THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 Kate Gordon Moore 
 
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 J0/1//V tyiuf/vU?€^'f:>><rtf/?^

 
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 VISITS TO MONASTERIES 
 
 IN 
 
 THE LEVANT. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 f^Qj^BLE. ROBERT CURZON, Jun. 
 
 From a Sketch by R. Ciirzun. 
 luteiior of the Court of a Greek Monastery. A monk is calling the congregation to 
 prayer, by beating a board called the simandro {(Tt/yKxvh^oj wliich is generally used instead 
 of bells. 
 
 WITH NUMEROUS WOODCUTS. 
 
 LONDON : 
 JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 
 
 1849.
 
 DS 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 In presenting to the public another book of 
 travels in the East, when it is already over- 
 whelmed 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 
 
 84:1833
 
 IV PREFACE. 
 
 their shelves, I turned over their wide velluDi 
 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 re- 
 collections 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 manu- 
 scripts ; 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 con- 
 sist 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
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 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 diver- 
 sion 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. 
 
 a 2^
 
 ( vii ) 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER Page xix 
 
 PART I. 
 
 EGYPT IN 1833. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Navarino — The Wrecks of the Turkish and Egyptian Fleets — Alex- 
 andria — • 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 Yas- 
 sakjis — 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 dow-n — 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
 
 Vlll CONTENTS. 
 
 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 .... Page 27 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Early Hours in the Levant — Compulsory Use of Lanterns in Cairo 
 
 — Separation of the different Quarters of the City — Custom of sleep- 
 ing in the open air — The Mahomedan Times of Prayer — Im- 
 pressive 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 All — 
 The Talisman of Cairo — Joseph's Well and Hall — Mohammed 
 All's Mosque — His Residence in the Citadel — The Harem — 
 Degraded State of the Women in the East .... 35 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Interview with Mohammed AU 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 — Mis- 
 taken Idea that the Egyptian Ladies are Prisoners in the Harem ; 
 their power of doing as they like — The Veil a complete Disguise —
 
 CONTENTS. IX 
 
 Laws of the Harem — A Levantine Beaut)' — Eastern Manners — 
 The Abyssinian Slaves — Arab Girls — Ugliness of the Arab 
 Women when old — Venerable Appearance of the old Men — An 
 Arab Sheick Page 47 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Mohammed Bej', Defterdar — His Expedition to Senaar — His Bar- 
 barity 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 Dis- 
 tribution of the Thief — The Turkish Character — Pleasures of a 
 Journey on the Nile — The Copts — Their Patriarchs — The Pa- 
 triarch 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 Alex- 
 andria — 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 — Cap- 
 ture 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
 
 : CONTENTS. 
 
 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 . . . Page 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 Kocks — Description of the Convent and its In- 
 habitants — 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 mider his charge — Night visit to the Tomb in which they are 
 concealed — Perils of the way — Description of the Tomb — Pro- 
 bably 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
 
 CONTENTS. XI 
 
 THE WHITE MONASTERY. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 The "White Monastery — Abou Shenood — Devastations of the Ma- 
 melukes — Description of the Monastery — Different styles of its 
 exterior and interior Architecture — Its ruinous condition — De- 
 scription of the Church — The Baptistery — Ancient Rites of 
 Baptism — The Library — Modem Architecture — The Church of 
 San Francesco at Rimini — The Red Monastery — Alarming ren- 
 contre 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 .... Page 130 
 
 THE ISLAND OF PHILCE, &c. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 The Island of Philce — The Cataract of Assouan — The Burial Place 
 of Osiris — The Great Temple of Philce — 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 Pbiloe — Quarrel between two native 
 Boys — Singular instance of retributive Justice . . . 141 
 
 a3
 
 XU CONTENTS, 
 
 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 iMount 
 Calvary — The Tomb and Sword of Godfrey de Bouillon — Argu- 
 ments in favour of the Authenticity of the Holy Sepulchre — The 
 Invention of the Cross by the Empress Helena — Legend of the 
 Cross Page 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 INIonastery of St. Sabba — Reports of Arab Rob- 
 bers — The Valley of Jehoshaphat — The Bridge of Al Sirat — 
 Rugged Scenery — An Arab Ambuscade — A successful Parley — 
 The Monastery of «;t. Sabba — History of the Saint — The Greek 
 Hermits — The Church — The Iconostasis — The Library — Nu- 
 merous MSS. — The Dead Sea — The Scene of the Temptation — 
 Discovery — The Apple of the Dead Sea — The Statements of 
 Strabo and Pliny confirmed ....... 192
 
 CONTENTS. XUl 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Church of the Holy Sepulchre — Processions of the Copts — The 
 Syrian Maronites and the Greeks — Riotous Behaviour of the Pil- 
 grims — 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 regard- 
 ing Shrouds — Scallop Shells and Palm Branches — The Dead 
 Muleteer — Moonlight View of the Dead Bodies — The Curse on 
 Jerusalem — Departure from the Holy City . . Page 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 — Recej)tion at Paramathia — ^ Albanian Ladies 
 
 — Yanina — Albanian Mode of settling a Quarrel — Expected 
 Attack from Robbei's — 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
 
 xiv CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 start for Meteora — Rencontre with a Wounded Traveller — Bar- 
 barity 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 . . . Page 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 Deco- 
 rations — 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 Monasterj' 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
 
 CONTENTS. XV 
 
 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 
 
 Page 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 — Asto- 
 nishment 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 ; Rich- 
 ness 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
 
 XVI CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 The Monastery of Caracalla — Its beautiful Situation — Hospitable 
 Reception — Description of the Monastery — Legend of its Foun- 
 dation — 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 ...... Page 377 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 The Monastery of Stavroniketa — The Library — Splendid MS. of 
 St. Chrysostom — The Monastery of Pantocratoras — Ruinous Con- 
 dition 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 — 
 AVealth and Luxury of the Monks — The Monastery of Sphigmenou 
 — Beautiful Jewelled Cross — The Monastery of Kiliantari — 
 Magnificent MS. in Gold Letters on AVhite Vellum — The Monas- 
 teries 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
 
 CONTENTS. XVll 
 
 of Coutloumoussi — The Russian Book-Stealer — History of tlie 
 Monastery — Its reputed Destruction by the Pope of Rome — The 
 Aga of Cariez • — Interview in a Kiosk — ^ The She Cat of Mount 
 Athos . . , . Page 413 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 Caracalla — The Agoumenos — Curious Cross — The Nuts of Cara- 
 calla — Singular Mode of preparing a Dinner Table — Departure 
 from Mount Athos — Packing of the MSS. — Difficulties of t];e 
 ^Vay — Voyage to the Dardanelles — Apprehended Attack from 
 Pirates — Return to Constantinople ..... 436
 
 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. Tlie others are from drawings and 
 sketches by the Autlior, except one from a beautiful drawing by Lord Eastnor, 
 for which the Autlior begs to express his thanks and obligations. 
 
 The Monastery of Meteora, froii the Monas- 
 tery OF Barlaam. From a Drawing by 
 Viscount Eastnor 
 
 Interior of the Court of a Greek Monastery 
 
 KooRD, or Native of Koordistan . 
 
 Negress waiting to be Sold .... 
 
 Bedouin Arab 
 
 Egyptian in the Nizam Dress 
 
 Interior of an Abyssinian Library 
 
 Mendicant Dervish ..... 
 
 Plan of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, 
 Jerusalem ...... 
 
 Frmitispiece 
 
 Title Vignette 
 To face page sxix. 
 5 
 7 
 49 
 97 
 139 
 
 The Monastery of St. Barlaam 
 
 Tatar, or Government Messenger . . 
 
 Turkish common Soldier .... 
 
 The N.W. View of the Promontory of Mount 
 
 Athos To face Part I v., p. 327 
 
 165 
 235 
 237 
 251 
 
 Greek Sailor .... 
 The Monastery of Simopetra 
 Circassian Lady .... 
 Turkish Lady in the Yashmak or Veil 
 
 To face p. 351 
 
 „ 426 
 
 „ 429 
 
 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 con- 
 fusion, 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, fi'om 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
 
 XX INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 
 
 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 Mar- 
 mora, 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 in- 
 dustry 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 appear- 
 ance of a bas-relief stuck against a Mall ; 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
 
 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. XXI 
 
 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 pre- 
 vails, were built before the year 1000. Most monas- 
 teries 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 cal- 
 culated 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 magni- 
 tude. 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
 
 XXll INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 
 
 Rome, the first church dedicated to the Blessed Virgin ; 
 the church of St. Agnese near Rome, the first in which 
 galleries were huilt over the side aisles for the accom- 
 modation 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 establish- 
 ments 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
 
 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. XXUl 
 
 monks of the Greek Church have diminished in num- 
 ber 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 an- 
 tiquity, 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 vil- 
 lainous 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 xvpi^ bXhctov, 
 x/3i(7Ts eXeictov (pronounced Kyre eleizon, Christe eleizon), 
 which occurs almost every minute, in the ritual of the
 
 XXIV INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 
 
 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 prac- 
 tical 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 let- 
 ters, and others were full of illuminations of the earliest 
 date ; all these he was allowed to carry away in ex- 
 change for some footstools or hassocks, which he pre- 
 sented 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
 
 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. XXV 
 
 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 illus- 
 tration 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 out- 
 posts of the Turkish array, which was encamped in the 
 immediate vicinity. In passing through a wood he 
 found an old man seated by the side of a spring cook- 
 ing some fish on a gridiron for his dinner ; the emperor 
 dismounted from his white horse and entered into con- 
 versation 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
 
 XXVI INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 
 
 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 Negi'o. 
 
 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 accom- 
 plished 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 trouble- 
 some to the good monks, who kindly depute one of 
 then" 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 fi-om 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
 
 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. XXVll 
 
 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 pre- 
 cincts of the church, they none of them contain sepul- 
 chral 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 sar- 
 cophagi 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 Ceesars 
 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 sarco- 
 phagi, one containing the remains of Constantius, the 
 second husband of Galla Placidia, and the other hold- 
 ing 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 Csesars, 
 either of the Eastern or Western empires. 
 
 b
 
 XXVIU INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 
 
 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 representa- 
 tions 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. 
 
 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 sur- 
 rounded 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
 
 KOOKD, OR NATTVK OF KOORDISTAUN.
 
 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. XXIX 
 
 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 Jula- 
 merk. 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 in- 
 habit 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,
 
 XXX INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 
 
 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.
 
 ( xxxi ) 
 
 MONASTERIES OF THE LEYANT. 
 
 PART I. 
 EGYPT IN 1833. 
 
 b2
 
 MONASTERIES OF THE LEYANT. 
 
 EGYPT IN 1833. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 JSavarino — The Wrecks of the Turkish and Egyptian Fleets — Alex- 
 andria ^ 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 Yas- 
 sakjis — 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 
 
 B
 
 2 ARAB PILOT — INTENSE HEAT, Chap. I. 
 
 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 imme- 
 diately. 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 compai'ison to the fiery fiu'nace in which we 
 were at present grilling. However, there was no help 
 for it ; so, having got our luggage on shore, we swel- 
 tered through the streets to an inn called the Tre 
 Anchore — the only hotel in Africa, I believe, in those
 
 Chap. I. ALEXANDRIAN HOTEL. 3 
 
 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 com- 
 bustibles, 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 
 om^elves 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. Tilings which have since become 
 perfectly familiar to us were then utterly incompre- 
 hensible, 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. 
 
 Among the first things we noticed, was the number 
 of half-naked men who went running about, each with 
 
 B 2
 
 4 WATER-CARRIERS — A PROCESSION. Chap. I. 
 
 something like a dead pig under his arm, shouting out 
 " Mother ! mother !" * with a doleful voice. These 
 were the sakis or water-carriers, with their goat-skins 
 of the precious element, a hright 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, 
 
 * Moyah — " water."
 
 NEGRESS WAITING TO BE SOLD IN THE SLAVB BAZAAR, CAIRO.
 
 Chap. I. BRIDAL PARTY BLACK SLAVES. 5 
 
 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 musi- 
 cians, 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 con- 
 cealed 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
 
 6 LARGE NUMBER OF DONKEYS. Chap. I. 
 
 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 gk us 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.
 
 BSBOnX AKAB.
 
 Chap. I. BEDOUIN ARAIJS. 7 
 
 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 hand- 
 kerchief 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 any- 
 thing. 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
 
 8 INTERVIEW WITH BOGHOS BEY. Chap. I. 
 
 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 Mdth 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.
 
 Chap. I. KAWASSES AND CHAOUSHES. 9 
 
 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 tra- 
 vellers, 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 at- 
 tired 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. 
 
 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 sur- 
 mounted by a silver head, formed 
 like a Greek bishop's staff, from the 
 two horns of which several httle round bells are 
 suspended by a silver chain. The chaoush is a per- 
 
 b3
 
 XO YASSAKJIS — BOGHOS BEY, Chap. I. 
 
 sonage 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 oflficers, 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 Con- 
 stantinople 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
 
 Chap. I. BOGHOS BEY — WALMAS. 11 
 
 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 pro- 
 cure 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 want- 
 ing 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,
 
 12 ANECDOTE OF BOG H OS BEY. Chap. I. 
 
 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, see- 
 ing 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 dif- 
 ficulties, was heard to say that he wished Boghos was
 
 Chap. I. WALMAS SAVES THE LIFE OF BOGHOS. 13 
 
 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, in- 
 stantly 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.
 
 14 RAPACITY OF THE DRAGOMANS. Chap. II. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Rapacity of the Dragomans — The Mahmondieh 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 — Carious 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 fi'om 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 pre- 
 decessors, 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 
 
 I
 
 Chap. II. MAHMOUDIEH CANAL — THE KILE. 15 
 
 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 impedi- 
 ment 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 inter- 
 spersed 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 alw ays 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
 
 16 THE NILE AT ATFEH. Chap. 11. 
 
 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 any- 
 thing 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 re- 
 freshing productions, a board, which had been fastened 
 on the outside of the vessel for four or five men to
 
 Chap. IT. NIGHT SAILING ON THE NILE. 17 
 
 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, diver- 
 sified 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 re- 
 called 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
 
 18 VESSEL RUN DOWN. Chap. II. 
 
 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 steers- 
 man 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
 
 Chap. II, VESSEL RUN DOWN. 19 
 
 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 hghting 
 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 in- 
 vectives 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
 
 20 ORIGINAL METHOD OF FISHING. Chap. 1 1. 
 
 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 re- 
 turned 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 unsus- 
 pecting 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 respect- 
 able 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
 
 Chap. II. JEWISH MALEFACTORS. 21 
 
 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 them- 
 selves to move out of the way when a boat passed 
 them ; while those in the fields went on searcliing 
 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 neighbour- 
 hood 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.
 
 22 PILLAR OF SAND — BOULAC. Chap. II. 
 
 The next day there was a hot wind, and the ther- 
 mometer 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.
 
 Chap. II. HISTORY OF CAIRO. 23 
 
 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 Chris- 
 tians, whose chief occupation consisted in quarrel- 
 ling 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 hidmg their sanc- 
 tity 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 Pelu- 
 sium, 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
 
 24 HISTORY OF CAIRO. Chap. II. 
 
 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 occa- 
 sioned them to hate their masters, the Greeks of the 
 Eastern Empire, more than the Mahomedans, wel- 
 comed the moment which promised to free them from 
 their religious adversaries ; and the traitor John Me- 
 caukes, governor of Memphis, persuaded them to con- 
 clude 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 Kaliira 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
 
 Chap. II. HISTORY OF CAIRO. 25 
 
 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 jNIasr 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 
 
 c
 
 26 HISTORY OF CAIRO. Chap. II. 
 
 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.
 
