XVII SHRINES AND TEMPLES

The Acropolis of Athens is the most famous hill in the universe. The columns of the Parthenon are familiar to all the world. They are the remains of the most majestic monument ever erected by human hands, and did it ever occur to you that it was intended for the honor and the worship of a woman? The lord mayor of an Irish city, in accepting the honor of an election, declared that if it had not been for his mother he would not have stood before his constituents that day. We might all pay a similar tribute to Eve, yet no monument has ever been erected to her memory, and the place of her burial has been forgotten, if anybody ever knew where it was. Three graves of Adam are pointed out to tourists in the East, but not even one of Eve.

We estimate the Greeks of the age of Pericles as having reached the highest degree of development in intellect, philosophy and wisdom. We teach our children their precepts. Our students of medicine, art, science and theology must study them in preparation for their life-work. It is a popular belief that the summit of human culture was reached at the period of the building of the Parthenon. Yet the ancient Greeks believed that the source of their learning, wisdom and strength was a woman, and to her they raised that matchless tribute, the admiration of all ages, the most perfect example of architecture ever conceived, and in it they not only worshiped a woman, Athena, but made sacrifices to one whom they had deified. Its ruined columns stand to-day as a testimonial to womanhood. An old friend used to say that the best rule he ever found in life was, “When in doubt, do as your wife tells you,” and for his authority he might have referred to the ancient Greeks.

The Acropolis is a mighty rock which rises five hundred feet in what was the center of ancient Athens, when that city had 200,000 population. On all sides but one the walls are perpendicular. Toward the west there is a slope by which the summit is reached by a winding roadway. In ancient times there was a series of stairways, and the Propylaea, or gateway, was as remarkable as the temples at the top. There was also a road for chariots, and we can see the ruts made by the wheels in the pavements. The Acropolis is visible from a long distance. It looms up in majesty as the city is approached from all directions, and the columns of the Parthenon are dwarfed by its height. The first effect, therefore, upon strangers is disappointing. The ruins are not as grand as they expected, and they feel a little sorry that they came, but familiarity breeds respect in this instance. The columns grow larger and grander and more beautiful every time you look at them, and those who have had the privilege of visiting the Acropolis by moonlight will retain an impression that cannot be effaced from their memory by anything else that may remain for their enjoyment. Age and the salt air from the sea have given the marble a rusty color, which detracts from its purity, but gives it a tone of richness and ripeness entirely appropriate to a ruin. You would not like to see a ruin of pure white marble. It would look incongruous, although you can imagine how beautiful the Parthenon and the surrounding buildings must have been when they were fresh and new.

The temple to Athena (Minerva) and the surrounding buildings were destroyed when the Venetians bombarded Athens to drive out the Turks. The latter, who held the city, intrenched themselves on the Acropolis and concealed their store of powder in the Parthenon. The Acropolis, therefore, became the target for the Venetian artillerymen, and on Friday, September 26, 1687, a German lieutenant fired a bomb which fell into the magazine and was followed by an explosion which destroyed forever the most glorious architectural triumph of men. Three hundred Turkish soldiers lost their lives in the explosion and their commander, having no ammunition, was compelled to surrender three days later. No attempt was ever made to restore the building. On the contrary, the Acropolis has been plundered century after century for building-material, and for works of art. Some of the finest of the marbles were burned to make lime for the masonry in building modern Athens, and Lord Elgin, the British minister to Greece, in the earlier part of the last century, removed the most beautiful and valuable of the sculptures, which are now exhibited in the British Museum, under the name of “The Elgin Marbles.” Within late years much care has been taken in protecting and preserving the treasures that remain, and the Grecian government is exceedingly anxious to recover the works of art which have been taken from the Acropolis to foreign lands. On several occasions during the last half-century overtures have been made to the British government to restore the Elgin marbles, but they have met with no favorable response. Mr. Gladstone gave the Ionian Islands back to Greece when he was prime minister and received the gratitude of a nation. The Athenians would be equally grateful if King Edward would return to them the sculptures which once decorated the temple of Minerva, and were taken away with the authority of the Turkish government, and not with the consent of Greece.

