Col. William Leake, Travels in Northern Greece (v. 1-4)

§ 4.055 market of Paramythia, where it now fetches five piastres the kilo of thirty-two okes. Maize sells for fourteen piastres the fortoma of about 110 okes; wheat 25 piastres the fortoma, of which the average weight is 120 okes. A βοιδι, or ox for the plough, is worth 100 piastres: an αγελάδα, or cow, about half as much. The rocky height of Kastri, standing separate from the hills which surround the Acherusian plains, and protected by the Acheron, the Cocytus, and the Acherusia, seems as if intended by nature for the strong hold of this district. On the summit are the walls of an acropolis; those of the city descend the slopes on either side towards Goritza and Kanalaki, and others follow the foot of the hill opposite to Glyky. Both the magnitude and position of these ruins favour the opinion that they are those of Pandosia, a very ancient colony of Elis, which gave name to another Pandosia in the country of the Brettii. Alexander Molossus, king of Epirus, was warned by the oracle of Dodona to avoid Pandosia and the Acherusian water, and erroneously applied it to his own Pandosia instead of that of Italy where he received his fatal wound. As the Italian Pandosia was named after that of Epirus, and stood on the bank of a river bearing the same name as the Acheron of Epirus, it is probable that the Epirote Pandosia was also on the bank of the Acheron. Kastri is the only position on this river which preserves remains of Hellenic antiquity, or even possesses the usual characteristics of an ancient site. This evening fire-flies make their appearance at Glyky in considerable numbers, and are the first I have seen this spring.

§ 4.056 May 1.—A little beyond Glyky, to the left of the entrance of the Klisura leading to Suli, a large body of water issues from the foot of the rocks. Below the sources are the remains of an aqueduct which crossed the river, and of which there is a fragment on each bank. Upon the Glyky side part of an arch is still standing, ten feet thick, composed of small stones and mortar: there is a foundation also on the bank of the river, formed of handsome squared stones, probably that of a bridge, but neither this nor the arch appears to be more ancient than the neighbouring church of Glyky, which was dedicated to St. Donatus, and was the cathedral church of the bishopric of Glycys. Its destruction was completed during the wars of Suli, and the ruins were employed by Aly Pasha to construct an adjoining kula. There still remains, however, enough to show that the building was thirty-eight yards long, with walls seven feet and a half thick, supported by massive buttresses. There are several shafts of grey granite lying on the ground within the ruined walls, and others of

§ 4.057 bluish white marble, all about two feet in diameter; these formed the nave of the church: others smaller, of grey granite, supported the front of the Gynecaion. On the outside of the church lies the fragment of a shaft, two feet ten inches in diameter, which is of limestone, like the inner portal of the church. It is possible that these may have been taken from some older building when the church was built. They are at least the only remains here which have any appearance of Hellenic antiquity. The view of Suli from hence is very imposing. Three tiers of steep and almost precipitous rocks present themselves in front, and behind them in the middle, appearing through the gorge of the river, the hill of Trypa, crowned with the castle of Kiafa between two smaller buildings at either end of the ridge. Above all rises the mountain of Suli, apparently double the height of Trypa, the elevation of which above Glyky, seems to be about 1200 feet. Leaving the church of Glyky this morning at 7.30, we follow the foot of Mount Kurila, as the summit is called which extends from Glyky to the pass of Eiefthero-khori, beyond Paramythia. On its slope is the small village of Khoika, which we pass at 8.5, nearly opposite to Lypa, on the hills of Margariti. The latter heights have a singular appearance from their uniformity, presenting towards the plain a long succession of semi-circular precipices, convex towards the plain, and consisting of vertical strata of calcareous rock.

§ 4.058 A few small hamlets are situated in the retiring angles or intervals of these rocks. The plain, which is five or six miles across at Glyky, diminishes to three as we enter the valley leading to Paramythia, and at that town is not more than half as much in width. At 8.40 Gardhiki, a Turkish town of 200 houses, with a few Greek families, is two miles on our right, on the side of Mount Kurila, occupying a large space, and having a beautiful appearance with its numerous gardens, watered by never-failing sources which issue from the foot of the mountain, and send contributions to the river Vuvo. We pass along the banks of this river, over low downs resembling the plain of Prevyza in soil, as well as in being overgrown with fern. These downs may be called the natural boundaries of Paramythia and Fanari, though at present the former district extends nearly to Khoika. Leaving some other small hamlets on the side of either mountain, we arrive at 9.30 opposite Dhragomi, a large village two miles distant, on the last slope of Mount Kurila, which here rises in majestic precipices above it. like Gardhiki, it is chiefly inhabited by Mussulmans, and abounds in fountains and gardens. From hence, as far as the termination of the mountain at the pass of Elefthero-khori, the summit is clothed with a continued forest of fir. A guard of Suliotes from Glyky who accompany us on foot seem quite insensible to the heat of the morning, and without halting outwalk our horses and keep always in front, alleging that they have some apprehensions from the inhabitants of Karvuniari in the Margariti hills. Continuing

§ 4.059 our route along the middle of the valley, we arrive at 10.35 at a ruin of the annexed form, situated in the middle of the plain. It appears to have been a temple of the time of the Roman empire, which was afterwards converted into a church. It is known only by the name of το χάλασμα, or the ruin. [plan] Above it, towards the mountain, is Karioti, between which and another small village named Veliani the ruins of the acropolis of a Greek city are distinguishable from our road, surrounding a table summit at the foot of the cliffs of Mount Kurila. From the Khalasma it takes us forty minutes to reach the middle of the town of Paramythia. Paramythia occupies the entire side of a hill which rises to half the height of Mount Kurila, and is separated only by a small space from its cliffs. Like the generality of Albanian towns, it covers a large space of ground, and is divided into clusters of houses, occupied by φάρια, or

§ 4.060 family alliances, which often make war upon one another when in want of an external quarrel. Before the reduction of the place by the Vezir, there were 600 inhabited houses, but many families having fled with Isliam Pronio, Aly’s chief opponent, there are now not more than 400 Musulman and 40 Greek. The houses are built of the roughly hewn calcareous stone of the mountain, and where they stand close together, the usual Albanian filth prevails, but nothing can be more beautiful than the general appearance of the town. On the summit, which is surrounded with cliffs, stands a ruined castle; below, on the declivity of the hill, the picturesque houses are dispersed among gardens, watered by plentiful streams descending in every direction, and the spaces between the clusters of houses are grown with superb plane trees, or occupied by mosques and fountains, shaded by cypresses and planes. These beautiful features are admirably contrasted with the cliffs and fir-clad summits of the great mountain which rises above the castle. As in other Albanian towns, all the ordinary articles of Albanian or Turkish dress and furniture are manufactured here, chiefly by Musulmans. The Greeks are for the most part only retail shopkeepers. The castle, which is surrounded by precipices, except towards the town and the south-west, formerly contained, as usual in Turkey, a great number of private houses; but these having been ruined in the war which preceded the capture of the place by Aly, it now serves only to lodge an Albanian garrison. The Vezir’s governor occupies

§ 4.061 the house of Pronio, who was head of the family alliance, formerly the most powerful in Paramythia; this house, together with five or six others, which belonged to relatives of the same chieftain, is situated below the castle, on a slope terminating in another fortified rocky summit named Galata, which lies three quarters of a mile below the castle, and midway between it and the extremity of the town in the valley. The Vezir has made many repairs and additions to the fortress of Galata. The upper castle was the acropolis of an ancient city, as appears by some fine pieces of Hellenic wall amidst the more modern work which consists of repairs of various ages. The upper gate, which looks towards the mountain and leads to the pass of Elefthero-khori, occupies the same position as one of the gates of the acropolis. Two portions of ancient wall continue to support a ramp which led up to it, and which still serves as an approach to the modern gate; on each side of it are other fragments of the original work founded upon the cliffs, and sustaining the modern structure. On the lower side of the castle, facing Galata and the valley, are some larger remains of the inclosure of the acropolis: here an entire bend of the wall is Hellenic, towards the north-west also there remains a trilithic door, four feet wide, which is now walled up. The masonry on either side of this door is regular, all the other remains are of the purest kind of polygonal masonry.

§ 4.062 Some Hellenic foundations at Galata show that summit to have been comprehended within the city, which was thus between two and three miles in circumference. The only remains I can find in the modern town are some squared blocks in the streets, and a fragment of an inscribed sepulchral monument of Roman times. Below the town are some remains of old olive plantations, from which it may be presumed that all the great valley extending from hence to the Glycys Limen would be well adapted to that valuable production. These olive-trees the Spaniards have the credit of having planted, with as much truth as they are said to have constructed the Khalasma and the Castle of Paramythia. There are some other very old olive trees in a valley to the northward of the town, which is watered by one of the tributaries of the Vuvo. Here, not very long ago, stood a village named Labovo, of which a ruined church and some remains of the houses still exist. Several small shafts and capitals of a bad taste are lying here, and the adjoining fields are covered with stones and broken pottery. The site may possibly be that of a pagan temple; for it is said that here were found those exquisite specimens of the ancient toreutic art in bronze, which now belong to Mr. Hawkins and Mr. Payne Knight. The only relic of antiquity decidedly Hellenic now remaining at Labovo is an ancient sepulchral stele of the usual square form lying on the side of the rivulet,

§ 4.063 and without any inscription, at least on the sides which are above ground. The upper castle of Paramythia is called by the Turks Aidhonat Kalesi, and the Kaza in all official forms bears that of Aidhonat Kalesende. There can be no doubt that Aidhonat is derived from Ai Dhonato, the vulgar pronunciation of Άγιος Δονάτος, or Saint Donatus, who was the patron of this part of Epirus, and to whom many churches were here dedicated, particularly the episcopal church of Glyky, one in the castle of Paramythia and two at Suli, all which were ruined in the Suliote wars. I have not been able to find any mention of Paramythia in history, either ancient or Byzantine, though being a word purely Hellenic, and suggested apparently by the beauty of the place, it may very possibly be as old as an early period of the Roman Empire, when a new town may have risen on the deserted site of the city, which probably at the Roman conquest shared the general fate of the Epirote towns. The non-occurrence of the name of Paramythia in the Byzantine authors may be attributed perhaps to the superior glory of the patron saint. We learn from Procopius, that Justinian repaired two castles of Saint Donatus: and though he ascribes them to New Epirus, a provincial division of that time which contained northern Epirus and part of Illyria, it is very possible that one of them only may have been in New Epirus, and that the other may have been Paramythia. Some of the buildings in the town seem to be nearly of the period to which Procopius refers, particularly a church in the lower part of it dedicated to the κοιμησις της Παναγιας,

§ 4.064 and a large bath close by, which has every appearance of being coeval with the church. The masonry of them both resembles the Roman, consisting of a mixture of tiles with stones and mortar: the plan of the bath is exactly like that of the modern Turkish baths, thus furnishing a strong argument for believing that the Turks adopted their baths, like the construction of their mosques, from the Greeks. Besides the church and bath at Paramythia, and the church and aquaeduct at Glyky, there are some other churches on the Margariti side of Fanari, particularly that of St. Dhimitri at the foot of the hills near Potamia, which have the appearance of being of that period of the Byzantine empire, in which all this part of Epirus flourished under the patronage of St. Donatus. I was informed by the papas at Glyky that some inscriptions which were destroyed when that church was ruined, proved it to have been built in the reign of Theodosius the Great, in whose time Donatus was bishop of Eurhoea, and performed his miracles. Among others he relieved the country from the ravages of a dragon which had infested the highway at a bridge or causeway called the Chamaegephyrae, which traversed a marsh. Here the terrible monster devoured sheep, goats, oxen, horses, and men, until the saint killed it by merely spitting at it, making the sign of the cross, after which eight yoke of oxen were required to drag it out of the water.

§ 4.065 At Issoria a come, or subordinate town of Eurhoaea, he caused a copious fountain to issue, and here he was buried at a house of prayer which received his name. This seems plainly to allude to the church of St. Donatus at Glyky, and to the great source of water which issues from the foot of the mountain near it. Marcus, a successor of Donatus in the bishopric of Eurhoea, subscribed to the council of Chalcedon, in the year 451: a century later, Procopius describes Eurhoea, which is named by Hierocles among the towns of Old Epirus, as an ancient city, so called from its abundant waters, but which having fallen to decay, was, like Photice and Phoenice in the same province, renewed by Justinian on a neighbouring site: the position chosen for the new Eurhoea was a peninsula in a lake, which, there can be little doubt from the still existing recollections of Donatus in this vicinity, was the A cherusia. But the works of Justinian, so ostentatiously described by Procopius, were probably as insignificant here as in most other places, and did not long prevent Eurhoea from being deserted. In less than

§ 4.066 thirty years after the death of that emperor, Issoria, the burying place of Donatus, had been substituted for Eurhoea as the see or title of the bishopric, and soon afterwards the body of Donatus was removed from thence to Cassope in Corfu, with the approbation of Pope Gregory the Great, in consequence of the insecurity of Epirus, into which the yet unconverted Huns or Bulgarians began to make their destructive inroads. The renewal of the bishopric under the name of Glyky was probably not earlier than the fourteenth century, when Buthrotum, one of the oldest suffragan sees in Epirus, to which Glyky is now united, was probably approaching to its present desolate state. Glyky is an example of that change of position in an ancient name which sometimes in Greece holds out false lights to the geographer, though in the present instance it can have no such effect. The descriptive epithet anciently applied to the harbour, having first become the designation of the whole Acherusian plain, was at length attached to the place which contained the cathedral church, and hence became the title of the renewed bishopric, while Fanari, derived perhaps from some watchtower or signal-post at the harbour, became the appellation of all the lower plain. Splantza, the other modern name of Porto Fanari, or Glycys Limen, is probably only a Romaic corruption of the Italian Spiaggia.

§ 4.067 All the lands of Paramythia belong to Musulmans, and a great part of them are spahiliks, the proprietors of which are consequently liable to be called to the field by the Sultan or his representative: Paramythia could thus furnish not less than 2000 muskets. It was at all times the most important member of the Suliote league against Aly, and was generally united with Margariti, Gardhiki, and Dhragomi. But here, as in every part of Albania when not united by a common danger, the same towns were often at war with one another, and when this was wanting, the parties into which each town was divided were seldom long without fighting. In these contests the Suliotes were sure to take a share, often on both sides; so that it was not uncommon for them to be opposed to one another, as happened also among their own faria at home, in default of their being engaged in the quarrels of others. Nor could they ever long agree with their neighbours. The treaties made by the chiefs were not observed by the lower orders, who, half starved in their mountains, were continually committing depredations on the adjoining territories. In short, rapine and war were elements of existence to a true Suliote. When Suli became closely invested, Paramythia, like all the other places which had been united with the Suliotes, fell off from the alliance. But this did not save it from the vengeance or ambition of Aly. Soon after the fall of Suli he turned all his force against Pronio, who, when reduced to extremities, had the weakness to allow one of Aly’s bolu-bashis with ten men to garrison the castle, merely in order, as the Vezir stated in his usual hypocritical manner, that the war, of which he was heartily

§ 4.068 tired, should not have the appearance of ending in a manner disgraceful to him; for τιμή and εντροπή, honour and shame, two qualities the least regarded by him, are favourite words in his mouth. Upon the first pretext of a quarrel, his guard of ten introduced hundreds, and Pronio was soon obliged to capitulate in his only remaining fortress of Galata. By the terms he was to enjoy his landed property. But Aly soon pretended to have discovered that he had formed an alliance with Ibrahim Pasha of Berat, and forthwith seized upon all his lands, amounting to 800 zevgaria. The family of Pronio had not been long at the head of Paramythia. Isliam’s father, whose ruined house is still standing near that of his son on the height of Galata, was the first who obtained it by purchasing from the Sultan the malikiane of the voivodalik of all that part of the district which does not consist of ziamets or Timaria. It is supposed that the Vezir’s income from Paramythia is now entirely spent in the maintenance of his acquisition. Being obliged to observe the greatest vigilance against Margariti, which he hopes some day to entrap by force or fraud, he keeps about 800 men within the σύνορος, or boundary of the district of Paramythia, which, at 25 piastres a month for each man, requires 500 purses a year: on the other hand, the 800 zevgaria of Pronio, at a profit of 200 piastres a year, yield about 300 purses; so that it will require some farther extortions to meet the expence. This shows, that although Aly has immense possessions in houses, furniture, dresses, jewels, and other similar property, the great number of Albanian soldiers whom his continual wars and ambitious projects oblige him to employ and to pay regularly, probably prevent him from hoarding any great treasure in specie.