 Chap. III. RISING OF THE NILE, 27 
 
 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 sun- 
 burned bricks and mud, they are completely annihi- 
 lated ; 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 dif- 
 ficulty in recovering their property ; for few of them 
 know how far their fields extend in one direction or the 
 
 c 2
 
 28 THE NILOMETER. Chap. Ill, 
 
 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 pro- 
 claim 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 
 
 I
 
 Chap. III. CANAL OF THE KIIALIDJ. 29 
 
 was the gi-eatest 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 prin- 
 cipal 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
 
 30 CUTTING THE EMBANKMENT. Chap. III. 
 
 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 stream- 
 ing 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 em- 
 bankment. 
 
 We mounted the horses which the Pasha's grooms 
 brought to our door. They were splendidly capa- 
 risoned 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 imme- 
 diately 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 per- 
 sonages, 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
 
 Cliap. III. ARRIVAL OF HABEEB EFFENDI, 31 
 
 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 ?;2ce-viceroy 
 on this occasion. I sat on the carpet by the son of the 
 sheriflf 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,
 
 32 HABEEB EFFENDI. Chap. III. 
 
 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 sub- 
 sided, 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 pre- 
 sented 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 sur- 
 rounding 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
 
 Chap. III. ADMISSION OF THE WATER. 33 
 
 catch. One man took oil his wide Turkish trousers, 
 and stretching them out upon two sticks caught almost 
 a handful at a time. By degi*ees 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 show'er 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 
 
 c 3
 
 34 PICTURESQUE CROWD. Chap. III. 
 
 into his saddle ; and amidst the roar of cannon and 
 musketry, the shouts of the people, and the clang of 
 innumeral)le 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 return- 
 ing multitude, all delighted with the happy termina- 
 tion 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 liad occurred.
 
 Chap. IV. EAULY HOURS IN THE LEVANT. 35 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Early Hours in the Levant — Compulsory Use of Lanterns in Cairo 
 — Separation of the different Quarters of the City — Custom of sleep- 
 ing in the open air — The Mahomedan Times of Prayer — Im- 
 pressive Effect of the Morning Call to Prayer from the Minarets — 
 The last Prayer-time, AI 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 
 All'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 prin- 
 cipal 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 story- 
 teller 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
 
 36 DIFFERENT QUARTERS OF CAIRO. Chap. IV. 
 
 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 fi-om 
 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 dif- 
 ferent quarter, any disturbance which may arise in 
 one district is prevented from extending to another ; 
 and the drunken Europeans cannot intrude their civi- 
 lization 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.
 
 Chap. IV. MAHOMEDAN TIMES OF PRAYER. 37 
 
 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
 
 38 MOSQUES OF CAIRO. Chap. IV. 
 
 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 com- 
 pared 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 sur- 
 rounding 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
 
 Chap. IV. MOSQUE OF SULTAN HASSAN. 39 
 
 which I am building." * 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 Sul- 
 tan 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 
 
 * 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 Mos- 
 tansir, a.d. 1094, which still remains perched on the corner of a rock, 
 which is excavated in various places with ancient tombs.
 
 40 INGENIOUS DEVICE OF SULTAN HASSAN, Chap. IV- 
 
 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 Sul- 
 tan. 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 pro- 
 found 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
 
 Chap. IV. MOSQUE OF SULTAN HASSAN. 41 
 
 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 magni- 
 ficent 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 de- 
 corated Saracenic architecture. Of the largest of 
 these minarets the following story is related. There
 
 42 MOSQUE OF SULTAN HASSAN. Chap. IV. 
 
 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 dis- 
 covered 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 in- 
 formed 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
 
 Chap. IV. SLAUGHTER OF THE MAMELUKE BEYS. 43 
 
 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 as- 
 cended 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
 
 44 Joseph's well — Joseph's hall. Chap. iv. 
 
 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.
 
 Chap. IV. DEGRADED STATE OF EASTERN WOMEN. 45 
 
 but its barbarous Armenian architecture offers a sad 
 contrast to the stately edifice which has been so ruth- 
 lessly 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 fre- 
 quently 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
 
 46 DEGRADED STATE OF EASTERN WOMEN. Chap. IV 
 
 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.
 
 Chap. V. INTERVIEW WITH MOHAMMED ALL 47 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Interview with Mohammed AH Pasha — IMode of lighting a Room in 
 Egypt — Personal Appearance of the Paslia — His Diamond- 
 mounted Pipe — Tlie lost Handliercliief • — An unceremonious 
 Attendant — View of Cairo from the Citadel — Site of Memjihis ; 
 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 — Mis- 
 taken 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 Ra- 
 madan, when the day is kept a strict fast, and nothing 
 passes the hps of the faithful till after sunset. It was 
 at night, therefore, that we were received. My com- 
 panion and myself were residing at that time under the 
 hospitable roof of the Consul-General, and we accom- 
 panied him to the citadel. The effect of the crowds of 
 people in the streets, all carrying lanterns, or pre- 
 ceded by men bearing the mashlak, blazing like a 
 beacon on the top of its high pole, was very pictu- 
 resque. The great hall of the citadel was full of men, 
 arranged in rows with their faces towards the south.
 
 48 EGYPTIAN MODE OF LIGHTING A ROOM. Chap. V. 
 
 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 x'ows 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 dimen- 
 sions, stands on the floor, separate from these, for the 
 pui'pose 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. 
 
 Mohammed Ali desired us to be seated. He was 
 attended by Boghos Bey, who remained standing and
 
 MivrrsAX, IS r«K sitAM cRias^
 
 Chap. V. INTERVIEW V/ITII MOHAMMED ALL 49 
 
 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 ex- 
 pression 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 trou- 
 sers 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 
 
 D
 
 50 THE LOST HANDKERCHIEF. Chap. V. 
 
 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 ; thenhe 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
 
 Chap. V. VIEW OF CAIRO FROM THE CITADEL. 51 
 
 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 Euro- 
 pean 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, 
 
 D 2
 
 52 MEMPHIS TOMBS OF THE CALIPHS. Chap. V. 
 
 in comparison to which London would appear but a 
 secondary town : for if we may judge from the Hue of 
 pyramids from Giseh to Dashour, which formed the 
 necropohs 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 Pyra- 
 mids 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
 
 Chap. V. TOMBS OF THE CALIPHS. 53 
 
 inagnificence. 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 ro})e, 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 orna- 
 mented 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 eflPect of those at Cairo is indescribably fine. Un- 
 fortunately 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.
 
 54 TOMBS OF THE CALIPHS. Chap. V. 
 
 Besides these larger structures, many of the smaller 
 tombs, which are scattered over the desert for miles 
 Tinder the hills of Mokattam, are studies for the archi- 
 tect. 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, 
 roost 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, some- 
 what 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
 
 Chap, V. POPULATION OF CAIRO. 55 
 
 found in Mr. Lane's ' Modem Egypt,' that there is 
 little left to say upon that suhject, 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 popu- 
 lation 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 Eos- 
 phorus. 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 monu- 
 ments 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 Levan- 
 tine 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
 
 56 COSTUMES OF CAIRO. Chap. V. 
 
 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 tliis arrange- 
 ment ; 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 ther- 
 mometer 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
 
 Chap. y. COSTUME OF EGYPTIAX LADIES. 57 
 
 that any dress will fit anybody unless they are super- 
 naturally fat or of dwarfish stature. 
 
 An Egyptian lady's dress consists of a pair of im- 
 mensely 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 appear- 
 ance of a very full petticoat. The Arabic name of this 
 garment is Shintian. Over this is worn a shirt of trans- 
 parent 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 goN^Ti, 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 mar- 
 riage 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 
 
 d3
 
 58 COSTUME OF EGYPTIAN LADIES. Chap. V. 
 
 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 Arah 
 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 becom- 
 ing 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,
 
 Chap. V. LADIES OF HAREM NOT PRISONERS. 59 
 
 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 oijly 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 pecu- 
 liarity 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
 
 60 LADIES OF HAREM NOT PRISONERS. Chap. V. 
 
 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 ques- 
 tions 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 pro- 
 tected in the same way : the slippers have not the same 
 effect ; for the men of the family go in and out when-
 
 Chap. V. A LEVANTINE BEAUTY, 61 
 
 ever 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 six- 
 teen 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 conversa- 
 tion 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
 
 62 ABYSSINIAN SLAVES. Chap. V. 
 
 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 re- 
 turn 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 hand-
 
 Chap. V, ARAB GIRLS. 63 
 
 some : 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, how- 
 ever, 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 slieick, 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.
 
 64 MOHAMMED BEY, DEFTERDAR. Chap. VI. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Mohammed Bey, Defterdar — His Expedition to Senaar — His Bar- 
 barity 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 Dis- 
 tribution of the Thief — The Turkish Character — Pleasures of a 
 Journey on the Nile — The Copts — Their Patriarchs — The Pa- 
 triarch 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 drink- 
 ing 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 pro- 
 jects 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
 
 Chap. VI. THE DEFTERDAR DEFIES THE PASHA. 65 
 
 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, after a most successful campaign, the Def- 
 terdar 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 re- 
 sponsible, 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
 
 66 THE FIGHT OF THE MAMELUKES. Chap. VI. 
 
 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 Mo- 
 hammed 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, pre- 
 ferring the remotest chance of successful resistance to 
 the terrors of service under the ferocious Defterdar. 
 The Bey, however, managed to cajole them with pro- 
 mises, and they returned to his palace, expecting to 
 be better treated. They found the Bey seated on his
 
 Chap. VI. THE FIGHT OF THE MAMELUKES. 67 
 
 divan in the Mancleran 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 condi- 
 tions of the Bey, and half their number were soon 
 weltering in their blood on the floor of the hall. AVhen 
 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 ap- 
 proach, commending his valour and holding out to him 
 the promised bag of gold as his reward. As he ap- 
 proached, 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
 
 68 THE STOLEN MILK — THE WIDOw's COW. Chap. VI. 
 
 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 esti- 
 mated 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
 
 Chap. VI. PLEASURES OF A JOURNEY ON THE NILE. 60 
 
 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 neighbour- 
 ing 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 pur- 
 chasers 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 dig- 
 nified 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 aniraum 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 wonder- 
 ful antiquities for those who interest themselves in the
 
 70 THE COPTS — THEIR PATRIARCHS. Chap. VI. 
 
 remains of bygone days ; famous shooting on the 
 banks of the river, capital dinners, if you know how- 
 to make the proper arrangements, comfortable quar- 
 ters, 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 pa- 
 triarchs claim their descent, in uninterrupted succes- 
 sion, from St. Mark, who was buried at Alexandria, 
 but whose body the Venetians in later ages boast of 
 having transported to their island city.* 
 
 The Copts look up to their patriarch as the chief of 
 their nation : he is elected from among the brethren 
 
 * 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 pre- 
 cious 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.
 
 Chap. VI. THE PATRIARCH OF ABYSSINIA. 71 
 
 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 conse- 
 crating archbishops or bishops, although in other re- 
 spects his authority in religious matters is supreme.
 
 72 BASILEOS BEY. Chap. VI, 
 
 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 indivi- 
 dual 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 Moharaedans, per- 
 haps 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 secre- 
 tary 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 mo- 
 dern boats ; but being a person of a fanciful disposi- 
 tion, 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
 
 Chap. VI. American's choice of a sleeping-place. 73 
 
 cabin was about ten feet by twelve, and was orna- 
 mented 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 con- 
 sider 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 deli- 
 berate travelling, I do not carry my system to the ex- 
 tent of an American friend with whom I once jour- 
 neyed 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 
 
 e
 
 74 American's choice of a sleeping-place. Chap, vi, 
 
 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!"
 
 Chap. VII. MONASTERIES NEAR NATRON LAKES. 75 
 
 NATRON LAKES. 
 
 CHAPTER YII. 
 
 Visit to the Coptic Monasteries near the Natron Lakes — The Desert 
 of Nitria — Early Christian Anchorites — St. Macarius of Alex- 
 andria — 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 — Cap- 
 ture of a Lizard — Its alarming escape — The Convent of Baramous — 
 Night attacks — Invasion of Sanctuary — Ancient Glass Lamps — 
 Monastery of Souriaui — 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 neigh- 
 bourhood 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 he 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 tlie annals of 
 
 E 2
 
 76 DESERT or NITRIA. Chap. VII. 
 
 monastic history as the first place to which the Ancho- 
 rites, 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 com- 
 pany. 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 mo- 
 nastery 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, M'hose feast-
 
 Chap. VII. ST. MACARIUS OF ALEXANDRIA. 77 
 
 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
 
 78 ORDER OF MONKS FOUNDED BY MACARIUS. Cbap. VII. 
 
 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 Whitsun- 
 tide : 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. Thoughout 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,
 
 Chap. VII. RUINED STATE OF THE MONASTERIES. 79 
 
 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.* After the conquest of Egypt by the Ara- 
 bians, 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 re- 
 paired and fortified by Sanutius, Patriarch of Alex- 
 andria, at which good work he laboured with his own 
 hands : 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 superin- 
 tending the export of the natron. Here I procured 
 camels ; I had brought a tent with me ; and the next 
 
 * See Quarterly Review, vol. Ixxvii. p. 43.
 
 80 CAPTURE OF A LIZAKD. Chap. VII. 
 
 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 diflBcult 
 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
 
 Chap. VII. CONVENT OF BARAMOUS. 81 
 
 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 dash- 
 ing the lantern to pieces on the ground, screamed 
 out that the devil had jumped upon him and had disap- 
 peared 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 atten- 
 tion 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, not- 
 withstanding 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 
 
 E 3
 
 82 NIGHT ATTACKS. Chap. VII. 
 
 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 
 w^ere 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
 
 Chap. VII. ANCIENT GLASS LAMPS. 83 
 
 court to shake myself and get rid if I could of my 
 tormentors. The poor monks, hearing my exclama- 
 tions, 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 van- 
 quished, 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 pre- 
 vented 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 manu- 
 facture. These, which were in the shape of large open 
 vases, were ornamented with pious sentences in Arabic 
 characters, in blue on a white ground.* They were 
 
 * 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.
 
 84 MONASTERY OF SOURIANI. Chap. VII. 
 
 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 pro- 
 bably some of the most ancient specimens of orna- 
 mental 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 ser- 
 vices 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
 
 Chap. VII. THE BLIND ABBOT. 85 
 
 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 manu- 
 scripts. 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 commen- 
 taries 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 dic- 
 tionaries, which I discovered loaded with dust upon the
 
 86 PERSUASIVE POWERS OF ROSOGLIO. Chap. VII. 
 
 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 ex- 
 istence, more ancient certainly than many of the Syriac 
 M8S. 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
 
 Chap. VII. THE OIL-CELLAR. 87 
 
 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 con- 
 fiding ; 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 ray eagerness about the oil- 
 cellar, on the subject of which I again gradually en- 
 tered. " 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 j
 
 88 DISCOVERY OF THE SYRIAC MSS. Chap. VII. 
 
 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 mournfal, 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 manu- 
 scripts 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
 
 Chap. VII. THE ABBOt's SUPPOSED TREASURE. 89 
 
 four books, the only ones I could find which seemed to 
 be tolerably perfect, when two monks who were strug- 
 gling 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 I Pull out the box I A box ! 
 A box I Sandouk ! sandouk !" shouted all the monks 
 in various tones of voice. " Now then let us see the 
 box ! bring it out to the light I" 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.
 
 90 VIEW FROM THE CONVENT WALL. Chap. VIII. 
 
 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 any-
 
 Chap. VIII. APPEARANCE OF THE DESERT. 91 
 
 thing 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 some- 
 thing grand and sublime in the silence and loneliness of 
 these burning plains ; and the wandering tribes of Be- 
 douins 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 exha- 
 lations 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.
 
