CHAP. Their appearance was singular enough; for I. they came towards us, riding astride, with

their veils on; each horse being richly caparisoned, and conducted by a pedestrian attendant. These ladies were also followed by their female slaves on horseback. As soon as they perceived us, they caused their horses to be led out of the road, and to be placed so that their backs might be towards us as we passed; lest they should be profaned by our beholding the only part of their faces visible through their thick veils, namely, their eyes. We rode bareheaded by them; a mark of our respect, however, which they were not likely to understand, and perhaps misconstrued into impertinent assurance.

The dogs in this country, as in many parts of Macedonia, wear body-clothes; and these animals afforded us the last remaining traces of the Macedonian costume. After entering Thrace, which is generally generally inhabited by Turks, we saw no more Arnauts or Albanians. When the Arnauts perform journeys on horseback, instead of allowing their women to ride

asperginibus crebris, velut quædam vellera mollientes, ex lanugine, et liquore mixtam subtilitatem tenerrimam pectunt, nentesque subtegmine conficiunt sericum, ad usus antehac nobilium, nunc etiam infimorum sine ullâ discretione proficiens."

I.

also, they make them walk before in the mud. CHAP. After this, we descended to Pravista, distant six hours and a half from Orphano.

ever

Nothing ever exceeded, in dirt and wretchedness, the condition of this town; equalled the horrid filth of the khan here. The streets were knee deep in every species of ordure. It was therefore by no means desirable to move from the gate of the khan, except with a view to escape from the place; and this we were anxious to do, as quickly as horses could be procured. During the interval, the author made a sketch of the khan, as it was literally falling to pieces'. The view of it may give a tolerably correct picture of what is usually considered as an inn in TURKEY. A Tahtar courier had seated himself at the entrance, to take his caïf; not choosing to encounter the vermin with which the apartments were swarming. His horse, ready to start, awaited his departure, in the middle of the court. In a gallery, surrounding the area, a figure is placed to represent our Tchohodar; who had been to his devotions, in one of the little cells, or rooms, that open into this court. The other The other figures are

(1) See the Plate facing p. 408, Vol. IV. of the Quarto Edition of these Travels. Broxbourn, 1816.

Pravista.

CHAP. those of travellers halting at the khan.

I.

This

place is distant six hours and a half from. Orphano; our route, by the compass, having been E. N. E. and N. E. It contains eight hundred houses. The inhabitants are a mixed population of Turks and Greeks; but consist principally of the latter. It has been before observed, that whenever a occurs in the pronunciation of the names of places, the letter, if written, would be ẞ: therefore Pravista would become ПIgaBiora; and this may be nothing more than a Drabiscus. corruption of the antient Drabiscus of Strabe', and Drabescus of Thucydides, with whose situation it remarkably corresponds. The modern name is written Praveste by Paul Lucas, and Pravasta by Mr. Walpole*.

After leaving Pravista, we descended, towards sun-set, into the Plain of Séres, and were about two hours in crossing this part of it from

(1) Εἰσὶν δὲ περὶ τὴν Στρυμονικὸν κόλπον πόλεις καὶ ἕτεραι· οἷον Μύρκινος, Agyíλos, Agaßioxos, Aάrov. Excerpta ex Lib. VII. fine Strabon. Geog. p. 481. ed. Oxon.

(2) Προελθόντες δὲ τῆς Θρᾴκης ἐς μεσόγειαν, διεφθάρησαν ἐν Δραβήσκῳ τῇ 'Howviny, x. T. λ. Thucydid. Hist. lib. i. c. 100. p. 56. ed. Hudsoni, Oxon. 1696. Etiam, lib. iv. c. 102. p. 272.-Et Stephan. de Urbib. p. 244. (in voc. Agaßnonos.) Amst. 1678.

(3) Voyage dans la Turquie, &c. tom. I. p. 61. Amst. 1744.

(4) See the Extract from his MS. Journal in the beginning of this Chapter.

CHAP.

I.

the south-west towards the north-east. Upon our left, but rather behind our route towards the west, we saw a very high mountain covered with snow, called Nevroscope; and directly to the left of us, bearing north-west, another mountain, called Drama. In passing DRAMA, to our sub- Drama. sequent mortification, we also passed the ruins of PHILIPPI; without being aware, at the time, Philippi. of the loss we had sustained: although had we attempted to deviate from the main route, it might have been impracticable; such was the rebellious and distracted state of the country at the time of our journey, when almost every place was infested either by rapacious insurgents or by banditti. DRAMA is mentioned, not as a mountain, but as the name of a town, in the very curious History of Constantinople, written at the end of the twelfth and beginning of the thirteenth century, by Geoffroy de VilleHardouin, who places it in the VALLEY OF PHILIPPI'; SO called from the CITY of that name,

(5) The Reader may be pleased by a specimen of the original text; to which we shall subjoin the modern version, as published by Du Fresne, at Puris, in 1657.

"En icel termine li Marchis Bonifaces de Montserrat remût de Salenique, si s'en alla à la Serre que Johannis li avoit abatue, si la referma; et ferma après une autre qui a nom Dramine el val de Phelippe.

"Vers

I.

CHAP. which, according to the Itinerarium Hierosolymitanum, was only ten miles from (Cavallo) NEAPOLIS'. Belon saw its ruins in the sixteenth century, and spent two days in their examination. He found there the remains of a magnificent Amphitheatre; and a number of Soroi, of the marble of the place, of such magnitude, that nothing to compare with them existed any where else. He mentions, moreover, the colossal remains of a Temple of Claudius, besides inscriptions, and numberless (infinies) statues; and enormous marble columns, both of the Doric and Ionic order, beautifully sculptured, and in a

"Vers ce mesme temps le Marquis de Montserrat partit de Thessalonique, et vint à Serres que le Bulgare luy avoit ruinée, laquelle il referma de nouveau: ensemble vne autre place appellée Drame, en la vallée de Philippi." Geoffroy de Ville-Hardouin, de la Conqueste de Constantinople, c. 238. p. 189. Paris, 1657. Du Fresne, in his Notes upon this passage, says, that the true name for Dramine is DRAMA (p. 351). He refers to Nicephorus Gregor. lib. vii. Cantacuzene, lib. i. c. 52. &c. &c.

(1) It was situate upon the side of a hill: and from the number of its neighbouring fountains, it had originally the name of Kenvides. Appian lib. iv. Bell. Civ. p. 1040. Hierosol. Itinerar. ap. Vet. Rom. Itin. p. 603. ed. Wessel.

(2) "Il n'y å lieu ou l'on puisse voir de plus grands sépulchres de pierres de marbre par les champes, qu'a Philippi, qui ont esté prinses en la montagne, qui est enfermée es murailles dedens le circuitde la villee: car elles sont massives de pur marbre blanc. L'on voit encor maintenant plusieurs escrits restez des gestes des Romains, entaillés en lettres Latines sur le marbre en plusieurs endroicts de la montagne." Premier Livre

des Singularitez observées par Belon, c. 56. f. 57. Paris, 1555.