On the track of the Crescent. Erratic notes from the Piræus to Pesth

Preface

. In laying these hasty wayside notes before the public, I wish it to be understood that I disclaim all intention of entering into an exhaustive disqui sition on the History, Geography, or Ethnology of the countries I visited : that would be quite outside the scope of the book. If I appear to have ex pressed my opinions on the peoples of these countries in a manner more dogmatic than my experience would warrant, I can only say that, for some time before going, I consulted the best authorities who have written on that part of Europe; the opinions which I formed from reading these works being merely confirmed by my own experience. I have avoided footnotes, which, I think, disturb the con tinuity of the narrative. If I did not hope that this book will be judged for what it contains, rather than for what it omits, I should never have had the temerity to submit it to the public. THE AUTHOR. pagi! 14 t t CONTENTS.

Chapter I

Arrival at Athens — First Impressions — Sir Frederick Leighton on Greece — Easter Festivities — Greek Army and Navy — Amusing Incident at the English Church — The Acropolis — The Greek 'Arry — The Parthenon — The Erechtheum — Excavations at the Cemetery — Museums . . . 1

Chapter II

The Times Correspondent — Treachery of Suleiman Pasha — American Millionaire — Gorgeous Servant — Greek Constitution — Dress — Character — Agriculture — Education and its Results — General View of Athens — The Ancient Greeks

Chapter III

Groves of the Academy — Eleusis — Fetes at Megara — Dress of the Peasants — Dances — Drunken Gendarme — Byron's House — Temple of Jupiter Olympus — Schliemann's Museum ■ — Similarity of Greek and Irish Ornaments — Monastery on Mount Pentelicus — Ascent of the Mountain — Return to Athens — Departure for Constantinople- — Discomforts on board the Steamer — Ruins of Troy

Chapter IV

Constantinople — Sultan's Visit to the Mosque — Dancing Dervishes — Turks and Jews — Internal Economy of Turkey — Army — Navy — Origin of the Turks — Turkish Character — Religion and its Influence on Progress and Reform — Ramazan ........ CONTENTS. X PAGE •-■s is Ill

Chapter V

Sweet Waters of Europe — Dogs of Constantinople — Instance of their Affection — Pera — Caf6 chantant — The Artist and the Bashi-Bazouk — Beauties of the Bosphorus — Harems — Royal Household — Caiques — Conversation with a Greek at the Table-d'hote 56

Chapter VI

The Mosques — St. Sophia — Mosque of Suleiman the Magnificent — Mosque of Ahmed — Tombs of the Sultans — Janissaries — Bazaars — Female Dress — Turkish Policeman and Cabman — Attempt to visit Scutari — Curiosities of Turkish Time — Land Tenure in Turkey — Wedding Ceremonies — Dinners ........ 71

Chapter VII

Visit to Les Isles des Princes — Convent of St. George — Ride round the Walls — Church of Balukli — Miraculous Fish — Mosque of Karoshi — ' Only a face at the window' — Howling Dervishes — Scutari- — Turkish Cemetery — Doing the Giaour — Departure from Pera . . . . .

Chapter VIII

Arrival at Varna — Bulgarian Soldiers and Russian Officers — The Balkan Range — Origin ofthe Bulgars — Bulgar Peasant — Rustchuk — Roumanian Language — Position and History — Remarkable Entry into Bucharest — Awful Jaunt and Safe Arrival — Preparations for the Coronation of King Charles .

Chapter IX

Excitement in Bucharest — Coronation Procession — The Kinar o and Queen — Bucharest — Russian Eunuchs — Feast to the Peasantry — Peasant Costume — Dancing — Roumanian Cooking — Trades Procession — Funeral — Review of Troops — Roumanian Army ....... CONTENTS. XI

Chapter XV

Departure from Pesth — The AlMd — Magyar Horsemen — Old Wells — Farms and Farmers — Horse Breeding — Curious Marriage Customs of the Peasants — Mistrustfulness of the Peasant — Military Service — Nagy-V&rod — Striking Costumes — Hungarian 'Bus Conductor .... CONTENTS. PAGE 197 210 223 23

Chapter XVI

Hungarian Justice — Curious Anecdote — Local Government — Jews in Hungary — Their supposed Origin — Pre-historic Vehicles — Transylvania — Kocsard — Misadventure — Nagy-Enyed

Chapter XVII

Nagy-Enyed — Peasant Dress — Count B. — Protestant College — Buffaloes— Buffalo Milk — Marosv&sirhely — My Jehu — My Journey — The Mud — Gallantry of the Horses — Arrival at the Chateau of Count R. — Hungarian Dinner

Chapter XVIII

Arrival of Visitors — A good old Custom — Hospitality of the Transylvanian Nobility — Csard&s in Low Life — Departure of my Host — Fox Shooting — Land Tenure — Privileges of the Nobles — The 'good old Feudal Times' — Atrocities of Magyar Nobles — Church of St. Demeter — A Ghostly Ball — Terpsichorean Monks .......

