36 



JOURNEY THROUGH MAINA, 



width, brought down by its violence in the winter months. It falls into 

 the sea at the distance of about a mile from Calamata, and the same 

 devastation marks its course through the plain. Its banks are covered 

 with brushwood, and its progress is interrupted by little islands of 

 copse. Amongst these fringes of its banks, we sought in vain for the 

 ruins of the town of Pheras, which, according to Pausanias, stood at 

 six stadia from the sea, in the way from Abia to Thuria, consequently 

 at no great distance, and probably on the very situation of the modern 

 town of Calamata. This last derives its name from Calamae, a village 

 mentioned by Pausanias, lib. iv. ; which still exists and retains its 

 ancient name, and is situated at the distance of about two miles from 

 Calamata, and more inland. The cultivation of the plains, and the 

 modern buildings there, during the period when the Venetians pos- 

 sessed this fertile country, have tended to obliterate the inconsiderable 

 remains of antiquity which might be expected to have come down to 

 us from the age of Strabo and Pausanias. 



The modern town is built on a plan not unusual in this part of the 

 Morea, and well adapted for the defence of the inhabitants against 

 the attacks of the pirates that infest the coast. Each house is a sepa- 

 rate edifice, and many of them are high square towers of brown stone, 

 built while the Venetians had possession of the country. The lower 

 story of their habitations serves chiefly for offices or warehouses of 

 merchandize, and the walls on every side are pierced with loop-holes 

 for the use of musketry, while the doors are strongly barricadoed. A 

 small Greek church stands near the Nedon in front of Calamata, and 

 behind the town a ruined Venetian fortress rises on a hill over the 

 gardens and dwellings of the inhabitants. The Greeks who lived 

 there were rich and at their ease ; the fields in the vicinity of the 

 town belonged to them, and they had also a considerable trade, the 

 chief articles of which arose from their cultivation of silk and oil. 

 They were governed by men of their own nation and appointment, 

 subject only to the approval of the Pasha of the Morea, who resided 

 at Tripolizza, and to the payment of a tribute which was collected 

 among themselves, and transmitted by a Turkish Vaivode, who, with 



