594 TURKEY IN EUROPE, 



tope : but the Turks and Mahometans in general are not very fond 

 of animal food. 



Natural curiosities.. Among these are generally classed Mount 

 Athos, already mentioned, now called Monte Santo, from the nume- 

 rous convents erected on it. It is situate on a peninsula which extends 

 into the jEgean Sea, and is indeed a chain of mountains, reaching the 

 whole length of the peninsula, seven Turkish miles in length, and 

 three in breadth ; but it is only a single mountain that is properly 

 called Athos. This is so lofty, that on the top, as the ancients relate, 

 the sun-rising was beheld four hours sooner than by the inhabitants 

 of the coast : and, at the solstice, its shade reached into the Agora, 

 or market-place of Myrina, a town in Lemnos, which island was dis- 

 tant eighty-seven miles eastward. There are twenty-two convents on 

 Mount Athos, besides a great number of cells and grottos, with the 

 habitations of no less than six thousand monks and hermits ; though 

 the proper hermits, who live in grottos, are not above twenty : the 

 other monks are anchorites, or such as live in cells. These Greek 

 monks, who call themselves the inhabitants of the holy mountains, 

 are so far from being a set of slothful people, that, besides their daily 

 offices of religion, they cultivate the olive and vineyards, are carpen- 

 ters, masons, stone-cutters, cloth-workers, tailors, Sec. They also live 

 a very austere life; their usual food, instead of flesh, being vegeta- 

 bles, dried olives, figs, and other fruit; onions, cheese, and, on certain 

 days (Lent excepted) fish. Their fasts are many and severe, which, 

 with the healthfulness ol the air, renders longevity so common there, 

 that many of them live above a hundred years. It appears from 

 jElian, that anciently the mountain in general, and particularly the 

 summit, was accounted very healthy, and conducive to long life j 

 whence the inhabitants were called Macrobii, or long-lived. We are 

 farther informed by Philostratus, in the life of Apollonius, that num- 

 bers of philosophers used to retire to this mountain, for the better 

 contemplation of the heavens and of nature ; and after their example 

 the monks doubtless built their cells. 



The cavern or grotto in the island of Antiparos, is one of the great- 

 est natural curiosities in this country or perhaps in the world. It is 

 above 80 yards high, and 100 wide. From the roof hang a variety of 

 marble stalactites, of the most elegant and picturesque forms ; and on 

 the floor are large masses of stalagmite, one of which, in the centre, 

 resembles a beautiful marble pyramid. 



The famous cave of Trophonius is still a natural curiosity in Livi- 

 dia, the ancient Boeotia. It is a square cavern, with a bench on each 

 side oi it, hewn out of the rock, and a round hole at one end, scarcely 

 large enough for a man to pass through. 



Population. ...The population of this great empire is by no'means 

 equal, either to its extent or fertility, nor is it possible to ascertain it 

 with any great accuracy. It certainly is not so great as it was before 

 the Christian sera, under the emperors, or even a century ago, owing 

 to various causes, and, above all, to the tyranny under which the na- 

 tives live ; and their polygamy, which is undoubtedly very unfavour- 

 able to population, as may be evinced from many reasons; and parti- 

 cularly, because the Greeks and Armenians, among whom it is not 

 practised, are incomparably more prolific than the Turks, notwith- 

 standing the rigid subjection in which they are kept by the latter. 

 The plague is another cause of depopulation. According, however, 

 to the latest and most probable estimates, European Turkey contains 



