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

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§ 1.321 We proceed over the barren roots of the mountain by a rugged road, having the river on our left, very near the foot of the hills. At 5.25 we cross another tributary of the Vistritza, where it emerges from an opening between steep banks, which leaves only a small level on either side of the stream, where are some mills and cultivated lands. Beyond the river we pass through a pleasant grove of oaks and elms, again cross the roots of the mountain, and arrive at 6 at Boghatziko, a large village situated at the head of a slope covered with vineyards, and immediately at the foot of the mountain, in a situation very similar to that of Selitza, except that here is no ravine at the back. The roads about the village are made practicable for wheel carriages, and the cars, instead of running on trucks, have wheels with spokes. It is the only place in Greece where I have seen agricultural mechanics in so advanced a state. Boghatziko is a Kefalo-khori, producing little grain, but a considerable quantity of wine. The principal inhabitants are masons and carpenters, who find work at Constantinople, and in the other principal towns of Turkey, and after residing there for several years return home with their gains. The village belongs to the ecclesiastical province of Sisanium and Satista, but like several others in this part of Macedonia, accounts for its taxes at Olossona. The district of Anaselitza, which extends in front of us, along the opposite side of the river, contains upwards of 100 villages, the greater part of which are small; about one half of the number are Turkish. In the opposite chain of mountains, a rocky summit, towering above the others, and bearing W.S.W., is called Rushotari. On this side of it stands the Greek village of Tzoban, on the other Burbutziko. Between them is a derveni, which leads from Anaselitza into the Albanian district of Kolonia, and the valleys of the upper Viosa, or Aous.
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§ 1.322 Sept. 7.—Sending forward my baggage by the direct road to Kastoria, I begin to descend at 6 through the vineyards of Boghatziko, pass over a fine plain, quite uncultivated, and at 6.45 cross the Injekara, for the purpose of visiting Bobushti, a small Turkish village situated on the summit of a steep bank above the river, where, agreeably to the information which I received at Boghatziko, I find an ancient statue. It is of white marble, draped, and of the human size; the head is wanting, and the legs and feet are buried in the ground, in which manner it serves to support a stone trough, made to convey water to the village fountain. The right hand is folded in the mantle over the breast with the fist clenched, the left hand hangs down by the side. The drapery is heavy, and the whole performance indifferent. Near it are several wrought stones, which belonged to some ancient building; but there is no appearance of any walls or other indications of the site of an ancient town. After a loss of three quarters of an hour at Bobushti, I follow the heights near the river, over a rich but uncultivated soil, and then descending from them, re-cross the Injekara at 8 by the bridge of Smighes, probably so called because the river just below it is joined by another stream which issues from the Lake of Kastoria.
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§ 1.323 This point is less than an hour from Boghatziko by the direct road. At the bridge the slope of the mountain reaches to the left bank of the river. We now cross a plain higher than the level of the river; at its extremity to the right is the Lake of Kastoria, on the margin of which we arrive at 9.30. The waters are stagnant, putrescent at the edge, and entirely covered with a green pellicle. The town appears on the opposite side, built on an isthmus, which connects a high rocky peninsula with the north-western shore. The peninsula extends into the middle of the lake, and a large monastery is seen at its extremity on the water side. Having skirted the western shore of the lake, we enter some gardens abounding in walnut trees, and halt among them at 10.10, near the gate of the town, waiting for the return of the tatar, whom I had sent forward to provide a lodging, with a letter of recommendation from Siatista, to Kyr T. Κ., one of the primati. After some delay we are conducted to the house of a papas, where I am soon afterwards visited by Kyr Κ., who is now very pressing that I should remove to his house, which, under, the circumstances, I decline, though my konak is humble enough, compared with the handsome houses of some of the Greek merchants, particularly that of Kyr K. himself. It would seem that the merchants of these Macedonian towns have lost something of the barbarous virtue of hospitality by a residence in civilized Europe, though at Kastoria something may perhaps be ascribed to an anxiety to resist every infringement of an ancient privilege which exempts the Greeks of this place from the burthen
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§ 1.324 of lodging passengers. A traveller is the more sensible to this difference of reception, as the Greeks in general are eminently of a social character, and practise hospitality to a degree which could hardly be expected in their poor and oppressed condition. But without this advantage, travelling in the Levant would hardly be tolerable; for although the traveller may, by the power of his firmahn and of Turkish attendants, force his way into the Christian houses, he would be disappointed in his objects of inquiry if he were not generally met by a disposition to hospitality. This indeed is the most agreeable characteristic of Oriental travelling, as it gives the traveller a better view of manners than can possibly be obtained in civilized Europe, in moving from one inn to another, and thus more than compensates for the inconveniences arising from the want of public accommodation. In point of expense, there is no saving, or rather, notwithstanding the greater value of money in Turkey, the Oriental mode is the more expensive of the two, the traveller’s attendants being more numerous than are necessary in civilized Europe, and the presents which he makes at departing to the lower class of householders with whom he lodges, or to the servants of the rich, amounting generally to as much as would pay the bill at the most expensive inn in Christendom. I met with a similar delay at Metzovo as at Kastoria in obtaining a lodging, and at Siatista should probably have found still greater than that which occurred, had not Kyr N., being a nephew of a bishop, been particularly fearful of offending the Vezir’s musafir, or stranger guest.
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§ 1.325 Kastoria, or, according to the vulgar transposition of the accent in this termination, Kastoria, contains about 600 families, of whom the Jews form a tenth, and the remainder is divided equally between Turks and Greeks. All the population of the villages is Greek, with the exception of a subashi, or agent, in some of the Turkish tjiftliks. The present Turkish commandant is Demir Bey, who pays the Porte 25 purses a year for the mukata, or farm of the revenue of the district, which includes fifty villages. His family is of long standing at Kastoria; Mehmet, the head of the house, is now at'Akhridha with his troops, on the public service; for these Beys, being Timariots, hold their lands on condition of personal service, and are bound to the maintenance of a certain number of men, who receive provisions from the government when called into the field. A third brother resides at Ioannina by command of Aly Pasha, who generally takes care to keep one member of every principal family near him. Their father was beheaded by the Porte. The Lake of Kastoria is reckoned a six hours ride in circumference, but does not appear to me to be above six miles long and four broad. The peninsula is near four miles in circumference, and the outer point is not far from the centre of the lake. In the evening I make the tour of the peninsula in a canoe, in company with Kyr K. The monoxyla of this lake are longer and better made
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§ 1.326 than those of the Lake of Ioannina; that in which I embark is 15 feet in length, so deep that a man sitting down at the bottom is quite concealed, and is capable of holding thirty persons. [sketch] The two ends, which are exactly alike, are raised above the gunwhale, and hollowed within, so as to furnish a very comfortable seat with a back, while by their form they improve the outward appearance of the boat. Towards the stern, two outriggers, with an upright at the extremity of them, furnish a pivot for the oars, which thus placed have great power, and are capable of turning the boat round upon the head, as a centre, with remarkable quickness and ease. The annual value of the fish caught in this lake amounts to 100 purses. Besides the quantity consumed fresh in the town and surrounding villages, which are supplied from hence in winter, as far as Korytza, a
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§ 1.327 large proportion is salted and meets a ready market in every part of Macedonia and Thessaly. Though the lake is now entirely covered with a green surface, and the water is hot, turbid, and by no means tasteless, it is preferred for drinking to the water of the wells, and of some fine springs at the foot of the hills beyond the gardens, which are all considered as βαρυά vtpa, or heavy waters. In fact, when cooled in jars, the lake water is not disagreeable, though I should never have thought of preferring it to the clear and sparkling produce of the springs; but the Greeks are extremely curious upon the subject of the quality of water, and attentive to its possible effects upon their health; in which they are prudent, as they drink an immense quantity of it in summer, especially in those fasts when they live chiefly on salted provisions. The fish of the lake are carp, tench, eels, and the γουλιανός; carp are taken, weighing 15 okes, eels 4 okes, and Kyr K. has seen a gulianos weighed of 64 okes, or 176 lbs., but they are sometimes much larger. The fishery of the lake, which forms part of the Mukata, is let by Demir Bey for 12 purses to Hassan Effendi, who exacts from the fishermen of the town one third of the produce of the sale, and grants the privilege to those of Topiakos, a village on the side of the lake, for 10 piastres a year to each person. All modes of fishing are allowed; the Topiakiotes chiefly employ traps, and the Kastorites round spreading nets, or seines, which are sometimes 200 οργυιαίς in length.
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§ 1.328 The lake is frozen over occasionally when the north winds are constant in winter; seven or eight years ago carts passed across upon the ice. The Lake of Okhri, in Greek'Akhridha, and sometimes Okhridha, differs essentially from that of Kastoria. Its waters are extremely bright and clear, though perfectly sweet and fresh. It never freezes, and abounds in trout, which are not found in the Lake of Kastoria. The present fortification of Kastoria consists only of a wall across the western extremity of the isthmus, which was built in the time of the Byzantine Empire, and has a wet ditch, making the peninsula an island. The wall has been slightly renewed by the Turks, who keep it well whitewashed, which among them often serves instead of a repair. In the middle of the wall stands a square tower, through which is the only entrance into the town. A parallel wall, flanked with round towers, which in Byzantine times crossed the peninsula from shore to shore, and excluded all the eastern part of it, although now in ruins, still divides the Kassaba, or quarter of the Turks, from that of the Greeks, whose town occupies the middle of the peninsula, and extends down to the water on either side of it. The remainder of the peninsula eastward of the Greek quarter is a high rock, bare and uncultivable, and which intercepts from the town the view of all the southern and of great part of the eastern side of the lake. There are many small churches of ancient date in different parts of the peninsula,
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§ 1.329 which are said to have been built by persons banished from the capital, and confined here by the Greek emperors. The accurate description of Castoria by Anna Comnena, shows that no great change has occurred since the twelfth century. At the eastern extremity of the lake is a large village named Mavrovo. Here begins a long and well-cultivated plain, bounded to the south by the hills, the opposite side of which we followed from Selitza, and to the north by the ridge of Siniatziko, which, taking a more northerly direction than towards Siatista, embraces the plain, and joins the mountains which bound the lake on the northern side. The hills at the eastern end of the plain of Mavrovo separate it from that of Sarighioli. Northeastward of Kastoria is the lofty summit called Vitsh, written in Greek Βίτζη. It is the same which I saw bearing N. 22 E. from Mount Kakardhista, and is a very remarkable bare abrupt peak, having a region of pines below it. The road from Mavrovo to Kaliari leaves it on the left in passing the ridge which separates the plains. Midway in this route is situated Vlakho-klisura, the name of which explains both the origin of the inhabitants and the situation of the place. The scenery around Kastoria is extremely beautiful. Trees and verdure adorn the higher parts of the mountain, and below are small villages and cultivation mixed with woods. To the N.W. and W. the lowest slopes are green with vineyards; and below them a narrow plain stretches along the margin of the lake, which on either side of the gardens,
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§ 1.330 near the entrance of the town, is covered with walnut-trees and poplars, mixed with cornfields. To the south a plain of corn land extends to the hills of Boghatziko and to the Injekara. In every other direction except at the eastern extremity, the slopes of the hills reach to the margin: from the southern extremity of the lake issues the stream which joins the Injekara at Smighes. At the point of its exit from the lake the Topiakiotes catch an abundance of crayfish. The ecclesiastical province of Kastoria is very extensive, but the bishop, although metropolitan, is, together with those of Grevena, Pelagonia, Vodhena, Korytza, Berat, and Strumnitza, considered subject to the archbishop of'Akhridha. To the north the province is synorous with that of Pelagonia or Bitolia; and extends to the west into Albania, where it includes Kolonia, which has a suffragan bishop. Of the Hellenic name of this remarkable position we should have been left in ignorance, but for a single passage in Livy, which leaves no room for a doubt that it is the site of Celetrum, and thus affords a most useful point for the adjustment of the comparative geography of the surrounding part of Macedonia, which, although still sufficiently obscure, would, without this aid, have been much more uncertain. In the first Macedonian campaign of the Romans, B.C. 200, the consul Sulpicius marched from the banks of the Apsus through the country of the Dassaretii into Lyncestis, and from thence, after an engagement with Philip at Octolophus, forced the passes which separate the valley of the river Erigon from Eordaea.
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§ 1.331 From the latter province he moved into Elimaea, and from thence into Orestis: here he invested Celetrum, “a town situated on a peninsula which is surrounded by the waters of a lake, and has only a single entrance over a narrow isthmus which connects it with the continent. Having received the submission of Celetrum, the consul returned into Dassaretia, and from thence regained Apollonia, the place from whence he had departed on this expedition.” The travelled men of Kastoria seem not more anxious about education than their fellow-countrymen in general: nothing more being taught in the school, which they support here, than the mere rudiments of the ancient language. So powerful is the effect of the Turkish system, that all those who dwell long in the country seem inevitably to feel the effects of this moral atmosphere by a want of energy and an indifference to every thing but the vulgar pursuits of life, or to their personal safety, which, being always in some danger, affords therefore some excuse for their conduct. Even those who return after a long residence in civilized Europe, are seldom tardy in resuming the general feeling, and among other indications of it, make none but the feeblest exertions for the improvement of the rising generation. It is almost entirely to the Greeks permanently settled in foreign countries, and to some of their countrymen at Constantinople, that Greece is indebted for the progress she has made of late years in education, and that progress, therefore, although constant, is slow on the continent of Greece.
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§ 1.332 Few men are to be found here who have any curiosity as to the ancient geography or history of their country; and even the young men who have had the benefit of an European education, soon lose their literary taste and acquirements, when they are settled in their native land, where, straightened, perhaps, for the means of existence, living under a constant necessity of deceiving their oppressors, and deprived of all instructive conversation, they soon become entirely occupied with the only objects which a government such as the Turkish leaves open to them. Nevertheless, it must be acknowledged, that in these matters the continent of Greece has been exemplary, compared with the islands of the western coast, where the vicious government of Venice seems to have been more effectual even than the Turkish in repressing the natural disposition of the Greeks for mental improvement. The Greeks of Kastoria are somewhat less exposed than those of Kozani, Siatista, Selitza, and Korytza, to the exactions of Aly Pasha, which have driven away so many from those places. Enough, however, has been done to thin Kastoria of its inhabitants; and several of the large houses, both of the Greeks and Jews, are falling to ruin, or standing empty.
