case in most that I have seen, but the marble is highly wrought and has been polished, and each seat has an overhanging cornice, often supported by lions' paws. The cornices of wreaths, masks, and other designs are records of a luxurious city. There are also ruins of several other extensive buildings with columns, but their positions are not so good, and they may probably be of the date of the later town. The most striking feature in the place is the perfect honeycomb formed in the sides of the acropolis by excavated tombs, which are cut out of the rock with architectural ornaments, in the form of temples, etc., some showing considerable taste.

Neither at Patara nor here have I seen the least trace of inscriptions similar to those at Xanthus; but there are several in the Greek language, which may assist in deciding the date of the place.

In this part of the country I have seen, to my surprise, many women with uncovered faces; they are of a peculiar and fine-looking race, the Chingunees, and appear to have none of the shyness so general among the Turkish women. Today some of the girls of this tribe sat down by us and sang very prettily; these singing-girls in appearance and occupation resemble the gipsies of Europe; their music has something of the character of the Tyrolean mountain airs, but softened by the Eastern language, and would be very pretty, were it not for a nasal twang, which perhaps may belong only to the rural musicians. The men are itinerant tinkers: among the Greeks, both here and in Greece, they are employed as blacksmiths, a trade which is avoided by the Greeks from religious scruples. This is one of the many superstitions traditional in the Greek church, and which are perpetuated by the priests, themselves the least informed among the people. I was told by one of them, as a reason for this observance, that a blacksmith made the nails used at the crucifixion, and that, having made more than were

required, he and his craft were cursed. He also informed me that the motive for hanging up in their churches the eggs of the ostrich, which with other large eggs are constantly to be seen suspended from the roof by a long string, was, that this egg is an emblem of faith, and he was surprised that I was not aware that the ostrich, after laying its egg, retires to a distance and looks at it, until by the heat of its eye the egg is hatched; this undoubted fact so strongly shows the faith of the bird, that its egg is considered a fit emblem of their religion*.

The mode of burial among the Greeks also furnishes another instance of their credulity. The outward marks of respect are scarcely visible in their burial-grounds, little more being left to mark the place of interment than a row of stones, indicating the oblong form of the grave; but a pipe or chimney, generally formed of wood or earthenware, rises! a few inches above the ground, and communicates with the corpse beneath; and down this tube libations are poured by the friends of the deceased to the attendant spirit of the dead. The same practice prevailed among the ancient Greeks, and is to be traced in many of their tombs. The custom of hiring women to mourn with cries and howlings is also retained by the modern Greeks at their funerals.

April 22nd.—We were detained until half-past two o'clock today waiting for horses, which were to have been ready at six o'clock in the morning; they, like the people, are wild. and live a happy and independeut life. The chase after the horses occupied the whole day, about fifty being pursued over the open plain until four were taken; three were mares entrapped by catching the foals: they were led captive by

* Mr. Yates observes, that in an ancient inventory of the relies belonging to Durham Cathedral, and in other documents of the same kind, repeated mention is made of Griffins' Eggs, and adds, "May not these have been ostrich eggs, valued during the middle ages on the principle here explained."

tying unfolded turbans round their necks, for none of the peasants possessed a halter.

The breeding of horses seems to be carried on to a great extent here, there being herds of many hundreds in the valley. The only kind of horse in this country is that of which such spirited representations are to be seen in the ancient marbles: there is much of the Arabian about the head; the chest is large in proportion to the fine bone of the legs, and the ears are small, as in the antique. I have not seen the hogged mane, which was so common in the early ages. Shoes are not used, and I doubt whether the horses of the ancient Greeks were shod at all; no trace of shoes is to be found on any antique statue. The ox of this district, also, is precisely the same as that in ancient statues, and there is no other breed in the country: the cow is by no means common, the milk of the sheep, goats, and buffalos being that generally used*.

