THE CAPITAL OF THE BANNAT. 319 
says', that, when he was here, he "fancied chap. 
himself in the realms of death, inhabited by » 
carcasses in fine tombs, instead of men." At a 
dinner to which he was invited, " all the guests 
experienced a paroxysm of fever; some shiver- 
ing, others gnashing their teeth." The inha- 
bitants of the Bannat consist of Ilhjrians, or 
Raizes, who are a Scythian people; oi Walachians ; 
Gipsies; and Germans. The town of Temesiuar 
is situate upon the river Thames; written TemeSy 
or Tamis, whence its name is derived'; at a 
small distance from a lake, called Beczkereck', 
Some authors have maintained that this was 
the antient Tomes, or Tomcra, or Tomi, whither 
Ovid was exiled*. Mohammed, the Plzir of 
Solyman the Second, besieged it in 155 1, and 
captured the town, after a gallant defence on 
the part of the garrison, consisting of Spaniards^ 
Hungarians, and Germans. A description of the 
siege, written by John Sambuc, commonly called 
Sambucus, in 1552, was published in the Appendix 
(1) Travels in the Bnnnat, 8i.v.. p. 1 1 . Lond. 1777. 
(2) " Id autem oppidum, vul^b Temesuar, ab flumine Temesd 
prJEterlabente, nomen accipit." Vide Petrum Bizarum, lib. de Bella 
Pannonico, apud Rer. Hungur. Script, p. 4T5. Fruncof. 1600. 
(3) The Reader may remark the identity of this name with that of 
a lake in Macedonia, mentioned in p. 5 of this Volume. 
(4) Histoire et Diiscriptioii du Royaume de Hongrie, liv. iii. p. 255' 
Paris, 1688. 
