which forms the apparel of the husbandman in this country; whilst a pair of infants were laid to rest in a kind of trough or square box, swathed round with such a number of bandages that only a very small part of the face was seen, exactly like Egyptian mummies. The people seemed very poor: their entire stock of furniture consisted of a few earthen pitchers and an iron pot; the roof was scarcely weatherproof, and the mud floor, their only place of repose, would, I imagine, during the rainy season, prove an appalling spectacle to the eyes of a Dutchman. What would these poor people endure if the angry elements of our northern climes conspired to persecute them with their human tyrants! but happily for them, during ten months of the year they enjoy the blessings of a serene sky, a pure atmosphere, and a delightful temperature: nature seems to exert all her power to soften the severity of their fate, and the bright luminary of day, as he holds his majestic course through the cloudless sky, invigorates their frames, animates their spirits, and diffuses gladness through their hearts in spite of man. Being soon joined by my friends, we set out on our return to Livadia. Having arrived at a pass between some hills about two miles distant from the city, we were much struck with its singular appearance, forming the most extraordinary combination of rocks, chasms, precipices, and torrents, intermingled with the habitations of past and present ages, that ever was portrayed. Salvator Rosa would have rejoiced in such a scene. The gardens in the environs are extremely fertile; but the fences are formed of such high reeds that their beauty is hid from all observation without. The district produces excellent wheat in great abundance, as well as Calamboci and Arabositi*. Much corn is shipped for ex Arabositi is what we call Grano Turco or Turkey wheat, a yellow grain which grows in a large compact head: the Calamboci is a small white seed growing on a tall stalk which branches out into a kind of tuft at top-both these grains are used for bread by the lower classes. portation at the Scala di Salona on the Crissæan gulf. The most excellent production however is the madder (AxıČáp) for the cultivation of which this humid leve soil is peculiarly adapted. Around the low eminences of Helicon and Parnassus and upon many of their heights grows in great abundance the kermes oak, called by naturalists ilex coccigera*, from whose little gall-nut is collected the insect which forms the finest scarlet dye: about 6000 okes of this valuable article are gathered annually, which produce the sum of 30,000 piasters. .... * Γίνεται δέ τοι ἐν τῷ καρπῷ τῆς κόκκυ βραχὺ ζῶον . . . . και ἔτι τοῖς ἐρίοις ἡ βαφὴ τὸ ἄιμα τα ζώα. ǹ rò Pausan, Phoc. c. 36. 1. CHAPTER XII. Departure from Livadia to Delphi-View of Parnassus-Ancient Triodos-Parnassus the Citadel of Phocis-Defile called Schiste-Arrival at Arracova-Description of it, Industry of its Inhabitants, and tyranny of Ali Pasha-Start for Delphi-Memorials of the earliest Ages connected with Parnassus-First View of Delphi-Reflections thereon-Scene for a Painter described—Ruins of ancient Edifices— Tombs-Monastery of the Panagia on the Site of the GymnasiumCharacter of the Caloyers-Inscriptions-Castalian Fountain—Arrival at Castri on the Site of Delphi-Engage a Priest as a CiceroneHis Character-Return to the Castalian Fountain-Bath of the Pythia-Double Vertex of Parnassus-Ascent to the Source of the Spring-Ancient Sites and Inscriptions-Stadium-Site of the Pythian Temple-Misery of Castri-Departure to Crisso-Crissaan PlainAntique Inscription-Crissa and Cirrha. THE day after this excursion we commenced our journey in the direction of Delphi, over roads, if they can be so called, where our horses floundered up to their bellies in mud. In about three hours we arrived at a spacious plain upon a gradual descent, beyond which the grand outline of Parnassus was distinctly seen, from his base to the very summit, rising before us in unclouded glory* Not in the phrensy of a dreamer's eye, Not in the fabled landscape of a lay, But soaring snow-clad through his native sky In the wild pomp of mountain majesty. Childe Harold, p. 38. Here we observed vestiges of an ancient road, worn by the feet of pilgrims, whom evil curiosity urged to tear away that veil in which Providence has so kindly enveloped the future. of the plain, on the left hand side of the road, is About the middle a fountain, shaded from the sun's rays by the spreading branches of a plane tree; and at Cæli medius Parnassus. Stat. Theb. 