 92 LUXURIANCE OF EASTERN VEGETATION. Chap. VIII. 
 
 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 
 wliich a horse or mule was constantly employed to 
 draw the fertilizing streams which nourished the teem- 
 ing 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
 
 Chap. VIII. GROUP OF MONKS AND VISITORS. 93 
 
 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 battle- 
 ments of this remote monastery we formed as pic- 
 turesque 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 some- 
 what 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 incom- 
 prehensible 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 ? T have heard it several tim_es when the rustling 
 of the wind among the branches has died away for a 
 moment. It sounds something like a chant, or a
 
 94 ABYSSINIAN MONKS : Chap. VIII. 
 
 dismal moaning song : only it is different in its cadence 
 from anything that I have heard before." " That 
 noise," replied the monk, " is the somid 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 guardian- 
 ship 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
 
 Chap. VIII. THEIR APPEARANCE. 95 
 
 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 how- 
 ever 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
 
 96 ABYSSINIAN COLLEGE. Chap. VIII. 
 
 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 litera- 
 ture 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 ac~
 
 Chap. VIII. AN ABYSSINIAN LIBRARY. 97 
 
 cumulation of manuscripts, considering the barbarous 
 state of the country from which they came. 
 
 The disposition of the manuscripts in this library 
 was very original. I have had no means of ascertain- 
 ing 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 pro- 
 jected from the wall ; they were each about a foot and 
 a half long, and on them hung the Abyssinian manu- 
 scripts, of which this curious library was entirely com- 
 posed. 
 
 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 
 
 F
 
 98 AN ABYSSINIAN LIBRARY. Chap. VIII, 
 
 rude and coarse devices : they are then enclosed in a 
 case, tied up with leather thongs ; to this case is at- 
 tached 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 ap- 
 pearance 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 bar- 
 rack 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
 
 Chap. VIII. ABYSSINIAN WRITING. 99 
 
 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 posses- 
 sion ; 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 re- 
 quired 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 
 
 F 2
 
 100 PAINTINGS AND ILLUMINATIONS. Chap. VIII. 
 
 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 stiflT, 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 gene- 
 ral 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
 
 Chap. VIII. PAINTINGS AND ILLUMINATIONS. 101 
 
 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 posses- 
 sion 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 manu- 
 scripts 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
 
 102 ABYSSINIAN BINDING. Chap. VIII. 
 
 Enocli, 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 pro- 
 duction 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 
 inqjorem 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
 
 Chap. VIII. PURCHASE OF MSS, AND BOOKS. 103 
 
 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 bar- 
 gain 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
 
 104 MS. EPISTLES OF ST. IGNATIUS. Chap. VIII. 
 
 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 acquisi- 
 tion 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.
 
 Chap. IX. CONVENT OF THE PULLEY. 105 
 
 THE CONVENE' 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 In- 
 habitants — 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 ob- 
 servation 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 com- 
 monly 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 pre- 
 cipice 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 ; 
 
 f3
 
 106 APPROACH TO THE CONVENT. Chap. IX. 
 
 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 con- 
 vulsion 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
 
 Chap. IX. APPROACH TO THE CONVENT. 107 
 
 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.
 
 108 DESCRIPTION OF THE CONVENT Chap, IX. 
 
 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 work- 
 manship ; 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 cack- 
 ling and talking together at the top of their shrill 
 voices. A large yellow-coloured dog, who was sleep- 
 ing 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 habili- 
 ments 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
 
 Chap. IX. AND ITS INHABITANTS. 109 
 
 poor dog had been pelted into a hole, tlie 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
 
 110 
 
 PLAN OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Chap. IX. 
 
 W////////////Mi//M/ ^M' ^///MW^^' 
 
 1. Altar. 
 
 2. Apsis, apparently cut out of the 
 
 rock. 
 
 3. Two Corinthian columns. 
 
 4. Wooden partitions of lattice-work, 
 
 about 10 feet high. 
 
 5. Steps leading up to the sanctuary. 
 
 6. Two three-quarter columns. 
 
 7. Eight columns.* 
 
 8. Dark room cut out of the rock 
 
 (there is another corresponding to 
 it under the steps).f 
 
 9. Steps leading down into the church. 
 10. Screen before the Altar. 
 
 * 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. 
 
 I 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 Con- 
 stantinople, and perhaps, also, of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem.
 
 Chap. IX. DESCRIPTION OF THE CHURCH. Ill 
 
 not cruciform, and seldom had transepts, nor were 
 they built with any reference to the points of the 
 compass.* 
 
 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 clere- 
 story, above the columns, and the part about the 
 absis 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 pro- 
 portions and appear to be original. The absis is of 
 regular Grecian or Roman architecture, and is orna- 
 mented with six pilasters, and three niches in which 
 
 * It is much to be desired that some competent person should wTite 
 a small cheap book, with plates or wood-cuts explaining what an 
 early Christian Church was ; what the ceremonies, ornaments, ves- 
 tures, 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 ves- 
 tures 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.
 
 1 J 2 BOOKS AND MSS, Chap. IX. 
 
 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 lan- 
 guage 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 illumi- 
 nation, 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 exe- 
 cution 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, con- 
 sisted 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.
 
 Chap. IX. ANCIENT STONE QUARRIES. 113 
 
 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 build- 
 ings, had notliing remarkable in its exterior archi- 
 tecture, 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
 
 114: ALARM OF THE COPTS. Chap. IX. 
 
 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 re- 
 assured 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
 
 Chap. IX. ANCIENT STONE QUARRIES. 115 
 
 hieroglyphics sculptured on the rock. Among these I 
 saw the names of Rameses 11. 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 Wilkin- 
 son, 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 incum- 
 bent 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
 
 116 COPTIC IDEAS OF A SKETCH-BOOK. Chap. IX. 
 
 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 !"
 
 Chap. X. RUINED COPTIC MONASTERY. 117 
 
 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 — Pro- 
 bably 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 Goui-noo. 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
 
 118 MR. hay's tomb. Chap. X. 
 
 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 cos- 
 tume 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
 
 Chap, X. A COPTIC CARPENTER. 119 
 
 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 monas- 
 tery ; 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 con- 
 sideration 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
 
 120 NIGHT- VISIT TO A TOMB. Chap. X. 
 
 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 scarabsei, 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
 
 Clhap. X. NIGHT VISIT TO A TOMB. 121 
 
 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 car- 
 penter'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 after- 
 wards, 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 door- 
 way, 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 
 
 G
 
 122 INTERIOR OF TOMB. Chap. X. 
 
 I think there were only four. The walls and columns, 
 or rather square piers which supported the roof, re- 
 tained 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 Chris- 
 tians 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 fright- 
 ful 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
 
 Chap. X. ANCIENT COPTIC BOOKS. 123 
 
 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 con- 
 stant 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 
 
 G 2
 
 124 ALARMING NOISES IN THE TOMB. Chap. X. 
 
 the next two or three, which seemed to be martyro- 
 logies, 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 
 1 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 com- 
 pleted 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 car- 
 penter'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
 
 Chap. X. RETREAT FROM THE TOMB. 1 25 
 
 SO too ; and we looked over our shoulders in a sort of 
 anxious, nervous kind of way, expecting to see some- 
 thing — 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 some- 
 where 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. Sud- 
 denly 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
 
 126 APPEARANCE OF THE EVIL ONE. Chap. X. 
 
 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 hterally 
 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 ft-om 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.
 
 Chap. X. SUPERNATURAL STORIES. 127 
 
 " 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 fomid 
 it, for it must liave 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 adven- 
 ture ; 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 myste- 
 rious manner connected with the opening of the magic
 
 128 SUPERNATURAL STORIES. Chap. X. 
 
 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 illus- 
 trated 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.
 
 Chap. X. SUPERNATURAL STORIES. 129 
 
 Under circumstances of alarm or temporary halluci- 
 nation 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 sup- 
 posed to be supernatural might have been explained, 
 if all the circumstances connected with them had been 
 fairly and openly detailed by an impartial witness. 
 
 G 3
 
 130 THE WHITE MONASTERY. Chap. XI. 
 
 THE WHITE MONASTERY. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 The White Monastery — Abou Shenood — Devastations of the Ma- 
 melukes — Description of the Monastery — Different styles of its 
 exterior and interior Architecture — Its ruinous condition — De- 
 scription of the Church — The Baptistery — Ancient Rites of 
 Baptism — The Library — Modem Architecture — The Church of 
 San Francesco at Rimini — The Red Monastery — Alarming ren- 
 contre 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 can- 
 tered 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
 
 Chap. XL DEVASTATIONS OF THE MAMELUKES. 131 
 
 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 neighbour- 
 hood. 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 inte- 
 rior 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 over- 
 hanging 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 mo- 
 nastery 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
 
 132 RUINOUS CONDITION OF THE MONASTERY. Chap. XI. 
 
 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 vdndows of some wretched hovels of mud
 
 Chap. XI. DESCRIPTION OF THE CHURCH. 133 
 
 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 per- 
 formance 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 
 modem 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
 
 134 DESCRIPTION OF THE CHURCH. Chap. XI. 
 
 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 modem 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 tre- 
 mendously grim saints have been portrayed, whose 
 present threadbare appearance shows that they have 
 disfigured the walls for several centuries. Some com- 
 paratively 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, imme- 
 diately 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 
 eovered with a profusion of sculpture in panels.
 
 Chap. XI. THE CONVENTUAL LIBRARY. 135 
 
 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 sup- 
 pose, 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 con- 
 gregation ; and is finally sprinkled, instead of being 
 immersed, the whole ceremony having been so much 
 altered and pared down fi'om 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>
 
 136 MODERN ARCHITECTURE. Chap. XI. 
 
 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 Mo- 
 nastery 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 fre- 
 quently 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 
 fi-ont — 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
 
 Chap. XI. THE RED MONASTERY. 137 
 
 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 
 pm-pose, in the Egyptian style. The only other in- 
 stance of this kind, where two distinct styles of archi- 
 tecture 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 Sigis- 
 mond 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 sarco- 
 phagi of classic forms outside ; each of which stands in 
 the recess of a Roman arch, in which style of archi- 
 tecture the exterior of the building is erected. 
 
 About two miles to the north of the White Monas- 
 tery, in a small village sheltered by a grove of palms, 
 stands another ancient building called the Red Mo- 
 nastery. 
 
 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
 
 138 FEUDS BETWEEN NATIVE TRIBES. Chap. XI. 
 
 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 gene- 
 ration, 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. 
 Parting from this warlike band with mutual compli- 
 ments 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 boat- 
 men 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
 
 MENDICANT DEBVISH.
 
 Chap. XI. LEGENDS OF THE DESERT. 139 
 
 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 inte- 
 resting 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 manu- 
 script of an apocryphal book ascribed to the gi-eat 
 leader of the Jews, I have been enabled to compile a 
 connected biography, in which many curious circum- 
 stances 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
 
 140 ARABIAN STORY-TELLERS. Chap. XI 
 
 their pipes with quicker puffs, when something extra- 
 ordinary 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 en- 
 chanted 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 some- 
 times 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.
 
 Chap. XII. ISLAND OF PHILCE. 141 
 
 THE ISLAND OF PHILCE, &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 inter- 
 vening 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
 
 142 GREAT TEMPLE OF PHILOE. Chap. XII. 
 
 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 build- 
 ings around me were most imposing ; and on emerging 
 from the lofty gateway between the two towers of the
 
 Chap. XII. BED OF PHARAOH. 143 
 
 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 thick- 
 ness 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.* The principal temple, and several 
 smaller ones, are still almost entire. One of these, 
 called by the natives the Bed of Pharaoh, is a remark- 
 
 * 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 tliis can have been accomplished without the aid of gunpowder 
 it is difficult to conjecture.
 
 144 SHOOTING IN EGYPT. Chap. XIT. 
 
 ably light and airy-looking structure, differing, in this 
 respect, from the usual character of Egyptian archi- 
 tecture. On the terrace overhanging the Nile, in 
 front of this graceful temple, I had formed my habita- 
 tion, 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 hirding^'' 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 vdves before he had a son. The
 
 Chap. XII. STORY OF PRINCE ANAS EL AJOUD. 145 
 
 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.* 
 
 * For the benefit of the reader I subjoin two of these songs trans- 
 lated from the originals ; or ratlier, 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 fre- 
 quently 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 ob- 
 served that the chorus, Amaan, Amaan, Amaan, is generally added 
 to all songs— a discretion— and that the way this chorus is howled 
 
 H
 
 14G EGYPTIAN SONGS. Chap. XII. 
 
 Whilst the old gentleman was shouting out one of 
 these amatory ditties, and I was sitting still listening 
 
 out, is to an European ear the most difficult j)art 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 fiU'd me : 
 
 Amaan, Amaan, Amaan. 
 
 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 !
 
 Chap. XII. EGYPTIAN SONGS. 147 
 
 to these heart-rending sounds, a turtle-dove — who was 
 probably awakened from her sleep by the fearful discord, 
 
 3. 
 
 Ah ! when I view thy loveliness, 
 
 The lustre of thy deep black eye, 
 My songs but add to mj' 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 Borrows our retreat shall reach. 
 
 6. 
 Masr may boast her lovely girls, 
 
 Whose necks are deck'd vnth pearls and gold : 
 The gold would fail ; 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 t/a leili. 
 
 h2
 
 148 
 
 EGYPTIAN SONGS. 
 
 Chap. XII. 
 
 A M A A N. 
 
 £s 
 
 j J •' — :»= -• • J=j^ig^ : 
 
 yz 
 
 fci^: 
 
 The snow, the snow is melt - ing on the 
 
 i-^. 
 
 €z 
 
 3^ 
 
 ^5 
 
 il 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 -> ^8 ^ 
 
 ^S^3 
 
 ^S 
 
 ^iF^=a-" 
 
 ^^=f 
 
 m^- 
 
 w 
 
 1 *1 1 !V 
 
 5 
 
 idz:?: 
 
 hills of Is - fa - han. As fair, be as re- 
 
 P 
 
 1 1 , ^ 
 
 t=^ 
 
 1=3^ 
 
 s=t 
 
 ^^^^^^^^^ 
 
 ^. 
 
 Sz±=i: 
 
 lent - ing' Am-aan, Am-aan, Am- aan. 
 
 P 
 
 Sir; 
 
 31=11 
 
 i=^=^ 
 
 i=i 
 

 
 Chap. XII. TURTLE-DOVES. 149 
 
 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.
 
 150 THE CROCODILE Chap. XII. 
 
 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 dis- 
 tance ; 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 stand-
 
 Chap. XII. AND ITS GUARDIAN BIRD. 151 
 
 ing 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 deputa- 
 tions 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. I'his 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 : —
 
 152 LEGEND OF KING SOLOMON Chap. XII. 
 
 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 pro- 
 perty 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 minis- 
 ters 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 pro- 
 tect 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
 
 Chap. XII. AND THE HOOPOES. 153 
 
 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 fi-om 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 
 
 H 3
 
 154 LEGEND OF KING SOLOMON Chap. XII. 
 
 the doors were emerald, and the windows of diamonds, 
 larger even than the diamond of Jemshid, he com- 
 manded 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 stand- 
 ing before the feet of the king ; and, making his obei- 
 sance, 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 coun- 
 cillors 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
 
 Chap. XII. AND THE liOOPOES, 155 
 
 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.
 