It is difficult to avoid moralizing about the Acropolis. I do not know of any other place on earth, unless it be Bethlehem, Jerusalem, or St. Peter’s at Rome, or Westminster Abbey in London, which furnishes such food for thought. The columns of the Parthenon are older than anything in Rome except the obelisk in the center of the Piazza del Popolo, and older than anything in London except a similar obelisk that stands on the Thames embankment. Both of those were transplanted from the soil in which the Pharaohs originally erected them, to show how Christian nations sometimes despoil the heathen. It is an old trick. Rome is filled with objects of art of which her emperors robbed the Athenians. The Parthenon has had a varied experience. It was first a temple to the Goddess of Wisdom; for several hundred years it was a church for the worship of a Jewish peasant; and at the time of its destruction it had been for centuries a mosque dedicated to a camel-driver.

The most important incident that has occurred upon the Acropolis in recent times, and it has a personal interest for us, was the discovery in 1900 by Mr. Eugene P. Andrews of Oswego, New York, then a student at the American School of Classical Studies and now an instructor at Cornell University, of an inscription to Nero upon the architrave of the Parthenon, which had been unknown for a dozen centuries. It was a great achievement, one of the most notable events in modern archeology. He thought that certain small holes in the marble must have served some useful purpose, and so he let himself down from the top by a rope ladder similar to those that sailors use, and discovered that they had once been occupied by nails which supported brass letters. By taking a series of impressions with damp wrapping-paper, he secured a diagram, from which he was able to trace the Greek letters, and the inscription, which had never been suspected, was announced to the scholars of the world by Professor Richardson, the director of the American school.

The American Archeological Institute has a school in Athens similar to that in Rome, which was founded several years later. The object is to furnish American scholars an opportunity to study art, archeology, ancient history, literature and the classic languages upon the ground and in the atmosphere in which they were developed.

He who would the poet understand
Most read him in the poet’s land.

I may not have the quotation exact, but that is the idea. In addition to the branches of study I have named, the students hear lectures on Greek law, religion, philosophy and upon all subjects dealing with the institutions, the social life and the industrial activity of the ancients. They are conducted about the country to various points of historic and archeological interest, such as Thebes, Delphi, Olympia, Mycenae, Sparta and Thessaly, and are allowed to tread in the footsteps of the old philosophers. They hear lectures in the museums, which are illustrated by object-lessons. The museums of Athens are particularly rich in relics of the archaic period of Greece—before the Persian war, 480 B.C.—and the director gives that branch his special attention. Other members of the faculty lecture on history, poetry, politics and kindred subjects. The students also have the advantage of similar institutions founded by the English, French, German and Austrian governments. All the national schools of archeology are affiliated, and each has its special line of investigation, selected after a consultation, in order that they may not interfere with or duplicate the work of each other. The American school is the strongest of all, the French next, then the German, and last the English. The German school, however, is particularly fortunate in having for its director Dr. Doerpfeld, who succeeded Dr. Schliemann in the archeological work at Troy. The students of one school are admitted to the lectures of the others and also have the use of their libraries. Most of them are fitting themselves for instructors in Greek and archeology, and nearly all of the graduates since the school was founded in 1882 now occupy chairs in the faculties of American colleges and universities.

The present director is Professor Richardson, who was graduated from Yale in the class of ’69, and was for a long time professor of Greek language and literature at Dartmouth College. He has been at Athens since 1893. Each year an assistant is selected from one of the contributing colleges. Professor Thomas Day Seymour, of Yale, was chairman of the Managing Committee of the school for fourteen years, but recently has been succeeded by Professor Wheeler, of Columbia. Part of its income is precarious, consisting of contributions from various colleges and private individuals, and if they should withdraw it would leave the institution without funds. There ought to be a larger endowment, so as to secure permanency. At present the endowment amounts to about $65,000. The society owns a fine building, well adapted to its purposes, and a considerable area of ground which may be found available in the future. Among the most generous donors for excavations is Colonel Hay, secretary of state, who has recently placed a considerable sum of money in the hands of the trustees, to be used as a foundation for the library in memory of his son, the late Adelbert Stone Hay. There is no limit to the number of students. Anyone is received who has had a thorough classical training at an American college. It is important that applicants should gain as great command as possible of the German, French and modern Greek languages before entering the school in order that they may enjoy the full benefit of their opportunities. The tuition fee is nominal, and the cost of living at Athens is anything that one may choose to make it. At the large hotels board and lodging can be obtained for $14 a week and upward, and at the smaller hotels and in private families, from $5 and upward. Six fellowships with stipends of $600 each, and one with a stipend of $1,000, will be awarded annually, upon competitive examination, to bachelors of art of the universities and colleges of the United States, and may be extended for two years, upon the recommendation of the faculty, to students in the Schools of Classical Studies at Athens and in Rome, and in the School of Oriental Study in Palestine—all under the general care of the Archeological Institute of America.

