180 SUPPER SCENE WITH COLOCOTRONI. 



I landed about six o'clock in the evening, and after walking for a 

 mile and a half over ploughed ground, thickly bestrewn with frag- 

 ments of sculpture, I arrived at the bivouack of the Moriote chief- 

 tain and his trusty Palikars. There was no tent no shelter for 

 himself or his men but their good capotes, and here and there an 

 olive tree. Many fires were burning, and several fellows were busily 

 engaged in preparing the repast. I took especial notice of an animal, 

 somewhat larger than a good-sized hare, spitted on a ramrod, sup- 

 ported horizontally by two pieces of stone, before a blazing fire of 

 pine branches, and turned by a dirty looking lad, who was sitting 

 tailor-wise at one end of the spit. 



The entrails and the reeking skin* lay close by, and, from the 

 latter, I took the animal roasting to be a lamb. An individual, whose 

 blood-stained fustinella proclaimed his office, was plaiting up the 

 tasteful inwards not very delicately washed which, as he finished, 

 he cut into lengths of six or eight inches, and laid upon the hot 

 embers. The liver of the lamb was trussed under its fore leg, as that 

 of a fowl under its wing. 



On being recognized by my friend the Tchaous, he rushed upon 

 me, folded me in his arms, and, after bestowing a most energetic kiss 

 (which I could easily have dispensed with) upon either cheek, he 

 condescended to the Frank mode of saluting, shook me by the hand, 

 and saying his Excellency was all impatience to see me, led me off 

 unresisting to his master. Colocotroni arose from his seat as I ap- 

 proached, extended to me his right hand, while with his left he re- 

 moved the phesi from his head a mark of respect which a Greek 

 never pays to his countrymen, and only to a Frank when he wishes 

 to gull him. " Kale spera sas ! Welcome, a good evening to you," 

 said he, "the benevolent Franks are always welcome partakers of 

 the hospitality of a poor Klepht !"f 



" Your Excellency is wrong," said I, " to apply such an epithet 

 to the General Colocotroni, whose flocks and herds are upon every 

 hill in Argolis." 



" The Signor Capitan has stood in Hellas before," said he : " but if 

 I have fat sheep, I have hungry men, so let that pass ; but come, no- 

 thing new ? Milordos, O Konckran ! Where is he ? why does he 

 not come to us ?" 



" When I left Palermo/' said I, " I heard Lord Cochrane had 

 sailed from Marseilles, and I expected to have found him here on my 

 arrival." 



" Would to God he were come ! He would soon burn off the 

 beards of all the Ottomites." 



ft He will not leave," said I, " so much as a single hair upon their 

 heads for the angel to carry them up to Paradise by." 



* The Greeks never suffer their meat to hang before coo'; ing. In most cases 

 it is put warm upon the spit, which is generally either a ramrod or a hedge 

 stake. It is invariably tender, and were it not for the custom of over-roasting 

 would be unrivalled. I speak-only of their lamb and kid; sheep and goats are 

 rarely killed, and then only consumed by the poor. 



t Klepht (a title in which the Greek chiettains rejoice), is a mountain rob- 

 ber, or, one who never submitted to the Turks. 



