Page:Travels & discoveries in the Levant (1865) Vol. 1.djvu/128

100 excellent supper of fried fish. It was the first time I ever saw Greek women admitted to the banquet with the men, or saw a man have the civility to hand anything to a woman. It happened that we were here the guests of people less sophisticated than the bourgeois class in the Mytilene villages generally are.

The house consisted of one long, large apartment: at one end was the fireplace, at the other a raised platform, separated by a wooden railing from the rest, forming the sleeping-place of the family; the walls were solidly built of stone, and every article of household use hung on them: everything was scrupulously neat and clean. This kind of house seems to be preferred in the agricultural districts of Mytilene, as the pyrgo is in the olive districts.

The supper was put upon a tray, which was balanced on a small table turned upside down. We all sat on the floor. Each woman in succession, before either eating or drinking, said, Kalôs orisate,—"You are welcome," to the strangers, and then crossed herself instead of saying grace. These women, sitting on the floor with their children in their arms, formed very graceful compositions, reminding me of many groups in ancient art.

On the coast, in the direction of Ereso, at the distance of half an hour from Mesotopo, is a ruined church called Miltane. Here are foundations of an ancient wall, but no inscriptions. On the shore, in the same direction, at the distance of one hour and a half from Mesotopo, and near a place called Campos Krousos, has been a square tower called