The fellows are required to pursue original investigations and twice a year to report the results.

Everyone can appreciate the advantages offered by the American school to those who are seeking a career as scholars or instructors. It gives a vitality to their learning which they cannot get in books, and the same books read in Greece are much more luminous than in the class-rooms at home. The original work done by the students is also of great importance to them, and it is gratifying to know that this institution has taken the lead and is recognized as the most important among the several national colleges at Athens. The Greek government is liberal in its encouragement and the king feels a deep interest in all its concerns.

Original work has been going on since 1886, and the results of the excavations may be seen in the National Museum, at the Argive Heraeum, at Athens, and in a volume recently published by Professor Waldstein, now lecturer at King’s College, Cambridge, who was the director for some years. Some of the most interesting of the explorations have been at Icaria, the first seat of the worship of Bacchus, and the home of Thespis, the inventor of the theater. He was the first man to present a play to the public. There had been recitations and declamations upon the platform before his time, but he introduced dialogues and plots, and invented the mask so that one man-actor could take two parts. Women never appeared on the stage in those days. The feminine parts were always taken by men. The director of the American school discovered the original home of Thespis and it was excavated under his direction. The Americans were not allowed, however, to take anything away. Under the laws of Greece the finder is protected in publishing reports of his discoveries, and may receive the honor and the credit, but the tangible results are the property of the government or of the owner of the land, who, however, to retain them, must erect a museum upon the ground for their public exhibition.

The American School has done a good deal of work at Plataea, the scene of a great battle between the Greeks and the Persians in 479 B.C., but found little of value. The excavations were more successful at Eretria, at one time an important city, which was destroyed by the Persians before the battle of Marathon. Here they uncovered a theater, a temple to Bacchus, a fine lot of baths, and the most perfect gymnasium that has ever been found.

Near Argos the American School, under Dr. Waldstein, discovered and excavated the ruins of a magnificent temple of Hera, which was destroyed in the year 423 B.C., when one of the priestesses went to sleep without blowing out her candle; the decorations caught fire and the temple was burned. This was a rich find, for, in addition to the temple, they uncovered several other buildings of interest, and brought to the National Museum at Athens a number of valuable statues and a large quantity of bronze and terra-cotta work.

The excavations of the American students at Corinth I have referred to in a previous chapter. They began work there in 1896, and will continue in a systematic manner until the old city is entirely uncovered and opened to the public, as Pompeii is to-day. Old Corinth was a very populous city, larger than Athens, and, at the height of its glory in 325 B.C., had a population of nearly 200,000, with many magnificent structures, which suffered from earthquakes, and were plundered and destroyed by the Romans and other invaders. Julius Caesar rebuilt a portion of the old city, but it was again destroyed by his successors, and finally disappeared and was covered from the sight of men by the drifting sands. The American School has purchased part of the site, and, with the encouragement of the Greek government, is working as rapidly as its funds will permit; but is entirely dependent, as I have said, upon the generosity of private supporters. The German Institute receives $5,000 a year from its government for excavations; the French have an even larger allowance, and the English are spending large sums. The American explorers alone lack funds, yet from them the most important results are expected.

Mars Hill, from which Paul delivered the eloquent address of which we have an account in Chapter xvii of the Acts of the Apostles, beginning, “Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are very religious”—not “too superstitious,” as the old version has it—stands across a little gully from the Acropolis at Athens. It was then occupied by the Athenian courts, called the Areopagus, and the learned men, lawyers, philosophers, teachers and orators of the city met there every day to exchange ideas and talk politics. The ancient court of the Areopagus, composed of the most venerable and eminent Athenians, and exercising supreme jurisdiction in certain cases involving life, sat there regularly to hear arguments and announce their decisions. The hill is said to have derived its name from the fact that Ares, or Mars, was the first person tried there for murder. It was there also that Orestes was arraigned and acquitted of criminal responsibility for the murder of his mother, Clytemnestra. Many other famous trials took place upon the hill. Lawyers were never allowed to appear before an Athenian court, still less the Areopagus. Every man had to plead his own case.