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§ 1.333 Sept. 8.—This afternoon we cross in half an hour the hills to the westward of Kastoria, and descend into the plain of the Injekara, where the junction of its two principal branches is half a mile to the left. In another hour we cross that which comes from Tzelova, a village in the mountains towards Filurina, and enters the plain through a narrow opening just above the place where we cross it. The village of Sligani is in the glen half a mile to the right. The other, or western branch of the river, which originates in the great mountains on that side, after winding through gorges in the lower hills of that range, enters at a point bearing about N. 60 W. from Kastoria the open champaign country ten or twelve miles in breadth, which separates those mountains from the heights near Kastoria. On a ridge along the right bank of the river are situated several Turkish villages, of which the principal are Zelogosh and Krupista. The latter was not far to our left at 4.30, and Zelogosh was at five miles in direct distance in the same direction at 5.10 as we mounted some heights which close the plain to the northward, and which are the barren roots of a range of mountains running north-westward from Kastoria. Near Zelogosh, which stands on a rising ground, the river flows from the west, and receives several small branches from the mountains. After having crossed the heights we arrive at 8.10 at Kapesnitza, and there descend into a valley, the direction of which is parallel to that of the Pindian range. The waters which collect in this valley from the surrounding mountains, form a stream flowing to the north-westward, and thus the low ridge which we crossed separates the waters running to the Haliacmon and the Aegaean sea from those which flow to the Adriatic. The valley, with its including mountains, as well as the country to the northward, to within a short distance of the Lake of Akhridha, is called Devol. The river bears the same name. At its sources, in the western ridge, are the villages Nikholitza and Bushigrad; to the southward of which, in the same great range, is the town and district of Gramista.
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§ 1.334 After following for a short distance the foot of hills on our right, we arrive at 8.40 at a khan situated on the road side below Biklista, a Mahometan village with two large serais belonging to Aly Bey, who owns the neighbouring lands. Biklista may be considered the frontier village of Albania, as the inhabitants speak that language. The valley, like most of those in Albania, is chiefly cultivated with maize. Near the town are a few gardens of melons and pumpkins. The vale is three or four miles in width, bounded to the westward by hills of no great height, but connected with the high range. Sept. 9.—At 6 this morning I proceed from the khan to the Boghaz or pass of Tjangon, situated at the extremity of the vale of Biklista, to the N.N.W. of that town. In three quarters of an hour a narrow glen opens on our right, from which issues a small river, said to originate in a lake in the district of Prespa, called Ventrok. At the mouth of the glen is a narrow level, on which stands the village of Tren. A high mountain is seen through the opening, having a direction of north and south. The plain is now three miles in breadth. Leaving several small villages to the right at the foot of the mountain, we cross at 7 the river Devol, which, not having yet received that of Tren, is still very small.
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§ 1.335 At 7.40 Tjangon, a small Moslem village, is on the left, on the foot of the heights, which form the pass on the southern side. Here we halt eighteen minutes, then proceeding, arrive at 8.15 at the narrowest part of the pass, where the river, now greatly increased in size, occupies all the space. Here they are building a new bridge. The Pass of Tjangon, or Klisura of Devol, as it may be called, and probably would be if the Greeks were more numerous in this part of the country, is a remarkable feature in the geography of Upper Macedonia. Like the Klisura of Siatista, it is a natural gate of communication from the champaign country of the Haliacmon into other extensive plains, and it is moreover the only break in the great central range of Pindus, from its southern commencement in the mountains of Aetolia, to where it is blended to the northward with the summits of Haemus and Rhodope. The pass is not as strong as it is narrow, the hills which immediately border it on either side being not very abrupt. But they soon become steep and lofty, and the great rocky summit to the north called Kururdagh, Grace Xerovuni, is a suitable link to the chain, formed by the great summits Ghrammos, Russotari, and Smolika. Beyond the bridge we turn immediately to the south, enter the great plain of Korytza, and pass along the foot of some hills connected at the back with the central ridge. On our right in the plain are several Albanian villages, situated between Xerovuni and the Devol.
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§ 1.336 The largest is Poyani, on the right bank of that river, which flows from thence to the north-west, enters a large lake towards that extremity of the plain, and on emerging from it, begins to wind through a succession of narrow valleys among the great range of mountains which border the plain of Korytza on the west In its progress through them, the Devol receives several large tributaries, and finally joins the Beratinos, or ancient Apsus, two hours below Berat, in the great maritime plain of Illyria. At 8.55 we pass through Pliassa, a small village at the foot of the mountain, remarkable for a very large serai, which was built here not long ago by one Mehmet Pasha, an Albanian of large possessions in the neighbouring plain, whose family is connected by marriage with that of Aly of Tepeleni. Mehmet died suddenly last winter at Ioannina, where his son Vely is still detained by the Vezir Aly: the other sons are here. Continuing along the foot of the hills, we arrive at 10.20 at Korytza, which is situated entirely in the plain, though separated only by some vineyards from a projection of the mountain, which is crowned by a ruined castle. It is a structure probably of the Bulgarians, though vulgar report attributes it to the Spaniards. As there are some doubts whether the plague, which broke out here about eight months ago, has entirely ceased, I pitch my tent on the outside of the town, but on receiving, after the delay of an hour, an assurance from the Bey that the Greek quarter is entirely free from suspicion, remove to the metropolis.
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§ 1.337 The bishop returns to town in the evening from the village of Bobushtitza, on hearing of my arrival, but not before I had taken possession of his apartment, the only comfortable one in the metropolitan palace; the others, which are inhabited by the archdeacon and deacons, being all ruinous, exposed to the weather, and covered with smoke and dirt. The bishop’s closet, which measures ten feet by six, has two small glazed windows, a sofa on two sides, a shelf in one corner piled with ecclesiastical books, and other shelves on which are ranged plates made of pewter, or of German earthenware. Affixed to one wall, as customary in Greek houses, is a deal case, containing a picture of the Virgin, with a lamp perpetually burning before it. A German clock, the pastoral staff, and a Ξύστρi, or scratching machine made of hard wood scored with furrows, complete the list of furniture. Sept. 10.—Korytza, vulgarly pronounced Gortja, or Gkiortja, and by the Albanians Ghiorghia, contains about 450 houses, of which more than a half are Christian. The filthy streets and comfortless habitations proclaim the Albanian town. Its artizans manufacture most of the articles of Albanian dress and furniture; and the snuff of Korytza, which is made chiefly from the tobacco of Arta, is in good repute.
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§ 1.338 One of the most ordinary causes of delay to the traveller in Turkey, which I experience to-day, is the want of horses, generally caused by the insufficient capital of the farmer of the post, so that whenever there is an uncommon influx of tatars, or a Pasha passes through, the traveller who follows has no alternative but to wait for the return of the horses. Abdullah Pasha passed through Korytza two days ago on his way to Okhri. He is a pretender to the Pashalik of Elbassan, and is supported in his pretensions by Aly Pasha, but he has no less than three rivals, two of whom are from the northern part of Albania, where the Skodrian has the chief power: the third Ibrahim is in actual possession of the place, and is supported there by the troops of the Vezir of Berat, after a war between Berat and Skodra, which has ceased now that the Beratinos has gained his object. But as Aly has an interest in reviving the contest, it will not be long, probably, before hostilities recommence. At dinner, the bishop not being able to resist the Frank cookery of my servant, breaks the fast, but sets the archdeacon at the door to prevent intruders. He has a plate of octapodhi, or salted starfish, set before him, and takes care neither to change his plate, nor to allow more than one excavation to appear in the pudding and pilaf. He produces from his cellar a light dry wine, which is made from the vineyards on the hills near the town, and is not inferior to the wine of Siatista. His all-holiness, or high priestship, as a metropolitan bishop is styled, was a deacon for many years at Kastoria, and purchased his present dignity from the Porte in the usual manner.
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§ 1.339 On appointing a Bishop, or rather on approving the recommendation of the Patriarch, the Porte gives a seal, in the centre of which is written the name, in Turkish, of the mansup, or office, and round its edge the Greek Title. The bishop found his see burthened with a debt of 50 purses, bearing an interest of 12 per cent., which, on account of the growing poverty and depopulation of the country, his province will scarcely ever be able to pay. The metropolitan bishopric of Korytza and Selasforo comprehends the country to the westward of Korytza half way to Berat, includes Premedi and Tepeleni to the southward and westward, and in the opposite direction Devol. Selasforo is now a village by the Turks called Svesde, situated at the foot of Mount Xerovurni, 3 hours north of Korytza. There is a remark in the Notitiae Episcopatuum Graecorum, of the date of the 13th century, that Selasforo was then better known as Deabolis; Devol is the modern form, or rather, perhaps, Devol was always the local name, and Deabolis the Greek version of it. In the eleventh century, Anna Comnena described Deabolis as a town situated at the foot of a mountain, (thus agreeing with Selasforo,) and informs us that Alexius frequently occupied it in his campaigns against the Normans, when the latter first obtained a footing in Illyria.
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§ 1.340 It is evident from Anna’s narrative, that Achris and Deabolis were then the two places of chief importance to the eastward of the Candavian range, but though many other names, still existing, or slightly corrupted, occur also in that part of her history, there is no trace of that of Korytza. A bishop of Deabolis was instrumental in having first invited the Normans into this country from Italy. There are 80 villages and 2800 Greek houses in the episcopal province of Korytza; as the bishop receives 8 paras from each house, his regular income is between five and six hundred piastres, or about 36L sterling. His other emoluments consist in customary presents of provisions, and in fees which are chiefly for the arrangement of disputes among the laity. In the larger sees, such as Larissa and Ioannina, where the clergy are more numerous, and there are Greek families of opulence, the bishop demands a portion of the profits derived by the former from the confessions, domestic services, and the εφημερίαις, or daily prayers, which are read in many families by a priest. But Korytza produces very little to its bishop in this way. In common with many of the Greek clergy, my host is desirous of an union of the Greek and Latin churches, entertains a very indifferent opinion of his own countrymen, but ascribes the ruin of the country principally to the Musulman Albanians, whose power and tyranny have arrived at such a height, that Turks and Christians agree in wishing for the arrival of a Frank conqueror.
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§ 1.341 Hence he has always considered Bonaparte deficient in policy, in having gone to Egypt instead of coming here, where the consequences would have been much more important, and from whence he could not have been driven out. The bishop admits, however, that the three Vezirs of Ioannina, Berat, and Skodra, could collect 50,000 men in a short time, and that an army landing at Avlona, and advancing as far as Berat, would be unable to proceed from a want of provisions, Albania producing nothing but men, and this fine looking plain returning very little to the cultivator. It is said that the fig, which so near as Premedi ripens at the usual time, here seldom comes to perfection; from the present appearance of the vines, indeed, it is evident that the climate is that of a much more northern latitude, and the soil may be less fertile, than that of Anaselitza and Kastoria; but a want of security, industry, and good agriculture, are probably the chief causes of the scanty harvests; for we learn from Livy, that these plains furnished an abundance of forage to the Roman army, under the consul Sulpicius, in the campaign of the year 200 B.C. The bishop's geography and history ascend no higher than the Bulgarian conquest of this country, which he considers as a part of Παλαιά Βουλγαρία, or Old Bulgaria, subdued and in part peopled by Albanian freebooters. As a proof of this fact, he instances some Bulgarian names, such as Belovoda (white water), a village and river in the neighbouring mountain,—Bushigrad and several others.
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§ 1.342 But names of Illyric origin are found in every part of Greece. A stronger proof is the use of the Bulgarian language, which is still spoken in some of the villages of this district. The plain of Korytza is about 20 miles long, and from 6 to 10 wide, terminated at either end by hills of no great height, of which those to the northward furnish an easy passage into the great valley of Akhridha, which is occupied in great part by the lake anciently named Lychnidus. The town of Akhridha lies nearly due north from hence, distant twelve hours near the northern extremity of the lake. Southward of the plain of Korytza are hills forming a district called Kiari, beyond which is Kolonia, and the sources of the branch of the Apsus, which flows by Viskuki and Skrepari to Berat. The district of Kolonia begins on the other side of Mount Pepelas, which branches from the mountain of Gramista in a south-western direction, and falls to the southern end of the plain of Korytza. From the western and north-western side of the plain rises a range of very lofty mountains, on the sides of which are seen villages, and cultivation on the middle and lower slopes, and behind them towering summits, known by the names of Lenia and Opari. Farther south other lofty ridges are in sight, as far as the great serrated mountain near Premedi, named Nemertzika, which bears from hence S. 49 W. by compass. The hills are lowest to the northward beyond Selasforo, where appear some very high and distant mountains beyond'Akhridha, between which and Mount Lenia is seen the mountain of Elbassan, which I take to be, the proper Candavia; it bears N. 23 W. by compass. The boghaz, or gorge through which the river Devol enters the mountains, after emerging from the lake, bears N. 11 W.
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§ 1.343 Sept. 11—This morning at 7.35 I set out for Berat in the rain, with a wretched set of horses, procured from the menzil, and crossing the plain directly in its breadth, and nearly in a due westerly direction, arrive at 8.45 at Votskop, which name is now applied to two small villages on the last root of the mountains. They are the remains of an old Wallachian colony, which at the time of the Turkish conquest possessed the circumjacent district, and was very populous, but in consequence of that event was dispersed. A part of them retired to a situation in the neighbouring mountain, where they founded the town of Voskopoli; the security of the situation attracted thither numerous settlers from Greece and other parts of European Turkey, who having traded to Germany and rendered the place opulent, became ashamed at length of inhabiting the city of the Shepherds, and changed the name therefore to Moskopoli, or Moskhopoli, which, meaning the city of Calves, seems no great improvement. I have frequently heard the assertion, that the town once contained eight or ten thousand houses, but have great difficulty in believing even the smaller of these numbers. Its greatest prosperity was about a century ago; for seventy years it has been declining, and for the last ten so rapidly, that at present there are only two or three hundred inhabited houses in the place.
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§ 1.344 After ascending the hills for three quarters of an hour from Votskop, we enter open cultivable hills and downs, which, compared with the steep ascent from Votskop, and the abruptness of the mountains around, may be almost termed a plain. At the end of it, at 10.45, we arrive at Moskopoli, situated at the foot of a very lofty summit. Whatever it may once have been, Moskopoli now presents only the appearance of a large village surrounded with gardens, in which the Lombardy poplar is very frequent,—a tree common in these mountains, but apparently not indigenous, as it is found only near the villages. For a considerable distance round the town are seen the ruins of houses, most of which were of small dimensions, and altogether cannot have amounted to more than a thousand. It is very possible, however, that these ruins are much posterior to the great decline of the place. Among them are several small tents and temporary coverings, tenanted by families which have been obliged to retire out of the village, under suspicion of being infected with the same contagious disease which raged at Korytza. The disorder, however, is not the proper plague, or it has been unusually mild in its effects, for not more than forty have died at Korytza in eight months, and here about fifty in the last two months, at the beginning of which time the disease first made its appearance.
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§ 1.345 Having lost a quarter of an hour by a circuit, to avoid passing through the village, we regain the direct road, cross some barren heights grown with brushwood and wild strawberries, and at about 12.30, having gained the highest part of the ridge, descend to a stream flowing from the left towards the west, over a tfide stony bed between steep mountains, whose sides are well peopled with small villages. We descend by a zigzag path, and cross the river at 1.25; then, ascending the mountain of Opari, at 2.30 arrive at Lavdhari, a small village of Greeks, or rather Christian Albanians, and the ordinary residence of Shemseddin Bey, son of Mehmet Pasha, of Frashari, which place is under the authority of Aly Pasha. After a long delay, caused by the conduct of the tatar, who, instead of searching for a lodging for me, demanded a contribution of money for himself, I obtain admission into a long apartment, open to the roof, and belonging to the Papas, who is likewise Proestos of the Greek community. At one end of the room is a ladder descending to the ground floor, which is a stable, and at the other end a fire-place. The dispute between the tatar and Proestos continues after our arrival; the former asserting that the Papas has a better house, the latter swearing that he has not, by the Christ, by the Cross, by the Bread, by the Virgin, which is the orthodox ascending climax of Greek asseveration.
