ASIA MINOR. 



137 



Each landliolder pays a bushel and a half of wheat every year to 

 the officiating priest ; and other parishioners 60 paras, or 2.s-. 6d. 

 each ; the burial fee is a piastre ; but generally from three to ten are 

 given by the family to the priest for masses which he is to say for the 

 repose of the soul of the deceased. 



The poor who are disabled from work by age or infirmities are 

 supported by a quota of grain from each farmer, which amounts to 

 about eighteen bushels to every poor family in the year. Money is 

 also collected for them at the church on high festivals by the priest ; 

 this generally pays the rent of their cottage. 



As we proceeded from this place to Yenicher, our guide pointed 

 out a dry ditch, which he pretended was once a canal, dug in ancient 

 times for galleys, to avoid doubling the cape in bad weather. To us 

 it appeared to be the bed of a torrent, now di'y. The next object 

 that attracted our notice was a conical mound of earth called De- 

 metri Tepe, the supposed tumulus of Antilochus. The Greek Chris- 

 tians have here built a small oratory or chapel at its base, where they 

 celebrate mass on the festival of St. Demetrius. We then proceeded 

 to Yenicher, and soon arrived at the cottage of the Greek Papas 

 which we had left twelve days before. 



We had now completed our excursion through the Troad, during 

 which I noted many objects that were remarkable as works of 

 ancient art, or tended to illustrate the history or geography of the 

 district. Such information as I was able to collect from guides or 

 villagers, I have given as scrupulously as I was able ; and trifling 

 as these details may appear, they were often acquired with difficulty. 

 The questions were generally put to our Greek servant in French or 

 Italian ; and the answers he obtained were in Turkish, in which he 

 was not a great proficient. 



Our accommodations and provisions were never of the best kind ; 

 in villages of Greeks we found that either from their extreme penury, 

 or the fear of discovering to our Turkish guide their hard-earned 

 pittance, we were not able to procure a meal until we had bought a 

 kid or a lamb from a shepherd ; it was then to be killed, and the 



T 



