Page:Travels & discoveries in the Levant (1865) Vol. 1.djvu/240

192 clever, ready to turn his hand to anything, good or bad. The shrewd, roguish twinkle in his eye told me at once that he would be an admirable mezzano in purchasing antiquities from the peasants. He is an excellent cook, and a very agreeable companion to any one who knows Greek.

Our first object was to pay a visit to Lindos, the site of that most ancient city which traded with Egypt long before Rhodes was founded, and which is mentioned by Homer in the same line in which he records the names of Ialysos and Kamiros. Our road lay along the south-eastern shore of the island. We slept the first night at our muleteer's village, Koskino, and started for Lindos at 5 a.m. the next morning. For the first three hours of our route we kept along the sea-shore, passing over a barren sandy country, thrown into fantastic shapes by earthquakes. At 8 a.m. we turned a little inland along an ancient road cut in the rock. Be- tween this pass and the sea there is a high craggy mountain. After traversing this pass, we entered a more hilly country, passing on our left the village of Archangelo, and on our right the ruins of a fortress called Pollanda. At four and a half hours' distance from Kosldno, we crossed the last ridge of hills, and descended into a plain, in which is the village of Mallona, surrounded by fertile gardens, planted mth orange, lemon, fig, pomegranate, and walnut trees. From this village the road keeps along a level shore till within a short distance of Lindos, to which we ascended by a steep and broken road, flanked by tombs on each side. The town