MOUNT ATHOS. 



199 



concourse of uncivilized and noisy pilgrims, assembled for the Holy 

 Week, prevented them from being more attentive to us. 



On Easter-day there were above fifteen hundred people who dined 

 in the court-yard of this convent, principally Albanian, Bulgarian, and 

 Wallachian Greeks. It appears, as soon as the oppressed Christian 

 peasants in the neighbouring Turkish provinces have saved a little 

 money, or when pirates and freebooters have made a successful sally, 

 they set out on a pilgrimage to this Holy mountain, where they not 

 only get a plenary absolution by giving up part of their gains, but 

 enjoy the luxury of hearing a perpetual din of bells, and the sight of 

 splendid churches, pictures of saints, and wonder-working reliques. 

 The monastery of Batopaidi is a large irregular pile, standing on high 

 ground, overlooking the sea, and having some lofty towers within it, 

 as well for the purpose of watch-towers, as for a retreat in case of an 

 attack from pirates. The number of priests and friars within the 

 walls is about two hundred and fifty ; and there are about two hun- 

 dred and fifty more in the farms, gardens, and vineyards of the con- 

 vent. They have one large handsome church and twenty-six smaller 

 ones. Their vineyards furnish about one thousand caricos of wine 

 annually, of ninety okes each, but they generally buy a great deal from 

 Negropont, Scopolo, and other islands. They bake six hundred okes 

 of flour, half barley and half wheat, in a week ; and in the hands of 

 the congregation who attended at the great church on Easter-day, 

 they reckoned eight hundred and sixty wax candles. They are forced 

 to give lodging and food to any stranger who presents himself at the 

 gate, and to depend on his devotion or his ability to repay them. To 

 defray all these expenses and such others as are incurred by keeping 

 the buildings and aqueducts of the convent in repair, besides the in- 

 terest of borrowed money and the exactions of the Porte, they seem 

 principally to rely on the precarious offerings of pilgrims, and on the 

 sums collected by their mendicant brethren in Russia, Moldavia, 

 Wallachia, and such other countries as profess the Greek creed. 

 Their own lands on Mount Athos produce little except vegetables, 

 grapes, and fuel, and their estates in Russia and Moldavia are almost 