MARS HILL, ATHENS

St. Paul appeared upon the Areopagus five hundred and twenty years after the birth of Socrates and three hundred and seventy years after the death of Demosthenes, but Greece was still filled with learned men. Upon its stage the masterpieces of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes were first presented to the public.

Phaleron, the summer-resort of the Athenians upon the bay, where there are several hotels and bathing establishments and a little villa for the pleasure of the royal family, is the place where Demosthenes used to go to practice speaking. It was there, according to the legend, that he picked up pebbles and put them under his tongue to prevent him from stammering.

Near by are two tombs hewn in the living rock, accessible at low tide but often submerged by the sea. One of them is popularly believed to be the tomb of Themistocles, one of the greatest men of ancient Greece, who persuaded his fellow citizens to devote the proceeds of the silver mine of Laurion to the construction of a naval fleet, which made Athens for a time preëminent upon the sea. But this fleet did not last very long, and Athens absolutely had her ships taken from her at the close of the fifth century B.C.

Across the bay is the island of Salamis, the scene of one of the most famous sea battles in all history, when Xerxes, King of Persia, witnessed the destruction of his fleet of one thousand vessels from a rocky promontory which projects into the bay. The point is called “the throne of Xerxes.” The poet Aeschylus was on one of the ships and distinguished himself in the battle. Eight years later, in March, 472, his tragedy, based upon it, was performed in the theater of Dionysus at Athens.

Socrates was born in Athens in the year 469 B.C. He was originally a sculptor, but abandoned art and became an astrologer. He afterwards taught in the market-place, surrounded by his students and disciples, and it was to them that he delivered the opinions which brought him into collision with the authorities, and particularly the priests. The trial of Socrates was similar to that of Christ. Both were accused of sedition, of denying the gods, of introducing a new religion, of corrupting the minds of the youth and disturbing the tranquillity of the people. Socrates was arraigned for this crime before the courts, as Christ was before the Sanhedrin. Both admitted the truth of the charge, while they denied the criminality. The answer of Socrates to his accusers was almost the same as that of Jesus before Pilate, four hundred years later. He was convicted, however, and condemned to die. Owing to a superstition about putting men to death during a festival, the execution of his sentence was postponed, and in the meantime he drank his cup of hemlock juice. Near the Areopagus are two chambers about sixteen feet square, hewn in the side of a rocky cliff. They are divided by a partition with a narrow door and are protected by gratings of iron bars, like the cage of a wild beast. The guide-book calls them “the prison of Socrates,” and it is generally understood among the people that he was imprisoned and died there, but there is no evidence to sustain such a supposition.

TEMPLE OF THESEUS, ATHENS

Demosthenes had a country home on the other side of Mount Hymettus, which is as famous for its honey to-day as it was two thousand years ago. The wild flowers that grow in the soil of that mountain contain an unusual amount of saccharine and give a flavor to the honey which is not found in that made elsewhere. The ancient Greeks considered it a great luxury, and it still sustains its reputation and is sold to-day in all the markets of Europe for high prices. Tourists buy it at the hotels and curiosity-shops of Athens.

Demosthenes was the son of a rich furniture-dealer, and was a statesman, lawyer, orator and patriot. He lived nearly a century after Socrates, and in the year 322 B.C., when the Macedonians secured control of the government, fled from Athens across the sea into the Peloponnesus. There he was followed by an officer of the police with a warrant for his arrest. Demosthenes was prepared for him and received him in the temple of Poseidon in Calauria. Rather than suffer the humiliation of trial and imprisonment, he decided to take his own life. Suspecting such an intention, the authorities ordered the police officials to take precautions to prevent suicide, and they watched him very closely. After the arrest was made Demosthenes asked the officers to allow him to write a note to his family, and sat down at his desk to do so. It was noticed that he frequently moistened the tip of his pen with his lips, and when the note was finished he fell lifeless from his seat. The ink had been poisoned.

The field of Marathon, where the great battle with the Persians was fought in 490 B.C., about twenty-five miles from Athens, is marked by a great mound, under which the bones of the slain were buried.

Tanagra, where, in 455 B.C., the Athenians first measured strength and valor with the Spartans, is a little further north and has been one of the most prolific sources of satisfaction to archeologists. From the graves around it have come those charming figurines in painted terra-cotta that are so highly prized by collectors. The quantity of figures discovered there during the excavations has been so great that fine examples are now to be found in nearly every museum, and tourists can purchase for a small sum imitations largely made up of the fragments, which are quite as pretty as the genuine.

