150 TRAVELS IN THE EIGHTIES. 



declared that they must have sinned, and that I had 

 been the cause of it, in that during the hours of dark- 

 ness they had seen visions and heard music sent by 

 the evil one to tempt them. 



A good many partridges are shot on the backbone 

 or summit of the middle portion of the peninsula. 

 Needless to say, they are not for the worthy fathers, 

 whose most stimulating diet usually consists of dried 

 fish from Scandinavia, but for that of the lay 

 servants, who are nearly as numerous as the monks 

 themselves. Occasionally fresh fish is caught all 

 round the peninsula, when the sea is calm, and some 

 favoured monasteries enjoy a regular though small 

 supply. At the monastery of Eviron I once dined 

 with the Abbot and Archimandrite off a large fish 

 of about seven pounds. The first course consisted 

 of the head, the next of the body, and the last of 

 the tail all three cooked in different ways, and 

 washed down with the good red home-made wine 

 made by the monks. 



Most of the ground round the sides of the peninsula 

 that descend more or less rapidly to the sea-shore, is 

 so thickly overgrown as to make walking almost im- 

 possible, except in the vicinity of the different foot- 

 paths or mule tracks between the various monasteries 

 which appear not to have been altered from the time 

 that they were first engineered during the Middle Ages. 

 Their surface is paved with large round stones, and the 

 interstices are washed away by rains. The unneces- 

 sary windings and aggravating ascents and descents 



