Greek towards the Trojans, Hector fighting, Paris and Æneas both on their knees, and a wounded Trojan. There is a stiffness, however, in the draperies; the same countenance and insignificant expression is observable in all the heroes; and the figure of Minerva, covered from head to feet, resembles an idol cut in wood. The hair of all the warriors is arranged in pointed meshes, resembling perukes; the figures are painted blue and red, and it would seem that their armour was metal. In the same trenches also was found an enormous ivory eye, probably belonging to the colossal statue of Jupiter. The Venetians had a fortress here, which overlooked a town of about 800 houses. In the seventeenth century the partridges were so numerous that the magistrates used to oblige the inhabitants to go in the spring to look for their nests and destroy their eggs. At present this island exports only almonds; but its population, consisting mostly of Albaniaus, has increased to about 2000.

Boeotia, though little visited by travellers, and containing now no considerable city, still presents most charming scenery and a multitude of once celebrated places: it is a country abounding as formerly in grain; and, should Athens recover its numerous population, would be able again to supply it. Mount Cythæron separates it from Attica; Helicon and Parnassus lift their lofty summits over its western boundaries; and several other chains covered with pines, mastichs, wild olives, and evergreen oaks, traverse the interior, bordered by plains of rice, cotton, dourah, and wheat, and also some fine pasture ground. The largest of these plains, enclosed between ridges of hills and feeding flocks of fine black sheep, are watered by rivulets that flow from the heights around them. The Asopus runs directly to the sea: but the Cephisus falls into the lake Copais, already described. Steep rocks, covered with wood, border the gulph of Potsomathi, where stands the village of Mertino, in the neighbourhood of which are the ruins of an ancient city, perhaps that of Larymna, among which there is no public edifice or any monument of sculpture; the port, however, is yet to be observed. On the other side of the Copais we find some remains of the city of Orchomenes, called in the time of Homer the Athens of Boeotia: it stands just above the village of Scripou, which is inhabited by about 400 peasants. Here are to be seen the foundations of the walls of the ancient acropolis, well built, though without cement; and the paths, cut in the rock, which led to the city are still visible. The most curious part of the ruins is what Pausanias calls the Treasury of Minyas, of an age, according to Greek authors, before that of Hercules, which they fix 1350 years before the Christian era. It consists of two walls, on each of which is laid a large block of marble, and the entrance was probably closed by one side of the rock. Some curious inscriptions are found at Orchomenes; on the pillars of the temple of the Graces is to be seen a long list of musicians, actors, and declaimers; another inscription contains a contract, by which the right of pasture was preserved to the inhabitants of the neighbourhood. A small convent established

here contains several fragments of ancient monuments, with inscriptions; and what renders this spot remarkable is, that at Orchomenes Sylla gained a battle which paved the way to his dictatorship. Not far distant, the village of Caprana indicates the site of the ancient Charonea, where are seen on a height some ruins, probably those of the Acropolis, and seats cut in the rock, which mark the situation of an ancient theatre. This city was situated at the foot of Helicon, now replaced by Cranizza, in which is an old square tower whose massive construction may be assigned to very early times.

Helicon does not present the pleasing or sublime aspect we might expect from a mount consecrated by the poets; it has, however, charming valleys, covered with corn fields and orchards, over which poplars and plane trees rise on all sides. The muses' wood has become solitary; Hippocrene exists no longer; it is perhaps dried up; the Permessus rolls its waters to the Copais without inspiring any Pindar, or any modern Hesiod; and the celebrated Thebes, the centre of the confederated cities of this province, is now no more than a small town within the limits of the ancient Cadmeion or citadel; its poor remains scarcely afford any idea of its former state. It is the see of an archbishop; but it no longer possesses the silk manufactories and dye-houses established there by the Jews in the middle ages; nor that of pipes, which existed in the seventeenth century, the materials of which were brought from a quarry of earth peculiar to this country. The town of Lebadea, now called Livadia, is the chief place in Boeotia; it is situated at the entrance of a ravine, at the bottom of which flows the river Hercyna. It is the residence of a voivode and an archbishop, the centre of a considerable trade, and presents a more prosperous appearance than the other cities of the country: a castle built on a rock, but now dismantled, protects it. At the foot of the rock they show a cavity, which they say was the cave of Trophonius; but it is not deep, and probably was the subterraneous chamber where the image of the god was deposited; it is in fact only twelve feet square; in the upper part is discoverable a colored border, similar to what is found in other ancient Greek monuments. A grotto on the other side of the mountain, now converted into a Greek chapel, is more likely to have been the famous cave, where they terrified with spectacles and illusions those who came to consult the oracle. The springs of Lethe and Mnemosyne still flow in the same country, and mingle their waters with those of the Hercyna.

