MOUNT ATHOS 



227 



as an heir-loom, receiving occasional additions ; but was never 

 suffered to lose any of its former ornaments. 



The charatch, or capitation tax, is levied at six piastres for each 

 grown person. The Pasha of the district collects a tribute or land 

 tax in addition, of one part out of seven and a half of every crop from 

 Christians, whether Greeks or Albanians; and one in six from every 

 Musulman. Besides these taxes each vineyard pays the Pasha two 

 piastres for every two hundred okes of wine at the annual vintage; 

 and if exported, though even to an adjoining island or port of their 

 own country, it pays a custom-house duty of two paras an oke. 



April 21. — At ten minutes past seven we proceeded on our road 

 to Nisvoro, and crossed a rich and well-cultivated plain ; at half-past 

 nine we halted for an hour to refresh our mules. The spot was 

 shaded by Oriental plane-trees, and near it were ruins of an old 

 tower, which our guide called Arsinoitche, a name it has probably 

 preserved ever since the time of the immediate successors of Alexan- 

 der, as Arsinoe, daughter of Ptolemy Lagus, married Lysimachus. 

 The rest of our journey was along the course of a river, the waters of 

 which were very shallow, and so strongly impregnated with some 

 mineral solution as to be of a red colour ; near its banks are frequent 

 heaps of burnt ore. Here we met a band of Albanian pilgrims pro- 

 ceeding to the holy mountain ; they were about sixty in number, well 

 momited and armed. Before we reached Nisvoro we observed a de- 

 faced inscription in the walls of a Greek church. On entering the 

 town we immediately waited on the Bishop, whom we found to be 

 a young man of talents and learning. In the evening we walked to 

 the silver mines, and observed that the range of hills has been worked 

 very extensively during a long period. Our guide told us that the 

 ground was hollow for many miles around us. We saw about a 

 hundred workmen employed in breaking the lead ore, drawing it from 

 the mines, and smelting it in a very slovenly manner. The principal 

 mine is abovit fifty yards beneath the surface; we observed five or 

 six furnaces, and the double bellows used by them are worked by 

 water-wheels. On making some inquiries concerning the plan on 



GG 2 



