Birds by the Wayside 165 



Taine's statement regarding the lines of the Parthenon, when 

 the controversy was good-naturedly settled by my assurance 

 that "it certainly must be true, since I had taught it many 

 times to my classes studying the history of ancient art." 

 Thus various questions, trivial and profound, enlivened our 

 journey. 



A cloudless sky, a very clean car, with rugs and comfortably 

 upholstered seats were part of the enjoyable things of the day. 

 Manifold were the styles of railway coaches used in the Old 

 World, but only in Greece was the compartment entered from 

 an open little porch or vestibule on the side of the car. A 

 mountainous range separates the plains of Attica from those 

 of Boeotia. On the latter vegetation was not so far advanced. 

 Miany fields were being plowed, sometimes by oxen, more 

 often by horses or mules. Flocks of sheep or of goats were 

 not infrequent, but no herds of cattle were seen. The land- 

 scape views were most charming, yet always with cold, snow- 

 capped peaks to the north, perhaps Mount Olympus was one 

 of them. Most of the people seen at the stations wore the 

 commonplace European dress, but a few men were dressed 

 in the fustanella, and a few women in homespun with long 

 woolen aprons, woven in colored patterns. Some wore ugly, 

 sleeveless cloaks of white wool with two dark stripes down 

 the back. 



Thebes, with an accredited population of three to four 

 thousand, looks no larger than many American villages of 

 eight or nine hundred people. The streets are lined with trees 

 whose branches interlace overhead. Hydrants at intervals 

 pour a never-ceasing flow of water into stone troughs, from 

 which the overflow races down the hill in open gutters. At 

 some of the troughs women were doing their washing. In- 

 terest in this water supply is increased by the statement that 

 through a part of its course it is brought in an anciently 

 built aqueduct supposed to date from prehistoric times. 

 Thebes has an enthusiastic excavator, who is the curator of its 

 archaeological museum. He showed us its treasures, and ex- 

 plained them as well as his limited command of English per- 