The defile of Cythæron is defended by an old fort; to the north of it stretches the plain watered by the Asopus, where the Greeks obtained the famous victory of Platea. The foundations of this city are yet visible; at the foot of Cytheron, consisting of thick walls, flanked with towers; on the probable site of the Acropolis are some broken columns and unformed masses of masonry, and, below its walls, a few sarcophagi cut in the rock, but now broken. A poor village, inhabited by 150 peasants, occupies the situation of this once famous city; it bears the name of Cocla. Near the defile stands also the village of Calivie.

In the plain, between Leuctra and Platæa, are two hillocks, under which probably were buried the Greeks who perished in the sad contest between the Thebans and Spartans. A hamlet of the name of Lefka, consisting only of five houses, is all that remains of Leuctra; but another called Eremo-Castro, on the heights to the north, contains some ancient inscriptions. On the eastern coast of Boeotia we find Orope occupying its ancient site; its name is upon three or four marbles preserved at Scamino, supposed to be the ancient Tanagria. Farther on, at the outlet of the strait of Euripus, an area strewed with ruins appears to have been the situation of Anthedon; near it we discern the remains of the two moles, which in the form of a cresent enclosed the harbour, now abandoned; we perceive also some vestiges of the city and port of Aulis, where the fleet of the Greeks under the command of Agamemnon anchored; and of the city of Delium, where the foundations of a theatre are still visible.

The island of Euboea, now Negropont, extends opposite to Bootia as far as the coast of Attica, and approaches so near the Baotian territory, that Chalcis, its principal city, almost touches the continent. The strait of Euripus is scarcely more than a canal; the ancients threw a bridge over it, probably in the same place as that which now passes from Boeotia into Euboea; it consists of two arches, below which are some mills, and several towers defend its extremities. This island is crossed through its whole length by mountains, whose tops are entirely bare, and their height diminishes as they approach the coasts. The valleys between them are covered with a soil, in which, under a very soft climate, corn, vines, and olives, flourish in great abundance. The pasturage of Euboea has been renowned in antiquity, as well as its baths, and its two springs, one of which, it was pretended, whitened the wool of the sheep that drank of it, while the other dyed it black. The ancients reported strange things of this strait and did not even agree among themselves; some stating the flux and reflux at seven times, and others, as Seneca, at fourteen times in twenty-four hours. A modern observer, father Babin, observed only the common ebbing and flowing of other seas, except on certain days, particularly during the first and last quarters of the moon, when the sea flowed irregularly; during the eleven days of the month, in which the water fluctuates, it changes its motion more than ten times a day, the wheels of the mills on it turning as often in contrary directions. Having stopped an hour and a half at one of these mills, he saw the course of the current change three times. During the rest of the month the sea rises twice a day to the height of one foot.

The modern name, Negropont, was given to this island by the Venetians, who held it for a long time, and built and fortified the city of Negropont on the site of the ancient Chalcis, where the diet of the confederated cities of the island sat, and where the celebrated copper manufactories flourished. This city is built with narrow and dark streets, and surrounded with ramparts; the suburbs are inhabited by Greeks and Jews, while the Turks occupy the part with

