“Here, on the green and village-cotted hill, is
(Flanked by the Hellespont and by the sea)
Entombed the bravest of the brave, Achilles;
(They say so—Bryant says the contrary):
And further downward, tall and towering still, is
The tumulus—of whom? Heaven knows; ‘t may be
Patroclus, Ajax, or Protesilaus;
All heroes, who, if living still, would slay us.
High barrows, without marble or a name,
A vast, untilled, and mountain-skirted plain,
And Ida, in the distance, still the same,
And old Scamander (if ‘t be he), remain;
The situation still seems formed for fame—
A hundred thousand men might fight again,
With ease; but where I looked for Ilion’s walls,
The quiet sheep feeds, and the tortoise crawls.
Troops of untended horses; here and there
Some little hamlets, with new names uncouth;
Some shepherds (not like Paris), led to stare
A moment at the European youth,
Whom to the spot his schoolboy feelings bear;
A Turk, with beads in hand and pipe in mouth,
Extremely taken with his own religion,
Are what I found there—but the devil a Phrygian.”]
[50] The Jews of Smyrna are poor, and having little merchandise of their own to dispose of, they are sadly importunate in offering their services as intermediaries: their troublesome conduct has led to the custom of beating them in the open streets. It is usual for Europeans to carry long sticks with them, for the express purpose of keeping off the chosen people. I always felt ashamed to strike the poor fellows myself, but I confess to the amusement with which I witnessed the observance of this custom by other people. The Jew seldom got hurt much, for he was always expecting the blow, and was ready to recede from it the moment it came: one could not help being rather gratified at seeing him bound away so nimbly, with his long robes floating out in the air, and then again wheel round, and return with fresh importunities.
[51] [Carrigaholt is said to have been Henry Stuart Burton, of Carrigaholt, County Clare.]
[54] Marriages in the East are arranged by professed matchmakers; many of these, I believe, are Jewesses.
[61] A Greek woman wears her whole fortune upon her person in the shape of jewels or gold coins; I believe that this mode of investment is adopted in great measure for safety’s sake. It has the advantage of enabling a suitor to reckon as well as to admire the objects of his affection.
[66] St. Nicholas is the great patron of Greek sailors. A small picture of him enclosed in a glass case is hung up like a barometer at one end of the cabin.
[67] Hanmer.
“. . . ubi templum illi, centumque Sabæo
Thure calent aræ, sertisque recentibus halant.”—Æneid, i. 415.
[82] The writer advises that none should attempt to read the following account of the late Lady Hester Stanhope except those who may already chance to feel an interest in the personage to whom it relates. The chapter (which has been written and printed for the reasons mentioned in the preface) is chiefly filled with the detailed conversation, or rather discourse, of a highly eccentric gentlewoman.