the edges. The principal ruin seems to have been the substruction, or basement, of the temple of Venus, and on three sides is of the masonry termed incertum. P It stands on an eminence, overlooking the cavity of the stadium, and has on it some remnants of a later structure. Theodore, the general who preserved Greece in the time of Theodosius the First, was a great benefactor to this place. Besides saving the city by the wisdom of his counsels, he bequeathed a large 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 » The principal ruin seems to have been the substruction, or basement, of the temple of Venus, and on three sides is of the masonry termed incertum.] The principal ruin is a square tower of rustic masonry. R. 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. τοὺ δαμαλά. μὴ τε νού. μητεμηαλά κούνα. ταραπόπουλο. A bishop without brain or sense, CHAP. LI. METHANAAN ANCIENT THE GULF OF EPIDAURIA-OF 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 ¶. a the peninsula of Methana, on the side toward Attica.] the 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.s 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 imperfect 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, enclosing 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, or the southwest 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 northern coast of the peninsula of Methana, which forms the south side of the gulf of Epidaurus. R. г on a point] Revett adds, " and were disturbed in the night by some wild boars, which upon our being alarmed retreated." "We passed-the mouth.] We passed to the opposite shore of the gulf of Epidaurus. R. 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 súlphureous 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 one no rain ever fell. Our author knew not whether this were true; but relates, that he had seen men by sacrifices and incantations turn away hail. An |