FROM RHODES TO THE GtJLPH OF GLAUCUS. 139 
I also observed the following record of an offering to Jupiter^ 
the saviour, by the persons whose names are mentioned: 
THNHNONATNOT 
APAAIQXIlPOgENOS 
AII2HTHPI 
A circumstance occurs annually at Rhodes which deserves 
the attention oi the literary traveller: it is the ceremony of car¬ 
rying Silenus in procession at Easter. A troop of boys, crown¬ 
ed with garlands, draw along, in a car, a fat old man, attended 
with great pomp. I unfortunately missed bearing testimony to 
this remarkable example, among many others which I had wit¬ 
nessed, of the existence of Pagan rites in popular superstitions.^ 
I was informed of the fact by Mr. Spurring, a naval architect 
who resided at Rhodes, and Mr. Cope, a commissary belong¬ 
ing to the British army ; belli of whom had seen the procession* 
The same ceremony also takes place in the Island of Scio. 
From the neighbouring Island of Syme, so famous for its di¬ 
vers , women come to Rhodes for employment. They are the 
porters and water carriers of the island ; and appear distinguish¬ 
ed by a peculiar mode of dress, wearing white turbans on their 
heads. Their features have, moreover, a singular character, 
resembling those of the Tgigankies , or gypsies in Russia. In 
Syme,t and in the Isle of JNisyrus, now called Nteari, whose 
inhabitants are principally maintained by the occupation of 
diving for sponges, the following singular custom is observed* 
When a man of any property intends to have his daughter mar¬ 
ried, he appoints a certain day, when all the young unmarried 
men repair to the sea side, where they strip themselves in the 
* Even in the town of Cambridge, and center of our university, such curious re¬ 
mains of ancient customs may be noticed, in different seasons of the year, which pass 
without observation. The custom of blowing horns upon the first of May, (old style) 
is derived from a festival in honour to Diana At th e HawJcie, as it is called, or Har¬ 
vest Home, I have seen a clown dressed in woman’s clothes, having his face painted, 
his head decorated with ears of corn, and bearing about him other symbols of Ceres, 
carried in a wagon, with great pomp and loud shouts, through the streets, the horses 
being covered with white sheets ; and when 1 inquired the meaning of the ceremony, 
was answered by the people, that “ they were drawing the Harvest Queen.” These 
ancient customs of the country did not escape the notice of Erasmus, when he was 
in England. He had observed them, both at Cambridge and in London; and particu¬ 
larly mentions the blowing of horns, and the ceremony of depositing a deer’s head upon 
the altar of St. Paul’s church, which was built upon the site of a templeof Diana by 
Ethelbert king of Kent, in the time of Melitus , first Bishop of London, as appears from 
a manuscript in the Cottonion collection. “ Apud Anglos*” says Erasmus, ‘ l mos est, 
Lon-iini, ut certo die populus in summum templwm Paulo sacrum inducat longo hostili 
impositum caput ferae, cum inamceno sonitu cornuum venatoriorum. Hacpompa 
proeeditur ad summum altare, dicas omnes afflatos furore.” Delia Erasmi Ecclesias - 
tae , lib. i .Op. tom. V. p. 701. See also Knight's Life of Erasmus , Camb. 1726 p. 297 
t Syme retains its ancient appellation 5 derived from Sy?ne ) a daughter of Jaly$us } 
according to Stephanus Byzantims . 