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§ 1.346 The summit rising immediately above Lavdhari is here known by the name of Ostrovitza: from Korytza it bore N. 86 W. by compass. The river which we crossed is called the Khelidhoni; a Greek name and probably ancient. It joins the Devol at the foot of Mount Lenia, which appears before us to the north-west, afid is not much inferior to the great Tomor in its height and imposing appearance; the latter mountain is hid from us by the range of Opari, or Khopari, nor was it visible from Korytza. Mount Khopari is a westerly continuation of Mount Ostrovitza, and closes the hollow watered by the Khelidhoni. Both these summits, as well as Lenia, are thickly studded on their lower slopes with villages surrounded by cultivation, so that the mountains seem to be inhabited beyond their powers of production, while the plains are deserted,—a circumstance to be ascribed to the bad government of the Turks, and to the difference between their military character and that of the Albanians. Inferior as horsemen, the latter are unable to maintain themselves in the plains, while their hardiness, activity, and greater skill in the use of the musquet are well adapted to the defence of their mountains. The villages on either side of the hollow which we have crossed, form the district of Khopari; with the exception of Lavdhari, they are principally inhabited by savage Musulman Albanians, of the Toshke tribe, the Christian houses not amounting to more than 230 in thirty villages. In these, though the ordinary language is Albanian, many of the men speak Greek, because the Papadhes are in general from Greece, and because many of the male inhabitants find that language necessary in their employment, as carriers, or keepers of flocks in the neighbouring parts of Greece.
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§ 1.347 Like the Greeks of Asia Minor, and of other parts of Turkey where they are greatly in the minority, they seclude their women. The Wallachian language is partially used also in these mountains, being spoken by some remains of the Wallachian immigration which preceded the rise of the Albanian power; and thus within a short distance the traveller may hear five tongues, Turkish, Albanian, Bulgarian, Wallachian, and Greek all radically different, though from the long mixture of the people they have many words in common. The Turkish is much the most rare. It is a melancholy reflection that all the Mahometans of these mountains, and who now form the majority of the population, have become apostates from Christianity since the reign of Mahomet II., in which they have been imitated by many of Vlakhiote or Bulgarian race. My host the Papas complains of having to pay 300 piastres a year in contributions. The great staff of life, maize, is produced in the Mizakia, of which the market is Berat. Sept. 12.—At 6.40 we leave Lavdhari, pursue the side of the mountain, and, in the neighbourhood of two or three small villages, pass through several gardens, where the cornel and walnut are mixed with pear, apple, and some other fruit trees, which, being the growth of colder climates, are either not found or rarely found in Southern Greece and the Morea.
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§ 1.348 Having then descended, we cross at 7.45 a branch of the Khelidhoni, coming from the south, and from thence ascend to Protopapas, which, notwithstanding its name, is now entirely Musulman, and has a mosque with a minaret, a distinction proper to be mentioned, as this picturesque adjunct of the mosque is by no means general in Albania. The road in many places is destroyed by the late rains, and in all parts is so extremely bad that our pace is very slow. The tediousness, however, is in great measure compensated by the beauty and sublimity of the prospect. Though the sky still lowers, the weather is less threatening, and admits a view of the great summits at intervals. Occasionally they are illuminated by the sun, while fleecy vapours are seen settling on the ravines and vallies. Sometimes we find ourselves in the midst of these vapours unable to see more than a few feet before us, until suddenly the mist clearing away, shows the highest mountains in that partial manner which never fails to augment their apparent height and magnitude. Continuing to ascend over rugged hills, we halt for 15 minutes at 10.45 at Durshari, situated under a woody peak called Bofnia, the continuation of the Khopari range: half an hour before Durshari we crossed a stream from the south, which unites with the Khelidhoni near its junction with the Devol, of which the previous course was frofti the north-eastward, but which, after the junction, flows along the south-eastern side of Mount Lenia.
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§ 1.349 At 12.45, after a continual ascent from Dύshari, we arrive at the Kommeno Lithari, or Cut Rock, in Albanian Guri Prei. This is a small rock rising from the crest of a ridge which ranges with Mount Lenia, and divides the hollow of the river Khelidhoni from that of another principal branch of the Devol, which flows along the eastern side of Mount Tomor. The ridge being exactly at this point lower and more accessible than in any other part, the “Cut Rock” is the natural point of communication from the one valley to the other, and for that reason has been occupied by a castle which surrounds the rock. Kommeno Lithari was taken from the Pasha of Berat, about seven years ago, by Aly, who now holds it with a garrison of a dozen dirty half-starved Albanians. The fort is nothing but a thin wall, surrounding a quadrangular space, in the centre of which rises a kula, or small keep, standing upon the lithari or rock itself: this tower was formerly the only fortress. The poor soldiers have a few chambers with fire-places in the tower, but so dirty and miserable that I prefer remaining on the flat roof of the tower in the midst of fog, rain, and wind; doubly chilling after the late sultry weather in the plains. The soldiers complain of the cold in winter, when the snow lies on the ground for several months; but still more of the wind, which rushes through this lofty opening in the ridge, in concentrated blasts from whatever quarter it may come. Mutton they contrive to obtain occasionally, as even in winter some sheep remain in the sheltered vallies, and sometimes a little kalambokki, but neither wine nor spirits, their tarn consisting only of koromana, or black bread: and having never yet received any pay, they must rob, starve, or desert, but for the contributions of passengers.
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§ 1.350 After dining on the roof of the tower we quit Guri Prei at 8.15, and soon exchange its fogs and cold for the sunshine of a sheltered valley; in descending to the bottom of which, we pass at 2.45 through Dombreni, a Mahometan village with mosque and minaret, pleasantly situated among gardens and fields of maize, but bearing marks of the late war between the two vezirs in a ruined kula belonging to the Bey, who resides in the village. All this valley, with the including slopes from Guri Prei to the crest of Tomor, is called Tomoritza. From Dombreni there is a descent of another half hour to the branch of the Devol last-mentioned, which we cross at 3.15; then, after riding for a short distance along the bed, begin to ascend from its left bank the lower declivity of Mount Tomor. In the ascent, one of the horses, mounted by a postillion, falls to rise no more. Continuing through a very uneven and woody region, we arrive at length at the foot of the stupendous cliffs and forests of the great summit, from which many fragments loosened by the rains have recently fallen into the road. At the end of two hours from the river we have made the tour of the northern end of the summit, and are beginning to proceed along its western face just under the highest cliffs, which are entirely hid from view by the vapours.
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§ 1.351 As we advance along the western side of the mountain, the sun becomes visible at short intervals, and lights up portions of the great plain of the Mizakia with the sea beyond it, but these views are soon shut out again by interposing clouds and rain. Just as it becomes dark we obtain a sight of the village of Tomor or Domor in the highest habitable part of the mountain, and perceive on our right, at the extremity of the long rugged slope of the mountain, the Castle of Berat, and the valley of the river Uzurmi. At 7 we arrive at the village, and as the rain is falling heavily, I am not sorry to obtain speedy admittance into a tower belonging to the family of a Papas recently deceased, who was the Proestos of Tomor. The village which is situated immediately under the immense cliffs, which surround the summit of the mountain, is built amidst a great number of walnut trees of native growth: in other parts of the mountain beeches and pines are the most common trees. The village is inhabited entirely by pastors of the Mizakia, who remain here during the months of June, July, August, and September, old style, and then return to their pastures and winter villages in the plain. Some of these persons possess several thousand head of cattle and sheep, from which butter and cheese are made, and labouring oxen reared for the supply of Rumili, Albania, and Greece. The butcher has scarcely any demand for the oxen, as beef is not much eaten by Turks or Christians either in these or any other parts of Turkey, and is seldom to be seen but in the Frank or Jewish houses of the great towns.
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§ 1.352 The Illyrian plains are subject to inundations, which sometimes deprive the cattle of wholesome pasture in the spring, and generally cause a mortality, as happened this year, and rendered necessary a large importation of beasts from the Ultra-Danubian provinces. The pastors of the Mizakia are chiefly of Vlakhiote descent, and speak both Wallachian and Albanian. A Bolu-bashi, appointed by the Pasha of Berat, resides at Tomor, but has no power independent of the primates, the chief of whom, now present, is one Demetrius, who has a tolerable house as compared with the generality of the miserable huts. He is one of the few persons in the community who can speak Greek, which he has learned by having travelled in the prosecution of his trade into several parts of Greece, particularly Acarnania and Aetolia, great feeding countries. I find him a well-informed man for his station, and anxious to supply me with every thing which the village can afford, nor can I prevail on him to accept payment for the provisions consumed by us. In truth, it is by no means uncommon to find not only more hospitality, but more information among the simple shepherds and husbandmen of Greece, than among the inhabitants of the towns. Demetrius describes to me a Hellenic fortification on the summit of a height rising from a steep slope, which half an hour to the southward of the village of Tomor is surrounded at the back with precipitous cliffs, separating it from the upper heights of the mountain.
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§ 1.353 Sept. 13.—The mountain of Kurdhesi, to the south-eastward of Avlona, is conspicuous from Tomor, and to the left of it, more distant, is seen that of Dukai, Romaice Dukadhes, in Khimara. At 7 a.m. we begin to descend the mountain to Berat. Its immense declivity is interrupted by very uneven ground and numerous ravines. Sometimes the road leads over eloping strata of bare limestone rock, rendered slippery by the rain, which still continues to fall, and in some places is so narrow and muddy that it could not be more difficult in the middle of winter. Several small villages appear on the right and left, chiefly Mahometan. Little cultivation is seen, but there are many large flocks of sheep and goats in the open pasture. In other parts the hills are covered with small trees, principally oaks, mixed with brushwood, consisting chiefly of pirnari, ilex, and lentisk. At 8.40, passing along the side of a precipice where the narrow path has been rendered still narrower by the late rains, two of the loaded horses fall over, roll down for about fifty feet, and would have been precipitated to the bottom of the ravine, but for the trees and bushes which arrested their fall; neither baggage nor horses were hurt. This causes a delay until 9. At 11 we arrive in a narrow valley, where the river Uzumi flows from the south, inclosed on the other side by a long mountain of no great height. Here the road turns to the westward with the castle of Berat in front, joins the Ioannina road at the river side, and follows the right bank. As we approach Berat the valley widens, and then again becomes narrow, until, at the Castle Hill, there is space only for the river between the precipices of that hill and the point of the opposite range.
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§ 1.354 The Kassaba, or town, is divided into two parts by the gorge at the Castle Hill. Goritza, on the opposite side of the river, inhabited solely by Greeks, forms a third makhala; and the castle itself, which is occupied only by the Pasha’s palace and some houses of Christian Toshke, is a fourth. I enter the Kassaba at 12, and in half an hour more, in passing the castle gate, to the Greek quarter, observe in the wall adjacent to the outer and inner gates, particularly at the latter, some small remains of a massy Hellenic wall. After some difficulties, produced by the folly or roguery of the tatar, whom I discharge immediately, I obtain a lodging in the house of the principal Greek merchant, which by no means resembles the houses of the same class in Greece. Even in the best apartment there are neither glass windows, nor a ceiling, nor furniture to the divan, and the light appears through the shutters, floor, and tiles. It is rather a bad omen to find three physicians residing here. Two are Corfiotes, living wretchedly; the third is Dr. G. Sakellarios, of Kozani, who was happily settled at Ambelakia, on Mount Ossa, when, at the request of Ibrahim, he was obliged by Aly to change his situation from a place which enjoys the comforts of civilized Europe more than any other in Greece, for the centre of Albanian barbarism. Dr. S. is well acquainted with German, Italian, French, Latin, and ancient Greek, has translated (in company with some others) the four first volumes of the Voyage d’Anacharsis into modern Greek, and has printed the first and fourth; but has given up the work, lest suspicions should attach to him, because a part of the translation was made by Riga, and because the first volume was printed by another of the conspirators of Vienna, who were betrayed by the Austrian government to the Porte. Dr. S., anxious to benefit his countrymen, and sincerely attached to letters, is now engaged in translating into his native language the general history of Greece, by Cousin Despreaux, and is already advanced as far as the seventh volume.
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§ 1.355 The character given of Ibrahim Pasha, even by those not attached to his service, is favourable. He is said to be a humane and lenient governor, and in many respects a favourable contrast to the Tepeleniote. He is desirous of peace, but his two enterprizing neighbours will not permit him, particularly Aly, who will probably be satisfied with nothing short of his destruction. Ibrahim, however, is himself an usurper: he was son-in-law of his predecessor Ismail, at whose death he seized the castle, battered the palace, where Mehmet Pasha, the son of Ismail, had taken refuge, and drove him out. Mehmet is now living in poverty at Liisnia. Ibrahim has lately finished, or rather has not quite finished, a lofty building at one corner of the castle, consisting of three or four stories, to which a palace in the usual Turkish taste is attached. Here he constantly resides, scarcely ever moving from his divan but once in two or three months to some neighbouring village, and very seldom entering even his harem, unless it be that part where his treasures are deposited; he has only one wife, the mother of a son, who, though only six or eight years old, is already styled pasha, and has an establishment of officers.
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§ 1.356 Sept. 14.—This forenoon I visit His Highness, for being a vezir he is styled by the Greeks υψηλοτης, like Aly. Nothing is here to be seen of the crowd, and noise, and multitude of dirty Albanian soldiers, which give such an air of business or confusion to the palace of Aly Pasha; only a few tatars, or other persons silently seated, in attendance in some long passages which lead to the Pasha’s apartments. After passing through an anti-chamber, in which several handsome youths with pallid countenances are reading the Koran aloud, I find the Pasha stretched out at full length in one corner of his sofa in a small apartment, neat, but quite deficient in the magnificence which is often overdone in Aly's palaces. The latter, on a first visit, is generally found walking about the room; after a few words of salutation, he immediately asks his guest to be seated, more polite in this than Russians in authority, whose interviews with persons of inferior rank are on foot. Aly seems to have adopted his method as a compromise between the ordinary European custom and that of the Turks on these occasions. But Ibrahim has made no such advances in civilization: he does not move from his posture when I enter, but merely makes a motion for me to be seated. No pipes or coffee are handed: he speaks very little, and shows nothing of the curiosity, shrewdness, or engaging manners of his brother of Ioannina, as the latter styled him in the letter of introduction which I brought.
