Page:Travels & discoveries in the Levant (1865) Vol. 1.djvu/152

124 with rows of pearls and other precious stones, linked together with hooks and eyes, which is also in the possession of M. Sitrides. He also showed me a brooch found in a tomb, formed of two hollow cylinders of gold, plaited into a loop, terminating at either end in two hons' heads. In the centre of the loop is a mask of Medusa, in a lozenge-shaped setting: this appears to be Greek.

In the town I found an inscription, partly in Epic, and partly in Iambic verse, on the drum of a column set upright in the ground at the door of a mosque.$53$ The Turks had carefidly placed the colmnn upside down. Piloted by the dragoman of the consular agent, I attempted to alter its position; but the first stroke of the pickaxe into the ground brought forth a fanatic in a green turban, who stamped and raged at us with all manner of maledictions; so I was forced to copy the inscription with my head between my knees, reading every letter upside down. I remained in this uncomfortable position for three days, during the greater part of which tune I was surrounded by a dirty rabble, who were only kept in check by the presence of a cavass from the Pasha. It is said that, some years ago, a statue was found here representing the ancient city, Kallipohs, with an inscription to that effect, and that the Turks have walled it up in one of their fountains as the people in the Middle Ages used to wall up naughty nuns.

The weather was too inclement for excursions in the Chersonese, as I had intended, so we went on to the Dardanelles, where we were hospitably