224 



MOUNT ATHOS. 



had long been in decay. He accompanied us to the gate, and 

 shaking us affectionately by the hand, said, he hoped he had left 

 such an impression of himself on our hearts, that we might be mutu- 

 ally glad to see each other, if Providence ever brought us again to- 

 gether ; quoting a Turkish proverb, that mountain never approaches 

 mountain, nor island, island ; but that man often unexpectedly meets 

 fellow-man. 



We had an escort assigned us of six well-armed Albanians; our 

 road conducted us through the most picturesque and magnificent 

 scenery ; but in some places so dangerous from the precipices which 

 beetle over the sea, that a false step of our mules might have been 

 fatal. Six miles from Chiliantari we came to the ruins of a castle 

 called Callitze ; and two miles further we halted to breakfast under 

 the shade of some Oriental planes near a fountain, and the bed of a 

 river filled with scarlet oleanders and Agnus castus. The spot is cal- 

 led Paparnitza ; here we saw once more cows and ewes with their 

 young, a proof that we had passed the holy precincts. W e continued 

 our journey towards the Isthmus, and on reaching the shore found a 

 large fishing boat, which supplied us plentifully with fish at fifteen 

 paras an oke, and some octopodia. * 



We soon came to the spot on the Isthmus, now called f Problakas, 

 where Xerxes is said to have cut a canal for his fleet of galleys. 

 This is about a mile and a quarter long, and twenty-five yards across; 

 a measurement not very different from that given by $ Herodotus 



* This is the sea polypus, which we often observe beaten by the Greeks to make it 

 tender. Forskal says, ' carnem bene tusam edunt," and an older authority makes 

 mention of this practice Tlo^vnovg tvhtbtoh n-oAAaxij 7rpo$ to itsttmv yeveadcti. Suidas, — E. 



f " Isthmus iste a Graecis monachis montis incolis vpouuKa.^ hoc seculo appcllatur," 

 says Vossius in Mclam, 139. It is the same word according to the Romaic pronunciation, 

 as that given by Dr. Hunt. 



% The length has been also stated as eirrena-TaZtog (Obs. Voss. ad Mel. App. 40.) 

 Vestiges of the canal were visible in the time of j£lian, 1. xiii. c. 20. Belon thought the 

 ancient account of it fabulous, in opposition to Thucydides, 1. iv., who speaks of the 

 King's canal; and Pococke did not observe the remains of it. Mr. Mitford (H. of 

 Greece, i. 377-) observes, that scarcely any circumstance of the expedition of Xerxes is 