 156 LEGEND OF KING SOLOMON Chap. XII. 
 
 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 unfre-
 
 Chap. XII. AND THE HOOPOES. 157 
 
 quented 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 
 fi'om that time forth the family of the hoopoes have 
 flourislied 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 neigh- 
 bourhood of the cataracts is inhabited by a pecuhar 
 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 arc slightly but elegantly 
 formed. They have woolly hair ; and are not encum- 
 bered with much clothing. The men wear a short 
 tunic of white cotton ; but often have only a petticoat
 
 158 PEOPLE NEAR THE CATARACTS. Chap. XII. 
 
 round their loins. The married women have a piece 
 of stuff thrown over tlieir heads which envelopes the 
 whole person. Under this they wear a curious gar- 
 ment 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 de- 
 fending 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
 
 Chap. XII. VI8IT TO THE ISLAND OF PHILCE. 15\) 
 
 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 per- 
 fect a figure as that of Mouna. She was of a lighter 
 hrown 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 hut a slight leaning 
 towards the Ethiopian contour. Her hands 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, fi'om 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 incum- 
 brance 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,
 
 160 QUARREL BETWEEN TWO NATIVE BOYS. Chap. XII. 
 
 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 in- 
 teresting 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 jaw- 
 bone, 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
 
 Chap. Xir. RETRIBUTIVE JUSTICE. 161 
 
 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 wliich 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 be- 
 tween 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 sub- 
 ject 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 ex- 
 actly 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
 
 162 RETRIBUTIVE JUSTICE. Cliap. XII. 
 
 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 retribu- 
 tive justice, following out the old law of blood for 
 blood, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
 
 MONASTERIES OF THE LEYANT. 
 
 PAET II. 
 
 JERUSALEM AND THE MONASTERY 
 OF ST. SABBA. 
 
 1834.
 
 I
 
 THE HOLY SEPULCHRE, 
 
 fJn— ^^^^=^^1 It. Wfasnour Lorduppenrniu 
 '" ^"^J I7.11..Flll.rolPl..g.lUUDo. 
 ^^ I*. Ch.1^ at U.. Uimnlu^
 
 ( 165 ) 
 
 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 — Argu- 
 ments 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, 
 Gerusalemme salutar si sente. 
 
 E r uno air altro 11 mostra e in tanto oblia, 
 La noja e il mal della passata via. 
 
 Al gran piacer 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
 
 1(36 FIRST VIEW OF JERUSALEM. Cliap. XIIT. 
 
 horses, and a tamer sort of Yahoo to attend upon 
 them, we took our way across the hills towards Jeru- 
 salem. 
 
 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 Mac- 
 cabees, 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 fr-om 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
 
 Chap. XIII. FIRST VIEW OF JERUSALEM. 167 
 
 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 toil- 
 some journey, he first beholds this, the most interest- 
 ing 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 pil- 
 grimage was accomplished, and I do not think that 
 anything we saw afterwards during our stay in Jeru- 
 salem 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 ray horse and walked
 
 168 VALLEY OF GIHON. Chai). XII [. 
 
 bare-footed towards the gate, as some did, if I bad 
 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 nu- 
 merous 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 Scrip- 
 ture ; the Saracenic walls have a stately, magnificent 
 appearance ; they are built of large and massive stones. 
 The square towers, which are seen ait intervals, are 
 handsome and in good repair ; and there is an im- 
 posing 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.
 
 Chap. XIII. INHOSPITABLE RECEPTION. 169 
 
 We entered by the Bethlehem gate: it is com- 
 manded by the citadel, which was built by the people 
 of Pisa, and is still called the castle of the Pisans. 
 Thei-e we had some parleying with the Egyptian 
 guards, and, crossing an open space famous in mo- 
 nastic 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 com- 
 pletely 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 con- 
 vent 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 ap- 
 peared 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 bag- 
 gage ; and we went to bed not a little mortified at 
 
 I
 
 170 CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE. Chap. XIII. 
 
 our inhospitable reception by our Christian brethren, 
 so different from what we had always experienced 
 from the Mahometans. The convent of St. Sal- 
 vador 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.
 
 Chap. XIII. CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE. 171 
 
 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 im- 
 mediately 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 pillai-s : 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 vitse 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 
 
 i2
 
 172 THE HOLY SEPULCFIRE, Chap. XIII. 
 
 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 ex- 
 tends 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 move 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 Mag-
 
 Cliap. XIII. CHAPEL OF THE CROSS. 173 
 
 dalen, and then to the Chapel of the Lathis, 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 sur- 
 rounded 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
 
 174 GODFREY DE BOUILLON. Chap. XIII. 
 
 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 de- 
 stroyed by the Greeks, whose detestation of everything 
 connected with the Latin Church exceeds their aver- 
 sion 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.* 
 
 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 
 
 * 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 authorized by the Pope to give a 
 ling 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.
 
 Chap. XIII. ANCIENT CEMETEIilES. 175 
 
 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 for- 
 merly a place of burial, notwithstanding its situation 
 in the centre of the ancient city, contrary to the 
 almost universal practice of the ancients, whose sepul- 
 chres 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,'
 
 176 LEGEND OF THE FINDING OF Chap. XIII. 
 
 and it has formed the subject of many singular tra- 
 ditions 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 un- 
 doubting faith, afford a curious instance of the prone- 
 ness of the human intellect to mistake the shadow for 
 the substance, and to substitute an unbounded vene- 
 ration 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 pre- 
 cepts 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 Nico-
 
 Chap. XIII. THE TRUE CROSS, 177 
 
 demus, 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 J 
 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 Balkis, 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 after- 
 wards 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 
 
 i3
 
 178 LEGENDS CONCERNING Chap. XIII, 
 
 Wcas of palm, and the other, on which the superscrip- 
 tion 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 I'eveal 
 the secret ; he accordingly petitioned Heaven, where- 
 upon 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 dis- 
 covered ; 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 Jeru- 
 salem, 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
 
 Chap. XIII. THE TRUE CROSS. 179 
 
 Judas I gained much profit, but by this one's conver- 
 sion 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 thi'ce 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 pre- 
 served 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 resur- 
 rection. 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
 
 180 GOSPEL LOCALITIES. Chap. XIII. 
 
 have also a piece of the cross in a more modern set- 
 ting, 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 he, 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 Chris- 
 tian. 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 devasta- 
 tion 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 exact- 
 ness of the topography maintained by the friars of 
 Mount Moriah.
 
 Chap. XIV. THE VIA DOLOROSA. 181 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Tlie 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 Eabbi — 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 Jeru- 
 salem 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 pa-
 
 182 MOSQUE OF OMAR. Chap. XIV. 
 
 rable, 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, orna- 
 mented 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
 
 Chap. XIV. THE HADJR EL SAKHARA, 183 
 
 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 })erformed 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 Jeru- 
 salem. 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 accom- 
 modation ; 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
 
 184 LIBRARY OF GREEK MONASTERY. Chap. XIV. 
 
 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 devo- 
 tions 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 ad- 
 mission. I was presented with one of these at Jeru- 
 salem, 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 re- 
 ception 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 lan- 
 guages ; 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 preser- 
 vation. 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 illumina-
 
 Chap. XIV. ARABIC SPOKEN AT JERUSALEM. 185 
 
 tions. 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 ' Antliologia,' and 
 books for the Church service. 
 
 The Arabic language is generally spoken at Jeru- 
 salem, though the Turkish is much used among the 
 better class. The inhabitants are composed of people 
 of different nations and different religions, who in- 
 wardly 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 reli- 
 gion. 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
 
 186 THE JEWS : Chap. XIV. 
 
 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 per- 
 form 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
 
 Chap. XIV. THEIR WORSHIP. 187 
 
 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 lang-uage 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 Scrip- 
 ture 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
 
 188 HOUSE OF A RABBI. Chap. XIV. 
 
 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 ap- 
 propriated 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 sepa- 
 rated 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 ac- 
 quainted, answered exactly to Sir Walter Scott's
 
 Chap. XIV. THE RABBl's SON. 189 
 
 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 quan- 
 tity 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", embroi- 
 dered 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
 
 1 90 SAMARITAN PENTATEUCH. Chap. XIV 
 
 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 Ma- 
 hometan 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 hooks of the Penta- 
 teuch 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
 
 Chap. XIV. IBRAHIM PASHA. 191 
 
 the 27tli 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.
 
 192 EXCURSIONS. Chap. XV. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Expedition to the Monastery of St. Sabba — Reports of Arab Rob- 
 bers^ 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 — Nu- 
 merous JISS. — 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 disqui- 
 sitions, 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
 
 Chap. XV. REPORTS OF ARAB ROBBERS, 193 
 
 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 " c?o his Dead Sea ; " and accordingly 
 we made arrangements for an excursion in that di- 
 rection, 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
 
 194 BRIDGE OF AL SIRAT. Chap. XV. 
 
 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 raar- 
 mitons, 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 un- 
 fathomable 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
 
 Chap. XV. ARAB AMBUSCADE. 195 
 
 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/eet wide, wound 
 round the corner of a precipitous crag in such a man- 
 ner 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 ray 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 
 firom the precipice above us a curious collection of 
 bright barrels and brown faces were taking an ob- 
 servation of our party, while on the opposite side of 
 
 k2
 
 196 ARAB AMBUSCADE. Chap. XV 
 
 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 hope- 
 less. 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 singu- 
 larly 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 gen- 
 tlemen ?" " 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 con- 
 fusion, 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
 
 Chap. XV. A PARLEY. 197 
 
 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 sliall 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 fol- 
 lowers laughed at us scornfully, for we certainly did 
 look very like Egyptians. "We are Franks, I tell 
 you 1 " 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
 
 198 ARAB ESCORT. Chap. XV. 
 
 Egyptians ; what care we for Egyptians ? we are Eng- 
 lish, 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 un- 
 concernedly 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 com- 
 pletely 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
 
 Chap. XV. MONASTERY OF ST. SABBA. 199 
 
 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 arid dark arched passages, some of which are 
 carried through the solid rock.
 
 200 ST. SABBA. Chap. XV. 
 
 It was in one of the caves in these rocks that the 
 renowned St. Sabba passed his time in the society of 
 a pet Hon. 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 ; more- 
 over 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 venera- 
 tion 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 pre- 
 sent 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 monas- 
 tery, 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 observ- 
 ances are upheld only by the Greek, Coptic, and
 
 Chap. XV. GREEK HERMITS. 201 
 
 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 firm- 
 ness 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 
 
 k3
 
 202 THE ICONOSTASIS. Chap. XV. 
 
 palm-tree, said to be endowed with miraculous pro- 
 perties, 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 ixovo(TTa(Tis is dimly represented in our older 
 chm-ches by the rood-loft and screen which divides the 
 chancel from the nave : it is retained also in Lom- 
 bardy and in the sees under the Ambrosian rule ; but 
 tliese 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
 
 Chap. XV. THE LIBRARY. 203 
 
 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 in- 
 comprehensible 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 prac- 
 tices 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
 
 204 NUMEROUS MSS. Chap. XV. 
 
 folios of the works of the fathers, and one MS. of the 
 Octoteuch, or first eight books 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 
 vay to the Dead Sea, our friend the sheick having, 
 from the moment that he was convinced we were 
 nothing better or worse than Enghshmen and sight- 
 seers, treated us with all manner of civility. 
 
 On arriving at the Dead Sea I forthwith proceeded
 
 Chap. XV. THE DEAD SEA. 205 
 
 to bathe in it, in order to prove the celebrated buoy- 
 ancy 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 pro- 
 tection, 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 disappoint- 
 ment. 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 an- 
 chorites, 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 en- 
 deared 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 ;
 
 206 DISCOVERY OF THE Chap. XV. 
 
 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 pre- 
 cious 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 encoun- 
 tered 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 mouths 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.
 
 Chap. XV. APPLE OF THE DEAD SEA. 207 
 
 We then perceived, and to my great delight, that we 
 had discovered the famous apple of the Dead Sea, the 
 existence of which has heen 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 Linnsean Society, who pub- 
 lished 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.
 
 208 PROCESSION OF COPTS. Chap. XVI. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Church of the Holy Sepulchre — Processions of the Copts — The 
 Syrian Maronites and the Greeks — Riotous Behaviour of the Pil- 
 grims — 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 EflPects 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 regard- 
 ing 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 com- 
 panions 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 errand. 
 By the rules of their Church they are not permitted
 
 Chap. XVI. RIOTOUS PILGRIMS. 209 
 
 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 Ar- 
 menians, 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 profana- 
 tion 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
 
 210 CHANT OF LATIN MONKS. Chap. XVI. 
 
 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 wit- 
 nessed from the gallery that overlooked the Holy Sepul- 
 chre, 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 beau- 
 tiful simplicity of the ancient chant made a strong 
 impression upon ray mind ; the orderly solemnity of 
 the Roman Catholic vespers showing to great ad- 
 vantage when compared with the screams and tumult 
 of the fanatic Greeks. 
 
 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 appear-
 
 Chap. XVI. 
 
 LITANY OF THE VIRGIN. 
 
 211 
 
 LITANY OF THE VIRGIN, 
 
 Sung by the Friars .of St. Salvador at Jerusalem. 
 
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 SEr: 
 
 3Zt 
 
 ri — <-r 
 
 cr 
 
 Sane - ta Ma - ter Do - mi - ni — O - ra 
 
 ^ 
 
 Pf=FJ 
 
 m 
 
 ~cr 
 
 -Oi- 
 
 SI 
 
 e=: 
 
 33 
 
 <y — o 
 
 ig 
 
 iS 
 
 m^^ 
 
 lOt 
 
 t j < y _J_J g 
 
 pro no - bis. 
 
 Sane - ta De - i 
 
 P3 
 
 ^ 
 
 3:2 
 
 o <y 
 
 a 
 
 ^^^ 
 
 ^=P 
 
 33 
 
 O CF 
 
 jLj <y 
 
 T3. 
 
 JJt 
 
 ra pro no 
 
 Ge - ni - trix- 
 
 O 
 
 bis. 
 
 iFS3#^J*^^3^^ 
 
 =gF=§f 
 
 _o 
 
 ^- 
 
 T- 
 
 ^ 
 
 Sancta Maria — Ora pro nobis. 
 Sancta Virgo Virginum — Ora pro nobis. 
 Imperatrix Reginarum — Ora pro nobis. 
 Laus sanctarum animarum— Ora pro nobis. 
 Vera salutrix earum— Ora pro nobis.
 
 212 IBRAHIM PASHA. Chap. XVI. 
 
 ance 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 mono- 
 syllable 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 every- 
 thing in an easy and luxurious way ; and it being an- 
 nounced 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
 
 Chap. XVI. 
 
 THE SACRED FIRE. 
 
 213 
 
 times round the tomb ; after which he took off his 
 outer robes of cloth of silver, and went into the se- 
 pulchre, 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. 
 
 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 sal- 
 vation. 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
 
 214 EFFECTS OF THE HEAT. Chap. XVI. 
 
 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 ap- 
 peared 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
 
 Chap. XVI. HORRIBLE CATASTROPHE. 215 
 
 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 numer- 
 ous 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
 
 216 GREAT LOSS OF LIFE. Chap. XVI. 
 
 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 bayo- 
 nets 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 imme- 
 diately 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
 
 Chap. XVI. NARROW ESCAPE — HEAPS OF DEAD. 217 
 
 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 scrambUng 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 promis- 
 cuously 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, 
 
 L
 
 218 HUMANE CONDUCT OF IBRAHIM. Chap. XVI. 
 
 and that when we could come out m safety he would 
 again send to us.^ 
 
 We stayed in our room two hours before we ven- 
 tured 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 tlieir 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.
 
