ASIA MINOR. 



139 



rivers through low ground,, in the outline of the shores of the rapid 

 Hellespont. But sufficient resemblance, I think, still remains to 

 warrant the belief that the plain of Mendere and Bounarbashi is the 

 Scamandrian plain of Homer ; the Kaz-Dag is the Ida of the poet ; 

 that Dtheo Tepe and In Tepe are the barrows alluded to as the * 

 tumuli of Achilles and Ajax ; though the names of these heroes 

 may have been assigned to them to give a kind of local habitation to 

 invented incidents. A citadel and walls have also existed at a remote 

 period near Bounarbashi ; but not of a construction contemporary 

 with the supposed aera of the Trojan war. The ten years' duration 

 of the siege ; the numbers of ships and forces furnished by Greece ; 

 their means of subsistence ; the names of their leaders, and the 

 particular details of engagements and single combats must frequently 

 have been the invention of the poet ; and perhaps he merely availed 

 himself of some popular legend of a predatory excursion, which had 

 ultimately led to the establishment of his fellow-countrymen on the 

 coasts of Asia Minor, adapting the incidents of his poem as much as 

 possible to the appearance which the plain then exhibited, and to the 

 received traditions of its inhabitants. 



March 21. — We went to Coum Kale at the mouth of the Mendere, 

 where we hired a Turkish boat to convey us to Tenedos. We gave 

 the owner 13 piastres for the passage to the island. 



Here we lodged at the house of a Greek, who fills the office of 

 British Vice-Consul, and who is also nparoyepot, or chief Greek 

 magistrate. There is only one town in the island, which contains 

 about 750 families ; 450 of them are Mahommedan, and 300 of the 

 Greek Christian church. The harbour is small, but commodious for the 

 trading vessels, which come to purchase wine. Fuel, corn, and most 

 of the provisions for consumption are brought from the opposite 

 coast of the Troad. The principal and almost sole produce of Tene- 

 dos is wine. For this the island is celebrated now as in ancient 

 times ; we see the device of the cluster of grapes on the coins of 

 Tenedos. The red kind is strong, and as dark and rough as port. 

 A small quantity of muscadel is also made, which is much esteemed ; 



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