Chapter XIX

Episcopal 'Pickings' — The Szekelys — The Slavs — Curious Proofs of Ignorance — Sz6kely Wit — News from Ireland — Visit to Count T. — Mode of Travelling — Hungarian Peasants — Their Dress — Dress of Hungarian Magnates — Arrival at Count T 's ......

Chapter XXIII

Ascent of the Mountain — Slovak Boatman — Shepherds — A Dilemma with Horns — Curious Instance of Vertigo — The Village Midwife — Election Excitement — ' Touch-and-Go ' — A Midnight Visitor — Meaning of ' Hussar' . . . 274

Chapter XXIV

Departure from Bethlen — Dees — My Equipage — Cyclops — Puszta again — Refreshments — Gipsy Music — Mysterious Stranger — Recklessness of the Magyars .... 283

Chapter XXV

Storm on the Puszta — Kolozsvar — Matthias Hunyadi — Return to Pesth — Another Storm — Margit - sziget or Margarethen Insel — Curious Origin of Sulphur Springs — The Lusty Horn — Tram-car — The Bath. . . .293

Chapter XXVI

Petrifying Well — Convent and its Legend — The Archduchess — Dance at the Cafe — The Cziardas again in High Life — Return to Pesth — Crowded Steamer — Ascent of the Svibhegy — Curious Railway — Splendid View — M. W. — His pretty Daughter — Pesth Cafe — Pesth Beauties . . 302

Chapter XXVII

The Hungarian 'Zoo' — Omnibuses — A Fair — A Cafe de Musique — The Waitresses — The Svabhegy again — A Fat Man — Sunday in Pesth — Departure from Pesth — Conclusion . . . . . . . . . .311 Appendix . . . . . . - . . • LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE CONSTANTINOPLE AND THE BOSPHORUS FROM PERA . Frontispiece MAGYAR NOBLE IN GALA DRESS Title ACROPOLIS FROM MUSAIUS HILL ...... 23 GREEK GIRLS AT MEGARA 31 TEMPLE OF JUPITER OLYMPUS ...... 34 GREEK PRIEST ......... 3S PLAIN OF MARATHON ........ 39 VIEW FROM PENTELICUS ....... 40 DANCING DERVISHES ........ 45 QUI VA PIANO VA SANO ........ 61 STREET LEADING TO BAZAARS, STAMBOUL . . 83 GATE IN WALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE ..... 91 VIEWS ON THIS BOSPHORUS . . . . . . 98, 99 ROUMANIAN MILITIAMAN . . . . . . .117 MILKMAN 117 ROUMANIAN SOLDIER (OLD CAMPAIGNER) .... 123 BROOCH, GOLD SPIRAL, AND IRON SWORD . .... 135 HEAD OF MACE, BROOCH (SILVER GILT), AND ROMAN COINS . 136 SOCKETED CELTS AND ARROW HEAD ..... 137 WALLACH WOMEN ........ 142 GORGE OF CZERNA, MEHADIA .......

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE CZIGAN GIRL ......... 150 VIA TRAJANA ... ...... 157 HUNGARIAN SHEPHERD 186 JEW 201 COACHMAN IN SHEEPSKIN ....... 210 WALLACH ......... 211 SAXON WOMAN ......... 211 NAGV ENYED 214 CSARDAS ......... 225 ' HOPEFUL ' ......... 238 HUNGARIAN PEASANT DANDY ....... 238 CHATEAU AT GERNYESZEG ....... 241 SLOVAK PEASANT ......... 245 VILLAGE ......... 248 CHURCH NEAR SZASZ REGEN . ...... 254 VECS, THE GALLICIAN RANGE ...... 260 CHATEAU AT VECS ........ 263 CHURCH AT UJFALU ........ 268 BETHLEN ......... 276 MIDWIFE . ......... 279 POSTBOY .......... 283 cyclops .......... 286 MAP OF THE AUTHOR'S ROUTE ......

