T'he Days of a Man Hign 



that Venizelos, then the real ruler of Greece, in his 

 rising ambition aimed at the annexation of Smyrna 

 and its hinterland, known as "Magna Graecia." 

 This plan had historical justification at least, for 

 Smyrna was a Greek city more than a thousand 

 years before the Turks left Turkestan. 

 A dream Though wc tested at anchor for the day, I was 

 of the unable to go ashore with Holman because of a sudden 

 illness due to an infection caught in the Greek camp.^ 

 The malady lasted for a week and a half, its chief 

 feature being inability to digest food — a condition 

 unaccompanied by fever but vexed with optical 

 derangements and illusions such as arise from star- 

 vation. These began with a round black shade 

 which occupied the center of vision, so that progress 

 about unfamiliar ways might not have been quite 

 safe. 

 In Athens Ncxt momiug at Piraeus we immediately took a 

 carriage for the Hotel Hermes in Athens, but after 

 this interesting drive I found myself obliged to go 

 to bed. There I had the unique experience of seeing 

 the pattern on a floor-rug slowly elevate itself, 

 reach out its paws to comb its whiskers, spread out 

 a tail like a flying squirrel, and finally sail through 

 the open window toward the Acropolis. I then 

 noted that such subjective apparitions may assume 

 shapes quite unlike those traditionally incited by 

 alcohol ! 



My optimistic local physician not finding much 

 the matter and so giving me no help, after a couple 

 of days I thought best to advance leisurely toward 

 Cannes. We accordingly took the train for Patras, 

 passing on the way what is left of the ancient city 



1 Diagnosed later in Naples as bacillary dysentery. 



n6i2 ;] 



