bad, to Vlachi a village of Albanians, where he observed some ancient walls, and caves underground. On a summit was a little tower, from which Thebes might be seen. This was on a ridge of Citharon, which runs eastward toward Oropus. He went on two hours and a half in a plain, and saw several ponds with plenty of wild ducks and teal, and many low oaks, of the species which produces the large acorns. He then ascended Parnes, a great and high mountain almost covered with pine-trees, now called Casha, from a village on the side in the way down toward Attica. He passed the night in a ruined khan by a very curious fountain, resorted to by wolves, and bears, and wild boars, which abound. Phyle was just by this place. From the eminence he looked down, as he relates, with unspeakable pleasure and content on the celebrated Athens, and the noble plains so famous in ancient story. A narrow dangerous track led by Casha to the foot of the mountain; and a level road from thence to Athens; passing by a wood of olive-trees, with several pleasant villages in it, watered by a river. Every shepherd they met here bade them welcome, and wished them a good journey.

k See Strabo, p. 406.

CHAP. XXXIX.

EXCURSIONS BY SEA-THE STRAITS OF SALAMIS-MANNER OF FISHING WITH A LIGHT-MODE OF LIVING-ARRIVE AT ELEUSIS.

I VISITED the principal places of the Saronic gulf in two excursions by sea from Athens. One was in a caicque, or wherry, with Lombardi and a couple of fishermen. We were off Ægina on the twenty-ninth of March, O. S. and observed about sunset a staff of light near the horizon, in the south-west, which appeared again the next evening. We returned sooner than was intended, finding our little boat too much encumbered with provisions and necessaries to proceed with comfort or safety. Another wherry with two men was hired, to carry luggage and an Albanian servant; and in the evening, April the seventh, we left Athens on horseback, passing by some cotton-grounds to the seashore.

The creek, in which our wherries waited, is to the west of the Piræus, and was anciently named port Phoron, or Thieves' port. By the coast is a low naked range of mountains, once called, with a town, Corydallus. The partridges between it and the city were observed to have a different note from those beyond1. Farther on was Ægaleos, a woody mountain, and a ferry over to the island of Salamis, by which stood anciently an Heracleum, or temple of Hercules. Amphiale was a root running out into the sea, with a quarry above it. Two rocky islets near the cape were named Pharmacusæ, and on the

1 Toward the city κακκαβίζουσιν. Beyond the mountain τιττυβίζουσιν.

greater m was shewn the burying-place of Circe, perhaps a barrow. After Amphiale was the town named Thria, the Thriasian coast and plain, and Eleusis; beyond which are the two mountains Kerata, or the Horns, which divided Attica from Megaris. The island Salamis, now called Coluri, is opposite; and a long, narrow, rocky point, called anciently Cynosura, or the Dog's Tail, extends toward port Phoron. The channel in several places is narrow and intricate. It is land-locked by Amphiale and the opposite cape. The width at the ferry was only two stadia, or a quarter of a mile.

After supping on a turkey, which our men roasted on the shore, we lay down to sleep among the bare rocks, waiting until the moon was set. We embarked with a rougher sea than was pleasing, and rowed out in the dark toward the island, intending to fish. We joined our two seines, and the boats parted, moving each a different way, a man letting the net gently down into the water. We met again in the centre, when some embers, which had been hidden, were blown up and exposed on an iron grate. The flame was fed with cedar dipped in oil; which, blazing in the wind, brightened over the deep; the red coals hissing as they fell and were extinguished. At the same time we began to clatter with wooden hammers on the sides and seats of the wherries, to dash with a pole, and to throw stones; disturbing and driving the fish, and darting a trident, or spear, if any appeared at the top, dazzled by the light; sprinkling oil to render the surface tranquil

m

greater] On the summit is a small piece of square building about six or seven feet high. R.

and the water pellucid". The men drew up the net with caution, fearing the fins of some poisonous fish, particularly the scorpion, which is killed with a blow on the head, while entangled, when the danger ceases. The boats meeting again, they untie the seines, and throwing the fiery brands into the sea, proceed in the dark to some other place. This is the common method of fishing in these seas. It is of ancient origin, and not unnoticed by the Greek poets". Many fires are seen on the water nightly about the mouth of the gulf of Smyrna.

We continued tossing and toiling on the waves until the morning dawned, when we had taken a considerable quantity of mullet P, with some cuttlefish, and a sea-spider or two. We then landed, and made a fire with pieces of dry wood, and brands collected along the shore. Some red mullets were dressed on the coals for breakfast, and the nets spread in the sun to dry. When the moon was down we resumed our watery occupation. We continued near a week in the straits. The men in the daytime were employed in salting fish, or in rowing along the coast, and looking for the echinus, or sea-urchin, cockles, oysters, and the like; sprinkling oil on the surface, when necessary; and taking them up with iron instruments fastened in long poles. The sea-polypus

"The ancients knew this property of oil. Pliny tells us, "Mare omne oleo tranquillari; et ob id urinantes ore spargere, quoniam mitiget naturam asperam lucemque deportet." v. 2. 122. See also Plutarch.

66

p.

• See Oppian. Cyneg. 1. 4. and a beautiful simile in Q. Smyrnæus, 1. 7. v. 568.

P mullet] grey mullet. R.

lurks at the bottom of the water. We found the pinna marina with the pointed ends of the two shells fixed in the mud, and the fan, or broad part, open. The fish is like a muscle, and occupies only the lower portion; but each has guards, a kind of shrimp, generally two or three in number, which live in the vacant space, and give it notice to shut up on the approach of danger. We slept on shore, often in scanty shade; and rambled on the mountains, which are covered with low bushes of lentiscus or mastic. We killed some partridges, and I was assured, that in this region they are heard to sing, and sometimes are seen perching. It was amusing to view the waves raging, and to listen to the roar about the headlands and promontories; while in the lee it was stark calm. The experienced mariner judges of the storm unfelt and unseen, and is directed by the noise to launch forth or to tarry in the portlet.

We landed by the ferry, where some passengers waited the return of the boat; but I found no vestiges of a temple. We visited a monastery opposite to it in the island. This is a recent structure, pleasantly situated, not far from the sea. We replenished our skins and vessels there with wine, and dined under a tree. We touched also on the Pharmacusæ, now called Megala Kira, and Micra Kira. A ruinous church on one of them afforded us shelter from the sun. We coasted the level Thriasian plain, then green with corn, and entered the port of Eleusis. We left our wherries, and passed through corn to

4 shrimp] It has claws like a lobster, and esteemed a delicacy by the Greeks. R.