in the fortifications. Few ancient cities have left ruins in such good preservation as Eretria; its limits are marked by well-constructed walls, the citadel, the plans of the houses, and that of the theatre, the proscenium of which is almost the only part standing. The interior of the island is but little known. On approaching it from the isle of Andros, the first objects that strike the eye are the steep and pointed rocks of Cape d'Oro, formerly Caphareus; the islets and shoals round this cape are still as dangerous as when the Grecian fleet was wrecked at the entrance of Aulis, on its return from Troy. Violent' tempests continually prevail round this promontory, and what aggravates the misfortune, in case of shipwreck, is, that the villages of mount Ocha in the neighbourhood are inhabited by ferocious Albanians, who, not content with dragging away the wrecks of the vessels, often murder the crews. These Schypetars, at first Christians, have become Mahommedans, although they have no religion except a few superstitious opinions; their wives still practise the Christian worship. Their ordinary occupation is the care of their flocks; they are called Acrianides or Barmades. The ancient Carystos, out of which the Italians made a modern city, under the name of Castel-Rosso, still contains 1600 Turkish families and 1400 Greeks. The inhabitants choose their voivode, always from the Turks, because these are most numerous; they also garrison the citadel. Beyond Carystos are seen on the declivity of mount Ócha, now St. Elie, the quarries, from which the ancients extracted the beautiful columns of cipolian marble, of which some now adorn the edifices of Rome. Entire pillars are still found here, which, after being cut, have been abandoned in consequence of some alteration in the state of Greece. Near the summit of the mountain the marble gives place to gneiss. Walnut trees are seen growing in it, and at this height an English traveller discovered the remains of a temple of singular construction, that seems to have been unknown to Pausanias. It was built of great pieces of freestone, on which were laid large flat stones with the entrance narrowed towards the top, like those of the Egyptian temples. The north of the island is less known than the south, being inhabited by a barbarous race, on whom the Turks themselves have not been able to impose their yoke.

Thessaly is separated by natural limits from the rest of Greece; the sea washes its eastern coast, Olympus closes it in on the north, the chain of Pindus towards the west, mount ta on the south, and it is still further enclosed by mounts Pelion and Ossa; all of them poetic boundaries. Different ramifications of these mountains run out towards the interior, covered with pastures and separating the charming valleys through which winds the Peneus, descending from mount Pindus and receiving a number of tributary streams, some of which fall in cascades; after passing the delightful valley of Tempe, this river finds its outlet at the gulf of Therma. sun darts its rays on this enclosed basin, and the heat would be intolerable were it not for the refreshing breezes from the mountain chains, which give birth to numerous springs of cooling

The

water, and shady forests. In picturesque views and enchanting landscapes,' says Dodwell, it surpasses Italy, and indeed every country in the world; lively and clear colors heighten the effect of the soft undulations of the distant mountains; no vapor interposes, as in Italy, between the landscape and the eye of the spectator; and the limits of the hills, which bound the horizon, are fine and distinct, without that sharpness which offends the painter.' The plains are covered with fine corn fields, plantations of olives, mulberry and walnut trees, surrounded with vines, fruit trees, cotton, tobacco, or odoriforous flowers; while cypresses and majestic plane trees decorate the scene. The declivities of the mountains furnish excellent wood for building, feed a multitude of game, and afford pasture to the Walachian flocks, which regularly descend every autumn, after the fall of snow on the Pindus, to enjoy during the winter the refreshing grass and mild climate of the interior. The Walach shepherds go about the middle of November, with their families and flocks, to fold in the great valley of the Peneus, and wait the return of the fine season. These nomades, habituated to live in the open air, and clothed in plaids, made of goats' hair, fix their tents, of the same material, under the green oaks, and as much as possible near the rivulets and woods. There is nothing poetic in their manner of living; they are half savages, with a fierce and martial air: wandering over mountains infested with wolves, and exposed to the depredations of Albanian robbers, they arm themselves to defend their flocks, and we need only to see them muffled up in their capes, and almost immovably fixed to one spot, casting ferocious looks over their sheep, goats, cattle, and horses, while their wives are groaning under the fatiguing labors to which they are doomed, to perceive at once that it is not among them we must expect to find the beau-ideal of rural life. When the rivers of Lower Thessaly overflow their banks, they raise their black tents, to go and seek pasture elsewhere. Sometimes they have the misfortune to lose a great part of their flocks by famine or different disorders. They sell their butter and cheese and wool, pay the capitation tax to the Turks, and, when the snow begins to disappear on mount Pindus, leave the plains, to gain their old abode on the heights. Although of a rough character, approaching to barbarism, this pastoral race has some estimable qualities: they are commended for frankness, which appears to advantage in contrast with the general dissimulation of the Greeks. If we seek in Thessaly for the descendants of the centaurs, who passed for supernatural beings by subduing the horse, and those unconquerable tribes who amused themselves by fighting with bulls, we shall still find men who justify this illustrious origin, by the efforts they are making to vindicate the liberty of their ancestors. The names of Boukavalas and Blackavas are celebrated in Thessaly; and if it should be objected, that our admiration of their acts of patriotism must be diminished by the recollection, that they are but bandit-chiefs, issuing from a mountain tribe who have well merited the name of Clephta-Choria, or the village of robbers, it may be asked in reply,

Were not many boasted heroes of antiquity of the very same description?

