SUPPER SCENE WITH COLOCOTRONI. 181 



" He will make concubines of all their mothers. But we Pelo- 

 ponnesians have we not done something? We have walked from 

 Patras to Kalamata, without seeing a single Turk." 



" Your Excellency is very brave, and the Moriotes are invincible ; 

 but the Arab dog, Ibrahim, shuts himself up in the fortresses, and 

 Greek lead and Greek steel, or that which is more irresistible than 

 either, Greek courage cannot always pierce a stone wall." 



(t Ha, ha I" said he, " but let him recollect Trippolitza, and 

 tremble." 



ie Your Excellency took the town, and washed out some of the in- 

 juries Greece had received from her cruel enemies, in the blood of all 

 the men, women, and children in the place. Your Excellency is a 

 Turk-eater and a drinker of Ottoman gore/' 



" But come," said he, " the supper is ready: let me present you 

 to the wise Sessini, the President of the National Congress." 



I made a low bow to the President of the National Congress, who 

 had nothing remarkable in his appearance, except the look of cun- 

 ning, which displays itself in his face in a thousand wrinkles. 



Colocotroni is a more remarkable-looking individual than might 

 even be expected from a knowledge of what he has done. He is of 

 middle stature, stout and well-proportioned, with a large aquiline nose, 

 and a dark restless eye. His dress is generally full as dirty and far 

 less gay than that of the meanest of his followers. His manners are 

 those of a barbarian, but a barbarian accustomed to command. He 

 is of a Moriote family, and spent his early life as a mountain-robber ; 

 but being unsuccessful he went over to Zante, where he is said to 

 have lived for some years quietly exercising his trade of a butcher, 

 till, on the raising of the Albanian regiments, he managed to gain an 

 appointment under General Sir Richard Church, and was ^engaged 

 in the affair of Parga. 



The Chieftain took his seat at a small circular table about six 

 inches in height, which it was insinuated had been brought from the 

 village on purpose to do honour to the Frank : I was placed on his 

 right hand and the President on his left ; the remainder of the space 

 being occupied by the chief captains of his host, while others of in- 

 ferior grade, to the number of twenty or thirty, arranged themselves 

 in irregular groups about us. Table-cloth, knives, forks, spoons, 

 plates, dishes, or other indispensables to a western feast, I observed 

 none. In the centre of the table was a huge wooden bowl about two 

 feet in diameter, containing a " salata," or I should rather call it a 

 " Salmagundi," being compounded of sardellas a sort of anchovy, 

 Tarragou, cresses, lettuce, cloves of garlic, black olives, and abundance 

 of onions, the whole being flavoured wiih a dressing of garlic, oil, 

 vinegar, wine, and salt, beaten into a cream in a mortar. Here and 

 there was a piece of " kashkaval," a cheese of goat's milk, manufac- 

 tured in Anatolia, varying in diameter from three to four feet, and in 

 thickness from a quarter of an inch to an inch. About the table were 

 scattered pieces of coarse dark bread and some sea biscuit. The en- 

 tertainment commenced by our drinking to each other's good health 

 in a very small quantity of raki, that is, aniseed-brandy. This is a 

 universal custom in the Levant, to promote appetite. 



