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+Project Gutenberg's Visits To Monasteries in the Levant, by Robert Curzon
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Visits To Monasteries in the Levant
+
+Author: Robert Curzon
+
+Release Date: May 16, 2010 [EBook #32397]
+[This file last updated: February 3, 2011]
+
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MONASTERIES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was
+produced from scanned images of public domain material
+from the Google Print project.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Book's cover, CURZON'S MONASTERIES]
+
+[Illustration: From a Drawing made on the spot by Viscount Eastnor.
+
+VIEW OF THE GREAT MONASTERY OF METEORA, FROM THE MONASTERY OF BARLAAM,
+WITH THE RIVER PENEUS IN THE DISTANCE.]
+
+
+
+
+VISITS TO MONASTERIES
+
+IN
+
+THE LEVANT.
+
+BY THE
+
+HONBLE. ROBERT CURZON, JUN.
+
+[Illustration: From a Sketch by R. Curzon.
+
+Interior of the Court of a Greek Monastery. A monk is calling the
+congregation to prayer, by beating a board called the simandro
+(σιμανδρο) which is generally used instead of bells.]
+
+WITH NUMEROUS WOODCUTS.
+
+LONDON:
+JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.
+
+1849.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+In presenting to the public another book of travels in the East, when it
+is already overwhelmed with little volumes about palm-trees and camels,
+and reflections on the Pyramids, I am aware that I am committing an act
+which requires some better excuse for so unwarrantable an intrusion on
+the patience of the reader than any that I am able to offer.
+
+The origin of these pages is as follows:--I was staying by myself in an
+old country-house belonging to my family, but not often inhabited by
+them, and, having nothing to do in the evening, I looked about for some
+occupation to amuse the passing hours. In the room where I was sitting
+there was a large book-case full of ancient manuscripts, many of which
+had been collected by myself, in various out-of-the-way places, in
+different parts of the world. Taking some of these ponderous volumes
+from their shelves, I turned over their wide vellum leaves, and admired
+the antiquity of one, and the gold and azure which gleamed upon the
+pages of another. The sight of these books brought before my mind many
+scenes and recollections of the countries from which they came, and I
+said to myself, I know what I will do; I will write down some account of
+the most curious of these manuscripts, and the places in which they were
+found, as well as some of the adventures which I encountered in the
+pursuit of my venerable game.
+
+I sat down accordingly, and in a short time accumulated a heap of papers
+connected more or less with the history of the ancient manuscripts; at
+the desire of some of my friends I selected the following pages, and it
+is with great diffidence that I present them to the public. If they have
+any merits whatever, these must consist in their containing descriptions
+of localities but seldom visited in modern times; or if they refer to
+places better known to the general reader, I hope that the peculiar
+circumstances which occurred during my stay there, or on my journeys
+through the neighbouring countries, may be found sufficiently
+interesting to afford some excuse for my presumption in sending them to
+the press.
+
+I have no further apology to offer. These slight sketches were written
+for my own diversion when I had nothing better to do, and if they afford
+any pleasure to the reader under the same circumstances, they will
+answer as much purpose as was intended in their composition.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER                                            Page xix
+
+
+PART I.
+
+EGYPT IN 1833.
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+Navarino--The Wrecks of the Turkish and Egyptian Fleets--Alexandria--An
+Arab Pilot--Intense Heat--Scene from the Hotel
+Windows--The Water-Carriers--A Procession--A Bridal Party--Violent
+mode of clearing the Road--Submissive Behaviour of
+the People--Astonishing Number of Donkeys--Bedouin Arabs;
+their wild and savage appearance--Early Hours--Visit to the
+Pasha's Prime Minister, Boghos Bey; hospitable reception--Kawasses
+and Chaoushes; their functions and powers--The Yassakjis--The
+Minister's Audience Chamber--Walmas; anecdote
+of his saving the life of Boghos Bey                                   1
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+Rapacity of the Dragomans--The Mahmoudieh Canal--The Nile
+at Atfeh--The muddy Waters of the Nile--Richness of the Soil--Accident
+to the Boatmen--Night Sailing--A Collision--A
+Vessel run down--Escape of the Crew--Solemn Investigation--Final
+Judgment--Curious Mode of Fishing--Tameness of the
+Birds--Jewish Malefactors--Moving Pillar of Sand--Arrival
+at Cairo--Hospitable Reception by the Consul-General                  14
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+National Topics of Conversation--The Rising of the Nile; evil
+effects of its rising too high; still worse consequences of a deficiency
+of its waters--The Nilometer--Universal Alarm in August, 1833--The
+Nile at length rises to the desired Height--Ceremony of
+cutting the Embankment--The Canal of the Khalidj--Immense
+Assemblage of People--The State Tent--Arrival of Habeeb
+Effendi--Splendid Dresses of the Officers--Exertions of the Arab
+Workmen--Their Scramble for Paras--Admission of the Water--Its
+sudden Irruption--Excitement of the Ladies--Picturesque
+Effect of large Assemblies in the East                                27
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+Early Hours in the Levant--Compulsory Use of Lanterns in Cairo--Separation
+of the different Quarters of the City--Custom of sleeping
+in the open air--The Mahomedan Times of Prayer--Impressive
+Effect of the Morning Call to Prayer from the Minarets--The
+last Prayer-time, Al Assr--Bedouin Mode of ascertaining this
+Hour--Ancient Form of the Mosques--The Mosque of Sultan
+Hassan--Egyptian Mode of "raising the Supplies"--Sultan
+Hassan's Mosque the Scene of frequent Conflicts--The Slaughter
+of the Mameluke Beys in the Place of Roumayli--Escape of one
+Mameluke, and his subsequent Friendship with Mohammed Ali--The
+Talisman of Cairo--Joseph's Well and Hall--Mohammed
+Ali's Mosque--His Residence in the Citadel--The Harem--Degraded
+State of the Women in the East                                        35
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+Interview with Mohammed Ali Pasha--Mode of lighting a Room in
+Egypt--Personal Appearance of the Pasha--His Diamond-mounted
+Pipe--The lost Handkerchief--An unceremonious
+Attendant--View of Cairo from the Citadel--Site of Memphis;
+its immense extent--The Tombs of the Caliphs--The Pasha's
+Mausoleum--Costume of Egyptian Ladies--The Cobcob, or
+Wooden Clog--Mode of dressing the Hair--The Veil--Mistaken
+Idea that the Egyptian Ladies are Prisoners in the Harem;
+their power of doing as they like--The Veil a complete Disguise--Laws
+of the Harem--A Levantine Beauty--Eastern Manners--The
+Abyssinian Slaves--Arab Girls--Ugliness of the Arab
+Women when old--Venerable Appearance of the old Men--An
+Arab Sheick                                                           47
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+Mohammed Bey, Defterdar--His Expedition to Senaar--His Barbarity
+and Rapacity--His Defiance of the Pasha--Stories of his
+Cruelty and Tyranny--The Horse-shoe--The Fight of the
+Mamelukes--His cruel Treachery--His Mode of administering
+Justice--The stolen Milk--The Widow's Cow--Sale and Distribution
+of the Thief--The Turkish Character--Pleasures of a
+Journey on the Nile--The Copts--Their Patriarchs--The Patriarch
+of Abyssinia--Basileos Bey--His Boat--An American's
+choice of a Sleeping-place                                            64
+
+
+NATRON LAKES.
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+Visit to the Coptic Monasteries near the Natron Lakes--The Desert
+of Nitria--Early Christian Anchorites--St. Macarius of Alexandria--His
+Abstinence and Penance--Order of Monks founded
+by him--Great increase of the Number of ascetic Monks in the
+Fourth Century--Their subsequent decrease, and the present
+ruined state of the Monasteries--Legends of the Desert--Capture
+of a Lizard--Its alarming escape--The Convent of Baramous--Night
+attacks--Invasion of Sanctuary--Ancient Glass Lamps--Monastery
+of Souriani--Its Library and Coptic MSS.--The Blind
+Abbot and his Oil-cellar--The persuasive powers of Rosoglio--Discovery
+of Syriac MSS.--The Abbot's supposed treasure                         75
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+View from the Convent Wall--Appearance of the Desert--Its
+grandeur and freedom--Its contrast to the Convent Garden--Beauty
+and luxuriance of Eastern Vegetation--Picturesque Group
+of the Monks and their Visitors--The Abyssinian Monks--Their
+appearance--Their austere mode of Life--The Abyssinian
+College--Description of the Library--The mode of Writing in
+Abyssinia--Immense Labour required to write an Abyssinian
+book--Paintings and Illuminations--Disappointment of the
+Abbot at finding the supposed Treasure-box only an old Book--Purchase
+of the MSS. and Books--The most precious left behind--Since
+acquired for the British Museum                                       90
+
+
+THE CONVENT OF THE PULLEY.
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+The Convent of the Pulley--Its inaccessible position--Difficult
+landing on the bank of the Nile--Approach to the Convent
+through the Rocks--Description of the Convent and its Inhabitants--Plan
+of the Church--Books and MSS.--Ancient
+excavations--Stone Quarries and ancient Tombs--Alarm of the
+Copts--Their ideas of a Sketch-book                                  105
+
+
+RUINED MONASTERY AT THEBES.
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+Ruined Monastery in the Necropolis of Thebes--"Mr. Hay's Tomb"--The
+Coptic Carpenter--His acquirements and troubles--He
+agrees to show the MSS. belonging to the ruined Monastery, which
+are under his charge--Night visit to the Tomb in which they are
+concealed--Perils of the way--Description of the Tomb--Probably
+in former times a Christian Church--Examination of the
+Coptic MSS.--Alarming interruption--Hurried flight from the
+Evil Spirits--Fortunate escape--Appearance of the Evil Spirit--Observations
+on Ghost Stories--The Legend of the Old Woman
+of Berkeley considered                                               117
+
+
+THE WHITE MONASTERY.
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+The White Monastery--Abou Shenood--Devastations of the
+Mamelukes--Description of the Monastery--Different styles of its
+exterior and interior Architecture--Its ruinous condition--Description
+of the Church--The Baptistery--Ancient Rites of Baptism--The
+Library--Modern Architecture--The Church of San Francesco at Rimini--The
+Red Monastery--Alarming rencontre with an armed party--Feuds between the
+native Tribes--Faction fights--Eastern Story Tellers--Legends of the
+Desert--Abraham and Sarah--Legendary Life of Moses--Arabian
+Story-tellers--Attention of their Audience                           130
+
+
+THE ISLAND OF PHILŒ, &c.
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+The Island of Philœ--The Cataract of Assouan--The Burial Place
+of Osiris--The Great Temple of Philœ--The Bed of Pharaoh--Shooting
+in Egypt--Turtle Doves--Story of the Prince Anas el
+Ajoud--Egyptian Songs--Vow of the Turtle Dove--Curious
+fact in Natural History--The Crocodile and its Guardian Bird--Arab
+notions regarding Animals--Legend of King Solomon and
+the Hoopoes--Natives of the country round the Cataracts of the
+Nile--Their appearance and Costume--The beautiful Mouna--Solitary
+Visit to the Island of Philœ--Quarrel between two native
+Boys--Singular instance of retributive Justice                       141
+
+
+PART II.
+
+
+JERUSALEM AND THE MONASTERY OF
+ST. SABBA.
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+Journey to Jerusalem--First View of the Holy City--The Valley
+of Gihon--Appearance of the City--The Latin Convent of St.
+Salvador--Inhospitable Reception by the Monks--Visit to the
+Church of the Holy Sepulchre--Description of the Interior--The
+Chapel of the Sepulchre--The Chapel of the Cross on Mount
+Calvary--The Tomb and Sword of Godfrey de Bouillon--Arguments
+in favour of the Authenticity of the Holy Sepulchre--The
+Invention of the Cross by the Empress Helena--Legend of the
+Cross                                                                165
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+The Via Dolorosa--The Houses of Dives and of Lazarus--The Prison of St
+Peter--The Site of the Temple of Solomon--The Mosque of Omar--The Hadjr
+el Sakhara--The Greek Monastery--Its Library--Valuable
+Manuscripts--Splendid MS. of the Book of Job--Arabic spoken at
+Jerusalem--Mussulman Theory regarding the Crucifixion--State of the
+Jews--Richness of their Dress in their own Houses--Beauty of their
+Women--Their literal Interpretation of Scripture--The Service in the
+Synagogue--Description of the House of a Rabbi--The Samaritans--Their
+Roll of the Pentateuch--Arrival of Ibrahim Pasha at Jerusalem        181
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+Expedition to the Monastery of St. Sabba--Reports of Arab Robbers--The
+Valley of Jehoshaphat--The Bridge of Al Sirat--Rugged
+Scenery--An Arab Ambuscade--A successful Parley--The
+Monastery of St. Sabba--History of the Saint--The Greek
+Hermits--The Church--The Iconostasis--The Library--Numerous
+MSS.--The Dead Sea--The Scene of the Temptation--Discovery--The
+Apple of the Dead Sea--The Statements of
+Strabo and Pliny confirmed                                           192
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+Church of the Holy Sepulchre--Processions of the Copts--The
+Syrian Maronites and the Greeks--Riotous Behaviour of the Pilgrims--Their
+immense numbers--The Chant of the Latin Monks--Ibrahim
+Pasha--The Exhibition of the Sacred Fire--Excitement
+of the Pilgrims--The Patriarch obtains the Sacred Fire from the
+Holy Sepulchre--Contest for the Holy Light--Immense sum paid
+for the privilege of receiving it first--Fatal Effects of the Heat
+and Smoke--Departure of Ibrahim Pasha--Horrible Catastrophe--Dreadful
+Loss of Life among the Pilgrims in their endeavours
+to leave the Church--Battle with the Soldiers--Our Narrow
+Escape--Shocking Scene in the Court of the Church--Humane
+Conduct of Ibrahim Pasha--Superstition of the Pilgrims regarding
+Shrouds--Scallop Shells and Palm Branches--The Dead
+Muleteer--Moonlight View of the Dead Bodies--The Curse on
+Jerusalem--Departure from the Holy City                              208
+
+
+PART III.
+
+
+THE MONASTERIES OF METEORA.
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+Albania--Ignorance at Corfu concerning that Country--Its reported
+abundance of Game and Robbers--The Disturbed State of the
+Country--The Albanians--Richness of their Arms--Their free
+use of them--Comparative Safety of Foreigners--Tragic Fate of
+a German Botanist--Arrival at Gominitza--Ride to Paramathia--A
+Night's Bivouac--Reception at Paramathia--Albanian Ladies--Yanina--Albanian
+Mode of settling a Quarrel--Expected
+Attack from Robbers--A Body-Guard mounted--Audience with
+the Vizir--His Views of Criminal Jurisprudence--Retinue of the
+Vizir--His Troops--Adoption of the European Exercises--Expedition
+to Berat--Calmness and Self-possession of the Turks--Active
+Preparations for Warfare--Scene at the Bazaar--Valiant
+Promises of the Soldiers                                             235
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+Start for Meteora--Rencontre with a Wounded Traveller--Barbarity
+of the Robbers--Albanian Innkeeper--Effect of the
+Turkish Language upon the Greeks--Mezzovo--Interview with
+the chief Person in the Village--Mount Pindus--Capture by
+Robbers--Salutary effects of Swaggering--Arrival under Escort
+at the Robbers' Head-Quarters--Affairs take a favourable turn--An
+unexpected Friendship with the Robber Chief--The Khan of
+Malacash--Beauty of the Scenery--Activity of our Guards--Loss
+of Character--Arrival at Meteora                                     257
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+Meteora--The extraordinary Character of its Scenery--Its Caves formerly
+the Resort of Ascetics--Barbarous Persecution of the Hermits--Their
+extraordinary Religious Observances--Singular Position of the
+Monasteries--The Monastery of Barlaam--The difficulty of reaching
+it--Ascent by a Windlass and Net, or by Ladders--Narrow
+Escape--Hospitable Reception by the Monks--The Agoumenos, or Abbot--His
+strict Fast--Description of the Monastery--The Church--Symbolism in the
+Greek Church--Respect for Antiquity--The Library--Determination of the
+Abbot not to sell any of the MSS.--The Refectory--Its
+Decorations--Aërial Descent--The Monastery of Hagios Stephanos--Its
+Carved Iconostasis--Beautiful View from the Monastery--Monastery of Agia
+Triada--Summary Justice at Triada--Monastery of Agia Roserea--Its Lady
+Occupants--Admission refused                                         279
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+The great Monastery of Meteora--The Church--Ugliness of the
+Portraits of Greek Saints--Greek Mode of Washing the Hands--A
+Monastic Supper--Morning View from the Monastery--The
+Library--Beautiful MSS.--Their Purchase--The Kitchen--Discussion
+among the Monks as to the Purchase Money for the
+MSS.--The MSS. reclaimed--A last look at their Beauties--Proposed
+Assault of the Monastery by the Robber Escort                        298
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+Return Journey--Narrow Escape--Consequences of Singing--Arrival
+at the Khan of Malacash--Agreeable Anecdote--Parting
+from the Robbers at Messovo--A Pilau--Wet Ride to
+Paramathia--Accident to the Baggage-Mule--Its wonderful
+Escape--Novel Costume--A Deputation--Return to Corfu                 312
+
+
+PART IV.
+
+
+THE MONASTERIES OF MOUNT ATHOS.
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+Constantinople--The Patriarch's Palace--The Plague, Anecdotes,
+Superstitions--The Two Jews--Interview with the Patriarch--Ceremonies
+of Reception--The Patriarch's Misconception as to
+the Archbishop of Canterbury--He addresses a Firman to the
+Monks of Mount Athos--Preparations for Departure--The Ugly
+Greek Interpreter--Mode of securing his Fidelity                     327
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+Coom Calessi--Uncomfortable Quarters--A Turkish Boat and its
+Crew--Grandeur of the Scenery--Legend of Jason and the
+Golden Fleece--The Island of Imbros--Heavy Rain Storm--A
+Rough Sea--Lemnos--Bad Accommodation--The Old
+Woman's Mattress and its Contents--Striking View of Mount
+Athos from the Sea--The Hermit of the Tower                          342
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+Monastery of St. Laura--Kind Reception by the Abbot--Astonishment
+of the Monks--History of the Monastery--Rules of
+the Order of St. Basil--Description of the Buildings--Curious
+Pictures of the Last Judgment--Early Greek Paintings; Richness
+of their Frames and Decorations--Ancient Church Plate--Beautiful
+Reliquary--The Refectory--The Abbot's Savoury
+Dish--The Library--The MSS.--Ride to the Monastery of
+Caracalla--Magnificent Scenery                                       356
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+The Monastery of Caracalla--Its beautiful Situation--Hospitable
+Reception--Description of the Monastery--Legend of its Foundation--The
+Church--Fine Specimens of Ancient Jewellery--The
+Library--The Value attached to the Books by the Abbot--He
+agrees to sell some of the MSS.--Monastery of Philotheo--The
+Great Monastery of Iveron--History of its Foundation--Its
+magnificent Library--Ignorance of the Monks--Superb MSS.--The
+Monks refuse to part with any of the MSS.--Beauty of the
+Scenery of Mount Athos                                               377
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+The Monastery of Stavroniketa--The Library--Splendid MS. of
+St. Chrysostom--The Monastery of Pantocratoras--Ruinous Condition
+of the Library--Complete Destruction of the Books--Disappointment--Oration
+to the Monks--The Great Monastery
+of Vatopede--Its History--Ancient Pictures in the Church--Legend
+of the Girdle of the Blessed Virgin--The Library--Wealth
+and Luxury of the Monks--The Monastery of Sphigmenou--Beautiful
+Jewelled Cross--The Monastery of Kiliantari--Magnificent
+MS. in Gold Letters on White Vellum--The Monasteries
+of Zographou, Castamoneta, Docheirou, and Xenophou--The
+Exiled Bishops--The Library--Very fine MSS.--Proposals
+for their Purchase--Lengthened Negotiations--Their successful
+Issue                                                                391
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+The Monastery of Russico--Its Courteous Abbot--The Monastery
+of Xeropotamo--Its History--High Character of its Abbot--Excursion
+to the Monasteries of St. Nicholas and St. Dionisius--Interesting
+Relics--Magnificent Shrine--The Library--The
+Monastery of St. Paul--Respect shown by the Monks--Beautiful
+MS.--Extraordinary Liberality and Kindness of the Abbot and
+Monks--A valuable Acquisition at little Cost--The Monastery
+of Simopetra--Purchase of MS.--The Monk of Xeropotamo--His
+Ideas about Women--Excursion to Cariez--The Monastery
+of Coutloumoussi--The Russian Book-Stealer--History of the
+Monastery--Its reputed Destruction by the Pope of Rome--The
+Aga of Cariez--Interview in a Kiosk--The She Cat of Mount
+Athos                                                                413
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+Caracalla--The Agoumenos--Curious Cross--The Nuts of Caracalla--Singular
+Mode of preparing a Dinner Table--Departure
+from Mount Athos--Packing of the MSS.--Difficulties of the
+Way--Voyage to the Dardanelles--Apprehended Attack from
+Pirates--Return to Constantinople                                    436
+
+FOOTNOTES
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+     The costumes are from drawings made at Constantinople by a Maltese
+     artist. They are all portraits, and represent the costumes worn at
+     the present day in different parts of the Turkish Empire. The
+     others are from drawings and sketches by the Author, except one
+     from a beautiful drawing by Lord Eastnor, for which the Author begs
+     to express his thanks and obligations.
+
+
+THE MONASTERY OF METEORA, FROM THE MONASTERY
+OF BARLAAM. FROM A DRAWING BY
+VISCOUNT EASTNOR                                            _FRONTISPIECE_
+
+INTERIOR OF THE COURT OF A GREEK MONASTER                 _Title Vignette_
+
+KOORD, OR NATIVE OF KOORDISTAN                        _To face page_ xxix.
+
+NEGRESS WAITING TO BE SOLD               "                              5
+
+BEDOUIN ARAB                             "                              7
+
+EGYPTIAN IN THE NIZAM DRESS              "                             49
+
+INTERIOR OF AN ABYSSINIAN LIBRARY        "                             97
+
+MENDICANT DERVISH                        "                            139
+
+PLAN OF THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE,
+JERUSALEM                                "                            165
+
+THE MONASTERY OF ST. BARLAAM             "                            235
+
+TATAR, OR GOVERNMENT MESSENGER           "                            237
+
+TURKISH COMMON SOLDIER                   "                            251
+
+THE N.W. VIEW OF THE PROMONTORY OF MOUNT ATHOS _To face Part IV., p._ 327
+
+GREEK SAILOR                          _To face p._ 351
+
+THE MONASTERY OF SIMOPETRA               "                            426
+
+CIRCASSIAN LADY                          "                            429
+
+TURKISH LADY IN THE YASHMAK OR VEIL      "                            434
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
+
+
+A more enlarged account of the Monasteries of the Levant would, I think,
+be interesting for many reasons if the task was undertaken by some one
+much more competent than myself to do justice to so curious a subject.
+In these monasteries resided the early fathers of the Church, and within
+the precincts of their time-hallowed walls were composed those writings
+which have since been looked up to as the rules of Christian life: from
+thence also were promulgated the doctrines of the Heresiarchs, which, in
+the early ages of the Church, were the causes of so much dissension and
+confusion, rancour and persecution, in the disastrous days of the
+decline and fall of the Roman empire.
+
+The monasteries of the East are besides particularly interesting to the
+lovers of the picturesque, from the beautiful situations in which they
+are almost invariably placed. The monastery of Megaspelion, on the coast
+of the Gulf of Corinth, is built in the mouth of an enormous cave. The
+monasteries of Meteora, and some of those on Mount Athos, are remarkable
+for their positions on the tops of inaccessible rocks; many of the
+convents in Syria, the islands of Cyprus, Candia, the Archipelago, and
+the Prince's Islands in the Sea of Marmora, are unrivalled for the
+beauty of the positions in which they stand; many others in Bulgaria,
+Asia Minor, Sinope, and other places on the shores of the Black Sea, are
+most curious monuments of ancient and romantic times. There is one on
+the road to Persia, about one day's journey inland from Trebizond, which
+is built half way up the side of a perpendicular precipice; it is
+ensconced in several fissures of the rock, and various little gardens
+adjoining the buildings display the industry of the monks; these are
+laid out on shelves or terraces wherever the nature of the spot affords
+a ledge of sufficient width to support the soil; the different parts of
+the monastery are approached by stairs and flights of steps cut in the
+face of the precipice, leading from one cranny to another; the whole has
+the appearance of a bas-relief stuck against a wall; this monastery
+partakes of the nature of a large swallow's nest. But it is for their
+architecture that the monasteries of the Levant are more particularly
+deserving of study; for, after the remains of the private houses of the
+Romans at Pompeii, they are the most ancient specimens extant of
+domestic architecture. The refectories, kitchens, and the cells of the
+monks exceed in point of antiquity anything of the kind in Europe. The
+monastery of St. Katherine at Mount Sinai has hardly been altered since
+the sixth century, and still contains ornaments presented to it by the
+Emperor Justinian. The White Monastery and the monastery at Old Cairo,
+both in Egypt, are still more ancient. The monastery of Kuzzul Vank,
+near the sources of the Euphrates, is, I believe, as old as the fifth
+century. The greater number in all the countries where the Greek faith
+prevails, were built before the year 1000. Most monasteries possess
+crosses, candlesticks, and reliquaries, many of splendid workmanship,
+and of the era of the foundation of the buildings which contain them,
+while their mosaics and fresco paintings display the state of the arts
+from the most early periods.
+
+It has struck me as remarkable that the architecture of the churches in
+these most ancient monasteries is hardly ever fine; they are usually
+small, being calculated only for the monks, and not for the reception of
+any other congregation. The Greek churches, even those which are not
+monastic, are far inferior both in size and interest to the Latin
+basilicas of Rome. With the single exception of the church (now mosque)
+of St. Sophia, there is no Byzantine church of any magnitude. The
+student of ecclesiastical antiquities need not extend his architectural
+researches beyond the shores of Italy: there is nothing in the East so
+curious as the church of St. Clemente at Rome, which contains all the
+original fittings of the choir. The churches of St. Ambrogio at Milan,
+of Sta. Maria Trastevere at Rome, the first church dedicated to the
+Blessed Virgin; the church of St. Agnese near Rome, the first in which
+galleries were built over the side aisles for the accommodation of
+women, who, neither in the Eastern nor Western churches, ever mixed with
+the men for many centuries; all these and several others in Italy afford
+more instruction than those of the East--they are larger, more
+magnificent, and in every respect superior to the ecclesiastical
+buildings of the Levant. But the poverty of the Eastern church, and its
+early subjection to Mahometan rulers, while it has kept down the size
+and splendour of the churches, has at the same time been the means of
+preserving the monastic establishments in all the rude originality of
+their ancient forms. In ordinary situations these buildings are of the
+same character: they resemble small villages, built mostly without much
+regard to any symmetrical plan, around a church which is constructed in
+the form of a Greek cross; the roof is covered either with one or five
+domes; all these buildings are surrounded by a high, strong wall, built
+as a fortification to protect the brotherhood within, not without
+reason, even in the present day. I have been quietly dining in a
+monastery, when shouts have been heard, and shots have been fired
+against the stout bulwarks of the outer walls, which, thanks to their
+protection, had but little effect in delaying the transit of the morsel
+between my fingers into the ready gulf provided by nature for its
+reception. The monks of the Greek Church have diminished in number and
+wealth of late years, their monasteries are no longer the schools of
+learning which they used to be; few can read the Hellenic or ancient
+Greek; and the following anecdote will suffice to show the estimation in
+which a conventual library has not unusually been held. A Russian, or I
+do not know whether he was not a French traveller, in the pursuit, as I
+was, of ancient literary treasures, found himself in a great monastery
+in Bulgaria to the north of the town of Cavalla; he had heard that the
+books preserved in this remote building were remarkable for their
+antiquity, and for the subjects on which they treated. His dismay and
+disappointment may be imagined when he was assured by the agoumenos or
+superior of the monastery, that it contained no library whatever, that
+they had nothing but the liturgies and church books, and no palaia
+pragmata or antiquities at all. The poor man had bumped upon a
+pack-saddle over villainous roads for many days for no other object, and
+the library of which he was in search had vanished as the visions of a
+dream. The agoumenos begged his guest to enter with the monks into the
+choir, where the almost continual church service was going on, and there
+he saw the double row of long-bearded holy fathers, shouting away at the
+chorus of κυριε ελεισον, χριστε ελεισον (pronounced Kyre eleizon,
+Christe eleizon), which occurs almost every minute, in the ritual of
+the Greek Church. Each of the monks was standing, to save his bare legs
+from the damp of the marble floor, upon a great folio volume, which had
+been removed from the conventual library and applied to purposes of
+practical utility in the way which I have described. The traveller on
+examining these ponderous tomes found them to be of the greatest value;
+one was in uncial letters, and others were full of illuminations of the
+earliest date; all these he was allowed to carry away in exchange for
+some footstools or hassocks, which he presented in their stead to the
+old monks; they were comfortably covered with ketché or felt, and were
+in many respects more convenient to the inhabitants of the monastery
+than the manuscripts had been, for many of their antique bindings were
+ornamented with bosses and nail heads, which inconvenienced the toes of
+the unsophisticated congregation who stood upon them without shoes for
+so many hours in the day. I must add that the lower halves of the
+manuscripts were imperfect, from the damp of the floor of the church
+having corroded and eat away their vellum leaves, and also that, as the
+story is not my own, I cannot vouch for the truth of it, though, whether
+it is true or not, it elucidates the present state of the literary
+attainments of the Oriental monks. Ignorance and superstition walk hand
+in hand, and the monks of the Eastern churches seem to retain in these
+days all the love for the marvellous which distinguished their Western
+brethren in the middle ages. Miraculous pictures abound, as well as holy
+springs and wells. Relics still perform wonderful cures. I will only as
+an illustration to this statement mention one of the standing objects of
+veneration which may be witnessed any day in the vicinity of the castle
+of the Seven Towers, outside of the walls of Constantinople: there a
+rich monastery stands in a lovely grove of trees, under whose shade
+numerous parties of merry Greeks often pass the day, dividing their time
+between drinking, dancing, and devotion.
+
+The unfortunate Emperor Constantine Paleologus rode out of the city
+alone to reconnoitre the outposts of the Turkish army, which was
+encamped in the immediate vicinity. In passing through a wood he found
+an old man seated by the side of a spring cooking some fish on a
+gridiron for his dinner; the emperor dismounted from his white horse and
+entered into conversation with the other; the old man looked up at the
+stranger in silence, when the emperor inquired whether he had heard
+anything of the movements of the Turkish forces--"Yes," said he, "they
+have this moment entered the city of Constantinople." "I would believe
+what you say," replied the emperor, "if the fish which you are broiling
+would jump off the gridiron into the spring." This, to his amazement,
+the fish immediately did, and, on his turning round, the figure of the
+old man had disappeared. The emperor mounted his horse and rode towards
+the gate of Silivria, where he was encountered by a band of the enemy
+and slain, after a brave resistance, by the hand of an Arab or a Negro.
+
+The broiled fishes still swim about in the water of the spring, the
+sides of which have been lined with white marble, in which are certain
+recesses where they can retire when they do not wish to receive company.
+The only way of turning the attention of these holy fish to the
+respectful presence of their adorers is accomplished by throwing
+something glittering into the water, such as a handful of gold or silver
+coin; gold is the best, copper produces no effect; he that sees one fish
+is lucky, he that sees two or three goes home a happy man; but the
+custom of throwing coins into the spring has become, from its constant
+practice, very troublesome to the good monks, who kindly depute one of
+their community to rake out the money six or seven times a day with a
+scraper at the end of a long pole. The emperor of Russia has sent
+presents to the shrine of Baloukli, so called from the Turkish word
+Balouk, a fish. Some wicked heretics have said that these fishes are
+common perch: either they or the monks must be mistaken, but of whatever
+kind they are, they are looked upon with reverence by the Greeks, and
+have been continually held in the highest honour from the time of the
+siege of Constantinople to the present day.
+
+I have hitherto noticed those monasteries only which are under the
+spiritual jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Constantinople, but those of
+the Copts of Egypt and the Maronites of Syria resemble them in almost
+every particular. As it has never been the custom of the Oriental
+Christians to bury the dead within the precincts of the church, they
+none of them contain sepulchral monuments. The bodies of the Byzantine
+emperors were enclosed in sarcophagi of precious marbles, which were
+usually deposited in chapels erected for the purpose--a custom which has
+been imitated by the sultans of Turkey. Of all these magnificent
+sarcophagi and chapels or mausoleums where the remains of the imperial
+families were deposited, only one remains intact; every one but this has
+been violated, destroyed, or carried away; the ashes of the Cæsars have
+been scattered to the winds. This is now known by the name of the chapel
+of St. Nazario e Celso, at Ravenna: it was built by Galla Placidia, the
+daughter of Theodosius; she died at Rome in 440, but her body was
+removed to Ravenna and deposited in a sarcophagus in this chapel; in the
+same place are two other sarcophagi, one containing the remains of
+Constantius, the second husband of Galla Placidia, and the other holding
+the body of her son Valentinian III. These tombs have never been
+disturbed, and are the only ones which remain intact of the entire line
+of the Cæsars, either of the Eastern or Western empires.
+
+The tombstones or monuments of the Armenians deserve to be mentioned on
+account of their singularity. They are usually oblong pieces of marble
+lying flat upon the ground; on these are sculptured representations of
+the implements of the trade at which the deceased had worked during his
+lifetime; some display the manner in which the Armenian met his death.
+In the Petit Champ des Morts at Pera I counted, I think, five tombstones
+with bas-reliefs of men whose heads had been cut off. In Armenia the
+traveller is often startled by the appearance of a gigantic stone figure
+of a ram, far away from any present habitation: this is the tomb of some
+ancient possessor of flocks and herds whose house and village have
+disappeared, and nothing but his tomb remains to mark the site which
+once was the abode of men.
+
+[Illustration: KOORD, OR NATIVE OF KOORDISTAUN.]
+
+The Armenian monasteries, with the exception of that of Etchmiazin and
+one or two others, are much smaller buildings than those of the Greeks;
+they are constructed after the same model, however, being surrounded
+with a high blank wall. Their churches are seldom surmounted by a dome,
+but are usually in the form of a small barn, with a high pitched roof,
+built like the walls of large squared stones. At one end of the church
+is a small door, and at the other end a semicircular apsis; the windows
+are small apertures like loop-holes. These buildings, though of
+very small size, have an imposing appearance from their air of
+massive strength. The cells of the Armenian monks look into the
+courtyard, which is a remarkable fact in that country, where the rest of
+the inhabitants dwell in burrows underground like rabbits, and keep
+themselves alive during the long winters of their rigorous climate by
+the warmth proceeding from the cattle with whom they live, for fire is
+dear in a land too cold for trees to grow. The monasteries of the
+various sects of Christians who inhabit the mountains of Koordistaun are
+very numerous, and all more or less alike. Perched on the tops of crags,
+in these wild regions are to be seen the monastic fastnesses of the
+Chaldeans, who of late have been known by the name of Nestorians, the
+seat of whose patriarchate is at Julamerk. They have now been almost
+exterminated by Beder Khan Bey, a Koordish chief, in revenge for the
+cattle which they were alleged to have stolen from the Koordish villages
+in their vicinity. The Jacobites, the Sabæans, and the Christians of St.
+John, who inhabit the banks of the Euphrates in the districts of the
+ancient Susiana, all have fortified monasteries which are mostly of
+great antiquity. From Mount Ararat to Bagdat, the different sects of
+Christians still retain the faith of the Redeemer, whom they have
+worshipped according to their various forms, some of them for more than
+fifteen hundred years; the plague, the famine, and the sword have
+passed over them and left them still unscathed, and there is little
+doubt but that they will maintain the position which they have held so
+long till the now not far distant period arrives when the conquered
+empire of the Greeks will again be brought under the dominion of a
+Christian emperor.
+
+
+
+
+MONASTERIES OF THE LEVANT.
+
+PART I.
+
+EGYPT IN 1833.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+     Navarino--The Wrecks of the Turkish and Egyptian
+     Fleets--Alexandria--An Arab Pilot--Intense Heat--Scene from the
+     Hotel Windows--The Water-Carriers--A Procession--A Bridal
+     Party--Violent mode of clearing the Road--Submissive Behaviour of
+     the People--Astonishing Number of Donkeys--Bedouin Arabs; their
+     wild and savage appearance--Early Hours--Visit to the Pasha's Prime
+     Minister, Boghos Bey; hospitable reception--Kawasses and Chaoushes;
+     their functions and powers--The Yassakjis--The Minister's Audience
+     Chamber--Walmas; anecdote of his saving the life of Boghos Bey.
+
+
+It was towards the end of July, 1833, that I took a passage from Malta
+to Alexandria in a merchant-vessel called the _Fortuna_; for in those
+days there were no steam-packets traversing every sea, with almost the
+same rapidity and accuracy as railway carriages on shore. We touched on
+our way at Navarino to sell some potatoes to the splendidly-dressed, and
+half-starved population of the Morea, numbers of whom we found lounging
+about in a temporary wooden bazaar, where there was nothing to sell. In
+various parts of the harbour the wrecks of the Turkish and Egyptian
+ships of war, stripped of their outer coverings, and looking like the
+gigantic skeletons of antediluvian animals, gave awful evidence of the
+destruction which had taken place not very long before in the battle
+between the Christian and Mahomedan fleets in this calm, land-locked
+harbour.
+
+On the 31st we found ourselves approaching the castle of Alexandria, and
+were soon hailed by some people in a curious-looking pilot-boat with a
+lateen sail. The pilot was an old man with a turban and a long grey
+beard, and sat cross-legged in the stern of his boat. We looked at him
+with vast interest, as the first live specimen we had seen of an Arab
+sailor. He was just the sort of man that I imagine Sindbad the Sailor
+must have been.
+
+Having by his directions been steered safely into the harbour, we cast
+anchor not far from the shore, a naked, dusty plain, which the blazing
+sun seemed to dare any one to cross, on pain of being shrivelled up
+immediately. The intensity of the heat was tremendous: the tar melted in
+the seams of the deck: we could scarcely bear it even when we were under
+the awning. Malta was hot enough, but the temperature there was cool in
+comparison to the fiery furnace in which we were at present grilling.
+However, there was no help for it; so, having got our luggage on shore,
+we sweltered through the streets to an inn called the Tre Anchore--the
+only hotel in Africa, I believe, in those days. It was a dismal little
+place, frequented by the captains of merchant-vessels, who, not being
+hot enough already, raised the temperature of their blood by drinking
+brandy-and-water, arrack, and other combustibles, in a dark, oven-like
+room below stairs.
+
+We took possession of all the rooms upstairs, of which the principal one
+was long and narrow, with two windows at the end, opening on to a
+covered balcony or verandah: this overlooked the principal street and
+the bazaar. Here my companion and I soon stationed ourselves and watched
+the novel and curious scene below; and strange indeed to the eye of an
+European, when for the first time he enters an Oriental city, is all he
+sees around him. The picturesque dresses, the buildings, the palm-trees,
+the camels, the people of various nations, with their long beards, their
+arms, and turbans, all unite to form a picture which is indelibly fixed
+in the memory. Things which have since become perfectly familiar to us
+were then utterly incomprehensible, and we had no one to explain them to
+us, for the one waiter of the poor inn, who was darting about in his
+shirt-sleeves after the manner of all waiters, never extended his
+answers to our questions beyond "Si, Signore," so we got but little
+information from him; however, we did not make use of our eyes the less
+for that.
+
+[Illustration: NEGRESS WAITING TO BE SOLD IN THE SLAVE BAZAAR, CAIRO]
+
+Among the first things we noticed, was the number of half-naked men who
+went running about, each with something like a dead pig under his arm,
+shouting out "Mother! mother!"[1] with a doleful voice. These were the
+sakis or water-carriers, with their goat-skins of the precious element,
+a bright brass cupful of which they sell for a small coin to the thirsty
+passengers. An old man with a fan in his hand made of a palm-branch, who
+was crumpled up in the corner of a sort of booth among a heap of dried
+figs, raisins, and dates, just opposite our window, was an object of
+much speculation to us how he got in, and how he would ever manage to
+get out of the niche into which he was so closely wedged. He was the
+merchant, as the Arabian Nights would call him, or the shopkeeper as we
+should say, who sat there cross-legged among his wares waiting patiently
+for a customer, and keeping off the flies in the meanwhile, as in due
+time we discovered that all merchants did in all countries of the East.
+Soon there came slowly by, a long procession of men on horseback with
+golden bridles and velvet trappings, and women muffled up in black silk
+wrappers; how they could bear them, hot as it was, astonished us. These
+ladies sat upon a pile of cushions placed so high above the backs of the
+donkeys on which they rode that their feet rested on the animal's
+shoulders. Each donkey was led by one man, while another walked by its
+side with his hand upon the crupper. With the ladies were two little
+boys covered with diamonds, mounted on huge fat horses, and
+ensconced in high-backed Mameluke saddles made of silver gilt. These
+boys we afterwards found out were being conducted in state to a house of
+their relations, where the rite of circumcision was to be performed. Our
+attention was next called to something like a four-post bed, with pink
+gauze curtains, which advanced with dignified slowness, preceded by a
+band of musicians, who raised a dire and fearful discord by the aid of
+various windy engines. This was a canopy, the four poles of which were
+supported by men, who held it over the heads of a bride and her two
+bridesmaids or friends, who walked on each side of her. The bride was
+not veiled in the usual way, as her friends were, but was muffled up in
+Cashmere shawls from head to foot. Something there was on the top of her
+head which gleamed like gold or jewels, but the rest of her person was
+so effectually wrapped up and concealed that no one could tell whether
+she was pretty or ugly, fat or thin, old or young; and although we gave
+her credit for all the charms which should adorn a bride, we rejoiced
+when the villainous band of music which accompanied her turned round a
+corner and went out of hearing.
+
+Some miserable-looking black slaves caught our attention, clothed each
+in a piece of Isabel-coloured canvas and led by a well-dressed man, who
+had probably just bought them. Then a great personage came by on
+horseback with a number of mounted attendants and some men on foot, who
+cleared the way before him, and struck everybody on the head with their
+sticks who did not get out of the way fast enough. These blows were
+dealt all round in the most unceremonious manner; but what appeared to
+us extraordinary was, that all these beaten people did not seem to care
+for being beat. They looked neither angry nor affronted, but only
+grinned and rubbed their shoulders, and moved on one side to let the
+train of the great man pass by. Now if this were done in London, what a
+ferment would it create! what speeches would be made about tyranny and
+oppression! what a capital thing some high-minded and independent
+patriot would make of it! how he would call a meeting to defend the
+rights of the subject! and how he would get his admirers to vote him a
+piece of plate for his noble and glorious exertions! Here nobody minded
+the thing; they took no heed of the indignity; and I verily believe my
+friend and I, who were safe up at the window, were the only persons in
+the place who felt any annoyance.
+
+The prodigious multitude of donkeys formed another strange feature in
+the scene. There were hundreds of them, carrying all sorts of things in
+panniers; and some of the smallest were ridden by men so tall that they
+were obliged to hold up their legs that their feet might not touch the
+ground. Donkeys, in short, are the carts of Egypt and the
+hackney-coaches of Alexandria.
+
+[Illustration: BEDOUIN ARAB.]
+
+In addition to the donkeys long strings of ungainly-looking camels were
+continually passing, generally preceded by a donkey, and accompanied by
+swarthy men clad in a short shirt with a red and yellow handkerchief
+tied in a peculiar way over their heads, and wearing sandals; these
+savage-looking people were Bedouins, or Arabs of the desert. A very
+truculent set they seemed to be, and all of them were armed with a long
+crooked knife and a pistol or two, stuck in a red leathern girdle. They
+were thin, gaunt, and dirty, and strode along looking fierce and
+independent. There was something very striking in the appearance of
+these untamed Arabs: I had never pictured to myself that anything so
+like a wild beast could exist in human form. The motions of their
+half-naked bodies were singularly free and light, and they looked as if
+they could climb, and run, and leap over anything. The appearance of
+many of the older Arabs, with their long white beard and their ample
+cloak of camel's hair, called an abba, is majestic and venerable. It was
+the first time that I had seen these "Children of the Desert," and the
+quickness of their eyes, their apparent freedom from all restraint, and
+their disregard of any conventional manners, struck me forcibly. An
+English gentleman in a round hat and a tight neck-handkerchief and
+boots, with white gloves and a little cane in his hand, was a style of
+man so utterly and entirely unlike a Bedouin Arab that I could hardly
+conceive the possibility of their being only different species of the
+same animal.
+
+After we had dined, being tired with the heat and the trouble we had had
+in getting our luggage out of the ship, I resolved to retire to bed at
+an early hour, and on going to the window to have another look at the
+crowd, I was surprised to find that there was scarcely anybody left in
+the streets, for these primitive people all go to bed when it gets dark,
+as the birds do; and except a few persons walking home with paper
+lanterns in their hands, the place seemed almost entirely deserted.
+
+The next morning, mounted on donkeys, we shambled across half the city
+to the residence of Boghos Bey, the Armenian prime minister of Mohammed
+Ali Pasha; we were received with great kindness and civility, and as at
+this time there had been but very few European travellers in Egypt, we
+were treated with distinguished hospitality. The Bey said that although
+the Pasha was then in Upper Egypt, he would take care that we should
+have every facility in seeing all the objects of interest, and that he
+would write to Habeeb Effendi, the Governor of Cairo, to acquaint him of
+our arrival, and direct him to let us have the use of the Pasha's
+horses, that kawasses should attend us, and that the Pasha would give us
+a firman, which would ensure our being well treated throughout the whole
+of his dominions.
+
+As a kawass is a person mentioned by all Oriental travellers, it may be
+as well to state that he is a sort of armed servant or body-guard
+belonging to the government; he bears as his badge of office a thick
+cane about four feet long, with a large silver head, with which
+instrument he occasionally enforces his commands and supports his
+authority as well as his person. Ambassadors, consuls, and occasionally
+travellers, are attended by kawasses. Their presence shows that the
+person they accompany is protected by the State, and their number
+indicates his dignity and rank. Formerly these kawasses were splendidly
+attired in embroidered dresses, and their arms and the accoutrements of
+their horses were of silver gilt: the ambassador at Constantinople has,
+I think, six of these attendants. Of late years their picturesque
+costume has been changed to a uniform frock-coat of European make, of a
+whity-brown colour.
+
+[Illustration: Silver head of staff.]
+
+There is a higher grade of officer of the same description, who is only
+to be met with at Court, and whose functions are nearly the same as
+those of a chamberlain with us. He is called a chaoush. His official
+staff is surmounted by a silver head, formed like a Greek bishop's
+staff, from the two horns of which several little round bells are
+suspended by a silver chain. The chaoush is a personage of great
+authority in certain things; he is a kind of living firman, before whom
+every one makes way. As I was desirous of seeing the shrine of the heads
+of Hassan and Hussein in the mosque of Hassan En, a place of peculiar
+sanctity at Cairo, into which no Christian had been admitted, the Pasha
+sent a chaoush with me, who concealed the head of his staff in his
+clothes, to be ready, in case it had been discovered that I was not a
+Mahomedan, to protect me from the fury of the devotees, who would
+probably have torn to pieces any unbeliever who intruded into the temple
+of the sons of Ali.
+
+Besides these two officers, the chaoush and kawass, there is another
+attendant upon public men, who is of inferior rank, and is called a
+yassakji, or forbidder; he looks like a dirty kawass, and has a stick,
+but without the silver knob. He is generally employed to carry messages,
+and push people out of the way, to make a passage for you through a
+crowd; but this kind of functionary is more frequently seen at
+Constantinople and the northern parts of Turkey than in Egypt.
+
+We found Boghos Bey in a large upper room, seated on a divan with two or
+three persons to whom he was speaking, while the lower end of the room
+was occupied by a crowd of chaoushes, kawasses, and hangers-on of all
+descriptions. We were served with coffee, pipes, and sherbet, and were
+entertained during the pauses of the conversation by the ticking and
+chiming of half a dozen clocks which stood about the room, some on the
+floor, some on the side-tables, and some stuck on brackets against the
+wall.
+
+One of the persons seated near the prime minister was a shrewd-looking
+man with one eye, of whom I was afterwards told the following anecdote.
+His name was Walmas; he had been an Armenian merchant, and was an old
+acquaintance of Mohammed Ali and of Boghos, before they had either of
+them risen to their present importance. Soon after the massacre of the
+Mamelukes, Mohammed Ali desired Boghos to procure him a large sum of
+money by a certain day, which Boghos declared was impossible at so short
+a notice. The Pasha, angry at being thwarted, swore that if he had not
+the money by the day he had named, he would have Boghos drowned in the
+Nile. The affrighted minister made every effort to collect the requisite
+sum, but when the day arrived much was wanting to complete it. Boghos
+stood before the Pasha, who immediately exclaimed, "Well! where is the
+money?" "Sir," replied Boghos, "I have not been able to get it all! I
+have procured all this, but, though I strained every nerve, and took
+every measure in my power, it was impossible to obtain the remainder."
+"What," exclaimed the Pasha, "you dog, have you not obeyed my commands?
+What is the use of a minister who cannot produce all the money wanted by
+his sovereign, at however short a notice? Here, put this unbeliever in
+a sack, and fling him into the Nile." This scene occurred in the citadel
+at Cairo; and an officer and some men immediately put him into a sack,
+threw it across a donkey, and proceeded to the Nile. As they were
+passing through the city, they were met by Walmas, who was attended by
+several servants, and who, seeing something moving in the sack which was
+laid across the donkey, asked the guards what they had got there. "Oh!"
+said the officer, "we have got Boghos, the Armenian, and we are going to
+throw him into the Nile, by his Highness the Pasha's order." "What has
+he done?" asked Walmas. "What do we know?" replied the officer;
+"something about money, I believe: no great thing, but his Highness has
+been in a bad humour lately. He will be sorry for it afterwards.
+However, we have our orders, and, therefore, please God, we are going to
+pitch him into the Nile." Walmas determined to rescue his old friend,
+and, assisted by his servants, immediately attacked the guard, who made
+little more than a show of resistance. Boghos was carried off, and
+concealed in a safe place, and the guards returned to the citadel and
+reported that they had pitched Boghos into the Nile, where he had sunk,
+as all should do who disobeyed the commands of his Highness. Some time
+afterwards, the Pasha, overcome by financial difficulties, was heard to
+say that he wished Boghos was still alive. Walmas, who was present,
+after some preliminary conversation (for the ground was rather
+dangerous), said that if his own pardon was insured, he could mention
+something respecting Boghos which he was sure would be agreeable to his
+Highness: and at last he owned that he had rescued him from the guards
+and had kept him concealed in his house in hopes of being allowed to
+restore so valuable a servant to his master. The Pasha was delighted at
+the news, instantly reinstated Boghos in all his former honours, and
+Walmas himself stood higher than ever in his favour; but the guards were
+executed for disobedience. Ever since that time Boghos Bey has continued
+to be the principal minister and most confidential adviser of Mohammed
+Ali Pasha.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+     Rapacity of the Dragomans--The Mahmoudieh Canal--The Nile at
+     Atfeh--The muddy Waters of the Nile--Richness of the Soil--Accident
+     to the Boatmen--Night Sailing--A Collision--A Vessel run
+     down--Escape of the Crew--Solemn Investigation--Final
+     Judgment--Curious Mode of Fishing--Tameness of the Birds--Jewish
+     Malefactors--Moving Pillar of Sand--Arrival at Cairo--Hospitable
+     Reception by the Consul-General.
+
+
+So long as there were no hotels in Egypt, the process of fleecing the
+unwary traveller was conducted on different principles from those
+followed in Europe. As he seldom understands the language, he requires
+an interpreter, or dragoman, who, as a matter of course, manages all his
+pecuniary affairs. The newly-arrived European eats and drinks whatever
+his dragoman chooses to give him; sees through his dragoman's eyes;
+hears through his ears; and, although he thinks himself master, is, in
+fact, only a part of the property of this Eastern servant, to be used by
+him as he thinks fit, and turned to the best account like any other real
+or personal estate.
+
+On our landing at Alexandria, my friend and I found ourselves in the
+same predicament as our predecessors, and straightway fell into the
+hands of these Philistines, two of whom we hired as interpreters. They
+were also to act as ciceroni, and were warranted to know all about the
+antiquities, and everything else in Egypt; they were to buy everything
+we wanted, to spend our money, and to allow no one to cheat us except
+themselves. One of these worthies was sent to engage a boat, to carry us
+down the Mahmoudieh Canal to Atfeh, where the canal is separated from
+the river by flood-gates, in consequence of which impediment we could
+not proceed in the same boat, but had to hire a larger one to take us on
+to Cairo.
+
+The banks of the canal being high, we had no view of the country as we
+passed along; but on various occasions when I ascended to the top of the
+bank, while the men who towed the boat rested from their labours, I saw
+nothing but great sandy flats interspersed with large pools of stagnant,
+muddy water. This prospect not being very charming, we were glad to
+arrive the next day on the shores of the Father of Rivers, whose swollen
+stream, although at Atfeh not more than half a mile in width, rolled by
+towards the north in eddies and whirlpools of smooth muddy water, in
+colour closely resembling a sea of mutton-broth.
+
+In my enthusiasm on arriving on the margin of this venerable river, I
+knelt down to drink some of it, and was disappointed in finding it by no
+means so good as I had always been told it was. On complaining of its
+muddy taste, I found that no one drank the water of the Nile till it had
+stood a day or two in a large earthen jar, the inside of which is
+rubbed with a paste of bitter almonds. This causes all impurities to be
+precipitated, and the water, thus treated, becomes the lightest,
+clearest, and most excellent in the world. At Atfeh, after a prodigious
+uproar between the men of our two boats, each set claiming to be paid
+for transporting the luggage, we set sail upon the Nile, and after
+proceeding a short distance, we stopped at a village, or small town, to
+buy some fruit. Here the surrounding country, a flat alluvial plain, was
+richly cultivated. Water-melons, corn, and all manner of green herbs
+flourished luxuriantly; everything looked delightfully fresh and green;
+flocks of pigeons were flying about; and multitudes of white spoonbills
+and other strange birds were stalking among the herbage, and rising
+around us in every direction. The fertility of the land appeared
+prodigious, and exceeded anything I had seen before. Numberless boats
+were passing on the river, and the general aspect of the scene betokened
+the wealth and plenty which would reward the toils of the agriculturist
+under any settled form of government. We returned to our boat loaded
+with fruit, among which were the Egyptian fig, the prickly pear, dates,
+limes, and melons of kinds that were new to us.
+
+Whilst we were discussing the merits of these refreshing productions, a
+board, which had been fastened on the outside of the vessel for four or
+five men to stand on, as they pushed the boat with poles through the
+shallow water, suddenly gave way, and the men fell into the river: they
+could, however, all swim like water-rats, and were soon on board again;
+when, putting out into the middle of the stream, we set two huge
+triangular lateen sails on our low masts, which raked forwards instead
+of backwards, and by the help of the wind made our way slowly towards
+the south. We slept in a small cabin in the stern of our vessel; this
+had a flat top, and formed the resting-place of the steersman, the
+captain of the ship, and our servants, who all lay down together on some
+carpets; the sailors slept upon the deck. We sailed on steadily all
+night; the stars were wonderfully bright; and I looked out upon the
+broad river and the flat silent shores, diversified here and there by a
+black-looking village of mud huts, surrounded by a grove of palms,
+whence the distant baying of the dogs was brought down upon the wind.
+Sometimes there was the cry of a wild bird, but soon again the only
+sound was the gentle ripple of the water against the sides of our boat.
+If the steersman was not asleep, every one else was; but still we glided
+on, and nothing occurred to disturb our repose, till the blazing light
+of the morning sun recalled us to activity, and all the bustling
+preparations for breakfast.
+
+We had sailed on for some time after this important event, and I was
+quietly reading in the shade of the cabin, when I was thrown backwards
+by the sudden stopping of the vessel, which struck against something
+with prodigious force, and screams of distress arose from the water all
+around us. On rushing upon deck I found that we had run down another
+boat, which had sunk so instantly that nothing was to be seen of it
+except the top of the mast, whose red flag was fluttering just above
+water, and to which two women were clinging. A few yards astern seven or
+eight men were swimming towards the shore, and our steersman having in
+his alarm left the rudder to its own devices, our great sails were
+swinging and flapping over our heads. There was a cry that our bows were
+stove in, and we were sinking; but, fortunately, before this could
+happen, the stream had carried us ashore, where we stuck in the mud on a
+shoal under a high bank, up which we all soon scrambled, glad to be on
+terra firma. The country people came running down to satisfy their
+curiosity, and we procured a small boat, which immediately rowed off to
+rescue the women who were still clinging to the mast-head of the sunken
+vessel, which was one of the kind called a djerm, and was laden with
+thirty tons of corn, besides other goods. No one, luckily, was drowned,
+though the loss was a serious one to the owners, for there was no chance
+of recovering either the vessel or the cargo. Whilst we were looking,
+the red flag to which the women had been clinging toppled over sideways,
+which completed the entire disappearance of the unfortunate djerm.
+
+Our reis, or captain, now returned to the roof of the cabin, where he
+sat down upon a mat, and lighting his pipe, smoked away steadily without
+saying a word, while the wet and dripping sailors, as well as the ladies
+belonging to the shipwrecked vessel, surrounded him, screaming,
+vociferating, and shouting all manner of invectives into his ears; in
+which employment they were effectively joined by a number of half-naked
+Arabs who had been cultivating the fields hard by. To all this they got
+no answer, beyond an occasional ejaculation of "God is great, and
+Mohammed is the prophet of God." His pipe was out before the clamour of
+the crowd had abated, and then, all of a sudden, he got up and with two
+or three others embarked in the little boat for a neighbouring village,
+to report the accident to the sheick, who, we were told, would return
+with him and inquire into the circumstances of the case.
+
+In about three hours the boat returned with the local authorities, two
+old villagers, in long blue shirts and dirty turbans, who took their
+seat upon a mat on the bank and smoked away in a serious manner for some
+time. Our captain made no more reply to the fresh accusations of the
+reassembled multitude than he had done before; but lit another pipe, and
+asserted that God was great. At last the two elders made signs that they
+intended to speak; and silence being obtained, they, with all due
+solemnity, declared that they agreed with the captain that God was
+great, and that undoubtedly Mohammed was the prophet of God. All parties
+having come to this conclusion, it appeared that there was nothing more
+to be said, and we returned to our boat, which the sailors, with the
+help of a rough carpenter, had patched up sufficiently to allow us to
+sail for a village on the other side of the river.
+
+During the time that we were remaining on the bank I was amused by
+watching the manœuvres of some boys, who succeeded in catching a
+quantity of small fish in a very original way. They rolled together a
+great quantity of tangled weeds and long grass, with one end of which
+they swam out into the Nile, and bringing it back towards the shore,
+numerous unsuspecting fish were entangled in the mass of weeds, and were
+picked out and thrown on the bank by the young fishermen before they had
+time to get out of the scrape. In this way the boys secured a very
+respectable heap of small fry.
+
+We arrived safely at the village, where we stayed the night; but the
+next morning it appeared that the bows of our vessel were so much
+damaged that she could not be repaired under a delay of some days.
+Indeed, it appeared that we had been fortunate in accomplishing our
+passage across the river, for if we had foundered midway, not being able
+to swim like the amphibious Egyptians, we should probably have been
+drowned. It was, however, a relief to me to think that there were no
+crocodiles in this part of the Nile.
+
+The birds at this place appeared to be remarkably tame: some gulls, or
+waterfowl, hardly troubled themselves to move out of the way when a boat
+passed them; while those in the fields went on searching among the crops
+for insects close to the labourers, and without any of the alarm shown
+by birds in England.
+
+While we were dawdling about in the neighbourhood of the village, one of
+the servants, an old Maltese, discovered a boat with ten or twelve oars,
+lying in the vicinity. It belonged to the government, and was conveying
+two malefactors to Cairo under the guardianship of a kawass, who on
+learning our mishap gave us a passage in his boat, and to our great joy
+we bid adieu to our silent captain, and were soon rowing at a great
+rate, in a fine new canjah, on the way to Cairo. The two prisoners on
+board were Jews: one was taken up for cheating, and the other for using
+false weights. They were fastened together by the neck, with a chain
+about five feet long. One of the two was very restless; they said he had
+a good chance of being hanged; and he was always pulling the other
+unfortunate Hebrew about with him by the chain, in a manner which
+excited the mirth of the sailors, though it must have been anything but
+amusing to the person most concerned.
+
+The next day there was a hot wind, and the thermometer stood at 98° in
+the shade. The kawass called our attention to a pillar of sand moving
+through the air in the desert to the south-east; it had an extraordinary
+appearance, and its effect upon a party travelling over those burning
+plains would have been terrific. It was evidently caused by a whirlwind,
+and men and camels are sometimes suffocated and overwhelmed when they
+are met by these columns of dry, heated sand, which stalk through the
+deserts like the evil genii of the storm. I have seen them in other
+countries, more particularly in Armenia; but this, which I saw on my
+first journey up the Nile, was the only moving pillar which I met with
+in Egypt or in any of the surrounding deserts. We passed two men fishing
+from a small triangular raft, composed of palm-branches fastened on the
+tops of a number of earthen vases. This raft had a remarkably light
+appearance; it seemed only just to touch the surface of the water, but
+was evidently badly calculated for such rude encounters as the one which
+we had lately experienced. Soon afterwards the tops of the great
+Pyramids of Giseh caught our admiring gaze, and in the morning of the
+12th of August we landed at Boulac, from which a ride of half an hour on
+donkeys brought our party to the hospitable mansion of the
+Consul-General, who was good enough to receive us in his house until we
+could procure quarters for ourselves.
+
+Having arrived at Cairo, a short account of the history of the city may
+be interesting to some readers. In the sixth and seventh centuries of
+our era this part of Egypt was inhabited principally by Coptic
+Christians, whose chief occupation consisted in quarrelling among
+themselves on polemical points of divinity and ascetic rule. The deserts
+of Nitria and the shores of the Red Sea were peopled with swarms of
+monks, some living together in monasteries, some in lavras, or monastic
+villages, and multitudes hiding their sanctity in dens and caves, where
+they passed their lives in abstract meditation. In the year 638 the
+Arabian general Amer ebn el As, with four hundred Arabs (see Wilkinson),
+advanced to the confines of Egypt, and after thirty days' siege took
+possession of Pelusium, which had been the barrier of the country on the
+Syrian side from the earliest periods of the Egyptian monarchy: he
+advanced without opposition to the city of Babylon, which occupied the
+site of Masr el Ateekeh, or Old Cairo, on the Nile; but the Roman
+station, which is now a Coptic monastery, containing a chamber said to
+have been occupied by the blessed Virgin, was so strong a fortress that
+the invaders were unable to effect an entrance in a siege of seven
+months. After this, a reinforcement of four hundred men arriving at
+their camp, their courage revived, and the castle of Babylon was taken
+by escalade. On the site of the Arabian encampment at Fostat, Amer
+founded the first mosque built on Egyptian soil. The town of Babylon
+was connected with the island of Rhoda by a bridge of boats, by which a
+communication was kept up with the city of Memphis, on the other side of
+the Nile. The Copts, whose religious fanaticism occasioned them to hate
+their masters, the Greeks of the Eastern Empire, more than the
+Mahomedans, welcomed the moment which promised to free them from their
+religious adversaries; and the traitor John Mecaukes, governor of
+Memphis, persuaded them to conclude a treaty with the invaders, by which
+it was stipulated that two dinars of gold should be paid for every
+Christian above sixteen years of age, with the exception of old men,
+women, and monks. From this time Fostat became the Arabian capital of
+Egypt. In the year 879 Sultan Tayloon, or Tooloon, built himself a
+palace, to which he added several residences or barracks for his guards,
+and the great mosque, which still exists, with pointed arches, between
+Fostat and the present citadel of Cairo. It was not, however, till the
+year 969 that Goher, the general of El Moez, Sultan of Kairoan, near
+Tunis, having invaded Egypt, and completely subdued the country, founded
+a new city near the citadel of Qattaeea, which acquired the name of El
+Kahira from the following circumstance. The architect having made his
+arrangements for laying the first stone of the new wall, waited for the
+fortunate moment, which was to be shown by the astrologers pulling a
+cord, extending to a considerable distance from the spot. A certain
+crow, however, who had not been taken into the council of the wise men,
+perched upon the cord, which was shaken by his weight, and the architect
+supposing that the appointed signal had been given, commenced his work
+accordingly. From this unlucky omen, and the vexation felt by those
+concerned, the epithet of Kahira ("the vexatious" or "unlucky") was
+added to the name of the city, Masr el Kahira meaning "the unlucky (city
+of) Egypt." Kahira in the Italian pronunciation has been softened into
+Cairo, by which name this famous city has been known for many centuries
+in Europe, though in the East it is usually called Masr only. From this
+time the Fatemite caliphs of Africa, who brought the bones of their
+ancestors with them from Kairoan, reigned for ten generations over the
+land of Egypt. The third in this succession was the Caliph Hakem, who
+built a mosque near the Bab el Nassr, and who was the founder of the
+sect of the Druses, and, as some say, of the Assassins. In the year 1171
+the famous Saladin usurped the throne from the last of the race of
+Fatema. His descendant, Moosa el Ashref, was deposed in his turn, in
+1250; from which time till the year 1543 Cairo was governed by the
+curious succession of Mameluke kings, who were mostly Circassian slaves
+brought up at the court of their predecessors, and arriving at the
+supreme rule of Egypt by election or intrigue. Toman Bey, the last of
+the Mameluke kings, was defeated by Selim, Emperor of the Turks, and
+hanged at Cairo, at the Bab Zooaley. But the aristocracy of the
+Mamelukes, as it may be called, still remained; and various beys became
+governors of Egypt under the Turkish sway, till they were all destroyed
+at one blow by Mohammed Ali Pasha, the now all but independent sovereign
+of Egypt.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+     National Topics of Conversation--The Rising of the Nile; evil
+     effects of its rising too high; still worse consequences of a
+     deficiency of its waters--The Nilometer--Universal Alarm in August,
+     1833--The Nile at length rises to the desired Height--Ceremony of
+     cutting the Embankment--The Canal of the Khalidj--Immense
+     Assemblage of People--The State Tent--Arrival of Habeeb
+     Effendi--Splendid Dresses of the Officers--Exertions of the Arab
+     Workmen--Their Scramble for Paras--Admission of the Water--Its
+     sudden Irruption--Excitement of the Ladies--Picturesque Effect of
+     large Assemblies in the East.
+
+
+In England every one talks about the weather, and all conversation is
+opened by exclamations against the heat or the cold, the rain or the
+drought; but in Egypt, during one part of the year at least, the rise of
+the Nile forms the general topic of conversation. Sometimes the ascent
+of the water is unusually rapid, and then nothing is talked of but
+inundations; for if the river overflows too much, whole villages are
+washed away; and as they are for the most part built of sunburned bricks
+and mud, they are completely annihilated; and when the waters subside,
+all the boundary marks are obliterated, the course of canals is altered,
+and mounds and embankments are washed away. On these occasions the
+smaller landholders have great difficulty in recovering their property;
+for few of them know how far their fields extend in one direction or
+the other, unless a tree, a stone, or something else remains to mark
+the separation of one man's flat piece of mud from that of his
+neighbour.
+
+But the more frequent and the far more dreaded calamity is the
+deficiency of water. This was the case in 1833, and we heard nothing
+else talked of. "Has it risen much to-day?" inquires one.--"Yes, it has
+risen half a pic since the morning." "What! no more? In the name of the
+Prophet! what will become of the cotton?"--"Yes; and the doura will be
+burnt up to a certainty if we do not get four pics more." In short, the
+Nile has it all its own way; everything depends on the manner in which
+it chooses to behave, and El Bahar (the river) is in everybody's mouth
+from morning till night. Criers go about the city several times a day
+during the period of the rising, who proclaim the exact height to which
+the water has arrived, and the precise number of pics which are
+submerged on the Nilometer.
+
+This Nilometer is an ancient octagon pillar of red stone in the island
+of Rhoda, on the sides of which graduated scales are engraved. It stands
+in the centre of a cistern, about twenty-five feet square, and more than
+that in depth. A stone staircase leads down to the bottom, and the side
+walls are ornamented with Cufic inscriptions beautifully cut. Of this
+antique column I have seen more than most people; for on the 28th of
+August, 1833, the water was so low that there was the greatest
+apprehension of a total failure of the crops, and of the consequent
+famine. At that time nine feet more water was wanted to ensure an
+average crop; much of the Indian corn had already failed; and from the
+Pasha in his palace to the poorest fellah in his mud hovel, all were in
+consternation; for in this country, where it never rains, everything
+depends on irrigation,--the revenues of the state, the food of the
+country, and the life or death of the bulk of the population.
+
+At length the Nile rose to the desired height; and the 6th of September
+was fixed for the ceremony of cutting the embankment which keeps back
+the water from entering into the canal of the Khalidj. This canal joins
+the Nile near the great tower which forms the end of the aqueduct built
+by Saladin, and through it the water is conveyed for the irrigation of
+Cairo and its vicinity. One peculiarity of this city is, that several of
+its principal squares or open spaces are flooded during the inundation;
+and, in consequence of this, are called lakes, such as Birket el Fil
+(the Lake of the Elephant), Birket el Esbekieh, &c. Many of the
+principal houses are built upon the banks of the Khalidj canal, which
+passes through the centre of the town, and which now had the appearance
+of a dusty, sunken lane; and the annual admission of the water into its
+thirsty bed is an event looked forward to as a public holiday by all
+classes. Accordingly, early in the morning, men, women, and children
+sallied forth to the borders of the Nile, and it seemed as if no one
+would be left in the city. The worthy citizens of Cairo, on horses,
+mules, donkeys, and on foot, were seen streaming out of the gates, and
+making their way in the cool of the morning, all hoping to obtain places
+from whence they might catch a glimpse of the cutting of the embankment.
+
+We mounted the horses which the Pasha's grooms brought to our door. They
+were splendidly caparisoned with red velvet and gold; horses were also
+supplied for all our servants; and we wended our way through happy and
+excited crowds to a magnificent tent which had been erected for the
+accommodation of the grandees, on a sort of ancient stone quay
+immediately over the embankment. We passed through the lines of soldiers
+who kept the ground in the vicinity of the tent, around which was
+standing a numerous party of officers in their gala uniforms of red and
+gold.
+
+On entering the tent we found the Cadi; the son of the sheriff of Mecca,
+who I believe was kept as a sort of hostage for the good behaviour of
+his father, the Defterdar, or treasurer, and several other high
+personages, seated on two carpets, one on each side of a splendid velvet
+divan, which extended along that side of the tent which was nearest to
+the river, and which was open. Below the tent was the bank which was to
+be cut through, with the water of the Nile almost overflowing its brink
+on the one side, and the deep dry bed of the canal upon the other; a
+number of half-naked Arabs were working with spades and pick-axes to
+undermine this bank.
+
+Coffee and sherbet were presented to us while we awaited the arrival of
+Habeeb Effendi, who was to superintend the ceremony in the absence of
+the Pasha. No one sat upon the divan which was reserved for the
+accommodation of the great man, who was _vice_-viceroy on this occasion.
+I sat on the carpet by the son of the sheriff of Mecca, who was dressed
+in the green robes worn by the descendants of the Prophet. We looked at
+each other with some curiosity, and he carefully gathered up the edge of
+his sleeve, that it might not be polluted by the touch of such a heathen
+dog as he considered me to be.
+
+About 9 A.M. the firing of cannon and volleys of musketry, with the
+discordant noise of several military bands, announced the approach of
+Habeeb Effendi. He was preceded by an immense procession of beys,
+colonels, and officers, all in red and gold, with the diamond insignia
+of their rank displayed upon their breasts. This crowd of splendidly
+dressed persons, dismounting from their horses, filled the space around
+the tent; and, opening into two ranks, they made a lane along which
+Habeeb Effendi rode into the middle of the tent; all bowing low and
+touching their foreheads as he passed. A horseblock, covered with red
+cloth, was brought forward for him to dismount upon. His fat grey horse
+was covered with gold, the whole of the housings of the Wahabee saddle
+being not embroidered, but so entirely covered with ornaments in
+goldsmith's work, that the colour of the velvet beneath could scarcely
+be discerned. The great man was held up under each arm by two officers,
+who assisted him to the divan, upon which he took his seat, or rather
+subsided, for the portly proportions of his person prevented his feet
+appearing as he sat cross-legged upon the cushions, with his back to the
+canal. Coffee was presented to him, and a diamond-mounted pipe stuck
+into his mouth; and he puffed away steadily, looking neither right nor
+left, while the uproar of the surrounding crowd increased every moment.
+Quantities of rockets and other fireworks were now let off in the broad
+daylight, cannons fired, and volleys of musketry filled the air with
+smoke. The naked Arabs in the ditch worked like madmen, tearing away the
+earth of the embankment, which was rapidly giving way; whilst an officer
+of the Treasury threw handfuls of new pieces of five paras each (little
+coins of base silver of the value of a farthing) among them. The immense
+multitude shouted and swayed about, encouraging the men, who were
+excited almost to frenzy.
+
+At last there was a tremendous shout: the bank was beginning to give
+way; and showers of coin were thrown down upon it, which the workmen
+tried to catch. One man took off his wide Turkish trousers, and
+stretching them out upon two sticks caught almost a handful at a time.
+By degrees the earth of the embankment became wet, and large pieces of
+mud fell over into the canal. Presently a little stream of water made
+its way down the declivity, but the Arabs still worked up to their knees
+in water. The muddy stream increased, and all of a sudden the whole bank
+gave way. Some of the Arabs scrambled out and were helped up the sides
+of the canal by the crowd; but several, and among others he of the
+trousers, intent upon the shower of paras, were carried away by the
+stream. The man struggled manfully in the water, and gallantly kept
+possession of his trousers till he was washed ashore, and, with the
+assistance of some of his friends, landed safely with his spoils. The
+arches of the great aqueduct of Saladin were occupied by parties of
+ladies; and long lines of women in their black veils sat like a huge
+flock of crows upon the parapets above. They all waved their
+handkerchiefs and lifted up their voices in a strange shrill scream as
+the torrent increased in force; and soon, carrying everything before it,
+it entirely washed away the embankment, and the water in the canal rose
+to the level of the Nile.
+
+The desired object having been accomplished, Habeeb Effendi, who had not
+once looked round towards the canal, now rose to depart; he was helped
+up the steps of the red horse-block, and fairly hoisted into his
+saddle; and amidst the roar of cannon and musketry, the shouts of the
+people, and the clang of innumerable musical instruments, he departed
+with his splendid train of officers and attendants.
+
+Nothing can be conceived more striking than a great assemblage of people
+in the East: the various colours of the dresses and the number of white
+turbans give it a totally different appearance from that of a black and
+dingy European crowd; and it has been well compared by their poets to a
+garden of tulips. The numbers collected together on this occasion were
+immense; and the narrow streets were completely filled by the returning
+multitude, all delighted with the happy termination of the event of the
+day; but before noon the whole of the crowd was dispersed, all had
+returned to their own houses, and the city was as quiet and orderly as
+if nothing extraordinary had occurred.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+     Early Hours in the Levant--Compulsory Use of Lanterns in
+     Cairo--Separation of the different Quarters of the City--Custom of
+     sleeping in the open air--The Mahomedan Times of Prayer--Impressive
+     Effect of the Morning Call to Prayer from the Minarets--The last
+     Prayer-time, Al Assr--Bedouin Mode of ascertaining this
+     Hour--Ancient Form of the Mosques--The Mosque of Sultan
+     Hassan--Egyptian Mode of "raising the Supplies"--Sultan Hassan's
+     Mosque the Scene of frequent Conflicts--The Slaughter of the
+     Mameluke Beys in the Place of Roumayli--Escape of one Mameluke, and
+     his subsequent Friendship with Mohammed Ali--The Talisman of
+     Cairo--Joseph's Well and Hall--Mohammed Ali's Mosque--His Residence
+     in the Citadel--The Harem--Degraded State of the Women in the East.
+
+
+The early hours kept in the Levant cannot fail to strike the European
+stranger. At Cairo every one is up and about at sunrise; all business is
+transacted in the morning, and some of the bezesteins and principal
+bazaars are closed at twelve o'clock, at which hour many people retire
+to their homes and only appear again in the cool of the evening, when
+they take a ride or sit and smoke a pipe and listen to a storyteller in
+a coffee-house or under a tree. Soon after sunset the whole city is at
+rest. Every one who then has any business abroad is obliged to carry a
+small paper lantern, on pain of being taken up by the guard if he is
+found without it. Persons of middle rank have a glass lamp carried
+before them by a servant, and people of consequence are preceded by men
+who run before their train of horses with a fire of resinous wood,
+carried aloft on the top of a pole, in an iron grating called a mashlak.
+This has a picturesque effect, and throws a great light around.
+
+Each different district of the city is separated from the adjoining one
+by strong gates at the end of the streets: these are all closed at
+night, and are guarded by a drowsy old man with a long beard, who acts
+as porter, and who is roused with difficulty by the promise of a small
+coin when any one wants to pass. These gates contribute greatly to the
+peace and security of the town; for as the Turks, Arabs, Christians,
+Jews, Copts, and other religious sects reside each in a different
+quarter, any disturbance which may arise in one district is prevented
+from extending to another; and the drunken Europeans cannot intrude
+their civilization on their quiet and barbarous neighbours. There are
+here no theatres, balls, parties, or other nocturnal assemblies; and
+before the hour at which London is well lit up, the gentleman of Cairo
+ascends to the top of his house and sleeps upon the terrace, and the
+servants retire to the court-yard; for in the hot weather most people
+sleep in the open air. Many of the poorer class sleep in the open places
+and the courts of the mosques, all wrapping up their heads and faces
+that the moon may not shine upon them.
+
+The Mahomedan day begins at sunset, when the first time of prayer is
+observed; the second is about two hours after sunset; the third is at
+the dawn of day, when the musical chant of the muezzins from the
+thousand minarets of Cairo sounds most impressively through the clear
+and silent air. The voices of the criers thus raised above the city
+always struck me as having a holy and beautiful effect. First one or two
+are heard faintly in the distance, then one close to you, then the cry
+is taken up from the minarets of other mosques, and at last, from one
+end of the town to the other, the measured chant falls pleasingly on the
+ear, inviting the faithful to prayer. For a time it seems as if there
+was a chorus of voices in the air, like spirits, calling upon each other
+to worship the Creator of all things. Soon the sound dies away, there is
+a silence for a while, and then commence the hum and bustle of the
+awakening city. This cry of man, to call his brother man to prayer,
+seems to me more appropriate and more accordant to religious feeling
+than the clang and jingle of our European bells.
+
+The fourth and most important time of prayer is at noon, and it is at
+this hour that the Sultan attends in state the mosque at Constantinople.
+The fifth and last prayer is at about three o'clock. The Bedouins of the
+desert, who, however, are not much given to praying, consider this hour
+to have arrived when a stick, a spear, or a camel throws a shadow of its
+own height upon the ground. This time of the day is called "Al Assr."
+When wandering about in the deserts, I used always to eat my dinner or
+luncheon at that time, and it is wonderful to what exactness I arrived
+at last in my calculations respecting the time of the Assr. I knew to a
+minute when my dromedary's shadow was of the right length.
+
+The minarets of Cairo are the most beautiful of any in the Levant;
+indeed no others are to be compared to them. Some are of a prodigious
+height, built of alternate layers of red and white stone. A curious
+anecdote is told of the most ancient of all the minarets, that attached
+to the great mosque of Sultan Tayloon, an immense cloister or arcade
+surrounding a great square. The arches are all pointed, and are the
+earliest extant in that form, the mosque having been built in imitation
+of that at Mecca, in the year of the Hegira 265, Anno Domini 879. The
+minaret belonging to this magnificent building has a stone staircase
+winding round it outside: the reason of its having been built in this
+curious form is said to be, that the vizier of Sultan Tayloon found the
+king one day lolling on his divan and twisting a piece of paper in a
+spiral form; the vizier remarking upon the trivial nature of the
+employment of so great a monarch, he replied, "I was thinking that a
+minaret in this form would have a good effect: give orders, therefore,
+that such a one be added to the mosque which I am building."[2] In
+ancient times the mosques consisted merely of large open courts,
+surrounded by arcades; and frequently, on that side of the court which
+stood nearest to Mecca, this arcade was double. In later times covered
+buildings with large domes were added to the court; a style of building
+which has always been adopted in more northern climates.
+
+The finest mosque of this description is that of Sultan Hassan, in the
+place of the Roumayli, near the citadel. It is a magnificent structure,
+of prodigious height; it was finished about the year A.D. 1362. The
+money necessary for its construction is said to have been procured by
+the following ingenious device. The good Sultan Hassan was determined to
+build a mosque and a tomb for himself, but finding a paucity of means in
+his treasury, he sent out invitations to all the principal people of the
+country to repair to a grand feast at his court, when he said he would
+present each of his loving subjects with a robe of honour. On the
+appointed day they accordingly all made their appearance, dressed in
+their richest robes of state. There was not one but had a Cashmere shawl
+round his turban, and another round his waist, with a jewelled dagger
+stuck in it; besides other ornaments, and caftans of brocade and cloth
+of gold. They entered the place of the Roumayli each accompanied by a
+magnificent train of guards and attendants, who, according to the
+jealous custom of the times, remained below; while the chiefs, with one
+or two of their personal followers only, ascended into the citadel, and
+were ushered into the presence of the Sultan. They were received most
+graciously: how they contrived to pass their time in the fourteenth
+century, before the art of smoking was invented, I do not know, but
+doubtless they sat in circles round great bowls of rice, piled over
+sheep roasted whole, discussed the merits of lambs stuffed with
+pistachio-nuts, and ate cucumbers for dessert. When the feast was
+concluded the Sultan announced that each guest at his departure should
+receive the promised robe of honour; and as these distinguished
+personages, one by one, left the royal presence, they were conducted to
+a small chamber near the gate, in which were several armed officers of
+the household, who, with expressions of the most profound respect and
+solicitude, divested them of their clothes, which they immediately
+carried off. The astonished noble was then invested with a long white
+shirt, and ceremoniously handed out of an opposite door, which led to
+the exterior of the fortress, where he found his train in waiting. The
+Sultan kept all that he found worth keeping of the personal effects of
+his guests, who were afterwards glad to bargain with the chamberlain of
+the court for the restoration of their robes of state, which were
+ultimately returned to them--_for a consideration_. The mosque of Sultan
+Hassan was built with the proceeds of this original scheme; and the tomb
+of the founder is placed in a superb hall, seventy feet square, covered
+with a magnificent dome, which is one of the great features of the city.
+But he that soweth in the whirlwind shall reap in the storm. In
+consequence of the great height and thickness of the walls of this
+stately building, as well as from the circumstance of its having only
+one great gate of entrance, it was frequently seized and made use of as
+a fortress by the insurgents in the numerous rebellions and
+insurrections which were always taking place under the rule of the
+Mameluke kings. Great stains of blood are still to be seen on the marble
+walls of the court-yard, and even in the very chamber of the tomb of the
+Sultan there are the indelible marks of the various conflicts which have
+taken place, when the guardians of the mosque have been stabbed and cut
+down in its most sacred recesses. The two minarets of this mosque, one
+of which is much larger than the other, are among the most beautiful
+specimens of decorated Saracenic architecture. Of the largest of these
+minarets the following story is related. There was a man endued with a
+superabundance of curiosity, who, like Peeping Tom of Coventry, had a
+fancy for spying at the ladies on the house-tops from the summit of this
+minaret: at last he made some signals to one of the neighbouring ladies,
+which were unluckily discovered by the master of the house, who happened
+to be reposing in the harem. The two muezzins (as they often are) were
+blind men, and complaint was made to the authorities that the muezzins
+of Sultan Hassan permitted people to ascend the minarets to gaze into
+the forbidden precincts of the harems below. The two old muezzins were
+indignant when they were informed of this accusation, and were
+determined to watch for the intruder and kill him on the spot, the first
+time that they should find him ascending the winding staircase of the
+minaret. In the course of a few days a good-natured person gave the
+alarm, and told the two blind men that somebody had just entered the
+doorway on the roof of the mosque by which the minaret is ascended; one
+of the muezzins therefore ascended the minaret, armed with a sharp
+dagger, and the other waited at the narrow door below to secure the game
+whom his companion should drive out of the cover. The young man was
+surprised by the muezzin while he was looking over the lower gallery of
+the minaret, but escaping from him he ran up the stairs to the upper
+gallery: here he was followed by his enemy, who cried to the old man at
+the bottom to be ready, for he had found the rascal who had brought
+such scandal on the mosque. The muezzin chased the intruder round the
+upper gallery, and he slipped through the door and ran down again to the
+lower one, where he waited till the muezzin passed him on the stairs,
+then taking off his shoes he followed him lightly and silently till he
+arrived near the bottom door, when he suddenly pushed the muezzin, who
+had been up the minaret, against the one who stood guard below; the two
+blind men, each thinking he had got hold of the villain for whom he was
+in search, seized each other by the throat and engaged in mortal combat
+with their daggers, taking advantage of which the other escaped before
+the blind men had found out their mistake. At the next hour of prayer,
+their well-known voices not being heard as usual, some of the attendants
+at the mosque went up upon the roof to see what had happened, when they
+found the muezzins, who were just able to relate the particulars of
+their mistake before they died.
+
+It was in the place of the Roumayli that the gallant band of the
+Mameluke beys were assembled before they were entrapped and killed by
+the present task-master of Egypt, Mohammed Ali Pasha. They ascended a
+narrow passage between two high bastions, which led from the lower to
+the upper gate. The lower gate was shut after they had passed, and they
+were thus caught as in a trap. All of them were shot except one, who
+leaped his horse over the battlements and escaped. This man became
+afterwards a great ally of Mohammed Ali, and I have often seen him
+riding about on a fine horse caparisoned with red velvet in the old
+Mameluke style. On the wall in one part of this passage, towards the
+inner gate, there is a square tablet containing a bas-relief of a spread
+eagle: this is considered by the superstitious as the talisman of Cairo,
+and is said to give a warning cry when any calamity is about to happen
+to the city. Its origin, as well as most things of any antiquity in the
+citadel, is ascribed to Saladin (Yousef Sala Eddin), who is called here
+Yousef (Joseph); and Joseph's Well, and Joseph's Hall, are the two great
+lions of the place.
+
+The well, which is of great depth, is remarkable from its having a broad
+winding staircase cut in the rock around the shaft: this extends only
+half way down, where two oxen are employed to draw water by a wheel and
+buckets from the bottom, which is here poured into a cistern, whence it
+is raised to the top by another wheel. It is supposed, however, that
+this well is an ancient work, and that it was only cleaned out by
+Saladin when he rebuilt the walls of the town and fortified the citadel.
+
+The hall, which was a very fine room, divided into aisles by magnificent
+antique columns of red granite, has unfortunately been pulled down by
+Mohammed Ali. He did this to make way for the mosque which he has built
+of Egyptian alabaster, a splendid material, but its barbarous Armenian
+architecture offers a sad contrast to the stately edifice which has been
+so ruthlessly destroyed. It is indeed a sad thing for Cairo that the
+flimsy architecture of Constantinople, so utterly unsuited to this
+climate, has been introduced of late years in the public buildings and
+the palaces of the ministers, which lift up their bald and miserable
+whitewashed walls above the beautiful Arabian works of earlier days.
+
+The residence of the Pasha is within the walls of the citadel. The long
+range of the windows of the harem from their lofty position overlook
+great part of the city, which must render it a more cheerful residence
+for the ladies than harems usually are. When a number of Eastern women
+are congregated together, as is frequently the case, without the society
+of the other sex, it is surprising how helpless they become, and how
+neglectful of everything excepting their own persons and their food.
+Eating and dressing are their sole pursuits. If there be a garden
+attached to the harem they take no trouble about it, and at
+Constantinople the ladies of the Sultan tread on the flower-beds and
+destroy the garden as a flock of sheep would do if let loose in it. A
+Turkish lady is the wild variety of the species. Many of them are
+beautiful and graceful, but they do not appear to abound in intellectual
+charms. Until the minds of the women are enlarged by better education,
+any chance of amelioration among the people of the Levant is hopeless:
+for it is in the nursery that the seeds of superstition, prejudice, and
+unreason are sown, the effects of which cling for life to the minds even
+of superior men.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+     Interview with Mohammed Ali Pasha--Mode of lighting a Room in
+     Egypt--Personal Appearance of the Pasha--His Diamond-mounted
+     Pipe--The lost Handkerchief--An unceremonious Attendant--View of
+     Cairo from the Citadel--Site of Memphis; its immense extent--The
+     Tombs of the Caliphs--The Pasha's Mausoleum--Costume of Egyptian
+     Ladies--The Coboob, or Wooden Clog--Mode of dressing the Hair--The
+     Veil--Mistaken Idea that the Egyptian Ladies are Prisoners in the
+     Harem; their power of doing as they like--The Veil a complete
+     Disguise--Laws of the Harem--A Levantine Beauty--Eastern
+     Manners--The Abyssinian Slaves--Arab Girls--Ugliness of the Arab
+     Women when old--Venerable Appearance of the old Men--An Arab
+     Sheick.
+
+
+It was in the month of February, 1834, that I first had the honour of an
+audience with Mohammed Ali Pasha. It was during the Mahomedan month of
+Ramadan, when the day is kept a strict fast, and nothing passes the lips
+of the faithful till after sunset. It was at night, therefore, that we
+were received. My companion and myself were residing at that time under
+the hospitable roof of the Consul-General, and we accompanied him to the
+citadel. The effect of the crowds of people in the streets, all carrying
+lanterns, or preceded by men bearing the mashlak, blazing like a beacon
+on the top of its high pole, was very picturesque. The great hall of the
+citadel was full of men, arranged in rows with their faces towards the
+south, going through the forms and attitudes of evening prayer under
+the guidance of a leader, and with the precision of a regiment on drill.
+
+Passing these, a curtain was drawn aside, and we were ushered at once
+into the presence of the Viceroy, whom we found walking up and down in
+the middle of a large room, between two rows of gigantic silver
+candlesticks, which stood upon the carpet. This is the usual way of
+lighting a room in Egypt:--Six large silver dishes, about two feet in
+diameter and turned upside down, are first placed upon the floor, three
+on each side, near the centre of the room. On each of these stands a
+silver candlestick, between four and five feet high, containing a wax
+candle three feet long, and very thick. A seventh candlestick, of
+smaller dimensions, stands on the floor, separate from these, for the
+purpose of being moved about; it is carried to any one who wants to read
+a letter, or to examine an object more closely while he is seated on the
+divan. Almost every room in the palace has an European chandelier
+hanging from the ceiling, but I do not remember having ever seen one
+lit. These large candlesticks, standing in two rows, with the little one
+before them, always put me in mind of a line of life guards of gigantic
+stature, commanded by a little officer whom they could almost put in
+their pockets.
+
+[Illustration: EGYPTIAN, IN THE NIZAM DRESS.]
+
+Mohammed Ali desired us to be seated. He was attended by Boghos Bey, who
+remained standing and interpreted for us. The Pasha at that time
+was a hale, broad-shouldered, broad-faced man: his short grey beard
+stuck out on each side of his face; his nostrils were very much opened;
+and, with his quick sharp eye, he looked like an old grey lion. The
+expression of his countenance was remarkably intelligent, but excepting
+this there was nothing particular in his appearance. He was attired in
+the Nizam dress of blue cloth. This costume consists of a red cap, a
+jacket with flying sleeves, a waistcoat with tight sleeves under it, a
+red shawl round the waist, a pair of trousers very full, like trunk
+hose, down to the knee, from whence to the ankle they were tight. The
+whole costume is always made of the same coloured cloth, usually black
+or blue. He had white stockings and yellow morocco shoes.
+
+When we were seated on the divan we commenced the usual routine of
+Oriental compliments; and coffee was handed to us in cups entirely
+covered with large diamonds. A pipe was then brought to the Pasha, but
+not to us. This pipe was about seven feet long: the mouthpiece, of light
+green amber, was a foot long, and a foot more below the mouthpiece, as
+well as another part of the pipe lower down, was richly set with
+diamonds of great value, with a diamond tassel hanging to it.
+
+We discoursed for three quarters of an hour about the possibility of
+laying a railway across the Isthmus of Suez, which was the project then
+uppermost in the Pasha's mind; but the circumstance which most strongly
+recalls this audience to my memory, and which struck me as an instance
+of manners differing entirely from our own, was, in itself, a very
+trivial one. The Pasha wanted his pocket handkerchief, and looked about
+and felt in his pocket for it, but could not find it, making various
+exclamations during his search, which at last were answered by an
+attendant from the lower end of the room--"Feel in the other pocket,"
+said the servant. "Well, it is not there," said the Pasha. "Look in the
+other, then." "I have not got a handkerchief," or words to that effect,
+were replied to immediately,--"Yes, you have;"--"No, I have not;"--"Yes,
+you have." Eventually this attendant, advancing up to the Pasha, felt in
+the pocket of his jacket, but the handkerchief was not to be found; then
+he poked all round the Pasha's waist, to see whether it was not tucked
+into his shawl: that would not do. So he took hold of his Sovereign and
+pushed him half over on the divan, and looked under him to see whether
+he was sitting on the handkerchief; then he pushed him over on the other
+side. During all which manœuvres the Pasha sat as quietly and passively
+as possible. The servant then, thrusting his arm up to the elbow in one
+of the pockets of his Highness's voluminous trousers, pulled out a
+snuff-box, a rosary, and several other things, which he laid upon the
+divan. That would not do, either; so he came over to the other pocket,
+and diving to a prodigious depth he produced the missing handkerchief
+from the recesses thereof; and with great respect and gravity, thrusting
+it into the Pasha's hand, he retired again to his place at the lower end
+of the hall.
+
+After being presented with sherbet, in glass bowls with covers, we took
+our leave, and rode home through the crowds of persons with paper
+lanterns, who turn night into day during the month of Ramadan.
+
+The view from that part of the bastions of the citadel which looks over
+the place of the Roumayli and the great mosque of Sultan Hassan is one
+of the most extraordinary that can be seen any where. The whole city is
+displayed at your feet; the numerous domes and minarets, the towers of
+the Saracenic walls, the flat roofs of the houses, and the narrowness of
+the streets giving it an aspect very different from that of an European
+town. You see the Nile and the gardens of Ibrahim Pasha in the island of
+Rhoda to the left; and the avenue of Egyptian sycamores to the right,
+leading to the Pasha's country palace of Shoubra. Beyond the Nile, the
+bare mysterious-looking desert, and the Pyramids standing on their rocky
+base, lead the mind to dwell upon the mighty deeds of ancient days. The
+forest of waving palm-trees, around Saccara, stretches away to the
+south-west, shading the mounds of earth which cover the remains of the
+vast city of Memphis, in comparison to which London would appear but a
+secondary town: for if we may judge from the line of pyramids from Giseh
+to Dashour, which formed the necropolis of Memphis, and the various
+mounds and dykes and ancient remains which extend along the margin of
+the Nile for nearly six-and-thirty miles, the extreme length of London
+being barely eight, and of Paris not much more than four, Memphis must
+have been larger than London, Paris, and ancient Rome, all united; and
+judging from the description which Herodotus has given us of the
+enormous size of the temples and buildings, which are now entirely
+washed away, in consequence of their having been built on the alluvial
+plain, which is every year inundated by the waters of the Nile, Memphis
+in its glory must have exceeded any modern city, as much as the Pyramids
+exceed any mausoleum which has been erected since those days.
+
+The tombs of the Caliphs, as they are called, although most of them are
+the burial-place of the Mameluke Sultans of Egypt, are magnificent and
+imposing buildings. Many of them consist of a mosque built round a
+court, to which is attached a great hall with a dome, under which is
+placed the Sultan's tomb. These beautiful specimens of Arabian
+architecture form a considerable town or city of the dead, on the east
+and south sides of Cairo, about a mile beyond the walls. I was
+astonished at their exceeding beauty and magnificence. Most of them
+were built during the two centuries preceding the conquest of Egypt, by
+Sultan Selim, in 1517, who tortured the last of the Mameluke Sultans,
+Toman Bey, and hung him with a rope, which is yet to be seen dangling
+over the gate called Bab Zuweyleh, in front of which criminals are still
+executed.
+
+The mausoleum of Sultan Bergook is a triumph of Saracenic architecture.
+
+The minarets of these tombs are most richly ornamented with tracery,
+sculpture, and variegated marbles. The walls of many of them are built
+in alternate layers of red and white or black and white marble. The dome
+of the tomb of Kaitbay is of stone, sculptured all over with an
+arabesque pattern; and there are several other domes in different
+mosques at Cairo equally richly ornamented. I have met with none
+comparable to them either in Europe or in the Levant. It is strange that
+none of the Italian architects ever thought of domes covered with rich
+ornamental work in stone or marble; the effect of those at Cairo is
+indescribably fine. Unfortunately they are now much neglected; but in
+the clear dry air of Egypt, time falls more lightly on the works of man
+than in the damp and chilly climates of the north, and the tombs of the
+Mameluke sovereigns will probably last for centuries to come if they are
+not pulled down for the materials, or removed to make way for some
+paltry lath and plaster edifice which will fall in the lifetime of its
+builder.
+
+Besides these larger structures, many of the smaller tombs, which are
+scattered over the desert for miles under the hills of Mokattam, are
+studies for the architect. There are numerous little domes of beautiful
+design, richly ornamented doors and gateways, tombs and tomb-stones of
+all sorts and sizes in infinite variety, most of them so well preserved
+in this glorious climate that the inscriptions on them are as legible as
+when they were first put up.
+
+The Pasha has built himself a house in this city of the dead, to which
+many members of his family have gone before him. This mausoleum consists
+of several buildings covered with low heavy domes, whitewashed or
+plastered on the outside. Within, if I remember right, are the tombs of
+Toussoun and Ismael Pashas, and those of several of his wives,
+grand-children, and relatives; they repose under marble monuments,
+somewhat resembling altars in shape, with a tall post or column at the
+head and feet, as is usual in Turkish graves; the column at the head
+being carved into the form of the head-dress distinctive of the rank or
+sex of the deceased. These sepulchral chambers are all carpeted, and
+Cashmere shawls are thrown over many of the tombs, while in arched
+recesses there are divans with cushions for the use of those who come to
+mourn over their departed relatives.
+
+We will now return to the living; but so perfect an account of the
+Arabian population of Cairo is to be found in Mr. Lane's 'Modern
+Egypt,' that there is little left to say upon that subject, except that
+since that work was published the presence of numerous Europeans has
+diminished the originality of the Oriental manners of this city, and
+numerous vices and modes of cheating, besides a larger variety of
+drunken scenes, are offered for the observation of the curious, than
+existed in the more unsophisticated times, before steamers came to
+Alexandria, and what is called the overland journey to India was
+established. The population of Cairo consists of the ruling class, who
+are all Turks, who speak Turkish, and affect to despise all who have
+never been rowed in a caïque upon the Bosphorus. Then come the Arabs,
+the former conquerors of the land; they form the bulk of the
+population--all the petty tradesmen and cultivators of the soil are of
+Arab origin. Besides these are the Copts, who are descended from the
+original lords of the country, the ancient Egyptians, who have left such
+wonderful monuments of their power. After these may be reckoned the
+motley crew of Jews, Franks, Armenians, Arabs of Barbary and the Hejaz,
+Syrians, negroes, and Barabra; but these are but sojourners in the land,
+and, except the Jews, can hardly be counted among the regular subjects
+of the Pasha. There are besides, the Levantine Christians, who are under
+the protection of one or other of the European powers. Many of this
+class are rich and influential merchants; some of them live in the
+Oriental style, and others are ambitious to assume the tight clothing
+and manner of life of the Franks. The older merchants among the
+Levantines keep more to the Oriental ways of life, while the younger
+gentlemen and ladies follow the ugly fashion of Europe, particularly the
+men, who leave off the cool and convenient Eastern dress to swelter in
+the tight bandages of the Franks; the ladies, on the contrary, are apt
+to retain the Oriental costume, which in its turn is neither so becoming
+nor so easy as the Paris fashions. It must be the spirit of
+contradiction, so natural to the human race, which causes this
+arrangement; for if the men kept to their old costume they would be more
+comfortable than they can be with tight clothes, coat-collars, and
+neckcloths, when the thermometer stands at 112° of Fahrenheit in the
+coolest shade, besides the dignity of their appearance, which is cast
+away with the folds of the Turkish or Arabian dress. The ladies would be
+much improved by the artful devices of the Parisian modistes; for
+although, when young and pretty, all women look well in almost any
+dress, the elder ladies are sometimes but little to be admired in the
+shapeless costumes of the Levant, where the richness of the material
+does not make up for the want of fit and gracefulness which is the
+character of their dress. This may easily be imagined when it is
+understood that both men's and women's dresses may be bought ready made
+in the bazaar, and that any dress will fit anybody unless they are
+supernaturally fat or of dwarfish stature.
+
+An Egyptian lady's dress consists of a pair of immensely full trousers
+of satin or brocade, or often of a brilliant cherry-coloured silk: these
+are tied under the knees, and descending to the ground, have the
+appearance of a very full petticoat. The Arabic name of this garment is
+Shintian. Over this is worn a shirt of transparent silk gauze (Kamis).
+It has long full sleeves, which, as well as the border round the neck,
+are richly embroidered with gold and bright-coloured silks. The edge of
+the shirt is often seen like a tunic over the trousers, and has a pretty
+effect. Over this again is worn a long silk gown, open in front and on
+each side, called a yelek. The fashion is to have the yelek about a foot
+longer than the lady who wears it; so that its three tails shall just
+touch the ground when she is mounted on a pair of high wooden clogs,
+called cobcobs, which are intended for use in the bath, but in which
+they often clatter about in the house: the straps over the instep, by
+which these cobcobs are attached to the feet, are always finely worked,
+and are sometimes of diamonds. The husband gives his bride on their
+marriage a pair of these odd-looking things, which are about six or
+eight inches high, and are always carried on a tray on a man's head in
+marriage processions. The yelek fits the shape in some degree down to
+the waist; it comes up high upon the neck, and has tightish sleeves,
+which are long enough to trail upon the ground. "Oh! thou with the
+long-sleeved yelek" is a common chorus or ending to a stanza in an Arab
+song. Not round the waist but round the hips a large and heavy Cashmere
+shawl is worn over the yelek, and the whole gracefulness of an Egyptian
+dress consists in the way in which this is put on. In the winter a long
+gown, called Jubeh, is superadded to all this: it is of cloth or velvet,
+or a sort of stuff made of the Angora goat's hair, and is sometimes
+lined with fur.
+
+Young girls do not often wear this nor the yelek, but have instead a
+waistcoat of silk with long sleeves like those of the yelek. This is
+called an anteri, and over it they wear a velvet jacket with short
+sleeves, which is so much embroidered with gold and pearls that the
+velvet is almost hid. Their hair hangs down in numerous long tails,
+plaited with silk, to which sequins, or little gold coins, are attached.
+The plaits must be of an uneven number: it would be unlucky if they were
+even. Sometimes at the end of one of the plaits hangs the little golden
+bottle of surmeh with which they black the edges of their eyelids; a
+most becoming custom when it is well done, and not smeared, as it often
+is, for then the effect is rather like that of a black eye, in the
+pugilistic sense of the term. On the head is worn a very beautiful
+ornament called a koors. It is in the shape of a saucer or shallow
+basin, and is frequently covered with rose diamonds. I am surprised
+that it has never been introduced into Europe, as it is a remarkably
+pretty head-dress, with the long tresses of jet black hair hanging from
+under it, plaited with the shining coins. Round the head a handkerchief
+is wound, which spoils the effect of all the rest: but a woman in the
+East is never seen with the head uncovered, even in the house; and when
+she goes out, the veil, as we call it, though it has no resemblance to a
+veil, is used to conceal the whole person. A lady enclosed in this
+singular covering looks like a large bundle of black silk, diversified
+only by a stripe of white linen extending down the front of her person,
+from the middle of her nose to her ungainly yellow boots, into which her
+stockingless feet are thrust for the occasion. The veils of Egypt, of
+which the outer black silk covering is called a khabara, and the part
+over the face a boorkoo, are entirely different from those worn in
+Constantinople, Persia, or Armenia; these are all various in form and
+colour, complicated and wonderful garments, which it would take too long
+to describe, but they, as well as the Egyptian one, answer their
+intended purpose excellently, for they effectually prevent the display
+of any grace or peculiarity of form or feature.
+
+There is no greater mistake than to suppose that Eastern ladies are
+prisoners in the harem, and that they are to be pitied for the want of
+liberty which the jealousy of their husbands condemns them to. The
+Christian ladies live from choice and habit in the same way as the
+Mahomedan women: and, indeed, the Egyptian fair ones have more
+facilities to do as they choose, to go where they like, and to carry on
+any intrigue than the Europeans; for their complete disguise carries
+them safely everywhere. No one knows whether any lady he may meet in the
+bazaar is his wife, his daughter, or his grandmother: and I have several
+times been addressed by Turkish and Egyptian ladies in the open street,
+and asked all sorts of questions in a way that could not be done in any
+European country. The harem, it is true, is by law inviolable: no one
+but the Sultan can enter it unannounced, and if a pair of strange
+slippers are seen left at the outer door, the master of the house cannot
+enter his own harem so long as this proof of the presence of a visitor
+remains. If the husband is a bore, an extra pair of slippers will at all
+times keep him out; and the ladies inside may enjoy themselves without
+the slightest fear of interruption. It is asserted also that gentlemen,
+who are not too tall, have gone into all sorts of places under the
+protection of a lady's veil, so completely does it conceal the person.
+But this is not the case with the Levantine or Christian ladies:
+although they live in a harem, like the Mahomedans, it is not protected
+in the same way: the slippers have not the same effect; for the men of
+the family go in and out whenever they please; and relations and
+visitors of the male sex are received in the apartments of the ladies.
+
+On one occasion I accompanied an English traveller, who had many
+acquaintances at Cairo, to the house of a Levantine in the vicinity of
+the Coptic quarter. Whilst we were engaged in conversation with an old
+lady the curtain over the doorway was drawn aside, and there entered the
+most lovely apparition that can be conceived, in the person of a young
+lady about sixteen years old, the daughter of the lady of the house. She
+had a beautifully fair complexion, very uncommon in this country,
+remarkably long hair, which hung down her back, and her dress, which was
+all of the same rich material, rose-coloured silk, shot with gold,
+became her so well, that I have rarely seen so graceful and striking a
+figure. She was closely followed by two black girls, both dressed in
+light-blue satin, embroidered with silver; they formed an excellent
+contrast to their charming mistress, and were very good-looking in their
+way, with their slight and graceful figures. The young Levantine came
+and sat by me on the divan, and was much amused at my blundering
+attempts at conversation in Arabic, of which I then knew scarcely a
+dozen words. I must confess that I was rather vexed with her for smoking
+a long jessamine pipe, which, however, most Eastern ladies do. She got
+up to wait upon us, and handed us the coffee, pipes, and sherbet, which
+are always presented to visitors in every house. This custom of being
+waited upon by the ladies is rather distressing to our European notions
+of devotion to the fair sex: and I remember being horrified shortly
+after my arrival in Egypt at the manners of a rich old jeweller to whom
+I was introduced. His wife, a beautiful woman, superbly dressed in
+brocade, with gold and diamond ornaments, waited upon us during the
+whole time that I remained in the house. She was the first Eastern lady
+I had seen, and I remember being much edified at the way she pattered
+about on a pair of lofty cobcobs, and the artful way in which she got
+her feet out of them whenever she came up towards where we sat on the
+divan, at the upper end of the apartment. She stood at the lower end of
+the room; and whenever the old brute of a jeweller wanted to return
+anything, some coins which he was showing me, or anything else, he threw
+them on the floor; and his beautiful wife jumping out of her cobcobs
+picked them up; and when she had handed them to some of the maids who
+stood at the door, resumed her station below the step at the further end
+of the room. She had magnificent eyes and luxuriant black hair, as they
+all have, and would have been considered a beauty in any country; but
+she was not to be compared to the bright little damsel in pink, who,
+besides her beauty, was as cheerful and merry as a bird, and whose
+lovely features were radiant with archness and intelligence. Many of the
+Abyssinian slaves are exceedingly handsome: they have very expressive
+countenances, and the finest eyes in the world, and, withal, so soft and
+humble a look, that I do not wonder at their being great favourites in
+Egyptian harems. Many of them, however, have a temper of their own,
+which comes out occasionally, and in this respect the Arab women are not
+much behind them. But the fiery passions of this burning climate pass
+away like a thunderstorm, and leave the sky as clear and serene as it
+was before.
+
+The Arab girls of the lower orders are often very pretty from the age of
+about twelve to twenty, but they soon go off; and the astounding
+ugliness of some of the old women is too terrible to describe. In Europe
+we have nothing half so hideous as these brown old women, and this is
+the more remarkable, because the old men are peculiarly handsome and
+venerable in their appearance, and often display a dignity of bearing
+which is seldom to be met with in Europe. The stately gravity of an Arab
+sheick, seated on the ground in the shade of a tree, with his sons and
+grandsons standing before him, waiting for his commands, is singularly
+imposing.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+     Mohammed Bey, Defterdar--His Expedition to Senaar--His Barbarity
+     and Rapacity--His Defiance of the Pasha--Stories of his Cruelty and
+     Tyranny--The Horse-shoe--The Fight of the Mamelukes--His cruel
+     Treachery--His Mode of administering Justice--The stolen Milk--The
+     Widow's Cow--Sale and Distribution of the Thief--The Turkish
+     Character--Pleasures of a Journey on the Nile--The Copts--Their
+     Patriarchs--The Patriarch of Abyssinia--Basileos Bey--His Boat--An
+     American's choice of a Sleeping-place.
+
+
+Just before my arrival in Cairo a certain Mohammed Bey, Defterdar, had
+died rather suddenly, after drinking a cup of coffee, a beverage which
+occasionally disagrees with the great men in Turkey, although not so
+much so now as in former days. This Defterdar, or accountant, had been
+sent by the Sultan to receive the Imperial revenue from the Pasha of
+Egypt, who had given him his daughter in marriage. As the presence of
+the Defterdar was probably a check upon the projects of the Pasha, he
+sent him to Senaar, at the head of an expedition, to revenge the death
+of Toussoun Pasha, his second son, who had been burned alive in his
+house by one of the exasperated chiefs of Nubia. This was a mission
+after Mohammed Bey's own heart: he impaled the chief and several of his
+family, and displayed a rapacity and cruelty unheard of before even in
+those blood-stained countries. His talent for collecting spoil, and
+valuables of every description, was first-rate; chests and bags of the
+pure gold rings used in the traffic of Central Africa accumulated in his
+tents; he did not stick at a trifle in his measures for procuring gold,
+pearls, and diamonds, wherever they were to be heard of; streams of
+blood accompanied his march, and the vultures followed in his track. He
+was a sportsman too, and hunted slaves, killing the old ones, and
+carrying off the children, whom he sent to Egypt to be sold. Many died
+on the journey; but that did not much matter, as it increased the value
+of the rest.
+
+At last, alter a most successful campaign, the Defterdar returned to his
+palace at Cairo, which was reported to be filled with treasure. The
+habits he had acquired in the upper country stuck to him after he got
+back to Egypt, and the Pasha was obliged to express his disapprobation
+of the cruelties which were committed by him on the most trivial
+occasions. The Defterdar, however, set the Pasha at defiance, told him
+he was no subject of his, but that he was an envoy from his master the
+Sultan, to whom alone he was responsible, and that he would do as he
+pleased with those under his command. The Pasha, it is said, made no
+further remonstrance, and continued to treat his son-in-law with
+distinguished courtesy.
+
+Numerous stories are told of the cruelty and tyranny of this man. One
+day, on his way to the citadel, he found that his horse had cast a shoe.
+He inquired of his groom, who in Egypt runs by the side of the horse,
+how it was that his horse had lost his shoe. The groom said he did not
+know, but that he supposed it had not been well nailed on. Presently
+they came to a farrier's shop; the Defterdar stopped, and ordered two
+horseshoes to be brought; one was put upon the horse, and the other he
+made red hot, and commanded them to nail it firmly to the foot of the
+groom, whom in that condition he compelled to run by his horse's side up
+the steep hill which leads to the citadel.
+
+In Turkey it was the custom in the houses of the great to have a number
+of young men, who in Egypt were called Mamelukes, after that gallant
+corps had been destroyed. A number of the Mamelukes of Mohammed Bey,
+Defterdar, driven to desperation by the cruelties of their master, beat
+or killed one of the superior agas of the household, took some money
+which they found in his possession, and determined to escape from the
+service of their tyrant. His guards and kawasses soon found them out,
+and they retired to a strong tower, which they determined to defend,
+preferring the remotest chance of successful resistance to the terrors
+of service under the ferocious Defterdar. The Bey, however, managed to
+cajole them with promises, and they returned to his palace, expecting to
+be better treated. They found the Bey seated on his divan in the
+Manderan or hall of audience, surrounded by the officers and kawasses
+whom interest had attached to his service. The young Mamelukes had given
+up the money which they had taken, and the Bey had it on the divan by
+his side. He now told them that if they would divide themselves into two
+parties and fight against each other, he would pardon the victorious
+party, present them with the bag of gold, and permit them to depart; but
+that if they did not agree to this proposal he would kill them all. The
+Mamelukes, finding they were entrapped, consented to the conditions of
+the Bey, and half their number were soon weltering in their blood on the
+floor of the hall. When the conquerors claimed the promised reward, the
+Defterdar, who had now far superior numbers on his side, again commanded
+them to divide and fight against each other. Again they fought in
+despair, preferring death by their own swords to the tortures which they
+knew the merciless Defterdar would inflict upon them now that he had got
+them completely in his power. At length only one Mameluke remained, whom
+the Bey, with kind and encouraging words, ordered to approach,
+commending his valour and holding out to him the promised bag of gold as
+his reward. As he approached, stepping over the bodies of his
+companions, who all lay dead or dying on the floor, and held out his
+hands for the money, the Defterdar, with a grim smile, made a sign to
+one of his kawasses, and the head of the young man rolled at the
+tyrant's feet "Thus," said he, "shall perish all who dare to offend
+Mohammed Bey."
+
+The Defterdar was fond of justice, after a fashion, and his mode of
+administering it was characteristic. A poor woman came before him and
+complained that one of his kawasses had seized a cup of milk and drunk
+it, refusing to pay her its value, which she estimated at five paras (a
+para is the fortieth part of a piastre, which is worth about
+twopence-halfpenny). The sensitive justice of the Defterdar was roused
+by this complaint. He asked the woman if she should know the person who
+had stolen her milk were she to see him again? The woman said she
+should, upon which the whole household was drawn out before her, and
+looking round she fixed upon a man as the thief. "Very well," said the
+Defterdar, "I hope you are sure of your man, and that you have not made
+a false accusation before me. He shall be ripped open, and if the milk
+is found in his stomach, you shall receive your five paras; but if there
+is no milk found, you shall be ripped up in turn for accusing one of my
+household unjustly." The unfortunate kawass was cut open on the spot;
+some milk was found in him, and the woman received her five paras.
+
+Another of his judicial sentences was rather an original conception. A
+man in Upper Egypt stole a cow from a widow, and having killed it, he
+cut it into twenty pieces, which he sold for a piastre each in the
+bazaar. The widow complained to the Defterdar, who seized the thief, and
+having without further ceremony cut him into twenty pieces, forced
+twenty people who came into the market on that day from the neighbouring
+villages to buy a piece of thief each for a piastre; the joints of the
+robber were thus distributed all over the country, and the story told by
+the involuntary purchasers of these pounds of flesh had a wholesome
+effect upon the minds of the cattle-stealers: the twenty piastres were
+given to the woman, whose cows were not again meddled with during the
+lifetime of the Defterdar. But the character of this man must not be
+taken as a sample of the habits of the Turks in general. They are a
+grave and haughty race, of dignified manners; rapacious they often are,
+but they are generous and brave, and I do not think that, as a nation,
+they can be accused of cruelty.
+
+Nothing can be more secure and peaceable than a journey on the Nile, as
+every one knows nowadays. Floating along in a boat like a house, which
+stops and goes on whenever you like, you have no cares or troubles but
+those which you bring with you--"cœlum non animum mutant qui trans mare
+currunt." I can conceive nothing more delightful than a voyage up the
+Nile with agreeable companions in the winter, when the climate is
+perfection. There are the most wonderful antiquities for those who
+interest themselves in the remains of bygone days; famous shooting on
+the banks of the river, capital dinners, if you know how to make the
+proper arrangements, comfortable quarters, and a constant change of
+scene.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The wonders of the land of Ham, its temples and its ruins, have been so
+well and so often described that I shall not attempt to give any details
+regarding them, but shall confine myself to some sketches of the Coptic
+Monasteries which are to be seen on the rocks and deserts, either on the
+banks of the river or in the neighbourhood of the valley of the Nile.
+
+The ancient Egyptians are now represented by their descendants the
+Copts, whose ancestors were converted to Christianity in the earliest
+ages, and whose patriarchs claim their descent, in uninterrupted
+succession, from St Mark, who was buried at Alexandria, but whose body
+the Venetians in later ages boast of having transported to their island
+city.[3]
+
+The Copts look up to their patriarch as the chief of their nation: he is
+elected from among the brethren of the great monastery of St. Anthony
+on the borders of the Red Sea, a proceeding which ensures his entire
+ignorance of all sublunary matters, and his consequent incapacity for
+his high and responsible office, unless he chance to be a man of very
+uncommon talents. Like the patriarch of Constantinople, he is usually a
+puppet in the hands of a cabal who make use of him for their own
+interested purposes, and when they have got him into a scrape leave him
+to get out of it as he can. He is called the Patriarch of Alexandria,
+but for many years his residence has been at Cairo, where he has a large
+dreary palace. He is surrounded by priests and acolytes; but when I was
+last at Cairo there was but one remaining Coptic scribe among them, whom
+I engaged to copy out the Gospel of St Mark from an ancient MS. in the
+patriarchal library: however, after a very long delay he copied out St.
+Matthew's Gospel by mistake, and I was told that there was no other
+person whose profession it was to copy Coptic writings.
+
+The patriarch has twelve bishops under him, whose residences are at
+Nagadé, Abou Girgé, Aboutig, Siout, Girgé, Manfalout, Maharaka, the
+Fioum, Atfeh, Behenesé, and Jerusalem: he also consecrates the Abouna or
+Patriarch of Abyssinia, who by a specific law must not be a native of
+that country, and who has not the privilege of naming his successor or
+consecrating archbishops or bishops, although in other respects his
+authority in religious matters is supreme. The Patriarch of Abyssinia
+usually ordains two or three thousand priests at once on his first
+arrival in that country, and the unfitness of the individual appointed
+to this high office has sometimes caused much scandal. This has arisen
+from the difficulty there has often been in getting a respectable person
+to accept the office, as it involves perpetual banishment from Egypt,
+and a residence among a people whose partiality to raw meat and other
+peculiar customs are held as abominations by the Egyptians.
+
+The usual trade and occupation of the Copts is that of kateb, scribe, or
+accountant; they seem to have a natural talent for arithmetic. They
+appear to be more afflicted with ophthalmia than the Mohamedans, perhaps
+because they drink wine and spirits, which the others do not.
+
+The person of the greatest consequence among the Copts was Basileos Bey,
+the Pasha's confidential secretary and minister of finance. This
+gentleman was good enough to lend me a magnificent dahabieh or boat of
+the largest size, which I used for many months. It was an old-fashioned
+vessel, painted and gilt inside in a brilliant manner, which is not
+usual in more modern boats; but being a person of a fanciful
+disposition, I preferred the roomy proportions and the quaint arabesque
+ornaments of this boat, although it was no very fast sailer, to the
+natty vessels which were more Europeanised and quicker than mine. The
+principal cabin was about ten feet by twelve, and was ornamented with
+paintings of peacocks of a peculiar breed and nondescript flowers. The
+divans, one on each side, were covered with fine carpets, and the
+cushions were of cloth of gold, with a raised pattern of red velvet. The
+ceilings were gilt, and we had two red silk flags of prodigious
+dimensions in addition to streamers forty or fifty feet long at the end
+of each of the yard-arms: in short, it was full of what is called
+fantasia in the Levant, and as for its slowness, I consider that rather
+an advantage in the East. I like to take my time and look about me, and
+sit under a tree on a carpet when I get to an agreeable place, and I am
+in no hurry to leave it; so the heavy qualities of the vessel suited me
+exactly--we did nothing but stop everywhere. But although I confess that
+I like deliberate travelling, I do not carry my system to the extent of
+an American friend with whom I once journeyed from the shores of the
+Black Sea to Hungary. We were taking a walk together in the mountains
+near Mahadia, when seeing him looking about among the rocks I asked him
+what he wanted. "Oh," said he, "I am looking out for a good place to go
+to sleep in, for there is a beautiful view here, and I like to sleep
+where there is a fine prospect, that I may enjoy it when I awake; so
+good afternoon, and if you come back this way mind you call me."
+Accordingly an hour or two afterwards I came back and aroused my
+friend, who was still fast asleep. "I hope you enjoyed your nap," said
+I; "we had a glorious walk among the hills." "Yes," said he, "I had a
+famous nap." "And what did you think of the view when you awoke?" "The
+view!" exclaimed he, "why, I forgot to look at it!"
+
+
+
+
+NATRON LAKES.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+     Visit to the Coptic Monasteries near the Natron Lakes--The Desert
+     of Nitria--Early Christian Anchorites--St. Macarius of
+     Alexandria--His Abstinence and Penance--Order of Monks founded by
+     him--Great increase of the Number of ascetic Monks in the Fourth
+     Century--Their subsequent decrease, and the present ruined state of
+     the Monasteries--Legends of the Desert--Capture of a Lizard--Its
+     _alarming_ escape--The Convent of Baramous--Night attacks--Invasion
+     of Sanctuary--Ancient Glass Lamps--Monastery of Souriani--Its
+     Library and Coptic MSS.--The Blind Abbot and his Oil-cellar--The
+     persuasive powers of Rosoglio--Discovery of Syriac MSS.--The
+     Abbot's supposed treasure.
+
+
+In the month of March, 1837, I left Cairo for the purpose of visiting
+the Coptic monasteries in the neighbourhood of the Natron lakes, which
+are situated in the desert to the north-west of Cairo, on the western
+side of the Nile. I had some difficulty in procuring a boat to take me
+down the river--indeed there was not one to be obtained; but two English
+gentlemen, on their way from China to England, were kind enough to give
+me a passage in their boat to the village of Terrané, the nearest spot
+upon the banks of the Nile to the monasteries which I proposed to visit.
+
+The Desert of Nitria is famous in the annals of monastic history as the
+first place to which the Anchorites, in the early ages of Christianity,
+retired from the world in order to pass their lives in prayer and
+contemplation, and in mortification of the flesh. It was in Egypt where
+monasticism first took its rise, and the Coptic monasteries of St.
+Anthony and St. Paul claim to be founded on the spots where the first
+hermits established their cells on the shores of the Red Sea. Next in
+point of antiquity are the monasteries of Nitria, of which we have
+authentic accounts dated as far back as the middle of the second
+century; for about the year 150 A.D. Fronto retired to the valleys of
+the Natron lakes with seventy brethren in his company. The Abba Ammon
+(whose life is detailed in the 'Vitæ Patrum' of Rosweyd, Antwerp, 1628,
+a volume of great rarity and dulness, which I only obtained after a long
+search among the mustiest of the London book-stalls) flourished, or
+rather withered, in this desert in the beginning of the fourth century.
+At this time also the Abba Bischoi founded the monastery still called
+after his name, which, it seems, was Isaiah or Esa: the Coptic article
+Pe or Be makes it Besa, under which name he wrote an ascetic work, a
+manuscript of which, probably almost if not quite as old as his time, I
+procured in Egypt. It is one of the most ancient manuscripts now extant.
+
+But the chief and pattern of all the recluses of Nitria was the great
+St. Macarius of Alexandria, whose feast-day--a day which he never
+observed himself--is still kept by the Latins on the 2nd, and by the
+Greeks on the 19th of January. This famous saint died A.D. 394, after
+sixty years of austerities in various deserts: he first retired into the
+Thebaid in the year 335, and about the year 373 established himself in a
+solitary cell on the borders of the Natron lakes. Numerous anchorites
+followed his example, all living separately, but meeting together on
+Sundays for public prayer. Self-denial and abstinence were their great
+occupations; and it is related that a traveller having given St.
+Macarius a bunch of grapes, he sent it to another brother, who sent it
+to a third, and at last, the grapes having passed through the hands of
+some hundreds of hermits, came back to St. Macarius, who rejoiced at
+such a proof of the abstinence of his brethren, but refused to eat of it
+himself. This same saint having thoughtlessly killed a gnat which was
+biting him, he was so unhappy at what he had done, that to make amends
+for his inadvertency, and to increase his mortifications, he retired to
+the marshes of Scete, where there were flies whose powerful stings were
+sufficient to pierce the hide of a wild boar; here he remained six
+months, till his body was so much disfigured that his brethren on his
+return only knew him by the sound of his voice. He was the founder of
+the monastic order which, as well as the monastery still existing on the
+site of his cell, was called after his name. By their rigid rule the
+monks are bound to fast the whole year, excepting on Sundays and during
+the period between Easter and Whitsuntide: they were not to speak to a
+stranger without leave. During Lent St. Macarius fasted all day, and
+sometimes ate nothing for two or three days together; on Sundays,
+however, he indulged in a raw cabbage-leaf, and in short set such an
+example of abstinence and self-restraint to the numerous anchorites of
+the desert, that the fame of his austerities gained him many admirers.
+Throughout the middle ages his name is mentioned with veneration in all
+the collections of the lives of the saints: he is represented pointing
+out the vanities of life in the great fresco of the Triumph of Death, by
+Andrea Orcagna, in the Campo Santo at Pisa. In his Life in Caxton's
+'Golden Legende,' and in 'The Lives of the Fathers,' by Wynkyn de Worde,
+a detailed account will be found of a most interesting conversation
+which Macarius had with the devil, touching divers matters. Several of
+his miracles are also put into modern English, in Lord Lindsay's book of
+Christian Art. I have a MS. of the Gospels in Coptic, written by the
+hand of one Zapita Leporos, under the rule of the great Macarius, in the
+monastery of Laura, about the year 390, and which may have been used by
+the Saint himself.
+
+After the time of Macarius the number of ascetic monks increased to a
+surprising amount. Rufinus, who visited them in the year 372, mentions
+fifty of their convents; Palladius, who was there in the year 387,
+reckons the devotees at five thousand. St Jerome also visited them, and
+their number seems to have been kept up without much diminution for
+several centuries.[4] After the conquest of Egypt by the Arabians, and
+about the year 967, a Mahomedan author, Aboul Faraj of Hispahan, wrote a
+book of poems, called the 'Book of Convents,' which is in praise of the
+habits and religious devotion of the Christian monks. The dilapidated
+monastery of St. Macarius was repaired and fortified by Sanutius,
+Patriarch of Alexandria, at which good work he laboured with his own
+bands: this must have been about the year 880, as he died in 881. In
+more recent times the multitude of ascetics gradually decreased, and but
+few travellers have extended their researches to their arid haunts. At
+present only four monasteries remain entire, although the ruins of many
+others may still be traced in the desert tracts on the west side of the
+line of the Natron lakes, and the valley of the waterless river, which,
+at some very remote period, is supposed to have formed the bed of one of
+the branches of the Nile.
+
+At the village of Terrané I was most hospitably received by an Italian
+gentleman, who was superintending the export of the natron. Here I
+procured camels; I had brought a tent with me; and the next day we set
+off across the plain, with the Arabs to whom the camels belonged, and
+who, having been employed in the transport of the natron, were able to
+show us the way, which it would have been very difficult to trace
+without their help. The memory of the devils and evil spirits who,
+according to numerous legends, used formerly to haunt this desert,
+seemed still to awaken the fears of these Arab guides. During the first
+day's journey I talked to them on the subject, and found that their
+minds were full of superstitious fancies.
+
+It is said that tailors sometimes stand up to rest themselves, and on
+that principle I had descended from my huge, ungainly camel, who had
+never before been used for riding, and whose swinging paces were very
+irksome, and was resting myself by walking in his shade, when seeing
+something run up to a large stone which lay in the way, I moved it to
+see what it was. I found a lizard, six or eight inches long, of a
+species with which I was unacquainted. I caught the reptile by the nape
+of the neck, which made him open his ugly mouth in a curious way, and he
+wriggled about so much that I could hardly hold him. Judging that he
+might be venomous, I looked about for some safe place to put him, and my
+eye fell upon the large glass lantern which was used in the tent; that,
+I thought, was just the thing for my lizard, so I put him into the
+lantern, which hung at the side of the baggage camel, intending to
+examine him at my leisure in the evening. When the sun was about to set,
+the tent was pitched, and a famous fire lit for the cook. It was in a
+bare, open place, without a hill, stock, or stone in sight in any
+direction all around. The camels were tethered together, near the
+baggage, which was piled in a heap to the windward of the fire; and, as
+it was getting dark, one of the Arabs took the lantern to the fire to
+light it. He got a blazing stick for this purpose, and held up the
+lantern close to his face to undo the hasp, which he had no sooner
+accomplished than out jumped the lizard upon his shoulder and
+immediately made his escape. The Arab, at this unexpected attack, gave a
+fearful yell, and dashing the lantern to pieces on the ground, screamed
+out that the devil had jumped upon him and had disappeared in the
+darkness, and that he was certain he was waiting to carry us all off.
+The other Arabs were seriously alarmed, and for a long while paid no
+attention to my explanation about the lizard, which was the cause of all
+the disturbance. The worst of the affair was that the lantern being
+broken to bits, we could have no light; for the wind blew the candles
+out, notwithstanding our most ingenious efforts to shelter them. The
+Arabs were restless all night, and before sunrise we were again under
+way, and in the course of the day arrived at the convent of Baramous.
+This monastery consisted of a high stone wall, surrounding a square
+enclosure, of about an acre in extent. A large square tower commanded
+the narrow entrance, which was closed by a low and narrow iron door.
+Within there was a good-sized church in tolerable preservation, standing
+nearly in the centre of the enclosure, which contained nothing else but
+some ruined buildings and a few large fig-trees, growing out of the
+disjointed walls. Two or three poor-looking monks still tenanted the
+ruins of the abbey. They had hardly anything to offer us, and were glad
+to partake of some of the rice and other eatables which we had brought
+with us. I wandered about among the ruins with the half-starved monks
+following me. We went into the square tower, where, in a large vaulted
+room with open unglazed windows, were forty or fifty Coptic manuscripts
+on cotton paper, lying on the floor, to which several of them adhered
+firmly, not having been moved for many years. I only found one leaf on
+vellum, which I brought away. The other manuscripts appeared to be all
+liturgies; most of them smelling of incense when I opened them, and well
+smeared with dirt and wax from the candles which had been held over them
+during the reading of the service.
+
+I took possession of a half-ruined cell, where my carpets were spread,
+and where I went to sleep early in the evening; but I had hardly closed
+my eyes before I was so briskly attacked by a multitude of ravenous
+fleas, that I jumped up and ran out into the court to shake myself and
+get rid if I could of my tormentors. The poor monks, hearing my
+exclamations, crept out of their holes and recommended me to go into the
+church, which they said would be safe from the attacks of the enemy. I
+accordingly took a carpet which I had well shaken and beaten, and lay
+down on the marble floor of the church, where I presently went to sleep.
+Again I was awakened by the wicked fleas, who, undeterred by the
+sanctity of my asylum, renewed their attack in countless legions. The
+slaps I gave myself were all in vain; for, although I slew them by
+dozens in my rage, others came on in their place. There was no
+withstanding them, and, fairly vanquished, I was forced to abandon my
+position, and walk about and look at the moon till the sun rose, when my
+villainous tormentors slunk away and allowed me a short snatch of the
+repose which they had prevented my enjoying all night.
+
+There were several curious lamps in this church formed of ancient glass,
+like those in the mosque of Sultan Hassan at Cairo, which are said to be
+of the same date as the mosque, and to be of Syrian manufacture. These,
+which were in the shape of large open vases, were ornamented with pious
+sentences in Arabic characters, in blue on a white ground.[5] They were
+very handsome, and, except one of the same kind, which is now in
+England, in the possession of Mr. Magniac, I never saw any like them.
+They are probably some of the most ancient specimens of ornamental glass
+existing, excepting, of course, the vases and lachrymatories of the
+classic times.
+
+Quitting the monastery of Baramous, we went to that of Souriani, where
+we left our baggage and tent, and proceeded to visit the monasteries of
+Amba Bischoi and Abou Magar, or St. Macarius, both of which were in very
+poor condition. These monasteries are so much alike in their plan and
+appearance, that the description of one is the description of all. I saw
+none but the church books in either of them, and at the time of my visit
+they were apparently inhabited only by three or four monks, who
+conducted the services of their respective churches.
+
+On this journey we passed many ruins and heaps of stones nearly level
+with the ground, the remains of some of the fifty monasteries which once
+flourished in the wilderness of Scete.
+
+In the evening I returned to Souriani, where I was hospitably received
+by the abbot and fourteen or fifteen Coptic monks. They provided me with
+an agreeable room looking into the garden within the walls. My servants
+were lodged in some other small cells or rooms near mine, which happily
+not being tenanted by fleas or any other wild beasts of prey, was
+exceedingly comfortable when my bright-coloured carpets and cushions
+were spread upon the floor; and, after the adventures of the two former
+nights, I rested in great comfort and peace.
+
+In the morning I went to see the church and all the other wonders of the
+place, and on making inquiries about the library, was conducted by the
+old abbot, who was blind, and was constantly accompanied by another
+monk, into a small upper room in the great square tower, where we found
+several Coptic manuscripts. Most of these were lying on the floor, but
+some were placed in niches in the stone wall. They were all on paper,
+except three or four. One of these was a superb manuscript of the
+Gospels, with commentaries by the early fathers of the church; two
+others were doing duty as coverings to a couple of large open pots or
+jars, which had contained preserves, long since evaporated. I was
+allowed to purchase these vellum manuscripts, as they were considered to
+be useless by the monks, principally I believe because there were no
+more preserves in the jars. On the floor I found a fine Coptic and
+Arabic dictionary. I was aware of the existence of this volume, with
+which they refused to part. I placed it in one of the niches in the
+wall; and some years afterwards it was purchased for me by a friend, who
+sent it to England after it had been copied at Cairo. They sold me two
+imperfect dictionaries, which I discovered loaded with dust upon the
+ground. Besides these, I did not see any other books but those of the
+liturgies for various holy days. These were large folios on cotton
+paper, most of them of considerable antiquity, and well begrimed with
+dirt.
+
+The old blind abbot had solemnly declared that there were no other books
+in the monastery besides those which I had seen; but I had been told, by
+a French gentleman at Cairo, that there were many ancient manuscripts in
+the monks' oil cellar; and it was in pursuit of these and the Coptic
+dictionary that I had undertaken the journey to the Natron lakes. The
+abbot positively denied the existence of these books, and we retired
+from the library to my room with the Coptic manuscripts which they had
+ceded to me without difficulty; and which, according to the dates
+contained in them, and from their general appearance, may claim to be
+considered among the oldest manuscripts in existence, more ancient
+certainly than many of the Syriac MSS. which I am about to describe.
+
+The abbot, his companion, and myself sat down together. I produced a
+bottle of rosoglio from my stores, to which I knew that all Oriental
+monks were partial; for though they do not, I believe, drink wine
+because an excess in its indulgence is forbidden by Scripture, yet
+ardent spirits not having been invented in those times, there is nothing
+said about them in the Bible; and at Mount Sinai and all the other spots
+of sacred pilgrimage the monks comfort themselves with a little glass
+or rather a small coffee cup of arrack or raw spirits when nothing
+better of its kind is to be procured. Next to the golden key, which
+masters so many locks, there is no better opener of the heart than a
+sufficiency of strong drink,--not too much, but exactly the proper
+quantity judiciously exhibited (to use a chemical term in the land of Al
+Chémé, where alchemy and chemistry first had their origin). I have
+always found it to be invincible; and now we sat sipping our cups of the
+sweet pink rosoglio, and firing little compliments at each other, and
+talking pleasantly over our bottle till some time passed away, and the
+face of the blind abbot waxed bland and confiding; and he had that
+expression on his countenance which men wear when they are pleased with
+themselves and bear goodwill towards mankind in general. I had by the
+bye a great advantage over the good abbot, as I could see the workings
+of his features and he could not see mine, or note my eagerness about
+the oil-cellar, on the subject of which I again gradually entered.
+"There is no oil there," said he. "I am curious to see the architecture
+of so ancient a room," said I; "for I have heard that yours is a famous
+oil-cellar." "It is a famous cellar," said the other monk. "Take another
+cup of rosoglio," said I. "Ah!" replied he, "I remember the days when it
+overflowed with oil, and then there were I do not know how many brethren
+here with us. But now we are few and poor; bad times are come over us:
+we are not what we used to be." "I should like to see it very much,"
+said I; "I have heard so much about it even at Cairo. Let us go and see
+it; and when we come back we will have another bottle; and I will give
+you a few more which I have brought with me for your private use."
+
+This last argument prevailed. We returned to the great tower, and
+ascended the steep flight of steps which led to its door of entrance. We
+then descended a narrow staircase to the oil-cellar, a handsome vaulted
+room, where we found a range of immense vases which formerly contained
+the oil, but which now on being struck returned a mournful, hollow
+sound. There was nothing else to be seen: there were no books here: but
+taking the candle from the hands of one of the brethren (for they had
+all wandered in after us, having nothing else to do), I discovered a
+narrow low door, and, pushing it open, entered into a small closet
+vaulted with stone which was filled to the depth of two feet or more
+with the loose leaves of the Syriac manuscripts which now form one of
+the chief treasures of the British Museum. Here I remained for some time
+turning over the leaves and digging into the mass of loose vellum pages;
+by which exertions I raised such a cloud of fine pungent dust that the
+monks relieved each other in holding our only candle at the door, while
+the dust made us sneeze incessantly as we turned over the scattered
+leaves of vellum. I had extracted four books, the only ones I could
+find which seemed to be tolerably perfect, when two monks who were
+struggling in the corner pulled out a great big manuscript of a brown
+and musty appearance and of prodigious weight, which was tied together
+with a cord. "Here is a box!" exclaimed the two monks, who were nearly
+choked with the dust; "we have found a box, and a heavy one too!" "A
+box!" shouted the blind abbot, who was standing in the outer darkness of
+the oil-cellar--"A box! Where is it? Bring it out! bring out the box!
+Heaven be praised! We have found a treasure! Lift up the box! Pull out
+the box! A box! A box! Sandouk! sandouk!" shouted all the monks in
+various tones of voice. "Now then let us see the box! bring it out to
+the light!" they cried. "What can there be in it?" and they all came to
+help and carried it away up the stairs, the blind abbot following them
+to the outer door, leaving me to retrace my steps as I could with the
+volumes which I had dug out of their literary grave.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+     View from the Convent Wall--Appearance of the Desert--Its grandeur
+     and freedom--Its contrast to the Convent Garden--Beauty and
+     luxuriance of Eastern Vegetation--Picturesque Group of the Monks
+     and their Visitors--The Abyssinian Monks--Their appearance--Their
+     austere mode of Life--The Abyssinian College--Description of the
+     Library--The mode of Writing in Abyssinia--Immense Labour required
+     to write an Abyssinian book--Paintings and
+     Illuminations--Disappointment of the Abbot at finding the supposed
+     Treasure-box only an old Book--Purchase of the MSS. and Books--The
+     most precious left behind--Since acquired for the British Museum.
+
+
+On leaving the dark recesses of the tower I paused at the narrow door by
+which we had entered, both to accustom my eyes to the glare of the
+daylight, and to look at the scene below me. I stood on the top of a
+steep flight of stone steps, by which the door of the tower was
+approached from the court of the monastery: the steps ran up the inside
+of the outer wall, which was of sufficient thickness to allow of a
+narrow terrace within the parapet; from this point I could look over the
+wall on the left hand upon the desert, whose dusty plains stretched out
+as far as I could see, in hot and dreary loneliness to the horizon. To
+those who are not familiar with the aspect of such a region as this, it
+may be well to explain that a desert such as that which now surrounded
+me resembles more than anything else a dusty turnpike-road in England
+on a hot summer's day, extended interminably, both as to length and
+breadth. A country of low rounded hills, the surface of which is
+composed entirely of gravel, dust, and stones, will give a good idea of
+the general aspect of a desert. Yet, although parched and dreary in the
+extreme from their vastness and openness, there is something grand and
+sublime in the silence and loneliness of these burning plains; and the
+wandering tribes of Bedouins who inhabit them are seldom content to
+remain long in the narrow inclosed confines of cultivated land. There is
+always a fresh breeze in the desert, except when the terrible hot wind
+blows; and the air is more elastic and pure than where vegetation
+produces exhalations which in all hot climates are more or less heavy
+and deleterious. The air of the desert is always healthy, and no race of
+men enjoy a greater exemption from weakness, sickness, and disease than
+the children of the desert, who pass their lives in wandering to and fro
+in search of the scanty herbage on which their flocks are fed, far from
+the cares and troubles of busy cities, and free from the oppression
+which grinds down the half-starved cultivators of the fertile soil of
+Egypt.
+
+Whilst from my elevated position I looked out on my left upon the mighty
+desert, on my right how different was the scene! There below my feet lay
+the convent garden in all the fresh luxuriance of tropical vegetation.
+Tufts upon tufts of waving palms overshadowed the immense succulent
+leaves of the banana, which in their turn rose out of thickets of the
+pomegranate rich with its bright green leaves and its blossoms of that
+beautiful and vivid red which is excelled by few even of the most
+brilliant flowers of the East. These were contrasted with the deep dark
+green of the caroub or locust-tree; and the yellow apples of the lotus
+vied with the clusters of green limes with their sweet white flowers
+which luxuriated in a climate too hot and sultry for the golden fruit of
+the orange, which is not to be met with in the valley of the Nile.
+Flowers and fair branches exhaling rich perfume and bearing freshness in
+their very aspect became more beautiful from their contrast to the
+dreary arid plains outside the convent walls, and this great difference
+was owing solely to there being a well of water in this spot from which
+a horse or mule was constantly employed to draw the fertilizing streams
+which nourished the teeming vegetation of this monastic garden.
+
+I stood gazing and moralizing at these contrasted scenes for some time;
+but at length when I turned my eyes upon my companions and myself, it
+struck me that we also were somewhat remarkable in our way. First there
+was the old blind grey-bearded abbot, leaning on his staff, surrounded
+with three or four dark robed Coptic monks, holding in their hands the
+lighted candles with which we had explored the secret recesses of the
+oil-cellar; there was I dressed in the long robes of a merchant of the
+East, with a small book in the breast of my gown and a big one under
+each arm; and there were my servants armed to the teeth and laden with
+old books; and one and all we were so covered with dirt and wax from top
+to toe, that we looked more as if we had been up the chimney than like
+quiet people engaged in literary researches. One of the monks was
+leaning in a brown study upon the ponderous and gigantic volume in its
+primæval binding, in the interior of which the blind abbot had hoped to
+find a treasure. Perched upon the battlements of this remote monastery
+we formed as picturesque a group as one might wish to see; though
+perhaps the begrimed state of our flowing robes as well as of our hands
+and faces would render a somewhat remote point of view more agreeable to
+the artist than a closer inspection.
+
+While we had been standing on the top of the steps, I had heard from
+time to time some incomprehensible sounds which seemed to arise from
+among the green branches of the palms and fig-trees in a corner of the
+garden at our feet. "What," said I to a bearded Copt, who was seated on
+the steps, "is that strange howling noise which I hear among the trees?
+I have heard it several times when the rustling of the wind among the
+branches has died away for a moment. It sounds something like a chant,
+or a dismal moaning song: only it is different in its cadence from
+anything that I have heard before." "That noise," replied the monk, "is
+the sound of the service of the church which is being chanted by the
+Abyssinian monks. Come down the steps and I will show you their chapel
+and their library. The monastery which they frequented in this desert
+has fallen to decay; and they now live here, their numbers being
+recruited occasionally by pilgrims on their way from Abyssinia to
+Jerusalem, some of whom pass by each year; not many now, to be sure; but
+still fewer return to their own land."
+
+Giving up my precious manuscripts to the guardianship of my servants and
+desiring them to put them down carefully in my cell, I accompanied my
+Coptic friend into the garden, and turning round some bushes, we
+immediately encountered one of the Abyssinian monks walking with a book
+in his hand under the shade of the trees. Presently we saw three or four
+more; and very remarkable looking persons they were. These holy brethren
+were as black as crows; tall, thin, ascetic looking men of a most
+original aspect and costume. I have seen the natives of many strange
+nations, both before and since, but I do not know that I ever met with
+so singular a set of men, so completely the types of another age and of
+a state of things the opposite to European, as these Abyssinian
+Eremites. They were black, as I have already said, which is not the
+usual complexion of the natives of Habesh; and they were all clothed in
+tunics of wash leather made, they told me, of gazelle skins. This
+garment came down to their knees, and was confined round their waist
+with a leathern girdle. Over their shoulders they had a strap supporting
+a case like a cartridge-box, of thick brown leather, containing a
+manuscript book; and above this they wore a large shapeless cloak or
+toga, of the same light yellow wash leather as the tunic; I do not think
+that they wore anything on the head, but this I do not distinctly
+remember. Their legs were bare, and they had no other clothing, if I may
+except a profuse smearing of grease; for they had anointed themselves in
+the most lavish manner, not with the oil of gladness, but with that of
+castor, which however had by no means the effect of giving them a
+cheerful countenance; for although they looked exceedingly slippery and
+greasy, they seemed to be an austere and dismal set of fanatics: true
+disciples of the great Macarius, the founder of these secluded
+monasteries, and excellently calculated to figure in that grim chorus of
+his invention, or at least which is called after his name, "La danse
+Macabre," known to us by the appellation of the Dance of Death. They
+seemed to be men who fasted much and feasted little; great observers
+were they of vigils, of penance, of pilgrimages, and midnight masses;
+eaters of bitter herbs for conscience' sake. It was such men as these
+who lived on the tops of columns, and took up their abodes in tombs, and
+thought it was a sign of holiness to look like a wild beast--that it was
+wicked to be clean, and superfluous to be useful in this world; and who
+did evil to themselves that good might come. Poor fellows! they meant
+well, and knew no better; and what more can be said for the endeavours
+of the best of men?
+
+Accompanied by a still increasing number of these wild priests we
+traversed the shady garden, and came to a building with a flat roof,
+which stood in the south-east corner of the enclosure and close to the
+outer wall. This was the college or consistory of the Abyssinian monks,
+and the accompanying sketch made upon the spot will perhaps explain the
+appearance of this room better than any written description. The round
+thing upon the floor is a table upon which the dishes of their frugal
+meal were set; by the side of this low table we sat upon the ground on
+the skin of some great wild beast, which did duty as a carpet. This room
+was also their library, and on my remarking the number of books which I
+saw around me they seemed proud of their collection, and told me that
+there were not many such libraries as this in their country. There were
+perhaps nearly fifty volumes, and as the entire literature of Abyssinia
+does not include more than double that number of works, I could easily
+imagine that what I saw around me formed a very considerable
+accumulation of manuscripts, considering the barbarous state of the
+country from which they came.
+
+[Illustration: INTERIOR OF THE ABYSSINIAN LIBRARY, IN THE MONASTERY OF
+SOURIANI ON THE NATRON LAKES.
+
+Abyssinian monk clothed in leather.
+
+The dining table.
+
+The blind abbot leaning over the Author.
+
+Abyssinian monk.
+
+Coptic monk.
+
+The books hanging from wooden pegs let into the wall.
+
+The Author's Egyptian servants.]
+
+The disposition of the manuscripts in this library was very original. I
+have had no means of ascertaining whether all the libraries of Abyssinia
+are arranged in the same style. The room was about twenty-six feet long,
+twenty wide, and twelve high; the roof was formed of the trunks of palm
+trees, across which reeds were laid, which supported the mass of earth
+and plaster, of which the terrace roof was composed; the interior of the
+walls was plastered white with lime; the windows, at a good height from
+the ground, were unglazed, but were defended with bars of iron-wood or
+some other hard wood; the door opened into the garden, and its lock,
+which was of wood also, was of that peculiar construction which has been
+used in Egypt from time immemorial. A wooden shelf was carried in the
+Egyptian style round the walls, at the height of the top of the door,
+and on this shelf stood sundry platters, bottles, and dishes for the use
+of the community. Underneath the shelf various long wooden pegs
+projected from the wall; they were each about a foot and a half long,
+and on them hung the Abyssinian manuscripts, of which this curious
+library was entirely composed.
+
+The books of Abyssinia are bound in the usual way, sometimes in red
+leather and sometimes in wooden boards, which are occasionally
+elaborately carved in rude and coarse devices: they are then enclosed
+in a case, tied up with leather thongs; to this case is attached a strap
+for the convenience of carrying the volume over the shoulders, and by
+these straps the books were hung to the wooden pegs, three or four on a
+peg, or more if the books were small: their usual size was that of a
+small, very thick quarto. The appearance of the room, fitted up in this
+style, together with the presence of various long staves, such as the
+monks of all the Oriental churches lean upon at the time of prayer,
+resembled less a library than a barrack or guard-room, where the
+soldiers had hung their knapsacks and cartridge-boxes against the wall.
+
+All the members of this church militant could read fluently out of their
+own books, which is more than the Copts could do in whose monastery they
+were sojourning. Two or three, with whom I spoke, were intelligent men,
+although not much enlightened as to the affairs of this world: the
+perfume of their leather garments and oily bodies was, however, rather
+too powerful for my olfactory nerves, and after making a slight sketch
+of their library I was glad to escape into the open air of the beautiful
+garden, where I luxuriated in the shade of the palms and the
+pomegranates. The strange costumes and wild appearance of these black
+monks, and the curious arrangement of their library, the uncouth sounds
+of their singing and howling, and the clash of their cymbals in the
+ancient convent of the Natron lakes, formed a scene such as I believe
+few Europeans have witnessed.
+
+The labour required to write an Abyssinian book is immense, and
+sometimes many years are consumed in the preparation of a single volume.
+They are almost all written upon skins; the only one not written upon
+vellum that I have met with is in my own possession; it is on charta
+bombycina. The ink which they use is composed of gum, lampblack, and
+water. It is jet black, and keeps its colour for ever: indeed in this
+respect all Oriental inks are infinitely superior to ours, and they have
+the additional advantage of not being corrosive or injurious either to
+the pen or paper. Their pen is the reed commonly used in the East, only
+the nib is made sharper than that which is required to write the Arabic
+character. The ink-horn is usually the small end of a cow's horn, which
+is stuck into the ground at the feet of the scribe. In the most ancient
+Greek frescos and illuminations this kind of ink-horn is the one
+generally represented, and it seems to have been usually inserted in a
+hole in the writing-desk: no writing-desk, however, is in use among the
+children of Habesh. Seated upon the ground, the square piece of thick
+greasy vellum is held upon the knee or on the palm of the left hand.
+
+The Abyssinian alphabet consists of 8 times 26 letters, 208 characters
+in all, and these are each written distinctly and separately like the
+letters of an European printed book. They have no cursive writing; each
+letter is therefore painted, as it were, with the reed pen, and as the
+scribe finishes each he usually makes a horrible face and gives a
+triumphant flourish with his pen. Thus he goes on letter by letter, and
+before he gets to the end of the first line he is probably in a
+perspiration from his nervous apprehension of the importance of his
+undertaking. One page is a good day's work, and when he has done it he
+generally, if he is not too stiff, follows the custom of all little Arab
+boys, and swings his head or his body from side to side, keeping time to
+a sort of nasal recitative, without the help of which it would seem that
+few can read even a chapter of the Koran, although they may know it by
+heart.
+
+Some of these manuscripts are adorned with the quaintest and grimmest
+illuminations conceivable. The colours are composed of various ochres.
+In general the outlines of the figures are drawn first with the pen. The
+paint brush is made by chewing the end of a reed till it is reduced to
+filaments and then nibbling it into a proper form: the paint brushes of
+the ancient Egyptians were made in the same way, and excellent brooms
+for common purposes are made at Cairo by beating the thick end of a
+palm-branch till the fibres are separated from the pith, the part above,
+which is not beaten, becoming the handle of the broom. The Abyssinian
+having nibbled and chewed his reed till he thinks it will do, proceeds
+to fill up the spaces between the inked outlines with his colours. The
+Blessed Virgin is usually dressed in blue; the complexion of the figures
+is a brownish red, and those in my possession have a curious cast of the
+eyes, which gives them a very cunning look. St John, in a MS. which I
+have now before me, is represented with woolly hair, and has two marks
+or gashes on each side of his face, in accordance with the Abyssinian or
+Galla custom of cutting through the skin of the face, breast, and arms,
+so as to leave an indelible mark. This is done in youth, and is said to
+preserve the patient from several diseases. The colours are mixed up
+with the yolk of an egg, and the numerous mistakes and slips of the
+brush are corrected by a wipe from a wet finger or thumb, which is
+generally kept ready in the artist's mouth during the operation; and it
+is lucky if he does not give it a bite in the agony of composition, when
+with an unsteady hand the eye of some famous saint is smeared all over
+the nose by an unfortunate swerve of the nibbled reed.
+
+It is not often, however, that the arts of drawing and painting are thus
+ruthlessly mangled on the pages of their books, and notwithstanding the
+disadvantages under which the writers labour, some of these manuscripts
+are beautifully written, and are worthy of being compared with the best
+specimens of calligraphy in any language. I have a MS. containing the
+book of Enoch, and several books of the Old Testament, which is
+remarkable for the perfection of its writing, the straightness of the
+lines, and the equal size and form of the characters throughout:
+probably many years were required to finish it. The binding is of wooden
+boards, not sawn or planed, but chopped apparently out of a tree or a
+block of hard wood, a task of patience and difficulty which gives
+evidence of the enthusiasm and goodwill which have been displayed in the
+production of a work, in toiling upon which the pious man in the
+simplicity of his heart doubtless considered that he was labouring for
+the honour of the church, _ad majorem Dei gloriam_. It was this feeling
+which in the middle ages produced all those glorious works of art which
+are the admiration of modern times, and its total absence now is deeply
+to be deplored in our own country.
+
+Having satiated my curiosity as to the Abyssinian monks and their
+curious library, I returned to my own room, where I was presently joined
+by the abbot and his companion, who came for the promised bottle of
+rosoglio, which they now required the more to keep up their spirits on
+finding that the box of treasure was only a large old book. They
+murmured and talked to themselves between the cups of rosoglio, and so
+great was their disappointment that it was some time before they
+recovered the equilibrium of their minds. "You found no treasure," I
+remarked, "but I am a lover of old books; let me have the big one which
+you thought was a box and the others which I have brought out with me,
+and I will give you a certain number of piastres in exchange. By this
+arrangement we shall be both of us contented, for the money will be
+useful to you, and I should be glad to carry away the books as a
+memorial of my visit to this interesting spot." "Ah!" said the abbot.
+"Another cup of rosoglio," said I; "help yourself." "How much will you
+give?" asked the abbot. "How much do you want?" said I; "all the money I
+have with me is at your service." "How much is that?" he inquired. Out
+came the bag of money, and the agreeable sound of the clinking of the
+pieces of gold or dollars, I forget which they were, had a soothing
+effect upon the nerves of the blind man, and in short the bottle and the
+bargain were concluded at the same moment.
+
+The Coptic and Syriac manuscripts were stowed away in one side of a
+great pair of saddle-bags. "Now," said I, "we will put these in the
+other side, and you shall take it out and see the Arabs place it on the
+camel." We could not by any packing or shifting get all the books into
+the bag, and the two monks would not let me make another parcel, lest,
+as I understood, the rest of the brethren should discover what it was,
+and claim their share of the spoil. In this dreadful dilemma I looked at
+each of the books, not knowing which to leave behind, but seeing that
+the quarto was the most imperfect, I abandoned it, and I have now reason
+to believe, on seeing the manuscripts of the British Museum, that this
+was the famous book with the date of A.D. 411, the most precious
+acquisition to any library that has been made in modern times, with the
+exception, as I conceive, of some in my own collection. It is, however,
+a satisfaction to think that this book, which contains some lost
+epistles of St. Ignatius, has not been thrown away, but has fallen into
+better hands than mine.
+
+
+
+
+THE CONVENT OF THE PULLEY.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+     The Convent of the Pulley--Its inaccessible position--Difficult
+     landing on the bank of the Nile--Approach to the Convent through
+     the Rocks--Description of the Convent and its Inhabitants--Plan of
+     the Church--Books and MSS.--Ancient excavations--Stone Quarries and
+     ancient Tombs--Alarm of the Copts--Their ideas of a Sketch-book.
+
+
+The Coptic monasteries were usually built in desert or inaccessible
+places, with a view to their defence in troubled times, or in the hope
+of their escaping the observation of marauding parties, who were not
+likely to take the trouble of going much out of their way unless they
+had assured hopes of finding something better worth sacking than a poor
+convent. The access to Der el Adra, the Convent of the Virgin, more
+commonly known by the name of the Convent of the Pulley, is very
+singular. This monastery is situated on the top of the rocks of Gebel el
+terr, where a precipice above 200 feet in height is washed at its base
+by the waters of the Nile. When I visited this monastery on the 19th of
+February, 1838, there was a high wind, which rendered the management of
+my immense boat, above 80 feet long, somewhat difficult; and we were
+afraid of being dashed against the rocks if we ventured too near them in
+our attempt to land at the foot of the precipice. The monks, who were
+watching our manœuvres from above, all at once disappeared, and
+presently several of them made their appearance on the shore, issuing in
+a complete state of nudity from a cave or cleft in the face of the rock.
+These worthy brethren jumped one after another into the Nile, and
+assisted the sailors to secure the boat with ropes and anchors from the
+force of the wind. They swam like Newfoundland dogs, and, finding that
+it was impossible for the boat to reach the land, two of the reverend
+gentlemen took me on their shoulders and, wading through a shallow part
+of the river, brought me safely to the foot of the rock. When we got
+there I could not perceive any way to ascend to the monastery, but,
+following the abbot, I scrambled over the broken rocks to the entrance
+of the cave. This was a narrow fissure where the precipice had been
+split by some convulsion of nature, the opening being about the size of
+the inside of a capacious chimney. The abbot crept in at a hole at the
+bottom: he was robed in a long dark blue shirt, the front of which he
+took up and held in his teeth; and, telling me to observe where he
+placed his feet, he began to climb up the cleft with considerable
+agility. A few preliminary lessons from a chimney-sweep would now have
+been of the greatest service to me; but in this branch of art my
+education had been neglected, and it was with no small difficulty that
+I climbed up after the abbot, whom I saw striding and sprawling in the
+attitude of a spread eagle above my head. My slippers soon fell off upon
+the head of a man under me, whom, on looking down, I found to be the
+reis, or captain of my boat, whose immense turban formed the whole of
+his costume. At least twenty men were scrambling and puffing underneath
+him, most of them having their clothes tied in a bundle on their heads,
+where they had secured them when they swam or waded to the shore. Arms
+and legs were stretched out in all manner of attitudes, the forms of the
+more distant climbers being lost in the gloom of the narrow cavern up
+which we were advancing, the procession being led by the unrobed
+ecclesiastics. Having climbed up about 120 feet, we emerged in a fine
+perspiration upon a narrow ledge of the rock on the face of the
+precipice, which had an unpleasant slope towards the Nile. It was as
+slippery as glass; and I felt glad that I had lost my shoes, as I had a
+firmer footing without them. We turned to the right, and climbing a
+projection of the rock seven or eight feet high--rather a nervous
+proceeding at such a height to those who were unaccustomed to it--we
+gained a more level space, from which a short steep pathway brought us
+to the top of the precipice, whence I looked down with much
+self-complacency upon my companion who was standing on the deck of the
+vessel.
+
+The convent stands about two hundred paces to the north of the place
+where we ascended. It had been originally built of small square stones
+of Roman workmanship; but, having fallen into decay, it had been
+repaired with mud and sunburnt bricks. Its ground plan was nearly a
+square, and its general appearance outside was that of a large pound or
+a small kitchen garden, the walls being about 20 feet high and each side
+of the square extending about 200 feet, without any windows or
+architectural decoration. I entered by a low doorway on the side towards
+the cliff, and found myself in a yard of considerable size full of
+cocks, hens, women, and children, who were all cackling and talking
+together at the top of their shrill voices. A large yellow-coloured dog,
+who was sleeping in the sunshine in the midst of all this din, was
+awakened by its cessation as I entered. He greeted my arrival with a
+growl, upon which he was assailed with a volley of stones and invectives
+by the ladies whom he had intended to protect. Every man, woman, and
+child came out to have a peep at the stranger, but when my numerous
+followers, many in habiliments of the very slightest description,
+crowded into the court, the ladies took fright, and there was a general
+rush into the house, the old women hiding their faces without a moment's
+delay, but the younger ones taking more time in the adjustment of their
+veils. When peace was in some measure restored, and the poor dog had
+been pelted into a hole, the abbot, who had now permitted his long shirt
+to resume its usual folds, conducted me to the church, which was
+speedily filled with the crowd. It was interesting from its great
+antiquity, having been founded, as they told me, by a rich lady of the
+name of Halané, who was the daughter of a certain Kostandi, king of
+Roum. The church is partly subterranean, being built in the recesses of
+an ancient stone-quarry; the other parts of it are of stone plastered
+over. The roof is flat and is formed of horizontal beams of palm trees,
+upon which a terrace of reeds and earth is laid. The height of the
+interior is about 25 feet. On entering the door we had to descend a
+flight of narrow steps, which led into a side aisle about ten feet wide,
+and which is divided from the nave by octagon columns of great thickness
+supporting the walls of a sort of clerestory. The columns were
+surmounted by heavy square plinths almost in the Egyptian style.
+
+As I consider this church to be interesting from its being half a
+catacomb, or cave, and one of the earliest Christian buildings which has
+preserved its originality, I subjoin a plan of it, by which it will be
+seen that it is constructed on the principle of a Latin basilica, as the
+buildings of the Empress Helena usually were; the Byzantine style of
+architecture, the plan of which partook of the form of a Greek cross,
+being a later invention; for the earliest Christian churches were not
+cruciform, and seldom had transepts, nor were they built with any
+reference to the points of the compass.[8]
+
+[Illustration: Plan of the church, the convent of the Pulley.
+
+1. Altar.
+
+2. Apsis, apparently cut out of the rock.
+
+3. Two Corinthian columns.
+
+4. Wooden partitions of lattice-work, about 10 ft. high.
+
+5. Steps leading up to the sanctuary.
+
+6. Two three-quarter columns.
+
+7. Eight columns.[6]
+
+8. Dark room cut out of the rock (there is another corresponding to it
+under the steps).[7]
+
+9. Steps leading down into the church.
+
+10. Screen before the Altar.]
+
+The ancient divisions of the church are also more strictly preserved in
+this edifice than in the churches of the West; the priests or monks
+standing above the steps (marked No. 5), the celebrant of the sacrament
+only going behind the screen (No. 10); the bulk of the congregation
+stand, there are no seats below the steps (No. 5), and the place for the
+women is behind the screen marked No. 4. The church is very dimly
+lighted by small apertures in the walls of the clerestory, above the
+columns, and the part about the apsis is nearly dark in the middle of
+the day, candles being always necessary during the reading of the
+service. The two Corinthian columns are of brick, plastered; they are
+not fluted, but are of good proportions and appear to be original. The
+apsis is of regular Grecian or Roman architecture, and is ornamented
+with six pilasters, and three niches in which are kept the books,
+cymbals, candlesticks, and other things which are used for the daily
+service. Here I found twenty-three manuscript books, fifteen in Coptic
+with Arabic translations, for the Coptic language is now understood by
+few, and eight Arabic manuscripts. The Coptic books were all liturgies:
+one of them, a folio, was ornamented with a large illumination, intended
+to represent the Virgin and the infant Saviour; it is almost the only
+specimen of Coptic art that I ever met with in a book, and its style and
+execution are so poor, that, perhaps, it is fortunate that they should
+be so rare. The Arabic books, which, as well as the Coptic, were all on
+cotton-paper, consisted of extracts from the New Testament and lives of
+the saints.
+
+I had been told that there was a great chest bound with iron, which was
+kept in a vault in this monastery, full of ancient books on vellum, and
+which was not to be opened without the consent of the Patriarch; I
+could, however, make out nothing of this story, but it does not follow
+that this chest of ancient manuscripts does not exist; for, surrounded
+as I was by crowds of gaping Copts and Arabs, I could not expect the
+abbot to be very communicative; and they have from long oppression
+acquired such a habit of denying the fact of their having anything in
+their possession, that, perhaps, there may still be treasures here which
+some future traveller may discover.
+
+While I was turning over the books, the contents of which I was able to
+decypher, from the similarity of the Coptic to the Greek alphabet, the
+people were very much astonished at my erudition, which appeared to them
+almost miraculous. They whispered to each other, and some said I must be
+a foreign Copt, who had returned to the land of his fathers. They asked
+my servant all manner of questions; but when he told them that he did
+not believe I knew a word of Coptic, their astonishment was increased to
+fear. I must be a magician, they said, and some kept a sharp look-out
+for the door, to which there was an immediate rush when I turned round.
+The whole assembly were puzzled, for in their simplicity they were not
+aware that people sometimes pore over books, and read them too, without
+understanding them, in other languages besides Coptic.
+
+We emerged from the subterranean church, which, being half sunk in the
+earth and surrounded by buildings, had nothing remarkable in its
+exterior architecture, and ascended to the terrace on the roof of the
+convent, whence we had a view of numerous ancient stone quarries in the
+desert to the east. They appeared to be of immense extent; the convent
+itself and two adjoining burial-grounds were all ensconced in the
+ancient limestone excavations.
+
+I am inclined to think, that although all travellers in Egypt pass along
+the river below this convent, few have visited its interior. It is now
+more a village than a monastery, properly speaking, as it is inhabited
+by numerous Coptic families who are not connected with the monks. These
+poor people were so surprised at my appearance, and watched all my
+actions with such intense curiosity, that I imagine they had scarcely
+ever seen a stranger before. They crowded every place where I was likely
+to pass, staring and gaping, and chattering to each other. Being much
+pressed with the throng in the court-yard, I made a sudden spring
+towards one of the little girls who was foremost in the crowd, uttering
+a shout at the same time as if I was going to seize her as she stood
+gazing open-mouthed at me. She screamed and tumbled down with fright,
+and the whole multitude of women and children scampered off as fast as
+their legs could carry them. Some fell down, others tumbled over them,
+making an indescribable confusion; but being reassured by the laughter
+of my party, they soon stopped and began laughing and talking with
+greater energy than before. At length I took refuge in the room of the
+superior, who gave me some coffee, with spices in it; and soon
+afterwards I took leave of this singular community.
+
+We walked to some quarries about two miles off to the north-east, which
+well repaid our visit The rocks were cut into the most extraordinary
+forms. There were several grottos, and also an ancient tomb with
+hieroglyphics sculptured on the rock. Among these I saw the names of
+Rameses II. and some other kings. Near this tomb is a large tablet on
+which is a bas-relief of a king making an offering to a deity with the
+head of a crocodile, whose name, according to Wilkinson, was Savak: he
+was worshipped at Ombos and Thebes, but was held in such small respect
+at Dendera that the inhabitants of that place made war upon the men of
+Ombos, and ate one of their prisoners, in emulation probably of the god
+he worshipped. Indeed, they appear to have considered the inhabitants of
+that city to have been a sort of vermin which it was incumbent upon all
+sensible Egyptians to destroy whenever they had an opportunity.
+
+In one place among the quarries a large rock has been left standing by
+itself with two apertures, like doorways, cut through it, giving it the
+resemblance of a propylon or the front of a house. It is not more than
+ten feet thick, although it is eighty or ninety feet long, and fifty
+high. Near it a huge slab projects horizontally from the precipice,
+supported at its outer edge by a single column. Some of the Copts, whose
+curiosity appeared to be insatiable, had followed us to these quarries,
+for the mere pleasure of staring at us. One of them, observing me making
+a sketch, came and peeped over my shoulder. "This Frank," said he to his
+friends, "has got a book that eats all these stones, and our monastery
+besides." "Ah!" said the other, "I suppose there are no stones in his
+country, so he wants to take some of ours away to show his countrymen
+what fine things we have here in Egypt; there is no place like Egypt,
+after all. Mashallah!"
+
+
+
+
+RUINED MONASTERY AT THEBES.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+     Ruined Monastery in the Necropolis of Thebes--"Mr. Hay's Tomb"--The
+     Coptic Carpenter--His acquirements and troubles--He agrees to show
+     the MSS. belonging to the ruined Monastery, which are under his
+     charge--Night visit to the Tomb in which they are concealed--Perils
+     of the way--Description of the Tomb--Probably in former times a
+     Christian Church--Examination of the Coptic MSS.--Alarming
+     interruption--Hurried flight from the Evil Spirits--Fortunate
+     escape--Appearance of the Evil Spirit--Observations on Ghost
+     Stories--The Legend of the Old Woman of Berkeley considered.
+
+
+On a rocky hill, perforated on all sides by the violated sepulchres of
+the ancient Egyptians, in the great Necropolis of Thebes, not far from
+the ruins of the palace and temple of Medinet Habou, stand the crumbling
+walls of an old Coptic monastery, which I was told had been inhabited,
+almost within the memory of man, by a small community of Christian
+monks. I was living at this period in a tomb, which was excavated in the
+side of the precipice, above Sheick Abd el Gournoo. It had been rendered
+habitable by some slight alterations, and a little garden was made on
+the terrace in front of it, whence the view was very remarkable. The
+whole of the vast ruins of Thebes were stretched out below it; whilst,
+beyond the mighty Nile, the huge piles of Luxor and Carnac loomed dark
+and mysterious in the distance, which was bounded by the arid chain of
+the Arabian mountains, the outline of their wild tops showing clear and
+hard against the cloudless sky. This habitation was known by the name of
+"Mr. Hay's tomb." The memory of this gentleman is held in the highest
+honour and reverence by the villagers of the surrounding districts, who
+look back to the time of his residence among them as the only
+satisfactory period of their miserable existence.
+
+One of the numerous admirers of Mr. Hay, among the poorer inhabitants of
+the neighbourhood, was a Coptic carpenter, a man of no small natural
+genius and talent, who in any other country would have risen above the
+sphere of his comrades if any opportunity of distinguishing himself had
+offered. He could read and write Coptic and Arabic; he had some
+knowledge of astronomy, and some said of magic also; and he was a very
+tolerable carpenter, although the only tools which he was able to
+procure were of the roughest sort. In all these accomplishments he was
+entirely self-taught; while his poverty was such that his costume
+consisted of nothing but a short shirt, or tunic, made of a homespun
+fabric of goat's hair, or wool, and a common felt skull-cap, with some
+rags twisted round it for a turban. With higher acquirements than the
+governor of the district, the poor Copt was hardly able to obtain bread
+to eat; and indeed it was only from the circumstance of his being a
+Christian that he and the other males of his family were not swept away
+in the conscription which has depopulated Egypt under the present
+government more than all the pillage and massacres and internal feuds of
+the followers of the Mameluke Beys.
+
+On those numerous occasions when the carpenter had nothing else to do,
+he used to come and talk to me; and endeavour to count up, upon his
+fingers, how often he had "_eat stick_;" that is, had been beaten by one
+Turkish officer or another for his inability to pay the tax to the
+Pasha, the tooth-money to some kawass, the forced contribution to the
+Nazir, or some other expected or unexpected call upon his empty
+pocket,--an appendage to his dress, by the by, which he did not possess;
+for having nothing in the world to put in it, a pocket was clearly of no
+use to him. The carpenter related to me the history of the ruined Coptic
+monastery; and I found that its library was still in existence. It was
+carefully concealed from the Mahomedans, as a sacred treasure; and my
+friend the carpenter was the guardian of the volumes belonging to his
+fallen church. After some persuasion he agreed, in consideration of my
+being a Christian, to let me see them; but he said I must go to the
+place where they were concealed at night, in order that no one might
+follow our steps; and he further stipulated that none of the Mahomedan
+servants should accompany us, but that I should go alone with him. I
+agreed to all this; and on the appointed night I sallied forth with the
+carpenter after dark. There were not many stars visible; and we had only
+just light enough to see our way across the plain of Thebes, or rather
+among the low hills and narrow valleys above the plain, which are so
+entirely honeycombed with ancient tombs and mummy pits that they
+resemble a rabbit warren on a large scale. Skulls and bones were strewed
+on our path; and often at the mouths of tombs the night wind would raise
+up fragments of the bandages which the sacrilegious hand of the Frankish
+spoilers of the dead had torn from the bodies of the Egyptian mummies in
+search of the scarabæi, amulets, and ornaments which are found upon the
+breast of the deceased subjects of the Pharaohs.
+
+Away we went stumbling over ruins, and escaping narrowly the fate of
+those who descend into the tomb before their time. Sometimes we heard a
+howl, which the carpenter said came from a hyena, prowling like
+ourselves among the graves, though on a very different errand. We kept
+on our way, by many a dark ruin and yawning cave, breaking our shins
+against the fallen stones until I was almost tired of the journey, which
+in the darkness seemed interminable; nor had I any idea where the
+carpenter was leading me. At last, after a fatiguing walk, we descended
+suddenly into a place something like a gravel pit, one side of which was
+closed by the perpendicular face of a low cliff, in which a doorway half
+filled up with rubbish betokened the existence of an ancient tomb. By
+the side of this doorway sat a little boy, whom I discovered by the
+light of the moon, which had just risen, to be the carpenter's son, an
+intelligent lad, who often came to pay me a visit in company with his
+father. It was here that the Coptic manuscripts were concealed, and it
+was a spot well chosen for the purpose; for although I thought I had
+wandered about the Necropolis of Thebes in every direction, I had never
+stumbled upon this place before, neither could I ever find it
+afterwards, although I rode in that direction several times.
+
+I now produced from my pocket three candles, which the carpenter had
+desired me to bring, one for him, one for his son, and one for myself.
+Having lit them, we entered into the doorway of the tomb, and passing
+through a short passage, found ourselves in a great sepulchral hall. The
+earth and sand which had been blown into the entrance formed an inclined
+plane, sloping downwards to another door sculptured with hieroglyphics,
+through which we passed into a second chamber, on the other side of
+which was a third doorway, leading into a magnificent subterranean hall,
+divided into three aisles by four square columns, two on each side.
+There may have been six columns, but I think there were only four. The
+walls and columns, or rather square piers which supported the roof,
+retained the brilliant white which is so much to be admired in the tombs
+of the kings and other stately sepulchres. On the walls were various
+hieroglyphics, and on the square piers tall figures of the gods of the
+infernal regions--Kneph, Khonso, and Osiris--were portrayed in brilliant
+colours, with their immense caps or crowns, and the heads of the jackal
+and other beasts. At the further end of this chamber was a stone altar,
+standing upon one or two steps, in an apsis or semicircular recess. As
+this is not usual in Egyptian tombs, I have since thought that this had
+probably been altered by the Copts in early times, and that, like the
+Christians of the West in the days of their persecution, they had met in
+secret in the tombs for the celebration of their rites, and had made use
+of this hall as a church, in the same way as we see the remains of
+chapels and places of worship in the catacombs of Rome and Syracuse. The
+inner court of the Temple of Medinet Habou has also been converted into
+a Christian church; and the worthy Copts have daubed over the
+beautifully executed pictures of Rameses II. with a coat of plaster,
+upon which they have painted the grim figures of St. George, and various
+old frightful saints and hermits, whose uncouth forms would almost give
+one the idea of their having served for a system of idolatry much less
+refined than the worship of the ancient gods of the heathen, whose
+places they have usurped in these gigantic temples.
+
+The Coptic manuscripts, of which I was in search, were lying upon the
+steps of the altar, except one, larger than the rest, which was placed
+upon the altar itself. They were about eight or nine in number, all
+brown and musty looking books, written on cotton paper, or charta
+bombycina, a material in use in very early times. An edict or charter,
+on paper, exists, or at least did exist two years ago, in the museum of
+the Jesuits' College, called the Colleggio Romano, at Rome: its date was
+of the sixth century; and I have a Coptic manuscript written on paper of
+this kind, which was finished, as appears by a note at the end, in the
+year 1018: these are the oldest dates that I have met with in any
+manuscripts on paper.
+
+Having found these ancient books we proceeded to examine their contents,
+and to accomplish this at our ease, we stuck the candles on the ground,
+and the carpenter and I sat down before them, while his son brought us
+the volumes from the steps of the altar, one by one.
+
+The first which came to hand was a dusty quarto, smelling of incense,
+and well spotted with yellow wax, with all its leaves dogs-eared or worn
+round with constant use: this was a MS. of the lesser festivals. Another
+appeared to be of the same kind; a third was also a book for the church
+service. We puzzled over the next two or three, which seemed to be
+martyrologies, or lives of the saints; but while we were poring over
+them, we thought we heard a noise. "Oh! father of hammers," said I to
+the carpenter, "I think I heard a noise: what could it be?--I thought I
+heard something move." "Did you, hawaja?" (O merchant), said the
+carpenter; "it must have been my son moving the books, for what else
+could there be here?--No one knows of this tomb or of the holy
+manuscripts which it contains. Surely there can be nothing here to make
+a noise, for are we not here alone, a hundred feet under the earth, in a
+place where no one comes?--It is nothing: certainly it is nothing;" and
+so saying, he lifted up one of the candles and peered about in the
+darkness; but as there was nothing to be seen, and all was silent as the
+grave, he sat down again, and at our leisure we completed our
+examination of all the books which lay upon the steps.
+
+They proved to be all church books, liturgies for different seasons, or
+homilies; and not historical, nor of any particular interest, either
+from their age or subject. There now remained only the great book upon
+the altar, a ponderous quarto, bound either in brown leather or wooden
+boards; and this the carpenter's son with difficulty lifted from its
+place, and laid it down before us on the ground; but, as he did so, we
+heard the noise again. The carpenter and I looked at each other: he
+turned pale--perhaps I did so too; and we looked over our shoulders in
+a sort of anxious, nervous kind of way, expecting to see something--we
+did not know what. However, we saw nothing; and, feeling a little
+ashamed, I again settled myself before the three candle-ends, and opened
+the book, which was written in large black characters of unusual size.
+As I bent over the huge volume, to see what it was about, suddenly there
+arose a sound somewhere in the cavern, but from whence it came I could
+not comprehend; it seemed all round us at the same moment. There was no
+room for doubt now: it was a fearful howling, like the roar of a hundred
+wild beasts. The carpenter looked aghast: the tall and grisly figures of
+the Egyptian gods seemed to stare at us from the walls. I thought of
+Cornelius Agrippa, and felt a gentle perspiration coming on which would
+have betokened a favourable crisis in a fever. Suddenly the dreadful
+roar ceased, and as its echoes died away in the tomb, we felt
+considerably relieved, and were beginning to try and put a good face
+upon the matter, when, to our unutterable horror, it began again, and
+waxed louder and louder, as if legions of infernal spirits were let
+loose upon us. We could stand this no longer: the carpenter and I jumped
+up from the ground, and his son in his terror stumbled over the great
+Coptic manuscript, and fell upon the candles, which were all put out in
+a moment; his screams were now added to the uproar which resounded in
+the cave: seeing the twinkling of a star through the vista of the two
+outer chambers, we all set off as hard as we could run, our feelings of
+alarm being increased to desperation when we perceived that something
+was chasing us in the darkness, while the roar seemed to increase every
+moment. How we did tear along! The devil take the hindmost seemed about
+to be literally fulfilled; and we raised stifling clouds of dust, as we
+scrambled up the steep slope which led to the outer door. "So then,"
+thought I, "the stories of gins, and ghouls, and goblins, that I have
+read of and never believed, must be true after all, and in this city of
+the dead it has been our evil lot to fall upon a haunted tomb!"
+
+Breathless and bewildered, the carpenter and I bolted out of this
+infernal palace into the open air, mightily relieved at our escape from
+the darkness and the terrors of the subterranean vaults. We had not been
+out a moment, and had by no means collected our ideas, before our alarm
+was again excited to its utmost pitch.
+
+The evil one came forth in bodily shape, and stood revealed to our eyes
+distinctly in the pale light of the moon.
+
+While we were gazing upon the appearance, the carpenter's son, whom we
+had quite forgotten in our hurry, came creeping out of the doorway of
+the tomb upon his hands and knees.
+
+"Why, father!" said he, after a moment's silence, "if that is not old
+Fatima's donkey, which has been lost these two days! It is lucky that we
+have found it, for it must have wandered into this tomb, and it might
+have been starved if we had not met with it to-night."
+
+The carpenter looked rather ashamed of the adventure; and as for myself,
+though I was glad that nothing worse had come of it, I took comfort in
+the reflection that I was not the first person who had been alarmed by
+the proceedings of an ass.
+
+I have related the history of this adventure because I think that, on
+some foundation like this, many well-accredited ghost stories may have
+been founded. Numerous legends and traditions, which appear to be
+supernatural or miraculous, and the truth of which has been attested and
+sworn to by credible witnesses, have doubtless arisen out of facts which
+actually did occur, but of which some essential particulars have been
+either concealed, or had escaped notice; and thus many marvellous
+histories have gone abroad, which are so well attested, that although
+common sense forbids their being believed, they cannot be proved to be
+false. In this case, if the donkey had not fortunately come out and
+shown himself, I should certainly have returned to Europe half impressed
+with the belief that something supernatural had occurred, which was in
+some mysterious manner connected with the opening of the magic volume
+which we had taken from the altar in the tomb. The echoes of the
+subterranean cave so altered the sound of the donkey's bray, that I
+never should have discovered that these fearful sounds had so
+undignified an origin; a story never loses by telling, and with a little
+gradual exaggeration it would soon have become one of the best
+accredited supernatural histories in the country.
+
+The well-known story of the old woman of Berkeley has been read with
+wonder and dread for at least four hundred years: it is to be found in
+early manuscripts; it is related by Olaus Magnus, and is to be seen
+illustrated by a woodcut, both in the German and Latin editions of the
+'Nuremberg Chronicle,' which was printed in the year 1493. There is no
+variation in the legend, which is circumstantially the same in all these
+books. Without doubt it was partly founded upon fact, or, as in the case
+of the story of the Theban tomb, some circumstances have been omitted
+which make all the difference; and a natural though perhaps
+extraordinary occurrence has been handed down for centuries, as a
+fearful instance of the power of the evil one in this world over those
+who have given themselves up to the practice of tremendous crimes.
+
+There are many supernatural stories, which we are certain cannot by any
+possibility be true; but which nevertheless are as well attested, and
+apparently as fully proved, as any facts in the most veracious history.
+Under circumstances of alarm or temporary hallucination people
+frequently believe that they have had supernatural visitations. Even the
+tricks of conjurers, which have been witnessed by a hundred persons at a
+time, are totally incomprehensible to the uninitiated; and in the middle
+ages, when these practices were resorted to for religious or political
+ends, it is more than probable that many occurrences which were supposed
+to be supernatural might have been explained, if all the circumstances
+connected with them had been fairly and openly detailed by an impartial
+witness.
+
+
+
+
+THE WHITE MONASTERY.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+     The White Monastery--Abou Shenood--Devastations of the
+     Mamelukes--Description of the Monastery--Different styles of its
+     exterior and interior Architecture--Its ruinous
+     condition--Description of the Church--The Baptistery--Ancient Rites
+     of Baptism--The Library--Modern Architecture--The Church of San
+     Francesco at Rimini--The Red Monastery--Alarming rencontre with an
+     armed party--Feuds between the native Tribes--Faction
+     fights--Eastern Story Tellers--Legends of the Desert--Abraham and
+     Sarah--Legendary Life of Moses--Arabian Story-tellers--Attention of
+     their Audience.
+
+
+Mounting our noble Egyptian steeds, or in other words having engaged a
+sufficient number of little braying donkeys, which the peasants brought
+down to the river side, and put our saddles on them, we cantered in an
+hour and a half from the village of Souhag to the White Monastery, which
+is known to the Arabs by the name of Derr abou Shenood. Who the great
+Abou Shenood had the honour to be, and what he had done to be canonized,
+I could meet with no one to tell me. He was, I believe, a Mahomedan
+saint, and this Coptic monastery had been in some sort placed under the
+shadow of his protection, in the hopes of saving it from the
+persecutions of the faithful. Abou Shenood, however, does not appear to
+have done his duty, for the White Monastery has been ruined and sacked
+over and over again. The last outrage upon the unfortunate monastery
+occurred about 1812, when the Mamelukes who had encamped upon the plains
+of Itfou, having no better occupation, amused themselves by burning all
+the houses, and killing all the people in the neighbourhood. Since that
+time the monks having returned one by one, and finding that no one took
+the trouble to molest them, began to repair the convent, the interior of
+which had been gutted by the Mamelukes; but the immense strength of the
+outer walls had resisted all their efforts to destroy them.
+
+The peculiarity of this monastery is, that the interior was once a
+magnificent basilica, while the exterior was built by the Empress
+Helena, in the ancient Egyptian style. The walls slope inwards towards
+the summit, where they are crowned with a deep overhanging cornice. The
+building is of an oblong shape, about two hundred feet in length by
+ninety wide, very well built, of fine blocks of stone; it has no windows
+outside larger than loopholes, and these are at a great height from the
+ground. Of these there are twenty on the south side and nine at the east
+end. The monastery stands at the foot of the hill, on the edge of the
+Libyan desert, where the sand encroaches on the plain. It looks like the
+sanctuary, or cella, of an ancient temple, and is not unlike the
+bastion of an old-fashioned fortification; except one solitary doom
+tree, it stands quite alone, and has a most desolate aspect, backed, as
+it is, by the sandy desert, and without any appearance of a garden,
+either within or outside its walls. The ancient doorway of red granite,
+on the south side, has been partially closed up, leaving an opening just
+large enough to admit one person at a time.
+
+The door was closed, and we shouted in vain for admittance. We then
+tried the effect of a double knock in the Grosvenor Square style with a
+large stone, but that was of no use; so I got one still larger, and
+banged away at the door with all my might, shouting at the same time
+that we were friends and Christians. After some minutes a small voice
+was heard inside, and several questions being satisfactorily answered,
+we were let in by a monk; and passing through the narrow door, I found
+myself surrounded by piles of ruined buildings of various ages, among
+which the tall granite columns of the ancient church reared themselves
+like an avenue on either side of the desecrated nave, which is now open
+to the sky, and is used as a promenade for a host of chickens. Some
+goats also were perched upon fragments of ruined walls, and looked
+cunningly at us as we invaded their domain. I saw some Coptic women
+peeping at me from the windows of some wretched hovels of mud and
+brick, which they had built up in corners among the ancient ruins like
+swallows' nests.
+
+There were but three poor priests. The principal one led us to the upper
+part of the church, which had lately been repaired and walled off from
+the open nave; and enclosed the apsis and transepts, which had been
+restored in some measure, and fitted for the performance of divine
+service. The half domes of the apsis and two transepts, which were of
+well-built masonry, were still entire, and the original frescos remain
+upon them. Those in the transepts are stiff figures of saints; and in
+the one over the altar is the great figure of the Redeemer, such as is
+usually met with in the mosaics of the Italian basilicas. These apsides
+are above fifty feet from the ground, which gives them a dignity of
+appearance, and leaves greater cause to regret the destruction of the
+nave, which, with its clerestory, must have been still higher. There
+appear to have been fifteen columns on each side of the centre aisle,
+and two at the end opposite the altar, which in this instance I believe
+is at the west end. The roof over the part of the east end, which has
+been fitted up as a church, is supported by four square modern piers of
+plastered brick or rubble work. On the side walls, above the altar,
+there are some circular compartments containing paintings of the saints;
+and near these are two tablets with inscriptions in black on a white
+ground. That on the left appeared to be in Abyssinian: the one on the
+other side was either Coptic or uncial Greek; but it was too dark, and
+the tablet was too high, to enable me to make it out There is also a
+long Greek inscription in red letters on one of the modern square piers,
+which looks as if it was of considerable antiquity; and the whole
+interior of the building bears traces of having been repaired and
+altered, more than once, in ancient times. The richly ornamented
+recesses of the three apsides have been smeared over with plaster, on
+which some tremendously grim saints have been portrayed, whose present
+threadbare appearance shows that they have disfigured the walls for
+several centuries. Some comparatively modern capitals, of bad design,
+have been placed upon two or three of the granite columns of the nave;
+and others, which were broken, have been patched with brick, plastered
+and painted to look like granite. The principal entrance was formerly at
+the west end; where there is a small vestibule, immediately within the
+door of which, on the left hand, is a small chapel, perhaps the
+baptistery, about twenty-five feet long, and still in tolerable
+preservation. It is a splendid specimen of the richest Roman
+architecture of the latter empire, and is truly an imperial little room.
+The arched ceiling is of stone; and there are three beautifully
+ornamented niches on each side. The upper end is semicircular, and has
+been entirely covered with a profusion of sculpture in panels,
+cornices, and every kind of architectural enrichment When it was entire,
+and covered with gilding, painting, or mosaic, it must have been most
+gorgeous. The altar on such a chapel as this was probably of gold, set
+full of gems; or if it was the baptistery, as I suppose, it most likely
+contained a bath, of the most precious jasper, or of some of the more
+rare kinds of marble, for the immersion of the converted heathen, whose
+entrance into the church was not permitted until they had been purified
+with the waters of baptism in a building without the door of the house
+of God; an appropriate custom, which was not broken in upon for ages;
+and even then the infant was only brought just inside the door, where
+the font was placed on the left hand of the entrance; a judicious
+practice, which is completely set at nought in England, where the
+squalling imp often distracts the attention of the congregation; and is
+finally sprinkled, instead of being immersed, the whole ceremony having
+been so much altered and pared down from its original symbolic form,
+that were a Christian of the early ages to return upon the earth, he
+would be unable to recognise its meaning.
+
+The conventual library consisted of only half-a-dozen well-waxed and
+well-thumbed liturgies; but one of the priests told me that they boasted
+formerly of above a hundred volumes written on leather (gild razali),
+gazelle skins, probably vellum, which were destroyed by the Mamelukes
+during their last pillage of the convent.
+
+The habitations of the monks, according to the original design of this
+very curious building, were contained in a long slip on the south side
+of the church, where their cells were lit by the small loopholes seen
+from the outside. Of these cells none now remain: they must have been
+famously hot, exposed as they were all day long to the rays of the
+southern sun; but probably the massive thickness of the walls and arched
+ceilings reduced the temperature. There was no court or open space
+within the convent; the only place where its inhabitants could have
+walked for exercise in the open air was upon the flat terrace of the
+roof, the deck of this ship of St Peter; for the White Monastery in some
+respects resembled a dismasted man-of-war, anchored in a sea of burning
+sand.
+
+In modern times we are not surprised on finding a building erected at an
+immense expense, in which the architecture of the interior is totally
+different from that of the exterior. A Brummagem Gothic house is
+frequently furnished and ornamented within in what is called "_a chaste
+Greek style_," and _vice versâ_. A Grecian house--that is to say, a
+square white block, with square holes in it for windows, and a portico
+in front--is sometimes inhabited by an antiquarian, who fits it up with
+Gothic furniture, and a Gothic paper designed by a crafty paper-hanger
+in the newest style. But in ancient days it was very rare to see such a
+mixture. I am surprised that the architect of the enthusiastic empress
+did not go on with the interior of this building as he had begun the
+exterior. The great hall of Carnac would have afforded him a grand
+example of an aisle with a clerestory, and side windows, with stone
+mullions, which would have answered his purpose, in the Egyptian style.
+The only other instance of this kind, where two distinct styles of
+architecture were employed in the middle ages on the inside and outside
+of the same building, is in the church of St. Francesco, at Rimini,
+which was built by Sigismond Malatesta as a last resting-place for
+himself and his friends. He lies in a Gothic shrine within; and the
+bodies of the great men of his day repose in sarcophagi of classic forms
+outside; each of which stands in the recess of a Roman arch, in which
+style of architecture the exterior of the building is erected.
+
+About two miles to the north of the White Monastery, in a small village
+sheltered by a grove of palms, stands another ancient building called
+the Red Monastery.
+
+On our return to Souhag we met a party of men on foot, who were armed
+with spears, shields, and daggers, and one or two with guns. They were
+led by a man on horseback, who was completely armed with all sorts of
+warlike implements. They stopped us, and began to talk to our followers,
+who were exceedingly civil in their behaviour, for the appearance of the
+party was of a doubtful character; and we felt relieved when we found
+that we were not to be robbed, but that our friends were on an
+expedition against the men of Tahta, who some time ago had killed a man
+belonging to their village, and they were going to avenge his death.
+This was only one detachment of many that had assembled in the
+neighbouring villages, each headed by its sheick, or the sheick's son,
+if the father was an old man. The numbers engaged in this feud amounted,
+they told us, to between two and three hundred men on each side. Every
+now and then, it seems, when they have got in their harvest, they
+assemble to have a fight. Several are wounded, and sometimes a few are
+killed; in which case, if the numbers of the slain are not equal, the
+feud continues; and so it goes on from generation to generation, like a
+faction fight in Ireland, or the feudal wars of the barons of the middle
+ages,--a style of things which appears to belong to the nature of the
+human race, and not to any particular country, age, or faith.
+
+[Illustration: MENDICANT DERVISH.]
+
+Parting from this warlike band with mutual compliments and good wishes,
+and our guides each seizing the tail of one of our donkeys to increase
+his onward speed, we trotted away back to the boat, which was waiting
+for us at Souhag. There we found our boatmen and a crowd of villagers,
+listening to one of those long stories with which the inhabitants of
+Egypt are wont to enliven their hours of inactivity. This is an
+amusement peculiar to the East, and it is one in which I took great
+delight during many a long journey through the deserts on the way
+to Mount Sinai, Syria, and other places. The Arabs are great tellers of
+stories; and some of them have a peculiar knack in rendering them
+interesting and exciting the curiosity of their audience. Many of these
+stories were interesting from their reference to persons and occurrences
+of Holy Writ, particularly of the Old Testament. There are many legends
+of the patriarch Abraham and his beautiful wife Sarah, who, excepting
+Eve, is said to have been the fairest of all the daughters of the earth.
+King Solomon is the hero of numerous strange legends; and his adventures
+with the gnomes and genii who were subjected to his sway are endless.
+The poem of Yousef and Zuleica is well known in Europe. And the
+traditions relating to the prophet Moses are so numerous, that, with the
+help of a very curious manuscript of an apocryphal book ascribed to the
+great leader of the Jews, I have been enabled to compile a connected
+biography, in which many curious circumstances are detailed that are
+said to have taken place during his eventful life, and which concludes
+with a highly poetical legend of his death. Many of the stories told by
+the Arabs resemble those of the _Arabian Nights_; and a large proportion
+of these are not very refined.
+
+I have often been greatly amused with watching the faces of an audience
+who were listening to a well-told story, some eagerly leaning forward,
+others smoking their pipes with quicker puffs, when something
+extraordinary was related, or when the hero of the story had got into
+some apparently inextricable dilemma. These story-telling parties are
+usually to be seen seated in a circle on the ground in a shady place.
+The donkey-boy will stop and gape open-mouthed on overhearing a few
+words of the marvellous adventures of some enchanted prince, and will
+look back at his four-footed companion, fearing lest he should resume
+his original form of a merchant from the island of Serendib. The
+greatest tact is required on the part of the narrator to prevent the
+dispersion of his audience, who are sometimes apt to melt away on his
+stopping at what he considers a peculiarly interesting point, and taking
+that opportunity of sending round his boy with a little brass basin to
+collect paras. I know of few subjects better suited for a painter than
+one of these story-tellers and his group of listeners.
+
+
+
+
+THE ISLAND OF PHILŒ, &c.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+     The Island of Philœ--The Cataract of Assouan--The Burial Place of
+     Osiris--The Great Temple of Philœ--The Bed of Pharaoh--Shooting in
+     Egypt--Turtle Doves--Story of the Prince Anas el Ajoud--Egyptian
+     Songs--Vow of the Turtle Dove--Curious fact in Natural History--The
+     Crocodile and its Guardian Bird--Arab notions regarding
+     Animals--Legend of King Solomon and the Hoopoes--Natives of the
+     country round the Cataracts of the Nile--Their appearance and
+     Costume--The beautiful Mouna--Solitary Visit to the Island of
+     Philœ--Quarrel between two native Boys--Singular instance of
+     retributive Justice.
+
+
+Every part of Egypt is interesting and curious, but the only place to
+which the epithet of beautiful can be correctly applied is the island of
+Philœ, which is situated immediately to the south of the cataract of
+Assouan. The scenery around consists of an infinity of steep granite
+rocks, which stand, some in the water, others on the land, all of them
+of the wildest and most picturesque forms. The cataract itself cannot be
+seen from the island of Philœ, being shut out by an intervening rock,
+whose shattered mass of red granite towers over the island, rising
+straight out of the water. From the top of this rock are seen the
+thousand islands, some of bare rock, some covered with palms and
+bushes, which interrupt the course of the river and give rise to those
+eddies, whirlpools, and streams of foaming water which are called the
+cataracts of the Nile, but which may be more properly designated as
+rapids, for there is no perpendicular fall of more than two or three
+feet, and boats of the largest size are drawn with ropes against the
+stream through certain channels, and are shot down continually with the
+stream on their return without the occurrence of serious accidents.
+
+Several of these rocks are sculptured with tablets and inscriptions,
+recording the offerings of the Pharaohs to the gods; and the sacred
+island of Philœ, the burial-place of Osiris, is covered with buildings,
+temples, colonnades, gateways, and terrace walls, which are magnificent
+even in their ruin, and must have been superb when still entire, and
+filled with crowds of priests and devotees, accompanied by all the flags
+and standards, gold and glitter, of the ceremonies of their emblematical
+religion.
+
+Excepting the Pyramids, nothing in Egypt struck me so much as when on a
+bright moonlit night I first entered the court of the great temple of
+Philœ. The colours of the paintings on the walls are as vivid in many
+places as they were the day they were finished: the silence and the
+solemn grandeur of the immense buildings around me were most imposing;
+and on emerging from the lofty gateway between the two towers of the
+propylon, as I wandered about the island, the tufts of palms, which are
+here of great height, with their weeping branches, seemed to be mourning
+over the desolation of the stately palaces and temples to which in
+ancient times all the illustrious of Egypt were wont to resort, and into
+whose inner recesses none might penetrate; for the secret and awful
+mysteries of the worship of Osiris were not to be revealed, nor were
+they even to be spoken of by those who were not initiated into the
+highest orders of the priesthood. Now all may wander where they choose,
+and speculate on the uses of the dark chambers hidden in the thickness
+of the walls, and trace out the plans of the courts and temples with the
+long lines of columns which formed the avenue of approach from the
+principal landing-place to the front of the great temple.
+
+The whole island is encumbered with piles of immense squared stones, the
+remains of buildings which must have been thrown down by an earthquake,
+as nothing else could shake such solid works from their foundations.[9]
+The principal temple, and several smaller ones, are still almost entire.
+One of these, called by the natives the Bed of Pharaoh, is a remarkably
+light and airy-looking structure, differing, in this respect, from the
+usual character of Egyptian architecture. On the terrace overhanging the
+Nile, in front of this graceful temple, I had formed my habitation,
+where there are some vaults of more recent construction, which are
+usually taken possession of by travellers and fitted up with the
+carpets, cushions, and the sides of the tents which they bring with
+them.
+
+Every one who travels in Egypt is more or less a sportsman, for the
+infinity of birds must tempt the most idle or contemplative to go "_a
+birding_," as the Americans term it. I had shot all sorts of birds and
+beasts, from a crocodile to a snipe; and among other game I had shot
+multitudes of turtle doves; these pretty little birds being exceedingly
+tame, and never flying very far, I sometimes got three or four at a
+shot, and a dozen or so of them made a famous pie or a pilau, with rice
+and a tasty sauce; but a somewhat singular incident put an end to my
+warfare against them. One day I was sitting on the terrace before the
+Bed of Pharaoh, surrounded by a circle of Arabs and negroes, and we were
+all listening to a story which an old gentleman with a grey beard was
+telling us concerning the loves of the beautiful Ouardi, who was shut up
+in an enchanted palace on this very island to secure her from the
+approaches of her lover, Prince Anas el Ajoud, the son of the Sultan
+Esshamieh, who had married seven wives before he had a son. The first
+six wives, on the birth of Anas el Ajoud, placed a log in his cradle,
+and exposed the infant in the desert, where he was nursed by a gazelle,
+and whence he returned to punish the six cruel step-mothers, who fully
+believed he was dead, and to rejoice the heart of his father, who had
+been persuaded by these artful ladies that his sultana by magic art had
+presented him with a log instead of a son, who was to be the heir of his
+dominions, &c. Prince Anas, who was in despair at being separated from
+his lady love, used to sing dismal songs as he passed in his gilded boat
+under the walls of the island palace. These, at last, were responded to
+from the lattice by the fair Ouardi, who was soon afterwards carried off
+by the enamoured prince. The story, which was an interminable rigmarole,
+as long as one of those spun on from night to night by the Princess
+Sherezade, was diversified every now and then by the fearful squealing
+of an Arab song. The old storyteller, shutting his eyes and throwing
+back his head that his mind might not be distracted by any exterior
+objects, uttered a succession of sounds which set one's teeth on
+edge.[10]
+
+[Illustration: (musical notation) AMAAN.
+
+The snow, the snow is melt-ing on the hills of Is--fa--han. As fair, be
+as re-lent-ing Am-aan, Am-aan, Am-aan.]
+
+Whilst the old gentleman was shooting out one of these amatory ditties,
+and I was sitting still listening to these heart-rending sounds, a
+turtle-dove--who was probably awakened from her sleep by the fearful
+discord, or might, perhaps, have been the beautiful Princess Ouardi
+herself transformed into the likeness of a dove--flew out of one of the
+palm-trees which grow on the edge of the bank, and perched at a little
+distance from us. We none of us moved, and the turtle-dove, after
+pausing for a moment, ran towards me and nestled under the full sleeve
+of my benisch. It stayed there till the story and the songs were ended,
+and when I was obliged to arise, in order to make my compliments to the
+departing guests, the dove flew into the palm-tree again, and went to
+roost among the branches, where several others were already perched with
+their heads under their wings. Thereupon I made a vow never to shoot
+another turtle-dove, however much pie or pilau might need them, and I
+fairly kept my vow. Luckily turtle-doves are not so good as pigeons, so
+it was no great loss. Although not to be compared to the Roman bird, the
+Egyptian pigeon is very good eating when he is tender and well dressed.
+
+As I am on the subject of birds I will relate a fact in natural history
+which I was fortunate enough to witness, and which, although it is
+mentioned so long ago as the times of Herodotus, has not, I believe,
+been often observed since; indeed I have never met with any traveller
+who has himself seen such an occurrence.
+
+I had always a strong predilection for crocodile shooting, and had
+destroyed several of these dragons of the waters. On one occasion I saw,
+a long way off, a large one, twelve or fifteen feet long, lying asleep
+under a perpendicular bank about ten feet high, on the margin of the
+river. I stopped the boat at some distance; and noting the place as well
+as I could, I took a circuit inland, and came down cautiously to the top
+of the bank, whence with a heavy rifle I made sure of my ugly game. I
+had already cut off his head in imagination, and was considering whether
+it should be stuffed with its mouth open or shut. I peeped over the
+bank. There he was, within ten feet of the sight of the rifle. I was on
+the point of firing at his eye, when I observed that he was attended by
+a bird called a ziczac. It is of the plover species, of a greyish
+colour, and as large as a small pigeon.
+
+The bird was walking up and down close to the crocodile's nose. I
+suppose I moved, for suddenly it saw me, and instead of flying away, as
+any respectable bird would have done, he jumped up about a foot from the
+ground, screamed "Ziczac! ziczac!" with all the powers of his voice, and
+dashed himself against the crocodile's face two or three times. The
+great beast started up, and immediately spying his danger, made a jump
+up into the air, and dashing into the water with a splash which covered
+me with mud; he dived into the river and disappeared. The ziczac, to my
+increased admiration, proud apparently of having saved his friend,
+remained walking up and down, uttering his cry, as I thought, with an
+exulting voice, and standing every now and then on the tips of his toes
+in a conceited manner, which made me justly angry with his impertinence.
+After having waited in vain for some time, to see whether the crocodile
+would come out again, I got up from the bank where I was lying, threw a
+clod of earth at the ziczac, and came back to the boat, feeling some
+consolation for the loss of my game in having witnessed a circumstance,
+the truth of which has been disputed by several writers on natural
+history.
+
+The Arabs say that every race of animals is governed by its chief, to
+whom the others are bound to pay obeisance. The king of the crocodiles
+holds his court at the bottom of the Nile near Siout. The king of the
+fleas lives at Tiberias, in the Holy Land; and deputations of
+illustrious fleas, from other countries, visit him on a certain day in
+his palace, situated in the midst of beautiful gardens, under the Lake
+of Genesareth. There is a bird which is common in Egypt called the
+hoopoe (Abou hood-hood), of whose king the following legend is related.
+This bird is of the size and shape as well as the colour of a woodcock;
+but has a crown of feathers on its head, which it has the power of
+raising and depressing at will. It is a tame, quiet bird; usually to be
+found walking leisurely in search of its food on the margin of the
+water. It seldom takes long flights; and is not harmed by the natives,
+who are much more sparing of the life of animals than we Europeans
+are:--
+
+In the days of King Solomon, the son of David, who, by the virtue of his
+cabalistic seal, reigned supreme over genii as well as men, and who
+could speak the languages of animals of all kinds, all created beings
+were subservient to his will. Now when the king wanted to travel, he
+made use, for his conveyance, of a carpet of a square form. This carpet
+had the property of extending itself to a sufficient size to carry a
+whole army, with the tents and baggage; but at other times it could be
+reduced so as to be only large enough for the support of the royal
+throne, and of those ministers whose duty it was to attend upon the
+person of the sovereign. Four genii of the air then took the four
+corners of the carpet, and carried it with its contents wherever King
+Solomon desired. Once the king was on a journey in the air, carried upon
+his throne of ivory over the various nations of the earth. The rays of
+the sun poured down upon his head, and he had nothing to protect him
+from its heat. The fiery beams were beginning to scorch his neck and
+shoulders, when he saw a flock of vultures flying past. "Oh, vultures!"
+cried King Solomon, "come and fly between me and the sun, and make a
+shadow with your wings to protect me, for its rays are scorching my neck
+and face." But the vultures answered, and said, "We are flying to the
+north, and your face is turned towards the south. We desire to continue
+on our way; and be it known unto thee, O king! that we will not turn
+back on our flight, neither will we fly above your throne to protect
+you from the sun, although its rays may be scorching your neck and face.
+"Then King Solomon lifted up his voice, and said, "Cursed be ye, O
+vultures!--and because you will not obey the commands of your lord, who
+rules over the whole world, the feathers of your necks shall fall off;
+and the heat of the sun, and the cold of the winter, and the keenness of
+the wind, and the beating of the rain, shall fall upon your rebellious
+necks, which shall not be protected with feathers, like the necks of
+other birds. And whereas you have hitherto fared delicately,
+henceforward ye shall eat carrion and feed upon offal; and your race
+shall be impure till the end of the world." And it was done unto the
+vultures as King Solomon had said.
+
+Now it fell out that there was a flock of hoopoes flying past; and the
+king cried out to them, and said, "O hoopoes! come and fly between me
+and the sun, that I may be protected from its rays by the shadow of your
+wings." Whereupon the king of the hoopoes answered, and said, "O king,
+we are but little fowls, and we are not able to afford much shade; but
+we will gather our nation together, and by our numbers we will make up
+for our small size." So the hoopoes gathered together, and, flying in a
+cloud over the throne of the king, they sheltered him from the rays of
+the sun.
+
+When the journey was over, and King Solomon sat upon his golden throne,
+in his palace of ivory, whereof the doors were emerald, and the windows
+of diamonds, larger even than the diamond of Jemshid, he commanded that
+the king of the hoopoes should stand before his feet. "Now," said King
+Solomon, "for the service that thou and thy race have rendered, and the
+obedience thou hast shown to the king, thy lord and master, what shall
+be done unto thee, O hoopoe? and what shall be given to the hoopoes of
+thy race, for a memorial and a reward?" Now the king of the hoopoes was
+confused with the great honour of standing before the feet of the king;
+and, making his obeisance, and laying his right claw upon his heart, he
+said, "O king, live for ever! Let a day be given to thy servant, to
+consider with his queen and his councillors what it shall be that the
+king shall give unto us for a reward." And King Solomon said, "Be it
+so." And it was so.
+
+But the king of the hoopoes flew away; and he went to his queen, who was
+a dainty hen, and he told her what had happened, and he desired her
+advice as to what they should ask of the king for a reward; and he
+called together his council, and they sat upon a tree, and they each of
+them desired a different thing. Some wished for a long tail; some wished
+for blue and green feathers; some wished to be as large as ostriches;
+some wished for one thing, and some for another; and they debated till
+the going down of the sun, but they could not agree together. Then the
+queen took the king of the hoopoes apart and said to him, "My dear lord
+and husband, listen to my words; and as we have preserved the head of
+King Solomon, let us ask for crowns of gold on our heads, that we may be
+superior to all other birds." And the words of the queen and the
+princesses her daughters prevailed; and the king of the hoopoes
+presented himself before the throne of Solomon, and desired of him that
+all hoopoes should wear golden crowns upon their heads. Then Solomon
+said, "Hast thou considered well what it is that thou desirest?" And the
+hoopoe said, "I have considered well, and we desire to have golden
+crowns upon our heads." So Solomon replied, "Crowns of gold shall ye
+have: but, behold, thou art a foolish bird; and when the evil days shall
+come upon thee, and thou seest the folly of thy heart, return here to
+me, and I will give thee help." So the king of the hoopoes left the
+presence of King Solomon, with a golden crown upon his head. And all the
+hoopoes had golden crowns; and they were exceeding proud and haughty.
+Moreover, they went down by the lakes and the pools, and walked by the
+margin of the water, that they might admire themselves as it were in a
+glass. And the queen of the hoopoes gave herself airs, and sat upon a
+twig; and she refused to speak to the merops her cousin, and the other
+birds who had been her friends, because they were but vulgar birds, and
+she wore a crown of gold upon her head.
+
+Now there was a certain fowler who set traps for birds; and he put a
+piece of a broken mirror into his trap, and a hoopoe that went in to
+admire itself was caught. And the fowler looked at it, and saw the
+shining crown upon its head; so he wrung off its head, and took the
+crown to Issachar, the son of Jacob, the worker in metal, and he asked
+him what it was. So Issachar, the son of Jacob, said, "It is a crown of
+brass." And he gave the fowler a quarter of a shekel for it, and desired
+him, if he found any more, to bring them to him, and to tell no man
+thereof. So the fowler caught some more hoopoes, and sold their crowns
+to Issachar, the son of Jacob; until one day he met another man who was
+a jeweller, and he showed him several of the hoopoes' crowns. Whereupon
+the jeweller told him that they were of pure gold; and he gave the
+fowler a talent of gold for four of them.
+
+Now when the value of these crowns was known, the fame of them got
+abroad, and in all the land of Israel was heard the twang of bows and
+the whirling of slings; bird-lime was made in every town; and the price
+of traps rose in the market, so that the fortunes of the trap-makers
+increased. Not a hoopoe could show its head but it was slain or taken
+captive, and the days of the hoopoes were numbered. Then their minds
+were filled with sorrow and dismay, and before long few were left to
+bewail their cruel destiny.
+
+At last, flying by stealth through the most unfrequented places, the
+unhappy king of the hoopoes went to the court of King Solomon, and stood
+again before the steps of the golden throne, and with tears and groans
+related the misfortunes which had happened to his race.
+
+So King Solomon looked kindly upon the king of the hoopoes, and said
+unto him, "Behold, did I not warn thee of thy folly, in desiring to have
+crowns of gold? Vanity and pride have been thy ruin. But now, that a
+memorial may remain of the service which thou didst render unto me, your
+crowns of gold shall be changed into crowns of feathers, that ye may
+walk unharmed upon the earth." Now when the fowlers saw that the hoopoes
+no longer wore crowns of gold upon their heads, they ceased from the
+persecution of their race; and from that time forth the family of the
+hoopoes have flourished and increased, and have continued in peace even
+to the present day.
+
+And here endeth the veracious history of the king of the hoopoes.
+
+But to return to the island of Philœ. The neighbourhood of the cataracts
+is inhabited by a peculiar race of people, who are neither Arabs, nor
+negroes, like the Nubians, whose land joins to theirs. They are of a
+clear copper colour; and are slightly but elegantly formed. They have
+woolly hair; and are not encumbered with much clothing. The men wear a
+short tunic of white cotton; but often have only a petticoat round
+their loins. The married women have a piece of stuff thrown over their
+heads which envelopes the whole person. Under this they wear a curious
+garment made of fine strips of black leather, about a foot long, like a
+fringe. This hangs round the hips, and forms the only clothing of
+unmarried girls, whose forms are as perfect as that of any ancient
+statue. They dress their hair precisely in the same way as we see in the
+pictures of the ancient Egyptians, plaited in numerous tresses, which
+descend about half way down the neck, and are plentifully anointed with
+castor-oil; that they may not spoil their head-dresses, they use,
+instead of a pillow to rest their heads upon at night, a stool of hard
+wood like those which are found in the ancient tombs, and which resemble
+in shape the handle of a crutch more than anything else that I can think
+of. The women are fond of necklaces and armlets of beads; and the men
+wear a knife of a peculiar form, stuck into an armlet above the elbow of
+the left arm. When they go from home they carry a spear, and a shield
+made of the skin of the hippopotamus or crocodile, with which they are
+very clever in warding off blows, and in defending themselves from
+stones or other missiles.
+
+Of this race was a girl called Mouna, whom I had known as a child when I
+was first at Philœ. She grew up to be the most beautiful bronze statue
+that can be conceived. She used to bring eggs from the island on which
+she lived to Philœ: her means of conveyance across the water was a
+piece of the trunk of a doom-tree, upon which she supported herself as
+she swam across the Nile ten times a-day. I never saw so perfect a
+figure as that of Mouna. She was of a lighter brown than most of the
+other girls, and was exactly the colour of a new copper kettle. She had
+magnificent large eyes; and her face had but a slight leaning towards
+the Ethiopian contour. Her bands and feet were wonderfully small and
+delicately formed. In short, she was a perfect beauty in her way; but
+the perfume of the castor-oil with which she was anointed had so strong
+a savour that, when she brought us the eggs and chickens, I always
+admired her at a distance of ten yards to windward. She had an
+ornamented calabash to hold her castor-oil, from which she made a fresh
+toilette every time she swam across the Nile.
+
+I have been three times at Philœ, and indeed I had so great an
+admiration of the place that on my last visit, thinking it probable that
+I should never again behold its wonderful ruins and extraordinary
+scenery, I determined to spend the day there alone, that I might
+meditate at my leisure and wander as I chose from one well-remembered
+spot to another without the incumbrance of half a dozen people staring
+at whatever I looked at, and following me about out of pure idleness.
+Greatly did I enjoy my solitary day, and whilst leaning over the parapet
+on the top of the great Propylon, or seated on one of the terraces which
+overhung the Nile, I in imagination repeopled the scene, with the forms
+of the priests and worshippers of other days, restored the fallen
+temples to their former glory, and could almost think I saw the
+processions winding round their walls, and heard the trumpets, and the
+harps, and the sacred hymns in honour of the great Osiris. In the
+evening a native came over with a little boat to take me off the island,
+and I quitted with regret this strange and interesting region.
+
+I landed at the village of rude huts on the shore of the river and sat
+down on a stone, waiting for my donkey, which I purposed to ride through
+the desert in the cool of the evening to Assouan, where my boat was
+moored. While I was sitting there, two boys were playing and wrestling
+together; they were naked and about nine or ten years old. They soon
+began to quarrel, and one of them drew the dagger which he wore upon his
+arm and stabbed the other in the throat. The poor boy fell to the ground
+bleeding; the dagger had entered his throat on the left side under the
+jawbone, and being directed upwards had cut his tongue and grazed the
+roof of his mouth. Whilst he cried and writhed about upon the ground
+with the blood pouring out of his mouth, the villagers came out from
+their cabins and stood around talking and screaming, but affording no
+help to the poor boy. Presently a young man, who was, I believe, a lover
+of Mouna's, stood up and asked where the father of the boy was, and why
+he did not come to help him. The villagers said he had no father.
+"Where are his relations, then?" he asked. The boy had no relations,
+there was no one to care for him in the village. On hearing this he
+uttered some words which I did not understand, and started off after the
+boy who had inflicted the wound. The young assassin ran away as fast as
+he could, and a famous chase took place. They darted over the plain,
+scrambled up the rocks, and jumped down some dangerous-looking places
+among the masses of granite which formed the background of the village.
+At length the boy was caught, and, screaming and struggling, was dragged
+to the spot where his victim lay moaning and heaving upon the sand. The
+young man now placed him between his legs, and in this way held him
+tight whilst he examined the wound of the other, putting his finger into
+it and opening his mouth to see exactly how far it extended. When he had
+satisfied himself on the subject he called for a knife; the boy had
+thrown his away in the race, and he had not one himself. The villagers
+stood silent around, and one of them having handed him a dagger, the
+young man held the boy's head sideways across his thigh and cut his
+throat exactly in the same way as he had done to the other. He then
+pitched him away upon the ground, and the two lay together bleeding and
+writhing side by side. Their wounds were precisely the same; the second
+operation had been most expertly performed, and the knife had passed
+just where the boy had stabbed his playmate. The wounds, I believe, were
+not dangerous, for presently both the boys got up and were led away to
+their homes. It was a curious instance of retributive justice, following
+out the old law of blood for blood, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a
+tooth.
+
+
+
+
+MONASTERIES OF THE LEVANT.
+
+PART II.
+
+JERUSALEM AND THE MONASTERY
+
+OF ST. SABBA.
+
+1834.
+
+[Illustration: Plan of the Church
+
+of
+
+THE HOLY SEPULCHRE.
+
+The Holy [symbol: cross] Sepulchre.
+
+1. Entrance to the Church.
+
+2. The Stone of Unction.
+
+3. Where our Saviour was nailed to the Cross.
+
+4. Mount Calvary [3 cross symbols]
+
+5. Chapel of the Sacrifice of Isaac.
+
+6. Chapel of the Altar of Melchisedec.
+
+7. Stairs up to Mount Calvary.
+
+8. Stairs down to the Chapel of St. Helena.
+
+9. Stairs down to the Chapel of the Invention of the Cross.
+
+10. Place where the three Crosses were discovered.
+
+11. Chapel of the Division of the Garments.
+
+12. Prison of our Lord.
+
+13. Greek Choir, in it [symbol-omphalos], the center of the world; on
+each side are the Stalls for the Monks.
+
+14. Latin Choir.
+
+15. Where Mary Magdalene stood.
+
+16. Where our Lord appeared to Mary Magdalene.
+
+17. The Pillar of Flagellation.
+
+18. Rooms of the Latin Convent.
+
+19. Chapel of the Maronites.
+
+20. Chapel of the Georgians.
+
+21. Sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathea.
+
+22. Chapel of the Copts.
+
+23. Chapel of the Jacobites.
+
+24. Chapel of the Abyssinians, over which is the Chapel of the
+Armenians.
+
+25. The spot where the Blessed Virgin and St. John stood during the
+Crucifixion.
+
+26. Steps before the entrance of the Holy Sepulchre.
+
+27. Ante-room to the Holy Sepulchre. In the center is the stone where
+the Angel sat; on either side the two windows from whence the Holy Fire
+is delivered to the multitude.
+
+28. The Iconostasis, or Screen before the Greek Altar, which, as in
+English Churches, is called the Holy Table--ικονοsτασις.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+     Journey to Jerusalem--First View of the Holy City--The Valley of
+     Gihon--Appearance of the City--The Latin Convent of St.
+     Salvador--Inhospitable Reception by the Monks--Visit to the Church
+     of the Holy Sepulchre--Description of the Interior--The Chapel of
+     the Sepulchre--The Chapel of the Cross on Mount Calvary--The Tomb
+     and Sword of Godfrey de Bouillon--Arguments in favour of the
+     Authenticity of the Holy Sepulchre--The Invention of the Cross by
+     the Empress Helena--Legend of the Cross.
+
+    "Ecco apparir Gerusalem si vede,
+    Ecco additar Gerusalem si scorge,
+    Ecco da mile voce unitamente,
+    Gerosalemme salutar si sente.
+
+           *       *       *       *
+
+    E l'uno all'altro il mostra e in tanto oblia,
+    La noja e il mal della passata via.
+
+           *       *       *       *
+
+    Al gran placer che quella prima vista,
+    Dolcemente spirò nell'altrui petto,
+    Alta contrizion succese mista,
+    Di timoroso e riverente affetto,
+    Ossano appena d'inalzar la vista
+    Ver la città, di Christo albergo eletto:
+    Dove mori, dove sepolto fue;
+    Dove poi riveste le membre sue."
+
+    TASSO, _Gerusalemme Liberata_, Canto 3.
+
+
+We left our camels and dromedaries, and wild Arabs of the desert, at
+Gaza; and being now provided with horses, and a tamer sort of Yahoo to
+attend upon them, we took our way across the hills towards Jerusalem.
+
+The road passes over a succession of rounded rocky hills, almost every
+step being rendered interesting by its connexion with the events of Holy
+Writ. On our left we saw the village of Kobab, and on our right the
+ruins of a castle said to have been built by the Maccabees, and not far
+from it the remains of an ancient Christian church.
+
+As our train of horses surmounted each succeeding eminence, every one
+was eager to be the first who should catch a glimpse of the Holy City.
+Again and again we were disappointed; another rocky valley yawned
+beneath us, and another barren stony hill rose up beyond. There seemed
+to be no end to the intervening hills and dales; they appeared to
+multiply beneath our feet. At last, when we had almost given up the
+point and had ceased to contend for the first view by galloping ahead;
+as we ascended another rocky brow we saw the towers of what seemed to be
+a Gothic castle; then, as we approached nearer, a long line of walls and
+battlements appeared crowning a ridge of rock which rose from a narrow
+valley to the right. This was the valley of the pools of Gihon, where
+Solomon was crowned, and the battlements which rose above it were the
+long looked-for walls of Jerusalem. With one accord our whole party
+drew their bridles, and stood still to gaze for the first time upon
+this renowned and sacred city.
+
+It is not easy to describe the sensations which fill the breast of a
+Christian when, after a long and toilsome journey, he first beholds
+this, the most interesting and venerated spot upon the whole surface of
+the globe. Every one was silent for a while, absorbed in the deepest
+contemplation. The object of our pilgrimage was accomplished, and I do
+not think that anything we saw afterwards during our stay in Jerusalem
+made a more profound impression on our minds than this first distant
+view.
+
+It was curious to observe the different effect which our approach to
+Jerusalem had upon the various persons who composed our party. A
+Christian pilgrim, who had joined us on the road, fell down upon his
+knees and kissed the holy ground; two others embraced each other, and
+congratulated themselves that they had lived to see Jerusalem. As for us
+Franks, we sat bolt upright upon our horses, and stared and said
+nothing; whilst around us the more natural children of the East wept for
+joy, and, as in the army of the Crusaders, the word Jerusalem!
+Jerusalem! was repeated from mouth to mouth; but we, who consider
+ourselves civilized and superior beings, repressed our emotions; we were
+above showing that we participated in the feelings of our barbarous
+companions. As for myself, I would have got off my horse and walked
+bare-footed towards the gate, as some did, if I had dared: but I was in
+fear of being laughed at for my absurdity, and therefore sat fast in my
+saddle. At last I blew my nose, and, pressing the sharp edges of my Arab
+stirrups on the lank sides of my poor weary jade, I rode on slowly
+towards the Bethlehem gate.
+
+On the sloping sides of the valley of Gihon numerous groups of people
+were lying under the olive-trees in the cool of the evening, and parties
+of grave Turks, seated on their carpets by the road-side, were smoking
+their long pipes in dignified silence. But what struck me most were some
+old white-bearded Jews, who were holding forth to groups of their
+friends or disciples under the walls of the city of their fathers, and
+dilating perhaps upon the glorious actions of their race in former days.
+
+Jerusalem has been described as a deserted and melancholy ruin, filling
+the mind with images of desolation and decay, but it did not strike me
+as such. It is still a compact city, as it is described in Scripture;
+the Saracenic walls have a stately, magnificent appearance; they are
+built of large and massive stones. The square towers, which are seen at
+intervals, are handsome and in good repair; and there is an imposing
+dignity in the appearance of the grim old citadel, which rises in the
+centre of the line of walls and towers, with its batteries and terraces
+one above another, surmounted with the crimson flag of Turkey floating
+heavily over the conquered city of the cross.
+
+We entered by the Bethlehem gate: it is commanded by the citadel, which
+was built by the people of Pisa, and is still called the castle of the
+Pisans. There we had some parleying with the Egyptian guards, and,
+crossing an open space famous in monastic tradition as the garden where
+Bathsheba was bathing when she was seen by King David from the roof of
+his palace, we threaded a labyrinth of narrow streets, which the horses
+of our party completely blocked up; and as soon as we could, we sent a
+man with our letters of introduction to the superior of the Latin
+convent. I had letters from Cardinal Weld and Cardinal Pedicini, which
+we presumed would ensure us a warm and hospitable reception; and as
+travellers are usually lodged in the monastic establishments, we went on
+at once to the Latin convent of St. Salvador, where we expected to enjoy
+all the comforts and luxuries of European civilization after our weary
+journey over the desert from Egypt. We, however, quickly discovered our
+mistake; for, on dismounting at the gate of the convent, we were
+received in a very cool way by the monks, who appeared to make the
+reception of travellers a mere matter of interest, and treated us as if
+we were dust under their feet. They put us into a wretched hole in the
+Casa Nuova, a house belonging to them near the convent, where there was
+scarcely room for our baggage; and we went to bed not a little mortified
+at our inhospitable reception by our Christian brethren, so different
+from what we had always experienced from the Mahometans. The convent of
+St. Salvador belongs to a community of Franciscan friars; they were most
+of them Spaniards, and, being so far away from the superior officers of
+their order, they were not kept in very perfect discipline. It was
+probably owing to our being heretics that we were not better received.
+Fortunately we had our own beds, tents, cooking-utensils, carpets, &c.;
+so that we soon made ourselves comfortable in the bare vaulted rooms
+which were allotted to us, and for which, by-the-bye, we had to pay
+pretty handsomely.
+
+The next morning early we went to the church of the Holy Sepulchre,
+descending the hill from the convent, and then down a flight of narrow
+steps into a small paved court, one side of which is occupied by the
+Gothic front of the church. The court was full of people selling beads
+and crucifixes and other holy ware. We had to wait some time, till the
+Turkish doorkeepers came to unlock the door, as they keep the keys of
+the church, which is only open on certain days, except to votaries of
+distinction. There is a hole in the door, through which the pilgrims
+gave quantities of things to the monks inside to be laid upon the
+sepulchre. At last the door was opened, and we went into the church.
+
+On entering these sacred walls the attention is first directed to a
+large slab of marble on the floor opposite the door, with several lamps
+suspended over it, and three enormous waxen tapers about twenty feet in
+height standing at each end. The pilgrims approach it on their knees,
+touch and kiss it, and, prostrating themselves before it, offer up their
+adoration. This, you are told, is the stone on which the body of our
+Lord was washed and anointed, and prepared for the tomb.
+
+Turning to the left, we came to a round stone let into the pavement,
+with a canopy of ornamental iron-work over it Here the Virgin Mary is
+said to have stood when the body of our Saviour was taken down from the
+cross.
+
+Leaving this, we entered the circular space immediately under the great
+dome, which is about eighty feet in diameter, and is surrounded by
+eighteen large square piers, which support the front of a broad gallery.
+Formerly this circular gallery was supported by white marble pillars:
+but the church was burnt down about twenty years ago, through the
+negligence of a drunken Greek monk, who set a light to some parts of the
+woodwork, and then endeavoured to put out the flames by throwing aqua
+vitæ upon them, which he mistook for water.
+
+The Chapel of the Sepulchre stands under the centre of the dome. It is a
+small oblong house of stone, rounded at one end, where there is an altar
+for the Coptic and Abyssinian Christians. At the other end it is
+square, and has a platform of marble in front, which is ascended by a
+flight of steps, and has a low parapet wall and a seat on each side. The
+chapel contains two rooms. Taking off our shoes and turbans, we entered
+a low narrow door, and went into a chamber, in the centre of which
+stands a block of polished marble. On this stone sat the angel who
+announced the blessed tidings of the resurrection.
+
+From this room, which has a small round window on each side, we passed
+through another low door into the inner chamber, which contains the Holy
+Sepulchre itself, which, however, is not visible, being concealed by an
+altar of white marble. It is said to be a long narrow excavation like a
+grave or the interior of a sarcophagus hewed out of the rock just
+beneath the level of the ground. Six rows of lamps of silver gilt,
+twelve in each row, hang from the ceiling, and are kept perpetually
+burning. The tomb occupies nearly one-half of the sepulchral chamber,
+and extends from one end of it to the other on the right side of the
+door as you enter; a space of three feet wide and rather more than six
+feet long in front of it being all that remains for the accommodation of
+the pilgrims, so that not more than three or four can be admitted at a
+time.
+
+Leaving this hallowed spot, we were conducted first to the place where
+our Lord appeared to Mary Magdalen, and then to the Chapel of the
+Latins, where a part of the pillar of flagellation is preserved.
+
+The Greeks have possession of the choir of the church, which is opposite
+the door of the Holy Sepulchre. This part of the building is of great
+size, and is magnificently decorated with gold and carving and stiff
+pictures of the saints. In the centre is a globe of black marble on a
+pedestal, under which they say the head of Adam was found; and you are
+told also that this is the exact centre of the globe; the Greeks having
+thus transferred to Jerusalem, from the temple of Apollo at Delphi, the
+absurd notions of the pagan priests of antiquity relative to the form of
+the earth.
+
+Returning towards the door of the church, and leaving it on our right
+hand, we ascended a flight of about twenty steps, and found ourselves in
+the Chapel of the Cross on Mount Calvary. At the upper end of this
+chapel is an altar, on the spot where the crucifixion took place, and
+under it is the hole into which the end of the cross was fixed: this is
+surrounded with a glory of silver gilt, and on each side of it, at the
+distance of about six feet, are the holes in which the crosses of the
+two thieves stood. Near to these is a long rent in the rock, which was
+opened by an earthquake at the time of the crucifixion. Although the
+three crosses appear to have stood very near to each other, yet, from
+the manner in which they are placed, there would have been room enough
+for them, as the cross of our Saviour stands in front of the other two.
+
+Leaving this chapel we entered a kind of vault under the stairs, in
+which the rent of the rock is again seen: it extends from the ceiling to
+the floor, and has every appearance of having been caused by some
+convulsion of nature, and not formed by the hands of man. Here were
+formerly the tombs of Godfrey de Bouillon and Baldwin his brother, who
+were buried beneath the cross for which they fought so valiantly: but
+these tombs have lately been destroyed by the Greeks, whose detestation
+of everything connected with the Latin Church exceeds their aversion to
+the Mahometan creed. In the sacristy of the Latin monks we were shown
+the sword and spurs of Godfrey de Bouillon; the sword is apparently of
+the age assigned to it: it is double-edged and straight, with a
+cross-guard.[11]
+
+In another part of the church is a small dismal chapel, in the floor of
+which are several ancient tombs; one of them is said to be the sepulchre
+of Joseph of Arimathea. Of the antiquity of these tombs there cannot be
+the slightest doubt; and their being here forms the best argument for
+the authenticity of the Holy Sepulchre itself, as it shows that this was
+formerly a place of burial, notwithstanding its situation in the centre
+of the ancient city, contrary to the almost universal practice of the
+ancients, whose sepulchres are always found some short distance from
+their cities; indeed, among the Egyptians, whose manners seem to have
+been followed in many respects by the Jews, it was a law that no one
+should be buried in the cultivated grounds, but their tombs were
+excavated in the rocks of the desert, that the agricultural and other
+daily pursuits of the living might not interfere with the repose of the
+dead. It is mentioned in the Bible that Christ was led _out_ to be
+crucified; but it is not quite clear from the passage whether he was led
+out of the city of Jerusalem itself, or only from the city of David on
+Mount Sion, which appears to have been the citadel and place of
+residence of the Roman governor. If so, the site of the Holy Sepulchre
+may be the true one; and, in common with all other pilgrims, I am
+inclined to hope that the tomb now pointed out may really be the
+sepulchre of Christ.
+
+Descending a flight of steps from the body of the church, we entered the
+subterranean chapel of St. Helena, below which is another vault, in
+which the true cross is said to have been found. A very curious account
+of the finding of the cross is to be seen in the black-letter pages of
+Caxton's 'Golden Legend,' and it has formed the subject of many
+singular traditions and romantic stories in former days. The history of
+this famous relic would be tedious were I to narrate it in the obsolete
+phraseology of the father of English printing, and I will therefore only
+give a short summary of the legend; although, to those who take an
+interest in monastic traditions, the accounts given in old books, which
+were read by our ancestors before the Reformation with all the sober
+seriousness of undoubting faith, afford a curious instance of the
+proneness of the human intellect to mistake the shadow for the
+substance, and to substitute an unbounded veneration for outward
+observances for the more reasonable acts of spiritual devotion.
+
+In the middle ages, while the worship of our Saviour was completely
+neglected, the wooden cross upon which he was supposed to have suffered
+was the object of universal adoration to all sects of Christians; armies
+fought with religious enthusiasm, not for the faith, but for the relic
+of the cross; and the traditions regarding it were received as undoubted
+facts by the heroes of the crusades, the hierarchy of the Church, and
+all who called themselves Christians, in those iron ages, when with rope
+and fagot, fire and sword, the fierce piety even of good men sought to
+enforce the precepts of Him whose advent was heralded with the angels'
+hymn of "peace on earth and good will towards men."
+
+It is related in the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, that when Adam
+fell sick he sent his son Seth to the gate of the terrestrial paradise
+to ask the angel for some drops of the oil of mercy, which distilled
+from the tree of life, to cure him of his disease; but the angel
+answered that he could not receive this healing oil until 5500 years had
+passed away. He gave him, however, a branch of this tree, and it was
+planted upon Adam's grave. In after ages the tree flourished and waxed
+exceeding fair, for Adam was buried in Mount Lebanon, not very far from
+the place near Damascus whence the red earth of which his body was
+formed by the Creator had been taken. When Balkia, Queen of Abyssinia,
+came to visit Solomon the King, she worshipped this tree, for she said
+that thereon should the Saviour of the world be hanged, and that from
+that time the kingdom of the Jews should cease. Upon hearing this,
+Solomon commanded that the tree should be cut down and buried in a
+certain place in Jerusalem, where afterwards the pool of Bethesda was
+dug, and the angel that had charge of the mysterious tree troubled the
+water of the pool at certain seasons, and those who first dipped into it
+were cured of their ailments. As the time of the passion of the Saviour
+approached, the wood floated on the surface of the water, and of that
+piece of timber, which was of cedar, the Jews made the upright part of
+the cross, the cross beam was made of cypress, the piece on which his
+feet rested was of palm, and the other, on which the superscription was
+written, was of olive.
+
+After the crucifixion the holy cross and the crosses of the two thieves
+were thrown into the town ditch, or, according to some, into an old
+vault which was near at hand, and they were covered with the refuse and
+ruins of the city. In her extreme old age the Empress Helena, making a
+pilgrimage to Jerusalem, threatened all the Jewish inhabitants with
+torture and death if they did not produce the holy cross from the place
+where their ancestors had concealed it: and at last an old Jew named
+Judas, who had been put into prison and was nearly famished, consented
+to reveal the secret; he accordingly petitioned Heaven, whereupon the
+earth trembled, and from the fissures in the ground a delicious aromatic
+odour issued forth, and on the soil being removed the three crosses were
+discovered; and near the crosses the superscription was also found, but
+it was not known to which of the three it belonged. However, Macarius,
+Bishop of Jerusalem, repairing with the Empress to the house of a noble
+lady who was afflicted with an incurable disease, she was immediately
+restored to health by touching the true cross; and the body of a young
+man which was being carried out to burial was brought to life on being
+laid upon the holy wood. At the sight of these miracles Judas the Jew
+became a Christian, and was baptized by the name of Quiriacus, to the
+great indignation of the devil, for, said he, "by the first Judas I
+gained much profit, but by this one's conversion I shall lose many
+souls."
+
+It would be endless were I to give the history of all the authenticated
+relics of the holy cross since those days; but of the three principal
+pieces one is now, or lately was, at Etchmiazin, in Armenia, the monks
+of which Church are accused of having stolen it from the Latins of
+Jerusalem when they were imprisoned by Sultan Suleiman. The second piece
+is still at Jerusalem, in the hands of the Greeks; and the third, which
+was sent by the Empress Helena herself to the church of Santa Croce di
+Gerusalemme at Rome, is now preserved in St. Peter's. There is indeed
+little reason to doubt that the piece of wood exhibited at Rome is the
+same that the Empress sent there in the year 326. The feast of the
+"Invention of the Cross" continues to be celebrated every year on the
+3rd of May by an appropriate mass.
+
+Besides the objects which I have mentioned, there is within the church
+an altar on the spot where Christ is said to have appeared to the Virgin
+after the resurrection. This completes the list of all the sacred places
+contained under the roof of the great church of the Holy Sepulchre.
+
+I may remark that all the very ancient specimens of the relics of the
+true cross are of the same wood, which has a very peculiar
+half-petrified appearance. I have a relic of this kind; the date of the
+shrine in which it is preserved being of the date of 1280. I have also
+a piece of the cross in a more modern setting, which is not of the same
+wood.
+
+Whether all the hallowed spots within these walls really are the places
+which the guardians of the church declare them to be, or whether they
+have been fixed on at random, and consecrated to serve the interested
+views of a crafty priesthood, is a fact that I shall leave others to
+determine; however this may be, it is a matter of little consequence to
+the Christian. The great facts on which the history of the Gospel is
+founded are not so closely connected with particular spots of earth or
+sacred buildings as to be rendered doubtful by any mistake in the choice
+of a locality. The main error on the part of the priests of modern times
+at Jerusalem arises from an anxiety to prove the actual existence of
+everything to which any allusion is made by the evangelical historians,
+not remembering that the lapse of ages and the devastation of successive
+wars must have destroyed much, and disguised more, which the early
+disciples could most readily have identified. The mere circumstance that
+the localities of almost all the events which attended the close of our
+Saviour's ministry are crowded into one place, and covered by the roof
+of a single church, might excite a very justifiable doubt as to the
+exactness of the topography maintained by the friars of Mount Moriah.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+
+     The Via Dolorosa--The Houses of Dives and of Lazarus--The Prison of
+     St. Peter--The Site of the Temple of Solomon--The Mosque of
+     Omar--The Hadjr el Sakhara--The Greek Monastery--Its
+     Library--Valuable Manuscripts--Splendid MS. of the Book of
+     Job--Arabic spoken at Jerusalem--Mussulman Theory regarding the
+     Crucifixion--State of the Jews--Richness of their Dress in their
+     own Houses--Beauty of their Women--Their literal Interpretation of
+     Scripture--The Service in the Synagogue--Description of the House
+     of a Rabbi--The Samaritans--Their Roll of the Pentateuch--Arrival
+     of Ibrahim Pasha at Jerusalem.
+
+
+Except the Holy Sepulchre, none of the places which are pointed out as
+sacred within the walls of Jerusalem merit a description, as they have
+evidently been created by the monks to serve their own purposes. You are
+shown, for instance, the whole of the Via Dolorosa, the way by which our
+Saviour passed from the hall of Pilate to Mount Calvary, and the exact
+seven places where he fell under the weight of the cross: you are shown
+the house of the rich man and that of Lazarus, both of them Turkish
+buildings, although, as that story is related in a parable, no real
+localities ever can have been referred to. Near the house of Lazarus
+there were several dogs when I passed by, and, on my asking the guide
+whether they were the descendants of the original dogs in the parable,
+he said he was not quite sure, but that as to the house there could be
+no doubt. The prison of St. Peter is also to be seen, but the column on
+which the cock stood who crowed on his denial of our Lord, as well as
+the steps by which Christ ascended to the judgment-seat of Pilate, have
+been carried away to Rome, where they are both to be seen on the hill of
+St. John Lateran.
+
+The mosque of Omar stands on the site of the ancient Temple of Solomon,
+which covered the whole of the enclosure which is now the garden of the
+mosque, a space of about 1500 feet long, and 1000 feet wide. In the
+centre of this garden is a platform of stone about 600 feet square, on
+which stands the octagonal building of the mosque itself, the upper part
+being covered with green porcelain tiles which glitter in the sun:
+below, the walls are paneled with marble richly worked and of different
+colours: the dome in the centre has a wide cornice round it, ornamented
+with sentences from the Koran: the whole has a brilliant and
+extraordinary appearance, more like a Chinese temple than anything else.
+This building is called the Acksa el Sakhara, from its containing a
+piece of rock called the Hadjr el Sakhara, or the locked-up stone, which
+is the principal object of veneration in the place: it occupies the
+centre of the mosque, and on it are shown the prints of the angel
+Gabriel's fingers, who brought it from heaven, and the mark of the
+Prophet's foot and that of his camel, a singularly good leaper, two more
+of whose footsteps I have seen in Egypt and Arabia, and I believe there
+is another at Damascus, the whole journey from Jerusalem to Mecca having
+been performed in four bounds only, for which remarkable service the
+camel is to have a place in heaven, where he will enjoy the society of
+Borak, the prophet's horse, Balaam's ass, Tobit's dog, and the dog of
+the seven sleepers, whose name was Ketmir, and also the companionship of
+a certain celebrated fly with whose merits I am unacquainted.
+
+We are told that the stone of the Sakhara fell from heaven at the time
+when prophecy commenced at Jerusalem. It was employed as a seat by the
+venerable men to whom that gift was communicated, and, as long as the
+spirit of vaticination continued to enlighten their minds, the slab
+remained steady for their accommodation; but no sooner was the power of
+prophecy withdrawn, and the persecuted seers compelled to flee for
+safety to other lands, than the stone manifested the profoundest
+sympathy in their fate, and evinced a determination to accompany them in
+their flight: on which Gabriel the archangel interposed his authority,
+and prevented the departure of the prophetical chair. He grasped it with
+his mighty hand and nailed it to its rocky bed by seven brass or golden
+nails. When any event of great importance to the world takes place the
+head of one of these nails disappears, and when they are all gone the
+day of judgment will come. As there are now only three left, the
+Mahometans believe that the end of all things is not far distant. All
+those who have faithfully performed their devotions at this celebrated
+mosque are furnished by the priest with a certificate of their having
+done so, which is to be buried with them that they may show it to the
+door-keeper of Paradise as a ticket of admission. I was presented with
+one of these at Jerusalem, and found another in the desert of Al Arisch,
+a wondrous piece of good fortune in the estimation of my Mahometan
+followers, as I was provided with a ticket for a friend, as well as a
+pass for my own reception among the houris of their Prophet's celestial
+garden.
+
+The Greek monastery adjoins the church of the Holy Sepulchre. It
+contains a good library, the iron door of which is opened by a key as
+large as a horse-pistol. The books are kept in good order, and consist
+of about two thousand printed volumes in various languages; and about
+five hundred Greek and Arabic MSS. on paper, which are all theological
+works. There are also about one hundred Greek manuscripts on vellum: the
+whole collection is in excellent preservation. One of the eight
+manuscripts of the Gospels which the library contains has the index and
+the beginning of each Gospel written in gold letters on purple vellum,
+and has also some curious illuminations. There is likewise a manuscript
+of the whole Bible: it is a large folio, and is the only one I ever
+heard of, excepting the one at the Vatican and that at the British
+Museum. One of the most beautiful volumes in the library is a large
+folio of the book of Job. It is a most glorious MS.: the text is written
+in large letters, surrounded with scholia in a smaller hand, and almost
+every page contains one or more miniatures representing the sufferings
+of Job, with ghastly portraits of Bildad the Shuhite and his other
+pitying friends: this manuscript is of the twelfth century. The rest of
+the manuscripts consist of the works of the Fathers, copies of the
+'Anthologia,' and books for the Church service.
+
+The Arabic language is generally spoken at Jerusalem, though the Turkish
+is much used among the better class. The inhabitants are composed of
+people of different nations and different religions, who inwardly
+despise one another on account of their varying opinions; but, as the
+Christians are very numerous, there reigns among the whole no small
+degree of complaisance, as well as an unrestrained intercourse in
+matters of business, amusement, and even of religion. The Mussulmans,
+for instance, pray in all the holy places consecrated to the memory of
+Christ and the Virgin, except the tomb of the Holy Sepulchre, the
+sanctity of which they do not acknowledge, for they believe that Jesus
+Christ did not die, but that he ascended alive into heaven, leaving the
+likeness of his face to Judas, who was condemned to die for him; and
+that, as Judas was crucified, it was his body, and not that of Jesus,
+which was placed in the sepulchre. It is for this reason that the
+Mussulmans do not perform any act of devotion at the tomb of the Holy
+Sepulchre, and that they ridicule the Christians who visit and revere
+it.
+
+The Jews--the "children of the kingdom"--have been cast out, and many
+have come from the east and the west to occupy their place in the
+desolate land promised to their fathers. Their quarter is in the narrow
+valley between the Temple and the foot of Mount Zion. Many of the Jews
+are rich, but they are careful to conceal their wealth from the jealous
+eyes of their Mahometan rulers, lest they should be subjected to
+extortion.
+
+It is remarkable that the Jews who are born in Jerusalem are of a
+totally different caste from those we see in Europe. Here they are a
+fair race, very lightly made, and particularly effeminate in manner; the
+young men wear a lock of long hair on each side of the face, which, with
+their flowing silk robes, gives them the appearance of women. The Jews
+of both sexes are exceedingly fond of dress; and, although they assume a
+dirty and squalid appearance when they walk abroad, in their own houses
+they are to be seen clothed in costly furs and the richest silks of
+Damascus. The women are covered with gold, and dressed in brocades stiff
+with embroidery. Some of them are beautiful; and a girl of about twelve
+years old, who was betrothed to the son of a rich old rabbi, was the
+prettiest little creature I ever saw; her skin was whiter than ivory,
+and her hair, which was as black as jet, and was plaited with strings of
+sequins, fell in tresses nearly to the ground. She was of a Spanish
+family, and the language usually spoken by the Jews among themselves is
+Spanish.
+
+The Jewish religion is now so much encumbered with superstition and the
+extraordinary explanations of the Bible in the Talmud, that little of
+the original creed remains. They interpret all the words of Scripture
+literally, and this leads them into most absurd mistakes. On the morning
+of the day of the Passover I went into the synagogue under the walls of
+the Temple, and found it crowded to the very door; all the congregation
+were standing up, with large white shawls over their heads with the
+fringes which they were commanded to wear by the Jewish law. They were
+reading the Psalms, and after I had been there a short time all the
+people began to hop about and to shake their heads and limbs in a most
+extraordinary manner; the whole congregation was in motion, from the
+priest, who was dancing in the reading-desk, to the porter, who capered
+at the door. All this was in consequence of a verse in the 35th Psalm,
+which says, "All my bones shall say, Lord, who is like unto thee;" and
+this was their ludicrous manner of doing so. After the Psalm a crier
+went round the room, who sold the honour of performing different parts
+of the service to the highest bidder; the money so obtained is
+appropriated to the relief of the poor. The sanctuary at the upper end
+of the room was then opened, and a curtain withdrawn, in imitation of
+that which separated the Holy of Holies from the body of the Temple.
+From this place the book of the law was taken: it was contained in a
+case of embossed silver, and two large silver ornaments were fixed on
+the ends of the rollers, which stuck out from the top of the case. The
+Jews, out of reverence, as I presume, touched it with a little bodkin of
+gold, and, on its being carried to the reading-desk, a silver crown was
+placed upon it, and a man, supported by two others, one on each side of
+him, chanted the lesson of the day in a loud voice: the book was then
+replaced in the sanctuary, and the service concluded. The women are not
+admitted into the synagogue, but are permitted to view the ceremonies
+from a grated gallery set apart for them. However, they seldom attend,
+as it seems they are not accounted equal to the men either in body or
+soul, and trouble themselves very little with matters of religion.
+
+The house of Rabbi A----, with whom I was acquainted, answered exactly
+to Sir Walter Scott's description of the dwelling of Isaac of York. The
+outside of the house and the court-yard indicated nothing but poverty
+and neglect; but on entering I was surprised at the magnificence of the
+furniture. One room had a silver chandelier, and a great quantity of
+embossed plate was displayed on the top of the polished cupboards. Some
+of the windows were filled with painted glass; and the members of the
+family, covered with gold and jewels, were seated on divans of Damascus
+brocade. The Rabbi's little son was so covered with charms in gold cases
+to keep off the evil eye, that he jingled like a chime of bells when he
+walked along; and a still younger boy, whom I had never seen before, was
+on this day exalted to the dignity of wearing trousers, which were of
+red stuff, embroidered with gold, and were brought in by his nurse and a
+number of other women in procession, and borne on high before him as he
+was dragged round the room howling and crying without any nether garment
+on at all. He was walked round again after his superb trousers were put
+on, and very uncomfortable he seemed to be, but doubtless the honour of
+the thing consoled him, and he waddled out into the court with an air of
+conscious dignity.
+
+The learning of the rabbis is now at a very low ebb, and few of them
+thoroughly understand the ancient Hebrew tongue, although there are Jews
+at Jerusalem who speak several languages, and are said to be well
+acquainted with all the traditions of their fathers, and the mysterious
+learning of the Cabala.
+
+There is in the Holy Land another division of the children of Israel,
+the Samaritans, who still keep up a separate form of religion. Their
+synagogue at Nablous is a mean building, not unlike a poor Mahometan
+mosque. Within it is a large, low, square chamber, the floor of which is
+covered with matting. Round a part of the walls is a wooden shelf, on
+which are laid above thirty manuscript _books_ of the Pentateuch written
+in the Samaritan character: they possess also a very famous roll or
+volume of the Pentateuch, which is said to have been written by Abishai
+the grandson of Aaron. It is contained in a curiously ornamented octagon
+case of brass about two feet high, on opening which the MS. appears
+within rolled upon two pieces of wood. It is sixteen inches wide, and
+must be of great length, as each of the two parts of the roll are four
+or five inches in diameter. The writing is small and not very distinct,
+and the MS. is in rather a dilapidated condition. The Samaritan Rabbi
+Ibrahim Israel, true to his Jewish origin, would not open the case until
+he had been well paid. He affirmed that in this MS. the blessings were
+directed to be given from Mount Ebal and the curses from Mount Gherizim.
+However this may be, in an Arabic translation of the Samaritan
+Pentateuch, which is in my own collection, the 12th and 13th verses of
+the 27th chapter of Deuteronomy are the same as the usually received
+text in other Bibles.
+
+Jerusalem was at this time (1834) under the dominion of the Egyptians,
+and Ibrahim Pasha arrived shortly after we had established ourselves in
+the vaulted dungeons of the Latin convent. He took up his abode in a
+house in the town, and did not maintain any state or ceremony; indeed he
+had scarcely any guards, and but few servants, so secure did he feel in
+a country which he had so lately conquered. He received us with great
+courtesy in his mean lodging, where we found an interpreter who spoke
+English. I had been promised a letter from Mohammed Ali Pasha to Ibrahim
+Pasha, but on inquiring I found it had not arrived, and Ibrahim Pasha
+sent a courier to Jaffa to inquire whether it was lying there; however
+it did not reach me, and I therefore was not permitted to see the
+interior of the mosque of Omar, or the great church of the Purification,
+which stands on the site of the Temple of Solomon, and into which at
+that time no Christian had penetrated.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+
+     Expedition to the Monastery of St. Sabba--Reports of Arab
+     Robbers--The Valley of Jehoshaphat--The Bridge of Al Sirat--Rugged
+     Scenery--An Arab Ambuscade--A successful Parley--The Monastery of
+     St. Sabba--History of the Saint--The Greek Hermits--The Church--The
+     Iconostasis--The Library--Numerous MSS.--The Dead Sea--The Scene of
+     the Temptation--Discovery--The Apple of the Dead Sea--The
+     Statements of Strabo and Pliny confirmed.
+
+
+As we wished to be present at the celebration of Easter by the Greek
+Church, we remained several weeks at Jerusalem, during which time we
+made various excursions to the most celebrated localities in the
+neighbourhood. In addition to the Bible, which almost sufficed us for a
+guide-book in these sacred regions, we had several books of travels with
+us, and I was struck with the superiority of old Maundrell's narrative
+over all the others, for he tells us plainly and clearly what he saw,
+whilst other travellers so encumber their narratives with opinions and
+disquisitions, that, instead of describing the country, they describe
+only what they think about it; and thus little real information as to
+what there was to be seen or done could be gleaned from these works,
+eloquent and well written as many of them are; and we continually
+returned to Maundrell's homely pages for a good plain account of what
+we wished to know. As, however, I had gathered from various incidental
+remarks in these books that there was a famous library in the monastery
+of St. Sabba, in which one might expect to find all the lost classics,
+whole rows of uncial manuscripts, and perhaps the histories of the
+Preadamite kings in the autograph of Jemshid, I determined to go and see
+it.
+
+It was of course necessary for every traveller at Jerusalem to "_do his
+Dead Sea_;" and accordingly we made arrangements for an excursion in
+that direction, which was to include a visit to St. Sabba; for my
+companion kindly put up with my aberrations, and agreed to linger with
+me for that purpose on our way to Jericho, although it was at the risk
+of falling among thieves, for we heard all manner of reports of the
+danger of the roads, and of a certain truculent Robin Hood sort of
+person, called Abou Gash, who had just got out of some prison or other.
+
+Abou Gash was vastly popular in this part of the country: everybody
+spoke well of him, and declared that "he was the mildest-mannered man
+that ever cut a throat or scuttled ship;" but they all hinted that it
+might be as well to keep out of his way, and that, when we went
+cantering about the country, poking our noses into caves, and ruins, and
+other _uncanny_ places, it would be advisable to keep a "good" look-out.
+For all this we cared little: so, getting together our merry men, we
+sallied forth through St. Stephen's gate. A gallant band we were, some
+five-and-twenty horsemen, well armed in the Egyptian style; with tents
+and kettles, cocks and hens, and cooks and marmitons, stowed upon the
+baggage-horses. Great store of good things had we--vino doro di Monte
+Libano, and hams, to show that we were not Mahometans; and tea, to prove
+that we were not Frenchmen; and guns to shoot partridges withal, and
+many other European necessaries.
+
+We tramped along upon the hard rocky ground one after the other, through
+the Valley of Jehoshaphat; and looked up at the corner of the temple,
+whence is to spring on the last day, as every sound follower of the
+Prophet believes, the fearful bridge of Al Sirat, which is narrower than
+the edge of the sharpest cimeter of Khorassaun, and from which those who
+without due preparation attempt to pass on their way to the paradise of
+Mahomet will fall into the unfathomable gulf below. Gradually as we
+advanced into the valley, through which the brook Kedron, when there is
+any water in it, flows into the Dead Sea, the scenery became more and
+more savage, the rocks more precipitous, and the valley narrowed into a
+deep gorge, the path being sometimes among the broken stones in the bed
+of the stream, and sometimes rising high above it on narrow ledges of
+rock.
+
+We rode on for some hours, admiring the wild grandeur of the scenery,
+for this is the hill country of Judea, and seems almost a chaos of rocks
+and craggy mountains, broken into narrow defiles, or opening into dreary
+valleys bare of vegetation, except a few shrubs whose tough roots pierce
+through the crevices of the stony soil, and find a scanty subsistence in
+the small portions of earth which the rains have washed from the surface
+of the rocks above. In one place the pathway, which was not more than
+two or three feet wide, wound round the corner of a precipitous crag in
+such a manner that a horseman riding along the giddy way showed so
+clearly against the sky, that it seemed as if a puff of wind would blow
+horse and man into the ravine beneath. We were proceeding along this
+ledge--Fathallah, one of our interpreters, first, I second, and the
+others following--when we saw three or four Arabs with long
+bright-barrelled guns slip out of a crevice just before us, and take up
+their position on the path, pointing those unpleasant-looking implements
+in our faces. From some inconceivable motive, not of the most heroic
+nature I fear, my first move was to turn my head round to look behind
+me; but when I did so, I perceived that some more Arabs had crept out of
+another cleft behind us, which we had not observed as we passed; and on
+looking up I saw that from the precipice above us a curious collection
+of bright barrels and brown faces were taking an observation of our
+party, while on the opposite side of the gorge, which was perhaps a
+hundred and fifty yards across, every fragment of rock seemed to have
+brought forth a man in a white tunic and bare legs, with a yellow
+handkerchief round his head, and a long gun in his hand, which he
+pointed towards us.
+
+We had fallen into an ambuscade, and one so cleverly laid that all
+attempt at resistance was hopeless. The path was so narrow that our
+horses could not turn, and a precipice within a yard of us, of a hundred
+feet sheer down, rendered our position singularly uncomfortable.
+Fathallah's horse came to a stand-still: my horse ran his nose against
+him and stood still too; and so did all the rest of us. "Well!" said I,
+"Fathallah, what is this? who are these gentlemen?" "I knew it would be
+so," quoth Fathallah, "I was sure of it! and in such a cursed place
+too!--I see how it is, I shall never get home alive to Aleppo!"
+
+After waiting a while, I imagine to enjoy our confusion, one of the
+Arabs in front took up his parable and said, "Oh! oh! ye Egyptians!" (we
+wore the Egyptian dress)" what are you doing here, in our country? You
+are Ibrahim Pasha's men; are you? Say--speak; what reason have ye for
+being here? for we are Arabs, and the sons of Arabs; and this is our
+country, and our land?"
+
+"Sir," said the interpreter with profound respect--for he rode first,
+and four or five guns were pointed directly at his breast--"Sir, we are
+no Egyptians; thy servants are men of peace; we are peaceable Franks,
+pilgrims from the holy city, and we are only going to bathe in the
+waters of the Jordan, as all pilgrims do who travel to the Holy Land."
+"Franks!" quoth the Arab; "I know the Franks; pretty Franks are ye!
+Franks are the fathers of hats, and do not wear guns or swords, or red
+caps upon their heads, as you do. We shall soon see whether ye are
+Franks or not. Ye are Egyptians, and servants of Ibrahim Pasha the
+Egyptian: but now ye shall find that ye are our servants!"
+
+"Oh Sir," exclaimed I in the best Arabic I could muster, "thy servants
+are men of peace, travellers, antiquaries all of us. Oh Sir, we are
+Englishmen, which is a sort of Frank--very harmless and excellent
+people, desiring no evil. We beg you will be good enough to let us
+pass." "Franks!" retorted the Arab sheick, "pretty Franks! Franks do not
+speak Arabic, nor wear the Nizam dress! Ye are men of Ibrahim Pasha's;
+Egyptians, arrant Cairoites (Misseri) are ye all, every one of ye;" and
+he and all his followers laughed at us scornfully, for we certainly did
+look very like Egyptians. "We are Franks, I tell you!" again exclaimed
+Fathallah: "Ibrahim Pasha, indeed! who is he, I should like to know? we
+are Franks; and Franks like to see everything. We are going to see the
+monastery of St. Sabba; we are not Egyptians; what care we for
+Egyptians? we are English, Franks, every one of us, and we only desire
+to see the monastery of St. Sabba; that is what we are, O Arab, son of
+an Arab (Arab beni Arab). We are no less than this, and no more; we are
+Franks, as you are Arabs."
+
+Upon this there ensued a consultation between this son of an Arab and
+the other sons of Arabs, and in process of time the worthy gentlemen,
+knowing that it was impossible for us to escape, agreed to take us to
+the monastery of St. Sabba, which was not far off, and there to hear
+what we had to say in our defence.
+
+The sheick waved his arm aloft as a signal to his men to raise the
+muzzle of their guns, and we were allowed to proceed; some of the Arabs
+walking unconcernedly before us, and the others skipping like goats from
+rock to rock above us, and on the other side of the valley. They were
+ten times as numerous as we were, and we should have had no chance with
+them even on fair ground; but here we were completely at their mercy. We
+were escorted in this manner the rest of the way, and in half an hour's
+time we found ourselves standing before the great square tower of the
+monastery of St. Sabba. The battlements were lined with Arabs, who had
+taken possession of this strong place, and after a short parley and a
+clanging of arms within, a small iron door was opened in the wall: we
+dismounted and passed in; our horses, one by one, were pushed through
+after us. So there we were in the monastery of St Sabba sure enough; but
+under different circumstances from what we expected when we set out that
+morning from Jerusalem.
+
+Fathallah had, however, convinced the sheick of the Arabs that we really
+were Franks, and not followers of Ibrahim Pasha, and before long we not
+only were relieved from all fear, but became great friends with the
+noble and illustrious Abou Somebody, who had taken possession of St.
+Sabba and the defiles leading to it.
+
+This monastery, which is a very ancient foundation, is built upon the
+edge of the precipice at the bottom of which flows the brook Kedron,
+which in the rainy season becomes a torrent. The buildings, which are of
+immense strength, are supported by buttresses so massive that the upper
+part of each is large enough to contain a small arched chamber; the
+whole of the rooms in the monastery are vaulted, and are gloomy and
+imposing in the extreme. The pyramidical-shaped mass of buildings
+extends half-way down the rocks, and is crowned above by a high and
+stately square tower, which commands the small iron gate of the
+principal entrance. Within there are several small irregular courts
+connected by steep flights of steps and dark arched passages, some of
+which are carried through the solid rock.
+
+It was in one of the caves in these rocks that the renowned St. Sabba
+passed his time in the society of a pet lion. He was a famous anchorite,
+and was made chief of all the monks of Palestine by Sallustius,
+Patriarch of Jerusalem, about the year 490. He was twice ambassador to
+Constantinople to propitiate the Emperors Anastasius the Silent and
+Justinian; moreover he made a vow never to eat apples as long as he
+lived. He was born at Mutalasca, near Cæsarea of Cappadocia, in 439, and
+died in 532, in the ninety-fifth year of his age: he is still held in
+high veneration by both the Greek and Latin churches. He was the founder
+of the Laura, which was formerly situated among the clefts and crevices
+of these rocks, the present monastery having been enclosed and fortified
+at I do not know what period, but long after the decease of the saint.
+
+The word laura, which is often met with in the histories of the first
+five centuries after Christ, signifies, when applied to monastic
+institutions, a number of separate cells, each inhabited by a single
+hermit or anchorite, in contradistinction to a convent or monastery,
+which was called a cœnobium, where the monks lived together in one
+building under the rule of a superior. This species of monasticism seems
+always to have been a peculiar characteristic of the Greek Church, and
+in the present day these ascetic observances are upheld only by the
+Greek, Coptic, and Abyssinian Christians, among whom hermits and
+quietists, such as waste the body for the improvement of the soul, are
+still to be met with in the clefts of the rocks and in the desert places
+of Asia and Africa. They are a sort of dissenters as regards their own
+Church, for, by the mortifications to which they subject themselves,
+they rebuke the regular priesthood, who do not go so far, although these
+latter fast in the year above one hundred days, and always rise to
+midnight prayer. In the dissent, if such it be, of these monks of the
+desert there is a dignity and self-denying firmness much to be
+respected. They follow the tenets of their faith and the ordinances of
+their religion in a manner which is almost sublime. They are in this
+respect the very opposite to European dissenters, who are as undignified
+as they are generally snug and cosy in their mode of life. Here, among
+the followers of St. Anthony, there are no mock heroics, no turning up
+of the whites of the eyes and drawing down of the corners of the mouth:
+they form their rule of life from the ascetic writings of the early
+fathers of the Church: their self-denial is extreme, their devotion
+heroic; but yet to our eyes it appears puerile and irrational that men
+should give up their whole lives to a routine of observances which,
+although they are hard and stern, are yet so trivial that they appear
+almost ridiculous.
+
+In one of the courts of the monastery there is a palm-tree, said to be
+endowed with miraculous properties, which was planted by St. Sabba, and
+is to be numbered among the few now existing in the Holy Land, for at
+present they are very rarely to be met with, except in the vale of
+Jericho and the valley of the Jordan and the Dead Sea, in which
+localities, in consequence of their being so much beneath the level of
+the rest of the country, the temperature is many degrees higher than it
+is elsewhere.
+
+The church is rather large and is very solidly built. There are many
+ancient frescos painted on the walls, and various early Greek pictures
+are hung round about: many of these are representations of the most
+famous saints, and on the feast of each his picture is exposed upon a
+kind of desk before the iconostasis or wooden partition which divides
+the church from the sanctuary and the altar, and there it receives the
+kisses and oblations of all the worshippers who enter the sacred edifice
+on that day.
+
+The ικονοsτασις is dimly represented in our older
+churches by the rood-loft and screen which divides the chancel from the
+nave: it is retained also in Lombardy and in the sees under the
+Ambrosian rule; but these screens and rood-lofts, which destroy the
+beauty of a cathedral or any large church, are unknown in the Roman
+churches. They date their origin from the very earliest ages, when the
+"discipline of the secret" was observed, and when the ceremonies of the
+communion were held to be of such a sacred and mysterious nature that it
+was not permitted to the communicants to reveal what then took place--an
+incomprehensible custom which led to the propagation of many false ideas
+and strange rumours as to the Christian observances in the third and
+fourth centuries, and was one of the causes which led to several of the
+persecutions of the Church, as it was believed by the heathens that the
+Christians sacrificed children and committed other abominations for
+which they deserved extermination; and so prone are the vulgar to give
+credence to such injurious reports, that the Christians in later ages
+accused the Jews of the very same practices for which they themselves
+had in former times been held up to execration.
+
+In one part of the church I observed a rickety ladder leaning against
+the wall, and leading up to a small door about ten feet from the ground.
+Scrambling up this ladder, I found myself in the library of which I had
+heard so much. It was a small square room, or rather a large closet, in
+the upper part of one of the enormous buttresses which supported the
+walls of the monastery. Here I found about a thousand books, almost all
+manuscripts, but the whole of them were works of divinity. One volume in
+the Bulgarian or Servian language was written in uncial letters; the
+rest were in Greek, and were for the most part of the twelfth century.
+There were a great many enormous folios of the works of the fathers,
+and one MS. of the Octoteuch, or first eight hooks of the Old Testament.
+It is remarkable how very rarely MSS. of any part of the Old Testament
+are found in the libraries of Greek monasteries; this was the only MS.
+of the Octoteuch that I ever met with either before or afterwards in any
+part of the Levant. There were about a hundred other MSS. on a shelf in
+the apsis of the church: I was not allowed to examine them, but was
+assured that they were liturgies and church-books which were used on the
+various high days during the year.
+
+I was afterwards taken by some of the monks into the vaulted chambers of
+the great square tower or keep, which stood near the iron door by which
+we had been admitted. Here there were about a hundred MSS., but all
+imperfect; I found the 'Iliad' of Homer among them, but it was on paper.
+Some of these MSS. were beautifully written; they were, however, so
+imperfect, that in the short time I was there, and pestered as I was by
+a crowd of gaping Arabs, I was unable to discover what they were.
+
+I was allowed to purchase three MSS., with which the next day I and my
+companion departed on our way to the Dead Sea, our friend the sheick
+having, from the moment that he was convinced we were nothing better or
+worse than Englishmen and sight-seers, treated us with all manner of
+civility.
+
+On arriving at the Dead Sea I forthwith proceeded to bathe in it, in
+order to prove the celebrated buoyancy of the water, and was nearly
+drowned in the experiment, for, not being able to swim, my head got much
+deeper below the water than I intended. Two ignorant pilgrims, who had
+joined our party for protection, baptized each other in this filthy
+water, and sang psalms so loudly and discordantly that we asked them
+what in the name of wonder they were about, when we discovered that they
+thought this was the Jordan, and were sorely grieved at their
+disappointment. We found several shells upon the shore and a small dead
+fish, but perhaps they had been washed down by the waters of the Jordan
+or the Kedron: I do not know how this may be.
+
+We wandered about for two or three days in this hot, volcanic, and
+sunken region, and thence proceeded to Jericho. The mountain of
+Quarantina, the scene of the forty days' temptation of our Saviour, is
+pierced all over with the caves excavated by the ancient anchorites, and
+which look like pigeons' nests. Some of them are in the most
+extraordinary situations, high up on the face of tremendous precipices.
+However, I will not attempt to detail the singularities of this wild
+district; we visited the chief objects of interest, and a big book that
+I brought from St. Sabba is endeared to my recollections by my having
+constantly made use of it as a pillow in my tent during our wanderings.
+It was somewhat hard, undoubtedly; but after a long day's ride it
+served its purpose very well, and I slept as soundly as if it had been
+read to me.
+
+At two subsequent periods I visited this region, and purchased seven
+other MSS. from St Sabba; among them was the Octoteuch of the tenth, if
+not the ninth, century, which I esteem one of the most rare and precious
+volumes of my library.
+
+We made a somewhat singular discovery when travelling among the
+mountains to the east of the Dead Sea, where the ruins of Ammon, Jerash,
+and Adjeloun well repay the labour and fatigue encountered in visiting
+them. It was a remarkably hot and sultry day: we were scrambling up the
+mountain through a thick jungle of bushes and low trees, when I saw
+before me a fine plum-tree, loaded with fresh blooming plums. I cried
+out to my fellow-traveller, "Now, then, who will arrive first at the
+plum-tree?" and as he caught a glimpse of so refreshing an object, we
+both pressed our horses into a gallop to see which would get the first
+plum from the branches. We both arrived at the same moment; and, each
+snatching at a fine ripe plum, put it at once into our mouths; when, on
+biting it, instead of the cool delicious juicy fruit which we expected,
+our months were filled with a dry bitter dust, and we sat under the tree
+upon our horses sputtering, and hemming, and doing all we could to be
+relieved of the nauseous taste of this strange fruit. We then
+perceived, and to my great delight, that we had discovered the famous
+apple of the Dead Sea, the existence of which has been doubted and
+canvassed since the days of Strabo and Pliny, who first described it.
+Many travellers have given descriptions of other vegetable productions
+which bear some analogy to the one described by Pliny; but up to this
+time no one had met with the thing itself, either upon the spot
+mentioned by the ancient authors, or elsewhere. I brought several of
+them to England. They are a kind of gall-nut. I found others afterwards
+upon the plains of Troy, but there can be no doubt whatever that this is
+the apple of Sodom to which Strabo and Pliny referred. Some of those
+which I brought to England were given to the Linnæan Society, who
+published an engraving of them, and a description of their vegetable
+peculiarities, in their 'Transactions;' but as they omitted to explain
+the peculiar interest attached to them in consequence of their having
+been sought for unsuccessfully for above 1500 years, they excited little
+attention; though, as the evidence of the truth of what has so long been
+considered as a vulgar fable, they are fairly to be classed among the
+most curious productions which have been brought from the Holy Land.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+
+     Church of the Holy Sepulchre--Processions of the Copts--The Syrian
+     Maronites and the Greeks--Riotous Behaviour of the Pilgrims--Their
+     immense numbers--The Chant of the Latin Monks--Ibrahim Pasha--The
+     Exhibition of the Sacred Fire--Excitement of the Pilgrims--The
+     Patriarch obtains the Sacred Fire from the Holy Sepulchre--Contest
+     for the Holy Light--Immense sum paid for the privilege of receiving
+     it first--Fatal Effects of the Heat and Smoke--Departure of Ibrahim
+     Pasha--Horrible Catastrophe--Dreadful Loss of Life among the
+     Pilgrims in their endeavours to leave the Church--Battle with the
+     Soldiers--Our Narrow Escape--Shocking Scene in the Court of the
+     Church--Humane Conduct of Ibrahim Pasha--Superstition of the
+     Pilgrims regarding Shrouds--Scallop Shells and Palm Branches--The
+     Dead Muleteer--Moonlight View of the Dead Bodies--The Curse on
+     Jerusalem--Departure from the Holy City.
+
+
+It was on Friday, the 3rd of May, that my companions and myself went,
+about five o'clock in the evening, to the church of the Holy Sepulchre,
+where we had places assigned us in the gallery of the Latin monks, as
+well as a good bed-room in their convent. The church was very full, and
+the numbers kept increasing every moment. We first saw a small
+procession of the Copts go round the sepulchre, and after them one of
+the Syrian Maronites. I then went to bed, and at midnight was awakened
+to see the procession of the Greeks, which was rather grand. By the
+rules of their Church they are not permitted to carry any images, and
+therefore to make up for this they bore aloft a piece of brocade, upon
+which was embroidered a representation of the body of our Saviour. This
+was placed in the tomb, and, after some short time, brought out again
+and carried into the chapel of the Greeks, when the ceremonies of the
+night ended; for there was no procession of the Armenians, as the
+Armenian Patriarch had made an address to his congregation, and had, it
+was said, explained the falsity of the miracle of the holy fire; to the
+excessive astonishment of his hearers, who for centuries have considered
+an unshakable belief in this yearly wonder as one of the leading
+articles of their faith. After the Greek procession I went quietly to
+bed again, and slept soundly till next morning.
+
+The behaviour of the pilgrims was riotous in the extreme; the crowd was
+so great that many persons actually crawled over the heads of others,
+and some made pyramids of men by standing on each others' shoulders, as
+I have seen them do at Astley's. At one time, before the church was so
+full, they made a race-course round the sepulchre; and some, almost in a
+state of nudity, danced about with frantic gestures, yelling and
+screaming as if they were possessed.
+
+Altogether it was a scene of disorder and profanation which it is
+impossible to describe. In consequence of the multitude of people and
+the quantities of lamps, the heat was excessive, and a steam arose
+which prevented your seeing clearly across the church. But every window
+and cornice, and every place where a man's foot could rest, excepting
+the gallery--which was reserved for Ibrahim Pasha and
+ourselves--appeared to be crammed with people; for 17,000 pilgrims were
+said to be in Jerusalem, almost the whole of whom had come to the Holy
+City for no other reason than to see the sacred fire.
+
+After the noise, heat, and uproar which I had witnessed from the gallery
+that overlooked the Holy Sepulchre, the contrast of the calmness and
+quiet of my room in the Franciscan convent was very pleasing. The room
+had a small window which opened upon the Latin choir, where, in the
+evening, the monks chanted the litany of the Virgin: their fine voices
+and the beautiful simplicity of the ancient chant made a strong
+impression upon my mind; the orderly solemnity of the Roman Catholic
+vespers showing to great advantage when compared with the screams and
+tumult of the fanatic Greeks.
+
+[Illustration: LITANY OF THE VIRGIN
+
+Sung by the Friars of St. Salvador at Jerusalem.
+
+    Sanc--ta Mat--er Do--mi--ni-- O--ra
+    pro no--bis. Sanc--ta De--i
+    Ge--ni--trix-- O--ra pro no--bis.
+
+    Sancta Maria--Ora pro nobis.
+    Sancta Virgo Virginum--Ora pro nobis.
+    Impeatrix Reginarum--Ora pro nobis.
+    Laus sanctarum animarum--Ora pro nobis
+    Vera salutrix earum--Ora pro nobis.
+
+The next morning a way was made through the crowd for Ibrahim Pasha, by
+the soldiers with the butt-ends of their muskets, and by the Janissaries
+with their kourbatches and whips made of a quantity of small rope. The
+Pasha sat in the gallery, on a divan which the monks had made for him
+between the two columns nearest to the Greek chapel. They had got up a
+sort of procession to do him honour, the appearance of which did not add
+to the solemnity of the scene: three monks playing crazy fiddles led the
+way, then came the choristers with lighted candles, next two Nizam
+soldiers with muskets and fixed bayonets; a number of doctors,
+instructors, and officers tumbling over each other's heels, brought up
+the rear: he was received by the women, of whom there were thousands in
+the church, with a very peculiar shrill cry, which had a strange
+unearthly effect. It was the monosyllable la, la, la, uttered in a
+shrill trembling tone, which I thought much more like pain than
+rejoicing. The Pasha was dressed in full trousers of dark cloth, a light
+lilac-coloured jacket, and a red cap without a turban. When he was
+seated, the monks brought us some sherbet, which was excellently made;
+and as our seats were very near the great man, we saw everything in an
+easy and luxurious way; and it being announced that the Mahomedan Pasha
+was ready, the Christian miracle, which had been waiting for some time,
+was now on the point of being displayed.
+
+The people were by this time become furious; they were worn out with
+standing in such a crowd all night, and as the time approached for the
+exhibition of the holy fire they could not contain themselves for joy.
+Their excitement increased as the time for the miracle in which all
+believed drew near. At about one o'clock the Patriarch went into the
+ante-chapel of the sepulchre, and soon after a magnificent procession
+moved out of the Greek chapel. It conducted the Patriarch three times
+round the tomb; after which he took off his outer robes of cloth of
+silver, and went into the sepulchre, the door of which was then closed.
+The agitation of the pilgrims was now extreme: they screamed aloud; and
+the dense mass of people shook to and fro, like a field of corn in the
+wind.
+
+[Illustration: image of a bundle of thin wax-candles
+enclosed in an iron frame.]
+
+There is a round hole in one part of the chapel over the sepulchre, out
+of which the holy fire is given, and up to this the man who had agreed
+to pay the highest sum for this honour was conducted by a strong guard
+of soldiers. There was silence for a minute; and then a light appeared
+out of the tomb, and the happy pilgrim received the holy fire from the
+Patriarch within. It consisted of a bundle of thin wax-candles, lit, and
+enclosed in an iron frame to prevent their being torn asunder and put
+out in the crowd: for a furious battle commenced immediately; every one
+being so eager to obtain the holy light, that one man put out the candle
+of his neighbour in trying to light his own. It is said that as much as
+ten thousand piasters has been paid for the privilege of first receiving
+the holy fire, which is believed to ensure eternal salvation. The Copts
+got eight purses this year for the first candle they gave to a pilgrim
+of their own persuasion.
+
+This was the whole of the ceremony; there was no sermon or prayers,
+except a little chanting during the processions, and nothing that could
+tend to remind you of the awful event which this feast was designed to
+commemorate.
+
+Soon you saw the lights increasing in all directions, every one having
+lit his candle from the holy flame: the chapels, the galleries, and
+every corner where a candle could possibly be displayed, immediately
+appeared to be in a blaze. The people, in their frenzy, put the bunches
+of lighted tapers to their faces, hands, and breasts, to purify
+themselves from their sins. The Patriarch was carried out of the
+sepulchre in triumph, on the shoulders of the people he had deceived,
+amid the cries and exclamations of joy which resounded from every nook
+of the immense pile of buildings. As he appeared in a fainting state, I
+supposed that he was ill; but I found that it is the uniform custom on
+these occasions to feign insensibility, that the pilgrims may imagine he
+is overcome with the glory of the Almighty, from whose immediate
+presence they believe him to have returned.
+
+In a short time the smoke of the candles obscured everything in the
+place, and I could see it rolling in great volumes out at the aperture
+at the top of the dome. The smell was terrible; and three unhappy
+wretches, overcome by heat and bad air, fell from the upper range of
+galleries, and were dashed to pieces on the heads of the people below.
+One poor Armenian lady, seventeen years of age, died where she sat, of
+heat, thirst, and fatigue.
+
+After a while, when he had seen all that was to be seen, Ibrahim Pasha
+got up and went away, his numerous guards making a line for him by main
+force through the dense mass of people which filled the body of the
+church. As the crowd was so immense, we waited for a little while, and
+then set out all together to return to our convent. I went first and my
+friends followed me, the soldiers making way for us across the church. I
+got as far as the place where the Virgin is said to have stood during
+the crucifixion, when I saw a number of people lying one on another all
+about this part of the church, and as far as I could see towards the
+door. I made my way between them as well as I could, till they were so
+thick that there was actually a great heap of bodies on which I trod. It
+then suddenly struck me they were all dead! I had not perceived this at
+first, for I thought they were only very much fatigued with the
+ceremonies and had lain down to rest themselves there; but when I came
+to so great a heap of bodies I looked down at them, and saw that sharp,
+hard appearance of the face which is never to be mistaken. Many of them
+were quite black with suffocation, and farther on were others all bloody
+and covered with the brains and entrails of those who had been trodden
+to pieces by the crowd.
+
+At this time there was no crowd in this part of the church; but a
+little farther on, round the corner towards the great door, the people,
+who were quite panic-struck, continued to press forward, and every one
+was doing his utmost to escape. The guards outside, frightened at the
+rush from within, thought that the Christians wished to attack them, and
+the confusion soon grew into a battle. The soldiers with their bayonets
+killed numbers of fainting wretches, and the walls were spattered with
+blood and brains of men who had been felled, like oxen, with the
+butt-ends of the soldiers' muskets. Every one struggled to defend
+himself or to get away, and in the mêlée all who fell were immediately
+trampled to death by the rest. So desperate and savage did the fight
+become, that even the panic-struck and frightened pilgrims appear at
+last to have been more intent upon the destruction of each other than
+desirous to save themselves.
+
+For my part, as soon as I perceived the danger I had cried out to my
+companions to turn back, which they had done; but I myself was carried
+on by the press till I came near the door, where all were fighting for
+their lives. Here, seeing certain destruction before me, I made every
+endeavour to get back. An officer of the Pasha's, who by his star was a
+colonel or bin bashee, equally alarmed with myself, was also trying to
+return: he caught hold of my cloak, or bournouse, and pulled me down on
+the body of an old man who was breathing out his last sigh. As the
+officer was pressing me to the ground we wrestled together among the
+dying and the dead with the energy of despair. I struggled with this man
+till I pulled him down, and happily got again upon my legs--(I
+afterwards found that he never rose again)--and scrambling over a pile
+of corpses, I made my way back into the body of the church, where I
+found my friends, and we succeeded in reaching the sacristy of the
+Catholics, and thence the room which had been assigned to us by the
+monks. The dead were lying in heaps, even upon the stone of unction; and
+I saw full four hundred wretched people, dead and living, heaped
+promiscuously one upon another, in some places above five feet high.
+Ibrahim Pasha had left the church only a few minutes before me, and very
+narrowly escaped with his life; he was so pressed upon by the crowd on
+all sides, and it was said attacked by several of them, that it was only
+by the greatest exertions of his suite, several of whom were killed,
+that he gained the outer court. He fainted more than once in the
+struggle, and I was told that some of his attendants at last had to cut
+a way for him with their swords through the dense ranks of the frantic
+pilgrims. He remained outside, giving orders for the removal of the
+corpses, and making his men drag out the bodies of those who appeared to
+be still alive from the heaps of the dead. He sent word to us to remain
+in the convent till all the dead bodies had been removed, and that when
+we could come out in safety he would again send to us.
+
+We stayed in our room two hours before we ventured to make another
+attempt to escape from this scene of horror; and then walking close
+together, with all our servants round us, we made a bold push and got
+out of the door of the church. By this time most of the bodies were
+removed; but twenty or thirty were still lying in distorted attitudes at
+the foot of Mount Calvary; and fragments of clothes, turbans, shoes, and
+handkerchiefs, clotted with blood and dirt, were strewed all over the
+pavement.
+
+In the court in the front of the church, the sight was pitiable: mothers
+weeping over their children--the sons bending over the dead bodies of
+their fathers--and one poor woman was clinging to the hand of her
+husband, whose body was fearfully mangled. Most of the sufferers were
+pilgrims and strangers. The Pasha was greatly moved by this scene of
+woe; and he again and again commanded his officers to give the poor
+people every assistance in their power, and very many by his humane
+efforts were rescued from death.
+
+I was much struck by the sight of two old men with white beards, who had
+been seeking for each other among the dead; they met as I was passing
+by, and it was affecting to see them kiss and shake hands, and
+congratulate each other on having escaped from death.
+
+When the bodies were removed many were discovered standing upright,
+quite dead; and near the church door one of the soldiers was found thus
+standing, with his musket shouldered, among the bodies which reached
+nearly as high as his head; this was in a corner near the great door on
+the right side as you come in. It seems that this door had been shut, so
+that many who stood near it were suffocated in the crowd; and when it
+was opened, the rush was so great that numbers were thrown down and
+never rose again, being trampled to death by the press behind them. The
+whole court before the entrance of the church was covered with bodies
+laid in rows, by the Pasha's orders, so that their friends might find
+them and carry them away. As we walked home we saw numbers of people
+carried out, some dead, some horribly wounded and in a dying state, for
+they had fought with their heavy silver inkstands and daggers.
+
+In the evening I was not sorry to retire early to rest in the low
+vaulted room in the strangers' house attached to the monastery of St.
