multiplied impressions it conveys, seems to anticipate for us a sense of that Eternity, "when time shall be no more;" when the fitful dream of human existence, with all its turbulent ́illusions, shall be dispelled; and the last sun having set in the last night of the world, a brighter dawn than ever gladdened the universe shall renovate the dominions of darkness and of death. CHAP. 1. CHAP. II. lage of MA RATHON. MARATHON TO THEBES. Present Village of Marathon-Cave of Pan-Charadra-Plants- EXCEPTING one or two houses belonging to Turkish families by by Albanians. Some remains, as of a more antient settlement, may be observed behind these buildings, towards the northwest. We made a vain inquiry after the Cave of Pan; being well convinced that so accurate a writer as Pausanias would not have mentioned a natural curiosity of this kind, without good proof of its existence in his time; and from its nature, it is not probable that any lapse of time should have caused its disappearance. Our Albanian guides, however, either did not know that any such cave existed, or they did not choose to accompany us thither; and we have since learned, that we passed close to it, before our arrival at Marathon, in our road from Athens. Other travellers have found it; and they describe it to be a stalactite grotto, similar, in its nature, to the several caves of Parnassus, Hymettus, and Antiparos, although upon a smaller scale': and this circumstance in its history of course explains all that Pausanias has written concerning the various phænomena with which that cavern abounds'; the eccentric shapes which the stalactites had assumed in the second century, being, by him, referred to animal and other forms; as Joseph Pitton de Tournefort, in the first year of the eighteenth century, with equal gravity, refers the ramifications of alabaster, in the Grotto of Antiparos, to (1) It has been recently visited by Mr. Hughes, of St. John's College, Cambridge; who gave to the author this account of its situation. (2) Ολίγον δὲ ἀπωτέρου τοῦ πεδίου, Πανός ἐστιν ὄρος, καὶ σπήλαιον θέας ἄξιον· εἴσοδος μὲν ἐς αὐτὸ στενὴ, παρελθοῦσι δέ εἰσιν οἶκοι, καὶ λουτρα, καὶ τὸ καλούμενον Πανὸς αιπόλιον, πέτραι τὰ πολλὰ αἰξὶν εἰκασμέναι. Pausania Attica, c. 32. p. 80. edit. Kuhnii. CHAP. II. Cave of Pan. CHAP. II. Charadra. Plants. to cauliflowers and trees, as proofs of the vegetation of stones'. We left Marathon on the morning of the third of December, being accompanied by our friend Lusieri as far as the mill, where the road to Athens separates from that which leads to Kalingi and to Thebes; and here we saw him for the last time. At this mill there are the remains of an aqueduct, with arches, covered with ivy. From hence we began to ascend a part of the mountain Parnes, now called Nozia; with a strong accent upon the last syllable. In the same manner, the modern name of the island Ceos is not pronounced, as written, Zia, but Zīā. Our ascent was along the course of the Charadrus, which we were surprised to hear the Albanians call, in this part, Charadra; a different name being given to it in its passage across the plain. The scenery around us now became mountainous, and broken into masses; resembling that which is so frequently represented in the pictures of Gaspar Poussin. The soil was covered with a beautiful Heath, together with the gaudy blossoms of the Crocus which we had found in the Plain of Marathon; and a variety of the evergreen Oak, or Quercus Ilex, with prickly leaves. We saw also, everywhere, the Velanida, or Quercus Egilops. Of the Ilex the Romans first made their civic crowns; but they (1) "Il n'est pas possible encore un coup que cela se soit fait par la chûte des gouttes d'eau, comme le prétendent ceux qui expliquent la formation des congélations dans les grottes. Il y a beaucoup plus d'apparence que les autres congélations dont nous parlons, et qui pendent du haut en bas, ou qui poussent en différent sens, ont été produites par le même principe, c'est à dire par la VEGETATION." Voyage du Levant, tom. I. p. 229. à Lyon, 1717. CHAP. II. and Dogs. A they afterwards used the Esculus for that purpose'. noble race of dogs is found over all this district; the same may be said of almost all wild and mountainous territories. The animal appears to degenerate in proportion as he is removed to more cultivated regions, and among a civilized people. Even the common mastiff appears no where of such magnitude and strength as in the wildest parts of Turkey', or in the passes of the Apennines; and the genuine race of the wolf-dog of Ireland is now become almost extinct in that country. As an association corroborating this remark, wherever these dogs appeared in our route, we observed also a wilder tribe of Albanians, the Mounthan those who accompanied us from Marathon; wearing upon their feet the Scythian labkas', or old Celtic sandals, made of goat's-skin, with the hair on the outside; and the still more curious appendage to their dress of the Celtic kilt, as worn by antient Romans, and now found also in the Highlands of Scotland'. Our Tchochodar, IBRAHIM, at sight of this people, immediately grasped his carabine, and, shaking (2) "Civica Iligno prima fuit, postea magis placuit ex Esculo, Jovi sacra." (Pliny.) The Esculus also furnished a wreath of honour in the Games: "His juvenum quicunque manu, pedibusve, rotâve Vicerat; Esculeæ capiebat frondis honorem.” Ovid. Metamorph. I. 448. (3) The largest ever known was taken from the Turks at the capture of Belgrade, and made a present to the King of Naples: it was equal in size to a Shetland pony: his son used to ride it. The author saw it at Naples, in 1793. (4) See Part I. of these Travels, p. 176. Second Edit. Broxb. 1811. (5) "Land of Albania! let me bend mine eyes On thee, thou rugged nurse of savage men!" Byron's Childe Harold, Canto ii. Albanians of tains. |