 Chap. XVI. SUPERSTITION REGARDING SHROUDS. 219 
 
 When the bodies were removed many were dis- 
 covered standing upright, quite dead ; and near the 
 church door one of the soldiers was found thus stand- 
 ing, 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 
 
 l2
 
 220 SCALLOP-SHELLS AND PALM-BRANCHES. Chap. XVI. 
 
 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 accoutre- 
 ments. 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 re- 
 turn 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
 
 Chap. XVI. THE DEAD MULETEER. 221 
 
 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 tra- 
 ditions 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 Aun- 
 gelles,' and Caxton's ' Golden Legende ' — all books 
 wherein I delighted to pore, till I could not help getting
 
 222 MOONLIGHT VIEW OF THE DEAD. Chap. XVI. 
 
 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 1 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 figiue 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
 
 Chap. XVI. THE CURSE ON JERUSALEM. 223 
 
 liis call. The clduds, passing rapidly over the moon, 
 cast 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 lament- 
 ing 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 circum- 
 stances. They had entered the sacred walls to cele- 
 brate 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
 
 224 THE CURSE ON JERUSALEM. Chap. XVI. 
 
 truth of the religion which He taught ; and the anniver- 
 sary 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 mourn- 
 ing, 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 suc- 
 cession for eighteen hundred years. Fury and desola- 
 tion, 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
 
 Chap. XVI. IBRAHIM PASHA. 225 
 
 Good Friday with fire which they affirmed to liave hecn 
 sent down from heaven in answer to their prayers. The 
 Pasha w as quite aware of the evident absurdity which 
 I brought to his notice, of the performance of a Chris- 
 tian 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 sliould 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 any- 
 thing is to be gained by the exhibition of that asto- 
 nishing 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 brino-in"; 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 — 
 
 l3
 
 226 CAREER OF IBRAHIM PASHA. Chap. XVI. 
 
 " De part du roi, defense a Dieu 
 De faiie 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 ap- 
 plause, 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 on- 
 lightened 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
 
 Chap. XVI. CAREER OF IBRAHIM PASHA. 227 
 
 King Henry VIII., took possession of the golden water- 
 spouts and other ornaments of the Kaaha, burned the 
 books and destroyed the colleges of the Arabian theo- 
 logians, 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 tri- 
 umphant 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,
 
 228 CAREER OF IBRAHIM PASHA. Chap. XVI. 
 
 which were sent to put clown 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 Eng- 
 land, France, and Russia. 
 
 In 1831 Mehemet Ali undertook to wrest Syria 
 from the Sultan his master. Ibrahim Pasha com- 
 manded 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 Egyp- 
 tian 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
 
 Chap. XVI. CAREER OF IBRAHIM PASHA. 229 
 
 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 distin- 
 guished 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 ot 
 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 tem- 
 perature in their vicinity several degrees.
 
 230 CAREER OF IBRAHIM PASHA. Chap. XVI. 
 
 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 under- 
 mined 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
 
 Chap. XVI. CAREER OF IBRAHIM PASHA. 231 
 
 sons Toussoun, Ismail, and Ibrahim, who have all de- 
 scended 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 patri- 
 archal 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
 
 232 CAREER OF IBRAHIM PASHA. Chap. XVI. 
 
 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.
 
 MOMSTEPJES OF THE LEYANT. 
 
 PART III. 
 METEORA.
 
 VIEW OF THE MONASTEBY OF SAINT BARLAAM, AT METEOEA.
 
 ( 235 ) 
 
 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 — Eichness of their Arms — Their free 
 use of them — Comparative Safety of Foreigners — Tragic Fate of 
 a German Botanist — Arrival at Gominitza — Ride to Paramatliia 
 
 — A Niglit's Bivouac — Reception at Paramatliia — 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
 
 236 ALBANIAN GAME AND ROBBERS. Chap. XVII. 
 
 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 everyone was agreed. 
 Of robbers there was no end : and just at this particular 
 time there was a revolution, or rebellion, or pronun- 
 ciamiento, 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. 
 
 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 ;
 
 TATAR, OR GOVERNMENT MESSENGER.
 
 Chap. XVir. COMPARATIVE SAFETY OF FOREIGNERS. 237 
 
 s. 
 
 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 PYank has a gun in his hand, 
 which he generally has, there are two probabilities, 
 amounting almost to certainties, vi^ith 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 disturb- 
 ance 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. lie 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
 
 238 FATE OF A GERMAN BOTANIST. Chap. XVII. 
 
 universal opinion being that he was a powerful magi- 
 cian, 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 care- 
 fully behind the rocks whenever the philosopher turned 
 towards them ; and at last one of the gang, commend- 
 ing 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 dis- 
 appointment 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 gi-eat 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
 
 Chap. XVII. RIDE TO PARAMATHIA. 239 
 
 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. Haw- 
 kins, of Bignor, in Sussex, where they are still pre- 
 served. 
 
 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
 
 240 A night's bivouac. Chap; XVII. 
 
 lodcang for the nidit. " 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 pre- 
 cisely see what else we are to do just now oh the top 
 of this hill. How are they off for wolves in this neigh- 
 bourhood ?" " ^Vliy," quoth ray 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 cer- 
 tainly 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
 
 Chap. XVII. PARAMATHIA. 241 
 
 making myself snug, but every change was from bad 
 to worse ; I could not get warm any how, and a remark- 
 able 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^ instan- 
 taneously 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 diilicult 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 
 
 M
 
 242 PARAMATHIA. Chap. XVII. 
 
 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 mar- 
 ried 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
 
 Chap. XVII. PARAMATHIA. 243 
 
 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 gar- 
 ment, giving me ample opportunity of admiring its 
 effect. I expressed ray surprise and admiration in bad 
 Greek, which, however, the fair Albanian appeared to 
 find no difficulty in understanding. She kindly cor- 
 rected 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 im- 
 possible 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 Para- 
 mathia were the most savage : for the dogs looked like 
 wolves, and the men like arrant cut-throats, swagger- 
 ing about, idle and restless, with their long hair, and 
 guns, and pistols, and yataghans ; they have none of 
 
 M 2
 
 244 YANINA. Chap. XVII 
 
 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 Gene- 
 sareth 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
 
 Chap. XVII. YANINA. 245 
 
 plains of Jericho, and there is no river like the Jordan 
 to light up the scene with its quick and sparkling 
 waters as it ghstens 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 accommoda- 
 tion 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 fur- 
 nished ; 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.
 
 246 YANINA — ROBBERS. Chap. XVII. 
 
 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 \'izir to request an 
 audience, it was fixed for the next day. There was 
 not much to see ; but I afforded a subject of uninter- 
 rupted 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,
 
 Chap. XVII. YANINA — ALI PASHA's PALACE. 247 
 
 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 A.th. — 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 XVI. 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 Eg}^t, 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 audi- 
 ence 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
 
 248 YANINA. Chap. XVII. 
 
 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 conunander of the troops at 
 Mezzovo, who would supply me vrith 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. ^^Hiilst 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 any- 
 thing 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,
 
 Chap. XVII. THE VIZIR S RETINUE. 
 
 249 
 
 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 dis- 
 grace ; 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 bril- 
 
 M 3
 
 250 THE vizir's retinue. Chap. XVII. 
 
 liantly 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 distin- 
 guished 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 gor- 
 geous Albanian dresses, with silver bridles and embroi- 
 dered 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 sub-
 
 •niUKlSH COMMON SOLDIER.
 
 Chap. XVII. ALBANIAN SOLDIEKS. 251 
 
 ject. 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. 
 
 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 hiin 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
 
 252 NEWS OF THE SIEGE OF BERAT. Chap. XVII. 
 
 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 6th. — 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 con- 
 fusion 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
 
 Chap. XVII, TURKISH SELF-POSSESSION. 253 
 
 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 ac- 
 tivity. 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 ac- 
 quaintance 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.
 
 254 ALBANIAN CAVALRY, Chap. XVII. 
 
 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 plun- 
 dered ; 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, 
 1 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
 
 Chap. XVII. ARMING FOR THE WAR. 255 
 
 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 addi- 
 tion 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.
 
 256 ALBANIAN BRAGGARTS. Chap. XVII. 
 
 " 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 quest! 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.
 
 Chap, XVIII. START FOR METEORA. 257 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 start for Meteora — Rencontre with a Wounded Traveller — Bar- 
 barity 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 Qth. — 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 pro- 
 visions, and hired five horses — three for myself and my 
 men, one for the muleteer, and the other for the bag- 
 gage, 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
 
 258 A WOUNDED TRAVELLER. Chap. XVIII. 
 
 use in Egypt — I immediately gave him all the inform- 
 ation 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
 
 Chap. XVIII. BARBARITY OF THE ROBBERS. 259 
 
 I was struck with the odd appearance of the mule's 
 hurden : 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 assist- 
 ance to the man in the box, if I knew anything of 
 surgery, for he had had both his legs cut off by some 
 robbei's 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 reco- 
 very, 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
 
 260 ALBANIAN INNKEEPER. Chap. XVIII. 
 
 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 sum- 
 mit 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 in- 
 genuity, I demurred at the charge, particularly as the 
 walnut-tree did not belong to him. It was a wild tree.
 
 Chap. XVIII. ALBANIAN INNKEEPER. 261 
 
 which everybody threw stones at as he passed by, to 
 bring down the nuts : — 
 
 " Nux ego juncta viae quae sum sine crimine vita, 
 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
 
 262 PICTURESQUE GORGES. Chap. XVIII. 
 
 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 par- 
 ticular 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 i)ut 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 conti-
 
 Chap. XVIII. MEZZOVO. 263 
 
 nual 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, v/ith 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 sup- 
 plied 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 en- 
 tered 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
 
 264 THE CHIEF OF MEZZOVO. Chap. XVIII. 
 
 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 look- 
 ing 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 high- 
 ness 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 undoubt- 
 edly," 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 ofi^ at once : it
 
 Chap. XVIII. MOUNT PINDUS. 265 
 
 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 
 
 N
 
 266 CAPTURE BY ROBBERS. Chap. XVIII. 
 
 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 
 same 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 behig 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
 
 Chap. XVIII. SALUTARY EFFECTS OF SWAGGERING, 267 
 
 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 hag of 
 clothes, and threw it upon the ground ; then out came 
 the sugar and the coffee, and whatever else there 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 appro- 
 priating 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, sur- 
 prised 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 
 
 n2
 
 268 ESCORTED TO THE Chap. XVIII. 
 
 aback with the good English in which 1 had ad- 
 dressed 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
 
 Chap. XVIII. robbers' HEAD-QUARTERS. 269 
 
 shake off this yoke, I perceived that the whole pass 
 was guarded, and wherever the road was a Httle 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 con- 
 querors 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
 
 270 THE ROBBER CHIEF. Chap. XVIII. 
 
 wooden nouse 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 ap- 
 proached 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 
 loud 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 fi-om 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!
 
 Chap. XVIII. UNEXPECTED FRIENDSHIP. 271 
 
 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 I Wel- 
 come, 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 cir- 
 cumstances. My two servants and the muleteer seeing 
 what turn affairs had taken, became of a sudden as lo- 
 quacious 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.
 
 272 ESCORT OF ROBBERS. Chap. XVIII. 
 
 " Yes, I know," said the Albanian ; " we settled 
 that at Mezzovo, with my master's friend, his Excel- 
 lency Mr. \\Tiat'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 coflPee 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, 
 vvith long black hair hang^ing down their l)acks, 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
 
 Chap. XVIII, CAPTAIN OF THE THIEVES. 273 
 
 grand gentleman in red velvet to whom I had pre- 
 sented 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 under- 
 stood, 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 
 
 N 3
 
 274 KHAN OF MALACASH. Chap. XVIII. 
 
 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 in- 
 creasing 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 Tempo, 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
 
 Chap. XVIII. ACTIVITY OF ESCORT. 
 
 275 
 
 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 agree- 
 able, honest rogues enough, and we got on amazingly
 
 276 CONSEQUENCES OF SINGING. Chap. XVIII. 
 
 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 gi-eat 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. 
 Cantahit 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
 
 Chap. XVIII. LOSS OF CHARACTER. 277 
 
 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. 
 
 " AVhat ! 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 keep- 
 ing 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.
 
 278 CROSS THE PENEUS. Chap. XVIII. 
 
 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 mer- 
 chants 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.
 
 Chap. XIX. SCENERY OF METEORA. 279 
 
 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 
 diflSculty of reaching it — Ascent by a Windlass and Net, or by 
 Ladders — Narrow Escape — Hospitable Reception by the Monks 
 
 — The Agoumencs, 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 Deco- 
 rations — 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
 
 280 CAVES — HERMIT-HUNTING. Chap. XIX. 
 
 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 moun- 
 tainous 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 de- 
 votees. 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
 
 Chap. XIX. RELIGIOUS OBSERVAXCES. 281 
 
 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 lead- 
 ing 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 some- 
 thing grand in the strength and constancy of their 
 faith. They left their homes and riches and the plea- 
 sures 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
 
 282 MONASTERY OF BARLAAM. Chap. XIX. 
 
 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 plat- 
 form of rock, which I may compare to the flat roof of 
 a church ; while the monastery of Barlaam stood per- 
 pendicularly 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 monas- 
 tery 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. 
 
 " Wbo 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." 
 
 I
 
 Chap. XIX. PERILOUS ASCENT. 283 
 
 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 con- 
 trivance 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 ap- 
 proached by a pathway leading to a rickety wooden 
 platform which overhung a deep gorge. From this 
 point the ladders hung perpendicularly upon the bare
 
 284 HOSPITABLE RECEPTION. Chap. XIX. 
 
 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 bag- 
 gage 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
 
 Chap, XIX. THE AGOUMENOS, OR ABBOT. 285 
 
 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 monas- 
 tery 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 dis- 
 like 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, frater- 
 nised, and slapped each other on the back, and had 
 anotlier glass or two, or rather cup, for coffee-cups of
 
 286 DESCRIPTION OF THE MONASTERY. Chap. XIX. 
 
 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. 
 
 Novemler 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 habita- 
 tions 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 culti- 
 vated, and there is nothing like a parapet- wall in any 
 direction to prevent your falling over. The place
 
 Chap. XIX. THE CHURCH. 287 
 
 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. 
 
 The church has a porch before the door, vd^Qn^, 
 supported by marble columns, the interior wall of 
 which on each side of the door is painted with repre- 
 sentations 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, ayioc rqa.- 
 TTsi^oc, is separated from the nave by 
 a wooden screen, called the icono- 
 stasis, 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,
 
 288 SYMBOLISM IN THE GREEK CHURCH. Chap. XIX. 
 
 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 ves- 
 tures 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, ixyio, Br/;tAo, or ®r,ij.o. 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 man- 
 kind by the glad tidings of the Gospels which they 
 wrote. Part of the mosaic with which the whole in- 
 terior of the dome was formerly covered in the cathe- 
 dral 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 vene-
 
 Chap. XIX. PRESERVATION OF MEMORIALS. 289 
 
 rable, 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 pre- 
 serving 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 coun- 
 tenance, and the minutest accessories of the composi- 
 tion. 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. 
 Tlie 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 cir- 
 cumstances 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 
 edijfices. 
 
 o
 
 290 REFUSAL TO SELL THE MSS. Chap. XIX. 
 
 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 illumina- 
 tions 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
 
 Chap. XIX. THE REFECTORY. 291 
 
 penetrated into the heights of the monastery of St. 
 Barlaara, and the good old-fashioned Agoumenos was 
 not to be overcome by any special pleading ; so I 
 told lilm at last that I respected his prejudices, and 
 hoped he would follow the dictates of his conscience 
 equally well in more important matters. Tlie 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 repre- 
 sentations of celebrated eaters, but with the likenesses 
 of such thin, famished-looking saints that they seem 
 
 o2
 
 292 LEAVE MONASTERY OF BARLAAM. Chap. XIX. 
 
 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 
 
 I 
 
 I
 
 Chap. XIX. MONASTERY OF HAGIOS STEPHANOS. 293 
 
 palicari, started on foot for a tour among the other 
 monasteries. 
 
