28

A GREEK FAMILY.

now hangs over her neck like a loosened neck

cloth.

On the other side, a Greek family in three generations, lies along the deck, fortified by a stout manservant across their legs, whose attentions to the girls during his own heart-rending ailments, is very pretty. The huge grandmother was set on fire and smouldered away most stoically, until her foot began to burn, when, while others put her out, she sunk blubbering to sleep again. The pretty grand-daughters find the long lie more irksome; but send their flashing eyes about with careless movement, and so the mass goes on. Here one appears to be offering up nazam, but nearer inspection shows his shoe is only receiving the offering to the heaving waves.

Our steamer had passed sad hours of toil, and pitched and tossed us all out of temper before we entered the calm waters to leeward of Rhodes, and at last, passing the low points covered with detached houses and windmills, we shot round in front of the harbour. Our view of the intervening coast had been too vague to form a judgment upon it; but here and there a peak towered up above the mists, all else being veiled by the cloudy sky.

ARRIVAL AT RHODES.

29

Passing the first harbour, divided from the other but by a reef, against which the swell beat passionately, we shot by castle and fort and dropped anchor near a Turkish man-of-war. Being in quarantine none were permitted to quit the vessel, so midst coaling and dirt were passed our hours here.

No place it has ever been my fortune to visit, more, by its appearance, justifies its character than this. Around the harbour's shore, one continued line of high castellated wall, unbroken save by flanking towers or frowning portals; from the wave on either side, dovetailed to the rock, rise the knightly buildings, and as the eye reaches round, no dissonant work mars the effect, save that one lofty palm rears its tropic head; but it adds to rather than lessens the effect. Above the walls, a mosque with its domed roof or minaret appears, and the fragile building speaks, how truly, in its contrast to the massive walls and ponderous works of former rulers, that the battle is not always to the strong.

On the northern corner is a more sheltered dock almost, for walls from either banks nearly meet within. Some small vessels lay moored, and their

30

COAST OF PAMPHYLIA.

rest seemed indeed enviable as we rolled heavily in the outer harbour. It is across this probably that the Colossus strode, else he was a giant indeed. The day dragged on; one health officer got his arm crushed; the poor old man bore it admirably; and at last, with all the changeableness of Mediterranean weather, the sun set in a cloudless sky and in a sea unruffled by a cat's-paw; the moon shone down on the old towers; not a light broke their gloomy outline. Ere the scene was half admired, we were again steaming out into the dark expanse, our funnel making the only cloud that broke the uniformity of blue and star-studded sky overhead.

And now along the coast, the high snow-capped mountains of Lycia, till at noon we bring Tachtalu (7800 feet high) on the beam, and coast along Pamphylia. They want, however, the depth that gives to mountains their most brilliant beauty; those mystic shades of valley and gorge which, filled by the imagination, render the scene one of grandeur and magnificence. Passing Khelidonia, the steamer stood across the bay of Adalia, and as the evening drew on, the high land of Thracia was seen in the misty distance. By port Anumurium

ANCHOR AT TARSUS.

31

ruins of an aqueduct and other scattered works lay strewn about; but Watts tugged us on before half our curiosity was gratified. The hills along the coast assumed a lower, less grand, and more barren appearance. Snow no more; a stunted vegetation half concealed the barren rock. At Aphrodasias, under Cape Cavaliere, a ring of ruins was distinctly visible; but for the rest it seemed as if it was undiscovered, unvisited land: not a trace of man or civilisation met the eye.

In the evening the steamer anchored at the port of the antient and modern Tarsus. The village, a modern place, built within the last twenty-five years, to assist the increasing trade to the interior, stands on a low unhealthy plain, which stretches inland nearly 150', affording pasturage for the wandering Turkomans and their numerous herds. To the north the range of Lycian hills ran along till lost in the distance; snow lay on the summit, but the good spirit of warmth was in the ascendant, and warmth made all look well; camels in long strings, laden mules and horses at the gallop, spoke of trade and traffic.

Long ago this scene looked on beauty and on fame. Up that stream which now scarce forces its

32

VILLAGE OF TARSUS.

silvery thread through sand and rock, the galley of Cleopatra floated in all her pride, in the height of her beauty and magnificence; there freighted with conquest, she sailed when she went to subdue the bravest general of Rome, the Conqueror of Conquerors.

The few houses were mostly those of the consuls, who, residing in the town of Tarsus about 20' inland, come here merely to transact business. Under the guidance of a health officer we were permitted to land and walk freely about, even to enter the houses and take sherbet and coffee, though his voice warned us from stuffs, sofas, and clothes. To the north of the plain are the fine ruins of Pompeopolis, and in other parts are many objects well worthy of a visit. Near our anchorage stood a venerable tree, surrounded by a low wall, venerated as of peculiar sanctity by the Ansaryii, as marking the burial-place of St. George, one of their most venerated saints.

They are the most prevailing people from this to Tripoli; of their religion nothing hardly is known; their books they keep from prying eyes, and their faith seems a mixture of that of the surrounding people-an obscure Christianity; an impure