MARATHON TO THEBES. 57 
iately traversed. They were situate upon a chap. 
gently rising ground, to the left of the road as 
we came. As to the time of their finding these 
medals, it agreed with what we had always 
heard in Greece; that is to say, after heavy 
At last, however, the signal was given hy my friend the Soubashi, an 
Arnaut Turk: and tlie oxen beiiii? goaded and cheered, put themselves 
in motion ; — hut, alas ! they had not proceeded with the marble an 
hundred yards, before one of them fell, and refused, most obstinately, 
to rise again. It was evident that this arose from lassitude ; for the 
oxen were of a small weak breed, and young; or perhaps it arose from 
the natural stubbornness of their disposition: but I soon perceived 
that the peasants attributed it to a very different cause ; and, in fact, 
after another trial had been made, by cheering and goading these poor 
animals, and the refractor^' ox had joined his companion in dragging 
the marble about a furlong farther, and then dropped, their owner 
loudly proclaimed the impossibility of removing ' the consecrated sto7ie,' 
as he called it, any farther. Even the Papas, who was more en- 
lightened, shook his head, and would no longer assist; so that, were it 
not for the zeal of the Soubashi and of my attendant, no further 
attempt would have been made. The former, however, being a 
Mussulman, did not so readily believe in this supernatural interposi- 
tion, and with direful imprecations and threats at length obliged the 
owner of the oxen to make one more effort. The beasts were now, 
with great difficulty, forced again upon their legs, and driven forward 
for a few yards, when they fell again, and their master exultingly 
eried out, ' Did I not tell you it was itnpossihle? You are now convinced 
of it! nor would all the oxen in the world he able to ynove the stone one 
inch farther.' 
'* To this opinion the Papas assented, as well as the other peasants. 
Even the Soubashi seemed to feel a flash of conviction, for he too 
desisted, and became silent ; and in this state of things it would have 
been useless, and certainly wrong, to prosecute the attempt. I relin- 
quished it, however, with reluctance; and the mortifying history of 
my failure is, without doubt, recorded as a mira'le wrought hy the 
Patron Saint of Skimatari." 