+Salvador. I was weary and depressed after the agitating scenes of the
+morning, and my lodging was not rendered more cheerful by there being a
+number of corpses laid out in their shrouds in the stone court beneath
+its window. It is thought by these superstitious people that a shroud
+washed in the fountain of Siloam and blessed at the tomb of our Saviour
+forms a complete suit of armour for the body of a sinner deceased in
+the faith, and that clad in this invulnerable panoply he may defy the
+devil and all his angels. For this reason every pilgrim when journeying
+has his shroud with him, with all its different parts and bandages
+complete; and to many they became useful sooner than they expected. A
+holy candle also forms part of a pilgrim's accoutrements. It has some
+sovereign virtue, but I do not exactly know what; and they were all
+provided with several long thin tapers, and a rosary or two, and sundry
+rosaries and ornaments made of pearl oyster-shells--all which are
+defences against the powers of darkness. These pearl oyster-shells are,
+I imagine, the scallop-shell of romance, for there are no scallops to be
+found here. My companion was very anxious to obtain some genuine
+scallop-shells, as they form part of his arms; but they, as well as the
+palm branches, carried home by all palmers on their return from the Holy
+Land, are as rare here as they are in England. This is the more
+remarkable, as the medal struck by Vespasian on the subjection of this
+country represents a woman in an attitude of mourning seated under a
+palm-tree with the legend "Judæa capta;" so there may have been palms in
+those days. I was going to say there _must_ have been: but on second
+thoughts it does not follow that there should have been palms in Judæa,
+because the Romans put them on a medal, any more than that there should
+be unicorns in England because we represent them on our coins. However,
+all this is a digression: we must return to our dead men. There were
+sixteen or seventeen of them, all stiff and stark, lying in the court,
+nicely wrapped up in their shrouds, like parcels ready to be sent off to
+the other world: but at the end of the row lay one man in a brown dress;
+he was one of the lower class--a muleteer, perhaps, a strong, well-made
+man; but he was not in a shroud. He had died fighting, and there he lay
+with his knees drawn up, his right arm above his head, and in his hand
+the jacket of another man, which could not now be released from his
+grasp, so tightly had his strong hand been clenched in the
+death-struggle. This figure took a strong hold on my imagination; there
+was something wild and ghastly in its appearance, different from the
+quiet attitude of the other victims of the fight in which I also had
+been engaged. It put me in mind of all manner of horrible old stories of
+ghosts and goblins with which my memory was well stored; and I went to
+bed with my head so occupied by these traditions of gloom and ignorance
+that I could not sleep, or if I did for awhile, I woke up again and
+still went on thinking of the old woman of Berkeley, and the fire-king,
+and the stories in Scott's 'Discovery of Witchcraft,' and the 'Hierarchy
+of the Blessed Aungelles,' and Caxton's 'Golden Legende'--all books
+wherein I delighted to pore, till I could not help getting out of bed
+again to have another look at the ghastly regiment in the court below.
+
+I leant against the heavy stone mullions of the window, which was
+barred, but without glass, and gazed I know not how long. There they all
+were, still and quiet; some in the full moonlight, and some half
+obscured by the shadow of the buildings. In the morning I had walked
+with them, living men, such as I was myself, and now how changed they
+were! Some of them I had spoken to, as they lived in the same court with
+me, and I had taken an interest in their occupations: now I would not
+willingly have touched them, and even to look at them was terrible! What
+little difference there is in appearance between the same men asleep and
+dead! and yet what a fearful difference in fact, not to themselves only,
+but to those who still remained alive to look upon them! Whilst I was
+musing upon these things the wind suddenly arose, the doors and shutters
+of the half-uninhabited monastery slammed and grated upon their hinges;
+and as the moon, which had been obscured, again shone clearly on the
+court below, I saw the dead muleteer with the jacket which he held
+waving in the air, the grimmest figure I ever looked upon. His face was
+black from the violence of his death, and he seemed like an evil spirit
+waving on his ghastly crew; and as the wind increased, the shrouds of
+some of the dead men fluttered in the night air as if they responded to
+his call. The clouds, passing rapidly over the moon, east such shadows
+on the corpses in their shrouds, that I could almost have fancied they
+were alive again. I returned to bed, and thanked God that I was not also
+laid out with them in the court below.
+
+In the morning I awoke at a late hour and looked out into the court; the
+muleteer and most of the other bodies were removed, and people were
+going about their business as if nothing had occurred, excepting that
+every now and then I heard the wail of women lamenting for the dead.
+Three hundred was the number reported to have been carried out of the
+gates to their burial-places that morning; two hundred more were badly
+wounded, many of whom probably died, for there were no physicians or
+surgeons to attend them, and it was supposed that others were buried in
+the courts and gardens of the city by their surviving friends; so that
+the precise number of those who perished was not known.
+
+When we reflect in what place and to commemorate what event the great
+multitude of Christian pilgrims had thus assembled from all parts of the
+world, the fearful visitation which came upon them appears more dreadful
+than if it had occurred under other circumstances. They had entered the
+sacred walls to celebrate the most joyful event which is recorded in the
+Scriptures. By the resurrection of our Saviour was proved not only his
+triumph over the grave, but the truth of the religion which He taught;
+and the anniversary of that event has been kept in all succeeding ages
+as the great festival of the Church. On the morning of this hallowed day
+throughout the Christian world the bells rang merrily, the altars were
+decked with flowers, and all men gave way to feelings of exultation and
+joy; in an hour everything was turned to mourning, lamentation, and woe!
+
+There was a time when Jerusalem was the most prosperous and favoured
+city of the world; then "all her ways were pleasantness, and all her
+paths were peace;" "plenteousness was in her palaces;" and "Jerusalem
+was the joy of the whole earth."
+
+But since the awful crime which was committed there, the Lord has poured
+out the vials of his wrath upon the once chosen city; dire and fearful
+have been the calamities which have befallen her in terrible succession
+for eighteen hundred years. Fury and desolation, hand in hand, have
+stalked round the precincts of the guilty spot; and Jerusalem has been
+given up to the spoiler and the oppressor.
+
+The day following the occurrences which have been related, I had a long
+interview with Ibrahim Pasha, and the conversation turned naturally on
+the blasphemous impositions of the Greek and Armenian patriarchs, who,
+for the purposes of worldly gain, had deluded their ignorant followers
+with the performance of a trick in relighting the candles which had been
+extinguished on Good Friday with fire which they affirmed to have been
+sent down from heaven in answer to their prayers. The Pasha was quite
+aware of the evident absurdity which I brought to his notice, of the
+performance of a Christian miracle being put off for some time, and
+being kept in waiting for the convenience of a Mahometan prince. It was
+debated what punishment was to be awarded to the Greek patriarch for the
+misfortunes which had been the consequence of his jugglery, and a number
+of the purses which he had received from the unlucky pilgrims passed
+into the coffers of the Pasha's treasury. I was sorry that the falsity
+of this imposture was not publicly exposed, as it was a good opportunity
+of so doing. It seems wonderful that so barefaced a trick should
+continue to be practised every year in these enlightened times; but it
+has its parallel in the blood of St. Januarius, which is still liquefied
+whenever anything is to be gained by the exhibition of that astonishing
+act of priestly impertinence. If Ibrahim Pasha had been a Christian,
+probably this would have been the last Easter of the lighting of the
+holy fire; but from the fact of his religion being opposed to that of
+the monks, he could not follow the example of Louis XIV., who having put
+a stop to some clumsy imposition which was at that time bringing scandal
+on the Church, a paper was found nailed upon the door of the sacred
+edifice the day afterwards, on which the words were read--
+
+    "De part du roi, défense à Dieu
+    De faire miracle en ce lieu."
+
+The interference of a Mahometan in such a case as this would only have
+been held as another persecution of the Christians; and the miracle of
+the holy fire has continued to be exhibited every year with great
+applause, and luckily without the unfortunate results which accompanied
+it on this occasion.
+
+Ibrahim Pasha, though by no means the equal of Mehemet Ali in talents or
+attainments, was an enlightened man for a Turk. Though bold in battle,
+he was kind to those who were about him; and the cruelties practised by
+his troops in the Greek and Syrian wars are to be ascribed more to the
+system of Eastern warfare than to the savage disposition of their
+commander.
+
+He was born at Cavalla, in Roumelia, in the year 1789, and died at
+Alexandria on the 10th of November, 1848. He was the son, according to
+some, of Mehemet Ali, but, according to others, of the wife of the great
+Viceroy of Egypt by a former husband. At the age of seventeen he joined
+his father's army, and in 1816 he commanded the expedition against the
+Wahabees--a sect who maintained that nothing but the Koran was to be
+held in any estimation by Mahometans, to the exclusion of all notes,
+explanations, and commentaries, which have in many cases usurped the
+authority of the text. They called themselves reformers, and, like King
+Henry VIII., took possession of the golden water-spouts and other
+ornaments of the Kaaba, burned the books and destroyed the colleges of
+the Arabian theologians, and carried off everything they could lay hold
+of, on religious principles. An eye-witness told me that some of the
+followers of Abd el Wahab had found a good-sized looking-glass in a
+house at Sanaa, which they were carrying away with great difficulty
+through the desert, the porters being guarded by a multitude of
+half-naked warriors, who had neglected all other plunder in the
+supposition that they had got hold of the diamond of Jemshid, a
+pre-Adamite monarch famous in the annals of Arabian history. Some more
+of these wild people found several bags of doubloons at Mocha, which
+they conceived to be dollars that had been spoiled somehow, and had
+turned yellow, for they had never seen any before. A "smart" captain of
+an American vessel at Jedda, who was consulted on the occasion, kindly
+gave them one real white dollar for four yellow ones--an arrangement
+which perfectly satisfied both parties. After three years' campaign,
+Ibrahim Pasha retook the holy cities of Mecca and Medina; and in
+December, 1819, he made his triumphant entry into Cairo, when he was
+invested with the title of Vizir and made Pasha of the Hedjaz by the
+Sultan--a dignity more exalted than that of the Pasha of Egypt.
+
+In 1824 he commanded the armies of the Sultan, which were sent to put
+down the rebellion of the Greeks: he sailed from Alexandria with a fleet
+of 163 vessels, 16,000 infantry, 700 cavalry, and four regiments of
+artillery. Numerous captives were made in the Morea, and the
+slave-markets were stocked with Greek women and children who had been
+captured by the soldiers of the Turkish army. The battle of Navarino, in
+1827, ended in the destruction of the Mahometan fleets; and thousands of
+slaves, who were forced to fight against their intended deliverers,
+being chained to their guns, sunk with the ships which were destroyed by
+the cannon of the allied forces of England, France, and Russia.
+
+In 1831 Mehemet Ali undertook to wrest Syria from the Sultan his master.
+Ibrahim Pasha commanded his army of about 30,000 men, under the tuition,
+however, of a Frenchman, Colonel Sève, who had denied the Christian
+faith on Christmas-day, and was afterwards known as Suleiman Pasha. The
+Egyptian troops soon became masters of the Holy Land; Gaza, Jaffa,
+Jerusalem, and Acre fell before their victorious arms; and on the 22nd
+of December, 1832, Ibrahim Pasha, with an army of 30,000 men, defeated
+60,000 Turks at Koniah, who had been sent against him by Sultan Mahmoud,
+under the command of Reschid Pasha.
+
+Ibrahim had advanced as far as Kutayeh, on his way to Constantinople,
+when his march was stopped by the interference of European diplomacy.
+The Sultan, having made another effort to recover his dominions in
+Syria, sent an army against Ibrahim, which was utterly routed at the
+battle of Negib, on the 24th of June, 1839.
+
+This defeat was principally owing to the Seraskier (the Turkish general)
+refusing to follow the counsels of Jochmus Pasha, a German officer, who,
+in distinguished contrast to the unhappy Suleiman, retained the religion
+of his fathers and the esteem of honest men.
+
+His career was again checked by European policy, which, if it had any
+right to interfere at all, would have benefited the cause of humanity
+more by doing so before Egypt was drained of nearly all its able-bodied
+men, and Syria given up to the horrors of a long and cruel war.
+
+The great powers of England, Austria, Russia, and Prussia now combined
+to restore the wasted provinces of Syria to the Porte; a fleet menaced
+the shores of the Holy Land; Acre was attacked, and taken in four hours
+by the accidental explosion of a powder-magazine, which almost destroyed
+what remained from former sieges of the habitable portion of the town.
+Ibrahim Pasha evacuated Syria, and retired to Egypt, where he amused
+himself with agriculture, and planting trees, always his favourite
+pursuit: the trees which he had planted near Cairo have already reduced
+the temperature in their vicinity several degrees.
+
+In 1846 he went to Europe for the benefit of his health, and extended
+his tour to England, where he was much struck with the industry that
+pervaded all classes, and its superiority in railways and works of
+utility to the other countries of Europe. "Yes," said he to me at
+Mivart's Hotel; "in France there is more fantasia; in England there is
+more roast beef." I observed that he was surprised at the wealth
+displayed at one or two parties in some great houses in London at which
+he was present. Whether he had lost his memory in any degree at that
+time, I do not know; but on my recalling to him the great danger he had
+been in at Jerusalem, of which he entertained a very lively
+recollection, he could not remember the name of the Bey who was killed
+there, although he was the only person of any rank in his suite, with
+the exception of Selim Bey Selicdar, his swordbearer, with whom I
+afterwards became acquainted in Egypt.
+
+In consequence of the infirmities of Mehemet Ali, whose great mind had
+become unsettled in his old age, Ibrahim was promoted by the present
+Sultan to the Vice-royalty of Egypt, on the 1st of September, 1848. His
+constitution, which had long been undermined by hardship, excess, and
+want of care, gave way at length, and on the 10th of November of the
+same year his body was carried to the tomb which his father had prepared
+for his family near Cairo, little thinking at the time that he should
+live to survive his sons Toussoun, Ismail, and Ibrahim, who have all
+descended before him to their last abode.
+
+In personal appearance Ibrahim Pasha was a short, broad-shouldered man,
+with a red face, small eyes, and a heavy though cunning expression of
+countenance. He was as brave as a lion; his habits and ideas were rough
+and coarse; he had but little refinement in his composition; but,
+although I have often seen him abused for his cruelty in European
+newspapers, I never heard any well-authenticated anecdote of his
+cruelty, and do not believe that he was by any means of a savage
+disposition, nor that his troops rivalled in any way the horrors
+committed in Algeria by the civilized and fraternising French. He was a
+bold, determined soldier. He had that reverence and respect for his
+father which is so much to be admired in the patriarchal customs of the
+East; and it is not every one who has lived for years in the enjoyment
+of absolute power uncontrolled by the admonitions of a Christian's
+conscience that could get out of the scrape so well, or leave a better
+name upon the page of history than that of Ibrahim Pasha.
+
+After the fearful catastrophe in the church of the Holy Sepulchre, the
+whole host of pilgrims seem to have become panic struck, and every one
+was anxious to escape from the city. There was a report, too, that the
+plague had broken out, and we with the rest made instant preparation for
+our departure. In consequence of the numbers who had perished, there
+was no difficulty in hiring baggage-horses; and we immediately procured
+as many as we wanted: tents were loaded on some; beds and packages of
+all sorts and sizes were tied on others, with but slight regard to
+balance and compactness; and on the afternoon of the 6th of May we
+rejoiced to find ourselves once more out of the walls of Jerusalem, and
+riding at our leisure along the pleasant fields fresh with the flowers
+of spring, a season charming in all countries, but especially delightful
+in the sultry climate of the Holy Land.
+
+
+
+
+MONASTERIES OF THE LEVANT.
+
+PART III.
+
+THE MONASTERIES OF METEORA.
+
+[Illustration: VIEW OF THE MONASTERY OF SAINT BARLAAM, AT METEORA].
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+
+     Albania--Ignorance at Corfu concerning that Country--Its reported
+     abundance of Game and Robbers--The Disturbed State of the
+     Country--The Albanians--Richness of their Arms--Their free use of
+     them--Comparative Safety of Foreigners--Tragic Fate of a German
+     Botanist--Arrival at Gominitza--Ride to Paramathia--A Night's
+     Bivouac--Reception at Paramathia--Albanian Ladies--Yanina--Albanian
+     Mode of settling a Quarrel--Expected Attack from Robbers--A
+     Body-Guard mounted--Audience with the Vizir--His Views of Criminal
+     Jurisprudence--Retinue of the Vizir--His Troops--Adoption of the
+     European Exercises--Expedition to Berat--Calmness and
+     Self-possession of the Turks--Active Preparations for
+     Warfare--Scene at the Bazaar--Valiant Promises of the Soldiers.
+
+
+_Corfu, Friday, Oct. 31, 1834._--I found I could get no information
+respecting Albania at Corfu, though the high mountains of Epirus seemed
+almost to over-hang the island. No one knew anything about it, except
+that it was a famous place for snipes! It appeared never to have struck
+traveller or tourist that there was anything in Albania except snipes;
+whereof one had shot fifteen brace, and another had shot many more, only
+he did not bring them home, having lost the dead birds in the bushes.
+There were some woodcocks also, it was generally believed, and some
+spake of wild boars, but I had not the advantage of meeting with anybody
+who could specifically assert that he had shot one: and besides these
+there were robbers in multitudes. As to that point every one was agreed.
+Of robbers there was no end: and just at this particular time there was
+a revolution, or rebellion, or pronunciamiento, or a general election,
+or something of that sort, going on in Albania; for all the people who
+came over from thence said that the whole country was in a ferment. In
+fact there seemed to be a general uproar taking place, during which each
+party of the free and independent mountaineers deemed it expedient to
+show their steady adherence to their own side of the question by
+shooting at any one they saw, from behind a stone or a tree, for fear
+that person might accidentally be a partizan of the opposite faction.
+
+[Illustration: TATAR, OR GOVERNMENT MESSENGER]
+
+The Albanians are great dandies about their arms: the scabbard of their
+yataghan, and the stocks of their pistols, are almost always of silver,
+as well as their three or four little cartridge boxes, which are
+frequently gilt, and sometimes set with garnets and coral; an Albanian
+is therefore worth shooting, even if he is not of another way of
+thinking from the gentleman who shoots him. As I understood, however,
+that they did not shoot so much at Franks because they usually have
+little about them worth taking, and are not good to eat, I conceived
+that I should not run any great risk; and I resolved, therefore,
+not to be thwarted in my intention of exploring some of the monasteries
+of that country. There is another reason also why Franks are seldom
+molested in the East--every Arab or Albanian knows that if a Frank has a
+gun in his hand, which he generally has, there are two probabilities,
+amounting almost to certainties, with respect to that weapon. One is,
+that it is loaded; and the other that, if the trigger is pulled, there
+is a considerable chance of its going off. Now these are circumstances
+which apply in a much slighter degree to the magazine of small arms
+which he carries about his own person. But, beyond all this, when a
+Frank is shot there is such a disturbance made about it! Consuls write
+letters--pashas are stirred up--guards, kawasses, and tatars gallop like
+mad about the country, and fire pistols in the air, and live at free
+quarters in the villages; the murderer is sought for everywhere, and he,
+or somebody else, is hanged to please the consul; in addition to which
+the population are beaten with thick sticks ad libitum. All this is
+extremely disagreeable, and therefore we are seldom shot at, the pastime
+being too dearly paid for.
+
+The last Frank whom I heard of as having been killed in Albania was a
+German, who was studying botany. He rejoiced in a blue coat and brass
+buttons, and wandered about alone, picking up herbs and flowers on the
+mountains, which he put carefully into a tin box. He continued
+unmolested for some time, the universal opinion being that he was a
+powerful magician, and that the herbs he was always gathering would
+enable him to wither up his enemies by some dreadful charm, and also to
+detect every danger which menaced him. Two or three Albanians had
+watched him for several days, hiding themselves carefully behind the
+rocks whenever the philosopher turned towards them; and at last one of
+the gang, commending himself to all his saints, rested his long gun upon
+a stone and shot the German through the body. The poor man rolled over,
+but the Albanian did not venture from his hiding-place until he had
+loaded his gun again, and then, after sundry precautions, he came out,
+keeping his eye upon the body, and with his friends behind him, to
+defend him in case of need. The botanizer, however, was dead enough, and
+the disappointment of the Albanians was extreme, when they found that
+his buttons were brass and not gold, for it was the supposed value of
+these precious ornaments that had incited them to the deed.
+
+I procured some letters of introduction to different persons, sent my
+English servant and most of my effects to England, and hired a youth to
+act in the double capacity of servant and interpreter during the
+journey. One of my friends at Corfu was good enough to procure me the
+use of a great boat, with I do not know how many oars, belonging to
+government; and in it I was rowed over the calm bright sea twenty-four
+miles to Gominitza, where I arrived in five hours. Here I hired three
+horses with pack-saddles, one for my baggage, one for my servant, and
+one for myself; and away we went towards Paramathia, which place we were
+told was four hours off. Paramathia is said to be built upon the site of
+Dodona, although the exact situation of the oracle is not ascertained;
+but some of the finest bronzes extant were found there thirty or forty
+years ago, part of which went to Russia, and part came into the
+possession of Mr. Hawkins, of Bignor, in Sussex, where they are still
+preserved.
+
+Our horses were not very good, and our roads were worse; and we
+scrambled and stumbled over the rocks, up and down hill, all the
+afternoon, without approaching, as it seemed to me, towards any
+inhabited place. It was now becoming dark, and the muleteers said we had
+six hours more to do; it was then seven o'clock, P.M.; we could see
+nothing, and were upon the top of a hill, where there were plenty of
+stones and some low bushes, through which we were making our way
+vaguely, suiting ourselves as to a path, and turning our faces towards
+any point of the compass which we thought most agreeable, for it did not
+appear that any of the party knew the way. We now held a council as to
+what was best to be done; and as we saw lights in some houses about a
+mile off, I desired one of the muleteers to go there and see if we could
+get a lodging for the night. "Go to a house?" said the muleteer, "you
+don't suppose we could be such fools as to go to a house in Albania,
+where we know nobody?" "No!" said I, "why not?" "Because we should be
+murdered, of course," said he; "that is if they thought themselves
+strong enough to venture to undo their doors and let us in; otherwise
+they would pretend there was nobody in the house, or fire at us out of
+the window and set the dogs at us; or----" "Oh!" I replied, "that is
+quite sufficient; I have no desire to trouble your excellent countrymen,
+only I don't precisely see what else we are to do just now on the top of
+this hill. How are they off for wolves in this neighbourhood?" "Why,"
+quoth my friend, "I hope you understand that if anything happens to my
+horses you are bound to reimburse me: as for ourselves, we are armed,
+and must take our chance; but I don't think there are many wolves here
+yet; they don't come down from the mountains quite so soon: though
+certainly it is getting cold already. But we had better sleep here at
+all events, and at dawn we shall be able, perhaps, to make out a little
+better where we have got to." There being nothing else for it, we tied
+the horses' legs together, and I lay down on a travelling carpet by the
+side of my servant, under the cover of a bush. Awfully cold it was: the
+horses trembled and shook themselves every now and then, and held their
+heads down, and I tried all sorts of postures in hopes of making myself
+snug, but every change was from bad to worse; I could not get warm any
+how, and a remarkable fact was, that the more sharp stones I picked out
+from under the carpet the more numerous and sharper were those that
+remained: my only comfort was to hear the muleteers rolling about too,
+and anathematizing the stones most lustily. However, I went to sleep in
+course of time, and was, as it appeared to me, instantaneously awakened
+by some one shaking me, and telling me it was four o'clock and time to
+start. It was still as dark as ever, except that a few stars were
+visible, and we recommenced our journey, stumbling and scrambling about
+as we had done before, till we came to a place where the horses stopped
+of their own accord. This it seemed was a ledge of rock above a
+precipice, about two hundred feet deep, as I judged by the reflection of
+the stars in the stream which ran below. The dimness of the light made
+the place look more dangerous and difficult than perhaps it really was.
+It seems, however, that we were lucky in finding it, for there was no
+other way off the hill except by this ledge, which was about twelve feet
+broad. We got off our horses and led them down; they had probably often
+been there before, for they made no difficulty about it, and in a few
+hundred yards, the road becoming better, we mounted again, and after
+five hours' travelling arrived at Paramathia. Just before entering the
+place we met a party on foot, armed to the teeth, and all carrying
+their long guns. One of these gentlemen politely asked me if I had a
+spare purse about me, or any money which I could turn over to his
+account; but as I looked very dirty and shabby, and as we were close to
+the town, he did not press his demand, but only asked by which road I
+intended to leave it. I told him I should remain there for the present,
+and as we had now reached the houses, he took his departure, to my great
+satisfaction.
+
+On inquiring for the person to whom I had a letter of introduction, I
+found he was a shopkeeper who sold cloth in the bazaar. We accordingly
+went to his shop and found him sitting among his merchandise. When he
+had read the letter he was very civil, and shutting up his shop, walked
+on before us to show me the way to his house. It was a very good one,
+and the best room was immediately given up to me, two old ladies and
+three or four young ones being turned out in a most summary manner. One
+or two of the girls were very pretty, and they all vied with each other
+in their attentions to their guest, looking at me with great curiosity,
+and perpetually peeping at me through the curtain which hung over the
+door, and running away when they thought they were observed.
+
+The prettiest of these damsels had only been married a short time: who
+her husband was, or where he lived, I could not make out, but she amused
+me by her anxiety to display her smart new clothes. She went and put on
+a new capote, a sort of white frock coat, without sleeves, embroidered
+in bright colours down the seams, which showed her figure to advantage;
+and then she took it off again, and put on another garment, giving me
+ample opportunity of admiring its effect. I expressed my surprise and
+admiration in bad Greek, which, however, the fair Albanian appeared to
+find no difficulty in understanding. She kindly corrected some of my
+sentences, and I have no doubt I should have improved rapidly under her
+care, if she had not always run away whenever she heard any one creaking
+about on the rickety boards of the ante-room and staircase. The other
+ladies, who were settling themselves in a large gaunt room close by,
+kept up an interminable clatter, and displayed such unbounded powers of
+conversation, that it seemed impossible that any one of them could hear
+what all the others said; till at last the master of the house came up
+again, and then there was a lull. He told me that I could not hire
+horses till the afternoon, and as that would have been too late to
+start, I determined to remain where I was till the next morning. I
+passed the day in wandering about the place, and considering whether,
+upon the whole, the dogs or the men of Paramathia were the most savage:
+for the dogs looked like wolves, and the men like arrant cut-throats,
+swaggering about, idle and restless, with their long hair, and guns, and
+pistols, and yataghans; they have none of the composure of the Turks,
+who delight to sit still in a coffee-house and smoke their pipes, or
+listen to a story, which saves them the trouble of thinking or speaking.
+The Albanians did not scream and chatter as the Arabs do, or as their
+ladies were doing in the houses, but they lounged about the bazaars
+listlessly, ready to pick a quarrel with any one, and unable to fix
+themselves down to any occupation; in short they gave me the idea of
+being a very poor and proud, and good-for-nothing set of scamps.
+
+_November 2nd._--The next morning at five o'clock I was on horseback
+again, and after riding over stones and rocks, and frequently in the bed
+of a stream, for fourteen hours, I arrived in the evening at Yanina. I
+was disappointed with the first view of the place. The town is built on
+the side of a sloping hill above the lake; and as my route lay over the
+top of this hill, I could see but little of the town until I was quite
+among the houses, most of which were in a ruinous condition. The lake
+itself, with an island in it on which are the ruins of a palace built by
+the famous Ali Pasha, is a beautiful object; but the mountains by which
+it is bounded on the opposite side are barren, yet not sufficiently
+broken to be picturesque. The scene altogether put me in mind of the
+Lake of Genesareth as seen from its western shore near Tiberias. There
+is a plain to the north and north-west, which is partially cultivated,
+but it is inferior in beauty to the plains of Jericho, and there is no
+river like the Jordan to light up the scene with its quick and sparkling
+waters as it glistens among the trees in its journey towards the lake.
+
+I went to the house of an Italian gentleman who was the principal
+physician of Yanina, and who I understood was in the habit of affording
+accommodation to travellers in his house. He received me with great
+kindness, and gave me an excellent set of rooms, consisting of a bed
+room, sitting room, and ante-room, all of them much better than those
+which I occupied in the hotel at Corfu: they were clean and nicely
+furnished; and altogether the excellence of my quarters in the
+dilapidated capital of Albania surprised me most agreeably.
+
+The town appears never to have been repaired since the wars and
+revolutions which occurred at the time of Ali Pasha's death. The houses
+resemble those of Greece or southern Italy; they are built, some of
+stone, and some of wood, with tiled roofs. On the walls of many of them
+there were vines growing. The bazaars are poor, yet I saw very rich arms
+displayed in some mean little shops, or stalls, as we should call them;
+for they are all open, like the booths at a fair. The climate is rainy,
+and there is no lack of mud in wet weather, and dust when it is dry. The
+whole place had a miserable appearance, nothing seemed to be going on,
+and the people have a savage, hang-dog look.
+
+I had a good supper and a good bed, and was awakened the next morning by
+hearing the servants loud in talk about the news of the day. The subject
+was truly Albanian. A man who had a shop in the bazaar had quarrelled
+yesterday with some of his fellow townsmen, and in the night they took
+him out of his bed and cut him to pieces with their yataghans on the
+hill above the town. Some people coming by early this morning saw
+various joints of this unlucky man lying on the ground as they passed.
+
+I occupied myself in looking about the place; and having sent to the
+palace of the vizir to request an audience, it was fixed for the next
+day. There was not much to see; but I afforded a subject of
+uninterrupted discussion to all beholders, as it appeared I was the only
+traveller who had been there for some time. I went to bed early because
+I had no books to read, and it was a bore trying to talk Greek to my
+host's family; but I had not been asleep long before I was awakened by
+the intelligence that a party of robbers had concealed themselves in the
+ruins round the house, and that we should probably be attacked. Up we
+all got, and loaded our guns and pistols: the women kept flying about
+everywhere, and, when they ran against each other in the dark, screamed
+wofully, as they took everybody for a robber. We had no lights, that we
+might not afford good marks for the enemy outside, who, however, kept
+quiet, and did not shoot at us, although every now and then we saw a
+man or two creeping about among the ruins. My host, who was armed with a
+gun of prodigious length, was in a state of great alarm; and, having
+sent for assistance, twenty soldiers arrived, who kept guard round the
+house, but would not venture among the ruins. These valiant heroes
+relieved each other during the night; but, as no robbers made their
+appearance, I got tired of watching for them, and went quietly to bed
+again.
+
+_November 4th._--At nine o'clock in the morning I paid my respects to
+the Vizir, Mahmoud Pasha, a man with a long nose, and who altogether
+bore a great resemblance to Pope Benedict XV [XVI in the original (n. of
+etext transcriber). I stayed some hours with him, talking over Turkish
+matters; and we got into a brisk argument as to whether England was part
+of London, or London part of England. He appeared to be a remarkably
+good-natured man, and took great interest in the affairs of Egypt, from
+which country I had lately arrived, and asked me numberless questions
+about Mehemet Ali, comparing his character with that of Ali Pasha, who
+had built this palace, which was in a very ruinous state, for nothing
+had been expended to keep it in repair. The hall of audience was a
+magnificent room, richly decorated with inlaid work of mother-of-pearl
+and tortoiseshell: the ceiling was gilt, and the windows of Venetian
+plate-glass, but some of them were broken: the floor was loose and
+almost dangerous; and two holes in the side walls, which had been made
+by a cannon-ball, were stopped up with pieces of deal board roughly
+nailed upon the costly inlaid panels. The divan was of red cloth; and a
+crowd of men, with their girdles stuck full of arms, stood leaning on
+their long guns at the bottom of the room, listening to our
+conversation, and laughing loudly whenever a joke was made, but never
+coming forward beyond the edge of the carpet.
+
+The Pasha offered to give me an escort, as he said that the country at
+that moment was particularly unsafe; but at length it was settled that
+he should give me a letter to the commander of the troops at Mezzovo,
+who would supply me with soldiers to see me safely to the monasteries of
+Meteora. When I arose to take my leave, he sent for more pipes and
+coffee, as a signal for me to remain; in short, we became great friends.
+Whilst I was with him a pasha of inferior rank came in, and sat on the
+divan for half an hour without saying a single word or doing anything
+except looking at me unceasingly. After he had taken his departure we
+had some sherbet; and at last I got away, leaving the Pasha in great
+wonderment at the English government paying large sums of money for the
+transportation of criminals, when cutting off their heads would have
+been so much more economical and expeditious. Incurring any expense to
+keep rogues and vagabonds in prison, or to send them away from our own
+country to be the plague of other lands, appeared to him to be an
+extraordinary act of folly; and that thieves should be fed and clothed
+and lodged, while poor and honest people were left to starve, he
+considered to be contrary to common sense and justice. I laughed at the
+time at what I thought the curious opinions of the Vizir of Yanina; I
+have since come to the conclusion that there was some sense in his
+notions of criminal jurisprudence.
+
+In the afternoon, as I was looking out of the window of my lodging, I
+saw the Vizir going by with a great number of armed people, and I was
+told that in the present disturbed state of the country he never went
+out to take a ride without all these attendants. First came a hundred
+lancers on horseback, dressed in a kind of European uniform; then two
+horsemen, each with a pair of small kettle-drums attached to the front
+of his saddle. They kept up an unceasing pattering upon these drums as
+they rode along. This is a Tartar or Persian custom; and in some parts
+of Tartary the dignity of khan is conferred by strapping these two
+little drums on the back of the person whom the king delighteth to
+honour; and then the king beats the drums as the new khan walks slowly
+round the court. Thus a thing is reckoned a great honour in one part of
+the world which in another is accounted a disgrace; for when a soldier
+is incorrigible, we drum him out of the regiment, whilst the Tartar khan
+is drummed into his dignity. After the drummers came a brilliantly
+dressed company of kawasses, with silver pistols and yataghans; then
+several trumpeters; and after them the Vizir himself on a fine tall
+horse; he was dressed in the new Turkish Frank style, with the usual red
+cap on his head; but he had an immense red cloth cloak sumptuously
+embroidered with gold, which quite covered him, so that no part of the
+great man was visible, except his two eyes, his nose, and one of his
+hands, upon which was a splendid diamond ring. Two grooms walked by the
+sides of his horse, each with one hand on the back of the saddle. Every
+one bowed as the Vizir went by; and I became a distinguished person from
+the moment that he gave me a condescending nod. The procession was
+closed by a crowd of officers and attendants on horseback in gorgeous
+Albanian dresses, with silver bridles and embroidered housings. They
+carried what I thought at first were spears, but I soon discovered that
+they were long pipes; there was quite a forest of them, of all lengths
+and sizes. When the Vizir was gone and the dust subsided, I strolled out
+of the town on foot, when I came upon the troops, who were learning the
+new European exercise. Seeing a man sitting on a carpet in the middle of
+the plain, I went up to him and found that he was the colonel and
+commander of this army; so I smoked a pipe with him, and discovered that
+he knew about as much of tactics and military manœuvres as I did, only
+he did not take so much interest in the subject. We therefore
+continued to smoke the pipe of peace on the carpet of reflection, while
+the soldiers entangled themselves in all sorts of incomprehensible
+doublings and counter-marches, till at last the whole body was so much
+puzzled, that they stood still all of a heap, like a cluster of bees.
+The captains shouted, and the poor men turned round and round, trod on
+each other's heels, kicked each other's shins, and did all they could to
+get out of the scrape, but they only got more into confusion. At last a
+bright thought struck the colonel, who took his pipe out of his mouth,
+and gave orders, in the name of the Prophet, that every man should go
+home in the best way he could. This they accomplished like a party of
+schoolboys, running and jumping and walking off in small parties towards
+the town. The officers wiped the perspiration from their foreheads, and
+strolled off too, some to smoke a pipe under a tree, and some to repose
+on their divans and swear at the Franks who had invented such
+extraordinary evolutions.
+
+[Illustration: TURKISH COMMON SOLDIER.]
+
+In the evening, among the other news of the day, I was told that three
+men had been walking together in the afternoon; one of them bought a
+melon, and his two companions, who were very thirsty, but had no money,
+asked him to give them some of it. He would not do so; and, as they
+worried him about it, he ran into an empty house, and, bolting the door,
+sat down inside to discuss his purchase in quiet. The other two were
+determined not to be jockeyed in that manner, and, finding a hole in the
+door, they peeped through, and were enraged at seeing him eating the
+melon inside. He jeered them, and said that the melon was excellent;
+until at last one of them swore he should not eat it all, and, putting
+his pistol through the hole in the door, shot his friend dead; they then
+walked away, laughing at their own cleverness in shooting him so neatly
+through the hole.
+
+_November 5th._--The next day I went again to the citadel to see the
+Vizir, but he could not receive me, as news had arrived that the
+insurgents or robbers--they had entitled themselves to either
+denomination--had gathered together in force and laid siege to the town
+of Berat. There had been a good deal of confusion in Yanina before this,
+but now it appeared to have arrived at a climax. The courtyard of the
+citadel was full of horses picketed by their head-and-heel ropes, in
+long rows; parties of men were, according to their different habits,
+talking over the events of the day,--the Albanians chattering and
+putting themselves in attitudes; the Arnaouts or Mahometans of Greek
+blood boasting of the chivalric feats which they intended to perform;
+and the grave Turks sitting quietly on the ground, smoking their eternal
+pipes, and taking it all as easily as if they had nothing to do with it.
+Both before and since these days I have seen a great deal of the Turks;
+and though, for many reasons, I do not respect them as a nation, still
+I cannot help admiring their calmness and self-possession in moments of
+difficulty and danger. There is something noble and dignified in their
+quietness on these occasions: I have very rarely seen a Turk
+discomposed; stately and collected, he sits down and bides his time; but
+when the moment of action comes, he will rouse himself on a sudden, and
+become full of fire, animation, and activity. It is then that you see
+the descendant of those conquerors of the East, whose strong will and
+fierce courage have given them the command over all the nations of
+Islam.
+
+Although I could not obtain an audience with the vizir, one of the
+people who were with me managed to send a message to him that I should
+be glad of the letter, or firman, which he had promised me, and by which
+I might command the services of an escort, if I thought fit to do so.
+This man had influence at court; for he had a friend who was chiboukji
+to the vizir's secretary, or prime minister--a sly Greek, whose
+acquaintance I had made two days before. The pipe-bearer, propitiated by
+a trifling bribe, spoke to his master, and he spoke to the vizir, who
+promised I should have the letter; and it came accordingly in the
+evening, properly signed and sealed, and all in heathen Greek, of which
+I could make out a word here and there; but what it was about was
+entirely beyond my comprehension.
+
+Whilst waiting the result of these negotiations I had leisure to notice
+the warlike movements which were going on around me. I saw a train of
+two or three hundred men on horseback issuing out from the citadel, and
+riding slowly along the plain in the direction of Berat. They were sent
+to raise the siege; and other troops were preparing to follow them. As I
+watched these horsemen winding across the plain in a long line, with the
+sun glancing upon their arms, they seemed like a great serpent, with its
+glittering scales, gliding along to seek for its prey; and in some
+respects the simile would hold good, for this detachment would be the
+terror of the inhabitants of every district through which it passed.
+Rapine, violence, and oppression would mark its course; friend and foe
+would alike be plundered; and the villages which had not been burned by
+the insurgent klephti would be sacked and ruined by the soldiers of the
+government.
+
+As I descended from the citadel I passed numerous parties of armed men,
+all full of excitement about the plunder they would get, and the mighty
+deeds they would perform; for the danger was a good way off, and they
+were all brim-full of valour. In the bazaar all was business and bustle:
+everybody was buying arms. Long guns and silver pistols, all ready
+loaded, I believe, with fiery-looking flints as big as sandwiches,
+wrapped up first in a bit of red cloth, and then in a sort of open work
+of lead or tin, were being handed about; and the spirit of commerce was
+in full activity. Great was the haggling among the dealers. One man
+walked off with a mace; another, expecting to perform as mighty deeds as
+Richard Cœur de Lion, bought an old battle-axe, and swung it about to
+show how he would cut heads off with it before long. Another champion
+had included among his warlike accoutrements a curious, ancient-looking
+silver clock, which dangled by his side from a multitude of chains. It
+was square in shape, and must have been provided with a strong
+constitution inside if it could go while it was banged about at every
+step the man took. This worthy, I imagine, intended to kill time, for
+his purchase did not seem calculated to cope with any other enemy. He
+had, however, two or three pistols and daggers in addition to his clock.
+An oldish, hard-featured man was buying a quantity of that abominably
+sour, white cheese which is the pride of Albania, and a quantity of
+black olives, which he was cramming into a pair of old saddle-bags,
+whilst his horse beside him was quietly munching his corn in a sack tied
+over his nose. There was a look of calm efficiency about this man, which
+contrasted strongly with the swaggering air of the crowd around him. He
+was evidently an old hand; and I observed that he had laid in a stock of
+ball-cartridges--an article in which but little money was spent by the
+buyers of yataghans in silver sheaths and silver cartridge-boxes.
+
+"Hallo! sir Frank," cried one or two of these gay warriors, "come out
+with us to Berat: come and see us fight, and you will see something
+worth travelling for."
+
+"Ay," said I, "it's all up with the enemy: that's quite certain. They
+will be in a pretty scrape, to be sure, when you arrive. I would not be
+one of them for a good deal!"
+
+"Sono molto feroce questi palicari," said my guide.
+
+"Oh! yes, they are terrible fellows!" I replied.
+
+"What does the Frank say?" they asked.
+
+"He says you are terrible fellows."
+
+"Ah! I think we are, indeed. But don't be afraid, Frank; don't be
+afraid!"
+
+"No," said I, "I won't; and I wish you good luck on your way to Berat
+and back again."
+
+This night the people had been so much occupied in purchasing the
+implements of death that I heard no accounts of any new murders. In fact
+it had been a dull day in that respect; but no doubt they would make up
+for it before long.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+
+     Start for Meteora--Rencontre with a Wounded Traveller--Barbarity of
+     the Robbers--Albanian Innkeeper--Effect of the Turkish Language
+     upon the Greeks--Mezzovo--Interview with the chief Person in the
+     Village--Mount Pindus--Capture by Robbers--Salutary effects of
+     Swaggering--Arrival under Escort at the Robbers'
+     Head-Quarters--Affairs take a favourable turn--An unexpected
+     Friendship with the Robber Chief--The Khan of Malacash--Beauty of
+     the Scenery--Activity of our Guards--Loss of Character--Arrival at
+     Meteora.
+
+
+_November 6th._--I had engaged a tall, thin, dismal-looking man, well
+provided with pistols, knives, and daggers, as an additional servant,
+for he was said to know all the passes of the mountains, which I thought
+might be a useful accomplishment in case I had to avoid the more public
+roads--or paths, rather--for roads there were none. I purchased a stock
+of provisions, and hired five horses--three for myself and my men, one
+for the muleteer, and the other for the baggage, which was well strapped
+on, that the beast might gallop with it, as it was not very heavy. They
+were pretty good horses--rough and hardy. Mine looked very hard at me
+out of the corner of his eye when I got upon his back in the cold grey
+dawn, as if to find out what sort of a person I was. By means of a stout
+kourbatch--a sort of whip of rhinoceros hide which they use in Egypt--I
+immediately gave him all the information he desired; and off we galloped
+round the back part of the town, and, unquestioned by any one, we soon
+found ourselves trotting along the plain by the south end of the lake of
+Yanina. Here the waters from the lake disappear in an extraordinary
+manner in a great cavern, or pit full of rocks and stones, through which
+the water runs away into some subterranean channel--a dark and
+mysterious river, which the dismal-looking man, my new attendant, said
+came out into the light again somewhere in the Gulph of Arta. Before
+long we got upon the remains of a fine paved road, like a Roman way,
+which had been made by Ali Pasha. It was, however, out of repair, having
+in places been swept away by the torrents, and was an impediment rather
+than an assistance to travellers. This road led up to the hills; and,
+having dismounted from my horse, I began scrambling and puffing up the
+steep side of the mountain, stopping every now and then to regain my
+breath and to admire the beautiful view of the calm lake and picturesque
+town of Yanina.
+
+As I was walking in advance of my company, I saw a man above me leading
+a loaded mule. He was coming down the mountain, carefully picking his
+way among the stones, and in a loud voice exhorting the mule to be
+steady and keep its feet, although the mule was much the more
+sure-footed of the two. As they passed me I was struck with the odd
+appearance of the mule's burden: it consisted of a bundle of large
+stones on one side, which served as a counterpoise to a packing-case on
+the other, covered with a cloth, out of which peeped the head of a man,
+with his long black hair hanging about a face as pale as marble. The box
+in which he travelled not being more than four feet and a half long, I
+supposed he must be a dwarf, and was laughing at his peculiar mode of
+conveyance. The muleteer, observing from my dress that I was a Frank,
+stopped his mule, when he came up to me, and asked me if I was a
+physician, begging me to give my assistance to the man in the box, if I
+knew anything of surgery, for he had had both his legs cut off by some
+robbers on the way from Salonica, and he was now taking him to Yanina,
+in hopes of finding some doctor there to heal his wounds. My laughter
+was now turned into pity for the poor man, for I knew there was no help
+for him at Yanina. I could do nothing for him; and the only hope was, as
+his strength had borne him up so far on his journey, that when he got
+rest at Yanina the wounds might heal of themselves. After expressing my
+commiseration for him, and my hopes of his recovery, we parted company;
+and as I stood looking at the mule, staggering and slipping among the
+loose stones and rocks in the steep descent, it quite made me wince to
+think of the pain the unfortunate traveller must be enduring, with the
+raw stumps of his two legs rubbing and bumping against the end of his
+short box. I was sorry I had not asked why the robbers had cut off his
+legs, because, if it was their usual system, it was certainly more than
+I bargained for. I had pretty nearly made up my mind to be robbed, but
+had no intention whatever to lose my legs; so I sat down upon a rock,
+and began calculating probabilities, until my party came up, and I
+mounted my horse, who gave me another look with his cunning eye. We
+continued on Ali Pasha's broken road until we reached the summit of the
+mountain, where we made a short halt, that our horses might regain their
+wind; and then began our descent, stumbling, and sliding, and scrambling
+down, until we arrived at the bottom, where there was a miserable khan.
+In this royal hotel, which was a mere shed, there was nothing to be
+found except mine host, who had it all to himself. At last he made us
+some coffee; and while our horses were feeding on our own corn, we sat
+under the shade of a walnut-tree by the road-side. Our host, having
+nothing which could be eaten or drank except the coffee, did not know
+how in the world he could manage to get up a satisfactory bill. I saw
+this very plainly in his puzzled and thoughtful looks; but at last a
+bright thought struck him, and he charged a good round sum for the shade
+of the walnut-tree. Now although I admired his ingenuity, I demurred at
+the charge, particularly as the walnut-tree did not belong to him. It
+was a wild tree, which everybody threw stones at as he passed by, to
+bring down the nuts:--
+
+    "Nux ego juncta vise quae sum due crimine vitæ,
+      Attamen a cunctis saxibus usque petor."--Ovid.
+
+Little did the unoffending walnut-tree think that its shade would be
+brought forward as a cause of war; for then arose a fierce contest
+between Greek oaths and Albanian maledictions, to which Arabic and
+English lent their aid. Though there were no stones thrown, ten times as
+many hard words were hurled backwards and forwards as there were walnuts
+on the tree, showing a facility of expression and a redundance of
+epithets which would have given a lesson to the most practised ladies of
+Billingsgate.
+
+When the horses were ready the khangee came up to me in a towering
+passion, swearing that I should pay for sitting under the tree.
+"Englishman," said he, "get up and pay me what I demand, or you shall
+not leave this place, by all that is holy." "Kiupek oglou," said I,
+without moving from the ground, "Oh, son of a dog! go and get my horse,
+you chattering magpie!" These few words in the language of the conqueror
+had a marvellous effect on the khangee. "What does his worship say?" he
+inquired of the dismal-faced man. "Why, he says you had better go and
+get his excellency's worship's most respectable horse, if you have any
+regard for your life: so go! be off! vanish! don't stay there staring at
+the illustrious traveller. 'Tis lucky for you he doesn't order us to
+cut you up into cabobs; go and get the horse; and perhaps you'll be paid
+for your coffee, bad as it was. His excellency is the pasha's, his
+highness's, most particular intimate friend; and if his highness knew
+what you had been saying, why, where would you be, O man?" The khangee,
+who had intended to have had it all his own way, was taken terribly
+aback at the sound of the Turkish tongue: he speedily put on my horse's
+bridle, gave his nosebag to the muleteer, tightened up his girths,
+helped the servants, and was suddenly converted into a humble submissive
+drudge. The way in which anything Turkish is respected among the
+conquered races in Syria or in Egypt can scarcely be imagined by those
+who have not witnessed it.
+
+Leaving the khangee to count his paras and piastres, with which, after
+all, he was evidently well satisfied, we rode on down the valley by the
+side of a brawling stream, which we crossed no less than thirty-nine
+times during our day's journey. Our road lay through a magnificent
+series of picturesque and savage gorges, between high rocks. Sometimes
+we rode along the bed of the stream, and sometimes upon a ledge so far
+above it that it looked like a silver ribbon in the sun. Every now and
+then we came to a cataract or rapid, where the stream boiled and foamed
+among the rocks, tossing up its spray, and drowning our voices in its
+noise. In the course of about eight hours of continual scrambling up
+and down all sorts of rocks, we found ourselves at another wretched
+shelty dignified with the name of khan. Here, after a tolerable supper,
+we all rolled ourselves up in the different corners of a sort of loft,
+with our arms under our heads, and slept soundly until the morning.
+
+_November 7th._--This day we continued along the banks of a stream, in
+the direction of its source, until it dwindled to a mere rivulet, when
+we left it and took to the hills at the base of another mountain. We
+rode some way along a rocky path until, turning round a corner to the
+left, we found ourselves at the town or village of Mezzovo. As Mahmoud
+Pasha had supplied me with a firman and letters to the principal persons
+at the several towns on my route, I looked out my Mezzovo letter, with
+the intention of asking for an escort of a few soldiers to accompany me
+through the passes of Mount Pindus, which were reported to be full of
+robbers and cattiva gente of every sort and kind, the great extent of
+the underwood of box-trees forming an impenetrable cover for those
+minions of the moon.
+
+Most of the population of Mezzovo turned out to see the procession of
+the Milordos Inglesis as it entered the precincts of their ancient city,
+and defiled into the market-place, in the middle of which was a great
+tree, under whose shade sat and smoked a circle of grave and reverend
+seignors, the aristocracy of the place; whereupon, holding the pasha's
+letter in my hand, I cantered up to them. On seeing me advance towards
+them, a broad-shouldered good-natured looking man, gorgeously dressed in
+red velvet, embroidered all over with gold, though something tarnished
+with the rain and weather, arose and stepped forward to meet me. "Here
+is a letter," said I, "from his highness Mahmoud Pasha, vizir of Yanina,
+to the chief personage of Mezzovo, whoever he may be, for there is no
+name mentioned; so tell me who is the chief person in this city; where
+is he to be found, for I desire to speak with him?" "You want the chief
+person of Mezzovo?" replied the broad-shouldered man; "well, I think I
+am the chief person here, am I not?" he asked of the assembled crowd
+which had gathered together by this time. "Certainly, malista, oh yes,
+you are the chief person of Mezzovo undoubtedly," they all cried out.
+"Very well," said he, "then give me the letter." On my giving it to him,
+he opened it in a very unceremonious manner; and, before he had half
+read it, burst into a fit of laughing. "What are you laughing at?" said
+I: "Is not that the vizir's letter?" "Oh!" said he, "you want guards, do
+you, to protect you against the robbers, the klephti?" "Yes, I do; but I
+do not see what there is to laugh at in that. I want some men to go with
+me to Meteora; if you are the captain or commander here, give me an
+escort, as I wish to be off at once: it is early now, and I can cross
+the mountains before dark."
+
+After a pause, he said, "Well, I am the captain; and you shall have men
+who will protect you wherever you go. You are an Englishman, are you
+not?" "Yes," I said, "I am." "Well, I like the English; and you
+particularly." "Thank you," said I: and, after some more conversation,
+he tore off a slip from the vizir's letter (a very unceremonious
+proceeding in Albania), and, writing a few lines on it, he said, "Now
+give this paper to the first soldiers you meet at the foot of Mount
+Pindus, and all will be right." He then instructed the muleteer which
+way to go. I took the paper, which was not folded up; but the
+badly-written Romaic was unintelligible to me, so I put it into my
+pocket, and away we went, my new friend waving his hand to us as we
+passed out of the market-place; and we were soon trotting along through
+the open country towards the hills which shoot out from the base of the
+great chain of Mount Pindus, a mountain famous for having had Mount Ossa
+put on the top of it by some of the giants when they were fighting
+against Jupiter. As that respected deity got the better of the giants, I
+presume he put Ossa back again; for which I felt very much obliged to
+him, as Pindus seemed quite high enough and steep enough without any
+addition.
+
+We rode along, getting nearer and nearer to the mountains; and at
+length we began to climb a steep rocky path on the side of a lofty hill
+covered with box-trees. This path continued for some distance until we
+came to a place where there was a ledge so narrow that two horses could
+not go abreast. Here, as I was riding quietly along, I heard an
+exclamation in front of "Robbers! robbers!" and sure enough, out of one
+of the thickets of box-trees, there advanced three or four bright
+gun-barrels, which were speedily followed by some gentlemen in dirty
+white jackets and fustanellas; who, in a short and abrupt style of
+eloquence, commanded us to stand. This of course we were obliged to do;
+and as I was getting out my pistol, one of the individuals in white
+presented his gun at me, and upon my looking round to see whether my
+tall Albanian servant was preparing to support me, I saw him quietly
+half-cock his gun and sling it back over his shoulder, at the name time
+shaking his head as much as to say, "It is no use resisting; we are
+caught; there are too many of them." So I bolted the locks of the four
+barrels of my pistol carefully, hoping that the bolts would form an
+impediment to my being shot with my own weapon after I had been robbed
+of it. The place was so narrow that there were no hopes of running away,
+and there we sat on horseback, looking silly enough, I dare say. There
+was a good deal of talking and chattering among the robbers, and they
+asked the Albanian various questions to which I paid no attention, all
+my faculties being engrossed in watching the proceedings of the party
+in front, who were examining the effects in the panniers of the baggage
+mule. First they pulled out my bag of clothes, and threw it upon the
+ground; then out came the sugar and the coffee, and whatever else these
+was. Some of the men had hold of the poor muleteer, and a loud argument
+was going on between him and his captors. I did not like all this, but
+my rage was excited to a violent pitch when I saw one man appropriating
+to his own use the half of a certain fat tender cold fowl, whereof I had
+eaten the other half with much appetite and satisfaction. "Let that fowl
+alone, you scoundrel!" said I in good English; "put it down, will you?
+if you don't, I'll----!" The man, surprised at this address in an
+unknown tongue, put down the fowl, and looked up with wonder at the
+explosion of ire which his actions had called forth. "That is right,"
+said I, "my good fellow, it is too good for such a dirty brute as you."
+"Let us see," said I to the Albanian, "if there is nothing to be done;
+say I am the King of England's uncle, or grandson, or particular friend,
+and that if we are hurt or robbed he will send all manner of ships and
+armies, and hang everybody, and cut off the heads of all the rest. Talk
+big, O man! and don't spare great words; they cost nothing, and let us
+see what that will do."
+
+Upon this the Albanian took up his parable and a long parleying ensued,
+for the robbers were taken aback with the good English in which I had
+addressed them, and stood still with open mouths to hear what it all
+meant. In the middle of this row I thought of the paper which had been
+given me at Mezzovo. "Here," said I, "here is a letter; read it, see
+what it says." They took the paper and turned it round and round, for
+they could not read it: first one looked at it and then another; then
+they looked at the back, but they could make nothing of it. Nevertheless,
+it produced a great effect upon them, for here, as in all other
+countries of the East, any writing is looked upon by the uneducated
+people as a mystery, and is held in high respect; and at last they said
+they would take us to a place where we should find a person capable of
+reading it. The thing which most provoked me was that the fellows seemed
+not to have the slightest fear of us; they did not even take the trouble
+to demand our arms: my much cherished "patent four-barrelled travelling
+pistol" they evidently considered too small to be dangerous; and I felt
+it as a kind of personal insult that they deputed only two of their
+number to convoy us to the residence of the learned person who was to
+read the letter. They managed matters, however, in a scientific way: the
+bridles of our horses were turned over their heads and tied each to the
+horse that went before; one of our captors walked in front and the other
+behind; but just when I thought an opportunity had arrived to shake off
+this yoke, I perceived that the whole pass was guarded, and wherever the
+road was a little wider or turned a corner round a rock or a clump of
+trees, there were other long guns peeping out from among the bushes,
+with the bearers of which our two conquerors exchanged pass-words. Thus
+we marched along, the robber who went first apparently caring nothing
+about us, but the one in the rear having his gun cocked and ready to
+shoot any one of us who should turn restive. The road, which ascended
+rapidly, was rather too dangerous to be agreeable, being a narrow path
+cut on the side of a very steep mountain; at one time the track lay
+across a steep slope of blue marl, which afforded the most insecure
+footing for our horses: all mountain-travellers are aware how much more
+dangerous this kind of road is than a firm ledge of rock, however
+narrow.
+
+We had now got very high, and the ground was sprinkled with patches of
+ice and snow, which rendered the footing insecure; and frequently large
+masses of the road, disturbed by our passing over it, gave way beneath
+our feet, and set off bounding and crashing among the box trees until it
+was broken into powder on the rocks below.
+
+In process of time we got into a cloud which hid everything from us, and
+going still higher we got above the cloud into a region of broken crags
+and rocks and pine-trees, among which there was a large wooden house or
+shed. It seemed all roof, and was made of long spars of trees sloping
+towards each other, and was very high, long, and narrow. As we
+approached it several men made their appearance armed at all points, and
+took our horses from us. At the end of the shed there was a door through
+which we were conducted into the interior by our two guards, and placed
+all of a row, with our backs against the wall, on the right side of the
+entrance. Towards the other end of this sylvan guard-room there was a
+large fire on the ground, and a number of men sitting round it drinking
+aqua vitæ out of coffee cups, and talking load and laughing. In the
+farthest corner I saw a pile of long bright-barrelled guns leaning
+against the wall, while on the other side of the fire there were some
+boards on the ground with a mat or carpet over them, whereon a worthy
+better dressed than the rest was lounging, apart from every one else and
+half asleep. To him the paper was given, and he leant forward to read it
+by the light of the blazing fire, for though it was bright sunshine out
+of doors, the room was quite dark. The captain was evidently a poor
+scholar, and he spelt and puzzled over every word. At last a thought
+struck him: shading his eyes with his hand from the glare of the fire he
+leant forward and peered into the darkness, where we were awaiting his
+commands. Not distinguishing us, however, he jumped up upon his feet and
+shouted out "Hallo! where are the gentlemen who brought this letter?
+What have you done with them?" At the sound of his voice the rest of the
+party jumped up also, being then first aware that something out of the
+common had taken place. Some of the palicari ran towards us and were
+going to seize us, when the captain came forward and in a civil tone
+said, "Oh, there you are! Welcome, gentlemen; we are very glad to
+receive you. Make yourselves at home; come near the fire and sit down."
+I took him at his word and sat down on the boards by the side of the
+fire, rubbing my hands and making myself as comfortable as possible
+under the circumstances. My two servants and the muleteer seeing what
+turn affairs had taken, became of a sudden as loquacious as they had
+been silent before, and in a short time we were all the greatest friends
+in the world.
+
+"So," said the captain, or whatever he was, "you are acquainted with our
+friend at Mezzovo. How did you leave him? I hope he was well?"
+
+"Oh, yes," I said; "we left him in excellent health. What a remarkably
+pleasing person he is! and how well he looks in his red velvet dress!"
+
+"Have you known him long?" he asked.
+
+"Why, not _very_ long," replied my Albanian; "but my master has the
+greatest respect for him, and so has he for my master."
+
+"He says you are to take some of our men with you wherever you like,"
+said our host.
+
+"Yes, I know," said the Albanian; "we settled that at Mezzovo, with my
+master's friend, his Excellency Mr. What's-his-name."
+
+"Well, how many will you take?"
+
+"Oh! five or six will do; that will be as many as we want. We are going
+to Meteora and then we shall return over the mountains back to Mezzovo,
+where I hope we shall have the pleasure of meeting your general again."
+
+Whilst we were talking and drinking coffee by the fire, a prodigious
+bustling and chattering was going on among the rest of the party, and
+before long five slim, active, dirty-looking young rogues, in white
+dresses, with long black hair hanging down their backs, and each with a
+long thin gun, announced that they were ready to accompany us whenever
+we were ready to start. As we had nothing to keep us in the dark, smoky
+hovel, we were soon ready to go; and glad indeed was I to be out again
+in the open air among the high trees, without the immediate prospect of
+being hanged upon one of them. My party jumped with great alacrity and
+glee upon their miserable mules and horses; all our belongings,
+including the half of the cold fowl, were _in statu quo_; and off we
+set--our new friends accompanied us on foot. And so delighted was our
+Caliban of a muleteer at what we all considered a fortunate escape, that
+he lifted up his voice and gave vent to his feelings in a song. The
+grand gentleman in red velvet to whom I had presented the Pasha's letter
+at Mezzovo, was, it seems, himself the captain of the thieves--the very
+man against whom the Pasha wished to afford us his protection; and he,
+feeling amused probably at the manner in which we had fallen unawares
+into his clutches, and being a good-natured fellow (and he certainly
+looked such), gave us a note to the officer next in command, ordering
+him to protect us as his friends, and to provide us with an escort. When
+I say that he of the red velvet was captain of the thieves, it is to be
+understood, that although his followers did not excel in honesty, as
+they proceeded to plunder us the moment they had entrapped us in the
+valley of the box-trees, yet he should more properly be called a
+guerilla chief in rebellion for the time being against the authorities
+of the Turkish government, and I being a young Englishman, he
+good-naturedly gave me his assistance, without which, as I afterwards
+found, it would have been impossible for me to have travelled with
+safety through any one of the mountain passes of the Pindus. I was told
+that this chief, whose name I unfortunately omitted to note down,
+commanded a large body of men before the city of Berat, and certainly
+all the ragamuffins whom I met on my way to and from the monasteries of
+Meteora acknowledged his authority. I heard that soon afterwards he
+returned to his allegiance under Mahmoud Pasha, for it appears that the
+outbreak, during which I had inadvertently started for a tour in
+Albania, did not last long.
+
+Late in the evening we arrived at a small khan something like an
+out-building to a farmhouse in England; this was the khan of Malacash:
+it was prettily situated on the banks of the river Peneus, and
+contained, besides the stable, two rooms, one of which opened upon a
+kind of verandah or covered terrace. My two servants and I slept on the
+floor in this room, and the four robbers or guards (as in common
+civility I ought to term them) in the ante-chamber. I gave them as good
+a supper as I could, and we became excellent friends. It was almost dark
+when we arrived at this place, but the next morning when the glorious
+sun arose I was charmed with the beautiful scenery around us. On both
+sides banks of stately trees rose above the margin of a rippling stream,
+and the valley grew wider and wider as we rode on, the stream increasing
+by the addition of many little rills, and the trees retiring from it,
+affording us views of grassy plains and romantic dells, first on one
+side and then on the other. The scenery was most lovely, and in the
+distance was the towering summit of the great Mount Olympus, famous
+nowadays for the Greek monasteries which are built upon its sides, and
+near whose base runs the valley of Tempe, of which we are expressly told
+in the Latin Grammar that it is a pleasant vale in Thessaly; and if it
+is more beautiful than the valley of the Peneus, it must be a very
+pleasant vale indeed.
+
+I was struck with the original manner in which our mountain friends
+progressed through the country; sometimes they kept with us, but more
+usually some of them went on one side of the road and some on the other,
+like men beating for game, only that they made no noise; and on the rare
+occasions when we met any traveller trudging along the road or ambling
+on a long-eared mule, they were always among the bushes or on the tops
+of the rocks, and never showed themselves upon the road. But despite all
+these vagaries they were always close to us. They were wonderfully
+active, for although I trotted or galloped whenever the nature of the
+road rendered it practicable, they always kept up with me, and
+apparently without exertion or fatigue; and although they were often out
+of my sight, I believe I was never out of theirs. Altogether I was glad
+that we were such friends, for, from what I saw of them, they and their
+associates would have proved very awkward enemies. They were curious
+wild animals, as slim and as active as cats: their waists were not much
+more than a foot and a half in circumference, and they appeared to be
+able to jump over anything; and the thin mocassins of raw hide which
+they wore enabled them to run or walk without making the slightest
+noise. In fact, they were agreeable, honest rogues enough, and we got on
+amazingly well together. I had a way of singing as I rode along for my
+own particular edification, and from mere joyousness of heart, for the
+beautiful scenery, and the fine fresh air, and the bright stream
+delighted me, so I sung away at a great rate; and my horse sometimes put
+back one of his ears to listen, which I took as a personal compliment:
+but my robbers did not like this singing.
+
+"Why," they said to the Albanian, "does the Frank sing?"
+
+"It is a way he has," was the reply.
+
+"Well," they said, "this is a wild country; there is no use in courting
+attention--he had better not sing."
+
+Nevertheless I would not leave off for all that. _Cantabit vacuus coram
+latrone viator_; so I went on singing rather louder than before,
+particularly as I was convinced that my horse had an ear for music; and
+in this way, after travelling for seven hours, we came within sight of
+the extraordinary rocks of Meteora.
+
+Just at this time we observed among the trees before us a long string of
+travellers who appeared to be convoying a train of baggage horses. On
+seeing us they stopped, and closed their files; and as my thieves had
+bolted, as usual, into the bushes some time before, my party consisted
+only of four persons and five horses. As we approached the other party,
+a tall, well-armed man, with a rifle across his arm, rode forwards and
+hailed us, asking who we were. We said we were travellers.
+
+"And who were those who left you just now?" said he.
+
+"They are some of our party who have turned off by a short cut to go to
+Meteora," replied my Albanian.
+
+"What! a short cut on both sides of the road! how is that? I suspect you
+are not simple travellers."
+
+"Well," he replied, "we do not wish to molest you. Go on your way in
+peace, and let us pass quietly, for you are by far the larger party."
+
+"Yes," said the man, "but how many have you in the bushes? What are they
+about there?"
+
+"I don't know what they are about," said he, "but they will not molest
+you [one of them was peeping over a bush at the back of the party all
+the while, but they did not see him]; and we, I assure you, are
+peaceable travellers like yourselves."
+
+Our new acquaintance did not seem at all satisfied, and he and all his
+party drew up along the path as we passed them, with evident misgivings
+as to our purpose; and soon afterwards, looking back, we saw them
+keeping close together and trotting along as fast as their loaded horses
+would go, some of them looking round at us every now and then till we
+lost sight of them among the trees.
+
+The proverb says--you shall know a man by his friends, and my character
+had evidently suffered from the appearance of the company I kept, for
+the merchants held me as little better than a rogue; there was, however,
+no time for explanations, and it was with feelings of indignant virtue
+that I left the forest, and after crossing the river Peneus at a ford,
+my merry men and I continued our journey along the grassy plain of
+Meteora.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+
+     Meteora--The extraordinary Character of its Scenery--Its Caves
+     formerly the Resort of Ascetics--Barbarous Persecution of the
+     Hermits--Their extraordinary Religious Observances--Singular
+     Position of the Monasteries--The Monastery of Barlaam--The
+     difficulty of reaching it--Ascent by a Windlass and Net, or by
+     Ladders--Narrow Escape--Hospitable Reception by the Monks--The
+     Agoumenos, or Abbot--His strict Fast--Description of the
+     Monastery--The Church--Symbolism in the Greek Church--Respect for
+     Antiquity--The Library--Determination of the Abbot not to sell any
+     of the MSS.--The Refectory--Its Decorations--Aërial Descent--The
+     Monastery of Hagios Stephanos--Its Carved Iconostasis--Beautiful
+     View from the Monastery--Monastery of Agia Triada--Summary Justice
+     at Triada--Monastery of Agia Roserea--Its Lady Occupants--Admission
+     refused.
+
+
+The scenery of Meteora is of a very singular kind. The end of a range of
+rocky hills seems to have been broken off by some earthquake or washed
+away by the Deluge, leaving only a series of twenty or thirty tall,
+thin, smooth, needle-like rocks, many hundred feet in height; some like
+gigantic tusks, some shaped like sugar-loaves, and some like vast
+stalagmites. These rocks surround a beautiful grassy plain, on three
+sides of which there grow groups of detached trees, like those in an
+English park. Some of the rocks shoot up quite clean and perpendicularly
+from the smooth green grass; some are in clusters; some stand alone
+like obelisks: nothing can be more strange and wonderful than this
+romantic region, which is unlike anything I have ever seen either before
+or since. In Switzerland, Saxony, the Tyrol, or any other mountainous
+region where I have been, there is nothing at all to be compared to
+these extraordinary peaks.
+
+At the foot of many of the rocks which surround this beautiful grassy
+amphitheatre, there are numerous caves and holes, some of which appear
+to be natural, but most of them are artificial; for in the dark and wild
+ages of monastic fanaticism whole flocks of hermits roosted in these
+pigeon-holes. Some of these caves are so high up the rocks that one
+wonders how the poor old gentlemen could ever get up to them; whilst
+others are below the surface; and the anchorites who burrowed in them,
+like rabbits, frequently afforded excellent sport to parties of roving
+Saracens; indeed, hermit-hunting seems to have been a fashionable
+amusement previous to the twelfth century. In early Greek frescos, and
+in small, stiff pictures with gold backgrounds, we see many frightful
+representations of men on horseback in Roman armour, with long spears,
+who are torturing and slaying Christian devotees. In these pictures the
+monks and hermits are represented in gowns made of a kind of coarse
+matting, and they have long beards, and some of them are covered with
+hair; these I take it were the ones most to be admired, as in the Greek
+church sanctity is always in the inverse ratio of beauty. All Greek
+saints are painfully ugly, but the hermits are much uglier, dirtier, and
+older than the rest; they must have been very fusty people besides,
+eating roots, and living in holes like rats and mice. It is difficult to
+understand by what process of reasoning they could have persuaded
+themselves that, by living in this useless, inactive way, they were
+leading holy lives. They wore out the rocks with their knees in prayer;
+the cliffs resounded with their groans; sometimes they banged their
+breasts with a big stone, for a change; and some wore chains and iron
+girdles round their emaciated forms; but they did nothing whatever to
+benefit their kind. Still there is something grand in the strength and
+constancy of their faith. They left their homes and riches and the
+pleasures of this world, to retire to these dens and caves of the earth,
+to be subjected to cold and hunger, pain and death, that they might do
+honour to their God, after their own fashion, and trusting that, by
+mortifying the body in this world, they should gain happiness for the
+soul in the world to come; and therefore peace be with their memory!
+
+On the tops of these rocks in different directions there remain seven
+monasteries out of twenty-four which once crowned their airy heights.
+How anything except a bird was to arrive at one which we saw in the
+distance on a pinnacle of rock was more than we could divine; but the
+mystery was soon solved. Winding our way upwards, among a labyrinth of
+smaller rocks and cliffs, by a romantic path which, afforded us from
+time to time beautiful views of the green vale below us, we at length
+found ourselves on an elevated platform of rock, which I may compare to
+the flat roof of a church; while the monastery of Barlaam stood
+perpendicularly, above us, on the top of a much higher rock, like the
+tower of this church. Here we fired off a gun, which was intended to
+answer the same purpose as knocking at the door in more civilized
+places; and we all strained our necks in looking up at the monastery to
+see whether any answer would be made to our call. Presently we were
+hailed by some one in the sky, whose voice came down to us like the cry
+of a bird; and we saw the face and grey beard of an old monk some
+hundred feet above us peering out of a kind of window or door. He asked
+us who we were, and what we wanted, and so forth; to which we replied,
+that we were travellers, harmless people, who wished to be admitted into
+the monastery to stay the night; that we had come all the way from Corfu
+to see the wonders of Meteora, and, as it was now getting late, we
+appealed to his feelings of hospitality and Christian benevolence.
+
+"Who are those with you?" said he.
+
+"Oh! most respectable people," we answered; "gentlemen of our
+acquaintance, who have come with us across the mountains from Mezzovo."
+
+The appearance of our escort did not please the monk, and we feared that
+he would not admit us into the monastery; but at length he let down a
+thin cord, to which I attached a letter of introduction which I had
+brought from Corfu; and after some delay a much larger rope was seen
+descending with a hook at the end to which a strong net was attached. On
+its reaching the rock on which we stood the net was spread open: my two
+servants sat down upon it; and the four corners being attached to the
+hook, a signal was made, and they began slowly ascending into the air,
+twisting round and round like a leg of mutton hanging to a bottle-jack.
+The rope was old and mended, and the height from the ground to the door
+above was, we afterwards learned, 37 fathoms, or 222 feet. When they
+reached the top I saw two stout monks reach their arms out of the door
+and pull in the two servants by main force, as there was no contrivance
+like a turning-crane for bringing them nearer to the landing-place. The
+whole process appeared so dangerous, that I determined to go up by
+climbing a series of ladders which were suspended by large wooden pegs
+on the face of the precipice, and which reached the top of the rock in
+another direction, round a corner to the right. The lowest ladder was
+approached by a pathway leading to a rickety wooden platform which
+overhung a deep gorge. From this point the ladders hung perpendicularly
+upon the bare rock, and I climbed up three or four of them very soon;
+but coming to one, the lower end of which had swung away from the top of
+the one below, I had some difficulty in stretching across from the one
+to the other; and here unluckily I looked down, and found that I had
+turned a sort of angle in the precipice, and that I was not over the
+rocky platform where I had left the horses, but that the precipice went
+sheer down to so tremendous a depth, that my head turned when I surveyed
+the distant valley over which I was hanging in the air like a fly on a
+wall. The monks in the monastery saw me hesitate, and called out to me
+to take courage and hold on; and, making an effort, I overcame my
+dizziness, and clambered up to a small iron door, through which I crept
+into a court of the monastery, where I was welcomed by the monks and the
+two servants who had been hauled up by the rope. The rest of my party
+were not admitted; but they bivouacked at the foot of the rocks in a
+sheltered place, and were perfectly contented with the coffee and
+provisions which we lowered down to them.
+
+My servants, in high glee at having been hoisted up safe and sound, were
+busy in arranging my baggage in the room which had been allotted to us,
+and in making it comfortable: one went to get ready some warm water for
+a bath, or at any rate for a good splash in the largest tub that could
+be found; the other made me a snug corner on the divan, and covered it
+with a piece of silk, and spread my carpet before it; he put my books in
+a little heap, got ready the things for tea, and hung my arms and cloak,
+and everything he could lay his hands on, upon the pegs projecting from
+the wall under the shelf which was fixed all round the room. My European
+clothes were soon pitched into the most ignominious corner of the divan,
+and I speedily arrayed myself in the long, loose robes of Egypt, so much
+more comfortable and easy than the tight cases in which we cramp up our
+limbs. In short, I forthwith made myself at home, and took a stroll
+among the courts and gardens of the monastery while dinner or supper,
+whichever it might be called, was getting ready. I soon stumbled upon
+the Agoumenos (the lord abbot) of this aërial monastery, and we prowled
+about together, peeping into rooms, visiting the church, and poking
+about until it began to get dark; and then I asked him to dinner in his
+own room; but he could eat no meat, so I ate the more myself, and he
+made up for it by other savoury messes, cooked partly by my servants and
+partly by the monks. He was an oldish man. He did not dislike sherry,
+though he preferred rosoglio, of which I always carried a few bottles
+with me in my monastic excursions.
+
+The abbot and I, and another holy father, fraternised, and slapped each
+other on the back, and had another glass or two, or rather cup, for
+coffee-cups of thin, old porcelain, called fingians, served us for
+wine-glasses. Then we had some tea, and they filled up their cups with
+sugar, and ate seaman's biscuits, and little cakes from Yanina, and
+rahatlokoom, and jelly of dried-grape juice, till it was time to go to
+bed; when the two venerable monks gave me their blessing and stumbled
+out of the room; and in a marvellously short space of time I was sound
+asleep.
+
+_November 9th._--The monastery of Barlaam stands on the summit of an
+isolated rock, on a flat or nearly flat space of perhaps an acre and a
+half, of which about one-half is occupied by the church and a smaller
+chapel, the refectory, the kitchen, the tower of the windlass, where you
+are pulled up, and a number of separate buildings containing offices and
+the habitations of the monks, of whom there were at this time only
+fourteen. These various structures surround one tolerably large,
+irregularly-shaped court, the chief part of which is paved; and there
+are several other small open spaces. All Greek monasteries are built in
+this irregular way, and the confused mass of disjointed edifices is
+usually encircled by a high bare wall; but in this monastery there is no
+such enclosing wall, as its position effectually prevents the approach
+of an enemy. On a portion of the flat space which is not occupied by
+buildings they have a small garden, but it is not cultivated, and there
+is nothing like a parapet-wall in any direction to prevent your falling
+over. The place wears an aspect of poverty and neglect; its best days
+have long gone by; for here, as everywhere else, the spirit of
+asceticism is on the wane.
+
+[Illustration: diagram of church with four columns]
+
+The church has a porch before the door, νάρθηξ, supported by marble
+columns, the interior wall of which on each side of the door is painted
+with representations of the Last Judgment, and the tortures of the
+condemned, with a liberal allowance of flames and devils. These pictures
+of the torments of the wicked are always placed outside the body of the
+church, as typical of the unhappy state of those who are out of its
+pale: they are never seen within. The interior of this curious old
+church, which is dedicated to All Saints, has depicted on its walls on
+all sides portraits of a great many holy personages, in the stiff,
+conventional, early style. It has four columns within which support the
+dome; and the altar or holy table, αγια τραπεζα, is separated from the
+nave by a wooden screen, called the iconostasis, on which are paintings
+of the Blessed Virgin, the Redeemer, and many saints. These pictures are
+kissed by all who enter the church. The iconostasis has three doors in
+it; one in the centre, before the holy table, and one on each side. The
+centre one is only a half-door, like an old English buttery hatch, the
+upper part being screened with a curtain of rich stuff, which, except on
+certain occasions, is drawn aside, so as to afford a view of the book
+of the Gospels, in a rich binding, lying upon the holy table beyond. A
+Greek church has no sacristy; the vestures are usually kept in presses
+in this space behind the iconostasis, where none but the priests and the
+deacon, or servant who trims the lamps, are allowed to enter, and they
+pass in and out by the side doors. The centre door is only used in the
+celebration of the holy mass. This part of the church is the sanctuary,
+and is called, in Romaic, αγιο, Βημο, or Θημο. It is typical of the holy
+of holies of the Temple, and the veil is represented by the curtain
+which divides it from the rest of the church. Everything is symbolical
+in the Eastern Church; and these symbols have been in use from the very
+earliest ages of Christianity. The four columns which support the dome
+represent the four Evangelists; and the dome itself is the symbol of
+heaven, to which access has been given to mankind by the glad tidings of
+the Gospels which they wrote. Part of the mosaic with which the whole
+interior of the dome was formerly covered in the cathedral of St. Sofia
+at Constantinople, is to be seen in the four angles below the dome,
+where the winged figures of the four evangelists still remain. Luckily
+for the Greek Church their sacred buildings are not under the authority
+of lay churchwardens--grocers in towns, and farmers in villages--who
+feel it their duty to whitewash over everything which is old and
+venerable, and curious, and to oppose the clergyman in order to show
+their independence.
+
+The Greek church, debased as it is by ignorance and superstition, has
+still the merit of carefully preserving and restoring all the memorials
+of its earlier and purer ages. If the fresco painting of a saint is
+rubbed out or damaged in the lapse of time, it is scrupulously
+repainted, exactly as it was before, even to the colour of the robe, the
+aspect of the countenance, and the minutest accessories of the
+composition. It is this systematic respect for everything which is old
+and venerable which renders the interior of the ancient Eastern churches
+so peculiarly interesting. They are the unchanged monuments of primæval
+days. The Christians who suffered under the persecution of Dioclesian
+may have knelt before the very altar which we now see, and which was
+then exactly the same as we now behold it, without any additions or
+subtractions either in its form or use.
+
+To us Protestants one of the most interesting circumstances connected
+with these Eastern churches is, that the altar is not called the
+_altar_, but the _holy table_, as with us, and that the Communion is
+given before it in both kinds. Besides the principal church there is a
+smaller one, not far from it, which is painted in the same manner as the
+other. I unfortunately neglected to ascertain the dates of the
+foundation of these two edifices.
+
+The library contains about a thousand volumes, the far greater part of
+which are printed books, mostly Venetian editions of ecclesiastical
+works, but there are some fine copies of Aldine Greek classics. I did
+not count the number of the manuscripts; they are all books of divinity
+and the works of the fathers; there may be between one and two hundred
+of them. I found one folio Bulgarian manuscript which I could not read,
+and therefore was, of course, particularly anxious to purchase. As I saw
+it was not a copy of the Gospels, I thought it might possibly be
+historical: but the monks would not sell it. The only other manuscript
+of value was a copy of the Gospels, in quarto, containing several
+miniatures and illuminations of the eleventh century; but with this also
+they refused to part, so it remains for some more fortunate collector.
+It was of no use to the monks themselves, who cannot read either
+Hellenic or ancient Greek; but they consider the books in their library
+as sacred relics, and preserve them with a certain feeling of awe for
+their antiquity and incomprehensibility. Our only chance is when some
+worldly-minded Agoumenos happens to be at the head of the community, who
+may be inclined to exchange some of the unreadable old books for such a
+sum of gold or silver as will suffice for the repairs of one of their
+buildings, the replenishing of the cellar, or some other equally
+important purpose. At the time of my visit the march of intellect had
+not penetrated into the heights of the monastery of St. Barlaam, and
+the good old-fashioned Agoumenos was not to be overcome by any special
+pleading; so I told him at last that I respected his prejudices, and
+hoped he would follow the dictates of his conscience equally well in
+more important matters. The worthy old gentleman therefore pitched the
+two much-coveted books back into the dusty corner whence he had taken
+them, and where to a certainty they will repose undisturbed until some
+other bookworm traveller visits the monastery; and the sooner he comes
+the better, as mice and mildew are actively at work.
+
+In a room near the library some ancient relics are preserved in silver
+shrines or boxes, of Byzantine workmanship: they are, however, not of
+very great antiquity or interest; the shrines are only of sufficient
+size to contain two skulls and a few bones; the style and execution of
+the ornaments are also much inferior to many works of the same kind
+which are met with in ecclesiastical houses.
+
+The refectory is a separate building, with an apsis at the upper end, in
+which stands a marble table where the sacred bread used by the Greek
+church is usually placed, and where, I believe, the agoumenos or the
+bishop dines on great occasions. The walls of this room are also
+painted: not, however, with the representations of celebrated eaters,
+but with the likenesses of such thin, famished-looking saints that they
+seem most inappropriate as ornaments to a dining-room. The kitchen,
+which stands near the refectory, is a circular building of great
+antiquity, but the interior being pitch dark when I looked in, and there
+coming from the door a dusty cold smell, which did not savour of any
+dainty fare, I did not examine it.
+
+The monks and the abbot had now assembled in the room where the capstan
+stood. Ten or twelve of them arranged themselves in order at the bars,
+the net was spread upon the floor, and, having sat down upon it
+cross-legged, the four corners were gathered up over my head, and
+attached to the hook at the end of the rope. All being ready, the monks
+at the capstan took a few steps round, the effect of which was to lift
+me off the floor and to launch me out of the door right into the sky,
+with an impetus which kept me swinging backwards and forwards at a
+fearful rate; when the oscillation had in some measure ceased the abbot
+and another monk, leaning out of the door, steadied me with their hands,
+and I was let down slowly and gently to the ground.
+
+When I was disencumbered of the net by my friends the robbers below, I
+sat down on a stone, and waited while the rope brought down, first my
+servants, and then the baggage. All this being accomplished without
+accident, I sent the horses, baggage, and one servant to the great
+monastery of Meteora, where I proposed to sleep; and, with the other
+servant and the palicari, started on foot for a tour among the other
+monasteries.
+
+A delightful walk of an hour and a half brought us to the entrance of
+the monastery of Hagios Stephanos, to which we gained access by a wooden
+drawbridge. The rock on which this monastery stands is isolated on three
+sides, and on the fourth is separated from the mountain by a deep chasm
+which, at the point where the drawbridge is placed, is not more than
+twelve feet wide. The interior of this building resembles St. Barlaam,
+inasmuch as it consists of a confused mass of buildings, surrounding an
+irregularly-formed court, of which the principal feature is the church.
+The paintings in it are not so numerous as at St Barlaam, but the
+iconostasis, or screen before the altar, is most beautifully carved,
+something in the style of Grinlin Gibbons: the pictures upon it being
+surrounded with frames of light open work, consisting of foliage, birds,
+and flowers in alto rilievo, cut out of a light-coloured wood in the
+most delicate manner. I was told that the whole of this beautiful work
+had been executed in Russia, and put up here during the reign of Ali
+Pasha, who had the good policy to protect the Greeks, and by that means
+to ensure the co-operation of one half of the population of the country.
+
+In this monastery there were thirteen or fourteen monks and several
+women. On my inquiring for the library, one of the monks, after some
+demurring, opened a cupboard door; he then unfastened a second door at
+the back of it which led into a secret chamber, where the books of the
+monastery were kept. They were in number about one hundred and fifty;
+but I was disappointed at finding that although thus carefully concealed
+there was not a single volume amongst them remarkable for its antiquity
+or for any other cause: in fact, they were not worth the trouble of
+turning over. The view from this monastery is very fine: at the foot of
+the rock is the village of Kalabaki, to the east the citadel of Tricala
+stands above a wide level plain watered by the river which we had
+followed from its sources in Mount Pindus; beyond this a sea of distant
+blue hills extends to the foot of Mount Olympus, whose summit, clothed
+in perpetual snow, towers above all the other mountains. The whole of
+this region is inhabited by a race of a different origin from the real
+Albanians: they speak the Wallachian language, and are said to be
+extremely barbarous and ignorant. Observing that the village of Kalabaki
+presented a singularly black appearance, I inquired the cause: it had,
+they said, been recently burned and sacked by the klephti or robbers
+(some of my friends, perhaps), and the remnant of the inhabitants had
+taken refuge in the two monasteries of Hagios Nicholas and Agia Mone,
+which had been deserted by the monks some time before. The poor people
+in these two impregnable fastnesses were, they told me, so suspicious
+of strangers and in such a state of alarm, that there was no use in my
+visiting them, as to a certainty they would not admit me; and as it
+appeared that everything portable had been removed when the caloyeri
+(the monks) had departed from their impoverished homes, I gave up the
+idea.
+
+I then proceeded along a romantic path to the monastery of Agia Triada,
+and on the way my servants entertained me by an account of what the
+monks had told them of their admiration of the Pasha of Tricala, whom
+they considered as a perfect model of a governor; and that it would be a
+blessing for the country if all other pashas were like him, as then all
+the roving bands of robbers, who spread terror and desolation through
+the land, would be cleared away. There is, it seems, a high tower over
+the gate of the town of Tricala, and when the Pasha caught any people
+whom he thought worthy of the distinction, he had them taken up to the
+top of this tower and thrown from it against the city walls, which his
+provident care had furnished with numerous large iron hooks, projecting
+about the length of a man's arm, which caught the bodies of the culprits
+as they fell, and on which they hung on either side of the town gate,
+affording a pleasing and instructive spectacle to the people who came in
+to market of a morning.
+
+Agia Triada contains about ten or twelve monks, who pulled me up to the
+entrance of their monastery with a rope thirty-two fathoms long. This
+monastery, like the others, resembles a small village, of which the
+houses stand huddled round the little painted church. Here I found one
+hundred books, all very musty and very uninteresting. I saw no
+manuscripts whatever, nor was there anything worthy of observation in
+the habitation of the impoverished community. Having paid my respects to
+the grim effigies of the bearded saints upon the chapel walls, I was let
+down again by the rope, and walked on, still through most romantic
+scenery, to the monastery of Hagia Roserea.
+
+The rock upon which this monastery stands is about a hundred feet high;
+it is perfectly isolated, and quite smooth and perpendicular on all
+sides, and so small that there is only room enough for the various
+buildings, without leaving any space for a garden. In fact, the
+buildings, although far from large, cover the whole summit of the rock.
+When we had shouted and made as much noise as we could for some time, an
+old woman came out upon a sort of wooden balcony over our heads; another
+woman followed her, and they began to talk and scream at us both
+together, so that we could not understand what they said. At last, one
+of them screaming louder than the other, we found that the monks were
+all out, and that these two ladies being the only garrison of the place
+declined the honour of our visit, and would not let down the rope
+ladder, which was drawn half way up. We used all the arguments we could
+think of, and told the old gentlewomen that they were the most beautiful
+creatures in the world, but all to no purpose; they were not to be
+overcome by our soft speeches, and would not let down the ladder an
+inch. Finding there were no hopes of getting in, we told them they were
+the ugliest old wretches in the country, and that we would not come near
+them if they asked us upon their knees; upon which they screamed and
+chattered louder than ever, and we walked off in high indignation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+
+     The great Monastery of Meteora--The Church--Ugliness of the
+     Portraits of Greek Saints--Greek Mode of Washing the Hands--A
+     Monastic Supper--Morning View from the Monastery--The
+     Library--Beautiful MSS.--Their Purchase--The Kitchen--Discussion
+     among the Monks as to the Purchase Money for the MSS.--The MSS.
+     reclaimed--A last Look at their Beauties--Proposed Assault of the
+     Monastery by the Robber Escort.
+
+
+As the day was drawing to a close we turned our steps towards the great
+monastery of Meteora, where we arrived just before dark. The vast rock
+upon which it is built is separated from the end of a projecting line of
+mountains by a widish chasm, at the bottom of which we found ourselves,
+after scrambling up a path which wound among masses of rock and huge
+stones which at some remote period had fallen from above.
+
+Having reached the foot of the precipice under the monastery, we stopped
+in the middle of this dark chasm and fired a gun, as we had done at the
+monastery of Barlaam. Presently, after a careful reconnoitring from
+several long-bearded monks, a rope with a net at the end of it came
+slowly down to us, a distance of about twenty-five fathoms; and being
+bundled into the net, I was slowly drawn up into the monastery, where I
+was lugged in at the window by two of the strongest of the brethren, and
+after having been dragged along the floor and unpacked, I was presented
+to the admiring gaze of the whole reverend community, who were assembled
+round the capstan. This is by far the largest of the convents in this
+region; it is also in better order than the others, and is inhabited by
+a greater number of caloyers; I omitted to count their number, but there
+may have been about twenty: the monastery is, however, calculated to
+contain three times that number. The buildings both in their nature and
+arrangement are very similar to those of St. Barlaam, excepting that
+they are somewhat more extensive, and that there is a faint attempt at
+cultivating a garden which surrounded three sides of the monastery. Like
+all the other monasteries, it has no parapet wall.
+
+The church had a large open porch before it, where some of the caloyers
+sat and talked in the evening; it was painted in fresco of bright
+colours, with most edifying representations of the tortures and
+martyrdoms of little ugly saints, very hairy and very holy, and so like
+the old caloyers themselves, who were discoursing before them, that they
+might have been taken for their portraits. These Greek monks have a
+singular love for the devil, and for everything horrible and hideous. I
+never saw a picture of a well-looking Greek saint anywhere, and yet the
+earlier Greek artists in their conceptions of the personages of Holy
+Writ sometimes approached the sublime; and in the miniatures of some of
+the manuscripts written previous to the twelfth century, which I
+collected in the Levant, there are figures of surpassing dignity and
+solemnity: yet in Byzantine and Egyptian art that purity and angelic
+expression so much to be admired in the works of Beato Angelico,
+Giovanni Bellini, and other early Italian masters, are not to be found.
+The more exalted and refined feeling which prompted the execution of
+those sublime works seems never to have existed in the Greek church,
+which goes on century after century, even up to the present time, using
+the same conventional and stiff forms, so that to the unpractised eye
+there would be considerable difficulty in discovering the difference
+between a Greek picture of a saint of the ninth century from one of the
+nineteenth. The agoumenos, a young active man with a good deal of
+intelligence in his countenance, sent word that the hour of supper was
+at hand, previously, however, to which I went through the process of
+washing my hands in, or rather over a Turkish basin with a perforated
+cover and a little vase in the middle for the piece of fresh-smelling
+soap in common use, which is so very much better than ours in England
+that I wonder none has been as yet imported, a venerable monk all the
+while pouring the water over my hands from a vessel resembling an
+antique coffee-pot. I then dried my fingers on an embroidered towel, and
+sat down with the agoumenos and another officer of the monastery before
+a metal tray covered with various dainty dishes. We three sat upon
+cushions on the floor, and the tray stood upon a wooden stool turned
+upside down, according to the usual fashion of the country: no meat had
+entered into the composition of our feast, but it was very savoury
+nevertheless, and our fingers were soon in the midst of the most
+tempting dishes, knives and forks being considered as useless
+superfluities. When my right hand was anointed with any oleaginous
+mixture, which it was very frequently indeed, if I wanted to drink, a
+monk held a silver bowl to my lips and a napkin under my chin, as you
+serve babies; after which I began again, until with a sigh I was obliged
+to throw myself back from the tray, and holding my hands aloft, the
+perforated basin and the coffee-pot made their appearance again. A cup
+of piping hot coffee concluded the evening's entertainment, and I
+retired to another room--the guest chamber--which opened upon a narrow
+court hard by, where all my things had been arranged. A long, thin
+candle was placed on a small stool in the middle of the floor, and
+having winked at the long rays which darted out of it for some time, I
+rolled myself into a comfortable position in the corner, and was asleep
+before I had settled upon any optical theory to account for them; nor
+did the dull, monotonous sound of the mallet, which, struck on a
+suspended board, called the good brethren to midnight prayer, disturb
+me for more than a moment.
+
+_Nov. 10._--Just before the dawn of day I opened the shutters of the
+unglazed windows of my room and surveyed the scene before me; all still
+looked grey and cold, and it was only towards the east that the distant
+outline of the mountains showed clear and distinct against the dark sky.
+By degrees the clouds, which had slept upon the shoulders of the hills,
+rose slowly and heavily, whilst the valleys gradually assumed all their
+soft and radiant beauty. It seemed to me as if I should never tire of
+gazing at this view. In the course of time, however, breakfast appeared,
+and having rapidly despatched it, I went to look at the buildings and
+curiosities.
+
+The church resembles that of St. Barlaam, but is in better order; and
+the paintings are more brilliant in colour and are more profusely
+decorated with gold. There is a dome above the centre of the church, and
+the iconostasis or screen before the altar is ornamented with the usual
+stiff pictures and carving, but the latter is not to be compared to that
+in the monastery of St. Stephanos. There were some silver shrines
+containing relics, but they were not particularly interesting either as
+to workmanship or antiquity. The most interesting thing is a picture
+ascribed to St. Luke, which, whatever may be its real history, is
+evidently a very ancient and curious painting.
+
+The books are preserved in a range of low-vaulted and secret rooms, very
+well concealed in a sort of mezzanine: the entrance to them is through a
+door at the back of a cupboard in an outer chamber, in the same way as
+at St Stephanos. There are about two thousand volumes of very rubbishy
+appearance, not new enough for the monks to read or old enough for them
+to sell; in fact, they are almost valueless. I found, however, a few
+Aldines and Greek books of the sixteenth century, printed in Italy, some
+of which may be rather rare editions, but I saw none of the fifteenth
+century. I did not count the number of the manuscripts; there are,
+however, some hundreds of them, mostly on paper; but, excepting two,
+they were all liturgies and church books. These two were poems. One
+appeared to be on some religious subject, the other was partly
+historical and partly the poetical effusions of St. Athanasius of
+Meteora. I searched in vain for the manuscripts of Hesiod and Sophocles
+mentioned by Biornstern; some later antiquarian may, perhaps, have got
+possession of them and taken them to some country where they will be
+more appreciated than they were here. After looking over the books on
+the shelves, the librarian, an old grey-bearded monk, opened a great
+chest in which things belonging to the church were kept; and here I
+found ten or twelve manuscripts of the Gospels, all of the eleventh or
+twelfth century. They were upon vellum, and all, except one, were small
+quartos; but this one was a large quarto, and one of the most beautiful
+manuscripts of its kind I have met with anywhere. In many respects it
+resembled the Codex Ebnerianus in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. It was
+ornamented with miniatures of the same kind as those in that splendid
+volume, but they were more numerous and in a good style of art; it was,
+in fact, as richly ornamented as a Romish missal, and was in excellent
+preservation, except one miniature at the beginning, which had been
+partially smeared over by the wet finger of some ancient sloven. Another
+volume of the Gospels, in a very small, clear hand, bound in a kind of
+silver filagree of the same date as the book, also excited my
+admiration. Those who take an interest in literary antiquities of this
+class are aware of the great rarity of an ornamental binding in a
+Byzantine manuscript. This must doubtless have been the pocket volume of
+some royal personage. To my great joy the librarian allowed me to take
+these two books to the room of the agoumenos, who agreed to sell them to
+me for I forget how many pieces of gold, which I counted out to him
+immediately, and which he seemed to pocket with the sincerest
+satisfaction. Never was any one more welcome to his money, although I
+left myself but little to pay the expenses of my journey back to Corfu.
+Such books as these would be treasures in the finest national collection
+in Europe.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+We looked at the refectory, which also resembled that at Barlaam. The
+kitchen, however, merits a detailed description. This very ancient
+building, perched upon the extreme edge of the precipice, was square in
+its plan, with a steep roof of stone, the top of which was open. Within,
+upon a square platform of stone, there were four columns serving for the
+support of the roof, which was arched all round, except in the space
+between the tops of the columns, where it was open to the sky. This
+platform was the hearth, where the fire was lit, whilst smaller fires of
+charcoal might be lit all round against the wall, where there were stone
+dressers for the purpose, so that in fact the building was all chimney
+and fireplace; and when a great dinner was prepared on a feast-day the
+principal difficulty must have been to have prevented the cook from
+being roasted among the other meats. The whole of the arched roof was
+thickly covered with lumps of soot, the accumulations probably of
+centuries. The ancient kitchens at Glastonbury and at Stanton Harcourt
+are constructed a good deal upon the same plan, but this is probably a
+much earlier specimen of culinary architecture. The porch outside the
+church is larger than ordinary, and extends, if I remember rightly,
+along the side of that building which stands in the principal court, and
+is not, as is usually the case, attached to the end of the church, over
+the principal door.
+
+Having seen all that was worthy of observation, I was waiting in the
+court near the door leading to the place where the monks were assembled
+to lower me down to the earth again. Just as I was ready to start there
+arose a discussion among them as to the distribution of the money which
+I had paid for the two manuscripts. The agoumenos wanted to keep it all
+for himself, or at least for the expenses of the monastery; but the
+villain of a librarian swore he would have half. The agoumenos said he
+should not have a farthing, but as the librarian would not give way he
+offered him a part of the spoil; however, he did not offer him enough,
+and out of spite and revenge, or, as he protested, out of uprightness of
+principle, he told all the monks that the agoumenos had pocketed the
+money which he had received for their property, for that they all had a
+right to an equal share in these books, as in all the other things
+belonging to the community. The monks, even the most dunderheaded, were
+not slow in taking this view of the subject, and all broke out into a
+clamorous assertion of their rights, every man of them speaking at once.
+The price I had given was so large that every one of them would have
+received several pieces of gold each. But no, they said, it was not
+that, but for the principles of justice that they contended. They did
+not want the money, no more did the librarian, but they would not
+suffer their rules to be outraged or their rights to be trampled under
+foot. In the monasteries of St. Basil all the members of the society had
+equal rights--they ate in common, they prayed in common, everything was
+bought and sold for the benefit of the community at large. Tears fell
+from the eyes of some of the particularly virtuous monks; others stamped
+upon the ground, and showed a thoroughly rebellious spirit. As for me, I
+kept aloof, waiting to see what might be the result.
+
+The agoumenos, who was evidently a man of superior abilities, calmly
+endeavoured to explain. He told the unruly brethren exactly what the sum
+was for which he had sold the books, and said that the money was not for
+his own private use, but to be laid out for the benefit of all, in the
+same way as the ordinary revenues of the monastery, which, he added,
+would soon prove quite insufficient if so large a portion of them
+continued to be divided among the individual members. He told them that
+the monastery was poor and wanted money, and that this large sum would
+be most useful for certain necessary expenses. But although he used many
+unanswerable arguments, the old brute of a librarian had completely
+awakened the spirit of discord, and the ignorant monks were ready to be
+led into rebellion, by any one and for any reason or none. At last the
+contest waxed so warm that the sale of the two manuscripts was almost
+lost sight of, and every one began to quarrel with his neighbour, the
+entire community being split into various little angry groups,
+chattering, gesticulating, and wagging their long beards.
+
+After a while the agoumenos, calling my interpreter, said that as the
+monks would not agree to let him keep the money in the usual way for the
+use of the monastery, he could have nothing to do with it; and to my
+great sorrow I was therefore obliged to receive it back, and to give up
+the two beautiful manuscripts, which I had already looked upon as the
+chief ornaments of my library in England. The monks all looked sadly
+downcast at this unexpected termination of their noble defence of their
+principles, and my only consolation was to perceive that they were quite
+as much vexed as I was. In fact we felt that we had gained a loss all
+round, and the old librarian, after walking up and down once or twice
+with his hands behind his back in gloomy silence, retreated to a hole
+where he lived, near the library, and I saw no more of him.
+
+My bag was brought forward, and when the books were extracted from it, I
+sat down on a stone in the court yard, and for the last time turned over
+the gilded leaves and admired the ancient and splendid illuminations of
+the larger manuscript, the monks standing round me as I looked at the
+blue cypress-trees, and green and gold peacocks, and intricate
+arabesques, so characteristic of the best times of Byzantine art. Many
+of the pages bore a great resemblance to the painted windows of the
+earlier Norman cathedrals of Europe. It was a superb old book: I laid it
+down upon the stone beside me and placed the little volume with its
+curious silver binding on the top of it, and it was with a sigh that I
+left them there with the sun shining on the curious silver ornaments.
+
+Amongst other arguments it had been asserted by some of the monks that
+nothing could be sold out of the monastery without the leave of the
+Bishop of Tricala, and, as a forlorn hope, they now proposed that the
+agoumenos should go to some place in the vicinity where the bishop was
+said to be, and that, if he gave permission, the two books should be
+forwarded immediately by a trusty man to the khan of Malacash, where I
+was to pass the night. I consented to this plan, although I had no hope
+of obtaining the manuscripts, as in the present unsettled state of the
+country the bishop would naturally calculate on the probability of the
+messenger being robbed, and on the improbability of his meeting me at
+the khan, as it would be absolutely necessary for me to leave the place
+before sunrise the next day.
+
+All this being arranged I proceeded to the chamber of the windlass, was
+put into the net, swung out into the air, and let down. They let me down
+very badly, being all talking and scolding each other; and had I not
+made use of my hands and feet to keep myself clear of the projecting
+points of the rock I should have fared badly. To increase my perils, my
+friends the palicari at the bottom, to testify their joy at my
+re-appearance, rested their long guns across their knees and fired them
+off, without the slightest attention to the direction of the barrels,
+which were all loaded with ball-cartridge: the bullets spattered against
+the rock close to me, and in the midst of the smoke I came down and was
+caught in the arms of my affectionate thieves, who bundled me out of my
+net with many extraordinary screeches of welcome.
+
+When my servants arrived and informed them of our recent disappointment,
+"What!" cried they, "would they not let you take the books? Stop a bit,
+we will soon get them for you!" And away they ran to the series of
+ladders which hung down another part of the precipice: they would have
+been up in a minute, for they scrambled like cats; but by dint of
+running after them and shouting we at length got them to come back, and
+after some considerable expenditure of oaths and exclamations, kicking
+of horses, and loading of guns and saddle-bags, we found ourselves
+slowly winding our way back towards the valley of the Peneus.
+
+After all, what an interesting event it would have been, what a standard
+anecdote in bibliomaniac history, if I had let my friendly thieves have
+their own way, and we had stormed the monastery, broken open the secret
+door of the library, pitched the old librarian over the rocks, and
+marched off in triumph, with a gorgeous manuscript under each arm!
+Indeed I must say that under such aggravating circumstances it required
+a great exercise of forbearance not to do so, and in the good old times
+many a castle has been attacked and many a town besieged and pillaged
+for much slighter causes of offence than those which I had to complain
+of.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+
+     Return Journey--Narrow Escape--Consequences of Singing--Arrival at
+     the Khan of Malacash--Agreeable Anecdote--Parting from the Robbers
+     at Mezzovo--A Pilau--Wet Ride to Paramathia--Accident to the
+     Baggage-Mule--Its wonderful Escape--Novel Costume--A
+     Deputation--Return to Corfu.
+
+
+We made our way from the plain and rocks of Meteora by a different path
+from the one by which we had arrived, and travelled along the north side
+of the valley of the Peneus; we kept along the side of the hills, which
+were covered sometimes with forest and sometimes with a kind of jungle
+or underwood.
+
+During the afternoon of this day, as I was singing away as usual in
+advance of my party, some one shouted to me from the thicket, but I took
+no notice of it. However, before I had ridden on many steps a man jumped
+out of the bush, seized hold of my horse's bridle, and proceeded to draw
+his pistol from his belt, but luckily the lock had got entangled in the
+shawl which he wore round his waist. I pushed my horse against him, and
+in a moment one of us would have been shot; when the appearance of three
+or four bright gun-barrels in the bushes close by stopped our
+proceedings. My men now came running up.
+
+"Hallo!" said one of them. "Is that you? You must not attack this
+gentleman. He is our friend; he is one of us."
+
+"What!" said the man who had stopped me; "Is that you, Mahommed? Is that
+you, Hassan? What are you doing here? How is this? Is this your friend?
+I thought he was a Frank."
+
+In short, they explained what kind of brotherhood we had entered into,
+where we had been, and where we were going, and all about it. I did not
+understand much of their conversation, and in the midst of it the
+Albanian came up to me with a reproachful air and told me that they said
+my being stopped was owing to my singing, and making such a noise. "Why,
+Sir," he added, "can't you ride quietly, without letting people know
+where you are? Why can't you do as others do, and be still, like a--"
+
+"Thief," said I.
+
+"Yes, Sir; or like a quiet traveller. In such troublesome times as
+these, however honest a man may be, he need not try to excite
+attention."
+
+I felt that the advice was good, and practised it occasionally
+afterwards.
+
+In seven hours' time we arrived at the khan of Malacash, where I had
+slept before; and my carpet was spread in my old corner. I heard my
+companions talking earnestly about something, and on asking what it was,
+I was told that they could not make out which room it was where the
+people had been murdered--this room or the outer one.
+
+"How was that?" I inquired.
+
+Why, some time ago, they said, a party of travellers, people belonging
+to the country, were attacked by robbers at this khan. One of the party,
+after he had been plundered, had the imprudence to say that he knew who
+the thieves were. Upon this the gang, after a short consultation, took
+the party out, one by one, and cut all their throats in the next room;
+and this was before the present disturbed state of the country.
+Nevertheless, I slept very soundly, my only sorrow being that no tidings
+came of the two manuscripts from Meteora.
+
+_November 11th._--In our journey of this day we crossed the chain of the
+Pindus by a different pass from the one by which we had traversed it
+before; and in the evening we arrived at Mezzovo, where I was lodged by
+a schoolmaster who had a comfortable house. The ceiling of the room
+where we sat was hung all over with bunches of dried or rather drying
+grapes. Here I presented each of my escort with a small bundle of
+piasters. We had become so much pleased with each other in the few days
+we had been together, that we had quite an affecting parting. Their
+chief, the red velvet personage from whom I had received the letter
+which gained me the pleasure of their company, was gone, it appeared,
+towards Berat; but they had found some of their companions, with whom
+they intended to retire to some small place of defence, the name of
+which I did not make out, where in a few days they expected to be told
+what they were to do.
+
+"Why won't you come with us?" said they. "Don't go back to live in a
+confined, stupid town, to sit all day in a house, and look out of the
+window. Go back with us into the mountains, where we know every pass,
+every rock, and every waterfall: you should command us; we would get
+some more men together: we will go wherever you like, and a rare jolly
+life we will lead."
+
+"Gentlemen," said I, "I take your kind offers as highly complimentary to
+me; I am proud to think that I have gained so high a place in your
+estimation. When you see your captain, pray assure him of my friendship,
+and how much I feel indebted to him for having given me such gallant and
+faithful guards."
+
+The poor fellows were evidently sorry to leave me: one of them, the most
+active and gay of the whole party, seemed more than half inclined to
+cry; so, cordially shaking hands with them before the door of the
+schoolmaster of Mezzovo, we parted, with expressions of mutual goodwill.
+
+"Thank goodness they are gone!" said the little schoolmaster; "those
+palicari are all over the country now; some belong to one chief, some to
+another; some are for Mahmoud Pasha, and some against him; but I don't
+know which party is the worst; they are all rogues, every one of them,
+when they have an opportunity--scamps! sad scamps! These are hard times
+for quiet, peaceably-disposed people. So now, Sir, we will come in, and
+lock the door, and make up the fire, for the nights are getting cold."
+
+The schoolmaster had a snug fireplace, with a good divan on each side of
+it, of blue cloth or baize. These divans came close up to the hearth,
+which, like the divans, was raised two feet above the floor. The good
+man brought out his little stores of preserves and marmalade. He was an
+old bachelor, and we soon made ourselves very comfortable, one on each
+side of the fire. We had a famous pilau, made by my "_artist_," and the
+schoolmaster gave us raisins to put in it--not that they are a necessary
+part of that excellent condiment, but he had not much else to give; so
+we flavoured the pilau with raisins, as if it had been a lamb, which, by
+the by, is the prince of Oriental dishes, and, when stuffed with
+almonds, raisins, pistachio nuts, rice, bread-crumbs, pepper and salt,
+and well roasted, is a dish to set before a king.
+
+The schoolmaster, judging of me by the company I kept, never suspected
+my literary pursuits, and was surprised when I asked him if he knew of
+anything in that line, and assured him that I had no objection to do a
+little business in the manuscript way. He said he knew of an old
+merchant who had a great many books, and that to-morrow we would go and
+see them. Accordingly, the next day we went to see the merchant's house;
+but his collection was good for nothing; and after returning for an hour
+or two to the schoolmaster's hospitable mansion, we got into marching
+order, and defiled off the village green of Mezzovo.
+
+After fording the river thirty-nine times, as we had done before, our
+jaded steeds at last stood panting under the windows of the doctor at
+Yanina, whose comfortable house we had left only a few days before. I
+stayed at Yanina one day, but the Pasha could not see me to hear my
+account of the protection I had enjoyed from his firman. A messenger had
+arrived from Constantinople, and the report in the town was that the
+Pasha would lose his head or his pashalic if he did not put down the
+disturbances which had arisen in every part of his government. Some said
+he would escape by bribing the ministers of the Porte; but as I was no
+politician I did not trouble myself much on the subject His Highness,
+however, was good enough to send me word that he would give me any
+assistance that I needed. Accordingly, I asked for a teskéré for
+post-horses; and the next day galloped in ten hours to Paramathia. All
+day long the rain poured down in torrents, and I waded through the bed
+of the swollen stream, which usually served for a high-road, I do not
+know how many times. I was told the distance was about sixty miles; and
+it was one of the hardest day's riding I ever accomplished; for there
+was nothing deserving the name of a road any part of the way; and the
+entire day was passed in tearing up and down the rocks or wading in the
+swollen stream. The rain and the cold compelled us and our horses to do
+our best: in a hot day we could never have accomplished it.
+
+Towards the afternoon, when we were, by computation, about twenty-five
+miles from Paramathia, as we were proceeding at a trot along a narrow
+ledge above a stream, the baggage-horse, or mule I think he was, whose
+halter was tied to the crupper of my horse, suddenly missed his footing,
+and fell over the precipice. He caught upon the edge with his fore-feet,
+the halter supported his head, and my horse immediately stopping, leant
+with all his might against the wall of rock which rose above us,
+squeezing my left leg between it and the saddle. The noise of the wind
+and rain, and the dashing of the torrent underneath, prevented my
+servants hearing my shouts for assistance. I was the last of the party;
+and I had the pleasure of seeing all my company trotting on, rising in
+their stirrups, and bumping along the road before me, unconscious of
+anything having occurred to check their progress towards the journey's
+end. It was so bad a day that no one thought of anything but getting on.
+Every man for himself was the order of the day. I could not dismount,
+because my left leg was squeezed so tightly against the rock, that I
+every moment expected the bone to snap. My horse's feet were projected
+towards the edge of the precipice, and in this way he supported the
+fallen mule, who endeavoured to retain his hold with his chin and his
+fore-legs. There we were--the mule's eyeballs almost starting out of his
+head, and all his muscles quivering with the exertion. At last something
+cracked: the staple in the back of my saddle gave way; off flew the
+crupper, and I thought at first my horse's tail was gone with it. The
+baggage-mule made one desperate scrambling effort, but it was of no use,
+and down he went, over and over among the crashing bushes far beneath,
+until at length he fell with a loud splash into the waters of the
+stream. Some of the people hearing the noise made by the falling mule,
+turned round and came back to see what was the matter; and, horse and
+men, we all craned our necks over the edge to see what had become of our
+companion. There he was in the river, with nothing but his head above
+the water. With some difficulty we made our way down to the edge of the
+torrent. The mule kept looking at us very quietly all the while till we
+got close to him, when the muleteer proceeded to assist him by banging
+him on the head with a great branch of a tree, upon which he took to
+struggling and scrambling, and at last, to the surprise of all, came out
+apparently unhurt, at least with no bones broken. The men looked him
+over, walked him about, gave him a kick or two by way of asking him how
+he was, and then placing his load upon him again, we pursued our
+journey.
+
+Before dark we arrived at Paramathia, and went straight to the house
+where we had been so hospitably received before. We crawled up like so
+many drowned rats into the upper rooms, where we were met by the whole
+troop of ladies giggling, screaming, and talking, as if they had never
+stopped since we left them a week before. When the baggage came to be
+undone, alas! what a wreck was there! The coffee and the sugar and the
+shirts had formed an amalgam; mud, shoes, and cambric handkerchiefs all
+came out together; not a thing was dry. The only consolation was that
+the beautiful illuminated manuscripts of Meteora had not participated in
+this dirty deluge.
+
+I was wet to the skin, and my boots were full of water. In this dilemma
+I asked if our hosts could not lend me something to put on until some of
+my own clothes could be dried. The ladies were full of pity and
+compassion; but unfortunately all the men were from home, not having
+returned from their daily occupations in the bazaar, and their clothes
+could not be got at. At last the good-humoured young bride, seeing that
+wherever I stood there was always, in a couple of minutes' time, a
+puddle upon the floor, entered into an animated consultation with the
+other ladies, and before long they brought me a shirt, and an immense
+garment it was, like an English surplice, embroidered in gay colours
+down the seams. The fair bride contributed the white capote, which I
+remembered on my former visit, and a girdle. I soon donned this
+extempore costume. My wet clothes were taken to a great fire, which was
+lit for the purpose in another room, and I proceeded to dry my hair with
+a long narrow towel, its ends heavy with gold embroidery, which one of
+the ladies warmed far me, and twisted round my head in the way usual in
+the Turkish bath--a method of drying the head well known in most eastern
+towns, and which saves a great deal of trouble and exertion in rubbing
+and brushing according to the European method.
+
+I had ensconced myself in the corner of the divan, having nothing else
+in the way of clothes beyond what I have mentioned, and was employed in
+looking at one of my feet, which I had stuck out for the purpose,
+admiring it in all its pristine beauty, for there were no spare slippers
+to be had, when the curtain was suddenly lifted from over the door, and
+my servant rushed in and told me with a troubled voice, that the
+authorities of Paramathia, grieved at their remissness on the former
+occasion, had presented themselves to compliment me on my arrival in
+their town, and had brought me a present of tobacco or something, I
+forget what, in testimony of their anxiety to show their good-will and
+respect to so distinguished a personage as myself. "Don't let them in!"
+I exclaimed. "Tell them I will receive them to-morrow. Say anything,
+but only keep them out." But this was more than my servants could
+accomplish. My friends at Corfu had sent letters explaining the
+prodigious honour conferred upon the whole province of Albania by my
+presence, so that nothing could stop them, and in walked a file of grave
+elders in long gowns, one or two in stately fur pelisses, which I envied
+them very much. They took very little notice of me, as I sat screwed up
+in the corner, and all, ranging themselves upon the divan on the
+opposite side of the room, sat in solemn silence, looking at me out of
+the corners of their eyes, whenever they thought they could do so
+without my perceiving it.
+
+My servant stood in the middle of the room to interpret; and after he
+had remained there a prodigious while, as it seemed to me, the most
+venerable of the old gentlemen at last said, "I am Signor Dimitri
+So-and-so; this is Signor Anastasi So-and-so; this gentleman is uncle to
+the master of the house; and so on. We are come to pay our respects to
+the noble and illustrious Englishman who passed through this place
+before. Pray have the goodness to signify our arrival to his Excellency,
+and say that we are waiting here to have the honour of offering him our
+services. Where is the respected milordos?" Although I could not speak
+Romaic, yet I understood it sufficiently to know what the old gentleman
+was saying; and great was their surprise and admiration when they found
+that the unhappy and very insufficiently-clothed little fellow in the
+corner was the illustrious milordos himself. The said milordos had now
+to explain how all his baggage had been upset over a precipice, and that
+he was not exactly prepared to receive so distinguished a party. After
+mutual apologies, which ended in a good laugh all round, pipes and
+coffee were brought in. The visit of ceremony was concluded in as
+dignified a manner as circumstances would permit; and they went away
+convinced that I must be a very great man in my own country, as I did
+not get up more than a few inches to salute them, either on their entry
+or departure--a most undue assumption of dignity on my part which I
+sincerely regretted, but which the state of my costume rendered
+absolutely necessary.
+
+_November 15th._--The morning of the following day was bright and clear.
+I procured fresh horses, and galloped in six hours to the sea at
+Gominiza. A small vessel was riding at anchor near the shore, whose
+captain immediately closed with the offer of four dollars to carry me
+over to Corfu. I was soon on board; and, creeping into a small
+three-cornered hole under the half-deck, to which I gained access by a
+hatchway about a foot and a half square, I rolled myself up upon some
+ropes, and fell asleep at once. It seemed as if I had not been asleep an
+instant, when my servant, putting his head into the square aperture
+above, said, "Signore siamo qui." "Yes," said I, "but where is that?
+What! are we really at Corfu?" I popped my head out of the trap, and
+there we were sure enough--my fatigue of the day before having made me
+sleep so soundly that I had been perfectly unconscious of the duration
+of the voyage; and I landed on the quay congratulating myself on having
+accomplished the most dangerous and most rapid expedition that it ever
+was my fortune to undertake.
+
+
+
+
+MONASTERIES OF THE LEVANT.
+
+PART IV.
+
+THE MONASTERIES OF MOUNT ATHOS.
+
+[Illustration: THE NORTH WEST SIDE OF THE PROMONTORY OF MOUNT ATHOS,
+WITH A VIEW OF THE THE MONASTERY OF PANTOCRATORAS]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+
+     Constantinople--The Patriarch's Palace--The Plague, Anecdotes,
+     Superstitions--The Two Jews--Interview with the
+     Patriarch--Ceremonies of Reception--The Patriarch's Misconception
+     as to the Archbishop of Canterbury--He addresses a Firman to the
+     Monks of Mount Athos--Preparations for Departure--The Ugly Greek
+     Interpreter--Mode of securing his Fidelity.
+
+
+I had been for some time enjoying the hospitality of Lord and Lady
+Ponsonby at the British palace at Therapia, when I determined to put
+into execution a project I had long entertained of examining the
+libraries in the monasteries of Mount Athos. As no traveller had been
+there since the days of Dr. Clarke, I could obtain but little
+information about the place before I left England. But the Archbishop of
+Canterbury was kind enough to give me a letter to the Patriarch of
+Constantinople, in which he requested him to furnish me with any
+facilities in his power in my researches among the Greek monasteries
+which owned his sway.
+
+Armed with this valuable document, one day in the spring of the year
+1837 I started in a caïque with some gentlemen of the embassy, and
+proceeded to the palace of the Patriarch in the Fanar--a part of
+Constantinople situated between the ancient city wall and the port so
+well known by its name of the Golden Horn. The Fanar does not derive its
+appellation from the word fanar, a lantern or lighthouse, but from the
+two words _fena yer_, a bad place; for it is in a low, dirty situation,
+where only the conquered Greeks were permitted to reside immediately
+after the conquest of their metropolis by the Sultan Mahommed II. The
+palace is a large, dilapidated, shabby-looking building, chiefly of wood
+painted black; it stands in an open court or yard on a steep slope, and
+looks out over some lower houses to the Golden Horn and the hills of
+Pera and Galata beyond.[12]
+
+After waiting a little while in a large, dirty ante-room, during which
+time there was a scuffling and running up and down of priests and
+deacons, who were surprised and perhaps a little alarmed at a visit
+from so numerous a company of gentlemen belonging to the British
+embassy, we were introduced into a large square room furnished with a
+divan under the windows and down two sides of the chamber. This divan
+was covered with a rough sacking of grey goats' hair--a stuff which is
+said not to be susceptible of the plague; and people sitting on it, or
+on the bare boards, are not considered to be "_compromised_"--a word of
+fearful import when that awful pestilence is raging in this neglected
+city. When any person is compromised, he is obliged to separate from all
+society, and to place himself in strict quarantine for forty days, at
+the end of which period, if the fright and anxiety have not brought on
+the plague, he is received again by his acquaintances. Dealers in oil,
+and persons who have an open issue on their bodies, are considered
+secure from the plague as far as they themselves are concerned; but as
+their clothes will convey the infection, they are as dangerous as others
+to their neighbours.
+
+There was an old Armenian, who, whether he considered himself
+invulnerable, or whether poverty and misfortune made him reckless, I do
+not know; but he set up as a plague-doctor, and visited and touched
+those who were stricken with the pestilence. Whenever he came down the
+street, every one would start aside and give him three or four yards'
+space at least. Sometimes he had men who walked before him and cried to
+the people to get out of the way. As the old man moved on in his long,
+dark robes, shunned with such horror by all, the mind was awfully
+impressed with the fearful nature of the disease; for if the Prince of
+Darkness himself had made his appearance in the face of day, no one
+could have shown greater alarm at his approach than they did when the
+men cried out that the Armenian plague-doctor was coming down the
+street.
+
+One peculiarity of the disease is the disinclination which is always
+shown by those who are plague-stricken to confess that they are so, or
+even to own that they are ill. They invariably conceal it as long as
+possible; and even when burning with fever and in an agony of pain, they
+will pretend that they are well, and try to walk about. But this attempt
+at deception continues for a very short period, for they soon become
+either delirious or insensible, and generally are unable to move. There
+is a look about the eye and an expression of anxiety and horror in the
+face of one who has got the plague which is not to be mistaken nor
+forgotten by those who have once seen them. One day at Galata I nearly
+ran against a man who was sitting on the ground on a hand-bier, upon
+which some Turks were about to carry him away; and the look of the
+unfortunate man's face haunted me for days. The expression of hopeless
+despair and agony was indeed but too applicable to his case; they were
+going to carry him to the plague hospital, from whence I never heard of
+any one returning. It would have been far more merciful to have shot him
+at once.
+
+There are many curious superstitions and circumstances connected with
+the plague. One is, that when the destroying angel enters into a house
+the dogs of the quarter assemble in the night and howl before the door;
+and the Greeks firmly believe that the dogs can see the evil spirit of
+the plague, although it is invisible to human eyes. Some people,
+however, are said to have seen the plague, its appearance being that of
+an old woman, tall, thin, and ghastly, and dressed sometimes in black,
+sometimes in white: she stalks along the streets--glides through the
+doors of the habitations of the condemned--and walks once round the room
+of her victim, who is from that moment death-smitten. It is also
+asserted that, when three small spots make their appearance upon the
+knee, the patient is doomed--he has got the plague, and his fate is
+sealed. They are called the pilotti--the pilots and harbingers of death.
+Some, however, have recovered after these spots have shown themselves.
+
+I had at this time a lodging in a house at Pera, which I occupied when
+anything brought me to Constantinople from Therapia. On one occasion I
+was sitting with a gentleman whose filial piety did him much honour, for
+he had attended his father through the horrors of this illness, and he
+had died of the plague in his arms, when we heard the dogs baying in an
+unusual way.[13] On looking out of the window there they were all of a
+row, seated against the opposite wall, howling mournfully, and looking
+up at the houses in the moonlight. One dog looked very hard at me, I
+thought: I did not like it at all, and began to investigate whether I
+had not some pain or other about me; and this comfortable feeling was
+not diminished when my friend's Arab servant came into the room and said
+that another person who lodged in the house was very unwell; it was said
+that he had had a fall from his horse that morning. The dogs, though we
+escaped the plague ourselves, were right; the plague had got into one of
+the houses close to us in the same street; but how many died of it I did
+not learn.
+
+It was about this time that two Jews--extortioners, poor men, whom
+consequently nobody cared about--were walking together in a narrow
+street at Galata, when they both dropped down stricken with the plague:
+there they lay upon the ground; no one would touch them; and, as the
+street was extremely narrow, no one could pass that way; it was in
+effect blocked up by the two unhappy men. They did not die quickly. "The
+devil was sure of them," the charitable people said, "so he was in no
+hurry." There they lay a long time--many days; and people called to
+them, and put their heads round the corner of the street to look at
+them. Some, tenderer-hearted than the rest, got a long pole from a
+dyer's shop hard by, and pushed a tub of water to them, and threw them
+some bread, for no one dared approach them. One Jew was quiet: he ate a
+little bread and drank some water, and lay still. The other was violent:
+the pain of his livid swellings drove him wild, and he shouted and raved
+and twisted about upon the ground. The people looked at him from the
+corner, and shuddered as they quickly drew back their heads. He died;
+and the other Jew still lay there, quiet as he was before, close to the
+quiet corpse of his poor friend. For some time they did not know whether
+he was dead or not; but at last they found he drank no more water and
+ate no more bread; so they knew that he had died also. There lay the two
+bodies in the way, till some one paid a hamal--a Turkish porter--who,
+being a stanch predestinarian, caring neither for plague, nor Jew, nor
+Gentile, dead or alive, carried off the two bodies on his back; and then
+the street was passable again.
+
+The Turks have a touching custom when the plague rages very greatly, and
+a thousand corpses are carried out daily from Stamboul through the
+Adrianople gate to the great groves of cypress which rise over the
+burial-grounds beyond the walls. At times of terror and grief, such as
+these, the Sheikh Ul Islam causes all the little children to be
+assembled on a beautiful green hill called the Oc Maidan--the Place of
+Arrows--and there they bow down upon the ground, and raise their
+innocent voices in supplication to the Father of Mercy, and implore his
+compassion on the afflicted city!
+
+But the grey goats' hair divan of the Patriarch's hall of audience has
+led me a long way from the Patriarch himself, who entered the chamber
+shortly after our arrival. He appeared to be rather a young man,
+certainly not more than thirty-five years of age, with a reddish beard,
+which is uncommon in this country. He was dressed in purple silk robes,
+like a Greek bishop, and took his seat in the corner of the divan, and
+said nothing, and stroked his beard as a pasha might have done.
+
+When we had made our "téménahs," that is, salutations, and little bows,
+&c., and were still again, the curtain over the doorway was pushed
+aside, and various priestly servants, all without shoes, came in, one of
+them bearing a richly embossed silver tray, on which were disposed small
+spoons filled with a preserve of lemon-peel; each of us took a spoonful,
+and returned the spoon to the dish. Then came various servants--as many
+servants as guests--and one presented to each of us a cut-glass cup with
+a lid, full of fresh spring-water. Then these disappeared; and others
+came in bearing pipes to each of us--a separate servant always coming in
+for each person of the company. After we had smoked our pipes for a
+short time, a mighty crowd of attendants again entered at the bottom of
+the room, among whom was one with a tray, which was covered over with a
+satin shawl or cover as richly embroidered with gold as was possible for
+its size, and with a deep gold fringe. Another servant took off this
+covering, and placed it over the left shoulder of the tray-bearer, who
+stood like a statue all the while. Now appeared a man with a silver
+censer suspended by three silver chains, and having a coffee-pot
+standing upon the burning coals within it. Another man took off the cups
+which were upon the tray, filled them with coffee; and then various
+servants, each armed with a coffee-cup placed on its silver zarf or
+saucer, which he held in his left hand with his thumb and forefinger
+only, strode forward with one accord, and we all at the same moment were
+presented with our diminutive cup of coffee; the attendants received the
+empty cups with both hands, and, walking backwards, disappeared as
+silently as they came. All this is a scene of every-day occurrence in
+the East, and, with more or less of display, takes place in the house of
+every person of consideration.
+
+When we had smoked our pipes for a while, and all the servants had gone
+away, I presented the letter of the Archbishop of Canterbury. It was
+received in due form; and, after a short explanatory exordium, was read
+aloud to the Patriarch, first in English, and then translated into
+Greek.
+
+"And who," quoth the Patriarch of Constantinople, the supreme head and
+primate of the Greek Church of Asia--"who is the Archbishop of
+Canterbury?"
+
+"What?" said I, a little astonished at the question.
+
+"Who," said he, "is this Archbishop?"
+
+"Why, the Archbishop of Canterbury."
+
+"Archbishop of _what_?" said the Patriarch.
+
+"_Canterbury_," said I.
+
+"Oh," said the Patriarch. "Ah! yes! and who is he?"
+
+Here all my English friends and myself were taken aback sadly; we had
+not imagined that the high-priest before us could be ignorant of such a
+matter as the one in question. The Patriarch of the Greek church, the
+successor of Gregory Nazianzen, St. John Chrysostom, and the heresiarch
+Nestorius, seemed not to be aware that there were any other
+denominations of Christians besides those of his own church and the
+Church of Rome. But the fact is that the Patriarch of Constantinople is
+merely the puppet of an intriguing faction of the Greek bankers and
+usurers of the Fanar, who select for the office some man of straw whom
+they feel secure they can rule, and whose appointment they obtain by a
+heavy bribe paid to the Sultan; for the head of the Christian Church is
+appointed by the Mahomedan Emperor!
+
+We explained, and said that the Archbishop of Canterbury was a man
+eminent for his great learning and his Christian virtues; that he was
+the primate and chief of the great reformed Church of England, and a
+personage of such high degree, that he ranked next to the blood-royal;
+that from time immemorial the Archbishop of Canterbury was the great
+dignitary who placed the crown upon the head of our kings--those kings
+whose power swayed the destinies of Europe and of the world; and that
+this present Archbishop and Primate had himself placed the crown upon
+the head of King William IV., and that he would also soon crown our
+young Queen.
+
+"Well," replied the Patriarch, "but how is that? how can it happen that
+the head of your Church is only an Archbishop? whereas I, the Patriarch,
+command other patriarchs, and under them archbishops, archimandrites,
+and other dignitaries of the Church? How can these things be? I cannot
+write an answer to the letter of the Archbishop of--of--"
+
+"Of Canterbury," said I.
+
+"Yes! of Canterbury; for I do not see how he who is only an archbishop
+can by any possibility be the head of a Christian hierarchy; but as you
+come from the British embassy I will give my letters as you desire,
+which will ensure your reception into every monastery which acknowledges
+the supremacy of the _orthodox_ faith of the Patriarch of
+Constantinople."
+
+He then sent for his secretary, that I might give that functionary my
+name and designation. The secretary accordingly appeared; and, although
+there are only six letters in my name, he set it down incorrectly nearly
+a dozen times, and then went away to his hole in a window, where he
+wrote curious little memoranda at the Patriarch's dictation, from which
+he drew up the firman which was sent me a few days afterwards, and which
+I found of great service in my visits to various monasteries. As few
+Protestants have been favoured with a document of this sort from the
+Primate of the Greek Church, I subjoin a translation of it. It will be
+perceived that it is written much in the style of the epistles of the
+early patriarchs to the archbishops and bishops of their provinces. To
+the requisitions contained in this firman it was incumbent upon those to
+whom it was addressed to pay implicit obedience.[14]
+
+My business being thus happily concluded with this learned personage, we
+all smoked away again for a short time in tranquil silence; and then the
+Universal Patriarch--for so he styles himself--clapped his hands, and in
+swarmed the whole tribe of silent, bare-footed priestly followers,
+bringing us sherbet in glass cups. Whilst we drank it, their reverences
+held the saucer under our chins: and when we had had enough, those who
+chose it wiped their lips and moustaches on a long, narrow towel, richly
+embroidered at the two ends with gold and bright-coloured silks. I
+prefer on these occasions my pocket-handkerchief, as the period at which
+these rich towels are washed is by no means a matter of certainty. We
+took our leave with the numerous bows and compliments, and went on our
+way rejoicing.
+
+My preparations for my expedition were soon made. I hired a Greek
+servant, whom I intended should serve as interpreter and factotum. He
+was a sharp, active man--as most Greeks are; and he had an intelligent
+way of doing things, which pleased me; but he was an ugly, thin, little
+fellow, and his right eye had a curious obliquity of vision, which was
+not particularly calculated to inspire confidence. As nobody else was to
+accompany me, I made various inquiries about him, and, although I did
+not hear any particular harm of him, yet I failed to become acquainted
+with any good actions of his performance; and as I was going into a
+country which at that time was almost entirely unknown, and which had
+moreover an unpleasant celebrity for pirates, klephti, and other sorts
+of thieves, I felt that the moral character of my new follower was an
+important consideration; and that if I could prop up his honesty and
+fidelity by any artificial means, I might not be doing amiss.
+
+In a few days the firman or letter of the patriarch arrived, and I
+packed my things and got ready to start. Unknown to my servant I had
+caused a belt of wash-leather to be made, in which were numerous little
+divisions calculated to hold a good many pieces of gold without their
+jingling, and it had a long flap which buttoned down over the series of
+compartments. I had besides a large ostentatious purse, in which was a
+small sum for the expenses of the journey, and as I wished to have it
+supposed that I had but little cash, I made my Greek buy various things
+for me out of his own money. All being ready, we started in a caïque
+very early in the morning, and went down the Bosphorus from Therapia to
+Stamboul, where we got on board a steamer. On handing up the things, my
+servant found that his box, in which were his new clothes and valuables,
+was missing--his bag only had come. "Good gracious!" said I, "was that
+the box with two straps?" "Yes," said he, "a handsome brown box, about
+so large." "Well," said I, "it is a most unfortunate thing; but when I
+saw that box in my room this morning I locked it up in the closet and
+told H---- not to give up the key of the door to anybody till I returned
+to the embassy again. How very unlucky! however, we shall soon be back,
+and you have biancheria enough in your bag for so short a journey as the
+one before us." We were soon under way, and passing the Seraglio Point
+stood down the swift current in the sea of Marmora, our luggage
+encumbering but a very small space upon the deck.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+
+     Coom Calessi--Uncomfortable Quarters--A Turkish Boat and its
+     Crew--Grandeur of the Scenery--Legend of Jason and the Golden
+     Fleece--The Island of Imbros--Heavy Rain Storm--A Rough
+     Sea--Lemnos--Bad Accommodation--The Old Woman's Mattress and its
+     Contents--Striking View of Mount Athos from the Sea--The Hermit of
+     the Tower.
+
+
+On landing at Coom Calessi, the European castle of the Dardanelles, I
+found that there was no inn or hotel in the place; but it appeared that
+the British consul, who lived on the top of the hill two miles off, had
+built a new house in the town for purposes of business, and upon the
+payment of a perquisite to the Jew who acted as his factotum, I was
+presently installed in the new house, which, as houses go in this
+country, was clean and good, but not a scrap of furniture was there in
+it, not even a pipkin or a casserole--it was as empty as any house could
+be. I sent my man out into the bazaar and we got some cabobs and yaourt
+and salad, and various flaps of bread, and managed so far pretty well,
+and then we went to the port, and after much waste of time and breath I
+engaged a curious-looking boat belonging to a Turk, who by the by was
+the only Turkish sailor I ever had anything to do with, as the seamen
+are generally Greeks; and then I returned to my house to sleep, for we
+were not to set out on our voyage till sunrise the next morning. The
+sleeping was a more difficult affair than the dinner, for after the beds
+at the embassy the boards did seem supernaturally hard; but I spread all
+my property on the floor, and lying down on it flat on my back, out of
+compassion to my hips, I got through the night at last.
+
+All men were up and about in the Turkish town of Coom Calessi as soon as
+the sun tinged the hills of Olympus, and the gay boat in which I was to
+sail was bounding up and down on the bright transparent waves by the
+sandy shore. The long-bearded captain sat on a half deck with the tiller
+under his arm; he neither moved nor said a word when I came on board,
+and before the god of day arose in his splendour over the famous plains
+of Troy my little boat was spreading its white wings before the morning
+wind. Every moment more and more lovely scenes opened to my delighted
+eyes among the rocky and classic islands of the Archipelago. How fair
+and beautiful is every part of that most favoured land! how fresh the
+breezes on that poetic sea! how magnificent the great precipices of the
+rocky island of Samotraki seemed as they loomed through the decreasing
+distance in the morning sun! But no words, no painting can describe this
+glorious region.
+
+I had hired my grave sailors to take me to Lemnos, but the wind did not
+serve, so we steered for Imbros, where we arrived in the afternoon. My
+boat was an original-looking vessel to an English eye, with a high bow
+and stem covered with bright brass; over the rudder there hung a long
+piece of network ornamented with blue glass beads: flowers and
+arabesques were carved on the boards at each end of the vessel, which
+had one low mast with a single sail. It is the national belief in
+England that ugliness is the necessary concomitant of utility, but for
+my own part I confess that I delight in redundant ornament, and I liked
+my old boat the better and was convinced that it did not sail a bit the
+worse because it was pleasing to the eye.
+
+We rowed away towards Imbros, and passed in our course a curious line of
+waves, which looked like a straight whirlpool, if such an epithet may be
+used; for where the mighty stream of the Dardanelles poured forth into
+the Egean Sea, the two waters did not immediately mix together, but
+rolled the one over the other in a long line which seemed as if it would
+suck down into its snaky vortex anything which approached it. It was not
+dangerous, however, for we rowed along it and across it; but still it
+had a look about it which made me feel rather glad than sorry when we
+had lost sight of its long, straight, curling line of waves.
+
+As I sat in my beautifully-shaped and ornamented boat, which looked like
+those represented in antique sculptures, with its high stem and lofty
+prow, I thought how little changed things were in these latitudes since
+the brave Captain Jason passed this way in the good ship Argo; and if an
+old author who wrote on the Hermetic philosophy may be taken as
+authority, that worthy's errand was much the same as mine; for he
+maintains that the golden fleece was no golden fleece at all, "for who,"
+says he, like a sensible man, "ever saw a sheep of gold?" But what Jason
+sought was a famous volume written in golden letters upon the skins of
+sheep, wherein was described the whole science of alchemy, and that the
+man who should possess himself of that inestimable volume should conquer
+the green dragon, and being able by help of the grand magisterium to
+transmute all metals, and draw from the alembic the precious drops of
+the elixir vitæ, men and nations and languages would bow down before him
+as the prince of the pleasures of this world.
+
+In the afternoon we arrived at the island of Imbros. The Turkish pilot
+would go no farther, for he said there would be a storm. I saw no
+appearance of the kind, but it was of no use talking to him; he had made
+up his mind, so we drew the boat up on the sand in a little sheltered
+bay, and making a tent of the sail, the sailors lit a fire and sat down
+and smoked their pipes with all that quietness and decorum which is so
+characteristic of their nation. I wandered about the island, but saw
+neither man nor habitation. I shot at divers rock-partridges with a
+rifle and hit none; nevertheless towards evening we cooked up a savoury
+mess, whereof the old bearded Turk and his grave crew ate also, but
+sparingly: I then curled myself up in a corner inside the boat under the
+sail, and took to reading a volume of Sir Walter Scott's poems.
+
+I was deep in his romantic legends when of a sudden there came a roar of
+thunder and such quick bright flashes of sharp lightning that the
+mountains seemed on fire. Down came the rain in waterfalls, and in went
+Walter Scott and all his chivalry into the first safe hiding-place I
+could find. The crew had got under a projecting rock, and I had the boat
+to myself; the rain did not come in much, and the rattle of the thunder
+by degrees died away among the surrounding hills. The rain continued to
+pour down steadily and the fire on the beach went out, but my berth was
+snug enough, and the dull monotonous sound of the splashing rain and the
+dashing of the breakers on the shore soon lulled me to sleep, and I was
+more comfortable than I had been the night before in the bare, empty
+house at Coom Calessi.
+
+Very early in the morning I peeped out; the rain was gone and the sun
+shone brightly; all the Turks were up smoking their eternal pipes, so I
+asked the old captain when we should be off. "There is too much wind,"
+was his laconic reply. We were in a sheltered place, so we felt no wind,
+but on the other side of a rocky headland we could see the sea running
+like a cataract towards the south, although it was as smooth as glass in
+our bay. We got through breakfast, and for the sake of the partridges I
+repented that I had brought no shot. At last the men began righting the
+boat and getting things ready, doing everything as quietly and
+deliberately as usual, and scarcely saying a word to each other. In
+course of time the captain sat himself down by the rudder, and beckoning
+to me with his hand he took the pipe out of his mouth and said "Gel"
+(come). I came, and away we went smoothly with the help of two or three
+oars till we rounded the rocky headland, and then all at once we drifted
+into the race, and began dancing, and leaping, and staggering before the
+breeze in a way I never saw before nor since. Like the goats, from whom
+this sea is said to have been named, we leaped from the summit of one
+wave to that of the next, and seemed hardly to touch the water. We had
+up a small sail, and we sat still and steady at the bottom of the
+vessel. Never had I conceived the possibility of a boat scampering along
+before the wind at such a rate as this. My man crossed himself. I looked
+up at the old pilot, but he went on quietly smoking his pipe with his
+finger on the bowl to keep the ashes from being blown away. It was a
+marvel to me with what exactness he touched the helm just at the right
+instant, for it seemed as if we had sixty narrow escapes every minute,
+but the old man did not stir an inch. Gallantly we dashed, and skipped,
+and bounded along. What a famous lively little boat it was, yet it was
+carved and gilt and as pretty as anything could be! We were soon running
+down the west coast of Lemnos, where the surf was lashing the precipice
+in fury with an angry roar that resounded far out to sea: then of a
+sudden we rounded a sharp point and shot into such smooth water so
+instantaneously that one could scarcely believe that the blue waves of
+the Holy Sea, Αγιος πελαγος, as the Greeks call it still, could be the
+same as the furious and frenzied ocean out of which we had darted like
+an arrow from a bow.
+
+We had a long row in the hot sun along the sheltered coast till we
+landed at a rotten wooden pier before the chief city or rather the dirty
+village of the Lemnians. I had a letter to a gentleman who was sent by a
+merchant of Constantinople to collect wool upon this island; so to him I
+bent my way, hooted at by some Lemnian women, the worthy descendants
+probably of those fair dames who have gained a disagreeable immortality
+by murdering their husbands. Here it was that Vulcan broke his leg, and
+no wonder, for a more barren, rocky place no one could have been kicked
+down into. My friend of the woolpacks, who was a Frenchman, was very
+kind and civil, only he had nothing to offer me beyond the bare house,
+like the consul's Jew at the Dardanelles, so I walked about and looked
+at nothing, which was all there was to see, whilst my servant hired a
+little square-rigged brig to take me next day to Mount Athos.
+
+After dinner I made inquiries of my host what he had in the way of bed.
+His answer was specific. There was no bed, no mattress, no divan; sheets
+were unknown things, and the wool he did not recommend. But at last I
+was told of a mattress which an old woman next door was possessed of,
+and which she sometimes let out to strangers; and in an evil hour I sent
+for it. That treacherous bed and its clean white coverlet will never be
+forgotten by me. I laid down upon it and in one minute was fast
+asleep--the next I started up a perfect Marsyas. Never until that day
+had I any idea of what fleas could do. So simultaneous and well
+conducted was their attack that I was bitten all over from top to toe at
+the first assault. They evidently were delighted at the unexpected
+change of diet from a grim, skinny old woman to a well-fed traveller
+fresh from the table of the embassy. I examined the white coverlet--it
+was actually brown with fleas. I threw away my clothes, and taking
+desperate measures to get rid of some myriads of my assailants, I ran
+out of the room and put on a dressing-gown in the outer hall, at the
+window of which I sat down to cool the fever of my blood. I half
+expected to see the fleas open the door and march in after me, as the
+rats did after Bishop Hatto on his island in the Rhine; but fortunately
+the villains did not venture to leave their mattress. There I sat,
+fanning myself in the night air and bathing my face and limbs in water
+till the sun rose, when with a doleful countenance I asked my way to a
+bath. I found one, and went into the hot inner room with nothing on but
+a towel round my waist and one on my head, as the custom is. There was
+no one else there, and when the bath man came in he started back with
+horror, for he thought I had got that most deadly kind of plague which
+breaks out in an eruption and carries off the patient in a few hours.
+When it was explained to him how I had fallen into the clutches of these
+Lemnian fleas, he proceeded to rub me and soap me according to the
+Turkish fashion, and wonderfully soothing and comforting it was.
+
+As there was a rumour of pirates in these seas, the little brig would
+not sail till night, and I passed the day dozing in the shade out of
+doors; when evening came I crept down to the port, went on board, and
+curled myself up in the hole of a cabin among ropes and sails, and went
+to sleep at once, and did not wake again till we arrived within a short
+distance of the most magnificent mountain imaginable, rising in a peak
+of white marble ten thousand feet straight out of the sea. It was a
+lovely fresh morning, so I stood with half of my body out of the
+hatchway enjoying the glorious prospect, and making my toilette with the
+deck for a dressing-table, to the great admiration of the Greek
+crew, who were a perfect contrast to my former Turkish friends, for they
+did nothing but lounge about and chatter, and give orders to each other,
+every one of them appearing unwilling to do his own share of the work.
+
+[Illustration: GREEK SAILOR.]
+
+We steered for a tall square tower which stood on a projecting marble
+rock above the calm blue sea at the S.E. corner of the peninsula; and
+rounding a small cape we turned into a beautiful little port or harbour,
+the entrance of which was commanded by this tower and by one or two
+other buildings constructed for defence at the foot of it, all in the
+Byzantine style of architecture. The quaint half-Eastern half-Norman
+architecture of the little fortress, my outlandish vessel, the brilliant
+colours of the sailors' dresses, the rich vegetation and great tufts of
+flowers which grew in crevices of the white marble, formed altogether
+one of the most picturesque scenes it was ever my good fortune to
+behold, and which I always remember with pleasure. We saw no one, but
+about a mile off there was the great monastery of St. Laura standing
+above us among the trees on the side of the mountain, and this
+delightful little bay was, as the sailors told us, the scarricatojo or
+landing-place for pilgrims who were going to the monastery.
+
+We paid off the vessel, and my things were landed on the beach. It was
+not an operation of much labour, for my effects consisted principally of
+an enormous pair of saddle-bags, made of a sort of carpet, and which
+are called khourges, and are carried by the camels in Arabia; but there
+was at present mighty little in them: nevertheless, light as they were,
+their appearance would have excited a feeling of consternation in the
+mind of the most phlegmatic mule. After a brisk chatter on the part of
+the whole crew, who, with abundance of gesticulations, all talked at
+once, they got on board, and towing the vessel out by means of an
+exceeding small boat, set sail, and left me and my man and the
+saddle-bags high and dry upon the shore. We were somewhat taken by
+surprise at this sudden departure of our marine, so we sat upon two
+stones for a while to think about it. "Well," said I, "we are at Mount
+Athos; so suppose you walk up to the monastery, and get some mules or
+monks, or something or other to carry up the saddle-bags. Tell them the
+celebrated Milordos Inglesis, the friend of the Universal Patriarch, is
+arrived, and that he kindly intends to visit their monastery; and that
+he is a great ally of the Sultan's, and of all the captains of all the
+men of war that come down the Archipelago: and," added I, "make haste
+now, and let us be up at the monastery lest our friends in the brig
+there should take it into their heads to come back and cut our throats."
+
+Away he went, and I and the saddle-bags remained below. For some time I
+solaced myself by throwing stones into the water, and then I walked up
+the path to look about me, and found a red mulberry-tree with fine ripe
+mulberries on it, of which I ate a prodigious number in order to pass
+away the time. As I was studying the Byzantine tower, I thought I saw
+something peeping out of a loophole near the top of it, and, on looking
+more attentively, I saw it was the head of an old man with a long grey
+beard, who was gazing cautiously at me. I shouted out at the top of my
+voice, "Kalemera sas, ariste, kalemera sas (good day to you, sir); ora
+kali sas (good morning to you); του δἁπομειβομενος;" he answered in
+return, "Kalos orizete?" (how do you do?) So I went up to the tower,
+passed over a plank that served as a drawbridge across a chasm, and at
+the door of a wall which surrounded the lower buildings stood a little
+old monk, the same who had been peeping out of the loophole above. He
+took me into his castle, where he seemed to be living all alone in a
+Byzantine lean-to at the foot of the tower, the window of his room
+looking over the port beneath. This room had numerous pegs in the wall,
+on which were hung dried herbs and simples; one or two great jars stood
+in the corner, and these and a small divan formed all his household
+furniture. We began to talk in Romaic, but I was not very strong in that
+language, and presently stuck fast. He showed me over the tower, which
+contained several groined vaulted rooms one above another, all empty.
+From the top there was a glorious view of the islands and the sea.
+Thought I to myself, this is a real, genuine, unsophisticated live
+hermit; he is not stuffed like the hermit at Vauxhall, nor made up of
+beard and blankets like those on the stage; he is a genuine specimen of
+an almost extinct race. What would not Walter Scott have given for him?
+The aspect of my host and his Byzantine tower savoured so completely of
+the days of the twelfth century, that I seemed to have entered another
+world, and should hardly have been surprised if a crusader in
+chain-armour had entered the room and knelt down before the hermit's
+feet The poor old hermit observing me looking about at all his goods and
+chattels, got up on his divan, and from a shelf reached down a large
+rosy apple, which he presented to me; it was evidently the best thing he
+had, and I was touched when he gave it to me. I took a great bite: it
+was very sour indeed; but what was to be done? I could not bear to vex
+the old man, so I went on eating a great deal of it, although it brought
+the tears into my eyes.
+
+We now heard a holloing and shouting, which portended the arrival of the
+mules, and, bidding adieu to the old hermit of the tower, I mounted a
+mule; the others were lightly loaded with my effects, and we scrambled
+up a steep rocky path through a thicket of odoriferous evergreen shrubs,
+our progress being assisted by the screams and bangs inflicted by
+several stout acolytes, a sort of lay-brethren, who came down with the
+animals from the convent.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+
+     Monastery of St. Laura--Kind Reception by the Abbot--Astonishment
+     of the Monks--History of the Monastery--Rules of the Order of St.
+     Basil--Description of the Buildings--Curious Pictures of the Last
+     Judgment--Early Greek Paintings; Richness of their Frames and
+     Decorations--Ancient Church Plate--Beautiful Reliquary--The
+     Refectory--The Abbot's Savoury Dish--The Library--The MSS.--Ride to
+     the Monastery of Caracalla--Magnificent Scenery.
+
+
+We soon emerged upon a flat piece of ground, and there before us stood
+the great monastery of
+
+ST. LAURA.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+It appeared like an ancient fortress, surrounded with high blank walls,
+over the tops of which were seen numerous domes and pinnacles, and
+odd-shaped roofs and cypress-trees, all jumbled together. In some places
+one of those projecting windows, which are called shahneshin at
+Constantinople, stood out from the great encircling wall at a
+considerable height above the ground; and in front of the entrance was a
+porch in the Byzantine style, consisting of four marble columns,
+supporting a dome; in this porch stood the agoumenos, backed by a great
+many of the brethren. My servant had, doubtless, told him what an
+extraordinarily great personage he was to expect, for he received me
+with great deference; and after the usual bows and compliments the dark
+train of Greek monks filed in through the outer and two inner iron
+gates, in a sort of procession, with which goodly company I proceeded to
+the church, which stood in the middle of the great court-yard. We went
+up to the screen of the altar, and there everybody made bows, and said
+"Kyrie eleison," which they repeated as quickly and in as high a key as
+they could. We then came out of the church, and the agoumenos, taking me
+by the hand, led me up divers dark wooden staircases, until we came into
+a large cheerful room well furnished in the Turkish style, and having
+one of the projecting windows which I had seen from the outside. In this
+room, which the agoumenos told me I was to consider as my own, we had
+coffee. I then presented the letter of the patriarch; he read it with
+great respect, and said I was welcome to remain in the monastery as long
+as I liked; and after various compliments given and received he left me;
+and I found myself comfortably installed in one of the grand--and, as
+yet, unexplored--monasteries of the famous sanctuary of Mount Athos:
+better known in the Levant by the appellation of Αγιον Ορος, or, as the
+Italian hath it, Monte Santo.
+
+Before long I received visits from divers holy brethren, being those who
+held offices in the monastery under my lord the agoumenos, and there was
+no end to the civilities which passed between us. At last they all
+departed, and towards evening I went out and walked about; those monks
+whom I met either opening their eyes and mouths, and standing still, or
+else bowing profoundly and going through the whole series of
+gesticulations which are practised towards persons of superior rank; for
+the poor monks never having seen a stranger before, or at least a Frank,
+did not know what to make of me, and according to their various degrees
+of intellect treated me with respect or astonishment. But Greek monks
+are not so ill-mannered as an English mob, and therefore they did not
+run after me, but only stared and crossed themselves as the unknown
+animal passed by.
+
+I will now, from the information I received from the monks and my own
+observation, give the best account I can of this extensive and curious
+monastery. It was founded by an Emperor Nicephorus, but what particular
+Nicephorus he was nobody knew. Nicephorus, the treasurer, got into
+trouble with Charlemagne on one side, and Haroun al Raschid on the
+other, and was killed by the Bulgarians in 811. Nicephorus Phocas was a
+great captain, a mighty man of valour; who fought with everybody, and
+frightened the Caliph at the gates of Bagdad, but did good to no one;
+and at length became so disagreeable that his wife had him murdered in
+969. Nicephorus Botoniates, by the help of Alexius Comnenus, caught and
+put out the eyes of his rival Nicephorus Bryennius, whose son married
+that celebrated blue-stocking Anna Comnena. However, Nicephorus
+Botoniates having quarrelled with Alexius Comnenus, that great man
+kicked him out and reigned in his stead, and Botoniates took refuge in
+this monastery, which, as I make out, he had founded some time before.
+He came here about the year 1081, and took the vows of a kaloyeri, or
+Greek monk.
+
+[Illustration: staff, πατρηζα]
+
+This word kaloyeri means a good old man. All the monks of Mount Athos
+follow the rule of St. Basil: indeed, all Greek monks are of this order.
+They are ascetics, and their discipline is most severe: they never eat
+meat, fish they have on feast-days; but on fast-days, which are above a
+hundred in the year, they are not allowed any animal substance or even
+oil; their prayers occupy eight hours in the day, and about two during
+the night, so that they never enjoy a real night's rest. They never sit
+down during prayer, but as the services are of extreme length they are
+allowed to rest their arms on the elbows of a sort of stalls without
+seats, which are found in all Greek churches, and at other times they
+lean on a crutch. A crutch of this kind, of silver, richly ornamented,
+forms the patriarchal staff: it is called the patritza, and answers to
+the crosier of the Roman bishops. Bells are not used to call the
+fraternity to prayers, but a long piece of board, suspended by two
+strings, is struck with a mallet. Sometimes, instead of the wooden
+board, a piece of iron, like part of the tire of a wheel, is used for
+this purpose. Bells are rung only on occasions of rejoicing, or to show
+respect to some great personage, and on the great feasts of the church.
+
+The accompanying sketches will explain the forms of the patriarchal
+staff, the board, and the iron bar.
+
+[Illustrations: τοκμακ, a hammer, in Turkish.]
+
+The latter are called in Romaic σημανδρος, a word derived from
+σημασοκτουμαι, to gather together.
+
+According to Johannes Comnenus, who visited Mount Athos in 1701, and
+whose works are quoted in Montfaucon, 'Paleographia Græca,' page 452,
+St. Laura was founded by Nicephorus Phocas, and restored by Neagulus,
+Waywode of Bessarabia. The buildings consist of a thick and lofty wall
+of stone, which encompasses an irregular space of ground of between
+three and four acres in extent; there is only one entrance, a crooked
+passage defended by three separate iron doors; the front of the building
+on the side of the entrance extends about five hundred feet. There is no
+attempt at external architecture, but only this plain wall; the few
+windows which look out from it belong to rooms which are built of wood
+and project over the top of the wall, being supported upon strong beams
+like brackets. At the south-west corner of the building there is a large
+square tower, which formerly contained a printing-press: but this press
+was destroyed by the Turkish soldiers during the late Greek revolution;
+and at the same time they carried off certain old cannons, which stood
+upon the battlements, but which were more for show than use, for the
+monks had never once ventured to fire them off during the long period
+they had been there; and my question, as to when they were brought there
+originally, was answered by the universal and regular answer of the
+Levant, "[Greek: ti exebzo τι εξεβζο]--Qui sa?--who knows?" The interior
+of the monastery consists of several small courts and two large open
+spaces surrounded with buildings, which have open galleries of wood or
+stone before them, by means of which entrance is gained into the various
+apartments, which now afford lodging for one hundred and twenty monks,
+and there is room for many more. These two large courts are built
+without any regularity, but their architecture is exceedingly curious,
+and in its style closely resembles the buildings erected in
+Constantinople between the fifth and the twelfth century: a sort of
+Byzantine, of which St. Marc's in Venice is the finest specimen in
+Europe. It bears some affinity to the Lombardic or Romanesque, only it
+is more Oriental in its style; the chapel of the ancient palace of
+Palermo is more in the style of the buildings on Mount Athos than
+anything else in Christendom that I remember; but the ceilings of that
+chapel are regularly arabesque, whereas those on Mount Athos are flat
+with painted beams, like the Italian basilicas, excepting where they are
+arched or domed; and in those cases there is little or no mosaic, but
+only coarse paintings in fresco representing saints in the conventional
+Greek style of superlative ugliness.
+
+In the centre of each of these two large courts stands a church of
+moderate size, each of which has a porch with thin marble columns before
+the door; the interior walls of the porches are covered with paintings
+of saints and also of the Last Judgment, which, indeed, is constantly
+seen in the porch of every church. In these pictures, which are often of
+immense size, the artists evidently took much more pains to represent
+the uncouthness of the devils than the beauty of the angels, who, in
+all these ancient frescos, are a very hard-favoured set. The chief devil
+is very big; he is the hero of the scene, and is always marvellously
+hideous, with a great mouth and long teeth, with which he is usually
+gnawing two or three sinners, who, to judge from the expression of his
+face, must be very nauseous articles of food. He stands up to his middle
+in a red pool which is intended for fire, and wherein numerous little
+sinners are disporting themselves like fish in all sorts of attitudes,
+but without looking at all alarmed or unhappy. On one side of the
+picture an angel is weighing a few in a pair of scales, and others are
+capering about in company with some smaller devils, who evidently lead a
+merry life of it. The souls of the blessed are seated in a row on a long
+hard bench very high up in the picture; these are all old men with
+beards; some are covered with hair, others richly clothed, anchorites
+and princes being the only persons elevated to the bench. They have good
+stout glories round their heads, which in rich churches are gilt, and in
+the poorer ones are painted yellow, and look like large straw hats.
+These personages are severe and grim of countenance, and look by no
+means comfortable or at home; they each hold a large book, and give you
+the idea that except for the honour of the thing they would be much
+happier in company with the wicked little sinners and merry imps in the
+crimson lake below. This picture of the Last Judgment is as much
+conventional as the portraits of the saints; it is almost always the
+same, and a correct representation of a part of it is to be seen in the
+last print of the rare volume of the Monte Santo di Dio, which contains
+the three earliest engravings known: it would almost appear that the
+print must have been copied from one of these ancient Greek frescos. It
+is difficult to conceive how any one, even in the dark ages, can have
+been simple enough to look upon these quaint and absurd paintings with
+feelings of religious awe; but some of the monks of the Holy Mountain do
+so even now, and were evidently scandalized when they saw me smile. This
+is, however, only one of the numberless instances in which, owing to the
+differences of education and circumstances, men look upon the same thing
+with awe or pity, with ridicule or veneration.[15]
+
+The interior of the principal church in this monastery is interesting
+from the number of early Greek pictures which it contains, and which are
+hung on the walls of the apsis behind the altar. They are almost all in
+silver frames, and are painted on wood; most of them are small, being
+not more than one or two feet square; the back-ground of all of them is
+gilt; and in many of them this back-ground is formed of plates of silver
+or gold. One small painting is ascribed to St. Luke, and several have
+the frames set with jewels, and are of great antiquity. In front of the
+altar, and suspended from the two columns nearest to the [Greek:
+ikonostasis ικονοsτασις]--the screen which, like the veil of the temple,
+conceals the holy of holies from the gaze of the profane--are two
+pictures larger than the rest: the one represents our Saviour, the other
+the Blessed Virgin. Except the faces they are entirely covered over with
+plates of silver-gilt; and the whole of both pictures, as well as their
+frames, is richly ornamented with a kind of coarse golden filigree, set
+with large turquoises, agates, and cornelians. These very curious
+productions of early art were presented to the monastery by the Emperor
+Andronicus Paleologus, whose portrait, with that of his Empress, is
+represented on the silver frame.
+
+The floor of this church, and of the one which stands in the centre of
+the other court, is paved with rich coloured marbles. The relics are
+preserved in that division of the church which is behind the altar;
+their number and value is much less than formerly, as during the
+revolution, when the Holy Mountain was under the rule of Aboulabout
+Pasha, he squeezed all he could out of the monks of this and all the
+other monasteries. However, as no Turk is a match for a Greek, they
+managed to preserve a great deal of ancient church plate, some of which
+dates as far back as the days of the Roman emperors, for few of the
+Christian successors of Constantine failed to offer some little bribe to
+the saints in order to obtain pardon for the desperate manner in which
+they passed their lives. Some of these pieces of plate are well worthy
+the attention of antiquarians, being probably the most ancient specimens
+of art in goldsmith's work now extant; and as they have remained in the
+several monasteries ever since the piety of their donors first sent them
+there, their authenticity cannot be questioned, besides which many of
+them are extremely magnificent and beautiful.
+
+The most valuable reliquary of St. Laura is a kind of triptic, about
+eighteen inches high, of pure gold, a present from the Emperor
+Nicephorus, the founder of the abbey. The front represents a pair of
+folding-doors, each set with a double row of diamonds (the most ancient
+specimens of this stone that I have seen), emeralds, pearls, and rubies
+as large as sixpences. When the doors are opened a large piece of the
+holy cross, splendidly set with jewels, is displayed in the centre, and
+the inside of the two doors and the whole surface of the reliquary are
+covered with engraved figures of the saints stuck full of precious
+stones. This beautiful shrine is of Byzantine workmanship, and, in its
+way, is a superb work of art.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The refectory of the monastery is a large square building, but the
+dining-room which it contains is in the form of a cross, about one
+hundred feet in length each way; the walls are decorated with fresco
+pictures of the saints, who vie with each other in the hard-favoured
+aspect of their bearded faces; they are tall and meagre full-length
+figures as large as life, each having his name inscribed on the picture.
+Their chief interest is in their accurate representation of the clerical
+costume. The dining-tables, twenty-four in number, are so many solid
+blocks of masonry, with heavy slabs of marble on the top; they are
+nearly semicircular in shape, with the flat side away from the wall; a
+wide marble bench runs round the circular part of them in this form. A
+row of these tables extend down each side of the hall, and at the upper
+end in a semicircular recess is a high table for the superior, who only
+dines here on great occasions. The refectory being square on the
+outside, the intermediate spaces between the arms of the cross are
+occupied by the bakehouse, and the wine, oil, and spirit cellars; for
+although the monks eat no meat, they drink famously; and the good St.
+Basil having flourished long before the age of Paracelsus, inserted
+nothing in his rules against the use of ardent spirits, whereof the
+monks imbibe a considerable quantity, chiefly bad arrack; but it does
+not seem to do them any harm, and I never heard of their overstepping
+the bounds of sobriety. Besides the two churches in the great courts,
+which are shaded by ancient cypresses, there are twenty smaller chapels,
+distributed over different parts of the monastery, in which prayers are
+said on certain days. The monks are now in a more flourishing condition
+than they have been for some years; and as they trust to the continuance
+of peace and order in the dominions of the Sultan, they are beginning to
+repair the injuries they suffered during the revolution, and there is
+altogether an air of improvement and opulence throughout the
+establishment.
+
+I wandered over the courts and galleries and chapels of this immense
+building in every direction, asking questions respecting those things
+which I did not understand, and receiving the kindest and most civil
+attention from every one. In front of the door of the largest church a
+dome, curiously painted and gilt in the interior, and supported by four
+columns, protects a fine marble vase ten feet in diameter, with a
+fountain in it; in this magnificent basin the holy water is consecrated
+with great ceremony on the feast of the Epiphany.[16]
+
+I was informed that no female animal of any sort or kind is admitted on
+any part of the peninsula of Mount Athos; and that since the days of
+Constantine the soil of the Holy Mountain had never been contaminated by
+the tread of a woman's foot. That this rigid law is infringed by certain
+small and active creatures who have the audacity to bring their wives
+and large families within the very precincts of the monastery I soon
+discovered to my sorrow, and heartily regretted that the stern monastic
+law was not more rigidly enforced; nevertheless, I slept well on my
+divan, and the next morning at sunrise received a visit from the
+agoumenos, who came to wish me good day. After some conversation on
+other matters, I inquired about the library, and asked permission to
+view its contents. The agoumenos declared his willingness to show me
+everything that the monastery contained. "But first," said he, "I wish
+to present you with something excellent for your breakfast; and from
+the special good will that I bear towards so distinguished a guest I
+shall prepare it with my own hands, and will stay to see you eat it; for
+it is really an admirable dish, and one not presented to all persons."
+"Well," thought I, "a good breakfast is not a bad thing;" and the fresh
+mountain-air and the good night's rest had given me an appetite; so I
+expressed my thanks for the kind hospitality of my lord abbot, and he,
+sitting down opposite to me on the divan, proceeded to prepare his dish.
+"This," said he, producing a shallow basin half-full of a white paste,
+"is the principal and most savoury part of this famous dish; it is
+composed of cloves of garlic, pounded down, with a certain quantity of
+sugar. With it I will now mix the oil in just proportions, some shreds
+of fine cheese [it seemed to be of the white acid kind, which resembles
+what is called caccia cavallo in the south of Italy, and which almost
+takes the skin off your fingers, I believe] and sundry other nice little
+condiments, and now it is completed!" He stirred the savoury mess round
+and round with a large wooden spoon until it sent forth over room and
+passage and cell, over hill and valley, an aroma which is not to be
+described. "Now," said the agoumenos, crumbling some bread into it with
+his large and somewhat dirty hands, "this is a dish for an emperor! Eat,
+my friend, my much-respected guest; do not be shy. Eat; and when you
+have finished the bowl you shall go into the library and anywhere else
+you like; but you shall go nowhere till I have had the pleasure of
+seeing you do justice to this delicious food, which, I can assure you,
+you will not meet with everywhere."
+
+I was sorely troubled in spirit. Who could have expected so dreadful a
+martyrdom as this? The sour apple of the hermit down below was
+nothing--a trifle in comparison! Was ever an unfortunate bibliomaniac
+dosed with such a medicine before? It would have been enough to have
+cured the whole Roxburghe Club from meddling with libraries and books
+for ever and ever. I made every endeavour to escape this honour. "My
+Lord," said I, "it is a fast; I cannot this morning do justice to this
+delicious viand; it is a fast; I am under a vow. Englishmen must not eat
+that dish in this month. It would be wrong; my conscience won't permit
+it, though the odour certainly is most wonderful! Truly an astonishing
+savour! Let me see you eat it, O agoumenos!" continued I; "for behold, I
+am unworthy of anything so good." "Excellent and virtuous young man!"
+said the agoumenos, "no, I will not eat it. I will not deprive you of
+this treat. Eat it in peace; for know, that to travellers all such vows
+are set aside. On a journey it is permitted to eat all that is set
+before you, unless it is meat that is offered to idols. I admire your
+scruples: but be not afraid, it is lawful. Take it, my honoured friend,
+and eat it: eat it all, and then we will go into the library." He put
+the bowl into one of my hands and the great wooden spoon into the other:
+and in desperation I took a gulp, the recollection of which still makes
+me tremble. What was to be done? Another mouthful was an impossibility:
+not all my ardour in the pursuit of manuscripts could give me the
+necessary courage. I was overcome with sorrow and despair. My servant
+saved me at last: he said "that English gentlemen never ate such rich
+dishes for breakfast, from religious feelings, he believed; but he
+requested that it might be put by, and he was sure I should like it very
+much later in the day." The agoumenos looked vexed, but he applauded my
+principles; and just then the board sounded for church. "I must be off,
+excellent and worthy English lord," said he; "I will take you to the
+library, and leave you the key. Excuse my attendance on you there, for
+my presence is required in the church." So I got off better than I
+expected; but the taste of that ladleful stuck to me for days. I
+followed the good agoumenos to the library, where he left me to my own
+devices.
+
+The library is contained in two small rooms looking into a narrow court,
+which is situated to the left of the great court of entrance. One room
+leads to the other, and the books are disposed on shelves in tolerable
+order, but the dust on their venerable heads had not been disturbed for
+many years, and it took me some time to make out what they were, for in
+old Greek libraries few volumes have any title written on the back. I
+made out that there were in all about five thousand volumes, a very
+large collection, of which about four thousand were printed books; these
+were mostly divinity, but among them there were several fine Aldine
+classics and the editio princeps of the Anthologia in capital letters.
+
+The nine hundred manuscripts consisted of six hundred volumes written
+upon paper and three hundred on vellum. With the exception of four
+volumes, the former were all divinity, principally liturgies and books
+of prayer. Those four volumes were Homer's 'Iliad' and Hesiod, neither
+of which were very old, and two curious and rather early manuscripts on
+botany, full of rudely drawn figures of herbs. These were probably the
+works of Dioscorides; they were not in good condition, having been much
+studied by the monks in former days: they were large, thick quartos.
+Among the three hundred manuscripts on vellum there were many large
+folios of the works of St. Chrysostom and other Greek fathers of the
+church of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and about fifty copies of
+the Gospels and the Evangelistarium of nearly the same age. One
+Evangelistarium was in fine uncial letters of the ninth century; it was
+a thick quarto, and on the first leaf was an illumination the whole size
+of the page on a gold background, representing the donor of the book
+accompanied by his wife. This ancient portrait was covered over with a
+piece of gauze. It was a very remarkable manuscript. There were one
+quarto and one duodecimo of the Acts, Epistles, and Apocalypse of the
+eleventh century, and one folio of the book of Job, which had several
+miniatures in it badly executed in brilliant colours; this was probably
+of the twelfth century. These three manuscripts were such volumes as are
+not often seen in European libraries. All the rest were anthologia and
+books of prayer, nor did I meet with one single leaf of a classic author
+on vellum. I went into the library several times, and looked over all
+the vellum manuscripts very carefully, and I believe that I did not pass
+by unnoticed anything which was particularly interesting in point of
+subject, antiquity, or illumination. Several of the copies of the
+Gospels had their titles ornamented with arabesques, but none struck me
+as being peculiarly valuable.
+
+The twenty-one monasteries of Mount Athos are subjected to different
+regulations. In some the property is at the absolute disposal of the
+agoumenos for the time being, but in the larger establishments (and St.
+Laura is the second in point of consequence) everything belongs to the
+monks in common. Such being the case, it was hopeless to expect, in so
+large a community, that the brethren should agree to part with any of
+their valuables. Indeed, as soon as I found out how affairs stood within
+the walls of St. Laura, I did not attempt to purchase anything, as it
+was not advisable to excite the curiosity of the monks upon the subject;
+nor did I wish that the report should be circulated in the other
+convents that I was come to Mount Athos for the purpose of rifling their
+libraries.
+
+I remained at St. Laura three days, and on a beautiful fresh morning,
+being provided by the monks with mules and a guide, I left the good
+agoumenos and sallied forth through the three iron gates on my way to
+the monastery of Caracalla. Our road lay through some of the most
+beautiful scenery imaginable. The dark blue sea was on my right at about
+two miles distance; the rocky path over which I passed was of white
+alabaster with brown and yellow veins; odoriferous evergreen shrubs were
+all around me; and on my left were the lofty hills covered with a dense
+forest of gigantic trees, which extended to the base of the great white
+marble peak of the mountain. Between our path and the sea there was a
+succession of narrow valleys and gorges, each one more picturesque than
+the other; sometimes we were enclosed by high and dense bushes;
+sometimes we opened upon forest glades, and every here and there we came
+upon long and narrow ledges of rock. On one of the narrowest and
+loftiest of these, as I was trotting merrily along thinking of nothing
+but the beauty of the hour and the scene, my mule stopped short in a
+place where the path was about a foot wide, and, standing upon three
+legs, proceeded deliberately to scratch his nose with the fourth. I was
+too old a mountain traveller to have hold of the bridle, which was
+safely belayed to the pack-saddle; I sat still for fear of making him
+lose his balance, and waited in very considerable trepidation until the
+mule had done scratching his nose. I was at the time half inclined to
+think that he knew he had a heretic upon his back, and had made up his
+mind to send me and himself smashing down among the distant rocks. If
+so, however, he thought better of it, and before long, to my great
+contentment, we came to a place where the road had two sides to it
+instead of one, and after a ride of five hours we arrived before the
+tall square tower which frowns over the gateway of the monastery of
+Caracalla.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+
+     The Monastery of Caracalla--Its beautiful Situation--Hospitable
+     Reception--Description of the Monastery--Legend of its
+     Foundation--The Church--Fine Specimens of Ancient Jewellery--The
+     Library--The Value attached to the Books by the Abbot--He agrees to
+     sell some of the MSS.--Monastery of Philotheo--The Great Monastery
+     of Iveron--History of its Foundation--Its Magnificent
+     Library--Ignorance of the Monks--Superb MSS.--The Monks refute to
+     part with any of the MSS.--Beauty of the Scenery of Mount Athos.
+
+
+The monastery of CARACALLA is not so large as St. Laura, and in many
+points resembles an ancient Gothic castle. It is beautifully situated on
+a promontory of rock two miles from the sea, and viewed from the lofty
+ground by which we approached it, the buildings had a most striking
+effect, with the dark blue sea for a background and the lofty rock of
+Samotraki looming in the distance, whilst the still more remote
+mountains of Roumelia closed in the picture. As for the island of
+Samotraki, it must have been created solely for the benefit of artists
+and admirers of the picturesque, for it is fit for nothing else. It is
+high and barren, a congeries of gigantic precipices and ridges. I
+suppose one can land upon it somewhere, for people live on it who are
+said to be arrant pirates; but as one passes by it at sea, its
+interminable ribs of grey rock, with the waves lashing against them,
+are dreary-looking in the extreme; and it is only when far distant that
+it becomes a beautiful object.
+
+I sent in my servant as ambassador to explain that the first cousin,
+once removed, of the Emperor of all the Franks was at the gate, and to
+show the letter of the Greek patriarch. Incontinently the agoumenos made
+his appearance at the porch with many expressions of welcome and
+goodwill. I believe it was longer than the days of his life since a
+Frank had entered the convent, and I doubt whether he had ever seen one
+before, for he looked so disappointed when he found that I had no tail
+or horns, and barring his glorious long beard, that I was so little
+different from himself. We made many speeches to each other, he in
+heathen Greek and I in English, seasoned with innumerable bows,
+gesticulations, and téménah; after which I jumped off my mule and we
+entered the precincts of the monastery, attended by a long train of
+bearded fathers who came out to stare at me.
+
+The monastery of Caracalla covers about one acre of ground; it is
+surrounded with a high strong wall, over which appear roofs and domes;
+and on the left of the great square tower, near the gate, a range of
+rooms, built of wood, project over the battlements as at the monastery
+of St Laura. Within is a large irregular court-yard, in the centre of
+which stands the church, and several little chapels or rooms fitted up
+as places of worship are scattered about in different parts of the
+building among the chambers inhabited by the monks. I found that this
+was the uniform arrangement in all the monasteries of Mount Athos and in
+nearly all Greek monasteries in the Levant. This monastery was founded
+by Caracallos, a Roman: who he was, or when he lived, I do not know; but
+from its appearance this must be a very ancient establishment. By Roman,
+perhaps, is meant Greek, for Greece is called Roumeli to this day; and
+the Constantinopolitans called themselves Romans in the old time, as in
+Persia and Koordistan the Sultan is called Roomi Padischah, the Roman
+Emperor, by those whose education and general attainments enable them to
+make mention of so distant and mysterious a potentate. Afterwards
+Petrus, Authentes or Waywode of Moldavia, sent his protospaithaire, that
+is his chief swordsman or commander-in-chief, to found a monastery on
+the Holy Mountain, and supplied him with a sum of money for the purpose;
+but the chief swordsman, after expending a very trivial portion of it in
+building a small tower on the sea-shore, pocketed the rest and returned
+to court. The waywode having found out what he had been at, ordered his
+head to be cut off; but he prayed so earnestly to be allowed to keep his
+head and rebuild the monastery of Caracalla out of his own money, that
+his master consented. The new church was dedicated to St. Peter and St.
+Paul, and ultimately the ex-chief swordsman prevailed upon the waywode
+to come to Caracalla and take the vows. They both assumed the same name
+of Pachomius, and died in the odour of sanctity. All this, and many more
+legends, was I told by the worthy agoumenos, who was altogether a most
+excellent person; but he had an unfortunate habit of selecting the most
+windy places for detailing them, an open archway, the top of an external
+staircase, or the parapet of a tower, until at last he chilled my
+curiosity down to zero. In all his words and acts he constantly referred
+to brother Joasaph, the second in command, to whose superior wisdom he
+always seemed to bow, and who was quite the right-hand man of the abbot.
+
+My friend first took me to the church, which is of moderate size, the
+walls ornamented with stiff fresco pictures of the saints, none of them
+certainly later than the twelfth century, and some probably very much
+earlier. There were some relics, but the silver shrines containing them
+were not remarkable for richness or antiquity. On the altar there were
+two very remarkable crosses, each of them about six or eight inches
+long, of carved wood set in gold and jewels of very early and beautiful
+workmanship; one of them in particular, which was presented to the
+church by the Emperor John Zimisces, was a most curious specimen of
+ancient jewellery.
+
+This monastery is one of those over which the agoumenos has absolute
+control, and he was then repairing one side of the court and rebuilding
+a set of rooms which had been destroyed during the Greek war.
+
+The library I found to be a dark closet near the entrance of the church;
+it had been locked up for many years, but the agoumenos made no
+difficulty in breaking the old-fashioned padlock by which the door was
+fastened. I found upon the ground and upon some broken-down shelves
+about four or five hundred volumes, chiefly printed books; but amongst
+them, every now and then, I stumbled upon a manuscript: of these there
+were about thirty on vellum and fifty or sixty on paper. I picked up a
+single loose leaf of very ancient uncial Greek characters, part of the
+Gospel of St. Matthew, written in small square letters and of small
+quarto size. I searched in vain for the volume to which this leaf
+belonged.
+
+As I had found it impossible to purchase any manuscripts at St. Laura, I
+feared that the same would be the case in other monasteries; however, I
+made bold to ask for this single leaf as a thing of small value.
+
+"Certainly!" said the agoumenos, "what do you want it for?"
+
+My servant suggested that, perhaps, it might be useful to cover some jam
+pots or vases of preserves which I had at home.
+
+"Oh!" said the agoumenos, "take some more;" and, without more ado, he
+seized upon an unfortunate thick quarto manuscript of the Acts and
+Epistles, and drawing out a knife cut out an inch thickness of leaves at
+the end before I could stop him. It proved to be the Apocalypse, which
+concluded the volume, but which is rarely found in early Greek
+manuscripts of the Acts: it was of the eleventh century. I ought,
+perhaps, to have slain the _tomecide_ for his dreadful act of
+profanation, but his generosity reconciled me to his guilt, so I
+pocketed the Apocalypse, and asked him if he would sell me any of the
+other books, as he did not appear to set any particular value upon them.
+
+"Malista, certainly," he replied; "how many will you have? They are of
+no use to me, and as I am in want of money to complete my buildings I
+shall be very glad to turn them to some account."
+
+After a good deal of conversation, finding the agoumenos so
+accommodating, and so desirous to part with the contents of his dark and
+dusty closet, I arranged that I would leave him for the present, and
+after I had made the tour of the other monasteries, would return to
+Caracalla, and take up my abode there until I could hire a vessel, or
+make some other arrangements for my return to Constantinople.
+Satisfactory as this arrangement was, I nevertheless resolved to make
+sure of what I had already got, so I packed them up carefully in the
+great saddlebags, to my extreme delight. The agoumenos kindly furnished
+me with fresh mules, and in the afternoon I proceeded to the monastery
+of
+
+PHILOTHEO,
+
+which is only an hour's ride from Caracalla, and stands in a little
+field surrounded by the forest. It is distant from the sea about four
+miles, and is protected, like all the others, by a high stone wall
+surrounding the whole of the building. The church is curious and
+interesting; it is ornamented with representations of saints, and holy
+men in fresco, upon the walls of the interior and in the porch. I could
+not make out when it was built, but probably before the twelfth century.
+Arsenius, Philotheus, and Dionysius were the founders, but who they were
+did not appear. The monastery was repaired, and the refectory enlarged
+and painted, in the year 1492, by Leontius, ο βασιλευς Καχετιου, and his
+son Alexander. I was shown the reliquaries, but they were not
+remarkable. The monks said they had no library; and there being nothing
+of interest in the monastery, I determined to go on. Indeed the
+expression of the faces of some of these monks was so unprepossessing,
+and their manners so rude, although not absolutely uncivil, that I did
+not feel any particular inclination to remain amongst them, so leaving a
+small donation for the church, I mounted my mule and proceeded on my
+journey.
+
+In half an hour I came to a beautiful waterfall in a rocky glen
+embosomed in trees and odoriferous shrubs, the rocks being of white
+marble, and the flowers such as we cherish in greenhouses in England. I
+do not know that I ever saw a more charmingly romantic spot. Another
+hour brought us to the great monastery of
+
+IVERON, or IBERON,
+
+(the Georgian, or Iberian, Monastery.)
+
+This monastic establishment is of great size. It is larger than St.
+Laura, and might almost be denominated a small fortified town, so
+numerous are the buildings and courts which are contained within its
+encircling wall. It is situated near the sea, and in its general form is
+nearly square, with four or five square towers projecting from the
+walls. On each of the four sides there are rooms for above two hundred
+monks. I did not learn precisely how many were then inhabiting it, but I
+should imagine there were above a hundred. As, however, many of the
+members of all the religious communities on Mount Athos are employed in
+cultivating the numerous farms which they possess, it is probable that
+not more than one-half of the monks are in residence at any one time.
+
+This monastery was founded by Theophania (Theodora?), wife of the
+Emperor Romanus, the son of Leo Sophos,[17] or the Philosopher, between
+the years 919 and 922. It was restored by a Prince of Georgia or
+Iberia, and enlarged by his son, a caloyer. The church is dedicated to
+the "repose of the Virgin." It has four or five domes, and is of
+considerable size, standing by itself, as usual, in the centre of the
+great court, and is ornamented with columns and other decorations of
+rich marbles, together with the usual fresco paintings on the walls.
+
+The library is a remarkably fine one, perhaps altogether the most
+precious of all those which now remain on the holy mountain. It is
+situated over the porch of the church, which appears to be the usual
+place where the books are kept in these establishments. The room is of
+good size, well fitted up with bookcases with glass doors, of not very
+old workmanship. I should imagine that about a hundred years ago, some
+agoumenos, or prior, or librarian, must have been a reading man; and the
+pious care which he took to arrange the ancient volumes of the monastery
+has been rewarded by the excellent state of preservation in which they
+still remain. Since his time, they have probably remained undisturbed.
+Every one could see through the greenish uneven panes of old glass that
+there was nothing but books inside, and therefore nobody meddled with
+them. I was allowed to rummage at my leisure in this mine of
+archæological treasure. Having taken up my abode for the time being in a
+cheerful room, the windows of which commanded a glorious prospect, I
+soon made friends with the literary portion of the community, which
+consisted of one thin old monk, a cleverish man, who united to many
+other offices that of librarian. He was also secretary to my lord the
+agoumenos, a kind-hearted old gentleman, who seemed to wish everybody
+well, and who evidently liked much better to sit still on his divan than
+to regulate the affairs of his convent. The rents, the long lists of
+tuns of wine and oil, the strings of mules laden with corn, which came
+in daily from the farms, and all the other complicated details of this
+mighty cœenobium,--over all these, and numberless other important
+matters, the thin secretary had full control.
+
+Some of the young monks, demure fat youths, came into the library every
+now and then, and wondered what I could be doing there, looking over so
+many books; and they would take a volume out of my hand when I had done
+with it, and, glancing their eyes over its ancient vellum leaves, would
+look up inquiringly into my face, saying, "[Greek: ti ene τι ενε]?--what
+is it?--what can be the use of looking at such old books as these?" They
+were rather in awe of the secretary, who was evidently, in their
+opinion, a prodigy of learning and erudition. Some, in a low voice, that
+they might not be overheard by the wise man, asked me where I came from,
+how old I was, and whether my father was with me; but they soon all went
+away, and I turned to, in right good earnest, to look for uncial
+manuscripts and unknown classic authors. Of these last there was not
+one on vellum, but on paper there was an octavo manuscript of Sophocles,
+and a Coptic Psaltery with an Arabic translation--a curious book to meet
+with on Mount Athos. Of printed books there were, I should think, about
+five thousand--of manuscripts on paper, about two thousand; but all
+religious works of various kinds. There were nearly a thousand
+manuscripts on vellum, and these I looked over more carefully than the
+rest. About one hundred of them were in the Iberian language: they were
+mostly immense thick quartos, some of them not less than eighteen inches
+square, and from four to six inches thick. One of these, bound in wooden
+boards, and written in large uncial letters, was a magnificent old
+volume. Indeed all these Iberian or Georgian manuscripts were superb
+specimens of ancient books. I was unable to read them, and therefore
+cannot say what they were; but I should imagine that they were church
+books, and probably of high antiquity. Among the Greek manuscripts,
+which were principally of the eleventh and twelfth centuries--works of
+St. Chrysostom, St. Basil, and books for the services of the ritual--I
+discovered the following, which are deserving of especial mention:--A
+large folio Evangelistarium bound in red velvet, about eighteen inches
+high and three thick, written in magnificent uncial letters half an inch
+long, or even more. Three of the illuminations were the whole size of
+the page, and might almost be termed pictures from their large
+proportions: and there were several other illuminations of smaller size
+in different parts of the book. This superb manuscript was in admirable
+preservation, and as clean as if it had been new. It had evidently been
+kept with great care, and appeared to have had some clasps or ornaments
+of gold or silver which had been torn off. It was probably owing to the
+original splendour of this binding that the volume itself had been so
+carefully preserved. I imagine it was written in the ninth century.
+
+Another book, of a much greater age, was a copy of the four Gospels,
+with four finely-executed miniatures of the evangelists. It was about
+nine or ten inches square, written in round semiuncial letters in double
+columns, with not more than two or three words in a line. In some
+respects it resembled the book of the Epistles in the Bodleian Library
+at Oxford. This manuscript, in the original black leather binding, had
+every appearance of the highest antiquity. It was beautifully written
+and very clean, and was altogether such a volume as is not to be met
+with every day.
+
+A quarto manuscript of the four Gospels, of the eleventh or twelfth
+century, with a great many (perhaps fifty) illuminations. Some of them
+were unfortunately rather damaged.
+
+Two manuscripts of the New Testament, with the Apocalypse.
+
+A very fine manuscript of the Psalms, of the eleventh century, which is
+indeed about the era of the greater portion of the vellum manuscripts on
+Mount Athos.
+
+There were also some ponderous and magnificent folios of the works of
+the fathers of the Church--some of them, I should think, of the tenth
+century; but it is difficult, in a few hours, to detect the
+peculiarities which prove that manuscripts are of an earlier date than
+the twelfth century. I am, however, convinced that very few of them were
+written after that time.
+
+The paper manuscripts were of all ages, from the thirteenth and
+fifteenth centuries down to a hundred years ago; and some of them, on
+charta bombycina, would have appeared very splendid books if they had
+not been eclipsed by the still finer and more carefully-executed
+manuscripts on vellum.
+
+Neither my arguments nor my eloquence could prevail on the obdurate
+monks to sell me any of these books, but my friend the secretary gave me
+a book in his own handwriting to solace me on my journey. It contained a
+history of the monastery from the days of its foundation to the present
+time. It is written in Romaic, and is curious not so much from its
+subject matter as from the entire originality of its style and manner.
+
+The view from the window of the room which I occupied at Iveron was one
+of the finest on Mount Athos. The glorious sea, and the towers which
+command the scaricatojos or landing-places of the different monasteries
+along the coast, and the superb monastery of Stavroniketa like a Gothic
+castle perched upon a beetling rock, with the splendid forest for a
+background, formed altogether a picture totally above my powers to
+describe. It almost compensated for the numberless tribes of vermin by
+which the room was tenanted. In fact, the whole of the scenery on Mount
+Athos is so superlatively grand and beautiful that it is useless to
+attempt any description.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+
+     The Monastery of Stavroniketa--The Library--Splendid MS. of St.
+     Chrysostom--The Monastery of Pantocratoras--Ruinous Condition of
+     the Library--Complete Destruction of the
+     Books--Disappointment--Oration to the Monks--The Great Monastery of
+     Vatopede--Its History--Ancient Pictures in the Church--Legend of
+     the Girdle of the Blessed Virgin--The Library--Wealth and Luxury of
+     the Monks--The Monastery of Sphigmenou--Beautiful Jewelled
+     Cross--The Monastery of Kiliantari--Magnificent MS. in Gold Letters
+     on White Vellum--The Monasteries of Zographon, Castamoneta,
+     Docheirou, and Xenophou--The Exiled Bishops--The Library--Very fine
+     MSS.--Proposals for their Purchase--Lengthened Negotiations--Their
+     successful Issue.
+
+
+An hour's ride brought us to the monastery of
+
+STAVRONIKETA,
+
+which is a smaller building than Iveron, with a square tower over the
+gateway. It stands on a rock overhanging the sea, against the base of
+which the waves ceaselessly beat. It was to this spot that a miraculous
+picture of St Nicholas, archbishop of Myra in Lycia, floated over, of
+its own accord, from I do not know where; and in consequence of this
+auspicious event, Jeremias, patriarch of Constantinople, founded this
+monastery, of "the victory of the holy cross," about the year 1522. This
+is the account given by the monks; but from the appearance and
+architecture of Stavroniketa, I conceive that it is a much older
+building, and that probably the patriarch Jeremias only repaired or
+restored it. However that may be, the monastery is in very good order,
+clean, and well kept; and I had a comfortable frugal dinner there with
+some of the good old monks, who seemed a cheerful and contented set.
+
+The library contained about eight hundred volumes, of which nearly two
+hundred were manuscripts on vellum. Amongst these were conspicuous the
+entire works of St. Chrysostom, in eight large folio volumes complete;
+and a manuscript of the Scala Perfectionis in Greek, containing a number
+of most exquisite miniatures in a brilliant state of preservation. It
+was a quarto of the tenth or eleventh century, and a most
+unexceptionable tome, which these unkind monks preferred keeping to
+themselves instead of letting me have it, as they ought to have done.
+The miniatures were first-rate works of Byzantine art. It was a terrible
+pang to me to leave such a book behind. There were also a Psalter with
+several miniatures, but these were partially damaged; five or six copies
+of the Gospels; two fine folio volumes of the Menologia, or Lives of the
+Saints; and sundry ομοιλογο and books of divinity,
+and the works of the fathers. On paper there were two hundred more
+manuscripts, amongst which was a curious one of the Acts and Epistles,
+full of large miniatures and illuminations exceedingly well done. As it
+is quite clear that all these manuscripts are older than the time of the
+patriarch Jeremias, they confirm my opinion that he could not have been
+the original founder of the monastery.
+
+It is an hour's scramble over the rocks from Stavroniketa to the
+monastery of
+
+PANTOCRATORAS.
+
+This edifice was built by Manuel and Alexius Comnenus, and Johannes
+Pumicerius, their brother. It was subsequently repaired by Barbulus and
+Gabriel, two Wallachian nobles. The church is handsome and curious, and
+contains several relics, but the reliquaries are not of much beauty, nor
+of very great antiquity. Among them, however, is a small thick quarto
+volume about five inches square every way, in the handwriting, as you
+are told, of St. John of Kalavita. Now St. John of Kalavita was a hermit
+who died in the year 450, and his head is shown at Besançon, in the
+church of St. Stephen, to which place it was taken after the siege of
+Constantinople. Howbeit this manuscript did not seem to me to be older
+than the twelfth century, or the eleventh at the earliest It is written
+in a very minute hand, and contains the Gospels, some prayers, and lives
+of saints, and is ornamented with some small illuminations. The binding
+is very curious: it is entirely of silver gilt, and is of great
+antiquity. The back part is composed of an intricate kind of chainwork,
+which bends when the book is opened, and the sides are embossed with a
+variety of devices.
+
+On my inquiring for the library, I was told it had been destroyed during
+the revolution. It had formerly been preserved in the great square tower
+or keep, which is a grand feature in all the monasteries. I went to look
+at the place, and leaning through a ruined arch, I looked down into the
+lower story of the tower, and there I saw the melancholy remains of a
+once famous library. This was a dismal spectacle for a devout lover of
+old books--a sort of biblical knight errant, as I then considered
+myself, who had entered on the perilous adventure of Mount Athos to
+rescue from the thraldom of ignorant monks those fair vellum volumes,
+with their bright illuminations and velvet dresses and jewelled clasps,
+which for so many centuries had lain imprisoned in their dark monastic
+dungeons. It was indeed a heart-rending sight. By the dim light which
+streamed through the opening of an iron door in the wall of the ruined
+tower, I saw above a hundred ancient manuscripts lying among the rubbish
+which had fallen from the upper floor, which was ruinous, and had in
+great part given way. Some of these manuscripts seemed quite
+entire--fine large folios; but the monks said they were unapproachable,
+for that floor also on which they lay was unsafe, the beams below being
+rotten from the wet and rain which came in through the roof. Here was a
+trap ready set and baited for a bibliographical antiquary. I peeped at
+the old manuscripts, looked particularly at one or two that were lying
+in the middle of the floor, and could hardly resist the temptation. I
+advanced cautiously along the boards, keeping close to the wall, whilst
+every now and then a dull cracking noise warned me of my danger, but I
+tried each board by stamping upon it with my foot before I ventured my
+weight upon it. At last, when I dared go no farther, I made them bring
+me a long stick, with which I fished up two or three fine manuscripts,
+and poked them along towards the door. When I had safely landed them, I
+examined them more at my ease, but found that the rain had washed the
+outer leaves quite clean: the pages were stuck tight together into a
+solid mass, and when I attempted to open them, they broke short off in
+square bits like a biscuit. Neglect and damp and exposure had destroyed
+them completely. One fine volume, a large folio in double columns, of
+most venerable antiquity, particularly grieved me. I do not know how
+many more manuscripts there might be under the piles of rubbish. Perhaps
+some of them might still be legible, but without assistance and time I
+could not clean out the ruins that had fallen from above; and I was
+unable to save even a scrap from this general tomb of a whole race of
+books. I came out of the great tower, and sitting down on a pile of
+ruins, with a bearded assembly of grave caloyeri round me, I vented my
+sorrow and indignation in a long oration, which however produced a very
+slight effect upon my auditory; but whether from their not understanding
+Italian, or my want of eloquence, is matter of doubt. My man was the
+only person who seemed to commiserate my misfortune, and he looked so
+genuinely vexed and sorry that I liked him the better ever afterwards.
+At length I dismissed the assembly: they toddled away to their siesta,
+and I, mounted anew upon a stout well-fed mule, bade adieu to the
+hospitable agoumenos, and was soon occupied in picking my way among the
+rocks and trees towards the next monastery. In two hours' time we passed
+the ruins of a large building standing boldly on a hill. It had formerly
+been a college; and a magnificent aqueduct of fourteen double
+arches--that is, two rows of arches one above the other--connected it
+with another hill, and had a grand effect, with long and luxuriant
+masses of flowers streaming from its neglected walls. In half an hour
+more I arrived at
+
+VATOPEDE.
+
+This is the largest and richest of all the monasteries of Mount Athos.
+It is situated on the side of a hill where a valley opens to the sea,
+and commands a little harbour where three small Greek vessels were lying
+at anchor. The buildings are of great extent, with several towers and
+domes rising above the walls: I should say it was not smaller than the
+upper ward of Windsor Castle. The original building was erected by the
+Emperor Constantine the Great. That worthy prince being, it appears,
+much afflicted by the leprosy, ordered a number of little children to be
+killed, a bath of juvenile blood being considered an excellent remedy.
+But while they were selecting them, he was told in a vision that if he
+would become a Christian his leprosy should depart from him: he did so,
+and was immediately restored to health, and all the children lived long
+and happily. This story is related by Moses Chorensis, whose veracity I
+will not venture to doubt.
+
+In the fifth century this monastery was thrown down by Julian the
+Apostate. Theodosius the Great built it up again in gratitude for the
+miraculous escape of his son Arcadius, who having fallen overboard from
+his galley in the Archipelago, was landed safely on this spot through
+the intercession of the Virgin, to whose special honour the great church
+was founded: fourteen other chapels within the walls attest the piety of
+other individuals. In the year 862 the Saracens landed, destroyed the
+monastery by fire, slew many of the monks, took the treasures and broke
+the mosaics; but the representation of the Blessed Virgin was
+indestructible, and still remained safe and perfect above the altar.
+There was also a well under the altar, into which some of the relics
+were thrown and afterwards recovered by the community.
+
+About the year 1300 St. Athanasius the Patriarch persuaded Nicholaus and
+Antonius, certain rich men of Adrianople, to restore the monastery once
+more, which they did, and taking the vows became monks, and were buried
+in the narthex or portico of the church. I may here observe that this
+was the nearest approach to being buried within the church that was
+permitted in the early times of Christianity, and such is still the rule
+observed in the Greek Church: altars were, however, raised over the
+tombs or places of execution of martyrs.
+
+This church contains a great many ancient pictures of small size, most
+of them having the background overlaid with plates of silver-gilt: two
+of these are said to be portraits of the Empress Theodora. Two other
+pictures of larger size and richly set with jewels are interesting as
+having been brought from the church of St. Sophia at Constantinople,
+when that city fell a prey to the Turkish arms. Over the doors of the
+church and of the great refectory there are mosaics representing, if I
+remember rightly, saints and holy persons. One of the chapels, a
+separate building with a dome which had been newly repaired, is
+dedicated to the "Preservation of the Girdle of the Blessed Virgin," a
+relic which must be a source of considerable revenue to the monastery,
+for they have divided it into two parts, and one half is sent into
+Greece and the other half into Asia Minor whenever the plague is raging
+in those countries, and all those who are afflicted with that terrible
+disease are sure to be cured if they touch it, which they are allowed to
+do "_for a consideration_." On my inquiring how the monastery became
+possessed of so inestimable a medicine, I was gravely informed that,
+after the assumption of the Blessed Virgin, St. Thomas went up to heaven
+to pay her a visit, and there she presented him with her girdle. My
+informant appeared to have the most unshakeable conviction as to the
+truth of this history, and expressed great surprise that I had never
+heard it before.
+
+The library, although containing nearly four thousand printed books, has
+none of any high antiquity or on any subject but divinity. There are
+also about a thousand manuscripts, of which three or four hundred are on
+vellum; amongst these there are three copies of the works of St
+Chrysostom: they also have his head in the church--that golden mouth out
+of which proceeded the voice which shook the empire with the thunder of
+its denunciations. The most curious manuscripts are six rolls of
+parchment, each ten inches wide and about ten feet long, containing
+prayers for festivals on the anniversaries of the foundation of certain
+churches. There were at this time above three hundred monks resident in
+the monastery; many of these held offices and places of dignity under
+the agoumenos, whose establishment resembled the court of a petty
+sovereign prince. Altogether this convent well illustrates what some of
+the great monastic establishments in England must have been before the
+Reformation. It covers at least four acres of ground, and contains so
+many separate buildings within its massive walls that it resembles a
+fortified town. Everything told of wealth and indolence. When I arrived
+the lord abbot was asleep; he was too great a man to be aroused; he had
+eaten a full meal in his own apartment, and he could not be disturbed.
+His secretary, a thin pale monk, was deputed to show me the wonders of
+the place, and as we proceeded through the different chapels and
+enormous magazines of corn, wine, and oil, the officers of the different
+departments bent down to kiss his hand, for he was high in the favour of
+my lord the abbot, and was evidently a man not to be slighted by the
+inferior authorities if they wished to get on and prosper. The cellarer
+was a sly old fellow with a thin grey beard, and looked as if he could
+tell a good story of an evening over a flagon of good wine. Except at
+some of the palaces in Germany I have never seen such gigantic tuns as
+those in the cellars at Vatopede. The oil is kept in marble vessels of
+the size and shape of sarcophagi, and there is a curious picture in the
+entrance room of the oil-store, which represents the miraculous increase
+in their stock of oil during a year of scarcity, when, through the
+intercession of a pious monk who then had charge of that department, the
+marble basins, which were almost empty, overflowed, and a river of fine
+fresh oil poured in torrents through the door. The frame of this picture
+is set with jewels, and it appears to be very ancient. The refectory is
+an immense room; it stands in front of the church and has twenty-four
+marble tables and seats, and is in the same cruciform shape as that at
+St. Laura. It has frequently accommodated five hundred guests, the
+servants and tenants of the abbey, who come on stated days to pay their
+rents and receive the benediction of the agoumenos. Sixty or seventy fat
+mules are kept for the use of the community, and a very considerable
+number of Albanian servants and muleteers are lodged in outbuildings
+before the great gate. These, unlike their brethren of Epirus, are a
+quiet, stupid race, and whatever may be their notions of another world,
+they evidently think that in this there is no man living equal in
+importance to the great agoumenos of Vatopede, and no earthly place to
+compare with the great monastery over which he rules.
+
+From Vatopede it requires two hours and a half to ride to the monastery
+of
+
+SPHIGMENOU,
+
+which is a much smaller establishment. It is said to have been founded
+by the Empress Pulcheria, sister of the Emperor Theodosius the younger,
+and if so must be a very ancient building, for the empress died on the
+18th of February in the year 453. Her brother Theodosius was known by
+the title or cognomen of καλλιγραφος, from the beauty of his writing: he
+was a protector of the Nestorian and Eutychian heretics, and ended his
+life on the 20th of October, 460.
+
+This monastery is situated in a narrow valley close to the sea, squeezed
+in between three little hills, from which circumstance it derives its
+name of σφιγμενος, "squeezed together." It is inhabited by thirty monks,
+who are cleaner and keep their church in better order and neatness than
+most of their brethren on Mount Athos. Among the relics of the saints,
+which are the first things they show to the pilgrim from beyond the sea,
+is a beautiful ancient cross of gold set with diamonds. Diamonds are of
+very rare occurrence in ancient pieces of jewellery; it is indeed
+doubtful whether they were known to the ancients, adamantine being an
+epithet applied to the hardness of steel, and I have never seen a
+diamond in any work of art of the Roman or classical era. Besides the
+diamonds the cross has on the upper end and on the extremities of the
+two arms three very fine and large emeralds, each fastened on with three
+gold nails: it is a fine specimen of early jewellery, and of no small
+intrinsic value.
+
+The library is in a room over the porch of the church: it contains about
+1500 volumes, half of which are manuscripts, mostly on paper, and all
+theological. I met with four copies of the Gospels and two of the
+Epistles, all the others being books of the church service and the usual
+folios of the fathers. There was, however, a Russian or Bulgarian
+manuscript of the four Gospels with an illumination at the commencement
+of each Gospel. It is written in capital letters, and seemed to be of
+considerable antiquity. I was disappointed at not finding manuscripts of
+greater age in so very ancient a monastery as this is; but perhaps it
+has undergone more squeezing than that inflicted upon it by the three
+hills. I slept here in peace and comfort.
+
+On the sea-shore not far from Sphigmenou are the ruins of the monastery
+of St. Basil, opposite a small rocky island in the sea, which I left at
+this point, and striking up the country arrived in an hour's time at the
+monastery of
+
+KILIANTARI,
+
+or a thousand lions. This is a large building, of which the ground plan
+resembles the shape of an open fan. It stands in a valley, and
+contained, when I entered its hospitable gates, about fifty monks. They
+preserve in the sacristy a superb chalice, of a kind of bloodstone set
+in gold, about a foot high and eight inches wide, the gift of one of the
+Byzantine emperors. This monastery was founded by Simeon, Prince of
+Servia, I could not make out at what time. In the library they had no
+great number of books, and what there were were all Russian or
+Bulgarian: I saw none which seemed to be of great antiquity. On
+inquiring, however, whether they had not some Greek manuscripts, the
+Agoumenos said they had one, which he went and brought me out of the
+sacristy; and this, to my admiration and surprise, was not only the
+finest manuscript on Mount Athos, but the finest that I had met with in
+any Greek monastery with the single exception of the golden manuscript
+of the New Testament at Mount Sinai. It was a 4to. Evangelistarium,
+written in golden letters on fine _white_ vellum. The characters were a
+kind of semi-uncial, rather round in their forms, of large size, and
+beautifully executed, but often joined together and having many
+contractions and abbreviations, in these respects resembling the Mount
+Sinai MS. This magnificent volume was given to the monastery by the
+Emperor Andronicus Comnenus about the year 1184; it is consequently not
+an early MS., but its imperial origin renders it interesting to the
+admirers of literary treasures, while the very rare occurrence of a
+_Greek_ MS. written in letters of gold would make it a most desirable
+and important acquisition to any royal library; for besides the two
+above-mentioned there are not, I believe, more than seven or eight MSS.
+of this description in existence, and of these several are merely
+fragments, and only one is on white vellum: this is in the library of
+the Holy Synod at Moscow. Five of the others are on blue or purple
+vellum, viz., Codex Cottonianus, in the British Museum, Titus C. 15, a
+fragment of the Gospels; an octavo Evangelistarium at Vienna; a fragment
+of the books of Genesis and St. Luke in silver letters at Vienna; the
+Codex Turicensis of part of the Psalms; and six leaves of the Gospels of
+St. Matthew in silver letters with the initials in gold in the Vatican.
+There may possibly be others, but I have never heard of them. Latin MSS.
+in golden letters are much less scarce, but Greek MSS., even those which
+merely contain two or three pages written in gold letters, are of such
+rarity that hardly a dozen are to be met with; of these there are three
+in the library at Parham. I think the Codex Ebnerianus has one or two
+pages written in gold, and the tables of a gospel at Jerusalem are in
+gold on deep purple vellum. At this moment I do not remember any more,
+although doubtless there must be a few of these partially ornamented
+volumes scattered through the great libraries of Europe.
+
+From Kiliantari, which is the last monastery on the N.E. side of the
+promontory, we struck across the peninsula, and two hours' riding
+brought us to
+
+ZOGRAPHOU,
+
+through plains of rich green grass dotted over with gigantic single
+trees, the scenery being like that of an English park, only finer and
+more luxuriant as well as more extensive. This monastery was founded in
+the reign of Leo Sophos, by three nobles of Constantinople who became
+monks; and the local tradition is that it was destroyed by the "_Pope of
+Rome_." How that happened I know not, but it was rebuilt in the year
+1502 by Stephanus, Waywode of Moldavia. It is a large fortified building
+of very imposing appearance, situated on a steep hill surrounded with
+trees and gardens overlooking a deep valley which opens on the gulf of
+Monte Santo. The MSS. here are Bulgarian, and not of early date; they
+had no Greek MSS. whatever.
+
+From Zographou, following the valley, we arrived at a lower plain on the
+sea coast, and there we discovered that we had lost our way; we
+therefore retraced our steps, and turning up among the hills to our left
+we came in three hours to
+
+CASTAMONETA,
+
+which, had we taken the right road, we might have reached in one. This
+is a very poor monastery, but it is of great age and its architecture is
+picturesque: it was originally founded by Constantine the Great. It has
+no library nor anything particularly well worth mentioning, excepting
+the original deed of the Emperor Manuel Paleologus, with the sign manual
+of that potentate written in very large letters in red ink at the
+bottom of the deed, by which he granted to the monastery the lands which
+it still retains. The poor monks were much edified by the sight of the
+patriarchal letter, and when I went away rang the bells of the church
+tower to do me honour.
+
+At the distance of one hour from hence stands the monastery of
+
+DOCHEIROU.
+
+It is the first to the west of those upon the south-west shore of the
+peninsula. It is a monastery of great size, with ample room for a
+hundred monks, although inhabited by only twenty. It was built in the
+reign of Nicephorus Botoniates, and was last repaired in the year 1578
+by Alexander, Waywode of Moldavia. I was very well lodged in this
+convent, and the fleas were singularly few. The library contained two
+thousand five hundred volumes, of which one hundred and fifty were
+vellum MSS. I omitted to note the number of MSS. on paper, but amongst
+them I found a part of Sophocles and a fine folio of Suidas's Lexicon.
+Among the vellum MSS. there was a folio in the Bulgarian language, and
+various works of the fathers. I found also three loose leaves of an
+Evangelistarium in uncial letters of the ninth century, which had been
+cut out of some ancient volume, for which I hunted in the dust in vain.
+The monks gave me these three leaves on my asking for them, for even a
+few pages of such a manuscript as this are not to be despised.
+
+From Docheirou it is only a distance of half an hour to
+
+XENOPHOU,
+
+which stands upon the sea shore. Here they were building a church in the
+centre of the great court, which, when it is finished, will be the
+largest on Mount Athos. Three Greek bishops were living here in exile. I
+did not learn what the holy prelates had done, but their misdeeds had
+been found out by the Patriarch, and he had sent them here to rusticate.
+This monastery is of a moderate size; its founder was St. Xenophou,
+regarding whose history or the period at which he lived I am unable to
+give any information, as nobody knew anything about him on the spot, and
+I cannot find him in any catalogue of saints which I possess. The
+monastery was repaired in the year 1545 by Danzulas Bornicus and
+Badulus, who were brothers, and Banus (the Ban) Barbulus, all three
+nobles of Hungary, and was afterwards beautified by Matthæus, Waywode of
+Bessarabia.
+
+The library consists of fifteen hundred printed books, nineteen MSS. on
+paper, eleven on vellum, and three rolls on parchment, containing
+liturgies for particular days. Of the MSS. on vellum there were three
+which merit a description. One was a fine 4to. of part of the works of
+St. Chrysostom, of great antiquity, but not in uncial letters. Another
+was a 4to. of the four Gospels bound in faded red velvet with silver
+clasps. This book they affirmed to be a royal present to the monastery;
+it was of the eleventh or twelfth century, and was peculiar from the
+text being accompanied by a voluminous commentary on the margin and
+several pages of calendars, prefaces, &c., at the beginning. The
+headings of the Gospels were written in large plain letters of gold. In
+the libraries of forty Greek monasteries I have only met with one other
+copy of the Gospels with a commentary. The third manuscript was an
+immense quarto Evangelistarium sixteen inches square, bound in faded
+green or blue velvet, and said to be in the autograph of the Emperor
+Alexius Comnenus. The text throughout on each page was written in the
+form of a cross. Two of the pages are in purple ink powdered with gold,
+and these, there is every reason to suppose, are in the handwriting of
+the imperial scribe himself; for the Byzantine sovereigns affected to
+write only in purple, as their deeds and a magnificent MS. in another
+monastic library, of which I have not given an account in these pages,
+can testify: the titles of this superb volume are written in gold,
+covering the whole page. Altogether, although not in uncial letters, it
+was among the finest Greek MSS. that I had ever seen--perhaps, next to
+the uncial MSS., the finest to be met with anywhere.
+
+I asked the monks whether they were inclined to part with these three
+books, and offered to purchase them and the parchment rolls. There was a
+little consultation among them, and then they desired to be shown those
+which I particularly coveted. Then there was another consultation, and
+they asked me which I set the greatest value on. So I said the rolls, on
+which the three rolls were unrolled, and looked at, and examined, and
+peeped at by the three monks who put themselves forward in the business,
+with more pains and curiosity than had probably been ever wasted upon
+them before. At last they said it was impossible, the rolls were too
+precious to be parted with, but if I liked to give a good price I should
+have the rest; upon which I took up the St. Chrysostom, the least
+valuable of the three, and while I examined it, saw from the corner of
+my eye the three monks nudging each other and making signs. So I said,
+"Well, now what will you take for your two books, this and the big one?"
+They asked five thousand piastres; whereupon, with a look of indignant
+scorn, I laid down the St. Chrysostom and got up to go away; but after a
+good deal more talk we retired to the divan, or drawing-room as it may
+be called, of the monastery, where I conversed with the three exiled
+bishops. In course of time I was called out into another room to have a
+cup of coffee. There were my friends the three monks, the managing
+committee, and under the divan, imperfectly concealed, were the corners
+of the three splendid MSS. I knew that now all depended on my own tact
+whether my still famished saddle-bags were to have a meal or not that
+day, the danger lying between offering too much or too little. If you
+offer too much, a Greek, a Jew, or an Armenian immediately thinks that
+the desired object must be invaluable, that it must have some magical
+properties, like the lamp of Aladdin, which will bring wealth upon its
+possessor if he can but find out its secret; and he will either ask you
+a sum absurdly large, or will refuse to sell it at any price, but will
+lock it up and become nervous about it, and examine it over and over
+again privately to see what can be the cause of a Frank's offering so
+much for a thing apparently so utterly useless. On the other hand, too
+little must not be offered, for it would be an indignity to suppose that
+persons of consideration would condescend to sell things of trifling
+value--it wounds their aristocratic feelings, they are above such
+meannesses. By St. Xenophou, how we did talk! for five mortal hours it
+went on, I pretending to go away several times, but being always called
+back by one or other of the learned committee. I drank coffee and
+sherbet and they drank arraghi; but in the end I got the great book of
+Alexius Comnenus for the value of twenty-two pounds, and the curious
+Gospels, which I had treated with the most cool disdain all along, was
+finally thrown into the bargain; and out I walked with a big book under
+each arm, bearing with perfect resignation the smiles and scoffs of the
+three brethren, who could scarcely contain their laughter at the way
+they had done the silly traveller. Then did the saddlebags begin to
+assume a more comely and satisfactory form.
+
+After a stirrup cup of hot coffee, perfumed with the incense of the
+church, the monks bid me a joyous adieu; I responded as joyously: in
+short every one was charmed, except the mule, who evidently was more
+surprised than pleased at the increased weight which he had to carry.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+
+     The Monastery of Russico--Its Courteous Abbot--The Monastery of
+     Xeropotamo--Its History--High Character of its Abbot--Excursion to
+     the Monasteries of St. Nicholas and St. Dionisius--Interesting
+     Relics--Magnificent Shrine--The Library--The Monastery of St.
+     Paul--Respect shown by the Monks--Beautiful MS.--Extraordinary
+     Liberality and Kindness of the Abbot and Monks--A valuable
+     Acquisition at little Cost--The Monastery of Simopetra--Purchase of
+     MS.--The Monk of Xeropotamo--His Ideas about Women--Excursion to
+     Cariez--The Monastery of Coutloumoussi--The Russian
+     Book-Stealer--History of the Monastery--Its reputed Destruction by
+     the Pope of Rome--The Aga of Cariez--Interview in a Kiosk--The She
+     Cat of Mount Athos.
+
+
+From Xenophou I went on to
+
+RUSSICO,
+
+where also they were repairing the injuries which different parts of the
+edifice had sustained during the late Greek war. The agoumenos of this
+monastery was a remarkably gentlemanlike and accomplished man; he spoke
+several languages and ruled over a hundred and thirty monks. They had,
+however, amongst them all only nine MSS., and those were of no interest.
+The agoumenos told me that the monastery formerly possessed a MS. of
+Homer on vellum, which he sold to two English gentlemen some years ago,
+who were immediately afterwards plundered by pirates, and the MS. thrown
+into the sea. As I never heard of any Englishman having been at Mount
+Athos since the days of Dr. Clarke and Dr. Carlysle, I could not make
+out who these gentlemen were: probably they were Frenchmen, or Europeans
+of some other nation. However, the idea of the pirates gave me a horrid
+qualm; and I thought how dreadful it would be if they threw my Alexius
+Comnenus into the sea; it made me feel quite uncomfortable. This
+monastery was built by the Empress Catherine the First, of Russia--or,
+to speak more correctly, repaired by her--for it was originally founded
+by Saint Lazarus Knezes, of Servia, and the church dedicated to St.
+Panteleemon the Martyr. A ride of an hour brought me to
+
+
+XEROPOTAMO,
+
+where I was received with so much hospitality and kindness that I
+determined to make it my headquarters while I visited the other
+monasteries, which from this place could readily be approached by sea. I
+was fortunate in procuring a boat with two men--a sort of naval lay
+brethren,--who agreed to row me about wherever I liked, and bring me
+back to Xeropotamo for fifty piastres, and this they would do whenever I
+chose, as they were not very particular about time, an article upon
+which they evidently set small value.
+
+This monastery was founded by the Emperor Romanus about the year 920; it
+was rebuilt by Andronicus the Second in 1320; in the sixteenth century
+it was thrown down by an earthquake, and was again repaired by the
+Sultan Selim the First, or at least during his reign--that is, about
+1515. It was in a ruinous condition in the year 1701; it was again
+repaired, and in the Greek revolution it was again dismantled; at the
+time of my visit they were actively employed in restoring it. Alexander,
+Waywode of Wallachia, was a great benefactor to this and other
+monasteries of Athos, which owe much to the piety of the different
+Christian princes of the Danubian states of the Turkish empire.
+
+The library over the porch of the church, which is large and handsome,
+contains one thousand printed books and between thirty and forty
+manuscripts in bad condition. I saw none of consequence: that is to say,
+nothing except the usual volumes of divinity of the twelfth century. In
+the church is preserved a large piece of the holy cross richly set with
+valuable jewels. The agoumenos of Xeropotamo, a man with a dark-grey
+beard, about sixty years of age, struck me as a fine specimen of what an
+abbot of an ascetic monastery ought to be; simple and kind, yet clever
+enough, and learned in the divinity of his church, he set an example to
+the monks under his rule of devotion and rectitude of conduct; he was
+not slothful, or haughty, or grasping, and seemed to have a truly
+religious and cheerful mind. He was looked up to and beloved by the
+whole community; and with his dignified manner and appearance, his long
+grey hair, and dark flowing robes, he gave me the idea of what the
+saints and holy men of old must have been in the early days of
+Christianity, when they walked entirely in the faith, and--if required
+to do so--willingly gave themselves up as martyrs to the cause: when in
+all their actions they were influenced solely by the dictates of their
+religion. Would that such times would come again! But where every one
+sets up a new religion for himself, and when people laugh at and
+ridicule those things which their ignorance prevents them from
+appreciating, how can we hope for this?
+
+Early in the morning I started from my comfortable couch, and ran
+scrambling down the hill, over the rolling-stones in the dry bed of the
+torrent on which the monastery of the "dry river" (ξηροποταμου--courou
+chesmé in Turkish) is built. We got into the boat: our carpets, some
+oranges, and various little stores for a day's journey, which the good
+monks had supplied us with, being brought down by sundry good-natured
+lubberly κατακυμενοι--religions youths--who were delighted at having
+something to do, and were as pleased as children at having a good heavy
+praying-carpet to carry, or a basket of oranges, or a cushion from the
+monastery. They all waited on the shore to see us off, and away we went
+along the coast. As the sun got up it became oppressively hot, and the
+first monastery we came abreast of was that of Simopetra, which is
+perched on the top of a perpendicular rock, five or six hundred feet
+high at least, if not twice as much. This rather daunted me: and as we
+thought perhaps to-morrow would not be so hot, I put off climbing up the
+precipice for the present, and rowed gently on in the calm sea till we
+came before the monastery of
+
+
+ST. NICHOLAS,
+
+the smallest of all the convents of Mount Athos. It was a most
+picturesque building, stuck up on a rock, and is famous for its figs, in
+the eating of which, in the absence of more interesting matter, we all
+employed ourselves a considerable time; they were marvellously cool and
+delicious, and there were such quantities of them. We and the boatmen
+sat in the shade, and enjoyed ourselves till we were ashamed of staying
+any longer. I forgot to ask who the founder was. There was no library;
+in fact, there was nothing but figs; so we got into the boat again, and
+sweltered on a quarter of an hour more, and then we came to
+
+
+ST. DIONISIUS.
+
+This monastery is also built upon a rock immediately above the sea; it
+is of moderate size, but is in good repair. There was a look of comfort
+about it that savoured of easy circumstances, but the number of monks
+in it was small. Altogether this monastery, as regards the antiquities
+it contained, was the most interesting of all. The church, a good-sized
+building, is in a very perfect state of preservation. Hanging on the
+wall near the door of entrance was a portrait painted on wood, about
+three feet square, in a frame of silver-gilt, set with jewels; it
+represented Alexius Comnenus, Emperor of Trebizonde, the founder of the
+monastery. He it was, I believe, who built that most beautiful church a
+little way out of the town of Trebizonde, which is called St. Sofia,
+probably from its resemblance to the cathedral of Constantinople. He is
+drawn in his imperial robes, and the portrait is one of the most curious
+I ever saw. He founded this church in the year 1380; and Neagulus and
+Peter, Waywodes of Bessarabia, restored and repaired the monastery.
+There was another curious portrait of a lady; I did not learn who it
+was: very probably the Empress Pulcheria, or else Roxandra Domna
+(Domina?), wife of Alexander, Waywode of Wallachia; for both these
+ladies were benefactors to the convent.
+
+I was taken, as a pilgrim, to the church, and we stood in the middle of
+the floor before the ικονοsτασις, whilst the monks brought out an
+old-fashioned low wooden table, upon which they placed the relics of the
+saints which they presumed we came to adore. Of these some were very
+interesting specimens of intricate workmanship and superb and precious
+materials. One was a patera, of a kind of china or paste, made, as I
+imagine, of a multitude of turquoises ground down together, for it was
+too large to be of one single turquoise; there is one of the same kind,
+but of far inferior workmanship, in the treasury of St. Marc. This
+marvellous dish is carved in very high relief with minute figures or
+little statues of the saints, with inscriptions in very early Greek. It
+is set in pure gold, richly worked, and was a gift from the Empress or
+imperial Princess Pulcheria. Then there was an invaluable shrine for the
+head of St. John the Baptist, whose bones and another of his heads are
+in the cathedral at Genoa. St. John Lateran also boasts a head of St
+John, but that may have belonged to St. John the Evangelist. This shrine
+was the gift of Neagulus, Waywode or Hospodar of Wallachia: it is about
+two feet long and two feet high, and is in the shape of a Byzantine
+church; the material is silver-gilt, but the admirable and singular
+style of the workmanship gives it a value far surpassing its intrinsic
+worth. The roof is covered with five domes of gold; on each side it has
+sixteen recesses, in which are portraits of the saints in niello, and at
+each end there are eight others. All the windows are enriched in
+open-work tracery, of a strange sort of Gothic pattern, unlike anything
+in Europe. It is altogether a wonderful and precious monument of
+ancient art, the production of an almost unknown country, rich, quaint,
+and original in its design and execution, and is indeed one of the most
+curious objects on Mount Athos; although the patera of the Princess
+Pulcheria might probably be considered of greater value. There were many
+other shrines and reliquaries, but none of any particular interest.
+
+I next proceeded to the library, which contained not much less than a
+thousand manuscripts, half on paper and half on vellum. Of those on
+vellum the most valuable were a quarto Evangelistarium, in uncial
+letters, and in beautiful preservation; another Evangelistarium, of
+which three fly-leaves were in early uncial Greek; a small quarto of the
+Dialogues of St. Gregory, διαλογοι Γρεγοριου του θεολογου, not in uncial
+letters, with twelve fine miniatures; a small quarto New Testament,
+containing the Apocalypse; and some magnificent folios of the Fathers of
+the eleventh century; but not one classic author. Among the manuscripts
+on paper were a folio of the Iliad of Homer, badly written, two copies
+of the works of Dionysius the Areopagite, and a multitude of books for
+the church-service. Alas! they would part with nothing. The library was
+altogether a magnificent collection, and for the most part well
+preserved: they had no great number of printed books. I should imagine
+that this monastery must, from some fortunate accident, have suffered
+less from spoliation during the late revolution than any of the others;
+for considering that it is not a very large establishment, the number of
+valuable things it contained was quite astonishing.
+
+A quarter of an hour's row brought us to the scaricatojo of
+
+
+ST. PAUL,
+
+from whence we had to walk a mile and a half up a steep hill to the
+monastery, where building repairs were going on with great activity. I
+was received with cheerful hospitality, and soon made the acquaintance
+of four monks, who amongst them spoke English, French, Italian, and
+German. Having been installed in a separate bed-room, cleanly furnished
+in the Turkish style, where I subsequently enjoyed a delightful night's
+rest, undisturbed by a single flea, I was conducted into a large airy
+hall. Here, after a very comfortable dinner, the smaller fry of monks
+assembled to hear the illustrious stranger hold forth in turn to the
+four wise fathers who spoke unknown tongues. The simple, kind-hearted
+brethren looked with awe and wonder on the quadruple powers of those
+lips that uttered such strange sounds: just as the Peruvians made their
+reverence to the Spanish horses, whose speech they understood not, and
+whose manners were beyond their comprehension. It was fortunate for my
+reputation that the reverend German scholar was of a close and taciturn
+disposition, since my knowledge of his scraughing language did not
+extend very far, and when we got to scientific discussion I was very
+nearly at a stand still; but I am inclined to think that he upheld my
+dignity to save his own; and as my servant, who never minced matters,
+had doubtless told them that I could speak ninety other languages, and
+was besides nephew to most of the crowned heads of Europe, if a phœnix
+had come in he would have had a lower place assigned him. I found also
+that in this--as indeed in all the other monasteries--one who had
+performed the pilgrimage to the Holy Land was looked upon with a certain
+degree of respect. In short, I found that at last I was amongst a set of
+people who had the sense to appreciate my merits; so I held up my head,
+and assumed all the dignified humility of real greatness.
+
+This monastery was founded for Bulgarian and Servian monks by
+Constantine Biancobano, Hospodar of Wallachia. There was little that was
+interesting in it, either in architecture or any other walk of art; the
+library was contained in a small light closet, the books were clean, and
+ranged in order on the new deal shelves. There was only one Greek
+manuscript, a duodecimo copy of the Gospels of the twelfth or thirteenth
+century. The Servian and Bulgarian manuscripts amounted to about two
+hundred and fifty: of these three were remarkable; the first was a
+manuscript of the four Gospels, a thick quarto, and the uncial letters
+in which it was written were three fourths of an inch in height: it was
+imperfect at the end. The second was also a copy of the Gospels, a
+folio, in uncial letters, with fine illuminations at the beginning of
+each Gospel, and a large and curious portrait of a patriarch at the end;
+all the stops in this volume were dots of gold; several words also were
+written in gold. It was a noble manuscript. The third was likewise a
+folio of the Gospels in the ancient Bulgarian language, and, like the
+other two, in uncial letters. This manuscript was quite full of
+illuminations from beginning to end. I had seen no book like it anywhere
+in the Levant. I almost tumbled off the steps on which I was perched on
+the discovery of so extraordinary a volume. I saw that these books were
+taken care of, so I did not much like to ask whether they would part
+with them; more especially as the community was evidently a prosperous
+one, and had no need to sell any of their goods.
+
+After walking about the monastery with the monks, as I was going away
+the agoumenos said he wished he had anything which he could present to
+me as a memorial of my visit to the convent of St Paul. On this a brisk
+fire of reciprocal compliments ensued, and I observed that I should like
+to take a book. "Oh! by all means!" he said; "we make no use of the old
+books, and should be glad if you would accept one." We returned to the
+library; and the agoumenos took out one at a hazard, as you might take a
+brick or a stone out of a pile, and presented it to me. Quoth I, "If
+you don't care what book it is that you are so good as to give me, let
+me take one which pleases me;" and, so saying, I took down the
+illuminated folio of the Bulgarian Gospels, and I could hardly believe I
+was awake when the agoumenos gave it into my hands. Perhaps the greatest
+piece of impertinence of which I was ever guilty, was when I asked to
+buy another; but that they insisted upon giving me also; so I took the
+other two copies of the Gospels mentioned above, all three as free-will
+gifts. I felt almost ashamed at accepting these two last books; but who
+could resist it, knowing that they were utterly valueless to the monks,
+and were not saleable in the bazaar at Constantinople, Smyrna, Salonica,
+or any neighbouring city? However, before I went away, as a salve to my
+conscience I gave some money to the church. The authorities accompanied
+me beyond the outer gate, and by the kindness of the agoumenos mules
+were provided to take us down to the sea-shore, where we found our
+clerical mariners ready for us. One of the monks, who wished for a
+passage to Xeropotamo, accompanied us; and, turning our boat's head
+again to the north-west, we arrived before long a second time below the
+lofty rock of
+
+
+SIMOPETRA.
+
+This monastery was founded by St. Simon the Anchorite, of whose history
+I was unable to learn anything. The buildings are connected with the
+side of the mountain by a fine aqueduct, which has a grand effect,
+perched as it is at so great a height above the sea, and consisting of
+two rows of eleven arches, one above the other, with one lofty arch
+across a chasm immediately under the walls of the monastery, which, as
+seen from this side, resembles an immense square tower, with several
+rows of wooden balconies or galleries projecting from the walls at a
+prodigious height from the ground. It was no slight effort of gymnastics
+to get up to the door, where I was received with many grotesque bows by
+an ancient porter. I was ushered into the presence of the agoumenos, who
+sat in a hall, surrounded by a reverend conclave of his bearded and
+long-haired monks; and after partaking of sweetmeats and water, and a
+cup of coffee, according to custom, but no pipes--for the divines of
+Mount Athos do not indulge in smoking--they took me to the church and to
+the library.
+
+In the latter I found a hundred and fifty manuscripts, of which fifty
+were on vellum, all works of divinity, and not above ten or twelve of
+them fine books. I asked permission to purchase three, to which they
+acceded. These were the 'Life and Works of St. John Climax, Agoumenos of
+Mount Sinai,' a quarto of the eleventh century; the 'Acts and Epistles,'
+a noble folio written in large letters, in double columns: a very fine
+manuscript, the letters upright and not much joined together: at the end
+is an inscription in red letters, which may contain the date, but it is
+so faint that I could not make it out. The third was a quarto of the
+four Gospels, with a picture of an evangelist at the beginning of each
+Gospel. Whilst I was arranging the payment for these manuscripts, a
+monk, opening the copy of the Gospels, found at the end a horrible
+anathema and malediction written by the donor, a prince or king, he
+said, against any one who should sell or part with this book. This was
+very unlucky, and produced a great effect upon the monks; but as no
+anathema was found in either of the two other volumes, I was allowed to
+take them, and so went on my way rejoicing. They rang the bells at my
+departure, and I heard them at intervals jingling in the air above me as
+I scrambled down the rocky mountain. Except Dionisiou, this was the only
+monastery where the agoumenos kissed the letter of the patriarch and
+laid it upon his forehead: the sign of reverence and obedience which is,
+or ought to be, observed with the firmans of the Sultan and other
+oriental potentates.
+
+[Illustration: From a Sketch by R. Curzon.
+
+VIEW OF THE MONASTERY AND AQUEDUCT OF SIMOPETRA, ON MOUNT ATHOS, TAKEN
+FROM THE SEA SHORE.]
+
+The same evening I got back to my comfortable room at Xeropotamo, and
+did ample justice to a good meagre dinner after the heat and fatigues of
+the day. A monk had arrived from one of the outlying farms who could
+speak a little Italian; he was deputed to do the honours of the
+house, and accordingly dined with me. He was a magnificent-looking man
+of thirty or thirty-five years of age, with large eyes and long black
+hair and beard. As we sat together in the evening in the ancient room,
+by the light of one dim brazen lamp, with deep shades thrown across his
+face and figure, I thought he would have made an admirable study for
+Titian or Sebastian del Piombo. In the course of conversation I found
+that he had learnt Italian from another monk, having never been out of
+the peninsula of Mount Athos. His parents and most of the other
+inhabitants of the village where he was born, somewhere in Roumelia--but
+its name or exact position he did not know--had been massacred during
+some revolt or disturbance. So he had been told, but he remembered
+nothing about it; he had been educated in a school in this or one of the
+other monasteries, and his whole life had been passed upon the Holy
+Mountain; and this, he said, was the case with very many other monks. He
+did not remember his mother, and did not seem quite sure that he ever
+had one; he had never seen a woman, nor had he any idea what sort of
+things women were, or what they looked like. He asked me whether they
+resembled the pictures of the Panagia, the Holy Virgin, which hang in
+every church. Now, those who are conversant with the peculiar
+conventional representations of the Blessed Virgin in the pictures of
+the Greek church, which are all exactly alike, stiff, hard, and dry,
+without any appearance of life or emotion, will agree with me that they
+do not afford a very favourable idea of the grace or beauty of the fair
+sex; and that there was a difference of appearance between black women,
+Circassians, and those of other nations, which was, however, difficult
+to describe to one who had never seen a lady of any race. He listened
+with great interest while I told him that all women were not exactly
+like the pictures he had seen, but I did not think it charitable to
+carry on the conversation farther, although the poor monk seemed to have
+a strong inclination to know more of that interesting race of beings
+from whose society he had been so entirely debarred. I often thought
+afterwards of the singular lot of this manly and noble-looking monk:
+whether he is still a recluse, either in the monastery or in his
+mountain-farm, with its little moss-grown chapel as ancient as the days
+of Constantine; or whether he has gone out into the world and mingled in
+its pleasures and its cares.
+
+I arranged with the captain of a small vessel which was lying off
+Xeropotamo taking in a cargo of wood, that he should give me a passage
+in two or three days, when he said he should be ready to sail; and in
+the mean time I purposed to explore the metropolis of Mount Athos, the
+town of Cariez; and then to go to Caracalla, and remain there till the
+vessel was ready.
+
+[Illustration: CIRCASSIAN LADY.]
+
+Accordingly, the next morning I set out, the Agoumenos supplying me with
+mules. The guide did not know how far it was to Cariez, which is
+situated almost in the centre of the peninsula. I found it was only
+distant one hour and a half; but as I had not made arrangements to go
+on, I was obliged to remain there all day. Close to the town is the
+great monastery of
+
+
+COUTLOUMOUSSI,
+
+the most regular building on Mount Athos. It contains a large square
+court with a cloister of stone arches all round it, out of which the
+cells and chambers open, as they do in a Roman Catholic convent. The
+church stands in the centre of this quadrangle, and glories in a famous
+picture of the Last Judgment on the wall of the narthex, or porch,
+before the door of entrance. The monastery was at this time nearly
+uninhabited; but, after some trouble, I found one monk, who made great
+difficulties as to showing me the library, for he said a Russian had
+been there some time ago, and had borrowed a book which he never
+returned. However, at last I gained admission by means of that ingenious
+silver key which opens so many locks.
+
+In a good-sized square room, filled with shelves all round, I found a
+fine, although neglected, collection of books; a great many of them
+thrown on the floor in heaps, and covered all over with dust, which the
+Russian did not appear to have much disturbed when he borrowed the book
+which had occasioned me so much trouble. There were about six or seven
+hundred volumes of printed books, two hundred MSS. on paper, and a
+hundred and fifty on vellum. I was not permitted to examine this library
+at all to my satisfaction. The solitary monk thought I was a Russian,
+and would not let me alone, or give me the time I wanted for my
+researches. I found a multitude of folios and quartos of the works of
+St. Chrysostom, who seems to have been the principal instructor of the
+monks of Mount Athos, that is, in the days when they were in the habit
+of reading--a tedious custom, which they have long since given up by
+general consent. I met also with an Evangelistarium, a quarto in uncial
+letters, but not in very fine condition. Two or three other old monks
+had by this time crept out of their holes, but they would not part with
+any of their books: that unhappy Russian had filled the minds of the
+whole brotherhood with suspicion. So we went to the church, which was
+curious and quaint, as they all are; and as we went through all the
+requisite formalities before various grim pictures, and showed due
+respect for the sacred character of a Christian church, they began at
+last to believe that I was not a Russian; but if they had seen the
+contents of the saddle-bags which were sticking out bravely on each side
+of the patient mule at the gate, they would perhaps have considered me
+as something far worse.
+
+Coutloumoussi was founded by the Emperor Alexius Comnenus, and, having
+been destroyed by "_the Pope of Rome_," was restored by the piety of
+various hospodars and waywodes of Bessarabia. It is difficult to
+understand what these worthy monks can mean when they affirm that
+several of their monasteries have been burned and plundered by the Pope.
+Perhaps in the days of the Crusades some of the rapacious and
+undisciplined hordes who accompanied the armies of the Cross--not to
+rescue the holy sepulchre from the power of the Saracens, but for the
+sake of plunder and robbery--may have been attracted by the fame of the
+riches of these peaceful convents, and have made the differences in
+their religion a pretext for sacrilege and rapacity. Thus bands of
+pirates and brigands in the middle ages may have cloaked their acts of
+violence under the specious excuse of devotion to the Church of Rome;
+and so the Pope has acquired a bad name, and is looked upon with terror
+and animosity by the inhabitants of the monasteries of Mount Athos.
+
+Having seen what I could, I went on to the town of Cariez, if it can
+properly be called such; for it is difficult to explain what it is. One
+may perhaps say that what Washington is to the United States, Cariez is
+to Mount Athos. A few artificers do live there who carve crosses and
+ornaments in cypress-wood. The principal feature of the place is the
+great church of Protaton, which is surrounded by smaller buildings and
+chapels. These I saw at a distance, but did not visit, because I could
+get no mules, and it was too hot to walk so far. A Turkish aga lives
+here: he is sent by the Porte to collect the revenue from the monks, and
+also to protect them from other Turkish visitors. He is paid and
+provided with food by a kind of rate which is levied on the twenty-one
+monasteries of [Greek: agion oros αγιον ορος], and is in fact a sort of
+sheep-dog to the flock of helpless monks who pasture among the trees and
+rocks of the peninsula. On certain days the Agoumenoi of the monasteries
+and the high officers of their communities meet at the church of
+Protaton for the transaction of business and the discussion of affairs.
+I am sorry I did not see this ancient house of parliament. The rooms in
+which these synods or convocations are held adjoin the church. Situated
+at short distances around these principal edifices are numerous small
+ecclesiastical villas, such as were called cells in England before the
+Reformation: these are the habitations of the venerable senators when
+they come up to parliament. Some of them are beautifully situated; for
+Cariez stands in a fair, open vale, half-way up the side of the
+mountain, and commands a beautiful view to the north of the sea, with
+the magnificent island of Samotraki looming superbly in the distance.
+All around are large orchards and plantations of peach-trees and of
+various other sorts of fruit-bearing trees in great abundance, and the
+round hills are clothed with greensward. It is a happy, peaceful-looking
+place, and in its trim and sunny arbours reminds one of Virgil and
+Theocritus.
+
+I went to the house of the aga to seek for a habitation, but the aga was
+asleep; and who was there so bold as to wake a sleeping aga? Luckily he
+awoke of his own accord; and he was soon informed by my interpreter that
+an illustrious personage awaited his leisure. He did not care for a
+monk, and not much for an agoumenos; but he felt small in the presence
+of a mighty Turkish aga. Nevertheless, he ventured a few hints as usual
+about the kings and queens who were my first cousins, but in a much more
+subdued tone than usual; and I was received with that courteous civility
+and good breeding which is so frequently met with among Turks of every
+degree. The aga apologised for having no good room to offer me; but he
+sent out his men to look for a lodging; and in the mean time we went to
+a kiosk, that is, a place like a large birdcage, with enough roof to
+make a shade, and no walls to impede the free passage of the air. It was
+built of wood, upon a scaffold eight or ten feet from the ground, in the
+corner of a garden, and commanded a fine view of the sea. In one corner
+of this cage I sat all day long, for there was nowhere else to go to;
+and the aga sat opposite to me in another corner, smoking his pipe, in
+which solacing occupation to his great surprise I did not partake. We
+had cups of coffee and sherbet every now and then, and about every
+half-hour the aga uttered a few words of compliment or welcome,
+informing me occasionally that there were many dervishes in the place,
+"very many dervishes," for so he denominated the monks. Dinner came
+towards evening. There was meat, dolmas, demir tatlessi, olives, salad,
+roast meat, and pilau, that filled up some time; and shortly afterwards
+I retired to the house of the monastery of Russico, a little distance
+from my kiosk; and there I slept on a carpet on the boards; and at
+sunrise was ready to continue my journey, as were also the mules. The
+aga gave me some breakfast, at which repast a cat made its appearance,
+with whom the day before I had made acquaintance; but now it came, not
+alone, but accompanied by two kittens. "Ah!" said I to the aga, "how is
+this? Why, as I live, this is a _she_ cat! a cat feminine! What business
+has it on Mount Athos? and with kittens too! a wicked cat!"
+
+"Hush!" said the Aga, with a solemn grin; "do not say anything about it.
+Yes, it must be a she-cat: I allow, certainly, that it must be a
+she-cat. I brought it with me from Stamboul. But do not speak of it, or
+they will take it away; and it reminds me of my home, where my wife and
+children are living far away from me."
+
+[Illustration: TURKISH LADY, IN THE YASHMAK, OR VEIL.]
+
+I promised to make no scandal about the cat, and took my leave; and
+as I rode off I saw him looking at me out of his cage with the cat
+sitting by his side. I was sorry I could not take aga and cat and all
+with me to Stamboul, the poor gentleman looked so solitary and
+melancholy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+
+     Caracalla--The Agoumenos--Curious Cross--The Nuts of
+     Caracalla--Singular Mode of preparing a Dinner Table--Departure
+     from Mount Athos--Packing of the MSS.--Difficulties of the
+     Way--Voyage to the Dardanelles--Apprehended Attack from
+     Pirates--Return to Constantinople.
+
+
+It took me three hours to reach Caracalla, where the agoumenos and
+Father Joasaph received me with all the hospitable kindness of old
+friends, and at once installed me in my old room, which looked into the
+court, and was very cool and quiet. Here I reposed in peace during the
+hotter hours of the day; and here I received the news that the captain
+of the vessel which I had hired had left me in the lurch and gone out to
+sea, having, I suppose, made some better bargain. This caused me some
+tribulation; but there was nothing to be done but to get another vessel;
+so I sent back to Xeropotamo, which appeared to be the most frequented
+part of the coast, to see whether there was any craft there which could
+be hired.
+
+I employed the next day in wandering about with the agoumenos and Father
+Joasaph in all the holes and corners of the monastery; the agoumenos
+telling me interminable legends of the saints, and asking Father Joasaph
+if they were not true. I looked over the library, where I found an
+uncial Evangelistarium; a manuscript of Demosthenes on paper, but of
+some antiquity; a manuscript of Justin ([Greek: Ioustinou Ιουστινου]) in
+Greek; and several other manuscripts,--all of which the agoumenos agreed
+to let me have.
+
+One of the monks had a curiously carved cross set in silver, which he
+wished to sell; but I told the agoumenos that it was not sufficiently
+ancient: I added, however, that if I could meet with any ancient cross
+or shrine or reliquary, I should be delighted to purchase such a thing,
+and that I would give a good price for it. In the afternoon it struck
+him suddenly that as he did not care for antiquities, perhaps we might
+come to an arrangement; and the end of the affair was that he gave me
+one of the ancient crosses which I had seen when I was there before, and
+put the one the monk had to sell in its place; certain pieces of gold
+which I produced rendering this transaction satisfactory to all parties.
+This most curious and beautiful piece of jewellery has been since
+engraved, and forms the subject of the third plate in Shaw's 'Dresses
+and Decorations of the Middle Ages,' London, 1843. It had been presented
+to the monastery by the Emperor John, whom, from what I was told by the
+agoumenos, I take to have been John Zimisces. It is one of the most
+ancient as well as one of the finest relics of its kind now existing in
+England.
+
+On the evening of the second day my man returned from Xeropotamo with
+the information that he had found a small Greek brig, and had engaged to
+give the patron or captain eleven hundred piastres for our passage
+thence to the Dardanelles the next day, if I could manage to be ready in
+so short a time. As fortunately I had purchased all the manuscripts
+which I wished to possess, there was nothing to detain me on Mount
+Athos; for I had now visited every monastery excepting that of St. Anne,
+which indeed is not a monastery like the rest, but a mere collection of
+hermitages or cells at the extreme point of the peninsula, immediately
+under the great peak of the mountain. I was told that there was nothing
+there worth seeing; but still I am sorry that I did not make a
+pilgrimage to so original a community, who it appears live on roots and
+herbs, and are the most strict of all the ascetics in this strange
+monastic region.
+
+All of a sudden, as we were walking quietly together, the agoumenos
+asked me if I knew what was the price of nuts at Constantinople.
+
+"Nuts?" said I.
+
+"Yes, nuts," said he; "hazel-nuts: nuts are excellent things. Have they
+a good supply of nuts at Constantinople?"
+
+"Well," said I, "I don't know; but I dare say they have. But why, my
+Lord, do you ask? Why do you wish to know the price of hazel-nuts at
+Constantinople?"
+
+"Oh!" said the agoumenos, "they do not eat half nuts enough at Stamboul.
+Nuts are excellent things. They should be eaten more than they are.
+People say that nuts are unwholesome; but it is a great mistake." And so
+saying, he introduced me into a set of upper rooms that I had not
+previously entered, the entire floors of which were covered two feet
+deep with nuts. I never saw one-hundredth part so many before. The good
+agoumenos, it seems, had been speculating in hazel-nuts; and a vessel
+was to come to the little tower of the scaricatojo down below to be
+freighted with them: they were to produce a prodigious profit, and
+defray the expense of finishing the new buildings of Caracalla.
+
+"Take some," said he; "don't be afraid; there are plenty. Take some, and
+taste them, and then you can tell your friends at Constantinople what a
+peculiar flavour you found in the famous nuts of Athos; and in all Athos
+every one knows that there are no nuts like those of Caracalla!"
+
+They were capital nuts; but as it was before dinner, and I was
+ravenously hungry, and my lord the agoumenos had not brought a bottle of
+sherry in his pocket, I did not particularly relish them. But there had
+been great talking during the morning between the agoumenos and Pater
+Joasaph about a famous large fish which was to be cooked for dinner;
+and, as the important hour was approaching, we adjourned to my sitting
+room. Father Joasaph was already there, having washed his hands and
+seated himself on the divan, in order to regulate the proceedings of the
+lay brother who acted as butler. The preparations for the banquet were
+made. The lay brother first brought in the table-cloth, which he spread
+upon the ground in one corner of the room; then he turned the table
+upside down upon the table-cloth, with its legs in the air: next he
+brought two immense flagons, one of wine, the other of water; these were
+made of copper tinned, and were each a foot and a half high; he set them
+down on the carpet a little way from the table-cloth; and round the
+table he placed three cushions for the agoumenos, Pater Joasaph, and me;
+and then he went away to bring the dinner. He soon reappeared, bringing
+in, with the assistance of another stout catechumen, the whole of the
+dinner on a large circular tray of well-polished brass called a sinni.
+This was so formed as to fix on the sticking-up legs of the subverted
+table, and, with the aid of Pater Joasaph, it was soon all tight and
+straight. In a great centre-dish there appeared the big fish in a sea of
+sauce surrounded by a mountainous shore of rice. Round this luxurious
+centre stood a circle of smaller dishes, olives, caviare, salad (no
+eggs, because there were no hens), papas yaknesi, and several sweet
+things. Two cats followed the dinner into the room, and sat down
+demurely side by side. The fish looked excellent, and had a most
+savoury smell. I had washed my hands, and was preparing to sit down,
+when the Father Abbot, who was not thinking of the dinner, took this
+inopportune moment to begin one of his interminable stories.
+
+"We have before spoken," he said, "of the many kings, princes, and
+patriarchs who have given up the world and ended their days here in
+peace. One of the most important epochs in the history of Mount Athos
+occurred about the year 1336, when a Calabrian monk, a man of great
+learning though of mean appearance, whose name was Barlaam, arrived on a
+pilgrimage to venerate the sacred relics of our famous sanctuaries. He
+found here many holy men, who, having retired entirely from the world,
+by communing with themselves in the privacy of their own cells, had
+arrived at that state of calm beatitude and heavenly contemplation, that
+the eternal light of Mount Tabor was revealed to them."
+
+"Mount Tabor?" said I.
+
+"Yes," said the agoumenos, "the light which had been seen during the
+time of the Transfiguration by the apostles, and which had always
+existed there, was seen by those who, after years of solitude and
+penance and maceration of the flesh, had arrived at that state of
+abstraction from all earthly things that in their bodies they saw the
+divine light. They in those good times would sit alone in their chambers
+with their eyes cast down upon the region of their navel; this was
+painful at first, both from the fixedness of the attitude required, with
+the head bent down upon the breast, and from the workings of the mind,
+which seemed to wander in the regions of darkness and space. At last,
+when they had persevered in fasting day and night with no change of
+thought or attitude for many hours, they began to feel a wonderful
+satisfaction; a ray of joy ineffable would seem to illuminate the brain;
+and no sooner had the soul discovered the place of the heart than it was
+involved in a mystic and ethereal light."[18]
+
+"Ah," said I, "really!"
+
+"Now this Barlaam, being a carnal and worldly-minded man, took upon
+himself to doubt the efficacy of this bodily and mental discipline; it
+is said that he even ventured to ridicule the venerable fathers who gave
+themselves up so entirely to the contemplation of the light of Mount
+Tabor. Not only did he question the merits of these ascetic acts, but,
+being learned in books, and being endowed with great powers of eloquence
+and persuasion, he infused doubts into the minds of others of the monks
+and anchorites of Mount Athos. Arguments were used on both sides;
+conversations arose upon these subjects; arguments grew into
+disputations, conversations into controversies, till at last, from the
+most peaceful and regular of communities, the peninsula of the holy
+mountain became from one end to the other a theatre of discord, doubt,
+and difference; the flames of contention were lit up; every thing was
+unsettled; men knew not what to think; till at last, with general
+consent, the unhappy intruder was dismissed from all the monasteries;
+and, flying from the storm of angry words which he had raised on all
+sides around him, he departed from Mount Athos and retired to the city
+of Constantinople. There his specious manners, his knowledge of the
+language of the Latins, and the dissensions he had created in the
+church, brought him into notice at court; and now not only were the
+monks of Mount Athos and Olympus divided against each other, but the
+city was split into parties of theological disputants; clamour and
+acrimony raged on every side. The Emperor Andronicus, willing to remove
+the cause of so much contention, and being at the same time surrounded
+with difficulties on all sides (for the unbelieving Turks, commanded by
+the fierce Orchan, had with their unnumbered tribes overrun Bithynia and
+many of the provinces of the Christian emperor), he graciously
+condescended to give his imperial mandate that the monk Barlaam should
+[here the two cats became vociferous in their impatience for the fish]
+be sent on an embassy to the Pope of Rome; he was empowered to enter
+into negotiations for the settlement of all religious differences
+between the Eastern and Western churches, on condition that the Latin
+princes should assist the emperor to drive the Turks back into the
+confines of Asia. The Emperor Andronicus died from a fever brought on by
+excitement in defending the cause of the ascetic quietists before a
+council in his palace. John Paleologus was set aside; and John
+Cantacuzene, in a desperate endeavour to please all parties, gave his
+daughter Theodora to Orchan the Emperor of the Osmanlis; and at his
+coronation the purple buskin of his right leg was fastened on by the
+Greeks, and that of his left leg by the Latins. Notwithstanding these
+concessions, the embassy of Barlaam, the most important with which any
+diplomatic agent was ever trusted, failed altogether from the troubles
+of the times. The Emperor John Cantacuzene, who celebrated his own acts
+in an edict beginning with the words 'by my sublime and almost
+incredible virtue,' gave up the reins of power, and taking the name of
+Josaph, became a monk of one of the monasteries of the holy mountain,
+which was then known by the name of the monastery of Mangane, while the
+monk Barlaam was created Bishop of Gerace, in Italy."
+
+By the time the good abbot had come to the conclusion of his history,
+the fish was cold and the dinner spoilt; but I thought his account of
+the extraordinary notions which the monks of those dark ages had formed
+of the duties of Christianity so curious, that it almost compensated for
+the calamity of losing the only good dinner which I had seen on Mount
+Athos.
+
+What a difference it would have made in the affairs of Europe if the
+embassy of Barlaam had succeeded! The Turks would not have been now in
+possession of Constantinople; and many points of difference having been
+mutually conceded by the two great divisions of the church, perhaps the
+Reformation never would have taken place. The narration of these events
+was the more interesting to me, as I had it from the lips of a monk who
+to all intents and purposes was living in the darkness of remote
+antiquity. His ample robes, his long beard, and the Byzantine
+architecture of the ancient room in which we sat, impressed his words
+upon my remembrance; and as I looked upon the eager countenance of the
+abbot, whose thoughts still were fixed upon the world from which he had
+retired, while he discoursed of the troubles and discords which had
+invaded the peaceful glades and quiet solitudes of the holy mountain, I
+felt that there was no place left on this side of the grave where the
+wicked cease from troubling or where the weary are at rest. No places,
+however, that I have seen equal the beauty of the scenery and the calm
+retired look of the small farmhouses, if they may so be called, which I
+met with in my rides on the declivities of Mount Athos. These buildings
+are usually situated on the sides of hills opening on the land which the
+monastic labourers cultivate; they consist of a small square tower,
+usually appended to which are one or two little stone cottages, and an
+ancient chapel, from which the tinkling of the bar which calls the monks
+to prayer may be heard many times a day echoing softly through the
+lovely glades of the primæval forest. The ground is covered in some
+places with anemones and cyclamen; waterfalls are met with at the head
+of half the valleys, pouring their refreshing waters over marble rocks.
+If the great mountain itself, which towers up so grandly above the
+enchanting scenery below, had been carved into the form of a statue of
+Alexander the Great, according to the project of Lysippus, though a
+wonderful effort of human labour, it could hardly have added to the
+beauty of the scene, which is so much increased by the appearance of the
+monasteries, whose lofty towers and rounded domes appear almost like the
+palaces we read of in a fairy tale.
+
+The next morning, at an early hour, mules were waiting in the court to
+carry me across the hills to the harbour below the monastery of
+Xeropotamo, where the Greek brig was lying which was to convey me and my
+treasures from these peaceful shores. Emptying out my girdle, I
+calculated how much, or rather how little money would suffice to pay the
+expenses of my voyage to the Asiatic castle of the Dardanelles, feeling
+assured that from thence I could get credit for a passage in the
+magnificent steamer _The Stamboul_, which ran between Smyrna and
+Constantinople. With the reservation of this sum, I gave the agoumenos
+all my remaining gold, and in return he provided me with an old wooden
+chest, in which I stowed away several goodly folios; for the
+saddle-bags, although distended to their utmost limits, did not suffice
+to carry all the great manuscripts and ponderous volumes that were now
+added to my store. Turning out the corn from the nosebags of the mules,
+I put one or two smaller books in each; and, after all, an extra mule
+was sent for to convey the surplus tomes over the rough and craggy ridge
+which we were to pass in our journey to the other sea. Although the
+stories of the agoumenos were too windy and too long, I was sorry to
+part from him, and I took an affectionate leave also of Pater Joasaph
+and the two cats. Unfortunately, in the hurry of departure, I left on
+the divan the MS. of Justin, which I had been trying to decipher, and
+forgot it when I came away. It was a small thick octavo, on charta
+bombycina, and was probably kicked into the nearest corner as soon as I
+evacuated the monastery.
+
+Our ride was a very rough one. We had first to ascend the hill, in some
+places through deep ravines, and in others through most glorious forests
+of gigantic trees, mostly planes, with a thick underwood of those
+aromatic flowering evergreens which so beautifully clothe the hills of
+Greece and this part of Turkey.
+
+When we had crossed the upper ridge of rock, leaving the peak of Athos
+towering to the sky on our left, we had to descend the dry bed of a
+torrent so full of great stones and fallen rocks, that it appeared
+impossible for anything but a goat to travel on such a road. I got off
+my mule, and began jumping from one rock to another on the edge of the
+precipice; but the sun was so powerful, that in a short time I was
+completely exhausted; and on looking at the mules, I saw that one after
+another they jumped down so unerringly over chasms and broken rocks,
+alighting so precisely in the exact place where there was standing-room
+for their feet, that, after a little consideration, I remounted my mule;
+and keeping my seat, without holding the bridle, we hopped and skipped
+from rock to rock down this extraordinary track, until in due time we
+arrived safely at the sea-shore, close to the mouth of the little river
+of Xeropotamo. My manuscripts and myself were soon embarked, and with a
+favouring breeze we stood out into the Gulf of Monte Santo, and had
+leisure to survey the scenery of this superb peninsula as we glided
+round the lofty marble rocks and noble forests which formed the
+background to the strange and picturesque Byzantine monasteries with
+every one of which we had become acquainted.
+
+Being a little nervous on account of the pirates, of whom I had heard
+many stories during my sojourn on Mount Athos, I questioned the master
+of the vessel on this subject. "Oh," said he, "the sea is now very
+quiet; there have been no pirates about the coast for the last
+fortnight." This assurance hardly satisfied me. How terrible it would be
+to see these precious volumes thrown into the sea, like my unhappy
+precursor's MS. of Homer! It was frightful to think of! We were three
+days at sea, there being at this fine season very little wind. Once we
+thought we were chased by a wicked-looking cutter with a large white
+mainsail, which kept to windward of us; but in the end, after some hours
+of deadly tribulation, during which I hid the manuscripts as well as I
+could under all kinds of rubbish in the hold, we descried the stars and
+stripes of America upon her ensign; so then I pulled all the old books
+out again. This cutter was, I suppose, a tender to some American
+man-of-war. On the evening of the third day we found ourselves safe
+under the guns of Roumeli Calessi, the European castle of the
+Dardanelles; and, after a good deal of tedious tacking, we got across to
+the Asiatic castle of Coom Calessi, where I landed with all my
+treasures. Before long, the Smyrna steamer, _The Stamboul_, hove in
+sight, and I took my passage in her to Constantinople.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+London: Printed by W. Clowes and Son, Stamford Street.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Moyah--"water."
+
+[2] This, the first mosque built at Cairo, is said to have been paid for
+by Sultan Tayloon with a part of an immense treasure in gold, which he
+found under a monument called the altar of Pharaoh, on the mountain of
+Mokattam. This building was destroyed by Tayloon, who founded a mosque
+upon the spot in the year 873, in honour of Judah, the brother of
+Joseph, who resorted there to pray when he came to Egypt. This mosque
+becoming ruined, another was built upon the spot by the Emir El Guyoosh,
+minister of the Caliph Mostansir, A.D. 1094, which still remains perched
+on the corner of a rock, which is excavated in various places with
+ancient tombs.
+
+[3] A fragment of the Gospel of St. Mark was found in the tomb which was
+reputed to be his. Damp and age have decayed this precious relic, of
+which only some small fragments remain; but an exact facsimile of it was
+made before it was destroyed. This facsimile is now in my possession: it
+is in Latin, and is written in double columns, on sixteen leaves of
+vellum, of a large quarto size, and proves that whoever transcribed the
+original must have been a proficient in the art of writing, for the
+letters are of great size and excellent formation, and in the style of
+the very earliest manuscripts.
+
+[4] See Quarterly Review, vol. lxxvii. p. 43.
+
+[5] It is perhaps more likely that these beautiful specimens of ancient
+glass were made in the island of Murano, in the lagunes of Venice, as
+the manufactories of the Venetians supplied the Mahomedans with many
+luxuries in the middle ages.
+
+[6] The only early church in which the columns are continued on the end
+opposite to the altar, where the doorway is usually situated, is the
+Cathedral of Messina. The effect is very good, and takes off from the
+baldness usually observable at that end of a basilica. The early Coptic
+churches have no porch or narthex, an essential part of an original
+Greek church.
+
+[7] This curious old sunken oratory bears a resemblance in many points
+to the fine church of St. Agnese, at Rome, where the ground has been
+excavated down to the level of the catacomb in which the holy martyr's
+body reposes. The long straight flight of steps down to the lower level
+are also similar in these two very ancient churches, although the Church
+of Der-el-Adra is poor and mean, whilst that of St. Agnese is a superb
+edifice, and is famous for being the first basilica in which a gallery
+is found over the side aisles. This gallery was set apart for the women,
+as in the oriental churches of St. Sophia at Constantinople, and
+perhaps, also, of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem.
+
+[8] It is much to be desired that some competent person should write a
+small cheap book, with plates or wood-cuts explaining what an early
+Christian Church was; what the ceremonies, ornaments, vestures, and
+liturgy were at the time when the Church of our Lord was formally
+established by the Emperor Constantine: for the numerous well-meaning
+authors who have written on the restoration of our older churches,
+appear to me to be completely in the dark. Gothic is NOT Christian
+architecture--it is Roman Catholic architecture: the vestures of English
+ecclesiastics are not restorations of early simplicity--they are modern
+inventions taken from German collegiate dresses which have nothing to do
+with religion.
+
+[9] We are perhaps not entirely acquainted with the mechanical powers of
+the ancients. The seated statue of Rameses II., in the Memnonium at
+Thebes, a solid block of granite forty or fifty feet high, has been
+broken to pieces apparently by a tremendous blow. How this can have been
+accomplished without the aid of gunpowder it is difficult to conjecture.
+
+[10] For the benefit of the reader I subjoin two of there songs
+translated from the originals; or rather, I may say, paraphrased:
+although the first of them has the same rhythm as the original. The
+notes are but very little, if at all, altered from those which have been
+frequently sung to me, accompanied by a drum, called a tarabouka, or a
+long sort of guitar with only two or three strings. It must be observed
+that the chorus, Amaan, Amaan, Amaan, is generally added to all
+songs--_à discrétion_--and that the way this chorus is howled out, is to
+an European ear the most difficult part to bear of the whole:--
+
+                      1.
+
+    Thine eyes, thine eyes have kill'd me:
+      With love my heart is torn:
+    Thy looks with pain have fill'd me:
+      Amaan, Amaan, Amaan.
+
+                      2.
+
+    Oh gently, dearest! gently,
+      Approach me not with scorn:
+    With one sweet look content me:
+      Amaan, Amaan, Amaan.
+
+                      3.
+
+    That yellow shawl encloses
+      A form made to adorn
+    A Peri's bower of roses:
+      Amaan, Amaan, Amaan.
+
+                      4.
+
+    The snows, the snows are melting
+      On the hills of Isfahan.
+    As fair, be as relenting:
+      Amaan, Amaan, Amaan.
+
+           *       *       *       *
+
+                      1.
+
+    Let not her, whose eyelids sleep,
+    Imagine I no vigil keep.
+    Alas! with hope and love I burn:
+    Ah! do not from thy lover turn!
+
+                      2.
+
+    Patron of lovers, Bedowi!
+      Ah! give me her I hold most dear;
+    And I will vow to her, and thee,
+      The brightest shawl In all Cashmere.
+
+                      3.
+
+    Ah! when I view thy loveliness,
+      The lustre of thy deep black eye,
+    My songs but add to my distress!
+      Let me behold thee once, and die.
+
+                      4.
+
+    Think not that scorn and bitter words
+      Can make me from my true love sever!
+    Pierce our hearts, then, with your swords:
+      The blood of both will flow together.
+
+                      5.
+
+    Fill us the golden bowl with wine;
+      Give us the ripe and downy peach:
+    And, in this bower of jessamine,
+      No sorrows our retreat shall reach.
+
+                      6.
+
+    Masr may boast her lovely girls,
+      Whose necks are deck'd with pearls and gold:
+    The gold would fall; the purest pearls
+      Would blush could they my love behold.
+
+                      7.
+
+    Famed Skanderieh's beauties, too,
+      On Syria's richest silks recline:
+    Their rosy lips are sweet, 'tis true;
+      But can they be compar'd to thine?
+
+                      8.
+
+    Fairest! your beauty comes from Heaven:
+    Freely the lovely gift was given.
+    Resist not, then, the high decree--
+    'Twas fated I should sigh for thee.
+
+This last song is well known upon the Nile by the name of its chorus,
+_Doas ya leili_.
+
+[11] This sword is used by the Reverendissimo, the title given to the
+superior of the Franciscans, when he confers the order of Knight of the
+Holy Sepulchre, which is only given to a Roman Catholic of noble birth.
+The Reverendissimo is also authorised by the Pope to give a flag bearing
+the Five Crosses of Jerusalem to the captain of any ship who has
+rendered service to the Catholic religion. These honours were first
+instituted by the Christian Kings of Jerusalem, but they are now sold by
+the monks for about forty dollars to any Roman Catholic who likes to pay
+for them.
+
+[12] On another occasion some years afterwards, I was waiting in the
+same place, when I wandered into the new Patriarchal church which opens
+on this court: while I stood there, a corpse was brought in on a bier,
+followed by many persons, who I suppose were the relations and friends
+of the deceased. After the funeral service had been read by a priest,
+every person in the church went up to the bier and kissed the dead man's
+hand and forehead: this is the usual custom, and an affecting one to see
+when friends bid friends a last farewell. But this man had died of some
+fearful and horrible disease, perhaps the plague, which through this
+horrid means may have been distributed to half the congregation.
+
+[13] All eastern cities are infested with troops of half-wild dogs, who
+act the part of scavengers, and live upon the refuse food which is
+thrown into the streets.
+
+[14]
+
+     DIRECTION.--"To the blessed Inspectors, Officers, Chiefs, and
+     Representatives of the Holy Community of Monte Santo, and to the
+     Holy Fathers of the same, and of all other sacred convents, our
+     beloved Sons.
+
+"We, Gregorios, Patriarch, Archbishop Universal, Metropolitan of
+Constantinople, &c. &c. &c.
+
+     "Blessed Inspectors, Officers, Superiors, and Representatives of
+     the Community of the Holy Mountain, and other Holy Fathers of the
+     same, and of the other Holy and Venerable Convents subject to our
+     holy universal Throne. Peace be to you.
+
+"The bearer of the present, our patriarchal sheet, the Honourable Robert
+Curzon, of a noble English family, recommended to us by most worthy and
+much-honoured persons, intending to travel and wishing to be instructed
+in the old and new philology, thinks to satisfy his curiosity by
+repairing to those sacred convents which may have any connexion with his
+intentions. We recommend his person, therefore, to you all: and we order
+and require of you, that you not only receive him with every esteem and
+every possible hospitality, in each and in the several holy convents;
+but to lend yourselves readily to all his wants and desires, and to give
+him precise and clear explanations to all his interrogations relative to
+his philological examinations, obliging yourselves, and lending
+yourselves, in a manner not only fully to satisfy and content him, but
+so that he shall approve of and praise your conduct.
+
+"This we desire and require to be executed, rewarding you with the
+Divine and with our blessing.
+
+    "(Signed) GREGORIOS, Universal Patriarch.
+
+"Constantinople, 1 (13) July, 1837."
+
+[15] Ridiculous as these pictorial representations of the Last Judgment
+appear to us, one of them was the cause of a whole nation's embracing
+Christianity. Bogoris, king of Bulgaria, having written to
+Constantinople for a painter to decorate the walls of his palace, a monk
+named Methodius was sent to him--all knowledge of the arts in those days
+being confined to the clergy. The king desired Methodius to paint on a
+certain wall the most terrible picture that he could imagine; and, by
+the advice of the king's sister, who had embraced Christianity some
+years before whilst in captivity at Constantinople, the monastic artist
+produced so fearful a representation of the torments of the condemned in
+the next world, that it had the effect of converting Bogoris to the
+Christian faith. In consequence of this event the Patriarch of
+Constantinople despatched a bishop to Bulgaria, who baptised the king by
+the name of Michael in the year 865. Before long his loyal subjects,
+following the example of their sovereign, were converted also; and
+Christianity from that period became the religion of the land.
+
+[16] In the early ages of the Greek church the Epiphany was a day of
+very great solemnity; for not only was the adoration of the Magi
+celebrated on the 6th of January, but also the changing of the water
+into wine at the marriage at Cana, the baptism, and even the birth of
+our Lord. On this day the holy water is blessed in the Greek church, by
+throwing a small cross into it, or otherwise by holding over it the
+cross, with a handle attached to it, which is used by the Greek clergy
+in the act of benediction.
+
+[17] The Emperor Leo the First was crowned by the Patriarch of Anatolia
+in the year 459. He is the first prince on record who received his crown
+from the hands of a bishop.
+
+[18] Mosheim's 'Ecclesiastical History;' Gibbon.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Visits To Monasteries in the Levant, by
+Robert Curzon
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diff --git a/32397-h/32397-h.htm b/32397-h/32397-h.htm
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+  The Project Gutenberg eBook of Visits To Monasteries In The Levant, by Robert Curzon.
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+<pre>
+
+Project Gutenberg's Visits To Monasteries in the Levant, by Robert Curzon
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Visits To Monasteries in the Levant
+
+Author: Robert Curzon
+
+Release Date: May 16, 2010 [EBook #32397]
+[This file last updated: March 2, 2024]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MONASTERIES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was
+produced from scanned images of public domain material
+from the Google Print project.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 321px;">
+<a href="images/cover_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/cover.jpg"
+id="coverpage" width="321" height="550" alt="Book's cover: CURZON'S MONASTERIES" title="Book's cover: CURZON'S MONASTERIES" /></a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width:600px;"><a name="Frontispiece" id="Frontispiece"></a>
+<a href="images/ill_013.jpg">
+<img src="images/ill_013_thumb.jpg" width="550" height="359" alt="From a Drawing made on the spot by Viscount Eastnor.
+VIEW OF THE GREAT MONASTERY OF METEORA, FROM THE MONASTERY OF BARLAAM,
+WITH THE RIVER PENEUS IN THE DISTANCE." title="From a Drawing made on the spot by Viscount Eastnor.
+VIEW OF THE GREAT MONASTERY OF METEORA, FROM THE MONASTERY OF BARLAAM,
+WITH THE RIVER PENEUS IN THE DISTANCE." /></a>
+<p class="r caption">From a Drawing made on the spot by Viscount Eastnor.</p>
+<p class="caption">VIEW OF THE GREAT MONASTERY OF METEORA, FROM THE MONASTERY OF BARLAAM,
+WITH THE RIVER PENEUS IN THE DISTANCE.</p>
+</div>
+
+<h1 class="top15">VISITS TO MONASTERIES</h1>
+
+<p class="c">IN</p>
+
+<h1>THE LEVANT.</h1>
+
+<p class="c">BY THE</p>
+
+<h2>HON<span class="ble">BLE.</span> ROBERT CURZON, J<span class="sml60">UN.</span></h2>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width:550px;"><a name="Title_Vignette" id="Title_Vignette"></a>
+<a href="images/ill_016.jpg">
+<img src="images/ill_016_thumb.jpg" width="350" height="390" alt="From a Sketch by R. Curzon.
+Interior of the Court of a Greek Monastery. A monk is calling the congregation to
+prayer, by beating a board called the simandro (&#963;&#953;&#956;&#945;&#957;&#948;&#961;&#959;) which is generally used instead
+of bells." title="Interior of the Court of a Greek Monastery. A monk is calling the congregation to
+prayer, by beating a board called the simandro (&#963;&#953;&#956;&#945;&#957;&#948;&#961;&#959;) which is generally used instead
+of bells." /></a>
+<p class="r caption">From a Sketch by R. Curzon.</p>
+<p class="caption">Interior of the Court of a Greek Monastery. A monk is calling the congregation to
+prayer, by beating a board called the simandro (&#963;&#953;&#956;&#945;&#957;&#948;&#961;&#959;) which is generally used instead
+of bells.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="c">WITH NUMEROUS WOODCUTS.<br />
+<br /><br />
+LONDON:<br />
+JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.<br />
+1849.<br />
+</p>
+
+<table summary="contents" style="text-align:center;padding:2%;border:double 3px gray;margin-top:10%;">
+<tr><td><a href="#CONTENTS">Contents</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">List of Illustrations</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><a href="#FOOTNOTES">Footnotes</a></td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<h3>PREFACE.</h3>
+
+<p class="wig">\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/</p>
+
+<p class="nind">I<span class="smcap">n</span> presenting to the public another book of travels in the East, when it
+is already overwhelmed with little volumes about palm-trees and camels,
+and reflections on the Pyramids, I am aware that I am committing an act
+which requires some better excuse for so unwarrantable an intrusion on
+the patience of the reader than any that I am able to offer.</p>
+
+<p>The origin of these pages is as follows:&mdash;I was staying by myself in an
+old country-house belonging to my family, but not often inhabited by
+them, and, having nothing to do in the evening, I looked about for some
+occupation to amuse the passing hours. In the room where I was sitting
+there was a large book-case full of ancient manuscripts, many of which
+had been collected by myself, in various out-of-the-way places, in
+different parts of the world. Taking some of these ponderous volumes
+from their shelves, I turned over their wide vellum leaves, and admired
+the antiquity of one, and the gold and azure which gleamed upon the
+pages of another. The sight of these books brought before my mind many
+scenes and recollections of the countries from which they came, and I
+said to myself, I know what I will do; I will write down some account of
+the most curious of these manuscripts, and the places in which they were
+found, as well as some of the adventures which I encountered in the
+pursuit of my venerable game.</p>
+
+<p>I sat down accordingly, and in a short time accumulated a heap of papers
+connected more or less with the history of the ancient manuscripts; at
+the desire of some of my friends I selected the following pages, and it
+is with great diffidence that I present them to the public. If they have
+any merits whatever, these must consist in their containing descriptions
+of localities but seldom visited in modern times; or if they refer to
+places better known to the general reader, I hope that the peculiar
+circumstances which occurred during my stay there, or on my journeys
+through the neighbouring countries, may be found sufficiently
+interesting to afford some excuse for my presumption in sending them to
+the press.</p>
+
+<p>I have no further apology to offer. These slight sketches were written
+for my own diversion when I had nothing better to do, and if they afford
+any pleasure to the reader under the same circumstances, they will
+answer as much purpose as was intended in their composition.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h3><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS.</h3>
+
+<table summary="toc"
+cellspacing="4" cellpadding="0">
+<tr><td><p class="hang"><a href="#INTRODUCTORY_CHAPTER">INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER</a></p></td><td align="right"><p><a href="#page_xix">Page&nbsp;xix</a></p></td></tr>
+
+<tr class="part"><td colspan="2"><a href="#PART_I">PART I.</a><br />
+EGYPT IN 1833.</td></tr>
+
+<tr class="part"><td colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td><p class="hang">Navarino&mdash;The Wrecks of the Turkish and Egyptian Fleets&mdash;Alexandria&mdash;An
+Arab Pilot&mdash;Intense Heat&mdash;Scene from the Hotel
+Windows&mdash;The Water-Carriers&mdash;A Procession&mdash;A Bridal Party&mdash;Violent
+mode of clearing the Road&mdash;Submissive Behaviour of
+the People&mdash;Astonishing Number of Donkeys&mdash;Bedouin Arabs;
+their wild and savage appearance&mdash;Early Hours&mdash;Visit to the
+Pasha's Prime Minister, Boghos Bey; hospitable reception&mdash;Kawasses
+and Chaoushes; their functions and powers&mdash;The Yassakjis&mdash;The
+Minister's Audience Chamber&mdash;Walmas; anecdote
+of his saving the life of Boghos Bey</p></td><td align="right"><p><a href="#page_001">1</a></p></td></tr>
+
+<tr class="part"><td colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td><p class="hang">Rapacity of the Dragomans&mdash;The Mahmoudieh Canal&mdash;The Nile
+at Atfeh&mdash;The muddy Waters of the Nile&mdash;Richness of the Soil&mdash;Accident
+to the Boatmen&mdash;Night Sailing&mdash;A Collision&mdash;A
+Vessel run down&mdash;Escape of the Crew&mdash;Solemn Investigation&mdash;Final
+Judgment&mdash;Curious Mode of Fishing&mdash;Tameness of the
+Birds&mdash;Jewish Malefactors&mdash;Moving Pillar of Sand&mdash;Arrival
+at Cairo&mdash;Hospitable Reception by the Consul-General</p></td><td align="right"><p><a href="#page_014">14</a></p></td></tr>
+
+<tr class="part"><td colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td><p class="hang">National Topics of Conversation&mdash;The Rising of the Nile; evil
+effects of its rising too high; still worse consequences of a deficiency
+of its waters&mdash;The Nilometer&mdash;Universal Alarm in August, 1833&mdash;The
+Nile at length rises to the desired Height&mdash;Ceremony of
+cutting the Embankment&mdash;The Canal of the Khalidj&mdash;Immense
+Assemblage of People&mdash;The State Tent&mdash;Arrival of Habeeb
+Effendi&mdash;Splendid Dresses of the Officers&mdash;Exertions of the Arab
+Workmen&mdash;Their Scramble for Paras&mdash;Admission of the Water&mdash;Its
+sudden Irruption&mdash;Excitement of the Ladies&mdash;Picturesque
+Effect of large Assemblies in the East</p></td><td align="right"><p><a href="#page_027">27</a></p></td></tr>
+
+<tr class="part"><td colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td><p class="hang">Early Hours in the Levant&mdash;Compulsory Use of Lanterns in Cairo&mdash;Separation
+of the different Quarters of the City&mdash;Custom of sleeping
+in the open air&mdash;The Mahomedan Times of Prayer&mdash;Impressive
+Effect of the Morning Call to Prayer from the Minarets&mdash;The
+last Prayer-time, Al Assr&mdash;Bedouin Mode of ascertaining this
+Hour&mdash;Ancient Form of the Mosques&mdash;The Mosque of Sultan
+Hassan&mdash;Egyptian Mode of "raising the Supplies"&mdash;Sultan
+Hassan's Mosque the Scene of frequent Conflicts&mdash;The Slaughter
+of the Mameluke Beys in the Place of Roumayli&mdash;Escape of one
+Mameluke, and his subsequent Friendship with Mohammed Ali&mdash;The
+Talisman of Cairo&mdash;Joseph's Well and Hall&mdash;Mohammed
+Ali's Mosque&mdash;His Residence in the Citadel&mdash;The Harem&mdash;Degraded
+State of the Women in the East</p></td><td align="right"><p><a href="#page_035">35</a></p></td></tr>
+
+<tr class="part"><td colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td><p class="hang">Interview with Mohammed Ali Pasha&mdash;Mode of lighting a Room in
+Egypt&mdash;Personal Appearance of the Pasha&mdash;His Diamond-mounted
+Pipe&mdash;The lost Handkerchief&mdash;An unceremonious
+Attendant&mdash;View of Cairo from the Citadel&mdash;Site of Memphis;
+its immense extent&mdash;The Tombs of the Caliphs&mdash;The Pasha's
+Mausoleum&mdash;Costume of Egyptian Ladies&mdash;The Cobcob, or
+Wooden Clog&mdash;Mode of dressing the Hair&mdash;The Veil&mdash;Mistaken
+Idea that the Egyptian Ladies are Prisoners in the Harem;
+their power of doing as they like&mdash;The Veil a complete Disguise&mdash;Laws
+of the Harem&mdash;A Levantine Beauty&mdash;Eastern Manners&mdash;The
+Abyssinian Slaves&mdash;Arab Girls&mdash;Ugliness of the Arab
+Women when old&mdash;Venerable Appearance of the old Men&mdash;An
+Arab Sheick</p></td><td align="right"><p><a href="#page_047">47</a></p></td></tr>
+
+<tr class="part"><td colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td><p class="hang">Mohammed Bey, Defterdar&mdash;His Expedition to Senaar&mdash;His Barbarity
+and Rapacity&mdash;His Defiance of the Pasha&mdash;Stories of his
+Cruelty and Tyranny&mdash;The Horse-shoe&mdash;The Fight of the
+Mamelukes&mdash;His cruel Treachery&mdash;His Mode of administering
+Justice&mdash;The stolen Milk&mdash;The Widow's Cow&mdash;Sale and Distribution
+of the Thief&mdash;The Turkish Character&mdash;Pleasures of a
+Journey on the Nile&mdash;The Copts&mdash;Their Patriarchs&mdash;The Patriarch
+of Abyssinia&mdash;Basileos Bey&mdash;His Boat&mdash;An American's
+choice of a Sleeping-place</p></td><td align="right"><p><a href="#page_064">64</a></p></td></tr>
+
+<tr class="part"><td colspan="2"><p class="wig">\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/</p></td></tr>
+
+<tr class="part"><td colspan="2"><a href="#NATRON_LAKES">NATRON LAKES.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr class="part"><td colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td><p class="hang">Visit to the Coptic Monasteries near the Natron Lakes&mdash;The Desert
+of Nitria&mdash;Early Christian Anchorites&mdash;St. Macarius of Alexandria&mdash;His
+Abstinence and Penance&mdash;Order of Monks founded
+by him&mdash;Great increase of the Number of ascetic Monks in the
+Fourth Century&mdash;Their subsequent decrease, and the present
+ruined state of the Monasteries&mdash;Legends of the Desert&mdash;Capture
+of a Lizard&mdash;Its alarming escape&mdash;The Convent of Baramous&mdash;Night
+attacks&mdash;Invasion of Sanctuary&mdash;Ancient Glass Lamps&mdash;Monastery
+of Souriani&mdash;Its Library and Coptic MSS.&mdash;The Blind
+Abbot and his Oil-cellar&mdash;The persuasive powers of Rosoglio&mdash;Discovery
+of Syriac MSS.&mdash;The Abbot's supposed treasure</p></td><td align="right"><p><a href="#page_075">75</a></p></td></tr>
+
+<tr class="part"><td colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td><p class="hang">View from the Convent Wall&mdash;Appearance of the Desert&mdash;Its
+grandeur and freedom&mdash;Its contrast to the Convent Garden&mdash;Beauty
+and luxuriance of Eastern Vegetation&mdash;Picturesque Group
+of the Monks and their Visitors&mdash;The Abyssinian Monks&mdash;Their
+appearance&mdash;Their austere mode of Life&mdash;The Abyssinian
+College&mdash;Description of the Library&mdash;The mode of Writing in
+Abyssinia&mdash;Immense Labour required to write an Abyssinian
+book&mdash;Paintings and Illuminations&mdash;Disappointment of the
+Abbot at finding the supposed Treasure-box only an old Book&mdash;Purchase
+of the MSS. and Books&mdash;The most precious left behind&mdash;Since
+acquired for the British Museum</p></td><td align="right"><p><a href="#page_090">90</a></p></td></tr>
+
+<tr class="part"><td colspan="2"><p class="wig">\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/</p></td></tr>
+
+<tr class="part"><td colspan="2"><a href="#THE_CONVENT_OF_THE_PULLEY">THE CONVENT OF THE PULLEY.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr class="part"><td colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td><p class="hang">The Convent of the Pulley&mdash;Its inaccessible position&mdash;Difficult
+landing on the bank of the Nile&mdash;Approach to the Convent
+through the Rocks&mdash;Description of the Convent and its Inhabitants&mdash;Plan
+of the Church&mdash;Books and MSS.&mdash;Ancient
+excavations&mdash;Stone Quarries and ancient Tombs&mdash;Alarm of the
+Copts&mdash;Their ideas of a Sketch-book</p></td><td align="right"><p><a href="#page_105">105</a></p></td></tr>
+
+<tr class="part"><td colspan="2"><p class="wig">\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/</p></td></tr>
+
+<tr class="part"><td colspan="2"><a href="#RUINED_MONASTERY_AT_THEBES">RUINED MONASTERY AT THEBES.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr class="part"><td colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td><p class="hang">Ruined Monastery in the Necropolis of Thebes&mdash;"Mr. Hay's Tomb"&mdash;The
+Coptic Carpenter&mdash;His acquirements and troubles&mdash;He
+agrees to show the MSS. belonging to the ruined Monastery, which
+are under his charge&mdash;Night visit to the Tomb in which they are
+concealed&mdash;Perils of the way&mdash;Description of the Tomb&mdash;Probably
+in former times a Christian Church&mdash;Examination of the
+Coptic MSS.&mdash;Alarming interruption&mdash;Hurried flight from the
+Evil Spirits&mdash;Fortunate escape&mdash;Appearance of the Evil Spirit&mdash;Observations
+on Ghost Stories&mdash;The Legend of the Old Woman
+of Berkeley considered</p></td><td align="right"><p><a href="#page_117">117</a></p></td></tr>
+
+<tr class="part"><td colspan="2"><p class="wig">\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/</p></td></tr>
+
+<tr class="part"><td colspan="2"><a href="#THE_WHITE_MONASTERY">THE WHITE MONASTERY.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr class="part"><td colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td><p class="hang">The White Monastery&mdash;Abou Shenood&mdash;Devastations of the Mamelukes&mdash;Description
+of the Monastery&mdash;Different styles of its
+exterior and interior Architecture&mdash;Its ruinous condition&mdash;Description
+of the Church&mdash;The Baptistery&mdash;Ancient Rites of
+Baptism&mdash;The Library&mdash;Modern Architecture&mdash;The Church of
+San Francesco at Rimini&mdash;The Red Monastery&mdash;Alarming rencontre
+with an armed party&mdash;Feuds between the native Tribes&mdash;Faction
+fights&mdash;Eastern Story Tellers&mdash;Legends of the Desert&mdash;Abraham
+and Sarah&mdash;Legendary Life of Moses&mdash;Arabian Story-tellers&mdash;Attention
+of their Audience</p></td><td align="right"><p><a href="#page_130">130</a></p></td></tr>
+
+<tr class="part"><td colspan="2"><p class="wig">\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/</p></td></tr>
+
+<tr class="part"><td colspan="2"><a href="#THE_ISLAND_OF_PHILOE_c">THE ISLAND OF PHIL&#338;, &amp;c.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr class="part"><td colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td><p class="hang">The Island of Phil&#339;&mdash;The Cataract of Assouan&mdash;The Burial Place
+of Osiris&mdash;The Great Temple of Phil&#339;&mdash;The Bed of Pharaoh&mdash;Shooting
+in Egypt&mdash;Turtle Doves&mdash;Story of the Prince Anas el
+Ajoud&mdash;Egyptian Songs&mdash;Vow of the Turtle Dove&mdash;Curious
+fact in Natural History&mdash;The Crocodile and its Guardian Bird&mdash;Arab
+notions regarding Animals&mdash;Legend of King Solomon and
+the Hoopoes&mdash;Natives of the country round the Cataracts of the
+Nile&mdash;Their appearance and Costume&mdash;The beautiful Mouna&mdash;Solitary
+Visit to the Island of Phil&#339;&mdash;Quarrel between two native
+Boys&mdash;Singular instance of retributive Justice</p></td><td align="right"><p><a href="#page_141">141</a></p></td></tr>
+
+<tr class="part"><td colspan="2"><p class="wig">\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/</p></td></tr>
+
+<tr class="part"><td colspan="2"><a href="#PART_II">PART II.</a><br />
+<a href="#JERUSALEM_AND_THE_MONASTERY">JERUSALEM AND THE MONASTERY
+AT ST. SABBA.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr class="part"><td colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td><p class="hang">Journey to Jerusalem&mdash;First View of the Holy City&mdash;The Valley
+of Gihon&mdash;Appearance of the City&mdash;The Latin Convent of St.
