Page:Travels & discoveries in the Levant (1865) Vol. 1.djvu/276

226 it was found necessary in a short time to relax these hard conditions.101 At present, on the contrary, the male population being all either monks or seafaring men, the destitution of the ladies is nearly as great as that of the wives of the Greek warriors during the Trojan war. The island is very barren, and nourishes nothing but goats. The women maintain themselves by knitting stockings. Their costume is very curious; and they seem to be a different race from the other islanders in the Sporades. They wear very quaint high head-dresses.

From Patmos we went to Calymnos, the ancient Calymna, a barren rocky island, the inhabitants of which maintain themselves principally by sponge-diving. Here I purchased a quantity of small silver coins, which seem to have been struck at Miletus, but have been attributed to Hekatomnos, Prince of Caria, because the letters 🇬🇷 appear on the larger specimens. I was told that they were found at a place called Gherelli, three hours to the north of Budrum.102

The primates of Calymnos received me very kindly, and showed me all the inscriptions and other antiquities known to them.

We visited the church of Christos, built on the site and with the ruins of the Temple of Apollo. On the shore I was shown a stelé with a decree