Chapter I

Arrival at Athens — First Impressions — Sir Frederick Leighton on Greece — Easter Festivities — Greek Army and Navy — Amusing Incident at the English Church — The Acropolis — The Greek 'Arry — The Parthenon — The Erechtheum — Excavations at the Cemetery — Museums. On a lovely morning — April 23rd, 1881 — I arrived in the harbour of the Piræus, on board the Florio steamer Segasta, and overjoyed indeed I was to quit so horrible a craft. We had made a very bad voyage from Sicily, having left Catania on the 21st, and arrived fourteen hours late. As soon as it was hght, I placed myself at the mercy of the guide of the Hotel dAngleterre, and got a boat in which I reached the shore. Here anything but savoury odours greeted me, but I was soon in a light open carriage, bowlings along the Pericles Walk between two lines of beautiful fig-trees.

I cannot describe the choking mass of emotions which I experienced when I found myself at last in the land of the greatest people which the world has ever seen, and saw the sun rising behind Mount Hymettus, tinting the glorious ruins of the Acropolis with colours which defy description. The air had the softness of velvet, and yet a freshness which I have never felt elsewhere. The sky B above so pure and limpid, fast becoming turquoise blue under the warmth of rising Apollo; the scent of the flowers, which loaded the air as they awoke from sleep; the grass, every blade sparkling like a diamond ; and the fragrance from the mountain, were almost too much to bear. The grand marble columns of the Parthenon, changing from rose-pink to deep orange, were exquisitely beautiful; and I began to realise how it was that such a corner of the earth could have given birth to immortal sages, sculptors, and painters.

No wonder that in such a climate the mythology was graceful and gay, or that the char acter of the people was, as a natural consequence, all that refinement and the highest development of the intellectual faculties could make it. I cannot do better here than quote Sir Frederick Leiffhton's words on Greece in his beautiful address to the students of the Royal Academy in December, 1883. After speaking of the influence of the old Pelasgic and Egyptian forms on early Greek art, and the subtle balance and interaction of various elements of race on the Greek spirit, he proceeded to describe the geographical surroundings. He said : — ' Here are no vast alluvial plains, such as those along which, in the East, whole empires surged to and fro in the throng of battle ; no mighty flood of rivers, no towering mountain-walls : instead, a tract of moderate size, a fretted promontory thrust out into the sea — far out, and flinging across the blue a multitude of purple isles and islets towards the Ionian kindred shores.

In scale, nothing ex cessive ; everywhere measure and moderation. And of this sobriety, which is equally removed from all extremes, this fuOUfiai, which is the key-note of all things Greek, you find no completer type than in the famous little land where Athens rose and reigned. Spread out to the sun within a girdle of nobly simple heights, and sweeping gently to the sea, to catch the western breeze, it was blessed with an atmosphere of which you must have felt the breath to under- WISHES REALISED. 3 stand its penetrating sweetness. Attica was not in those times parched and thirsty as we see it now. The dustv olive groves, which to-day are white along the arid track where Kephissus should flow, are not the thousand fruited bowers ringing with the nightin gale of which Sophocles sang so lovingly.

Nevertheless, as compared, fcr instance, with Southern Italy, Athens was not exceptionally favoured in her soil. It was a soil liberal but not lavish, demanding labour but rewarding it — a fit surrounding for a joyous, wholesome, active life — such was the Greek land.' My wishes for many years past were at last realised, though I could scarcely believe that I was on the very ground where mighty orators and sages had walked and talked like ordinary mortals. For, on this ground, I now saw strange figures of men, each dressed in petticoats and a fez, and driving sheep before them, while lambs gambolled, all uncon scious that they would on the morrow be roasted to fill the jaws of the pretenders who now possess this heaven upon earth. I had arrived on the eve ot Easter Sunday, the Jour de Paques, when countless lambs were to make up for the starvation which this superstitious people had imposed on themselves for the three previous weeks.

Passmg on my way the temple of Theseus and that of Jupiter Olympus — of which latter fourteen columns are still standing — I arrived at last at the Hotel dAngleterre, and was soon revelling in a cold tub and a good breakfast. This being Holy Saturday, preparations for the evening's procession were every where visible. Troops were arriving from all quarters, and taking up their position in the great square be low the palace. As my room looked on to this, I saw that I should not get much sleep, and alas ! my apprehensions were amply verified. The sun was now blazing hot and the clouds of dust blinding, while all the houses were glaring white, with only here and there a pink or red one to relieve the eye. The King's palace, facing the Place, is a fine build ing, with shady grounds in front and some very pretty gardens in rear, which stretch away in the direction of the ruined temple of Jupiter Olympus.

