574 THE FEANK DOCTOR IN GEEECE. 



natives in the matter of fees was out of the question, I came to the 

 determination of giving t( advice gratis." I was the more induced to 

 this as I had once been offered by the father of a lad, upon whom I 

 had performed a capital operation, how much, generous reader ? 

 a base Turkish coin worth a piastre and a half, which is just six- 

 pence ! This was rather derogatory to the dignity of one who had 

 paid his guineas for the privilege of tacking M.R.C.S. to his name. 



The resolution I had taken, and the practice of one or two other 

 eccentricities, soon brought me into high repute ; and all those who, 

 in Greek phrase, either were, or fancied themselves " unable," laid 

 their complaints before the " Eklambrotatos kyrios o Yanis o iatros," 

 the most brilliant Mr. Yani, the English doctor, far that was my 

 title. For some time all went on well, till at last their brilliancies, 

 the Greek doctors, being driven to desperation by the loss of trade, 

 began to manifest their hostility to me by overt acts of violence ; and 

 my friends advising me that a residence in Napoli was no longer 

 compatible with my health, I suddenly decamped. I then joined a 

 band of irregular troops, under the celebrated Karaiskaki, and, for 

 some time, lived a life of perfect independence, stealing my own 

 mutton, and cutting soles for my charoukia from the raw hide of the 

 first old cow or bullock we chanced to master, without asking the 

 consent of its owner. One fine morning, as we were trudging along, 

 near Avrachora, on Mount Parnassus, we came suddenly upon a 

 Turkish convoy. The men, chiefly Asiatic conscripts, were all asleep 

 in the snow. Worn out by fatigue, their faculties paralized by the 

 cold, they made scarce any resistance to the ataghans of the Palicari ; 

 and, in ten minutes, of six or seven hundred men, eleven only re- 

 mained alive ; and these were saved by the intervention of a Frank, 

 at considerable peril to himself. The heads of the slain were piled 

 up into a pyramid. The booty taken consisted of seven hundred 

 horses and mules, laden with various articles destined for Reschid 

 Pacha, who had then invested Athens. Though not over squeamish, 

 this cold-blooded slaughter thoroughly disgusted me, and I bade 

 adieu at once to Karaiskaki and his Palicari. 



With some difficulty finding my way down to Oropo, in the gulf 

 of Negropont, I was fortunate enough to secure a passage in a caique 

 for Egina ; and from Egina I returned to Napoli, after an absence 

 of several months. It being evening, the Piazza was, as usual, 

 crowded to excess. I went into a kapphene that, as the French say, 

 gave upon the place, and calling for a cup of coffee and a sherbet, 

 produced my Cashmere tobacco pouch, filled my pipe, and refreshed 

 myself, after the fatigue of my journey, with the best Syrian smoke. 

 By my side was an old gentleman, a vender of cast-off wearing ap- 

 parel, known by the name of Barba (or uncle) Nako. He was occu- 

 pied in smoking a narguila, a kind of hooka, and telling over the 

 beads of a black amber rosary. Next him sat an Albanian soldier. 

 I knew both these men ; but as I had during my absence, metamor- 

 phosed myself into a complete Palicari, I was not recognised by them. 

 " Where," said Barba Nako, " where is that Frank, that little cuckold, 

 the English doctor? May his faith be defiled! may the birds of 

 heaven have no respect to his head ! O curse these hard boards !" 



