42 FROM THESSALONICA, 
cfiAP. those of travellers halting at the khan. This 
^' . place is distant six hours and a half from 
Orphano ; our route, by the compass, having been 
£. N. E. and N. E. It contains eight hundred 
houses. The inhabitants are a mixed population 
of Turks and Greeks; but consist principally of 
the latter. It has been before observed, that 
whenever a /^occurs in the pronunciation of 
the names of places, the letter, if written, would 
be /S : therefore Pravista would become Il^ot- 
(Biffra; and this may be nothing more than a 
Drabiscus. corruptiou of thc antient Drahiscus of Strabo\ 
and Drabescus of Thucydides'^, with whose situa- 
tion it remarkably corresponds. The modern 
name is written Praveste by Paul Lucas^y and 
Pravasta by Mr. Walpole*. 
After leaving Pravista, we descended, towards 
sun- set, into the Plain of Seres, and were 
about two hours in crossing this part of it from 
(1) E<VJv Ss vri^i Tnv Ir^vf/.ovixov xiX-Xav viXiif xa) Irt^ar oiot MuPKitt}, 
A^yiXas, Aja/S/V**;, Aarav. Excerpta ex Lib. VII. fine Strabon. Geog. 
p. 481. ed. Oxon. 
(2) Ti^eiXionns Sc rns Q^dxfi; i; ftttriytieti, ia^6a^nf»}t iv h^ttfirifxy rri 
'h3«v/*p, «. T. X. Thucydid. Hist. lib. i. c. 100. p. 56. ed. Hudsoni, 
Oxon. 1696. Etiam, lib. iv. o. 102. p. 272. — Et Stephan. de Urbib. 
p. 244. (in voc. A^a&n<rxos.) Amst. 1678. 
(3) Voyage dans la Turquie, &c. torn. I. p. 61. Amsi. 1744. 
(4) See the Extract from his MS. Journal in the beginning of this 
Chapter. 