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§ 1.357 In manner and conversation, however, he is neither rude nor haughty. He invites me to visit any part of his territories I may wish, and has no recollection of having seen an English traveller here before, though captains of English ships have not unfrequently visited him, both here and at Avlona; and not long since, on the occasion of a shipwreck near Apollonia, he clothed and fed a part of the crew and sent them to Constantinople. Some attempts to raise the ship are now in progress. The dominions of this Vezir extend to a distance only of four hours to the south, having been reduced to that limit by Aly Pasha, who had before conquered the country as far as Paleo Pogoghiani inclusive, from Kurt Pasha, the predecessor of Ismail. To the north Ibrahim commands as far as Lusnia, distant six hours on the road to Duras. He has lately acquired the district of Elbassan, and in that direction his dominion extends farthest into the mountains. Tirana and Kavaya are an appanage of the Sultan Mother, and are his boundaries in the maritime plains. At Lesh, inclusive, begins the government of the Vezir of Skodra. Ibrahim's brother was Pasha of Avlona; since his death the government has been filled up with Ibrahim’s name in the yearly nomination of the Porte; and last year that of his young son Suliman was inserted, the Porte having been willing to augment his power as a counterpoise to that of Aly.
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§ 1.358 The Beratinos, to use the familiar Greek expression, is at present greatly in want of money, and having gained his ends at Elbassan,has been glad to put an end to the war with him of Skodra. Ibrahim’s necessities obliged him last year to oppress some of the villages. but he was checked by the Turkish beys of Berat, who own many of them, and whom he has not mastered so completely as has been done at Ioannina by Aly. He possesses a considerable landed property, having, when he succeeded to the Pashalik purchased the malikhiane. or farm, for life, of all the Beyliks, which had been held by Ismail Pasha. As the annual payment to the Porte was calculated by the relative value of corn and money, when he obtained the grant, he has been a great gainer by the debasement of the Turkish coinage; and although the Porte will probably make a demand upon him in consequence; such demands are not very quickly complied with in Albania, when the persons upon whom they are made have the means of avoiding them. Corn-lands in the adjacent plains generally pay half the produce to the owner: farther north, in the proportion of three to the cultivator and two to the owner; but in the latter case the farmer bears a greater share of the expences. Corn is measured here by the Bara of eight Kiase, each of which is 100 λίτραις, or Greek pounds, which are the same as Venetian. The crop of the rice grounds, watered by the river in the plain of Berat, is divided into three parts; one of which goes to the Pasha for miri, and the expence of keeping the channels in order, the other two to the owner and the cultivator.
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§ 1.359 Wheat in the plain of Berat and in the Mizakia is sown at two seasons, October or November, and February. The latter bears a small hard grain, and makes excellent flour: it is called Kutzeli. Barley is also sown in February. The last harvest was very bad from the same cause which produced mortality among the cattle,—the excess of rain during the winter and spring. Flax is sown at the present season. Kalambokki (which is chiefly arabositi or maize) in May: it is not watered, except near the river or near the canals derived from it. No Christian has any landed property in the Mizakia, but the pastures are open to the public on paying a moderate κεφαλιάτικο, or tax on each head of cattle. Berat, in vulgar Greek Το Μπεράτι, is named by the writers of the Lower Empire Βελάγριτα, or Βελέγραδα, which latter is still the title of the bishopric. It is nothing more than the Greek form of the same Sclavonic word, Beligrad (white fortress), of which Berat is the Albanian corruption. The name shows that the place was a part of the Bulgarian conquests, and long in possession of that people. The castle is defended by a strong battlement in the Turkish style, raised on a wall which is flanked by square towers, but armed with only two or three small pieces of ordnance. The greater part of the inclosed space slopes in such a manner as to be entirely exposed to another height now covered with vineyards to the north-east, where the Pasha has lately constructed a small square castle.
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§ 1.360 At the foot of this hill is the principal Turkish quarter, which extends from thence up to the cliffs of the castle-hill, and is pervaded by a long bazar from one end to the other. The extremity near the castle is the only part of it inhabited by Greeks. In Goritza, or the quarter on the left bank of the river, there are about sixty houses, which, added to those in the castle, make the Christian families amount altogether to four hundred. In the Kassaba there are about six hundred Mahometan houses. Just below Goritza the river is crossed by a handsome bridge which was built by Kurt Pasha. From the left bank of the river rises a long and lofty ridge named Spiragri, beautifully clothed with wood on the slope. At the foot of it stands a palace which was built by Ismail Pasha, and which, having been much injured by the shot from the castle in the war which followed that Pasha's death, has since been neglected. Below Berat the Uzumi winds to the N.N.W. through a valley called Topalti, which expands to a breadth of three miles between the parallel ranges of Tomor and Spiragr, and at the end of eight or nine miles opens into the great maritime plains or champaign country which anciently belonged to Bullis, Apollonia, Dimallum, Dyrrachium, and some other cities of minor note. The Uzumi, soon after entering the plain, makes a turn to the left, and then receives the Devol, not far from the place where the latter emerges out of a narrow gorge in the mountains to the eastward.
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§ 1.361 The castle of Berat, although a lofty point, is situated too far in the valley to command an extensive view: the sea is not visible. To the north the mountains near Kroia and Tirana are pointed out to me; and in the opposite direction in a line with the Uzumi, the hills near Skrepari and Dusnitza, above which rises the great serrated crest of Nemertzika. The range of Tomor shuts out all view to the eastward, and the parallel range almost equally in the opposite direction. The Hellenic remains in the castle wall, and their situation on a precipitous height overhanging the river, at the entrance of a valley leading from the plains of Illyria into the strongest parts of Epirus, afford indubitable proofs that Berat stands on the site of an ancient city of some importance. But there is no evidence in history sufficiently precise to afford any certainty as to its name. The probabilities are in favour of Antipatria, which was certainly hereabout, and is described by the historian as a great city strongly fortified, and situated in a narrow pass. It was taken in the year B.C. 200, by L. Apustius, who was detached by the consul Sulpicius from his camp in the neighbouring plain, with directions to lay waste the Macedonian frontier. In strictness, indeed, this country was a part, not of Macedonia, but of Atintania, Dassaretia, or Illyria; but nothing is more likely than that the kings of Macedonia had added it to their dominions when their power was at its height, in the ages preceding the Roman wars, and when a new name may have been given to this place in honour of Antipater.
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§ 1.363 CHAPTER VIII ILLYRIA, EPIRUS. SEPT. 21.—The route from Berat to Avlona after descending into the plain follows the course of the Beratino, or Uzumi, at a small distance from the river, and sometimes passes along the bank itself. The road is wide and rendered very dusty by cars, which we meet, drawn by buffalos. These beasts are entirely covered with dried mud, a consequence of the habit which they have in the summer, of rolling or immerging themselves up to their necks, and even to their nostrils, in the mud and shallow water of the rivers, lakes, or ponds. There they remain enjoying the coolness, free from the torment of insects, many hours at a time, and when they emerge, obtain in the dried mud an armour against the flies.
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§ 1.364 The carts are loaded with wood, hay, and other commodities for the use of the town. The wheels have spokes and very broad fellies, narrowed at the edge, but are so loosely and clumsily fixed to the axle as to sway about at every step with an incessant creaking. At the end of 1 hour and 50 minutes we cross the river at 5 p.m. by a handsome bridge, which was built by Kurt Pasha. Near it we meet the metropolitan bishop of Velegrada, or Berat, coming into town from his residence at Kolkondasi, and accompanied by two priests with yataghans in their girdles and pistols in their holsters. The bishop’s house in the castle of Berat is occupied by the Pasha’s Grammatikos, a Greek who manages all the money concerns of the lazy Ibrahim, making good use of the favour he enjoys for his own advantage, and affecting such pride in his official station as to be above visiting the Pasha’s physician, the learned Sakellario. Half an hour beyond the bridge the road ascends the hills which bound the plain of Topalti on the west, and at 6 we arrive at Vakopoli, a village of 25 Greek houses in a retired situation among the hills, surrounded with gardens, and an extensive tract of vineyards. There are two papadhes in the village, with one of whom I lodge in a ruinous cottage, but the best in the place. He informs me that at Pakhtos, a village among the hills, an hour and a half to the left of Luari, which is on the road from hence to Avlona, there is a fountain of ασφαλτον, which rises like water out of the ground.
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§ 1.365 Strabo describes a fountain of warm water mixed with asphaltum at the Nymphaion of Apollonia. where a bituminous substance was extracted also in a solid form. But the latter mine, which is still wrought, is at Selenitza, near the Viosa, much nearer to Aulon and Apollonia. The fountain of pitch at Pakhtos, therefore, is different from that of Strabo, and shows the great extent of the subterraneous riches of this quarter of Greece. The same papas describes a place near a village called Ekali, where are two Palea Kastra, one on a peak above the other, and the latter immediately above the river Viosa, or Vuisa, as he pronounces the name; they are in a hilly district on the right bank of that river, not far from its entrance into the plains. He measured one of the stones in the castle wall, and found it 14 σπιθαμαΐς, or spans long, and 4 high. Here also, he adds, is a great rock, inscribed with Φραγκικά γράμματα, or Frank words, which nobody can read; perhaps they are Latin, though I have often heard the same description given to Hellenic inscriptions by half educated Greeks. The ruins are the same as those which were described to me at Tepeleni. There is a small village on the site named Gradista, a Slavonic name analogous to the Greek Kastri. The two castles probably belonged to the same Greek city, the upper having been the acropolis. Ekali is reckoned 7 hours from Vakopoli, 6 from Avlona, and 5 from Apollonia; but being inhabited by wild Toskidhes, not in the government of Ibrahim nor controlled by Αly, whose authority does not extend along the Viosa, below Liopesi, it will, I fear, be inaccessible to me. The Greeks of Vakopoli, in common with those of all the villages which lie on the great routes, suffer extremely from the Albanian soldiers who quarter upon them.
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§ 1.366 Sept. 22.—At 7 this morning we begin to cross a ridge which separates Vakopoli from a southerly branch of the great plain of Mizakie, by the Greeks called Mizakia, or Mizakia. At 8.30 we arrive at Donafros, a small Musulman village with a mosque, situated in a retired valley among heights, which are the last falls of Spiragri, and the hills of Dusnitza. This is the frontier of Mizakia and Malakastra, which last district begins from the western side of the plain of Topalti, and, skirting the roots of these hills, extends to near Avlona. Leaving Donafros, we have a large opening of the plain of Mizakia on the right, and one hour and a half distant in that direction, the large village of Dronovitza, inhabited by a mixed population of Mahometans and Christians. At 9.30 Kervel is on our left, a scattered village occupying two summits, between which is a cultivated hollow. One of the summits is crowned with a church, the other with a mosque. At 10.20, crossing an extremity of one of the heights, we pass through the skirts of Luari, a small village; the hills towards Pakhtos are chalky or gypsous. At Luari, one of my servants being seized with a violent fit of the intermittent fever, we are obliged to remain at a khan, a quarter of an hour beyond the village, till 4 p.m.
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§ 1.367 We then cross a large branch of the plain, to the projection of a low root of the mountain which bounds it to the westward, and having turned the extremity, arrive at 5.35 at Stafiri, where a large church and a bazar show that it is a Christian village of relative importance, though the houses are mere huts of wicker and mud, without chimneys, and the bazar a row of miserable shops. The cultivation of this noble plain, capable of supplying grain to all Illyria and Epirus, with an abundance of other productions, is confined to a few patches of maize near the villages. Nevertheless the Mizakia is as well peopled as most of the great plains, either of Asiatic or European Turkey, and better than many of them. This part of it is well wooded; the hedges and great trees are festooned with wild vines, which produce a small grape of excellent flavour: and the villages in general are embosomed in clusters of trees, the huts standing far apart, each with its piece of garden ground. At Stafiri we cross a stone bridge over a lazy rivulet, named Lenitza, flowing from the heights on our left towards the Apsus, and here inclosed between high banks. At 6.50, after having traversed another bay of the plain to another point of the hills, we arrive at the large scattered Turkish village of Radostin, agreeably situated at the foot of low woody hills above a grove of fine oaks. Some of the inhabitants show an inclination to insult us as we pass, until they espy a negro tatar, a favourite servant of the Vezir Ibrahim, who accompanies me, and who is well known throughout his dominions.
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§ 1.368 The burying-ground of Radostin is full of pieces of fluted columns, and other fragments of the good times of antiquity. Having crossed a height beyond it, and descended a little of its western slope, we arrive at a quarter past 7 at a monastery, of which I take the correct name to be η παναγία της Απολλωνίας, as standing upon a part of the site of Apollonia, but which the ignorant monks have been pleased to convert into the ridiculous title of ή παναγία του Άπόλλωνος: the vulgar name of the place is Pollina, or Pollona. A small village named Poyani lies at the foot of the hill to the north; and nearer ta the monastery, in the opposite direction, a few labourers’ huts called τα Καλύβια, in a narrow vale lying between the hill of the monastery and a parallel low ridge, clothed with small beeches. Behind the monastery, towards the summit of the hill, are some gardens and vineyards in a ruined and neglected state, (like the greater part of the extensive lands of the monastery,) the cause of which is the exposed situation of the place on a route much frequented by the Albanian soldiery, and so convenient as a halting place that parties of them often remain here for two or three days for the sake of the free quarters, and in the course of these unwelcome visits have ruined all the cells and other apartments of the building. The best lodging I can find is the cell of the Igumenos, a little chamber perfectly Albanian as to dirtiness, and of which the thick stone walls are gaping open at one corner. Only two monks now reside here.
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§ 1.369 The church has been built and repaired at different periods, but is chiefly composed of Roman tiles, and of ancient squared stones of a large size taken from the ruins of Apollonia; some of these have been carved into monstrous ornaments of the lower ages. There remain the sepulchral monuments of two Ηγούμενοι of the ninth century. The monastery contains some fine pieces of sculpture, which having been found, for the most part, in ploughing the fields on the ancient site, have been fixed into the walls in the room of other stones displaced for their reception.. It is to this custom of adorning their convents and churches, which still generally prevails among the Greeks, that we are indebted for the preservation of the greater part of existing inscriptions and remains of art. Of those in the walls of the monastery of Apollonia the most remarkable are as follows:—1. The bust of a matron with the veil thrown over the hair, and then passing under the breast. This bust the monks say was quite perfect, until some soldiers of Berat thought proper to amuse themselves by firing their musquets at it, which has destroyed the nose and chin. 2. The bust of a young man, with curled hair, and a short thick beard covering all the lower part of his face; the breast and right shoulder are bare, and a loose garment hangs over the left shoulder and under the breast. Both these busts are of the human size, and of white marble, apparently Italian. The nose of this last bust was destroyed by the plough when it was discovered.