1. i. some distance upon a rock on the right appears the picturesque ruin of an ancient tower or fort, probably one of those inconsiderable fortifications of Phocis (ignobilia castella) which capitulated to Flaminius through terror of the Roman arms *. Having cleared the plain and passed through a very narrow defile, we entered an open space between the mountains, where three roads still meeting in the directions of Daulis, Thebes, and Delphi, evidently point out the triodos, or triple-way, where Edipus committed that parricide which was the origin of so much tragic interest. The fatal spot seems marked by some huge fragments of stone, which some conjecture to have been the tomb of Laius, though others suppose them to be remains of an ancient fortification that defended this gorge or defile of Parnassus, a mountain which was pre-eminently styled the citadel of Phocis*, impregnable in its site as it was venerable in its sanctity; upon whose inaccessible precipices a few sons of liberty made a stand against myriads of Persian and of Gaulish hosts, though flushed with conquest and stimulated by hopes of the richest spoils the world could boast t. So heroic was their defence, so complete the discomfiture of their assailants, that their historians could ascribe it only to the interposition of the gods and of aerial phantoms clothed in celestial panoply and armed with the lightning and the storm. In this passage the servants of Laius lost their lives in defence of their master: it would be ungrateful in me not to record an act by which honest Antonietti for my sake lost his provender. Perceiving that I * Livy, 1. 32. c.18. † Γῆν Δελφίδ' ἐλθὼν Φωκέων ̓Ακρόπολιν. Eurip. Οrest. ν. 1094. 66 Trifidæque in Phocidis ARCE Longævum implicui regem, secuique trementis Ora senis, dum quæro patrem." Stat. Theb. 1. i. By Heliodorus also it is called an "avтoσxédios áкpóñoles." Ethiop. 1. ii. Parnassus from its central situation was also called the Omphalos, Umbilicus, or Navel of Greece, and of the whole earth. Ομφαλός ἐριβρόμο χθονός. Pind. Py. Od. vi. 3. Γᾶς ἐμφαλόν. Od. xi. 11. See also Pausanias, Phoc. c. xvi. 2. Herodotus informs us that the treasures of Delphi were better known to Xerxes than those in his own palace. Of course it was the interest of the Grecian exiles to add this excitement to his cupidity. ARRIVAL AT ARRACOVA. 351 was very faint and nearly exhausted by the fatigues of the day, he beckoned me to fall back out of the ranks, and straightway produced from one holster of his saddle a superb leg of roast fowl, and from the other a flask of excellent Boeotian wine, which he had carefully provided and snugly deposited to relieve the ennui of his own journey: these he proffered with so much good will that I accepted the gift, eat and drank the viands, and felt so much refreshed that I performed the latter part of my journey much better than the first. After emerging from the Triodos we began to ascend a steep and rugged road *, on the right, along the precipices of Parnassus, which, together with the opposite heights of Cirphis, form that deep chasm which was called Schiste or "the cut." We observed several caverns in the white limestone cliffs that towered above us in Alpine grandeur fringed with silver firs. The road here is frightfully bad: our tatar's horse fell under him, by which accident his leg was much hurt; but a tatar despises any injury short of a broken limb. Just before sunset we gained the highest point of this mountain road, which displayed to great advantage the grand scenery of Peloponnesus and Etolia, encircling the Corinthian gulf: the deep valley or glen of the Pleistus lay beneath us, at the end of which the fertile plain of Salona expanded to the right and left, exhibiting its groves of ancient olives. In less than one hour from this point we arrived at Arracova, a village beautifully situated on this upper region of Parnassus, and celebrated for the excellence of its vineyards: neither is the industry of its inhabitants less remarkable; patient and laborious they bank up the light soil upon the side of the mountain with stone walls, to prevent its being swept away by the wintry torrents: they even cover with additional mould those parts of the rock which are scantily supplied by nature. Health and content and comparative affluence were for a long time the rewards of this superior diligence, and most travellers have dwelt with * Thus it was described by Pausanias, ἡ δὲ λεωφόρος ἀντόθεν ἡ ἐς Δελφος και προσάντης γίνεται μᾶλλον καὶ ἀνδρὶ ἐυζώνῳ χαλεπωτέρα. Phoc. c. v. 3. |