. The Burton Holmes lectures;. SPARTAN RlGGEDNESS •■r-^-^^^jd,. then again itwas the Turks,when the cry ofwas raised in Greece, news until in 1821independence came to Mistra of the sack of Kalamata. Whereupon theTurkish population fled hence in terror. Ever since a cursehas been upon the town ; an earthquake cracked its walls andlaid low its structures, and Mistra is doomed to everlastingneglect and ultimate annihilation by the elements. Thewalls are cruiiil)liii,!^ away, so that we scarce can say wherethe natural rock ceases and where the masonry of manbegins ; all is merged in a confusing ma
. The Burton Holmes lectures;. SPARTAN RlGGEDNESS •■r-^-^^^jd,. then again itwas the Turks,when the cry ofwas raised in Greece, news until in 1821independence came to Mistra of the sack of Kalamata. Whereupon theTurkish population fled hence in terror. Ever since a cursehas been upon the town ; an earthquake cracked its walls andlaid low its structures, and Mistra is doomed to everlastingneglect and ultimate annihilation by the elements. Thewalls are cruiiil)liii,!^ away, so that we scarce can say wherethe natural rock ceases and where the masonry of manbegins ; all is merged in a confusing mass of grayish deso-lation. Mistra, apparently, is fading into the rocky wall towhich it has been clinging for six hundred years. A mountain range, of which Taygetus forms a part, sepa-rates the territory of the Spartans from that of the Mes-senians. Not far from Mistra the mountain range is cleftasunder, as by the stroke of some jjrehistoric Roland, and i68 GRECIAN JOURNEYS. Till-, INN A 1 1,ADHA it is through the mighty gorge created there that we are nowto make our toilsome way. The Greeks call this defileLangada, which means the gorge, for there is noneequal to it in Greece. All day our laden mules struggle upand down a rocky trail, so rough in some places that prog-ress is almost impossible, in other places so steep and slip-pery that even the sure-footed mules seem to lose theirinnate contempt of danger, hesitate, try to turn back, andalmost shake with fear. The limitations of photography prevent an adequate rep-resentation of the rough and awful nature of this compared with the reality, my pictures are like scenes,from some soft sylvan vale. Beauty, indeed, is to be foundin the Langada, but beauty of a grim, stern sort ; no gentleprettiness is there to mask the angry face of nature. On- GRECIAN JOURNEYS 169 ward and upward slowly, half the day ; then, after thecruel, winding path has lifted us four thousand feet abovethe sea, we begin a dow
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectvoyages, bookyear1901
