lot to be cast for a widower; the white, signifies an old man; but the red, denotes a young and rich husband, or one according to her wishes. We should not engage the attention of our readers with such puerile relations, but that it is im­possible to study mankind to any advantage, without descending into their minute absurdities, as well as cri­ticising their glaring follies. The present race of men, who arrogantly boast their superiority over former times, are they more exempt from such weaknesses, than those ages they contemn?

CHAP. XLIII. Commerce and Navigation.

THE Greeks, who received their sciences, arts, fables, and romances from Egypt, imbibed also, from the Egyptians, their inclination for maritime commerce. In ancient histories of Greece, we find the names of very great personages of antiquity, en­rolled among the sons of commerce. The sage Thales, Plato, Hippocrates, and the legislator Solon, had all been merchants. Zeno, chief of the stoics, was the son of a Cyprian merchant. Sappho also, the sister of Charaxus, a dealer in wine. A travelling merchant first discovered the value of Homer's poems, and took the pains to collect them. In a word, Hesiod himself gives lessons to his brother, on the article of com­merce.

The custom of merchants, assembling in some pub­lic place for the purposes of traffic, is of very ancient date in Greece. This we learn in Herodotus, from the answer of Cyrus to the threat of the ambassadors from [Page 358] Sparta. "I never, says he, entertain the least dread of those men, who have a place in this city, where they assemble to deceive each other, by the grossest per­juries." These words, says the same author, alluded generally to the Greeks. For every city in Greece, had some place appropriated to the purpose mentioned by Cyrus.

What Cyrus insinuates, concerning the perjuries of the merchants, refers to the ancient method of making bargains, or contracts. A practice still in use among the Greeks. As soon as the buyer and seller come to an agreement, the manager, or broker, joins their hands; which is of the same efficacy with an oath in binding the bargain. In conformity to this practice, we find engraven on the ancient monuments, and par­ticularly on the intaglios, two hands united; which were, no doubt, designed as the emblem of com­merce.

This custom is not confined to the Greeks. We find it prevail in all nations, where any traces remain of the plain dealing and honesty of the ancients.

The Greeks still entertain a strong propensity to commerce. The poorest cruise from one island to another; whilst those of more extensive capitals, en­large the bounds of their commerce to Egypt, and the [Page 359] Black sea. Some of the great merchants trade to the East-Indies, by way of Bassora; and bring from thence callicoes, and stuffs of various kinds. Others hold a correspondence with Russia, for skins, furs, &c. The Greeks, like the Ragusans, having no inclination for extravagance, live at a very small expence, as the most certain means of gain. Those who cannot find an en­couragement at home, seek an establishment in Hol­land or Venice.

They are not only good merchants, but excellent ar­tificers. They have established several manufactories at Scio; where stuffs are made, exactly resembling those of India, Persia, and even of Lyons. Besides these ar­ticles furnished at Scio, they make carpets of a very superb quality at Salonica and Smyrna. Cyprus is famous for coverlets; as Candia is for soap and oil. Santorin produces a kind of cotton stuff, called dimity; and at Tinde they make silk stockings. In the days of ancient Greece, Samos and Miletus bore the repu­tation of excelling in carpets; Corinth in coverlets; Sicily in cheese; and Argos produced the best of metals.

The Greeks were early acquainted with the art of navigation, which may be gathered from the number of vessels they fitted out for the expedition against [Page 360] Troy. The passage from island to island, in the Ar­chipelago, and again to the adjacent continents, was not very difficult, by reason of the vicinity of those places. Commerce was then carried on, by barter of one commodity for another. The merchants who fur­nished the Greeks with wine from Lemnos, during the siege of Troy; received in return, brass, iron, skins, &c.

Thieving was no crime among the ancient Greeks, but a calling of ingenuity and industry. Being held in no disgrace, the earliest navigators became thieves of the first rank, under the denomination of pirates. The uncivilized Greeks of the present age, who have preserved the simplicity of the ancient manners, are now the pirates of the Archipelago. In consulting Homer, upon the customs of the primitive Greeks, we have the purest source of knowledge, on that head, ever before us.

Ulysses having touched at the island of Pheacia, Euryalus was desirous of provoking him to enter the lists with him, either in the skilful management of the lute, or the swiftness of course. But Ulysses declining to engage in either, the young Euryalus, who was hot and passionate, made use of these rough expressions: "Am I then to consider you as one of those ship-masters, [Page 361] who pass their lives in going from place to place, to traffic or plunder; or in the still more despica­ble light of the purser of a vessel; one who keeps a re­gister of stores and prizes."

The Greeks are, in some measure, seamen by na­ture. The Turkish ships of war are manned with them. They make use of the compass, but have no charts to direct them; and are, therefore, obliged to trust to their knowledge of the coasts, for the safety of their navigation. They, of course, never venture far from the land. Most of their ships resemble those of the ancients; having but one mast, which is crossed with very long yards. They have also great sails, and a high flat poop, sometimes ornamented; the prow pro­jecting like that of Theseus's ship. A Greek may fre­quently be seen seated on the poop of his volik, sailing on that beautiful canal the Black Sea; the coasts re­sounding with his lyre; while a favourable wind swel­ling the sails, wafts him along the water with a pleasing rapidity.

