30 THK entomologist's RECORD. 



The Greek roads bore in many places a striking' resemblance to the 

 partially hardened surface of a ploughed field, and frequently there 

 were no roads at all, but only bridle-paths, for the principal mode of 

 locomotion in Greece is on horseback. This threw my bicycle com- 

 pletely " out of work ; " but horses were to be hired everywhere, at 

 from five to seven drachmas for the whole day ; though of course such 

 a thing as a side-saddle, was an absolutely unknown item of civilisation. 

 The inns in the country towns and villages are rough to a degree, and 

 hemiptera, other than those to be sought for outside by the entomolo- 

 gist engaged in the study of that class of insects, were in some of these 

 inns extremely plentiful. In fact though the food was bad the accom- 

 modation was worse. The Greek innkeeper often seemed to think 

 that to have two sheets on a bed was an unnecessary luxury ; and 

 sometimes they provided none at all. Luckily, owing to the kindness 

 of a friend, I was prepared to meet this contingency. Towels also 

 were not visible unless specially ordered. But they manage to provide 

 their guests with a greasy hair-brush and comb, and also with an old 

 clothes brush ; to say nothing of a piece of untempting looking scrub- 

 bing soap ; all of which articles of luxury (?) I used to collect in a 

 heap, telling Marcus (my Greek courier) to cause them immediately to 

 be removed from my presence and never to let them appear again. 

 Nor were these all the contingencies to be provided for in choosing a 

 room in a Greek Hotel, as I would perhaps be told that the charge 

 was one drachma (6d.) a night, and then, while I was inwardly con- 

 gratulating myself that travelling in " the Interior" was at all events 

 not ruinous, I Avould l^e shown into a good -sized room, barely fur- 

 nished, but with perhaps two or three beds in it. I remember at 

 Tripolitza, deciding upon an apartment of this description, when I 

 happened to remark (of course through the medium of Marcus), that 

 those other two beds might just as well be removed as it would give 

 rae more space, to which the prompt reply was : — " Oh ! but you see 

 someone else may arrive ! " — and then I grasped the full horror of the 

 situation ; the one drachma a night was for the b^J and not exclusively 

 for the room. As matters stood I should be liable to return from one 

 of our long butterfly-hunting expeditions into the mountains to find 

 some objectionable Greek female established in another corner of mi/ 

 room. The idea was intolerable, but the way out of the difficulty was 

 obvious ; I must hire all the three beds in order to prevent anyone 

 else from doing so. But all this and more must be endured by the 

 butterfly collector in Greece, with just as much patience and resignation 

 as he may happen to have at his command. Yet there was a pleasing 

 variety in the quality of these discomforts, and at Delphi, though the 

 so-called hotel was only a little bungalow-dwelling in the main street, 

 with not so many as half-a-dozen rooms in it all told, the landlord of this 

 unpretentious little habitation who was, I had heard, celebrated as the 

 ugliest and most honest man in Greece, proved himself to be quite 

 worthy of both epithets, and also was so far comparatively accustomed 

 to provide for the English tourist, as to be aware that one of our 

 indispensable little weaknesses is the demand for cleanliness in all 

 things. For Delphi being a place of great archaeological interest is on 

 this account occasionally visited by travellers. 



There are not very many railways in Greece, and the trains are 

 extremely slow and leisurely in their movements, so much so that 



