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MOUNT ATHOS. 



therefore, have no milk, butter, cheese, or eggs, except when these 

 articles are imported from Thasos and Lemnos, or from Macedonia, 

 across the Isthmus. We saw milk sold at seven-pence an oke, when 

 wine only cost two-pence. They use oxen for ploughing, and mules 

 for riding. The superstitious or artful caloyers repeat gravely to 

 every stranger who visits them, that no female animal could live three 

 days on Mount Athos, although they see doves and other birds build- 

 ing their nests in the thickets, swallows hatching their young under the 

 sheds, and vermin multiplying in their dirty cells and on their persons. 



While we were walking one day on the beach, we observed that a 

 ship had arrived, to which the priests and caloyers immediately 

 repaired ; and received from the hands of the captain a silver box, 

 containing what was called a relic of the zone or girdle of the Virgin 

 Mary. It appeared that it had been borrowed from the convent for 

 a great sum, in order to stop the progress of some epidemic disorder 

 at a town on the shores of the Black Sea, and was now brought back 

 to be deposited in the treasury of the convent. 



On Easter-Monday, after a stay of five days, we set out with 

 mules provided for us by the convent, to the town of Chariess, in the 

 centre of the peninsula, where the Turkish Aga, and the council of 

 deputies from all the convents reside for the dispatch of public 

 business. It was necessary to make this visit, in order that our 

 imperial firman and our letter from the Greek Patriarch might be 

 examined, and that we might be informed how to make the tour of 

 the convents with the greatest ease and security. The distance from 

 Batopaidi to Chariess, is two hours and three quarters. About 

 three miles from the former we had a most striking view of the 

 summit of Athos. This has been estimated by Delambre at 713 

 toises. The whole ride furnishes a succession of sublime Alpine 

 scenery. Instead of the usual salutations which are exchanged 

 between travellers who meet on the road, the only one we now heard 

 was the Easter congratulation, " Christ is risen to which the 

 answer is, " He is the true God." We found the deputies living 

 together at Chariess in a very humble style : they were four in 



