SHORT TOUR TO THE EAST 53 



the shores of the Sea of Marmora ; then came the 

 Hellespont, then the Troad, then Smyrna. 



My allowance of time was drawing to a close, for 

 I had to make ample allowance for long detention in 

 quarantines, which were in those times an especial 

 nuisance. They were put on or taken off with 

 apparent caprice, sometimes it was said for purely 

 commercial reasons. So I was able to allow only two 

 or three days for seeing the environs of Smyrna, and 

 then started in a steamer to the island of Syra, 

 where I was placed for ten days in quarantine. My 

 rooms were like those of a khan, wholly unfurnished, 

 the guardian supplying bedding and food at moderate 

 cost. He followed me as a prisoner under his charge, 

 with a long stick wherewith to ward me from touching 

 or being touched by any body or thing that was not in 

 the same quarantine as myself. The quarantine 

 buildings enclosed a large square. My rooms opened 

 at the back into a cheerful covered balcony which 

 looked on the sea. My neighbouring occupant was 

 a lady, a near relative to Arthur Cayley, the great 

 mathematician, whom I even then had learnt to 

 revere, and whose pupil I became during one of my 

 happy long vacations at Cambridge. 



The laws of quarantine were curiously minute. 

 Metal, such as a coin, was not supposed to be so 

 deeply infected but that a simple washing would 

 purify it ; paper must be pricked and fumigated ; 

 but clothing had to undergo as much quarantine as 

 the wearer, and even more, as will be seen later on. 

 It was ruled that if any part of a cloth or fabric of 

 fibres was touched by a person in quarantine, the 

 whole of it became equally tainted. So I put to my 



