714 
MASSIWAN, ANCIENT THEODOPOLIS. 
moon, it soon became so dark we could not see any object half 
a dozen yards in our front; however, happily both leaders and 
horses were too well accustomed to the road, to lose it under 
any circumstances, and Sedak and myself, thus following se¬ 
curely through the blackness before us, after a most dreary ride 
arrived at Massiwan, our purposed menzil, between ten and 
eleven o’clock. It is called nine hours from Amassia, but, from 
our mode of travelling, I should count it twenty-seven miles. 
Massiwan is a large village, or rather small town, consisting 
of about 2000 families. It is supposed to occupy part of the 
ground once appropriated to the city of Theodopolis, which had 
been built on the site of the more ancient Euchaites. Here I found 
a disagreeable change in the usual style of our halting-place. 
In general it was at a choppar-khanah, or post-house, where I 
had some chance of obtaining a separate apartment; but here, 
our menzil was what the Tatars called a coffee-house ; namely, 
one large room, the first sight and smell of which were more 
disgusting than words can paint. All its sides were furnished 
with broad estrades a little elevated from the floor, leaving an 
incommodious passage from the door, up the center of the room, 
to the fire-place, which consisted of a rather spacious hearth raised 
to nearly a level with the platform-benches, and covered with all 
the never-cleaned utensils for making and drinking coffee. On 
the benches, or rather estrades just described, are spread old 
mats, surmounted again by mattrasses and cushions, once of 
gay colours, but now entirely lost in the accumulated shade of 
smoke, dust, and other contaminating properties communicated 
by the various passengers who have sought repose upon them. 
Of all styes, certainly a human stye is the most loathesome; 
and in justice it ought to be so, human beings alone, having 
it in their power to render their abodes otherwise. That dirt, how- 