 A dehghtful 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 iso- 
 lated 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, con- 
 sisting 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
 
 294 FINE VIEW FROM HAGIOS STEPHANOS. Chap. XIX- 
 
 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 care- 
 fully 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 fol- 
 lowed 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 biumed 
 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
 
 Chap. XIX. MONASTERY OF AGIA TRIADA. 295 
 
 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 ap- 
 peared 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 ser- 
 vants 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, project- 
 ing 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 instructiye spectacle to the people who 
 came in to market of a morning. 
 
 Agia Triada contains about ten or twelve monks,
 
 296 MONASTERY OF HAGIA KOSEREA. Chap. XIX. 
 
 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 build- 
 ings, 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
 
 Chap. XIX. ADMISSION REFUSED. 297 
 
 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, hut 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. 
 
 o3
 
 298 GREAT MONASTERY OF METEORA. Chap. XX. 
 
 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 pro- 
 jecting 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 
 Barlaara. 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.
 
 Chap. XX. THE CHURCH. 299 
 
 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 ex- 
 tensive, 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
 
 300 GREEK 3IODE OF WASHING UANDS. Chap. XX. 
 
 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 Hellini, and other early 
 Italian masters, are not to be found. The more 
 exalted and refined feeling which prompted the execu- 
 tion 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 un- 
 practised 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 cofffee-pot. I then dried 
 my fingers on an embroidered towel, and sat down
 
 Chap. XX. A MONASTIC SUPPER. 301 
 
 with the agoumenos and another officer of the monastery 
 before a metal tray covered with various dainty dishes. 
 AYe three sat upon cushions on the floor, and the tray 
 stood upon a wooden stool turned upside down, accord 
 ing 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
 
 302 MORNING VIEW — THE CHURCH. Chap. XX. 
 
 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, what- 
 ever may be its real history, is evidently a very ancient 
 and curious painting.
 
 Chap. XX. THE LIBRARY — BEAUTIFUL MSS. 303 
 
 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.
 
 304 PURCHASE TWO FINE MSS. Chap. XX. 
 
 except one, were small quartos ; but this one was 
 a large quarto, and one of the most beautiful manu- 
 scripts 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 admi- 
 ration. Those who take an interest in literary anti- 
 quities 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.
 
 Chap. XX. THE KITCHEN. 305 
 
 We looked at the refectory, wliich also resembled 
 that at Barlaam. The kitchen, however, merits a 
 
 detailed description. This very 1 
 
 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 mig-ht be lit all round ao-ainst 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,
 
 306 DISCUSSION A3I0XG THE MONKS Chap. XX. 
 
 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 distri- 
 bution 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 monas- 
 tery ; but the villain of a librarian swore he would 
 have half. The agoumenos said he should not have a 
 farthing, but as the hbrarian 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 com- 
 munity. 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,
 
 Chap. XX. AS TO TUE PT:RCHASE-M0NEY. 307 
 
 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, every- 
 thing was bought and sold for the benefit of the com- 
 munity 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 supe- 
 rior 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 insuflBcient 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
 
 308 THE MSS. RECLAIMED. Chap. XX. 
 
 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 inter- 
 preter, 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 re- 
 ceive it back, and to give up the two beautiful manu- 
 scripts, 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
 
 Chap. XX. DESCENT FROM THE MONASTERY. 309 
 
 arabesques, so characteristic of the best times of By- 
 zantine art. Many of the pages bore a great resem- 
 blance 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 imme- 
 diately 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 manu- 
 scripts, 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 improba- 
 bility 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 tliis 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
 
 31 (^ ruorosEi) AssAin/r ok the monaspkhy ('iwp. XX. 
 
 not \\vm\c use ol' my liaiuls and foot to koo)) niysolf 
 clear of the projecting })oints of the rock I shoultl have 
 fart'd hadly. To increase my perils, my friends the 
 palicari at (lie bottom, to testify their joy at my re- 
 appearance, resteil their long guns across their knees 
 and tired them off, without the slightest attention to 
 the direction of the barrels, whii'h were all loaded 
 with ball-cartridge : the bulh'ts 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 affec- 
 tionate thieves, who bundled me out of my net with 
 many extraordinary screeclu>s of wi'lconu\ 
 
 When my servants arrived anil informed them 
 of our recent disappointnu^it, "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; Imt by dint of rnnning 
 after them and shouting we at length got them to 
 come back, and after some considerable ex])endituro 
 of oaths and exclamations, kicking of horses, and load- 
 ing of guns and saddle-bags, we fi>uud 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
 
 Chap. XX. IJY THE llOBBEll ESCORT. 311 
 
 secret door of the library, })itched the old librarian 
 over the rocks, and marched oil" in triumph, with a 
 gorgeous manuscript under each arm ! Indeed I must 
 say that under such aggravating circumstances it re- 
 (piired 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.
 
 312 RETURN JOURNEY. Chap. XXI. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 Return Journey — >"arrow 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 pi.stol 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 pro- 
 ceedings. My men now came running up.
 
 Chap. XXI. CONSEQUENCES OF SINGING. 313 
 
 " Hallo !" said one of them. " Is that you ? You 
 must not attack this gentleman. He is oui* friend ; 
 he is one of us." 
 
 " What !" said the man who had stopped me ; " Is 
 that you, Mahommed ? Is that you, Hassan ? AVTiat 
 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 under- 
 stand 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, with- 
 out 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 trou- 
 blesome 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 
 
 p
 
 314 MALACASH — MEZZO VO. Chap. XXI. 
 
 which room it was where the people had been mur- 
 dered — this room or the outer one. 
 
 " How was that ?" I inquired. 
 
 AVhy, some time ago, they said, a party of tra- 
 vellers, 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 manu- 
 scripts from Meteora. 
 
 November lltli. — 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 
 v.as 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 drj-ing 
 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 fi^om whom I had 
 received the letter which gained me the pleasure of their 
 company, was gone, it appeared, towards Berat ; but
 
 Chap. XXI. PARTING FROM ROBBER-ESCORT. 315 
 
 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 expres- 
 sions 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 
 
 p 2
 
 316 MEZZOVO — A PILAU. Chap. XXI. 
 
 I don't know which party is the worst ; they are all 
 rogues, every one of them, when they have an oppor- 
 tunity — scamps ! sad scamps ! These are hard times 
 for quiet, peaceahly-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. 
 Tliese 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 
 nmrmalade. 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 excel- 
 lent 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, pista- 
 chio 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
 
 Chap. XXI. RIDE TO PARAMATHIA. 317 
 
 books, and that to-morrow we would go and see them. 
 Accordingly, the next day we went to see the mer- 
 chant's house ; but his collection was good for nothing ; 
 and after returning for an hour or two to the school- 
 master'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 dis- 
 tance was about sixty miles ; and it was one of the
 
 318 ACCIDENT TO BAGGAGE-MULE — Chap. XXI. 
 
 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 tQ 
 do our best : in a hot day we could never have accom- 
 plished it. 
 
 Towards the afternoon, when we were, by computa- 
 tion, 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, sud- 
 denly 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 ser- 
 vants 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 bump- 
 ing 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, be- 
 cause my left leg was squeezed so tightly against the
 
 Chap. XXI. ITS WONDERFUL ESCAPE. 319 
 
 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 snpported 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 
 v.ent, 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 oiu" 
 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 vdth a great branch 
 of a tree, upon which he took to struggling and scram- 
 bling, 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
 
 320 PARAMATHIA. Chap. XXI. 
 
 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 occu- 
 pations in the bazaar, and their clothes could not be 
 got at. At last the good-humoured young bride, see- 
 ing 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
 
 Chap. XXI. NOVEL COSTUME — A DEPUTATION. 321 
 
 garment it was, like an English surplice, embroidered 
 in gay colours down the seams. The fair bride con- 
 tributed the white capote, which I remembered on my 
 former visit, and a girdle. I soon donned this extem- 
 pore 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 for 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, ad- 
 miring 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 compli- 
 ment 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 
 
 p3
 
 322 PARAMATHIA — A DEPUTATION. Chap. XXl, 
 
 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 in- 
 terpret ; 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 gentle- 
 man is uncle to the master of the house ; and so on. 
 We are come to pay our respects to the noble and illus- 
 trious Englishman who passed through this place before. 
 Pray have the goodness to signify our arrival to his 
 Excellency, and say that we are v/aiting 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
 
 Chap. XXI. RETURN TO CORFU. 323 
 
 surprise and admiration when they found that the un- 
 happy 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 con- 
 vinced 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 sin- 
 cerely regretted, but which the state of my costume 
 rendered absolutely necessary. 
 
 November 16th. — 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
 
 324 CORFU. Chap. XXI. 
 
 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 con- 
 gratulating myself on having accomplished the most 
 dangerous and most rapid expedition that it ever was 
 my fortune to undertake.
 
 MONASTERIES OF THE LEYANT. 
 
 PART IV. 
 MOUNT ATHOS.
 
 ( 327 ) 
 
 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. 
 
 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 Canter- 
 bury was kind enough to give me a letter to the Patri- 
 arch of Constantinople, in which he requested liim 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
 
 328 
 
 THE PATRIARCH S PALACE. ('Imp. XXII. 
 
 some !2;iMi(lcMiuMi of tin* iMiibassv, .-uid procc^'dt'd to tlio 
 palace of the r«triarch in ihc Faiiar — a part of (.^on- 
 stantinoplo situatoil botwciMi tlio anciont city wall and 
 tlio ])ort so \\c\\ known by its iiauio of tlio (JoldtMi 
 Horn. Tlio l'';niar dcu's not dorivo its appollation 
 from till' word fan.ir, a l.uitorn or liglitlionso, but 
 from the two words Jena ?/<'/•, u bad j)laco ; for it is 
 in a low, dirty situation, whero only tbo concpuMrd 
 Crocks wore pi'miittiMl to rosido iunnodiatoly aftor tho 
 couiiuost of tboir metropolis by the ISultau iMa- 
 lionnuod II. 'I'ho pahu'o is a largo, dilapiilalod, 
 shabby - looking building, obiotly of Mood j)aintoil 
 black ; it stands in an 0])ou cunu't or yard on a stoop 
 slope, and looks out over sonio lower bouses to tlio 
 (iioldon Horn ami tbo bills of l\M-a anddlalata be- 
 yond.* 
 
 After waiting a little >vlnlo in a largi\ dirty ante- 
 room, during wliiob time there was a sentUing and 
 running np and down of priests and deaeons, who wore 
 surprised ami ptM-liajJs a littK' alarnuHl at a visit from 
 
 * On Miiothcr occasion soiuo yciir.s »r(orA>nrils, 1 mils vniliii}:; in tlio 
 Sivuic place, when 1 wnntloroil into the now I'atriHrclial clinrcli wliich 
 opens on this eonrt. : ■wliilo 1 stood tlu'vo, a corpse was l>i-onp;ht in on 
 n bier, followed hy many persons, who I suiiposo wero the relations 
 and friends of tho deceased. After the funeral service had been road 
 by a priest, every person in tlio church went up to tho bier and kissed 
 the dead man's hand and forehead : this is the u.sual custom, and an 
 nfl'ectiuf? one to see when friends bid friends a last farewell. IJntlhis 
 man had died of some foarfnl and horrible disease, perhaps the phiguo, 
 which tlirouf^h this horrid means may have been distributed to half 
 tlio congregation.
 
 Chaj). XXII. AiiMKMAN VLAdi \;-i><><:r<>n. ',',2U 
 
 hO tiiiiiici-<iii:s ;i, r:())ri|);iiiy (if ^N-iitlcmcii hi.-loiigiiip^ to tlio 
 JJrltisli <;iiil);i;s-;y, wi: were; iufrofliicrd into a larg(! 
 Wjii.'in; room f'linrislicd witli ;i divjui utidcr llir wiiidowK 
 .•ind down t,wo hidcH of" flic cli.'iinljcr. 'i'lii- dlv;it) wuh 
 (;ov(;rcd with .'i, rou^li n.-ickiiiff of ^n-cy ^o,'it„s' liair— a 
 Hliifl" wliicli Ih ,s;iid not, l,o Ix; Kusccplihic; of" tlic jilaguc ; 
 and )»(;o|)l(! ,'-iftin;.f on it, or on the; li.-in; ho.Mrdn, an; not 
 <;onsidc)-<'d to \ic " ronijyromiscd,^^ ;i, word of I'liMrfnl 
 import, wlicn tii.it ;iwf"nl pestilence in raginpf; in tliiH 
 ne^I(;eied city. Wlien ;iny j)er,sori in coniproniiKctd, 
 li(! in oMi^crd to Hep;iniie f'rotn all KO(ti(!t,y, and to ])l;ic,<; 
 }iim;-cir in ,st,i'iet, (jn;ir;int,ine for forty d;iy:s, ;i,t, tlie end 
 of wliieli p<'riod, if tlie fri;jli1, ;inr| ;inxiety luive not, 
 liron^lit, rni tlie pl;i,^ne, lie i.s recciived ag;iin l»y liin 
 ae(|nainl;irie(!.s. I)(!;i,l(;rK in oil, .'irid porsonH wlio liav(! 
 an op(!n iwHue (jn llieii* liodien, ;irr; coiihidcred Hccun; 
 frorrj tlie jilaf^uc; as f;i,r .-is iliey tlicrriHelveH an; ef>ri- 
 eern(;d ; hiit, ;is tlieir clotlicH will convey tlir; infection, 
 tli(!y ;in; ;iH d.-in^.atron.s jih otiiers to their iieifjhhonrH. 
 
 'j'li(!r(: w;i;s an old Ann(^ni;ui, who, wlxitlier Ik; eori- 
 HJderod liiniHelf invulrierahle, or whether poverty ;ind 
 inlHf'ortune uiad(! hirn njckh^HH, I do not know ; hnt Ik; 
 Kct up as a |)l;ijrue-doet,or, and visited and tonched 
 tliOHe who w(;r(! wtricken with the pciHtilence. When- 
 ever lie cjune down the Kt,r(;et, every oik; woidd st-irt 
 UHide and give; him thr(!(! or four ynrds' wpaee at least. 
 Soru(;tiuieH he had men who w;ilked hefore him and 
 (•ri(;d to the people to get out of th(! way. As tli<! oM
 
 330 THE PLAGUE — SUPERSTITIONS. Chap. XXII. 
 
 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 expres- 
 sion of anxiety and horror in the face of one who has 
 got the plague which is not to be mistaken nor for- 
 gotten 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
 
 Chap. XXII. THE PLA.GUE. 331 
 
 heard of any one returning. It would have been far 
 more merciful to have shot him at once. 
 
 There are many curious superstitions and circum- 
 stances 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 some- 
 times 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 Con- 
 stantinople 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
 
 332 TWO JEWS STRUCK WITH THE PLAGUE. Chap. XXII. 
 
 in an unusual way.* 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 
 
 * 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.
 
 Chap. XXII. TOUCHING TURKISH CUSTOM. 333 
 
 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 shud- 
 dered 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
 
 334 INTERVIEW WITH THE PATRIARCH. Chap. XXII. 
 
 — and there they bow down upon the ground, and 
 raise their innocent voices in suppHcation 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, salu- 
 tations, and little bows, &c., and were still again, the 
 curtain over the doorway was pushed asid^, 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
 
 Chap. XXII. CEREMONIES OF RECEPTION. 335 
 
 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 otf 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 awhile, 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.
 
 336 THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. Chap. XXII. 
 
 " 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 httle astonished at the question. 
 
 " Who," said he, " is this Archbishop ?" 
 