+Salvador&mdash;Inhospitable Reception by the Monks&mdash;Visit to the
+Church of the Holy Sepulchre&mdash;Description of the Interior&mdash;The
+Chapel of the Sepulchre&mdash;The Chapel of the Cross on Mount
+Calvary&mdash;The Tomb and Sword of Godfrey de Bouillon&mdash;Arguments
+in favour of the Authenticity of the Holy Sepulchre&mdash;The
+Invention of the Cross by the Empress Helena&mdash;Legend of the
+Cross</p></td><td align="right"><p><a href="#page_165">165</a></p></td></tr>
+
+<tr class="part"><td colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td><p class="hang">The Via Dolorosa&mdash;The Houses of Dives and of Lazarus&mdash;The
+Prison of St Peter&mdash;The Site of the Temple of Solomon&mdash;The
+Mosque of Omar&mdash;The Hadjr el Sakhara&mdash;The Greek Monastery&mdash;Its
+Library&mdash;Valuable Manuscripts&mdash;Splendid MS. of the
+Book of Job&mdash;Arabic spoken at Jerusalem&mdash;Mussulman Theory
+regarding the Crucifixion&mdash;State of the Jews&mdash;Richness of their
+Dress in their own Houses&mdash;Beauty of their Women&mdash;Their
+literal Interpretation of Scripture&mdash;The Service in the Synagogue&mdash;Description
+of the House of a Rabbi&mdash;The Samaritans&mdash;Their
+Roll of the Pentateuch&mdash;Arrival of Ibrahim Pasha at
+Jerusalem</p></td><td align="right"><p><a href="#page_181">181</a></p></td></tr>
+
+<tr class="part"><td colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td><p class="hang">Expedition to the Monastery of St. Sabba&mdash;Reports of Arab Robbers&mdash;The
+Valley of Jehoshaphat&mdash;The Bridge of Al Sirat&mdash;Rugged
+Scenery&mdash;An Arab Ambuscade&mdash;A successful Parley&mdash;The
+Monastery of St. Sabba&mdash;History of the Saint&mdash;The Greek
+Hermits&mdash;The Church&mdash;The Iconostasis&mdash;The Library&mdash;Numerous
+MSS.&mdash;The Dead Sea&mdash;The Scene of the Temptation&mdash;Discovery&mdash;The
+Apple of the Dead Sea&mdash;The Statements of
+Strabo and Pliny confirmed</p></td><td align="right"><p><a href="#page_192">192</a></p></td></tr>
+
+<tr class="part"><td colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td><p class="hang">Church of the Holy Sepulchre&mdash;Processions of the Copts&mdash;The
+Syrian Maronites and the Greeks&mdash;Riotous Behaviour of the Pilgrims&mdash;Their
+immense numbers&mdash;The Chant of the Latin Monks&mdash;Ibrahim
+Pasha&mdash;The Exhibition of the Sacred Fire&mdash;Excitement
+of the Pilgrims&mdash;The Patriarch obtains the Sacred Fire from the
+Holy Sepulchre&mdash;Contest for the Holy Light&mdash;Immense sum paid
+for the privilege of receiving it first&mdash;Fatal Effects of the Heat
+and Smoke&mdash;Departure of Ibrahim Pasha&mdash;Horrible Catastrophe&mdash;Dreadful
+Loss of Life among the Pilgrims in their endeavours
+to leave the Church&mdash;Battle with the Soldiers&mdash;Our Narrow
+Escape&mdash;Shocking Scene in the Court of the Church&mdash;Humane
+Conduct of Ibrahim Pasha&mdash;Superstition of the Pilgrims regarding
+Shrouds&mdash;Scallop Shells and Palm Branches&mdash;The Dead
+Muleteer&mdash;Moonlight View of the Dead Bodies&mdash;The Curse on
+Jerusalem&mdash;Departure from the Holy City</p></td><td align="right"><p><a href="#page_208">208</a></p></td></tr>
+
+<tr class="part"><td colspan="2"><p class="wig">\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/</p></td></tr>
+
+<tr class="part"><td colspan="2"><a href="#PART_III">PART III.</a><br />
+<a href="#THE_MONASTERIES_OF_METEORA">THE MONASTERIES OF METEORA.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr class="part"><td colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td><p class="hang">Albania&mdash;Ignorance at Corfu concerning that Country&mdash;Its reported
+abundance of Game and Robbers&mdash;The Disturbed State of the
+Country&mdash;The Albanians&mdash;Richness of their Arms&mdash;Their free
+use of them&mdash;Comparative Safety of Foreigners&mdash;Tragic Fate of
+a German Botanist&mdash;Arrival at Gominitza&mdash;Ride to Paramathia&mdash;A
+Night's Bivouac&mdash;Reception at Paramathia&mdash;Albanian Ladies&mdash;Yanina&mdash;Albanian
+Mode of settling a Quarrel&mdash;Expected
+Attack from Robbers&mdash;A Body-Guard mounted&mdash;Audience with
+the Vizir&mdash;His Views of Criminal Jurisprudence&mdash;Retinue of the
+Vizir&mdash;His Troops&mdash;Adoption of the European Exercises&mdash;Expedition
+to Berat&mdash;Calmness and Self-possession of the Turks&mdash;Active
+Preparations for Warfare&mdash;Scene at the Bazaar&mdash;Valiant
+Promises of the Soldiers</p></td><td align="right"><p><a href="#page_235">235</a></p></td></tr>
+
+<tr class="part"><td colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td><p class="hang">Start for Meteora&mdash;Rencontre with a Wounded Traveller&mdash;Barbarity
+of the Robbers&mdash;Albanian Innkeeper&mdash;Effect of the
+Turkish Language upon the Greeks&mdash;Mezzovo&mdash;Interview with
+the chief Person in the Village&mdash;Mount Pindus&mdash;Capture by
+Robbers&mdash;Salutary effects of Swaggering&mdash;Arrival under Escort
+at the Robbers' Head-Quarters&mdash;Affairs take a favourable turn&mdash;An
+unexpected Friendship with the Robber Chief&mdash;The Khan of
+Malacash&mdash;Beauty of the Scenery&mdash;Activity of our Guards&mdash;Loss
+of Character&mdash;Arrival at Meteora</p></td><td align="right"><p><a href="#page_257">257</a></p></td></tr>
+
+<tr class="part"><td colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td><p class="hang">Meteora&mdash;The extraordinary Character of its Scenery&mdash;Its Caves
+formerly the Resort of Ascetics&mdash;Barbarous Persecution of the
+Hermits&mdash;Their extraordinary Religious Observances&mdash;Singular
+Position of the Monasteries&mdash;The Monastery of Barlaam&mdash;The
+difficulty of reaching it&mdash;Ascent by a Windlass and Net, or by
+Ladders&mdash;Narrow Escape&mdash;Hospitable Reception by the Monks&mdash;The Agoumenos,
+or Abbot&mdash;His strict Fast&mdash;Description of
+the Monastery&mdash;The Church&mdash;Symbolism in the Greek Church&mdash;Respect
+for Antiquity&mdash;The Library&mdash;Determination of the
+Abbot not to sell any of the MSS.&mdash;The Refectory&mdash;Its Decorations&mdash;Aërial Descent&mdash;The
+Monastery of Hagios Stephanos&mdash;Its
+Carved Iconostasis&mdash;Beautiful View from the Monastery&mdash;Monastery
+of Agia Triada&mdash;Summary Justice at Triada&mdash;Monastery
+of Agia Roserea&mdash;Its Lady Occupants&mdash;Admission
+refused</p></td><td align="right"><p><a href="#page_279">279</a></p></td></tr>
+
+<tr class="part"><td colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td><p class="hang">The great Monastery of Meteora&mdash;The Church&mdash;Ugliness of the
+Portraits of Greek Saints&mdash;Greek Mode of Washing the Hands&mdash;A
+Monastic Supper&mdash;Morning View from the Monastery&mdash;The
+Library&mdash;Beautiful MSS.&mdash;Their Purchase&mdash;The Kitchen&mdash;Discussion
+among the Monks as to the Purchase Money for the
+MSS.&mdash;The MSS. reclaimed&mdash;A last look at their Beauties&mdash;Proposed
+Assault of the Monastery by the Robber Escort</p></td><td align="right"><p><a href="#page_298">298</a></p></td></tr>
+
+<tr class="part"><td colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td><p class="hang">Return Journey&mdash;Narrow Escape&mdash;Consequences of Singing&mdash;Arrival
+at the Khan of Malacash&mdash;Agreeable Anecdote&mdash;Parting
+from the Robbers at Messovo&mdash;A Pilau&mdash;Wet Ride to
+Paramathia&mdash;Accident to the Baggage-Mule&mdash;Its wonderful
+Escape&mdash;Novel Costume&mdash;A Deputation&mdash;Return to Corfu</p></td><td align="right"><p><a href="#page_312">312</a></p></td></tr>
+
+<tr class="part"><td colspan="2"><p class="wig">\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/</p></td></tr>
+
+<tr class="part"><td colspan="2"><a href="#PART_IV">PART IV.</a><br />
+<a href="#THE_MONASTERIES_OF_MOUNT_ATHOS">THE MONASTERIES OF MOUNT ATHOS.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr class="part"><td colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">CHAPTER XXII.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td><p class="hang">Constantinople&mdash;The Patriarch's Palace&mdash;The Plague, Anecdotes,
+Superstitions&mdash;The Two Jews&mdash;Interview with the Patriarch&mdash;Ceremonies
+of Reception&mdash;The Patriarch's Misconception as to
+the Archbishop of Canterbury&mdash;He addresses a Firman to the
+Monks of Mount Athos&mdash;Preparations for Departure&mdash;The Ugly
+Greek Interpreter&mdash;Mode of securing his Fidelity</p></td><td align="right"><p><a href="#page_327">327</a></p></td></tr>
+
+<tr class="part"><td colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">CHAPTER XXIII.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td><p class="hang">Coom Calessi&mdash;Uncomfortable Quarters&mdash;A Turkish Boat and its
+Crew&mdash;Grandeur of the Scenery&mdash;Legend of Jason and the
+Golden Fleece&mdash;The Island of Imbros&mdash;Heavy Rain Storm&mdash;A
+Rough Sea&mdash;Lemnos&mdash;Bad Accommodation&mdash;The Old
+Woman's Mattress and its Contents&mdash;Striking View of Mount
+Athos from the Sea&mdash;The Hermit of the Tower</p></td><td align="right"><p><a href="#page_342">342</a></p></td></tr>
+
+<tr class="part"><td colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">CHAPTER XXIV.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td><p class="hang">Monastery of St. Laura&mdash;Kind Reception by the Abbot&mdash;Astonishment
+of the Monks&mdash;History of the Monastery&mdash;Rules of
+the Order of St. Basil&mdash;Description of the Buildings&mdash;Curious
+Pictures of the Last Judgment&mdash;Early Greek Paintings; Richness
+of their Frames and Decorations&mdash;Ancient Church Plate&mdash;Beautiful
+Reliquary&mdash;The Refectory&mdash;The Abbot's Savoury
+Dish&mdash;The Library&mdash;The MSS.&mdash;Ride to the Monastery of
+Caracalla&mdash;Magnificent Scenery</p></td><td align="right"><p><a href="#page_356">356</a></p></td></tr>
+
+<tr class="part"><td colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">CHAPTER XXV.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td><p class="hang">The Monastery of Caracalla&mdash;Its beautiful Situation&mdash;Hospitable
+Reception&mdash;Description of the Monastery&mdash;Legend of its Foundation&mdash;The
+Church&mdash;Fine Specimens of Ancient Jewellery&mdash;The
+Library&mdash;The Value attached to the Books by the Abbot&mdash;He
+agrees to sell some of the MSS.&mdash;Monastery of Philotheo&mdash;The
+Great Monastery of Iveron&mdash;History of its Foundation&mdash;Its
+magnificent Library&mdash;Ignorance of the Monks&mdash;Superb MSS.&mdash;The
+Monks refuse to part with any of the MSS.&mdash;Beauty of the
+Scenery of Mount Athos</p></td><td align="right"><p><a href="#page_377">377</a></p></td></tr>
+
+<tr class="part"><td colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">CHAPTER XXVI.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td><p class="hang">The Monastery of Stavroniketa&mdash;The Library&mdash;Splendid MS. of
+St. Chrysostom&mdash;The Monastery of Pantocratoras&mdash;Ruinous Condition
+of the Library&mdash;Complete Destruction of the Books&mdash;Disappointment&mdash;Oration
+to the Monks&mdash;The Great Monastery
+of Vatopede&mdash;Its History&mdash;Ancient Pictures in the Church&mdash;Legend
+of the Girdle of the Blessed Virgin&mdash;The Library&mdash;Wealth
+and Luxury of the Monks&mdash;The Monastery of Sphigmenou&mdash;Beautiful
+Jewelled Cross&mdash;The Monastery of Kiliantari&mdash;Magnificent
+MS. in Gold Letters on White Vellum&mdash;The Monasteries
+of Zographou, Castamoneta, Docheirou, and Xenophou&mdash;The
+Exiled Bishops&mdash;The Library&mdash;Very fine MSS.&mdash;Proposals
+for their Purchase&mdash;Lengthened Negotiations&mdash;Their successful
+Issue</p></td><td align="right"><p><a href="#page_391">391</a></p></td></tr>
+
+<tr class="part"><td colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">CHAPTER XXVII.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td><p class="hang">The Monastery of Russico&mdash;Its Courteous Abbot&mdash;The Monastery
+of Xeropotamo&mdash;Its History&mdash;High Character of its Abbot&mdash;Excursion
+to the Monasteries of St. Nicholas and St. Dionisius&mdash;Interesting
+Relics&mdash;Magnificent Shrine&mdash;The Library&mdash;The
+Monastery of St. Paul&mdash;Respect shown by the Monks&mdash;Beautiful
+MS.&mdash;Extraordinary Liberality and Kindness of the Abbot and
+Monks&mdash;A valuable Acquisition at little Cost&mdash;The Monastery
+of Simopetra&mdash;Purchase of MS.&mdash;The Monk of Xeropotamo&mdash;His
+Ideas about Women&mdash;Excursion to Cariez&mdash;The Monastery
+of Coutloumoussi&mdash;The Russian Book-Stealer&mdash;History of the
+Monastery&mdash;Its reputed Destruction by the Pope of Rome&mdash;The
+Aga of Cariez&mdash;Interview in a Kiosk&mdash;The She Cat of Mount
+Athos</p></td><td align="right"><p><a href="#page_413">413</a></p></td></tr>
+
+<tr class="part"><td colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII">CHAPTER XXVIII.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td><p class="hang">Caracalla&mdash;The Agoumenos&mdash;Curious Cross&mdash;The Nuts of Caracalla&mdash;Singular
+Mode of preparing a Dinner Table&mdash;Departure
+from Mount Athos&mdash;Packing of the MSS.&mdash;Difficulties of the
+Way&mdash;Voyage to the Dardanelles&mdash;Apprehended Attack from
+Pirates&mdash;Return to Constantinople</p></td><td align="right"><p><a href="#page_436">436</a></p></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="#FOOTNOTES">Footnotes</a></td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<h3><a name="LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS" id="LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS"></a>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.</h3>
+<hr style="width: 5%;" />
+
+<p class="hang">The costumes are from drawings made at Constantinople by a Maltese
+artist. They are all portraits, and represent the costumes worn at
+the present day in different parts of the Turkish Empire. The
+others are from drawings and sketches by the Author, except one
+from a beautiful drawing by Lord Eastnor, for which the Author begs
+to express his thanks and obligations.</p>
+
+<table summary="note" style="background:#FFFFCC;font-weight:normal;">
+<tr><td>[Click directly on any image to view it full-sized. (note of etext transcriber.)]</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<hr style="width: 5%;" />
+
+<table summary="illustrations"
+cellpadding="0" cellspacing="4">
+<tr valign="bottom"><td>The Monastery of Meteora, from the Monastery<br />
+&nbsp; &nbsp;of Barlaam. From a Drawing by Viscount Eastnor</td><td colspan="2" align="right"><i><a href="#Frontispiece">Frontispiece</a></i></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td>Interior of the Court of a Greek Monastery</td><td align="right" colspan="2"><i><a href="#Title_Vignette">Title Vignette</a></i></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td>Koord, or Native of Koordistan</td><td align="center"><i>To face page</i></td><td align="right"><a href="#page_xxix">xxix</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td>Negress waiting to be Sold</td><td align="center">"</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_005">5</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td>Bedouin Arab</td><td align="center">"</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_007">7</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td>Egyptian in the Nizam Dress</td><td align="center">"</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_049">49</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td>Interior of an Abyssinian Library</td><td align="center">"</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_097">97</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td>Mendicant Dervish</td><td align="center">"</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_139">139</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td>Plan of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem</td><td align="center">"</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_165">165</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td>The Monastery of St. Barlaam</td><td align="center">"</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_235">235</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td>Tatar, or Government Messenger</td><td align="center">"</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_237">237</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td>Turkish common Soldier</td><td align="center">"</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_251">251</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td>The N.W. View of the Promontory of Mount Athos</td><td align="center"><i>To&nbsp;face&nbsp;Part&nbsp;IV.,&nbsp;p.</i></td><td align="right"><a href="#page_327">327</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td>Greek Sailor</td><td align="center"><i>To face p.</i></td><td align="right"><a href="#page_351">351</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td>The Monastery of Simopetra</td><td align="center">"</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_426">426</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td>Circassian Lady</td><td align="center">"</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_429">429</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="bottom"><td>Turkish Lady in the Yashmak or Veil</td><td align="center">"</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_434">434</a></td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<p><a name="page_xix" id="page_xix"></a></p>
+
+<h3><a name="INTRODUCTORY_CHAPTER" id="INTRODUCTORY_CHAPTER"></a>INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.</h3>
+
+<p class="wig">\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/</p>
+
+<p class="nind">A <span class="smcap">more</span> enlarged account of the Monasteries of the Levant would, I think,
+be interesting for many reasons if the task was undertaken by some one
+much more competent than myself to do justice to so curious a subject.
+In these monasteries resided the early fathers of the Church, and within
+the precincts of their time-hallowed walls were composed those writings
+which have since been looked up to as the rules of Christian life: from
+thence also were promulgated the doctrines of the Heresiarchs, which, in
+the early ages of the Church, were the causes of so much dissension and
+confusion, rancour and persecution, in the disastrous days of the
+decline and fall of the Roman empire.</p>
+
+<p>The monasteries of the East are besides particularly interesting to the
+lovers of the picturesque, from the beautiful situations in which they
+are almost invariably placed. The monastery of Megaspelion, on the coast
+of the Gulf of Corinth, is built in the mouth of an enormous cave. The
+monasteries of Meteora, and some of those on Mount Athos, are remarkable
+for their positions on the tops of inaccessible rocks; many of the
+convents in Syria, the islands of Cyprus, Candia, the Archipelago, and
+the Prince's Islands in the Sea of Marmora, are unrivalled for the
+beauty of the positions in which they stand; many others in Bulgaria,
+Asia Minor, Sinope, and other places on the shores of the Black Sea, are
+most curious monuments of ancient and romantic times. There is one on
+the road to Persia, about one day's journey inland from Trebizond, which
+is built half way up the side of a perpendicular precipice; it is
+ensconced in several fissures of the rock, and various little gardens
+adjoining the buildings display the industry of the monks; these are
+laid out on shelves or terraces wherever the nature of the spot affords
+a ledge of sufficient width to support the soil; the different parts of
+the monastery are approached by stairs and flights of steps cut in the
+face of the precipice, leading from one cranny to another; the whole has
+the appearance of a bas-relief stuck against a wall; this monastery
+partakes of the nature of a large swallow's nest. But it is for their
+architecture that the monasteries of the Levant are more particularly
+deserving of study; for, after the remains of the private houses of the
+Romans at Pompeii, they are the most ancient specimens extant of
+domestic architecture. The refectories, kitchens, and the cells of the
+monks exceed in point of antiquity anything of the kind in Europe. The
+monastery of St. Katherine at Mount Sinai has hardly been altered since
+the sixth century, and still contains ornaments presented to it by the
+Emperor Justinian. The White Monastery and the monastery at Old Cairo,
+both in Egypt, are still more ancient. The monastery of Kuzzul Vank,
+near the sources of the Euphrates, is, I believe, as old as the fifth
+century. The greater number in all the countries where the Greek faith
+prevails, were built before the year 1000. Most monasteries possess
+crosses, candlesticks, and reliquaries, many of splendid workmanship,
+and of the era of the foundation of the buildings which contain them,
+while their mosaics and fresco paintings display the state of the arts
+from the most early periods.</p>
+
+<p>It has struck me as remarkable that the architecture of the churches in
+these most ancient monasteries is hardly ever fine; they are usually
+small, being calculated only for the monks, and not for the reception of
+any other congregation. The Greek churches, even those which are not
+monastic, are far inferior both in size and interest to the Latin
+basilicas of Rome. With the single exception of the church (now mosque)
+of St. Sophia, there is no Byzantine church of any magnitude. The
+student of ecclesiastical antiquities need not extend his architectural
+researches beyond the shores of Italy: there is nothing in the East so
+curious as the church of St. Clemente at Rome, which contains all the
+original fittings of the choir. The churches of St. Ambrogio at Milan,
+of Sta. Maria Trastevere at Rome, the first church dedicated to the
+Blessed Virgin; the church of St. Agnese near Rome, the first in which
+galleries were built over the side aisles for the accommodation of
+women, who, neither in the Eastern nor Western churches, ever mixed with
+the men for many centuries; all these and several others in Italy afford
+more instruction than those of the East&mdash;they are larger, more
+magnificent, and in every respect superior to the ecclesiastical
+buildings of the Levant. But the poverty of the Eastern church, and its
+early subjection to Mahometan rulers, while it has kept down the size
+and splendour of the churches, has at the same time been the means of
+preserving the monastic establishments in all the rude originality of
+their ancient forms. In ordinary situations these buildings are of the
+same character: they resemble small villages, built mostly without much
+regard to any symmetrical plan, around a church which is constructed in
+the form of a Greek cross; the roof is covered either with one or five
+domes; all these buildings are surrounded by a high, strong wall, built
+as a fortification to protect the brotherhood within, not without
+reason, even in the present day. I have been quietly dining in a
+monastery, when shouts have been heard, and shots have been fired
+against the stout bulwarks of the outer walls, which, thanks to their
+protection, had but little effect in delaying the transit of the morsel
+between my fingers into the ready gulf provided by nature for its
+reception. The monks of the Greek Church have diminished in number and
+wealth of late years, their monasteries are no longer the schools of
+learning which they used to be; few can read the Hellenic or ancient
+Greek; and the following anecdote will suffice to show the estimation in
+which a conventual library has not unusually been held. A Russian, or I
+do not know whether he was not a French traveller, in the pursuit, as I
+was, of ancient literary treasures, found himself in a great monastery
+in Bulgaria to the north of the town of Cavalla; he had heard that the
+books preserved in this remote building were remarkable for their
+antiquity, and for the subjects on which they treated. His dismay and
+disappointment may be imagined when he was assured by the agoumenos or
+superior of the monastery, that it contained no library whatever, that
+they had nothing but the liturgies and church books, and no palaia
+pragmata or antiquities at all. The poor man had bumped upon a
+pack-saddle over villainous roads for many days for no other object, and
+the library of which he was in search had vanished as the visions of a
+dream. The agoumenos begged his guest to enter with the monks into the
+choir, where the almost continual church service was going on, and there
+he saw the double row of long-bearded holy fathers, shouting away at the
+chorus of <span title="kurie eleison ">&#954;&#965;&#961;&#953;&#949; &#949;&#955;&#949;&#953;&#963;&#959;&#957;</span>, <span title="christe eleison">
+&#967;&#961;&#953;&#963;&#964;&#949; &#949;&#955;&#949;&#953;&#963;&#959;&#957;</span> (pronounced Kyre eleizon, Christe eleizon), which occurs
+almost every minute, in the ritual of the Greek Church. Each of the
+monks was standing, to save his bare legs from the damp of the marble
+floor, upon a great folio volume, which had been removed from the
+conventual library and applied to purposes of practical utility in the
+way which I have described. The traveller on examining these ponderous
+tomes found them to be of the greatest value; one was in uncial letters,
+and others were full of illuminations of the earliest date; all these he
+was allowed to carry away in exchange for some footstools or hassocks,
+which he presented in their stead to the old monks; they were
+comfortably covered with ketché or felt, and were in many respects more
+convenient to the inhabitants of the monastery than the manuscripts had
+been, for many of their antique bindings were ornamented with bosses and
+nail heads, which inconvenienced the toes of the unsophisticated
+congregation who stood upon them without shoes for so many hours in the
+day. I must add that the lower halves of the manuscripts were imperfect,
+from the damp of the floor of the church having corroded and eat away
+their vellum leaves, and also that, as the story is not my own, I cannot
+vouch for the truth of it, though, whether it is true or not, it
+elucidates the present state of the literary attainments of the Oriental
+monks. Ignorance and superstition walk hand in hand, and the monks of
+the Eastern churches seem to retain in these days all the love for the
+marvellous which distinguished their Western brethren in the middle
+ages. Miraculous pictures abound, as well as holy springs and wells.
+Relics still perform wonderful cures. I will only as an illustration to
+this statement mention one of the standing objects of veneration which
+may be witnessed any day in the vicinity of the castle of the Seven
+Towers, outside of the walls of Constantinople: there a rich monastery
+stands in a lovely grove of trees, under whose shade numerous parties of
+merry Greeks often pass the day, dividing their time between drinking,
+dancing, and devotion.</p>
+
+<p>The unfortunate Emperor Constantine Paleologus rode out of the city
+alone to reconnoitre the outposts of the Turkish army, which was
+encamped in the immediate vicinity. In passing through a wood he found
+an old man seated by the side of a spring cooking some fish on a
+gridiron for his dinner; the emperor dismounted from his white horse and
+entered into conversation with the other; the old man looked up at the
+stranger in silence, when the emperor inquired whether he had heard
+anything of the movements of the Turkish forces&mdash;"Yes," said he, "they
+have this moment entered the city of Constantinople." "I would believe
+what you say," replied the emperor, "if the fish which you are broiling
+would jump off the gridiron into the spring." This, to his amazement,
+the fish immediately did, and, on his turning round, the figure of the
+old man had disappeared. The emperor mounted his horse and rode towards
+the gate of Silivria, where he was encountered by a band of the enemy
+and slain, after a brave resistance, by the hand of an Arab or a Negro.</p>
+
+<p>The broiled fishes still swim about in the water of the spring, the
+sides of which have been lined with white marble, in which are certain
+recesses where they can retire when they do not wish to receive company.
+The only way of turning the attention of these holy fish to the
+respectful presence of their adorers is accomplished by throwing
+something glittering into the water, such as a handful of gold or silver
+coin; gold is the best, copper produces no effect; he that sees one fish
+is lucky, he that sees two or three goes home a happy man; but the
+custom of throwing coins into the spring has become, from its constant
+practice, very troublesome to the good monks, who kindly depute one of
+their community to rake out the money six or seven times a day with a
+scraper at the end of a long pole. The emperor of Russia has sent
+presents to the shrine of Baloukli, so called from the Turkish word
+Balouk, a fish. Some wicked heretics have said that these fishes are
+common perch: either they or the monks must be mistaken, but of whatever
+kind they are, they are looked upon with reverence by the Greeks, and
+have been continually held in the highest honour from the time of the
+siege of Constantinople to the present day.</p>
+
+<p>I have hitherto noticed those monasteries only which are under the
+spiritual jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Constantinople, but those of
+the Copts of Egypt and the Maronites of Syria resemble them in almost
+every particular. As it has never been the custom of the Oriental
+Christians to bury the dead within the precincts of the church, they
+none of them contain sepulchral monuments. The bodies of the Byzantine
+emperors were enclosed in sarcophagi of precious marbles, which were
+usually deposited in chapels erected for the purpose&mdash;a custom which has
+been imitated by the sultans of Turkey. Of all these magnificent
+sarcophagi and chapels or mausoleums where the remains of the imperial
+families were deposited, only one remains intact; every one but this has
+been violated, destroyed, or carried away; the ashes of the Cæsars have
+been scattered to the winds. This is now known by the name of the chapel
+of St. Nazario e Celso, at Ravenna: it was built by Galla Placidia, the
+daughter of Theodosius; she died at Rome in 440, but her body was
+removed to Ravenna and deposited in a sarcophagus in this chapel; in the
+same place are two other sarcophagi, one containing the remains of
+Constantius, the second husband of Galla Placidia, and the other holding
+the body of her son Valentinian III. These tombs have never been
+disturbed, and are the only ones which remain intact of the entire line
+of the Cæsars, either of the Eastern or Western empires.</p>
+
+<p>The tombstones or monuments of the Armenians deserve to be mentioned on
+account of their singularity. They are usually oblong pieces of marble
+lying flat upon the ground; on these are sculptured representations of
+the implements of the trade at which the deceased had worked during his
+lifetime; some display the manner in which the Armenian met his death.
+In the Petit Champ des Morts at Pera I counted, I think, five tombstones
+with bas-reliefs of men whose heads had been cut off. In Armenia the
+traveller is often startled by the appearance of a gigantic stone figure
+of a ram, far away from any present habitation: this is the tomb of some
+ancient possessor of flocks and herds whose house and village have
+disappeared, and nothing but his tomb remains to mark the site which
+once was the abode of men.<a name="page_xxix" id="page_xxix"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 418px;">
+<a href="images/ill_040.jpg">
+<img src="images/ill_040_thumb.jpg" width="418" height="550" alt="KOORD, OR NATIVE OF KOORDISTAUN." title="KOORD, OR NATIVE OF KOORDISTAUN." /></a>
+<span class="caption">KOORD, OR NATIVE OF KOORDISTAUN.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The Armenian monasteries, with the exception of that of Etchmiazin and
+one or two others, are much smaller buildings than those of the Greeks;
+they are constructed after the same model, however, being surrounded
+with a high blank wall. Their churches are seldom surmounted by a dome,
+but are usually in the form of a small barn, with a high pitched roof,
+built like the walls of large squared stones. At one end of the church
+is a small door, and at the other end a semicircular apsis; the windows
+are small apertures like loop-holes. These buildings, though of
+very small size, have an imposing appearance from their air of
+massive strength. The cells of the Armenian monks look into the
+courtyard, which is a remarkable fact in that country, where the rest of
+the inhabitants dwell in burrows underground like rabbits, and keep
+themselves alive during the long winters of their rigorous climate by
+the warmth proceeding from the cattle with whom they live, for fire is
+dear in a land too cold for trees to grow. The monasteries of the
+various sects of Christians who inhabit the mountains of Koordistaun are
+very numerous, and all more or less alike. Perched on the tops of crags,
+in these wild regions are to be seen the monastic fastnesses of the
+Chaldeans, who of late have been known by the name of Nestorians, the
+seat of whose patriarchate is at Julamerk. They have now been almost
+exterminated by Beder Khan Bey, a Koordish chief, in revenge for the
+cattle which they were alleged to have stolen from the Koordish villages
+in their vicinity. The Jacobites, the Sabæans, and the Christians of St.
+John, who inhabit the banks of the Euphrates in the districts of the
+ancient Susiana, all have fortified monasteries which are mostly of
+great antiquity. From Mount Ararat to Bagdat, the different sects of
+Christians still retain the faith of the Redeemer, whom they have
+worshipped according to their various forms, some of them for more than
+fifteen hundred years; the plague, the famine, and the sword have
+passed over them and left them still unscathed, and there is little
+doubt but that they will maintain the position which they have held so
+long till the now not far distant period arrives when the conquered
+empire of the Greeks will again be brought under the dominion of a
+Christian emperor.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="page_001" id="page_001"></a>MONASTERIES OF THE LEVANT.</h3>
+
+<h3 class="top5"><a name="PART_I" id="PART_I"></a>PART I.</h3>
+
+<p class="wig">\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/</p>
+
+<h3 class="top5">EGYPT IN 1833.</h3>
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h3>
+
+<p class="chapter">Navarino&mdash;The Wrecks of the Turkish and Egyptian
+Fleets&mdash;Alexandria&mdash;An Arab Pilot&mdash;Intense Heat&mdash;Scene from the
+Hotel Windows&mdash;The Water-Carriers&mdash;A Procession&mdash;A Bridal
+Party&mdash;Violent mode of clearing the Road&mdash;Submissive Behaviour of
+the People&mdash;Astonishing Number of Donkeys&mdash;Bedouin Arabs; their
+wild and savage appearance&mdash;Early Hours&mdash;Visit to the Pasha's Prime
+Minister, Boghos Bey; hospitable reception&mdash;Kawasses and Chaoushes;
+their functions and powers&mdash;The Yassakjis&mdash;The Minister's Audience
+Chamber&mdash;Walmas; anecdote of his saving the life of Boghos Bey.</p>
+
+<p class="nind">I<span class="smcap">t</span> was towards the end of July, 1833, that I took a passage from Malta
+to Alexandria in a merchant-vessel called the <i>Fortuna</i>; for in those
+days there were no steam-packets traversing every sea, with almost the
+same rapidity and accuracy as railway carriages on shore. We touched on
+our way at Navarino to sell some potatoes to the splendidly-dressed, and
+half-starved population of the Morea, numbers of whom we found lounging
+about in a temporary wooden bazaar, where there was nothing to sell. In
+various parts of the harbour the wrecks of the Turkish and Egyptian<a name="page_002" id="page_002"></a>
+ships of war, stripped of their outer coverings, and looking like the
+gigantic skeletons of antediluvian animals, gave awful evidence of the
+destruction which had taken place not very long before in the battle
+between the Christian and Mahomedan fleets in this calm, land-locked
+harbour.</p>
+
+<p>On the 31st we found ourselves approaching the castle of Alexandria, and
+were soon hailed by some people in a curious-looking pilot-boat with a
+lateen sail. The pilot was an old man with a turban and a long grey
+beard, and sat cross-legged in the stern of his boat. We looked at him
+with vast interest, as the first live specimen we had seen of an Arab
+sailor. He was just the sort of man that I imagine Sindbad the Sailor
+must have been.</p>
+
+<p>Having by his directions been steered safely into the harbour, we cast
+anchor not far from the shore, a naked, dusty plain, which the blazing
+sun seemed to dare any one to cross, on pain of being shrivelled up
+immediately. The intensity of the heat was tremendous: the tar melted in
+the seams of the deck: we could scarcely bear it even when we were under
+the awning. Malta was hot enough, but the temperature there was cool in
+comparison to the fiery furnace in which we were at present grilling.
+However, there was no help for it; so, having got our luggage on shore,
+we sweltered through the streets to an inn called the Tre Anchore&mdash;the
+only hotel in Africa, I believe, in those<a name="page_003" id="page_003"></a> days. It was a dismal little
+place, frequented by the captains of merchant-vessels, who, not being
+hot enough already, raised the temperature of their blood by drinking
+brandy-and-water, arrack, and other combustibles, in a dark, oven-like
+room below stairs.</p>
+
+<p>We took possession of all the rooms upstairs, of which the principal one
+was long and narrow, with two windows at the end, opening on to a
+covered balcony or verandah: this overlooked the principal street and
+the bazaar. Here my companion and I soon stationed ourselves and watched
+the novel and curious scene below; and strange indeed to the eye of an
+European, when for the first time he enters an Oriental city, is all he
+sees around him. The picturesque dresses, the buildings, the palm-trees,
+the camels, the people of various nations, with their long beards, their
+arms, and turbans, all unite to form a picture which is indelibly fixed
+in the memory. Things which have since become perfectly familiar to us
+were then utterly incomprehensible, and we had no one to explain them to
+us, for the one waiter of the poor inn, who was darting about in his
+shirt-sleeves after the manner of all waiters, never extended his
+answers to our questions beyond "Si, Signore," so we got but little
+information from him; however, we did not make use of our eyes the less
+for that.</p>
+
+<p>Among the first things we noticed, was the number of half-naked men who
+went running about, each with<a name="page_004" id="page_004"></a> something like a dead pig under his arm,
+shouting out "Mother! mother!"<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> with a doleful voice. These were the
+sakis or water-carriers, with their goat-skins of the precious element,
+a bright brass cupful of which they sell for a small coin to the thirsty
+passengers. An old man with a fan in his hand made of a palm-branch, who
+was crumpled up in the corner of a sort of booth among a heap of dried
+figs, raisins, and dates, just opposite our window, was an object of
+much speculation to us how he got in, and how he would ever manage to
+get out of the niche into which he was so closely wedged. He was the
+merchant, as the Arabian Nights would call him, or the shopkeeper as we
+should say, who sat there cross-legged among his wares waiting patiently
+for a customer, and keeping off the flies in the meanwhile, as in due
+time we discovered that all merchants did in all countries of the East.
+Soon there came slowly by, a long procession of men on horseback with
+golden bridles and velvet trappings, and women muffled up in black silk
+wrappers; how they could bear them, hot as it was, astonished us. These
+ladies sat upon a pile of cushions placed so high above the backs of the
+donkeys on which they rode that their feet rested on the animal's
+shoulders. Each donkey was led by one man, while another walked by its
+side with his hand upon the crupper. With the ladies were two little
+boys covered with diamonds, mounted on huge fat horses,<a name="page_005" id="page_005"></a> and
+ensconced in high-backed Mameluke saddles made of silver gilt. These
+boys we afterwards found out were being conducted in state to a house of
+their relations, where the rite of circumcision was to be performed. Our
+attention was next called to something like a four-post bed, with pink
+gauze curtains, which advanced with dignified slowness, preceded by a
+band of musicians, who raised a dire and fearful discord by the aid of
+various windy engines. This was a canopy, the four poles of which were
+supported by men, who held it over the heads of a bride and her two
+bridesmaids or friends, who walked on each side of her. The bride was
+not veiled in the usual way, as her friends were, but was muffled up in
+Cashmere shawls from head to foot. Something there was on the top of her
+head which gleamed like gold or jewels, but the rest of her person was
+so effectually wrapped up and concealed that no one could tell whether
+she was pretty or ugly, fat or thin, old or young; and although we gave
+her credit for all the charms which should adorn a bride, we rejoiced
+when the villainous band of music which accompanied her turned round a
+corner and went out of hearing.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 473px;">
+<a href="images/ill_049.jpg">
+<img src="images/ill_049_thumb.jpg" width="473" height="550" alt="NEGRESS WAITING TO BE SOLD IN THE SLAVE BAZAAR, CAIRO" title="NEGRESS WAITING TO BE SOLD IN THE SLAVE BAZAAR, CAIRO" /></a>
+<span class="caption">NEGRESS WAITING TO BE SOLD IN THE SLAVE BAZAAR, CAIRO</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Some miserable-looking black slaves caught our attention, clothed each
+in a piece of Isabel-coloured canvas and led by a well-dressed man, who
+had probably just bought them. Then a great personage came by on
+horseback with a number of mounted attendants and<a name="page_006" id="page_006"></a> some men on foot, who
+cleared the way before him, and struck everybody on the head with their
+sticks who did not get out of the way fast enough. These blows were
+dealt all round in the most unceremonious manner; but what appeared to
+us extraordinary was, that all these beaten people did not seem to care
+for being beat. They looked neither angry nor affronted, but only
+grinned and rubbed their shoulders, and moved on one side to let the
+train of the great man pass by. Now if this were done in London, what a
+ferment would it create! what speeches would be made about tyranny and
+oppression! what a capital thing some high-minded and independent
+patriot would make of it! how he would call a meeting to defend the
+rights of the subject! and how he would get his admirers to vote him a
+piece of plate for his noble and glorious exertions! Here nobody minded
+the thing; they took no heed of the indignity; and I verily believe my
+friend and I, who were safe up at the window, were the only persons in
+the place who felt any annoyance.</p>
+
+<p>The prodigious multitude of donkeys formed another strange feature in
+the scene. There were hundreds of them, carrying all sorts of things in
+panniers; and some of the smallest were ridden by men so tall that they
+were obliged to hold up their legs that their feet might not touch the
+ground. Donkeys, in short, are the carts of Egypt and the
+hackney-coaches of Alexandria.<a name="page_007" id="page_007"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 412px;">
+<a href="images/ill_052.jpg">
+<img src="images/ill_052_thumb.jpg" width="412" height="550" alt="BEDOUIN ARAB." title="BEDOUIN ARAB." /></a>
+<span class="caption">BEDOUIN ARAB.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>In addition to the donkeys long strings of ungainly-looking camels were
+continually passing, generally preceded by a donkey, and accompanied by
+swarthy men clad in a short shirt with a red and yellow handkerchief
+tied in a peculiar way over their heads, and wearing sandals; these
+savage-looking people were Bedouins, or Arabs of the desert. A very
+truculent set they seemed to be, and all of them were armed with a long
+crooked knife and a pistol or two, stuck in a red leathern girdle. They
+were thin, gaunt, and dirty, and strode along looking fierce and
+independent. There was something very striking in the appearance of
+these untamed Arabs: I had never pictured to myself that anything so
+like a wild beast could exist in human form. The motions of their
+half-naked bodies were singularly free and light, and they looked as if
+they could climb, and run, and leap over anything. The appearance of
+many of the older Arabs, with their long white beard and their ample
+cloak of camel's hair, called an abba, is majestic and venerable. It was
+the first time that I had seen these "Children of the Desert," and the
+quickness of their eyes, their apparent freedom from all restraint, and
+their disregard of any conventional manners, struck me forcibly. An
+English gentleman in a round hat and a tight neck-handkerchief and
+boots, with white gloves and a little cane in his hand, was a style of
+man so utterly and entirely unlike a Bedouin Arab that I could hardly<a name="page_008" id="page_008"></a>
+conceive the possibility of their being only different species of the
+same animal.</p>
+
+<p>After we had dined, being tired with the heat and the trouble we had had
+in getting our luggage out of the ship, I resolved to retire to bed at
+an early hour, and on going to the window to have another look at the
+crowd, I was surprised to find that there was scarcely anybody left in
+the streets, for these primitive people all go to bed when it gets dark,
+as the birds do; and except a few persons walking home with paper
+lanterns in their hands, the place seemed almost entirely deserted.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning, mounted on donkeys, we shambled across half the city
+to the residence of Boghos Bey, the Armenian prime minister of Mohammed
+Ali Pasha; we were received with great kindness and civility, and as at
+this time there had been but very few European travellers in Egypt, we
+were treated with distinguished hospitality. The Bey said that although
+the Pasha was then in Upper Egypt, he would take care that we should
+have every facility in seeing all the objects of interest, and that he
+would write to Habeeb Effendi, the Governor of Cairo, to acquaint him of
+our arrival, and direct him to let us have the use of the Pasha's
+horses, that kawasses should attend us, and that the Pasha would give us
+a firman, which would ensure our being well treated throughout the whole
+of his dominions.<a name="page_009" id="page_009"></a></p>
+
+<p>As a kawass is a person mentioned by all Oriental travellers, it may be
+as well to state that he is a sort of armed servant or body-guard
+belonging to the government; he bears as his badge of office a thick
+cane about four feet long, with a large silver head, with which
+instrument he occasionally enforces his commands and supports his
+authority as well as his person. Ambassadors, consuls, and occasionally
+travellers, are attended by kawasses. Their presence shows that the
+person they accompany is protected by the State, and their number
+indicates his dignity and rank. Formerly these kawasses were splendidly
+attired in embroidered dresses, and their arms and the accoutrements of
+their horses were of silver gilt: the ambassador at Constantinople has,
+I think, six of these attendants. Of late years their picturesque
+costume has been changed to a uniform frock-coat of European make, of a
+whity-brown colour.</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 81px;">
+<img src="images/ill_009.png" width="81" height="118" alt="Silver
+head of staff." title="Silver
+head of staff." />
+</div>
+
+<p>There is a higher grade of officer of the same description, who is only
+to be met with at Court, and whose functions are nearly the same as
+those of a chamberlain with us. He is called a chaoush. His official
+staff is surmounted by a silver head, formed like a Greek bishop's
+staff, from the two horns of which several little round bells are
+suspended by a silver chain. The chaoush is a personage<a name="page_010" id="page_010"></a> of great
+authority in certain things; he is a kind of living firman, before whom
+every one makes way. As I was desirous of seeing the shrine of the heads
+of Hassan and Hussein in the mosque of Hassan En, a place of peculiar
+sanctity at Cairo, into which no Christian had been admitted, the Pasha
+sent a chaoush with me, who concealed the head of his staff in his
+clothes, to be ready, in case it had been discovered that I was not a
+Mahomedan, to protect me from the fury of the devotees, who would
+probably have torn to pieces any unbeliever who intruded into the temple
+of the sons of Ali.</p>
+
+<p>Besides these two officers, the chaoush and kawass, there is another
+attendant upon public men, who is of inferior rank, and is called a
+yassakji, or forbidder; he looks like a dirty kawass, and has a stick,
+but without the silver knob. He is generally employed to carry messages,
+and push people out of the way, to make a passage for you through a
+crowd; but this kind of functionary is more frequently seen at
+Constantinople and the northern parts of Turkey than in Egypt.</p>
+
+<p>We found Boghos Bey in a large upper room, seated on a divan with two or
+three persons to whom he was speaking, while the lower end of the room
+was occupied by a crowd of chaoushes, kawasses, and hangers-on of all
+descriptions. We were served with coffee, pipes, and sherbet, and were
+entertained during<a name="page_011" id="page_011"></a> the pauses of the conversation by the ticking and
+chiming of half a dozen clocks which stood about the room, some on the
+floor, some on the side-tables, and some stuck on brackets against the
+wall.</p>
+
+<p>One of the persons seated near the prime minister was a shrewd-looking
+man with one eye, of whom I was afterwards told the following anecdote.
+His name was Walmas; he had been an Armenian merchant, and was an old
+acquaintance of Mohammed Ali and of Boghos, before they had either of
+them risen to their present importance. Soon after the massacre of the
+Mamelukes, Mohammed Ali desired Boghos to procure him a large sum of
+money by a certain day, which Boghos declared was impossible at so short
+a notice. The Pasha, angry at being thwarted, swore that if he had not
+the money by the day he had named, he would have Boghos drowned in the
+Nile. The affrighted minister made every effort to collect the requisite
+sum, but when the day arrived much was wanting to complete it. Boghos
+stood before the Pasha, who immediately exclaimed, "Well! where is the
+money?" "Sir," replied Boghos, "I have not been able to get it all! I
+have procured all this, but, though I strained every nerve, and took
+every measure in my power, it was impossible to obtain the remainder."
+"What," exclaimed the Pasha, "you dog, have you not obeyed my commands?
+What is the use of a minister who cannot produce all the money wanted by
+his sovereign,<a name="page_012" id="page_012"></a> at however short a notice? Here, put this unbeliever in
+a sack, and fling him into the Nile." This scene occurred in the citadel
+at Cairo; and an officer and some men immediately put him into a sack,
+threw it across a donkey, and proceeded to the Nile. As they were
+passing through the city, they were met by Walmas, who was attended by
+several servants, and who, seeing something moving in the sack which was
+laid across the donkey, asked the guards what they had got there. "Oh!"
+said the officer, "we have got Boghos, the Armenian, and we are going to
+throw him into the Nile, by his Highness the Pasha's order." "What has
+he done?" asked Walmas. "What do we know?" replied the officer;
+"something about money, I believe: no great thing, but his Highness has
+been in a bad humour lately. He will be sorry for it afterwards.
+However, we have our orders, and, therefore, please God, we are going to
+pitch him into the Nile." Walmas determined to rescue his old friend,
+and, assisted by his servants, immediately attacked the guard, who made
+little more than a show of resistance. Boghos was carried off, and
+concealed in a safe place, and the guards returned to the citadel and
+reported that they had pitched Boghos into the Nile, where he had sunk,
+as all should do who disobeyed the commands of his Highness. Some time
+afterwards, the Pasha, overcome by financial difficulties, was heard to
+say that he wished Boghos was<a name="page_013" id="page_013"></a> still alive. Walmas, who was present,
+after some preliminary conversation (for the ground was rather
+dangerous), said that if his own pardon was insured, he could mention
+something respecting Boghos which he was sure would be agreeable to his
+Highness: and at last he owned that he had rescued him from the guards
+and had kept him concealed in his house in hopes of being allowed to
+restore so valuable a servant to his master. The Pasha was delighted at
+the news, instantly reinstated Boghos in all his former honours, and
+Walmas himself stood higher than ever in his favour; but the guards were
+executed for disobedience. Ever since that time Boghos Bey has continued
+to be the principal minister and most confidential adviser of Mohammed
+Ali Pasha.<a name="page_014" id="page_014"></a></p>
+
+<hr class="chpt" />
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h3>
+
+<p class="chapter">Rapacity of the Dragomans&mdash;The Mahmoudieh Canal&mdash;The Nile at
+Atfeh&mdash;The muddy Waters of the Nile&mdash;Richness of the Soil&mdash;Accident
+to the Boatmen&mdash;Night Sailing&mdash;A Collision&mdash;A Vessel run
+down&mdash;Escape of the Crew&mdash;Solemn Investigation&mdash;Final
+Judgment&mdash;Curious Mode of Fishing&mdash;Tameness of the Birds&mdash;Jewish
+Malefactors&mdash;Moving Pillar of Sand&mdash;Arrival at Cairo&mdash;Hospitable
+Reception by the Consul-General.</p>
+
+<p class="nind">S<span class="smcap">o</span>
+long as there were no hotels in Egypt, the process of fleecing the
+unwary traveller was conducted on different principles from those
+followed in Europe. As he seldom understands the language, he requires
+an interpreter, or dragoman, who, as a matter of course, manages all his
+pecuniary affairs. The newly-arrived European eats and drinks whatever
+his dragoman chooses to give him; sees through his dragoman's eyes;
+hears through his ears; and, although he thinks himself master, is, in
+fact, only a part of the property of this Eastern servant, to be used by
+him as he thinks fit, and turned to the best account like any other real
+or personal estate.</p>
+
+<p>On our landing at Alexandria, my friend and I found ourselves in the
+same predicament as our predecessors, and straightway fell into the
+hands of these Philistines, two of whom we hired as interpreters. They
+were also to act as ciceroni, and were warranted<a name="page_015" id="page_015"></a> to know all about the
+antiquities, and everything else in Egypt; they were to buy everything
+we wanted, to spend our money, and to allow no one to cheat us except
+themselves. One of these worthies was sent to engage a boat, to carry us
+down the Mahmoudieh Canal to Atfeh, where the canal is separated from
+the river by flood-gates, in consequence of which impediment we could
+not proceed in the same boat, but had to hire a larger one to take us on
+to Cairo.</p>
+
+<p>The banks of the canal being high, we had no view of the country as we
+passed along; but on various occasions when I ascended to the top of the
+bank, while the men who towed the boat rested from their labours, I saw
+nothing but great sandy flats interspersed with large pools of stagnant,
+muddy water. This prospect not being very charming, we were glad to
+arrive the next day on the shores of the Father of Rivers, whose swollen
+stream, although at Atfeh not more than half a mile in width, rolled by
+towards the north in eddies and whirlpools of smooth muddy water, in
+colour closely resembling a sea of mutton-broth.</p>
+
+<p>In my enthusiasm on arriving on the margin of this venerable river, I
+knelt down to drink some of it, and was disappointed in finding it by no
+means so good as I had always been told it was. On complaining of its
+muddy taste, I found that no one drank the water of the Nile till it had
+stood a day or two in a<a name="page_016" id="page_016"></a> large earthen jar, the inside of which is
+rubbed with a paste of bitter almonds. This causes all impurities to be
+precipitated, and the water, thus treated, becomes the lightest,
+clearest, and most excellent in the world. At Atfeh, after a prodigious
+uproar between the men of our two boats, each set claiming to be paid
+for transporting the luggage, we set sail upon the Nile, and after
+proceeding a short distance, we stopped at a village, or small town, to
+buy some fruit. Here the surrounding country, a flat alluvial plain, was
+richly cultivated. Water-melons, corn, and all manner of green herbs
+flourished luxuriantly; everything looked delightfully fresh and green;
+flocks of pigeons were flying about; and multitudes of white spoonbills
+and other strange birds were stalking among the herbage, and rising
+around us in every direction. The fertility of the land appeared
+prodigious, and exceeded anything I had seen before. Numberless boats
+were passing on the river, and the general aspect of the scene betokened
+the wealth and plenty which would reward the toils of the agriculturist
+under any settled form of government. We returned to our boat loaded
+with fruit, among which were the Egyptian fig, the prickly pear, dates,
+limes, and melons of kinds that were new to us.</p>
+
+<p>Whilst we were discussing the merits of these refreshing productions, a
+board, which had been fastened on the outside of the vessel for four or
+five men to<a name="page_017" id="page_017"></a> stand on, as they pushed the boat with poles through the
+shallow water, suddenly gave way, and the men fell into the river: they
+could, however, all swim like water-rats, and were soon on board again;
+when, putting out into the middle of the stream, we set two huge
+triangular lateen sails on our low masts, which raked forwards instead
+of backwards, and by the help of the wind made our way slowly towards
+the south. We slept in a small cabin in the stern of our vessel; this
+had a flat top, and formed the resting-place of the steersman, the
+captain of the ship, and our servants, who all lay down together on some
+carpets; the sailors slept upon the deck. We sailed on steadily all
+night; the stars were wonderfully bright; and I looked out upon the
+broad river and the flat silent shores, diversified here and there by a
+black-looking village of mud huts, surrounded by a grove of palms,
+whence the distant baying of the dogs was brought down upon the wind.
+Sometimes there was the cry of a wild bird, but soon again the only
+sound was the gentle ripple of the water against the sides of our boat.
+If the steersman was not asleep, every one else was; but still we glided
+on, and nothing occurred to disturb our repose, till the blazing light
+of the morning sun recalled us to activity, and all the bustling
+preparations for breakfast.</p>
+
+<p>We had sailed on for some time after this important event, and I was
+quietly reading in the shade of the<a name="page_018" id="page_018"></a> cabin, when I was thrown backwards
+by the sudden stopping of the vessel, which struck against something
+with prodigious force, and screams of distress arose from the water all
+around us. On rushing upon deck I found that we had run down another
+boat, which had sunk so instantly that nothing was to be seen of it
+except the top of the mast, whose red flag was fluttering just above
+water, and to which two women were clinging. A few yards astern seven or
+eight men were swimming towards the shore, and our steersman having in
+his alarm left the rudder to its own devices, our great sails were
+swinging and flapping over our heads. There was a cry that our bows were
+stove in, and we were sinking; but, fortunately, before this could
+happen, the stream had carried us ashore, where we stuck in the mud on a
+shoal under a high bank, up which we all soon scrambled, glad to be on
+terra firma. The country people came running down to satisfy their
+curiosity, and we procured a small boat, which immediately rowed off to
+rescue the women who were still clinging to the mast-head of the sunken
+vessel, which was one of the kind called a djerm, and was laden with
+thirty tons of corn, besides other goods. No one, luckily, was drowned,
+though the loss was a serious one to the owners, for there was no chance
+of recovering either the vessel or the cargo. Whilst we were looking,
+the red flag to which the women had been clinging toppled over sideways,
+which<a name="page_019" id="page_019"></a> completed the entire disappearance of the unfortunate djerm.</p>
+
+<p>Our reis, or captain, now returned to the roof of the cabin, where he
+sat down upon a mat, and lighting his pipe, smoked away steadily without
+saying a word, while the wet and dripping sailors, as well as the ladies
+belonging to the shipwrecked vessel, surrounded him, screaming,
+vociferating, and shouting all manner of invectives into his ears; in
+which employment they were effectively joined by a number of half-naked
+Arabs who had been cultivating the fields hard by. To all this they got
+no answer, beyond an occasional ejaculation of "God is great, and
+Mohammed is the prophet of God." His pipe was out before the clamour of
+the crowd had abated, and then, all of a sudden, he got up and with two
+or three others embarked in the little boat for a neighbouring village,
+to report the accident to the sheick, who, we were told, would return
+with him and inquire into the circumstances of the case.</p>
+
+<p>In about three hours the boat returned with the local authorities, two
+old villagers, in long blue shirts and dirty turbans, who took their
+seat upon a mat on the bank and smoked away in a serious manner for some
+time. Our captain made no more reply to the fresh accusations of the
+reassembled multitude than he had done before; but lit another pipe, and
+asserted that God was great. At last the two elders made signs that they
+intended to speak; and silence being<a name="page_020" id="page_020"></a> obtained, they, with all due
+solemnity, declared that they agreed with the captain that God was
+great, and that undoubtedly Mohammed was the prophet of God. All parties
+having come to this conclusion, it appeared that there was nothing more
+to be said, and we returned to our boat, which the sailors, with the
+help of a rough carpenter, had patched up sufficiently to allow us to
+sail for a village on the other side of the river.</p>
+
+<p>During the time that we were remaining on the bank I was amused by
+watching the man&#339;uvres of some boys, who succeeded in catching a
+quantity of small fish in a very original way. They rolled together a
+great quantity of tangled weeds and long grass, with one end of which
+they swam out into the Nile, and bringing it back towards the shore,
+numerous unsuspecting fish were entangled in the mass of weeds, and were
+picked out and thrown on the bank by the young fishermen before they had
+time to get out of the scrape. In this way the boys secured a very
+respectable heap of small fry.</p>
+
+<p>We arrived safely at the village, where we stayed the night; but the
+next morning it appeared that the bows of our vessel were so much
+damaged that she could not be repaired under a delay of some days.
+Indeed, it appeared that we had been fortunate in accomplishing our
+passage across the river, for if we had foundered midway, not being able
+to swim like the amphibious Egyptians, we should probably have<a name="page_021" id="page_021"></a> been
+drowned. It was, however, a relief to me to think that there were no
+crocodiles in this part of the Nile.</p>
+
+<p>The birds at this place appeared to be remarkably tame: some gulls, or
+waterfowl, hardly troubled themselves to move out of the way when a boat
+passed them; while those in the fields went on searching among the crops
+for insects close to the labourers, and without any of the alarm shown
+by birds in England.</p>
+
+<p>While we were dawdling about in the neighbourhood of the village, one of
+the servants, an old Maltese, discovered a boat with ten or twelve oars,
+lying in the vicinity. It belonged to the government, and was conveying
+two malefactors to Cairo under the guardianship of a kawass, who on
+learning our mishap gave us a passage in his boat, and to our great joy
+we bid adieu to our silent captain, and were soon rowing at a great
+rate, in a fine new canjah, on the way to Cairo. The two prisoners on
+board were Jews: one was taken up for cheating, and the other for using
+false weights. They were fastened together by the neck, with a chain
+about five feet long. One of the two was very restless; they said he had
+a good chance of being hanged; and he was always pulling the other
+unfortunate Hebrew about with him by the chain, in a manner which
+excited the mirth of the sailors, though it must have been anything but
+amusing to the person most concerned.<a name="page_022" id="page_022"></a></p>
+
+<p>The next day there was a hot wind, and the thermometer stood at 98° in
+the shade. The kawass called our attention to a pillar of sand moving
+through the air in the desert to the south-east; it had an extraordinary
+appearance, and its effect upon a party travelling over those burning
+plains would have been terrific. It was evidently caused by a whirlwind,
+and men and camels are sometimes suffocated and overwhelmed when they
+are met by these columns of dry, heated sand, which stalk through the
+deserts like the evil genii of the storm. I have seen them in other
+countries, more particularly in Armenia; but this, which I saw on my
+first journey up the Nile, was the only moving pillar which I met with
+in Egypt or in any of the surrounding deserts. We passed two men fishing
+from a small triangular raft, composed of palm-branches fastened on the
+tops of a number of earthen vases. This raft had a remarkably light
+appearance; it seemed only just to touch the surface of the water, but
+was evidently badly calculated for such rude encounters as the one which
+we had lately experienced. Soon afterwards the tops of the great
+Pyramids of Giseh caught our admiring gaze, and in the morning of the
+12th of August we landed at Boulac, from which a ride of half an hour on
+donkeys brought our party to the hospitable mansion of the
+Consul-General, who was good enough to receive us in his house until we
+could procure quarters for ourselves.<a name="page_023" id="page_023"></a></p>
+
+<p>Having arrived at Cairo, a short account of the history of the city may
+be interesting to some readers. In the sixth and seventh centuries of
+our era this part of Egypt was inhabited principally by Coptic
+Christians, whose chief occupation consisted in quarrelling among
+themselves on polemical points of divinity and ascetic rule. The deserts
+of Nitria and the shores of the Red Sea were peopled with swarms of
+monks, some living together in monasteries, some in lavras, or monastic
+villages, and multitudes hiding their sanctity in dens and caves, where
+they passed their lives in abstract meditation. In the year 638 the
+Arabian general Amer ebn el As, with four hundred Arabs (see Wilkinson),
+advanced to the confines of Egypt, and after thirty days' siege took
+possession of Pelusium, which had been the barrier of the country on the
+Syrian side from the earliest periods of the Egyptian monarchy: he
+advanced without opposition to the city of Babylon, which occupied the
+site of Masr el Ateekeh, or Old Cairo, on the Nile; but the Roman
+station, which is now a Coptic monastery, containing a chamber said to
+have been occupied by the blessed Virgin, was so strong a fortress that
+the invaders were unable to effect an entrance in a siege of seven
+months. After this, a reinforcement of four hundred men arriving at
+their camp, their courage revived, and the castle of Babylon was taken
+by escalade. On the site of the Arabian encampment at Fostat, Amer
+founded the<a name="page_024" id="page_024"></a> first mosque built on Egyptian soil. The town of Babylon
+was connected with the island of Rhoda by a bridge of boats, by which a
+communication was kept up with the city of Memphis, on the other side of
+the Nile. The Copts, whose religious fanaticism occasioned them to hate
+their masters, the Greeks of the Eastern Empire, more than the
+Mahomedans, welcomed the moment which promised to free them from their
+religious adversaries; and the traitor John Mecaukes, governor of
+Memphis, persuaded them to conclude a treaty with the invaders, by which
+it was stipulated that two dinars of gold should be paid for every
+Christian above sixteen years of age, with the exception of old men,
+women, and monks. From this time Fostat became the Arabian capital of
+Egypt. In the year 879 Sultan Tayloon, or Tooloon, built himself a
+palace, to which he added several residences or barracks for his guards,
+and the great mosque, which still exists, with pointed arches, between
+Fostat and the present citadel of Cairo. It was not, however, till the
+year 969 that Goher, the general of El Moez, Sultan of Kairoan, near
+Tunis, having invaded Egypt, and completely subdued the country, founded
+a new city near the citadel of Qattaeea, which acquired the name of El
+Kahira from the following circumstance. The architect having made his
+arrangements for laying the first stone of the new wall, waited for the
+fortunate moment, which was to be shown by the astrologers<a name="page_025" id="page_025"></a> pulling a
+cord, extending to a considerable distance from the spot. A certain
+crow, however, who had not been taken into the council of the wise men,
+perched upon the cord, which was shaken by his weight, and the architect
+supposing that the appointed signal had been given, commenced his work
+accordingly. From this unlucky omen, and the vexation felt by those
+concerned, the epithet of Kahira ("the vexatious" or "unlucky") was
+added to the name of the city, Masr el Kahira meaning "the unlucky (city
+of) Egypt." Kahira in the Italian pronunciation has been softened into
+Cairo, by which name this famous city has been known for many centuries
+in Europe, though in the East it is usually called Masr only. From this
+time the Fatemite caliphs of Africa, who brought the bones of their
+ancestors with them from Kairoan, reigned for ten generations over the
+land of Egypt. The third in this succession was the Caliph Hakem, who
+built a mosque near the Bab el Nassr, and who was the founder of the
+sect of the Druses, and, as some say, of the Assassins. In the year 1171
+the famous Saladin usurped the throne from the last of the race of
+Fatema. His descendant, Moosa el Ashref, was deposed in his turn, in
+1250; from which time till the year 1543 Cairo was governed by the
+curious succession of Mameluke kings, who were mostly Circassian slaves
+brought up at the court of their predecessors, and arriving at the
+supreme rule of Egypt by election or<a name="page_026" id="page_026"></a> intrigue. Toman Bey, the last of
+the Mameluke kings, was defeated by Selim, Emperor of the Turks, and
+hanged at Cairo, at the Bab Zooaley. But the aristocracy of the
+Mamelukes, as it may be called, still remained; and various beys became
+governors of Egypt under the Turkish sway, till they were all destroyed
+at one blow by Mohammed Ali Pasha, the now all but independent sovereign
+of Egypt<a name="page_027" id="page_027"></a>.</p>
+
+<hr class="chpt" />
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h3>
+
+<p class="chapter">National Topics of Conversation&mdash;The Rising of the Nile; evil
+effects of its rising too high; still worse consequences of a
+deficiency of its waters&mdash;The Nilometer&mdash;Universal Alarm in August,
+1833&mdash;The Nile at length rises to the desired Height&mdash;Ceremony of
+cutting the Embankment&mdash;The Canal of the Khalidj&mdash;Immense
+Assemblage of People&mdash;The State Tent&mdash;Arrival of Habeeb
+Effendi&mdash;Splendid Dresses of the Officers&mdash;Exertions of the Arab
+Workmen&mdash;Their Scramble for Paras&mdash;Admission of the Water&mdash;Its
+sudden Irruption&mdash;Excitement of the Ladies&mdash;Picturesque Effect of
+large Assemblies in the East.</p>
+
+<p class="nind">I<span class="smcap">n</span>
+England every one talks about the weather, and all conversation is
+opened by exclamations against the heat or the cold, the rain or the
+drought; but in Egypt, during one part of the year at least, the rise of
+the Nile forms the general topic of conversation. Sometimes the ascent
+of the water is unusually rapid, and then nothing is talked of but
+inundations; for if the river overflows too much, whole villages are
+washed away; and as they are for the most part built of sunburned bricks
+and mud, they are completely annihilated; and when the waters subside,
+all the boundary marks are obliterated, the course of canals is altered,
+and mounds and embankments are washed away. On these occasions the
+smaller landholders have great difficulty in recovering their property;
+for few of them know how far their fields extend in one direction or
+the<a name="page_028" id="page_028"></a> other, unless a tree, a stone, or something else remains to mark
+the separation of one man's flat piece of mud from that of his
+neighbour.</p>
+
+<p>But the more frequent and the far more dreaded calamity is the
+deficiency of water. This was the case in 1833, and we heard nothing
+else talked of. "Has it risen much to-day?" inquires one.&mdash;"Yes, it has
+risen half a pic since the morning." "What! no more? In the name of the
+Prophet! what will become of the cotton?"&mdash;"Yes; and the doura will be
+burnt up to a certainty if we do not get four pics more." In short, the
+Nile has it all its own way; everything depends on the manner in which
+it chooses to behave, and El Bahar (the river) is in everybody's mouth
+from morning till night. Criers go about the city several times a day
+during the period of the rising, who proclaim the exact height to which
+the water has arrived, and the precise number of pics which are
+submerged on the Nilometer.</p>
+
+<p>This Nilometer is an ancient octagon pillar of red stone in the island
+of Rhoda, on the sides of which graduated scales are engraved. It stands
+in the centre of a cistern, about twenty-five feet square, and more than
+that in depth. A stone staircase leads down to the bottom, and the side
+walls are ornamented with Cufic inscriptions beautifully cut. Of this
+antique column I have seen more than most people; for on the 28th of
+August, 1833, the water was so low that there<a name="page_029" id="page_029"></a> was the greatest
+apprehension of a total failure of the crops, and of the consequent
+famine. At that time nine feet more water was wanted to ensure an
+average crop; much of the Indian corn had already failed; and from the
+Pasha in his palace to the poorest fellah in his mud hovel, all were in
+consternation; for in this country, where it never rains, everything
+depends on irrigation,&mdash;the revenues of the state, the food of the
+country, and the life or death of the bulk of the population.</p>
+
+<p>At length the Nile rose to the desired height; and the 6th of September
+was fixed for the ceremony of cutting the embankment which keeps back
+the water from entering into the canal of the Khalidj. This canal joins
+the Nile near the great tower which forms the end of the aqueduct built
+by Saladin, and through it the water is conveyed for the irrigation of
+Cairo and its vicinity. One peculiarity of this city is, that several of
+its principal squares or open spaces are flooded during the inundation;
+and, in consequence of this, are called lakes, such as Birket el Fil
+(the Lake of the Elephant), Birket el Esbekieh, &amp;c. Many of the
+principal houses are built upon the banks of the Khalidj canal, which
+passes through the centre of the town, and which now had the appearance
+of a dusty, sunken lane; and the annual admission of the water into its
+thirsty bed is an event looked forward to as a public holiday by all
+classes. Accordingly, early in the<a name="page_030" id="page_030"></a> morning, men, women, and children
+sallied forth to the borders of the Nile, and it seemed as if no one
+would be left in the city. The worthy citizens of Cairo, on horses,
+mules, donkeys, and on foot, were seen streaming out of the gates, and
+making their way in the cool of the morning, all hoping to obtain places
+from whence they might catch a glimpse of the cutting of the embankment.</p>
+
+<p>We mounted the horses which the Pasha's grooms brought to our door. They
+were splendidly caparisoned with red velvet and gold; horses were also
+supplied for all our servants; and we wended our way through happy and
+excited crowds to a magnificent tent which had been erected for the
+accommodation of the grandees, on a sort of ancient stone quay
+immediately over the embankment. We passed through the lines of soldiers
+who kept the ground in the vicinity of the tent, around which was
+standing a numerous party of officers in their gala uniforms of red and
+gold.</p>
+
+<p>On entering the tent we found the Cadi; the son of the sheriff of Mecca,
+who I believe was kept as a sort of hostage for the good behaviour of
+his father, the Defterdar, or treasurer, and several other high
+personages, seated on two carpets, one on each side of a splendid velvet
+divan, which extended along that side of the tent which was nearest to
+the river, and which was open. Below the tent was the bank which was to
+be cut through, with the water of the Nile almost<a name="page_031" id="page_031"></a> overflowing its brink
+on the one side, and the deep dry bed of the canal upon the other; a
+number of half-naked Arabs were working with spades and pick-axes to
+undermine this bank.</p>
+
+<p>Coffee and sherbet were presented to us while we awaited the arrival of
+Habeeb Effendi, who was to superintend the ceremony in the absence of
+the Pasha. No one sat upon the divan which was reserved for the
+accommodation of the great man, who was <i>vice</i>-viceroy on this occasion.
+I sat on the carpet by the son of the sheriff of Mecca, who was dressed
+in the green robes worn by the descendants of the Prophet. We looked at
+each other with some curiosity, and he carefully gathered up the edge of
+his sleeve, that it might not be polluted by the touch of such a heathen
+dog as he considered me to be.</p>
+
+<p>About 9 A.M. the firing of cannon and volleys of musketry, with the
+discordant noise of several military bands, announced the approach of
+Habeeb Effendi. He was preceded by an immense procession of beys,
+colonels, and officers, all in red and gold, with the diamond insignia
+of their rank displayed upon their breasts. This crowd of splendidly
+dressed persons, dismounting from their horses, filled the space around
+the tent; and, opening into two ranks, they made a lane along which
+Habeeb Effendi rode into the middle of the tent; all bowing low and
+touching their foreheads as he passed. A horseblock, covered with red
+cloth,<a name="page_032" id="page_032"></a> was brought forward for him to dismount upon. His fat grey horse
+was covered with gold, the whole of the housings of the Wahabee saddle
+being not embroidered, but so entirely covered with ornaments in
+goldsmith's work, that the colour of the velvet beneath could scarcely
+be discerned. The great man was held up under each arm by two officers,
+who assisted him to the divan, upon which he took his seat, or rather
+subsided, for the portly proportions of his person prevented his feet
+appearing as he sat cross-legged upon the cushions, with his back to the
+canal. Coffee was presented to him, and a diamond-mounted pipe stuck
+into his mouth; and he puffed away steadily, looking neither right nor
+left, while the uproar of the surrounding crowd increased every moment.
+Quantities of rockets and other fireworks were now let off in the broad
+daylight, cannons fired, and volleys of musketry filled the air with
+smoke. The naked Arabs in the ditch worked like madmen, tearing away the
+earth of the embankment, which was rapidly giving way; whilst an officer
+of the Treasury threw handfuls of new pieces of five paras each (little
+coins of base silver of the value of a farthing) among them. The immense
+multitude shouted and swayed about, encouraging the men, who were
+excited almost to frenzy.</p>
+
+<p>At last there was a tremendous shout: the bank was beginning to give
+way; and showers of coin were thrown down upon it, which the workmen
+tried to<a name="page_033" id="page_033"></a> catch. One man took off his wide Turkish trousers, and
+stretching them out upon two sticks caught almost a handful at a time.
+By degrees the earth of the embankment became wet, and large pieces of
+mud fell over into the canal. Presently a little stream of water made
+its way down the declivity, but the Arabs still worked up to their knees
+in water. The muddy stream increased, and all of a sudden the whole bank
+gave way. Some of the Arabs scrambled out and were helped up the sides
+of the canal by the crowd; but several, and among others he of the
+trousers, intent upon the shower of paras, were carried away by the
+stream. The man struggled manfully in the water, and gallantly kept
+possession of his trousers till he was washed ashore, and, with the
+assistance of some of his friends, landed safely with his spoils. The
+arches of the great aqueduct of Saladin were occupied by parties of
+ladies; and long lines of women in their black veils sat like a huge
+flock of crows upon the parapets above. They all waved their
+handkerchiefs and lifted up their voices in a strange shrill scream as
+the torrent increased in force; and soon, carrying everything before it,
+it entirely washed away the embankment, and the water in the canal rose
+to the level of the Nile.</p>
+
+<p>The desired object having been accomplished, Habeeb Effendi, who had not
+once looked round towards the canal, now rose to depart; he was helped
+up the steps of the red horse-block, and fairly hoisted<a name="page_034" id="page_034"></a> into his
+saddle; and amidst the roar of cannon and musketry, the shouts of the
+people, and the clang of innumerable musical instruments, he departed
+with his splendid train of officers and attendants.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing can be conceived more striking than a great assemblage of people
+in the East: the various colours of the dresses and the number of white
+turbans give it a totally different appearance from that of a black and
+dingy European crowd; and it has been well compared by their poets to a
+garden of tulips. The numbers collected together on this occasion were
+immense; and the narrow streets were completely filled by the returning
+multitude, all delighted with the happy termination of the event of the
+day; but before noon the whole of the crowd was dispersed, all had
+returned to their own houses, and the city was as quiet and orderly as
+if nothing extraordinary had occurred.<a name="page_035" id="page_035"></a></p>
+
+<hr class="chpt" />
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h3>
+
+<p class="chapter">Early Hours in the Levant&mdash;Compulsory Use of Lanterns in
+Cairo&mdash;Separation of the different Quarters of the City&mdash;Custom of
+sleeping in the open air&mdash;The Mahomedan Times of Prayer&mdash;Impressive
+Effect of the Morning Call to Prayer from the Minarets&mdash;The last
+Prayer-time, Al Assr&mdash;Bedouin Mode of ascertaining this
+Hour&mdash;Ancient Form of the Mosques&mdash;The Mosque of Sultan
+Hassan&mdash;Egyptian Mode of "raising the Supplies"&mdash;Sultan Hassan's
+Mosque the Scene of frequent Conflicts&mdash;The Slaughter of the
+Mameluke Beys in the Place of Roumayli&mdash;Escape of one Mameluke, and
+his subsequent Friendship with Mohammed Ali&mdash;The Talisman of
+Cairo&mdash;Joseph's Well and Hall&mdash;Mohammed Ali's Mosque&mdash;His Residence
+in the Citadel&mdash;The Harem&mdash;Degraded State of the Women in the East.</p>
+
+<p class="nind">T<span class="smcap">he</span>
+early hours kept in the Levant cannot fail to strike the European
+stranger. At Cairo every one is up and about at sunrise; all business is
+transacted in the morning, and some of the bezesteins and principal
+bazaars are closed at twelve o'clock, at which hour many people retire
+to their homes and only appear again in the cool of the evening, when
+they take a ride or sit and smoke a pipe and listen to a storyteller in
+a coffee-house or under a tree. Soon after sunset the whole city is at
+rest. Every one who then has any business abroad is obliged to carry a
+small paper lantern, on pain of being taken up by the guard if he is
+found without it. Persons of middle rank have a glass lamp carried
+before them by a servant, and<a name="page_036" id="page_036"></a> people of consequence are preceded by men
+who run before their train of horses with a fire of resinous wood,
+carried aloft on the top of a pole, in an iron grating called a mashlak.
+This has a picturesque effect, and throws a great light around.</p>
+
+<p>Each different district of the city is separated from the adjoining one
+by strong gates at the end of the streets: these are all closed at
+night, and are guarded by a drowsy old man with a long beard, who acts
+as porter, and who is roused with difficulty by the promise of a small
+coin when any one wants to pass. These gates contribute greatly to the
+peace and security of the town; for as the Turks, Arabs, Christians,
+Jews, Copts, and other religious sects reside each in a different
+quarter, any disturbance which may arise in one district is prevented
+from extending to another; and the drunken Europeans cannot intrude
+their civilization on their quiet and barbarous neighbours. There are
+here no theatres, balls, parties, or other nocturnal assemblies; and
+before the hour at which London is well lit up, the gentleman of Cairo
+ascends to the top of his house and sleeps upon the terrace, and the
+servants retire to the court-yard; for in the hot weather most people
+sleep in the open air. Many of the poorer class sleep in the open places
+and the courts of the mosques, all wrapping up their heads and faces
+that the moon may not shine upon them.<a name="page_037" id="page_037"></a></p>
+
+<p>The Mahomedan day begins at sunset, when the first time of prayer is
+observed; the second is about two hours after sunset; the third is at
+the dawn of day, when the musical chant of the muezzins from the
+thousand minarets of Cairo sounds most impressively through the clear
+and silent air. The voices of the criers thus raised above the city
+always struck me as having a holy and beautiful effect. First one or two
+are heard faintly in the distance, then one close to you, then the cry
+is taken up from the minarets of other mosques, and at last, from one
+end of the town to the other, the measured chant falls pleasingly on the
+ear, inviting the faithful to prayer. For a time it seems as if there
+was a chorus of voices in the air, like spirits, calling upon each other
+to worship the Creator of all things. Soon the sound dies away, there is
+a silence for a while, and then commence the hum and bustle of the
+awakening city. This cry of man, to call his brother man to prayer,
+seems to me more appropriate and more accordant to religious feeling
+than the clang and jingle of our European bells.</p>
+
+<p>The fourth and most important time of prayer is at noon, and it is at
+this hour that the Sultan attends in state the mosque at Constantinople.
+The fifth and last prayer is at about three o'clock. The Bedouins of the
+desert, who, however, are not much given to praying, consider this hour
+to have arrived when a stick, a spear, or a camel throws a shadow of its
+own height upon the<a name="page_038" id="page_038"></a> ground. This time of the day is called "Al Assr."
+When wandering about in the deserts, I used always to eat my dinner or
+luncheon at that time, and it is wonderful to what exactness I arrived
+at last in my calculations respecting the time of the Assr. I knew to a
+minute when my dromedary's shadow was of the right length.</p>
+
+<p>The minarets of Cairo are the most beautiful of any in the Levant;
+indeed no others are to be compared to them. Some are of a prodigious
+height, built of alternate layers of red and white stone. A curious
+anecdote is told of the most ancient of all the minarets, that attached
+to the great mosque of Sultan Tayloon, an immense cloister or arcade
+surrounding a great square. The arches are all pointed, and are the
+earliest extant in that form, the mosque having been built in imitation
+of that at Mecca, in the year of the Hegira 265, Anno Domini 879. The
+minaret belonging to this magnificent building has a stone staircase
+winding round it outside: the reason of its having been built in this
+curious form is said to be, that the vizier of Sultan Tayloon found the
+king one day lolling on his divan and twisting a piece of paper in a
+spiral form; the vizier remarking upon the trivial nature of the
+employment of so great a monarch, he replied, "I was thinking that a
+minaret in this form would have a good effect: give orders, therefore,
+that such a one be added to the mosque<a name="page_039" id="page_039"></a> which I am building."<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> In
+ancient times the mosques consisted merely of large open courts,
+surrounded by arcades; and frequently, on that side of the court which
+stood nearest to Mecca, this arcade was double. In later times covered
+buildings with large domes were added to the court; a style of building
+which has always been adopted in more northern climates.</p>
+
+<p>The finest mosque of this description is that of Sultan Hassan, in the
+place of the Roumayli, near the citadel. It is a magnificent structure,
+of prodigious height; it was finished about the year <span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1362. The
+money necessary for its construction is said to have been procured by
+the following ingenious device. The good Sultan Hassan was determined to
+build a mosque and a tomb for himself, but finding a paucity of means in
+his treasury, he sent out invitations to all the principal people of the
+country to repair to a grand feast at his court, when he said he would
+present each of his loving subjects with a robe of honour. On the
+appointed day they accordingly all made their appearance, dressed<a name="page_040" id="page_040"></a> in
+their richest robes of state. There was not one but had a Cashmere shawl
+round his turban, and another round his waist, with a jewelled dagger
+stuck in it; besides other ornaments, and caftans of brocade and cloth
+of gold. They entered the place of the Roumayli each accompanied by a
+magnificent train of guards and attendants, who, according to the
+jealous custom of the times, remained below; while the chiefs, with one
+or two of their personal followers only, ascended into the citadel, and
+were ushered into the presence of the Sultan. They were received most
+graciously: how they contrived to pass their time in the fourteenth
+century, before the art of smoking was invented, I do not know, but
+doubtless they sat in circles round great bowls of rice, piled over
+sheep roasted whole, discussed the merits of lambs stuffed with
+pistachio-nuts, and ate cucumbers for dessert. When the feast was
+concluded the Sultan announced that each guest at his departure should
+receive the promised robe of honour; and as these distinguished
+personages, one by one, left the royal presence, they were conducted to
+a small chamber near the gate, in which were several armed officers of
+the household, who, with expressions of the most profound respect and
+solicitude, divested them of their clothes, which they immediately
+carried off. The astonished noble was then invested with a long white
+shirt, and ceremoniously handed out of an opposite door, which led to
+the exterior of the fortress, where<a name="page_041" id="page_041"></a> he found his train in waiting. The
+Sultan kept all that he found worth keeping of the personal effects of
+his guests, who were afterwards glad to bargain with the chamberlain of
+the court for the restoration of their robes of state, which were
+ultimately returned to them&mdash;<i>for a consideration</i>. The mosque of Sultan
+Hassan was built with the proceeds of this original scheme; and the tomb
+of the founder is placed in a superb hall, seventy feet square, covered
+with a magnificent dome, which is one of the great features of the city.
+But he that soweth in the whirlwind shall reap in the storm. In
+consequence of the great height and thickness of the walls of this
+stately building, as well as from the circumstance of its having only
+one great gate of entrance, it was frequently seized and made use of as
+a fortress by the insurgents in the numerous rebellions and
+insurrections which were always taking place under the rule of the
+Mameluke kings. Great stains of blood are still to be seen on the marble
+walls of the court-yard, and even in the very chamber of the tomb of the
+Sultan there are the indelible marks of the various conflicts which have
+taken place, when the guardians of the mosque have been stabbed and cut
+down in its most sacred recesses. The two minarets of this mosque, one
+of which is much larger than the other, are among the most beautiful
+specimens of decorated Saracenic architecture. Of the largest of these
+minarets the following story is related. There<a name="page_042" id="page_042"></a> was a man endued with a
+superabundance of curiosity, who, like Peeping Tom of Coventry, had a
+fancy for spying at the ladies on the house-tops from the summit of this
+minaret: at last he made some signals to one of the neighbouring ladies,
+which were unluckily discovered by the master of the house, who happened
+to be reposing in the harem. The two muezzins (as they often are) were
+blind men, and complaint was made to the authorities that the muezzins
+of Sultan Hassan permitted people to ascend the minarets to gaze into
+the forbidden precincts of the harems below. The two old muezzins were
+indignant when they were informed of this accusation, and were
+determined to watch for the intruder and kill him on the spot, the first
+time that they should find him ascending the winding staircase of the
+minaret. In the course of a few days a good-natured person gave the
+alarm, and told the two blind men that somebody had just entered the
+doorway on the roof of the mosque by which the minaret is ascended; one
+of the muezzins therefore ascended the minaret, armed with a sharp
+dagger, and the other waited at the narrow door below to secure the game
+whom his companion should drive out of the cover. The young man was
+surprised by the muezzin while he was looking over the lower gallery of
+the minaret, but escaping from him he ran up the stairs to the upper
+gallery: here he was followed by his enemy, who cried to the old man at
+the bottom to be ready, for<a name="page_043" id="page_043"></a> he had found the rascal who had brought
+such scandal on the mosque. The muezzin chased the intruder round the
+upper gallery, and he slipped through the door and ran down again to the
+lower one, where he waited till the muezzin passed him on the stairs,
+then taking off his shoes he followed him lightly and silently till he
+arrived near the bottom door, when he suddenly pushed the muezzin, who
+had been up the minaret, against the one who stood guard below; the two
+blind men, each thinking he had got hold of the villain for whom he was
+in search, seized each other by the throat and engaged in mortal combat
+with their daggers, taking advantage of which the other escaped before
+the blind men had found out their mistake. At the next hour of prayer,
+their well-known voices not being heard as usual, some of the attendants
+at the mosque went up upon the roof to see what had happened, when they
+found the muezzins, who were just able to relate the particulars of
+their mistake before they died.</p>
+
+<p>It was in the place of the Roumayli that the gallant band of the
+Mameluke beys were assembled before they were entrapped and killed by
+the present task-master of Egypt, Mohammed Ali Pasha. They ascended a
+narrow passage between two high bastions, which led from the lower to
+the upper gate. The lower gate was shut after they had passed, and they
+were thus caught as in a trap. All of them were shot except one, who
+leaped his horse over the battlements<a name="page_044" id="page_044"></a> and escaped. This man became
+afterwards a great ally of Mohammed Ali, and I have often seen him
+riding about on a fine horse caparisoned with red velvet in the old
+Mameluke style. On the wall in one part of this passage, towards the
+inner gate, there is a square tablet containing a bas-relief of a spread
+eagle: this is considered by the superstitious as the talisman of Cairo,
+and is said to give a warning cry when any calamity is about to happen
+to the city. Its origin, as well as most things of any antiquity in the
+citadel, is ascribed to Saladin (Yousef Sala Eddin), who is called here
+Yousef (Joseph); and Joseph's Well, and Joseph's Hall, are the two great
+lions of the place.</p>
+
+<p>The well, which is of great depth, is remarkable from its having a broad
+winding staircase cut in the rock around the shaft: this extends only
+half way down, where two oxen are employed to draw water by a wheel and
+buckets from the bottom, which is here poured into a cistern, whence it
+is raised to the top by another wheel. It is supposed, however, that
+this well is an ancient work, and that it was only cleaned out by
+Saladin when he rebuilt the walls of the town and fortified the citadel.</p>
+
+<p>The hall, which was a very fine room, divided into aisles by magnificent
+antique columns of red granite, has unfortunately been pulled down by
+Mohammed Ali. He did this to make way for the mosque which he has built
+of Egyptian alabaster, a splendid material,<a name="page_045" id="page_045"></a> but its barbarous Armenian
+architecture offers a sad contrast to the stately edifice which has been
+so ruthlessly destroyed. It is indeed a sad thing for Cairo that the
+flimsy architecture of Constantinople, so utterly unsuited to this
+climate, has been introduced of late years in the public buildings and
+the palaces of the ministers, which lift up their bald and miserable
+whitewashed walls above the beautiful Arabian works of earlier days.</p>
+
+<p>The residence of the Pasha is within the walls of the citadel. The long
+range of the windows of the harem from their lofty position overlook
+great part of the city, which must render it a more cheerful residence
+for the ladies than harems usually are. When a number of Eastern women
+are congregated together, as is frequently the case, without the society
+of the other sex, it is surprising how helpless they become, and how
+neglectful of everything excepting their own persons and their food.
+Eating and dressing are their sole pursuits. If there be a garden
+attached to the harem they take no trouble about it, and at
+Constantinople the ladies of the Sultan tread on the flower-beds and
+destroy the garden as a flock of sheep would do if let loose in it. A
+Turkish lady is the wild variety of the species. Many of them are
+beautiful and graceful, but they do not appear to abound in intellectual
+charms. Until the minds of the women are enlarged by better education,
+any chance of amelioration among the people<a name="page_046" id="page_046"></a> of the Levant is hopeless:
+for it is in the nursery that the seeds of superstition, prejudice, and
+unreason are sown, the effects of which cling for life to the minds even
+of superior men.<a name="page_047" id="page_047"></a></p>
+
+<hr class="chpt" />
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h3>
+
+<p class="chapter">Interview with Mohammed Ali Pasha&mdash;Mode of lighting a Room in
+Egypt&mdash;Personal Appearance of the Pasha&mdash;His Diamond-mounted
+Pipe&mdash;The lost Handkerchief&mdash;An unceremonious Attendant&mdash;View of
+Cairo from the Citadel&mdash;Site of Memphis; its immense extent&mdash;The
+Tombs of the Caliphs&mdash;The Pasha's Mausoleum&mdash;Costume of Egyptian
+Ladies&mdash;The Coboob, or Wooden Clog&mdash;Mode of dressing the Hair&mdash;The
+Veil&mdash;Mistaken Idea that the Egyptian Ladies are Prisoners in the
+Harem; their power of doing as they like&mdash;The Veil a complete
+Disguise&mdash;Laws of the Harem&mdash;A Levantine Beauty&mdash;Eastern
+Manners&mdash;The Abyssinian Slaves&mdash;Arab Girls&mdash;Ugliness of the Arab
+Women when old&mdash;Venerable Appearance of the old Men&mdash;An Arab
+Sheick.</p>
+
+<p class="nind">I<span class="smcap">t</span> was in the month of February, 1834, that I first had the honour of an
+audience with Mohammed Ali Pasha. It was during the Mahomedan month of
+Ramadan, when the day is kept a strict fast, and nothing passes the lips
+of the faithful till after sunset. It was at night, therefore, that we
+were received. My companion and myself were residing at that time under
+the hospitable roof of the Consul-General, and we accompanied him to the
+citadel. The effect of the crowds of people in the streets, all carrying
+lanterns, or preceded by men bearing the mashlak, blazing like a beacon
+on the top of its high pole, was very picturesque. The great hall of the
+citadel was full of men, arranged in rows with their faces towards the
+south,<a name="page_048" id="page_048"></a> going through the forms and attitudes of evening prayer under
+the guidance of a leader, and with the precision of a regiment on drill.</p>
+
+<p>Passing these, a curtain was drawn aside, and we were ushered at once
+into the presence of the Viceroy, whom we found walking up and down in
+the middle of a large room, between two rows of gigantic silver
+candlesticks, which stood upon the carpet. This is the usual way of
+lighting a room in Egypt:&mdash;Six large silver dishes, about two feet in
+diameter and turned upside down, are first placed upon the floor, three
+on each side, near the centre of the room. On each of these stands a
+silver candlestick, between four and five feet high, containing a wax
+candle three feet long, and very thick. A seventh candlestick, of
+smaller dimensions, stands on the floor, separate from these, for the
+purpose of being moved about; it is carried to any one who wants to read
+a letter, or to examine an object more closely while he is seated on the
+divan. Almost every room in the palace has an European chandelier
+hanging from the ceiling, but I do not remember having ever seen one
+lit. These large candlesticks, standing in two rows, with the little one
+before them, always put me in mind of a line of life guards of gigantic
+stature, commanded by a little officer whom they could almost put in
+their pockets.</p>
+
+<p>Mohammed Ali desired us to be seated. He was attended by Boghos Bey, who
+remained standing and<a name="page_049" id="page_049"></a> interpreted for us. The Pasha at that time
+was a hale, broad-shouldered, broad-faced man: his short grey beard
+stuck out on each side of his face; his nostrils were very much opened;
+and, with his quick sharp eye, he looked like an old grey lion. The
+expression of his countenance was remarkably intelligent, but excepting
+this there was nothing particular in his appearance. He was attired in
+the Nizam dress of blue cloth. This costume consists of a red cap, a
+jacket with flying sleeves, a waistcoat with tight sleeves under it, a
+red shawl round the waist, a pair of trousers very full, like trunk
+hose, down to the knee, from whence to the ankle they were tight. The
+whole costume is always made of the same coloured cloth, usually black
+or blue. He had white stockings and yellow morocco shoes.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 420px;">
+<a href="images/ill_091.jpg">
+<img src="images/ill_091_thumb.jpg" width="420" height="550" alt="EGYPTIAN, IN THE NIZAM DRESS." title="EGYPTIAN, IN THE NIZAM DRESS." /></a>
+<span class="caption">EGYPTIAN, IN THE NIZAM DRESS.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>When we were seated on the divan we commenced the usual routine of
+Oriental compliments; and coffee was handed to us in cups entirely
+covered with large diamonds. A pipe was then brought to the Pasha, but
+not to us. This pipe was about seven feet long: the mouthpiece, of light
+green amber, was a foot long, and a foot more below the mouthpiece, as
+well as another part of the pipe lower down, was richly set with
+diamonds of great value, with a diamond tassel hanging to it.</p>
+
+<p>We discoursed for three quarters of an hour about the possibility of
+laying a railway across the Isthmus<a name="page_050" id="page_050"></a> of Suez, which was the project then
+uppermost in the Pasha's mind; but the circumstance which most strongly
+recalls this audience to my memory, and which struck me as an instance
+of manners differing entirely from our own, was, in itself, a very
+trivial one. The Pasha wanted his pocket handkerchief, and looked about
+and felt in his pocket for it, but could not find it, making various
+exclamations during his search, which at last were answered by an
+attendant from the lower end of the room&mdash;"Feel in the other pocket,"
+said the servant. "Well, it is not there," said the Pasha. "Look in the
+other, then." "I have not got a handkerchief," or words to that effect,
+were replied to immediately,&mdash;"Yes, you have;"&mdash;"No, I have not;"&mdash;"Yes,
+you have." Eventually this attendant, advancing up to the Pasha, felt in
+the pocket of his jacket, but the handkerchief was not to be found; then
+he poked all round the Pasha's waist, to see whether it was not tucked
+into his shawl: that would not do. So he took hold of his Sovereign and
+pushed him half over on the divan, and looked under him to see whether
+he was sitting on the handkerchief; then he pushed him over on the other
+side. During all which man&#339;uvres the Pasha sat as quietly and passively
+as possible. The servant then, thrusting his arm up to the elbow in one
+of the pockets of his Highness's voluminous trousers, pulled out a
+snuff-box, a rosary, and several other things, which he laid upon the
+divan. That<a name="page_051" id="page_051"></a> would not do, either; so he came over to the other pocket,
+and diving to a prodigious depth he produced the missing handkerchief
+from the recesses thereof; and with great respect and gravity, thrusting
+it into the Pasha's hand, he retired again to his place at the lower end
+of the hall.</p>
+
+<p>After being presented with sherbet, in glass bowls with covers, we took
+our leave, and rode home through the crowds of persons with paper
+lanterns, who turn night into day during the month of Ramadan.</p>
+
+<p>The view from that part of the bastions of the citadel which looks over
+the place of the Roumayli and the great mosque of Sultan Hassan is one
+of the most extraordinary that can be seen any where. The whole city is
+displayed at your feet; the numerous domes and minarets, the towers of
+the Saracenic walls, the flat roofs of the houses, and the narrowness of
+the streets giving it an aspect very different from that of an European
+town. You see the Nile and the gardens of Ibrahim Pasha in the island of
+Rhoda to the left; and the avenue of Egyptian sycamores to the right,
+leading to the Pasha's country palace of Shoubra. Beyond the Nile, the
+bare mysterious-looking desert, and the Pyramids standing on their rocky
+base, lead the mind to dwell upon the mighty deeds of ancient days. The
+forest of waving palm-trees, around Saccara, stretches away to the
+south-west, shading the mounds of earth which cover the remains of the
+vast city of Memphis,<a name="page_052" id="page_052"></a> in comparison to which London would appear but a
+secondary town: for if we may judge from the line of pyramids from Giseh
+to Dashour, which formed the necropolis of Memphis, and the various
+mounds and dykes and ancient remains which extend along the margin of
+the Nile for nearly six-and-thirty miles, the extreme length of London
+being barely eight, and of Paris not much more than four, Memphis must
+have been larger than London, Paris, and ancient Rome, all united; and
+judging from the description which Herodotus has given us of the
+enormous size of the temples and buildings, which are now entirely
+washed away, in consequence of their having been built on the alluvial
+plain, which is every year inundated by the waters of the Nile, Memphis
+in its glory must have exceeded any modern city, as much as the Pyramids
+exceed any mausoleum which has been erected since those days.</p>
+
+<p>The tombs of the Caliphs, as they are called, although most of them are
+the burial-place of the Mameluke Sultans of Egypt, are magnificent and
+imposing buildings. Many of them consist of a mosque built round a
+court, to which is attached a great hall with a dome, under which is
+placed the Sultan's tomb. These beautiful specimens of Arabian
+architecture form a considerable town or city of the dead, on the east
+and south sides of Cairo, about a mile beyond the walls. I was
+astonished at their exceeding beauty and<a name="page_053" id="page_053"></a> magnificence. Most of them
+were built during the two centuries preceding the conquest of Egypt, by
+Sultan Selim, in 1517, who tortured the last of the Mameluke Sultans,
+Toman Bey, and hung him with a rope, which is yet to be seen dangling
+over the gate called Bab Zuweyleh, in front of which criminals are still
+executed.</p>
+
+<p>The mausoleum of Sultan Bergook is a triumph of Saracenic architecture.</p>
+
+<p>The minarets of these tombs are most richly ornamented with tracery,
+sculpture, and variegated marbles. The walls of many of them are built
+in alternate layers of red and white or black and white marble. The dome
+of the tomb of Kaitbay is of stone, sculptured all over with an
+arabesque pattern; and there are several other domes in different
+mosques at Cairo equally richly ornamented. I have met with none
+comparable to them either in Europe or in the Levant. It is strange that
+none of the Italian architects ever thought of domes covered with rich
+ornamental work in stone or marble; the effect of those at Cairo is
+indescribably fine. Unfortunately they are now much neglected; but in
+the clear dry air of Egypt, time falls more lightly on the works of man
+than in the damp and chilly climates of the north, and the tombs of the
+Mameluke sovereigns will probably last for centuries to come if they are
+not pulled down for the materials, or removed to make way for some
+paltry lath and plaster edifice which will fall in the lifetime of its
+builder.<a name="page_054" id="page_054"></a></p>
+
+<p>Besides these larger structures, many of the smaller tombs, which are
+scattered over the desert for miles under the hills of Mokattam, are
+studies for the architect. There are numerous little domes of beautiful
+design, richly ornamented doors and gateways, tombs and tomb-stones of
+all sorts and sizes in infinite variety, most of them so well preserved
+in this glorious climate that the inscriptions on them are as legible as
+when they were first put up.</p>
+
+<p>The Pasha has built himself a house in this city of the dead, to which
+many members of his family have gone before him. This mausoleum consists
+of several buildings covered with low heavy domes, whitewashed or
+plastered on the outside. Within, if I remember right, are the tombs of
+Toussoun and Ismael Pashas, and those of several of his wives,
+grand-children, and relatives; they repose under marble monuments,
+somewhat resembling altars in shape, with a tall post or column at the
+head and feet, as is usual in Turkish graves; the column at the head
+being carved into the form of the head-dress distinctive of the rank or
+sex of the deceased. These sepulchral chambers are all carpeted, and
+Cashmere shawls are thrown over many of the tombs, while in arched
+recesses there are divans with cushions for the use of those who come to
+mourn over their departed relatives.</p>
+
+<p>We will now return to the living; but so perfect an account of the
+Arabian population of Cairo is to be<a name="page_055" id="page_055"></a> found in Mr. Lane's 'Modern
+Egypt,' that there is little left to say upon that subject, except that
+since that work was published the presence of numerous Europeans has
+diminished the originality of the Oriental manners of this city, and
+numerous vices and modes of cheating, besides a larger variety of
+drunken scenes, are offered for the observation of the curious, than
+existed in the more unsophisticated times, before steamers came to
+Alexandria, and what is called the overland journey to India was
+established. The population of Cairo consists of the ruling class, who
+are all Turks, who speak Turkish, and affect to despise all who have
+never been rowed in a caïque upon the Bosphorus. Then come the Arabs,
+the former conquerors of the land; they form the bulk of the
+population&mdash;all the petty tradesmen and cultivators of the soil are of
+Arab origin. Besides these are the Copts, who are descended from the
+original lords of the country, the ancient Egyptians, who have left such
+wonderful monuments of their power. After these may be reckoned the
+motley crew of Jews, Franks, Armenians, Arabs of Barbary and the Hejaz,
+Syrians, negroes, and Barabra; but these are but sojourners in the land,
+and, except the Jews, can hardly be counted among the regular subjects
+of the Pasha. There are besides, the Levantine Christians, who are under
+the protection of one or other of the European powers. Many of this
+class are rich and influential merchants; some of them live<a name="page_056" id="page_056"></a> in the
+Oriental style, and others are ambitious to assume the tight clothing
+and manner of life of the Franks. The older merchants among the
+Levantines keep more to the Oriental ways of life, while the younger
+gentlemen and ladies follow the ugly fashion of Europe, particularly the
+men, who leave off the cool and convenient Eastern dress to swelter in
+the tight bandages of the Franks; the ladies, on the contrary, are apt
+to retain the Oriental costume, which in its turn is neither so becoming
+nor so easy as the Paris fashions. It must be the spirit of
+contradiction, so natural to the human race, which causes this
+arrangement; for if the men kept to their old costume they would be more
+comfortable than they can be with tight clothes, coat-collars, and
+neckcloths, when the thermometer stands at 112° of Fahrenheit in the
+coolest shade, besides the dignity of their appearance, which is cast
+away with the folds of the Turkish or Arabian dress. The ladies would be
+much improved by the artful devices of the Parisian modistes; for
+although, when young and pretty, all women look well in almost any
+dress, the elder ladies are sometimes but little to be admired in the
+shapeless costumes of the Levant, where the richness of the material
+does not make up for the want of fit and gracefulness which is the
+character of their dress. This may easily be imagined when it is
+understood that both men's and women's dresses may be bought ready made
+in the bazaar, and<a name="page_057" id="page_057"></a> that any dress will fit anybody unless they are
+supernaturally fat or of dwarfish stature.</p>
+
+<p>An Egyptian lady's dress consists of a pair of immensely full trousers
+of satin or brocade, or often of a brilliant cherry-coloured silk: these
+are tied under the knees, and descending to the ground, have the
+appearance of a very full petticoat. The Arabic name of this garment is
+Shintian. Over this is worn a shirt of transparent silk gauze (Kamis).
+It has long full sleeves, which, as well as the border round the neck,
+are richly embroidered with gold and bright-coloured silks. The edge of
+the shirt is often seen like a tunic over the trousers, and has a pretty
+effect. Over this again is worn a long silk gown, open in front and on
+each side, called a yelek. The fashion is to have the yelek about a foot
+longer than the lady who wears it; so that its three tails shall just
+touch the ground when she is mounted on a pair of high wooden clogs,
+called cobcobs, which are intended for use in the bath, but in which
+they often clatter about in the house: the straps over the instep, by
+which these cobcobs are attached to the feet, are always finely worked,
+and are sometimes of diamonds. The husband gives his bride on their
+marriage a pair of these odd-looking things, which are about six or
+eight inches high, and are always carried on a tray on a man's head in
+marriage processions. The yelek fits the shape in some degree down to
+the waist; it comes up high upon the neck, and has tightish<a name="page_058" id="page_058"></a> sleeves,
+which are long enough to trail upon the ground. "Oh! thou with the
+long-sleeved yelek" is a common chorus or ending to a stanza in an Arab
+song. Not round the waist but round the hips a large and heavy Cashmere
+shawl is worn over the yelek, and the whole gracefulness of an Egyptian
+dress consists in the way in which this is put on. In the winter a long
+gown, called Jubeh, is superadded to all this: it is of cloth or velvet,
+or a sort of stuff made of the Angora goat's hair, and is sometimes
+lined with fur.</p>
+
+<p>Young girls do not often wear this nor the yelek, but have instead a
+waistcoat of silk with long sleeves like those of the yelek. This is
+called an anteri, and over it they wear a velvet jacket with short
+sleeves, which is so much embroidered with gold and pearls that the
+velvet is almost hid. Their hair hangs down in numerous long tails,
+plaited with silk, to which sequins, or little gold coins, are attached.
+The plaits must be of an uneven number: it would be unlucky if they were
+even. Sometimes at the end of one of the plaits hangs the little golden
+bottle of surmeh with which they black the edges of their eyelids; a
+most becoming custom when it is well done, and not smeared, as it often
+is, for then the effect is rather like that of a black eye, in the
+pugilistic sense of the term. On the head is worn a very beautiful
+ornament called a koors. It is in the shape of a saucer or shallow
+basin,<a name="page_059" id="page_059"></a> and is frequently covered with rose diamonds. I am surprised
+that it has never been introduced into Europe, as it is a remarkably
+pretty head-dress, with the long tresses of jet black hair hanging from
+under it, plaited with the shining coins. Round the head a handkerchief
+is wound, which spoils the effect of all the rest: but a woman in the
+East is never seen with the head uncovered, even in the house; and when
+she goes out, the veil, as we call it, though it has no resemblance to a
+veil, is used to conceal the whole person. A lady enclosed in this
+singular covering looks like a large bundle of black silk, diversified
+only by a stripe of white linen extending down the front of her person,
+from the middle of her nose to her ungainly yellow boots, into which her
+stockingless feet are thrust for the occasion. The veils of Egypt, of
+which the outer black silk covering is called a khabara, and the part
+over the face a boorkoo, are entirely different from those worn in
+Constantinople, Persia, or Armenia; these are all various in form and
+colour, complicated and wonderful garments, which it would take too long
+to describe, but they, as well as the Egyptian one, answer their
+intended purpose excellently, for they effectually prevent the display
+of any grace or peculiarity of form or feature.</p>
+
+<p>There is no greater mistake than to suppose that Eastern ladies are
+prisoners in the harem, and that they are to be pitied for the want of
+liberty which the<a name="page_060" id="page_060"></a> jealousy of their husbands condemns them to. The
+Christian ladies live from choice and habit in the same way as the
+Mahomedan women: and, indeed, the Egyptian fair ones have more
+facilities to do as they choose, to go where they like, and to carry on
+any intrigue than the Europeans; for their complete disguise carries
+them safely everywhere. No one knows whether any lady he may meet in the
+bazaar is his wife, his daughter, or his grandmother: and I have several
+times been addressed by Turkish and Egyptian ladies in the open street,
+and asked all sorts of questions in a way that could not be done in any
+European country. The harem, it is true, is by law inviolable: no one
+but the Sultan can enter it unannounced, and if a pair of strange
+slippers are seen left at the outer door, the master of the house cannot
+enter his own harem so long as this proof of the presence of a visitor
+remains. If the husband is a bore, an extra pair of slippers will at all
+times keep him out; and the ladies inside may enjoy themselves without
+the slightest fear of interruption. It is asserted also that gentlemen,
+who are not too tall, have gone into all sorts of places under the
+protection of a lady's veil, so completely does it conceal the person.
+But this is not the case with the Levantine or Christian ladies:
+although they live in a harem, like the Mahomedans, it is not protected
+in the same way: the slippers have not the same effect; for the men of
+the family go in and out whenever<a name="page_061" id="page_061"></a> they please; and relations and
+visitors of the male sex are received in the apartments of the ladies.</p>
+
+<p>On one occasion I accompanied an English traveller, who had many
+acquaintances at Cairo, to the house of a Levantine in the vicinity of
+the Coptic quarter. Whilst we were engaged in conversation with an old
+lady the curtain over the doorway was drawn aside, and there entered the
+most lovely apparition that can be conceived, in the person of a young
+lady about sixteen years old, the daughter of the lady of the house. She
+had a beautifully fair complexion, very uncommon in this country,
+remarkably long hair, which hung down her back, and her dress, which was
+all of the same rich material, rose-coloured silk, shot with gold,
+became her so well, that I have rarely seen so graceful and striking a
+figure. She was closely followed by two black girls, both dressed in
+light-blue satin, embroidered with silver; they formed an excellent
+contrast to their charming mistress, and were very good-looking in their
+way, with their slight and graceful figures. The young Levantine came
+and sat by me on the divan, and was much amused at my blundering
+attempts at conversation in Arabic, of which I then knew scarcely a
+dozen words. I must confess that I was rather vexed with her for smoking
+a long jessamine pipe, which, however, most Eastern ladies do. She got
+up to wait upon us, and handed us the coffee, pipes, and sherbet, which
+are always presented to visitors in every house. This<a name="page_062" id="page_062"></a> custom of being
+waited upon by the ladies is rather distressing to our European notions
+of devotion to the fair sex: and I remember being horrified shortly
+after my arrival in Egypt at the manners of a rich old jeweller to whom
+I was introduced. His wife, a beautiful woman, superbly dressed in
+brocade, with gold and diamond ornaments, waited upon us during the
+whole time that I remained in the house. She was the first Eastern lady
+I had seen, and I remember being much edified at the way she pattered
+about on a pair of lofty cobcobs, and the artful way in which she got
+her feet out of them whenever she came up towards where we sat on the
+divan, at the upper end of the apartment. She stood at the lower end of
+the room; and whenever the old brute of a jeweller wanted to return
+anything, some coins which he was showing me, or anything else, he threw
+them on the floor; and his beautiful wife jumping out of her cobcobs
+picked them up; and when she had handed them to some of the maids who
+stood at the door, resumed her station below the step at the further end
+of the room. She had magnificent eyes and luxuriant black hair, as they
+all have, and would have been considered a beauty in any country; but
+she was not to be compared to the bright little damsel in pink, who,
+besides her beauty, was as cheerful and merry as a bird, and whose
+lovely features were radiant with archness and intelligence. Many of the
+Abyssinian slaves are exceedingly handsome:<a name="page_063" id="page_063"></a> they have very expressive
+countenances, and the finest eyes in the world, and, withal, so soft and
+humble a look, that I do not wonder at their being great favourites in
+Egyptian harems. Many of them, however, have a temper of their own,
+which comes out occasionally, and in this respect the Arab women are not
+much behind them. But the fiery passions of this burning climate pass
+away like a thunderstorm, and leave the sky as clear and serene as it
+was before.</p>
+
+<p>The Arab girls of the lower orders are often very pretty from the age of
+about twelve to twenty, but they soon go off; and the astounding
+ugliness of some of the old women is too terrible to describe. In Europe
+we have nothing half so hideous as these brown old women, and this is
+the more remarkable, because the old men are peculiarly handsome and
+venerable in their appearance, and often display a dignity of bearing
+which is seldom to be met with in Europe. The stately gravity of an Arab
+sheick, seated on the ground in the shade of a tree, with his sons and
+grandsons standing before him, waiting for his commands, is singularly
+imposing.<a name="page_064" id="page_064"></a></p>
+
+<hr class="chpt" />
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h3>
+
+<p class="chapter">Mohammed Bey, Defterdar&mdash;His Expedition to Senaar&mdash;His Barbarity
+and Rapacity&mdash;His Defiance of the Pasha&mdash;Stories of his Cruelty and
+Tyranny&mdash;The Horse-shoe&mdash;The Fight of the Mamelukes&mdash;His cruel
+Treachery&mdash;His Mode of administering Justice&mdash;The stolen Milk&mdash;The
+Widow's Cow&mdash;Sale and Distribution of the Thief&mdash;The Turkish
+Character&mdash;Pleasures of a Journey on the Nile&mdash;The Copts&mdash;Their
+Patriarchs&mdash;The Patriarch of Abyssinia&mdash;Basileos Bey&mdash;His Boat&mdash;An
+American's choice of a Sleeping-place.</p>
+
+<p class="nind">J<span class="smcap">ust</span> before my arrival in Cairo a certain Mohammed Bey, Defterdar, had
+died rather suddenly, after drinking a cup of coffee, a beverage which
+occasionally disagrees with the great men in Turkey, although not so
+much so now as in former days. This Defterdar, or accountant, had been
+sent by the Sultan to receive the Imperial revenue from the Pasha of
+Egypt, who had given him his daughter in marriage. As the presence of
+the Defterdar was probably a check upon the projects of the Pasha, he
+sent him to Senaar, at the head of an expedition, to revenge the death
+of Toussoun Pasha, his second son, who had been burned alive in his
+house by one of the exasperated chiefs of Nubia. This was a mission
+after Mohammed Bey's own heart: he impaled the chief and several of his
+family, and displayed a rapacity and cruelty unheard of before<a name="page_065" id="page_065"></a> even in
+those blood-stained countries. His talent for collecting spoil, and
+valuables of every description, was first-rate; chests and bags of the
+pure gold rings used in the traffic of Central Africa accumulated in his
+tents; he did not stick at a trifle in his measures for procuring gold,
+pearls, and diamonds, wherever they were to be heard of; streams of
+blood accompanied his march, and the vultures followed in his track. He
+was a sportsman too, and hunted slaves, killing the old ones, and
+carrying off the children, whom he sent to Egypt to be sold. Many died
+on the journey; but that did not much matter, as it increased the value
+of the rest.</p>
+
+<p>At last, alter a most successful campaign, the Defterdar returned to his
+palace at Cairo, which was reported to be filled with treasure. The
+habits he had acquired in the upper country stuck to him after he got
+back to Egypt, and the Pasha was obliged to express his disapprobation
+of the cruelties which were committed by him on the most trivial
+occasions. The Defterdar, however, set the Pasha at defiance, told him
+he was no subject of his, but that he was an envoy from his master the
+Sultan, to whom alone he was responsible, and that he would do as he
+pleased with those under his command. The Pasha, it is said, made no
+further remonstrance, and continued to treat his son-in-law with
+distinguished courtesy.</p>
+
+<p>Numerous stories are told of the cruelty and tyranny<a name="page_066" id="page_066"></a> of this man. One
+day, on his way to the citadel, he found that his horse had cast a shoe.
+He inquired of his groom, who in Egypt runs by the side of the horse,
+how it was that his horse had lost his shoe. The groom said he did not
+know, but that he supposed it had not been well nailed on. Presently
+they came to a farrier's shop; the Defterdar stopped, and ordered two
+horseshoes to be brought; one was put upon the horse, and the other he
+made red hot, and commanded them to nail it firmly to the foot of the
+groom, whom in that condition he compelled to run by his horse's side up
+the steep hill which leads to the citadel.</p>
+
+<p>In Turkey it was the custom in the houses of the great to have a number
+of young men, who in Egypt were called Mamelukes, after that gallant
+corps had been destroyed. A number of the Mamelukes of Mohammed Bey,
+Defterdar, driven to desperation by the cruelties of their master, beat
+or killed one of the superior agas of the household, took some money
+which they found in his possession, and determined to escape from the
+service of their tyrant. His guards and kawasses soon found them out,
+and they retired to a strong tower, which they determined to defend,
+preferring the remotest chance of successful resistance to the terrors
+of service under the ferocious Defterdar. The Bey, however, managed to
+cajole them with promises, and they returned to his palace, expecting to
+be better treated. They found the Bey seated on his<a name="page_067" id="page_067"></a> divan in the
+Manderan or hall of audience, surrounded by the officers and kawasses
+whom interest had attached to his service. The young Mamelukes had given
+up the money which they had taken, and the Bey had it on the divan by
+his side. He now told them that if they would divide themselves into two
+parties and fight against each other, he would pardon the victorious
+party, present them with the bag of gold, and permit them to depart; but
+that if they did not agree to this proposal he would kill them all. The
+Mamelukes, finding they were entrapped, consented to the conditions of
+the Bey, and half their number were soon weltering in their blood on the
+floor of the hall. When the conquerors claimed the promised reward, the
+Defterdar, who had now far superior numbers on his side, again commanded
+them to divide and fight against each other. Again they fought in
+despair, preferring death by their own swords to the tortures which they
+knew the merciless Defterdar would inflict upon them now that he had got
+them completely in his power. At length only one Mameluke remained, whom
+the Bey, with kind and encouraging words, ordered to approach,
+commending his valour and holding out to him the promised bag of gold as
+his reward. As he approached, stepping over the bodies of his
+companions, who all lay dead or dying on the floor, and held out his
+hands for the money, the Defterdar, with a grim smile, made a sign to
+one of his kawasses, and the<a name="page_068" id="page_068"></a> head of the young man rolled at the
+tyrant's feet "Thus," said he, "shall perish all who dare to offend
+Mohammed Bey."</p>
+
+<p>The Defterdar was fond of justice, after a fashion, and his mode of
+administering it was characteristic. A poor woman came before him and
+complained that one of his kawasses had seized a cup of milk and drunk
+it, refusing to pay her its value, which she estimated at five paras (a
+para is the fortieth part of a piastre, which is worth about
+twopence-halfpenny). The sensitive justice of the Defterdar was roused
+by this complaint. He asked the woman if she should know the person who
+had stolen her milk were she to see him again? The woman said she
+should, upon which the whole household was drawn out before her, and
+looking round she fixed upon a man as the thief. "Very well," said the
+Defterdar, "I hope you are sure of your man, and that you have not made
+a false accusation before me. He shall be ripped open, and if the milk
+is found in his stomach, you shall receive your five paras; but if there
+is no milk found, you shall be ripped up in turn for accusing one of my
+household unjustly." The unfortunate kawass was cut open on the spot;
+some milk was found in him, and the woman received her five paras.</p>
+
+<p>Another of his judicial sentences was rather an original conception. A
+man in Upper Egypt stole a cow from a widow, and having killed it, he
+cut it into<a name="page_069" id="page_069"></a> twenty pieces, which he sold for a piastre each in the
+bazaar. The widow complained to the Defterdar, who seized the thief, and
+having without further ceremony cut him into twenty pieces, forced
+twenty people who came into the market on that day from the neighbouring
+villages to buy a piece of thief each for a piastre; the joints of the
+robber were thus distributed all over the country, and the story told by
+the involuntary purchasers of these pounds of flesh had a wholesome
+effect upon the minds of the cattle-stealers: the twenty piastres were
+given to the woman, whose cows were not again meddled with during the
+lifetime of the Defterdar. But the character of this man must not be
+taken as a sample of the habits of the Turks in general. They are a
+grave and haughty race, of dignified manners; rapacious they often are,
+but they are generous and brave, and I do not think that, as a nation,
+they can be accused of cruelty.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing can be more secure and peaceable than a journey on the Nile, as
+every one knows nowadays. Floating along in a boat like a house, which
+stops and goes on whenever you like, you have no cares or troubles but
+those which you bring with you&mdash;"c&#339;lum non animum mutant qui trans mare
+currunt." I can conceive nothing more delightful than a voyage up the
+Nile with agreeable companions in the winter, when the climate is
+perfection. There are the most wonderful antiquities for those who
+interest themselves in the<a name="page_070" id="page_070"></a> remains of bygone days; famous shooting on
+the banks of the river, capital dinners, if you know how to make the
+proper arrangements, comfortable quarters, and a constant change of
+scene.</p>
+
+<hr class="chpt" />
+
+<p>The wonders of the land of Ham, its temples and its ruins, have been so
+well and so often described that I shall not attempt to give any details
+regarding them, but shall confine myself to some sketches of the Coptic
+Monasteries which are to be seen on the rocks and deserts, either on the
+banks of the river or in the neighbourhood of the valley of the Nile.</p>
+
+<p>The ancient Egyptians are now represented by their descendants the
+Copts, whose ancestors were converted to Christianity in the earliest
+ages, and whose patriarchs claim their descent, in uninterrupted
+succession, from St Mark, who was buried at Alexandria, but whose body
+the Venetians in later ages boast of having transported to their island
+city.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p>
+
+<p>The Copts look up to their patriarch as the chief of their nation: he is
+elected from among the brethren<a name="page_071" id="page_071"></a> of the great monastery of St. Anthony
+on the borders of the Red Sea, a proceeding which ensures his entire
+ignorance of all sublunary matters, and his consequent incapacity for
+his high and responsible office, unless he chance to be a man of very
+uncommon talents. Like the patriarch of Constantinople, he is usually a
+puppet in the hands of a cabal who make use of him for their own
+interested purposes, and when they have got him into a scrape leave him
+to get out of it as he can. He is called the Patriarch of Alexandria,
+but for many years his residence has been at Cairo, where he has a large
+dreary palace. He is surrounded by priests and acolytes; but when I was
+last at Cairo there was but one remaining Coptic scribe among them, whom
+I engaged to copy out the Gospel of St Mark from an ancient MS. in the
+patriarchal library: however, after a very long delay he copied out St.
+Matthew's Gospel by mistake, and I was told that there was no other
+person whose profession it was to copy Coptic writings.</p>
+
+<p>The patriarch has twelve bishops under him, whose residences are at
+Nagadé, Abou Girgé, Aboutig, Siout, Girgé, Manfalout, Maharaka, the
+Fioum, Atfeh, Behenesé, and Jerusalem: he also consecrates the Abouna or
+Patriarch of Abyssinia, who by a specific law must not be a native of
+that country, and who has not the privilege of naming his successor or
+consecrating archbishops or bishops, although in other respects his
+authority in religious matters is supreme.<a name="page_072" id="page_072"></a> The Patriarch of Abyssinia
+usually ordains two or three thousand priests at once on his first
+arrival in that country, and the unfitness of the individual appointed
+to this high office has sometimes caused much scandal. This has arisen
+from the difficulty there has often been in getting a respectable person
+to accept the office, as it involves perpetual banishment from Egypt,
+and a residence among a people whose partiality to raw meat and other
+peculiar customs are held as abominations by the Egyptians.</p>
+
+<p>The usual trade and occupation of the Copts is that of kateb, scribe, or
+accountant; they seem to have a natural talent for arithmetic. They
+appear to be more afflicted with ophthalmia than the Mohamedans, perhaps
+because they drink wine and spirits, which the others do not.</p>
+
+<p>The person of the greatest consequence among the Copts was Basileos Bey,
+the Pasha's confidential secretary and minister of finance. This
+gentleman was good enough to lend me a magnificent dahabieh or boat of
+the largest size, which I used for many months. It was an old-fashioned
+vessel, painted and gilt inside in a brilliant manner, which is not
+usual in more modern boats; but being a person of a fanciful
+disposition, I preferred the roomy proportions and the quaint arabesque
+ornaments of this boat, although it was no very fast sailer, to the
+natty vessels which were more Europeanised and quicker than mine. The
+principal<a name="page_073" id="page_073"></a> cabin was about ten feet by twelve, and was ornamented with
+paintings of peacocks of a peculiar breed and nondescript flowers. The
+divans, one on each side, were covered with fine carpets, and the
+cushions were of cloth of gold, with a raised pattern of red velvet. The
+ceilings were gilt, and we had two red silk flags of prodigious
+dimensions in addition to streamers forty or fifty feet long at the end
+of each of the yard-arms: in short, it was full of what is called
+fantasia in the Levant, and as for its slowness, I consider that rather
+an advantage in the East. I like to take my time and look about me, and
+sit under a tree on a carpet when I get to an agreeable place, and I am
+in no hurry to leave it; so the heavy qualities of the vessel suited me
+exactly&mdash;we did nothing but stop everywhere. But although I confess that
+I like deliberate travelling, I do not carry my system to the extent of
+an American friend with whom I once journeyed from the shores of the
+Black Sea to Hungary. We were taking a walk together in the mountains
+near Mahadia, when seeing him looking about among the rocks I asked him
+what he wanted. "Oh," said he, "I am looking out for a good place to go
+to sleep in, for there is a beautiful view here, and I like to sleep
+where there is a fine prospect, that I may enjoy it when I awake; so
+good afternoon, and if you come back this way mind you call me."
+Accordingly an hour or two afterwards I came back and aroused my<a name="page_074" id="page_074"></a>
+friend, who was still fast asleep. "I hope you enjoyed your nap," said
+I; "we had a glorious walk among the hills." "Yes," said he, "I had a
+famous nap." "And what did you think of the view when you awoke?" "The
+view!" exclaimed he, "why, I forgot to look at it!"<a name="page_075" id="page_075"></a></p>
+
+<hr class="chpt" />
+
+<h3><a name="NATRON_LAKES" id="NATRON_LAKES"></a>NATRON LAKES.</h3>
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h3>
+
+<p class="chapter">Visit to the Coptic Monasteries near the Natron Lakes&mdash;The Desert
+of Nitria&mdash;Early Christian Anchorites&mdash;St. Macarius of
+Alexandria&mdash;His Abstinence and Penance&mdash;Order of Monks founded by
+him&mdash;Great increase of the Number of ascetic Monks in the Fourth
+Century&mdash;Their subsequent decrease, and the present ruined state of
+the Monasteries&mdash;Legends of the Desert&mdash;Capture of a Lizard&mdash;Its
+<i>alarming</i> escape&mdash;The Convent of Baramous&mdash;Night attacks&mdash;Invasion
+of Sanctuary&mdash;Ancient Glass Lamps&mdash;Monastery of Souriani&mdash;Its
+Library and Coptic MSS.&mdash;The Blind Abbot and his Oil-cellar&mdash;The
+persuasive powers of Rosoglio&mdash;Discovery of Syriac MSS.&mdash;The
+Abbot's supposed treasure.</p>
+
+<p class="nind">I<span class="smcap">n</span> the month of March, 1837, I left Cairo for the purpose of visiting
+the Coptic monasteries in the neighbourhood of the Natron lakes, which
+are situated in the desert to the north-west of Cairo, on the western
+side of the Nile. I had some difficulty in procuring a boat to take me
+down the river&mdash;indeed there was not one to be obtained; but two English
+gentlemen, on their way from China to England, were kind enough to give
+me a passage in their boat to the village of Terrané, the nearest spot
+upon the banks of the Nile to the monasteries which I proposed to visit.</p>
+
+<p>The Desert of Nitria is famous in the annals of<a name="page_076" id="page_076"></a> monastic history as the
+first place to which the Anchorites, in the early ages of Christianity,
+retired from the world in order to pass their lives in prayer and
+contemplation, and in mortification of the flesh. It was in Egypt where
+monasticism first took its rise, and the Coptic monasteries of St.
+Anthony and St. Paul claim to be founded on the spots where the first
+hermits established their cells on the shores of the Red Sea. Next in
+point of antiquity are the monasteries of Nitria, of which we have
+authentic accounts dated as far back as the middle of the second
+century; for about the year 150 <span class="smcap">A.D.</span> Fronto retired to the valleys of
+the Natron lakes with seventy brethren in his company. The Abba Ammon
+(whose life is detailed in the 'Vitæ Patrum' of Rosweyd, Antwerp, 1628,
+a volume of great rarity and dulness, which I only obtained after a long
+search among the mustiest of the London book-stalls) flourished, or
+rather withered, in this desert in the beginning of the fourth century.
+At this time also the Abba Bischoi founded the monastery still called
+after his name, which, it seems, was Isaiah or Esa: the Coptic article
+Pe or Be makes it Besa, under which name he wrote an ascetic work, a
+manuscript of which, probably almost if not quite as old as his time, I
+procured in Egypt. It is one of the most ancient manuscripts now extant.</p>
+
+<p>But the chief and pattern of all the recluses of Nitria was the great
+St. Macarius of Alexandria, whose feast-<a name="page_077" id="page_077"></a>day&mdash;a day which he never
+observed himself&mdash;is still kept by the Latins on the 2nd, and by the
+Greeks on the 19th of January. This famous saint died A.D. 394, after
+sixty years of austerities in various deserts: he first retired into the
+Thebaid in the year 335, and about the year 373 established himself in a
+solitary cell on the borders of the Natron lakes. Numerous anchorites
+followed his example, all living separately, but meeting together on
+Sundays for public prayer. Self-denial and abstinence were their great
+occupations; and it is related that a traveller having given St.
+Macarius a bunch of grapes, he sent it to another brother, who sent it
+to a third, and at last, the grapes having passed through the hands of
+some hundreds of hermits, came back to St. Macarius, who rejoiced at
+such a proof of the abstinence of his brethren, but refused to eat of it
+himself. This same saint having thoughtlessly killed a gnat which was
+biting him, he was so unhappy at what he had done, that to make amends
+for his inadvertency, and to increase his mortifications, he retired to
+the marshes of Scete, where there were flies whose powerful stings were
+sufficient to pierce the hide of a wild boar; here he remained six
+months, till his body was so much disfigured that his brethren on his
+return only knew him by the sound of his voice. He was the founder of
+the monastic order which, as well as the monastery still existing on the
+site of his cell, was<a name="page_078" id="page_078"></a> called after his name. By their rigid rule the
+monks are bound to fast the whole year, excepting on Sundays and during
+the period between Easter and Whitsuntide: they were not to speak to a
+stranger without leave. During Lent St. Macarius fasted all day, and
+sometimes ate nothing for two or three days together; on Sundays,
+however, he indulged in a raw cabbage-leaf, and in short set such an
+example of abstinence and self-restraint to the numerous anchorites of
+the desert, that the fame of his austerities gained him many admirers.
+Throughout the middle ages his name is mentioned with veneration in all
+the collections of the lives of the saints: he is represented pointing
+out the vanities of life in the great fresco of the Triumph of Death, by
+Andrea Orcagna, in the Campo Santo at Pisa. In his Life in Caxton's
+'Golden Legende,' and in 'The Lives of the Fathers,' by Wynkyn de Worde,
+a detailed account will be found of a most interesting conversation
+which Macarius had with the devil, touching divers matters. Several of
+his miracles are also put into modern English, in Lord Lindsay's book of
+Christian Art. I have a MS. of the Gospels in Coptic, written by the
+hand of one Zapita Leporos, under the rule of the great Macarius, in the
+monastery of Laura, about the year 390, and which may have been used by
+the Saint himself.</p>
+
+<p>After the time of Macarius the number of ascetic monks increased to a
+surprising amount. Rufinus,<a name="page_079" id="page_079"></a> who visited them in the year 372, mentions
+fifty of their convents; Palladius, who was there in the year 387,
+reckons the devotees at five thousand. St Jerome also visited them, and
+their number seems to have been kept up without much diminution for
+several centuries.<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a>
+After the conquest of Egypt by the Arabians, and
+about the year 967, a Mahomedan author, Aboul Faraj of Hispahan, wrote a
+book of poems, called the 'Book of Convents,' which is in praise of the
+habits and religious devotion of the Christian monks. The dilapidated
+monastery of St. Macarius was repaired and fortified by Sanutius,
+Patriarch of Alexandria, at which good work he laboured with his own
+bands: this must have been about the year 880, as he died in 881. In
+more recent times the multitude of ascetics gradually decreased, and but
+few travellers have extended their researches to their arid haunts. At
+present only four monasteries remain entire, although the ruins of many
+others may still be traced in the desert tracts on the west side of the
+line of the Natron lakes, and the valley of the waterless river, which,
+at some very remote period, is supposed to have formed the bed of one of
+the branches of the Nile.</p>
+
+<p>At the village of Terrané I was most hospitably received by an Italian
+gentleman, who was superintending the export of the natron. Here I
+procured camels; I had brought a tent with me; and the next<a name="page_080" id="page_080"></a> day we set
+off across the plain, with the Arabs to whom the camels belonged, and
+who, having been employed in the transport of the natron, were able to
+show us the way, which it would have been very difficult to trace
+without their help. The memory of the devils and evil spirits who,
+according to numerous legends, used formerly to haunt this desert,
+seemed still to awaken the fears of these Arab guides. During the first
+day's journey I talked to them on the subject, and found that their
+minds were full of superstitious fancies.</p>
+
+<p>It is said that tailors sometimes stand up to rest themselves, and on
+that principle I had descended from my huge, ungainly camel, who had
+never before been used for riding, and whose swinging paces were very
+irksome, and was resting myself by walking in his shade, when seeing
+something run up to a large stone which lay in the way, I moved it to
+see what it was. I found a lizard, six or eight inches long, of a
+species with which I was unacquainted. I caught the reptile by the nape
+of the neck, which made him open his ugly mouth in a curious way, and he
+wriggled about so much that I could hardly hold him. Judging that he
+might be venomous, I looked about for some safe place to put him, and my
+eye fell upon the large glass lantern which was used in the tent; that,
+I thought, was just the thing for my lizard, so I put him into the
+lantern, which hung at the side of<a name="page_081" id="page_081"></a> the baggage camel, intending to
+examine him at my leisure in the evening. When the sun was about to set,
+the tent was pitched, and a famous fire lit for the cook. It was in a
+bare, open place, without a hill, stock, or stone in sight in any
+direction all around. The camels were tethered together, near the
+baggage, which was piled in a heap to the windward of the fire; and, as
+it was getting dark, one of the Arabs took the lantern to the fire to
+light it. He got a blazing stick for this purpose, and held up the
+lantern close to his face to undo the hasp, which he had no sooner
+accomplished than out jumped the lizard upon his shoulder and
+immediately made his escape. The Arab, at this unexpected attack, gave a
+fearful yell, and dashing the lantern to pieces on the ground, screamed
+out that the devil had jumped upon him and had disappeared in the
+darkness, and that he was certain he was waiting to carry us all off.
+The other Arabs were seriously alarmed, and for a long while paid no
+attention to my explanation about the lizard, which was the cause of all
+the disturbance. The worst of the affair was that the lantern being
+broken to bits, we could have no light; for the wind blew the candles
+out, notwithstanding our most ingenious efforts to shelter them. The
+Arabs were restless all night, and before sunrise we were again under
+way, and in the course of the day arrived at the convent of Baramous.
+This monastery consisted of a high stone wall, surrounding a square<a name="page_082" id="page_082"></a>
+enclosure, of about an acre in extent. A large square tower commanded
+the narrow entrance, which was closed by a low and narrow iron door.
+Within there was a good-sized church in tolerable preservation, standing
+nearly in the centre of the enclosure, which contained nothing else but
+some ruined buildings and a few large fig-trees, growing out of the
+disjointed walls. Two or three poor-looking monks still tenanted the
+ruins of the abbey. They had hardly anything to offer us, and were glad
+to partake of some of the rice and other eatables which we had brought
+with us. I wandered about among the ruins with the half-starved monks
+following me. We went into the square tower, where, in a large vaulted
+room with open unglazed windows, were forty or fifty Coptic manuscripts
+on cotton paper, lying on the floor, to which several of them adhered
+firmly, not having been moved for many years. I only found one leaf on
+vellum, which I brought away. The other manuscripts appeared to be all
+liturgies; most of them smelling of incense when I opened them, and well
+smeared with dirt and wax from the candles which had been held over them
+during the reading of the service.</p>
+
+<p>I took possession of a half-ruined cell, where my carpets were spread,
+and where I went to sleep early in the evening; but I had hardly closed
+my eyes before I was so briskly attacked by a multitude of ravenous
+fleas, that I jumped up and ran out into the<a name="page_083" id="page_083"></a> court to shake myself and
+get rid if I could of my tormentors. The poor monks, hearing my
+exclamations, crept out of their holes and recommended me to go into the
+church, which they said would be safe from the attacks of the enemy. I
+accordingly took a carpet which I had well shaken and beaten, and lay
+down on the marble floor of the church, where I presently went to sleep.
+Again I was awakened by the wicked fleas, who, undeterred by the
+sanctity of my asylum, renewed their attack in countless legions. The
+slaps I gave myself were all in vain; for, although I slew them by
+dozens in my rage, others came on in their place. There was no
+withstanding them, and, fairly vanquished, I was forced to abandon my
+position, and walk about and look at the moon till the sun rose, when my
+villainous tormentors slunk away and allowed me a short snatch of the
+repose which they had prevented my enjoying all night.</p>
+
+<p>There were several curious lamps in this church formed of ancient glass,
+like those in the mosque of Sultan Hassan at Cairo, which are said to be
+of the same date as the mosque, and to be of Syrian manufacture. These,
+which were in the shape of large open vases, were ornamented with pious
+sentences in Arabic characters, in blue on a white ground.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> They were<a name="page_084" id="page_084"></a>
+very handsome, and, except one of the same kind, which is now in
+England, in the possession of Mr. Magniac, I never saw any like them.
+They are probably some of the most ancient specimens of ornamental glass
+existing, excepting, of course, the vases and lachrymatories of the
+classic times.</p>
+
+<p>Quitting the monastery of Baramous, we went to that of Souriani, where
+we left our baggage and tent, and proceeded to visit the monasteries of
+Amba Bischoi and Abou Magar, or St. Macarius, both of which were in very
+poor condition. These monasteries are so much alike in their plan and
+appearance, that the description of one is the description of all. I saw
+none but the church books in either of them, and at the time of my visit
+they were apparently inhabited only by three or four monks, who
+conducted the services of their respective churches.</p>
+
+<p>On this journey we passed many ruins and heaps of stones nearly level
+with the ground, the remains of some of the fifty monasteries which once
+flourished in the wilderness of Scete.</p>
+
+<p>In the evening I returned to Souriani, where I was hospitably received
+by the abbot and fourteen or fifteen Coptic monks. They provided me with
+an agreeable room looking into the garden within the walls. My servants
+were lodged in some other small cells or rooms near mine, which happily
+not being tenanted by fleas or any other wild beasts of prey, was
+exceedingly<a name="page_085" id="page_085"></a> comfortable when my bright-coloured carpets and cushions
+were spread upon the floor; and, after the adventures of the two former
+nights, I rested in great comfort and peace.</p>
+
+<p>In the morning I went to see the church and all the other wonders of the
+place, and on making inquiries about the library, was conducted by the
+old abbot, who was blind, and was constantly accompanied by another
+monk, into a small upper room in the great square tower, where we found
+several Coptic manuscripts. Most of these were lying on the floor, but
+some were placed in niches in the stone wall. They were all on paper,
+except three or four. One of these was a superb manuscript of the
+Gospels, with commentaries by the early fathers of the church; two
+others were doing duty as coverings to a couple of large open pots or
+jars, which had contained preserves, long since evaporated. I was
+allowed to purchase these vellum manuscripts, as they were considered to
+be useless by the monks, principally I believe because there were no
+more preserves in the jars. On the floor I found a fine Coptic and
+Arabic dictionary. I was aware of the existence of this volume, with
+which they refused to part. I placed it in one of the niches in the
+wall; and some years afterwards it was purchased for me by a friend, who
+sent it to England after it had been copied at Cairo. They sold me two
+imperfect dictionaries, which I discovered loaded with dust upon the<a name="page_086" id="page_086"></a>
+ground. Besides these, I did not see any other books but those of the
+liturgies for various holy days. These were large folios on cotton
+paper, most of them of considerable antiquity, and well begrimed with
+dirt.</p>
+
+<p>The old blind abbot had solemnly declared that there were no other books
+in the monastery besides those which I had seen; but I had been told, by
+a French gentleman at Cairo, that there were many ancient manuscripts in
+the monks' oil cellar; and it was in pursuit of these and the Coptic
+dictionary that I had undertaken the journey to the Natron lakes. The
+abbot positively denied the existence of these books, and we retired
+from the library to my room with the Coptic manuscripts which they had
+ceded to me without difficulty; and which, according to the dates
+contained in them, and from their general appearance, may claim to be
+considered among the oldest manuscripts in existence, more ancient
+certainly than many of the Syriac MSS. which I am about to describe.</p>
+
+<p>The abbot, his companion, and myself sat down together. I produced a
+bottle of rosoglio from my stores, to which I knew that all Oriental
+monks were partial; for though they do not, I believe, drink wine
+because an excess in its indulgence is forbidden by Scripture, yet
+ardent spirits not having been invented in those times, there is nothing
+said about them in the Bible; and at Mount Sinai and all the other spots
+of sacred pilgrimage the monks comfort themselves with<a name="page_087" id="page_087"></a> a little glass
+or rather a small coffee cup of arrack or raw spirits when nothing
+better of its kind is to be procured. Next to the golden key, which
+masters so many locks, there is no better opener of the heart than a
+sufficiency of strong drink,&mdash;not too much, but exactly the proper
+quantity judiciously exhibited (to use a chemical term in the land of Al
+Chémé, where alchemy and chemistry first had their origin). I have
+always found it to be invincible; and now we sat sipping our cups of the
+sweet pink rosoglio, and firing little compliments at each other, and
+talking pleasantly over our bottle till some time passed away, and the
+face of the blind abbot waxed bland and confiding; and he had that
+expression on his countenance which men wear when they are pleased with
+themselves and bear goodwill towards mankind in general. I had by the
+bye a great advantage over the good abbot, as I could see the workings
+of his features and he could not see mine, or note my eagerness about
+the oil-cellar, on the subject of which I again gradually entered.
+"There is no oil there," said he. "I am curious to see the architecture
+of so ancient a room," said I; "for I have heard that yours is a famous
+oil-cellar." "It is a famous cellar," said the other monk. "Take another
+cup of rosoglio," said I. "Ah!" replied he, "I remember the days when it
+overflowed with oil, and then there were I do not know how many brethren
+here with us. But now we are few and poor;<a name="page_088" id="page_088"></a> bad times are come over us:
+we are not what we used to be." "I should like to see it very much,"
+said I; "I have heard so much about it even at Cairo. Let us go and see
+it; and when we come back we will have another bottle; and I will give
+you a few more which I have brought with me for your private use."</p>
+
+<p>This last argument prevailed. We returned to the great tower, and
+ascended the steep flight of steps which led to its door of entrance. We
+then descended a narrow staircase to the oil-cellar, a handsome vaulted
+room, where we found a range of immense vases which formerly contained
+the oil, but which now on being struck returned a mournful, hollow
+sound. There was nothing else to be seen: there were no books here: but
+taking the candle from the hands of one of the brethren (for they had
+all wandered in after us, having nothing else to do), I discovered a
+narrow low door, and, pushing it open, entered into a small closet
+vaulted with stone which was filled to the depth of two feet or more
+with the loose leaves of the Syriac manuscripts which now form one of
+the chief treasures of the British Museum. Here I remained for some time
+turning over the leaves and digging into the mass of loose vellum pages;
+by which exertions I raised such a cloud of fine pungent dust that the
+monks relieved each other in holding our only candle at the door, while
+the dust made us sneeze incessantly as we turned over the scattered
+leaves of vellum. I had extracted<a name="page_089" id="page_089"></a> four books, the only ones I could
+find which seemed to be tolerably perfect, when two monks who were
+struggling in the corner pulled out a great big manuscript of a brown
+and musty appearance and of prodigious weight, which was tied together
+with a cord. "Here is a box!" exclaimed the two monks, who were nearly
+choked with the dust; "we have found a box, and a heavy one too!" "A
+box!" shouted the blind abbot, who was standing in the outer darkness of
+the oil-cellar&mdash;"A box! Where is it? Bring it out! bring out the box!
+Heaven be praised! We have found a treasure! Lift up the box! Pull out
+the box! A box! A box! Sandouk! sandouk!" shouted all the monks in
+various tones of voice. "Now then let us see the box! bring it out to
+the light!" they cried. "What can there be in it?" and they all came to
+help and carried it away up the stairs, the blind abbot following them
+to the outer door, leaving me to retrace my steps as I could with the
+volumes which I had dug out of their literary grave.<a name="page_090" id="page_090"></a></p>
+
+<hr class="chpt" />
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h3>
+
+<p class="chapter">View from the Convent Wall&mdash;Appearance of the Desert&mdash;Its grandeur
+and freedom&mdash;Its contrast to the Convent Garden&mdash;Beauty and
+luxuriance of Eastern Vegetation&mdash;Picturesque Group of the Monks
+and their Visitors&mdash;The Abyssinian Monks&mdash;Their appearance&mdash;Their
+austere mode of Life&mdash;The Abyssinian College&mdash;Description of the
+Library&mdash;The mode of Writing in Abyssinia&mdash;Immense Labour required
+to write an Abyssinian book&mdash;Paintings and
+Illuminations&mdash;Disappointment of the Abbot at finding the supposed
+Treasure-box only an old Book&mdash;Purchase of the MSS. and Books&mdash;The
+most precious left behind&mdash;Since acquired for the British Museum.</p>
+
+<p class="nind">O<span class="smcap">n</span> leaving the dark recesses of the tower I paused at the narrow door by
+which we had entered, both to accustom my eyes to the glare of the
+daylight, and to look at the scene below me. I stood on the top of a
+steep flight of stone steps, by which the door of the tower was
+approached from the court of the monastery: the steps ran up the inside
+of the outer wall, which was of sufficient thickness to allow of a
+narrow terrace within the parapet; from this point I could look over the
+wall on the left hand upon the desert, whose dusty plains stretched out
+as far as I could see, in hot and dreary loneliness to the horizon. To
+those who are not familiar with the aspect of such a region as this, it
+may be well to explain that a desert such as that which now surrounded
+me resembles more than anything<a name="page_091" id="page_091"></a> else a dusty turnpike-road in England
+on a hot summer's day, extended interminably, both as to length and
+breadth. A country of low rounded hills, the surface of which is
+composed entirely of gravel, dust, and stones, will give a good idea of
+the general aspect of a desert. Yet, although parched and dreary in the
+extreme from their vastness and openness, there is something grand and
+sublime in the silence and loneliness of these burning plains; and the
+wandering tribes of Bedouins who inhabit them are seldom content to
+remain long in the narrow inclosed confines of cultivated land. There is
+always a fresh breeze in the desert, except when the terrible hot wind
+blows; and the air is more elastic and pure than where vegetation
+produces exhalations which in all hot climates are more or less heavy
+and deleterious. The air of the desert is always healthy, and no race of
+men enjoy a greater exemption from weakness, sickness, and disease than
+the children of the desert, who pass their lives in wandering to and fro
+in search of the scanty herbage on which their flocks are fed, far from
+the cares and troubles of busy cities, and free from the oppression
+which grinds down the half-starved cultivators of the fertile soil of
+Egypt.</p>
+
+<p>Whilst from my elevated position I looked out on my left upon the mighty
+desert, on my right how different was the scene! There below my feet lay
+the convent garden in all the fresh luxuriance of tropical vegetation.<a name="page_092" id="page_092"></a>
+Tufts upon tufts of waving palms overshadowed the immense succulent
+leaves of the banana, which in their turn rose out of thickets of the
+pomegranate rich with its bright green leaves and its blossoms of that
+beautiful and vivid red which is excelled by few even of the most
+brilliant flowers of the East. These were contrasted with the deep dark
+green of the caroub or locust-tree; and the yellow apples of the lotus
+vied with the clusters of green limes with their sweet white flowers
+which luxuriated in a climate too hot and sultry for the golden fruit of
+the orange, which is not to be met with in the valley of the Nile.
+Flowers and fair branches exhaling rich perfume and bearing freshness in
+their very aspect became more beautiful from their contrast to the
+dreary arid plains outside the convent walls, and this great difference
+was owing solely to there being a well of water in this spot from which
+a horse or mule was constantly employed to draw the fertilizing streams
+which nourished the teeming vegetation of this monastic garden.</p>
+
+<p>I stood gazing and moralizing at these contrasted scenes for some time;
+but at length when I turned my eyes upon my companions and myself, it
+struck me that we also were somewhat remarkable in our way. First there
+was the old blind grey-bearded abbot, leaning on his staff, surrounded
+with three or four dark robed Coptic monks, holding in their hands the
+lighted candles with which we had explored the secret<a name="page_093" id="page_093"></a> recesses of the
+oil-cellar; there was I dressed in the long robes of a merchant of the
+East, with a small book in the breast of my gown and a big one under
+each arm; and there were my servants armed to the teeth and laden with
+old books; and one and all we were so covered with dirt and wax from top
+to toe, that we looked more as if we had been up the chimney than like
+quiet people engaged in literary researches. One of the monks was
+leaning in a brown study upon the ponderous and gigantic volume in its
+primæval binding, in the interior of which the blind abbot had hoped to
+find a treasure. Perched upon the battlements of this remote monastery
+we formed as picturesque a group as one might wish to see; though
+perhaps the begrimed state of our flowing robes as well as of our hands
+and faces would render a somewhat remote point of view more agreeable to
+the artist than a closer inspection.</p>
+
+<p>While we had been standing on the top of the steps, I had heard from
+time to time some incomprehensible sounds which seemed to arise from
+among the green branches of the palms and fig-trees in a corner of the
+garden at our feet. "What," said I to a bearded Copt, who was seated on
+the steps, "is that strange howling noise which I hear among the trees?
+I have heard it several times when the rustling of the wind among the
+branches has died away for a moment. It sounds something like a chant,
+or a<a name="page_094" id="page_094"></a> dismal moaning song: only it is different in its cadence from
+anything that I have heard before." "That noise," replied the monk, "is
+the sound of the service of the church which is being chanted by the
+Abyssinian monks. Come down the steps and I will show you their chapel
+and their library. The monastery which they frequented in this desert
+has fallen to decay; and they now live here, their numbers being
+recruited occasionally by pilgrims on their way from Abyssinia to
+Jerusalem, some of whom pass by each year; not many now, to be sure; but
+still fewer return to their own land."</p>
+
+<p>Giving up my precious manuscripts to the guardianship of my servants and
+desiring them to put them down carefully in my cell, I accompanied my
+Coptic friend into the garden, and turning round some bushes, we
+immediately encountered one of the Abyssinian monks walking with a book
+in his hand under the shade of the trees. Presently we saw three or four
+more; and very remarkable looking persons they were. These holy brethren
+were as black as crows; tall, thin, ascetic looking men of a most
+original aspect and costume. I have seen the natives of many strange
+nations, both before and since, but I do not know that I ever met with
+so singular a set of men, so completely the types of another age and of
+a state of things the opposite to European, as these Abyssinian
+Eremites. They were black, as I have already said, which is not<a name="page_095" id="page_095"></a> the
+usual complexion of the natives of Habesh; and they were all clothed in
+tunics of wash leather made, they told me, of gazelle skins. This
+garment came down to their knees, and was confined round their waist
+with a leathern girdle. Over their shoulders they had a strap supporting
+a case like a cartridge-box, of thick brown leather, containing a
+manuscript book; and above this they wore a large shapeless cloak or
+toga, of the same light yellow wash leather as the tunic; I do not think
+that they wore anything on the head, but this I do not distinctly
+remember. Their legs were bare, and they had no other clothing, if I may
+except a profuse smearing of grease; for they had anointed themselves in
+the most lavish manner, not with the oil of gladness, but with that of
+castor, which however had by no means the effect of giving them a
+cheerful countenance; for although they looked exceedingly slippery and
+greasy, they seemed to be an austere and dismal set of fanatics: true
+disciples of the great Macarius, the founder of these secluded
+monasteries, and excellently calculated to figure in that grim chorus of
+his invention, or at least which is called after his name, "La danse
+Macabre," known to us by the appellation of the Dance of Death. They
+seemed to be men who fasted much and feasted little; great observers
+were they of vigils, of penance, of pilgrimages, and midnight masses;
+eaters of bitter herbs for conscience' sake. It was such men as these<a name="page_096" id="page_096"></a>
+who lived on the tops of columns, and took up their abodes in tombs, and
+thought it was a sign of holiness to look like a wild beast&mdash;that it was
+wicked to be clean, and superfluous to be useful in this world; and who
+did evil to themselves that good might come. Poor fellows! they meant
+well, and knew no better; and what more can be said for the endeavours
+of the best of men?</p>
+
+<p>Accompanied by a still increasing number of these wild priests we
+traversed the shady garden, and came to a building with a flat roof,
+which stood in the south-east corner of the enclosure and close to the
+outer wall. This was the college or consistory of the Abyssinian monks,
+and the accompanying sketch made upon the spot will perhaps explain the
+appearance of this room better than any written description. The round
+thing upon the floor is a table upon which the dishes of their frugal
+meal were set; by the side of this low table we sat upon the ground on
+the skin of some great wild beast, which did duty as a carpet. This room
+was also their library, and on my remarking the number of books which I
+saw around me they seemed proud of their collection, and told me that
+there were not many such libraries as this in their country. There were
+perhaps nearly fifty volumes, and as the entire literature of Abyssinia
+does not include more than double that number of works, I could easily
+imagine that what I saw around me formed a very considerable
+accumulation<a name="page_097" id="page_097"></a> of manuscripts, considering the barbarous state of the
+country from which they came.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<a href="#library1" name="libraryref1">
+<span class="caption">INTERIOR OF THE ABYSSINIAN LIBRARY, IN THE MONASTERY OF SOURIANI ON THE NATRON LAKES.</span>
+<img src="images/ill_148_thumb.jpg" width="550" height="334" alt="INTERIOR OF THE ABYSSINIAN LIBRARY, IN THE MONASTERY OF
+SOURIANI ON THE NATRON LAKES." title="INTERIOR OF THE ABYSSINIAN LIBRARY, IN THE MONASTERY OF
+SOURIANI ON THE NATRON LAKES." /></a>
+
+<table summary="key Abyssinian Library image"
+cellspacing="0" cellpadding="1" style="text-align:center;font-size:small;">
+<tr><td>Abyssinian monk clothed in leather.</td>
+<td style="border-left:1px solid black;">The dining table.</td>
+<td style="border-left:1px solid black;">The blind abbot leaning over the Author.</td>
+<td style="border-left:1px solid black;">Abyssinian monk.</td>
+<td style="border-left:1px solid black;">Coptic monk.</td>
+<td style="border-left:1px solid black;">The books hanging from wooden pegs let into the wall.</td>
+<td style="border-left:1px solid black;">The Author's Egyptian servants.</td></tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<p>The disposition of the manuscripts in this library was very original. I
+have had no means of ascertaining whether all the libraries of Abyssinia
+are arranged in the same style. The room was about twenty-six feet long,
+twenty wide, and twelve high; the roof was formed of the trunks of palm
+trees, across which reeds were laid, which supported the mass of earth
+and plaster, of which the terrace roof was composed; the interior of the
+walls was plastered white with lime; the windows, at a good height from
+the ground, were unglazed, but were defended with bars of iron-wood or
+some other hard wood; the door opened into the garden, and its lock,
+which was of wood also, was of that peculiar construction which has been
+used in Egypt from time immemorial. A wooden shelf was carried in the
+Egyptian style round the walls, at the height of the top of the door,
+and on this shelf stood sundry platters, bottles, and dishes for the use
+of the community. Underneath the shelf various long wooden pegs
+projected from the wall; they were each about a foot and a half long,
+and on them hung the Abyssinian manuscripts, of which this curious
+library was entirely composed.</p>
+
+<p>The books of Abyssinia are bound in the usual way, sometimes in red
+leather and sometimes in wooden boards, which are occasionally
+elaborately carved in<a name="page_098" id="page_098"></a> rude and coarse devices: they are then enclosed
+in a case, tied up with leather thongs; to this case is attached a strap
+for the convenience of carrying the volume over the shoulders, and by
+these straps the books were hung to the wooden pegs, three or four on a
+peg, or more if the books were small: their usual size was that of a
+small, very thick quarto. The appearance of the room, fitted up in this
+style, together with the presence of various long staves, such as the
+monks of all the Oriental churches lean upon at the time of prayer,
+resembled less a library than a barrack or guard-room, where the
+soldiers had hung their knapsacks and cartridge-boxes against the wall.</p>
+
+<p>All the members of this church militant could read fluently out of their
+own books, which is more than the Copts could do in whose monastery they
+were sojourning. Two or three, with whom I spoke, were intelligent men,
+although not much enlightened as to the affairs of this world: the
+perfume of their leather garments and oily bodies was, however, rather
+too powerful for my olfactory nerves, and after making a slight sketch
+of their library I was glad to escape into the open air of the beautiful
+garden, where I luxuriated in the shade of the palms and the
+pomegranates. The strange costumes and wild appearance of these black
+monks, and the curious arrangement of their library, the uncouth sounds
+of their singing and howling, and the clash of their cymbals in the
+ancient convent of<a name="page_099" id="page_099"></a> the Natron lakes, formed a scene such as I believe
+few Europeans have witnessed.</p>
+
+<p>The labour required to write an Abyssinian book is immense, and
+sometimes many years are consumed in the preparation of a single volume.
+They are almost all written upon skins; the only one not written upon
+vellum that I have met with is in my own possession; it is on charta
+bombycina. The ink which they use is composed of gum, lampblack, and
+water. It is jet black, and keeps its colour for ever: indeed in this
+respect all Oriental inks are infinitely superior to ours, and they have
+the additional advantage of not being corrosive or injurious either to
+the pen or paper. Their pen is the reed commonly used in the East, only
+the nib is made sharper than that which is required to write the Arabic
+character. The ink-horn is usually the small end of a cow's horn, which
+is stuck into the ground at the feet of the scribe. In the most ancient
+Greek frescos and illuminations this kind of ink-horn is the one
+generally represented, and it seems to have been usually inserted in a
+hole in the writing-desk: no writing-desk, however, is in use among the
+children of Habesh. Seated upon the ground, the square piece of thick
+greasy vellum is held upon the knee or on the palm of the left hand.</p>
+
+<p>The Abyssinian alphabet consists of 8 times 26 letters, 208 characters
+in all, and these are each written distinctly and separately like the
+letters of an<a name="page_100" id="page_100"></a> European printed book. They have no cursive writing; each
+letter is therefore painted, as it were, with the reed pen, and as the
+scribe finishes each he usually makes a horrible face and gives a
+triumphant flourish with his pen. Thus he goes on letter by letter, and
+before he gets to the end of the first line he is probably in a
+perspiration from his nervous apprehension of the importance of his
+undertaking. One page is a good day's work, and when he has done it he
+generally, if he is not too stiff, follows the custom of all little Arab
+boys, and swings his head or his body from side to side, keeping time to
+a sort of nasal recitative, without the help of which it would seem that
+few can read even a chapter of the Koran, although they may know it by
+heart.</p>
+
+<p>Some of these manuscripts are adorned with the quaintest and grimmest
+illuminations conceivable. The colours are composed of various ochres.
+In general the outlines of the figures are drawn first with the pen. The
+paint brush is made by chewing the end of a reed till it is reduced to
+filaments and then nibbling it into a proper form: the paint brushes of
+the ancient Egyptians were made in the same way, and excellent brooms
+for common purposes are made at Cairo by beating the thick end of a
+palm-branch till the fibres are separated from the pith, the part above,
+which is not beaten, becoming the handle of the broom. The Abyssinian
+having nibbled and chewed his reed till he<a name="page_101" id="page_101"></a> thinks it will do, proceeds
+to fill up the spaces between the inked outlines with his colours. The
+Blessed Virgin is usually dressed in blue; the complexion of the figures
+is a brownish red, and those in my possession have a curious cast of the
+eyes, which gives them a very cunning look. St John, in a MS. which I
+have now before me, is represented with woolly hair, and has two marks
+or gashes on each side of his face, in accordance with the Abyssinian or
+Galla custom of cutting through the skin of the face, breast, and arms,
+so as to leave an indelible mark. This is done in youth, and is said to
+preserve the patient from several diseases. The colours are mixed up
+with the yolk of an egg, and the numerous mistakes and slips of the
+brush are corrected by a wipe from a wet finger or thumb, which is
+generally kept ready in the artist's mouth during the operation; and it
+is lucky if he does not give it a bite in the agony of composition, when
+with an unsteady hand the eye of some famous saint is smeared all over
+the nose by an unfortunate swerve of the nibbled reed.</p>
+
+<p>It is not often, however, that the arts of drawing and painting are thus
+ruthlessly mangled on the pages of their books, and notwithstanding the
+disadvantages under which the writers labour, some of these manuscripts
+are beautifully written, and are worthy of being compared with the best
+specimens of calligraphy in any language. I have a MS. containing the
+book of<a name="page_102" id="page_102"></a> Enoch, and several books of the Old Testament, which is
+remarkable for the perfection of its writing, the straightness of the
+lines, and the equal size and form of the characters throughout:
+probably many years were required to finish it. The binding is of wooden
+boards, not sawn or planed, but chopped apparently out of a tree or a
+block of hard wood, a task of patience and difficulty which gives
+evidence of the enthusiasm and goodwill which have been displayed in the
+production of a work, in toiling upon which the pious man in the
+simplicity of his heart doubtless considered that he was labouring for
+the honour of the church, <i>ad majorem Dei gloriam</i>. It was this feeling
+which in the middle ages produced all those glorious works of art which
+are the admiration of modern times, and its total absence now is deeply
+to be deplored in our own country.</p>
+
+<p>Having satiated my curiosity as to the Abyssinian monks and their
+curious library, I returned to my own room, where I was presently joined
+by the abbot and his companion, who came for the promised bottle of
+rosoglio, which they now required the more to keep up their spirits on
+finding that the box of treasure was only a large old book. They
+murmured and talked to themselves between the cups of rosoglio, and so
+great was their disappointment that it was some time before they
+recovered the equilibrium of their minds. "You found no treasure," I
+remarked, "but I am a<a name="page_103" id="page_103"></a> lover of old books; let me have the big one which
+you thought was a box and the others which I have brought out with me,
+and I will give you a certain number of piastres in exchange. By this
+arrangement we shall be both of us contented, for the money will be
+useful to you, and I should be glad to carry away the books as a
+memorial of my visit to this interesting spot." "Ah!" said the abbot.
+"Another cup of rosoglio," said I; "help yourself." "How much will you
+give?" asked the abbot. "How much do you want?" said I; "all the money I
+have with me is at your service." "How much is that?" he inquired. Out
+came the bag of money, and the agreeable sound of the clinking of the
+pieces of gold or dollars, I forget which they were, had a soothing
+effect upon the nerves of the blind man, and in short the bottle and the
+bargain were concluded at the same moment.</p>
+
+<p>The Coptic and Syriac manuscripts were stowed away in one side of a
+great pair of saddle-bags. "Now," said I, "we will put these in the
+other side, and you shall take it out and see the Arabs place it on the
+camel." We could not by any packing or shifting get all the books into
+the bag, and the two monks would not let me make another parcel, lest,
+as I understood, the rest of the brethren should discover what it was,
+and claim their share of the spoil. In this dreadful dilemma I looked at
+each of the books, not knowing which to leave behind, but seeing that<a name="page_104" id="page_104"></a>
+the quarto was the most imperfect, I abandoned it, and I have now reason
+to believe, on seeing the manuscripts of the British Museum, that this
+was the famous book with the date of <span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 411, the most precious
+acquisition to any library that has been made in modern times, with the
+exception, as I conceive, of some in my own collection. It is, however,
+a satisfaction to think that this book, which contains some lost
+epistles of St. Ignatius, has not been thrown away, but has fallen into
+better hands than mine.<a name="page_105" id="page_105"></a></p>
+
+<hr class="chpt" />
+
+<h3><a name="THE_CONVENT_OF_THE_PULLEY" id="THE_CONVENT_OF_THE_PULLEY"></a>THE CONVENT OF THE PULLEY.</h3>
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h3>
+
+<p class="chapter">The Convent of the Pulley&mdash;Its inaccessible position&mdash;Difficult
+landing on the bank of the Nile&mdash;Approach to the Convent through
+the Rocks&mdash;Description of the Convent and its Inhabitants&mdash;Plan of
+the Church&mdash;Books and MSS.&mdash;Ancient excavations&mdash;Stone Quarries and
+ancient Tombs&mdash;Alarm of the Copts&mdash;Their ideas of a Sketch-book.</p>
+
+<p class="nind">T<span class="smcap">he</span> Coptic monasteries were usually built in desert or inaccessible
+places, with a view to their defence in troubled times, or in the hope
+of their escaping the observation of marauding parties, who were not
+likely to take the trouble of going much out of their way unless they
+had assured hopes of finding something better worth sacking than a poor
+convent. The access to Der el Adra, the Convent of the Virgin, more
+commonly known by the name of the Convent of the Pulley, is very
+singular. This monastery is situated on the top of the rocks of Gebel el
+terr, where a precipice above 200 feet in height is washed at its base
+by the waters of the Nile. When I visited this monastery on the 19th of
+February, 1838, there was a high wind, which rendered the management of
+my immense boat, above 80 feet long, somewhat difficult;<a name="page_106" id="page_106"></a> and we were
+afraid of being dashed against the rocks if we ventured too near them in
+our attempt to land at the foot of the precipice. The monks, who were
+watching our man&#339;uvres from above, all at once disappeared, and
+presently several of them made their appearance on the shore, issuing in
+a complete state of nudity from a cave or cleft in the face of the rock.
+These worthy brethren jumped one after another into the Nile, and
+assisted the sailors to secure the boat with ropes and anchors from the
+force of the wind. They swam like Newfoundland dogs, and, finding that
+it was impossible for the boat to reach the land, two of the reverend
+gentlemen took me on their shoulders and, wading through a shallow part
+of the river, brought me safely to the foot of the rock. When we got
+there I could not perceive any way to ascend to the monastery, but,
+following the abbot, I scrambled over the broken rocks to the entrance
+of the cave. This was a narrow fissure where the precipice had been
+split by some convulsion of nature, the opening being about the size of
+the inside of a capacious chimney. The abbot crept in at a hole at the
+bottom: he was robed in a long dark blue shirt, the front of which he
+took up and held in his teeth; and, telling me to observe where he
+placed his feet, he began to climb up the cleft with considerable
+agility. A few preliminary lessons from a chimney-sweep would now have
+been of the greatest service to me; but in this branch of art my
+education<a name="page_107" id="page_107"></a> had been neglected, and it was with no small difficulty that
+I climbed up after the abbot, whom I saw striding and sprawling in the
+attitude of a spread eagle above my head. My slippers soon fell off upon
+the head of a man under me, whom, on looking down, I found to be the
+reis, or captain of my boat, whose immense turban formed the whole of
+his costume. At least twenty men were scrambling and puffing underneath
+him, most of them having their clothes tied in a bundle on their heads,
+where they had secured them when they swam or waded to the shore. Arms
+and legs were stretched out in all manner of attitudes, the forms of the
+more distant climbers being lost in the gloom of the narrow cavern up
+which we were advancing, the procession being led by the unrobed
+ecclesiastics. Having climbed up about 120 feet, we emerged in a fine
+perspiration upon a narrow ledge of the rock on the face of the
+precipice, which had an unpleasant slope towards the Nile. It was as
+slippery as glass; and I felt glad that I had lost my shoes, as I had a
+firmer footing without them. We turned to the right, and climbing a
+projection of the rock seven or eight feet high&mdash;rather a nervous
+proceeding at such a height to those who were unaccustomed to it&mdash;we
+gained a more level space, from which a short steep pathway brought us
+to the top of the precipice, whence I looked down with much
+self-complacency upon my companion who was standing on the deck of the
+vessel.<a name="page_108" id="page_108"></a></p>
+
+<p>The convent stands about two hundred paces to the north of the place
+where we ascended. It had been originally built of small square stones
+of Roman workmanship; but, having fallen into decay, it had been
+repaired with mud and sunburnt bricks. Its ground plan was nearly a
+square, and its general appearance outside was that of a large pound or
+a small kitchen garden, the walls being about 20 feet high and each side
+of the square extending about 200 feet, without any windows or
+architectural decoration. I entered by a low doorway on the side towards
+the cliff, and found myself in a yard of considerable size full of
+cocks, hens, women, and children, who were all cackling and talking
+together at the top of their shrill voices. A large yellow-coloured dog,
+who was sleeping in the sunshine in the midst of all this din, was
+awakened by its cessation as I entered. He greeted my arrival with a
+growl, upon which he was assailed with a volley of stones and invectives
+by the ladies whom he had intended to protect. Every man, woman, and
+child came out to have a peep at the stranger, but when my numerous
+followers, many in habiliments of the very slightest description,
+crowded into the court, the ladies took fright, and there was a general
+rush into the house, the old women hiding their faces without a moment's
+delay, but the younger ones taking more time in the adjustment of their
+veils. When peace was in some measure restored, and the<a name="page_109" id="page_109"></a> poor dog had
+been pelted into a hole, the abbot, who had now permitted his long shirt
+to resume its usual folds, conducted me to the church, which was
+speedily filled with the crowd. It was interesting from its great
+antiquity, having been founded, as they told me, by a rich lady of the
+name of Halané, who was the daughter of a certain Kostandi, king of
+Roum. The church is partly subterranean, being built in the recesses of
+an ancient stone-quarry; the other parts of it are of stone plastered
+over. The roof is flat and is formed of horizontal beams of palm trees,
+upon which a terrace of reeds and earth is laid. The height of the
+interior is about 25 feet. On entering the door we had to descend a
+flight of narrow steps, which led into a side aisle about ten feet wide,
+and which is divided from the nave by octagon columns of great thickness
+supporting the walls of a sort of clerestory. The columns were
+surmounted by heavy square plinths almost in the Egyptian style.</p>
+
+<p>As I consider this church to be interesting from its being half a
+catacomb, or cave, and one of the earliest Christian buildings which has
+preserved its originality, I subjoin a plan of it, by which it will be
+seen that it is constructed on the principle of a Latin basilica, as the
+buildings of the Empress Helena usually were; the Byzantine style of
+architecture, the plan of which partook of the form of a Greek cross,
+being a later invention; for the earliest Christian churches were not
+cruciform, and seldom had transepts, nor were they built with any
+reference to the points of the compass.<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a><a name="page_110" id="page_110"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a href="#plan1" name="planref1">
+<span class="caption">Plan of the church, the convent of the Pulley.</span><br />
+<img src="images/ill_146_thumb.jpg" width="550" height="447" alt="Plan of the church, the convent of the Pulley." title="Plan of the church, the convent of the Pulley." /></a>
+
+<table summary="church key" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"
+style="text-align:left;font-size:small;">
+<tr valign="top"><td align="right">1.</td><td>&nbsp; Altar.</td><td align="right" style="border-left:1px solid black;">6.</td><td>&nbsp; Two three-quarter columns.</td></tr>
+<tr valign="top"><td align="right">2.</td><td>&nbsp; Apsis, apparently cut out of the rock.</td><td align="right" style="border-left:1px solid black;">7.</td><td>&nbsp; Eight columns.<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></td></tr>
+<tr valign="top"><td align="right">3.</td><td>&nbsp; Two Corinthian columns.</td><td align="right" style="border-left:1px solid black;">8.</td><td>&nbsp; Dark room cut out of the rock<br />(there is another corresponding to it under the steps).<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></td></tr>
+<tr valign="top"><td align="right">4.</td><td>&nbsp; Wooden partitions of lattice-work, about 10 ft. high.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; </td><td align="right" style="border-left:1px solid black;">9.</td><td>&nbsp; Steps leading down into the church.</td></tr>
+<tr valign="top"><td align="right">5.</td><td>&nbsp; Steps leading up to the sanctuary.</td><td align="right" style="border-left:1px solid black;">&nbsp;&nbsp;10.</td><td>&nbsp; Screen before the Altar.</td></tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<p><a name="page_111" id="page_111"></a></p>
+
+<p>The ancient divisions of the church are also more strictly preserved in
+this edifice than in the churches of the West; the priests or monks
+standing above the steps (marked No. 5), the celebrant of the sacrament
+only going behind the screen (No. 10); the bulk of the congregation
+stand, there are no seats below the steps (No. 5), and the place for the
+women is behind the screen marked No. 4. The church is very dimly
+lighted by small apertures in the walls of the clerestory, above the
+columns, and the part about the apsis is nearly dark in the middle of
+the day, candles being always necessary during the reading of the
+service. The two Corinthian columns are of brick, plastered; they are
+not fluted, but are of good proportions and appear to be original. The
+apsis is of regular Grecian or Roman architecture, and is ornamented
+with six pilasters, and three niches in which<a name="page_112" id="page_112"></a> are kept the books,
+cymbals, candlesticks, and other things which are used for the daily
+service. Here I found twenty-three manuscript books, fifteen in Coptic
+with Arabic translations, for the Coptic language is now understood by
+few, and eight Arabic manuscripts. The Coptic books were all liturgies:
+one of them, a folio, was ornamented with a large illumination, intended
+to represent the Virgin and the infant Saviour; it is almost the only
+specimen of Coptic art that I ever met with in a book, and its style and
+execution are so poor, that, perhaps, it is fortunate that they should
+be so rare. The Arabic books, which, as well as the Coptic, were all on
+cotton-paper, consisted of extracts from the New Testament and lives of
+the saints.</p>
+
+<p>I had been told that there was a great chest bound with iron, which was
+kept in a vault in this monastery, full of ancient books on vellum, and
+which was not to be opened without the consent of the Patriarch; I
+could, however, make out nothing of this story, but it does not follow
+that this chest of ancient manuscripts does not exist; for, surrounded
+as I was by crowds of gaping Copts and Arabs, I could not expect the
+abbot to be very communicative; and they have from long oppression
+acquired such a habit of denying the fact of their having anything in
+their possession, that, perhaps, there may still be treasures here which
+some future traveller may discover.<a name="page_113" id="page_113"></a></p>
+
+<p>While I was turning over the books, the contents of which I was able to
+decypher, from the similarity of the Coptic to the Greek alphabet, the
+people were very much astonished at my erudition, which appeared to them
+almost miraculous. They whispered to each other, and some said I must be
+a foreign Copt, who had returned to the land of his fathers. They asked
+my servant all manner of questions; but when he told them that he did
+not believe I knew a word of Coptic, their astonishment was increased to
+fear. I must be a magician, they said, and some kept a sharp look-out
+for the door, to which there was an immediate rush when I turned round.
+The whole assembly were puzzled, for in their simplicity they were not
+aware that people sometimes pore over books, and read them too, without
+understanding them, in other languages besides Coptic.</p>
+
+<p>We emerged from the subterranean church, which, being half sunk in the
+earth and surrounded by buildings, had nothing remarkable in its
+exterior architecture, and ascended to the terrace on the roof of the
+convent, whence we had a view of numerous ancient stone quarries in the
+desert to the east. They appeared to be of immense extent; the convent
+itself and two adjoining burial-grounds were all ensconced in the
+ancient limestone excavations.</p>
+
+<p>I am inclined to think, that although all travellers in Egypt pass along
+the river below this convent, few<a name="page_114" id="page_114"></a> have visited its interior. It is now
+more a village than a monastery, properly speaking, as it is inhabited
+by numerous Coptic families who are not connected with the monks. These
+poor people were so surprised at my appearance, and watched all my
+actions with such intense curiosity, that I imagine they had scarcely
+ever seen a stranger before. They crowded every place where I was likely
+to pass, staring and gaping, and chattering to each other. Being much
+pressed with the throng in the court-yard, I made a sudden spring
+towards one of the little girls who was foremost in the crowd, uttering
+a shout at the same time as if I was going to seize her as she stood
+gazing open-mouthed at me. She screamed and tumbled down with fright,
+and the whole multitude of women and children scampered off as fast as
+their legs could carry them. Some fell down, others tumbled over them,
+making an indescribable confusion; but being reassured by the laughter
+of my party, they soon stopped and began laughing and talking with
+greater energy than before. At length I took refuge in the room of the
+superior, who gave me some coffee, with spices in it; and soon
+afterwards I took leave of this singular community.</p>
+
+<p>We walked to some quarries about two miles off to the north-east, which
+well repaid our visit The rocks were cut into the most extraordinary
+forms. There were several grottos, and also an ancient tomb with<a name="page_115" id="page_115"></a>
+hieroglyphics sculptured on the rock. Among these I saw the names of
+Rameses II. and some other kings. Near this tomb is a large tablet on
+which is a bas-relief of a king making an offering to a deity with the
+head of a crocodile, whose name, according to Wilkinson, was Savak: he
+was worshipped at Ombos and Thebes, but was held in such small respect
+at Dendera that the inhabitants of that place made war upon the men of
+Ombos, and ate one of their prisoners, in emulation probably of the god
+he worshipped. Indeed, they appear to have considered the inhabitants of
+that city to have been a sort of vermin which it was incumbent upon all
+sensible Egyptians to destroy whenever they had an opportunity.</p>
+
+<p>In one place among the quarries a large rock has been left standing by
+itself with two apertures, like doorways, cut through it, giving it the
+resemblance of a propylon or the front of a house. It is not more than
+ten feet thick, although it is eighty or ninety feet long, and fifty
+high. Near it a huge slab projects horizontally from the precipice,
+supported at its outer edge by a single column. Some of the Copts, whose
+curiosity appeared to be insatiable, had followed us to these quarries,
+for the mere pleasure of staring at us. One of them, observing me making
+a sketch, came and peeped over my shoulder. "This Frank," said he to his
+friends, "has got a book that eats all these stones, and our monastery
+besides." "Ah!" said the<a name="page_116" id="page_116"></a> other, "I suppose there are no stones in his
+country, so he wants to take some of ours away to show his countrymen
+what fine things we have here in Egypt; there is no place like Egypt,
+after all. Mashallah!"<a name="page_117" id="page_117"></a></p>
+
+<hr class="chpt" />
+
+<h3><a name="RUINED_MONASTERY_AT_THEBES" id="RUINED_MONASTERY_AT_THEBES"></a>RUINED MONASTERY AT THEBES.</h3>
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h3>
+
+<p class="chapter">Ruined Monastery in the Necropolis of Thebes&mdash;"Mr. Hay's Tomb"&mdash;The
+Coptic Carpenter&mdash;His acquirements and troubles&mdash;He agrees to show
+the MSS. belonging to the ruined Monastery, which are under his
+charge&mdash;Night visit to the Tomb in which they are concealed&mdash;Perils
+of the way&mdash;Description of the Tomb&mdash;Probably in former times a
+Christian Church&mdash;Examination of the Coptic MSS.&mdash;Alarming
+interruption&mdash;Hurried flight from the Evil Spirits&mdash;Fortunate
+escape&mdash;Appearance of the Evil Spirit&mdash;Observations on Ghost
+Stories&mdash;The Legend of the Old Woman of Berkeley considered.</p>
+
+<p class="nind">O<span class="smcap">n</span> a rocky hill, perforated on all sides by the violated sepulchres of
+the ancient Egyptians, in the great Necropolis of Thebes, not far from
+the ruins of the palace and temple of Medinet Habou, stand the crumbling
+walls of an old Coptic monastery, which I was told had been inhabited,
+almost within the memory of man, by a small community of Christian
+monks. I was living at this period in a tomb, which was excavated in the
+side of the precipice, above Sheick Abd el Gournoo. It had been rendered
+habitable by some slight alterations, and a little garden was made on
+the terrace in front of it, whence the view was very remarkable. The
+whole of the vast ruins of Thebes<a name="page_118" id="page_118"></a> were stretched out below it; whilst,
+beyond the mighty Nile, the huge piles of Luxor and Carnac loomed dark
+and mysterious in the distance, which was bounded by the arid chain of
+the Arabian mountains, the outline of their wild tops showing clear and
+hard against the cloudless sky. This habitation was known by the name of
+"Mr. Hay's tomb." The memory of this gentleman is held in the highest
+honour and reverence by the villagers of the surrounding districts, who
+look back to the time of his residence among them as the only
+satisfactory period of their miserable existence.</p>
+
+<p>One of the numerous admirers of Mr. Hay, among the poorer inhabitants of
+the neighbourhood, was a Coptic carpenter, a man of no small natural
+genius and talent, who in any other country would have risen above the
+sphere of his comrades if any opportunity of distinguishing himself had
+offered. He could read and write Coptic and Arabic; he had some
+knowledge of astronomy, and some said of magic also; and he was a very
+tolerable carpenter, although the only tools which he was able to
+procure were of the roughest sort. In all these accomplishments he was
+entirely self-taught; while his poverty was such that his costume
+consisted of nothing but a short shirt, or tunic, made of a homespun
+fabric of goat's hair, or wool, and a common felt skull-cap, with some
+rags twisted round it for a turban. With higher acquirements<a name="page_119" id="page_119"></a> than the
+governor of the district, the poor Copt was hardly able to obtain bread
+to eat; and indeed it was only from the circumstance of his being a
+Christian that he and the other males of his family were not swept away
+in the conscription which has depopulated Egypt under the present
+government more than all the pillage and massacres and internal feuds of
+the followers of the Mameluke Beys.</p>
+
+<p>On those numerous occasions when the carpenter had nothing else to do,
+he used to come and talk to me; and endeavour to count up, upon his
+fingers, how often he had "<i>eat stick</i>;" that is, had been beaten by one
+Turkish officer or another for his inability to pay the tax to the
+Pasha, the tooth-money to some kawass, the forced contribution to the
+Nazir, or some other expected or unexpected call upon his empty
+pocket,&mdash;an appendage to his dress, by the by, which he did not possess;
+for having nothing in the world to put in it, a pocket was clearly of no
+use to him. The carpenter related to me the history of the ruined Coptic
+monastery; and I found that its library was still in existence. It was
+carefully concealed from the Mahomedans, as a sacred treasure; and my
+friend the carpenter was the guardian of the volumes belonging to his
+fallen church. After some persuasion he agreed, in consideration of my
+being a Christian, to let me see them; but he said I must go to the
+place where they were concealed at night, in order that no one might
+follow<a name="page_120" id="page_120"></a> our steps; and he further stipulated that none of the Mahomedan
+servants should accompany us, but that I should go alone with him. I
+agreed to all this; and on the appointed night I sallied forth with the
+carpenter after dark. There were not many stars visible; and we had only
+just light enough to see our way across the plain of Thebes, or rather
+among the low hills and narrow valleys above the plain, which are so
+entirely honeycombed with ancient tombs and mummy pits that they
+resemble a rabbit warren on a large scale. Skulls and bones were strewed
+on our path; and often at the mouths of tombs the night wind would raise
+up fragments of the bandages which the sacrilegious hand of the Frankish
+spoilers of the dead had torn from the bodies of the Egyptian mummies in
+search of the scarabæi, amulets, and ornaments which are found upon the
+breast of the deceased subjects of the Pharaohs.</p>
+
+<p>Away we went stumbling over ruins, and escaping narrowly the fate of
+those who descend into the tomb before their time. Sometimes we heard a
+howl, which the carpenter said came from a hyena, prowling like
+ourselves among the graves, though on a very different errand. We kept
+on our way, by many a dark ruin and yawning cave, breaking our shins
+against the fallen stones until I was almost tired of the journey, which
+in the darkness seemed interminable; nor had I any idea where the
+carpenter was leading me. At last, after a<a name="page_121" id="page_121"></a> fatiguing walk, we descended
+suddenly into a place something like a gravel pit, one side of which was
+closed by the perpendicular face of a low cliff, in which a doorway half
+filled up with rubbish betokened the existence of an ancient tomb. By
+the side of this doorway sat a little boy, whom I discovered by the
+light of the moon, which had just risen, to be the carpenter's son, an
+intelligent lad, who often came to pay me a visit in company with his
+father. It was here that the Coptic manuscripts were concealed, and it
+was a spot well chosen for the purpose; for although I thought I had
+wandered about the Necropolis of Thebes in every direction, I had never
+stumbled upon this place before, neither could I ever find it
+afterwards, although I rode in that direction several times.</p>
+
+<p>I now produced from my pocket three candles, which the carpenter had
+desired me to bring, one for him, one for his son, and one for myself.
+Having lit them, we entered into the doorway of the tomb, and passing
+through a short passage, found ourselves in a great sepulchral hall. The
+earth and sand which had been blown into the entrance formed an inclined
+plane, sloping downwards to another door sculptured with hieroglyphics,
+through which we passed into a second chamber, on the other side of
+which was a third doorway, leading into a magnificent subterranean hall,
+divided into three aisles by four square columns, two on each side.
+There may have been six columns, but<a name="page_122" id="page_122"></a> I think there were only four. The
+walls and columns, or rather square piers which supported the roof,
+retained the brilliant white which is so much to be admired in the tombs
+of the kings and other stately sepulchres. On the walls were various
+hieroglyphics, and on the square piers tall figures of the gods of the
+infernal regions&mdash;Kneph, Khonso, and Osiris&mdash;were portrayed in brilliant
+colours, with their immense caps or crowns, and the heads of the jackal
+and other beasts. At the further end of this chamber was a stone altar,
+standing upon one or two steps, in an apsis or semicircular recess. As
+this is not usual in Egyptian tombs, I have since thought that this had
+probably been altered by the Copts in early times, and that, like the
+Christians of the West in the days of their persecution, they had met in
+secret in the tombs for the celebration of their rites, and had made use
+of this hall as a church, in the same way as we see the remains of
+chapels and places of worship in the catacombs of Rome and Syracuse. The
+inner court of the Temple of Medinet Habou has also been converted into
+a Christian church; and the worthy Copts have daubed over the
+beautifully executed pictures of Rameses II. with a coat of plaster,
+upon which they have painted the grim figures of St. George, and various
+old frightful saints and hermits, whose uncouth forms would almost give
+one the idea of their having served for a system of idolatry much less
+refined than the worship<a name="page_123" id="page_123"></a> of the ancient gods of the heathen, whose
+places they have usurped in these gigantic temples.</p>
+
+<p>The Coptic manuscripts, of which I was in search, were lying upon the
+steps of the altar, except one, larger than the rest, which was placed
+upon the altar itself. They were about eight or nine in number, all
+brown and musty looking books, written on cotton paper, or charta
+bombycina, a material in use in very early times. An edict or charter,
+on paper, exists, or at least did exist two years ago, in the museum of
+the Jesuits' College, called the Colleggio Romano, at Rome: its date was
+of the sixth century; and I have a Coptic manuscript written on paper of
+this kind, which was finished, as appears by a note at the end, in the
+year 1018: these are the oldest dates that I have met with in any
+manuscripts on paper.</p>
+
+<p>Having found these ancient books we proceeded to examine their contents,
+and to accomplish this at our ease, we stuck the candles on the ground,
+and the carpenter and I sat down before them, while his son brought us
+the volumes from the steps of the altar, one by one.</p>
+
+<p>The first which came to hand was a dusty quarto, smelling of incense,
+and well spotted with yellow wax, with all its leaves dogs-eared or worn
+round with constant use: this was a MS. of the lesser festivals. Another
+appeared to be of the same kind; a third was also a book for the church
+service. We puzzled over<a name="page_124" id="page_124"></a> the next two or three, which seemed to be
+martyrologies, or lives of the saints; but while we were poring over
+them, we thought we heard a noise. "Oh! father of hammers," said I to
+the carpenter, "I think I heard a noise: what could it be?&mdash;I thought I
+heard something move." "Did you, hawaja?" (O merchant), said the
+carpenter; "it must have been my son moving the books, for what else
+could there be here?&mdash;No one knows of this tomb or of the holy
+manuscripts which it contains. Surely there can be nothing here to make
+a noise, for are we not here alone, a hundred feet under the earth, in a
+place where no one comes?&mdash;It is nothing: certainly it is nothing;" and
+so saying, he lifted up one of the candles and peered about in the
+darkness; but as there was nothing to be seen, and all was silent as the
+grave, he sat down again, and at our leisure we completed our
+examination of all the books which lay upon the steps.</p>
+
+<p>They proved to be all church books, liturgies for different seasons, or
+homilies; and not historical, nor of any particular interest, either
+from their age or subject. There now remained only the great book upon
+the altar, a ponderous quarto, bound either in brown leather or wooden
+boards; and this the carpenter's son with difficulty lifted from its
+place, and laid it down before us on the ground; but, as he did so, we
+heard the noise again. The carpenter and I looked at each other: he
+turned pale&mdash;perhaps I did<a name="page_125" id="page_125"></a> so too; and we looked over our shoulders in
+a sort of anxious, nervous kind of way, expecting to see something&mdash;we
+did not know what. However, we saw nothing; and, feeling a little
+ashamed, I again settled myself before the three candle-ends, and opened
+the book, which was written in large black characters of unusual size.
+As I bent over the huge volume, to see what it was about, suddenly there
+arose a sound somewhere in the cavern, but from whence it came I could
+not comprehend; it seemed all round us at the same moment. There was no
+room for doubt now: it was a fearful howling, like the roar of a hundred
+wild beasts. The carpenter looked aghast: the tall and grisly figures of
+the Egyptian gods seemed to stare at us from the walls. I thought of
+Cornelius Agrippa, and felt a gentle perspiration coming on which would
+have betokened a favourable crisis in a fever. Suddenly the dreadful
+roar ceased, and as its echoes died away in the tomb, we felt
+considerably relieved, and were beginning to try and put a good face
+upon the matter, when, to our unutterable horror, it began again, and
+waxed louder and louder, as if legions of infernal spirits were let
+loose upon us. We could stand this no longer: the carpenter and I jumped
+up from the ground, and his son in his terror stumbled over the great
+Coptic manuscript, and fell upon the candles, which were all put out in
+a moment; his screams were now added to the uproar which resounded<a name="page_126" id="page_126"></a> in
+the cave: seeing the twinkling of a star through the vista of the two
+outer chambers, we all set off as hard as we could run, our feelings of
+alarm being increased to desperation when we perceived that something
+was chasing us in the darkness, while the roar seemed to increase every
+moment. How we did tear along! The devil take the hindmost seemed about
+to be literally fulfilled; and we raised stifling clouds of dust, as we
+scrambled up the steep slope which led to the outer door. "So then,"
+thought I, "the stories of gins, and ghouls, and goblins, that I have
+read of and never believed, must be true after all, and in this city of
+the dead it has been our evil lot to fall upon a haunted tomb!"</p>
+
+<p>Breathless and bewildered, the carpenter and I bolted out of this
+infernal palace into the open air, mightily relieved at our escape from
+the darkness and the terrors of the subterranean vaults. We had not been
+out a moment, and had by no means collected our ideas, before our alarm
+was again excited to its utmost pitch.</p>
+
+<p>The evil one came forth in bodily shape, and stood revealed to our eyes
+distinctly in the pale light of the moon.</p>
+
+<p>While we were gazing upon the appearance, the carpenter's son, whom we
+had quite forgotten in our hurry, came creeping out of the doorway of
+the tomb upon his hands and knees.<a name="page_127" id="page_127"></a></p>
+
+<p>"Why, father!" said he, after a moment's silence, "if that is not old
+Fatima's donkey, which has been lost these two days! It is lucky that we
+have found it, for it must have wandered into this tomb, and it might
+have been starved if we had not met with it to-night."</p>
+
+<p>The carpenter looked rather ashamed of the adventure; and as for myself,
+though I was glad that nothing worse had come of it, I took comfort in
+the reflection that I was not the first person who had been alarmed by
+the proceedings of an ass.</p>
+
+<p>I have related the history of this adventure because I think that, on
+some foundation like this, many well-accredited ghost stories may have
+been founded. Numerous legends and traditions, which appear to be
+supernatural or miraculous, and the truth of which has been attested and
+sworn to by credible witnesses, have doubtless arisen out of facts which
+actually did occur, but of which some essential particulars have been
+either concealed, or had escaped notice; and thus many marvellous
+histories have gone abroad, which are so well attested, that although
+common sense forbids their being believed, they cannot be proved to be
+false. In this case, if the donkey had not fortunately come out and
+shown himself, I should certainly have returned to Europe half impressed
+with the belief that something supernatural had occurred, which was in
+some mysterious manner connected with the opening of the magic<a name="page_128" id="page_128"></a> volume
+which we had taken from the altar in the tomb. The echoes of the
+subterranean cave so altered the sound of the donkey's bray, that I
+never should have discovered that these fearful sounds had so
+undignified an origin; a story never loses by telling, and with a little
+gradual exaggeration it would soon have become one of the best
+accredited supernatural histories in the country.</p>
+
+<p>The well-known story of the old woman of Berkeley has been read with
+wonder and dread for at least four hundred years: it is to be found in
+early manuscripts; it is related by Olaus Magnus, and is to be seen
+illustrated by a woodcut, both in the German and Latin editions of the
+'Nuremberg Chronicle,' which was printed in the year 1493. There is no
+variation in the legend, which is circumstantially the same in all these
+books. Without doubt it was partly founded upon fact, or, as in the case
+of the story of the Theban tomb, some circumstances have been omitted
+which make all the difference; and a natural though perhaps
+extraordinary occurrence has been handed down for centuries, as a
+fearful instance of the power of the evil one in this world over those
+who have given themselves up to the practice of tremendous crimes.</p>
+
+<p>There are many supernatural stories, which we are certain cannot by any
+possibility be true; but which nevertheless are as well attested, and
+apparently as fully proved, as any facts in the most veracious history.<a name="page_129" id="page_129"></a>
+Under circumstances of alarm or temporary hallucination people
+frequently believe that they have had supernatural visitations. Even the
+tricks of conjurers, which have been witnessed by a hundred persons at a
+time, are totally incomprehensible to the uninitiated; and in the middle
+ages, when these practices were resorted to for religious or political
+ends, it is more than probable that many occurrences which were supposed
+to be supernatural might have been explained, if all the circumstances
+connected with them had been fairly and openly detailed by an impartial
+witness.<a name="page_130" id="page_130"></a></p>
+
+<hr class="chpt" />
+
+<h3><a name="THE_WHITE_MONASTERY" id="THE_WHITE_MONASTERY"></a>THE WHITE MONASTERY.</h3>
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h3>
+
+<p class="chapter">The White Monastery&mdash;Abou Shenood&mdash;Devastations of the
+Mamelukes&mdash;Description of the Monastery&mdash;Different styles of its
+exterior and interior Architecture&mdash;Its ruinous
+condition&mdash;Description of the Church&mdash;The Baptistery&mdash;Ancient Rites
+of Baptism&mdash;The Library&mdash;Modern Architecture&mdash;The Church of San
+Francesco at Rimini&mdash;The Red Monastery&mdash;Alarming rencontre with an
+armed party&mdash;Feuds between the native Tribes&mdash;Faction
+fights&mdash;Eastern Story Tellers&mdash;Legends of the Desert&mdash;Abraham and
+Sarah&mdash;Legendary Life of Moses&mdash;Arabian Story-tellers&mdash;Attention of
+their Audience.</p>
+
+<p class="nind">M<span class="smcap">ounting</span> our noble Egyptian steeds, or in other words having engaged a
+sufficient number of little braying donkeys, which the peasants brought
+down to the river side, and put our saddles on them, we cantered in an
+hour and a half from the village of Souhag to the White Monastery, which
+is known to the Arabs by the name of Derr abou Shenood. Who the great
+Abou Shenood had the honour to be, and what he had done to be canonized,
+I could meet with no one to tell me. He was, I believe, a Mahomedan
+saint, and this Coptic monastery had been in some sort placed under the
+shadow of his protection, in the hopes of saving it<a name="page_131" id="page_131"></a> from the
+persecutions of the faithful. Abou Shenood, however, does not appear to
+have done his duty, for the White Monastery has been ruined and sacked
+over and over again. The last outrage upon the unfortunate monastery
+occurred about 1812, when the Mamelukes who had encamped upon the plains
+of Itfou, having no better occupation, amused themselves by burning all
+the houses, and killing all the people in the neighbourhood. Since that
+time the monks having returned one by one, and finding that no one took
+the trouble to molest them, began to repair the convent, the interior of
+which had been gutted by the Mamelukes; but the immense strength of the
+outer walls had resisted all their efforts to destroy them.</p>
+
+<p>The peculiarity of this monastery is, that the interior was once a
+magnificent basilica, while the exterior was built by the Empress
+Helena, in the ancient Egyptian style. The walls slope inwards towards
+the summit, where they are crowned with a deep overhanging cornice. The
+building is of an oblong shape, about two hundred feet in length by
+ninety wide, very well built, of fine blocks of stone; it has no windows
+outside larger than loopholes, and these are at a great height from the
+ground. Of these there are twenty on the south side and nine at the east
+end. The monastery stands at the foot of the hill, on the edge of the
+Libyan desert, where the sand encroaches on the plain. It looks like the
+sanctuary, or cella, of an ancient<a name="page_132" id="page_132"></a> temple, and is not unlike the
+bastion of an old-fashioned fortification; except one solitary doom
+tree, it stands quite alone, and has a most desolate aspect, backed, as
+it is, by the sandy desert, and without any appearance of a garden,
+either within or outside its walls. The ancient doorway of red granite,
+on the south side, has been partially closed up, leaving an opening just
+large enough to admit one person at a time.</p>
+
+<p>The door was closed, and we shouted in vain for admittance. We then
+tried the effect of a double knock in the Grosvenor Square style with a
+large stone, but that was of no use; so I got one still larger, and
+banged away at the door with all my might, shouting at the same time
+that we were friends and Christians. After some minutes a small voice
+was heard inside, and several questions being satisfactorily answered,
+we were let in by a monk; and passing through the narrow door, I found
+myself surrounded by piles of ruined buildings of various ages, among
+which the tall granite columns of the ancient church reared themselves
+like an avenue on either side of the desecrated nave, which is now open
+to the sky, and is used as a promenade for a host of chickens. Some
+goats also were perched upon fragments of ruined walls, and looked
+cunningly at us as we invaded their domain. I saw some Coptic women
+peeping at me from the windows of some wretched hovels of mud<a name="page_133" id="page_133"></a> and
+brick, which they had built up in corners among the ancient ruins like
+swallows' nests.</p>
+
+<p>There were but three poor priests. The principal one led us to the upper
+part of the church, which had lately been repaired and walled off from
+the open nave; and enclosed the apsis and transepts, which had been
+restored in some measure, and fitted for the performance of divine
+service. The half domes of the apsis and two transepts, which were of
+well-built masonry, were still entire, and the original frescos remain
+upon them. Those in the transepts are stiff figures of saints; and in
+the one over the altar is the great figure of the Redeemer, such as is
+usually met with in the mosaics of the Italian basilicas. These apsides
+are above fifty feet from the ground, which gives them a dignity of
+appearance, and leaves greater cause to regret the destruction of the
+nave, which, with its clerestory, must have been still higher. There
+appear to have been fifteen columns on each side of the centre aisle,
+and two at the end opposite the altar, which in this instance I believe
+is at the west end. The roof over the part of the east end, which has
+been fitted up as a church, is supported by four square modern piers of
+plastered brick or rubble work. On the side walls, above the altar,
+there are some circular compartments containing paintings of the saints;
+and near these are two tablets with inscriptions in black on a white
+ground. That on the left appeared to be<a name="page_134" id="page_134"></a> in Abyssinian: the one on the
+other side was either Coptic or uncial Greek; but it was too dark, and
+the tablet was too high, to enable me to make it out There is also a
+long Greek inscription in red letters on one of the modern square piers,
+which looks as if it was of considerable antiquity; and the whole
+interior of the building bears traces of having been repaired and
+altered, more than once, in ancient times. The richly ornamented
+recesses of the three apsides have been smeared over with plaster, on
+which some tremendously grim saints have been portrayed, whose present
+threadbare appearance shows that they have disfigured the walls for
+several centuries. Some comparatively modern capitals, of bad design,
+have been placed upon two or three of the granite columns of the nave;
+and others, which were broken, have been patched with brick, plastered
+and painted to look like granite. The principal entrance was formerly at
+the west end; where there is a small vestibule, immediately within the
+door of which, on the left hand, is a small chapel, perhaps the
+baptistery, about twenty-five feet long, and still in tolerable
+preservation. It is a splendid specimen of the richest Roman
+architecture of the latter empire, and is truly an imperial little room.
+The arched ceiling is of stone; and there are three beautifully
+ornamented niches on each side. The upper end is semicircular, and has
+been entirely covered with a profusion of sculpture in panels,<a name="page_135" id="page_135"></a>
+cornices, and every kind of architectural enrichment When it was entire,
+and covered with gilding, painting, or mosaic, it must have been most
+gorgeous. The altar on such a chapel as this was probably of gold, set
+full of gems; or if it was the baptistery, as I suppose, it most likely
+contained a bath, of the most precious jasper, or of some of the more
+rare kinds of marble, for the immersion of the converted heathen, whose
+entrance into the church was not permitted until they had been purified
+with the waters of baptism in a building without the door of the house
+of God; an appropriate custom, which was not broken in upon for ages;
+and even then the infant was only brought just inside the door, where
+the font was placed on the left hand of the entrance; a judicious
+practice, which is completely set at nought in England, where the
+squalling imp often distracts the attention of the congregation; and is
+finally sprinkled, instead of being immersed, the whole ceremony having
+been so much altered and pared down from its original symbolic form,
+that were a Christian of the early ages to return upon the earth, he
+would be unable to recognise its meaning.</p>
+
+<p>The conventual library consisted of only half-a-dozen well-waxed and
+well-thumbed liturgies; but one of the priests told me that they boasted
+formerly of above a hundred volumes written on leather (gild razali),
+gazelle skins, probably vellum, which were destroyed by the Mamelukes
+during their last pillage of the convent.<a name="page_136" id="page_136"></a></p>
+
+<p>The habitations of the monks, according to the original design of this
+very curious building, were contained in a long slip on the south side
+of the church, where their cells were lit by the small loopholes seen
+from the outside. Of these cells none now remain: they must have been
+famously hot, exposed as they were all day long to the rays of the
+southern sun; but probably the massive thickness of the walls and arched
+ceilings reduced the temperature. There was no court or open space
+within the convent; the only place where its inhabitants could have
+walked for exercise in the open air was upon the flat terrace of the
+roof, the deck of this ship of St Peter; for the White Monastery in some
+respects resembled a dismasted man-of-war, anchored in a sea of burning
+sand.</p>
+
+<p>In modern times we are not surprised on finding a building erected at an
+immense expense, in which the architecture of the interior is totally
+different from that of the exterior. A Brummagem Gothic house is
+frequently furnished and ornamented within in what is called "<i>a chaste
+Greek style</i>," and <i>vice versâ</i>. A Grecian house&mdash;that is to say, a
+square white block, with square holes in it for windows, and a portico
+in front&mdash;is sometimes inhabited by an antiquarian, who fits it up with
+Gothic furniture, and a Gothic paper designed by a crafty paper-hanger
+in the newest style. But in ancient days it was very rare to see such a
+mixture. I am surprised that the architect of the<a name="page_137" id="page_137"></a> enthusiastic empress
+did not go on with the interior of this building as he had begun the
+exterior. The great hall of Carnac would have afforded him a grand
+example of an aisle with a clerestory, and side windows, with stone
+mullions, which would have answered his purpose, in the Egyptian style.
+The only other instance of this kind, where two distinct styles of
+architecture were employed in the middle ages on the inside and outside
+of the same building, is in the church of St. Francesco, at Rimini,
+which was built by Sigismond Malatesta as a last resting-place for
+himself and his friends. He lies in a Gothic shrine within; and the
+bodies of the great men of his day repose in sarcophagi of classic forms
+outside; each of which stands in the recess of a Roman arch, in which
+style of architecture the exterior of the building is erected.</p>
+
+<p>About two miles to the north of the White Monastery, in a small village
+sheltered by a grove of palms, stands another ancient building called
+the Red Monastery.</p>
+
+<p>On our return to Souhag we met a party of men on foot, who were armed
+with spears, shields, and daggers, and one or two with guns. They were
+led by a man on horseback, who was completely armed with all sorts of
+warlike implements. They stopped us, and began to talk to our followers,
+who were exceedingly civil in their behaviour, for the appearance of the
+party was of a doubtful character; and we felt relieved when we<a name="page_138" id="page_138"></a> found
+that we were not to be robbed, but that our friends were on an
+expedition against the men of Tahta, who some time ago had killed a man
+belonging to their village, and they were going to avenge his death.
+This was only one detachment of many that had assembled in the
+neighbouring villages, each headed by its sheick, or the sheick's son,
+if the father was an old man. The numbers engaged in this feud amounted,
+they told us, to between two and three hundred men on each side. Every
+now and then, it seems, when they have got in their harvest, they
+assemble to have a fight. Several are wounded, and sometimes a few are
+killed; in which case, if the numbers of the slain are not equal, the
+feud continues; and so it goes on from generation to generation, like a
+faction fight in Ireland, or the feudal wars of the barons of the middle
+ages,&mdash;a style of things which appears to belong to the nature of the
+human race, and not to any particular country, age, or faith.</p>
+
+<p>Parting from this warlike band with mutual compliments and good wishes,
+and our guides each seizing the tail of one of our donkeys to increase
+his onward speed, we trotted away back to the boat, which was waiting
+for us at Souhag. There we found our boatmen and a crowd of villagers,
+listening to one of those long stories with which the inhabitants of
+Egypt are wont to enliven their hours of inactivity. This is an
+amusement peculiar to the East, and it is one in which I took great
+delight during many a long journey<a name="page_139" id="page_139"></a> through the deserts on the way
+to Mount Sinai, Syria, and other places. The Arabs are great tellers of
+stories; and some of them have a peculiar knack in rendering them
+interesting and exciting the curiosity of their audience. Many of these
+stories were interesting from their reference to persons and occurrences
+of Holy Writ, particularly of the Old Testament. There are many legends
+of the patriarch Abraham and his beautiful wife Sarah, who, excepting
+Eve, is said to have been the fairest of all the daughters of the earth.
+King Solomon is the hero of numerous strange legends; and his adventures
+with the gnomes and genii who were subjected to his sway are endless.
+The poem of Yousef and Zuleica is well known in Europe. And the
+traditions relating to the prophet Moses are so numerous, that, with the
+help of a very curious manuscript of an apocryphal book ascribed to the
+great leader of the Jews, I have been enabled to compile a connected
+biography, in which many curious circumstances are detailed that are
+said to have taken place during his eventful life, and which concludes
+with a highly poetical legend of his death. Many of the stories told by
+the Arabs resemble those of the <i>Arabian Nights</i>; and a large proportion
+of these are not very refined.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 411px;">
+<a href="images/ill_173.jpg">
+<img src="images/ill_173_thumb.jpg" width="411" height="550" alt="MENDICANT DERVISH." title="MENDICANT DERVISH." /></a>
+<span class="caption">MENDICANT DERVISH.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>I have often been greatly amused with watching the faces of an audience
+who were listening to a well-told story, some eagerly leaning forward,
+others smoking<a name="page_140" id="page_140"></a> their pipes with quicker puffs, when something
+extraordinary was related, or when the hero of the story had got into
+some apparently inextricable dilemma. These story-telling parties are
+usually to be seen seated in a circle on the ground in a shady place.
+The donkey-boy will stop and gape open-mouthed on overhearing a few
+words of the marvellous adventures of some enchanted prince, and will
+look back at his four-footed companion, fearing lest he should resume
+his original form of a merchant from the island of Serendib. The
+greatest tact is required on the part of the narrator to prevent the
+dispersion of his audience, who are sometimes apt to melt away on his
+stopping at what he considers a peculiarly interesting point, and taking
+that opportunity of sending round his boy with a little brass basin to
+collect paras. I know of few subjects better suited for a painter than
+one of these story-tellers and his group of listeners.<a name="page_141" id="page_141"></a></p>
+
+<hr class="chpt" />
+
+<h3><a name="THE_ISLAND_OF_PHILOE_c" id="THE_ISLAND_OF_PHILOE_c"></a>THE ISLAND OF PHIL&#338;, &amp;c.</h3>
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h3>
+
+<p class="chapter">The Island of Phil&#339;&mdash;The Cataract of Assouan&mdash;The Burial Place of
+Osiris&mdash;The Great Temple of Phil&#339;&mdash;The Bed of Pharaoh&mdash;Shooting in
+Egypt&mdash;Turtle Doves&mdash;Story of the Prince Anas el Ajoud&mdash;Egyptian
+Songs&mdash;Vow of the Turtle Dove&mdash;Curious fact in Natural History&mdash;The
+Crocodile and its Guardian Bird&mdash;Arab notions regarding
+Animals&mdash;Legend of King Solomon and the Hoopoes&mdash;Natives of the
+country round the Cataracts of the Nile&mdash;Their appearance and
+Costume&mdash;The beautiful Mouna&mdash;Solitary Visit to the Island of
+Phil&#339;&mdash;Quarrel between two native Boys&mdash;Singular instance of
+retributive Justice.</p>
+
+<p class="nind">E<span class="smcap">very</span> part of Egypt is interesting and curious, but the only place to
+which the epithet of beautiful can be correctly applied is the island of
+Phil&#339;, which is situated immediately to the south of the cataract of
+Assouan. The scenery around consists of an infinity of steep granite
+rocks, which stand, some in the water, others on the land, all of them
+of the wildest and most picturesque forms. The cataract itself cannot be
+seen from the island of Phil&#339;, being shut out by an intervening rock,
+whose shattered mass of red granite towers over the island, rising
+straight out of the water. From the top of this rock are seen the
+thousand islands, some of bare rock, some covered with palms and<a name="page_142" id="page_142"></a>
+bushes, which interrupt the course of the river and give rise to those
+eddies, whirlpools, and streams of foaming water which are called the
+cataracts of the Nile, but which may be more properly designated as
+rapids, for there is no perpendicular fall of more than two or three
+feet, and boats of the largest size are drawn with ropes against the
+stream through certain channels, and are shot down continually with the
+stream on their return without the occurrence of serious accidents.</p>
+
+<p>Several of these rocks are sculptured with tablets and inscriptions,
+recording the offerings of the Pharaohs to the gods; and the sacred
+island of Phil&#339;, the burial-place of Osiris, is covered with buildings,
+temples, colonnades, gateways, and terrace walls, which are magnificent
+even in their ruin, and must have been superb when still entire, and
+filled with crowds of priests and devotees, accompanied by all the flags
+and standards, gold and glitter, of the ceremonies of their emblematical
+religion.</p>
+
+<p>Excepting the Pyramids, nothing in Egypt struck me so much as when on a
+bright moonlit night I first entered the court of the great temple of
+Phil&#339;. The colours of the paintings on the walls are as vivid in many
+places as they were the day they were finished: the silence and the
+solemn grandeur of the immense buildings around me were most imposing;
+and on emerging from the lofty gateway between the two towers of the<a name="page_143" id="page_143"></a>
+propylon, as I wandered about the island, the tufts of palms, which are
+here of great height, with their weeping branches, seemed to be mourning
+over the desolation of the stately palaces and temples to which in
+ancient times all the illustrious of Egypt were wont to resort, and into
+whose inner recesses none might penetrate; for the secret and awful
+mysteries of the worship of Osiris were not to be revealed, nor were
+they even to be spoken of by those who were not initiated into the
+highest orders of the priesthood. Now all may wander where they choose,
+and speculate on the uses of the dark chambers hidden in the thickness
+of the walls, and trace out the plans of the courts and temples with the
+long lines of columns which formed the avenue of approach from the
+principal landing-place to the front of the great temple.</p>
+
+<p>The whole island is encumbered with piles of immense squared stones, the
+remains of buildings which must have been thrown down by an earthquake,
+as nothing else could shake such solid works from their foundations.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a>
+The principal temple, and several smaller ones, are still almost entire.
+One of these, called by the natives the Bed of Pharaoh, is a remarkably<a name="page_144" id="page_144"></a>
+light and airy-looking structure, differing, in this respect, from the
+usual character of Egyptian architecture. On the terrace overhanging the
+Nile, in front of this graceful temple, I had formed my habitation,
+where there are some vaults of more recent construction, which are
+usually taken possession of by travellers and fitted up with the
+carpets, cushions, and the sides of the tents which they bring with
+them.</p>
+
+<p>Every one who travels in Egypt is more or less a sportsman, for the
+infinity of birds must tempt the most idle or contemplative to go "<i>a
+birding</i>," as the Americans term it. I had shot all sorts of birds and
+beasts, from a crocodile to a snipe; and among other game I had shot
+multitudes of turtle doves; these pretty little birds being exceedingly
+tame, and never flying very far, I sometimes got three or four at a
+shot, and a dozen or so of them made a famous pie or a pilau, with rice
+and a tasty sauce; but a somewhat singular incident put an end to my
+warfare against them. One day I was sitting on the terrace before the
+Bed of Pharaoh, surrounded by a circle of Arabs and negroes, and we were
+all listening to a story which an old gentleman with a grey beard was
+telling us concerning the loves of the beautiful Ouardi, who was shut up
+in an enchanted palace on this very island to secure her from the
+approaches of her lover, Prince Anas el Ajoud, the son of the Sultan
+Esshamieh, who had married seven wives before he had a son. The<a name="page_145" id="page_145"></a> first
+six wives, on the birth of Anas el Ajoud, placed a log in his cradle,
+and exposed the infant in the desert, where he was nursed by a gazelle,
+and whence he returned to punish the six cruel step-mothers, who fully
+believed he was dead, and to rejoice the heart of his father, who had
+been persuaded by these artful ladies that his sultana by magic art had
+presented him with a log instead of a son, who was to be the heir of his
+dominions, &amp;c. Prince Anas, who was in despair at being separated from
+his lady love, used to sing dismal songs as he passed in his gilded boat
+under the walls of the island palace. These, at last, were responded to
+from the lattice by the fair Ouardi, who was soon afterwards carried off
+by the enamoured prince. The story, which was an interminable rigmarole,
+as long as one of those spun on from night to night by the Princess
+Sherezade, was diversified every now and then by the fearful squealing
+of an Arab song. The old storyteller, shutting his eyes and throwing
+back his head that his mind might not be distracted by any exterior
+objects, uttered a succession of sounds which set one's teeth on
+edge.<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a><a name="page_146" id="page_146"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 342px;">
+<span class="caption">AMAAN.</span>
+<a href="images/ill_183.jpg">
+<img src="images/ill_183_thumb.jpg" width="342" height="550" alt="(musical notation) AMAAN." title="(musical notation) AMAAN." /></a>
+</div>
+
+<p>Whilst the old gentleman was shooting out one of these amatory ditties,
+and I was sitting still listening<a name="page_147" id="page_147"></a> to these heart-rending sounds, a
+turtle-dove&mdash;who was probably awakened from her sleep by the fearful
+discord,<a name="page_148" id="page_148"></a> <a name="page_149" id="page_149"></a>or might, perhaps, have been the beautiful Princess Ouardi
+herself transformed into the likeness of a dove&mdash;flew out of one of the
+palm-trees which grow on the edge of the bank, and perched at a little
+distance from us. We none of us moved, and the turtle-dove, after
+pausing for a moment, ran towards me and nestled under the full sleeve
+of my benisch. It stayed there till the story and the songs were ended,
+and when I was obliged to arise, in order to make my compliments to the
+departing guests, the dove flew into the palm-tree again, and went to
+roost among the branches, where several others were already perched with
+their heads under their wings. Thereupon I made a vow never to shoot
+another turtle-dove, however much pie or pilau might need them, and I
+fairly kept my vow. Luckily turtle-doves are not so good as pigeons, so
+it was no great loss. Although not to be compared to the Roman bird, the
+Egyptian pigeon is very good eating when he is tender and well dressed.</p>
+
+<p>As I am on the subject of birds I will relate a fact in natural history
+which I was fortunate enough to witness, and which, although it is
+mentioned so long ago as the times of Herodotus, has not, I believe,
+been often observed since; indeed I have never met with any traveller
+who has himself seen such an occurrence.</p>
+
+<p>I had always a strong predilection for crocodile shooting, and had
+destroyed several of these dragons of the waters. On one occasion I saw,
+a long way off,<a name="page_150" id="page_150"></a> a large one, twelve or fifteen feet long, lying asleep
+under a perpendicular bank about ten feet high, on the margin of the
+river. I stopped the boat at some distance; and noting the place as well
+as I could, I took a circuit inland, and came down cautiously to the top
+of the bank, whence with a heavy rifle I made sure of my ugly game. I
+had already cut off his head in imagination, and was considering whether
+it should be stuffed with its mouth open or shut. I peeped over the
+bank. There he was, within ten feet of the sight of the rifle. I was on
+the point of firing at his eye, when I observed that he was attended by
+a bird called a ziczac. It is of the plover species, of a greyish
+colour, and as large as a small pigeon.</p>
+
+<p>The bird was walking up and down close to the crocodile's nose. I
+suppose I moved, for suddenly it saw me, and instead of flying away, as
+any respectable bird would have done, he jumped up about a foot from the
+ground, screamed "Ziczac! ziczac!" with all the powers of his voice, and
+dashed himself against the crocodile's face two or three times. The
+great beast started up, and immediately spying his danger, made a jump
+up into the air, and dashing into the water with a splash which covered
+me with mud; he dived into the river and disappeared. The ziczac, to my
+increased admiration, proud apparently of having saved his friend,
+remained walking up and down, uttering his cry, as I thought, with an
+exulting voice, and standing<a name="page_151" id="page_151"></a> every now and then on the tips of his toes
+in a conceited manner, which made me justly angry with his impertinence.
+After having waited in vain for some time, to see whether the crocodile
+would come out again, I got up from the bank where I was lying, threw a
+clod of earth at the ziczac, and came back to the boat, feeling some
+consolation for the loss of my game in having witnessed a circumstance,
+the truth of which has been disputed by several writers on natural
+history.</p>
+
+<p>The Arabs say that every race of animals is governed by its chief, to
+whom the others are bound to pay obeisance. The king of the crocodiles
+holds his court at the bottom of the Nile near Siout. The king of the
+fleas lives at Tiberias, in the Holy Land; and deputations of
+illustrious fleas, from other countries, visit him on a certain day in
+his palace, situated in the midst of beautiful gardens, under the Lake
+of Genesareth. There is a bird which is common in Egypt called the
+hoopoe (Abou hood-hood), of whose king the following legend is related.
+This bird is of the size and shape as well as the colour of a woodcock;
+but has a crown of feathers on its head, which it has the power of
+raising and depressing at will. It is a tame, quiet bird; usually to be
+found walking leisurely in search of its food on the margin of the
+water. It seldom takes long flights; and is not harmed by the natives,
+who are much more sparing of the life of animals than we Europeans
+are:&mdash;<a name="page_152" id="page_152"></a></p>
+
+<p>In the days of King Solomon, the son of David, who, by the virtue of his
+cabalistic seal, reigned supreme over genii as well as men, and who
+could speak the languages of animals of all kinds, all created beings
+were subservient to his will. Now when the king wanted to travel, he
+made use, for his conveyance, of a carpet of a square form. This carpet
+had the property of extending itself to a sufficient size to carry a
+whole army, with the tents and baggage; but at other times it could be
+reduced so as to be only large enough for the support of the royal
+throne, and of those ministers whose duty it was to attend upon the
+person of the sovereign. Four genii of the air then took the four
+corners of the carpet, and carried it with its contents wherever King
+Solomon desired. Once the king was on a journey in the air, carried upon
+his throne of ivory over the various nations of the earth. The rays of
+the sun poured down upon his head, and he had nothing to protect him
+from its heat. The fiery beams were beginning to scorch his neck and
+shoulders, when he saw a flock of vultures flying past. "Oh, vultures!"
+cried King Solomon, "come and fly between me and the sun, and make a
+shadow with your wings to protect me, for its rays are scorching my neck
+and face." But the vultures answered, and said, "We are flying to the
+north, and your face is turned towards the south. We desire to continue
+on our way; and be it known unto thee, O king! that we will not turn
+back on our<a name="page_153" id="page_153"></a> flight, neither will we fly above your throne to protect
+you from the sun, although its rays may be scorching your neck and face.
+"Then King Solomon lifted up his voice, and said, "Cursed be ye, O
+vultures!&mdash;and because you will not obey the commands of your lord, who
+rules over the whole world, the feathers of your necks shall fall off;
+and the heat of the sun, and the cold of the winter, and the keenness of
+the wind, and the beating of the rain, shall fall upon your rebellious
+necks, which shall not be protected with feathers, like the necks of
+other birds. And whereas you have hitherto fared delicately,
+henceforward ye shall eat carrion and feed upon offal; and your race
+shall be impure till the end of the world." And it was done unto the
+vultures as King Solomon had said.</p>
+
+<p>Now it fell out that there was a flock of hoopoes flying past; and the
+king cried out to them, and said, "O hoopoes! come and fly between me
+and the sun, that I may be protected from its rays by the shadow of your
+wings." Whereupon the king of the hoopoes answered, and said, "O king,
+we are but little fowls, and we are not able to afford much shade; but
+we will gather our nation together, and by our numbers we will make up
+for our small size." So the hoopoes gathered together, and, flying in a
+cloud over the throne of the king, they sheltered him from the rays of
+the sun.</p>
+
+<p>When the journey was over, and King Solomon sat upon his golden throne,
+in his palace of ivory, whereof<a name="page_154" id="page_154"></a> the doors were emerald, and the windows
+of diamonds, larger even than the diamond of Jemshid, he commanded that
+the king of the hoopoes should stand before his feet. "Now," said King
+Solomon, "for the service that thou and thy race have rendered, and the
+obedience thou hast shown to the king, thy lord and master, what shall
+be done unto thee, O hoopoe? and what shall be given to the hoopoes of
+thy race, for a memorial and a reward?" Now the king of the hoopoes was
+confused with the great honour of standing before the feet of the king;
+and, making his obeisance, and laying his right claw upon his heart, he
+said, "O king, live for ever! Let a day be given to thy servant, to
+consider with his queen and his councillors what it shall be that the
+king shall give unto us for a reward." And King Solomon said, "Be it
+so." And it was so.</p>
+
+<p>But the king of the hoopoes flew away; and he went to his queen, who was
+a dainty hen, and he told her what had happened, and he desired her
+advice as to what they should ask of the king for a reward; and he
+called together his council, and they sat upon a tree, and they each of
+them desired a different thing. Some wished for a long tail; some wished
+for blue and green feathers; some wished to be as large as ostriches;
+some wished for one thing, and some for another; and they debated till
+the going down of the sun, but they could not agree together. Then the
+queen took the<a name="page_155" id="page_155"></a> king of the hoopoes apart and said to him, "My dear lord
+and husband, listen to my words; and as we have preserved the head of
+King Solomon, let us ask for crowns of gold on our heads, that we may be
+superior to all other birds." And the words of the queen and the
+princesses her daughters prevailed; and the king of the hoopoes
+presented himself before the throne of Solomon, and desired of him that
+all hoopoes should wear golden crowns upon their heads. Then Solomon
+said, "Hast thou considered well what it is that thou desirest?" And the
+hoopoe said, "I have considered well, and we desire to have golden
+crowns upon our heads." So Solomon replied, "Crowns of gold shall ye
+have: but, behold, thou art a foolish bird; and when the evil days shall
+come upon thee, and thou seest the folly of thy heart, return here to
+me, and I will give thee help." So the king of the hoopoes left the
+presence of King Solomon, with a golden crown upon his head. And all the
+hoopoes had golden crowns; and they were exceeding proud and haughty.
+Moreover, they went down by the lakes and the pools, and walked by the
+margin of the water, that they might admire themselves as it were in a
+glass. And the queen of the hoopoes gave herself airs, and sat upon a
+twig; and she refused to speak to the merops her cousin, and the other
+birds who had been her friends, because they were but vulgar birds, and
+she wore a crown of gold upon her head.<a name="page_156" id="page_156"></a></p>
+
+<p>Now there was a certain fowler who set traps for birds; and he put a
+piece of a broken mirror into his trap, and a hoopoe that went in to
+admire itself was caught. And the fowler looked at it, and saw the
+shining crown upon its head; so he wrung off its head, and took the
+crown to Issachar, the son of Jacob, the worker in metal, and he asked
+him what it was. So Issachar, the son of Jacob, said, "It is a crown of
+brass." And he gave the fowler a quarter of a shekel for it, and desired
+him, if he found any more, to bring them to him, and to tell no man
+thereof. So the fowler caught some more hoopoes, and sold their crowns
+to Issachar, the son of Jacob; until one day he met another man who was
+a jeweller, and he showed him several of the hoopoes' crowns. Whereupon
+the jeweller told him that they were of pure gold; and he gave the
+fowler a talent of gold for four of them.</p>
+
+<p>Now when the value of these crowns was known, the fame of them got
+abroad, and in all the land of Israel was heard the twang of bows and
+the whirling of slings; bird-lime was made in every town; and the price
+of traps rose in the market, so that the fortunes of the trap-makers
+increased. Not a hoopoe could show its head but it was slain or taken
+captive, and the days of the hoopoes were numbered. Then their minds
+were filled with sorrow and dismay, and before long few were left to
+bewail their cruel destiny.</p>
+
+<p>At last, flying by stealth through the most unfrequented<a name="page_157" id="page_157"></a> places, the
+unhappy king of the hoopoes went to the court of King Solomon, and stood
+again before the steps of the golden throne, and with tears and groans
+related the misfortunes which had happened to his race.</p>
+
+<p>So King Solomon looked kindly upon the king of the hoopoes, and said
+unto him, "Behold, did I not warn thee of thy folly, in desiring to have
+crowns of gold? Vanity and pride have been thy ruin. But now, that a
+memorial may remain of the service which thou didst render unto me, your
+crowns of gold shall be changed into crowns of feathers, that ye may
+walk unharmed upon the earth." Now when the fowlers saw that the hoopoes
+no longer wore crowns of gold upon their heads, they ceased from the
+persecution of their race; and from that time forth the family of the
+hoopoes have flourished and increased, and have continued in peace even
+to the present day.</p>
+
+<p>And here endeth the veracious history of the king of the hoopoes.</p>
+
+<p>But to return to the island of Phil&#339;. The neighbourhood of the cataracts
+is inhabited by a peculiar race of people, who are neither Arabs, nor
+negroes, like the Nubians, whose land joins to theirs. They are of a
+clear copper colour; and are slightly but elegantly formed. They have
+woolly hair; and are not encumbered with much clothing. The men wear a
+short tunic of white cotton; but often have only a petticoat<a name="page_158" id="page_158"></a> round
+their loins. The married women have a piece of stuff thrown over their
+heads which envelopes the whole person. Under this they wear a curious
+garment made of fine strips of black leather, about a foot long, like a
+fringe. This hangs round the hips, and forms the only clothing of
+unmarried girls, whose forms are as perfect as that of any ancient
+statue. They dress their hair precisely in the same way as we see in the
+pictures of the ancient Egyptians, plaited in numerous tresses, which
+descend about half way down the neck, and are plentifully anointed with
+castor-oil; that they may not spoil their head-dresses, they use,
+instead of a pillow to rest their heads upon at night, a stool of hard
+wood like those which are found in the ancient tombs, and which resemble
+in shape the handle of a crutch more than anything else that I can think
+of. The women are fond of necklaces and armlets of beads; and the men
+wear a knife of a peculiar form, stuck into an armlet above the elbow of
+the left arm. When they go from home they carry a spear, and a shield
+made of the skin of the hippopotamus or crocodile, with which they are
+very clever in warding off blows, and in defending themselves from
+stones or other missiles.</p>
+
+<p>Of this race was a girl called Mouna, whom I had known as a child when I
+was first at Phil&#339;. She grew up to be the most beautiful bronze statue
+that can be conceived. She used to bring eggs from the island on which
+she lived to Phil&#339;: her means of conveyance<a name="page_159" id="page_159"></a> across the water was a
+piece of the trunk of a doom-tree, upon which she supported herself as
+she swam across the Nile ten times a-day. I never saw so perfect a
+figure as that of Mouna. She was of a lighter brown than most of the
+other girls, and was exactly the colour of a new copper kettle. She had
+magnificent large eyes; and her face had but a slight leaning towards
+the Ethiopian contour. Her bands and feet were wonderfully small and
+delicately formed. In short, she was a perfect beauty in her way; but
+the perfume of the castor-oil with which she was anointed had so strong
+a savour that, when she brought us the eggs and chickens, I always
+admired her at a distance of ten yards to windward. She had an
+ornamented calabash to hold her castor-oil, from which she made a fresh
+toilette every time she swam across the Nile.</p>
+
+<p>I have been three times at Phil&#339;, and indeed I had so great an
+admiration of the place that on my last visit, thinking it probable that
+I should never again behold its wonderful ruins and extraordinary
+scenery, I determined to spend the day there alone, that I might
+meditate at my leisure and wander as I chose from one well-remembered
+spot to another without the incumbrance of half a dozen people staring
+at whatever I looked at, and following me about out of pure idleness.
+Greatly did I enjoy my solitary day, and whilst leaning over the parapet
+on the top of the great Propylon, or seated on one of the terraces which
+overhung the Nile,<a name="page_160" id="page_160"></a> I in imagination repeopled the scene, with the forms
+of the priests and worshippers of other days, restored the fallen
+temples to their former glory, and could almost think I saw the
+processions winding round their walls, and heard the trumpets, and the
+harps, and the sacred hymns in honour of the great Osiris. In the
+evening a native came over with a little boat to take me off the island,
+and I quitted with regret this strange and interesting region.</p>
+
+<p>I landed at the village of rude huts on the shore of the river and sat
+down on a stone, waiting for my donkey, which I purposed to ride through
+the desert in the cool of the evening to Assouan, where my boat was
+moored. While I was sitting there, two boys were playing and wrestling
+together; they were naked and about nine or ten years old. They soon
+began to quarrel, and one of them drew the dagger which he wore upon his
+arm and stabbed the other in the throat. The poor boy fell to the ground
+bleeding; the dagger had entered his throat on the left side under the
+jawbone, and being directed upwards had cut his tongue and grazed the
+roof of his mouth. Whilst he cried and writhed about upon the ground
+with the blood pouring out of his mouth, the villagers came out from
+their cabins and stood around talking and screaming, but affording no
+help to the poor boy. Presently a young man, who was, I believe, a lover
+of Mouna's, stood up and asked where the father of the boy was, and why
+he<a name="page_161" id="page_161"></a> did not come to help him. The villagers said he had no father.
+"Where are his relations, then?" he asked. The boy had no relations,
+there was no one to care for him in the village. On hearing this he
+uttered some words which I did not understand, and started off after the
+boy who had inflicted the wound. The young assassin ran away as fast as
+he could, and a famous chase took place. They darted over the plain,
+scrambled up the rocks, and jumped down some dangerous-looking places
+among the masses of granite which formed the background of the village.
+At length the boy was caught, and, screaming and struggling, was dragged
+to the spot where his victim lay moaning and heaving upon the sand. The
+young man now placed him between his legs, and in this way held him
+tight whilst he examined the wound of the other, putting his finger into
+it and opening his mouth to see exactly how far it extended. When he had
+satisfied himself on the subject he called for a knife; the boy had
+thrown his away in the race, and he had not one himself. The villagers
+stood silent around, and one of them having handed him a dagger, the
+young man held the boy's head sideways across his thigh and cut his
+throat exactly in the same way as he had done to the other. He then
+pitched him away upon the ground, and the two lay together bleeding and
+writhing side by side. Their wounds were precisely the same; the second
+operation had been most expertly performed, and the<a name="page_162" id="page_162"></a> knife had passed
+just where the boy had stabbed his playmate. The wounds, I believe, were
+not dangerous, for presently both the boys got up and were led away to
+their homes. It was a curious instance of retributive justice, following
+out the old law of blood for blood, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a
+tooth.<a name="page_163" id="page_163"></a></p>
+
+<h3>MONASTERIES OF THE LEVANT.</h3>
+
+<h3 class="top5"><a name="PART_II" id="PART_II"></a>PART II.</h3>
+
+<p class="wig">\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/<a name="page_164" id="page_164"></a></p>
+
+<h3 class="top5"><a name="JERUSALEM_AND_THE_MONASTERY" id="JERUSALEM_AND_THE_MONASTERY"></a>JERUSALEM AND THE MONASTERY<br />
+OF ST. SABBA.<br />
+1834.</h3>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 486px;"><a name="page_165" id="page_165"></a>
+<a href="#plan2" name="planref2">
+<img src="images/ill_sepulchre_thumb.png" width="486" height="550" alt="PLAN OF THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE." title="PLAN OF THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE." /></a>
+
+<table summary="church holy sepulchre" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0"
+style="text-align:left;font-size:small;">
+<tr><td align="center" colspan="4">The Holy <span style="vertical-align:-65%;"><img src="images/ill_maltese.png"
+alt="maltese cross"
+title="maltese cross"
+width="19"
+height="39" /></span> Sepulchre.</td></tr>
+<tr valign="top"><td align="right">1.</td><td>Entrance to the Church.</td><td align="right" style="border-left:1px solid black;">15.</td><td>Where Mary Magdalene stood.</td></tr>
+<tr valign="top"><td align="right">2.</td><td>The Stone of Unction.</td><td align="right" style="border-left:1px solid black;">16.</td><td>Where our Lord appeared to Mary Magdalene.</td></tr>
+<tr valign="top"><td align="right">3.</td><td>Where our Saviour was nailed to the Cross.</td><td align="right" style="border-left:1px solid black;">17.</td><td>The Pillar of Flagellation.</td></tr>
+<tr valign="top"><td align="right">4.</td><td>Mount Calvary <img src="images/ill_calvary.png" alt="triple cross" title="triple cross" width="22" height="14" /></td><td align="right" style="border-left:1px solid black;">18.</td><td>Rooms of the Latin Convent.</td></tr>
+<tr valign="top"><td align="right">5.</td><td>Chapel of the Sacrifice of Isaac.</td><td align="right" style="border-left:1px solid black;">19.</td><td>Chapel of the Maronites.</td></tr>
+<tr valign="top"><td align="right">6.</td><td>Chapel of the Altar of Melchisedec.</td><td align="right" style="border-left:1px solid black;">20.</td><td>Chapel of the Georgians.</td></tr>
+<tr valign="top"><td align="right">7.</td><td>Stairs up to Mount Calvary.</td><td align="right" style="border-left:1px solid black;">21.</td><td>Sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathea.</td></tr>
+<tr valign="top"><td align="right">8.</td><td>Stairs down to the Chapel of St. Helena.</td><td align="right" style="border-left:1px solid black;">22.</td><td>Chapel of the Copts.</td></tr>
+<tr valign="top"><td align="right">9.</td><td>Stairs down to the Chapel of the Invention of the Cross.</td><td align="right" style="border-left:1px solid black;">23.</td><td>Chapel of the Jacobites.</td></tr>
+<tr valign="top"><td align="right">10.</td><td>Place where the three Crosses were discovered.</td><td align="right" style="border-left:1px solid black;">24.</td><td>Chapel of the Abyssinians, over which is the Chapel of the Armenians.</td></tr>
+<tr valign="top"><td align="right">11.</td><td>Chapel of the Division of the Garments.</td><td align="right" style="border-left:1px solid black;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;25.</td><td>The spot where the Blessed Virgin and St. John stood during the Crucifixion.</td></tr>
+<tr valign="top"><td align="right">12.</td><td>Prison of our Lord.</td><td align="right" style="border-left:1px solid black;">26.</td><td>Steps before the entrance of the Holy Sepulchre.</td></tr>
+<tr valign="top"><td align="right">13.</td><td>Greek Choir, in it <span style="vertical-align:-30%;"><img src="images/ill_center.png" alt="center of the world" title="center of the world" width="17" height="17" /></span>, the center of the world; on each side are the Stalls for the Monks.</td><td align="right" style="border-left:1px solid black;">27.</td><td>Ante-room to the Holy Sepulchre.<br />
+ In the center is the stone where the Angel sat;<br />on either side the two windows from whence the<br />Holy Fire is delivered to the multitude.</td></tr>
+<tr valign="top"><td align="right">14.</td><td>Latin Choir.</td><td align="right" style="border-left:1px solid black;">28.</td><td>The Iconostasis, or Screen before the Greek Altar,<br />which, as in English Churches, is called the Holy Table&mdash;<span title="ikonostasis">&#953;&#954;&#959;&#957;&#959;s&#964;&#945;&#963;&#953;&#962;</span>.</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+</div>
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h3>
+
+<p class="chapter">Journey to Jerusalem&mdash;First View of the Holy City&mdash;The Valley of
+Gihon&mdash;Appearance of the City&mdash;The Latin Convent of St.
+Salvador&mdash;Inhospitable Reception by the Monks&mdash;Visit to the Church
+of the Holy Sepulchre&mdash;Description of the Interior&mdash;The Chapel of
+the Sepulchre&mdash;The Chapel of the Cross on Mount Calvary&mdash;The Tomb
+and Sword of Godfrey de Bouillon&mdash;Arguments in favour of the
+Authenticity of the Holy Sepulchre&mdash;The Invention of the Cross by
+the Empress Helena&mdash;Legend of the Cross.</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 1.75em;">"Ecco apparir Gerusalem si vede,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Ecco additar Gerusalem si scorge,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Ecco da mile voce unitamente,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Gerosalemme salutar si sente.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 6em;">* * *</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">E l'uno all'altro il mostra e in tanto oblia,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">La noja e il mal della passata via.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 6em;">* * *</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Al gran placer che quella prima vista,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Dolcemente spirò nell'altrui petto,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Alta contrizion succese mista,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Di timoroso e riverente affetto,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Ossano appena d'inalzar la vista</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Ver la città, di Christo albergo eletto:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Dove mori, dove sepolto fue;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Dove poi riveste le membre sue."</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Tasso</span>, <i>Gerusalemme Liberata</i>, Canto 3.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="nind">W<span class="smcap">e</span> left our camels and dromedaries, and wild Arabs of the desert, at
+Gaza; and being now provided with<a name="page_166" id="page_166"></a> horses, and a tamer sort of Yahoo to
+attend upon them, we took our way across the hills towards Jerusalem.</p>
+
+<p>The road passes over a succession of rounded rocky hills, almost every
+step being rendered interesting by its connexion with the events of Holy
+Writ. On our left we saw the village of Kobab, and on our right the
+ruins of a castle said to have been built by the Maccabees, and not far
+from it the remains of an ancient Christian church.</p>
+
+<p>As our train of horses surmounted each succeeding eminence, every one
+was eager to be the first who should catch a glimpse of the Holy City.
+Again and again we were disappointed; another rocky valley yawned
+beneath us, and another barren stony hill rose up beyond. There seemed
+to be no end to the intervening hills and dales; they appeared to
+multiply beneath our feet. At last, when we had almost given up the
+point and had ceased to contend for the first view by galloping ahead;
+as we ascended another rocky brow we saw the towers of what seemed to be
+a Gothic castle; then, as we approached nearer, a long line of walls and
+battlements appeared crowning a ridge of rock which rose from a narrow
+valley to the right. This was the valley of the pools of Gihon, where
+Solomon was crowned, and the battlements which rose above it were the
+long looked-for walls of Jerusalem. With one accord our whole party
+drew<a name="page_167" id="page_167"></a> their bridles, and stood still to gaze for the first time upon
+this renowned and sacred city.</p>
+
+<p>It is not easy to describe the sensations which fill the breast of a
+Christian when, after a long and toilsome journey, he first beholds
+this, the most interesting and venerated spot upon the whole surface of
+the globe. Every one was silent for a while, absorbed in the deepest
+contemplation. The object of our pilgrimage was accomplished, and I do
+not think that anything we saw afterwards during our stay in Jerusalem
+made a more profound impression on our minds than this first distant
+view.</p>
+
+<p>It was curious to observe the different effect which our approach to
+Jerusalem had upon the various persons who composed our party. A
+Christian pilgrim, who had joined us on the road, fell down upon his
+knees and kissed the holy ground; two others embraced each other, and
+congratulated themselves that they had lived to see Jerusalem. As for us
+Franks, we sat bolt upright upon our horses, and stared and said
+nothing; whilst around us the more natural children of the East wept for
+joy, and, as in the army of the Crusaders, the word Jerusalem!
+Jerusalem! was repeated from mouth to mouth; but we, who consider
+ourselves civilized and superior beings, repressed our emotions; we were
+above showing that we participated in the feelings of our barbarous
+companions. As for myself, I would have got off my horse and walked<a name="page_168" id="page_168"></a>
+bare-footed towards the gate, as some did, if I had dared: but I was in
+fear of being laughed at for my absurdity, and therefore sat fast in my
+saddle. At last I blew my nose, and, pressing the sharp edges of my Arab
+stirrups on the lank sides of my poor weary jade, I rode on slowly
+towards the Bethlehem gate.</p>
+
+<p>On the sloping sides of the valley of Gihon numerous groups of people
+were lying under the olive-trees in the cool of the evening, and parties
+of grave Turks, seated on their carpets by the road-side, were smoking
+their long pipes in dignified silence. But what struck me most were some
+old white-bearded Jews, who were holding forth to groups of their
+friends or disciples under the walls of the city of their fathers, and
+dilating perhaps upon the glorious actions of their race in former days.</p>
+
+<p>Jerusalem has been described as a deserted and melancholy ruin, filling
+the mind with images of desolation and decay, but it did not strike me
+as such. It is still a compact city, as it is described in Scripture;
+the Saracenic walls have a stately, magnificent appearance; they are
+built of large and massive stones. The square towers, which are seen at
+intervals, are handsome and in good repair; and there is an imposing
+dignity in the appearance of the grim old citadel, which rises in the
+centre of the line of walls and towers, with its batteries and terraces
+one above another, surmounted with the crimson flag of Turkey floating
+heavily over the conquered city of the cross.<a name="page_169" id="page_169"></a></p>
+
+<p>We entered by the Bethlehem gate: it is commanded by the citadel, which
+was built by the people of Pisa, and is still called the castle of the
+Pisans. There we had some parleying with the Egyptian guards, and,
+crossing an open space famous in monastic tradition as the garden where
+Bathsheba was bathing when she was seen by King David from the roof of
+his palace, we threaded a labyrinth of narrow streets, which the horses
+of our party completely blocked up; and as soon as we could, we sent a
+man with our letters of introduction to the superior of the Latin
+convent. I had letters from Cardinal Weld and Cardinal Pedicini, which
+we presumed would ensure us a warm and hospitable reception; and as
+travellers are usually lodged in the monastic establishments, we went on
+at once to the Latin convent of St. Salvador, where we expected to enjoy
+all the comforts and luxuries of European civilization after our weary
+journey over the desert from Egypt. We, however, quickly discovered our
+mistake; for, on dismounting at the gate of the convent, we were
+received in a very cool way by the monks, who appeared to make the
+reception of travellers a mere matter of interest, and treated us as if
+we were dust under their feet. They put us into a wretched hole in the
+Casa Nuova, a house belonging to them near the convent, where there was
+scarcely room for our baggage; and we went to bed not a little mortified
+at<a name="page_170" id="page_170"></a> our inhospitable reception by our Christian brethren, so different
+from what we had always experienced from the Mahometans. The convent of
+St. Salvador belongs to a community of Franciscan friars; they were most
+of them Spaniards, and, being so far away from the superior officers of
+their order, they were not kept in very perfect discipline. It was
+probably owing to our being heretics that we were not better received.
+Fortunately we had our own beds, tents, cooking-utensils, carpets, &amp;c.;
+so that we soon made ourselves comfortable in the bare vaulted rooms
+which were allotted to us, and for which, by-the-bye, we had to pay
+pretty handsomely.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning early we went to the church of the Holy Sepulchre,
+descending the hill from the convent, and then down a flight of narrow
+steps into a small paved court, one side of which is occupied by the
+Gothic front of the church. The court was full of people selling beads
+and crucifixes and other holy ware. We had to wait some time, till the
+Turkish doorkeepers came to unlock the door, as they keep the keys of
+the church, which is only open on certain days, except to votaries of
+distinction. There is a hole in the door, through which the pilgrims
+gave quantities of things to the monks inside to be laid upon the
+sepulchre. At last the door was opened, and we went into the church.<a name="page_171" id="page_171"></a></p>
+
+<p>On entering these sacred walls the attention is first directed to a
+large slab of marble on the floor opposite the door, with several lamps
+suspended over it, and three enormous waxen tapers about twenty feet in
+height standing at each end. The pilgrims approach it on their knees,
+touch and kiss it, and, prostrating themselves before it, offer up their
+adoration. This, you are told, is the stone on which the body of our
+Lord was washed and anointed, and prepared for the tomb.</p>
+
+<p>Turning to the left, we came to a round stone let into the pavement,
+with a canopy of ornamental iron-work over it Here the Virgin Mary is
+said to have stood when the body of our Saviour was taken down from the
+cross.</p>
+
+<p>Leaving this, we entered the circular space immediately under the great
+dome, which is about eighty feet in diameter, and is surrounded by
+eighteen large square piers, which support the front of a broad gallery.
+Formerly this circular gallery was supported by white marble pillars:
+but the church was burnt down about twenty years ago, through the
+negligence of a drunken Greek monk, who set a light to some parts of the
+woodwork, and then endeavoured to put out the flames by throwing aqua
+vitæ upon them, which he mistook for water.</p>
+
+<p>The Chapel of the Sepulchre stands under the centre of the dome. It is a
+small oblong house of stone, rounded at one end, where there is an altar
+for<a name="page_172" id="page_172"></a> the Coptic and Abyssinian Christians. At the other end it is
+square, and has a platform of marble in front, which is ascended by a
+flight of steps, and has a low parapet wall and a seat on each side. The
+chapel contains two rooms. Taking off our shoes and turbans, we entered
+a low narrow door, and went into a chamber, in the centre of which
+stands a block of polished marble. On this stone sat the angel who
+announced the blessed tidings of the resurrection.</p>
+
+<p>From this room, which has a small round window on each side, we passed
+through another low door into the inner chamber, which contains the Holy
+Sepulchre itself, which, however, is not visible, being concealed by an
+altar of white marble. It is said to be a long narrow excavation like a
+grave or the interior of a sarcophagus hewed out of the rock just
+beneath the level of the ground. Six rows of lamps of silver gilt,
+twelve in each row, hang from the ceiling, and are kept perpetually
+burning. The tomb occupies nearly one-half of the sepulchral chamber,
+and extends from one end of it to the other on the right side of the
+door as you enter; a space of three feet wide and rather more than six
+feet long in front of it being all that remains for the accommodation of
+the pilgrims, so that not more than three or four can be admitted at a
+time.</p>
+
+<p>Leaving this hallowed spot, we were conducted first to the place where
+our Lord appeared to Mary Magdalen,<a name="page_173" id="page_173"></a> and then to the Chapel of the
+Latins, where a part of the pillar of flagellation is preserved.</p>
+
+<p>The Greeks have possession of the choir of the church, which is opposite
+the door of the Holy Sepulchre. This part of the building is of great
+size, and is magnificently decorated with gold and carving and stiff
+pictures of the saints. In the centre is a globe of black marble on a
+pedestal, under which they say the head of Adam was found; and you are
+told also that this is the exact centre of the globe; the Greeks having
+thus transferred to Jerusalem, from the temple of Apollo at Delphi, the
+absurd notions of the pagan priests of antiquity relative to the form of
+the earth.</p>
+
+<p>Returning towards the door of the church, and leaving it on our right
+hand, we ascended a flight of about twenty steps, and found ourselves in
+the Chapel of the Cross on Mount Calvary. At the upper end of this
+chapel is an altar, on the spot where the crucifixion took place, and
+under it is the hole into which the end of the cross was fixed: this is
+surrounded with a glory of silver gilt, and on each side of it, at the
+distance of about six feet, are the holes in which the crosses of the
+two thieves stood. Near to these is a long rent in the rock, which was
+opened by an earthquake at the time of the crucifixion. Although the
+three crosses appear to have stood very near to each other, yet, from
+the manner in which they are placed, there would have been room enough
+for<a name="page_174" id="page_174"></a> them, as the cross of our Saviour stands in front of the other two.</p>
+
+<p>Leaving this chapel we entered a kind of vault under the stairs, in
+which the rent of the rock is again seen: it extends from the ceiling to
+the floor, and has every appearance of having been caused by some
+convulsion of nature, and not formed by the hands of man. Here were
+formerly the tombs of Godfrey de Bouillon and Baldwin his brother, who
+were buried beneath the cross for which they fought so valiantly: but
+these tombs have lately been destroyed by the Greeks, whose detestation
+of everything connected with the Latin Church exceeds their aversion to
+the Mahometan creed. In the sacristy of the Latin monks we were shown
+the sword and spurs of Godfrey de Bouillon; the sword is apparently of
+the age assigned to it: it is double-edged and straight, with a
+cross-guard.<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p>
+
+<p>In another part of the church is a small dismal chapel, in the floor of
+which are several ancient tombs; one of them is said to be the sepulchre
+of Joseph of Arimathea. Of the antiquity of these tombs there<a name="page_175" id="page_175"></a> cannot be
+the slightest doubt; and their being here forms the best argument for
+the authenticity of the Holy Sepulchre itself, as it shows that this was
+formerly a place of burial, notwithstanding its situation in the centre
+of the ancient city, contrary to the almost universal practice of the
+ancients, whose sepulchres are always found some short distance from
+their cities; indeed, among the Egyptians, whose manners seem to have
+been followed in many respects by the Jews, it was a law that no one
+should be buried in the cultivated grounds, but their tombs were
+excavated in the rocks of the desert, that the agricultural and other
+daily pursuits of the living might not interfere with the repose of the
+dead. It is mentioned in the Bible that Christ was led <i>out</i> to be
+crucified; but it is not quite clear from the passage whether he was led
+out of the city of Jerusalem itself, or only from the city of David on
+Mount Sion, which appears to have been the citadel and place of
+residence of the Roman governor. If so, the site of the Holy Sepulchre
+may be the true one; and, in common with all other pilgrims, I am
+inclined to hope that the tomb now pointed out may really be the
+sepulchre of Christ.</p>
+
+<p>Descending a flight of steps from the body of the church, we entered the
+subterranean chapel of St. Helena, below which is another vault, in
+which the true cross is said to have been found. A very curious account
+of the finding of the cross is to be seen in the black-letter pages of
+Caxton's 'Golden Legend,'<a name="page_176" id="page_176"></a> and it has formed the subject of many
+singular traditions and romantic stories in former days. The history of
+this famous relic would be tedious were I to narrate it in the obsolete
+phraseology of the father of English printing, and I will therefore only
+give a short summary of the legend; although, to those who take an
+interest in monastic traditions, the accounts given in old books, which
+were read by our ancestors before the Reformation with all the sober
+seriousness of undoubting faith, afford a curious instance of the
+proneness of the human intellect to mistake the shadow for the
+substance, and to substitute an unbounded veneration for outward
+observances for the more reasonable acts of spiritual devotion.</p>
+
+<p>In the middle ages, while the worship of our Saviour was completely
+neglected, the wooden cross upon which he was supposed to have suffered
+was the object of universal adoration to all sects of Christians; armies
+fought with religious enthusiasm, not for the faith, but for the relic
+of the cross; and the traditions regarding it were received as undoubted
+facts by the heroes of the crusades, the hierarchy of the Church, and
+all who called themselves Christians, in those iron ages, when with rope
+and fagot, fire and sword, the fierce piety even of good men sought to
+enforce the precepts of Him whose advent was heralded with the angels'
+hymn of "peace on earth and good will towards men."</p>
+
+<p>It is related in the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus,<a name="page_177" id="page_177"></a> that when Adam
+fell sick he sent his son Seth to the gate of the terrestrial paradise
+to ask the angel for some drops of the oil of mercy, which distilled
+from the tree of life, to cure him of his disease; but the angel
+answered that he could not receive this healing oil until 5500 years had
+passed away. He gave him, however, a branch of this tree, and it was
+planted upon Adam's grave. In after ages the tree flourished and waxed
+exceeding fair, for Adam was buried in Mount Lebanon, not very far from
+the place near Damascus whence the red earth of which his body was
+formed by the Creator had been taken. When Balkia, Queen of Abyssinia,
+came to visit Solomon the King, she worshipped this tree, for she said
+that thereon should the Saviour of the world be hanged, and that from
+that time the kingdom of the Jews should cease. Upon hearing this,
+Solomon commanded that the tree should be cut down and buried in a
+certain place in Jerusalem, where afterwards the pool of Bethesda was
+dug, and the angel that had charge of the mysterious tree troubled the
+water of the pool at certain seasons, and those who first dipped into it
+were cured of their ailments. As the time of the passion of the Saviour
+approached, the wood floated on the surface of the water, and of that
+piece of timber, which was of cedar, the Jews made the upright part of
+the cross, the cross beam was made of cypress, the piece on which his
+feet rested<a name="page_178" id="page_178"></a> was of palm, and the other, on which the superscription was
+written, was of olive.</p>
+
+<p>After the crucifixion the holy cross and the crosses of the two thieves
+were thrown into the town ditch, or, according to some, into an old
+vault which was near at hand, and they were covered with the refuse and
+ruins of the city. In her extreme old age the Empress Helena, making a
+pilgrimage to Jerusalem, threatened all the Jewish inhabitants with
+torture and death if they did not produce the holy cross from the place
+where their ancestors had concealed it: and at last an old Jew named
+Judas, who had been put into prison and was nearly famished, consented
+to reveal the secret; he accordingly petitioned Heaven, whereupon the
+earth trembled, and from the fissures in the ground a delicious aromatic
+odour issued forth, and on the soil being removed the three crosses were
+discovered; and near the crosses the superscription was also found, but
+it was not known to which of the three it belonged. However, Macarius,
+Bishop of Jerusalem, repairing with the Empress to the house of a noble
+lady who was afflicted with an incurable disease, she was immediately
+restored to health by touching the true cross; and the body of a young
+man which was being carried out to burial was brought to life on being
+laid upon the holy wood. At the sight of these miracles Judas the Jew
+became a Christian, and was baptized by the name of Quiriacus, to the
+great indignation of the devil, for, said he, "by the first<a name="page_179" id="page_179"></a> Judas I
+gained much profit, but by this one's conversion I shall lose many
+souls."</p>
+
+<p>It would be endless were I to give the history of all the authenticated
+relics of the holy cross since those days; but of the three principal
+pieces one is now, or lately was, at Etchmiazin, in Armenia, the monks
+of which Church are accused of having stolen it from the Latins of
+Jerusalem when they were imprisoned by Sultan Suleiman. The second piece
+is still at Jerusalem, in the hands of the Greeks; and the third, which
+was sent by the Empress Helena herself to the church of Santa Croce di
+Gerusalemme at Rome, is now preserved in St. Peter's. There is indeed
+little reason to doubt that the piece of wood exhibited at Rome is the
+same that the Empress sent there in the year 326. The feast of the
+"Invention of the Cross" continues to be celebrated every year on the
+3rd of May by an appropriate mass.</p>
+
+<p>Besides the objects which I have mentioned, there is within the church
+an altar on the spot where Christ is said to have appeared to the Virgin
+after the resurrection. This completes the list of all the sacred places
+contained under the roof of the great church of the Holy Sepulchre.</p>
+
+<p>I may remark that all the very ancient specimens of the relics of the
+true cross are of the same wood, which has a very peculiar
+half-petrified appearance. I have a relic of this kind; the date of the
+shrine in which it is preserved being of the date of 1280. I<a name="page_180" id="page_180"></a> have also
+a piece of the cross in a more modern setting, which is not of the same
+wood.</p>
+
+<p>Whether all the hallowed spots within these walls really are the places
+which the guardians of the church declare them to be, or whether they
+have been fixed on at random, and consecrated to serve the interested
+views of a crafty priesthood, is a fact that I shall leave others to
+determine; however this may be, it is a matter of little consequence to
+the Christian. The great facts on which the history of the Gospel is
+founded are not so closely connected with particular spots of earth or
+sacred buildings as to be rendered doubtful by any mistake in the choice
+of a locality. The main error on the part of the priests of modern times
+at Jerusalem arises from an anxiety to prove the actual existence of
+everything to which any allusion is made by the evangelical historians,
+not remembering that the lapse of ages and the devastation of successive
+wars must have destroyed much, and disguised more, which the early
+disciples could most readily have identified. The mere circumstance that
+the localities of almost all the events which attended the close of our
+Saviour's ministry are crowded into one place, and covered by the roof
+of a single church, might excite a very justifiable doubt as to the
+exactness of the topography maintained by the friars of Mount Moriah.<a name="page_181" id="page_181"></a></p>
+
+<hr class="chpt" />
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h3>
+
+<p class="chapter">The Via Dolorosa&mdash;The Houses of Dives and of Lazarus&mdash;The Prison of
+St. Peter&mdash;The Site of the Temple of Solomon&mdash;The Mosque of
+Omar&mdash;The Hadjr el Sakhara&mdash;The Greek Monastery&mdash;Its
+Library&mdash;Valuable Manuscripts&mdash;Splendid MS. of the Book of
+Job&mdash;Arabic spoken at Jerusalem&mdash;Mussulman Theory regarding the
+Crucifixion&mdash;State of the Jews&mdash;Richness of their Dress in their
+own Houses&mdash;Beauty of their Women&mdash;Their literal Interpretation of
+Scripture&mdash;The Service in the Synagogue&mdash;Description of the House
+of a Rabbi&mdash;The Samaritans&mdash;Their Roll of the Pentateuch&mdash;Arrival
+of Ibrahim Pasha at Jerusalem.</p>
+
+<p class="nind">E<span class="smcap">xcept</span> the Holy Sepulchre, none of the places which are pointed out as
+sacred within the walls of Jerusalem merit a description, as they have
+evidently been created by the monks to serve their own purposes. You are
+shown, for instance, the whole of the Via Dolorosa, the way by which our
+Saviour passed from the hall of Pilate to Mount Calvary, and the exact
+seven places where he fell under the weight of the cross: you are shown
+the house of the rich man and that of Lazarus, both of them Turkish
+buildings, although, as that story is related in a parable, no real
+localities ever can have been referred to. Near the house of Lazarus
+there were several dogs when I passed by, and, on my asking the guide
+whether they were the descendants of the original dogs in the parable,<a name="page_182" id="page_182"></a>
+he said he was not quite sure, but that as to the house there could be
+no doubt. The prison of St. Peter is also to be seen, but the column on
+which the cock stood who crowed on his denial of our Lord, as well as
+the steps by which Christ ascended to the judgment-seat of Pilate, have
+been carried away to Rome, where they are both to be seen on the hill of
+St. John Lateran.</p>
+
+<p>The mosque of Omar stands on the site of the ancient Temple of Solomon,
+which covered the whole of the enclosure which is now the garden of the
+mosque, a space of about 1500 feet long, and 1000 feet wide. In the
+centre of this garden is a platform of stone about 600 feet square, on
+which stands the octagonal building of the mosque itself, the upper part
+being covered with green porcelain tiles which glitter in the sun:
+below, the walls are paneled with marble richly worked and of different
+colours: the dome in the centre has a wide cornice round it, ornamented
+with sentences from the Koran: the whole has a brilliant and
+extraordinary appearance, more like a Chinese temple than anything else.
+This building is called the Acksa el Sakhara, from its containing a
+piece of rock called the Hadjr el Sakhara, or the locked-up stone, which
+is the principal object of veneration in the place: it occupies the
+centre of the mosque, and on it are shown the prints of the angel
+Gabriel's fingers, who brought it from heaven, and the mark of<a name="page_183" id="page_183"></a> the
+Prophet's foot and that of his camel, a singularly good leaper, two more
+of whose footsteps I have seen in Egypt and Arabia, and I believe there
+is another at Damascus, the whole journey from Jerusalem to Mecca having
+been performed in four bounds only, for which remarkable service the
+camel is to have a place in heaven, where he will enjoy the society of
+Borak, the prophet's horse, Balaam's ass, Tobit's dog, and the dog of
+the seven sleepers, whose name was Ketmir, and also the companionship of
+a certain celebrated fly with whose merits I am unacquainted.</p>
+
+<p>We are told that the stone of the Sakhara fell from heaven at the time
+when prophecy commenced at Jerusalem. It was employed as a seat by the
+venerable men to whom that gift was communicated, and, as long as the
+spirit of vaticination continued to enlighten their minds, the slab
+remained steady for their accommodation; but no sooner was the power of
+prophecy withdrawn, and the persecuted seers compelled to flee for
+safety to other lands, than the stone manifested the profoundest
+sympathy in their fate, and evinced a determination to accompany them in
+their flight: on which Gabriel the archangel interposed his authority,
+and prevented the departure of the prophetical chair. He grasped it with
+his mighty hand and nailed it to its rocky bed by seven brass or golden
+nails. When any event of great importance to the world takes place the
+head of one of these nails disappears, and<a name="page_184" id="page_184"></a> when they are all gone the
+day of judgment will come. As there are now only three left, the
+Mahometans believe that the end of all things is not far distant. All
+those who have faithfully performed their devotions at this celebrated
+mosque are furnished by the priest with a certificate of their having
+done so, which is to be buried with them that they may show it to the
+door-keeper of Paradise as a ticket of admission. I was presented with
+one of these at Jerusalem, and found another in the desert of Al Arisch,
+a wondrous piece of good fortune in the estimation of my Mahometan
+followers, as I was provided with a ticket for a friend, as well as a
+pass for my own reception among the houris of their Prophet's celestial
+garden.</p>
+
+<p>The Greek monastery adjoins the church of the Holy Sepulchre. It
+contains a good library, the iron door of which is opened by a key as
+large as a horse-pistol. The books are kept in good order, and consist
+of about two thousand printed volumes in various languages; and about
+five hundred Greek and Arabic MSS. on paper, which are all theological
+works. There are also about one hundred Greek manuscripts on vellum: the
+whole collection is in excellent preservation. One of the eight
+manuscripts of the Gospels which the library contains has the index and
+the beginning of each Gospel written in gold letters on purple vellum,
+and has also some curious illuminations.<a name="page_185" id="page_185"></a> There is likewise a manuscript
+of the whole Bible: it is a large folio, and is the only one I ever
+heard of, excepting the one at the Vatican and that at the British
+Museum. One of the most beautiful volumes in the library is a large
+folio of the book of Job. It is a most glorious MS.: the text is written
+in large letters, surrounded with scholia in a smaller hand, and almost
+every page contains one or more miniatures representing the sufferings
+of Job, with ghastly portraits of Bildad the Shuhite and his other
+pitying friends: this manuscript is of the twelfth century. The rest of
+the manuscripts consist of the works of the Fathers, copies of the
+'Anthologia,' and books for the Church service.</p>
+
+<p>The Arabic language is generally spoken at Jerusalem, though the Turkish
+is much used among the better class. The inhabitants are composed of
+people of different nations and different religions, who inwardly
+despise one another on account of their varying opinions; but, as the
+Christians are very numerous, there reigns among the whole no small
+degree of complaisance, as well as an unrestrained intercourse in
+matters of business, amusement, and even of religion. The Mussulmans,
+for instance, pray in all the holy places consecrated to the memory of
+Christ and the Virgin, except the tomb of the Holy Sepulchre, the
+sanctity of which they do not acknowledge, for they believe that Jesus
+Christ did not die, but that he<a name="page_186" id="page_186"></a> ascended alive into heaven, leaving the
+likeness of his face to Judas, who was condemned to die for him; and
+that, as Judas was crucified, it was his body, and not that of Jesus,
+which was placed in the sepulchre. It is for this reason that the
+Mussulmans do not perform any act of devotion at the tomb of the Holy
+Sepulchre, and that they ridicule the Christians who visit and revere
+it.</p>
+
+<p>The Jews&mdash;the "children of the kingdom"&mdash;have been cast out, and many
+have come from the east and the west to occupy their place in the
+desolate land promised to their fathers. Their quarter is in the narrow
+valley between the Temple and the foot of Mount Zion. Many of the Jews
+are rich, but they are careful to conceal their wealth from the jealous
+eyes of their Mahometan rulers, lest they should be subjected to
+extortion.</p>
+
+<p>It is remarkable that the Jews who are born in Jerusalem are of a
+totally different caste from those we see in Europe. Here they are a
+fair race, very lightly made, and particularly effeminate in manner; the
+young men wear a lock of long hair on each side of the face, which, with
+their flowing silk robes, gives them the appearance of women. The Jews
+of both sexes are exceedingly fond of dress; and, although they assume a
+dirty and squalid appearance when they walk abroad, in their own houses
+they are to be seen clothed in costly furs and the richest silks<a name="page_187" id="page_187"></a> of
+Damascus. The women are covered with gold, and dressed in brocades stiff
+with embroidery. Some of them are beautiful; and a girl of about twelve
+years old, who was betrothed to the son of a rich old rabbi, was the
+prettiest little creature I ever saw; her skin was whiter than ivory,
+and her hair, which was as black as jet, and was plaited with strings of
+sequins, fell in tresses nearly to the ground. She was of a Spanish
+family, and the language usually spoken by the Jews among themselves is
+Spanish.</p>
+
+<p>The Jewish religion is now so much encumbered with superstition and the
+extraordinary explanations of the Bible in the Talmud, that little of
+the original creed remains. They interpret all the words of Scripture
+literally, and this leads them into most absurd mistakes. On the morning
+of the day of the Passover I went into the synagogue under the walls of
+the Temple, and found it crowded to the very door; all the congregation
+were standing up, with large white shawls over their heads with the
+fringes which they were commanded to wear by the Jewish law. They were
+reading the Psalms, and after I had been there a short time all the
+people began to hop about and to shake their heads and limbs in a most
+extraordinary manner; the whole congregation was in motion, from the
+priest, who was dancing in the reading-desk, to the porter, who capered
+at the door. All this was in consequence of a verse in the 35th Psalm,
+which says, "All my<a name="page_188" id="page_188"></a> bones shall say, Lord, who is like unto thee;" and
+this was their ludicrous manner of doing so. After the Psalm a crier
+went round the room, who sold the honour of performing different parts
+of the service to the highest bidder; the money so obtained is
+appropriated to the relief of the poor. The sanctuary at the upper end
+of the room was then opened, and a curtain withdrawn, in imitation of
+that which separated the Holy of Holies from the body of the Temple.
+From this place the book of the law was taken: it was contained in a
+case of embossed silver, and two large silver ornaments were fixed on
+the ends of the rollers, which stuck out from the top of the case. The
+Jews, out of reverence, as I presume, touched it with a little bodkin of
+gold, and, on its being carried to the reading-desk, a silver crown was
+placed upon it, and a man, supported by two others, one on each side of
+him, chanted the lesson of the day in a loud voice: the book was then
+replaced in the sanctuary, and the service concluded. The women are not
+admitted into the synagogue, but are permitted to view the ceremonies
+from a grated gallery set apart for them. However, they seldom attend,
+as it seems they are not accounted equal to the men either in body or
+soul, and trouble themselves very little with matters of religion.</p>
+
+<p>The house of Rabbi A&mdash;&mdash;, with whom I was acquainted, answered exactly
+to Sir Walter Scott's<a name="page_189" id="page_189"></a> description of the dwelling of Isaac of York. The
+outside of the house and the court-yard indicated nothing but poverty
+and neglect; but on entering I was surprised at the magnificence of the
+furniture. One room had a silver chandelier, and a great quantity of
+embossed plate was displayed on the top of the polished cupboards. Some
+of the windows were filled with painted glass; and the members of the
+family, covered with gold and jewels, were seated on divans of Damascus
+brocade. The Rabbi's little son was so covered with charms in gold cases
+to keep off the evil eye, that he jingled like a chime of bells when he
+walked along; and a still younger boy, whom I had never seen before, was
+on this day exalted to the dignity of wearing trousers, which were of
+red stuff, embroidered with gold, and were brought in by his nurse and a
+number of other women in procession, and borne on high before him as he
+was dragged round the room howling and crying without any nether garment
+on at all. He was walked round again after his superb trousers were put
+on, and very uncomfortable he seemed to be, but doubtless the honour of
+the thing consoled him, and he waddled out into the court with an air of
+conscious dignity.</p>
+
+<p>The learning of the rabbis is now at a very low ebb, and few of them
+thoroughly understand the ancient Hebrew tongue, although there are Jews
+at Jerusalem who speak several languages, and are said to be well<a name="page_190" id="page_190"></a>
+acquainted with all the traditions of their fathers, and the mysterious
+learning of the Cabala.</p>
+
+<p>There is in the Holy Land another division of the children of Israel,
+the Samaritans, who still keep up a separate form of religion. Their
+synagogue at Nablous is a mean building, not unlike a poor Mahometan
+mosque. Within it is a large, low, square chamber, the floor of which is
+covered with matting. Round a part of the walls is a wooden shelf, on
+which are laid above thirty manuscript <i>books</i> of the Pentateuch written
+in the Samaritan character: they possess also a very famous roll or
+volume of the Pentateuch, which is said to have been written by Abishai
+the grandson of Aaron. It is contained in a curiously ornamented octagon
+case of brass about two feet high, on opening which the MS. appears
+within rolled upon two pieces of wood. It is sixteen inches wide, and
+must be of great length, as each of the two parts of the roll are four
+or five inches in diameter. The writing is small and not very distinct,
+and the MS. is in rather a dilapidated condition. The Samaritan Rabbi
+Ibrahim Israel, true to his Jewish origin, would not open the case until
+he had been well paid. He affirmed that in this MS. the blessings were
+directed to be given from Mount Ebal and the curses from Mount Gherizim.
+However this may be, in an Arabic translation of the Samaritan
+Pentateuch, which is in my own collection, the 12th and 13th verses of<a name="page_191" id="page_191"></a>
+the 27th chapter of Deuteronomy are the same as the usually received
+text in other Bibles.</p>
+
+<p>Jerusalem was at this time (1834) under the dominion of the Egyptians,
+and Ibrahim Pasha arrived shortly after we had established ourselves in
+the vaulted dungeons of the Latin convent. He took up his abode in a
+house in the town, and did not maintain any state or ceremony; indeed he
+had scarcely any guards, and but few servants, so secure did he feel in
+a country which he had so lately conquered. He received us with great
+courtesy in his mean lodging, where we found an interpreter who spoke
+English. I had been promised a letter from Mohammed Ali Pasha to Ibrahim
+Pasha, but on inquiring I found it had not arrived, and Ibrahim Pasha
+sent a courier to Jaffa to inquire whether it was lying there; however
+it did not reach me, and I therefore was not permitted to see the
+interior of the mosque of Omar, or the great church of the Purification,
+which stands on the site of the Temple of Solomon, and into which at
+that time no Christian had penetrated.<a name="page_192" id="page_192"></a></p>
+
+<hr class="chpt" />
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h3>
+
+<p class="chapter">Expedition to the Monastery of St. Sabba&mdash;Reports of Arab
+Robbers&mdash;The Valley of Jehoshaphat&mdash;The Bridge of Al Sirat&mdash;Rugged
+Scenery&mdash;An Arab Ambuscade&mdash;A successful Parley&mdash;The Monastery of
+St. Sabba&mdash;History of the Saint&mdash;The Greek Hermits&mdash;The Church&mdash;The
+Iconostasis&mdash;The Library&mdash;Numerous MSS.&mdash;The Dead Sea&mdash;The Scene of
+the Temptation&mdash;Discovery&mdash;The Apple of the Dead Sea&mdash;The
+Statements of Strabo and Pliny confirmed.</p>
+
+<p class="nind">A<span class="smcap">s</span> we wished to be present at the celebration of Easter by the Greek
+Church, we remained several weeks at Jerusalem, during which time we
+made various excursions to the most celebrated localities in the
+neighbourhood. In addition to the Bible, which almost sufficed us for a
+guide-book in these sacred regions, we had several books of travels with
+us, and I was struck with the superiority of old Maundrell's narrative
+over all the others, for he tells us plainly and clearly what he saw,
+whilst other travellers so encumber their narratives with opinions and
+disquisitions, that, instead of describing the country, they describe
+only what they think about it; and thus little real information as to
+what there was to be seen or done could be gleaned from these works,
+eloquent and well written as many of them are; and we continually
+returned to Maundrell's homely pages<a name="page_193" id="page_193"></a> for a good plain account of what
+we wished to know. As, however, I had gathered from various incidental
+remarks in these books that there was a famous library in the monastery
+of St. Sabba, in which one might expect to find all the lost classics,
+whole rows of uncial manuscripts, and perhaps the histories of the
+Preadamite kings in the autograph of Jemshid, I determined to go and see
+it.</p>
+
+<p>It was of course necessary for every traveller at Jerusalem to "<i>do his
+Dead Sea</i>;" and accordingly we made arrangements for an excursion in
+that direction, which was to include a visit to St. Sabba; for my
+companion kindly put up with my aberrations, and agreed to linger with
+me for that purpose on our way to Jericho, although it was at the risk
+of falling among thieves, for we heard all manner of reports of the
+danger of the roads, and of a certain truculent Robin Hood sort of
+person, called Abou Gash, who had just got out of some prison or other.</p>
+
+<p>Abou Gash was vastly popular in this part of the country: everybody
+spoke well of him, and declared that "he was the mildest-mannered man
+that ever cut a throat or scuttled ship;" but they all hinted that it
+might be as well to keep out of his way, and that, when we went
+cantering about the country, poking our noses into caves, and ruins, and
+other <i>uncanny</i> places, it would be advisable to keep a "good" look-out.
+For all this we cared little: so, getting together our<a name="page_194" id="page_194"></a> merry men, we
+sallied forth through St. Stephen's gate. A gallant band we were, some
+five-and-twenty horsemen, well armed in the Egyptian style; with tents
+and kettles, cocks and hens, and cooks and marmitons, stowed upon the
+baggage-horses. Great store of good things had we&mdash;vino doro di Monte
+Libano, and hams, to show that we were not Mahometans; and tea, to prove
+that we were not Frenchmen; and guns to shoot partridges withal, and
+many other European necessaries.</p>
+
+<p>We tramped along upon the hard rocky ground one after the other, through
+the Valley of Jehoshaphat; and looked up at the corner of the temple,
+whence is to spring on the last day, as every sound follower of the
+Prophet believes, the fearful bridge of Al Sirat, which is narrower than
+the edge of the sharpest cimeter of Khorassaun, and from which those who
+without due preparation attempt to pass on their way to the paradise of
+Mahomet will fall into the unfathomable gulf below. Gradually as we
+advanced into the valley, through which the brook Kedron, when there is
+any water in it, flows into the Dead Sea, the scenery became more and
+more savage, the rocks more precipitous, and the valley narrowed into a
+deep gorge, the path being sometimes among the broken stones in the bed
+of the stream, and sometimes rising high above it on narrow ledges of
+rock.</p>
+
+<p>We rode on for some hours, admiring the wild<a name="page_195" id="page_195"></a> grandeur of the scenery,
+for this is the hill country of Judea, and seems almost a chaos of rocks
+and craggy mountains, broken into narrow defiles, or opening into dreary
+valleys bare of vegetation, except a few shrubs whose tough roots pierce
+through the crevices of the stony soil, and find a scanty subsistence in
+the small portions of earth which the rains have washed from the surface
+of the rocks above. In one place the pathway, which was not more than
+two or three feet wide, wound round the corner of a precipitous crag in
+such a manner that a horseman riding along the giddy way showed so
+clearly against the sky, that it seemed as if a puff of wind would blow
+horse and man into the ravine beneath. We were proceeding along this
+ledge&mdash;Fathallah, one of our interpreters, first, I second, and the
+others following&mdash;when we saw three or four Arabs with long
+bright-barrelled guns slip out of a crevice just before us, and take up
+their position on the path, pointing those unpleasant-looking implements
+in our faces. From some inconceivable motive, not of the most heroic
+nature I fear, my first move was to turn my head round to look behind
+me; but when I did so, I perceived that some more Arabs had crept out of
+another cleft behind us, which we had not observed as we passed; and on
+looking up I saw that from the precipice above us a curious collection
+of bright barrels and brown faces were taking an observation of our
+party, while on the opposite side of<a name="page_196" id="page_196"></a> the gorge, which was perhaps a
+hundred and fifty yards across, every fragment of rock seemed to have
+brought forth a man in a white tunic and bare legs, with a yellow
+handkerchief round his head, and a long gun in his hand, which he
+pointed towards us.</p>
+
+<p>We had fallen into an ambuscade, and one so cleverly laid that all
+attempt at resistance was hopeless. The path was so narrow that our
+horses could not turn, and a precipice within a yard of us, of a hundred
+feet sheer down, rendered our position singularly uncomfortable.
+Fathallah's horse came to a stand-still: my horse ran his nose against
+him and stood still too; and so did all the rest of us. "Well!" said I,
+"Fathallah, what is this? who are these gentlemen?" "I knew it would be
+so," quoth Fathallah, "I was sure of it! and in such a cursed place
+too!&mdash;I see how it is, I shall never get home alive to Aleppo!"</p>
+
+<p>After waiting a while, I imagine to enjoy our confusion, one of the
+Arabs in front took up his parable and said, "Oh! oh! ye Egyptians!" (we
+wore the Egyptian dress)" what are you doing here, in our country? You
+are Ibrahim Pasha's men; are you? Say&mdash;speak; what reason have ye for
+being here? for we are Arabs, and the sons of Arabs; and this is our
+country, and our land?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sir," said the interpreter with profound respect&mdash;for he rode first,
+and four or five guns were pointed<a name="page_197" id="page_197"></a> directly at his breast&mdash;"Sir, we are
+no Egyptians; thy servants are men of peace; we are peaceable Franks,
+pilgrims from the holy city, and we are only going to bathe in the
+waters of the Jordan, as all pilgrims do who travel to the Holy Land."
+"Franks!" quoth the Arab; "I know the Franks; pretty Franks are ye!
+Franks are the fathers of hats, and do not wear guns or swords, or red
+caps upon their heads, as you do. We shall soon see whether ye are
+Franks or not. Ye are Egyptians, and servants of Ibrahim Pasha the
+Egyptian: but now ye shall find that ye are our servants!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh Sir," exclaimed I in the best Arabic I could muster, "thy servants
+are men of peace, travellers, antiquaries all of us. Oh Sir, we are
+Englishmen, which is a sort of Frank&mdash;very harmless and excellent
+people, desiring no evil. We beg you will be good enough to let us
+pass." "Franks!" retorted the Arab sheick, "pretty Franks! Franks do not
+speak Arabic, nor wear the Nizam dress! Ye are men of Ibrahim Pasha's;
+Egyptians, arrant Cairoites (Misseri) are ye all, every one of ye;" and
+he and all his followers laughed at us scornfully, for we certainly did
+look very like Egyptians. "We are Franks, I tell you!" again exclaimed
+Fathallah: "Ibrahim Pasha, indeed! who is he, I should like to know? we
+are Franks; and Franks like to see everything. We are going to see the
+monastery of St. Sabba; we are not<a name="page_198" id="page_198"></a> Egyptians; what care we for
+Egyptians? we are English, Franks, every one of us, and we only desire
+to see the monastery of St. Sabba; that is what we are, O Arab, son of
+an Arab (Arab beni Arab). We are no less than this, and no more; we are
+Franks, as you are Arabs."</p>
+
+<p>Upon this there ensued a consultation between this son of an Arab and
+the other sons of Arabs, and in process of time the worthy gentlemen,
+knowing that it was impossible for us to escape, agreed to take us to
+the monastery of St. Sabba, which was not far off, and there to hear
+what we had to say in our defence.</p>
+
+<p>The sheick waved his arm aloft as a signal to his men to raise the
+muzzle of their guns, and we were allowed to proceed; some of the Arabs
+walking unconcernedly before us, and the others skipping like goats from
+rock to rock above us, and on the other side of the valley. They were
+ten times as numerous as we were, and we should have had no chance with
+them even on fair ground; but here we were completely at their mercy. We
+were escorted in this manner the rest of the way, and in half an hour's
+time we found ourselves standing before the great square tower of the
+monastery of St. Sabba. The battlements were lined with Arabs, who had
+taken possession of this strong place, and after a short parley and a
+clanging of arms within, a small iron door was<a name="page_199" id="page_199"></a> opened in the wall: we
+dismounted and passed in; our horses, one by one, were pushed through
+after us. So there we were in the monastery of St Sabba sure enough; but
+under different circumstances from what we expected when we set out that
+morning from Jerusalem.</p>
+
+<p>Fathallah had, however, convinced the sheick of the Arabs that we really
+were Franks, and not followers of Ibrahim Pasha, and before long we not
+only were relieved from all fear, but became great friends with the
+noble and illustrious Abou Somebody, who had taken possession of St.
+Sabba and the defiles leading to it.</p>
+
+<p>This monastery, which is a very ancient foundation, is built upon the
+edge of the precipice at the bottom of which flows the brook Kedron,
+which in the rainy season becomes a torrent. The buildings, which are of
+immense strength, are supported by buttresses so massive that the upper
+part of each is large enough to contain a small arched chamber; the
+whole of the rooms in the monastery are vaulted, and are gloomy and
+imposing in the extreme. The pyramidical-shaped mass of buildings
+extends half-way down the rocks, and is crowned above by a high and
+stately square tower, which commands the small iron gate of the
+principal entrance. Within there are several small irregular courts
+connected by steep flights of steps and dark arched passages, some of
+which are carried through the solid rock.<a name="page_200" id="page_200"></a></p>
+
+<p>It was in one of the caves in these rocks that the renowned St. Sabba
+passed his time in the society of a pet lion. He was a famous anchorite,
+and was made chief of all the monks of Palestine by Sallustius,
+Patriarch of Jerusalem, about the year 490. He was twice ambassador to
+Constantinople to propitiate the Emperors Anastasius the Silent and
+Justinian; moreover he made a vow never to eat apples as long as he
+lived. He was born at Mutalasca, near Cæsarea of Cappadocia, in 439, and
+died in 532, in the ninety-fifth year of his age: he is still held in
+high veneration by both the Greek and Latin churches. He was the founder
+of the Laura, which was formerly situated among the clefts and crevices
+of these rocks, the present monastery having been enclosed and fortified
+at I do not know what period, but long after the decease of the saint.</p>
+
+<p>The word laura, which is often met with in the histories of the first
+five centuries after Christ, signifies, when applied to monastic
+institutions, a number of separate cells, each inhabited by a single
+hermit or anchorite, in contradistinction to a convent or monastery,
+which was called a c&#339;nobium, where the monks lived together in one
+building under the rule of a superior. This species of monasticism seems
+always to have been a peculiar characteristic of the Greek Church, and
+in the present day these ascetic observances are upheld only by the
+Greek, Coptic, and<a name="page_201" id="page_201"></a> Abyssinian Christians, among whom hermits and
+quietists, such as waste the body for the improvement of the soul, are
+still to be met with in the clefts of the rocks and in the desert places
+of Asia and Africa. They are a sort of dissenters as regards their own
+Church, for, by the mortifications to which they subject themselves,
+they rebuke the regular priesthood, who do not go so far, although these
+latter fast in the year above one hundred days, and always rise to
+midnight prayer. In the dissent, if such it be, of these monks of the
+desert there is a dignity and self-denying firmness much to be
+respected. They follow the tenets of their faith and the ordinances of
+their religion in a manner which is almost sublime. They are in this
+respect the very opposite to European dissenters, who are as undignified
+as they are generally snug and cosy in their mode of life. Here, among
+the followers of St. Anthony, there are no mock heroics, no turning up
+of the whites of the eyes and drawing down of the corners of the mouth:
+they form their rule of life from the ascetic writings of the early
+fathers of the Church: their self-denial is extreme, their devotion
+heroic; but yet to our eyes it appears puerile and irrational that men
+should give up their whole lives to a routine of observances which,
+although they are hard and stern, are yet so trivial that they appear
+almost ridiculous.</p>
+
+<p>In one of the courts of the monastery there is a<a name="page_202" id="page_202"></a> palm-tree, said to be
+endowed with miraculous properties, which was planted by St. Sabba, and
+is to be numbered among the few now existing in the Holy Land, for at
+present they are very rarely to be met with, except in the vale of
+Jericho and the valley of the Jordan and the Dead Sea, in which
+localities, in consequence of their being so much beneath the level of
+the rest of the country, the temperature is many degrees higher than it
+is elsewhere.</p>
+
+<p>The church is rather large and is very solidly built. There are many
+ancient frescos painted on the walls, and various early Greek pictures
+are hung round about: many of these are representations of the most
+famous saints, and on the feast of each his picture is exposed upon a
+kind of desk before the iconostasis or wooden partition which divides
+the church from the sanctuary and the altar, and there it receives the
+kisses and oblations of all the worshippers who enter the sacred edifice
+on that day.</p>
+
+<p>The <span title="ikonostasis">&#953;&#954;&#959;&#957;&#959;s&#964;&#945;&#963;&#953;&#962;</span> is dimly represented in our older
+churches by the rood-loft and screen which divides the chancel from the
+nave: it is retained also in Lombardy and in the sees under the
+Ambrosian rule; but these screens and rood-lofts, which destroy the
+beauty of a cathedral or any large church, are unknown in the Roman
+churches. They date their origin from the very earliest ages, when the
+"discipline of the secret" was observed, and when the ceremonies of the<a name="page_203" id="page_203"></a>
+communion were held to be of such a sacred and mysterious nature that it
+was not permitted to the communicants to reveal what then took place&mdash;an
+incomprehensible custom which led to the propagation of many false ideas
+and strange rumours as to the Christian observances in the third and
+fourth centuries, and was one of the causes which led to several of the
+persecutions of the Church, as it was believed by the heathens that the
+Christians sacrificed children and committed other abominations for
+which they deserved extermination; and so prone are the vulgar to give
+credence to such injurious reports, that the Christians in later ages
+accused the Jews of the very same practices for which they themselves
+had in former times been held up to execration.</p>
+
+<p>In one part of the church I observed a rickety ladder leaning against
+the wall, and leading up to a small door about ten feet from the ground.
+Scrambling up this ladder, I found myself in the library of which I had
+heard so much. It was a small square room, or rather a large closet, in
+the upper part of one of the enormous buttresses which supported the
+walls of the monastery. Here I found about a thousand books, almost all
+manuscripts, but the whole of them were works of divinity. One volume in
+the Bulgarian or Servian language was written in uncial letters; the
+rest were in Greek, and were for the most part of the twelfth century.
+There were a great many enormous<a name="page_204" id="page_204"></a> folios of the works of the fathers,
+and one MS. of the Octoteuch, or first eight hooks of the Old Testament.
+It is remarkable how very rarely MSS. of any part of the Old Testament
+are found in the libraries of Greek monasteries; this was the only MS.
+of the Octoteuch that I ever met with either before or afterwards in any
+part of the Levant. There were about a hundred other MSS. on a shelf in
+the apsis of the church: I was not allowed to examine them, but was
+assured that they were liturgies and church-books which were used on the
+various high days during the year.</p>
+
+<p>I was afterwards taken by some of the monks into the vaulted chambers of
+the great square tower or keep, which stood near the iron door by which
+we had been admitted. Here there were about a hundred MSS., but all
+imperfect; I found the 'Iliad' of Homer among them, but it was on paper.