This is the largest garden in Athens, and, like the palace, is open to the public from three to six p.m., or by ticket at any hour. Towering high above the modern town is the glorious Acropolis, a rocky hill on which are perched the majestic ruins of Athenian greatness, ruins which I was soon to visit. About nine p.m. the. town seemed to go stark, staring mad, and a din, which can only be described as infernal, broke forth, as infantry, cavalry, and artillery, marched in all directions, while guns and small arms were fired, the former at fixed intervals, the latter incessantly. As midnight approached matters became worse and worse. Small boys (the torture of Athens) screamed newspapers; rockets and Roman candles were sent up ; squibs cracked among the thronging crowds, who were, I noticed, dressed generally in the hideous English and French dress of the nineteenth century ; enthusiastic youths fired pistols point-blank in all directions, loaded with any thing which came first — slugs, nails, pebbles,&c. (Very pleasant this for the unfortunate pedestrian whose fa vourite eye might be removed thereby. ) Everybody ■ — man, woman, and child — carried a lighted candle.

All was confusion till twelve o'clock struck, when the artillery and cavalry formed line in the square already mentioned, and the trumpets announced that A PROCESSION. the King and Queen were leaving the palace to take part in the procession. Four or five close carriages, each with two horses, and the last one escorted before and behind by light cavalry (who seemed very un comfortable in, or rather out of, their saddles), passed almost at a gallop. Though this carriage was shut, I saw the King in uniform, and the Queen wearing an opera cloak ; this glimpse showing also that both were good-looking. So they passed on to the cathe dral, the crowd moving in the same direction. I did not attempt to follow, preferring to remain on the hotel balcony in the midst of the cannon, rifle, and rocket fire, to watch the illumination from all the win dows and the moving mass of candle flames below.

The effect of the latter was most weird and extraordinary. The army seem to ape the French, but are a bur lesque of the original. The infantry are small, light men, wearing dark blue tunics and grey trousers, with little French shakoes and red plumes. They march with a long swinging step which would not last long in active service. The cavalry are very 'dumpy,' and seem to have all they can do to sit their restive, wiry little cobs — the neck getting much more of their weight than the saddle — while a carbine, slung be hind them, often drags them back, and gives them an uncomfortable and ungraceful appearance. They carry revolvers in holsters, and sabres. The artillery are smart-looking, but not good horsemen either ; and I think would, on the whole, fare badly in the war with Turkey for which they are so loudly calling.

The entire army consists of about 35,000 men, en listed by conscription. As I have said, I do not think much of their appearance, yet I am told that they make good riflemen ; but their spirit of indi viduality, independence, and love of equality, must make discipline most difficult to enforce. The navy, which is also manned by conscription, is very small, but large enough for present requirements. The merchant vessels of Greece, however (including coasters), cannot be fewer than 12,000. To return. The hideous din of which I have spoken continued all night, and about one a.m. the royal procession returned in the order in which it had set out, the crowd after this gradually dispersing. The snatches of sleep which I managed to secure between the firing were finally dispelled at five a.m. by the awful newsboys, who now resumed their fiendish yells, and I gave up the farce of trying to sleep, and got up.

After an excellent breakfast at the table d'hote I attended the service at the English church, where an absurd incident occurred. In the middle of the service a party of people arrived bringing a child to be christened. The clergyman left the altar and went to the font, and put a number of questions to the infant, who was shrieking lustily all the time. To the pertinent interrogatory, ' Do you believe in the resurrection of the flesh?' — put while water was being poured on its head — the child replied with an uncompromising ' Nah ! nah ! nah ! ' and maintained this blatant scepticism to the last. The undaunted parson, however, concluded, 'As you believe all this, I now christen you,' &c. &c. I never saw a more ludicrous scene. In the afternoon I strolled to the Acropolis. Passing up Æolus Street through the ancient, so- THE TOWER OF THE WINDS. 7 called Pelasgic quarter, I approached the great frowning rock from the northern side, where it looms over the city, like a grim, but kindly, guardian.

