JOURNEY TO ARTA. 41 



instruction they might perhaps be made some- 

 thing of: the material is good, but at present it 

 is not well put together. 



After remaining for some days at Janina, 

 which, at the season of the year we visited it, 

 was not the most agreeable abode in the world, 

 snow, sleet, and rain continually falling in great 

 abundance, we took our departure for Arta, having 

 procured post-horses, by which means we should 

 perform the distance (about forty-five miles) in 

 one day. We intended to start early, but the 

 chouash, whose duty it was to procure the horses, 

 had been "keeping Ramazan," that is, eating and 

 drinking, and enjoying himself all night, to make 

 up for the time lost during the fasting hours of 

 day-light, consequently we were late in reaching 

 Arta. We made the greater part of the journey 

 at a trot, and were between eleven and twelve 

 hours on the road ; and, as may be easily ima- 

 gined, found the jolting in a common pack-sad- 

 dle, without stirrups or bridle (unless a halter 

 can be considered one), a sure means of rendering 

 a wooden floor at night as acceptable a couch 

 as a bed of down could have been. The road, 

 which was a very good one in its day, nar- 



