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98 ASIA MINOR. 



supposed relation they bore to the tale of Troy divine, but because, 

 as he told us, his flock had thus lost an infallible remedy for many 

 obstinate maladies. To explain this, it may be necessary to mention, 

 that during the winter and spring, a considerable part of the neigh- 

 bouring plain is overflowed, thus afflicting the inhabitants with agues ; 

 and such is the state of superstition at present among the Greek 

 Christians, that when any disease becomes chronic, or beyond the 

 reach of common remedies, it is attributed to daemoniacal possession. 

 The Papas or priest is then called in to exorcise the patient, which he 

 generally does in the porch of the church, by reading long portions of 

 Scripture over the sufferer ; sometimes, indeed, the whole of the four 

 gospels. In addition to this, at Yenicher, the custom was to roll the 

 patient on the marble stone which contained the Sigean inscription, 

 the characters of which never having been decyphered by any of their 

 AJaVfcaXc, were supposed to contain a powerful charm. This prac- 

 tice had, however, nearly obliterated the inscription. * 



Exorcism is still practised by the Greek priests of the shores of the 

 Archipelago ; not only human beings, but cattle, silk-worms, and 

 even houses are supposed by them to be liable to the baneful influ- 

 ence of fascination, spells, and dsemoniacal possession. In one of their 

 liturgies I saw a prayer to be used for counteracting the effect of a 

 malicious glance on silk- worms, at the season of their spinning : and 

 during our short stay at this village, I witnessed the ceremony of a 

 priest with a censer and vessel of holy water, rendering, as he pre- 

 tended, the threshold, windows, and chimney of a new-built cottage, 

 impervious to evil spirits. 



We here bought some copper coins of the Ptolemies, and some 

 smaller belonging to Alexandria Troas ; but we could not induce a 



* The stone is in the Elgin Collection of Marbles, and a copy of this singular document 

 of Paleography may be seen in Chishull, Ant. Asiat. and in Chandler, Ins. An. The 

 French letter of Bentley respecting the inscription, and the Delian Iambic, is in vol. ii. of 

 the Acta Societatis Trajectinae, 6. 



