IN THE MOREA. 49 



surround it. Behind them rose a high, black, and barren ran»e of 

 mountains, the summits of which were covered with snow. In one 

 of these villages we were shown, on inquiring after antiquities, an 

 old ruined tower, of a construction more recent than the Grecian aae, 

 and we thought it probably was of Venetian workmanship. The 

 valley itself and the lower hills were cultivated like a garden, and 

 formed a scene of great beauty. The principal villages in this tract 

 are Dokyes, Barussa, and Zarnata, and among these may perhaps 

 be discovered the traces of some of the ancient towns of the Eleuthero- 

 Laconians, enumei-ated by Pausanias near Gerenia. 



We were amused in passing through several of these little hamlets 

 with the simple curiosity of the people. The men who escorted us 

 requested with great submission that we would stop on the road, 

 until they could apprise their friends of our arrival, because most of 

 them had never seen a stranger, and none of them an Englishman. 

 The word was no sooner given, than off they ran, and as the tidings 

 spread, and shouts were heard and answered from the fields, labour 

 stood still, and men, women, and children flocked round us on our 

 approach. Their appearance was such as I have described ; the men 

 well-formed and active, the women in general fairer than the other 

 Greeks, and very beautiful. The men in succession shook us cordi- 

 ally by the hand, and welcomed us to their country, and crowds fol- 

 lowed us as we proceeded on our journey. The road from hence led 

 us in a southerly direction over a most stony and barren ridge to the 

 shore, and afterwards continued along the sea, until our arrival at 

 Cardamyla. The country round it, though cultivated in the same 

 laborious manner, was still more stony and barren than at Kitrees ; 

 even in the small fissures of the rock, olives and mulberries were 

 planted, and spots of only a few feet in diameter were dug over, and 

 sown with corn and maize. On the hills there were many apiaries, 

 and the produce is of the finest sort of honey, equal almost to that of 

 Hymettus, but of a paler colour. 



Cardamyla is now a small village, in which were three or four 

 towers, the property of chieftains who possessed the country round it. 



H 