§ 4.069 May 3.—The acropolis of the ancient city which stood at Veliani, is not more than three miles in a right line from that of Paramythia: it is situated at about the same height above the plain, but nearer to the perpendicular cliffs of Mount Kurila, and not so well defended by its own cliffs towards the mountain. The village of Veliani, now in ruins, stands considerably below the acropolis, but within the inclosure of the ancient city, as appears by some foundations on the slope of the hill below it. At a monastery of St. John, where the church alone remains entire, I find a fragment of a column of calcareous stone, about three feet in diameter, and another of the same description in the village. Farther down at a ruined church are some other fragments of Greek architecture, with a caput bovis and other ornaments of a good style, but not of a very ancient date. These are the only remains of sculpture. The acropolis was considerably larger than that of Paramythia, and its walls at the upper part of the inclosure are preserved in some places to half their height: in many other parts of the hill there are pieces of them also in good preservation. They are accurate and well-preserved specimens of the polygonal kind, but the masses are more equal in bulk than they generally are in this kind of Greek masonry. The main approach to the gate of the acropolis, which was on the western side, is still

§ 4.070 visible; besides which there are rains of a small door opposite to the mountain, but the former is the only place, except on the south towards the monastery, by which there is now any access to the summit. By the position of this city immediately opposite to the opening which leads to Margariti, it possessed the widest and most fertile part of the upper valley of the Cocytus. On the southern side of the ruins are many sources of water, and a village which derives from them its Sclavonic name of Voiniko. Besides the ancient cities at Paramythia and Veliani, vestiges of others are said to exist above Dhragomi, and at a position between Karvuniari and Margariti: but unfortunately the state of hostility, or rather of mutual observation, between Aly Pasha and the chieftains of Margariti and Filiates, will not admit of my visiting either of those places, or indeed any part of their districts. Under these circumstances, I must be satisfied with setting down the topographical information which I have obtained by inquiry, aided by some ocular observations made from several commanding points, as well as by my former knowledge of a part of the maritime country. Paramythia commands, at no great distance, three important passes: to the westward is the opening immediately opposite to Voiniko and the Paleokastro of Veliani, which, branching from the valley of the Vuvo, crosses the range of hills on its western side into that of Margariti. About midway to Margariti is Karvuniari, a village of 150 houses chiefly Turkish.

§ 4.071 The mountain to the right of the branching valley, and which rises immediately opposite to Paramythia westward, is called Pesimo, a small Greek village on it is named Sevastos. At the foot of it, bearing S. 47 W. by compass from the castle of Paramythia, is a place called Vuvo, where are the principal sources of the river of that name, which, joined by the streams from Labovo, Paramythia, and Voiniko, form the Cocytus. The town of Margariti is divided into two makhalas, called Margariti and Omorfiates, containing between them 800 houses. Mazarakia, formerly the chief place of this district, which is still designated in the Turkish firmahns by the name of Mazare-kazasi, is two hours to the northward of Margariti. The other towns are Kurtesi of 100 houses, one hour from Mazarakia, towards Paramythia; Parga two hours and a half to the south of Margariti; Arpitza, 3 hours from the latter on the side of the same maritime ridge which commands the district of Parga; and Aghia, containing 200 houses, situated midway between Arpitza and Parga, not far to the southward of Cape Varlam, which is the western projection of the same mountain. The plain near the mouth of the Kalama is called Rai, and the river forms the line of separation between the two subdivisions of Tjami, named Daghawi, or Dai, and Parakalamo. Daghawi comprehends the country from the Kalama southward as far as the bounds of Paramythia, and

§ 4.072 Fanari; Parakalamo, that in the opposite direction to the boundaries of Vutzintro and Delvino. In Daghawi are Griko-khori, Gomenitza, and Nista, situated in that order from south to north on the hills above the bay of Gomenitza: Grava in the plain near the mouth of the Kalama. Between Gomenitza and Menina, which stands on the left bank of the Kalama, in the road from Paramythia to Filiates, are several Musulman villages, of which the principal are Suliasi, Varfanius, and Rizanius: to these belongs the plain of the Lower Kalama to the left of the river. A high cliff at Zuliana, in a line between Paramythia and Filiates, forms a very conspicuous object from Corfu. The second pass leading from Paramythia is that of Neokhori on the road to Filiates. Neokhori is a small village lying in an opening between the north-western end of Mount Pesimo and Mount Labanitza; the road leads directly down from Neokhori to Menina on the Kalamo. Between the southern foot of Mount Labanitza and the northern end of Kurila is the pass of Eleftherokhori, the third of the passes of Paramythia. Besides the villages of the district of Paramythia, already noticed as such, there are the following:—Skupitza, situated in the valley which lies between Mounts Pesimo and Labanitza, and through which leads the road to Neokhori. Nikolitzi and Grika in Pesimo, not far from Paramythia, and on the western face of that mountain towards Kurtesi, Dhraganius. At the foot of Mount Labanitza are eight or ten others, of which the principal are Vlakho-khori, of 150 houses; Uzdina, where are plantations of olives; Selani,

§ 4.073 where is a monastery, and Plakoti; each of these three has about 50 houses. I have already mentioned the principal places at the foot of Mount Kurila, besides which there are some smaller in higher situations. Both Kurila and Labanitza give their name to or take it from small villages of the same name in high situations in the respective mountains. To the ancient sites, which are so numerous in the great valleys watered by the lower Acheron, the lower Thyamis, and their tributaries, it is a mortifying disappointment to the geographer to be unable to apply a single name with absolute certainty, so scanty are the notices of Epirus in ancient history,—so complete and lasting seems to have been the destruction of its cities by the Romans. Their walls remain, while their names have perished; in four instances only is there any strong probability. These are Ephyra or Cichyrus, at the monastery of St. John, four miles from Porto Fanari, near the right bank of the Cocytus; Buchaetium, at the harbour of St. John, a few miles east of Parga; Pandosia at Kastri, and Cestria at Palea Venetia. The arguments in favour of the three former positions have already been stated, and the testimony of Thucydides is very strong as to the last. In saying that the Thyamis separated Thesprotia from the Cestrine, the historian identifies the latter with the present district of Filiates, which town is situated on the heights rising from the northern edge of the plains of the lower Kalama, and possesses those fertile pastures towards the mouth of the river which were anciently

§ 4.074 famous for the Cestrinic oxen. Filiates itself, however, seems not to have been an ancient site, whereas the ruins at Palea Venetia are clearly, from their extent, those of the chief town of the valley to the right of the lower Thyamis, and one of the leading cities of Epirus. Cestria was said to have been founded by Cestrinus, son of Helenus and Andromache, but though named as a town by Pliny, there is reason to believe that it was more usually called Ilium, or Troja, in memory of the origin of the colony of Helenus. Filiates may perhaps be a corruption of Ilium. Cammania, another ancient name in this part of Thesprotia, seems also to have survived in Gumenitza, formerly written Kammenitza. The other ruined cities, which are still to be seen in Thesprotia, are likely to remain as nameless as “the brave men before Agamemnon,” unless some fortunate discovery of inscriptions should throw some light on the slender notices which the ancient authors have left of them. Elateia and Batiae, according to Strabo, were in that part of the interior above Cichyrus and Buchaetium, where Pandosia was situated, and the former was probably not far from Pandosia, for the oration concerning Halonnesus, attributed to Demosthenes, informs us that Pandosia, Buchaetium, and Elateia, were all colonies of Elis,

§ 4.075 and that having been taken by Philip, son of Amyntas, they were delivered by him to his brotherin-law, Alexander of Epirus. As the fact of the colonization favours the supposition that their situation was not very far from the sea, the district of Margariti, both in this respect and its vicinity to Pandosia, supposing Kastri to be the “locus Pandosiae” seems best to accord with the territory of Elateia. It agrees also in a third circumstance mentioned by the orator, namely, that all the three places were in the Cassopaea at the time of which he speaks, since it cannot be supposed that the Cassopaei ever obtained any part of the coast of old Thesprotia to the northward of Margariti, nor much farther from the sea than that place. For the same reason we cannot with any probability apply the names either of Elateia, or of Bathe, which latter, on the good authority of Theopompus was also in the Cassopaea, to the ancient sites at Veliani and Paramythia, there being very little probability that the Cassopaei had ever advanced so near to the Thyamis, which was the northern boundary of Thesprotia. It is possible that the name Veliani is a corruption of Elini, the V representing the Aeolic aspirate, for that the Elini dwelt not far from the Cestreni may be inferred from a verse of Rhianus, quoted by Stephanus: Κεστρηνοι Χαύνοι τε και αύχηεντες Έλινοί.

§ 4.076 And if Cestria was at Palea Venetia, and Elini at Veliani, there is some ground for the conjecture that Paramythia was the city of the Chauni, which name in the verse of Rhianus stands between those of the Cestreni and Elini, as the town of Paramythia does between Palea Venetia and Veliani. These are indeed very slight grounds of conjecture, but unfortunately no better are to be obtained. In Livy, a town of Gitanae is described as being near Corcyra, and 10 miles distant from the coast, but as the name does not occur in any other author, there may be some reason for believing the word to be corrupt, and that the real name was Chyton, which, according to Ephorus, was a colony settled in Epirus by the Clazomenii. Gitanae, according to the Latin historian, was the place where previous to the last Macedonian war the Roman legates met the council of the Epirotes, and entered into engagements, the violation of some part of which in favor of Perseus furnished an excuse to the Romans for gratifying their army with the plunder of Epirus.

§ 4.077 May 4.—After making a half circle round the northern side of the castle of St. Donatus we enter the opening between the mountains Labanitza and Kurila, and in one hour at 7.30 pass two kules, a triangular castle, and a toll-house standing in the Klisura, called that of Eleftherokhori from a village which has now totally disappeared. The mountain of Syrako to the south-east of Ioannina now presents itself in front The less distant scene consists entirely of narrow valleys and rugged limestone ridges branching from the great summits of Labanitza to the left, and of Kurila, Suli, and Olytzika to the right. This country once contained many villages, but they were all ruined in the Suliote wars, in which they suffered equally from the troops of Aly Pasha, and from those of Paramythia and Suli. The pass of Eleftherokhori was one of the positions most frequently contested. From the pass we descend into a ravine along which flows a branch of the Kalama coming from a Suliote summit on our right which is known by the name of Vritzakha. On the eastern side of the opening from whence the stream issues, stands Popovo, a village of sixty houses, and one of the few in this vicinity that are still inhabited. We follow the bed of the torrent among stunted planes, of which the half-expanded leaves show that the climate is much colder on this side of the mountains, than at Paramythia, although the elevation is nearly the same; for there the leaves of the planes had almost attained their full growth. The heights on either side of us have some small spots of cultivation in places. At 9 we pass between Petus and Saloniki: the former distant one mile and a half in a straight line, and standing upon a counterfort of Mount Vritzakha; the latter on the mountain of Labanitza, at a greater distance. At 9.15, we arrive at a spot on the bank of the torrent, where preparations have been made for dinner, in true Albanian style, by the direction of Tahir Aga, head of the police of Ioannina and related to the Vezir, who, having had a mission to

§ 4.078 Paramythia, has, by the Vezir’s order, joined me on his return to the capital, together with some of his palikaria. Two lambs from a neighbouring flock had already been transfixed upon spits formed from the branches of an oak, and two of the soldiers were diligently turning them before a blazing fire, while others had just finished the construction of a sofa made of the tender branches of a salix. At 10.56 we proceed along the valley bordered by the wild kharθb and hawthorn, covered with blossoms, but not more forward than they were in the plains of the Achelous in the end of March. The torrent from Eleftherokhori now joins a larger branch from the northern and eastern face of Mount Vritzakha, and forms a stream, which, flowing northward through some steep ridges in a direction parallel to the great summit of Labanitza, joins the Kalama opposite to Leftokarya. We follow its course, often crossing it, sometimes by bridges, of which the largest is that of Brelesis, having a single arch of forty-five feet in the span; this we pass at 12.30. At 1.18, leaving the direct road to Ioannina on the left, we ascend the slope of Mount Olytzika to Bagotjus by a steep and winding path, and arriving in that village at 2.25, lodge in the house of the Hodja-bashi, who is now a prisoner in the Pasha’s grand receptacle at Ioannina. Bagotzus consists of twenty or thirty houses dispersed over a large space of ground, and having a neat new church situated in a grove of pirnaria.

§ 4.079 May 5.—Westerly wind with showers. Our road passes by a beautiful wood of oaks and round a shoulder of Mount Olytzika to Dhramisius, one hour distant. The most projecting point of the route between the two villages looks down upon a valley watered by a considerable branch of the Kalama, which, before its union with that river near Suli of Kurenda, passes between two summits of considerable elevation, of which the western bounds to the eastward the vale of the other branch of the Kalama which we followed, and which unites with the main stream opposite to Leftokarya. All these mountains, except the bare calcareous masses forming the higher summits of Olytzika, Paramythia, Megalo-Suli, and Labanitza, are clothed with a fertile soil, and have several villages situated on the face of them. Four miles from Bagotzus, towards Suli, is Gratziana; to the south-eastward of Dhramisius, at a distance of half a mile is Tzerkovista; at the same distance from the latter Alepu-khori, and a mile farther Milingus. All these are pleasantly situated on the side of the mountain amidst gardens well watered with rivulets and shaded by trees, particularly towards Dhramisius, where are many large chestnut-trees. Opposite to Bagotzus, on the mountain which separates the two branches of the Kalama, are Eleftherokhori and Sfina, and in a more northerly direction, on a parallel ridge, Lustina, and towards the Kalama, Dhelvinakopulo. The ridge on which the two last villages are situated falls to the eastward

§ 4.080 into the plain of Ioannina, on which side it assumes the appearance of a bare calcareous rock, and thus extends all the way to Pendepigadhia. There remains between it and Mount Olytzika an elevated valley, the highest point of which is a little north of Dhramisius, as appears by the course of the waters, which from thence take opposite directions, one part running northward to the Kalama, the other southward to the river of St. George, but passing, as I am informed, through the mountains by a katavothra before it reaches that river. Having passed through Dhramisius we descend to the Paleokastro in the valley. I have before hazarded the opinion that these remains do not belong to one of the Epirote cities, but to a hierum and place of public meeting for sacred festivals, and perhaps for civil purposes also. The situation instead of being strong, commanding, and well watered, the usual requisites of the fortified towns of Greece, is a retired valley like those of Epidaurus, Nemea, and Olympia, and the remains consist, as in those places, of temples, adjoining to a theatre and to a dromus which may have served in the place of a stadium for gymnastic contests. The slightness of the wall below the fortress, which inclosed the two temples, shows evidently that it was merely a peribolus of the sacred ground. No part of the works has an appearance of remote antiquity, and the whole perhaps was founded on the site of some renowned temple of the Molossi, with a view of pacifying and

§ 4.081 civilizing Epirus, which, as long as it was divided into comae, possessed probably no such conveniences for large assemblies as were here provided for them. During the half century between the extinction of the Aiacidae and the Roman conquest, in which Epirus was republican, the theatre may have served for the general assemblies of the Epirotes, which may have still continued to meet in Molossis, this having been the original seat of the monarchy, and the residence of the royal dynasty. A passage in Plutarch’s Life of Pyrrhus might lead to the belief that these were the ruins of that Passaron where the kings of Epirus and their assembled people were accustomed to take mutual oaths, the one to govern according to law, the other to defend the crown; but Passaron was not a hierum but a city, and having been one of the strongest and most important in Molossis, we cannot suppose it to have occupied such a situation. The capture of Passaron by L. Anicius Gallus in the year B.C. 167 led to that of Tecmon, Phylace, and Horritim. It was at Passaron that the Roman commander afterwards held his winter quarters; it was from the same place that L. Aemilius Paullus issued, by order of the Senate of Rome, his treacherous and atrocious decree for plundering and dismantling

§ 4.082 all the towns of Epirus; and it was from Passaron also that Anicius proceeded to embark for Italy as soon as the fleet which had carried over the Roman army of Macedonia from Oricum had returned to the coast of Epirus. In considering some, if not all these circumstances, it is difficult not to conclude that Passaron was nearer to the sea, and more conveniently situated for communication with it, than this sequestered valley. According to Anna Comnena, there was a harbour on the Epirote coast, called that of Passara, which served for a place of assembly of the combined fleets of Alexis and the Venetians previously to two battles which they fought with Robert the Norman in the channel of Corfu. The paleokastro of Dhramisius is but one among many Hellenic ruins in Epirus, of which nothing but a fortunate discovery of inscriptions can furnish us with the ancient names. Of those mentioned by Livy, all which appear to have stood in the country between the Thyamis and Arachthus, Tecmon was the only one besides Passaron that stood a siege against Anicius; nor did it yield until the fall of its chief citizen Cephalus, at once the bravest and most prudent of the Epirotes, and who, though more formidable than any other to the Romans, had in the beginning been their unwilling enemy.

