Pa 
40 MARATHON TO THEBES. 
CHAP. Albanians. Some remains, as of a more antient 
II. 
settlement, may be observed behind these 
buildings, towards the north-west. We made 
Cave of a vain inquiry after the Cave of Pan; being v\^ell 
convinced that so accurate a writer as Pauscmias 
would not have mentioned a natural curiosity 
of this kind, without good proof of its existence 
in his time: and from its nature, it is not 
probable that any lapse of time should have 
caused its disappearance. Oux Albanian guides, 
however, either did not know that any such 
cave existed, or they did not choose to accom- 
pany us thither; and we have since learned, 
that we passed close to it, before our arrival at 
Marathon, in our road from Athens. Other 
travellers have found it; and they describe it to 
be a stalactite grotto, similar, in its nature, to 
the several caves of Parnassus, Hijmettus, and 
Antiparos, although upon a smaller scale ' : and 
this circumstance in its history of course ex- 
plains all that Pausanias has written ooncerning 
the various phsenomena with which that cavern 
abounds'; the eccentric shapes which the 
(1) It has been recently visited by Mr. FJit^kes, of St. John's Co'fcge 
Cambi idi^e ; who gave to the author this account of its situation. 
(2) 'OX/yiiv Se afuTiiov TtZ -irio'iov, Havi; irTin o^o;, xx) (r'TrviXaiot fix; a'^/jv" 
i'iao^n; /.Cm i; alro imr.i, 'ira.iikSiiZai S5 uiriv o]x,ci, x.a,) Xout^u., xa) to xaXou/uivio 
Xlavo; aiTof.iov, trir^ai ra srsA/'.a; ciic,i» iiKairfii-jxi. Pausanicc Atticn, c. 32' 
p. 80. edit. Kuhnii. 
