to carry us forward. Before daylight I heard a military band passing under my window, playing very tolerably a French air. It was the first day of the Kooban Byran, one of the great feasts. The troops were going to mosque. On their return I was much amused by seeing such a burlesque upon soldiers as I should have condemned at a theatre as over-acted; the men were evidently quite out of their element in breeches and coats, which would have fitted persons twice their size, for they are all boys. Many of them were blacks: they had no collars, stocks, or shirts; their ears, and almost their eyes, were enveloped in red caps, and they were walking and talking in the most irregular manner. My appearance caused great disorder in their ranks, as they all turned round to look at an European; and as some were holding their muskets horizontally over their shoulders, some carrying them perpendicularly, a sad confusion was the consequence. The officers held their swords in one hand before them, the other being generally in the breeches pocket. I do not know whether the novelty of having such an appendage to the costume, or the cold morning, was the reason of this unmilitary posture, nor am I sure whether the troops were intended to be in lines; but as the band was playing and the officers were at stated distances, it is probable they Their guns were very clean and in good order; they were of French manufacture; the band did credit to their teachers, who were of the same nation.

were.

The mosques were no sooner emptied, than the forts on either side began their thundering, and I had an opportunity of witnessing the extent of their power. They all fired immense balls of stone, generally formed of rounded sections or pieces of broken columns, two feet in diameter. I went to the top of the house to witness the firing, which was very interesting. The guns were a little diverted from the direct line across, lest each should injure the opposite fort; and the shot marked very curiously the course they

took, dipping into the sea six or seven times, playing duckand-drake, and driving up the water as if spouted from a whale; all this was seen before the report was heard, showing remarkably the time occupied in conducting sound: seven or eight balls were dancing in the sea at the same time before any report was heard, producing an extremely singular effect.

The next scene of this religious ceremony (for the firing the guns was one) I observed in walking to Abydos; numbers of people were killing sheep, and others were carrying the bodies of their sacrifice to their homes, which on this day are the scene of hospitality. Every man who can afford it kills a sheep; others receive parts from their richer neighbour. I hoped to profit by the butchery, but not a joint appeared at the bazaar, so that I had again my delicate diet of chickens and broth, and at night arrow-root. The Greeks keep Lent strictly, and it is seldom that meat can be obtained during this season.

I never felt the wind more cutting or violent than in my walk of four miles north-east to Abydos. Of this place so little trace remains that I passed over it, and for a mile and a half beyond, and gave up the search as vain. On my return I noticed broken pottery and small stones of worked marble in the ploughed fields, at about the place where the town probably stood. Thus directed to the spot, and by seeing higher up on the opposite side of the straits the promontory of Sestos, I traced the foundation of the wall of a considerable building down to the coast. Were it not for the interest of a twofold poetic association, this spot would not have found its way into a journal or sketch-book; but, notwithstanding the strong wind, I hastily made a memorial of it.

Passing up a ravine, and ascending the hill overhanging this formerly castellated promontory, I found many remains, valueless except as leaving a trace of former inhabitants. I afterwards heard from the Consul, that a tomb was dis

covered a week before upon the height; but as the discoverer was a rich man, he dared not make it publicly known, as he would be taxed to any amount which the Aga chose to demand, on the excuse of his having obtained a hidden treasure. The man gave information of it to our Consul, who will be the discoverer when a prudent time has elapsed: the account he gave was that his plough struck a stone, and on raising it he found a tomb, containing a skeleton, which, when he went an hour after to examine it more minutely and privately, had crumbled to dust. His alarm at beholding this was doubled by superstitious fear.

The Greek Consul here, Signor Nicholas Vitalis, a man of great intelligence, has been fortunate in discovering at tomb, containing, I believe, the only works in terra cotta that have ever been found in this part of the country. He has discovered three specimens, and presented me with one,

of which I give a sketch*; they are of high antiquity, and of considerable interest from the peculiar costume. The material is the clay now used for making crockery, and recognised as such by the particles of mica which it contains: this deposit is brought down from the mountains of micaceous schist through which the rivers flow†.

I find it very difficult in travelling through this country to write a journal, or pursue any occupation requiring attention; for on arriving and taking possession of my room, the smoke is no sooner seen to rise from the chimney than the apartment is half filled with Turks, who, with the most friendly intention, bring their pipes and sit down, saying everything that is kind and hospitable, and watching every motion of my lips and hands. I can scarcely keep my countenance when I see them staring with astonishment at my use of a knife and fork. They watch every piece of food to my mouth; but the moment I look up, their curiosity yields. to their natural politeness, and they turn away. After dinner I begin to write, and this they again watch with laughable innocence of wonder: Demetrius is obliged to give them an early hint that I am going to bed, or they would sit all night. A few years ago they would not even look at or speak to an infidel or a Ghiaour; whereas I now receive the salutation of all the gazers assembled to see me mount my horse, with its European saddle. The bridle is generally put on wrong, with the curb-chain over the nose, and the neck-strap buckled in front of the head, and the putting this right excites much curiosity. The Italian Addio is known to many Turks as an expression of courtesy, and it serves on all occasions of arrival or departure, or to express obligation. The hills along the coast of the Dardanelles are a mass of

* This appears to be a veiled goddess, with a polus.

+ On my arrival in Greece I found that Signor Vitalis had presented the other two specimens to King Otho, for the Museum in Athens, together with some coins found also at Abydos.

shells and sea-side rubbish, bound together with lime, forming a stone sufficiently hard for building purposes; part is of such modern formation that pieces of brick were imbedded with the shells, which would probably prove, on examination, On to be all of the species at present found in these seas. the coast was much sponge, but not ripe for use, the fleshy coat of the animal still covering it. The small scallop-fish is eaten as the oyster is with us, and is much esteemed: the cockle is not exactly like ours, having a darker-coloured and obliquely formed shell, but the taste is the same: both are Here also are excellent little oysters, but smaller than any we have in England. The sepia is much eaten here, and also a brown shell-fish, in form similar to a large snail, and larger than a pigeon's egg.

eaten raw.