§ 4.083 Gurianista, near Kurendo, about twenty miles to the west of Ioannina, from whence I procured a small bronze statue of some merit, which was found there, may possibly have been the site of Tecmon or of Horrium. After remaining half an hour at the ruins, we cross the ridge towards Ioannina, and halt at Kosmira, on the eastern side of it, at 10. As we descended the ridge, Tahir Aga pointed out to me the situation of some Hellenic remains at Kotzista on the side of the mountain of Syrako. The baggage came in two hours and a half by the direct road from Bagotzus to Kosmira, which, leaving Dhramisius about a mile on the right, crosses the ridge at a pass immediately behind Kosmira. At 12.15 we descend from Kosmira into the plain of Ioannina, down an easy slope watered by a torrent and sown with rye now coming into ear: in the lowest part of the plain it is full-grown. At the entrance of the plain, at 12.53, we pass by Rapsista, a large village, just as the inhabitants are returning in their best clothes from celebrating the feast of St. George, at a church of that saint, situated amidst a little wood of pirnaria half a mile from the village. This fashion of building solitary churches in the midst of a clump of trees, though found in every part of Greece is most common in Epirus, perhaps on account of the greater abundance of its woods and forests. The oak, the quercus ilex, and the prinus or holly-oak, are the trees most frequently

§ 4.084 seen in these groves, but chiefly the last, though the second, here called miradhi instead of aria, which is its appellation in Acarnania and the Morea, is the best adapted to them, as it grows to a greater size than the pirnari, and its evergreen leaf gives it a preference over the oak. It was undoubtedly the sacred φηγος of the Dodonaean temple. The scenery of Epirus is much enlivened in winter by these evergreens, nor can any thing be more grateful in the heat of summer than the dense shade of the groves, in which there is generally a source of water near the church. Hence they are often frequented by parties of pleasure from the towns and villages; and on the anniversary festivals of the several saints, great numbers are generally assembled in and around them, especially at some of the sacred groves nearest to Ioannina. Many of the churches occupy probably the sites of ancient temples, which, on the establishment of Christianity, were converted to the service of the new religion, with little or no change of structure, although a succession of repairs may now have left in them no vestiges of Hellenic antiquity that can easily be recognised. Nor is it improbable that many of the customs and ceremonies in honour of the protecting saints are the same as those which once appertained to the worship of Dione, Aphrodite, Dionysus, or Apollo. The plain of Ioannina has still a wintry appearance. We arrive in the town at 2 p.m., where I am lodged in the house which was built by the father of the Zosimadhes, the four brothers who are now opulent merchants in Christendom: one is at Moscow, another at Leghorn. Snow falls to-night on Mount Mitzikeli, and much rain in the town.

§ 4.085 May 10.—The weather has continued rainy since the 5th, and snow has fallen on all the higher ridges. Mitzikeli, which is not one of them, was this morning quite covered with snow on the summit. The mornings are generally fine, but at noon the clouds collect, which in the afternoon produce rain and thunder. This day I was present at a presentation to the Vezir of some of the chiefs of his shepherds who were admitted to the προσκύνημα, and kissed the hem of his robe. They come to pay their annual dues. Their first visit was to the Grammatikos, or Secretary, who desired all but the chief person to withdraw. “We are all equal,” they replied. They are Albanians, and are here named Karagunidhes, or black-cloaks, as a distinction from the Vlakhiotes, though elsewhere, and often even in common parlance at Ioannina, it is very customary to call them all Karagunidhes, which is the more natural, as the black or white cloak is no longer a distinction, and they all come from the same great ridge of Pindus. When the flocks are their own, they pay to the farmer of the Sultan’s dues for every sheep, male or female, more than half a year old, 4 1/4 piastres, a small portion of which consists of a κεφαλιάτικον, or capitation on the animals, the rest is for νόμιστρον,

§ 4.086 or pasture. These dues belong to the royal revenue, and are farmed by the Vezir throughout the countries which he governs. But he is moreover the greatest proprietor of sheep in Northern Greece, and owns flocks in every part of Epirus and Thessaly. His shepherds are accountable for an increase of 120 per cent, every year upon the number of animals, besides a certain quantity of cheese. They pay all expences, and reckon upon an average profit to themselves of a piastre a year from each ewe, from which is to be deducted a small loss upon the males.

§ 4.087 CHAPTER 36 EPIRUS. JUNE 4.—Since my arrival at Ioannina on the 5th of May scarcely a day has passed without showers in the afternoon, always accompanied with thunder clouds on the mountains, which three days out of four, have exploded very near, or immediately over the town. Sometimes while rain fell on the upper summits of Pindus, Mitzikeli continued clear, in which case there was no rain in Ioannina or the adjacent plain. At 5 p.m. I set out with menzil horses on the great northern road, which is nothing more than a wide horse-path, though the ground is so level that the Vezir has no difficulty in travelling in his carriage in this direction as far as the neighbourhood of Dhelvinaki. We skirt the grassy level which borders the marshes lying at the foot of Mitzikeli.

§ 4.088 Here the meadows of Ioannina are broadest; their entire length on both sides of the town is not less than twelve miles. I never behold this extensive tract of rich pasture-land, generally peopled as it is with flocks and cattle, without feeling persuaded that it was the Hellopia which Hesiod had in view when describing the district of Dodona: At 5.40 we pass Bistunopulo, as a few huts are named, with a khan on the road side, just above the beautiful grove of evergreen oaks which surrounds the church of St. John. Here I saw, a few days ago, the ίορτή, or festival of the saint, attended by a great part of the population of Ioannina. Not less than 10,000 persons were assembled at the church, or were passing along the meadows leading to it from the town. Some of the gayest, clothed in gorgeous dresses of Albanian lace and embroidery, were dancing the κυκλικός χορός in circles on the grass, while others assembled round low wooden tables, were tearing roasted lambs to pieces with their fingers, drinking long draughts of wine, and singing in the loudest tone. These festivals are always well attended when the saint’s day occurs in the course of the delightful May, which in the Greek calendar lasts till the 12th of our June. During that month there was a festival at Stavraki, a tjiftlik of Mnkhtar Pasha, to the south-west of Ioannina;

§ 4.089 the afternoon happened to be rainy, but this seemed to make little difference to some of the more jovial Christians, who, clothed in the most glittering dresses were dancing with bare feet in the mud before the feast was over. The most expensive parts of the Albanian dress, are an upper and under waistcoat, both without sleeves; the former of velvet, or cloth, half-covered with lace, the latter usually of embroidered velvet. Ioannina and Arghyro-kastro are the places most noted for the manufacture of them. The sleeves of the shirt hang loose on the outside of all, and soon present a most unseemly contrast of dirt with the handsome waistcoats, which sometimes cost from 200 to 400 piastres, and on the occasion of these festivals are often borrowed or hired for the day. At 6.2 we take shelter from the customary afternoon's rain and lightning at the Serai of Bisduni. The village belongs to two Beys, once the most opulent in Ioannina, and possessors of a great part of the fertile districts of Luro and Lamari, but whom the Vezir has gradually deprived of their property, leaving them nothing in exchange but the barren downs of Bisduni, and an income of 5000 piastres a year, out of twenty times as much, which the family enjoyed before Aly’s arrival at Ioannina. We ride in 50 minutes from Bisduni to Radhotopi, and at half way pass a khan under Djudila, which village stands on the hills to the left, Gardhiki, or Gardhikaki, being

§ 4.090 at a distance somewhat greater on the right The summit of a great round hill which rises behind the latter village was occupied by a come, or small Hellenic town, of which there remain the entire circuit of the ruined walls, with many foundations of buildings within the inclosure. It is one of those positions which are generally chosen in all countries in times of insecurity, and which seem to have been particularly numerous in Epirus. Though it may have been of more than usual importance in a military point of view, as situated immediately opposite to the passage over the narrowest part of the marshes, thus commanding the only direct communication from the plain of Ioannina into the mountains of Zagori, a district which, from its resources and strength, was probably always well peopled; it was obviously no more than a subordinate place, very inferior in importance to the city which stood at Kastritza, and which, besides having commanded the approach to the most important pass in Northern Greece, that of MOtzovo, is shown by its remains to have been a town of considerable extent, and was placed in a very convenient and accessible position with regard to the plains. The khan of Tzudila stands in a pass between the two ridges which here meet and terminate the plain of Ioannina; one of these is connected with the hill of Gardhiki, and falls northward to the lake of Lapsista; the other is a continuation of the hills which we have had on our left all the way from Ioannina. We now enter the valley containing the lake of Lapsista, which extends north-westward to Protopapa, and eastward to the foot of Mount Mitzikeli. The soil is of a deep red colour, and produces only some poor rye and barley. The village of Radhotopi, which stands at the south-western extremity of the valley, belongs to Kassim Bey of Ioannina, who before the Vezir’s time had 400 purses a year, now reduced to about 18, which he receives from his Subashi at Radhotopi, and out of it pays six purses to the Vezir for the miri and other impositions. The Subashi takes one third of the crop for his employer besides the tithe of the whole, and the Greek peasant the remainder. Here we lodge for the night in the Bey’s pyrgo.

§ 4.091 June 5.—At 6.42 we begin to cross the hills to Zitza at a slow pace. This is the most direct, but not the ordinary or main route from Ioannina, which follows the plain a mile farther to the katavothra at the southern extremity of the lake of Lapsista, where a stream from the lake flowing in a westerly direction enters a subterraneous channel, and reappears at Velitzista.. From the katavothra the main road follows the foot of the hills not far from the western shore of the lake, ascends to Protopapa, and from thence crosses into the valley of the Kalama, leaving Zitza to the left. Between Protopapa and Zitza there is an elevated plain, chiefly occupied by vineyards belonging to the two villages. In ascending towards Zitza, we leave on the left a continuation of the range of hills which borders the western side of the plain of Ioannina, and which separates that plain from the valley of the branch of the Kalama,

§ 4.092 which rises near Dhramisius and joins the main river at Suli of Kurenda, below Raiko. At 7.50 Velitzista, vulgarly Veltjistais two or three miles on the left. Here the subterraneous stream from the lake of Lapsista issues from the side of the hill, and falls down the slope to the Kalama with great rapidity, turning several mills in its course: the place where it emerges is about four miles from the katavothra, and exactly in the direction of the course of the current as it enters the chasm. At 8.25 we pass through the village of Karitza in a lofty situation, surrounded by green fields of rye and barley mixed with fruit-trees, and at 8.50 arrive at the monastery of St. Elias of Zitza, pleasantly situated on the highest summit of the same height, in the midst of a grove of oaks. The village occupies the slope below the convent towards the Kalama: a serai of the Verir, which was built entirely at the expence of the inhabitants, stands at one extremity of the village. Here, in the only apartment which is furnished with a sofa and carpet, I find an agreeable lodging until the afternoon, having adopted the custom of the country in this season of dividing the long days into two: travelling two or three hours in the morning and as much in the evening. Zitza is a Kefalo-khori of 110 houses; its heights seem admirably adapted by soil and aspect to the vine; and, accordingly, the chief production is wine, which has the reputation of being the best in Epirus: in fact, that made by the monks of St. Elias is not unpleasant;

§ 4.093 but the ordinary produce of the village, being pressed from grapes all gathered at once, and therefore partly unripe, and being then diluted with water to increase the quantity, is already sour, notwithstanding an abundance of resin, which has been added to give body to it. The village is at a yearly expence of five purses for this ingredient, which is purchased at Ioannina. The common incomes here are five, six, or seven hundred piastres a year, nearly half of which is abstracted by the Vezir, the bishop, and the Papadhes, of whom there are no less than fifteen in Zitza, and as many churches. Ποιος το κάμει— who takes the trouble?—is the reply to my inquiry why they do not make two gatherings of their grapes, and έτσι ώρίθηκε—so we found it—to a remark that they might advantageously change a papas or two, for a physician and a schoolmaster. They cannot plead that the government prevents them, the Vezir leaving the Greeks at perfect liberty to act as they like in regard to literary instruction, and often exhorting thie prelates to promote it: as to the iatros, if the village makes his place a good one, the Pasha generally takes upon himself the nomination. Zitza commands a beautiful and extensive prospect, the plain of Ioannina, and the fertile hills on which Zitza stands, furnishing a variety of cultivated scenery, which is admirably contrasted with the great barren summits around. But here, as in every other situation in Epirus, the interest is inferior to that of almost every commanding position in Southern Greece, where the spectator is always surrounded by objects familiar to him in history and poetry.