+Some of these MSS. were beautifully written; they were, however, so
+imperfect, that in the short time I was there, and pestered as I was by
+a crowd of gaping Arabs, I was unable to discover what they were.</p>
+
+<p>I was allowed to purchase three MSS., with which the next day I and my
+companion departed on our way to the Dead Sea, our friend the sheick
+having, from the moment that he was convinced we were nothing better or
+worse than Englishmen and sight-seers, treated us with all manner of
+civility.</p>
+
+<p>On arriving at the Dead Sea I forthwith proceeded<a name="page_205" id="page_205"></a> to bathe in it, in
+order to prove the celebrated buoyancy of the water, and was nearly
+drowned in the experiment, for, not being able to swim, my head got much
+deeper below the water than I intended. Two ignorant pilgrims, who had
+joined our party for protection, baptized each other in this filthy
+water, and sang psalms so loudly and discordantly that we asked them
+what in the name of wonder they were about, when we discovered that they
+thought this was the Jordan, and were sorely grieved at their
+disappointment. We found several shells upon the shore and a small dead
+fish, but perhaps they had been washed down by the waters of the Jordan
+or the Kedron: I do not know how this may be.</p>
+
+<p>We wandered about for two or three days in this hot, volcanic, and
+sunken region, and thence proceeded to Jericho. The mountain of
+Quarantina, the scene of the forty days' temptation of our Saviour, is
+pierced all over with the caves excavated by the ancient anchorites, and
+which look like pigeons' nests. Some of them are in the most
+extraordinary situations, high up on the face of tremendous precipices.
+However, I will not attempt to detail the singularities of this wild
+district; we visited the chief objects of interest, and a big book that
+I brought from St. Sabba is endeared to my recollections by my having
+constantly made use of it as a pillow in my tent during our wanderings.
+It was somewhat hard, undoubtedly;<a name="page_206" id="page_206"></a> but after a long day's ride it
+served its purpose very well, and I slept as soundly as if it had been
+read to me.</p>
+
+<p>At two subsequent periods I visited this region, and purchased seven
+other MSS. from St Sabba; among them was the Octoteuch of the tenth, if
+not the ninth, century, which I esteem one of the most rare and precious
+volumes of my library.</p>
+
+<p>We made a somewhat singular discovery when travelling among the
+mountains to the east of the Dead Sea, where the ruins of Ammon, Jerash,
+and Adjeloun well repay the labour and fatigue encountered in visiting
+them. It was a remarkably hot and sultry day: we were scrambling up the
+mountain through a thick jungle of bushes and low trees, when I saw
+before me a fine plum-tree, loaded with fresh blooming plums. I cried
+out to my fellow-traveller, "Now, then, who will arrive first at the
+plum-tree?" and as he caught a glimpse of so refreshing an object, we
+both pressed our horses into a gallop to see which would get the first
+plum from the branches. We both arrived at the same moment; and, each
+snatching at a fine ripe plum, put it at once into our mouths; when, on
+biting it, instead of the cool delicious juicy fruit which we expected,
+our months were filled with a dry bitter dust, and we sat under the tree
+upon our horses sputtering, and hemming, and doing all we could to be
+relieved of the nauseous taste of this strange fruit.<a name="page_207" id="page_207"></a> We then
+perceived, and to my great delight, that we had discovered the famous
+apple of the Dead Sea, the existence of which has been doubted and
+canvassed since the days of Strabo and Pliny, who first described it.
+Many travellers have given descriptions of other vegetable productions
+which bear some analogy to the one described by Pliny; but up to this
+time no one had met with the thing itself, either upon the spot
+mentioned by the ancient authors, or elsewhere. I brought several of
+them to England. They are a kind of gall-nut. I found others afterwards
+upon the plains of Troy, but there can be no doubt whatever that this is
+the apple of Sodom to which Strabo and Pliny referred. Some of those
+which I brought to England were given to the Linnæan Society, who
+published an engraving of them, and a description of their vegetable
+peculiarities, in their 'Transactions;' but as they omitted to explain
+the peculiar interest attached to them in consequence of their having
+been sought for unsuccessfully for above 1500 years, they excited little
+attention; though, as the evidence of the truth of what has so long been
+considered as a vulgar fable, they are fairly to be classed among the
+most curious productions which have been brought from the Holy Land.<a name="page_208" id="page_208"></a></p>
+
+<hr class="chpt" />
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h3>
+
+<p class="chapter">Church of the Holy Sepulchre&mdash;Processions of the Copts&mdash;The Syrian
+Maronites and the Greeks&mdash;Riotous Behaviour of the Pilgrims&mdash;Their
+immense numbers&mdash;The Chant of the Latin Monks&mdash;Ibrahim Pasha&mdash;The
+Exhibition of the Sacred Fire&mdash;Excitement of the Pilgrims&mdash;The
+Patriarch obtains the Sacred Fire from the Holy Sepulchre&mdash;Contest
+for the Holy Light&mdash;Immense sum paid for the privilege of receiving
+it first&mdash;Fatal Effects of the Heat and Smoke&mdash;Departure of Ibrahim
+Pasha&mdash;Horrible Catastrophe&mdash;Dreadful Loss of Life among the
+Pilgrims in their endeavours to leave the Church&mdash;Battle with the
+Soldiers&mdash;Our Narrow Escape&mdash;Shocking Scene in the Court of the
+Church&mdash;Humane Conduct of Ibrahim Pasha&mdash;Superstition of the
+Pilgrims regarding Shrouds&mdash;Scallop Shells and Palm Branches&mdash;The
+Dead Muleteer&mdash;Moonlight View of the Dead Bodies&mdash;The Curse on
+Jerusalem&mdash;Departure from the Holy City.</p>
+
+<p class="nind">I<span class="smcap">t</span> was on Friday, the 3rd of May, that my companions and myself went,
+about five o'clock in the evening, to the church of the Holy Sepulchre,
+where we had places assigned us in the gallery of the Latin monks, as
+well as a good bed-room in their convent. The church was very full, and
+the numbers kept increasing every moment. We first saw a small
+procession of the Copts go round the sepulchre, and after them one of
+the Syrian Maronites. I then went to bed, and at midnight was awakened
+to see the procession of the Greeks, which was rather grand. By the
+rules of their Church they are not permitted<a name="page_209" id="page_209"></a> to carry any images, and
+therefore to make up for this they bore aloft a piece of brocade, upon
+which was embroidered a representation of the body of our Saviour. This
+was placed in the tomb, and, after some short time, brought out again
+and carried into the chapel of the Greeks, when the ceremonies of the
+night ended; for there was no procession of the Armenians, as the
+Armenian Patriarch had made an address to his congregation, and had, it
+was said, explained the falsity of the miracle of the holy fire; to the
+excessive astonishment of his hearers, who for centuries have considered
+an unshakable belief in this yearly wonder as one of the leading
+articles of their faith. After the Greek procession I went quietly to
+bed again, and slept soundly till next morning.</p>
+
+<p>The behaviour of the pilgrims was riotous in the extreme; the crowd was
+so great that many persons actually crawled over the heads of others,
+and some made pyramids of men by standing on each others' shoulders, as
+I have seen them do at Astley's. At one time, before the church was so
+full, they made a race-course round the sepulchre; and some, almost in a
+state of nudity, danced about with frantic gestures, yelling and
+screaming as if they were possessed.</p>
+
+<p>Altogether it was a scene of disorder and profanation which it is
+impossible to describe. In consequence of the multitude of people and
+the quantities of lamps, the heat was excessive, and a steam arose
+which<a name="page_210" id="page_210"></a> prevented your seeing clearly across the church. But every window
+and cornice, and every place where a man's foot could rest, excepting
+the gallery&mdash;which was reserved for Ibrahim Pasha and
+ourselves&mdash;appeared to be crammed with people; for 17,000 pilgrims were
+said to be in Jerusalem, almost the whole of whom had come to the Holy
+City for no other reason than to see the sacred fire.</p>
+
+<p>After the noise, heat, and uproar which I had witnessed from the gallery
+that overlooked the Holy Sepulchre, the contrast of the calmness and
+quiet of my room in the Franciscan convent was very pleasing. The room
+had a small window which opened upon the Latin choir, where, in the
+evening, the monks chanted the litany of the Virgin: their fine voices
+and the beautiful simplicity of the ancient chant made a strong
+impression upon my mind; the orderly solemnity of the Roman Catholic
+vespers showing to great advantage when compared with the screams and
+tumult of the fanatic Greeks.<a name="page_211" id="page_211"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 368px;">
+<span class="caption">LITANY OF THE VIRGIN<br />
+Sung by the Friars of St. Salvador at Jerusalem.</span>
+<a href="images/ill_240.jpg">
+<img src="images/ill_240_thumb.jpg" width="368" height="550" alt="LITANY OF THE VIRGIN
+Sung by the Friars of St. Salvador at Jerusalem." title="LITANY OF THE VIRGIN
+Sung by the Friars of St. Salvador at Jerusalem." /></a>
+
+<table summary="sanctamaria"
+cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="text-align:left;">
+<tr><td>Sancta Maria&mdash;Ora pro nobis.</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Sancta Virgo Virginum&mdash;Ora pro nobis.</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Impeatrix Reginarum&mdash;Ora pro nobis.</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Laus sanctarum animarum&mdash;Ora pro nobis</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Vera salutrix earum&mdash;Ora pro nobis.</td></tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<p><a name="page_212" id="page_212"></a>The next morning a way was made through the crowd for Ibrahim Pasha, by
+the soldiers with the butt-ends of their muskets, and by the Janissaries
+with their kourbatches and whips made of a quantity of small rope. The
+Pasha sat in the gallery, on a divan which the monks had made for him
+between the two columns nearest to the Greek chapel. They had got up a
+sort of procession to do him honour, the appearance of which did not add
+to the solemnity of the scene: three monks playing crazy fiddles led the
+way, then came the choristers with lighted candles, next two Nizam
+soldiers with muskets and fixed bayonets; a number of doctors,
+instructors, and officers tumbling over each other's heels, brought up
+the rear: he was received by the women, of whom there were thousands in
+the church, with a very peculiar shrill cry, which had a strange
+unearthly effect. It was the monosyllable la, la, la, uttered in a
+shrill trembling tone, which I thought much more like pain than
+rejoicing. The Pasha was dressed in full trousers of dark cloth, a light
+lilac-coloured jacket, and a red cap without a turban. When he was
+seated, the monks brought us some sherbet, which was excellently made;
+and as our seats were very near the great man, we saw everything in an
+easy and luxurious way; and it being announced that the Mahomedan Pasha
+was ready, the Christian miracle, which had been waiting for some time,
+was now on the point of being displayed.</p>
+
+<p>The people were by this time become furious; they were worn out with
+standing in such a crowd all night, and as the time approached for the
+exhibition of the holy fire they could not contain themselves for joy.
+Their excitement increased as the time for the miracle in which all
+believed drew near. At about one o'clock the Patriarch went into the
+ante-chapel of the sepulchre, and soon after a magnificent procession
+moved out of the Greek chapel. It conducted the Patriarch three<a name="page_213" id="page_213"></a> times
+round the tomb; after which he took off his outer robes of cloth of
+silver, and went into the sepulchre, the door of which was then closed.
+The agitation of the pilgrims was now extreme: they screamed aloud; and
+the dense mass of people shook to and fro, like a field of corn in the
+wind.</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 150px;">
+<a href="images/ill_242.jpg">
+<img src="images/ill_242_thumb.jpg" width="150" height="241" alt="image of a bundle of thin wax-candles
+enclosed in an iron frame." title="image of a bundle of thin wax-candles
+enclosed in an iron frame." /></a>
+</div>
+
+<p>There is a round hole in one part of the chapel over the sepulchre, out
+of which the holy fire is given, and up to this the man who had agreed
+to pay the highest sum for this honour was conducted by a strong guard
+of soldiers. There was silence for a minute; and then a light appeared
+out of the tomb, and the happy pilgrim received the holy fire from the
+Patriarch within. It consisted of a bundle of thin wax-candles, lit, and
+enclosed in an iron frame to prevent their being torn asunder and put
+out in the crowd: for a furious battle commenced immediately; every one
+being so eager to obtain the holy light, that one man put out the candle
+of his neighbour in trying to light his own. It is said that as much as
+ten thousand piasters has been paid for the privilege of first receiving
+the holy fire, which is believed to ensure eternal salvation. The Copts
+got eight purses this year for the first candle they gave to a pilgrim
+of their own persuasion.</p>
+
+<p>This was the whole of the ceremony; there was no<a name="page_214" id="page_214"></a> sermon or prayers,
+except a little chanting during the processions, and nothing that could
+tend to remind you of the awful event which this feast was designed to
+commemorate.</p>
+
+<p>Soon you saw the lights increasing in all directions, every one having
+lit his candle from the holy flame: the chapels, the galleries, and
+every corner where a candle could possibly be displayed, immediately
+appeared to be in a blaze. The people, in their frenzy, put the bunches
+of lighted tapers to their faces, hands, and breasts, to purify
+themselves from their sins. The Patriarch was carried out of the
+sepulchre in triumph, on the shoulders of the people he had deceived,
+amid the cries and exclamations of joy which resounded from every nook
+of the immense pile of buildings. As he appeared in a fainting state, I
+supposed that he was ill; but I found that it is the uniform custom on
+these occasions to feign insensibility, that the pilgrims may imagine he
+is overcome with the glory of the Almighty, from whose immediate
+presence they believe him to have returned.</p>
+
+<p>In a short time the smoke of the candles obscured everything in the
+place, and I could see it rolling in great volumes out at the aperture
+at the top of the dome. The smell was terrible; and three unhappy
+wretches, overcome by heat and bad air, fell from the upper range of
+galleries, and were dashed to pieces on the heads of the people below.
+One poor Armenian<a name="page_215" id="page_215"></a> lady, seventeen years of age, died where she sat, of
+heat, thirst, and fatigue.</p>
+
+<p>After a while, when he had seen all that was to be seen, Ibrahim Pasha
+got up and went away, his numerous guards making a line for him by main
+force through the dense mass of people which filled the body of the
+church. As the crowd was so immense, we waited for a little while, and
+then set out all together to return to our convent. I went first and my
+friends followed me, the soldiers making way for us across the church. I
+got as far as the place where the Virgin is said to have stood during
+the crucifixion, when I saw a number of people lying one on another all
+about this part of the church, and as far as I could see towards the
+door. I made my way between them as well as I could, till they were so
+thick that there was actually a great heap of bodies on which I trod. It
+then suddenly struck me they were all dead! I had not perceived this at
+first, for I thought they were only very much fatigued with the
+ceremonies and had lain down to rest themselves there; but when I came
+to so great a heap of bodies I looked down at them, and saw that sharp,
+hard appearance of the face which is never to be mistaken. Many of them
+were quite black with suffocation, and farther on were others all bloody
+and covered with the brains and entrails of those who had been trodden
+to pieces by the crowd.</p>
+
+<p>At this time there was no crowd in this part of the<a name="page_216" id="page_216"></a> church; but a
+little farther on, round the corner towards the great door, the people,
+who were quite panic-struck, continued to press forward, and every one
+was doing his utmost to escape. The guards outside, frightened at the
+rush from within, thought that the Christians wished to attack them, and
+the confusion soon grew into a battle. The soldiers with their bayonets
+killed numbers of fainting wretches, and the walls were spattered with
+blood and brains of men who had been felled, like oxen, with the
+butt-ends of the soldiers' muskets. Every one struggled to defend
+himself or to get away, and in the mêlée all who fell were immediately
+trampled to death by the rest. So desperate and savage did the fight
+become, that even the panic-struck and frightened pilgrims appear at
+last to have been more intent upon the destruction of each other than
+desirous to save themselves.</p>
+
+<p>For my part, as soon as I perceived the danger I had cried out to my
+companions to turn back, which they had done; but I myself was carried
+on by the press till I came near the door, where all were fighting for
+their lives. Here, seeing certain destruction before me, I made every
+endeavour to get back. An officer of the Pasha's, who by his star was a
+colonel or bin bashee, equally alarmed with myself, was also trying to
+return: he caught hold of my cloak, or bournouse, and pulled me down on
+the body of an old man who was breathing out his last sigh. As the
+officer was pressing<a name="page_217" id="page_217"></a> me to the ground we wrestled together among the
+dying and the dead with the energy of despair. I struggled with this man
+till I pulled him down, and happily got again upon my legs&mdash;(I
+afterwards found that he never rose again)&mdash;and scrambling over a pile
+of corpses, I made my way back into the body of the church, where I
+found my friends, and we succeeded in reaching the sacristy of the
+Catholics, and thence the room which had been assigned to us by the
+monks. The dead were lying in heaps, even upon the stone of unction; and
+I saw full four hundred wretched people, dead and living, heaped
+promiscuously one upon another, in some places above five feet high.
+Ibrahim Pasha had left the church only a few minutes before me, and very
+narrowly escaped with his life; he was so pressed upon by the crowd on
+all sides, and it was said attacked by several of them, that it was only
+by the greatest exertions of his suite, several of whom were killed,
+that he gained the outer court. He fainted more than once in the
+struggle, and I was told that some of his attendants at last had to cut
+a way for him with their swords through the dense ranks of the frantic
+pilgrims. He remained outside, giving orders for the removal of the
+corpses, and making his men drag out the bodies of those who appeared to
+be still alive from the heaps of the dead. He sent word to us to remain
+in the convent till all the dead bodies had been removed,<a name="page_218" id="page_218"></a> and that when
+we could come out in safety he would again send to us.</p>
+
+<p>We stayed in our room two hours before we ventured to make another
+attempt to escape from this scene of horror; and then walking close
+together, with all our servants round us, we made a bold push and got
+out of the door of the church. By this time most of the bodies were
+removed; but twenty or thirty were still lying in distorted attitudes at
+the foot of Mount Calvary; and fragments of clothes, turbans, shoes, and
+handkerchiefs, clotted with blood and dirt, were strewed all over the
+pavement.</p>
+
+<p>In the court in the front of the church, the sight was pitiable: mothers
+weeping over their children&mdash;the sons bending over the dead bodies of
+their fathers&mdash;and one poor woman was clinging to the hand of her
+husband, whose body was fearfully mangled. Most of the sufferers were
+pilgrims and strangers. The Pasha was greatly moved by this scene of
+woe; and he again and again commanded his officers to give the poor
+people every assistance in their power, and very many by his humane
+efforts were rescued from death.</p>
+
+<p>I was much struck by the sight of two old men with white beards, who had
+been seeking for each other among the dead; they met as I was passing
+by, and it was affecting to see them kiss and shake hands, and
+congratulate each other on having escaped from death.<a name="page_219" id="page_219"></a></p>
+
+<p>When the bodies were removed many were discovered standing upright,
+quite dead; and near the church door one of the soldiers was found thus
+standing, with his musket shouldered, among the bodies which reached
+nearly as high as his head; this was in a corner near the great door on
+the right side as you come in. It seems that this door had been shut, so
+that many who stood near it were suffocated in the crowd; and when it
+was opened, the rush was so great that numbers were thrown down and
+never rose again, being trampled to death by the press behind them. The
+whole court before the entrance of the church was covered with bodies
+laid in rows, by the Pasha's orders, so that their friends might find
+them and carry them away. As we walked home we saw numbers of people
+carried out, some dead, some horribly wounded and in a dying state, for
+they had fought with their heavy silver inkstands and daggers.</p>
+
+<p>In the evening I was not sorry to retire early to rest in the low
+vaulted room in the strangers' house attached to the monastery of St.
+Salvador. I was weary and depressed after the agitating scenes of the
+morning, and my lodging was not rendered more cheerful by there being a
+number of corpses laid out in their shrouds in the stone court beneath
+its window. It is thought by these superstitious people that a shroud
+washed in the fountain of Siloam and blessed at the tomb of our Saviour
+forms a complete suit of<a name="page_220" id="page_220"></a> armour for the body of a sinner deceased in
+the faith, and that clad in this invulnerable panoply he may defy the
+devil and all his angels. For this reason every pilgrim when journeying
+has his shroud with him, with all its different parts and bandages
+complete; and to many they became useful sooner than they expected. A
+holy candle also forms part of a pilgrim's accoutrements. It has some
+sovereign virtue, but I do not exactly know what; and they were all
+provided with several long thin tapers, and a rosary or two, and sundry
+rosaries and ornaments made of pearl oyster-shells&mdash;all which are
+defences against the powers of darkness. These pearl oyster-shells are,
+I imagine, the scallop-shell of romance, for there are no scallops to be
+found here. My companion was very anxious to obtain some genuine
+scallop-shells, as they form part of his arms; but they, as well as the
+palm branches, carried home by all palmers on their return from the Holy
+Land, are as rare here as they are in England. This is the more
+remarkable, as the medal struck by Vespasian on the subjection of this
+country represents a woman in an attitude of mourning seated under a
+palm-tree with the legend "Judæa capta;" so there may have been palms in
+those days. I was going to say there <i>must</i> have been: but on second
+thoughts it does not follow that there should have been palms in Judæa,
+because the Romans put them on a medal, any more than that there should
+be<a name="page_221" id="page_221"></a> unicorns in England because we represent them on our coins. However,
+all this is a digression: we must return to our dead men. There were
+sixteen or seventeen of them, all stiff and stark, lying in the court,
+nicely wrapped up in their shrouds, like parcels ready to be sent off to
+the other world: but at the end of the row lay one man in a brown dress;
+he was one of the lower class&mdash;a muleteer, perhaps, a strong, well-made
+man; but he was not in a shroud. He had died fighting, and there he lay
+with his knees drawn up, his right arm above his head, and in his hand
+the jacket of another man, which could not now be released from his
+grasp, so tightly had his strong hand been clenched in the
+death-struggle. This figure took a strong hold on my imagination; there
+was something wild and ghastly in its appearance, different from the
+quiet attitude of the other victims of the fight in which I also had
+been engaged. It put me in mind of all manner of horrible old stories of
+ghosts and goblins with which my memory was well stored; and I went to
+bed with my head so occupied by these traditions of gloom and ignorance
+that I could not sleep, or if I did for awhile, I woke up again and
+still went on thinking of the old woman of Berkeley, and the fire-king,
+and the stories in Scott's 'Discovery of Witchcraft,' and the 'Hierarchy
+of the Blessed Aungelles,' and Caxton's 'Golden Legende'&mdash;all books
+wherein I delighted to pore, till I could not help getting<a name="page_222" id="page_222"></a> out of bed
+again to have another look at the ghastly regiment in the court below.</p>
+
+<p>I leant against the heavy stone mullions of the window, which was
+barred, but without glass, and gazed I know not how long. There they all
+were, still and quiet; some in the full moonlight, and some half
+obscured by the shadow of the buildings. In the morning I had walked
+with them, living men, such as I was myself, and now how changed they
+were! Some of them I had spoken to, as they lived in the same court with
+me, and I had taken an interest in their occupations: now I would not
+willingly have touched them, and even to look at them was terrible! What
+little difference there is in appearance between the same men asleep and
+dead! and yet what a fearful difference in fact, not to themselves only,
+but to those who still remained alive to look upon them! Whilst I was
+musing upon these things the wind suddenly arose, the doors and shutters
+of the half-uninhabited monastery slammed and grated upon their hinges;
+and as the moon, which had been obscured, again shone clearly on the
+court below, I saw the dead muleteer with the jacket which he held
+waving in the air, the grimmest figure I ever looked upon. His face was
+black from the violence of his death, and he seemed like an evil spirit
+waving on his ghastly crew; and as the wind increased, the shrouds of
+some of the dead men fluttered in the night air as if they responded to<a name="page_223" id="page_223"></a>
+his call. The clouds, passing rapidly over the moon, east such shadows
+on the corpses in their shrouds, that I could almost have fancied they
+were alive again. I returned to bed, and thanked God that I was not also
+laid out with them in the court below.</p>
+
+<p>In the morning I awoke at a late hour and looked out into the court; the
+muleteer and most of the other bodies were removed, and people were
+going about their business as if nothing had occurred, excepting that
+every now and then I heard the wail of women lamenting for the dead.
+Three hundred was the number reported to have been carried out of the
+gates to their burial-places that morning; two hundred more were badly
+wounded, many of whom probably died, for there were no physicians or
+surgeons to attend them, and it was supposed that others were buried in
+the courts and gardens of the city by their surviving friends; so that
+the precise number of those who perished was not known.</p>
+
+<p>When we reflect in what place and to commemorate what event the great
+multitude of Christian pilgrims had thus assembled from all parts of the
+world, the fearful visitation which came upon them appears more dreadful
+than if it had occurred under other circumstances. They had entered the
+sacred walls to celebrate the most joyful event which is recorded in the
+Scriptures. By the resurrection of our Saviour was proved not only his
+triumph over the grave, but the<a name="page_224" id="page_224"></a> truth of the religion which He taught;
+and the anniversary of that event has been kept in all succeeding ages
+as the great festival of the Church. On the morning of this hallowed day
+throughout the Christian world the bells rang merrily, the altars were
+decked with flowers, and all men gave way to feelings of exultation and
+joy; in an hour everything was turned to mourning, lamentation, and woe!</p>
+
+<p>There was a time when Jerusalem was the most prosperous and favoured
+city of the world; then "all her ways were pleasantness, and all her
+paths were peace;" "plenteousness was in her palaces;" and "Jerusalem
+was the joy of the whole earth."</p>
+
+<p>But since the awful crime which was committed there, the Lord has poured
+out the vials of his wrath upon the once chosen city; dire and fearful
+have been the calamities which have befallen her in terrible succession
+for eighteen hundred years. Fury and desolation, hand in hand, have
+stalked round the precincts of the guilty spot; and Jerusalem has been
+given up to the spoiler and the oppressor.</p>
+
+<p>The day following the occurrences which have been related, I had a long
+interview with Ibrahim Pasha, and the conversation turned naturally on
+the blasphemous impositions of the Greek and Armenian patriarchs, who,
+for the purposes of worldly gain, had deluded their ignorant followers
+with the performance of a trick in relighting the candles which had been
+extinguished on<a name="page_225" id="page_225"></a> Good Friday with fire which they affirmed to have been
+sent down from heaven in answer to their prayers. The Pasha was quite
+aware of the evident absurdity which I brought to his notice, of the
+performance of a Christian miracle being put off for some time, and
+being kept in waiting for the convenience of a Mahometan prince. It was
+debated what punishment was to be awarded to the Greek patriarch for the
+misfortunes which had been the consequence of his jugglery, and a number
+of the purses which he had received from the unlucky pilgrims passed
+into the coffers of the Pasha's treasury. I was sorry that the falsity
+of this imposture was not publicly exposed, as it was a good opportunity
+of so doing. It seems wonderful that so barefaced a trick should
+continue to be practised every year in these enlightened times; but it
+has its parallel in the blood of St. Januarius, which is still liquefied
+whenever anything is to be gained by the exhibition of that astonishing
+act of priestly impertinence. If Ibrahim Pasha had been a Christian,
+probably this would have been the last Easter of the lighting of the
+holy fire; but from the fact of his religion being opposed to that of
+the monks, he could not follow the example of Louis XIV., who having put
+a stop to some clumsy imposition which was at that time bringing scandal
+on the Church, a paper was found nailed upon the door of the sacred
+edifice the day afterwards, on which the words were read&mdash;
+<a name="page_226" id="page_226"></a><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"De part du roi, défense à Dieu</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">De faire miracle en ce lieu."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>The interference of a Mahometan in such a case as this would only have
+been held as another persecution of the Christians; and the miracle of
+the holy fire has continued to be exhibited every year with great
+applause, and luckily without the unfortunate results which accompanied
+it on this occasion.</p>
+
+<p>Ibrahim Pasha, though by no means the equal of Mehemet Ali in talents or
+attainments, was an enlightened man for a Turk. Though bold in battle,
+he was kind to those who were about him; and the cruelties practised by
+his troops in the Greek and Syrian wars are to be ascribed more to the
+system of Eastern warfare than to the savage disposition of their
+commander.</p>
+
+<p>He was born at Cavalla, in Roumelia, in the year 1789, and died at
+Alexandria on the 10th of November, 1848. He was the son, according to
+some, of Mehemet Ali, but, according to others, of the wife of the great
+Viceroy of Egypt by a former husband. At the age of seventeen he joined
+his father's army, and in 1816 he commanded the expedition against the
+Wahabees&mdash;a sect who maintained that nothing but the Koran was to be
+held in any estimation by Mahometans, to the exclusion of all notes,
+explanations, and commentaries, which have in many cases usurped the
+authority of the text. They called themselves reformers, and, like<a name="page_227" id="page_227"></a> King
+Henry VIII., took possession of the golden water-spouts and other
+ornaments of the Kaaba, burned the books and destroyed the colleges of
+the Arabian theologians, and carried off everything they could lay hold
+of, on religious principles. An eye-witness told me that some of the
+followers of Abd el Wahab had found a good-sized looking-glass in a
+house at Sanaa, which they were carrying away with great difficulty
+through the desert, the porters being guarded by a multitude of
+half-naked warriors, who had neglected all other plunder in the
+supposition that they had got hold of the diamond of Jemshid, a
+pre-Adamite monarch famous in the annals of Arabian history. Some more
+of these wild people found several bags of doubloons at Mocha, which
+they conceived to be dollars that had been spoiled somehow, and had
+turned yellow, for they had never seen any before. A "smart" captain of
+an American vessel at Jedda, who was consulted on the occasion, kindly
+gave them one real white dollar for four yellow ones&mdash;an arrangement
+which perfectly satisfied both parties. After three years' campaign,
+Ibrahim Pasha retook the holy cities of Mecca and Medina; and in
+December, 1819, he made his triumphant entry into Cairo, when he was
+invested with the title of Vizir and made Pasha of the Hedjaz by the
+Sultan&mdash;a dignity more exalted than that of the Pasha of Egypt.</p>
+
+<p>In 1824 he commanded the armies of the Sultan,<a name="page_228" id="page_228"></a> which were sent to put
+down the rebellion of the Greeks: he sailed from Alexandria with a fleet
+of 163 vessels, 16,000 infantry, 700 cavalry, and four regiments of
+artillery. Numerous captives were made in the Morea, and the
+slave-markets were stocked with Greek women and children who had been
+captured by the soldiers of the Turkish army. The battle of Navarino, in
+1827, ended in the destruction of the Mahometan fleets; and thousands of
+slaves, who were forced to fight against their intended deliverers,
+being chained to their guns, sunk with the ships which were destroyed by
+the cannon of the allied forces of England, France, and Russia.</p>
+
+<p>In 1831 Mehemet Ali undertook to wrest Syria from the Sultan his master.
+Ibrahim Pasha commanded his army of about 30,000 men, under the tuition,
+however, of a Frenchman, Colonel Sève, who had denied the Christian
+faith on Christmas-day, and was afterwards known as Suleiman Pasha. The
+Egyptian troops soon became masters of the Holy Land; Gaza, Jaffa,
+Jerusalem, and Acre fell before their victorious arms; and on the 22nd
+of December, 1832, Ibrahim Pasha, with an army of 30,000 men, defeated
+60,000 Turks at Koniah, who had been sent against him by Sultan Mahmoud,
+under the command of Reschid Pasha.</p>
+
+<p>Ibrahim had advanced as far as Kutayeh, on his way to Constantinople,
+when his march was stopped by<a name="page_229" id="page_229"></a> the interference of European diplomacy.
+The Sultan, having made another effort to recover his dominions in
+Syria, sent an army against Ibrahim, which was utterly routed at the
+battle of Negib, on the 24th of June, 1839.</p>
+
+<p>This defeat was principally owing to the Seraskier (the Turkish general)
+refusing to follow the counsels of Jochmus Pasha, a German officer, who,
+in distinguished contrast to the unhappy Suleiman, retained the religion
+of his fathers and the esteem of honest men.</p>
+
+<p>His career was again checked by European policy, which, if it had any
+right to interfere at all, would have benefited the cause of humanity
+more by doing so before Egypt was drained of nearly all its able-bodied
+men, and Syria given up to the horrors of a long and cruel war.</p>
+
+<p>The great powers of England, Austria, Russia, and Prussia now combined
+to restore the wasted provinces of Syria to the Porte; a fleet menaced
+the shores of the Holy Land; Acre was attacked, and taken in four hours
+by the accidental explosion of a powder-magazine, which almost destroyed
+what remained from former sieges of the habitable portion of the town.
+Ibrahim Pasha evacuated Syria, and retired to Egypt, where he amused
+himself with agriculture, and planting trees, always his favourite
+pursuit: the trees which he had planted near Cairo have already reduced
+the temperature in their vicinity several degrees.<a name="page_230" id="page_230"></a></p>
+
+<p>In 1846 he went to Europe for the benefit of his health, and extended
+his tour to England, where he was much struck with the industry that
+pervaded all classes, and its superiority in railways and works of
+utility to the other countries of Europe. "Yes," said he to me at
+Mivart's Hotel; "in France there is more fantasia; in England there is
+more roast beef." I observed that he was surprised at the wealth
+displayed at one or two parties in some great houses in London at which
+he was present. Whether he had lost his memory in any degree at that
+time, I do not know; but on my recalling to him the great danger he had
+been in at Jerusalem, of which he entertained a very lively
+recollection, he could not remember the name of the Bey who was killed
+there, although he was the only person of any rank in his suite, with
+the exception of Selim Bey Selicdar, his swordbearer, with whom I
+afterwards became acquainted in Egypt.</p>
+
+<p>In consequence of the infirmities of Mehemet Ali, whose great mind had
+become unsettled in his old age, Ibrahim was promoted by the present
+Sultan to the Vice-royalty of Egypt, on the 1st of September, 1848. His
+constitution, which had long been undermined by hardship, excess, and
+want of care, gave way at length, and on the 10th of November of the
+same year his body was carried to the tomb which his father had prepared
+for his family near Cairo, little thinking at the time that he should
+live to survive his<a name="page_231" id="page_231"></a> sons Toussoun, Ismail, and Ibrahim, who have all
+descended before him to their last abode.</p>
+
+<p>In personal appearance Ibrahim Pasha was a short, broad-shouldered man,
+with a red face, small eyes, and a heavy though cunning expression of
+countenance. He was as brave as a lion; his habits and ideas were rough
+and coarse; he had but little refinement in his composition; but,
+although I have often seen him abused for his cruelty in European
+newspapers, I never heard any well-authenticated anecdote of his
+cruelty, and do not believe that he was by any means of a savage
+disposition, nor that his troops rivalled in any way the horrors
+committed in Algeria by the civilized and fraternising French. He was a
+bold, determined soldier. He had that reverence and respect for his
+father which is so much to be admired in the patriarchal customs of the
+East; and it is not every one who has lived for years in the enjoyment
+of absolute power uncontrolled by the admonitions of a Christian's
+conscience that could get out of the scrape so well, or leave a better
+name upon the page of history than that of Ibrahim Pasha.</p>
+
+<p>After the fearful catastrophe in the church of the Holy Sepulchre, the
+whole host of pilgrims seem to have become panic struck, and every one
+was anxious to escape from the city. There was a report, too, that the
+plague had broken out, and we with the rest made instant preparation for
+our departure. In<a name="page_232" id="page_232"></a> consequence of the numbers who had perished, there
+was no difficulty in hiring baggage-horses; and we immediately procured
+as many as we wanted: tents were loaded on some; beds and packages of
+all sorts and sizes were tied on others, with but slight regard to
+balance and compactness; and on the afternoon of the 6th of May we
+rejoiced to find ourselves once more out of the walls of Jerusalem, and
+riding at our leisure along the pleasant fields fresh with the flowers
+of spring, a season charming in all countries, but especially delightful
+in the sultry climate of the Holy Land.<a name="page_233" id="page_233"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 428px;">
+<a href="images/ill_260.jpg">
+<img src="images/ill_260_thumb.jpg" width="428" height="550" alt="VIEW OF THE MONASTERY OF SAINT BARLAAM, AT METEORA" title="VIEW OF THE MONASTERY OF SAINT BARLAAM, AT METEORA" /></a>
+<span class="caption">VIEW OF THE MONASTERY OF SAINT BARLAAM, AT METEORA</span>
+</div>
+
+<h3>MONASTERIES OF THE LEVANT.</h3>
+
+<h3 class="top5"><a name="PART_III" id="PART_III"></a>PART III.</h3>
+
+<p class="wig">\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/</p>
+
+<h3 class="top5"><a name="THE_MONASTERIES_OF_METEORA" id="THE_MONASTERIES_OF_METEORA"></a>THE MONASTERIES OF METEORA.</h3>
+
+<p><a name="page_235" id="page_235"></a></p>
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h3>
+
+<p class="chapter">Albania&mdash;Ignorance at Corfu concerning that Country&mdash;Its reported
+abundance of Game and Robbers&mdash;The Disturbed State of the
+Country&mdash;The Albanians&mdash;Richness of their Arms&mdash;Their free use of
+them&mdash;Comparative Safety of Foreigners&mdash;Tragic Fate of a German
+Botanist&mdash;Arrival at Gominitza&mdash;Ride to Paramathia&mdash;A Night's
+Bivouac&mdash;Reception at Paramathia&mdash;Albanian Ladies&mdash;Yanina&mdash;Albanian
+Mode of settling a Quarrel&mdash;Expected Attack from Robbers&mdash;A
+Body-Guard mounted&mdash;Audience with the Vizir&mdash;His Views of Criminal
+Jurisprudence&mdash;Retinue of the Vizir&mdash;His Troops&mdash;Adoption of the
+European Exercises&mdash;Expedition to Berat&mdash;Calmness and
+Self-possession of the Turks&mdash;Active Preparations for
+Warfare&mdash;Scene at the Bazaar&mdash;Valiant Promises of the Soldiers.</p>
+
+<p><i>Corfu, Friday, Oct. 31, 1834.</i>&mdash;I found I could get no information
+respecting Albania at Corfu, though the high mountains of Epirus seemed
+almost to over-hang the island. No one knew anything about it, except
+that it was a famous place for snipes! It appeared never to have struck
+traveller or tourist that there was anything in Albania except snipes;
+whereof one had shot fifteen brace, and another had shot many more, only
+he did not bring them home, having lost the dead birds in the bushes.
+There were<a name="page_236" id="page_236"></a> some woodcocks also, it was generally believed, and some
+spake of wild boars, but I had not the advantage of meeting with anybody
+who could specifically assert that he had shot one: and besides these
+there were robbers in multitudes. As to that point every one was agreed.
+Of robbers there was no end: and just at this particular time there was
+a revolution, or rebellion, or pronunciamiento, or a general election,
+or something of that sort, going on in Albania; for all the people who
+came over from thence said that the whole country was in a ferment. In
+fact there seemed to be a general uproar taking place, during which each
+party of the free and independent mountaineers deemed it expedient to
+show their steady adherence to their own side of the question by
+shooting at any one they saw, from behind a stone or a tree, for fear
+that person might accidentally be a partizan of the opposite faction.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 368px;">
+<a href="images/ill_264.jpg">
+<img src="images/ill_264_thumb.jpg" width="368" height="550" alt="TATAR, OR GOVERNMENT MESSENGER" title="TATAR, OR GOVERNMENT MESSENGER" /></a>
+<span class="caption">TATAR, OR GOVERNMENT MESSENGER</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The Albanians are great dandies about their arms: the scabbard of their
+yataghan, and the stocks of their pistols, are almost always of silver,
+as well as their three or four little cartridge boxes, which are
+frequently gilt, and sometimes set with garnets and coral; an Albanian
+is therefore worth shooting, even if he is not of another way of
+thinking from the gentleman who shoots him. As I understood, however,
+that they did not shoot so much at Franks because they usually have
+little about them worth taking, and are not good to eat, I conceived
+that I should not run any great risk;<a name="page_237" id="page_237"></a> and I resolved, therefore,
+not to be thwarted in my intention of exploring some of the monasteries
+of that country. There is another reason also why Franks are seldom
+molested in the East&mdash;every Arab or Albanian knows that if a Frank has a
+gun in his hand, which he generally has, there are two probabilities,
+amounting almost to certainties, with respect to that weapon. One is,
+that it is loaded; and the other that, if the trigger is pulled, there
+is a considerable chance of its going off. Now these are circumstances
+which apply in a much slighter degree to the magazine of small arms
+which he carries about his own person. But, beyond all this, when a
+Frank is shot there is such a disturbance made about it! Consuls write
+letters&mdash;pashas are stirred up&mdash;guards, kawasses, and tatars gallop like
+mad about the country, and fire pistols in the air, and live at free
+quarters in the villages; the murderer is sought for everywhere, and he,
+or somebody else, is hanged to please the consul; in addition to which
+the population are beaten with thick sticks ad libitum. All this is
+extremely disagreeable, and therefore we are seldom shot at, the pastime
+being too dearly paid for.</p>
+
+<p>The last Frank whom I heard of as having been killed in Albania was a
+German, who was studying botany. He rejoiced in a blue coat and brass
+buttons, and wandered about alone, picking up herbs and flowers on the
+mountains, which he put carefully into a tin box. He continued
+unmolested for some time, the<a name="page_238" id="page_238"></a> universal opinion being that he was a
+powerful magician, and that the herbs he was always gathering would
+enable him to wither up his enemies by some dreadful charm, and also to
+detect every danger which menaced him. Two or three Albanians had
+watched him for several days, hiding themselves carefully behind the
+rocks whenever the philosopher turned towards them; and at last one of
+the gang, commending himself to all his saints, rested his long gun upon
+a stone and shot the German through the body. The poor man rolled over,
+but the Albanian did not venture from his hiding-place until he had
+loaded his gun again, and then, after sundry precautions, he came out,
+keeping his eye upon the body, and with his friends behind him, to
+defend him in case of need. The botanizer, however, was dead enough, and
+the disappointment of the Albanians was extreme, when they found that
+his buttons were brass and not gold, for it was the supposed value of
+these precious ornaments that had incited them to the deed.</p>
+
+<p>I procured some letters of introduction to different persons, sent my
+English servant and most of my effects to England, and hired a youth to
+act in the double capacity of servant and interpreter during the
+journey. One of my friends at Corfu was good enough to procure me the
+use of a great boat, with I do not know how many oars, belonging to
+government; and in it I was rowed over the calm bright sea twenty-four<a name="page_239" id="page_239"></a>
+miles to Gominitza, where I arrived in five hours. Here I hired three
+horses with pack-saddles, one for my baggage, one for my servant, and
+one for myself; and away we went towards Paramathia, which place we were
+told was four hours off. Paramathia is said to be built upon the site of
+Dodona, although the exact situation of the oracle is not ascertained;
+but some of the finest bronzes extant were found there thirty or forty
+years ago, part of which went to Russia, and part came into the
+possession of Mr. Hawkins, of Bignor, in Sussex, where they are still
+preserved.</p>
+
+<p>Our horses were not very good, and our roads were worse; and we
+scrambled and stumbled over the rocks, up and down hill, all the
+afternoon, without approaching, as it seemed to me, towards any
+inhabited place. It was now becoming dark, and the muleteers said we had
+six hours more to do; it was then seven o'clock, P.M.; we could see
+nothing, and were upon the top of a hill, where there were plenty of
+stones and some low bushes, through which we were making our way
+vaguely, suiting ourselves as to a path, and turning our faces towards
+any point of the compass which we thought most agreeable, for it did not
+appear that any of the party knew the way. We now held a council as to
+what was best to be done; and as we saw lights in some houses about a
+mile off, I desired one of the muleteers to go there and see if we could
+get a<a name="page_240" id="page_240"></a> lodging for the night. "Go to a house?" said the muleteer, "you
+don't suppose we could be such fools as to go to a house in Albania,
+where we know nobody?" "No!" said I, "why not?" "Because we should be
+murdered, of course," said he; "that is if they thought themselves
+strong enough to venture to undo their doors and let us in; otherwise
+they would pretend there was nobody in the house, or fire at us out of
+the window and set the dogs at us; or&mdash;&mdash;" "Oh!" I replied, "that is
+quite sufficient; I have no desire to trouble your excellent countrymen,
+only I don't precisely see what else we are to do just now on the top of
+this hill. How are they off for wolves in this neighbourhood?" "Why,"
+quoth my friend, "I hope you understand that if anything happens to my
+horses you are bound to reimburse me: as for ourselves, we are armed,
+and must take our chance; but I don't think there are many wolves here
+yet; they don't come down from the mountains quite so soon: though
+certainly it is getting cold already. But we had better sleep here at
+all events, and at dawn we shall be able, perhaps, to make out a little
+better where we have got to." There being nothing else for it, we tied
+the horses' legs together, and I lay down on a travelling carpet by the
+side of my servant, under the cover of a bush. Awfully cold it was: the
+horses trembled and shook themselves every now and then, and held their
+heads down, and I tried all sorts of postures in hopes of<a name="page_241" id="page_241"></a> making myself
+snug, but every change was from bad to worse; I could not get warm any
+how, and a remarkable fact was, that the more sharp stones I picked out
+from under the carpet the more numerous and sharper were those that
+remained: my only comfort was to hear the muleteers rolling about too,
+and anathematizing the stones most lustily. However, I went to sleep in
+course of time, and was, as it appeared to me, instantaneously awakened
+by some one shaking me, and telling me it was four o'clock and time to
+start. It was still as dark as ever, except that a few stars were
+visible, and we recommenced our journey, stumbling and scrambling about
+as we had done before, till we came to a place where the horses stopped
+of their own accord. This it seemed was a ledge of rock above a
+precipice, about two hundred feet deep, as I judged by the reflection of
+the stars in the stream which ran below. The dimness of the light made
+the place look more dangerous and difficult than perhaps it really was.
+It seems, however, that we were lucky in finding it, for there was no
+other way off the hill except by this ledge, which was about twelve feet
+broad. We got off our horses and led them down; they had probably often
+been there before, for they made no difficulty about it, and in a few
+hundred yards, the road becoming better, we mounted again, and after
+five hours' travelling arrived at Paramathia. Just before entering the
+place we met a party on foot, armed to the teeth, and<a name="page_242" id="page_242"></a> all carrying
+their long guns. One of these gentlemen politely asked me if I had a
+spare purse about me, or any money which I could turn over to his
+account; but as I looked very dirty and shabby, and as we were close to
+the town, he did not press his demand, but only asked by which road I
+intended to leave it. I told him I should remain there for the present,
+and as we had now reached the houses, he took his departure, to my great
+satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>On inquiring for the person to whom I had a letter of introduction, I
+found he was a shopkeeper who sold cloth in the bazaar. We accordingly
+went to his shop and found him sitting among his merchandise. When he
+had read the letter he was very civil, and shutting up his shop, walked
+on before us to show me the way to his house. It was a very good one,
+and the best room was immediately given up to me, two old ladies and
+three or four young ones being turned out in a most summary manner. One
+or two of the girls were very pretty, and they all vied with each other
+in their attentions to their guest, looking at me with great curiosity,
+and perpetually peeping at me through the curtain which hung over the
+door, and running away when they thought they were observed.</p>
+
+<p>The prettiest of these damsels had only been married a short time: who
+her husband was, or where he lived, I could not make out, but she amused
+me by her anxiety to display her smart new clothes. She<a name="page_243" id="page_243"></a> went and put on
+a new capote, a sort of white frock coat, without sleeves, embroidered
+in bright colours down the seams, which showed her figure to advantage;
+and then she took it off again, and put on another garment, giving me
+ample opportunity of admiring its effect. I expressed my surprise and
+admiration in bad Greek, which, however, the fair Albanian appeared to
+find no difficulty in understanding. She kindly corrected some of my
+sentences, and I have no doubt I should have improved rapidly under her
+care, if she had not always run away whenever she heard any one creaking
+about on the rickety boards of the ante-room and staircase. The other
+ladies, who were settling themselves in a large gaunt room close by,
+kept up an interminable clatter, and displayed such unbounded powers of
+conversation, that it seemed impossible that any one of them could hear
+what all the others said; till at last the master of the house came up
+again, and then there was a lull. He told me that I could not hire
+horses till the afternoon, and as that would have been too late to
+start, I determined to remain where I was till the next morning. I
+passed the day in wandering about the place, and considering whether,
+upon the whole, the dogs or the men of Paramathia were the most savage:
+for the dogs looked like wolves, and the men like arrant cut-throats,
+swaggering about, idle and restless, with their long hair, and guns, and
+pistols, and yataghans; they have none of<a name="page_244" id="page_244"></a> the composure of the Turks,
+who delight to sit still in a coffee-house and smoke their pipes, or
+listen to a story, which saves them the trouble of thinking or speaking.
+The Albanians did not scream and chatter as the Arabs do, or as their
+ladies were doing in the houses, but they lounged about the bazaars
+listlessly, ready to pick a quarrel with any one, and unable to fix
+themselves down to any occupation; in short they gave me the idea of
+being a very poor and proud, and good-for-nothing set of scamps.</p>
+
+<p><i>November 2nd.</i>&mdash;The next morning at five o'clock I was on horseback
+again, and after riding over stones and rocks, and frequently in the bed
+of a stream, for fourteen hours, I arrived in the evening at Yanina. I
+was disappointed with the first view of the place. The town is built on
+the side of a sloping hill above the lake; and as my route lay over the
+top of this hill, I could see but little of the town until I was quite
+among the houses, most of which were in a ruinous condition. The lake
+itself, with an island in it on which are the ruins of a palace built by
+the famous Ali Pasha, is a beautiful object; but the mountains by which
+it is bounded on the opposite side are barren, yet not sufficiently
+broken to be picturesque. The scene altogether put me in mind of the
+Lake of Genesareth as seen from its western shore near Tiberias. There
+is a plain to the north and north-west, which is partially cultivated,
+but it is inferior in beauty to the<a name="page_245" id="page_245"></a> plains of Jericho, and there is no
+river like the Jordan to light up the scene with its quick and sparkling
+waters as it glistens among the trees in its journey towards the lake.</p>
+
+<p>I went to the house of an Italian gentleman who was the principal
+physician of Yanina, and who I understood was in the habit of affording
+accommodation to travellers in his house. He received me with great
+kindness, and gave me an excellent set of rooms, consisting of a bed
+room, sitting room, and ante-room, all of them much better than those
+which I occupied in the hotel at Corfu: they were clean and nicely
+furnished; and altogether the excellence of my quarters in the
+dilapidated capital of Albania surprised me most agreeably.</p>
+
+<p>The town appears never to have been repaired since the wars and
+revolutions which occurred at the time of Ali Pasha's death. The houses
+resemble those of Greece or southern Italy; they are built, some of
+stone, and some of wood, with tiled roofs. On the walls of many of them
+there were vines growing. The bazaars are poor, yet I saw very rich arms
+displayed in some mean little shops, or stalls, as we should call them;
+for they are all open, like the booths at a fair. The climate is rainy,
+and there is no lack of mud in wet weather, and dust when it is dry. The
+whole place had a miserable appearance, nothing seemed to be going on,
+and the people have a savage, hang-dog look.<a name="page_246" id="page_246"></a></p>
+
+<p>I had a good supper and a good bed, and was awakened the next morning by
+hearing the servants loud in talk about the news of the day. The subject
+was truly Albanian. A man who had a shop in the bazaar had quarrelled
+yesterday with some of his fellow townsmen, and in the night they took
+him out of his bed and cut him to pieces with their yataghans on the
+hill above the town. Some people coming by early this morning saw
+various joints of this unlucky man lying on the ground as they passed.</p>
+
+<p>I occupied myself in looking about the place; and having sent to the
+palace of the vizir to request an audience, it was fixed for the next
+day. There was not much to see; but I afforded a subject of
+uninterrupted discussion to all beholders, as it appeared I was the only
+traveller who had been there for some time. I went to bed early because
+I had no books to read, and it was a bore trying to talk Greek to my
+host's family; but I had not been asleep long before I was awakened by
+the intelligence that a party of robbers had concealed themselves in the
+ruins round the house, and that we should probably be attacked. Up we
+all got, and loaded our guns and pistols: the women kept flying about
+everywhere, and, when they ran against each other in the dark, screamed
+wofully, as they took everybody for a robber. We had no lights, that we
+might not afford good marks for the enemy outside, who, however, kept
+quiet, and did not shoot at us,<a name="page_247" id="page_247"></a> although every now and then we saw a
+man or two creeping about among the ruins. My host, who was armed with a
+gun of prodigious length, was in a state of great alarm; and, having
+sent for assistance, twenty soldiers arrived, who kept guard round the
+house, but would not venture among the ruins. These valiant heroes
+relieved each other during the night; but, as no robbers made their
+appearance, I got tired of watching for them, and went quietly to bed
+again.</p>
+
+<p><i>November 4th.</i>&mdash;At nine o'clock in the morning I paid my respects to
+the Vizir, Mahmoud Pasha, a man with a long nose, and who altogether
+bore a great resemblance to Pope Benedict XV [XVI in the original (n. of
+etext transcriber). I stayed some hours with
+him, talking over Turkish matters; and we got into a brisk argument as
+to whether England was part of London, or London part of England. He
+appeared to be a remarkably good-natured man, and took great interest in
+the affairs of Egypt, from which country I had lately arrived, and asked
+me numberless questions about Mehemet Ali, comparing his character with
+that of Ali Pasha, who had built this palace, which was in a very
+ruinous state, for nothing had been expended to keep it in repair. The
+hall of audience was a magnificent room, richly decorated with inlaid
+work of mother-of-pearl and tortoiseshell: the ceiling was gilt, and the
+windows of Venetian plate-glass, but some of them were broken: the floor
+was loose and almost dangerous; and two holes in the side<a name="page_248" id="page_248"></a> walls, which
+had been made by a cannon-ball, were stopped up with pieces of deal
+board roughly nailed upon the costly inlaid panels. The divan was of red
+cloth; and a crowd of men, with their girdles stuck full of arms, stood
+leaning on their long guns at the bottom of the room, listening to our
+conversation, and laughing loudly whenever a joke was made, but never
+coming forward beyond the edge of the carpet.</p>
+
+<p>The Pasha offered to give me an escort, as he said that the country at
+that moment was particularly unsafe; but at length it was settled that
+he should give me a letter to the commander of the troops at Mezzovo,
+who would supply me with soldiers to see me safely to the monasteries of
+Meteora. When I arose to take my leave, he sent for more pipes and
+coffee, as a signal for me to remain; in short, we became great friends.
+Whilst I was with him a pasha of inferior rank came in, and sat on the
+divan for half an hour without saying a single word or doing anything
+except looking at me unceasingly. After he had taken his departure we
+had some sherbet; and at last I got away, leaving the Pasha in great
+wonderment at the English government paying large sums of money for the
+transportation of criminals, when cutting off their heads would have
+been so much more economical and expeditious. Incurring any expense to
+keep rogues and vagabonds in prison, or to send them away from our own
+country to be the plague of other lands,<a name="page_249" id="page_249"></a> appeared to him to be an
+extraordinary act of folly; and that thieves should be fed and clothed
+and lodged, while poor and honest people were left to starve, he
+considered to be contrary to common sense and justice. I laughed at the
+time at what I thought the curious opinions of the Vizir of Yanina; I
+have since come to the conclusion that there was some sense in his
+notions of criminal jurisprudence.</p>
+
+<p>In the afternoon, as I was looking out of the window of my lodging, I
+saw the Vizir going by with a great number of armed people, and I was
+told that in the present disturbed state of the country he never went
+out to take a ride without all these attendants. First came a hundred
+lancers on horseback, dressed in a kind of European uniform; then two
+horsemen, each with a pair of small kettle-drums attached to the front
+of his saddle. They kept up an unceasing pattering upon these drums as
+they rode along. This is a Tartar or Persian custom; and in some parts
+of Tartary the dignity of khan is conferred by strapping these two
+little drums on the back of the person whom the king delighteth to
+honour; and then the king beats the drums as the new khan walks slowly
+round the court. Thus a thing is reckoned a great honour in one part of
+the world which in another is accounted a disgrace; for when a soldier
+is incorrigible, we drum him out of the regiment, whilst the Tartar khan
+is drummed into his dignity. After the drummers came a brilliantly<a name="page_250" id="page_250"></a>
+dressed company of kawasses, with silver pistols and yataghans; then
+several trumpeters; and after them the Vizir himself on a fine tall
+horse; he was dressed in the new Turkish Frank style, with the usual red
+cap on his head; but he had an immense red cloth cloak sumptuously
+embroidered with gold, which quite covered him, so that no part of the
+great man was visible, except his two eyes, his nose, and one of his
+hands, upon which was a splendid diamond ring. Two grooms walked by the
+sides of his horse, each with one hand on the back of the saddle. Every
+one bowed as the Vizir went by; and I became a distinguished person from
+the moment that he gave me a condescending nod. The procession was
+closed by a crowd of officers and attendants on horseback in gorgeous
+Albanian dresses, with silver bridles and embroidered housings. They
+carried what I thought at first were spears, but I soon discovered that
+they were long pipes; there was quite a forest of them, of all lengths
+and sizes. When the Vizir was gone and the dust subsided, I strolled out
+of the town on foot, when I came upon the troops, who were learning the
+new European exercise. Seeing a man sitting on a carpet in the middle of
+the plain, I went up to him and found that he was the colonel and
+commander of this army; so I smoked a pipe with him, and discovered that
+he knew about as much of tactics and military man&oelig;uvres as I did, only
+he did not take so much interest in the subject.<a name="page_251" id="page_251"></a> We therefore
+continued to smoke the pipe of peace on the carpet of reflection, while
+the soldiers entangled themselves in all sorts of incomprehensible
+doublings and counter-marches, till at last the whole body was so much
+puzzled, that they stood still all of a heap, like a cluster of bees.
+The captains shouted, and the poor men turned round and round, trod on
+each other's heels, kicked each other's shins, and did all they could to
+get out of the scrape, but they only got more into confusion. At last a
+bright thought struck the colonel, who took his pipe out of his mouth,
+and gave orders, in the name of the Prophet, that every man should go
+home in the best way he could. This they accomplished like a party of
+schoolboys, running and jumping and walking off in small parties towards
+the town. The officers wiped the perspiration from their foreheads, and
+strolled off too, some to smoke a pipe under a tree, and some to repose
+on their divans and swear at the Franks who had invented such
+extraordinary evolutions.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 423px;">
+<a href="images/ill_279.jpg">
+<img src="images/ill_279_thumb.jpg" width="423" height="550" alt="TURKISH COMMON SOLDIER." title="TURKISH COMMON SOLDIER." /></a>
+<span class="caption">TURKISH COMMON SOLDIER.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>In the evening, among the other news of the day, I was told that three
+men had been walking together in the afternoon; one of them bought a
+melon, and his two companions, who were very thirsty, but had no money,
+asked him to give them some of it. He would not do so; and, as they
+worried him about it, he ran into an empty house, and, bolting the door,
+sat down inside to discuss his purchase in quiet. The other two<a name="page_252" id="page_252"></a> were
+determined not to be jockeyed in that manner, and, finding a hole in the
+door, they peeped through, and were enraged at seeing him eating the
+melon inside. He jeered them, and said that the melon was excellent;
+until at last one of them swore he should not eat it all, and, putting
+his pistol through the hole in the door, shot his friend dead; they then
+walked away, laughing at their own cleverness in shooting him so neatly
+through the hole.</p>
+
+<p><i>November 5th.</i>&mdash;The next day I went again to the citadel to see the
+Vizir, but he could not receive me, as news had arrived that the
+insurgents or robbers&mdash;they had entitled themselves to either
+denomination&mdash;had gathered together in force and laid siege to the town
+of Berat. There had been a good deal of confusion in Yanina before this,
+but now it appeared to have arrived at a climax. The courtyard of the
+citadel was full of horses picketed by their head-and-heel ropes, in
+long rows; parties of men were, according to their different habits,
+talking over the events of the day,&mdash;the Albanians chattering and
+putting themselves in attitudes; the Arnaouts or Mahometans of Greek
+blood boasting of the chivalric feats which they intended to perform;
+and the grave Turks sitting quietly on the ground, smoking their eternal
+pipes, and taking it all as easily as if they had nothing to do with it.
+Both before and since these days I have seen a great deal of the Turks;
+and though, for many reasons, I do not<a name="page_253" id="page_253"></a> respect them as a nation, still
+I cannot help admiring their calmness and self-possession in moments of
+difficulty and danger. There is something noble and dignified in their
+quietness on these occasions: I have very rarely seen a Turk
+discomposed; stately and collected, he sits down and bides his time; but
+when the moment of action comes, he will rouse himself on a sudden, and
+become full of fire, animation, and activity. It is then that you see
+the descendant of those conquerors of the East, whose strong will and
+fierce courage have given them the command over all the nations of
+Islam.</p>
+
+<p>Although I could not obtain an audience with the vizir, one of the
+people who were with me managed to send a message to him that I should
+be glad of the letter, or firman, which he had promised me, and by which
+I might command the services of an escort, if I thought fit to do so.
+This man had influence at court; for he had a friend who was chiboukji
+to the vizir's secretary, or prime minister&mdash;a sly Greek, whose
+acquaintance I had made two days before. The pipe-bearer, propitiated by
+a trifling bribe, spoke to his master, and he spoke to the vizir, who
+promised I should have the letter; and it came accordingly in the
+evening, properly signed and sealed, and all in heathen Greek, of which
+I could make out a word here and there; but what it was about was
+entirely beyond my comprehension.<a name="page_254" id="page_254"></a></p>
+
+<p>Whilst waiting the result of these negotiations I had leisure to notice
+the warlike movements which were going on around me. I saw a train of
+two or three hundred men on horseback issuing out from the citadel, and
+riding slowly along the plain in the direction of Berat. They were sent
+to raise the siege; and other troops were preparing to follow them. As I
+watched these horsemen winding across the plain in a long line, with the
+sun glancing upon their arms, they seemed like a great serpent, with its
+glittering scales, gliding along to seek for its prey; and in some
+respects the simile would hold good, for this detachment would be the
+terror of the inhabitants of every district through which it passed.
+Rapine, violence, and oppression would mark its course; friend and foe
+would alike be plundered; and the villages which had not been burned by
+the insurgent klephti would be sacked and ruined by the soldiers of the
+government.</p>
+
+<p>As I descended from the citadel I passed numerous parties of armed men,
+all full of excitement about the plunder they would get, and the mighty
+deeds they would perform; for the danger was a good way off, and they
+were all brim-full of valour. In the bazaar all was business and bustle:
+everybody was buying arms. Long guns and silver pistols, all ready
+loaded, I believe, with fiery-looking flints as big as sandwiches,
+wrapped up first in a bit of red cloth, and then in a sort of open work
+of lead or tin, were being handed<a name="page_255" id="page_255"></a> about; and the spirit of commerce was
+in full activity. Great was the haggling among the dealers. One man
+walked off with a mace; another, expecting to perform as mighty deeds as
+Richard C&#339;ur de Lion, bought an old battle-axe, and swung it about to
+show how he would cut heads off with it before long. Another champion
+had included among his warlike accoutrements a curious, ancient-looking
+silver clock, which dangled by his side from a multitude of chains. It
+was square in shape, and must have been provided with a strong
+constitution inside if it could go while it was banged about at every
+step the man took. This worthy, I imagine, intended to kill time, for
+his purchase did not seem calculated to cope with any other enemy. He
+had, however, two or three pistols and daggers in addition to his clock.
+An oldish, hard-featured man was buying a quantity of that abominably
+sour, white cheese which is the pride of Albania, and a quantity of
+black olives, which he was cramming into a pair of old saddle-bags,
+whilst his horse beside him was quietly munching his corn in a sack tied
+over his nose. There was a look of calm efficiency about this man, which
+contrasted strongly with the swaggering air of the crowd around him. He
+was evidently an old hand; and I observed that he had laid in a stock of
+ball-cartridges&mdash;an article in which but little money was spent by the
+buyers of yataghans in silver sheaths and silver cartridge-boxes.<a name="page_256" id="page_256"></a></p>
+
+<p>"Hallo! sir Frank," cried one or two of these gay warriors, "come out
+with us to Berat: come and see us fight, and you will see something
+worth travelling for."</p>
+
+<p>"Ay," said I, "it's all up with the enemy: that's quite certain. They
+will be in a pretty scrape, to be sure, when you arrive. I would not be
+one of them for a good deal!"</p>
+
+<p>"Sono molto feroce questi palicari," said my guide.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! yes, they are terrible fellows!" I replied.</p>
+
+<p>"What does the Frank say?" they asked.</p>
+
+<p>"He says you are terrible fellows."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! I think we are, indeed. But don't be afraid, Frank; don't be
+afraid!"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said I, "I won't; and I wish you good luck on your way to Berat
+and back again."</p>
+
+<p>This night the people had been so much occupied in purchasing the
+implements of death that I heard no accounts of any new murders. In fact
+it had been a dull day in that respect; but no doubt they would make up
+for it before long.<a name="page_257" id="page_257"></a></p>
+
+<hr class="chpt" />
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.</h3>
+
+<p class="chapter">Start for Meteora&mdash;Rencontre with a Wounded Traveller&mdash;Barbarity of
+the Robbers&mdash;Albanian Innkeeper&mdash;Effect of the Turkish Language
+upon the Greeks&mdash;Mezzovo&mdash;Interview with the chief Person in the
+Village&mdash;Mount Pindus&mdash;Capture by Robbers&mdash;Salutary effects of
+Swaggering&mdash;Arrival under Escort at the Robbers'
+Head-Quarters&mdash;Affairs take a favourable turn&mdash;An unexpected
+Friendship with the Robber Chief&mdash;The Khan of Malacash&mdash;Beauty of
+the Scenery&mdash;Activity of our Guards&mdash;Loss of Character&mdash;Arrival at
+Meteora.</p>
+
+<p><i>November 6th.</i>&mdash;I had engaged a tall, thin, dismal-looking man, well
+provided with pistols, knives, and daggers, as an additional servant,
+for he was said to know all the passes of the mountains, which I thought
+might be a useful accomplishment in case I had to avoid the more public
+roads&mdash;or paths, rather&mdash;for roads there were none. I purchased a stock
+of provisions, and hired five horses&mdash;three for myself and my men, one
+for the muleteer, and the other for the baggage, which was well strapped
+on, that the beast might gallop with it, as it was not very heavy. They
+were pretty good horses&mdash;rough and hardy. Mine looked very hard at me
+out of the corner of his eye when I got upon his back in the cold grey
+dawn, as if to find out what sort of a person I was. By means of a stout
+kourbatch&mdash;a sort of whip of rhinoceros hide which they<a name="page_258" id="page_258"></a> use in Egypt&mdash;I
+immediately gave him all the information he desired; and off we galloped
+round the back part of the town, and, unquestioned by any one, we soon
+found ourselves trotting along the plain by the south end of the lake of
+Yanina. Here the waters from the lake disappear in an extraordinary
+manner in a great cavern, or pit full of rocks and stones, through which
+the water runs away into some subterranean channel&mdash;a dark and
+mysterious river, which the dismal-looking man, my new attendant, said
+came out into the light again somewhere in the Gulph of Arta. Before
+long we got upon the remains of a fine paved road, like a Roman way,
+which had been made by Ali Pasha. It was, however, out of repair, having
+in places been swept away by the torrents, and was an impediment rather
+than an assistance to travellers. This road led up to the hills; and,
+having dismounted from my horse, I began scrambling and puffing up the
+steep side of the mountain, stopping every now and then to regain my
+breath and to admire the beautiful view of the calm lake and picturesque
+town of Yanina.</p>
+
+<p>As I was walking in advance of my company, I saw a man above me leading
+a loaded mule. He was coming down the mountain, carefully picking his
+way among the stones, and in a loud voice exhorting the mule to be
+steady and keep its feet, although the mule was much the more
+sure-footed of the two. As they passed me<a name="page_259" id="page_259"></a> I was struck with the odd
+appearance of the mule's burden: it consisted of a bundle of large
+stones on one side, which served as a counterpoise to a packing-case on
+the other, covered with a cloth, out of which peeped the head of a man,
+with his long black hair hanging about a face as pale as marble. The box
+in which he travelled not being more than four feet and a half long, I
+supposed he must be a dwarf, and was laughing at his peculiar mode of
+conveyance. The muleteer, observing from my dress that I was a Frank,
+stopped his mule, when he came up to me, and asked me if I was a
+physician, begging me to give my assistance to the man in the box, if I
+knew anything of surgery, for he had had both his legs cut off by some
+robbers on the way from Salonica, and he was now taking him to Yanina,
+in hopes of finding some doctor there to heal his wounds. My laughter
+was now turned into pity for the poor man, for I knew there was no help
+for him at Yanina. I could do nothing for him; and the only hope was, as
+his strength had borne him up so far on his journey, that when he got
+rest at Yanina the wounds might heal of themselves. After expressing my
+commiseration for him, and my hopes of his recovery, we parted company;
+and as I stood looking at the mule, staggering and slipping among the
+loose stones and rocks in the steep descent, it quite made me wince to
+think of the pain the unfortunate traveller must be enduring, with the
+raw stumps of his two legs<a name="page_260" id="page_260"></a> rubbing and bumping against the end of his
+short box. I was sorry I had not asked why the robbers had cut off his
+legs, because, if it was their usual system, it was certainly more than
+I bargained for. I had pretty nearly made up my mind to be robbed, but
+had no intention whatever to lose my legs; so I sat down upon a rock,
+and began calculating probabilities, until my party came up, and I
+mounted my horse, who gave me another look with his cunning eye. We
+continued on Ali Pasha's broken road until we reached the summit of the
+mountain, where we made a short halt, that our horses might regain their
+wind; and then began our descent, stumbling, and sliding, and scrambling
+down, until we arrived at the bottom, where there was a miserable khan.
+In this royal hotel, which was a mere shed, there was nothing to be
+found except mine host, who had it all to himself. At last he made us
+some coffee; and while our horses were feeding on our own corn, we sat
+under the shade of a walnut-tree by the road-side. Our host, having
+nothing which could be eaten or drank except the coffee, did not know
+how in the world he could manage to get up a satisfactory bill. I saw
+this very plainly in his puzzled and thoughtful looks; but at last a
+bright thought struck him, and he charged a good round sum for the shade
+of the walnut-tree. Now although I admired his ingenuity, I demurred at
+the charge, particularly as the walnut-tree did not belong to him. It
+was a wild tree,<a name="page_261" id="page_261"></a> which everybody threw stones at as he passed by, to
+bring down the nuts:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Nux ego juncta vise quae sum due crimine vitæ,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Attamen a cunctis saxibus usque petor."&mdash;Ovid.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Little did the unoffending walnut-tree think that its shade would be
+brought forward as a cause of war; for then arose a fierce contest
+between Greek oaths and Albanian maledictions, to which Arabic and
+English lent their aid. Though there were no stones thrown, ten times as
+many hard words were hurled backwards and forwards as there were walnuts
+on the tree, showing a facility of expression and a redundance of
+epithets which would have given a lesson to the most practised ladies of
+Billingsgate.</p>
+
+<p>When the horses were ready the khangee came up to me in a towering
+passion, swearing that I should pay for sitting under the tree.
+"Englishman," said he, "get up and pay me what I demand, or you shall
+not leave this place, by all that is holy." "Kiupek oglou," said I,
+without moving from the ground, "Oh, son of a dog! go and get my horse,
+you chattering magpie!" These few words in the language of the conqueror
+had a marvellous effect on the khangee. "What does his worship say?" he
+inquired of the dismal-faced man. "Why, he says you had better go and
+get his excellency's worship's most respectable horse, if you have any
+regard for your life: so go! be off! vanish! don't stay there staring at
+the illustrious<a name="page_262" id="page_262"></a> traveller. 'Tis lucky for you he doesn't order us to
+cut you up into cabobs; go and get the horse; and perhaps you'll be paid
+for your coffee, bad as it was. His excellency is the pasha's, his
+highness's, most particular intimate friend; and if his highness knew
+what you had been saying, why, where would you be, O man?" The khangee,
+who had intended to have had it all his own way, was taken terribly
+aback at the sound of the Turkish tongue: he speedily put on my horse's
+bridle, gave his nosebag to the muleteer, tightened up his girths,
+helped the servants, and was suddenly converted into a humble submissive
+drudge. The way in which anything Turkish is respected among the
+conquered races in Syria or in Egypt can scarcely be imagined by those
+who have not witnessed it.</p>
+
+<p>Leaving the khangee to count his paras and piastres, with which, after
+all, he was evidently well satisfied, we rode on down the valley by the
+side of a brawling stream, which we crossed no less than thirty-nine
+times during our day's journey. Our road lay through a magnificent
+series of picturesque and savage gorges, between high rocks. Sometimes
+we rode along the bed of the stream, and sometimes upon a ledge so far
+above it that it looked like a silver ribbon in the sun. Every now and
+then we came to a cataract or rapid, where the stream boiled and foamed
+among the rocks, tossing up its spray, and drowning our voices in its
+noise. In the course of about eight hours of continual<a name="page_263" id="page_263"></a> scrambling up
+and down all sorts of rocks, we found ourselves at another wretched
+shelty dignified with the name of khan. Here, after a tolerable supper,
+we all rolled ourselves up in the different corners of a sort of loft,
+with our arms under our heads, and slept soundly until the morning.</p>
+
+<p><i>November 7th.</i>&mdash;This day we continued along the banks of a stream, in
+the direction of its source, until it dwindled to a mere rivulet, when
+we left it and took to the hills at the base of another mountain. We
+rode some way along a rocky path until, turning round a corner to the
+left, we found ourselves at the town or village of Mezzovo. As Mahmoud
+Pasha had supplied me with a firman and letters to the principal persons
+at the several towns on my route, I looked out my Mezzovo letter, with
+the intention of asking for an escort of a few soldiers to accompany me
+through the passes of Mount Pindus, which were reported to be full of
+robbers and cattiva gente of every sort and kind, the great extent of
+the underwood of box-trees forming an impenetrable cover for those
+minions of the moon.</p>
+
+<p>Most of the population of Mezzovo turned out to see the procession of
+the Milordos Inglesis as it entered the precincts of their ancient city,
+and defiled into the market-place, in the middle of which was a great
+tree, under whose shade sat and smoked a circle of grave and reverend
+seignors, the aristocracy of the<a name="page_264" id="page_264"></a> place; whereupon, holding the pasha's
+letter in my hand, I cantered up to them. On seeing me advance towards
+them, a broad-shouldered good-natured looking man, gorgeously dressed in
+red velvet, embroidered all over with gold, though something tarnished
+with the rain and weather, arose and stepped forward to meet me. "Here
+is a letter," said I, "from his highness Mahmoud Pasha, vizir of Yanina,
+to the chief personage of Mezzovo, whoever he may be, for there is no
+name mentioned; so tell me who is the chief person in this city; where
+is he to be found, for I desire to speak with him?" "You want the chief
+person of Mezzovo?" replied the broad-shouldered man; "well, I think I
+am the chief person here, am I not?" he asked of the assembled crowd
+which had gathered together by this time. "Certainly, malista, oh yes,
+you are the chief person of Mezzovo undoubtedly," they all cried out.
+"Very well," said he, "then give me the letter." On my giving it to him,
+he opened it in a very unceremonious manner; and, before he had half
+read it, burst into a fit of laughing. "What are you laughing at?" said
+I: "Is not that the vizir's letter?" "Oh!" said he, "you want guards, do
+you, to protect you against the robbers, the klephti?" "Yes, I do; but I
+do not see what there is to laugh at in that. I want some men to go with
+me to Meteora; if you are the captain or commander here, give me an
+escort, as I wish to be off at once: it<a name="page_265" id="page_265"></a> is early now, and I can cross
+the mountains before dark."</p>
+
+<p>After a pause, he said, "Well, I am the captain; and you shall have men
+who will protect you wherever you go. You are an Englishman, are you
+not?" "Yes," I said, "I am." "Well, I like the English; and you
+particularly." "Thank you," said I: and, after some more conversation,
+he tore off a slip from the vizir's letter (a very unceremonious
+proceeding in Albania), and, writing a few lines on it, he said, "Now
+give this paper to the first soldiers you meet at the foot of Mount
+Pindus, and all will be right." He then instructed the muleteer which
+way to go. I took the paper, which was not folded up; but the
+badly-written Romaic was unintelligible to me, so I put it into my
+pocket, and away we went, my new friend waving his hand to us as we
+passed out of the market-place; and we were soon trotting along through
+the open country towards the hills which shoot out from the base of the
+great chain of Mount Pindus, a mountain famous for having had Mount Ossa
+put on the top of it by some of the giants when they were fighting
+against Jupiter. As that respected deity got the better of the giants, I
+presume he put Ossa back again; for which I felt very much obliged to
+him, as Pindus seemed quite high enough and steep enough without any
+addition.</p>
+
+<p>We rode along, getting nearer and nearer to the<a name="page_266" id="page_266"></a> mountains; and at
+length we began to climb a steep rocky path on the side of a lofty hill
+covered with box-trees. This path continued for some distance until we
+came to a place where there was a ledge so narrow that two horses could
+not go abreast. Here, as I was riding quietly along, I heard an
+exclamation in front of "Robbers! robbers!" and sure enough, out of one
+of the thickets of box-trees, there advanced three or four bright
+gun-barrels, which were speedily followed by some gentlemen in dirty
+white jackets and fustanellas; who, in a short and abrupt style of
+eloquence, commanded us to stand. This of course we were obliged to do;
+and as I was getting out my pistol, one of the individuals in white
+presented his gun at me, and upon my looking round to see whether my
+tall Albanian servant was preparing to support me, I saw him quietly
+half-cock his gun and sling it back over his shoulder, at the name time
+shaking his head as much as to say, "It is no use resisting; we are
+caught; there are too many of them." So I bolted the locks of the four
+barrels of my pistol carefully, hoping that the bolts would form an
+impediment to my being shot with my own weapon after I had been robbed
+of it. The place was so narrow that there were no hopes of running away,
+and there we sat on horseback, looking silly enough, I dare say. There
+was a good deal of talking and chattering among the robbers, and they
+asked the Albanian various questions to which I paid no attention, all
+my faculties being<a name="page_267" id="page_267"></a> engrossed in watching the proceedings of the party
+in front, who were examining the effects in the panniers of the baggage
+mule. First they pulled out my bag of clothes, and threw it upon the
+ground; then out came the sugar and the coffee, and whatever else these
+was. Some of the men had hold of the poor muleteer, and a loud argument
+was going on between him and his captors. I did not like all this, but
+my rage was excited to a violent pitch when I saw one man appropriating
+to his own use the half of a certain fat tender cold fowl, whereof I had
+eaten the other half with much appetite and satisfaction. "Let that fowl
+alone, you scoundrel!" said I in good English; "put it down, will you?
+if you don't, I'll&mdash;&mdash;!" The man, surprised at this address in an
+unknown tongue, put down the fowl, and looked up with wonder at the
+explosion of ire which his actions had called forth. "That is right,"
+said I, "my good fellow, it is too good for such a dirty brute as you."
+"Let us see," said I to the Albanian, "if there is nothing to be done;
+say I am the King of England's uncle, or grandson, or particular friend,
+and that if we are hurt or robbed he will send all manner of ships and
+armies, and hang everybody, and cut off the heads of all the rest. Talk
+big, O man! and don't spare great words; they cost nothing, and let us
+see what that will do."</p>
+
+<p>Upon this the Albanian took up his parable and a long parleying ensued,
+for the robbers were taken<a name="page_268" id="page_268"></a> aback with the good English in which I had
+addressed them, and stood still with open mouths to hear what it all
+meant. In the middle of this row I thought of the paper which had been
+given me at Mezzovo. "Here," said I, "here is a letter; read it, see
+what it says." They took the paper and turned it round and round, for
+they could not read it: first one looked at it and then another; then
+they looked at the back, but they could make nothing of it. Nevertheless,
+it produced a great effect upon them, for here, as in all other
+countries of the East, any writing is looked upon by the uneducated
+people as a mystery, and is held in high respect; and at last they said
+they would take us to a place where we should find a person capable of
+reading it. The thing which most provoked me was that the fellows seemed
+not to have the slightest fear of us; they did not even take the trouble
+to demand our arms: my much cherished "patent four-barrelled travelling
+pistol" they evidently considered too small to be dangerous; and I felt
+it as a kind of personal insult that they deputed only two of their
+number to convoy us to the residence of the learned person who was to
+read the letter. They managed matters, however, in a scientific way: the
+bridles of our horses were turned over their heads and tied each to the
+horse that went before; one of our captors walked in front and the other
+behind; but just when I thought an opportunity had arrived to<a name="page_269" id="page_269"></a> shake off
+this yoke, I perceived that the whole pass was guarded, and wherever the
+road was a little wider or turned a corner round a rock or a clump of
+trees, there were other long guns peeping out from among the bushes,
+with the bearers of which our two conquerors exchanged pass-words. Thus
+we marched along, the robber who went first apparently caring nothing
+about us, but the one in the rear having his gun cocked and ready to
+shoot any one of us who should turn restive. The road, which ascended
+rapidly, was rather too dangerous to be agreeable, being a narrow path
+cut on the side of a very steep mountain; at one time the track lay
+across a steep slope of blue marl, which afforded the most insecure
+footing for our horses: all mountain-travellers are aware how much more
+dangerous this kind of road is than a firm ledge of rock, however
+narrow.</p>
+
+<p>We had now got very high, and the ground was sprinkled with patches of
+ice and snow, which rendered the footing insecure; and frequently large
+masses of the road, disturbed by our passing over it, gave way beneath
+our feet, and set off bounding and crashing among the box trees until it
+was broken into powder on the rocks below.</p>
+
+<p>In process of time we got into a cloud which hid everything from us, and
+going still higher we got above the cloud into a region of broken crags
+and rocks and pine-trees, among which there was a large<a name="page_270" id="page_270"></a> wooden house or
+shed. It seemed all roof, and was made of long spars of trees sloping
+towards each other, and was very high, long, and narrow. As we
+approached it several men made their appearance armed at all points, and
+took our horses from us. At the end of the shed there was a door through
+which we were conducted into the interior by our two guards, and placed
+all of a row, with our backs against the wall, on the right side of the
+entrance. Towards the other end of this sylvan guard-room there was a
+large fire on the ground, and a number of men sitting round it drinking
+aqua vitæ out of coffee cups, and talking load and laughing. In the
+farthest corner I saw a pile of long bright-barrelled guns leaning
+against the wall, while on the other side of the fire there were some
+boards on the ground with a mat or carpet over them, whereon a worthy
+better dressed than the rest was lounging, apart from every one else and
+half asleep. To him the paper was given, and he leant forward to read it
+by the light of the blazing fire, for though it was bright sunshine out
+of doors, the room was quite dark. The captain was evidently a poor
+scholar, and he spelt and puzzled over every word. At last a thought
+struck him: shading his eyes with his hand from the glare of the fire he
+leant forward and peered into the darkness, where we were awaiting his
+commands. Not distinguishing us, however, he jumped up upon his feet and
+shouted out "Hallo!<a name="page_271" id="page_271"></a> where are the gentlemen who brought this letter?
+What have you done with them?" At the sound of his voice the rest of the
+party jumped up also, being then first aware that something out of the
+common had taken place. Some of the palicari ran towards us and were
+going to seize us, when the captain came forward and in a civil tone
+said, "Oh, there you are! Welcome, gentlemen; we are very glad to
+receive you. Make yourselves at home; come near the fire and sit down."
+I took him at his word and sat down on the boards by the side of the
+fire, rubbing my hands and making myself as comfortable as possible
+under the circumstances. My two servants and the muleteer seeing what
+turn affairs had taken, became of a sudden as loquacious as they had
+been silent before, and in a short time we were all the greatest friends
+in the world.</p>
+
+<p>"So," said the captain, or whatever he was, "you are acquainted with our
+friend at Mezzovo. How did you leave him? I hope he was well?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes," I said; "we left him in excellent health. What a remarkably
+pleasing person he is! and how well he looks in his red velvet dress!"</p>
+
+<p>"Have you known him long?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, not <i>very</i> long," replied my Albanian; "but my master has the
+greatest respect for him, and so has he for my master."</p>
+
+<p>"He says you are to take some of our men with you wherever you like,"
+said our host.<a name="page_272" id="page_272"></a></p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I know," said the Albanian; "we settled that at Mezzovo, with my
+master's friend, his Excellency Mr. What's-his-name."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, how many will you take?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! five or six will do; that will be as many as we want. We are going
+to Meteora and then we shall return over the mountains back to Mezzovo,
+where I hope we shall have the pleasure of meeting your general again."</p>
+
+<p>Whilst we were talking and drinking coffee by the fire, a prodigious
+bustling and chattering was going on among the rest of the party, and
+before long five slim, active, dirty-looking young rogues, in white
+dresses, with long black hair hanging down their backs, and each with a
+long thin gun, announced that they were ready to accompany us whenever
+we were ready to start. As we had nothing to keep us in the dark, smoky
+hovel, we were soon ready to go; and glad indeed was I to be out again
+in the open air among the high trees, without the immediate prospect of
+being hanged upon one of them. My party jumped with great alacrity and
+glee upon their miserable mules and horses; all our belongings,
+including the half of the cold fowl, were <i>in statu quo</i>; and off we
+set&mdash;our new friends accompanied us on foot. And so delighted was our
+Caliban of a muleteer at what we all considered a fortunate escape, that
+he lifted up his voice and gave vent to his feelings in a song. The<a name="page_273" id="page_273"></a>
+grand gentleman in red velvet to whom I had presented the Pasha's letter
+at Mezzovo, was, it seems, himself the captain of the thieves&mdash;the very
+man against whom the Pasha wished to afford us his protection; and he,
+feeling amused probably at the manner in which we had fallen unawares
+into his clutches, and being a good-natured fellow (and he certainly
+looked such), gave us a note to the officer next in command, ordering
+him to protect us as his friends, and to provide us with an escort. When
+I say that he of the red velvet was captain of the thieves, it is to be
+understood, that although his followers did not excel in honesty, as
+they proceeded to plunder us the moment they had entrapped us in the
+valley of the box-trees, yet he should more properly be called a
+guerilla chief in rebellion for the time being against the authorities
+of the Turkish government, and I being a young Englishman, he
+good-naturedly gave me his assistance, without which, as I afterwards
+found, it would have been impossible for me to have travelled with
+safety through any one of the mountain passes of the Pindus. I was told
+that this chief, whose name I unfortunately omitted to note down,
+commanded a large body of men before the city of Berat, and certainly
+all the ragamuffins whom I met on my way to and from the monasteries of
+Meteora acknowledged his authority. I heard that soon afterwards he
+returned to his allegiance under Mahmoud Pasha, for it appears that<a name="page_274" id="page_274"></a> the
+outbreak, during which I had inadvertently started for a tour in
+Albania, did not last long.</p>
+
+<p>Late in the evening we arrived at a small khan something like an
+out-building to a farmhouse in England; this was the khan of Malacash:
+it was prettily situated on the banks of the river Peneus, and
+contained, besides the stable, two rooms, one of which opened upon a
+kind of verandah or covered terrace. My two servants and I slept on the
+floor in this room, and the four robbers or guards (as in common
+civility I ought to term them) in the ante-chamber. I gave them as good
+a supper as I could, and we became excellent friends. It was almost dark
+when we arrived at this place, but the next morning when the glorious
+sun arose I was charmed with the beautiful scenery around us. On both
+sides banks of stately trees rose above the margin of a rippling stream,
+and the valley grew wider and wider as we rode on, the stream increasing
+by the addition of many little rills, and the trees retiring from it,
+affording us views of grassy plains and romantic dells, first on one
+side and then on the other. The scenery was most lovely, and in the
+distance was the towering summit of the great Mount Olympus, famous
+nowadays for the Greek monasteries which are built upon its sides, and
+near whose base runs the valley of Tempe, of which we are expressly told
+in the Latin Grammar that it is a pleasant vale in Thessaly; and if it
+is more beautiful than the<a name="page_275" id="page_275"></a> valley of the Peneus, it must be a very
+pleasant vale indeed.</p>
+
+<p>I was struck with the original manner in which our mountain friends
+progressed through the country; sometimes they kept with us, but more
+usually some of them went on one side of the road and some on the other,
+like men beating for game, only that they made no noise; and on the rare
+occasions when we met any traveller trudging along the road or ambling
+on a long-eared mule, they were always among the bushes or on the tops
+of the rocks, and never showed themselves upon the road. But despite all
+these vagaries they were always close to us. They were wonderfully
+active, for although I trotted or galloped whenever the nature of the
+road rendered it practicable, they always kept up with me, and
+apparently without exertion or fatigue; and although they were often out
+of my sight, I believe I was never out of theirs. Altogether I was glad
+that we were such friends, for, from what I saw of them, they and their
+associates would have proved very awkward enemies. They were curious
+wild animals, as slim and as active as cats: their waists were not much
+more than a foot and a half in circumference, and they appeared to be
+able to jump over anything; and the thin mocassins of raw hide which
+they wore enabled them to run or walk without making the slightest
+noise. In fact, they were agreeable, honest rogues enough, and we got on
+amazingly<a name="page_276" id="page_276"></a> well together. I had a way of singing as I rode along for my
+own particular edification, and from mere joyousness of heart, for the
+beautiful scenery, and the fine fresh air, and the bright stream
+delighted me, so I sung away at a great rate; and my horse sometimes put
+back one of his ears to listen, which I took as a personal compliment:
+but my robbers did not like this singing.</p>
+
+<p>"Why," they said to the Albanian, "does the Frank sing?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is a way he has," was the reply.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," they said, "this is a wild country; there is no use in courting
+attention&mdash;he had better not sing."</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless I would not leave off for all that. <i>Cantabit vacuus coram
+latrone viator</i>; so I went on singing rather louder than before,
+particularly as I was convinced that my horse had an ear for music; and
+in this way, after travelling for seven hours, we came within sight of
+the extraordinary rocks of Meteora.</p>
+
+<p>Just at this time we observed among the trees before us a long string of
+travellers who appeared to be convoying a train of baggage horses. On
+seeing us they stopped, and closed their files; and as my thieves had
+bolted, as usual, into the bushes some time before, my party consisted
+only of four persons and five horses. As we approached the other party,
+a tall, well-armed<a name="page_277" id="page_277"></a> man, with a rifle across his arm, rode forwards and
+hailed us, asking who we were. We said we were travellers.</p>
+
+<p>"And who were those who left you just now?" said he.</p>
+
+<p>"They are some of our party who have turned off by a short cut to go to
+Meteora," replied my Albanian.</p>
+
+<p>"What! a short cut on both sides of the road! how is that? I suspect you
+are not simple travellers."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he replied, "we do not wish to molest you. Go on your way in
+peace, and let us pass quietly, for you are by far the larger party."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said the man, "but how many have you in the bushes? What are they
+about there?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know what they are about," said he, "but they will not molest
+you [one of them was peeping over a bush at the back of the party all
+the while, but they did not see him]; and we, I assure you, are
+peaceable travellers like yourselves."</p>
+
+<p>Our new acquaintance did not seem at all satisfied, and he and all his
+party drew up along the path as we passed them, with evident misgivings
+as to our purpose; and soon afterwards, looking back, we saw them
+keeping close together and trotting along as fast as their loaded horses
+would go, some of them looking round at us every now and then till we
+lost sight of them among the trees.<a name="page_278" id="page_278"></a></p>
+
+<p>The proverb says&mdash;you shall know a man by his friends, and my character
+had evidently suffered from the appearance of the company I kept, for
+the merchants held me as little better than a rogue; there was, however,
+no time for explanations, and it was with feelings of indignant virtue
+that I left the forest, and after crossing the river Peneus at a ford,
+my merry men and I continued our journey along the grassy plain of
+Meteora.<a name="page_279" id="page_279"></a></p>
+
+<hr class="chpt" />
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX.</h3>
+
+<p class="chapter">Meteora&mdash;The extraordinary Character of its Scenery&mdash;Its Caves
+formerly the Resort of Ascetics&mdash;Barbarous Persecution of the
+Hermits&mdash;Their extraordinary Religious Observances&mdash;Singular
+Position of the Monasteries&mdash;The Monastery of Barlaam&mdash;The
+difficulty of reaching it&mdash;Ascent by a Windlass and Net, or by
+Ladders&mdash;Narrow Escape&mdash;Hospitable Reception by the Monks&mdash;The
+Agoumenos, or Abbot&mdash;His strict Fast&mdash;Description of the
+Monastery&mdash;The Church&mdash;Symbolism in the Greek Church&mdash;Respect for
+Antiquity&mdash;The Library&mdash;Determination of the Abbot not to sell any
+of the MSS.&mdash;The Refectory&mdash;Its Decorations&mdash;Aërial Descent&mdash;The
+Monastery of Hagios Stephanos&mdash;Its Carved Iconostasis&mdash;Beautiful
+View from the Monastery&mdash;Monastery of Agia Triada&mdash;Summary Justice
+at Triada&mdash;Monastery of Agia Roserea&mdash;Its Lady Occupants&mdash;Admission
+refused.</p>
+
+<p class="nind">T<span class="smcap">he</span> scenery of Meteora is of a very singular kind. The end of a range of
+rocky hills seems to have been broken off by some earthquake or washed
+away by the Deluge, leaving only a series of twenty or thirty tall,
+thin, smooth, needle-like rocks, many hundred feet in height; some like
+gigantic tusks, some shaped like sugar-loaves, and some like vast
+stalagmites. These rocks surround a beautiful grassy plain, on three
+sides of which there grow groups of detached trees, like those in an
+English park. Some of the rocks shoot up quite clean and perpendicularly
+from the smooth green grass; some are in clusters; some<a name="page_280" id="page_280"></a> stand alone
+like obelisks: nothing can be more strange and wonderful than this
+romantic region, which is unlike anything I have ever seen either before
+or since. In Switzerland, Saxony, the Tyrol, or any other mountainous
+region where I have been, there is nothing at all to be compared to
+these extraordinary peaks.</p>
+
+<p>At the foot of many of the rocks which surround this beautiful grassy
+amphitheatre, there are numerous caves and holes, some of which appear
+to be natural, but most of them are artificial; for in the dark and wild
+ages of monastic fanaticism whole flocks of hermits roosted in these
+pigeon-holes. Some of these caves are so high up the rocks that one
+wonders how the poor old gentlemen could ever get up to them; whilst
+others are below the surface; and the anchorites who burrowed in them,
+like rabbits, frequently afforded excellent sport to parties of roving
+Saracens; indeed, hermit-hunting seems to have been a fashionable
+amusement previous to the twelfth century. In early Greek frescos, and
+in small, stiff pictures with gold backgrounds, we see many frightful
+representations of men on horseback in Roman armour, with long spears,
+who are torturing and slaying Christian devotees. In these pictures the
+monks and hermits are represented in gowns made of a kind of coarse
+matting, and they have long beards, and some of them are covered with
+hair; these I take it were the ones most to be admired, as in the Greek
+church sanctity is always in the<a name="page_281" id="page_281"></a> inverse ratio of beauty. All Greek
+saints are painfully ugly, but the hermits are much uglier, dirtier, and
+older than the rest; they must have been very fusty people besides,
+eating roots, and living in holes like rats and mice. It is difficult to
+understand by what process of reasoning they could have persuaded
+themselves that, by living in this useless, inactive way, they were
+leading holy lives. They wore out the rocks with their knees in prayer;
+the cliffs resounded with their groans; sometimes they banged their
+breasts with a big stone, for a change; and some wore chains and iron
+girdles round their emaciated forms; but they did nothing whatever to
+benefit their kind. Still there is something grand in the strength and
+constancy of their faith. They left their homes and riches and the
+pleasures of this world, to retire to these dens and caves of the earth,
+to be subjected to cold and hunger, pain and death, that they might do
+honour to their God, after their own fashion, and trusting that, by
+mortifying the body in this world, they should gain happiness for the
+soul in the world to come; and therefore peace be with their memory!</p>
+
+<p>On the tops of these rocks in different directions there remain seven
+monasteries out of twenty-four which once crowned their airy heights.
+How anything except a bird was to arrive at one which we saw in the
+distance on a pinnacle of rock was more than we could divine; but the
+mystery was soon solved. Winding<a name="page_282" id="page_282"></a> our way upwards, among a labyrinth of
+smaller rocks and cliffs, by a romantic path which, afforded us from
+time to time beautiful views of the green vale below us, we at length
+found ourselves on an elevated platform of rock, which I may compare to
+the flat roof of a church; while the monastery of Barlaam stood
+perpendicularly, above us, on the top of a much higher rock, like the
+tower of this church. Here we fired off a gun, which was intended to
+answer the same purpose as knocking at the door in more civilized
+places; and we all strained our necks in looking up at the monastery to
+see whether any answer would be made to our call. Presently we were
+hailed by some one in the sky, whose voice came down to us like the cry
+of a bird; and we saw the face and grey beard of an old monk some
+hundred feet above us peering out of a kind of window or door. He asked
+us who we were, and what we wanted, and so forth; to which we replied,
+that we were travellers, harmless people, who wished to be admitted into
+the monastery to stay the night; that we had come all the way from Corfu
+to see the wonders of Meteora, and, as it was now getting late, we
+appealed to his feelings of hospitality and Christian benevolence.</p>
+
+<p>"Who are those with you?" said he.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! most respectable people," we answered; "gentlemen of our
+acquaintance, who have come with us across the mountains from Mezzovo."<a name="page_283" id="page_283"></a></p>
+
+<p>The appearance of our escort did not please the monk, and we feared that
+he would not admit us into the monastery; but at length he let down a
+thin cord, to which I attached a letter of introduction which I had
+brought from Corfu; and after some delay a much larger rope was seen
+descending with a hook at the end to which a strong net was attached. On
+its reaching the rock on which we stood the net was spread open: my two
+servants sat down upon it; and the four corners being attached to the
+hook, a signal was made, and they began slowly ascending into the air,
+twisting round and round like a leg of mutton hanging to a bottle-jack.
+The rope was old and mended, and the height from the ground to the door
+above was, we afterwards learned, 37 fathoms, or 222 feet. When they
+reached the top I saw two stout monks reach their arms out of the door
+and pull in the two servants by main force, as there was no contrivance
+like a turning-crane for bringing them nearer to the landing-place. The
+whole process appeared so dangerous, that I determined to go up by
+climbing a series of ladders which were suspended by large wooden pegs
+on the face of the precipice, and which reached the top of the rock in
+another direction, round a corner to the right. The lowest ladder was
+approached by a pathway leading to a rickety wooden platform which
+overhung a deep gorge. From this point the ladders hung perpendicularly
+upon the bare<a name="page_284" id="page_284"></a> rock, and I climbed up three or four of them very soon;
+but coming to one, the lower end of which had swung away from the top of
+the one below, I had some difficulty in stretching across from the one
+to the other; and here unluckily I looked down, and found that I had
+turned a sort of angle in the precipice, and that I was not over the
+rocky platform where I had left the horses, but that the precipice went
+sheer down to so tremendous a depth, that my head turned when I surveyed
+the distant valley over which I was hanging in the air like a fly on a
+wall. The monks in the monastery saw me hesitate, and called out to me
+to take courage and hold on; and, making an effort, I overcame my
+dizziness, and clambered up to a small iron door, through which I crept
+into a court of the monastery, where I was welcomed by the monks and the
+two servants who had been hauled up by the rope. The rest of my party
+were not admitted; but they bivouacked at the foot of the rocks in a
+sheltered place, and were perfectly contented with the coffee and
+provisions which we lowered down to them.</p>
+
+<p>My servants, in high glee at having been hoisted up safe and sound, were
+busy in arranging my baggage in the room which had been allotted to us,
+and in making it comfortable: one went to get ready some warm water for
+a bath, or at any rate for a good splash in the largest tub that could
+be found; the other made me a snug corner on the divan, and<a name="page_285" id="page_285"></a> covered it
+with a piece of silk, and spread my carpet before it; he put my books in
+a little heap, got ready the things for tea, and hung my arms and cloak,
+and everything he could lay his hands on, upon the pegs projecting from
+the wall under the shelf which was fixed all round the room. My European
+clothes were soon pitched into the most ignominious corner of the divan,
+and I speedily arrayed myself in the long, loose robes of Egypt, so much
+more comfortable and easy than the tight cases in which we cramp up our
+limbs. In short, I forthwith made myself at home, and took a stroll
+among the courts and gardens of the monastery while dinner or supper,
+whichever it might be called, was getting ready. I soon stumbled upon
+the Agoumenos (the lord abbot) of this aërial monastery, and we prowled
+about together, peeping into rooms, visiting the church, and poking
+about until it began to get dark; and then I asked him to dinner in his
+own room; but he could eat no meat, so I ate the more myself, and he
+made up for it by other savoury messes, cooked partly by my servants and
+partly by the monks. He was an oldish man. He did not dislike sherry,
+though he preferred rosoglio, of which I always carried a few bottles
+with me in my monastic excursions.</p>
+
+<p>The abbot and I, and another holy father, fraternised, and slapped each
+other on the back, and had another glass or two, or rather cup, for
+coffee-cups of<a name="page_286" id="page_286"></a> thin, old porcelain, called fingians, served us for
+wine-glasses. Then we had some tea, and they filled up their cups with
+sugar, and ate seaman's biscuits, and little cakes from Yanina, and
+rahatlokoom, and jelly of dried-grape juice, till it was time to go to
+bed; when the two venerable monks gave me their blessing and stumbled
+out of the room; and in a marvellously short space of time I was sound
+asleep.</p>
+
+<p><i>November 9th.</i>&mdash;The monastery of Barlaam stands on the summit of an
+isolated rock, on a flat or nearly flat space of perhaps an acre and a
+half, of which about one-half is occupied by the church and a smaller
+chapel, the refectory, the kitchen, the tower of the windlass, where you
+are pulled up, and a number of separate buildings containing offices and
+the habitations of the monks, of whom there were at this time only
+fourteen. These various structures surround one tolerably large,
+irregularly-shaped court, the chief part of which is paved; and there
+are several other small open spaces. All Greek monasteries are built in
+this irregular way, and the confused mass of disjointed edifices is
+usually encircled by a high bare wall; but in this monastery there is no
+such enclosing wall, as its position effectually prevents the approach
+of an enemy. On a portion of the flat space which is not occupied by
+buildings they have a small garden, but it is not cultivated, and there
+is nothing like a parapet-wall in any direction to prevent your falling
+over. The place<a name="page_287" id="page_287"></a> wears an aspect of poverty and neglect; its best days
+have long gone by; for here, as everywhere else, the spirit of
+asceticism is on the wane.</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 112px;">
+<img src="images/ill_287.png" width="112" height="111" alt="diagram of church
+with four columns" title="diagram of church
+with four columns" />
+</div>
+
+<p>The church has a porch before the door, <span title="narthêx">&#957;&#940;&#961;&#952;&#951;&#958;</span>,
+supported by marble columns, the interior wall of which on each side of
+the door is painted with representations of the Last Judgment, and the
+tortures of the condemned, with a liberal allowance of flames and
+devils. These pictures of the torments of the wicked are always placed
+outside the body of the church, as typical of the unhappy state of those
+who are out of its pale: they are never seen within. The interior of
+this curious old church, which is dedicated to All Saints, has depicted
+on its walls on all sides portraits of a great many holy personages, in
+the stiff, conventional, early style. It has four columns within which
+support the dome; and the altar or holy table, <span title="agia trapeza">&#945;&#947;&#953;&#945;
+&#964;&#961;&#945;&#960;&#949;&#950;&#945;</span>, is separated from the nave by a wooden screen, called the
+iconostasis, on which are paintings of the Blessed Virgin, the Redeemer,
+and many saints. These pictures are kissed by all who enter the church.
+The iconostasis has three doors in it; one in the centre, before the
+holy table, and one on each side. The centre one is only a half-door,
+like an old English buttery hatch, the upper part being screened with a
+curtain of rich stuff, which, except on certain occasions,<a name="page_288" id="page_288"></a> is drawn
+aside, so as to afford a view of the book of the Gospels, in a rich
+binding, lying upon the holy table beyond. A Greek church has no
+sacristy; the vestures are usually kept in presses in this space behind
+the iconostasis, where none but the priests and the deacon, or servant
+who trims the lamps, are allowed to enter, and they pass in and out by
+the side doors. The centre door is only used in the celebration of the
+holy mass. This part of the church is the sanctuary, and is called, in
+Romaic, <span title="agio">&#945;&#947;&#953;&#959;</span>, <span title="Bêmo">&#914;&#951;&#956;&#959;</span>, or <span title="Thêmo">&#920;&#951;&#956;&#959;</span>.
+It is typical of the holy of holies of the Temple, and the veil is
+represented by the curtain which divides it from the rest of the church.
+Everything is symbolical in the Eastern Church; and these symbols have
+been in use from the very earliest ages of Christianity. The four
+columns which support the dome represent the four Evangelists; and the
+dome itself is the symbol of heaven, to which access has been given to
+mankind by the glad tidings of the Gospels which they wrote. Part of the
+mosaic with which the whole interior of the dome was formerly covered in
+the cathedral of St. Sofia at Constantinople, is to be seen in the four
+angles below the dome, where the winged figures of the four evangelists
+still remain. Luckily for the Greek Church their sacred buildings are
+not under the authority of lay churchwardens&mdash;grocers in towns, and
+farmers in villages&mdash;who feel it their duty to whitewash over everything
+which is old and venerable,<a name="page_289" id="page_289"></a> and curious, and to oppose the clergyman in
+order to show their independence.</p>
+
+<p>The Greek church, debased as it is by ignorance and superstition, has
+still the merit of carefully preserving and restoring all the memorials
+of its earlier and purer ages. If the fresco painting of a saint is
+rubbed out or damaged in the lapse of time, it is scrupulously
+repainted, exactly as it was before, even to the colour of the robe, the
+aspect of the countenance, and the minutest accessories of the
+composition. It is this systematic respect for everything which is old
+and venerable which renders the interior of the ancient Eastern churches
+so peculiarly interesting. They are the unchanged monuments of primæval
+days. The Christians who suffered under the persecution of Dioclesian
+may have knelt before the very altar which we now see, and which was
+then exactly the same as we now behold it, without any additions or
+subtractions either in its form or use.</p>
+
+<p>To us Protestants one of the most interesting circumstances connected
+with these Eastern churches is, that the altar is not called the
+<i>altar</i>, but the <i>holy table</i>, as with us, and that the Communion is
+given before it in both kinds. Besides the principal church there is a
+smaller one, not far from it, which is painted in the same manner as the
+other. I unfortunately neglected to ascertain the dates of the
+foundation of these two edifices.<a name="page_290" id="page_290"></a></p>
+
+<p>The library contains about a thousand volumes, the far greater part of
+which are printed books, mostly Venetian editions of ecclesiastical
+works, but there are some fine copies of Aldine Greek classics. I did
+not count the number of the manuscripts; they are all books of divinity
+and the works of the fathers; there may be between one and two hundred
+of them. I found one folio Bulgarian manuscript which I could not read,
+and therefore was, of course, particularly anxious to purchase. As I saw
+it was not a copy of the Gospels, I thought it might possibly be
+historical: but the monks would not sell it. The only other manuscript
+of value was a copy of the Gospels, in quarto, containing several
+miniatures and illuminations of the eleventh century; but with this also
+they refused to part, so it remains for some more fortunate collector.
+It was of no use to the monks themselves, who cannot read either
+Hellenic or ancient Greek; but they consider the books in their library
+as sacred relics, and preserve them with a certain feeling of awe for
+their antiquity and incomprehensibility. Our only chance is when some
+worldly-minded Agoumenos happens to be at the head of the community, who
+may be inclined to exchange some of the unreadable old books for such a
+sum of gold or silver as will suffice for the repairs of one of their
+buildings, the replenishing of the cellar, or some other equally
+important purpose. At the time of my visit the march of intellect had
+not<a name="page_291" id="page_291"></a> penetrated into the heights of the monastery of St. Barlaam, and
+the good old-fashioned Agoumenos was not to be overcome by any special
+pleading; so I told him at last that I respected his prejudices, and
+hoped he would follow the dictates of his conscience equally well in
+more important matters. The worthy old gentleman therefore pitched the
+two much-coveted books back into the dusty corner whence he had taken
+them, and where to a certainty they will repose undisturbed until some
+other bookworm traveller visits the monastery; and the sooner he comes
+the better, as mice and mildew are actively at work.</p>
+
+<p>In a room near the library some ancient relics are preserved in silver
+shrines or boxes, of Byzantine workmanship: they are, however, not of
+very great antiquity or interest; the shrines are only of sufficient
+size to contain two skulls and a few bones; the style and execution of
+the ornaments are also much inferior to many works of the same kind
+which are met with in ecclesiastical houses.</p>
+
+<p>The refectory is a separate building, with an apsis at the upper end, in
+which stands a marble table where the sacred bread used by the Greek
+church is usually placed, and where, I believe, the agoumenos or the
+bishop dines on great occasions. The walls of this room are also
+painted: not, however, with the representations of celebrated eaters,
+but with the likenesses of such thin, famished-looking saints that they
+seem<a name="page_292" id="page_292"></a> most inappropriate as ornaments to a dining-room. The kitchen,
+which stands near the refectory, is a circular building of great
+antiquity, but the interior being pitch dark when I looked in, and there
+coming from the door a dusty cold smell, which did not savour of any
+dainty fare, I did not examine it.</p>
+
+<p>The monks and the abbot had now assembled in the room where the capstan
+stood. Ten or twelve of them arranged themselves in order at the bars,
+the net was spread upon the floor, and, having sat down upon it
+cross-legged, the four corners were gathered up over my head, and
+attached to the hook at the end of the rope. All being ready, the monks
+at the capstan took a few steps round, the effect of which was to lift
+me off the floor and to launch me out of the door right into the sky,
+with an impetus which kept me swinging backwards and forwards at a
+fearful rate; when the oscillation had in some measure ceased the abbot
+and another monk, leaning out of the door, steadied me with their hands,
+and I was let down slowly and gently to the ground.</p>
+
+<p>When I was disencumbered of the net by my friends the robbers below, I
+sat down on a stone, and waited while the rope brought down, first my
+servants, and then the baggage. All this being accomplished without
+accident, I sent the horses, baggage, and one servant to the great
+monastery of Meteora, where I proposed to sleep; and, with the other
+servant and the<a name="page_293" id="page_293"></a> palicari, started on foot for a tour among the other
+monasteries.</p>
+
+<p>A delightful walk of an hour and a half brought us to the entrance of
+the monastery of Hagios Stephanos, to which we gained access by a wooden
+drawbridge. The rock on which this monastery stands is isolated on three
+sides, and on the fourth is separated from the mountain by a deep chasm
+which, at the point where the drawbridge is placed, is not more than
+twelve feet wide. The interior of this building resembles St. Barlaam,
+inasmuch as it consists of a confused mass of buildings, surrounding an
+irregularly-formed court, of which the principal feature is the church.
+The paintings in it are not so numerous as at St Barlaam, but the
+iconostasis, or screen before the altar, is most beautifully carved,
+something in the style of Grinlin Gibbons: the pictures upon it being
+surrounded with frames of light open work, consisting of foliage, birds,
+and flowers in alto rilievo, cut out of a light-coloured wood in the
+most delicate manner. I was told that the whole of this beautiful work
+had been executed in Russia, and put up here during the reign of Ali
+Pasha, who had the good policy to protect the Greeks, and by that means
+to ensure the co-operation of one half of the population of the country.</p>
+
+<p>In this monastery there were thirteen or fourteen monks and several
+women. On my inquiring for<a name="page_294" id="page_294"></a> the library, one of the monks, after some
+demurring, opened a cupboard door; he then unfastened a second door at
+the back of it which led into a secret chamber, where the books of the
+monastery were kept. They were in number about one hundred and fifty;
+but I was disappointed at finding that although thus carefully concealed
+there was not a single volume amongst them remarkable for its antiquity
+or for any other cause: in fact, they were not worth the trouble of
+turning over. The view from this monastery is very fine: at the foot of
+the rock is the village of Kalabaki, to the east the citadel of Tricala
+stands above a wide level plain watered by the river which we had
+followed from its sources in Mount Pindus; beyond this a sea of distant
+blue hills extends to the foot of Mount Olympus, whose summit, clothed
+in perpetual snow, towers above all the other mountains. The whole of
+this region is inhabited by a race of a different origin from the real
+Albanians: they speak the Wallachian language, and are said to be
+extremely barbarous and ignorant. Observing that the village of Kalabaki
+presented a singularly black appearance, I inquired the cause: it had,
+they said, been recently burned and sacked by the klephti or robbers
+(some of my friends, perhaps), and the remnant of the inhabitants had
+taken refuge in the two monasteries of Hagios Nicholas and Agia Mone,
+which had been deserted by the monks some time before. The poor people
+in<a name="page_295" id="page_295"></a> these two impregnable fastnesses were, they told me, so suspicious
+of strangers and in such a state of alarm, that there was no use in my
+visiting them, as to a certainty they would not admit me; and as it
+appeared that everything portable had been removed when the caloyeri
+(the monks) had departed from their impoverished homes, I gave up the
+idea.</p>
+
+<p>I then proceeded along a romantic path to the monastery of Agia Triada,
+and on the way my servants entertained me by an account of what the
+monks had told them of their admiration of the Pasha of Tricala, whom
+they considered as a perfect model of a governor; and that it would be a
+blessing for the country if all other pashas were like him, as then all
+the roving bands of robbers, who spread terror and desolation through
+the land, would be cleared away. There is, it seems, a high tower over
+the gate of the town of Tricala, and when the Pasha caught any people
+whom he thought worthy of the distinction, he had them taken up to the
+top of this tower and thrown from it against the city walls, which his
+provident care had furnished with numerous large iron hooks, projecting
+about the length of a man's arm, which caught the bodies of the culprits
+as they fell, and on which they hung on either side of the town gate,
+affording a pleasing and instructive spectacle to the people who came in
+to market of a morning.</p>
+
+<p>Agia Triada contains about ten or twelve monks,<a name="page_296" id="page_296"></a> who pulled me up to the
+entrance of their monastery with a rope thirty-two fathoms long. This
+monastery, like the others, resembles a small village, of which the
+houses stand huddled round the little painted church. Here I found one
+hundred books, all very musty and very uninteresting. I saw no
+manuscripts whatever, nor was there anything worthy of observation in
+the habitation of the impoverished community. Having paid my respects to
+the grim effigies of the bearded saints upon the chapel walls, I was let
+down again by the rope, and walked on, still through most romantic
+scenery, to the monastery of Hagia Roserea.</p>
+
+<p>The rock upon which this monastery stands is about a hundred feet high;
+it is perfectly isolated, and quite smooth and perpendicular on all
+sides, and so small that there is only room enough for the various
+buildings, without leaving any space for a garden. In fact, the
+buildings, although far from large, cover the whole summit of the rock.
+When we had shouted and made as much noise as we could for some time, an
+old woman came out upon a sort of wooden balcony over our heads; another
+woman followed her, and they began to talk and scream at us both
+together, so that we could not understand what they said. At last, one
+of them screaming louder than the other, we found that the monks were
+all out, and that these two ladies being the only garrison of the place
+declined the honour of our visit, and would not let down the rope<a name="page_297" id="page_297"></a>
+ladder, which was drawn half way up. We used all the arguments we could
+think of, and told the old gentlewomen that they were the most beautiful
+creatures in the world, but all to no purpose; they were not to be
+overcome by our soft speeches, and would not let down the ladder an
+inch. Finding there were no hopes of getting in, we told them they were
+the ugliest old wretches in the country, and that we would not come near
+them if they asked us upon their knees; upon which they screamed and
+chattered louder than ever, and we walked off in high indignation.<a name="page_298" id="page_298"></a></p>
+
+<hr class="chpt" />
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX.</h3>
+
+<p class="chapter">The great Monastery of Meteora&mdash;The Church&mdash;Ugliness of the
+Portraits of Greek Saints&mdash;Greek Mode of Washing the Hands&mdash;A
+Monastic Supper&mdash;Morning View from the Monastery&mdash;The
+Library&mdash;Beautiful MSS.&mdash;Their Purchase&mdash;The Kitchen&mdash;Discussion
+among the Monks as to the Purchase Money for the MSS.&mdash;The MSS.
+reclaimed&mdash;A last Look at their Beauties&mdash;Proposed Assault of the
+Monastery by the Robber Escort.</p>
+
+<p class="nind">A<span class="smcap">s</span> the day was drawing to a close we turned our steps towards the great
+monastery of Meteora, where we arrived just before dark. The vast rock
+upon which it is built is separated from the end of a projecting line of
+mountains by a widish chasm, at the bottom of which we found ourselves,
+after scrambling up a path which wound among masses of rock and huge
+stones which at some remote period had fallen from above.</p>
+
+<p>Having reached the foot of the precipice under the monastery, we stopped
+in the middle of this dark chasm and fired a gun, as we had done at the
+monastery of Barlaam. Presently, after a careful reconnoitring from
+several long-bearded monks, a rope with a net at the end of it came
+slowly down to us, a distance of about twenty-five fathoms; and being
+bundled into the net, I was slowly drawn up into the monastery,<a name="page_299" id="page_299"></a> where I
+was lugged in at the window by two of the strongest of the brethren, and
+after having been dragged along the floor and unpacked, I was presented
+to the admiring gaze of the whole reverend community, who were assembled
+round the capstan. This is by far the largest of the convents in this
+region; it is also in better order than the others, and is inhabited by
+a greater number of caloyers; I omitted to count their number, but there
+may have been about twenty: the monastery is, however, calculated to
+contain three times that number. The buildings both in their nature and
+arrangement are very similar to those of St. Barlaam, excepting that
+they are somewhat more extensive, and that there is a faint attempt at
+cultivating a garden which surrounded three sides of the monastery. Like
+all the other monasteries, it has no parapet wall.</p>
+
+<p>The church had a large open porch before it, where some of the caloyers
+sat and talked in the evening; it was painted in fresco of bright
+colours, with most edifying representations of the tortures and
+martyrdoms of little ugly saints, very hairy and very holy, and so like
+the old caloyers themselves, who were discoursing before them, that they
+might have been taken for their portraits. These Greek monks have a
+singular love for the devil, and for everything horrible and hideous. I
+never saw a picture of a well-looking Greek saint anywhere, and yet the
+earlier Greek artists in their conceptions of the personages of Holy
+Writ sometimes<a name="page_300" id="page_300"></a> approached the sublime; and in the miniatures of some of
+the manuscripts written previous to the twelfth century, which I
+collected in the Levant, there are figures of surpassing dignity and
+solemnity: yet in Byzantine and Egyptian art that purity and angelic
+expression so much to be admired in the works of Beato Angelico,
+Giovanni Bellini, and other early Italian masters, are not to be found.
+The more exalted and refined feeling which prompted the execution of
+those sublime works seems never to have existed in the Greek church,
+which goes on century after century, even up to the present time, using
+the same conventional and stiff forms, so that to the unpractised eye
+there would be considerable difficulty in discovering the difference
+between a Greek picture of a saint of the ninth century from one of the
+nineteenth. The agoumenos, a young active man with a good deal of
+intelligence in his countenance, sent word that the hour of supper was
+at hand, previously, however, to which I went through the process of
+washing my hands in, or rather over a Turkish basin with a perforated
+cover and a little vase in the middle for the piece of fresh-smelling
+soap in common use, which is so very much better than ours in England
+that I wonder none has been as yet imported, a venerable monk all the
+while pouring the water over my hands from a vessel resembling an
+antique coffee-pot. I then dried my fingers on an embroidered towel, and
+sat down<a name="page_301" id="page_301"></a> with the agoumenos and another officer of the monastery before
+a metal tray covered with various dainty dishes. We three sat upon
+cushions on the floor, and the tray stood upon a wooden stool turned
+upside down, according to the usual fashion of the country: no meat had
+entered into the composition of our feast, but it was very savoury
+nevertheless, and our fingers were soon in the midst of the most
+tempting dishes, knives and forks being considered as useless
+superfluities. When my right hand was anointed with any oleaginous
+mixture, which it was very frequently indeed, if I wanted to drink, a
+monk held a silver bowl to my lips and a napkin under my chin, as you
+serve babies; after which I began again, until with a sigh I was obliged
+to throw myself back from the tray, and holding my hands aloft, the
+perforated basin and the coffee-pot made their appearance again. A cup
+of piping hot coffee concluded the evening's entertainment, and I
+retired to another room&mdash;the guest chamber&mdash;which opened upon a narrow
+court hard by, where all my things had been arranged. A long, thin
+candle was placed on a small stool in the middle of the floor, and
+having winked at the long rays which darted out of it for some time, I
+rolled myself into a comfortable position in the corner, and was asleep
+before I had settled upon any optical theory to account for them; nor
+did the dull, monotonous sound of the mallet, which, struck on a
+suspended board, called the good<a name="page_302" id="page_302"></a> brethren to midnight prayer, disturb
+me for more than a moment.</p>
+
+<p><i>Nov. 10.</i>&mdash;Just before the dawn of day I opened the shutters of the
+unglazed windows of my room and surveyed the scene before me; all still
+looked grey and cold, and it was only towards the east that the distant
+outline of the mountains showed clear and distinct against the dark sky.
+By degrees the clouds, which had slept upon the shoulders of the hills,
+rose slowly and heavily, whilst the valleys gradually assumed all their
+soft and radiant beauty. It seemed to me as if I should never tire of
+gazing at this view. In the course of time, however, breakfast appeared,
+and having rapidly despatched it, I went to look at the buildings and
+curiosities.</p>
+
+<p>The church resembles that of St. Barlaam, but is in better order; and
+the paintings are more brilliant in colour and are more profusely
+decorated with gold. There is a dome above the centre of the church, and
+the iconostasis or screen before the altar is ornamented with the usual
+stiff pictures and carving, but the latter is not to be compared to that
+in the monastery of St. Stephanos. There were some silver shrines
+containing relics, but they were not particularly interesting either as
+to workmanship or antiquity. The most interesting thing is a picture
+ascribed to St. Luke, which, whatever may be its real history, is
+evidently a very ancient and curious painting.<a name="page_303" id="page_303"></a></p>
+
+<p>The books are preserved in a range of low-vaulted and secret rooms, very
+well concealed in a sort of mezzanine: the entrance to them is through a
+door at the back of a cupboard in an outer chamber, in the same way as
+at St Stephanos. There are about two thousand volumes of very rubbishy
+appearance, not new enough for the monks to read or old enough for them
+to sell; in fact, they are almost valueless. I found, however, a few
+Aldines and Greek books of the sixteenth century, printed in Italy, some
+of which may be rather rare editions, but I saw none of the fifteenth
+century. I did not count the number of the manuscripts; there are,
+however, some hundreds of them, mostly on paper; but, excepting two,
+they were all liturgies and church books. These two were poems. One
+appeared to be on some religious subject, the other was partly
+historical and partly the poetical effusions of St. Athanasius of
+Meteora. I searched in vain for the manuscripts of Hesiod and Sophocles
+mentioned by Biornstern; some later antiquarian may, perhaps, have got
+possession of them and taken them to some country where they will be
+more appreciated than they were here. After looking over the books on
+the shelves, the librarian, an old grey-bearded monk, opened a great
+chest in which things belonging to the church were kept; and here I
+found ten or twelve manuscripts of the Gospels, all of the eleventh or
+twelfth century. They were upon vellum, and all,<a name="page_304" id="page_304"></a> except one, were small
+quartos; but this one was a large quarto, and one of the most beautiful
+manuscripts of its kind I have met with anywhere. In many respects it
+resembled the Codex Ebnerianus in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. It was
+ornamented with miniatures of the same kind as those in that splendid
+volume, but they were more numerous and in a good style of art; it was,
+in fact, as richly ornamented as a Romish missal, and was in excellent
+preservation, except one miniature at the beginning, which had been
+partially smeared over by the wet finger of some ancient sloven. Another
+volume of the Gospels, in a very small, clear hand, bound in a kind of
+silver filagree of the same date as the book, also excited my
+admiration. Those who take an interest in literary antiquities of this
+class are aware of the great rarity of an ornamental binding in a
+Byzantine manuscript. This must doubtless have been the pocket volume of
+some royal personage. To my great joy the librarian allowed me to take
+these two books to the room of the agoumenos, who agreed to sell them to
+me for I forget how many pieces of gold, which I counted out to him
+immediately, and which he seemed to pocket with the sincerest
+satisfaction. Never was any one more welcome to his money, although I
+left myself but little to pay the expenses of my journey back to Corfu.
+Such books as these would be treasures in the finest national collection
+in Europe.<a name="page_305" id="page_305"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 115px;">
+<img src="images/ill_305.png" width="115" height="119" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>We looked at the refectory, which also resembled that at Barlaam. The
+kitchen, however, merits a detailed description. This very ancient
+building, perched upon the extreme edge of the precipice, was square in
+its plan, with a steep roof of stone, the top of which was open. Within,
+upon a square platform of stone, there were four columns serving for the
+support of the roof, which was arched all round, except in the space
+between the tops of the columns, where it was open to the sky. This
+platform was the hearth, where the fire was lit, whilst smaller fires of
+charcoal might be lit all round against the wall, where there were stone
+dressers for the purpose, so that in fact the building was all chimney
+and fireplace; and when a great dinner was prepared on a feast-day the
+principal difficulty must have been to have prevented the cook from
+being roasted among the other meats. The whole of the arched roof was
+thickly covered with lumps of soot, the accumulations probably of
+centuries. The ancient kitchens at Glastonbury and at Stanton Harcourt
+are constructed a good deal upon the same plan, but this is probably a
+much earlier specimen of culinary architecture. The porch outside the
+church is larger than ordinary, and extends, if I remember rightly,
+along the side of that building which stands in the principal court, and
+is not, as is usually the case,<a name="page_306" id="page_306"></a> attached to the end of the church, over
+the principal door.</p>
+
+<p>Having seen all that was worthy of observation, I was waiting in the
+court near the door leading to the place where the monks were assembled
+to lower me down to the earth again. Just as I was ready to start there
+arose a discussion among them as to the distribution of the money which
+I had paid for the two manuscripts. The agoumenos wanted to keep it all
+for himself, or at least for the expenses of the monastery; but the
+villain of a librarian swore he would have half. The agoumenos said he
+should not have a farthing, but as the librarian would not give way he
+offered him a part of the spoil; however, he did not offer him enough,
+and out of spite and revenge, or, as he protested, out of uprightness of
+principle, he told all the monks that the agoumenos had pocketed the
+money which he had received for their property, for that they all had a
+right to an equal share in these books, as in all the other things
+belonging to the community. The monks, even the most dunderheaded, were
+not slow in taking this view of the subject, and all broke out into a
+clamorous assertion of their rights, every man of them speaking at once.
+The price I had given was so large that every one of them would have
+received several pieces of gold each. But no, they said, it was not
+that, but for the principles of justice that they contended. They did
+not want the money,<a name="page_307" id="page_307"></a> no more did the librarian, but they would not
+suffer their rules to be outraged or their rights to be trampled under
+foot. In the monasteries of St. Basil all the members of the society had
+equal rights&mdash;they ate in common, they prayed in common, everything was
+bought and sold for the benefit of the community at large. Tears fell
+from the eyes of some of the particularly virtuous monks; others stamped
+upon the ground, and showed a thoroughly rebellious spirit. As for me, I
+kept aloof, waiting to see what might be the result.</p>
+
+<p>The agoumenos, who was evidently a man of superior abilities, calmly
+endeavoured to explain. He told the unruly brethren exactly what the sum
+was for which he had sold the books, and said that the money was not for
+his own private use, but to be laid out for the benefit of all, in the
+same way as the ordinary revenues of the monastery, which, he added,
+would soon prove quite insufficient if so large a portion of them
+continued to be divided among the individual members. He told them that
+the monastery was poor and wanted money, and that this large sum would
+be most useful for certain necessary expenses. But although he used many
+unanswerable arguments, the old brute of a librarian had completely
+awakened the spirit of discord, and the ignorant monks were ready to be
+led into rebellion, by any one and for any reason or none. At last the
+contest waxed so warm that the<a name="page_308" id="page_308"></a> sale of the two manuscripts was almost
+lost sight of, and every one began to quarrel with his neighbour, the
+entire community being split into various little angry groups,
+chattering, gesticulating, and wagging their long beards.</p>
+
+<p>After a while the agoumenos, calling my interpreter, said that as the
+monks would not agree to let him keep the money in the usual way for the
+use of the monastery, he could have nothing to do with it; and to my
+great sorrow I was therefore obliged to receive it back, and to give up
+the two beautiful manuscripts, which I had already looked upon as the
+chief ornaments of my library in England. The monks all looked sadly
+downcast at this unexpected termination of their noble defence of their
+principles, and my only consolation was to perceive that they were quite
+as much vexed as I was. In fact we felt that we had gained a loss all
+round, and the old librarian, after walking up and down once or twice
+with his hands behind his back in gloomy silence, retreated to a hole
+where he lived, near the library, and I saw no more of him.</p>
+
+<p>My bag was brought forward, and when the books were extracted from it, I
+sat down on a stone in the court yard, and for the last time turned over
+the gilded leaves and admired the ancient and splendid illuminations of
+the larger manuscript, the monks standing round me as I looked at the
+blue cypress-trees, and green and gold peacocks, and intricate<a name="page_309" id="page_309"></a>
+arabesques, so characteristic of the best times of Byzantine art. Many
+of the pages bore a great resemblance to the painted windows of the
+earlier Norman cathedrals of Europe. It was a superb old book: I laid it
+down upon the stone beside me and placed the little volume with its
+curious silver binding on the top of it, and it was with a sigh that I
+left them there with the sun shining on the curious silver ornaments.</p>
+
+<p>Amongst other arguments it had been asserted by some of the monks that
+nothing could be sold out of the monastery without the leave of the
+Bishop of Tricala, and, as a forlorn hope, they now proposed that the
+agoumenos should go to some place in the vicinity where the bishop was
+said to be, and that, if he gave permission, the two books should be
+forwarded immediately by a trusty man to the khan of Malacash, where I
+was to pass the night. I consented to this plan, although I had no hope
+of obtaining the manuscripts, as in the present unsettled state of the
+country the bishop would naturally calculate on the probability of the
+messenger being robbed, and on the improbability of his meeting me at
+the khan, as it would be absolutely necessary for me to leave the place
+before sunrise the next day.</p>
+
+<p>All this being arranged I proceeded to the chamber of the windlass, was
+put into the net, swung out into the air, and let down. They let me down
+very badly, being all talking and scolding each other; and had I<a name="page_310" id="page_310"></a> not
+made use of my hands and feet to keep myself clear of the projecting
+points of the rock I should have fared badly. To increase my perils, my
+friends the palicari at the bottom, to testify their joy at my
+re-appearance, rested their long guns across their knees and fired them
+off, without the slightest attention to the direction of the barrels,
+which were all loaded with ball-cartridge: the bullets spattered against
+the rock close to me, and in the midst of the smoke I came down and was
+caught in the arms of my affectionate thieves, who bundled me out of my
+net with many extraordinary screeches of welcome.</p>
+
+<p>When my servants arrived and informed them of our recent disappointment,
+"What!" cried they, "would they not let you take the books? Stop a bit,
+we will soon get them for you!" And away they ran to the series of
+ladders which hung down another part of the precipice: they would have
+been up in a minute, for they scrambled like cats; but by dint of
+running after them and shouting we at length got them to come back, and
+after some considerable expenditure of oaths and exclamations, kicking
+of horses, and loading of guns and saddle-bags, we found ourselves
+slowly winding our way back towards the valley of the Peneus.</p>
+
+<p>After all, what an interesting event it would have been, what a standard
+anecdote in bibliomaniac history, if I had let my friendly thieves have
+their own way, and we had stormed the monastery, broken open the<a name="page_311" id="page_311"></a> secret
+door of the library, pitched the old librarian over the rocks, and
+marched off in triumph, with a gorgeous manuscript under each arm!
+Indeed I must say that under such aggravating circumstances it required
+a great exercise of forbearance not to do so, and in the good old times
+many a castle has been attacked and many a town besieged and pillaged
+for much slighter causes of offence than those which I had to complain
+of.<a name="page_312" id="page_312"></a></p>
+
+<hr class="chpt" />
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI.</h3>
+
+<p class="chapter">Return Journey&mdash;Narrow Escape&mdash;Consequences of Singing&mdash;Arrival at
+the Khan of Malacash&mdash;Agreeable Anecdote&mdash;Parting from the Robbers
+at Mezzovo&mdash;A Pilau&mdash;Wet Ride to Paramathia&mdash;Accident to the
+Baggage-Mule&mdash;Its wonderful Escape&mdash;Novel Costume&mdash;A
+Deputation&mdash;Return to Corfu.</p>
+
+<p class="nind">W<span class="smcap">e</span> made our way from the plain and rocks of Meteora by a different path
+from the one by which we had arrived, and travelled along the north side
+of the valley of the Peneus; we kept along the side of the hills, which
+were covered sometimes with forest and sometimes with a kind of jungle
+or underwood.</p>
+
+<p>During the afternoon of this day, as I was singing away as usual in
+advance of my party, some one shouted to me from the thicket, but I took
+no notice of it. However, before I had ridden on many steps a man jumped
+out of the bush, seized hold of my horse's bridle, and proceeded to draw
+his pistol from his belt, but luckily the lock had got entangled in the
+shawl which he wore round his waist. I pushed my horse against him, and
+in a moment one of us would have been shot; when the appearance of three
+or four bright gun-barrels in the bushes close by stopped our
+proceedings. My men now came running up.<a name="page_313" id="page_313"></a></p>
+
+<p>"Hallo!" said one of them. "Is that you? You must not attack this
+gentleman. He is our friend; he is one of us."</p>
+
+<p>"What!" said the man who had stopped me; "Is that you, Mahommed? Is that
+you, Hassan? What are you doing here? How is this? Is this your friend?
+I thought he was a Frank."</p>
+
+<p>In short, they explained what kind of brotherhood we had entered into,
+where we had been, and where we were going, and all about it. I did not
+understand much of their conversation, and in the midst of it the
+Albanian came up to me with a reproachful air and told me that they said
+my being stopped was owing to my singing, and making such a noise. "Why,
+Sir," he added, "can't you ride quietly, without letting people know
+where you are? Why can't you do as others do, and be still, like a&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Thief," said I.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Sir; or like a quiet traveller. In such troublesome times as
+these, however honest a man may be, he need not try to excite
+attention."</p>
+
+<p>I felt that the advice was good, and practised it occasionally
+afterwards.</p>
+
+<p>In seven hours' time we arrived at the khan of Malacash, where I had
+slept before; and my carpet was spread in my old corner. I heard my
+companions talking earnestly about something, and on asking what it was,
+I was told that they could not make out<a name="page_314" id="page_314"></a> which room it was where the
+people had been murdered&mdash;this room or the outer one.</p>
+
+<p>"How was that?" I inquired.</p>
+
+<p>Why, some time ago, they said, a party of travellers, people belonging
+to the country, were attacked by robbers at this khan. One of the party,
+after he had been plundered, had the imprudence to say that he knew who
+the thieves were. Upon this the gang, after a short consultation, took
+the party out, one by one, and cut all their throats in the next room;
+and this was before the present disturbed state of the country.
+Nevertheless, I slept very soundly, my only sorrow being that no tidings
+came of the two manuscripts from Meteora.</p>
+
+<p><i>November 11th.</i>&mdash;In our journey of this day we crossed the chain of the
+Pindus by a different pass from the one by which we had traversed it
+before; and in the evening we arrived at Mezzovo, where I was lodged by
+a schoolmaster who had a comfortable house. The ceiling of the room
+where we sat was hung all over with bunches of dried or rather drying
+grapes. Here I presented each of my escort with a small bundle of
+piasters. We had become so much pleased with each other in the few days
+we had been together, that we had quite an affecting parting. Their
+chief, the red velvet personage from whom I had received the letter
+which gained me the pleasure of their company, was gone, it appeared,
+towards Berat; but<a name="page_315" id="page_315"></a> they had found some of their companions, with whom
+they intended to retire to some small place of defence, the name of
+which I did not make out, where in a few days they expected to be told
+what they were to do.</p>
+
+<p>"Why won't you come with us?" said they. "Don't go back to live in a
+confined, stupid town, to sit all day in a house, and look out of the
+window. Go back with us into the mountains, where we know every pass,
+every rock, and every waterfall: you should command us; we would get
+some more men together: we will go wherever you like, and a rare jolly
+life we will lead."</p>
+
+<p>"Gentlemen," said I, "I take your kind offers as highly complimentary to
+me; I am proud to think that I have gained so high a place in your
+estimation. When you see your captain, pray assure him of my friendship,
+and how much I feel indebted to him for having given me such gallant and
+faithful guards."</p>
+
+<p>The poor fellows were evidently sorry to leave me: one of them, the most
+active and gay of the whole party, seemed more than half inclined to
+cry; so, cordially shaking hands with them before the door of the
+schoolmaster of Mezzovo, we parted, with expressions of mutual goodwill.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank goodness they are gone!" said the little schoolmaster; "those
+palicari are all over the country now; some belong to one chief, some to
+another; some are for Mahmoud Pasha, and some against him; but<a name="page_316" id="page_316"></a> I don't
+know which party is the worst; they are all rogues, every one of them,
+when they have an opportunity&mdash;scamps! sad scamps! These are hard times
+for quiet, peaceably-disposed people. So now, Sir, we will come in, and
+lock the door, and make up the fire, for the nights are getting cold."</p>
+
+<p>The schoolmaster had a snug fireplace, with a good divan on each side of
+it, of blue cloth or baize. These divans came close up to the hearth,
+which, like the divans, was raised two feet above the floor. The good
+man brought out his little stores of preserves and marmalade. He was an
+old bachelor, and we soon made ourselves very comfortable, one on each
+side of the fire. We had a famous pilau, made by my "<i>artist</i>," and the
+schoolmaster gave us raisins to put in it&mdash;not that they are a necessary
+part of that excellent condiment, but he had not much else to give; so
+we flavoured the pilau with raisins, as if it had been a lamb, which, by
+the by, is the prince of Oriental dishes, and, when stuffed with
+almonds, raisins, pistachio nuts, rice, bread-crumbs, pepper and salt,
+and well roasted, is a dish to set before a king.</p>
+
+<p>The schoolmaster, judging of me by the company I kept, never suspected
+my literary pursuits, and was surprised when I asked him if he knew of
+anything in that line, and assured him that I had no objection to do a
+little business in the manuscript way. He said he knew of an old
+merchant who had a great many<a name="page_317" id="page_317"></a> books, and that to-morrow we would go and
+see them. Accordingly, the next day we went to see the merchant's house;
+but his collection was good for nothing; and after returning for an hour
+or two to the schoolmaster's hospitable mansion, we got into marching
+order, and defiled off the village green of Mezzovo.</p>
+
+<p>After fording the river thirty-nine times, as we had done before, our
+jaded steeds at last stood panting under the windows of the doctor at
+Yanina, whose comfortable house we had left only a few days before. I
+stayed at Yanina one day, but the Pasha could not see me to hear my
+account of the protection I had enjoyed from his firman. A messenger had
+arrived from Constantinople, and the report in the town was that the
+Pasha would lose his head or his pashalic if he did not put down the
+disturbances which had arisen in every part of his government. Some said
+he would escape by bribing the ministers of the Porte; but as I was no
+politician I did not trouble myself much on the subject His Highness,
+however, was good enough to send me word that he would give me any
+assistance that I needed. Accordingly, I asked for a teskéré for
+post-horses; and the next day galloped in ten hours to Paramathia. All
+day long the rain poured down in torrents, and I waded through the bed
+of the swollen stream, which usually served for a high-road, I do not
+know how many times. I was told the distance was about sixty miles; and
+it was one of the<a name="page_318" id="page_318"></a> hardest day's riding I ever accomplished; for there
+was nothing deserving the name of a road any part of the way; and the
+entire day was passed in tearing up and down the rocks or wading in the
+swollen stream. The rain and the cold compelled us and our horses to do
+our best: in a hot day we could never have accomplished it.</p>
+
+<p>Towards the afternoon, when we were, by computation, about twenty-five
+miles from Paramathia, as we were proceeding at a trot along a narrow
+ledge above a stream, the baggage-horse, or mule I think he was, whose
+halter was tied to the crupper of my horse, suddenly missed his footing,
+and fell over the precipice. He caught upon the edge with his fore-feet,
+the halter supported his head, and my horse immediately stopping, leant
+with all his might against the wall of rock which rose above us,
+squeezing my left leg between it and the saddle. The noise of the wind
+and rain, and the dashing of the torrent underneath, prevented my
+servants hearing my shouts for assistance. I was the last of the party;
+and I had the pleasure of seeing all my company trotting on, rising in
+their stirrups, and bumping along the road before me, unconscious of
+anything having occurred to check their progress towards the journey's
+end. It was so bad a day that no one thought of anything but getting on.
+Every man for himself was the order of the day. I could not dismount,
+because my left leg was squeezed so tightly against the<a name="page_319" id="page_319"></a> rock, that I
+every moment expected the bone to snap. My horse's feet were projected
+towards the edge of the precipice, and in this way he supported the
+fallen mule, who endeavoured to retain his hold with his chin and his
+fore-legs. There we were&mdash;the mule's eyeballs almost starting out of his
+head, and all his muscles quivering with the exertion. At last something
+cracked: the staple in the back of my saddle gave way; off flew the
+crupper, and I thought at first my horse's tail was gone with it. The
+baggage-mule made one desperate scrambling effort, but it was of no use,
+and down he went, over and over among the crashing bushes far beneath,
+until at length he fell with a loud splash into the waters of the
+stream. Some of the people hearing the noise made by the falling mule,
+turned round and came back to see what was the matter; and, horse and
+men, we all craned our necks over the edge to see what had become of our
+companion. There he was in the river, with nothing but his head above
+the water. With some difficulty we made our way down to the edge of the
+torrent. The mule kept looking at us very quietly all the while till we
+got close to him, when the muleteer proceeded to assist him by banging
+him on the head with a great branch of a tree, upon which he took to
+struggling and scrambling, and at last, to the surprise of all, came out
+apparently unhurt, at least with no bones broken. The men looked him
+over, walked him about, gave him<a name="page_320" id="page_320"></a> a kick or two by way of asking him how
+he was, and then placing his load upon him again, we pursued our
+journey.</p>
+
+<p>Before dark we arrived at Paramathia, and went straight to the house
+where we had been so hospitably received before. We crawled up like so
+many drowned rats into the upper rooms, where we were met by the whole
+troop of ladies giggling, screaming, and talking, as if they had never
+stopped since we left them a week before. When the baggage came to be
+undone, alas! what a wreck was there! The coffee and the sugar and the
+shirts had formed an amalgam; mud, shoes, and cambric handkerchiefs all
+came out together; not a thing was dry. The only consolation was that
+the beautiful illuminated manuscripts of Meteora had not participated in
+this dirty deluge.</p>
+
+<p>I was wet to the skin, and my boots were full of water. In this dilemma
+I asked if our hosts could not lend me something to put on until some of
+my own clothes could be dried. The ladies were full of pity and
+compassion; but unfortunately all the men were from home, not having
+returned from their daily occupations in the bazaar, and their clothes
+could not be got at. At last the good-humoured young bride, seeing that
+wherever I stood there was always, in a couple of minutes' time, a
+puddle upon the floor, entered into an animated consultation with the
+other ladies, and before long they brought me a shirt, and an immense<a name="page_321" id="page_321"></a>
+garment it was, like an English surplice, embroidered in gay colours
+down the seams. The fair bride contributed the white capote, which I
+remembered on my former visit, and a girdle. I soon donned this
+extempore costume. My wet clothes were taken to a great fire, which was
+lit for the purpose in another room, and I proceeded to dry my hair with
+a long narrow towel, its ends heavy with gold embroidery, which one of
+the ladies warmed far me, and twisted round my head in the way usual in
+the Turkish bath&mdash;a method of drying the head well known in most eastern
+towns, and which saves a great deal of trouble and exertion in rubbing
+and brushing according to the European method.</p>
+
+<p>I had ensconced myself in the corner of the divan, having nothing else
+in the way of clothes beyond what I have mentioned, and was employed in
+looking at one of my feet, which I had stuck out for the purpose,
+admiring it in all its pristine beauty, for there were no spare slippers
+to be had, when the curtain was suddenly lifted from over the door, and
+my servant rushed in and told me with a troubled voice, that the
+authorities of Paramathia, grieved at their remissness on the former
+occasion, had presented themselves to compliment me on my arrival in
+their town, and had brought me a present of tobacco or something, I
+forget what, in testimony of their anxiety to show their good-will and
+respect to so distinguished a personage as myself. "Don't let them in!"
+I exclaimed. "Tell them I<a name="page_322" id="page_322"></a> will receive them to-morrow. Say anything,
+but only keep them out." But this was more than my servants could
+accomplish. My friends at Corfu had sent letters explaining the
+prodigious honour conferred upon the whole province of Albania by my
+presence, so that nothing could stop them, and in walked a file of grave
+elders in long gowns, one or two in stately fur pelisses, which I envied
+them very much. They took very little notice of me, as I sat screwed up
+in the corner, and all, ranging themselves upon the divan on the
+opposite side of the room, sat in solemn silence, looking at me out of
+the corners of their eyes, whenever they thought they could do so
+without my perceiving it.</p>
+
+<p>My servant stood in the middle of the room to interpret; and after he
+had remained there a prodigious while, as it seemed to me, the most
+venerable of the old gentlemen at last said, "I am Signor Dimitri
+So-and-so; this is Signor Anastasi So-and-so; this gentleman is uncle to
+the master of the house; and so on. We are come to pay our respects to
+the noble and illustrious Englishman who passed through this place
+before. Pray have the goodness to signify our arrival to his Excellency,
+and say that we are waiting here to have the honour of offering him our
+services. Where is the respected milordos?" Although I could not speak
+Romaic, yet I understood it sufficiently to know what the old gentleman
+was saying; and great was their<a name="page_323" id="page_323"></a> surprise and admiration when they found
+that the unhappy and very insufficiently-clothed little fellow in the
+corner was the illustrious milordos himself. The said milordos had now
+to explain how all his baggage had been upset over a precipice, and that
+he was not exactly prepared to receive so distinguished a party. After
+mutual apologies, which ended in a good laugh all round, pipes and
+coffee were brought in. The visit of ceremony was concluded in as
+dignified a manner as circumstances would permit; and they went away
+convinced that I must be a very great man in my own country, as I did
+not get up more than a few inches to salute them, either on their entry
+or departure&mdash;a most undue assumption of dignity on my part which I
+sincerely regretted, but which the state of my costume rendered
+absolutely necessary.</p>
+
+<p><i>November 15th.</i>&mdash;The morning of the following day was bright and clear.
+I procured fresh horses, and galloped in six hours to the sea at
+Gominiza. A small vessel was riding at anchor near the shore, whose
+captain immediately closed with the offer of four dollars to carry me
+over to Corfu. I was soon on board; and, creeping into a small
+three-cornered hole under the half-deck, to which I gained access by a
+hatchway about a foot and a half square, I rolled myself up upon some
+ropes, and fell asleep at once. It seemed as if I had not been asleep an
+instant, when my servant, putting his head into the square aperture
+above, said, "Signore<a name="page_324" id="page_324"></a> siamo qui." "Yes," said I, "but where is that?
+What! are we really at Corfu?" I popped my head out of the trap, and
+there we were sure enough&mdash;my fatigue of the day before having made me
+sleep so soundly that I had been perfectly unconscious of the duration
+of the voyage; and I landed on the quay congratulating myself on having
+accomplished the most dangerous and most rapid expedition that it ever
+was my fortune to undertake.<a name="page_325" id="page_325"></a></p>
+
+<h3>MONASTERIES OF THE LEVANT.</h3>
+
+<h3 class="top5"><a name="PART_IV" id="PART_IV"></a>PART IV.</h3>
+
+<p class="wig">\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/</p>
+
+<h3 class="top5"><a name="THE_MONASTERIES_OF_MOUNT_ATHOS" id="THE_MONASTERIES_OF_MOUNT_ATHOS"></a>THE MONASTERIES OF MOUNT ATHOS.</h3>
+
+<p><a name="page_326" id="page_326"></a></p>
+
+<p><a name="page_327" id="page_327"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<a href="images/ill_344.jpg">
+<img src="images/ill_344_thumb.jpg" width="550" height="358" alt="THE NORTH WEST SIDE OF THE PROMONTORY OF MOUNT ATHOS,
+WITH A VIEW OF THE THE MONASTERY OF PANTOCRATORAS" title="THE NORTH WEST SIDE OF THE PROMONTORY OF MOUNT ATHOS,
+WITH A VIEW OF THE THE MONASTERY OF PANTOCRATORAS" /></a>
+<span class="caption">THE NORTH WEST SIDE OF THE PROMONTORY OF MOUNT ATHOS,
+WITH A VIEW OF THE THE MONASTERY OF PANTOCRATORAS</span>
+</div>
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII.</h3>
+
+<p class="chapter">Constantinople&mdash;The Patriarch's Palace&mdash;The Plague, Anecdotes,
+Superstitions&mdash;The Two Jews&mdash;Interview with the
+Patriarch&mdash;Ceremonies of Reception&mdash;The Patriarch's Misconception
+as to the Archbishop of Canterbury&mdash;He addresses a Firman to the
+Monks of Mount Athos&mdash;Preparations for Departure&mdash;The Ugly Greek
+Interpreter&mdash;Mode of securing his Fidelity.</p>
+
+<p class="nind">I <span class="smcap">had</span> been for some time enjoying the hospitality of Lord and Lady
+Ponsonby at the British palace at Therapia, when I determined to put
+into execution a project I had long entertained of examining the
+libraries in the monasteries of Mount Athos. As no traveller had been
+there since the days of Dr. Clarke, I could obtain but little
+information about the place before I left England. But the Archbishop of
+Canterbury was kind enough to give me a letter to the Patriarch of
+Constantinople, in which he requested him to furnish me with any
+facilities in his power in my researches among the Greek monasteries
+which owned his sway.</p>
+
+<p>Armed with this valuable document, one day in the spring of the year
+1837 I started in a caïque with<a name="page_328" id="page_328"></a> some gentlemen of the embassy, and
+proceeded to the palace of the Patriarch in the Fanar&mdash;a part of
+Constantinople situated between the ancient city wall and the port so
+well known by its name of the Golden Horn. The Fanar does not derive its
+appellation from the word fanar, a lantern or lighthouse, but from the
+two words <i>fena yer</i>, a bad place; for it is in a low, dirty situation,
+where only the conquered Greeks were permitted to reside immediately
+after the conquest of their metropolis by the Sultan Mahommed II. The
+palace is a large, dilapidated, shabby-looking building, chiefly of wood
+painted black; it stands in an open court or yard on a steep slope, and
+looks out over some lower houses to the Golden Horn and the hills of
+Pera and Galata beyond.<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p>
+
+<p>After waiting a little while in a large, dirty ante-room, during which
+time there was a scuffling and running up and down of priests and
+deacons, who were surprised and perhaps a little alarmed at a visit
+from<a name="page_329" id="page_329"></a> so numerous a company of gentlemen belonging to the British
+embassy, we were introduced into a large square room furnished with a
+divan under the windows and down two sides of the chamber. This divan
+was covered with a rough sacking of grey goats' hair&mdash;a stuff which is
+said not to be susceptible of the plague; and people sitting on it, or
+on the bare boards, are not considered to be "<i>compromised</i>"&mdash;a word of
+fearful import when that awful pestilence is raging in this neglected
+city. When any person is compromised, he is obliged to separate from all
+society, and to place himself in strict quarantine for forty days, at
+the end of which period, if the fright and anxiety have not brought on
+the plague, he is received again by his acquaintances. Dealers in oil,
+and persons who have an open issue on their bodies, are considered
+secure from the plague as far as they themselves are concerned; but as
+their clothes will convey the infection, they are as dangerous as others
+to their neighbours.</p>
+
+<p>There was an old Armenian, who, whether he considered himself
+invulnerable, or whether poverty and misfortune made him reckless, I do
+not know; but he set up as a plague-doctor, and visited and touched
+those who were stricken with the pestilence. Whenever he came down the
+street, every one would start aside and give him three or four yards'
+space at least. Sometimes he had men who walked before him and cried to
+the people to get out of the way. As the old<a name="page_330" id="page_330"></a> man moved on in his long,
+dark robes, shunned with such horror by all, the mind was awfully
+impressed with the fearful nature of the disease; for if the Prince of
+Darkness himself had made his appearance in the face of day, no one
+could have shown greater alarm at his approach than they did when the
+men cried out that the Armenian plague-doctor was coming down the
+street.</p>
+
+<p>One peculiarity of the disease is the disinclination which is always
+shown by those who are plague-stricken to confess that they are so, or
+even to own that they are ill. They invariably conceal it as long as
+possible; and even when burning with fever and in an agony of pain, they
+will pretend that they are well, and try to walk about. But this attempt
+at deception continues for a very short period, for they soon become
+either delirious or insensible, and generally are unable to move. There
+is a look about the eye and an expression of anxiety and horror in the
+face of one who has got the plague which is not to be mistaken nor
+forgotten by those who have once seen them. One day at Galata I nearly
+ran against a man who was sitting on the ground on a hand-bier, upon
+which some Turks were about to carry him away; and the look of the
+unfortunate man's face haunted me for days. The expression of hopeless
+despair and agony was indeed but too applicable to his case; they were
+going to carry him to the plague hospital, from whence I never<a name="page_331" id="page_331"></a> heard of
+any one returning. It would have been far more merciful to have shot him
+at once.</p>
+
+<p>There are many curious superstitions and circumstances connected with
+the plague. One is, that when the destroying angel enters into a house
+the dogs of the quarter assemble in the night and howl before the door;
+and the Greeks firmly believe that the dogs can see the evil spirit of
+the plague, although it is invisible to human eyes. Some people,
+however, are said to have seen the plague, its appearance being that of
+an old woman, tall, thin, and ghastly, and dressed sometimes in black,
+sometimes in white: she stalks along the streets&mdash;glides through the
+doors of the habitations of the condemned&mdash;and walks once round the room
+of her victim, who is from that moment death-smitten. It is also
+asserted that, when three small spots make their appearance upon the
+knee, the patient is doomed&mdash;he has got the plague, and his fate is
+sealed. They are called the pilotti&mdash;the pilots and harbingers of death.
+Some, however, have recovered after these spots have shown themselves.</p>
+
+<p>I had at this time a lodging in a house at Pera, which I occupied when
+anything brought me to Constantinople from Therapia. On one occasion I
+was sitting with a gentleman whose filial piety did him much honour, for
+he had attended his father through the horrors of this illness, and he
+had died of the plague in his arms, when we heard the dogs baying<a name="page_332" id="page_332"></a> in an
+unusual way.<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> On looking out of the window there they were all of a
+row, seated against the opposite wall, howling mournfully, and looking
+up at the houses in the moonlight. One dog looked very hard at me, I
+thought: I did not like it at all, and began to investigate whether I
+had not some pain or other about me; and this comfortable feeling was
+not diminished when my friend's Arab servant came into the room and said
+that another person who lodged in the house was very unwell; it was said
+that he had had a fall from his horse that morning. The dogs, though we
+escaped the plague ourselves, were right; the plague had got into one of
+the houses close to us in the same street; but how many died of it I did
+not learn.</p>
+
+<p>It was about this time that two Jews&mdash;extortioners, poor men, whom
+consequently nobody cared about&mdash;were walking together in a narrow
+street at Galata, when they both dropped down stricken with the plague:
+there they lay upon the ground; no one would touch them; and, as the
+street was extremely narrow, no one could pass that way; it was in
+effect blocked up by the two unhappy men. They did not die quickly. "The
+devil was sure of them," the charitable people said, "so he was in no
+hurry." There they lay a long time&mdash;many days; and people called to
+them, and put their heads round the corner<a name="page_333" id="page_333"></a> of the street to look at
+them. Some, tenderer-hearted than the rest, got a long pole from a
+dyer's shop hard by, and pushed a tub of water to them, and threw them
+some bread, for no one dared approach them. One Jew was quiet: he ate a
+little bread and drank some water, and lay still. The other was violent:
+the pain of his livid swellings drove him wild, and he shouted and raved
+and twisted about upon the ground. The people looked at him from the
+corner, and shuddered as they quickly drew back their heads. He died;
+and the other Jew still lay there, quiet as he was before, close to the
+quiet corpse of his poor friend. For some time they did not know whether
+he was dead or not; but at last they found he drank no more water and
+ate no more bread; so they knew that he had died also. There lay the two
+bodies in the way, till some one paid a hamal&mdash;a Turkish porter&mdash;who,
+being a stanch predestinarian, caring neither for plague, nor Jew, nor
+Gentile, dead or alive, carried off the two bodies on his back; and then
+the street was passable again.</p>
+
+<p>The Turks have a touching custom when the plague rages very greatly, and
+a thousand corpses are carried out daily from Stamboul through the
+Adrianople gate to the great groves of cypress which rise over the
+burial-grounds beyond the walls. At times of terror and grief, such as
+these, the Sheikh Ul Islam causes all the little children to be
+assembled on a beautiful green hill called the Oc Maidan&mdash;the Place of
+Arrows&mdash;and<a name="page_334" id="page_334"></a> there they bow down upon the ground, and raise their
+innocent voices in supplication to the Father of Mercy, and implore his
+compassion on the afflicted city!</p>
+
+<p>But the grey goats' hair divan of the Patriarch's hall of audience has
+led me a long way from the Patriarch himself, who entered the chamber
+shortly after our arrival. He appeared to be rather a young man,
+certainly not more than thirty-five years of age, with a reddish beard,
+which is uncommon in this country. He was dressed in purple silk robes,
+like a Greek bishop, and took his seat in the corner of the divan, and
+said nothing, and stroked his beard as a pasha might have done.</p>
+
+<p>When we had made our "téménahs," that is, salutations, and little bows,
+&amp;c., and were still again, the curtain over the doorway was pushed
+aside, and various priestly servants, all without shoes, came in, one of
+them bearing a richly embossed silver tray, on which were disposed small
+spoons filled with a preserve of lemon-peel; each of us took a spoonful,
+and returned the spoon to the dish. Then came various servants&mdash;as many
+servants as guests&mdash;and one presented to each of us a cut-glass cup with
+a lid, full of fresh spring-water. Then these disappeared; and others
+came in bearing pipes to each of us&mdash;a separate servant always coming in
+for each person of the company. After we had smoked our pipes for a
+short time, a mighty crowd<a name="page_335" id="page_335"></a> of attendants again entered at the bottom of
+the room, among whom was one with a tray, which was covered over with a
+satin shawl or cover as richly embroidered with gold as was possible for
+its size, and with a deep gold fringe. Another servant took off this
+covering, and placed it over the left shoulder of the tray-bearer, who
+stood like a statue all the while. Now appeared a man with a silver
+censer suspended by three silver chains, and having a coffee-pot
+standing upon the burning coals within it. Another man took off the cups
+which were upon the tray, filled them with coffee; and then various
+servants, each armed with a coffee-cup placed on its silver zarf or
+saucer, which he held in his left hand with his thumb and forefinger
+only, strode forward with one accord, and we all at the same moment were
+presented with our diminutive cup of coffee; the attendants received the
+empty cups with both hands, and, walking backwards, disappeared as
+silently as they came. All this is a scene of every-day occurrence in
+the East, and, with more or less of display, takes place in the house of
+every person of consideration.</p>
+
+<p>When we had smoked our pipes for a while, and all the servants had gone
+away, I presented the letter of the Archbishop of Canterbury. It was
+received in due form; and, after a short explanatory exordium, was read
+aloud to the Patriarch, first in English, and then translated into
+Greek.<a name="page_336" id="page_336"></a></p>
+
+<p>"And who," quoth the Patriarch of Constantinople, the supreme head and
+primate of the Greek Church of Asia&mdash;"who is the Archbishop of
+Canterbury?"</p>
+
+<p>"What?" said I, a little astonished at the question.</p>
+
+<p>"Who," said he, "is this Archbishop?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, the Archbishop of Canterbury."</p>
+
+<p>"Archbishop of <i>what</i>?" said the Patriarch.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Canterbury</i>," said I.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," said the Patriarch. "Ah! yes! and who is he?"</p>
+
+<p>Here all my English friends and myself were taken aback sadly; we had
+not imagined that the high-priest before us could be ignorant of such a
+matter as the one in question. The Patriarch of the Greek church, the
+successor of Gregory Nazianzen, St. John Chrysostom, and the heresiarch
+Nestorius, seemed not to be aware that there were any other
+denominations of Christians besides those of his own church and the
+Church of Rome. But the fact is that the Patriarch of Constantinople is
+merely the puppet of an intriguing faction of the Greek bankers and
+usurers of the Fanar, who select for the office some man of straw whom
+they feel secure they can rule, and whose appointment they obtain by a
+heavy bribe paid to the Sultan; for the head of the Christian Church is
+appointed by the Mahomedan Emperor!</p>
+
+<p>We explained, and said that the Archbishop of Canterbury was a man
+eminent for his great learning<a name="page_337" id="page_337"></a> and his Christian virtues; that he was
+the primate and chief of the great reformed Church of England, and a
+personage of such high degree, that he ranked next to the blood-royal;
+that from time immemorial the Archbishop of Canterbury was the great
+dignitary who placed the crown upon the head of our kings&mdash;those kings
+whose power swayed the destinies of Europe and of the world; and that
+this present Archbishop and Primate had himself placed the crown upon
+the head of King William IV., and that he would also soon crown our
+young Queen.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," replied the Patriarch, "but how is that? how can it happen that
+the head of your Church is only an Archbishop? whereas I, the Patriarch,
+command other patriarchs, and under them archbishops, archimandrites,
+and other dignitaries of the Church? How can these things be? I cannot
+write an answer to the letter of the Archbishop of&mdash;of&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Of Canterbury," said I.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes! of Canterbury; for I do not see how he who is only an archbishop
+can by any possibility be the head of a Christian hierarchy; but as you
+come from the British embassy I will give my letters as you desire,
+which will ensure your reception into every monastery which acknowledges
+the supremacy of the <i>orthodox</i> faith of the Patriarch of
+Constantinople."</p>
+
+<p>He then sent for his secretary, that I might give that functionary my
+name and designation. The<a name="page_338" id="page_338"></a> secretary accordingly appeared; and, although
+there are only six letters in my name, he set it down incorrectly nearly
+a dozen times, and then went away to his hole in a window, where he
+wrote curious little memoranda at the Patriarch's dictation, from which
+he drew up the firman which was sent me a few days afterwards, and which
+I found of great service in my visits to various monasteries. As few
+Protestants have been favoured with a document of this sort from the
+Primate of the Greek Church, I subjoin a translation of it. It will be
+perceived that it is written much in the style of the epistles of the
+early patriarchs to the archbishops and bishops of their provinces. To
+the requisitions contained in this firman it was incumbent upon those to
+whom it was addressed to pay implicit obedience.<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a><a name="page_339" id="page_339"></a></p>
+
+<p>My business being thus happily concluded with this learned personage, we
+all smoked away again for a short time in tranquil silence; and then the
+Universal Patriarch&mdash;for so he styles himself&mdash;clapped his hands, and in
+swarmed the whole tribe of silent, bare-footed priestly followers,
+bringing us sherbet in glass cups. Whilst we drank it, their reverences
+held the saucer under our chins: and when we had had enough, those who
+chose it wiped their lips and moustaches on a long, narrow towel, richly
+embroidered at the two ends with gold and bright-coloured silks. I
+prefer on these occasions my pocket-handkerchief, as the period at which
+these rich towels are washed is by no means a matter of certainty. We
+took our leave with the numerous bows and compliments, and went on our
+way rejoicing.</p>
+
+<p>My preparations for my expedition were soon made. I hired a Greek
+servant, whom I intended should serve as interpreter and factotum. He
+was a sharp, active man&mdash;as most Greeks are; and he had an intelligent<a name="page_340" id="page_340"></a>
+way of doing things, which pleased me; but he was an ugly, thin, little
+fellow, and his right eye had a curious obliquity of vision, which was
+not particularly calculated to inspire confidence. As nobody else was to
+accompany me, I made various inquiries about him, and, although I did
+not hear any particular harm of him, yet I failed to become acquainted
+with any good actions of his performance; and as I was going into a
+country which at that time was almost entirely unknown, and which had
+moreover an unpleasant celebrity for pirates, klephti, and other sorts
+of thieves, I felt that the moral character of my new follower was an
+important consideration; and that if I could prop up his honesty and
+fidelity by any artificial means, I might not be doing amiss.</p>
+
+<p>In a few days the firman or letter of the patriarch arrived, and I
+packed my things and got ready to start. Unknown to my servant I had
+caused a belt of wash-leather to be made, in which were numerous little
+divisions calculated to hold a good many pieces of gold without their
+jingling, and it had a long flap which buttoned down over the series of
+compartments. I had besides a large ostentatious purse, in which was a
+small sum for the expenses of the journey, and as I wished to have it
+supposed that I had but little cash, I made my Greek buy various things
+for me out of his own money. All being ready, we started in a caïque
+very early in the morning, and went down<a name="page_341" id="page_341"></a> the Bosphorus from Therapia to
+Stamboul, where we got on board a steamer. On handing up the things, my
+servant found that his box, in which were his new clothes and valuables,
+was missing&mdash;his bag only had come. "Good gracious!" said I, "was that
+the box with two straps?" "Yes," said he, "a handsome brown box, about
+so large." "Well," said I, "it is a most unfortunate thing; but when I
+saw that box in my room this morning I locked it up in the closet and
+told H&mdash;&mdash; not to give up the key of the door to anybody till I returned
+to the embassy again. How very unlucky! however, we shall soon be back,
+and you have biancheria enough in your bag for so short a journey as the
+one before us." We were soon under way, and passing the Seraglio Point
+stood down the swift current in the sea of Marmora, our luggage
+encumbering but a very small space upon the deck.<a name="page_342" id="page_342"></a></p>
+
+<hr class="chpt" />
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII.</h3>
+
+<p class="chapter">Coom Calessi&mdash;Uncomfortable Quarters&mdash;A Turkish Boat and its
+Crew&mdash;Grandeur of the Scenery&mdash;Legend of Jason and the Golden
+Fleece&mdash;The Island of Imbros&mdash;Heavy Rain Storm&mdash;A Rough
+Sea&mdash;Lemnos&mdash;Bad Accommodation&mdash;The Old Woman's Mattress and its
+Contents&mdash;Striking View of Mount Athos from the Sea&mdash;The Hermit of
+the Tower.</p>
+
+<p class="nind">O<span class="smcap">n</span> landing at Coom Calessi, the European castle of the Dardanelles, I
+found that there was no inn or hotel in the place; but it appeared that
+the British consul, who lived on the top of the hill two miles off, had
+built a new house in the town for purposes of business, and upon the
+payment of a perquisite to the Jew who acted as his factotum, I was
+presently installed in the new house, which, as houses go in this
+country, was clean and good, but not a scrap of furniture was there in
+it, not even a pipkin or a casserole&mdash;it was as empty as any house could
+be. I sent my man out into the bazaar and we got some cabobs and yaourt
+and salad, and various flaps of bread, and managed so far pretty well,
+and then we went to the port, and after much waste of time and breath I
+engaged a curious-looking boat belonging to a Turk, who by the by was
+the only Turkish sailor I ever had anything to<a name="page_343" id="page_343"></a> do with, as the seamen
+are generally Greeks; and then I returned to my house to sleep, for we
+were not to set out on our voyage till sunrise the next morning. The
+sleeping was a more difficult affair than the dinner, for after the beds
+at the embassy the boards did seem supernaturally hard; but I spread all
+my property on the floor, and lying down on it flat on my back, out of
+compassion to my hips, I got through the night at last.</p>
+
+<p>All men were up and about in the Turkish town of Coom Calessi as soon as
+the sun tinged the hills of Olympus, and the gay boat in which I was to
+sail was bounding up and down on the bright transparent waves by the
+sandy shore. The long-bearded captain sat on a half deck with the tiller
+under his arm; he neither moved nor said a word when I came on board,
+and before the god of day arose in his splendour over the famous plains
+of Troy my little boat was spreading its white wings before the morning
+wind. Every moment more and more lovely scenes opened to my delighted
+eyes among the rocky and classic islands of the Archipelago. How fair
+and beautiful is every part of that most favoured land! how fresh the
+breezes on that poetic sea! how magnificent the great precipices of the
+rocky island of Samotraki seemed as they loomed through the decreasing
+distance in the morning sun! But no words, no painting can describe this
+glorious region.<a name="page_344" id="page_344"></a></p>
+
+<p>I had hired my grave sailors to take me to Lemnos, but the wind did not
+serve, so we steered for Imbros, where we arrived in the afternoon. My
+boat was an original-looking vessel to an English eye, with a high bow
+and stem covered with bright brass; over the rudder there hung a long
+piece of network ornamented with blue glass beads: flowers and
+arabesques were carved on the boards at each end of the vessel, which
+had one low mast with a single sail. It is the national belief in
+England that ugliness is the necessary concomitant of utility, but for
+my own part I confess that I delight in redundant ornament, and I liked
+my old boat the better and was convinced that it did not sail a bit the
+worse because it was pleasing to the eye.</p>
+
+<p>We rowed away towards Imbros, and passed in our course a curious line of
+waves, which looked like a straight whirlpool, if such an epithet may be
+used; for where the mighty stream of the Dardanelles poured forth into
+the Egean Sea, the two waters did not immediately mix together, but
+rolled the one over the other in a long line which seemed as if it would
+suck down into its snaky vortex anything which approached it. It was not
+dangerous, however, for we rowed along it and across it; but still it
+had a look about it which made me feel rather glad than sorry when we
+had lost sight of its long, straight, curling line of waves.</p>
+
+<p>As I sat in my beautifully-shaped and ornamented boat, which looked like
+those represented in antique<a name="page_345" id="page_345"></a> sculptures, with its high stem and lofty
+prow, I thought how little changed things were in these latitudes since
+the brave Captain Jason passed this way in the good ship Argo; and if an
+old author who wrote on the Hermetic philosophy may be taken as
+authority, that worthy's errand was much the same as mine; for he
+maintains that the golden fleece was no golden fleece at all, "for who,"
+says he, like a sensible man, "ever saw a sheep of gold?" But what Jason
+sought was a famous volume written in golden letters upon the skins of
+sheep, wherein was described the whole science of alchemy, and that the
+man who should possess himself of that inestimable volume should conquer
+the green dragon, and being able by help of the grand magisterium to
+transmute all metals, and draw from the alembic the precious drops of
+the elixir vitæ, men and nations and languages would bow down before him
+as the prince of the pleasures of this world.</p>
+
+<p>In the afternoon we arrived at the island of Imbros. The Turkish pilot
+would go no farther, for he said there would be a storm. I saw no
+appearance of the kind, but it was of no use talking to him; he had made
+up his mind, so we drew the boat up on the sand in a little sheltered
+bay, and making a tent of the sail, the sailors lit a fire and sat down
+and smoked their pipes with all that quietness and decorum which is so
+characteristic of their nation. I wandered about the island, but saw
+neither man nor habitation. I<a name="page_346" id="page_346"></a> shot at divers rock-partridges with a
+rifle and hit none; nevertheless towards evening we cooked up a savoury
+mess, whereof the old bearded Turk and his grave crew ate also, but
+sparingly: I then curled myself up in a corner inside the boat under the
+sail, and took to reading a volume of Sir Walter Scott's poems.</p>
+
+<p>I was deep in his romantic legends when of a sudden there came a roar of
+thunder and such quick bright flashes of sharp lightning that the
+mountains seemed on fire. Down came the rain in waterfalls, and in went
+Walter Scott and all his chivalry into the first safe hiding-place I
+could find. The crew had got under a projecting rock, and I had the boat
+to myself; the rain did not come in much, and the rattle of the thunder
+by degrees died away among the surrounding hills. The rain continued to
+pour down steadily and the fire on the beach went out, but my berth was
+snug enough, and the dull monotonous sound of the splashing rain and the
+dashing of the breakers on the shore soon lulled me to sleep, and I was
+more comfortable than I had been the night before in the bare, empty
+house at Coom Calessi.</p>
+
+<p>Very early in the morning I peeped out; the rain was gone and the sun
+shone brightly; all the Turks were up smoking their eternal pipes, so I
+asked the old captain when we should be off. "There is too much wind,"
+was his laconic reply. We were in a sheltered place, so we felt no wind,
+but on the other side of a<a name="page_347" id="page_347"></a> rocky headland we could see the sea running
+like a cataract towards the south, although it was as smooth as glass in
+our bay. We got through breakfast, and for the sake of the partridges I
+repented that I had brought no shot. At last the men began righting the
+boat and getting things ready, doing everything as quietly and
+deliberately as usual, and scarcely saying a word to each other. In
+course of time the captain sat himself down by the rudder, and beckoning
+to me with his hand he took the pipe out of his mouth and said "Gel"
+(come). I came, and away we went smoothly with the help of two or three
+oars till we rounded the rocky headland, and then all at once we drifted
+into the race, and began dancing, and leaping, and staggering before the
+breeze in a way I never saw before nor since. Like the goats, from whom
+this sea is said to have been named, we leaped from the summit of one
+wave to that of the next, and seemed hardly to touch the water. We had
+up a small sail, and we sat still and steady at the bottom of the
+vessel. Never had I conceived the possibility of a boat scampering along
+before the wind at such a rate as this. My man crossed himself. I looked
+up at the old pilot, but he went on quietly smoking his pipe with his
+finger on the bowl to keep the ashes from being blown away. It was a
+marvel to me with what exactness he touched the helm just at the right
+instant, for it seemed as if we had sixty narrow escapes every minute,
+but the old man did not<a name="page_348" id="page_348"></a> stir an inch. Gallantly we dashed, and skipped,
+and bounded along. What a famous lively little boat it was, yet it was
+carved and gilt and as pretty as anything could be! We were soon running
+down the west coast of Lemnos, where the surf was lashing the precipice
+in fury with an angry roar that resounded far out to sea: then of a
+sudden we rounded a sharp point and shot into such smooth water so
+instantaneously that one could scarcely believe that the blue waves of
+the Holy Sea, <span title="Agios pelagos">&#913;&#947;&#953;&#959;&#962; &#960;&#949;&#955;&#945;&#947;&#959;&#962;</span>, as the Greeks call
+it still, could be the same as the furious and frenzied ocean out of
+which we had darted like an arrow from a bow.</p>
+
+<p>We had a long row in the hot sun along the sheltered coast till we
+landed at a rotten wooden pier before the chief city or rather the dirty
+village of the Lemnians. I had a letter to a gentleman who was sent by a
+merchant of Constantinople to collect wool upon this island; so to him I
+bent my way, hooted at by some Lemnian women, the worthy descendants
+probably of those fair dames who have gained a disagreeable immortality
+by murdering their husbands. Here it was that Vulcan broke his leg, and
+no wonder, for a more barren, rocky place no one could have been kicked
+down into. My friend of the woolpacks, who was a Frenchman, was very
+kind and civil, only he had nothing to offer me beyond the bare house,
+like the consul's Jew at the Dardanelles, so I walked about and looked
+at nothing, which was all there was to see,<a name="page_349" id="page_349"></a> whilst my servant hired a
+little square-rigged brig to take me next day to Mount Athos.</p>
+
+<p>After dinner I made inquiries of my host what he had in the way of bed.
+His answer was specific. There was no bed, no mattress, no divan; sheets
+were unknown things, and the wool he did not recommend. But at last I
+was told of a mattress which an old woman next door was possessed of,
+and which she sometimes let out to strangers; and in an evil hour I sent
+for it. That treacherous bed and its clean white coverlet will never be
+forgotten by me. I laid down upon it and in one minute was fast
+asleep&mdash;the next I started up a perfect Marsyas. Never until that day
+had I any idea of what fleas could do. So simultaneous and well
+conducted was their attack that I was bitten all over from top to toe at
+the first assault. They evidently were delighted at the unexpected
+change of diet from a grim, skinny old woman to a well-fed traveller
+fresh from the table of the embassy. I examined the white coverlet&mdash;it
+was actually brown with fleas. I threw away my clothes, and taking
+desperate measures to get rid of some myriads of my assailants, I ran
+out of the room and put on a dressing-gown in the outer hall, at the
+window of which I sat down to cool the fever of my blood. I half
+expected to see the fleas open the door and march in after me, as the
+rats did after Bishop Hatto on his island in the Rhine; but fortunately
+the villains did<a name="page_350" id="page_350"></a> not venture to leave their mattress. There I sat,
+fanning myself in the night air and bathing my face and limbs in water
+till the sun rose, when with a doleful countenance I asked my way to a
+bath. I found one, and went into the hot inner room with nothing on but
+a towel round my waist and one on my head, as the custom is. There was
+no one else there, and when the bath man came in he started back with
+horror, for he thought I had got that most deadly kind of plague which
+breaks out in an eruption and carries off the patient in a few hours.
+When it was explained to him how I had fallen into the clutches of these
+Lemnian fleas, he proceeded to rub me and soap me according to the
+Turkish fashion, and wonderfully soothing and comforting it was.</p>
+
+<p>As there was a rumour of pirates in these seas, the little brig would
+not sail till night, and I passed the day dozing in the shade out of
+doors; when evening came I crept down to the port, went on board, and
+curled myself up in the hole of a cabin among ropes and sails, and went
+to sleep at once, and did not wake again till we arrived within a short
+distance of the most magnificent mountain imaginable, rising in a peak
+of white marble ten thousand feet straight out of the sea. It was a
+lovely fresh morning, so I stood with half of my body out of the
+hatchway enjoying the glorious prospect, and making my toilette with the
+deck for a dressing-table, to the<a name="page_351" id="page_351"></a> great admiration of the Greek
+crew, who were a perfect contrast to my former Turkish friends, for they
+did nothing but lounge about and chatter, and give orders to each other,
+every one of them appearing unwilling to do his own share of the work.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 452px;">
+<a href="images/ill_363.jpg">
+<img src="images/ill_363_thumb.jpg" width="452" height="550" alt="GREEK SAILOR." title="GREEK SAILOR." /></a>
+<span class="caption">GREEK SAILOR.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>We steered for a tall square tower which stood on a projecting marble
+rock above the calm blue sea at the S.E. corner of the peninsula; and
+rounding a small cape we turned into a beautiful little port or harbour,
+the entrance of which was commanded by this tower and by one or two
+other buildings constructed for defence at the foot of it, all in the
+Byzantine style of architecture. The quaint half-Eastern half-Norman
+architecture of the little fortress, my outlandish vessel, the brilliant
+colours of the sailors' dresses, the rich vegetation and great tufts of
+flowers which grew in crevices of the white marble, formed altogether
+one of the most picturesque scenes it was ever my good fortune to
+behold, and which I always remember with pleasure. We saw no one, but
+about a mile off there was the great monastery of St. Laura standing
+above us among the trees on the side of the mountain, and this
+delightful little bay was, as the sailors told us, the scarricatojo or
+landing-place for pilgrims who were going to the monastery.</p>
+
+<p>We paid off the vessel, and my things were landed on the beach. It was
+not an operation of much labour, for my effects consisted principally of
+an enormous pair<a name="page_352" id="page_352"></a> of saddle-bags, made of a sort of carpet, and which
+are called khourges, and are carried by the camels in Arabia; but there
+was at present mighty little in them: nevertheless, light as they were,
+their appearance would have excited a feeling of consternation in the
+mind of the most phlegmatic mule. After a brisk chatter on the part of
+the whole crew, who, with abundance of gesticulations, all talked at
+once, they got on board, and towing the vessel out by means of an
+exceeding small boat, set sail, and left me and my man and the
+saddle-bags high and dry upon the shore. We were somewhat taken by
+surprise at this sudden departure of our marine, so we sat upon two
+stones for a while to think about it. "Well," said I, "we are at Mount
+Athos; so suppose you walk up to the monastery, and get some mules or
+monks, or something or other to carry up the saddle-bags. Tell them the
+celebrated Milordos Inglesis, the friend of the Universal Patriarch, is
+arrived, and that he kindly intends to visit their monastery; and that
+he is a great ally of the Sultan's, and of all the captains of all the
+men of war that come down the Archipelago: and," added I, "make haste
+now, and let us be up at the monastery lest our friends in the brig
+there should take it into their heads to come back and cut our throats."</p>
+
+<p>Away he went, and I and the saddle-bags remained<a name="page_353" id="page_353"></a> below. For some time I
+solaced myself by throwing stones into the water, and then I walked up
+the path to look about me, and found a red mulberry-tree with fine ripe
+mulberries on it, of which I ate a prodigious number in order to pass
+away the time. As I was studying the Byzantine tower, I thought I saw
+something peeping out of a loophole near the top of it, and, on looking
+more attentively, I saw it was the head of an old man with a long grey
+beard, who was gazing cautiously at me. I shouted out at the top of my
+voice, "Kalemera sas, ariste, kalemera sas (good day to you, sir); ora
+kali sas (good morning to you); <span title="tou dapomeibomenos">&#964;&#959;&#965;
+&#948;&#7937;&#960;&#959;&#956;&#949;&#953;&#946;&#959;&#956;&#949;&#957;&#959;&#962;</span>;" he answered in return, "Kalos orizete?" (how do you
+do?) So I went up to the tower, passed over a plank that served as a
+drawbridge across a chasm, and at the door of a wall which surrounded
+the lower buildings stood a little old monk, the same who had been
+peeping out of the loophole above. He took me into his castle, where he
+seemed to be living all alone in a Byzantine lean-to at the foot of the
+tower, the window of his room looking over the port beneath. This room
+had numerous pegs in the wall, on which were hung dried herbs and
+simples; one or two great jars stood in the corner, and these and a
+small divan formed all his household furniture. We began to talk in
+Romaic, but I was not very strong in that language, and presently stuck
+fast. He<a name="page_354" id="page_354"></a> showed me over the tower, which contained several groined
+vaulted rooms one above another, all empty. From the top there was a
+glorious view of the islands and the sea. Thought I to myself, this is a
+real, genuine, unsophisticated live hermit; he is not stuffed like the
+hermit at Vauxhall, nor made up of beard and blankets like those on the
+stage; he is a genuine specimen of an almost extinct race. What would
+not Walter Scott have given for him? The aspect of my host and his
+Byzantine tower savoured so completely of the days of the twelfth
+century, that I seemed to have entered another world, and should hardly
+have been surprised if a crusader in chain-armour had entered the room
+and knelt down before the hermit's feet The poor old hermit observing me
+looking about at all his goods and chattels, got up on his divan, and
+from a shelf reached down a large rosy apple, which he presented to me;
+it was evidently the best thing he had, and I was touched when he gave
+it to me. I took a great bite: it was very sour indeed; but what was to
+be done? I could not bear to vex the old man, so I went on eating a
+great deal of it, although it brought the tears into my eyes.</p>
+
+<p>We now heard a holloing and shouting, which portended the arrival of the
+mules, and, bidding adieu to the old hermit of the tower, I mounted a
+mule; the others were lightly loaded with my effects, and we<a name="page_355" id="page_355"></a> scrambled
+up a steep rocky path through a thicket of odoriferous evergreen shrubs,
+our progress being assisted by the screams and bangs inflicted by
+several stout acolytes, a sort of lay-brethren, who came down with the
+animals from the convent.<a name="page_356" id="page_356"></a></p>
+
+<hr class="chpt" />
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV.</h3>
+
+<p class="chapter">Monastery of St. Laura&mdash;Kind Reception by the Abbot&mdash;Astonishment
+of the Monks&mdash;History of the Monastery&mdash;Rules of the Order of St.
+Basil&mdash;Description of the Buildings&mdash;Curious Pictures of the Last
+Judgment&mdash;Early Greek Paintings; Richness of their Frames and
+Decorations&mdash;Ancient Church Plate&mdash;Beautiful Reliquary&mdash;The
+Refectory&mdash;The Abbot's Savoury Dish&mdash;The Library&mdash;The MSS.&mdash;Ride to
+the Monastery of Caracalla&mdash;Magnificent Scenery.</p>
+
+<p class="nind">W<span class="smcap">e</span> soon emerged upon a flat piece of ground, and there before us stood
+the great monastery of</p>
+
+<p class="c lrg">ST. LAURA.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 64px;">
+<img src="images/ill_356.png" width="64" height="89" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>It appeared like an ancient fortress, surrounded with high blank walls,
+over the tops of which were seen numerous domes and pinnacles, and
+odd-shaped roofs and cypress-trees, all jumbled together. In some places
+one of those projecting windows, which are called shahneshin at
+Constantinople, stood out from the great encircling wall at a
+considerable height above the ground; and in front of the entrance was a
+porch in the Byzantine style, consisting of four marble columns,
+supporting a dome; in this porch stood the agoumenos, backed by a great
+many of the brethren. My servant had, doubtless, told him what an
+extraordinarily great personage he was to expect, for he received me<a name="page_357" id="page_357"></a>
+with great deference; and after the usual bows and compliments the dark
+train of Greek monks filed in through the outer and two inner iron
+gates, in a sort of procession, with which goodly company I proceeded to
+the church, which stood in the middle of the great court-yard. We went
+up to the screen of the altar, and there everybody made bows, and said
+"Kyrie eleison," which they repeated as quickly and in as high a key as
+they could. We then came out of the church, and the agoumenos, taking me
+by the hand, led me up divers dark wooden staircases, until we came into
+a large cheerful room well furnished in the Turkish style, and having
+one of the projecting windows which I had seen from the outside. In this
+room, which the agoumenos told me I was to consider as my own, we had
+coffee. I then presented the letter of the patriarch; he read it with
+great respect, and said I was welcome to remain in the monastery as long
+as I liked; and after various compliments given and received he left me;
+and I found myself comfortably installed in one of the grand&mdash;and, as
+yet, unexplored&mdash;monasteries of the famous sanctuary of Mount Athos:
+better known in the Levant by the appellation of <span title="Agios Oros">&#913;&#947;&#953;&#959;&#957; &#927;&#961;&#959;&#962;</span>, or, as the Italian hath it, Monte Santo.</p>
+
+<p>Before long I received visits from divers holy brethren, being those who
+held offices in the monastery under my lord the agoumenos, and there was
+no end to the civilities which passed between us. At last<a name="page_358" id="page_358"></a> they all
+departed, and towards evening I went out and walked about; those monks
+whom I met either opening their eyes and mouths, and standing still, or
+else bowing profoundly and going through the whole series of
+gesticulations which are practised towards persons of superior rank; for
+the poor monks never having seen a stranger before, or at least a Frank,
+did not know what to make of me, and according to their various degrees
+of intellect treated me with respect or astonishment. But Greek monks
+are not so ill-mannered as an English mob, and therefore they did not
+run after me, but only stared and crossed themselves as the unknown
+animal passed by.</p>
+
+<p>I will now, from the information I received from the monks and my own
+observation, give the best account I can of this extensive and curious
+monastery. It was founded by an Emperor Nicephorus, but what particular
+Nicephorus he was nobody knew. Nicephorus, the treasurer, got into
+trouble with Charlemagne on one side, and Haroun al Raschid on the
+other, and was killed by the Bulgarians in 811. Nicephorus Phocas was a
+great captain, a mighty man of valour; who fought with everybody, and
+frightened the Caliph at the gates of Bagdad, but did good to no one;
+and at length became so disagreeable that his wife had him murdered in
+969. Nicephorus Botoniates, by the help of Alexius Comnenus, caught and
+put out the eyes of his rival Nicephorus Bryennius, whose<a name="page_359" id="page_359"></a> son married
+that celebrated blue-stocking Anna Comnena. However, Nicephorus
+Botoniates having quarrelled with Alexius Comnenus, that great man
+kicked him out and reigned in his stead, and Botoniates took refuge in
+this monastery, which, as I make out, he had founded some time before.
+He came here about the year 1081, and took the vows of a kaloyeri, or
+Greek monk.</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 142px;">
+<img src="images/ill_359.jpg"
+style="clear:both;" width="100" height="387" alt="&#960;&#945;&#964;&#961;&#951;&#950;&#945;" title="&#960;&#945;&#964;&#961;&#951;&#950;&#945;" />
+<span class="caption"><span title="tokmak">&#960;&#945;&#964;&#961;&#951;&#950;&#945;</span></span>
+</div>
+
+<p>This word kaloyeri means a good old man. All the monks of Mount Athos
+follow the rule of St. Basil: indeed, all Greek monks are of this order.
+They are ascetics, and their discipline is most severe: they never eat
+meat, fish they have on feast-days; but on fast-days, which are above a
+hundred in the year, they are not allowed any animal substance or even
+oil; their prayers occupy eight hours in the day, and about two during
+the night, so that they never enjoy a real night's rest. They never sit
+down during prayer, but as the services are of extreme length they are
+allowed to rest their arms on the elbows of a sort of stalls without
+seats, which are found in all Greek churches, and at other times they
+lean on a crutch. A crutch of this kind, of silver, richly ornamented,
+forms the patriarchal staff:<a name="page_360" id="page_360"></a> it is called the patritza, and answers to
+the crosier of the Roman bishops. Bells are not used to call the
+fraternity to prayers, but a long piece of board, suspended by two
+strings, is struck with a mallet. Sometimes, instead of the wooden
+board, a piece of iron, like part of the tire of a wheel, is used for
+this purpose. Bells are rung only on occasions of rejoicing, or to show
+respect to some great personage, and on the great feasts of the church.</p>
+
+<p>The accompanying sketches will explain the forms of the patriarchal
+staff, the board, and the iron bar.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 374px;">
+<img src="images/ill_360_a.png" width="374" height="91" alt="&#964;&#959;&#954;&#956;&#945;&#954;, a hammer, in Turkish." title="&#964;&#959;&#954;&#956;&#945;&#954;, a hammer, in Turkish." />
+<span class="caption">&#964;&#959;&#954;&#956;&#945;&#954;, a hammer, in Turkish.</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 315px;">
+<img src="images/ill_360_b.png" width="315" height="85" alt="&#964;&#959;&#954;&#956;&#945;&#954;, a hammer, in Turkish." title="&#964;&#959;&#954;&#956;&#945;&#954;, a hammer, in Turkish." />
+</div>
+
+<p>The latter are called in Romaic <span title="sêmandros">&#963;&#951;&#956;&#945;&#957;&#948;&#961;&#959;&#962;</span>, a word
+derived from <span title="sêmasoktoumai">&#963;&#951;&#956;&#945;&#963;&#959;&#954;&#964;&#959;&#965;&#956;&#945;&#953;</span>, to gather together.</p>
+
+<p>According to Johannes Comnenus, who visited Mount Athos in 1701, and
+whose works are quoted in Montfaucon, 'Paleographia Græca,' page 452,
+St. Laura was founded by Nicephorus Phocas, and restored<a name="page_361" id="page_361"></a> by Neagulus,
+Waywode of Bessarabia. The buildings consist of a thick and lofty wall
+of stone, which encompasses an irregular space of ground of between
+three and four acres in extent; there is only one entrance, a crooked
+passage defended by three separate iron doors; the front of the building
+on the side of the entrance extends about five hundred feet. There is no
+attempt at external architecture, but only this plain wall; the few
+windows which look out from it belong to rooms which are built of wood
+and project over the top of the wall, being supported upon strong beams
+like brackets. At the south-west corner of the building there is a large
+square tower, which formerly contained a printing-press: but this press
+was destroyed by the Turkish soldiers during the late Greek revolution;
+and at the same time they carried off certain old cannons, which stood
+upon the battlements, but which were more for show than use, for the
+monks had never once ventured to fire them off during the long period
+they had been there; and my question, as to when they were brought there
+originally, was answered by the universal and regular answer of the
+Levant, "<span title="ti exebzo">&#964;&#953; &#949;&#958;&#949;&#946;&#950;&#959;</span>&mdash;Qui sa?&mdash;who knows?" The interior
+of the monastery consists of several small courts and two large open
+spaces surrounded with buildings, which have open galleries of wood or
+stone before them, by means of which entrance is gained into the various
+apartments, which now afford lodging for<a name="page_362" id="page_362"></a> one hundred and twenty monks,
+and there is room for many more. These two large courts are built
+without any regularity, but their architecture is exceedingly curious,
+and in its style closely resembles the buildings erected in
+Constantinople between the fifth and the twelfth century: a sort of
+Byzantine, of which St. Marc's in Venice is the finest specimen in
+Europe. It bears some affinity to the Lombardic or Romanesque, only it
+is more Oriental in its style; the chapel of the ancient palace of
+Palermo is more in the style of the buildings on Mount Athos than
+anything else in Christendom that I remember; but the ceilings of that
+chapel are regularly arabesque, whereas those on Mount Athos are flat
+with painted beams, like the Italian basilicas, excepting where they are
+arched or domed; and in those cases there is little or no mosaic, but
+only coarse paintings in fresco representing saints in the conventional
+Greek style of superlative ugliness.</p>
+
+<p>In the centre of each of these two large courts stands a church of
+moderate size, each of which has a porch with thin marble columns before
+the door; the interior walls of the porches are covered with paintings
+of saints and also of the Last Judgment, which, indeed, is constantly
+seen in the porch of every church. In these pictures, which are often of
+immense size, the artists evidently took much more pains to represent
+the uncouthness of the devils than the<a name="page_363" id="page_363"></a> beauty of the angels, who, in
+all these ancient frescos, are a very hard-favoured set. The chief devil
+is very big; he is the hero of the scene, and is always marvellously
+hideous, with a great mouth and long teeth, with which he is usually
+gnawing two or three sinners, who, to judge from the expression of his
+face, must be very nauseous articles of food. He stands up to his middle
+in a red pool which is intended for fire, and wherein numerous little
+sinners are disporting themselves like fish in all sorts of attitudes,
+but without looking at all alarmed or unhappy. On one side of the
+picture an angel is weighing a few in a pair of scales, and others are
+capering about in company with some smaller devils, who evidently lead a
+merry life of it. The souls of the blessed are seated in a row on a long
+hard bench very high up in the picture; these are all old men with
+beards; some are covered with hair, others richly clothed, anchorites
+and princes being the only persons elevated to the bench. They have good
+stout glories round their heads, which in rich churches are gilt, and in
+the poorer ones are painted yellow, and look like large straw hats.
+These personages are severe and grim of countenance, and look by no
+means comfortable or at home; they each hold a large book, and give you
+the idea that except for the honour of the thing they would be much
+happier in company with the wicked little sinners and merry imps in the
+crimson lake below. This<a name="page_364" id="page_364"></a> picture of the Last Judgment is as much
+conventional as the portraits of the saints; it is almost always the
+same, and a correct representation of a part of it is to be seen in the
+last print of the rare volume of the Monte Santo di Dio, which contains
+the three earliest engravings known: it would almost appear that the
+print must have been copied from one of these ancient Greek frescos. It
+is difficult to conceive how any one, even in the dark ages, can have
+been simple enough to look upon these quaint and absurd paintings with
+feelings of religious awe; but some of the monks of the Holy Mountain do
+so even now, and were evidently scandalized when they saw me smile. This
+is, however, only one of the numberless instances in which, owing to the
+differences of education and circumstances, men look upon the same thing
+with awe or pity, with ridicule or veneration.<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a><a name="page_365" id="page_365"></a></p>
+
+<p>The interior of the principal church in this monastery is interesting
+from the number of early Greek pictures which it contains, and which are
+hung on the walls of the apsis behind the altar. They are almost all in
+silver frames, and are painted on wood; most of them are small, being
+not more than one or two feet square; the back-ground of all of them is
+gilt; and in many of them this back-ground is formed of plates of silver
+or gold. One small painting is ascribed to St. Luke, and several have
+the frames set with jewels, and are of great antiquity. In front of the
+altar, and suspended from the two columns nearest to the <span title="ikonostasis">&#953;&#954;&#959;&#957;&#959;s&#964;&#945;&#963;&#953;&#962;</span>&mdash;the screen which, like the veil of the temple,
+conceals the holy of holies from the gaze of the profane&mdash;are two
+pictures larger than the rest: the one represents our Saviour, the other
+the Blessed Virgin. Except the faces they are entirely covered over with
+plates of silver-gilt; and the whole of both pictures, as well as their
+frames, is richly ornamented with a kind of coarse golden filigree, set
+with large turquoises, agates, and cornelians. These very curious
+productions of early art were presented to the monastery by the Emperor
+Andronicus Paleologus, whose portrait, with that of his Empress, is
+represented on the silver frame.<a name="page_366" id="page_366"></a></p>
+
+<p>The floor of this church, and of the one which stands in the centre of
+the other court, is paved with rich coloured marbles. The relics are
+preserved in that division of the church which is behind the altar;
+their number and value is much less than formerly, as during the
+revolution, when the Holy Mountain was under the rule of Aboulabout
+Pasha, he squeezed all he could out of the monks of this and all the
+other monasteries. However, as no Turk is a match for a Greek, they
+managed to preserve a great deal of ancient church plate, some of which
+dates as far back as the days of the Roman emperors, for few of the
+Christian successors of Constantine failed to offer some little bribe to
+the saints in order to obtain pardon for the desperate manner in which
+they passed their lives. Some of these pieces of plate are well worthy
+the attention of antiquarians, being probably the most ancient specimens
+of art in goldsmith's work now extant; and as they have remained in the
+several monasteries ever since the piety of their donors first sent them
+there, their authenticity cannot be questioned, besides which many of
+them are extremely magnificent and beautiful.</p>
+
+<p>The most valuable reliquary of St. Laura is a kind of triptic, about
+eighteen inches high, of pure gold, a present from the Emperor
+Nicephorus, the founder of the abbey. The front represents a pair of
+folding-doors, each set with a double row of diamonds (the most ancient
+specimens of this stone that I have seen),<a name="page_367" id="page_367"></a> emeralds, pearls, and rubies
+as large as sixpences. When the doors are opened a large piece of the
+holy cross, splendidly set with jewels, is displayed in the centre, and
+the inside of the two doors and the whole surface of the reliquary are
+covered with engraved figures of the saints stuck full of precious
+stones. This beautiful shrine is of Byzantine workmanship, and, in its
+way, is a superb work of art.</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 110px;">
+<img src="images/ill_367.png" width="110" height="89" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>The refectory of the monastery is a large square building, but the
+dining-room which it contains is in the form of a cross, about one
+hundred feet in length each way; the walls are decorated with fresco
+pictures of the saints, who vie with each other in the hard-favoured
+aspect of their bearded faces; they are tall and meagre full-length
+figures as large as life, each having his name inscribed on the picture.
+Their chief interest is in their accurate representation of the clerical
+costume. The dining-tables, twenty-four in number, are so many solid
+blocks of masonry, with heavy slabs of marble on the top; they are
+nearly semicircular in shape, with the flat side away from the wall; a
+wide marble bench runs round the circular part of them in this form. A
+row of these tables extend down each side of the hall, and at the upper
+end in a semicircular recess is a high table for the superior, who only
+dines here on great occasions. The refectory being square on the
+outside, the intermediate<a name="page_368" id="page_368"></a> spaces between the arms of the cross are
+occupied by the bakehouse, and the wine, oil, and spirit cellars; for
+although the monks eat no meat, they drink famously; and the good St.
+Basil having flourished long before the age of Paracelsus, inserted
+nothing in his rules against the use of ardent spirits, whereof the
+monks imbibe a considerable quantity, chiefly bad arrack; but it does
+not seem to do them any harm, and I never heard of their overstepping
+the bounds of sobriety. Besides the two churches in the great courts,
+which are shaded by ancient cypresses, there are twenty smaller chapels,
+distributed over different parts of the monastery, in which prayers are
+said on certain days. The monks are now in a more flourishing condition
+than they have been for some years; and as they trust to the continuance
+of peace and order in the dominions of the Sultan, they are beginning to
+repair the injuries they suffered during the revolution, and there is
+altogether an air of improvement and opulence throughout the
+establishment.</p>
+
+<p>I wandered over the courts and galleries and chapels of this immense
+building in every direction, asking questions respecting those things
+which I did not understand, and receiving the kindest and most civil
+attention from every one. In front of the door of the largest church a
+dome, curiously painted and gilt in the interior, and supported by four
+columns, protects a fine marble vase ten feet in<a name="page_369" id="page_369"></a> diameter, with a
+fountain in it; in this magnificent basin the holy water is consecrated
+with great ceremony on the feast of the Epiphany.<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a></p>
+
+<p>I was informed that no female animal of any sort or kind is admitted on
+any part of the peninsula of Mount Athos; and that since the days of
+Constantine the soil of the Holy Mountain had never been contaminated by
+the tread of a woman's foot. That this rigid law is infringed by certain
+small and active creatures who have the audacity to bring their wives
+and large families within the very precincts of the monastery I soon
+discovered to my sorrow, and heartily regretted that the stern monastic
+law was not more rigidly enforced; nevertheless, I slept well on my
+divan, and the next morning at sunrise received a visit from the
+agoumenos, who came to wish me good day. After some conversation on
+other matters, I inquired about the library, and asked permission to
+view its contents. The agoumenos declared his willingness to show me
+everything that the monastery contained. "But first," said he, "I wish
+to present you with something excellent for your breakfast; and<a name="page_370" id="page_370"></a> from
+the special good will that I bear towards so distinguished a guest I
+shall prepare it with my own hands, and will stay to see you eat it; for
+it is really an admirable dish, and one not presented to all persons."
+"Well," thought I, "a good breakfast is not a bad thing;" and the fresh
+mountain-air and the good night's rest had given me an appetite; so I
+expressed my thanks for the kind hospitality of my lord abbot, and he,
+sitting down opposite to me on the divan, proceeded to prepare his dish.
+"This," said he, producing a shallow basin half-full of a white paste,
+"is the principal and most savoury part of this famous dish; it is
+composed of cloves of garlic, pounded down, with a certain quantity of
+sugar. With it I will now mix the oil in just proportions, some shreds
+of fine cheese [it seemed to be of the white acid kind, which resembles
+what is called caccia cavallo in the south of Italy, and which almost
+takes the skin off your fingers, I believe] and sundry other nice little
+condiments, and now it is completed!" He stirred the savoury mess round
+and round with a large wooden spoon until it sent forth over room and
+passage and cell, over hill and valley, an aroma which is not to be
+described. "Now," said the agoumenos, crumbling some bread into it with
+his large and somewhat dirty hands, "this is a dish for an emperor! Eat,
+my friend, my much-respected guest; do not be shy. Eat; and when you
+have finished the bowl you<a name="page_371" id="page_371"></a> shall go into the library and anywhere else
+you like; but you shall go nowhere till I have had the pleasure of
+seeing you do justice to this delicious food, which, I can assure you,
+you will not meet with everywhere."</p>
+
+<p>I was sorely troubled in spirit. Who could have expected so dreadful a
+martyrdom as this? The sour apple of the hermit down below was
+nothing&mdash;a trifle in comparison! Was ever an unfortunate bibliomaniac
+dosed with such a medicine before? It would have been enough to have
+cured the whole Roxburghe Club from meddling with libraries and books
+for ever and ever. I made every endeavour to escape this honour. "My
+Lord," said I, "it is a fast; I cannot this morning do justice to this
+delicious viand; it is a fast; I am under a vow. Englishmen must not eat
+that dish in this month. It would be wrong; my conscience won't permit
+it, though the odour certainly is most wonderful! Truly an astonishing
+savour! Let me see you eat it, O agoumenos!" continued I; "for behold, I
+am unworthy of anything so good." "Excellent and virtuous young man!"
+said the agoumenos, "no, I will not eat it. I will not deprive you of
+this treat. Eat it in peace; for know, that to travellers all such vows
+are set aside. On a journey it is permitted to eat all that is set
+before you, unless it is meat that is offered to idols. I admire your
+scruples: but be not afraid, it is lawful. Take it, my honoured friend,
+and eat it: eat it all, and then<a name="page_372" id="page_372"></a> we will go into the library." He put
+the bowl into one of my hands and the great wooden spoon into the other:
+and in desperation I took a gulp, the recollection of which still makes
+me tremble. What was to be done? Another mouthful was an impossibility:
+not all my ardour in the pursuit of manuscripts could give me the
+necessary courage. I was overcome with sorrow and despair. My servant
+saved me at last: he said "that English gentlemen never ate such rich
+dishes for breakfast, from religious feelings, he believed; but he
+requested that it might be put by, and he was sure I should like it very
+much later in the day." The agoumenos looked vexed, but he applauded my
+principles; and just then the board sounded for church. "I must be off,
+excellent and worthy English lord," said he; "I will take you to the
+library, and leave you the key. Excuse my attendance on you there, for
+my presence is required in the church." So I got off better than I
+expected; but the taste of that ladleful stuck to me for days. I
+followed the good agoumenos to the library, where he left me to my own
+devices.</p>
+
+<p>The library is contained in two small rooms looking into a narrow court,
+which is situated to the left of the great court of entrance. One room
+leads to the other, and the books are disposed on shelves in tolerable
+order, but the dust on their venerable heads had not been disturbed for
+many years, and it took me some<a name="page_373" id="page_373"></a> time to make out what they were, for in
+old Greek libraries few volumes have any title written on the back. I
+made out that there were in all about five thousand volumes, a very
+large collection, of which about four thousand were printed books; these
+were mostly divinity, but among them there were several fine Aldine
+classics and the editio princeps of the Anthologia in capital letters.</p>
+
+<p>The nine hundred manuscripts consisted of six hundred volumes written
+upon paper and three hundred on vellum. With the exception of four
+volumes, the former were all divinity, principally liturgies and books
+of prayer. Those four volumes were Homer's 'Iliad' and Hesiod, neither
+of which were very old, and two curious and rather early manuscripts on
+botany, full of rudely drawn figures of herbs. These were probably the
+works of Dioscorides; they were not in good condition, having been much
+studied by the monks in former days: they were large, thick quartos.
+Among the three hundred manuscripts on vellum there were many large
+folios of the works of St. Chrysostom and other Greek fathers of the
+church of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and about fifty copies of
+the Gospels and the Evangelistarium of nearly the same age. One
+Evangelistarium was in fine uncial letters of the ninth century; it was
+a thick quarto, and on the first leaf was an illumination the whole size
+of the page on a gold background, representing the donor of the book<a name="page_374" id="page_374"></a>
+accompanied by his wife. This ancient portrait was covered over with a
+piece of gauze. It was a very remarkable manuscript. There were one
+quarto and one duodecimo of the Acts, Epistles, and Apocalypse of the
+eleventh century, and one folio of the book of Job, which had several
+miniatures in it badly executed in brilliant colours; this was probably
+of the twelfth century. These three manuscripts were such volumes as are
+not often seen in European libraries. All the rest were anthologia and
+books of prayer, nor did I meet with one single leaf of a classic author
+on vellum. I went into the library several times, and looked over all
+the vellum manuscripts very carefully, and I believe that I did not pass
+by unnoticed anything which was particularly interesting in point of
+subject, antiquity, or illumination. Several of the copies of the
+Gospels had their titles ornamented with arabesques, but none struck me
+as being peculiarly valuable.</p>
+
+<p>The twenty-one monasteries of Mount Athos are subjected to different
+regulations. In some the property is at the absolute disposal of the
+agoumenos for the time being, but in the larger establishments (and St.
+Laura is the second in point of consequence) everything belongs to the
+monks in common. Such being the case, it was hopeless to expect, in so
+large a community, that the brethren should agree to part with any of
+their valuables. Indeed, as soon as I found out how affairs stood within
+the walls of St. Laura, I<a name="page_375" id="page_375"></a> did not attempt to purchase anything, as it
+was not advisable to excite the curiosity of the monks upon the subject;
+nor did I wish that the report should be circulated in the other
+convents that I was come to Mount Athos for the purpose of rifling their
+libraries.</p>
+
+<p>I remained at St. Laura three days, and on a beautiful fresh morning,
+being provided by the monks with mules and a guide, I left the good
+agoumenos and sallied forth through the three iron gates on my way to
+the monastery of Caracalla. Our road lay through some of the most
+beautiful scenery imaginable. The dark blue sea was on my right at about
+two miles distance; the rocky path over which I passed was of white
+alabaster with brown and yellow veins; odoriferous evergreen shrubs were
+all around me; and on my left were the lofty hills covered with a dense
+forest of gigantic trees, which extended to the base of the great white
+marble peak of the mountain. Between our path and the sea there was a
+succession of narrow valleys and gorges, each one more picturesque than
+the other; sometimes we were enclosed by high and dense bushes;
+sometimes we opened upon forest glades, and every here and there we came
+upon long and narrow ledges of rock. On one of the narrowest and
+loftiest of these, as I was trotting merrily along thinking of nothing
+but the beauty of the hour and the scene, my mule stopped short in a
+place where the path was about a foot wide,<a name="page_376" id="page_376"></a> and, standing upon three
+legs, proceeded deliberately to scratch his nose with the fourth. I was
+too old a mountain traveller to have hold of the bridle, which was
+safely belayed to the pack-saddle; I sat still for fear of making him
+lose his balance, and waited in very considerable trepidation until the
+mule had done scratching his nose. I was at the time half inclined to
+think that he knew he had a heretic upon his back, and had made up his
+mind to send me and himself smashing down among the distant rocks. If
+so, however, he thought better of it, and before long, to my great
+contentment, we came to a place where the road had two sides to it
+instead of one, and after a ride of five hours we arrived before the
+tall square tower which frowns over the gateway of the monastery of
+Caracalla.<a name="page_377" id="page_377"></a></p>
+
+<hr class="chpt" />
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV.</h3>
+
+<p class="chapter">The Monastery of Caracalla&mdash;Its beautiful Situation&mdash;Hospitable
+Reception&mdash;Description of the Monastery&mdash;Legend of its
+Foundation&mdash;The Church&mdash;Fine Specimens of Ancient Jewellery&mdash;The
+Library&mdash;The Value attached to the Books by the Abbot&mdash;He agrees to
+sell some of the MSS.&mdash;Monastery of Philotheo&mdash;The Great Monastery
+of Iveron&mdash;History of its Foundation&mdash;Its Magnificent
+Library&mdash;Ignorance of the Monks&mdash;Superb MSS.&mdash;The Monks refute to
+part with any of the MSS.&mdash;Beauty of the Scenery of Mount Athos.</p>
+
+<p class="nind">T<span class="smcap">he</span> monastery of <span class="smcap">Caracalla</span> is not so large as St. Laura, and in many
+points resembles an ancient Gothic castle. It is beautifully situated on
+a promontory of rock two miles from the sea, and viewed from the lofty
+ground by which we approached it, the buildings had a most striking
+effect, with the dark blue sea for a background and the lofty rock of
+Samotraki looming in the distance, whilst the still more remote
+mountains of Roumelia closed in the picture. As for the island of
+Samotraki, it must have been created solely for the benefit of artists
+and admirers of the picturesque, for it is fit for nothing else. It is
+high and barren, a congeries of gigantic precipices and ridges. I
+suppose one can land upon it somewhere, for people live on it who are
+said to be arrant pirates; but as one passes by it at sea, its
+interminable ribs of<a name="page_378" id="page_378"></a> grey rock, with the waves lashing against them,
+are dreary-looking in the extreme; and it is only when far distant that
+it becomes a beautiful object.</p>
+
+<p>I sent in my servant as ambassador to explain that the first cousin,
+once removed, of the Emperor of all the Franks was at the gate, and to
+show the letter of the Greek patriarch. Incontinently the agoumenos made
+his appearance at the porch with many expressions of welcome and
+goodwill. I believe it was longer than the days of his life since a
+Frank had entered the convent, and I doubt whether he had ever seen one
+before, for he looked so disappointed when he found that I had no tail
+or horns, and barring his glorious long beard, that I was so little
+different from himself. We made many speeches to each other, he in
+heathen Greek and I in English, seasoned with innumerable bows,
+gesticulations, and téménah; after which I jumped off my mule and we
+entered the precincts of the monastery, attended by a long train of
+bearded fathers who came out to stare at me.</p>
+
+<p>The monastery of Caracalla covers about one acre of ground; it is
+surrounded with a high strong wall, over which appear roofs and domes;
+and on the left of the great square tower, near the gate, a range of
+rooms, built of wood, project over the battlements as at the monastery
+of St Laura. Within is a large irregular court-yard, in the centre of
+which stands the church, and several little chapels or rooms fitted up
+as<a name="page_379" id="page_379"></a> places of worship are scattered about in different parts of the
+building among the chambers inhabited by the monks. I found that this
+was the uniform arrangement in all the monasteries of Mount Athos and in
+nearly all Greek monasteries in the Levant. This monastery was founded
+by Caracallos, a Roman: who he was, or when he lived, I do not know; but
+from its appearance this must be a very ancient establishment. By Roman,
+perhaps, is meant Greek, for Greece is called Roumeli to this day; and
+the Constantinopolitans called themselves Romans in the old time, as in
+Persia and Koordistan the Sultan is called Roomi Padischah, the Roman
+Emperor, by those whose education and general attainments enable them to
+make mention of so distant and mysterious a potentate. Afterwards
+Petrus, Authentes or Waywode of Moldavia, sent his protospaithaire, that
+is his chief swordsman or commander-in-chief, to found a monastery on
+the Holy Mountain, and supplied him with a sum of money for the purpose;
+but the chief swordsman, after expending a very trivial portion of it in
+building a small tower on the sea-shore, pocketed the rest and returned
+to court. The waywode having found out what he had been at, ordered his
+head to be cut off; but he prayed so earnestly to be allowed to keep his
+head and rebuild the monastery of Caracalla out of his own money, that
+his master consented. The new church was dedicated to St. Peter and St.
+Paul, and<a name="page_380" id="page_380"></a> ultimately the ex-chief swordsman prevailed upon the waywode
+to come to Caracalla and take the vows. They both assumed the same name
+of Pachomius, and died in the odour of sanctity. All this, and many more
+legends, was I told by the worthy agoumenos, who was altogether a most
+excellent person; but he had an unfortunate habit of selecting the most
+windy places for detailing them, an open archway, the top of an external
+staircase, or the parapet of a tower, until at last he chilled my
+curiosity down to zero. In all his words and acts he constantly referred
+to brother Joasaph, the second in command, to whose superior wisdom he
+always seemed to bow, and who was quite the right-hand man of the abbot.</p>
+
+<p>My friend first took me to the church, which is of moderate size, the
+walls ornamented with stiff fresco pictures of the saints, none of them
+certainly later than the twelfth century, and some probably very much
+earlier. There were some relics, but the silver shrines containing them
+were not remarkable for richness or antiquity. On the altar there were
+two very remarkable crosses, each of them about six or eight inches
+long, of carved wood set in gold and jewels of very early and beautiful
+workmanship; one of them in particular, which was presented to the
+church by the Emperor John Zimisces, was a most curious specimen of
+ancient jewellery.</p>
+
+<p>This monastery is one of those over which the<a name="page_381" id="page_381"></a> agoumenos has absolute
+control, and he was then repairing one side of the court and rebuilding
+a set of rooms which had been destroyed during the Greek war.</p>
+
+<p>The library I found to be a dark closet near the entrance of the church;
+it had been locked up for many years, but the agoumenos made no
+difficulty in breaking the old-fashioned padlock by which the door was
+fastened. I found upon the ground and upon some broken-down shelves
+about four or five hundred volumes, chiefly printed books; but amongst
+them, every now and then, I stumbled upon a manuscript: of these there
+were about thirty on vellum and fifty or sixty on paper. I picked up a
+single loose leaf of very ancient uncial Greek characters, part of the
+Gospel of St. Matthew, written in small square letters and of small
+quarto size. I searched in vain for the volume to which this leaf
+belonged.</p>
+
+<p>As I had found it impossible to purchase any manuscripts at St. Laura, I
+feared that the same would be the case in other monasteries; however, I
+made bold to ask for this single leaf as a thing of small value.</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly!" said the agoumenos, "what do you want it for?"</p>
+
+<p>My servant suggested that, perhaps, it might be useful to cover some jam
+pots or vases of preserves which I had at home.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" said the agoumenos, "take some more;"<a name="page_382" id="page_382"></a> and, without more ado, he
+seized upon an unfortunate thick quarto manuscript of the Acts and
+Epistles, and drawing out a knife cut out an inch thickness of leaves at
+the end before I could stop him. It proved to be the Apocalypse, which
+concluded the volume, but which is rarely found in early Greek
+manuscripts of the Acts: it was of the eleventh century. I ought,
+perhaps, to have slain the <i>tomecide</i> for his dreadful act of
+profanation, but his generosity reconciled me to his guilt, so I
+pocketed the Apocalypse, and asked him if he would sell me any of the
+other books, as he did not appear to set any particular value upon them.</p>
+
+<p>"Malista, certainly," he replied; "how many will you have? They are of
+no use to me, and as I am in want of money to complete my buildings I
+shall be very glad to turn them to some account."</p>
+
+<p>After a good deal of conversation, finding the agoumenos so
+accommodating, and so desirous to part with the contents of his dark and
+dusty closet, I arranged that I would leave him for the present, and
+after I had made the tour of the other monasteries, would return to
+Caracalla, and take up my abode there until I could hire a vessel, or
+make some other arrangements for my return to Constantinople.
+Satisfactory as this arrangement was, I nevertheless resolved to make
+sure of what I had already got, so I packed them up carefully in the
+great saddlebags, to my extreme delight. The<a name="page_383" id="page_383"></a> agoumenos kindly furnished
+me with fresh mules, and in the afternoon I proceeded to the monastery
+of</p>
+
+<p class="c lrg">PHILOTHEO,</p>
+
+<p class="nind">which is only an hour's ride from Caracalla, and stands in a little
+field surrounded by the forest. It is distant from the sea about four
+miles, and is protected, like all the others, by a high stone wall
+surrounding the whole of the building. The church is curious and
+interesting; it is ornamented with representations of saints, and holy
+men in fresco, upon the walls of the interior and in the porch. I could
+not make out when it was built, but probably before the twelfth century.
+Arsenius, Philotheus, and Dionysius were the founders, but who they were
+did not appear. The monastery was repaired, and the refectory enlarged
+and painted, in the year 1492, by Leontius, <span title="o basileus">&#959;
+&#946;&#945;&#963;&#953;&#955;&#949;&#965;&#962;</span> <span title="Kachetiou">&#922;&#945;&#967;&#949;&#964;&#953;&#959;&#965;</span>, and his son Alexander. I was
+shown the reliquaries, but they were not remarkable. The monks said they
+had no library; and there being nothing of interest in the monastery, I
+determined to go on. Indeed the expression of the faces of some of these
+monks was so unprepossessing, and their manners so rude, although not
+absolutely uncivil, that I did not feel any particular inclination to
+remain amongst them, so leaving a small donation for the church, I
+mounted my mule and proceeded on my journey.</p>
+
+<p>In half an hour I came to a beautiful waterfall in a<a name="page_384" id="page_384"></a> rocky glen
+embosomed in trees and odoriferous shrubs, the rocks being of white
+marble, and the flowers such as we cherish in greenhouses in England. I
+do not know that I ever saw a more charmingly romantic spot. Another
+hour brought us to the great monastery of</p>
+
+<p class="c lrg">IVERON, or IBERON,</p>
+
+<p class="c">(the Georgian, or Iberian, Monastery.)</p>
+
+<p>This monastic establishment is of great size. It is larger than St.
+Laura, and might almost be denominated a small fortified town, so
+numerous are the buildings and courts which are contained within its
+encircling wall. It is situated near the sea, and in its general form is
+nearly square, with four or five square towers projecting from the
+walls. On each of the four sides there are rooms for above two hundred
+monks. I did not learn precisely how many were then inhabiting it, but I
+should imagine there were above a hundred. As, however, many of the
+members of all the religious communities on Mount Athos are employed in
+cultivating the numerous farms which they possess, it is probable that
+not more than one-half of the monks are in residence at any one time.</p>
+
+<p>This monastery was founded by Theophania (Theodora?), wife of the
+Emperor Romanus, the son of Leo Sophos,<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> or the Philosopher, between
+the years 919 and<a name="page_385" id="page_385"></a> 922. It was restored by a Prince of Georgia or
+Iberia, and enlarged by his son, a caloyer. The church is dedicated to
+the "repose of the Virgin." It has four or five domes, and is of
+considerable size, standing by itself, as usual, in the centre of the
+great court, and is ornamented with columns and other decorations of
+rich marbles, together with the usual fresco paintings on the walls.</p>
+
+<p>The library is a remarkably fine one, perhaps altogether the most
+precious of all those which now remain on the holy mountain. It is
+situated over the porch of the church, which appears to be the usual
+place where the books are kept in these establishments. The room is of
+good size, well fitted up with bookcases with glass doors, of not very
+old workmanship. I should imagine that about a hundred years ago, some
+agoumenos, or prior, or librarian, must have been a reading man; and the
+pious care which he took to arrange the ancient volumes of the monastery
+has been rewarded by the excellent state of preservation in which they
+still remain. Since his time, they have probably remained undisturbed.
+Every one could see through the greenish uneven panes of old glass that
+there was nothing but books inside, and therefore nobody meddled with
+them. I was allowed to rummage at my leisure in this mine of
+archæological treasure. Having taken up my abode for the time being in a
+cheerful room, the windows of which commanded a glorious prospect, I
+soon made<a name="page_386" id="page_386"></a> friends with the literary portion of the community, which
+consisted of one thin old monk, a cleverish man, who united to many
+other offices that of librarian. He was also secretary to my lord the
+agoumenos, a kind-hearted old gentleman, who seemed to wish everybody
+well, and who evidently liked much better to sit still on his divan than
+to regulate the affairs of his convent. The rents, the long lists of
+tuns of wine and oil, the strings of mules laden with corn, which came
+in daily from the farms, and all the other complicated details of this
+mighty c&#339;enobium,&mdash;over all these, and numberless other important
+matters, the thin secretary had full control.</p>
+
+<p>Some of the young monks, demure fat youths, came into the library every
+now and then, and wondered what I could be doing there, looking over so
+many books; and they would take a volume out of my hand when I had done
+with it, and, glancing their eyes over its ancient vellum leaves, would
+look up inquiringly into my face, saying, "<span title="ti ene">&#964;&#953; &#949;&#957;&#949;</span>?&mdash;what
+is it?&mdash;what can be the use of looking at such old books as these?" They
+were rather in awe of the secretary, who was evidently, in their
+opinion, a prodigy of learning and erudition. Some, in a low voice, that
+they might not be overheard by the wise man, asked me where I came from,
+how old I was, and whether my father was with me; but they soon all went
+away, and I turned to, in right good earnest, to look for uncial
+manuscripts and<a name="page_387" id="page_387"></a> unknown classic authors. Of these last there was not
+one on vellum, but on paper there was an octavo manuscript of Sophocles,
+and a Coptic Psaltery with an Arabic translation&mdash;a curious book to meet
+with on Mount Athos. Of printed books there were, I should think, about
+five thousand&mdash;of manuscripts on paper, about two thousand; but all
+religious works of various kinds. There were nearly a thousand
+manuscripts on vellum, and these I looked over more carefully than the
+rest. About one hundred of them were in the Iberian language: they were
+mostly immense thick quartos, some of them not less than eighteen inches
+square, and from four to six inches thick. One of these, bound in wooden
+boards, and written in large uncial letters, was a magnificent old
+volume. Indeed all these Iberian or Georgian manuscripts were superb
+specimens of ancient books. I was unable to read them, and therefore
+cannot say what they were; but I should imagine that they were church
+books, and probably of high antiquity. Among the Greek manuscripts,
+which were principally of the eleventh and twelfth centuries&mdash;works of
+St. Chrysostom, St. Basil, and books for the services of the ritual&mdash;I
+discovered the following, which are deserving of especial mention:&mdash;A
+large folio Evangelistarium bound in red velvet, about eighteen inches
+high and three thick, written in magnificent uncial letters half an inch
+long, or even more. Three of the illuminations were the whole size of
+the page, and<a name="page_388" id="page_388"></a> might almost be termed pictures from their large
+proportions: and there were several other illuminations of smaller size
+in different parts of the book. This superb manuscript was in admirable
+preservation, and as clean as if it had been new. It had evidently been
+kept with great care, and appeared to have had some clasps or ornaments
+of gold or silver which had been torn off. It was probably owing to the
+original splendour of this binding that the volume itself had been so
+carefully preserved. I imagine it was written in the ninth century.</p>
+
+<p>Another book, of a much greater age, was a copy of the four Gospels,
+with four finely-executed miniatures of the evangelists. It was about
+nine or ten inches square, written in round semiuncial letters in double
+columns, with not more than two or three words in a line. In some
+respects it resembled the book of the Epistles in the Bodleian Library
+at Oxford. This manuscript, in the original black leather binding, had
+every appearance of the highest antiquity. It was beautifully written
+and very clean, and was altogether such a volume as is not to be met
+with every day.</p>
+
+<p>A quarto manuscript of the four Gospels, of the eleventh or twelfth
+century, with a great many (perhaps fifty) illuminations. Some of them
+were unfortunately rather damaged.</p>
+
+<p>Two manuscripts of the New Testament, with the Apocalypse.</p>
+
+<p>A very fine manuscript of the Psalms, of the<a name="page_389" id="page_389"></a> eleventh century, which is
+indeed about the era of the greater portion of the vellum manuscripts on
+Mount Athos.</p>
+
+<p>There were also some ponderous and magnificent folios of the works of
+the fathers of the Church&mdash;some of them, I should think, of the tenth
+century; but it is difficult, in a few hours, to detect the
+peculiarities which prove that manuscripts are of an earlier date than
+the twelfth century. I am, however, convinced that very few of them were
+written after that time.</p>
+
+<p>The paper manuscripts were of all ages, from the thirteenth and
+fifteenth centuries down to a hundred years ago; and some of them, on
+charta bombycina, would have appeared very splendid books if they had
+not been eclipsed by the still finer and more carefully-executed
+manuscripts on vellum.</p>
+
+<p>Neither my arguments nor my eloquence could prevail on the obdurate
+monks to sell me any of these books, but my friend the secretary gave me
+a book in his own handwriting to solace me on my journey. It contained a
+history of the monastery from the days of its foundation to the present
+time. It is written in Romaic, and is curious not so much from its
+subject matter as from the entire originality of its style and manner.</p>
+
+<p>The view from the window of the room which I occupied at Iveron was one
+of the finest on Mount Athos. The glorious sea, and the towers which
+command the<a name="page_390" id="page_390"></a> scaricatojos or landing-places of the different monasteries
+along the coast, and the superb monastery of Stavroniketa like a Gothic
+castle perched upon a beetling rock, with the splendid forest for a
+background, formed altogether a picture totally above my powers to
+describe. It almost compensated for the numberless tribes of vermin by
+which the room was tenanted. In fact, the whole of the scenery on Mount
+Athos is so superlatively grand and beautiful that it is useless to
+attempt any description.<a name="page_391" id="page_391"></a></p>
+
+<hr class="chpt" />
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI.</h3>
+
+<p class="chapter">The Monastery of Stavroniketa&mdash;The Library&mdash;Splendid MS. of St.
+Chrysostom&mdash;The Monastery of Pantocratoras&mdash;Ruinous Condition of
+the Library&mdash;Complete Destruction of the
+Books&mdash;Disappointment&mdash;Oration to the Monks&mdash;The Great Monastery of
+Vatopede&mdash;Its History&mdash;Ancient Pictures in the Church&mdash;Legend of
+the Girdle of the Blessed Virgin&mdash;The Library&mdash;Wealth and Luxury of
+the Monks&mdash;The Monastery of Sphigmenou&mdash;Beautiful Jewelled
+Cross&mdash;The Monastery of Kiliantari&mdash;Magnificent MS. in Gold Letters
+on White Vellum&mdash;The Monasteries of Zographon, Castamoneta,
+Docheirou, and Xenophou&mdash;The Exiled Bishops&mdash;The Library&mdash;Very fine
+MSS.&mdash;Proposals for their Purchase&mdash;Lengthened Negotiations&mdash;Their
+successful Issue.</p>
+
+<p class="nind">A<span class="smcap">n</span> hour's ride brought us to the monastery of</p>
+
+<p class="c lrg">STAVRONIKETA,</p>
+
+<p class="nind">which is a smaller building than Iveron, with a square tower over the
+gateway. It stands on a rock overhanging the sea, against the base of
+which the waves ceaselessly beat. It was to this spot that a miraculous
+picture of St Nicholas, archbishop of Myra in Lycia, floated over, of
+its own accord, from I do not know where; and in consequence of this
+auspicious event, Jeremias, patriarch of Constantinople, founded this
+monastery, of "the victory of the holy cross," about the year 1522. This
+is the account given by<a name="page_392" id="page_392"></a> the monks; but from the appearance and
+architecture of Stavroniketa, I conceive that it is a much older
+building, and that probably the patriarch Jeremias only repaired or
+restored it. However that may be, the monastery is in very good order,
+clean, and well kept; and I had a comfortable frugal dinner there with
+some of the good old monks, who seemed a cheerful and contented set.</p>
+
+<p>The library contained about eight hundred volumes, of which nearly two
+hundred were manuscripts on vellum. Amongst these were conspicuous the
+entire works of St. Chrysostom, in eight large folio volumes complete;
+and a manuscript of the Scala Perfectionis in Greek, containing a number
+of most exquisite miniatures in a brilliant state of preservation. It
+was a quarto of the tenth or eleventh century, and a most
+unexceptionable tome, which these unkind monks preferred keeping to
+themselves instead of letting me have it, as they ought to have done.
+The miniatures were first-rate works of Byzantine art. It was a terrible
+pang to me to leave such a book behind. There were also a Psalter with
+several miniatures, but these were partially damaged; five or six copies
+of the Gospels; two fine folio volumes of the Menologia, or Lives of the
+Saints; and sundry <span title="omoilogoi">&#959;&#956;&#959;&#953;&#955;&#959;&#947;&#959;</span> and books of divinity,
+and the works of the fathers. On paper there were two hundred more
+manuscripts, amongst which was a curious one of the Acts and Epistles,
+full<a name="page_393" id="page_393"></a> of large miniatures and illuminations exceedingly well done. As it
+is quite clear that all these manuscripts are older than the time of the
+patriarch Jeremias, they confirm my opinion that he could not have been
+the original founder of the monastery.</p>
+
+<p>It is an hour's scramble over the rocks from Stavroniketa to the
+monastery of</p>
+
+<p class="c lrg">PANTOCRATORAS.</p>
+
+<p>This edifice was built by Manuel and Alexius Comnenus, and Johannes
+Pumicerius, their brother. It was subsequently repaired by Barbulus and
+Gabriel, two Wallachian nobles. The church is handsome and curious, and
+contains several relics, but the reliquaries are not of much beauty, nor
+of very great antiquity. Among them, however, is a small thick quarto
+volume about five inches square every way, in the handwriting, as you
+are told, of St. John of Kalavita. Now St. John of Kalavita was a hermit
+who died in the year 450, and his head is shown at Besançon, in the
+church of St. Stephen, to which place it was taken after the siege of
+Constantinople. Howbeit this manuscript did not seem to me to be older
+than the twelfth century, or the eleventh at the earliest It is written
+in a very minute hand, and contains the Gospels, some prayers, and lives
+of saints, and is ornamented with some small illuminations. The binding
+is very curious: it is entirely of silver gilt, and is of great
+antiquity. The back part<a name="page_394" id="page_394"></a> is composed of an intricate kind of chainwork,
+which bends when the book is opened, and the sides are embossed with a
+variety of devices.</p>
+
+<p>On my inquiring for the library, I was told it had been destroyed during
+the revolution. It had formerly been preserved in the great square tower
+or keep, which is a grand feature in all the monasteries. I went to look
+at the place, and leaning through a ruined arch, I looked down into the
+lower story of the tower, and there I saw the melancholy remains of a
+once famous library. This was a dismal spectacle for a devout lover of
+old books&mdash;a sort of biblical knight errant, as I then considered
+myself, who had entered on the perilous adventure of Mount Athos to
+rescue from the thraldom of ignorant monks those fair vellum volumes,
+with their bright illuminations and velvet dresses and jewelled clasps,
+which for so many centuries had lain imprisoned in their dark monastic
+dungeons. It was indeed a heart-rending sight. By the dim light which
+streamed through the opening of an iron door in the wall of the ruined
+tower, I saw above a hundred ancient manuscripts lying among the rubbish
+which had fallen from the upper floor, which was ruinous, and had in
+great part given way. Some of these manuscripts seemed quite
+entire&mdash;fine large folios; but the monks said they were unapproachable,
+for that floor also on which they lay was unsafe, the beams below being
+rotten from the wet and rain which came in through the roof. Here<a name="page_395" id="page_395"></a> was a
+trap ready set and baited for a bibliographical antiquary. I peeped at
+the old manuscripts, looked particularly at one or two that were lying
+in the middle of the floor, and could hardly resist the temptation. I
+advanced cautiously along the boards, keeping close to the wall, whilst
+every now and then a dull cracking noise warned me of my danger, but I
+tried each board by stamping upon it with my foot before I ventured my
+weight upon it. At last, when I dared go no farther, I made them bring
+me a long stick, with which I fished up two or three fine manuscripts,
+and poked them along towards the door. When I had safely landed them, I
+examined them more at my ease, but found that the rain had washed the
+outer leaves quite clean: the pages were stuck tight together into a
+solid mass, and when I attempted to open them, they broke short off in
+square bits like a biscuit. Neglect and damp and exposure had destroyed
+them completely. One fine volume, a large folio in double columns, of
+most venerable antiquity, particularly grieved me. I do not know how
+many more manuscripts there might be under the piles of rubbish. Perhaps
+some of them might still be legible, but without assistance and time I
+could not clean out the ruins that had fallen from above; and I was
+unable to save even a scrap from this general tomb of a whole race of
+books. I came out of the great tower, and sitting down on a pile of
+ruins, with a bearded assembly of grave caloyeri round<a name="page_396" id="page_396"></a> me, I vented my
+sorrow and indignation in a long oration, which however produced a very
+slight effect upon my auditory; but whether from their not understanding
+Italian, or my want of eloquence, is matter of doubt. My man was the
+only person who seemed to commiserate my misfortune, and he looked so
+genuinely vexed and sorry that I liked him the better ever afterwards.
+At length I dismissed the assembly: they toddled away to their siesta,
+and I, mounted anew upon a stout well-fed mule, bade adieu to the
+hospitable agoumenos, and was soon occupied in picking my way among the
+rocks and trees towards the next monastery. In two hours' time we passed
+the ruins of a large building standing boldly on a hill. It had formerly
+been a college; and a magnificent aqueduct of fourteen double
+arches&mdash;that is, two rows of arches one above the other&mdash;connected it
+with another hill, and had a grand effect, with long and luxuriant
+masses of flowers streaming from its neglected walls. In half an hour
+more I arrived at</p>
+
+<p class="c lrg">VATOPEDE.</p>
+
+<p>This is the largest and richest of all the monasteries of Mount Athos.
+It is situated on the side of a hill where a valley opens to the sea,
+and commands a little harbour where three small Greek vessels were lying
+at anchor. The buildings are of great extent, with several towers and
+domes rising above the walls: I<a name="page_397" id="page_397"></a> should say it was not smaller than the
+upper ward of Windsor Castle. The original building was erected by the
+Emperor Constantine the Great. That worthy prince being, it appears,
+much afflicted by the leprosy, ordered a number of little children to be
+killed, a bath of juvenile blood being considered an excellent remedy.
+But while they were selecting them, he was told in a vision that if he
+would become a Christian his leprosy should depart from him: he did so,
+and was immediately restored to health, and all the children lived long
+and happily. This story is related by Moses Chorensis, whose veracity I
+will not venture to doubt.</p>
+
+<p>In the fifth century this monastery was thrown down by Julian the
+Apostate. Theodosius the Great built it up again in gratitude for the
+miraculous escape of his son Arcadius, who having fallen overboard from
+his galley in the Archipelago, was landed safely on this spot through
+the intercession of the Virgin, to whose special honour the great church
+was founded: fourteen other chapels within the walls attest the piety of
+other individuals. In the year 862 the Saracens landed, destroyed the
+monastery by fire, slew many of the monks, took the treasures and broke
+the mosaics; but the representation of the Blessed Virgin was
+indestructible, and still remained safe and perfect above the altar.
+There was also a well under the altar, into which some of the relics
+were thrown and afterwards recovered by the community.<a name="page_398" id="page_398"></a></p>
+
+<p>About the year 1300 St. Athanasius the Patriarch persuaded Nicholaus and
+Antonius, certain rich men of Adrianople, to restore the monastery once
+more, which they did, and taking the vows became monks, and were buried
+in the narthex or portico of the church. I may here observe that this
+was the nearest approach to being buried within the church that was
+permitted in the early times of Christianity, and such is still the rule
+observed in the Greek Church: altars were, however, raised over the
+tombs or places of execution of martyrs.</p>
+
+<p>This church contains a great many ancient pictures of small size, most
+of them having the background overlaid with plates of silver-gilt: two
+of these are said to be portraits of the Empress Theodora. Two other
+pictures of larger size and richly set with jewels are interesting as
+having been brought from the church of St. Sophia at Constantinople,
+when that city fell a prey to the Turkish arms. Over the doors of the
+church and of the great refectory there are mosaics representing, if I
+remember rightly, saints and holy persons. One of the chapels, a
+separate building with a dome which had been newly repaired, is
+dedicated to the "Preservation of the Girdle of the Blessed Virgin," a
+relic which must be a source of considerable revenue to the monastery,
+for they have divided it into two parts, and one half is sent into
+Greece and the other half into Asia Minor whenever the plague is<a name="page_399" id="page_399"></a> raging
+in those countries, and all those who are afflicted with that terrible
+disease are sure to be cured if they touch it, which they are allowed to
+do "<i>for a consideration</i>." On my inquiring how the monastery became
+possessed of so inestimable a medicine, I was gravely informed that,
+after the assumption of the Blessed Virgin, St. Thomas went up to heaven
+to pay her a visit, and there she presented him with her girdle. My
+informant appeared to have the most unshakeable conviction as to the
+truth of this history, and expressed great surprise that I had never
+heard it before.</p>
+
+<p>The library, although containing nearly four thousand printed books, has
+none of any high antiquity or on any subject but divinity. There are
+also about a thousand manuscripts, of which three or four hundred are on
+vellum; amongst these there are three copies of the works of St
+Chrysostom: they also have his head in the church&mdash;that golden mouth out
+of which proceeded the voice which shook the empire with the thunder of
+its denunciations. The most curious manuscripts are six rolls of
+parchment, each ten inches wide and about ten feet long, containing
+prayers for festivals on the anniversaries of the foundation of certain
+churches. There were at this time above three hundred monks resident in
+the monastery; many of these held offices and places of dignity under
+the agoumenos, whose establishment resembled the court of a petty
+sovereign prince. Altogether this<a name="page_400" id="page_400"></a> convent well illustrates what some of
+the great monastic establishments in England must have been before the
+Reformation. It covers at least four acres of ground, and contains so
+many separate buildings within its massive walls that it resembles a
+fortified town. Everything told of wealth and indolence. When I arrived
+the lord abbot was asleep; he was too great a man to be aroused; he had
+eaten a full meal in his own apartment, and he could not be disturbed.
+His secretary, a thin pale monk, was deputed to show me the wonders of
+the place, and as we proceeded through the different chapels and
+enormous magazines of corn, wine, and oil, the officers of the different
+departments bent down to kiss his hand, for he was high in the favour of
+my lord the abbot, and was evidently a man not to be slighted by the
+inferior authorities if they wished to get on and prosper. The cellarer
+was a sly old fellow with a thin grey beard, and looked as if he could
+tell a good story of an evening over a flagon of good wine. Except at
+some of the palaces in Germany I have never seen such gigantic tuns as
+those in the cellars at Vatopede. The oil is kept in marble vessels of
+the size and shape of sarcophagi, and there is a curious picture in the
+entrance room of the oil-store, which represents the miraculous increase
+in their stock of oil during a year of scarcity, when, through the
+intercession of a pious monk who then had charge of that department, the
+marble basins, which were almost<a name="page_401" id="page_401"></a> empty, overflowed, and a river of fine
+fresh oil poured in torrents through the door. The frame of this picture
+is set with jewels, and it appears to be very ancient. The refectory is
+an immense room; it stands in front of the church and has twenty-four
+marble tables and seats, and is in the same cruciform shape as that at
+St. Laura. It has frequently accommodated five hundred guests, the
+servants and tenants of the abbey, who come on stated days to pay their
+rents and receive the benediction of the agoumenos. Sixty or seventy fat
+mules are kept for the use of the community, and a very considerable
+number of Albanian servants and muleteers are lodged in outbuildings
+before the great gate. These, unlike their brethren of Epirus, are a
+quiet, stupid race, and whatever may be their notions of another world,
+they evidently think that in this there is no man living equal in
+importance to the great agoumenos of Vatopede, and no earthly place to
+compare with the great monastery over which he rules.</p>
+
+<p>From Vatopede it requires two hours and a half to ride to the monastery
+of</p>
+
+<p class="c lrg">SPHIGMENOU,</p>
+
+<p class="nind">which is a much smaller establishment. It is said to have been founded
+by the Empress Pulcheria, sister of the Emperor Theodosius the younger,
+and if so must be a very ancient building, for the empress died on<a name="page_402" id="page_402"></a> the
+18th of February in the year 453. Her brother Theodosius was known by
+the title or cognomen of <span title="kalligraphos">&#954;&#945;&#955;&#955;&#953;&#947;&#961;&#945;&#966;&#959;&#962;</span>, from the
+beauty of his writing: he was a protector of the Nestorian and Eutychian
+heretics, and ended his life on the 20th of October, 460.</p>
+
+<p>This monastery is situated in a narrow valley close to the sea, squeezed
+in between three little hills, from which circumstance it derives its
+name of <span title="sphygmenos">&#963;&#966;&#953;&#947;&#956;&#949;&#957;&#959;&#962;</span>, "squeezed together." It is
+inhabited by thirty monks, who are cleaner and keep their church in
+better order and neatness than most of their brethren on Mount Athos.
+Among the relics of the saints, which are the first things they show to
+the pilgrim from beyond the sea, is a beautiful ancient cross of gold
+set with diamonds. Diamonds are of very rare occurrence in ancient
+pieces of jewellery; it is indeed doubtful whether they were known to
+the ancients, adamantine being an epithet applied to the hardness of
+steel, and I have never seen a diamond in any work of art of the Roman
+or classical era. Besides the diamonds the cross has on the upper end
+and on the extremities of the two arms three very fine and large
+emeralds, each fastened on with three gold nails: it is a fine specimen
+of early jewellery, and of no small intrinsic value.</p>
+
+<p>The library is in a room over the porch of the church: it contains about
+1500 volumes, half of which are manuscripts, mostly on paper, and all
+theological.<a name="page_403" id="page_403"></a> I met with four copies of the Gospels and two of the
+Epistles, all the others being books of the church service and the usual
+folios of the fathers. There was, however, a Russian or Bulgarian
+manuscript of the four Gospels with an illumination at the commencement
+of each Gospel. It is written in capital letters, and seemed to be of
+considerable antiquity. I was disappointed at not finding manuscripts of
+greater age in so very ancient a monastery as this is; but perhaps it
+has undergone more squeezing than that inflicted upon it by the three
+hills. I slept here in peace and comfort.</p>
+
+<p>On the sea-shore not far from Sphigmenou are the ruins of the monastery
+of St. Basil, opposite a small rocky island in the sea, which I left at
+this point, and striking up the country arrived in an hour's time at the
+monastery of</p>
+
+<p class="c lrg">KILIANTARI,</p>
+
+<p class="nind">or a thousand lions. This is a large building, of which the ground plan
+resembles the shape of an open fan. It stands in a valley, and
+contained, when I entered its hospitable gates, about fifty monks. They
+preserve in the sacristy a superb chalice, of a kind of bloodstone set
+in gold, about a foot high and eight inches wide, the gift of one of the
+Byzantine emperors. This monastery was founded by Simeon, Prince of
+Servia, I could not make out at what time. In the library they<a name="page_404" id="page_404"></a> had no
+great number of books, and what there were were all Russian or
+Bulgarian: I saw none which seemed to be of great antiquity. On
+inquiring, however, whether they had not some Greek manuscripts, the
+Agoumenos said they had one, which he went and brought me out of the
+sacristy; and this, to my admiration and surprise, was not only the
+finest manuscript on Mount Athos, but the finest that I had met with in
+any Greek monastery with the single exception of the golden manuscript
+of the New Testament at Mount Sinai. It was a 4to. Evangelistarium,
+written in golden letters on fine <i>white</i> vellum. The characters were a
+kind of semi-uncial, rather round in their forms, of large size, and
+beautifully executed, but often joined together and having many
+contractions and abbreviations, in these respects resembling the Mount
+Sinai MS. This magnificent volume was given to the monastery by the
+Emperor Andronicus Comnenus about the year 1184; it is consequently not
+an early MS., but its imperial origin renders it interesting to the
+admirers of literary treasures, while the very rare occurrence of a
+<i>Greek</i> MS. written in letters of gold would make it a most desirable
+and important acquisition to any royal library; for besides the two
+above-mentioned there are not, I believe, more than seven or eight MSS.
+of this description in existence, and of these several are merely
+fragments, and only one is on white vellum: this is in the library of
+the Holy Synod<a name="page_405" id="page_405"></a> at Moscow. Five of the others are on blue or purple
+vellum, viz., Codex Cottonianus, in the British Museum, Titus C. 15, a
+fragment of the Gospels; an octavo Evangelistarium at Vienna; a fragment
+of the books of Genesis and St. Luke in silver letters at Vienna; the
+Codex Turicensis of part of the Psalms; and six leaves of the Gospels of
+St. Matthew in silver letters with the initials in gold in the Vatican.
+There may possibly be others, but I have never heard of them. Latin MSS.
+in golden letters are much less scarce, but Greek MSS., even those which
+merely contain two or three pages written in gold letters, are of such
+rarity that hardly a dozen are to be met with; of these there are three
+in the library at Parham. I think the Codex Ebnerianus has one or two
+pages written in gold, and the tables of a gospel at Jerusalem are in
+gold on deep purple vellum. At this moment I do not remember any more,
+although doubtless there must be a few of these partially ornamented
+volumes scattered through the great libraries of Europe.</p>
+
+<p>From Kiliantari, which is the last monastery on the N.E. side of the
+promontory, we struck across the peninsula, and two hours' riding
+brought us to</p>
+
+<p class="c lrg">ZOGRAPHOU,</p>
+
+<p class="nind">through plains of rich green grass dotted over with gigantic single
+trees, the scenery being like that of<a name="page_406" id="page_406"></a> an English park, only finer and
+more luxuriant as well as more extensive. This monastery was founded in
+the reign of Leo Sophos, by three nobles of Constantinople who became
+monks; and the local tradition is that it was destroyed by the "<i>Pope of
+Rome</i>." How that happened I know not, but it was rebuilt in the year
+1502 by Stephanus, Waywode of Moldavia. It is a large fortified building
+of very imposing appearance, situated on a steep hill surrounded with
+trees and gardens overlooking a deep valley which opens on the gulf of
+Monte Santo. The MSS. here are Bulgarian, and not of early date; they
+had no Greek MSS. whatever.</p>
+
+<p>From Zographou, following the valley, we arrived at a lower plain on the
+sea coast, and there we discovered that we had lost our way; we
+therefore retraced our steps, and turning up among the hills to our left
+we came in three hours to</p>
+
+<p class="c lrg">CASTAMONETA,</p>
+
+<p class="nind">which, had we taken the right road, we might have reached in one. This
+is a very poor monastery, but it is of great age and its architecture is
+picturesque: it was originally founded by Constantine the Great. It has
+no library nor anything particularly well worth mentioning, excepting
+the original deed of the Emperor Manuel Paleologus, with the sign manual
+of that potentate written in very large letters in red ink at the<a name="page_407" id="page_407"></a>
+bottom of the deed, by which he granted to the monastery the lands which
+it still retains. The poor monks were much edified by the sight of the
+patriarchal letter, and when I went away rang the bells of the church
+tower to do me honour.</p>
+
+<p>At the distance of one hour from hence stands the monastery of</p>
+
+<p class="c lrg">DOCHEIROU.</p>
+
+<p>It is the first to the west of those upon the south-west shore of the
+peninsula. It is a monastery of great size, with ample room for a
+hundred monks, although inhabited by only twenty. It was built in the
+reign of Nicephorus Botoniates, and was last repaired in the year 1578
+by Alexander, Waywode of Moldavia. I was very well lodged in this
+convent, and the fleas were singularly few. The library contained two
+thousand five hundred volumes, of which one hundred and fifty were
+vellum MSS. I omitted to note the number of MSS. on paper, but amongst
+them I found a part of Sophocles and a fine folio of Suidas's Lexicon.
+Among the vellum MSS. there was a folio in the Bulgarian language, and
+various works of the fathers. I found also three loose leaves of an
+Evangelistarium in uncial letters of the ninth century, which had been
+cut out of some ancient volume, for which I hunted in the dust in vain.
+The monks gave me these three leaves on my asking for them, for even a
+few pages of such a manuscript as this are not to be despised.<a name="page_408" id="page_408"></a></p>
+
+<p>From Docheirou it is only a distance of half an hour to</p>
+
+<p class="c lrg">XENOPHOU,</p>
+
+<p class="nind">which stands upon the sea shore. Here they were building a church in the
+centre of the great court, which, when it is finished, will be the
+largest on Mount Athos. Three Greek bishops were living here in exile. I
+did not learn what the holy prelates had done, but their misdeeds had
+been found out by the Patriarch, and he had sent them here to rusticate.
+This monastery is of a moderate size; its founder was St. Xenophou,
+regarding whose history or the period at which he lived I am unable to
+give any information, as nobody knew anything about him on the spot, and
+I cannot find him in any catalogue of saints which I possess. The
+monastery was repaired in the year 1545 by Danzulas Bornicus and
+Badulus, who were brothers, and Banus (the Ban) Barbulus, all three
+nobles of Hungary, and was afterwards beautified by Matthæus, Waywode of
+Bessarabia.</p>
+
+<p>The library consists of fifteen hundred printed books, nineteen MSS. on
+paper, eleven on vellum, and three rolls on parchment, containing
+liturgies for particular days. Of the MSS. on vellum there were three
+which merit a description. One was a fine 4to. of part of the works of
+St. Chrysostom, of great antiquity, but not in uncial letters. Another
+was a 4to. of the four Gospels bound in faded red velvet with silver
+clasps.<a name="page_409" id="page_409"></a> This book they affirmed to be a royal present to the monastery;
+it was of the eleventh or twelfth century, and was peculiar from the
+text being accompanied by a voluminous commentary on the margin and
+several pages of calendars, prefaces, &amp;c., at the beginning. The
+headings of the Gospels were written in large plain letters of gold. In
+the libraries of forty Greek monasteries I have only met with one other
+copy of the Gospels with a commentary. The third manuscript was an
+immense quarto Evangelistarium sixteen inches square, bound in faded
+green or blue velvet, and said to be in the autograph of the Emperor
+Alexius Comnenus. The text throughout on each page was written in the
+form of a cross. Two of the pages are in purple ink powdered with gold,
+and these, there is every reason to suppose, are in the handwriting of
+the imperial scribe himself; for the Byzantine sovereigns affected to
+write only in purple, as their deeds and a magnificent MS. in another
+monastic library, of which I have not given an account in these pages,
+can testify: the titles of this superb volume are written in gold,
+covering the whole page. Altogether, although not in uncial letters, it
+was among the finest Greek MSS. that I had ever seen&mdash;perhaps, next to
+the uncial MSS., the finest to be met with anywhere.</p>
+
+<p>I asked the monks whether they were inclined to part with these three
+books, and offered to purchase them and the parchment rolls. There was a
+little<a name="page_410" id="page_410"></a> consultation among them, and then they desired to be shown those
+which I particularly coveted. Then there was another consultation, and
+they asked me which I set the greatest value on. So I said the rolls, on
+which the three rolls were unrolled, and looked at, and examined, and
+peeped at by the three monks who put themselves forward in the business,
+with more pains and curiosity than had probably been ever wasted upon
+them before. At last they said it was impossible, the rolls were too
+precious to be parted with, but if I liked to give a good price I should
+have the rest; upon which I took up the St. Chrysostom, the least
+valuable of the three, and while I examined it, saw from the corner of
+my eye the three monks nudging each other and making signs. So I said,
+"Well, now what will you take for your two books, this and the big one?"
+They asked five thousand piastres; whereupon, with a look of indignant
+scorn, I laid down the St. Chrysostom and got up to go away; but after a
+good deal more talk we retired to the divan, or drawing-room as it may
+be called, of the monastery, where I conversed with the three exiled
+bishops. In course of time I was called out into another room to have a
+cup of coffee. There were my friends the three monks, the managing
+committee, and under the divan, imperfectly concealed, were the corners
+of the three splendid MSS. I knew that now all depended on my own tact
+whether my still famished saddle-bags were to have a<a name="page_411" id="page_411"></a> meal or not that
+day, the danger lying between offering too much or too little. If you
+offer too much, a Greek, a Jew, or an Armenian immediately thinks that
+the desired object must be invaluable, that it must have some magical
+properties, like the lamp of Aladdin, which will bring wealth upon its
+possessor if he can but find out its secret; and he will either ask you
+a sum absurdly large, or will refuse to sell it at any price, but will
+lock it up and become nervous about it, and examine it over and over
+again privately to see what can be the cause of a Frank's offering so
+much for a thing apparently so utterly useless. On the other hand, too
+little must not be offered, for it would be an indignity to suppose that
+persons of consideration would condescend to sell things of trifling
+value&mdash;it wounds their aristocratic feelings, they are above such
+meannesses. By St. Xenophou, how we did talk! for five mortal hours it
+went on, I pretending to go away several times, but being always called
+back by one or other of the learned committee. I drank coffee and
+sherbet and they drank arraghi; but in the end I got the great book of
+Alexius Comnenus for the value of twenty-two pounds, and the curious
+Gospels, which I had treated with the most cool disdain all along, was
+finally thrown into the bargain; and out I walked with a big book under
+each arm, bearing with perfect resignation the smiles and scoffs of the
+three brethren, who could scarcely contain their laughter at the way<a name="page_412" id="page_412"></a>
+they had done the silly traveller. Then did the saddlebags begin to
+assume a more comely and satisfactory form.</p>
+
+<p>After a stirrup cup of hot coffee, perfumed with the incense of the
+church, the monks bid me a joyous adieu; I responded as joyously: in
+short every one was charmed, except the mule, who evidently was more
+surprised than pleased at the increased weight which he had to carry.<a name="page_413" id="page_413"></a></p>
+
+<hr class="chpt" />
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXVII.</h3>
+
+<p class="chapter">The Monastery of Russico&mdash;Its Courteous Abbot&mdash;The Monastery of
+Xeropotamo&mdash;Its History&mdash;High Character of its Abbot&mdash;Excursion to
+the Monasteries of St. Nicholas and St. Dionisius&mdash;Interesting
+Relics&mdash;Magnificent Shrine&mdash;The Library&mdash;The Monastery of St.
+Paul&mdash;Respect shown by the Monks&mdash;Beautiful MS.&mdash;Extraordinary
+Liberality and Kindness of the Abbot and Monks&mdash;A valuable
+Acquisition at little Cost&mdash;The Monastery of Simopetra&mdash;Purchase of
+MS.&mdash;The Monk of Xeropotamo&mdash;His Ideas about Women&mdash;Excursion to
+Cariez&mdash;The Monastery of Coutloumoussi&mdash;The Russian
+Book-Stealer&mdash;History of the Monastery&mdash;Its reputed Destruction by
+the Pope of Rome&mdash;The Aga of Cariez&mdash;Interview in a Kiosk&mdash;The She
+Cat of Mount Athos.</p>
+
+<p class="nind">F<span class="smcap">rom</span> Xenophou I went on to</p>
+
+<p class="c lrg">RUSSICO,</p>
+
+<p class="nind">where also they were repairing the injuries which different parts of the
+edifice had sustained during the late Greek war. The agoumenos of this
+monastery was a remarkably gentlemanlike and accomplished man; he spoke
+several languages and ruled over a hundred and thirty monks. They had,
+however, amongst them all only nine MSS., and those were of no interest.
+The agoumenos told me that the monastery formerly possessed a MS. of
+Homer on vellum, which he sold to two English gentlemen some<a name="page_414" id="page_414"></a> years ago,
+who were immediately afterwards plundered by pirates, and the MS. thrown
+into the sea. As I never heard of any Englishman having been at Mount
+Athos since the days of Dr. Clarke and Dr. Carlysle, I could not make
+out who these gentlemen were: probably they were Frenchmen, or Europeans
+of some other nation. However, the idea of the pirates gave me a horrid
+qualm; and I thought how dreadful it would be if they threw my Alexius
+Comnenus into the sea; it made me feel quite uncomfortable. This
+monastery was built by the Empress Catherine the First, of Russia&mdash;or,
+to speak more correctly, repaired by her&mdash;for it was originally founded
+by Saint Lazarus Knezes, of Servia, and the church dedicated to St.
+Panteleemon the Martyr. A ride of an hour brought me to</p>
+
+<p class="c lrg">XEROPOTAMO,</p>
+
+<p class="nind">where I was received with so much hospitality and kindness that I
+determined to make it my headquarters while I visited the other
+monasteries, which from this place could readily be approached by sea. I
+was fortunate in procuring a boat with two men&mdash;a sort of naval lay
+brethren,&mdash;who agreed to row me about wherever I liked, and bring me
+back to Xeropotamo for fifty piastres, and this they would do whenever I
+chose, as they were not very particular about time, an article upon
+which they evidently set small value.<a name="page_415" id="page_415"></a></p>
+
+<p>This monastery was founded by the Emperor Romanus about the year 920; it
+was rebuilt by Andronicus the Second in 1320; in the sixteenth century
+it was thrown down by an earthquake, and was again repaired by the
+Sultan Selim the First, or at least during his reign&mdash;that is, about
+1515. It was in a ruinous condition in the year 1701; it was again
+repaired, and in the Greek revolution it was again dismantled; at the
+time of my visit they were actively employed in restoring it. Alexander,
+Waywode of Wallachia, was a great benefactor to this and other
+monasteries of Athos, which owe much to the piety of the different
+Christian princes of the Danubian states of the Turkish empire.</p>
+
+<p>The library over the porch of the church, which is large and handsome,
+contains one thousand printed books and between thirty and forty
+manuscripts in bad condition. I saw none of consequence: that is to say,
+nothing except the usual volumes of divinity of the twelfth century. In
+the church is preserved a large piece of the holy cross richly set with
+valuable jewels. The agoumenos of Xeropotamo, a man with a dark-grey
+beard, about sixty years of age, struck me as a fine specimen of what an
+abbot of an ascetic monastery ought to be; simple and kind, yet clever
+enough, and learned in the divinity of his church, he set an example to
+the monks under his rule of devotion and rectitude of conduct; he was
+not slothful, or<a name="page_416" id="page_416"></a> haughty, or grasping, and seemed to have a truly
+religious and cheerful mind. He was looked up to and beloved by the
+whole community; and with his dignified manner and appearance, his long
+grey hair, and dark flowing robes, he gave me the idea of what the
+saints and holy men of old must have been in the early days of
+Christianity, when they walked entirely in the faith, and&mdash;if required
+to do so&mdash;willingly gave themselves up as martyrs to the cause: when in
+all their actions they were influenced solely by the dictates of their
+religion. Would that such times would come again! But where every one
+sets up a new religion for himself, and when people laugh at and
+ridicule those things which their ignorance prevents them from
+appreciating, how can we hope for this?</p>
+
+<p>Early in the morning I started from my comfortable couch, and ran
+scrambling down the hill, over the rolling-stones in the dry bed of the
+torrent on which the monastery of the "dry river" (<span title="xêropotamou">&#958;&#951;&#961;&#959;&#960;&#959;&#964;&#945;&#956;&#959;&#965;</span>&mdash;courou chesmé in Turkish) is built. We got into the boat:
+our carpets, some oranges, and various little stores for a day's
+journey, which the good monks had supplied us with, being brought down
+by sundry good-natured lubberly <span title="katakymenoi">&#954;&#945;&#964;&#945;&#954;&#965;&#956;&#949;&#957;&#959;&#953;</span>&mdash;religions youths&mdash;who were delighted at having something
+to do, and were as pleased as children at having a good heavy
+praying-carpet to carry, or a basket of oranges, or a cushion from the
+monastery. They all waited on<a name="page_417" id="page_417"></a> the shore to see us off, and away we went
+along the coast. As the sun got up it became oppressively hot, and the
+first monastery we came abreast of was that of Simopetra, which is
+perched on the top of a perpendicular rock, five or six hundred feet
+high at least, if not twice as much. This rather daunted me: and as we
+thought perhaps to-morrow would not be so hot, I put off climbing up the
+precipice for the present, and rowed gently on in the calm sea till we
+came before the monastery of</p>
+
+<p class="c lrg">ST. NICHOLAS,</p>
+
+<p class="nind">the smallest of all the convents of Mount Athos. It was a most
+picturesque building, stuck up on a rock, and is famous for its figs, in
+the eating of which, in the absence of more interesting matter, we all
+employed ourselves a considerable time; they were marvellously cool and
+delicious, and there were such quantities of them. We and the boatmen
+sat in the shade, and enjoyed ourselves till we were ashamed of staying
+any longer. I forgot to ask who the founder was. There was no library;
+in fact, there was nothing but figs; so we got into the boat again, and
+sweltered on a quarter of an hour more, and then we came to</p>
+
+<p class="c lrg">ST. DIONISIUS.</p>
+
+<p>This monastery is also built upon a rock immediately above the sea; it
+is of moderate size, but is in good repair. There was a look of comfort
+about<a name="page_418" id="page_418"></a> it that savoured of easy circumstances, but the number of monks
+in it was small. Altogether this monastery, as regards the antiquities
+it contained, was the most interesting of all. The church, a good-sized
+building, is in a very perfect state of preservation. Hanging on the
+wall near the door of entrance was a portrait painted on wood, about
+three feet square, in a frame of silver-gilt, set with jewels; it
+represented Alexius Comnenus, Emperor of Trebizonde, the founder of the
+monastery. He it was, I believe, who built that most beautiful church a
+little way out of the town of Trebizonde, which is called St. Sofia,
+probably from its resemblance to the cathedral of Constantinople. He is
+drawn in his imperial robes, and the portrait is one of the most curious
+I ever saw. He founded this church in the year 1380; and Neagulus and
+Peter, Waywodes of Bessarabia, restored and repaired the monastery.
+There was another curious portrait of a lady; I did not learn who it
+was: very probably the Empress Pulcheria, or else Roxandra Domna
+(Domina?), wife of Alexander, Waywode of Wallachia; for both these
+ladies were benefactors to the convent.</p>
+
+<p>I was taken, as a pilgrim, to the church, and we stood in the middle of
+the floor before the <span title="ikonostasis">&#953;&#954;&#959;&#957;&#959;s&#964;&#945;&#963;&#953;&#962;</span>, whilst the monks
+brought out an old-fashioned low wooden table, upon which they placed
+the relics of the saints which they presumed we came to adore.<a name="page_419" id="page_419"></a> Of these
+some were very interesting specimens of intricate workmanship and superb
+and precious materials. One was a patera, of a kind of china or paste,
+made, as I imagine, of a multitude of turquoises ground down together,
+for it was too large to be of one single turquoise; there is one of the
+same kind, but of far inferior workmanship, in the treasury of St. Marc.
+This marvellous dish is carved in very high relief with minute figures
+or little statues of the saints, with inscriptions in very early Greek.
+It is set in pure gold, richly worked, and was a gift from the Empress
+or imperial Princess Pulcheria. Then there was an invaluable shrine for
+the head of St. John the Baptist, whose bones and another of his heads
+are in the cathedral at Genoa. St. John Lateran also boasts a head of St
+John, but that may have belonged to St. John the Evangelist. This shrine
+was the gift of Neagulus, Waywode or Hospodar of Wallachia: it is about
+two feet long and two feet high, and is in the shape of a Byzantine
+church; the material is silver-gilt, but the admirable and singular
+style of the workmanship gives it a value far surpassing its intrinsic
+worth. The roof is covered with five domes of gold; on each side it has
+sixteen recesses, in which are portraits of the saints in niello, and at
+each end there are eight others. All the windows are enriched in
+open-work tracery, of a strange sort of Gothic pattern, unlike anything
+in Europe. It is altogether a wonderful and precious<a name="page_420" id="page_420"></a> monument of
+ancient art, the production of an almost unknown country, rich, quaint,
+and original in its design and execution, and is indeed one of the most
+curious objects on Mount Athos; although the patera of the Princess
+Pulcheria might probably be considered of greater value. There were many
+other shrines and reliquaries, but none of any particular interest.</p>
+
+<p>I next proceeded to the library, which contained not much less than a
+thousand manuscripts, half on paper and half on vellum. Of those on
+vellum the most valuable were a quarto Evangelistarium, in uncial
+letters, and in beautiful preservation; another Evangelistarium, of
+which three fly-leaves were in early uncial Greek; a small quarto of the
+Dialogues of St. Gregory, <span title="dialogoi Gregoriou tou theologou">&#948;&#953;&#945;&#955;&#959;&#947;&#959;&#953; &#915;&#961;&#949;&#947;&#959;&#961;&#953;&#959;&#965; &#964;&#959;&#965; &#952;&#949;&#959;&#955;&#959;&#947;&#959;&#965;</span>, not in uncial letters, with twelve
+fine miniatures; a small quarto New Testament, containing the
+Apocalypse; and some magnificent folios of the Fathers of the eleventh
+century; but not one classic author. Among the manuscripts on paper were
+a folio of the Iliad of Homer, badly written, two copies of the works of
+Dionysius the Areopagite, and a multitude of books for the
+church-service. Alas! they would part with nothing. The library was
+altogether a magnificent collection, and for the most part well
+preserved: they had no great number of printed books. I should imagine
+that this monastery must, from some fortunate accident, have suffered
+less from spoliation during the late revolution than any of the<a name="page_421" id="page_421"></a> others;
+for considering that it is not a very large establishment, the number of
+valuable things it contained was quite astonishing.</p>
+
+<p>A quarter of an hour's row brought us to the scaricatojo of</p>
+
+<p class="c lrg">ST. PAUL,</p>
+
+<p class="nind">from whence we had to walk a mile and a half up a steep hill to the
+monastery, where building repairs were going on with great activity. I
+was received with cheerful hospitality, and soon made the acquaintance
+of four monks, who amongst them spoke English, French, Italian, and
+German. Having been installed in a separate bed-room, cleanly furnished
+in the Turkish style, where I subsequently enjoyed a delightful night's
+rest, undisturbed by a single flea, I was conducted into a large airy
+hall. Here, after a very comfortable dinner, the smaller fry of monks
+assembled to hear the illustrious stranger hold forth in turn to the
+four wise fathers who spoke unknown tongues. The simple, kind-hearted
+brethren looked with awe and wonder on the quadruple powers of those
+lips that uttered such strange sounds: just as the Peruvians made their
+reverence to the Spanish horses, whose speech they understood not, and
+whose manners were beyond their comprehension. It was fortunate for my
+reputation that the reverend German scholar was of a close and taciturn
+disposition, since my knowledge of his scraughing language did not
+extend<a name="page_422" id="page_422"></a> very far, and when we got to scientific discussion I was very
+nearly at a stand still; but I am inclined to think that he upheld my
+dignity to save his own; and as my servant, who never minced matters,
+had doubtless told them that I could speak ninety other languages, and
+was besides nephew to most of the crowned heads of Europe, if a ph&#339;nix
+had come in he would have had a lower place assigned him. I found also
+that in this&mdash;as indeed in all the other monasteries&mdash;one who had
+performed the pilgrimage to the Holy Land was looked upon with a certain
+degree of respect. In short, I found that at last I was amongst a set of
+people who had the sense to appreciate my merits; so I held up my head,
+and assumed all the dignified humility of real greatness.</p>
+
+<p>This monastery was founded for Bulgarian and Servian monks by
+Constantine Biancobano, Hospodar of Wallachia. There was little that was
+interesting in it, either in architecture or any other walk of art; the
+library was contained in a small light closet, the books were clean, and
+ranged in order on the new deal shelves. There was only one Greek
+manuscript, a duodecimo copy of the Gospels of the twelfth or thirteenth
+century. The Servian and Bulgarian manuscripts amounted to about two
+hundred and fifty: of these three were remarkable; the first was a
+manuscript of the four Gospels, a thick quarto, and the uncial letters
+in which it was written were three fourths of<a name="page_423" id="page_423"></a> an inch in height: it was
+imperfect at the end. The second was also a copy of the Gospels, a
+folio, in uncial letters, with fine illuminations at the beginning of
+each Gospel, and a large and curious portrait of a patriarch at the end;
+all the stops in this volume were dots of gold; several words also were
+written in gold. It was a noble manuscript. The third was likewise a
+folio of the Gospels in the ancient Bulgarian language, and, like the
+other two, in uncial letters. This manuscript was quite full of
+illuminations from beginning to end. I had seen no book like it anywhere
+in the Levant. I almost tumbled off the steps on which I was perched on
+the discovery of so extraordinary a volume. I saw that these books were
+taken care of, so I did not much like to ask whether they would part
+with them; more especially as the community was evidently a prosperous
+one, and had no need to sell any of their goods.</p>
+
+<p>After walking about the monastery with the monks, as I was going away
+the agoumenos said he wished he had anything which he could present to
+me as a memorial of my visit to the convent of St Paul. On this a brisk
+fire of reciprocal compliments ensued, and I observed that I should like
+to take a book. "Oh! by all means!" he said; "we make no use of the old
+books, and should be glad if you would accept one." We returned to the
+library; and the agoumenos took out one at a hazard, as you might take a
+brick or a<a name="page_424" id="page_424"></a> stone out of a pile, and presented it to me. Quoth I, "If
+you don't care what book it is that you are so good as to give me, let
+me take one which pleases me;" and, so saying, I took down the
+illuminated folio of the Bulgarian Gospels, and I could hardly believe I
+was awake when the agoumenos gave it into my hands. Perhaps the greatest
+piece of impertinence of which I was ever guilty, was when I asked to
+buy another; but that they insisted upon giving me also; so I took the
+other two copies of the Gospels mentioned above, all three as free-will
+gifts. I felt almost ashamed at accepting these two last books; but who
+could resist it, knowing that they were utterly valueless to the monks,
+and were not saleable in the bazaar at Constantinople, Smyrna, Salonica,
+or any neighbouring city? However, before I went away, as a salve to my
+conscience I gave some money to the church. The authorities accompanied
+me beyond the outer gate, and by the kindness of the agoumenos mules
+were provided to take us down to the sea-shore, where we found our
+clerical mariners ready for us. One of the monks, who wished for a
+passage to Xeropotamo, accompanied us; and, turning our boat's head
+again to the north-west, we arrived before long a second time below the
+lofty rock of</p>
+
+<p class="c lrg">SIMOPETRA.</p>
+
+<p>This monastery was founded by St. Simon the<a name="page_425" id="page_425"></a> Anchorite, of whose history
+I was unable to learn anything. The buildings are connected with the
+side of the mountain by a fine aqueduct, which has a grand effect,
+perched as it is at so great a height above the sea, and consisting of
+two rows of eleven arches, one above the other, with one lofty arch
+across a chasm immediately under the walls of the monastery, which, as
+seen from this side, resembles an immense square tower, with several
+rows of wooden balconies or galleries projecting from the walls at a
+prodigious height from the ground. It was no slight effort of gymnastics
+to get up to the door, where I was received with many grotesque bows by
+an ancient porter. I was ushered into the presence of the agoumenos, who
+sat in a hall, surrounded by a reverend conclave of his bearded and
+long-haired monks; and after partaking of sweetmeats and water, and a
+cup of coffee, according to custom, but no pipes&mdash;for the divines of
+Mount Athos do not indulge in smoking&mdash;they took me to the church and to
+the library.</p>
+
+<p>In the latter I found a hundred and fifty manuscripts, of which fifty
+were on vellum, all works of divinity, and not above ten or twelve of
+them fine books. I asked permission to purchase three, to which they
+acceded. These were the 'Life and Works of St. John Climax, Agoumenos of
+Mount Sinai,' a quarto of the eleventh century; the 'Acts and Epistles,'
+a noble folio written in large letters,<a name="page_426" id="page_426"></a> in double columns: a very fine
+manuscript, the letters upright and not much joined together: at the end
+is an inscription in red letters, which may contain the date, but it is
+so faint that I could not make it out. The third was a quarto of the
+four Gospels, with a picture of an evangelist at the beginning of each
+Gospel. Whilst I was arranging the payment for these manuscripts, a
+monk, opening the copy of the Gospels, found at the end a horrible
+anathema and malediction written by the donor, a prince or king, he
+said, against any one who should sell or part with this book. This was
+very unlucky, and produced a great effect upon the monks; but as no
+anathema was found in either of the two other volumes, I was allowed to
+take them, and so went on my way rejoicing. They rang the bells at my
+departure, and I heard them at intervals jingling in the air above me as
+I scrambled down the rocky mountain. Except Dionisiou, this was the only
+monastery where the agoumenos kissed the letter of the patriarch and
+laid it upon his forehead: the sign of reverence and obedience which is,
+or ought to be, observed with the firmans of the Sultan and other
+oriental potentates.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 409px;">
+<a href="images/ill_427.jpg">
+<img src="images/ill_427_thumb.jpg" width="409" height="550" alt="From a Sketch by R. Curzon.
+
+VIEW OF THE MONASTERY AND AQUEDUCT OF SIMOPETRA, ON MOUNT ATHOS, TAKEN
+FROM THE SEA SHORE." title="VIEW OF THE MONASTERY AND AQUEDUCT OF SIMOPETRA, ON MOUNT ATHOS" /></a>
+<p class="r caption">From a Sketch by R. Curzon.</p>
+
+<p class="caption">VIEW OF THE MONASTERY AND AQUEDUCT OF SIMOPETRA, ON MOUNT ATHOS, TAKEN
+FROM THE SEA SHORE.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The same evening I got back to my comfortable room at Xeropotamo, and
+did ample justice to a good meagre dinner after the heat and fatigues of
+the day. A monk had arrived from one of the outlying farms who could
+speak a little Italian; he was deputed to<a name="page_427" id="page_427"></a> do the honours of the
+house, and accordingly dined with me. He was a magnificent-looking man
+of thirty or thirty-five years of age, with large eyes and long black
+hair and beard. As we sat together in the evening in the ancient room,
+by the light of one dim brazen lamp, with deep shades thrown across his
+face and figure, I thought he would have made an admirable study for
+Titian or Sebastian del Piombo. In the course of conversation I found
+that he had learnt Italian from another monk, having never been out of
+the peninsula of Mount Athos. His parents and most of the other
+inhabitants of the village where he was born, somewhere in Roumelia&mdash;but
+its name or exact position he did not know&mdash;had been massacred during
+some revolt or disturbance. So he had been told, but he remembered
+nothing about it; he had been educated in a school in this or one of the
+other monasteries, and his whole life had been passed upon the Holy
+Mountain; and this, he said, was the case with very many other monks. He
+did not remember his mother, and did not seem quite sure that he ever
+had one; he had never seen a woman, nor had he any idea what sort of
+things women were, or what they looked like. He asked me whether they
+resembled the pictures of the Panagia, the Holy Virgin, which hang in
+every church. Now, those who are conversant with the peculiar
+conventional representations of the Blessed Virgin in the pictures of
+the Greek church,<a name="page_428" id="page_428"></a> which are all exactly alike, stiff, hard, and dry,
+without any appearance of life or emotion, will agree with me that they
+do not afford a very favourable idea of the grace or beauty of the fair
+sex; and that there was a difference of appearance between black women,
+Circassians, and those of other nations, which was, however, difficult
+to describe to one who had never seen a lady of any race. He listened
+with great interest while I told him that all women were not exactly
+like the pictures he had seen, but I did not think it charitable to
+carry on the conversation farther, although the poor monk seemed to have
+a strong inclination to know more of that interesting race of beings
+from whose society he had been so entirely debarred. I often thought
+afterwards of the singular lot of this manly and noble-looking monk:
+whether he is still a recluse, either in the monastery or in his
+mountain-farm, with its little moss-grown chapel as ancient as the days
+of Constantine; or whether he has gone out into the world and mingled in
+its pleasures and its cares.</p>
+
+<p>I arranged with the captain of a small vessel which was lying off
+Xeropotamo taking in a cargo of wood, that he should give me a passage
+in two or three days, when he said he should be ready to sail; and in
+the mean time I purposed to explore the metropolis of Mount Athos, the
+town of Cariez; and then to go to Caracalla, and remain there till the
+vessel was ready.</p>
+
+<p><a name="page_429" id="page_429"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 527px;">
+<a href="images/ill_428.jpg">
+<img src="images/ill_428_thumb.jpg" width="527" height="550" alt="CIRCASSIAN LADY." title="CIRCASSIAN LADY." /></a>
+<span class="caption">CIRCASSIAN LADY.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Accordingly, the next morning I set out, the Agoumenos supplying me with
+mules. The guide did not know how far it was to Cariez, which is
+situated almost in the centre of the peninsula. I found it was only
+distant one hour and a half; but as I had not made arrangements to go
+on, I was obliged to remain there all day. Close to the town is the
+great monastery of</p>
+
+<p class="c lrg">COUTLOUMOUSSI,</p>
+
+<p class="nind">the most regular building on Mount Athos. It contains a large square
+court with a cloister of stone arches all round it, out of which the
+cells and chambers open, as they do in a Roman Catholic convent. The
+church stands in the centre of this quadrangle, and glories in a famous
+picture of the Last Judgment on the wall of the narthex, or porch,
+before the door of entrance. The monastery was at this time nearly
+uninhabited; but, after some trouble, I found one monk, who made great
+difficulties as to showing me the library, for he said a Russian had
+been there some time ago, and had borrowed a book which he never
+returned. However, at last I gained admission by means of that ingenious
+silver key which opens so many locks.</p>
+
+<p>In a good-sized square room, filled with shelves all round, I found a
+fine, although neglected, collection of books; a great many of them
+thrown on the floor in heaps, and covered all over with dust, which the<a name="page_430" id="page_430"></a>
+Russian did not appear to have much disturbed when he borrowed the book
+which had occasioned me so much trouble. There were about six or seven
+hundred volumes of printed books, two hundred MSS. on paper, and a
+hundred and fifty on vellum. I was not permitted to examine this library
+at all to my satisfaction. The solitary monk thought I was a Russian,
+and would not let me alone, or give me the time I wanted for my
+researches. I found a multitude of folios and quartos of the works of
+St. Chrysostom, who seems to have been the principal instructor of the
+monks of Mount Athos, that is, in the days when they were in the habit
+of reading&mdash;a tedious custom, which they have long since given up by
+general consent. I met also with an Evangelistarium, a quarto in uncial
+letters, but not in very fine condition. Two or three other old monks
+had by this time crept out of their holes, but they would not part with
+any of their books: that unhappy Russian had filled the minds of the
+whole brotherhood with suspicion. So we went to the church, which was
+curious and quaint, as they all are; and as we went through all the
+requisite formalities before various grim pictures, and showed due
+respect for the sacred character of a Christian church, they began at
+last to believe that I was not a Russian; but if they had seen the
+contents of the saddle-bags which were sticking out bravely on each side
+of the patient mule at the gate,<a name="page_431" id="page_431"></a> they would perhaps have considered me
+as something far worse.</p>
+
+<p>Coutloumoussi was founded by the Emperor Alexius Comnenus, and, having
+been destroyed by "<i>the Pope of Rome</i>," was restored by the piety of
+various hospodars and waywodes of Bessarabia. It is difficult to
+understand what these worthy monks can mean when they affirm that
+several of their monasteries have been burned and plundered by the Pope.
+Perhaps in the days of the Crusades some of the rapacious and
+undisciplined hordes who accompanied the armies of the Cross&mdash;not to
+rescue the holy sepulchre from the power of the Saracens, but for the
+sake of plunder and robbery&mdash;may have been attracted by the fame of the
+riches of these peaceful convents, and have made the differences in
+their religion a pretext for sacrilege and rapacity. Thus bands of
+pirates and brigands in the middle ages may have cloaked their acts of
+violence under the specious excuse of devotion to the Church of Rome;
+and so the Pope has acquired a bad name, and is looked upon with terror
+and animosity by the inhabitants of the monasteries of Mount Athos.</p>
+
+<p>Having seen what I could, I went on to the town of Cariez, if it can
+properly be called such; for it is difficult to explain what it is. One
+may perhaps say that what Washington is to the United States, Cariez is
+to Mount Athos. A few artificers do live there who carve crosses and
+ornaments in cypress-wood.<a name="page_432" id="page_432"></a> The principal feature of the place is the
+great church of Protaton, which is surrounded by smaller buildings and
+chapels. These I saw at a distance, but did not visit, because I could
+get no mules, and it was too hot to walk so far. A Turkish aga lives
+here: he is sent by the Porte to collect the revenue from the monks, and
+also to protect them from other Turkish visitors. He is paid and
+provided with food by a kind of rate which is levied on the twenty-one
+monasteries of <span title="agion oros">&#945;&#947;&#953;&#959;&#957; &#959;&#961;&#959;&#962;</span>, and is in fact a sort of
+sheep-dog to the flock of helpless monks who pasture among the trees and
+rocks of the peninsula. On certain days the Agoumenoi of the monasteries
+and the high officers of their communities meet at the church of
+Protaton for the transaction of business and the discussion of affairs.
+I am sorry I did not see this ancient house of parliament. The rooms in
+which these synods or convocations are held adjoin the church. Situated
+at short distances around these principal edifices are numerous small
+ecclesiastical villas, such as were called cells in England before the
+Reformation: these are the habitations of the venerable senators when
+they come up to parliament. Some of them are beautifully situated; for
+Cariez stands in a fair, open vale, half-way up the side of the
+mountain, and commands a beautiful view to the north of the sea, with
+the magnificent island of Samotraki looming superbly in the distance.
+All around are large orchards and plantations of peach-<a name="page_433" id="page_433"></a>trees and of
+various other sorts of fruit-bearing trees in great abundance, and the
+round hills are clothed with greensward. It is a happy, peaceful-looking
+place, and in its trim and sunny arbours reminds one of Virgil and
+Theocritus.</p>
+
+<p>I went to the house of the aga to seek for a habitation, but the aga was
+asleep; and who was there so bold as to wake a sleeping aga? Luckily he
+awoke of his own accord; and he was soon informed by my interpreter that
+an illustrious personage awaited his leisure. He did not care for a
+monk, and not much for an agoumenos; but he felt small in the presence
+of a mighty Turkish aga. Nevertheless, he ventured a few hints as usual
+about the kings and queens who were my first cousins, but in a much more
+subdued tone than usual; and I was received with that courteous civility
+and good breeding which is so frequently met with among Turks of every
+degree. The aga apologised for having no good room to offer me; but he
+sent out his men to look for a lodging; and in the mean time we went to
+a kiosk, that is, a place like a large birdcage, with enough roof to
+make a shade, and no walls to impede the free passage of the air. It was
+built of wood, upon a scaffold eight or ten feet from the ground, in the
+corner of a garden, and commanded a fine view of the sea. In one corner
+of this cage I sat all day long, for there was nowhere else to go to;
+and the aga sat opposite to me in another corner, smoking his pipe,<a name="page_434" id="page_434"></a> in
+which solacing occupation to his great surprise I did not partake. We
+had cups of coffee and sherbet every now and then, and about every
+half-hour the aga uttered a few words of compliment or welcome,
+informing me occasionally that there were many dervishes in the place,
+"very many dervishes," for so he denominated the monks. Dinner came
+towards evening. There was meat, dolmas, demir tatlessi, olives, salad,
+roast meat, and pilau, that filled up some time; and shortly afterwards
+I retired to the house of the monastery of Russico, a little distance
+from my kiosk; and there I slept on a carpet on the boards; and at
+sunrise was ready to continue my journey, as were also the mules. The
+aga gave me some breakfast, at which repast a cat made its appearance,
+with whom the day before I had made acquaintance; but now it came, not
+alone, but accompanied by two kittens. "Ah!" said I to the aga, "how is
+this? Why, as I live, this is a <i>she</i> cat! a cat feminine! What business
+has it on Mount Athos? and with kittens too! a wicked cat!"</p>
+
+<p>"Hush!" said the Aga, with a solemn grin; "do not say anything about it.
+Yes, it must be a she-cat: I allow, certainly, that it must be a
+she-cat. I brought it with me from Stamboul. But do not speak of it, or
+they will take it away; and it reminds me of my home, where my wife and
+children are living far away from me."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 417px;">
+<a href="images/ill_434.jpg">
+<img src="images/ill_434_thumb.jpg" width="417" height="550" alt="TURKISH LADY, IN THE YASHMAK, OR VEIL." title="TURKISH LADY, IN THE YASHMAK, OR VEIL." /></a>
+<span class="caption">TURKISH LADY, IN THE YASHMAK, OR VEIL.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>I promised to make no scandal about the cat, and<a name="page_435" id="page_435"></a> took my leave; and
+as I rode off I saw him looking at me out of his cage with the cat
+sitting by his side. I was sorry I could not take aga and cat and all
+with me to Stamboul, the poor gentleman looked so solitary and
+melancholy.<a name="page_436" id="page_436"></a></p>
+
+<hr class="chpt" />
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXVIII.</h3>
+
+<p class="chapter">Caracalla&mdash;The Agoumenos&mdash;Curious Cross&mdash;The Nuts of
+Caracalla&mdash;Singular Mode of preparing a Dinner Table&mdash;Departure
+from Mount Athos&mdash;Packing of the MSS.&mdash;Difficulties of the
+Way&mdash;Voyage to the Dardanelles&mdash;Apprehended Attack from
+Pirates&mdash;Return to Constantinople.</p>
+
+<p class="nind">I<span class="smcap">t</span> took me three hours to reach Caracalla, where the agoumenos and
+Father Joasaph received me with all the hospitable kindness of old
+friends, and at once installed me in my old room, which looked into the
+court, and was very cool and quiet. Here I reposed in peace during the
+hotter hours of the day; and here I received the news that the captain
+of the vessel which I had hired had left me in the lurch and gone out to
+sea, having, I suppose, made some better bargain. This caused me some
+tribulation; but there was nothing to be done but to get another vessel;
+so I sent back to Xeropotamo, which appeared to be the most frequented
+part of the coast, to see whether there was any craft there which could
+be hired.</p>
+
+<p>I employed the next day in wandering about with the agoumenos and Father
+Joasaph in all the holes and corners of the monastery; the agoumenos
+telling me interminable legends of the saints, and asking Father Joasaph
+if they were not true. I looked over the<a name="page_437" id="page_437"></a> library, where I found an
+uncial Evangelistarium; a manuscript of Demosthenes on paper, but of
+some antiquity; a manuscript of Justin (<span title="Ioustinou">&#921;&#959;&#965;&#963;&#964;&#953;&#957;&#959;&#965;</span>) in
+Greek; and several other manuscripts,&mdash;all of which the agoumenos agreed
+to let me have.</p>
+
+<p>One of the monks had a curiously carved cross set in silver, which he
+wished to sell; but I told the agoumenos that it was not sufficiently
+ancient: I added, however, that if I could meet with any ancient cross
+or shrine or reliquary, I should be delighted to purchase such a thing,
+and that I would give a good price for it. In the afternoon it struck
+him suddenly that as he did not care for antiquities, perhaps we might
+come to an arrangement; and the end of the affair was that he gave me
+one of the ancient crosses which I had seen when I was there before, and
+put the one the monk had to sell in its place; certain pieces of gold
+which I produced rendering this transaction satisfactory to all parties.