West from Tanagra is Thebes, a famous old town founded by Cadmus, the home of Pindar, the poet, and Epaminondas, the soldier and statesman. It was the rival of Athens until Alexander the Great sacked it in 336 B.C., when six thousand of the citizens were slain and thirty thousand carried away as slaves. It is now a sleepy little town of about twenty-five hundred inhabitants who grow fruit and do other kinds of farming. The ruins of the ancient town are covered with rubbish and the topography has been considerably changed by earthquakes. There is no hotel, and very little to interest the traveler.

From Thebes one can go west to Delphi, the seat of the famous oracle and the headquarters of the cult of Apollo, but it is a difficult and uncomfortable journey, requiring several days on horseback. The easier route is from Corinth by boat, twice a week, to a little town called Itea. From there to Delphi is only a ride of two and a half hours. The grandeur of the scenery and the magnificent view of Parnassus are full compensation for the time and fatigue, and even in these modern times the gorges in the mountains are filled with a mysterious atmosphere which must have affected the imagination of the ancients. The oracle was consulted, you remember, upon all affairs of importance, both by the people and the state, and its influence was not diminished by the ambiguity of its utterances. The voice of the oracle came from a chasm in the rocks which can not be identified these days, probably because of earthquakes. Above the chasm the prophetic virgin sat upon a golden tripod and uttered responses which none but the priests could understand. Altogether the oracle was a good scheme and its influence was wholesome among the people. Solon, the great law-giver; Plato, the philosopher; Aeschylus, Pindar, and Sophocles all spoke of it with great respect.

Modern Delphi is called Castri, and stands on part of the ancient site, at an altitude of twenty-one hundred and thirty feet above the gulf of Corinth and among the cliffs of Parnassus. There has been an enormous amount of excavating done there by the French School of Archeology which has been rewarded by many interesting and important discoveries.

The classic mountain Parnassus, which rises eight thousand and seventy feet, may be comfortably climbed from Delphi, the ascent being made most of the way on horseback. Every foot of the journey is crowded with historic and mythical associations.

The pass of Thermopylae, known to every schoolboy as the place where Leonidas and his three hundred Spartans held the whole Persian army at bay, is thirty miles in a straight line directly north from Delphi, on the other side of Parnassus, but nearly three times that distance by the circuitous route which must be traveled. There are no roads and it takes several days to make the journey on horseback. The pass is a narrow ravine or defile between two wooded hills and its strategic advantages are perfectly apparent, although the guide-books say that a rocky eminence which formerly overhung the defile has been thrown down by earthquakes and the gorge has been considerably filled up by alluvial deposits brought down by mountain torrents, so that the present appearance of the pass gives very little idea of what it must have been. It resembles hundreds of similar gorges in Colorado and other parts of the Rocky Mountains. Here Leonidas detained the Persian army under Xerxes until the Greeks were able to make a safe retreat. The exact spot was afterwards marked by a monument with this inscription:

STRANGER, TELL THE SPARTANS THAT WE ARE LYING HERE IN OBEDIENCE TO THEIR COMMANDS.

Due north from Thermopylae is the famous Mount Olympus, 9,754 feet high, the home of the gods, which, unfortunately, is now on Turkish soil, much to the sorrow and mortification of the Greeks. If they had their territorial rights they would still include that noble peak within their jurisdiction.

Mount Ossa, 6,398 feet high, lies immediately south of Olympus; Mount Pelion is farther to the south, rising 5,308 feet above the sea.

Going westward from Athens, crossing the peninsula by railroad to Corinth, and then turning southward for fifteen or sixteen miles, we come to Mycenae, which was the scene of so much activity in mythological times, but its importance dwindled long before the dawn of history. It was founded by Perseus, who raised the massive walls of the city with the aid of the Cyclops. Agamemnon, the great soldier, had his seat there, and was not only the ruler of that district but the chieftain of all the Greeks, of the islands as well as the mainland. He led them against Troy and after his return was murdered by Aegisthos, the lover of his wife, Clytemnestra. Although Orestes, his only son, avenged his father’s death and his mother’s shame, when he grew up, the legends do not tell us that he regained the throne.

