Travels and Discoveries in the Levant/Volume 1/Letter XVII
XVII.
I have just returned from a little excursion with Blunt across the centre of the island. Our first halting-place was Aphandu, on the road to Lindos, four hours distant from Rhodes. Here I purchased a small slab, with a figure on horseback in low relief. This appears to have been a sepulchral monument. The sculpure is coarse; the material, the stone of the country.
After riding three hours further, we got to Mállona, where we tm-ned inland to the S.W., in the direction of Aláerma. After about an hour we ascended from the plain into a pine forest, which extends for three days' journey into the centre of the island: we arrived at Aláerma in four hours. This is a small and somewhat barbarous village, where we could get nothuig to eat but venison di-ied in the sun in strips or jerked. The fallow deer, called by the Greeks λάφι, the corruption of ἐλάφιον, ranges wild through the pine forests of Rhodes, and many stags are killed in this district. The inhabitants maintain themselves by cultivating corn.
From Aláerma we went to Apollona, distant four and a half hours. The greater part of the road lay through a pine forest. At the distance of an hour from Aláerma is an old church called Agia Marina, in which I found a large cube of marble from an Hellenic building. From the size of this block, it may be inferred that it was not brought from a distance. An hour further is another old church,— Agios Georgios.
Apollona is pleasantly situated in a valley, with abundance of water and fruit-trees. It has an old castle, built by the Knights.
In the churchyard is a Greek inscription on a sepulchral cippus, and in the church I noticed several squared blocks of Hellenic masonry. In this village I purchased five Rhodian silver coins, with the radiated head of the Sun, one of which, for beauty and preservation, is superior to any of this type in the British Museum. While at Apollona I explored the adjacent villages of Platanià and Arkiboli, both picturesquely situated among the mountains. I found no antiquities in either of them.
We then went to Fundokli, distant one hour to the N.B. of Apollona. Our road crossed a mountain-ridge, on descending which the views en route were exceedingly picturesque, stretching over ravines and broken ground to the sea opposite Syme. Fundokli has a beautiful foimtain embosomed in plane-trees, and a ruined Byzantine monastery. In this part of the forest the pine timber is larger than that in the first part of our route. At the distance of a quarter of an hour from Fundokli is Demelia, where I found the ruins of a small castle, and an escutcheon of the Knights over the church door, but no antiquities.
From Demelià we went to Salakko, a pretty village at the foot of Mount Elias, through which a fresh mountain brook runs even in the heat of smnmer. Here may be seen, in the same landscape, the orange-tree and palm-tree above the village, and higher up the mountains the stone-pine. There is a small castle of the Knights here, with the arms of Bmeri d'Amboise, quarterly with those of the Order.
The mountain Agios Elias is 2,620 feet in height according to the chart. On its north-east side is a little chapel, dedicated to the saint, containing no ancient remains, but commanding a picturesque view, with Syme in the distance. The ground at the base of the mountain on this side is furrowed and channelled in every direction by water-courses and landshps.
I was suprised to find this lonely chapel full of mural paintings; and on inquiring by whom they were executed, was told by one John of Syme. At the present day jioor architects and painters educated in Greek monasteries pass from island to island for the purpose of constructing or beautifying the churches. Such itinerant artists remind one of the Freemasons of Europe in the Middle Ages.
Half an hour from Salakko, on the road to Embona, is a place called Kappi, where the cultivated arable land terminates at the foot of Mount Elias. Here is a sarcophagus hewn out of the native rock, 8 feet by 4 feet 6 inches, the sides 1 foot 3 inches, the ends 7 inches in thickness. At the two ends the sarcophagus stands on steps cut out of the native rock. It has been broken open at the ends.
At a distance of an hour and a half from Salakko, on the same road, is a place called Specs. Here is a fountain with some large square blocks, evidently from an Hellenic building. Close by are the remains of a Greek aqueduct. A ruined church here, called Agia Eirene, is built with squared blocks. The fields are strewn with fragments of pottery.
From Salakko we turned homeward to Kalavarda on the northern coast. On the road to this place I noticed an old tower, built by the Knights, by the side of a water-mill. This place is called Myrtona. It is distant half an hour from Kalavarda. A little before arriving at this village we passed on the left an old ruined church containing slabs of Hellenic marble, but no inscriptions.
At Kalavarda I noticed the process by which cotton is converted into flocks. This is done with a large bow (τοξάρι) a piece of reed, virga, and a wooden instrument like a reel (λαγοῦδι). The process is called τοξεύειν.
The cotton is placed on the reed and laid horizontally at right angles to the bow, the string of which is then struck with the λαγοῦδι, and the particles of cotton detached by the vibrations of the string are drawn together so as to form a loose rope, which is wound off on the distaff.
In this village I was much interested by finding a number of Greek fictile vases in the peasants' houses. These vases were of various styles. Among them were several platters, plnakes, of a very early period, with geometrical patterns painted in brown on a pale ground.