On the southern side the entrance of Thessaly is most imposing; the defile of Thermopyla, which crosses the chain of mount Eta; is the only grand route leading to it from Phocis: there are two mountain tracts which are not practicable, especially for armies. The passage of Thermopyla has always been important for the defence of Greece, and it has been secured by walls and ramparts against the Gauls, the Romans, the Huns, and the Turks. In the age of patriotism, a chosen band of citizens has formed its chief defence against an invading army. On the right hand of the road is a hill on which a guard-house has been built in modern times, where, it is said, that Leonidas and his brave Spartans were interred. Every place on this sacred spot is interesting; but unfortunately the marshes, which have been formed on the coast, have buried, it is feared, many precious remains of antiquity under their rushes. The defile, however, still remains, and the warm springs which gave it its name; while of the six rivers described by the ancients only three are to be found: the Boagrius, the Asopus, and the Sperchius. Over the last, through the narrowest part of the defile, is the way to the springs, the principal of which, of a sulphureous quality, but very clear, issues, bubbling out of the foot of a rock, and its passage covers the reeds with a calcareous crust. Near their source these waters form rivulets which flow into the sea. The ancients had baths here, and an altar in the neighbourhood to Hercules. Here are to be seen the remains of the fortifications which formerly defended the pass; and, near the source of the Asopus, the situation of the ancient Heraclea is still visible. The precipitous rocks of the Eta, crowned with planes, oaks, pines, and other trees and shrubs, and furrowed by the torrents which descend from it, render this scene very picturesque.

Issuing from the defile, and passing through fields of rice, tobacco, and cotton, we reach in a few hours the town of Zeitoun, the ancient Samia, which is still overlooked by some ruins of the Acropolis. The exhalations from the marshes and rice grounds render the climate of this place unwholesome, which is evident from the pallid complexion of the inhabitants: they are about 3000 in number, mostly Greeks. Yet Zeitoun occupies a high situation, commanding a beautiful prospect; on the one hand of the sea and the island of Euboea, and on the other of the passage of Thermopyla, to the foot of the Œta. Zeitoun has a bishopric; its port is at the village of Stilidi, perhaps on the site of the ancient Phaleria; it has also another port, the village of Agia-Marina. There are two ways from this town to the capital of Thessaly; one by Pharsalia, the other by the coast of the Egean Sea. The village of Eschinos, on the borders of the sea, is near the site of an ancient city, the ruins and acropolis of which are still visible. On a neighbouring height are seen some enormous olives that cover, with their thick foliage, the remains of foundations composed of massy stones, of a temple and of a church, which had replaced it;

time having here put an end to the worship both of Pagans and Christians. Passing from thence we enter a charming country, watered by numerous streams, and planted with mulberry, orange, and fig-trees. This was Phtiotis, the kingdom of Achilles. It is not quite certain where Larissa-Cremaste, the capital of this state, was situated; perhaps its ruins may be found at the foot of a hill between Gradityha and Machala.

On turrting the gulf of Pagasa, Pelion rises to view, covered with groves and gardens: this picturesque amphitheatre extends across the country of Magnesia, terminated by mount Tisea, at the end of a large peninsula. Vines, olives, mulberry, and every kind of fruit trees, adorn the foot of Pelion, fine planes and chestnut trees cover its declivities, and the villages appear embosomed in forests; orange, citron, and fig trees fill the gardens of the peasants, who live by the manufacture of silk and oil, by their flocks of sheep and goats, by the game, and the fish on their coasts. The fruits are neither so good, nor so abundant, on the east as on the west of the mountain, arising probably from the greater humidity of the soil, occasioned by the numerous springs which run down it. The Greek peasants in Magnesia manufacture cotton yarn, and make bonnets, hoods, and other garments. The town of Makrinitza, at the commencement of the peninsula, is built of stone, and inhabited by about 1000 Greeks, most of them laborious artizans, who, if they could have communicated their energy to all their countrymen, would long since have rescued Greece from the yoke of the Turks. In the neighbourhood stands the well-built village of Volos, or Golos, inhabited by Turks and Greeks, who are very different in their manners; the houses are neat and lofty; the streets are adorned with poplars, walnut-treets, cypresses, and planes, on which are a multitude of birds, making the air resound with their melodious strains; and, in fine, those charming pavilions, where the Mussulmans give themselves up to the dolce farniente. The Greeks, though they have no pavilions, are not less fond of pleasure, but they are the pleasures of the table. At the distance of a league from Volos is a dismantled fort occupied by the Turks; and there are many pretty villages scattered over the country, in delightful situations, among which are Drakia, Portaria, Saint Laurent, Saint Georges, and Lechonia. Some ruins are discoverable not far from this place, by some said to be those of Demetrias, and by others those of Iolkos; there are still to be seen a cistern, the old foundations, and the acropolis. Here stands the village of Goritza, where, on festivals, the mass is still celebrated in the open air, after the eastern manner, near a spring which was probably held sacred by the ancient Thessalians.