The tomb of the great Grecian chieftain is well preserved and is one of the most striking examples of ancient masonry. It is a sort of underground temple in the shape of a bee-hive, fifty feet high, and near it is another vaulted sepulcher, supposed to have been the tomb of Clytemnestra. Extensive excavations have been made at Mycenae by Grecian archeologists under the direction of Dr. Schliemann, who disclosed to the world the ruins of Troy. It is one of the most interesting places in Greece.

Near the western boundary of Peloponnesus is Olympia, the scene of the celebrated games, which may be reached by railway from Patras, the western port of the Gulf of Corinth, more easily than from Athens. It was never properly a town, but was a group of temples, shrines, palaces, amphitheaters and public buildings where the entire Hellenic world used to assemble periodically, for more than a thousand years, and engage in semi-sacred games founded by Hercules in the mythical ages. The Olympic games reached their greatest importance immediately after the Persian wars, when they were partially divested of their religious character and became a national festival in honor of Hellenic unity. Competitors came from all the states, the islands and the colonies of greater Greece; the functions lasted for five days, and a list of the victors was kept in the archives of the state. The record begins B.C. 776 and is continued for several centuries after the Roman occupation. The winners enjoyed life-long distinction, were entertained annually at banquets and festivals at the public expense, and were exempt from taxation.

During the Roman period Tiberius and Nero themselves engaged in the games, but about the third century after Christ athletic sports were degraded by the entrance of professionals, and became a trade. The Olympic games were finally suppressed by the Roman Emperor Theodosius in the year 394.

Extensive excavations have been made at Olympia by the Germans, who have spent several hundred thousand dollars uncovering the ruins of temples, palaces and amphitheaters which were buried from fifteen to twenty feet deep under deposits of sand and gravel, washed down by cloud-bursts and floods from the mountains, which also undermined the walls of the Hippodrome, the Stadium and other of the ancient structures. The interest in the excavations at one time was as great as that excited at Pompeii, but very little of artistic interest was found.

Still south of Olympia, near the extreme end of the peninsula, is the old town of Sparta, which is still the capital of the province of Laconia, and a place of considerable importance. The remains of ancient Sparta, however, are scanty and insignificant and, although the modern town is beautifully located, it is said to be very unhealthy. There is a museum there containing a large collection of antiquities, and several of great importance. The guides show you an open plain, surrounded with ditches, where the youthful Spartans used to wage their mimic warfare. They show you also a rectangular enclosure of massive stones which they claim to be the ruins of the tomb of Leonidas, and several other fictitious scenes of interest.

For the classical scholar, the historian, the archeologist, and lovers of the picturesque, there is no country more abundant in interest than Greece, and although the accommodations are primitive and the means of transportation are limited, even the shortest visit to the country will be full of gratification. Greece is now only four days from London and three days from Paris, and in these times, when many people have exhausted the novelties of northern Europe, they will find the classic grounds of the Hellenic peninsula a most satisfactory place of resort. Excepting Japan, southern Italy and the Tyrol, no country compares with Greece in the beauty of its landscapes. The remarkable purity of the atmosphere at Athens enhances the effect of artificial as well as natural objects of interest. As in Arizona, distances are very deceptive. Far-off mountains are brought close to the eye as with a field-glass, and as you approach them they recede in a most provoking way. Hymettus and Pentelikos, the two famous mountains which lie on either side of Athens, are often enveloped in a curious pink glow at sunset, and then, as the flame fades out of the sky, they take on a deep violet tinge. The Greek sunset is something that cannot be represented on canvas. Artists and poets rave about it, but it is beyond their power to reproduce.

It is not a land for luxurious people, however. The climate is more to be recommended than the hotels, but the natural scenery has a variety, a richness and a color that no other part of Europe affords. The foliage and the flowers are abundant and beautiful, and in the rural districts the people are picturesque in manners, customs and dress. Their habits and social life have not been affected by what we call the advances of modern civilization. In public conveniences, however, Greece is still far behind the times. Athens is the only place where the hotels are tolerable, and travelers who go into the interior must take their own provisions and bedding. Even those who make little excursions by carriage for a single day in the neighborhood of Athens must carry a lunch-basket, because the inns are primitive and filthy. Railway facilities are limited. With a few exceptions the roads are bad, but they are gradually improving, and several of the centers of great interest to tourists may now be reached by carriage. Only a few years ago travelers had to go on horseback or on foot, as they do in the Holy Land. Even now those who visit some of the most interesting places have to put up with discomforts, inconveniences and a good deal of dirt and bad smells, although they are fully repaid.

FINIS.