I had a fine view of all that remains of the wall built by Themistocles. It is now a strange piece of patch work by different architects at different jaeriods, and would require no small acrobatic skill to climb up its bristling crest. Here, also, is to be seen, high up on its rugged front, the Grotto of Pan and of Aglauros, cobwebby, dusty, and forbidding. As I looked back over Athens and felt the balmy evening breeze loaded with the scent of hundreds of flowers, I thought how happy its inhabitants ought to be. On my way I saw the ' Tower of the Winds,' or temple of Æolus. It is octagon in shape, and is surrounded by monuments, stone slabs, and broken columns. An old man in uniform, who was hobbling about, beckoned me to go in, and I did so. He then began in the most extra ordinary lingo to attempt a description.

This is the sort of language he spoke : — ' Eins, zwei, drei ! voyez, l'aqua signor, l'orlogia, General Sylla morto ! ' and he turned his arms round to express something being thrown down. I judged that 'General' Sylla had knocked down the statues and destroyed a water clock. This turned out to be the case. The tower itself was built about 100 or 150 B.C., and had a weathercock and sundial on it. It was erected by the astronomer Andronikos Kyrrhistes, who also con structed the water-clock or clepsydra. After enduring the old custodian's abominable jargon for some ten minutes I gladdened his palm with some small coins of various nationalities and proceeded up the hill. On the way I sat down to sketch a man who was lying on the ground in a picturesque costume, when I was suddenly startled by a loud report and a 'whiz' passing my ear.

I turned round and saw a drunken soldier who, ele vated with brandy and religious fervour, was firing a pistol in all directions. It appeared that this being a general holiday, every Hellenic 'Arry and gamin goes up to the Acropolis, and, having nothing better to do, sits on the fallen columns, sings comic songs, or plays hide-and-seek among the grand old ruins. How are the mighty fallen ! At last I reached the Acropolis, and sat down on one of the prostrate marble columns of the Propylæa to survey the exquisite scene. A magnificent broad staircase of white marble extends across the entire front of this the ancient triumphal vestibule to the unsurpassed collection of reverential poems in marble. The steps were sixty in number and seventy-one feet in width. Few columns now remain erect, and only two of the Doric ones have still their capitals.

It was much damaged by an explosion in the seventeenth century which carried away the top, but some of the original walls still remain and constitute a magnificent ruin. Here was the entrance to the glorious Parthenon ; there the door by which all the giants of intellect had entered to worship their patron goddess — Wisdom. Here, at my feet, were the marks of the chariotwheels of hundreds of the grandest of the world's heroes, as the procession shown on the Parthenon frieze in the British Museum wound its way up from Athens. Above and around me towered colossal marble columns, originally a dazzling white but now toned by time to a rich orange. Ascending THE GLORIOUS PARTHENON. the well-worn, but still beautiful, marble steps, I passed the ancient library on the left, and the temple of Nike Apteros, or ' Wingless Victory,' which stands on a projecting rock on the right.

This little Ionic temple, which measures about twenty-eight feet by eighteen, and has the columns beautifully ornamented below the volute of the capitals, was rebuilt by the Greek government after its destruction by the Turks. It was from this point, Pausanias informs us, that Ægeus flung himself and perished, giving his name to the Ægean Sea. Now the glorious Parthenon suddenly burst on my view. The grand old marble columns which still tower to the cobalt heaven have scarcely changed colour in nearly two thousand five hundred years, and have withstood the cruel batteries of Venetians and Turks, and the Vandalism of Eastern Christians. This building consisted of an inner portion, called the ' cella,' surrounded by columns, which formed what is called the ' peristyle.' There was a space between, which was called the ' ambu latory.' The Parthenon had forty-six columns, of which thirty-two remain.

The length was two hun dred and twenty-eight feet ; width one hundred and one feet ; and height sixty-six feet. There were besides thirty -three smaller columns within the ' cella.' One very remarkable thing was discovered by Mr. Pennethorne in 1837, which shows the mar vellous genius of the ancient Greek architects. If you stand facing the steps and look along them the line will appear perfectly straight and horizontal. It is not really so, but has been made purposely slightly concave to suit the concave imperfection of the human sight. If the lines had been really straight they would have appeared concave. The columns also appear straight, but there is a curvature in their centre ; if they had been made really upright they would have appeared to the eye concave. This is the case in other Greek temples besides this master piece of the Doric order.