+This most curious and beautiful piece of jewellery has been since
+engraved, and forms the subject of the third plate in Shaw's 'Dresses
+and Decorations of the Middle Ages,' London, 1843. It had been presented
+to the monastery by the Emperor John, whom, from what I was told by the
+agoumenos, I take to have been John Zimisces. It is one of the most
+ancient as well as one of the finest relics of its kind now existing in
+England.</p>
+
+<p>On the evening of the second day my man returned<a name="page_438" id="page_438"></a> from Xeropotamo with
+the information that he had found a small Greek brig, and had engaged to
+give the patron or captain eleven hundred piastres for our passage
+thence to the Dardanelles the next day, if I could manage to be ready in
+so short a time. As fortunately I had purchased all the manuscripts
+which I wished to possess, there was nothing to detain me on Mount
+Athos; for I had now visited every monastery excepting that of St. Anne,
+which indeed is not a monastery like the rest, but a mere collection of
+hermitages or cells at the extreme point of the peninsula, immediately
+under the great peak of the mountain. I was told that there was nothing
+there worth seeing; but still I am sorry that I did not make a
+pilgrimage to so original a community, who it appears live on roots and
+herbs, and are the most strict of all the ascetics in this strange
+monastic region.</p>
+
+<p>All of a sudden, as we were walking quietly together, the agoumenos
+asked me if I knew what was the price of nuts at Constantinople.</p>
+
+<p>"Nuts?" said I.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, nuts," said he; "hazel-nuts: nuts are excellent things. Have they
+a good supply of nuts at Constantinople?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said I, "I don't know; but I dare say they have. But why, my
+Lord, do you ask? Why do you wish to know the price of hazel-nuts at
+Constantinople?"<a name="page_439" id="page_439"></a></p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" said the agoumenos, "they do not eat half nuts enough at Stamboul.
+Nuts are excellent things. They should be eaten more than they are.
+People say that nuts are unwholesome; but it is a great mistake." And so
+saying, he introduced me into a set of upper rooms that I had not
+previously entered, the entire floors of which were covered two feet
+deep with nuts. I never saw one-hundredth part so many before. The good
+agoumenos, it seems, had been speculating in hazel-nuts; and a vessel
+was to come to the little tower of the scaricatojo down below to be
+freighted with them: they were to produce a prodigious profit, and
+defray the expense of finishing the new buildings of Caracalla.</p>
+
+<p>"Take some," said he; "don't be afraid; there are plenty. Take some, and
+taste them, and then you can tell your friends at Constantinople what a
+peculiar flavour you found in the famous nuts of Athos; and in all Athos
+every one knows that there are no nuts like those of Caracalla!"</p>
+
+<p>They were capital nuts; but as it was before dinner, and I was
+ravenously hungry, and my lord the agoumenos had not brought a bottle of
+sherry in his pocket, I did not particularly relish them. But there had
+been great talking during the morning between the agoumenos and Pater
+Joasaph about a famous large fish which was to be cooked for dinner;
+and, as the important hour was approaching, we adjourned to my<a name="page_440" id="page_440"></a> sitting
+room. Father Joasaph was already there, having washed his hands and
+seated himself on the divan, in order to regulate the proceedings of the
+lay brother who acted as butler. The preparations for the banquet were
+made. The lay brother first brought in the table-cloth, which he spread
+upon the ground in one corner of the room; then he turned the table
+upside down upon the table-cloth, with its legs in the air: next he
+brought two immense flagons, one of wine, the other of water; these were
+made of copper tinned, and were each a foot and a half high; he set them
+down on the carpet a little way from the table-cloth; and round the
+table he placed three cushions for the agoumenos, Pater Joasaph, and me;
+and then he went away to bring the dinner. He soon reappeared, bringing
+in, with the assistance of another stout catechumen, the whole of the
+dinner on a large circular tray of well-polished brass called a sinni.
+This was so formed as to fix on the sticking-up legs of the subverted
+table, and, with the aid of Pater Joasaph, it was soon all tight and
+straight. In a great centre-dish there appeared the big fish in a sea of
+sauce surrounded by a mountainous shore of rice. Round this luxurious
+centre stood a circle of smaller dishes, olives, caviare, salad (no
+eggs, because there were no hens), papas yaknesi, and several sweet
+things. Two cats followed the dinner into the room, and sat down
+demurely side by side. The fish looked excellent, and had a<a name="page_441" id="page_441"></a> most
+savoury smell. I had washed my hands, and was preparing to sit down,
+when the Father Abbot, who was not thinking of the dinner, took this
+inopportune moment to begin one of his interminable stories.</p>
+
+<p>"We have before spoken," he said, "of the many kings, princes, and
+patriarchs who have given up the world and ended their days here in
+peace. One of the most important epochs in the history of Mount Athos
+occurred about the year 1336, when a Calabrian monk, a man of great
+learning though of mean appearance, whose name was Barlaam, arrived on a
+pilgrimage to venerate the sacred relics of our famous sanctuaries. He
+found here many holy men, who, having retired entirely from the world,
+by communing with themselves in the privacy of their own cells, had
+arrived at that state of calm beatitude and heavenly contemplation, that
+the eternal light of Mount Tabor was revealed to them."</p>
+
+<p>"Mount Tabor?" said I.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said the agoumenos, "the light which had been seen during the
+time of the Transfiguration by the apostles, and which had always
+existed there, was seen by those who, after years of solitude and
+penance and maceration of the flesh, had arrived at that state of
+abstraction from all earthly things that in their bodies they saw the
+divine light. They in those good times would sit alone in their chambers
+with their eyes cast down upon the region of their navel; this was<a name="page_442" id="page_442"></a>
+painful at first, both from the fixedness of the attitude required, with
+the head bent down upon the breast, and from the workings of the mind,
+which seemed to wander in the regions of darkness and space. At last,
+when they had persevered in fasting day and night with no change of
+thought or attitude for many hours, they began to feel a wonderful
+satisfaction; a ray of joy ineffable would seem to illuminate the brain;
+and no sooner had the soul discovered the place of the heart than it was
+involved in a mystic and ethereal light."<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a></p>
+
+<p>"Ah," said I, "really!"</p>
+
+<p>"Now this Barlaam, being a carnal and worldly-minded man, took upon
+himself to doubt the efficacy of this bodily and mental discipline; it
+is said that he even ventured to ridicule the venerable fathers who gave
+themselves up so entirely to the contemplation of the light of Mount
+Tabor. Not only did he question the merits of these ascetic acts, but,
+being learned in books, and being endowed with great powers of eloquence
+and persuasion, he infused doubts into the minds of others of the monks
+and anchorites of Mount Athos. Arguments were used on both sides;
+conversations arose upon these subjects; arguments grew into
+disputations, conversations into controversies, till at last, from the
+most peaceful and regular of communities, the peninsula of the holy
+mountain became from<a name="page_443" id="page_443"></a> one end to the other a theatre of discord, doubt,
+and difference; the flames of contention were lit up; every thing was
+unsettled; men knew not what to think; till at last, with general
+consent, the unhappy intruder was dismissed from all the monasteries;
+and, flying from the storm of angry words which he had raised on all
+sides around him, he departed from Mount Athos and retired to the city
+of Constantinople. There his specious manners, his knowledge of the
+language of the Latins, and the dissensions he had created in the
+church, brought him into notice at court; and now not only were the
+monks of Mount Athos and Olympus divided against each other, but the
+city was split into parties of theological disputants; clamour and
+acrimony raged on every side. The Emperor Andronicus, willing to remove
+the cause of so much contention, and being at the same time surrounded
+with difficulties on all sides (for the unbelieving Turks, commanded by
+the fierce Orchan, had with their unnumbered tribes overrun Bithynia and
+many of the provinces of the Christian emperor), he graciously
+condescended to give his imperial mandate that the monk Barlaam should
+[here the two cats became vociferous in their impatience for the fish]
+be sent on an embassy to the Pope of Rome; he was empowered to enter
+into negotiations for the settlement of all religious differences
+between the Eastern and Western churches, on condition that the Latin
+princes should<a name="page_444" id="page_444"></a> assist the emperor to drive the Turks back into the
+confines of Asia. The Emperor Andronicus died from a fever brought on by
+excitement in defending the cause of the ascetic quietists before a
+council in his palace. John Paleologus was set aside; and John
+Cantacuzene, in a desperate endeavour to please all parties, gave his
+daughter Theodora to Orchan the Emperor of the Osmanlis; and at his
+coronation the purple buskin of his right leg was fastened on by the
+Greeks, and that of his left leg by the Latins. Notwithstanding these
+concessions, the embassy of Barlaam, the most important with which any
+diplomatic agent was ever trusted, failed altogether from the troubles
+of the times. The Emperor John Cantacuzene, who celebrated his own acts
+in an edict beginning with the words 'by my sublime and almost
+incredible virtue,' gave up the reins of power, and taking the name of
+Josaph, became a monk of one of the monasteries of the holy mountain,
+which was then known by the name of the monastery of Mangane, while the
+monk Barlaam was created Bishop of Gerace, in Italy."</p>
+
+<p>By the time the good abbot had come to the conclusion of his history,
+the fish was cold and the dinner spoilt; but I thought his account of
+the extraordinary notions which the monks of those dark ages had formed
+of the duties of Christianity so curious, that it almost compensated for
+the calamity of losing the only good dinner which I had seen on Mount
+Athos.<a name="page_445" id="page_445"></a></p>
+
+<p>What a difference it would have made in the affairs of Europe if the
+embassy of Barlaam had succeeded! The Turks would not have been now in
+possession of Constantinople; and many points of difference having been
+mutually conceded by the two great divisions of the church, perhaps the
+Reformation never would have taken place. The narration of these events
+was the more interesting to me, as I had it from the lips of a monk who
+to all intents and purposes was living in the darkness of remote
+antiquity. His ample robes, his long beard, and the Byzantine
+architecture of the ancient room in which we sat, impressed his words
+upon my remembrance; and as I looked upon the eager countenance of the
+abbot, whose thoughts still were fixed upon the world from which he had
+retired, while he discoursed of the troubles and discords which had
+invaded the peaceful glades and quiet solitudes of the holy mountain, I
+felt that there was no place left on this side of the grave where the
+wicked cease from troubling or where the weary are at rest. No places,
+however, that I have seen equal the beauty of the scenery and the calm
+retired look of the small farmhouses, if they may so be called, which I
+met with in my rides on the declivities of Mount Athos. These buildings
+are usually situated on the sides of hills opening on the land which the
+monastic labourers cultivate; they consist of a small square tower,
+usually appended to which are one or two little stone cottages,<a name="page_446" id="page_446"></a> and an
+ancient chapel, from which the tinkling of the bar which calls the monks
+to prayer may be heard many times a day echoing softly through the
+lovely glades of the primæval forest. The ground is covered in some
+places with anemones and cyclamen; waterfalls are met with at the head
+of half the valleys, pouring their refreshing waters over marble rocks.
+If the great mountain itself, which towers up so grandly above the
+enchanting scenery below, had been carved into the form of a statue of
+Alexander the Great, according to the project of Lysippus, though a
+wonderful effort of human labour, it could hardly have added to the
+beauty of the scene, which is so much increased by the appearance of the
+monasteries, whose lofty towers and rounded domes appear almost like the
+palaces we read of in a fairy tale.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning, at an early hour, mules were waiting in the court to
+carry me across the hills to the harbour below the monastery of
+Xeropotamo, where the Greek brig was lying which was to convey me and my
+treasures from these peaceful shores. Emptying out my girdle, I
+calculated how much, or rather how little money would suffice to pay the
+expenses of my voyage to the Asiatic castle of the Dardanelles, feeling
+assured that from thence I could get credit for a passage in the
+magnificent steamer <i>The Stamboul</i>, which ran between Smyrna and
+Constantinople. With the reservation of this sum, I gave the agoumenos
+all<a name="page_447" id="page_447"></a> my remaining gold, and in return he provided me with an old wooden
+chest, in which I stowed away several goodly folios; for the
+saddle-bags, although distended to their utmost limits, did not suffice
+to carry all the great manuscripts and ponderous volumes that were now
+added to my store. Turning out the corn from the nosebags of the mules,
+I put one or two smaller books in each; and, after all, an extra mule
+was sent for to convey the surplus tomes over the rough and craggy ridge
+which we were to pass in our journey to the other sea. Although the
+stories of the agoumenos were too windy and too long, I was sorry to
+part from him, and I took an affectionate leave also of Pater Joasaph
+and the two cats. Unfortunately, in the hurry of departure, I left on
+the divan the MS. of Justin, which I had been trying to decipher, and
+forgot it when I came away. It was a small thick octavo, on charta
+bombycina, and was probably kicked into the nearest corner as soon as I
+evacuated the monastery.</p>
+
+<p>Our ride was a very rough one. We had first to ascend the hill, in some
+places through deep ravines, and in others through most glorious forests
+of gigantic trees, mostly planes, with a thick underwood of those
+aromatic flowering evergreens which so beautifully clothe the hills of
+Greece and this part of Turkey.</p>
+
+<p>When we had crossed the upper ridge of rock, leaving the peak of Athos
+towering to the sky on our left, we had to descend the dry bed of a
+torrent so full<a name="page_448" id="page_448"></a> of great stones and fallen rocks, that it appeared
+impossible for anything but a goat to travel on such a road. I got off
+my mule, and began jumping from one rock to another on the edge of the
+precipice; but the sun was so powerful, that in a short time I was
+completely exhausted; and on looking at the mules, I saw that one after
+another they jumped down so unerringly over chasms and broken rocks,
+alighting so precisely in the exact place where there was standing-room
+for their feet, that, after a little consideration, I remounted my mule;
+and keeping my seat, without holding the bridle, we hopped and skipped
+from rock to rock down this extraordinary track, until in due time we
+arrived safely at the sea-shore, close to the mouth of the little river
+of Xeropotamo. My manuscripts and myself were soon embarked, and with a
+favouring breeze we stood out into the Gulf of Monte Santo, and had
+leisure to survey the scenery of this superb peninsula as we glided
+round the lofty marble rocks and noble forests which formed the
+background to the strange and picturesque Byzantine monasteries with
+every one of which we had become acquainted.</p>
+
+<p>Being a little nervous on account of the pirates, of whom I had heard
+many stories during my sojourn on Mount Athos, I questioned the master
+of the vessel on this subject. "Oh," said he, "the sea is now very
+quiet; there have been no pirates about the coast for<a name="page_449" id="page_449"></a> the last
+fortnight." This assurance hardly satisfied me. How terrible it would be
+to see these precious volumes thrown into the sea, like my unhappy
+precursor's MS. of Homer! It was frightful to think of! We were three
+days at sea, there being at this fine season very little wind. Once we
+thought we were chased by a wicked-looking cutter with a large white
+mainsail, which kept to windward of us; but in the end, after some hours
+of deadly tribulation, during which I hid the manuscripts as well as I
+could under all kinds of rubbish in the hold, we descried the stars and
+stripes of America upon her ensign; so then I pulled all the old books
+out again. This cutter was, I suppose, a tender to some American
+man-of-war. On the evening of the third day we found ourselves safe
+under the guns of Roumeli Calessi, the European castle of the
+Dardanelles; and, after a good deal of tedious tacking, we got across to
+the Asiatic castle of Coom Calessi, where I landed with all my
+treasures. Before long, the Smyrna steamer, <i>The Stamboul</i>, hove in
+sight, and I took my passage in her to Constantinople.</p>
+
+<p class="c top15">THE END.</p>
+
+<p class="c top15 ov">&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;London: Printed by W. Clowes and Son, Stamford Street.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+
+<h3><a name="FOOTNOTES" id="FOOTNOTES"></a>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Moyah&mdash;"water."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> This, the first mosque built at Cairo, is said to have been
+paid for by Sultan Tayloon with a part of an immense treasure in gold,
+which he found under a monument called the altar of Pharaoh, on the
+mountain of Mokattam. This building was destroyed by Tayloon, who
+founded a mosque upon the spot in the year 873, in honour of Judah, the
+brother of Joseph, who resorted there to pray when he came to Egypt.
+This mosque becoming ruined, another was built upon the spot by the Emir
+El Guyoosh, minister of the Caliph Mostansir, <span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1094, which still
+remains perched on the corner of a rock, which is excavated in various
+places with ancient tombs.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> A fragment of the Gospel of St. Mark was found in the tomb
+which was reputed to be his. Damp and age have decayed this precious
+relic, of which only some small fragments remain; but an exact facsimile
+of it was made before it was destroyed. This facsimile is now in my
+possession: it is in Latin, and is written in double columns, on sixteen
+leaves of vellum, of a large quarto size, and proves that whoever
+transcribed the original must have been a proficient in the art of
+writing, for the letters are of great size and excellent formation, and
+in the style of the very earliest manuscripts.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> See Quarterly Review, vol. lxxvii. p. 43.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> It is perhaps more likely that these beautiful specimens of
+ancient glass were made in the island of Murano, in the lagunes of
+Venice, as the manufactories of the Venetians supplied the Mahomedans
+with many luxuries in the middle ages.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> The only early church in which the columns are continued on
+the end opposite to the altar, where the doorway is usually situated, is
+the Cathedral of Messina. The effect is very good, and takes off from
+the baldness usually observable at that end of a basilica. The early
+Coptic churches have no porch or narthex, an essential part of an
+original Greek church.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> This curious old sunken oratory bears a resemblance in many
+points to the fine church of St. Agnese, at Rome, where the ground has
+been excavated down to the level of the catacomb in which the holy
+martyr's body reposes. The long straight flight of steps down to the
+lower level are also similar in these two very ancient churches,
+although the Church of Der-el-Adra is poor and mean, whilst that of St.
+Agnese is a superb edifice, and is famous for being the first basilica
+in which a gallery is found over the side aisles. This gallery was set
+apart for the women, as in the oriental churches of St. Sophia at
+Constantinople, and perhaps, also, of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> It is much to be desired that some competent person should
+write a small cheap book, with plates or wood-cuts explaining what an
+early Christian Church was; what the ceremonies, ornaments, vestures,
+and liturgy were at the time when the Church of our Lord was formally
+established by the Emperor Constantine: for the numerous well-meaning
+authors who have written on the restoration of our older churches,
+appear to me to be completely in the dark. Gothic is NOT Christian
+architecture&mdash;it is Roman Catholic architecture: the vestures of English
+ecclesiastics are not restorations of early simplicity&mdash;they are modern
+inventions taken from German collegiate dresses which have nothing to do
+with religion.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> We are perhaps not entirely acquainted with the mechanical
+powers of the ancients. The seated statue of Rameses II., in the
+Memnonium at Thebes, a solid block of granite forty or fifty feet high,
+has been broken to pieces apparently by a tremendous blow. How this can
+have been accomplished without the aid of gunpowder it is difficult to
+conjecture.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> For the benefit of the reader I subjoin two of there songs
+translated from the originals; or rather, I may say, paraphrased:
+although the first of them has the same rhythm as the original. The
+notes are but very little, if at all, altered from those which have been
+frequently sung to me, accompanied by a drum, called a tarabouka, or a
+long sort of guitar with only two or three strings. It must be observed
+that the chorus, Amaan, Amaan, Amaan, is generally added to all
+songs&mdash;<i>à discrétion</i>&mdash;and that the way this chorus is howled out, is to
+an European ear the most difficult part to bear of the whole:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<table summary="poem"
+style="font-weight:400;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
+<tr><td class="number">1.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>Thine eyes, thine eyes have kill'd me:</td></tr>
+<tr><td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">With love my heart is torn:</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Thy looks with pain have fill'd me:</td></tr>
+<tr><td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Amaan, Amaan, Amaan.</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="number">2.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>Oh gently, dearest! gently,</td></tr>
+<tr><td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Approach me not with scorn:</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td>With one sweet look content me:</td></tr>
+<tr><td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Amaan, Amaan, Amaan.</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="number">3.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>That yellow shawl encloses</td></tr>
+<tr><td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">A form made to adorn</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td>A Peri's bower of roses:</td></tr>
+<tr><td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Amaan, Amaan, Amaan.</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="number">4.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>The snows, the snows are melting</td></tr>
+<tr><td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">On the hills of Isfahan.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td>As fair, be as relenting:</td></tr>
+<tr><td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Amaan, Amaan, Amaan.</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>&nbsp; *&nbsp; &nbsp; *&nbsp; &nbsp;*&nbsp; &nbsp;*&nbsp; &nbsp;*&nbsp; &nbsp;*&nbsp; &nbsp; *</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="number">1.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>Let not her, whose eyelids sleep,</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Imagine I no vigil keep.</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Alas! with hope and love I burn:</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Ah! do not from thy lover turn!</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="number">2.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>Patron of lovers, Bedowi!</td></tr>
+<tr><td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ah! give me her I hold most dear;</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td>And I will vow to her, and thee,</td></tr>
+<tr><td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">The brightest shawl In all Cashmere.</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="number">3.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>Ah! when I view thy loveliness,</td></tr>
+<tr><td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">The lustre of thy deep black eye,</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td>My songs but add to my distress!</td></tr>
+<tr><td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Let me behold thee once, and die.</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="number">4.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>Think not that scorn and bitter words</td></tr>
+<tr><td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Can make me from my true love sever!</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Pierce our hearts, then, with your swords:</td></tr>
+<tr><td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">The blood of both will flow together.</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="number">5.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>Fill us the golden bowl with wine;</td></tr>
+<tr><td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Give us the ripe and downy peach:</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td>And, in this bower of jessamine,</td></tr>
+<tr><td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">No sorrows our retreat shall reach.</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="number">6.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>Masr may boast her lovely girls,</td></tr>
+<tr><td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Whose necks are deck'd with pearls and gold:</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td>The gold would fall; the purest pearls</td></tr>
+<tr><td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Would blush could they my love behold.</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="number">7.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>Famed Skanderieh's beauties, too,</td></tr>
+<tr><td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">On Syria's richest silks recline:</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td>Their rosy lips are sweet, 'tis true;</td></tr>
+<tr><td><span style="margin-left: 1em;">But can they be compar'd to thine?</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="number">8.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>Fairest! your beauty comes from Heaven:</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Freely the lovely gift was given.</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Resist not, then, the high decree&mdash;</td></tr>
+<tr><td>'Twas fated I should sigh for thee.</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>
+This last song is well known upon the Nile by the name of its chorus,
+<i>Doas ya leili</i>.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> This sword is used by the Reverendissimo, the title given
+to the superior of the Franciscans, when he confers the order of Knight
+of the Holy Sepulchre, which is only given to a Roman Catholic of noble
+birth. The Reverendissimo is also authorised by the Pope to give a flag
+bearing the Five Crosses of Jerusalem to the captain of any ship who has
+rendered service to the Catholic religion. These honours were first
+instituted by the Christian Kings of Jerusalem, but they are now sold by
+the monks for about forty dollars to any Roman Catholic who likes to pay
+for them.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> On another occasion some years afterwards, I was waiting
+in the same place, when I wandered into the new Patriarchal church which
+opens on this court: while I stood there, a corpse was brought in on a
+bier, followed by many persons, who I suppose were the relations and
+friends of the deceased. After the funeral service had been read by a
+priest, every person in the church went up to the bier and kissed the
+dead man's hand and forehead: this is the usual custom, and an affecting
+one to see when friends bid friends a last farewell. But this man had
+died of some fearful and horrible disease, perhaps the plague, which
+through this horrid means may have been distributed to half the
+congregation.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> All eastern cities are infested with troops of half-wild
+dogs, who act the part of scavengers, and live upon the refuse food
+which is thrown into the streets.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a>
+</p>
+<p class="hang"><span class="smcap">Direction.</span>&mdash;"To the blessed Inspectors, Officers, Chiefs, and
+Representatives of the Holy Community of Monte Santo, and to the
+Holy Fathers of the same, and of all other sacred convents, our
+beloved Sons.</p>
+<p>
+"We, Gregorios, Patriarch, Archbishop Universal, Metropolitan of
+Constantinople, &amp;c. &amp;c. &amp;c.
+</p>
+<p class="hang">"Blessed Inspectors, Officers, Superiors, and Representatives of
+the Community of the Holy Mountain, and other Holy Fathers of the
+same, and of the other Holy and Venerable Convents subject to our
+holy universal Throne. Peace be to you.</p>
+<p>
+"The bearer of the present, our patriarchal sheet, the Honourable Robert
+Curzon, of a noble English family, recommended to us by most worthy and
+much-honoured persons, intending to travel and wishing to be instructed
+in the old and new philology, thinks to satisfy his curiosity by
+repairing to those sacred convents which may have any connexion with his
+intentions. We recommend his person, therefore, to you all: and we order
+and require of you, that you not only receive him with every esteem and
+every possible hospitality, in each and in the several holy convents;
+but to lend yourselves readily to all his wants and desires, and to give
+him precise and clear explanations to all his interrogations relative to
+his philological examinations, obliging yourselves, and lending
+yourselves, in a manner not only fully to satisfy and content him, but
+so that he shall approve of and praise your conduct.
+</p><p>
+"This we desire and require to be executed, rewarding you with the
+Divine and with our blessing.
+</p><p>
+<span style="margin-left: 8em;">"(Signed) <span class="smcap">Gregorios</span>, Universal Patriarch.</span><br />
+</p><p>
+"Constantinople, 1 (13) July, 1837."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> Ridiculous as these pictorial representations of the Last
+Judgment appear to us, one of them was the cause of a whole nation's
+embracing Christianity. Bogoris, king of Bulgaria, having written to
+Constantinople for a painter to decorate the walls of his palace, a monk
+named Methodius was sent to him&mdash;all knowledge of the arts in those days
+being confined to the clergy. The king desired Methodius to paint on a
+certain wall the most terrible picture that he could imagine; and, by
+the advice of the king's sister, who had embraced Christianity some
+years before whilst in captivity at Constantinople, the monastic artist
+produced so fearful a representation of the torments of the condemned in
+the next world, that it had the effect of converting Bogoris to the
+Christian faith. In consequence of this event the Patriarch of
+Constantinople despatched a bishop to Bulgaria, who baptised the king by
+the name of Michael in the year 865. Before long his loyal subjects,
+following the example of their sovereign, were converted also; and
+Christianity from that period became the religion of the land.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> In the early ages of the Greek church the Epiphany was a
+day of very great solemnity; for not only was the adoration of the Magi
+celebrated on the 6th of January, but also the changing of the water
+into wine at the marriage at Cana, the baptism, and even the birth of
+our Lord. On this day the holy water is blessed in the Greek church, by
+throwing a small cross into it, or otherwise by holding over it the
+cross, with a handle attached to it, which is used by the Greek clergy
+in the act of benediction.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> The Emperor Leo the First was crowned by the Patriarch of
+Anatolia in the year 459. He is the first prince on record who received
+his crown from the hands of a bishop.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> Mosheim's 'Ecclesiastical History;' Gibbon.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="full" />
+
+<p class="c">
+<a name="library1"></a> <a href="#libraryref1">INTERIOR OF THE ABYSSINIAN LIBRARY, IN THE MONASTERY OF SOURIANI ON THE NATRON LAKES.</a>
+<br/>
+
+<img src="images/ill_148.jpg"
+style="max-width:99%;" alt="INTERIOR OF THE ABYSSINIAN LIBRARY, IN THE MONASTERY OF
+SOURIANI ON THE NATRON LAKES." title="INTERIOR OF THE ABYSSINIAN LIBRARY, IN THE MONASTERY OF
+SOURIANI ON THE NATRON LAKES." /></p>
+
+<table summary="key Abyssinian Library image"
+cellspacing="0" cellpadding="1" style="text-align:center;font-size:small;">
+<tr><td>Abyssinian monk clothed in leather.</td>
+<td style="border-left:1px solid black;">The dining table.</td>
+<td style="border-left:1px solid black;">The blind abbot leaning over the Author.</td>
+<td style="border-left:1px solid black;">Abyssinian monk.</td>
+<td style="border-left:1px solid black;">Coptic monk.</td>
+<td style="border-left:1px solid black;">The books hanging from wooden pegs let into the wall.</td>
+<td style="border-left:1px solid black;">The Author's Egyptian servants.</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<hr class="full" />
+
+<p class="c">
+<a name="plan1"></a> <a href="#planref1">Plan of the church, the convent of the Pulley.</a>
+<img src="images/ill_146.jpg"
+style="max-width:98%;" alt="Plan of the church, the convent of the Pulley." title="Plan of the church, the convent of the Pulley." />
+</p>
+
+<table summary="church key" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"
+style="text-align:left;font-size:100%;">
+<tr valign="top"><td align="right">1.</td><td>&nbsp; Altar.</td><td align="right" style="border-left:1px solid black;">6.</td><td>&nbsp; Two three-quarter columns.</td></tr>
+<tr valign="top"><td align="right">2.</td><td>&nbsp; Apsis, apparently cut out of the rock.</td><td align="right" style="border-left:1px solid black;">7.</td><td>&nbsp; Eight columns.</td></tr>
+<tr valign="top"><td align="right">3.</td><td>&nbsp; Two Corinthian columns.</td><td align="right" style="border-left:1px solid black;">8.</td><td>&nbsp; Dark room cut out of the rock (there is another corresponding to it under the steps).</td></tr>
+<tr valign="top"><td align="right">4.</td><td>&nbsp; Wooden partitions of lattice-work, about 10 ft. high.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; </td><td align="right" style="border-left:1px solid black;">9.</td><td>&nbsp; Steps leading down into the church.</td></tr>
+<tr valign="top"><td align="right">5.</td><td>&nbsp; Steps leading up to the sanctuary.</td><td align="right" style="border-left:1px solid black;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;10.</td><td>&nbsp; Screen before the Altar.</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<hr class="full" />
+
+<p class="c">
+<a name="plan2"></a> <a href="#planref2">Plan of the church of the The Holy Sepulchre.</a>
+<img src="images/ill_sepulchre.jpg"
+style="max-width:98%;" alt="Plan of the church of the The Holy Sepulchre." title="Plan of the church of the The Holy Sepulchre." />
+</p>
+
+<table summary="church holy sepulchre" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0"
+style="text-align:left;font-size:small;">
+<tr><td align="center" colspan="4">The Holy <span style="vertical-align:-65%;"><img src="images/ill_maltese.png"
+alt="maltese cross"
+title="maltese cross"
+width="19"
+height="39" /></span> Sepulchre.</td></tr>
+<tr valign="top"><td align="right">1.</td><td>Entrance to the Church.</td><td align="right" style="border-left:1px solid black;">15.</td><td>Where Mary Magdalene stood.</td></tr>
+<tr valign="top"><td align="right">2.</td><td>The Stone of Unction.</td><td align="right" style="border-left:1px solid black;">16.</td><td>Where our Lord appeared to Mary Magdalene.</td></tr>
+<tr valign="top"><td align="right">3.</td><td>Where our Saviour was nailed to the Cross.</td><td align="right" style="border-left:1px solid black;">17.</td><td>The Pillar of Flagellation.</td></tr>
+<tr valign="top"><td align="right">4.</td><td>Mount Calvary <img src="images/ill_calvary.png" alt="triple cross" title="triple cross" width="22" height="14" /></td><td align="right" style="border-left:1px solid black;">18.</td><td>Rooms of the Latin Convent.</td></tr>
+<tr valign="top"><td align="right">5.</td><td>Chapel of the Sacrifice of Isaac.</td><td align="right" style="border-left:1px solid black;">19.</td><td>Chapel of the Maronites.</td></tr>
+<tr valign="top"><td align="right">6.</td><td>Chapel of the Altar of Melchisedec.</td><td align="right" style="border-left:1px solid black;">20.</td><td>Chapel of the Georgians.</td></tr>
+<tr valign="top"><td align="right">7.</td><td>Stairs up to Mount Calvary.</td><td align="right" style="border-left:1px solid black;">21.</td><td>Sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathea.</td></tr>
+<tr valign="top"><td align="right">8.</td><td>Stairs down to the Chapel of St. Helena.</td><td align="right" style="border-left:1px solid black;">22.</td><td>Chapel of the Copts.</td></tr>
+<tr valign="top"><td align="right">9.</td><td>Stairs down to the Chapel of the Invention of the Cross.</td><td align="right" style="border-left:1px solid black;">23.</td><td>Chapel of the Jacobites.</td></tr>
+<tr valign="top"><td align="right">10.</td><td>Place where the three Crosses were discovered.</td><td align="right" style="border-left:1px solid black;">24.</td><td>Chapel of the Abyssinians, over which is the Chapel of the Armenians.</td></tr>
+<tr valign="top"><td align="right">11.</td><td>Chapel of the Division of the Garments.</td><td align="right" style="border-left:1px solid black;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;25.</td><td>The spot where the Blessed Virgin and St. John stood during the Crucifixion.</td></tr>
+<tr valign="top"><td align="right">12.</td><td>Prison of our Lord.</td><td align="right" style="border-left:1px solid black;">26.</td><td>Steps before the entrance of the Holy Sepulchre.</td></tr>
+<tr valign="top"><td align="right">13.</td><td>Greek Choir, in it <span style="vertical-align:-30%;"><img src="images/ill_center.png" alt="center of the world" title="center of the world" width="17" height="17" /></span>, the center of the world; on each side are the Stalls for the Monks.</td><td align="right" style="border-left:1px solid black;">27.</td><td>Ante-room to the Holy Sepulchre.<br />
+ In the center is the stone where the Angel sat;<br />on either side the two windows from whence the<br />Holy Fire is delivered to the multitude.</td></tr>
+<tr valign="top"><td align="right">14.</td><td>Latin Choir.</td><td align="right" style="border-left:1px solid black;">28.</td><td>The Iconostasis, or Screen before the Greek Altar,<br />which, as in English Churches, is called the Holy Table&mdash;<span title="ikonostasis">&#953;&#954;&#959;&#957;&#959;s&#964;&#945;&#963;&#953;&#962;</span>.</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Visits To Monasteries in the Levant, by
+Robert Curzon
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diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
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--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
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--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #32397 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/32397)
diff --git a/old/32397-8.txt b/old/32397-8.txt
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+Project Gutenberg's Visits To Monasteries in the Levant, by Robert Curzon
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Visits To Monasteries in the Levant
+
+Author: Robert Curzon
+
+Release Date: May 16, 2010 [EBook #32397]
+[This file last updated: February 3, 2011]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MONASTERIES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was
+produced from scanned images of public domain material
+from the Google Print project.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Book's cover, CURZON'S MONASTERIES]
+
+[Illustration: From a Drawing made on the spot by Viscount Eastnor.
+
+VIEW OF THE GREAT MONASTERY OF METEORA, FROM THE MONASTERY OF BARLAAM,
+WITH THE RIVER PENEUS IN THE DISTANCE.]
+
+
+
+
+VISITS TO MONASTERIES
+
+IN
+
+THE LEVANT.
+
+BY THE
+
+HONBLE. ROBERT CURZON, JUN. From a Sketch by R. Curzon.
+
+[Illustration: From a Sketch by R. Curzon.
+
+Interior of the Court of a Greek Monastery. A monk is calling the
+congregation to prayer, by beating a board called the simandro ([Greek:
+simandro]) which is generally used instead of bells.]
+
+WITH NUMEROUS WOODCUTS.
+
+LONDON:
+JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.
+
+1849.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+In presenting to the public another book of travels in the East, when it
+is already overwhelmed with little volumes about palm-trees and camels,
+and reflections on the Pyramids, I am aware that I am committing an act
+which requires some better excuse for so unwarrantable an intrusion on
+the patience of the reader than any that I am able to offer.
+
+The origin of these pages is as follows:--I was staying by myself in an
+old country-house belonging to my family, but not often inhabited by
+them, and, having nothing to do in the evening, I looked about for some
+occupation to amuse the passing hours. In the room where I was sitting
+there was a large book-case full of ancient manuscripts, many of which
+had been collected by myself, in various out-of-the-way places, in
+different parts of the world. Taking some of these ponderous volumes
+from their shelves, I turned over their wide vellum leaves, and admired
+the antiquity of one, and the gold and azure which gleamed upon the
+pages of another. The sight of these books brought before my mind many
+scenes and recollections of the countries from which they came, and I
+said to myself, I know what I will do; I will write down some account of
+the most curious of these manuscripts, and the places in which they were
+found, as well as some of the adventures which I encountered in the
+pursuit of my venerable game.
+
+I sat down accordingly, and in a short time accumulated a heap of papers
+connected more or less with the history of the ancient manuscripts; at
+the desire of some of my friends I selected the following pages, and it
+is with great diffidence that I present them to the public. If they have
+any merits whatever, these must consist in their containing descriptions
+of localities but seldom visited in modern times; or if they refer to
+places better known to the general reader, I hope that the peculiar
+circumstances which occurred during my stay there, or on my journeys
+through the neighbouring countries, may be found sufficiently
+interesting to afford some excuse for my presumption in sending them to
+the press.
+
+I have no further apology to offer. These slight sketches were written
+for my own diversion when I had nothing better to do, and if they afford
+any pleasure to the reader under the same circumstances, they will
+answer as much purpose as was intended in their composition.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER                                            Page xix
+
+
+PART I.
+
+EGYPT IN 1833.
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+Navarino--The Wrecks of the Turkish and Egyptian Fleets--Alexandria--An
+Arab Pilot--Intense Heat--Scene from the Hotel
+Windows--The Water-Carriers--A Procession--A Bridal Party--Violent
+mode of clearing the Road--Submissive Behaviour of
+the People--Astonishing Number of Donkeys--Bedouin Arabs;
+their wild and savage appearance--Early Hours--Visit to the
+Pasha's Prime Minister, Boghos Bey; hospitable reception--Kawasses
+and Chaoushes; their functions and powers--The Yassakjis--The
+Minister's Audience Chamber--Walmas; anecdote
+of his saving the life of Boghos Bey                                   1
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+Rapacity of the Dragomans--The Mahmoudieh Canal--The Nile
+at Atfeh--The muddy Waters of the Nile--Richness of the Soil--Accident
+to the Boatmen--Night Sailing--A Collision--A
+Vessel run down--Escape of the Crew--Solemn Investigation--Final
+Judgment--Curious Mode of Fishing--Tameness of the
+Birds--Jewish Malefactors--Moving Pillar of Sand--Arrival
+at Cairo--Hospitable Reception by the Consul-General                  14
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+National Topics of Conversation--The Rising of the Nile; evil
+effects of its rising too high; still worse consequences of a deficiency
+of its waters--The Nilometer--Universal Alarm in August, 1833--The
+Nile at length rises to the desired Height--Ceremony of
+cutting the Embankment--The Canal of the Khalidj--Immense
+Assemblage of People--The State Tent--Arrival of Habeeb
+Effendi--Splendid Dresses of the Officers--Exertions of the Arab
+Workmen--Their Scramble for Paras--Admission of the Water--Its
+sudden Irruption--Excitement of the Ladies--Picturesque
+Effect of large Assemblies in the East                                27
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+Early Hours in the Levant--Compulsory Use of Lanterns in Cairo--Separation
+of the different Quarters of the City--Custom of sleeping
+in the open air--The Mahomedan Times of Prayer--Impressive
+Effect of the Morning Call to Prayer from the Minarets--The
+last Prayer-time, Al Assr--Bedouin Mode of ascertaining this
+Hour--Ancient Form of the Mosques--The Mosque of Sultan
+Hassan--Egyptian Mode of "raising the Supplies"--Sultan
+Hassan's Mosque the Scene of frequent Conflicts--The Slaughter
+of the Mameluke Beys in the Place of Roumayli--Escape of one
+Mameluke, and his subsequent Friendship with Mohammed Ali--The
+Talisman of Cairo--Joseph's Well and Hall--Mohammed
+Ali's Mosque--His Residence in the Citadel--The Harem--Degraded
+State of the Women in the East                                        35
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+Interview with Mohammed Ali Pasha--Mode of lighting a Room in
+Egypt--Personal Appearance of the Pasha--His Diamond-mounted
+Pipe--The lost Handkerchief--An unceremonious
+Attendant--View of Cairo from the Citadel--Site of Memphis;
+its immense extent--The Tombs of the Caliphs--The Pasha's
+Mausoleum--Costume of Egyptian Ladies--The Cobcob, or
+Wooden Clog--Mode of dressing the Hair--The Veil--Mistaken
+Idea that the Egyptian Ladies are Prisoners in the Harem;
+their power of doing as they like--The Veil a complete Disguise--Laws
+of the Harem--A Levantine Beauty--Eastern Manners--The
+Abyssinian Slaves--Arab Girls--Ugliness of the Arab
+Women when old--Venerable Appearance of the old Men--An
+Arab Sheick                                                           47
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+Mohammed Bey, Defterdar--His Expedition to Senaar--His Barbarity
+and Rapacity--His Defiance of the Pasha--Stories of his
+Cruelty and Tyranny--The Horse-shoe--The Fight of the
+Mamelukes--His cruel Treachery--His Mode of administering
+Justice--The stolen Milk--The Widow's Cow--Sale and Distribution
+of the Thief--The Turkish Character--Pleasures of a
+Journey on the Nile--The Copts--Their Patriarchs--The Patriarch
+of Abyssinia--Basileos Bey--His Boat--An American's
+choice of a Sleeping-place                                            64
+
+
+NATRON LAKES.
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+Visit to the Coptic Monasteries near the Natron Lakes--The Desert
+of Nitria--Early Christian Anchorites--St. Macarius of Alexandria--His
+Abstinence and Penance--Order of Monks founded
+by him--Great increase of the Number of ascetic Monks in the
+Fourth Century--Their subsequent decrease, and the present
+ruined state of the Monasteries--Legends of the Desert--Capture
+of a Lizard--Its alarming escape--The Convent of Baramous--Night
+attacks--Invasion of Sanctuary--Ancient Glass Lamps--Monastery
+of Souriani--Its Library and Coptic MSS.--The Blind
+Abbot and his Oil-cellar--The persuasive powers of Rosoglio--Discovery
+of Syriac MSS.--The Abbot's supposed treasure                         75
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+View from the Convent Wall--Appearance of the Desert--Its
+grandeur and freedom--Its contrast to the Convent Garden--Beauty
+and luxuriance of Eastern Vegetation--Picturesque Group
+of the Monks and their Visitors--The Abyssinian Monks--Their
+appearance--Their austere mode of Life--The Abyssinian
+College--Description of the Library--The mode of Writing in
+Abyssinia--Immense Labour required to write an Abyssinian
+book--Paintings and Illuminations--Disappointment of the
+Abbot at finding the supposed Treasure-box only an old Book--Purchase
+of the MSS. and Books--The most precious left behind--Since
+acquired for the British Museum                                       90
+
+
+THE CONVENT OF THE PULLEY.
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+The Convent of the Pulley--Its inaccessible position--Difficult
+landing on the bank of the Nile--Approach to the Convent
+through the Rocks--Description of the Convent and its Inhabitants--Plan
+of the Church--Books and MSS.--Ancient
+excavations--Stone Quarries and ancient Tombs--Alarm of the
+Copts--Their ideas of a Sketch-book                                  105
+
+
+RUINED MONASTERY AT THEBES.
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+Ruined Monastery in the Necropolis of Thebes--"Mr. Hay's Tomb"--The
+Coptic Carpenter--His acquirements and troubles--He
+agrees to show the MSS. belonging to the ruined Monastery, which
+are under his charge--Night visit to the Tomb in which they are
+concealed--Perils of the way--Description of the Tomb--Probably
+in former times a Christian Church--Examination of the
+Coptic MSS.--Alarming interruption--Hurried flight from the
+Evil Spirits--Fortunate escape--Appearance of the Evil Spirit--Observations
+on Ghost Stories--The Legend of the Old Woman
+of Berkeley considered                                               117
+
+
+THE WHITE MONASTERY.
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+The White Monastery--Abou Shenood--Devastations of the Mamelukes--Description
+of the Monastery--Different styles of its
+exterior and interior Architecture--Its ruinous condition--Description
+of the Church--The Baptistery--Ancient Rites of
+Baptism--The Library--Modern Architecture--The Church of
+San Francesco at Rimini--The Red Monastery--Alarming rencontre
+with an armed party--Feuds between the native Tribes--Faction
+fights--Eastern Story Tellers--Legends of the Desert--Abraham
+and Sarah--Legendary Life of Moses--Arabian Story-tellers--Attention
+of their Audience                                                    130
+
+
+THE ISLAND OF PHILOE, &c.
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+The Island of Philoe--The Cataract of Assouan--The Burial Place
+of Osiris--The Great Temple of Philoe--The Bed of Pharaoh--Shooting
+in Egypt--Turtle Doves--Story of the Prince Anas el
+Ajoud--Egyptian Songs--Vow of the Turtle Dove--Curious
+fact in Natural History--The Crocodile and its Guardian Bird--Arab
+notions regarding Animals--Legend of King Solomon and
+the Hoopoes--Natives of the country round the Cataracts of the
+Nile--Their appearance and Costume--The beautiful Mouna--Solitary
+Visit to the Island of Philoe--Quarrel between two native
+Boys--Singular instance of retributive Justice                       141
+
+
+PART II.
+
+
+JERUSALEM AND THE MONASTERY OF
+ST. SABBA.
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+Journey to Jerusalem--First View of the Holy City--The Valley
+of Gihon--Appearance of the City--The Latin Convent of St.
+Salvador--Inhospitable Reception by the Monks--Visit to the
+Church of the Holy Sepulchre--Description of the Interior--The
+Chapel of the Sepulchre--The Chapel of the Cross on Mount
+Calvary--The Tomb and Sword of Godfrey de Bouillon--Arguments
+in favour of the Authenticity of the Holy Sepulchre--The
+Invention of the Cross by the Empress Helena--Legend of the
+Cross                                                                165
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+The Via Dolorosa--The Houses of Dives and of Lazarus--The
+Prison of St Peter--The Site of the Temple of Solomon--The
+Mosque of Omar--The Hadjr el Sakhara--The Greek Monastery--Its
+Library--Valuable Manuscripts--Splendid MS. of the
+Book of Job--Arabic spoken at Jerusalem--Mussulman Theory
+regarding the Crucifixion--State of the Jews--Richness of their
+Dress in their own Houses--Beauty of their Women--Their
+literal Interpretation of Scripture--The Service in the Synagogue--Description
+of the House of a Rabbi--The Samaritans--Their
+Roll of the Pentateuch--Arrival of Ibrahim Pasha at
+Jerusalem                                                            181
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+Expedition to the Monastery of St. Sabba--Reports of Arab Robbers--The
+Valley of Jehoshaphat--The Bridge of Al Sirat--Rugged
+Scenery--An Arab Ambuscade--A successful Parley--The
+Monastery of St. Sabba--History of the Saint--The Greek
+Hermits--The Church--The Iconostasis--The Library--Numerous
+MSS.--The Dead Sea--The Scene of the Temptation--Discovery--The
+Apple of the Dead Sea--The Statements of
+Strabo and Pliny confirmed                                           192
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+Church of the Holy Sepulchre--Processions of the Copts--The
+Syrian Maronites and the Greeks--Riotous Behaviour of the Pilgrims--Their
+immense numbers--The Chant of the Latin Monks--Ibrahim
+Pasha--The Exhibition of the Sacred Fire--Excitement
+of the Pilgrims--The Patriarch obtains the Sacred Fire from the
+Holy Sepulchre--Contest for the Holy Light--Immense sum paid
+for the privilege of receiving it first--Fatal Effects of the Heat
+and Smoke--Departure of Ibrahim Pasha--Horrible Catastrophe--Dreadful
+Loss of Life among the Pilgrims in their endeavours
+to leave the Church--Battle with the Soldiers--Our Narrow
+Escape--Shocking Scene in the Court of the Church--Humane
+Conduct of Ibrahim Pasha--Superstition of the Pilgrims regarding
+Shrouds--Scallop Shells and Palm Branches--The Dead
+Muleteer--Moonlight View of the Dead Bodies--The Curse on
+Jerusalem--Departure from the Holy City                              208
+
+
+PART III.
+
+
+THE MONASTERIES OF METEORA.
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+Albania--Ignorance at Corfu concerning that Country--Its reported
+abundance of Game and Robbers--The Disturbed State of the
+Country--The Albanians--Richness of their Arms--Their free
+use of them--Comparative Safety of Foreigners--Tragic Fate of
+a German Botanist--Arrival at Gominitza--Ride to Paramathia--A
+Night's Bivouac--Reception at Paramathia--Albanian Ladies--Yanina--Albanian
+Mode of settling a Quarrel--Expected
+Attack from Robbers--A Body-Guard mounted--Audience with
+the Vizir--His Views of Criminal Jurisprudence--Retinue of the
+Vizir--His Troops--Adoption of the European Exercises--Expedition
+to Berat--Calmness and Self-possession of the Turks--Active
+Preparations for Warfare--Scene at the Bazaar--Valiant
+Promises of the Soldiers                                             235
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+Start for Meteora--Rencontre with a Wounded Traveller--Barbarity
+of the Robbers--Albanian Innkeeper--Effect of the
+Turkish Language upon the Greeks--Mezzovo--Interview with
+the chief Person in the Village--Mount Pindus--Capture by
+Robbers--Salutary effects of Swaggering--Arrival under Escort
+at the Robbers' Head-Quarters--Affairs take a favourable turn--An
+unexpected Friendship with the Robber Chief--The Khan of
+Malacash--Beauty of the Scenery--Activity of our Guards--Loss
+of Character--Arrival at Meteora                                     257
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+Meteora--The extraordinary Character of its Scenery--Its Caves formerly
+the Resort of Ascetics--Barbarous Persecution of the Hermits--Their
+extraordinary Religious Observances--Singular Position of the
+Monasteries--The Monastery of Barlaam--The difficulty of reaching
+it--Ascent by a Windlass and Net, or by Ladders--Narrow
+Escape--Hospitable Reception by the Monks--The Agoumenos, or Abbot--His
+strict Fast--Description of the Monastery--The Church--Symbolism in the
+Greek Church--Respect for Antiquity--The Library--Determination of the
+Abbot not to sell any of the MSS.--The Refectory--Its
+Decorations--A�rial Descent--The Monastery of Hagios Stephanos--Its
+Carved Iconostasis--Beautiful View from the Monastery--Monastery of Agia
+Triada--Summary Justice at Triada--Monastery of Agia Roserea--Its Lady
+Occupants--Admission refused                                         279
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+The great Monastery of Meteora--The Church--Ugliness of the
+Portraits of Greek Saints--Greek Mode of Washing the Hands--A
+Monastic Supper--Morning View from the Monastery--The
+Library--Beautiful MSS.--Their Purchase--The Kitchen--Discussion
+among the Monks as to the Purchase Money for the
+MSS.--The MSS. reclaimed--A last look at their Beauties--Proposed
+Assault of the Monastery by the Robber Escort                        298
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+Return Journey--Narrow Escape--Consequences of Singing--Arrival
+at the Khan of Malacash--Agreeable Anecdote--Parting
+from the Robbers at Messovo--A Pilau--Wet Ride to
+Paramathia--Accident to the Baggage-Mule--Its wonderful
+Escape--Novel Costume--A Deputation--Return to Corfu                 312
+
+
+PART IV.
+
+
+THE MONASTERIES OF MOUNT ATHOS.
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+Constantinople--The Patriarch's Palace--The Plague, Anecdotes,
+Superstitions--The Two Jews--Interview with the Patriarch--Ceremonies
+of Reception--The Patriarch's Misconception as to
+the Archbishop of Canterbury--He addresses a Firman to the
+Monks of Mount Athos--Preparations for Departure--The Ugly
+Greek Interpreter--Mode of securing his Fidelity                     327
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+Coom Calessi--Uncomfortable Quarters--A Turkish Boat and its
+Crew--Grandeur of the Scenery--Legend of Jason and the
+Golden Fleece--The Island of Imbros--Heavy Rain Storm--A
+Rough Sea--Lemnos--Bad Accommodation--The Old
+Woman's Mattress and its Contents--Striking View of Mount
+Athos from the Sea--The Hermit of the Tower                          342
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+Monastery of St. Laura--Kind Reception by the Abbot--Astonishment
+of the Monks--History of the Monastery--Rules of
+the Order of St. Basil--Description of the Buildings--Curious
+Pictures of the Last Judgment--Early Greek Paintings; Richness
+of their Frames and Decorations--Ancient Church Plate--Beautiful
+Reliquary--The Refectory--The Abbot's Savoury
+Dish--The Library--The MSS.--Ride to the Monastery of
+Caracalla--Magnificent Scenery                                       356
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+The Monastery of Caracalla--Its beautiful Situation--Hospitable
+Reception--Description of the Monastery--Legend of its Foundation--The
+Church--Fine Specimens of Ancient Jewellery--The
+Library--The Value attached to the Books by the Abbot--He
+agrees to sell some of the MSS.--Monastery of Philotheo--The
+Great Monastery of Iveron--History of its Foundation--Its
+magnificent Library--Ignorance of the Monks--Superb MSS.--The
+Monks refuse to part with any of the MSS.--Beauty of the
+Scenery of Mount Athos                                               377
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+The Monastery of Stavroniketa--The Library--Splendid MS. of
+St. Chrysostom--The Monastery of Pantocratoras--Ruinous Condition
+of the Library--Complete Destruction of the Books--Disappointment--Oration
+to the Monks--The Great Monastery
+of Vatopede--Its History--Ancient Pictures in the Church--Legend
+of the Girdle of the Blessed Virgin--The Library--Wealth
+and Luxury of the Monks--The Monastery of Sphigmenou--Beautiful
+Jewelled Cross--The Monastery of Kiliantari--Magnificent
+MS. in Gold Letters on White Vellum--The Monasteries
+of Zographou, Castamoneta, Docheirou, and Xenophou--The
+Exiled Bishops--The Library--Very fine MSS.--Proposals
+for their Purchase--Lengthened Negotiations--Their successful
+Issue                                                                391
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+The Monastery of Russico--Its Courteous Abbot--The Monastery
+of Xeropotamo--Its History--High Character of its Abbot--Excursion
+to the Monasteries of St. Nicholas and St. Dionisius--Interesting
+Relics--Magnificent Shrine--The Library--The
+Monastery of St. Paul--Respect shown by the Monks--Beautiful
+MS.--Extraordinary Liberality and Kindness of the Abbot and
+Monks--A valuable Acquisition at little Cost--The Monastery
+of Simopetra--Purchase of MS.--The Monk of Xeropotamo--His
+Ideas about Women--Excursion to Cariez--The Monastery
+of Coutloumoussi--The Russian Book-Stealer--History of the
+Monastery--Its reputed Destruction by the Pope of Rome--The
+Aga of Cariez--Interview in a Kiosk--The She Cat of Mount
+Athos                                                                413
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+Caracalla--The Agoumenos--Curious Cross--The Nuts of Caracalla--Singular
+Mode of preparing a Dinner Table--Departure
+from Mount Athos--Packing of the MSS.--Difficulties of the
+Way--Voyage to the Dardanelles--Apprehended Attack from
+Pirates--Return to Constantinople                                    436
+
+FOOTNOTES
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+     The costumes are from drawings made at Constantinople by a Maltese
+     artist. They are all portraits, and represent the costumes worn at
+     the present day in different parts of the Turkish Empire. The
+     others are from drawings and sketches by the Author, except one
+     from a beautiful drawing by Lord Eastnor, for which the Author begs
+     to express his thanks and obligations.
+
+
+THE MONASTERY OF METEORA, FROM THE MONASTERY
+OF BARLAAM. FROM A DRAWING BY
+VISCOUNT EASTNOR                                            _FRONTISPIECE_
+
+INTERIOR OF THE COURT OF A GREEK MONASTER                 _Title Vignette_
+
+KOORD, OR NATIVE OF KOORDISTAN                        _To face page_ xxix.
+
+NEGRESS WAITING TO BE SOLD               "                              5
+
+BEDOUIN ARAB                             "                              7
+
+EGYPTIAN IN THE NIZAM DRESS              "                             49
+
+INTERIOR OF AN ABYSSINIAN LIBRARY        "                             97
+
+MENDICANT DERVISH                        "                            139
+
+PLAN OF THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE,
+JERUSALEM                                "                            165
+
+THE MONASTERY OF ST. BARLAAM             "                            235
+
+TATAR, OR GOVERNMENT MESSENGER           "                            237
+
+TURKISH COMMON SOLDIER                   "                            251
+
+THE N.W. VIEW OF THE PROMONTORY OF MOUNT ATHOS _To face Part IV., p._ 327
+
+GREEK SAILOR                                             _To face p._ 351
+
+THE MONASTERY OF SIMOPETRA               "                            426
+
+CIRCASSIAN LADY                          "                            429
+
+TURKISH LADY IN THE YASHMAK OR VEIL      "                            434
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
+
+
+A more enlarged account of the Monasteries of the Levant would, I think,
+be interesting for many reasons if the task was undertaken by some one
+much more competent than myself to do justice to so curious a subject.
+In these monasteries resided the early fathers of the Church, and within
+the precincts of their time-hallowed walls were composed those writings
+which have since been looked up to as the rules of Christian life: from
+thence also were promulgated the doctrines of the Heresiarchs, which, in
+the early ages of the Church, were the causes of so much dissension and
+confusion, rancour and persecution, in the disastrous days of the
+decline and fall of the Roman empire.
+
+The monasteries of the East are besides particularly interesting to the
+lovers of the picturesque, from the beautiful situations in which they
+are almost invariably placed. The monastery of Megaspelion, on the coast
+of the Gulf of Corinth, is built in the mouth of an enormous cave. The
+monasteries of Meteora, and some of those on Mount Athos, are remarkable
+for their positions on the tops of inaccessible rocks; many of the
+convents in Syria, the islands of Cyprus, Candia, the Archipelago, and
+the Prince's Islands in the Sea of Marmora, are unrivalled for the
+beauty of the positions in which they stand; many others in Bulgaria,
+Asia Minor, Sinope, and other places on the shores of the Black Sea, are
+most curious monuments of ancient and romantic times. There is one on
+the road to Persia, about one day's journey inland from Trebizond, which
+is built half way up the side of a perpendicular precipice; it is
+ensconced in several fissures of the rock, and various little gardens
+adjoining the buildings display the industry of the monks; these are
+laid out on shelves or terraces wherever the nature of the spot affords
+a ledge of sufficient width to support the soil; the different parts of
+the monastery are approached by stairs and flights of steps cut in the
+face of the precipice, leading from one cranny to another; the whole has
+the appearance of a bas-relief stuck against a wall; this monastery
+partakes of the nature of a large swallow's nest. But it is for their
+architecture that the monasteries of the Levant are more particularly
+deserving of study; for, after the remains of the private houses of the
+Romans at Pompeii, they are the most ancient specimens extant of
+domestic architecture. The refectories, kitchens, and the cells of the
+monks exceed in point of antiquity anything of the kind in Europe. The
+monastery of St. Katherine at Mount Sinai has hardly been altered since
+the sixth century, and still contains ornaments presented to it by the
+Emperor Justinian. The White Monastery and the monastery at Old Cairo,
+both in Egypt, are still more ancient. The monastery of Kuzzul Vank,
+near the sources of the Euphrates, is, I believe, as old as the fifth
+century. The greater number in all the countries where the Greek faith
+prevails, were built before the year 1000. Most monasteries possess
+crosses, candlesticks, and reliquaries, many of splendid workmanship,
+and of the era of the foundation of the buildings which contain them,
+while their mosaics and fresco paintings display the state of the arts
+from the most early periods.
+
+It has struck me as remarkable that the architecture of the churches in
+these most ancient monasteries is hardly ever fine; they are usually
+small, being calculated only for the monks, and not for the reception of
+any other congregation. The Greek churches, even those which are not
+monastic, are far inferior both in size and interest to the Latin
+basilicas of Rome. With the single exception of the church (now mosque)
+of St. Sophia, there is no Byzantine church of any magnitude. The
+student of ecclesiastical antiquities need not extend his architectural
+researches beyond the shores of Italy: there is nothing in the East so
+curious as the church of St. Clemente at Rome, which contains all the
+original fittings of the choir. The churches of St. Ambrogio at Milan,
+of Sta. Maria Trastevere at Rome, the first church dedicated to the
+Blessed Virgin; the church of St. Agnese near Rome, the first in which
+galleries were built over the side aisles for the accommodation of
+women, who, neither in the Eastern nor Western churches, ever mixed with
+the men for many centuries; all these and several others in Italy afford
+more instruction than those of the East--they are larger, more
+magnificent, and in every respect superior to the ecclesiastical
+buildings of the Levant. But the poverty of the Eastern church, and its
+early subjection to Mahometan rulers, while it has kept down the size
+and splendour of the churches, has at the same time been the means of
+preserving the monastic establishments in all the rude originality of
+their ancient forms. In ordinary situations these buildings are of the
+same character: they resemble small villages, built mostly without much
+regard to any symmetrical plan, around a church which is constructed in
+the form of a Greek cross; the roof is covered either with one or five
+domes; all these buildings are surrounded by a high, strong wall, built
+as a fortification to protect the brotherhood within, not without
+reason, even in the present day. I have been quietly dining in a
+monastery, when shouts have been heard, and shots have been fired
+against the stout bulwarks of the outer walls, which, thanks to their
+protection, had but little effect in delaying the transit of the morsel
+between my fingers into the ready gulf provided by nature for its
+reception. The monks of the Greek Church have diminished in number and
+wealth of late years, their monasteries are no longer the schools of
+learning which they used to be; few can read the Hellenic or ancient
+Greek; and the following anecdote will suffice to show the estimation in
+which a conventual library has not unusually been held. A Russian, or I
+do not know whether he was not a French traveller, in the pursuit, as I
+was, of ancient literary treasures, found himself in a great monastery
+in Bulgaria to the north of the town of Cavalla; he had heard that the
+books preserved in this remote building were remarkable for their
+antiquity, and for the subjects on which they treated. His dismay and
+disappointment may be imagined when he was assured by the agoumenos or
+superior of the monastery, that it contained no library whatever, that
+they had nothing but the liturgies and church books, and no palaia
+pragmata or antiquities at all. The poor man had bumped upon a
+pack-saddle over villainous roads for many days for no other object, and
+the library of which he was in search had vanished as the visions of a
+dream. The agoumenos begged his guest to enter with the monks into the
+choir, where the almost continual church service was going on, and there
+he saw the double row of long-bearded holy fathers, shouting away at the
+chorus of [Greek: kurie eleison], [Greek: christe eleison] (pronounced
+Kyre eleizon, Christe eleizon), which occurs almost every minute, in the
+ritual of the Greek Church. Each of the monks was standing, to save his
+bare legs from the damp of the marble floor, upon a great folio volume,
+which had been removed from the conventual library and applied to
+purposes of practical utility in the way which I have described. The
+traveller on examining these ponderous tomes found them to be of the
+greatest value; one was in uncial letters, and others were full of
+illuminations of the earliest date; all these he was allowed to carry
+away in exchange for some footstools or hassocks, which he presented in
+their stead to the old monks; they were comfortably covered with ketch�
+or felt, and were in many respects more convenient to the inhabitants of
+the monastery than the manuscripts had been, for many of their antique
+bindings were ornamented with bosses and nail heads, which
+inconvenienced the toes of the unsophisticated congregation who stood
+upon them without shoes for so many hours in the day. I must add that
+the lower halves of the manuscripts were imperfect, from the damp of the
+floor of the church having corroded and eat away their vellum leaves,
+and also that, as the story is not my own, I cannot vouch for the truth
+of it, though, whether it is true or not, it elucidates the present
+state of the literary attainments of the Oriental monks. Ignorance and
+superstition walk hand in hand, and the monks of the Eastern churches
+seem to retain in these days all the love for the marvellous which
+distinguished their Western brethren in the middle ages. Miraculous
+pictures abound, as well as holy springs and wells. Relics still perform
+wonderful cures. I will only as an illustration to this statement
+mention one of the standing objects of veneration which may be witnessed
+any day in the vicinity of the castle of the Seven Towers, outside of
+the walls of Constantinople: there a rich monastery stands in a lovely
+grove of trees, under whose shade numerous parties of merry Greeks often
+pass the day, dividing their time between drinking, dancing, and
+devotion.
+
+The unfortunate Emperor Constantine Paleologus rode out of the city
+alone to reconnoitre the outposts of the Turkish army, which was
+encamped in the immediate vicinity. In passing through a wood he found
+an old man seated by the side of a spring cooking some fish on a
+gridiron for his dinner; the emperor dismounted from his white horse and
+entered into conversation with the other; the old man looked up at the
+stranger in silence, when the emperor inquired whether he had heard
+anything of the movements of the Turkish forces--"Yes," said he, "they
+have this moment entered the city of Constantinople." "I would believe
+what you say," replied the emperor, "if the fish which you are broiling
+would jump off the gridiron into the spring." This, to his amazement,
+the fish immediately did, and, on his turning round, the figure of the
+old man had disappeared. The emperor mounted his horse and rode towards
+the gate of Silivria, where he was encountered by a band of the enemy
+and slain, after a brave resistance, by the hand of an Arab or a Negro.
+
+The broiled fishes still swim about in the water of the spring, the
+sides of which have been lined with white marble, in which are certain
+recesses where they can retire when they do not wish to receive company.
+The only way of turning the attention of these holy fish to the
+respectful presence of their adorers is accomplished by throwing
+something glittering into the water, such as a handful of gold or silver
+coin; gold is the best, copper produces no effect; he that sees one fish
+is lucky, he that sees two or three goes home a happy man; but the
+custom of throwing coins into the spring has become, from its constant
+practice, very troublesome to the good monks, who kindly depute one of
+their community to rake out the money six or seven times a day with a
+scraper at the end of a long pole. The emperor of Russia has sent
+presents to the shrine of Baloukli, so called from the Turkish word
+Balouk, a fish. Some wicked heretics have said that these fishes are
+common perch: either they or the monks must be mistaken, but of whatever
+kind they are, they are looked upon with reverence by the Greeks, and
+have been continually held in the highest honour from the time of the
+siege of Constantinople to the present day.
+
+I have hitherto noticed those monasteries only which are under the
+spiritual jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Constantinople, but those of
+the Copts of Egypt and the Maronites of Syria resemble them in almost
+every particular. As it has never been the custom of the Oriental
+Christians to bury the dead within the precincts of the church, they
+none of them contain sepulchral monuments. The bodies of the Byzantine
+emperors were enclosed in sarcophagi of precious marbles, which were
+usually deposited in chapels erected for the purpose--a custom which has
+been imitated by the sultans of Turkey. Of all these magnificent
+sarcophagi and chapels or mausoleums where the remains of the imperial
+families were deposited, only one remains intact; every one but this has
+been violated, destroyed, or carried away; the ashes of the C�sars have
+been scattered to the winds. This is now known by the name of the chapel
+of St. Nazario e Celso, at Ravenna: it was built by Galla Placidia, the
+daughter of Theodosius; she died at Rome in 440, but her body was
+removed to Ravenna and deposited in a sarcophagus in this chapel; in the
+same place are two other sarcophagi, one containing the remains of
+Constantius, the second husband of Galla Placidia, and the other holding
+the body of her son Valentinian III. These tombs have never been
+disturbed, and are the only ones which remain intact of the entire line
+of the C�sars, either of the Eastern or Western empires.
+
+The tombstones or monuments of the Armenians deserve to be mentioned on
+account of their singularity. They are usually oblong pieces of marble
+lying flat upon the ground; on these are sculptured representations of
+the implements of the trade at which the deceased had worked during his
+lifetime; some display the manner in which the Armenian met his death.
+In the Petit Champ des Morts at Pera I counted, I think, five tombstones
+with bas-reliefs of men whose heads had been cut off. In Armenia the
+traveller is often startled by the appearance of a gigantic stone figure
+of a ram, far away from any present habitation: this is the tomb of some
+ancient possessor of flocks and herds whose house and village have
+disappeared, and nothing but his tomb remains to mark the site which
+once was the abode of men.
+
+[Illustration: KOORD, OR NATIVE OF KOORDISTAUN.]
+
+The Armenian monasteries, with the exception of that of Etchmiazin and
+one or two others, are much smaller buildings than those of the Greeks;
+they are constructed after the same model, however, being surrounded
+with a high blank wall. Their churches are seldom surmounted by a dome,
+but are usually in the form of a small barn, with a high pitched roof,
+built like the walls of large squared stones. At one end of the church
+is a small door, and at the other end a semicircular apsis; the windows
+are small apertures like loop-holes. These buildings, though of
+very small size, have an imposing appearance from their air of
+massive strength. The cells of the Armenian monks look into the
+courtyard, which is a remarkable fact in that country, where the rest of
+the inhabitants dwell in burrows underground like rabbits, and keep
+themselves alive during the long winters of their rigorous climate by
+the warmth proceeding from the cattle with whom they live, for fire is
+dear in a land too cold for trees to grow. The monasteries of the
+various sects of Christians who inhabit the mountains of Koordistaun are
+very numerous, and all more or less alike. Perched on the tops of crags,
+in these wild regions are to be seen the monastic fastnesses of the
+Chaldeans, who of late have been known by the name of Nestorians, the
+seat of whose patriarchate is at Julamerk. They have now been almost
+exterminated by Beder Khan Bey, a Koordish chief, in revenge for the
+cattle which they were alleged to have stolen from the Koordish villages
+in their vicinity. The Jacobites, the Sab�ans, and the Christians of St.
+John, who inhabit the banks of the Euphrates in the districts of the
+ancient Susiana, all have fortified monasteries which are mostly of
+great antiquity. From Mount Ararat to Bagdat, the different sects of
+Christians still retain the faith of the Redeemer, whom they have
+worshipped according to their various forms, some of them for more than
+fifteen hundred years; the plague, the famine, and the sword have
+passed over them and left them still unscathed, and there is little
+doubt but that they will maintain the position which they have held so
+long till the now not far distant period arrives when the conquered
+empire of the Greeks will again be brought under the dominion of a
+Christian emperor.
+
+
+
+
+MONASTERIES OF THE LEVANT.
+
+PART I.
+
+EGYPT IN 1833.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+     Navarino--The Wrecks of the Turkish and Egyptian
+     Fleets--Alexandria--An Arab Pilot--Intense Heat--Scene from the
+     Hotel Windows--The Water-Carriers--A Procession--A Bridal
+     Party--Violent mode of clearing the Road--Submissive Behaviour of
+     the People--Astonishing Number of Donkeys--Bedouin Arabs; their
+     wild and savage appearance--Early Hours--Visit to the Pasha's Prime
+     Minister, Boghos Bey; hospitable reception--Kawasses and Chaoushes;
+     their functions and powers--The Yassakjis--The Minister's Audience
+     Chamber--Walmas; anecdote of his saving the life of Boghos Bey.
+
+
+It was towards the end of July, 1833, that I took a passage from Malta
+to Alexandria in a merchant-vessel called the _Fortuna_; for in those
+days there were no steam-packets traversing every sea, with almost the
+same rapidity and accuracy as railway carriages on shore. We touched on
+our way at Navarino to sell some potatoes to the splendidly-dressed, and
+half-starved population of the Morea, numbers of whom we found lounging
+about in a temporary wooden bazaar, where there was nothing to sell. In
+various parts of the harbour the wrecks of the Turkish and Egyptian
+ships of war, stripped of their outer coverings, and looking like the
+gigantic skeletons of antediluvian animals, gave awful evidence of the
+destruction which had taken place not very long before in the battle
+between the Christian and Mahomedan fleets in this calm, land-locked
+harbour.
+
+On the 31st we found ourselves approaching the castle of Alexandria, and
+were soon hailed by some people in a curious-looking pilot-boat with a
+lateen sail. The pilot was an old man with a turban and a long grey
+beard, and sat cross-legged in the stern of his boat. We looked at him
+with vast interest, as the first live specimen we had seen of an Arab
+sailor. He was just the sort of man that I imagine Sindbad the Sailor
+must have been.
+
+Having by his directions been steered safely into the harbour, we cast
+anchor not far from the shore, a naked, dusty plain, which the blazing
+sun seemed to dare any one to cross, on pain of being shrivelled up
+immediately. The intensity of the heat was tremendous: the tar melted in
+the seams of the deck: we could scarcely bear it even when we were under
+the awning. Malta was hot enough, but the temperature there was cool in
+comparison to the fiery furnace in which we were at present grilling.
+However, there was no help for it; so, having got our luggage on shore,
+we sweltered through the streets to an inn called the Tre Anchore--the
+only hotel in Africa, I believe, in those days. It was a dismal little
+place, frequented by the captains of merchant-vessels, who, not being
+hot enough already, raised the temperature of their blood by drinking
+brandy-and-water, arrack, and other combustibles, in a dark, oven-like
+room below stairs.
+
+We took possession of all the rooms upstairs, of which the principal one
+was long and narrow, with two windows at the end, opening on to a
+covered balcony or verandah: this overlooked the principal street and
+the bazaar. Here my companion and I soon stationed ourselves and watched
+the novel and curious scene below; and strange indeed to the eye of an
+European, when for the first time he enters an Oriental city, is all he
+sees around him. The picturesque dresses, the buildings, the palm-trees,
+the camels, the people of various nations, with their long beards, their
+arms, and turbans, all unite to form a picture which is indelibly fixed
+in the memory. Things which have since become perfectly familiar to us
+were then utterly incomprehensible, and we had no one to explain them to
+us, for the one waiter of the poor inn, who was darting about in his
+shirt-sleeves after the manner of all waiters, never extended his
+answers to our questions beyond "Si, Signore," so we got but little
+information from him; however, we did not make use of our eyes the less
+for that.
+
+[Illustration: NEGRESS WAITING TO BE SOLD IN THE SLAVE BAZAAR, CAIRO]
+
+Among the first things we noticed, was the number of half-naked men who
+went running about, each with something like a dead pig under his arm,
+shouting out "Mother! mother!"[1] with a doleful voice. These were the
+sakis or water-carriers, with their goat-skins of the precious element,
+a bright brass cupful of which they sell for a small coin to the thirsty
+passengers. An old man with a fan in his hand made of a palm-branch, who
+was crumpled up in the corner of a sort of booth among a heap of dried
+figs, raisins, and dates, just opposite our window, was an object of
+much speculation to us how he got in, and how he would ever manage to
+get out of the niche into which he was so closely wedged. He was the
+merchant, as the Arabian Nights would call him, or the shopkeeper as we
+should say, who sat there cross-legged among his wares waiting patiently
+for a customer, and keeping off the flies in the meanwhile, as in due
+time we discovered that all merchants did in all countries of the East.
+Soon there came slowly by, a long procession of men on horseback with
+golden bridles and velvet trappings, and women muffled up in black silk
+wrappers; how they could bear them, hot as it was, astonished us. These
+ladies sat upon a pile of cushions placed so high above the backs of the
+donkeys on which they rode that their feet rested on the animal's
+shoulders. Each donkey was led by one man, while another walked by its
+side with his hand upon the crupper. With the ladies were two little
+boys covered with diamonds, mounted on huge fat horses, and
+ensconced in high-backed Mameluke saddles made of silver gilt. These
+boys we afterwards found out were being conducted in state to a house of
+their relations, where the rite of circumcision was to be performed. Our
+attention was next called to something like a four-post bed, with pink
+gauze curtains, which advanced with dignified slowness, preceded by a
+band of musicians, who raised a dire and fearful discord by the aid of
+various windy engines. This was a canopy, the four poles of which were
+supported by men, who held it over the heads of a bride and her two
+bridesmaids or friends, who walked on each side of her. The bride was
+not veiled in the usual way, as her friends were, but was muffled up in
+Cashmere shawls from head to foot. Something there was on the top of her
+head which gleamed like gold or jewels, but the rest of her person was
+so effectually wrapped up and concealed that no one could tell whether
+she was pretty or ugly, fat or thin, old or young; and although we gave
+her credit for all the charms which should adorn a bride, we rejoiced
+when the villainous band of music which accompanied her turned round a
+corner and went out of hearing.
+
+Some miserable-looking black slaves caught our attention, clothed each
+in a piece of Isabel-coloured canvas and led by a well-dressed man, who
+had probably just bought them. Then a great personage came by on
+horseback with a number of mounted attendants and some men on foot, who
+cleared the way before him, and struck everybody on the head with their
+sticks who did not get out of the way fast enough. These blows were
+dealt all round in the most unceremonious manner; but what appeared to
+us extraordinary was, that all these beaten people did not seem to care
+for being beat. They looked neither angry nor affronted, but only
+grinned and rubbed their shoulders, and moved on one side to let the
+train of the great man pass by. Now if this were done in London, what a
+ferment would it create! what speeches would be made about tyranny and
+oppression! what a capital thing some high-minded and independent
+patriot would make of it! how he would call a meeting to defend the
+rights of the subject! and how he would get his admirers to vote him a
+piece of plate for his noble and glorious exertions! Here nobody minded
+the thing; they took no heed of the indignity; and I verily believe my
+friend and I, who were safe up at the window, were the only persons in
+the place who felt any annoyance.
+
+The prodigious multitude of donkeys formed another strange feature in
+the scene. There were hundreds of them, carrying all sorts of things in
+panniers; and some of the smallest were ridden by men so tall that they
+were obliged to hold up their legs that their feet might not touch the
+ground. Donkeys, in short, are the carts of Egypt and the
+hackney-coaches of Alexandria.
+
+[Illustration: BEDOUIN ARAB.]
+
+In addition to the donkeys long strings of ungainly-looking camels were
+continually passing, generally preceded by a donkey, and accompanied by
+swarthy men clad in a short shirt with a red and yellow handkerchief
+tied in a peculiar way over their heads, and wearing sandals; these
+savage-looking people were Bedouins, or Arabs of the desert. A very
+truculent set they seemed to be, and all of them were armed with a long
+crooked knife and a pistol or two, stuck in a red leathern girdle. They
+were thin, gaunt, and dirty, and strode along looking fierce and
+independent. There was something very striking in the appearance of
+these untamed Arabs: I had never pictured to myself that anything so
+like a wild beast could exist in human form. The motions of their
+half-naked bodies were singularly free and light, and they looked as if
+they could climb, and run, and leap over anything. The appearance of
+many of the older Arabs, with their long white beard and their ample
+cloak of camel's hair, called an abba, is majestic and venerable. It was
+the first time that I had seen these "Children of the Desert," and the
+quickness of their eyes, their apparent freedom from all restraint, and
+their disregard of any conventional manners, struck me forcibly. An
+English gentleman in a round hat and a tight neck-handkerchief and
+boots, with white gloves and a little cane in his hand, was a style of
+man so utterly and entirely unlike a Bedouin Arab that I could hardly
+conceive the possibility of their being only different species of the
+same animal.
+
+After we had dined, being tired with the heat and the trouble we had had
+in getting our luggage out of the ship, I resolved to retire to bed at
+an early hour, and on going to the window to have another look at the
+crowd, I was surprised to find that there was scarcely anybody left in
+the streets, for these primitive people all go to bed when it gets dark,
+as the birds do; and except a few persons walking home with paper
+lanterns in their hands, the place seemed almost entirely deserted.
+
+The next morning, mounted on donkeys, we shambled across half the city
+to the residence of Boghos Bey, the Armenian prime minister of Mohammed
+Ali Pasha; we were received with great kindness and civility, and as at
+this time there had been but very few European travellers in Egypt, we
+were treated with distinguished hospitality. The Bey said that although
+the Pasha was then in Upper Egypt, he would take care that we should
+have every facility in seeing all the objects of interest, and that he
+would write to Habeeb Effendi, the Governor of Cairo, to acquaint him of
+our arrival, and direct him to let us have the use of the Pasha's
+horses, that kawasses should attend us, and that the Pasha would give us
+a firman, which would ensure our being well treated throughout the whole
+of his dominions.
+
+As a kawass is a person mentioned by all Oriental travellers, it may be
+as well to state that he is a sort of armed servant or body-guard
+belonging to the government; he bears as his badge of office a thick
+cane about four feet long, with a large silver head, with which
+instrument he occasionally enforces his commands and supports his
+authority as well as his person. Ambassadors, consuls, and occasionally
+travellers, are attended by kawasses. Their presence shows that the
+person they accompany is protected by the State, and their number
+indicates his dignity and rank. Formerly these kawasses were splendidly
+attired in embroidered dresses, and their arms and the accoutrements of
+their horses were of silver gilt: the ambassador at Constantinople has,
+I think, six of these attendants. Of late years their picturesque
+costume has been changed to a uniform frock-coat of European make, of a
+whity-brown colour.
+
+[Illustration: Silver head of staff.]
+
+There is a higher grade of officer of the same description, who is only
+to be met with at Court, and whose functions are nearly the same as
+those of a chamberlain with us. He is called a chaoush. His official
+staff is surmounted by a silver head, formed like a Greek bishop's
+staff, from the two horns of which several little round bells are
+suspended by a silver chain. The chaoush is a personage of great
+authority in certain things; he is a kind of living firman, before whom
+every one makes way. As I was desirous of seeing the shrine of the heads
+of Hassan and Hussein in the mosque of Hassan En, a place of peculiar
+sanctity at Cairo, into which no Christian had been admitted, the Pasha
+sent a chaoush with me, who concealed the head of his staff in his
+clothes, to be ready, in case it had been discovered that I was not a
+Mahomedan, to protect me from the fury of the devotees, who would
+probably have torn to pieces any unbeliever who intruded into the temple
+of the sons of Ali.
+
+Besides these two officers, the chaoush and kawass, there is another
+attendant upon public men, who is of inferior rank, and is called a
+yassakji, or forbidder; he looks like a dirty kawass, and has a stick,
+but without the silver knob. He is generally employed to carry messages,
+and push people out of the way, to make a passage for you through a
+crowd; but this kind of functionary is more frequently seen at
+Constantinople and the northern parts of Turkey than in Egypt.
+
+We found Boghos Bey in a large upper room, seated on a divan with two or
+three persons to whom he was speaking, while the lower end of the room
+was occupied by a crowd of chaoushes, kawasses, and hangers-on of all
+descriptions. We were served with coffee, pipes, and sherbet, and were
+entertained during the pauses of the conversation by the ticking and
+chiming of half a dozen clocks which stood about the room, some on the
+floor, some on the side-tables, and some stuck on brackets against the
+wall.
+
+One of the persons seated near the prime minister was a shrewd-looking
+man with one eye, of whom I was afterwards told the following anecdote.
+His name was Walmas; he had been an Armenian merchant, and was an old
+acquaintance of Mohammed Ali and of Boghos, before they had either of
+them risen to their present importance. Soon after the massacre of the
+Mamelukes, Mohammed Ali desired Boghos to procure him a large sum of
+money by a certain day, which Boghos declared was impossible at so short
+a notice. The Pasha, angry at being thwarted, swore that if he had not
+the money by the day he had named, he would have Boghos drowned in the
+Nile. The affrighted minister made every effort to collect the requisite
+sum, but when the day arrived much was wanting to complete it. Boghos
+stood before the Pasha, who immediately exclaimed, "Well! where is the
+money?" "Sir," replied Boghos, "I have not been able to get it all! I
+have procured all this, but, though I strained every nerve, and took
+every measure in my power, it was impossible to obtain the remainder."
+"What," exclaimed the Pasha, "you dog, have you not obeyed my commands?
+What is the use of a minister who cannot produce all the money wanted by
+his sovereign, at however short a notice? Here, put this unbeliever in
+a sack, and fling him into the Nile." This scene occurred in the citadel
+at Cairo; and an officer and some men immediately put him into a sack,
+threw it across a donkey, and proceeded to the Nile. As they were
+passing through the city, they were met by Walmas, who was attended by
+several servants, and who, seeing something moving in the sack which was
+laid across the donkey, asked the guards what they had got there. "Oh!"
+said the officer, "we have got Boghos, the Armenian, and we are going to
+throw him into the Nile, by his Highness the Pasha's order." "What has
+he done?" asked Walmas. "What do we know?" replied the officer;
+"something about money, I believe: no great thing, but his Highness has
+been in a bad humour lately. He will be sorry for it afterwards.
+However, we have our orders, and, therefore, please God, we are going to
+pitch him into the Nile." Walmas determined to rescue his old friend,
+and, assisted by his servants, immediately attacked the guard, who made
+little more than a show of resistance. Boghos was carried off, and
+concealed in a safe place, and the guards returned to the citadel and
+reported that they had pitched Boghos into the Nile, where he had sunk,
+as all should do who disobeyed the commands of his Highness. Some time
+afterwards, the Pasha, overcome by financial difficulties, was heard to
+say that he wished Boghos was still alive. Walmas, who was present,
+after some preliminary conversation (for the ground was rather
+dangerous), said that if his own pardon was insured, he could mention
+something respecting Boghos which he was sure would be agreeable to his
+Highness: and at last he owned that he had rescued him from the guards
+and had kept him concealed in his house in hopes of being allowed to
+restore so valuable a servant to his master. The Pasha was delighted at
+the news, instantly reinstated Boghos in all his former honours, and
+Walmas himself stood higher than ever in his favour; but the guards were
+executed for disobedience. Ever since that time Boghos Bey has continued
+to be the principal minister and most confidential adviser of Mohammed
+Ali Pasha.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+     Rapacity of the Dragomans--The Mahmoudieh Canal--The Nile at
+     Atfeh--The muddy Waters of the Nile--Richness of the Soil--Accident
+     to the Boatmen--Night Sailing--A Collision--A Vessel run
+     down--Escape of the Crew--Solemn Investigation--Final
+     Judgment--Curious Mode of Fishing--Tameness of the Birds--Jewish
+     Malefactors--Moving Pillar of Sand--Arrival at Cairo--Hospitable
+     Reception by the Consul-General.
+
+
+So long as there were no hotels in Egypt, the process of fleecing the
+unwary traveller was conducted on different principles from those
+followed in Europe. As he seldom understands the language, he requires
+an interpreter, or dragoman, who, as a matter of course, manages all his
+pecuniary affairs. The newly-arrived European eats and drinks whatever
+his dragoman chooses to give him; sees through his dragoman's eyes;
+hears through his ears; and, although he thinks himself master, is, in
+fact, only a part of the property of this Eastern servant, to be used by
+him as he thinks fit, and turned to the best account like any other real
+or personal estate.
+
+On our landing at Alexandria, my friend and I found ourselves in the
+same predicament as our predecessors, and straightway fell into the
+hands of these Philistines, two of whom we hired as interpreters. They
+were also to act as ciceroni, and were warranted to know all about the
+antiquities, and everything else in Egypt; they were to buy everything
+we wanted, to spend our money, and to allow no one to cheat us except
+themselves. One of these worthies was sent to engage a boat, to carry us
+down the Mahmoudieh Canal to Atfeh, where the canal is separated from
+the river by flood-gates, in consequence of which impediment we could
+not proceed in the same boat, but had to hire a larger one to take us on
+to Cairo.
+
+The banks of the canal being high, we had no view of the country as we
+passed along; but on various occasions when I ascended to the top of the
+bank, while the men who towed the boat rested from their labours, I saw
+nothing but great sandy flats interspersed with large pools of stagnant,
+muddy water. This prospect not being very charming, we were glad to
+arrive the next day on the shores of the Father of Rivers, whose swollen
+stream, although at Atfeh not more than half a mile in width, rolled by
+towards the north in eddies and whirlpools of smooth muddy water, in
+colour closely resembling a sea of mutton-broth.
+
+In my enthusiasm on arriving on the margin of this venerable river, I
+knelt down to drink some of it, and was disappointed in finding it by no
+means so good as I had always been told it was. On complaining of its
+muddy taste, I found that no one drank the water of the Nile till it had
+stood a day or two in a large earthen jar, the inside of which is
+rubbed with a paste of bitter almonds. This causes all impurities to be
+precipitated, and the water, thus treated, becomes the lightest,
+clearest, and most excellent in the world. At Atfeh, after a prodigious
+uproar between the men of our two boats, each set claiming to be paid
+for transporting the luggage, we set sail upon the Nile, and after
+proceeding a short distance, we stopped at a village, or small town, to
+buy some fruit. Here the surrounding country, a flat alluvial plain, was
+richly cultivated. Water-melons, corn, and all manner of green herbs
+flourished luxuriantly; everything looked delightfully fresh and green;
+flocks of pigeons were flying about; and multitudes of white spoonbills
+and other strange birds were stalking among the herbage, and rising
+around us in every direction. The fertility of the land appeared
+prodigious, and exceeded anything I had seen before. Numberless boats
+were passing on the river, and the general aspect of the scene betokened
+the wealth and plenty which would reward the toils of the agriculturist
+under any settled form of government. We returned to our boat loaded
+with fruit, among which were the Egyptian fig, the prickly pear, dates,
+limes, and melons of kinds that were new to us.
+
+Whilst we were discussing the merits of these refreshing productions, a
+board, which had been fastened on the outside of the vessel for four or
+five men to stand on, as they pushed the boat with poles through the
+shallow water, suddenly gave way, and the men fell into the river: they
+could, however, all swim like water-rats, and were soon on board again;
+when, putting out into the middle of the stream, we set two huge
+triangular lateen sails on our low masts, which raked forwards instead
+of backwards, and by the help of the wind made our way slowly towards
+the south. We slept in a small cabin in the stern of our vessel; this
+had a flat top, and formed the resting-place of the steersman, the
+captain of the ship, and our servants, who all lay down together on some
+carpets; the sailors slept upon the deck. We sailed on steadily all
+night; the stars were wonderfully bright; and I looked out upon the
+broad river and the flat silent shores, diversified here and there by a
+black-looking village of mud huts, surrounded by a grove of palms,
+whence the distant baying of the dogs was brought down upon the wind.
+Sometimes there was the cry of a wild bird, but soon again the only
+sound was the gentle ripple of the water against the sides of our boat.
+If the steersman was not asleep, every one else was; but still we glided
+on, and nothing occurred to disturb our repose, till the blazing light
+of the morning sun recalled us to activity, and all the bustling
+preparations for breakfast.
+
+We had sailed on for some time after this important event, and I was
+quietly reading in the shade of the cabin, when I was thrown backwards
+by the sudden stopping of the vessel, which struck against something
+with prodigious force, and screams of distress arose from the water all
+around us. On rushing upon deck I found that we had run down another
+boat, which had sunk so instantly that nothing was to be seen of it
+except the top of the mast, whose red flag was fluttering just above
+water, and to which two women were clinging. A few yards astern seven or
+eight men were swimming towards the shore, and our steersman having in
+his alarm left the rudder to its own devices, our great sails were
+swinging and flapping over our heads. There was a cry that our bows were
+stove in, and we were sinking; but, fortunately, before this could
+happen, the stream had carried us ashore, where we stuck in the mud on a
+shoal under a high bank, up which we all soon scrambled, glad to be on
+terra firma. The country people came running down to satisfy their
+curiosity, and we procured a small boat, which immediately rowed off to
+rescue the women who were still clinging to the mast-head of the sunken
+vessel, which was one of the kind called a djerm, and was laden with
+thirty tons of corn, besides other goods. No one, luckily, was drowned,
+though the loss was a serious one to the owners, for there was no chance
+of recovering either the vessel or the cargo. Whilst we were looking,
+the red flag to which the women had been clinging toppled over sideways,
+which completed the entire disappearance of the unfortunate djerm.
+
+Our reis, or captain, now returned to the roof of the cabin, where he
+sat down upon a mat, and lighting his pipe, smoked away steadily without
+saying a word, while the wet and dripping sailors, as well as the ladies
+belonging to the shipwrecked vessel, surrounded him, screaming,
+vociferating, and shouting all manner of invectives into his ears; in
+which employment they were effectively joined by a number of half-naked
+Arabs who had been cultivating the fields hard by. To all this they got
+no answer, beyond an occasional ejaculation of "God is great, and
+Mohammed is the prophet of God." His pipe was out before the clamour of
+the crowd had abated, and then, all of a sudden, he got up and with two
+or three others embarked in the little boat for a neighbouring village,
+to report the accident to the sheick, who, we were told, would return
+with him and inquire into the circumstances of the case.
+
+In about three hours the boat returned with the local authorities, two
+old villagers, in long blue shirts and dirty turbans, who took their
+seat upon a mat on the bank and smoked away in a serious manner for some
+time. Our captain made no more reply to the fresh accusations of the
+reassembled multitude than he had done before; but lit another pipe, and
+asserted that God was great. At last the two elders made signs that they
+intended to speak; and silence being obtained, they, with all due
+solemnity, declared that they agreed with the captain that God was
+great, and that undoubtedly Mohammed was the prophet of God. All parties
+having come to this conclusion, it appeared that there was nothing more
+to be said, and we returned to our boat, which the sailors, with the
+help of a rough carpenter, had patched up sufficiently to allow us to
+sail for a village on the other side of the river.
+
+During the time that we were remaining on the bank I was amused by
+watching the manoeuvres of some boys, who succeeded in catching a
+quantity of small fish in a very original way. They rolled together a
+great quantity of tangled weeds and long grass, with one end of which
+they swam out into the Nile, and bringing it back towards the shore,
+numerous unsuspecting fish were entangled in the mass of weeds, and were
+picked out and thrown on the bank by the young fishermen before they had
+time to get out of the scrape. In this way the boys secured a very
+respectable heap of small fry.
+
+We arrived safely at the village, where we stayed the night; but the
+next morning it appeared that the bows of our vessel were so much
+damaged that she could not be repaired under a delay of some days.
+Indeed, it appeared that we had been fortunate in accomplishing our
+passage across the river, for if we had foundered midway, not being able
+to swim like the amphibious Egyptians, we should probably have been
+drowned. It was, however, a relief to me to think that there were no
+crocodiles in this part of the Nile.
+
+The birds at this place appeared to be remarkably tame: some gulls, or
+waterfowl, hardly troubled themselves to move out of the way when a boat
+passed them; while those in the fields went on searching among the crops
+for insects close to the labourers, and without any of the alarm shown
+by birds in England.
+
+While we were dawdling about in the neighbourhood of the village, one of
+the servants, an old Maltese, discovered a boat with ten or twelve oars,
+lying in the vicinity. It belonged to the government, and was conveying
+two malefactors to Cairo under the guardianship of a kawass, who on
+learning our mishap gave us a passage in his boat, and to our great joy
+we bid adieu to our silent captain, and were soon rowing at a great
+rate, in a fine new canjah, on the way to Cairo. The two prisoners on
+board were Jews: one was taken up for cheating, and the other for using
+false weights. They were fastened together by the neck, with a chain
+about five feet long. One of the two was very restless; they said he had
+a good chance of being hanged; and he was always pulling the other
+unfortunate Hebrew about with him by the chain, in a manner which
+excited the mirth of the sailors, though it must have been anything but
+amusing to the person most concerned.
+
+The next day there was a hot wind, and the thermometer stood at 98� in
+the shade. The kawass called our attention to a pillar of sand moving
+through the air in the desert to the south-east; it had an extraordinary
+appearance, and its effect upon a party travelling over those burning
+plains would have been terrific. It was evidently caused by a whirlwind,
+and men and camels are sometimes suffocated and overwhelmed when they
+are met by these columns of dry, heated sand, which stalk through the
+deserts like the evil genii of the storm. I have seen them in other
+countries, more particularly in Armenia; but this, which I saw on my
+first journey up the Nile, was the only moving pillar which I met with
+in Egypt or in any of the surrounding deserts. We passed two men fishing
+from a small triangular raft, composed of palm-branches fastened on the
+tops of a number of earthen vases. This raft had a remarkably light
+appearance; it seemed only just to touch the surface of the water, but
+was evidently badly calculated for such rude encounters as the one which
+we had lately experienced. Soon afterwards the tops of the great
+Pyramids of Giseh caught our admiring gaze, and in the morning of the
+12th of August we landed at Boulac, from which a ride of half an hour on
+donkeys brought our party to the hospitable mansion of the
+Consul-General, who was good enough to receive us in his house until we
+could procure quarters for ourselves.
+
+Having arrived at Cairo, a short account of the history of the city may
+be interesting to some readers. In the sixth and seventh centuries of
+our era this part of Egypt was inhabited principally by Coptic
+Christians, whose chief occupation consisted in quarrelling among
+themselves on polemical points of divinity and ascetic rule. The deserts
+of Nitria and the shores of the Red Sea were peopled with swarms of
+monks, some living together in monasteries, some in lavras, or monastic
+villages, and multitudes hiding their sanctity in dens and caves, where
+they passed their lives in abstract meditation. In the year 638 the
+Arabian general Amer ebn el As, with four hundred Arabs (see Wilkinson),
+advanced to the confines of Egypt, and after thirty days' siege took
+possession of Pelusium, which had been the barrier of the country on the
+Syrian side from the earliest periods of the Egyptian monarchy: he
+advanced without opposition to the city of Babylon, which occupied the
+site of Masr el Ateekeh, or Old Cairo, on the Nile; but the Roman
+station, which is now a Coptic monastery, containing a chamber said to
+have been occupied by the blessed Virgin, was so strong a fortress that
+the invaders were unable to effect an entrance in a siege of seven
+months. After this, a reinforcement of four hundred men arriving at
+their camp, their courage revived, and the castle of Babylon was taken
+by escalade. On the site of the Arabian encampment at Fostat, Amer
+founded the first mosque built on Egyptian soil. The town of Babylon
+was connected with the island of Rhoda by a bridge of boats, by which a
+communication was kept up with the city of Memphis, on the other side of
+the Nile. The Copts, whose religious fanaticism occasioned them to hate
+their masters, the Greeks of the Eastern Empire, more than the
+Mahomedans, welcomed the moment which promised to free them from their
+religious adversaries; and the traitor John Mecaukes, governor of
+Memphis, persuaded them to conclude a treaty with the invaders, by which
+it was stipulated that two dinars of gold should be paid for every
+Christian above sixteen years of age, with the exception of old men,
+women, and monks. From this time Fostat became the Arabian capital of
+Egypt. In the year 879 Sultan Tayloon, or Tooloon, built himself a
+palace, to which he added several residences or barracks for his guards,
+and the great mosque, which still exists, with pointed arches, between
+Fostat and the present citadel of Cairo. It was not, however, till the
+year 969 that Goher, the general of El Moez, Sultan of Kairoan, near
+Tunis, having invaded Egypt, and completely subdued the country, founded
+a new city near the citadel of Qattaeea, which acquired the name of El
+Kahira from the following circumstance. The architect having made his
+arrangements for laying the first stone of the new wall, waited for the
+fortunate moment, which was to be shown by the astrologers pulling a
+cord, extending to a considerable distance from the spot. A certain
+crow, however, who had not been taken into the council of the wise men,
+perched upon the cord, which was shaken by his weight, and the architect
+supposing that the appointed signal had been given, commenced his work
+accordingly. From this unlucky omen, and the vexation felt by those
+concerned, the epithet of Kahira ("the vexatious" or "unlucky") was
+added to the name of the city, Masr el Kahira meaning "the unlucky (city
+of) Egypt." Kahira in the Italian pronunciation has been softened into
+Cairo, by which name this famous city has been known for many centuries
+in Europe, though in the East it is usually called Masr only. From this
+time the Fatemite caliphs of Africa, who brought the bones of their
+ancestors with them from Kairoan, reigned for ten generations over the
+land of Egypt. The third in this succession was the Caliph Hakem, who
+built a mosque near the Bab el Nassr, and who was the founder of the
+sect of the Druses, and, as some say, of the Assassins. In the year 1171
+the famous Saladin usurped the throne from the last of the race of
+Fatema. His descendant, Moosa el Ashref, was deposed in his turn, in
+1250; from which time till the year 1543 Cairo was governed by the
+curious succession of Mameluke kings, who were mostly Circassian slaves
+brought up at the court of their predecessors, and arriving at the
+supreme rule of Egypt by election or intrigue. Toman Bey, the last of
+the Mameluke kings, was defeated by Selim, Emperor of the Turks, and
+hanged at Cairo, at the Bab Zooaley. But the aristocracy of the
+Mamelukes, as it may be called, still remained; and various beys became
+governors of Egypt under the Turkish sway, till they were all destroyed
+at one blow by Mohammed Ali Pasha, the now all but independent sovereign
+of Egypt.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+     National Topics of Conversation--The Rising of the Nile; evil
+     effects of its rising too high; still worse consequences of a
+     deficiency of its waters--The Nilometer--Universal Alarm in August,
+     1833--The Nile at length rises to the desired Height--Ceremony of
+     cutting the Embankment--The Canal of the Khalidj--Immense
+     Assemblage of People--The State Tent--Arrival of Habeeb
+     Effendi--Splendid Dresses of the Officers--Exertions of the Arab
+     Workmen--Their Scramble for Paras--Admission of the Water--Its
+     sudden Irruption--Excitement of the Ladies--Picturesque Effect of
+     large Assemblies in the East.
+
+
+In England every one talks about the weather, and all conversation is
+opened by exclamations against the heat or the cold, the rain or the
+drought; but in Egypt, during one part of the year at least, the rise of
+the Nile forms the general topic of conversation. Sometimes the ascent
+of the water is unusually rapid, and then nothing is talked of but
+inundations; for if the river overflows too much, whole villages are
+washed away; and as they are for the most part built of sunburned bricks
+and mud, they are completely annihilated; and when the waters subside,
+all the boundary marks are obliterated, the course of canals is altered,
+and mounds and embankments are washed away. On these occasions the
+smaller landholders have great difficulty in recovering their property;
+for few of them know how far their fields extend in one direction or
+the other, unless a tree, a stone, or something else remains to mark
+the separation of one man's flat piece of mud from that of his
+neighbour.
+
+But the more frequent and the far more dreaded calamity is the
+deficiency of water. This was the case in 1833, and we heard nothing
+else talked of. "Has it risen much to-day?" inquires one.--"Yes, it has
+risen half a pic since the morning." "What! no more? In the name of the
+Prophet! what will become of the cotton?"--"Yes; and the doura will be
+burnt up to a certainty if we do not get four pics more." In short, the
+Nile has it all its own way; everything depends on the manner in which
+it chooses to behave, and El Bahar (the river) is in everybody's mouth
+from morning till night. Criers go about the city several times a day
+during the period of the rising, who proclaim the exact height to which
+the water has arrived, and the precise number of pics which are
+submerged on the Nilometer.
+
+This Nilometer is an ancient octagon pillar of red stone in the island
+of Rhoda, on the sides of which graduated scales are engraved. It stands
+in the centre of a cistern, about twenty-five feet square, and more than
+that in depth. A stone staircase leads down to the bottom, and the side
+walls are ornamented with Cufic inscriptions beautifully cut. Of this
+antique column I have seen more than most people; for on the 28th of
+August, 1833, the water was so low that there was the greatest
+apprehension of a total failure of the crops, and of the consequent
+famine. At that time nine feet more water was wanted to ensure an
+average crop; much of the Indian corn had already failed; and from the
+Pasha in his palace to the poorest fellah in his mud hovel, all were in
+consternation; for in this country, where it never rains, everything
+depends on irrigation,--the revenues of the state, the food of the
+country, and the life or death of the bulk of the population.
+
+At length the Nile rose to the desired height; and the 6th of September
+was fixed for the ceremony of cutting the embankment which keeps back
+the water from entering into the canal of the Khalidj. This canal joins
+the Nile near the great tower which forms the end of the aqueduct built
+by Saladin, and through it the water is conveyed for the irrigation of
+Cairo and its vicinity. One peculiarity of this city is, that several of
+its principal squares or open spaces are flooded during the inundation;
+and, in consequence of this, are called lakes, such as Birket el Fil
+(the Lake of the Elephant), Birket el Esbekieh, &c. Many of the
+principal houses are built upon the banks of the Khalidj canal, which
+passes through the centre of the town, and which now had the appearance
+of a dusty, sunken lane; and the annual admission of the water into its
+thirsty bed is an event looked forward to as a public holiday by all
+classes. Accordingly, early in the morning, men, women, and children
+sallied forth to the borders of the Nile, and it seemed as if no one
+would be left in the city. The worthy citizens of Cairo, on horses,
+mules, donkeys, and on foot, were seen streaming out of the gates, and
+making their way in the cool of the morning, all hoping to obtain places
+from whence they might catch a glimpse of the cutting of the embankment.
+
+We mounted the horses which the Pasha's grooms brought to our door. They
+were splendidly caparisoned with red velvet and gold; horses were also
+supplied for all our servants; and we wended our way through happy and
+excited crowds to a magnificent tent which had been erected for the
+accommodation of the grandees, on a sort of ancient stone quay
+immediately over the embankment. We passed through the lines of soldiers
+who kept the ground in the vicinity of the tent, around which was
+standing a numerous party of officers in their gala uniforms of red and
+gold.
+
+On entering the tent we found the Cadi; the son of the sheriff of Mecca,
+who I believe was kept as a sort of hostage for the good behaviour of
+his father, the Defterdar, or treasurer, and several other high
+personages, seated on two carpets, one on each side of a splendid velvet
+divan, which extended along that side of the tent which was nearest to
+the river, and which was open. Below the tent was the bank which was to
+be cut through, with the water of the Nile almost overflowing its brink
+on the one side, and the deep dry bed of the canal upon the other; a
+number of half-naked Arabs were working with spades and pick-axes to
+undermine this bank.
+
+Coffee and sherbet were presented to us while we awaited the arrival of
+Habeeb Effendi, who was to superintend the ceremony in the absence of
+the Pasha. No one sat upon the divan which was reserved for the
+accommodation of the great man, who was _vice_-viceroy on this occasion.
+I sat on the carpet by the son of the sheriff of Mecca, who was dressed
+in the green robes worn by the descendants of the Prophet. We looked at
+each other with some curiosity, and he carefully gathered up the edge of
+his sleeve, that it might not be polluted by the touch of such a heathen
+dog as he considered me to be.
+
+About 9 A.M. the firing of cannon and volleys of musketry, with the
+discordant noise of several military bands, announced the approach of
+Habeeb Effendi. He was preceded by an immense procession of beys,
+colonels, and officers, all in red and gold, with the diamond insignia
+of their rank displayed upon their breasts. This crowd of splendidly
+dressed persons, dismounting from their horses, filled the space around
+the tent; and, opening into two ranks, they made a lane along which
+Habeeb Effendi rode into the middle of the tent; all bowing low and
+touching their foreheads as he passed. A horseblock, covered with red
+cloth, was brought forward for him to dismount upon. His fat grey horse
+was covered with gold, the whole of the housings of the Wahabee saddle
+being not embroidered, but so entirely covered with ornaments in
+goldsmith's work, that the colour of the velvet beneath could scarcely
+be discerned. The great man was held up under each arm by two officers,
+who assisted him to the divan, upon which he took his seat, or rather
+subsided, for the portly proportions of his person prevented his feet
+appearing as he sat cross-legged upon the cushions, with his back to the
+canal. Coffee was presented to him, and a diamond-mounted pipe stuck
+into his mouth; and he puffed away steadily, looking neither right nor
+left, while the uproar of the surrounding crowd increased every moment.
+Quantities of rockets and other fireworks were now let off in the broad
+daylight, cannons fired, and volleys of musketry filled the air with
+smoke. The naked Arabs in the ditch worked like madmen, tearing away the
+earth of the embankment, which was rapidly giving way; whilst an officer
+of the Treasury threw handfuls of new pieces of five paras each (little
+coins of base silver of the value of a farthing) among them. The immense
+multitude shouted and swayed about, encouraging the men, who were
+excited almost to frenzy.
+
+At last there was a tremendous shout: the bank was beginning to give
+way; and showers of coin were thrown down upon it, which the workmen
+tried to catch. One man took off his wide Turkish trousers, and
+stretching them out upon two sticks caught almost a handful at a time.
+By degrees the earth of the embankment became wet, and large pieces of
+mud fell over into the canal. Presently a little stream of water made
+its way down the declivity, but the Arabs still worked up to their knees
+in water. The muddy stream increased, and all of a sudden the whole bank
+gave way. Some of the Arabs scrambled out and were helped up the sides
+of the canal by the crowd; but several, and among others he of the
+trousers, intent upon the shower of paras, were carried away by the
+stream. The man struggled manfully in the water, and gallantly kept
+possession of his trousers till he was washed ashore, and, with the
+assistance of some of his friends, landed safely with his spoils. The
+arches of the great aqueduct of Saladin were occupied by parties of
+ladies; and long lines of women in their black veils sat like a huge
+flock of crows upon the parapets above. They all waved their
+handkerchiefs and lifted up their voices in a strange shrill scream as
+the torrent increased in force; and soon, carrying everything before it,
+it entirely washed away the embankment, and the water in the canal rose
+to the level of the Nile.
+
+The desired object having been accomplished, Habeeb Effendi, who had not
+once looked round towards the canal, now rose to depart; he was helped
+up the steps of the red horse-block, and fairly hoisted into his
+saddle; and amidst the roar of cannon and musketry, the shouts of the
+people, and the clang of innumerable musical instruments, he departed
+with his splendid train of officers and attendants.
+
+Nothing can be conceived more striking than a great assemblage of people
+in the East: the various colours of the dresses and the number of white
+turbans give it a totally different appearance from that of a black and
+dingy European crowd; and it has been well compared by their poets to a
+garden of tulips. The numbers collected together on this occasion were
+immense; and the narrow streets were completely filled by the returning
+multitude, all delighted with the happy termination of the event of the
+day; but before noon the whole of the crowd was dispersed, all had
+returned to their own houses, and the city was as quiet and orderly as
+if nothing extraordinary had occurred.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+     Early Hours in the Levant--Compulsory Use of Lanterns in
+     Cairo--Separation of the different Quarters of the City--Custom of
+     sleeping in the open air--The Mahomedan Times of Prayer--Impressive
+     Effect of the Morning Call to Prayer from the Minarets--The last
+     Prayer-time, Al Assr--Bedouin Mode of ascertaining this
+     Hour--Ancient Form of the Mosques--The Mosque of Sultan
+     Hassan--Egyptian Mode of "raising the Supplies"--Sultan Hassan's
+     Mosque the Scene of frequent Conflicts--The Slaughter of the
+     Mameluke Beys in the Place of Roumayli--Escape of one Mameluke, and
+     his subsequent Friendship with Mohammed Ali--The Talisman of
+     Cairo--Joseph's Well and Hall--Mohammed Ali's Mosque--His Residence
+     in the Citadel--The Harem--Degraded State of the Women in the East.
+
+
+The early hours kept in the Levant cannot fail to strike the European
+stranger. At Cairo every one is up and about at sunrise; all business is
+transacted in the morning, and some of the bezesteins and principal
+bazaars are closed at twelve o'clock, at which hour many people retire
+to their homes and only appear again in the cool of the evening, when
+they take a ride or sit and smoke a pipe and listen to a storyteller in
+a coffee-house or under a tree. Soon after sunset the whole city is at
+rest. Every one who then has any business abroad is obliged to carry a
+small paper lantern, on pain of being taken up by the guard if he is
+found without it. Persons of middle rank have a glass lamp carried
+before them by a servant, and people of consequence are preceded by men
+who run before their train of horses with a fire of resinous wood,
+carried aloft on the top of a pole, in an iron grating called a mashlak.
+This has a picturesque effect, and throws a great light around.
+
+Each different district of the city is separated from the adjoining one
+by strong gates at the end of the streets: these are all closed at
+night, and are guarded by a drowsy old man with a long beard, who acts
+as porter, and who is roused with difficulty by the promise of a small
+coin when any one wants to pass. These gates contribute greatly to the
+peace and security of the town; for as the Turks, Arabs, Christians,
+Jews, Copts, and other religious sects reside each in a different
+quarter, any disturbance which may arise in one district is prevented
+from extending to another; and the drunken Europeans cannot intrude
+their civilization on their quiet and barbarous neighbours. There are
+here no theatres, balls, parties, or other nocturnal assemblies; and
+before the hour at which London is well lit up, the gentleman of Cairo
+ascends to the top of his house and sleeps upon the terrace, and the
+servants retire to the court-yard; for in the hot weather most people
+sleep in the open air. Many of the poorer class sleep in the open places
+and the courts of the mosques, all wrapping up their heads and faces
+that the moon may not shine upon them.
+
+The Mahomedan day begins at sunset, when the first time of prayer is
+observed; the second is about two hours after sunset; the third is at
+the dawn of day, when the musical chant of the muezzins from the
+thousand minarets of Cairo sounds most impressively through the clear
+and silent air. The voices of the criers thus raised above the city
+always struck me as having a holy and beautiful effect. First one or two
+are heard faintly in the distance, then one close to you, then the cry
+is taken up from the minarets of other mosques, and at last, from one
+end of the town to the other, the measured chant falls pleasingly on the
+ear, inviting the faithful to prayer. For a time it seems as if there
+was a chorus of voices in the air, like spirits, calling upon each other
+to worship the Creator of all things. Soon the sound dies away, there is
+a silence for a while, and then commence the hum and bustle of the
+awakening city. This cry of man, to call his brother man to prayer,
+seems to me more appropriate and more accordant to religious feeling
+than the clang and jingle of our European bells.
+
+The fourth and most important time of prayer is at noon, and it is at
+this hour that the Sultan attends in state the mosque at Constantinople.
+The fifth and last prayer is at about three o'clock. The Bedouins of the
+desert, who, however, are not much given to praying, consider this hour
+to have arrived when a stick, a spear, or a camel throws a shadow of its
+own height upon the ground. This time of the day is called "Al Assr."
+When wandering about in the deserts, I used always to eat my dinner or
+luncheon at that time, and it is wonderful to what exactness I arrived
+at last in my calculations respecting the time of the Assr. I knew to a
+minute when my dromedary's shadow was of the right length.
+
+The minarets of Cairo are the most beautiful of any in the Levant;
+indeed no others are to be compared to them. Some are of a prodigious
+height, built of alternate layers of red and white stone. A curious
+anecdote is told of the most ancient of all the minarets, that attached
+to the great mosque of Sultan Tayloon, an immense cloister or arcade
+surrounding a great square. The arches are all pointed, and are the
+earliest extant in that form, the mosque having been built in imitation
+of that at Mecca, in the year of the Hegira 265, Anno Domini 879. The
+minaret belonging to this magnificent building has a stone staircase
+winding round it outside: the reason of its having been built in this
+curious form is said to be, that the vizier of Sultan Tayloon found the
+king one day lolling on his divan and twisting a piece of paper in a
+spiral form; the vizier remarking upon the trivial nature of the
+employment of so great a monarch, he replied, "I was thinking that a
+minaret in this form would have a good effect: give orders, therefore,
+that such a one be added to the mosque which I am building."[2] In
+ancient times the mosques consisted merely of large open courts,
+surrounded by arcades; and frequently, on that side of the court which
+stood nearest to Mecca, this arcade was double. In later times covered
+buildings with large domes were added to the court; a style of building
+which has always been adopted in more northern climates.
+
+The finest mosque of this description is that of Sultan Hassan, in the
+place of the Roumayli, near the citadel. It is a magnificent structure,
+of prodigious height; it was finished about the year A.D. 1362. The
+money necessary for its construction is said to have been procured by
+the following ingenious device. The good Sultan Hassan was determined to
+build a mosque and a tomb for himself, but finding a paucity of means in
+his treasury, he sent out invitations to all the principal people of the
+country to repair to a grand feast at his court, when he said he would
+present each of his loving subjects with a robe of honour. On the
+appointed day they accordingly all made their appearance, dressed in
+their richest robes of state. There was not one but had a Cashmere shawl
+round his turban, and another round his waist, with a jewelled dagger
+stuck in it; besides other ornaments, and caftans of brocade and cloth
+of gold. They entered the place of the Roumayli each accompanied by a
+magnificent train of guards and attendants, who, according to the
+jealous custom of the times, remained below; while the chiefs, with one
+or two of their personal followers only, ascended into the citadel, and
+were ushered into the presence of the Sultan. They were received most
+graciously: how they contrived to pass their time in the fourteenth
+century, before the art of smoking was invented, I do not know, but
+doubtless they sat in circles round great bowls of rice, piled over
+sheep roasted whole, discussed the merits of lambs stuffed with
+pistachio-nuts, and ate cucumbers for dessert. When the feast was
+concluded the Sultan announced that each guest at his departure should
+receive the promised robe of honour; and as these distinguished
+personages, one by one, left the royal presence, they were conducted to
+a small chamber near the gate, in which were several armed officers of
+the household, who, with expressions of the most profound respect and
+solicitude, divested them of their clothes, which they immediately
+carried off. The astonished noble was then invested with a long white
+shirt, and ceremoniously handed out of an opposite door, which led to
+the exterior of the fortress, where he found his train in waiting. The
+Sultan kept all that he found worth keeping of the personal effects of
+his guests, who were afterwards glad to bargain with the chamberlain of
+the court for the restoration of their robes of state, which were
+ultimately returned to them--_for a consideration_. The mosque of Sultan
+Hassan was built with the proceeds of this original scheme; and the tomb
+of the founder is placed in a superb hall, seventy feet square, covered
+with a magnificent dome, which is one of the great features of the city.
+But he that soweth in the whirlwind shall reap in the storm. In
+consequence of the great height and thickness of the walls of this
+stately building, as well as from the circumstance of its having only
+one great gate of entrance, it was frequently seized and made use of as
+a fortress by the insurgents in the numerous rebellions and
+insurrections which were always taking place under the rule of the
+Mameluke kings. Great stains of blood are still to be seen on the marble
+walls of the court-yard, and even in the very chamber of the tomb of the
+Sultan there are the indelible marks of the various conflicts which have
+taken place, when the guardians of the mosque have been stabbed and cut
+down in its most sacred recesses. The two minarets of this mosque, one
+of which is much larger than the other, are among the most beautiful
+specimens of decorated Saracenic architecture. Of the largest of these
+minarets the following story is related. There was a man endued with a
+superabundance of curiosity, who, like Peeping Tom of Coventry, had a
+fancy for spying at the ladies on the house-tops from the summit of this
+minaret: at last he made some signals to one of the neighbouring ladies,
+which were unluckily discovered by the master of the house, who happened
+to be reposing in the harem. The two muezzins (as they often are) were
+blind men, and complaint was made to the authorities that the muezzins
+of Sultan Hassan permitted people to ascend the minarets to gaze into
+the forbidden precincts of the harems below. The two old muezzins were
+indignant when they were informed of this accusation, and were
+determined to watch for the intruder and kill him on the spot, the first
+time that they should find him ascending the winding staircase of the
+minaret. In the course of a few days a good-natured person gave the
+alarm, and told the two blind men that somebody had just entered the
+doorway on the roof of the mosque by which the minaret is ascended; one
+of the muezzins therefore ascended the minaret, armed with a sharp
+dagger, and the other waited at the narrow door below to secure the game
+whom his companion should drive out of the cover. The young man was
+surprised by the muezzin while he was looking over the lower gallery of
+the minaret, but escaping from him he ran up the stairs to the upper
+gallery: here he was followed by his enemy, who cried to the old man at
+the bottom to be ready, for he had found the rascal who had brought
+such scandal on the mosque. The muezzin chased the intruder round the
+upper gallery, and he slipped through the door and ran down again to the
+lower one, where he waited till the muezzin passed him on the stairs,
+then taking off his shoes he followed him lightly and silently till he
+arrived near the bottom door, when he suddenly pushed the muezzin, who
+had been up the minaret, against the one who stood guard below; the two
+blind men, each thinking he had got hold of the villain for whom he was
+in search, seized each other by the throat and engaged in mortal combat
+with their daggers, taking advantage of which the other escaped before
+the blind men had found out their mistake. At the next hour of prayer,
+their well-known voices not being heard as usual, some of the attendants
+at the mosque went up upon the roof to see what had happened, when they
+found the muezzins, who were just able to relate the particulars of
+their mistake before they died.
+
+It was in the place of the Roumayli that the gallant band of the
+Mameluke beys were assembled before they were entrapped and killed by
+the present task-master of Egypt, Mohammed Ali Pasha. They ascended a
+narrow passage between two high bastions, which led from the lower to
+the upper gate. The lower gate was shut after they had passed, and they
+were thus caught as in a trap. All of them were shot except one, who
+leaped his horse over the battlements and escaped. This man became
+afterwards a great ally of Mohammed Ali, and I have often seen him
+riding about on a fine horse caparisoned with red velvet in the old
+Mameluke style. On the wall in one part of this passage, towards the
+inner gate, there is a square tablet containing a bas-relief of a spread
+eagle: this is considered by the superstitious as the talisman of Cairo,
+and is said to give a warning cry when any calamity is about to happen
+to the city. Its origin, as well as most things of any antiquity in the
+citadel, is ascribed to Saladin (Yousef Sala Eddin), who is called here
+Yousef (Joseph); and Joseph's Well, and Joseph's Hall, are the two great
+lions of the place.
+
+The well, which is of great depth, is remarkable from its having a broad
+winding staircase cut in the rock around the shaft: this extends only
+half way down, where two oxen are employed to draw water by a wheel and
+buckets from the bottom, which is here poured into a cistern, whence it
+is raised to the top by another wheel. It is supposed, however, that
+this well is an ancient work, and that it was only cleaned out by
+Saladin when he rebuilt the walls of the town and fortified the citadel.
+
+The hall, which was a very fine room, divided into aisles by magnificent
+antique columns of red granite, has unfortunately been pulled down by
+Mohammed Ali. He did this to make way for the mosque which he has built
+of Egyptian alabaster, a splendid material, but its barbarous Armenian
+architecture offers a sad contrast to the stately edifice which has been
+so ruthlessly destroyed. It is indeed a sad thing for Cairo that the
+flimsy architecture of Constantinople, so utterly unsuited to this
+climate, has been introduced of late years in the public buildings and
+the palaces of the ministers, which lift up their bald and miserable
+whitewashed walls above the beautiful Arabian works of earlier days.
+
+The residence of the Pasha is within the walls of the citadel. The long
+range of the windows of the harem from their lofty position overlook
+great part of the city, which must render it a more cheerful residence
+for the ladies than harems usually are. When a number of Eastern women
+are congregated together, as is frequently the case, without the society
+of the other sex, it is surprising how helpless they become, and how
+neglectful of everything excepting their own persons and their food.
+Eating and dressing are their sole pursuits. If there be a garden
+attached to the harem they take no trouble about it, and at
+Constantinople the ladies of the Sultan tread on the flower-beds and
+destroy the garden as a flock of sheep would do if let loose in it. A
+Turkish lady is the wild variety of the species. Many of them are
+beautiful and graceful, but they do not appear to abound in intellectual
+charms. Until the minds of the women are enlarged by better education,
+any chance of amelioration among the people of the Levant is hopeless:
+for it is in the nursery that the seeds of superstition, prejudice, and
+unreason are sown, the effects of which cling for life to the minds even
+of superior men.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+     Interview with Mohammed Ali Pasha--Mode of lighting a Room in
+     Egypt--Personal Appearance of the Pasha--His Diamond-mounted
+     Pipe--The lost Handkerchief--An unceremonious Attendant--View of
+     Cairo from the Citadel--Site of Memphis; its immense extent--The
+     Tombs of the Caliphs--The Pasha's Mausoleum--Costume of Egyptian
+     Ladies--The Coboob, or Wooden Clog--Mode of dressing the Hair--The
+     Veil--Mistaken Idea that the Egyptian Ladies are Prisoners in the
+     Harem; their power of doing as they like--The Veil a complete
+     Disguise--Laws of the Harem--A Levantine Beauty--Eastern
+     Manners--The Abyssinian Slaves--Arab Girls--Ugliness of the Arab
+     Women when old--Venerable Appearance of the old Men--An Arab
+     Sheick.
+
+
+It was in the month of February, 1834, that I first had the honour of an
+audience with Mohammed Ali Pasha. It was during the Mahomedan month of
+Ramadan, when the day is kept a strict fast, and nothing passes the lips
+of the faithful till after sunset. It was at night, therefore, that we
+were received. My companion and myself were residing at that time under
+the hospitable roof of the Consul-General, and we accompanied him to the
+citadel. The effect of the crowds of people in the streets, all carrying
+lanterns, or preceded by men bearing the mashlak, blazing like a beacon
+on the top of its high pole, was very picturesque. The great hall of the
+citadel was full of men, arranged in rows with their faces towards the
+south, going through the forms and attitudes of evening prayer under
+the guidance of a leader, and with the precision of a regiment on drill.
+
+Passing these, a curtain was drawn aside, and we were ushered at once
+into the presence of the Viceroy, whom we found walking up and down in
+the middle of a large room, between two rows of gigantic silver
+candlesticks, which stood upon the carpet. This is the usual way of
+lighting a room in Egypt:--Six large silver dishes, about two feet in
+diameter and turned upside down, are first placed upon the floor, three
+on each side, near the centre of the room. On each of these stands a
+silver candlestick, between four and five feet high, containing a wax
+candle three feet long, and very thick. A seventh candlestick, of
+smaller dimensions, stands on the floor, separate from these, for the
+purpose of being moved about; it is carried to any one who wants to read
+a letter, or to examine an object more closely while he is seated on the
+divan. Almost every room in the palace has an European chandelier
+hanging from the ceiling, but I do not remember having ever seen one
+lit. These large candlesticks, standing in two rows, with the little one
+before them, always put me in mind of a line of life guards of gigantic
+stature, commanded by a little officer whom they could almost put in
+their pockets.
+
+[Illustration: EGYPTIAN, IN THE NIZAM DRESS.]
+
+Mohammed Ali desired us to be seated. He was attended by Boghos Bey, who
+remained standing and interpreted for us. The Pasha at that time
+was a hale, broad-shouldered, broad-faced man: his short grey beard
+stuck out on each side of his face; his nostrils were very much opened;
+and, with his quick sharp eye, he looked like an old grey lion. The
+expression of his countenance was remarkably intelligent, but excepting
+this there was nothing particular in his appearance. He was attired in
+the Nizam dress of blue cloth. This costume consists of a red cap, a
+jacket with flying sleeves, a waistcoat with tight sleeves under it, a
+red shawl round the waist, a pair of trousers very full, like trunk
+hose, down to the knee, from whence to the ankle they were tight. The
+whole costume is always made of the same coloured cloth, usually black
+or blue. He had white stockings and yellow morocco shoes.
+
+When we were seated on the divan we commenced the usual routine of
+Oriental compliments; and coffee was handed to us in cups entirely
+covered with large diamonds. A pipe was then brought to the Pasha, but
+not to us. This pipe was about seven feet long: the mouthpiece, of light
+green amber, was a foot long, and a foot more below the mouthpiece, as
+well as another part of the pipe lower down, was richly set with
+diamonds of great value, with a diamond tassel hanging to it.
+
+We discoursed for three quarters of an hour about the possibility of
+laying a railway across the Isthmus of Suez, which was the project then
+uppermost in the Pasha's mind; but the circumstance which most strongly
+recalls this audience to my memory, and which struck me as an instance
+of manners differing entirely from our own, was, in itself, a very
+trivial one. The Pasha wanted his pocket handkerchief, and looked about
+and felt in his pocket for it, but could not find it, making various
+exclamations during his search, which at last were answered by an
+attendant from the lower end of the room--"Feel in the other pocket,"
+said the servant. "Well, it is not there," said the Pasha. "Look in the
+other, then." "I have not got a handkerchief," or words to that effect,
+were replied to immediately,--"Yes, you have;"--"No, I have not;"--"Yes,
+you have." Eventually this attendant, advancing up to the Pasha, felt in
+the pocket of his jacket, but the handkerchief was not to be found; then
+he poked all round the Pasha's waist, to see whether it was not tucked
+into his shawl: that would not do. So he took hold of his Sovereign and
+pushed him half over on the divan, and looked under him to see whether
+he was sitting on the handkerchief; then he pushed him over on the other
+side. During all which manoeuvres the Pasha sat as quietly and passively
+as possible. The servant then, thrusting his arm up to the elbow in one
+of the pockets of his Highness's voluminous trousers, pulled out a
+snuff-box, a rosary, and several other things, which he laid upon the
+divan. That would not do, either; so he came over to the other pocket,
+and diving to a prodigious depth he produced the missing handkerchief
+from the recesses thereof; and with great respect and gravity, thrusting
+it into the Pasha's hand, he retired again to his place at the lower end
+of the hall.
+
+After being presented with sherbet, in glass bowls with covers, we took
+our leave, and rode home through the crowds of persons with paper
+lanterns, who turn night into day during the month of Ramadan.
+
+The view from that part of the bastions of the citadel which looks over
+the place of the Roumayli and the great mosque of Sultan Hassan is one
+of the most extraordinary that can be seen any where. The whole city is
+displayed at your feet; the numerous domes and minarets, the towers of
+the Saracenic walls, the flat roofs of the houses, and the narrowness of
+the streets giving it an aspect very different from that of an European
+town. You see the Nile and the gardens of Ibrahim Pasha in the island of
+Rhoda to the left; and the avenue of Egyptian sycamores to the right,
+leading to the Pasha's country palace of Shoubra. Beyond the Nile, the
+bare mysterious-looking desert, and the Pyramids standing on their rocky
+base, lead the mind to dwell upon the mighty deeds of ancient days. The
+forest of waving palm-trees, around Saccara, stretches away to the
+south-west, shading the mounds of earth which cover the remains of the
+vast city of Memphis, in comparison to which London would appear but a
+secondary town: for if we may judge from the line of pyramids from Giseh
+to Dashour, which formed the necropolis of Memphis, and the various
+mounds and dykes and ancient remains which extend along the margin of
+the Nile for nearly six-and-thirty miles, the extreme length of London
+being barely eight, and of Paris not much more than four, Memphis must
+have been larger than London, Paris, and ancient Rome, all united; and
+judging from the description which Herodotus has given us of the
+enormous size of the temples and buildings, which are now entirely
+washed away, in consequence of their having been built on the alluvial
+plain, which is every year inundated by the waters of the Nile, Memphis
+in its glory must have exceeded any modern city, as much as the Pyramids
+exceed any mausoleum which has been erected since those days.
+
+The tombs of the Caliphs, as they are called, although most of them are
+the burial-place of the Mameluke Sultans of Egypt, are magnificent and
+imposing buildings. Many of them consist of a mosque built round a
+court, to which is attached a great hall with a dome, under which is
+placed the Sultan's tomb. These beautiful specimens of Arabian
+architecture form a considerable town or city of the dead, on the east
+and south sides of Cairo, about a mile beyond the walls. I was
+astonished at their exceeding beauty and magnificence. Most of them
+were built during the two centuries preceding the conquest of Egypt, by
+Sultan Selim, in 1517, who tortured the last of the Mameluke Sultans,
+Toman Bey, and hung him with a rope, which is yet to be seen dangling
+over the gate called Bab Zuweyleh, in front of which criminals are still
+executed.
+
+The mausoleum of Sultan Bergook is a triumph of Saracenic architecture.
+
+The minarets of these tombs are most richly ornamented with tracery,
+sculpture, and variegated marbles. The walls of many of them are built
+in alternate layers of red and white or black and white marble. The dome
+of the tomb of Kaitbay is of stone, sculptured all over with an
+arabesque pattern; and there are several other domes in different
+mosques at Cairo equally richly ornamented. I have met with none
+comparable to them either in Europe or in the Levant. It is strange that
+none of the Italian architects ever thought of domes covered with rich
+ornamental work in stone or marble; the effect of those at Cairo is
+indescribably fine. Unfortunately they are now much neglected; but in
+the clear dry air of Egypt, time falls more lightly on the works of man
+than in the damp and chilly climates of the north, and the tombs of the
+Mameluke sovereigns will probably last for centuries to come if they are
+not pulled down for the materials, or removed to make way for some
+paltry lath and plaster edifice which will fall in the lifetime of its
+builder.
+
+Besides these larger structures, many of the smaller tombs, which are
+scattered over the desert for miles under the hills of Mokattam, are
+studies for the architect. There are numerous little domes of beautiful
+design, richly ornamented doors and gateways, tombs and tomb-stones of
+all sorts and sizes in infinite variety, most of them so well preserved
+in this glorious climate that the inscriptions on them are as legible as
+when they were first put up.
+
+The Pasha has built himself a house in this city of the dead, to which
+many members of his family have gone before him. This mausoleum consists
+of several buildings covered with low heavy domes, whitewashed or
+plastered on the outside. Within, if I remember right, are the tombs of
+Toussoun and Ismael Pashas, and those of several of his wives,
+grand-children, and relatives; they repose under marble monuments,
+somewhat resembling altars in shape, with a tall post or column at the
+head and feet, as is usual in Turkish graves; the column at the head
+being carved into the form of the head-dress distinctive of the rank or
+sex of the deceased. These sepulchral chambers are all carpeted, and
+Cashmere shawls are thrown over many of the tombs, while in arched
+recesses there are divans with cushions for the use of those who come to
+mourn over their departed relatives.
+
+We will now return to the living; but so perfect an account of the
+Arabian population of Cairo is to be found in Mr. Lane's 'Modern
+Egypt,' that there is little left to say upon that subject, except that
+since that work was published the presence of numerous Europeans has
+diminished the originality of the Oriental manners of this city, and
+numerous vices and modes of cheating, besides a larger variety of
+drunken scenes, are offered for the observation of the curious, than
+existed in the more unsophisticated times, before steamers came to
+Alexandria, and what is called the overland journey to India was
+established. The population of Cairo consists of the ruling class, who
+are all Turks, who speak Turkish, and affect to despise all who have
+never been rowed in a ca�que upon the Bosphorus. Then come the Arabs,
+the former conquerors of the land; they form the bulk of the
+population--all the petty tradesmen and cultivators of the soil are of
+Arab origin. Besides these are the Copts, who are descended from the
+original lords of the country, the ancient Egyptians, who have left such
+wonderful monuments of their power. After these may be reckoned the
+motley crew of Jews, Franks, Armenians, Arabs of Barbary and the Hejaz,
+Syrians, negroes, and Barabra; but these are but sojourners in the land,
+and, except the Jews, can hardly be counted among the regular subjects
+of the Pasha. There are besides, the Levantine Christians, who are under
+the protection of one or other of the European powers. Many of this
+class are rich and influential merchants; some of them live in the
+Oriental style, and others are ambitious to assume the tight clothing
+and manner of life of the Franks. The older merchants among the
+Levantines keep more to the Oriental ways of life, while the younger
+gentlemen and ladies follow the ugly fashion of Europe, particularly the
+men, who leave off the cool and convenient Eastern dress to swelter in
+the tight bandages of the Franks; the ladies, on the contrary, are apt
+to retain the Oriental costume, which in its turn is neither so becoming
+nor so easy as the Paris fashions. It must be the spirit of
+contradiction, so natural to the human race, which causes this
+arrangement; for if the men kept to their old costume they would be more
+comfortable than they can be with tight clothes, coat-collars, and
+neckcloths, when the thermometer stands at 112� of Fahrenheit in the
+coolest shade, besides the dignity of their appearance, which is cast
+away with the folds of the Turkish or Arabian dress. The ladies would be
+much improved by the artful devices of the Parisian modistes; for
+although, when young and pretty, all women look well in almost any
+dress, the elder ladies are sometimes but little to be admired in the
+shapeless costumes of the Levant, where the richness of the material
+does not make up for the want of fit and gracefulness which is the
+character of their dress. This may easily be imagined when it is
+understood that both men's and women's dresses may be bought ready made
+in the bazaar, and that any dress will fit anybody unless they are
+supernaturally fat or of dwarfish stature.
+
+An Egyptian lady's dress consists of a pair of immensely full trousers
+of satin or brocade, or often of a brilliant cherry-coloured silk: these
+are tied under the knees, and descending to the ground, have the
+appearance of a very full petticoat. The Arabic name of this garment is
+Shintian. Over this is worn a shirt of transparent silk gauze (Kamis).
+It has long full sleeves, which, as well as the border round the neck,
+are richly embroidered with gold and bright-coloured silks. The edge of
+the shirt is often seen like a tunic over the trousers, and has a pretty
+effect. Over this again is worn a long silk gown, open in front and on
+each side, called a yelek. The fashion is to have the yelek about a foot
+longer than the lady who wears it; so that its three tails shall just
+touch the ground when she is mounted on a pair of high wooden clogs,
+called cobcobs, which are intended for use in the bath, but in which
+they often clatter about in the house: the straps over the instep, by
+which these cobcobs are attached to the feet, are always finely worked,
+and are sometimes of diamonds. The husband gives his bride on their
+marriage a pair of these odd-looking things, which are about six or
+eight inches high, and are always carried on a tray on a man's head in
+marriage processions. The yelek fits the shape in some degree down to
+the waist; it comes up high upon the neck, and has tightish sleeves,
+which are long enough to trail upon the ground. "Oh! thou with the
+long-sleeved yelek" is a common chorus or ending to a stanza in an Arab
+song. Not round the waist but round the hips a large and heavy Cashmere
+shawl is worn over the yelek, and the whole gracefulness of an Egyptian
+dress consists in the way in which this is put on. In the winter a long
+gown, called Jubeh, is superadded to all this: it is of cloth or velvet,
+or a sort of stuff made of the Angora goat's hair, and is sometimes
+lined with fur.
+
+Young girls do not often wear this nor the yelek, but have instead a
+waistcoat of silk with long sleeves like those of the yelek. This is
+called an anteri, and over it they wear a velvet jacket with short
+sleeves, which is so much embroidered with gold and pearls that the
+velvet is almost hid. Their hair hangs down in numerous long tails,
+plaited with silk, to which sequins, or little gold coins, are attached.
+The plaits must be of an uneven number: it would be unlucky if they were
+even. Sometimes at the end of one of the plaits hangs the little golden
+bottle of surmeh with which they black the edges of their eyelids; a
+most becoming custom when it is well done, and not smeared, as it often
+is, for then the effect is rather like that of a black eye, in the
+pugilistic sense of the term. On the head is worn a very beautiful
+ornament called a koors. It is in the shape of a saucer or shallow
+basin, and is frequently covered with rose diamonds. I am surprised
+that it has never been introduced into Europe, as it is a remarkably
+pretty head-dress, with the long tresses of jet black hair hanging from
+under it, plaited with the shining coins. Round the head a handkerchief
+is wound, which spoils the effect of all the rest: but a woman in the
+East is never seen with the head uncovered, even in the house; and when
+she goes out, the veil, as we call it, though it has no resemblance to a
+veil, is used to conceal the whole person. A lady enclosed in this
+singular covering looks like a large bundle of black silk, diversified
+only by a stripe of white linen extending down the front of her person,
+from the middle of her nose to her ungainly yellow boots, into which her
+stockingless feet are thrust for the occasion. The veils of Egypt, of
+which the outer black silk covering is called a khabara, and the part
+over the face a boorkoo, are entirely different from those worn in
+Constantinople, Persia, or Armenia; these are all various in form and
+colour, complicated and wonderful garments, which it would take too long
+to describe, but they, as well as the Egyptian one, answer their
+intended purpose excellently, for they effectually prevent the display
+of any grace or peculiarity of form or feature.
+
+There is no greater mistake than to suppose that Eastern ladies are
+prisoners in the harem, and that they are to be pitied for the want of
+liberty which the jealousy of their husbands condemns them to. The
+Christian ladies live from choice and habit in the same way as the
+Mahomedan women: and, indeed, the Egyptian fair ones have more
+facilities to do as they choose, to go where they like, and to carry on
+any intrigue than the Europeans; for their complete disguise carries
+them safely everywhere. No one knows whether any lady he may meet in the
+bazaar is his wife, his daughter, or his grandmother: and I have several
+times been addressed by Turkish and Egyptian ladies in the open street,
+and asked all sorts of questions in a way that could not be done in any
+European country. The harem, it is true, is by law inviolable: no one
+but the Sultan can enter it unannounced, and if a pair of strange
+slippers are seen left at the outer door, the master of the house cannot
+enter his own harem so long as this proof of the presence of a visitor
+remains. If the husband is a bore, an extra pair of slippers will at all
+times keep him out; and the ladies inside may enjoy themselves without
+the slightest fear of interruption. It is asserted also that gentlemen,
+who are not too tall, have gone into all sorts of places under the
+protection of a lady's veil, so completely does it conceal the person.
+But this is not the case with the Levantine or Christian ladies:
+although they live in a harem, like the Mahomedans, it is not protected
+in the same way: the slippers have not the same effect; for the men of
+the family go in and out whenever they please; and relations and
+visitors of the male sex are received in the apartments of the ladies.
+
+On one occasion I accompanied an English traveller, who had many
+acquaintances at Cairo, to the house of a Levantine in the vicinity of
+the Coptic quarter. Whilst we were engaged in conversation with an old
+lady the curtain over the doorway was drawn aside, and there entered the
+most lovely apparition that can be conceived, in the person of a young
+lady about sixteen years old, the daughter of the lady of the house. She
+had a beautifully fair complexion, very uncommon in this country,
+remarkably long hair, which hung down her back, and her dress, which was
+all of the same rich material, rose-coloured silk, shot with gold,
+became her so well, that I have rarely seen so graceful and striking a
+figure. She was closely followed by two black girls, both dressed in
+light-blue satin, embroidered with silver; they formed an excellent
+contrast to their charming mistress, and were very good-looking in their
+way, with their slight and graceful figures. The young Levantine came
+and sat by me on the divan, and was much amused at my blundering
+attempts at conversation in Arabic, of which I then knew scarcely a
+dozen words. I must confess that I was rather vexed with her for smoking
+a long jessamine pipe, which, however, most Eastern ladies do. She got
+up to wait upon us, and handed us the coffee, pipes, and sherbet, which
+are always presented to visitors in every house. This custom of being
+waited upon by the ladies is rather distressing to our European notions
+of devotion to the fair sex: and I remember being horrified shortly
+after my arrival in Egypt at the manners of a rich old jeweller to whom
+I was introduced. His wife, a beautiful woman, superbly dressed in
+brocade, with gold and diamond ornaments, waited upon us during the
+whole time that I remained in the house. She was the first Eastern lady
+I had seen, and I remember being much edified at the way she pattered
+about on a pair of lofty cobcobs, and the artful way in which she got
+her feet out of them whenever she came up towards where we sat on the
+divan, at the upper end of the apartment. She stood at the lower end of
+the room; and whenever the old brute of a jeweller wanted to return
+anything, some coins which he was showing me, or anything else, he threw
+them on the floor; and his beautiful wife jumping out of her cobcobs
+picked them up; and when she had handed them to some of the maids who
+stood at the door, resumed her station below the step at the further end
+of the room. She had magnificent eyes and luxuriant black hair, as they
+all have, and would have been considered a beauty in any country; but
+she was not to be compared to the bright little damsel in pink, who,
+besides her beauty, was as cheerful and merry as a bird, and whose
+lovely features were radiant with archness and intelligence. Many of the
+Abyssinian slaves are exceedingly handsome: they have very expressive
+countenances, and the finest eyes in the world, and, withal, so soft and
+humble a look, that I do not wonder at their being great favourites in
+Egyptian harems. Many of them, however, have a temper of their own,
+which comes out occasionally, and in this respect the Arab women are not
+much behind them. But the fiery passions of this burning climate pass
+away like a thunderstorm, and leave the sky as clear and serene as it
+was before.
+
+The Arab girls of the lower orders are often very pretty from the age of
+about twelve to twenty, but they soon go off; and the astounding
+ugliness of some of the old women is too terrible to describe. In Europe
+we have nothing half so hideous as these brown old women, and this is
+the more remarkable, because the old men are peculiarly handsome and
+venerable in their appearance, and often display a dignity of bearing
+which is seldom to be met with in Europe. The stately gravity of an Arab
+sheick, seated on the ground in the shade of a tree, with his sons and
+grandsons standing before him, waiting for his commands, is singularly
+imposing.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+     Mohammed Bey, Defterdar--His Expedition to Senaar--His Barbarity
+     and Rapacity--His Defiance of the Pasha--Stories of his Cruelty and
+     Tyranny--The Horse-shoe--The Fight of the Mamelukes--His cruel
+     Treachery--His Mode of administering Justice--The stolen Milk--The
+     Widow's Cow--Sale and Distribution of the Thief--The Turkish
+     Character--Pleasures of a Journey on the Nile--The Copts--Their
+     Patriarchs--The Patriarch of Abyssinia--Basileos Bey--His Boat--An
+     American's choice of a Sleeping-place.
+
+
+Just before my arrival in Cairo a certain Mohammed Bey, Defterdar, had
+died rather suddenly, after drinking a cup of coffee, a beverage which
+occasionally disagrees with the great men in Turkey, although not so
+much so now as in former days. This Defterdar, or accountant, had been
+sent by the Sultan to receive the Imperial revenue from the Pasha of
+Egypt, who had given him his daughter in marriage. As the presence of
+the Defterdar was probably a check upon the projects of the Pasha, he
+sent him to Senaar, at the head of an expedition, to revenge the death
+of Toussoun Pasha, his second son, who had been burned alive in his
+house by one of the exasperated chiefs of Nubia. This was a mission
+after Mohammed Bey's own heart: he impaled the chief and several of his
+family, and displayed a rapacity and cruelty unheard of before even in
+those blood-stained countries. His talent for collecting spoil, and
+valuables of every description, was first-rate; chests and bags of the
+pure gold rings used in the traffic of Central Africa accumulated in his
+tents; he did not stick at a trifle in his measures for procuring gold,
+pearls, and diamonds, wherever they were to be heard of; streams of
+blood accompanied his march, and the vultures followed in his track. He
+was a sportsman too, and hunted slaves, killing the old ones, and
+carrying off the children, whom he sent to Egypt to be sold. Many died
+on the journey; but that did not much matter, as it increased the value
+of the rest.
+
+At last, alter a most successful campaign, the Defterdar returned to his
+palace at Cairo, which was reported to be filled with treasure. The
+habits he had acquired in the upper country stuck to him after he got
+back to Egypt, and the Pasha was obliged to express his disapprobation
+of the cruelties which were committed by him on the most trivial
+occasions. The Defterdar, however, set the Pasha at defiance, told him
+he was no subject of his, but that he was an envoy from his master the
+Sultan, to whom alone he was responsible, and that he would do as he
+pleased with those under his command. The Pasha, it is said, made no
+further remonstrance, and continued to treat his son-in-law with
+distinguished courtesy.
+
+Numerous stories are told of the cruelty and tyranny of this man. One
+day, on his way to the citadel, he found that his horse had cast a shoe.
+He inquired of his groom, who in Egypt runs by the side of the horse,
+how it was that his horse had lost his shoe. The groom said he did not
+know, but that he supposed it had not been well nailed on. Presently
+they came to a farrier's shop; the Defterdar stopped, and ordered two
+horseshoes to be brought; one was put upon the horse, and the other he
+made red hot, and commanded them to nail it firmly to the foot of the
+groom, whom in that condition he compelled to run by his horse's side up
+the steep hill which leads to the citadel.
+
+In Turkey it was the custom in the houses of the great to have a number
+of young men, who in Egypt were called Mamelukes, after that gallant
+corps had been destroyed. A number of the Mamelukes of Mohammed Bey,
+Defterdar, driven to desperation by the cruelties of their master, beat
+or killed one of the superior agas of the household, took some money
+which they found in his possession, and determined to escape from the
+service of their tyrant. His guards and kawasses soon found them out,
+and they retired to a strong tower, which they determined to defend,
+preferring the remotest chance of successful resistance to the terrors
+of service under the ferocious Defterdar. The Bey, however, managed to
+cajole them with promises, and they returned to his palace, expecting to
+be better treated. They found the Bey seated on his divan in the
+Manderan or hall of audience, surrounded by the officers and kawasses
+whom interest had attached to his service. The young Mamelukes had given
+up the money which they had taken, and the Bey had it on the divan by
+his side. He now told them that if they would divide themselves into two
+parties and fight against each other, he would pardon the victorious
+party, present them with the bag of gold, and permit them to depart; but
+that if they did not agree to this proposal he would kill them all. The
+Mamelukes, finding they were entrapped, consented to the conditions of
+the Bey, and half their number were soon weltering in their blood on the
+floor of the hall. When the conquerors claimed the promised reward, the
+Defterdar, who had now far superior numbers on his side, again commanded
+them to divide and fight against each other. Again they fought in
+despair, preferring death by their own swords to the tortures which they
+knew the merciless Defterdar would inflict upon them now that he had got
+them completely in his power. At length only one Mameluke remained, whom
+the Bey, with kind and encouraging words, ordered to approach,
+commending his valour and holding out to him the promised bag of gold as
+his reward. As he approached, stepping over the bodies of his
+companions, who all lay dead or dying on the floor, and held out his
+hands for the money, the Defterdar, with a grim smile, made a sign to
+one of his kawasses, and the head of the young man rolled at the
+tyrant's feet "Thus," said he, "shall perish all who dare to offend
+Mohammed Bey."
+
+The Defterdar was fond of justice, after a fashion, and his mode of
+administering it was characteristic. A poor woman came before him and
+complained that one of his kawasses had seized a cup of milk and drunk
+it, refusing to pay her its value, which she estimated at five paras (a
+para is the fortieth part of a piastre, which is worth about
+twopence-halfpenny). The sensitive justice of the Defterdar was roused
+by this complaint. He asked the woman if she should know the person who
+had stolen her milk were she to see him again? The woman said she
+should, upon which the whole household was drawn out before her, and
+looking round she fixed upon a man as the thief. "Very well," said the
+Defterdar, "I hope you are sure of your man, and that you have not made
+a false accusation before me. He shall be ripped open, and if the milk
+is found in his stomach, you shall receive your five paras; but if there
+is no milk found, you shall be ripped up in turn for accusing one of my
+household unjustly." The unfortunate kawass was cut open on the spot;
+some milk was found in him, and the woman received her five paras.
+
+Another of his judicial sentences was rather an original conception. A
+man in Upper Egypt stole a cow from a widow, and having killed it, he
+cut it into twenty pieces, which he sold for a piastre each in the
+bazaar. The widow complained to the Defterdar, who seized the thief, and
+having without further ceremony cut him into twenty pieces, forced
+twenty people who came into the market on that day from the neighbouring
+villages to buy a piece of thief each for a piastre; the joints of the
+robber were thus distributed all over the country, and the story told by
+the involuntary purchasers of these pounds of flesh had a wholesome
+effect upon the minds of the cattle-stealers: the twenty piastres were
+given to the woman, whose cows were not again meddled with during the
+lifetime of the Defterdar. But the character of this man must not be
+taken as a sample of the habits of the Turks in general. They are a
+grave and haughty race, of dignified manners; rapacious they often are,
+but they are generous and brave, and I do not think that, as a nation,
+they can be accused of cruelty.
+
+Nothing can be more secure and peaceable than a journey on the Nile, as
+every one knows nowadays. Floating along in a boat like a house, which
+stops and goes on whenever you like, you have no cares or troubles but
+those which you bring with you--"coelum non animum mutant qui trans mare
+currunt." I can conceive nothing more delightful than a voyage up the
+Nile with agreeable companions in the winter, when the climate is
+perfection. There are the most wonderful antiquities for those who
+interest themselves in the remains of bygone days; famous shooting on
+the banks of the river, capital dinners, if you know how to make the
+proper arrangements, comfortable quarters, and a constant change of
+scene.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The wonders of the land of Ham, its temples and its ruins, have been so
+well and so often described that I shall not attempt to give any details
+regarding them, but shall confine myself to some sketches of the Coptic
+Monasteries which are to be seen on the rocks and deserts, either on the
+banks of the river or in the neighbourhood of the valley of the Nile.
+
+The ancient Egyptians are now represented by their descendants the
+Copts, whose ancestors were converted to Christianity in the earliest
+ages, and whose patriarchs claim their descent, in uninterrupted
+succession, from St Mark, who was buried at Alexandria, but whose body
+the Venetians in later ages boast of having transported to their island
+city.[3]
+
+The Copts look up to their patriarch as the chief of their nation: he is
+elected from among the brethren of the great monastery of St. Anthony
+on the borders of the Red Sea, a proceeding which ensures his entire
+ignorance of all sublunary matters, and his consequent incapacity for
+his high and responsible office, unless he chance to be a man of very
+uncommon talents. Like the patriarch of Constantinople, he is usually a
+puppet in the hands of a cabal who make use of him for their own
+interested purposes, and when they have got him into a scrape leave him
+to get out of it as he can. He is called the Patriarch of Alexandria,
+but for many years his residence has been at Cairo, where he has a large
+dreary palace. He is surrounded by priests and acolytes; but when I was
+last at Cairo there was but one remaining Coptic scribe among them, whom
+I engaged to copy out the Gospel of St Mark from an ancient MS. in the
+patriarchal library: however, after a very long delay he copied out St.
+Matthew's Gospel by mistake, and I was told that there was no other
+person whose profession it was to copy Coptic writings.
+
+The patriarch has twelve bishops under him, whose residences are at
+Nagad�, Abou Girg�, Aboutig, Siout, Girg�, Manfalout, Maharaka, the
+Fioum, Atfeh, Behenes�, and Jerusalem: he also consecrates the Abouna or
+Patriarch of Abyssinia, who by a specific law must not be a native of
+that country, and who has not the privilege of naming his successor or
+consecrating archbishops or bishops, although in other respects his
+authority in religious matters is supreme. The Patriarch of Abyssinia
+usually ordains two or three thousand priests at once on his first
+arrival in that country, and the unfitness of the individual appointed
+to this high office has sometimes caused much scandal. This has arisen
+from the difficulty there has often been in getting a respectable person
+to accept the office, as it involves perpetual banishment from Egypt,
+and a residence among a people whose partiality to raw meat and other
+peculiar customs are held as abominations by the Egyptians.
+
+The usual trade and occupation of the Copts is that of kateb, scribe, or
+accountant; they seem to have a natural talent for arithmetic. They
+appear to be more afflicted with ophthalmia than the Mohamedans, perhaps
+because they drink wine and spirits, which the others do not.
+
+The person of the greatest consequence among the Copts was Basileos Bey,
+the Pasha's confidential secretary and minister of finance. This
+gentleman was good enough to lend me a magnificent dahabieh or boat of
+the largest size, which I used for many months. It was an old-fashioned
+vessel, painted and gilt inside in a brilliant manner, which is not
+usual in more modern boats; but being a person of a fanciful
+disposition, I preferred the roomy proportions and the quaint arabesque
+ornaments of this boat, although it was no very fast sailer, to the
+natty vessels which were more Europeanised and quicker than mine. The
+principal cabin was about ten feet by twelve, and was ornamented with
+paintings of peacocks of a peculiar breed and nondescript flowers. The
+divans, one on each side, were covered with fine carpets, and the
+cushions were of cloth of gold, with a raised pattern of red velvet. The
+ceilings were gilt, and we had two red silk flags of prodigious
+dimensions in addition to streamers forty or fifty feet long at the end
+of each of the yard-arms: in short, it was full of what is called
+fantasia in the Levant, and as for its slowness, I consider that rather
+an advantage in the East. I like to take my time and look about me, and
+sit under a tree on a carpet when I get to an agreeable place, and I am
+in no hurry to leave it; so the heavy qualities of the vessel suited me
+exactly--we did nothing but stop everywhere. But although I confess that
+I like deliberate travelling, I do not carry my system to the extent of
+an American friend with whom I once journeyed from the shores of the
+Black Sea to Hungary. We were taking a walk together in the mountains
+near Mahadia, when seeing him looking about among the rocks I asked him
+what he wanted. "Oh," said he, "I am looking out for a good place to go
+to sleep in, for there is a beautiful view here, and I like to sleep
+where there is a fine prospect, that I may enjoy it when I awake; so
+good afternoon, and if you come back this way mind you call me."
+Accordingly an hour or two afterwards I came back and aroused my
+friend, who was still fast asleep. "I hope you enjoyed your nap," said
+I; "we had a glorious walk among the hills." "Yes," said he, "I had a
+famous nap." "And what did you think of the view when you awoke?" "The
+view!" exclaimed he, "why, I forgot to look at it!"
+
+
+
+
+NATRON LAKES.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+     Visit to the Coptic Monasteries near the Natron Lakes--The Desert
+     of Nitria--Early Christian Anchorites--St. Macarius of
+     Alexandria--His Abstinence and Penance--Order of Monks founded by
+     him--Great increase of the Number of ascetic Monks in the Fourth
+     Century--Their subsequent decrease, and the present ruined state of
+     the Monasteries--Legends of the Desert--Capture of a Lizard--Its
+     _alarming_ escape--The Convent of Baramous--Night attacks--Invasion
+     of Sanctuary--Ancient Glass Lamps--Monastery of Souriani--Its
+     Library and Coptic MSS.--The Blind Abbot and his Oil-cellar--The
+     persuasive powers of Rosoglio--Discovery of Syriac MSS.--The
+     Abbot's supposed treasure.
+
+
+In the month of March, 1837, I left Cairo for the purpose of visiting
+the Coptic monasteries in the neighbourhood of the Natron lakes, which
+are situated in the desert to the north-west of Cairo, on the western
+side of the Nile. I had some difficulty in procuring a boat to take me
+down the river--indeed there was not one to be obtained; but two English
+gentlemen, on their way from China to England, were kind enough to give
+me a passage in their boat to the village of Terran�, the nearest spot
+upon the banks of the Nile to the monasteries which I proposed to visit.
+
+The Desert of Nitria is famous in the annals of monastic history as the
+first place to which the Anchorites, in the early ages of Christianity,
+retired from the world in order to pass their lives in prayer and
+contemplation, and in mortification of the flesh. It was in Egypt where
+monasticism first took its rise, and the Coptic monasteries of St.
+Anthony and St. Paul claim to be founded on the spots where the first
+hermits established their cells on the shores of the Red Sea. Next in
+point of antiquity are the monasteries of Nitria, of which we have
+authentic accounts dated as far back as the middle of the second
+century; for about the year 150 A.D. Fronto retired to the valleys of
+the Natron lakes with seventy brethren in his company. The Abba Ammon
+(whose life is detailed in the 'Vit� Patrum' of Rosweyd, Antwerp, 1628,
+a volume of great rarity and dulness, which I only obtained after a long
+search among the mustiest of the London book-stalls) flourished, or
+rather withered, in this desert in the beginning of the fourth century.
+At this time also the Abba Bischoi founded the monastery still called
+after his name, which, it seems, was Isaiah or Esa: the Coptic article
+Pe or Be makes it Besa, under which name he wrote an ascetic work, a
+manuscript of which, probably almost if not quite as old as his time, I
+procured in Egypt. It is one of the most ancient manuscripts now extant.
+
+But the chief and pattern of all the recluses of Nitria was the great
+St. Macarius of Alexandria, whose feast-day--a day which he never
+observed himself--is still kept by the Latins on the 2nd, and by the
+Greeks on the 19th of January. This famous saint died A.D. 394, after
+sixty years of austerities in various deserts: he first retired into the
+Thebaid in the year 335, and about the year 373 established himself in a
+solitary cell on the borders of the Natron lakes. Numerous anchorites
+followed his example, all living separately, but meeting together on
+Sundays for public prayer. Self-denial and abstinence were their great
+occupations; and it is related that a traveller having given St.
+Macarius a bunch of grapes, he sent it to another brother, who sent it
+to a third, and at last, the grapes having passed through the hands of
+some hundreds of hermits, came back to St. Macarius, who rejoiced at
+such a proof of the abstinence of his brethren, but refused to eat of it
+himself. This same saint having thoughtlessly killed a gnat which was
+biting him, he was so unhappy at what he had done, that to make amends
+for his inadvertency, and to increase his mortifications, he retired to
+the marshes of Scete, where there were flies whose powerful stings were
+sufficient to pierce the hide of a wild boar; here he remained six
+months, till his body was so much disfigured that his brethren on his
+return only knew him by the sound of his voice. He was the founder of
+the monastic order which, as well as the monastery still existing on the
+site of his cell, was called after his name. By their rigid rule the
+monks are bound to fast the whole year, excepting on Sundays and during
+the period between Easter and Whitsuntide: they were not to speak to a
+stranger without leave. During Lent St. Macarius fasted all day, and
+sometimes ate nothing for two or three days together; on Sundays,
+however, he indulged in a raw cabbage-leaf, and in short set such an
+example of abstinence and self-restraint to the numerous anchorites of
+the desert, that the fame of his austerities gained him many admirers.
+Throughout the middle ages his name is mentioned with veneration in all
+the collections of the lives of the saints: he is represented pointing
+out the vanities of life in the great fresco of the Triumph of Death, by
+Andrea Orcagna, in the Campo Santo at Pisa. In his Life in Caxton's
+'Golden Legende,' and in 'The Lives of the Fathers,' by Wynkyn de Worde,
+a detailed account will be found of a most interesting conversation
+which Macarius had with the devil, touching divers matters. Several of
+his miracles are also put into modern English, in Lord Lindsay's book of
+Christian Art. I have a MS. of the Gospels in Coptic, written by the
+hand of one Zapita Leporos, under the rule of the great Macarius, in the
+monastery of Laura, about the year 390, and which may have been used by
+the Saint himself.
+
+After the time of Macarius the number of ascetic monks increased to a
+surprising amount. Rufinus, who visited them in the year 372, mentions
+fifty of their convents; Palladius, who was there in the year 387,
+reckons the devotees at five thousand. St Jerome also visited them, and
+their number seems to have been kept up without much diminution for
+several centuries.[4] After the conquest of Egypt by the Arabians, and
+about the year 967, a Mahomedan author, Aboul Faraj of Hispahan, wrote a
+book of poems, called the 'Book of Convents,' which is in praise of the
+habits and religious devotion of the Christian monks. The dilapidated
+monastery of St. Macarius was repaired and fortified by Sanutius,
+Patriarch of Alexandria, at which good work he laboured with his own
+bands: this must have been about the year 880, as he died in 881. In
+more recent times the multitude of ascetics gradually decreased, and but
+few travellers have extended their researches to their arid haunts. At
+present only four monasteries remain entire, although the ruins of many
+others may still be traced in the desert tracts on the west side of the
+line of the Natron lakes, and the valley of the waterless river, which,
+at some very remote period, is supposed to have formed the bed of one of
+the branches of the Nile.
+
+At the village of Terran� I was most hospitably received by an Italian
+gentleman, who was superintending the export of the natron. Here I
+procured camels; I had brought a tent with me; and the next day we set
+off across the plain, with the Arabs to whom the camels belonged, and
+who, having been employed in the transport of the natron, were able to
+show us the way, which it would have been very difficult to trace
+without their help. The memory of the devils and evil spirits who,
+according to numerous legends, used formerly to haunt this desert,
+seemed still to awaken the fears of these Arab guides. During the first
+day's journey I talked to them on the subject, and found that their
+minds were full of superstitious fancies.
+
+It is said that tailors sometimes stand up to rest themselves, and on
+that principle I had descended from my huge, ungainly camel, who had
+never before been used for riding, and whose swinging paces were very
+irksome, and was resting myself by walking in his shade, when seeing
+something run up to a large stone which lay in the way, I moved it to
+see what it was. I found a lizard, six or eight inches long, of a
+species with which I was unacquainted. I caught the reptile by the nape
+of the neck, which made him open his ugly mouth in a curious way, and he
+wriggled about so much that I could hardly hold him. Judging that he
+might be venomous, I looked about for some safe place to put him, and my
+eye fell upon the large glass lantern which was used in the tent; that,
+I thought, was just the thing for my lizard, so I put him into the
+lantern, which hung at the side of the baggage camel, intending to
+examine him at my leisure in the evening. When the sun was about to set,
+the tent was pitched, and a famous fire lit for the cook. It was in a
+bare, open place, without a hill, stock, or stone in sight in any
+direction all around. The camels were tethered together, near the
+baggage, which was piled in a heap to the windward of the fire; and, as
+it was getting dark, one of the Arabs took the lantern to the fire to
+light it. He got a blazing stick for this purpose, and held up the
+lantern close to his face to undo the hasp, which he had no sooner
+accomplished than out jumped the lizard upon his shoulder and
+immediately made his escape. The Arab, at this unexpected attack, gave a
+fearful yell, and dashing the lantern to pieces on the ground, screamed
+out that the devil had jumped upon him and had disappeared in the
+darkness, and that he was certain he was waiting to carry us all off.
+The other Arabs were seriously alarmed, and for a long while paid no
+attention to my explanation about the lizard, which was the cause of all
+the disturbance. The worst of the affair was that the lantern being
+broken to bits, we could have no light; for the wind blew the candles
+out, notwithstanding our most ingenious efforts to shelter them. The
+Arabs were restless all night, and before sunrise we were again under
+way, and in the course of the day arrived at the convent of Baramous.
+This monastery consisted of a high stone wall, surrounding a square
+enclosure, of about an acre in extent. A large square tower commanded
+the narrow entrance, which was closed by a low and narrow iron door.
+Within there was a good-sized church in tolerable preservation, standing
+nearly in the centre of the enclosure, which contained nothing else but
+some ruined buildings and a few large fig-trees, growing out of the
+disjointed walls. Two or three poor-looking monks still tenanted the
+ruins of the abbey. They had hardly anything to offer us, and were glad
+to partake of some of the rice and other eatables which we had brought
+with us. I wandered about among the ruins with the half-starved monks
+following me. We went into the square tower, where, in a large vaulted
+room with open unglazed windows, were forty or fifty Coptic manuscripts
+on cotton paper, lying on the floor, to which several of them adhered
+firmly, not having been moved for many years. I only found one leaf on
+vellum, which I brought away. The other manuscripts appeared to be all
+liturgies; most of them smelling of incense when I opened them, and well
+smeared with dirt and wax from the candles which had been held over them
+during the reading of the service.
+
+I took possession of a half-ruined cell, where my carpets were spread,
+and where I went to sleep early in the evening; but I had hardly closed
+my eyes before I was so briskly attacked by a multitude of ravenous
+fleas, that I jumped up and ran out into the court to shake myself and
+get rid if I could of my tormentors. The poor monks, hearing my
+exclamations, crept out of their holes and recommended me to go into the
+church, which they said would be safe from the attacks of the enemy. I
+accordingly took a carpet which I had well shaken and beaten, and lay
+down on the marble floor of the church, where I presently went to sleep.
+Again I was awakened by the wicked fleas, who, undeterred by the
+sanctity of my asylum, renewed their attack in countless legions. The
+slaps I gave myself were all in vain; for, although I slew them by
+dozens in my rage, others came on in their place. There was no
+withstanding them, and, fairly vanquished, I was forced to abandon my
+position, and walk about and look at the moon till the sun rose, when my
+villainous tormentors slunk away and allowed me a short snatch of the
+repose which they had prevented my enjoying all night.
+
+There were several curious lamps in this church formed of ancient glass,
+like those in the mosque of Sultan Hassan at Cairo, which are said to be
+of the same date as the mosque, and to be of Syrian manufacture. These,
+which were in the shape of large open vases, were ornamented with pious
+sentences in Arabic characters, in blue on a white ground.[5] They were
+very handsome, and, except one of the same kind, which is now in
+England, in the possession of Mr. Magniac, I never saw any like them.
+They are probably some of the most ancient specimens of ornamental glass
+existing, excepting, of course, the vases and lachrymatories of the
+classic times.
+
+Quitting the monastery of Baramous, we went to that of Souriani, where
+we left our baggage and tent, and proceeded to visit the monasteries of
+Amba Bischoi and Abou Magar, or St. Macarius, both of which were in very
+poor condition. These monasteries are so much alike in their plan and
+appearance, that the description of one is the description of all. I saw
+none but the church books in either of them, and at the time of my visit
+they were apparently inhabited only by three or four monks, who
+conducted the services of their respective churches.
+
+On this journey we passed many ruins and heaps of stones nearly level
+with the ground, the remains of some of the fifty monasteries which once
+flourished in the wilderness of Scete.
+
+In the evening I returned to Souriani, where I was hospitably received
+by the abbot and fourteen or fifteen Coptic monks. They provided me with
+an agreeable room looking into the garden within the walls. My servants
+were lodged in some other small cells or rooms near mine, which happily
+not being tenanted by fleas or any other wild beasts of prey, was
+exceedingly comfortable when my bright-coloured carpets and cushions
+were spread upon the floor; and, after the adventures of the two former
+nights, I rested in great comfort and peace.
+
+In the morning I went to see the church and all the other wonders of the
+place, and on making inquiries about the library, was conducted by the
+old abbot, who was blind, and was constantly accompanied by another
+monk, into a small upper room in the great square tower, where we found
+several Coptic manuscripts. Most of these were lying on the floor, but
+some were placed in niches in the stone wall. They were all on paper,
+except three or four. One of these was a superb manuscript of the
+Gospels, with commentaries by the early fathers of the church; two
+others were doing duty as coverings to a couple of large open pots or
+jars, which had contained preserves, long since evaporated. I was
+allowed to purchase these vellum manuscripts, as they were considered to
+be useless by the monks, principally I believe because there were no
+more preserves in the jars. On the floor I found a fine Coptic and
+Arabic dictionary. I was aware of the existence of this volume, with
+which they refused to part. I placed it in one of the niches in the
+wall; and some years afterwards it was purchased for me by a friend, who
+sent it to England after it had been copied at Cairo. They sold me two
+imperfect dictionaries, which I discovered loaded with dust upon the
+ground. Besides these, I did not see any other books but those of the
+liturgies for various holy days. These were large folios on cotton
+paper, most of them of considerable antiquity, and well begrimed with
+dirt.
+
+The old blind abbot had solemnly declared that there were no other books
+in the monastery besides those which I had seen; but I had been told, by
+a French gentleman at Cairo, that there were many ancient manuscripts in
+the monks' oil cellar; and it was in pursuit of these and the Coptic
+dictionary that I had undertaken the journey to the Natron lakes. The
+abbot positively denied the existence of these books, and we retired
+from the library to my room with the Coptic manuscripts which they had
+ceded to me without difficulty; and which, according to the dates
+contained in them, and from their general appearance, may claim to be
+considered among the oldest manuscripts in existence, more ancient
+certainly than many of the Syriac MSS. which I am about to describe.
+
+The abbot, his companion, and myself sat down together. I produced a
+bottle of rosoglio from my stores, to which I knew that all Oriental
+monks were partial; for though they do not, I believe, drink wine
+because an excess in its indulgence is forbidden by Scripture, yet
+ardent spirits not having been invented in those times, there is nothing
+said about them in the Bible; and at Mount Sinai and all the other spots
+of sacred pilgrimage the monks comfort themselves with a little glass
+or rather a small coffee cup of arrack or raw spirits when nothing
+better of its kind is to be procured. Next to the golden key, which
+masters so many locks, there is no better opener of the heart than a
+sufficiency of strong drink,--not too much, but exactly the proper
+quantity judiciously exhibited (to use a chemical term in the land of Al
+Ch�m�, where alchemy and chemistry first had their origin). I have
+always found it to be invincible; and now we sat sipping our cups of the
+sweet pink rosoglio, and firing little compliments at each other, and
+talking pleasantly over our bottle till some time passed away, and the
+face of the blind abbot waxed bland and confiding; and he had that
+expression on his countenance which men wear when they are pleased with
+themselves and bear goodwill towards mankind in general. I had by the
+bye a great advantage over the good abbot, as I could see the workings
+of his features and he could not see mine, or note my eagerness about
+the oil-cellar, on the subject of which I again gradually entered.
+"There is no oil there," said he. "I am curious to see the architecture
+of so ancient a room," said I; "for I have heard that yours is a famous
+oil-cellar." "It is a famous cellar," said the other monk. "Take another
+cup of rosoglio," said I. "Ah!" replied he, "I remember the days when it
+overflowed with oil, and then there were I do not know how many brethren
+here with us. But now we are few and poor; bad times are come over us:
+we are not what we used to be." "I should like to see it very much,"
+said I; "I have heard so much about it even at Cairo. Let us go and see
+it; and when we come back we will have another bottle; and I will give
+you a few more which I have brought with me for your private use."
+
+This last argument prevailed. We returned to the great tower, and
+ascended the steep flight of steps which led to its door of entrance. We
+then descended a narrow staircase to the oil-cellar, a handsome vaulted
+room, where we found a range of immense vases which formerly contained
+the oil, but which now on being struck returned a mournful, hollow
+sound. There was nothing else to be seen: there were no books here: but
+taking the candle from the hands of one of the brethren (for they had
+all wandered in after us, having nothing else to do), I discovered a
+narrow low door, and, pushing it open, entered into a small closet
+vaulted with stone which was filled to the depth of two feet or more
+with the loose leaves of the Syriac manuscripts which now form one of
+the chief treasures of the British Museum. Here I remained for some time
+turning over the leaves and digging into the mass of loose vellum pages;
+by which exertions I raised such a cloud of fine pungent dust that the
+monks relieved each other in holding our only candle at the door, while
+the dust made us sneeze incessantly as we turned over the scattered
+leaves of vellum. I had extracted four books, the only ones I could
+find which seemed to be tolerably perfect, when two monks who were
+struggling in the corner pulled out a great big manuscript of a brown
+and musty appearance and of prodigious weight, which was tied together
+with a cord. "Here is a box!" exclaimed the two monks, who were nearly
+choked with the dust; "we have found a box, and a heavy one too!" "A
+box!" shouted the blind abbot, who was standing in the outer darkness of
+the oil-cellar--"A box! Where is it? Bring it out! bring out the box!
+Heaven be praised! We have found a treasure! Lift up the box! Pull out
+the box! A box! A box! Sandouk! sandouk!" shouted all the monks in
+various tones of voice. "Now then let us see the box! bring it out to
+the light!" they cried. "What can there be in it?" and they all came to
+help and carried it away up the stairs, the blind abbot following them
+to the outer door, leaving me to retrace my steps as I could with the
+volumes which I had dug out of their literary grave.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+     View from the Convent Wall--Appearance of the Desert--Its grandeur
+     and freedom--Its contrast to the Convent Garden--Beauty and
+     luxuriance of Eastern Vegetation--Picturesque Group of the Monks
+     and their Visitors--The Abyssinian Monks--Their appearance--Their
+     austere mode of Life--The Abyssinian College--Description of the
+     Library--The mode of Writing in Abyssinia--Immense Labour required
+     to write an Abyssinian book--Paintings and
+     Illuminations--Disappointment of the Abbot at finding the supposed
+     Treasure-box only an old Book--Purchase of the MSS. and Books--The
+     most precious left behind--Since acquired for the British Museum.
+
+
+On leaving the dark recesses of the tower I paused at the narrow door by
+which we had entered, both to accustom my eyes to the glare of the
+daylight, and to look at the scene below me. I stood on the top of a
+steep flight of stone steps, by which the door of the tower was
+approached from the court of the monastery: the steps ran up the inside
+of the outer wall, which was of sufficient thickness to allow of a
+narrow terrace within the parapet; from this point I could look over the
+wall on the left hand upon the desert, whose dusty plains stretched out
+as far as I could see, in hot and dreary loneliness to the horizon. To
+those who are not familiar with the aspect of such a region as this, it
+may be well to explain that a desert such as that which now surrounded
+me resembles more than anything else a dusty turnpike-road in England
+on a hot summer's day, extended interminably, both as to length and
+breadth. A country of low rounded hills, the surface of which is
+composed entirely of gravel, dust, and stones, will give a good idea of
+the general aspect of a desert. Yet, although parched and dreary in the
+extreme from their vastness and openness, there is something grand and
+sublime in the silence and loneliness of these burning plains; and the
+wandering tribes of Bedouins who inhabit them are seldom content to
+remain long in the narrow inclosed confines of cultivated land. There is
+always a fresh breeze in the desert, except when the terrible hot wind
+blows; and the air is more elastic and pure than where vegetation
+produces exhalations which in all hot climates are more or less heavy
+and deleterious. The air of the desert is always healthy, and no race of
+men enjoy a greater exemption from weakness, sickness, and disease than
+the children of the desert, who pass their lives in wandering to and fro
+in search of the scanty herbage on which their flocks are fed, far from
+the cares and troubles of busy cities, and free from the oppression
+which grinds down the half-starved cultivators of the fertile soil of
+Egypt.
+
+Whilst from my elevated position I looked out on my left upon the mighty
+desert, on my right how different was the scene! There below my feet lay
+the convent garden in all the fresh luxuriance of tropical vegetation.
+Tufts upon tufts of waving palms overshadowed the immense succulent
+leaves of the banana, which in their turn rose out of thickets of the
+pomegranate rich with its bright green leaves and its blossoms of that
+beautiful and vivid red which is excelled by few even of the most
+brilliant flowers of the East. These were contrasted with the deep dark
+green of the caroub or locust-tree; and the yellow apples of the lotus
+vied with the clusters of green limes with their sweet white flowers
+which luxuriated in a climate too hot and sultry for the golden fruit of
+the orange, which is not to be met with in the valley of the Nile.
+Flowers and fair branches exhaling rich perfume and bearing freshness in
+their very aspect became more beautiful from their contrast to the
+dreary arid plains outside the convent walls, and this great difference
+was owing solely to there being a well of water in this spot from which
+a horse or mule was constantly employed to draw the fertilizing streams
+which nourished the teeming vegetation of this monastic garden.
+
+I stood gazing and moralizing at these contrasted scenes for some time;
+but at length when I turned my eyes upon my companions and myself, it
+struck me that we also were somewhat remarkable in our way. First there
+was the old blind grey-bearded abbot, leaning on his staff, surrounded
+with three or four dark robed Coptic monks, holding in their hands the
+lighted candles with which we had explored the secret recesses of the
+oil-cellar; there was I dressed in the long robes of a merchant of the
+East, with a small book in the breast of my gown and a big one under
+each arm; and there were my servants armed to the teeth and laden with
+old books; and one and all we were so covered with dirt and wax from top
+to toe, that we looked more as if we had been up the chimney than like
+quiet people engaged in literary researches. One of the monks was
+leaning in a brown study upon the ponderous and gigantic volume in its
+prim�val binding, in the interior of which the blind abbot had hoped to
+find a treasure. Perched upon the battlements of this remote monastery
+we formed as picturesque a group as one might wish to see; though
+perhaps the begrimed state of our flowing robes as well as of our hands
+and faces would render a somewhat remote point of view more agreeable to
+the artist than a closer inspection.
+
+While we had been standing on the top of the steps, I had heard from
+time to time some incomprehensible sounds which seemed to arise from
+among the green branches of the palms and fig-trees in a corner of the
+garden at our feet. "What," said I to a bearded Copt, who was seated on
+the steps, "is that strange howling noise which I hear among the trees?
+I have heard it several times when the rustling of the wind among the
+branches has died away for a moment. It sounds something like a chant,
+or a dismal moaning song: only it is different in its cadence from
+anything that I have heard before." "That noise," replied the monk, "is
+the sound of the service of the church which is being chanted by the
+Abyssinian monks. Come down the steps and I will show you their chapel
+and their library. The monastery which they frequented in this desert
+has fallen to decay; and they now live here, their numbers being
+recruited occasionally by pilgrims on their way from Abyssinia to
+Jerusalem, some of whom pass by each year; not many now, to be sure; but
+still fewer return to their own land."
+
+Giving up my precious manuscripts to the guardianship of my servants and
+desiring them to put them down carefully in my cell, I accompanied my
+Coptic friend into the garden, and turning round some bushes, we
+immediately encountered one of the Abyssinian monks walking with a book
+in his hand under the shade of the trees. Presently we saw three or four
+more; and very remarkable looking persons they were. These holy brethren
+were as black as crows; tall, thin, ascetic looking men of a most
+original aspect and costume. I have seen the natives of many strange
+nations, both before and since, but I do not know that I ever met with
+so singular a set of men, so completely the types of another age and of
+a state of things the opposite to European, as these Abyssinian
+Eremites. They were black, as I have already said, which is not the
+usual complexion of the natives of Habesh; and they were all clothed in
+tunics of wash leather made, they told me, of gazelle skins. This
+garment came down to their knees, and was confined round their waist
+with a leathern girdle. Over their shoulders they had a strap supporting
+a case like a cartridge-box, of thick brown leather, containing a
+manuscript book; and above this they wore a large shapeless cloak or
+toga, of the same light yellow wash leather as the tunic; I do not think
+that they wore anything on the head, but this I do not distinctly
+remember. Their legs were bare, and they had no other clothing, if I may
+except a profuse smearing of grease; for they had anointed themselves in
+the most lavish manner, not with the oil of gladness, but with that of
+castor, which however had by no means the effect of giving them a
+cheerful countenance; for although they looked exceedingly slippery and
+greasy, they seemed to be an austere and dismal set of fanatics: true
+disciples of the great Macarius, the founder of these secluded
+monasteries, and excellently calculated to figure in that grim chorus of
+his invention, or at least which is called after his name, "La danse
+Macabre," known to us by the appellation of the Dance of Death. They
+seemed to be men who fasted much and feasted little; great observers
+were they of vigils, of penance, of pilgrimages, and midnight masses;
+eaters of bitter herbs for conscience' sake. It was such men as these
+who lived on the tops of columns, and took up their abodes in tombs, and
+thought it was a sign of holiness to look like a wild beast--that it was
+wicked to be clean, and superfluous to be useful in this world; and who
+did evil to themselves that good might come. Poor fellows! they meant
+well, and knew no better; and what more can be said for the endeavours
+of the best of men?
+
+Accompanied by a still increasing number of these wild priests we
+traversed the shady garden, and came to a building with a flat roof,
+which stood in the south-east corner of the enclosure and close to the
+outer wall. This was the college or consistory of the Abyssinian monks,
+and the accompanying sketch made upon the spot will perhaps explain the
+appearance of this room better than any written description. The round
+thing upon the floor is a table upon which the dishes of their frugal
+meal were set; by the side of this low table we sat upon the ground on
+the skin of some great wild beast, which did duty as a carpet. This room
+was also their library, and on my remarking the number of books which I
+saw around me they seemed proud of their collection, and told me that
+there were not many such libraries as this in their country. There were
+perhaps nearly fifty volumes, and as the entire literature of Abyssinia
+does not include more than double that number of works, I could easily
+imagine that what I saw around me formed a very considerable
+accumulation of manuscripts, considering the barbarous state of the
+country from which they came.
+
+[Illustration: INTERIOR OF THE ABYSSINIAN LIBRARY, IN THE MONASTERY OF
+SOURIANI ON THE NATRON LAKES.
+
+Abyssinian monk clothed in leather.
+
+The dining table.
+
+The blind abbot leaning over the Author.
+
+Abyssinian monk.
+
+Coptic monk.
+
+The books hanging from wooden pegs let into the wall.
+
+The Author's Egyptian servants.]
+
+The disposition of the manuscripts in this library was very original. I
+have had no means of ascertaining whether all the libraries of Abyssinia
+are arranged in the same style. The room was about twenty-six feet long,
+twenty wide, and twelve high; the roof was formed of the trunks of palm
+trees, across which reeds were laid, which supported the mass of earth
+and plaster, of which the terrace roof was composed; the interior of the
+walls was plastered white with lime; the windows, at a good height from
+the ground, were unglazed, but were defended with bars of iron-wood or
+some other hard wood; the door opened into the garden, and its lock,
+which was of wood also, was of that peculiar construction which has been
+used in Egypt from time immemorial. A wooden shelf was carried in the
+Egyptian style round the walls, at the height of the top of the door,
+and on this shelf stood sundry platters, bottles, and dishes for the use
+of the community. Underneath the shelf various long wooden pegs
+projected from the wall; they were each about a foot and a half long,
+and on them hung the Abyssinian manuscripts, of which this curious
+library was entirely composed.
+
+The books of Abyssinia are bound in the usual way, sometimes in red
+leather and sometimes in wooden boards, which are occasionally
+elaborately carved in rude and coarse devices: they are then enclosed
+in a case, tied up with leather thongs; to this case is attached a strap
+for the convenience of carrying the volume over the shoulders, and by
+these straps the books were hung to the wooden pegs, three or four on a
+peg, or more if the books were small: their usual size was that of a
+small, very thick quarto. The appearance of the room, fitted up in this
+style, together with the presence of various long staves, such as the
+monks of all the Oriental churches lean upon at the time of prayer,
+resembled less a library than a barrack or guard-room, where the
+soldiers had hung their knapsacks and cartridge-boxes against the wall.
+
+All the members of this church militant could read fluently out of their
+own books, which is more than the Copts could do in whose monastery they
+were sojourning. Two or three, with whom I spoke, were intelligent men,
+although not much enlightened as to the affairs of this world: the
+perfume of their leather garments and oily bodies was, however, rather
+too powerful for my olfactory nerves, and after making a slight sketch
+of their library I was glad to escape into the open air of the beautiful
+garden, where I luxuriated in the shade of the palms and the
+pomegranates. The strange costumes and wild appearance of these black
+monks, and the curious arrangement of their library, the uncouth sounds
+of their singing and howling, and the clash of their cymbals in the
+ancient convent of the Natron lakes, formed a scene such as I believe
+few Europeans have witnessed.
+
+The labour required to write an Abyssinian book is immense, and
+sometimes many years are consumed in the preparation of a single volume.
+They are almost all written upon skins; the only one not written upon
+vellum that I have met with is in my own possession; it is on charta
+bombycina. The ink which they use is composed of gum, lampblack, and
+water. It is jet black, and keeps its colour for ever: indeed in this
+respect all Oriental inks are infinitely superior to ours, and they have
+the additional advantage of not being corrosive or injurious either to
+the pen or paper. Their pen is the reed commonly used in the East, only
+the nib is made sharper than that which is required to write the Arabic
+character. The ink-horn is usually the small end of a cow's horn, which
+is stuck into the ground at the feet of the scribe. In the most ancient
+Greek frescos and illuminations this kind of ink-horn is the one
+generally represented, and it seems to have been usually inserted in a
+hole in the writing-desk: no writing-desk, however, is in use among the
+children of Habesh. Seated upon the ground, the square piece of thick
+greasy vellum is held upon the knee or on the palm of the left hand.
+
+The Abyssinian alphabet consists of 8 times 26 letters, 208 characters
+in all, and these are each written distinctly and separately like the
+letters of an European printed book. They have no cursive writing; each
+letter is therefore painted, as it were, with the reed pen, and as the
+scribe finishes each he usually makes a horrible face and gives a
+triumphant flourish with his pen. Thus he goes on letter by letter, and
+before he gets to the end of the first line he is probably in a
+perspiration from his nervous apprehension of the importance of his
+undertaking. One page is a good day's work, and when he has done it he
+generally, if he is not too stiff, follows the custom of all little Arab
+boys, and swings his head or his body from side to side, keeping time to
+a sort of nasal recitative, without the help of which it would seem that
+few can read even a chapter of the Koran, although they may know it by
+heart.
+
+Some of these manuscripts are adorned with the quaintest and grimmest
+illuminations conceivable. The colours are composed of various ochres.
+In general the outlines of the figures are drawn first with the pen. The
+paint brush is made by chewing the end of a reed till it is reduced to
+filaments and then nibbling it into a proper form: the paint brushes of
+the ancient Egyptians were made in the same way, and excellent brooms
+for common purposes are made at Cairo by beating the thick end of a
+palm-branch till the fibres are separated from the pith, the part above,
+which is not beaten, becoming the handle of the broom. The Abyssinian
+having nibbled and chewed his reed till he thinks it will do, proceeds
+to fill up the spaces between the inked outlines with his colours. The
+Blessed Virgin is usually dressed in blue; the complexion of the figures
+is a brownish red, and those in my possession have a curious cast of the
+eyes, which gives them a very cunning look. St John, in a MS. which I
+have now before me, is represented with woolly hair, and has two marks
+or gashes on each side of his face, in accordance with the Abyssinian or
+Galla custom of cutting through the skin of the face, breast, and arms,
+so as to leave an indelible mark. This is done in youth, and is said to
+preserve the patient from several diseases. The colours are mixed up
+with the yolk of an egg, and the numerous mistakes and slips of the
+brush are corrected by a wipe from a wet finger or thumb, which is
+generally kept ready in the artist's mouth during the operation; and it
+is lucky if he does not give it a bite in the agony of composition, when
+with an unsteady hand the eye of some famous saint is smeared all over
+the nose by an unfortunate swerve of the nibbled reed.
+
+It is not often, however, that the arts of drawing and painting are thus
+ruthlessly mangled on the pages of their books, and notwithstanding the
+disadvantages under which the writers labour, some of these manuscripts
+are beautifully written, and are worthy of being compared with the best
+specimens of calligraphy in any language. I have a MS. containing the
+book of Enoch, and several books of the Old Testament, which is
+remarkable for the perfection of its writing, the straightness of the
+lines, and the equal size and form of the characters throughout:
+probably many years were required to finish it. The binding is of wooden
+boards, not sawn or planed, but chopped apparently out of a tree or a
+block of hard wood, a task of patience and difficulty which gives
+evidence of the enthusiasm and goodwill which have been displayed in the
+production of a work, in toiling upon which the pious man in the
+simplicity of his heart doubtless considered that he was labouring for
+the honour of the church, _ad majorem Dei gloriam_. It was this feeling
+which in the middle ages produced all those glorious works of art which
+are the admiration of modern times, and its total absence now is deeply
+to be deplored in our own country.
+
+Having satiated my curiosity as to the Abyssinian monks and their
+curious library, I returned to my own room, where I was presently joined
+by the abbot and his companion, who came for the promised bottle of
+rosoglio, which they now required the more to keep up their spirits on
+finding that the box of treasure was only a large old book. They
+murmured and talked to themselves between the cups of rosoglio, and so
+great was their disappointment that it was some time before they
+recovered the equilibrium of their minds. "You found no treasure," I
+remarked, "but I am a lover of old books; let me have the big one which
+you thought was a box and the others which I have brought out with me,
+and I will give you a certain number of piastres in exchange. By this
+arrangement we shall be both of us contented, for the money will be
+useful to you, and I should be glad to carry away the books as a
+memorial of my visit to this interesting spot." "Ah!" said the abbot.
+"Another cup of rosoglio," said I; "help yourself." "How much will you
+give?" asked the abbot. "How much do you want?" said I; "all the money I
+have with me is at your service." "How much is that?" he inquired. Out
+came the bag of money, and the agreeable sound of the clinking of the
+pieces of gold or dollars, I forget which they were, had a soothing
+effect upon the nerves of the blind man, and in short the bottle and the
+bargain were concluded at the same moment.
+
+The Coptic and Syriac manuscripts were stowed away in one side of a
+great pair of saddle-bags. "Now," said I, "we will put these in the
+other side, and you shall take it out and see the Arabs place it on the
+camel." We could not by any packing or shifting get all the books into
+the bag, and the two monks would not let me make another parcel, lest,
+as I understood, the rest of the brethren should discover what it was,
+and claim their share of the spoil. In this dreadful dilemma I looked at
+each of the books, not knowing which to leave behind, but seeing that
+the quarto was the most imperfect, I abandoned it, and I have now reason
+to believe, on seeing the manuscripts of the British Museum, that this
+was the famous book with the date of A.D. 411, the most precious
+acquisition to any library that has been made in modern times, with the
+exception, as I conceive, of some in my own collection. It is, however,
+a satisfaction to think that this book, which contains some lost
+epistles of St. Ignatius, has not been thrown away, but has fallen into
+better hands than mine.
+
+
+
+
+THE CONVENT OF THE PULLEY.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+     The Convent of the Pulley--Its inaccessible position--Difficult
+     landing on the bank of the Nile--Approach to the Convent through
+     the Rocks--Description of the Convent and its Inhabitants--Plan of
+     the Church--Books and MSS.--Ancient excavations--Stone Quarries and
+     ancient Tombs--Alarm of the Copts--Their ideas of a Sketch-book.
+
+
+The Coptic monasteries were usually built in desert or inaccessible
+places, with a view to their defence in troubled times, or in the hope
+of their escaping the observation of marauding parties, who were not
+likely to take the trouble of going much out of their way unless they
+had assured hopes of finding something better worth sacking than a poor
+convent. The access to Der el Adra, the Convent of the Virgin, more
+commonly known by the name of the Convent of the Pulley, is very
+singular. This monastery is situated on the top of the rocks of Gebel el
+terr, where a precipice above 200 feet in height is washed at its base
+by the waters of the Nile. When I visited this monastery on the 19th of
+February, 1838, there was a high wind, which rendered the management of
+my immense boat, above 80 feet long, somewhat difficult; and we were
+afraid of being dashed against the rocks if we ventured too near them in
+our attempt to land at the foot of the precipice. The monks, who were
+watching our manoeuvres from above, all at once disappeared, and
+presently several of them made their appearance on the shore, issuing in
+a complete state of nudity from a cave or cleft in the face of the rock.
+These worthy brethren jumped one after another into the Nile, and
+assisted the sailors to secure the boat with ropes and anchors from the
+force of the wind. They swam like Newfoundland dogs, and, finding that
+it was impossible for the boat to reach the land, two of the reverend
+gentlemen took me on their shoulders and, wading through a shallow part
+of the river, brought me safely to the foot of the rock. When we got
+there I could not perceive any way to ascend to the monastery, but,
+following the abbot, I scrambled over the broken rocks to the entrance
+of the cave. This was a narrow fissure where the precipice had been
+split by some convulsion of nature, the opening being about the size of
+the inside of a capacious chimney. The abbot crept in at a hole at the
+bottom: he was robed in a long dark blue shirt, the front of which he
+took up and held in his teeth; and, telling me to observe where he
+placed his feet, he began to climb up the cleft with considerable
+agility. A few preliminary lessons from a chimney-sweep would now have
+been of the greatest service to me; but in this branch of art my
+education had been neglected, and it was with no small difficulty that
+I climbed up after the abbot, whom I saw striding and sprawling in the
+attitude of a spread eagle above my head. My slippers soon fell off upon
+the head of a man under me, whom, on looking down, I found to be the
+reis, or captain of my boat, whose immense turban formed the whole of
+his costume. At least twenty men were scrambling and puffing underneath
+him, most of them having their clothes tied in a bundle on their heads,
+where they had secured them when they swam or waded to the shore. Arms
+and legs were stretched out in all manner of attitudes, the forms of the
+more distant climbers being lost in the gloom of the narrow cavern up
+which we were advancing, the procession being led by the unrobed
+ecclesiastics. Having climbed up about 120 feet, we emerged in a fine
+perspiration upon a narrow ledge of the rock on the face of the
+precipice, which had an unpleasant slope towards the Nile. It was as
+slippery as glass; and I felt glad that I had lost my shoes, as I had a
+firmer footing without them. We turned to the right, and climbing a
+projection of the rock seven or eight feet high--rather a nervous
+proceeding at such a height to those who were unaccustomed to it--we
+gained a more level space, from which a short steep pathway brought us
+to the top of the precipice, whence I looked down with much
+self-complacency upon my companion who was standing on the deck of the
+vessel.
+
+The convent stands about two hundred paces to the north of the place
+where we ascended. It had been originally built of small square stones
+of Roman workmanship; but, having fallen into decay, it had been
+repaired with mud and sunburnt bricks. Its ground plan was nearly a
+square, and its general appearance outside was that of a large pound or
+a small kitchen garden, the walls being about 20 feet high and each side
+of the square extending about 200 feet, without any windows or
+architectural decoration. I entered by a low doorway on the side towards
+the cliff, and found myself in a yard of considerable size full of
+cocks, hens, women, and children, who were all cackling and talking
+together at the top of their shrill voices. A large yellow-coloured dog,
+who was sleeping in the sunshine in the midst of all this din, was
+awakened by its cessation as I entered. He greeted my arrival with a
+growl, upon which he was assailed with a volley of stones and invectives
+by the ladies whom he had intended to protect. Every man, woman, and
+child came out to have a peep at the stranger, but when my numerous
+followers, many in habiliments of the very slightest description,
+crowded into the court, the ladies took fright, and there was a general
+rush into the house, the old women hiding their faces without a moment's
+delay, but the younger ones taking more time in the adjustment of their
+veils. When peace was in some measure restored, and the poor dog had
+been pelted into a hole, the abbot, who had now permitted his long shirt
+to resume its usual folds, conducted me to the church, which was
+speedily filled with the crowd. It was interesting from its great
+antiquity, having been founded, as they told me, by a rich lady of the
+name of Halan�, who was the daughter of a certain Kostandi, king of
+Roum. The church is partly subterranean, being built in the recesses of
+an ancient stone-quarry; the other parts of it are of stone plastered
+over. The roof is flat and is formed of horizontal beams of palm trees,
+upon which a terrace of reeds and earth is laid. The height of the
+interior is about 25 feet. On entering the door we had to descend a
+flight of narrow steps, which led into a side aisle about ten feet wide,
+and which is divided from the nave by octagon columns of great thickness
+supporting the walls of a sort of clerestory. The columns were
+surmounted by heavy square plinths almost in the Egyptian style.
+
+As I consider this church to be interesting from its being half a
+catacomb, or cave, and one of the earliest Christian buildings which has
+preserved its originality, I subjoin a plan of it, by which it will be
+seen that it is constructed on the principle of a Latin basilica, as the
+buildings of the Empress Helena usually were; the Byzantine style of
+architecture, the plan of which partook of the form of a Greek cross,
+being a later invention; for the earliest Christian churches were not
+cruciform, and seldom had transepts, nor were they built with any
+reference to the points of the compass.[8]
+
+[Illustration: Plan of the church, the convent of the Pulley.
+
+1. Altar.
+
+2. Apsis, apparently cut out of the rock.
+
+3. Two Corinthian columns.
+
+4. Wooden partitions of lattice-work, about 10 ft. high.
+
+5. Steps leading up to the sanctuary.
+
+6. Two three-quarter columns.
+
+7. Eight columns.[6]
+
+8. Dark room cut out of the rock (there is another corresponding to it
+under the steps).[7]
+
+9. Steps leading down into the church.
+
+10. Screen before the Altar.]
+
+The ancient divisions of the church are also more strictly preserved in
+this edifice than in the churches of the West; the priests or monks
+standing above the steps (marked No. 5), the celebrant of the sacrament
+only going behind the screen (No. 10); the bulk of the congregation
+stand, there are no seats below the steps (No. 5), and the place for the
+women is behind the screen marked No. 4. The church is very dimly
+lighted by small apertures in the walls of the clerestory, above the
+columns, and the part about the apsis is nearly dark in the middle of
+the day, candles being always necessary during the reading of the
+service. The two Corinthian columns are of brick, plastered; they are
+not fluted, but are of good proportions and appear to be original. The
+apsis is of regular Grecian or Roman architecture, and is ornamented
+with six pilasters, and three niches in which are kept the books,
+cymbals, candlesticks, and other things which are used for the daily
+service. Here I found twenty-three manuscript books, fifteen in Coptic
+with Arabic translations, for the Coptic language is now understood by
+few, and eight Arabic manuscripts. The Coptic books were all liturgies:
+one of them, a folio, was ornamented with a large illumination, intended
+to represent the Virgin and the infant Saviour; it is almost the only
+specimen of Coptic art that I ever met with in a book, and its style and
+execution are so poor, that, perhaps, it is fortunate that they should
+be so rare. The Arabic books, which, as well as the Coptic, were all on
+cotton-paper, consisted of extracts from the New Testament and lives of
+the saints.
+
+I had been told that there was a great chest bound with iron, which was
+kept in a vault in this monastery, full of ancient books on vellum, and
+which was not to be opened without the consent of the Patriarch; I
+could, however, make out nothing of this story, but it does not follow
+that this chest of ancient manuscripts does not exist; for, surrounded
+as I was by crowds of gaping Copts and Arabs, I could not expect the
+abbot to be very communicative; and they have from long oppression
+acquired such a habit of denying the fact of their having anything in
+their possession, that, perhaps, there may still be treasures here which
+some future traveller may discover.
+
+While I was turning over the books, the contents of which I was able to
+decypher, from the similarity of the Coptic to the Greek alphabet, the
+people were very much astonished at my erudition, which appeared to them
+almost miraculous. They whispered to each other, and some said I must be
+a foreign Copt, who had returned to the land of his fathers. They asked
+my servant all manner of questions; but when he told them that he did
+not believe I knew a word of Coptic, their astonishment was increased to
+fear. I must be a magician, they said, and some kept a sharp look-out
+for the door, to which there was an immediate rush when I turned round.
+The whole assembly were puzzled, for in their simplicity they were not
+aware that people sometimes pore over books, and read them too, without
+understanding them, in other languages besides Coptic.
+
+We emerged from the subterranean church, which, being half sunk in the
+earth and surrounded by buildings, had nothing remarkable in its
+exterior architecture, and ascended to the terrace on the roof of the
+convent, whence we had a view of numerous ancient stone quarries in the
+desert to the east. They appeared to be of immense extent; the convent
+itself and two adjoining burial-grounds were all ensconced in the
+ancient limestone excavations.
+
+I am inclined to think, that although all travellers in Egypt pass along
+the river below this convent, few have visited its interior. It is now
+more a village than a monastery, properly speaking, as it is inhabited
+by numerous Coptic families who are not connected with the monks. These
+poor people were so surprised at my appearance, and watched all my
+actions with such intense curiosity, that I imagine they had scarcely
+ever seen a stranger before. They crowded every place where I was likely
+to pass, staring and gaping, and chattering to each other. Being much
+pressed with the throng in the court-yard, I made a sudden spring
+towards one of the little girls who was foremost in the crowd, uttering
+a shout at the same time as if I was going to seize her as she stood
+gazing open-mouthed at me. She screamed and tumbled down with fright,
+and the whole multitude of women and children scampered off as fast as
+their legs could carry them. Some fell down, others tumbled over them,
+making an indescribable confusion; but being reassured by the laughter
+of my party, they soon stopped and began laughing and talking with
+greater energy than before. At length I took refuge in the room of the
+superior, who gave me some coffee, with spices in it; and soon
+afterwards I took leave of this singular community.
+
+We walked to some quarries about two miles off to the north-east, which
+well repaid our visit The rocks were cut into the most extraordinary
+forms. There were several grottos, and also an ancient tomb with
+hieroglyphics sculptured on the rock. Among these I saw the names of
+Rameses II. and some other kings. Near this tomb is a large tablet on
+which is a bas-relief of a king making an offering to a deity with the
+head of a crocodile, whose name, according to Wilkinson, was Savak: he
+was worshipped at Ombos and Thebes, but was held in such small respect
+at Dendera that the inhabitants of that place made war upon the men of
+Ombos, and ate one of their prisoners, in emulation probably of the god
+he worshipped. Indeed, they appear to have considered the inhabitants of
+that city to have been a sort of vermin which it was incumbent upon all
+sensible Egyptians to destroy whenever they had an opportunity.
+
+In one place among the quarries a large rock has been left standing by
+itself with two apertures, like doorways, cut through it, giving it the
+resemblance of a propylon or the front of a house. It is not more than
+ten feet thick, although it is eighty or ninety feet long, and fifty
+high. Near it a huge slab projects horizontally from the precipice,
+supported at its outer edge by a single column. Some of the Copts, whose
+curiosity appeared to be insatiable, had followed us to these quarries,
+for the mere pleasure of staring at us. One of them, observing me making
+a sketch, came and peeped over my shoulder. "This Frank," said he to his
+friends, "has got a book that eats all these stones, and our monastery
+besides." "Ah!" said the other, "I suppose there are no stones in his
+country, so he wants to take some of ours away to show his countrymen
+what fine things we have here in Egypt; there is no place like Egypt,
+after all. Mashallah!"
+
+
+
+
+RUINED MONASTERY AT THEBES.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+     Ruined Monastery in the Necropolis of Thebes--"Mr. Hay's Tomb"--The
+     Coptic Carpenter--His acquirements and troubles--He agrees to show
+     the MSS. belonging to the ruined Monastery, which are under his
+     charge--Night visit to the Tomb in which they are concealed--Perils
+     of the way--Description of the Tomb--Probably in former times a
+     Christian Church--Examination of the Coptic MSS.--Alarming
+     interruption--Hurried flight from the Evil Spirits--Fortunate
+     escape--Appearance of the Evil Spirit--Observations on Ghost
+     Stories--The Legend of the Old Woman of Berkeley considered.
+
+
+On a rocky hill, perforated on all sides by the violated sepulchres of
+the ancient Egyptians, in the great Necropolis of Thebes, not far from
+the ruins of the palace and temple of Medinet Habou, stand the crumbling
+walls of an old Coptic monastery, which I was told had been inhabited,
+almost within the memory of man, by a small community of Christian
+monks. I was living at this period in a tomb, which was excavated in the
+side of the precipice, above Sheick Abd el Gournoo. It had been rendered
+habitable by some slight alterations, and a little garden was made on
+the terrace in front of it, whence the view was very remarkable. The
+whole of the vast ruins of Thebes were stretched out below it; whilst,
+beyond the mighty Nile, the huge piles of Luxor and Carnac loomed dark
+and mysterious in the distance, which was bounded by the arid chain of
+the Arabian mountains, the outline of their wild tops showing clear and
+hard against the cloudless sky. This habitation was known by the name of
+"Mr. Hay's tomb." The memory of this gentleman is held in the highest
+honour and reverence by the villagers of the surrounding districts, who
+look back to the time of his residence among them as the only
+satisfactory period of their miserable existence.
+
+One of the numerous admirers of Mr. Hay, among the poorer inhabitants of
+the neighbourhood, was a Coptic carpenter, a man of no small natural
+genius and talent, who in any other country would have risen above the
+sphere of his comrades if any opportunity of distinguishing himself had
+offered. He could read and write Coptic and Arabic; he had some
+knowledge of astronomy, and some said of magic also; and he was a very
+tolerable carpenter, although the only tools which he was able to
+procure were of the roughest sort. In all these accomplishments he was
+entirely self-taught; while his poverty was such that his costume
+consisted of nothing but a short shirt, or tunic, made of a homespun
+fabric of goat's hair, or wool, and a common felt skull-cap, with some
+rags twisted round it for a turban. With higher acquirements than the
+governor of the district, the poor Copt was hardly able to obtain bread
+to eat; and indeed it was only from the circumstance of his being a
+Christian that he and the other males of his family were not swept away
+in the conscription which has depopulated Egypt under the present
+government more than all the pillage and massacres and internal feuds of
+the followers of the Mameluke Beys.
+
+On those numerous occasions when the carpenter had nothing else to do,
+he used to come and talk to me; and endeavour to count up, upon his
+fingers, how often he had "_eat stick_;" that is, had been beaten by one
+Turkish officer or another for his inability to pay the tax to the
+Pasha, the tooth-money to some kawass, the forced contribution to the
+Nazir, or some other expected or unexpected call upon his empty
+pocket,--an appendage to his dress, by the by, which he did not possess;
+for having nothing in the world to put in it, a pocket was clearly of no
+use to him. The carpenter related to me the history of the ruined Coptic
+monastery; and I found that its library was still in existence. It was
+carefully concealed from the Mahomedans, as a sacred treasure; and my
+friend the carpenter was the guardian of the volumes belonging to his
+fallen church. After some persuasion he agreed, in consideration of my
+being a Christian, to let me see them; but he said I must go to the
+place where they were concealed at night, in order that no one might
+follow our steps; and he further stipulated that none of the Mahomedan
+servants should accompany us, but that I should go alone with him. I
+agreed to all this; and on the appointed night I sallied forth with the
+carpenter after dark. There were not many stars visible; and we had only
+just light enough to see our way across the plain of Thebes, or rather
+among the low hills and narrow valleys above the plain, which are so
+entirely honeycombed with ancient tombs and mummy pits that they
+resemble a rabbit warren on a large scale. Skulls and bones were strewed
+on our path; and often at the mouths of tombs the night wind would raise
+up fragments of the bandages which the sacrilegious hand of the Frankish
+spoilers of the dead had torn from the bodies of the Egyptian mummies in
+search of the scarab�i, amulets, and ornaments which are found upon the
+breast of the deceased subjects of the Pharaohs.
+
+Away we went stumbling over ruins, and escaping narrowly the fate of
+those who descend into the tomb before their time. Sometimes we heard a
+howl, which the carpenter said came from a hyena, prowling like
+ourselves among the graves, though on a very different errand. We kept
+on our way, by many a dark ruin and yawning cave, breaking our shins
+against the fallen stones until I was almost tired of the journey, which
+in the darkness seemed interminable; nor had I any idea where the
+carpenter was leading me. At last, after a fatiguing walk, we descended
+suddenly into a place something like a gravel pit, one side of which was
+closed by the perpendicular face of a low cliff, in which a doorway half
+filled up with rubbish betokened the existence of an ancient tomb. By
+the side of this doorway sat a little boy, whom I discovered by the
+light of the moon, which had just risen, to be the carpenter's son, an
+intelligent lad, who often came to pay me a visit in company with his
+father. It was here that the Coptic manuscripts were concealed, and it
+was a spot well chosen for the purpose; for although I thought I had
+wandered about the Necropolis of Thebes in every direction, I had never
+stumbled upon this place before, neither could I ever find it
+afterwards, although I rode in that direction several times.
+
+I now produced from my pocket three candles, which the carpenter had
+desired me to bring, one for him, one for his son, and one for myself.
+Having lit them, we entered into the doorway of the tomb, and passing
+through a short passage, found ourselves in a great sepulchral hall. The
+earth and sand which had been blown into the entrance formed an inclined
+plane, sloping downwards to another door sculptured with hieroglyphics,
+through which we passed into a second chamber, on the other side of
+which was a third doorway, leading into a magnificent subterranean hall,
+divided into three aisles by four square columns, two on each side.
+There may have been six columns, but I think there were only four. The
+walls and columns, or rather square piers which supported the roof,
+retained the brilliant white which is so much to be admired in the tombs
+of the kings and other stately sepulchres. On the walls were various
+hieroglyphics, and on the square piers tall figures of the gods of the
+infernal regions--Kneph, Khonso, and Osiris--were portrayed in brilliant
+colours, with their immense caps or crowns, and the heads of the jackal
+and other beasts. At the further end of this chamber was a stone altar,
+standing upon one or two steps, in an apsis or semicircular recess. As
+this is not usual in Egyptian tombs, I have since thought that this had
+probably been altered by the Copts in early times, and that, like the
+Christians of the West in the days of their persecution, they had met in
+secret in the tombs for the celebration of their rites, and had made use
+of this hall as a church, in the same way as we see the remains of
+chapels and places of worship in the catacombs of Rome and Syracuse. The
+inner court of the Temple of Medinet Habou has also been converted into
+a Christian church; and the worthy Copts have daubed over the
+beautifully executed pictures of Rameses II. with a coat of plaster,
+upon which they have painted the grim figures of St. George, and various
+old frightful saints and hermits, whose uncouth forms would almost give
+one the idea of their having served for a system of idolatry much less
+refined than the worship of the ancient gods of the heathen, whose
+places they have usurped in these gigantic temples.
+
+The Coptic manuscripts, of which I was in search, were lying upon the
+steps of the altar, except one, larger than the rest, which was placed
+upon the altar itself. They were about eight or nine in number, all
+brown and musty looking books, written on cotton paper, or charta
+bombycina, a material in use in very early times. An edict or charter,
+on paper, exists, or at least did exist two years ago, in the museum of
+the Jesuits' College, called the Colleggio Romano, at Rome: its date was
+of the sixth century; and I have a Coptic manuscript written on paper of
+this kind, which was finished, as appears by a note at the end, in the
+year 1018: these are the oldest dates that I have met with in any
+manuscripts on paper.
+
+Having found these ancient books we proceeded to examine their contents,
+and to accomplish this at our ease, we stuck the candles on the ground,
+and the carpenter and I sat down before them, while his son brought us
+the volumes from the steps of the altar, one by one.
+
+The first which came to hand was a dusty quarto, smelling of incense,
+and well spotted with yellow wax, with all its leaves dogs-eared or worn
+round with constant use: this was a MS. of the lesser festivals. Another
+appeared to be of the same kind; a third was also a book for the church
+service. We puzzled over the next two or three, which seemed to be
+martyrologies, or lives of the saints; but while we were poring over
+them, we thought we heard a noise. "Oh! father of hammers," said I to
+the carpenter, "I think I heard a noise: what could it be?--I thought I
+heard something move." "Did you, hawaja?" (O merchant), said the
+carpenter; "it must have been my son moving the books, for what else
+could there be here?--No one knows of this tomb or of the holy
+manuscripts which it contains. Surely there can be nothing here to make
+a noise, for are we not here alone, a hundred feet under the earth, in a
+place where no one comes?--It is nothing: certainly it is nothing;" and
+so saying, he lifted up one of the candles and peered about in the
+darkness; but as there was nothing to be seen, and all was silent as the
+grave, he sat down again, and at our leisure we completed our
+examination of all the books which lay upon the steps.
+
+They proved to be all church books, liturgies for different seasons, or
+homilies; and not historical, nor of any particular interest, either
+from their age or subject. There now remained only the great book upon
+the altar, a ponderous quarto, bound either in brown leather or wooden
+boards; and this the carpenter's son with difficulty lifted from its
+place, and laid it down before us on the ground; but, as he did so, we
+heard the noise again. The carpenter and I looked at each other: he
+turned pale--perhaps I did so too; and we looked over our shoulders in
+a sort of anxious, nervous kind of way, expecting to see something--we
+did not know what. However, we saw nothing; and, feeling a little
+ashamed, I again settled myself before the three candle-ends, and opened
+the book, which was written in large black characters of unusual size.
+As I bent over the huge volume, to see what it was about, suddenly there
+arose a sound somewhere in the cavern, but from whence it came I could
+not comprehend; it seemed all round us at the same moment. There was no
+room for doubt now: it was a fearful howling, like the roar of a hundred
+wild beasts. The carpenter looked aghast: the tall and grisly figures of
+the Egyptian gods seemed to stare at us from the walls. I thought of
+Cornelius Agrippa, and felt a gentle perspiration coming on which would
+have betokened a favourable crisis in a fever. Suddenly the dreadful
+roar ceased, and as its echoes died away in the tomb, we felt
+considerably relieved, and were beginning to try and put a good face
+upon the matter, when, to our unutterable horror, it began again, and
+waxed louder and louder, as if legions of infernal spirits were let
+loose upon us. We could stand this no longer: the carpenter and I jumped
+up from the ground, and his son in his terror stumbled over the great
+Coptic manuscript, and fell upon the candles, which were all put out in
+a moment; his screams were now added to the uproar which resounded in
+the cave: seeing the twinkling of a star through the vista of the two
+outer chambers, we all set off as hard as we could run, our feelings of
+alarm being increased to desperation when we perceived that something
+was chasing us in the darkness, while the roar seemed to increase every
+moment. How we did tear along! The devil take the hindmost seemed about
+to be literally fulfilled; and we raised stifling clouds of dust, as we
+scrambled up the steep slope which led to the outer door. "So then,"
+thought I, "the stories of gins, and ghouls, and goblins, that I have
+read of and never believed, must be true after all, and in this city of
+the dead it has been our evil lot to fall upon a haunted tomb!"
+
+Breathless and bewildered, the carpenter and I bolted out of this
+infernal palace into the open air, mightily relieved at our escape from
+the darkness and the terrors of the subterranean vaults. We had not been
+out a moment, and had by no means collected our ideas, before our alarm
+was again excited to its utmost pitch.
+
+The evil one came forth in bodily shape, and stood revealed to our eyes
+distinctly in the pale light of the moon.
+
+While we were gazing upon the appearance, the carpenter's son, whom we
+had quite forgotten in our hurry, came creeping out of the doorway of
+the tomb upon his hands and knees.
+
+"Why, father!" said he, after a moment's silence, "if that is not old
+Fatima's donkey, which has been lost these two days! It is lucky that we
+have found it, for it must have wandered into this tomb, and it might
+have been starved if we had not met with it to-night."
+
+The carpenter looked rather ashamed of the adventure; and as for myself,
+though I was glad that nothing worse had come of it, I took comfort in
+the reflection that I was not the first person who had been alarmed by
+the proceedings of an ass.
+
+I have related the history of this adventure because I think that, on
+some foundation like this, many well-accredited ghost stories may have
+been founded. Numerous legends and traditions, which appear to be
+supernatural or miraculous, and the truth of which has been attested and
+sworn to by credible witnesses, have doubtless arisen out of facts which
+actually did occur, but of which some essential particulars have been
+either concealed, or had escaped notice; and thus many marvellous
+histories have gone abroad, which are so well attested, that although
+common sense forbids their being believed, they cannot be proved to be
+false. In this case, if the donkey had not fortunately come out and
+shown himself, I should certainly have returned to Europe half impressed
+with the belief that something supernatural had occurred, which was in
+some mysterious manner connected with the opening of the magic volume
+which we had taken from the altar in the tomb. The echoes of the
+subterranean cave so altered the sound of the donkey's bray, that I
+never should have discovered that these fearful sounds had so
+undignified an origin; a story never loses by telling, and with a little
+gradual exaggeration it would soon have become one of the best
+accredited supernatural histories in the country.
+
+The well-known story of the old woman of Berkeley has been read with
+wonder and dread for at least four hundred years: it is to be found in
+early manuscripts; it is related by Olaus Magnus, and is to be seen
+illustrated by a woodcut, both in the German and Latin editions of the
+'Nuremberg Chronicle,' which was printed in the year 1493. There is no
+variation in the legend, which is circumstantially the same in all these
+books. Without doubt it was partly founded upon fact, or, as in the case
+of the story of the Theban tomb, some circumstances have been omitted
+which make all the difference; and a natural though perhaps
+extraordinary occurrence has been handed down for centuries, as a
+fearful instance of the power of the evil one in this world over those
+who have given themselves up to the practice of tremendous crimes.
+
+There are many supernatural stories, which we are certain cannot by any
+possibility be true; but which nevertheless are as well attested, and
+apparently as fully proved, as any facts in the most veracious history.
+Under circumstances of alarm or temporary hallucination people
+frequently believe that they have had supernatural visitations. Even the
+tricks of conjurers, which have been witnessed by a hundred persons at a
+time, are totally incomprehensible to the uninitiated; and in the middle
+ages, when these practices were resorted to for religious or political
+ends, it is more than probable that many occurrences which were supposed
+to be supernatural might have been explained, if all the circumstances
+connected with them had been fairly and openly detailed by an impartial
+witness.
+
+
+
+
+THE WHITE MONASTERY.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+     The White Monastery--Abou Shenood--Devastations of the
+     Mamelukes--Description of the Monastery--Different styles of its
+     exterior and interior Architecture--Its ruinous
+     condition--Description of the Church--The Baptistery--Ancient Rites
+     of Baptism--The Library--Modern Architecture--The Church of San
+     Francesco at Rimini--The Red Monastery--Alarming rencontre with an
+     armed party--Feuds between the native Tribes--Faction
+     fights--Eastern Story Tellers--Legends of the Desert--Abraham and
+     Sarah--Legendary Life of Moses--Arabian Story-tellers--Attention of
+     their Audience.
+
+
+Mounting our noble Egyptian steeds, or in other words having engaged a
+sufficient number of little braying donkeys, which the peasants brought
+down to the river side, and put our saddles on them, we cantered in an
+hour and a half from the village of Souhag to the White Monastery, which
+is known to the Arabs by the name of Derr abou Shenood. Who the great
+Abou Shenood had the honour to be, and what he had done to be canonized,
+I could meet with no one to tell me. He was, I believe, a Mahomedan
+saint, and this Coptic monastery had been in some sort placed under the
+shadow of his protection, in the hopes of saving it from the
+persecutions of the faithful. Abou Shenood, however, does not appear to
+have done his duty, for the White Monastery has been ruined and sacked
+over and over again. The last outrage upon the unfortunate monastery
+occurred about 1812, when the Mamelukes who had encamped upon the plains
+of Itfou, having no better occupation, amused themselves by burning all
+the houses, and killing all the people in the neighbourhood. Since that
+time the monks having returned one by one, and finding that no one took
+the trouble to molest them, began to repair the convent, the interior of
+which had been gutted by the Mamelukes; but the immense strength of the
+outer walls had resisted all their efforts to destroy them.
+
+The peculiarity of this monastery is, that the interior was once a
+magnificent basilica, while the exterior was built by the Empress
+Helena, in the ancient Egyptian style. The walls slope inwards towards
+the summit, where they are crowned with a deep overhanging cornice. The
+building is of an oblong shape, about two hundred feet in length by
+ninety wide, very well built, of fine blocks of stone; it has no windows
+outside larger than loopholes, and these are at a great height from the
+ground. Of these there are twenty on the south side and nine at the east
+end. The monastery stands at the foot of the hill, on the edge of the
+Libyan desert, where the sand encroaches on the plain. It looks like the
+sanctuary, or cella, of an ancient temple, and is not unlike the
+bastion of an old-fashioned fortification; except one solitary doom
+tree, it stands quite alone, and has a most desolate aspect, backed, as
+it is, by the sandy desert, and without any appearance of a garden,
+either within or outside its walls. The ancient doorway of red granite,
+on the south side, has been partially closed up, leaving an opening just
+large enough to admit one person at a time.
+
+The door was closed, and we shouted in vain for admittance. We then
+tried the effect of a double knock in the Grosvenor Square style with a
+large stone, but that was of no use; so I got one still larger, and
+banged away at the door with all my might, shouting at the same time
+that we were friends and Christians. After some minutes a small voice
+was heard inside, and several questions being satisfactorily answered,
+we were let in by a monk; and passing through the narrow door, I found
+myself surrounded by piles of ruined buildings of various ages, among
+which the tall granite columns of the ancient church reared themselves
+like an avenue on either side of the desecrated nave, which is now open
+to the sky, and is used as a promenade for a host of chickens. Some
+goats also were perched upon fragments of ruined walls, and looked
+cunningly at us as we invaded their domain. I saw some Coptic women
+peeping at me from the windows of some wretched hovels of mud and
+brick, which they had built up in corners among the ancient ruins like
+swallows' nests.
+
+There were but three poor priests. The principal one led us to the upper
+part of the church, which had lately been repaired and walled off from
+the open nave; and enclosed the apsis and transepts, which had been
+restored in some measure, and fitted for the performance of divine
+service. The half domes of the apsis and two transepts, which were of
+well-built masonry, were still entire, and the original frescos remain
+upon them. Those in the transepts are stiff figures of saints; and in
+the one over the altar is the great figure of the Redeemer, such as is
+usually met with in the mosaics of the Italian basilicas. These apsides
+are above fifty feet from the ground, which gives them a dignity of
+appearance, and leaves greater cause to regret the destruction of the
+nave, which, with its clerestory, must have been still higher. There
+appear to have been fifteen columns on each side of the centre aisle,
+and two at the end opposite the altar, which in this instance I believe
+is at the west end. The roof over the part of the east end, which has
+been fitted up as a church, is supported by four square modern piers of
+plastered brick or rubble work. On the side walls, above the altar,
+there are some circular compartments containing paintings of the saints;
+and near these are two tablets with inscriptions in black on a white
+ground. That on the left appeared to be in Abyssinian: the one on the
+other side was either Coptic or uncial Greek; but it was too dark, and
+the tablet was too high, to enable me to make it out There is also a
+long Greek inscription in red letters on one of the modern square piers,
+which looks as if it was of considerable antiquity; and the whole
+interior of the building bears traces of having been repaired and
+altered, more than once, in ancient times. The richly ornamented
+recesses of the three apsides have been smeared over with plaster, on
+which some tremendously grim saints have been portrayed, whose present
+threadbare appearance shows that they have disfigured the walls for
+several centuries. Some comparatively modern capitals, of bad design,
+have been placed upon two or three of the granite columns of the nave;
+and others, which were broken, have been patched with brick, plastered
+and painted to look like granite. The principal entrance was formerly at
+the west end; where there is a small vestibule, immediately within the
+door of which, on the left hand, is a small chapel, perhaps the
+baptistery, about twenty-five feet long, and still in tolerable
+preservation. It is a splendid specimen of the richest Roman
+architecture of the latter empire, and is truly an imperial little room.
+The arched ceiling is of stone; and there are three beautifully
+ornamented niches on each side. The upper end is semicircular, and has
+been entirely covered with a profusion of sculpture in panels,
+cornices, and every kind of architectural enrichment When it was entire,
+and covered with gilding, painting, or mosaic, it must have been most
+gorgeous. The altar on such a chapel as this was probably of gold, set
+full of gems; or if it was the baptistery, as I suppose, it most likely
+contained a bath, of the most precious jasper, or of some of the more
+rare kinds of marble, for the immersion of the converted heathen, whose
+entrance into the church was not permitted until they had been purified
+with the waters of baptism in a building without the door of the house
+of God; an appropriate custom, which was not broken in upon for ages;
+and even then the infant was only brought just inside the door, where
+the font was placed on the left hand of the entrance; a judicious
+practice, which is completely set at nought in England, where the
+squalling imp often distracts the attention of the congregation; and is
+finally sprinkled, instead of being immersed, the whole ceremony having
+been so much altered and pared down from its original symbolic form,
+that were a Christian of the early ages to return upon the earth, he
+would be unable to recognise its meaning.
+
+The conventual library consisted of only half-a-dozen well-waxed and
+well-thumbed liturgies; but one of the priests told me that they boasted
+formerly of above a hundred volumes written on leather (gild razali),
+gazelle skins, probably vellum, which were destroyed by the Mamelukes
+during their last pillage of the convent.
+
+The habitations of the monks, according to the original design of this
+very curious building, were contained in a long slip on the south side
+of the church, where their cells were lit by the small loopholes seen
+from the outside. Of these cells none now remain: they must have been
+famously hot, exposed as they were all day long to the rays of the
+southern sun; but probably the massive thickness of the walls and arched
+ceilings reduced the temperature. There was no court or open space
+within the convent; the only place where its inhabitants could have
+walked for exercise in the open air was upon the flat terrace of the
+roof, the deck of this ship of St Peter; for the White Monastery in some
+respects resembled a dismasted man-of-war, anchored in a sea of burning
+sand.
+
+In modern times we are not surprised on finding a building erected at an
+immense expense, in which the architecture of the interior is totally
+different from that of the exterior. A Brummagem Gothic house is
+frequently furnished and ornamented within in what is called "_a chaste
+Greek style_," and _vice vers�_. A Grecian house--that is to say, a
+square white block, with square holes in it for windows, and a portico
+in front--is sometimes inhabited by an antiquarian, who fits it up with
+Gothic furniture, and a Gothic paper designed by a crafty paper-hanger
+in the newest style. But in ancient days it was very rare to see such a
+mixture. I am surprised that the architect of the enthusiastic empress
+did not go on with the interior of this building as he had begun the
+exterior. The great hall of Carnac would have afforded him a grand
+example of an aisle with a clerestory, and side windows, with stone
+mullions, which would have answered his purpose, in the Egyptian style.
+The only other instance of this kind, where two distinct styles of
+architecture were employed in the middle ages on the inside and outside
+of the same building, is in the church of St. Francesco, at Rimini,
+which was built by Sigismond Malatesta as a last resting-place for
+himself and his friends. He lies in a Gothic shrine within; and the
+bodies of the great men of his day repose in sarcophagi of classic forms
+outside; each of which stands in the recess of a Roman arch, in which
+style of architecture the exterior of the building is erected.
+
+About two miles to the north of the White Monastery, in a small village
+sheltered by a grove of palms, stands another ancient building called
+the Red Monastery.
+
+On our return to Souhag we met a party of men on foot, who were armed
+with spears, shields, and daggers, and one or two with guns. They were
+led by a man on horseback, who was completely armed with all sorts of
+warlike implements. They stopped us, and began to talk to our followers,
+who were exceedingly civil in their behaviour, for the appearance of the
+party was of a doubtful character; and we felt relieved when we found
+that we were not to be robbed, but that our friends were on an
+expedition against the men of Tahta, who some time ago had killed a man
+belonging to their village, and they were going to avenge his death.
+This was only one detachment of many that had assembled in the
+neighbouring villages, each headed by its sheick, or the sheick's son,
+if the father was an old man. The numbers engaged in this feud amounted,
+they told us, to between two and three hundred men on each side. Every
+now and then, it seems, when they have got in their harvest, they
+assemble to have a fight. Several are wounded, and sometimes a few are
+killed; in which case, if the numbers of the slain are not equal, the
+feud continues; and so it goes on from generation to generation, like a
+faction fight in Ireland, or the feudal wars of the barons of the middle
+ages,--a style of things which appears to belong to the nature of the
+human race, and not to any particular country, age, or faith.
+
+[Illustration: MENDICANT DERVISH.]
+
+Parting from this warlike band with mutual compliments and good wishes,
+and our guides each seizing the tail of one of our donkeys to increase
+his onward speed, we trotted away back to the boat, which was waiting
+for us at Souhag. There we found our boatmen and a crowd of villagers,
+listening to one of those long stories with which the inhabitants of
+Egypt are wont to enliven their hours of inactivity. This is an
+amusement peculiar to the East, and it is one in which I took great
+delight during many a long journey through the deserts on the way
+to Mount Sinai, Syria, and other places. The Arabs are great tellers of
+stories; and some of them have a peculiar knack in rendering them
+interesting and exciting the curiosity of their audience. Many of these
+stories were interesting from their reference to persons and occurrences
+of Holy Writ, particularly of the Old Testament. There are many legends
+of the patriarch Abraham and his beautiful wife Sarah, who, excepting
+Eve, is said to have been the fairest of all the daughters of the earth.
+King Solomon is the hero of numerous strange legends; and his adventures
+with the gnomes and genii who were subjected to his sway are endless.
+The poem of Yousef and Zuleica is well known in Europe. And the
+traditions relating to the prophet Moses are so numerous, that, with the
+help of a very curious manuscript of an apocryphal book ascribed to the
+great leader of the Jews, I have been enabled to compile a connected
+biography, in which many curious circumstances are detailed that are
+said to have taken place during his eventful life, and which concludes
+with a highly poetical legend of his death. Many of the stories told by
+the Arabs resemble those of the _Arabian Nights_; and a large proportion
+of these are not very refined.
+
+I have often been greatly amused with watching the faces of an audience
+who were listening to a well-told story, some eagerly leaning forward,
+others smoking their pipes with quicker puffs, when something
+extraordinary was related, or when the hero of the story had got into
+some apparently inextricable dilemma. These story-telling parties are
+usually to be seen seated in a circle on the ground in a shady place.
+The donkey-boy will stop and gape open-mouthed on overhearing a few
+words of the marvellous adventures of some enchanted prince, and will
+look back at his four-footed companion, fearing lest he should resume
+his original form of a merchant from the island of Serendib. The
+greatest tact is required on the part of the narrator to prevent the
+dispersion of his audience, who are sometimes apt to melt away on his
+stopping at what he considers a peculiarly interesting point, and taking
+that opportunity of sending round his boy with a little brass basin to
+collect paras. I know of few subjects better suited for a painter than
+one of these story-tellers and his group of listeners.
+
+
+
+
+THE ISLAND OF PHILOE, &c.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+     The Island of Philoe--The Cataract of Assouan--The Burial Place of
+     Osiris--The Great Temple of Philoe--The Bed of Pharaoh--Shooting in
+     Egypt--Turtle Doves--Story of the Prince Anas el Ajoud--Egyptian
+     Songs--Vow of the Turtle Dove--Curious fact in Natural History--The
+     Crocodile and its Guardian Bird--Arab notions regarding
+     Animals--Legend of King Solomon and the Hoopoes--Natives of the
+     country round the Cataracts of the Nile--Their appearance and
+     Costume--The beautiful Mouna--Solitary Visit to the Island of
+     Philoe--Quarrel between two native Boys--Singular instance of
+     retributive Justice.
+
+
+Every part of Egypt is interesting and curious, but the only place to
+which the epithet of beautiful can be correctly applied is the island of
+Philoe, which is situated immediately to the south of the cataract of
+Assouan. The scenery around consists of an infinity of steep granite
+rocks, which stand, some in the water, others on the land, all of them
+of the wildest and most picturesque forms. The cataract itself cannot be
+seen from the island of Philoe, being shut out by an intervening rock,
+whose shattered mass of red granite towers over the island, rising
+straight out of the water. From the top of this rock are seen the
+thousand islands, some of bare rock, some covered with palms and
+bushes, which interrupt the course of the river and give rise to those
+eddies, whirlpools, and streams of foaming water which are called the
+cataracts of the Nile, but which may be more properly designated as
+rapids, for there is no perpendicular fall of more than two or three
+feet, and boats of the largest size are drawn with ropes against the
+stream through certain channels, and are shot down continually with the
+stream on their return without the occurrence of serious accidents.
+
+Several of these rocks are sculptured with tablets and inscriptions,
+recording the offerings of the Pharaohs to the gods; and the sacred
+island of Philoe, the burial-place of Osiris, is covered with buildings,
+temples, colonnades, gateways, and terrace walls, which are magnificent
+even in their ruin, and must have been superb when still entire, and
+filled with crowds of priests and devotees, accompanied by all the flags
+and standards, gold and glitter, of the ceremonies of their emblematical
+religion.
+
+Excepting the Pyramids, nothing in Egypt struck me so much as when on a
+bright moonlit night I first entered the court of the great temple of
+Philoe. The colours of the paintings on the walls are as vivid in many
+places as they were the day they were finished: the silence and the
+solemn grandeur of the immense buildings around me were most imposing;
+and on emerging from the lofty gateway between the two towers of the
+propylon, as I wandered about the island, the tufts of palms, which are
+here of great height, with their weeping branches, seemed to be mourning
+over the desolation of the stately palaces and temples to which in
+ancient times all the illustrious of Egypt were wont to resort, and into
+whose inner recesses none might penetrate; for the secret and awful
+mysteries of the worship of Osiris were not to be revealed, nor were
+they even to be spoken of by those who were not initiated into the
+highest orders of the priesthood. Now all may wander where they choose,
+and speculate on the uses of the dark chambers hidden in the thickness
+of the walls, and trace out the plans of the courts and temples with the
+long lines of columns which formed the avenue of approach from the
+principal landing-place to the front of the great temple.
+
+The whole island is encumbered with piles of immense squared stones, the
+remains of buildings which must have been thrown down by an earthquake,
+as nothing else could shake such solid works from their foundations.[9]
+The principal temple, and several smaller ones, are still almost entire.
+One of these, called by the natives the Bed of Pharaoh, is a remarkably
+light and airy-looking structure, differing, in this respect, from the
+usual character of Egyptian architecture. On the terrace overhanging the
+Nile, in front of this graceful temple, I had formed my habitation,
+where there are some vaults of more recent construction, which are
+usually taken possession of by travellers and fitted up with the
+carpets, cushions, and the sides of the tents which they bring with
+them.
+
+Every one who travels in Egypt is more or less a sportsman, for the
+infinity of birds must tempt the most idle or contemplative to go "_a
+birding_," as the Americans term it. I had shot all sorts of birds and
+beasts, from a crocodile to a snipe; and among other game I had shot
+multitudes of turtle doves; these pretty little birds being exceedingly
+tame, and never flying very far, I sometimes got three or four at a
+shot, and a dozen or so of them made a famous pie or a pilau, with rice
+and a tasty sauce; but a somewhat singular incident put an end to my
+warfare against them. One day I was sitting on the terrace before the
+Bed of Pharaoh, surrounded by a circle of Arabs and negroes, and we were
+all listening to a story which an old gentleman with a grey beard was
+telling us concerning the loves of the beautiful Ouardi, who was shut up
+in an enchanted palace on this very island to secure her from the
+approaches of her lover, Prince Anas el Ajoud, the son of the Sultan
+Esshamieh, who had married seven wives before he had a son. The first
+six wives, on the birth of Anas el Ajoud, placed a log in his cradle,
+and exposed the infant in the desert, where he was nursed by a gazelle,
+and whence he returned to punish the six cruel step-mothers, who fully
+believed he was dead, and to rejoice the heart of his father, who had
+been persuaded by these artful ladies that his sultana by magic art had
+presented him with a log instead of a son, who was to be the heir of his
+dominions, &c. Prince Anas, who was in despair at being separated from
+his lady love, used to sing dismal songs as he passed in his gilded boat
+under the walls of the island palace. These, at last, were responded to
+from the lattice by the fair Ouardi, who was soon afterwards carried off
+by the enamoured prince. The story, which was an interminable rigmarole,
+as long as one of those spun on from night to night by the Princess
+Sherezade, was diversified every now and then by the fearful squealing
+of an Arab song. The old storyteller, shutting his eyes and throwing
+back his head that his mind might not be distracted by any exterior
+objects, uttered a succession of sounds which set one's teeth on
+edge.[10]
+
+[Illustration: (musical notation) AMAAN.
+
+The snow, the snow is melt-ing on the hills of Is--fa--han. As fair, be
+as re-lent-ing Am-aan, Am-aan, Am-aan.]
+
+Whilst the old gentleman was shooting out one of these amatory ditties,
+and I was sitting still listening to these heart-rending sounds, a
+turtle-dove--who was probably awakened from her sleep by the fearful
+discord, or might, perhaps, have been the beautiful Princess Ouardi
+herself transformed into the likeness of a dove--flew out of one of the
+palm-trees which grow on the edge of the bank, and perched at a little
+distance from us. We none of us moved, and the turtle-dove, after
+pausing for a moment, ran towards me and nestled under the full sleeve
+of my benisch. It stayed there till the story and the songs were ended,
+and when I was obliged to arise, in order to make my compliments to the
+departing guests, the dove flew into the palm-tree again, and went to
+roost among the branches, where several others were already perched with
+their heads under their wings. Thereupon I made a vow never to shoot
+another turtle-dove, however much pie or pilau might need them, and I
+fairly kept my vow. Luckily turtle-doves are not so good as pigeons, so
+it was no great loss. Although not to be compared to the Roman bird, the
+Egyptian pigeon is very good eating when he is tender and well dressed.
+
+As I am on the subject of birds I will relate a fact in natural history
+which I was fortunate enough to witness, and which, although it is
+mentioned so long ago as the times of Herodotus, has not, I believe,
+been often observed since; indeed I have never met with any traveller
+who has himself seen such an occurrence.
+
+I had always a strong predilection for crocodile shooting, and had
+destroyed several of these dragons of the waters. On one occasion I saw,
+a long way off, a large one, twelve or fifteen feet long, lying asleep
+under a perpendicular bank about ten feet high, on the margin of the
+river. I stopped the boat at some distance; and noting the place as well
+as I could, I took a circuit inland, and came down cautiously to the top
+of the bank, whence with a heavy rifle I made sure of my ugly game. I
+had already cut off his head in imagination, and was considering whether
+it should be stuffed with its mouth open or shut. I peeped over the
+bank. There he was, within ten feet of the sight of the rifle. I was on
+the point of firing at his eye, when I observed that he was attended by
+a bird called a ziczac. It is of the plover species, of a greyish
+colour, and as large as a small pigeon.
+
+The bird was walking up and down close to the crocodile's nose. I
+suppose I moved, for suddenly it saw me, and instead of flying away, as
+any respectable bird would have done, he jumped up about a foot from the
+ground, screamed "Ziczac! ziczac!" with all the powers of his voice, and
+dashed himself against the crocodile's face two or three times. The
+great beast started up, and immediately spying his danger, made a jump
+up into the air, and dashing into the water with a splash which covered
+me with mud; he dived into the river and disappeared. The ziczac, to my
+increased admiration, proud apparently of having saved his friend,
+remained walking up and down, uttering his cry, as I thought, with an
+exulting voice, and standing every now and then on the tips of his toes
+in a conceited manner, which made me justly angry with his impertinence.
+After having waited in vain for some time, to see whether the crocodile
+would come out again, I got up from the bank where I was lying, threw a
+clod of earth at the ziczac, and came back to the boat, feeling some
+consolation for the loss of my game in having witnessed a circumstance,
+the truth of which has been disputed by several writers on natural
+history.
+
+The Arabs say that every race of animals is governed by its chief, to
+whom the others are bound to pay obeisance. The king of the crocodiles
+holds his court at the bottom of the Nile near Siout. The king of the
+fleas lives at Tiberias, in the Holy Land; and deputations of
+illustrious fleas, from other countries, visit him on a certain day in
+his palace, situated in the midst of beautiful gardens, under the Lake
+of Genesareth. There is a bird which is common in Egypt called the
+hoopoe (Abou hood-hood), of whose king the following legend is related.
+This bird is of the size and shape as well as the colour of a woodcock;
+but has a crown of feathers on its head, which it has the power of
+raising and depressing at will. It is a tame, quiet bird; usually to be
+found walking leisurely in search of its food on the margin of the
+water. It seldom takes long flights; and is not harmed by the natives,
+who are much more sparing of the life of animals than we Europeans
+are:--
+
+In the days of King Solomon, the son of David, who, by the virtue of his
+cabalistic seal, reigned supreme over genii as well as men, and who
+could speak the languages of animals of all kinds, all created beings
+were subservient to his will. Now when the king wanted to travel, he
+made use, for his conveyance, of a carpet of a square form. This carpet
+had the property of extending itself to a sufficient size to carry a
+whole army, with the tents and baggage; but at other times it could be
+reduced so as to be only large enough for the support of the royal
+throne, and of those ministers whose duty it was to attend upon the
+person of the sovereign. Four genii of the air then took the four
+corners of the carpet, and carried it with its contents wherever King
+Solomon desired. Once the king was on a journey in the air, carried upon
+his throne of ivory over the various nations of the earth. The rays of
+the sun poured down upon his head, and he had nothing to protect him
+from its heat. The fiery beams were beginning to scorch his neck and
+shoulders, when he saw a flock of vultures flying past. "Oh, vultures!"
+cried King Solomon, "come and fly between me and the sun, and make a
+shadow with your wings to protect me, for its rays are scorching my neck
+and face." But the vultures answered, and said, "We are flying to the
+north, and your face is turned towards the south. We desire to continue
+on our way; and be it known unto thee, O king! that we will not turn
+back on our flight, neither will we fly above your throne to protect
+you from the sun, although its rays may be scorching your neck and face.
+"Then King Solomon lifted up his voice, and said, "Cursed be ye, O
+vultures!--and because you will not obey the commands of your lord, who
+rules over the whole world, the feathers of your necks shall fall off;
+and the heat of the sun, and the cold of the winter, and the keenness of
+the wind, and the beating of the rain, shall fall upon your rebellious
+necks, which shall not be protected with feathers, like the necks of
+other birds. And whereas you have hitherto fared delicately,
+henceforward ye shall eat carrion and feed upon offal; and your race
+shall be impure till the end of the world." And it was done unto the
+vultures as King Solomon had said.
+
+Now it fell out that there was a flock of hoopoes flying past; and the
+king cried out to them, and said, "O hoopoes! come and fly between me
+and the sun, that I may be protected from its rays by the shadow of your
+wings." Whereupon the king of the hoopoes answered, and said, "O king,
+we are but little fowls, and we are not able to afford much shade; but
+we will gather our nation together, and by our numbers we will make up
+for our small size." So the hoopoes gathered together, and, flying in a
+cloud over the throne of the king, they sheltered him from the rays of
+the sun.
+
+When the journey was over, and King Solomon sat upon his golden throne,
+in his palace of ivory, whereof the doors were emerald, and the windows
+of diamonds, larger even than the diamond of Jemshid, he commanded that
+the king of the hoopoes should stand before his feet. "Now," said King
+Solomon, "for the service that thou and thy race have rendered, and the
+obedience thou hast shown to the king, thy lord and master, what shall
+be done unto thee, O hoopoe? and what shall be given to the hoopoes of
+thy race, for a memorial and a reward?" Now the king of the hoopoes was
+confused with the great honour of standing before the feet of the king;
+and, making his obeisance, and laying his right claw upon his heart, he
+said, "O king, live for ever! Let a day be given to thy servant, to
+consider with his queen and his councillors what it shall be that the
+king shall give unto us for a reward." And King Solomon said, "Be it
+so." And it was so.
+
+But the king of the hoopoes flew away; and he went to his queen, who was
+a dainty hen, and he told her what had happened, and he desired her
+advice as to what they should ask of the king for a reward; and he
+called together his council, and they sat upon a tree, and they each of
+them desired a different thing. Some wished for a long tail; some wished
+for blue and green feathers; some wished to be as large as ostriches;
+some wished for one thing, and some for another; and they debated till
+the going down of the sun, but they could not agree together. Then the
+queen took the king of the hoopoes apart and said to him, "My dear lord
+and husband, listen to my words; and as we have preserved the head of
+King Solomon, let us ask for crowns of gold on our heads, that we may be
+superior to all other birds." And the words of the queen and the
+princesses her daughters prevailed; and the king of the hoopoes
+presented himself before the throne of Solomon, and desired of him that
+all hoopoes should wear golden crowns upon their heads. Then Solomon
+said, "Hast thou considered well what it is that thou desirest?" And the
+hoopoe said, "I have considered well, and we desire to have golden
+crowns upon our heads." So Solomon replied, "Crowns of gold shall ye
+have: but, behold, thou art a foolish bird; and when the evil days shall
+come upon thee, and thou seest the folly of thy heart, return here to
+me, and I will give thee help." So the king of the hoopoes left the
+presence of King Solomon, with a golden crown upon his head. And all the
+hoopoes had golden crowns; and they were exceeding proud and haughty.
+Moreover, they went down by the lakes and the pools, and walked by the
+margin of the water, that they might admire themselves as it were in a
+glass. And the queen of the hoopoes gave herself airs, and sat upon a
+twig; and she refused to speak to the merops her cousin, and the other
+birds who had been her friends, because they were but vulgar birds, and
+she wore a crown of gold upon her head.
+
+Now there was a certain fowler who set traps for birds; and he put a
+piece of a broken mirror into his trap, and a hoopoe that went in to
+admire itself was caught. And the fowler looked at it, and saw the
+shining crown upon its head; so he wrung off its head, and took the
+crown to Issachar, the son of Jacob, the worker in metal, and he asked
+him what it was. So Issachar, the son of Jacob, said, "It is a crown of
+brass." And he gave the fowler a quarter of a shekel for it, and desired
+him, if he found any more, to bring them to him, and to tell no man
+thereof. So the fowler caught some more hoopoes, and sold their crowns
+to Issachar, the son of Jacob; until one day he met another man who was
+a jeweller, and he showed him several of the hoopoes' crowns. Whereupon
+the jeweller told him that they were of pure gold; and he gave the
+fowler a talent of gold for four of them.
+
+Now when the value of these crowns was known, the fame of them got
+abroad, and in all the land of Israel was heard the twang of bows and
+the whirling of slings; bird-lime was made in every town; and the price
+of traps rose in the market, so that the fortunes of the trap-makers
+increased. Not a hoopoe could show its head but it was slain or taken
+captive, and the days of the hoopoes were numbered. Then their minds
+were filled with sorrow and dismay, and before long few were left to
+bewail their cruel destiny.
+
+At last, flying by stealth through the most unfrequented places, the
+unhappy king of the hoopoes went to the court of King Solomon, and stood
+again before the steps of the golden throne, and with tears and groans
+related the misfortunes which had happened to his race.
+
+So King Solomon looked kindly upon the king of the hoopoes, and said
+unto him, "Behold, did I not warn thee of thy folly, in desiring to have
+crowns of gold? Vanity and pride have been thy ruin. But now, that a
+memorial may remain of the service which thou didst render unto me, your
+crowns of gold shall be changed into crowns of feathers, that ye may
+walk unharmed upon the earth." Now when the fowlers saw that the hoopoes
+no longer wore crowns of gold upon their heads, they ceased from the
+persecution of their race; and from that time forth the family of the
+hoopoes have flourished and increased, and have continued in peace even
+to the present day.
+
+And here endeth the veracious history of the king of the hoopoes.
+
+But to return to the island of Philoe. The neighbourhood of the cataracts
+is inhabited by a peculiar race of people, who are neither Arabs, nor
+negroes, like the Nubians, whose land joins to theirs. They are of a
+clear copper colour; and are slightly but elegantly formed. They have
+woolly hair; and are not encumbered with much clothing. The men wear a
+short tunic of white cotton; but often have only a petticoat round
+their loins. The married women have a piece of stuff thrown over their
+heads which envelopes the whole person. Under this they wear a curious
+garment made of fine strips of black leather, about a foot long, like a
+fringe. This hangs round the hips, and forms the only clothing of
+unmarried girls, whose forms are as perfect as that of any ancient
+statue. They dress their hair precisely in the same way as we see in the
+pictures of the ancient Egyptians, plaited in numerous tresses, which
+descend about half way down the neck, and are plentifully anointed with
+castor-oil; that they may not spoil their head-dresses, they use,
+instead of a pillow to rest their heads upon at night, a stool of hard
+wood like those which are found in the ancient tombs, and which resemble
+in shape the handle of a crutch more than anything else that I can think
+of. The women are fond of necklaces and armlets of beads; and the men
+wear a knife of a peculiar form, stuck into an armlet above the elbow of
+the left arm. When they go from home they carry a spear, and a shield
+made of the skin of the hippopotamus or crocodile, with which they are
+very clever in warding off blows, and in defending themselves from
+stones or other missiles.
+
+Of this race was a girl called Mouna, whom I had known as a child when I
+was first at Philoe. She grew up to be the most beautiful bronze statue
+that can be conceived. She used to bring eggs from the island on which
+she lived to Philoe: her means of conveyance across the water was a
+piece of the trunk of a doom-tree, upon which she supported herself as
+she swam across the Nile ten times a-day. I never saw so perfect a
+figure as that of Mouna. She was of a lighter brown than most of the
+other girls, and was exactly the colour of a new copper kettle. She had
+magnificent large eyes; and her face had but a slight leaning towards
+the Ethiopian contour. Her bands and feet were wonderfully small and
+delicately formed. In short, she was a perfect beauty in her way; but
+the perfume of the castor-oil with which she was anointed had so strong
+a savour that, when she brought us the eggs and chickens, I always
+admired her at a distance of ten yards to windward. She had an
+ornamented calabash to hold her castor-oil, from which she made a fresh
+toilette every time she swam across the Nile.
+
+I have been three times at Philoe, and indeed I had so great an
+admiration of the place that on my last visit, thinking it probable that
+I should never again behold its wonderful ruins and extraordinary
+scenery, I determined to spend the day there alone, that I might
+meditate at my leisure and wander as I chose from one well-remembered
+spot to another without the incumbrance of half a dozen people staring
+at whatever I looked at, and following me about out of pure idleness.
+Greatly did I enjoy my solitary day, and whilst leaning over the parapet
+on the top of the great Propylon, or seated on one of the terraces which
+overhung the Nile, I in imagination repeopled the scene, with the forms
+of the priests and worshippers of other days, restored the fallen
+temples to their former glory, and could almost think I saw the
+processions winding round their walls, and heard the trumpets, and the
+harps, and the sacred hymns in honour of the great Osiris. In the
+evening a native came over with a little boat to take me off the island,
+and I quitted with regret this strange and interesting region.
+
+I landed at the village of rude huts on the shore of the river and sat
+down on a stone, waiting for my donkey, which I purposed to ride through
+the desert in the cool of the evening to Assouan, where my boat was
+moored. While I was sitting there, two boys were playing and wrestling
+together; they were naked and about nine or ten years old. They soon
+began to quarrel, and one of them drew the dagger which he wore upon his
+arm and stabbed the other in the throat. The poor boy fell to the ground
+bleeding; the dagger had entered his throat on the left side under the
+jawbone, and being directed upwards had cut his tongue and grazed the
+roof of his mouth. Whilst he cried and writhed about upon the ground
+with the blood pouring out of his mouth, the villagers came out from
+their cabins and stood around talking and screaming, but affording no
+help to the poor boy. Presently a young man, who was, I believe, a lover
+of Mouna's, stood up and asked where the father of the boy was, and why
+he did not come to help him. The villagers said he had no father.
+"Where are his relations, then?" he asked. The boy had no relations,
+there was no one to care for him in the village. On hearing this he
+uttered some words which I did not understand, and started off after the
+boy who had inflicted the wound. The young assassin ran away as fast as
+he could, and a famous chase took place. They darted over the plain,
+scrambled up the rocks, and jumped down some dangerous-looking places
+among the masses of granite which formed the background of the village.
+At length the boy was caught, and, screaming and struggling, was dragged
+to the spot where his victim lay moaning and heaving upon the sand. The
+young man now placed him between his legs, and in this way held him
+tight whilst he examined the wound of the other, putting his finger into
+it and opening his mouth to see exactly how far it extended. When he had
+satisfied himself on the subject he called for a knife; the boy had
+thrown his away in the race, and he had not one himself. The villagers
+stood silent around, and one of them having handed him a dagger, the
+young man held the boy's head sideways across his thigh and cut his
+throat exactly in the same way as he had done to the other. He then
+pitched him away upon the ground, and the two lay together bleeding and
+writhing side by side. Their wounds were precisely the same; the second
+operation had been most expertly performed, and the knife had passed
+just where the boy had stabbed his playmate. The wounds, I believe, were
+not dangerous, for presently both the boys got up and were led away to
+their homes. It was a curious instance of retributive justice, following
+out the old law of blood for blood, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a
+tooth.
+
+
+
+
+MONASTERIES OF THE LEVANT.
+
+PART II.
+
+JERUSALEM AND THE MONASTERY
+
+OF ST. SABBA.
+
+1834.
+
+[Illustration: Plan of the Church
+
+of
+
+THE HOLY SEPULCHRE.
+
+The Holy [symbol: cross] Sepulchre.
+
+1. Entrance to the Church.
+
+2. The Stone of Unction.
+
+3. Where our Saviour was nailed to the Cross.
+
+4. Mount Calvary [3 cross symbols]
+
+5. Chapel of the Sacrifice of Isaac.
+
+6. Chapel of the Altar of Melchisedec.
+
+7. Stairs up to Mount Calvary.
+
+8. Stairs down to the Chapel of St. Helena.
+
+9. Stairs down to the Chapel of the Invention of the Cross.
+
+10. Place where the three Crosses were discovered.
+
+11. Chapel of the Division of the Garments.
+
+12. Prison of our Lord.
+
+13. Greek Choir, in it [symbol-omphalos], the center of the world; on
+each side are the Stalls for the Monks.
+
+14. Latin Choir.
+
+15. Where Mary Magdalene stood.
+
+16. Where our Lord appeared to Mary Magdalene.
+
+17. The Pillar of Flagellation.
+
+18. Rooms of the Latin Convent.
+
+19. Chapel of the Maronites.
+
+20. Chapel of the Georgians.
+
+21. Sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathea.
+
+22. Chapel of the Copts.
+
+23. Chapel of the Jacobites.
+
+24. Chapel of the Abyssinians, over which is the Chapel of the
+Armenians.
+
+25. The spot where the Blessed Virgin and St. John stood during the
+Crucifixion.
+
+26. Steps before the entrance of the Holy Sepulchre.
+
+27. Ante-room to the Holy Sepulchre. In the center is the stone where
+the Angel sat; on either side the two windows from whence the Holy Fire
+is delivered to the multitude.
+
+28. The Iconostasis, or Screen before the Greek Altar, which, as in
+English Churches, is called the Holy Table--[Greek: ikonostasis].]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+     Journey to Jerusalem--First View of the Holy City--The Valley of
+     Gihon--Appearance of the City--The Latin Convent of St.
+     Salvador--Inhospitable Reception by the Monks--Visit to the Church
+     of the Holy Sepulchre--Description of the Interior--The Chapel of
+     the Sepulchre--The Chapel of the Cross on Mount Calvary--The Tomb
+     and Sword of Godfrey de Bouillon--Arguments in favour of the
+     Authenticity of the Holy Sepulchre--The Invention of the Cross by
+     the Empress Helena--Legend of the Cross.
+
+    "Ecco apparir Gerusalem si vede,
+    Ecco additar Gerusalem si scorge,
+    Ecco da mile voce unitamente,
+    Gerosalemme salutar si sente.
+
+           *       *       *       *
+
+    E l'uno all'altro il mostra e in tanto oblia,
+    La noja e il mal della passata via.
+
+           *       *       *       *
+
+    Al gran placer che quella prima vista,
+    Dolcemente spir� nell'altrui petto,
+    Alta contrizion succese mista,
+    Di timoroso e riverente affetto,
+    Ossano appena d'inalzar la vista
+    Ver la citt�, di Christo albergo eletto:
+    Dove mori, dove sepolto fue;
+    Dove poi riveste le membre sue."
+
+    TASSO, _Gerusalemme Liberata_, Canto 3.
+
+
+We left our camels and dromedaries, and wild Arabs of the desert, at
+Gaza; and being now provided with horses, and a tamer sort of Yahoo to
+attend upon them, we took our way across the hills towards Jerusalem.
+
+The road passes over a succession of rounded rocky hills, almost every
+step being rendered interesting by its connexion with the events of Holy
+Writ. On our left we saw the village of Kobab, and on our right the
+ruins of a castle said to have been built by the Maccabees, and not far
+from it the remains of an ancient Christian church.
+
+As our train of horses surmounted each succeeding eminence, every one
+was eager to be the first who should catch a glimpse of the Holy City.
+Again and again we were disappointed; another rocky valley yawned
+beneath us, and another barren stony hill rose up beyond. There seemed
+to be no end to the intervening hills and dales; they appeared to
+multiply beneath our feet. At last, when we had almost given up the
+point and had ceased to contend for the first view by galloping ahead;
+as we ascended another rocky brow we saw the towers of what seemed to be
+a Gothic castle; then, as we approached nearer, a long line of walls and
+battlements appeared crowning a ridge of rock which rose from a narrow
+valley to the right. This was the valley of the pools of Gihon, where
+Solomon was crowned, and the battlements which rose above it were the
+long looked-for walls of Jerusalem. With one accord our whole party
+drew their bridles, and stood still to gaze for the first time upon
+this renowned and sacred city.
+
+It is not easy to describe the sensations which fill the breast of a
+Christian when, after a long and toilsome journey, he first beholds
+this, the most interesting and venerated spot upon the whole surface of
+the globe. Every one was silent for a while, absorbed in the deepest
+contemplation. The object of our pilgrimage was accomplished, and I do
+not think that anything we saw afterwards during our stay in Jerusalem
+made a more profound impression on our minds than this first distant
+view.
+
+It was curious to observe the different effect which our approach to
+Jerusalem had upon the various persons who composed our party. A
+Christian pilgrim, who had joined us on the road, fell down upon his
+knees and kissed the holy ground; two others embraced each other, and
+congratulated themselves that they had lived to see Jerusalem. As for us
+Franks, we sat bolt upright upon our horses, and stared and said
+nothing; whilst around us the more natural children of the East wept for
+joy, and, as in the army of the Crusaders, the word Jerusalem!
+Jerusalem! was repeated from mouth to mouth; but we, who consider
+ourselves civilized and superior beings, repressed our emotions; we were
+above showing that we participated in the feelings of our barbarous
+companions. As for myself, I would have got off my horse and walked
+bare-footed towards the gate, as some did, if I had dared: but I was in
+fear of being laughed at for my absurdity, and therefore sat fast in my
+saddle. At last I blew my nose, and, pressing the sharp edges of my Arab
+stirrups on the lank sides of my poor weary jade, I rode on slowly
+towards the Bethlehem gate.
+
+On the sloping sides of the valley of Gihon numerous groups of people
+were lying under the olive-trees in the cool of the evening, and parties
+of grave Turks, seated on their carpets by the road-side, were smoking
+their long pipes in dignified silence. But what struck me most were some
+old white-bearded Jews, who were holding forth to groups of their
+friends or disciples under the walls of the city of their fathers, and
+dilating perhaps upon the glorious actions of their race in former days.
+
+Jerusalem has been described as a deserted and melancholy ruin, filling
+the mind with images of desolation and decay, but it did not strike me
+as such. It is still a compact city, as it is described in Scripture;
+the Saracenic walls have a stately, magnificent appearance; they are
+built of large and massive stones. The square towers, which are seen at
+intervals, are handsome and in good repair; and there is an imposing
+dignity in the appearance of the grim old citadel, which rises in the
+centre of the line of walls and towers, with its batteries and terraces
+one above another, surmounted with the crimson flag of Turkey floating
+heavily over the conquered city of the cross.
+
+We entered by the Bethlehem gate: it is commanded by the citadel, which
+was built by the people of Pisa, and is still called the castle of the
+Pisans. There we had some parleying with the Egyptian guards, and,
+crossing an open space famous in monastic tradition as the garden where
+Bathsheba was bathing when she was seen by King David from the roof of
+his palace, we threaded a labyrinth of narrow streets, which the horses
+of our party completely blocked up; and as soon as we could, we sent a
+man with our letters of introduction to the superior of the Latin
+convent. I had letters from Cardinal Weld and Cardinal Pedicini, which
+we presumed would ensure us a warm and hospitable reception; and as
+travellers are usually lodged in the monastic establishments, we went on
+at once to the Latin convent of St. Salvador, where we expected to enjoy
+all the comforts and luxuries of European civilization after our weary
+journey over the desert from Egypt. We, however, quickly discovered our
+mistake; for, on dismounting at the gate of the convent, we were
+received in a very cool way by the monks, who appeared to make the
+reception of travellers a mere matter of interest, and treated us as if
+we were dust under their feet. They put us into a wretched hole in the
+Casa Nuova, a house belonging to them near the convent, where there was
+scarcely room for our baggage; and we went to bed not a little mortified
+at our inhospitable reception by our Christian brethren, so different
+from what we had always experienced from the Mahometans. The convent of
+St. Salvador belongs to a community of Franciscan friars; they were most
+of them Spaniards, and, being so far away from the superior officers of
+their order, they were not kept in very perfect discipline. It was
+probably owing to our being heretics that we were not better received.
+Fortunately we had our own beds, tents, cooking-utensils, carpets, &c.;
+so that we soon made ourselves comfortable in the bare vaulted rooms
+which were allotted to us, and for which, by-the-bye, we had to pay
+pretty handsomely.
+
+The next morning early we went to the church of the Holy Sepulchre,
+descending the hill from the convent, and then down a flight of narrow
+steps into a small paved court, one side of which is occupied by the
+Gothic front of the church. The court was full of people selling beads
+and crucifixes and other holy ware. We had to wait some time, till the
+Turkish doorkeepers came to unlock the door, as they keep the keys of
+the church, which is only open on certain days, except to votaries of
+distinction. There is a hole in the door, through which the pilgrims
+gave quantities of things to the monks inside to be laid upon the
+sepulchre. At last the door was opened, and we went into the church.
+
+On entering these sacred walls the attention is first directed to a
+large slab of marble on the floor opposite the door, with several lamps
+suspended over it, and three enormous waxen tapers about twenty feet in
+height standing at each end. The pilgrims approach it on their knees,
+touch and kiss it, and, prostrating themselves before it, offer up their
+adoration. This, you are told, is the stone on which the body of our
+Lord was washed and anointed, and prepared for the tomb.
+
+Turning to the left, we came to a round stone let into the pavement,
+with a canopy of ornamental iron-work over it Here the Virgin Mary is
+said to have stood when the body of our Saviour was taken down from the
+cross.
+
+Leaving this, we entered the circular space immediately under the great
+dome, which is about eighty feet in diameter, and is surrounded by
+eighteen large square piers, which support the front of a broad gallery.
+Formerly this circular gallery was supported by white marble pillars:
+but the church was burnt down about twenty years ago, through the
+negligence of a drunken Greek monk, who set a light to some parts of the
+woodwork, and then endeavoured to put out the flames by throwing aqua
+vit� upon them, which he mistook for water.
+
+The Chapel of the Sepulchre stands under the centre of the dome. It is a
+small oblong house of stone, rounded at one end, where there is an altar
+for the Coptic and Abyssinian Christians. At the other end it is
+square, and has a platform of marble in front, which is ascended by a
+flight of steps, and has a low parapet wall and a seat on each side. The
+chapel contains two rooms. Taking off our shoes and turbans, we entered
+a low narrow door, and went into a chamber, in the centre of which
+stands a block of polished marble. On this stone sat the angel who
+announced the blessed tidings of the resurrection.
+
+From this room, which has a small round window on each side, we passed
+through another low door into the inner chamber, which contains the Holy
+Sepulchre itself, which, however, is not visible, being concealed by an
+altar of white marble. It is said to be a long narrow excavation like a
+grave or the interior of a sarcophagus hewed out of the rock just
+beneath the level of the ground. Six rows of lamps of silver gilt,
+twelve in each row, hang from the ceiling, and are kept perpetually
+burning. The tomb occupies nearly one-half of the sepulchral chamber,
+and extends from one end of it to the other on the right side of the
+door as you enter; a space of three feet wide and rather more than six
+feet long in front of it being all that remains for the accommodation of
+the pilgrims, so that not more than three or four can be admitted at a
+time.
+
+Leaving this hallowed spot, we were conducted first to the place where
+our Lord appeared to Mary Magdalen, and then to the Chapel of the
+Latins, where a part of the pillar of flagellation is preserved.
+
+The Greeks have possession of the choir of the church, which is opposite
+the door of the Holy Sepulchre. This part of the building is of great
+size, and is magnificently decorated with gold and carving and stiff
+pictures of the saints. In the centre is a globe of black marble on a
+pedestal, under which they say the head of Adam was found; and you are
+told also that this is the exact centre of the globe; the Greeks having
+thus transferred to Jerusalem, from the temple of Apollo at Delphi, the
+absurd notions of the pagan priests of antiquity relative to the form of
+the earth.
+
+Returning towards the door of the church, and leaving it on our right
+hand, we ascended a flight of about twenty steps, and found ourselves in
+the Chapel of the Cross on Mount Calvary. At the upper end of this
+chapel is an altar, on the spot where the crucifixion took place, and
+under it is the hole into which the end of the cross was fixed: this is
+surrounded with a glory of silver gilt, and on each side of it, at the
+distance of about six feet, are the holes in which the crosses of the
+two thieves stood. Near to these is a long rent in the rock, which was
+opened by an earthquake at the time of the crucifixion. Although the
+three crosses appear to have stood very near to each other, yet, from
+the manner in which they are placed, there would have been room enough
+for them, as the cross of our Saviour stands in front of the other two.
+
+Leaving this chapel we entered a kind of vault under the stairs, in
+which the rent of the rock is again seen: it extends from the ceiling to
+the floor, and has every appearance of having been caused by some
+convulsion of nature, and not formed by the hands of man. Here were
+formerly the tombs of Godfrey de Bouillon and Baldwin his brother, who
+were buried beneath the cross for which they fought so valiantly: but
+these tombs have lately been destroyed by the Greeks, whose detestation
+of everything connected with the Latin Church exceeds their aversion to
+the Mahometan creed. In the sacristy of the Latin monks we were shown
+the sword and spurs of Godfrey de Bouillon; the sword is apparently of
+the age assigned to it: it is double-edged and straight, with a
+cross-guard.[11]
+
+In another part of the church is a small dismal chapel, in the floor of
+which are several ancient tombs; one of them is said to be the sepulchre
+of Joseph of Arimathea. Of the antiquity of these tombs there cannot be
+the slightest doubt; and their being here forms the best argument for
+the authenticity of the Holy Sepulchre itself, as it shows that this was
+formerly a place of burial, notwithstanding its situation in the centre
+of the ancient city, contrary to the almost universal practice of the
+ancients, whose sepulchres are always found some short distance from
+their cities; indeed, among the Egyptians, whose manners seem to have
+been followed in many respects by the Jews, it was a law that no one
+should be buried in the cultivated grounds, but their tombs were
+excavated in the rocks of the desert, that the agricultural and other
+daily pursuits of the living might not interfere with the repose of the
+dead. It is mentioned in the Bible that Christ was led _out_ to be
+crucified; but it is not quite clear from the passage whether he was led
+out of the city of Jerusalem itself, or only from the city of David on
+Mount Sion, which appears to have been the citadel and place of
+residence of the Roman governor. If so, the site of the Holy Sepulchre
+may be the true one; and, in common with all other pilgrims, I am
+inclined to hope that the tomb now pointed out may really be the
+sepulchre of Christ.
+
+Descending a flight of steps from the body of the church, we entered the
+subterranean chapel of St. Helena, below which is another vault, in
+which the true cross is said to have been found. A very curious account
+of the finding of the cross is to be seen in the black-letter pages of
+Caxton's 'Golden Legend,' and it has formed the subject of many
+singular traditions and romantic stories in former days. The history of
+this famous relic would be tedious were I to narrate it in the obsolete
+phraseology of the father of English printing, and I will therefore only
+give a short summary of the legend; although, to those who take an
+interest in monastic traditions, the accounts given in old books, which
+were read by our ancestors before the Reformation with all the sober
+seriousness of undoubting faith, afford a curious instance of the
+proneness of the human intellect to mistake the shadow for the
+substance, and to substitute an unbounded veneration for outward
+observances for the more reasonable acts of spiritual devotion.
+
+In the middle ages, while the worship of our Saviour was completely
+neglected, the wooden cross upon which he was supposed to have suffered
+was the object of universal adoration to all sects of Christians; armies
+fought with religious enthusiasm, not for the faith, but for the relic
+of the cross; and the traditions regarding it were received as undoubted
+facts by the heroes of the crusades, the hierarchy of the Church, and
+all who called themselves Christians, in those iron ages, when with rope
+and fagot, fire and sword, the fierce piety even of good men sought to
+enforce the precepts of Him whose advent was heralded with the angels'
+hymn of "peace on earth and good will towards men."
+
+It is related in the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, that when Adam
+fell sick he sent his son Seth to the gate of the terrestrial paradise
+to ask the angel for some drops of the oil of mercy, which distilled
+from the tree of life, to cure him of his disease; but the angel
+answered that he could not receive this healing oil until 5500 years had
+passed away. He gave him, however, a branch of this tree, and it was
+planted upon Adam's grave. In after ages the tree flourished and waxed
+exceeding fair, for Adam was buried in Mount Lebanon, not very far from
+the place near Damascus whence the red earth of which his body was
+formed by the Creator had been taken. When Balkia, Queen of Abyssinia,
+came to visit Solomon the King, she worshipped this tree, for she said
+that thereon should the Saviour of the world be hanged, and that from
+that time the kingdom of the Jews should cease. Upon hearing this,
+Solomon commanded that the tree should be cut down and buried in a
+certain place in Jerusalem, where afterwards the pool of Bethesda was
+dug, and the angel that had charge of the mysterious tree troubled the
+water of the pool at certain seasons, and those who first dipped into it
+were cured of their ailments. As the time of the passion of the Saviour
+approached, the wood floated on the surface of the water, and of that
+piece of timber, which was of cedar, the Jews made the upright part of
+the cross, the cross beam was made of cypress, the piece on which his
+feet rested was of palm, and the other, on which the superscription was
+written, was of olive.
+
+After the crucifixion the holy cross and the crosses of the two thieves
+were thrown into the town ditch, or, according to some, into an old
+vault which was near at hand, and they were covered with the refuse and
+ruins of the city. In her extreme old age the Empress Helena, making a
+pilgrimage to Jerusalem, threatened all the Jewish inhabitants with
+torture and death if they did not produce the holy cross from the place
+where their ancestors had concealed it: and at last an old Jew named
+Judas, who had been put into prison and was nearly famished, consented
+to reveal the secret; he accordingly petitioned Heaven, whereupon the
+earth trembled, and from the fissures in the ground a delicious aromatic
+odour issued forth, and on the soil being removed the three crosses were
+discovered; and near the crosses the superscription was also found, but
+it was not known to which of the three it belonged. However, Macarius,
+Bishop of Jerusalem, repairing with the Empress to the house of a noble
+lady who was afflicted with an incurable disease, she was immediately
+restored to health by touching the true cross; and the body of a young
+man which was being carried out to burial was brought to life on being
+laid upon the holy wood. At the sight of these miracles Judas the Jew
+became a Christian, and was baptized by the name of Quiriacus, to the
+great indignation of the devil, for, said he, "by the first Judas I
+gained much profit, but by this one's conversion I shall lose many
+souls."
+
+It would be endless were I to give the history of all the authenticated
+relics of the holy cross since those days; but of the three principal
+pieces one is now, or lately was, at Etchmiazin, in Armenia, the monks
+of which Church are accused of having stolen it from the Latins of
+Jerusalem when they were imprisoned by Sultan Suleiman. The second piece
+is still at Jerusalem, in the hands of the Greeks; and the third, which
+was sent by the Empress Helena herself to the church of Santa Croce di
+Gerusalemme at Rome, is now preserved in St. Peter's. There is indeed
+little reason to doubt that the piece of wood exhibited at Rome is the
+same that the Empress sent there in the year 326. The feast of the
+"Invention of the Cross" continues to be celebrated every year on the
+3rd of May by an appropriate mass.
+
+Besides the objects which I have mentioned, there is within the church
+an altar on the spot where Christ is said to have appeared to the Virgin
+after the resurrection. This completes the list of all the sacred places
+contained under the roof of the great church of the Holy Sepulchre.
+
+I may remark that all the very ancient specimens of the relics of the
+true cross are of the same wood, which has a very peculiar
+half-petrified appearance. I have a relic of this kind; the date of the
+shrine in which it is preserved being of the date of 1280. I have also
+a piece of the cross in a more modern setting, which is not of the same
+wood.
+
+Whether all the hallowed spots within these walls really are the places
+which the guardians of the church declare them to be, or whether they
+have been fixed on at random, and consecrated to serve the interested
+views of a crafty priesthood, is a fact that I shall leave others to
+determine; however this may be, it is a matter of little consequence to
+the Christian. The great facts on which the history of the Gospel is
+founded are not so closely connected with particular spots of earth or
+sacred buildings as to be rendered doubtful by any mistake in the choice
+of a locality. The main error on the part of the priests of modern times
+at Jerusalem arises from an anxiety to prove the actual existence of
+everything to which any allusion is made by the evangelical historians,
+not remembering that the lapse of ages and the devastation of successive
+wars must have destroyed much, and disguised more, which the early
+disciples could most readily have identified. The mere circumstance that
+the localities of almost all the events which attended the close of our
+Saviour's ministry are crowded into one place, and covered by the roof
+of a single church, might excite a very justifiable doubt as to the
+exactness of the topography maintained by the friars of Mount Moriah.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+
+     The Via Dolorosa--The Houses of Dives and of Lazarus--The Prison of
+     St. Peter--The Site of the Temple of Solomon--The Mosque of
+     Omar--The Hadjr el Sakhara--The Greek Monastery--Its
+     Library--Valuable Manuscripts--Splendid MS. of the Book of
+     Job--Arabic spoken at Jerusalem--Mussulman Theory regarding the
+     Crucifixion--State of the Jews--Richness of their Dress in their
+     own Houses--Beauty of their Women--Their literal Interpretation of
+     Scripture--The Service in the Synagogue--Description of the House
+     of a Rabbi--The Samaritans--Their Roll of the Pentateuch--Arrival
+     of Ibrahim Pasha at Jerusalem.
+
+
+Except the Holy Sepulchre, none of the places which are pointed out as
+sacred within the walls of Jerusalem merit a description, as they have
+evidently been created by the monks to serve their own purposes. You are
+shown, for instance, the whole of the Via Dolorosa, the way by which our
+Saviour passed from the hall of Pilate to Mount Calvary, and the exact
+seven places where he fell under the weight of the cross: you are shown
+the house of the rich man and that of Lazarus, both of them Turkish
+buildings, although, as that story is related in a parable, no real
+localities ever can have been referred to. Near the house of Lazarus
+there were several dogs when I passed by, and, on my asking the guide
+whether they were the descendants of the original dogs in the parable,
+he said he was not quite sure, but that as to the house there could be
+no doubt. The prison of St. Peter is also to be seen, but the column on
+which the cock stood who crowed on his denial of our Lord, as well as
+the steps by which Christ ascended to the judgment-seat of Pilate, have
+been carried away to Rome, where they are both to be seen on the hill of
+St. John Lateran.
+
+The mosque of Omar stands on the site of the ancient Temple of Solomon,
+which covered the whole of the enclosure which is now the garden of the
+mosque, a space of about 1500 feet long, and 1000 feet wide. In the
+centre of this garden is a platform of stone about 600 feet square, on
+which stands the octagonal building of the mosque itself, the upper part
+being covered with green porcelain tiles which glitter in the sun:
+below, the walls are paneled with marble richly worked and of different
+colours: the dome in the centre has a wide cornice round it, ornamented
+with sentences from the Koran: the whole has a brilliant and
+extraordinary appearance, more like a Chinese temple than anything else.
+This building is called the Acksa el Sakhara, from its containing a
+piece of rock called the Hadjr el Sakhara, or the locked-up stone, which
+is the principal object of veneration in the place: it occupies the
+centre of the mosque, and on it are shown the prints of the angel
+Gabriel's fingers, who brought it from heaven, and the mark of the
+Prophet's foot and that of his camel, a singularly good leaper, two more
+of whose footsteps I have seen in Egypt and Arabia, and I believe there
+is another at Damascus, the whole journey from Jerusalem to Mecca having
+been performed in four bounds only, for which remarkable service the
+camel is to have a place in heaven, where he will enjoy the society of
+Borak, the prophet's horse, Balaam's ass, Tobit's dog, and the dog of
+the seven sleepers, whose name was Ketmir, and also the companionship of
+a certain celebrated fly with whose merits I am unacquainted.
+
+We are told that the stone of the Sakhara fell from heaven at the time
+when prophecy commenced at Jerusalem. It was employed as a seat by the
+venerable men to whom that gift was communicated, and, as long as the
+spirit of vaticination continued to enlighten their minds, the slab
+remained steady for their accommodation; but no sooner was the power of
+prophecy withdrawn, and the persecuted seers compelled to flee for
+safety to other lands, than the stone manifested the profoundest
+sympathy in their fate, and evinced a determination to accompany them in
+their flight: on which Gabriel the archangel interposed his authority,
+and prevented the departure of the prophetical chair. He grasped it with
+his mighty hand and nailed it to its rocky bed by seven brass or golden
+nails. When any event of great importance to the world takes place the
+head of one of these nails disappears, and when they are all gone the
+day of judgment will come. As there are now only three left, the
+Mahometans believe that the end of all things is not far distant. All
+those who have faithfully performed their devotions at this celebrated
+mosque are furnished by the priest with a certificate of their having
+done so, which is to be buried with them that they may show it to the
+door-keeper of Paradise as a ticket of admission. I was presented with
+one of these at Jerusalem, and found another in the desert of Al Arisch,
+a wondrous piece of good fortune in the estimation of my Mahometan
+followers, as I was provided with a ticket for a friend, as well as a
+pass for my own reception among the houris of their Prophet's celestial
+garden.
+
+The Greek monastery adjoins the church of the Holy Sepulchre. It
+contains a good library, the iron door of which is opened by a key as
+large as a horse-pistol. The books are kept in good order, and consist
+of about two thousand printed volumes in various languages; and about
+five hundred Greek and Arabic MSS. on paper, which are all theological
+works. There are also about one hundred Greek manuscripts on vellum: the
+whole collection is in excellent preservation. One of the eight
+manuscripts of the Gospels which the library contains has the index and
+the beginning of each Gospel written in gold letters on purple vellum,
+and has also some curious illuminations. There is likewise a manuscript
+of the whole Bible: it is a large folio, and is the only one I ever
+heard of, excepting the one at the Vatican and that at the British
+Museum. One of the most beautiful volumes in the library is a large
+folio of the book of Job. It is a most glorious MS.: the text is written
+in large letters, surrounded with scholia in a smaller hand, and almost
+every page contains one or more miniatures representing the sufferings
+of Job, with ghastly portraits of Bildad the Shuhite and his other
+pitying friends: this manuscript is of the twelfth century. The rest of
+the manuscripts consist of the works of the Fathers, copies of the
+'Anthologia,' and books for the Church service.
+
+The Arabic language is generally spoken at Jerusalem, though the Turkish
+is much used among the better class. The inhabitants are composed of
+people of different nations and different religions, who inwardly
+despise one another on account of their varying opinions; but, as the
+Christians are very numerous, there reigns among the whole no small
+degree of complaisance, as well as an unrestrained intercourse in
+matters of business, amusement, and even of religion. The Mussulmans,
+for instance, pray in all the holy places consecrated to the memory of
+Christ and the Virgin, except the tomb of the Holy Sepulchre, the
+sanctity of which they do not acknowledge, for they believe that Jesus
+Christ did not die, but that he ascended alive into heaven, leaving the
+likeness of his face to Judas, who was condemned to die for him; and
+that, as Judas was crucified, it was his body, and not that of Jesus,
+which was placed in the sepulchre. It is for this reason that the
+Mussulmans do not perform any act of devotion at the tomb of the Holy
+Sepulchre, and that they ridicule the Christians who visit and revere
+it.
+
+The Jews--the "children of the kingdom"--have been cast out, and many
+have come from the east and the west to occupy their place in the
+desolate land promised to their fathers. Their quarter is in the narrow
+valley between the Temple and the foot of Mount Zion. Many of the Jews
+are rich, but they are careful to conceal their wealth from the jealous
+eyes of their Mahometan rulers, lest they should be subjected to
+extortion.
+
+It is remarkable that the Jews who are born in Jerusalem are of a
+totally different caste from those we see in Europe. Here they are a
+fair race, very lightly made, and particularly effeminate in manner; the
+young men wear a lock of long hair on each side of the face, which, with
+their flowing silk robes, gives them the appearance of women. The Jews
+of both sexes are exceedingly fond of dress; and, although they assume a
+dirty and squalid appearance when they walk abroad, in their own houses
+they are to be seen clothed in costly furs and the richest silks of
+Damascus. The women are covered with gold, and dressed in brocades stiff
+with embroidery. Some of them are beautiful; and a girl of about twelve
+years old, who was betrothed to the son of a rich old rabbi, was the
+prettiest little creature I ever saw; her skin was whiter than ivory,
+and her hair, which was as black as jet, and was plaited with strings of
+sequins, fell in tresses nearly to the ground. She was of a Spanish
+family, and the language usually spoken by the Jews among themselves is
+Spanish.
+
+The Jewish religion is now so much encumbered with superstition and the
+extraordinary explanations of the Bible in the Talmud, that little of
+the original creed remains. They interpret all the words of Scripture
+literally, and this leads them into most absurd mistakes. On the morning
+of the day of the Passover I went into the synagogue under the walls of
+the Temple, and found it crowded to the very door; all the congregation
+were standing up, with large white shawls over their heads with the
+fringes which they were commanded to wear by the Jewish law. They were
+reading the Psalms, and after I had been there a short time all the
+people began to hop about and to shake their heads and limbs in a most
+extraordinary manner; the whole congregation was in motion, from the
+priest, who was dancing in the reading-desk, to the porter, who capered
+at the door. All this was in consequence of a verse in the 35th Psalm,
+which says, "All my bones shall say, Lord, who is like unto thee;" and
+this was their ludicrous manner of doing so. After the Psalm a crier
+went round the room, who sold the honour of performing different parts
+of the service to the highest bidder; the money so obtained is
+appropriated to the relief of the poor. The sanctuary at the upper end
+of the room was then opened, and a curtain withdrawn, in imitation of
+that which separated the Holy of Holies from the body of the Temple.
+From this place the book of the law was taken: it was contained in a
+case of embossed silver, and two large silver ornaments were fixed on
+the ends of the rollers, which stuck out from the top of the case. The
+Jews, out of reverence, as I presume, touched it with a little bodkin of
+gold, and, on its being carried to the reading-desk, a silver crown was
+placed upon it, and a man, supported by two others, one on each side of
+him, chanted the lesson of the day in a loud voice: the book was then
+replaced in the sanctuary, and the service concluded. The women are not
+admitted into the synagogue, but are permitted to view the ceremonies
+from a grated gallery set apart for them. However, they seldom attend,
+as it seems they are not accounted equal to the men either in body or
+soul, and trouble themselves very little with matters of religion.
+
+The house of Rabbi A----, with whom I was acquainted, answered exactly
+to Sir Walter Scott's description of the dwelling of Isaac of York. The
+outside of the house and the court-yard indicated nothing but poverty
+and neglect; but on entering I was surprised at the magnificence of the
+furniture. One room had a silver chandelier, and a great quantity of
+embossed plate was displayed on the top of the polished cupboards. Some
+of the windows were filled with painted glass; and the members of the
+family, covered with gold and jewels, were seated on divans of Damascus
+brocade. The Rabbi's little son was so covered with charms in gold cases
+to keep off the evil eye, that he jingled like a chime of bells when he
+walked along; and a still younger boy, whom I had never seen before, was
+on this day exalted to the dignity of wearing trousers, which were of
+red stuff, embroidered with gold, and were brought in by his nurse and a
+number of other women in procession, and borne on high before him as he
+was dragged round the room howling and crying without any nether garment
+on at all. He was walked round again after his superb trousers were put
+on, and very uncomfortable he seemed to be, but doubtless the honour of
+the thing consoled him, and he waddled out into the court with an air of
+conscious dignity.
+
+The learning of the rabbis is now at a very low ebb, and few of them
+thoroughly understand the ancient Hebrew tongue, although there are Jews
+at Jerusalem who speak several languages, and are said to be well
+acquainted with all the traditions of their fathers, and the mysterious
+learning of the Cabala.
+
+There is in the Holy Land another division of the children of Israel,
+the Samaritans, who still keep up a separate form of religion. Their
+synagogue at Nablous is a mean building, not unlike a poor Mahometan
+mosque. Within it is a large, low, square chamber, the floor of which is
+covered with matting. Round a part of the walls is a wooden shelf, on
+which are laid above thirty manuscript _books_ of the Pentateuch written
+in the Samaritan character: they possess also a very famous roll or
+volume of the Pentateuch, which is said to have been written by Abishai
+the grandson of Aaron. It is contained in a curiously ornamented octagon
+case of brass about two feet high, on opening which the MS. appears
+within rolled upon two pieces of wood. It is sixteen inches wide, and
+must be of great length, as each of the two parts of the roll are four
+or five inches in diameter. The writing is small and not very distinct,
+and the MS. is in rather a dilapidated condition. The Samaritan Rabbi
+Ibrahim Israel, true to his Jewish origin, would not open the case until
+he had been well paid. He affirmed that in this MS. the blessings were
+directed to be given from Mount Ebal and the curses from Mount Gherizim.
