96 



ASIA MINOR. 



which we soon ascertained was indiscriminately given by Musulmans 

 to such villages as contain no Turkish families. 



In order to give us a high idea of the strict and impartial police of 

 the country, Mustapha, the new guide appointed by Hadim Oglou, 

 told us that his lord had pursued a robber from this village to the 

 top of the Adramyttian gulph,. where he took the culprit and had him 

 bastinadoed, until the nails of his feet came out ; his ears were next 

 cut off, and he would then have hanged him if intercession had not 

 been made to send him to the galleys by the person robbed, who, our 

 guide added, was a mere Ghiour, or infidel Christian. 



We next passed Ak Yar, or the White Stains, on the Asiatic shore ; 

 they are abrupt limestone or chalk crags used by seamen as a land- 

 mark to avoid a shoal or sunken rock in this part of the strait. On 

 the opposite shore of the Thracian Chersonesus is a beautiful valley 

 winding between the mountains ; it is clothed with the richest ver- 

 dure, and abounds with trees of every shade. At the entrance of this 

 valley is an Ayixtrpa, Ayasma, or Holy fountain, where the Greek 

 Christians have built a small chapel ; to the water of this fountain 

 they attribute a power of counteracting witchcraft, sorcery, and daemo- 

 niacal possession, as well as healing certain diseases. A conical barrow 

 near it is supposed to be the Cynossema or tomb of Hecuba. 



We now came close upon the Asiatic shore, where we observed 

 another barrow of similar form, called by the Turks En Tepe, and 

 by Chevalier, Morritt, and succeeding travellers considered as the 

 sepulchre of Ajax. We then passed the fort of Coum-Kale, which is 

 built on a projecting tongue of land, having the appearance of a 

 sandy shoal, and which, it is supposed, was once covered by the 

 waters of the Hellespont. About 200 paces to the N. E. of the fort 

 is the embouchure of the river Mendere Sou, or Scamander, the 

 broadest stream we had seen since leaving the sea of Marmora. We 

 then passed two other tumuli or conical barrows very near the shore; 

 they were called Theeo Tepe [Uo Tsvq) by our guide; they have been 

 considered as the tombs of Achilles and Patroclus. The sun was nearly 

 setting when wc reached the foot of Cape Yenicher,the ancient promon- 