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§ 1.370 3. A small mnema or monumental stone, representing in relief two young persons in loose garments with the right hands joined, and the left hand of the female upon the left shoulder of the man. The face of the man is perfect, that of the female is destroyed. Her name was Prima, as appears by the letters ΠΡΙΜΑΧΑΙΡΕ over her head. 4. A very spirited Paniscus or Satyr seated on a rock, with his goat's legs crossed, grinning and blowing on the pan-pipe, which he holds with both hands. 5. A fragment of a frize, representing the lower part of the drapery, and part of the wing of a female figure flying, together with a man’s front face upon a shield; around the face are locks of hair, twisted upon the forehead. 6. Another similar fragment representing in low relief a man setting one foot on the hip of a woman, and dragging her by her arms, which are passed over her head. Behind him is a warrior with a shield and flying robe, in the attitude of combat: the very common subject probably of the Greeks and Amazons. Underneath the figures is an Ionic border, which is continued round one of the other sides of the stone: there are some other figures hid in the wall. This fragment and the preceding appear to have been parts of the frize of the same building. 7. A sepulchral stone, with a man on horseback: very good. 8. Another mnema, bearing the figure of a bearded old man with a long staff in one hand; below is the head of a greyhound looking up at the man. This is roughly wrought, but in good design. 9. A dog seizing an ass, both animals on full stretch: an Ionic border below shows that it was part of a frize.
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§ 1.371 10. Another piece of frize too high in the wall to be seen; it seems to be a man on horseback opposed to a lion, while behind him another wild beast seizes an ox. 11. Two front faces with locks of hair hanging down on either side; part of a frize. 12. The head of a lion, which anciently served for a spout. There are only three inscriptions, and all merely sepulchral, but curious as all containing Roman names, and thus according with the known fact of Apollonia having been much resorted to by the Romans, who sent hither their youth to study the literature and philosophy of Greece. Augustus had thus passed six months when the death of Caesar called him to Rome. One of the inscriptions is in memory of Lucius Licinius Tere(ntius), who died at the age of 65; another was in honour of Titus Julius Clemens, who died at 45, and whose wife’s name, Claudia Therine, was only half Roman. The third is the monument in honour of Prima. It was at the end of the seventh century before the Christian aera, that this fertile part of Illyria first received the laws and customs of Greece. Dyrrhachium and Apollonia were then colonized by the Corcyraei, who, according to ancient custom, placed at the head of each colony a leader from Corinth, as being the metropolis of Corcyra itself.
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§ 1.372 The northern colony was named Epidamnus, the southern Gylacia, from Gylax, the Corinthian leader, but neither appellation continued long in use, those of Dyrrhachium and Apollonia having prevailed. Apollonia is described by the ancient authors as situated at a distance of ten stades from the right bank of the Aous, fifty or sixty stades, or four miles, from the sea, two days’ journey to the south of Dyrrhachium, twenty-five Roman miles from Aulon, and three hundred and twenty stades, or thirty Roman miles, from Amantia. There are some traces of walls close to the monastery on the north, extending from thence upwards to the summit of the hill, and along that summit in a northerly direction. Below the monastery they followed the crest of the ridge to the plain, where their traces are lost. There is also part of a transverse wall which, a little below the monastery, branches from the main wall to the northward. To the southward of the hill of the monastery are the remains of two temples, one in the valley at the Kalyvia, the other beyond that valley, at the extremity of the heights which rise from that side of it. The former temple appears from some fragments to have been Ionic.
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§ 1.373 The low situation and deep loam of this valley seemed to promise, that some considerable remains of the temple might still be concealed below the surface; but on inquiring of the monks, I was informed that no less than seventy cart loads of materials had been taken from thence to build the new serai at Berat. Similar spoliations have been committed at the western temple, and so recently that the excavation made to carry away the foundations, of which not a single stone is left, affords a very tolerable measurement of the length and breadth of the building. One column standing in solitary grandeur is the only part of it which has been spared by the Pasha’s masons. The length of the temple was about 135 feet, the breadth 55; the column, which has 20 Doric flutings, with a capital more spreading than in the Parthenon, and probably more ancient, is 14 feet in circumference at its base, and consequently 4 1/2 feet in diameter, which, compared with the dimensions of the ground plan, and supposing an intercolumniation of 5 1/2 feet, would lead to the belief that the temple was a hexastyle with 14 columns on the side. The extant column is composed of 12 pieces of stone, and the height is about 22 feet, including the capital and plinth, which are of a single stone, and together about 2 feet 9 inches high. The material is a dull white limestone, hard, but nevertheless much injured by time and the effect of the sea air. At Kalyvia there is a fountain, perhaps the ancient Cephissus which was near the gymnasium. These are the only vestiges I can find of the great Apollonia.
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§ 1.374 The existing line of walls meeting in an angle at the summit of the hill behind the monastery, and diverging from thence to the north, tends to show that the city faced the north-west, and that the two temples and gymnasium were without the walls, which would have been very far from a singularity. It is possible, at the same time, that the present remains of walls may not be of Hellenic times, as there are no certain marks of such antiquity in them. If the woody height to the southward were explored, some other vestiges might perhaps be found, which would give a clue to the dimensions and general plan of the city. The hill of Apollonia is not of sufficient height to command a very extensive prospect, or to afford a very advantageous geographical station, though by no means useless in this respect. To the southwestward is seen the island of Sazona, twenty degrees to the right of the northern end of which is the mouth of the Viosa, and seventy-two farther to the right that of the river of Berat, forming a long promontory. The farthest part of the shore to the north is the hill of Kavaya, appearing as an island. A little to the left of Sazona is seen Cape Glossa, or the Acroceraunian extremity, between which and the island is the southern entrance into the Gulf of Avlona. That town is not visible, being hidden by some heights on the eastern side of the lagoon, which extends along the shore at the northern entrance of the gulf. To the left of Glossa occurs the Acroceraunian ridge, separated by the valley of Nivitza from the range of Griva, which bounds the valley of the Viosa to the westward.
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§ 1.375 At the northern extremity of this range is the district of Kudhesi, containing twenty villages and a lofty summit, forming a conspicuous termination to the range of Griva. To the left of the mountain of Ktidhesi appears that of Skrepari, to the south-east of Mount Tomor, then the gigantic Tomοr itself, occupying eight degrees of the horizon. The hill of Spiragr, which bounds the plain of Berat, extends several degrees to the northward of Mount Tomor, and in the midst of the plain watered by the Apsus, or river of Berat, is seen the height of Ardhenitza, so called from a monastery on the summit. The valleys of Dukadhes and Nivitza formed anciently the territory of the Amantini, or Amantienses, or Amantes, the last of which forms was preferred by the people, and was employed by them on their money, in memory of their origin from the Abantes of Euboea, who settled near the Ceraunian mountains after the war of Troy, and possessed Oricus and Thronium. That the district of Amantia lay in that direction from Apollonia and Oricus is confirmed by Caesar, while the distances afforded by Scylax and the Tabular Itinerary, added to the evidence of Hellenic walls at Nivitza, show that place to have been the site of the town of Amantia.
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§ 1.376 The only objection which can be made to this conclusion is, that according to Ptolemy both Bullis and Amantia were on the sea-coast between Aulon and the mouth of the Celydnus, in which he seems to agree with Caesar, who just before he quitted this quarter for the siege of Dyrrhachium, left a detachment of his fleet under Laelius to prevent supplies from being thrown into Oricus from Amantia and Bullis. The only mode of reconciling the apparent inconsistency is to suppose that Amantia, Bullis, and Apollonia, possessing all the country adjacent to the Gulf of Aulon, and being all situated at some distance from the coast, had each of them a port or maritime dependency on the gulf. It was probably to these mantime places that Ptolemy alluded, and towards them that the vigilance of Laelius was chiefly directed, in order to intercept supplies intended for Oricus.
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§ 1.377 The branch of the Aous, which irrigated the valley of Amantia, would seem from Lycophron to have been named Polyanthes. As to Thronium, it appears to have stood at the northern extremity of the Amantine territory, on the borders of that of Apollonia, for it was reduced by the Apolloniatae and added to their district in an early age, as appears by an epigram annexed to a group of statuary at Olympia, which the Apolloniatae had dedicated on that occasion from the tenth of the spoil. It is remarkable that the Roman road from Apollonia to Nicopolis by Hadrianopolis, in the valley of Arghyrokastro, ascended the Amantine valley, and not that of the Aous, although the latter is at least as direct, and there was a continuity of plain or valley from Apollonia to Hadrianopolis without any intervening mountain; whereas, oh the former route, some high ridges are interposed between the head of the valley of Amantia and the plain of Hadrianopolis. Possibly there were some rocky projections on the banks of the Aous, which it would have required great labour to render passable, or frequent ferries or bridges, which it was desirable to avoid.
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§ 1.378 Selenitza, where the mines of pitch mentioned by Strabo are found, is about four hours to north-eastward of Avlona, near the left bank of the Viosa, not far above the junction of the river of Nivitza, and a little below Gradista, which is on the opposite side of the river. The asphaltum is dug out of the earth in large masses, mixed with a considerable quantity of earth. Ibrahim Pasha farms the mine from the Porte, and is said to receive from those to whom he underlets it 120,000 piastres a year. It is a hard black resin, and when mixed with vegetable pitch is much used in the Adriatic in the careening of boats. Strabo, or rather Posidonius, whom he cites, had an idea that earth thrown into the mine was converted into pitch: the fact, perhaps, is, that the asphaltum, liquified by subterraneous heat, flows in that state into the cavities of the earth, whether natural or formed by the excavations from which asphaltum had been already extracted, and that it there hardens, whence the mineral may appear to be continually renewed in the same cavity. Near the mine a gaseous effluvia on the surface of the ground sometimes takes fire, and maintains a flame for several days. This is evidently the celebrated Nymphaeum of Apollonia, which is recorded on the coins of that city by the type of three nymphs dancing round a flame.
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§ 1.379 Sept. 27, 28, 29, 30.—Instead of exploring Illyria and Chaonia any farther, I was obliged to employ these four days in returning to Berat, in consequence of a violent fever which assumed an intermittent form. Being unable to sit upon a horse for more than half an hour at a time, I was under the necessity of performing the greater part of the journey in the arabas of the Mizakia. The first day I halted at Kalkondasi, and lodged in the house of the Bishop of Velegrada (Berat). In the walls of the church are several fragments (brought probably from Apollonia ) of sculptures in low relief, and of architectural ornaments, and there is a tombstone with an inscription of lower times, but not Christian. The next day I crossed over the hill of Ardhenitza, which stands in the middle of the Mizakia, and in a great monastery on the summit found the Bishop, whose house I had quitted in the morning, together with his aged predecessor, who had resigned in his favour, and the venerable Igumenos of the convent, all of whom were extremely kind to me.
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§ 1.380 Our progress was the slower, as I found it impossible to hire a car for the whole journey, and was obliged to change it frequently. On the third day we crossed the point of the hill of Spiragr into the plain of Topalti, and at night I lodged in a store-house among casks, baskets, and bags of corn. Here the fever, not having been improved by the jolting of an Illyrian cart for three days, with intervals of riding in the sun, assumed a form which is not uncommon in Italy and Greece, and is called by the Italian practitioners a doppia terzana, because the fever returns daily, but with increased violence on the alternate days. These alternate fits were accompanied by delirium, and on the second occurrence by complete insensibility. Oct. 14.—Having been restored by the good care and judicious treatment of my friend Sakellario, to a state just equal to travelling, I quit Berat this day for Ioannina, being, in consequence of the delay that has occurred, under the necessity of giving up the intention of visiting Dyrrhachium, and tracing the operations of Pompey, Caesar, and Brutus. This has been doubly unfortunate, because having intended after visiting the maritime Illyria, to follow the entire Egnatian way to Saloniki, I had preferred the direct road from Korytza to Berat across Mount Tomor to the circuitous but much more interesting route by Akhridha and Elbassan, which was a part of that Roman road.
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§ 1.381 At 1 p.m. we cross the bridge of Berat, pass through the small Greek quarter called Goritza, at the foot of the opposite hill, then skirt the river for a quarter of an hour, and enter a valley which branches to the right of the main vale of the Uzumi. Here the road in many parts passes along the bed of a torrent, and at other times over branches of rugged barren hills, which exclude the prospect on both sides, except that sometimes the rocks of Tomor appear on the left. The Uzumi is at no great distance in the same direction; one of the roads leading from Berat to the southward passes along its banks, but that which we travel is the most frequented. After an hour’s riding the rain begins to fall, and continues, with short intermissions, until at 5.30 we arrive at the Khan of Totjer, so called from a village of that name, half a mile distant, in the steep hills to the right, and consisting only of a mosque and three or four large Mahometan houses. The latter part of our road was over a very steep branch of the hills, and was, for the most part, paved. These heights are cultivated only near several dispersed hamlets of three or four houses, situated generally on steep summits. The vegetation bears all the marks of an advanced autumn. The Khan of Totjer, which stands in a narrow bottom between rugged hills, has been lately improved by Ibrahim Pasha. Though the doors and windows have no security to prevent their being blown open by the wind, which perhaps might be too much to expect in an Albanian khan, the floor at least is much more compact than that of the Πρωτο-Πραγματιστης, or first merchant of Berat, and the roof a better defence against the rain—a fortunate circumstance, as in consequence of a deluge which falls all night,
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§ 1.382 Oct 15.—The torrents are reported impassable, until the afternoon, when it is too late to reach Klisura, the nearest place where any provender for the horses can be obtained. Oct. 16.—At 7.45, continuing our course along the ravine, bordered as before by rugged hills, we arrive, in less than three quarters of an hour, at a stream which flows to the left through a gorge into the Uzumi, and from thence, for near half an hour, we ascend the bed of this torrent, which is now but just safe for the baggage horses. We then turn into the channel of a branch of the same river, and at 10, crossing a height, descend, in half an hour, into a vale watered by a stream which flows to join the Viosa near Klisura. The hills are of the same description as those mentioned on the 14th, but the cultivation and the hamlets are more thinly dispersed. One small village only with a mosque was in sight, in a lofty situation on the right As we advance, the great ridge of Trebusin, which appears higher on this side than from Τβρβίέηί, stretches in a direction parallel to the valley we are following, which becomes a little broader as we descend it, and is covered with fields of araboeiti, not yet gathered in. From 11.30 until I we halt at the khan of Venakos, so called from a village of that name situated a mile on the right, amid rugged hills at the foot of Mount Trebusin.
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§ 1.383 On proceeding, our road, every where extremely bad, often crosses the river, and then pursues, for a short distance, the course of its stony bed: the valley is still narrow and grown with maize. On the left are hills more rugged, but in other respects of the same description as before. Behind them rises a lofty range, but not so high as Trebusin. Thus we continue our route till 3.46, when we find ourselves opposite the village and castle of Klisura, at the entrance of a valley which is here about a mile in width. Instead of following the direct road, which ascends the Viosa to Premedi, we turn to the right, and in eight minutes begin to mount a steep slope at the foot of the eastern extremity of Mount Trebusin, which rises bare and precipitous above it, and soon arrive in the scattered village of Klisura, containing about one hundred and fifty houses of Musulmans, who for the most part speak only Albanian. A little beyond the village an immense edge of rock descends from the summit of the mountain to the river, and forms, together with the opposite mountain, which is separated from it only by the river Viosa, the eastern entrance of the celebrated pass anciently called the Fauces Antigonenses, or Stena of the Aous, and now the Stena of the Viosa. Klisura has obviously received its name, which is analogous to the Latin Clusium, and other similar appellations, from its situation. It is mentioned by Cantacuzenus in the fourteenth century, together with other places which are still to be recognised as having been the chief strong-holds in this part of Greece.