We started from Doover with four horses, whose feet had never worn a shoe, nor their mouths felt the bit, and which therefore required much tutoring. The foals trotted by our side the whole distance to Mácry, about twenty-two miles. The pace of the horses taught by the Turks is a singular kind of run, between an amble and a canter; it is at the rate of six miles an hour, and so easy that you cannot rise in the stirrup. Being unaccustomed to this motion, I took the trouble to teach my horse the more natural pace of trotting, which I preferred for long travelling. As we gradually wound through the range of the Cragus, which bounds. Mácry on the south, the country assumed the forest character, and the view as we descended to the bay was very rich. We did not reach Mácry till ten o'clock at night; and though the wind was cold, at intervals of perhaps five or ten

* The ancients also used the milk of sheep and goats only; the use of cows and oxen was chiefly for the plough and other agricultural work.

minutes a stream of hot air blew past us, which in the dark I attributed to lime-kilns burning near the wayside, though there was no smell of the fuel; but I hear that there are none in the neighbourhood, and that this wind is peculiar to the place.

April 23rd. Today, until eleven o'clock, there was a moderate wind from the sea, which lies to the westward, but since that time gusts have come down from the mountains towards the east, so violent that branches have been blown off the trees, and the water of the shallow bay has been raised in waves and spray in a contrary direction to the general current of the wind. The mountains to the north are obscured at times by clouds of mist, but no rain falls; and I believe that this collection of vapour may probably be the effect of the contrary eddies and local stagnation of the air occasioned by the peculiar formation of the hills, the currents of cold air rushing down from the snowy mountains replacing the heated air of the valley. I must mention, as perhaps connected with this peculiarity, that the village of Kiacooe, six miles south, where the Governor of this district lives, and whence post-horses are usually obtained, is suffering so much from the plague that it is now placed under quarantine, and consequently I had to hire horses elsewhere, and at a high rate. The people say that this weather is considered very unhealthy. No such place as Meis is known here, although appearing an important town in the maps, and mentioned in the "Modern Traveller" as the port of Mácry.

The town, or rather the little port or scala, is inhabited principally by Greeks, and consists of about fifty houses or magazines, where much trade is carried on in acorns, gallnuts, and firewood. This is the site of the ancient Telmessus, of which there are but few remains. The theatre, of extremely plain architecture, is very large, and in tolerable preservation, with the exception of the proscenium. A number of caves, partly built and partly cut in the rock,

extend along the coast, and appear to have been dungeons or guard-rooms for a fortified town; many foundations and walls remain, but it is difficult to trace the plans of the buildings.

The chief objects of interest are the tombs, which are of several kinds and dates*, some appearing from the style to be of as late a period as the Romans; those standing on the hills and near the town have been much shaken by the earthquakes so frequently felt here. The most beautiful specimens are those cut out of the live rock which has been excavated, leaving what in appearance are finely built temples. A singular consequence of this mode of building is seen in a column broken at the base, but remaining suspended by the capital. The tombs are in most cases approached by steps, and the columns of the portico stand out perhaps six feet from the entrance to the cella; the imitation of a door is carved in panels, with ornaments and nails finely finished. The entrance has originally been effected by sliding sideways a panel of the false door; but this tedious process has not suited the despoilers of these tombs, who have entered by breaking open one of the panels. The interiors vary but little; they are roughly worked, and are about nine feet by twelve, and six feet in height; on the three sides are the seats, or more probably benches, upon which the coffin or urns have been placed, three feet six inches in height. Some tombs are larger, affording accommodation for the mourners within them. The outward architecture varies so much, that I can do no more than refer to the sketches given in a subsequent part of this volume, which will assist in making my memoranda intelligible.

* The Soros or Sarcophagus tombs at Telmessus, which are considered more modern than those excavated in the rock, Professor Porson decides, from an inscription in Dr. Clark's Travels, to be of a date "evidently older than the 100th Olympiad," making the date probably before 377 B.C.