Trickery, at the extremity of Magnesia, is inhabited only by sailors. On the eastern coast is the flourishing village of Zagora, with about 500 houses, so shaded with chestnut and walnut trees as to resemble a great wood. The wolves here so easily elude pursuit, that in winter they come and how in the midst of the village.

Many of the Zagorians emigrate, to go and work in other places, and return to enjoy the fruits of their industry. The principal islands, near the coast of Magnesia, are Skiathos and Scopelos; the first is fertile, but badly cultivated, abounding in vines, fig-trees, and wild olives; it produces also a multitude of goats, whose flesh is highly esteemed, and a great quantity of fish. Skiathos had two cities in ancient times, besides villages; now there is only one village and a hamlet, and the miserable cabins form a striking contrast with the richness of the scenery around, in which various trees and aromatic plants, border the rocks of white marble, which are seen in the uncultivated plains. In the church, a stone, bearing an ancient inscription, serves for the base of the communion table; the papas make their parishioners believe, that it has something mysterious about it, so that learned travellers have had great difficulty in obtaining a copy of the inscription. Scopelos is equally fruitful, but still less peopled; it furnishes excellent wines, oranges, citrons, olives, and figs, and some silk. Here the bishop of the two islands resides; there are also some monasteries, a dozen churches, and no Turks: it is independent.

In the way from Magnesia to the capital we find Velestin near the site of the ancient Phera; Pagasa was its port, on the gulf of that name. In the suburbs is still seen the fountain of Hyperia; it forms a little lake of limpid water, bordered with cypresses, poplars, planes, and olives, the verdure of which forms an agreeable contrast with the handsome houses, and the white minarets of the mosques around it. However celebrated it was in the verses of Homer, and other poets, it no longer preserves any of the ruins of its ancient monuments. Near Lake Bobeis, surrounded with its waving hills, are the picturesque ruins of an edifice, which appears to have been a temple; but the cities of Bobe and Laceria have disappeared. Armyro is now one of the principal cities in the country; it is inhabited by Turks: a few ruins prove that it was inhabited in very early times; but more considerable remains are found at Aias, where there are stones ten feet thick, which are probably of high antiquity. A broad and convenient road leads to Larissa, still the capital of Thessaly. There are few places which have preserved their pre-eminence during so long a series of ages; we must not, however, expect to find any remains of antiquity at Larissa: nothing is to be seen but dirty streets; masses of houses irregularly built, but sometimes well grouped and mixed with cypresses and gardens, watered by fountains; bazaars abounding with victuals, but with very little valuable merchandise; some mosques, surpassing in grandeur those of the other cities of Greece; and a fine modern bridge crossing the Peneus, in the direction of the valley of Tempe. There is, however, one remnant of ancient manners to be observed at Larissa; it is the use of those old cars mounted on round solid pieces of wood instead of wheels, which in the heroic times were used in the Troad. There are scarcely any Greeks in the town; they have but one church, but it is the archiepiscopal church, on which depend ten bishops compris

ing, with the archbishop of Larissa, the exarchate of Lower Thessaly, and of all Greece. The Turks have made this place the capital of a province containing 100 villages, mostly scattered over the ancient plains of Pelasgia; the city, according to Dr. Holland, has 4000 houses, and 20,000 inhabitants, among whom he was surprised to find many negroes.