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§ 1.384 The river, after having followed a north-western direction from its sources, here suddenly turns a little to the southward of west; and having pursued this course for twelve miles, between two high mountains of extreme steepness, then recovers its north-western direction, which it preserves to the sea. Above the village of Klisura, at an elevation of about one-third of the summit of the mountain, the Vezir Aly has constructed a castle, consisting only of a square white-washed inclosure of a single wall, with a tower at each angle, but perfectly commanding the only road into the pass which leads along a cornice over the right bank of the Viosa. The castle occupies the site of an ancient fortress, as appears from some remains of a Hellenic wall near the entrance. Half way between the castle and the river stands a serai lately built by Aly Pasha. The mountain on the opposite or left bank of the river, is the northern extremity of the great ridge of Nemertzika, much lower than that summit, but nearly equal to Trebusin in height. At the top it is a bare perpendicular precipice, but the steep lower slope, unlike that of its opposite neighbour, is clothed with trees quite to the river. Through the opening between them is seen a magnificent variety of naked precipices and hanging woods, inclosing the broad and rapid stream of the insinuating river.
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§ 1.385 It was on this singular field, in the year B.C. 198, that the Romans obtained the first and therefore the most important of a series of victories, which extinguished for ever the independence of Greece. The young consul, T. Quinctius Flamininus, being resolved to avoid the fault of his two predecessors, Sulpicius and Villius, who had allowed the greater part of their consulships to expire before they entered Macedonia, lost no time after his election at Rome in crossing the Adriatic, from Brundusium to Corcyra, with a reinforcement of near 9000 men; and from thence, with equal celerity, proceeded into Epirus, where he assumed the command of the Roman army. Their camp was at a distance of five miles from the enemy: who was intrenched in the pass of the Aous, called the Stena, and on the steep mountains on either side of it, and who had fortified all the weaker points with ditches, ramparts, and military engines. Philip had occupied this position ever since the beginning of the spring. His main body was encamped on Mount Aeropus, on a conspicuous summit of which his own tent was placed. Athenagoras with the light troops was stationed on Mount Asnaus, on the opposite side of the river. Flamininus, after due consideration, adopted the intention of his predecessor Villius, and determined to force his way through the passes, in stead of entering Macedonia by a circuitous route, through Dassaretia, as Sulpicius had done. But the undertaking was of extreme difficulty,
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§ 1.386 and 40 days were passed in inactivity, with the exception only of a fruitless attempt to make peace by means of a conference which was held between Quinctius and Philip, in the narrowest part of the pass, and which was abruptly broken off by the king, on hearing the unreasonable propositions of the Consul. On the following day there was an action first in a plain just large enough to admit of it, and then in the pass into which the Macedonians retired; and where the superior discipline and skill of the Romans were fully compensated by the strength of position and the catapeltic engines of the Macedonians. The loss on both sides was great, and night alone put an end to the combat. Soon after this event, Charops of Megara, in Molossis, to whom the Romans had already been indebted for information and assistance, sent to the Consul a shepherd who undertook to guide a detachment of the Roman army in three days, by a circuitous route, to the summit of the mountain which was above and in the rear of the camp of Philip. Four thousand infantry and three hundred horsemen were sent upon this service, and were ordered to march only in the night, the moon being then at the full. During the two days of their circuitous route, the Consul disposed his army for a general attack, and at the same time occupied the enemy’s attention by frequent assaults. On the third day, when he saw the concerted signal made by his troops with smoke on the summit of the mountain, he moved forward with his whole army, marching himself in the centre at the bottom of the valley, and sending forward his wings on either side.
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§ 1.387 The Macedonians advanced out of their intrenchments, but found the enemy so superior to them, as well in valour and science as in armour, that they retreated again behind their defences. The Romans then became the assailants, and would have suffered for their rashness, in proceeding over very difficult ground against a well-fortified position, had not their detachment on the summit of the hill at the same moment advanced to the attack of the enemy’s rear; when a shout in that direction having revealed the truth to the Macedonians, threw them instantly into a disorderly flight, and their whole army would have been destroyed, had it been possible for horsemen or heavy armed infantry to pursue with effect over such rugged ground. The king retreated 5 miles to a height, from whence, suspecting that the Romans would be unable to follow him, he sent out parties of the troops who accompanied him, to collect the remainder of his dispersed forces from the mountains and ravines, and to protect their retreat. By these means there were not more than 2000 of his men missing, when the army began a disorderly retreat towards Thessaly. The next day the Romans, who had passed the night in Philip’s camp, emerged from the straits, and pursued the enemy. On the first day Philip reached a place named Castra Pyrrhi, in Melotis; on the following day. he encamped on Mount Lingon, and from thence, after deliberating for some days whether he should take the route to Macedonia, he proceeded at length to Tricca, in Thessaly.
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§ 1.388 Although it is not expressly stated either by Livy or Plutarch, that the camp of Philip was on the right side of the river, and that of Athenagoras on the left, it could hardly have been otherwise, as the road is continuous only on the right bank through the whole pass, and as that side alone affords such an extent of open space as seems absolutely necessary for the encounter which took place on the day of Philip’s defeat. The height to which the king then retreated seems, from the distance mentioned by the historian, to have been that of Klisura, which furnished a good defensive position, and was well adapted to the king’s design, of collecting his scattered forces. Valerius Antias, a Latin historian, asserted that Villius, while in command of the Roman army, had entered the pass, thrown a bridge over the river, and attacked the enemy; but Livy opposes to his testimony that of all the other Greek and Latin writers, who were agreed that Villius had done nothing worthy of mention. Hence it is credible that Philip was in possession of the entire pass until he was attacked by Quinctius, and consequently, that until that day the Roman camp was 5 miles from the western end of the pass, probably in the valley of the Dryno, above its junction with the Viosa.
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§ 1.389 The plain, therefore, near the western entrance of the pass, between Kotra and Tepeleni, would seem to have been the scene of the combat which occurred on the day after the conference between the two commanders. If Philip’s camp was on the right bank of the Aous, it follows of course that Mount Trebusin is the ancient Aeropus, and the opposite mountain, or northern termination of Mount Nemrtzika, the ancient Asnaus. Whether the latter name belonged to the whole of that great mountain, it is impossible to say, no ancient author having distinctly alluded to it, although it is one of the most remarkable in Greece. Plutarch has added nothing to the narrative of the Latin historian worthy of notice, except his description of the pass, in which, if he is more than usually clear and accurate, it is probably because he has borrowed freely from the same Greek historian from whom Livy chiefly derived his information. Plutarch describes the Straits of the Aous as not less strong than the similar defile of the Peneius at Tempe: “It is deficient,” he adds, “in the beautiful groves, the verdant forests, the pleasant retreats, and the meadows which border the Peneius; but in the lofty and precipitous mountains, in the profundity of the narrow fissure between them, in the rapidity and magnitude of the river, in the single narrow path along the bank, the two places exactly resemble. Hence it is difficult for an army to pass under any circumstances, and impossible when the place is defended by an enemy.”
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§ 1.390 In all the editions of Plutarch there is an error in the name of the river, which by the substitution of a ψ for an ω has been made Apsus instead of Aous. That it really is an error cannot admit of a doubt, for no position on the Apsus can be reconciled with the circumstances of the battle, or with those which occurred before and after it. Nor does the Apsus, or indeed any other river in Greece, flow through a defile which so nearly resembles that of the Peneius as these Straits of the Viosa, although they are not to be compared to the Thessalian Tempe in beauty and grandeur, as well in consequence of the deficiencies remarked by Plutarch, as from the smaller dimensions of the river, and including mountains which constitute the main features of both these defiles. Oct. 17.—Having descended to the point of the road from Berat to Premedi, from whence we turned to Klisura, we proceed from thence at 7.10 to follow up the valley, until having reached, in about three quarters of an hour, a spot where a low branch of the hills on the left touches the Viosa, we pass close along its right bank. The river is deep and rapid, but not so much swollen as might have been expected after the late rains. In a quarter of an hour the valley becomes wider again; the chief produce continues to be maize; the upper part of the plant has been cut off for the cattle, the pods alone remaining on the stem to ripen in the sun. Musulman tombs are frequent on the road side, and the same was observable in every part of the district of Berat.
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§ 1.391 The ridge of Nemertzika follows the same south-easterly direction as before, and so continues as far as Paleo Pogoghiani: the highest summit is a little to the southward of Premedi. On our left are some secondary heights which unite Tomar and the mountain of Skrepari with the central range of Pindus, and which have a general direction parallel to Nemertzika; they are very uneven in their forme, but are cultivated in many parts. At a turning of the hills, an hour from Premedi, we come in sight of its castle, situated on a low acclivity overhanging the Viosa, at the foot of the steep slope of Mount Nemertzika. The town lies to the eastward of the castle, in a narrow bottom on the side of the river, which for a considerable distance below the town, flows rapid, full, and turbid, between banks composed of a rock which is a congregate of small pebbles united by a white cement. Where this substance prevails as it does immediately opposite to the town, and for some distance below it, the valley is quite barren, while in higher situations, especially on the eastern hills, the land is fertile and well cultivated. At 10.30 we cross the Viosa by a bridge, and enter the town. Premedi, sometimes called Permedi, or Permeti, contains about 300 Musulman and 100 Christian families. The houses are built of loose stones put together without cement—a kind of masonry not uncommon in Albania; and few of them have walls which are quite perpendicular. That which is assigned me for a lodging, belonging to a tailor now absent, is tolerably comfortable within, and far better than any I saw at Berat.
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§ 1.392 One of the most remarkable objects is a high rock on the northern side of the town, towards the river, the summit of which is surrounded by a ruined wall, containing within it a pool of water supposed to possess medicinal virtues. According to the local tradition, Premedi belonged once to the Spaniards. Above the town the Vezir Aly has lately built a new fortress, in the form of an oblong quadrangle, flanked with towers at the angles, and at intervals also on the sides. It stands like many such constructions in Turkey, on a slope, and one angle is commanded at a very short distance. The castle was prolonged on the descent in great measure for the purpose of including an old ruinous Serai, which Aly’s avarice not allowing him to pull down, he has thus, as he now admits, injured his castle, without escaping from the necessity of constructing a new Serai near the upper wall. An Italian renegade calling himself Suliman Aga, who has been employed as engineer on this occasion, informs me that he did not find any traces of antiquity when he cleared and dug the ground for the foundations, though it is the spot where the acropolis is likely to have been, if Premedi was an ancient site, which is highly probable. The great ridge of Nemertzika rises with extraordinary abruptness behind the castle. Beyond it is the valley of Zagoria, watered by the stream which continues through that of Kieperia, and joins the Viosa in the pass of Klisura. Zagoria consists of several villages, inhabited chiefly by Christian artisans and travelling tradesmen; some of whom proceed as far as Germany. Between Zagoria and Libokhovo is the district of Liuntja.
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§ 1.393 Mukhtar Pasha, who is stationed here by his father, in consequence of some suspicions of war with the Pasha of Skodra; and because the place is centrical, and convenient for collecting the Toshke, returns this afternoon from a hunting party at Eleusa, a village in the mountains, four hours distant. This name is remarkable for its Greek form, amidst so many others of indigenous or Sclavonic derivation, and tends to the belief that Elaeus, which Ptolemy enumerates among the inland cities of Chaonia, was situated at Eleusa. But in this case Elaeus was a different place from the plain Elaeon mentioned by Livy, which was evidently that of Arghyrokastro. It will be necessary also to suppose that Ptolemy is in error in regard to the province to which he attributes Elaeus —namely, Chaonia: for the valley of Premedi was certainly not a part of Chaonia, but lay between the Atintanes and the tribes of Upper Macedonia, and probably belonged to the Paravaei, who received that name as dwelling on the banks of the Aua, which appears to have been one of the ancient names of the Viosa. I am inclined to believe, therefore, that although Eleusa may be an ancient name preserved, it has nothing in common with the Elaeus of Chaonia.
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§ 1.394 Oct. 19.—At 10.30, proceeding from Premedi, we continue to follow the route by which Philip fled before the victorious legions of Rome. At 11.20 we cross to the right bank of the river by a somewhat dangerous ford, at a spot where the stream is compressed between rocks of the same kind as those near Premedi. It is a position in which Philip’s rear-guard might easily have checked a pursuing enemy; but as Quinctius did not complete his march through the Straits until the day after the battle, and Philip seems not to have lost a moment in commencing his retreat, there was little chance of his being overtaken. Beyond the ford of the Viosa the valley is in no part more than a quarter of a mile in breadth, being bounded to the right by the last falls of the abrupt Nemertzika, and on the other side by a continuation of the parallel range of rugged hills which I before described. In some places there is no valley, and the road crosses over the hills. At 2.40 we turn out of the main route to the left, and ascend the rugged heights in order to gain the village of Tjersova for our konak; the steep acclivities are clothed with shrubs; of which the most common are the arbutus and andrachne, both covered with a mixture of blossoms and ripe fruit. The first has a smooth red stem, large leaves like a laurel, and a small tasteless fruit, growing in a racemus; the andrachne a rough brown stem, small serrated dark-coloured leaves, and a larger fruit growing singly. Both plants are called κουμαριά, which is the ancient κόμαρος, little changed. Tzersova, which we reach in fifty minutes from the yalley, stands on the eastern side of the ridge, just below the summit, and contains forty-five houses, surrounded by vineyards, below which are a few corn-fields on the slope.
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§ 1.395 All the mountains around are much broken and intersected by ravines: the summits near Konitza are conspicuous to the eastward, with the branches of the same range towards Mount Russotari. On the opposite side of the valley of the Aous, and almost immediately above the point from which we began to mount the hills, are the most precipitous of those great cliffs of Nemertzika which are so remarkable from Ioannina and other distant places: the summits of these rocks are hid in the clouds, while their bases are but a little above the level of the valley and river. They are probably between two and three thousand feet in height. Oct. 20.—At 7 we descend by a rugged path, and in three quarters of an hour re-enter the main road in the valley of the Viosa, at a spot which is about thirty-five minutes from where we left it. The valley is narrow and grown with maize: the lower slope of Mount Nemertzika, though still exceedingly steep, is more practicable than before, and there is a monastery upon it, as well as one or two small villages, which, like those on the hills to our left, are inhabited by Musulman Albanians. At 9.5 we ford a large branch of the Viosa, of which the sources are in the mountains on the left, near Khierasovo. At the junction, the Viosa, by means of a derivation perhaps artificial, forms a large island, at the upper point of which is a mill, turned by a part of the water of a cascade which falls over the bank of the Viosa; behind these objects an old deserted monastery completes a most picturesque scene.
