TO THESSALONICA. 435 
to no purpose, we have been unable to throw chap. 
any light upon this subject. Every inquiry . 
concerning the Macedonians is reviving with 
redoubled interest, in the knowledge we have 
that they were of the same race with the nation 
now called Albanians; the latter having pre- 
served the manners, customs, and language of 
their ancestors, almost unaltered, from the 
earliest ages. It is therefore only by a careful 
examination of the antiquities occurring along 
the F'ia Ignatia, and by a strict attention paid to 
the manners, customs, and superstitions of the 
Albanians, that any additional information can 
be obtained respecting the Macedonians ; whose 
history, and especially the earliest part of it, is 
involved in great obscurity. It may be re- 
marked, that the learned investigators of their 
annals, whose lucubrations were published in 
place is now called Vodina : it is a delightful spot. Ttere ar« 
sepulchres cut in the rock, which the superstitious inhabitants have 
never plundered ; because they are afraid to go near them. I went 
into two, and saw the bodies in perfect repose, with some kinds or 
ORNAMENTS, AND CLOTHES, AND VASES; but touched them not, and 
paid little attention to them ; being at that time a novice in the sexton 
trade, and ignorant that a traveller could gain celebrity and honour by 
robbing the bodies of the dead. There is a beautiful inscription in the 
town. The fall of waters is magnificent." — Dr. Lee's MS. Letter. To 
this it may be added, that Beaujour also mentions Vodina a^ theantient 
Edebsa. Voy. Tableau du Comm.de la Grice, torn. I. p. 128. Paris, 
1800. 
F F 2 
