Travels in Greece and Russia, with an Excursion to Crete
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Cornell! .__ wimRwafaniiw uter/^.-ir" arvi477,,^ ^lffi™n,i,V.,,9,GK!.,3nlR.ussia, with an ex 3 1924 031 olin,anx 285 517 Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tlie Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924031285517 GREECE AID EUSSIA. ^^.^^ rr-^ /; IBATA31® ^ATIL^IBo Xl, CGiiiiw rtclh (Oiff Sa.B^BiS'iiiL Kflifl'^^iL'iOT'W. ME^V YORKs C r.; rUTN-AvtMt: .'-"1 li h^; v'P TRAVELS GREECE AND RUSSIA WITH AN EXCmSIQN^O CRETE, Bv BAYARD TAYLOR.= /I HOUSEHOLD EDITION. NEW YORK G. p. PUTNAM'S SONS 182 Fifth Avenue 1879 Bntcnid McnrAliij; to Actaf Gongreas, In th« year ISM, by BAYABt) TAYLOR, Ik the Clerk's Offi b of the District Court of the United Statea fur the Ao tthcrt Olatriot of New Tork. /ACORNELL UNIVERSITY ^^LiBRAR PEEF ACE. The reader will observe that in describing Greece, I have devoted myself to the physical aspects of the coun- try, and the character and habits of its present popula- tion, rather than to its past history and classic associa- tions. If, therefore, there are no new pictures in this volume, there may be, at least, some old and familiar subjects exhibited under new atmospheric effects. I should otherwise have hesitated to select a field which may be considered well-nigh exhausted, were it not that the country is still in a transition state, and every few years presents a new phase to the traveller's eye. Owing to the pressure of other literary labors, thia volume has been too rapidly prepared for the press, to allow me to add a special chapter on the Ethnology of Greece, as I had originally designed. I can only record my complete conviction of the truth of the views enter- tained by Fallmereyer, that the modern Greeks are a IV PRBP^ACE. mongrel race, in which the Slavic element is predomi- nant, and that the pure Hellenic blood is to be found only in a few localities. The chapters relating to Kusaia must be considered as studies rather than finished pictures. They are an at- tempt to sketch the gay, bizarre, incongruous external forms of Kussian life. Anything more could not be safely attempted without a longer residence in the country and a knowledge of the language—both of which I hope to accomplish at some future day. So far, however, as the Greek Church is concerned, it may be interesting to the reader to trace its character and influence in the twr countries, which, with a common ambition, are far from having a common destiny. Bataed Tayloh. Nkw York, My, 1859 CONTENTS. CHAPTER t Kctires Ccom the Dalmatian Coast, . , t 1 OnAPTER II. Fulther from Dalmatia, 8 CHAPTER III. First Days ia Greece, 22 CHAPTER IV. On tlie Acropolis, 84 CHAPTER V. Winter Life in Alliens, 46 CHAPTER VI. A Greek Baptism, 64 CHAPTER VII. Ue Court of King Otho, 6- CHAPTER VIII. Greek festivals, Religious and Civic, lb CHAPTER 12. An Excursion tq Crete, 89 CHAPTER X A Cretan .Tourney, , . 101 VI CONTENTS. CHAPTER XI. Our Imprisonment at Khithymnos, 11-2 CHAPTER XII. The Caverns, Mountains, and Labyrinths of Crote, , . .123 CHAPTER XIII. Two Days with an Archbishop, 13T CHAPTER XIV. 148 Tlie Earlliqualce at Cormth, . ... CHAPTER XV. Argolis and Arcadia, ... 101 CHAPTER XVI. Four Days among the Spartans, 109 CHAPTER XVU. Uessenia, Elis, and Acliaia, 186 CHAPTER XVIII. Byron in Grreece 208 CHAPTER XIX. The Haunts of the Muses, 216 CHAPTER XX. Parnassus and the Dorian Mountains, 226 CHAPTER XXI. The Frontier of Thessaly, ... .... 237 CHAPTER XXII. Adventures in Eubcea, , . 247 CHAPTER XXIII. People and Government, ....... 261 CHAPTER XXIV. Agiiculture and Resources, 273 CHAPTER XXV. Uoturn to tho North, 281 CHAPTER XXVI. Cracow, and the Salt Mines of Wieliczlsa, 289 CHAPTER XXVn. A Glance at Warsaw, . 3.03 CONTENTS. Vll PAOI CHAPTER XXVIII. A Journey through Central Russia, . , ,315 CHAPTER XXIX. A Panoramic V'ew of Moscow, 825 CHAPTER XXX. Tne Xremlin, 33 I CHAPTER XXXI. A Visit to the Foundling Hospital, 348 CHAPTER XXXIL Moscow, In-doors and Out, 359 CHAPTER XXXIII. Railroads in Russia 371 CHAPTER XXXIV. St. Petersburg and its Palaces, 381 CHAPTER XXXV. Tzarsko Selo, Paulovsk and the Islands, ..... 894 CHAPTER XXXVL Varieties of the Russian Capital, ....... 