protrude so fars, that the promontories which now shelter it will be seen inland. It will unite with Samos, and in a series of years extend to remoter islands, if the soil, while fresh and yielding, be not carried away by some current setting without the mountains. If this happen, it will be distributed along the coast, or wafted elsewhere in the tide, and form new plains. Some barren rock of the adjacent deep may be enriched with a fertile domain, and other cities rise and flourish from the bounty of the Mæander.

CHAP. LIV.

WE ENTER CARIA-AT GHAUZOCLEU-BOOTHS OF THE TURCOMANS-IASUS-REMAINS OF THE CITY-THE SEPULCHRES-INSCRIPTIONS-IASIAN MARBLES AT SCIO-JOUR

NEY CONTINUED.

IN a preceding chapter we conducted the reader from the promontory Posidium and the temple of Apollo Didymæus to the confines of Ionia and Caria. We shall now pursue our journey over the Carian mountains.

We ascended the lofty mountain Grius1, and descended by a difficult winding track. About five in the evening we arrived at Ghauzocleu, a village fronting a pleasant bay, which is land-locked. The situation is romantic, amid naked rocks, pine and olive trees, the latter then laden with black fruit. Under the trees were several wells, and women pass

s As to extend to the points of the promontories that now shelter it. The rest is wild imagination. R.

t Query, if extended thus far. R.

CHANDLER, ASIA M.

Some chil

ing to and fro with their faces muffled. dren, who were gathered about a fire, on seeing us, ran away. The aga entertained us very hospitably. We sat on a carpet after the Turkish fashion, crosslegged, the table a large salver, on which the dishes were placed one at a time, and removed in quick succession. We had been exposed this day, without any shelter, to the sun. An accidental fire had scorched the bushes by the way, and destroyed their leaves, and the ground was bare and parched.

We were on horseback again at seven in the morning, and after a few minutes in a beautiful plain covered with vines. Some houses were dispersed in it. We then passed over huge mountains, branches of Grius", clothed with pines; and by immense precipices. The fire had laid waste large tracts. At ten minutes after ten we had in view several fine bays, and a plain full of booths, with the Turcomans sitting by the doors, under sheds resembling porticoes, or by shady trees, surrounded with flocks of goats. We turned to the right, and riding by a well in the plain, and then along the shore, arrived at Iasus, now called Assyn-kalesi.

The Iasians were a colony of Argives, and afterwards of Milesians. Their city covered a rocky islet lying near the continent, to which it is now united by a small isthmus, and was only ten stadia, or a mile and a quarter, in circumference. It had a port, and was maintained by the sea, which abounded in fish; its territory being rough and barren. Several stories were current of their eagerness to purchase that article, and one is recorded. A citharist or

harper was displaying his skill, and the Iasians were very attentive, until a sale of fish was announced by the sound of a bell. Immediately they all hurried away, except one person, who was hard of hearing. "Sir," says the artist to him, " I am indeed infi"nitely obliged to you for the honour you do me, "and for your love of harmony. Every body be"sides left me on the ringing of the bell." "How!" he replied," has the bell rung? then, sir, your ser"vant."

The north side of the rock of Iasus is abrupt and inaccessible. The summit is occupied by a mean but extensive fortress. At the foot is a small portion of flat ground. On that and on the acclivities the houses once stood, within a narrow compass, bounded to the sea by the city wall, which was regular, solid, and handsome, like that of Ephesus. This, which has been repaired in many places, now encloses rubbish, with remnants of ordinary buildings, and a few pieces of marble. Single pinks, with jonquilles, grew among the thickets of mastic; and we sprung some large covies of partridges, which feed on the berries. In the side of the rock is the theatre, fronting 60m. east of north, with many rows of seats remaining, but covered with soil, or enveloped in bushes. On the left wing is an inscription in very large and well-formed characters, ranging in a long line, and recording certain donations to Bacchus and the people. Beneath, near the bottom, are several stones inscribed, but not legible. By the isthmus is the vaulted substruction of a considerable edifice; and on a jamb of the doorway are decrees

* Strabo, p. 658.

y Inscript. Ant. p. 19.

engraved in a fair character, but damaged, and black with smoke; the entrance, which is lessened by a pile of stones, serving as a chimney to a few Greeks, who inhabit the ruin. Opposite to the isthmus is a flat point running out into the sea, with a small square fort at the extremity.

The sepulchres of the Iasians on the continent are very numerous, ranging along above a mile on the slope of the mountain. They are built with a slaty stone, and perhaps were whitewashed, as their aspect is now mean. They consist mostly of a single camera or vault; but one has a wall before it, and three chambers, which have been painted. Many of them have a small square stone over the entrance, inscribed, but no longer legible. In examining these, I found half of an inscription", which was copied in 1673, and has been published incorrectly. This remnant was in a fair character, on a marble lying on the rock. Below the sepulchres are broken arches, and pieces of wall, among which is a massive coffin or two of marble standing on their basements.

A marble by the isthmus records an Iasian, who was victorious at Olympia, and the first conqueror in the Capitoline games at Romea. We found there likewise a piece of inscribed architrave, on which, when more entire, a stoa or portico, and Diana Civica, or the tutelary goddess of the city, were mentioneda. By a wall, which seemed the remnant of a sepulchre, is a long inscription", closely but handsomely engraved on a slab of white marble, in which the theatre is mentioned, with the Prytaneum or town-hall, and the temples of Jupiter and Diana.

While I was copying it, a Greek priest came, and displaced me somewhat roughly. I was then informed that was a church, and the stone the holy table. I had given offence by sitting on it. The priest was wretchedly ignorant, and, among his other absurdities, told me they had a tradition, that at the last day St. Paul will rise there, shewing the place with his foot.

A vessel from the island of Stanchio was at anchor in the bay, with some small-craft, which fish, or lade with tobacco, figs, and cotton, the produce of the country. These often carry stones away for ballast. We had paid a piaster at Scio for leave to transcribe three marbles, which lay on the shore, and were transported from this place. They contained honorary decrees made by the Iasians. One is of the age of Alexander the Great, and remarkable for the extreme beauty of the characters, which were as finely designed and cut as any I ever saw. These stones were part of a square pilaster before the senate-house.

On our first arrival here, a Greek, who lived in the ruin of a large sepulchre by the isthmus, declared he was commanded to suffer nobody to enter Assyn-kalesi without a written order from the aga of Melasso, to whose district the castle belonged. We offered to purchase his permission, but in vain. He knew we were going to that city, and was afraid to accept a bribe. After a short stay, finding him inflexible, we continued our journey, intending to return in a few days, as we did, with authority. This sepulchre was then our abode, and we lay in

Inscript. Ant. p. 23.