62 ISLAND OF PATMOS. 
This day we dined with the monks, and after- 
wards went again into the town. The women 
of the island, here collected as it were upon a 
single point, are so generally handsome, that 
it is an uncommon sight to meet with any who 
are otherwise. Their houses are kept very 
clean : it is customary with them to raise 
their beds at least ten feet from the floor, 
and they ascend to them by steps. Dapper 
mentions several villages in Patmos, existing at 
present only in his work 1 . The island pro- 
duces very little wheat, and still less of barley : 
even the corn consumed in the Monastery is 
brought from the Black Sea. There are several 
Bells. bells at the Monastery, which the monks are 
frequently ringing. The enjoyment of this 
noise is considered as a great indulgence; bells 
being prohibited by the Turks. Dapper says, 
that, excepting upon Mount Libanus, Patmos is 
the only place in all the Turkish empire where 
bells may be heard 2 : in this he is, however^ 
mistaken, for Naxos has the same privilege. 
The whole of Sunday, October the eleventh, 
was passed in great anxiety, being the day on 
which the Superior of the Monastery had 
(1) Dapper, Description des Isles de YArchipcl. p. 181. Amsi. 1703. 
(2) Ibid. p. 180. 
