Page:Travels & discoveries in the Levant (1865) Vol. 1.djvu/310

260 the foundation of a temple, and Hellenic tombs, have from time to time been discovered. It seems probable, therefore, that the town of Iaysos occupied the site marked out for it in the Admiralty Chart.

M. Berg, a German painter sent by the king of Prussia to the Levant, arrived here a few days ago, and is at present my guest. The principal object of his mission is to visit Lycia; but he proposes to remain here till the spring, and is now exploring Rhodes under my auspices. He has made a beautiful panoramic sketch of the town of Rhodes, and many drawings of the architecture of the Knights. I was in hopes that he would be able to make studies of the costume of the peasants, but they have a curious superstition about portraits, which makes them very unwilling to be drawn. In their minds the idea of likeness is connected with that of life, so that the individual who allows his portrait to be taken is believed to be thenceforth in the power of the person who possesses his likeness. The other day, in a remote village, I succeeded with infinite trouble, and through the intervention of Panga, in persuading a young girl to sit to M. Berg. Just as the sketch was completed, the mother arrived, and on learning what had occurred in her absence, reproached her daughter with as much bitterness as if she had committed some heinous crime, and made such an onslaught on the poor painter, that, after vain efforts to appease the clamour, he tore up his drawing.

This curious superstition seems a relic of the old belief that witches had power over persons by