+However this may be, in an Arabic translation of the Samaritan
+Pentateuch, which is in my own collection, the 12th and 13th verses of
+the 27th chapter of Deuteronomy are the same as the usually received
+text in other Bibles.
+
+Jerusalem was at this time (1834) under the dominion of the Egyptians,
+and Ibrahim Pasha arrived shortly after we had established ourselves in
+the vaulted dungeons of the Latin convent. He took up his abode in a
+house in the town, and did not maintain any state or ceremony; indeed he
+had scarcely any guards, and but few servants, so secure did he feel in
+a country which he had so lately conquered. He received us with great
+courtesy in his mean lodging, where we found an interpreter who spoke
+English. I had been promised a letter from Mohammed Ali Pasha to Ibrahim
+Pasha, but on inquiring I found it had not arrived, and Ibrahim Pasha
+sent a courier to Jaffa to inquire whether it was lying there; however
+it did not reach me, and I therefore was not permitted to see the
+interior of the mosque of Omar, or the great church of the Purification,
+which stands on the site of the Temple of Solomon, and into which at
+that time no Christian had penetrated.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+
+     Expedition to the Monastery of St. Sabba--Reports of Arab
+     Robbers--The Valley of Jehoshaphat--The Bridge of Al Sirat--Rugged
+     Scenery--An Arab Ambuscade--A successful Parley--The Monastery of
+     St. Sabba--History of the Saint--The Greek Hermits--The Church--The
+     Iconostasis--The Library--Numerous MSS.--The Dead Sea--The Scene of
+     the Temptation--Discovery--The Apple of the Dead Sea--The
+     Statements of Strabo and Pliny confirmed.
+
+
+As we wished to be present at the celebration of Easter by the Greek
+Church, we remained several weeks at Jerusalem, during which time we
+made various excursions to the most celebrated localities in the
+neighbourhood. In addition to the Bible, which almost sufficed us for a
+guide-book in these sacred regions, we had several books of travels with
+us, and I was struck with the superiority of old Maundrell's narrative
+over all the others, for he tells us plainly and clearly what he saw,
+whilst other travellers so encumber their narratives with opinions and
+disquisitions, that, instead of describing the country, they describe
+only what they think about it; and thus little real information as to
+what there was to be seen or done could be gleaned from these works,
+eloquent and well written as many of them are; and we continually
+returned to Maundrell's homely pages for a good plain account of what
+we wished to know. As, however, I had gathered from various incidental
+remarks in these books that there was a famous library in the monastery
+of St. Sabba, in which one might expect to find all the lost classics,
+whole rows of uncial manuscripts, and perhaps the histories of the
+Preadamite kings in the autograph of Jemshid, I determined to go and see
+it.
+
+It was of course necessary for every traveller at Jerusalem to "_do his
+Dead Sea_;" and accordingly we made arrangements for an excursion in
+that direction, which was to include a visit to St. Sabba; for my
+companion kindly put up with my aberrations, and agreed to linger with
+me for that purpose on our way to Jericho, although it was at the risk
+of falling among thieves, for we heard all manner of reports of the
+danger of the roads, and of a certain truculent Robin Hood sort of
+person, called Abou Gash, who had just got out of some prison or other.
+
+Abou Gash was vastly popular in this part of the country: everybody
+spoke well of him, and declared that "he was the mildest-mannered man
+that ever cut a throat or scuttled ship;" but they all hinted that it
+might be as well to keep out of his way, and that, when we went
+cantering about the country, poking our noses into caves, and ruins, and
+other _uncanny_ places, it would be advisable to keep a "good" look-out.
+For all this we cared little: so, getting together our merry men, we
+sallied forth through St. Stephen's gate. A gallant band we were, some
+five-and-twenty horsemen, well armed in the Egyptian style; with tents
+and kettles, cocks and hens, and cooks and marmitons, stowed upon the
+baggage-horses. Great store of good things had we--vino doro di Monte
+Libano, and hams, to show that we were not Mahometans; and tea, to prove
+that we were not Frenchmen; and guns to shoot partridges withal, and
+many other European necessaries.
+
+We tramped along upon the hard rocky ground one after the other, through
+the Valley of Jehoshaphat; and looked up at the corner of the temple,
+whence is to spring on the last day, as every sound follower of the
+Prophet believes, the fearful bridge of Al Sirat, which is narrower than
+the edge of the sharpest cimeter of Khorassaun, and from which those who
+without due preparation attempt to pass on their way to the paradise of
+Mahomet will fall into the unfathomable gulf below. Gradually as we
+advanced into the valley, through which the brook Kedron, when there is
+any water in it, flows into the Dead Sea, the scenery became more and
+more savage, the rocks more precipitous, and the valley narrowed into a
+deep gorge, the path being sometimes among the broken stones in the bed
+of the stream, and sometimes rising high above it on narrow ledges of
+rock.
+
+We rode on for some hours, admiring the wild grandeur of the scenery,
+for this is the hill country of Judea, and seems almost a chaos of rocks
+and craggy mountains, broken into narrow defiles, or opening into dreary
+valleys bare of vegetation, except a few shrubs whose tough roots pierce
+through the crevices of the stony soil, and find a scanty subsistence in
+the small portions of earth which the rains have washed from the surface
+of the rocks above. In one place the pathway, which was not more than
+two or three feet wide, wound round the corner of a precipitous crag in
+such a manner that a horseman riding along the giddy way showed so
+clearly against the sky, that it seemed as if a puff of wind would blow
+horse and man into the ravine beneath. We were proceeding along this
+ledge--Fathallah, one of our interpreters, first, I second, and the
+others following--when we saw three or four Arabs with long
+bright-barrelled guns slip out of a crevice just before us, and take up
+their position on the path, pointing those unpleasant-looking implements
+in our faces. From some inconceivable motive, not of the most heroic
+nature I fear, my first move was to turn my head round to look behind
+me; but when I did so, I perceived that some more Arabs had crept out of
+another cleft behind us, which we had not observed as we passed; and on
+looking up I saw that from the precipice above us a curious collection
+of bright barrels and brown faces were taking an observation of our
+party, while on the opposite side of the gorge, which was perhaps a
+hundred and fifty yards across, every fragment of rock seemed to have
+brought forth a man in a white tunic and bare legs, with a yellow
+handkerchief round his head, and a long gun in his hand, which he
+pointed towards us.
+
+We had fallen into an ambuscade, and one so cleverly laid that all
+attempt at resistance was hopeless. The path was so narrow that our
+horses could not turn, and a precipice within a yard of us, of a hundred
+feet sheer down, rendered our position singularly uncomfortable.
+Fathallah's horse came to a stand-still: my horse ran his nose against
+him and stood still too; and so did all the rest of us. "Well!" said I,
+"Fathallah, what is this? who are these gentlemen?" "I knew it would be
+so," quoth Fathallah, "I was sure of it! and in such a cursed place
+too!--I see how it is, I shall never get home alive to Aleppo!"
+
+After waiting a while, I imagine to enjoy our confusion, one of the
+Arabs in front took up his parable and said, "Oh! oh! ye Egyptians!" (we
+wore the Egyptian dress)" what are you doing here, in our country? You
+are Ibrahim Pasha's men; are you? Say--speak; what reason have ye for
+being here? for we are Arabs, and the sons of Arabs; and this is our
+country, and our land?"
+
+"Sir," said the interpreter with profound respect--for he rode first,
+and four or five guns were pointed directly at his breast--"Sir, we are
+no Egyptians; thy servants are men of peace; we are peaceable Franks,
+pilgrims from the holy city, and we are only going to bathe in the
+waters of the Jordan, as all pilgrims do who travel to the Holy Land."
+"Franks!" quoth the Arab; "I know the Franks; pretty Franks are ye!
+Franks are the fathers of hats, and do not wear guns or swords, or red
+caps upon their heads, as you do. We shall soon see whether ye are
+Franks or not. Ye are Egyptians, and servants of Ibrahim Pasha the
+Egyptian: but now ye shall find that ye are our servants!"
+
+"Oh Sir," exclaimed I in the best Arabic I could muster, "thy servants
+are men of peace, travellers, antiquaries all of us. Oh Sir, we are
+Englishmen, which is a sort of Frank--very harmless and excellent
+people, desiring no evil. We beg you will be good enough to let us
+pass." "Franks!" retorted the Arab sheick, "pretty Franks! Franks do not
+speak Arabic, nor wear the Nizam dress! Ye are men of Ibrahim Pasha's;
+Egyptians, arrant Cairoites (Misseri) are ye all, every one of ye;" and
+he and all his followers laughed at us scornfully, for we certainly did
+look very like Egyptians. "We are Franks, I tell you!" again exclaimed
+Fathallah: "Ibrahim Pasha, indeed! who is he, I should like to know? we
+are Franks; and Franks like to see everything. We are going to see the
+monastery of St. Sabba; we are not Egyptians; what care we for
+Egyptians? we are English, Franks, every one of us, and we only desire
+to see the monastery of St. Sabba; that is what we are, O Arab, son of
+an Arab (Arab beni Arab). We are no less than this, and no more; we are
+Franks, as you are Arabs."
+
+Upon this there ensued a consultation between this son of an Arab and
+the other sons of Arabs, and in process of time the worthy gentlemen,
+knowing that it was impossible for us to escape, agreed to take us to
+the monastery of St. Sabba, which was not far off, and there to hear
+what we had to say in our defence.
+
+The sheick waved his arm aloft as a signal to his men to raise the
+muzzle of their guns, and we were allowed to proceed; some of the Arabs
+walking unconcernedly before us, and the others skipping like goats from
+rock to rock above us, and on the other side of the valley. They were
+ten times as numerous as we were, and we should have had no chance with
+them even on fair ground; but here we were completely at their mercy. We
+were escorted in this manner the rest of the way, and in half an hour's
+time we found ourselves standing before the great square tower of the
+monastery of St. Sabba. The battlements were lined with Arabs, who had
+taken possession of this strong place, and after a short parley and a
+clanging of arms within, a small iron door was opened in the wall: we
+dismounted and passed in; our horses, one by one, were pushed through
+after us. So there we were in the monastery of St Sabba sure enough; but
+under different circumstances from what we expected when we set out that
+morning from Jerusalem.
+
+Fathallah had, however, convinced the sheick of the Arabs that we really
+were Franks, and not followers of Ibrahim Pasha, and before long we not
+only were relieved from all fear, but became great friends with the
+noble and illustrious Abou Somebody, who had taken possession of St.
+Sabba and the defiles leading to it.
+
+This monastery, which is a very ancient foundation, is built upon the
+edge of the precipice at the bottom of which flows the brook Kedron,
+which in the rainy season becomes a torrent. The buildings, which are of
+immense strength, are supported by buttresses so massive that the upper
+part of each is large enough to contain a small arched chamber; the
+whole of the rooms in the monastery are vaulted, and are gloomy and
+imposing in the extreme. The pyramidical-shaped mass of buildings
+extends half-way down the rocks, and is crowned above by a high and
+stately square tower, which commands the small iron gate of the
+principal entrance. Within there are several small irregular courts
+connected by steep flights of steps and dark arched passages, some of
+which are carried through the solid rock.
+
+It was in one of the caves in these rocks that the renowned St. Sabba
+passed his time in the society of a pet lion. He was a famous anchorite,
+and was made chief of all the monks of Palestine by Sallustius,
+Patriarch of Jerusalem, about the year 490. He was twice ambassador to
+Constantinople to propitiate the Emperors Anastasius the Silent and
+Justinian; moreover he made a vow never to eat apples as long as he
+lived. He was born at Mutalasca, near C�sarea of Cappadocia, in 439, and
+died in 532, in the ninety-fifth year of his age: he is still held in
+high veneration by both the Greek and Latin churches. He was the founder
+of the Laura, which was formerly situated among the clefts and crevices
+of these rocks, the present monastery having been enclosed and fortified
+at I do not know what period, but long after the decease of the saint.
+
+The word laura, which is often met with in the histories of the first
+five centuries after Christ, signifies, when applied to monastic
+institutions, a number of separate cells, each inhabited by a single
+hermit or anchorite, in contradistinction to a convent or monastery,
+which was called a coenobium, where the monks lived together in one
+building under the rule of a superior. This species of monasticism seems
+always to have been a peculiar characteristic of the Greek Church, and
+in the present day these ascetic observances are upheld only by the
+Greek, Coptic, and Abyssinian Christians, among whom hermits and
+quietists, such as waste the body for the improvement of the soul, are
+still to be met with in the clefts of the rocks and in the desert places
+of Asia and Africa. They are a sort of dissenters as regards their own
+Church, for, by the mortifications to which they subject themselves,
+they rebuke the regular priesthood, who do not go so far, although these
+latter fast in the year above one hundred days, and always rise to
+midnight prayer. In the dissent, if such it be, of these monks of the
+desert there is a dignity and self-denying firmness much to be
+respected. They follow the tenets of their faith and the ordinances of
+their religion in a manner which is almost sublime. They are in this
+respect the very opposite to European dissenters, who are as undignified
+as they are generally snug and cosy in their mode of life. Here, among
+the followers of St. Anthony, there are no mock heroics, no turning up
+of the whites of the eyes and drawing down of the corners of the mouth:
+they form their rule of life from the ascetic writings of the early
+fathers of the Church: their self-denial is extreme, their devotion
+heroic; but yet to our eyes it appears puerile and irrational that men
+should give up their whole lives to a routine of observances which,
+although they are hard and stern, are yet so trivial that they appear
+almost ridiculous.
+
+In one of the courts of the monastery there is a palm-tree, said to be
+endowed with miraculous properties, which was planted by St. Sabba, and
+is to be numbered among the few now existing in the Holy Land, for at
+present they are very rarely to be met with, except in the vale of
+Jericho and the valley of the Jordan and the Dead Sea, in which
+localities, in consequence of their being so much beneath the level of
+the rest of the country, the temperature is many degrees higher than it
+is elsewhere.
+
+The church is rather large and is very solidly built. There are many
+ancient frescos painted on the walls, and various early Greek pictures
+are hung round about: many of these are representations of the most
+famous saints, and on the feast of each his picture is exposed upon a
+kind of desk before the iconostasis or wooden partition which divides
+the church from the sanctuary and the altar, and there it receives the
+kisses and oblations of all the worshippers who enter the sacred edifice
+on that day.
+
+The [Greek: ikonostasis] is dimly represented in our older
+churches by the rood-loft and screen which divides the chancel from the
+nave: it is retained also in Lombardy and in the sees under the
+Ambrosian rule; but these screens and rood-lofts, which destroy the
+beauty of a cathedral or any large church, are unknown in the Roman
+churches. They date their origin from the very earliest ages, when the
+"discipline of the secret" was observed, and when the ceremonies of the
+communion were held to be of such a sacred and mysterious nature that it
+was not permitted to the communicants to reveal what then took place--an
+incomprehensible custom which led to the propagation of many false ideas
+and strange rumours as to the Christian observances in the third and
+fourth centuries, and was one of the causes which led to several of the
+persecutions of the Church, as it was believed by the heathens that the
+Christians sacrificed children and committed other abominations for
+which they deserved extermination; and so prone are the vulgar to give
+credence to such injurious reports, that the Christians in later ages
+accused the Jews of the very same practices for which they themselves
+had in former times been held up to execration.
+
+In one part of the church I observed a rickety ladder leaning against
+the wall, and leading up to a small door about ten feet from the ground.
+Scrambling up this ladder, I found myself in the library of which I had
+heard so much. It was a small square room, or rather a large closet, in
+the upper part of one of the enormous buttresses which supported the
+walls of the monastery. Here I found about a thousand books, almost all
+manuscripts, but the whole of them were works of divinity. One volume in
+the Bulgarian or Servian language was written in uncial letters; the
+rest were in Greek, and were for the most part of the twelfth century.
+There were a great many enormous folios of the works of the fathers,
+and one MS. of the Octoteuch, or first eight hooks of the Old Testament.
+It is remarkable how very rarely MSS. of any part of the Old Testament
+are found in the libraries of Greek monasteries; this was the only MS.
+of the Octoteuch that I ever met with either before or afterwards in any
+part of the Levant. There were about a hundred other MSS. on a shelf in
+the apsis of the church: I was not allowed to examine them, but was
+assured that they were liturgies and church-books which were used on the
+various high days during the year.
+
+I was afterwards taken by some of the monks into the vaulted chambers of
+the great square tower or keep, which stood near the iron door by which
+we had been admitted. Here there were about a hundred MSS., but all
+imperfect; I found the 'Iliad' of Homer among them, but it was on paper.
+Some of these MSS. were beautifully written; they were, however, so
+imperfect, that in the short time I was there, and pestered as I was by
+a crowd of gaping Arabs, I was unable to discover what they were.
+
+I was allowed to purchase three MSS., with which the next day I and my
+companion departed on our way to the Dead Sea, our friend the sheick
+having, from the moment that he was convinced we were nothing better or
+worse than Englishmen and sight-seers, treated us with all manner of
+civility.
+
+On arriving at the Dead Sea I forthwith proceeded to bathe in it, in
+order to prove the celebrated buoyancy of the water, and was nearly
+drowned in the experiment, for, not being able to swim, my head got much
+deeper below the water than I intended. Two ignorant pilgrims, who had
+joined our party for protection, baptized each other in this filthy
+water, and sang psalms so loudly and discordantly that we asked them
+what in the name of wonder they were about, when we discovered that they
+thought this was the Jordan, and were sorely grieved at their
+disappointment. We found several shells upon the shore and a small dead
+fish, but perhaps they had been washed down by the waters of the Jordan
+or the Kedron: I do not know how this may be.
+
+We wandered about for two or three days in this hot, volcanic, and
+sunken region, and thence proceeded to Jericho. The mountain of
+Quarantina, the scene of the forty days' temptation of our Saviour, is
+pierced all over with the caves excavated by the ancient anchorites, and
+which look like pigeons' nests. Some of them are in the most
+extraordinary situations, high up on the face of tremendous precipices.
+However, I will not attempt to detail the singularities of this wild
+district; we visited the chief objects of interest, and a big book that
+I brought from St. Sabba is endeared to my recollections by my having
+constantly made use of it as a pillow in my tent during our wanderings.
+It was somewhat hard, undoubtedly; but after a long day's ride it
+served its purpose very well, and I slept as soundly as if it had been
+read to me.
+
+At two subsequent periods I visited this region, and purchased seven
+other MSS. from St Sabba; among them was the Octoteuch of the tenth, if
+not the ninth, century, which I esteem one of the most rare and precious
+volumes of my library.
+
+We made a somewhat singular discovery when travelling among the
+mountains to the east of the Dead Sea, where the ruins of Ammon, Jerash,
+and Adjeloun well repay the labour and fatigue encountered in visiting
+them. It was a remarkably hot and sultry day: we were scrambling up the
+mountain through a thick jungle of bushes and low trees, when I saw
+before me a fine plum-tree, loaded with fresh blooming plums. I cried
+out to my fellow-traveller, "Now, then, who will arrive first at the
+plum-tree?" and as he caught a glimpse of so refreshing an object, we
+both pressed our horses into a gallop to see which would get the first
+plum from the branches. We both arrived at the same moment; and, each
+snatching at a fine ripe plum, put it at once into our mouths; when, on
+biting it, instead of the cool delicious juicy fruit which we expected,
+our months were filled with a dry bitter dust, and we sat under the tree
+upon our horses sputtering, and hemming, and doing all we could to be
+relieved of the nauseous taste of this strange fruit. We then
+perceived, and to my great delight, that we had discovered the famous
+apple of the Dead Sea, the existence of which has been doubted and
+canvassed since the days of Strabo and Pliny, who first described it.
+Many travellers have given descriptions of other vegetable productions
+which bear some analogy to the one described by Pliny; but up to this
+time no one had met with the thing itself, either upon the spot
+mentioned by the ancient authors, or elsewhere. I brought several of
+them to England. They are a kind of gall-nut. I found others afterwards
+upon the plains of Troy, but there can be no doubt whatever that this is
+the apple of Sodom to which Strabo and Pliny referred. Some of those
+which I brought to England were given to the Linn�an Society, who
+published an engraving of them, and a description of their vegetable
+peculiarities, in their 'Transactions;' but as they omitted to explain
+the peculiar interest attached to them in consequence of their having
+been sought for unsuccessfully for above 1500 years, they excited little
+attention; though, as the evidence of the truth of what has so long been
+considered as a vulgar fable, they are fairly to be classed among the
+most curious productions which have been brought from the Holy Land.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+
+     Church of the Holy Sepulchre--Processions of the Copts--The Syrian
+     Maronites and the Greeks--Riotous Behaviour of the Pilgrims--Their
+     immense numbers--The Chant of the Latin Monks--Ibrahim Pasha--The
+     Exhibition of the Sacred Fire--Excitement of the Pilgrims--The
+     Patriarch obtains the Sacred Fire from the Holy Sepulchre--Contest
+     for the Holy Light--Immense sum paid for the privilege of receiving
+     it first--Fatal Effects of the Heat and Smoke--Departure of Ibrahim
+     Pasha--Horrible Catastrophe--Dreadful Loss of Life among the
+     Pilgrims in their endeavours to leave the Church--Battle with the
+     Soldiers--Our Narrow Escape--Shocking Scene in the Court of the
+     Church--Humane Conduct of Ibrahim Pasha--Superstition of the
+     Pilgrims regarding Shrouds--Scallop Shells and Palm Branches--The
+     Dead Muleteer--Moonlight View of the Dead Bodies--The Curse on
+     Jerusalem--Departure from the Holy City.
+
+
+It was on Friday, the 3rd of May, that my companions and myself went,
+about five o'clock in the evening, to the church of the Holy Sepulchre,
+where we had places assigned us in the gallery of the Latin monks, as
+well as a good bed-room in their convent. The church was very full, and
+the numbers kept increasing every moment. We first saw a small
+procession of the Copts go round the sepulchre, and after them one of
+the Syrian Maronites. I then went to bed, and at midnight was awakened
+to see the procession of the Greeks, which was rather grand. By the
+rules of their Church they are not permitted to carry any images, and
+therefore to make up for this they bore aloft a piece of brocade, upon
+which was embroidered a representation of the body of our Saviour. This
+was placed in the tomb, and, after some short time, brought out again
+and carried into the chapel of the Greeks, when the ceremonies of the
+night ended; for there was no procession of the Armenians, as the
+Armenian Patriarch had made an address to his congregation, and had, it
+was said, explained the falsity of the miracle of the holy fire; to the
+excessive astonishment of his hearers, who for centuries have considered
+an unshakable belief in this yearly wonder as one of the leading
+articles of their faith. After the Greek procession I went quietly to
+bed again, and slept soundly till next morning.
+
+The behaviour of the pilgrims was riotous in the extreme; the crowd was
+so great that many persons actually crawled over the heads of others,
+and some made pyramids of men by standing on each others' shoulders, as
+I have seen them do at Astley's. At one time, before the church was so
+full, they made a race-course round the sepulchre; and some, almost in a
+state of nudity, danced about with frantic gestures, yelling and
+screaming as if they were possessed.
+
+Altogether it was a scene of disorder and profanation which it is
+impossible to describe. In consequence of the multitude of people and
+the quantities of lamps, the heat was excessive, and a steam arose
+which prevented your seeing clearly across the church. But every window
+and cornice, and every place where a man's foot could rest, excepting
+the gallery--which was reserved for Ibrahim Pasha and
+ourselves--appeared to be crammed with people; for 17,000 pilgrims were
+said to be in Jerusalem, almost the whole of whom had come to the Holy
+City for no other reason than to see the sacred fire.
+
+After the noise, heat, and uproar which I had witnessed from the gallery
+that overlooked the Holy Sepulchre, the contrast of the calmness and
+quiet of my room in the Franciscan convent was very pleasing. The room
+had a small window which opened upon the Latin choir, where, in the
+evening, the monks chanted the litany of the Virgin: their fine voices
+and the beautiful simplicity of the ancient chant made a strong
+impression upon my mind; the orderly solemnity of the Roman Catholic
+vespers showing to great advantage when compared with the screams and
+tumult of the fanatic Greeks.
+
+[Illustration: LITANY OF THE VIRGIN
+
+Sung by the Friars of St. Salvador at Jerusalem.
+
+    Sanc--ta Mat--er Do--mi--ni-- O--ra
+    pro no--bis. Sanc--ta De--i
+    Ge--ni--trix-- O--ra pro no--bis.
+
+    Sancta Maria--Ora pro nobis.
+    Sancta Virgo Virginum--Ora pro nobis.
+    Impeatrix Reginarum--Ora pro nobis.
+    Laus sanctarum animarum--Ora pro nobis
+    Vera salutrix earum--Ora pro nobis.
+
+The next morning a way was made through the crowd for Ibrahim Pasha, by
+the soldiers with the butt-ends of their muskets, and by the Janissaries
+with their kourbatches and whips made of a quantity of small rope. The
+Pasha sat in the gallery, on a divan which the monks had made for him
+between the two columns nearest to the Greek chapel. They had got up a
+sort of procession to do him honour, the appearance of which did not add
+to the solemnity of the scene: three monks playing crazy fiddles led the
+way, then came the choristers with lighted candles, next two Nizam
+soldiers with muskets and fixed bayonets; a number of doctors,
+instructors, and officers tumbling over each other's heels, brought up
+the rear: he was received by the women, of whom there were thousands in
+the church, with a very peculiar shrill cry, which had a strange
+unearthly effect. It was the monosyllable la, la, la, uttered in a
+shrill trembling tone, which I thought much more like pain than
+rejoicing. The Pasha was dressed in full trousers of dark cloth, a light
+lilac-coloured jacket, and a red cap without a turban. When he was
+seated, the monks brought us some sherbet, which was excellently made;
+and as our seats were very near the great man, we saw everything in an
+easy and luxurious way; and it being announced that the Mahomedan Pasha
+was ready, the Christian miracle, which had been waiting for some time,
+was now on the point of being displayed.
+
+The people were by this time become furious; they were worn out with
+standing in such a crowd all night, and as the time approached for the
+exhibition of the holy fire they could not contain themselves for joy.
+Their excitement increased as the time for the miracle in which all
+believed drew near. At about one o'clock the Patriarch went into the
+ante-chapel of the sepulchre, and soon after a magnificent procession
+moved out of the Greek chapel. It conducted the Patriarch three times
+round the tomb; after which he took off his outer robes of cloth of
+silver, and went into the sepulchre, the door of which was then closed.
+The agitation of the pilgrims was now extreme: they screamed aloud; and
+the dense mass of people shook to and fro, like a field of corn in the
+wind.
+
+[Illustration: image of a bundle of thin wax-candles
+enclosed in an iron frame.]
+
+There is a round hole in one part of the chapel over the sepulchre, out
+of which the holy fire is given, and up to this the man who had agreed
+to pay the highest sum for this honour was conducted by a strong guard
+of soldiers. There was silence for a minute; and then a light appeared
+out of the tomb, and the happy pilgrim received the holy fire from the
+Patriarch within. It consisted of a bundle of thin wax-candles, lit, and
+enclosed in an iron frame to prevent their being torn asunder and put
+out in the crowd: for a furious battle commenced immediately; every one
+being so eager to obtain the holy light, that one man put out the candle
+of his neighbour in trying to light his own. It is said that as much as
+ten thousand piasters has been paid for the privilege of first receiving
+the holy fire, which is believed to ensure eternal salvation. The Copts
+got eight purses this year for the first candle they gave to a pilgrim
+of their own persuasion.
+
+This was the whole of the ceremony; there was no sermon or prayers,
+except a little chanting during the processions, and nothing that could
+tend to remind you of the awful event which this feast was designed to
+commemorate.
+
+Soon you saw the lights increasing in all directions, every one having
+lit his candle from the holy flame: the chapels, the galleries, and
+every corner where a candle could possibly be displayed, immediately
+appeared to be in a blaze. The people, in their frenzy, put the bunches
+of lighted tapers to their faces, hands, and breasts, to purify
+themselves from their sins. The Patriarch was carried out of the
+sepulchre in triumph, on the shoulders of the people he had deceived,
+amid the cries and exclamations of joy which resounded from every nook
+of the immense pile of buildings. As he appeared in a fainting state, I
+supposed that he was ill; but I found that it is the uniform custom on
+these occasions to feign insensibility, that the pilgrims may imagine he
+is overcome with the glory of the Almighty, from whose immediate
+presence they believe him to have returned.
+
+In a short time the smoke of the candles obscured everything in the
+place, and I could see it rolling in great volumes out at the aperture
+at the top of the dome. The smell was terrible; and three unhappy
+wretches, overcome by heat and bad air, fell from the upper range of
+galleries, and were dashed to pieces on the heads of the people below.
+One poor Armenian lady, seventeen years of age, died where she sat, of
+heat, thirst, and fatigue.
+
+After a while, when he had seen all that was to be seen, Ibrahim Pasha
+got up and went away, his numerous guards making a line for him by main
+force through the dense mass of people which filled the body of the
+church. As the crowd was so immense, we waited for a little while, and
+then set out all together to return to our convent. I went first and my
+friends followed me, the soldiers making way for us across the church. I
+got as far as the place where the Virgin is said to have stood during
+the crucifixion, when I saw a number of people lying one on another all
+about this part of the church, and as far as I could see towards the
+door. I made my way between them as well as I could, till they were so
+thick that there was actually a great heap of bodies on which I trod. It
+then suddenly struck me they were all dead! I had not perceived this at
+first, for I thought they were only very much fatigued with the
+ceremonies and had lain down to rest themselves there; but when I came
+to so great a heap of bodies I looked down at them, and saw that sharp,
+hard appearance of the face which is never to be mistaken. Many of them
+were quite black with suffocation, and farther on were others all bloody
+and covered with the brains and entrails of those who had been trodden
+to pieces by the crowd.
+
+At this time there was no crowd in this part of the church; but a
+little farther on, round the corner towards the great door, the people,
+who were quite panic-struck, continued to press forward, and every one
+was doing his utmost to escape. The guards outside, frightened at the
+rush from within, thought that the Christians wished to attack them, and
+the confusion soon grew into a battle. The soldiers with their bayonets
+killed numbers of fainting wretches, and the walls were spattered with
+blood and brains of men who had been felled, like oxen, with the
+butt-ends of the soldiers' muskets. Every one struggled to defend
+himself or to get away, and in the m�l�e all who fell were immediately
+trampled to death by the rest. So desperate and savage did the fight
+become, that even the panic-struck and frightened pilgrims appear at
+last to have been more intent upon the destruction of each other than
+desirous to save themselves.
+
+For my part, as soon as I perceived the danger I had cried out to my
+companions to turn back, which they had done; but I myself was carried
+on by the press till I came near the door, where all were fighting for
+their lives. Here, seeing certain destruction before me, I made every
+endeavour to get back. An officer of the Pasha's, who by his star was a
+colonel or bin bashee, equally alarmed with myself, was also trying to
+return: he caught hold of my cloak, or bournouse, and pulled me down on
+the body of an old man who was breathing out his last sigh. As the
+officer was pressing me to the ground we wrestled together among the
+dying and the dead with the energy of despair. I struggled with this man
+till I pulled him down, and happily got again upon my legs--(I
+afterwards found that he never rose again)--and scrambling over a pile
+of corpses, I made my way back into the body of the church, where I
+found my friends, and we succeeded in reaching the sacristy of the
+Catholics, and thence the room which had been assigned to us by the
+monks. The dead were lying in heaps, even upon the stone of unction; and
+I saw full four hundred wretched people, dead and living, heaped
+promiscuously one upon another, in some places above five feet high.
+Ibrahim Pasha had left the church only a few minutes before me, and very
+narrowly escaped with his life; he was so pressed upon by the crowd on
+all sides, and it was said attacked by several of them, that it was only
+by the greatest exertions of his suite, several of whom were killed,
+that he gained the outer court. He fainted more than once in the
+struggle, and I was told that some of his attendants at last had to cut
+a way for him with their swords through the dense ranks of the frantic
+pilgrims. He remained outside, giving orders for the removal of the
+corpses, and making his men drag out the bodies of those who appeared to
+be still alive from the heaps of the dead. He sent word to us to remain
+in the convent till all the dead bodies had been removed, and that when
+we could come out in safety he would again send to us.
+
+We stayed in our room two hours before we ventured to make another
+attempt to escape from this scene of horror; and then walking close
+together, with all our servants round us, we made a bold push and got
+out of the door of the church. By this time most of the bodies were
+removed; but twenty or thirty were still lying in distorted attitudes at
+the foot of Mount Calvary; and fragments of clothes, turbans, shoes, and
+handkerchiefs, clotted with blood and dirt, were strewed all over the
+pavement.
+
+In the court in the front of the church, the sight was pitiable: mothers
+weeping over their children--the sons bending over the dead bodies of
+their fathers--and one poor woman was clinging to the hand of her
+husband, whose body was fearfully mangled. Most of the sufferers were
+pilgrims and strangers. The Pasha was greatly moved by this scene of
+woe; and he again and again commanded his officers to give the poor
+people every assistance in their power, and very many by his humane
+efforts were rescued from death.
+
+I was much struck by the sight of two old men with white beards, who had
+been seeking for each other among the dead; they met as I was passing
+by, and it was affecting to see them kiss and shake hands, and
+congratulate each other on having escaped from death.
+
+When the bodies were removed many were discovered standing upright,
+quite dead; and near the church door one of the soldiers was found thus
+standing, with his musket shouldered, among the bodies which reached
+nearly as high as his head; this was in a corner near the great door on
+the right side as you come in. It seems that this door had been shut, so
+that many who stood near it were suffocated in the crowd; and when it
+was opened, the rush was so great that numbers were thrown down and
+never rose again, being trampled to death by the press behind them. The
+whole court before the entrance of the church was covered with bodies
+laid in rows, by the Pasha's orders, so that their friends might find
+them and carry them away. As we walked home we saw numbers of people
+carried out, some dead, some horribly wounded and in a dying state, for
+they had fought with their heavy silver inkstands and daggers.
+
+In the evening I was not sorry to retire early to rest in the low
+vaulted room in the strangers' house attached to the monastery of St.
+Salvador. I was weary and depressed after the agitating scenes of the
+morning, and my lodging was not rendered more cheerful by there being a
+number of corpses laid out in their shrouds in the stone court beneath
+its window. It is thought by these superstitious people that a shroud
+washed in the fountain of Siloam and blessed at the tomb of our Saviour
+forms a complete suit of armour for the body of a sinner deceased in
+the faith, and that clad in this invulnerable panoply he may defy the
+devil and all his angels. For this reason every pilgrim when journeying
+has his shroud with him, with all its different parts and bandages
+complete; and to many they became useful sooner than they expected. A
+holy candle also forms part of a pilgrim's accoutrements. It has some
+sovereign virtue, but I do not exactly know what; and they were all
+provided with several long thin tapers, and a rosary or two, and sundry
+rosaries and ornaments made of pearl oyster-shells--all which are
+defences against the powers of darkness. These pearl oyster-shells are,
+I imagine, the scallop-shell of romance, for there are no scallops to be
+found here. My companion was very anxious to obtain some genuine
+scallop-shells, as they form part of his arms; but they, as well as the
+palm branches, carried home by all palmers on their return from the Holy
+Land, are as rare here as they are in England. This is the more
+remarkable, as the medal struck by Vespasian on the subjection of this
+country represents a woman in an attitude of mourning seated under a
+palm-tree with the legend "Jud�a capta;" so there may have been palms in
+those days. I was going to say there _must_ have been: but on second
+thoughts it does not follow that there should have been palms in Jud�a,
+because the Romans put them on a medal, any more than that there should
+be unicorns in England because we represent them on our coins. However,
+all this is a digression: we must return to our dead men. There were
+sixteen or seventeen of them, all stiff and stark, lying in the court,
+nicely wrapped up in their shrouds, like parcels ready to be sent off to
+the other world: but at the end of the row lay one man in a brown dress;
+he was one of the lower class--a muleteer, perhaps, a strong, well-made
+man; but he was not in a shroud. He had died fighting, and there he lay
+with his knees drawn up, his right arm above his head, and in his hand
+the jacket of another man, which could not now be released from his
+grasp, so tightly had his strong hand been clenched in the
+death-struggle. This figure took a strong hold on my imagination; there
+was something wild and ghastly in its appearance, different from the
+quiet attitude of the other victims of the fight in which I also had
+been engaged. It put me in mind of all manner of horrible old stories of
+ghosts and goblins with which my memory was well stored; and I went to
+bed with my head so occupied by these traditions of gloom and ignorance
+that I could not sleep, or if I did for awhile, I woke up again and
+still went on thinking of the old woman of Berkeley, and the fire-king,
+and the stories in Scott's 'Discovery of Witchcraft,' and the 'Hierarchy
+of the Blessed Aungelles,' and Caxton's 'Golden Legende'--all books
+wherein I delighted to pore, till I could not help getting out of bed
+again to have another look at the ghastly regiment in the court below.
+
+I leant against the heavy stone mullions of the window, which was
+barred, but without glass, and gazed I know not how long. There they all
+were, still and quiet; some in the full moonlight, and some half
+obscured by the shadow of the buildings. In the morning I had walked
+with them, living men, such as I was myself, and now how changed they
+were! Some of them I had spoken to, as they lived in the same court with
+me, and I had taken an interest in their occupations: now I would not
+willingly have touched them, and even to look at them was terrible! What
+little difference there is in appearance between the same men asleep and
+dead! and yet what a fearful difference in fact, not to themselves only,
+but to those who still remained alive to look upon them! Whilst I was
+musing upon these things the wind suddenly arose, the doors and shutters
+of the half-uninhabited monastery slammed and grated upon their hinges;
+and as the moon, which had been obscured, again shone clearly on the
+court below, I saw the dead muleteer with the jacket which he held
+waving in the air, the grimmest figure I ever looked upon. His face was
+black from the violence of his death, and he seemed like an evil spirit
+waving on his ghastly crew; and as the wind increased, the shrouds of
+some of the dead men fluttered in the night air as if they responded to
+his call. The clouds, passing rapidly over the moon, east such shadows
+on the corpses in their shrouds, that I could almost have fancied they
+were alive again. I returned to bed, and thanked God that I was not also
+laid out with them in the court below.
+
+In the morning I awoke at a late hour and looked out into the court; the
+muleteer and most of the other bodies were removed, and people were
+going about their business as if nothing had occurred, excepting that
+every now and then I heard the wail of women lamenting for the dead.
+Three hundred was the number reported to have been carried out of the
+gates to their burial-places that morning; two hundred more were badly
+wounded, many of whom probably died, for there were no physicians or
+surgeons to attend them, and it was supposed that others were buried in
+the courts and gardens of the city by their surviving friends; so that
+the precise number of those who perished was not known.
+
+When we reflect in what place and to commemorate what event the great
+multitude of Christian pilgrims had thus assembled from all parts of the
+world, the fearful visitation which came upon them appears more dreadful
+than if it had occurred under other circumstances. They had entered the
+sacred walls to celebrate the most joyful event which is recorded in the
+Scriptures. By the resurrection of our Saviour was proved not only his
+triumph over the grave, but the truth of the religion which He taught;
+and the anniversary of that event has been kept in all succeeding ages
+as the great festival of the Church. On the morning of this hallowed day
+throughout the Christian world the bells rang merrily, the altars were
+decked with flowers, and all men gave way to feelings of exultation and
+joy; in an hour everything was turned to mourning, lamentation, and woe!
+
+There was a time when Jerusalem was the most prosperous and favoured
+city of the world; then "all her ways were pleasantness, and all her
+paths were peace;" "plenteousness was in her palaces;" and "Jerusalem
+was the joy of the whole earth."
+
+But since the awful crime which was committed there, the Lord has poured
+out the vials of his wrath upon the once chosen city; dire and fearful
+have been the calamities which have befallen her in terrible succession
+for eighteen hundred years. Fury and desolation, hand in hand, have
+stalked round the precincts of the guilty spot; and Jerusalem has been
+given up to the spoiler and the oppressor.
+
+The day following the occurrences which have been related, I had a long
+interview with Ibrahim Pasha, and the conversation turned naturally on
+the blasphemous impositions of the Greek and Armenian patriarchs, who,
+for the purposes of worldly gain, had deluded their ignorant followers
+with the performance of a trick in relighting the candles which had been
+extinguished on Good Friday with fire which they affirmed to have been
+sent down from heaven in answer to their prayers. The Pasha was quite
+aware of the evident absurdity which I brought to his notice, of the
+performance of a Christian miracle being put off for some time, and
+being kept in waiting for the convenience of a Mahometan prince. It was
+debated what punishment was to be awarded to the Greek patriarch for the
+misfortunes which had been the consequence of his jugglery, and a number
+of the purses which he had received from the unlucky pilgrims passed
+into the coffers of the Pasha's treasury. I was sorry that the falsity
+of this imposture was not publicly exposed, as it was a good opportunity
+of so doing. It seems wonderful that so barefaced a trick should
+continue to be practised every year in these enlightened times; but it
+has its parallel in the blood of St. Januarius, which is still liquefied
+whenever anything is to be gained by the exhibition of that astonishing
+act of priestly impertinence. If Ibrahim Pasha had been a Christian,
+probably this would have been the last Easter of the lighting of the
+holy fire; but from the fact of his religion being opposed to that of
+the monks, he could not follow the example of Louis XIV., who having put
+a stop to some clumsy imposition which was at that time bringing scandal
+on the Church, a paper was found nailed upon the door of the sacred
+edifice the day afterwards, on which the words were read--
+
+    "De part du roi, d�fense � Dieu
+    De faire miracle en ce lieu."
+
+The interference of a Mahometan in such a case as this would only have
+been held as another persecution of the Christians; and the miracle of
+the holy fire has continued to be exhibited every year with great
+applause, and luckily without the unfortunate results which accompanied
+it on this occasion.
+
+Ibrahim Pasha, though by no means the equal of Mehemet Ali in talents or
+attainments, was an enlightened man for a Turk. Though bold in battle,
+he was kind to those who were about him; and the cruelties practised by
+his troops in the Greek and Syrian wars are to be ascribed more to the
+system of Eastern warfare than to the savage disposition of their
+commander.
+
+He was born at Cavalla, in Roumelia, in the year 1789, and died at
+Alexandria on the 10th of November, 1848. He was the son, according to
+some, of Mehemet Ali, but, according to others, of the wife of the great
+Viceroy of Egypt by a former husband. At the age of seventeen he joined
+his father's army, and in 1816 he commanded the expedition against the
+Wahabees--a sect who maintained that nothing but the Koran was to be
+held in any estimation by Mahometans, to the exclusion of all notes,
+explanations, and commentaries, which have in many cases usurped the
+authority of the text. They called themselves reformers, and, like King
+Henry VIII., took possession of the golden water-spouts and other
+ornaments of the Kaaba, burned the books and destroyed the colleges of
+the Arabian theologians, and carried off everything they could lay hold
+of, on religious principles. An eye-witness told me that some of the
+followers of Abd el Wahab had found a good-sized looking-glass in a
+house at Sanaa, which they were carrying away with great difficulty
+through the desert, the porters being guarded by a multitude of
+half-naked warriors, who had neglected all other plunder in the
+supposition that they had got hold of the diamond of Jemshid, a
+pre-Adamite monarch famous in the annals of Arabian history. Some more
+of these wild people found several bags of doubloons at Mocha, which
+they conceived to be dollars that had been spoiled somehow, and had
+turned yellow, for they had never seen any before. A "smart" captain of
+an American vessel at Jedda, who was consulted on the occasion, kindly
+gave them one real white dollar for four yellow ones--an arrangement
+which perfectly satisfied both parties. After three years' campaign,
+Ibrahim Pasha retook the holy cities of Mecca and Medina; and in
+December, 1819, he made his triumphant entry into Cairo, when he was
+invested with the title of Vizir and made Pasha of the Hedjaz by the
+Sultan--a dignity more exalted than that of the Pasha of Egypt.
+
+In 1824 he commanded the armies of the Sultan, which were sent to put
+down the rebellion of the Greeks: he sailed from Alexandria with a fleet
+of 163 vessels, 16,000 infantry, 700 cavalry, and four regiments of
+artillery. Numerous captives were made in the Morea, and the
+slave-markets were stocked with Greek women and children who had been
+captured by the soldiers of the Turkish army. The battle of Navarino, in
+1827, ended in the destruction of the Mahometan fleets; and thousands of
+slaves, who were forced to fight against their intended deliverers,
+being chained to their guns, sunk with the ships which were destroyed by
+the cannon of the allied forces of England, France, and Russia.
+
+In 1831 Mehemet Ali undertook to wrest Syria from the Sultan his master.
+Ibrahim Pasha commanded his army of about 30,000 men, under the tuition,
+however, of a Frenchman, Colonel S�ve, who had denied the Christian
+faith on Christmas-day, and was afterwards known as Suleiman Pasha. The
+Egyptian troops soon became masters of the Holy Land; Gaza, Jaffa,
+Jerusalem, and Acre fell before their victorious arms; and on the 22nd
+of December, 1832, Ibrahim Pasha, with an army of 30,000 men, defeated
+60,000 Turks at Koniah, who had been sent against him by Sultan Mahmoud,
+under the command of Reschid Pasha.
+
+Ibrahim had advanced as far as Kutayeh, on his way to Constantinople,
+when his march was stopped by the interference of European diplomacy.
+The Sultan, having made another effort to recover his dominions in
+Syria, sent an army against Ibrahim, which was utterly routed at the
+battle of Negib, on the 24th of June, 1839.
+
+This defeat was principally owing to the Seraskier (the Turkish general)
+refusing to follow the counsels of Jochmus Pasha, a German officer, who,
+in distinguished contrast to the unhappy Suleiman, retained the religion
+of his fathers and the esteem of honest men.
+
+His career was again checked by European policy, which, if it had any
+right to interfere at all, would have benefited the cause of humanity
+more by doing so before Egypt was drained of nearly all its able-bodied
+men, and Syria given up to the horrors of a long and cruel war.
+
+The great powers of England, Austria, Russia, and Prussia now combined
+to restore the wasted provinces of Syria to the Porte; a fleet menaced
+the shores of the Holy Land; Acre was attacked, and taken in four hours
+by the accidental explosion of a powder-magazine, which almost destroyed
+what remained from former sieges of the habitable portion of the town.
+Ibrahim Pasha evacuated Syria, and retired to Egypt, where he amused
+himself with agriculture, and planting trees, always his favourite
+pursuit: the trees which he had planted near Cairo have already reduced
+the temperature in their vicinity several degrees.
+
+In 1846 he went to Europe for the benefit of his health, and extended
+his tour to England, where he was much struck with the industry that
+pervaded all classes, and its superiority in railways and works of
+utility to the other countries of Europe. "Yes," said he to me at
+Mivart's Hotel; "in France there is more fantasia; in England there is
+more roast beef." I observed that he was surprised at the wealth
+displayed at one or two parties in some great houses in London at which
+he was present. Whether he had lost his memory in any degree at that
+time, I do not know; but on my recalling to him the great danger he had
+been in at Jerusalem, of which he entertained a very lively
+recollection, he could not remember the name of the Bey who was killed
+there, although he was the only person of any rank in his suite, with
+the exception of Selim Bey Selicdar, his swordbearer, with whom I
+afterwards became acquainted in Egypt.
+
+In consequence of the infirmities of Mehemet Ali, whose great mind had
+become unsettled in his old age, Ibrahim was promoted by the present
+Sultan to the Vice-royalty of Egypt, on the 1st of September, 1848. His
+constitution, which had long been undermined by hardship, excess, and
+want of care, gave way at length, and on the 10th of November of the
+same year his body was carried to the tomb which his father had prepared
+for his family near Cairo, little thinking at the time that he should
+live to survive his sons Toussoun, Ismail, and Ibrahim, who have all
+descended before him to their last abode.
+
+In personal appearance Ibrahim Pasha was a short, broad-shouldered man,
+with a red face, small eyes, and a heavy though cunning expression of
+countenance. He was as brave as a lion; his habits and ideas were rough
+and coarse; he had but little refinement in his composition; but,
+although I have often seen him abused for his cruelty in European
+newspapers, I never heard any well-authenticated anecdote of his
+cruelty, and do not believe that he was by any means of a savage
+disposition, nor that his troops rivalled in any way the horrors
+committed in Algeria by the civilized and fraternising French. He was a
+bold, determined soldier. He had that reverence and respect for his
+father which is so much to be admired in the patriarchal customs of the
+East; and it is not every one who has lived for years in the enjoyment
+of absolute power uncontrolled by the admonitions of a Christian's
+conscience that could get out of the scrape so well, or leave a better
+name upon the page of history than that of Ibrahim Pasha.
+
+After the fearful catastrophe in the church of the Holy Sepulchre, the
+whole host of pilgrims seem to have become panic struck, and every one
+was anxious to escape from the city. There was a report, too, that the
+plague had broken out, and we with the rest made instant preparation for
+our departure. In consequence of the numbers who had perished, there
+was no difficulty in hiring baggage-horses; and we immediately procured
+as many as we wanted: tents were loaded on some; beds and packages of
+all sorts and sizes were tied on others, with but slight regard to
+balance and compactness; and on the afternoon of the 6th of May we
+rejoiced to find ourselves once more out of the walls of Jerusalem, and
+riding at our leisure along the pleasant fields fresh with the flowers
+of spring, a season charming in all countries, but especially delightful
+in the sultry climate of the Holy Land.
+
+
+
+
+MONASTERIES OF THE LEVANT.
+
+PART III.
+
+THE MONASTERIES OF METEORA.
+
+[Illustration: VIEW OF THE MONASTERY OF SAINT BARLAAM, AT METEORA].
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+
+     Albania--Ignorance at Corfu concerning that Country--Its reported
+     abundance of Game and Robbers--The Disturbed State of the
+     Country--The Albanians--Richness of their Arms--Their free use of
+     them--Comparative Safety of Foreigners--Tragic Fate of a German
+     Botanist--Arrival at Gominitza--Ride to Paramathia--A Night's
+     Bivouac--Reception at Paramathia--Albanian Ladies--Yanina--Albanian
+     Mode of settling a Quarrel--Expected Attack from Robbers--A
+     Body-Guard mounted--Audience with the Vizir--His Views of Criminal
+     Jurisprudence--Retinue of the Vizir--His Troops--Adoption of the
+     European Exercises--Expedition to Berat--Calmness and
+     Self-possession of the Turks--Active Preparations for
+     Warfare--Scene at the Bazaar--Valiant Promises of the Soldiers.
+
+
+_Corfu, Friday, Oct. 31, 1834._--I found I could get no information
+respecting Albania at Corfu, though the high mountains of Epirus seemed
+almost to over-hang the island. No one knew anything about it, except
+that it was a famous place for snipes! It appeared never to have struck
+traveller or tourist that there was anything in Albania except snipes;
+whereof one had shot fifteen brace, and another had shot many more, only
+he did not bring them home, having lost the dead birds in the bushes.
+There were some woodcocks also, it was generally believed, and some
+spake of wild boars, but I had not the advantage of meeting with anybody
+who could specifically assert that he had shot one: and besides these
+there were robbers in multitudes. As to that point every one was agreed.
+Of robbers there was no end: and just at this particular time there was
+a revolution, or rebellion, or pronunciamiento, or a general election,
+or something of that sort, going on in Albania; for all the people who
+came over from thence said that the whole country was in a ferment. In
+fact there seemed to be a general uproar taking place, during which each
+party of the free and independent mountaineers deemed it expedient to
+show their steady adherence to their own side of the question by
+shooting at any one they saw, from behind a stone or a tree, for fear
+that person might accidentally be a partizan of the opposite faction.
+
+[Illustration: TATAR, OR GOVERNMENT MESSENGER]
+
+The Albanians are great dandies about their arms: the scabbard of their
+yataghan, and the stocks of their pistols, are almost always of silver,
+as well as their three or four little cartridge boxes, which are
+frequently gilt, and sometimes set with garnets and coral; an Albanian
+is therefore worth shooting, even if he is not of another way of
+thinking from the gentleman who shoots him. As I understood, however,
+that they did not shoot so much at Franks because they usually have
+little about them worth taking, and are not good to eat, I conceived
+that I should not run any great risk; and I resolved, therefore,
+not to be thwarted in my intention of exploring some of the monasteries
+of that country. There is another reason also why Franks are seldom
+molested in the East--every Arab or Albanian knows that if a Frank has a
+gun in his hand, which he generally has, there are two probabilities,
+amounting almost to certainties, with respect to that weapon. One is,
+that it is loaded; and the other that, if the trigger is pulled, there
+is a considerable chance of its going off. Now these are circumstances
+which apply in a much slighter degree to the magazine of small arms
+which he carries about his own person. But, beyond all this, when a
+Frank is shot there is such a disturbance made about it! Consuls write
+letters--pashas are stirred up--guards, kawasses, and tatars gallop like
+mad about the country, and fire pistols in the air, and live at free
+quarters in the villages; the murderer is sought for everywhere, and he,
+or somebody else, is hanged to please the consul; in addition to which
+the population are beaten with thick sticks ad libitum. All this is
+extremely disagreeable, and therefore we are seldom shot at, the pastime
+being too dearly paid for.
+
+The last Frank whom I heard of as having been killed in Albania was a
+German, who was studying botany. He rejoiced in a blue coat and brass
+buttons, and wandered about alone, picking up herbs and flowers on the
+mountains, which he put carefully into a tin box. He continued
+unmolested for some time, the universal opinion being that he was a
+powerful magician, and that the herbs he was always gathering would
+enable him to wither up his enemies by some dreadful charm, and also to
+detect every danger which menaced him. Two or three Albanians had
+watched him for several days, hiding themselves carefully behind the
+rocks whenever the philosopher turned towards them; and at last one of
+the gang, commending himself to all his saints, rested his long gun upon
+a stone and shot the German through the body. The poor man rolled over,
+but the Albanian did not venture from his hiding-place until he had
+loaded his gun again, and then, after sundry precautions, he came out,
+keeping his eye upon the body, and with his friends behind him, to
+defend him in case of need. The botanizer, however, was dead enough, and
+the disappointment of the Albanians was extreme, when they found that
+his buttons were brass and not gold, for it was the supposed value of
+these precious ornaments that had incited them to the deed.
+
+I procured some letters of introduction to different persons, sent my
+English servant and most of my effects to England, and hired a youth to
+act in the double capacity of servant and interpreter during the
+journey. One of my friends at Corfu was good enough to procure me the
+use of a great boat, with I do not know how many oars, belonging to
+government; and in it I was rowed over the calm bright sea twenty-four
+miles to Gominitza, where I arrived in five hours. Here I hired three
+horses with pack-saddles, one for my baggage, one for my servant, and
+one for myself; and away we went towards Paramathia, which place we were
+told was four hours off. Paramathia is said to be built upon the site of
+Dodona, although the exact situation of the oracle is not ascertained;
+but some of the finest bronzes extant were found there thirty or forty
+years ago, part of which went to Russia, and part came into the
+possession of Mr. Hawkins, of Bignor, in Sussex, where they are still
+preserved.
+
+Our horses were not very good, and our roads were worse; and we
+scrambled and stumbled over the rocks, up and down hill, all the
+afternoon, without approaching, as it seemed to me, towards any
+inhabited place. It was now becoming dark, and the muleteers said we had
+six hours more to do; it was then seven o'clock, P.M.; we could see
+nothing, and were upon the top of a hill, where there were plenty of
+stones and some low bushes, through which we were making our way
+vaguely, suiting ourselves as to a path, and turning our faces towards
+any point of the compass which we thought most agreeable, for it did not
+appear that any of the party knew the way. We now held a council as to
+what was best to be done; and as we saw lights in some houses about a
+mile off, I desired one of the muleteers to go there and see if we could
+get a lodging for the night. "Go to a house?" said the muleteer, "you
+don't suppose we could be such fools as to go to a house in Albania,
+where we know nobody?" "No!" said I, "why not?" "Because we should be
+murdered, of course," said he; "that is if they thought themselves
+strong enough to venture to undo their doors and let us in; otherwise
+they would pretend there was nobody in the house, or fire at us out of
+the window and set the dogs at us; or----" "Oh!" I replied, "that is
+quite sufficient; I have no desire to trouble your excellent countrymen,
+only I don't precisely see what else we are to do just now on the top of
+this hill. How are they off for wolves in this neighbourhood?" "Why,"
+quoth my friend, "I hope you understand that if anything happens to my
+horses you are bound to reimburse me: as for ourselves, we are armed,
+and must take our chance; but I don't think there are many wolves here
+yet; they don't come down from the mountains quite so soon: though
+certainly it is getting cold already. But we had better sleep here at
+all events, and at dawn we shall be able, perhaps, to make out a little
+better where we have got to." There being nothing else for it, we tied
+the horses' legs together, and I lay down on a travelling carpet by the
+side of my servant, under the cover of a bush. Awfully cold it was: the
+horses trembled and shook themselves every now and then, and held their
+heads down, and I tried all sorts of postures in hopes of making myself
+snug, but every change was from bad to worse; I could not get warm any
+how, and a remarkable fact was, that the more sharp stones I picked out
+from under the carpet the more numerous and sharper were those that
+remained: my only comfort was to hear the muleteers rolling about too,
+and anathematizing the stones most lustily. However, I went to sleep in
+course of time, and was, as it appeared to me, instantaneously awakened
+by some one shaking me, and telling me it was four o'clock and time to
+start. It was still as dark as ever, except that a few stars were
+visible, and we recommenced our journey, stumbling and scrambling about
+as we had done before, till we came to a place where the horses stopped
+of their own accord. This it seemed was a ledge of rock above a
+precipice, about two hundred feet deep, as I judged by the reflection of
+the stars in the stream which ran below. The dimness of the light made
+the place look more dangerous and difficult than perhaps it really was.
+It seems, however, that we were lucky in finding it, for there was no
+other way off the hill except by this ledge, which was about twelve feet
+broad. We got off our horses and led them down; they had probably often
+been there before, for they made no difficulty about it, and in a few
+hundred yards, the road becoming better, we mounted again, and after
+five hours' travelling arrived at Paramathia. Just before entering the
+place we met a party on foot, armed to the teeth, and all carrying
+their long guns. One of these gentlemen politely asked me if I had a
+spare purse about me, or any money which I could turn over to his
+account; but as I looked very dirty and shabby, and as we were close to
+the town, he did not press his demand, but only asked by which road I
+intended to leave it. I told him I should remain there for the present,
+and as we had now reached the houses, he took his departure, to my great
+satisfaction.
+
+On inquiring for the person to whom I had a letter of introduction, I
+found he was a shopkeeper who sold cloth in the bazaar. We accordingly
+went to his shop and found him sitting among his merchandise. When he
+had read the letter he was very civil, and shutting up his shop, walked
+on before us to show me the way to his house. It was a very good one,
+and the best room was immediately given up to me, two old ladies and
+three or four young ones being turned out in a most summary manner. One
+or two of the girls were very pretty, and they all vied with each other
+in their attentions to their guest, looking at me with great curiosity,
+and perpetually peeping at me through the curtain which hung over the
+door, and running away when they thought they were observed.
+
+The prettiest of these damsels had only been married a short time: who
+her husband was, or where he lived, I could not make out, but she amused
+me by her anxiety to display her smart new clothes. She went and put on
+a new capote, a sort of white frock coat, without sleeves, embroidered
+in bright colours down the seams, which showed her figure to advantage;
+and then she took it off again, and put on another garment, giving me
+ample opportunity of admiring its effect. I expressed my surprise and
+admiration in bad Greek, which, however, the fair Albanian appeared to
+find no difficulty in understanding. She kindly corrected some of my
+sentences, and I have no doubt I should have improved rapidly under her
+care, if she had not always run away whenever she heard any one creaking
+about on the rickety boards of the ante-room and staircase. The other
+ladies, who were settling themselves in a large gaunt room close by,
+kept up an interminable clatter, and displayed such unbounded powers of
+conversation, that it seemed impossible that any one of them could hear
+what all the others said; till at last the master of the house came up
+again, and then there was a lull. He told me that I could not hire
+horses till the afternoon, and as that would have been too late to
+start, I determined to remain where I was till the next morning. I
+passed the day in wandering about the place, and considering whether,
+upon the whole, the dogs or the men of Paramathia were the most savage:
+for the dogs looked like wolves, and the men like arrant cut-throats,
+swaggering about, idle and restless, with their long hair, and guns, and
+pistols, and yataghans; they have none of the composure of the Turks,
+who delight to sit still in a coffee-house and smoke their pipes, or
+listen to a story, which saves them the trouble of thinking or speaking.
+The Albanians did not scream and chatter as the Arabs do, or as their
+ladies were doing in the houses, but they lounged about the bazaars
+listlessly, ready to pick a quarrel with any one, and unable to fix
+themselves down to any occupation; in short they gave me the idea of
+being a very poor and proud, and good-for-nothing set of scamps.
+
+_November 2nd._--The next morning at five o'clock I was on horseback
+again, and after riding over stones and rocks, and frequently in the bed
+of a stream, for fourteen hours, I arrived in the evening at Yanina. I
+was disappointed with the first view of the place. The town is built on
+the side of a sloping hill above the lake; and as my route lay over the
+top of this hill, I could see but little of the town until I was quite
+among the houses, most of which were in a ruinous condition. The lake
+itself, with an island in it on which are the ruins of a palace built by
+the famous Ali Pasha, is a beautiful object; but the mountains by which
+it is bounded on the opposite side are barren, yet not sufficiently
+broken to be picturesque. The scene altogether put me in mind of the
+Lake of Genesareth as seen from its western shore near Tiberias. There
+is a plain to the north and north-west, which is partially cultivated,
+but it is inferior in beauty to the plains of Jericho, and there is no
+river like the Jordan to light up the scene with its quick and sparkling
+waters as it glistens among the trees in its journey towards the lake.
+
+I went to the house of an Italian gentleman who was the principal
+physician of Yanina, and who I understood was in the habit of affording
+accommodation to travellers in his house. He received me with great
+kindness, and gave me an excellent set of rooms, consisting of a bed
+room, sitting room, and ante-room, all of them much better than those
+which I occupied in the hotel at Corfu: they were clean and nicely
+furnished; and altogether the excellence of my quarters in the
+dilapidated capital of Albania surprised me most agreeably.
+
+The town appears never to have been repaired since the wars and
+revolutions which occurred at the time of Ali Pasha's death. The houses
+resemble those of Greece or southern Italy; they are built, some of
+stone, and some of wood, with tiled roofs. On the walls of many of them
+there were vines growing. The bazaars are poor, yet I saw very rich arms
+displayed in some mean little shops, or stalls, as we should call them;
+for they are all open, like the booths at a fair. The climate is rainy,
+and there is no lack of mud in wet weather, and dust when it is dry. The
+whole place had a miserable appearance, nothing seemed to be going on,
+and the people have a savage, hang-dog look.
+
+I had a good supper and a good bed, and was awakened the next morning by
+hearing the servants loud in talk about the news of the day. The subject
+was truly Albanian. A man who had a shop in the bazaar had quarrelled
+yesterday with some of his fellow townsmen, and in the night they took
+him out of his bed and cut him to pieces with their yataghans on the
+hill above the town. Some people coming by early this morning saw
+various joints of this unlucky man lying on the ground as they passed.
+
+I occupied myself in looking about the place; and having sent to the
+palace of the vizir to request an audience, it was fixed for the next
+day. There was not much to see; but I afforded a subject of
+uninterrupted discussion to all beholders, as it appeared I was the only
+traveller who had been there for some time. I went to bed early because
+I had no books to read, and it was a bore trying to talk Greek to my
+host's family; but I had not been asleep long before I was awakened by
+the intelligence that a party of robbers had concealed themselves in the
+ruins round the house, and that we should probably be attacked. Up we
+all got, and loaded our guns and pistols: the women kept flying about
+everywhere, and, when they ran against each other in the dark, screamed
+wofully, as they took everybody for a robber. We had no lights, that we
+might not afford good marks for the enemy outside, who, however, kept
+quiet, and did not shoot at us, although every now and then we saw a
+man or two creeping about among the ruins. My host, who was armed with a
+gun of prodigious length, was in a state of great alarm; and, having
+sent for assistance, twenty soldiers arrived, who kept guard round the
+house, but would not venture among the ruins. These valiant heroes
+relieved each other during the night; but, as no robbers made their
+appearance, I got tired of watching for them, and went quietly to bed
+again.
+
+_November 4th._--At nine o'clock in the morning I paid my respects to
+the Vizir, Mahmoud Pasha, a man with a long nose, and who altogether
+bore a great resemblance to Pope Benedict XV [XVI in the original (n. of
+etext transcriber). I stayed some hours with him, talking over Turkish
+matters; and we got into a brisk argument as to whether England was part
+of London, or London part of England. He appeared to be a remarkably
+good-natured man, and took great interest in the affairs of Egypt, from
+which country I had lately arrived, and asked me numberless questions
+about Mehemet Ali, comparing his character with that of Ali Pasha, who
+had built this palace, which was in a very ruinous state, for nothing
+had been expended to keep it in repair. The hall of audience was a
+magnificent room, richly decorated with inlaid work of mother-of-pearl
+and tortoiseshell: the ceiling was gilt, and the windows of Venetian
+plate-glass, but some of them were broken: the floor was loose and
+almost dangerous; and two holes in the side walls, which had been made
+by a cannon-ball, were stopped up with pieces of deal board roughly
+nailed upon the costly inlaid panels. The divan was of red cloth; and a
+crowd of men, with their girdles stuck full of arms, stood leaning on
+their long guns at the bottom of the room, listening to our
+conversation, and laughing loudly whenever a joke was made, but never
+coming forward beyond the edge of the carpet.
+
+The Pasha offered to give me an escort, as he said that the country at
+that moment was particularly unsafe; but at length it was settled that
+he should give me a letter to the commander of the troops at Mezzovo,
+who would supply me with soldiers to see me safely to the monasteries of
+Meteora. When I arose to take my leave, he sent for more pipes and
+coffee, as a signal for me to remain; in short, we became great friends.
+Whilst I was with him a pasha of inferior rank came in, and sat on the
+divan for half an hour without saying a single word or doing anything
+except looking at me unceasingly. After he had taken his departure we
+had some sherbet; and at last I got away, leaving the Pasha in great
+wonderment at the English government paying large sums of money for the
+transportation of criminals, when cutting off their heads would have
+been so much more economical and expeditious. Incurring any expense to
+keep rogues and vagabonds in prison, or to send them away from our own
+country to be the plague of other lands, appeared to him to be an
+extraordinary act of folly; and that thieves should be fed and clothed
+and lodged, while poor and honest people were left to starve, he
+considered to be contrary to common sense and justice. I laughed at the
+time at what I thought the curious opinions of the Vizir of Yanina; I
+have since come to the conclusion that there was some sense in his
+notions of criminal jurisprudence.
+
+In the afternoon, as I was looking out of the window of my lodging, I
+saw the Vizir going by with a great number of armed people, and I was
+told that in the present disturbed state of the country he never went
+out to take a ride without all these attendants. First came a hundred
+lancers on horseback, dressed in a kind of European uniform; then two
+horsemen, each with a pair of small kettle-drums attached to the front
+of his saddle. They kept up an unceasing pattering upon these drums as
+they rode along. This is a Tartar or Persian custom; and in some parts
+of Tartary the dignity of khan is conferred by strapping these two
+little drums on the back of the person whom the king delighteth to
+honour; and then the king beats the drums as the new khan walks slowly
+round the court. Thus a thing is reckoned a great honour in one part of
+the world which in another is accounted a disgrace; for when a soldier
+is incorrigible, we drum him out of the regiment, whilst the Tartar khan
+is drummed into his dignity. After the drummers came a brilliantly
+dressed company of kawasses, with silver pistols and yataghans; then
+several trumpeters; and after them the Vizir himself on a fine tall
+horse; he was dressed in the new Turkish Frank style, with the usual red
+cap on his head; but he had an immense red cloth cloak sumptuously
+embroidered with gold, which quite covered him, so that no part of the
+great man was visible, except his two eyes, his nose, and one of his
+hands, upon which was a splendid diamond ring. Two grooms walked by the
+sides of his horse, each with one hand on the back of the saddle. Every
+one bowed as the Vizir went by; and I became a distinguished person from
+the moment that he gave me a condescending nod. The procession was
+closed by a crowd of officers and attendants on horseback in gorgeous
+Albanian dresses, with silver bridles and embroidered housings. They
+carried what I thought at first were spears, but I soon discovered that
+they were long pipes; there was quite a forest of them, of all lengths
+and sizes. When the Vizir was gone and the dust subsided, I strolled out
+of the town on foot, when I came upon the troops, who were learning the
+new European exercise. Seeing a man sitting on a carpet in the middle of
+the plain, I went up to him and found that he was the colonel and
+commander of this army; so I smoked a pipe with him, and discovered that
+he knew about as much of tactics and military manoeuvres as I did, only
+he did not take so much interest in the subject. We therefore
+continued to smoke the pipe of peace on the carpet of reflection, while
+the soldiers entangled themselves in all sorts of incomprehensible
+doublings and counter-marches, till at last the whole body was so much
+puzzled, that they stood still all of a heap, like a cluster of bees.
+The captains shouted, and the poor men turned round and round, trod on
+each other's heels, kicked each other's shins, and did all they could to
+get out of the scrape, but they only got more into confusion. At last a
+bright thought struck the colonel, who took his pipe out of his mouth,
+and gave orders, in the name of the Prophet, that every man should go
+home in the best way he could. This they accomplished like a party of
+schoolboys, running and jumping and walking off in small parties towards
+the town. The officers wiped the perspiration from their foreheads, and
+strolled off too, some to smoke a pipe under a tree, and some to repose
+on their divans and swear at the Franks who had invented such
+extraordinary evolutions.
+
+[Illustration: TURKISH COMMON SOLDIER.]
+
+In the evening, among the other news of the day, I was told that three
+men had been walking together in the afternoon; one of them bought a
+melon, and his two companions, who were very thirsty, but had no money,
+asked him to give them some of it. He would not do so; and, as they
+worried him about it, he ran into an empty house, and, bolting the door,
+sat down inside to discuss his purchase in quiet. The other two were
+determined not to be jockeyed in that manner, and, finding a hole in the
+door, they peeped through, and were enraged at seeing him eating the
+melon inside. He jeered them, and said that the melon was excellent;
+until at last one of them swore he should not eat it all, and, putting
+his pistol through the hole in the door, shot his friend dead; they then
+walked away, laughing at their own cleverness in shooting him so neatly
+through the hole.
+
+_November 5th._--The next day I went again to the citadel to see the
+Vizir, but he could not receive me, as news had arrived that the
+insurgents or robbers--they had entitled themselves to either
+denomination--had gathered together in force and laid siege to the town
+of Berat. There had been a good deal of confusion in Yanina before this,
+but now it appeared to have arrived at a climax. The courtyard of the
+citadel was full of horses picketed by their head-and-heel ropes, in
+long rows; parties of men were, according to their different habits,
+talking over the events of the day,--the Albanians chattering and
+putting themselves in attitudes; the Arnaouts or Mahometans of Greek
+blood boasting of the chivalric feats which they intended to perform;
+and the grave Turks sitting quietly on the ground, smoking their eternal
+pipes, and taking it all as easily as if they had nothing to do with it.
+Both before and since these days I have seen a great deal of the Turks;
+and though, for many reasons, I do not respect them as a nation, still
+I cannot help admiring their calmness and self-possession in moments of
+difficulty and danger. There is something noble and dignified in their
+quietness on these occasions: I have very rarely seen a Turk
+discomposed; stately and collected, he sits down and bides his time; but
+when the moment of action comes, he will rouse himself on a sudden, and
+become full of fire, animation, and activity. It is then that you see
+the descendant of those conquerors of the East, whose strong will and
+fierce courage have given them the command over all the nations of
+Islam.
+
+Although I could not obtain an audience with the vizir, one of the
+people who were with me managed to send a message to him that I should
+be glad of the letter, or firman, which he had promised me, and by which
+I might command the services of an escort, if I thought fit to do so.
+This man had influence at court; for he had a friend who was chiboukji
+to the vizir's secretary, or prime minister--a sly Greek, whose
+acquaintance I had made two days before. The pipe-bearer, propitiated by
+a trifling bribe, spoke to his master, and he spoke to the vizir, who
+promised I should have the letter; and it came accordingly in the
+evening, properly signed and sealed, and all in heathen Greek, of which
+I could make out a word here and there; but what it was about was
+entirely beyond my comprehension.
+
+Whilst waiting the result of these negotiations I had leisure to notice
+the warlike movements which were going on around me. I saw a train of
+two or three hundred men on horseback issuing out from the citadel, and
+riding slowly along the plain in the direction of Berat. They were sent
+to raise the siege; and other troops were preparing to follow them. As I
+watched these horsemen winding across the plain in a long line, with the
+sun glancing upon their arms, they seemed like a great serpent, with its
+glittering scales, gliding along to seek for its prey; and in some
+respects the simile would hold good, for this detachment would be the
+terror of the inhabitants of every district through which it passed.
+Rapine, violence, and oppression would mark its course; friend and foe
+would alike be plundered; and the villages which had not been burned by
+the insurgent klephti would be sacked and ruined by the soldiers of the
+government.
+
+As I descended from the citadel I passed numerous parties of armed men,
+all full of excitement about the plunder they would get, and the mighty
+deeds they would perform; for the danger was a good way off, and they
+were all brim-full of valour. In the bazaar all was business and bustle:
+everybody was buying arms. Long guns and silver pistols, all ready
+loaded, I believe, with fiery-looking flints as big as sandwiches,
+wrapped up first in a bit of red cloth, and then in a sort of open work
+of lead or tin, were being handed about; and the spirit of commerce was
+in full activity. Great was the haggling among the dealers. One man
+walked off with a mace; another, expecting to perform as mighty deeds as
+Richard Coeur de Lion, bought an old battle-axe, and swung it about to
+show how he would cut heads off with it before long. Another champion
+had included among his warlike accoutrements a curious, ancient-looking
+silver clock, which dangled by his side from a multitude of chains. It
+was square in shape, and must have been provided with a strong
+constitution inside if it could go while it was banged about at every
+step the man took. This worthy, I imagine, intended to kill time, for
+his purchase did not seem calculated to cope with any other enemy. He
+had, however, two or three pistols and daggers in addition to his clock.
+An oldish, hard-featured man was buying a quantity of that abominably
+sour, white cheese which is the pride of Albania, and a quantity of
+black olives, which he was cramming into a pair of old saddle-bags,
+whilst his horse beside him was quietly munching his corn in a sack tied
+over his nose. There was a look of calm efficiency about this man, which
+contrasted strongly with the swaggering air of the crowd around him. He
+was evidently an old hand; and I observed that he had laid in a stock of
+ball-cartridges--an article in which but little money was spent by the
+buyers of yataghans in silver sheaths and silver cartridge-boxes.
+
+"Hallo! sir Frank," cried one or two of these gay warriors, "come out
+with us to Berat: come and see us fight, and you will see something
+worth travelling for."
+
+"Ay," said I, "it's all up with the enemy: that's quite certain. They
+will be in a pretty scrape, to be sure, when you arrive. I would not be
+one of them for a good deal!"
+
+"Sono molto feroce questi palicari," said my guide.
+
+"Oh! yes, they are terrible fellows!" I replied.
+
+"What does the Frank say?" they asked.
+
+"He says you are terrible fellows."
+
+"Ah! I think we are, indeed. But don't be afraid, Frank; don't be
+afraid!"
+
+"No," said I, "I won't; and I wish you good luck on your way to Berat
+and back again."
+
+This night the people had been so much occupied in purchasing the
+implements of death that I heard no accounts of any new murders. In fact
+it had been a dull day in that respect; but no doubt they would make up
+for it before long.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+
+     Start for Meteora--Rencontre with a Wounded Traveller--Barbarity of
+     the Robbers--Albanian Innkeeper--Effect of the Turkish Language
+     upon the Greeks--Mezzovo--Interview with the chief Person in the
+     Village--Mount Pindus--Capture by Robbers--Salutary effects of
+     Swaggering--Arrival under Escort at the Robbers'
+     Head-Quarters--Affairs take a favourable turn--An unexpected
+     Friendship with the Robber Chief--The Khan of Malacash--Beauty of
+     the Scenery--Activity of our Guards--Loss of Character--Arrival at
+     Meteora.
+
+
+_November 6th._--I had engaged a tall, thin, dismal-looking man, well
+provided with pistols, knives, and daggers, as an additional servant,
+for he was said to know all the passes of the mountains, which I thought
+might be a useful accomplishment in case I had to avoid the more public
+roads--or paths, rather--for roads there were none. I purchased a stock
+of provisions, and hired five horses--three for myself and my men, one
+for the muleteer, and the other for the baggage, which was well strapped
+on, that the beast might gallop with it, as it was not very heavy. They
+were pretty good horses--rough and hardy. Mine looked very hard at me
+out of the corner of his eye when I got upon his back in the cold grey
+dawn, as if to find out what sort of a person I was. By means of a stout
+kourbatch--a sort of whip of rhinoceros hide which they use in Egypt--I
+immediately gave him all the information he desired; and off we galloped
+round the back part of the town, and, unquestioned by any one, we soon
+found ourselves trotting along the plain by the south end of the lake of
+Yanina. Here the waters from the lake disappear in an extraordinary
+manner in a great cavern, or pit full of rocks and stones, through which
+the water runs away into some subterranean channel--a dark and
+mysterious river, which the dismal-looking man, my new attendant, said
+came out into the light again somewhere in the Gulph of Arta. Before
+long we got upon the remains of a fine paved road, like a Roman way,
+which had been made by Ali Pasha. It was, however, out of repair, having
+in places been swept away by the torrents, and was an impediment rather
+than an assistance to travellers. This road led up to the hills; and,
+having dismounted from my horse, I began scrambling and puffing up the
+steep side of the mountain, stopping every now and then to regain my
+breath and to admire the beautiful view of the calm lake and picturesque
+town of Yanina.
+
+As I was walking in advance of my company, I saw a man above me leading
+a loaded mule. He was coming down the mountain, carefully picking his
+way among the stones, and in a loud voice exhorting the mule to be
+steady and keep its feet, although the mule was much the more
+sure-footed of the two. As they passed me I was struck with the odd
+appearance of the mule's burden: it consisted of a bundle of large
+stones on one side, which served as a counterpoise to a packing-case on
+the other, covered with a cloth, out of which peeped the head of a man,
+with his long black hair hanging about a face as pale as marble. The box
+in which he travelled not being more than four feet and a half long, I
+supposed he must be a dwarf, and was laughing at his peculiar mode of
+conveyance. The muleteer, observing from my dress that I was a Frank,
+stopped his mule, when he came up to me, and asked me if I was a
+physician, begging me to give my assistance to the man in the box, if I
+knew anything of surgery, for he had had both his legs cut off by some
+robbers on the way from Salonica, and he was now taking him to Yanina,
+in hopes of finding some doctor there to heal his wounds. My laughter
+was now turned into pity for the poor man, for I knew there was no help
+for him at Yanina. I could do nothing for him; and the only hope was, as
+his strength had borne him up so far on his journey, that when he got
+rest at Yanina the wounds might heal of themselves. After expressing my
+commiseration for him, and my hopes of his recovery, we parted company;
+and as I stood looking at the mule, staggering and slipping among the
+loose stones and rocks in the steep descent, it quite made me wince to
+think of the pain the unfortunate traveller must be enduring, with the
+raw stumps of his two legs rubbing and bumping against the end of his
+short box. I was sorry I had not asked why the robbers had cut off his
+legs, because, if it was their usual system, it was certainly more than
+I bargained for. I had pretty nearly made up my mind to be robbed, but
+had no intention whatever to lose my legs; so I sat down upon a rock,
+and began calculating probabilities, until my party came up, and I
+mounted my horse, who gave me another look with his cunning eye. We
+continued on Ali Pasha's broken road until we reached the summit of the
+mountain, where we made a short halt, that our horses might regain their
+wind; and then began our descent, stumbling, and sliding, and scrambling
+down, until we arrived at the bottom, where there was a miserable khan.
+In this royal hotel, which was a mere shed, there was nothing to be
+found except mine host, who had it all to himself. At last he made us
+some coffee; and while our horses were feeding on our own corn, we sat
+under the shade of a walnut-tree by the road-side. Our host, having
+nothing which could be eaten or drank except the coffee, did not know
+how in the world he could manage to get up a satisfactory bill. I saw
+this very plainly in his puzzled and thoughtful looks; but at last a
+bright thought struck him, and he charged a good round sum for the shade
+of the walnut-tree. Now although I admired his ingenuity, I demurred at
+the charge, particularly as the walnut-tree did not belong to him. It
+was a wild tree, which everybody threw stones at as he passed by, to
+bring down the nuts:--
+
+    "Nux ego juncta vise quae sum due crimine vit�,
+      Attamen a cunctis saxibus usque petor."--Ovid.
+
+Little did the unoffending walnut-tree think that its shade would be
+brought forward as a cause of war; for then arose a fierce contest
+between Greek oaths and Albanian maledictions, to which Arabic and
+English lent their aid. Though there were no stones thrown, ten times as
+many hard words were hurled backwards and forwards as there were walnuts
+on the tree, showing a facility of expression and a redundance of
+epithets which would have given a lesson to the most practised ladies of
+Billingsgate.
+
+When the horses were ready the khangee came up to me in a towering
+passion, swearing that I should pay for sitting under the tree.
+"Englishman," said he, "get up and pay me what I demand, or you shall
+not leave this place, by all that is holy." "Kiupek oglou," said I,
+without moving from the ground, "Oh, son of a dog! go and get my horse,
+you chattering magpie!" These few words in the language of the conqueror
+had a marvellous effect on the khangee. "What does his worship say?" he
+inquired of the dismal-faced man. "Why, he says you had better go and
+get his excellency's worship's most respectable horse, if you have any
+regard for your life: so go! be off! vanish! don't stay there staring at
+the illustrious traveller. 'Tis lucky for you he doesn't order us to
+cut you up into cabobs; go and get the horse; and perhaps you'll be paid
+for your coffee, bad as it was. His excellency is the pasha's, his
+highness's, most particular intimate friend; and if his highness knew
+what you had been saying, why, where would you be, O man?" The khangee,
+who had intended to have had it all his own way, was taken terribly
+aback at the sound of the Turkish tongue: he speedily put on my horse's
+bridle, gave his nosebag to the muleteer, tightened up his girths,
+helped the servants, and was suddenly converted into a humble submissive
+drudge. The way in which anything Turkish is respected among the
+conquered races in Syria or in Egypt can scarcely be imagined by those
+who have not witnessed it.
+
+Leaving the khangee to count his paras and piastres, with which, after
+all, he was evidently well satisfied, we rode on down the valley by the
+side of a brawling stream, which we crossed no less than thirty-nine
+times during our day's journey. Our road lay through a magnificent
+series of picturesque and savage gorges, between high rocks. Sometimes
+we rode along the bed of the stream, and sometimes upon a ledge so far
+above it that it looked like a silver ribbon in the sun. Every now and
+then we came to a cataract or rapid, where the stream boiled and foamed
+among the rocks, tossing up its spray, and drowning our voices in its
+noise. In the course of about eight hours of continual scrambling up
+and down all sorts of rocks, we found ourselves at another wretched
+shelty dignified with the name of khan. Here, after a tolerable supper,
+we all rolled ourselves up in the different corners of a sort of loft,
+with our arms under our heads, and slept soundly until the morning.
+
+_November 7th._--This day we continued along the banks of a stream, in
+the direction of its source, until it dwindled to a mere rivulet, when
+we left it and took to the hills at the base of another mountain. We
+rode some way along a rocky path until, turning round a corner to the
+left, we found ourselves at the town or village of Mezzovo. As Mahmoud
+Pasha had supplied me with a firman and letters to the principal persons
+at the several towns on my route, I looked out my Mezzovo letter, with
+the intention of asking for an escort of a few soldiers to accompany me
+through the passes of Mount Pindus, which were reported to be full of
+robbers and cattiva gente of every sort and kind, the great extent of
+the underwood of box-trees forming an impenetrable cover for those
+minions of the moon.
+
+Most of the population of Mezzovo turned out to see the procession of
+the Milordos Inglesis as it entered the precincts of their ancient city,
+and defiled into the market-place, in the middle of which was a great
+tree, under whose shade sat and smoked a circle of grave and reverend
+seignors, the aristocracy of the place; whereupon, holding the pasha's
+letter in my hand, I cantered up to them. On seeing me advance towards
+them, a broad-shouldered good-natured looking man, gorgeously dressed in
+red velvet, embroidered all over with gold, though something tarnished
+with the rain and weather, arose and stepped forward to meet me. "Here
+is a letter," said I, "from his highness Mahmoud Pasha, vizir of Yanina,
+to the chief personage of Mezzovo, whoever he may be, for there is no
+name mentioned; so tell me who is the chief person in this city; where
+is he to be found, for I desire to speak with him?" "You want the chief
+person of Mezzovo?" replied the broad-shouldered man; "well, I think I
+am the chief person here, am I not?" he asked of the assembled crowd
+which had gathered together by this time. "Certainly, malista, oh yes,
+you are the chief person of Mezzovo undoubtedly," they all cried out.
+"Very well," said he, "then give me the letter." On my giving it to him,
+he opened it in a very unceremonious manner; and, before he had half
+read it, burst into a fit of laughing. "What are you laughing at?" said
+I: "Is not that the vizir's letter?" "Oh!" said he, "you want guards, do
+you, to protect you against the robbers, the klephti?" "Yes, I do; but I
+do not see what there is to laugh at in that. I want some men to go with
+me to Meteora; if you are the captain or commander here, give me an
+escort, as I wish to be off at once: it is early now, and I can cross
+the mountains before dark."
+
+After a pause, he said, "Well, I am the captain; and you shall have men
+who will protect you wherever you go. You are an Englishman, are you
+not?" "Yes," I said, "I am." "Well, I like the English; and you
+particularly." "Thank you," said I: and, after some more conversation,
+he tore off a slip from the vizir's letter (a very unceremonious
+proceeding in Albania), and, writing a few lines on it, he said, "Now
+give this paper to the first soldiers you meet at the foot of Mount
+Pindus, and all will be right." He then instructed the muleteer which
+way to go. I took the paper, which was not folded up; but the
+badly-written Romaic was unintelligible to me, so I put it into my
+pocket, and away we went, my new friend waving his hand to us as we
+passed out of the market-place; and we were soon trotting along through
+the open country towards the hills which shoot out from the base of the
+great chain of Mount Pindus, a mountain famous for having had Mount Ossa
+put on the top of it by some of the giants when they were fighting
+against Jupiter. As that respected deity got the better of the giants, I
+presume he put Ossa back again; for which I felt very much obliged to
+him, as Pindus seemed quite high enough and steep enough without any
+addition.
+
+We rode along, getting nearer and nearer to the mountains; and at
+length we began to climb a steep rocky path on the side of a lofty hill
+covered with box-trees. This path continued for some distance until we
+came to a place where there was a ledge so narrow that two horses could
+not go abreast. Here, as I was riding quietly along, I heard an
+exclamation in front of "Robbers! robbers!" and sure enough, out of one
+of the thickets of box-trees, there advanced three or four bright
+gun-barrels, which were speedily followed by some gentlemen in dirty
+white jackets and fustanellas; who, in a short and abrupt style of
+eloquence, commanded us to stand. This of course we were obliged to do;
+and as I was getting out my pistol, one of the individuals in white
+presented his gun at me, and upon my looking round to see whether my
+tall Albanian servant was preparing to support me, I saw him quietly
+half-cock his gun and sling it back over his shoulder, at the name time
+shaking his head as much as to say, "It is no use resisting; we are
+caught; there are too many of them." So I bolted the locks of the four
+barrels of my pistol carefully, hoping that the bolts would form an
+impediment to my being shot with my own weapon after I had been robbed
+of it. The place was so narrow that there were no hopes of running away,
+and there we sat on horseback, looking silly enough, I dare say. There
+was a good deal of talking and chattering among the robbers, and they
+asked the Albanian various questions to which I paid no attention, all
+my faculties being engrossed in watching the proceedings of the party
+in front, who were examining the effects in the panniers of the baggage
+mule. First they pulled out my bag of clothes, and threw it upon the
+ground; then out came the sugar and the coffee, and whatever else these
+was. Some of the men had hold of the poor muleteer, and a loud argument
+was going on between him and his captors. I did not like all this, but
+my rage was excited to a violent pitch when I saw one man appropriating
+to his own use the half of a certain fat tender cold fowl, whereof I had
+eaten the other half with much appetite and satisfaction. "Let that fowl
+alone, you scoundrel!" said I in good English; "put it down, will you?
+if you don't, I'll----!" The man, surprised at this address in an
+unknown tongue, put down the fowl, and looked up with wonder at the
+explosion of ire which his actions had called forth. "That is right,"
+said I, "my good fellow, it is too good for such a dirty brute as you."
+"Let us see," said I to the Albanian, "if there is nothing to be done;
+say I am the King of England's uncle, or grandson, or particular friend,
+and that if we are hurt or robbed he will send all manner of ships and
+armies, and hang everybody, and cut off the heads of all the rest. Talk
+big, O man! and don't spare great words; they cost nothing, and let us
+see what that will do."
+
+Upon this the Albanian took up his parable and a long parleying ensued,
+for the robbers were taken aback with the good English in which I had
+addressed them, and stood still with open mouths to hear what it all
+meant. In the middle of this row I thought of the paper which had been
+given me at Mezzovo. "Here," said I, "here is a letter; read it, see
+what it says." They took the paper and turned it round and round, for
+they could not read it: first one looked at it and then another; then
+they looked at the back, but they could make nothing of it. Nevertheless,
+it produced a great effect upon them, for here, as in all other
+countries of the East, any writing is looked upon by the uneducated
+people as a mystery, and is held in high respect; and at last they said
+they would take us to a place where we should find a person capable of
+reading it. The thing which most provoked me was that the fellows seemed
+not to have the slightest fear of us; they did not even take the trouble
+to demand our arms: my much cherished "patent four-barrelled travelling
+pistol" they evidently considered too small to be dangerous; and I felt
+it as a kind of personal insult that they deputed only two of their
+number to convoy us to the residence of the learned person who was to
+read the letter. They managed matters, however, in a scientific way: the
+bridles of our horses were turned over their heads and tied each to the
+horse that went before; one of our captors walked in front and the other
+behind; but just when I thought an opportunity had arrived to shake off
+this yoke, I perceived that the whole pass was guarded, and wherever the
+road was a little wider or turned a corner round a rock or a clump of
+trees, there were other long guns peeping out from among the bushes,
+with the bearers of which our two conquerors exchanged pass-words. Thus
+we marched along, the robber who went first apparently caring nothing
+about us, but the one in the rear having his gun cocked and ready to
+shoot any one of us who should turn restive. The road, which ascended
+rapidly, was rather too dangerous to be agreeable, being a narrow path
+cut on the side of a very steep mountain; at one time the track lay
+across a steep slope of blue marl, which afforded the most insecure
+footing for our horses: all mountain-travellers are aware how much more
+dangerous this kind of road is than a firm ledge of rock, however
+narrow.
+
+We had now got very high, and the ground was sprinkled with patches of
+ice and snow, which rendered the footing insecure; and frequently large
+masses of the road, disturbed by our passing over it, gave way beneath
+our feet, and set off bounding and crashing among the box trees until it
+was broken into powder on the rocks below.
+
+In process of time we got into a cloud which hid everything from us, and
+going still higher we got above the cloud into a region of broken crags
+and rocks and pine-trees, among which there was a large wooden house or
+shed. It seemed all roof, and was made of long spars of trees sloping
+towards each other, and was very high, long, and narrow. As we
+approached it several men made their appearance armed at all points, and
+took our horses from us. At the end of the shed there was a door through
+which we were conducted into the interior by our two guards, and placed
+all of a row, with our backs against the wall, on the right side of the
+entrance. Towards the other end of this sylvan guard-room there was a
+large fire on the ground, and a number of men sitting round it drinking
+aqua vit� out of coffee cups, and talking load and laughing. In the
+farthest corner I saw a pile of long bright-barrelled guns leaning
+against the wall, while on the other side of the fire there were some
+boards on the ground with a mat or carpet over them, whereon a worthy
+better dressed than the rest was lounging, apart from every one else and
+half asleep. To him the paper was given, and he leant forward to read it
+by the light of the blazing fire, for though it was bright sunshine out
+of doors, the room was quite dark. The captain was evidently a poor
+scholar, and he spelt and puzzled over every word. At last a thought
+struck him: shading his eyes with his hand from the glare of the fire he
+leant forward and peered into the darkness, where we were awaiting his
+commands. Not distinguishing us, however, he jumped up upon his feet and
+shouted out "Hallo! where are the gentlemen who brought this letter?
+What have you done with them?" At the sound of his voice the rest of the
+party jumped up also, being then first aware that something out of the
+common had taken place. Some of the palicari ran towards us and were
+going to seize us, when the captain came forward and in a civil tone
+said, "Oh, there you are! Welcome, gentlemen; we are very glad to
+receive you. Make yourselves at home; come near the fire and sit down."
+I took him at his word and sat down on the boards by the side of the
+fire, rubbing my hands and making myself as comfortable as possible
+under the circumstances. My two servants and the muleteer seeing what
+turn affairs had taken, became of a sudden as loquacious as they had
+been silent before, and in a short time we were all the greatest friends
+in the world.
+
+"So," said the captain, or whatever he was, "you are acquainted with our
+friend at Mezzovo. How did you leave him? I hope he was well?"
+
+"Oh, yes," I said; "we left him in excellent health. What a remarkably
+pleasing person he is! and how well he looks in his red velvet dress!"
+
+"Have you known him long?" he asked.
+
+"Why, not _very_ long," replied my Albanian; "but my master has the
+greatest respect for him, and so has he for my master."
+
+"He says you are to take some of our men with you wherever you like,"
+said our host.
+
+"Yes, I know," said the Albanian; "we settled that at Mezzovo, with my
+master's friend, his Excellency Mr. What's-his-name."
+
+"Well, how many will you take?"
+
+"Oh! five or six will do; that will be as many as we want. We are going
+to Meteora and then we shall return over the mountains back to Mezzovo,
+where I hope we shall have the pleasure of meeting your general again."
+
+Whilst we were talking and drinking coffee by the fire, a prodigious
+bustling and chattering was going on among the rest of the party, and
+before long five slim, active, dirty-looking young rogues, in white
+dresses, with long black hair hanging down their backs, and each with a
+long thin gun, announced that they were ready to accompany us whenever
+we were ready to start. As we had nothing to keep us in the dark, smoky
+hovel, we were soon ready to go; and glad indeed was I to be out again
+in the open air among the high trees, without the immediate prospect of
+being hanged upon one of them. My party jumped with great alacrity and
+glee upon their miserable mules and horses; all our belongings,
+including the half of the cold fowl, were _in statu quo_; and off we
+set--our new friends accompanied us on foot. And so delighted was our
+Caliban of a muleteer at what we all considered a fortunate escape, that
+he lifted up his voice and gave vent to his feelings in a song. The
+grand gentleman in red velvet to whom I had presented the Pasha's letter
+at Mezzovo, was, it seems, himself the captain of the thieves--the very
+man against whom the Pasha wished to afford us his protection; and he,
+feeling amused probably at the manner in which we had fallen unawares
+into his clutches, and being a good-natured fellow (and he certainly
+looked such), gave us a note to the officer next in command, ordering
+him to protect us as his friends, and to provide us with an escort. When
+I say that he of the red velvet was captain of the thieves, it is to be
+understood, that although his followers did not excel in honesty, as
+they proceeded to plunder us the moment they had entrapped us in the
+valley of the box-trees, yet he should more properly be called a
+guerilla chief in rebellion for the time being against the authorities
+of the Turkish government, and I being a young Englishman, he
+good-naturedly gave me his assistance, without which, as I afterwards
+found, it would have been impossible for me to have travelled with
+safety through any one of the mountain passes of the Pindus. I was told
+that this chief, whose name I unfortunately omitted to note down,
+commanded a large body of men before the city of Berat, and certainly
+all the ragamuffins whom I met on my way to and from the monasteries of
+Meteora acknowledged his authority. I heard that soon afterwards he
+returned to his allegiance under Mahmoud Pasha, for it appears that the
+outbreak, during which I had inadvertently started for a tour in
+Albania, did not last long.
+
+Late in the evening we arrived at a small khan something like an
+out-building to a farmhouse in England; this was the khan of Malacash:
+it was prettily situated on the banks of the river Peneus, and
+contained, besides the stable, two rooms, one of which opened upon a
+kind of verandah or covered terrace. My two servants and I slept on the
+floor in this room, and the four robbers or guards (as in common
+civility I ought to term them) in the ante-chamber. I gave them as good
+a supper as I could, and we became excellent friends. It was almost dark
+when we arrived at this place, but the next morning when the glorious
+sun arose I was charmed with the beautiful scenery around us. On both
+sides banks of stately trees rose above the margin of a rippling stream,
+and the valley grew wider and wider as we rode on, the stream increasing
+by the addition of many little rills, and the trees retiring from it,
+affording us views of grassy plains and romantic dells, first on one
+side and then on the other. The scenery was most lovely, and in the
+distance was the towering summit of the great Mount Olympus, famous
+nowadays for the Greek monasteries which are built upon its sides, and
+near whose base runs the valley of Tempe, of which we are expressly told
+in the Latin Grammar that it is a pleasant vale in Thessaly; and if it
+is more beautiful than the valley of the Peneus, it must be a very
+pleasant vale indeed.
+
+I was struck with the original manner in which our mountain friends
+progressed through the country; sometimes they kept with us, but more
+usually some of them went on one side of the road and some on the other,
+like men beating for game, only that they made no noise; and on the rare
+occasions when we met any traveller trudging along the road or ambling
+on a long-eared mule, they were always among the bushes or on the tops
+of the rocks, and never showed themselves upon the road. But despite all
+these vagaries they were always close to us. They were wonderfully
+active, for although I trotted or galloped whenever the nature of the
+road rendered it practicable, they always kept up with me, and
+apparently without exertion or fatigue; and although they were often out
+of my sight, I believe I was never out of theirs. Altogether I was glad
+that we were such friends, for, from what I saw of them, they and their
+associates would have proved very awkward enemies. They were curious
+wild animals, as slim and as active as cats: their waists were not much
+more than a foot and a half in circumference, and they appeared to be
+able to jump over anything; and the thin mocassins of raw hide which
+they wore enabled them to run or walk without making the slightest
+noise. In fact, they were agreeable, honest rogues enough, and we got on
+amazingly well together. I had a way of singing as I rode along for my
+own particular edification, and from mere joyousness of heart, for the
+beautiful scenery, and the fine fresh air, and the bright stream
+delighted me, so I sung away at a great rate; and my horse sometimes put
+back one of his ears to listen, which I took as a personal compliment:
+but my robbers did not like this singing.
+
+"Why," they said to the Albanian, "does the Frank sing?"
+
+"It is a way he has," was the reply.
+
+"Well," they said, "this is a wild country; there is no use in courting
+attention--he had better not sing."
+
+Nevertheless I would not leave off for all that. _Cantabit vacuus coram
+latrone viator_; so I went on singing rather louder than before,
+particularly as I was convinced that my horse had an ear for music; and
+in this way, after travelling for seven hours, we came within sight of
+the extraordinary rocks of Meteora.
+
+Just at this time we observed among the trees before us a long string of
+travellers who appeared to be convoying a train of baggage horses. On
+seeing us they stopped, and closed their files; and as my thieves had
+bolted, as usual, into the bushes some time before, my party consisted
+only of four persons and five horses. As we approached the other party,
+a tall, well-armed man, with a rifle across his arm, rode forwards and
+hailed us, asking who we were. We said we were travellers.
+
+"And who were those who left you just now?" said he.
+
+"They are some of our party who have turned off by a short cut to go to
+Meteora," replied my Albanian.
+
+"What! a short cut on both sides of the road! how is that? I suspect you
+are not simple travellers."
+
+"Well," he replied, "we do not wish to molest you. Go on your way in
+peace, and let us pass quietly, for you are by far the larger party."
+
+"Yes," said the man, "but how many have you in the bushes? What are they
+about there?"
+
+"I don't know what they are about," said he, "but they will not molest
+you [one of them was peeping over a bush at the back of the party all
+the while, but they did not see him]; and we, I assure you, are
+peaceable travellers like yourselves."
+
+Our new acquaintance did not seem at all satisfied, and he and all his
+party drew up along the path as we passed them, with evident misgivings
+as to our purpose; and soon afterwards, looking back, we saw them
+keeping close together and trotting along as fast as their loaded horses
+would go, some of them looking round at us every now and then till we
+lost sight of them among the trees.
+
+The proverb says--you shall know a man by his friends, and my character
+had evidently suffered from the appearance of the company I kept, for
+the merchants held me as little better than a rogue; there was, however,
+no time for explanations, and it was with feelings of indignant virtue
+that I left the forest, and after crossing the river Peneus at a ford,
+my merry men and I continued our journey along the grassy plain of
+Meteora.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+
+     Meteora--The extraordinary Character of its Scenery--Its Caves
+     formerly the Resort of Ascetics--Barbarous Persecution of the
+     Hermits--Their extraordinary Religious Observances--Singular
+     Position of the Monasteries--The Monastery of Barlaam--The
+     difficulty of reaching it--Ascent by a Windlass and Net, or by
+     Ladders--Narrow Escape--Hospitable Reception by the Monks--The
+     Agoumenos, or Abbot--His strict Fast--Description of the
+     Monastery--The Church--Symbolism in the Greek Church--Respect for
+     Antiquity--The Library--Determination of the Abbot not to sell any
+     of the MSS.--The Refectory--Its Decorations--A�rial Descent--The
+     Monastery of Hagios Stephanos--Its Carved Iconostasis--Beautiful
+     View from the Monastery--Monastery of Agia Triada--Summary Justice
+     at Triada--Monastery of Agia Roserea--Its Lady Occupants--Admission
+     refused.
+
+
+The scenery of Meteora is of a very singular kind. The end of a range of
+rocky hills seems to have been broken off by some earthquake or washed
+away by the Deluge, leaving only a series of twenty or thirty tall,
+thin, smooth, needle-like rocks, many hundred feet in height; some like
+gigantic tusks, some shaped like sugar-loaves, and some like vast
+stalagmites. These rocks surround a beautiful grassy plain, on three
+sides of which there grow groups of detached trees, like those in an
+English park. Some of the rocks shoot up quite clean and perpendicularly
+from the smooth green grass; some are in clusters; some stand alone
+like obelisks: nothing can be more strange and wonderful than this
+romantic region, which is unlike anything I have ever seen either before
+or since. In Switzerland, Saxony, the Tyrol, or any other mountainous
+region where I have been, there is nothing at all to be compared to
+these extraordinary peaks.
+
+At the foot of many of the rocks which surround this beautiful grassy
+amphitheatre, there are numerous caves and holes, some of which appear
+to be natural, but most of them are artificial; for in the dark and wild
+ages of monastic fanaticism whole flocks of hermits roosted in these
+pigeon-holes. Some of these caves are so high up the rocks that one
+wonders how the poor old gentlemen could ever get up to them; whilst
+others are below the surface; and the anchorites who burrowed in them,
+like rabbits, frequently afforded excellent sport to parties of roving
+Saracens; indeed, hermit-hunting seems to have been a fashionable
+amusement previous to the twelfth century. In early Greek frescos, and
+in small, stiff pictures with gold backgrounds, we see many frightful
+representations of men on horseback in Roman armour, with long spears,
+who are torturing and slaying Christian devotees. In these pictures the
+monks and hermits are represented in gowns made of a kind of coarse
+matting, and they have long beards, and some of them are covered with
+hair; these I take it were the ones most to be admired, as in the Greek
+church sanctity is always in the inverse ratio of beauty. All Greek
+saints are painfully ugly, but the hermits are much uglier, dirtier, and
+older than the rest; they must have been very fusty people besides,
+eating roots, and living in holes like rats and mice. It is difficult to
+understand by what process of reasoning they could have persuaded
+themselves that, by living in this useless, inactive way, they were
+leading holy lives. They wore out the rocks with their knees in prayer;
+the cliffs resounded with their groans; sometimes they banged their
+breasts with a big stone, for a change; and some wore chains and iron
+girdles round their emaciated forms; but they did nothing whatever to
+benefit their kind. Still there is something grand in the strength and
+constancy of their faith. They left their homes and riches and the
+pleasures of this world, to retire to these dens and caves of the earth,
+to be subjected to cold and hunger, pain and death, that they might do
+honour to their God, after their own fashion, and trusting that, by
+mortifying the body in this world, they should gain happiness for the
+soul in the world to come; and therefore peace be with their memory!
+
+On the tops of these rocks in different directions there remain seven
+monasteries out of twenty-four which once crowned their airy heights.
+How anything except a bird was to arrive at one which we saw in the
+distance on a pinnacle of rock was more than we could divine; but the
+mystery was soon solved. Winding our way upwards, among a labyrinth of
+smaller rocks and cliffs, by a romantic path which, afforded us from
+time to time beautiful views of the green vale below us, we at length
+found ourselves on an elevated platform of rock, which I may compare to
+the flat roof of a church; while the monastery of Barlaam stood
+perpendicularly, above us, on the top of a much higher rock, like the
+tower of this church. Here we fired off a gun, which was intended to
+answer the same purpose as knocking at the door in more civilized
+places; and we all strained our necks in looking up at the monastery to
+see whether any answer would be made to our call. Presently we were
+hailed by some one in the sky, whose voice came down to us like the cry
+of a bird; and we saw the face and grey beard of an old monk some
+hundred feet above us peering out of a kind of window or door. He asked
+us who we were, and what we wanted, and so forth; to which we replied,
+that we were travellers, harmless people, who wished to be admitted into
+the monastery to stay the night; that we had come all the way from Corfu
+to see the wonders of Meteora, and, as it was now getting late, we
+appealed to his feelings of hospitality and Christian benevolence.
+
+"Who are those with you?" said he.
+
+"Oh! most respectable people," we answered; "gentlemen of our
+acquaintance, who have come with us across the mountains from Mezzovo."
+
+The appearance of our escort did not please the monk, and we feared that
+he would not admit us into the monastery; but at length he let down a
+thin cord, to which I attached a letter of introduction which I had
+brought from Corfu; and after some delay a much larger rope was seen
+descending with a hook at the end to which a strong net was attached. On
+its reaching the rock on which we stood the net was spread open: my two
+servants sat down upon it; and the four corners being attached to the
+hook, a signal was made, and they began slowly ascending into the air,
+twisting round and round like a leg of mutton hanging to a bottle-jack.
+The rope was old and mended, and the height from the ground to the door
+above was, we afterwards learned, 37 fathoms, or 222 feet. When they
+reached the top I saw two stout monks reach their arms out of the door
+and pull in the two servants by main force, as there was no contrivance
+like a turning-crane for bringing them nearer to the landing-place. The
+whole process appeared so dangerous, that I determined to go up by
+climbing a series of ladders which were suspended by large wooden pegs
+on the face of the precipice, and which reached the top of the rock in
+another direction, round a corner to the right. The lowest ladder was
+approached by a pathway leading to a rickety wooden platform which
+overhung a deep gorge. From this point the ladders hung perpendicularly
+upon the bare rock, and I climbed up three or four of them very soon;
+but coming to one, the lower end of which had swung away from the top of
+the one below, I had some difficulty in stretching across from the one
+to the other; and here unluckily I looked down, and found that I had
+turned a sort of angle in the precipice, and that I was not over the
+rocky platform where I had left the horses, but that the precipice went
+sheer down to so tremendous a depth, that my head turned when I surveyed
+the distant valley over which I was hanging in the air like a fly on a
+wall. The monks in the monastery saw me hesitate, and called out to me
+to take courage and hold on; and, making an effort, I overcame my
+dizziness, and clambered up to a small iron door, through which I crept
+into a court of the monastery, where I was welcomed by the monks and the
+two servants who had been hauled up by the rope. The rest of my party
+were not admitted; but they bivouacked at the foot of the rocks in a
+sheltered place, and were perfectly contented with the coffee and
+provisions which we lowered down to them.
+
+My servants, in high glee at having been hoisted up safe and sound, were
+busy in arranging my baggage in the room which had been allotted to us,
+and in making it comfortable: one went to get ready some warm water for
+a bath, or at any rate for a good splash in the largest tub that could
+be found; the other made me a snug corner on the divan, and covered it
+with a piece of silk, and spread my carpet before it; he put my books in
+a little heap, got ready the things for tea, and hung my arms and cloak,
+and everything he could lay his hands on, upon the pegs projecting from
+the wall under the shelf which was fixed all round the room. My European
+clothes were soon pitched into the most ignominious corner of the divan,
+and I speedily arrayed myself in the long, loose robes of Egypt, so much
+more comfortable and easy than the tight cases in which we cramp up our
+limbs. In short, I forthwith made myself at home, and took a stroll
+among the courts and gardens of the monastery while dinner or supper,
+whichever it might be called, was getting ready. I soon stumbled upon
+the Agoumenos (the lord abbot) of this a�rial monastery, and we prowled
+about together, peeping into rooms, visiting the church, and poking
+about until it began to get dark; and then I asked him to dinner in his
+own room; but he could eat no meat, so I ate the more myself, and he
+made up for it by other savoury messes, cooked partly by my servants and
+partly by the monks. He was an oldish man. He did not dislike sherry,
+though he preferred rosoglio, of which I always carried a few bottles
+with me in my monastic excursions.
+
+The abbot and I, and another holy father, fraternised, and slapped each
+other on the back, and had another glass or two, or rather cup, for
+coffee-cups of thin, old porcelain, called fingians, served us for
+wine-glasses. Then we had some tea, and they filled up their cups with
+sugar, and ate seaman's biscuits, and little cakes from Yanina, and
+rahatlokoom, and jelly of dried-grape juice, till it was time to go to
+bed; when the two venerable monks gave me their blessing and stumbled
+out of the room; and in a marvellously short space of time I was sound
+asleep.
+
+_November 9th._--The monastery of Barlaam stands on the summit of an
+isolated rock, on a flat or nearly flat space of perhaps an acre and a
+half, of which about one-half is occupied by the church and a smaller
+chapel, the refectory, the kitchen, the tower of the windlass, where you
+are pulled up, and a number of separate buildings containing offices and
+the habitations of the monks, of whom there were at this time only
+fourteen. These various structures surround one tolerably large,
+irregularly-shaped court, the chief part of which is paved; and there
+are several other small open spaces. All Greek monasteries are built in
+this irregular way, and the confused mass of disjointed edifices is
+usually encircled by a high bare wall; but in this monastery there is no
+such enclosing wall, as its position effectually prevents the approach
+of an enemy. On a portion of the flat space which is not occupied by
+buildings they have a small garden, but it is not cultivated, and there
+is nothing like a parapet-wall in any direction to prevent your falling
+over. The place wears an aspect of poverty and neglect; its best days
+have long gone by; for here, as everywhere else, the spirit of
+asceticism is on the wane.
+
+[Illustration: diagram of church with four columns]
+
+The church has a porch before the door, [Greek: narth�x], supported by
+marble columns, the interior wall of which on each side of the door is
+painted with representations of the Last Judgment, and the tortures of
+the condemned, with a liberal allowance of flames and devils. These
+pictures of the torments of the wicked are always placed outside the
+body of the church, as typical of the unhappy state of those who are out
+of its pale: they are never seen within. The interior of this curious
+old church, which is dedicated to All Saints, has depicted on its walls
+on all sides portraits of a great many holy personages, in the stiff,
+conventional, early style. It has four columns within which support the
+dome; and the altar or holy table, [Greek: agia trapeza], is separated
+from the nave by a wooden screen, called the iconostasis, on which are
+paintings of the Blessed Virgin, the Redeemer, and many saints. These
+pictures are kissed by all who enter the church. The iconostasis has
+three doors in it; one in the centre, before the holy table, and one on
+each side. The centre one is only a half-door, like an old English
+buttery hatch, the upper part being screened with a curtain of rich
+stuff, which, except on certain occasions, is drawn aside, so as to
+afford a view of the book of the Gospels, in a rich binding, lying upon
+the holy table beyond. A Greek church has no sacristy; the vestures are
+usually kept in presses in this space behind the iconostasis, where none
+but the priests and the deacon, or servant who trims the lamps, are
+allowed to enter, and they pass in and out by the side doors. The centre
+door is only used in the celebration of the holy mass. This part of the
+church is the sanctuary, and is called, in Romaic, [Greek: agio],
+[Greek: B�mo], or [Greek: Th�mo]. It is typical of the holy of holies of
+the Temple, and the veil is represented by the curtain which divides it
+from the rest of the church. Everything is symbolical in the Eastern
+Church; and these symbols have been in use from the very earliest ages
+of Christianity. The four columns which support the dome represent the
+four Evangelists; and the dome itself is the symbol of heaven, to which
+access has been given to mankind by the glad tidings of the Gospels
+which they wrote. Part of the mosaic with which the whole interior of
+the dome was formerly covered in the cathedral of St. Sofia at
+Constantinople, is to be seen in the four angles below the dome, where
+the winged figures of the four evangelists still remain. Luckily for the
+Greek Church their sacred buildings are not under the authority of lay
+churchwardens--grocers in towns, and farmers in villages--who feel it
+their duty to whitewash over everything which is old and venerable, and
+curious, and to oppose the clergyman in order to show their
+independence.
+
+The Greek church, debased as it is by ignorance and superstition, has
+still the merit of carefully preserving and restoring all the memorials
+of its earlier and purer ages. If the fresco painting of a saint is
+rubbed out or damaged in the lapse of time, it is scrupulously
+repainted, exactly as it was before, even to the colour of the robe, the
+aspect of the countenance, and the minutest accessories of the
+composition. It is this systematic respect for everything which is old
+and venerable which renders the interior of the ancient Eastern churches
+so peculiarly interesting. They are the unchanged monuments of prim�val
+days. The Christians who suffered under the persecution of Dioclesian
+may have knelt before the very altar which we now see, and which was
+then exactly the same as we now behold it, without any additions or
+subtractions either in its form or use.
+
+To us Protestants one of the most interesting circumstances connected
+with these Eastern churches is, that the altar is not called the
+_altar_, but the _holy table_, as with us, and that the Communion is
+given before it in both kinds. Besides the principal church there is a
+smaller one, not far from it, which is painted in the same manner as the
+other. I unfortunately neglected to ascertain the dates of the
+foundation of these two edifices.
+
+The library contains about a thousand volumes, the far greater part of
+which are printed books, mostly Venetian editions of ecclesiastical
+works, but there are some fine copies of Aldine Greek classics. I did
+not count the number of the manuscripts; they are all books of divinity
+and the works of the fathers; there may be between one and two hundred
+of them. I found one folio Bulgarian manuscript which I could not read,
+and therefore was, of course, particularly anxious to purchase. As I saw
+it was not a copy of the Gospels, I thought it might possibly be
+historical: but the monks would not sell it. The only other manuscript
+of value was a copy of the Gospels, in quarto, containing several
+miniatures and illuminations of the eleventh century; but with this also
+they refused to part, so it remains for some more fortunate collector.
+It was of no use to the monks themselves, who cannot read either
+Hellenic or ancient Greek; but they consider the books in their library
+as sacred relics, and preserve them with a certain feeling of awe for
+their antiquity and incomprehensibility. Our only chance is when some
+worldly-minded Agoumenos happens to be at the head of the community, who
+may be inclined to exchange some of the unreadable old books for such a
+sum of gold or silver as will suffice for the repairs of one of their
+buildings, the replenishing of the cellar, or some other equally
+important purpose. At the time of my visit the march of intellect had
+not penetrated into the heights of the monastery of St. Barlaam, and
+the good old-fashioned Agoumenos was not to be overcome by any special
+pleading; so I told him at last that I respected his prejudices, and
+hoped he would follow the dictates of his conscience equally well in
+more important matters. The worthy old gentleman therefore pitched the
+two much-coveted books back into the dusty corner whence he had taken
+them, and where to a certainty they will repose undisturbed until some
+other bookworm traveller visits the monastery; and the sooner he comes
+the better, as mice and mildew are actively at work.
+
+In a room near the library some ancient relics are preserved in silver
+shrines or boxes, of Byzantine workmanship: they are, however, not of
+very great antiquity or interest; the shrines are only of sufficient
+size to contain two skulls and a few bones; the style and execution of
+the ornaments are also much inferior to many works of the same kind
+which are met with in ecclesiastical houses.
+
+The refectory is a separate building, with an apsis at the upper end, in
+which stands a marble table where the sacred bread used by the Greek
+church is usually placed, and where, I believe, the agoumenos or the
+bishop dines on great occasions. The walls of this room are also
+painted: not, however, with the representations of celebrated eaters,
+but with the likenesses of such thin, famished-looking saints that they
+seem most inappropriate as ornaments to a dining-room. The kitchen,
+which stands near the refectory, is a circular building of great
+antiquity, but the interior being pitch dark when I looked in, and there
+coming from the door a dusty cold smell, which did not savour of any
+dainty fare, I did not examine it.
+
+The monks and the abbot had now assembled in the room where the capstan
+stood. Ten or twelve of them arranged themselves in order at the bars,
+the net was spread upon the floor, and, having sat down upon it
+cross-legged, the four corners were gathered up over my head, and
+attached to the hook at the end of the rope. All being ready, the monks
+at the capstan took a few steps round, the effect of which was to lift
+me off the floor and to launch me out of the door right into the sky,
+with an impetus which kept me swinging backwards and forwards at a
+fearful rate; when the oscillation had in some measure ceased the abbot
+and another monk, leaning out of the door, steadied me with their hands,
+and I was let down slowly and gently to the ground.
+
+When I was disencumbered of the net by my friends the robbers below, I
+sat down on a stone, and waited while the rope brought down, first my
+servants, and then the baggage. All this being accomplished without
+accident, I sent the horses, baggage, and one servant to the great
+monastery of Meteora, where I proposed to sleep; and, with the other
+servant and the palicari, started on foot for a tour among the other
+monasteries.
+
+A delightful walk of an hour and a half brought us to the entrance of
+the monastery of Hagios Stephanos, to which we gained access by a wooden
+drawbridge. The rock on which this monastery stands is isolated on three
+sides, and on the fourth is separated from the mountain by a deep chasm
+which, at the point where the drawbridge is placed, is not more than
+twelve feet wide. The interior of this building resembles St. Barlaam,
+inasmuch as it consists of a confused mass of buildings, surrounding an
+irregularly-formed court, of which the principal feature is the church.
+The paintings in it are not so numerous as at St Barlaam, but the
+iconostasis, or screen before the altar, is most beautifully carved,
+something in the style of Grinlin Gibbons: the pictures upon it being
+surrounded with frames of light open work, consisting of foliage, birds,
+and flowers in alto rilievo, cut out of a light-coloured wood in the
+most delicate manner. I was told that the whole of this beautiful work
+had been executed in Russia, and put up here during the reign of Ali
+Pasha, who had the good policy to protect the Greeks, and by that means
+to ensure the co-operation of one half of the population of the country.
+
+In this monastery there were thirteen or fourteen monks and several
+women. On my inquiring for the library, one of the monks, after some
+demurring, opened a cupboard door; he then unfastened a second door at
+the back of it which led into a secret chamber, where the books of the
+monastery were kept. They were in number about one hundred and fifty;
+but I was disappointed at finding that although thus carefully concealed
+there was not a single volume amongst them remarkable for its antiquity
+or for any other cause: in fact, they were not worth the trouble of
+turning over. The view from this monastery is very fine: at the foot of
+the rock is the village of Kalabaki, to the east the citadel of Tricala
+stands above a wide level plain watered by the river which we had
+followed from its sources in Mount Pindus; beyond this a sea of distant
+blue hills extends to the foot of Mount Olympus, whose summit, clothed
+in perpetual snow, towers above all the other mountains. The whole of
+this region is inhabited by a race of a different origin from the real
+Albanians: they speak the Wallachian language, and are said to be
+extremely barbarous and ignorant. Observing that the village of Kalabaki
+presented a singularly black appearance, I inquired the cause: it had,
+they said, been recently burned and sacked by the klephti or robbers
+(some of my friends, perhaps), and the remnant of the inhabitants had
+taken refuge in the two monasteries of Hagios Nicholas and Agia Mone,
+which had been deserted by the monks some time before. The poor people
+in these two impregnable fastnesses were, they told me, so suspicious
+of strangers and in such a state of alarm, that there was no use in my
+visiting them, as to a certainty they would not admit me; and as it
+appeared that everything portable had been removed when the caloyeri
+(the monks) had departed from their impoverished homes, I gave up the
+idea.
+
+I then proceeded along a romantic path to the monastery of Agia Triada,
+and on the way my servants entertained me by an account of what the
+monks had told them of their admiration of the Pasha of Tricala, whom
+they considered as a perfect model of a governor; and that it would be a
+blessing for the country if all other pashas were like him, as then all
+the roving bands of robbers, who spread terror and desolation through
+the land, would be cleared away. There is, it seems, a high tower over
+the gate of the town of Tricala, and when the Pasha caught any people
+whom he thought worthy of the distinction, he had them taken up to the
+top of this tower and thrown from it against the city walls, which his
+provident care had furnished with numerous large iron hooks, projecting
+about the length of a man's arm, which caught the bodies of the culprits
+as they fell, and on which they hung on either side of the town gate,
+affording a pleasing and instructive spectacle to the people who came in
+to market of a morning.
+
+Agia Triada contains about ten or twelve monks, who pulled me up to the
+entrance of their monastery with a rope thirty-two fathoms long. This
+monastery, like the others, resembles a small village, of which the
+houses stand huddled round the little painted church. Here I found one
+hundred books, all very musty and very uninteresting. I saw no
+manuscripts whatever, nor was there anything worthy of observation in
+the habitation of the impoverished community. Having paid my respects to
+the grim effigies of the bearded saints upon the chapel walls, I was let
+down again by the rope, and walked on, still through most romantic
+scenery, to the monastery of Hagia Roserea.
+
+The rock upon which this monastery stands is about a hundred feet high;
+it is perfectly isolated, and quite smooth and perpendicular on all
+sides, and so small that there is only room enough for the various
+buildings, without leaving any space for a garden. In fact, the
+buildings, although far from large, cover the whole summit of the rock.
+When we had shouted and made as much noise as we could for some time, an
+old woman came out upon a sort of wooden balcony over our heads; another
+woman followed her, and they began to talk and scream at us both
+together, so that we could not understand what they said. At last, one
+of them screaming louder than the other, we found that the monks were
+all out, and that these two ladies being the only garrison of the place
+declined the honour of our visit, and would not let down the rope
+ladder, which was drawn half way up. We used all the arguments we could
+think of, and told the old gentlewomen that they were the most beautiful
+creatures in the world, but all to no purpose; they were not to be
+overcome by our soft speeches, and would not let down the ladder an
+inch. Finding there were no hopes of getting in, we told them they were
+the ugliest old wretches in the country, and that we would not come near
+them if they asked us upon their knees; upon which they screamed and
+chattered louder than ever, and we walked off in high indignation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+
+     The great Monastery of Meteora--The Church--Ugliness of the
+     Portraits of Greek Saints--Greek Mode of Washing the Hands--A
+     Monastic Supper--Morning View from the Monastery--The
+     Library--Beautiful MSS.--Their Purchase--The Kitchen--Discussion
+     among the Monks as to the Purchase Money for the MSS.--The MSS.
+     reclaimed--A last Look at their Beauties--Proposed Assault of the
+     Monastery by the Robber Escort.
+
+
+As the day was drawing to a close we turned our steps towards the great
+monastery of Meteora, where we arrived just before dark. The vast rock
+upon which it is built is separated from the end of a projecting line of
+mountains by a widish chasm, at the bottom of which we found ourselves,
+after scrambling up a path which wound among masses of rock and huge
+stones which at some remote period had fallen from above.
+
+Having reached the foot of the precipice under the monastery, we stopped
+in the middle of this dark chasm and fired a gun, as we had done at the
+monastery of Barlaam. Presently, after a careful reconnoitring from
+several long-bearded monks, a rope with a net at the end of it came
+slowly down to us, a distance of about twenty-five fathoms; and being
+bundled into the net, I was slowly drawn up into the monastery, where I
+was lugged in at the window by two of the strongest of the brethren, and
+after having been dragged along the floor and unpacked, I was presented
+to the admiring gaze of the whole reverend community, who were assembled
+round the capstan. This is by far the largest of the convents in this
+region; it is also in better order than the others, and is inhabited by
+a greater number of caloyers; I omitted to count their number, but there
+may have been about twenty: the monastery is, however, calculated to
+contain three times that number. The buildings both in their nature and
+arrangement are very similar to those of St. Barlaam, excepting that
+they are somewhat more extensive, and that there is a faint attempt at
+cultivating a garden which surrounded three sides of the monastery. Like
+all the other monasteries, it has no parapet wall.
+
+The church had a large open porch before it, where some of the caloyers
+sat and talked in the evening; it was painted in fresco of bright
+colours, with most edifying representations of the tortures and
+martyrdoms of little ugly saints, very hairy and very holy, and so like
+the old caloyers themselves, who were discoursing before them, that they
+might have been taken for their portraits. These Greek monks have a
+singular love for the devil, and for everything horrible and hideous. I
+never saw a picture of a well-looking Greek saint anywhere, and yet the
+earlier Greek artists in their conceptions of the personages of Holy
+Writ sometimes approached the sublime; and in the miniatures of some of
+the manuscripts written previous to the twelfth century, which I
+collected in the Levant, there are figures of surpassing dignity and
+solemnity: yet in Byzantine and Egyptian art that purity and angelic
+expression so much to be admired in the works of Beato Angelico,
+Giovanni Bellini, and other early Italian masters, are not to be found.
+The more exalted and refined feeling which prompted the execution of
+those sublime works seems never to have existed in the Greek church,
+which goes on century after century, even up to the present time, using
+the same conventional and stiff forms, so that to the unpractised eye
+there would be considerable difficulty in discovering the difference
+between a Greek picture of a saint of the ninth century from one of the
+nineteenth. The agoumenos, a young active man with a good deal of
+intelligence in his countenance, sent word that the hour of supper was
+at hand, previously, however, to which I went through the process of
+washing my hands in, or rather over a Turkish basin with a perforated
+cover and a little vase in the middle for the piece of fresh-smelling
+soap in common use, which is so very much better than ours in England
+that I wonder none has been as yet imported, a venerable monk all the
+while pouring the water over my hands from a vessel resembling an
+antique coffee-pot. I then dried my fingers on an embroidered towel, and
+sat down with the agoumenos and another officer of the monastery before
+a metal tray covered with various dainty dishes. We three sat upon
+cushions on the floor, and the tray stood upon a wooden stool turned
+upside down, according to the usual fashion of the country: no meat had
+entered into the composition of our feast, but it was very savoury
+nevertheless, and our fingers were soon in the midst of the most
+tempting dishes, knives and forks being considered as useless
+superfluities. When my right hand was anointed with any oleaginous
+mixture, which it was very frequently indeed, if I wanted to drink, a
+monk held a silver bowl to my lips and a napkin under my chin, as you
+serve babies; after which I began again, until with a sigh I was obliged
+to throw myself back from the tray, and holding my hands aloft, the
+perforated basin and the coffee-pot made their appearance again. A cup
+of piping hot coffee concluded the evening's entertainment, and I
+retired to another room--the guest chamber--which opened upon a narrow
+court hard by, where all my things had been arranged. A long, thin
+candle was placed on a small stool in the middle of the floor, and
+having winked at the long rays which darted out of it for some time, I
+rolled myself into a comfortable position in the corner, and was asleep
+before I had settled upon any optical theory to account for them; nor
+did the dull, monotonous sound of the mallet, which, struck on a
+suspended board, called the good brethren to midnight prayer, disturb
+me for more than a moment.
+
+_Nov. 10._--Just before the dawn of day I opened the shutters of the
+unglazed windows of my room and surveyed the scene before me; all still
+looked grey and cold, and it was only towards the east that the distant
+outline of the mountains showed clear and distinct against the dark sky.
+By degrees the clouds, which had slept upon the shoulders of the hills,
+rose slowly and heavily, whilst the valleys gradually assumed all their
+soft and radiant beauty. It seemed to me as if I should never tire of
+gazing at this view. In the course of time, however, breakfast appeared,
+and having rapidly despatched it, I went to look at the buildings and
+curiosities.
+
+The church resembles that of St. Barlaam, but is in better order; and
+the paintings are more brilliant in colour and are more profusely
+decorated with gold. There is a dome above the centre of the church, and
+the iconostasis or screen before the altar is ornamented with the usual
+stiff pictures and carving, but the latter is not to be compared to that
+in the monastery of St. Stephanos. There were some silver shrines
+containing relics, but they were not particularly interesting either as
+to workmanship or antiquity. The most interesting thing is a picture
+ascribed to St. Luke, which, whatever may be its real history, is
+evidently a very ancient and curious painting.
+
+The books are preserved in a range of low-vaulted and secret rooms, very
+well concealed in a sort of mezzanine: the entrance to them is through a
+door at the back of a cupboard in an outer chamber, in the same way as
+at St Stephanos. There are about two thousand volumes of very rubbishy
+appearance, not new enough for the monks to read or old enough for them
+to sell; in fact, they are almost valueless. I found, however, a few
+Aldines and Greek books of the sixteenth century, printed in Italy, some
+of which may be rather rare editions, but I saw none of the fifteenth
+century. I did not count the number of the manuscripts; there are,
+however, some hundreds of them, mostly on paper; but, excepting two,
+they were all liturgies and church books. These two were poems. One
+appeared to be on some religious subject, the other was partly
+historical and partly the poetical effusions of St. Athanasius of
+Meteora. I searched in vain for the manuscripts of Hesiod and Sophocles
+mentioned by Biornstern; some later antiquarian may, perhaps, have got
+possession of them and taken them to some country where they will be
+more appreciated than they were here. After looking over the books on
+the shelves, the librarian, an old grey-bearded monk, opened a great
+chest in which things belonging to the church were kept; and here I
+found ten or twelve manuscripts of the Gospels, all of the eleventh or
+twelfth century. They were upon vellum, and all, except one, were small
+quartos; but this one was a large quarto, and one of the most beautiful
+manuscripts of its kind I have met with anywhere. In many respects it
+resembled the Codex Ebnerianus in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. It was
+ornamented with miniatures of the same kind as those in that splendid
+volume, but they were more numerous and in a good style of art; it was,
+in fact, as richly ornamented as a Romish missal, and was in excellent
+preservation, except one miniature at the beginning, which had been
+partially smeared over by the wet finger of some ancient sloven. Another
+volume of the Gospels, in a very small, clear hand, bound in a kind of
+silver filagree of the same date as the book, also excited my
+admiration. Those who take an interest in literary antiquities of this
+class are aware of the great rarity of an ornamental binding in a
+Byzantine manuscript. This must doubtless have been the pocket volume of
+some royal personage. To my great joy the librarian allowed me to take
+these two books to the room of the agoumenos, who agreed to sell them to
+me for I forget how many pieces of gold, which I counted out to him
+immediately, and which he seemed to pocket with the sincerest
+satisfaction. Never was any one more welcome to his money, although I
+left myself but little to pay the expenses of my journey back to Corfu.
+Such books as these would be treasures in the finest national collection
+in Europe.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+We looked at the refectory, which also resembled that at Barlaam. The
+kitchen, however, merits a detailed description. This very ancient
+building, perched upon the extreme edge of the precipice, was square in
+its plan, with a steep roof of stone, the top of which was open. Within,
+upon a square platform of stone, there were four columns serving for the
+support of the roof, which was arched all round, except in the space
+between the tops of the columns, where it was open to the sky. This
+platform was the hearth, where the fire was lit, whilst smaller fires of
+charcoal might be lit all round against the wall, where there were stone
+dressers for the purpose, so that in fact the building was all chimney
+and fireplace; and when a great dinner was prepared on a feast-day the
+principal difficulty must have been to have prevented the cook from
+being roasted among the other meats. The whole of the arched roof was
+thickly covered with lumps of soot, the accumulations probably of
+centuries. The ancient kitchens at Glastonbury and at Stanton Harcourt
+are constructed a good deal upon the same plan, but this is probably a
+much earlier specimen of culinary architecture. The porch outside the
+church is larger than ordinary, and extends, if I remember rightly,
+along the side of that building which stands in the principal court, and
+is not, as is usually the case, attached to the end of the church, over
+the principal door.
+
+Having seen all that was worthy of observation, I was waiting in the
+court near the door leading to the place where the monks were assembled
+to lower me down to the earth again. Just as I was ready to start there
+arose a discussion among them as to the distribution of the money which
+I had paid for the two manuscripts. The agoumenos wanted to keep it all
+for himself, or at least for the expenses of the monastery; but the
+villain of a librarian swore he would have half. The agoumenos said he
+should not have a farthing, but as the librarian would not give way he
+offered him a part of the spoil; however, he did not offer him enough,
+and out of spite and revenge, or, as he protested, out of uprightness of
+principle, he told all the monks that the agoumenos had pocketed the
+money which he had received for their property, for that they all had a
+right to an equal share in these books, as in all the other things
+belonging to the community. The monks, even the most dunderheaded, were
+not slow in taking this view of the subject, and all broke out into a
+clamorous assertion of their rights, every man of them speaking at once.
+The price I had given was so large that every one of them would have
+received several pieces of gold each. But no, they said, it was not
+that, but for the principles of justice that they contended. They did
+not want the money, no more did the librarian, but they would not
+suffer their rules to be outraged or their rights to be trampled under
+foot. In the monasteries of St. Basil all the members of the society had
+equal rights--they ate in common, they prayed in common, everything was
+bought and sold for the benefit of the community at large. Tears fell
+from the eyes of some of the particularly virtuous monks; others stamped
+upon the ground, and showed a thoroughly rebellious spirit. As for me, I
+kept aloof, waiting to see what might be the result.
+
+The agoumenos, who was evidently a man of superior abilities, calmly
+endeavoured to explain. He told the unruly brethren exactly what the sum
+was for which he had sold the books, and said that the money was not for
+his own private use, but to be laid out for the benefit of all, in the
+same way as the ordinary revenues of the monastery, which, he added,
+would soon prove quite insufficient if so large a portion of them
+continued to be divided among the individual members. He told them that
+the monastery was poor and wanted money, and that this large sum would
+be most useful for certain necessary expenses. But although he used many
+unanswerable arguments, the old brute of a librarian had completely
+awakened the spirit of discord, and the ignorant monks were ready to be
+led into rebellion, by any one and for any reason or none. At last the
+contest waxed so warm that the sale of the two manuscripts was almost
+lost sight of, and every one began to quarrel with his neighbour, the
+entire community being split into various little angry groups,
+chattering, gesticulating, and wagging their long beards.
+
+After a while the agoumenos, calling my interpreter, said that as the
+monks would not agree to let him keep the money in the usual way for the
+use of the monastery, he could have nothing to do with it; and to my
+great sorrow I was therefore obliged to receive it back, and to give up
+the two beautiful manuscripts, which I had already looked upon as the
+chief ornaments of my library in England. The monks all looked sadly
+downcast at this unexpected termination of their noble defence of their
+principles, and my only consolation was to perceive that they were quite
+as much vexed as I was. In fact we felt that we had gained a loss all
+round, and the old librarian, after walking up and down once or twice
+with his hands behind his back in gloomy silence, retreated to a hole
+where he lived, near the library, and I saw no more of him.
+
+My bag was brought forward, and when the books were extracted from it, I
+sat down on a stone in the court yard, and for the last time turned over
+the gilded leaves and admired the ancient and splendid illuminations of
+the larger manuscript, the monks standing round me as I looked at the
+blue cypress-trees, and green and gold peacocks, and intricate
+arabesques, so characteristic of the best times of Byzantine art. Many
+of the pages bore a great resemblance to the painted windows of the
+earlier Norman cathedrals of Europe. It was a superb old book: I laid it
+down upon the stone beside me and placed the little volume with its
+curious silver binding on the top of it, and it was with a sigh that I
+left them there with the sun shining on the curious silver ornaments.
+
+Amongst other arguments it had been asserted by some of the monks that
+nothing could be sold out of the monastery without the leave of the
+Bishop of Tricala, and, as a forlorn hope, they now proposed that the
+agoumenos should go to some place in the vicinity where the bishop was
+said to be, and that, if he gave permission, the two books should be
+forwarded immediately by a trusty man to the khan of Malacash, where I
+was to pass the night. I consented to this plan, although I had no hope
+of obtaining the manuscripts, as in the present unsettled state of the
+country the bishop would naturally calculate on the probability of the
+messenger being robbed, and on the improbability of his meeting me at
+the khan, as it would be absolutely necessary for me to leave the place
+before sunrise the next day.
+
+All this being arranged I proceeded to the chamber of the windlass, was
+put into the net, swung out into the air, and let down. They let me down
+very badly, being all talking and scolding each other; and had I not
+made use of my hands and feet to keep myself clear of the projecting
+points of the rock I should have fared badly. To increase my perils, my
+friends the palicari at the bottom, to testify their joy at my
+re-appearance, rested their long guns across their knees and fired them
+off, without the slightest attention to the direction of the barrels,
+which were all loaded with ball-cartridge: the bullets spattered against
+the rock close to me, and in the midst of the smoke I came down and was
+caught in the arms of my affectionate thieves, who bundled me out of my
+net with many extraordinary screeches of welcome.
+
+When my servants arrived and informed them of our recent disappointment,
+"What!" cried they, "would they not let you take the books? Stop a bit,
+we will soon get them for you!" And away they ran to the series of
+ladders which hung down another part of the precipice: they would have
+been up in a minute, for they scrambled like cats; but by dint of
+running after them and shouting we at length got them to come back, and
+after some considerable expenditure of oaths and exclamations, kicking
+of horses, and loading of guns and saddle-bags, we found ourselves
+slowly winding our way back towards the valley of the Peneus.
+
+After all, what an interesting event it would have been, what a standard
+anecdote in bibliomaniac history, if I had let my friendly thieves have
+their own way, and we had stormed the monastery, broken open the secret
+door of the library, pitched the old librarian over the rocks, and
+marched off in triumph, with a gorgeous manuscript under each arm!
+Indeed I must say that under such aggravating circumstances it required
+a great exercise of forbearance not to do so, and in the good old times
+many a castle has been attacked and many a town besieged and pillaged
+for much slighter causes of offence than those which I had to complain
+of.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+
+     Return Journey--Narrow Escape--Consequences of Singing--Arrival at
+     the Khan of Malacash--Agreeable Anecdote--Parting from the Robbers
+     at Mezzovo--A Pilau--Wet Ride to Paramathia--Accident to the
+     Baggage-Mule--Its wonderful Escape--Novel Costume--A
+     Deputation--Return to Corfu.
+
+
+We made our way from the plain and rocks of Meteora by a different path
+from the one by which we had arrived, and travelled along the north side
+of the valley of the Peneus; we kept along the side of the hills, which
+were covered sometimes with forest and sometimes with a kind of jungle
+or underwood.
+
+During the afternoon of this day, as I was singing away as usual in
+advance of my party, some one shouted to me from the thicket, but I took
+no notice of it. However, before I had ridden on many steps a man jumped
+out of the bush, seized hold of my horse's bridle, and proceeded to draw
+his pistol from his belt, but luckily the lock had got entangled in the
+shawl which he wore round his waist. I pushed my horse against him, and
+in a moment one of us would have been shot; when the appearance of three
+or four bright gun-barrels in the bushes close by stopped our
+proceedings. My men now came running up.
+
+"Hallo!" said one of them. "Is that you? You must not attack this
+gentleman. He is our friend; he is one of us."
+
+"What!" said the man who had stopped me; "Is that you, Mahommed? Is that
+you, Hassan? What are you doing here? How is this? Is this your friend?
+I thought he was a Frank."
+
+In short, they explained what kind of brotherhood we had entered into,
+where we had been, and where we were going, and all about it. I did not
+understand much of their conversation, and in the midst of it the
+Albanian came up to me with a reproachful air and told me that they said
+my being stopped was owing to my singing, and making such a noise. "Why,
+Sir," he added, "can't you ride quietly, without letting people know
+where you are? Why can't you do as others do, and be still, like a--"
+
+"Thief," said I.
+
+"Yes, Sir; or like a quiet traveller. In such troublesome times as
+these, however honest a man may be, he need not try to excite
+attention."
+
+I felt that the advice was good, and practised it occasionally
+afterwards.
+
+In seven hours' time we arrived at the khan of Malacash, where I had
+slept before; and my carpet was spread in my old corner. I heard my
+companions talking earnestly about something, and on asking what it was,
+I was told that they could not make out which room it was where the
+people had been murdered--this room or the outer one.
+
+"How was that?" I inquired.
+
+Why, some time ago, they said, a party of travellers, people belonging
+to the country, were attacked by robbers at this khan. One of the party,
+after he had been plundered, had the imprudence to say that he knew who
+the thieves were. Upon this the gang, after a short consultation, took
+the party out, one by one, and cut all their throats in the next room;
+and this was before the present disturbed state of the country.
+Nevertheless, I slept very soundly, my only sorrow being that no tidings
+came of the two manuscripts from Meteora.
+
+_November 11th._--In our journey of this day we crossed the chain of the
+Pindus by a different pass from the one by which we had traversed it
+before; and in the evening we arrived at Mezzovo, where I was lodged by
+a schoolmaster who had a comfortable house. The ceiling of the room
+where we sat was hung all over with bunches of dried or rather drying
+grapes. Here I presented each of my escort with a small bundle of
+piasters. We had become so much pleased with each other in the few days
+we had been together, that we had quite an affecting parting. Their
+chief, the red velvet personage from whom I had received the letter
+which gained me the pleasure of their company, was gone, it appeared,
+towards Berat; but they had found some of their companions, with whom
+they intended to retire to some small place of defence, the name of
+which I did not make out, where in a few days they expected to be told
+what they were to do.
+
+"Why won't you come with us?" said they. "Don't go back to live in a
+confined, stupid town, to sit all day in a house, and look out of the
+window. Go back with us into the mountains, where we know every pass,
+every rock, and every waterfall: you should command us; we would get
+some more men together: we will go wherever you like, and a rare jolly
+life we will lead."
+
+"Gentlemen," said I, "I take your kind offers as highly complimentary to
+me; I am proud to think that I have gained so high a place in your
+estimation. When you see your captain, pray assure him of my friendship,
+and how much I feel indebted to him for having given me such gallant and
+faithful guards."
+
+The poor fellows were evidently sorry to leave me: one of them, the most
+active and gay of the whole party, seemed more than half inclined to
+cry; so, cordially shaking hands with them before the door of the
+schoolmaster of Mezzovo, we parted, with expressions of mutual goodwill.
+
+"Thank goodness they are gone!" said the little schoolmaster; "those
+palicari are all over the country now; some belong to one chief, some to
+another; some are for Mahmoud Pasha, and some against him; but I don't
+know which party is the worst; they are all rogues, every one of them,
+when they have an opportunity--scamps! sad scamps! These are hard times
+for quiet, peaceably-disposed people. So now, Sir, we will come in, and
+lock the door, and make up the fire, for the nights are getting cold."
+
+The schoolmaster had a snug fireplace, with a good divan on each side of
+it, of blue cloth or baize. These divans came close up to the hearth,
+which, like the divans, was raised two feet above the floor. The good
+man brought out his little stores of preserves and marmalade. He was an
+old bachelor, and we soon made ourselves very comfortable, one on each
+side of the fire. We had a famous pilau, made by my "_artist_," and the
+schoolmaster gave us raisins to put in it--not that they are a necessary
+part of that excellent condiment, but he had not much else to give; so
+we flavoured the pilau with raisins, as if it had been a lamb, which, by
+the by, is the prince of Oriental dishes, and, when stuffed with
+almonds, raisins, pistachio nuts, rice, bread-crumbs, pepper and salt,
+and well roasted, is a dish to set before a king.
+
+The schoolmaster, judging of me by the company I kept, never suspected
+my literary pursuits, and was surprised when I asked him if he knew of
+anything in that line, and assured him that I had no objection to do a
+little business in the manuscript way. He said he knew of an old
+merchant who had a great many books, and that to-morrow we would go and
+see them. Accordingly, the next day we went to see the merchant's house;
+but his collection was good for nothing; and after returning for an hour
+or two to the schoolmaster's hospitable mansion, we got into marching
+order, and defiled off the village green of Mezzovo.
+
+After fording the river thirty-nine times, as we had done before, our
+jaded steeds at last stood panting under the windows of the doctor at
+Yanina, whose comfortable house we had left only a few days before. I
+stayed at Yanina one day, but the Pasha could not see me to hear my
+account of the protection I had enjoyed from his firman. A messenger had
+arrived from Constantinople, and the report in the town was that the
+Pasha would lose his head or his pashalic if he did not put down the
+disturbances which had arisen in every part of his government. Some said
+he would escape by bribing the ministers of the Porte; but as I was no
+politician I did not trouble myself much on the subject His Highness,
+however, was good enough to send me word that he would give me any
+assistance that I needed. Accordingly, I asked for a tesk�r� for
+post-horses; and the next day galloped in ten hours to Paramathia. All
+day long the rain poured down in torrents, and I waded through the bed
+of the swollen stream, which usually served for a high-road, I do not
+know how many times. I was told the distance was about sixty miles; and
+it was one of the hardest day's riding I ever accomplished; for there
+was nothing deserving the name of a road any part of the way; and the
+entire day was passed in tearing up and down the rocks or wading in the
+swollen stream. The rain and the cold compelled us and our horses to do
+our best: in a hot day we could never have accomplished it.
+
+Towards the afternoon, when we were, by computation, about twenty-five
+miles from Paramathia, as we were proceeding at a trot along a narrow
+ledge above a stream, the baggage-horse, or mule I think he was, whose
+halter was tied to the crupper of my horse, suddenly missed his footing,
+and fell over the precipice. He caught upon the edge with his fore-feet,
+the halter supported his head, and my horse immediately stopping, leant
+with all his might against the wall of rock which rose above us,
+squeezing my left leg between it and the saddle. The noise of the wind
+and rain, and the dashing of the torrent underneath, prevented my
+servants hearing my shouts for assistance. I was the last of the party;
+and I had the pleasure of seeing all my company trotting on, rising in
+their stirrups, and bumping along the road before me, unconscious of
+anything having occurred to check their progress towards the journey's
+end. It was so bad a day that no one thought of anything but getting on.
+Every man for himself was the order of the day. I could not dismount,
+because my left leg was squeezed so tightly against the rock, that I
+every moment expected the bone to snap. My horse's feet were projected
+towards the edge of the precipice, and in this way he supported the
+fallen mule, who endeavoured to retain his hold with his chin and his
+fore-legs. There we were--the mule's eyeballs almost starting out of his
+head, and all his muscles quivering with the exertion. At last something
+cracked: the staple in the back of my saddle gave way; off flew the
+crupper, and I thought at first my horse's tail was gone with it. The
+baggage-mule made one desperate scrambling effort, but it was of no use,
+and down he went, over and over among the crashing bushes far beneath,
+until at length he fell with a loud splash into the waters of the
+stream. Some of the people hearing the noise made by the falling mule,
+turned round and came back to see what was the matter; and, horse and
+men, we all craned our necks over the edge to see what had become of our
+companion. There he was in the river, with nothing but his head above
+the water. With some difficulty we made our way down to the edge of the
+torrent. The mule kept looking at us very quietly all the while till we
+got close to him, when the muleteer proceeded to assist him by banging
+him on the head with a great branch of a tree, upon which he took to
+struggling and scrambling, and at last, to the surprise of all, came out
+apparently unhurt, at least with no bones broken. The men looked him
+over, walked him about, gave him a kick or two by way of asking him how
+he was, and then placing his load upon him again, we pursued our
+journey.
+
+Before dark we arrived at Paramathia, and went straight to the house
+where we had been so hospitably received before. We crawled up like so
+many drowned rats into the upper rooms, where we were met by the whole
+troop of ladies giggling, screaming, and talking, as if they had never
+stopped since we left them a week before. When the baggage came to be
+undone, alas! what a wreck was there! The coffee and the sugar and the
+shirts had formed an amalgam; mud, shoes, and cambric handkerchiefs all
+came out together; not a thing was dry. The only consolation was that
+the beautiful illuminated manuscripts of Meteora had not participated in
+this dirty deluge.
+
+I was wet to the skin, and my boots were full of water. In this dilemma
+I asked if our hosts could not lend me something to put on until some of
+my own clothes could be dried. The ladies were full of pity and
+compassion; but unfortunately all the men were from home, not having
+returned from their daily occupations in the bazaar, and their clothes
+could not be got at. At last the good-humoured young bride, seeing that
+wherever I stood there was always, in a couple of minutes' time, a
+puddle upon the floor, entered into an animated consultation with the
+other ladies, and before long they brought me a shirt, and an immense
+garment it was, like an English surplice, embroidered in gay colours
+down the seams. The fair bride contributed the white capote, which I
+remembered on my former visit, and a girdle. I soon donned this
+extempore costume. My wet clothes were taken to a great fire, which was
+lit for the purpose in another room, and I proceeded to dry my hair with
+a long narrow towel, its ends heavy with gold embroidery, which one of
+the ladies warmed far me, and twisted round my head in the way usual in
+the Turkish bath--a method of drying the head well known in most eastern
+towns, and which saves a great deal of trouble and exertion in rubbing
+and brushing according to the European method.
+
+I had ensconced myself in the corner of the divan, having nothing else
+in the way of clothes beyond what I have mentioned, and was employed in
+looking at one of my feet, which I had stuck out for the purpose,
+admiring it in all its pristine beauty, for there were no spare slippers
+to be had, when the curtain was suddenly lifted from over the door, and
+my servant rushed in and told me with a troubled voice, that the
+authorities of Paramathia, grieved at their remissness on the former
+occasion, had presented themselves to compliment me on my arrival in
+their town, and had brought me a present of tobacco or something, I
+forget what, in testimony of their anxiety to show their good-will and
+respect to so distinguished a personage as myself. "Don't let them in!"
+I exclaimed. "Tell them I will receive them to-morrow. Say anything,
+but only keep them out." But this was more than my servants could
+accomplish. My friends at Corfu had sent letters explaining the
+prodigious honour conferred upon the whole province of Albania by my
+presence, so that nothing could stop them, and in walked a file of grave
+elders in long gowns, one or two in stately fur pelisses, which I envied
+them very much. They took very little notice of me, as I sat screwed up
+in the corner, and all, ranging themselves upon the divan on the
+opposite side of the room, sat in solemn silence, looking at me out of
+the corners of their eyes, whenever they thought they could do so
+without my perceiving it.
+
+My servant stood in the middle of the room to interpret; and after he
+had remained there a prodigious while, as it seemed to me, the most
+venerable of the old gentlemen at last said, "I am Signor Dimitri
+So-and-so; this is Signor Anastasi So-and-so; this gentleman is uncle to
+the master of the house; and so on. We are come to pay our respects to
+the noble and illustrious Englishman who passed through this place
+before. Pray have the goodness to signify our arrival to his Excellency,
+and say that we are waiting here to have the honour of offering him our
+services. Where is the respected milordos?" Although I could not speak
+Romaic, yet I understood it sufficiently to know what the old gentleman
+was saying; and great was their surprise and admiration when they found
+that the unhappy and very insufficiently-clothed little fellow in the
+corner was the illustrious milordos himself. The said milordos had now
+to explain how all his baggage had been upset over a precipice, and that
+he was not exactly prepared to receive so distinguished a party. After
+mutual apologies, which ended in a good laugh all round, pipes and
+coffee were brought in. The visit of ceremony was concluded in as
+dignified a manner as circumstances would permit; and they went away
+convinced that I must be a very great man in my own country, as I did
+not get up more than a few inches to salute them, either on their entry
+or departure--a most undue assumption of dignity on my part which I
+sincerely regretted, but which the state of my costume rendered
+absolutely necessary.
+
+_November 15th._--The morning of the following day was bright and clear.
+I procured fresh horses, and galloped in six hours to the sea at
+Gominiza. A small vessel was riding at anchor near the shore, whose
+captain immediately closed with the offer of four dollars to carry me
+over to Corfu. I was soon on board; and, creeping into a small
+three-cornered hole under the half-deck, to which I gained access by a
+hatchway about a foot and a half square, I rolled myself up upon some
+ropes, and fell asleep at once. It seemed as if I had not been asleep an
+instant, when my servant, putting his head into the square aperture
+above, said, "Signore siamo qui." "Yes," said I, "but where is that?
+What! are we really at Corfu?" I popped my head out of the trap, and
+there we were sure enough--my fatigue of the day before having made me
+sleep so soundly that I had been perfectly unconscious of the duration
+of the voyage; and I landed on the quay congratulating myself on having
+accomplished the most dangerous and most rapid expedition that it ever
+was my fortune to undertake.
+
+
+
+
+MONASTERIES OF THE LEVANT.
+
+PART IV.
+
+THE MONASTERIES OF MOUNT ATHOS.
+
+[Illustration: THE NORTH WEST SIDE OF THE PROMONTORY OF MOUNT ATHOS,
+WITH A VIEW OF THE THE MONASTERY OF PANTOCRATORAS]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+
+     Constantinople--The Patriarch's Palace--The Plague, Anecdotes,
+     Superstitions--The Two Jews--Interview with the
+     Patriarch--Ceremonies of Reception--The Patriarch's Misconception
+     as to the Archbishop of Canterbury--He addresses a Firman to the
+     Monks of Mount Athos--Preparations for Departure--The Ugly Greek
+     Interpreter--Mode of securing his Fidelity.
+
+
+I had been for some time enjoying the hospitality of Lord and Lady
+Ponsonby at the British palace at Therapia, when I determined to put
+into execution a project I had long entertained of examining the
+libraries in the monasteries of Mount Athos. As no traveller had been
+there since the days of Dr. Clarke, I could obtain but little
+information about the place before I left England. But the Archbishop of
+Canterbury was kind enough to give me a letter to the Patriarch of
+Constantinople, in which he requested him to furnish me with any
+facilities in his power in my researches among the Greek monasteries
+which owned his sway.
+
+Armed with this valuable document, one day in the spring of the year
+1837 I started in a ca�que with some gentlemen of the embassy, and
+proceeded to the palace of the Patriarch in the Fanar--a part of
+Constantinople situated between the ancient city wall and the port so
+well known by its name of the Golden Horn. The Fanar does not derive its
+appellation from the word fanar, a lantern or lighthouse, but from the
+two words _fena yer_, a bad place; for it is in a low, dirty situation,
+where only the conquered Greeks were permitted to reside immediately
+after the conquest of their metropolis by the Sultan Mahommed II. The
+palace is a large, dilapidated, shabby-looking building, chiefly of wood
+painted black; it stands in an open court or yard on a steep slope, and
+looks out over some lower houses to the Golden Horn and the hills of
+Pera and Galata beyond.[12]
+
+After waiting a little while in a large, dirty ante-room, during which
+time there was a scuffling and running up and down of priests and
+deacons, who were surprised and perhaps a little alarmed at a visit
+from so numerous a company of gentlemen belonging to the British
+embassy, we were introduced into a large square room furnished with a
+divan under the windows and down two sides of the chamber. This divan
+was covered with a rough sacking of grey goats' hair--a stuff which is
+said not to be susceptible of the plague; and people sitting on it, or
+on the bare boards, are not considered to be "_compromised_"--a word of
+fearful import when that awful pestilence is raging in this neglected
+city. When any person is compromised, he is obliged to separate from all
+society, and to place himself in strict quarantine for forty days, at
+the end of which period, if the fright and anxiety have not brought on
+the plague, he is received again by his acquaintances. Dealers in oil,
+and persons who have an open issue on their bodies, are considered
+secure from the plague as far as they themselves are concerned; but as
+their clothes will convey the infection, they are as dangerous as others
+to their neighbours.
+
+There was an old Armenian, who, whether he considered himself
+invulnerable, or whether poverty and misfortune made him reckless, I do
+not know; but he set up as a plague-doctor, and visited and touched
+those who were stricken with the pestilence. Whenever he came down the
+street, every one would start aside and give him three or four yards'
+space at least. Sometimes he had men who walked before him and cried to
+the people to get out of the way. As the old man moved on in his long,
+dark robes, shunned with such horror by all, the mind was awfully
+impressed with the fearful nature of the disease; for if the Prince of
+Darkness himself had made his appearance in the face of day, no one
+could have shown greater alarm at his approach than they did when the
+men cried out that the Armenian plague-doctor was coming down the
+street.
+
+One peculiarity of the disease is the disinclination which is always
+shown by those who are plague-stricken to confess that they are so, or
+even to own that they are ill. They invariably conceal it as long as
+possible; and even when burning with fever and in an agony of pain, they
+will pretend that they are well, and try to walk about. But this attempt
+at deception continues for a very short period, for they soon become
+either delirious or insensible, and generally are unable to move. There
+is a look about the eye and an expression of anxiety and horror in the
+face of one who has got the plague which is not to be mistaken nor
+forgotten by those who have once seen them. One day at Galata I nearly
+ran against a man who was sitting on the ground on a hand-bier, upon
+which some Turks were about to carry him away; and the look of the
+unfortunate man's face haunted me for days. The expression of hopeless
+despair and agony was indeed but too applicable to his case; they were
+going to carry him to the plague hospital, from whence I never heard of
+any one returning. It would have been far more merciful to have shot him
+at once.
+
+There are many curious superstitions and circumstances connected with
+the plague. One is, that when the destroying angel enters into a house
+the dogs of the quarter assemble in the night and howl before the door;
+and the Greeks firmly believe that the dogs can see the evil spirit of
+the plague, although it is invisible to human eyes. Some people,
+however, are said to have seen the plague, its appearance being that of
+an old woman, tall, thin, and ghastly, and dressed sometimes in black,
+sometimes in white: she stalks along the streets--glides through the
+doors of the habitations of the condemned--and walks once round the room
+of her victim, who is from that moment death-smitten. It is also
+asserted that, when three small spots make their appearance upon the
+knee, the patient is doomed--he has got the plague, and his fate is
+sealed. They are called the pilotti--the pilots and harbingers of death.
+Some, however, have recovered after these spots have shown themselves.
+
+I had at this time a lodging in a house at Pera, which I occupied when
+anything brought me to Constantinople from Therapia. On one occasion I
+was sitting with a gentleman whose filial piety did him much honour, for
+he had attended his father through the horrors of this illness, and he
+had died of the plague in his arms, when we heard the dogs baying in an
+unusual way.[13] On looking out of the window there they were all of a
+row, seated against the opposite wall, howling mournfully, and looking
+up at the houses in the moonlight. One dog looked very hard at me, I
+thought: I did not like it at all, and began to investigate whether I
+had not some pain or other about me; and this comfortable feeling was
+not diminished when my friend's Arab servant came into the room and said
+that another person who lodged in the house was very unwell; it was said
+that he had had a fall from his horse that morning. The dogs, though we
+escaped the plague ourselves, were right; the plague had got into one of
+the houses close to us in the same street; but how many died of it I did
+not learn.
+
+It was about this time that two Jews--extortioners, poor men, whom
+consequently nobody cared about--were walking together in a narrow
+street at Galata, when they both dropped down stricken with the plague:
+there they lay upon the ground; no one would touch them; and, as the
+street was extremely narrow, no one could pass that way; it was in
+effect blocked up by the two unhappy men. They did not die quickly. "The
+devil was sure of them," the charitable people said, "so he was in no
+hurry." There they lay a long time--many days; and people called to
+them, and put their heads round the corner of the street to look at
+them. Some, tenderer-hearted than the rest, got a long pole from a
+dyer's shop hard by, and pushed a tub of water to them, and threw them
+some bread, for no one dared approach them. One Jew was quiet: he ate a
+little bread and drank some water, and lay still. The other was violent:
+the pain of his livid swellings drove him wild, and he shouted and raved
+and twisted about upon the ground. The people looked at him from the
+corner, and shuddered as they quickly drew back their heads. He died;
+and the other Jew still lay there, quiet as he was before, close to the
+quiet corpse of his poor friend. For some time they did not know whether
+he was dead or not; but at last they found he drank no more water and
+ate no more bread; so they knew that he had died also. There lay the two
+bodies in the way, till some one paid a hamal--a Turkish porter--who,
+being a stanch predestinarian, caring neither for plague, nor Jew, nor
+Gentile, dead or alive, carried off the two bodies on his back; and then
+the street was passable again.
+
+The Turks have a touching custom when the plague rages very greatly, and
+a thousand corpses are carried out daily from Stamboul through the
+Adrianople gate to the great groves of cypress which rise over the
+burial-grounds beyond the walls. At times of terror and grief, such as
+these, the Sheikh Ul Islam causes all the little children to be
+assembled on a beautiful green hill called the Oc Maidan--the Place of
+Arrows--and there they bow down upon the ground, and raise their
+innocent voices in supplication to the Father of Mercy, and implore his
+compassion on the afflicted city!
+
+But the grey goats' hair divan of the Patriarch's hall of audience has
+led me a long way from the Patriarch himself, who entered the chamber
+shortly after our arrival. He appeared to be rather a young man,
+certainly not more than thirty-five years of age, with a reddish beard,
+which is uncommon in this country. He was dressed in purple silk robes,
+like a Greek bishop, and took his seat in the corner of the divan, and
+said nothing, and stroked his beard as a pasha might have done.
+
+When we had made our "t�m�nahs," that is, salutations, and little bows,
+&c., and were still again, the curtain over the doorway was pushed
+aside, and various priestly servants, all without shoes, came in, one of
+them bearing a richly embossed silver tray, on which were disposed small
+spoons filled with a preserve of lemon-peel; each of us took a spoonful,
+and returned the spoon to the dish. Then came various servants--as many
+servants as guests--and one presented to each of us a cut-glass cup with
+a lid, full of fresh spring-water. Then these disappeared; and others
+came in bearing pipes to each of us--a separate servant always coming in
+for each person of the company. After we had smoked our pipes for a
+short time, a mighty crowd of attendants again entered at the bottom of
+the room, among whom was one with a tray, which was covered over with a
+satin shawl or cover as richly embroidered with gold as was possible for
+its size, and with a deep gold fringe. Another servant took off this
+covering, and placed it over the left shoulder of the tray-bearer, who
+stood like a statue all the while. Now appeared a man with a silver
+censer suspended by three silver chains, and having a coffee-pot
+standing upon the burning coals within it. Another man took off the cups
+which were upon the tray, filled them with coffee; and then various
+servants, each armed with a coffee-cup placed on its silver zarf or
+saucer, which he held in his left hand with his thumb and forefinger
+only, strode forward with one accord, and we all at the same moment were
+presented with our diminutive cup of coffee; the attendants received the
+empty cups with both hands, and, walking backwards, disappeared as
+silently as they came. All this is a scene of every-day occurrence in
+the East, and, with more or less of display, takes place in the house of
+every person of consideration.
+
+When we had smoked our pipes for a while, and all the servants had gone
+away, I presented the letter of the Archbishop of Canterbury. It was
+received in due form; and, after a short explanatory exordium, was read
+aloud to the Patriarch, first in English, and then translated into
+Greek.
+
+"And who," quoth the Patriarch of Constantinople, the supreme head and
+primate of the Greek Church of Asia--"who is the Archbishop of
+Canterbury?"
+
+"What?" said I, a little astonished at the question.
+
+"Who," said he, "is this Archbishop?"
+
+"Why, the Archbishop of Canterbury."
+
+"Archbishop of _what_?" said the Patriarch.
+
+"_Canterbury_," said I.
+
+"Oh," said the Patriarch. "Ah! yes! and who is he?"
+
+Here all my English friends and myself were taken aback sadly; we had
+not imagined that the high-priest before us could be ignorant of such a
+matter as the one in question. The Patriarch of the Greek church, the
+successor of Gregory Nazianzen, St. John Chrysostom, and the heresiarch
+Nestorius, seemed not to be aware that there were any other
+denominations of Christians besides those of his own church and the
+Church of Rome. But the fact is that the Patriarch of Constantinople is
+merely the puppet of an intriguing faction of the Greek bankers and
+usurers of the Fanar, who select for the office some man of straw whom
+they feel secure they can rule, and whose appointment they obtain by a
+heavy bribe paid to the Sultan; for the head of the Christian Church is
+appointed by the Mahomedan Emperor!
+
+We explained, and said that the Archbishop of Canterbury was a man
+eminent for his great learning and his Christian virtues; that he was
+the primate and chief of the great reformed Church of England, and a
+personage of such high degree, that he ranked next to the blood-royal;
+that from time immemorial the Archbishop of Canterbury was the great
+dignitary who placed the crown upon the head of our kings--those kings
+whose power swayed the destinies of Europe and of the world; and that
+this present Archbishop and Primate had himself placed the crown upon
+the head of King William IV., and that he would also soon crown our
+young Queen.
+
+"Well," replied the Patriarch, "but how is that? how can it happen that
+the head of your Church is only an Archbishop? whereas I, the Patriarch,
+command other patriarchs, and under them archbishops, archimandrites,
+and other dignitaries of the Church? How can these things be? I cannot
+write an answer to the letter of the Archbishop of--of--"
+
+"Of Canterbury," said I.
+
+"Yes! of Canterbury; for I do not see how he who is only an archbishop
+can by any possibility be the head of a Christian hierarchy; but as you
+come from the British embassy I will give my letters as you desire,
+which will ensure your reception into every monastery which acknowledges
+the supremacy of the _orthodox_ faith of the Patriarch of
+Constantinople."
+
+He then sent for his secretary, that I might give that functionary my
+name and designation. The secretary accordingly appeared; and, although
+there are only six letters in my name, he set it down incorrectly nearly
+a dozen times, and then went away to his hole in a window, where he
+wrote curious little memoranda at the Patriarch's dictation, from which
+he drew up the firman which was sent me a few days afterwards, and which
+I found of great service in my visits to various monasteries. As few
+Protestants have been favoured with a document of this sort from the
+Primate of the Greek Church, I subjoin a translation of it. It will be
+perceived that it is written much in the style of the epistles of the
+early patriarchs to the archbishops and bishops of their provinces. To
+the requisitions contained in this firman it was incumbent upon those to
+whom it was addressed to pay implicit obedience.[14]
+
+My business being thus happily concluded with this learned personage, we
+all smoked away again for a short time in tranquil silence; and then the
+Universal Patriarch--for so he styles himself--clapped his hands, and in
+swarmed the whole tribe of silent, bare-footed priestly followers,
+bringing us sherbet in glass cups. Whilst we drank it, their reverences
+held the saucer under our chins: and when we had had enough, those who
+chose it wiped their lips and moustaches on a long, narrow towel, richly
+embroidered at the two ends with gold and bright-coloured silks. I
+prefer on these occasions my pocket-handkerchief, as the period at which
+these rich towels are washed is by no means a matter of certainty. We
+took our leave with the numerous bows and compliments, and went on our
+way rejoicing.
+
+My preparations for my expedition were soon made. I hired a Greek
+servant, whom I intended should serve as interpreter and factotum. He
+was a sharp, active man--as most Greeks are; and he had an intelligent
+way of doing things, which pleased me; but he was an ugly, thin, little
+fellow, and his right eye had a curious obliquity of vision, which was
+not particularly calculated to inspire confidence. As nobody else was to
+accompany me, I made various inquiries about him, and, although I did
+not hear any particular harm of him, yet I failed to become acquainted
+with any good actions of his performance; and as I was going into a
+country which at that time was almost entirely unknown, and which had
+moreover an unpleasant celebrity for pirates, klephti, and other sorts
+of thieves, I felt that the moral character of my new follower was an
+important consideration; and that if I could prop up his honesty and
+fidelity by any artificial means, I might not be doing amiss.
+
+In a few days the firman or letter of the patriarch arrived, and I
+packed my things and got ready to start. Unknown to my servant I had
+caused a belt of wash-leather to be made, in which were numerous little
+divisions calculated to hold a good many pieces of gold without their
+jingling, and it had a long flap which buttoned down over the series of
+compartments. I had besides a large ostentatious purse, in which was a
+small sum for the expenses of the journey, and as I wished to have it
+supposed that I had but little cash, I made my Greek buy various things
+for me out of his own money. All being ready, we started in a ca�que
+very early in the morning, and went down the Bosphorus from Therapia to
+Stamboul, where we got on board a steamer. On handing up the things, my
+servant found that his box, in which were his new clothes and valuables,
+was missing--his bag only had come. "Good gracious!" said I, "was that
+the box with two straps?" "Yes," said he, "a handsome brown box, about
+so large." "Well," said I, "it is a most unfortunate thing; but when I
+saw that box in my room this morning I locked it up in the closet and
+told H---- not to give up the key of the door to anybody till I returned
+to the embassy again. How very unlucky! however, we shall soon be back,
+and you have biancheria enough in your bag for so short a journey as the
+one before us." We were soon under way, and passing the Seraglio Point
+stood down the swift current in the sea of Marmora, our luggage
+encumbering but a very small space upon the deck.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+
+     Coom Calessi--Uncomfortable Quarters--A Turkish Boat and its
+     Crew--Grandeur of the Scenery--Legend of Jason and the Golden
+     Fleece--The Island of Imbros--Heavy Rain Storm--A Rough
+     Sea--Lemnos--Bad Accommodation--The Old Woman's Mattress and its
+     Contents--Striking View of Mount Athos from the Sea--The Hermit of
+     the Tower.
+
+
+On landing at Coom Calessi, the European castle of the Dardanelles, I
+found that there was no inn or hotel in the place; but it appeared that
+the British consul, who lived on the top of the hill two miles off, had
+built a new house in the town for purposes of business, and upon the
+payment of a perquisite to the Jew who acted as his factotum, I was
+presently installed in the new house, which, as houses go in this
+country, was clean and good, but not a scrap of furniture was there in
+it, not even a pipkin or a casserole--it was as empty as any house could
+be. I sent my man out into the bazaar and we got some cabobs and yaourt
+and salad, and various flaps of bread, and managed so far pretty well,
+and then we went to the port, and after much waste of time and breath I
+engaged a curious-looking boat belonging to a Turk, who by the by was
+the only Turkish sailor I ever had anything to do with, as the seamen
+are generally Greeks; and then I returned to my house to sleep, for we
+were not to set out on our voyage till sunrise the next morning. The
+sleeping was a more difficult affair than the dinner, for after the beds
+at the embassy the boards did seem supernaturally hard; but I spread all
+my property on the floor, and lying down on it flat on my back, out of
+compassion to my hips, I got through the night at last.
+
+All men were up and about in the Turkish town of Coom Calessi as soon as
+the sun tinged the hills of Olympus, and the gay boat in which I was to
+sail was bounding up and down on the bright transparent waves by the
+sandy shore. The long-bearded captain sat on a half deck with the tiller
+under his arm; he neither moved nor said a word when I came on board,
+and before the god of day arose in his splendour over the famous plains
+of Troy my little boat was spreading its white wings before the morning
+wind. Every moment more and more lovely scenes opened to my delighted
+eyes among the rocky and classic islands of the Archipelago. How fair
+and beautiful is every part of that most favoured land! how fresh the
+breezes on that poetic sea! how magnificent the great precipices of the
+rocky island of Samotraki seemed as they loomed through the decreasing
+distance in the morning sun! But no words, no painting can describe this
+glorious region.
+
+I had hired my grave sailors to take me to Lemnos, but the wind did not
+serve, so we steered for Imbros, where we arrived in the afternoon. My
+boat was an original-looking vessel to an English eye, with a high bow
+and stem covered with bright brass; over the rudder there hung a long
+piece of network ornamented with blue glass beads: flowers and
+arabesques were carved on the boards at each end of the vessel, which
+had one low mast with a single sail. It is the national belief in
+England that ugliness is the necessary concomitant of utility, but for
+my own part I confess that I delight in redundant ornament, and I liked
+my old boat the better and was convinced that it did not sail a bit the
+worse because it was pleasing to the eye.
+
+We rowed away towards Imbros, and passed in our course a curious line of
+waves, which looked like a straight whirlpool, if such an epithet may be
+used; for where the mighty stream of the Dardanelles poured forth into
+the Egean Sea, the two waters did not immediately mix together, but
+rolled the one over the other in a long line which seemed as if it would
+suck down into its snaky vortex anything which approached it. It was not
+dangerous, however, for we rowed along it and across it; but still it
+had a look about it which made me feel rather glad than sorry when we
+had lost sight of its long, straight, curling line of waves.
+
+As I sat in my beautifully-shaped and ornamented boat, which looked like
+those represented in antique sculptures, with its high stem and lofty
+prow, I thought how little changed things were in these latitudes since
+the brave Captain Jason passed this way in the good ship Argo; and if an
+old author who wrote on the Hermetic philosophy may be taken as
+authority, that worthy's errand was much the same as mine; for he
+maintains that the golden fleece was no golden fleece at all, "for who,"
+says he, like a sensible man, "ever saw a sheep of gold?" But what Jason
+sought was a famous volume written in golden letters upon the skins of
+sheep, wherein was described the whole science of alchemy, and that the
+man who should possess himself of that inestimable volume should conquer
+the green dragon, and being able by help of the grand magisterium to
+transmute all metals, and draw from the alembic the precious drops of
+the elixir vit�, men and nations and languages would bow down before him
+as the prince of the pleasures of this world.
+
+In the afternoon we arrived at the island of Imbros. The Turkish pilot
+would go no farther, for he said there would be a storm. I saw no
+appearance of the kind, but it was of no use talking to him; he had made
+up his mind, so we drew the boat up on the sand in a little sheltered
+bay, and making a tent of the sail, the sailors lit a fire and sat down
+and smoked their pipes with all that quietness and decorum which is so
+characteristic of their nation. I wandered about the island, but saw
+neither man nor habitation. I shot at divers rock-partridges with a
+rifle and hit none; nevertheless towards evening we cooked up a savoury
+mess, whereof the old bearded Turk and his grave crew ate also, but
+sparingly: I then curled myself up in a corner inside the boat under the
+sail, and took to reading a volume of Sir Walter Scott's poems.
+
+I was deep in his romantic legends when of a sudden there came a roar of
+thunder and such quick bright flashes of sharp lightning that the
+mountains seemed on fire. Down came the rain in waterfalls, and in went
+Walter Scott and all his chivalry into the first safe hiding-place I
+could find. The crew had got under a projecting rock, and I had the boat
+to myself; the rain did not come in much, and the rattle of the thunder
+by degrees died away among the surrounding hills. The rain continued to
+pour down steadily and the fire on the beach went out, but my berth was
+snug enough, and the dull monotonous sound of the splashing rain and the
+dashing of the breakers on the shore soon lulled me to sleep, and I was
+more comfortable than I had been the night before in the bare, empty
+house at Coom Calessi.
+
+Very early in the morning I peeped out; the rain was gone and the sun
+shone brightly; all the Turks were up smoking their eternal pipes, so I
+asked the old captain when we should be off. "There is too much wind,"
+was his laconic reply. We were in a sheltered place, so we felt no wind,
+but on the other side of a rocky headland we could see the sea running
+like a cataract towards the south, although it was as smooth as glass in
+our bay. We got through breakfast, and for the sake of the partridges I
+repented that I had brought no shot. At last the men began righting the
+boat and getting things ready, doing everything as quietly and
+deliberately as usual, and scarcely saying a word to each other. In
+course of time the captain sat himself down by the rudder, and beckoning
+to me with his hand he took the pipe out of his mouth and said "Gel"
+(come). I came, and away we went smoothly with the help of two or three
+oars till we rounded the rocky headland, and then all at once we drifted
+into the race, and began dancing, and leaping, and staggering before the
+breeze in a way I never saw before nor since. Like the goats, from whom
+this sea is said to have been named, we leaped from the summit of one
+wave to that of the next, and seemed hardly to touch the water. We had
+up a small sail, and we sat still and steady at the bottom of the
+vessel. Never had I conceived the possibility of a boat scampering along
+before the wind at such a rate as this. My man crossed himself. I looked
+up at the old pilot, but he went on quietly smoking his pipe with his
+finger on the bowl to keep the ashes from being blown away. It was a
+marvel to me with what exactness he touched the helm just at the right
+instant, for it seemed as if we had sixty narrow escapes every minute,
+but the old man did not stir an inch. Gallantly we dashed, and skipped,
+and bounded along. What a famous lively little boat it was, yet it was
+carved and gilt and as pretty as anything could be! We were soon running
+down the west coast of Lemnos, where the surf was lashing the precipice
+in fury with an angry roar that resounded far out to sea: then of a
+sudden we rounded a sharp point and shot into such smooth water so
+instantaneously that one could scarcely believe that the blue waves of
+the Holy Sea, [Greek: Agios pelagos], as the Greeks call
+it still, could be the same as the furious and frenzied ocean out of
+which we had darted like an arrow from a bow.
+
+We had a long row in the hot sun along the sheltered coast till we
+landed at a rotten wooden pier before the chief city or rather the dirty
+village of the Lemnians. I had a letter to a gentleman who was sent by a
+merchant of Constantinople to collect wool upon this island; so to him I
+bent my way, hooted at by some Lemnian women, the worthy descendants
+probably of those fair dames who have gained a disagreeable immortality
+by murdering their husbands. Here it was that Vulcan broke his leg, and
+no wonder, for a more barren, rocky place no one could have been kicked
+down into. My friend of the woolpacks, who was a Frenchman, was very
+kind and civil, only he had nothing to offer me beyond the bare house,
+like the consul's Jew at the Dardanelles, so I walked about and looked
+at nothing, which was all there was to see, whilst my servant hired a
+little square-rigged brig to take me next day to Mount Athos.
+
+After dinner I made inquiries of my host what he had in the way of bed.
+His answer was specific. There was no bed, no mattress, no divan; sheets
+were unknown things, and the wool he did not recommend. But at last I
+was told of a mattress which an old woman next door was possessed of,
+and which she sometimes let out to strangers; and in an evil hour I sent
+for it. That treacherous bed and its clean white coverlet will never be
+forgotten by me. I laid down upon it and in one minute was fast
+asleep--the next I started up a perfect Marsyas. Never until that day
+had I any idea of what fleas could do. So simultaneous and well
+conducted was their attack that I was bitten all over from top to toe at
+the first assault. They evidently were delighted at the unexpected
+change of diet from a grim, skinny old woman to a well-fed traveller
+fresh from the table of the embassy. I examined the white coverlet--it
+was actually brown with fleas. I threw away my clothes, and taking
+desperate measures to get rid of some myriads of my assailants, I ran
+out of the room and put on a dressing-gown in the outer hall, at the
+window of which I sat down to cool the fever of my blood. I half
+expected to see the fleas open the door and march in after me, as the
+rats did after Bishop Hatto on his island in the Rhine; but fortunately
+the villains did not venture to leave their mattress. There I sat,
+fanning myself in the night air and bathing my face and limbs in water
+till the sun rose, when with a doleful countenance I asked my way to a
+bath. I found one, and went into the hot inner room with nothing on but
+a towel round my waist and one on my head, as the custom is. There was
+no one else there, and when the bath man came in he started back with
+horror, for he thought I had got that most deadly kind of plague which
+breaks out in an eruption and carries off the patient in a few hours.
+When it was explained to him how I had fallen into the clutches of these
+Lemnian fleas, he proceeded to rub me and soap me according to the
+Turkish fashion, and wonderfully soothing and comforting it was.
+
+As there was a rumour of pirates in these seas, the little brig would
+not sail till night, and I passed the day dozing in the shade out of
+doors; when evening came I crept down to the port, went on board, and
+curled myself up in the hole of a cabin among ropes and sails, and went
+to sleep at once, and did not wake again till we arrived within a short
+distance of the most magnificent mountain imaginable, rising in a peak
+of white marble ten thousand feet straight out of the sea. It was a
+lovely fresh morning, so I stood with half of my body out of the
+hatchway enjoying the glorious prospect, and making my toilette with the
+deck for a dressing-table, to the great admiration of the Greek
+crew, who were a perfect contrast to my former Turkish friends, for they
+did nothing but lounge about and chatter, and give orders to each other,
+every one of them appearing unwilling to do his own share of the work.
+
+[Illustration: GREEK SAILOR.]
+
+We steered for a tall square tower which stood on a projecting marble
+rock above the calm blue sea at the S.E. corner of the peninsula; and
+rounding a small cape we turned into a beautiful little port or harbour,
+the entrance of which was commanded by this tower and by one or two
+other buildings constructed for defence at the foot of it, all in the
+Byzantine style of architecture. The quaint half-Eastern half-Norman
+architecture of the little fortress, my outlandish vessel, the brilliant
+colours of the sailors' dresses, the rich vegetation and great tufts of
+flowers which grew in crevices of the white marble, formed altogether
+one of the most picturesque scenes it was ever my good fortune to
+behold, and which I always remember with pleasure. We saw no one, but
+about a mile off there was the great monastery of St. Laura standing
+above us among the trees on the side of the mountain, and this
+delightful little bay was, as the sailors told us, the scarricatojo or
+landing-place for pilgrims who were going to the monastery.
+
+We paid off the vessel, and my things were landed on the beach. It was
+not an operation of much labour, for my effects consisted principally of
+an enormous pair of saddle-bags, made of a sort of carpet, and which
+are called khourges, and are carried by the camels in Arabia; but there
+was at present mighty little in them: nevertheless, light as they were,
+their appearance would have excited a feeling of consternation in the
+mind of the most phlegmatic mule. After a brisk chatter on the part of
+the whole crew, who, with abundance of gesticulations, all talked at
+once, they got on board, and towing the vessel out by means of an
+exceeding small boat, set sail, and left me and my man and the
+saddle-bags high and dry upon the shore. We were somewhat taken by
+surprise at this sudden departure of our marine, so we sat upon two
+stones for a while to think about it. "Well," said I, "we are at Mount
+Athos; so suppose you walk up to the monastery, and get some mules or
+monks, or something or other to carry up the saddle-bags. Tell them the
+celebrated Milordos Inglesis, the friend of the Universal Patriarch, is
+arrived, and that he kindly intends to visit their monastery; and that
+he is a great ally of the Sultan's, and of all the captains of all the
+men of war that come down the Archipelago: and," added I, "make haste
+now, and let us be up at the monastery lest our friends in the brig
+there should take it into their heads to come back and cut our throats."
+
+Away he went, and I and the saddle-bags remained below. For some time I
+solaced myself by throwing stones into the water, and then I walked up
+the path to look about me, and found a red mulberry-tree with fine ripe
+mulberries on it, of which I ate a prodigious number in order to pass
+away the time. As I was studying the Byzantine tower, I thought I saw
+something peeping out of a loophole near the top of it, and, on looking
+more attentively, I saw it was the head of an old man with a long grey
+beard, who was gazing cautiously at me. I shouted out at the top of my
+voice, "Kalemera sas, ariste, kalemera sas (good day to you, sir); ora
+kali sas (good morning to you); [Greek: tou dapomeibomenos];" he
+answered in return, "Kalos orizete?" (how do you do?) So I went up to
+the tower, passed over a plank that served as a drawbridge across a
+chasm, and at the door of a wall which surrounded the lower buildings
+stood a little old monk, the same who had been peeping out of the
+loophole above. He took me into his castle, where he seemed to be living
+all alone in a Byzantine lean-to at the foot of the tower, the window of
+his room looking over the port beneath. This room had numerous pegs in
+the wall, on which were hung dried herbs and simples; one or two great
+jars stood in the corner, and these and a small divan formed all his
+household furniture. We began to talk in Romaic, but I was not very
+strong in that language, and presently stuck fast. He showed me over
+the tower, which contained several groined vaulted rooms one above
+another, all empty. From the top there was a glorious view of the
+islands and the sea. Thought I to myself, this is a real, genuine,
+unsophisticated live hermit; he is not stuffed like the hermit at
+Vauxhall, nor made up of beard and blankets like those on the stage; he
+is a genuine specimen of an almost extinct race. What would not Walter
+Scott have given for him? The aspect of my host and his Byzantine tower
+savoured so completely of the days of the twelfth century, that I seemed
+to have entered another world, and should hardly have been surprised if
+a crusader in chain-armour had entered the room and knelt down before
+the hermit's feet The poor old hermit observing me looking about at all
+his goods and chattels, got up on his divan, and from a shelf reached
+down a large rosy apple, which he presented to me; it was evidently the
+best thing he had, and I was touched when he gave it to me. I took a
+great bite: it was very sour indeed; but what was to be done? I could
+not bear to vex the old man, so I went on eating a great deal of it,
+although it brought the tears into my eyes.
+
+We now heard a holloing and shouting, which portended the arrival of the
+mules, and, bidding adieu to the old hermit of the tower, I mounted a
+mule; the others were lightly loaded with my effects, and we scrambled
+up a steep rocky path through a thicket of odoriferous evergreen shrubs,
+our progress being assisted by the screams and bangs inflicted by
+several stout acolytes, a sort of lay-brethren, who came down with the
+animals from the convent.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+
+     Monastery of St. Laura--Kind Reception by the Abbot--Astonishment
+     of the Monks--History of the Monastery--Rules of the Order of St.
+     Basil--Description of the Buildings--Curious Pictures of the Last
+     Judgment--Early Greek Paintings; Richness of their Frames and
+     Decorations--Ancient Church Plate--Beautiful Reliquary--The
+     Refectory--The Abbot's Savoury Dish--The Library--The MSS.--Ride to
+     the Monastery of Caracalla--Magnificent Scenery.
+
+
+We soon emerged upon a flat piece of ground, and there before us stood
+the great monastery of
+
+ST. LAURA.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+It appeared like an ancient fortress, surrounded with high blank walls,
+over the tops of which were seen numerous domes and pinnacles, and
+odd-shaped roofs and cypress-trees, all jumbled together. In some places
+one of those projecting windows, which are called shahneshin at
+Constantinople, stood out from the great encircling wall at a
+considerable height above the ground; and in front of the entrance was a
+porch in the Byzantine style, consisting of four marble columns,
+supporting a dome; in this porch stood the agoumenos, backed by a great
+many of the brethren. My servant had, doubtless, told him what an
+extraordinarily great personage he was to expect, for he received me
+with great deference; and after the usual bows and compliments the dark
+train of Greek monks filed in through the outer and two inner iron
+gates, in a sort of procession, with which goodly company I proceeded to
+the church, which stood in the middle of the great court-yard. We went
+up to the screen of the altar, and there everybody made bows, and said
+"Kyrie eleison," which they repeated as quickly and in as high a key as
+they could. We then came out of the church, and the agoumenos, taking me
+by the hand, led me up divers dark wooden staircases, until we came into
+a large cheerful room well furnished in the Turkish style, and having
+one of the projecting windows which I had seen from the outside. In this
+room, which the agoumenos told me I was to consider as my own, we had
+coffee. I then presented the letter of the patriarch; he read it with
+great respect, and said I was welcome to remain in the monastery as long
+as I liked; and after various compliments given and received he left me;
+and I found myself comfortably installed in one of the grand--and, as
+yet, unexplored--monasteries of the famous sanctuary of Mount Athos:
+better known in the Levant by the appellation of [Greek: Agios Oros],
+or, as the Italian hath it, Monte Santo.
+
+Before long I received visits from divers holy brethren, being those who
+held offices in the monastery under my lord the agoumenos, and there was
+no end to the civilities which passed between us. At last they all
+departed, and towards evening I went out and walked about; those monks
+whom I met either opening their eyes and mouths, and standing still, or
+else bowing profoundly and going through the whole series of
+gesticulations which are practised towards persons of superior rank; for
+the poor monks never having seen a stranger before, or at least a Frank,
+did not know what to make of me, and according to their various degrees
+of intellect treated me with respect or astonishment. But Greek monks
+are not so ill-mannered as an English mob, and therefore they did not
+run after me, but only stared and crossed themselves as the unknown
+animal passed by.
+
+I will now, from the information I received from the monks and my own
+observation, give the best account I can of this extensive and curious
+monastery. It was founded by an Emperor Nicephorus, but what particular
+Nicephorus he was nobody knew. Nicephorus, the treasurer, got into
+trouble with Charlemagne on one side, and Haroun al Raschid on the
+other, and was killed by the Bulgarians in 811. Nicephorus Phocas was a
+great captain, a mighty man of valour; who fought with everybody, and
+frightened the Caliph at the gates of Bagdad, but did good to no one;
+and at length became so disagreeable that his wife had him murdered in
+969. Nicephorus Botoniates, by the help of Alexius Comnenus, caught and
+put out the eyes of his rival Nicephorus Bryennius, whose son married
+that celebrated blue-stocking Anna Comnena. However, Nicephorus
+Botoniates having quarrelled with Alexius Comnenus, that great man
+kicked him out and reigned in his stead, and Botoniates took refuge in
+this monastery, which, as I make out, he had founded some time before.
+He came here about the year 1081, and took the vows of a kaloyeri, or
+Greek monk.
+
+[Illustration: staff, [Greek: patr�za]]
+
+This word kaloyeri means a good old man. All the monks of Mount Athos
+follow the rule of St. Basil: indeed, all Greek monks are of this order.
+They are ascetics, and their discipline is most severe: they never eat
+meat, fish they have on feast-days; but on fast-days, which are above a
+hundred in the year, they are not allowed any animal substance or even
+oil; their prayers occupy eight hours in the day, and about two during
+the night, so that they never enjoy a real night's rest. They never sit
+down during prayer, but as the services are of extreme length they are
+allowed to rest their arms on the elbows of a sort of stalls without
+seats, which are found in all Greek churches, and at other times they
+lean on a crutch. A crutch of this kind, of silver, richly ornamented,
+forms the patriarchal staff: it is called the patritza, and answers to
+the crosier of the Roman bishops. Bells are not used to call the
+fraternity to prayers, but a long piece of board, suspended by two
+strings, is struck with a mallet. Sometimes, instead of the wooden
+board, a piece of iron, like part of the tire of a wheel, is used for
+this purpose. Bells are rung only on occasions of rejoicing, or to show
+respect to some great personage, and on the great feasts of the church.
+
+The accompanying sketches will explain the forms of the patriarchal
+staff, the board, and the iron bar.
+
+[Illustrations: [Greek: tokmak], a hammer, in Turkish.]
+
+The latter are called in Romaic [Greek: s�mandros], a word
+derived from [Greek: s�masoktoumai], to gather together.
+
+According to Johannes Comnenus, who visited Mount Athos in 1701, and
+whose works are quoted in Montfaucon, 'Paleographia Gr�ca,' page 452,
+St. Laura was founded by Nicephorus Phocas, and restored by Neagulus,
+Waywode of Bessarabia. The buildings consist of a thick and lofty wall
+of stone, which encompasses an irregular space of ground of between
+three and four acres in extent; there is only one entrance, a crooked
+passage defended by three separate iron doors; the front of the building
+on the side of the entrance extends about five hundred feet. There is no
+attempt at external architecture, but only this plain wall; the few
+windows which look out from it belong to rooms which are built of wood
+and project over the top of the wall, being supported upon strong beams
+like brackets. At the south-west corner of the building there is a large
+square tower, which formerly contained a printing-press: but this press
+was destroyed by the Turkish soldiers during the late Greek revolution;
+and at the same time they carried off certain old cannons, which stood
+upon the battlements, but which were more for show than use, for the
+monks had never once ventured to fire them off during the long period
+they had been there; and my question, as to when they were brought there
+originally, was answered by the universal and regular answer of the
+Levant, "[Greek: ti exebzo]--Qui sa?--who knows?" The interior
+of the monastery consists of several small courts and two large open
+spaces surrounded with buildings, which have open galleries of wood or
+stone before them, by means of which entrance is gained into the various
+apartments, which now afford lodging for one hundred and twenty monks,
+and there is room for many more. These two large courts are built
+without any regularity, but their architecture is exceedingly curious,
+and in its style closely resembles the buildings erected in
+Constantinople between the fifth and the twelfth century: a sort of
+Byzantine, of which St. Marc's in Venice is the finest specimen in
+Europe. It bears some affinity to the Lombardic or Romanesque, only it
+is more Oriental in its style; the chapel of the ancient palace of
+Palermo is more in the style of the buildings on Mount Athos than
+anything else in Christendom that I remember; but the ceilings of that
+chapel are regularly arabesque, whereas those on Mount Athos are flat
+with painted beams, like the Italian basilicas, excepting where they are
+arched or domed; and in those cases there is little or no mosaic, but
+only coarse paintings in fresco representing saints in the conventional
+Greek style of superlative ugliness.
+
+In the centre of each of these two large courts stands a church of
+moderate size, each of which has a porch with thin marble columns before
+the door; the interior walls of the porches are covered with paintings
+of saints and also of the Last Judgment, which, indeed, is constantly
+seen in the porch of every church. In these pictures, which are often of
+immense size, the artists evidently took much more pains to represent
+the uncouthness of the devils than the beauty of the angels, who, in
+all these ancient frescos, are a very hard-favoured set. The chief devil
+is very big; he is the hero of the scene, and is always marvellously
+hideous, with a great mouth and long teeth, with which he is usually
+gnawing two or three sinners, who, to judge from the expression of his
+face, must be very nauseous articles of food. He stands up to his middle
+in a red pool which is intended for fire, and wherein numerous little
+sinners are disporting themselves like fish in all sorts of attitudes,
+but without looking at all alarmed or unhappy. On one side of the
+picture an angel is weighing a few in a pair of scales, and others are
+capering about in company with some smaller devils, who evidently lead a
+merry life of it. The souls of the blessed are seated in a row on a long
+hard bench very high up in the picture; these are all old men with
+beards; some are covered with hair, others richly clothed, anchorites
+and princes being the only persons elevated to the bench. They have good
+stout glories round their heads, which in rich churches are gilt, and in
+the poorer ones are painted yellow, and look like large straw hats.
+These personages are severe and grim of countenance, and look by no
+means comfortable or at home; they each hold a large book, and give you
+the idea that except for the honour of the thing they would be much
+happier in company with the wicked little sinners and merry imps in the
+crimson lake below. This picture of the Last Judgment is as much
+conventional as the portraits of the saints; it is almost always the
+same, and a correct representation of a part of it is to be seen in the
+last print of the rare volume of the Monte Santo di Dio, which contains
+the three earliest engravings known: it would almost appear that the
+print must have been copied from one of these ancient Greek frescos. It
+is difficult to conceive how any one, even in the dark ages, can have
+been simple enough to look upon these quaint and absurd paintings with
+feelings of religious awe; but some of the monks of the Holy Mountain do
+so even now, and were evidently scandalized when they saw me smile. This
+is, however, only one of the numberless instances in which, owing to the
+differences of education and circumstances, men look upon the same thing
+with awe or pity, with ridicule or veneration.[15]
+
+Theinterior of the principal church in this monastery is interesting from
+the number of early Greek pictures which it contains, and which are hung
+on the walls of the apsis behind the altar. They are almost all in
+silver frames, and are painted on wood; most of them are small, being
+not more than one or two feet square; the back-ground of all of them is
+gilt; and in many of them this back-ground is formed of plates of silver
+or gold. One small painting is ascribed to St. Luke, and several have
+the frames set with jewels, and are of great antiquity. In front of the
+altar, and suspended from the two columns nearest to the [Greek:
+ikonostasis]--the screen which, like the veil of the temple, conceals
+the holy of holies from the gaze of the profane--are two pictures larger
+than the rest: the one represents our Saviour, the other the Blessed
+Virgin. Except the faces they are entirely covered over with plates of
+silver-gilt; and the whole of both pictures, as well as their frames, is
+richly ornamented with a kind of coarse golden filigree, set with large
+turquoises, agates, and cornelians. These very curious productions of
+early art were presented to the monastery by the Emperor Andronicus
+Paleologus, whose portrait, with that of his Empress, is represented on
+the silver frame.
+
+The floor of this church, and of the one which stands in the centre of
+the other court, is paved with rich coloured marbles. The relics are
+preserved in that division of the church which is behind the altar;
+their number and value is much less than formerly, as during the
+revolution, when the Holy Mountain was under the rule of Aboulabout
+Pasha, he squeezed all he could out of the monks of this and all the
+other monasteries. However, as no Turk is a match for a Greek, they
+managed to preserve a great deal of ancient church plate, some of which
+dates as far back as the days of the Roman emperors, for few of the
+Christian successors of Constantine failed to offer some little bribe to
+the saints in order to obtain pardon for the desperate manner in which
+they passed their lives. Some of these pieces of plate are well worthy
+the attention of antiquarians, being probably the most ancient specimens
+of art in goldsmith's work now extant; and as they have remained in the
+several monasteries ever since the piety of their donors first sent them
+there, their authenticity cannot be questioned, besides which many of
+them are extremely magnificent and beautiful.
+
+The most valuable reliquary of St. Laura is a kind of triptic, about
+eighteen inches high, of pure gold, a present from the Emperor
+Nicephorus, the founder of the abbey. The front represents a pair of
+folding-doors, each set with a double row of diamonds (the most ancient
+specimens of this stone that I have seen), emeralds, pearls, and rubies
+as large as sixpences. When the doors are opened a large piece of the
+holy cross, splendidly set with jewels, is displayed in the centre, and
+the inside of the two doors and the whole surface of the reliquary are
+covered with engraved figures of the saints stuck full of precious
+stones. This beautiful shrine is of Byzantine workmanship, and, in its
+way, is a superb work of art.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The refectory of the monastery is a large square building, but the
+dining-room which it contains is in the form of a cross, about one
+hundred feet in length each way; the walls are decorated with fresco
+pictures of the saints, who vie with each other in the hard-favoured
+aspect of their bearded faces; they are tall and meagre full-length
+figures as large as life, each having his name inscribed on the picture.
+Their chief interest is in their accurate representation of the clerical
+costume. The dining-tables, twenty-four in number, are so many solid
+blocks of masonry, with heavy slabs of marble on the top; they are
+nearly semicircular in shape, with the flat side away from the wall; a
+wide marble bench runs round the circular part of them in this form. A
+row of these tables extend down each side of the hall, and at the upper
+end in a semicircular recess is a high table for the superior, who only
+dines here on great occasions. The refectory being square on the
+outside, the intermediate spaces between the arms of the cross are
+occupied by the bakehouse, and the wine, oil, and spirit cellars; for
+although the monks eat no meat, they drink famously; and the good St.
+Basil having flourished long before the age of Paracelsus, inserted
+nothing in his rules against the use of ardent spirits, whereof the
+monks imbibe a considerable quantity, chiefly bad arrack; but it does
+not seem to do them any harm, and I never heard of their overstepping
+the bounds of sobriety. Besides the two churches in the great courts,
+which are shaded by ancient cypresses, there are twenty smaller chapels,
+distributed over different parts of the monastery, in which prayers are
+said on certain days. The monks are now in a more flourishing condition
+than they have been for some years; and as they trust to the continuance
+of peace and order in the dominions of the Sultan, they are beginning to
+repair the injuries they suffered during the revolution, and there is
+altogether an air of improvement and opulence throughout the
+establishment.
+
+I wandered over the courts and galleries and chapels of this immense
+building in every direction, asking questions respecting those things
+which I did not understand, and receiving the kindest and most civil
+attention from every one. In front of the door of the largest church a
+dome, curiously painted and gilt in the interior, and supported by four
+columns, protects a fine marble vase ten feet in diameter, with a
+fountain in it; in this magnificent basin the holy water is consecrated
+with great ceremony on the feast of the Epiphany.[16]
+
+I was informed that no female animal of any sort or kind is admitted on
+any part of the peninsula of Mount Athos; and that since the days of
+Constantine the soil of the Holy Mountain had never been contaminated by
+the tread of a woman's foot. That this rigid law is infringed by certain
+small and active creatures who have the audacity to bring their wives
+and large families within the very precincts of the monastery I soon
+discovered to my sorrow, and heartily regretted that the stern monastic
+law was not more rigidly enforced; nevertheless, I slept well on my
+divan, and the next morning at sunrise received a visit from the
+agoumenos, who came to wish me good day. After some conversation on
+other matters, I inquired about the library, and asked permission to
+view its contents. The agoumenos declared his willingness to show me
+everything that the monastery contained. "But first," said he, "I wish
+to present you with something excellent for your breakfast; and from
+the special good will that I bear towards so distinguished a guest I
+shall prepare it with my own hands, and will stay to see you eat it; for
+it is really an admirable dish, and one not presented to all persons."
+"Well," thought I, "a good breakfast is not a bad thing;" and the fresh
+mountain-air and the good night's rest had given me an appetite; so I
+expressed my thanks for the kind hospitality of my lord abbot, and he,
+sitting down opposite to me on the divan, proceeded to prepare his dish.
+"This," said he, producing a shallow basin half-full of a white paste,
+"is the principal and most savoury part of this famous dish; it is
+composed of cloves of garlic, pounded down, with a certain quantity of
+sugar. With it I will now mix the oil in just proportions, some shreds
+of fine cheese [it seemed to be of the white acid kind, which resembles
+what is called caccia cavallo in the south of Italy, and which almost
+takes the skin off your fingers, I believe] and sundry other nice little
+condiments, and now it is completed!" He stirred the savoury mess round
+and round with a large wooden spoon until it sent forth over room and
+passage and cell, over hill and valley, an aroma which is not to be
+described. "Now," said the agoumenos, crumbling some bread into it with
+his large and somewhat dirty hands, "this is a dish for an emperor! Eat,
+my friend, my much-respected guest; do not be shy. Eat; and when you
+have finished the bowl you shall go into the library and anywhere else
+you like; but you shall go nowhere till I have had the pleasure of
+seeing you do justice to this delicious food, which, I can assure you,
+you will not meet with everywhere."
+
+I was sorely troubled in spirit. Who could have expected so dreadful a
+martyrdom as this? The sour apple of the hermit down below was
+nothing--a trifle in comparison! Was ever an unfortunate bibliomaniac
+dosed with such a medicine before? It would have been enough to have
+cured the whole Roxburghe Club from meddling with libraries and books
+for ever and ever. I made every endeavour to escape this honour. "My
+Lord," said I, "it is a fast; I cannot this morning do justice to this
+delicious viand; it is a fast; I am under a vow. Englishmen must not eat
+that dish in this month. It would be wrong; my conscience won't permit
+it, though the odour certainly is most wonderful! Truly an astonishing
+savour! Let me see you eat it, O agoumenos!" continued I; "for behold, I
+am unworthy of anything so good." "Excellent and virtuous young man!"
+said the agoumenos, "no, I will not eat it. I will not deprive you of
+this treat. Eat it in peace; for know, that to travellers all such vows
+are set aside. On a journey it is permitted to eat all that is set
+before you, unless it is meat that is offered to idols. I admire your
+scruples: but be not afraid, it is lawful. Take it, my honoured friend,
+and eat it: eat it all, and then we will go into the library." He put
+the bowl into one of my hands and the great wooden spoon into the other:
+and in desperation I took a gulp, the recollection of which still makes
+me tremble. What was to be done? Another mouthful was an impossibility:
+not all my ardour in the pursuit of manuscripts could give me the
+necessary courage. I was overcome with sorrow and despair. My servant
+saved me at last: he said "that English gentlemen never ate such rich
+dishes for breakfast, from religious feelings, he believed; but he
+requested that it might be put by, and he was sure I should like it very
+much later in the day." The agoumenos looked vexed, but he applauded my
+principles; and just then the board sounded for church. "I must be off,
+excellent and worthy English lord," said he; "I will take you to the
+library, and leave you the key. Excuse my attendance on you there, for
+my presence is required in the church." So I got off better than I
+expected; but the taste of that ladleful stuck to me for days. I
+followed the good agoumenos to the library, where he left me to my own
+devices.
+
+The library is contained in two small rooms looking into a narrow court,
+which is situated to the left of the great court of entrance. One room
+leads to the other, and the books are disposed on shelves in tolerable
+order, but the dust on their venerable heads had not been disturbed for
+many years, and it took me some time to make out what they were, for in
+old Greek libraries few volumes have any title written on the back. I
+made out that there were in all about five thousand volumes, a very
+large collection, of which about four thousand were printed books; these
+were mostly divinity, but among them there were several fine Aldine
+classics and the editio princeps of the Anthologia in capital letters.
+
+The nine hundred manuscripts consisted of six hundred volumes written
+upon paper and three hundred on vellum. With the exception of four
+volumes, the former were all divinity, principally liturgies and books
+of prayer. Those four volumes were Homer's 'Iliad' and Hesiod, neither
+of which were very old, and two curious and rather early manuscripts on
+botany, full of rudely drawn figures of herbs. These were probably the
+works of Dioscorides; they were not in good condition, having been much
+studied by the monks in former days: they were large, thick quartos.
+Among the three hundred manuscripts on vellum there were many large
+folios of the works of St. Chrysostom and other Greek fathers of the
+church of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and about fifty copies of
+the Gospels and the Evangelistarium of nearly the same age. One
+Evangelistarium was in fine uncial letters of the ninth century; it was
+a thick quarto, and on the first leaf was an illumination the whole size
+of the page on a gold background, representing the donor of the book
+accompanied by his wife. This ancient portrait was covered over with a
+piece of gauze. It was a very remarkable manuscript. There were one
+quarto and one duodecimo of the Acts, Epistles, and Apocalypse of the
+eleventh century, and one folio of the book of Job, which had several
+miniatures in it badly executed in brilliant colours; this was probably
+of the twelfth century. These three manuscripts were such volumes as are
+not often seen in European libraries. All the rest were anthologia and
+books of prayer, nor did I meet with one single leaf of a classic author
+on vellum. I went into the library several times, and looked over all
+the vellum manuscripts very carefully, and I believe that I did not pass
+by unnoticed anything which was particularly interesting in point of
+subject, antiquity, or illumination. Several of the copies of the
+Gospels had their titles ornamented with arabesques, but none struck me
+as being peculiarly valuable.
+
+The twenty-one monasteries of Mount Athos are subjected to different
+regulations. In some the property is at the absolute disposal of the
+agoumenos for the time being, but in the larger establishments (and St.
+Laura is the second in point of consequence) everything belongs to the
+monks in common. Such being the case, it was hopeless to expect, in so
+large a community, that the brethren should agree to part with any of
+their valuables. Indeed, as soon as I found out how affairs stood within
+the walls of St. Laura, I did not attempt to purchase anything, as it
+was not advisable to excite the curiosity of the monks upon the subject;
+nor did I wish that the report should be circulated in the other
+convents that I was come to Mount Athos for the purpose of rifling their
+libraries.
+
+I remained at St. Laura three days, and on a beautiful fresh morning,
+being provided by the monks with mules and a guide, I left the good
+agoumenos and sallied forth through the three iron gates on my way to
+the monastery of Caracalla. Our road lay through some of the most
+beautiful scenery imaginable. The dark blue sea was on my right at about
+two miles distance; the rocky path over which I passed was of white
+alabaster with brown and yellow veins; odoriferous evergreen shrubs were
+all around me; and on my left were the lofty hills covered with a dense
+forest of gigantic trees, which extended to the base of the great white
+marble peak of the mountain. Between our path and the sea there was a
+succession of narrow valleys and gorges, each one more picturesque than
+the other; sometimes we were enclosed by high and dense bushes;
+sometimes we opened upon forest glades, and every here and there we came
+upon long and narrow ledges of rock. On one of the narrowest and
+loftiest of these, as I was trotting merrily along thinking of nothing
+but the beauty of the hour and the scene, my mule stopped short in a
+place where the path was about a foot wide, and, standing upon three
+legs, proceeded deliberately to scratch his nose with the fourth. I was
+too old a mountain traveller to have hold of the bridle, which was
+safely belayed to the pack-saddle; I sat still for fear of making him
+lose his balance, and waited in very considerable trepidation until the
+mule had done scratching his nose. I was at the time half inclined to
+think that he knew he had a heretic upon his back, and had made up his
+mind to send me and himself smashing down among the distant rocks. If
+so, however, he thought better of it, and before long, to my great
+contentment, we came to a place where the road had two sides to it
+instead of one, and after a ride of five hours we arrived before the
+tall square tower which frowns over the gateway of the monastery of
+Caracalla.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+
+     The Monastery of Caracalla--Its beautiful Situation--Hospitable
+     Reception--Description of the Monastery--Legend of its
+     Foundation--The Church--Fine Specimens of Ancient Jewellery--The
+     Library--The Value attached to the Books by the Abbot--He agrees to
+     sell some of the MSS.--Monastery of Philotheo--The Great Monastery
+     of Iveron--History of its Foundation--Its Magnificent
+     Library--Ignorance of the Monks--Superb MSS.--The Monks refute to
+     part with any of the MSS.--Beauty of the Scenery of Mount Athos.
+
+
+The monastery of CARACALLA is not so large as St. Laura, and in many
+points resembles an ancient Gothic castle. It is beautifully situated on
+a promontory of rock two miles from the sea, and viewed from the lofty
+ground by which we approached it, the buildings had a most striking
+effect, with the dark blue sea for a background and the lofty rock of
+Samotraki looming in the distance, whilst the still more remote
+mountains of Roumelia closed in the picture. As for the island of
+Samotraki, it must have been created solely for the benefit of artists
+and admirers of the picturesque, for it is fit for nothing else. It is
+high and barren, a congeries of gigantic precipices and ridges. I
+suppose one can land upon it somewhere, for people live on it who are
+said to be arrant pirates; but as one passes by it at sea, its
+interminable ribs of grey rock, with the waves lashing against them,
+are dreary-looking in the extreme; and it is only when far distant that
+it becomes a beautiful object.
+
+I sent in my servant as ambassador to explain that the first cousin,
+once removed, of the Emperor of all the Franks was at the gate, and to
+show the letter of the Greek patriarch. Incontinently the agoumenos made
+his appearance at the porch with many expressions of welcome and
+goodwill. I believe it was longer than the days of his life since a
+Frank had entered the convent, and I doubt whether he had ever seen one
+before, for he looked so disappointed when he found that I had no tail
+or horns, and barring his glorious long beard, that I was so little
+different from himself. We made many speeches to each other, he in
+heathen Greek and I in English, seasoned with innumerable bows,
+gesticulations, and t�m�nah; after which I jumped off my mule and we
+entered the precincts of the monastery, attended by a long train of
+bearded fathers who came out to stare at me.
+
+The monastery of Caracalla covers about one acre of ground; it is
+surrounded with a high strong wall, over which appear roofs and domes;
+and on the left of the great square tower, near the gate, a range of
+rooms, built of wood, project over the battlements as at the monastery
+of St Laura. Within is a large irregular court-yard, in the centre of
+which stands the church, and several little chapels or rooms fitted up
+as places of worship are scattered about in different parts of the
+building among the chambers inhabited by the monks. I found that this
+was the uniform arrangement in all the monasteries of Mount Athos and in
+nearly all Greek monasteries in the Levant. This monastery was founded
+by Caracallos, a Roman: who he was, or when he lived, I do not know; but
+from its appearance this must be a very ancient establishment. By Roman,
+perhaps, is meant Greek, for Greece is called Roumeli to this day; and
+the Constantinopolitans called themselves Romans in the old time, as in
+Persia and Koordistan the Sultan is called Roomi Padischah, the Roman
+Emperor, by those whose education and general attainments enable them to
+make mention of so distant and mysterious a potentate. Afterwards
+Petrus, Authentes or Waywode of Moldavia, sent his protospaithaire, that
+is his chief swordsman or commander-in-chief, to found a monastery on
+the Holy Mountain, and supplied him with a sum of money for the purpose;
+but the chief swordsman, after expending a very trivial portion of it in
+building a small tower on the sea-shore, pocketed the rest and returned
+to court. The waywode having found out what he had been at, ordered his
+head to be cut off; but he prayed so earnestly to be allowed to keep his
+head and rebuild the monastery of Caracalla out of his own money, that
+his master consented. The new church was dedicated to St. Peter and St.
+Paul, and ultimately the ex-chief swordsman prevailed upon the waywode
+to come to Caracalla and take the vows. They both assumed the same name
+of Pachomius, and died in the odour of sanctity. All this, and many more
+legends, was I told by the worthy agoumenos, who was altogether a most
+excellent person; but he had an unfortunate habit of selecting the most
+windy places for detailing them, an open archway, the top of an external
+staircase, or the parapet of a tower, until at last he chilled my
+curiosity down to zero. In all his words and acts he constantly referred
+to brother Joasaph, the second in command, to whose superior wisdom he
+always seemed to bow, and who was quite the right-hand man of the abbot.
+
+My friend first took me to the church, which is of moderate size, the
+walls ornamented with stiff fresco pictures of the saints, none of them
+certainly later than the twelfth century, and some probably very much
+earlier. There were some relics, but the silver shrines containing them
+were not remarkable for richness or antiquity. On the altar there were
+two very remarkable crosses, each of them about six or eight inches
+long, of carved wood set in gold and jewels of very early and beautiful
+workmanship; one of them in particular, which was presented to the
+church by the Emperor John Zimisces, was a most curious specimen of
+ancient jewellery.
+
+This monastery is one of those over which the agoumenos has absolute
+control, and he was then repairing one side of the court and rebuilding
+a set of rooms which had been destroyed during the Greek war.
+
+The library I found to be a dark closet near the entrance of the church;
+it had been locked up for many years, but the agoumenos made no
+difficulty in breaking the old-fashioned padlock by which the door was
+fastened. I found upon the ground and upon some broken-down shelves
+about four or five hundred volumes, chiefly printed books; but amongst
+them, every now and then, I stumbled upon a manuscript: of these there
+were about thirty on vellum and fifty or sixty on paper. I picked up a
+single loose leaf of very ancient uncial Greek characters, part of the
+Gospel of St. Matthew, written in small square letters and of small
+quarto size. I searched in vain for the volume to which this leaf
+belonged.
+
+As I had found it impossible to purchase any manuscripts at St. Laura, I
+feared that the same would be the case in other monasteries; however, I
+made bold to ask for this single leaf as a thing of small value.
+
+"Certainly!" said the agoumenos, "what do you want it for?"
+
+My servant suggested that, perhaps, it might be useful to cover some jam
+pots or vases of preserves which I had at home.
+
+"Oh!" said the agoumenos, "take some more;" and, without more ado, he
+seized upon an unfortunate thick quarto manuscript of the Acts and
+Epistles, and drawing out a knife cut out an inch thickness of leaves at
+the end before I could stop him. It proved to be the Apocalypse, which
+concluded the volume, but which is rarely found in early Greek
+manuscripts of the Acts: it was of the eleventh century. I ought,
+perhaps, to have slain the _tomecide_ for his dreadful act of
+profanation, but his generosity reconciled me to his guilt, so I
+pocketed the Apocalypse, and asked him if he would sell me any of the
+other books, as he did not appear to set any particular value upon them.
+
+"Malista, certainly," he replied; "how many will you have? They are of
+no use to me, and as I am in want of money to complete my buildings I
+shall be very glad to turn them to some account."
+
+After a good deal of conversation, finding the agoumenos so
+accommodating, and so desirous to part with the contents of his dark and
+dusty closet, I arranged that I would leave him for the present, and
+after I had made the tour of the other monasteries, would return to
+Caracalla, and take up my abode there until I could hire a vessel, or
+make some other arrangements for my return to Constantinople.
+Satisfactory as this arrangement was, I nevertheless resolved to make
+sure of what I had already got, so I packed them up carefully in the
+great saddlebags, to my extreme delight. The agoumenos kindly furnished
+me with fresh mules, and in the afternoon I proceeded to the monastery
+of
+
+PHILOTHEO,
+
+which is only an hour's ride from Caracalla, and stands in a little
+field surrounded by the forest. It is distant from the sea about four
+miles, and is protected, like all the others, by a high stone wall
+surrounding the whole of the building. The church is curious and
+interesting; it is ornamented with representations of saints, and holy
+men in fresco, upon the walls of the interior and in the porch. I could
+not make out when it was built, but probably before the twelfth century.
+Arsenius, Philotheus, and Dionysius were the founders, but who they were
+did not appear. The monastery was repaired, and the refectory enlarged
+and painted, in the year 1492, by Leontius, [Greek: o basileus] [Greek:
+Kachetiou], and his son Alexander. I was shown the reliquaries, but they
+were not remarkable. The monks said they had no library; and there being
+nothing of interest in the monastery, I determined to go on. Indeed the
+expression of the faces of some of these monks was so unprepossessing,
+and their manners so rude, although not absolutely uncivil, that I did
+not feel any particular inclination to remain amongst them, so leaving a
+small donation for the church, I mounted my mule and proceeded on my
+journey.
+
+In half an hour I came to a beautiful waterfall in a rocky glen
+embosomed in trees and odoriferous shrubs, the rocks being of white
+marble, and the flowers such as we cherish in greenhouses in England. I
+do not know that I ever saw a more charmingly romantic spot. Another
+hour brought us to the great monastery of
+
+IVERON, or IBERON,
+
+(the Georgian, or Iberian, Monastery.)
+
+This monastic establishment is of great size. It is larger than St.
+Laura, and might almost be denominated a small fortified town, so
+numerous are the buildings and courts which are contained within its
+encircling wall. It is situated near the sea, and in its general form is
+nearly square, with four or five square towers projecting from the
+walls. On each of the four sides there are rooms for above two hundred
+monks. I did not learn precisely how many were then inhabiting it, but I
+should imagine there were above a hundred. As, however, many of the
+members of all the religious communities on Mount Athos are employed in
+cultivating the numerous farms which they possess, it is probable that
+not more than one-half of the monks are in residence at any one time.
+
+This monastery was founded by Theophania (Theodora?), wife of the
+Emperor Romanus, the son of Leo Sophos,[17] or the Philosopher, between
+the years 919 and 922. It was restored by a Prince of Georgia or
+Iberia, and enlarged by his son, a caloyer. The church is dedicated to
+the "repose of the Virgin." It has four or five domes, and is of
+considerable size, standing by itself, as usual, in the centre of the
+great court, and is ornamented with columns and other decorations of
+rich marbles, together with the usual fresco paintings on the walls.
+
+The library is a remarkably fine one, perhaps altogether the most
+precious of all those which now remain on the holy mountain. It is
+situated over the porch of the church, which appears to be the usual
+place where the books are kept in these establishments. The room is of
+good size, well fitted up with bookcases with glass doors, of not very
+old workmanship. I should imagine that about a hundred years ago, some
+agoumenos, or prior, or librarian, must have been a reading man; and the
+pious care which he took to arrange the ancient volumes of the monastery
+has been rewarded by the excellent state of preservation in which they
+still remain. Since his time, they have probably remained undisturbed.
+Every one could see through the greenish uneven panes of old glass that
+there was nothing but books inside, and therefore nobody meddled with
+them. I was allowed to rummage at my leisure in this mine of
+arch�ological treasure. Having taken up my abode for the time being in a
+cheerful room, the windows of which commanded a glorious prospect, I
+soon made friends with the literary portion of the community, which
+consisted of one thin old monk, a cleverish man, who united to many
+other offices that of librarian. He was also secretary to my lord the
+agoumenos, a kind-hearted old gentleman, who seemed to wish everybody
+well, and who evidently liked much better to sit still on his divan than
+to regulate the affairs of his convent. The rents, the long lists of
+tuns of wine and oil, the strings of mules laden with corn, which came
+in daily from the farms, and all the other complicated details of this
+mighty coeenobium,--over all these, and numberless other important
+matters, the thin secretary had full control.
+
+Some of the young monks, demure fat youths, came into the library every
+now and then, and wondered what I could be doing there, looking over so
+many books; and they would take a volume out of my hand when I had done
+with it, and, glancing their eyes over its ancient vellum leaves, would
+look up inquiringly into my face, saying, "[Greek: ti ene]?--what
+is it?--what can be the use of looking at such old books as these?" They
+were rather in awe of the secretary, who was evidently, in their
+opinion, a prodigy of learning and erudition. Some, in a low voice, that
+they might not be overheard by the wise man, asked me where I came from,
+how old I was, and whether my father was with me; but they soon all went
+away, and I turned to, in right good earnest, to look for uncial
+manuscripts and unknown classic authors. Of these last there was not
+one on vellum, but on paper there was an octavo manuscript of Sophocles,
+and a Coptic Psaltery with an Arabic translation--a curious book to meet
+with on Mount Athos. Of printed books there were, I should think, about
+five thousand--of manuscripts on paper, about two thousand; but all
+religious works of various kinds. There were nearly a thousand
+manuscripts on vellum, and these I looked over more carefully than the
+rest. About one hundred of them were in the Iberian language: they were
+mostly immense thick quartos, some of them not less than eighteen inches
+square, and from four to six inches thick. One of these, bound in wooden
+boards, and written in large uncial letters, was a magnificent old
+volume. Indeed all these Iberian or Georgian manuscripts were superb
+specimens of ancient books. I was unable to read them, and therefore
+cannot say what they were; but I should imagine that they were church
+books, and probably of high antiquity. Among the Greek manuscripts,
+which were principally of the eleventh and twelfth centuries--works of
+St. Chrysostom, St. Basil, and books for the services of the ritual--I
+discovered the following, which are deserving of especial mention:--A
+large folio Evangelistarium bound in red velvet, about eighteen inches
+high and three thick, written in magnificent uncial letters half an inch
+long, or even more. Three of the illuminations were the whole size of
+the page, and might almost be termed pictures from their large
+proportions: and there were several other illuminations of smaller size
+in different parts of the book. This superb manuscript was in admirable
+preservation, and as clean as if it had been new. It had evidently been
+kept with great care, and appeared to have had some clasps or ornaments
+of gold or silver which had been torn off. It was probably owing to the
+original splendour of this binding that the volume itself had been so
+carefully preserved. I imagine it was written in the ninth century.
+
+Another book, of a much greater age, was a copy of the four Gospels,
+with four finely-executed miniatures of the evangelists. It was about
+nine or ten inches square, written in round semiuncial letters in double
+columns, with not more than two or three words in a line. In some
+respects it resembled the book of the Epistles in the Bodleian Library
+at Oxford. This manuscript, in the original black leather binding, had
+every appearance of the highest antiquity. It was beautifully written
+and very clean, and was altogether such a volume as is not to be met
+with every day.
+
+A quarto manuscript of the four Gospels, of the eleventh or twelfth
+century, with a great many (perhaps fifty) illuminations. Some of them
+were unfortunately rather damaged.
+
+Two manuscripts of the New Testament, with the Apocalypse.
+
+A very fine manuscript of the Psalms, of the eleventh century, which is
+indeed about the era of the greater portion of the vellum manuscripts on
+Mount Athos.
+
+There were also some ponderous and magnificent folios of the works of
+the fathers of the Church--some of them, I should think, of the tenth
+century; but it is difficult, in a few hours, to detect the
+peculiarities which prove that manuscripts are of an earlier date than
+the twelfth century. I am, however, convinced that very few of them were
+written after that time.
+
+The paper manuscripts were of all ages, from the thirteenth and
+fifteenth centuries down to a hundred years ago; and some of them, on
+charta bombycina, would have appeared very splendid books if they had
+not been eclipsed by the still finer and more carefully-executed
+manuscripts on vellum.
+
+Neither my arguments nor my eloquence could prevail on the obdurate
+monks to sell me any of these books, but my friend the secretary gave me
+a book in his own handwriting to solace me on my journey. It contained a
+history of the monastery from the days of its foundation to the present
+time. It is written in Romaic, and is curious not so much from its
+subject matter as from the entire originality of its style and manner.
+
+The view from the window of the room which I occupied at Iveron was one
+of the finest on Mount Athos. The glorious sea, and the towers which
+command the scaricatojos or landing-places of the different monasteries
+along the coast, and the superb monastery of Stavroniketa like a Gothic
+castle perched upon a beetling rock, with the splendid forest for a
+background, formed altogether a picture totally above my powers to
+describe. It almost compensated for the numberless tribes of vermin by
+which the room was tenanted. In fact, the whole of the scenery on Mount
+Athos is so superlatively grand and beautiful that it is useless to
+attempt any description.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+
+     The Monastery of Stavroniketa--The Library--Splendid MS. of St.
+     Chrysostom--The Monastery of Pantocratoras--Ruinous Condition of
+     the Library--Complete Destruction of the
+     Books--Disappointment--Oration to the Monks--The Great Monastery of
+     Vatopede--Its History--Ancient Pictures in the Church--Legend of
+     the Girdle of the Blessed Virgin--The Library--Wealth and Luxury of
+     the Monks--The Monastery of Sphigmenou--Beautiful Jewelled
+     Cross--The Monastery of Kiliantari--Magnificent MS. in Gold Letters
+     on White Vellum--The Monasteries of Zographon, Castamoneta,
+     Docheirou, and Xenophou--The Exiled Bishops--The Library--Very fine
+     MSS.--Proposals for their Purchase--Lengthened Negotiations--Their
+     successful Issue.
+
+
+An hour's ride brought us to the monastery of
+
+STAVRONIKETA,
+
+which is a smaller building than Iveron, with a square tower over the
+gateway. It stands on a rock overhanging the sea, against the base of
+which the waves ceaselessly beat. It was to this spot that a miraculous
+picture of St Nicholas, archbishop of Myra in Lycia, floated over, of
+its own accord, from I do not know where; and in consequence of this
+auspicious event, Jeremias, patriarch of Constantinople, founded this
+monastery, of "the victory of the holy cross," about the year 1522. This
+is the account given by the monks; but from the appearance and
+architecture of Stavroniketa, I conceive that it is a much older
+building, and that probably the patriarch Jeremias only repaired or
+restored it. However that may be, the monastery is in very good order,
+clean, and well kept; and I had a comfortable frugal dinner there with
+some of the good old monks, who seemed a cheerful and contented set.
+
+The library contained about eight hundred volumes, of which nearly two
+hundred were manuscripts on vellum. Amongst these were conspicuous the
+entire works of St. Chrysostom, in eight large folio volumes complete;
+and a manuscript of the Scala Perfectionis in Greek, containing a number
+of most exquisite miniatures in a brilliant state of preservation. It
+was a quarto of the tenth or eleventh century, and a most
+unexceptionable tome, which these unkind monks preferred keeping to
+themselves instead of letting me have it, as they ought to have done.
+The miniatures were first-rate works of Byzantine art. It was a terrible
+pang to me to leave such a book behind. There were also a Psalter with
+several miniatures, but these were partially damaged; five or six copies
+of the Gospels; two fine folio volumes of the Menologia, or Lives of the
+Saints; and sundry [Greek: omoilogoi] and books of divinity,
+and the works of the fathers. On paper there were two hundred more
+manuscripts, amongst which was a curious one of the Acts and Epistles,
+full of large miniatures and illuminations exceedingly well done. As it
+is quite clear that all these manuscripts are older than the time of the
+patriarch Jeremias, they confirm my opinion that he could not have been
+the original founder of the monastery.
+
+It is an hour's scramble over the rocks from Stavroniketa to the
+monastery of
+
+PANTOCRATORAS.
+
+This edifice was built by Manuel and Alexius Comnenus, and Johannes
+Pumicerius, their brother. It was subsequently repaired by Barbulus and
+Gabriel, two Wallachian nobles. The church is handsome and curious, and
+contains several relics, but the reliquaries are not of much beauty, nor
+of very great antiquity. Among them, however, is a small thick quarto
+volume about five inches square every way, in the handwriting, as you
+are told, of St. John of Kalavita. Now St. John of Kalavita was a hermit
+who died in the year 450, and his head is shown at Besan�on, in the
+church of St. Stephen, to which place it was taken after the siege of
+Constantinople. Howbeit this manuscript did not seem to me to be older
+than the twelfth century, or the eleventh at the earliest It is written
+in a very minute hand, and contains the Gospels, some prayers, and lives
+of saints, and is ornamented with some small illuminations. The binding
+is very curious: it is entirely of silver gilt, and is of great
+antiquity. The back part is composed of an intricate kind of chainwork,
+which bends when the book is opened, and the sides are embossed with a
+variety of devices.
+
+On my inquiring for the library, I was told it had been destroyed during
+the revolution. It had formerly been preserved in the great square tower
+or keep, which is a grand feature in all the monasteries. I went to look
+at the place, and leaning through a ruined arch, I looked down into the
+lower story of the tower, and there I saw the melancholy remains of a
+once famous library. This was a dismal spectacle for a devout lover of
+old books--a sort of biblical knight errant, as I then considered
+myself, who had entered on the perilous adventure of Mount Athos to
+rescue from the thraldom of ignorant monks those fair vellum volumes,
+with their bright illuminations and velvet dresses and jewelled clasps,
+which for so many centuries had lain imprisoned in their dark monastic
+dungeons. It was indeed a heart-rending sight. By the dim light which
+streamed through the opening of an iron door in the wall of the ruined
+tower, I saw above a hundred ancient manuscripts lying among the rubbish
+which had fallen from the upper floor, which was ruinous, and had in
+great part given way. Some of these manuscripts seemed quite
+entire--fine large folios; but the monks said they were unapproachable,
+for that floor also on which they lay was unsafe, the beams below being
+rotten from the wet and rain which came in through the roof. Here was a
+trap ready set and baited for a bibliographical antiquary. I peeped at
+the old manuscripts, looked particularly at one or two that were lying
+in the middle of the floor, and could hardly resist the temptation. I
+advanced cautiously along the boards, keeping close to the wall, whilst
+every now and then a dull cracking noise warned me of my danger, but I
+tried each board by stamping upon it with my foot before I ventured my
+weight upon it. At last, when I dared go no farther, I made them bring
+me a long stick, with which I fished up two or three fine manuscripts,
+and poked them along towards the door. When I had safely landed them, I
+examined them more at my ease, but found that the rain had washed the
+outer leaves quite clean: the pages were stuck tight together into a
+solid mass, and when I attempted to open them, they broke short off in
+square bits like a biscuit. Neglect and damp and exposure had destroyed
+them completely. One fine volume, a large folio in double columns, of
+most venerable antiquity, particularly grieved me. I do not know how
+many more manuscripts there might be under the piles of rubbish. Perhaps
+some of them might still be legible, but without assistance and time I
+could not clean out the ruins that had fallen from above; and I was
+unable to save even a scrap from this general tomb of a whole race of
+books. I came out of the great tower, and sitting down on a pile of
+ruins, with a bearded assembly of grave caloyeri round me, I vented my
+sorrow and indignation in a long oration, which however produced a very
+slight effect upon my auditory; but whether from their not understanding
+Italian, or my want of eloquence, is matter of doubt. My man was the
+only person who seemed to commiserate my misfortune, and he looked so
+genuinely vexed and sorry that I liked him the better ever afterwards.
+At length I dismissed the assembly: they toddled away to their siesta,
+and I, mounted anew upon a stout well-fed mule, bade adieu to the
+hospitable agoumenos, and was soon occupied in picking my way among the
+rocks and trees towards the next monastery. In two hours' time we passed
+the ruins of a large building standing boldly on a hill. It had formerly
+been a college; and a magnificent aqueduct of fourteen double
+arches--that is, two rows of arches one above the other--connected it
+with another hill, and had a grand effect, with long and luxuriant
+masses of flowers streaming from its neglected walls. In half an hour
+more I arrived at
+
+VATOPEDE.
+
+This is the largest and richest of all the monasteries of Mount Athos.
+It is situated on the side of a hill where a valley opens to the sea,
+and commands a little harbour where three small Greek vessels were lying
+at anchor. The buildings are of great extent, with several towers and
+domes rising above the walls: I should say it was not smaller than the
+upper ward of Windsor Castle. The original building was erected by the
+Emperor Constantine the Great. That worthy prince being, it appears,
+much afflicted by the leprosy, ordered a number of little children to be
+killed, a bath of juvenile blood being considered an excellent remedy.
+But while they were selecting them, he was told in a vision that if he
+would become a Christian his leprosy should depart from him: he did so,
+and was immediately restored to health, and all the children lived long
+and happily. This story is related by Moses Chorensis, whose veracity I
+will not venture to doubt.
+
+In the fifth century this monastery was thrown down by Julian the
+Apostate. Theodosius the Great built it up again in gratitude for the
+miraculous escape of his son Arcadius, who having fallen overboard from
+his galley in the Archipelago, was landed safely on this spot through
+the intercession of the Virgin, to whose special honour the great church
+was founded: fourteen other chapels within the walls attest the piety of
+other individuals. In the year 862 the Saracens landed, destroyed the
+monastery by fire, slew many of the monks, took the treasures and broke
+the mosaics; but the representation of the Blessed Virgin was
+indestructible, and still remained safe and perfect above the altar.
+There was also a well under the altar, into which some of the relics
+were thrown and afterwards recovered by the community.
+
+About the year 1300 St. Athanasius the Patriarch persuaded Nicholaus and
+Antonius, certain rich men of Adrianople, to restore the monastery once
+more, which they did, and taking the vows became monks, and were buried
+in the narthex or portico of the church. I may here observe that this
+was the nearest approach to being buried within the church that was
+permitted in the early times of Christianity, and such is still the rule
+observed in the Greek Church: altars were, however, raised over the
+tombs or places of execution of martyrs.
+
+This church contains a great many ancient pictures of small size, most
+of them having the background overlaid with plates of silver-gilt: two
+of these are said to be portraits of the Empress Theodora. Two other
+pictures of larger size and richly set with jewels are interesting as
+having been brought from the church of St. Sophia at Constantinople,
+when that city fell a prey to the Turkish arms. Over the doors of the
+church and of the great refectory there are mosaics representing, if I
+remember rightly, saints and holy persons. One of the chapels, a
+separate building with a dome which had been newly repaired, is
+dedicated to the "Preservation of the Girdle of the Blessed Virgin," a
+relic which must be a source of considerable revenue to the monastery,
+for they have divided it into two parts, and one half is sent into
+Greece and the other half into Asia Minor whenever the plague is raging
+in those countries, and all those who are afflicted with that terrible
+disease are sure to be cured if they touch it, which they are allowed to
+do "_for a consideration_." On my inquiring how the monastery became
+possessed of so inestimable a medicine, I was gravely informed that,
+after the assumption of the Blessed Virgin, St. Thomas went up to heaven
+to pay her a visit, and there she presented him with her girdle. My
+informant appeared to have the most unshakeable conviction as to the
+truth of this history, and expressed great surprise that I had never
+heard it before.
+
+The library, although containing nearly four thousand printed books, has
+none of any high antiquity or on any subject but divinity. There are
+also about a thousand manuscripts, of which three or four hundred are on
+vellum; amongst these there are three copies of the works of St
+Chrysostom: they also have his head in the church--that golden mouth out
+of which proceeded the voice which shook the empire with the thunder of
+its denunciations. The most curious manuscripts are six rolls of
+parchment, each ten inches wide and about ten feet long, containing
+prayers for festivals on the anniversaries of the foundation of certain
+churches. There were at this time above three hundred monks resident in
+the monastery; many of these held offices and places of dignity under
+the agoumenos, whose establishment resembled the court of a petty
+sovereign prince. Altogether this convent well illustrates what some of
+the great monastic establishments in England must have been before the
+Reformation. It covers at least four acres of ground, and contains so
+many separate buildings within its massive walls that it resembles a
+fortified town. Everything told of wealth and indolence. When I arrived
+the lord abbot was asleep; he was too great a man to be aroused; he had
+eaten a full meal in his own apartment, and he could not be disturbed.
+His secretary, a thin pale monk, was deputed to show me the wonders of
+the place, and as we proceeded through the different chapels and
+enormous magazines of corn, wine, and oil, the officers of the different
+departments bent down to kiss his hand, for he was high in the favour of
+my lord the abbot, and was evidently a man not to be slighted by the
+inferior authorities if they wished to get on and prosper. The cellarer
+was a sly old fellow with a thin grey beard, and looked as if he could
+tell a good story of an evening over a flagon of good wine. Except at
+some of the palaces in Germany I have never seen such gigantic tuns as
+those in the cellars at Vatopede. The oil is kept in marble vessels of
+the size and shape of sarcophagi, and there is a curious picture in the
+entrance room of the oil-store, which represents the miraculous increase
+in their stock of oil during a year of scarcity, when, through the
+intercession of a pious monk who then had charge of that department, the
+marble basins, which were almost empty, overflowed, and a river of fine
+fresh oil poured in torrents through the door. The frame of this picture
+is set with jewels, and it appears to be very ancient. The refectory is
+an immense room; it stands in front of the church and has twenty-four
+marble tables and seats, and is in the same cruciform shape as that at
+St. Laura. It has frequently accommodated five hundred guests, the
+servants and tenants of the abbey, who come on stated days to pay their
+rents and receive the benediction of the agoumenos. Sixty or seventy fat
+mules are kept for the use of the community, and a very considerable
+number of Albanian servants and muleteers are lodged in outbuildings
+before the great gate. These, unlike their brethren of Epirus, are a
+quiet, stupid race, and whatever may be their notions of another world,
+they evidently think that in this there is no man living equal in
+importance to the great agoumenos of Vatopede, and no earthly place to
+compare with the great monastery over which he rules.
+
+From Vatopede it requires two hours and a half to ride to the monastery
+of
+
+SPHIGMENOU,
+
+which is a much smaller establishment. It is said to have been founded
+by the Empress Pulcheria, sister of the Emperor Theodosius the younger,
+and if so must be a very ancient building, for the empress died on the
+18th of February in the year 453. Her brother Theodosius was known by
+the title or cognomen of [Greek: kalligraphos], from the beauty of his
+writing: he was a protector of the Nestorian and Eutychian heretics, and
+ended his life on the 20th of October, 460.
+
+This monastery is situated in a narrow valley close to the sea, squeezed
+in between three little hills, from which circumstance it derives its
+name of [Greek: sphygmenos], "squeezed together." It is inhabited by
+thirty monks, who are cleaner and keep their church in better order and
+neatness than most of their brethren on Mount Athos. Among the relics of
+the saints, which are the first things they show to the pilgrim from
+beyond the sea, is a beautiful ancient cross of gold set with diamonds.
+Diamonds are of very rare occurrence in ancient pieces of jewellery; it
+is indeed doubtful whether they were known to the ancients, adamantine
+being an epithet applied to the hardness of steel, and I have never seen
+a diamond in any work of art of the Roman or classical era. Besides the
+diamonds the cross has on the upper end and on the extremities of the
+two arms three very fine and large emeralds, each fastened on with three
+gold nails: it is a fine specimen of early jewellery, and of no small
+intrinsic value.
+
+The library is in a room over the porch of the church: it contains about
+1500 volumes, half of which are manuscripts, mostly on paper, and all
+theological. I met with four copies of the Gospels and two of the
+Epistles, all the others being books of the church service and the usual
+folios of the fathers. There was, however, a Russian or Bulgarian
+manuscript of the four Gospels with an illumination at the commencement
+of each Gospel. It is written in capital letters, and seemed to be of
+considerable antiquity. I was disappointed at not finding manuscripts of
+greater age in so very ancient a monastery as this is; but perhaps it
+has undergone more squeezing than that inflicted upon it by the three
+hills. I slept here in peace and comfort.
+
+On the sea-shore not far from Sphigmenou are the ruins of the monastery
+of St. Basil, opposite a small rocky island in the sea, which I left at
+this point, and striking up the country arrived in an hour's time at the
+monastery of
+
+KILIANTARI,
+
+or a thousand lions. This is a large building, of which the ground plan
+resembles the shape of an open fan. It stands in a valley, and
+contained, when I entered its hospitable gates, about fifty monks. They
+preserve in the sacristy a superb chalice, of a kind of bloodstone set
+in gold, about a foot high and eight inches wide, the gift of one of the
+Byzantine emperors. This monastery was founded by Simeon, Prince of
+Servia, I could not make out at what time. In the library they had no
+great number of books, and what there were were all Russian or
+Bulgarian: I saw none which seemed to be of great antiquity. On
+inquiring, however, whether they had not some Greek manuscripts, the
+Agoumenos said they had one, which he went and brought me out of the
+sacristy; and this, to my admiration and surprise, was not only the
+finest manuscript on Mount Athos, but the finest that I had met with in
+any Greek monastery with the single exception of the golden manuscript
+of the New Testament at Mount Sinai. It was a 4to. Evangelistarium,
+written in golden letters on fine _white_ vellum. The characters were a
+kind of semi-uncial, rather round in their forms, of large size, and
+beautifully executed, but often joined together and having many
+contractions and abbreviations, in these respects resembling the Mount
+Sinai MS. This magnificent volume was given to the monastery by the
+Emperor Andronicus Comnenus about the year 1184; it is consequently not
+an early MS., but its imperial origin renders it interesting to the
+admirers of literary treasures, while the very rare occurrence of a
+_Greek_ MS. written in letters of gold would make it a most desirable
+and important acquisition to any royal library; for besides the two
+above-mentioned there are not, I believe, more than seven or eight MSS.
+of this description in existence, and of these several are merely
+fragments, and only one is on white vellum: this is in the library of
+the Holy Synod at Moscow. Five of the others are on blue or purple
+vellum, viz., Codex Cottonianus, in the British Museum, Titus C. 15, a
+fragment of the Gospels; an octavo Evangelistarium at Vienna; a fragment
+of the books of Genesis and St. Luke in silver letters at Vienna; the
+Codex Turicensis of part of the Psalms; and six leaves of the Gospels of
+St. Matthew in silver letters with the initials in gold in the Vatican.
+There may possibly be others, but I have never heard of them. Latin MSS.
+in golden letters are much less scarce, but Greek MSS., even those which
+merely contain two or three pages written in gold letters, are of such
+rarity that hardly a dozen are to be met with; of these there are three
+in the library at Parham. I think the Codex Ebnerianus has one or two
+pages written in gold, and the tables of a gospel at Jerusalem are in
+gold on deep purple vellum. At this moment I do not remember any more,
+although doubtless there must be a few of these partially ornamented
+volumes scattered through the great libraries of Europe.
+
+From Kiliantari, which is the last monastery on the N.E. side of the
+promontory, we struck across the peninsula, and two hours' riding
+brought us to
+
+ZOGRAPHOU,
+
+through plains of rich green grass dotted over with gigantic single
+trees, the scenery being like that of an English park, only finer and
+more luxuriant as well as more extensive. This monastery was founded in
+the reign of Leo Sophos, by three nobles of Constantinople who became
+monks; and the local tradition is that it was destroyed by the "_Pope of
+Rome_." How that happened I know not, but it was rebuilt in the year
+1502 by Stephanus, Waywode of Moldavia. It is a large fortified building
+of very imposing appearance, situated on a steep hill surrounded with
+trees and gardens overlooking a deep valley which opens on the gulf of
+Monte Santo. The MSS. here are Bulgarian, and not of early date; they
+had no Greek MSS. whatever.
+
+From Zographou, following the valley, we arrived at a lower plain on the
+sea coast, and there we discovered that we had lost our way; we
+therefore retraced our steps, and turning up among the hills to our left
+we came in three hours to
+
+CASTAMONETA,
+
+which, had we taken the right road, we might have reached in one. This
+is a very poor monastery, but it is of great age and its architecture is
+picturesque: it was originally founded by Constantine the Great. It has
+no library nor anything particularly well worth mentioning, excepting
+the original deed of the Emperor Manuel Paleologus, with the sign manual
+of that potentate written in very large letters in red ink at the
+bottom of the deed, by which he granted to the monastery the lands which
+it still retains. The poor monks were much edified by the sight of the
+patriarchal letter, and when I went away rang the bells of the church
+tower to do me honour.
+
+At the distance of one hour from hence stands the monastery of
+
+DOCHEIROU.
+
+It is the first to the west of those upon the south-west shore of the
+peninsula. It is a monastery of great size, with ample room for a
+hundred monks, although inhabited by only twenty. It was built in the
+reign of Nicephorus Botoniates, and was last repaired in the year 1578
+by Alexander, Waywode of Moldavia. I was very well lodged in this
+convent, and the fleas were singularly few. The library contained two
+thousand five hundred volumes, of which one hundred and fifty were
+vellum MSS. I omitted to note the number of MSS. on paper, but amongst
+them I found a part of Sophocles and a fine folio of Suidas's Lexicon.
+Among the vellum MSS. there was a folio in the Bulgarian language, and
+various works of the fathers. I found also three loose leaves of an
+Evangelistarium in uncial letters of the ninth century, which had been
+cut out of some ancient volume, for which I hunted in the dust in vain.
+The monks gave me these three leaves on my asking for them, for even a
+few pages of such a manuscript as this are not to be despised.
+
+From Docheirou it is only a distance of half an hour to
+
+XENOPHOU,
+
+which stands upon the sea shore. Here they were building a church in the
+centre of the great court, which, when it is finished, will be the
+largest on Mount Athos. Three Greek bishops were living here in exile. I
+did not learn what the holy prelates had done, but their misdeeds had
+been found out by the Patriarch, and he had sent them here to rusticate.
+This monastery is of a moderate size; its founder was St. Xenophou,
+regarding whose history or the period at which he lived I am unable to
+give any information, as nobody knew anything about him on the spot, and
+I cannot find him in any catalogue of saints which I possess. The
+monastery was repaired in the year 1545 by Danzulas Bornicus and
+Badulus, who were brothers, and Banus (the Ban) Barbulus, all three
+nobles of Hungary, and was afterwards beautified by Matth�us, Waywode of
+Bessarabia.
+
+The library consists of fifteen hundred printed books, nineteen MSS. on
+paper, eleven on vellum, and three rolls on parchment, containing
+liturgies for particular days. Of the MSS. on vellum there were three
+which merit a description. One was a fine 4to. of part of the works of
+St. Chrysostom, of great antiquity, but not in uncial letters. Another
+was a 4to. of the four Gospels bound in faded red velvet with silver
+clasps. This book they affirmed to be a royal present to the monastery;
+it was of the eleventh or twelfth century, and was peculiar from the
+text being accompanied by a voluminous commentary on the margin and
+several pages of calendars, prefaces, &c., at the beginning. The
+headings of the Gospels were written in large plain letters of gold. In
+the libraries of forty Greek monasteries I have only met with one other
+copy of the Gospels with a commentary. The third manuscript was an
+immense quarto Evangelistarium sixteen inches square, bound in faded
+green or blue velvet, and said to be in the autograph of the Emperor
+Alexius Comnenus. The text throughout on each page was written in the
+form of a cross. Two of the pages are in purple ink powdered with gold,
+and these, there is every reason to suppose, are in the handwriting of
+the imperial scribe himself; for the Byzantine sovereigns affected to
+write only in purple, as their deeds and a magnificent MS. in another
+monastic library, of which I have not given an account in these pages,
+can testify: the titles of this superb volume are written in gold,
+covering the whole page. Altogether, although not in uncial letters, it
+was among the finest Greek MSS. that I had ever seen--perhaps, next to
+the uncial MSS., the finest to be met with anywhere.
+
+I asked the monks whether they were inclined to part with these three
+books, and offered to purchase them and the parchment rolls. There was a
+little consultation among them, and then they desired to be shown those
+which I particularly coveted. Then there was another consultation, and
+they asked me which I set the greatest value on. So I said the rolls, on
+which the three rolls were unrolled, and looked at, and examined, and
+peeped at by the three monks who put themselves forward in the business,
+with more pains and curiosity than had probably been ever wasted upon
+them before. At last they said it was impossible, the rolls were too
+precious to be parted with, but if I liked to give a good price I should
+have the rest; upon which I took up the St. Chrysostom, the least
+valuable of the three, and while I examined it, saw from the corner of
+my eye the three monks nudging each other and making signs. So I said,
+"Well, now what will you take for your two books, this and the big one?"
+They asked five thousand piastres; whereupon, with a look of indignant
+scorn, I laid down the St. Chrysostom and got up to go away; but after a
+good deal more talk we retired to the divan, or drawing-room as it may
+be called, of the monastery, where I conversed with the three exiled
+bishops. In course of time I was called out into another room to have a
+cup of coffee. There were my friends the three monks, the managing
+committee, and under the divan, imperfectly concealed, were the corners
+of the three splendid MSS. I knew that now all depended on my own tact
+whether my still famished saddle-bags were to have a meal or not that
+day, the danger lying between offering too much or too little. If you
+offer too much, a Greek, a Jew, or an Armenian immediately thinks that
+the desired object must be invaluable, that it must have some magical
+properties, like the lamp of Aladdin, which will bring wealth upon its
+possessor if he can but find out its secret; and he will either ask you
+a sum absurdly large, or will refuse to sell it at any price, but will
+lock it up and become nervous about it, and examine it over and over
+again privately to see what can be the cause of a Frank's offering so
+much for a thing apparently so utterly useless. On the other hand, too
+little must not be offered, for it would be an indignity to suppose that
+persons of consideration would condescend to sell things of trifling
+value--it wounds their aristocratic feelings, they are above such
+meannesses. By St. Xenophou, how we did talk! for five mortal hours it
+went on, I pretending to go away several times, but being always called
+back by one or other of the learned committee. I drank coffee and
+sherbet and they drank arraghi; but in the end I got the great book of
+Alexius Comnenus for the value of twenty-two pounds, and the curious
+Gospels, which I had treated with the most cool disdain all along, was
+finally thrown into the bargain; and out I walked with a big book under
+each arm, bearing with perfect resignation the smiles and scoffs of the
+three brethren, who could scarcely contain their laughter at the way
+they had done the silly traveller. Then did the saddlebags begin to
+assume a more comely and satisfactory form.
+
+After a stirrup cup of hot coffee, perfumed with the incense of the
+church, the monks bid me a joyous adieu; I responded as joyously: in
+short every one was charmed, except the mule, who evidently was more
+surprised than pleased at the increased weight which he had to carry.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+
+     The Monastery of Russico--Its Courteous Abbot--The Monastery of
+     Xeropotamo--Its History--High Character of its Abbot--Excursion to
+     the Monasteries of St. Nicholas and St. Dionisius--Interesting
+     Relics--Magnificent Shrine--The Library--The Monastery of St.
+     Paul--Respect shown by the Monks--Beautiful MS.--Extraordinary
+     Liberality and Kindness of the Abbot and Monks--A valuable
+     Acquisition at little Cost--The Monastery of Simopetra--Purchase of
+     MS.--The Monk of Xeropotamo--His Ideas about Women--Excursion to
+     Cariez--The Monastery of Coutloumoussi--The Russian
+     Book-Stealer--History of the Monastery--Its reputed Destruction by
+     the Pope of Rome--The Aga of Cariez--Interview in a Kiosk--The She
+     Cat of Mount Athos.
+
+
+From Xenophou I went on to
+
+RUSSICO,
+
+where also they were repairing the injuries which different parts of the
+edifice had sustained during the late Greek war. The agoumenos of this
+monastery was a remarkably gentlemanlike and accomplished man; he spoke
+several languages and ruled over a hundred and thirty monks. They had,
+however, amongst them all only nine MSS., and those were of no interest.
+The agoumenos told me that the monastery formerly possessed a MS. of
+Homer on vellum, which he sold to two English gentlemen some years ago,
+who were immediately afterwards plundered by pirates, and the MS. thrown
+into the sea. As I never heard of any Englishman having been at Mount
+Athos since the days of Dr. Clarke and Dr. Carlysle, I could not make
+out who these gentlemen were: probably they were Frenchmen, or Europeans
+of some other nation. However, the idea of the pirates gave me a horrid
+qualm; and I thought how dreadful it would be if they threw my Alexius
+Comnenus into the sea; it made me feel quite uncomfortable. This
+monastery was built by the Empress Catherine the First, of Russia--or,
+to speak more correctly, repaired by her--for it was originally founded
+by Saint Lazarus Knezes, of Servia, and the church dedicated to St.
+Panteleemon the Martyr. A ride of an hour brought me to
+
+
+XEROPOTAMO,
+
+where I was received with so much hospitality and kindness that I
+determined to make it my headquarters while I visited the other
+monasteries, which from this place could readily be approached by sea. I
+was fortunate in procuring a boat with two men--a sort of naval lay
+brethren,--who agreed to row me about wherever I liked, and bring me
+back to Xeropotamo for fifty piastres, and this they would do whenever I
+chose, as they were not very particular about time, an article upon
+which they evidently set small value.
+
+This monastery was founded by the Emperor Romanus about the year 920; it
+was rebuilt by Andronicus the Second in 1320; in the sixteenth century
+it was thrown down by an earthquake, and was again repaired by the
+Sultan Selim the First, or at least during his reign--that is, about
+1515. It was in a ruinous condition in the year 1701; it was again
+repaired, and in the Greek revolution it was again dismantled; at the
+time of my visit they were actively employed in restoring it. Alexander,
+Waywode of Wallachia, was a great benefactor to this and other
+monasteries of Athos, which owe much to the piety of the different
+Christian princes of the Danubian states of the Turkish empire.
+
+The library over the porch of the church, which is large and handsome,
+contains one thousand printed books and between thirty and forty
+manuscripts in bad condition. I saw none of consequence: that is to say,
+nothing except the usual volumes of divinity of the twelfth century. In
+the church is preserved a large piece of the holy cross richly set with
+valuable jewels. The agoumenos of Xeropotamo, a man with a dark-grey
+beard, about sixty years of age, struck me as a fine specimen of what an
+abbot of an ascetic monastery ought to be; simple and kind, yet clever
+enough, and learned in the divinity of his church, he set an example to
+the monks under his rule of devotion and rectitude of conduct; he was
+not slothful, or haughty, or grasping, and seemed to have a truly
+religious and cheerful mind. He was looked up to and beloved by the
+whole community; and with his dignified manner and appearance, his long
+grey hair, and dark flowing robes, he gave me the idea of what the
+saints and holy men of old must have been in the early days of
+Christianity, when they walked entirely in the faith, and--if required
+to do so--willingly gave themselves up as martyrs to the cause: when in
+all their actions they were influenced solely by the dictates of their
+religion. Would that such times would come again! But where every one
+sets up a new religion for himself, and when people laugh at and
+ridicule those things which their ignorance prevents them from
+appreciating, how can we hope for this?
+
+Early in the morning I started from my comfortable couch, and ran
+scrambling down the hill, over the rolling-stones in the dry bed of the
+torrent on which the monastery of the "dry river" ([Greek:
+x�ropotamou]--courou chesm� in Turkish) is built. We got into the boat:
+our carpets, some oranges, and various little stores for a day's
+journey, which the good monks had supplied us with, being brought down
+by sundry good-natured lubberly [Greek: katakymenoi]--religions
+youths--who were delighted at having something to do, and were as
+pleased as children at having a good heavy praying-carpet to carry, or a
+basket of oranges, or a cushion from the monastery. They all waited on
+the shore to see us off, and away we went along the coast. As the sun
+got up it became oppressively hot, and the first monastery we came
+abreast of was that of Simopetra, which is perched on the top of a
+perpendicular rock, five or six hundred feet high at least, if not twice
+as much. This rather daunted me: and as we thought perhaps to-morrow
+would not be so hot, I put off climbing up the precipice for the
+present, and rowed gently on in the calm sea till we came before the
+monastery of
+
+
+ST. NICHOLAS,
+
+the smallest of all the convents of Mount Athos. It was a most
+picturesque building, stuck up on a rock, and is famous for its figs, in
+the eating of which, in the absence of more interesting matter, we all
+employed ourselves a considerable time; they were marvellously cool and
+delicious, and there were such quantities of them. We and the boatmen
+sat in the shade, and enjoyed ourselves till we were ashamed of staying
+any longer. I forgot to ask who the founder was. There was no library;
+in fact, there was nothing but figs; so we got into the boat again, and
+sweltered on a quarter of an hour more, and then we came to
+
+
+ST. DIONISIUS.
+
+This monastery is also built upon a rock immediately above the sea; it
+is of moderate size, but is in good repair. There was a look of comfort
+about it that savoured of easy circumstances, but the number of monks
+in it was small. Altogether this monastery, as regards the antiquities
+it contained, was the most interesting of all. The church, a good-sized
+building, is in a very perfect state of preservation. Hanging on the
+wall near the door of entrance was a portrait painted on wood, about
+three feet square, in a frame of silver-gilt, set with jewels; it
+represented Alexius Comnenus, Emperor of Trebizonde, the founder of the
+monastery. He it was, I believe, who built that most beautiful church a
+little way out of the town of Trebizonde, which is called St. Sofia,
+probably from its resemblance to the cathedral of Constantinople. He is
+drawn in his imperial robes, and the portrait is one of the most curious
+I ever saw. He founded this church in the year 1380; and Neagulus and
+Peter, Waywodes of Bessarabia, restored and repaired the monastery.
+There was another curious portrait of a lady; I did not learn who it
+was: very probably the Empress Pulcheria, or else Roxandra Domna
+(Domina?), wife of Alexander, Waywode of Wallachia; for both these
+ladies were benefactors to the convent.
+
+I was taken, as a pilgrim, to the church, and we stood in the middle of
+the floor before the [Greek: ikonostasis], whilst the monks brought out
+an old-fashioned low wooden table, upon which they placed the relics of
+the saints which they presumed we came to adore. Of these some were
+very interesting specimens of intricate workmanship and superb and
+precious materials. One was a patera, of a kind of china or paste, made,
+as I imagine, of a multitude of turquoises ground down together, for it
+was too large to be of one single turquoise; there is one of the same
+kind, but of far inferior workmanship, in the treasury of St. Marc. This
+marvellous dish is carved in very high relief with minute figures or
+little statues of the saints, with inscriptions in very early Greek. It
+is set in pure gold, richly worked, and was a gift from the Empress or
+imperial Princess Pulcheria. Then there was an invaluable shrine for the
+head of St. John the Baptist, whose bones and another of his heads are
+in the cathedral at Genoa. St. John Lateran also boasts a head of St
+John, but that may have belonged to St. John the Evangelist. This shrine
+was the gift of Neagulus, Waywode or Hospodar of Wallachia: it is about
+two feet long and two feet high, and is in the shape of a Byzantine
+church; the material is silver-gilt, but the admirable and singular
+style of the workmanship gives it a value far surpassing its intrinsic
+worth. The roof is covered with five domes of gold; on each side it has
+sixteen recesses, in which are portraits of the saints in niello, and at
+each end there are eight others. All the windows are enriched in
+open-work tracery, of a strange sort of Gothic pattern, unlike anything
+in Europe. It is altogether a wonderful and precious monument of
+ancient art, the production of an almost unknown country, rich, quaint,
+and original in its design and execution, and is indeed one of the most
+curious objects on Mount Athos; although the patera of the Princess
+Pulcheria might probably be considered of greater value. There were many
+other shrines and reliquaries, but none of any particular interest.
+
+I next proceeded to the library, which contained not much less than a
+thousand manuscripts, half on paper and half on vellum. Of those on
+vellum the most valuable were a quarto Evangelistarium, in uncial
+letters, and in beautiful preservation; another Evangelistarium, of
+which three fly-leaves were in early uncial Greek; a small quarto of the
+Dialogues of St. Gregory, [Greek: dialogoi Gregoriou tou theologou ],
+not in uncial letters, with twelve fine miniatures; a small quarto New
+Testament, containing the Apocalypse; and some magnificent folios of the
+Fathers of the eleventh century; but not one classic author. Among the
+manuscripts on paper were a folio of the Iliad of Homer, badly written,
+two copies of the works of Dionysius the Areopagite, and a multitude of
+books for the church-service. Alas! they would part with nothing. The
+library was altogether a magnificent collection, and for the most part
+well preserved: they had no great number of printed books. I should
+imagine that this monastery must, from some fortunate accident, have
+suffered less from spoliation during the late revolution than any of
+the others; for considering that it is not a very large establishment,
+the number of valuable things it contained was quite astonishing.
+
+A quarter of an hour's row brought us to the scaricatojo of
+
+
+ST. PAUL,
+
+from whence we had to walk a mile and a half up a steep hill to the
+monastery, where building repairs were going on with great activity. I
+was received with cheerful hospitality, and soon made the acquaintance
+of four monks, who amongst them spoke English, French, Italian, and
+German. Having been installed in a separate bed-room, cleanly furnished
+in the Turkish style, where I subsequently enjoyed a delightful night's
+rest, undisturbed by a single flea, I was conducted into a large airy
+hall. Here, after a very comfortable dinner, the smaller fry of monks
+assembled to hear the illustrious stranger hold forth in turn to the
+four wise fathers who spoke unknown tongues. The simple, kind-hearted
+brethren looked with awe and wonder on the quadruple powers of those
+lips that uttered such strange sounds: just as the Peruvians made their
+reverence to the Spanish horses, whose speech they understood not, and
+whose manners were beyond their comprehension. It was fortunate for my
+reputation that the reverend German scholar was of a close and taciturn
+disposition, since my knowledge of his scraughing language did not
+extend very far, and when we got to scientific discussion I was very
+nearly at a stand still; but I am inclined to think that he upheld my
+dignity to save his own; and as my servant, who never minced matters,
+had doubtless told them that I could speak ninety other languages, and
+was besides nephew to most of the crowned heads of Europe, if a phoenix
+had come in he would have had a lower place assigned him. I found also
+that in this--as indeed in all the other monasteries--one who had
+performed the pilgrimage to the Holy Land was looked upon with a certain
+degree of respect. In short, I found that at last I was amongst a set of
+people who had the sense to appreciate my merits; so I held up my head,
+and assumed all the dignified humility of real greatness.
+
+This monastery was founded for Bulgarian and Servian monks by
+Constantine Biancobano, Hospodar of Wallachia. There was little that was
+interesting in it, either in architecture or any other walk of art; the
+library was contained in a small light closet, the books were clean, and
+ranged in order on the new deal shelves. There was only one Greek
+manuscript, a duodecimo copy of the Gospels of the twelfth or thirteenth
+century. The Servian and Bulgarian manuscripts amounted to about two
+hundred and fifty: of these three were remarkable; the first was a
+manuscript of the four Gospels, a thick quarto, and the uncial letters
+in which it was written were three fourths of an inch in height: it was
+imperfect at the end. The second was also a copy of the Gospels, a
+folio, in uncial letters, with fine illuminations at the beginning of
+each Gospel, and a large and curious portrait of a patriarch at the end;
+all the stops in this volume were dots of gold; several words also were
+written in gold. It was a noble manuscript. The third was likewise a
+folio of the Gospels in the ancient Bulgarian language, and, like the
+other two, in uncial letters. This manuscript was quite full of
+illuminations from beginning to end. I had seen no book like it anywhere
+in the Levant. I almost tumbled off the steps on which I was perched on
+the discovery of so extraordinary a volume. I saw that these books were
+taken care of, so I did not much like to ask whether they would part
+with them; more especially as the community was evidently a prosperous
+one, and had no need to sell any of their goods.
+
+After walking about the monastery with the monks, as I was going away
+the agoumenos said he wished he had anything which he could present to
+me as a memorial of my visit to the convent of St Paul. On this a brisk
+fire of reciprocal compliments ensued, and I observed that I should like
+to take a book. "Oh! by all means!" he said; "we make no use of the old
+books, and should be glad if you would accept one." We returned to the
+library; and the agoumenos took out one at a hazard, as you might take a
+brick or a stone out of a pile, and presented it to me. Quoth I, "If
+you don't care what book it is that you are so good as to give me, let
+me take one which pleases me;" and, so saying, I took down the
+illuminated folio of the Bulgarian Gospels, and I could hardly believe I
+was awake when the agoumenos gave it into my hands. Perhaps the greatest
+piece of impertinence of which I was ever guilty, was when I asked to
+buy another; but that they insisted upon giving me also; so I took the
+other two copies of the Gospels mentioned above, all three as free-will
+gifts. I felt almost ashamed at accepting these two last books; but who
+could resist it, knowing that they were utterly valueless to the monks,
+and were not saleable in the bazaar at Constantinople, Smyrna, Salonica,
+or any neighbouring city? However, before I went away, as a salve to my
+conscience I gave some money to the church. The authorities accompanied
+me beyond the outer gate, and by the kindness of the agoumenos mules
+were provided to take us down to the sea-shore, where we found our
+clerical mariners ready for us. One of the monks, who wished for a
+passage to Xeropotamo, accompanied us; and, turning our boat's head
+again to the north-west, we arrived before long a second time below the
+lofty rock of
+
+
+SIMOPETRA.
+
+This monastery was founded by St. Simon the Anchorite, of whose history
+I was unable to learn anything. The buildings are connected with the
+side of the mountain by a fine aqueduct, which has a grand effect,
+perched as it is at so great a height above the sea, and consisting of
+two rows of eleven arches, one above the other, with one lofty arch
+across a chasm immediately under the walls of the monastery, which, as
+seen from this side, resembles an immense square tower, with several
+rows of wooden balconies or galleries projecting from the walls at a
+prodigious height from the ground. It was no slight effort of gymnastics
+to get up to the door, where I was received with many grotesque bows by
+an ancient porter. I was ushered into the presence of the agoumenos, who
+sat in a hall, surrounded by a reverend conclave of his bearded and
+long-haired monks; and after partaking of sweetmeats and water, and a
+cup of coffee, according to custom, but no pipes--for the divines of
+Mount Athos do not indulge in smoking--they took me to the church and to
+the library.
+
+In the latter I found a hundred and fifty manuscripts, of which fifty
+were on vellum, all works of divinity, and not above ten or twelve of
+them fine books. I asked permission to purchase three, to which they
+acceded. These were the 'Life and Works of St. John Climax, Agoumenos of
+Mount Sinai,' a quarto of the eleventh century; the 'Acts and Epistles,'
+a noble folio written in large letters, in double columns: a very fine
+manuscript, the letters upright and not much joined together: at the end
+is an inscription in red letters, which may contain the date, but it is
+so faint that I could not make it out. The third was a quarto of the
+four Gospels, with a picture of an evangelist at the beginning of each
+Gospel. Whilst I was arranging the payment for these manuscripts, a
+monk, opening the copy of the Gospels, found at the end a horrible
+anathema and malediction written by the donor, a prince or king, he
+said, against any one who should sell or part with this book. This was
+very unlucky, and produced a great effect upon the monks; but as no
+anathema was found in either of the two other volumes, I was allowed to
+take them, and so went on my way rejoicing. They rang the bells at my
+departure, and I heard them at intervals jingling in the air above me as
+I scrambled down the rocky mountain. Except Dionisiou, this was the only
+monastery where the agoumenos kissed the letter of the patriarch and
+laid it upon his forehead: the sign of reverence and obedience which is,
+or ought to be, observed with the firmans of the Sultan and other
+oriental potentates.
+
+[Illustration: From a Sketch by R. Curzon.
+
+VIEW OF THE MONASTERY AND AQUEDUCT OF SIMOPETRA, ON MOUNT ATHOS, TAKEN
+FROM THE SEA SHORE.]
+
+The same evening I got back to my comfortable room at Xeropotamo, and
+did ample justice to a good meagre dinner after the heat and fatigues of
+the day. A monk had arrived from one of the outlying farms who could
+speak a little Italian; he was deputed to do the honours of the
+house, and accordingly dined with me. He was a magnificent-looking man
+of thirty or thirty-five years of age, with large eyes and long black
+hair and beard. As we sat together in the evening in the ancient room,
+by the light of one dim brazen lamp, with deep shades thrown across his
+face and figure, I thought he would have made an admirable study for
+Titian or Sebastian del Piombo. In the course of conversation I found
+that he had learnt Italian from another monk, having never been out of
+the peninsula of Mount Athos. His parents and most of the other
+inhabitants of the village where he was born, somewhere in Roumelia--but
+its name or exact position he did not know--had been massacred during
+some revolt or disturbance. So he had been told, but he remembered
+nothing about it; he had been educated in a school in this or one of the
+other monasteries, and his whole life had been passed upon the Holy
+Mountain; and this, he said, was the case with very many other monks. He
+did not remember his mother, and did not seem quite sure that he ever
+had one; he had never seen a woman, nor had he any idea what sort of
+things women were, or what they looked like. He asked me whether they
+resembled the pictures of the Panagia, the Holy Virgin, which hang in
+every church. Now, those who are conversant with the peculiar
+conventional representations of the Blessed Virgin in the pictures of
+the Greek church, which are all exactly alike, stiff, hard, and dry,
+without any appearance of life or emotion, will agree with me that they
+do not afford a very favourable idea of the grace or beauty of the fair
+sex; and that there was a difference of appearance between black women,
+Circassians, and those of other nations, which was, however, difficult
+to describe to one who had never seen a lady of any race. He listened
+with great interest while I told him that all women were not exactly
+like the pictures he had seen, but I did not think it charitable to
+carry on the conversation farther, although the poor monk seemed to have
+a strong inclination to know more of that interesting race of beings
+from whose society he had been so entirely debarred. I often thought
+afterwards of the singular lot of this manly and noble-looking monk:
+whether he is still a recluse, either in the monastery or in his
+mountain-farm, with its little moss-grown chapel as ancient as the days
+of Constantine; or whether he has gone out into the world and mingled in
+its pleasures and its cares.
+
+I arranged with the captain of a small vessel which was lying off
+Xeropotamo taking in a cargo of wood, that he should give me a passage
+in two or three days, when he said he should be ready to sail; and in
+the mean time I purposed to explore the metropolis of Mount Athos, the
+town of Cariez; and then to go to Caracalla, and remain there till the
+vessel was ready.
+
+[Illustration: CIRCASSIAN LADY.]
+
+Accordingly, the next morning I set out, the Agoumenos supplying me with
+mules. The guide did not know how far it was to Cariez, which is
+situated almost in the centre of the peninsula. I found it was only
+distant one hour and a half; but as I had not made arrangements to go
+on, I was obliged to remain there all day. Close to the town is the
+great monastery of
+
+
+COUTLOUMOUSSI,
+
+the most regular building on Mount Athos. It contains a large square
+court with a cloister of stone arches all round it, out of which the
+cells and chambers open, as they do in a Roman Catholic convent. The
+church stands in the centre of this quadrangle, and glories in a famous
+picture of the Last Judgment on the wall of the narthex, or porch,
+before the door of entrance. The monastery was at this time nearly
+uninhabited; but, after some trouble, I found one monk, who made great
+difficulties as to showing me the library, for he said a Russian had
+been there some time ago, and had borrowed a book which he never
+returned. However, at last I gained admission by means of that ingenious
+silver key which opens so many locks.
+
+In a good-sized square room, filled with shelves all round, I found a
+fine, although neglected, collection of books; a great many of them
+thrown on the floor in heaps, and covered all over with dust, which the
+Russian did not appear to have much disturbed when he borrowed the book
+which had occasioned me so much trouble. There were about six or seven
+hundred volumes of printed books, two hundred MSS. on paper, and a
+hundred and fifty on vellum. I was not permitted to examine this library
+at all to my satisfaction. The solitary monk thought I was a Russian,
+and would not let me alone, or give me the time I wanted for my
+researches. I found a multitude of folios and quartos of the works of
+St. Chrysostom, who seems to have been the principal instructor of the
+monks of Mount Athos, that is, in the days when they were in the habit
+of reading--a tedious custom, which they have long since given up by
+general consent. I met also with an Evangelistarium, a quarto in uncial
+letters, but not in very fine condition. Two or three other old monks
+had by this time crept out of their holes, but they would not part with
+any of their books: that unhappy Russian had filled the minds of the
+whole brotherhood with suspicion. So we went to the church, which was
+curious and quaint, as they all are; and as we went through all the
+requisite formalities before various grim pictures, and showed due
+respect for the sacred character of a Christian church, they began at
+last to believe that I was not a Russian; but if they had seen the
+contents of the saddle-bags which were sticking out bravely on each side
+of the patient mule at the gate, they would perhaps have considered me
+as something far worse.
+
+Coutloumoussi was founded by the Emperor Alexius Comnenus, and, having
+been destroyed by "_the Pope of Rome_," was restored by the piety of
+various hospodars and waywodes of Bessarabia. It is difficult to
+understand what these worthy monks can mean when they affirm that
+several of their monasteries have been burned and plundered by the Pope.
+Perhaps in the days of the Crusades some of the rapacious and
+undisciplined hordes who accompanied the armies of the Cross--not to
+rescue the holy sepulchre from the power of the Saracens, but for the
+sake of plunder and robbery--may have been attracted by the fame of the
+riches of these peaceful convents, and have made the differences in
+their religion a pretext for sacrilege and rapacity. Thus bands of
+pirates and brigands in the middle ages may have cloaked their acts of
+violence under the specious excuse of devotion to the Church of Rome;
+and so the Pope has acquired a bad name, and is looked upon with terror
+and animosity by the inhabitants of the monasteries of Mount Athos.
+
+Having seen what I could, I went on to the town of Cariez, if it can
+properly be called such; for it is difficult to explain what it is. One
+may perhaps say that what Washington is to the United States, Cariez is
+to Mount Athos. A few artificers do live there who carve crosses and
+ornaments in cypress-wood. The principal feature of the place is the
+great church of Protaton, which is surrounded by smaller buildings and
+chapels. These I saw at a distance, but did not visit, because I could
+get no mules, and it was too hot to walk so far. A Turkish aga lives
+here: he is sent by the Porte to collect the revenue from the monks, and
+also to protect them from other Turkish visitors. He is paid and
+provided with food by a kind of rate which is levied on the twenty-one
+monasteries of [Greek: agion oros], and is in fact a sort of sheep-dog
+to the flock of helpless monks who pasture among the trees and rocks of
+the peninsula. On certain days the Agoumenoi of the monasteries and the
+high officers of their communities meet at the church of Protaton for
+the transaction of business and the discussion of affairs. I am sorry I
+did not see this ancient house of parliament. The rooms in which these
+synods or convocations are held adjoin the church. Situated at short
+distances around these principal edifices are numerous small
+ecclesiastical villas, such as were called cells in England before the
+Reformation: these are the habitations of the venerable senators when
+they come up to parliament. Some of them are beautifully situated; for
+Cariez stands in a fair, open vale, half-way up the side of the
+mountain, and commands a beautiful view to the north of the sea, with
+the magnificent island of Samotraki looming superbly in the distance.
+All around are large orchards and plantations of peach-trees and of
+various other sorts of fruit-bearing trees in great abundance, and the
+round hills are clothed with greensward. It is a happy, peaceful-looking
+place, and in its trim and sunny arbours reminds one of Virgil and
+Theocritus.
+
+I went to the house of the aga to seek for a habitation, but the aga was
+asleep; and who was there so bold as to wake a sleeping aga? Luckily he
+awoke of his own accord; and he was soon informed by my interpreter that
+an illustrious personage awaited his leisure. He did not care for a
+monk, and not much for an agoumenos; but he felt small in the presence
+of a mighty Turkish aga. Nevertheless, he ventured a few hints as usual
+about the kings and queens who were my first cousins, but in a much more
+subdued tone than usual; and I was received with that courteous civility
+and good breeding which is so frequently met with among Turks of every
+degree. The aga apologised for having no good room to offer me; but he
+sent out his men to look for a lodging; and in the mean time we went to
+a kiosk, that is, a place like a large birdcage, with enough roof to
+make a shade, and no walls to impede the free passage of the air. It was
+built of wood, upon a scaffold eight or ten feet from the ground, in the
+corner of a garden, and commanded a fine view of the sea. In one corner
+of this cage I sat all day long, for there was nowhere else to go to;
+and the aga sat opposite to me in another corner, smoking his pipe, in
+which solacing occupation to his great surprise I did not partake. We
+had cups of coffee and sherbet every now and then, and about every
+half-hour the aga uttered a few words of compliment or welcome,
+informing me occasionally that there were many dervishes in the place,
+"very many dervishes," for so he denominated the monks. Dinner came
+towards evening. There was meat, dolmas, demir tatlessi, olives, salad,
+roast meat, and pilau, that filled up some time; and shortly afterwards
+I retired to the house of the monastery of Russico, a little distance
+from my kiosk; and there I slept on a carpet on the boards; and at
+sunrise was ready to continue my journey, as were also the mules. The
+aga gave me some breakfast, at which repast a cat made its appearance,
+with whom the day before I had made acquaintance; but now it came, not
+alone, but accompanied by two kittens. "Ah!" said I to the aga, "how is
+this? Why, as I live, this is a _she_ cat! a cat feminine! What business
+has it on Mount Athos? and with kittens too! a wicked cat!"
+
+"Hush!" said the Aga, with a solemn grin; "do not say anything about it.
+Yes, it must be a she-cat: I allow, certainly, that it must be a
+she-cat. I brought it with me from Stamboul. But do not speak of it, or
+they will take it away; and it reminds me of my home, where my wife and
+children are living far away from me."
+
+[Illustration: TURKISH LADY, IN THE YASHMAK, OR VEIL.]
+
+I promised to make no scandal about the cat, and took my leave; and
+as I rode off I saw him looking at me out of his cage with the cat
+sitting by his side. I was sorry I could not take aga and cat and all
+with me to Stamboul, the poor gentleman looked so solitary and
+melancholy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+
+     Caracalla--The Agoumenos--Curious Cross--The Nuts of
+     Caracalla--Singular Mode of preparing a Dinner Table--Departure
+     from Mount Athos--Packing of the MSS.--Difficulties of the
+     Way--Voyage to the Dardanelles--Apprehended Attack from
+     Pirates--Return to Constantinople.
+
+
+It took me three hours to reach Caracalla, where the agoumenos and
+Father Joasaph received me with all the hospitable kindness of old
+friends, and at once installed me in my old room, which looked into the
+court, and was very cool and quiet. Here I reposed in peace during the
+hotter hours of the day; and here I received the news that the captain
+of the vessel which I had hired had left me in the lurch and gone out to
+sea, having, I suppose, made some better bargain. This caused me some
+tribulation; but there was nothing to be done but to get another vessel;
+so I sent back to Xeropotamo, which appeared to be the most frequented
+part of the coast, to see whether there was any craft there which could
+be hired.
+
+I employed the next day in wandering about with the agoumenos and Father
+Joasaph in all the holes and corners of the monastery; the agoumenos
+telling me interminable legends of the saints, and asking Father Joasaph
+if they were not true. I looked over the library, where I found an
+uncial Evangelistarium; a manuscript of Demosthenes on paper, but of
+some antiquity; a manuscript of Justin ([Greek: Ioustinou]) in Greek;
+and several other manuscripts,--all of which the agoumenos agreed to let
+me have.
+
+One of the monks had a curiously carved cross set in silver, which he
+wished to sell; but I told the agoumenos that it was not sufficiently
+ancient: I added, however, that if I could meet with any ancient cross
+or shrine or reliquary, I should be delighted to purchase such a thing,
+and that I would give a good price for it. In the afternoon it struck
+him suddenly that as he did not care for antiquities, perhaps we might
+come to an arrangement; and the end of the affair was that he gave me
+one of the ancient crosses which I had seen when I was there before, and
+put the one the monk had to sell in its place; certain pieces of gold
+which I produced rendering this transaction satisfactory to all parties.
+This most curious and beautiful piece of jewellery has been since
+engraved, and forms the subject of the third plate in Shaw's 'Dresses
+and Decorations of the Middle Ages,' London, 1843. It had been presented
+to the monastery by the Emperor John, whom, from what I was told by the
+agoumenos, I take to have been John Zimisces. It is one of the most
+ancient as well as one of the finest relics of its kind now existing in
+England.
+
+On the evening of the second day my man returned from Xeropotamo with
+the information that he had found a small Greek brig, and had engaged to
+give the patron or captain eleven hundred piastres for our passage
+thence to the Dardanelles the next day, if I could manage to be ready in
+so short a time. As fortunately I had purchased all the manuscripts
+which I wished to possess, there was nothing to detain me on Mount
+Athos; for I had now visited every monastery excepting that of St. Anne,
+which indeed is not a monastery like the rest, but a mere collection of
+hermitages or cells at the extreme point of the peninsula, immediately
+under the great peak of the mountain. I was told that there was nothing
+there worth seeing; but still I am sorry that I did not make a
+pilgrimage to so original a community, who it appears live on roots and
+herbs, and are the most strict of all the ascetics in this strange
+monastic region.
+
+All of a sudden, as we were walking quietly together, the agoumenos
+asked me if I knew what was the price of nuts at Constantinople.
+
+"Nuts?" said I.
+
+"Yes, nuts," said he; "hazel-nuts: nuts are excellent things. Have they
+a good supply of nuts at Constantinople?"
+
+"Well," said I, "I don't know; but I dare say they have. But why, my
+Lord, do you ask? Why do you wish to know the price of hazel-nuts at
+Constantinople?"
+
+"Oh!" said the agoumenos, "they do not eat half nuts enough at Stamboul.
+Nuts are excellent things. They should be eaten more than they are.
+People say that nuts are unwholesome; but it is a great mistake." And so
+saying, he introduced me into a set of upper rooms that I had not
+previously entered, the entire floors of which were covered two feet
+deep with nuts. I never saw one-hundredth part so many before. The good
+agoumenos, it seems, had been speculating in hazel-nuts; and a vessel
+was to come to the little tower of the scaricatojo down below to be
+freighted with them: they were to produce a prodigious profit, and
+defray the expense of finishing the new buildings of Caracalla.
+
+"Take some," said he; "don't be afraid; there are plenty. Take some, and
+taste them, and then you can tell your friends at Constantinople what a
+peculiar flavour you found in the famous nuts of Athos; and in all Athos
+every one knows that there are no nuts like those of Caracalla!"
+
+They were capital nuts; but as it was before dinner, and I was
+ravenously hungry, and my lord the agoumenos had not brought a bottle of
+sherry in his pocket, I did not particularly relish them. But there had
+been great talking during the morning between the agoumenos and Pater
+Joasaph about a famous large fish which was to be cooked for dinner;
+and, as the important hour was approaching, we adjourned to my sitting
+room. Father Joasaph was already there, having washed his hands and
+seated himself on the divan, in order to regulate the proceedings of the
+lay brother who acted as butler. The preparations for the banquet were
+made. The lay brother first brought in the table-cloth, which he spread
+upon the ground in one corner of the room; then he turned the table
+upside down upon the table-cloth, with its legs in the air: next he
+brought two immense flagons, one of wine, the other of water; these were
+made of copper tinned, and were each a foot and a half high; he set them
+down on the carpet a little way from the table-cloth; and round the
+table he placed three cushions for the agoumenos, Pater Joasaph, and me;
+and then he went away to bring the dinner. He soon reappeared, bringing
+in, with the assistance of another stout catechumen, the whole of the
+dinner on a large circular tray of well-polished brass called a sinni.
+This was so formed as to fix on the sticking-up legs of the subverted
+table, and, with the aid of Pater Joasaph, it was soon all tight and
+straight. In a great centre-dish there appeared the big fish in a sea of
+sauce surrounded by a mountainous shore of rice. Round this luxurious
+centre stood a circle of smaller dishes, olives, caviare, salad (no
+eggs, because there were no hens), papas yaknesi, and several sweet
+things. Two cats followed the dinner into the room, and sat down
+demurely side by side. The fish looked excellent, and had a most
+savoury smell. I had washed my hands, and was preparing to sit down,
+when the Father Abbot, who was not thinking of the dinner, took this
+inopportune moment to begin one of his interminable stories.
+
+"We have before spoken," he said, "of the many kings, princes, and
+patriarchs who have given up the world and ended their days here in
+peace. One of the most important epochs in the history of Mount Athos
+occurred about the year 1336, when a Calabrian monk, a man of great
+learning though of mean appearance, whose name was Barlaam, arrived on a
+pilgrimage to venerate the sacred relics of our famous sanctuaries. He
+found here many holy men, who, having retired entirely from the world,
+by communing with themselves in the privacy of their own cells, had
+arrived at that state of calm beatitude and heavenly contemplation, that
+the eternal light of Mount Tabor was revealed to them."
+
+"Mount Tabor?" said I.
+
+"Yes," said the agoumenos, "the light which had been seen during the
+time of the Transfiguration by the apostles, and which had always
+existed there, was seen by those who, after years of solitude and
+penance and maceration of the flesh, had arrived at that state of
+abstraction from all earthly things that in their bodies they saw the
+divine light. They in those good times would sit alone in their chambers
+with their eyes cast down upon the region of their navel; this was
+painful at first, both from the fixedness of the attitude required, with
+the head bent down upon the breast, and from the workings of the mind,
+which seemed to wander in the regions of darkness and space. At last,
+when they had persevered in fasting day and night with no change of
+thought or attitude for many hours, they began to feel a wonderful
+satisfaction; a ray of joy ineffable would seem to illuminate the brain;
+and no sooner had the soul discovered the place of the heart than it was
+involved in a mystic and ethereal light."[18]
+
+"Ah," said I, "really!"
+
+"Now this Barlaam, being a carnal and worldly-minded man, took upon
+himself to doubt the efficacy of this bodily and mental discipline; it
+is said that he even ventured to ridicule the venerable fathers who gave
+themselves up so entirely to the contemplation of the light of Mount
+Tabor. Not only did he question the merits of these ascetic acts, but,
+being learned in books, and being endowed with great powers of eloquence
+and persuasion, he infused doubts into the minds of others of the monks
+and anchorites of Mount Athos. Arguments were used on both sides;
+conversations arose upon these subjects; arguments grew into
+disputations, conversations into controversies, till at last, from the
+most peaceful and regular of communities, the peninsula of the holy
+mountain became from one end to the other a theatre of discord, doubt,
+and difference; the flames of contention were lit up; every thing was
+unsettled; men knew not what to think; till at last, with general
+consent, the unhappy intruder was dismissed from all the monasteries;
+and, flying from the storm of angry words which he had raised on all
+sides around him, he departed from Mount Athos and retired to the city
+of Constantinople. There his specious manners, his knowledge of the
+language of the Latins, and the dissensions he had created in the
+church, brought him into notice at court; and now not only were the
+monks of Mount Athos and Olympus divided against each other, but the
+city was split into parties of theological disputants; clamour and
+acrimony raged on every side. The Emperor Andronicus, willing to remove
+the cause of so much contention, and being at the same time surrounded
+with difficulties on all sides (for the unbelieving Turks, commanded by
+the fierce Orchan, had with their unnumbered tribes overrun Bithynia and
+many of the provinces of the Christian emperor), he graciously
+condescended to give his imperial mandate that the monk Barlaam should
+[here the two cats became vociferous in their impatience for the fish]
+be sent on an embassy to the Pope of Rome; he was empowered to enter
+into negotiations for the settlement of all religious differences
+between the Eastern and Western churches, on condition that the Latin
+princes should assist the emperor to drive the Turks back into the
+confines of Asia. The Emperor Andronicus died from a fever brought on by
+excitement in defending the cause of the ascetic quietists before a
+council in his palace. John Paleologus was set aside; and John
+Cantacuzene, in a desperate endeavour to please all parties, gave his
+daughter Theodora to Orchan the Emperor of the Osmanlis; and at his
+coronation the purple buskin of his right leg was fastened on by the
+Greeks, and that of his left leg by the Latins. Notwithstanding these
+concessions, the embassy of Barlaam, the most important with which any
+diplomatic agent was ever trusted, failed altogether from the troubles
+of the times. The Emperor John Cantacuzene, who celebrated his own acts
+in an edict beginning with the words 'by my sublime and almost
+incredible virtue,' gave up the reins of power, and taking the name of
+Josaph, became a monk of one of the monasteries of the holy mountain,
+which was then known by the name of the monastery of Mangane, while the
+monk Barlaam was created Bishop of Gerace, in Italy."
