LaurenVs Tour through Greece, Turhey and Italy. 



Bardouniote, seemed completely igno- 

 rant of the place; our questions were 

 answered iu barbarous accents, wliicli, 

 by their roughness at least, called to 

 the memory the language of the Dorians. 

 The common answer to every question 

 is, ixevro go., know I ? {l^kvfa lyw) 



The peasantiy near the Eurotas are 

 evidently much lesscivilized than those 

 of the northern parts of the Morea ; 

 they greet, however, the travellers, 

 whom curiosity leads to cross their 

 lands, with a welcome which we were 

 told proceeded not from the lips only ; 

 the hand is placed on the heart, and 

 the words kale erc/tetai, dffendi nwit, — 

 " welcome, Sir," are pronounced with 

 the smile of hospitality. Some were 

 harvesting the rice in the marshes, near 

 the banks of the Eurotas; while on 

 the citadel of ancient Sparta, others 

 were beating out the maize : for this 

 puriwse, twelve horses were fastened 

 abreast, and driven circularly round a 

 post, about which the ears had been 

 scattered. 



GREEK MONASTERIES. 



A Greek monastery is inhabited by 

 two descriptions of monks — the ka- 

 loieros and the papa. No one is ad- 

 mitted into either of those classes, with- 

 out the consent of the whole fraternity : 

 no member of the society can many 

 without forfeiting his character of 

 monk. The kaloieros or kalogeros, 

 (for the word is of disputed orthogra- 

 phy, some affirming that it is derived 

 from«BXo? and fsfof; others, that it is 

 deduced from xaxJ; and r^fi^v,) is of the 

 inferior order: his duty is to clean the 

 chapel of the building, to tend its flocks 

 and herds, and to wait on the papas or 

 fathers. The little community is go- 

 verned by a person, the nomination of 

 whom depends upon some rich neigh- 

 bouring Greek, or the bishop; he is 

 called the egoumenos : he must always 

 be in priest's orders, and his duty is to 

 assemble and take the opinion of the 

 papas in all cases of mutual interest 

 — as the nomination of a new member, 

 the exaction of the PashA,, or the pur- 

 chase of new lands. Each monastery 

 pays a certain tribute, according to its 

 revenue : that of Vourkano pays yearly 

 eighteen hundred piasters ; but this 

 does not always suffice to preserve them 

 frooi the sacrilegious depredations of 

 tlie Moslems. When the monastery 

 is in the vicinity of a Turkish settle- 

 ment, the fathers, if rich enough, pro- 

 cure a guard of some Albanian soldiers, 

 or a Turkish Janissary. 

 jjoiacoin/..! 



595 



Although generally plunged in the 

 deepest ignorance, it is not to be infer- 

 red that all the monks who inhabit 

 these sacred buildingsare entirely with- 

 out the advantages of literature. The 

 acquirements of many are such as sur- 

 prise those who consider the difficulty 

 of obtaining knowledge in this secluded 

 land : those acquirements are, how- 

 ever, confined to a smattering of their 

 own theolog)', a slight acquaintance 

 with the ancient Greek or Hellenic, 

 and a knowledge of the lives of their 

 saints. Books aro rarely met with in 

 the interior of the Morea, and it is not 

 improbable that it is one of the causes 

 of the barbarism which pervades this 

 part of Greece. As in Italian, so in 

 modern Greek, every syllable is pro- 

 nounced, and each letter bears con- 

 stantly the same sound; children con- 

 sequently learn to read Romaic and 

 Italian with a rapidity much greater 

 than one accustomed only to the slow 

 progress made in the English schools, 

 would easily be brouglit to believe. I 

 am, therefore, convinced, that the dis- 

 tribution of improving and entertain- 

 ing books would be speedily followed 

 in these provinces by an extension of 

 knowledge — the only incentive which 

 will ever rouse the Greeks from their 

 present degrading torpidity. 



SANTA MAURA. 



The canal which separates Santa 

 Maura from Albania, is not above half 

 a mile broad ; it is frequently crossed 

 in canoes, or monoxyla, and, at certain 

 seasons of the year, the inhabitants 

 find no difficulty in wading from shore 

 to shore ; in milder weather, the wind 

 blows up this canal iu an easterly di- 

 I'ection, from sun-rise till past noon ;• 

 it then shifts, and generally blows from 

 the west. The modern town is built 

 in the most unhealthy part of the island, 

 and close to several salt-pits ; these are 

 formed on the coast, and separated from 

 tlie sea by sluices, which admit the 

 water into a shallow preserve, the heat 

 of the sun suffi<;ing to effect crystalliza- 

 tion. The fort is placed between the 

 town and the opposite shore of Albania, 

 at the extremity of a peninsula, joined 

 to the land by a narrow and semi-cir- 

 cular isthmus, three miles long, and 

 is siuTonnded with shoals, abounding 

 in fish of different kinds. A shorter 

 communication is obtained by the re- 

 mains of a narrow Turkish aqueduct, 

 which crosses the shallows: it consists 

 of al)ove three hundred arches, and, itt 

 windy weather, the passage is by n© 

 means 



