Ithaca.

STANZA XXXIX.

and pass'd the barren spot

Where sad Penelope o'erlook'd the wave;

STANZA XL.

Actium, Lepanto, fatal Trafalgar;

Actium and Trafalgar need no further mention. The battle of Lepanto, equally Floody and considerable, but less known, was fought in the Gulf of Patras: here the author of Don Quixote lost his left hand.

STANZA XLI.

And hail'd the last resort of fruitless love,

Leucadia, now Santa Maura. From the promontory (the Lover's Leap) Sappho is said to have thrown herself.

STANZA XLV.

many a Roman chief and Asian king

It is said, that on the day previous to the battle of Actium Antony had thirteen kings at his levee.

STANZA XLV.

Look where the second Cæsar's trophies rose!

Nicopolis, whose ruins are most extensive, is at some distance from Actium, where the wall of the Hippodrome survives in a few fragments. These ruins are large masses of brickwork, the bricks of which are joined by interstices of mortar, as large as the bricks themselves, and equally durable.

STANZA XLVII.

Acherusia's lake,

According to Pouqueville, the Lake of Yanina; but Pouqueville is always out.

STANZA XLVII.

To greet Albania's chief,

The celebrated Ali Pacha. Of this extraordinary man there is an incorrect account in Pouqueville's Travels.

STANZA XLVII.

Yet here and there some daring mountain band
Disdain his power, and from their rocky hold

Hurl their defiance far, nor yield, unless to gold.

Five thousand Suliotes, among the rocks and in the castle of Suli, withstood 30,000 Albanians for eighteen years: the castle at last was taken by bribery. In this contest there were several acts performed not unworthy of the better

STANZA XLVIII.

Monastic Zitza! &c.

The convent and village of Zitza are four hours' journey from Joannina, or Yanina, the capital of the Pachalick. In the valley the river Kalamas (once the Acheron) flows, and not far from Zitza forms a fine cataract. The situation is perhaps the finest in Greece, though the approach to Delvinachi and parts of Acarnania and Ætolia may contest the palm. Delphi, Parnassus, and, in Attica, even Cape Colonna and Port Raphti, are very inferior; as also every scene in Ionia, or the Troad: I am almost inclined to add the approach to Constantinople; but, from the different features of the last, a comparison can hardly be made.

STANZA XLIX.

Here dwells the caloyer,

The Greek monks are so called.

STANZA LI.

Nature's volcanic amphitheatre,

The Chimariot mountains appear to have been volcanic.

In

The river Laos was full at the time the author passed it; and, immediately above Tepaleen, was to the eye as wide as the Thames at Westminster; at least in the opinion of the author and his fellow-traveller, Mr. Hobhouse. the summer it must be much narrower. It certainly is the finest river in the Levant; neither Achelous, Alpheus, Acheron, Scamander nor Cayster, approached it in breadth or beauty.

STANZA LXVI.

And fellow-countrymen have stood aloof

Alluding to the wreckers of Cornwall.

STANZA LXXI.

-the red wine circling fast,

The Albanian Mussulmans do not abstain from wine, and indeed very few

STANZA LXXI.

Each Palikar his sabre from him cast,

Palikar, shortened when addressed to a single person, from Пaxikápi, a general name for a soldier amongst the Greeks and Albanese who speak Romaic: it means, properly, “a lad.”

STANZA LXXII.

While thus in concert, &c.

As a specimen of the Albanian or Arnaout dialect of the Illyric, I here insert two of their most popular choral songs, which are generally chanted in dancing by men or women indiscriminately. The first words are merely a kind of chorus without meaning, like some in our own and all other languages.

The Albanese, particularly the women, are frequently termed "Caliriotes;" for what reason

The last stanza would puzzle a commentator: the men have certainly buskins of the most beautiful texture, but the ladies (to whom the above is supposed to be addressed) have nothing under their little yellow boots and slippers but a well-turned and sometimes very white ankle. The Arnaout girls are much handsomer than the Greeks, and their dress is far more picturesque. They preserve their shape much longer also, from being always in the open air. It is to be observed, that the Arnaout is not a written language; the words of this song, therefore, as well as the one which follows, are spelt according to their pronunciation. They are copied by one who speaks and understands the dialect perfectly, and who is a native of Athens.

I believe the two last stanzas, as they are in a different measure, ought to belong to another ballad. An idea something similar to the thought in the last lines was expressed by Socrates, whose arm having come in contact with one of his "OKÓλio," Critobulus or Cleobulus, the philosopher complained of a shooting pain as far as his shoulder for some days after, and therefore very properly resolved to teach his disciples in future without touching them.

66

SONG, STANZA I.

Tambourgi! Tambourgi! thy 'larum afar, &c.

These stanzas are partly taken from different Albanese songs, as far as I was able to make them out by the exposition of the Albanese in Romaic and Italian.

SONG, STANZA VIII.

Remember the moment when Precisa fell,

It was taken by storm from the French.

STANZA LXXIII.

Fair Greece! sad relic of departed worth! &c.

Some thoughts on this subject will be found in the subjoined papers.

STANZA LXXIV.

Spirit of freedom! when on Phyle's brow

Thou sat st with Thrasybulus and his train,

Phyle, which commands a beautiful view of Athens, has still considerable remains: it was seized by Thrasybulus previous to the expulsion of the Thirty.

STANZA LXXVII.

Receive the fiery Frank, her former guest;

When taken by the Latins, and retained for several years.—See GIBBON.

STANZA LXXVII.

The prophet's tomb of all its pious spoil,

Mecca and Medina were taken some time ago by the Wahabees, a sect yearly increasing.

STANZA LXXXV.

Thy vales of ever-green, thy hills of snow,

On many of the mountains, particularly Liakura, the snow never is entirely melted, notwithstanding the intense heat of the summer; but I never saw it lie on the plains, even in winter.

STANZA LXXXVI.

Save where some solitary column mourns

Above its prostrate brethren of the cave ;

Of Mount Pentelicus, from whence the marble was dug that constructed the public edifices of Athens. The modern name is Mount Mendeli. An immense cave formed by the quarries still remains, and will till the end of time.

STANZA LXXXIX.

When Marathon became a magic word;

"Siste Viator-heroa calcas!" was the epitaph on the famous Count Merci ; —what then must be our feelings when standing on the tumulus of the two hundred (Greeks) who fell on Marathon? The principal barrow has recently been opened by Fauvel; few or no relics, as vases, &c. were found by the excavator. The plain of Marathon was offered to me for sale at the sum of sixteen thousand piastres, about nine hundred pounds! Alas!" Expende— quot libras in duce summo-invenies!"--was the dust of Miltiades worth no more? it could scarcely have fetched less if sold by weight.