§ 4.094 Here, in the entire horizontal circle, the Thyamis is the only object, of which we have any certainty as to the ancient name. To the south-westward is seen a small plain, in which the streams from Raiko, Velitzista, and Dhramisius, unite to form the Kalama. The first of these, or western branch, is the proper Kalama, and bears that name above its union with the river of Velitzista, which, near Paliuri, receives the branch from Dhramisius. Just below the junction of the three is Suli, a name common to a village on either bank: from thence an undulating country extends on either side of the river towards Paramythia, and as far as the gorges which form the division between the Upper and Lower Thyamis. On the side of a high mountain rising from the right bank of the river in face of Zitza, are the villages of Shutista and Raiko, which latter is two or three miles above the junction of the branch from Velitzista. Midway between that junction and Raiko is the bridge of Raiko, a place of great traffic, as being on the ordinary road from Corfu and Parakalamo to Ioannina; for which reason the Vezir has established a toll here for cattle, passengers, and merchandize. Beyond the bridge the road to Filiates follows the right bank of the river and then crosses the woody mountains which overhang it until they open below the village of Kutzi into a wider valley or basin, interrupted with much broken ground, where two branches from the northward,

§ 4.095 separated by a long ridge, join the Kalama. Raveni, belonging to the district of Filiates, is the principal village of these valleys. The road to Filiates then passes over a hilly country at no great distance from the river, which in some places is bordered by cliffs, in others by small plains. The principal village on these heights is Kheramnitza. Before the river finally emerges into the plains which extend to the sea coast, it passes through a rocky gorge, a little below which, on the right bank of the river, are the Hellenic remains called Palea Venetia, situated at the junction of the Kalama with one of its branches. At 5.30, descending westward through the vineyards into the valley of the Kalama, we pass at 6.20 under Mazaraki, which stands on the slope of the ridge of Zitza at a distance of a mile or two on our left, and soon afterwards arrive suddenly in front of a cascade of the Kalama, which is about a mile distant, and considerably below us: the river is sixty or seventy feet in width, and falls over a cliff of nearly an equal height. A thick wood on one side and some small huts and mills on the edge of the opposite bank complete the beauty of the landscape. Leaving the fall to the left, we descend to the bank of the river, which here runs clear and placid, through a narrow verdant valley filled with every kind of gay flower and fragrant shrub, of which Greece is so prolific in this season. At 6.45 a khan, situated on a little height included between two bends of the river, gives us shelter for ten minutes from the usual afternoon’s thunderstorm. The valley is less than two miles in width: from the opposite bank rises the steep range already mentioned,

§ 4.096 which extends from Tzerkovista, near Suli of Kurenda, to the pass of Tzerovina, which separates it from the mountain of Dhelvinaki, and leads into the valley of Xerovalto, and from thence into that of the Dryno. Following from the khan the foot of the same ridge of Zitza, the valley, in half an hour, opens into a plain in which different streams, rising for the most part at the foot of the hills surrounding the plain, unite to form the Kalama. We cross a large branch of the river just below its sources at 7.55, not far from the village of Zagoriani, which stands upon the hills to our right. The direct road to Tzerovina and Dhelvinaki crosses the plain, but we turn to the right under the hills; and a little beyond the sources leave to the right the Paleokastro of Vela, and half a mile farther arrive at an ancient monastery of the same name in a pleasant situation on the slope of the mountain. The plain which extends to the Siutista range southward, and to Tzerovina westward, is fertile, well watered by numerous tributaries of the Kalama, and produces rye, barley, wheat, and maize. The monastery possesses two ploughs and eight oxen, besides vineyards and a few sheep. Vela, which now gives title to a bishop resident at Konitza, is supposed, by the learned of Ioannina, to have been anciently called Photice, a name, however, which does not occur in any author more ancient than Hierocles or Procopius. The latter relates that Photice stood originally in a marshy situation; and that having fallen to decay, it was restored by Justinian, who built a citadel on a neighbouring height. But the castle of Vela is probably of later date. There are no records of the bishops of Photice later than the 6th century, nor of the bishops of Vela earlier than the 13th. Of Hellenic remains there is no appearance at Vela.

§ 4.097 June 6.—At 7.45 we descend from the monastery, and arrive, at 8.5, at the khan of Galbaki or Kalbaki, which I passed on the 22d of October, 1805, in the way from Premedi to Ioannina by Raveni. The ordinary route from Ioannina to Konitza here branches from that leading to Arghyrokastro. We follow the latter along the hills, the marsh before mentioned having prevented our crossing the plain directly from Vela. At 8.16 pass one of the principal tributaries of the Kalama, just under its sources near the little hamlet of Galbaki. It is a deep clear rivulet, bordered with large reeds and aquatic plants, and is considered the main source of the Kalama, being perennial, whereas the more distant branch from Lakhanokastro is dry in summer. The reeds at the sources may have given the name of Kalama to the river: the ancient appellation Thyamis seems to have been derived from the Θύα or juniper, which, though not abundant near the sources of the river, is common in the woody hills which border the middle of its course.

§ 4.098 At 8.45 we pass under Dholiana, a large village belonging to Zagori, and the only one of that subdistrict which is not an Eleftherokhori, the Vezir having made it, as well as the rest of this fine plain, his private property. In each of the villages of Podhogoriani and Moshari, both which are situated on the slope of the Siutista range, he has built a serai: that at Mossiari is large and well furnished. The part of the plain under Dholiana is covered chiefly with revithia (Cicer Arietinum), one of the many kinds of pulse used by the Greeks, particularly during their fasts. At 9.25 we cross a large branch of the Kalama shaded by fine planes, at the spot where it issues from a rocky gorge of the mountains into the plain. This is the stream which rises above Lakhanokastro. Half way up one of the cliffs which border it, in a spot now inaccessible, 40 or 50 feet above the valley, paintings of saints, like those in the Greek churches, are visible, and some indications of a building having formerly been attached to that part of the cliff, probably an ασκητηριον or hermitage. At 9.40 we arrive at Tzerovina, and lodge, as at Zitza, in the Vezir's serai, which is situated in an inclosure called a Κάστρον or castle, but differing only from an ordinary garden wall in having round towers at the angles, composed, like the rest of the work, of small stones cemented with mud instead of mortar, and which, though only twenty years old, is already falling to ruin.

§ 4.099 This kind of masonry, however, is strong compared to that of the dwelling-houses, which are much slighter and looser, and are generally constructed with thin rafters or layers of wood, which at intervals of a few feet occupy the whole thickness of the wall. At 6 p.m. we descend from Tzerovina in ten minutes to a lake, near the opposite end of which is a pass leading between the mountains of Dhelvinaki and of Mossiari into the valley of Xerovalto, so called from a marsh which has been drained and brought into cultivation in that valley. The hills on either side of the pass are clothed with oak and ilex. A stream flowing to the Kalama issues from the lake of Tzerovina, and serves in summer to irrigate some fields of maize below that village, producing plentiful crops, but rendering the air unhealthy, in which it is assisted by several pools and springs, which stagnate and form a marsh in the plain below them. The lake is about half a mile in diameter, apparently very deep, and is said to abound in fish, particularly trout: there are a few springs about the edges, but the great supplies seem to be at the bottom. Here begins the district of Dhelvinaki or Delvinaki. A bairak of twelve Albanians halting on the edge of the lake, seated on the grass in a ring, with their bairak stuck in the ground, forms a good accompaniment to the picturesque scene around. We turn to the right of the road which leads through the pass to Xerovalto,

§ 4.100 and ascend the hills to Dhelvinaki, where we arrive at 7.35, and alight at the Vezir’s serai, a dwelling of very moderate dimensions, standing in a valley, or rather in the bed of a torrent between two hills on the slopes of which are the houses of the town, about 200 in number. The elevated situation renders the air pure and healthy: some of the nearer hills produce corn sufficient for the consumption of the inhabitants, and wine, of which there is enough to supply some of the neighbouring districts. It is made, as at Zitza, from a single gathering, and a fifth part of water is added because without it the wine would not be saleable on account of the high price. The remaining lands of Dhelvinaki afford pasture to a great number of oxen, sheep, and goats. In the valley in which the serai stands are some fields of revithia and hemp, of which last there is also a considerable growth in other parts about the village. Narrow cotton cloths, such as are made in every part of Albania, are manufactured in the town; but the greater part'of the male inhabitants, as in other mountain villages of Epirus, are employed in trade by land, or as artisans in the towns of Turkey, in which capacities they are long absent from home. At Constantinople they particularly follow the trades of gardeners and butchers. Dhelvinaki is the chief town of the district of Pogoiani, properly Pogoniani, often called Old Pogoiani, partly to distinguish it from Pogoiani, a small village near Ioannina, and partly with reference to its importance in the 14th and 15th centuries,

§ 4.101 when the town of Pogoniani, supposed to have stood near Ostanitza, was the see of an archbishopric, which is now extinct. Pogoniani seems to be nearly the same district as the ancient Melotis. It borders towards the north and north-west on Libokhovo and Argyrokastro, to the east and north-east on the Karamuratates and Konitza, and on Ioannina to the south, south-east, and east, in which latter direction it coniines on the sub-district of Zagori. It contains forty villages, and extends from Tzerovina northward to Selitza on the right bank of the river of Sukha beyond Libokhovo, which town, however, is not in Pogoiani. To the westward Pogoiani coniines on Dhelvino, from which it is separated by a continuation of the great ridge upon which Arghyrokastro stands. The chief places are Sopiki in the mountains to the eastward of SOlitza, midway between Dhelvinaki and Premedi, and Dhrymadhes one hour on this side of Sopiki. These are Eleftherokhoria. The largest of the tjiftlik villages are Vissiani, near Dhelvinaki, on the road to Konitza, and Politziana two hours beyond Sopiki. All the inhabitants of Pogoiani are Greek except those of Vostina, which place is three hours from Dhelvinaki, on the mountain of Libokhovo, above the right bank of the eastern branch of the Dryno, bearing N. 14 W. by compass from Dhelvinaki. The Karamuratates were anciently a part of Pogoiani; but being now all Mahometans, they are considered as forming a separate division, and are in fact an Albanian conquest;

§ 4.102 for Pogoianl is properly a Greek district, though now subject to the Albanian power in the person of Aly Pasha. Greek is spoken as far as Sopiki and Frastana inclusive, beyond which the Albanian is in common use. Dhelvinaki, lying near the great road leading from Ioannina to Arghyrokastro, Tepeleni, and Avlona, as well as to Corfu by Dhelvino, suffers much from konaks. The serai was built for the Vezir by an angaria, of which Dhelvinaki bore only a proportional share. In most of the large villages there are similar buildings, to which His Highness contributes little more than cushions and carpets when they are occasionally furnished in expectation of his visiting them. At other times they are locked up and useless, unless it be in terrorem, by reminding the people that he may on any day make his appearance among them. They are all constructed in the same slight manner, and if left without repairs, which are seldom or ever thought of, soon become uninhabitable. For the same expence, or rather with an equal quantity of forced labour and gratuitous materials, the Vezir might have made roads and bridges all over Epirus, and thus permanently have improved the country. Like most of the towns of Greece and Albania, Dhelvinaki is divided into two inimical parties. There are five churches and fifteen priests in the village: no physician nor schoolmaster. The primates assert that the people would never agree to the expence of a physician and schoolmaster in addition to the heavy impositions of the Vezir; but I am told by others that it depends entirely upon the primates, who are themselves indisposed to the expence. The foreign trade, in which the people of Dhelvinaki and some of the other villages of Pogoiani engage, is chiefly that between Greece and the Black Sea, where they exchange the oil of the Seven Islands, of the Morea, and of Crete; the dried fruits of Smyrna, the wines of the Greek islands, or coffee and sugar purchased at Constantinople or Smyrna, against iron, pitch, butter, caviar, and a few other productions of the countries on the coast of the Black Sea. Furs are also imported by them from Russia, and gold thread from Germany, for the purpose of making Albanian lace and embroidery.

§ 4.103 June 7.—At 5.30 p.m. we proceed towards Konitza: the road passes through narrow valleys grown with meagre rye and barley, or with vines, which succeed better in this poor soil. We then ascend a ridge which commands a prospect of the plain of Tzerovina, as well as of all the country as far as the mountains of Kalarytes and Arta. To the eastward are seen those beyond Konitza, and between the latter and the position of Ioannina the stupendous cliffs arid snowy summits on the eastern side of Zagori. After having crossed some rocky heights, preceded by a man on foot for a guide, we arrive, at 7.20, at Vishani, a village containing about 100 families, and standing on the highest part of a long ridge, which, branching from Mount Nemertzika, separates the course of the waters flowing to the Kalama and to the Dryno. The village being built of the ordinary calcareous stone of the Epirote mountains, but more than usually white, and being roofed with πλάκες, or irregular slabs, of the same stone, looks at a distance as if covered with snow. The soil of the slopes around is tolerably good, though very stony, producing in wheat six or seven to one. The village is a tjiftlik of the Vezir, who takes two-fifths for his dbekatia and share of the crop, and pays no expences. A large quantity of corn has been spoilt this year in consequence of the badness of his magazines, and of the impediments to its being transported by sea. In these cases it is a common practice with His Highness to bestow it upon some of his loving subjects in exchange for an equal quantity of sound corn.

§ 4.104 June 8th.—Among the numerous instances of resemblance between ancient and modern customs observable throughout Eastern Europe and Western Asia, there is none more remarkable, or that better serves perhaps to mitigate the miseries of despotism, than the system of clientela, which pervades all ranks, and which was common even among the republicans of Greece and Rome. It is a part or consequence of this system, that the request of one person to another in favour of a third, when made under particular relation of consanguinity or supposed friendship between the two former, cannot easily be refused. Even the most despotic chiefs are in great measure bound by this custom, and it is often considered a matter of certainty that the pardon of an offender may be obtained from the Vezir Aly,

§ 4.105 if some particular person of known influence can be induced to petition in favour of him. To the traveller this is attended with great inconvenience, as all sorts of requests are made to him, founded upon this maxim, sometimes the most trifling and ridiculous, at others such as he would gladly be the means of promoting, were not compliance in any case imprudent, as it would produce an endless repetition of such demands, and many inconveniences. This morning a woman of Vissiani intreats my interest with the Vezir to procure the freedom of her son, who is in prison at Ioannina, and a man who has been married three or four years to a woman without having children, wishes by the Vezir’s interference with the Church to obtain a divorce and marry again, his wife being, as he asserts, wicked and perverse, and resisting all his arguments to persuade her to a separation. Another request to me for an antidote to the magic arts of an enemy, by which a husband has become εμποδισμένος, is addressed to the medical knowledge, which every Frank is supposed to possess. From Vissiani we diverge about two miles to the left of the direct road, in order to visit Lakhanokastro, where we arrive at the end of 70 minutes. A summit at half way commands a view of a beautiful valley lying between the ridges of Dhelvinaki and Vissiani and the foot of the steep mountain Nemertzika. Sopiki is eight miles distant in a direct line, but though standing in a lofty situation on the slope of Nemertzika is not in sight from our road.

§ 4.106 Frastana occupies a similar situation half way between Sopiki and Lakhanokastro, and above it towards the summit of Nemertzika is a plain and some fine sources of water, where the Vezir has thoughts of building a village and a serai. Lakhanokastro is a village adjoining a ruined castle which stands on an eminence overhanging the river. The walls of the castle are formed of small rough stones and cement, and seem to be of the same date as those at Vela. The surrounding scenery is very beautiful. Slopes covered with corn-fields mixed with groves of oak and elm, are finely contrasted with the bare heights and snowy summits of Nemertzika. Having crossed at 7.23 the river which rises at a short distance above Lakhanokastro, and which is now a pure and rapid stream, though dry in the middle of summer, we mount through a wood of oaks and chestnuts to Tjaraplana, a village delightfully situated near the summit of a ridge advancing from Mount Nemertzika, among heights abounding in cattle and sheep, and surrounded with vineyards, in which the labourers are breaking the ground with a two-pronged hoe; we then cross the summit of the ridge, and descending through woods of oak, at 9 cross the direct road from Premedi to Ioannina, and at 9.30 arrive at Sykia, which contains ten or twelve houses only, and stands on a slope overhanging the junction of the two great branches of the Viosa,

§ 4.107 called Konitziotiko and Voidhomati. Here we remain until 3.45. At 4.4, cross the Voidhomati about a mile above its junction with the Konitziotiko, and traverse a plain where the peasants are sowing maize, or ploughing in preparation for it; the excessive rain having delayed these labours much beyond the usual time. Close to the right is the steep side of a high mountain, covered on the summit with firs, and in the middle region with hollyoaks. It is the lower part of that great summit of the range of Pindus, here named Lazari, but better known in more distant parts of the country as the mountain of Papingo, which is the nearest village. At 5.35 we cross the bridge of Konitza, just below the opening where the river emerges into the plain between two woody precipices of immense height, above which the mountains are entirely clothed with forests of fir. To the left of the opening the snowy peaks of Lazari overhang these forests; on the opposite or eastern side the summits are not visible. When we left Vissiani this morning the weather was as usual perfectly clear; towards 9 a few clouds began to appear on the mountains behind Konitza, which continued to accumulate, and ended in a deluge of rain, with much thunder and lightning: all of it, however, fell on the great heights above Konitza; none either in that town or on our road thither from Sykia, though the hills immediately above the valleys were loaded with the most threatening clouds.

