Page:Travels & discoveries in the Levant (1865) Vol. 1.djvu/139

Rh was probably built by the Genoese. On entering it, I noticed over a doorway, on the left-hand side, a Byzantine inscription, recording that it had been repaired.

From Molivo we went to the neighbouring village Petra, situated on the sea-shore, and still celebrated for that wine—"quam Methymæo carpit de palmite Lesbos." In the centre of the village is a very steep rock, on the summit of which is a small church. This may have been an Acropolis, and has given the village its name. Here we were magnificently entertained by a rich but somewhat pretentious Greek, who had lived at Smyrna and Constantinople, and consequently had nothing of rural simplicity in his manners.

Here, for the first time in travelling in Mytilene, I enjoyed the luxury of a regular bedroom and a bedstead, instead of a mattress on the floor; but though the house was very well furnished, still we found no jugs or basins, only the old ewer and pewter basin with a colander.

From Petra we went across the narrow part of the island to Port Kalloni, a beautiful ride. We slept at a place called Agia Paraskeue. The gentleman to whom I had a letter was out olive-gathering, and, in his absence, his wife gave us rather a chilly reception; the more so as, after eating up all her fowls, we still felt hungry. The house where we lodged was an old one, and under the whitewash I saw traces of mural painting. At the entrance, and immediately over the den of a very savage live dog, was an old picture