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sum of money to the public. He was rewarded, as usual, with statues; and in one of the inscriptions the people are distinguished by their old name, Pittheidæ.

The acropolis, or citadel of Trozen, was on the top of one of the mountains, which tower high above the plain. There was anciently a temple of Minerva. We had been told at Damalá, that many ruins remained, and I was unwilling to defer the examination, as our recent sufferings, and the reputed unhealthiness of this tract, had rendered us all eager to be gone. It was near noon, and the sun reigned in a cloudless sky, when I began to ascend. The rock was heated so much that it could not be handled in climbing without pain; and the way was impeded with loose stones, and low dry shrubs, and parched herbage, which crackled, and blinded me in passing with dust and down. After frequent pauses, to obtain refreshment from scanty shade and water, I attained to the summit, with the assistance of a Greek servant and a sailor; and found only the rubbish of some churches, with two fragments of marble inscribed We tarried awhile to recover from our fatigue, and to enjoy a most extensive. prospect; and then descended by a better track toward Damalá. A gentle breeze, which had sprung up, was of signal service to us, the air in the lee of the rocks feeling almost as fire.

In our way down from the summit, or on the eastern side, we crossed a torrent-bed; and on the other is a stream more considerable, with a mill at the mountain-foot, by which a man was treading milk in a skin to make butter. One of these was called Chrysorrhoas, the Golden, because it had continued to flow after a drought of nine years, when the other springs failed. The fountain of Hercules in the city,

and one named Hippocrene, was supplied from these hills. But it was remarked, that the waters of Trozen, rising, from sources like the Athenian, partook of the same bad properties, affecting the nerves and feet; nor could better be procured by digging wells.

I was directed at Damalá to the house of a Greek priest, to which my companions had repaired from the ruins. The town is small and situated on the mountain-side. It inherits the stinking atmosphere as well as the bad water of Trozen. The inhabitants are of a sallow complexion, and August is commonly a month of great mortality. It is the see of a bishop, and noted for being frequently vacant, as it then was; the occupier seldom long surviving his new dignity.

A proverbial saying, the bishop of Damalá, is current in these parts, and applied to persons who suffer by their own indiscretion. The story is simple enough. He was presented with some fishes; offended at their size, and, being told that such only could be procured, resolved to attend the trial. The boat was surprised by a Barbary cruiser. He was carried into slavery, and employed to grind wheat, and at the same time to rock a child; until he moved the compassion of his owner by singing some words, which he composed, void of poetry, but expressive of his folly and its consequences. I shall insert them from a copy written by the priest, as a specimen of the versification and language of modern Greece.

πίσκοπος. τὸ δαμαλά.
μὴ τε νέα μητεμηαλά
ταλινά, δενίθελες.
τὰ μεγάλα. γιρέβες,
τράβα τὸ χερόμηλο.
κένα, ταραπόπελο.

A bishop without brain or sense,
Deserving such a recompense!
With smaller fishes not content,
Author of thine own punishment!
Turn, turn the mill, a fit employ,
And lull to sleep the Arab-boy.

CHAP. LI.

The gulf of Epidauria-Of Methana--An ancient charm-A hot spring-The islets-Of Epidaurus-The harbour.

WE returned to the shore in the evening from Damalá, and before night landed on the island Calaurea. The next day we sent some men in the boat for provisions to the town of Poro. They came back at noon. We sailed, and landed again on the peninsula of Methana, on the side toward Attica. Here was a ruined church, with a well. The mountain was bare and black, a fire having lately consumed the wood. We lay among huge single rocks, some poised, as it were, on a point. In the morning we embarked hastily with a fair breeze; which failing, we continued for some hours on a smooth sea, exposed to the intense heat of a cloudless sun. We passed between some islets, and entered a gulf or deep bay, in which is Methana; with Epidaurus opposite, but nearer the mouth.

Methana or Methone was a small city on the western side of the peninsula. The name is still retained. The acropolis or citadel was on a mountain moderately high; rough, and partly inaccessible. The wall was of excellent masonry, and has been repaired, but is again in ruins. I saw an im

perfect inscription by the entrance of a church, on the site perhaps of the temple of Isis, but without a roof. Round about the rock were many fences of piled stones, inclosing in April, when I was there, ploughed fields and neglected churches. The face of the country was then brown and dismal. A semicircular range of mountains rises behind.

Pausanias relates, that he wondered most at a device used at Methana to avert Libs on the south-west wind, which, coming from the Saronic gulf, withered the vines, when in bud. A couple of men, while it was blowing, divided a cock with white feathers into two parts, and running in a contrary direction encompassed the vineyards, each bearing a portion. They buried the cock on their arrival at the place, from whence they had started.

The hot baths were computed about thirty stadia, or three miles and three quarters from Methana. The spring appeared first when Antigonus, son of Demetrius, reigned in Macedonia, after a fiery eruption from a volcano, which raised in a level plain a mountain, seven stadia, or near a mile high; for some time inaccessible by day, on account of the heat, and the strong sulphureous odour; but at night, smelling agreeably, shining at a great distance, and affording warmth. The sea, which boiled with the lava as far out as five stadia, or above half a mile, was disturbed twenty stadia, or two miles and a half; and rocks were extant in it, not less than towers. The flame dying away, a current, warm and exceedingly salt, succeeded; but no cold water was found there, and swimming in the bay was dangerous, it abounding with other monsters, and with dog-fish. This spring is on the side of the mountain, by a village, which is in view; and tinges the soil near it with the colour of ochre.

Ovid has described the alteration of this spot in a speech of Pythagoras to Numa.

The rocks before Methana, in the mouth of the bay, were called the islets of Pelops. They were nine in number; produced, it is likely, by the volcano, and once bare. Some shrubs grow on them, and we found water to fill our casks, with a ruined church or two. It was anciently affirmed, that on Our author knew not whether this

one no rain ever fell. were true; but relates, that he had seen men, by sacrifices and incantations, turn away hail. An island named Sphæra, and afterwards Hiera, was perhaps more within the bay. There was a monument, it was said, of Sphoerus, who drove the chariot of Pelops, and a temple of Minerva, in which the virgins of Trozen consecrated their zones, before marriage. The same offering is still seen in the churches at Athens, with towels richly embroidered, and various other articles. The water was fordable, and it may be suspected that this island, which was near, is now joined to the main land.

Epidaurus was no obscure city. It stood in a recess of the Saronic gulf, fronting the east, and was fortified by nature, being inclosed by high mountains reaching to the sea, and rendering it difficult of access. It had temples, and in the acropolis, or citadel, was a remarkable statue of Minerva. The site is now called Epi-thavro. The traces are indistinct, and it has probably been long deserted. In April it was sown with corn, or over-run with bushes, flowering shrubs, cedars, and almond-tress; the aspect fresh and pleasing. We found plenty of wild asparagus; a maimed statue of bad workmanship, the posture recumbent; some masses of stone, brick, and rubbish; a few pieces of marble, and a scpulchral inscription, AAEZANAPEA XAIPE Alexandrea farewell.

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