§ 4.108 The Viosa, on issuing from the great chasm which gives passage to it, turns to the southwest, and leaves to the right a long declivity on which the town of Konitza is situated, occupying a large space of ground. The Varusi, or Greek quarter, which is above the Turkish town, separated from it by a portion of the declivity, is between two and three miles from the bridge. Above the Varusi the ridge rises to a rocky summit which is connected with the great precipices overhanging the right bank of the river. The master of the house which is appointed for my konak is the head of one of the two parties into which the Greek quarter, according to custom, is divided: he was not long since hodja-bashi, but in consequence of some accusations of his enemies was deprived of his post and thrown into prison at Ioannina; for to such complaints Aly is generally ready enough to listen, as he exacts money from the contending parties, as well when they attain power as when they are deposed from it. Nor are they disagreeable to him, as strengthening his power as a Musulman and an Albanian; indeed, without these discords Greece could not long continue a part of the Ottoman empire. My host had a temporary alienation of mind when in prison. By a sacrifice of money he regained his liberty, but he can hardly be said to have recovered his senses, as he is not yet cured of the ambition of being proestos. Such is the life of a Greek primate, struggling to attain office, contending with some other chief families of the place, amassing money, partly by industry, partly by plunder,

§ 4.109 deposed and stripped by the Turk, and again quarrelling and intriguing for power. Konitza contains 600 Musulman houses, and 200 Christian. A large palace of the Vezir on the northern side of the town, with a shahtar wan, garden, and harem, is already falling to ruin, although only twenty years old; a small part of the harem is occupied by the widow of Vely Bey of Premedi, daughter of Vely Bay of Klisura, who married Aly Pasha’s sister. In the Varusi the most conspicuous building is the palace of the bishop of Konitza and Vela, situated not far below the summit of the ridge. He is a suffragan of the επαρχια, or metropolitan province of Ioannina, where I left him humbly attending upon his Despot, as the metropolitans are generally called, even by the Turks of Greece. His palace commands a prospect of singular beauty and magnificence. The plain of Konitza, covered with corn-fields and vineyards, is bounded on the opposite side by the woody ridge upon which are situated Sykia, Ostanitza, and the villages of the Karamuratates, above which latter rise the stupendous rocks of Mount Nemertzika, extending as far as Premedi, and from thence in a lower ridge to Klisura and the Aoi fauces. The river descends from Konitza to that pass along a narrow valley hidden from view by the ridges, which are a continuation of the heights of Konitza, and which rise steeply from the valley. In a conspicuous situation upon one of the highest parts of them, distant four hours from Konitza to the north-west, stands the Turkish town of Liaskoviki, containing not less than 1000 houses.

§ 4.110 The intermediate hills, though steep and lofty, are not rocky, and are cultivable in every part. The same may be said generally of the great mass of mountains lying between Konitza and Grevena, and of those also to the northward as far as Korytza and Berat, with the exception of the highest points, which are bare rocks. It was perhaps from the scarcity of quarries furnishing large masses in the lower parts of the mountains, and from the friable nature of the stone where it occurs, that Hellenic ruins elsewhere so well preserved by their gigantic masonry, are so rare in Western Greece to the northward of the plain of Ioannina. To the south-east the plain of Konitza, as level as the sea, is closed by the great heights along the foot of which we approached the town. The lower part of this mountain has that beautiful regular concave slope which is often found in the scenery of Greece; above it rise the dark forests of fir, finely contrasted with the slope and plain below, as well as with the snowy precipices of Mount Lazari above them. I was surprised to hear that so elevated a situation as Konitza, and particularly the Greek quarter, is not considered healthy: in the upper part of the town, according to the Greek expression, “sleep is heavy,” caused, it is said, by the rocky height, and the woody and precipitous peaks which being too near create a damp and stagnant air.

§ 4.111 June 9.—This evening, ascending the summit behind the Varusi, I arrive, in a quarter of an hour from the highest houses, at a fine source, which supplies all the fountains of the town. The summit itself not only commands a more extended view to the westward than any part of the town affords, but opens a prospect to the east and north of the whole mountainous region for thirty or forty miles towards Grevena and Korytza. The most conspicuous object, bearing E.N.E., is Mount Smolika, or Zmolska, one of the highest peaks of the Pindus range. On its eastern side stands Samarina, a large Vlakhiote town ten hours from Konitza, in the way to Grevena, but situated northward of a right line between these towns., Khierasovo, midway from hence to Samarina, is still farther northward, the road making that indirect line in order to turn the northern end of Mount Smolika. All the geography within sight is well explained to me by the commandant of the Vezir’s troops at Konitza, a dirty Albanian of Tepeleni, but who possesses the usual intelligence and experience of the Albanians upon these subjects. The Greek peasantry are seldom deficient in the former quality; but their information is confined, and few, even of the armatoli, can compare with the Albanians, whose frequent change of service or of quarters gives them a more extensive knowledge of the country. The Osmanlis are generally as unwilling as they are incapable of giving any satisfactory answers to such inquiries. On these occasions great surprise is generally expressed when the traveller is found to be acquainted with the correct position of places not in sight;

§ 4.112 and as the sextant or compass is generally displayed in such cases, the whole is sometimes attributed to magic, the object of which is generally supposed to be hidden treasure. Many, however, are somewhat more enlightened, and consider the travels of Europeans as preparations only for the conquest of the country. As to inscriptions, it is difficult for them to conceive that we seek for them but as indications of treasure; and the opinion is by no means absurd, since coins of gold and silver are frequently found in every part of the country, and sometimes in considerable deposits. In the year 1803 a large vase was found at Kamarina (Cassope) filled with tetradrachms of Athens, Acarnania, and Epirus, many of which I have procured since I have been in Greece. Konitza, although it has long been a part of Albania acquisita, which for the last fifty years may be said to have comprehended all Epirus to the Ambracic Gulf, is, according to the limits of language, exactly on the northern boundary of Greece: the Greek being generally spoken here, while at Liaskoviki the Albanian is in common use. According to the same test of language, the districts of Premedi and Dangli, which border upon that of Konitza to the northward, are Albanian, though Greek until the decline of the Eastern Empire, and afterwards Servian, as many of the names of places indicate. The Danglidhes, to use the Greek termination of the word, comprehend the hilly country included between the valley of the Uzumi, or southern branch of the Apsus, and that of the Upper Viosa or Aous.

§ 4.113 The principal towns are Skrapari, Vithkuki, Dusnitza, Frassiari, and Zavaliani. They border eastward upon the district of Kolonia, the best part of which is a succession of fertile valleys watered by the confluents of the Uzumi at the western foot of the central ridge of Pindus. It is separated only from the plain of Korytza by a ridge, of which the highest part is conspicuous from that town, and which connects the Pindus with Mount Tomor. The lands of Konitza produce wine, wheat, barley, kalambokki, and pulse. The maize, which in the plain of Ioannina was already coming up, is here hardly sown: but this makes no great difference in the time of harvest, as three days suffice to bring it out of the ground. The wheat in good seasons and situations gives ten to one; upon an average six or seven. The produce of bread-corn is not sufficient for the consumption of Konitza, because a great part of the plain being the property of the Vezir, his share of the crop is transported to Ioannina or into his magazines elsewhere. The remainder of the plain consists of spahiliks in the hands of Turks of Konitza, and the land is usually cultivated upon the condition that the Ζευγίτης, or farmer, shall receive the seed from the owner, deduct the dhekatia from the gross produce of grain, and deliver to the owner a proportion of the remainder, which varies according to the quality of the land from a half to a third.

§ 4.114 Sometimes the agreement is that the owner shall be at no expence, except for half the Alonistic horses, and shall take a third of the crop. When the property of a farm, as often happens, is in shares, a fixed commutation in money or produce is generally made for the dhekatia or tithe. In vineyards a money commutation for the tithe is the general practice, and the produce is equally divided, the farmer paying all the expences. The wine is a poor acid liquor, sold for four paras the oke, or less than a penny a quart. The price of daily labour varies from thirty paras, with bread and wine, to sixty paras with wine only, according to the season, the demand for hands, and the severity of the labour; fifty, with wine, is about the average in harvest. There are many situations in the mountains behind Konitza, where the plough is useless on account of the steepness of the ground, and where the hoe alone is employed in the corn lands. The daily rains, which have now lasted for a month, have this day ceased. That which I have already mentioned as having occurred yesterday fell to such an excess on the mountains that the bed of the river a little below the town, where it is half a mile in breadth, was completely filled in the night. This day at noon it subsided, and left the banks strewn with fish and trunks of trees. I have had some fine carp to-day for dinner, which were procured from thence. These sudden deluges, called πλημμύραις or πλημμύρια, are common at Konitza. The wood brought down by them and deposited in the bed of the river, is sufficient to supply all the neighbourhood with plank and fuel.

§ 4.115 Although I have not been able to discover, either in the castle or in any other part of Konitza, any vestiges of Hellenic antiquity, the strength and commanding situation of the place with relation to the Macedonian frontier, as well as its plain, which is the most fertile and extensive, occurring on the whole course of the main branch of the Aous, between its sources and the Illyrian plains, may justify the confident belief, that Konitza was the site of an ancient city of some importance; whatever its particular appellation may have been, it was probably the chief town of the Paravaei. As the true name of Paravaea and its etymology are important to the question of their situation, it may not be unworthy of remark, that Paravaea is proved to be the correct form by Stephanus,

§ 4.116 though there can be little hesitation in believing that he was in error, as he often is in his chorographical indications, in ascribing the Paravaei to Thesprotia, as no part of Thesprotia extended so far inland as the river Viosa, or any of its tributaries. He confirms his orthography of Paravaei by a verse of Rhianus, and by the remark, that the people derived their name from inhabiting the banks of the Αυος, one of the many ancient forms of the name of the river now called Viosa. By Plutarch it is written Αύα, or Αραυα, by Pliny, Apha, and by other authors Αίας, which, as well as’Αώος, its most common appellation, were all modifications of the same radical word, wherein the Au, and Arau, and Arar, and Avon of Western Europe, have originated as well as the Latin aqua, and the word for water in many modern languages. The modern name of the river varies slightly in like manner, in different parts of its course, being called Vuissa, or Vovussa, as well as Viosa. Anciently, it would seem that Ava or Ανος was used in the upper valleys,’Αώος towards the middle course of the river, about the celebrated stena, and Mas in the maritime plains. The last may be gathered from several authors, but especially from Valerius Maximus, who relates that the Apolloniatae having requested assistance from the Dyrrhachii, the latter replied, “Have you not Ajax (Αίας)?”

§ 4.117 Though Pliny seems not to have been aware that his Apha was the same river as the Aous or Aeas, which flowed near Apollonia, there cannot at least be any doubt as to its identity with the Ava of Plutarch, both authors describing them as rivers of Molossia, which province of Epirus probably was often in common parlance understood to extend as far as the central ridge of Pindus, and thus to comprehend the sources and extreme tributaries of the Viosa. The particular part of the Aous inhabited by the Paravaei may be gathered from their situation relatively to that of other Epirote tribes, as indicated by the ancient authorities, of which the most ancient and most respectable is that of Thucydides, in his narrative of the expedition of Cnemus into Acarnania, in the third year of the Peloponnesian war. The Lacedaemonian commander, aftef having been joined at Leucas by his allies of Ambracia, Anactorium, and Leucas, proceeded to the Ambracic Gulf, and there received a reinforcement of barbarians, as Thucydides denominates them. These were, first the Chaones, a people not then governed by kings, and who sent 1000 men commanded by two of their nobles; secondly, some Atintanes and Molossi, commanded by Sabylinthus, who was tutor to Tharypas, the young king of the Molossi; thirdly, a body of Paravaei, commanded by their king Oraedus, under whose orders Antiochus, king of Orestis, had placed a thousand Orestae; lastly a thousand Macedonians sent by Perdiccas, who arrived too late to be of any service.

§ 4.118 It seems evident from these facts, that the Atintanes and Molossi were conterminous, as well as the Paravaei and Orestae. To the southward, if the text of Scylax has been properly adjusted, the Atintanes extended to the Dodonaea; that is to say, to the northern part of Molossis. The southern portion of them inhabited the country included between the Dryno and the upper Viosa, of which Mount Nemertzika is the highest summit, and Libokhovo the principal modern town. A transaction related by Polybius, to which I have before had occasion to refer, seems to show clearly that Atintania comprehended that part of the country. A comparison of the same author with Scylax and Lycophron renders it equally evident, that the Atintanes bordered to the north-west upon the districts of Oricus, Amantia, Byllis, and Parthus, thus occupying to the northward ail the mountainous country included between the Apsus and Aous, below the stena of the latter river. Atintania thus placed accords perfectly with the character given of it by Livy and Strabo, as rugged in surface, poor in soil, and rude in climate. It was entirely included in Chaonia by Ptolemy, who takes no notice of the Atintanes.

§ 4.119 I have before remarked that the country around Ostanitza appears, from Livy's narrative of the retreat of Philip from the Aoi fauces, to have been anciently named Triphylia of Melotis. These names do not occur in any other author, but that of Melotis, as indicating a sheep-feeding district, accords exactly with that elevated region of pastures adjacent to the southern side of Mount Nemertzika, which extends from thence to the plains of Libokhovo, Tzerovina, and Ioannina. Melotis, therefore, was probably the appellation anciently given to the pastoral highlands on the borders of Molossis and Atintania. Such a country is naturally divided into confederacies of small tribes; whence perhaps the name Triphylia, which seems to have corresponded to the district now occupied by the people called Karamuratates, and including Ostanitza. If the relative situations of Chaonia, Atintania, Melotis, and Molossis, are thus correctly indicated, and if the Tymphaei occupied the sources of the Arachthus, as Strabo attests, the Paraveei are of necessity confined to the valleys of the main or eastern branch of the Aous, and the mountains in which that river originates, extending from the Aoi Stena or Klisura, as far south as the borders of Tymphoea and Molossis. Of this country the district of Konitza is the most central and fertile part.

§ 4.120 Arrian, in describing the route of Alexander from Elimiotis or the modern Grevena and Tjersemba, to Pelinnaeum in Thessaly, which stood a little eastward of Trikkala, remarks that Alexander passed by the highlands of Tymphaea and Paravaea. The order of these two words ought clearly to be reversed, since Tymphaea, having given rise to the Arachthus, could not have been to the northward of a district on the Aous. The Paravaean highlands seem, therefore, to have been Lazari and Smolika, with the adjacent mountains, beyond, which Alexander passed the Tymphaean summits. As the words of Rhianus already cited show that the Omphalienses were near the Paravaei, I should be disposed to place Omphalium at Premedi; for the valley of the Viosa, between Konitza and the straits of Klisura, is naturally divided into two districts by the narrow part of it below Ostanitza, and Premedi has no less the appearance of having been the chief place of the northern, than Konitza of the southern division of the valley. That Omphalium, if its district was contiguous to that of the Paravaei, lay in this direction from Konitza, is rendered evident by Ptolemy, who places Omphalium among the interior cities of Chaonia, or in other words, in Atintania, together with Elaeus and Antigoneia, of which the districts were those now occupied by Libokhovo or Arghyrokastro, and Tepeleni. According to the same geographer, Hecatompedum was also a city of the interior of Chaonia. Its situation may possibly have been in the vale of the Sukha, above Libokhovo.

