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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



that shook high Olympus and caused the 

 heavens to reverberate and glow with the 

 flash of his thunderbolt. 



Away over yonder, skirting the ridge 

 of Ilium, is Simois' stream, or should be ; 

 but the bridge across it shows upon our 

 approach that modern Simois is no more 

 than a creek. Worse than that ; follow- 

 ing its attenuated course, less than a mile 

 downstream, we discover that it ends in 

 a morass instead of joining the Scaman- 

 der as of yore. And the latter stream is 

 scarcely less disappointing, for it is no 

 more dignified in size or appearance. In 

 fact, their sluggish currents united can 

 scarcely boast of banks except at occa- 

 sional intervals, for both streams are now 

 ' only broad swales merging with the ad- 

 j,acent plain, with no continuous current 

 toward the sea except in seasons of high 

 water, if such are ever known. 



And such beautiful plains ! they were 

 well worth fighting for, gently undulat- 

 ing as they retreat from the former river 

 courses, and most homelike, cultivable 

 places for peaceful abode. Little rounded 

 oak trees are studded about the plain in 

 solitary, independent fashion — oak trees 

 resembling apple trees in size and pe- 

 riphery. Not many are the fields under 

 cultivation, though an occasional patch 

 of barley is to be seen ; for there are too 

 many Arabs, refugees, and other nomads 

 in the country pasturing where they will. 

 Poppies are in bloom of a most brilliant 

 crimson. Yonder is a field of them, in 

 appearance a field of blood, while here 

 and there a solitary flower seems to mark 

 the spot where one of Homer's heroes 

 fell. The peaceful cattle are grazing 

 about the plain, "whole hecatombs" of 

 them if need were, herded by their far 

 from peaceful-looking owners, who give 

 us surly looks as we pass. 



Behold the ruins at last ! A long, low 

 ridge, some four or five miles in length, 

 ends abruptly like a promontory project- 

 ing into the sea, above which it rises 

 about 30 feet. The ridge is the so-called 

 "Hill of Ilium," the sea is the floodplain 

 of the Simois and Scamander, historic- 

 ally known as the plain of Troy, and the 

 promontory, with its crown of ruins, is 

 Troy itself. You walk around the ruins 

 and make the surprising discovery that 



if the walking were good you could easily 

 do it in 10 minutes. Astonishing! Is 

 this all there was of Troy, and did this 

 little stronghold withstand a nine years' 

 siege and still remain unconquered by 

 force ? Impossible ! The whole Hill of 

 Ilium may have been fortified and to some 

 extent populated ; otherwise how was the 

 garrison provisioned ? LTnpoetic details 

 like these never troubled Homer, so why 

 bother about them. 



Topping a mound of material thrown 

 out from the excavations are the em- 

 placements for two batteries of artillery. 

 A company of Arab "irregulars" is on 

 guard to hold the place for the Sultan, 

 and these come forward, headed by their 

 sheik and his stafif. These wild children 

 of the desert have all the inquisitiveness 

 of their kind, and in spite of the presence 

 of the escort, who saved us from ungent- 

 ler things, no doubt, a leisurely examina- 

 tion of the place, free from intrusion, 

 was not to be had. 



Every student knows of the remark- 

 able work of Schliemann in unearthing 

 these ruins and establishing their iden- 

 tity as those of the veritable Troy of 

 Homer; of the indefatigable zeal, the de- 

 termined search for the location, the half- 

 willing consent of the Turkish govern- 

 ment, and the financial and physical ob- 

 stacles to be overcome. But the work 

 did begin at last, and the first walls to 

 appear beneath the spade were strange 

 walls, not those described by Homer, and 

 the order was to dig deeper. Still fur- 

 ther ruins of city after city were un- 

 earthed, till Homer's Troy, all that is left 

 of it, was laid bare. 



Only the antiquarian can see the sig- 

 nificance of all these things as he scram- 

 bles up and down within and among 

 these disordered piles of what once was 

 masonry ; but even an uninformed tourist 

 can see the difiference between the rubble 

 walls of a later date and the worthier 

 structures which preceded them. 



There are walls, too, which show the 

 marks of a mightly conflagration, and 

 these, it is opined, are the same whence 

 ^neas 



"Did from the flames of Troy upon his 

 shoulder 

 The old Anchises bear" 



