On the 20th at day-break, we saddled our horses. The janissary said his prayers, washed his elbows, his beard and his hands, turned towards the east, as if to summon the light, and we set off. As we approached Laconia, the mountains began to be more elevated, and to exhibit a few clumps of trees: the vallies were narrow and rugged; and some of them, though upon a smaller scale, reminded me of the Grand Chartreuse, and the magnificent forests in the back-ground. At noon, we discovered a kan, as wretched as that where we stopped the preceding day, though it was decorated with the Ottoman flag. These were the only two habitations we had met with in a space of twenty-two leagues: so that fatigue and hunger obliged us to make a longer stay than was agreeable, in this filthy kennel. The master of the place, an aged Turk, with a most repulsive countenance, was sitting in a loft above the stables of the kan; the goats clambered up to him, and surrounded him with their excrements. In this sweet place he received us, and without condescending to rise from his dunghill, to direct some refreshment to be brought for the Christian dogs, he shouted with a terrible voice, when a poor Greek boy, quite naked, and his body swollen with fever and flogging, brought us some ewe's milk in a vessel disgustingly dirty. I was obliged to go out to drink even this at my ease, for the goats and their kids crowded round me to snatch a piece of biscuit which I held in my hand. I had eaten of the bear and the sacred dog with the savages; I have since partaken of the repast of the Bedouins, but I never met with any thing to be compared with this first kan of Laconia. It was nearly on the same spot however, that the flocks of Menelaus grazed, and that he entertained Telemachus. "They repaired to the palace of the king; the attendants conducted the victims; they also brought generous wine, while their wives, their foreheads adorned with clean fillets, prepared the repast."* We left the kan about three in the afternoon. At five, we reached an elevation of the mountains, whence we descried before us Mount Taygetus, which I had already seen from the opposite side, Misitra situated at its foot, and the valley of Laconia, Odyss. Book IV. We descended by a kind of stair-case cut in the rock as at Mount Boreon; and perceived a light bridge, of a single arch, elegantly thrown over a small river, and connecting two high hills. On reaching the river, we forded its limpid current, among tall reeds, and beautiful rose-laurels in full flower. This river, which I thus passed without knowing its name, was the Eurotas. A tortuous valley opened before us, winding round several small hills, nearly alike in form; and having the appearance of artificial mounds, or tumuli. We followed these windings, and at nightfall arrived at Misitra. M. Vial had given me a letter for one of the principal Turks of Misitra, named Ibrahim Bey. We alighted in his court yard, and his slaves ushered me into the strangers' apartment, which was full of Mussulmans, travellers like myself, and Ibrahim's guests. I took my place among them on the divan, and like them, hung up my arms against the wall over my head. Joseph and my janissary did the same. Nobody asked me who I was, or whence I came: each continued to smoke, to sleep, or to converse with his neighbour, without taking the least notice of me. Our host, to whom M. Vial's letter had been carried, soon entered the room. Ibrahim, about sixty years old, had a mild and open countenance. He came to me, took me cordially by the hand, blessed me, endeavoured to pronounce the word bon, half in French, half in Italian, and seated himself by my side. He spoke in Greek to Joseph, desiring him to tell me that he begged I would excuse him, if he did not receive me so well as he could have wished; that he had a little child ill; un figliolo, he repeated in Italian, and this almost turned his head—mi fä tornar la testa, said he;-at the same time pressing his turban with both his hands. I should certainly not have gone to Sparta to look for paternal affection in all the simplicity of nature and yet an aged Tartar displayed this moving sentiment on the tomb of those mothers who, when delivering the shield to their sons addressed them in these words ;—ñ ràv, ñ crì ráv—either this or upon this. Ibrahim left me in a few minuets to go and attend his son. He ordered a pipe and coffe to be brought me, but as it was past the usual hour for supper, I was obliged to do as well as I could without pilau, though I should have liked it exceedingly well, having eaten scarcely any thing for the last twenty-four hours. Joseph took a sausage out of his bag, and slipped a bit now and then into his mouth, unperceived by the Turks: he secretly offered some to the janissary, who turned away with a look of mingled pity and horror. I made up my mind, and lay down on the divan, in a corner of the room. A grated window opened upon the valley of Laconia, on which the moon threw an admirable light. Leaning on my elbow, I gazed on the sky, the valley, the summits of Taygetus, brilliant or sombre, according as they were in the light or shade. I could scarcely persuade myself that I was in the native country of Helen and Menalaus. I gave way to those reflections which every person may make, and myself with more reason than many others, on the vicissitudes of human destiny. How many places had already witnessed my slumbers, either peaceful or perturbed! How many times by the radiance of the same luminaries had I, in the forests of America, on the roads of Germany, on the moors of England, in the plains of Italy, on the bosom of the ocean, indulged in the same ideas respecting the agitations of life. An old Turk, apparently a man of high distinction, drew me from these reflections to