§ 4.121 The Orestae, who are shown by Thucydides to have bordered on the Paravaei, and who, partly perhaps as having originally been an Epirote tribe, were united with the other Epirotes against Acarnania in the Peloponnesian War, were, as it appears from the historian, at that time governed by a king, who, like the king of the neighbouring Lyncestae and Elimiotae, was in a state of submissive alliance with the more powerful monarch of Macedonia. Afterwards they became, together with the two former people, provincials of the Macedonian kingdom, as the Eordaei, being nearer to the original seat of the royal power of Macedonia, had become at an earlier period. We have already seen that the Orestae possessed Celetrum, now Kastoria; they appear, therefore, to have extended from the crest of the ridge of Pindus to the mountains beyond the valleys of Kastoria and Mavrovo, which separated the Orestae from the Lyncestae and Eordaei. The most central and fertile part of this country is the plain of Anaselitza, at the foot of the mountain of Grammos, a part of the great central ridge. Here, therefore, was probably situated the chief town of the Orestae, named Argos in commemoration of its having been founded by Orestes. It would seem from the words “Argestaion campum” which Livy employs in describing a place in Orestis,

§ 4.122 that the people of Argos, in conformity with a favourite Macedonian termination of the ethnic adjective, and to distinguish themselves from the natives of other towns named Argos, called themselves Argestae. It is in describing an irruption of the Dardani into Macedonia, which recalled Philip son of Demetrius from the Peloponnesus, in the year 208 B.C., that Livy notices this plain. A chieftain named Eropus having taken Lychnidus and some towns of the Dassaretii, the Dardani then entered Orestis and descended into the Argestaean plain. The words “Orestidem jam tenere et descendisse in Argestaion campum,” show that the plain of the Argestae was towards the southern extremity, and could not therefore be the valley of Biklista, besides which consideration the greater magnitude of the plain of Anaselitza seems better suited to the circumstances. If, therefore, Argos Oresticum was the same place as the Orestia of Stephanus, of which I have little doubt, notwithstanding his having placed among eleven towns of the name of Argos one in Macedonia, without any remark as to its identity with Orestia, it might best be sought for near the issue of the Haliacmon from the mountain of Grammos into the plain of Anaselitza; for Stephanus describes Orestia as situated on “a mountain overlooking the Macedonian land”

§ 4.123 which seems to imply that the mountain was at the extreme frontier of Macedonia. And this accords with all that has already been advanced as to the comparative chorography of this part of Greece, as the ridge of Grammos appears to have been the boundary between Orestis and a part of Dassaretia. According to the preceding supposition, the march of the Dardani from Lychnidus and Dassaretia into the plain of the Argestae was obviously through the pass of Tzangon and by Biklista towards Zeligos, leaving Kastoria to the left. Between the countries which were occupied by the Dassaretii, Paravaei, and Orestae, was the district near the sources of the Uzumi, or southern branch of the Apsus, now called Kolonia, apparently a Roman name, and which may have been introduced by a colony of Wallachians, whose language abounds in Latin words, derived from the Roman settlements in Dacia. There seems some reason to doubt in which of the three ancient districts just mentioned Kolonia ought to be included. I am inclined to attribute it to Orestis; for it is remarkable that Strabo, in whose time the crest of Pindus was considered the separation between Epirus and Upper Macedonia, mentions the Orestae among the tribes of either province;

§ 4.124 and a part of the Orestae having on this supposition dwelt to the westward of the Pindus, it would be more easily explained how they were originally considered an Epirote tribe, although the greater part of them having dwelt on the eastern side of the Pindus, and all that country having by its position afforded an easy conquest to the kings of Macedonia, Orestis was in subsequent times considered a Macedonian district. Neither Orestis nor Paravaea are named by Livy and Diodorus among the countries which entered into the composition of the Fourth Macedonia at the Roman conquest. But they were probably both included; Orestis, because the greater part of it at least was situated to the eastward of the Pindus, and Paravaea, because it was almost surrounded by countries which were ascribed to that division of the tetrarchy, namely, Atintania, Tymphaea, and Elimeia. But this wide extension of Macedonia westward, derived from the conquests of the kings in that direction, did not probably last longer than the tetrarchy. Under Augustus, at least, when the chorography was established, which lasted through the empire, Atintania, Paravaea, and Tymphaea, were all ascribed to Epirus; the natural barrier of Mount Pindus having formed the line of separation between that province and Macedonia.

§ 4.125 June 10.—This afternoon, at 5.5, I recross the bridge of Konitza on my return to Ioannina, and follow the left bank of the river, where, on either of the stream, lie many hundreds of large firs which were brought down by the plimmyri or flood, besides smaller pieces of other trees. Sawyers’ frames are fixed upon the banks of the river, and some of the trees are already cut up into plank. For fifty minutes we follow the same narrow path between the foot of the mountain and the river by which we came, then leave it to the right, and at the same time quitting the river, continue to skirt the foot of the mountain until we arrive in the plain branching south-eastward from that of Konitza, and which is watered by the great branch of the Viosa named Voidhomati. After passing some copious sources at the foot of the mountain, we arrive, at a quarter of an hour beyond them, at 6.55, at the bridge of Voidhomati, where this river issues from the gorges of Zagori. On either side of the opening are perpendicular cliffs, and below, on the banks of the river, many fine plane-trees, which extend to a considerable distance in the plain. The bridge is of the usual Albanian construction, very high and narrow. The stream, which is about seventy feet wide, is deep and transparent, never fails in summer, and abounds in trout. The great summit called Lazari above the village of Papingo appears through the opening. It is one of the highest points of the range of Pindus, but apparently not quite so high as Kakardhitza. Though it retains snow all the year, it is always bare in many parts, in consequence of the extreme abruptness of its serrated summit, which is composed entirely of white rocks.

§ 4.126 After halting a quarter of an hour we leave the plain to the right, ascend the heights, and soon obtain a view of the mountainous district of Zagori, where in a hollow just below the great summits is the large village of Papingo, and nearer to us two others. At 8.10 we arrive at Artzista, which commands a similar view. The slopes below the village are sown with rye and barley; and a long fine grass is cut in many parts of the surrounding hills, which is dried upon the roofs of the houses. These and the other labours of agriculture are chiefly performed by women, the men being absent the greater part of the year for the purpose of supplying by their industry, as traders, artisans, or labourers, the subsistence which their mountains refuse. They generally return to their native villages in the summer, and remain a month or two. June 11.—Leaving Artzista at 7 a.m., we cross a ridge which separates the little territory of that village from a fine vale trending southward, parallel to the plain of Ioannina, and stretching along the eastern side of Mount Mitzikeli, at a middle elevation between its summit and the level of the lake of Ioannina. At 8.25 Kato Sudhena is half a mile on the right, and a quarter of an hour farther Apano Sudhena is on the left. Other small villages of Zagori are in sight. After having crossed a gorge of Mount Mitzikeli, at 9.55, we enter Dovra, situated in a hollow on the summit of the ridge, and thus hidden from the plains to the southward and westward. It is remarkable how entirely the boys of these villages adopt from their infancy those habits of idleness which the males of the Epirote mountains indulge in when at home,

§ 4.127 while the girls of a similar age are busily employed in executing the household work, and even the labours of the field. The idleness of the Greek, Albanian, and Vlakhiote mountaineer, however, is not like that of the Turk; he is assiduous, and laborious every where but in his native mountains. From Dovra to Ioannina is a ride of three hours and a half; a tedious descent leads down the side of the mountain to the shore of the lake of Lapsista, or rather to the narrow marsh which connects that lake with the lake of Ioannina, and which is here crossed by a bridge or causeway upon arches. At the eastern end of the bridge stands a khan, called that of Alexi, from having been built at the expence of Kyr Alexis Nutzo of Zagori. A stream flows through the arches from left to right, showing that the origin of the branch of the Kalama, which flows through the katavothra of the lake of Lapsista to Velitzista, is to the southward of the causeway. A ridge, which descending from the highest summit of Mount Mitzikeli meets the marsh midway between the bridge and the northern extremity of the lake of Ioannina, seems to form the line of separation between the waters flowing respectively to the lakes of Ioannina and Lapsista. July 3.—The height which rises from the southern extremity of the lake of Ioannina, and ie separated only from it by the causeway which leads to Dhrysko and the pass of Metzovo, and which on every other side is surrounded by the. plain, receives the name of Kastritza from the ruins of an ancient city, which not only covered all the summit,

§ 4.128 but had a secondary inclosure or fortified suburb on the southern side of the hill, so as to make the whole circumference between two and three miles. Of the suburb the remains consist chiefly of detached fragments, and of remains of buildings strewn upon the land, which is here cultivated. But the entire circuit of the town walls is traceable on the heights, as well as those of the acropolis on the summit. These in some places are extant to the height of eight or ten feet. The masonry is of the second order, or composed of trapezoidal or polyhedral masses, which are exactly fitted to one another without cement, and form a casing for an interior mass of rough stones and mortar. The following I found to be the dimensions of some of the exterior stones: 5 ft. by 3 ft. 5 in. by 2 ft.—5 ft. 4 in. by 3 ft. I in. by 2 ft. 2 in.—4 ft. 3 in. by 3 ft. 11 in. by 3 ft. The walls follow the inequalities of the crest of the height, and are flanked at irregular distances with square towers, coeval apparently with the walls, as the angles only are of horizontal courses, the intermediate parts being of polygonal masonry, in the manner shown by the annexed elevation of the face of one of the towers. [sketch].

§ 4.129 Coins and other remains of antiquity are often found on the height as well as in the ploughed lands to the southward. The variety of their dates serves to show that the place has been well inhabited during a long succession of ages; nor less so the repairs, some of Roman and some even of Byzantine times, which the original masonry has evidently undergone. Substructions equally various in their degree of antiquity are to be seen in several' parts of the inclosed space, and among them several bottle-shaped cisterns or granaries. A spacious and well-built old monastery, which stands in the middle of the Hellenic enclosure, surrounded by a grove of pirnaria, bears the same name as the hill; but although built in great part of ancient materials, it does not preserve a single inscribed or sculptured marble, nor could I find any such relics on any part of the ancient site. As there can be no doubt that this was one of the leading cities of Epirus, and that it flourished about the same period of antiquity as those others, of which the remains subsist at Kastri near L0lovo, at Zalongo, at St. John and at Kastri of Fanari, at Palea Venetia, at Finiki, and several other places, it seems a necessary consequence of identifying the valley Of Ioannina with the Hellopia of Hesiod, that the ruins at Kastritza are those of Dodona, though the celebrated temple may perhaps have been in a different situation.

§ 4.130 CHAPTER 37 EPIRUS. IOANNINA, July, 1809.—Tα Ιωάννινα, as the name of this city occurs in the Byzantine history, and is still written by ecclesiastics, is corrupted in the vulgar idiom to Ίάννινα, Ίάνενα, Γιαvενα, or more frequently Γιάννινα, from whence the Italian form Giannina. The ordinary pronunciation conforms to the vulgar spelling, and may be nearly represented in English by Yannina; but the better educated not only adhere to the orthography derived from the name Ιωάννης, but preserve also the sound of the omega in vocal utterance. The valley of Ioannina is twenty miles in length from north to south, with a breadth of seven in the broadest part, which is about two miles to the southward of the city.

§ 4.131 It is one of those interior basins not uncommon in the limestone formation of Greece, which are so completely surrounded by mountains that the superfluous waters have no efflux but through the mountains themselves. To this obstruction we may attribute the existence of the two lakes of Lapsista and Ioannina, with the intermediate marshes which unite them. From the eastern margin of these waters the mountain Mitzikeli rises with such a degree of steepness, and so near to the city, that it cannot but have a powerful influence upon the climate of Ioannina: the perpendicular height of the mountain above the lake is about 2500 feet, the summit immediately opposite to the citadel is not more than 6000 yards in a direct line from it; and the breadth of the lake in the same part may be computed at a fourth of that distance. A prolongation of Mitzikeli at a lower elevation, but sufficiently separated from it by a hollow which gives passage to the road into Thessaly by Metzovo, is named Dhrysko Anglice Oakley. This ridge forms the boundary of the southern part of the basin of Ioannina to the east, and separates it from the narrow vale of the Arta or Arachthus. To the west and south the basin of Ioannina is inclosed by the chain of rocky heights which I have before described as separated from Mount Olytzika by a valley watered by a branch of the Kalama, which falls into that river at Suli of Kurenda. A continuation of these hills closes the basin of Ioannina to the north-westward, and embracing the lake of Lapsista, there unites with the roots of the northern end of Mitzikeli. At the southern extremity the basin is inclosed by the meeting of Mount Dhrysko with some heights connecting it with a long, bare, and lofty ridge, which, under the names of Xerovuni in the north and Kilberini in the south, extends to the neighbourhood of Arta. Between this ridge and a southerly prolongation of Olytzika is the long pass which leads from the Ambracian Gulf into the plain of Ioannina, and which is the most remarkable of the great natural communications leading from the western coast into the interior of Greece.

§ 4.133 The valley of Ioannina is divided longitudinally by a low ridge. The western portion consists of a dry, stony, and not very fertile soil, but which produces wheat, barley, millet, maize, and vines. The eastern plain is occupied entirely, with the exception of a branch from the southern extremity lying between the hill of Kastritza and Mount Dhrysko, by the two lakes, the intermediate marsh, and the meadows, which border their whole extent, and the breadth of which is much increased in the summer by the retreat of the waters. Near the city and a few villages are gardens and fields of maize; all the remainder is an uninclosed plain of pasture. Although at first sight there is no appearance of any efflux from the lakes, nor consequently any outlet whatever for the waters which descend from the surrounding mountains into the valley, upon minuter examination it is discovered that each lake has a katavothra or cavity in the rocks at its extremity, through which a subterraneous current finds its way. The northern lake, commonly called that of Lapsista from a small village near its margin, almost fills up the northern extremity of the plain in the rainy season, and is then three or four miles in diameter, but in summer it is often reduced to less than half these dimensions. The gradually desiccated ground then furnishes an excellent field for the growth of maize, and a stream is traced flowing from the south-western extremity of the lake into a channel under the rocks in the direction of the copious sources which have been before mentioned as bursting from the side of the hill of Velitzista, and as descending from thence to the Kalama.

§ 4.135 The lake of Ioannina is between six and seven miles in length from the hill of Kastritza at the southern extremity to the village of POrama, near which begins the narrow marshy tract, five miles in length, which connects it with the lake of Lapsista. The breadth of the lake varies from about three miles at the southern extremity to less than one opposite to the kastro or citadel of Ioannina, a little to the southward of which it is divided into two channels by the nisi or island. As the only waters which flow into this lake from the surrounding country are the torrents of that part of Mount Mitzikeli which overhangs it, together with those of the heights of St. George on the western side of the city, and a single rivulet from the plain of Barkumadhi at the southern extremity: its principal supplies are evidently derived from subterraneous contributions. Many of these sources are visible at the foot of the mountain, along the margin of the lake, and particularly opposite to the island, at some very copious fountains called Krionero, or the cold water. Though the lake in calm weather appears motionless, the course of its superficial waters to the south is easily perceived in the channel between the island and the foot of the mountain, from whence it may be traced by means of floating bodies moving very slowly towards the foot of the hill of Kastritza, where it enters many small katavothra in the rocks below the causeway on the road from Ioannina to Dhrysko. The existence as well of the current in the lake as of the subterraneous discharge, is so well known at Ioannina, that the channel to the eastward of the island is known by the name of the Trokhotos, and the subterraneous channels of Kastritza, by that of the khoneftres or digesters, though the common Greek word katavothra is also applied to them. It would require some very exact observations and experiments to ascertain the course and emissory of this subterraneous stream. It may possibly join the Arachthus in the neighbouring part of its course; but a persuasion prevails both at Arta and Ioannina that it issues at those copious sources which I have described at the pass of Khanopulo near Arta, on the road from thence to Ioannina; and this opinion is confirmed by the existence in an intermediate position of a succession of deep unfailing pools of water in the southern part of the plain of Ioannina, which receive the torrents of the surrounding mountains without overflowing. These ponds, therefore, probably discharge a portion of their waters into the subterraneous channel which commences at the khoneftres.

