Narrative of a journey through Greece in 1830 : with remarks upon the actual state of the naval and military power of the Ottoman empire . them. At night, a painting, repre-senting the Panagia, was illuminated by a lamp ;and before he retired to rest, he made as manygenuflexions before it as would have done for aMahommedan in the holy temple at Mecca; andcrossed himself with such rapidity, during a fullquarter of an hour, that I became tired of count-ing the number of his signs. His servants after-wards came forward and performed the sameceremony; and then, under the protection ofthe Panagia,
Narrative of a journey through Greece in 1830 : with remarks upon the actual state of the naval and military power of the Ottoman empire . them. At night, a painting, repre-senting the Panagia, was illuminated by a lamp ;and before he retired to rest, he made as manygenuflexions before it as would have done for aMahommedan in the holy temple at Mecca; andcrossed himself with such rapidity, during a fullquarter of an hour, that I became tired of count-ing the number of his signs. His servants after-wards came forward and performed the sameceremony; and then, under the protection ofthe Panagia, we all laid down in the same apart-ment, and resigned ourselves to sleep. Mistra has a most striking appearance; andCaptain Gordon, who had lately been travellingin Spain, found a great similarity between itand Granada. It is, or I should say was, builton the side of a precipitous mountain, and thesummit is crowned by a fortress with towersand turrets in the ancient style, which form-ing a black mass, relieved by the snowy peaksof Pentydactylon, has a magnificent effect: be-low the castle the ruins of the town commence »~.t. ? 4. RUINS Or MISTRA* 191 —dilapidated towers, broken arches, hanginggardens, or rather terraces which once supportedthem, present a scene of desolation, that seemsto have been effected by some supernaturalpower, instead of by the will of man. One ortwo gloomy cypresses here and there contrastedtheir black foliage with the dazzling whitenessof the distant snow, but no smoke rising fromthe town bespoke its occupation ; not a singlebeing moved amidst its blackened and crum-bling walls : it was a perfect solitude. On thesouthern side of the castle the mountain is se-parated from its natural range by a tremendouschasm, apparently formed by an earthquake:the mountain is literally rent asunder, leav-ing a perpendicular precipice several hundredfeet high; and below runs a plentiful stream,separating the old town from what was for-merly a suburb, but is now the
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1, booksubjectturkeyordu, bookyear1830