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§ 1.396 At 9.20 we cross the main river by a bridge high and narrow, and with scarcely any defences on the sides. Here again the stream, being compressed between the rocks, is narrow, and too deep to be forded, though below at the mill it was so shallow as to be forded by asses. Immediately after crossing the river we begin to ascend a lofty root of Nemertzika, and at 9.40, near the summit of the ridge, pass Ostanitza, once a place of importance, but now small: the people have built a khan on the road, which, affording better accommodation than any of their own huts, relieves them from the lodging of travellers. Ostanitza, being about thirty-two miles by the road from Klisura, and lying in the direction which Philip was pursuing towards the modern districts of Zagori and Metzovo, is probably the position of the Castra Pyrrhi, at which the king arrived in his retreat on the afternoon of the first day after the battle. The position was exactly suited to his circumstances, being a strong height, well defended in the direction of the enemy by the narrow gorge through which the river passes immediately below Ostanitza. No remains of antiquity, however, are to be observed here. At the summit of the ridge of Ostanitza we arrive in sight of Konitza, a large town, situated on the right bank of the Viosa, at the foot of an abrupt termination of the central range of Pindus, but considerably elevated above the valley. It appears to contain 800 or 1000 houses.
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§ 1.397 The adjacent mountain is rugged, broken by torrents, and covered with wood: behind it rise the bare precipices of Mount Lazari, one of the highest points of the central range, often called the mountain of Papingo, from a village at its foot belonging to the sub-district of Ioannina, named Zagori. The heights of Konitza are separated from those of Ostanitza by a plain about six miles in diameter, through which the Viosa winds along a broad stony bed, and then, entering the hills, pursues a serpentine course for two miles through them in approaching Ostanitza, beyond which it passes through the narrow glen, a little above the island to which I before alluded. In the plain the Viosa is joined by another great component branch of the Aous called the Voidhomati, (ox eye, or fountain,) which issues from a deep ravine of the mountains of Zagori, a few miles to the south-east of Konitza: the Viosa itself enters the plain immediately below Konitza, through a narrow opening between two precipices higher and more abrupt even than those of Klisura. Our road now leads through a wood of oaks of small size and of various kinds. At 10.20 we halt twenty minutes at a fountain in the middle of the wood to dine; then descend the hill into a narrow valley, where at 12.30 Mavrovuni, a Zagorite village, is near us on the left, and two miles on the right Pogoghiani, which, though small, gives name to a district extending northward from thence to the sources of the Sukha, or branch of the Dryno, which enters the plain of Deropoli at Libokhovo. Delvinaki is now the chief town.
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§ 1.398 The great cliffs of Nemertzika terminate above Ostanitza, where they suddenly fall to a lower woody branch which connects that mountain with a high rocky peak to the northward of Delvinaki. Between the latter and an inferior range, which has a northerly direction, stretches a long slope, on which appear some of the villages of Pogoghiani: through an opening at its northern extremity I recognize the summit near Labovo, called Strakavetzi, and to the left of it one side of the Klisura of Libokhovo. At the end of the valley we ascend a steep hill, and a little beyond the summit arrive, at 1.15, at Raveni, containing eighty poor houses, and included among the villages of Zagori. It is probable that our road from Ostanitza to this place has no longer coincided with the route of Philip, and that in his second day’s march he followed a more eastern line, crossing the plain to the westward of Konitza, and making as direct a course as possible to the highlands of Zagori, which he may have conveniently entered about Artzista. Livy’s description of Mount Lingon is so exactly applicable to Zagori, that we cannot doubt the identity, nor that he adopted that description from Polybius, who was well acquainted with the country. The Latin historian remarks that Lingon (in Greek Λίγγος, or Λίγγον) was a mountainous district of Epirus, bordering on Macedonia northward, and on Thessaly eastward, covered with woods, but in the higher parts containing open plains and perennial waters.
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§ 1.399 Although it might be more correct to say fertile valleys,” than “open plains,” in reference to Zagori, the only plain properly so called being that of Imperatoria, the description leaves at least no question that the line of Philip’s retreat was through Zagori to Imperatoria, where he was probably encamped while undecided whether he should retreat into Macedonia or Thessaly; for at one end of that plain the road to Grevena, in Upper Macedonia, begins to cross the great ridge of Pindus; and from the other end branches that which leads over the Zygos of Metzovo into Upper Thessaly. The name Lingon I should conceive to have been particularly attached to those summits in the middle of Zagori, which are embraced on the north and east by the extreme branches of the Aous, and on the west and south by those of the Arachthus. It is remarkable that one of the villages of Zagori is named Linghiadhes. It is situated on the eastern side of Mitzikeli, which mountain is separated only by the valley of the northern branch of the Arachthus from the mountain which I imagine to have been the proper Lingon. As soon as Philip had arrived on the second day of his retreat within the recesses of this mountainous district, he might encamp wherever he found it convenient; but even if he advanced no farther than the valleys eastward of Sudhena and Dovra, his horizontal distance was more than equal to that of the preceding day, besides which there was a considerable increase of elevation, so that the “ingens iter agminis” of Livy seems perfectly justified.
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§ 1.400 Oct. 21.—A violent fall of rain last night, which continues all this day, with a strong gale from the south, detains me in the cottage of the papas of Raveni, in a wretched chamber pervious to the weather on all sides. Oct. 22.—At 7.15 we descend into a small cultivated plain to the south of Raveni, from whence the road winds through low barren hills till 8, when it enters a plain which is included between the last falls of the mountains of Zagori and a steep ridge on the western aide. This plain, which contains the sources of the Kalama and a small lake, is nearly as broad as long, and is ten or twelve miles in circumference. We skirt it at the foot of the hills which border it on the east, and at 8.20 arrive at the khan of Kalbaki, lately built by the Vezir on the edge of the plain. We then enter a narrow vale, in few places cultivated, between two ranges of low barren hills. Those on the right increase in height to the westward, and upon one of the highest points of them is situated a village called Zagoria. We continue to pursue the tedious course of this uninteresting vale till 10.40, when we find ourselves at the foot of Mount Mitzikeli, above the northern end of the Lake of Lapsista, where the village of Petjali is half a mile on the right, not far from the bank. The abundance of rain has maintained the lake at its highest all this year.
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§ 1.401 A farther descent of half an hour brings us, at 11.50, to the Khan of Lykostomo, situated at the eastern end of a causeway, or long bridge, here crossing the narrowest part of the marsh, which unites the Lake of Ioannina with that of Lapsista. The causeway of Lykostomo is the only direct communication between Zagori and the plain of Ioannina. Having remained at the khan till 1.40, we cross the causeway and the plain, and arrive at the entrance of the city at 3.3. Here I am lodged for a few days at the house of the Bishop of Arta, and then remove to that of S. B., a young man who inherited from his father 800 purses, all which, with the assistance of the Vezir, he has long since got rid of. He was a frequenter, like other young men of fashion, of the house of the celebrated Frosyni. But he was not always so refined in his female society, and the Vezir, who is very rigorous on these subjects when it suits his purpose, and who had an eye to a share of Kyr S.’s fortune, set the police to watch and arrest him on the spot, and by threatening a public example, extracted 400 purses from him. As to the famous πνίξιμον, that atrocious act which seems first to have shown Aly’s subjects to what an extent his pitiless disposition could carry him in a single act of cruelty, I have received the following particulars from Kyr N. G. of Kalarytes, whose wife was one of the sufferers.
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§ 1.402 The Vezir invited himself to supper at the Kalarytiote’s house, an expensive favour, which he is wont to confer occasionally on his confidential servants, of whom Kyr G. is one. Here he collected his intended victims, either by sending the bolu-bashi of the police for them, or proceeding himself on horseback to their respective residences. From the house of G. he went on foot to that of Frosyni, which he entered at the back by climbing over a part of the neighbouring house. He thus appeared suddenly before Frosyni, and without saying a word, made a motion to the bolu-bashi, signifying that she was to be conveyed with the others to prison. The relations of G.’s wife say that her husband was privy to the Vezir’s intentions, and that when she was preparing to appear before the Pasha, in obedience to his summons, her husband, in order to save her trinkets and best clothes, told her that the Pasha wished to make her some present, and might be indisposed from doing so if she made too great a display of dress. The Kalarytiote himself, however, denies all knowledge of his master's intentions, which seems much more probable; and although his suspicions could hardly have been short of conviction, when the women were collected at his house, it would have been in vain for him then to attempt any interference. He asserts, that when the design became manifest, he made every effort to move the Vezir’s compassion for his own wife, without effect. The women were all conveyed to the church of St. Nicolas at the northern extremity of the lake: so much time however had been consumed in assembling them,
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§ 1.403 that the morning returned before boats could be obtained from the island, the fishermen, moreover, refusing to assist without a written order; so that as Turkish custom requires darkness to be added to the other horrors of this mode of punishment, it was not until the following midnight, in the midst of one of those furious thunder-storms so common in Ioannina, that the women were collected in five or six boats, and not being inclosed in sacks according to the practice of Constantinople, the Albanians were under the necessity of using force when they clung to the sides of the monoxyla. During the intervening day, such was the state of the Vezir’s mind and appearance, that no one dared to approach him; and it unfortunately happened that Bishop Ignatius, who would certainly have made some attempt to save the wretched victims, arrived only at Ioannina a day or two after the event. The Pasha has since observed to more than one person, with a pointed allusion to this event, that he has no good counsellors; thus showing the probability that he would at least have spared some of the women for a good ransom. Frosyni was niece of the bishop of Grevena, and was about 28 years of age; she is said to have been witty and accomplished, and seems to have revived exactly the ancient Greek character of an εταιρα. The Ioannites speak with pride and affection of her, and seem to consider the existence of such a person at Ioannina as proving their superiority to the rest of Greece in civilization, not less than a bookshop in the Bazar and their two colleges for education.
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§ 1.404 Frosyni’s coterie, however, was better suited to France or Italy than to Greece in its present state, and was attended with extreme danger in a Turkish town, where the example of a person of good family had a pernicious effect among the Greek women, while it was viewed with abhorrence or envy by the Turkish. The jealous complaints of Mukhtar’s wife to her father-in-law were chiefly directed against Frosyni: those of her sister, the wife of Vely, against two or three married women; and these accusations were undoubtedly the immediate cause of the horrible result. The whole number who suffered were 17, of whom five or six only were of the higher class. The bodies were not all collected for several days, during which time the Satrap remained inclosed in his harem to avoid witnessing the indignation of the Greeks of Ioannina, which for a moment got the better of their prudence, and showed itself by their attending the funerals in great numbers, particularly that of Frosyni.
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§ 1.405 Nov. 1.—A sharp frost in the morning: the lake is now peopled with astonishing numbers of the duck tribe, which often furnish good sport to the Ioannites. The Vezir and his sons often have a battue, which lasts the greater part of the day. As the Pasha permits any body to accompany him, every boat in Ioannina is in requisition on such occasions. They proceed in a long line through the narrow channels which pervade the papyria, and thus surround the cover where the birds are collected, when a sudden shout being given, they rise and are brought down by scores. They are generally very fat at this time of the year, but in general coarse and ill-flavoured. Aly’s intentions are at present directed towards Margariti and Paramythia, and his Albanians have lately taken Koranopulo in Fanari, a village belonging to Hassan Tjapari, of Margariti. His Highness declares his intention of building a new fortress and palace at Litharitza, an important point to the security of Ioannina, being a commanding height not far from the lake, at a distance of 600 yards from the south-eastern tower of the citadel. It commands every approach to the town from the southward, and enfilades the whole length of it in a northern direction, and will thus give the Vezir a command over his capital which can never be obtained from the castle, while the latter is an excellent citadel, and would furnish a secure retreat if the post of Litharitza were lost. The Pasha’s avaricious disposition carries him to such a length, that he never allows any wornout piece of furniture, or arms or utensils to be thrown away, but lays them in places well known to him, and would discover the loss of the smallest article. In the dirty passages and antichambers leading to some of the grandest apartments of his palace, and which have cost some thousands to fit up, the worn out stock of a pistol, or a rusty sword, or a scabbard, or some ragged articles of dress, may be seen hanging up, which his numerous domestics never venture to remove, well knowing that it would be remarked by him.
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§ 1.406 This mixture of magnificence and meanness is very striking in every part of the palace. His great apartment covered with a Gobelin carpet, surrounded with the most costly sofas, musical clocks, and mirrors, is defended by cross iron bars, rougher than would be considered tolerable in the streets of London. They are intended to prevent his servants from passing through the windows when the chamber is locked. Having had occasion when I was at Corfu to transmit a small sum of money to the Vezir, I sent it purposely through the hands of Mehmet, the Roman, in the hope that when he presented it, his highness would make him a present of it. In a fit of generosity he did so; but not long afterwards changed his mind, and sent his treasurer for it. One year he gave the superintendence of the collection of his revenues and rents to the bishop of Arta, with the injunction that it should be done καλά, which word the bishop well knew did not convey any intention of forbearance. The new system failed not in producing a greater amount than usual, but numerous complaints having followed, the Vezir informed the complainants that they might apply to the bishop for a remission in their next contributions, amounting altogether to 80 purses. For these 80 purses, however, he never allowed the bishop any credit in the account between them, thus pocketing the increase, and leaving the bishop to settle it as he best might with the villages.
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§ 1.407 Though the Greek prelates suffer in this manner occasionally, he is too well aware of their importance in the government of the Christian population, and as instruments of extortion, to treat them with extreme harshness. Indeed, he generally favours the Dhespotes, as he qualifies them, much more than the Turkish Beys, and seldom denies the bishops a little military assistance in obtaining their personal dues. Not long ago, however, he almost frightened to death the Bishop of Grevena, a mild and timid man, by a proceeding which was meant to increase the bishop’s authority. Being about to visit Grevena, he ordered the bishop to prepare the episcopal palace for his reception, but instead of proceeding there went to another konak, pretending to believe that the bishop had so ordered it. Having sent for the unfortunate Άγιος Γρεβενών, or Holy of Grevena, he assumed an air of extreme anger, ordered the bishop to prison, and issued a proclamation that all persons having complaints against him should make a statement of them. Nobody having appeared, the Vezir sent for him the next day, and congratulated him on the proof that he had no enemies, and that he governed his flock with kindness and justice.
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§ 1.408 Nov. 11.—Visiting the Pasha this afternoon, previously to my departure, I find him sitting in his state apartment, in close conference with a Bektashli Sheikh, whose sect he affects to favour. During our conference he employs himself in selecting some large pearls for a chaplet of beads, which two Greek jewellers have brought. I was afterwards informed that he purchased twenty-four of these pearls for fifty purses: though of course uncommonly large, they are not round or regular. He added some which he before possessed, and two emeralds of the same size, to make up thirty-three, one of the legitimate numbers of a chaplet. This he afterwards wore, for the first time, at a supper, to which he invited himself, at the house of Mehmet the Roman, and who was thus put to an expence of two or three hundred piastres.