401 CHAPTER XXXVIL Journey through the Baltic Provincea, ttl TRAYELS IN GREECE AND RUSSIA. I. GREECE. CHAPTER I. PICTUBES PEOM THE DALMATIAN COAST. After giving up the hope of enjoying a Siberian Winter, which had been my original intention, I determined to go as near as possible to the opposite extreme of avoiding the Winter altogether. But by the time we left Gotha Con the <tth of December, 1857) the season was already inaugurated. The first snow whitened the Thuringian hills ; bitter blasts blew down upon us fi-om the Hartz—the last chilly farewell of the forsaken North. Like a true German, he was not satisfied with one adieu, but must return again and again to prolong the sweet sorrow of parting. He accompanied usi to Dresden, through the black and lowering passes of the Saxon Switzerland, over the open plains of Bohemia, and only left us for a while in the vaUey of the Danube to return with a more violent embrace, on the top of the Semmering ! TRAVELS IN GREECE AND RUSSIA. Alp. Finally, at tlie southeiu edge of the Juzrst, oi table-land of Carinthia, where his rugged name of Boreas is Italianized into the Bora, we left hini, and the little olive- trees in the gardens of Trieste welcomed us to the threshold of the South. At Trieste, I determined to make the most of my south- ward voyage, by taking the Lloyd steamer of the Dalmatiau and Albanian hue, which would enable me to see something of one of the least frequented and most interesting of the Mediterranean shores. At noon, on the 12th, we were all three on board of the Miramar, Captain Mazarevitch, steaming out of Ti'ieste under a cloudless sky and over a smooth blue sea, albeit the south-eastern wind, blowing over the Istrian mountains,. was keen enough. Our vessel, although new, clean, and sufficiently comfortable, was pain- fully slow, and consequently we were not up with Pola, the famous amphitheatre whereof is plainly visible from the sea, until long after dark. Our comfort during the afternoon was our fine view of the Julian Alps, wheehng in a splendid arc around the head of the Adriatic, from Trieste nearly to Venice. During the night we crossed the mouth of the Gulf of Fiume, which you may remember as the only outlet of Croatia, much talked of during the Hungarian struggle, in connexion with the design of uniting the Slavic races with the Magyars, and securing a seaport for the new nation. I cheerfully testify that the Gulf of Fiume is as rough a piece of water as the Bay of Biscay, and this is all I know about it, for by sunrise we were at anchor in the harbor of Zara, the capital of Dalmatia. Most gentlemen have heard of this place, from reading • PICTURES FKOM THE DALMATIAtf COAST. 3 on tlie labels of certain square, wicker-encased bottles— ''Maraschino di Zara." Those who have dipped into his- tory far enough "will remember the famous sea-fight fought here during the Fourth Crusade, and the happy few who know Venice have not forgotten the famous picture in the Doge's Palace, wherein the son of Barbarossa is taken prisoner by the Venetians, the most flagrant case of lying which the world can produce—no such incident ever having occurred. Zara, I suspect, looks pretty much as it did in those days. Its long, crenelated walls and square bastions had a familiar aspect to me, from the aforesaid picture. Of its ancient history I need only say that it was the capital of the Romar province of Liburnia, and a place of some note in the days of Augustus. The sun rose over the snowy range of the Velebich, which separates Dalmatia from the Turkish pashalik of Bosnia. The land, under the clearest illumination, looked intensely bare and stony. Around the harbor were olive orchards, with a spiry Italian cypress or two, and some leafless fig-trees. Dalmatian boatmen thronged the low quay, in front of the water gate, and hovered about the steamer, in their red caps, loose shirts and wide trowsers. The picture was neither Italian nor Oriental, yet with something of both, and there was enough of Frank innova- tion to give it a shabby air. I know nothing more slovenly and melancholy than the asjiect of those Mediterranean ports which are in a transition state—where the old costume, habits, find ways of living have been for the most part given up, and those of Western Europe are still new enough to appear awkward and affected. The interior of 4 TRAVELS IN GEEUCE AXD RUSSIA. every- the town produced the same impression ; there was where the same curious mixture of two hetei-ogeneous ele- ments. Only the country people, who had come in with their market-carts and were selling vegetables in the prin- cipal square, and some shaggy fellows, whom I took to bo Morlaks, or Mountain Slaves, seemed to be purely Dalma- tian, both in blood and habits. Their Slavic ancestry was to be seen at a glance. The deep-set eye, the heavy brow, the strong nose, and lengthened oval of the face—the expression of courage, calculation, and obstinacy—the ei-ect, rather haughty form, and free, graceful carriage, are charac- teristics which belong to all the branches of this widely spread race.