 " Why, the Archbishop of Canterbury," 
 
 " Archbishop of what f 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 Chry- 
 sostom, 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
 
 Chap. XXII. PATRIAUCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE. 337 
 
 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, com- 
 mand 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 
 
 Q
 
 638 THE patriarch's firman. Chap. XXII. 
 
 secretary accordingly appeared ; and, although there 
 are only six letters in ray name, he set it down incor- 
 rectly nearly a dozen times, and then went away to his 
 hole in a window, where he wrote curious little memo- 
 randa 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.* 
 
 * DiRECTioN.^ — " To the blessed Inspectors, Officers, Chiefs, and Ke- 
 presentatives of the Holy Community of Monte Santo, and to 
 the Holy Fathers of the same, and of all other sacred con- 
 vents, 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 sub- 
 ject 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
 
 Chap. XXII. TAKE LEAVE OF THE PATRIARCU. 339 
 
 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 embroi- 
 dered at the two ends with gold and bright-coloured 
 silks. I prefer on these occasions my pocket-handker- 
 chief, 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 intelli- 
 
 not only receive him with every esteem and every possible hospi- 
 tality, in each and in the several holy convents ; but to lend your- 
 selves readily to all his wants and desires, and to give him precise 
 and clear explanations to all his interrogations relative to his philo- 
 logical 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) Gkegokios, Universal Patriarch. 
 
 " Constantmople, 1 (13) July, 1837." 
 
 q2
 
 340 GREEK SERVANT. Chap. XXII. 
 
 gent 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 un- 
 known, and which had moreover an unpleasant cele- 
 brity 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
 
 Chap. XXII. THERAPIA TO STAMBOUL. 341 
 
 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 I 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.
 
 342 COOM CALESSI — A TURKISH BOAT. Chap. XXIII. 
 
 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 in- 
 stalled in the new house, which, as houses go in this 
 country, was clean and good, but not a scrap of fur- 
 niture 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 ma- 
 naged 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
 
 Chap. XXIII. GRAND SCENERY. 343 
 
 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 pro- 
 perty 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 
 Coora 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 be- 
 fore 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 Archi- 
 pelago. 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 I 
 But no words, no painting can describe this glorious 
 region.
 
 344 C003I CALESS I TO IMBROS. Chap. XXIII. 
 
 I had hired my grave sailors to take me to Lem- 
 nos, but the wind did not serve, so Yi^e 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 th<3 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 imme- 
 diately 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
 
 Chap. XXIir. JASON AND THE GOLDEN FLEECE. 345 
 
 sculptures, with its high stern 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 magis- 
 terium 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 
 
 Q 3
 
 54:Q IMBROS — A THUNDERSTORM. Chap. XXIII. 
 
 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 my- 
 self 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 
 imder 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 splash- 
 ing 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
 
 Chap. XXIII. LEAVE IMBROS. 347 
 
 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 con- 
 ceived 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
 
 '34'8 LEMNOS. Chap. XXIII. 
 
 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 any- 
 thing could be ! We were soon running down the west 
 coast of Lemnos, where the surf was lashing the preci- 
 pice 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, Ayios 'n^'koiyos, 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 shel- 
 tered coast till we landed at a rotten wooden pier be- 
 fore 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 pro- 
 bably of those fair dames who have gained a disagree- 
 able 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,
 
 •Chap. XXIII. MYRIADS OF FLEAS. 349 
 
 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 1 any idea of what fleas could do. So simul- 
 taneous 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 gi*ira, 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
 
 350 ARRIVE AT MOUNT ATHOS. Chap. XXIII. 
 
 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 dole- 
 ful 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 Lera- 
 nian fleas, he proceeded to rub me and soap me accord- 
 ing 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 hatch- 
 way enjoying the glorious prospect, and making my 
 toilette with the deck for a dressing-table, to the
 
 GREEK SAILOR.
 
 Chap. XXIII. PICTURESQUE SCENE. 351 
 
 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. 
 
 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 
 Byzantipe 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 ofi^ there was the great monastery of St. 
 Laura standing above us among the trees on the side 
 of the mountain, and this dehghtful 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 efiects consisted principally of an enormous pair
 
 352 MOUNT ATHOS. Chap. XXIII. 
 
 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 appear- 
 ance 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 arid my 
 man and the saddle-bags high and dry upon the shore. 
 We were somewhat taken by surprise at this sud- 
 den 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 cap- 
 tains 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
 
 .Chap. XXIII. BYZANTINE TOWER. 353 
 
 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 pro- 
 digious 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) ; 
 Tov ^xTTo/xet^ofjisvos ;" 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 num.erous 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
 
 354 A GENUINE HERMIT. Chap. XXIII. 
 
 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 por- 
 tended 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
 
 Chap. XXIII. JOURNEY TO ST. LAURA, 355 
 
 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.
 
 356 MONASTERY OF ST. LAURA. Chap. XXIV 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 Monastery of St. Laura — Kind Reception by the Abbot — Asto- 
 nishment 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 ; Rich- 
 ness 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. 
 
 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
 
 Chap. XXIV. THE CHURCH. 357 
 
 with great deference ; and after the usual hows and 
 comphments 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 Ayjov 0/>of, or, as the Italian hath it, Monte Santo. 
 Before long I received visits from divers holy 
 brethren, being those who held offices in the monas- 
 tery under my lord the agoumenos, and there was no 
 end to the civilities which passed between us. At last
 
 358 HISTORY OF THE MONASTERY. Chap. XXIV. 
 
 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. Nice~ 
 phorus, the treasurer, got into trouble with Charle- 
 magne 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 Cahph 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
 
 Chap. XXIV. RULES OF THE ORDER OF ST. BASIL. 359 
 
 son married that celebrated blue-stocking Anna 
 Comnena. However, Nicephorus Botoniatcs 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. 
 
 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: irarpnCa-
 
 360 FOUNDATION OF THE MONASTERY. Chap. XXIV. 
 
 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, sus- 
 pended by two strings, is struck with a mallet. Some- 
 times, 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 staflf, the board, and the iron bar. 
 
 TOKjxaK, a hammer, in Turkish. 
 
 The latter are called in Romaic avuxxy^poi, a word 
 derived from a'niMaaox.roufxu.i, to gather together. 
 
 According to Johannes Comnenus, who visited 
 Mount Athos in 1701, and whose works are quoted in 
 Montfaucon, ' Paleographia Grseca,' page 452, St. 
 Laura was founded by Nicephorus Phocas, and re-
 
 Chap. XXIV. DESCRIPTION OF THE MONASTERY. 361 
 
 stored by Neagulus, AVaywode of Bescarabia. 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, " n £^s(2^o — 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 affbrd lodging for 
 
 R
 
 362 PAINTING OF THE LAST JUDGMENT. Chap. XXIV. 
 
 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 Roman- 
 esque, 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 any- 
 thing 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
 
 Chap. XXIV. PAINTING OF THE LAST JUDGMENT. 363 
 
 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 dis- 
 porting 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 com- 
 pany 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 ex- 
 cept 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 
 
 II 2
 
 364 PAINTING OF THE LAST JUDGMENT. Chap. XXIV. 
 
 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 feel- 
 ings 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.* 
 
 * 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 Constan- 
 tinople 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 ima- 
 gine; 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 tor- 
 ments 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 Bul- 
 garia, who baptized the king by the name of Michael in the year 
 
 I
 
 Chap. XXIV. EARLY GREEK PICTURES. 365 
 
 The interior of the principal church in this monas- 
 tery is interesting fi-om the numher 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 
 jxovoo-Taffis — 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 fdigree, set 
 with large turquoises, agates, and cornelians. These 
 very curious productions of early art were presented 
 to the monastery by the Emperor Andronicus Paleo- 
 logus, whose portrait, with that of his Empress, is 
 represented on the silver frame. 
 
 86.5. 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.
 
 366 VALUABLE RELIQUARY. Chap. XXIV . 
 
 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),
 
 Chap. XXIV. THE REFECTORY. 367 
 
 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 insides 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. 
 
 The refectory of the monastery is a large square build- 
 ing, 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 semicir- 
 cular recess is a high table for the 
 superior, who only dines here on great occasions. The 
 refectory being square on the outside, the intermediate
 
 368 NUMEROUS SMALL CHAPELS. Chap. XXIV. 
 
 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
 
 Chap. XXIV, NO FE3IALES ON MOUNT ATHOS. 369 
 
 diameter, with a fountain in it ; in this magnificent 
 basin the holy water is consecrated with great cere- 
 mony on the feast of the Epiphany.* 
 
 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 Constantino 
 the soil of the Holy Mountain had never been con- 
 taminated 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 
 
 * 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. 
 
 R 3
 
 370 A SAVOURY MESS. Chap. XXIV. 
 
 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 momitain-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 some- 
 what dirty hands, " this is a dish for an emperor I 
 Eat, my friend, my much-respected guest ; do not be 
 shy. Eat ; and when you have finished the bowl you
 
 Chap. XXIV. A DREADFUL SCRAPE. 371 
 
 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 covild 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 con- 
 science 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 agou- 
 menos, "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 oflfered 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
 
 372 THE LIBRARY. Chap. XXIV. 
 
 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 recol- 
 lection 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 attend- 
 ance on you there, for ray 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. 1 
 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
 
 Chap. XXIV. THE LIBRARY. 373 
 
 time to make out what they were, for m 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
 
 374 THE LIBRARY. Chap. XXIV. 
 
 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 pro- 
 perty 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) every- 
 thing belongs to the monks in common. Such being 
 the case, it was hopeless to expect, in so large a com- 
 munity, 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
 
 Chap. XXIV, LEAVE ST. LAURA. 375 
 
 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 beau- 
 tiful 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 imagin- 
 able. 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 moun- 
 tain. Between our path and the sea there was a suc- 
 cession of narrow valleys and gorges, each one more 
 picturesque than the other; sometimes we were en- 
 closed 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,
 
 376 MONASTERY OF CARACALLA. Chap. XXIV. 
 
 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, how- 
 ever, 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.
 
 Chap. XXV. MONASTERY OF CARACALLA. 377 
 
 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. 
 
 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 pro- 
 montory 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
 
 378 MONASTERY OF CARACALLA. Chap. XXV. 
 
 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 dijfferent from himself. We made many speeches 
 to each other, he in heathen Greek and I in English, 
 seasoned with innumerable bows, gesticulations, and 
 temenahs ; 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 httle chapels or rooms fitted up as
 
 Chap. XXV. FOUNDATION OF CARACALLA. 379 
 
 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 arrange- 
 ment 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 Constantino- 
 politans called themselves Romans in the old time, as 
 in Persia and Koordistan the Sultan is called Roomi 
 Padischah, the Roman Emperor, by those whose edu- 
 cation 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
 
 380 THE CHURCH. Chap. XXV. 
 
 untimately 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 re- 
 markable 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
 
 Chap. XXV. THE LIBRARY. 381 
 
 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 gi'ound 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 manu- 
 scripts 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;"
 
 382 PURCHASE MANUSCRIPTS. Chap. XXV. 
 
 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 ot 
 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 agou- 
 menos 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 arrange- 
 ment 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
 
 Chap. XXV. MONASTERY OF PHILOTHEO. 383 
 
 agoumenos kindly famished 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 fom* 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 cen- 
 tury. 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, o ^amXsus 
 KaxETJo:/, 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 man- 
 ners 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
 
 384 MONASTERY OF I VERON. Chap. XXV. 
 
 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 denomi- 
 nated a small fortified town, so numerous are the build- 
 ings and courts which are contained within its en- 
 circling wall. It is situated near the sea, and in its 
 general form is nearly square, with four or five square 
 towers projecting fi-om 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 inha- 
 biting 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 em- 
 ployed 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 (Theo- 
 dora ?), wife of the Emperor Romanus, the son of Leo 
 Sophos,* or the Philosopher, between the years 919 and 
 
 * The Emperor Leo the First was crowned by the Patriarch of 
 Anatolia in the year 459. He is the first prince on record who re- 
 ceived his crown from the hands of a bishop.
 
 Chap. XXV. MONASTERY OF IVERON. 385 
 
 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 alto- 
 gether 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 agou- 
 menos, 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 
 
 s
 
 386 MONASTERY OF IVERON. Chap. XXV. 
 
 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 coenobium, — over all these, and number- 
 less 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, " r« evs ? — 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
 
 Chap. XXV. MONASTERY OF IVERON. 387 
 
 unknown classic authors. Of these last there was not 
 one on vellum, but on paper there was an octavo manu- 
 script 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 Evan- 
 gelistarium 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 
 
 s2
 
 388 MONASTERY OF IVERON. Chap. XXV. 
 
 might almost be termed pictures from their large pro- 
 portions : 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 pre- 
 served. 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 minia- 
 tures 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. Tliis 
 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 (per- 
 haps fifty) illuminations. Some of them were unfor- 
 tunately rather damaged. 
 
 Two manuscripts of the New Testament, with the 
 Apocalypse. 
 
 A very fine manuscript of the Psalms, of the
 
 Chap. XXV. MONASTERY OF IVEIIOX. 389 
 
 eleventh century, wliicli 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, T 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 centuiies 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 pre- 
 vail 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 occu- 
 pied at Iveron was one of the finest on ]Mount Athos. 
 The glorious sea, and the towers which command the
 
 390 MONASTERY OF IVERON. Chap, XXV. 
 
 scaricatojos or landing-places of the different monas- 
 teries along the coast, and the superb monastery of 
 Stavroniketa like a Gothic castle perched upon a 
 beetling rock, with the splendid forest for a back- 
 ground, 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 ftict, the whole of the scenery on Mount 
 Athos is so superlatively grand and beautiful that it is 
 useless to attempt any description.
 
 Chap. XXVI. MONASTERY OF STAVRONIKETA. 391 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 The Monastery of Stavroniketa — The Library — Splendid MS. of 
 St. Chrysostom — The Monastery of Pantocratoras — Ruinous Con- 
 dition 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 Sphignienou 
 — Beautiful Jewelled Cross ■ — The Monastery of Kiliantari — 
 Magnificent MS. in Gold Letters on "White Vellum — The Monas- 
 teries of Zographou, 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 Ivcron, 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 mi- 
 raculous 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
 
 392 MONASTERY OF STAVRONIKETA. Chap. XXVI. 
 
 the monks ; but from the appearance and arcliitecture 
 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 fi'ugal dinner there 
 with some of the good old monks, .who seemed a cheer- 
 ful and contented set. 
 
 The library contained about eight hundred volumes, 
 of which nearly two hundred were manuscripts on vel- 
 lum. 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 oiJ,oiXoyoi 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 x\cts and Epistles, full
 
 Chap. XXVI. MONASTERY OF PANTOCRATORAS. 393 
 
 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 Stavroni- 
 keta to the monastery of 
 
 PANTOCRATORAS. 
 
 This edifice was built by Manuel and Alexius Com- 
 nenus, and Johannes Pumicerius, their brother. It 
 was subsequently repaired by Barbulus and Gabriel, 
 two Wallacliian 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 Besangon, 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 illumina- 
 tions. The binding is very curious : it is entirely of 
 silver gilt, and is of great antiquity. The back part 
 
 s3
 
 394 MONASTERY OF PANTOCRATORAS. Chap. XXVI. 
 
 is composed of an intricate kind of chainwork, which 
 bends when the book is opened, and the sides are em- 
 bossed 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 dunsjeons. 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 manu- 
 scripts 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
 
 Chap. XXVI, MONASTERY OF PANTOCRATORAS. 395 
 
 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 do^^•n on a pile of 
 ruins, with a bearded assembly of grave caloyeri round
 
 396 MONASTERY OF VATOPEDE. Chap. XXVI. 
 
 rae, I vented ray sorrow and indignation in a long ora- 
 tion, 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 com- 
 miserate my misfortune, and he looked so genuinely 
 vexed and sorry that I liked him the better ever after- 
 wards. 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 hospi- 
 table 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 se- 
 veral towers and domes rising above the walls : I
 
 Chap. XXVI. MONASTERY OF VATOPEDE. 397 
 
 should say it was not smaller than the upper ward of 
 Windsor Castle. The original huilding 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 re- 
 medy. 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, wlio 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 inde- 
 structible, 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.
 
