Photograph by H. G. Dwiglit 



THE KITCHEN OF THE GUEST HOUSE AT VATOPETHI : MT. ATHOS, GREECE 



Covel, who also seems to have made his pilgrimage during Lent, says of this kitchen : 

 "They gave us Limpets there thrice as big as oures in England, and yellow, all cover'd with 

 a fat yellow mosse, which thev eat either alone or with oyl." 



ish coffee, which you sip as noisily as 

 possible in order to express your appre- 

 ciation of it. 



A WEEL-SEAEED INTRODUCTION 



Upon this ceremony followed that of 

 sealing our circular. Each of four coun- 

 cilors produced a quarter of the seal, 

 while the fifth, the secretary, locked them 

 into a handle in his own possession. Our 

 letter was then formally stamped, the re- 

 sultant image of the Virgin was sanded 

 in the good old way, and we were readv 

 to begin the more serious part of our 

 pilgrimage. 



First, however, one of the French- 

 speaking councilors very courteously of- 

 fered to show us the sights of Karyes. 

 Chief among these was the neighboring 

 cathedral, known on the peninsula as the 

 Protdton. It is a cruciform church of 

 the tenth or eleventh century, containing 

 a famous icon of the Virgin and deco- 



rated with some of the most interesting 

 Byzantine frescoes that remain. Whether 

 they were or were not painted, as the 

 monks affirm, by the half-mythic Athon- 

 ite master, Panselinos, who flourished at 

 the end of the fifteenth or the beginning 

 of the sixteenth century, it is not for me 

 to say. But they certainly preserve the 

 tradition of another time. A St. John 

 in particular, painted so high on the wall 

 that I could not photograph it properly, 

 recalls the noble Byzantine mosaics of 

 Cefalu. 



Our venerable guide also took us to 

 visit the small monastery of Koutlou- 

 mousi, on the outskirts of Karyes, where 

 the problem of spoons and glasses was 

 again presented to us. And we encoun- 

 tered it a third time in the councilor's 

 own konak, a big, bare, clean house com- 

 manding magnificent views of mountain 

 and sea. He furthermore insisted that 

 we should move our traps there from the 



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