§ 4.136 From the silence of ancient authors with regard to the two lakes of the valley of Ioannina, or the single lake of fifteen miles in length, as it may justly be described, an opinion may possibly arise that it had no existence in the time of those writers, but has been formed by the obstruction of the subterraneous channels, of which that branching from the southern lake being, if we suppose its exit to be at Khanopulo, thirty-five miles in length in a direct line, seems peculiarly liable to such an accident in a country very subject to earthquakes. The depth of water, however, in the lake, particularly between the citadel of Ioannina and the island, where it is never less than thirty feet, will hardly admit of the supposition that there has not always been a considerable body of water in the centre, maintained by the streams which issue from the foot of Mount Mitzikeli, added to the torrents which in this, the most rainy climate in Greece, pour plentifully into it from the vast slope of the mountain. The two highest summits of the low longitudinal ridge which separates the eastern from the western division of the plain of Ioannina, are the hill of Paleo-Gardhiki, near its northern extremity, one mile south of Lapsista, and that of St. George which rises immediately above Ioannina. The former is between four and five hundred feet above the level of the lake, the latter much less lofty. The city occupies the eastern face of the hill of St. George, together with a narrow level lying between it and the edge of the lake, where a promontory of a quadrangular form advances 500 yards into the lake, and widens to about 600 yards at its eastern or exterior side, where it consists of an abrupt rock higher at the two angles than in the intermediate part, and at those two points rising to about sixty feet above the level of the water. This promontory, which forms the Kαστρον or citadel, is insulated artificially by a wet ditch across the isthmus, within which it is protected by a lofty rampart armed with cannon, and having a single gate in the middle. The other sides of the citadel are defended by high walls, in the few points which admit of access from the lake; and where the shore is most precipitous, by strong substructions upon which various buildings are erected The entire southern shore of the peninsula is thus occupied by the harem of the great palace of Aly Pasha, terminating at the south-eastern cape in a mosque for the use of his household, from whence a covered descent leads to a kiosk built on a level with the surface of the lake, on the eastern side of the peninsula. A long narrow court separates the harem from the public apartments: these form the grand front of the palace which faces the north, and occupies, like the harem, the whole breadth of the promontory. The front consists of a main body with two wings, advancing at right angles to the former. As in Turkish palaces in general, the building has two stories, of which the upper only is inhabited. A double flight of steps in the centre of the building leads up from the court into a wide gallery which communicates with the state apartments.

§ 4.138 A great part of the remaining space in the citadel is occupied by the Jewish quarter, which stands near the rampart of the land front, just within the gate. [ It is not uncommon among the Turks to allow Jews to occupy their fortresses. This is no mark of respect, because a Jew is an object of greater contempt among them than a Christian; but they are less hated because less feared, and receive some favour because the Greek Christians are known to be particularly odious to them.] Of these houses the greater part exhibit a picture of misery not to be exceeded in any part of Turkey, many families living all the year in this severe climate in apartments defended only on three sides from the open air. Beyond this unclean quarter, the northern side of the citadel is occupied by a range of official buildings, among which is the fatal prison so much the object of horror throughout the greater part of Northern Greece, and which contains at present 250 persons, some of whom have been two or three years immured here. An irregular esplanade between these buildings and the palace is terminated at the north-eastern angle of the citadel by the principal mosque, surrounded with cypresses, a cemetery, and a small range of buildings for the use of the imams, with a portico in front of them. This mosque, which is said to have been built, as well as that of the harem at the south-eastern angle, on the site of a Greek church, is a conspicuous object in the beautiful scenery of Ioannina, and commands one of the finest panoramas in Greece, rich as this country is in the sublime and picturesque. A drawbridge leads out of the gate of the citadel over a small esplanade, which is the ordinary place of execution, into the bazar. This is an extensive quarter in the centre of the lowest part of the town, and consists of several narrow, intricate, dirty, ill-paved streets, occupied entirely by shops. From either end of it along the margin of the lake, branches a street occupied by the poorer classes of Greeks, and which, though not in its appearance of misery to be compared to that of the Jews, is the abode of more real poverty. All the better houses of the town are towards the slope of the hill of St. George.

§ 4.139 Ioannina contains about 1000 Musulman houses, 2000 Greek, and 200 Jewish. The Musulman families are not more numerous than the houses, but of Greeks there are supposed to be near 3000 families, and of Jews not less than four to each house upon an average. The Christians have six or seven churches served by fifty papadhes, or secular priests, who attend also to the private religious observances of the Greek families. The bishop and the priests attached to the metropolitan church, are, as usual, of the monastic order. There are sixteen mosques, including the two in the citadel, where the Jews have two synagogues. Since Ioannina has been the residence and capital of Aly Pasha, its permanent population has been gradually in part exchanged for that of a more transitory kind. The town is now constantly full of the natives of other parts of Greece and Albania, attracted here by the affairs or the expenditure arising from its being the seat of government of a large portion of Greece and Albania. Many families from distant parts of the country are forced to reside here as a security for the fidelity of their relatives who may be in the Vezir’s employment either here or in other parts of his dominions. The household establishment and troops of the Vezir and his sons, together with the Albanian soldiery, who are constantly here in their passage from one part of the country to another, increase the moveable population, but probably have not much augmented the whole amount beyond that which Ioannina contained fifty years ago, as many of the old families, both Greek and Turkish, have removed elsewhere to avoid the perils and extortion of the present government, and particularly the inconvenience of lodging Albanians, from which the Turkish houses are not exempt. Some of the Greek and Turkish houses in the higher parts of the town are among the best that are to be found in the provincial towns of European Turkey, though their external appearance gives little indication of it, in consequence of the custom which prevails here, as in other parts of Turkey, of avoiding the appearance of opulence, of having few windows towards the street, and of guarding them with iron bars of the rudest workmanship.

§ 4.141 The annexed plan of the house which I occupy will render the description of it more intelligible. 1. Outer court. 2. 2. Chambers on a level with it. 3. Middle court. 4. Stairs and principal gallery. 5. Chamber of reception of the master. 6, Inner court. 7, 1, 7, 7. Apartments of the harem. 8, Kitchen. 9, 9, 9. Galleries of the harem. 10, 10. Streets. This house was built by a Turkish bey, upon whose demise without heirs, or at least without any whose claims the Vezir thought proper to admit, it was seized upon by his Highness. It is situated at the angle of two streets, covers a square of about 100 feet the side, and consists, as usual, of two stories, of which the upper only is inhabited by the family.

§ 4.142 The house is divided into three parts, of which the inner was the harem: in the middle the master received and entertained visitors, and the outer served for persons in waiting and their horses, or for strangers, who were not admitted any further into the house. In each division is a court open to the sky. A wide gate, very near the angle of the two streets, sufficient for the admission of wheel-carriages, but used only for horses, there being not even a cart like those of Thessaly in the district of Ioannina, leads into the outer court, at the end of which are two small chambers on a level with the court; these served to lodge strangers and persons who came to the Bey from the country on business. A second wide gate leads into the middle court, and opposite to it is a flight of steps, which is open laterally to the court, but is protected by a roof and ascends into the principal gallery. These steps are the only stairs in the house, except a sort of ladder, from the third court into the gallery of the harem. The middle court is paved with stone; the two others covered Only with coarse gravel. According to Turkish custom, persons of superior or equal rank to the Bey rode up to the steps across the middle court, after which their horses were led back to the outer; but inferiors entered the middle court on foot. The gallery, which is about fifty feet by twelve, and forms an agreeable apartment in summer, opens at the end, to the right, into the chamber of reception, and leads, at the same extremity, by a passage at right angles to the great gallery, into two smaller ones looking down upon the third court and leading into the apartments of the harem.

§ 4.143 The pavement of the middle court extends under the chamber of reception; this in summer is the only place of refuge from the heat, which, when no clouds intervene, completely penetrates, by the hour of two in the.afternoon, all the upper apartments, which have nothing above a slight ceiling but a roof of concave tiles; so that towards the evening every part of the house is intolerably hot, and more than half the night is required to restore it to the temperature of the atmosphere. Such a flimsy construction is of course equally incapable of keeping out the cold in winter, against which there is no complete protection in such dwellings but a clothing of fur. A shed at the end of the middle court, opposite to the chamber of reception, is one of the stables: the other is below the gallery of the smaller apartments of the harem; both are open towards the respective courts, and here the horses stand on the bare stone pavement without any litter, and are watered only in the evening, after which their barley is given. Instead of the chopped straw, which is the common food of horses in Turkey during the day, hay is here substituted, and the quantity of barley at night is smaller. No windows in the house look to the street, except those of the two rooms on a level with the outer court, together with a single window in one corner of the principal apartment of the harem, which is closely latticed, but projects from the wall so as to afford a view of the street in either direction. A dim light, however, is derived from the street, in the two principal apartments by means of small fixed panes of stained glass not far below the ceiling.

§ 4.144 These, with the painted ceilings and wainscots, some parts of which are very gaudy, are the only decorations in the house. All these windows look into the courts, and are closed with wooden shutters within which are bars of iron. In general, the better houses of Ioannina have an inner window-frame behind the bars, containing small panes of a very bad kind of glass brought from the Adriatic; this addition, which is seldom seen in Asiatic Turkey or the warmer climates of Greece, is here rendered necessary by the long winter and the rudeness of the climate in every season. The best Greek houses differ not much in plan from the Turkish just described; but they are rather more comfortable, partly because the Greeks, especially the travelled merchants, have acquired some of the feelings of civilized Europe in this respect, and partly from the difference which is produced in the distribution and economy of the family, from the women not being so much concealed. There is seldom more than one court, and a small one perhaps at the back of the house; but the court is more spacious, with a wider and more ostentatious flight of steps leading to a larger wooden gallery into which all the principal apartments open. The gallery is supported by an arcade of stone continued perhaps along the side of the yard, in which is the gate leading into the street. A small garden sometimes occupies one side of the court, and at the end of the capacious gallery there is generally a raised kiosk.

§ 4.145 The gallery and kiosk are the usual residence of the family in summer; and here some of the men generally pass the night in that season. As usual both in Greek and Turkish houses, the sofa is the only furniture in sight, the bedding which is spread upon the sofa at night being deposited in closets on the sides of the chambers, and the small table with the round metal tray, which forms the only apparatus for meals, being put aside also when not in immediate use. In these respects Greek customs are nearly the same at Ioannina as in other parts of Turkey, though in some houses a table and chairs of European form are to be found, and Venetian or German mirrors are commonly suspended on the walls. In one or more of the rooms hangs a picture of the Virgin, with a lamp perpetually burning before it; and generally that of the saint whose name is borne by the master of the house, or who, for some reason, is a favourite. Some of these pictures are covered (except the face) with silver, like those in the churches. All the houses of Ioannina are constructed in the lower story of small stones rudely squared and very ill cemented; the upper apartments are in general of wood. Every large house is furnished with a well, affording, at no great depth, an abundant supply of excellent water, which is very cold even in the midst of summer. But Ioannina is otherwise well situated to afford the luxury of cool liquors— Mitzikeli and Olytzika supplying snow in the early part of the season, and the mountain of Syrako to the latest period.

§ 4.146 The domestic manners of the Greeks of Ioannina have in general been very little affected by the long residence of many of the merchants in foreign countries, and, as in other parts of Turkey, seem not to have undergone any great alteration since the time of Homer. That they are almost identical with those of the Turks, except in those points in which their respective religions have drawn a line, or given rise to a difference, may be attributed to the tincture of Oriental customs, which is traceable in the language and manners of the Greeks of every age, arising from their position on the borders of the eastern world. But though the resemblance may thus partly be traced to a common origin, the greater part of the Turkish customs have probably been adopted by the Turks in the progress of their conquest of Asiatic and European Greece, during which they gradually exchanged the rude and simple habitudes of Tartary for the refinement and luxuries of the Byzantine empire. The Greek women of Ioannina are as uneducated as the Turkish, and are held in that degree of subserviency which is their common lot throughout Greece, and which seems indeed to have been their ordinary condition among the ancients. Little respect is paid to age, especially when the parents, as often happens, are in part maintained by their children, and live in the same house. Girls are never married without a portion; to provide for which, and to make a suitable alliance for their daughters is the most anxious care of the parents, and is generally done without consulting the girl, or even allowing her to see her future lord and master. Brothers often supply their sisters with portions; and it is even common among the young Greeks to refrain from taking a wife themselves until their sisters are married. Young women seldom or never go out of the house before marriage, except to church, which is generally in the night. When they begin to visit, it is considered that themselves and parents have given up all hope of matrimony; but they are the more unwilling to come to this determination, as parents, aided by the custom of seclusion, sometimes succeed in concealing the age of their daughters. From such manners naturally arise ignorance, inelegance, and an early decay of beauty. The walk of the women is particularly uncouth, not so much caused by their confinement or their dress as by a persuasion prevailing among all but the peasantry, who walk as nature has taught them, that a rolling, waddling gait, is a proof of refinement; so that it is a compliment to tell a lady that she walks like a goose. The common employment of the women, besides the usual domestic occupations, are the embroidery of coarse German muslins, in imitation of those of Constantinople.

§ 4.148 One of the chief distinctions of Ioannina is its two colleges for education, and the libraries belonging to them. There is a collection of books also at the metropolitan church, but the Fathers and the Byzantine history are almost the only works which the kalogheri have to boast of. At the head of the old school, the origin of which is beyond tradition, is Cosma Balano, a very respectable old man, whose father was master before him. In this establishment, which lately has derived its chief support from the Zosimadhes, grammar and the usual Hellenic authors are taught, as in many of the schools of Greece. In the other, 100 scholars are instructed in Greek, history, geography, and philosophy. The latter college was founded by Pikrozoi, a native merchant, who bequeathed 800 purses, the interest of which, together with other donations, affords a salary of 2000 piastres to the άρχιδιδάσκαλος Athanasius Psalidha, besides supporting two assistants, and giving a small yearly donation to each scholar. The same Pikrozoi built a church and hospital at Ioannina. The total of the διάφορον, or annual interest of the funds of the two schools, is now 60 purses. Besides these are several small grammar schools, kept by individuals generally of the secular priesthood, whose acquirements do not extend beyond the Hellenic of the Greek Testament. In the midst of summer it is not uncommon to see one of these teachers seated under a tree in the suburbs of the town surrounded by thirty or forty scholars. They receive generally a piastre a week from the poorest of their scholars.

§ 4.149 It is said that one of the most efficient instruments in persuading the Greeks to establish schools as the best mode of improving the nation, was a monk of Apokuro named Kosma, who during eight years travelled over the country as a preacher, and made this subject a principal theme of his discourses. He was in other respects also a reformer, as he succeeded in persuading the women of Zagori to lay aside a great shapeless head-dress, similar to those of some of the Aegaean islands, for a simple kerchief. He fell a martyr to his zeal, having been put to death in 1780 by Kurt Pasha. It is probably rather a consequence of the Vezir’s indifference to the distant consequences of his measures, and with a view to some supposed immediate advantage, than with any better feeling, that he has always encouraged education among the Greeks. He frequently recommends it to the attention of the bishops, the generality of whom thinking only of accumulation and acting exactly like Turks in office, are too much disposed to neglect it. To the old schoolmaster, Balano, he often holds the same language, exhorting him to instruct the youth committed to his care with diligence, to give them a good example, and never to entertain any doubts of receiving his countenance and protection. His oppression is light upon monasteries compared with that which he exercises upon villages and individuals, and he has lately in particular favoured the monastery of St. Naoum, between Korytza and'Akhrida. Not that he is ever at any personal expence on these occasions: for example, when a rock not long ago, fell upon the convent of St. Pandeleimona, in the island of the lake of Ioannina, he ordered the expence of the repairs to be defrayed by an assessment upon some of the chief Greeks of Ioannina; and Kyr D. A. the most eminent merchant here, having recently given him some cause of discontent, became the principal sufferer by the fall of the rock.