Fishing, which was the prelude, and, if we may be allowed the expression, the parent of navigation has not been neglected by the Greeks. One of the finest poems, that ever was handed down to us from the Greeks, was written by Oppian, in celebration of the art of fishing. A poem, in so much esteem in the age [Page 362] that produced it, as to obtain the appellation of golden verses.

Whole nations have followed the art of fishing, as their only means of support; while others have de­rived their whole subsistence from the pursuit of ter­restrial animals. The latter being the most healthful and agreeable exercise, and the success attended with greater eclat, has been in all ages, the principal diver­sion of youth, and favourite sport of princes and heroes. While, on the other hand, fishing has been the occu­pation of the meaner sort of people, and attended with greater danger. The Greek fishermen, described in the history of former times, or on the monuments of antiquity, are exactly represented by those of the present age; who are provided with the same kind of implements as their predecessors. Being in general, more skilful and industrious in their profession, than their neighbours; they are also more successful. Of the industry of the fishermen of antiquity, Strabo re­lates the following anecdote.

A celebrated musician, employing his talents one day in the streets of Jassus, the inhabitants of which were, for the most part, fishermen, drew about him a great number of people. But the signal being pre­sently given for opening the fish-market, his whole audience forsook him except one man, who happened [Page 363] to be a little deaf. The musician, unacquainted with that circumstance, was highly flattered by his atten­tion; felicitated the man on his taste for music; and praised him much, for the regard he had shewn to a piece, which, as the musician said, had great merit. A circumstance the more remarkable in the fisher, considering what an universal depravity of taste ap­peared in his fellow-citizens, by quitting his music at the first sound of a bell, to sell their fish. "How," replies the supposed man of taste; "is the signal given? I did not hear it." And instantly followed his brother fishermen with equal precipitation.

Homer, who was the first to lay all nature under contribution, in order to furnish that crowd of images which are dispersed over his works, did not forget the fishers. Describing the defeat of Penelope's suitors, he represents them after the combat, "scattered on the ground, and panting for breath; like fishes taken from the net, just thrown upon the shore. Laid in heaps on the dry sand," says Homer, "the finney race thirst for the moist element, which they so long en­joyed. They palpitate in every part, from the heat and avidity of the air, just ready to destroy them. Thus fell the lovers of Penelope. Thus they found one common grave." Homer then mentions fish­ing with nets; which practice was very ancient in [Page 364] Greece, and in Egypt. But the Greeks, according to Athenaeus, existed some time before they could eat fish. And Dacier observes, that at the siege of Troy, war­riors abstained from the use of fish; as food of too de­licate a nature, for men of that profession. Menelaus, in the Odyssey, excuses his companions, who re­mained with him in the island of Pharos, for having fished with a line; by observing, that hunger had carried them to such lengths, they were glad to eat whatever they could get.

After the Greeks had adopted the art of fishing, they brought it to the greatest perfection. Pollux has been more particular, than even Theocritus, in de­scribing every utensil necessary for carrying on this employment. It is to them we owe the origin of the Xiphias, or sword-fish, carried on by the people of Marseilles; of the pilchard fishery, and that of the tunny. This latter fish appeared formerly in sholes, and were esteemed the best and largest fish of the sea. A company of them, according to Pliny, once pursued the ships of Alexander; his whole sleet was seized with terror, and formed themselves into a line, as if at­tacked by an enemy. This fish was in great estima­tion among the ancients, as now with the moderns. They were served at the best tables; and the Romans, like ourselves, greatly esteemed the flavour. Ac­cording [Page 365] to Aulus Gellius, our pickled tunny, and bo­targo, are more ancient than we imagine. The Car­thaginians always provided the tunny-fish to be served at weddings; and it had constantly a place in the Grecian banquets, before the new-married couple were put to bed.

The tunny-fish still continue to pass through the straits of Gibraltar, in large companies, about the commencement of spring. There is a great fishery of them, as we have before remarked, near Cadiz, at a village called Conil; from which place, and its en­virons, the duke of Medina Sidonia, is said to draw the clear sum of eighty thousand ducats yearly.

At Salines, a port in Naxios, an island of the Archi­pelago, the Greeks have a great fishery for eels and mullet, by the means of snares made of reeds, and manufactured into a certain form. These snares are very pliable, and so disposed, that the fish once lodged in them cannot get out.

The sturgeon-fishing is also carried on in a very sin­gular manner. An inclosure of willows with a door, being placed in the water, is so contrived, to admit all the fish which come that way, without the possibility of their getting out again.

[Page 366]Tunny fishing is carried on, by the people of Marseilles, in great perfection, after a manner which they inherit from the Greeks. The fish are detained by an inclosure placed in the water, much resembling the folds used for inclosing cattle in the middle of a field.