228 AISECDOTE. 



tively to belong to Salonica, and that he could 

 by no possibility be an Ionian, having committed 

 some criminal offence, became amenable to Turk- 

 ish law, but, when he was arrested, claimed pro- 

 tection as a British subject. The person to 

 whom he chanced to say he was an Ionian was 

 half inclined to laugh at the absurdity of such an 

 assertion, well knowing he had never been in the 

 Ionian Islands in his life. " An Ionian !" said he ; 

 "why, what proof have you of being an Ionian?" 

 " A certificate of baptism," said he, and, with the 

 greatest coolness, drew leisurely out of his sash 

 a certificate from a Greek priest, that he, the 

 criminal, had been born and baptized in the Io- 

 nian Islands. This was rather puzzling to the 

 questioner ; however, he asked him incidentally 

 another question or two, when it came out, on a 

 little cross-examination, that he not only had 

 never been in the Ionian Islands, but did not 

 know where the Ionian Islands were. 



Salonica, or, as it is still spelt in Greek, Thes- 

 salonica, is a mercantile town of considerable 

 importance, being the next in size and wealth, of 

 the towns in Turkey in Europe, to Constanti- 

 nople. Its situation is the most unhealthy that 



