248 
ATHENS. 
CHAP, the floor, and its top penetrates the vaulted arch 
of stone above, in such a manner that any 
person seeing it is convinced the masonry was 
adjusted to the shape and size of the plant, 
a space being left for its admission through the 
top of the vault. The hawthorn-tree of Caivdor 
Castle, and the traditionary superstition to which 
it has owed its preservation during a lapse of 
centuries, may serve as a parallel to the history 
of the Athenian Olive, by exhibiting an example 
nearly similar; the one being considered as the 
Palladium of an antient Highland Clan 1 , and the 
other regarded as the most sacred relic of the 
Cecropian Citadel. Within the Erectheum was the 
Well of salt water, also shewn as a mark of the 
contest for Attica between Neptune and Minerva*. 
This well is mentioned by Wheler 5 , who could 
not obtain permission to see it: he was assured 
that it was "almost dry" when he visited the 
and of the 
Well. 
(1) It had been a custom, from time immemorial, for guests in the 
castle to assemble around this tree, and drink " Success to the haw- 
thorn," or, in other words, " Prosperity to the learn of the house of 
Cawdor,-" upon 'the principle observed still in Wales, of figuratively 
connecting the upright prop or beam, which, in old houses, extended 
from'the floor to the roof, with the main-stem or.master of a family. 
The first toast after dinner in a Welch mansion is, generally, " The 
chief beam of the Jtoutt." 
(2) Pausan. lib.i. c. 26. Lips. 1696. 
(3) Journey into Greece, p. 364. Land. 1682. 
