ASIA MINOR. 



123 



CHAP. IV. 



Descent from Ida. — Assos. — Ruins and Theatre. — Salt Springs at Tousla. — Greek 



Peasantry ofNeachore. — Tenedos. 



W E now turned our steps back through the dark forests and crags 

 of Ida, and soon reached Evjilah, where we found the villagers 

 surprized at our having been on the summit of Kaz-Dag. We 

 supped on the scanty fare which this place furnished ; our bread was 

 the worst we had yet seen, being unleavened cakes made of ca- 

 lambochi. 



Evjilah contains about thirty families, all Mahometan. Their 

 cottages are miserable ; the walls are of mud, and the roof of turf 

 or soil, laid horizontally on fir rafters. In fine weather the Turks 

 pass more of their time on these terraces, than in the gloomy com- 

 fortless room below ; on most of these roofs we observed a fragment 

 of a small granite column, used as a roller to smooth the surface. 

 The only person in the place, who seemed to be above a state of 

 indigence, was a Turk who had been in the service of the governor 

 of the Dardanelles, and after saving a little money had retired to 

 his native village, where he now filled the office of Aga ; and seemed 

 to act in the capacity of a mayor or justice of the peace. He had 

 built a mosque here at his own expense ; the Imaum or curate of 

 which paid us a visit : his stipend, we found, was fixed at sixty 

 piastres, less than four pounds a year, for which he both officiated 

 at the mosque and kept the school. To this was added an occasional 

 present at a circumcision or a funeral. He depended, however, more 

 on the produce of a little farm, than on his profession, for a 

 maintenance. 



The inhabitants in general live more by pasturage of cattle and 

 the chase, than by agriculture, and seem to have few comforts of 

 life ; but we were surprised at the very extravagant price they 

 demanded for the trifling articles with which they unwillingly 



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