+
+By the time the good abbot had come to the conclusion of his history,
+the fish was cold and the dinner spoilt; but I thought his account of
+the extraordinary notions which the monks of those dark ages had formed
+of the duties of Christianity so curious, that it almost compensated for
+the calamity of losing the only good dinner which I had seen on Mount
+Athos.
+
+What a difference it would have made in the affairs of Europe if the
+embassy of Barlaam had succeeded! The Turks would not have been now in
+possession of Constantinople; and many points of difference having been
+mutually conceded by the two great divisions of the church, perhaps the
+Reformation never would have taken place. The narration of these events
+was the more interesting to me, as I had it from the lips of a monk who
+to all intents and purposes was living in the darkness of remote
+antiquity. His ample robes, his long beard, and the Byzantine
+architecture of the ancient room in which we sat, impressed his words
+upon my remembrance; and as I looked upon the eager countenance of the
+abbot, whose thoughts still were fixed upon the world from which he had
+retired, while he discoursed of the troubles and discords which had
+invaded the peaceful glades and quiet solitudes of the holy mountain, I
+felt that there was no place left on this side of the grave where the
+wicked cease from troubling or where the weary are at rest. No places,
+however, that I have seen equal the beauty of the scenery and the calm
+retired look of the small farmhouses, if they may so be called, which I
+met with in my rides on the declivities of Mount Athos. These buildings
+are usually situated on the sides of hills opening on the land which the
+monastic labourers cultivate; they consist of a small square tower,
+usually appended to which are one or two little stone cottages, and an
+ancient chapel, from which the tinkling of the bar which calls the monks
+to prayer may be heard many times a day echoing softly through the
+lovely glades of the prim�val forest. The ground is covered in some
+places with anemones and cyclamen; waterfalls are met with at the head
+of half the valleys, pouring their refreshing waters over marble rocks.
+If the great mountain itself, which towers up so grandly above the
+enchanting scenery below, had been carved into the form of a statue of
+Alexander the Great, according to the project of Lysippus, though a
+wonderful effort of human labour, it could hardly have added to the
+beauty of the scene, which is so much increased by the appearance of the
+monasteries, whose lofty towers and rounded domes appear almost like the
+palaces we read of in a fairy tale.
+
+The next morning, at an early hour, mules were waiting in the court to
+carry me across the hills to the harbour below the monastery of
+Xeropotamo, where the Greek brig was lying which was to convey me and my
+treasures from these peaceful shores. Emptying out my girdle, I
+calculated how much, or rather how little money would suffice to pay the
+expenses of my voyage to the Asiatic castle of the Dardanelles, feeling
+assured that from thence I could get credit for a passage in the
+magnificent steamer _The Stamboul_, which ran between Smyrna and
+Constantinople. With the reservation of this sum, I gave the agoumenos
+all my remaining gold, and in return he provided me with an old wooden
+chest, in which I stowed away several goodly folios; for the
+saddle-bags, although distended to their utmost limits, did not suffice
+to carry all the great manuscripts and ponderous volumes that were now
+added to my store. Turning out the corn from the nosebags of the mules,
+I put one or two smaller books in each; and, after all, an extra mule
+was sent for to convey the surplus tomes over the rough and craggy ridge
+which we were to pass in our journey to the other sea. Although the
+stories of the agoumenos were too windy and too long, I was sorry to
+part from him, and I took an affectionate leave also of Pater Joasaph
+and the two cats. Unfortunately, in the hurry of departure, I left on
+the divan the MS. of Justin, which I had been trying to decipher, and
+forgot it when I came away. It was a small thick octavo, on charta
+bombycina, and was probably kicked into the nearest corner as soon as I
+evacuated the monastery.
+
+Our ride was a very rough one. We had first to ascend the hill, in some
+places through deep ravines, and in others through most glorious forests
+of gigantic trees, mostly planes, with a thick underwood of those
+aromatic flowering evergreens which so beautifully clothe the hills of
+Greece and this part of Turkey.
+
+When we had crossed the upper ridge of rock, leaving the peak of Athos
+towering to the sky on our left, we had to descend the dry bed of a
+torrent so full of great stones and fallen rocks, that it appeared
+impossible for anything but a goat to travel on such a road. I got off
+my mule, and began jumping from one rock to another on the edge of the
+precipice; but the sun was so powerful, that in a short time I was
+completely exhausted; and on looking at the mules, I saw that one after
+another they jumped down so unerringly over chasms and broken rocks,
+alighting so precisely in the exact place where there was standing-room
+for their feet, that, after a little consideration, I remounted my mule;
+and keeping my seat, without holding the bridle, we hopped and skipped
+from rock to rock down this extraordinary track, until in due time we
+arrived safely at the sea-shore, close to the mouth of the little river
+of Xeropotamo. My manuscripts and myself were soon embarked, and with a
+favouring breeze we stood out into the Gulf of Monte Santo, and had
+leisure to survey the scenery of this superb peninsula as we glided
+round the lofty marble rocks and noble forests which formed the
+background to the strange and picturesque Byzantine monasteries with
+every one of which we had become acquainted.
+
+Being a little nervous on account of the pirates, of whom I had heard
+many stories during my sojourn on Mount Athos, I questioned the master
+of the vessel on this subject. "Oh," said he, "the sea is now very
+quiet; there have been no pirates about the coast for the last
+fortnight." This assurance hardly satisfied me. How terrible it would be
+to see these precious volumes thrown into the sea, like my unhappy
+precursor's MS. of Homer! It was frightful to think of! We were three
+days at sea, there being at this fine season very little wind. Once we
+thought we were chased by a wicked-looking cutter with a large white
+mainsail, which kept to windward of us; but in the end, after some hours
+of deadly tribulation, during which I hid the manuscripts as well as I
+could under all kinds of rubbish in the hold, we descried the stars and
+stripes of America upon her ensign; so then I pulled all the old books
+out again. This cutter was, I suppose, a tender to some American
+man-of-war. On the evening of the third day we found ourselves safe
+under the guns of Roumeli Calessi, the European castle of the
+Dardanelles; and, after a good deal of tedious tacking, we got across to
+the Asiatic castle of Coom Calessi, where I landed with all my
+treasures. Before long, the Smyrna steamer, _The Stamboul_, hove in
+sight, and I took my passage in her to Constantinople.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+London: Printed by W. Clowes and Son, Stamford Street.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Moyah--"water."
+
+[2] This, the first mosque built at Cairo, is said to have been paid for
+by Sultan Tayloon with a part of an immense treasure in gold, which he
+found under a monument called the altar of Pharaoh, on the mountain of
+Mokattam. This building was destroyed by Tayloon, who founded a mosque
+upon the spot in the year 873, in honour of Judah, the brother of
+Joseph, who resorted there to pray when he came to Egypt. This mosque
+becoming ruined, another was built upon the spot by the Emir El Guyoosh,
+minister of the Caliph Mostansir, A.D. 1094, which still remains perched
+on the corner of a rock, which is excavated in various places with
+ancient tombs.
+
+[3] A fragment of the Gospel of St. Mark was found in the tomb which was
+reputed to be his. Damp and age have decayed this precious relic, of
+which only some small fragments remain; but an exact facsimile of it was
+made before it was destroyed. This facsimile is now in my possession: it
+is in Latin, and is written in double columns, on sixteen leaves of
+vellum, of a large quarto size, and proves that whoever transcribed the
+original must have been a proficient in the art of writing, for the
+letters are of great size and excellent formation, and in the style of
+the very earliest manuscripts.
+
+[4] See Quarterly Review, vol. lxxvii. p. 43.
+
+[5] It is perhaps more likely that these beautiful specimens of ancient
+glass were made in the island of Murano, in the lagunes of Venice, as
+the manufactories of the Venetians supplied the Mahomedans with many
+luxuries in the middle ages.
+
+[6] The only early church in which the columns are continued on the end
+opposite to the altar, where the doorway is usually situated, is the
+Cathedral of Messina. The effect is very good, and takes off from the
+baldness usually observable at that end of a basilica. The early Coptic
+churches have no porch or narthex, an essential part of an original
+Greek church.
+
+[7] This curious old sunken oratory bears a resemblance in many points
+to the fine church of St. Agnese, at Rome, where the ground has been
+excavated down to the level of the catacomb in which the holy martyr's
+body reposes. The long straight flight of steps down to the lower level
+are also similar in these two very ancient churches, although the Church
+of Der-el-Adra is poor and mean, whilst that of St. Agnese is a superb
+edifice, and is famous for being the first basilica in which a gallery
+is found over the side aisles. This gallery was set apart for the women,
+as in the oriental churches of St. Sophia at Constantinople, and
+perhaps, also, of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem.
+
+[8] It is much to be desired that some competent person should write a
+small cheap book, with plates or wood-cuts explaining what an early
+Christian Church was; what the ceremonies, ornaments, vestures, and
+liturgy were at the time when the Church of our Lord was formally
+established by the Emperor Constantine: for the numerous well-meaning
+authors who have written on the restoration of our older churches,
+appear to me to be completely in the dark. Gothic is NOT Christian
+architecture--it is Roman Catholic architecture: the vestures of English
+ecclesiastics are not restorations of early simplicity--they are modern
+inventions taken from German collegiate dresses which have nothing to do
+with religion.
+
+[9] We are perhaps not entirely acquainted with the mechanical powers of
+the ancients. The seated statue of Rameses II., in the Memnonium at
+Thebes, a solid block of granite forty or fifty feet high, has been
+broken to pieces apparently by a tremendous blow. How this can have been
+accomplished without the aid of gunpowder it is difficult to conjecture.
+
+[10] For the benefit of the reader I subjoin two of there songs
+translated from the originals; or rather, I may say, paraphrased:
+although the first of them has the same rhythm as the original. The
+notes are but very little, if at all, altered from those which have been
+frequently sung to me, accompanied by a drum, called a tarabouka, or a
+long sort of guitar with only two or three strings. It must be observed
+that the chorus, Amaan, Amaan, Amaan, is generally added to all
+songs--_� discr�tion_--and that the way this chorus is howled out, is to
+an European ear the most difficult part to bear of the whole:--
+
+                      1.
+
+    Thine eyes, thine eyes have kill'd me:
+      With love my heart is torn:
+    Thy looks with pain have fill'd me:
+      Amaan, Amaan, Amaan.
+
+                      2.
+
+    Oh gently, dearest! gently,
+      Approach me not with scorn:
+    With one sweet look content me:
+      Amaan, Amaan, Amaan.
+
+                      3.
+
+    That yellow shawl encloses
+      A form made to adorn
+    A Peri's bower of roses:
+      Amaan, Amaan, Amaan.
+
+                      4.
+
+    The snows, the snows are melting
+      On the hills of Isfahan.
+    As fair, be as relenting:
+      Amaan, Amaan, Amaan.
+
+           *       *       *       *
+
+                      1.
+
+    Let not her, whose eyelids sleep,
+    Imagine I no vigil keep.
+    Alas! with hope and love I burn:
+    Ah! do not from thy lover turn!
+
+                      2.
+
+    Patron of lovers, Bedowi!
+      Ah! give me her I hold most dear;
+    And I will vow to her, and thee,
+      The brightest shawl In all Cashmere.
+
+                      3.
+
+    Ah! when I view thy loveliness,
+      The lustre of thy deep black eye,
+    My songs but add to my distress!
+      Let me behold thee once, and die.
+
+                      4.
+
+    Think not that scorn and bitter words
+      Can make me from my true love sever!
+    Pierce our hearts, then, with your swords:
+      The blood of both will flow together.
+
+                      5.
+
+    Fill us the golden bowl with wine;
+      Give us the ripe and downy peach:
+    And, in this bower of jessamine,
+      No sorrows our retreat shall reach.
+
+                      6.
+
+    Masr may boast her lovely girls,
+      Whose necks are deck'd with pearls and gold:
+    The gold would fall; the purest pearls
+      Would blush could they my love behold.
+
+                      7.
+
+    Famed Skanderieh's beauties, too,
+      On Syria's richest silks recline:
+    Their rosy lips are sweet, 'tis true;
+      But can they be compar'd to thine?
+
+                      8.
+
+    Fairest! your beauty comes from Heaven:
+    Freely the lovely gift was given.
+    Resist not, then, the high decree--
+    'Twas fated I should sigh for thee.
+
+This last song is well known upon the Nile by the name of its chorus,
+_Doas ya leili_.
+
+[11] This sword is used by the Reverendissimo, the title given to the
+superior of the Franciscans, when he confers the order of Knight of the
+Holy Sepulchre, which is only given to a Roman Catholic of noble birth.
+The Reverendissimo is also authorised by the Pope to give a flag bearing
+the Five Crosses of Jerusalem to the captain of any ship who has
+rendered service to the Catholic religion. These honours were first
+instituted by the Christian Kings of Jerusalem, but they are now sold by
+the monks for about forty dollars to any Roman Catholic who likes to pay
+for them.
+
+[12] On another occasion some years afterwards, I was waiting in the
+same place, when I wandered into the new Patriarchal church which opens
+on this court: while I stood there, a corpse was brought in on a bier,
+followed by many persons, who I suppose were the relations and friends
+of the deceased. After the funeral service had been read by a priest,
+every person in the church went up to the bier and kissed the dead man's
+hand and forehead: this is the usual custom, and an affecting one to see
+when friends bid friends a last farewell. But this man had died of some
+fearful and horrible disease, perhaps the plague, which through this
+horrid means may have been distributed to half the congregation.
+
+[13] All eastern cities are infested with troops of half-wild dogs, who
+act the part of scavengers, and live upon the refuse food which is
+thrown into the streets.
+
+[14]
+
+     DIRECTION.--"To the blessed Inspectors, Officers, Chiefs, and
+     Representatives of the Holy Community of Monte Santo, and to the
+     Holy Fathers of the same, and of all other sacred convents, our
+     beloved Sons.
+
+"We, Gregorios, Patriarch, Archbishop Universal, Metropolitan of
+Constantinople, &c. &c. &c.
+
+     "Blessed Inspectors, Officers, Superiors, and Representatives of
+     the Community of the Holy Mountain, and other Holy Fathers of the
+     same, and of the other Holy and Venerable Convents subject to our
+     holy universal Throne. Peace be to you.
+
+"The bearer of the present, our patriarchal sheet, the Honourable Robert
+Curzon, of a noble English family, recommended to us by most worthy and
+much-honoured persons, intending to travel and wishing to be instructed
+in the old and new philology, thinks to satisfy his curiosity by
+repairing to those sacred convents which may have any connexion with his
+intentions. We recommend his person, therefore, to you all: and we order
+and require of you, that you not only receive him with every esteem and
+every possible hospitality, in each and in the several holy convents;
+but to lend yourselves readily to all his wants and desires, and to give
+him precise and clear explanations to all his interrogations relative to
+his philological examinations, obliging yourselves, and lending
+yourselves, in a manner not only fully to satisfy and content him, but
+so that he shall approve of and praise your conduct.
+
+"This we desire and require to be executed, rewarding you with the
+Divine and with our blessing.
+
+    "(Signed) GREGORIOS, Universal Patriarch.
+
+"Constantinople, 1 (13) July, 1837."
+
+[15] Ridiculous as these pictorial representations of the Last Judgment
+appear to us, one of them was the cause of a whole nation's embracing
+Christianity. Bogoris, king of Bulgaria, having written to
+Constantinople for a painter to decorate the walls of his palace, a monk
+named Methodius was sent to him--all knowledge of the arts in those days
+being confined to the clergy. The king desired Methodius to paint on a
+certain wall the most terrible picture that he could imagine; and, by
+the advice of the king's sister, who had embraced Christianity some
+years before whilst in captivity at Constantinople, the monastic artist
+produced so fearful a representation of the torments of the condemned in
+the next world, that it had the effect of converting Bogoris to the
+Christian faith. In consequence of this event the Patriarch of
+Constantinople despatched a bishop to Bulgaria, who baptised the king by
+the name of Michael in the year 865. Before long his loyal subjects,
+following the example of their sovereign, were converted also; and
+Christianity from that period became the religion of the land.
+
+[16] In the early ages of the Greek church the Epiphany was a day of
+very great solemnity; for not only was the adoration of the Magi
+celebrated on the 6th of January, but also the changing of the water
+into wine at the marriage at Cana, the baptism, and even the birth of
+our Lord. On this day the holy water is blessed in the Greek church, by
+throwing a small cross into it, or otherwise by holding over it the
+cross, with a handle attached to it, which is used by the Greek clergy
+in the act of benediction.
+
+[17] The Emperor Leo the First was crowned by the Patriarch of Anatolia
+in the year 459. He is the first prince on record who received his crown
+from the hands of a bishop.
+
+[18] Mosheim's 'Ecclesiastical History;' Gibbon.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Visits To Monasteries in the Levant, by 
+Robert Curzon
+
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diff --git a/old/32397.txt b/old/32397.txt
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+Project Gutenberg's Visits To Monasteries in the Levant, by Robert Curzon
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Visits To Monasteries in the Levant
+
+Author: Robert Curzon
+
+Release Date: May 16, 2010 [EBook #32397]
+[This file last updated: February 3, 2011]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MONASTERIES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was
+produced from scanned images of public domain material
+from the Google Print project.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Book's cover, CURZON'S MONASTERIES]
+
+[Illustration: From a Drawing made on the spot by Viscount Eastnor.
+
+VIEW OF THE GREAT MONASTERY OF METEORA, FROM THE MONASTERY OF BARLAAM,
+WITH THE RIVER PENEUS IN THE DISTANCE.]
+
+
+
+
+VISITS TO MONASTERIES
+
+IN
+
+THE LEVANT.
+
+BY THE
+
+HONBLE. ROBERT CURZON, JUN. From a Sketch by R. Curzon.
+
+[Illustration: From a Sketch by R. Curzon.
+
+Interior of the Court of a Greek Monastery. A monk is calling the
+congregation to prayer, by beating a board called the simandro ([Greek:
+simandro]) which is generally used instead of bells.]
+
+WITH NUMEROUS WOODCUTS.
+
+LONDON:
+JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.
+
+1849.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+In presenting to the public another book of travels in the East, when it
+is already overwhelmed with little volumes about palm-trees and camels,
+and reflections on the Pyramids, I am aware that I am committing an act
+which requires some better excuse for so unwarrantable an intrusion on
+the patience of the reader than any that I am able to offer.
+
+The origin of these pages is as follows:--I was staying by myself in an
+old country-house belonging to my family, but not often inhabited by
+them, and, having nothing to do in the evening, I looked about for some
+occupation to amuse the passing hours. In the room where I was sitting
+there was a large book-case full of ancient manuscripts, many of which
+had been collected by myself, in various out-of-the-way places, in
+different parts of the world. Taking some of these ponderous volumes
+from their shelves, I turned over their wide vellum leaves, and admired
+the antiquity of one, and the gold and azure which gleamed upon the
+pages of another. The sight of these books brought before my mind many
+scenes and recollections of the countries from which they came, and I
+said to myself, I know what I will do; I will write down some account of
+the most curious of these manuscripts, and the places in which they were
+found, as well as some of the adventures which I encountered in the
+pursuit of my venerable game.
+
+I sat down accordingly, and in a short time accumulated a heap of papers
+connected more or less with the history of the ancient manuscripts; at
+the desire of some of my friends I selected the following pages, and it
+is with great diffidence that I present them to the public. If they have
+any merits whatever, these must consist in their containing descriptions
+of localities but seldom visited in modern times; or if they refer to
+places better known to the general reader, I hope that the peculiar
+circumstances which occurred during my stay there, or on my journeys
+through the neighbouring countries, may be found sufficiently
+interesting to afford some excuse for my presumption in sending them to
+the press.
+
+I have no further apology to offer. These slight sketches were written
+for my own diversion when I had nothing better to do, and if they afford
+any pleasure to the reader under the same circumstances, they will
+answer as much purpose as was intended in their composition.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER                                            Page xix
+
+
+PART I.
+
+EGYPT IN 1833.
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+Navarino--The Wrecks of the Turkish and Egyptian Fleets--Alexandria--An
+Arab Pilot--Intense Heat--Scene from the Hotel
+Windows--The Water-Carriers--A Procession--A Bridal Party--Violent
+mode of clearing the Road--Submissive Behaviour of
+the People--Astonishing Number of Donkeys--Bedouin Arabs;
+their wild and savage appearance--Early Hours--Visit to the
+Pasha's Prime Minister, Boghos Bey; hospitable reception--Kawasses
+and Chaoushes; their functions and powers--The Yassakjis--The
+Minister's Audience Chamber--Walmas; anecdote
+of his saving the life of Boghos Bey                                   1
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+Rapacity of the Dragomans--The Mahmoudieh Canal--The Nile
+at Atfeh--The muddy Waters of the Nile--Richness of the Soil--Accident
+to the Boatmen--Night Sailing--A Collision--A
+Vessel run down--Escape of the Crew--Solemn Investigation--Final
+Judgment--Curious Mode of Fishing--Tameness of the
+Birds--Jewish Malefactors--Moving Pillar of Sand--Arrival
+at Cairo--Hospitable Reception by the Consul-General                  14
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+National Topics of Conversation--The Rising of the Nile; evil
+effects of its rising too high; still worse consequences of a deficiency
+of its waters--The Nilometer--Universal Alarm in August, 1833--The
+Nile at length rises to the desired Height--Ceremony of
+cutting the Embankment--The Canal of the Khalidj--Immense
+Assemblage of People--The State Tent--Arrival of Habeeb
+Effendi--Splendid Dresses of the Officers--Exertions of the Arab
+Workmen--Their Scramble for Paras--Admission of the Water--Its
+sudden Irruption--Excitement of the Ladies--Picturesque
+Effect of large Assemblies in the East                                27
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+Early Hours in the Levant--Compulsory Use of Lanterns in Cairo--Separation
+of the different Quarters of the City--Custom of sleeping
+in the open air--The Mahomedan Times of Prayer--Impressive
+Effect of the Morning Call to Prayer from the Minarets--The
+last Prayer-time, Al Assr--Bedouin Mode of ascertaining this
+Hour--Ancient Form of the Mosques--The Mosque of Sultan
+Hassan--Egyptian Mode of "raising the Supplies"--Sultan
+Hassan's Mosque the Scene of frequent Conflicts--The Slaughter
+of the Mameluke Beys in the Place of Roumayli--Escape of one
+Mameluke, and his subsequent Friendship with Mohammed Ali--The
+Talisman of Cairo--Joseph's Well and Hall--Mohammed
+Ali's Mosque--His Residence in the Citadel--The Harem--Degraded
+State of the Women in the East                                        35
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+Interview with Mohammed Ali Pasha--Mode of lighting a Room in
+Egypt--Personal Appearance of the Pasha--His Diamond-mounted
+Pipe--The lost Handkerchief--An unceremonious
+Attendant--View of Cairo from the Citadel--Site of Memphis;
+its immense extent--The Tombs of the Caliphs--The Pasha's
+Mausoleum--Costume of Egyptian Ladies--The Cobcob, or
+Wooden Clog--Mode of dressing the Hair--The Veil--Mistaken
+Idea that the Egyptian Ladies are Prisoners in the Harem;
+their power of doing as they like--The Veil a complete Disguise--Laws
+of the Harem--A Levantine Beauty--Eastern Manners--The
+Abyssinian Slaves--Arab Girls--Ugliness of the Arab
+Women when old--Venerable Appearance of the old Men--An
+Arab Sheick                                                           47
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+Mohammed Bey, Defterdar--His Expedition to Senaar--His Barbarity
+and Rapacity--His Defiance of the Pasha--Stories of his
+Cruelty and Tyranny--The Horse-shoe--The Fight of the
+Mamelukes--His cruel Treachery--His Mode of administering
+Justice--The stolen Milk--The Widow's Cow--Sale and Distribution
+of the Thief--The Turkish Character--Pleasures of a
+Journey on the Nile--The Copts--Their Patriarchs--The Patriarch
+of Abyssinia--Basileos Bey--His Boat--An American's
+choice of a Sleeping-place                                            64
+
+
+NATRON LAKES.
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+Visit to the Coptic Monasteries near the Natron Lakes--The Desert
+of Nitria--Early Christian Anchorites--St. Macarius of Alexandria--His
+Abstinence and Penance--Order of Monks founded
+by him--Great increase of the Number of ascetic Monks in the
+Fourth Century--Their subsequent decrease, and the present
+ruined state of the Monasteries--Legends of the Desert--Capture
+of a Lizard--Its alarming escape--The Convent of Baramous--Night
+attacks--Invasion of Sanctuary--Ancient Glass Lamps--Monastery
+of Souriani--Its Library and Coptic MSS.--The Blind
+Abbot and his Oil-cellar--The persuasive powers of Rosoglio--Discovery
+of Syriac MSS.--The Abbot's supposed treasure                         75
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+View from the Convent Wall--Appearance of the Desert--Its
+grandeur and freedom--Its contrast to the Convent Garden--Beauty
+and luxuriance of Eastern Vegetation--Picturesque Group
+of the Monks and their Visitors--The Abyssinian Monks--Their
+appearance--Their austere mode of Life--The Abyssinian
+College--Description of the Library--The mode of Writing in
+Abyssinia--Immense Labour required to write an Abyssinian
+book--Paintings and Illuminations--Disappointment of the
+Abbot at finding the supposed Treasure-box only an old Book--Purchase
+of the MSS. and Books--The most precious left behind--Since
+acquired for the British Museum                                       90
+
+
+THE CONVENT OF THE PULLEY.
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+The Convent of the Pulley--Its inaccessible position--Difficult
+landing on the bank of the Nile--Approach to the Convent
+through the Rocks--Description of the Convent and its Inhabitants--Plan
+of the Church--Books and MSS.--Ancient
+excavations--Stone Quarries and ancient Tombs--Alarm of the
+Copts--Their ideas of a Sketch-book                                  105
+
+
+RUINED MONASTERY AT THEBES.
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+Ruined Monastery in the Necropolis of Thebes--"Mr. Hay's Tomb"--The
+Coptic Carpenter--His acquirements and troubles--He
+agrees to show the MSS. belonging to the ruined Monastery, which
+are under his charge--Night visit to the Tomb in which they are
+concealed--Perils of the way--Description of the Tomb--Probably
+in former times a Christian Church--Examination of the
+Coptic MSS.--Alarming interruption--Hurried flight from the
+Evil Spirits--Fortunate escape--Appearance of the Evil Spirit--Observations
+on Ghost Stories--The Legend of the Old Woman
+of Berkeley considered                                               117
+
+
+THE WHITE MONASTERY.
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+The White Monastery--Abou Shenood--Devastations of the Mamelukes--Description
+of the Monastery--Different styles of its
+exterior and interior Architecture--Its ruinous condition--Description
+of the Church--The Baptistery--Ancient Rites of
+Baptism--The Library--Modern Architecture--The Church of
+San Francesco at Rimini--The Red Monastery--Alarming rencontre
+with an armed party--Feuds between the native Tribes--Faction
+fights--Eastern Story Tellers--Legends of the Desert--Abraham
+and Sarah--Legendary Life of Moses--Arabian Story-tellers--Attention
+of their Audience                                                    130
+
+
+THE ISLAND OF PHILOE, &c.
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+The Island of Philoe--The Cataract of Assouan--The Burial Place
+of Osiris--The Great Temple of Philoe--The Bed of Pharaoh--Shooting
+in Egypt--Turtle Doves--Story of the Prince Anas el
+Ajoud--Egyptian Songs--Vow of the Turtle Dove--Curious
+fact in Natural History--The Crocodile and its Guardian Bird--Arab
+notions regarding Animals--Legend of King Solomon and
+the Hoopoes--Natives of the country round the Cataracts of the
+Nile--Their appearance and Costume--The beautiful Mouna--Solitary
+Visit to the Island of Philoe--Quarrel between two native
+Boys--Singular instance of retributive Justice                       141
+
+
+PART II.
+
+
+JERUSALEM AND THE MONASTERY OF
+ST. SABBA.
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+Journey to Jerusalem--First View of the Holy City--The Valley
+of Gihon--Appearance of the City--The Latin Convent of St.
+Salvador--Inhospitable Reception by the Monks--Visit to the
+Church of the Holy Sepulchre--Description of the Interior--The
+Chapel of the Sepulchre--The Chapel of the Cross on Mount
+Calvary--The Tomb and Sword of Godfrey de Bouillon--Arguments
+in favour of the Authenticity of the Holy Sepulchre--The
+Invention of the Cross by the Empress Helena--Legend of the
+Cross                                                                165
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+The Via Dolorosa--The Houses of Dives and of Lazarus--The
+Prison of St Peter--The Site of the Temple of Solomon--The
+Mosque of Omar--The Hadjr el Sakhara--The Greek Monastery--Its
+Library--Valuable Manuscripts--Splendid MS. of the
+Book of Job--Arabic spoken at Jerusalem--Mussulman Theory
+regarding the Crucifixion--State of the Jews--Richness of their
+Dress in their own Houses--Beauty of their Women--Their
+literal Interpretation of Scripture--The Service in the Synagogue--Description
+of the House of a Rabbi--The Samaritans--Their
+Roll of the Pentateuch--Arrival of Ibrahim Pasha at
+Jerusalem                                                            181
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+Expedition to the Monastery of St. Sabba--Reports of Arab Robbers--The
+Valley of Jehoshaphat--The Bridge of Al Sirat--Rugged
+Scenery--An Arab Ambuscade--A successful Parley--The
+Monastery of St. Sabba--History of the Saint--The Greek
+Hermits--The Church--The Iconostasis--The Library--Numerous
+MSS.--The Dead Sea--The Scene of the Temptation--Discovery--The
+Apple of the Dead Sea--The Statements of
+Strabo and Pliny confirmed                                           192
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+Church of the Holy Sepulchre--Processions of the Copts--The
+Syrian Maronites and the Greeks--Riotous Behaviour of the Pilgrims--Their
+immense numbers--The Chant of the Latin Monks--Ibrahim
+Pasha--The Exhibition of the Sacred Fire--Excitement
+of the Pilgrims--The Patriarch obtains the Sacred Fire from the
+Holy Sepulchre--Contest for the Holy Light--Immense sum paid
+for the privilege of receiving it first--Fatal Effects of the Heat
+and Smoke--Departure of Ibrahim Pasha--Horrible Catastrophe--Dreadful
+Loss of Life among the Pilgrims in their endeavours
+to leave the Church--Battle with the Soldiers--Our Narrow
+Escape--Shocking Scene in the Court of the Church--Humane
+Conduct of Ibrahim Pasha--Superstition of the Pilgrims regarding
+Shrouds--Scallop Shells and Palm Branches--The Dead
+Muleteer--Moonlight View of the Dead Bodies--The Curse on
+Jerusalem--Departure from the Holy City                              208
+
+
+PART III.
+
+
+THE MONASTERIES OF METEORA.
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+Albania--Ignorance at Corfu concerning that Country--Its reported
+abundance of Game and Robbers--The Disturbed State of the
+Country--The Albanians--Richness of their Arms--Their free
+use of them--Comparative Safety of Foreigners--Tragic Fate of
+a German Botanist--Arrival at Gominitza--Ride to Paramathia--A
+Night's Bivouac--Reception at Paramathia--Albanian Ladies--Yanina--Albanian
+Mode of settling a Quarrel--Expected
+Attack from Robbers--A Body-Guard mounted--Audience with
+the Vizir--His Views of Criminal Jurisprudence--Retinue of the
+Vizir--His Troops--Adoption of the European Exercises--Expedition
+to Berat--Calmness and Self-possession of the Turks--Active
+Preparations for Warfare--Scene at the Bazaar--Valiant
+Promises of the Soldiers                                             235
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+Start for Meteora--Rencontre with a Wounded Traveller--Barbarity
+of the Robbers--Albanian Innkeeper--Effect of the
+Turkish Language upon the Greeks--Mezzovo--Interview with
+the chief Person in the Village--Mount Pindus--Capture by
+Robbers--Salutary effects of Swaggering--Arrival under Escort
+at the Robbers' Head-Quarters--Affairs take a favourable turn--An
+unexpected Friendship with the Robber Chief--The Khan of
+Malacash--Beauty of the Scenery--Activity of our Guards--Loss
+of Character--Arrival at Meteora                                     257
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+Meteora--The extraordinary Character of its Scenery--Its Caves formerly
+the Resort of Ascetics--Barbarous Persecution of the Hermits--Their
+extraordinary Religious Observances--Singular Position of the
+Monasteries--The Monastery of Barlaam--The difficulty of reaching
+it--Ascent by a Windlass and Net, or by Ladders--Narrow
+Escape--Hospitable Reception by the Monks--The Agoumenos, or Abbot--His
+strict Fast--Description of the Monastery--The Church--Symbolism in the
+Greek Church--Respect for Antiquity--The Library--Determination of the
+Abbot not to sell any of the MSS.--The Refectory--Its
+Decorations--Aerial Descent--The Monastery of Hagios Stephanos--Its
+Carved Iconostasis--Beautiful View from the Monastery--Monastery of Agia
+Triada--Summary Justice at Triada--Monastery of Agia Roserea--Its Lady
+Occupants--Admission refused                                         279
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+The great Monastery of Meteora--The Church--Ugliness of the
+Portraits of Greek Saints--Greek Mode of Washing the Hands--A
+Monastic Supper--Morning View from the Monastery--The
+Library--Beautiful MSS.--Their Purchase--The Kitchen--Discussion
+among the Monks as to the Purchase Money for the
+MSS.--The MSS. reclaimed--A last look at their Beauties--Proposed
+Assault of the Monastery by the Robber Escort                        298
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+Return Journey--Narrow Escape--Consequences of Singing--Arrival
+at the Khan of Malacash--Agreeable Anecdote--Parting
+from the Robbers at Messovo--A Pilau--Wet Ride to
+Paramathia--Accident to the Baggage-Mule--Its wonderful
+Escape--Novel Costume--A Deputation--Return to Corfu                 312
+
+
+PART IV.
+
+
+THE MONASTERIES OF MOUNT ATHOS.
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+Constantinople--The Patriarch's Palace--The Plague, Anecdotes,
+Superstitions--The Two Jews--Interview with the Patriarch--Ceremonies
+of Reception--The Patriarch's Misconception as to
+the Archbishop of Canterbury--He addresses a Firman to the
+Monks of Mount Athos--Preparations for Departure--The Ugly
+Greek Interpreter--Mode of securing his Fidelity                     327
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+Coom Calessi--Uncomfortable Quarters--A Turkish Boat and its
+Crew--Grandeur of the Scenery--Legend of Jason and the
+Golden Fleece--The Island of Imbros--Heavy Rain Storm--A
+Rough Sea--Lemnos--Bad Accommodation--The Old
+Woman's Mattress and its Contents--Striking View of Mount
+Athos from the Sea--The Hermit of the Tower                          342
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+Monastery of St. Laura--Kind Reception by the Abbot--Astonishment
+of the Monks--History of the Monastery--Rules of
+the Order of St. Basil--Description of the Buildings--Curious
+Pictures of the Last Judgment--Early Greek Paintings; Richness
+of their Frames and Decorations--Ancient Church Plate--Beautiful
+Reliquary--The Refectory--The Abbot's Savoury
+Dish--The Library--The MSS.--Ride to the Monastery of
+Caracalla--Magnificent Scenery                                       356
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+The Monastery of Caracalla--Its beautiful Situation--Hospitable
+Reception--Description of the Monastery--Legend of its Foundation--The
+Church--Fine Specimens of Ancient Jewellery--The
+Library--The Value attached to the Books by the Abbot--He
+agrees to sell some of the MSS.--Monastery of Philotheo--The
+Great Monastery of Iveron--History of its Foundation--Its
+magnificent Library--Ignorance of the Monks--Superb MSS.--The
+Monks refuse to part with any of the MSS.--Beauty of the
+Scenery of Mount Athos                                               377
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+The Monastery of Stavroniketa--The Library--Splendid MS. of
+St. Chrysostom--The Monastery of Pantocratoras--Ruinous Condition
+of the Library--Complete Destruction of the Books--Disappointment--Oration
+to the Monks--The Great Monastery
+of Vatopede--Its History--Ancient Pictures in the Church--Legend
+of the Girdle of the Blessed Virgin--The Library--Wealth
+and Luxury of the Monks--The Monastery of Sphigmenou--Beautiful
+Jewelled Cross--The Monastery of Kiliantari--Magnificent
+MS. in Gold Letters on White Vellum--The Monasteries
+of Zographou, Castamoneta, Docheirou, and Xenophou--The
+Exiled Bishops--The Library--Very fine MSS.--Proposals
+for their Purchase--Lengthened Negotiations--Their successful
+Issue                                                                391
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+The Monastery of Russico--Its Courteous Abbot--The Monastery
+of Xeropotamo--Its History--High Character of its Abbot--Excursion
+to the Monasteries of St. Nicholas and St. Dionisius--Interesting
+Relics--Magnificent Shrine--The Library--The
+Monastery of St. Paul--Respect shown by the Monks--Beautiful
+MS.--Extraordinary Liberality and Kindness of the Abbot and
+Monks--A valuable Acquisition at little Cost--The Monastery
+of Simopetra--Purchase of MS.--The Monk of Xeropotamo--His
+Ideas about Women--Excursion to Cariez--The Monastery
+of Coutloumoussi--The Russian Book-Stealer--History of the
+Monastery--Its reputed Destruction by the Pope of Rome--The
+Aga of Cariez--Interview in a Kiosk--The She Cat of Mount
+Athos                                                                413
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+Caracalla--The Agoumenos--Curious Cross--The Nuts of Caracalla--Singular
+Mode of preparing a Dinner Table--Departure
+from Mount Athos--Packing of the MSS.--Difficulties of the
+Way--Voyage to the Dardanelles--Apprehended Attack from
+Pirates--Return to Constantinople                                    436
+
+FOOTNOTES
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+     The costumes are from drawings made at Constantinople by a Maltese
+     artist. They are all portraits, and represent the costumes worn at
+     the present day in different parts of the Turkish Empire. The
+     others are from drawings and sketches by the Author, except one
+     from a beautiful drawing by Lord Eastnor, for which the Author begs
+     to express his thanks and obligations.
+
+
+THE MONASTERY OF METEORA, FROM THE MONASTERY
+OF BARLAAM. FROM A DRAWING BY
+VISCOUNT EASTNOR                                            _FRONTISPIECE_
+
+INTERIOR OF THE COURT OF A GREEK MONASTER                 _Title Vignette_
+
+KOORD, OR NATIVE OF KOORDISTAN                        _To face page_ xxix.
+
+NEGRESS WAITING TO BE SOLD               "                              5
+
+BEDOUIN ARAB                             "                              7
+
+EGYPTIAN IN THE NIZAM DRESS              "                             49
+
+INTERIOR OF AN ABYSSINIAN LIBRARY        "                             97
+
+MENDICANT DERVISH                        "                            139
+
+PLAN OF THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE,
+JERUSALEM                                "                            165
+
+THE MONASTERY OF ST. BARLAAM             "                            235
+
+TATAR, OR GOVERNMENT MESSENGER           "                            237
+
+TURKISH COMMON SOLDIER                   "                            251
+
+THE N.W. VIEW OF THE PROMONTORY OF MOUNT ATHOS _To face Part IV., p._ 327
+
+GREEK SAILOR                                             _To face p._ 351
+
+THE MONASTERY OF SIMOPETRA               "                            426
+
+CIRCASSIAN LADY                          "                            429
+
+TURKISH LADY IN THE YASHMAK OR VEIL      "                            434
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
+
+
+A more enlarged account of the Monasteries of the Levant would, I think,
+be interesting for many reasons if the task was undertaken by some one
+much more competent than myself to do justice to so curious a subject.
+In these monasteries resided the early fathers of the Church, and within
+the precincts of their time-hallowed walls were composed those writings
+which have since been looked up to as the rules of Christian life: from
+thence also were promulgated the doctrines of the Heresiarchs, which, in
+the early ages of the Church, were the causes of so much dissension and
+confusion, rancour and persecution, in the disastrous days of the
+decline and fall of the Roman empire.
+
+The monasteries of the East are besides particularly interesting to the
+lovers of the picturesque, from the beautiful situations in which they
+are almost invariably placed. The monastery of Megaspelion, on the coast
+of the Gulf of Corinth, is built in the mouth of an enormous cave. The
+monasteries of Meteora, and some of those on Mount Athos, are remarkable
+for their positions on the tops of inaccessible rocks; many of the
+convents in Syria, the islands of Cyprus, Candia, the Archipelago, and
+the Prince's Islands in the Sea of Marmora, are unrivalled for the
+beauty of the positions in which they stand; many others in Bulgaria,
+Asia Minor, Sinope, and other places on the shores of the Black Sea, are
+most curious monuments of ancient and romantic times. There is one on
+the road to Persia, about one day's journey inland from Trebizond, which
+is built half way up the side of a perpendicular precipice; it is
+ensconced in several fissures of the rock, and various little gardens
+adjoining the buildings display the industry of the monks; these are
+laid out on shelves or terraces wherever the nature of the spot affords
+a ledge of sufficient width to support the soil; the different parts of
+the monastery are approached by stairs and flights of steps cut in the
+face of the precipice, leading from one cranny to another; the whole has
+the appearance of a bas-relief stuck against a wall; this monastery
+partakes of the nature of a large swallow's nest. But it is for their
+architecture that the monasteries of the Levant are more particularly
+deserving of study; for, after the remains of the private houses of the
+Romans at Pompeii, they are the most ancient specimens extant of
+domestic architecture. The refectories, kitchens, and the cells of the
+monks exceed in point of antiquity anything of the kind in Europe. The
+monastery of St. Katherine at Mount Sinai has hardly been altered since
+the sixth century, and still contains ornaments presented to it by the
+Emperor Justinian. The White Monastery and the monastery at Old Cairo,
+both in Egypt, are still more ancient. The monastery of Kuzzul Vank,
+near the sources of the Euphrates, is, I believe, as old as the fifth
+century. The greater number in all the countries where the Greek faith
+prevails, were built before the year 1000. Most monasteries possess
+crosses, candlesticks, and reliquaries, many of splendid workmanship,
+and of the era of the foundation of the buildings which contain them,
+while their mosaics and fresco paintings display the state of the arts
+from the most early periods.
+
+It has struck me as remarkable that the architecture of the churches in
+these most ancient monasteries is hardly ever fine; they are usually
+small, being calculated only for the monks, and not for the reception of
+any other congregation. The Greek churches, even those which are not
+monastic, are far inferior both in size and interest to the Latin
+basilicas of Rome. With the single exception of the church (now mosque)
+of St. Sophia, there is no Byzantine church of any magnitude. The
+student of ecclesiastical antiquities need not extend his architectural
+researches beyond the shores of Italy: there is nothing in the East so
+curious as the church of St. Clemente at Rome, which contains all the
+original fittings of the choir. The churches of St. Ambrogio at Milan,
+of Sta. Maria Trastevere at Rome, the first church dedicated to the
+Blessed Virgin; the church of St. Agnese near Rome, the first in which
+galleries were built over the side aisles for the accommodation of
+women, who, neither in the Eastern nor Western churches, ever mixed with
+the men for many centuries; all these and several others in Italy afford
+more instruction than those of the East--they are larger, more
+magnificent, and in every respect superior to the ecclesiastical
+buildings of the Levant. But the poverty of the Eastern church, and its
+early subjection to Mahometan rulers, while it has kept down the size
+and splendour of the churches, has at the same time been the means of
+preserving the monastic establishments in all the rude originality of
+their ancient forms. In ordinary situations these buildings are of the
+same character: they resemble small villages, built mostly without much
+regard to any symmetrical plan, around a church which is constructed in
+the form of a Greek cross; the roof is covered either with one or five
+domes; all these buildings are surrounded by a high, strong wall, built
+as a fortification to protect the brotherhood within, not without
+reason, even in the present day. I have been quietly dining in a
+monastery, when shouts have been heard, and shots have been fired
+against the stout bulwarks of the outer walls, which, thanks to their
+protection, had but little effect in delaying the transit of the morsel
+between my fingers into the ready gulf provided by nature for its
+reception. The monks of the Greek Church have diminished in number and
+wealth of late years, their monasteries are no longer the schools of
+learning which they used to be; few can read the Hellenic or ancient
+Greek; and the following anecdote will suffice to show the estimation in
+which a conventual library has not unusually been held. A Russian, or I
+do not know whether he was not a French traveller, in the pursuit, as I
+was, of ancient literary treasures, found himself in a great monastery
+in Bulgaria to the north of the town of Cavalla; he had heard that the
+books preserved in this remote building were remarkable for their
+antiquity, and for the subjects on which they treated. His dismay and
+disappointment may be imagined when he was assured by the agoumenos or
+superior of the monastery, that it contained no library whatever, that
+they had nothing but the liturgies and church books, and no palaia
+pragmata or antiquities at all. The poor man had bumped upon a
+pack-saddle over villainous roads for many days for no other object, and
+the library of which he was in search had vanished as the visions of a
+dream. The agoumenos begged his guest to enter with the monks into the
+choir, where the almost continual church service was going on, and there
+he saw the double row of long-bearded holy fathers, shouting away at the
+chorus of [Greek: kurie eleison], [Greek: christe eleison] (pronounced
+Kyre eleizon, Christe eleizon), which occurs almost every minute, in the
+ritual of the Greek Church. Each of the monks was standing, to save his
+bare legs from the damp of the marble floor, upon a great folio volume,
+which had been removed from the conventual library and applied to
+purposes of practical utility in the way which I have described. The
+traveller on examining these ponderous tomes found them to be of the
+greatest value; one was in uncial letters, and others were full of
+illuminations of the earliest date; all these he was allowed to carry
+away in exchange for some footstools or hassocks, which he presented in
+their stead to the old monks; they were comfortably covered with ketche
+or felt, and were in many respects more convenient to the inhabitants of
+the monastery than the manuscripts had been, for many of their antique
+bindings were ornamented with bosses and nail heads, which
+inconvenienced the toes of the unsophisticated congregation who stood
+upon them without shoes for so many hours in the day. I must add that
+the lower halves of the manuscripts were imperfect, from the damp of the
+floor of the church having corroded and eat away their vellum leaves,
+and also that, as the story is not my own, I cannot vouch for the truth
+of it, though, whether it is true or not, it elucidates the present
+state of the literary attainments of the Oriental monks. Ignorance and
+superstition walk hand in hand, and the monks of the Eastern churches
+seem to retain in these days all the love for the marvellous which
+distinguished their Western brethren in the middle ages. Miraculous
+pictures abound, as well as holy springs and wells. Relics still perform
+wonderful cures. I will only as an illustration to this statement
+mention one of the standing objects of veneration which may be witnessed
+any day in the vicinity of the castle of the Seven Towers, outside of
+the walls of Constantinople: there a rich monastery stands in a lovely
+grove of trees, under whose shade numerous parties of merry Greeks often
+pass the day, dividing their time between drinking, dancing, and
+devotion.
+
+The unfortunate Emperor Constantine Paleologus rode out of the city
+alone to reconnoitre the outposts of the Turkish army, which was
+encamped in the immediate vicinity. In passing through a wood he found
+an old man seated by the side of a spring cooking some fish on a
+gridiron for his dinner; the emperor dismounted from his white horse and
+entered into conversation with the other; the old man looked up at the
+stranger in silence, when the emperor inquired whether he had heard
+anything of the movements of the Turkish forces--"Yes," said he, "they
+have this moment entered the city of Constantinople." "I would believe
+what you say," replied the emperor, "if the fish which you are broiling
+would jump off the gridiron into the spring." This, to his amazement,
+the fish immediately did, and, on his turning round, the figure of the
+old man had disappeared. The emperor mounted his horse and rode towards
+the gate of Silivria, where he was encountered by a band of the enemy
+and slain, after a brave resistance, by the hand of an Arab or a Negro.
+
+The broiled fishes still swim about in the water of the spring, the
+sides of which have been lined with white marble, in which are certain
+recesses where they can retire when they do not wish to receive company.
+The only way of turning the attention of these holy fish to the
+respectful presence of their adorers is accomplished by throwing
+something glittering into the water, such as a handful of gold or silver
+coin; gold is the best, copper produces no effect; he that sees one fish
+is lucky, he that sees two or three goes home a happy man; but the
+custom of throwing coins into the spring has become, from its constant
+practice, very troublesome to the good monks, who kindly depute one of
+their community to rake out the money six or seven times a day with a
+scraper at the end of a long pole. The emperor of Russia has sent
+presents to the shrine of Baloukli, so called from the Turkish word
+Balouk, a fish. Some wicked heretics have said that these fishes are
+common perch: either they or the monks must be mistaken, but of whatever
+kind they are, they are looked upon with reverence by the Greeks, and
+have been continually held in the highest honour from the time of the
+siege of Constantinople to the present day.
+
+I have hitherto noticed those monasteries only which are under the
+spiritual jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Constantinople, but those of
+the Copts of Egypt and the Maronites of Syria resemble them in almost
+every particular. As it has never been the custom of the Oriental
+Christians to bury the dead within the precincts of the church, they
+none of them contain sepulchral monuments. The bodies of the Byzantine
+emperors were enclosed in sarcophagi of precious marbles, which were
+usually deposited in chapels erected for the purpose--a custom which has
+been imitated by the sultans of Turkey. Of all these magnificent
+sarcophagi and chapels or mausoleums where the remains of the imperial
+families were deposited, only one remains intact; every one but this has
+been violated, destroyed, or carried away; the ashes of the Caesars have
+been scattered to the winds. This is now known by the name of the chapel
+of St. Nazario e Celso, at Ravenna: it was built by Galla Placidia, the
+daughter of Theodosius; she died at Rome in 440, but her body was
+removed to Ravenna and deposited in a sarcophagus in this chapel; in the
+same place are two other sarcophagi, one containing the remains of
+Constantius, the second husband of Galla Placidia, and the other holding
+the body of her son Valentinian III. These tombs have never been
+disturbed, and are the only ones which remain intact of the entire line
+of the Caesars, either of the Eastern or Western empires.
+
+The tombstones or monuments of the Armenians deserve to be mentioned on
+account of their singularity. They are usually oblong pieces of marble
+lying flat upon the ground; on these are sculptured representations of
+the implements of the trade at which the deceased had worked during his
+lifetime; some display the manner in which the Armenian met his death.
+In the Petit Champ des Morts at Pera I counted, I think, five tombstones
+with bas-reliefs of men whose heads had been cut off. In Armenia the
+traveller is often startled by the appearance of a gigantic stone figure
+of a ram, far away from any present habitation: this is the tomb of some
+ancient possessor of flocks and herds whose house and village have
+disappeared, and nothing but his tomb remains to mark the site which
+once was the abode of men.
+
+[Illustration: KOORD, OR NATIVE OF KOORDISTAUN.]
+
+The Armenian monasteries, with the exception of that of Etchmiazin and
+one or two others, are much smaller buildings than those of the Greeks;
+they are constructed after the same model, however, being surrounded
+with a high blank wall. Their churches are seldom surmounted by a dome,
+but are usually in the form of a small barn, with a high pitched roof,
+built like the walls of large squared stones. At one end of the church
+is a small door, and at the other end a semicircular apsis; the windows
+are small apertures like loop-holes. These buildings, though of
+very small size, have an imposing appearance from their air of
+massive strength. The cells of the Armenian monks look into the
+courtyard, which is a remarkable fact in that country, where the rest of
+the inhabitants dwell in burrows underground like rabbits, and keep
+themselves alive during the long winters of their rigorous climate by
+the warmth proceeding from the cattle with whom they live, for fire is
+dear in a land too cold for trees to grow. The monasteries of the
+various sects of Christians who inhabit the mountains of Koordistaun are
+very numerous, and all more or less alike. Perched on the tops of crags,
+in these wild regions are to be seen the monastic fastnesses of the
+Chaldeans, who of late have been known by the name of Nestorians, the
+seat of whose patriarchate is at Julamerk. They have now been almost
+exterminated by Beder Khan Bey, a Koordish chief, in revenge for the
+cattle which they were alleged to have stolen from the Koordish villages
+in their vicinity. The Jacobites, the Sabaeans, and the Christians of St.
+John, who inhabit the banks of the Euphrates in the districts of the
+ancient Susiana, all have fortified monasteries which are mostly of
+great antiquity. From Mount Ararat to Bagdat, the different sects of
+Christians still retain the faith of the Redeemer, whom they have
+worshipped according to their various forms, some of them for more than
+fifteen hundred years; the plague, the famine, and the sword have
+passed over them and left them still unscathed, and there is little
+doubt but that they will maintain the position which they have held so
+long till the now not far distant period arrives when the conquered
+empire of the Greeks will again be brought under the dominion of a
+Christian emperor.
+
+
+
+
+MONASTERIES OF THE LEVANT.
+
+PART I.
+
+EGYPT IN 1833.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+     Navarino--The Wrecks of the Turkish and Egyptian
+     Fleets--Alexandria--An Arab Pilot--Intense Heat--Scene from the
+     Hotel Windows--The Water-Carriers--A Procession--A Bridal
+     Party--Violent mode of clearing the Road--Submissive Behaviour of
+     the People--Astonishing Number of Donkeys--Bedouin Arabs; their
+     wild and savage appearance--Early Hours--Visit to the Pasha's Prime
+     Minister, Boghos Bey; hospitable reception--Kawasses and Chaoushes;
+     their functions and powers--The Yassakjis--The Minister's Audience
+     Chamber--Walmas; anecdote of his saving the life of Boghos Bey.
+
+
+It was towards the end of July, 1833, that I took a passage from Malta
+to Alexandria in a merchant-vessel called the _Fortuna_; for in those
+days there were no steam-packets traversing every sea, with almost the
+same rapidity and accuracy as railway carriages on shore. We touched on
+our way at Navarino to sell some potatoes to the splendidly-dressed, and
+half-starved population of the Morea, numbers of whom we found lounging
+about in a temporary wooden bazaar, where there was nothing to sell. In
+various parts of the harbour the wrecks of the Turkish and Egyptian
+ships of war, stripped of their outer coverings, and looking like the
+gigantic skeletons of antediluvian animals, gave awful evidence of the
+destruction which had taken place not very long before in the battle
+between the Christian and Mahomedan fleets in this calm, land-locked
+harbour.
+
+On the 31st we found ourselves approaching the castle of Alexandria, and
+were soon hailed by some people in a curious-looking pilot-boat with a
+lateen sail. The pilot was an old man with a turban and a long grey
+beard, and sat cross-legged in the stern of his boat. We looked at him
+with vast interest, as the first live specimen we had seen of an Arab
+sailor. He was just the sort of man that I imagine Sindbad the Sailor
+must have been.
+
+Having by his directions been steered safely into the harbour, we cast
+anchor not far from the shore, a naked, dusty plain, which the blazing
+sun seemed to dare any one to cross, on pain of being shrivelled up
+immediately. The intensity of the heat was tremendous: the tar melted in
+the seams of the deck: we could scarcely bear it even when we were under
+the awning. Malta was hot enough, but the temperature there was cool in
+comparison to the fiery furnace in which we were at present grilling.
+However, there was no help for it; so, having got our luggage on shore,
+we sweltered through the streets to an inn called the Tre Anchore--the
+only hotel in Africa, I believe, in those days. It was a dismal little
+place, frequented by the captains of merchant-vessels, who, not being
+hot enough already, raised the temperature of their blood by drinking
+brandy-and-water, arrack, and other combustibles, in a dark, oven-like
+room below stairs.
+
+We took possession of all the rooms upstairs, of which the principal one
+was long and narrow, with two windows at the end, opening on to a
+covered balcony or verandah: this overlooked the principal street and
+the bazaar. Here my companion and I soon stationed ourselves and watched
+the novel and curious scene below; and strange indeed to the eye of an
+European, when for the first time he enters an Oriental city, is all he
+sees around him. The picturesque dresses, the buildings, the palm-trees,
+the camels, the people of various nations, with their long beards, their
+arms, and turbans, all unite to form a picture which is indelibly fixed
+in the memory. Things which have since become perfectly familiar to us
+were then utterly incomprehensible, and we had no one to explain them to
+us, for the one waiter of the poor inn, who was darting about in his
+shirt-sleeves after the manner of all waiters, never extended his
+answers to our questions beyond "Si, Signore," so we got but little
+information from him; however, we did not make use of our eyes the less
+for that.
+
+[Illustration: NEGRESS WAITING TO BE SOLD IN THE SLAVE BAZAAR, CAIRO]
+
+Among the first things we noticed, was the number of half-naked men who
+went running about, each with something like a dead pig under his arm,
+shouting out "Mother! mother!"[1] with a doleful voice. These were the
+sakis or water-carriers, with their goat-skins of the precious element,
+a bright brass cupful of which they sell for a small coin to the thirsty
+passengers. An old man with a fan in his hand made of a palm-branch, who
+was crumpled up in the corner of a sort of booth among a heap of dried
+figs, raisins, and dates, just opposite our window, was an object of
+much speculation to us how he got in, and how he would ever manage to
+get out of the niche into which he was so closely wedged. He was the
+merchant, as the Arabian Nights would call him, or the shopkeeper as we
+should say, who sat there cross-legged among his wares waiting patiently
+for a customer, and keeping off the flies in the meanwhile, as in due
+time we discovered that all merchants did in all countries of the East.
+Soon there came slowly by, a long procession of men on horseback with
+golden bridles and velvet trappings, and women muffled up in black silk
+wrappers; how they could bear them, hot as it was, astonished us. These
+ladies sat upon a pile of cushions placed so high above the backs of the
+donkeys on which they rode that their feet rested on the animal's
+shoulders. Each donkey was led by one man, while another walked by its
+side with his hand upon the crupper. With the ladies were two little
+boys covered with diamonds, mounted on huge fat horses, and
+ensconced in high-backed Mameluke saddles made of silver gilt. These
+boys we afterwards found out were being conducted in state to a house of
+their relations, where the rite of circumcision was to be performed. Our
+attention was next called to something like a four-post bed, with pink
+gauze curtains, which advanced with dignified slowness, preceded by a
+band of musicians, who raised a dire and fearful discord by the aid of
+various windy engines. This was a canopy, the four poles of which were
+supported by men, who held it over the heads of a bride and her two
+bridesmaids or friends, who walked on each side of her. The bride was
+not veiled in the usual way, as her friends were, but was muffled up in
+Cashmere shawls from head to foot. Something there was on the top of her
+head which gleamed like gold or jewels, but the rest of her person was
+so effectually wrapped up and concealed that no one could tell whether
+she was pretty or ugly, fat or thin, old or young; and although we gave
+her credit for all the charms which should adorn a bride, we rejoiced
+when the villainous band of music which accompanied her turned round a
+corner and went out of hearing.
+
+Some miserable-looking black slaves caught our attention, clothed each
+in a piece of Isabel-coloured canvas and led by a well-dressed man, who
+had probably just bought them. Then a great personage came by on
+horseback with a number of mounted attendants and some men on foot, who
+cleared the way before him, and struck everybody on the head with their
+sticks who did not get out of the way fast enough. These blows were
+dealt all round in the most unceremonious manner; but what appeared to
+us extraordinary was, that all these beaten people did not seem to care
+for being beat. They looked neither angry nor affronted, but only
+grinned and rubbed their shoulders, and moved on one side to let the
+train of the great man pass by. Now if this were done in London, what a
+ferment would it create! what speeches would be made about tyranny and
+oppression! what a capital thing some high-minded and independent
+patriot would make of it! how he would call a meeting to defend the
+rights of the subject! and how he would get his admirers to vote him a
+piece of plate for his noble and glorious exertions! Here nobody minded
+the thing; they took no heed of the indignity; and I verily believe my
+friend and I, who were safe up at the window, were the only persons in
+the place who felt any annoyance.
+
+The prodigious multitude of donkeys formed another strange feature in
+the scene. There were hundreds of them, carrying all sorts of things in
+panniers; and some of the smallest were ridden by men so tall that they
+were obliged to hold up their legs that their feet might not touch the
+ground. Donkeys, in short, are the carts of Egypt and the
+hackney-coaches of Alexandria.
+
+[Illustration: BEDOUIN ARAB.]
+
+In addition to the donkeys long strings of ungainly-looking camels were
+continually passing, generally preceded by a donkey, and accompanied by
+swarthy men clad in a short shirt with a red and yellow handkerchief
+tied in a peculiar way over their heads, and wearing sandals; these
+savage-looking people were Bedouins, or Arabs of the desert. A very
+truculent set they seemed to be, and all of them were armed with a long
+crooked knife and a pistol or two, stuck in a red leathern girdle. They
+were thin, gaunt, and dirty, and strode along looking fierce and
+independent. There was something very striking in the appearance of
+these untamed Arabs: I had never pictured to myself that anything so
+like a wild beast could exist in human form. The motions of their
+half-naked bodies were singularly free and light, and they looked as if
+they could climb, and run, and leap over anything. The appearance of
+many of the older Arabs, with their long white beard and their ample
+cloak of camel's hair, called an abba, is majestic and venerable. It was
+the first time that I had seen these "Children of the Desert," and the
+quickness of their eyes, their apparent freedom from all restraint, and
+their disregard of any conventional manners, struck me forcibly. An
+English gentleman in a round hat and a tight neck-handkerchief and
+boots, with white gloves and a little cane in his hand, was a style of
+man so utterly and entirely unlike a Bedouin Arab that I could hardly
+conceive the possibility of their being only different species of the
+same animal.
+
+After we had dined, being tired with the heat and the trouble we had had
+in getting our luggage out of the ship, I resolved to retire to bed at
+an early hour, and on going to the window to have another look at the
+crowd, I was surprised to find that there was scarcely anybody left in
+the streets, for these primitive people all go to bed when it gets dark,
+as the birds do; and except a few persons walking home with paper
+lanterns in their hands, the place seemed almost entirely deserted.
+
+The next morning, mounted on donkeys, we shambled across half the city
+to the residence of Boghos Bey, the Armenian prime minister of Mohammed
+Ali Pasha; we were received with great kindness and civility, and as at
+this time there had been but very few European travellers in Egypt, we
+were treated with distinguished hospitality. The Bey said that although
+the Pasha was then in Upper Egypt, he would take care that we should
+have every facility in seeing all the objects of interest, and that he
+would write to Habeeb Effendi, the Governor of Cairo, to acquaint him of
+our arrival, and direct him to let us have the use of the Pasha's
+horses, that kawasses should attend us, and that the Pasha would give us
+a firman, which would ensure our being well treated throughout the whole
+of his dominions.
+
+As a kawass is a person mentioned by all Oriental travellers, it may be
+as well to state that he is a sort of armed servant or body-guard
+belonging to the government; he bears as his badge of office a thick
+cane about four feet long, with a large silver head, with which
+instrument he occasionally enforces his commands and supports his
+authority as well as his person. Ambassadors, consuls, and occasionally
+travellers, are attended by kawasses. Their presence shows that the
+person they accompany is protected by the State, and their number
+indicates his dignity and rank. Formerly these kawasses were splendidly
+attired in embroidered dresses, and their arms and the accoutrements of
+their horses were of silver gilt: the ambassador at Constantinople has,
+I think, six of these attendants. Of late years their picturesque
+costume has been changed to a uniform frock-coat of European make, of a
+whity-brown colour.
+
+[Illustration: Silver head of staff.]
+
+There is a higher grade of officer of the same description, who is only
+to be met with at Court, and whose functions are nearly the same as
+those of a chamberlain with us. He is called a chaoush. His official
+staff is surmounted by a silver head, formed like a Greek bishop's
+staff, from the two horns of which several little round bells are
+suspended by a silver chain. The chaoush is a personage of great
+authority in certain things; he is a kind of living firman, before whom
+every one makes way. As I was desirous of seeing the shrine of the heads
+of Hassan and Hussein in the mosque of Hassan En, a place of peculiar
+sanctity at Cairo, into which no Christian had been admitted, the Pasha
+sent a chaoush with me, who concealed the head of his staff in his
+clothes, to be ready, in case it had been discovered that I was not a
+Mahomedan, to protect me from the fury of the devotees, who would
+probably have torn to pieces any unbeliever who intruded into the temple
+of the sons of Ali.
+
+Besides these two officers, the chaoush and kawass, there is another
+attendant upon public men, who is of inferior rank, and is called a
+yassakji, or forbidder; he looks like a dirty kawass, and has a stick,
+but without the silver knob. He is generally employed to carry messages,
+and push people out of the way, to make a passage for you through a
+crowd; but this kind of functionary is more frequently seen at
+Constantinople and the northern parts of Turkey than in Egypt.
+
+We found Boghos Bey in a large upper room, seated on a divan with two or
+three persons to whom he was speaking, while the lower end of the room
+was occupied by a crowd of chaoushes, kawasses, and hangers-on of all
+descriptions. We were served with coffee, pipes, and sherbet, and were
+entertained during the pauses of the conversation by the ticking and
+chiming of half a dozen clocks which stood about the room, some on the
+floor, some on the side-tables, and some stuck on brackets against the
+wall.
+
+One of the persons seated near the prime minister was a shrewd-looking
+man with one eye, of whom I was afterwards told the following anecdote.
+His name was Walmas; he had been an Armenian merchant, and was an old
+acquaintance of Mohammed Ali and of Boghos, before they had either of
+them risen to their present importance. Soon after the massacre of the
+Mamelukes, Mohammed Ali desired Boghos to procure him a large sum of
+money by a certain day, which Boghos declared was impossible at so short
+a notice. The Pasha, angry at being thwarted, swore that if he had not
+the money by the day he had named, he would have Boghos drowned in the
+Nile. The affrighted minister made every effort to collect the requisite
+sum, but when the day arrived much was wanting to complete it. Boghos
+stood before the Pasha, who immediately exclaimed, "Well! where is the
+money?" "Sir," replied Boghos, "I have not been able to get it all! I
+have procured all this, but, though I strained every nerve, and took
+every measure in my power, it was impossible to obtain the remainder."
+"What," exclaimed the Pasha, "you dog, have you not obeyed my commands?
+What is the use of a minister who cannot produce all the money wanted by
+his sovereign, at however short a notice? Here, put this unbeliever in
+a sack, and fling him into the Nile." This scene occurred in the citadel
+at Cairo; and an officer and some men immediately put him into a sack,
+threw it across a donkey, and proceeded to the Nile. As they were
+passing through the city, they were met by Walmas, who was attended by
+several servants, and who, seeing something moving in the sack which was
+laid across the donkey, asked the guards what they had got there. "Oh!"
+said the officer, "we have got Boghos, the Armenian, and we are going to
+throw him into the Nile, by his Highness the Pasha's order." "What has
+he done?" asked Walmas. "What do we know?" replied the officer;
+"something about money, I believe: no great thing, but his Highness has
+been in a bad humour lately. He will be sorry for it afterwards.
+However, we have our orders, and, therefore, please God, we are going to
+pitch him into the Nile." Walmas determined to rescue his old friend,
+and, assisted by his servants, immediately attacked the guard, who made
+little more than a show of resistance. Boghos was carried off, and
+concealed in a safe place, and the guards returned to the citadel and
+reported that they had pitched Boghos into the Nile, where he had sunk,
+as all should do who disobeyed the commands of his Highness. Some time
+afterwards, the Pasha, overcome by financial difficulties, was heard to
+say that he wished Boghos was still alive. Walmas, who was present,
+after some preliminary conversation (for the ground was rather
+dangerous), said that if his own pardon was insured, he could mention
+something respecting Boghos which he was sure would be agreeable to his
+Highness: and at last he owned that he had rescued him from the guards
+and had kept him concealed in his house in hopes of being allowed to
+restore so valuable a servant to his master. The Pasha was delighted at
+the news, instantly reinstated Boghos in all his former honours, and
+Walmas himself stood higher than ever in his favour; but the guards were
+executed for disobedience. Ever since that time Boghos Bey has continued
+to be the principal minister and most confidential adviser of Mohammed
+Ali Pasha.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+     Rapacity of the Dragomans--The Mahmoudieh Canal--The Nile at
+     Atfeh--The muddy Waters of the Nile--Richness of the Soil--Accident
+     to the Boatmen--Night Sailing--A Collision--A Vessel run
+     down--Escape of the Crew--Solemn Investigation--Final
+     Judgment--Curious Mode of Fishing--Tameness of the Birds--Jewish
+     Malefactors--Moving Pillar of Sand--Arrival at Cairo--Hospitable
+     Reception by the Consul-General.
+
+
+So long as there were no hotels in Egypt, the process of fleecing the
+unwary traveller was conducted on different principles from those
+followed in Europe. As he seldom understands the language, he requires
+an interpreter, or dragoman, who, as a matter of course, manages all his
+pecuniary affairs. The newly-arrived European eats and drinks whatever
+his dragoman chooses to give him; sees through his dragoman's eyes;
+hears through his ears; and, although he thinks himself master, is, in
+fact, only a part of the property of this Eastern servant, to be used by
+him as he thinks fit, and turned to the best account like any other real
+or personal estate.
+
+On our landing at Alexandria, my friend and I found ourselves in the
+same predicament as our predecessors, and straightway fell into the
+hands of these Philistines, two of whom we hired as interpreters. They
+were also to act as ciceroni, and were warranted to know all about the
+antiquities, and everything else in Egypt; they were to buy everything
+we wanted, to spend our money, and to allow no one to cheat us except
+themselves. One of these worthies was sent to engage a boat, to carry us
+down the Mahmoudieh Canal to Atfeh, where the canal is separated from
+the river by flood-gates, in consequence of which impediment we could
+not proceed in the same boat, but had to hire a larger one to take us on
+to Cairo.
+
+The banks of the canal being high, we had no view of the country as we
+passed along; but on various occasions when I ascended to the top of the
+bank, while the men who towed the boat rested from their labours, I saw
+nothing but great sandy flats interspersed with large pools of stagnant,
+muddy water. This prospect not being very charming, we were glad to
+arrive the next day on the shores of the Father of Rivers, whose swollen
+stream, although at Atfeh not more than half a mile in width, rolled by
+towards the north in eddies and whirlpools of smooth muddy water, in
+colour closely resembling a sea of mutton-broth.
+
+In my enthusiasm on arriving on the margin of this venerable river, I
+knelt down to drink some of it, and was disappointed in finding it by no
+means so good as I had always been told it was. On complaining of its
+muddy taste, I found that no one drank the water of the Nile till it had
+stood a day or two in a large earthen jar, the inside of which is
+rubbed with a paste of bitter almonds. This causes all impurities to be
+precipitated, and the water, thus treated, becomes the lightest,
+clearest, and most excellent in the world. At Atfeh, after a prodigious
+uproar between the men of our two boats, each set claiming to be paid
+for transporting the luggage, we set sail upon the Nile, and after
+proceeding a short distance, we stopped at a village, or small town, to
+buy some fruit. Here the surrounding country, a flat alluvial plain, was
+richly cultivated. Water-melons, corn, and all manner of green herbs
+flourished luxuriantly; everything looked delightfully fresh and green;
+flocks of pigeons were flying about; and multitudes of white spoonbills
+and other strange birds were stalking among the herbage, and rising
+around us in every direction. The fertility of the land appeared
+prodigious, and exceeded anything I had seen before. Numberless boats
+were passing on the river, and the general aspect of the scene betokened
+the wealth and plenty which would reward the toils of the agriculturist
+under any settled form of government. We returned to our boat loaded
+with fruit, among which were the Egyptian fig, the prickly pear, dates,
+limes, and melons of kinds that were new to us.
+
+Whilst we were discussing the merits of these refreshing productions, a
+board, which had been fastened on the outside of the vessel for four or
+five men to stand on, as they pushed the boat with poles through the
+shallow water, suddenly gave way, and the men fell into the river: they
+could, however, all swim like water-rats, and were soon on board again;
+when, putting out into the middle of the stream, we set two huge
+triangular lateen sails on our low masts, which raked forwards instead
+of backwards, and by the help of the wind made our way slowly towards
+the south. We slept in a small cabin in the stern of our vessel; this
+had a flat top, and formed the resting-place of the steersman, the
+captain of the ship, and our servants, who all lay down together on some
+carpets; the sailors slept upon the deck. We sailed on steadily all
+night; the stars were wonderfully bright; and I looked out upon the
+broad river and the flat silent shores, diversified here and there by a
+black-looking village of mud huts, surrounded by a grove of palms,
+whence the distant baying of the dogs was brought down upon the wind.
+Sometimes there was the cry of a wild bird, but soon again the only
+sound was the gentle ripple of the water against the sides of our boat.
+If the steersman was not asleep, every one else was; but still we glided
+on, and nothing occurred to disturb our repose, till the blazing light
+of the morning sun recalled us to activity, and all the bustling
+preparations for breakfast.
+
+We had sailed on for some time after this important event, and I was
+quietly reading in the shade of the cabin, when I was thrown backwards
+by the sudden stopping of the vessel, which struck against something
+with prodigious force, and screams of distress arose from the water all
+around us. On rushing upon deck I found that we had run down another
+boat, which had sunk so instantly that nothing was to be seen of it
+except the top of the mast, whose red flag was fluttering just above
+water, and to which two women were clinging. A few yards astern seven or
+eight men were swimming towards the shore, and our steersman having in
+his alarm left the rudder to its own devices, our great sails were
+swinging and flapping over our heads. There was a cry that our bows were
+stove in, and we were sinking; but, fortunately, before this could
+happen, the stream had carried us ashore, where we stuck in the mud on a
+shoal under a high bank, up which we all soon scrambled, glad to be on
+terra firma. The country people came running down to satisfy their
+curiosity, and we procured a small boat, which immediately rowed off to
+rescue the women who were still clinging to the mast-head of the sunken
+vessel, which was one of the kind called a djerm, and was laden with
+thirty tons of corn, besides other goods. No one, luckily, was drowned,
+though the loss was a serious one to the owners, for there was no chance
+of recovering either the vessel or the cargo. Whilst we were looking,
+the red flag to which the women had been clinging toppled over sideways,
+which completed the entire disappearance of the unfortunate djerm.
+
+Our reis, or captain, now returned to the roof of the cabin, where he
+sat down upon a mat, and lighting his pipe, smoked away steadily without
+saying a word, while the wet and dripping sailors, as well as the ladies
+belonging to the shipwrecked vessel, surrounded him, screaming,
+vociferating, and shouting all manner of invectives into his ears; in
+which employment they were effectively joined by a number of half-naked
+Arabs who had been cultivating the fields hard by. To all this they got
+no answer, beyond an occasional ejaculation of "God is great, and
+Mohammed is the prophet of God." His pipe was out before the clamour of
+the crowd had abated, and then, all of a sudden, he got up and with two
+or three others embarked in the little boat for a neighbouring village,
+to report the accident to the sheick, who, we were told, would return
+with him and inquire into the circumstances of the case.
+
+In about three hours the boat returned with the local authorities, two
+old villagers, in long blue shirts and dirty turbans, who took their
+seat upon a mat on the bank and smoked away in a serious manner for some
+time. Our captain made no more reply to the fresh accusations of the
+reassembled multitude than he had done before; but lit another pipe, and
+asserted that God was great. At last the two elders made signs that they
+intended to speak; and silence being obtained, they, with all due
+solemnity, declared that they agreed with the captain that God was
+great, and that undoubtedly Mohammed was the prophet of God. All parties
+having come to this conclusion, it appeared that there was nothing more
+to be said, and we returned to our boat, which the sailors, with the
+help of a rough carpenter, had patched up sufficiently to allow us to
+sail for a village on the other side of the river.
+
+During the time that we were remaining on the bank I was amused by
+watching the manoeuvres of some boys, who succeeded in catching a
+quantity of small fish in a very original way. They rolled together a
+great quantity of tangled weeds and long grass, with one end of which
+they swam out into the Nile, and bringing it back towards the shore,
+numerous unsuspecting fish were entangled in the mass of weeds, and were
+picked out and thrown on the bank by the young fishermen before they had
+time to get out of the scrape. In this way the boys secured a very
+respectable heap of small fry.
+
+We arrived safely at the village, where we stayed the night; but the
+next morning it appeared that the bows of our vessel were so much
+damaged that she could not be repaired under a delay of some days.
+Indeed, it appeared that we had been fortunate in accomplishing our
+passage across the river, for if we had foundered midway, not being able
+to swim like the amphibious Egyptians, we should probably have been
+drowned. It was, however, a relief to me to think that there were no
+crocodiles in this part of the Nile.
+
+The birds at this place appeared to be remarkably tame: some gulls, or
+waterfowl, hardly troubled themselves to move out of the way when a boat
+passed them; while those in the fields went on searching among the crops
+for insects close to the labourers, and without any of the alarm shown
+by birds in England.
+
+While we were dawdling about in the neighbourhood of the village, one of
+the servants, an old Maltese, discovered a boat with ten or twelve oars,
+lying in the vicinity. It belonged to the government, and was conveying
+two malefactors to Cairo under the guardianship of a kawass, who on
+learning our mishap gave us a passage in his boat, and to our great joy
+we bid adieu to our silent captain, and were soon rowing at a great
+rate, in a fine new canjah, on the way to Cairo. The two prisoners on
+board were Jews: one was taken up for cheating, and the other for using
+false weights. They were fastened together by the neck, with a chain
+about five feet long. One of the two was very restless; they said he had
+a good chance of being hanged; and he was always pulling the other
+unfortunate Hebrew about with him by the chain, in a manner which
+excited the mirth of the sailors, though it must have been anything but
+amusing to the person most concerned.
+
+The next day there was a hot wind, and the thermometer stood at 98 deg. in
+the shade. The kawass called our attention to a pillar of sand moving
+through the air in the desert to the south-east; it had an extraordinary
+appearance, and its effect upon a party travelling over those burning
+plains would have been terrific. It was evidently caused by a whirlwind,
+and men and camels are sometimes suffocated and overwhelmed when they
+are met by these columns of dry, heated sand, which stalk through the
+deserts like the evil genii of the storm. I have seen them in other
+countries, more particularly in Armenia; but this, which I saw on my
+first journey up the Nile, was the only moving pillar which I met with
+in Egypt or in any of the surrounding deserts. We passed two men fishing
+from a small triangular raft, composed of palm-branches fastened on the
+tops of a number of earthen vases. This raft had a remarkably light
+appearance; it seemed only just to touch the surface of the water, but
+was evidently badly calculated for such rude encounters as the one which
+we had lately experienced. Soon afterwards the tops of the great
+Pyramids of Giseh caught our admiring gaze, and in the morning of the
+12th of August we landed at Boulac, from which a ride of half an hour on
+donkeys brought our party to the hospitable mansion of the
+Consul-General, who was good enough to receive us in his house until we
+could procure quarters for ourselves.
+
+Having arrived at Cairo, a short account of the history of the city may
+be interesting to some readers. In the sixth and seventh centuries of
+our era this part of Egypt was inhabited principally by Coptic
+Christians, whose chief occupation consisted in quarrelling among
+themselves on polemical points of divinity and ascetic rule. The deserts
+of Nitria and the shores of the Red Sea were peopled with swarms of
+monks, some living together in monasteries, some in lavras, or monastic
+villages, and multitudes hiding their sanctity in dens and caves, where
+they passed their lives in abstract meditation. In the year 638 the
+Arabian general Amer ebn el As, with four hundred Arabs (see Wilkinson),
+advanced to the confines of Egypt, and after thirty days' siege took
+possession of Pelusium, which had been the barrier of the country on the
+Syrian side from the earliest periods of the Egyptian monarchy: he
+advanced without opposition to the city of Babylon, which occupied the
+site of Masr el Ateekeh, or Old Cairo, on the Nile; but the Roman
+station, which is now a Coptic monastery, containing a chamber said to
+have been occupied by the blessed Virgin, was so strong a fortress that
+the invaders were unable to effect an entrance in a siege of seven
+months. After this, a reinforcement of four hundred men arriving at
+their camp, their courage revived, and the castle of Babylon was taken
+by escalade. On the site of the Arabian encampment at Fostat, Amer
+founded the first mosque built on Egyptian soil. The town of Babylon
+was connected with the island of Rhoda by a bridge of boats, by which a
+communication was kept up with the city of Memphis, on the other side of
+the Nile. The Copts, whose religious fanaticism occasioned them to hate
+their masters, the Greeks of the Eastern Empire, more than the
+Mahomedans, welcomed the moment which promised to free them from their
+religious adversaries; and the traitor John Mecaukes, governor of
+Memphis, persuaded them to conclude a treaty with the invaders, by which
+it was stipulated that two dinars of gold should be paid for every
+Christian above sixteen years of age, with the exception of old men,
+women, and monks. From this time Fostat became the Arabian capital of
+Egypt. In the year 879 Sultan Tayloon, or Tooloon, built himself a
+palace, to which he added several residences or barracks for his guards,
+and the great mosque, which still exists, with pointed arches, between
+Fostat and the present citadel of Cairo. It was not, however, till the
+year 969 that Goher, the general of El Moez, Sultan of Kairoan, near
+Tunis, having invaded Egypt, and completely subdued the country, founded
+a new city near the citadel of Qattaeea, which acquired the name of El
+Kahira from the following circumstance. The architect having made his
+arrangements for laying the first stone of the new wall, waited for the
+fortunate moment, which was to be shown by the astrologers pulling a
+cord, extending to a considerable distance from the spot. A certain
+crow, however, who had not been taken into the council of the wise men,
+perched upon the cord, which was shaken by his weight, and the architect
+supposing that the appointed signal had been given, commenced his work
+accordingly. From this unlucky omen, and the vexation felt by those
+concerned, the epithet of Kahira ("the vexatious" or "unlucky") was
+added to the name of the city, Masr el Kahira meaning "the unlucky (city
+of) Egypt." Kahira in the Italian pronunciation has been softened into
+Cairo, by which name this famous city has been known for many centuries
+in Europe, though in the East it is usually called Masr only. From this
+time the Fatemite caliphs of Africa, who brought the bones of their
+ancestors with them from Kairoan, reigned for ten generations over the
+land of Egypt. The third in this succession was the Caliph Hakem, who
+built a mosque near the Bab el Nassr, and who was the founder of the
+sect of the Druses, and, as some say, of the Assassins. In the year 1171
+the famous Saladin usurped the throne from the last of the race of
+Fatema. His descendant, Moosa el Ashref, was deposed in his turn, in
+1250; from which time till the year 1543 Cairo was governed by the
+curious succession of Mameluke kings, who were mostly Circassian slaves
+brought up at the court of their predecessors, and arriving at the
+supreme rule of Egypt by election or intrigue. Toman Bey, the last of
+the Mameluke kings, was defeated by Selim, Emperor of the Turks, and
+hanged at Cairo, at the Bab Zooaley. But the aristocracy of the
+Mamelukes, as it may be called, still remained; and various beys became
+governors of Egypt under the Turkish sway, till they were all destroyed
+at one blow by Mohammed Ali Pasha, the now all but independent sovereign
+of Egypt.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+     National Topics of Conversation--The Rising of the Nile; evil
+     effects of its rising too high; still worse consequences of a
+     deficiency of its waters--The Nilometer--Universal Alarm in August,
+     1833--The Nile at length rises to the desired Height--Ceremony of
+     cutting the Embankment--The Canal of the Khalidj--Immense
+     Assemblage of People--The State Tent--Arrival of Habeeb
+     Effendi--Splendid Dresses of the Officers--Exertions of the Arab
+     Workmen--Their Scramble for Paras--Admission of the Water--Its
+     sudden Irruption--Excitement of the Ladies--Picturesque Effect of
+     large Assemblies in the East.
+
+
+In England every one talks about the weather, and all conversation is
+opened by exclamations against the heat or the cold, the rain or the
+drought; but in Egypt, during one part of the year at least, the rise of
+the Nile forms the general topic of conversation. Sometimes the ascent
+of the water is unusually rapid, and then nothing is talked of but
+inundations; for if the river overflows too much, whole villages are
+washed away; and as they are for the most part built of sunburned bricks
+and mud, they are completely annihilated; and when the waters subside,
+all the boundary marks are obliterated, the course of canals is altered,
+and mounds and embankments are washed away. On these occasions the
+smaller landholders have great difficulty in recovering their property;
+for few of them know how far their fields extend in one direction or
+the other, unless a tree, a stone, or something else remains to mark
+the separation of one man's flat piece of mud from that of his
+neighbour.
+
+But the more frequent and the far more dreaded calamity is the
+deficiency of water. This was the case in 1833, and we heard nothing
+else talked of. "Has it risen much to-day?" inquires one.--"Yes, it has
+risen half a pic since the morning." "What! no more? In the name of the
+Prophet! what will become of the cotton?"--"Yes; and the doura will be
+burnt up to a certainty if we do not get four pics more." In short, the
+Nile has it all its own way; everything depends on the manner in which
+it chooses to behave, and El Bahar (the river) is in everybody's mouth
+from morning till night. Criers go about the city several times a day
+during the period of the rising, who proclaim the exact height to which
+the water has arrived, and the precise number of pics which are
+submerged on the Nilometer.
+
+This Nilometer is an ancient octagon pillar of red stone in the island
+of Rhoda, on the sides of which graduated scales are engraved. It stands
+in the centre of a cistern, about twenty-five feet square, and more than
+that in depth. A stone staircase leads down to the bottom, and the side
+walls are ornamented with Cufic inscriptions beautifully cut. Of this
+antique column I have seen more than most people; for on the 28th of
+August, 1833, the water was so low that there was the greatest
+apprehension of a total failure of the crops, and of the consequent
+famine. At that time nine feet more water was wanted to ensure an
+average crop; much of the Indian corn had already failed; and from the
+Pasha in his palace to the poorest fellah in his mud hovel, all were in
+consternation; for in this country, where it never rains, everything
+depends on irrigation,--the revenues of the state, the food of the
+country, and the life or death of the bulk of the population.
+
+At length the Nile rose to the desired height; and the 6th of September
+was fixed for the ceremony of cutting the embankment which keeps back
+the water from entering into the canal of the Khalidj. This canal joins
+the Nile near the great tower which forms the end of the aqueduct built
+by Saladin, and through it the water is conveyed for the irrigation of
+Cairo and its vicinity. One peculiarity of this city is, that several of
+its principal squares or open spaces are flooded during the inundation;
+and, in consequence of this, are called lakes, such as Birket el Fil
+(the Lake of the Elephant), Birket el Esbekieh, &c. Many of the
+principal houses are built upon the banks of the Khalidj canal, which
+passes through the centre of the town, and which now had the appearance
+of a dusty, sunken lane; and the annual admission of the water into its
+thirsty bed is an event looked forward to as a public holiday by all
+classes. Accordingly, early in the morning, men, women, and children
+sallied forth to the borders of the Nile, and it seemed as if no one
+would be left in the city. The worthy citizens of Cairo, on horses,
+mules, donkeys, and on foot, were seen streaming out of the gates, and
+making their way in the cool of the morning, all hoping to obtain places
+from whence they might catch a glimpse of the cutting of the embankment.
+
+We mounted the horses which the Pasha's grooms brought to our door. They
+were splendidly caparisoned with red velvet and gold; horses were also
+supplied for all our servants; and we wended our way through happy and
+excited crowds to a magnificent tent which had been erected for the
+accommodation of the grandees, on a sort of ancient stone quay
+immediately over the embankment. We passed through the lines of soldiers
+who kept the ground in the vicinity of the tent, around which was
+standing a numerous party of officers in their gala uniforms of red and
+gold.
+
+On entering the tent we found the Cadi; the son of the sheriff of Mecca,
+who I believe was kept as a sort of hostage for the good behaviour of
+his father, the Defterdar, or treasurer, and several other high
+personages, seated on two carpets, one on each side of a splendid velvet
+divan, which extended along that side of the tent which was nearest to
+the river, and which was open. Below the tent was the bank which was to
+be cut through, with the water of the Nile almost overflowing its brink
+on the one side, and the deep dry bed of the canal upon the other; a
+number of half-naked Arabs were working with spades and pick-axes to
+undermine this bank.
+
+Coffee and sherbet were presented to us while we awaited the arrival of
+Habeeb Effendi, who was to superintend the ceremony in the absence of
+the Pasha. No one sat upon the divan which was reserved for the
+accommodation of the great man, who was _vice_-viceroy on this occasion.
+I sat on the carpet by the son of the sheriff of Mecca, who was dressed
+in the green robes worn by the descendants of the Prophet. We looked at
+each other with some curiosity, and he carefully gathered up the edge of
+his sleeve, that it might not be polluted by the touch of such a heathen
+dog as he considered me to be.
+
+About 9 A.M. the firing of cannon and volleys of musketry, with the
+discordant noise of several military bands, announced the approach of
+Habeeb Effendi. He was preceded by an immense procession of beys,
+colonels, and officers, all in red and gold, with the diamond insignia
+of their rank displayed upon their breasts. This crowd of splendidly
+dressed persons, dismounting from their horses, filled the space around
+the tent; and, opening into two ranks, they made a lane along which
+Habeeb Effendi rode into the middle of the tent; all bowing low and
+touching their foreheads as he passed. A horseblock, covered with red
+cloth, was brought forward for him to dismount upon. His fat grey horse
+was covered with gold, the whole of the housings of the Wahabee saddle
+being not embroidered, but so entirely covered with ornaments in
+goldsmith's work, that the colour of the velvet beneath could scarcely
+be discerned. The great man was held up under each arm by two officers,
+who assisted him to the divan, upon which he took his seat, or rather
+subsided, for the portly proportions of his person prevented his feet
+appearing as he sat cross-legged upon the cushions, with his back to the
+canal. Coffee was presented to him, and a diamond-mounted pipe stuck
+into his mouth; and he puffed away steadily, looking neither right nor
+left, while the uproar of the surrounding crowd increased every moment.
+Quantities of rockets and other fireworks were now let off in the broad
+daylight, cannons fired, and volleys of musketry filled the air with
+smoke. The naked Arabs in the ditch worked like madmen, tearing away the
+earth of the embankment, which was rapidly giving way; whilst an officer
+of the Treasury threw handfuls of new pieces of five paras each (little
+coins of base silver of the value of a farthing) among them. The immense
+multitude shouted and swayed about, encouraging the men, who were
+excited almost to frenzy.
+
+At last there was a tremendous shout: the bank was beginning to give
+way; and showers of coin were thrown down upon it, which the workmen
+tried to catch. One man took off his wide Turkish trousers, and
+stretching them out upon two sticks caught almost a handful at a time.
+By degrees the earth of the embankment became wet, and large pieces of
+mud fell over into the canal. Presently a little stream of water made
+its way down the declivity, but the Arabs still worked up to their knees
+in water. The muddy stream increased, and all of a sudden the whole bank
+gave way. Some of the Arabs scrambled out and were helped up the sides
+of the canal by the crowd; but several, and among others he of the
+trousers, intent upon the shower of paras, were carried away by the
+stream. The man struggled manfully in the water, and gallantly kept
+possession of his trousers till he was washed ashore, and, with the
+assistance of some of his friends, landed safely with his spoils. The
+arches of the great aqueduct of Saladin were occupied by parties of
+ladies; and long lines of women in their black veils sat like a huge
+flock of crows upon the parapets above. They all waved their
+handkerchiefs and lifted up their voices in a strange shrill scream as
+the torrent increased in force; and soon, carrying everything before it,
+it entirely washed away the embankment, and the water in the canal rose
+to the level of the Nile.
+
+The desired object having been accomplished, Habeeb Effendi, who had not
+once looked round towards the canal, now rose to depart; he was helped
+up the steps of the red horse-block, and fairly hoisted into his
+saddle; and amidst the roar of cannon and musketry, the shouts of the
+people, and the clang of innumerable musical instruments, he departed
+with his splendid train of officers and attendants.
+
+Nothing can be conceived more striking than a great assemblage of people
+in the East: the various colours of the dresses and the number of white
+turbans give it a totally different appearance from that of a black and
+dingy European crowd; and it has been well compared by their poets to a
+garden of tulips. The numbers collected together on this occasion were
+immense; and the narrow streets were completely filled by the returning
+multitude, all delighted with the happy termination of the event of the
+day; but before noon the whole of the crowd was dispersed, all had
+returned to their own houses, and the city was as quiet and orderly as
+if nothing extraordinary had occurred.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+     Early Hours in the Levant--Compulsory Use of Lanterns in
+     Cairo--Separation of the different Quarters of the City--Custom of
+     sleeping in the open air--The Mahomedan Times of Prayer--Impressive
+     Effect of the Morning Call to Prayer from the Minarets--The last
+     Prayer-time, Al Assr--Bedouin Mode of ascertaining this
+     Hour--Ancient Form of the Mosques--The Mosque of Sultan
+     Hassan--Egyptian Mode of "raising the Supplies"--Sultan Hassan's
+     Mosque the Scene of frequent Conflicts--The Slaughter of the
+     Mameluke Beys in the Place of Roumayli--Escape of one Mameluke, and
+     his subsequent Friendship with Mohammed Ali--The Talisman of
+     Cairo--Joseph's Well and Hall--Mohammed Ali's Mosque--His Residence
+     in the Citadel--The Harem--Degraded State of the Women in the East.
+
+
+The early hours kept in the Levant cannot fail to strike the European
+stranger. At Cairo every one is up and about at sunrise; all business is
+transacted in the morning, and some of the bezesteins and principal
+bazaars are closed at twelve o'clock, at which hour many people retire
+to their homes and only appear again in the cool of the evening, when
+they take a ride or sit and smoke a pipe and listen to a storyteller in
+a coffee-house or under a tree. Soon after sunset the whole city is at
+rest. Every one who then has any business abroad is obliged to carry a
+small paper lantern, on pain of being taken up by the guard if he is
+found without it. Persons of middle rank have a glass lamp carried
+before them by a servant, and people of consequence are preceded by men
+who run before their train of horses with a fire of resinous wood,
+carried aloft on the top of a pole, in an iron grating called a mashlak.
+This has a picturesque effect, and throws a great light around.
+
+Each different district of the city is separated from the adjoining one
+by strong gates at the end of the streets: these are all closed at
+night, and are guarded by a drowsy old man with a long beard, who acts
+as porter, and who is roused with difficulty by the promise of a small
+coin when any one wants to pass. These gates contribute greatly to the
+peace and security of the town; for as the Turks, Arabs, Christians,
+Jews, Copts, and other religious sects reside each in a different
+quarter, any disturbance which may arise in one district is prevented
+from extending to another; and the drunken Europeans cannot intrude
+their civilization on their quiet and barbarous neighbours. There are
+here no theatres, balls, parties, or other nocturnal assemblies; and
+before the hour at which London is well lit up, the gentleman of Cairo
+ascends to the top of his house and sleeps upon the terrace, and the
+servants retire to the court-yard; for in the hot weather most people
+sleep in the open air. Many of the poorer class sleep in the open places
+and the courts of the mosques, all wrapping up their heads and faces
+that the moon may not shine upon them.
+
+The Mahomedan day begins at sunset, when the first time of prayer is
+observed; the second is about two hours after sunset; the third is at
+the dawn of day, when the musical chant of the muezzins from the
+thousand minarets of Cairo sounds most impressively through the clear
+and silent air. The voices of the criers thus raised above the city
+always struck me as having a holy and beautiful effect. First one or two
+are heard faintly in the distance, then one close to you, then the cry
+is taken up from the minarets of other mosques, and at last, from one
+end of the town to the other, the measured chant falls pleasingly on the
+ear, inviting the faithful to prayer. For a time it seems as if there
+was a chorus of voices in the air, like spirits, calling upon each other
+to worship the Creator of all things. Soon the sound dies away, there is
+a silence for a while, and then commence the hum and bustle of the
+awakening city. This cry of man, to call his brother man to prayer,
+seems to me more appropriate and more accordant to religious feeling
+than the clang and jingle of our European bells.
+
+The fourth and most important time of prayer is at noon, and it is at
+this hour that the Sultan attends in state the mosque at Constantinople.
+The fifth and last prayer is at about three o'clock. The Bedouins of the
+desert, who, however, are not much given to praying, consider this hour
+to have arrived when a stick, a spear, or a camel throws a shadow of its
+own height upon the ground. This time of the day is called "Al Assr."
+When wandering about in the deserts, I used always to eat my dinner or
+luncheon at that time, and it is wonderful to what exactness I arrived
+at last in my calculations respecting the time of the Assr. I knew to a
+minute when my dromedary's shadow was of the right length.
+
+The minarets of Cairo are the most beautiful of any in the Levant;
+indeed no others are to be compared to them. Some are of a prodigious
+height, built of alternate layers of red and white stone. A curious
+anecdote is told of the most ancient of all the minarets, that attached
+to the great mosque of Sultan Tayloon, an immense cloister or arcade
+surrounding a great square. The arches are all pointed, and are the
+earliest extant in that form, the mosque having been built in imitation
+of that at Mecca, in the year of the Hegira 265, Anno Domini 879. The
+minaret belonging to this magnificent building has a stone staircase
+winding round it outside: the reason of its having been built in this
+curious form is said to be, that the vizier of Sultan Tayloon found the
+king one day lolling on his divan and twisting a piece of paper in a
+spiral form; the vizier remarking upon the trivial nature of the
+employment of so great a monarch, he replied, "I was thinking that a
+minaret in this form would have a good effect: give orders, therefore,
+that such a one be added to the mosque which I am building."[2] In
+ancient times the mosques consisted merely of large open courts,
+surrounded by arcades; and frequently, on that side of the court which
+stood nearest to Mecca, this arcade was double. In later times covered
+buildings with large domes were added to the court; a style of building
+which has always been adopted in more northern climates.
+
+The finest mosque of this description is that of Sultan Hassan, in the
+place of the Roumayli, near the citadel. It is a magnificent structure,
+of prodigious height; it was finished about the year A.D. 1362. The
+money necessary for its construction is said to have been procured by
+the following ingenious device. The good Sultan Hassan was determined to
+build a mosque and a tomb for himself, but finding a paucity of means in
+his treasury, he sent out invitations to all the principal people of the
+country to repair to a grand feast at his court, when he said he would
+present each of his loving subjects with a robe of honour. On the
+appointed day they accordingly all made their appearance, dressed in
+their richest robes of state. There was not one but had a Cashmere shawl
+round his turban, and another round his waist, with a jewelled dagger
+stuck in it; besides other ornaments, and caftans of brocade and cloth
+of gold. They entered the place of the Roumayli each accompanied by a
+magnificent train of guards and attendants, who, according to the
+jealous custom of the times, remained below; while the chiefs, with one
+or two of their personal followers only, ascended into the citadel, and
+were ushered into the presence of the Sultan. They were received most
+graciously: how they contrived to pass their time in the fourteenth
+century, before the art of smoking was invented, I do not know, but
+doubtless they sat in circles round great bowls of rice, piled over
+sheep roasted whole, discussed the merits of lambs stuffed with
+pistachio-nuts, and ate cucumbers for dessert. When the feast was
+concluded the Sultan announced that each guest at his departure should
+receive the promised robe of honour; and as these distinguished
+personages, one by one, left the royal presence, they were conducted to
+a small chamber near the gate, in which were several armed officers of
+the household, who, with expressions of the most profound respect and
+solicitude, divested them of their clothes, which they immediately
+carried off. The astonished noble was then invested with a long white
+shirt, and ceremoniously handed out of an opposite door, which led to
+the exterior of the fortress, where he found his train in waiting. The
+Sultan kept all that he found worth keeping of the personal effects of
+his guests, who were afterwards glad to bargain with the chamberlain of
+the court for the restoration of their robes of state, which were
+ultimately returned to them--_for a consideration_. The mosque of Sultan
+Hassan was built with the proceeds of this original scheme; and the tomb
+of the founder is placed in a superb hall, seventy feet square, covered
+with a magnificent dome, which is one of the great features of the city.
+But he that soweth in the whirlwind shall reap in the storm. In
+consequence of the great height and thickness of the walls of this
+stately building, as well as from the circumstance of its having only
+one great gate of entrance, it was frequently seized and made use of as
+a fortress by the insurgents in the numerous rebellions and
+insurrections which were always taking place under the rule of the
+Mameluke kings. Great stains of blood are still to be seen on the marble
+walls of the court-yard, and even in the very chamber of the tomb of the
+Sultan there are the indelible marks of the various conflicts which have
+taken place, when the guardians of the mosque have been stabbed and cut
+down in its most sacred recesses. The two minarets of this mosque, one
+of which is much larger than the other, are among the most beautiful
+specimens of decorated Saracenic architecture. Of the largest of these
+minarets the following story is related. There was a man endued with a
+superabundance of curiosity, who, like Peeping Tom of Coventry, had a
+fancy for spying at the ladies on the house-tops from the summit of this
+minaret: at last he made some signals to one of the neighbouring ladies,
+which were unluckily discovered by the master of the house, who happened
+to be reposing in the harem. The two muezzins (as they often are) were
+blind men, and complaint was made to the authorities that the muezzins
+of Sultan Hassan permitted people to ascend the minarets to gaze into
+the forbidden precincts of the harems below. The two old muezzins were
+indignant when they were informed of this accusation, and were
+determined to watch for the intruder and kill him on the spot, the first
+time that they should find him ascending the winding staircase of the
+minaret. In the course of a few days a good-natured person gave the
+alarm, and told the two blind men that somebody had just entered the
+doorway on the roof of the mosque by which the minaret is ascended; one
+of the muezzins therefore ascended the minaret, armed with a sharp
+dagger, and the other waited at the narrow door below to secure the game
+whom his companion should drive out of the cover. The young man was
+surprised by the muezzin while he was looking over the lower gallery of
+the minaret, but escaping from him he ran up the stairs to the upper
+gallery: here he was followed by his enemy, who cried to the old man at
+the bottom to be ready, for he had found the rascal who had brought
+such scandal on the mosque. The muezzin chased the intruder round the
+upper gallery, and he slipped through the door and ran down again to the
+lower one, where he waited till the muezzin passed him on the stairs,
+then taking off his shoes he followed him lightly and silently till he
+arrived near the bottom door, when he suddenly pushed the muezzin, who
+had been up the minaret, against the one who stood guard below; the two
+blind men, each thinking he had got hold of the villain for whom he was
+in search, seized each other by the throat and engaged in mortal combat
+with their daggers, taking advantage of which the other escaped before
+the blind men had found out their mistake. At the next hour of prayer,
+their well-known voices not being heard as usual, some of the attendants
+at the mosque went up upon the roof to see what had happened, when they
+found the muezzins, who were just able to relate the particulars of
+their mistake before they died.
+
+It was in the place of the Roumayli that the gallant band of the
+Mameluke beys were assembled before they were entrapped and killed by
+the present task-master of Egypt, Mohammed Ali Pasha. They ascended a
+narrow passage between two high bastions, which led from the lower to
+the upper gate. The lower gate was shut after they had passed, and they
+were thus caught as in a trap. All of them were shot except one, who
+leaped his horse over the battlements and escaped. This man became
+afterwards a great ally of Mohammed Ali, and I have often seen him
+riding about on a fine horse caparisoned with red velvet in the old
+Mameluke style. On the wall in one part of this passage, towards the
+inner gate, there is a square tablet containing a bas-relief of a spread
+eagle: this is considered by the superstitious as the talisman of Cairo,
+and is said to give a warning cry when any calamity is about to happen
+to the city. Its origin, as well as most things of any antiquity in the
+citadel, is ascribed to Saladin (Yousef Sala Eddin), who is called here
+Yousef (Joseph); and Joseph's Well, and Joseph's Hall, are the two great
+lions of the place.
+
+The well, which is of great depth, is remarkable from its having a broad
+winding staircase cut in the rock around the shaft: this extends only
+half way down, where two oxen are employed to draw water by a wheel and
+buckets from the bottom, which is here poured into a cistern, whence it
+is raised to the top by another wheel. It is supposed, however, that
+this well is an ancient work, and that it was only cleaned out by
+Saladin when he rebuilt the walls of the town and fortified the citadel.
+
+The hall, which was a very fine room, divided into aisles by magnificent
+antique columns of red granite, has unfortunately been pulled down by
+Mohammed Ali. He did this to make way for the mosque which he has built
+of Egyptian alabaster, a splendid material, but its barbarous Armenian
+architecture offers a sad contrast to the stately edifice which has been
+so ruthlessly destroyed. It is indeed a sad thing for Cairo that the
+flimsy architecture of Constantinople, so utterly unsuited to this
+climate, has been introduced of late years in the public buildings and
+the palaces of the ministers, which lift up their bald and miserable
+whitewashed walls above the beautiful Arabian works of earlier days.
+
+The residence of the Pasha is within the walls of the citadel. The long
+range of the windows of the harem from their lofty position overlook
+great part of the city, which must render it a more cheerful residence
+for the ladies than harems usually are. When a number of Eastern women
+are congregated together, as is frequently the case, without the society
+of the other sex, it is surprising how helpless they become, and how
+neglectful of everything excepting their own persons and their food.
+Eating and dressing are their sole pursuits. If there be a garden
+attached to the harem they take no trouble about it, and at
+Constantinople the ladies of the Sultan tread on the flower-beds and
+destroy the garden as a flock of sheep would do if let loose in it. A
+Turkish lady is the wild variety of the species. Many of them are
+beautiful and graceful, but they do not appear to abound in intellectual
+charms. Until the minds of the women are enlarged by better education,
+any chance of amelioration among the people of the Levant is hopeless:
+for it is in the nursery that the seeds of superstition, prejudice, and
+unreason are sown, the effects of which cling for life to the minds even
+of superior men.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+     Interview with Mohammed Ali Pasha--Mode of lighting a Room in
+     Egypt--Personal Appearance of the Pasha--His Diamond-mounted
+     Pipe--The lost Handkerchief--An unceremonious Attendant--View of
+     Cairo from the Citadel--Site of Memphis; its immense extent--The
+     Tombs of the Caliphs--The Pasha's Mausoleum--Costume of Egyptian
+     Ladies--The Coboob, or Wooden Clog--Mode of dressing the Hair--The
+     Veil--Mistaken Idea that the Egyptian Ladies are Prisoners in the
+     Harem; their power of doing as they like--The Veil a complete
+     Disguise--Laws of the Harem--A Levantine Beauty--Eastern
+     Manners--The Abyssinian Slaves--Arab Girls--Ugliness of the Arab
+     Women when old--Venerable Appearance of the old Men--An Arab
+     Sheick.
+
+
+It was in the month of February, 1834, that I first had the honour of an
+audience with Mohammed Ali Pasha. It was during the Mahomedan month of
+Ramadan, when the day is kept a strict fast, and nothing passes the lips
+of the faithful till after sunset. It was at night, therefore, that we
+were received. My companion and myself were residing at that time under
+the hospitable roof of the Consul-General, and we accompanied him to the
+citadel. The effect of the crowds of people in the streets, all carrying
+lanterns, or preceded by men bearing the mashlak, blazing like a beacon
+on the top of its high pole, was very picturesque. The great hall of the
+citadel was full of men, arranged in rows with their faces towards the
+south, going through the forms and attitudes of evening prayer under
+the guidance of a leader, and with the precision of a regiment on drill.
+
+Passing these, a curtain was drawn aside, and we were ushered at once
+into the presence of the Viceroy, whom we found walking up and down in
+the middle of a large room, between two rows of gigantic silver
+candlesticks, which stood upon the carpet. This is the usual way of
+lighting a room in Egypt:--Six large silver dishes, about two feet in
+diameter and turned upside down, are first placed upon the floor, three
+on each side, near the centre of the room. On each of these stands a
+silver candlestick, between four and five feet high, containing a wax
+candle three feet long, and very thick. A seventh candlestick, of
+smaller dimensions, stands on the floor, separate from these, for the
+purpose of being moved about; it is carried to any one who wants to read
+a letter, or to examine an object more closely while he is seated on the
+divan. Almost every room in the palace has an European chandelier
+hanging from the ceiling, but I do not remember having ever seen one
+lit. These large candlesticks, standing in two rows, with the little one
+before them, always put me in mind of a line of life guards of gigantic
+stature, commanded by a little officer whom they could almost put in
+their pockets.
+
+[Illustration: EGYPTIAN, IN THE NIZAM DRESS.]
+
+Mohammed Ali desired us to be seated. He was attended by Boghos Bey, who
+remained standing and interpreted for us. The Pasha at that time
+was a hale, broad-shouldered, broad-faced man: his short grey beard
+stuck out on each side of his face; his nostrils were very much opened;
+and, with his quick sharp eye, he looked like an old grey lion. The
+expression of his countenance was remarkably intelligent, but excepting
+this there was nothing particular in his appearance. He was attired in
+the Nizam dress of blue cloth. This costume consists of a red cap, a
+jacket with flying sleeves, a waistcoat with tight sleeves under it, a
+red shawl round the waist, a pair of trousers very full, like trunk
+hose, down to the knee, from whence to the ankle they were tight. The
+whole costume is always made of the same coloured cloth, usually black
+or blue. He had white stockings and yellow morocco shoes.
+
+When we were seated on the divan we commenced the usual routine of
+Oriental compliments; and coffee was handed to us in cups entirely
+covered with large diamonds. A pipe was then brought to the Pasha, but
+not to us. This pipe was about seven feet long: the mouthpiece, of light
+green amber, was a foot long, and a foot more below the mouthpiece, as
+well as another part of the pipe lower down, was richly set with
+diamonds of great value, with a diamond tassel hanging to it.
+
+We discoursed for three quarters of an hour about the possibility of
+laying a railway across the Isthmus of Suez, which was the project then
+uppermost in the Pasha's mind; but the circumstance which most strongly
+recalls this audience to my memory, and which struck me as an instance
+of manners differing entirely from our own, was, in itself, a very
+trivial one. The Pasha wanted his pocket handkerchief, and looked about
+and felt in his pocket for it, but could not find it, making various
+exclamations during his search, which at last were answered by an
+attendant from the lower end of the room--"Feel in the other pocket,"
+said the servant. "Well, it is not there," said the Pasha. "Look in the
+other, then." "I have not got a handkerchief," or words to that effect,
+were replied to immediately,--"Yes, you have;"--"No, I have not;"--"Yes,
+you have." Eventually this attendant, advancing up to the Pasha, felt in
+the pocket of his jacket, but the handkerchief was not to be found; then
+he poked all round the Pasha's waist, to see whether it was not tucked
+into his shawl: that would not do. So he took hold of his Sovereign and
+pushed him half over on the divan, and looked under him to see whether
+he was sitting on the handkerchief; then he pushed him over on the other
+side. During all which manoeuvres the Pasha sat as quietly and passively
+as possible. The servant then, thrusting his arm up to the elbow in one
+of the pockets of his Highness's voluminous trousers, pulled out a
+snuff-box, a rosary, and several other things, which he laid upon the
+divan. That would not do, either; so he came over to the other pocket,
+and diving to a prodigious depth he produced the missing handkerchief
+from the recesses thereof; and with great respect and gravity, thrusting
+it into the Pasha's hand, he retired again to his place at the lower end
+of the hall.
+
+After being presented with sherbet, in glass bowls with covers, we took
+our leave, and rode home through the crowds of persons with paper
+lanterns, who turn night into day during the month of Ramadan.
+
+The view from that part of the bastions of the citadel which looks over
+the place of the Roumayli and the great mosque of Sultan Hassan is one
+of the most extraordinary that can be seen any where. The whole city is
+displayed at your feet; the numerous domes and minarets, the towers of
+the Saracenic walls, the flat roofs of the houses, and the narrowness of
+the streets giving it an aspect very different from that of an European
+town. You see the Nile and the gardens of Ibrahim Pasha in the island of
+Rhoda to the left; and the avenue of Egyptian sycamores to the right,
+leading to the Pasha's country palace of Shoubra. Beyond the Nile, the
+bare mysterious-looking desert, and the Pyramids standing on their rocky
+base, lead the mind to dwell upon the mighty deeds of ancient days. The
+forest of waving palm-trees, around Saccara, stretches away to the
+south-west, shading the mounds of earth which cover the remains of the
+vast city of Memphis, in comparison to which London would appear but a
+secondary town: for if we may judge from the line of pyramids from Giseh
+to Dashour, which formed the necropolis of Memphis, and the various
+mounds and dykes and ancient remains which extend along the margin of
+the Nile for nearly six-and-thirty miles, the extreme length of London
+being barely eight, and of Paris not much more than four, Memphis must
+have been larger than London, Paris, and ancient Rome, all united; and
+judging from the description which Herodotus has given us of the
+enormous size of the temples and buildings, which are now entirely
+washed away, in consequence of their having been built on the alluvial
+plain, which is every year inundated by the waters of the Nile, Memphis
+in its glory must have exceeded any modern city, as much as the Pyramids
+exceed any mausoleum which has been erected since those days.
+
+The tombs of the Caliphs, as they are called, although most of them are
+the burial-place of the Mameluke Sultans of Egypt, are magnificent and
+imposing buildings. Many of them consist of a mosque built round a
+court, to which is attached a great hall with a dome, under which is
+placed the Sultan's tomb. These beautiful specimens of Arabian
+architecture form a considerable town or city of the dead, on the east
+and south sides of Cairo, about a mile beyond the walls. I was
+astonished at their exceeding beauty and magnificence. Most of them
+were built during the two centuries preceding the conquest of Egypt, by
+Sultan Selim, in 1517, who tortured the last of the Mameluke Sultans,
+Toman Bey, and hung him with a rope, which is yet to be seen dangling
+over the gate called Bab Zuweyleh, in front of which criminals are still
+executed.
+
+The mausoleum of Sultan Bergook is a triumph of Saracenic architecture.
+
+The minarets of these tombs are most richly ornamented with tracery,
+sculpture, and variegated marbles. The walls of many of them are built
+in alternate layers of red and white or black and white marble. The dome
+of the tomb of Kaitbay is of stone, sculptured all over with an
+arabesque pattern; and there are several other domes in different
+mosques at Cairo equally richly ornamented. I have met with none
+comparable to them either in Europe or in the Levant. It is strange that
+none of the Italian architects ever thought of domes covered with rich
+ornamental work in stone or marble; the effect of those at Cairo is
+indescribably fine. Unfortunately they are now much neglected; but in
+the clear dry air of Egypt, time falls more lightly on the works of man
+than in the damp and chilly climates of the north, and the tombs of the
+Mameluke sovereigns will probably last for centuries to come if they are
+not pulled down for the materials, or removed to make way for some
+paltry lath and plaster edifice which will fall in the lifetime of its
+builder.
+
+Besides these larger structures, many of the smaller tombs, which are
+scattered over the desert for miles under the hills of Mokattam, are
+studies for the architect. There are numerous little domes of beautiful
+design, richly ornamented doors and gateways, tombs and tomb-stones of
+all sorts and sizes in infinite variety, most of them so well preserved
+in this glorious climate that the inscriptions on them are as legible as
+when they were first put up.
+
+The Pasha has built himself a house in this city of the dead, to which
+many members of his family have gone before him. This mausoleum consists
+of several buildings covered with low heavy domes, whitewashed or
+plastered on the outside. Within, if I remember right, are the tombs of
+Toussoun and Ismael Pashas, and those of several of his wives,
+grand-children, and relatives; they repose under marble monuments,
+somewhat resembling altars in shape, with a tall post or column at the
+head and feet, as is usual in Turkish graves; the column at the head
+being carved into the form of the head-dress distinctive of the rank or
+sex of the deceased. These sepulchral chambers are all carpeted, and
+Cashmere shawls are thrown over many of the tombs, while in arched
+recesses there are divans with cushions for the use of those who come to
+mourn over their departed relatives.
+
+We will now return to the living; but so perfect an account of the
+Arabian population of Cairo is to be found in Mr. Lane's 'Modern
+Egypt,' that there is little left to say upon that subject, except that
+since that work was published the presence of numerous Europeans has
+diminished the originality of the Oriental manners of this city, and
+numerous vices and modes of cheating, besides a larger variety of
+drunken scenes, are offered for the observation of the curious, than
+existed in the more unsophisticated times, before steamers came to
+Alexandria, and what is called the overland journey to India was
+established. The population of Cairo consists of the ruling class, who
+are all Turks, who speak Turkish, and affect to despise all who have
+never been rowed in a caique upon the Bosphorus. Then come the Arabs,
+the former conquerors of the land; they form the bulk of the
+population--all the petty tradesmen and cultivators of the soil are of
+Arab origin. Besides these are the Copts, who are descended from the
+original lords of the country, the ancient Egyptians, who have left such
+wonderful monuments of their power. After these may be reckoned the
+motley crew of Jews, Franks, Armenians, Arabs of Barbary and the Hejaz,
+Syrians, negroes, and Barabra; but these are but sojourners in the land,
+and, except the Jews, can hardly be counted among the regular subjects
+of the Pasha. There are besides, the Levantine Christians, who are under
+the protection of one or other of the European powers. Many of this
+class are rich and influential merchants; some of them live in the
+Oriental style, and others are ambitious to assume the tight clothing
+and manner of life of the Franks. The older merchants among the
+Levantines keep more to the Oriental ways of life, while the younger
+gentlemen and ladies follow the ugly fashion of Europe, particularly the
+men, who leave off the cool and convenient Eastern dress to swelter in
+the tight bandages of the Franks; the ladies, on the contrary, are apt
+to retain the Oriental costume, which in its turn is neither so becoming
+nor so easy as the Paris fashions. It must be the spirit of
+contradiction, so natural to the human race, which causes this
+arrangement; for if the men kept to their old costume they would be more
+comfortable than they can be with tight clothes, coat-collars, and
+neckcloths, when the thermometer stands at 112 deg. of Fahrenheit in the
+coolest shade, besides the dignity of their appearance, which is cast
+away with the folds of the Turkish or Arabian dress. The ladies would be
+much improved by the artful devices of the Parisian modistes; for
+although, when young and pretty, all women look well in almost any
+dress, the elder ladies are sometimes but little to be admired in the
+shapeless costumes of the Levant, where the richness of the material
+does not make up for the want of fit and gracefulness which is the
+character of their dress. This may easily be imagined when it is
+understood that both men's and women's dresses may be bought ready made
+in the bazaar, and that any dress will fit anybody unless they are
+supernaturally fat or of dwarfish stature.
+
+An Egyptian lady's dress consists of a pair of immensely full trousers
+of satin or brocade, or often of a brilliant cherry-coloured silk: these
+are tied under the knees, and descending to the ground, have the
+appearance of a very full petticoat. The Arabic name of this garment is
+Shintian. Over this is worn a shirt of transparent silk gauze (Kamis).
+It has long full sleeves, which, as well as the border round the neck,
+are richly embroidered with gold and bright-coloured silks. The edge of
+the shirt is often seen like a tunic over the trousers, and has a pretty
+effect. Over this again is worn a long silk gown, open in front and on
+each side, called a yelek. The fashion is to have the yelek about a foot
+longer than the lady who wears it; so that its three tails shall just
+touch the ground when she is mounted on a pair of high wooden clogs,
+called cobcobs, which are intended for use in the bath, but in which
+they often clatter about in the house: the straps over the instep, by
+which these cobcobs are attached to the feet, are always finely worked,
+and are sometimes of diamonds. The husband gives his bride on their
+marriage a pair of these odd-looking things, which are about six or
+eight inches high, and are always carried on a tray on a man's head in
+marriage processions. The yelek fits the shape in some degree down to
+the waist; it comes up high upon the neck, and has tightish sleeves,
+which are long enough to trail upon the ground. "Oh! thou with the
+long-sleeved yelek" is a common chorus or ending to a stanza in an Arab
+song. Not round the waist but round the hips a large and heavy Cashmere
+shawl is worn over the yelek, and the whole gracefulness of an Egyptian
+dress consists in the way in which this is put on. In the winter a long
+gown, called Jubeh, is superadded to all this: it is of cloth or velvet,
+or a sort of stuff made of the Angora goat's hair, and is sometimes
+lined with fur.
+
+Young girls do not often wear this nor the yelek, but have instead a
+waistcoat of silk with long sleeves like those of the yelek. This is
+called an anteri, and over it they wear a velvet jacket with short
+sleeves, which is so much embroidered with gold and pearls that the
+velvet is almost hid. Their hair hangs down in numerous long tails,
+plaited with silk, to which sequins, or little gold coins, are attached.
+The plaits must be of an uneven number: it would be unlucky if they were
+even. Sometimes at the end of one of the plaits hangs the little golden
+bottle of surmeh with which they black the edges of their eyelids; a
+most becoming custom when it is well done, and not smeared, as it often
+is, for then the effect is rather like that of a black eye, in the
+pugilistic sense of the term. On the head is worn a very beautiful
+ornament called a koors. It is in the shape of a saucer or shallow
+basin, and is frequently covered with rose diamonds. I am surprised
+that it has never been introduced into Europe, as it is a remarkably
+pretty head-dress, with the long tresses of jet black hair hanging from
+under it, plaited with the shining coins. Round the head a handkerchief
+is wound, which spoils the effect of all the rest: but a woman in the
+East is never seen with the head uncovered, even in the house; and when
+she goes out, the veil, as we call it, though it has no resemblance to a
+veil, is used to conceal the whole person. A lady enclosed in this
+singular covering looks like a large bundle of black silk, diversified
+only by a stripe of white linen extending down the front of her person,
+from the middle of her nose to her ungainly yellow boots, into which her
+stockingless feet are thrust for the occasion. The veils of Egypt, of
+which the outer black silk covering is called a khabara, and the part
+over the face a boorkoo, are entirely different from those worn in
+Constantinople, Persia, or Armenia; these are all various in form and
+colour, complicated and wonderful garments, which it would take too long
+to describe, but they, as well as the Egyptian one, answer their
+intended purpose excellently, for they effectually prevent the display
+of any grace or peculiarity of form or feature.
+
+There is no greater mistake than to suppose that Eastern ladies are
+prisoners in the harem, and that they are to be pitied for the want of
+liberty which the jealousy of their husbands condemns them to. The
+Christian ladies live from choice and habit in the same way as the
+Mahomedan women: and, indeed, the Egyptian fair ones have more
+facilities to do as they choose, to go where they like, and to carry on
+any intrigue than the Europeans; for their complete disguise carries
+them safely everywhere. No one knows whether any lady he may meet in the
+bazaar is his wife, his daughter, or his grandmother: and I have several
+times been addressed by Turkish and Egyptian ladies in the open street,
+and asked all sorts of questions in a way that could not be done in any
+European country. The harem, it is true, is by law inviolable: no one
+but the Sultan can enter it unannounced, and if a pair of strange
+slippers are seen left at the outer door, the master of the house cannot
+enter his own harem so long as this proof of the presence of a visitor
+remains. If the husband is a bore, an extra pair of slippers will at all
+times keep him out; and the ladies inside may enjoy themselves without
+the slightest fear of interruption. It is asserted also that gentlemen,
+who are not too tall, have gone into all sorts of places under the
+protection of a lady's veil, so completely does it conceal the person.
+But this is not the case with the Levantine or Christian ladies:
+although they live in a harem, like the Mahomedans, it is not protected
+in the same way: the slippers have not the same effect; for the men of
+the family go in and out whenever they please; and relations and
+visitors of the male sex are received in the apartments of the ladies.
+
+On one occasion I accompanied an English traveller, who had many
+acquaintances at Cairo, to the house of a Levantine in the vicinity of
+the Coptic quarter. Whilst we were engaged in conversation with an old
+lady the curtain over the doorway was drawn aside, and there entered the
+most lovely apparition that can be conceived, in the person of a young
+lady about sixteen years old, the daughter of the lady of the house. She
+had a beautifully fair complexion, very uncommon in this country,
+remarkably long hair, which hung down her back, and her dress, which was
+all of the same rich material, rose-coloured silk, shot with gold,
+became her so well, that I have rarely seen so graceful and striking a
+figure. She was closely followed by two black girls, both dressed in
+light-blue satin, embroidered with silver; they formed an excellent
+contrast to their charming mistress, and were very good-looking in their
+way, with their slight and graceful figures. The young Levantine came
+and sat by me on the divan, and was much amused at my blundering
+attempts at conversation in Arabic, of which I then knew scarcely a
+dozen words. I must confess that I was rather vexed with her for smoking
+a long jessamine pipe, which, however, most Eastern ladies do. She got
+up to wait upon us, and handed us the coffee, pipes, and sherbet, which
+are always presented to visitors in every house. This custom of being
+waited upon by the ladies is rather distressing to our European notions
+of devotion to the fair sex: and I remember being horrified shortly
+after my arrival in Egypt at the manners of a rich old jeweller to whom
+I was introduced. His wife, a beautiful woman, superbly dressed in
+brocade, with gold and diamond ornaments, waited upon us during the
+whole time that I remained in the house. She was the first Eastern lady
+I had seen, and I remember being much edified at the way she pattered
+about on a pair of lofty cobcobs, and the artful way in which she got
+her feet out of them whenever she came up towards where we sat on the
+divan, at the upper end of the apartment. She stood at the lower end of
+the room; and whenever the old brute of a jeweller wanted to return
+anything, some coins which he was showing me, or anything else, he threw
+them on the floor; and his beautiful wife jumping out of her cobcobs
+picked them up; and when she had handed them to some of the maids who
+stood at the door, resumed her station below the step at the further end
+of the room. She had magnificent eyes and luxuriant black hair, as they
+all have, and would have been considered a beauty in any country; but
+she was not to be compared to the bright little damsel in pink, who,
+besides her beauty, was as cheerful and merry as a bird, and whose
+lovely features were radiant with archness and intelligence. Many of the
+Abyssinian slaves are exceedingly handsome: they have very expressive
+countenances, and the finest eyes in the world, and, withal, so soft and
+humble a look, that I do not wonder at their being great favourites in
+Egyptian harems. Many of them, however, have a temper of their own,
+which comes out occasionally, and in this respect the Arab women are not
+much behind them. But the fiery passions of this burning climate pass
+away like a thunderstorm, and leave the sky as clear and serene as it
+was before.
+
+The Arab girls of the lower orders are often very pretty from the age of
+about twelve to twenty, but they soon go off; and the astounding
+ugliness of some of the old women is too terrible to describe. In Europe
+we have nothing half so hideous as these brown old women, and this is
+the more remarkable, because the old men are peculiarly handsome and
+venerable in their appearance, and often display a dignity of bearing
+which is seldom to be met with in Europe. The stately gravity of an Arab
+sheick, seated on the ground in the shade of a tree, with his sons and
+grandsons standing before him, waiting for his commands, is singularly
+imposing.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+     Mohammed Bey, Defterdar--His Expedition to Senaar--His Barbarity
+     and Rapacity--His Defiance of the Pasha--Stories of his Cruelty and
+     Tyranny--The Horse-shoe--The Fight of the Mamelukes--His cruel
+     Treachery--His Mode of administering Justice--The stolen Milk--The
+     Widow's Cow--Sale and Distribution of the Thief--The Turkish
+     Character--Pleasures of a Journey on the Nile--The Copts--Their
+     Patriarchs--The Patriarch of Abyssinia--Basileos Bey--His Boat--An
+     American's choice of a Sleeping-place.
+
+
+Just before my arrival in Cairo a certain Mohammed Bey, Defterdar, had
+died rather suddenly, after drinking a cup of coffee, a beverage which
+occasionally disagrees with the great men in Turkey, although not so
+much so now as in former days. This Defterdar, or accountant, had been
+sent by the Sultan to receive the Imperial revenue from the Pasha of
+Egypt, who had given him his daughter in marriage. As the presence of
+the Defterdar was probably a check upon the projects of the Pasha, he
+sent him to Senaar, at the head of an expedition, to revenge the death
+of Toussoun Pasha, his second son, who had been burned alive in his
+house by one of the exasperated chiefs of Nubia. This was a mission
+after Mohammed Bey's own heart: he impaled the chief and several of his
+family, and displayed a rapacity and cruelty unheard of before even in
+those blood-stained countries. His talent for collecting spoil, and
+valuables of every description, was first-rate; chests and bags of the
+pure gold rings used in the traffic of Central Africa accumulated in his
+tents; he did not stick at a trifle in his measures for procuring gold,
+pearls, and diamonds, wherever they were to be heard of; streams of
+blood accompanied his march, and the vultures followed in his track. He
+was a sportsman too, and hunted slaves, killing the old ones, and
+carrying off the children, whom he sent to Egypt to be sold. Many died
+on the journey; but that did not much matter, as it increased the value
+of the rest.
+
+At last, alter a most successful campaign, the Defterdar returned to his
+palace at Cairo, which was reported to be filled with treasure. The
+habits he had acquired in the upper country stuck to him after he got
+back to Egypt, and the Pasha was obliged to express his disapprobation
+of the cruelties which were committed by him on the most trivial
+occasions. The Defterdar, however, set the Pasha at defiance, told him
+he was no subject of his, but that he was an envoy from his master the
+Sultan, to whom alone he was responsible, and that he would do as he
+pleased with those under his command. The Pasha, it is said, made no
+further remonstrance, and continued to treat his son-in-law with
+distinguished courtesy.
+
+Numerous stories are told of the cruelty and tyranny of this man. One
+day, on his way to the citadel, he found that his horse had cast a shoe.
+He inquired of his groom, who in Egypt runs by the side of the horse,
+how it was that his horse had lost his shoe. The groom said he did not
+know, but that he supposed it had not been well nailed on. Presently
+they came to a farrier's shop; the Defterdar stopped, and ordered two
+horseshoes to be brought; one was put upon the horse, and the other he
+made red hot, and commanded them to nail it firmly to the foot of the
+groom, whom in that condition he compelled to run by his horse's side up
+the steep hill which leads to the citadel.
+
+In Turkey it was the custom in the houses of the great to have a number
+of young men, who in Egypt were called Mamelukes, after that gallant
+corps had been destroyed. A number of the Mamelukes of Mohammed Bey,
+Defterdar, driven to desperation by the cruelties of their master, beat
+or killed one of the superior agas of the household, took some money
+which they found in his possession, and determined to escape from the
+service of their tyrant. His guards and kawasses soon found them out,
+and they retired to a strong tower, which they determined to defend,
+preferring the remotest chance of successful resistance to the terrors
+of service under the ferocious Defterdar. The Bey, however, managed to
+cajole them with promises, and they returned to his palace, expecting to
+be better treated. They found the Bey seated on his divan in the
+Manderan or hall of audience, surrounded by the officers and kawasses
+whom interest had attached to his service. The young Mamelukes had given
+up the money which they had taken, and the Bey had it on the divan by
+his side. He now told them that if they would divide themselves into two
+parties and fight against each other, he would pardon the victorious
+party, present them with the bag of gold, and permit them to depart; but
+that if they did not agree to this proposal he would kill them all. The
+Mamelukes, finding they were entrapped, consented to the conditions of
+the Bey, and half their number were soon weltering in their blood on the
+floor of the hall. When the conquerors claimed the promised reward, the
+Defterdar, who had now far superior numbers on his side, again commanded
+them to divide and fight against each other. Again they fought in
+despair, preferring death by their own swords to the tortures which they
+knew the merciless Defterdar would inflict upon them now that he had got
+them completely in his power. At length only one Mameluke remained, whom
+the Bey, with kind and encouraging words, ordered to approach,
+commending his valour and holding out to him the promised bag of gold as
+his reward. As he approached, stepping over the bodies of his
+companions, who all lay dead or dying on the floor, and held out his
+hands for the money, the Defterdar, with a grim smile, made a sign to
+one of his kawasses, and the head of the young man rolled at the
+tyrant's feet "Thus," said he, "shall perish all who dare to offend
+Mohammed Bey."
+
+The Defterdar was fond of justice, after a fashion, and his mode of
+administering it was characteristic. A poor woman came before him and
+complained that one of his kawasses had seized a cup of milk and drunk
+it, refusing to pay her its value, which she estimated at five paras (a
+para is the fortieth part of a piastre, which is worth about
+twopence-halfpenny). The sensitive justice of the Defterdar was roused
+by this complaint. He asked the woman if she should know the person who
+had stolen her milk were she to see him again? The woman said she
+should, upon which the whole household was drawn out before her, and
+looking round she fixed upon a man as the thief. "Very well," said the
+Defterdar, "I hope you are sure of your man, and that you have not made
+a false accusation before me. He shall be ripped open, and if the milk
+is found in his stomach, you shall receive your five paras; but if there
+is no milk found, you shall be ripped up in turn for accusing one of my
+household unjustly." The unfortunate kawass was cut open on the spot;
+some milk was found in him, and the woman received her five paras.
+
+Another of his judicial sentences was rather an original conception. A
+man in Upper Egypt stole a cow from a widow, and having killed it, he
+cut it into twenty pieces, which he sold for a piastre each in the
+bazaar. The widow complained to the Defterdar, who seized the thief, and
+having without further ceremony cut him into twenty pieces, forced
+twenty people who came into the market on that day from the neighbouring
+villages to buy a piece of thief each for a piastre; the joints of the
+robber were thus distributed all over the country, and the story told by
+the involuntary purchasers of these pounds of flesh had a wholesome
+effect upon the minds of the cattle-stealers: the twenty piastres were
+given to the woman, whose cows were not again meddled with during the
+lifetime of the Defterdar. But the character of this man must not be
+taken as a sample of the habits of the Turks in general. They are a
+grave and haughty race, of dignified manners; rapacious they often are,
+but they are generous and brave, and I do not think that, as a nation,
+they can be accused of cruelty.
+
+Nothing can be more secure and peaceable than a journey on the Nile, as
+every one knows nowadays. Floating along in a boat like a house, which
+stops and goes on whenever you like, you have no cares or troubles but
+those which you bring with you--"coelum non animum mutant qui trans mare
+currunt." I can conceive nothing more delightful than a voyage up the
+Nile with agreeable companions in the winter, when the climate is
+perfection. There are the most wonderful antiquities for those who
+interest themselves in the remains of bygone days; famous shooting on
+the banks of the river, capital dinners, if you know how to make the
+proper arrangements, comfortable quarters, and a constant change of
+scene.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The wonders of the land of Ham, its temples and its ruins, have been so
+well and so often described that I shall not attempt to give any details
+regarding them, but shall confine myself to some sketches of the Coptic
+Monasteries which are to be seen on the rocks and deserts, either on the
+banks of the river or in the neighbourhood of the valley of the Nile.
+
+The ancient Egyptians are now represented by their descendants the
+Copts, whose ancestors were converted to Christianity in the earliest
+ages, and whose patriarchs claim their descent, in uninterrupted
+succession, from St Mark, who was buried at Alexandria, but whose body
+the Venetians in later ages boast of having transported to their island
+city.[3]
+
+The Copts look up to their patriarch as the chief of their nation: he is
+elected from among the brethren of the great monastery of St. Anthony
+on the borders of the Red Sea, a proceeding which ensures his entire
+ignorance of all sublunary matters, and his consequent incapacity for
+his high and responsible office, unless he chance to be a man of very
+uncommon talents. Like the patriarch of Constantinople, he is usually a
+puppet in the hands of a cabal who make use of him for their own
+interested purposes, and when they have got him into a scrape leave him
+to get out of it as he can. He is called the Patriarch of Alexandria,
+but for many years his residence has been at Cairo, where he has a large
+dreary palace. He is surrounded by priests and acolytes; but when I was
+last at Cairo there was but one remaining Coptic scribe among them, whom
+I engaged to copy out the Gospel of St Mark from an ancient MS. in the
+patriarchal library: however, after a very long delay he copied out St.
+Matthew's Gospel by mistake, and I was told that there was no other
+person whose profession it was to copy Coptic writings.
+
+The patriarch has twelve bishops under him, whose residences are at
+Nagade, Abou Girge, Aboutig, Siout, Girge, Manfalout, Maharaka, the
+Fioum, Atfeh, Behenese, and Jerusalem: he also consecrates the Abouna or
+Patriarch of Abyssinia, who by a specific law must not be a native of
+that country, and who has not the privilege of naming his successor or
+consecrating archbishops or bishops, although in other respects his
+authority in religious matters is supreme. The Patriarch of Abyssinia
+usually ordains two or three thousand priests at once on his first
+arrival in that country, and the unfitness of the individual appointed
+to this high office has sometimes caused much scandal. This has arisen
+from the difficulty there has often been in getting a respectable person
+to accept the office, as it involves perpetual banishment from Egypt,
+and a residence among a people whose partiality to raw meat and other
+peculiar customs are held as abominations by the Egyptians.
+
+The usual trade and occupation of the Copts is that of kateb, scribe, or
+accountant; they seem to have a natural talent for arithmetic. They
+appear to be more afflicted with ophthalmia than the Mohamedans, perhaps
+because they drink wine and spirits, which the others do not.
+
+The person of the greatest consequence among the Copts was Basileos Bey,
+the Pasha's confidential secretary and minister of finance. This
+gentleman was good enough to lend me a magnificent dahabieh or boat of
+the largest size, which I used for many months. It was an old-fashioned
+vessel, painted and gilt inside in a brilliant manner, which is not
+usual in more modern boats; but being a person of a fanciful
+disposition, I preferred the roomy proportions and the quaint arabesque
+ornaments of this boat, although it was no very fast sailer, to the
+natty vessels which were more Europeanised and quicker than mine. The
+principal cabin was about ten feet by twelve, and was ornamented with
+paintings of peacocks of a peculiar breed and nondescript flowers. The
+divans, one on each side, were covered with fine carpets, and the
+cushions were of cloth of gold, with a raised pattern of red velvet. The
+ceilings were gilt, and we had two red silk flags of prodigious
+dimensions in addition to streamers forty or fifty feet long at the end
+of each of the yard-arms: in short, it was full of what is called
+fantasia in the Levant, and as for its slowness, I consider that rather
+an advantage in the East. I like to take my time and look about me, and
+sit under a tree on a carpet when I get to an agreeable place, and I am
+in no hurry to leave it; so the heavy qualities of the vessel suited me
+exactly--we did nothing but stop everywhere. But although I confess that
+I like deliberate travelling, I do not carry my system to the extent of
+an American friend with whom I once journeyed from the shores of the
+Black Sea to Hungary. We were taking a walk together in the mountains
+near Mahadia, when seeing him looking about among the rocks I asked him
+what he wanted. "Oh," said he, "I am looking out for a good place to go
+to sleep in, for there is a beautiful view here, and I like to sleep
+where there is a fine prospect, that I may enjoy it when I awake; so
+good afternoon, and if you come back this way mind you call me."
+Accordingly an hour or two afterwards I came back and aroused my
+friend, who was still fast asleep. "I hope you enjoyed your nap," said
+I; "we had a glorious walk among the hills." "Yes," said he, "I had a
+famous nap." "And what did you think of the view when you awoke?" "The
+view!" exclaimed he, "why, I forgot to look at it!"
+
+
+
+
+NATRON LAKES.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+     Visit to the Coptic Monasteries near the Natron Lakes--The Desert
+     of Nitria--Early Christian Anchorites--St. Macarius of
+     Alexandria--His Abstinence and Penance--Order of Monks founded by
+     him--Great increase of the Number of ascetic Monks in the Fourth
+     Century--Their subsequent decrease, and the present ruined state of
+     the Monasteries--Legends of the Desert--Capture of a Lizard--Its
+     _alarming_ escape--The Convent of Baramous--Night attacks--Invasion
+     of Sanctuary--Ancient Glass Lamps--Monastery of Souriani--Its
+     Library and Coptic MSS.--The Blind Abbot and his Oil-cellar--The
+     persuasive powers of Rosoglio--Discovery of Syriac MSS.--The
+     Abbot's supposed treasure.
+
+
+In the month of March, 1837, I left Cairo for the purpose of visiting
+the Coptic monasteries in the neighbourhood of the Natron lakes, which
+are situated in the desert to the north-west of Cairo, on the western
+side of the Nile. I had some difficulty in procuring a boat to take me
+down the river--indeed there was not one to be obtained; but two English
+gentlemen, on their way from China to England, were kind enough to give
+me a passage in their boat to the village of Terrane, the nearest spot
+upon the banks of the Nile to the monasteries which I proposed to visit.
+
+The Desert of Nitria is famous in the annals of monastic history as the
+first place to which the Anchorites, in the early ages of Christianity,
+retired from the world in order to pass their lives in prayer and
+contemplation, and in mortification of the flesh. It was in Egypt where
+monasticism first took its rise, and the Coptic monasteries of St.
+Anthony and St. Paul claim to be founded on the spots where the first
+hermits established their cells on the shores of the Red Sea. Next in
+point of antiquity are the monasteries of Nitria, of which we have
+authentic accounts dated as far back as the middle of the second
+century; for about the year 150 A.D. Fronto retired to the valleys of
+the Natron lakes with seventy brethren in his company. The Abba Ammon
+(whose life is detailed in the 'Vitae Patrum' of Rosweyd, Antwerp, 1628,
+a volume of great rarity and dulness, which I only obtained after a long
+search among the mustiest of the London book-stalls) flourished, or
+rather withered, in this desert in the beginning of the fourth century.
+At this time also the Abba Bischoi founded the monastery still called
+after his name, which, it seems, was Isaiah or Esa: the Coptic article
+Pe or Be makes it Besa, under which name he wrote an ascetic work, a
+manuscript of which, probably almost if not quite as old as his time, I
+procured in Egypt. It is one of the most ancient manuscripts now extant.
+
+But the chief and pattern of all the recluses of Nitria was the great
+St. Macarius of Alexandria, whose feast-day--a day which he never
+observed himself--is still kept by the Latins on the 2nd, and by the
+Greeks on the 19th of January. This famous saint died A.D. 394, after
+sixty years of austerities in various deserts: he first retired into the
+Thebaid in the year 335, and about the year 373 established himself in a
+solitary cell on the borders of the Natron lakes. Numerous anchorites
+followed his example, all living separately, but meeting together on
+Sundays for public prayer. Self-denial and abstinence were their great
+occupations; and it is related that a traveller having given St.
+Macarius a bunch of grapes, he sent it to another brother, who sent it
+to a third, and at last, the grapes having passed through the hands of
+some hundreds of hermits, came back to St. Macarius, who rejoiced at
+such a proof of the abstinence of his brethren, but refused to eat of it
+himself. This same saint having thoughtlessly killed a gnat which was
+biting him, he was so unhappy at what he had done, that to make amends
+for his inadvertency, and to increase his mortifications, he retired to
+the marshes of Scete, where there were flies whose powerful stings were
+sufficient to pierce the hide of a wild boar; here he remained six
+months, till his body was so much disfigured that his brethren on his
+return only knew him by the sound of his voice. He was the founder of
+the monastic order which, as well as the monastery still existing on the
+site of his cell, was called after his name. By their rigid rule the
+monks are bound to fast the whole year, excepting on Sundays and during
+the period between Easter and Whitsuntide: they were not to speak to a
+stranger without leave. During Lent St. Macarius fasted all day, and
+sometimes ate nothing for two or three days together; on Sundays,
+however, he indulged in a raw cabbage-leaf, and in short set such an
+example of abstinence and self-restraint to the numerous anchorites of
+the desert, that the fame of his austerities gained him many admirers.
+Throughout the middle ages his name is mentioned with veneration in all
+the collections of the lives of the saints: he is represented pointing
+out the vanities of life in the great fresco of the Triumph of Death, by
+Andrea Orcagna, in the Campo Santo at Pisa. In his Life in Caxton's
+'Golden Legende,' and in 'The Lives of the Fathers,' by Wynkyn de Worde,
+a detailed account will be found of a most interesting conversation
+which Macarius had with the devil, touching divers matters. Several of
+his miracles are also put into modern English, in Lord Lindsay's book of
+Christian Art. I have a MS. of the Gospels in Coptic, written by the
+hand of one Zapita Leporos, under the rule of the great Macarius, in the
+monastery of Laura, about the year 390, and which may have been used by
+the Saint himself.
+
+After the time of Macarius the number of ascetic monks increased to a
+surprising amount. Rufinus, who visited them in the year 372, mentions
+fifty of their convents; Palladius, who was there in the year 387,
+reckons the devotees at five thousand. St Jerome also visited them, and
+their number seems to have been kept up without much diminution for
+several centuries.[4] After the conquest of Egypt by the Arabians, and
+about the year 967, a Mahomedan author, Aboul Faraj of Hispahan, wrote a
+book of poems, called the 'Book of Convents,' which is in praise of the
+habits and religious devotion of the Christian monks. The dilapidated
+monastery of St. Macarius was repaired and fortified by Sanutius,
+Patriarch of Alexandria, at which good work he laboured with his own
+bands: this must have been about the year 880, as he died in 881. In
+more recent times the multitude of ascetics gradually decreased, and but
+few travellers have extended their researches to their arid haunts. At
+present only four monasteries remain entire, although the ruins of many
+others may still be traced in the desert tracts on the west side of the
+line of the Natron lakes, and the valley of the waterless river, which,
+at some very remote period, is supposed to have formed the bed of one of
+the branches of the Nile.
+
+At the village of Terrane I was most hospitably received by an Italian
+gentleman, who was superintending the export of the natron. Here I
+procured camels; I had brought a tent with me; and the next day we set
+off across the plain, with the Arabs to whom the camels belonged, and
+who, having been employed in the transport of the natron, were able to
+show us the way, which it would have been very difficult to trace
+without their help. The memory of the devils and evil spirits who,
+according to numerous legends, used formerly to haunt this desert,
+seemed still to awaken the fears of these Arab guides. During the first
+day's journey I talked to them on the subject, and found that their
+minds were full of superstitious fancies.
+
+It is said that tailors sometimes stand up to rest themselves, and on
+that principle I had descended from my huge, ungainly camel, who had
+never before been used for riding, and whose swinging paces were very
+irksome, and was resting myself by walking in his shade, when seeing
+something run up to a large stone which lay in the way, I moved it to
+see what it was. I found a lizard, six or eight inches long, of a
+species with which I was unacquainted. I caught the reptile by the nape
+of the neck, which made him open his ugly mouth in a curious way, and he
+wriggled about so much that I could hardly hold him. Judging that he
+might be venomous, I looked about for some safe place to put him, and my
+eye fell upon the large glass lantern which was used in the tent; that,
+I thought, was just the thing for my lizard, so I put him into the
+lantern, which hung at the side of the baggage camel, intending to
+examine him at my leisure in the evening. When the sun was about to set,
+the tent was pitched, and a famous fire lit for the cook. It was in a
+bare, open place, without a hill, stock, or stone in sight in any
+direction all around. The camels were tethered together, near the
+baggage, which was piled in a heap to the windward of the fire; and, as
+it was getting dark, one of the Arabs took the lantern to the fire to
+light it. He got a blazing stick for this purpose, and held up the
+lantern close to his face to undo the hasp, which he had no sooner
+accomplished than out jumped the lizard upon his shoulder and
+immediately made his escape. The Arab, at this unexpected attack, gave a
+fearful yell, and dashing the lantern to pieces on the ground, screamed
+out that the devil had jumped upon him and had disappeared in the
+darkness, and that he was certain he was waiting to carry us all off.
+The other Arabs were seriously alarmed, and for a long while paid no
+attention to my explanation about the lizard, which was the cause of all
+the disturbance. The worst of the affair was that the lantern being
+broken to bits, we could have no light; for the wind blew the candles
+out, notwithstanding our most ingenious efforts to shelter them. The
+Arabs were restless all night, and before sunrise we were again under
+way, and in the course of the day arrived at the convent of Baramous.
+This monastery consisted of a high stone wall, surrounding a square
+enclosure, of about an acre in extent. A large square tower commanded
+the narrow entrance, which was closed by a low and narrow iron door.
+Within there was a good-sized church in tolerable preservation, standing
+nearly in the centre of the enclosure, which contained nothing else but
+some ruined buildings and a few large fig-trees, growing out of the
+disjointed walls. Two or three poor-looking monks still tenanted the
+ruins of the abbey. They had hardly anything to offer us, and were glad
+to partake of some of the rice and other eatables which we had brought
+with us. I wandered about among the ruins with the half-starved monks
+following me. We went into the square tower, where, in a large vaulted
+room with open unglazed windows, were forty or fifty Coptic manuscripts
+on cotton paper, lying on the floor, to which several of them adhered
+firmly, not having been moved for many years. I only found one leaf on
+vellum, which I brought away. The other manuscripts appeared to be all
+liturgies; most of them smelling of incense when I opened them, and well
+smeared with dirt and wax from the candles which had been held over them
+during the reading of the service.
+
+I took possession of a half-ruined cell, where my carpets were spread,
+and where I went to sleep early in the evening; but I had hardly closed
+my eyes before I was so briskly attacked by a multitude of ravenous
+fleas, that I jumped up and ran out into the court to shake myself and
+get rid if I could of my tormentors. The poor monks, hearing my
+exclamations, crept out of their holes and recommended me to go into the
+church, which they said would be safe from the attacks of the enemy. I
+accordingly took a carpet which I had well shaken and beaten, and lay
+down on the marble floor of the church, where I presently went to sleep.
+Again I was awakened by the wicked fleas, who, undeterred by the
+sanctity of my asylum, renewed their attack in countless legions. The
+slaps I gave myself were all in vain; for, although I slew them by
+dozens in my rage, others came on in their place. There was no
+withstanding them, and, fairly vanquished, I was forced to abandon my
+position, and walk about and look at the moon till the sun rose, when my
+villainous tormentors slunk away and allowed me a short snatch of the
+repose which they had prevented my enjoying all night.
+
+There were several curious lamps in this church formed of ancient glass,
+like those in the mosque of Sultan Hassan at Cairo, which are said to be
+of the same date as the mosque, and to be of Syrian manufacture. These,
+which were in the shape of large open vases, were ornamented with pious
+sentences in Arabic characters, in blue on a white ground.[5] They were
+very handsome, and, except one of the same kind, which is now in
+England, in the possession of Mr. Magniac, I never saw any like them.
+They are probably some of the most ancient specimens of ornamental glass
+existing, excepting, of course, the vases and lachrymatories of the
+classic times.
+
+Quitting the monastery of Baramous, we went to that of Souriani, where
+we left our baggage and tent, and proceeded to visit the monasteries of
+Amba Bischoi and Abou Magar, or St. Macarius, both of which were in very
+poor condition. These monasteries are so much alike in their plan and
+appearance, that the description of one is the description of all. I saw
+none but the church books in either of them, and at the time of my visit
+they were apparently inhabited only by three or four monks, who
+conducted the services of their respective churches.
+
+On this journey we passed many ruins and heaps of stones nearly level
+with the ground, the remains of some of the fifty monasteries which once
+flourished in the wilderness of Scete.
+
+In the evening I returned to Souriani, where I was hospitably received
+by the abbot and fourteen or fifteen Coptic monks. They provided me with
+an agreeable room looking into the garden within the walls. My servants
+were lodged in some other small cells or rooms near mine, which happily
+not being tenanted by fleas or any other wild beasts of prey, was
+exceedingly comfortable when my bright-coloured carpets and cushions
+were spread upon the floor; and, after the adventures of the two former
+nights, I rested in great comfort and peace.
+
+In the morning I went to see the church and all the other wonders of the
+place, and on making inquiries about the library, was conducted by the
+old abbot, who was blind, and was constantly accompanied by another
+monk, into a small upper room in the great square tower, where we found
+several Coptic manuscripts. Most of these were lying on the floor, but
+some were placed in niches in the stone wall. They were all on paper,
+except three or four. One of these was a superb manuscript of the
+Gospels, with commentaries by the early fathers of the church; two
+others were doing duty as coverings to a couple of large open pots or
+jars, which had contained preserves, long since evaporated. I was
+allowed to purchase these vellum manuscripts, as they were considered to
+be useless by the monks, principally I believe because there were no
+more preserves in the jars. On the floor I found a fine Coptic and
+Arabic dictionary. I was aware of the existence of this volume, with
+which they refused to part. I placed it in one of the niches in the
+wall; and some years afterwards it was purchased for me by a friend, who
+sent it to England after it had been copied at Cairo. They sold me two
+imperfect dictionaries, which I discovered loaded with dust upon the
+ground. Besides these, I did not see any other books but those of the
+liturgies for various holy days. These were large folios on cotton
+paper, most of them of considerable antiquity, and well begrimed with
+dirt.
+
+The old blind abbot had solemnly declared that there were no other books
+in the monastery besides those which I had seen; but I had been told, by
+a French gentleman at Cairo, that there were many ancient manuscripts in
+the monks' oil cellar; and it was in pursuit of these and the Coptic
+dictionary that I had undertaken the journey to the Natron lakes. The
+abbot positively denied the existence of these books, and we retired
+from the library to my room with the Coptic manuscripts which they had
+ceded to me without difficulty; and which, according to the dates
+contained in them, and from their general appearance, may claim to be
+considered among the oldest manuscripts in existence, more ancient
+certainly than many of the Syriac MSS. which I am about to describe.
+
+The abbot, his companion, and myself sat down together. I produced a
+bottle of rosoglio from my stores, to which I knew that all Oriental
+monks were partial; for though they do not, I believe, drink wine
+because an excess in its indulgence is forbidden by Scripture, yet
+ardent spirits not having been invented in those times, there is nothing
+said about them in the Bible; and at Mount Sinai and all the other spots
+of sacred pilgrimage the monks comfort themselves with a little glass
+or rather a small coffee cup of arrack or raw spirits when nothing
+better of its kind is to be procured. Next to the golden key, which
+masters so many locks, there is no better opener of the heart than a
+sufficiency of strong drink,--not too much, but exactly the proper
+quantity judiciously exhibited (to use a chemical term in the land of Al
+Cheme, where alchemy and chemistry first had their origin). I have
+always found it to be invincible; and now we sat sipping our cups of the
+sweet pink rosoglio, and firing little compliments at each other, and
+talking pleasantly over our bottle till some time passed away, and the
+face of the blind abbot waxed bland and confiding; and he had that
+expression on his countenance which men wear when they are pleased with
+themselves and bear goodwill towards mankind in general. I had by the
+bye a great advantage over the good abbot, as I could see the workings
+of his features and he could not see mine, or note my eagerness about
+the oil-cellar, on the subject of which I again gradually entered.
+"There is no oil there," said he. "I am curious to see the architecture
+of so ancient a room," said I; "for I have heard that yours is a famous
+oil-cellar." "It is a famous cellar," said the other monk. "Take another
+cup of rosoglio," said I. "Ah!" replied he, "I remember the days when it
+overflowed with oil, and then there were I do not know how many brethren
+here with us. But now we are few and poor; bad times are come over us:
+we are not what we used to be." "I should like to see it very much,"
+said I; "I have heard so much about it even at Cairo. Let us go and see
+it; and when we come back we will have another bottle; and I will give
+you a few more which I have brought with me for your private use."
+
+This last argument prevailed. We returned to the great tower, and
+ascended the steep flight of steps which led to its door of entrance. We
+then descended a narrow staircase to the oil-cellar, a handsome vaulted
+room, where we found a range of immense vases which formerly contained
+the oil, but which now on being struck returned a mournful, hollow
+sound. There was nothing else to be seen: there were no books here: but
+taking the candle from the hands of one of the brethren (for they had
+all wandered in after us, having nothing else to do), I discovered a
+narrow low door, and, pushing it open, entered into a small closet
+vaulted with stone which was filled to the depth of two feet or more
+with the loose leaves of the Syriac manuscripts which now form one of
+the chief treasures of the British Museum. Here I remained for some time
+turning over the leaves and digging into the mass of loose vellum pages;
+by which exertions I raised such a cloud of fine pungent dust that the
+monks relieved each other in holding our only candle at the door, while
+the dust made us sneeze incessantly as we turned over the scattered
+leaves of vellum. I had extracted four books, the only ones I could
+find which seemed to be tolerably perfect, when two monks who were
+struggling in the corner pulled out a great big manuscript of a brown
+and musty appearance and of prodigious weight, which was tied together
+with a cord. "Here is a box!" exclaimed the two monks, who were nearly
+choked with the dust; "we have found a box, and a heavy one too!" "A
+box!" shouted the blind abbot, who was standing in the outer darkness of
+the oil-cellar--"A box! Where is it? Bring it out! bring out the box!
+Heaven be praised! We have found a treasure! Lift up the box! Pull out
+the box! A box! A box! Sandouk! sandouk!" shouted all the monks in
+various tones of voice. "Now then let us see the box! bring it out to
+the light!" they cried. "What can there be in it?" and they all came to
+help and carried it away up the stairs, the blind abbot following them
+to the outer door, leaving me to retrace my steps as I could with the
+volumes which I had dug out of their literary grave.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+     View from the Convent Wall--Appearance of the Desert--Its grandeur
+     and freedom--Its contrast to the Convent Garden--Beauty and
+     luxuriance of Eastern Vegetation--Picturesque Group of the Monks
+     and their Visitors--The Abyssinian Monks--Their appearance--Their
+     austere mode of Life--The Abyssinian College--Description of the
+     Library--The mode of Writing in Abyssinia--Immense Labour required
+     to write an Abyssinian book--Paintings and
+     Illuminations--Disappointment of the Abbot at finding the supposed
+     Treasure-box only an old Book--Purchase of the MSS. and Books--The
+     most precious left behind--Since acquired for the British Museum.
+
+
+On leaving the dark recesses of the tower I paused at the narrow door by
+which we had entered, both to accustom my eyes to the glare of the
+daylight, and to look at the scene below me. I stood on the top of a
+steep flight of stone steps, by which the door of the tower was
+approached from the court of the monastery: the steps ran up the inside
+of the outer wall, which was of sufficient thickness to allow of a
+narrow terrace within the parapet; from this point I could look over the
+wall on the left hand upon the desert, whose dusty plains stretched out
+as far as I could see, in hot and dreary loneliness to the horizon. To
+those who are not familiar with the aspect of such a region as this, it
+may be well to explain that a desert such as that which now surrounded
+me resembles more than anything else a dusty turnpike-road in England
+on a hot summer's day, extended interminably, both as to length and
+breadth. A country of low rounded hills, the surface of which is
+composed entirely of gravel, dust, and stones, will give a good idea of
+the general aspect of a desert. Yet, although parched and dreary in the
+extreme from their vastness and openness, there is something grand and
+sublime in the silence and loneliness of these burning plains; and the
+wandering tribes of Bedouins who inhabit them are seldom content to
+remain long in the narrow inclosed confines of cultivated land. There is
+always a fresh breeze in the desert, except when the terrible hot wind
+blows; and the air is more elastic and pure than where vegetation
+produces exhalations which in all hot climates are more or less heavy
+and deleterious. The air of the desert is always healthy, and no race of
+men enjoy a greater exemption from weakness, sickness, and disease than
+the children of the desert, who pass their lives in wandering to and fro
+in search of the scanty herbage on which their flocks are fed, far from
+the cares and troubles of busy cities, and free from the oppression
+which grinds down the half-starved cultivators of the fertile soil of
+Egypt.
+
+Whilst from my elevated position I looked out on my left upon the mighty
+desert, on my right how different was the scene! There below my feet lay
+the convent garden in all the fresh luxuriance of tropical vegetation.
+Tufts upon tufts of waving palms overshadowed the immense succulent
+leaves of the banana, which in their turn rose out of thickets of the
+pomegranate rich with its bright green leaves and its blossoms of that
+beautiful and vivid red which is excelled by few even of the most
+brilliant flowers of the East. These were contrasted with the deep dark
+green of the caroub or locust-tree; and the yellow apples of the lotus
+vied with the clusters of green limes with their sweet white flowers
+which luxuriated in a climate too hot and sultry for the golden fruit of
+the orange, which is not to be met with in the valley of the Nile.
+Flowers and fair branches exhaling rich perfume and bearing freshness in
+their very aspect became more beautiful from their contrast to the
+dreary arid plains outside the convent walls, and this great difference
+was owing solely to there being a well of water in this spot from which
+a horse or mule was constantly employed to draw the fertilizing streams
+which nourished the teeming vegetation of this monastic garden.
+
+I stood gazing and moralizing at these contrasted scenes for some time;
+but at length when I turned my eyes upon my companions and myself, it
+struck me that we also were somewhat remarkable in our way. First there
+was the old blind grey-bearded abbot, leaning on his staff, surrounded
+with three or four dark robed Coptic monks, holding in their hands the
+lighted candles with which we had explored the secret recesses of the
+oil-cellar; there was I dressed in the long robes of a merchant of the
+East, with a small book in the breast of my gown and a big one under
+each arm; and there were my servants armed to the teeth and laden with
+old books; and one and all we were so covered with dirt and wax from top
+to toe, that we looked more as if we had been up the chimney than like
+quiet people engaged in literary researches. One of the monks was
+leaning in a brown study upon the ponderous and gigantic volume in its
+primaeval binding, in the interior of which the blind abbot had hoped to
+find a treasure. Perched upon the battlements of this remote monastery
+we formed as picturesque a group as one might wish to see; though
+perhaps the begrimed state of our flowing robes as well as of our hands
+and faces would render a somewhat remote point of view more agreeable to
+the artist than a closer inspection.
+
+While we had been standing on the top of the steps, I had heard from
+time to time some incomprehensible sounds which seemed to arise from
+among the green branches of the palms and fig-trees in a corner of the
+garden at our feet. "What," said I to a bearded Copt, who was seated on
+the steps, "is that strange howling noise which I hear among the trees?
+I have heard it several times when the rustling of the wind among the
+branches has died away for a moment. It sounds something like a chant,
+or a dismal moaning song: only it is different in its cadence from
+anything that I have heard before." "That noise," replied the monk, "is
+the sound of the service of the church which is being chanted by the
+Abyssinian monks. Come down the steps and I will show you their chapel
+and their library. The monastery which they frequented in this desert
+has fallen to decay; and they now live here, their numbers being
+recruited occasionally by pilgrims on their way from Abyssinia to
+Jerusalem, some of whom pass by each year; not many now, to be sure; but
+still fewer return to their own land."
+
+Giving up my precious manuscripts to the guardianship of my servants and
+desiring them to put them down carefully in my cell, I accompanied my
+Coptic friend into the garden, and turning round some bushes, we
+immediately encountered one of the Abyssinian monks walking with a book
+in his hand under the shade of the trees. Presently we saw three or four
+more; and very remarkable looking persons they were. These holy brethren
+were as black as crows; tall, thin, ascetic looking men of a most
+original aspect and costume. I have seen the natives of many strange
+nations, both before and since, but I do not know that I ever met with
+so singular a set of men, so completely the types of another age and of
+a state of things the opposite to European, as these Abyssinian
+Eremites. They were black, as I have already said, which is not the
+usual complexion of the natives of Habesh; and they were all clothed in
+tunics of wash leather made, they told me, of gazelle skins. This
+garment came down to their knees, and was confined round their waist
+with a leathern girdle. Over their shoulders they had a strap supporting
+a case like a cartridge-box, of thick brown leather, containing a
+manuscript book; and above this they wore a large shapeless cloak or
+toga, of the same light yellow wash leather as the tunic; I do not think
+that they wore anything on the head, but this I do not distinctly
+remember. Their legs were bare, and they had no other clothing, if I may
+except a profuse smearing of grease; for they had anointed themselves in
+the most lavish manner, not with the oil of gladness, but with that of
+castor, which however had by no means the effect of giving them a
+cheerful countenance; for although they looked exceedingly slippery and
+greasy, they seemed to be an austere and dismal set of fanatics: true
+disciples of the great Macarius, the founder of these secluded
+monasteries, and excellently calculated to figure in that grim chorus of
+his invention, or at least which is called after his name, "La danse
+Macabre," known to us by the appellation of the Dance of Death. They
+seemed to be men who fasted much and feasted little; great observers
+were they of vigils, of penance, of pilgrimages, and midnight masses;
+eaters of bitter herbs for conscience' sake. It was such men as these
+who lived on the tops of columns, and took up their abodes in tombs, and
+thought it was a sign of holiness to look like a wild beast--that it was
+wicked to be clean, and superfluous to be useful in this world; and who
+did evil to themselves that good might come. Poor fellows! they meant
+well, and knew no better; and what more can be said for the endeavours
+of the best of men?
+
+Accompanied by a still increasing number of these wild priests we
+traversed the shady garden, and came to a building with a flat roof,
+which stood in the south-east corner of the enclosure and close to the
+outer wall. This was the college or consistory of the Abyssinian monks,
+and the accompanying sketch made upon the spot will perhaps explain the
+appearance of this room better than any written description. The round
+thing upon the floor is a table upon which the dishes of their frugal
+meal were set; by the side of this low table we sat upon the ground on
+the skin of some great wild beast, which did duty as a carpet. This room
+was also their library, and on my remarking the number of books which I
+saw around me they seemed proud of their collection, and told me that
+there were not many such libraries as this in their country. There were
+perhaps nearly fifty volumes, and as the entire literature of Abyssinia
+does not include more than double that number of works, I could easily
+imagine that what I saw around me formed a very considerable
+accumulation of manuscripts, considering the barbarous state of the
+country from which they came.
+
+[Illustration: INTERIOR OF THE ABYSSINIAN LIBRARY, IN THE MONASTERY OF
+SOURIANI ON THE NATRON LAKES.
+
+Abyssinian monk clothed in leather.
+
+The dining table.
+
+The blind abbot leaning over the Author.
+
+Abyssinian monk.
+
+Coptic monk.
+
+The books hanging from wooden pegs let into the wall.
+
+The Author's Egyptian servants.]
+
+The disposition of the manuscripts in this library was very original. I
+have had no means of ascertaining whether all the libraries of Abyssinia
+are arranged in the same style. The room was about twenty-six feet long,
+twenty wide, and twelve high; the roof was formed of the trunks of palm
+trees, across which reeds were laid, which supported the mass of earth
+and plaster, of which the terrace roof was composed; the interior of the
+walls was plastered white with lime; the windows, at a good height from
+the ground, were unglazed, but were defended with bars of iron-wood or
+some other hard wood; the door opened into the garden, and its lock,
+which was of wood also, was of that peculiar construction which has been
+used in Egypt from time immemorial. A wooden shelf was carried in the
+Egyptian style round the walls, at the height of the top of the door,
+and on this shelf stood sundry platters, bottles, and dishes for the use
+of the community. Underneath the shelf various long wooden pegs
+projected from the wall; they were each about a foot and a half long,
+and on them hung the Abyssinian manuscripts, of which this curious
+library was entirely composed.
+
+The books of Abyssinia are bound in the usual way, sometimes in red
+leather and sometimes in wooden boards, which are occasionally
+elaborately carved in rude and coarse devices: they are then enclosed
+in a case, tied up with leather thongs; to this case is attached a strap
+for the convenience of carrying the volume over the shoulders, and by
+these straps the books were hung to the wooden pegs, three or four on a
+peg, or more if the books were small: their usual size was that of a
+small, very thick quarto. The appearance of the room, fitted up in this
+style, together with the presence of various long staves, such as the
+monks of all the Oriental churches lean upon at the time of prayer,
+resembled less a library than a barrack or guard-room, where the
+soldiers had hung their knapsacks and cartridge-boxes against the wall.
+
+All the members of this church militant could read fluently out of their
+own books, which is more than the Copts could do in whose monastery they
+were sojourning. Two or three, with whom I spoke, were intelligent men,
+although not much enlightened as to the affairs of this world: the
+perfume of their leather garments and oily bodies was, however, rather
+too powerful for my olfactory nerves, and after making a slight sketch
+of their library I was glad to escape into the open air of the beautiful
+garden, where I luxuriated in the shade of the palms and the
+pomegranates. The strange costumes and wild appearance of these black
+monks, and the curious arrangement of their library, the uncouth sounds
+of their singing and howling, and the clash of their cymbals in the
+ancient convent of the Natron lakes, formed a scene such as I believe
+few Europeans have witnessed.
+
+The labour required to write an Abyssinian book is immense, and
+sometimes many years are consumed in the preparation of a single volume.
+They are almost all written upon skins; the only one not written upon
+vellum that I have met with is in my own possession; it is on charta
+bombycina. The ink which they use is composed of gum, lampblack, and
+water. It is jet black, and keeps its colour for ever: indeed in this
+respect all Oriental inks are infinitely superior to ours, and they have
+the additional advantage of not being corrosive or injurious either to
+the pen or paper. Their pen is the reed commonly used in the East, only
+the nib is made sharper than that which is required to write the Arabic
+character. The ink-horn is usually the small end of a cow's horn, which
+is stuck into the ground at the feet of the scribe. In the most ancient
+Greek frescos and illuminations this kind of ink-horn is the one
+generally represented, and it seems to have been usually inserted in a
+hole in the writing-desk: no writing-desk, however, is in use among the
+children of Habesh. Seated upon the ground, the square piece of thick
+greasy vellum is held upon the knee or on the palm of the left hand.
+
+The Abyssinian alphabet consists of 8 times 26 letters, 208 characters
+in all, and these are each written distinctly and separately like the
+letters of an European printed book. They have no cursive writing; each
+letter is therefore painted, as it were, with the reed pen, and as the
+scribe finishes each he usually makes a horrible face and gives a
+triumphant flourish with his pen. Thus he goes on letter by letter, and
+before he gets to the end of the first line he is probably in a
+perspiration from his nervous apprehension of the importance of his
+undertaking. One page is a good day's work, and when he has done it he
+generally, if he is not too stiff, follows the custom of all little Arab
+boys, and swings his head or his body from side to side, keeping time to
+a sort of nasal recitative, without the help of which it would seem that
+few can read even a chapter of the Koran, although they may know it by
+heart.
+
+Some of these manuscripts are adorned with the quaintest and grimmest
+illuminations conceivable. The colours are composed of various ochres.
+In general the outlines of the figures are drawn first with the pen. The
+paint brush is made by chewing the end of a reed till it is reduced to
+filaments and then nibbling it into a proper form: the paint brushes of
+the ancient Egyptians were made in the same way, and excellent brooms
+for common purposes are made at Cairo by beating the thick end of a
+palm-branch till the fibres are separated from the pith, the part above,
+which is not beaten, becoming the handle of the broom. The Abyssinian
+having nibbled and chewed his reed till he thinks it will do, proceeds
+to fill up the spaces between the inked outlines with his colours. The
+Blessed Virgin is usually dressed in blue; the complexion of the figures
+is a brownish red, and those in my possession have a curious cast of the
+eyes, which gives them a very cunning look. St John, in a MS. which I
+have now before me, is represented with woolly hair, and has two marks
+or gashes on each side of his face, in accordance with the Abyssinian or
+Galla custom of cutting through the skin of the face, breast, and arms,
+so as to leave an indelible mark. This is done in youth, and is said to
+preserve the patient from several diseases. The colours are mixed up
+with the yolk of an egg, and the numerous mistakes and slips of the
+brush are corrected by a wipe from a wet finger or thumb, which is
+generally kept ready in the artist's mouth during the operation; and it
+is lucky if he does not give it a bite in the agony of composition, when
+with an unsteady hand the eye of some famous saint is smeared all over
+the nose by an unfortunate swerve of the nibbled reed.
+
+It is not often, however, that the arts of drawing and painting are thus
+ruthlessly mangled on the pages of their books, and notwithstanding the
+disadvantages under which the writers labour, some of these manuscripts
+are beautifully written, and are worthy of being compared with the best
+specimens of calligraphy in any language. I have a MS. containing the
+book of Enoch, and several books of the Old Testament, which is
+remarkable for the perfection of its writing, the straightness of the
+lines, and the equal size and form of the characters throughout:
+probably many years were required to finish it. The binding is of wooden
+boards, not sawn or planed, but chopped apparently out of a tree or a
+block of hard wood, a task of patience and difficulty which gives
+evidence of the enthusiasm and goodwill which have been displayed in the
+production of a work, in toiling upon which the pious man in the
+simplicity of his heart doubtless considered that he was labouring for
+the honour of the church, _ad majorem Dei gloriam_. It was this feeling
+which in the middle ages produced all those glorious works of art which
+are the admiration of modern times, and its total absence now is deeply
+to be deplored in our own country.
+
+Having satiated my curiosity as to the Abyssinian monks and their
+curious library, I returned to my own room, where I was presently joined
+by the abbot and his companion, who came for the promised bottle of
+rosoglio, which they now required the more to keep up their spirits on
+finding that the box of treasure was only a large old book. They
+murmured and talked to themselves between the cups of rosoglio, and so
+great was their disappointment that it was some time before they
+recovered the equilibrium of their minds. "You found no treasure," I
+remarked, "but I am a lover of old books; let me have the big one which
+you thought was a box and the others which I have brought out with me,
+and I will give you a certain number of piastres in exchange. By this
+arrangement we shall be both of us contented, for the money will be
+useful to you, and I should be glad to carry away the books as a
+memorial of my visit to this interesting spot." "Ah!" said the abbot.
+"Another cup of rosoglio," said I; "help yourself." "How much will you
+give?" asked the abbot. "How much do you want?" said I; "all the money I
+have with me is at your service." "How much is that?" he inquired. Out
+came the bag of money, and the agreeable sound of the clinking of the
+pieces of gold or dollars, I forget which they were, had a soothing
+effect upon the nerves of the blind man, and in short the bottle and the
+bargain were concluded at the same moment.
+
+The Coptic and Syriac manuscripts were stowed away in one side of a
+great pair of saddle-bags. "Now," said I, "we will put these in the
+other side, and you shall take it out and see the Arabs place it on the
+camel." We could not by any packing or shifting get all the books into
+the bag, and the two monks would not let me make another parcel, lest,
+as I understood, the rest of the brethren should discover what it was,
+and claim their share of the spoil. In this dreadful dilemma I looked at
+each of the books, not knowing which to leave behind, but seeing that
+the quarto was the most imperfect, I abandoned it, and I have now reason
+to believe, on seeing the manuscripts of the British Museum, that this
+was the famous book with the date of A.D. 411, the most precious
+acquisition to any library that has been made in modern times, with the
+exception, as I conceive, of some in my own collection. It is, however,
+a satisfaction to think that this book, which contains some lost
+epistles of St. Ignatius, has not been thrown away, but has fallen into
+better hands than mine.
+
+
+
+
+THE CONVENT OF THE PULLEY.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+     The Convent of the Pulley--Its inaccessible position--Difficult
+     landing on the bank of the Nile--Approach to the Convent through
+     the Rocks--Description of the Convent and its Inhabitants--Plan of
+     the Church--Books and MSS.--Ancient excavations--Stone Quarries and
+     ancient Tombs--Alarm of the Copts--Their ideas of a Sketch-book.
+
+
+The Coptic monasteries were usually built in desert or inaccessible
+places, with a view to their defence in troubled times, or in the hope
+of their escaping the observation of marauding parties, who were not
+likely to take the trouble of going much out of their way unless they
+had assured hopes of finding something better worth sacking than a poor
+convent. The access to Der el Adra, the Convent of the Virgin, more
+commonly known by the name of the Convent of the Pulley, is very
+singular. This monastery is situated on the top of the rocks of Gebel el
+terr, where a precipice above 200 feet in height is washed at its base
+by the waters of the Nile. When I visited this monastery on the 19th of
+February, 1838, there was a high wind, which rendered the management of
+my immense boat, above 80 feet long, somewhat difficult; and we were
+afraid of being dashed against the rocks if we ventured too near them in
+our attempt to land at the foot of the precipice. The monks, who were
+watching our manoeuvres from above, all at once disappeared, and
+presently several of them made their appearance on the shore, issuing in
+a complete state of nudity from a cave or cleft in the face of the rock.
+These worthy brethren jumped one after another into the Nile, and
+assisted the sailors to secure the boat with ropes and anchors from the
+force of the wind. They swam like Newfoundland dogs, and, finding that
+it was impossible for the boat to reach the land, two of the reverend
+gentlemen took me on their shoulders and, wading through a shallow part
+of the river, brought me safely to the foot of the rock. When we got
+there I could not perceive any way to ascend to the monastery, but,
+following the abbot, I scrambled over the broken rocks to the entrance
+of the cave. This was a narrow fissure where the precipice had been
+split by some convulsion of nature, the opening being about the size of
+the inside of a capacious chimney. The abbot crept in at a hole at the
+bottom: he was robed in a long dark blue shirt, the front of which he
+took up and held in his teeth; and, telling me to observe where he
+placed his feet, he began to climb up the cleft with considerable
+agility. A few preliminary lessons from a chimney-sweep would now have
+been of the greatest service to me; but in this branch of art my
+education had been neglected, and it was with no small difficulty that
+I climbed up after the abbot, whom I saw striding and sprawling in the
+attitude of a spread eagle above my head. My slippers soon fell off upon
+the head of a man under me, whom, on looking down, I found to be the
+reis, or captain of my boat, whose immense turban formed the whole of
+his costume. At least twenty men were scrambling and puffing underneath
+him, most of them having their clothes tied in a bundle on their heads,
+where they had secured them when they swam or waded to the shore. Arms
+and legs were stretched out in all manner of attitudes, the forms of the
+more distant climbers being lost in the gloom of the narrow cavern up
+which we were advancing, the procession being led by the unrobed
+ecclesiastics. Having climbed up about 120 feet, we emerged in a fine
+perspiration upon a narrow ledge of the rock on the face of the
+precipice, which had an unpleasant slope towards the Nile. It was as
+slippery as glass; and I felt glad that I had lost my shoes, as I had a
+firmer footing without them. We turned to the right, and climbing a
+projection of the rock seven or eight feet high--rather a nervous
+proceeding at such a height to those who were unaccustomed to it--we
+gained a more level space, from which a short steep pathway brought us
+to the top of the precipice, whence I looked down with much
+self-complacency upon my companion who was standing on the deck of the
+vessel.
+
+The convent stands about two hundred paces to the north of the place
+where we ascended. It had been originally built of small square stones
+of Roman workmanship; but, having fallen into decay, it had been
+repaired with mud and sunburnt bricks. Its ground plan was nearly a
+square, and its general appearance outside was that of a large pound or
+a small kitchen garden, the walls being about 20 feet high and each side
+of the square extending about 200 feet, without any windows or
+architectural decoration. I entered by a low doorway on the side towards
+the cliff, and found myself in a yard of considerable size full of
+cocks, hens, women, and children, who were all cackling and talking
+together at the top of their shrill voices. A large yellow-coloured dog,
+who was sleeping in the sunshine in the midst of all this din, was
+awakened by its cessation as I entered. He greeted my arrival with a
+growl, upon which he was assailed with a volley of stones and invectives
+by the ladies whom he had intended to protect. Every man, woman, and
+child came out to have a peep at the stranger, but when my numerous
+followers, many in habiliments of the very slightest description,
+crowded into the court, the ladies took fright, and there was a general
+rush into the house, the old women hiding their faces without a moment's
+delay, but the younger ones taking more time in the adjustment of their
+veils. When peace was in some measure restored, and the poor dog had
+been pelted into a hole, the abbot, who had now permitted his long shirt
+to resume its usual folds, conducted me to the church, which was
+speedily filled with the crowd. It was interesting from its great
+antiquity, having been founded, as they told me, by a rich lady of the
+name of Halane, who was the daughter of a certain Kostandi, king of
+Roum. The church is partly subterranean, being built in the recesses of
+an ancient stone-quarry; the other parts of it are of stone plastered
+over. The roof is flat and is formed of horizontal beams of palm trees,
+upon which a terrace of reeds and earth is laid. The height of the
+interior is about 25 feet. On entering the door we had to descend a
+flight of narrow steps, which led into a side aisle about ten feet wide,
+and which is divided from the nave by octagon columns of great thickness
+supporting the walls of a sort of clerestory. The columns were
+surmounted by heavy square plinths almost in the Egyptian style.
+
+As I consider this church to be interesting from its being half a
+catacomb, or cave, and one of the earliest Christian buildings which has
+preserved its originality, I subjoin a plan of it, by which it will be
+seen that it is constructed on the principle of a Latin basilica, as the
+buildings of the Empress Helena usually were; the Byzantine style of
+architecture, the plan of which partook of the form of a Greek cross,
+being a later invention; for the earliest Christian churches were not
+cruciform, and seldom had transepts, nor were they built with any
+reference to the points of the compass.[8]
+
+[Illustration: Plan of the church, the convent of the Pulley.
+
+1. Altar.
+
+2. Apsis, apparently cut out of the rock.
+
+3. Two Corinthian columns.
+
+4. Wooden partitions of lattice-work, about 10 ft. high.
+
+5. Steps leading up to the sanctuary.
+
+6. Two three-quarter columns.
+
+7. Eight columns.[6]
+
+8. Dark room cut out of the rock (there is another corresponding to it
+under the steps).[7]
+
+9. Steps leading down into the church.
+
+10. Screen before the Altar.]
+
+The ancient divisions of the church are also more strictly preserved in
+this edifice than in the churches of the West; the priests or monks
+standing above the steps (marked No. 5), the celebrant of the sacrament
+only going behind the screen (No. 10); the bulk of the congregation
+stand, there are no seats below the steps (No. 5), and the place for the
+women is behind the screen marked No. 4. The church is very dimly
+lighted by small apertures in the walls of the clerestory, above the
+columns, and the part about the apsis is nearly dark in the middle of
+the day, candles being always necessary during the reading of the
+service. The two Corinthian columns are of brick, plastered; they are
+not fluted, but are of good proportions and appear to be original. The
+apsis is of regular Grecian or Roman architecture, and is ornamented
+with six pilasters, and three niches in which are kept the books,
+cymbals, candlesticks, and other things which are used for the daily
+service. Here I found twenty-three manuscript books, fifteen in Coptic
+with Arabic translations, for the Coptic language is now understood by
+few, and eight Arabic manuscripts. The Coptic books were all liturgies:
+one of them, a folio, was ornamented with a large illumination, intended
+to represent the Virgin and the infant Saviour; it is almost the only
+specimen of Coptic art that I ever met with in a book, and its style and
+execution are so poor, that, perhaps, it is fortunate that they should
+be so rare. The Arabic books, which, as well as the Coptic, were all on
+cotton-paper, consisted of extracts from the New Testament and lives of
+the saints.
+
+I had been told that there was a great chest bound with iron, which was
+kept in a vault in this monastery, full of ancient books on vellum, and
+which was not to be opened without the consent of the Patriarch; I
+could, however, make out nothing of this story, but it does not follow
+that this chest of ancient manuscripts does not exist; for, surrounded
+as I was by crowds of gaping Copts and Arabs, I could not expect the
+abbot to be very communicative; and they have from long oppression
+acquired such a habit of denying the fact of their having anything in
+their possession, that, perhaps, there may still be treasures here which
+some future traveller may discover.
+
+While I was turning over the books, the contents of which I was able to
+decypher, from the similarity of the Coptic to the Greek alphabet, the
+people were very much astonished at my erudition, which appeared to them
+almost miraculous. They whispered to each other, and some said I must be
+a foreign Copt, who had returned to the land of his fathers. They asked
+my servant all manner of questions; but when he told them that he did
+not believe I knew a word of Coptic, their astonishment was increased to
+fear. I must be a magician, they said, and some kept a sharp look-out
+for the door, to which there was an immediate rush when I turned round.
+The whole assembly were puzzled, for in their simplicity they were not
+aware that people sometimes pore over books, and read them too, without
+understanding them, in other languages besides Coptic.
+
+We emerged from the subterranean church, which, being half sunk in the
+earth and surrounded by buildings, had nothing remarkable in its
+exterior architecture, and ascended to the terrace on the roof of the
+convent, whence we had a view of numerous ancient stone quarries in the
+desert to the east. They appeared to be of immense extent; the convent
+itself and two adjoining burial-grounds were all ensconced in the
+ancient limestone excavations.
+
+I am inclined to think, that although all travellers in Egypt pass along
+the river below this convent, few have visited its interior. It is now
+more a village than a monastery, properly speaking, as it is inhabited
+by numerous Coptic families who are not connected with the monks. These
+poor people were so surprised at my appearance, and watched all my
+actions with such intense curiosity, that I imagine they had scarcely
+ever seen a stranger before. They crowded every place where I was likely
+to pass, staring and gaping, and chattering to each other. Being much
+pressed with the throng in the court-yard, I made a sudden spring
+towards one of the little girls who was foremost in the crowd, uttering
+a shout at the same time as if I was going to seize her as she stood
+gazing open-mouthed at me. She screamed and tumbled down with fright,
+and the whole multitude of women and children scampered off as fast as
+their legs could carry them. Some fell down, others tumbled over them,
+making an indescribable confusion; but being reassured by the laughter
+of my party, they soon stopped and began laughing and talking with
+greater energy than before. At length I took refuge in the room of the
+superior, who gave me some coffee, with spices in it; and soon
+afterwards I took leave of this singular community.
+
+We walked to some quarries about two miles off to the north-east, which
+well repaid our visit The rocks were cut into the most extraordinary
+forms. There were several grottos, and also an ancient tomb with
+hieroglyphics sculptured on the rock. Among these I saw the names of
+Rameses II. and some other kings. Near this tomb is a large tablet on
+which is a bas-relief of a king making an offering to a deity with the
+head of a crocodile, whose name, according to Wilkinson, was Savak: he
+was worshipped at Ombos and Thebes, but was held in such small respect
+at Dendera that the inhabitants of that place made war upon the men of
+Ombos, and ate one of their prisoners, in emulation probably of the god
+he worshipped. Indeed, they appear to have considered the inhabitants of
+that city to have been a sort of vermin which it was incumbent upon all
+sensible Egyptians to destroy whenever they had an opportunity.
+
+In one place among the quarries a large rock has been left standing by
+itself with two apertures, like doorways, cut through it, giving it the
+resemblance of a propylon or the front of a house. It is not more than
+ten feet thick, although it is eighty or ninety feet long, and fifty
+high. Near it a huge slab projects horizontally from the precipice,
+supported at its outer edge by a single column. Some of the Copts, whose
+curiosity appeared to be insatiable, had followed us to these quarries,
+for the mere pleasure of staring at us. One of them, observing me making
+a sketch, came and peeped over my shoulder. "This Frank," said he to his
+friends, "has got a book that eats all these stones, and our monastery
+besides." "Ah!" said the other, "I suppose there are no stones in his
+country, so he wants to take some of ours away to show his countrymen
+what fine things we have here in Egypt; there is no place like Egypt,
+after all. Mashallah!"
+
+
+
+
+RUINED MONASTERY AT THEBES.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+     Ruined Monastery in the Necropolis of Thebes--"Mr. Hay's Tomb"--The
+     Coptic Carpenter--His acquirements and troubles--He agrees to show
+     the MSS. belonging to the ruined Monastery, which are under his
+     charge--Night visit to the Tomb in which they are concealed--Perils
+     of the way--Description of the Tomb--Probably in former times a
+     Christian Church--Examination of the Coptic MSS.--Alarming
+     interruption--Hurried flight from the Evil Spirits--Fortunate
+     escape--Appearance of the Evil Spirit--Observations on Ghost
+     Stories--The Legend of the Old Woman of Berkeley considered.
+
+
+On a rocky hill, perforated on all sides by the violated sepulchres of
+the ancient Egyptians, in the great Necropolis of Thebes, not far from
+the ruins of the palace and temple of Medinet Habou, stand the crumbling
+walls of an old Coptic monastery, which I was told had been inhabited,
+almost within the memory of man, by a small community of Christian
+monks. I was living at this period in a tomb, which was excavated in the
+side of the precipice, above Sheick Abd el Gournoo. It had been rendered
+habitable by some slight alterations, and a little garden was made on
+the terrace in front of it, whence the view was very remarkable. The
+whole of the vast ruins of Thebes were stretched out below it; whilst,
+beyond the mighty Nile, the huge piles of Luxor and Carnac loomed dark
+and mysterious in the distance, which was bounded by the arid chain of
+the Arabian mountains, the outline of their wild tops showing clear and
+hard against the cloudless sky. This habitation was known by the name of
+"Mr. Hay's tomb." The memory of this gentleman is held in the highest
+honour and reverence by the villagers of the surrounding districts, who
+look back to the time of his residence among them as the only
+satisfactory period of their miserable existence.
+
+One of the numerous admirers of Mr. Hay, among the poorer inhabitants of
+the neighbourhood, was a Coptic carpenter, a man of no small natural
+genius and talent, who in any other country would have risen above the
+sphere of his comrades if any opportunity of distinguishing himself had
+offered. He could read and write Coptic and Arabic; he had some
+knowledge of astronomy, and some said of magic also; and he was a very
+tolerable carpenter, although the only tools which he was able to
+procure were of the roughest sort. In all these accomplishments he was
+entirely self-taught; while his poverty was such that his costume
+consisted of nothing but a short shirt, or tunic, made of a homespun
+fabric of goat's hair, or wool, and a common felt skull-cap, with some
+rags twisted round it for a turban. With higher acquirements than the
+governor of the district, the poor Copt was hardly able to obtain bread
+to eat; and indeed it was only from the circumstance of his being a
+Christian that he and the other males of his family were not swept away
+in the conscription which has depopulated Egypt under the present
+government more than all the pillage and massacres and internal feuds of
+the followers of the Mameluke Beys.
+
+On those numerous occasions when the carpenter had nothing else to do,
+he used to come and talk to me; and endeavour to count up, upon his
+fingers, how often he had "_eat stick_;" that is, had been beaten by one
+Turkish officer or another for his inability to pay the tax to the
+Pasha, the tooth-money to some kawass, the forced contribution to the
+Nazir, or some other expected or unexpected call upon his empty
+pocket,--an appendage to his dress, by the by, which he did not possess;
+for having nothing in the world to put in it, a pocket was clearly of no
+use to him. The carpenter related to me the history of the ruined Coptic
+monastery; and I found that its library was still in existence. It was
+carefully concealed from the Mahomedans, as a sacred treasure; and my
+friend the carpenter was the guardian of the volumes belonging to his
+fallen church. After some persuasion he agreed, in consideration of my
+being a Christian, to let me see them; but he said I must go to the
+place where they were concealed at night, in order that no one might
+follow our steps; and he further stipulated that none of the Mahomedan
+servants should accompany us, but that I should go alone with him. I
+agreed to all this; and on the appointed night I sallied forth with the
+carpenter after dark. There were not many stars visible; and we had only
+just light enough to see our way across the plain of Thebes, or rather
+among the low hills and narrow valleys above the plain, which are so
+entirely honeycombed with ancient tombs and mummy pits that they
+resemble a rabbit warren on a large scale. Skulls and bones were strewed
+on our path; and often at the mouths of tombs the night wind would raise
+up fragments of the bandages which the sacrilegious hand of the Frankish
+spoilers of the dead had torn from the bodies of the Egyptian mummies in
+search of the scarabaei, amulets, and ornaments which are found upon the
+breast of the deceased subjects of the Pharaohs.
+
+Away we went stumbling over ruins, and escaping narrowly the fate of
+those who descend into the tomb before their time. Sometimes we heard a
+howl, which the carpenter said came from a hyena, prowling like
+ourselves among the graves, though on a very different errand. We kept
+on our way, by many a dark ruin and yawning cave, breaking our shins
+against the fallen stones until I was almost tired of the journey, which
+in the darkness seemed interminable; nor had I any idea where the
+carpenter was leading me. At last, after a fatiguing walk, we descended
+suddenly into a place something like a gravel pit, one side of which was
+closed by the perpendicular face of a low cliff, in which a doorway half
+filled up with rubbish betokened the existence of an ancient tomb. By
+the side of this doorway sat a little boy, whom I discovered by the
+light of the moon, which had just risen, to be the carpenter's son, an
+intelligent lad, who often came to pay me a visit in company with his
+father. It was here that the Coptic manuscripts were concealed, and it
+was a spot well chosen for the purpose; for although I thought I had
+wandered about the Necropolis of Thebes in every direction, I had never
+stumbled upon this place before, neither could I ever find it
+afterwards, although I rode in that direction several times.
+
+I now produced from my pocket three candles, which the carpenter had
+desired me to bring, one for him, one for his son, and one for myself.
+Having lit them, we entered into the doorway of the tomb, and passing
+through a short passage, found ourselves in a great sepulchral hall. The
+earth and sand which had been blown into the entrance formed an inclined
+plane, sloping downwards to another door sculptured with hieroglyphics,
+through which we passed into a second chamber, on the other side of
+which was a third doorway, leading into a magnificent subterranean hall,
+divided into three aisles by four square columns, two on each side.
+There may have been six columns, but I think there were only four. The
+walls and columns, or rather square piers which supported the roof,
+retained the brilliant white which is so much to be admired in the tombs
+of the kings and other stately sepulchres. On the walls were various
+hieroglyphics, and on the square piers tall figures of the gods of the
+infernal regions--Kneph, Khonso, and Osiris--were portrayed in brilliant
+colours, with their immense caps or crowns, and the heads of the jackal
+and other beasts. At the further end of this chamber was a stone altar,
+standing upon one or two steps, in an apsis or semicircular recess. As
+this is not usual in Egyptian tombs, I have since thought that this had
+probably been altered by the Copts in early times, and that, like the
+Christians of the West in the days of their persecution, they had met in
+secret in the tombs for the celebration of their rites, and had made use
+of this hall as a church, in the same way as we see the remains of
+chapels and places of worship in the catacombs of Rome and Syracuse. The
+inner court of the Temple of Medinet Habou has also been converted into
+a Christian church; and the worthy Copts have daubed over the
+beautifully executed pictures of Rameses II. with a coat of plaster,
+upon which they have painted the grim figures of St. George, and various
+old frightful saints and hermits, whose uncouth forms would almost give
+one the idea of their having served for a system of idolatry much less
+refined than the worship of the ancient gods of the heathen, whose
+places they have usurped in these gigantic temples.
+
+The Coptic manuscripts, of which I was in search, were lying upon the
+steps of the altar, except one, larger than the rest, which was placed
+upon the altar itself. They were about eight or nine in number, all
+brown and musty looking books, written on cotton paper, or charta
+bombycina, a material in use in very early times. An edict or charter,
+on paper, exists, or at least did exist two years ago, in the museum of
+the Jesuits' College, called the Colleggio Romano, at Rome: its date was
+of the sixth century; and I have a Coptic manuscript written on paper of
+this kind, which was finished, as appears by a note at the end, in the
+year 1018: these are the oldest dates that I have met with in any
+manuscripts on paper.
+
+Having found these ancient books we proceeded to examine their contents,
+and to accomplish this at our ease, we stuck the candles on the ground,
+and the carpenter and I sat down before them, while his son brought us
+the volumes from the steps of the altar, one by one.
+
+The first which came to hand was a dusty quarto, smelling of incense,
+and well spotted with yellow wax, with all its leaves dogs-eared or worn
+round with constant use: this was a MS. of the lesser festivals. Another
+appeared to be of the same kind; a third was also a book for the church
+service. We puzzled over the next two or three, which seemed to be
+martyrologies, or lives of the saints; but while we were poring over
+them, we thought we heard a noise. "Oh! father of hammers," said I to
+the carpenter, "I think I heard a noise: what could it be?--I thought I
+heard something move." "Did you, hawaja?" (O merchant), said the
+carpenter; "it must have been my son moving the books, for what else
+could there be here?--No one knows of this tomb or of the holy
+manuscripts which it contains. Surely there can be nothing here to make
+a noise, for are we not here alone, a hundred feet under the earth, in a
+place where no one comes?--It is nothing: certainly it is nothing;" and
+so saying, he lifted up one of the candles and peered about in the
+darkness; but as there was nothing to be seen, and all was silent as the
+grave, he sat down again, and at our leisure we completed our
+examination of all the books which lay upon the steps.
+
+They proved to be all church books, liturgies for different seasons, or
+homilies; and not historical, nor of any particular interest, either
+from their age or subject. There now remained only the great book upon
+the altar, a ponderous quarto, bound either in brown leather or wooden
+boards; and this the carpenter's son with difficulty lifted from its
+place, and laid it down before us on the ground; but, as he did so, we
+heard the noise again. The carpenter and I looked at each other: he
+turned pale--perhaps I did so too; and we looked over our shoulders in
+a sort of anxious, nervous kind of way, expecting to see something--we
+did not know what. However, we saw nothing; and, feeling a little
+ashamed, I again settled myself before the three candle-ends, and opened
+the book, which was written in large black characters of unusual size.
+As I bent over the huge volume, to see what it was about, suddenly there
+arose a sound somewhere in the cavern, but from whence it came I could
+not comprehend; it seemed all round us at the same moment. There was no
+room for doubt now: it was a fearful howling, like the roar of a hundred
+wild beasts. The carpenter looked aghast: the tall and grisly figures of
+the Egyptian gods seemed to stare at us from the walls. I thought of
+Cornelius Agrippa, and felt a gentle perspiration coming on which would
+have betokened a favourable crisis in a fever. Suddenly the dreadful
+roar ceased, and as its echoes died away in the tomb, we felt
+considerably relieved, and were beginning to try and put a good face
+upon the matter, when, to our unutterable horror, it began again, and
+waxed louder and louder, as if legions of infernal spirits were let
+loose upon us. We could stand this no longer: the carpenter and I jumped
+up from the ground, and his son in his terror stumbled over the great
+Coptic manuscript, and fell upon the candles, which were all put out in
+a moment; his screams were now added to the uproar which resounded in
+the cave: seeing the twinkling of a star through the vista of the two
+outer chambers, we all set off as hard as we could run, our feelings of
+alarm being increased to desperation when we perceived that something
+was chasing us in the darkness, while the roar seemed to increase every
+moment. How we did tear along! The devil take the hindmost seemed about
+to be literally fulfilled; and we raised stifling clouds of dust, as we
+scrambled up the steep slope which led to the outer door. "So then,"
+thought I, "the stories of gins, and ghouls, and goblins, that I have
+read of and never believed, must be true after all, and in this city of
+the dead it has been our evil lot to fall upon a haunted tomb!"
+
+Breathless and bewildered, the carpenter and I bolted out of this
+infernal palace into the open air, mightily relieved at our escape from
+the darkness and the terrors of the subterranean vaults. We had not been
+out a moment, and had by no means collected our ideas, before our alarm
+was again excited to its utmost pitch.
+
+The evil one came forth in bodily shape, and stood revealed to our eyes
+distinctly in the pale light of the moon.
+
+While we were gazing upon the appearance, the carpenter's son, whom we
+had quite forgotten in our hurry, came creeping out of the doorway of
+the tomb upon his hands and knees.
+
+"Why, father!" said he, after a moment's silence, "if that is not old
+Fatima's donkey, which has been lost these two days! It is lucky that we
+have found it, for it must have wandered into this tomb, and it might
+have been starved if we had not met with it to-night."
+
+The carpenter looked rather ashamed of the adventure; and as for myself,
+though I was glad that nothing worse had come of it, I took comfort in
+the reflection that I was not the first person who had been alarmed by
+the proceedings of an ass.
+
+I have related the history of this adventure because I think that, on
+some foundation like this, many well-accredited ghost stories may have
+been founded. Numerous legends and traditions, which appear to be
+supernatural or miraculous, and the truth of which has been attested and
+sworn to by credible witnesses, have doubtless arisen out of facts which
+actually did occur, but of which some essential particulars have been
+either concealed, or had escaped notice; and thus many marvellous
+histories have gone abroad, which are so well attested, that although
+common sense forbids their being believed, they cannot be proved to be
+false. In this case, if the donkey had not fortunately come out and
+shown himself, I should certainly have returned to Europe half impressed
+with the belief that something supernatural had occurred, which was in
+some mysterious manner connected with the opening of the magic volume
+which we had taken from the altar in the tomb. The echoes of the
+subterranean cave so altered the sound of the donkey's bray, that I
+never should have discovered that these fearful sounds had so
+undignified an origin; a story never loses by telling, and with a little
+gradual exaggeration it would soon have become one of the best
+accredited supernatural histories in the country.
+
+The well-known story of the old woman of Berkeley has been read with
+wonder and dread for at least four hundred years: it is to be found in
+early manuscripts; it is related by Olaus Magnus, and is to be seen
+illustrated by a woodcut, both in the German and Latin editions of the
+'Nuremberg Chronicle,' which was printed in the year 1493. There is no
+variation in the legend, which is circumstantially the same in all these
+books. Without doubt it was partly founded upon fact, or, as in the case
+of the story of the Theban tomb, some circumstances have been omitted
+which make all the difference; and a natural though perhaps
+extraordinary occurrence has been handed down for centuries, as a
+fearful instance of the power of the evil one in this world over those
+who have given themselves up to the practice of tremendous crimes.
+
+There are many supernatural stories, which we are certain cannot by any
+possibility be true; but which nevertheless are as well attested, and
+apparently as fully proved, as any facts in the most veracious history.
+Under circumstances of alarm or temporary hallucination people
+frequently believe that they have had supernatural visitations. Even the
+tricks of conjurers, which have been witnessed by a hundred persons at a
+time, are totally incomprehensible to the uninitiated; and in the middle
+ages, when these practices were resorted to for religious or political
+ends, it is more than probable that many occurrences which were supposed
+to be supernatural might have been explained, if all the circumstances
+connected with them had been fairly and openly detailed by an impartial
+witness.
+
+
+
+
+THE WHITE MONASTERY.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+     The White Monastery--Abou Shenood--Devastations of the
+     Mamelukes--Description of the Monastery--Different styles of its
+     exterior and interior Architecture--Its ruinous
+     condition--Description of the Church--The Baptistery--Ancient Rites
+     of Baptism--The Library--Modern Architecture--The Church of San
+     Francesco at Rimini--The Red Monastery--Alarming rencontre with an
+     armed party--Feuds between the native Tribes--Faction
+     fights--Eastern Story Tellers--Legends of the Desert--Abraham and
+     Sarah--Legendary Life of Moses--Arabian Story-tellers--Attention of
+     their Audience.
+
+
+Mounting our noble Egyptian steeds, or in other words having engaged a
+sufficient number of little braying donkeys, which the peasants brought
+down to the river side, and put our saddles on them, we cantered in an
+hour and a half from the village of Souhag to the White Monastery, which
+is known to the Arabs by the name of Derr abou Shenood. Who the great
+Abou Shenood had the honour to be, and what he had done to be canonized,
+I could meet with no one to tell me. He was, I believe, a Mahomedan
+saint, and this Coptic monastery had been in some sort placed under the
+shadow of his protection, in the hopes of saving it from the
+persecutions of the faithful. Abou Shenood, however, does not appear to
+have done his duty, for the White Monastery has been ruined and sacked
+over and over again. The last outrage upon the unfortunate monastery
+occurred about 1812, when the Mamelukes who had encamped upon the plains
+of Itfou, having no better occupation, amused themselves by burning all
+the houses, and killing all the people in the neighbourhood. Since that
+time the monks having returned one by one, and finding that no one took
+the trouble to molest them, began to repair the convent, the interior of
+which had been gutted by the Mamelukes; but the immense strength of the
+outer walls had resisted all their efforts to destroy them.
+
+The peculiarity of this monastery is, that the interior was once a
+magnificent basilica, while the exterior was built by the Empress
+Helena, in the ancient Egyptian style. The walls slope inwards towards
+the summit, where they are crowned with a deep overhanging cornice. The
+building is of an oblong shape, about two hundred feet in length by
+ninety wide, very well built, of fine blocks of stone; it has no windows
+outside larger than loopholes, and these are at a great height from the
+ground. Of these there are twenty on the south side and nine at the east
+end. The monastery stands at the foot of the hill, on the edge of the
+Libyan desert, where the sand encroaches on the plain. It looks like the
+sanctuary, or cella, of an ancient temple, and is not unlike the
+bastion of an old-fashioned fortification; except one solitary doom
+tree, it stands quite alone, and has a most desolate aspect, backed, as
+it is, by the sandy desert, and without any appearance of a garden,
+either within or outside its walls. The ancient doorway of red granite,
+on the south side, has been partially closed up, leaving an opening just
+large enough to admit one person at a time.
+
+The door was closed, and we shouted in vain for admittance. We then
+tried the effect of a double knock in the Grosvenor Square style with a
+large stone, but that was of no use; so I got one still larger, and
+banged away at the door with all my might, shouting at the same time
+that we were friends and Christians. After some minutes a small voice
+was heard inside, and several questions being satisfactorily answered,
+we were let in by a monk; and passing through the narrow door, I found
+myself surrounded by piles of ruined buildings of various ages, among
+which the tall granite columns of the ancient church reared themselves
+like an avenue on either side of the desecrated nave, which is now open
+to the sky, and is used as a promenade for a host of chickens. Some
+goats also were perched upon fragments of ruined walls, and looked
+cunningly at us as we invaded their domain. I saw some Coptic women
+peeping at me from the windows of some wretched hovels of mud and
+brick, which they had built up in corners among the ancient ruins like
+swallows' nests.
+
+There were but three poor priests. The principal one led us to the upper
+part of the church, which had lately been repaired and walled off from
+the open nave; and enclosed the apsis and transepts, which had been
+restored in some measure, and fitted for the performance of divine
+service. The half domes of the apsis and two transepts, which were of
+well-built masonry, were still entire, and the original frescos remain
+upon them. Those in the transepts are stiff figures of saints; and in
+the one over the altar is the great figure of the Redeemer, such as is
+usually met with in the mosaics of the Italian basilicas. These apsides
+are above fifty feet from the ground, which gives them a dignity of
+appearance, and leaves greater cause to regret the destruction of the
+nave, which, with its clerestory, must have been still higher. There
+appear to have been fifteen columns on each side of the centre aisle,
+and two at the end opposite the altar, which in this instance I believe
+is at the west end. The roof over the part of the east end, which has
+been fitted up as a church, is supported by four square modern piers of
+plastered brick or rubble work. On the side walls, above the altar,
+there are some circular compartments containing paintings of the saints;
+and near these are two tablets with inscriptions in black on a white
+ground. That on the left appeared to be in Abyssinian: the one on the
+other side was either Coptic or uncial Greek; but it was too dark, and
+the tablet was too high, to enable me to make it out There is also a
+long Greek inscription in red letters on one of the modern square piers,
+which looks as if it was of considerable antiquity; and the whole
+interior of the building bears traces of having been repaired and
+altered, more than once, in ancient times. The richly ornamented
+recesses of the three apsides have been smeared over with plaster, on
+which some tremendously grim saints have been portrayed, whose present
+threadbare appearance shows that they have disfigured the walls for
+several centuries. Some comparatively modern capitals, of bad design,
+have been placed upon two or three of the granite columns of the nave;
+and others, which were broken, have been patched with brick, plastered
+and painted to look like granite. The principal entrance was formerly at
+the west end; where there is a small vestibule, immediately within the
+door of which, on the left hand, is a small chapel, perhaps the
+baptistery, about twenty-five feet long, and still in tolerable
+preservation. It is a splendid specimen of the richest Roman
+architecture of the latter empire, and is truly an imperial little room.
+The arched ceiling is of stone; and there are three beautifully
+ornamented niches on each side. The upper end is semicircular, and has
+been entirely covered with a profusion of sculpture in panels,
+cornices, and every kind of architectural enrichment When it was entire,
+and covered with gilding, painting, or mosaic, it must have been most
+gorgeous. The altar on such a chapel as this was probably of gold, set
+full of gems; or if it was the baptistery, as I suppose, it most likely
+contained a bath, of the most precious jasper, or of some of the more
+rare kinds of marble, for the immersion of the converted heathen, whose
+entrance into the church was not permitted until they had been purified
+with the waters of baptism in a building without the door of the house
+of God; an appropriate custom, which was not broken in upon for ages;
+and even then the infant was only brought just inside the door, where
+the font was placed on the left hand of the entrance; a judicious
+practice, which is completely set at nought in England, where the
+squalling imp often distracts the attention of the congregation; and is
+finally sprinkled, instead of being immersed, the whole ceremony having
+been so much altered and pared down from its original symbolic form,
+that were a Christian of the early ages to return upon the earth, he
+would be unable to recognise its meaning.
+
+The conventual library consisted of only half-a-dozen well-waxed and
+well-thumbed liturgies; but one of the priests told me that they boasted
+formerly of above a hundred volumes written on leather (gild razali),
+gazelle skins, probably vellum, which were destroyed by the Mamelukes
+during their last pillage of the convent.
+
+The habitations of the monks, according to the original design of this
+very curious building, were contained in a long slip on the south side
+of the church, where their cells were lit by the small loopholes seen
+from the outside. Of these cells none now remain: they must have been
+famously hot, exposed as they were all day long to the rays of the
+southern sun; but probably the massive thickness of the walls and arched
+ceilings reduced the temperature. There was no court or open space
+within the convent; the only place where its inhabitants could have
+walked for exercise in the open air was upon the flat terrace of the
+roof, the deck of this ship of St Peter; for the White Monastery in some
+respects resembled a dismasted man-of-war, anchored in a sea of burning
+sand.
+
+In modern times we are not surprised on finding a building erected at an
+immense expense, in which the architecture of the interior is totally
+different from that of the exterior. A Brummagem Gothic house is
+frequently furnished and ornamented within in what is called "_a chaste
+Greek style_," and _vice versa_. A Grecian house--that is to say, a
+square white block, with square holes in it for windows, and a portico
+in front--is sometimes inhabited by an antiquarian, who fits it up with
+Gothic furniture, and a Gothic paper designed by a crafty paper-hanger
+in the newest style. But in ancient days it was very rare to see such a
+mixture. I am surprised that the architect of the enthusiastic empress
+did not go on with the interior of this building as he had begun the
+exterior. The great hall of Carnac would have afforded him a grand
+example of an aisle with a clerestory, and side windows, with stone
+mullions, which would have answered his purpose, in the Egyptian style.
+The only other instance of this kind, where two distinct styles of
+architecture were employed in the middle ages on the inside and outside
+of the same building, is in the church of St. Francesco, at Rimini,
+which was built by Sigismond Malatesta as a last resting-place for
+himself and his friends. He lies in a Gothic shrine within; and the
+bodies of the great men of his day repose in sarcophagi of classic forms
+outside; each of which stands in the recess of a Roman arch, in which
+style of architecture the exterior of the building is erected.
+
+About two miles to the north of the White Monastery, in a small village
+sheltered by a grove of palms, stands another ancient building called
+the Red Monastery.
+
+On our return to Souhag we met a party of men on foot, who were armed
+with spears, shields, and daggers, and one or two with guns. They were
+led by a man on horseback, who was completely armed with all sorts of
+warlike implements. They stopped us, and began to talk to our followers,
+who were exceedingly civil in their behaviour, for the appearance of the
+party was of a doubtful character; and we felt relieved when we found
+that we were not to be robbed, but that our friends were on an
+expedition against the men of Tahta, who some time ago had killed a man
+belonging to their village, and they were going to avenge his death.
+This was only one detachment of many that had assembled in the
+neighbouring villages, each headed by its sheick, or the sheick's son,
+if the father was an old man. The numbers engaged in this feud amounted,
+they told us, to between two and three hundred men on each side. Every
+now and then, it seems, when they have got in their harvest, they
+assemble to have a fight. Several are wounded, and sometimes a few are
+killed; in which case, if the numbers of the slain are not equal, the
+feud continues; and so it goes on from generation to generation, like a
+faction fight in Ireland, or the feudal wars of the barons of the middle
+ages,--a style of things which appears to belong to the nature of the
+human race, and not to any particular country, age, or faith.
+
+[Illustration: MENDICANT DERVISH.]
+
+Parting from this warlike band with mutual compliments and good wishes,
+and our guides each seizing the tail of one of our donkeys to increase
+his onward speed, we trotted away back to the boat, which was waiting
+for us at Souhag. There we found our boatmen and a crowd of villagers,
+listening to one of those long stories with which the inhabitants of
+Egypt are wont to enliven their hours of inactivity. This is an
+amusement peculiar to the East, and it is one in which I took great
+delight during many a long journey through the deserts on the way
+to Mount Sinai, Syria, and other places. The Arabs are great tellers of
+stories; and some of them have a peculiar knack in rendering them
+interesting and exciting the curiosity of their audience. Many of these
+stories were interesting from their reference to persons and occurrences
+of Holy Writ, particularly of the Old Testament. There are many legends
+of the patriarch Abraham and his beautiful wife Sarah, who, excepting
+Eve, is said to have been the fairest of all the daughters of the earth.
+King Solomon is the hero of numerous strange legends; and his adventures
+with the gnomes and genii who were subjected to his sway are endless.
+The poem of Yousef and Zuleica is well known in Europe. And the
+traditions relating to the prophet Moses are so numerous, that, with the
+help of a very curious manuscript of an apocryphal book ascribed to the
+great leader of the Jews, I have been enabled to compile a connected
+biography, in which many curious circumstances are detailed that are
+said to have taken place during his eventful life, and which concludes
+with a highly poetical legend of his death. Many of the stories told by
+the Arabs resemble those of the _Arabian Nights_; and a large proportion
+of these are not very refined.
+
+I have often been greatly amused with watching the faces of an audience
+who were listening to a well-told story, some eagerly leaning forward,
+others smoking their pipes with quicker puffs, when something
+extraordinary was related, or when the hero of the story had got into
+some apparently inextricable dilemma. These story-telling parties are
+usually to be seen seated in a circle on the ground in a shady place.
+The donkey-boy will stop and gape open-mouthed on overhearing a few
+words of the marvellous adventures of some enchanted prince, and will
+look back at his four-footed companion, fearing lest he should resume
+his original form of a merchant from the island of Serendib. The
+greatest tact is required on the part of the narrator to prevent the
+dispersion of his audience, who are sometimes apt to melt away on his
+stopping at what he considers a peculiarly interesting point, and taking
+that opportunity of sending round his boy with a little brass basin to
+collect paras. I know of few subjects better suited for a painter than
+one of these story-tellers and his group of listeners.
+
+
+
+
+THE ISLAND OF PHILOE, &c.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+     The Island of Philoe--The Cataract of Assouan--The Burial Place of
+     Osiris--The Great Temple of Philoe--The Bed of Pharaoh--Shooting in
+     Egypt--Turtle Doves--Story of the Prince Anas el Ajoud--Egyptian
+     Songs--Vow of the Turtle Dove--Curious fact in Natural History--The
+     Crocodile and its Guardian Bird--Arab notions regarding
+     Animals--Legend of King Solomon and the Hoopoes--Natives of the
+     country round the Cataracts of the Nile--Their appearance and
+     Costume--The beautiful Mouna--Solitary Visit to the Island of
+     Philoe--Quarrel between two native Boys--Singular instance of
+     retributive Justice.
+
+
+Every part of Egypt is interesting and curious, but the only place to
+which the epithet of beautiful can be correctly applied is the island of
+Philoe, which is situated immediately to the south of the cataract of
+Assouan. The scenery around consists of an infinity of steep granite
+rocks, which stand, some in the water, others on the land, all of them
+of the wildest and most picturesque forms. The cataract itself cannot be
+seen from the island of Philoe, being shut out by an intervening rock,
+whose shattered mass of red granite towers over the island, rising
+straight out of the water. From the top of this rock are seen the
+thousand islands, some of bare rock, some covered with palms and
+bushes, which interrupt the course of the river and give rise to those
+eddies, whirlpools, and streams of foaming water which are called the
+cataracts of the Nile, but which may be more properly designated as
+rapids, for there is no perpendicular fall of more than two or three
+feet, and boats of the largest size are drawn with ropes against the
+stream through certain channels, and are shot down continually with the
+stream on their return without the occurrence of serious accidents.
+
+Several of these rocks are sculptured with tablets and inscriptions,
+recording the offerings of the Pharaohs to the gods; and the sacred
+island of Philoe, the burial-place of Osiris, is covered with buildings,
+temples, colonnades, gateways, and terrace walls, which are magnificent
+even in their ruin, and must have been superb when still entire, and
+filled with crowds of priests and devotees, accompanied by all the flags
+and standards, gold and glitter, of the ceremonies of their emblematical
+religion.
+
+Excepting the Pyramids, nothing in Egypt struck me so much as when on a
+bright moonlit night I first entered the court of the great temple of
+Philoe. The colours of the paintings on the walls are as vivid in many
+places as they were the day they were finished: the silence and the
+solemn grandeur of the immense buildings around me were most imposing;
+and on emerging from the lofty gateway between the two towers of the
+propylon, as I wandered about the island, the tufts of palms, which are
+here of great height, with their weeping branches, seemed to be mourning
+over the desolation of the stately palaces and temples to which in
+ancient times all the illustrious of Egypt were wont to resort, and into
+whose inner recesses none might penetrate; for the secret and awful
+mysteries of the worship of Osiris were not to be revealed, nor were
+they even to be spoken of by those who were not initiated into the
+highest orders of the priesthood. Now all may wander where they choose,
+and speculate on the uses of the dark chambers hidden in the thickness
+of the walls, and trace out the plans of the courts and temples with the
+long lines of columns which formed the avenue of approach from the
+principal landing-place to the front of the great temple.
+
+The whole island is encumbered with piles of immense squared stones, the
+remains of buildings which must have been thrown down by an earthquake,
+as nothing else could shake such solid works from their foundations.[9]
+The principal temple, and several smaller ones, are still almost entire.
+One of these, called by the natives the Bed of Pharaoh, is a remarkably
+light and airy-looking structure, differing, in this respect, from the
+usual character of Egyptian architecture. On the terrace overhanging the
+Nile, in front of this graceful temple, I had formed my habitation,
+where there are some vaults of more recent construction, which are
+usually taken possession of by travellers and fitted up with the
+carpets, cushions, and the sides of the tents which they bring with
+them.
+
+Every one who travels in Egypt is more or less a sportsman, for the
+infinity of birds must tempt the most idle or contemplative to go "_a
+birding_," as the Americans term it. I had shot all sorts of birds and
+beasts, from a crocodile to a snipe; and among other game I had shot
+multitudes of turtle doves; these pretty little birds being exceedingly
+tame, and never flying very far, I sometimes got three or four at a
+shot, and a dozen or so of them made a famous pie or a pilau, with rice
+and a tasty sauce; but a somewhat singular incident put an end to my
+warfare against them. One day I was sitting on the terrace before the
+Bed of Pharaoh, surrounded by a circle of Arabs and negroes, and we were
+all listening to a story which an old gentleman with a grey beard was
+telling us concerning the loves of the beautiful Ouardi, who was shut up
+in an enchanted palace on this very island to secure her from the
+approaches of her lover, Prince Anas el Ajoud, the son of the Sultan
+Esshamieh, who had married seven wives before he had a son. The first
+six wives, on the birth of Anas el Ajoud, placed a log in his cradle,
+and exposed the infant in the desert, where he was nursed by a gazelle,
+and whence he returned to punish the six cruel step-mothers, who fully
+believed he was dead, and to rejoice the heart of his father, who had
+been persuaded by these artful ladies that his sultana by magic art had
+presented him with a log instead of a son, who was to be the heir of his
+dominions, &c. Prince Anas, who was in despair at being separated from
+his lady love, used to sing dismal songs as he passed in his gilded boat
+under the walls of the island palace. These, at last, were responded to
+from the lattice by the fair Ouardi, who was soon afterwards carried off
+by the enamoured prince. The story, which was an interminable rigmarole,
+as long as one of those spun on from night to night by the Princess
+Sherezade, was diversified every now and then by the fearful squealing
+of an Arab song. The old storyteller, shutting his eyes and throwing
+back his head that his mind might not be distracted by any exterior
+objects, uttered a succession of sounds which set one's teeth on
+edge.[10]
+
+[Illustration: (musical notation) AMAAN.
+
+The snow, the snow is melt-ing on the hills of Is--fa--han. As fair, be
+as re-lent-ing Am-aan, Am-aan, Am-aan.]
+
+Whilst the old gentleman was shooting out one of these amatory ditties,
+and I was sitting still listening to these heart-rending sounds, a
+turtle-dove--who was probably awakened from her sleep by the fearful
+discord, or might, perhaps, have been the beautiful Princess Ouardi
+herself transformed into the likeness of a dove--flew out of one of the
+palm-trees which grow on the edge of the bank, and perched at a little
+distance from us. We none of us moved, and the turtle-dove, after
+pausing for a moment, ran towards me and nestled under the full sleeve
+of my benisch. It stayed there till the story and the songs were ended,
+and when I was obliged to arise, in order to make my compliments to the
+departing guests, the dove flew into the palm-tree again, and went to
+roost among the branches, where several others were already perched with
+their heads under their wings. Thereupon I made a vow never to shoot
+another turtle-dove, however much pie or pilau might need them, and I
+fairly kept my vow. Luckily turtle-doves are not so good as pigeons, so
+it was no great loss. Although not to be compared to the Roman bird, the
+Egyptian pigeon is very good eating when he is tender and well dressed.
+
+As I am on the subject of birds I will relate a fact in natural history
+which I was fortunate enough to witness, and which, although it is
+mentioned so long ago as the times of Herodotus, has not, I believe,
+been often observed since; indeed I have never met with any traveller
+who has himself seen such an occurrence.
+
+I had always a strong predilection for crocodile shooting, and had
+destroyed several of these dragons of the waters. On one occasion I saw,
+a long way off, a large one, twelve or fifteen feet long, lying asleep
+under a perpendicular bank about ten feet high, on the margin of the
+river. I stopped the boat at some distance; and noting the place as well
+as I could, I took a circuit inland, and came down cautiously to the top
+of the bank, whence with a heavy rifle I made sure of my ugly game. I
+had already cut off his head in imagination, and was considering whether
+it should be stuffed with its mouth open or shut. I peeped over the
+bank. There he was, within ten feet of the sight of the rifle. I was on
+the point of firing at his eye, when I observed that he was attended by
+a bird called a ziczac. It is of the plover species, of a greyish
+colour, and as large as a small pigeon.
+
+The bird was walking up and down close to the crocodile's nose. I
+suppose I moved, for suddenly it saw me, and instead of flying away, as
+any respectable bird would have done, he jumped up about a foot from the
+ground, screamed "Ziczac! ziczac!" with all the powers of his voice, and
+dashed himself against the crocodile's face two or three times. The
+great beast started up, and immediately spying his danger, made a jump
+up into the air, and dashing into the water with a splash which covered
+me with mud; he dived into the river and disappeared. The ziczac, to my
+increased admiration, proud apparently of having saved his friend,
+remained walking up and down, uttering his cry, as I thought, with an
+exulting voice, and standing every now and then on the tips of his toes
+in a conceited manner, which made me justly angry with his impertinence.
+After having waited in vain for some time, to see whether the crocodile
+would come out again, I got up from the bank where I was lying, threw a
+clod of earth at the ziczac, and came back to the boat, feeling some
+consolation for the loss of my game in having witnessed a circumstance,
+the truth of which has been disputed by several writers on natural
+history.
+
+The Arabs say that every race of animals is governed by its chief, to
+whom the others are bound to pay obeisance. The king of the crocodiles
+holds his court at the bottom of the Nile near Siout. The king of the
+fleas lives at Tiberias, in the Holy Land; and deputations of
+illustrious fleas, from other countries, visit him on a certain day in
+his palace, situated in the midst of beautiful gardens, under the Lake
+of Genesareth. There is a bird which is common in Egypt called the
+hoopoe (Abou hood-hood), of whose king the following legend is related.
+This bird is of the size and shape as well as the colour of a woodcock;
+but has a crown of feathers on its head, which it has the power of
+raising and depressing at will. It is a tame, quiet bird; usually to be
+found walking leisurely in search of its food on the margin of the
+water. It seldom takes long flights; and is not harmed by the natives,
+who are much more sparing of the life of animals than we Europeans
+are:--
+
+In the days of King Solomon, the son of David, who, by the virtue of his
+cabalistic seal, reigned supreme over genii as well as men, and who
+could speak the languages of animals of all kinds, all created beings
+were subservient to his will. Now when the king wanted to travel, he
+made use, for his conveyance, of a carpet of a square form. This carpet
+had the property of extending itself to a sufficient size to carry a
+whole army, with the tents and baggage; but at other times it could be
+reduced so as to be only large enough for the support of the royal
+throne, and of those ministers whose duty it was to attend upon the
+person of the sovereign. Four genii of the air then took the four
+corners of the carpet, and carried it with its contents wherever King
+Solomon desired. Once the king was on a journey in the air, carried upon
+his throne of ivory over the various nations of the earth. The rays of
+the sun poured down upon his head, and he had nothing to protect him
+from its heat. The fiery beams were beginning to scorch his neck and
+shoulders, when he saw a flock of vultures flying past. "Oh, vultures!"
+cried King Solomon, "come and fly between me and the sun, and make a
+shadow with your wings to protect me, for its rays are scorching my neck
+and face." But the vultures answered, and said, "We are flying to the
+north, and your face is turned towards the south. We desire to continue
+on our way; and be it known unto thee, O king! that we will not turn
+back on our flight, neither will we fly above your throne to protect
+you from the sun, although its rays may be scorching your neck and face.
+"Then King Solomon lifted up his voice, and said, "Cursed be ye, O
+vultures!--and because you will not obey the commands of your lord, who
+rules over the whole world, the feathers of your necks shall fall off;
+and the heat of the sun, and the cold of the winter, and the keenness of
+the wind, and the beating of the rain, shall fall upon your rebellious
+necks, which shall not be protected with feathers, like the necks of
+other birds. And whereas you have hitherto fared delicately,
+henceforward ye shall eat carrion and feed upon offal; and your race
+shall be impure till the end of the world." And it was done unto the
+vultures as King Solomon had said.
+
+Now it fell out that there was a flock of hoopoes flying past; and the
+king cried out to them, and said, "O hoopoes! come and fly between me
+and the sun, that I may be protected from its rays by the shadow of your
+wings." Whereupon the king of the hoopoes answered, and said, "O king,
+we are but little fowls, and we are not able to afford much shade; but
+we will gather our nation together, and by our numbers we will make up
+for our small size." So the hoopoes gathered together, and, flying in a
+cloud over the throne of the king, they sheltered him from the rays of
+the sun.
+
+When the journey was over, and King Solomon sat upon his golden throne,
+in his palace of ivory, whereof the doors were emerald, and the windows
+of diamonds, larger even than the diamond of Jemshid, he commanded that
+the king of the hoopoes should stand before his feet. "Now," said King
+Solomon, "for the service that thou and thy race have rendered, and the
+obedience thou hast shown to the king, thy lord and master, what shall
+be done unto thee, O hoopoe? and what shall be given to the hoopoes of
+thy race, for a memorial and a reward?" Now the king of the hoopoes was
+confused with the great honour of standing before the feet of the king;
+and, making his obeisance, and laying his right claw upon his heart, he
+said, "O king, live for ever! Let a day be given to thy servant, to
+consider with his queen and his councillors what it shall be that the
+king shall give unto us for a reward." And King Solomon said, "Be it
+so." And it was so.
+
+But the king of the hoopoes flew away; and he went to his queen, who was
+a dainty hen, and he told her what had happened, and he desired her
+advice as to what they should ask of the king for a reward; and he
+called together his council, and they sat upon a tree, and they each of
+them desired a different thing. Some wished for a long tail; some wished
+for blue and green feathers; some wished to be as large as ostriches;
+some wished for one thing, and some for another; and they debated till
+the going down of the sun, but they could not agree together. Then the
+queen took the king of the hoopoes apart and said to him, "My dear lord
+and husband, listen to my words; and as we have preserved the head of
+King Solomon, let us ask for crowns of gold on our heads, that we may be
+superior to all other birds." And the words of the queen and the
+princesses her daughters prevailed; and the king of the hoopoes
+presented himself before the throne of Solomon, and desired of him that
+all hoopoes should wear golden crowns upon their heads. Then Solomon
+said, "Hast thou considered well what it is that thou desirest?" And the
+hoopoe said, "I have considered well, and we desire to have golden
+crowns upon our heads." So Solomon replied, "Crowns of gold shall ye
+have: but, behold, thou art a foolish bird; and when the evil days shall
+come upon thee, and thou seest the folly of thy heart, return here to
+me, and I will give thee help." So the king of the hoopoes left the
+presence of King Solomon, with a golden crown upon his head. And all the
+hoopoes had golden crowns; and they were exceeding proud and haughty.
+Moreover, they went down by the lakes and the pools, and walked by the
+margin of the water, that they might admire themselves as it were in a
+glass. And the queen of the hoopoes gave herself airs, and sat upon a
+twig; and she refused to speak to the merops her cousin, and the other
+birds who had been her friends, because they were but vulgar birds, and
+she wore a crown of gold upon her head.
+
+Now there was a certain fowler who set traps for birds; and he put a
+piece of a broken mirror into his trap, and a hoopoe that went in to
+admire itself was caught. And the fowler looked at it, and saw the
+shining crown upon its head; so he wrung off its head, and took the
+crown to Issachar, the son of Jacob, the worker in metal, and he asked
+him what it was. So Issachar, the son of Jacob, said, "It is a crown of
+brass." And he gave the fowler a quarter of a shekel for it, and desired
+him, if he found any more, to bring them to him, and to tell no man
+thereof. So the fowler caught some more hoopoes, and sold their crowns
+to Issachar, the son of Jacob; until one day he met another man who was
+a jeweller, and he showed him several of the hoopoes' crowns. Whereupon
+the jeweller told him that they were of pure gold; and he gave the
+fowler a talent of gold for four of them.
+
+Now when the value of these crowns was known, the fame of them got
+abroad, and in all the land of Israel was heard the twang of bows and
+the whirling of slings; bird-lime was made in every town; and the price
+of traps rose in the market, so that the fortunes of the trap-makers
+increased. Not a hoopoe could show its head but it was slain or taken
+captive, and the days of the hoopoes were numbered. Then their minds
+were filled with sorrow and dismay, and before long few were left to
+bewail their cruel destiny.
+
+At last, flying by stealth through the most unfrequented places, the
+unhappy king of the hoopoes went to the court of King Solomon, and stood
+again before the steps of the golden throne, and with tears and groans
+related the misfortunes which had happened to his race.
+
+So King Solomon looked kindly upon the king of the hoopoes, and said
+unto him, "Behold, did I not warn thee of thy folly, in desiring to have
+crowns of gold? Vanity and pride have been thy ruin. But now, that a
+memorial may remain of the service which thou didst render unto me, your
+crowns of gold shall be changed into crowns of feathers, that ye may
+walk unharmed upon the earth." Now when the fowlers saw that the hoopoes
+no longer wore crowns of gold upon their heads, they ceased from the
+persecution of their race; and from that time forth the family of the
+hoopoes have flourished and increased, and have continued in peace even
+to the present day.
+
+And here endeth the veracious history of the king of the hoopoes.
+
+But to return to the island of Philoe. The neighbourhood of the cataracts
+is inhabited by a peculiar race of people, who are neither Arabs, nor
+negroes, like the Nubians, whose land joins to theirs. They are of a
+clear copper colour; and are slightly but elegantly formed. They have
+woolly hair; and are not encumbered with much clothing. The men wear a
+short tunic of white cotton; but often have only a petticoat round
+their loins. The married women have a piece of stuff thrown over their
+heads which envelopes the whole person. Under this they wear a curious
+garment made of fine strips of black leather, about a foot long, like a
+fringe. This hangs round the hips, and forms the only clothing of
+unmarried girls, whose forms are as perfect as that of any ancient
+statue. They dress their hair precisely in the same way as we see in the
+pictures of the ancient Egyptians, plaited in numerous tresses, which
+descend about half way down the neck, and are plentifully anointed with
+castor-oil; that they may not spoil their head-dresses, they use,
+instead of a pillow to rest their heads upon at night, a stool of hard
+wood like those which are found in the ancient tombs, and which resemble
+in shape the handle of a crutch more than anything else that I can think
+of. The women are fond of necklaces and armlets of beads; and the men
+wear a knife of a peculiar form, stuck into an armlet above the elbow of
+the left arm. When they go from home they carry a spear, and a shield
+made of the skin of the hippopotamus or crocodile, with which they are
+very clever in warding off blows, and in defending themselves from
+stones or other missiles.
+
+Of this race was a girl called Mouna, whom I had known as a child when I
+was first at Philoe. She grew up to be the most beautiful bronze statue
+that can be conceived. She used to bring eggs from the island on which
+she lived to Philoe: her means of conveyance across the water was a
+piece of the trunk of a doom-tree, upon which she supported herself as
+she swam across the Nile ten times a-day. I never saw so perfect a
+figure as that of Mouna. She was of a lighter brown than most of the
+other girls, and was exactly the colour of a new copper kettle. She had
+magnificent large eyes; and her face had but a slight leaning towards
+the Ethiopian contour. Her bands and feet were wonderfully small and
+delicately formed. In short, she was a perfect beauty in her way; but
+the perfume of the castor-oil with which she was anointed had so strong
+a savour that, when she brought us the eggs and chickens, I always
+admired her at a distance of ten yards to windward. She had an
+ornamented calabash to hold her castor-oil, from which she made a fresh
+toilette every time she swam across the Nile.
+
+I have been three times at Philoe, and indeed I had so great an
+admiration of the place that on my last visit, thinking it probable that
+I should never again behold its wonderful ruins and extraordinary
+scenery, I determined to spend the day there alone, that I might
+meditate at my leisure and wander as I chose from one well-remembered
+spot to another without the incumbrance of half a dozen people staring
+at whatever I looked at, and following me about out of pure idleness.
+Greatly did I enjoy my solitary day, and whilst leaning over the parapet
+on the top of the great Propylon, or seated on one of the terraces which
+overhung the Nile, I in imagination repeopled the scene, with the forms
+of the priests and worshippers of other days, restored the fallen
+temples to their former glory, and could almost think I saw the
+processions winding round their walls, and heard the trumpets, and the
+harps, and the sacred hymns in honour of the great Osiris. In the
+evening a native came over with a little boat to take me off the island,
+and I quitted with regret this strange and interesting region.
+
+I landed at the village of rude huts on the shore of the river and sat
+down on a stone, waiting for my donkey, which I purposed to ride through
+the desert in the cool of the evening to Assouan, where my boat was
+moored. While I was sitting there, two boys were playing and wrestling
+together; they were naked and about nine or ten years old. They soon
+began to quarrel, and one of them drew the dagger which he wore upon his
+arm and stabbed the other in the throat. The poor boy fell to the ground
+bleeding; the dagger had entered his throat on the left side under the
+jawbone, and being directed upwards had cut his tongue and grazed the
+roof of his mouth. Whilst he cried and writhed about upon the ground
+with the blood pouring out of his mouth, the villagers came out from
+their cabins and stood around talking and screaming, but affording no
+help to the poor boy. Presently a young man, who was, I believe, a lover
+of Mouna's, stood up and asked where the father of the boy was, and why
+he did not come to help him. The villagers said he had no father.
+"Where are his relations, then?" he asked. The boy had no relations,
+there was no one to care for him in the village. On hearing this he
+uttered some words which I did not understand, and started off after the
+boy who had inflicted the wound. The young assassin ran away as fast as
+he could, and a famous chase took place. They darted over the plain,
+scrambled up the rocks, and jumped down some dangerous-looking places
+among the masses of granite which formed the background of the village.
+At length the boy was caught, and, screaming and struggling, was dragged
+to the spot where his victim lay moaning and heaving upon the sand. The
+young man now placed him between his legs, and in this way held him
+tight whilst he examined the wound of the other, putting his finger into
+it and opening his mouth to see exactly how far it extended. When he had
+satisfied himself on the subject he called for a knife; the boy had
+thrown his away in the race, and he had not one himself. The villagers
+stood silent around, and one of them having handed him a dagger, the
+young man held the boy's head sideways across his thigh and cut his
+throat exactly in the same way as he had done to the other. He then
+pitched him away upon the ground, and the two lay together bleeding and
+writhing side by side. Their wounds were precisely the same; the second
+operation had been most expertly performed, and the knife had passed
+just where the boy had stabbed his playmate. The wounds, I believe, were
+not dangerous, for presently both the boys got up and were led away to
+their homes. It was a curious instance of retributive justice, following
+out the old law of blood for blood, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a
+tooth.
+
+
+
+
+MONASTERIES OF THE LEVANT.
+
+PART II.
+
+JERUSALEM AND THE MONASTERY
+
+OF ST. SABBA.
+
+1834.
+
+[Illustration: Plan of the Church
+
+of
+
+THE HOLY SEPULCHRE.
+
+The Holy [symbol: cross] Sepulchre.
+
+1. Entrance to the Church.
+
+2. The Stone of Unction.
+
+3. Where our Saviour was nailed to the Cross.
+
+4. Mount Calvary [3 cross symbols]
+
+5. Chapel of the Sacrifice of Isaac.
+
+6. Chapel of the Altar of Melchisedec.
+
+7. Stairs up to Mount Calvary.
+
+8. Stairs down to the Chapel of St. Helena.
+
+9. Stairs down to the Chapel of the Invention of the Cross.
+
+10. Place where the three Crosses were discovered.
+
+11. Chapel of the Division of the Garments.
+
+12. Prison of our Lord.
+
+13. Greek Choir, in it [symbol-omphalos], the center of the world; on
+each side are the Stalls for the Monks.
+
+14. Latin Choir.
+
+15. Where Mary Magdalene stood.
+
+16. Where our Lord appeared to Mary Magdalene.
+
+17. The Pillar of Flagellation.
+
+18. Rooms of the Latin Convent.
+
+19. Chapel of the Maronites.
+
+20. Chapel of the Georgians.
+
+21. Sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathea.
+
+22. Chapel of the Copts.
+
+23. Chapel of the Jacobites.
+
+24. Chapel of the Abyssinians, over which is the Chapel of the
+Armenians.
+
+25. The spot where the Blessed Virgin and St. John stood during the
+Crucifixion.
+
+26. Steps before the entrance of the Holy Sepulchre.
+
+27. Ante-room to the Holy Sepulchre. In the center is the stone where
+the Angel sat; on either side the two windows from whence the Holy Fire
+is delivered to the multitude.
+
+28. The Iconostasis, or Screen before the Greek Altar, which, as in
+English Churches, is called the Holy Table--[Greek: ikonostasis].]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+     Journey to Jerusalem--First View of the Holy City--The Valley of
+     Gihon--Appearance of the City--The Latin Convent of St.
+     Salvador--Inhospitable Reception by the Monks--Visit to the Church
+     of the Holy Sepulchre--Description of the Interior--The Chapel of
+     the Sepulchre--The Chapel of the Cross on Mount Calvary--The Tomb
+     and Sword of Godfrey de Bouillon--Arguments in favour of the
+     Authenticity of the Holy Sepulchre--The Invention of the Cross by
+     the Empress Helena--Legend of the Cross.
+
+    "Ecco apparir Gerusalem si vede,
+    Ecco additar Gerusalem si scorge,
+    Ecco da mile voce unitamente,
+    Gerosalemme salutar si sente.
+
+           *       *       *       *
+
+    E l'uno all'altro il mostra e in tanto oblia,
+    La noja e il mal della passata via.
+
+           *       *       *       *
+
+    Al gran placer che quella prima vista,
+    Dolcemente spiro nell'altrui petto,
+    Alta contrizion succese mista,
+    Di timoroso e riverente affetto,
+    Ossano appena d'inalzar la vista
+    Ver la citta, di Christo albergo eletto:
+    Dove mori, dove sepolto fue;
+    Dove poi riveste le membre sue."
+
+    TASSO, _Gerusalemme Liberata_, Canto 3.
+
+
+We left our camels and dromedaries, and wild Arabs of the desert, at
+Gaza; and being now provided with horses, and a tamer sort of Yahoo to
+attend upon them, we took our way across the hills towards Jerusalem.
+
+The road passes over a succession of rounded rocky hills, almost every
+step being rendered interesting by its connexion with the events of Holy
+Writ. On our left we saw the village of Kobab, and on our right the
+ruins of a castle said to have been built by the Maccabees, and not far
+from it the remains of an ancient Christian church.
+
+As our train of horses surmounted each succeeding eminence, every one
+was eager to be the first who should catch a glimpse of the Holy City.
+Again and again we were disappointed; another rocky valley yawned
+beneath us, and another barren stony hill rose up beyond. There seemed
+to be no end to the intervening hills and dales; they appeared to
+multiply beneath our feet. At last, when we had almost given up the
+point and had ceased to contend for the first view by galloping ahead;
+as we ascended another rocky brow we saw the towers of what seemed to be
+a Gothic castle; then, as we approached nearer, a long line of walls and
+battlements appeared crowning a ridge of rock which rose from a narrow
+valley to the right. This was the valley of the pools of Gihon, where
+Solomon was crowned, and the battlements which rose above it were the
+long looked-for walls of Jerusalem. With one accord our whole party
+drew their bridles, and stood still to gaze for the first time upon
+this renowned and sacred city.
+
+It is not easy to describe the sensations which fill the breast of a
+Christian when, after a long and toilsome journey, he first beholds
+this, the most interesting and venerated spot upon the whole surface of
+the globe. Every one was silent for a while, absorbed in the deepest
+contemplation. The object of our pilgrimage was accomplished, and I do
+not think that anything we saw afterwards during our stay in Jerusalem
+made a more profound impression on our minds than this first distant
+view.
+
+It was curious to observe the different effect which our approach to
+Jerusalem had upon the various persons who composed our party. A
+Christian pilgrim, who had joined us on the road, fell down upon his
+knees and kissed the holy ground; two others embraced each other, and
+congratulated themselves that they had lived to see Jerusalem. As for us
+Franks, we sat bolt upright upon our horses, and stared and said
+nothing; whilst around us the more natural children of the East wept for
+joy, and, as in the army of the Crusaders, the word Jerusalem!
+Jerusalem! was repeated from mouth to mouth; but we, who consider
+ourselves civilized and superior beings, repressed our emotions; we were
+above showing that we participated in the feelings of our barbarous
+companions. As for myself, I would have got off my horse and walked
+bare-footed towards the gate, as some did, if I had dared: but I was in
+fear of being laughed at for my absurdity, and therefore sat fast in my
+saddle. At last I blew my nose, and, pressing the sharp edges of my Arab
+stirrups on the lank sides of my poor weary jade, I rode on slowly
+towards the Bethlehem gate.
+
+On the sloping sides of the valley of Gihon numerous groups of people
+were lying under the olive-trees in the cool of the evening, and parties
+of grave Turks, seated on their carpets by the road-side, were smoking
+their long pipes in dignified silence. But what struck me most were some
+old white-bearded Jews, who were holding forth to groups of their
+friends or disciples under the walls of the city of their fathers, and
+dilating perhaps upon the glorious actions of their race in former days.
+
+Jerusalem has been described as a deserted and melancholy ruin, filling
+the mind with images of desolation and decay, but it did not strike me
+as such. It is still a compact city, as it is described in Scripture;
+the Saracenic walls have a stately, magnificent appearance; they are
+built of large and massive stones. The square towers, which are seen at
+intervals, are handsome and in good repair; and there is an imposing
+dignity in the appearance of the grim old citadel, which rises in the
+centre of the line of walls and towers, with its batteries and terraces
+one above another, surmounted with the crimson flag of Turkey floating
+heavily over the conquered city of the cross.
+
+We entered by the Bethlehem gate: it is commanded by the citadel, which
+was built by the people of Pisa, and is still called the castle of the
+Pisans. There we had some parleying with the Egyptian guards, and,
+crossing an open space famous in monastic tradition as the garden where
+Bathsheba was bathing when she was seen by King David from the roof of
+his palace, we threaded a labyrinth of narrow streets, which the horses
+of our party completely blocked up; and as soon as we could, we sent a
+man with our letters of introduction to the superior of the Latin
+convent. I had letters from Cardinal Weld and Cardinal Pedicini, which
+we presumed would ensure us a warm and hospitable reception; and as
+travellers are usually lodged in the monastic establishments, we went on
+at once to the Latin convent of St. Salvador, where we expected to enjoy
+all the comforts and luxuries of European civilization after our weary
+journey over the desert from Egypt. We, however, quickly discovered our
+mistake; for, on dismounting at the gate of the convent, we were
+received in a very cool way by the monks, who appeared to make the
+reception of travellers a mere matter of interest, and treated us as if
+we were dust under their feet. They put us into a wretched hole in the
+Casa Nuova, a house belonging to them near the convent, where there was
+scarcely room for our baggage; and we went to bed not a little mortified
+at our inhospitable reception by our Christian brethren, so different
+from what we had always experienced from the Mahometans. The convent of
+St. Salvador belongs to a community of Franciscan friars; they were most
+of them Spaniards, and, being so far away from the superior officers of
+their order, they were not kept in very perfect discipline. It was
+probably owing to our being heretics that we were not better received.
+Fortunately we had our own beds, tents, cooking-utensils, carpets, &c.;
+so that we soon made ourselves comfortable in the bare vaulted rooms
+which were allotted to us, and for which, by-the-bye, we had to pay
+pretty handsomely.
+
+The next morning early we went to the church of the Holy Sepulchre,
+descending the hill from the convent, and then down a flight of narrow
+steps into a small paved court, one side of which is occupied by the
+Gothic front of the church. The court was full of people selling beads
+and crucifixes and other holy ware. We had to wait some time, till the
+Turkish doorkeepers came to unlock the door, as they keep the keys of
+the church, which is only open on certain days, except to votaries of
+distinction. There is a hole in the door, through which the pilgrims
+gave quantities of things to the monks inside to be laid upon the
+sepulchre. At last the door was opened, and we went into the church.
+
+On entering these sacred walls the attention is first directed to a
+large slab of marble on the floor opposite the door, with several lamps
+suspended over it, and three enormous waxen tapers about twenty feet in
+height standing at each end. The pilgrims approach it on their knees,
+touch and kiss it, and, prostrating themselves before it, offer up their
+adoration. This, you are told, is the stone on which the body of our
+Lord was washed and anointed, and prepared for the tomb.
+
+Turning to the left, we came to a round stone let into the pavement,
+with a canopy of ornamental iron-work over it Here the Virgin Mary is
+said to have stood when the body of our Saviour was taken down from the
+cross.
+
+Leaving this, we entered the circular space immediately under the great
+dome, which is about eighty feet in diameter, and is surrounded by
+eighteen large square piers, which support the front of a broad gallery.
+Formerly this circular gallery was supported by white marble pillars:
+but the church was burnt down about twenty years ago, through the
+negligence of a drunken Greek monk, who set a light to some parts of the
+woodwork, and then endeavoured to put out the flames by throwing aqua
+vitae upon them, which he mistook for water.
+
+The Chapel of the Sepulchre stands under the centre of the dome. It is a
+small oblong house of stone, rounded at one end, where there is an altar
+for the Coptic and Abyssinian Christians. At the other end it is
+square, and has a platform of marble in front, which is ascended by a
+flight of steps, and has a low parapet wall and a seat on each side. The
+chapel contains two rooms. Taking off our shoes and turbans, we entered
+a low narrow door, and went into a chamber, in the centre of which
+stands a block of polished marble. On this stone sat the angel who
+announced the blessed tidings of the resurrection.
+
+From this room, which has a small round window on each side, we passed
+through another low door into the inner chamber, which contains the Holy
+Sepulchre itself, which, however, is not visible, being concealed by an
+altar of white marble. It is said to be a long narrow excavation like a
+grave or the interior of a sarcophagus hewed out of the rock just
+beneath the level of the ground. Six rows of lamps of silver gilt,
+twelve in each row, hang from the ceiling, and are kept perpetually
+burning. The tomb occupies nearly one-half of the sepulchral chamber,
+and extends from one end of it to the other on the right side of the
+door as you enter; a space of three feet wide and rather more than six
+feet long in front of it being all that remains for the accommodation of
+the pilgrims, so that not more than three or four can be admitted at a
+time.
+
+Leaving this hallowed spot, we were conducted first to the place where
+our Lord appeared to Mary Magdalen, and then to the Chapel of the
+Latins, where a part of the pillar of flagellation is preserved.
+
+The Greeks have possession of the choir of the church, which is opposite
+the door of the Holy Sepulchre. This part of the building is of great
+size, and is magnificently decorated with gold and carving and stiff
+pictures of the saints. In the centre is a globe of black marble on a
+pedestal, under which they say the head of Adam was found; and you are
+told also that this is the exact centre of the globe; the Greeks having
+thus transferred to Jerusalem, from the temple of Apollo at Delphi, the
+absurd notions of the pagan priests of antiquity relative to the form of
+the earth.
+
+Returning towards the door of the church, and leaving it on our right
+hand, we ascended a flight of about twenty steps, and found ourselves in
+the Chapel of the Cross on Mount Calvary. At the upper end of this
+chapel is an altar, on the spot where the crucifixion took place, and
+under it is the hole into which the end of the cross was fixed: this is
+surrounded with a glory of silver gilt, and on each side of it, at the
+distance of about six feet, are the holes in which the crosses of the
+two thieves stood. Near to these is a long rent in the rock, which was
+opened by an earthquake at the time of the crucifixion. Although the
+three crosses appear to have stood very near to each other, yet, from
+the manner in which they are placed, there would have been room enough
+for them, as the cross of our Saviour stands in front of the other two.
+
+Leaving this chapel we entered a kind of vault under the stairs, in
+which the rent of the rock is again seen: it extends from the ceiling to
+the floor, and has every appearance of having been caused by some
+convulsion of nature, and not formed by the hands of man. Here were
+formerly the tombs of Godfrey de Bouillon and Baldwin his brother, who
+were buried beneath the cross for which they fought so valiantly: but
+these tombs have lately been destroyed by the Greeks, whose detestation
+of everything connected with the Latin Church exceeds their aversion to
+the Mahometan creed. In the sacristy of the Latin monks we were shown
+the sword and spurs of Godfrey de Bouillon; the sword is apparently of
+the age assigned to it: it is double-edged and straight, with a
+cross-guard.[11]
+
+In another part of the church is a small dismal chapel, in the floor of
+which are several ancient tombs; one of them is said to be the sepulchre
+of Joseph of Arimathea. Of the antiquity of these tombs there cannot be
+the slightest doubt; and their being here forms the best argument for
+the authenticity of the Holy Sepulchre itself, as it shows that this was
+formerly a place of burial, notwithstanding its situation in the centre
+of the ancient city, contrary to the almost universal practice of the
+ancients, whose sepulchres are always found some short distance from
+their cities; indeed, among the Egyptians, whose manners seem to have
+been followed in many respects by the Jews, it was a law that no one
+should be buried in the cultivated grounds, but their tombs were
+excavated in the rocks of the desert, that the agricultural and other
+daily pursuits of the living might not interfere with the repose of the
+dead. It is mentioned in the Bible that Christ was led _out_ to be
+crucified; but it is not quite clear from the passage whether he was led
+out of the city of Jerusalem itself, or only from the city of David on
+Mount Sion, which appears to have been the citadel and place of
+residence of the Roman governor. If so, the site of the Holy Sepulchre
+may be the true one; and, in common with all other pilgrims, I am
+inclined to hope that the tomb now pointed out may really be the
+sepulchre of Christ.
+
+Descending a flight of steps from the body of the church, we entered the
+subterranean chapel of St. Helena, below which is another vault, in
+which the true cross is said to have been found. A very curious account
+of the finding of the cross is to be seen in the black-letter pages of
+Caxton's 'Golden Legend,' and it has formed the subject of many
+singular traditions and romantic stories in former days. The history of
+this famous relic would be tedious were I to narrate it in the obsolete
+phraseology of the father of English printing, and I will therefore only
+give a short summary of the legend; although, to those who take an
+interest in monastic traditions, the accounts given in old books, which
+were read by our ancestors before the Reformation with all the sober
+seriousness of undoubting faith, afford a curious instance of the
+proneness of the human intellect to mistake the shadow for the
+substance, and to substitute an unbounded veneration for outward
+observances for the more reasonable acts of spiritual devotion.
+
+In the middle ages, while the worship of our Saviour was completely
+neglected, the wooden cross upon which he was supposed to have suffered
+was the object of universal adoration to all sects of Christians; armies
+fought with religious enthusiasm, not for the faith, but for the relic
+of the cross; and the traditions regarding it were received as undoubted
+facts by the heroes of the crusades, the hierarchy of the Church, and
+all who called themselves Christians, in those iron ages, when with rope
+and fagot, fire and sword, the fierce piety even of good men sought to
+enforce the precepts of Him whose advent was heralded with the angels'
+hymn of "peace on earth and good will towards men."
+
+It is related in the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, that when Adam
+fell sick he sent his son Seth to the gate of the terrestrial paradise
+to ask the angel for some drops of the oil of mercy, which distilled
+from the tree of life, to cure him of his disease; but the angel
+answered that he could not receive this healing oil until 5500 years had
+passed away. He gave him, however, a branch of this tree, and it was
+planted upon Adam's grave. In after ages the tree flourished and waxed
+exceeding fair, for Adam was buried in Mount Lebanon, not very far from
+the place near Damascus whence the red earth of which his body was
+formed by the Creator had been taken. When Balkia, Queen of Abyssinia,
+came to visit Solomon the King, she worshipped this tree, for she said
+that thereon should the Saviour of the world be hanged, and that from
+that time the kingdom of the Jews should cease. Upon hearing this,
+Solomon commanded that the tree should be cut down and buried in a
+certain place in Jerusalem, where afterwards the pool of Bethesda was
+dug, and the angel that had charge of the mysterious tree troubled the
+water of the pool at certain seasons, and those who first dipped into it
+were cured of their ailments. As the time of the passion of the Saviour
+approached, the wood floated on the surface of the water, and of that
+piece of timber, which was of cedar, the Jews made the upright part of
+the cross, the cross beam was made of cypress, the piece on which his
+feet rested was of palm, and the other, on which the superscription was
+written, was of olive.
+
+After the crucifixion the holy cross and the crosses of the two thieves
+were thrown into the town ditch, or, according to some, into an old
+vault which was near at hand, and they were covered with the refuse and
+ruins of the city. In her extreme old age the Empress Helena, making a
+pilgrimage to Jerusalem, threatened all the Jewish inhabitants with
+torture and death if they did not produce the holy cross from the place
+where their ancestors had concealed it: and at last an old Jew named
+Judas, who had been put into prison and was nearly famished, consented
+to reveal the secret; he accordingly petitioned Heaven, whereupon the
+earth trembled, and from the fissures in the ground a delicious aromatic
+odour issued forth, and on the soil being removed the three crosses were
+discovered; and near the crosses the superscription was also found, but
+it was not known to which of the three it belonged. However, Macarius,
+Bishop of Jerusalem, repairing with the Empress to the house of a noble
+lady who was afflicted with an incurable disease, she was immediately
+restored to health by touching the true cross; and the body of a young
+man which was being carried out to burial was brought to life on being
+laid upon the holy wood. At the sight of these miracles Judas the Jew
+became a Christian, and was baptized by the name of Quiriacus, to the
+great indignation of the devil, for, said he, "by the first Judas I
+gained much profit, but by this one's conversion I shall lose many
+souls."
+
+It would be endless were I to give the history of all the authenticated
+relics of the holy cross since those days; but of the three principal
+pieces one is now, or lately was, at Etchmiazin, in Armenia, the monks
+of which Church are accused of having stolen it from the Latins of
+Jerusalem when they were imprisoned by Sultan Suleiman. The second piece
+is still at Jerusalem, in the hands of the Greeks; and the third, which
+was sent by the Empress Helena herself to the church of Santa Croce di
+Gerusalemme at Rome, is now preserved in St. Peter's. There is indeed
+little reason to doubt that the piece of wood exhibited at Rome is the
+same that the Empress sent there in the year 326. The feast of the
+"Invention of the Cross" continues to be celebrated every year on the
+3rd of May by an appropriate mass.
+
+Besides the objects which I have mentioned, there is within the church
+an altar on the spot where Christ is said to have appeared to the Virgin
+after the resurrection. This completes the list of all the sacred places
+contained under the roof of the great church of the Holy Sepulchre.
+
+I may remark that all the very ancient specimens of the relics of the
+true cross are of the same wood, which has a very peculiar
+half-petrified appearance. I have a relic of this kind; the date of the
+shrine in which it is preserved being of the date of 1280. I have also
+a piece of the cross in a more modern setting, which is not of the same
+wood.
+
+Whether all the hallowed spots within these walls really are the places
+which the guardians of the church declare them to be, or whether they
+have been fixed on at random, and consecrated to serve the interested
+views of a crafty priesthood, is a fact that I shall leave others to
+determine; however this may be, it is a matter of little consequence to
+the Christian. The great facts on which the history of the Gospel is
+founded are not so closely connected with particular spots of earth or
+sacred buildings as to be rendered doubtful by any mistake in the choice
+of a locality. The main error on the part of the priests of modern times
+at Jerusalem arises from an anxiety to prove the actual existence of
+everything to which any allusion is made by the evangelical historians,
+not remembering that the lapse of ages and the devastation of successive
+wars must have destroyed much, and disguised more, which the early
+disciples could most readily have identified. The mere circumstance that
+the localities of almost all the events which attended the close of our
+Saviour's ministry are crowded into one place, and covered by the roof
+of a single church, might excite a very justifiable doubt as to the
+exactness of the topography maintained by the friars of Mount Moriah.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+
+     The Via Dolorosa--The Houses of Dives and of Lazarus--The Prison of
+     St. Peter--The Site of the Temple of Solomon--The Mosque of
+     Omar--The Hadjr el Sakhara--The Greek Monastery--Its
+     Library--Valuable Manuscripts--Splendid MS. of the Book of
+     Job--Arabic spoken at Jerusalem--Mussulman Theory regarding the
+     Crucifixion--State of the Jews--Richness of their Dress in their
+     own Houses--Beauty of their Women--Their literal Interpretation of
+     Scripture--The Service in the Synagogue--Description of the House
+     of a Rabbi--The Samaritans--Their Roll of the Pentateuch--Arrival
+     of Ibrahim Pasha at Jerusalem.
+
+
+Except the Holy Sepulchre, none of the places which are pointed out as
+sacred within the walls of Jerusalem merit a description, as they have
+evidently been created by the monks to serve their own purposes. You are
+shown, for instance, the whole of the Via Dolorosa, the way by which our
+Saviour passed from the hall of Pilate to Mount Calvary, and the exact
+seven places where he fell under the weight of the cross: you are shown
+the house of the rich man and that of Lazarus, both of them Turkish
+buildings, although, as that story is related in a parable, no real
+localities ever can have been referred to. Near the house of Lazarus
+there were several dogs when I passed by, and, on my asking the guide
+whether they were the descendants of the original dogs in the parable,
+he said he was not quite sure, but that as to the house there could be
+no doubt. The prison of St. Peter is also to be seen, but the column on
+which the cock stood who crowed on his denial of our Lord, as well as
+the steps by which Christ ascended to the judgment-seat of Pilate, have
+been carried away to Rome, where they are both to be seen on the hill of
+St. John Lateran.
+
+The mosque of Omar stands on the site of the ancient Temple of Solomon,
+which covered the whole of the enclosure which is now the garden of the
+mosque, a space of about 1500 feet long, and 1000 feet wide. In the
+centre of this garden is a platform of stone about 600 feet square, on
+which stands the octagonal building of the mosque itself, the upper part
+being covered with green porcelain tiles which glitter in the sun:
+below, the walls are paneled with marble richly worked and of different
+colours: the dome in the centre has a wide cornice round it, ornamented
+with sentences from the Koran: the whole has a brilliant and
+extraordinary appearance, more like a Chinese temple than anything else.
+This building is called the Acksa el Sakhara, from its containing a
+piece of rock called the Hadjr el Sakhara, or the locked-up stone, which
+is the principal object of veneration in the place: it occupies the
+centre of the mosque, and on it are shown the prints of the angel
+Gabriel's fingers, who brought it from heaven, and the mark of the
+Prophet's foot and that of his camel, a singularly good leaper, two more
+of whose footsteps I have seen in Egypt and Arabia, and I believe there
+is another at Damascus, the whole journey from Jerusalem to Mecca having
+been performed in four bounds only, for which remarkable service the
+camel is to have a place in heaven, where he will enjoy the society of
+Borak, the prophet's horse, Balaam's ass, Tobit's dog, and the dog of
+the seven sleepers, whose name was Ketmir, and also the companionship of
+a certain celebrated fly with whose merits I am unacquainted.
+
+We are told that the stone of the Sakhara fell from heaven at the time
+when prophecy commenced at Jerusalem. It was employed as a seat by the
+venerable men to whom that gift was communicated, and, as long as the
+spirit of vaticination continued to enlighten their minds, the slab
+remained steady for their accommodation; but no sooner was the power of
+prophecy withdrawn, and the persecuted seers compelled to flee for
+safety to other lands, than the stone manifested the profoundest
+sympathy in their fate, and evinced a determination to accompany them in
+their flight: on which Gabriel the archangel interposed his authority,
+and prevented the departure of the prophetical chair. He grasped it with
+his mighty hand and nailed it to its rocky bed by seven brass or golden
+nails. When any event of great importance to the world takes place the
+head of one of these nails disappears, and when they are all gone the
+day of judgment will come. As there are now only three left, the
+Mahometans believe that the end of all things is not far distant. All
+those who have faithfully performed their devotions at this celebrated
+mosque are furnished by the priest with a certificate of their having
+done so, which is to be buried with them that they may show it to the
+door-keeper of Paradise as a ticket of admission. I was presented with
+one of these at Jerusalem, and found another in the desert of Al Arisch,
+a wondrous piece of good fortune in the estimation of my Mahometan
+followers, as I was provided with a ticket for a friend, as well as a
+pass for my own reception among the houris of their Prophet's celestial
+garden.
+
+The Greek monastery adjoins the church of the Holy Sepulchre. It
+contains a good library, the iron door of which is opened by a key as
+large as a horse-pistol. The books are kept in good order, and consist
+of about two thousand printed volumes in various languages; and about
+five hundred Greek and Arabic MSS. on paper, which are all theological
+works. There are also about one hundred Greek manuscripts on vellum: the
+whole collection is in excellent preservation. One of the eight
+manuscripts of the Gospels which the library contains has the index and
+the beginning of each Gospel written in gold letters on purple vellum,
+and has also some curious illuminations. There is likewise a manuscript
+of the whole Bible: it is a large folio, and is the only one I ever
+heard of, excepting the one at the Vatican and that at the British
+Museum. One of the most beautiful volumes in the library is a large
+folio of the book of Job. It is a most glorious MS.: the text is written
+in large letters, surrounded with scholia in a smaller hand, and almost
+every page contains one or more miniatures representing the sufferings
+of Job, with ghastly portraits of Bildad the Shuhite and his other
+pitying friends: this manuscript is of the twelfth century. The rest of
+the manuscripts consist of the works of the Fathers, copies of the
+'Anthologia,' and books for the Church service.
+
+The Arabic language is generally spoken at Jerusalem, though the Turkish
+is much used among the better class. The inhabitants are composed of
+people of different nations and different religions, who inwardly
+despise one another on account of their varying opinions; but, as the
+Christians are very numerous, there reigns among the whole no small
+degree of complaisance, as well as an unrestrained intercourse in
+matters of business, amusement, and even of religion. The Mussulmans,
+for instance, pray in all the holy places consecrated to the memory of
+Christ and the Virgin, except the tomb of the Holy Sepulchre, the
+sanctity of which they do not acknowledge, for they believe that Jesus
+Christ did not die, but that he ascended alive into heaven, leaving the
+likeness of his face to Judas, who was condemned to die for him; and
+that, as Judas was crucified, it was his body, and not that of Jesus,
+which was placed in the sepulchre. It is for this reason that the
+Mussulmans do not perform any act of devotion at the tomb of the Holy
+Sepulchre, and that they ridicule the Christians who visit and revere
+it.
+
+The Jews--the "children of the kingdom"--have been cast out, and many
+have come from the east and the west to occupy their place in the
+desolate land promised to their fathers. Their quarter is in the narrow
+valley between the Temple and the foot of Mount Zion. Many of the Jews
+are rich, but they are careful to conceal their wealth from the jealous
+eyes of their Mahometan rulers, lest they should be subjected to
+extortion.
+
+It is remarkable that the Jews who are born in Jerusalem are of a
+totally different caste from those we see in Europe. Here they are a
+fair race, very lightly made, and particularly effeminate in manner; the
+young men wear a lock of long hair on each side of the face, which, with
+their flowing silk robes, gives them the appearance of women. The Jews
+of both sexes are exceedingly fond of dress; and, although they assume a
+dirty and squalid appearance when they walk abroad, in their own houses
+they are to be seen clothed in costly furs and the richest silks of
+Damascus. The women are covered with gold, and dressed in brocades stiff
+with embroidery. Some of them are beautiful; and a girl of about twelve
+years old, who was betrothed to the son of a rich old rabbi, was the
+prettiest little creature I ever saw; her skin was whiter than ivory,
+and her hair, which was as black as jet, and was plaited with strings of
+sequins, fell in tresses nearly to the ground. She was of a Spanish
+family, and the language usually spoken by the Jews among themselves is
+Spanish.
+
+The Jewish religion is now so much encumbered with superstition and the
+extraordinary explanations of the Bible in the Talmud, that little of
+the original creed remains. They interpret all the words of Scripture
+literally, and this leads them into most absurd mistakes. On the morning
+of the day of the Passover I went into the synagogue under the walls of
+the Temple, and found it crowded to the very door; all the congregation
+were standing up, with large white shawls over their heads with the
+fringes which they were commanded to wear by the Jewish law. They were
+reading the Psalms, and after I had been there a short time all the
+people began to hop about and to shake their heads and limbs in a most
+extraordinary manner; the whole congregation was in motion, from the
+priest, who was dancing in the reading-desk, to the porter, who capered
+at the door. All this was in consequence of a verse in the 35th Psalm,
+which says, "All my bones shall say, Lord, who is like unto thee;" and
+this was their ludicrous manner of doing so. After the Psalm a crier
+went round the room, who sold the honour of performing different parts
+of the service to the highest bidder; the money so obtained is
+appropriated to the relief of the poor. The sanctuary at the upper end
+of the room was then opened, and a curtain withdrawn, in imitation of
+that which separated the Holy of Holies from the body of the Temple.
+From this place the book of the law was taken: it was contained in a
+case of embossed silver, and two large silver ornaments were fixed on
+the ends of the rollers, which stuck out from the top of the case. The
+Jews, out of reverence, as I presume, touched it with a little bodkin of
+gold, and, on its being carried to the reading-desk, a silver crown was
+placed upon it, and a man, supported by two others, one on each side of
+him, chanted the lesson of the day in a loud voice: the book was then
+replaced in the sanctuary, and the service concluded. The women are not
+admitted into the synagogue, but are permitted to view the ceremonies
+from a grated gallery set apart for them. However, they seldom attend,
+as it seems they are not accounted equal to the men either in body or
+soul, and trouble themselves very little with matters of religion.
+
+The house of Rabbi A----, with whom I was acquainted, answered exactly
+to Sir Walter Scott's description of the dwelling of Isaac of York. The
+outside of the house and the court-yard indicated nothing but poverty
+and neglect; but on entering I was surprised at the magnificence of the
+furniture. One room had a silver chandelier, and a great quantity of
+embossed plate was displayed on the top of the polished cupboards. Some
+of the windows were filled with painted glass; and the members of the
+family, covered with gold and jewels, were seated on divans of Damascus
+brocade. The Rabbi's little son was so covered with charms in gold cases
+to keep off the evil eye, that he jingled like a chime of bells when he
+walked along; and a still younger boy, whom I had never seen before, was
+on this day exalted to the dignity of wearing trousers, which were of
+red stuff, embroidered with gold, and were brought in by his nurse and a
+number of other women in procession, and borne on high before him as he
+was dragged round the room howling and crying without any nether garment
+on at all. He was walked round again after his superb trousers were put
+on, and very uncomfortable he seemed to be, but doubtless the honour of
+the thing consoled him, and he waddled out into the court with an air of
+conscious dignity.
+
+The learning of the rabbis is now at a very low ebb, and few of them
+thoroughly understand the ancient Hebrew tongue, although there are Jews
+at Jerusalem who speak several languages, and are said to be well
+acquainted with all the traditions of their fathers, and the mysterious
+learning of the Cabala.
+
+There is in the Holy Land another division of the children of Israel,
+the Samaritans, who still keep up a separate form of religion. Their
+synagogue at Nablous is a mean building, not unlike a poor Mahometan
+mosque. Within it is a large, low, square chamber, the floor of which is
+covered with matting. Round a part of the walls is a wooden shelf, on
+which are laid above thirty manuscript _books_ of the Pentateuch written
+in the Samaritan character: they possess also a very famous roll or
+volume of the Pentateuch, which is said to have been written by Abishai
+the grandson of Aaron. It is contained in a curiously ornamented octagon
+case of brass about two feet high, on opening which the MS. appears
+within rolled upon two pieces of wood. It is sixteen inches wide, and
+must be of great length, as each of the two parts of the roll are four
+or five inches in diameter. The writing is small and not very distinct,
+and the MS. is in rather a dilapidated condition. The Samaritan Rabbi
+Ibrahim Israel, true to his Jewish origin, would not open the case until
+he had been well paid. He affirmed that in this MS. the blessings were
+directed to be given from Mount Ebal and the curses from Mount Gherizim.
+However this may be, in an Arabic translation of the Samaritan
+Pentateuch, which is in my own collection, the 12th and 13th verses of
+the 27th chapter of Deuteronomy are the same as the usually received
+text in other Bibles.
+
+Jerusalem was at this time (1834) under the dominion of the Egyptians,
+and Ibrahim Pasha arrived shortly after we had established ourselves in
+the vaulted dungeons of the Latin convent. He took up his abode in a
+house in the town, and did not maintain any state or ceremony; indeed he
+had scarcely any guards, and but few servants, so secure did he feel in
+a country which he had so lately conquered. He received us with great
+courtesy in his mean lodging, where we found an interpreter who spoke
+English. I had been promised a letter from Mohammed Ali Pasha to Ibrahim
+Pasha, but on inquiring I found it had not arrived, and Ibrahim Pasha
+sent a courier to Jaffa to inquire whether it was lying there; however
+it did not reach me, and I therefore was not permitted to see the
+interior of the mosque of Omar, or the great church of the Purification,
+which stands on the site of the Temple of Solomon, and into which at
+that time no Christian had penetrated.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+
+     Expedition to the Monastery of St. Sabba--Reports of Arab
+     Robbers--The Valley of Jehoshaphat--The Bridge of Al Sirat--Rugged
+     Scenery--An Arab Ambuscade--A successful Parley--The Monastery of
+     St. Sabba--History of the Saint--The Greek Hermits--The Church--The
+     Iconostasis--The Library--Numerous MSS.--The Dead Sea--The Scene of
+     the Temptation--Discovery--The Apple of the Dead Sea--The
+     Statements of Strabo and Pliny confirmed.
+
+
+As we wished to be present at the celebration of Easter by the Greek
+Church, we remained several weeks at Jerusalem, during which time we
+made various excursions to the most celebrated localities in the
+neighbourhood. In addition to the Bible, which almost sufficed us for a
+guide-book in these sacred regions, we had several books of travels with
+us, and I was struck with the superiority of old Maundrell's narrative
+over all the others, for he tells us plainly and clearly what he saw,
+whilst other travellers so encumber their narratives with opinions and
+disquisitions, that, instead of describing the country, they describe
+only what they think about it; and thus little real information as to
+what there was to be seen or done could be gleaned from these works,
+eloquent and well written as many of them are; and we continually
+returned to Maundrell's homely pages for a good plain account of what
+we wished to know. As, however, I had gathered from various incidental
+remarks in these books that there was a famous library in the monastery
+of St. Sabba, in which one might expect to find all the lost classics,
+whole rows of uncial manuscripts, and perhaps the histories of the
+Preadamite kings in the autograph of Jemshid, I determined to go and see
+it.
+
+It was of course necessary for every traveller at Jerusalem to "_do his
+Dead Sea_;" and accordingly we made arrangements for an excursion in
+that direction, which was to include a visit to St. Sabba; for my
+companion kindly put up with my aberrations, and agreed to linger with
+me for that purpose on our way to Jericho, although it was at the risk
+of falling among thieves, for we heard all manner of reports of the
+danger of the roads, and of a certain truculent Robin Hood sort of
+person, called Abou Gash, who had just got out of some prison or other.
+
+Abou Gash was vastly popular in this part of the country: everybody
+spoke well of him, and declared that "he was the mildest-mannered man
+that ever cut a throat or scuttled ship;" but they all hinted that it
+might be as well to keep out of his way, and that, when we went
+cantering about the country, poking our noses into caves, and ruins, and
+other _uncanny_ places, it would be advisable to keep a "good" look-out.
+For all this we cared little: so, getting together our merry men, we
+sallied forth through St. Stephen's gate. A gallant band we were, some
+five-and-twenty horsemen, well armed in the Egyptian style; with tents
+and kettles, cocks and hens, and cooks and marmitons, stowed upon the
+baggage-horses. Great store of good things had we--vino doro di Monte
+Libano, and hams, to show that we were not Mahometans; and tea, to prove
+that we were not Frenchmen; and guns to shoot partridges withal, and
+many other European necessaries.
+
+We tramped along upon the hard rocky ground one after the other, through
+the Valley of Jehoshaphat; and looked up at the corner of the temple,
+whence is to spring on the last day, as every sound follower of the
+Prophet believes, the fearful bridge of Al Sirat, which is narrower than
+the edge of the sharpest cimeter of Khorassaun, and from which those who
+without due preparation attempt to pass on their way to the paradise of
+Mahomet will fall into the unfathomable gulf below. Gradually as we
+advanced into the valley, through which the brook Kedron, when there is
+any water in it, flows into the Dead Sea, the scenery became more and
+more savage, the rocks more precipitous, and the valley narrowed into a
+deep gorge, the path being sometimes among the broken stones in the bed
+of the stream, and sometimes rising high above it on narrow ledges of
+rock.
+
+We rode on for some hours, admiring the wild grandeur of the scenery,
+for this is the hill country of Judea, and seems almost a chaos of rocks
+and craggy mountains, broken into narrow defiles, or opening into dreary
+valleys bare of vegetation, except a few shrubs whose tough roots pierce
+through the crevices of the stony soil, and find a scanty subsistence in
+the small portions of earth which the rains have washed from the surface
+of the rocks above. In one place the pathway, which was not more than
+two or three feet wide, wound round the corner of a precipitous crag in
+such a manner that a horseman riding along the giddy way showed so
+clearly against the sky, that it seemed as if a puff of wind would blow
+horse and man into the ravine beneath. We were proceeding along this
+ledge--Fathallah, one of our interpreters, first, I second, and the
+others following--when we saw three or four Arabs with long
+bright-barrelled guns slip out of a crevice just before us, and take up
+their position on the path, pointing those unpleasant-looking implements
+in our faces. From some inconceivable motive, not of the most heroic
+nature I fear, my first move was to turn my head round to look behind
+me; but when I did so, I perceived that some more Arabs had crept out of
+another cleft behind us, which we had not observed as we passed; and on
+looking up I saw that from the precipice above us a curious collection
+of bright barrels and brown faces were taking an observation of our
+party, while on the opposite side of the gorge, which was perhaps a
+hundred and fifty yards across, every fragment of rock seemed to have
+brought forth a man in a white tunic and bare legs, with a yellow
+handkerchief round his head, and a long gun in his hand, which he
+pointed towards us.
+
+We had fallen into an ambuscade, and one so cleverly laid that all
+attempt at resistance was hopeless. The path was so narrow that our
+horses could not turn, and a precipice within a yard of us, of a hundred
+feet sheer down, rendered our position singularly uncomfortable.
+Fathallah's horse came to a stand-still: my horse ran his nose against
+him and stood still too; and so did all the rest of us. "Well!" said I,
+"Fathallah, what is this? who are these gentlemen?" "I knew it would be
+so," quoth Fathallah, "I was sure of it! and in such a cursed place
+too!--I see how it is, I shall never get home alive to Aleppo!"
+
+After waiting a while, I imagine to enjoy our confusion, one of the
+Arabs in front took up his parable and said, "Oh! oh! ye Egyptians!" (we
+wore the Egyptian dress)" what are you doing here, in our country? You
+are Ibrahim Pasha's men; are you? Say--speak; what reason have ye for
+being here? for we are Arabs, and the sons of Arabs; and this is our
+country, and our land?"
+
+"Sir," said the interpreter with profound respect--for he rode first,
+and four or five guns were pointed directly at his breast--"Sir, we are
+no Egyptians; thy servants are men of peace; we are peaceable Franks,
+pilgrims from the holy city, and we are only going to bathe in the
+waters of the Jordan, as all pilgrims do who travel to the Holy Land."
+"Franks!" quoth the Arab; "I know the Franks; pretty Franks are ye!
+Franks are the fathers of hats, and do not wear guns or swords, or red
+caps upon their heads, as you do. We shall soon see whether ye are
+Franks or not. Ye are Egyptians, and servants of Ibrahim Pasha the
+Egyptian: but now ye shall find that ye are our servants!"
+
+"Oh Sir," exclaimed I in the best Arabic I could muster, "thy servants
+are men of peace, travellers, antiquaries all of us. Oh Sir, we are
+Englishmen, which is a sort of Frank--very harmless and excellent
+people, desiring no evil. We beg you will be good enough to let us
+pass." "Franks!" retorted the Arab sheick, "pretty Franks! Franks do not
+speak Arabic, nor wear the Nizam dress! Ye are men of Ibrahim Pasha's;
+Egyptians, arrant Cairoites (Misseri) are ye all, every one of ye;" and
+he and all his followers laughed at us scornfully, for we certainly did
+look very like Egyptians. "We are Franks, I tell you!" again exclaimed
+Fathallah: "Ibrahim Pasha, indeed! who is he, I should like to know? we
+are Franks; and Franks like to see everything. We are going to see the
+monastery of St. Sabba; we are not Egyptians; what care we for
+Egyptians? we are English, Franks, every one of us, and we only desire
+to see the monastery of St. Sabba; that is what we are, O Arab, son of
+an Arab (Arab beni Arab). We are no less than this, and no more; we are
+Franks, as you are Arabs."
+
+Upon this there ensued a consultation between this son of an Arab and
+the other sons of Arabs, and in process of time the worthy gentlemen,
+knowing that it was impossible for us to escape, agreed to take us to
+the monastery of St. Sabba, which was not far off, and there to hear
+what we had to say in our defence.
+
+The sheick waved his arm aloft as a signal to his men to raise the
+muzzle of their guns, and we were allowed to proceed; some of the Arabs
+walking unconcernedly before us, and the others skipping like goats from
+rock to rock above us, and on the other side of the valley. They were
+ten times as numerous as we were, and we should have had no chance with
+them even on fair ground; but here we were completely at their mercy. We
+were escorted in this manner the rest of the way, and in half an hour's
+time we found ourselves standing before the great square tower of the
+monastery of St. Sabba. The battlements were lined with Arabs, who had
+taken possession of this strong place, and after a short parley and a
+clanging of arms within, a small iron door was opened in the wall: we
+dismounted and passed in; our horses, one by one, were pushed through
+after us. So there we were in the monastery of St Sabba sure enough; but
+under different circumstances from what we expected when we set out that
+morning from Jerusalem.
+
+Fathallah had, however, convinced the sheick of the Arabs that we really
+were Franks, and not followers of Ibrahim Pasha, and before long we not
+only were relieved from all fear, but became great friends with the
+noble and illustrious Abou Somebody, who had taken possession of St.
+Sabba and the defiles leading to it.
+
+This monastery, which is a very ancient foundation, is built upon the
+edge of the precipice at the bottom of which flows the brook Kedron,
+which in the rainy season becomes a torrent. The buildings, which are of
+immense strength, are supported by buttresses so massive that the upper
+part of each is large enough to contain a small arched chamber; the
+whole of the rooms in the monastery are vaulted, and are gloomy and
+imposing in the extreme. The pyramidical-shaped mass of buildings
+extends half-way down the rocks, and is crowned above by a high and
+stately square tower, which commands the small iron gate of the
+principal entrance. Within there are several small irregular courts
+connected by steep flights of steps and dark arched passages, some of
+which are carried through the solid rock.
+
+It was in one of the caves in these rocks that the renowned St. Sabba
+passed his time in the society of a pet lion. He was a famous anchorite,
+and was made chief of all the monks of Palestine by Sallustius,
+Patriarch of Jerusalem, about the year 490. He was twice ambassador to
+Constantinople to propitiate the Emperors Anastasius the Silent and
+Justinian; moreover he made a vow never to eat apples as long as he
+lived. He was born at Mutalasca, near Caesarea of Cappadocia, in 439, and
+died in 532, in the ninety-fifth year of his age: he is still held in
+high veneration by both the Greek and Latin churches. He was the founder
+of the Laura, which was formerly situated among the clefts and crevices
+of these rocks, the present monastery having been enclosed and fortified
+at I do not know what period, but long after the decease of the saint.
+
+The word laura, which is often met with in the histories of the first
+five centuries after Christ, signifies, when applied to monastic
+institutions, a number of separate cells, each inhabited by a single
+hermit or anchorite, in contradistinction to a convent or monastery,
+which was called a coenobium, where the monks lived together in one
+building under the rule of a superior. This species of monasticism seems
+always to have been a peculiar characteristic of the Greek Church, and
+in the present day these ascetic observances are upheld only by the
+Greek, Coptic, and Abyssinian Christians, among whom hermits and
+quietists, such as waste the body for the improvement of the soul, are
+still to be met with in the clefts of the rocks and in the desert places
+of Asia and Africa. They are a sort of dissenters as regards their own
+Church, for, by the mortifications to which they subject themselves,
+they rebuke the regular priesthood, who do not go so far, although these
+latter fast in the year above one hundred days, and always rise to
+midnight prayer. In the dissent, if such it be, of these monks of the
+desert there is a dignity and self-denying firmness much to be
+respected. They follow the tenets of their faith and the ordinances of
+their religion in a manner which is almost sublime. They are in this
+respect the very opposite to European dissenters, who are as undignified
+as they are generally snug and cosy in their mode of life. Here, among
+the followers of St. Anthony, there are no mock heroics, no turning up
+of the whites of the eyes and drawing down of the corners of the mouth:
+they form their rule of life from the ascetic writings of the early
+fathers of the Church: their self-denial is extreme, their devotion
+heroic; but yet to our eyes it appears puerile and irrational that men
+should give up their whole lives to a routine of observances which,
+although they are hard and stern, are yet so trivial that they appear
+almost ridiculous.
+
+In one of the courts of the monastery there is a palm-tree, said to be
+endowed with miraculous properties, which was planted by St. Sabba, and
+is to be numbered among the few now existing in the Holy Land, for at
+present they are very rarely to be met with, except in the vale of
+Jericho and the valley of the Jordan and the Dead Sea, in which
+localities, in consequence of their being so much beneath the level of
+the rest of the country, the temperature is many degrees higher than it
+is elsewhere.
+
+The church is rather large and is very solidly built. There are many
+ancient frescos painted on the walls, and various early Greek pictures
+are hung round about: many of these are representations of the most
+famous saints, and on the feast of each his picture is exposed upon a
+kind of desk before the iconostasis or wooden partition which divides
+the church from the sanctuary and the altar, and there it receives the
+kisses and oblations of all the worshippers who enter the sacred edifice
+on that day.
+
+The [Greek: ikonostasis] is dimly represented in our older
+churches by the rood-loft and screen which divides the chancel from the
+nave: it is retained also in Lombardy and in the sees under the
+Ambrosian rule; but these screens and rood-lofts, which destroy the
+beauty of a cathedral or any large church, are unknown in the Roman
+churches. They date their origin from the very earliest ages, when the
+"discipline of the secret" was observed, and when the ceremonies of the
+communion were held to be of such a sacred and mysterious nature that it
+was not permitted to the communicants to reveal what then took place--an
+incomprehensible custom which led to the propagation of many false ideas
+and strange rumours as to the Christian observances in the third and
+fourth centuries, and was one of the causes which led to several of the
+persecutions of the Church, as it was believed by the heathens that the
+Christians sacrificed children and committed other abominations for
+which they deserved extermination; and so prone are the vulgar to give
+credence to such injurious reports, that the Christians in later ages
+accused the Jews of the very same practices for which they themselves
+had in former times been held up to execration.
+
+In one part of the church I observed a rickety ladder leaning against
+the wall, and leading up to a small door about ten feet from the ground.
+Scrambling up this ladder, I found myself in the library of which I had
+heard so much. It was a small square room, or rather a large closet, in
+the upper part of one of the enormous buttresses which supported the
+walls of the monastery. Here I found about a thousand books, almost all
+manuscripts, but the whole of them were works of divinity. One volume in
+the Bulgarian or Servian language was written in uncial letters; the
+rest were in Greek, and were for the most part of the twelfth century.
+There were a great many enormous folios of the works of the fathers,
+and one MS. of the Octoteuch, or first eight hooks of the Old Testament.
+It is remarkable how very rarely MSS. of any part of the Old Testament
+are found in the libraries of Greek monasteries; this was the only MS.
+of the Octoteuch that I ever met with either before or afterwards in any
+part of the Levant. There were about a hundred other MSS. on a shelf in
+the apsis of the church: I was not allowed to examine them, but was
+assured that they were liturgies and church-books which were used on the
+various high days during the year.
+
+I was afterwards taken by some of the monks into the vaulted chambers of
+the great square tower or keep, which stood near the iron door by which
+we had been admitted. Here there were about a hundred MSS., but all
+imperfect; I found the 'Iliad' of Homer among them, but it was on paper.
+Some of these MSS. were beautifully written; they were, however, so
+imperfect, that in the short time I was there, and pestered as I was by
+a crowd of gaping Arabs, I was unable to discover what they were.
+
+I was allowed to purchase three MSS., with which the next day I and my
+companion departed on our way to the Dead Sea, our friend the sheick
+having, from the moment that he was convinced we were nothing better or
+worse than Englishmen and sight-seers, treated us with all manner of
+civility.
+
+On arriving at the Dead Sea I forthwith proceeded to bathe in it, in
+order to prove the celebrated buoyancy of the water, and was nearly
+drowned in the experiment, for, not being able to swim, my head got much
+deeper below the water than I intended. Two ignorant pilgrims, who had
+joined our party for protection, baptized each other in this filthy
+water, and sang psalms so loudly and discordantly that we asked them
+what in the name of wonder they were about, when we discovered that they
+thought this was the Jordan, and were sorely grieved at their
+disappointment. We found several shells upon the shore and a small dead
+fish, but perhaps they had been washed down by the waters of the Jordan
+or the Kedron: I do not know how this may be.