convince me in a still more sensible manner that I was far from my country. He lay at my feet on the divan: he turned, he sat up, he sighed, he called his slaves, he sent them away again, and waited for day-light with impatience. Day-light came (August 17): the Tartar surrounded by his attendants, some kneeling, others standing, took off his turban, looked at himself in a bit of broken glass, combed his beard, curled his whiskers, and rubbed his cheeks to give them animation. Having thus finished his toilet, he majestically departed, slipshod, and giving me a look of infinite disdain. My host entered some time afterwards with his son in his arms. This poor child, sallow, and wasted with a fever, was stark naked. He had amulets and various kinds of spells hanging from his neck. The father set him on my knee, and I was obliged to listen to the history of his illness. The boy had taken all the bark in the Morea; he had been bled (and this was the real disease); his mother had fastened charms about him, and placed a turban over the tomb of a Santon, but all in vain. Ibrahim concluded with asking if I knew of any remedy. I recollected that when I was a child, I had been cured of a fever by the plant, little centaury; I recommended the use of it with all the gravity of a professional man. But what was centaury? I pretended that the virtues of centaury had been discovered by a certain physician of that neighbourhood, named Chiron, who scampered over the mountains on horseback. A Greek declared, that he had known this Chiron, who resided at Calamate, and generally rode a gray horse. We were still in consultation, when we were interrupted by the entrance of a Turk, whom I knew by his green turban to be a minister of the law. He came up to us, took the child's head between both his hands and devoutly pronounced a prayer: such is the character of piety; it is affecting, it is respectable even in the most mischievous religions. I had sent the janissary to procure horses and a guide, with the intention of first visiting Amycle, and then the ruins of Sparta, where I supposed myself to be. While I awaited his return, Ibrahim sent me in breakfast in the Turkish style. I was still reclined on the divan; beside me was set an extremely low table: a slave supplied me with the necessaries for washing; a pullet hashed in rice was then brought on a wooden platter, and I helped myself with my fingers. After the pullet, a kind of ragout mutton was sent up in a copper basin, and this was followed by figs, olives, grapes, and cheese, to which, according to Guillet, Misitra owes its name.* Between each dish, a slave poured water over my hands, and another gave me a towel of coarse but very white cloth. I declined, from courtesy, to drink any wine; and, after my coffee, I was offered soap for my mustaches, During this repast, the chief of the law had, through the medium of Joseph, asked me several questions. He was desirous to know my motive for travelling, as I was neither a merchant nor a physician. I replied, that I was travelling to see foreign nations, and especially the Greeks, who were dead. This produced a laugh. He replied, that as I had come to Turkey, I ought to have learned the Turkish language. I hit upon a reason for my * M. Scrofani has followed him in this opinion. If Sparta derived its name from the brooms growing in its territory, and not from Spartus, the son of Amyelus, or Sparte, the wife of Lacedæmon, that of Misitra might certainly have been borrowed from cheese. travels, much more comprehensible to him, when I told him that I was a pilgrim going to Jerusalem. Hudgi! hadgi !* exclaimed he, and was perfectly satisfied. Religion is a sort of universal language, understood by all mankind. This Turk was unable to conceive how I could quit my country from the mere motive of curiosity; but he thought it perfectly natural that I should undertake a long journey with a view to offer up my prayers at a tomb, to pray to God for some blessing, or for deliverance from some affliction. Ibrahim who when he brought his son, had asked if I had any children, was persuaded that I was going to Jerusalem for the purpose of obtaining issue. I have seen the savages of the new world indifferent to my foreign manners, but attentively only, like the Turks, to my arms and my religion, that is to say, to the two things which protect man in his spiritual and corporeal relations. This unanimous coincidence of all nations in regard to religion, and this simplicity of ideas, have appeared to me to be worthy of remark. For the rest, this strangers' apartment, in which I took my repast, exhibited an impressive scene, which forcibly reminds me of the ancient manners of the East. All Ibrahim's guests were not rich; very far from it: some even were actually beggars. They, nevertheless, sat upon the same divan with Turks, who had a numerous retinue of horses and slaves. Joseph, and my janissary, were treated like myself, except that they were not invited to my table. Ibrahim saluted all his guests with equal cordiality, spoke to all, and supplied all with refreshments. Among them were mendicants in rags, to whom the slaves respectfully carried coffee. Here we recognize the charitable precepts of the Koran, and the virtue of hospitality which the Turks have learned of the Arabs; but this fraternity of the turban, steps not beyond the threshold of the door: for the slave who has drunk coffee with his host, perhaps has his head cut off at his departure, by order of this same host. I have, nevertheless, read, and been informed, that in Asia, there are still Turkish families whe retain the manners, the simplicity, and the candour of the early ages, and I believe it'; for Ibrahim is certainly one of the most venerable men I ever met with. * A pilgrim! a pilgrim ! |