VALE OF TEMPE. - 383 
gather it ; because Apollo, according to a Thes- chap. 
salian tradition, had been crowned with it ; and ^i- - 
had appeared in that city bearing a branch of 
the Tempian laurel, after his purification from 
the slaughter of Pytho^. Such was the sanc- 
tity of the place, that altars smoking with 
incense filled all the valley with unremitted 
odours ; and travellers passing through this 
defile beheld, on every side of them, the cele- 
bration of some divine rite, as a testimony of 
the continual sacrifice that was here offered *. 
It was impossible not to participate for an 
instant the religio loci: we decorated our 
horses' heads with the laurel, and carried 
branches in our hands. But far different are 
now the tenants of the Vale of Tempe, from 
those who once guarded its odoriferous shrines. 
A ferocious banditti occupy all the haunts of the Banditti. 
Pagan priests ; and when these robbers issue 
from their lurking-places, instead of the sacred 
victims that bled upon its altars, the unwary 
traveller is immolated*. Close to us, upon our 
left, the Pentus rushed with a rapid current. 
f3) Ibid. 
(4) j^liani Varlae Historia:, lib. iii. cap. 1. torn. I. p. 1 93. ed. Gronov. 
(5) According to Mr. Hawkins, the places infested by banditti m 
Greece are the following : 
Texfe, 