+
+We wandered about for two or three days in this hot, volcanic, and
+sunken region, and thence proceeded to Jericho. The mountain of
+Quarantina, the scene of the forty days' temptation of our Saviour, is
+pierced all over with the caves excavated by the ancient anchorites, and
+which look like pigeons' nests. Some of them are in the most
+extraordinary situations, high up on the face of tremendous precipices.
+However, I will not attempt to detail the singularities of this wild
+district; we visited the chief objects of interest, and a big book that
+I brought from St. Sabba is endeared to my recollections by my having
+constantly made use of it as a pillow in my tent during our wanderings.
+It was somewhat hard, undoubtedly; but after a long day's ride it
+served its purpose very well, and I slept as soundly as if it had been
+read to me.
+
+At two subsequent periods I visited this region, and purchased seven
+other MSS. from St Sabba; among them was the Octoteuch of the tenth, if
+not the ninth, century, which I esteem one of the most rare and precious
+volumes of my library.
+
+We made a somewhat singular discovery when travelling among the
+mountains to the east of the Dead Sea, where the ruins of Ammon, Jerash,
+and Adjeloun well repay the labour and fatigue encountered in visiting
+them. It was a remarkably hot and sultry day: we were scrambling up the
+mountain through a thick jungle of bushes and low trees, when I saw
+before me a fine plum-tree, loaded with fresh blooming plums. I cried
+out to my fellow-traveller, "Now, then, who will arrive first at the
+plum-tree?" and as he caught a glimpse of so refreshing an object, we
+both pressed our horses into a gallop to see which would get the first
+plum from the branches. We both arrived at the same moment; and, each
+snatching at a fine ripe plum, put it at once into our mouths; when, on
+biting it, instead of the cool delicious juicy fruit which we expected,
+our months were filled with a dry bitter dust, and we sat under the tree
+upon our horses sputtering, and hemming, and doing all we could to be
+relieved of the nauseous taste of this strange fruit. We then
+perceived, and to my great delight, that we had discovered the famous
+apple of the Dead Sea, the existence of which has been doubted and
+canvassed since the days of Strabo and Pliny, who first described it.
+Many travellers have given descriptions of other vegetable productions
+which bear some analogy to the one described by Pliny; but up to this
+time no one had met with the thing itself, either upon the spot
+mentioned by the ancient authors, or elsewhere. I brought several of
+them to England. They are a kind of gall-nut. I found others afterwards
+upon the plains of Troy, but there can be no doubt whatever that this is
+the apple of Sodom to which Strabo and Pliny referred. Some of those
+which I brought to England were given to the Linnaean Society, who
+published an engraving of them, and a description of their vegetable
+peculiarities, in their 'Transactions;' but as they omitted to explain
+the peculiar interest attached to them in consequence of their having
+been sought for unsuccessfully for above 1500 years, they excited little
+attention; though, as the evidence of the truth of what has so long been
+considered as a vulgar fable, they are fairly to be classed among the
+most curious productions which have been brought from the Holy Land.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+
+     Church of the Holy Sepulchre--Processions of the Copts--The Syrian
+     Maronites and the Greeks--Riotous Behaviour of the Pilgrims--Their
+     immense numbers--The Chant of the Latin Monks--Ibrahim Pasha--The
+     Exhibition of the Sacred Fire--Excitement of the Pilgrims--The
+     Patriarch obtains the Sacred Fire from the Holy Sepulchre--Contest
+     for the Holy Light--Immense sum paid for the privilege of receiving
+     it first--Fatal Effects of the Heat and Smoke--Departure of Ibrahim
+     Pasha--Horrible Catastrophe--Dreadful Loss of Life among the
+     Pilgrims in their endeavours to leave the Church--Battle with the
+     Soldiers--Our Narrow Escape--Shocking Scene in the Court of the
+     Church--Humane Conduct of Ibrahim Pasha--Superstition of the
+     Pilgrims regarding Shrouds--Scallop Shells and Palm Branches--The
+     Dead Muleteer--Moonlight View of the Dead Bodies--The Curse on
+     Jerusalem--Departure from the Holy City.
+
+
+It was on Friday, the 3rd of May, that my companions and myself went,
+about five o'clock in the evening, to the church of the Holy Sepulchre,
+where we had places assigned us in the gallery of the Latin monks, as
+well as a good bed-room in their convent. The church was very full, and
+the numbers kept increasing every moment. We first saw a small
+procession of the Copts go round the sepulchre, and after them one of
+the Syrian Maronites. I then went to bed, and at midnight was awakened
+to see the procession of the Greeks, which was rather grand. By the
+rules of their Church they are not permitted to carry any images, and
+therefore to make up for this they bore aloft a piece of brocade, upon
+which was embroidered a representation of the body of our Saviour. This
+was placed in the tomb, and, after some short time, brought out again
+and carried into the chapel of the Greeks, when the ceremonies of the
+night ended; for there was no procession of the Armenians, as the
+Armenian Patriarch had made an address to his congregation, and had, it
+was said, explained the falsity of the miracle of the holy fire; to the
+excessive astonishment of his hearers, who for centuries have considered
+an unshakable belief in this yearly wonder as one of the leading
+articles of their faith. After the Greek procession I went quietly to
+bed again, and slept soundly till next morning.
+
+The behaviour of the pilgrims was riotous in the extreme; the crowd was
+so great that many persons actually crawled over the heads of others,
+and some made pyramids of men by standing on each others' shoulders, as
+I have seen them do at Astley's. At one time, before the church was so
+full, they made a race-course round the sepulchre; and some, almost in a
+state of nudity, danced about with frantic gestures, yelling and
+screaming as if they were possessed.
+
+Altogether it was a scene of disorder and profanation which it is
+impossible to describe. In consequence of the multitude of people and
+the quantities of lamps, the heat was excessive, and a steam arose
+which prevented your seeing clearly across the church. But every window
+and cornice, and every place where a man's foot could rest, excepting
+the gallery--which was reserved for Ibrahim Pasha and
+ourselves--appeared to be crammed with people; for 17,000 pilgrims were
+said to be in Jerusalem, almost the whole of whom had come to the Holy
+City for no other reason than to see the sacred fire.
+
+After the noise, heat, and uproar which I had witnessed from the gallery
+that overlooked the Holy Sepulchre, the contrast of the calmness and
+quiet of my room in the Franciscan convent was very pleasing. The room
+had a small window which opened upon the Latin choir, where, in the
+evening, the monks chanted the litany of the Virgin: their fine voices
+and the beautiful simplicity of the ancient chant made a strong
+impression upon my mind; the orderly solemnity of the Roman Catholic
+vespers showing to great advantage when compared with the screams and
+tumult of the fanatic Greeks.
+
+[Illustration: LITANY OF THE VIRGIN
+
+Sung by the Friars of St. Salvador at Jerusalem.
+
+    Sanc--ta Mat--er Do--mi--ni-- O--ra
+    pro no--bis. Sanc--ta De--i
+    Ge--ni--trix-- O--ra pro no--bis.
+
+    Sancta Maria--Ora pro nobis.
+    Sancta Virgo Virginum--Ora pro nobis.
+    Impeatrix Reginarum--Ora pro nobis.
+    Laus sanctarum animarum--Ora pro nobis
+    Vera salutrix earum--Ora pro nobis.
+
+The next morning a way was made through the crowd for Ibrahim Pasha, by
+the soldiers with the butt-ends of their muskets, and by the Janissaries
+with their kourbatches and whips made of a quantity of small rope. The
+Pasha sat in the gallery, on a divan which the monks had made for him
+between the two columns nearest to the Greek chapel. They had got up a
+sort of procession to do him honour, the appearance of which did not add
+to the solemnity of the scene: three monks playing crazy fiddles led the
+way, then came the choristers with lighted candles, next two Nizam
+soldiers with muskets and fixed bayonets; a number of doctors,
+instructors, and officers tumbling over each other's heels, brought up
+the rear: he was received by the women, of whom there were thousands in
+the church, with a very peculiar shrill cry, which had a strange
+unearthly effect. It was the monosyllable la, la, la, uttered in a
+shrill trembling tone, which I thought much more like pain than
+rejoicing. The Pasha was dressed in full trousers of dark cloth, a light
+lilac-coloured jacket, and a red cap without a turban. When he was
+seated, the monks brought us some sherbet, which was excellently made;
+and as our seats were very near the great man, we saw everything in an
+easy and luxurious way; and it being announced that the Mahomedan Pasha
+was ready, the Christian miracle, which had been waiting for some time,
+was now on the point of being displayed.
+
+The people were by this time become furious; they were worn out with
+standing in such a crowd all night, and as the time approached for the
+exhibition of the holy fire they could not contain themselves for joy.
+Their excitement increased as the time for the miracle in which all
+believed drew near. At about one o'clock the Patriarch went into the
+ante-chapel of the sepulchre, and soon after a magnificent procession
+moved out of the Greek chapel. It conducted the Patriarch three times
+round the tomb; after which he took off his outer robes of cloth of
+silver, and went into the sepulchre, the door of which was then closed.
+The agitation of the pilgrims was now extreme: they screamed aloud; and
+the dense mass of people shook to and fro, like a field of corn in the
+wind.
+
+[Illustration: image of a bundle of thin wax-candles
+enclosed in an iron frame.]
+
+There is a round hole in one part of the chapel over the sepulchre, out
+of which the holy fire is given, and up to this the man who had agreed
+to pay the highest sum for this honour was conducted by a strong guard
+of soldiers. There was silence for a minute; and then a light appeared
+out of the tomb, and the happy pilgrim received the holy fire from the
+Patriarch within. It consisted of a bundle of thin wax-candles, lit, and
+enclosed in an iron frame to prevent their being torn asunder and put
+out in the crowd: for a furious battle commenced immediately; every one
+being so eager to obtain the holy light, that one man put out the candle
+of his neighbour in trying to light his own. It is said that as much as
+ten thousand piasters has been paid for the privilege of first receiving
+the holy fire, which is believed to ensure eternal salvation. The Copts
+got eight purses this year for the first candle they gave to a pilgrim
+of their own persuasion.
+
+This was the whole of the ceremony; there was no sermon or prayers,
+except a little chanting during the processions, and nothing that could
+tend to remind you of the awful event which this feast was designed to
+commemorate.
+
+Soon you saw the lights increasing in all directions, every one having
+lit his candle from the holy flame: the chapels, the galleries, and
+every corner where a candle could possibly be displayed, immediately
+appeared to be in a blaze. The people, in their frenzy, put the bunches
+of lighted tapers to their faces, hands, and breasts, to purify
+themselves from their sins. The Patriarch was carried out of the
+sepulchre in triumph, on the shoulders of the people he had deceived,
+amid the cries and exclamations of joy which resounded from every nook
+of the immense pile of buildings. As he appeared in a fainting state, I
+supposed that he was ill; but I found that it is the uniform custom on
+these occasions to feign insensibility, that the pilgrims may imagine he
+is overcome with the glory of the Almighty, from whose immediate
+presence they believe him to have returned.
+
+In a short time the smoke of the candles obscured everything in the
+place, and I could see it rolling in great volumes out at the aperture
+at the top of the dome. The smell was terrible; and three unhappy
+wretches, overcome by heat and bad air, fell from the upper range of
+galleries, and were dashed to pieces on the heads of the people below.
+One poor Armenian lady, seventeen years of age, died where she sat, of
+heat, thirst, and fatigue.
+
+After a while, when he had seen all that was to be seen, Ibrahim Pasha
+got up and went away, his numerous guards making a line for him by main
+force through the dense mass of people which filled the body of the
+church. As the crowd was so immense, we waited for a little while, and
+then set out all together to return to our convent. I went first and my
+friends followed me, the soldiers making way for us across the church. I
+got as far as the place where the Virgin is said to have stood during
+the crucifixion, when I saw a number of people lying one on another all
+about this part of the church, and as far as I could see towards the
+door. I made my way between them as well as I could, till they were so
+thick that there was actually a great heap of bodies on which I trod. It
+then suddenly struck me they were all dead! I had not perceived this at
+first, for I thought they were only very much fatigued with the
+ceremonies and had lain down to rest themselves there; but when I came
+to so great a heap of bodies I looked down at them, and saw that sharp,
+hard appearance of the face which is never to be mistaken. Many of them
+were quite black with suffocation, and farther on were others all bloody
+and covered with the brains and entrails of those who had been trodden
+to pieces by the crowd.
+
+At this time there was no crowd in this part of the church; but a
+little farther on, round the corner towards the great door, the people,
+who were quite panic-struck, continued to press forward, and every one
+was doing his utmost to escape. The guards outside, frightened at the
+rush from within, thought that the Christians wished to attack them, and
+the confusion soon grew into a battle. The soldiers with their bayonets
+killed numbers of fainting wretches, and the walls were spattered with
+blood and brains of men who had been felled, like oxen, with the
+butt-ends of the soldiers' muskets. Every one struggled to defend
+himself or to get away, and in the melee all who fell were immediately
+trampled to death by the rest. So desperate and savage did the fight
+become, that even the panic-struck and frightened pilgrims appear at
+last to have been more intent upon the destruction of each other than
+desirous to save themselves.
+
+For my part, as soon as I perceived the danger I had cried out to my
+companions to turn back, which they had done; but I myself was carried
+on by the press till I came near the door, where all were fighting for
+their lives. Here, seeing certain destruction before me, I made every
+endeavour to get back. An officer of the Pasha's, who by his star was a
+colonel or bin bashee, equally alarmed with myself, was also trying to
+return: he caught hold of my cloak, or bournouse, and pulled me down on
+the body of an old man who was breathing out his last sigh. As the
+officer was pressing me to the ground we wrestled together among the
+dying and the dead with the energy of despair. I struggled with this man
+till I pulled him down, and happily got again upon my legs--(I
+afterwards found that he never rose again)--and scrambling over a pile
+of corpses, I made my way back into the body of the church, where I
+found my friends, and we succeeded in reaching the sacristy of the
+Catholics, and thence the room which had been assigned to us by the
+monks. The dead were lying in heaps, even upon the stone of unction; and
+I saw full four hundred wretched people, dead and living, heaped
+promiscuously one upon another, in some places above five feet high.
+Ibrahim Pasha had left the church only a few minutes before me, and very
+narrowly escaped with his life; he was so pressed upon by the crowd on
+all sides, and it was said attacked by several of them, that it was only
+by the greatest exertions of his suite, several of whom were killed,
+that he gained the outer court. He fainted more than once in the
+struggle, and I was told that some of his attendants at last had to cut
+a way for him with their swords through the dense ranks of the frantic
+pilgrims. He remained outside, giving orders for the removal of the
+corpses, and making his men drag out the bodies of those who appeared to
+be still alive from the heaps of the dead. He sent word to us to remain
+in the convent till all the dead bodies had been removed, and that when
+we could come out in safety he would again send to us.
+
+We stayed in our room two hours before we ventured to make another
+attempt to escape from this scene of horror; and then walking close
+together, with all our servants round us, we made a bold push and got
+out of the door of the church. By this time most of the bodies were
+removed; but twenty or thirty were still lying in distorted attitudes at
+the foot of Mount Calvary; and fragments of clothes, turbans, shoes, and
+handkerchiefs, clotted with blood and dirt, were strewed all over the
+pavement.
+
+In the court in the front of the church, the sight was pitiable: mothers
+weeping over their children--the sons bending over the dead bodies of
+their fathers--and one poor woman was clinging to the hand of her
+husband, whose body was fearfully mangled. Most of the sufferers were
+pilgrims and strangers. The Pasha was greatly moved by this scene of
+woe; and he again and again commanded his officers to give the poor
+people every assistance in their power, and very many by his humane
+efforts were rescued from death.
+
+I was much struck by the sight of two old men with white beards, who had
+been seeking for each other among the dead; they met as I was passing
+by, and it was affecting to see them kiss and shake hands, and
+congratulate each other on having escaped from death.
+
+When the bodies were removed many were discovered standing upright,
+quite dead; and near the church door one of the soldiers was found thus
+standing, with his musket shouldered, among the bodies which reached
+nearly as high as his head; this was in a corner near the great door on
+the right side as you come in. It seems that this door had been shut, so
+that many who stood near it were suffocated in the crowd; and when it
+was opened, the rush was so great that numbers were thrown down and
+never rose again, being trampled to death by the press behind them. The
+whole court before the entrance of the church was covered with bodies
+laid in rows, by the Pasha's orders, so that their friends might find
+them and carry them away. As we walked home we saw numbers of people
+carried out, some dead, some horribly wounded and in a dying state, for
+they had fought with their heavy silver inkstands and daggers.
+
+In the evening I was not sorry to retire early to rest in the low
+vaulted room in the strangers' house attached to the monastery of St.
+Salvador. I was weary and depressed after the agitating scenes of the
+morning, and my lodging was not rendered more cheerful by there being a
+number of corpses laid out in their shrouds in the stone court beneath
+its window. It is thought by these superstitious people that a shroud
+washed in the fountain of Siloam and blessed at the tomb of our Saviour
+forms a complete suit of armour for the body of a sinner deceased in
+the faith, and that clad in this invulnerable panoply he may defy the
+devil and all his angels. For this reason every pilgrim when journeying
+has his shroud with him, with all its different parts and bandages
+complete; and to many they became useful sooner than they expected. A
+holy candle also forms part of a pilgrim's accoutrements. It has some
+sovereign virtue, but I do not exactly know what; and they were all
+provided with several long thin tapers, and a rosary or two, and sundry
+rosaries and ornaments made of pearl oyster-shells--all which are
+defences against the powers of darkness. These pearl oyster-shells are,
+I imagine, the scallop-shell of romance, for there are no scallops to be
+found here. My companion was very anxious to obtain some genuine
+scallop-shells, as they form part of his arms; but they, as well as the
+palm branches, carried home by all palmers on their return from the Holy
+Land, are as rare here as they are in England. This is the more
+remarkable, as the medal struck by Vespasian on the subjection of this
+country represents a woman in an attitude of mourning seated under a
+palm-tree with the legend "Judaea capta;" so there may have been palms in
+those days. I was going to say there _must_ have been: but on second
+thoughts it does not follow that there should have been palms in Judaea,
+because the Romans put them on a medal, any more than that there should
+be unicorns in England because we represent them on our coins. However,
+all this is a digression: we must return to our dead men. There were
+sixteen or seventeen of them, all stiff and stark, lying in the court,
+nicely wrapped up in their shrouds, like parcels ready to be sent off to
+the other world: but at the end of the row lay one man in a brown dress;
+he was one of the lower class--a muleteer, perhaps, a strong, well-made
+man; but he was not in a shroud. He had died fighting, and there he lay
+with his knees drawn up, his right arm above his head, and in his hand
+the jacket of another man, which could not now be released from his
+grasp, so tightly had his strong hand been clenched in the
+death-struggle. This figure took a strong hold on my imagination; there
+was something wild and ghastly in its appearance, different from the
+quiet attitude of the other victims of the fight in which I also had
+been engaged. It put me in mind of all manner of horrible old stories of
+ghosts and goblins with which my memory was well stored; and I went to
+bed with my head so occupied by these traditions of gloom and ignorance
+that I could not sleep, or if I did for awhile, I woke up again and
+still went on thinking of the old woman of Berkeley, and the fire-king,
+and the stories in Scott's 'Discovery of Witchcraft,' and the 'Hierarchy
+of the Blessed Aungelles,' and Caxton's 'Golden Legende'--all books
+wherein I delighted to pore, till I could not help getting out of bed
+again to have another look at the ghastly regiment in the court below.
+
+I leant against the heavy stone mullions of the window, which was
+barred, but without glass, and gazed I know not how long. There they all
+were, still and quiet; some in the full moonlight, and some half
+obscured by the shadow of the buildings. In the morning I had walked
+with them, living men, such as I was myself, and now how changed they
+were! Some of them I had spoken to, as they lived in the same court with
+me, and I had taken an interest in their occupations: now I would not
+willingly have touched them, and even to look at them was terrible! What
+little difference there is in appearance between the same men asleep and
+dead! and yet what a fearful difference in fact, not to themselves only,
+but to those who still remained alive to look upon them! Whilst I was
+musing upon these things the wind suddenly arose, the doors and shutters
+of the half-uninhabited monastery slammed and grated upon their hinges;
+and as the moon, which had been obscured, again shone clearly on the
+court below, I saw the dead muleteer with the jacket which he held
+waving in the air, the grimmest figure I ever looked upon. His face was
+black from the violence of his death, and he seemed like an evil spirit
+waving on his ghastly crew; and as the wind increased, the shrouds of
+some of the dead men fluttered in the night air as if they responded to
+his call. The clouds, passing rapidly over the moon, east such shadows
+on the corpses in their shrouds, that I could almost have fancied they
+were alive again. I returned to bed, and thanked God that I was not also
+laid out with them in the court below.
+
+In the morning I awoke at a late hour and looked out into the court; the
+muleteer and most of the other bodies were removed, and people were
+going about their business as if nothing had occurred, excepting that
+every now and then I heard the wail of women lamenting for the dead.
+Three hundred was the number reported to have been carried out of the
+gates to their burial-places that morning; two hundred more were badly
+wounded, many of whom probably died, for there were no physicians or
+surgeons to attend them, and it was supposed that others were buried in
+the courts and gardens of the city by their surviving friends; so that
+the precise number of those who perished was not known.
+
+When we reflect in what place and to commemorate what event the great
+multitude of Christian pilgrims had thus assembled from all parts of the
+world, the fearful visitation which came upon them appears more dreadful
+than if it had occurred under other circumstances. They had entered the
+sacred walls to celebrate the most joyful event which is recorded in the
+Scriptures. By the resurrection of our Saviour was proved not only his
+triumph over the grave, but the truth of the religion which He taught;
+and the anniversary of that event has been kept in all succeeding ages
+as the great festival of the Church. On the morning of this hallowed day
+throughout the Christian world the bells rang merrily, the altars were
+decked with flowers, and all men gave way to feelings of exultation and
+joy; in an hour everything was turned to mourning, lamentation, and woe!
+
+There was a time when Jerusalem was the most prosperous and favoured
+city of the world; then "all her ways were pleasantness, and all her
+paths were peace;" "plenteousness was in her palaces;" and "Jerusalem
+was the joy of the whole earth."
+
+But since the awful crime which was committed there, the Lord has poured
+out the vials of his wrath upon the once chosen city; dire and fearful
+have been the calamities which have befallen her in terrible succession
+for eighteen hundred years. Fury and desolation, hand in hand, have
+stalked round the precincts of the guilty spot; and Jerusalem has been
+given up to the spoiler and the oppressor.
+
+The day following the occurrences which have been related, I had a long
+interview with Ibrahim Pasha, and the conversation turned naturally on
+the blasphemous impositions of the Greek and Armenian patriarchs, who,
+for the purposes of worldly gain, had deluded their ignorant followers
+with the performance of a trick in relighting the candles which had been
+extinguished on Good Friday with fire which they affirmed to have been
+sent down from heaven in answer to their prayers. The Pasha was quite
+aware of the evident absurdity which I brought to his notice, of the
+performance of a Christian miracle being put off for some time, and
+being kept in waiting for the convenience of a Mahometan prince. It was
+debated what punishment was to be awarded to the Greek patriarch for the
+misfortunes which had been the consequence of his jugglery, and a number
+of the purses which he had received from the unlucky pilgrims passed
+into the coffers of the Pasha's treasury. I was sorry that the falsity
+of this imposture was not publicly exposed, as it was a good opportunity
+of so doing. It seems wonderful that so barefaced a trick should
+continue to be practised every year in these enlightened times; but it
+has its parallel in the blood of St. Januarius, which is still liquefied
+whenever anything is to be gained by the exhibition of that astonishing
+act of priestly impertinence. If Ibrahim Pasha had been a Christian,
+probably this would have been the last Easter of the lighting of the
+holy fire; but from the fact of his religion being opposed to that of
+the monks, he could not follow the example of Louis XIV., who having put
+a stop to some clumsy imposition which was at that time bringing scandal
+on the Church, a paper was found nailed upon the door of the sacred
+edifice the day afterwards, on which the words were read--
+
+    "De part du roi, defense a Dieu
+    De faire miracle en ce lieu."
+
+The interference of a Mahometan in such a case as this would only have
+been held as another persecution of the Christians; and the miracle of
+the holy fire has continued to be exhibited every year with great
+applause, and luckily without the unfortunate results which accompanied
+it on this occasion.
+
+Ibrahim Pasha, though by no means the equal of Mehemet Ali in talents or
+attainments, was an enlightened man for a Turk. Though bold in battle,
+he was kind to those who were about him; and the cruelties practised by
+his troops in the Greek and Syrian wars are to be ascribed more to the
+system of Eastern warfare than to the savage disposition of their
+commander.
+
+He was born at Cavalla, in Roumelia, in the year 1789, and died at
+Alexandria on the 10th of November, 1848. He was the son, according to
+some, of Mehemet Ali, but, according to others, of the wife of the great
+Viceroy of Egypt by a former husband. At the age of seventeen he joined
+his father's army, and in 1816 he commanded the expedition against the
+Wahabees--a sect who maintained that nothing but the Koran was to be
+held in any estimation by Mahometans, to the exclusion of all notes,
+explanations, and commentaries, which have in many cases usurped the
+authority of the text. They called themselves reformers, and, like King
+Henry VIII., took possession of the golden water-spouts and other
+ornaments of the Kaaba, burned the books and destroyed the colleges of
+the Arabian theologians, and carried off everything they could lay hold
+of, on religious principles. An eye-witness told me that some of the
+followers of Abd el Wahab had found a good-sized looking-glass in a
+house at Sanaa, which they were carrying away with great difficulty
+through the desert, the porters being guarded by a multitude of
+half-naked warriors, who had neglected all other plunder in the
+supposition that they had got hold of the diamond of Jemshid, a
+pre-Adamite monarch famous in the annals of Arabian history. Some more
+of these wild people found several bags of doubloons at Mocha, which
+they conceived to be dollars that had been spoiled somehow, and had
+turned yellow, for they had never seen any before. A "smart" captain of
+an American vessel at Jedda, who was consulted on the occasion, kindly
+gave them one real white dollar for four yellow ones--an arrangement
+which perfectly satisfied both parties. After three years' campaign,
+Ibrahim Pasha retook the holy cities of Mecca and Medina; and in
+December, 1819, he made his triumphant entry into Cairo, when he was
+invested with the title of Vizir and made Pasha of the Hedjaz by the
+Sultan--a dignity more exalted than that of the Pasha of Egypt.
+
+In 1824 he commanded the armies of the Sultan, which were sent to put
+down the rebellion of the Greeks: he sailed from Alexandria with a fleet
+of 163 vessels, 16,000 infantry, 700 cavalry, and four regiments of
+artillery. Numerous captives were made in the Morea, and the
+slave-markets were stocked with Greek women and children who had been
+captured by the soldiers of the Turkish army. The battle of Navarino, in
+1827, ended in the destruction of the Mahometan fleets; and thousands of
+slaves, who were forced to fight against their intended deliverers,
+being chained to their guns, sunk with the ships which were destroyed by
+the cannon of the allied forces of England, France, and Russia.
+
+In 1831 Mehemet Ali undertook to wrest Syria from the Sultan his master.
+Ibrahim Pasha commanded his army of about 30,000 men, under the tuition,
+however, of a Frenchman, Colonel Seve, who had denied the Christian
+faith on Christmas-day, and was afterwards known as Suleiman Pasha. The
+Egyptian troops soon became masters of the Holy Land; Gaza, Jaffa,
+Jerusalem, and Acre fell before their victorious arms; and on the 22nd
+of December, 1832, Ibrahim Pasha, with an army of 30,000 men, defeated
+60,000 Turks at Koniah, who had been sent against him by Sultan Mahmoud,
+under the command of Reschid Pasha.
+
+Ibrahim had advanced as far as Kutayeh, on his way to Constantinople,
+when his march was stopped by the interference of European diplomacy.
+The Sultan, having made another effort to recover his dominions in
+Syria, sent an army against Ibrahim, which was utterly routed at the
+battle of Negib, on the 24th of June, 1839.
+
+This defeat was principally owing to the Seraskier (the Turkish general)
+refusing to follow the counsels of Jochmus Pasha, a German officer, who,
+in distinguished contrast to the unhappy Suleiman, retained the religion
+of his fathers and the esteem of honest men.
+
+His career was again checked by European policy, which, if it had any
+right to interfere at all, would have benefited the cause of humanity
+more by doing so before Egypt was drained of nearly all its able-bodied
+men, and Syria given up to the horrors of a long and cruel war.
+
+The great powers of England, Austria, Russia, and Prussia now combined
+to restore the wasted provinces of Syria to the Porte; a fleet menaced
+the shores of the Holy Land; Acre was attacked, and taken in four hours
+by the accidental explosion of a powder-magazine, which almost destroyed
+what remained from former sieges of the habitable portion of the town.
+Ibrahim Pasha evacuated Syria, and retired to Egypt, where he amused
+himself with agriculture, and planting trees, always his favourite
+pursuit: the trees which he had planted near Cairo have already reduced
+the temperature in their vicinity several degrees.
+
+In 1846 he went to Europe for the benefit of his health, and extended
+his tour to England, where he was much struck with the industry that
+pervaded all classes, and its superiority in railways and works of
+utility to the other countries of Europe. "Yes," said he to me at
+Mivart's Hotel; "in France there is more fantasia; in England there is
+more roast beef." I observed that he was surprised at the wealth
+displayed at one or two parties in some great houses in London at which
+he was present. Whether he had lost his memory in any degree at that
+time, I do not know; but on my recalling to him the great danger he had
+been in at Jerusalem, of which he entertained a very lively
+recollection, he could not remember the name of the Bey who was killed
+there, although he was the only person of any rank in his suite, with
+the exception of Selim Bey Selicdar, his swordbearer, with whom I
+afterwards became acquainted in Egypt.
+
+In consequence of the infirmities of Mehemet Ali, whose great mind had
+become unsettled in his old age, Ibrahim was promoted by the present
+Sultan to the Vice-royalty of Egypt, on the 1st of September, 1848. His
+constitution, which had long been undermined by hardship, excess, and
+want of care, gave way at length, and on the 10th of November of the
+same year his body was carried to the tomb which his father had prepared
+for his family near Cairo, little thinking at the time that he should
+live to survive his sons Toussoun, Ismail, and Ibrahim, who have all
+descended before him to their last abode.
+
+In personal appearance Ibrahim Pasha was a short, broad-shouldered man,
+with a red face, small eyes, and a heavy though cunning expression of
+countenance. He was as brave as a lion; his habits and ideas were rough
+and coarse; he had but little refinement in his composition; but,
+although I have often seen him abused for his cruelty in European
+newspapers, I never heard any well-authenticated anecdote of his
+cruelty, and do not believe that he was by any means of a savage
+disposition, nor that his troops rivalled in any way the horrors
+committed in Algeria by the civilized and fraternising French. He was a
+bold, determined soldier. He had that reverence and respect for his
+father which is so much to be admired in the patriarchal customs of the
+East; and it is not every one who has lived for years in the enjoyment
+of absolute power uncontrolled by the admonitions of a Christian's
+conscience that could get out of the scrape so well, or leave a better
+name upon the page of history than that of Ibrahim Pasha.
+
+After the fearful catastrophe in the church of the Holy Sepulchre, the
+whole host of pilgrims seem to have become panic struck, and every one
+was anxious to escape from the city. There was a report, too, that the
+plague had broken out, and we with the rest made instant preparation for
+our departure. In consequence of the numbers who had perished, there
+was no difficulty in hiring baggage-horses; and we immediately procured
+as many as we wanted: tents were loaded on some; beds and packages of
+all sorts and sizes were tied on others, with but slight regard to
+balance and compactness; and on the afternoon of the 6th of May we
+rejoiced to find ourselves once more out of the walls of Jerusalem, and
+riding at our leisure along the pleasant fields fresh with the flowers
+of spring, a season charming in all countries, but especially delightful
+in the sultry climate of the Holy Land.
+
+
+
+
+MONASTERIES OF THE LEVANT.
+
+PART III.
+
+THE MONASTERIES OF METEORA.
+
+[Illustration: VIEW OF THE MONASTERY OF SAINT BARLAAM, AT METEORA].
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+
+     Albania--Ignorance at Corfu concerning that Country--Its reported
+     abundance of Game and Robbers--The Disturbed State of the
+     Country--The Albanians--Richness of their Arms--Their free use of
+     them--Comparative Safety of Foreigners--Tragic Fate of a German
+     Botanist--Arrival at Gominitza--Ride to Paramathia--A Night's
+     Bivouac--Reception at Paramathia--Albanian Ladies--Yanina--Albanian
+     Mode of settling a Quarrel--Expected Attack from Robbers--A
+     Body-Guard mounted--Audience with the Vizir--His Views of Criminal
+     Jurisprudence--Retinue of the Vizir--His Troops--Adoption of the
+     European Exercises--Expedition to Berat--Calmness and
+     Self-possession of the Turks--Active Preparations for
+     Warfare--Scene at the Bazaar--Valiant Promises of the Soldiers.
+
+
+_Corfu, Friday, Oct. 31, 1834._--I found I could get no information
+respecting Albania at Corfu, though the high mountains of Epirus seemed
+almost to over-hang the island. No one knew anything about it, except
+that it was a famous place for snipes! It appeared never to have struck
+traveller or tourist that there was anything in Albania except snipes;
+whereof one had shot fifteen brace, and another had shot many more, only
+he did not bring them home, having lost the dead birds in the bushes.
+There were some woodcocks also, it was generally believed, and some
+spake of wild boars, but I had not the advantage of meeting with anybody
+who could specifically assert that he had shot one: and besides these
+there were robbers in multitudes. As to that point every one was agreed.
+Of robbers there was no end: and just at this particular time there was
+a revolution, or rebellion, or pronunciamiento, or a general election,
+or something of that sort, going on in Albania; for all the people who
+came over from thence said that the whole country was in a ferment. In
+fact there seemed to be a general uproar taking place, during which each
+party of the free and independent mountaineers deemed it expedient to
+show their steady adherence to their own side of the question by
+shooting at any one they saw, from behind a stone or a tree, for fear
+that person might accidentally be a partizan of the opposite faction.
+
+[Illustration: TATAR, OR GOVERNMENT MESSENGER]
+
+The Albanians are great dandies about their arms: the scabbard of their
+yataghan, and the stocks of their pistols, are almost always of silver,
+as well as their three or four little cartridge boxes, which are
+frequently gilt, and sometimes set with garnets and coral; an Albanian
+is therefore worth shooting, even if he is not of another way of
+thinking from the gentleman who shoots him. As I understood, however,
+that they did not shoot so much at Franks because they usually have
+little about them worth taking, and are not good to eat, I conceived
+that I should not run any great risk; and I resolved, therefore,
+not to be thwarted in my intention of exploring some of the monasteries
+of that country. There is another reason also why Franks are seldom
+molested in the East--every Arab or Albanian knows that if a Frank has a
+gun in his hand, which he generally has, there are two probabilities,
+amounting almost to certainties, with respect to that weapon. One is,
+that it is loaded; and the other that, if the trigger is pulled, there
+is a considerable chance of its going off. Now these are circumstances
+which apply in a much slighter degree to the magazine of small arms
+which he carries about his own person. But, beyond all this, when a
+Frank is shot there is such a disturbance made about it! Consuls write
+letters--pashas are stirred up--guards, kawasses, and tatars gallop like
+mad about the country, and fire pistols in the air, and live at free
+quarters in the villages; the murderer is sought for everywhere, and he,
+or somebody else, is hanged to please the consul; in addition to which
+the population are beaten with thick sticks ad libitum. All this is
+extremely disagreeable, and therefore we are seldom shot at, the pastime
+being too dearly paid for.
+
+The last Frank whom I heard of as having been killed in Albania was a
+German, who was studying botany. He rejoiced in a blue coat and brass
+buttons, and wandered about alone, picking up herbs and flowers on the
+mountains, which he put carefully into a tin box. He continued
+unmolested for some time, the universal opinion being that he was a
+powerful magician, and that the herbs he was always gathering would
+enable him to wither up his enemies by some dreadful charm, and also to
+detect every danger which menaced him. Two or three Albanians had
+watched him for several days, hiding themselves carefully behind the
+rocks whenever the philosopher turned towards them; and at last one of
+the gang, commending himself to all his saints, rested his long gun upon
+a stone and shot the German through the body. The poor man rolled over,
+but the Albanian did not venture from his hiding-place until he had
+loaded his gun again, and then, after sundry precautions, he came out,
+keeping his eye upon the body, and with his friends behind him, to
+defend him in case of need. The botanizer, however, was dead enough, and
+the disappointment of the Albanians was extreme, when they found that
+his buttons were brass and not gold, for it was the supposed value of
+these precious ornaments that had incited them to the deed.
+
+I procured some letters of introduction to different persons, sent my
+English servant and most of my effects to England, and hired a youth to
+act in the double capacity of servant and interpreter during the
+journey. One of my friends at Corfu was good enough to procure me the
+use of a great boat, with I do not know how many oars, belonging to
+government; and in it I was rowed over the calm bright sea twenty-four
+miles to Gominitza, where I arrived in five hours. Here I hired three
+horses with pack-saddles, one for my baggage, one for my servant, and
+one for myself; and away we went towards Paramathia, which place we were
+told was four hours off. Paramathia is said to be built upon the site of
+Dodona, although the exact situation of the oracle is not ascertained;
+but some of the finest bronzes extant were found there thirty or forty
+years ago, part of which went to Russia, and part came into the
+possession of Mr. Hawkins, of Bignor, in Sussex, where they are still
+preserved.
+
+Our horses were not very good, and our roads were worse; and we
+scrambled and stumbled over the rocks, up and down hill, all the
+afternoon, without approaching, as it seemed to me, towards any
+inhabited place. It was now becoming dark, and the muleteers said we had
+six hours more to do; it was then seven o'clock, P.M.; we could see
+nothing, and were upon the top of a hill, where there were plenty of
+stones and some low bushes, through which we were making our way
+vaguely, suiting ourselves as to a path, and turning our faces towards
+any point of the compass which we thought most agreeable, for it did not
+appear that any of the party knew the way. We now held a council as to
+what was best to be done; and as we saw lights in some houses about a
+mile off, I desired one of the muleteers to go there and see if we could
+get a lodging for the night. "Go to a house?" said the muleteer, "you
+don't suppose we could be such fools as to go to a house in Albania,
+where we know nobody?" "No!" said I, "why not?" "Because we should be
+murdered, of course," said he; "that is if they thought themselves
+strong enough to venture to undo their doors and let us in; otherwise
+they would pretend there was nobody in the house, or fire at us out of
+the window and set the dogs at us; or----" "Oh!" I replied, "that is
+quite sufficient; I have no desire to trouble your excellent countrymen,
+only I don't precisely see what else we are to do just now on the top of
+this hill. How are they off for wolves in this neighbourhood?" "Why,"
+quoth my friend, "I hope you understand that if anything happens to my
+horses you are bound to reimburse me: as for ourselves, we are armed,
+and must take our chance; but I don't think there are many wolves here
+yet; they don't come down from the mountains quite so soon: though
+certainly it is getting cold already. But we had better sleep here at
+all events, and at dawn we shall be able, perhaps, to make out a little
+better where we have got to." There being nothing else for it, we tied
+the horses' legs together, and I lay down on a travelling carpet by the
+side of my servant, under the cover of a bush. Awfully cold it was: the
+horses trembled and shook themselves every now and then, and held their
+heads down, and I tried all sorts of postures in hopes of making myself
+snug, but every change was from bad to worse; I could not get warm any
+how, and a remarkable fact was, that the more sharp stones I picked out
+from under the carpet the more numerous and sharper were those that
+remained: my only comfort was to hear the muleteers rolling about too,
+and anathematizing the stones most lustily. However, I went to sleep in
+course of time, and was, as it appeared to me, instantaneously awakened
+by some one shaking me, and telling me it was four o'clock and time to
+start. It was still as dark as ever, except that a few stars were
+visible, and we recommenced our journey, stumbling and scrambling about
+as we had done before, till we came to a place where the horses stopped
+of their own accord. This it seemed was a ledge of rock above a
+precipice, about two hundred feet deep, as I judged by the reflection of
+the stars in the stream which ran below. The dimness of the light made
+the place look more dangerous and difficult than perhaps it really was.
+It seems, however, that we were lucky in finding it, for there was no
+other way off the hill except by this ledge, which was about twelve feet
+broad. We got off our horses and led them down; they had probably often
+been there before, for they made no difficulty about it, and in a few
+hundred yards, the road becoming better, we mounted again, and after
+five hours' travelling arrived at Paramathia. Just before entering the
+place we met a party on foot, armed to the teeth, and all carrying
+their long guns. One of these gentlemen politely asked me if I had a
+spare purse about me, or any money which I could turn over to his
+account; but as I looked very dirty and shabby, and as we were close to
+the town, he did not press his demand, but only asked by which road I
+intended to leave it. I told him I should remain there for the present,
+and as we had now reached the houses, he took his departure, to my great
+satisfaction.
+
+On inquiring for the person to whom I had a letter of introduction, I
+found he was a shopkeeper who sold cloth in the bazaar. We accordingly
+went to his shop and found him sitting among his merchandise. When he
+had read the letter he was very civil, and shutting up his shop, walked
+on before us to show me the way to his house. It was a very good one,
+and the best room was immediately given up to me, two old ladies and
+three or four young ones being turned out in a most summary manner. One
+or two of the girls were very pretty, and they all vied with each other
+in their attentions to their guest, looking at me with great curiosity,
+and perpetually peeping at me through the curtain which hung over the
+door, and running away when they thought they were observed.
+
+The prettiest of these damsels had only been married a short time: who
+her husband was, or where he lived, I could not make out, but she amused
+me by her anxiety to display her smart new clothes. She went and put on
+a new capote, a sort of white frock coat, without sleeves, embroidered
+in bright colours down the seams, which showed her figure to advantage;
+and then she took it off again, and put on another garment, giving me
+ample opportunity of admiring its effect. I expressed my surprise and
+admiration in bad Greek, which, however, the fair Albanian appeared to
+find no difficulty in understanding. She kindly corrected some of my
+sentences, and I have no doubt I should have improved rapidly under her
+care, if she had not always run away whenever she heard any one creaking
+about on the rickety boards of the ante-room and staircase. The other
+ladies, who were settling themselves in a large gaunt room close by,
+kept up an interminable clatter, and displayed such unbounded powers of
+conversation, that it seemed impossible that any one of them could hear
+what all the others said; till at last the master of the house came up
+again, and then there was a lull. He told me that I could not hire
+horses till the afternoon, and as that would have been too late to
+start, I determined to remain where I was till the next morning. I
+passed the day in wandering about the place, and considering whether,
+upon the whole, the dogs or the men of Paramathia were the most savage:
+for the dogs looked like wolves, and the men like arrant cut-throats,
+swaggering about, idle and restless, with their long hair, and guns, and
+pistols, and yataghans; they have none of the composure of the Turks,
+who delight to sit still in a coffee-house and smoke their pipes, or
+listen to a story, which saves them the trouble of thinking or speaking.
+The Albanians did not scream and chatter as the Arabs do, or as their
+ladies were doing in the houses, but they lounged about the bazaars
+listlessly, ready to pick a quarrel with any one, and unable to fix
+themselves down to any occupation; in short they gave me the idea of
+being a very poor and proud, and good-for-nothing set of scamps.
+
+_November 2nd._--The next morning at five o'clock I was on horseback
+again, and after riding over stones and rocks, and frequently in the bed
+of a stream, for fourteen hours, I arrived in the evening at Yanina. I
+was disappointed with the first view of the place. The town is built on
+the side of a sloping hill above the lake; and as my route lay over the
+top of this hill, I could see but little of the town until I was quite
+among the houses, most of which were in a ruinous condition. The lake
+itself, with an island in it on which are the ruins of a palace built by
+the famous Ali Pasha, is a beautiful object; but the mountains by which
+it is bounded on the opposite side are barren, yet not sufficiently
+broken to be picturesque. The scene altogether put me in mind of the
+Lake of Genesareth as seen from its western shore near Tiberias. There
+is a plain to the north and north-west, which is partially cultivated,
+but it is inferior in beauty to the plains of Jericho, and there is no
+river like the Jordan to light up the scene with its quick and sparkling
+waters as it glistens among the trees in its journey towards the lake.
+
+I went to the house of an Italian gentleman who was the principal
+physician of Yanina, and who I understood was in the habit of affording
+accommodation to travellers in his house. He received me with great
+kindness, and gave me an excellent set of rooms, consisting of a bed
+room, sitting room, and ante-room, all of them much better than those
+which I occupied in the hotel at Corfu: they were clean and nicely
+furnished; and altogether the excellence of my quarters in the
+dilapidated capital of Albania surprised me most agreeably.
+
+The town appears never to have been repaired since the wars and
+revolutions which occurred at the time of Ali Pasha's death. The houses
+resemble those of Greece or southern Italy; they are built, some of
+stone, and some of wood, with tiled roofs. On the walls of many of them
+there were vines growing. The bazaars are poor, yet I saw very rich arms
+displayed in some mean little shops, or stalls, as we should call them;
+for they are all open, like the booths at a fair. The climate is rainy,
+and there is no lack of mud in wet weather, and dust when it is dry. The
+whole place had a miserable appearance, nothing seemed to be going on,
+and the people have a savage, hang-dog look.
+
+I had a good supper and a good bed, and was awakened the next morning by
+hearing the servants loud in talk about the news of the day. The subject
+was truly Albanian. A man who had a shop in the bazaar had quarrelled
+yesterday with some of his fellow townsmen, and in the night they took
+him out of his bed and cut him to pieces with their yataghans on the
+hill above the town. Some people coming by early this morning saw
+various joints of this unlucky man lying on the ground as they passed.
+
+I occupied myself in looking about the place; and having sent to the
+palace of the vizir to request an audience, it was fixed for the next
+day. There was not much to see; but I afforded a subject of
+uninterrupted discussion to all beholders, as it appeared I was the only
+traveller who had been there for some time. I went to bed early because
+I had no books to read, and it was a bore trying to talk Greek to my
+host's family; but I had not been asleep long before I was awakened by
+the intelligence that a party of robbers had concealed themselves in the
+ruins round the house, and that we should probably be attacked. Up we
+all got, and loaded our guns and pistols: the women kept flying about
+everywhere, and, when they ran against each other in the dark, screamed
+wofully, as they took everybody for a robber. We had no lights, that we
+might not afford good marks for the enemy outside, who, however, kept
+quiet, and did not shoot at us, although every now and then we saw a
+man or two creeping about among the ruins. My host, who was armed with a
+gun of prodigious length, was in a state of great alarm; and, having
+sent for assistance, twenty soldiers arrived, who kept guard round the
+house, but would not venture among the ruins. These valiant heroes
+relieved each other during the night; but, as no robbers made their
+appearance, I got tired of watching for them, and went quietly to bed
+again.
+
+_November 4th._--At nine o'clock in the morning I paid my respects to
+the Vizir, Mahmoud Pasha, a man with a long nose, and who altogether
+bore a great resemblance to Pope Benedict XV [XVI in the original (n. of
+etext transcriber). I stayed some hours with him, talking over Turkish
+matters; and we got into a brisk argument as to whether England was part
+of London, or London part of England. He appeared to be a remarkably
+good-natured man, and took great interest in the affairs of Egypt, from
+which country I had lately arrived, and asked me numberless questions
+about Mehemet Ali, comparing his character with that of Ali Pasha, who
+had built this palace, which was in a very ruinous state, for nothing
+had been expended to keep it in repair. The hall of audience was a
+magnificent room, richly decorated with inlaid work of mother-of-pearl
+and tortoiseshell: the ceiling was gilt, and the windows of Venetian
+plate-glass, but some of them were broken: the floor was loose and
+almost dangerous; and two holes in the side walls, which had been made
+by a cannon-ball, were stopped up with pieces of deal board roughly
+nailed upon the costly inlaid panels. The divan was of red cloth; and a
+crowd of men, with their girdles stuck full of arms, stood leaning on
+their long guns at the bottom of the room, listening to our
+conversation, and laughing loudly whenever a joke was made, but never
+coming forward beyond the edge of the carpet.
+
+The Pasha offered to give me an escort, as he said that the country at
+that moment was particularly unsafe; but at length it was settled that
+he should give me a letter to the commander of the troops at Mezzovo,
+who would supply me with soldiers to see me safely to the monasteries of
+Meteora. When I arose to take my leave, he sent for more pipes and
+coffee, as a signal for me to remain; in short, we became great friends.
+Whilst I was with him a pasha of inferior rank came in, and sat on the
+divan for half an hour without saying a single word or doing anything
+except looking at me unceasingly. After he had taken his departure we
+had some sherbet; and at last I got away, leaving the Pasha in great
+wonderment at the English government paying large sums of money for the
+transportation of criminals, when cutting off their heads would have
+been so much more economical and expeditious. Incurring any expense to
+keep rogues and vagabonds in prison, or to send them away from our own
+country to be the plague of other lands, appeared to him to be an
+extraordinary act of folly; and that thieves should be fed and clothed
+and lodged, while poor and honest people were left to starve, he
+considered to be contrary to common sense and justice. I laughed at the
+time at what I thought the curious opinions of the Vizir of Yanina; I
+have since come to the conclusion that there was some sense in his
+notions of criminal jurisprudence.
+
+In the afternoon, as I was looking out of the window of my lodging, I
+saw the Vizir going by with a great number of armed people, and I was
+told that in the present disturbed state of the country he never went
+out to take a ride without all these attendants. First came a hundred
+lancers on horseback, dressed in a kind of European uniform; then two
+horsemen, each with a pair of small kettle-drums attached to the front
+of his saddle. They kept up an unceasing pattering upon these drums as
+they rode along. This is a Tartar or Persian custom; and in some parts
+of Tartary the dignity of khan is conferred by strapping these two
+little drums on the back of the person whom the king delighteth to
+honour; and then the king beats the drums as the new khan walks slowly
+round the court. Thus a thing is reckoned a great honour in one part of
+the world which in another is accounted a disgrace; for when a soldier
+is incorrigible, we drum him out of the regiment, whilst the Tartar khan
+is drummed into his dignity. After the drummers came a brilliantly
+dressed company of kawasses, with silver pistols and yataghans; then
+several trumpeters; and after them the Vizir himself on a fine tall
+horse; he was dressed in the new Turkish Frank style, with the usual red
+cap on his head; but he had an immense red cloth cloak sumptuously
+embroidered with gold, which quite covered him, so that no part of the
+great man was visible, except his two eyes, his nose, and one of his
+hands, upon which was a splendid diamond ring. Two grooms walked by the
+sides of his horse, each with one hand on the back of the saddle. Every
+one bowed as the Vizir went by; and I became a distinguished person from
+the moment that he gave me a condescending nod. The procession was
+closed by a crowd of officers and attendants on horseback in gorgeous
+Albanian dresses, with silver bridles and embroidered housings. They
+carried what I thought at first were spears, but I soon discovered that
+they were long pipes; there was quite a forest of them, of all lengths
+and sizes. When the Vizir was gone and the dust subsided, I strolled out
+of the town on foot, when I came upon the troops, who were learning the
+new European exercise. Seeing a man sitting on a carpet in the middle of
+the plain, I went up to him and found that he was the colonel and
+commander of this army; so I smoked a pipe with him, and discovered that
+he knew about as much of tactics and military manoeuvres as I did, only
+he did not take so much interest in the subject. We therefore
+continued to smoke the pipe of peace on the carpet of reflection, while
+the soldiers entangled themselves in all sorts of incomprehensible
+doublings and counter-marches, till at last the whole body was so much
+puzzled, that they stood still all of a heap, like a cluster of bees.
+The captains shouted, and the poor men turned round and round, trod on
+each other's heels, kicked each other's shins, and did all they could to
+get out of the scrape, but they only got more into confusion. At last a
+bright thought struck the colonel, who took his pipe out of his mouth,
+and gave orders, in the name of the Prophet, that every man should go
+home in the best way he could. This they accomplished like a party of
+schoolboys, running and jumping and walking off in small parties towards
+the town. The officers wiped the perspiration from their foreheads, and
+strolled off too, some to smoke a pipe under a tree, and some to repose
+on their divans and swear at the Franks who had invented such
+extraordinary evolutions.
+
+[Illustration: TURKISH COMMON SOLDIER.]
+
+In the evening, among the other news of the day, I was told that three
+men had been walking together in the afternoon; one of them bought a
+melon, and his two companions, who were very thirsty, but had no money,
+asked him to give them some of it. He would not do so; and, as they
+worried him about it, he ran into an empty house, and, bolting the door,
+sat down inside to discuss his purchase in quiet. The other two were
+determined not to be jockeyed in that manner, and, finding a hole in the
+door, they peeped through, and were enraged at seeing him eating the
+melon inside. He jeered them, and said that the melon was excellent;
+until at last one of them swore he should not eat it all, and, putting
+his pistol through the hole in the door, shot his friend dead; they then
+walked away, laughing at their own cleverness in shooting him so neatly
+through the hole.
+
+_November 5th._--The next day I went again to the citadel to see the
+Vizir, but he could not receive me, as news had arrived that the
+insurgents or robbers--they had entitled themselves to either
+denomination--had gathered together in force and laid siege to the town
+of Berat. There had been a good deal of confusion in Yanina before this,
+but now it appeared to have arrived at a climax. The courtyard of the
+citadel was full of horses picketed by their head-and-heel ropes, in
+long rows; parties of men were, according to their different habits,
+talking over the events of the day,--the Albanians chattering and
+putting themselves in attitudes; the Arnaouts or Mahometans of Greek
+blood boasting of the chivalric feats which they intended to perform;
+and the grave Turks sitting quietly on the ground, smoking their eternal
+pipes, and taking it all as easily as if they had nothing to do with it.
+Both before and since these days I have seen a great deal of the Turks;
+and though, for many reasons, I do not respect them as a nation, still
+I cannot help admiring their calmness and self-possession in moments of
+difficulty and danger. There is something noble and dignified in their
+quietness on these occasions: I have very rarely seen a Turk
+discomposed; stately and collected, he sits down and bides his time; but
+when the moment of action comes, he will rouse himself on a sudden, and
+become full of fire, animation, and activity. It is then that you see
+the descendant of those conquerors of the East, whose strong will and
+fierce courage have given them the command over all the nations of
+Islam.
+
+Although I could not obtain an audience with the vizir, one of the
+people who were with me managed to send a message to him that I should
+be glad of the letter, or firman, which he had promised me, and by which
+I might command the services of an escort, if I thought fit to do so.
+This man had influence at court; for he had a friend who was chiboukji
+to the vizir's secretary, or prime minister--a sly Greek, whose
+acquaintance I had made two days before. The pipe-bearer, propitiated by
+a trifling bribe, spoke to his master, and he spoke to the vizir, who
+promised I should have the letter; and it came accordingly in the
+evening, properly signed and sealed, and all in heathen Greek, of which
+I could make out a word here and there; but what it was about was
+entirely beyond my comprehension.
+
+Whilst waiting the result of these negotiations I had leisure to notice
+the warlike movements which were going on around me. I saw a train of
+two or three hundred men on horseback issuing out from the citadel, and
+riding slowly along the plain in the direction of Berat. They were sent
+to raise the siege; and other troops were preparing to follow them. As I
+watched these horsemen winding across the plain in a long line, with the
+sun glancing upon their arms, they seemed like a great serpent, with its
+glittering scales, gliding along to seek for its prey; and in some
+respects the simile would hold good, for this detachment would be the
+terror of the inhabitants of every district through which it passed.
+Rapine, violence, and oppression would mark its course; friend and foe
+would alike be plundered; and the villages which had not been burned by
+the insurgent klephti would be sacked and ruined by the soldiers of the
+government.
+
+As I descended from the citadel I passed numerous parties of armed men,
+all full of excitement about the plunder they would get, and the mighty
+deeds they would perform; for the danger was a good way off, and they
+were all brim-full of valour. In the bazaar all was business and bustle:
+everybody was buying arms. Long guns and silver pistols, all ready
+loaded, I believe, with fiery-looking flints as big as sandwiches,
+wrapped up first in a bit of red cloth, and then in a sort of open work
+of lead or tin, were being handed about; and the spirit of commerce was
+in full activity. Great was the haggling among the dealers. One man
+walked off with a mace; another, expecting to perform as mighty deeds as
+Richard Coeur de Lion, bought an old battle-axe, and swung it about to
+show how he would cut heads off with it before long. Another champion
+had included among his warlike accoutrements a curious, ancient-looking
+silver clock, which dangled by his side from a multitude of chains. It
+was square in shape, and must have been provided with a strong
+constitution inside if it could go while it was banged about at every
+step the man took. This worthy, I imagine, intended to kill time, for
+his purchase did not seem calculated to cope with any other enemy. He
+had, however, two or three pistols and daggers in addition to his clock.
+An oldish, hard-featured man was buying a quantity of that abominably
+sour, white cheese which is the pride of Albania, and a quantity of
+black olives, which he was cramming into a pair of old saddle-bags,
+whilst his horse beside him was quietly munching his corn in a sack tied
+over his nose. There was a look of calm efficiency about this man, which
+contrasted strongly with the swaggering air of the crowd around him. He
+was evidently an old hand; and I observed that he had laid in a stock of
+ball-cartridges--an article in which but little money was spent by the
+buyers of yataghans in silver sheaths and silver cartridge-boxes.
+
+"Hallo! sir Frank," cried one or two of these gay warriors, "come out
+with us to Berat: come and see us fight, and you will see something
+worth travelling for."
+
+"Ay," said I, "it's all up with the enemy: that's quite certain. They
+will be in a pretty scrape, to be sure, when you arrive. I would not be
+one of them for a good deal!"
+
+"Sono molto feroce questi palicari," said my guide.
+
+"Oh! yes, they are terrible fellows!" I replied.
+
+"What does the Frank say?" they asked.
+
+"He says you are terrible fellows."
+
+"Ah! I think we are, indeed. But don't be afraid, Frank; don't be
+afraid!"
+
+"No," said I, "I won't; and I wish you good luck on your way to Berat
+and back again."
+
+This night the people had been so much occupied in purchasing the
+implements of death that I heard no accounts of any new murders. In fact
+it had been a dull day in that respect; but no doubt they would make up
+for it before long.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+
+     Start for Meteora--Rencontre with a Wounded Traveller--Barbarity of
+     the Robbers--Albanian Innkeeper--Effect of the Turkish Language
+     upon the Greeks--Mezzovo--Interview with the chief Person in the
+     Village--Mount Pindus--Capture by Robbers--Salutary effects of
+     Swaggering--Arrival under Escort at the Robbers'
+     Head-Quarters--Affairs take a favourable turn--An unexpected
+     Friendship with the Robber Chief--The Khan of Malacash--Beauty of
+     the Scenery--Activity of our Guards--Loss of Character--Arrival at
+     Meteora.
+
+
+_November 6th._--I had engaged a tall, thin, dismal-looking man, well
+provided with pistols, knives, and daggers, as an additional servant,
+for he was said to know all the passes of the mountains, which I thought
+might be a useful accomplishment in case I had to avoid the more public
+roads--or paths, rather--for roads there were none. I purchased a stock
+of provisions, and hired five horses--three for myself and my men, one
+for the muleteer, and the other for the baggage, which was well strapped
+on, that the beast might gallop with it, as it was not very heavy. They
+were pretty good horses--rough and hardy. Mine looked very hard at me
+out of the corner of his eye when I got upon his back in the cold grey
+dawn, as if to find out what sort of a person I was. By means of a stout
+kourbatch--a sort of whip of rhinoceros hide which they use in Egypt--I
+immediately gave him all the information he desired; and off we galloped
+round the back part of the town, and, unquestioned by any one, we soon
+found ourselves trotting along the plain by the south end of the lake of
+Yanina. Here the waters from the lake disappear in an extraordinary
+manner in a great cavern, or pit full of rocks and stones, through which
+the water runs away into some subterranean channel--a dark and
+mysterious river, which the dismal-looking man, my new attendant, said
+came out into the light again somewhere in the Gulph of Arta. Before
+long we got upon the remains of a fine paved road, like a Roman way,
+which had been made by Ali Pasha. It was, however, out of repair, having
+in places been swept away by the torrents, and was an impediment rather
+than an assistance to travellers. This road led up to the hills; and,
+having dismounted from my horse, I began scrambling and puffing up the
+steep side of the mountain, stopping every now and then to regain my
+breath and to admire the beautiful view of the calm lake and picturesque
+town of Yanina.
+
+As I was walking in advance of my company, I saw a man above me leading
+a loaded mule. He was coming down the mountain, carefully picking his
+way among the stones, and in a loud voice exhorting the mule to be
+steady and keep its feet, although the mule was much the more
+sure-footed of the two. As they passed me I was struck with the odd
+appearance of the mule's burden: it consisted of a bundle of large
+stones on one side, which served as a counterpoise to a packing-case on
+the other, covered with a cloth, out of which peeped the head of a man,
+with his long black hair hanging about a face as pale as marble. The box
+in which he travelled not being more than four feet and a half long, I
+supposed he must be a dwarf, and was laughing at his peculiar mode of
+conveyance. The muleteer, observing from my dress that I was a Frank,
+stopped his mule, when he came up to me, and asked me if I was a
+physician, begging me to give my assistance to the man in the box, if I
+knew anything of surgery, for he had had both his legs cut off by some
+robbers on the way from Salonica, and he was now taking him to Yanina,
+in hopes of finding some doctor there to heal his wounds. My laughter
+was now turned into pity for the poor man, for I knew there was no help
+for him at Yanina. I could do nothing for him; and the only hope was, as
+his strength had borne him up so far on his journey, that when he got
+rest at Yanina the wounds might heal of themselves. After expressing my
+commiseration for him, and my hopes of his recovery, we parted company;
+and as I stood looking at the mule, staggering and slipping among the
+loose stones and rocks in the steep descent, it quite made me wince to
+think of the pain the unfortunate traveller must be enduring, with the
+raw stumps of his two legs rubbing and bumping against the end of his
+short box. I was sorry I had not asked why the robbers had cut off his
+legs, because, if it was their usual system, it was certainly more than
+I bargained for. I had pretty nearly made up my mind to be robbed, but
+had no intention whatever to lose my legs; so I sat down upon a rock,
+and began calculating probabilities, until my party came up, and I
+mounted my horse, who gave me another look with his cunning eye. We
+continued on Ali Pasha's broken road until we reached the summit of the
+mountain, where we made a short halt, that our horses might regain their
+wind; and then began our descent, stumbling, and sliding, and scrambling
+down, until we arrived at the bottom, where there was a miserable khan.
+In this royal hotel, which was a mere shed, there was nothing to be
+found except mine host, who had it all to himself. At last he made us
+some coffee; and while our horses were feeding on our own corn, we sat
+under the shade of a walnut-tree by the road-side. Our host, having
+nothing which could be eaten or drank except the coffee, did not know
+how in the world he could manage to get up a satisfactory bill. I saw
+this very plainly in his puzzled and thoughtful looks; but at last a
+bright thought struck him, and he charged a good round sum for the shade
+of the walnut-tree. Now although I admired his ingenuity, I demurred at
+the charge, particularly as the walnut-tree did not belong to him. It
+was a wild tree, which everybody threw stones at as he passed by, to
+bring down the nuts:--
+
+    "Nux ego juncta vise quae sum due crimine vitae,
+      Attamen a cunctis saxibus usque petor."--Ovid.
+
+Little did the unoffending walnut-tree think that its shade would be
+brought forward as a cause of war; for then arose a fierce contest
+between Greek oaths and Albanian maledictions, to which Arabic and
+English lent their aid. Though there were no stones thrown, ten times as
+many hard words were hurled backwards and forwards as there were walnuts
+on the tree, showing a facility of expression and a redundance of
+epithets which would have given a lesson to the most practised ladies of
+Billingsgate.
+
+When the horses were ready the khangee came up to me in a towering
+passion, swearing that I should pay for sitting under the tree.
+"Englishman," said he, "get up and pay me what I demand, or you shall
+not leave this place, by all that is holy." "Kiupek oglou," said I,
+without moving from the ground, "Oh, son of a dog! go and get my horse,
+you chattering magpie!" These few words in the language of the conqueror
+had a marvellous effect on the khangee. "What does his worship say?" he
+inquired of the dismal-faced man. "Why, he says you had better go and
+get his excellency's worship's most respectable horse, if you have any
+regard for your life: so go! be off! vanish! don't stay there staring at
+the illustrious traveller. 'Tis lucky for you he doesn't order us to
+cut you up into cabobs; go and get the horse; and perhaps you'll be paid
+for your coffee, bad as it was. His excellency is the pasha's, his
+highness's, most particular intimate friend; and if his highness knew
+what you had been saying, why, where would you be, O man?" The khangee,
+who had intended to have had it all his own way, was taken terribly
+aback at the sound of the Turkish tongue: he speedily put on my horse's
+bridle, gave his nosebag to the muleteer, tightened up his girths,
+helped the servants, and was suddenly converted into a humble submissive
+drudge. The way in which anything Turkish is respected among the
+conquered races in Syria or in Egypt can scarcely be imagined by those
+who have not witnessed it.
+
+Leaving the khangee to count his paras and piastres, with which, after
+all, he was evidently well satisfied, we rode on down the valley by the
+side of a brawling stream, which we crossed no less than thirty-nine
+times during our day's journey. Our road lay through a magnificent
+series of picturesque and savage gorges, between high rocks. Sometimes
+we rode along the bed of the stream, and sometimes upon a ledge so far
+above it that it looked like a silver ribbon in the sun. Every now and
+then we came to a cataract or rapid, where the stream boiled and foamed
+among the rocks, tossing up its spray, and drowning our voices in its
+noise. In the course of about eight hours of continual scrambling up
+and down all sorts of rocks, we found ourselves at another wretched
+shelty dignified with the name of khan. Here, after a tolerable supper,
+we all rolled ourselves up in the different corners of a sort of loft,
+with our arms under our heads, and slept soundly until the morning.
+
+_November 7th._--This day we continued along the banks of a stream, in
+the direction of its source, until it dwindled to a mere rivulet, when
+we left it and took to the hills at the base of another mountain. We
+rode some way along a rocky path until, turning round a corner to the
+left, we found ourselves at the town or village of Mezzovo. As Mahmoud
+Pasha had supplied me with a firman and letters to the principal persons
+at the several towns on my route, I looked out my Mezzovo letter, with
+the intention of asking for an escort of a few soldiers to accompany me
+through the passes of Mount Pindus, which were reported to be full of
+robbers and cattiva gente of every sort and kind, the great extent of
+the underwood of box-trees forming an impenetrable cover for those
+minions of the moon.
+
+Most of the population of Mezzovo turned out to see the procession of
+the Milordos Inglesis as it entered the precincts of their ancient city,
+and defiled into the market-place, in the middle of which was a great
+tree, under whose shade sat and smoked a circle of grave and reverend
+seignors, the aristocracy of the place; whereupon, holding the pasha's
+letter in my hand, I cantered up to them. On seeing me advance towards
+them, a broad-shouldered good-natured looking man, gorgeously dressed in
+red velvet, embroidered all over with gold, though something tarnished
+with the rain and weather, arose and stepped forward to meet me. "Here
+is a letter," said I, "from his highness Mahmoud Pasha, vizir of Yanina,
+to the chief personage of Mezzovo, whoever he may be, for there is no
+name mentioned; so tell me who is the chief person in this city; where
+is he to be found, for I desire to speak with him?" "You want the chief
+person of Mezzovo?" replied the broad-shouldered man; "well, I think I
+am the chief person here, am I not?" he asked of the assembled crowd
+which had gathered together by this time. "Certainly, malista, oh yes,
+you are the chief person of Mezzovo undoubtedly," they all cried out.
+"Very well," said he, "then give me the letter." On my giving it to him,
+he opened it in a very unceremonious manner; and, before he had half
+read it, burst into a fit of laughing. "What are you laughing at?" said
+I: "Is not that the vizir's letter?" "Oh!" said he, "you want guards, do
+you, to protect you against the robbers, the klephti?" "Yes, I do; but I
+do not see what there is to laugh at in that. I want some men to go with
+me to Meteora; if you are the captain or commander here, give me an
+escort, as I wish to be off at once: it is early now, and I can cross
+the mountains before dark."
+
+After a pause, he said, "Well, I am the captain; and you shall have men
+who will protect you wherever you go. You are an Englishman, are you
+not?" "Yes," I said, "I am." "Well, I like the English; and you
+particularly." "Thank you," said I: and, after some more conversation,
+he tore off a slip from the vizir's letter (a very unceremonious
+proceeding in Albania), and, writing a few lines on it, he said, "Now
+give this paper to the first soldiers you meet at the foot of Mount
+Pindus, and all will be right." He then instructed the muleteer which
+way to go. I took the paper, which was not folded up; but the
+badly-written Romaic was unintelligible to me, so I put it into my
+pocket, and away we went, my new friend waving his hand to us as we
+passed out of the market-place; and we were soon trotting along through
+the open country towards the hills which shoot out from the base of the
+great chain of Mount Pindus, a mountain famous for having had Mount Ossa
+put on the top of it by some of the giants when they were fighting
+against Jupiter. As that respected deity got the better of the giants, I
+presume he put Ossa back again; for which I felt very much obliged to
+him, as Pindus seemed quite high enough and steep enough without any
+addition.
+
+We rode along, getting nearer and nearer to the mountains; and at
+length we began to climb a steep rocky path on the side of a lofty hill
+covered with box-trees. This path continued for some distance until we
+came to a place where there was a ledge so narrow that two horses could
+not go abreast. Here, as I was riding quietly along, I heard an
+exclamation in front of "Robbers! robbers!" and sure enough, out of one
+of the thickets of box-trees, there advanced three or four bright
+gun-barrels, which were speedily followed by some gentlemen in dirty
+white jackets and fustanellas; who, in a short and abrupt style of
+eloquence, commanded us to stand. This of course we were obliged to do;
+and as I was getting out my pistol, one of the individuals in white
+presented his gun at me, and upon my looking round to see whether my
+tall Albanian servant was preparing to support me, I saw him quietly
+half-cock his gun and sling it back over his shoulder, at the name time
+shaking his head as much as to say, "It is no use resisting; we are
+caught; there are too many of them." So I bolted the locks of the four
+barrels of my pistol carefully, hoping that the bolts would form an
+impediment to my being shot with my own weapon after I had been robbed
+of it. The place was so narrow that there were no hopes of running away,
+and there we sat on horseback, looking silly enough, I dare say. There
+was a good deal of talking and chattering among the robbers, and they
+asked the Albanian various questions to which I paid no attention, all
+my faculties being engrossed in watching the proceedings of the party
+in front, who were examining the effects in the panniers of the baggage
+mule. First they pulled out my bag of clothes, and threw it upon the
+ground; then out came the sugar and the coffee, and whatever else these
+was. Some of the men had hold of the poor muleteer, and a loud argument
+was going on between him and his captors. I did not like all this, but
+my rage was excited to a violent pitch when I saw one man appropriating
+to his own use the half of a certain fat tender cold fowl, whereof I had
+eaten the other half with much appetite and satisfaction. "Let that fowl
+alone, you scoundrel!" said I in good English; "put it down, will you?
+if you don't, I'll----!" The man, surprised at this address in an
+unknown tongue, put down the fowl, and looked up with wonder at the
+explosion of ire which his actions had called forth. "That is right,"
+said I, "my good fellow, it is too good for such a dirty brute as you."
+"Let us see," said I to the Albanian, "if there is nothing to be done;
+say I am the King of England's uncle, or grandson, or particular friend,
+and that if we are hurt or robbed he will send all manner of ships and
+armies, and hang everybody, and cut off the heads of all the rest. Talk
+big, O man! and don't spare great words; they cost nothing, and let us
+see what that will do."
+
+Upon this the Albanian took up his parable and a long parleying ensued,
+for the robbers were taken aback with the good English in which I had
+addressed them, and stood still with open mouths to hear what it all
+meant. In the middle of this row I thought of the paper which had been
+given me at Mezzovo. "Here," said I, "here is a letter; read it, see
+what it says." They took the paper and turned it round and round, for
+they could not read it: first one looked at it and then another; then
+they looked at the back, but they could make nothing of it. Nevertheless,
+it produced a great effect upon them, for here, as in all other
+countries of the East, any writing is looked upon by the uneducated
+people as a mystery, and is held in high respect; and at last they said
+they would take us to a place where we should find a person capable of
+reading it. The thing which most provoked me was that the fellows seemed
+not to have the slightest fear of us; they did not even take the trouble
+to demand our arms: my much cherished "patent four-barrelled travelling
+pistol" they evidently considered too small to be dangerous; and I felt
+it as a kind of personal insult that they deputed only two of their
+number to convoy us to the residence of the learned person who was to
+read the letter. They managed matters, however, in a scientific way: the
+bridles of our horses were turned over their heads and tied each to the
+horse that went before; one of our captors walked in front and the other
+behind; but just when I thought an opportunity had arrived to shake off
+this yoke, I perceived that the whole pass was guarded, and wherever the
+road was a little wider or turned a corner round a rock or a clump of
+trees, there were other long guns peeping out from among the bushes,
+with the bearers of which our two conquerors exchanged pass-words. Thus
+we marched along, the robber who went first apparently caring nothing
+about us, but the one in the rear having his gun cocked and ready to
+shoot any one of us who should turn restive. The road, which ascended
+rapidly, was rather too dangerous to be agreeable, being a narrow path
+cut on the side of a very steep mountain; at one time the track lay
+across a steep slope of blue marl, which afforded the most insecure
+footing for our horses: all mountain-travellers are aware how much more
+dangerous this kind of road is than a firm ledge of rock, however
+narrow.
+
+We had now got very high, and the ground was sprinkled with patches of
+ice and snow, which rendered the footing insecure; and frequently large
+masses of the road, disturbed by our passing over it, gave way beneath
+our feet, and set off bounding and crashing among the box trees until it
+was broken into powder on the rocks below.
+
+In process of time we got into a cloud which hid everything from us, and
+going still higher we got above the cloud into a region of broken crags
+and rocks and pine-trees, among which there was a large wooden house or
+shed. It seemed all roof, and was made of long spars of trees sloping
+towards each other, and was very high, long, and narrow. As we
+approached it several men made their appearance armed at all points, and
+took our horses from us. At the end of the shed there was a door through
+which we were conducted into the interior by our two guards, and placed
+all of a row, with our backs against the wall, on the right side of the
+entrance. Towards the other end of this sylvan guard-room there was a
+large fire on the ground, and a number of men sitting round it drinking
+aqua vitae out of coffee cups, and talking load and laughing. In the
+farthest corner I saw a pile of long bright-barrelled guns leaning
+against the wall, while on the other side of the fire there were some
+boards on the ground with a mat or carpet over them, whereon a worthy
+better dressed than the rest was lounging, apart from every one else and
+half asleep. To him the paper was given, and he leant forward to read it
+by the light of the blazing fire, for though it was bright sunshine out
+of doors, the room was quite dark. The captain was evidently a poor
+scholar, and he spelt and puzzled over every word. At last a thought
+struck him: shading his eyes with his hand from the glare of the fire he
+leant forward and peered into the darkness, where we were awaiting his
+commands. Not distinguishing us, however, he jumped up upon his feet and
+shouted out "Hallo! where are the gentlemen who brought this letter?
+What have you done with them?" At the sound of his voice the rest of the
+party jumped up also, being then first aware that something out of the
+common had taken place. Some of the palicari ran towards us and were
+going to seize us, when the captain came forward and in a civil tone
+said, "Oh, there you are! Welcome, gentlemen; we are very glad to
+receive you. Make yourselves at home; come near the fire and sit down."
+I took him at his word and sat down on the boards by the side of the
+fire, rubbing my hands and making myself as comfortable as possible
+under the circumstances. My two servants and the muleteer seeing what
+turn affairs had taken, became of a sudden as loquacious as they had
+been silent before, and in a short time we were all the greatest friends
+in the world.
+
+"So," said the captain, or whatever he was, "you are acquainted with our
+friend at Mezzovo. How did you leave him? I hope he was well?"
+
+"Oh, yes," I said; "we left him in excellent health. What a remarkably
+pleasing person he is! and how well he looks in his red velvet dress!"
+
+"Have you known him long?" he asked.
+
+"Why, not _very_ long," replied my Albanian; "but my master has the
+greatest respect for him, and so has he for my master."
+
+"He says you are to take some of our men with you wherever you like,"
+said our host.
+
+"Yes, I know," said the Albanian; "we settled that at Mezzovo, with my
+master's friend, his Excellency Mr. What's-his-name."
+
+"Well, how many will you take?"
+
+"Oh! five or six will do; that will be as many as we want. We are going
+to Meteora and then we shall return over the mountains back to Mezzovo,
+where I hope we shall have the pleasure of meeting your general again."
+
+Whilst we were talking and drinking coffee by the fire, a prodigious
+bustling and chattering was going on among the rest of the party, and
+before long five slim, active, dirty-looking young rogues, in white
+dresses, with long black hair hanging down their backs, and each with a
+long thin gun, announced that they were ready to accompany us whenever
+we were ready to start. As we had nothing to keep us in the dark, smoky
+hovel, we were soon ready to go; and glad indeed was I to be out again
+in the open air among the high trees, without the immediate prospect of
+being hanged upon one of them. My party jumped with great alacrity and
+glee upon their miserable mules and horses; all our belongings,
+including the half of the cold fowl, were _in statu quo_; and off we
+set--our new friends accompanied us on foot. And so delighted was our
+Caliban of a muleteer at what we all considered a fortunate escape, that
+he lifted up his voice and gave vent to his feelings in a song. The
+grand gentleman in red velvet to whom I had presented the Pasha's letter
+at Mezzovo, was, it seems, himself the captain of the thieves--the very
+man against whom the Pasha wished to afford us his protection; and he,
+feeling amused probably at the manner in which we had fallen unawares
+into his clutches, and being a good-natured fellow (and he certainly
+looked such), gave us a note to the officer next in command, ordering
+him to protect us as his friends, and to provide us with an escort. When
+I say that he of the red velvet was captain of the thieves, it is to be
+understood, that although his followers did not excel in honesty, as
+they proceeded to plunder us the moment they had entrapped us in the
+valley of the box-trees, yet he should more properly be called a
+guerilla chief in rebellion for the time being against the authorities
+of the Turkish government, and I being a young Englishman, he
+good-naturedly gave me his assistance, without which, as I afterwards
+found, it would have been impossible for me to have travelled with
+safety through any one of the mountain passes of the Pindus. I was told
+that this chief, whose name I unfortunately omitted to note down,
+commanded a large body of men before the city of Berat, and certainly
+all the ragamuffins whom I met on my way to and from the monasteries of
+Meteora acknowledged his authority. I heard that soon afterwards he
+returned to his allegiance under Mahmoud Pasha, for it appears that the
+outbreak, during which I had inadvertently started for a tour in
+Albania, did not last long.
+
+Late in the evening we arrived at a small khan something like an
+out-building to a farmhouse in England; this was the khan of Malacash:
+it was prettily situated on the banks of the river Peneus, and
+contained, besides the stable, two rooms, one of which opened upon a
+kind of verandah or covered terrace. My two servants and I slept on the
+floor in this room, and the four robbers or guards (as in common
+civility I ought to term them) in the ante-chamber. I gave them as good
+a supper as I could, and we became excellent friends. It was almost dark
+when we arrived at this place, but the next morning when the glorious
+sun arose I was charmed with the beautiful scenery around us. On both
+sides banks of stately trees rose above the margin of a rippling stream,
+and the valley grew wider and wider as we rode on, the stream increasing
+by the addition of many little rills, and the trees retiring from it,
+affording us views of grassy plains and romantic dells, first on one
+side and then on the other. The scenery was most lovely, and in the
+distance was the towering summit of the great Mount Olympus, famous
+nowadays for the Greek monasteries which are built upon its sides, and
+near whose base runs the valley of Tempe, of which we are expressly told
+in the Latin Grammar that it is a pleasant vale in Thessaly; and if it
+is more beautiful than the valley of the Peneus, it must be a very
+pleasant vale indeed.
+
+I was struck with the original manner in which our mountain friends
+progressed through the country; sometimes they kept with us, but more
+usually some of them went on one side of the road and some on the other,
+like men beating for game, only that they made no noise; and on the rare
+occasions when we met any traveller trudging along the road or ambling
+on a long-eared mule, they were always among the bushes or on the tops
+of the rocks, and never showed themselves upon the road. But despite all
+these vagaries they were always close to us. They were wonderfully
+active, for although I trotted or galloped whenever the nature of the
+road rendered it practicable, they always kept up with me, and
+apparently without exertion or fatigue; and although they were often out
+of my sight, I believe I was never out of theirs. Altogether I was glad
+that we were such friends, for, from what I saw of them, they and their
+associates would have proved very awkward enemies. They were curious
+wild animals, as slim and as active as cats: their waists were not much
+more than a foot and a half in circumference, and they appeared to be
+able to jump over anything; and the thin mocassins of raw hide which
+they wore enabled them to run or walk without making the slightest
+noise. In fact, they were agreeable, honest rogues enough, and we got on
+amazingly well together. I had a way of singing as I rode along for my
+own particular edification, and from mere joyousness of heart, for the
+beautiful scenery, and the fine fresh air, and the bright stream
+delighted me, so I sung away at a great rate; and my horse sometimes put
+back one of his ears to listen, which I took as a personal compliment:
+but my robbers did not like this singing.
+
+"Why," they said to the Albanian, "does the Frank sing?"
+
+"It is a way he has," was the reply.
+
+"Well," they said, "this is a wild country; there is no use in courting
+attention--he had better not sing."
+
+Nevertheless I would not leave off for all that. _Cantabit vacuus coram
+latrone viator_; so I went on singing rather louder than before,
+particularly as I was convinced that my horse had an ear for music; and
+in this way, after travelling for seven hours, we came within sight of
+the extraordinary rocks of Meteora.
+
+Just at this time we observed among the trees before us a long string of
+travellers who appeared to be convoying a train of baggage horses. On
+seeing us they stopped, and closed their files; and as my thieves had
+bolted, as usual, into the bushes some time before, my party consisted
+only of four persons and five horses. As we approached the other party,
+a tall, well-armed man, with a rifle across his arm, rode forwards and
+hailed us, asking who we were. We said we were travellers.
+
+"And who were those who left you just now?" said he.
+
+"They are some of our party who have turned off by a short cut to go to
+Meteora," replied my Albanian.
+
+"What! a short cut on both sides of the road! how is that? I suspect you
+are not simple travellers."
+
+"Well," he replied, "we do not wish to molest you. Go on your way in
+peace, and let us pass quietly, for you are by far the larger party."
+
+"Yes," said the man, "but how many have you in the bushes? What are they
+about there?"
+
+"I don't know what they are about," said he, "but they will not molest
+you [one of them was peeping over a bush at the back of the party all
+the while, but they did not see him]; and we, I assure you, are
+peaceable travellers like yourselves."
+
+Our new acquaintance did not seem at all satisfied, and he and all his
+party drew up along the path as we passed them, with evident misgivings
+as to our purpose; and soon afterwards, looking back, we saw them
+keeping close together and trotting along as fast as their loaded horses
+would go, some of them looking round at us every now and then till we
+lost sight of them among the trees.
+
+The proverb says--you shall know a man by his friends, and my character
+had evidently suffered from the appearance of the company I kept, for
+the merchants held me as little better than a rogue; there was, however,
+no time for explanations, and it was with feelings of indignant virtue
+that I left the forest, and after crossing the river Peneus at a ford,
+my merry men and I continued our journey along the grassy plain of
+Meteora.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+
+     Meteora--The extraordinary Character of its Scenery--Its Caves
+     formerly the Resort of Ascetics--Barbarous Persecution of the
+     Hermits--Their extraordinary Religious Observances--Singular
+     Position of the Monasteries--The Monastery of Barlaam--The
+     difficulty of reaching it--Ascent by a Windlass and Net, or by
+     Ladders--Narrow Escape--Hospitable Reception by the Monks--The
+     Agoumenos, or Abbot--His strict Fast--Description of the
+     Monastery--The Church--Symbolism in the Greek Church--Respect for
+     Antiquity--The Library--Determination of the Abbot not to sell any
+     of the MSS.--The Refectory--Its Decorations--Aerial Descent--The
+     Monastery of Hagios Stephanos--Its Carved Iconostasis--Beautiful
+     View from the Monastery--Monastery of Agia Triada--Summary Justice
+     at Triada--Monastery of Agia Roserea--Its Lady Occupants--Admission
+     refused.
+
+
+The scenery of Meteora is of a very singular kind. The end of a range of
+rocky hills seems to have been broken off by some earthquake or washed
+away by the Deluge, leaving only a series of twenty or thirty tall,
+thin, smooth, needle-like rocks, many hundred feet in height; some like
+gigantic tusks, some shaped like sugar-loaves, and some like vast
+stalagmites. These rocks surround a beautiful grassy plain, on three
+sides of which there grow groups of detached trees, like those in an
+English park. Some of the rocks shoot up quite clean and perpendicularly
+from the smooth green grass; some are in clusters; some stand alone
+like obelisks: nothing can be more strange and wonderful than this
+romantic region, which is unlike anything I have ever seen either before
+or since. In Switzerland, Saxony, the Tyrol, or any other mountainous
+region where I have been, there is nothing at all to be compared to
+these extraordinary peaks.
+
+At the foot of many of the rocks which surround this beautiful grassy
+amphitheatre, there are numerous caves and holes, some of which appear
+to be natural, but most of them are artificial; for in the dark and wild
+ages of monastic fanaticism whole flocks of hermits roosted in these
+pigeon-holes. Some of these caves are so high up the rocks that one
+wonders how the poor old gentlemen could ever get up to them; whilst
+others are below the surface; and the anchorites who burrowed in them,
+like rabbits, frequently afforded excellent sport to parties of roving
+Saracens; indeed, hermit-hunting seems to have been a fashionable
+amusement previous to the twelfth century. In early Greek frescos, and
+in small, stiff pictures with gold backgrounds, we see many frightful
+representations of men on horseback in Roman armour, with long spears,
+who are torturing and slaying Christian devotees. In these pictures the
+monks and hermits are represented in gowns made of a kind of coarse
+matting, and they have long beards, and some of them are covered with
+hair; these I take it were the ones most to be admired, as in the Greek
+church sanctity is always in the inverse ratio of beauty. All Greek
+saints are painfully ugly, but the hermits are much uglier, dirtier, and
+older than the rest; they must have been very fusty people besides,
+eating roots, and living in holes like rats and mice. It is difficult to
+understand by what process of reasoning they could have persuaded
+themselves that, by living in this useless, inactive way, they were
+leading holy lives. They wore out the rocks with their knees in prayer;
+the cliffs resounded with their groans; sometimes they banged their
+breasts with a big stone, for a change; and some wore chains and iron
+girdles round their emaciated forms; but they did nothing whatever to
+benefit their kind. Still there is something grand in the strength and
+constancy of their faith. They left their homes and riches and the
+pleasures of this world, to retire to these dens and caves of the earth,
+to be subjected to cold and hunger, pain and death, that they might do
+honour to their God, after their own fashion, and trusting that, by
+mortifying the body in this world, they should gain happiness for the
+soul in the world to come; and therefore peace be with their memory!
+
+On the tops of these rocks in different directions there remain seven
+monasteries out of twenty-four which once crowned their airy heights.
+How anything except a bird was to arrive at one which we saw in the
+distance on a pinnacle of rock was more than we could divine; but the
+mystery was soon solved. Winding our way upwards, among a labyrinth of
+smaller rocks and cliffs, by a romantic path which, afforded us from
+time to time beautiful views of the green vale below us, we at length
+found ourselves on an elevated platform of rock, which I may compare to
+the flat roof of a church; while the monastery of Barlaam stood
+perpendicularly, above us, on the top of a much higher rock, like the
+tower of this church. Here we fired off a gun, which was intended to
+answer the same purpose as knocking at the door in more civilized
+places; and we all strained our necks in looking up at the monastery to
+see whether any answer would be made to our call. Presently we were
+hailed by some one in the sky, whose voice came down to us like the cry
+of a bird; and we saw the face and grey beard of an old monk some
+hundred feet above us peering out of a kind of window or door. He asked
+us who we were, and what we wanted, and so forth; to which we replied,
+that we were travellers, harmless people, who wished to be admitted into
+the monastery to stay the night; that we had come all the way from Corfu
+to see the wonders of Meteora, and, as it was now getting late, we
+appealed to his feelings of hospitality and Christian benevolence.
+
+"Who are those with you?" said he.
+
+"Oh! most respectable people," we answered; "gentlemen of our
+acquaintance, who have come with us across the mountains from Mezzovo."
+
+The appearance of our escort did not please the monk, and we feared that
+he would not admit us into the monastery; but at length he let down a
+thin cord, to which I attached a letter of introduction which I had
+brought from Corfu; and after some delay a much larger rope was seen
+descending with a hook at the end to which a strong net was attached. On
+its reaching the rock on which we stood the net was spread open: my two
+servants sat down upon it; and the four corners being attached to the
+hook, a signal was made, and they began slowly ascending into the air,
+twisting round and round like a leg of mutton hanging to a bottle-jack.
+The rope was old and mended, and the height from the ground to the door
+above was, we afterwards learned, 37 fathoms, or 222 feet. When they
+reached the top I saw two stout monks reach their arms out of the door
+and pull in the two servants by main force, as there was no contrivance
+like a turning-crane for bringing them nearer to the landing-place. The
+whole process appeared so dangerous, that I determined to go up by
+climbing a series of ladders which were suspended by large wooden pegs
+on the face of the precipice, and which reached the top of the rock in
+another direction, round a corner to the right. The lowest ladder was
+approached by a pathway leading to a rickety wooden platform which
+overhung a deep gorge. From this point the ladders hung perpendicularly
+upon the bare rock, and I climbed up three or four of them very soon;
+but coming to one, the lower end of which had swung away from the top of
+the one below, I had some difficulty in stretching across from the one
+to the other; and here unluckily I looked down, and found that I had
+turned a sort of angle in the precipice, and that I was not over the
+rocky platform where I had left the horses, but that the precipice went
+sheer down to so tremendous a depth, that my head turned when I surveyed
+the distant valley over which I was hanging in the air like a fly on a
+wall. The monks in the monastery saw me hesitate, and called out to me
+to take courage and hold on; and, making an effort, I overcame my
+dizziness, and clambered up to a small iron door, through which I crept
+into a court of the monastery, where I was welcomed by the monks and the
+two servants who had been hauled up by the rope. The rest of my party
+were not admitted; but they bivouacked at the foot of the rocks in a
+sheltered place, and were perfectly contented with the coffee and
+provisions which we lowered down to them.
+
+My servants, in high glee at having been hoisted up safe and sound, were
+busy in arranging my baggage in the room which had been allotted to us,
+and in making it comfortable: one went to get ready some warm water for
+a bath, or at any rate for a good splash in the largest tub that could
+be found; the other made me a snug corner on the divan, and covered it
+with a piece of silk, and spread my carpet before it; he put my books in
+a little heap, got ready the things for tea, and hung my arms and cloak,
+and everything he could lay his hands on, upon the pegs projecting from
+the wall under the shelf which was fixed all round the room. My European
+clothes were soon pitched into the most ignominious corner of the divan,
+and I speedily arrayed myself in the long, loose robes of Egypt, so much
+more comfortable and easy than the tight cases in which we cramp up our
+limbs. In short, I forthwith made myself at home, and took a stroll
+among the courts and gardens of the monastery while dinner or supper,
+whichever it might be called, was getting ready. I soon stumbled upon
+the Agoumenos (the lord abbot) of this aerial monastery, and we prowled
+about together, peeping into rooms, visiting the church, and poking
+about until it began to get dark; and then I asked him to dinner in his
+own room; but he could eat no meat, so I ate the more myself, and he
+made up for it by other savoury messes, cooked partly by my servants and
+partly by the monks. He was an oldish man. He did not dislike sherry,
+though he preferred rosoglio, of which I always carried a few bottles
+with me in my monastic excursions.
+
+The abbot and I, and another holy father, fraternised, and slapped each
+other on the back, and had another glass or two, or rather cup, for
+coffee-cups of thin, old porcelain, called fingians, served us for
+wine-glasses. Then we had some tea, and they filled up their cups with
+sugar, and ate seaman's biscuits, and little cakes from Yanina, and
+rahatlokoom, and jelly of dried-grape juice, till it was time to go to
+bed; when the two venerable monks gave me their blessing and stumbled
+out of the room; and in a marvellously short space of time I was sound
+asleep.
+
+_November 9th._--The monastery of Barlaam stands on the summit of an
+isolated rock, on a flat or nearly flat space of perhaps an acre and a
+half, of which about one-half is occupied by the church and a smaller
+chapel, the refectory, the kitchen, the tower of the windlass, where you
+are pulled up, and a number of separate buildings containing offices and
+the habitations of the monks, of whom there were at this time only
+fourteen. These various structures surround one tolerably large,
+irregularly-shaped court, the chief part of which is paved; and there
+are several other small open spaces. All Greek monasteries are built in
+this irregular way, and the confused mass of disjointed edifices is
+usually encircled by a high bare wall; but in this monastery there is no
+such enclosing wall, as its position effectually prevents the approach
+of an enemy. On a portion of the flat space which is not occupied by
+buildings they have a small garden, but it is not cultivated, and there
+is nothing like a parapet-wall in any direction to prevent your falling
+over. The place wears an aspect of poverty and neglect; its best days
+have long gone by; for here, as everywhere else, the spirit of
+asceticism is on the wane.
+
+[Illustration: diagram of church with four columns]
+
+The church has a porch before the door, [Greek: narthex], supported by
+marble columns, the interior wall of which on each side of the door is
+painted with representations of the Last Judgment, and the tortures of
+the condemned, with a liberal allowance of flames and devils. These
+pictures of the torments of the wicked are always placed outside the
+body of the church, as typical of the unhappy state of those who are out
+of its pale: they are never seen within. The interior of this curious
+old church, which is dedicated to All Saints, has depicted on its walls
+on all sides portraits of a great many holy personages, in the stiff,
+conventional, early style. It has four columns within which support the
+dome; and the altar or holy table, [Greek: agia trapeza], is separated
+from the nave by a wooden screen, called the iconostasis, on which are
+paintings of the Blessed Virgin, the Redeemer, and many saints. These
+pictures are kissed by all who enter the church. The iconostasis has
+three doors in it; one in the centre, before the holy table, and one on
+each side. The centre one is only a half-door, like an old English
+buttery hatch, the upper part being screened with a curtain of rich
+stuff, which, except on certain occasions, is drawn aside, so as to
+afford a view of the book of the Gospels, in a rich binding, lying upon
+the holy table beyond. A Greek church has no sacristy; the vestures are
+usually kept in presses in this space behind the iconostasis, where none
+but the priests and the deacon, or servant who trims the lamps, are
+allowed to enter, and they pass in and out by the side doors. The centre
+door is only used in the celebration of the holy mass. This part of the
+church is the sanctuary, and is called, in Romaic, [Greek: agio],
+[Greek: Bemo], or [Greek: Themo]. It is typical of the holy of holies of
+the Temple, and the veil is represented by the curtain which divides it
+from the rest of the church. Everything is symbolical in the Eastern
+Church; and these symbols have been in use from the very earliest ages
+of Christianity. The four columns which support the dome represent the
+four Evangelists; and the dome itself is the symbol of heaven, to which
+access has been given to mankind by the glad tidings of the Gospels
+which they wrote. Part of the mosaic with which the whole interior of
+the dome was formerly covered in the cathedral of St. Sofia at
+Constantinople, is to be seen in the four angles below the dome, where
+the winged figures of the four evangelists still remain. Luckily for the
+Greek Church their sacred buildings are not under the authority of lay
+churchwardens--grocers in towns, and farmers in villages--who feel it
+their duty to whitewash over everything which is old and venerable, and
+curious, and to oppose the clergyman in order to show their
+independence.
+
+The Greek church, debased as it is by ignorance and superstition, has
+still the merit of carefully preserving and restoring all the memorials
+of its earlier and purer ages. If the fresco painting of a saint is
+rubbed out or damaged in the lapse of time, it is scrupulously
+repainted, exactly as it was before, even to the colour of the robe, the
+aspect of the countenance, and the minutest accessories of the
+composition. It is this systematic respect for everything which is old
+and venerable which renders the interior of the ancient Eastern churches
+so peculiarly interesting. They are the unchanged monuments of primaeval
+days. The Christians who suffered under the persecution of Dioclesian
+may have knelt before the very altar which we now see, and which was
+then exactly the same as we now behold it, without any additions or
+subtractions either in its form or use.
+
+To us Protestants one of the most interesting circumstances connected
+with these Eastern churches is, that the altar is not called the
+_altar_, but the _holy table_, as with us, and that the Communion is
+given before it in both kinds. Besides the principal church there is a
+smaller one, not far from it, which is painted in the same manner as the
+other. I unfortunately neglected to ascertain the dates of the
+foundation of these two edifices.
+
+The library contains about a thousand volumes, the far greater part of
+which are printed books, mostly Venetian editions of ecclesiastical
+works, but there are some fine copies of Aldine Greek classics. I did
+not count the number of the manuscripts; they are all books of divinity
+and the works of the fathers; there may be between one and two hundred
+of them. I found one folio Bulgarian manuscript which I could not read,
+and therefore was, of course, particularly anxious to purchase. As I saw
+it was not a copy of the Gospels, I thought it might possibly be
+historical: but the monks would not sell it. The only other manuscript
+of value was a copy of the Gospels, in quarto, containing several
+miniatures and illuminations of the eleventh century; but with this also
+they refused to part, so it remains for some more fortunate collector.
+It was of no use to the monks themselves, who cannot read either
+Hellenic or ancient Greek; but they consider the books in their library
+as sacred relics, and preserve them with a certain feeling of awe for
+their antiquity and incomprehensibility. Our only chance is when some
+worldly-minded Agoumenos happens to be at the head of the community, who
+may be inclined to exchange some of the unreadable old books for such a
+sum of gold or silver as will suffice for the repairs of one of their
+buildings, the replenishing of the cellar, or some other equally
+important purpose. At the time of my visit the march of intellect had
+not penetrated into the heights of the monastery of St. Barlaam, and
+the good old-fashioned Agoumenos was not to be overcome by any special
+pleading; so I told him at last that I respected his prejudices, and
+hoped he would follow the dictates of his conscience equally well in
+more important matters. The worthy old gentleman therefore pitched the
+two much-coveted books back into the dusty corner whence he had taken
+them, and where to a certainty they will repose undisturbed until some
+other bookworm traveller visits the monastery; and the sooner he comes
+the better, as mice and mildew are actively at work.
+
+In a room near the library some ancient relics are preserved in silver
+shrines or boxes, of Byzantine workmanship: they are, however, not of
+very great antiquity or interest; the shrines are only of sufficient
+size to contain two skulls and a few bones; the style and execution of
+the ornaments are also much inferior to many works of the same kind
+which are met with in ecclesiastical houses.
+
+The refectory is a separate building, with an apsis at the upper end, in
+which stands a marble table where the sacred bread used by the Greek
+church is usually placed, and where, I believe, the agoumenos or the
+bishop dines on great occasions. The walls of this room are also
+painted: not, however, with the representations of celebrated eaters,
+but with the likenesses of such thin, famished-looking saints that they
+seem most inappropriate as ornaments to a dining-room. The kitchen,
+which stands near the refectory, is a circular building of great
+antiquity, but the interior being pitch dark when I looked in, and there
+coming from the door a dusty cold smell, which did not savour of any
+dainty fare, I did not examine it.
+
+The monks and the abbot had now assembled in the room where the capstan
+stood. Ten or twelve of them arranged themselves in order at the bars,
+the net was spread upon the floor, and, having sat down upon it
+cross-legged, the four corners were gathered up over my head, and
+attached to the hook at the end of the rope. All being ready, the monks
+at the capstan took a few steps round, the effect of which was to lift
+me off the floor and to launch me out of the door right into the sky,
+with an impetus which kept me swinging backwards and forwards at a
+fearful rate; when the oscillation had in some measure ceased the abbot
+and another monk, leaning out of the door, steadied me with their hands,
+and I was let down slowly and gently to the ground.
+
+When I was disencumbered of the net by my friends the robbers below, I
+sat down on a stone, and waited while the rope brought down, first my
+servants, and then the baggage. All this being accomplished without
+accident, I sent the horses, baggage, and one servant to the great
+monastery of Meteora, where I proposed to sleep; and, with the other
+servant and the palicari, started on foot for a tour among the other
+monasteries.
+
+A delightful walk of an hour and a half brought us to the entrance of
+the monastery of Hagios Stephanos, to which we gained access by a wooden
+drawbridge. The rock on which this monastery stands is isolated on three
+sides, and on the fourth is separated from the mountain by a deep chasm
+which, at the point where the drawbridge is placed, is not more than
+twelve feet wide. The interior of this building resembles St. Barlaam,
+inasmuch as it consists of a confused mass of buildings, surrounding an
+irregularly-formed court, of which the principal feature is the church.
+The paintings in it are not so numerous as at St Barlaam, but the
+iconostasis, or screen before the altar, is most beautifully carved,
+something in the style of Grinlin Gibbons: the pictures upon it being
+surrounded with frames of light open work, consisting of foliage, birds,
+and flowers in alto rilievo, cut out of a light-coloured wood in the
+most delicate manner. I was told that the whole of this beautiful work
+had been executed in Russia, and put up here during the reign of Ali
+Pasha, who had the good policy to protect the Greeks, and by that means
+to ensure the co-operation of one half of the population of the country.
+
+In this monastery there were thirteen or fourteen monks and several
+women. On my inquiring for the library, one of the monks, after some
+demurring, opened a cupboard door; he then unfastened a second door at
+the back of it which led into a secret chamber, where the books of the
+monastery were kept. They were in number about one hundred and fifty;
+but I was disappointed at finding that although thus carefully concealed
+there was not a single volume amongst them remarkable for its antiquity
+or for any other cause: in fact, they were not worth the trouble of
+turning over. The view from this monastery is very fine: at the foot of
+the rock is the village of Kalabaki, to the east the citadel of Tricala
+stands above a wide level plain watered by the river which we had
+followed from its sources in Mount Pindus; beyond this a sea of distant
+blue hills extends to the foot of Mount Olympus, whose summit, clothed
+in perpetual snow, towers above all the other mountains. The whole of
+this region is inhabited by a race of a different origin from the real
+Albanians: they speak the Wallachian language, and are said to be
+extremely barbarous and ignorant. Observing that the village of Kalabaki
+presented a singularly black appearance, I inquired the cause: it had,
+they said, been recently burned and sacked by the klephti or robbers
+(some of my friends, perhaps), and the remnant of the inhabitants had
+taken refuge in the two monasteries of Hagios Nicholas and Agia Mone,
+which had been deserted by the monks some time before. The poor people
+in these two impregnable fastnesses were, they told me, so suspicious
+of strangers and in such a state of alarm, that there was no use in my
+visiting them, as to a certainty they would not admit me; and as it
+appeared that everything portable had been removed when the caloyeri
+(the monks) had departed from their impoverished homes, I gave up the
+idea.
+
+I then proceeded along a romantic path to the monastery of Agia Triada,
+and on the way my servants entertained me by an account of what the
+monks had told them of their admiration of the Pasha of Tricala, whom
+they considered as a perfect model of a governor; and that it would be a
+blessing for the country if all other pashas were like him, as then all
+the roving bands of robbers, who spread terror and desolation through
+the land, would be cleared away. There is, it seems, a high tower over
+the gate of the town of Tricala, and when the Pasha caught any people
+whom he thought worthy of the distinction, he had them taken up to the
+top of this tower and thrown from it against the city walls, which his
+provident care had furnished with numerous large iron hooks, projecting
+about the length of a man's arm, which caught the bodies of the culprits
+as they fell, and on which they hung on either side of the town gate,
+affording a pleasing and instructive spectacle to the people who came in
+to market of a morning.
+
+Agia Triada contains about ten or twelve monks, who pulled me up to the
+entrance of their monastery with a rope thirty-two fathoms long. This
+monastery, like the others, resembles a small village, of which the
+houses stand huddled round the little painted church. Here I found one
+hundred books, all very musty and very uninteresting. I saw no
+manuscripts whatever, nor was there anything worthy of observation in
+the habitation of the impoverished community. Having paid my respects to
+the grim effigies of the bearded saints upon the chapel walls, I was let
+down again by the rope, and walked on, still through most romantic
+scenery, to the monastery of Hagia Roserea.
+
+The rock upon which this monastery stands is about a hundred feet high;
+it is perfectly isolated, and quite smooth and perpendicular on all
+sides, and so small that there is only room enough for the various
+buildings, without leaving any space for a garden. In fact, the
+buildings, although far from large, cover the whole summit of the rock.
+When we had shouted and made as much noise as we could for some time, an
+old woman came out upon a sort of wooden balcony over our heads; another
+woman followed her, and they began to talk and scream at us both
+together, so that we could not understand what they said. At last, one
+of them screaming louder than the other, we found that the monks were
+all out, and that these two ladies being the only garrison of the place
+declined the honour of our visit, and would not let down the rope
+ladder, which was drawn half way up. We used all the arguments we could
+think of, and told the old gentlewomen that they were the most beautiful
+creatures in the world, but all to no purpose; they were not to be
+overcome by our soft speeches, and would not let down the ladder an
+inch. Finding there were no hopes of getting in, we told them they were
+the ugliest old wretches in the country, and that we would not come near
+them if they asked us upon their knees; upon which they screamed and
+chattered louder than ever, and we walked off in high indignation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+
+     The great Monastery of Meteora--The Church--Ugliness of the
+     Portraits of Greek Saints--Greek Mode of Washing the Hands--A
+     Monastic Supper--Morning View from the Monastery--The
+     Library--Beautiful MSS.--Their Purchase--The Kitchen--Discussion
+     among the Monks as to the Purchase Money for the MSS.--The MSS.
+     reclaimed--A last Look at their Beauties--Proposed Assault of the
+     Monastery by the Robber Escort.
+
+
+As the day was drawing to a close we turned our steps towards the great
+monastery of Meteora, where we arrived just before dark. The vast rock
+upon which it is built is separated from the end of a projecting line of
+mountains by a widish chasm, at the bottom of which we found ourselves,
+after scrambling up a path which wound among masses of rock and huge
+stones which at some remote period had fallen from above.
+
+Having reached the foot of the precipice under the monastery, we stopped
+in the middle of this dark chasm and fired a gun, as we had done at the
+monastery of Barlaam. Presently, after a careful reconnoitring from
+several long-bearded monks, a rope with a net at the end of it came
+slowly down to us, a distance of about twenty-five fathoms; and being
+bundled into the net, I was slowly drawn up into the monastery, where I
+was lugged in at the window by two of the strongest of the brethren, and
+after having been dragged along the floor and unpacked, I was presented
+to the admiring gaze of the whole reverend community, who were assembled
+round the capstan. This is by far the largest of the convents in this
+region; it is also in better order than the others, and is inhabited by
+a greater number of caloyers; I omitted to count their number, but there
+may have been about twenty: the monastery is, however, calculated to
+contain three times that number. The buildings both in their nature and
+arrangement are very similar to those of St. Barlaam, excepting that
+they are somewhat more extensive, and that there is a faint attempt at
+cultivating a garden which surrounded three sides of the monastery. Like
+all the other monasteries, it has no parapet wall.
+
+The church had a large open porch before it, where some of the caloyers
+sat and talked in the evening; it was painted in fresco of bright
+colours, with most edifying representations of the tortures and
+martyrdoms of little ugly saints, very hairy and very holy, and so like
+the old caloyers themselves, who were discoursing before them, that they
+might have been taken for their portraits. These Greek monks have a
+singular love for the devil, and for everything horrible and hideous. I
+never saw a picture of a well-looking Greek saint anywhere, and yet the
+earlier Greek artists in their conceptions of the personages of Holy
+Writ sometimes approached the sublime; and in the miniatures of some of
+the manuscripts written previous to the twelfth century, which I
+collected in the Levant, there are figures of surpassing dignity and
+solemnity: yet in Byzantine and Egyptian art that purity and angelic
+expression so much to be admired in the works of Beato Angelico,
+Giovanni Bellini, and other early Italian masters, are not to be found.
+The more exalted and refined feeling which prompted the execution of
+those sublime works seems never to have existed in the Greek church,
+which goes on century after century, even up to the present time, using
+the same conventional and stiff forms, so that to the unpractised eye
+there would be considerable difficulty in discovering the difference
+between a Greek picture of a saint of the ninth century from one of the
+nineteenth. The agoumenos, a young active man with a good deal of
+intelligence in his countenance, sent word that the hour of supper was
+at hand, previously, however, to which I went through the process of
+washing my hands in, or rather over a Turkish basin with a perforated
+cover and a little vase in the middle for the piece of fresh-smelling
+soap in common use, which is so very much better than ours in England
+that I wonder none has been as yet imported, a venerable monk all the
+while pouring the water over my hands from a vessel resembling an
+antique coffee-pot. I then dried my fingers on an embroidered towel, and
+sat down with the agoumenos and another officer of the monastery before
+a metal tray covered with various dainty dishes. We three sat upon
+cushions on the floor, and the tray stood upon a wooden stool turned
+upside down, according to the usual fashion of the country: no meat had
+entered into the composition of our feast, but it was very savoury
+nevertheless, and our fingers were soon in the midst of the most
+tempting dishes, knives and forks being considered as useless
+superfluities. When my right hand was anointed with any oleaginous
+mixture, which it was very frequently indeed, if I wanted to drink, a
+monk held a silver bowl to my lips and a napkin under my chin, as you
+serve babies; after which I began again, until with a sigh I was obliged
+to throw myself back from the tray, and holding my hands aloft, the
+perforated basin and the coffee-pot made their appearance again. A cup
+of piping hot coffee concluded the evening's entertainment, and I
+retired to another room--the guest chamber--which opened upon a narrow
+court hard by, where all my things had been arranged. A long, thin
+candle was placed on a small stool in the middle of the floor, and
+having winked at the long rays which darted out of it for some time, I
+rolled myself into a comfortable position in the corner, and was asleep
+before I had settled upon any optical theory to account for them; nor
+did the dull, monotonous sound of the mallet, which, struck on a
+suspended board, called the good brethren to midnight prayer, disturb
+me for more than a moment.
+
+_Nov. 10._--Just before the dawn of day I opened the shutters of the
+unglazed windows of my room and surveyed the scene before me; all still
+looked grey and cold, and it was only towards the east that the distant
+outline of the mountains showed clear and distinct against the dark sky.
+By degrees the clouds, which had slept upon the shoulders of the hills,
+rose slowly and heavily, whilst the valleys gradually assumed all their
+soft and radiant beauty. It seemed to me as if I should never tire of
+gazing at this view. In the course of time, however, breakfast appeared,
+and having rapidly despatched it, I went to look at the buildings and
+curiosities.
+
+The church resembles that of St. Barlaam, but is in better order; and
+the paintings are more brilliant in colour and are more profusely
+decorated with gold. There is a dome above the centre of the church, and
+the iconostasis or screen before the altar is ornamented with the usual
+stiff pictures and carving, but the latter is not to be compared to that
+in the monastery of St. Stephanos. There were some silver shrines
+containing relics, but they were not particularly interesting either as
+to workmanship or antiquity. The most interesting thing is a picture
+ascribed to St. Luke, which, whatever may be its real history, is
+evidently a very ancient and curious painting.
+
+The books are preserved in a range of low-vaulted and secret rooms, very
+well concealed in a sort of mezzanine: the entrance to them is through a
+door at the back of a cupboard in an outer chamber, in the same way as
+at St Stephanos. There are about two thousand volumes of very rubbishy
+appearance, not new enough for the monks to read or old enough for them
+to sell; in fact, they are almost valueless. I found, however, a few
+Aldines and Greek books of the sixteenth century, printed in Italy, some
+of which may be rather rare editions, but I saw none of the fifteenth
+century. I did not count the number of the manuscripts; there are,
+however, some hundreds of them, mostly on paper; but, excepting two,
+they were all liturgies and church books. These two were poems. One
+appeared to be on some religious subject, the other was partly
+historical and partly the poetical effusions of St. Athanasius of
+Meteora. I searched in vain for the manuscripts of Hesiod and Sophocles
+mentioned by Biornstern; some later antiquarian may, perhaps, have got
+possession of them and taken them to some country where they will be
+more appreciated than they were here. After looking over the books on
+the shelves, the librarian, an old grey-bearded monk, opened a great
+chest in which things belonging to the church were kept; and here I
+found ten or twelve manuscripts of the Gospels, all of the eleventh or
+twelfth century. They were upon vellum, and all, except one, were small
+quartos; but this one was a large quarto, and one of the most beautiful
+manuscripts of its kind I have met with anywhere. In many respects it
+resembled the Codex Ebnerianus in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. It was
+ornamented with miniatures of the same kind as those in that splendid
+volume, but they were more numerous and in a good style of art; it was,
+in fact, as richly ornamented as a Romish missal, and was in excellent
+preservation, except one miniature at the beginning, which had been
+partially smeared over by the wet finger of some ancient sloven. Another
+volume of the Gospels, in a very small, clear hand, bound in a kind of
+silver filagree of the same date as the book, also excited my
+admiration. Those who take an interest in literary antiquities of this
+class are aware of the great rarity of an ornamental binding in a
+Byzantine manuscript. This must doubtless have been the pocket volume of
+some royal personage. To my great joy the librarian allowed me to take
+these two books to the room of the agoumenos, who agreed to sell them to
+me for I forget how many pieces of gold, which I counted out to him
+immediately, and which he seemed to pocket with the sincerest
+satisfaction. Never was any one more welcome to his money, although I
+left myself but little to pay the expenses of my journey back to Corfu.
+Such books as these would be treasures in the finest national collection
+in Europe.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+We looked at the refectory, which also resembled that at Barlaam. The
+kitchen, however, merits a detailed description. This very ancient
+building, perched upon the extreme edge of the precipice, was square in
+its plan, with a steep roof of stone, the top of which was open. Within,
+upon a square platform of stone, there were four columns serving for the
+support of the roof, which was arched all round, except in the space
+between the tops of the columns, where it was open to the sky. This
+platform was the hearth, where the fire was lit, whilst smaller fires of
+charcoal might be lit all round against the wall, where there were stone
+dressers for the purpose, so that in fact the building was all chimney
+and fireplace; and when a great dinner was prepared on a feast-day the
+principal difficulty must have been to have prevented the cook from
+being roasted among the other meats. The whole of the arched roof was
+thickly covered with lumps of soot, the accumulations probably of
+centuries. The ancient kitchens at Glastonbury and at Stanton Harcourt
+are constructed a good deal upon the same plan, but this is probably a
+much earlier specimen of culinary architecture. The porch outside the
+church is larger than ordinary, and extends, if I remember rightly,
+along the side of that building which stands in the principal court, and
+is not, as is usually the case, attached to the end of the church, over
+the principal door.
+
+Having seen all that was worthy of observation, I was waiting in the
+court near the door leading to the place where the monks were assembled
+to lower me down to the earth again. Just as I was ready to start there
+arose a discussion among them as to the distribution of the money which
+I had paid for the two manuscripts. The agoumenos wanted to keep it all
+for himself, or at least for the expenses of the monastery; but the
+villain of a librarian swore he would have half. The agoumenos said he
+should not have a farthing, but as the librarian would not give way he
+offered him a part of the spoil; however, he did not offer him enough,
+and out of spite and revenge, or, as he protested, out of uprightness of
+principle, he told all the monks that the agoumenos had pocketed the
+money which he had received for their property, for that they all had a
+right to an equal share in these books, as in all the other things
+belonging to the community. The monks, even the most dunderheaded, were
+not slow in taking this view of the subject, and all broke out into a
+clamorous assertion of their rights, every man of them speaking at once.
+The price I had given was so large that every one of them would have
+received several pieces of gold each. But no, they said, it was not
+that, but for the principles of justice that they contended. They did
+not want the money, no more did the librarian, but they would not
+suffer their rules to be outraged or their rights to be trampled under
+foot. In the monasteries of St. Basil all the members of the society had
+equal rights--they ate in common, they prayed in common, everything was
+bought and sold for the benefit of the community at large. Tears fell
+from the eyes of some of the particularly virtuous monks; others stamped
+upon the ground, and showed a thoroughly rebellious spirit. As for me, I
+kept aloof, waiting to see what might be the result.
+
+The agoumenos, who was evidently a man of superior abilities, calmly
+endeavoured to explain. He told the unruly brethren exactly what the sum
+was for which he had sold the books, and said that the money was not for
+his own private use, but to be laid out for the benefit of all, in the
+same way as the ordinary revenues of the monastery, which, he added,
+would soon prove quite insufficient if so large a portion of them
+continued to be divided among the individual members. He told them that
+the monastery was poor and wanted money, and that this large sum would
+be most useful for certain necessary expenses. But although he used many
+unanswerable arguments, the old brute of a librarian had completely
+awakened the spirit of discord, and the ignorant monks were ready to be
+led into rebellion, by any one and for any reason or none. At last the
+contest waxed so warm that the sale of the two manuscripts was almost
+lost sight of, and every one began to quarrel with his neighbour, the
+entire community being split into various little angry groups,
+chattering, gesticulating, and wagging their long beards.
+
+After a while the agoumenos, calling my interpreter, said that as the
+monks would not agree to let him keep the money in the usual way for the
+use of the monastery, he could have nothing to do with it; and to my
+great sorrow I was therefore obliged to receive it back, and to give up
+the two beautiful manuscripts, which I had already looked upon as the
+chief ornaments of my library in England. The monks all looked sadly
+downcast at this unexpected termination of their noble defence of their
+principles, and my only consolation was to perceive that they were quite
+as much vexed as I was. In fact we felt that we had gained a loss all
+round, and the old librarian, after walking up and down once or twice
+with his hands behind his back in gloomy silence, retreated to a hole
+where he lived, near the library, and I saw no more of him.
+
+My bag was brought forward, and when the books were extracted from it, I
+sat down on a stone in the court yard, and for the last time turned over
+the gilded leaves and admired the ancient and splendid illuminations of
+the larger manuscript, the monks standing round me as I looked at the
+blue cypress-trees, and green and gold peacocks, and intricate
+arabesques, so characteristic of the best times of Byzantine art. Many
+of the pages bore a great resemblance to the painted windows of the
+earlier Norman cathedrals of Europe. It was a superb old book: I laid it
+down upon the stone beside me and placed the little volume with its
+curious silver binding on the top of it, and it was with a sigh that I
+left them there with the sun shining on the curious silver ornaments.
+
+Amongst other arguments it had been asserted by some of the monks that
+nothing could be sold out of the monastery without the leave of the
+Bishop of Tricala, and, as a forlorn hope, they now proposed that the
+agoumenos should go to some place in the vicinity where the bishop was
+said to be, and that, if he gave permission, the two books should be
+forwarded immediately by a trusty man to the khan of Malacash, where I
+was to pass the night. I consented to this plan, although I had no hope
+of obtaining the manuscripts, as in the present unsettled state of the
+country the bishop would naturally calculate on the probability of the
+messenger being robbed, and on the improbability of his meeting me at
+the khan, as it would be absolutely necessary for me to leave the place
+before sunrise the next day.
+
+All this being arranged I proceeded to the chamber of the windlass, was
+put into the net, swung out into the air, and let down. They let me down
+very badly, being all talking and scolding each other; and had I not
+made use of my hands and feet to keep myself clear of the projecting
+points of the rock I should have fared badly. To increase my perils, my
+friends the palicari at the bottom, to testify their joy at my
+re-appearance, rested their long guns across their knees and fired them
+off, without the slightest attention to the direction of the barrels,
+which were all loaded with ball-cartridge: the bullets spattered against
+the rock close to me, and in the midst of the smoke I came down and was
+caught in the arms of my affectionate thieves, who bundled me out of my
+net with many extraordinary screeches of welcome.
+
+When my servants arrived and informed them of our recent disappointment,
+"What!" cried they, "would they not let you take the books? Stop a bit,
+we will soon get them for you!" And away they ran to the series of
+ladders which hung down another part of the precipice: they would have
+been up in a minute, for they scrambled like cats; but by dint of
+running after them and shouting we at length got them to come back, and
+after some considerable expenditure of oaths and exclamations, kicking
+of horses, and loading of guns and saddle-bags, we found ourselves
+slowly winding our way back towards the valley of the Peneus.
+
+After all, what an interesting event it would have been, what a standard
+anecdote in bibliomaniac history, if I had let my friendly thieves have
+their own way, and we had stormed the monastery, broken open the secret
+door of the library, pitched the old librarian over the rocks, and
+marched off in triumph, with a gorgeous manuscript under each arm!
+Indeed I must say that under such aggravating circumstances it required
+a great exercise of forbearance not to do so, and in the good old times
+many a castle has been attacked and many a town besieged and pillaged
+for much slighter causes of offence than those which I had to complain
+of.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+
+     Return Journey--Narrow Escape--Consequences of Singing--Arrival at
+     the Khan of Malacash--Agreeable Anecdote--Parting from the Robbers
+     at Mezzovo--A Pilau--Wet Ride to Paramathia--Accident to the
+     Baggage-Mule--Its wonderful Escape--Novel Costume--A
+     Deputation--Return to Corfu.
+
+
+We made our way from the plain and rocks of Meteora by a different path
+from the one by which we had arrived, and travelled along the north side
+of the valley of the Peneus; we kept along the side of the hills, which
+were covered sometimes with forest and sometimes with a kind of jungle
+or underwood.
+
+During the afternoon of this day, as I was singing away as usual in
+advance of my party, some one shouted to me from the thicket, but I took
+no notice of it. However, before I had ridden on many steps a man jumped
+out of the bush, seized hold of my horse's bridle, and proceeded to draw
+his pistol from his belt, but luckily the lock had got entangled in the
+shawl which he wore round his waist. I pushed my horse against him, and
+in a moment one of us would have been shot; when the appearance of three
+or four bright gun-barrels in the bushes close by stopped our
+proceedings. My men now came running up.
+
+"Hallo!" said one of them. "Is that you? You must not attack this
+gentleman. He is our friend; he is one of us."
+
+"What!" said the man who had stopped me; "Is that you, Mahommed? Is that
+you, Hassan? What are you doing here? How is this? Is this your friend?
+I thought he was a Frank."
+
+In short, they explained what kind of brotherhood we had entered into,
+where we had been, and where we were going, and all about it. I did not
+understand much of their conversation, and in the midst of it the
+Albanian came up to me with a reproachful air and told me that they said
+my being stopped was owing to my singing, and making such a noise. "Why,
+Sir," he added, "can't you ride quietly, without letting people know
+where you are? Why can't you do as others do, and be still, like a--"
+
+"Thief," said I.
+
+"Yes, Sir; or like a quiet traveller. In such troublesome times as
+these, however honest a man may be, he need not try to excite
+attention."
+
+I felt that the advice was good, and practised it occasionally
+afterwards.
+
+In seven hours' time we arrived at the khan of Malacash, where I had
+slept before; and my carpet was spread in my old corner. I heard my
+companions talking earnestly about something, and on asking what it was,
+I was told that they could not make out which room it was where the
+people had been murdered--this room or the outer one.
+
+"How was that?" I inquired.
+
+Why, some time ago, they said, a party of travellers, people belonging
+to the country, were attacked by robbers at this khan. One of the party,
+after he had been plundered, had the imprudence to say that he knew who
+the thieves were. Upon this the gang, after a short consultation, took
+the party out, one by one, and cut all their throats in the next room;
+and this was before the present disturbed state of the country.
+Nevertheless, I slept very soundly, my only sorrow being that no tidings
+came of the two manuscripts from Meteora.
+
+_November 11th._--In our journey of this day we crossed the chain of the
+Pindus by a different pass from the one by which we had traversed it
+before; and in the evening we arrived at Mezzovo, where I was lodged by
+a schoolmaster who had a comfortable house. The ceiling of the room
+where we sat was hung all over with bunches of dried or rather drying
+grapes. Here I presented each of my escort with a small bundle of
+piasters. We had become so much pleased with each other in the few days
+we had been together, that we had quite an affecting parting. Their
+chief, the red velvet personage from whom I had received the letter
+which gained me the pleasure of their company, was gone, it appeared,
+towards Berat; but they had found some of their companions, with whom
+they intended to retire to some small place of defence, the name of
+which I did not make out, where in a few days they expected to be told
+what they were to do.
+
+"Why won't you come with us?" said they. "Don't go back to live in a
+confined, stupid town, to sit all day in a house, and look out of the
+window. Go back with us into the mountains, where we know every pass,
+every rock, and every waterfall: you should command us; we would get
+some more men together: we will go wherever you like, and a rare jolly
+life we will lead."
+
+"Gentlemen," said I, "I take your kind offers as highly complimentary to
+me; I am proud to think that I have gained so high a place in your
+estimation. When you see your captain, pray assure him of my friendship,
+and how much I feel indebted to him for having given me such gallant and
+faithful guards."
+
+The poor fellows were evidently sorry to leave me: one of them, the most
+active and gay of the whole party, seemed more than half inclined to
+cry; so, cordially shaking hands with them before the door of the
+schoolmaster of Mezzovo, we parted, with expressions of mutual goodwill.
+
+"Thank goodness they are gone!" said the little schoolmaster; "those
+palicari are all over the country now; some belong to one chief, some to
+another; some are for Mahmoud Pasha, and some against him; but I don't
+know which party is the worst; they are all rogues, every one of them,
+when they have an opportunity--scamps! sad scamps! These are hard times
+for quiet, peaceably-disposed people. So now, Sir, we will come in, and
+lock the door, and make up the fire, for the nights are getting cold."
+
+The schoolmaster had a snug fireplace, with a good divan on each side of
+it, of blue cloth or baize. These divans came close up to the hearth,
+which, like the divans, was raised two feet above the floor. The good
+man brought out his little stores of preserves and marmalade. He was an
+old bachelor, and we soon made ourselves very comfortable, one on each
+side of the fire. We had a famous pilau, made by my "_artist_," and the
+schoolmaster gave us raisins to put in it--not that they are a necessary
+part of that excellent condiment, but he had not much else to give; so
+we flavoured the pilau with raisins, as if it had been a lamb, which, by
+the by, is the prince of Oriental dishes, and, when stuffed with
+almonds, raisins, pistachio nuts, rice, bread-crumbs, pepper and salt,
+and well roasted, is a dish to set before a king.
+
+The schoolmaster, judging of me by the company I kept, never suspected
+my literary pursuits, and was surprised when I asked him if he knew of
+anything in that line, and assured him that I had no objection to do a
+little business in the manuscript way. He said he knew of an old
+merchant who had a great many books, and that to-morrow we would go and
+see them. Accordingly, the next day we went to see the merchant's house;
+but his collection was good for nothing; and after returning for an hour
+or two to the schoolmaster's hospitable mansion, we got into marching
+order, and defiled off the village green of Mezzovo.
+
+After fording the river thirty-nine times, as we had done before, our
+jaded steeds at last stood panting under the windows of the doctor at
+Yanina, whose comfortable house we had left only a few days before. I
+stayed at Yanina one day, but the Pasha could not see me to hear my
+account of the protection I had enjoyed from his firman. A messenger had
+arrived from Constantinople, and the report in the town was that the
+Pasha would lose his head or his pashalic if he did not put down the
+disturbances which had arisen in every part of his government. Some said
+he would escape by bribing the ministers of the Porte; but as I was no
+politician I did not trouble myself much on the subject His Highness,
+however, was good enough to send me word that he would give me any
+assistance that I needed. Accordingly, I asked for a teskere for
+post-horses; and the next day galloped in ten hours to Paramathia. All
+day long the rain poured down in torrents, and I waded through the bed
+of the swollen stream, which usually served for a high-road, I do not
+know how many times. I was told the distance was about sixty miles; and
+it was one of the hardest day's riding I ever accomplished; for there
+was nothing deserving the name of a road any part of the way; and the
+entire day was passed in tearing up and down the rocks or wading in the
+swollen stream. The rain and the cold compelled us and our horses to do
+our best: in a hot day we could never have accomplished it.
+
+Towards the afternoon, when we were, by computation, about twenty-five
+miles from Paramathia, as we were proceeding at a trot along a narrow
+ledge above a stream, the baggage-horse, or mule I think he was, whose
+halter was tied to the crupper of my horse, suddenly missed his footing,
+and fell over the precipice. He caught upon the edge with his fore-feet,
+the halter supported his head, and my horse immediately stopping, leant
+with all his might against the wall of rock which rose above us,
+squeezing my left leg between it and the saddle. The noise of the wind
+and rain, and the dashing of the torrent underneath, prevented my
+servants hearing my shouts for assistance. I was the last of the party;
+and I had the pleasure of seeing all my company trotting on, rising in
+their stirrups, and bumping along the road before me, unconscious of
+anything having occurred to check their progress towards the journey's
+end. It was so bad a day that no one thought of anything but getting on.
+Every man for himself was the order of the day. I could not dismount,
+because my left leg was squeezed so tightly against the rock, that I
+every moment expected the bone to snap. My horse's feet were projected
+towards the edge of the precipice, and in this way he supported the
+fallen mule, who endeavoured to retain his hold with his chin and his
+fore-legs. There we were--the mule's eyeballs almost starting out of his
+head, and all his muscles quivering with the exertion. At last something
+cracked: the staple in the back of my saddle gave way; off flew the
+crupper, and I thought at first my horse's tail was gone with it. The
+baggage-mule made one desperate scrambling effort, but it was of no use,
+and down he went, over and over among the crashing bushes far beneath,
+until at length he fell with a loud splash into the waters of the
+stream. Some of the people hearing the noise made by the falling mule,
+turned round and came back to see what was the matter; and, horse and
+men, we all craned our necks over the edge to see what had become of our
+companion. There he was in the river, with nothing but his head above
+the water. With some difficulty we made our way down to the edge of the
+torrent. The mule kept looking at us very quietly all the while till we
+got close to him, when the muleteer proceeded to assist him by banging
+him on the head with a great branch of a tree, upon which he took to
+struggling and scrambling, and at last, to the surprise of all, came out
+apparently unhurt, at least with no bones broken. The men looked him
+over, walked him about, gave him a kick or two by way of asking him how
+he was, and then placing his load upon him again, we pursued our
+journey.
+
+Before dark we arrived at Paramathia, and went straight to the house
+where we had been so hospitably received before. We crawled up like so
+many drowned rats into the upper rooms, where we were met by the whole
+troop of ladies giggling, screaming, and talking, as if they had never
+stopped since we left them a week before. When the baggage came to be
+undone, alas! what a wreck was there! The coffee and the sugar and the
+shirts had formed an amalgam; mud, shoes, and cambric handkerchiefs all
+came out together; not a thing was dry. The only consolation was that
+the beautiful illuminated manuscripts of Meteora had not participated in
+this dirty deluge.
+
+I was wet to the skin, and my boots were full of water. In this dilemma
+I asked if our hosts could not lend me something to put on until some of
+my own clothes could be dried. The ladies were full of pity and
+compassion; but unfortunately all the men were from home, not having
+returned from their daily occupations in the bazaar, and their clothes
+could not be got at. At last the good-humoured young bride, seeing that
+wherever I stood there was always, in a couple of minutes' time, a
+puddle upon the floor, entered into an animated consultation with the
+other ladies, and before long they brought me a shirt, and an immense
+garment it was, like an English surplice, embroidered in gay colours
+down the seams. The fair bride contributed the white capote, which I
+remembered on my former visit, and a girdle. I soon donned this
+extempore costume. My wet clothes were taken to a great fire, which was
+lit for the purpose in another room, and I proceeded to dry my hair with
+a long narrow towel, its ends heavy with gold embroidery, which one of
+the ladies warmed far me, and twisted round my head in the way usual in
+the Turkish bath--a method of drying the head well known in most eastern
+towns, and which saves a great deal of trouble and exertion in rubbing
+and brushing according to the European method.
+
+I had ensconced myself in the corner of the divan, having nothing else
+in the way of clothes beyond what I have mentioned, and was employed in
+looking at one of my feet, which I had stuck out for the purpose,
+admiring it in all its pristine beauty, for there were no spare slippers
+to be had, when the curtain was suddenly lifted from over the door, and
+my servant rushed in and told me with a troubled voice, that the
+authorities of Paramathia, grieved at their remissness on the former
+occasion, had presented themselves to compliment me on my arrival in
+their town, and had brought me a present of tobacco or something, I
+forget what, in testimony of their anxiety to show their good-will and
+respect to so distinguished a personage as myself. "Don't let them in!"
+I exclaimed. "Tell them I will receive them to-morrow. Say anything,
+but only keep them out." But this was more than my servants could
+accomplish. My friends at Corfu had sent letters explaining the
+prodigious honour conferred upon the whole province of Albania by my
+presence, so that nothing could stop them, and in walked a file of grave
+elders in long gowns, one or two in stately fur pelisses, which I envied
+them very much. They took very little notice of me, as I sat screwed up
+in the corner, and all, ranging themselves upon the divan on the
+opposite side of the room, sat in solemn silence, looking at me out of
+the corners of their eyes, whenever they thought they could do so
+without my perceiving it.
+
+My servant stood in the middle of the room to interpret; and after he
+had remained there a prodigious while, as it seemed to me, the most
+venerable of the old gentlemen at last said, "I am Signor Dimitri
+So-and-so; this is Signor Anastasi So-and-so; this gentleman is uncle to
+the master of the house; and so on. We are come to pay our respects to
+the noble and illustrious Englishman who passed through this place
+before. Pray have the goodness to signify our arrival to his Excellency,
+and say that we are waiting here to have the honour of offering him our
+services. Where is the respected milordos?" Although I could not speak
+Romaic, yet I understood it sufficiently to know what the old gentleman
+was saying; and great was their surprise and admiration when they found
+that the unhappy and very insufficiently-clothed little fellow in the
+corner was the illustrious milordos himself. The said milordos had now
+to explain how all his baggage had been upset over a precipice, and that
+he was not exactly prepared to receive so distinguished a party. After
+mutual apologies, which ended in a good laugh all round, pipes and
+coffee were brought in. The visit of ceremony was concluded in as
+dignified a manner as circumstances would permit; and they went away
+convinced that I must be a very great man in my own country, as I did
+not get up more than a few inches to salute them, either on their entry
+or departure--a most undue assumption of dignity on my part which I
+sincerely regretted, but which the state of my costume rendered
+absolutely necessary.
+
+_November 15th._--The morning of the following day was bright and clear.
+I procured fresh horses, and galloped in six hours to the sea at
+Gominiza. A small vessel was riding at anchor near the shore, whose
+captain immediately closed with the offer of four dollars to carry me
+over to Corfu. I was soon on board; and, creeping into a small
+three-cornered hole under the half-deck, to which I gained access by a
+hatchway about a foot and a half square, I rolled myself up upon some
+ropes, and fell asleep at once. It seemed as if I had not been asleep an
+instant, when my servant, putting his head into the square aperture
+above, said, "Signore siamo qui." "Yes," said I, "but where is that?
+What! are we really at Corfu?" I popped my head out of the trap, and
+there we were sure enough--my fatigue of the day before having made me
+sleep so soundly that I had been perfectly unconscious of the duration
+of the voyage; and I landed on the quay congratulating myself on having
+accomplished the most dangerous and most rapid expedition that it ever
+was my fortune to undertake.
+
+
+
+
+MONASTERIES OF THE LEVANT.
+
+PART IV.
+
+THE MONASTERIES OF MOUNT ATHOS.
+
+[Illustration: THE NORTH WEST SIDE OF THE PROMONTORY OF MOUNT ATHOS,
+WITH A VIEW OF THE THE MONASTERY OF PANTOCRATORAS]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+
+     Constantinople--The Patriarch's Palace--The Plague, Anecdotes,
+     Superstitions--The Two Jews--Interview with the
+     Patriarch--Ceremonies of Reception--The Patriarch's Misconception
+     as to the Archbishop of Canterbury--He addresses a Firman to the
+     Monks of Mount Athos--Preparations for Departure--The Ugly Greek
+     Interpreter--Mode of securing his Fidelity.
+
+
+I had been for some time enjoying the hospitality of Lord and Lady
+Ponsonby at the British palace at Therapia, when I determined to put
+into execution a project I had long entertained of examining the
+libraries in the monasteries of Mount Athos. As no traveller had been
+there since the days of Dr. Clarke, I could obtain but little
+information about the place before I left England. But the Archbishop of
+Canterbury was kind enough to give me a letter to the Patriarch of
+Constantinople, in which he requested him to furnish me with any
+facilities in his power in my researches among the Greek monasteries
+which owned his sway.
+
+Armed with this valuable document, one day in the spring of the year
+1837 I started in a caique with some gentlemen of the embassy, and
+proceeded to the palace of the Patriarch in the Fanar--a part of
+Constantinople situated between the ancient city wall and the port so
+well known by its name of the Golden Horn. The Fanar does not derive its
+appellation from the word fanar, a lantern or lighthouse, but from the
+two words _fena yer_, a bad place; for it is in a low, dirty situation,
+where only the conquered Greeks were permitted to reside immediately
+after the conquest of their metropolis by the Sultan Mahommed II. The
+palace is a large, dilapidated, shabby-looking building, chiefly of wood
+painted black; it stands in an open court or yard on a steep slope, and
+looks out over some lower houses to the Golden Horn and the hills of
+Pera and Galata beyond.[12]
+
+After waiting a little while in a large, dirty ante-room, during which
+time there was a scuffling and running up and down of priests and
+deacons, who were surprised and perhaps a little alarmed at a visit
+from so numerous a company of gentlemen belonging to the British
+embassy, we were introduced into a large square room furnished with a
+divan under the windows and down two sides of the chamber. This divan
+was covered with a rough sacking of grey goats' hair--a stuff which is
+said not to be susceptible of the plague; and people sitting on it, or
+on the bare boards, are not considered to be "_compromised_"--a word of
+fearful import when that awful pestilence is raging in this neglected
+city. When any person is compromised, he is obliged to separate from all
+society, and to place himself in strict quarantine for forty days, at
+the end of which period, if the fright and anxiety have not brought on
+the plague, he is received again by his acquaintances. Dealers in oil,
+and persons who have an open issue on their bodies, are considered
+secure from the plague as far as they themselves are concerned; but as
+their clothes will convey the infection, they are as dangerous as others
+to their neighbours.
+
+There was an old Armenian, who, whether he considered himself
+invulnerable, or whether poverty and misfortune made him reckless, I do
+not know; but he set up as a plague-doctor, and visited and touched
+those who were stricken with the pestilence. Whenever he came down the
+street, every one would start aside and give him three or four yards'
+space at least. Sometimes he had men who walked before him and cried to
+the people to get out of the way. As the old man moved on in his long,
+dark robes, shunned with such horror by all, the mind was awfully
+impressed with the fearful nature of the disease; for if the Prince of
+Darkness himself had made his appearance in the face of day, no one
+could have shown greater alarm at his approach than they did when the
+men cried out that the Armenian plague-doctor was coming down the
+street.
+
+One peculiarity of the disease is the disinclination which is always
+shown by those who are plague-stricken to confess that they are so, or
+even to own that they are ill. They invariably conceal it as long as
+possible; and even when burning with fever and in an agony of pain, they
+will pretend that they are well, and try to walk about. But this attempt
+at deception continues for a very short period, for they soon become
+either delirious or insensible, and generally are unable to move. There
+is a look about the eye and an expression of anxiety and horror in the
+face of one who has got the plague which is not to be mistaken nor
+forgotten by those who have once seen them. One day at Galata I nearly
+ran against a man who was sitting on the ground on a hand-bier, upon
+which some Turks were about to carry him away; and the look of the
+unfortunate man's face haunted me for days. The expression of hopeless
+despair and agony was indeed but too applicable to his case; they were
+going to carry him to the plague hospital, from whence I never heard of
+any one returning. It would have been far more merciful to have shot him
+at once.
+
+There are many curious superstitions and circumstances connected with
+the plague. One is, that when the destroying angel enters into a house
+the dogs of the quarter assemble in the night and howl before the door;
+and the Greeks firmly believe that the dogs can see the evil spirit of
+the plague, although it is invisible to human eyes. Some people,
+however, are said to have seen the plague, its appearance being that of
+an old woman, tall, thin, and ghastly, and dressed sometimes in black,
+sometimes in white: she stalks along the streets--glides through the
+doors of the habitations of the condemned--and walks once round the room
+of her victim, who is from that moment death-smitten. It is also
+asserted that, when three small spots make their appearance upon the
+knee, the patient is doomed--he has got the plague, and his fate is
+sealed. They are called the pilotti--the pilots and harbingers of death.
+Some, however, have recovered after these spots have shown themselves.
+
+I had at this time a lodging in a house at Pera, which I occupied when
+anything brought me to Constantinople from Therapia. On one occasion I
+was sitting with a gentleman whose filial piety did him much honour, for
+he had attended his father through the horrors of this illness, and he
+had died of the plague in his arms, when we heard the dogs baying in an
+unusual way.[13] On looking out of the window there they were all of a
+row, seated against the opposite wall, howling mournfully, and looking
+up at the houses in the moonlight. One dog looked very hard at me, I
+thought: I did not like it at all, and began to investigate whether I
+had not some pain or other about me; and this comfortable feeling was
+not diminished when my friend's Arab servant came into the room and said
+that another person who lodged in the house was very unwell; it was said
+that he had had a fall from his horse that morning. The dogs, though we
+escaped the plague ourselves, were right; the plague had got into one of
+the houses close to us in the same street; but how many died of it I did
+not learn.
+
+It was about this time that two Jews--extortioners, poor men, whom
+consequently nobody cared about--were walking together in a narrow
+street at Galata, when they both dropped down stricken with the plague:
+there they lay upon the ground; no one would touch them; and, as the
+street was extremely narrow, no one could pass that way; it was in
+effect blocked up by the two unhappy men. They did not die quickly. "The
+devil was sure of them," the charitable people said, "so he was in no
+hurry." There they lay a long time--many days; and people called to
+them, and put their heads round the corner of the street to look at
+them. Some, tenderer-hearted than the rest, got a long pole from a
+dyer's shop hard by, and pushed a tub of water to them, and threw them
+some bread, for no one dared approach them. One Jew was quiet: he ate a
+little bread and drank some water, and lay still. The other was violent:
+the pain of his livid swellings drove him wild, and he shouted and raved
+and twisted about upon the ground. The people looked at him from the
+corner, and shuddered as they quickly drew back their heads. He died;
+and the other Jew still lay there, quiet as he was before, close to the
+quiet corpse of his poor friend. For some time they did not know whether
+he was dead or not; but at last they found he drank no more water and
+ate no more bread; so they knew that he had died also. There lay the two
+bodies in the way, till some one paid a hamal--a Turkish porter--who,
+being a stanch predestinarian, caring neither for plague, nor Jew, nor
+Gentile, dead or alive, carried off the two bodies on his back; and then
+the street was passable again.
+
+The Turks have a touching custom when the plague rages very greatly, and
+a thousand corpses are carried out daily from Stamboul through the
+Adrianople gate to the great groves of cypress which rise over the
+burial-grounds beyond the walls. At times of terror and grief, such as
+these, the Sheikh Ul Islam causes all the little children to be
+assembled on a beautiful green hill called the Oc Maidan--the Place of
+Arrows--and there they bow down upon the ground, and raise their
+innocent voices in supplication to the Father of Mercy, and implore his
+compassion on the afflicted city!
+
+But the grey goats' hair divan of the Patriarch's hall of audience has
+led me a long way from the Patriarch himself, who entered the chamber
+shortly after our arrival. He appeared to be rather a young man,
+certainly not more than thirty-five years of age, with a reddish beard,
+which is uncommon in this country. He was dressed in purple silk robes,
+like a Greek bishop, and took his seat in the corner of the divan, and
+said nothing, and stroked his beard as a pasha might have done.
+
+When we had made our "temenahs," that is, salutations, and little bows,
+&c., and were still again, the curtain over the doorway was pushed
+aside, and various priestly servants, all without shoes, came in, one of
+them bearing a richly embossed silver tray, on which were disposed small
+spoons filled with a preserve of lemon-peel; each of us took a spoonful,
+and returned the spoon to the dish. Then came various servants--as many
+servants as guests--and one presented to each of us a cut-glass cup with
+a lid, full of fresh spring-water. Then these disappeared; and others
+came in bearing pipes to each of us--a separate servant always coming in
+for each person of the company. After we had smoked our pipes for a
+short time, a mighty crowd of attendants again entered at the bottom of
+the room, among whom was one with a tray, which was covered over with a
+satin shawl or cover as richly embroidered with gold as was possible for
+its size, and with a deep gold fringe. Another servant took off this
+covering, and placed it over the left shoulder of the tray-bearer, who
+stood like a statue all the while. Now appeared a man with a silver
+censer suspended by three silver chains, and having a coffee-pot
+standing upon the burning coals within it. Another man took off the cups
+which were upon the tray, filled them with coffee; and then various
+servants, each armed with a coffee-cup placed on its silver zarf or
+saucer, which he held in his left hand with his thumb and forefinger
+only, strode forward with one accord, and we all at the same moment were
+presented with our diminutive cup of coffee; the attendants received the
+empty cups with both hands, and, walking backwards, disappeared as
+silently as they came. All this is a scene of every-day occurrence in
+the East, and, with more or less of display, takes place in the house of
+every person of consideration.
+
+When we had smoked our pipes for a while, and all the servants had gone
+away, I presented the letter of the Archbishop of Canterbury. It was
+received in due form; and, after a short explanatory exordium, was read
+aloud to the Patriarch, first in English, and then translated into
+Greek.
+
+"And who," quoth the Patriarch of Constantinople, the supreme head and
+primate of the Greek Church of Asia--"who is the Archbishop of
+Canterbury?"
+
+"What?" said I, a little astonished at the question.
+
+"Who," said he, "is this Archbishop?"
+
+"Why, the Archbishop of Canterbury."
+
+"Archbishop of _what_?" said the Patriarch.
+
+"_Canterbury_," said I.
+
+"Oh," said the Patriarch. "Ah! yes! and who is he?"
+
+Here all my English friends and myself were taken aback sadly; we had
+not imagined that the high-priest before us could be ignorant of such a
+matter as the one in question. The Patriarch of the Greek church, the
+successor of Gregory Nazianzen, St. John Chrysostom, and the heresiarch
+Nestorius, seemed not to be aware that there were any other
+denominations of Christians besides those of his own church and the
+Church of Rome. But the fact is that the Patriarch of Constantinople is
+merely the puppet of an intriguing faction of the Greek bankers and
+usurers of the Fanar, who select for the office some man of straw whom
+they feel secure they can rule, and whose appointment they obtain by a
+heavy bribe paid to the Sultan; for the head of the Christian Church is
+appointed by the Mahomedan Emperor!
+
+We explained, and said that the Archbishop of Canterbury was a man
+eminent for his great learning and his Christian virtues; that he was
+the primate and chief of the great reformed Church of England, and a
+personage of such high degree, that he ranked next to the blood-royal;
+that from time immemorial the Archbishop of Canterbury was the great
+dignitary who placed the crown upon the head of our kings--those kings
+whose power swayed the destinies of Europe and of the world; and that
+this present Archbishop and Primate had himself placed the crown upon
+the head of King William IV., and that he would also soon crown our
+young Queen.
+
+"Well," replied the Patriarch, "but how is that? how can it happen that
+the head of your Church is only an Archbishop? whereas I, the Patriarch,
+command other patriarchs, and under them archbishops, archimandrites,
+and other dignitaries of the Church? How can these things be? I cannot
+write an answer to the letter of the Archbishop of--of--"
+
+"Of Canterbury," said I.
+
+"Yes! of Canterbury; for I do not see how he who is only an archbishop
+can by any possibility be the head of a Christian hierarchy; but as you
+come from the British embassy I will give my letters as you desire,
+which will ensure your reception into every monastery which acknowledges
+the supremacy of the _orthodox_ faith of the Patriarch of
+Constantinople."
+
+He then sent for his secretary, that I might give that functionary my
+name and designation. The secretary accordingly appeared; and, although
+there are only six letters in my name, he set it down incorrectly nearly
+a dozen times, and then went away to his hole in a window, where he
+wrote curious little memoranda at the Patriarch's dictation, from which
+he drew up the firman which was sent me a few days afterwards, and which
+I found of great service in my visits to various monasteries. As few
+Protestants have been favoured with a document of this sort from the
+Primate of the Greek Church, I subjoin a translation of it. It will be
+perceived that it is written much in the style of the epistles of the
+early patriarchs to the archbishops and bishops of their provinces. To
+the requisitions contained in this firman it was incumbent upon those to
+whom it was addressed to pay implicit obedience.[14]
+
+My business being thus happily concluded with this learned personage, we
+all smoked away again for a short time in tranquil silence; and then the
+Universal Patriarch--for so he styles himself--clapped his hands, and in
+swarmed the whole tribe of silent, bare-footed priestly followers,
+bringing us sherbet in glass cups. Whilst we drank it, their reverences
+held the saucer under our chins: and when we had had enough, those who
+chose it wiped their lips and moustaches on a long, narrow towel, richly
+embroidered at the two ends with gold and bright-coloured silks. I
+prefer on these occasions my pocket-handkerchief, as the period at which
+these rich towels are washed is by no means a matter of certainty. We
+took our leave with the numerous bows and compliments, and went on our
+way rejoicing.
+
+My preparations for my expedition were soon made. I hired a Greek
+servant, whom I intended should serve as interpreter and factotum. He
+was a sharp, active man--as most Greeks are; and he had an intelligent
+way of doing things, which pleased me; but he was an ugly, thin, little
+fellow, and his right eye had a curious obliquity of vision, which was
+not particularly calculated to inspire confidence. As nobody else was to
+accompany me, I made various inquiries about him, and, although I did
+not hear any particular harm of him, yet I failed to become acquainted
+with any good actions of his performance; and as I was going into a
+country which at that time was almost entirely unknown, and which had
+moreover an unpleasant celebrity for pirates, klephti, and other sorts
+of thieves, I felt that the moral character of my new follower was an
+important consideration; and that if I could prop up his honesty and
+fidelity by any artificial means, I might not be doing amiss.
+
+In a few days the firman or letter of the patriarch arrived, and I
+packed my things and got ready to start. Unknown to my servant I had
+caused a belt of wash-leather to be made, in which were numerous little
+divisions calculated to hold a good many pieces of gold without their
+jingling, and it had a long flap which buttoned down over the series of
+compartments. I had besides a large ostentatious purse, in which was a
+small sum for the expenses of the journey, and as I wished to have it
+supposed that I had but little cash, I made my Greek buy various things
+for me out of his own money. All being ready, we started in a caique
+very early in the morning, and went down the Bosphorus from Therapia to
+Stamboul, where we got on board a steamer. On handing up the things, my
+servant found that his box, in which were his new clothes and valuables,
+was missing--his bag only had come. "Good gracious!" said I, "was that
+the box with two straps?" "Yes," said he, "a handsome brown box, about
+so large." "Well," said I, "it is a most unfortunate thing; but when I
+saw that box in my room this morning I locked it up in the closet and
+told H---- not to give up the key of the door to anybody till I returned
+to the embassy again. How very unlucky! however, we shall soon be back,
+and you have biancheria enough in your bag for so short a journey as the
+one before us." We were soon under way, and passing the Seraglio Point
+stood down the swift current in the sea of Marmora, our luggage
+encumbering but a very small space upon the deck.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+
+     Coom Calessi--Uncomfortable Quarters--A Turkish Boat and its
+     Crew--Grandeur of the Scenery--Legend of Jason and the Golden
+     Fleece--The Island of Imbros--Heavy Rain Storm--A Rough
+     Sea--Lemnos--Bad Accommodation--The Old Woman's Mattress and its
+     Contents--Striking View of Mount Athos from the Sea--The Hermit of
+     the Tower.
+
+
+On landing at Coom Calessi, the European castle of the Dardanelles, I
+found that there was no inn or hotel in the place; but it appeared that
+the British consul, who lived on the top of the hill two miles off, had
+built a new house in the town for purposes of business, and upon the
+payment of a perquisite to the Jew who acted as his factotum, I was
+presently installed in the new house, which, as houses go in this
+country, was clean and good, but not a scrap of furniture was there in
+it, not even a pipkin or a casserole--it was as empty as any house could
+be. I sent my man out into the bazaar and we got some cabobs and yaourt
+and salad, and various flaps of bread, and managed so far pretty well,
+and then we went to the port, and after much waste of time and breath I
+engaged a curious-looking boat belonging to a Turk, who by the by was
+the only Turkish sailor I ever had anything to do with, as the seamen
+are generally Greeks; and then I returned to my house to sleep, for we
+were not to set out on our voyage till sunrise the next morning. The
+sleeping was a more difficult affair than the dinner, for after the beds
+at the embassy the boards did seem supernaturally hard; but I spread all
+my property on the floor, and lying down on it flat on my back, out of
+compassion to my hips, I got through the night at last.
+
+All men were up and about in the Turkish town of Coom Calessi as soon as
+the sun tinged the hills of Olympus, and the gay boat in which I was to
+sail was bounding up and down on the bright transparent waves by the
+sandy shore. The long-bearded captain sat on a half deck with the tiller
+under his arm; he neither moved nor said a word when I came on board,
+and before the god of day arose in his splendour over the famous plains
+of Troy my little boat was spreading its white wings before the morning
+wind. Every moment more and more lovely scenes opened to my delighted
+eyes among the rocky and classic islands of the Archipelago. How fair
+and beautiful is every part of that most favoured land! how fresh the
+breezes on that poetic sea! how magnificent the great precipices of the
+rocky island of Samotraki seemed as they loomed through the decreasing
+distance in the morning sun! But no words, no painting can describe this
+glorious region.
+
+I had hired my grave sailors to take me to Lemnos, but the wind did not
+serve, so we steered for Imbros, where we arrived in the afternoon. My
+boat was an original-looking vessel to an English eye, with a high bow
+and stem covered with bright brass; over the rudder there hung a long
+piece of network ornamented with blue glass beads: flowers and
+arabesques were carved on the boards at each end of the vessel, which
+had one low mast with a single sail. It is the national belief in
+England that ugliness is the necessary concomitant of utility, but for
+my own part I confess that I delight in redundant ornament, and I liked
+my old boat the better and was convinced that it did not sail a bit the
+worse because it was pleasing to the eye.
+
+We rowed away towards Imbros, and passed in our course a curious line of
+waves, which looked like a straight whirlpool, if such an epithet may be
+used; for where the mighty stream of the Dardanelles poured forth into
+the Egean Sea, the two waters did not immediately mix together, but
+rolled the one over the other in a long line which seemed as if it would
+suck down into its snaky vortex anything which approached it. It was not
+dangerous, however, for we rowed along it and across it; but still it
+had a look about it which made me feel rather glad than sorry when we
+had lost sight of its long, straight, curling line of waves.
+
+As I sat in my beautifully-shaped and ornamented boat, which looked like
+those represented in antique sculptures, with its high stem and lofty
+prow, I thought how little changed things were in these latitudes since
+the brave Captain Jason passed this way in the good ship Argo; and if an
+old author who wrote on the Hermetic philosophy may be taken as
+authority, that worthy's errand was much the same as mine; for he
+maintains that the golden fleece was no golden fleece at all, "for who,"
+says he, like a sensible man, "ever saw a sheep of gold?" But what Jason
+sought was a famous volume written in golden letters upon the skins of
+sheep, wherein was described the whole science of alchemy, and that the
+man who should possess himself of that inestimable volume should conquer
+the green dragon, and being able by help of the grand magisterium to
+transmute all metals, and draw from the alembic the precious drops of
+the elixir vitae, men and nations and languages would bow down before him
+as the prince of the pleasures of this world.
+
+In the afternoon we arrived at the island of Imbros. The Turkish pilot
+would go no farther, for he said there would be a storm. I saw no
+appearance of the kind, but it was of no use talking to him; he had made
+up his mind, so we drew the boat up on the sand in a little sheltered
+bay, and making a tent of the sail, the sailors lit a fire and sat down
+and smoked their pipes with all that quietness and decorum which is so
+characteristic of their nation. I wandered about the island, but saw
+neither man nor habitation. I shot at divers rock-partridges with a
+rifle and hit none; nevertheless towards evening we cooked up a savoury
+mess, whereof the old bearded Turk and his grave crew ate also, but
+sparingly: I then curled myself up in a corner inside the boat under the
+sail, and took to reading a volume of Sir Walter Scott's poems.
+
+I was deep in his romantic legends when of a sudden there came a roar of
+thunder and such quick bright flashes of sharp lightning that the
+mountains seemed on fire. Down came the rain in waterfalls, and in went
+Walter Scott and all his chivalry into the first safe hiding-place I
+could find. The crew had got under a projecting rock, and I had the boat
+to myself; the rain did not come in much, and the rattle of the thunder
+by degrees died away among the surrounding hills. The rain continued to
+pour down steadily and the fire on the beach went out, but my berth was
+snug enough, and the dull monotonous sound of the splashing rain and the
+dashing of the breakers on the shore soon lulled me to sleep, and I was
+more comfortable than I had been the night before in the bare, empty
+house at Coom Calessi.
+
+Very early in the morning I peeped out; the rain was gone and the sun
+shone brightly; all the Turks were up smoking their eternal pipes, so I
+asked the old captain when we should be off. "There is too much wind,"
+was his laconic reply. We were in a sheltered place, so we felt no wind,
+but on the other side of a rocky headland we could see the sea running
+like a cataract towards the south, although it was as smooth as glass in
+our bay. We got through breakfast, and for the sake of the partridges I
+repented that I had brought no shot. At last the men began righting the
+boat and getting things ready, doing everything as quietly and
+deliberately as usual, and scarcely saying a word to each other. In
+course of time the captain sat himself down by the rudder, and beckoning
+to me with his hand he took the pipe out of his mouth and said "Gel"
+(come). I came, and away we went smoothly with the help of two or three
+oars till we rounded the rocky headland, and then all at once we drifted
+into the race, and began dancing, and leaping, and staggering before the
+breeze in a way I never saw before nor since. Like the goats, from whom
+this sea is said to have been named, we leaped from the summit of one
+wave to that of the next, and seemed hardly to touch the water. We had
+up a small sail, and we sat still and steady at the bottom of the
+vessel. Never had I conceived the possibility of a boat scampering along
+before the wind at such a rate as this. My man crossed himself. I looked
+up at the old pilot, but he went on quietly smoking his pipe with his
+finger on the bowl to keep the ashes from being blown away. It was a
+marvel to me with what exactness he touched the helm just at the right
+instant, for it seemed as if we had sixty narrow escapes every minute,
+but the old man did not stir an inch. Gallantly we dashed, and skipped,
+and bounded along. What a famous lively little boat it was, yet it was
+carved and gilt and as pretty as anything could be! We were soon running
+down the west coast of Lemnos, where the surf was lashing the precipice
+in fury with an angry roar that resounded far out to sea: then of a
+sudden we rounded a sharp point and shot into such smooth water so
+instantaneously that one could scarcely believe that the blue waves of
+the Holy Sea, [Greek: Agios pelagos], as the Greeks call
+it still, could be the same as the furious and frenzied ocean out of
+which we had darted like an arrow from a bow.
+
+We had a long row in the hot sun along the sheltered coast till we
+landed at a rotten wooden pier before the chief city or rather the dirty
+village of the Lemnians. I had a letter to a gentleman who was sent by a
+merchant of Constantinople to collect wool upon this island; so to him I
+bent my way, hooted at by some Lemnian women, the worthy descendants
+probably of those fair dames who have gained a disagreeable immortality
+by murdering their husbands. Here it was that Vulcan broke his leg, and
+no wonder, for a more barren, rocky place no one could have been kicked
+down into. My friend of the woolpacks, who was a Frenchman, was very
+kind and civil, only he had nothing to offer me beyond the bare house,
+like the consul's Jew at the Dardanelles, so I walked about and looked
+at nothing, which was all there was to see, whilst my servant hired a
+little square-rigged brig to take me next day to Mount Athos.
+
+After dinner I made inquiries of my host what he had in the way of bed.
+His answer was specific. There was no bed, no mattress, no divan; sheets
+were unknown things, and the wool he did not recommend. But at last I
+was told of a mattress which an old woman next door was possessed of,
+and which she sometimes let out to strangers; and in an evil hour I sent
+for it. That treacherous bed and its clean white coverlet will never be
+forgotten by me. I laid down upon it and in one minute was fast
+asleep--the next I started up a perfect Marsyas. Never until that day
+had I any idea of what fleas could do. So simultaneous and well
+conducted was their attack that I was bitten all over from top to toe at
+the first assault. They evidently were delighted at the unexpected
+change of diet from a grim, skinny old woman to a well-fed traveller
+fresh from the table of the embassy. I examined the white coverlet--it
+was actually brown with fleas. I threw away my clothes, and taking
+desperate measures to get rid of some myriads of my assailants, I ran
+out of the room and put on a dressing-gown in the outer hall, at the
+window of which I sat down to cool the fever of my blood. I half
+expected to see the fleas open the door and march in after me, as the
+rats did after Bishop Hatto on his island in the Rhine; but fortunately
+the villains did not venture to leave their mattress. There I sat,
+fanning myself in the night air and bathing my face and limbs in water
+till the sun rose, when with a doleful countenance I asked my way to a
+bath. I found one, and went into the hot inner room with nothing on but
+a towel round my waist and one on my head, as the custom is. There was
+no one else there, and when the bath man came in he started back with
+horror, for he thought I had got that most deadly kind of plague which
+breaks out in an eruption and carries off the patient in a few hours.
+When it was explained to him how I had fallen into the clutches of these
+Lemnian fleas, he proceeded to rub me and soap me according to the
+Turkish fashion, and wonderfully soothing and comforting it was.
+
+As there was a rumour of pirates in these seas, the little brig would
+not sail till night, and I passed the day dozing in the shade out of
+doors; when evening came I crept down to the port, went on board, and
+curled myself up in the hole of a cabin among ropes and sails, and went
+to sleep at once, and did not wake again till we arrived within a short
+distance of the most magnificent mountain imaginable, rising in a peak
+of white marble ten thousand feet straight out of the sea. It was a
+lovely fresh morning, so I stood with half of my body out of the
+hatchway enjoying the glorious prospect, and making my toilette with the
+deck for a dressing-table, to the great admiration of the Greek
+crew, who were a perfect contrast to my former Turkish friends, for they
+did nothing but lounge about and chatter, and give orders to each other,
+every one of them appearing unwilling to do his own share of the work.
+
+[Illustration: GREEK SAILOR.]
+
+We steered for a tall square tower which stood on a projecting marble
+rock above the calm blue sea at the S.E. corner of the peninsula; and
+rounding a small cape we turned into a beautiful little port or harbour,
+the entrance of which was commanded by this tower and by one or two
+other buildings constructed for defence at the foot of it, all in the
+Byzantine style of architecture. The quaint half-Eastern half-Norman
+architecture of the little fortress, my outlandish vessel, the brilliant
+colours of the sailors' dresses, the rich vegetation and great tufts of
+flowers which grew in crevices of the white marble, formed altogether
+one of the most picturesque scenes it was ever my good fortune to
+behold, and which I always remember with pleasure. We saw no one, but
+about a mile off there was the great monastery of St. Laura standing
+above us among the trees on the side of the mountain, and this
+delightful little bay was, as the sailors told us, the scarricatojo or
+landing-place for pilgrims who were going to the monastery.
+
+We paid off the vessel, and my things were landed on the beach. It was
+not an operation of much labour, for my effects consisted principally of
+an enormous pair of saddle-bags, made of a sort of carpet, and which
+are called khourges, and are carried by the camels in Arabia; but there
+was at present mighty little in them: nevertheless, light as they were,
+their appearance would have excited a feeling of consternation in the
+mind of the most phlegmatic mule. After a brisk chatter on the part of
+the whole crew, who, with abundance of gesticulations, all talked at
+once, they got on board, and towing the vessel out by means of an
+exceeding small boat, set sail, and left me and my man and the
+saddle-bags high and dry upon the shore. We were somewhat taken by
+surprise at this sudden departure of our marine, so we sat upon two
+stones for a while to think about it. "Well," said I, "we are at Mount
+Athos; so suppose you walk up to the monastery, and get some mules or
+monks, or something or other to carry up the saddle-bags. Tell them the
+celebrated Milordos Inglesis, the friend of the Universal Patriarch, is
+arrived, and that he kindly intends to visit their monastery; and that
+he is a great ally of the Sultan's, and of all the captains of all the
+men of war that come down the Archipelago: and," added I, "make haste
+now, and let us be up at the monastery lest our friends in the brig
+there should take it into their heads to come back and cut our throats."
+
+Away he went, and I and the saddle-bags remained below. For some time I
+solaced myself by throwing stones into the water, and then I walked up
+the path to look about me, and found a red mulberry-tree with fine ripe
+mulberries on it, of which I ate a prodigious number in order to pass
+away the time. As I was studying the Byzantine tower, I thought I saw
+something peeping out of a loophole near the top of it, and, on looking
+more attentively, I saw it was the head of an old man with a long grey
+beard, who was gazing cautiously at me. I shouted out at the top of my
+voice, "Kalemera sas, ariste, kalemera sas (good day to you, sir); ora
+kali sas (good morning to you); [Greek: tou dapomeibomenos];" he
+answered in return, "Kalos orizete?" (how do you do?) So I went up to
+the tower, passed over a plank that served as a drawbridge across a
+chasm, and at the door of a wall which surrounded the lower buildings
+stood a little old monk, the same who had been peeping out of the
+loophole above. He took me into his castle, where he seemed to be living
+all alone in a Byzantine lean-to at the foot of the tower, the window of
+his room looking over the port beneath. This room had numerous pegs in
+the wall, on which were hung dried herbs and simples; one or two great
+jars stood in the corner, and these and a small divan formed all his
+household furniture. We began to talk in Romaic, but I was not very
+strong in that language, and presently stuck fast. He showed me over
+the tower, which contained several groined vaulted rooms one above
+another, all empty. From the top there was a glorious view of the
+islands and the sea. Thought I to myself, this is a real, genuine,
+unsophisticated live hermit; he is not stuffed like the hermit at
+Vauxhall, nor made up of beard and blankets like those on the stage; he
+is a genuine specimen of an almost extinct race. What would not Walter
+Scott have given for him? The aspect of my host and his Byzantine tower
+savoured so completely of the days of the twelfth century, that I seemed
+to have entered another world, and should hardly have been surprised if
+a crusader in chain-armour had entered the room and knelt down before
+the hermit's feet The poor old hermit observing me looking about at all
+his goods and chattels, got up on his divan, and from a shelf reached
+down a large rosy apple, which he presented to me; it was evidently the
+best thing he had, and I was touched when he gave it to me. I took a
+great bite: it was very sour indeed; but what was to be done? I could
+not bear to vex the old man, so I went on eating a great deal of it,
+although it brought the tears into my eyes.
+
+We now heard a holloing and shouting, which portended the arrival of the
+mules, and, bidding adieu to the old hermit of the tower, I mounted a
+mule; the others were lightly loaded with my effects, and we scrambled
+up a steep rocky path through a thicket of odoriferous evergreen shrubs,
+our progress being assisted by the screams and bangs inflicted by
+several stout acolytes, a sort of lay-brethren, who came down with the
+animals from the convent.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+
+     Monastery of St. Laura--Kind Reception by the Abbot--Astonishment
+     of the Monks--History of the Monastery--Rules of the Order of St.
+     Basil--Description of the Buildings--Curious Pictures of the Last
+     Judgment--Early Greek Paintings; Richness of their Frames and
+     Decorations--Ancient Church Plate--Beautiful Reliquary--The
+     Refectory--The Abbot's Savoury Dish--The Library--The MSS.--Ride to
+     the Monastery of Caracalla--Magnificent Scenery.
+
+
+We soon emerged upon a flat piece of ground, and there before us stood
+the great monastery of
+
+ST. LAURA.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+It appeared like an ancient fortress, surrounded with high blank walls,
+over the tops of which were seen numerous domes and pinnacles, and
+odd-shaped roofs and cypress-trees, all jumbled together. In some places
+one of those projecting windows, which are called shahneshin at
+Constantinople, stood out from the great encircling wall at a
+considerable height above the ground; and in front of the entrance was a
+porch in the Byzantine style, consisting of four marble columns,
+supporting a dome; in this porch stood the agoumenos, backed by a great
+many of the brethren. My servant had, doubtless, told him what an
+extraordinarily great personage he was to expect, for he received me
+with great deference; and after the usual bows and compliments the dark
+train of Greek monks filed in through the outer and two inner iron
+gates, in a sort of procession, with which goodly company I proceeded to
+the church, which stood in the middle of the great court-yard. We went
+up to the screen of the altar, and there everybody made bows, and said
+"Kyrie eleison," which they repeated as quickly and in as high a key as
+they could. We then came out of the church, and the agoumenos, taking me
+by the hand, led me up divers dark wooden staircases, until we came into
+a large cheerful room well furnished in the Turkish style, and having
+one of the projecting windows which I had seen from the outside. In this
+room, which the agoumenos told me I was to consider as my own, we had
+coffee. I then presented the letter of the patriarch; he read it with
+great respect, and said I was welcome to remain in the monastery as long
+as I liked; and after various compliments given and received he left me;
+and I found myself comfortably installed in one of the grand--and, as
+yet, unexplored--monasteries of the famous sanctuary of Mount Athos:
+better known in the Levant by the appellation of [Greek: Agios Oros],
+or, as the Italian hath it, Monte Santo.
+
+Before long I received visits from divers holy brethren, being those who
+held offices in the monastery under my lord the agoumenos, and there was
+no end to the civilities which passed between us. At last they all
+departed, and towards evening I went out and walked about; those monks
+whom I met either opening their eyes and mouths, and standing still, or
+else bowing profoundly and going through the whole series of
+gesticulations which are practised towards persons of superior rank; for
+the poor monks never having seen a stranger before, or at least a Frank,
+did not know what to make of me, and according to their various degrees
+of intellect treated me with respect or astonishment. But Greek monks
+are not so ill-mannered as an English mob, and therefore they did not
+run after me, but only stared and crossed themselves as the unknown
+animal passed by.
+
+I will now, from the information I received from the monks and my own
+observation, give the best account I can of this extensive and curious
+monastery. It was founded by an Emperor Nicephorus, but what particular
+Nicephorus he was nobody knew. Nicephorus, the treasurer, got into
+trouble with Charlemagne on one side, and Haroun al Raschid on the
+other, and was killed by the Bulgarians in 811. Nicephorus Phocas was a
+great captain, a mighty man of valour; who fought with everybody, and
+frightened the Caliph at the gates of Bagdad, but did good to no one;
+and at length became so disagreeable that his wife had him murdered in
+969. Nicephorus Botoniates, by the help of Alexius Comnenus, caught and
+put out the eyes of his rival Nicephorus Bryennius, whose son married
+that celebrated blue-stocking Anna Comnena. However, Nicephorus
+Botoniates having quarrelled with Alexius Comnenus, that great man
+kicked him out and reigned in his stead, and Botoniates took refuge in
+this monastery, which, as I make out, he had founded some time before.
+He came here about the year 1081, and took the vows of a kaloyeri, or
+Greek monk.
+
+[Illustration: staff, [Greek: patreza]]
+
+This word kaloyeri means a good old man. All the monks of Mount Athos
+follow the rule of St. Basil: indeed, all Greek monks are of this order.
+They are ascetics, and their discipline is most severe: they never eat
+meat, fish they have on feast-days; but on fast-days, which are above a
+hundred in the year, they are not allowed any animal substance or even
+oil; their prayers occupy eight hours in the day, and about two during
+the night, so that they never enjoy a real night's rest. They never sit
+down during prayer, but as the services are of extreme length they are
+allowed to rest their arms on the elbows of a sort of stalls without
+seats, which are found in all Greek churches, and at other times they
+lean on a crutch. A crutch of this kind, of silver, richly ornamented,
+forms the patriarchal staff: it is called the patritza, and answers to
+the crosier of the Roman bishops. Bells are not used to call the
+fraternity to prayers, but a long piece of board, suspended by two
+strings, is struck with a mallet. Sometimes, instead of the wooden
+board, a piece of iron, like part of the tire of a wheel, is used for
+this purpose. Bells are rung only on occasions of rejoicing, or to show
+respect to some great personage, and on the great feasts of the church.
+
+The accompanying sketches will explain the forms of the patriarchal
+staff, the board, and the iron bar.
+
+[Illustrations: [Greek: tokmak], a hammer, in Turkish.]
+
+The latter are called in Romaic [Greek: semandros], a word
+derived from [Greek: semasoktoumai], to gather together.
+
+According to Johannes Comnenus, who visited Mount Athos in 1701, and
+whose works are quoted in Montfaucon, 'Paleographia Graeca,' page 452,
+St. Laura was founded by Nicephorus Phocas, and restored by Neagulus,
+Waywode of Bessarabia. The buildings consist of a thick and lofty wall
+of stone, which encompasses an irregular space of ground of between
+three and four acres in extent; there is only one entrance, a crooked
+passage defended by three separate iron doors; the front of the building
+on the side of the entrance extends about five hundred feet. There is no
+attempt at external architecture, but only this plain wall; the few
+windows which look out from it belong to rooms which are built of wood
+and project over the top of the wall, being supported upon strong beams
+like brackets. At the south-west corner of the building there is a large
+square tower, which formerly contained a printing-press: but this press
+was destroyed by the Turkish soldiers during the late Greek revolution;
+and at the same time they carried off certain old cannons, which stood
+upon the battlements, but which were more for show than use, for the
+monks had never once ventured to fire them off during the long period
+they had been there; and my question, as to when they were brought there
+originally, was answered by the universal and regular answer of the
+Levant, "[Greek: ti exebzo]--Qui sa?--who knows?" The interior
+of the monastery consists of several small courts and two large open
+spaces surrounded with buildings, which have open galleries of wood or
+stone before them, by means of which entrance is gained into the various
+apartments, which now afford lodging for one hundred and twenty monks,
+and there is room for many more. These two large courts are built
+without any regularity, but their architecture is exceedingly curious,
+and in its style closely resembles the buildings erected in
+Constantinople between the fifth and the twelfth century: a sort of
+Byzantine, of which St. Marc's in Venice is the finest specimen in
+Europe. It bears some affinity to the Lombardic or Romanesque, only it
+is more Oriental in its style; the chapel of the ancient palace of
+Palermo is more in the style of the buildings on Mount Athos than
+anything else in Christendom that I remember; but the ceilings of that
+chapel are regularly arabesque, whereas those on Mount Athos are flat
+with painted beams, like the Italian basilicas, excepting where they are
+arched or domed; and in those cases there is little or no mosaic, but
+only coarse paintings in fresco representing saints in the conventional
+Greek style of superlative ugliness.
+
+In the centre of each of these two large courts stands a church of
+moderate size, each of which has a porch with thin marble columns before
+the door; the interior walls of the porches are covered with paintings
+of saints and also of the Last Judgment, which, indeed, is constantly
+seen in the porch of every church. In these pictures, which are often of
+immense size, the artists evidently took much more pains to represent
+the uncouthness of the devils than the beauty of the angels, who, in
+all these ancient frescos, are a very hard-favoured set. The chief devil
+is very big; he is the hero of the scene, and is always marvellously
+hideous, with a great mouth and long teeth, with which he is usually
+gnawing two or three sinners, who, to judge from the expression of his
+face, must be very nauseous articles of food. He stands up to his middle
+in a red pool which is intended for fire, and wherein numerous little
+sinners are disporting themselves like fish in all sorts of attitudes,
+but without looking at all alarmed or unhappy. On one side of the
+picture an angel is weighing a few in a pair of scales, and others are
+capering about in company with some smaller devils, who evidently lead a
+merry life of it. The souls of the blessed are seated in a row on a long
+hard bench very high up in the picture; these are all old men with
+beards; some are covered with hair, others richly clothed, anchorites
+and princes being the only persons elevated to the bench. They have good
+stout glories round their heads, which in rich churches are gilt, and in
+the poorer ones are painted yellow, and look like large straw hats.
+These personages are severe and grim of countenance, and look by no
+means comfortable or at home; they each hold a large book, and give you
+the idea that except for the honour of the thing they would be much
+happier in company with the wicked little sinners and merry imps in the
+crimson lake below. This picture of the Last Judgment is as much
+conventional as the portraits of the saints; it is almost always the
+same, and a correct representation of a part of it is to be seen in the
+last print of the rare volume of the Monte Santo di Dio, which contains
+the three earliest engravings known: it would almost appear that the
+print must have been copied from one of these ancient Greek frescos. It
+is difficult to conceive how any one, even in the dark ages, can have
+been simple enough to look upon these quaint and absurd paintings with
+feelings of religious awe; but some of the monks of the Holy Mountain do
+so even now, and were evidently scandalized when they saw me smile. This
+is, however, only one of the numberless instances in which, owing to the
+differences of education and circumstances, men look upon the same thing
+with awe or pity, with ridicule or veneration.[15]
+
+Theinterior of the principal church in this monastery is interesting from
+the number of early Greek pictures which it contains, and which are hung
+on the walls of the apsis behind the altar. They are almost all in
+silver frames, and are painted on wood; most of them are small, being
+not more than one or two feet square; the back-ground of all of them is
+gilt; and in many of them this back-ground is formed of plates of silver
+or gold. One small painting is ascribed to St. Luke, and several have
+the frames set with jewels, and are of great antiquity. In front of the
+altar, and suspended from the two columns nearest to the [Greek:
+ikonostasis]--the screen which, like the veil of the temple, conceals
+the holy of holies from the gaze of the profane--are two pictures larger
+than the rest: the one represents our Saviour, the other the Blessed
+Virgin. Except the faces they are entirely covered over with plates of
+silver-gilt; and the whole of both pictures, as well as their frames, is
+richly ornamented with a kind of coarse golden filigree, set with large
+turquoises, agates, and cornelians. These very curious productions of
+early art were presented to the monastery by the Emperor Andronicus
+Paleologus, whose portrait, with that of his Empress, is represented on
+the silver frame.
+
+The floor of this church, and of the one which stands in the centre of
+the other court, is paved with rich coloured marbles. The relics are
+preserved in that division of the church which is behind the altar;
+their number and value is much less than formerly, as during the
+revolution, when the Holy Mountain was under the rule of Aboulabout
+Pasha, he squeezed all he could out of the monks of this and all the
+other monasteries. However, as no Turk is a match for a Greek, they
+managed to preserve a great deal of ancient church plate, some of which
+dates as far back as the days of the Roman emperors, for few of the
+Christian successors of Constantine failed to offer some little bribe to
+the saints in order to obtain pardon for the desperate manner in which
+they passed their lives. Some of these pieces of plate are well worthy
+the attention of antiquarians, being probably the most ancient specimens
+of art in goldsmith's work now extant; and as they have remained in the
+several monasteries ever since the piety of their donors first sent them
+there, their authenticity cannot be questioned, besides which many of
+them are extremely magnificent and beautiful.
+
+The most valuable reliquary of St. Laura is a kind of triptic, about
+eighteen inches high, of pure gold, a present from the Emperor
+Nicephorus, the founder of the abbey. The front represents a pair of
+folding-doors, each set with a double row of diamonds (the most ancient
+specimens of this stone that I have seen), emeralds, pearls, and rubies
+as large as sixpences. When the doors are opened a large piece of the
+holy cross, splendidly set with jewels, is displayed in the centre, and
+the inside of the two doors and the whole surface of the reliquary are
+covered with engraved figures of the saints stuck full of precious
+stones. This beautiful shrine is of Byzantine workmanship, and, in its
+way, is a superb work of art.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The refectory of the monastery is a large square building, but the
+dining-room which it contains is in the form of a cross, about one
+hundred feet in length each way; the walls are decorated with fresco
+pictures of the saints, who vie with each other in the hard-favoured
+aspect of their bearded faces; they are tall and meagre full-length
+figures as large as life, each having his name inscribed on the picture.
+Their chief interest is in their accurate representation of the clerical
+costume. The dining-tables, twenty-four in number, are so many solid
+blocks of masonry, with heavy slabs of marble on the top; they are
+nearly semicircular in shape, with the flat side away from the wall; a
+wide marble bench runs round the circular part of them in this form. A
+row of these tables extend down each side of the hall, and at the upper
+end in a semicircular recess is a high table for the superior, who only
+dines here on great occasions. The refectory being square on the
+outside, the intermediate spaces between the arms of the cross are
+occupied by the bakehouse, and the wine, oil, and spirit cellars; for
+although the monks eat no meat, they drink famously; and the good St.
+Basil having flourished long before the age of Paracelsus, inserted
+nothing in his rules against the use of ardent spirits, whereof the
+monks imbibe a considerable quantity, chiefly bad arrack; but it does
+not seem to do them any harm, and I never heard of their overstepping
+the bounds of sobriety. Besides the two churches in the great courts,
+which are shaded by ancient cypresses, there are twenty smaller chapels,
+distributed over different parts of the monastery, in which prayers are
+said on certain days. The monks are now in a more flourishing condition
+than they have been for some years; and as they trust to the continuance
+of peace and order in the dominions of the Sultan, they are beginning to
+repair the injuries they suffered during the revolution, and there is
+altogether an air of improvement and opulence throughout the
+establishment.
+
+I wandered over the courts and galleries and chapels of this immense
+building in every direction, asking questions respecting those things
+which I did not understand, and receiving the kindest and most civil
+attention from every one. In front of the door of the largest church a
+dome, curiously painted and gilt in the interior, and supported by four
+columns, protects a fine marble vase ten feet in diameter, with a
+fountain in it; in this magnificent basin the holy water is consecrated
+with great ceremony on the feast of the Epiphany.[16]
+
+I was informed that no female animal of any sort or kind is admitted on
+any part of the peninsula of Mount Athos; and that since the days of
+Constantine the soil of the Holy Mountain had never been contaminated by
+the tread of a woman's foot. That this rigid law is infringed by certain
+small and active creatures who have the audacity to bring their wives
+and large families within the very precincts of the monastery I soon
+discovered to my sorrow, and heartily regretted that the stern monastic
+law was not more rigidly enforced; nevertheless, I slept well on my
+divan, and the next morning at sunrise received a visit from the
+agoumenos, who came to wish me good day. After some conversation on
+other matters, I inquired about the library, and asked permission to
+view its contents. The agoumenos declared his willingness to show me
+everything that the monastery contained. "But first," said he, "I wish
+to present you with something excellent for your breakfast; and from
+the special good will that I bear towards so distinguished a guest I
+shall prepare it with my own hands, and will stay to see you eat it; for
+it is really an admirable dish, and one not presented to all persons."
+"Well," thought I, "a good breakfast is not a bad thing;" and the fresh
+mountain-air and the good night's rest had given me an appetite; so I
+expressed my thanks for the kind hospitality of my lord abbot, and he,
+sitting down opposite to me on the divan, proceeded to prepare his dish.
+"This," said he, producing a shallow basin half-full of a white paste,
+"is the principal and most savoury part of this famous dish; it is
+composed of cloves of garlic, pounded down, with a certain quantity of
+sugar. With it I will now mix the oil in just proportions, some shreds
+of fine cheese [it seemed to be of the white acid kind, which resembles
+what is called caccia cavallo in the south of Italy, and which almost
+takes the skin off your fingers, I believe] and sundry other nice little
+condiments, and now it is completed!" He stirred the savoury mess round
+and round with a large wooden spoon until it sent forth over room and
+passage and cell, over hill and valley, an aroma which is not to be
+described. "Now," said the agoumenos, crumbling some bread into it with
+his large and somewhat dirty hands, "this is a dish for an emperor! Eat,
+my friend, my much-respected guest; do not be shy. Eat; and when you
+have finished the bowl you shall go into the library and anywhere else
+you like; but you shall go nowhere till I have had the pleasure of
+seeing you do justice to this delicious food, which, I can assure you,
+you will not meet with everywhere."
+
+I was sorely troubled in spirit. Who could have expected so dreadful a
+martyrdom as this? The sour apple of the hermit down below was
+nothing--a trifle in comparison! Was ever an unfortunate bibliomaniac
+dosed with such a medicine before? It would have been enough to have
+cured the whole Roxburghe Club from meddling with libraries and books
+for ever and ever. I made every endeavour to escape this honour. "My
+Lord," said I, "it is a fast; I cannot this morning do justice to this
+delicious viand; it is a fast; I am under a vow. Englishmen must not eat
+that dish in this month. It would be wrong; my conscience won't permit
+it, though the odour certainly is most wonderful! Truly an astonishing
+savour! Let me see you eat it, O agoumenos!" continued I; "for behold, I
+am unworthy of anything so good." "Excellent and virtuous young man!"
+said the agoumenos, "no, I will not eat it. I will not deprive you of
+this treat. Eat it in peace; for know, that to travellers all such vows
+are set aside. On a journey it is permitted to eat all that is set
+before you, unless it is meat that is offered to idols. I admire your
+scruples: but be not afraid, it is lawful. Take it, my honoured friend,
+and eat it: eat it all, and then we will go into the library." He put
+the bowl into one of my hands and the great wooden spoon into the other:
+and in desperation I took a gulp, the recollection of which still makes
+me tremble. What was to be done? Another mouthful was an impossibility:
+not all my ardour in the pursuit of manuscripts could give me the
+necessary courage. I was overcome with sorrow and despair. My servant
+saved me at last: he said "that English gentlemen never ate such rich
+dishes for breakfast, from religious feelings, he believed; but he
+requested that it might be put by, and he was sure I should like it very
+much later in the day." The agoumenos looked vexed, but he applauded my
+principles; and just then the board sounded for church. "I must be off,
+excellent and worthy English lord," said he; "I will take you to the
+library, and leave you the key. Excuse my attendance on you there, for
+my presence is required in the church." So I got off better than I
+expected; but the taste of that ladleful stuck to me for days. I
+followed the good agoumenos to the library, where he left me to my own
+devices.
+
+The library is contained in two small rooms looking into a narrow court,
+which is situated to the left of the great court of entrance. One room
+leads to the other, and the books are disposed on shelves in tolerable
+order, but the dust on their venerable heads had not been disturbed for
+many years, and it took me some time to make out what they were, for in
+old Greek libraries few volumes have any title written on the back. I
+made out that there were in all about five thousand volumes, a very
+large collection, of which about four thousand were printed books; these
+were mostly divinity, but among them there were several fine Aldine
+classics and the editio princeps of the Anthologia in capital letters.
+
+The nine hundred manuscripts consisted of six hundred volumes written
+upon paper and three hundred on vellum. With the exception of four
+volumes, the former were all divinity, principally liturgies and books
+of prayer. Those four volumes were Homer's 'Iliad' and Hesiod, neither
+of which were very old, and two curious and rather early manuscripts on
+botany, full of rudely drawn figures of herbs. These were probably the
+works of Dioscorides; they were not in good condition, having been much
+studied by the monks in former days: they were large, thick quartos.
+Among the three hundred manuscripts on vellum there were many large
+folios of the works of St. Chrysostom and other Greek fathers of the
+church of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and about fifty copies of
+the Gospels and the Evangelistarium of nearly the same age. One
+Evangelistarium was in fine uncial letters of the ninth century; it was
+a thick quarto, and on the first leaf was an illumination the whole size
+of the page on a gold background, representing the donor of the book
+accompanied by his wife. This ancient portrait was covered over with a
+piece of gauze. It was a very remarkable manuscript. There were one
+quarto and one duodecimo of the Acts, Epistles, and Apocalypse of the
+eleventh century, and one folio of the book of Job, which had several
+miniatures in it badly executed in brilliant colours; this was probably
+of the twelfth century. These three manuscripts were such volumes as are
+not often seen in European libraries. All the rest were anthologia and
+books of prayer, nor did I meet with one single leaf of a classic author
+on vellum. I went into the library several times, and looked over all
+the vellum manuscripts very carefully, and I believe that I did not pass
+by unnoticed anything which was particularly interesting in point of
+subject, antiquity, or illumination. Several of the copies of the
+Gospels had their titles ornamented with arabesques, but none struck me
+as being peculiarly valuable.
+
+The twenty-one monasteries of Mount Athos are subjected to different
+regulations. In some the property is at the absolute disposal of the
+agoumenos for the time being, but in the larger establishments (and St.
+Laura is the second in point of consequence) everything belongs to the
+monks in common. Such being the case, it was hopeless to expect, in so
+large a community, that the brethren should agree to part with any of
+their valuables. Indeed, as soon as I found out how affairs stood within
+the walls of St. Laura, I did not attempt to purchase anything, as it
+was not advisable to excite the curiosity of the monks upon the subject;
+nor did I wish that the report should be circulated in the other
+convents that I was come to Mount Athos for the purpose of rifling their
+libraries.
+
+I remained at St. Laura three days, and on a beautiful fresh morning,
+being provided by the monks with mules and a guide, I left the good
+agoumenos and sallied forth through the three iron gates on my way to
+the monastery of Caracalla. Our road lay through some of the most
+beautiful scenery imaginable. The dark blue sea was on my right at about
+two miles distance; the rocky path over which I passed was of white
+alabaster with brown and yellow veins; odoriferous evergreen shrubs were
+all around me; and on my left were the lofty hills covered with a dense
+forest of gigantic trees, which extended to the base of the great white
+marble peak of the mountain. Between our path and the sea there was a
+succession of narrow valleys and gorges, each one more picturesque than
+the other; sometimes we were enclosed by high and dense bushes;
+sometimes we opened upon forest glades, and every here and there we came
+upon long and narrow ledges of rock. On one of the narrowest and
+loftiest of these, as I was trotting merrily along thinking of nothing
+but the beauty of the hour and the scene, my mule stopped short in a
+place where the path was about a foot wide, and, standing upon three
+legs, proceeded deliberately to scratch his nose with the fourth. I was
+too old a mountain traveller to have hold of the bridle, which was
+safely belayed to the pack-saddle; I sat still for fear of making him
+lose his balance, and waited in very considerable trepidation until the
+mule had done scratching his nose. I was at the time half inclined to
+think that he knew he had a heretic upon his back, and had made up his
+mind to send me and himself smashing down among the distant rocks. If
+so, however, he thought better of it, and before long, to my great
+contentment, we came to a place where the road had two sides to it
+instead of one, and after a ride of five hours we arrived before the
+tall square tower which frowns over the gateway of the monastery of
+Caracalla.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+
+     The Monastery of Caracalla--Its beautiful Situation--Hospitable
+     Reception--Description of the Monastery--Legend of its
+     Foundation--The Church--Fine Specimens of Ancient Jewellery--The
+     Library--The Value attached to the Books by the Abbot--He agrees to
+     sell some of the MSS.--Monastery of Philotheo--The Great Monastery
+     of Iveron--History of its Foundation--Its Magnificent
+     Library--Ignorance of the Monks--Superb MSS.--The Monks refute to
+     part with any of the MSS.--Beauty of the Scenery of Mount Athos.
+
+
+The monastery of CARACALLA is not so large as St. Laura, and in many
+points resembles an ancient Gothic castle. It is beautifully situated on
+a promontory of rock two miles from the sea, and viewed from the lofty
+ground by which we approached it, the buildings had a most striking
+effect, with the dark blue sea for a background and the lofty rock of
+Samotraki looming in the distance, whilst the still more remote
+mountains of Roumelia closed in the picture. As for the island of
+Samotraki, it must have been created solely for the benefit of artists
+and admirers of the picturesque, for it is fit for nothing else. It is
+high and barren, a congeries of gigantic precipices and ridges. I
+suppose one can land upon it somewhere, for people live on it who are
+said to be arrant pirates; but as one passes by it at sea, its
+interminable ribs of grey rock, with the waves lashing against them,
+are dreary-looking in the extreme; and it is only when far distant that
+it becomes a beautiful object.
+
+I sent in my servant as ambassador to explain that the first cousin,
+once removed, of the Emperor of all the Franks was at the gate, and to
+show the letter of the Greek patriarch. Incontinently the agoumenos made
+his appearance at the porch with many expressions of welcome and
+goodwill. I believe it was longer than the days of his life since a
+Frank had entered the convent, and I doubt whether he had ever seen one
+before, for he looked so disappointed when he found that I had no tail
+or horns, and barring his glorious long beard, that I was so little
+different from himself. We made many speeches to each other, he in
+heathen Greek and I in English, seasoned with innumerable bows,
+gesticulations, and temenah; after which I jumped off my mule and we
+entered the precincts of the monastery, attended by a long train of
+bearded fathers who came out to stare at me.
+
+The monastery of Caracalla covers about one acre of ground; it is
+surrounded with a high strong wall, over which appear roofs and domes;
+and on the left of the great square tower, near the gate, a range of
+rooms, built of wood, project over the battlements as at the monastery
+of St Laura. Within is a large irregular court-yard, in the centre of
+which stands the church, and several little chapels or rooms fitted up
+as places of worship are scattered about in different parts of the
+building among the chambers inhabited by the monks. I found that this
+was the uniform arrangement in all the monasteries of Mount Athos and in
+nearly all Greek monasteries in the Levant. This monastery was founded
+by Caracallos, a Roman: who he was, or when he lived, I do not know; but
+from its appearance this must be a very ancient establishment. By Roman,
+perhaps, is meant Greek, for Greece is called Roumeli to this day; and
+the Constantinopolitans called themselves Romans in the old time, as in
+Persia and Koordistan the Sultan is called Roomi Padischah, the Roman
+Emperor, by those whose education and general attainments enable them to
+make mention of so distant and mysterious a potentate. Afterwards
+Petrus, Authentes or Waywode of Moldavia, sent his protospaithaire, that
+is his chief swordsman or commander-in-chief, to found a monastery on
+the Holy Mountain, and supplied him with a sum of money for the purpose;
+but the chief swordsman, after expending a very trivial portion of it in
+building a small tower on the sea-shore, pocketed the rest and returned
+to court. The waywode having found out what he had been at, ordered his
+head to be cut off; but he prayed so earnestly to be allowed to keep his
+head and rebuild the monastery of Caracalla out of his own money, that
+his master consented. The new church was dedicated to St. Peter and St.
+Paul, and ultimately the ex-chief swordsman prevailed upon the waywode
+to come to Caracalla and take the vows. They both assumed the same name
+of Pachomius, and died in the odour of sanctity. All this, and many more
+legends, was I told by the worthy agoumenos, who was altogether a most
+excellent person; but he had an unfortunate habit of selecting the most
+windy places for detailing them, an open archway, the top of an external
+staircase, or the parapet of a tower, until at last he chilled my
+curiosity down to zero. In all his words and acts he constantly referred
+to brother Joasaph, the second in command, to whose superior wisdom he
+always seemed to bow, and who was quite the right-hand man of the abbot.
+
+My friend first took me to the church, which is of moderate size, the
+walls ornamented with stiff fresco pictures of the saints, none of them
+certainly later than the twelfth century, and some probably very much
+earlier. There were some relics, but the silver shrines containing them
+were not remarkable for richness or antiquity. On the altar there were
+two very remarkable crosses, each of them about six or eight inches
+long, of carved wood set in gold and jewels of very early and beautiful
+workmanship; one of them in particular, which was presented to the
+church by the Emperor John Zimisces, was a most curious specimen of
+ancient jewellery.
+
+This monastery is one of those over which the agoumenos has absolute
+control, and he was then repairing one side of the court and rebuilding
+a set of rooms which had been destroyed during the Greek war.
+
+The library I found to be a dark closet near the entrance of the church;
+it had been locked up for many years, but the agoumenos made no
+difficulty in breaking the old-fashioned padlock by which the door was
+fastened. I found upon the ground and upon some broken-down shelves
+about four or five hundred volumes, chiefly printed books; but amongst
+them, every now and then, I stumbled upon a manuscript: of these there
+were about thirty on vellum and fifty or sixty on paper. I picked up a
+single loose leaf of very ancient uncial Greek characters, part of the
+Gospel of St. Matthew, written in small square letters and of small
+quarto size. I searched in vain for the volume to which this leaf
+belonged.
+
+As I had found it impossible to purchase any manuscripts at St. Laura, I
+feared that the same would be the case in other monasteries; however, I
+made bold to ask for this single leaf as a thing of small value.
+
+"Certainly!" said the agoumenos, "what do you want it for?"
+
+My servant suggested that, perhaps, it might be useful to cover some jam
+pots or vases of preserves which I had at home.
+
+"Oh!" said the agoumenos, "take some more;" and, without more ado, he
+seized upon an unfortunate thick quarto manuscript of the Acts and
+Epistles, and drawing out a knife cut out an inch thickness of leaves at
+the end before I could stop him. It proved to be the Apocalypse, which
+concluded the volume, but which is rarely found in early Greek
+manuscripts of the Acts: it was of the eleventh century. I ought,
+perhaps, to have slain the _tomecide_ for his dreadful act of
+profanation, but his generosity reconciled me to his guilt, so I
+pocketed the Apocalypse, and asked him if he would sell me any of the
+other books, as he did not appear to set any particular value upon them.
+
+"Malista, certainly," he replied; "how many will you have? They are of
+no use to me, and as I am in want of money to complete my buildings I
+shall be very glad to turn them to some account."
+
+After a good deal of conversation, finding the agoumenos so
+accommodating, and so desirous to part with the contents of his dark and
+dusty closet, I arranged that I would leave him for the present, and
+after I had made the tour of the other monasteries, would return to
+Caracalla, and take up my abode there until I could hire a vessel, or
+make some other arrangements for my return to Constantinople.
+Satisfactory as this arrangement was, I nevertheless resolved to make
+sure of what I had already got, so I packed them up carefully in the
+great saddlebags, to my extreme delight. The agoumenos kindly furnished
+me with fresh mules, and in the afternoon I proceeded to the monastery
+of
+
+PHILOTHEO,
+
+which is only an hour's ride from Caracalla, and stands in a little
+field surrounded by the forest. It is distant from the sea about four
+miles, and is protected, like all the others, by a high stone wall
+surrounding the whole of the building. The church is curious and
+interesting; it is ornamented with representations of saints, and holy
+men in fresco, upon the walls of the interior and in the porch. I could
+not make out when it was built, but probably before the twelfth century.
+Arsenius, Philotheus, and Dionysius were the founders, but who they were
+did not appear. The monastery was repaired, and the refectory enlarged
+and painted, in the year 1492, by Leontius, [Greek: o basileus] [Greek:
+Kachetiou], and his son Alexander. I was shown the reliquaries, but they
+were not remarkable. The monks said they had no library; and there being
+nothing of interest in the monastery, I determined to go on. Indeed the
+expression of the faces of some of these monks was so unprepossessing,
+and their manners so rude, although not absolutely uncivil, that I did
+not feel any particular inclination to remain amongst them, so leaving a
+small donation for the church, I mounted my mule and proceeded on my
+journey.
+
+In half an hour I came to a beautiful waterfall in a rocky glen
+embosomed in trees and odoriferous shrubs, the rocks being of white
+marble, and the flowers such as we cherish in greenhouses in England. I
+do not know that I ever saw a more charmingly romantic spot. Another
+hour brought us to the great monastery of
+
+IVERON, or IBERON,
+
+(the Georgian, or Iberian, Monastery.)
+
+This monastic establishment is of great size. It is larger than St.
+Laura, and might almost be denominated a small fortified town, so
+numerous are the buildings and courts which are contained within its
+encircling wall. It is situated near the sea, and in its general form is
+nearly square, with four or five square towers projecting from the
+walls. On each of the four sides there are rooms for above two hundred
+monks. I did not learn precisely how many were then inhabiting it, but I
+should imagine there were above a hundred. As, however, many of the
+members of all the religious communities on Mount Athos are employed in
+cultivating the numerous farms which they possess, it is probable that
+not more than one-half of the monks are in residence at any one time.
+
+This monastery was founded by Theophania (Theodora?), wife of the
+Emperor Romanus, the son of Leo Sophos,[17] or the Philosopher, between
+the years 919 and 922. It was restored by a Prince of Georgia or
+Iberia, and enlarged by his son, a caloyer. The church is dedicated to
+the "repose of the Virgin." It has four or five domes, and is of
+considerable size, standing by itself, as usual, in the centre of the
+great court, and is ornamented with columns and other decorations of
+rich marbles, together with the usual fresco paintings on the walls.
+
+The library is a remarkably fine one, perhaps altogether the most
+precious of all those which now remain on the holy mountain. It is
+situated over the porch of the church, which appears to be the usual
+place where the books are kept in these establishments. The room is of
+good size, well fitted up with bookcases with glass doors, of not very
+old workmanship. I should imagine that about a hundred years ago, some
+agoumenos, or prior, or librarian, must have been a reading man; and the
+pious care which he took to arrange the ancient volumes of the monastery
+has been rewarded by the excellent state of preservation in which they
+still remain. Since his time, they have probably remained undisturbed.
+Every one could see through the greenish uneven panes of old glass that
+there was nothing but books inside, and therefore nobody meddled with
+them. I was allowed to rummage at my leisure in this mine of
+archaeological treasure. Having taken up my abode for the time being in a
+cheerful room, the windows of which commanded a glorious prospect, I
+soon made friends with the literary portion of the community, which
+consisted of one thin old monk, a cleverish man, who united to many
+other offices that of librarian. He was also secretary to my lord the
+agoumenos, a kind-hearted old gentleman, who seemed to wish everybody
+well, and who evidently liked much better to sit still on his divan than
+to regulate the affairs of his convent. The rents, the long lists of
+tuns of wine and oil, the strings of mules laden with corn, which came
+in daily from the farms, and all the other complicated details of this
+mighty coeenobium,--over all these, and numberless other important
+matters, the thin secretary had full control.
+
+Some of the young monks, demure fat youths, came into the library every
+now and then, and wondered what I could be doing there, looking over so
+many books; and they would take a volume out of my hand when I had done
+with it, and, glancing their eyes over its ancient vellum leaves, would
+look up inquiringly into my face, saying, "[Greek: ti ene]?--what
+is it?--what can be the use of looking at such old books as these?" They
+were rather in awe of the secretary, who was evidently, in their
+opinion, a prodigy of learning and erudition. Some, in a low voice, that
+they might not be overheard by the wise man, asked me where I came from,
+how old I was, and whether my father was with me; but they soon all went
+away, and I turned to, in right good earnest, to look for uncial
+manuscripts and unknown classic authors. Of these last there was not
+one on vellum, but on paper there was an octavo manuscript of Sophocles,
+and a Coptic Psaltery with an Arabic translation--a curious book to meet
+with on Mount Athos. Of printed books there were, I should think, about
+five thousand--of manuscripts on paper, about two thousand; but all
+religious works of various kinds. There were nearly a thousand
+manuscripts on vellum, and these I looked over more carefully than the
+rest. About one hundred of them were in the Iberian language: they were
+mostly immense thick quartos, some of them not less than eighteen inches
+square, and from four to six inches thick. One of these, bound in wooden
+boards, and written in large uncial letters, was a magnificent old
+volume. Indeed all these Iberian or Georgian manuscripts were superb
+specimens of ancient books. I was unable to read them, and therefore
+cannot say what they were; but I should imagine that they were church
+books, and probably of high antiquity. Among the Greek manuscripts,
+which were principally of the eleventh and twelfth centuries--works of
+St. Chrysostom, St. Basil, and books for the services of the ritual--I
+discovered the following, which are deserving of especial mention:--A
+large folio Evangelistarium bound in red velvet, about eighteen inches
+high and three thick, written in magnificent uncial letters half an inch
+long, or even more. Three of the illuminations were the whole size of
+the page, and might almost be termed pictures from their large
+proportions: and there were several other illuminations of smaller size
+in different parts of the book. This superb manuscript was in admirable
+preservation, and as clean as if it had been new. It had evidently been
+kept with great care, and appeared to have had some clasps or ornaments
+of gold or silver which had been torn off. It was probably owing to the
+original splendour of this binding that the volume itself had been so
+carefully preserved. I imagine it was written in the ninth century.
+
+Another book, of a much greater age, was a copy of the four Gospels,
+with four finely-executed miniatures of the evangelists. It was about
+nine or ten inches square, written in round semiuncial letters in double
+columns, with not more than two or three words in a line. In some
+respects it resembled the book of the Epistles in the Bodleian Library
+at Oxford. This manuscript, in the original black leather binding, had
+every appearance of the highest antiquity. It was beautifully written
+and very clean, and was altogether such a volume as is not to be met
+with every day.
+
+A quarto manuscript of the four Gospels, of the eleventh or twelfth
+century, with a great many (perhaps fifty) illuminations. Some of them
+were unfortunately rather damaged.
+
+Two manuscripts of the New Testament, with the Apocalypse.
+
+A very fine manuscript of the Psalms, of the eleventh century, which is
+indeed about the era of the greater portion of the vellum manuscripts on
+Mount Athos.
+
+There were also some ponderous and magnificent folios of the works of
+the fathers of the Church--some of them, I should think, of the tenth
+century; but it is difficult, in a few hours, to detect the
+peculiarities which prove that manuscripts are of an earlier date than
+the twelfth century. I am, however, convinced that very few of them were
+written after that time.
+
+The paper manuscripts were of all ages, from the thirteenth and
+fifteenth centuries down to a hundred years ago; and some of them, on
+charta bombycina, would have appeared very splendid books if they had
+not been eclipsed by the still finer and more carefully-executed
+manuscripts on vellum.
+
+Neither my arguments nor my eloquence could prevail on the obdurate
+monks to sell me any of these books, but my friend the secretary gave me
+a book in his own handwriting to solace me on my journey. It contained a
+history of the monastery from the days of its foundation to the present
+time. It is written in Romaic, and is curious not so much from its
+subject matter as from the entire originality of its style and manner.
+
+The view from the window of the room which I occupied at Iveron was one
+of the finest on Mount Athos. The glorious sea, and the towers which
+command the scaricatojos or landing-places of the different monasteries
+along the coast, and the superb monastery of Stavroniketa like a Gothic
+castle perched upon a beetling rock, with the splendid forest for a
+background, formed altogether a picture totally above my powers to
+describe. It almost compensated for the numberless tribes of vermin by
+which the room was tenanted. In fact, the whole of the scenery on Mount
+Athos is so superlatively grand and beautiful that it is useless to
+attempt any description.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+
+     The Monastery of Stavroniketa--The Library--Splendid MS. of St.
+     Chrysostom--The Monastery of Pantocratoras--Ruinous Condition of
+     the Library--Complete Destruction of the
+     Books--Disappointment--Oration to the Monks--The Great Monastery of
+     Vatopede--Its History--Ancient Pictures in the Church--Legend of
+     the Girdle of the Blessed Virgin--The Library--Wealth and Luxury of
+     the Monks--The Monastery of Sphigmenou--Beautiful Jewelled
+     Cross--The Monastery of Kiliantari--Magnificent MS. in Gold Letters
+     on White Vellum--The Monasteries of Zographon, Castamoneta,
+     Docheirou, and Xenophou--The Exiled Bishops--The Library--Very fine
+     MSS.--Proposals for their Purchase--Lengthened Negotiations--Their
+     successful Issue.
+
+
+An hour's ride brought us to the monastery of
+
+STAVRONIKETA,
+
+which is a smaller building than Iveron, with a square tower over the
+gateway. It stands on a rock overhanging the sea, against the base of
+which the waves ceaselessly beat. It was to this spot that a miraculous
+picture of St Nicholas, archbishop of Myra in Lycia, floated over, of
+its own accord, from I do not know where; and in consequence of this
+auspicious event, Jeremias, patriarch of Constantinople, founded this
+monastery, of "the victory of the holy cross," about the year 1522. This
+is the account given by the monks; but from the appearance and
+architecture of Stavroniketa, I conceive that it is a much older
+building, and that probably the patriarch Jeremias only repaired or
+restored it. However that may be, the monastery is in very good order,
+clean, and well kept; and I had a comfortable frugal dinner there with
+some of the good old monks, who seemed a cheerful and contented set.
+
+The library contained about eight hundred volumes, of which nearly two
+hundred were manuscripts on vellum. Amongst these were conspicuous the
+entire works of St. Chrysostom, in eight large folio volumes complete;
+and a manuscript of the Scala Perfectionis in Greek, containing a number
+of most exquisite miniatures in a brilliant state of preservation. It
+was a quarto of the tenth or eleventh century, and a most
+unexceptionable tome, which these unkind monks preferred keeping to
+themselves instead of letting me have it, as they ought to have done.
+The miniatures were first-rate works of Byzantine art. It was a terrible
+pang to me to leave such a book behind. There were also a Psalter with
+several miniatures, but these were partially damaged; five or six copies
+of the Gospels; two fine folio volumes of the Menologia, or Lives of the
+Saints; and sundry [Greek: omoilogoi] and books of divinity,
+and the works of the fathers. On paper there were two hundred more
+manuscripts, amongst which was a curious one of the Acts and Epistles,
+full of large miniatures and illuminations exceedingly well done. As it
+is quite clear that all these manuscripts are older than the time of the
+patriarch Jeremias, they confirm my opinion that he could not have been
+the original founder of the monastery.
+
+It is an hour's scramble over the rocks from Stavroniketa to the
+monastery of
+
+PANTOCRATORAS.
+
+This edifice was built by Manuel and Alexius Comnenus, and Johannes
+Pumicerius, their brother. It was subsequently repaired by Barbulus and
+Gabriel, two Wallachian nobles. The church is handsome and curious, and
+contains several relics, but the reliquaries are not of much beauty, nor
+of very great antiquity. Among them, however, is a small thick quarto
+volume about five inches square every way, in the handwriting, as you
+are told, of St. John of Kalavita. Now St. John of Kalavita was a hermit
+who died in the year 450, and his head is shown at Besancon, in the
+church of St. Stephen, to which place it was taken after the siege of
+Constantinople. Howbeit this manuscript did not seem to me to be older
+than the twelfth century, or the eleventh at the earliest It is written
+in a very minute hand, and contains the Gospels, some prayers, and lives
+of saints, and is ornamented with some small illuminations. The binding
+is very curious: it is entirely of silver gilt, and is of great
+antiquity. The back part is composed of an intricate kind of chainwork,
+which bends when the book is opened, and the sides are embossed with a
+variety of devices.
+
+On my inquiring for the library, I was told it had been destroyed during
+the revolution. It had formerly been preserved in the great square tower
+or keep, which is a grand feature in all the monasteries. I went to look
+at the place, and leaning through a ruined arch, I looked down into the
+lower story of the tower, and there I saw the melancholy remains of a
+once famous library. This was a dismal spectacle for a devout lover of
+old books--a sort of biblical knight errant, as I then considered
+myself, who had entered on the perilous adventure of Mount Athos to
+rescue from the thraldom of ignorant monks those fair vellum volumes,
+with their bright illuminations and velvet dresses and jewelled clasps,
+which for so many centuries had lain imprisoned in their dark monastic
+dungeons. It was indeed a heart-rending sight. By the dim light which
+streamed through the opening of an iron door in the wall of the ruined
+tower, I saw above a hundred ancient manuscripts lying among the rubbish
+which had fallen from the upper floor, which was ruinous, and had in
+great part given way. Some of these manuscripts seemed quite
+entire--fine large folios; but the monks said they were unapproachable,
+for that floor also on which they lay was unsafe, the beams below being
+rotten from the wet and rain which came in through the roof. Here was a
+trap ready set and baited for a bibliographical antiquary. I peeped at
+the old manuscripts, looked particularly at one or two that were lying
+in the middle of the floor, and could hardly resist the temptation. I
+advanced cautiously along the boards, keeping close to the wall, whilst
+every now and then a dull cracking noise warned me of my danger, but I
+tried each board by stamping upon it with my foot before I ventured my
+weight upon it. At last, when I dared go no farther, I made them bring
+me a long stick, with which I fished up two or three fine manuscripts,
+and poked them along towards the door. When I had safely landed them, I
+examined them more at my ease, but found that the rain had washed the
+outer leaves quite clean: the pages were stuck tight together into a
+solid mass, and when I attempted to open them, they broke short off in
+square bits like a biscuit. Neglect and damp and exposure had destroyed
+them completely. One fine volume, a large folio in double columns, of
+most venerable antiquity, particularly grieved me. I do not know how
+many more manuscripts there might be under the piles of rubbish. Perhaps
+some of them might still be legible, but without assistance and time I
+could not clean out the ruins that had fallen from above; and I was
+unable to save even a scrap from this general tomb of a whole race of
+books. I came out of the great tower, and sitting down on a pile of
+ruins, with a bearded assembly of grave caloyeri round me, I vented my
+sorrow and indignation in a long oration, which however produced a very
+slight effect upon my auditory; but whether from their not understanding
+Italian, or my want of eloquence, is matter of doubt. My man was the
+only person who seemed to commiserate my misfortune, and he looked so
+genuinely vexed and sorry that I liked him the better ever afterwards.
+At length I dismissed the assembly: they toddled away to their siesta,
+and I, mounted anew upon a stout well-fed mule, bade adieu to the
+hospitable agoumenos, and was soon occupied in picking my way among the
+rocks and trees towards the next monastery. In two hours' time we passed
+the ruins of a large building standing boldly on a hill. It had formerly
+been a college; and a magnificent aqueduct of fourteen double
+arches--that is, two rows of arches one above the other--connected it
+with another hill, and had a grand effect, with long and luxuriant
+masses of flowers streaming from its neglected walls. In half an hour
+more I arrived at
+
+VATOPEDE.
+
+This is the largest and richest of all the monasteries of Mount Athos.
+It is situated on the side of a hill where a valley opens to the sea,
+and commands a little harbour where three small Greek vessels were lying
+at anchor. The buildings are of great extent, with several towers and
+domes rising above the walls: I should say it was not smaller than the
+upper ward of Windsor Castle. The original building was erected by the
+Emperor Constantine the Great. That worthy prince being, it appears,
+much afflicted by the leprosy, ordered a number of little children to be
+killed, a bath of juvenile blood being considered an excellent remedy.
+But while they were selecting them, he was told in a vision that if he
+would become a Christian his leprosy should depart from him: he did so,
+and was immediately restored to health, and all the children lived long
+and happily. This story is related by Moses Chorensis, whose veracity I
+will not venture to doubt.
+
+In the fifth century this monastery was thrown down by Julian the
+Apostate. Theodosius the Great built it up again in gratitude for the
+miraculous escape of his son Arcadius, who having fallen overboard from
+his galley in the Archipelago, was landed safely on this spot through
+the intercession of the Virgin, to whose special honour the great church
+was founded: fourteen other chapels within the walls attest the piety of
+other individuals. In the year 862 the Saracens landed, destroyed the
+monastery by fire, slew many of the monks, took the treasures and broke
+the mosaics; but the representation of the Blessed Virgin was
+indestructible, and still remained safe and perfect above the altar.
+There was also a well under the altar, into which some of the relics
+were thrown and afterwards recovered by the community.
+
+About the year 1300 St. Athanasius the Patriarch persuaded Nicholaus and
+Antonius, certain rich men of Adrianople, to restore the monastery once
+more, which they did, and taking the vows became monks, and were buried
+in the narthex or portico of the church. I may here observe that this
+was the nearest approach to being buried within the church that was
+permitted in the early times of Christianity, and such is still the rule
+observed in the Greek Church: altars were, however, raised over the
+tombs or places of execution of martyrs.
+
+This church contains a great many ancient pictures of small size, most
+of them having the background overlaid with plates of silver-gilt: two
+of these are said to be portraits of the Empress Theodora. Two other
+pictures of larger size and richly set with jewels are interesting as
+having been brought from the church of St. Sophia at Constantinople,
+when that city fell a prey to the Turkish arms. Over the doors of the
+church and of the great refectory there are mosaics representing, if I
+remember rightly, saints and holy persons. One of the chapels, a
+separate building with a dome which had been newly repaired, is
+dedicated to the "Preservation of the Girdle of the Blessed Virgin," a
+relic which must be a source of considerable revenue to the monastery,
+for they have divided it into two parts, and one half is sent into
+Greece and the other half into Asia Minor whenever the plague is raging
+in those countries, and all those who are afflicted with that terrible
+disease are sure to be cured if they touch it, which they are allowed to
+do "_for a consideration_." On my inquiring how the monastery became
+possessed of so inestimable a medicine, I was gravely informed that,
+after the assumption of the Blessed Virgin, St. Thomas went up to heaven
+to pay her a visit, and there she presented him with her girdle. My
+informant appeared to have the most unshakeable conviction as to the
+truth of this history, and expressed great surprise that I had never
+heard it before.
+
+The library, although containing nearly four thousand printed books, has
+none of any high antiquity or on any subject but divinity. There are
+also about a thousand manuscripts, of which three or four hundred are on
+vellum; amongst these there are three copies of the works of St
+Chrysostom: they also have his head in the church--that golden mouth out
+of which proceeded the voice which shook the empire with the thunder of
+its denunciations. The most curious manuscripts are six rolls of
+parchment, each ten inches wide and about ten feet long, containing
+prayers for festivals on the anniversaries of the foundation of certain
+churches. There were at this time above three hundred monks resident in
+the monastery; many of these held offices and places of dignity under
+the agoumenos, whose establishment resembled the court of a petty
+sovereign prince. Altogether this convent well illustrates what some of
+the great monastic establishments in England must have been before the
+Reformation. It covers at least four acres of ground, and contains so
+many separate buildings within its massive walls that it resembles a
+fortified town. Everything told of wealth and indolence. When I arrived
+the lord abbot was asleep; he was too great a man to be aroused; he had
+eaten a full meal in his own apartment, and he could not be disturbed.
+His secretary, a thin pale monk, was deputed to show me the wonders of
+the place, and as we proceeded through the different chapels and
+enormous magazines of corn, wine, and oil, the officers of the different
+departments bent down to kiss his hand, for he was high in the favour of
+my lord the abbot, and was evidently a man not to be slighted by the
+inferior authorities if they wished to get on and prosper. The cellarer
+was a sly old fellow with a thin grey beard, and looked as if he could
+tell a good story of an evening over a flagon of good wine. Except at
+some of the palaces in Germany I have never seen such gigantic tuns as
+those in the cellars at Vatopede. The oil is kept in marble vessels of
+the size and shape of sarcophagi, and there is a curious picture in the
+entrance room of the oil-store, which represents the miraculous increase
+in their stock of oil during a year of scarcity, when, through the
+intercession of a pious monk who then had charge of that department, the
+marble basins, which were almost empty, overflowed, and a river of fine
+fresh oil poured in torrents through the door. The frame of this picture
+is set with jewels, and it appears to be very ancient. The refectory is
+an immense room; it stands in front of the church and has twenty-four
+marble tables and seats, and is in the same cruciform shape as that at
+St. Laura. It has frequently accommodated five hundred guests, the
+servants and tenants of the abbey, who come on stated days to pay their
+rents and receive the benediction of the agoumenos. Sixty or seventy fat
+mules are kept for the use of the community, and a very considerable
+number of Albanian servants and muleteers are lodged in outbuildings
+before the great gate. These, unlike their brethren of Epirus, are a
+quiet, stupid race, and whatever may be their notions of another world,
+they evidently think that in this there is no man living equal in
+importance to the great agoumenos of Vatopede, and no earthly place to
+compare with the great monastery over which he rules.
+
+From Vatopede it requires two hours and a half to ride to the monastery
+of
+
+SPHIGMENOU,
+
+which is a much smaller establishment. It is said to have been founded
+by the Empress Pulcheria, sister of the Emperor Theodosius the younger,
+and if so must be a very ancient building, for the empress died on the
+18th of February in the year 453. Her brother Theodosius was known by
+the title or cognomen of [Greek: kalligraphos], from the beauty of his
+writing: he was a protector of the Nestorian and Eutychian heretics, and
+ended his life on the 20th of October, 460.
+
+This monastery is situated in a narrow valley close to the sea, squeezed
+in between three little hills, from which circumstance it derives its
+name of [Greek: sphygmenos], "squeezed together." It is inhabited by
+thirty monks, who are cleaner and keep their church in better order and
+neatness than most of their brethren on Mount Athos. Among the relics of
+the saints, which are the first things they show to the pilgrim from
+beyond the sea, is a beautiful ancient cross of gold set with diamonds.
+Diamonds are of very rare occurrence in ancient pieces of jewellery; it
+is indeed doubtful whether they were known to the ancients, adamantine
+being an epithet applied to the hardness of steel, and I have never seen
+a diamond in any work of art of the Roman or classical era. Besides the
+diamonds the cross has on the upper end and on the extremities of the
+two arms three very fine and large emeralds, each fastened on with three
+gold nails: it is a fine specimen of early jewellery, and of no small
+intrinsic value.
+
+The library is in a room over the porch of the church: it contains about
+1500 volumes, half of which are manuscripts, mostly on paper, and all
+theological. I met with four copies of the Gospels and two of the
+Epistles, all the others being books of the church service and the usual
+folios of the fathers. There was, however, a Russian or Bulgarian
+manuscript of the four Gospels with an illumination at the commencement
+of each Gospel. It is written in capital letters, and seemed to be of
+considerable antiquity. I was disappointed at not finding manuscripts of
+greater age in so very ancient a monastery as this is; but perhaps it
+has undergone more squeezing than that inflicted upon it by the three
+hills. I slept here in peace and comfort.
+
+On the sea-shore not far from Sphigmenou are the ruins of the monastery
+of St. Basil, opposite a small rocky island in the sea, which I left at
+this point, and striking up the country arrived in an hour's time at the
+monastery of
+
+KILIANTARI,
+
+or a thousand lions. This is a large building, of which the ground plan
+resembles the shape of an open fan. It stands in a valley, and
+contained, when I entered its hospitable gates, about fifty monks. They
+preserve in the sacristy a superb chalice, of a kind of bloodstone set
+in gold, about a foot high and eight inches wide, the gift of one of the
+Byzantine emperors. This monastery was founded by Simeon, Prince of
+Servia, I could not make out at what time. In the library they had no
+great number of books, and what there were were all Russian or
+Bulgarian: I saw none which seemed to be of great antiquity. On
+inquiring, however, whether they had not some Greek manuscripts, the
+Agoumenos said they had one, which he went and brought me out of the
+sacristy; and this, to my admiration and surprise, was not only the
+finest manuscript on Mount Athos, but the finest that I had met with in
+any Greek monastery with the single exception of the golden manuscript
+of the New Testament at Mount Sinai. It was a 4to. Evangelistarium,
+written in golden letters on fine _white_ vellum. The characters were a
+kind of semi-uncial, rather round in their forms, of large size, and
+beautifully executed, but often joined together and having many
+contractions and abbreviations, in these respects resembling the Mount
+Sinai MS. This magnificent volume was given to the monastery by the
+Emperor Andronicus Comnenus about the year 1184; it is consequently not
+an early MS., but its imperial origin renders it interesting to the
+admirers of literary treasures, while the very rare occurrence of a
+_Greek_ MS. written in letters of gold would make it a most desirable
+and important acquisition to any royal library; for besides the two
+above-mentioned there are not, I believe, more than seven or eight MSS.
+of this description in existence, and of these several are merely
+fragments, and only one is on white vellum: this is in the library of
+the Holy Synod at Moscow. Five of the others are on blue or purple
+vellum, viz., Codex Cottonianus, in the British Museum, Titus C. 15, a
+fragment of the Gospels; an octavo Evangelistarium at Vienna; a fragment
+of the books of Genesis and St. Luke in silver letters at Vienna; the
+Codex Turicensis of part of the Psalms; and six leaves of the Gospels of
+St. Matthew in silver letters with the initials in gold in the Vatican.
+There may possibly be others, but I have never heard of them. Latin MSS.
+in golden letters are much less scarce, but Greek MSS., even those which
+merely contain two or three pages written in gold letters, are of such
+rarity that hardly a dozen are to be met with; of these there are three
+in the library at Parham. I think the Codex Ebnerianus has one or two
+pages written in gold, and the tables of a gospel at Jerusalem are in
+gold on deep purple vellum. At this moment I do not remember any more,
+although doubtless there must be a few of these partially ornamented
+volumes scattered through the great libraries of Europe.
+
+From Kiliantari, which is the last monastery on the N.E. side of the
+promontory, we struck across the peninsula, and two hours' riding
+brought us to
+
+ZOGRAPHOU,
+
+through plains of rich green grass dotted over with gigantic single
+trees, the scenery being like that of an English park, only finer and
+more luxuriant as well as more extensive. This monastery was founded in
+the reign of Leo Sophos, by three nobles of Constantinople who became
+monks; and the local tradition is that it was destroyed by the "_Pope of
+Rome_." How that happened I know not, but it was rebuilt in the year
+1502 by Stephanus, Waywode of Moldavia. It is a large fortified building
+of very imposing appearance, situated on a steep hill surrounded with
+trees and gardens overlooking a deep valley which opens on the gulf of
+Monte Santo. The MSS. here are Bulgarian, and not of early date; they
+had no Greek MSS. whatever.
+
+From Zographou, following the valley, we arrived at a lower plain on the
+sea coast, and there we discovered that we had lost our way; we
+therefore retraced our steps, and turning up among the hills to our left
+we came in three hours to
+
+CASTAMONETA,
+
+which, had we taken the right road, we might have reached in one. This
+is a very poor monastery, but it is of great age and its architecture is
+picturesque: it was originally founded by Constantine the Great. It has
+no library nor anything particularly well worth mentioning, excepting
+the original deed of the Emperor Manuel Paleologus, with the sign manual
+of that potentate written in very large letters in red ink at the
+bottom of the deed, by which he granted to the monastery the lands which
+it still retains. The poor monks were much edified by the sight of the
+patriarchal letter, and when I went away rang the bells of the church
+tower to do me honour.
+
+At the distance of one hour from hence stands the monastery of
+
+DOCHEIROU.
+
+It is the first to the west of those upon the south-west shore of the
+peninsula. It is a monastery of great size, with ample room for a
+hundred monks, although inhabited by only twenty. It was built in the
+reign of Nicephorus Botoniates, and was last repaired in the year 1578
+by Alexander, Waywode of Moldavia. I was very well lodged in this
+convent, and the fleas were singularly few. The library contained two
+thousand five hundred volumes, of which one hundred and fifty were
+vellum MSS. I omitted to note the number of MSS. on paper, but amongst
+them I found a part of Sophocles and a fine folio of Suidas's Lexicon.
+Among the vellum MSS. there was a folio in the Bulgarian language, and
+various works of the fathers. I found also three loose leaves of an
+Evangelistarium in uncial letters of the ninth century, which had been
+cut out of some ancient volume, for which I hunted in the dust in vain.
+The monks gave me these three leaves on my asking for them, for even a
+few pages of such a manuscript as this are not to be despised.
+
+From Docheirou it is only a distance of half an hour to
+
+XENOPHOU,
+
+which stands upon the sea shore. Here they were building a church in the
+centre of the great court, which, when it is finished, will be the
+largest on Mount Athos. Three Greek bishops were living here in exile. I
+did not learn what the holy prelates had done, but their misdeeds had
+been found out by the Patriarch, and he had sent them here to rusticate.
+This monastery is of a moderate size; its founder was St. Xenophou,
+regarding whose history or the period at which he lived I am unable to
+give any information, as nobody knew anything about him on the spot, and
+I cannot find him in any catalogue of saints which I possess. The
+monastery was repaired in the year 1545 by Danzulas Bornicus and
+Badulus, who were brothers, and Banus (the Ban) Barbulus, all three
+nobles of Hungary, and was afterwards beautified by Matthaeus, Waywode of
+Bessarabia.
+
+The library consists of fifteen hundred printed books, nineteen MSS. on
+paper, eleven on vellum, and three rolls on parchment, containing
+liturgies for particular days. Of the MSS. on vellum there were three
+which merit a description. One was a fine 4to. of part of the works of
+St. Chrysostom, of great antiquity, but not in uncial letters. Another
+was a 4to. of the four Gospels bound in faded red velvet with silver
+clasps. This book they affirmed to be a royal present to the monastery;
+it was of the eleventh or twelfth century, and was peculiar from the
+text being accompanied by a voluminous commentary on the margin and
+several pages of calendars, prefaces, &c., at the beginning. The
+headings of the Gospels were written in large plain letters of gold. In
+the libraries of forty Greek monasteries I have only met with one other
+copy of the Gospels with a commentary. The third manuscript was an
+immense quarto Evangelistarium sixteen inches square, bound in faded
+green or blue velvet, and said to be in the autograph of the Emperor
+Alexius Comnenus. The text throughout on each page was written in the
+form of a cross. Two of the pages are in purple ink powdered with gold,
+and these, there is every reason to suppose, are in the handwriting of
+the imperial scribe himself; for the Byzantine sovereigns affected to
+write only in purple, as their deeds and a magnificent MS. in another
+monastic library, of which I have not given an account in these pages,
+can testify: the titles of this superb volume are written in gold,
+covering the whole page. Altogether, although not in uncial letters, it
+was among the finest Greek MSS. that I had ever seen--perhaps, next to
+the uncial MSS., the finest to be met with anywhere.
+
+I asked the monks whether they were inclined to part with these three
+books, and offered to purchase them and the parchment rolls. There was a
+little consultation among them, and then they desired to be shown those
+which I particularly coveted. Then there was another consultation, and
+they asked me which I set the greatest value on. So I said the rolls, on
+which the three rolls were unrolled, and looked at, and examined, and
+peeped at by the three monks who put themselves forward in the business,
+with more pains and curiosity than had probably been ever wasted upon
+them before. At last they said it was impossible, the rolls were too
+precious to be parted with, but if I liked to give a good price I should
+have the rest; upon which I took up the St. Chrysostom, the least
+valuable of the three, and while I examined it, saw from the corner of
+my eye the three monks nudging each other and making signs. So I said,
+"Well, now what will you take for your two books, this and the big one?"
+They asked five thousand piastres; whereupon, with a look of indignant
+scorn, I laid down the St. Chrysostom and got up to go away; but after a
+good deal more talk we retired to the divan, or drawing-room as it may
+be called, of the monastery, where I conversed with the three exiled
+bishops. In course of time I was called out into another room to have a
+cup of coffee. There were my friends the three monks, the managing
+committee, and under the divan, imperfectly concealed, were the corners
+of the three splendid MSS. I knew that now all depended on my own tact
+whether my still famished saddle-bags were to have a meal or not that
+day, the danger lying between offering too much or too little. If you
+offer too much, a Greek, a Jew, or an Armenian immediately thinks that
+the desired object must be invaluable, that it must have some magical
+properties, like the lamp of Aladdin, which will bring wealth upon its
+possessor if he can but find out its secret; and he will either ask you
+a sum absurdly large, or will refuse to sell it at any price, but will
+lock it up and become nervous about it, and examine it over and over
+again privately to see what can be the cause of a Frank's offering so
+much for a thing apparently so utterly useless. On the other hand, too
+little must not be offered, for it would be an indignity to suppose that
+persons of consideration would condescend to sell things of trifling
+value--it wounds their aristocratic feelings, they are above such
+meannesses. By St. Xenophou, how we did talk! for five mortal hours it
+went on, I pretending to go away several times, but being always called
+back by one or other of the learned committee. I drank coffee and
+sherbet and they drank arraghi; but in the end I got the great book of
+Alexius Comnenus for the value of twenty-two pounds, and the curious
+Gospels, which I had treated with the most cool disdain all along, was
+finally thrown into the bargain; and out I walked with a big book under
+each arm, bearing with perfect resignation the smiles and scoffs of the
+three brethren, who could scarcely contain their laughter at the way
+they had done the silly traveller. Then did the saddlebags begin to
+assume a more comely and satisfactory form.
+
+After a stirrup cup of hot coffee, perfumed with the incense of the
+church, the monks bid me a joyous adieu; I responded as joyously: in
+short every one was charmed, except the mule, who evidently was more
+surprised than pleased at the increased weight which he had to carry.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+
+     The Monastery of Russico--Its Courteous Abbot--The Monastery of
+     Xeropotamo--Its History--High Character of its Abbot--Excursion to
+     the Monasteries of St. Nicholas and St. Dionisius--Interesting
+     Relics--Magnificent Shrine--The Library--The Monastery of St.
+     Paul--Respect shown by the Monks--Beautiful MS.--Extraordinary
+     Liberality and Kindness of the Abbot and Monks--A valuable
+     Acquisition at little Cost--The Monastery of Simopetra--Purchase of
+     MS.--The Monk of Xeropotamo--His Ideas about Women--Excursion to
+     Cariez--The Monastery of Coutloumoussi--The Russian
+     Book-Stealer--History of the Monastery--Its reputed Destruction by
+     the Pope of Rome--The Aga of Cariez--Interview in a Kiosk--The She
+     Cat of Mount Athos.
+
+
+From Xenophou I went on to
+
+RUSSICO,
+
+where also they were repairing the injuries which different parts of the
+edifice had sustained during the late Greek war. The agoumenos of this
+monastery was a remarkably gentlemanlike and accomplished man; he spoke
+several languages and ruled over a hundred and thirty monks. They had,
+however, amongst them all only nine MSS., and those were of no interest.
+The agoumenos told me that the monastery formerly possessed a MS. of
+Homer on vellum, which he sold to two English gentlemen some years ago,
+who were immediately afterwards plundered by pirates, and the MS. thrown
+into the sea. As I never heard of any Englishman having been at Mount
+Athos since the days of Dr. Clarke and Dr. Carlysle, I could not make
+out who these gentlemen were: probably they were Frenchmen, or Europeans
+of some other nation. However, the idea of the pirates gave me a horrid
+qualm; and I thought how dreadful it would be if they threw my Alexius
+Comnenus into the sea; it made me feel quite uncomfortable. This
+monastery was built by the Empress Catherine the First, of Russia--or,
+to speak more correctly, repaired by her--for it was originally founded
+by Saint Lazarus Knezes, of Servia, and the church dedicated to St.
+Panteleemon the Martyr. A ride of an hour brought me to
+
+
+XEROPOTAMO,
+
+where I was received with so much hospitality and kindness that I
+determined to make it my headquarters while I visited the other
+monasteries, which from this place could readily be approached by sea. I
+was fortunate in procuring a boat with two men--a sort of naval lay
+brethren,--who agreed to row me about wherever I liked, and bring me
+back to Xeropotamo for fifty piastres, and this they would do whenever I
+chose, as they were not very particular about time, an article upon
+which they evidently set small value.
+
+This monastery was founded by the Emperor Romanus about the year 920; it
+was rebuilt by Andronicus the Second in 1320; in the sixteenth century
+it was thrown down by an earthquake, and was again repaired by the
+Sultan Selim the First, or at least during his reign--that is, about
+1515. It was in a ruinous condition in the year 1701; it was again
+repaired, and in the Greek revolution it was again dismantled; at the
+time of my visit they were actively employed in restoring it. Alexander,
+Waywode of Wallachia, was a great benefactor to this and other
+monasteries of Athos, which owe much to the piety of the different
+Christian princes of the Danubian states of the Turkish empire.
+
+The library over the porch of the church, which is large and handsome,
+contains one thousand printed books and between thirty and forty
+manuscripts in bad condition. I saw none of consequence: that is to say,
+nothing except the usual volumes of divinity of the twelfth century. In
+the church is preserved a large piece of the holy cross richly set with
+valuable jewels. The agoumenos of Xeropotamo, a man with a dark-grey
+beard, about sixty years of age, struck me as a fine specimen of what an
+abbot of an ascetic monastery ought to be; simple and kind, yet clever
+enough, and learned in the divinity of his church, he set an example to
+the monks under his rule of devotion and rectitude of conduct; he was
+not slothful, or haughty, or grasping, and seemed to have a truly
+religious and cheerful mind. He was looked up to and beloved by the
+whole community; and with his dignified manner and appearance, his long
+grey hair, and dark flowing robes, he gave me the idea of what the
+saints and holy men of old must have been in the early days of
+Christianity, when they walked entirely in the faith, and--if required
+to do so--willingly gave themselves up as martyrs to the cause: when in
+all their actions they were influenced solely by the dictates of their
+religion. Would that such times would come again! But where every one
+sets up a new religion for himself, and when people laugh at and
+ridicule those things which their ignorance prevents them from
+appreciating, how can we hope for this?
+
+Early in the morning I started from my comfortable couch, and ran
+scrambling down the hill, over the rolling-stones in the dry bed of the
+torrent on which the monastery of the "dry river" ([Greek:
+xeropotamou]--courou chesme in Turkish) is built. We got into the boat:
+our carpets, some oranges, and various little stores for a day's
+journey, which the good monks had supplied us with, being brought down
+by sundry good-natured lubberly [Greek: katakymenoi]--religions
+youths--who were delighted at having something to do, and were as
+pleased as children at having a good heavy praying-carpet to carry, or a
+basket of oranges, or a cushion from the monastery. They all waited on
+the shore to see us off, and away we went along the coast. As the sun
+got up it became oppressively hot, and the first monastery we came
+abreast of was that of Simopetra, which is perched on the top of a
+perpendicular rock, five or six hundred feet high at least, if not twice
+as much. This rather daunted me: and as we thought perhaps to-morrow
+would not be so hot, I put off climbing up the precipice for the
+present, and rowed gently on in the calm sea till we came before the
+monastery of
+
+
+ST. NICHOLAS,
+
+the smallest of all the convents of Mount Athos. It was a most
+picturesque building, stuck up on a rock, and is famous for its figs, in
+the eating of which, in the absence of more interesting matter, we all
+employed ourselves a considerable time; they were marvellously cool and
+delicious, and there were such quantities of them. We and the boatmen
+sat in the shade, and enjoyed ourselves till we were ashamed of staying
+any longer. I forgot to ask who the founder was. There was no library;
+in fact, there was nothing but figs; so we got into the boat again, and
+sweltered on a quarter of an hour more, and then we came to
+
+
+ST. DIONISIUS.
+
+This monastery is also built upon a rock immediately above the sea; it
+is of moderate size, but is in good repair. There was a look of comfort
+about it that savoured of easy circumstances, but the number of monks
+in it was small. Altogether this monastery, as regards the antiquities
+it contained, was the most interesting of all. The church, a good-sized
+building, is in a very perfect state of preservation. Hanging on the
+wall near the door of entrance was a portrait painted on wood, about
+three feet square, in a frame of silver-gilt, set with jewels; it
+represented Alexius Comnenus, Emperor of Trebizonde, the founder of the
+monastery. He it was, I believe, who built that most beautiful church a
+little way out of the town of Trebizonde, which is called St. Sofia,
+probably from its resemblance to the cathedral of Constantinople. He is
+drawn in his imperial robes, and the portrait is one of the most curious
+I ever saw. He founded this church in the year 1380; and Neagulus and
+Peter, Waywodes of Bessarabia, restored and repaired the monastery.
+There was another curious portrait of a lady; I did not learn who it
+was: very probably the Empress Pulcheria, or else Roxandra Domna
+(Domina?), wife of Alexander, Waywode of Wallachia; for both these
+ladies were benefactors to the convent.
+
+I was taken, as a pilgrim, to the church, and we stood in the middle of
+the floor before the [Greek: ikonostasis], whilst the monks brought out
+an old-fashioned low wooden table, upon which they placed the relics of
+the saints which they presumed we came to adore. Of these some were
+very interesting specimens of intricate workmanship and superb and
+precious materials. One was a patera, of a kind of china or paste, made,
+as I imagine, of a multitude of turquoises ground down together, for it
+was too large to be of one single turquoise; there is one of the same
+kind, but of far inferior workmanship, in the treasury of St. Marc. This
+marvellous dish is carved in very high relief with minute figures or
+little statues of the saints, with inscriptions in very early Greek. It
+is set in pure gold, richly worked, and was a gift from the Empress or
+imperial Princess Pulcheria. Then there was an invaluable shrine for the
+head of St. John the Baptist, whose bones and another of his heads are
+in the cathedral at Genoa. St. John Lateran also boasts a head of St
+John, but that may have belonged to St. John the Evangelist. This shrine
+was the gift of Neagulus, Waywode or Hospodar of Wallachia: it is about
+two feet long and two feet high, and is in the shape of a Byzantine
+church; the material is silver-gilt, but the admirable and singular
+style of the workmanship gives it a value far surpassing its intrinsic
+worth. The roof is covered with five domes of gold; on each side it has
+sixteen recesses, in which are portraits of the saints in niello, and at
+each end there are eight others. All the windows are enriched in
+open-work tracery, of a strange sort of Gothic pattern, unlike anything
+in Europe. It is altogether a wonderful and precious monument of
+ancient art, the production of an almost unknown country, rich, quaint,
+and original in its design and execution, and is indeed one of the most
+curious objects on Mount Athos; although the patera of the Princess
+Pulcheria might probably be considered of greater value. There were many
+other shrines and reliquaries, but none of any particular interest.
+
+I next proceeded to the library, which contained not much less than a
+thousand manuscripts, half on paper and half on vellum. Of those on
+vellum the most valuable were a quarto Evangelistarium, in uncial
+letters, and in beautiful preservation; another Evangelistarium, of
+which three fly-leaves were in early uncial Greek; a small quarto of the
+Dialogues of St. Gregory, [Greek: dialogoi Gregoriou tou theologou ],
+not in uncial letters, with twelve fine miniatures; a small quarto New
+Testament, containing the Apocalypse; and some magnificent folios of the
+Fathers of the eleventh century; but not one classic author. Among the
+manuscripts on paper were a folio of the Iliad of Homer, badly written,
+two copies of the works of Dionysius the Areopagite, and a multitude of
+books for the church-service. Alas! they would part with nothing. The
+library was altogether a magnificent collection, and for the most part
+well preserved: they had no great number of printed books. I should
+imagine that this monastery must, from some fortunate accident, have
+suffered less from spoliation during the late revolution than any of
+the others; for considering that it is not a very large establishment,
+the number of valuable things it contained was quite astonishing.
+
+A quarter of an hour's row brought us to the scaricatojo of
+
+
+ST. PAUL,
+
+from whence we had to walk a mile and a half up a steep hill to the
+monastery, where building repairs were going on with great activity. I
+was received with cheerful hospitality, and soon made the acquaintance
+of four monks, who amongst them spoke English, French, Italian, and
+German. Having been installed in a separate bed-room, cleanly furnished
+in the Turkish style, where I subsequently enjoyed a delightful night's
+rest, undisturbed by a single flea, I was conducted into a large airy
+hall. Here, after a very comfortable dinner, the smaller fry of monks
+assembled to hear the illustrious stranger hold forth in turn to the
+four wise fathers who spoke unknown tongues. The simple, kind-hearted
+brethren looked with awe and wonder on the quadruple powers of those
+lips that uttered such strange sounds: just as the Peruvians made their
+reverence to the Spanish horses, whose speech they understood not, and
+whose manners were beyond their comprehension. It was fortunate for my
+reputation that the reverend German scholar was of a close and taciturn
+disposition, since my knowledge of his scraughing language did not
+extend very far, and when we got to scientific discussion I was very
+nearly at a stand still; but I am inclined to think that he upheld my
+dignity to save his own; and as my servant, who never minced matters,
+had doubtless told them that I could speak ninety other languages, and
+was besides nephew to most of the crowned heads of Europe, if a phoenix
+had come in he would have had a lower place assigned him. I found also
+that in this--as indeed in all the other monasteries--one who had
+performed the pilgrimage to the Holy Land was looked upon with a certain
+degree of respect. In short, I found that at last I was amongst a set of
+people who had the sense to appreciate my merits; so I held up my head,
+and assumed all the dignified humility of real greatness.
+
+This monastery was founded for Bulgarian and Servian monks by
+Constantine Biancobano, Hospodar of Wallachia. There was little that was
+interesting in it, either in architecture or any other walk of art; the
+library was contained in a small light closet, the books were clean, and
+ranged in order on the new deal shelves. There was only one Greek
+manuscript, a duodecimo copy of the Gospels of the twelfth or thirteenth
+century. The Servian and Bulgarian manuscripts amounted to about two
+hundred and fifty: of these three were remarkable; the first was a
+manuscript of the four Gospels, a thick quarto, and the uncial letters
+in which it was written were three fourths of an inch in height: it was
+imperfect at the end. The second was also a copy of the Gospels, a
+folio, in uncial letters, with fine illuminations at the beginning of
+each Gospel, and a large and curious portrait of a patriarch at the end;
+all the stops in this volume were dots of gold; several words also were
+written in gold. It was a noble manuscript. The third was likewise a
+folio of the Gospels in the ancient Bulgarian language, and, like the
+other two, in uncial letters. This manuscript was quite full of
+illuminations from beginning to end. I had seen no book like it anywhere
+in the Levant. I almost tumbled off the steps on which I was perched on
+the discovery of so extraordinary a volume. I saw that these books were
+taken care of, so I did not much like to ask whether they would part
+with them; more especially as the community was evidently a prosperous
+one, and had no need to sell any of their goods.
+
+After walking about the monastery with the monks, as I was going away
+the agoumenos said he wished he had anything which he could present to
+me as a memorial of my visit to the convent of St Paul. On this a brisk
+fire of reciprocal compliments ensued, and I observed that I should like
+to take a book. "Oh! by all means!" he said; "we make no use of the old
+books, and should be glad if you would accept one." We returned to the
+library; and the agoumenos took out one at a hazard, as you might take a
+brick or a stone out of a pile, and presented it to me. Quoth I, "If
+you don't care what book it is that you are so good as to give me, let
+me take one which pleases me;" and, so saying, I took down the
+illuminated folio of the Bulgarian Gospels, and I could hardly believe I
+was awake when the agoumenos gave it into my hands. Perhaps the greatest
+piece of impertinence of which I was ever guilty, was when I asked to
+buy another; but that they insisted upon giving me also; so I took the
+other two copies of the Gospels mentioned above, all three as free-will
+gifts. I felt almost ashamed at accepting these two last books; but who
+could resist it, knowing that they were utterly valueless to the monks,
+and were not saleable in the bazaar at Constantinople, Smyrna, Salonica,
+or any neighbouring city? However, before I went away, as a salve to my
+conscience I gave some money to the church. The authorities accompanied
+me beyond the outer gate, and by the kindness of the agoumenos mules
+were provided to take us down to the sea-shore, where we found our
+clerical mariners ready for us. One of the monks, who wished for a
+passage to Xeropotamo, accompanied us; and, turning our boat's head
+again to the north-west, we arrived before long a second time below the
+lofty rock of
+
+
+SIMOPETRA.
+
+This monastery was founded by St. Simon the Anchorite, of whose history
+I was unable to learn anything. The buildings are connected with the
+side of the mountain by a fine aqueduct, which has a grand effect,
+perched as it is at so great a height above the sea, and consisting of
+two rows of eleven arches, one above the other, with one lofty arch
+across a chasm immediately under the walls of the monastery, which, as
+seen from this side, resembles an immense square tower, with several
+rows of wooden balconies or galleries projecting from the walls at a
+prodigious height from the ground. It was no slight effort of gymnastics
+to get up to the door, where I was received with many grotesque bows by
+an ancient porter. I was ushered into the presence of the agoumenos, who
+sat in a hall, surrounded by a reverend conclave of his bearded and
+long-haired monks; and after partaking of sweetmeats and water, and a
+cup of coffee, according to custom, but no pipes--for the divines of
+Mount Athos do not indulge in smoking--they took me to the church and to
+the library.
+
+In the latter I found a hundred and fifty manuscripts, of which fifty
+were on vellum, all works of divinity, and not above ten or twelve of
+them fine books. I asked permission to purchase three, to which they
+acceded. These were the 'Life and Works of St. John Climax, Agoumenos of
+Mount Sinai,' a quarto of the eleventh century; the 'Acts and Epistles,'
+a noble folio written in large letters, in double columns: a very fine
+manuscript, the letters upright and not much joined together: at the end
+is an inscription in red letters, which may contain the date, but it is
+so faint that I could not make it out. The third was a quarto of the
+four Gospels, with a picture of an evangelist at the beginning of each
+Gospel. Whilst I was arranging the payment for these manuscripts, a
+monk, opening the copy of the Gospels, found at the end a horrible
+anathema and malediction written by the donor, a prince or king, he
+said, against any one who should sell or part with this book. This was
+very unlucky, and produced a great effect upon the monks; but as no
+anathema was found in either of the two other volumes, I was allowed to
+take them, and so went on my way rejoicing. They rang the bells at my
+departure, and I heard them at intervals jingling in the air above me as
+I scrambled down the rocky mountain. Except Dionisiou, this was the only
+monastery where the agoumenos kissed the letter of the patriarch and
+laid it upon his forehead: the sign of reverence and obedience which is,
+or ought to be, observed with the firmans of the Sultan and other
+oriental potentates.
+
+[Illustration: From a Sketch by R. Curzon.
+
+VIEW OF THE MONASTERY AND AQUEDUCT OF SIMOPETRA, ON MOUNT ATHOS, TAKEN
+FROM THE SEA SHORE.]
+
+The same evening I got back to my comfortable room at Xeropotamo, and
+did ample justice to a good meagre dinner after the heat and fatigues of
+the day. A monk had arrived from one of the outlying farms who could
+speak a little Italian; he was deputed to do the honours of the
+house, and accordingly dined with me. He was a magnificent-looking man
+of thirty or thirty-five years of age, with large eyes and long black
+hair and beard. As we sat together in the evening in the ancient room,
+by the light of one dim brazen lamp, with deep shades thrown across his
+face and figure, I thought he would have made an admirable study for
+Titian or Sebastian del Piombo. In the course of conversation I found
+that he had learnt Italian from another monk, having never been out of
+the peninsula of Mount Athos. His parents and most of the other
+inhabitants of the village where he was born, somewhere in Roumelia--but
+its name or exact position he did not know--had been massacred during
+some revolt or disturbance. So he had been told, but he remembered
+nothing about it; he had been educated in a school in this or one of the
+other monasteries, and his whole life had been passed upon the Holy
+Mountain; and this, he said, was the case with very many other monks. He
+did not remember his mother, and did not seem quite sure that he ever
+had one; he had never seen a woman, nor had he any idea what sort of
+things women were, or what they looked like. He asked me whether they
+resembled the pictures of the Panagia, the Holy Virgin, which hang in
+every church. Now, those who are conversant with the peculiar
+conventional representations of the Blessed Virgin in the pictures of
+the Greek church, which are all exactly alike, stiff, hard, and dry,
+without any appearance of life or emotion, will agree with me that they
+do not afford a very favourable idea of the grace or beauty of the fair
+sex; and that there was a difference of appearance between black women,
+Circassians, and those of other nations, which was, however, difficult
+to describe to one who had never seen a lady of any race. He listened
+with great interest while I told him that all women were not exactly
+like the pictures he had seen, but I did not think it charitable to
+carry on the conversation farther, although the poor monk seemed to have
+a strong inclination to know more of that interesting race of beings
+from whose society he had been so entirely debarred. I often thought
+afterwards of the singular lot of this manly and noble-looking monk:
+whether he is still a recluse, either in the monastery or in his
+mountain-farm, with its little moss-grown chapel as ancient as the days
+of Constantine; or whether he has gone out into the world and mingled in
+its pleasures and its cares.
+
+I arranged with the captain of a small vessel which was lying off
+Xeropotamo taking in a cargo of wood, that he should give me a passage
+in two or three days, when he said he should be ready to sail; and in
+the mean time I purposed to explore the metropolis of Mount Athos, the
+town of Cariez; and then to go to Caracalla, and remain there till the
+vessel was ready.
+
+[Illustration: CIRCASSIAN LADY.]
+
+Accordingly, the next morning I set out, the Agoumenos supplying me with
+mules. The guide did not know how far it was to Cariez, which is
+situated almost in the centre of the peninsula. I found it was only
+distant one hour and a half; but as I had not made arrangements to go
+on, I was obliged to remain there all day. Close to the town is the
+great monastery of
+
+
+COUTLOUMOUSSI,
+
+the most regular building on Mount Athos. It contains a large square
+court with a cloister of stone arches all round it, out of which the
+cells and chambers open, as they do in a Roman Catholic convent. The
+church stands in the centre of this quadrangle, and glories in a famous
+picture of the Last Judgment on the wall of the narthex, or porch,
+before the door of entrance. The monastery was at this time nearly
+uninhabited; but, after some trouble, I found one monk, who made great
+difficulties as to showing me the library, for he said a Russian had
+been there some time ago, and had borrowed a book which he never
+returned. However, at last I gained admission by means of that ingenious
+silver key which opens so many locks.
+
+In a good-sized square room, filled with shelves all round, I found a
+fine, although neglected, collection of books; a great many of them
+thrown on the floor in heaps, and covered all over with dust, which the
+Russian did not appear to have much disturbed when he borrowed the book
+which had occasioned me so much trouble. There were about six or seven
+hundred volumes of printed books, two hundred MSS. on paper, and a
+hundred and fifty on vellum. I was not permitted to examine this library
+at all to my satisfaction. The solitary monk thought I was a Russian,
+and would not let me alone, or give me the time I wanted for my
+researches. I found a multitude of folios and quartos of the works of
+St. Chrysostom, who seems to have been the principal instructor of the
+monks of Mount Athos, that is, in the days when they were in the habit
+of reading--a tedious custom, which they have long since given up by
+general consent. I met also with an Evangelistarium, a quarto in uncial
+letters, but not in very fine condition. Two or three other old monks
+had by this time crept out of their holes, but they would not part with
+any of their books: that unhappy Russian had filled the minds of the
+whole brotherhood with suspicion. So we went to the church, which was
+curious and quaint, as they all are; and as we went through all the
+requisite formalities before various grim pictures, and showed due
+respect for the sacred character of a Christian church, they began at
+last to believe that I was not a Russian; but if they had seen the
+contents of the saddle-bags which were sticking out bravely on each side
+of the patient mule at the gate, they would perhaps have considered me
+as something far worse.
+
+Coutloumoussi was founded by the Emperor Alexius Comnenus, and, having
+been destroyed by "_the Pope of Rome_," was restored by the piety of
+various hospodars and waywodes of Bessarabia. It is difficult to
+understand what these worthy monks can mean when they affirm that
+several of their monasteries have been burned and plundered by the Pope.
+Perhaps in the days of the Crusades some of the rapacious and
+undisciplined hordes who accompanied the armies of the Cross--not to
+rescue the holy sepulchre from the power of the Saracens, but for the
+sake of plunder and robbery--may have been attracted by the fame of the
+riches of these peaceful convents, and have made the differences in
+their religion a pretext for sacrilege and rapacity. Thus bands of
+pirates and brigands in the middle ages may have cloaked their acts of
+violence under the specious excuse of devotion to the Church of Rome;
+and so the Pope has acquired a bad name, and is looked upon with terror
+and animosity by the inhabitants of the monasteries of Mount Athos.
+
+Having seen what I could, I went on to the town of Cariez, if it can
+properly be called such; for it is difficult to explain what it is. One
+may perhaps say that what Washington is to the United States, Cariez is
+to Mount Athos. A few artificers do live there who carve crosses and
+ornaments in cypress-wood. The principal feature of the place is the
+great church of Protaton, which is surrounded by smaller buildings and
+chapels. These I saw at a distance, but did not visit, because I could
+get no mules, and it was too hot to walk so far. A Turkish aga lives
+here: he is sent by the Porte to collect the revenue from the monks, and
+also to protect them from other Turkish visitors. He is paid and
+provided with food by a kind of rate which is levied on the twenty-one
+monasteries of [Greek: agion oros], and is in fact a sort of sheep-dog
+to the flock of helpless monks who pasture among the trees and rocks of
+the peninsula. On certain days the Agoumenoi of the monasteries and the
+high officers of their communities meet at the church of Protaton for
+the transaction of business and the discussion of affairs. I am sorry I
+did not see this ancient house of parliament. The rooms in which these
+synods or convocations are held adjoin the church. Situated at short
+distances around these principal edifices are numerous small
+ecclesiastical villas, such as were called cells in England before the
+Reformation: these are the habitations of the venerable senators when
+they come up to parliament. Some of them are beautifully situated; for
+Cariez stands in a fair, open vale, half-way up the side of the
+mountain, and commands a beautiful view to the north of the sea, with
+the magnificent island of Samotraki looming superbly in the distance.
+All around are large orchards and plantations of peach-trees and of
+various other sorts of fruit-bearing trees in great abundance, and the
+round hills are clothed with greensward. It is a happy, peaceful-looking
+place, and in its trim and sunny arbours reminds one of Virgil and
+Theocritus.
+
+I went to the house of the aga to seek for a habitation, but the aga was
+asleep; and who was there so bold as to wake a sleeping aga? Luckily he
+awoke of his own accord; and he was soon informed by my interpreter that
+an illustrious personage awaited his leisure. He did not care for a
+monk, and not much for an agoumenos; but he felt small in the presence
+of a mighty Turkish aga. Nevertheless, he ventured a few hints as usual
+about the kings and queens who were my first cousins, but in a much more
+subdued tone than usual; and I was received with that courteous civility
+and good breeding which is so frequently met with among Turks of every
+degree. The aga apologised for having no good room to offer me; but he
+sent out his men to look for a lodging; and in the mean time we went to
+a kiosk, that is, a place like a large birdcage, with enough roof to
+make a shade, and no walls to impede the free passage of the air. It was
+built of wood, upon a scaffold eight or ten feet from the ground, in the
+corner of a garden, and commanded a fine view of the sea. In one corner
+of this cage I sat all day long, for there was nowhere else to go to;
+and the aga sat opposite to me in another corner, smoking his pipe, in
+which solacing occupation to his great surprise I did not partake. We
+had cups of coffee and sherbet every now and then, and about every
+half-hour the aga uttered a few words of compliment or welcome,
+informing me occasionally that there were many dervishes in the place,
+"very many dervishes," for so he denominated the monks. Dinner came
+towards evening. There was meat, dolmas, demir tatlessi, olives, salad,
+roast meat, and pilau, that filled up some time; and shortly afterwards
+I retired to the house of the monastery of Russico, a little distance
+from my kiosk; and there I slept on a carpet on the boards; and at
+sunrise was ready to continue my journey, as were also the mules. The
+aga gave me some breakfast, at which repast a cat made its appearance,
+with whom the day before I had made acquaintance; but now it came, not
+alone, but accompanied by two kittens. "Ah!" said I to the aga, "how is
+this? Why, as I live, this is a _she_ cat! a cat feminine! What business
+has it on Mount Athos? and with kittens too! a wicked cat!"
+
+"Hush!" said the Aga, with a solemn grin; "do not say anything about it.
+Yes, it must be a she-cat: I allow, certainly, that it must be a
+she-cat. I brought it with me from Stamboul. But do not speak of it, or
+they will take it away; and it reminds me of my home, where my wife and
+children are living far away from me."
+
+[Illustration: TURKISH LADY, IN THE YASHMAK, OR VEIL.]
+
+I promised to make no scandal about the cat, and took my leave; and
+as I rode off I saw him looking at me out of his cage with the cat
+sitting by his side. I was sorry I could not take aga and cat and all
+with me to Stamboul, the poor gentleman looked so solitary and
+melancholy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+
+     Caracalla--The Agoumenos--Curious Cross--The Nuts of
+     Caracalla--Singular Mode of preparing a Dinner Table--Departure
+     from Mount Athos--Packing of the MSS.--Difficulties of the
+     Way--Voyage to the Dardanelles--Apprehended Attack from
+     Pirates--Return to Constantinople.
+
+
+It took me three hours to reach Caracalla, where the agoumenos and
+Father Joasaph received me with all the hospitable kindness of old
+friends, and at once installed me in my old room, which looked into the
+court, and was very cool and quiet. Here I reposed in peace during the
+hotter hours of the day; and here I received the news that the captain
+of the vessel which I had hired had left me in the lurch and gone out to
+sea, having, I suppose, made some better bargain. This caused me some
+tribulation; but there was nothing to be done but to get another vessel;
+so I sent back to Xeropotamo, which appeared to be the most frequented
+part of the coast, to see whether there was any craft there which could
+be hired.
+
+I employed the next day in wandering about with the agoumenos and Father
+Joasaph in all the holes and corners of the monastery; the agoumenos
+telling me interminable legends of the saints, and asking Father Joasaph
+if they were not true. I looked over the library, where I found an
+uncial Evangelistarium; a manuscript of Demosthenes on paper, but of
+some antiquity; a manuscript of Justin ([Greek: Ioustinou]) in Greek;
+and several other manuscripts,--all of which the agoumenos agreed to let
+me have.
+
+One of the monks had a curiously carved cross set in silver, which he
+wished to sell; but I told the agoumenos that it was not sufficiently
+ancient: I added, however, that if I could meet with any ancient cross
+or shrine or reliquary, I should be delighted to purchase such a thing,
+and that I would give a good price for it. In the afternoon it struck
+him suddenly that as he did not care for antiquities, perhaps we might
+come to an arrangement; and the end of the affair was that he gave me
+one of the ancient crosses which I had seen when I was there before, and
+put the one the monk had to sell in its place; certain pieces of gold
+which I produced rendering this transaction satisfactory to all parties.
+This most curious and beautiful piece of jewellery has been since
+engraved, and forms the subject of the third plate in Shaw's 'Dresses
+and Decorations of the Middle Ages,' London, 1843. It had been presented
+to the monastery by the Emperor John, whom, from what I was told by the
+agoumenos, I take to have been John Zimisces. It is one of the most
+ancient as well as one of the finest relics of its kind now existing in
+England.
+
+On the evening of the second day my man returned from Xeropotamo with
+the information that he had found a small Greek brig, and had engaged to
+give the patron or captain eleven hundred piastres for our passage
+thence to the Dardanelles the next day, if I could manage to be ready in
+so short a time. As fortunately I had purchased all the manuscripts
+which I wished to possess, there was nothing to detain me on Mount
+Athos; for I had now visited every monastery excepting that of St. Anne,
+which indeed is not a monastery like the rest, but a mere collection of
+hermitages or cells at the extreme point of the peninsula, immediately
+under the great peak of the mountain. I was told that there was nothing
+there worth seeing; but still I am sorry that I did not make a
+pilgrimage to so original a community, who it appears live on roots and
+herbs, and are the most strict of all the ascetics in this strange
+monastic region.
+
+All of a sudden, as we were walking quietly together, the agoumenos
+asked me if I knew what was the price of nuts at Constantinople.
+
+"Nuts?" said I.
+
+"Yes, nuts," said he; "hazel-nuts: nuts are excellent things. Have they
+a good supply of nuts at Constantinople?"
+
+"Well," said I, "I don't know; but I dare say they have. But why, my
+Lord, do you ask? Why do you wish to know the price of hazel-nuts at
+Constantinople?"
+
+"Oh!" said the agoumenos, "they do not eat half nuts enough at Stamboul.
+Nuts are excellent things. They should be eaten more than they are.
+People say that nuts are unwholesome; but it is a great mistake." And so
+saying, he introduced me into a set of upper rooms that I had not
+previously entered, the entire floors of which were covered two feet
+deep with nuts. I never saw one-hundredth part so many before. The good
+agoumenos, it seems, had been speculating in hazel-nuts; and a vessel
+was to come to the little tower of the scaricatojo down below to be
+freighted with them: they were to produce a prodigious profit, and
+defray the expense of finishing the new buildings of Caracalla.
+
+"Take some," said he; "don't be afraid; there are plenty. Take some, and
+taste them, and then you can tell your friends at Constantinople what a
+peculiar flavour you found in the famous nuts of Athos; and in all Athos
+every one knows that there are no nuts like those of Caracalla!"
+
+They were capital nuts; but as it was before dinner, and I was
+ravenously hungry, and my lord the agoumenos had not brought a bottle of
+sherry in his pocket, I did not particularly relish them. But there had
+been great talking during the morning between the agoumenos and Pater
+Joasaph about a famous large fish which was to be cooked for dinner;
+and, as the important hour was approaching, we adjourned to my sitting
+room. Father Joasaph was already there, having washed his hands and
+seated himself on the divan, in order to regulate the proceedings of the
+lay brother who acted as butler. The preparations for the banquet were
+made. The lay brother first brought in the table-cloth, which he spread
+upon the ground in one corner of the room; then he turned the table
+upside down upon the table-cloth, with its legs in the air: next he
+brought two immense flagons, one of wine, the other of water; these were
+made of copper tinned, and were each a foot and a half high; he set them
+down on the carpet a little way from the table-cloth; and round the
+table he placed three cushions for the agoumenos, Pater Joasaph, and me;
+and then he went away to bring the dinner. He soon reappeared, bringing
+in, with the assistance of another stout catechumen, the whole of the
+dinner on a large circular tray of well-polished brass called a sinni.
+This was so formed as to fix on the sticking-up legs of the subverted
+table, and, with the aid of Pater Joasaph, it was soon all tight and
+straight. In a great centre-dish there appeared the big fish in a sea of
+sauce surrounded by a mountainous shore of rice. Round this luxurious
+centre stood a circle of smaller dishes, olives, caviare, salad (no
+eggs, because there were no hens), papas yaknesi, and several sweet
+things. Two cats followed the dinner into the room, and sat down
+demurely side by side. The fish looked excellent, and had a most
+savoury smell. I had washed my hands, and was preparing to sit down,
+when the Father Abbot, who was not thinking of the dinner, took this
+inopportune moment to begin one of his interminable stories.
+
+"We have before spoken," he said, "of the many kings, princes, and
+patriarchs who have given up the world and ended their days here in
+peace. One of the most important epochs in the history of Mount Athos
+occurred about the year 1336, when a Calabrian monk, a man of great
+learning though of mean appearance, whose name was Barlaam, arrived on a
+pilgrimage to venerate the sacred relics of our famous sanctuaries. He
+found here many holy men, who, having retired entirely from the world,
+by communing with themselves in the privacy of their own cells, had
+arrived at that state of calm beatitude and heavenly contemplation, that
+the eternal light of Mount Tabor was revealed to them."
+
+"Mount Tabor?" said I.
+
+"Yes," said the agoumenos, "the light which had been seen during the
+time of the Transfiguration by the apostles, and which had always
+existed there, was seen by those who, after years of solitude and
+penance and maceration of the flesh, had arrived at that state of
+abstraction from all earthly things that in their bodies they saw the
+divine light. They in those good times would sit alone in their chambers
+with their eyes cast down upon the region of their navel; this was
+painful at first, both from the fixedness of the attitude required, with
+the head bent down upon the breast, and from the workings of the mind,
+which seemed to wander in the regions of darkness and space. At last,
+when they had persevered in fasting day and night with no change of
+thought or attitude for many hours, they began to feel a wonderful
+satisfaction; a ray of joy ineffable would seem to illuminate the brain;
+and no sooner had the soul discovered the place of the heart than it was
+involved in a mystic and ethereal light."[18]
+
+"Ah," said I, "really!"
+
+"Now this Barlaam, being a carnal and worldly-minded man, took upon
+himself to doubt the efficacy of this bodily and mental discipline; it
+is said that he even ventured to ridicule the venerable fathers who gave
+themselves up so entirely to the contemplation of the light of Mount
+Tabor. Not only did he question the merits of these ascetic acts, but,
+being learned in books, and being endowed with great powers of eloquence
+and persuasion, he infused doubts into the minds of others of the monks
+and anchorites of Mount Athos. Arguments were used on both sides;
+conversations arose upon these subjects; arguments grew into
+disputations, conversations into controversies, till at last, from the
+most peaceful and regular of communities, the peninsula of the holy
+mountain became from one end to the other a theatre of discord, doubt,
+and difference; the flames of contention were lit up; every thing was
+unsettled; men knew not what to think; till at last, with general
+consent, the unhappy intruder was dismissed from all the monasteries;
+and, flying from the storm of angry words which he had raised on all
+sides around him, he departed from Mount Athos and retired to the city
+of Constantinople. There his specious manners, his knowledge of the
+language of the Latins, and the dissensions he had created in the
+church, brought him into notice at court; and now not only were the
+monks of Mount Athos and Olympus divided against each other, but the
+city was split into parties of theological disputants; clamour and
+acrimony raged on every side. The Emperor Andronicus, willing to remove
+the cause of so much contention, and being at the same time surrounded
+with difficulties on all sides (for the unbelieving Turks, commanded by
+the fierce Orchan, had with their unnumbered tribes overrun Bithynia and
+many of the provinces of the Christian emperor), he graciously
+condescended to give his imperial mandate that the monk Barlaam should
+[here the two cats became vociferous in their impatience for the fish]
+be sent on an embassy to the Pope of Rome; he was empowered to enter
+into negotiations for the settlement of all religious differences
+between the Eastern and Western churches, on condition that the Latin
+princes should assist the emperor to drive the Turks back into the
+confines of Asia. The Emperor Andronicus died from a fever brought on by
+excitement in defending the cause of the ascetic quietists before a
+council in his palace. John Paleologus was set aside; and John
+Cantacuzene, in a desperate endeavour to please all parties, gave his
+daughter Theodora to Orchan the Emperor of the Osmanlis; and at his
+coronation the purple buskin of his right leg was fastened on by the
+Greeks, and that of his left leg by the Latins. Notwithstanding these
+concessions, the embassy of Barlaam, the most important with which any
+diplomatic agent was ever trusted, failed altogether from the troubles
+of the times. The Emperor John Cantacuzene, who celebrated his own acts
+in an edict beginning with the words 'by my sublime and almost
+incredible virtue,' gave up the reins of power, and taking the name of
+Josaph, became a monk of one of the monasteries of the holy mountain,
+which was then known by the name of the monastery of Mangane, while the
+monk Barlaam was created Bishop of Gerace, in Italy."
+
+By the time the good abbot had come to the conclusion of his history,
+the fish was cold and the dinner spoilt; but I thought his account of
+the extraordinary notions which the monks of those dark ages had formed
+of the duties of Christianity so curious, that it almost compensated for
+the calamity of losing the only good dinner which I had seen on Mount
+Athos.
+
+What a difference it would have made in the affairs of Europe if the
+embassy of Barlaam had succeeded! The Turks would not have been now in
+possession of Constantinople; and many points of difference having been
+mutually conceded by the two great divisions of the church, perhaps the
+Reformation never would have taken place. The narration of these events
+was the more interesting to me, as I had it from the lips of a monk who
+to all intents and purposes was living in the darkness of remote
+antiquity. His ample robes, his long beard, and the Byzantine
+architecture of the ancient room in which we sat, impressed his words
+upon my remembrance; and as I looked upon the eager countenance of the
+abbot, whose thoughts still were fixed upon the world from which he had
+retired, while he discoursed of the troubles and discords which had
+invaded the peaceful glades and quiet solitudes of the holy mountain, I
+felt that there was no place left on this side of the grave where the
+wicked cease from troubling or where the weary are at rest. No places,
+however, that I have seen equal the beauty of the scenery and the calm
+retired look of the small farmhouses, if they may so be called, which I
+met with in my rides on the declivities of Mount Athos. These buildings
+are usually situated on the sides of hills opening on the land which the
+monastic labourers cultivate; they consist of a small square tower,
+usually appended to which are one or two little stone cottages, and an
+ancient chapel, from which the tinkling of the bar which calls the monks
+to prayer may be heard many times a day echoing softly through the
+lovely glades of the primaeval forest. The ground is covered in some
+places with anemones and cyclamen; waterfalls are met with at the head
+of half the valleys, pouring their refreshing waters over marble rocks.
+If the great mountain itself, which towers up so grandly above the
+enchanting scenery below, had been carved into the form of a statue of
+Alexander the Great, according to the project of Lysippus, though a
+wonderful effort of human labour, it could hardly have added to the
+beauty of the scene, which is so much increased by the appearance of the
+monasteries, whose lofty towers and rounded domes appear almost like the
+palaces we read of in a fairy tale.
+
+The next morning, at an early hour, mules were waiting in the court to
+carry me across the hills to the harbour below the monastery of
+Xeropotamo, where the Greek brig was lying which was to convey me and my
+treasures from these peaceful shores. Emptying out my girdle, I
+calculated how much, or rather how little money would suffice to pay the
+expenses of my voyage to the Asiatic castle of the Dardanelles, feeling
+assured that from thence I could get credit for a passage in the
+magnificent steamer _The Stamboul_, which ran between Smyrna and
+Constantinople. With the reservation of this sum, I gave the agoumenos
+all my remaining gold, and in return he provided me with an old wooden
+chest, in which I stowed away several goodly folios; for the
+saddle-bags, although distended to their utmost limits, did not suffice
+to carry all the great manuscripts and ponderous volumes that were now
+added to my store. Turning out the corn from the nosebags of the mules,
+I put one or two smaller books in each; and, after all, an extra mule
+was sent for to convey the surplus tomes over the rough and craggy ridge
+which we were to pass in our journey to the other sea. Although the
+stories of the agoumenos were too windy and too long, I was sorry to
+part from him, and I took an affectionate leave also of Pater Joasaph
+and the two cats. Unfortunately, in the hurry of departure, I left on
+the divan the MS. of Justin, which I had been trying to decipher, and
+forgot it when I came away. It was a small thick octavo, on charta
+bombycina, and was probably kicked into the nearest corner as soon as I
+evacuated the monastery.
+
+Our ride was a very rough one. We had first to ascend the hill, in some
+places through deep ravines, and in others through most glorious forests
+of gigantic trees, mostly planes, with a thick underwood of those
+aromatic flowering evergreens which so beautifully clothe the hills of
+Greece and this part of Turkey.
+
+When we had crossed the upper ridge of rock, leaving the peak of Athos
+towering to the sky on our left, we had to descend the dry bed of a
+torrent so full of great stones and fallen rocks, that it appeared
+impossible for anything but a goat to travel on such a road. I got off
+my mule, and began jumping from one rock to another on the edge of the
+precipice; but the sun was so powerful, that in a short time I was
+completely exhausted; and on looking at the mules, I saw that one after
+another they jumped down so unerringly over chasms and broken rocks,
+alighting so precisely in the exact place where there was standing-room
+for their feet, that, after a little consideration, I remounted my mule;
+and keeping my seat, without holding the bridle, we hopped and skipped
+from rock to rock down this extraordinary track, until in due time we
+arrived safely at the sea-shore, close to the mouth of the little river
+of Xeropotamo. My manuscripts and myself were soon embarked, and with a
+favouring breeze we stood out into the Gulf of Monte Santo, and had
+leisure to survey the scenery of this superb peninsula as we glided
+round the lofty marble rocks and noble forests which formed the
+background to the strange and picturesque Byzantine monasteries with
+every one of which we had become acquainted.
+
+Being a little nervous on account of the pirates, of whom I had heard
+many stories during my sojourn on Mount Athos, I questioned the master
+of the vessel on this subject. "Oh," said he, "the sea is now very
+quiet; there have been no pirates about the coast for the last
+fortnight." This assurance hardly satisfied me. How terrible it would be
+to see these precious volumes thrown into the sea, like my unhappy
+precursor's MS. of Homer! It was frightful to think of! We were three
+days at sea, there being at this fine season very little wind. Once we
+thought we were chased by a wicked-looking cutter with a large white
+mainsail, which kept to windward of us; but in the end, after some hours
+of deadly tribulation, during which I hid the manuscripts as well as I
+could under all kinds of rubbish in the hold, we descried the stars and
+stripes of America upon her ensign; so then I pulled all the old books
+out again. This cutter was, I suppose, a tender to some American
+man-of-war. On the evening of the third day we found ourselves safe
+under the guns of Roumeli Calessi, the European castle of the
+Dardanelles; and, after a good deal of tedious tacking, we got across to
+the Asiatic castle of Coom Calessi, where I landed with all my
+treasures. Before long, the Smyrna steamer, _The Stamboul_, hove in
+sight, and I took my passage in her to Constantinople.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+London: Printed by W. Clowes and Son, Stamford Street.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Moyah--"water."
+
+[2] This, the first mosque built at Cairo, is said to have been paid for
+by Sultan Tayloon with a part of an immense treasure in gold, which he
+found under a monument called the altar of Pharaoh, on the mountain of
+Mokattam. This building was destroyed by Tayloon, who founded a mosque
+upon the spot in the year 873, in honour of Judah, the brother of
+Joseph, who resorted there to pray when he came to Egypt. This mosque
+becoming ruined, another was built upon the spot by the Emir El Guyoosh,
+minister of the Caliph Mostansir, A.D. 1094, which still remains perched
+on the corner of a rock, which is excavated in various places with
+ancient tombs.
+
+[3] A fragment of the Gospel of St. Mark was found in the tomb which was
+reputed to be his. Damp and age have decayed this precious relic, of
+which only some small fragments remain; but an exact facsimile of it was
+made before it was destroyed. This facsimile is now in my possession: it
+is in Latin, and is written in double columns, on sixteen leaves of
+vellum, of a large quarto size, and proves that whoever transcribed the
+original must have been a proficient in the art of writing, for the
+letters are of great size and excellent formation, and in the style of
+the very earliest manuscripts.
+
+[4] See Quarterly Review, vol. lxxvii. p. 43.
+
+[5] It is perhaps more likely that these beautiful specimens of ancient
+glass were made in the island of Murano, in the lagunes of Venice, as
+the manufactories of the Venetians supplied the Mahomedans with many
+luxuries in the middle ages.
+
+[6] The only early church in which the columns are continued on the end
+opposite to the altar, where the doorway is usually situated, is the
+Cathedral of Messina. The effect is very good, and takes off from the
+baldness usually observable at that end of a basilica. The early Coptic
+churches have no porch or narthex, an essential part of an original
+Greek church.
+
+[7] This curious old sunken oratory bears a resemblance in many points
+to the fine church of St. Agnese, at Rome, where the ground has been
+excavated down to the level of the catacomb in which the holy martyr's
+body reposes. The long straight flight of steps down to the lower level
+are also similar in these two very ancient churches, although the Church
+of Der-el-Adra is poor and mean, whilst that of St. Agnese is a superb
+edifice, and is famous for being the first basilica in which a gallery
+is found over the side aisles. This gallery was set apart for the women,
+as in the oriental churches of St. Sophia at Constantinople, and
+perhaps, also, of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem.
+
+[8] It is much to be desired that some competent person should write a
+small cheap book, with plates or wood-cuts explaining what an early
+Christian Church was; what the ceremonies, ornaments, vestures, and
+liturgy were at the time when the Church of our Lord was formally
+established by the Emperor Constantine: for the numerous well-meaning
+authors who have written on the restoration of our older churches,
+appear to me to be completely in the dark. Gothic is NOT Christian
+architecture--it is Roman Catholic architecture: the vestures of English
+ecclesiastics are not restorations of early simplicity--they are modern
+inventions taken from German collegiate dresses which have nothing to do
+with religion.
+
+[9] We are perhaps not entirely acquainted with the mechanical powers of
+the ancients. The seated statue of Rameses II., in the Memnonium at
+Thebes, a solid block of granite forty or fifty feet high, has been
+broken to pieces apparently by a tremendous blow. How this can have been
+accomplished without the aid of gunpowder it is difficult to conjecture.
+
+[10] For the benefit of the reader I subjoin two of there songs
+translated from the originals; or rather, I may say, paraphrased:
+although the first of them has the same rhythm as the original. The
+notes are but very little, if at all, altered from those which have been
+frequently sung to me, accompanied by a drum, called a tarabouka, or a
+long sort of guitar with only two or three strings. It must be observed
+that the chorus, Amaan, Amaan, Amaan, is generally added to all
+songs--_a discretion_--and that the way this chorus is howled out, is to
+an European ear the most difficult part to bear of the whole:--
+
+                      1.
+
+    Thine eyes, thine eyes have kill'd me:
+      With love my heart is torn:
+    Thy looks with pain have fill'd me:
+      Amaan, Amaan, Amaan.
+
+                      2.
+
+    Oh gently, dearest! gently,
+      Approach me not with scorn:
+    With one sweet look content me:
+      Amaan, Amaan, Amaan.
+
+                      3.
+
+    That yellow shawl encloses
+      A form made to adorn
+    A Peri's bower of roses:
+      Amaan, Amaan, Amaan.
+
+                      4.
+
+    The snows, the snows are melting
+      On the hills of Isfahan.
+    As fair, be as relenting:
+      Amaan, Amaan, Amaan.
+
+           *       *       *       *
+
+                      1.
+
+    Let not her, whose eyelids sleep,
+    Imagine I no vigil keep.
+    Alas! with hope and love I burn:
+    Ah! do not from thy lover turn!
+
+                      2.
+
+    Patron of lovers, Bedowi!
+      Ah! give me her I hold most dear;
+    And I will vow to her, and thee,
+      The brightest shawl In all Cashmere.
+
+                      3.
+
+    Ah! when I view thy loveliness,
+      The lustre of thy deep black eye,
+    My songs but add to my distress!
+      Let me behold thee once, and die.
+
+                      4.
+
+    Think not that scorn and bitter words
+      Can make me from my true love sever!
+    Pierce our hearts, then, with your swords:
+      The blood of both will flow together.
+
+                      5.
+
+    Fill us the golden bowl with wine;
+      Give us the ripe and downy peach:
+    And, in this bower of jessamine,
+      No sorrows our retreat shall reach.
+
+                      6.
+
+    Masr may boast her lovely girls,
+      Whose necks are deck'd with pearls and gold:
+    The gold would fall; the purest pearls
+      Would blush could they my love behold.
+
+                      7.
+
+    Famed Skanderieh's beauties, too,
+      On Syria's richest silks recline:
+    Their rosy lips are sweet, 'tis true;
+      But can they be compar'd to thine?
+
+                      8.
+
+    Fairest! your beauty comes from Heaven:
+    Freely the lovely gift was given.
+    Resist not, then, the high decree--
+    'Twas fated I should sigh for thee.
+
+This last song is well known upon the Nile by the name of its chorus,
+_Doas ya leili_.
+
+[11] This sword is used by the Reverendissimo, the title given to the
+superior of the Franciscans, when he confers the order of Knight of the
+Holy Sepulchre, which is only given to a Roman Catholic of noble birth.
+The Reverendissimo is also authorised by the Pope to give a flag bearing
+the Five Crosses of Jerusalem to the captain of any ship who has
+rendered service to the Catholic religion. These honours were first
+instituted by the Christian Kings of Jerusalem, but they are now sold by
+the monks for about forty dollars to any Roman Catholic who likes to pay
+for them.
+
+[12] On another occasion some years afterwards, I was waiting in the
+same place, when I wandered into the new Patriarchal church which opens
+on this court: while I stood there, a corpse was brought in on a bier,
+followed by many persons, who I suppose were the relations and friends
+of the deceased. After the funeral service had been read by a priest,
+every person in the church went up to the bier and kissed the dead man's
+hand and forehead: this is the usual custom, and an affecting one to see
+when friends bid friends a last farewell. But this man had died of some
+fearful and horrible disease, perhaps the plague, which through this
+horrid means may have been distributed to half the congregation.
+
+[13] All eastern cities are infested with troops of half-wild dogs, who
+act the part of scavengers, and live upon the refuse food which is
+thrown into the streets.
+
+[14]
+
+     DIRECTION.--"To the blessed Inspectors, Officers, Chiefs, and
+     Representatives of the Holy Community of Monte Santo, and to the
+     Holy Fathers of the same, and of all other sacred convents, our
+     beloved Sons.
+
+"We, Gregorios, Patriarch, Archbishop Universal, Metropolitan of
+Constantinople, &c. &c. &c.
+
+     "Blessed Inspectors, Officers, Superiors, and Representatives of
+     the Community of the Holy Mountain, and other Holy Fathers of the
+     same, and of the other Holy and Venerable Convents subject to our
+     holy universal Throne. Peace be to you.
+
+"The bearer of the present, our patriarchal sheet, the Honourable Robert
+Curzon, of a noble English family, recommended to us by most worthy and
+much-honoured persons, intending to travel and wishing to be instructed
+in the old and new philology, thinks to satisfy his curiosity by
+repairing to those sacred convents which may have any connexion with his
+intentions. We recommend his person, therefore, to you all: and we order
+and require of you, that you not only receive him with every esteem and
+every possible hospitality, in each and in the several holy convents;
+but to lend yourselves readily to all his wants and desires, and to give
+him precise and clear explanations to all his interrogations relative to
+his philological examinations, obliging yourselves, and lending
+yourselves, in a manner not only fully to satisfy and content him, but
+so that he shall approve of and praise your conduct.
+
+"This we desire and require to be executed, rewarding you with the
+Divine and with our blessing.
+
+    "(Signed) GREGORIOS, Universal Patriarch.
+
+"Constantinople, 1 (13) July, 1837."
+
+[15] Ridiculous as these pictorial representations of the Last Judgment
+appear to us, one of them was the cause of a whole nation's embracing
+Christianity. Bogoris, king of Bulgaria, having written to
+Constantinople for a painter to decorate the walls of his palace, a monk
+named Methodius was sent to him--all knowledge of the arts in those days
+being confined to the clergy. The king desired Methodius to paint on a
+certain wall the most terrible picture that he could imagine; and, by
+the advice of the king's sister, who had embraced Christianity some
+years before whilst in captivity at Constantinople, the monastic artist
+produced so fearful a representation of the torments of the condemned in
+the next world, that it had the effect of converting Bogoris to the
+Christian faith. In consequence of this event the Patriarch of
+Constantinople despatched a bishop to Bulgaria, who baptised the king by
+the name of Michael in the year 865. Before long his loyal subjects,
+following the example of their sovereign, were converted also; and
+Christianity from that period became the religion of the land.
+
+[16] In the early ages of the Greek church the Epiphany was a day of
+very great solemnity; for not only was the adoration of the Magi
+celebrated on the 6th of January, but also the changing of the water
+into wine at the marriage at Cana, the baptism, and even the birth of
+our Lord. On this day the holy water is blessed in the Greek church, by
+throwing a small cross into it, or otherwise by holding over it the
+cross, with a handle attached to it, which is used by the Greek clergy
+in the act of benediction.
+
+[17] The Emperor Leo the First was crowned by the Patriarch of Anatolia
+in the year 459. He is the first prince on record who received his crown
+from the hands of a bishop.
+
+[18] Mosheim's 'Ecclesiastical History;' Gibbon.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Visits To Monasteries in the Levant, by
+Robert Curzon
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