A EIDE TO MAGNESIA. 121 



Babel, and by consequence the identical language 

 that was spoken by Adam. An interesting excursion 

 might be made on this subject, seemingly so far at 

 variance with the conclusions of learned ethnogra- 

 phers. Their deductions are from undoubted facts, 

 and tend to their conclusion with a force that some 

 philologists at least have considered irresistible. 



Through the Armenian quarter our road lay on- 

 ward for a short distance by the banks of Meles. 

 It is but an insignificant stream, of scarcely sufficient 

 tide to turn a mill ; but in no better case are Ilissus 

 and Cephissus found to be in the present day. The 

 shade of Socrates still seems to linger over the Attic 

 streamlet, swelling its puny tide to the capacity of 

 the loftiest musings of the humanised ; and the 

 memory of Homer is wedded to these waters of 

 Meles. The critics who would disprove the existence 

 of the bard, and assign the different members of his 

 compositions to numerous anonymous authors, or to 

 indefinite traditions, would find this no vantage- 

 ground. The influences of the place would abash 

 their contumacy. There is something poetical even 

 now about the locality. The stream flows through 

 the Armenian quarter, passing by a short course to 

 the well-known Caravan-bridge, and thence into the 

 open country. At pretty nigh all hours of the day, 

 groups of nymphs may be seen washing clothes in 

 the waters, exhibiting tableaux vivants of Nausicaa 

 and her maidens. No vulgar washerwomen are these 