 398 MONASTERY OF VATOPEDE, Chap. XXVI. 
 
 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 ex- 
 ecution 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
 
 Chap. XXVI. MONASTERY OF VATOPEDE. 399 
 
 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 thou- 
 sand 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 em- 
 pire 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 foun- 
 dation 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
 
 400 MONASTERY OF VATOPEDE, Chap. XXVI. 
 
 convent well illustrates what some of the great mo- 
 nastic 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 ves- 
 sels 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 in- 
 tercession of a pious monk who then had charge of 
 that department, the marble basins, which were almost
 
 Chap. XXVI. MONASTERY OF SPHIGMENOU. 401 
 
 empty, overflowed, and a river of fine fresh oil poured 
 in torrents through the door. The frame of this pic- 
 ture 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 accommo- 
 dated 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 com- 
 munity, and a very considerable number of Albanian 
 servants and muleteers are lodged in outbuildings be- 
 fore 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
 
 402 MONASTERY OF SPHIGMENOU. Chap. XXVI. 
 
 the 18 th of February in the year 453. Her brother 
 Theodosius was known by the title or cognomen of 
 y.xk'kiyooL(^os, from the beaaty of his writing : he was 
 a protector of the Nestorian and Eutychian heretics, 
 and ended his Ufe 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 ^(piy/xsvoy, 
 "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 dia- 
 monds. 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 
 1 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
 
 Chap. XXVI. MONASTERY OF KILIANTARI. 403 
 
 I met with four copies of the Gospels and two of the 
 Epistles, all the others being hooks of the church ser- 
 vice and the usual folios of the fathers. There was, 
 however, a Russian or Bulgarian manuscript of the 
 four Gospels with an illumination at the commence- 
 ment 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 fi'om 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 shcipe 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 mo- 
 nastery was founded by Simeon, Prince of Servia, I 
 could not make out at what time. In the library they
 
 404 MONASTERY OF KILIANTARI. Chap. XXVI. 
 
 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, how- 
 ever, whether they had not some Greek manuscripts, 
 the Agouraenos said they had one, which he went and 
 brought me out of the sacristy ; and this, to my admi- 
 ration 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 xohite 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 abbrevia- 
 tions, in these respects resembling the Mount Sinai 
 MS. This magnificent volume was given to the mo- 
 nastery 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 oc- 
 currence of a Greek MS. written in letters of gold 
 would make it a most desirable and important acqui- 
 sition 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
 
 Chap. XXVI, MONASTERY OF ZOGRAPHOU. 405 
 
 at Moscow. Five of the others are on blue or purple 
 vellum, viz., Codex Cottonianus, in the British Mu- 
 seum, 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 orna- 
 mented 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
 
 406 MONASTERY OF CASTAMONETA. Chap. XXVI. 
 
 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 Con- 
 stantinople who became monks ; and the local tra- 
 dition is that it was destroyed by the "Pope of 
 RomeP 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 sur- 
 rounded with trees and gardens overlooking a deep 
 valley which opens on the gulf of Monte Saiito. 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 disco- 
 vered 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 Constantino the Great. It 
 has no library nor anything particularly well worth 
 mentioning, excepting the original deed of the Empe- 
 ror Manuel Paleologus, with the sign manual of that 
 potentate written in very hirge letters in red ink at the
 
 Chap. XXVI. MONASTERY OF DOCIIEIROU. 407 
 
 bottom of the deed, by which he granted to the monas- 
 tery 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 
 
 DOCIIEIROU. 
 
 It is the first to the west of those vipon 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 thp Bvdgarian 
 language, and various works of the fathers. I found 
 also three loose leaves of an Evangclistarium 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.
 
 408 MONASTERY OF XENOPHOU. Chap. XXVI. 
 
 From Docheirou It is only a distance of half an hour to 
 XENOPHOU, 
 
 which stands upon the sea shore. Here they were build- 
 ing 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, re- 
 garding 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 mo- 
 nastery 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 Matthseus, 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.
 
 Chap. XXVI. MONASTERY OF XENOPHOU. 409 
 
 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 Com- 
 nenus. 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 im- 
 perial 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 inchned to 
 part with these three books, and offered to purchase 
 them and the parchment rolls. There was a little 
 
 T
 
 410 MONASTERY OF XENOPHOU. Chap. XXVI. 
 
 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 ; where- 
 upon, 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 draw- 
 ing-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, imper- 
 fectly 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
 
 Chap. XXVI. MONASTERY OF XENOPHOU. 411 
 
 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 re- 
 signation the smiles and scoffs of the three brethren, 
 who could scarcely contain their laughter at the way 
 
 t2
 
 i 
 
 412 MONASTERY OF XENOPHOU. Chap. XXVI. 
 
 i 
 
 they had done the silly traveller. Then did the saddle- ^ 
 bags 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. 
 
 I
 
 Chap. XXVII. MONASTERY OF RUSSICO. 413 
 
 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 — Exciursion 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
 
 414 MONASTERY OF XEROPOTAMO. Chap. XXVII, 
 
 years ago, who were immediately afterwards plundered 
 by pirates, and the MS. thrown into the sea. As I 
 never heard of any Enghshman 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 head- 
 quarters 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 Xero- 
 potamo 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.
 
 Chap. XXVII. MONASTERY OF XEROPOTAMO. 415 
 
 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 Vvith 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 devo- 
 tion and rectitude of conduct ; he was not slothful, or
 
 416 MONASTERY OF XEROPOTAMO. Chap. XXVII. 
 
 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 comfort- 
 able 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 " (^ngo- 
 TioTocixov — 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 xaTaJty/u,evoj — religious 
 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
 
 Chap. XXVII. ST. NICHOLAS — ST. DIONISIUS. A 1 7 
 
 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 perpendi- 
 cular 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 imme- 
 diately above the sea ; it is of moderate size, but is 
 in good repair. There was a look of comfort about 
 
 T 3
 
 418 MONASTERY OF ST. DIONISIUS, Chap. XXVII. 
 
 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 Nea- 
 gulus 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 Rox- 
 andra Domna (Doraina ?), wife of Alexander, Way- 
 wode of Wallachia ; for both these ladies were bene- 
 factors to the convent. 
 
 I was taken, as a pilgrim, to the church, and we 
 stood in the middle of the floor before the iycovoarxa-is, 
 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.
 
 Chap. XXVII. MONASTERY OF ST. DIONISIUS. 419 
 
 Of these some were very interesting specimens of intri- 
 cate 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 for in- 
 ferior 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 Hos- 
 podar 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
 
 420 MONASTERY OF ST. DIONISIUS. Chap. XXVII. 
 
 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, ^laXoyoi Tqsyoqiov Toy QsoXoyou, not in uncial 
 letters, with twelve fine miniatures ; a small quarto New 
 Testament, containing the Apocalypse ; and some mag- 
 nificent 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 alto- 
 gether a magnificent collection, and for the most part 
 well preserved : they had no gi-eat 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
 
 Chap. XXVII. MONASTERY OF ST. PAUL. 421 
 
 others ; for considering that it Is not a very large 
 establishment, the number of valuable things it con- 
 tained 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 acquaint- 
 ance 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 de- 
 lightful 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
 
 422 MONASTERY OF ST. PAUL. Chap. XXVII. 
 
 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 manu- 
 scripts 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
 
 Chap. XXVII. MONASTERY OF ST. PAUL. 423 
 
 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 manu- 
 script 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 me- 
 morial 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
 
 424 MONASTERY OF SIMOPETRA. Chap. XXVII. 
 
 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 men- 
 tioned 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 value- 
 less to the monks, and were not saleable in the bazaar 
 at Constantinople, Smyrna, Salonica, or any neigh- 
 bouring city ? However, before I went away, as a 
 salvo 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 Xero- 
 potamo, 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
 
 Chap. XXVII. MONASTERY OF SIMOPETRA. 425 
 
 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, accord- 
 ing 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 manu- 
 scripts, 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,
 
 426 MONASTERY OF SIMOPETRA. Chap. XXVII. 
 
 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 re- 
 joicing. 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 obedi- 
 ence which is, or ought to be, observed with the 
 firmans of the Sultan and other oriental potentates. 
 
 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
 
 
 From a Sliolcli by It. Ci.rri 
 
 riFW OF THK MONASTER V AND AQLEDUrT OF SI.MOPKTRA, ON MOr'NT ATHO«, 
 TAKKN FROAI THR SRA SHOR R.
 
 Chap. XXVII. 3I0NASTERY OF SIMOPETRA. 427 
 
 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 t.jrown across his face 
 and figure, I thought he would have made an admir- 
 able 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 V^irgin, 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,
 
 428 MONASTERY OF SIMOPETRA, Chap. XXVII. 
 
 which are all exactly alike, stiff, hard, and dry, with- 
 out 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 inte- 
 rest 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.
 
 CIRCASSIAN LADV.
 
 Chap. XXVII. MONASTERY OF COUTLOUMOUSSI. 429 
 
 Accordingly, the next morning I set out, the Agou- 
 menos 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 con- 
 tains a large square court with a cloister of stone 
 arches all round it, out of which the cells and cham- 
 bers 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 diflaculties 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
 
 430 MONASTERY OF COUTLOT7MOUSSI. Chap. XXVII. 
 
 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 satisfac- 
 tion. 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 con- 
 sent. 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 for- 
 malities before various grim pictures, and showed 
 due respect for the sacred character of a Chris- 
 tian church, they began at last to believe that I 
 was not a Russian ; but if they had seen the con- 
 tents of the saddle-bags which were sticking out 
 bravely on each side of the patient mule at the gate,
 
 Chap. XXVII. CARIEZ. 431 
 
 they would perhaps have considered me as something 
 far worse. 
 
 Coutloumoussi was founded by the Emperor Alexius 
 Comnenus, and, having been destroyed by " tlie Pope 
 of Rome,''' was restored by the piety of various hos- 
 podars 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 undis- 
 ciplined 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.
 
 432 CARIEZ. Chap. XXVII. 
 
 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 ayiov 
 o§oj-, 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 commu- 
 nities meet at the church of Protaton for the transac- 
 tion of business and the discussion of afiairs. 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 Eng- 
 land before the Reformation : these are the habitations 
 of the venerable senators when they come up to par- 
 liament. 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-
 
 Chap, XXVII. TURKISH AGA AND KIOSK. 433 
 
 trees and of various other sorts of fi-uit-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 habita- 
 tion, 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 ray 
 interpreter that an illustrious personage awaited his 
 leisure. He did not care for a monk, and not much 
 for an agouraenos ; 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 ranch more subdued tone than 
 usual ; and I was received with that courteous civility 
 and good breeding which is so fi-equently 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 bird- 
 cage, 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 fi-om 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.
 
 434 A SHE-CAT ON MOUNT ATHOS ! Chap. XXVII. 
 
 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, in- 
 forming me occasionally that there were many der- 
 vishes in the place, " very many dervishes," for so he 
 denominated the monks. Dinner came towards even- 
 ing. 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 ray wife and children are living far 
 away from me." 
 
 I promised to make no scandal about the cat, and
 
 TURKISH LADY, IN THE YASHMAK, OR VEIL.
 
 Chap. XXVII. A SHE-CAT ON MOUNT ATHOS ! 435 
 
 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. 
 
 u2
 
 436 MONASTERY OF CARACALLA. Chap. XXVIII. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 Caracalla — The Agoumenos — Curious Cross — The Nuts of Cara- 
 calla — 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
 
 Chap. XXVIII. CURIOUS ANCIENT CROSS. 437 
 
 library, where I found an uncial Evangelistarium ; a 
 manuscript of Demosthenes on paper, but of some 
 antiquity ; a manuscript of Justin {lovnnvou) in Greek ; 
 and several other manuscripts, — all of which the agou- 
 inenos 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 agou- 
 menos 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 n.e 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 rehcs of its 
 kind now existing in England. 
 
 On the evening of the second day my man returned 
 
 u3
 
 438 HAZEL-NUTS OF CARACALLA. Chap. XXVIIL 
 
 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 pas- 
 sage 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 except- 
 ing 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 yvQ were walking quietly toge- 
 ther, 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 excel- 
 lent 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 Con- 
 stantinople ?"
 
 Chap. XXVIII. HAZEL-NUTS OF CARACALLA. 439 
 
 " 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 w^ere 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 
 })lenty. 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 agou- 
 menos 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 agou- 
 menos and Pater Joasaph about a famous large fish 
 which was to be cooked for dinner ; and, as the im- 
 portant hour was approaching, we adjourned to my
 
 440 SINGULAR DINNER-TABLE. Chap. XXVIII. 
 
 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 ban- 
 quet 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 up- 
 side 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 re- 
 appeared, 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
 
 Chap. XXVIII. BARLAAM. 441 
 
 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 them- 
 selves 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 hi 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
 
 442 BARLAAM. Chap. XXVIII. 
 
 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." * 
 
 " Ah," said I, " really !" 
 
 " Now this Barlaam, being a carnal and worldly- 
 minded man, took upon himself to doubt the efficacy 
 of this bodiiy 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 elo- 
 quence and persuasion, he infused doubts into the 
 minds of others of the monks and anchorites of Mount 
 Athos. Arguments were used on both sides ; con- 
 versations arose upon these subjects ; arguments grew 
 into disputations, conversations into controversies, till 
 at last, from the most peaceful and regular of commu- 
 nities, the peninsula of the holy mountain became from 
 * Mosheim's ' Ecclesiastical History ;' Gibbon.
 
 Chap. XXVIII. BARLAAM. 443 
 
 one end to the other a theatre of discord, douht, and 
 diiFerence ; 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 lan- 
 guage 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 
 contentipn, and being at the same time surrounded 
 with difficulties on all sides (for the unbelieving Turks, 
 commanded by the fierce Orchan, had with their un- 
 numbered 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 voci- 
 ferous 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 reli- 
 gious differences between the Eastern and Western 
 churches, on condition that the Latin princes should
 
 444 BARLAAM. Chap. XXVIII, 
 
 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, Not- 
 withstanding 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 con- 
 clusion 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.
 
 Chap. XXVIII. SCENERY OF MOUNT ATUOS. 445 
 
 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 farm- 
 houses, 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 cul- 
 tivate ; they consist of a small square tower, usually 
 appended to which are one or two little stone cottages, 
 
 X
 
 446 DEPARTURE FROM MOUKT ATHOS. Chap. XXVIIL 
 
 and an ancient chapel, from which the tinkhng 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 gromid is covered 
 in some places with anemones and cyclamen ; water- 
 falls 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 won- 
 derful 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 roiuided 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 Stamhoul, 
 which ran between Smyrna and Constantinople. With 
 the reservation of this sum, I gave the agouraenos all
 
 Chap. XXVIII. DEPARTURE FROM MOUNT ATIIOS. 447 
 
 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, 1 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, Avith 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
 
 448 DREAD OF PIRATES. Chap. XXVIII. 
 
 of great stones and fallen rocks, that it appeared im- 
 possible 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 com- 
 pletely 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 re- 
 mounted 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 manu- 
 scripts 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 back- 
 ground 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
 
 Chap. XXVIII. RETURN TO CONSTANTINOPLE. 449 
 
 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 Darda- 
 nelles ; 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 Stamhoul, hove in sight, and I 
 took my passage in her to Constantinople. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 ondon : Printed by W. Clowes and Sons, Stamford Street.
 
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