This kind of ware has been found in the tombs of Athens, Melos, and other parts of Greece, and is thought to be of very remote antiquity; the more so as the sites of Mycente aud Tiryns are strewn with. it.110 I also found at Kalavarda several jugs, amphoræ, and oinoclioæ, on "which "were painted black figures on a red ground, or red figures on a black ground. None of these designs were remarkable for beauty of drawing or excellence of fabric, but mostly specimens of the later period of the art. The clay seemed rather thick and heavy. The peasants also showed me some small terra-cotta figures. On inquiry I was told that all these objects were found in tombs near the village. The inhabitants, fearing probably interference on the part of the Turkish authorities, declined to show the site where these tombs were found; but I was taken by my muleteer Panga to a place on the shore called Agios Minas, distant three- quarters of an hour from Kalavarda.
Here is a mediæval tower, at the foot of which are the remains of a wall built with cement, which runs out into the sea. On the shore here I found three handles of Greek unpainted dlotæ on which magistrates' names are stamped.
Between this spot and Kalavarda, the fields along the shore are strewn with fragments of pottery, and in several places are traces of tombs. In one spot I found the fragments of a Rhodian diota, which had apparently been displaced from a tomb by a torrent rushing down from the hill. The handle of this diota was also inscribed with a magistrate's name. This ground would probably repay excavation.
By the skilful mediation of Panga, I succeeded in purchasing the vases I had seen at Kalavarda, and on arriving at Fanes, the next village on my way home, I found another little collection of objects found in tombs. Among these were two shallow two-handled cups, of the best period of fictile art, one of which was inscribed with the words χἅιρε και πίε "Rejoice and drink;" the other had black figures on a red ground. I also obtained a small bottle of variegated glass, and some curious leaden glands such as were used by slingers, and which were each inscribed with a name. They form a curious illustration of the well-known story of the slinger who is said to have inscribed the words "to Philip's right eye" on a missile which was afterwards accurately delivered to its address. On my enquiring where these objects were found, I was taken by a peasant to a place a short distance from Fanes, where I saw a large extent of ground recently cleared from the forest, strewn with fragments of painted vases and terra-cotta figures over an extent of several acres. These remains had evidently been thrown up by the plough. The vases I had pm'chased at Fanes were found, according to my guide, in a built tomb on this site. I succeeded in purchasing this second collection of antiquities for a small sum, and packing them on a mule in two large panniers, started very early in the morning for Rhodes, very well pleased with the acquisition which I had made, and looking forward to further and more important discoveries on the sites which I had thus accidentally stumbled on. My golden visions were suddenly arrested, like those of the old woman with the basket of eggs, by a crashing sound behind. The mule which carried the panniers had fallen in the dry bed of a torrent; but I was happy to find that my treasures had been so well packed that nothing was broken.
From Kalavarda homewards, the landscape along the shore resumes the same verdant and luxriant character as in the environs of Rhodes. At Theologos, now pronounced Tholóos, I purchased a fragment of an inscription from the temple of Apollo Erethimios, the site of which Ross identified by excavation here. The spot which he explored is in the plain, at the distance of about eight minutes' walk from the village. In the church here is an inscription giving a list of the priests of Apollo Erethimios, and in front of the church a square block of blue marble inscribed with a similar list. The name Erethimios is only another form of Erysibios, "the averter of mildew," corresponding with the Latin deity Robigus.111
At Villa Nova we made a halt, and I examined some Hellenic remains on the shore below the town. Lying here on the sand were great quantities of the inscribed handles of Rhodian diotæ, similar to those found by Mr. Stoddart at Alexandria, and published by him in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature.112 The traces of Hellenic remains extended for some hundred yards along the shore. Over the door of a church recently built in this village part of a sepulchral relief is let into the wall. This represents a draped middle-aged figure, seated. In front stands a youthful male figure; behind, another figure. The legs only of these figures remain. Below is an enriched moulding. The sculpture seems of the Roman period, and is executed in white marble. It was found in a field near the church.113
Between Villa Nova and Trianda is the village of Kremastò, where there is a castle built by the Knights with the arms of the Grand Master Fabrizio del Carretto. Here is a fine new church with a spacious courtyard, and small rooms all round it for the recep- tion of visitors at the great feast or Panegyris, as at Zambika. (See ante, p. 183.) The interior of the church is richly decorated in the gaudy style which the Greeks are so fond of in their modern churches. At the distance of about five minutes from Kremasto, on the road to Rhodes, I noticed on the left several fragments of columns of a late period, which probably mark the site of an ancient church.
As far as I have yet seen, Rhodes is very inferior in scenery to Mytilene. The mountains are lumpish in form. The pine forests are much disfigured by clearings and thinnings; the peasants burn patches here and there, and sow corn. The cultivation in the more mountainous and central parts of the island is very rude, and the population scanty, but comfortably lodged, clothed, and fed. Here and there the barrenness of the district is relieved by a little verdure, where abundance of water has produced a luxuriant growth of fig and other fruit-trees. During this journey we saw great numbers of red-legged partridges; they ran on before us, and would not get up without being actually fired into. I saw sometimes packs of about sixty birds get up in a cloud. The peasants here never fire at them on the wing, but shoot them as Gordon Gumming did his lions, while they are drinking at a brook.