X 
388 FROM THE VALE OF TEMPE, 
CHAP, with earth : and a priest remained afterwards, 
during a considerable part of the evening, calmly 
speaking to the deceased ; for the purpose, as 
we were told, of instructing him the way to 
heaven. During a conversation which we held 
here upon the subject of the mountain Olympus , 
the people of this place informed us, that it 
would be impossible to get to the summit in the 
winter ; but that the priests of a village called 
Scamnya (pronounced Scamni), upon the side of 
Olympus, and upon the left of the road from 
Platamonos to Katar'ina, go annually, upon the 
twentieth day of June, to perform mass upon the 
top of the mountain. This is one of the most 
curious instances of the remaining ceremonies 
of the antient religion of Greece. Perhaps the 
old altar may yet remain whereon the sacrifices 
to Jupiter were offered ; for the antients had 
conceived a notion of the great height of 
Olympus, from a story, that letters traced on 
the ashes of that altar remained a long time 
Hei<Thtof ^ndefaced ; but Xenagoras, who measured it, 
Olympus, found it not to exceed an English mile and a 
quarter'. During the whole of this night, 
caravans were passing, and principally from 
■Ampek'ikia; causing a great bustle in and about 
(1) Vide Plutarch, 'm Vit. Paul. .-£»?(. 