The sculptures describing the contest between Athene and Poseidon which once covered the pediment on the west front of this beauti ful ruin have been almost entirely destroyed (Cecrops and his daughter being the only figures remaining), and the building was divided into two parts by the explosion of the powder magazine in 1687. The IxeTOJTT-n, showing the struggles between the Lapithæ and Centaurs, were brought away by Lord Elgin, together with what remained of the Procession on the frieze, and can be seen in the British Museum. I felt stunned by the thought which rushed through my brain, that here Pericles, Themistocles, Plato, and Socrates, had stood and addressed their delighted fellow countrymen. I could scarcely realise it all. I here found what had once been spiral stairs, but of which little now remains.

A ster some cautious climbing I stood at last on the top of the grandest of all grand buildings. The view was magnificent. Far down below lay Athens basking in the blaze of the mid-day sun. Mount Hymettus on one side and Lykabettus on the other, with the deep blue Mediter ranean beyond, formed a sight never to be forgotten. I now felt rather giddy and was glad to descend. By this time the view was much marred by dense clouds of dust, which rose like the smoke of a vast fire from the plain below. This is the great curse of Athens, as, the Ilissus and other rivers being dried BITS OF STATUES. 11 up, there is not water enough to keep the streets damp. There are two small collections of bits of statues close by which can scarcely be dignified by the name of ' museums.' Here heads without bodies, bodies without heads, arms, torsos, and legs, are huddled together in reckless disorder, the casts of the Elgin Marbles being the only things worth seeing.

I now examined the Erechtheum, or Temple of Erech theus, the son of Vulcan adopted by Minerva. He was very active in promoting the worship of Minerva, and this temple is said to be his place of burial. It contains also the well of salt water which Poseidon, God of the Sea, caused to spring up by a stroke of his trident during his contest with Minerva for the possession of Attica. Here also is the olive-wood statue of Minerva which fell from heaven. The original building was totally destroyed by the Persians, but Herodotus tells us that the sacred olive grew up again miraculously. Here was the shrine of Athene Polias and the altars of Poseidon, Pluto, and Hephæstus. On that of Poseidon sacrifice was offered to Erech theus. Here also was the silver throne of Xerxes captured at Salamis. There were six very handsome Ionic columns or Caryatides, five of which remain, the shafts representing female figures in long, flowing drapery.

These are said to be the maidens of Caryæ, a city in Arcadia, whose inhabitants joined the Per sians after the battle of Thermopylæ. When the Persians were eventually defeated the victorious Greeks destroyed the town of Caryæ, slew the men, and took the women into captivity, and employed their figures in architecture to commemorate their disgrace. Between the Erechtheum and the Propylæa is a flattened portion of the rock, forming a sort of pedestal, upon which stood Phidias's grand gold and silver statue of Minerva, the protectress of Athens, a conspicuous and towering object above all others. After examining such parts of the frieze of the Erechtheum as remain intact I descended and passed out by the gate of the Dionysian Theatre. This theatre is of particular interest, as it witnessed the contests of Æschylus and Sophocles for the prize, and the triumphs of Menander and Aristophanes.

Many of the marble seats, which rise tier above tier, are still perfect, and have the names of their owners still legible, certain places being reserved for certain ' big-wigs.' From the stage, which is at the south end, and which, like those of all ancient Greek theatres, was open to the vault of heaven, charming glimpses may now be caught of the sea through the large oval openings in the wall, which still stands erect. The theatre is connected with the Odeum of Herodes Atticus by a row of arches built by Eumenes of Attalus, of which nearly thirt f remain. An Italian gentleman, who was going the same way, very kindly proposed to take me in his carriage to the cemetery (where the wife of Alcibiades is said to have been buried) to see the new excavations. This offer I gladly accepted, and we were soon bowling along down a steep hill, the horses being nearly blinded by the dust.

On arriving we found several tombs which had contained the urns for the ashes of the dead, and some lovely sculptured figures in bas-relief, which had been exhumed. One fat bull looked very ludicrous on his side, with all four legs broken off at the knee. The head was, however, beautifully carved. NEW ARCHÆOLOGICAL MUSEUM. We then proceeded to the New Archæological Museum, and, after unearthing a grumpy and gouty official, found that the museum is not half completed. There were however a few gems, particularly a small Minerva in marble, who carried in her hand another smaller Minerva, the facsimile of herself. There are also some beautiful reliefs on tombstones brought from the before-mentioned cemetery, particularly one with two female figures, one seated and the other leaning forward ; the inscription is Ammocleia, a daughter of Andronikos.

Another with three figures taking leave of a fourth, who is going on his last journey ; it merely says, ' Damaistrate weeps for . . .' These and a few heads, an Apollo and Fauns, com pleted the unpacked objects.