A EIDE ACKOSS THE PELOPONNESE. 185 



advantages. Epaminondas, when, after the battle of 

 Leuctra in B.C. 371, he built Megalopolis at the lower 

 end of the plain to act as a barrier against Sparta, 

 can hardly have failed at the same time to see and 

 occupy this obvious bulwark against inroad from the 

 west. 



Leaving Karytena behind us, .we now descended 

 into the plain, which extends for some thirty miles 

 towards the S.E., and is covered with luxuriant vege- 

 tation. Great fields of vines and corn lay about our 

 path, and here and there were clumps of olives, or 

 figs, or mulberries. Where the ground was not cul- 

 tivated grew long grasses and glorious wild flowers. 

 We did not see many people working in the fields, 

 doubtless because they were keeping the Easter festi- 

 val in the villages round about. Of these we counted 

 some seven or eight scattered over the plain, and on 

 the lower slopes of the hills. Very picturesque they 

 looked with their red roofs and white walls, and gar- 

 dens of silver-grey olives. This rich plain is watered 

 by the Helisson, which, like the more famous Mean- 

 der in Asia Minor, owes its name to the extreme 

 sinuosity of its course. 



The peculiar temperament of Greek horse-drivers 

 may be illustrated by an incident of our ride across 

 this plain. The owner of our horses, Avho accom- 

 panied us on foot, objected, like the rest of his kind, 

 to any pace more violent than the walk which is in 

 many places rendered necessary by the nature of the 



