A HIDE TO MAGNESIA. 103 



bones, we managed to reach this place after night- 

 fall, prolonging, for its hope's sake, our course through 

 a most break-neck road, and through unseen but 

 clamorous numbers of their wolf-like dogs. At last 

 we came up with a miserable shed, which proved to 

 be the mansion of the great man. Of course we 

 should have looked for no other floor but the mudden 

 one we found, had it not been for our magnificent 

 recommendation, which warranted the expectation of 

 a suite of apartments. But the floor was so packed 

 with goods and chattels, affording the most comfort- 

 able roosting for the fleas, and with children who 

 brought in ever-fresh collections to the stock, that 

 among the many undelectable nights we passed, none 

 equalled in horrors that one of official introduction 

 and high classical association. And such is pretty 

 generally the hap of him who ventures to pass the 

 night in one of those habitations where SAveeping and 

 washing remain exotics, and where the a.vTo\6ovs 

 acquire impenetrable skins. Now, all this sort of 

 thing you avoid in a boat, besides converting the 

 mere locomotion from a frequent punishment into a 

 delight : always supposing, be it remembered, that 

 you have not to beat your way home up the Sinus 

 Saronicus against a tempest. But the old story of 

 the rose and the thorn comes in here too. By land 

 you are exposed to the miseries of your nightly quar- 

 terings : by sea you may rejoice your heart with the 

 beauties with which Xature rejoices to adorn, many 



