VII. 
TO RHODES. 227 
literary strangers will pass the shores of Lesbos ^^}^^f' 
with indifference. Its land was peculiarly dig- 
nified by genius, and by wisdom : iEolian lyres 
as I was told, with a pair of oxen, more than an acre a day ; and the 
manure they use is burnt weed. The whole country was now (April) 
wearing a beautiful appearance : the anemone, ranunculus, and hya- 
cinth, were seen in the fields, and by the road side. Having slept one 
night in the open air, by a fire which the driver of the caravan kindled 
with dried horse-dung, I arrived the next day at the banks of the 
Hermus ; winding, and muddy ; daily adding to the land, which it has 
already formed on tlie north side of the Gulph of Smyrna. 1 crossed 
it at the ferry, and reached Meuomen ; whence I sailed to Smyrna in 
an hour. From Meuomen, boats come daily to Smyrna, in the season, 
laden with water-melons (the Cucurbita Citrullus), called, by the Greeks, 
Angouria. From the seed, a liquor is made, which is sold about the 
streets of Smyrna. 
" The fields and gardens about Smyrna are planted with almond, 
olive, fig, and pomegranate trees. The little village of Narli-keui 
takes it name from the abundance of the pomegranate-trees there. 
Some of the plants, birds, and insects, found at Smyrna, are described 
by Hasselquist. The j'rancolin (a kind of partridge, and called by 
Belon the array?) of the Greeks), and heccajico, are found in abundance : 
the latter I have heard called by a name not unlike the antient. 
' SyxaX/Ss; (sajs Athenffius) are taken in the Jig-season-' lib. ii.GD. 
Woodcocks, and a species of plover, are seen in December. Wild-boars 
are frequently shot here in the mountains. I saw also a quantity of 
the ix^'s (the sea-egg), which is eaten by the Greeks in their fasts ; 
and called now by the same name. ' It d/^/ends itself hy its pricMy 
shell:' Athenaeus, lib.iii.41. The ocfopodio?i, as the modern Greeks 
call it, is also eaten by them in Lent ; it is a cuttle-fish, with eight 
rays, or tentacula, as the name indicates. The hills round Smyrna are 
of granite. At a village to the south of it, called Bujaw, is a very fine 
grove of cypress-trees: this tree, so great a favourite with the Turks 
in their burying-grounds, is there planted on account of its balsamic 
smell : its wood, as well as that of the Ficus Sycoinortis, was always 
prized in the East for its durability. The Egyptians made their 
mummy-chests of it ; and the Athenians buried those who had fallen 
in war in coffins of this wood. Between Smyrna and Bournabat, a 
village seven miles to the north-east of it, is a very large cemetery, 
with 
