146 



ATTICA. 



lands of Attica, forcing the little proprietors to sell him their posses- 

 sions at his own price. 



Oct. 22. — We walked to the hill of Anchesmus. The heavy rains 

 which had fallen permitted the husbandman to stir the ground. Hav- 

 ing passed the walls of the city we found a peasant ploughing with two 

 oxen ; the plough, aAsrp;, which he held, had only one handle %ep* ; 

 it had two earth-boards <7rotpott3o\y.; a sharp iron share — . * Adjoining 

 the handle was a piece of wood toovSvvpt ; the pole consisted of two 

 pieces, the lower one was called trrufBapt; the upper one ^Aa-no-jita. 

 At the end of the pole was an iron ring «oXXoupa:, the bar and the 

 two collars fsvyeu. The pieces of wood which formed the plough 

 were fastened together by a large nail a-naGl which was traversed by 

 a smaller nail. The soil j • was light and rich, and ploughed into 

 small ridges and furrows, each not more than a foot broad. We 

 advanced towards the hill ; the rain had washed away the soil, and 

 discovered a Roman pavement composed of small cubic pieces of 

 marble. The thyme of the ancients ^ap<, and the hairy Passerina, 

 were the most common plants. The sweet-scented Cyclamen, and 

 the yellow Amaryllis, were in flower. A number of Helices concealed 

 themselves in the crevices of the rock, and I found what the conch- 

 ologists consider a great rarity, the Helix decollata with the head 

 on. From the summit of Anchesmus we had a full view of Athens ; 

 the walls of the city did not appear more than two miles in circuit. 



Oct. 23. — We walked out in the afternoon to the supposed site of 

 the Academy ; the spot is known at present by the name Acathymia ; 

 it is a low hill about a mile to the north of the city. Among the 

 olive groves, which are composed of large and ancient trees, we met 



* The word in Dr. S.'s journals resembles jBovvr, but in Mr. Hawkins it is correctly 

 written Ivvij corrupted from "Tvvi;, Vomer. The different parts of the plough cf the ancient 

 Greeks fof/wj, yurjc, hxupx, 8ms and b^stXyi are examined by Mongez. Mem. de l'Instit. 1815. 



f The mode of threshing the corn, as practised by the people of Attica, is described in 

 an extract from the journal of the Earl of Aberdeen. See the note which follows Dr. Sib- 

 thorp's remarks. 