On descending from Larissa, along the course of the Peneus, we cross some delightful plains, once animated with a numerous population, and still embellished by nature, and arrive at the foot of the mountain chains, through which the river winds its course to the Thermaic Gulf. These plains are sometimes excessively hot, and the inhabitants are much troubled with intermitting fevers. Travellers should visit the vale of Tempe in the spring, if they wish to see it without danger in all its freshness and beauty of vegetation. Here Olympus and Ossa, which seem to bound the course of the river on the north, present a curtain of verdure along the horizon; the forests of Olympus are crowned with summits covered with snow, that justify the epithet of snowy given to this mountain by Hesiod; while the less elevated Ossa has less wood, and is not so much watered by springs. A little village, called Baba, stands below the confluence of the Peneus and the Titaresus, in a circular plain near the entrance of the valley. Domes, minarets, and houses, are grouped together in a most picturesque manner, with vast plane trees, cypresses, and pyramidal pines. Some think that this village stands on the site of the ancient Elatea; in going to it you coast along a pretty large lake, or more properly a marsh, called Nezero, anciently Nessan. On entering the valley of Tempe, you become sensible that the Greek and Latin poets have a little exaggerated its beauties; there are many superior scenes in Europe and other parts of the world. This defile, however, through which the streams of Thessaly flow into the sea, and which is enclosed by Ossa and Olympus, unites natural beauties of a kind rather striking than agreeable ;-a river, the waters of which, always agitated, are shaded by planes, on the branches of which the wild vine hangs its leafy festoons; rocks, more or less elevated and steep, raising themselves above the banks of the Peneus, in some places at the distance of not more that 200 or 300 feet; whilst an ancient paved road, sometimes cut in the rock, sometimes raised in terraces, and sometimes shut in by the narrow valley, passes along the river, often at a considerable height: such is Tempe. In the middle of the valley there is a cold spring at the foot of a rock, where travellers generally halt, and near it a dismantled tower. A Latin inscription on a rock states, that Cassius Longinus fortified this passage, but since the Persian invasion the Greeks have abandoned this part of their territory. In the spring of the year some boats navigate the Peneus, with hives, in order to collect the honey on the coasts, and on the sides of the mountains, while others drive their cars also, laden with hives, into the meadows of Pharsalia for the same purpose, which they after wards leave, to follow the spring in the higher regions of the mountains.

On issuing from the valley of Tempe, we perceive the mouth of the Peneus and the boundaries of Macedonia. Here is a flourishing city of Magnesia, called Ampelachie; the inhabitants of which distinguish themselves by the spinning and dyeing of cotton; and it is thought that the waters of the country contribute to the brilliancy of the colors, which they know how to apply to this sort of thread: those of them who have travelled in the west for the purposes of trade wear the European costume. There is a Greek school here, founded by the bishop of Salonica, Platomenos Dionysius. The whole population amounts to between 5000 and 6000 souls. The nearest sea-port for the exportation of cotton is Karitza, about six miles distant. Another industrious place, of the same country, is the little town of Rapsiani, which has a Greek school by the same founder, and also exports the same articles. Returning to the south of Larissa, we arrived at the ancient Pharsalia through some narrow passages of the mountains. Not far from it was situated, on the Eripeus, the city of Melitea, which is reduced to a very small population, as are many others, which once peopled Thessaly. Ascending towards the source of the Peneus, we pass by Triccala, anciently called Tricca, in the middle of the last century the most considerable city of the province; but the cruelty of the Turks, and the pestilential exhalations from the rivers in the neighbourhood, have destroyed its splendor: it occupies, however, a charming situation in a valley of the Peneus; its Greek churches, its mosques, its old citadel, and houses, intermingled with groves of trees, form with the verdant scenery around a most delightful picture. The market is held under the shade of vines, but the houses are surrounded with filth: it contains about 7000 inhabitants.

On the side of Mount Pindus, near the village of Kastraki, there are some ruins which are supposed to be those of the ancient Gomphi; and in this mountainous region are to be found the Meteores of Stagous, little monasteries, built on the edges and platforms of precipitous rocks, standing like pyramids in a wild desert. Here, free from the attacks of robbers, and more useless to society than their brethren in the plains, live a number of monks; who will, however, afford the rites of hospitality to any traveller who shall have the courage to suffer himself to be drawn up by a rope and pulley. It is indeed no joke to find one's self suspended at the height of 150 feet, by a simple cord, between heaven and earth, at the discretion of these solitary beings, by whom every stranger might justly be suspected. There is nothing particular in these monasteries beside their elevated situation; the monks seem to have as little occasion to think as the birds who nest in their rocks; they have scarcely any books, and trouble themselves little with the history of their aerial dwellings. Under the reign of Ali Pasha, they were compelled to become the gaolers of his state prisoners. Formerly there were twenty of these monasteries, now there are only seven, the most considerable of which are those of Meteoron and Varlaam. They consist of hermitages, chapels, and altars, built on the platforms and in the holes and crevices