^56 KRAVARIOTS. 



towering majestically over the well-wooded range 

 of mountains on one side, seems unwilling to let a 

 traveller lose sight of him, because the immensity 

 of the level plain is such, that he remains visible 

 for many hours after the near hills have entirely 

 passed from the view of the person who may be 

 wending his way towards Tempe. Then, long be- 

 fore reaching Larissa, Olympus and Ossa frown 

 majestically over the plain; the former, the abode of 

 the heathen gods ; the latter, the fabulous residence 

 of the centaurs. The scenery of the whole plain is 

 prettily diversified with groves of large trees, re- 

 sembling Indian topes of banian trees, which afford 

 an agreeable resting-place to the sun-burnt tra- 

 veller in this generally exposed country. 



On our way from Tricala to Larissa, we were 

 met by a large body of men, women, and children, 

 on horseback, accompanied by an immense num- 

 ber of pack-horses, laden with packages of every 

 description, tents, furniture, cooking utensils, and 

 clothes, and a large drove of brood mares, with 

 their foals, generally mules, by their sides. It 

 seemed to us at first as if the inhabitants of some 

 large village had suddenly taken it into their 

 heads to move house. A good many having passed, 



