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Descending Gallesus, we suddenly discovered near the bottom some mean huts, immediately beneath us, on the declivity. We inquired of the inhabitants, who were Greeks, for ruins, and they directed us to Claros, now called Zillé, by the sea. We crossed a brook, which is in the middle of a cultivated vale, and entered a thick grove of olives, where some armed men started up from under a tree, and, running to the road, stopped our servants and baggage-horses. The janizary, as soon as we perceived it, gallopped back, and a short parley ensued. We were informed they belonged to the Muselém, a Turkish officer of great power and extensive command, residing at Chili, distant an hour and a half toward Smyrna. Cara-Elez-Oglu then possessed that high dignity. He was famous as an excellent governor, and remarkable for his civility to the Franks or Europeans. We continued our journey to Zillé, which is by computation four hours from Goomulderú, where we lay; we arrived in six.

We were apprised of our approach to Zillé, or Claros, by vestiges of ancient sepulchres on the mountain side, close by the way, on our left hand. One which was hewn in the rock, has a narrow door-way leading into it; and within, a long horizontal niche or cavity, transverse, for the body. Farther on, and higher up, is a well of fine water; then full to the brim, and overflowing. This ridge is separated by a narrow vale from a small rocky promontory, which is encompassed with a ruinous wall of rough stone, the masonry that termed Pseudisodomum. We rode in at a gap or gate-way, and found a theatre of the same brown material as the wall, many pieces of marble, wells, and remnants of churches; and besides these, an imperfect time-eaten heap of a large temple,

We had a distinct view of Aiasalúck, the plain of Ephesus, and the town of Scala Nova.

Claros was very early the seat of a temple and oracle of Apollo. It is related, that Chalchas, after the destruction of Troy, had an interview there with the prophet Mopsus, and died of grief on finding he was excelled in his profession.

The person, who sustained this high office, could be taken only from particular families, and was generally of Miletus, unlettered, and ignorant of composition. He was told only the number and names of the consulters; and then descended into a cave, in which was a fissure with water. After drinking of this spring, he uttered responses in verses made on the subject, on which each had thought in his own mind; but this practice was prejudicial to his health, perhaps from the dampness of the place, and he was commonly short-lived. He got by rote, I conceive, or else carried down with him, the answers ready prepared; and the god would have soon lost his reputation, had the consulters been so cunning as to have kept every one his secret from the agents and spies employed to dive into their business. The temple, which was unfinished, with the sacred grove of ash-trees, is mentioned by Pausanius among the curiosities peculiar to Ionia. It is not certain whether the oracle existed after Constantine the Great; or, when Apollo was finally silenced and dethroned; but Christianity succeeded, and has flourished in its turn at Claros.

In viewing the well on the ridge before-mentioned, I remarked it had marble steps leading down from the top; and four or five were visible below the surface. The water, which, as a peasant with me affirmed, is very deep, obscured

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the remainder. There, it may be conjectured, was the prophetic fountain and cave. The passage, by which the waste current was conveyed away, has been choked from neglect or by design; and the water being confined, has filled the hollow of the rock, and the entrance to it, rising until it had liberty to escape over the margin. The superstitious use ceased with the reverence for Apollo; men unhallowed drinking of it without feeling inspiration or dreading punishment; and, perhaps, to promote a popular oblivion of the place, the enemies of the god, who destroyed his temple and grove, devised the present alteration, by the easy and obvious method of converting the cave into a reservoir.

Colophon was situated inland. Before it, besides Claros, was Notium, a town and haven bearing the same relation to it as the Piræus did to Athens, and distant near two miles. It is termed the Calophonian Notium, to distinguish it from that of Chios, a portion of the coast of the island, with a road for vessels. Colophon was only seventy stadia, or eight miles and three quarters from Ephesus in a straight course; but, by the windings of the bays, one hundred and twenty stadia, or fifteen miles. Lysimachus destroyed it, to enlarge that city; but some of the Colophonians remained at Notium, to whom the Romans granted immunities after their war with Antiochus. The Halys or Halesus ran by Colophon; and then, not far from the grove of Claros. The stream was colder than any in Ionia, and celebrated for that quality by the elegiac poets. Going out of Colophon, on the left of the road, after you had passed the Calaon, perhaps a brook running into the Halys, was shewn the burying-place of Andrémon, one of the leaders in the Ionic migration; and, on the same side of the road, in the way to

Claros, that of the Smyrnéans and Colophonians, who fell fighting with the Macedonians under Lysimachus.*

Many difficulties have arisent concerning Claros, Notium, and Colophon, which are removed by this account of their proximity and mutual connexion. Colophon was sacrificed to the grandeur of its neighbour Ephesus. The name, as at Lebedus, survived, but without its pristine importance; and Notium suffered, as it were, by sympathy. Religion and Apollo interposed to rescue Claros, and the concourse of consulters, and devotees, maintained it and the temple. But now Colophon, if its site be not occupied by the wretched huts before-mentioned, is extinct; and Claros, with Notium, has been long abandoned. The brook we crossed was the Halys. The vale on the north-side of the promontory, which it divides, has perhaps increased toward the sea, and the old haven has been filled up by soil washed from the mountains.

When we had finished our survey of Claros, we returned to some huts, and pitching our tent, lay surrounded with our baggage, men, and horses. In the morning early we passed by Zillé, and over two ridges of Gallesus. We then entered on the plain of Ephesus, and travelled along the edge toward the shore, until we came to the mouth of a lake, at which was a weir of reeds, and a bridge of three arches; but of one, more than half was broken away. My companions, with our men, crossed below it by the sea, but seeing the water deep, I dismounted and walked over. The lake is long, and extended close by us on our left almost to the river Cayster, near which we turned up from the beach.

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We discovered soon after a fisherman's hut between the lake and the river. We were ferried over the latter in a triangular float; and in three hours arrived at Ephesus. We pitched our tent among the ruins, which are at a distance from Aiasalúck.

We had been here before, and shall now give an account of that journey.

CHAP. XXXII.

Distance of Ephesus from Smyrna-To Sedicui-To the sources of a river-To Tourbali-Of the Turcoman-Their booths -To the Cayster-Arrive at Aiasalúck—Relation of a journey in 1705.

THE two cities Ephesus and Smyrna have been termed the eyes of Asia Minor. They were distant from each other three hundred and twenty stadia, or forty miles in a straight line. On the road, one hundred and twenty from Ephesus, was a town called Metropolis. Aiasalúck is now reckoned fourteen hours from Smyrna.

We left the consul's house on Sunday, the last day of September, in the forenoon, and passing the river Meles, rode with the castle hill of Smyrna on our right hand, to a gap in the wall of the pomoerium. We crossed the bed of the torrent, and soon arrived at Sedicui, a small but pleasant village, about two hours distant. We passed the night at a house, which Mr. Lee, who had accompanied us, rented of a Turk; the asylum, where afterwards we had refuge from the plague and Smyrna.

We were on horseback again at five in the morning, be

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