§ 4.150 The Greek spoken at Ioannina is of a more polished kind than is usually heard in any part of Greece Proper; its phrases are more Hellenic, and its construction more grammatical. This is a natural consequence of the schools long established here, and of the residence of many merchants, and others who have travelled or dwelt in civilized Europe. The observation applies however to the Greeks alone. Among the Turks and Musulman Albanians every tenth word of the Greek which they speak is Turkish, and this among the native Mahometans is often all the Turkish they know. In Epirus, as in every other part of Greece, some words remain in use among the vulgar, which though not employed elsewhere, nor even entering into the more polished language of the better classes on the spot, are of pure Hellenic derivation; they may not be found perhaps in any extant ancient author, but have been preserved in the same manner as in every country ancient forms are sometimes employed by rustics which have long been obsolete in cities. Among those in the district of Ioannina may be mentioned τροχοτδς, the current, or narrow part of the lake, σκιάδων, the broad straw hat worn by the peasants in time of harvest, but which the fishermen of the lake, who wear the same kind of covering, call from its material καλαμία. The Words αντλώ, αντλία, τροπωτηρι, are employed by the fishermen of the lake as well as by the seamen of the Aegaean. In Zagori, θύρα is used for door, not πορτα, which is the common word in every part of Greece; προσθηλαίω is employed in the same district when a lamb is put to a ewe that is not its mother; κατcθρούθηκαν τα ορνίθια, the fowls are disturbed, is another Zagorite expression. The long residence of the Sclavonic race in this part of Greece has however left its traces in the dialect, but still more perhaps in the names of places, and in the termination and mode of pronouncing those which are of Greek derivation. Many Italian words have also been introduced into the vernacular tongue from the neighbouring islands, and by means of the commerce of Ioannina with Italy. The appearance of Ioannina has been greatly improved, since I was here in the year 1805, by the large serai, which the Vezir has erected upon the hill of Litharitza, according to the intention which he then communicated to me. In its form and decorations it is preferable to any other of his Highness's buildings, and though not so spacious as the Sultan's palaces on the Bosphorus, deserves still greater admiration in respect of the surrounding scenery. Standing upon the summit of a fortress which now incloses the hill of Litharitza, it forms by its light Chinese architecture a striking contrast with the solid plainness of the basis on which it rests.

§ 4.152 The parapets of the fortress are armed with cannon, and the lower part of it consists of casemated apartments, so that it may stand a siege after all the upper structure is destroyed. Another building with which Aly has adorned Ioannina, though not adding like Litharitza new embellishment to the beautiful scenery, because it is concealed by trees, is a large kiosk situated in the midst of a rude park or garden in the northern suburb on the slope of the hill of St. George, where he has built also a small palace, and keeps some deer, a lion, and other wild animals. The Kiosk is a circle having a diameter of about 250 feet, the central half of which is paved with marble, and consists in the middle, as usual in Turkish kiosks, of a basin of water. In the centre is a rude model of a fortress mounted with cannon, which when the fountain is at work spout forth water, and are answered by a similar discharge from besieging cannon round the edge of the basin. If instead of this silly bauble in the childish taste of the Turks, there had been some more simple and elegant fountain, the building would have been as perfect a work of its kind as can be conceived. As it is, I doubt whether the Sultan himself possesses any kiosk more elegant, or more agreeable in the heat of summer. The space around the central pavement is divided into eight parts. One of these is an entrance hall, opposite to which, in a corresponding recess, is a narrow staircase and an exit to the garden. The stairs lead up to a chamber having a window which looks down into the kiosk, but is covered with a lattice painted with a landscape in such a manner as effectually to conceal the existence of the window from those in the kiosk. It is of course intended for any of his women whom he may favour by bringing them here, and who may from thence see and hear what is passing below. Of the other six recesses, the two opposite ones of which the axis is at right angles to the two first mentioned, are vacant spaces paved with marble. The others are four apartments splendidly furnished with sofas on three sides, and on the fourth open towards the fountain. On the western side of the fortress of Litharitza, on an eminence almost equally high, stands the serai of Mukhtar Pasha, and to the southward of it, in a lower situation, that of Vely Pasha. They are both on the edge of the great burying ground, on the southern side of the city, and not far from the shore of the lake. These houses of the two sons of Aly resemble those of Turks of high rank in other parts of the empire, except that the furniture and decorations of Vela’s are a little more European than those generally seen in Turkish palaces. Mukhtar’s, on the contrary, is correctly in the Turkish taste. The walls display in several places, both within and without, large paintings in their hideous style, representing actions alluding to Mukhtar’s several qualities of governor, landholder, and hunter;—such as the decapitation of a Greek, the operations of agriculture, and the sports of the field. Besides the serais of the Kastro, and Litharitza, and the garden of the northwestern suburb, Aly has a large house near the northern extremity of the lake on its eastern shore,

§ 4.154 at the village of Perama, where, standing on a rocky insulated height at the foot of Mount Mitzikeli, it commands a fine view of the city, with the mountains towards Arta in the distance. It is particularly agreeable in the spring, as it looks down, in an opposite direction, upon that beautiful meadow which extends from POrama as far as the lake of Lapsista, and which then, free from inundation, begins to be clothed with herbage, and a profusion of gay or odoriferous herbs. The northern and western sides of the hill of St. George are covered with vineyards, which extend also into the plain. Among these vineyards are seen the remains of the intrenchments which were thrown up in the year 1798-9, when all the inhabitants, without exception, were forced to work with the shovel or basket. The bishop and the Pasha’s sons were required to set the example. The intrenchment was carried in a semi-circle round the hill of St. George, terminating at either end in the lake, so as to inclose a chapel of St. Nicolas beyond the northern suburb, as well as the whole of the suburb on the south, which lies beyond the burying-ground on the road to Arta. The entire length of the entrenchment was near five miles. The Nisi, or Island of Ioannina, is half a mile long and one-third as much in breadth. It contains a house for the Vezir, five small monasteries, and a village of 100 houses, inhabited by fishermen, who pay 15,000 piastres a year to the Vezir for the monopoly of the fishery, besides which they are subject to the kharatj, and to a fixed contribution of fire-wood for the use of the Serai.

§ 4.155 The village is situated amidst gardens and plane-trees; and the neatness of the cottages is such as would be sought for in vain among the lower classes of Ioannina, or the villages of its district, or indeed in any part of the surrounding country, except among the Vlakhiotes of Mount Pindus. The women spin cotton, and soak and bleach the cotton cloths, which are made in the city. There are only two or three monks in the island, the monasteries being now used for the lodging of prisoners collected from every part of the Vezir’s dominions. As the confinement in the island, compared with that in the castle, is health and liberty, it is inflicted only for offences of a lighter kind, or upon those who are detained as hostages for absent relatives. The largest monastery is now occupied by the women and children of the Suliotes, who fled to the Seven Islands when Suli was taken. Among them is a daughter of Botzari, an interesting child about ten years of age. These poor creatures are allowed only a ration of koromana, and for the rest are dependent upon charity. In the monastery of St. Elias, on the highest point of the island, the wife and children of Zafiraki of Niausta, whom I knew at Saloniki, have been confined for the last four years. The commonest fish in the lake are carp and eels; but there are also pike, perch, and tench, and a small fry called τζιμαις, supposed to be a species of perch, which are particularly caught in the Trokhoto, in fine nets of silk made for the purpose.

§ 4.156 Water serpents are numerous, and may very commonly be seen in calm warm weather swimming on the surface. Their haunts are along the margin and at the foot of Mount Mitzikeli, where I have often witnessed them suddenly darting upon the frogs, which equally abound there: though the frog died instantly, I could never perceive that the serpent swallowed it. All the shallow parts of the lake, particularly northward of the citadel and around the edges, abound in tall reeds and rushes, intermixed with the nymphaea both with the yellow and white blossom: the first called νούψαρον, the latter ζαμπάκι. Among the rushes the most common is the παπύριον, from whence τα παπύρια is the term in common use to express the parts of the lake overgrown with reeds and rushes. The papyri has a single round stem without leaves, often ten feet high, of a bright green, soft, and tapering to the top, where it ends in a small tuft. It is full of a honey-combed pith, and is used to make a very useful kind of mat which forms the ordinary carpeting of the houses of Ioannina, and is exported to Corfu and other places. The reeds of the lake are chiefly used for roofing the inferior class of houses, and for making the huts and sheds of the shepherds. The papyria shelter a few cormorants and cranes, and an immense number of wild ducks of several varieties. Some of these furnish food to the birds of prey of the kite and vulture kind, which build on Mount Mitzikeii, and are often seen soaring above its sides; but the great body of the ducks are decimated by the sportsmen of Ioannina, who are continually following them in monoxyla.

§ 4.157 Passages are cut through the papyria for this purpose, and the pursuit furnishes sport occasionally to the Vezir, and still oftener to Mukhtar Pasha, the keenest sportsman of the family, and who allows the public to take their pleasure in the lower part of the lake, provided the northern, which has the best cover, is reserved for himself. When the Vezir goes forth on a shooting excursion, the lake presents a most animated scene; every boat and monoxylo being employed in surrounding the papyria, and in raising the game for him, while every gun in Ioannina is employed in bringing down the birds. The elevation of Ioannina above the sea, probably not much less than 1000 feet, its inclosure of mountains, covered for more than half the year with snow, the frequent showers which refresh it throughout the spring and early summer, added to its marshes and inundated meadows, give it an agricultural character, different from that of Greece in general. The hay harvest in particular is upon a scale not to be seen in any other part of the country. Between the middle and end of June, a long growth of grass, covering the great level which borders the marshes on either side of the city, is mowed, dried, and carried into the town, where it is sold for five piastres a horse-load, the animal being loaded to the utmost. The hay time is precisely the season when showers occur almost daily, and generally fall very heavy. But it is not every day that the clouds, which are always first collected upon the mountains, discharge their contents so low as Ioannina; and so powerful is the sun at that season, that a single fine day is sufficient to render the grass dry enough for carrying.

§ 4.158 The mowers are chiefly from the Tomaro-khoria, and are paid 100 paras a day, with wine. The harvest of barley and wheat immediately follows that of hay, and is generally finished by the middle of July. In this fatiguing operation, hazardous to the health, and sometimes immediately fatal in consequence of the power of the sun, field labourers, generally satisfied with 25 paras a day, receive 40 with wine; many women are employed, whose hire is equal to that of the strongest palikari. The tillage is negligent, the grain inferior to that of Thessaly and the Morea, and so much mixed with weeds, that the bread made from it is often unwholesome, particularly in consequence of the narcotic effects of the well-known lollium temulentum, called by the Greeks Γερά, anciently βίρα. At the end of the wheat harvest the western division of the valley has as parched an appearance as any plain in Greece. But the οψιμια, or latter harvest, which consists of millet and maize, soon chequers the plain with green; and by the time these are reaped in the end of September, the rains have already refreshed the herbage. The edges of the marshes and the heights which surround the basin of Ioannina on every side supply constant pasture to cattle, sheep, and goats. Some of these flocks belong to the young Pashas, others to individuals of Ioannina; those of the Vezir himself, especially his sheep, are so numerous as to require a greater range of pasture. The shepherd receives from his employers 30 piastres for six months' care of a kopadi or flock, of which the usual number is 200, often belonging to several different proprietors. Those who take care of oxen have 3 1/2 piastres for six months for each pair, besides two okes of bread per diem; all the herdsmen receive also an allowance of vinegar in summer, and of wine in winter.

§ 4.159 The climate of Ioannina renders it more subject to the diseases of Northern than of Southern Europe. In consequence of the post meridian showers the heat is seldom very oppressive until the middle of July, and the air is sensibly cooler in the beginning of September. That long continuance of heat, therefore, which is so pernicious to northern constitutions in many parts of Greece, and the South of Europe, rendering the body unable to resist the effects of the marshy exhalations, or of the first chilly breezes of autumn, is much abridged at Ioannina, and seldom felt for more than six or seven weeks. Even in that interval it does not often happen that the thermometer of Fahrenheit is above 85° in the shade, though sometimes for several days it rises about 2 p.m. to 95°, and even 100°. But though the climate of Ioannina, notwithstanding its marshes, is not generally unhealthy, the lower part of the town forms an exception: here the action of the sun upon the stagnant borders of the lake, and the effluvia of putrid matter which quickly accumulates in the streets when the rains have ceased, being aided by poverty, wretched lodgings, and unwholesome diet, dysentery prevails, as well as autumnal fevers, which if not immediately fatal, are often the commencement of obstinate intermittents, and other disorders. A peculiarity of Ioannina, or at least of the upper part of the town, is the absence of gnats, at least of that kind which is so tormenting in other southern countries, and an abundance of which is considered by Italians as a sure sign of malaria. During two summers which I have passed here, I have never discovered any, though particularly sensible to their tormenting attacks, and have even found a mosquito curtain unnecessary. But if there is something adverse to the propagation of the venomous gnat in the air of this place, it is not so with other winged insects, of which such clouds rise from the borders of the lake in the summer evenings, that unless when the rain was falling, scarcely an evening has passed in which my candles have not been repeatedly extinguished by the immense numbers of them attracted by the flame, particularly a small kind of gnat. Among the nuisances of vermin, are brown rats of the largest kind, and it is almost needless to add, bugs, since not a house in Turkey, except in some of the mountain villages, is, in summer at least, exempt from these pests, or from fleas.

§ 4.160 So strongly does a first view of the low situation of the greater part of the town on the borders of an apparently stagnant lake, surrounded by marshes, give the impression of unhealthiness, that it was with great difficulty I could persuade the celebrated Roman artist Lusieri, who arrived here in the latter end of June, to prolong his stay beyond a day or two, so much was he alarmed at those which his Italian opinions led him to consider as infallible symptoms of malaria. But the picturesque beauties of the place had such a powerful attraction for him that he was induced to hazard a longer visit, until his fears having been calmed by my own experience, and that of the Ioannites in general, he prolonged his stay for six weeks. The longer he remained the more he was impressed with the feeling, that in the great sources of his art, the sublime and beautiful, and in their exquisite mixture and contrast, Ioannina exceeds every place he had seen in Italy or Greece. Early every day he took a station which he had selected, on the side of the hill of St. George, commanding a view of the lake, the citadel, the palaces of the Vezir, and the houses of the town, mixed in the most picturesque manner, with gardens, mosques, and cypress groves; and where the distance comprehends the mountains Tzumerka, Kakardhista, Syrako, and Mitzikeli. He had not only made considerable progress in this drawing on a very large scale with his usual minuteness, although the afternoon’s thunder-storm seldom allowed him to resume his labour after our dinner hour at 2 o’clock, but had also found time before his departure to design the outlines of three other views, one from the foot of Mount Mitzikeli, opposite to the citadel, containing Mount Olytzika in the background; a second from the southern extremity of the lake near Kastritza, and a third of the ruins near Dhramisius, taken on a large scale from the summit of the theatre.

§ 4.162 The view of Ioannina, which formed the splendid subject of the first-mentioned drawing, is not very different from that which is presented to the traveller as he attains the crest of the ridge of St. George, in approaching the city from Filiates or Paramythia, where it has the advantage of taking him by surprise, the lake and town having been hidden from view by the hill. The sudden display of beautiful scenery which there presents itself is the more remarkable, as the first view of the plain of Ioannina on that route is dreary, and with the exception of the sublime outline of the horizon, by no means agreeable. The three other approaches are, 1st. from the Arta road, which after traversing a suburb consisting of a broad street, inhabited in great part by gipsies, then crosses the great cemetery on that side, leaving the palaces of Mukhtar and Vely on the right, and enters the town between the southern end of the hill of St. George and that of Litharitza. Here also the view of the greater part of the town is a surprise to the traveller, though some of the great objects, the lake, the castle, and Litharitza, being gradually brought into view, render the impression less forcible than on the approach from Paramythia.