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§ 1.409 Chapter IX EPIRUS, THESSALIA. Nov. 12.—After six or seven clear calm days, with a light north-east wind, the appearance of the weather alters this morning, just as I am about to leave Ioannina for Larissa and Athens, and threatens a difficult passage over the Pindus. The water of the lake, which in the months of July and August reached to the paved road at the foot of the rocks of Kastritza, is now near a mile distant from thence; and all that extremity of the lake is dry, with the exception of a few marshy spots. The reeds are either cut down or withered, and some large spaces, which in the summer were covered with water, have since that time produced a crop of coarse grass, which has lately been mown
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§ 1.410 with the scythe. Through this desiccated termination of the lake, a small stream flows to the extremity, and there enters some cavities at the foot of the rocks along which the road passes. These openings are called the khoneftres, or katavothra, the latter being the common Greek word for such channels, and the former the term more peculiar to Ioannina. The place, according to Meletius, is named Voinikovo. In three hours we arrive at the khan of Dhrysko. Although spacious and recently built, it is already out of repair, and in the best room half the ceiling is wanting, and a shutter to one of the windows. In an instant, however, an immense pile of fuel from the brushwood which covers the hill is brought in, and a blazing fire soon appears upon the hearth. The shop attached to the khan supplies raki, eggs, and new wine. Nov. 13.—Setting out from Dhrysko at 8.30 we arrive, in a little more than three hours, at the Triakhania, travelling, as in September last, chiefly along the bed of the river, which in winter is sometimes entirely filled: in that case, if the bridges were broken down, the road would be quite impracticable; it seldom happens, however, even in winter, for many days together, that it is necessary to follow the Akres all the way. Having crossed the river beyond Triakhania, we follow the left bank to the point of junction of the branches from Metzovo and the mountain of Khaliki; and fording the latter, proceed, for upwards of half an hour, along a road overhanging the ravine of the
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§ 1.411 Metzovo branch, when at the end of two hours and five minutes from Triakhania, we arrive at Anilio, where I am lodged in a neat Vlakhiote cottage, which has a plastered floor and walls, and an air of comfort unknown in the houses of the Greek peasants. The town is half buried in sntw, and long icicles hang from the eaves of the houses. We lost a short time towards the end of our journey by meeting a great number of asses and mules coming from Thessaly, laden chiefly with flour. These caravans were moving heaps of snow, and had passed the Zygos, or ridge of Metzovo, with difficulty, on account of the violence of the wind. Those who attempted it latest were obliged to leave their φορτώματα, or burthens, on the top of the mountain. The Papa-Proestos of Anilio informs me that they have had similar weather, with little variation, these fifteen days, during a great part of which it was clear and calm at Ioannina. Nov. 14.—Although much snow has fallen in the night, and the weather still continues squally, the Metzovites report the mountain passable; we set out therefore at 8.30, and follow the left side of the glen of Metzovo for a quarter of an hour, and afterwards the bed of a torrent which joins that from the plain of Imperatoria a mile above the town. We soon enter the clouds, and lose sight of all objects at more than a few yards’ distance; and quitting the torrent, begin to mount the Zygos by a zigzag road. In ascending, the snow becomes deeper, lying in drifted heaps, and forming hillocks, under which the shrubs are buried.
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§ 1.412 Box and pine are the most common trees, and become more plentiful as we ascend. The east wind comes over the ridge in squalls with a piercing keenness. Where the snow has been blown away, and the rocky surface left bare, the narrow slippery path on the side of the steep slope is not a little hazardous. The road on the lee side of the mountain is generally in this state in winter, because the wind, coming over the ridge in squalls, drives away the snow from the rocky parts, and hence the lee side is considered the more difficult, unless the quantity of snow on the weather side be such as to render it quite impassable. I hired three conductors from Metzovo, whose business it is to trace the road wherever it is entirely covered, to support the horses where it is bare and slippery, and if the horse cannot be saved from falling over the side of the hill, to drag off the rider. As it is impossible to save baggage and merchandize with the same celerity, the loads are often left on the top of the mountain till the weather improves, but this seldom happens when they come from the westward, because the Metzovites are well acquainted with the disposition of their mountain, and will not venture without a certainty of passing. We are accompanied by the mules sent to resume their loads, which we find just at the foot of the highest ridge on the western side. Here we dismount, in order to make the last ascent of about fifty paces on foot. This little interval, however, is so steep and slippery that, not having yet recovered from the effects of my Apollonian fever, I should have been some time in reaching the summit, had not two of my guides, each taking an arm, hauled me up, and
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§ 1.413 then running down the steep on the opposite side, saved me the trouble of making a step. The road on the sharp summit passes between two rocks, on one of which is a konisma [εικόνισμα, a little pillar of stone, in which there is a niche to hold a small picture of the saint] of St. Nicolas, whom they invoke as they pass, and hence the place is called Aio Nikola. The proper Zygos terminates at no great distance to our right, beyond which rises the summit called Dhokimi, connected by means of the heights behind Anilio with the summit above Khaliki. Beyond St. Nicolas we immediately enter a forest of beeches loaded with snow, which lies upon the ground four or five feet deep, or more than double its average depth on the other side of the ridge. This is said to be generally the case, whether the wind be from Thessaly or Epirus, for though the snow generally falls in much greater quantity in the latter case, sometimes covering the ground to the depth of several feet in the course of a night, it seldom remains long unmelted on that side. The easterly winds, on the contrary, being frosty, the snow is more permanent, falling commonly in a fine powder; whereas from the southward or westward it descends in large flakes. The two winds most noted at Metzovo for foul weather are called Patrinos and Avlonitis, names indicating the directions of south and north-west, but comprehending under the one or the other denomination many of the intermediate points. It is remarkable
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§ 1.414 that the snow lies at present upon the ground as far down the valley to the westward as Triakhania, while upon the highest points to the northward, and on Tzikurela, and the neighbouring heights in the opposite direction, which are many hundred feet higher than the Zygos, there is only a slight sprinkling on the summits. Mounts Tzumerka and Kakardhista are more deeply covered. This peculiarity of the Zygos is probably caused by its position between much higher mountains to the north and south, at the same time that it is the ridge of separation between two long narrow valleys which lie in a transverse direction to the chain. The wind is thus drawn up the one or the other of the twο valleys, and is confined to those two opposite directions, while the Zygos in either case intercepts the vapours. The forests which cover this part of the Pindus consist chiefly of firs and beeches. On the Zygos, beeches are only found near the summit, lower down are firs, and still lower, small oaks. In the latter end of February and beginning of March, at which time the snow generally collects on the ridge in the greatest quantity, the beeches, although lofty trees, have their stems sometimes buried, and the ridge is impassable for many days, except to foot passengers: nor would it be practicable at all during strong winds, but for the shelter afforded by the trees. Hence they are carefully preserved. The firs on the western side, on the contrary, are used for fuel, and are diminishing.
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§ 1.415 The Zygos of Metzovo is geographically the most remarkable mountain in Greece. Situated in the heart of Pindus as to its breadth, and centrally also in the longitudinal chain which pervades the continent from north to south, it gives rise to five principal rivers, in fact to all the great streams of Northern Greece except the Spercheius: north-eastward to the Haliacmon, south-eastward to the Peneius, southward to the Achelous, south-westward to the Arachthus, and north-westward to the Aous. Remounting our horses a few hundred yards below St. Nicholas, we proceed in half an hour to a fountain, where our guides leave us, and where the beech wood ends. The zigzag road continues with a diminishing depth of snow for another hour, when we arrive, at 11.30, upon a part of the slope of the mountain, where in the bottom of a deep ravine to the right, flows the Salamvria, or Salambria, composed chiefly of the streams collected from the eastern face of Mount Dhokimi. At 12 this river is joined by a branch from the northward, which rises at the γαλακτίτης λίθος, or milkstone, a rock so called because there is a calcareous deposit at the fountain which has the reputation at Metzovo and other neighbouring villages of having the effect, when pounded and mixed with water, of promoting a woman's milk. Although this is not so distant a source as that of the southern branch, it was very probably the reputed origin of the Peneius, from being the most remarkable of its fountains.
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§ 1.416 The road from Metzovo, by the milk-stone, passes not far from the site of Imperatoria, and descends to the Salamvria by the monastery of Libokhovo [Λιμπώχοβος]. At the junction of the two branches stands a khan named that of Malakash [One of the four sub-districts into which the rural district of Ioannina is divided bears the same name, but is separated from the territory of this village by the whole of Metzovo.] from a village situated half an hour above it on the mountain to the left. Here we remain until 2 p.m., then immediately crossing the northern river by a bridge, continue for a short time along the left bank of the united stream, which is not large, but very winding, with a general course of S. S. E, The mountains on either side have a more gradual slope than those which border the river Arta below Metzovo, and the passage of this valley would be easier to an army than that of the Arachthus. The woody summits rising above the akres or extreme points, clothed with oak, which overhang the river, present, as they fold over one another, a continuation of beautiful scenery. As we advance, the snow, which at Khan Malakassi was lying on the ground, retires to a higher limit on the hills. We follow generally the gravelly bed of the river, but sometimes cross the akres for a considerable distance, especially towards the end of the day’s journey, which terminates at 4.15, on the right bank, at the Khan of Kotovazdhi, so called as having been built by the inhabitants of a village of that name in the neighbouring mountain, who are
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§ 1.417 bound to keep the building in repair, and to see that it is furnished with provisions and a khanji to sell them. Aly Pasha has caused khans to be established in the same manner, at intervals of about an hour along the whole route from Ioannina to Trikkala, but only those of Dhrysko, Tria Khania, Malakassi, and Kotovazdhi, have chambers for travellers of the higher classes. From Kotovazdhi there is a route of six hours to Kalarytes, leaving Khaliki at no great distance to the right. The river of Kotovazdhi receives streams from Vendista and Kastania, two large villages situated among woods of chestnut. Between the khans of Malakassi and Kotovazdhi a tributary joins the Salamvria from the northward, having its origin in the ridges towards Milies, from the opposite face of which the waters flow to the Venetiko of Grevena. To the right of our road were the villages of Labovo, Kokkino-lithari, and Gletjadhes: to the left that of Struniza, nearly opposite to Labovo. All these places stand at the head of sloping vineyards and corn-fields. Nov. 15.—At 8 we continue to follow the bed of the river from the Khan of Kotovazdhi, but sometimes passing through narrow meadows on its bank, or among plane trees which began to border the stream a little above the khan. The vale widens gradually. At 8.30 we cross a branch of the river flowing from the mountains on the right, and at
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§ 1.418 9.20 a larger from Klinovo. Here the main valley is about a mile in breadth. The opening of the river of Klinovo admits a view of a great branch of Pindus which follows a direction nearly parallel to the course of the Peneius. This mountain is known by the name of Aspropotamitiko, as being contained in the district of Aspropotamo, and as falling on the opposite side to the river so called: it is now deeply covered with snow. At 9.40, being near the foot of the right-hand hills, we have, at the distance of half a mile on the left, the junction of the Salamvria, with a stream of almost equal magnitude flowing from the northward, and from the Trikkaline sub-district of Kratzova. Soon afterwards we cross a tributary from the right. From the left bank of the Kratzova branch rises a range of hills of a secondary altitude, which terminate towards the valley of the Peneius, in the perpendicular rocks named the Meteora, upon which are built the monasteries called τα μοναστήρια του Πίνδου. At 10.10, after having turned a root of the mountain to the right where the valley changes its direction to the south, a part of the plain of Trikkala becomes visible: the plane trees still continue. At 10.20, the principal monastery or Meteora, individually so called, is on a high rock to the left, distant two or three miles, and another midway on a point half as high as the former. After having passed over a root of the mountain, we cross to the left bank of the river and arrive in sight of the Castle of Trikkala, then
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§ 1.419 turning to the left of the direct road leading to that place, arrive in ten minutes more, at 11 a.m., at Kalabaka, where I am lodged in the house of a Kalarytiote silversmith. Kalabaka, by the Greeks called Stagus, in the nominative Staghi [Σταγοι], is situated on the south-eastern side, and immediately at the foot of a perpendicular precipice, which is five or six hundred feet high, and of an uniform surface from top to bottom, but is divided into two parts by a deep vertical fissure, affording a narrow passage from the town to the village of Kastraki, and the monasteries of the Meteora. The cleft widens towards the top, and gives the rock of Kalabaka a bicipital appearance at a distance. There is a third precipitous summit to the eastward, called the mountain of Aio Stefano, from a convent of Saint Stephen which stands on the summit. The town is spread over the upper part of a long slope covered with mulberry trees, which declines very gently to the river Salamvria, and commands a fine view of the plain of Trikkala, beyond which appear the heights of Agrafa, and behind them the summits of Mount Oeta, entirely covered with snow. To the left of the plain rise the heights behind Trikkala, over which another snowy mountain is seen, probably Othrys. At 2 miles below Kalabaka, the Salamvria, after having encircled the slope which descends from the town, makes a sudden turn to the south, towards the foot of the mountain of Kotjaka, which borders the plain to the westward,
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§ 1.420 and after a course of six or eight miles in that direction, sweeps again in a graceful curve towards Trikkala. A wide gravelly uncultivable space on either side the river, caused by its inundations, is characteristic of the ποταμόκλυστος θετταλία. but it is common to the rivers in general of the plains of Greece, and may be said to be injurious both to agriculture and to picturesque effect. Although Kalabaka belongs to the Liva or government of Trikkala, its public revenue is at present a separate mukata in the hands of Vely Pasha, whose agent is the only Turk residing in the place. The Pasha receives 30 purses a year; the other contributions, including the local expences of the district, such as konaks, support of Albanian troops, ac. amount to 20 more. This is paid almost entirely by about 120 houses, the rest, to the number of 30 or 40, being wretched cottages. The house of Kyr Ianaki, the Hodja-bashi, is large, and there are some others which indicate former opulence, but the place has been much injured of late by robbers, or by the Albanians sent in pursuit of them. The mulberry plantations still produce 12 or 15 fortomata of silk per annum, each fortoma being 100 okes. The territory of Trikkala produces about 60 fortomata. Stagi was formerly a metropolitan see, but is now only a poor bishopric of the province of Larissa.
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§ 1.421 The cathedral, which is not large, was built about the year 1300 by the Emperor Andronicus Palaeologus, as appears by an inscription on one of the walls of the church. It has a large pulpit of stone in the centre, and is supported by columns of a coarse white marble. Below the altar is a small column of verd-antique. All these columns are held to be θαυματούργαις, and distil water on the feast of the saint to whom the church is dedicated. Adjoining to the church is the humble palace of the bishop των Σταγών, who is now at Constantinople. That Stagus stands on the site of an ancient city, appears from many indications. On the slope below the town are some massy foundations of Hellenic walls, and ancient sepulchres are found occasionally in the vineyards in the same direction. In the town several wrought blocks are observable in the walls of the churches and private houses. There is an inscribed marble in the outer wall of the episcopal church, and two others at a fountain at the church of St. Prodromus. The first of these monuments (No. 7) records the liberation of some slaves, and contains, together with their names, those of the purveyor, and some other officer, under whom the manumission took place. But one of the inscriptions at the fountain (No. 6) is of more importance, and comes most opportunely in aid of the ancient authors, to resolve many historic and geographic uncertainties. It is cut in large but much-worn letters on a plain squared stone, and attests that the city of the Aeginienses had honoured the emperors Severus and Antoninus (Caracalla).

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