Page:Travels & discoveries in the Levant (1865) Vol. 1.djvu/346

296 and, from the variety of remote and unfrequented places which they visit, they often pick up very rare and curious specimens. There is no better place in the Archipelago to buy coins than this island immediately after the return of the sponge-divers in the autumn. I bought an interesting coin of Cilicia which was found in a cargo of wheat from Tarsus.

In the old times, when the Archipelago swarmed with pirates, the Calymniotes dwelt in a fortified city perched on the top of a steep rock, as the inhabitants of Astypalæa do to this day. Sentinels were perpetually stationed on the hills to give a signal in case of the approach of pirates. This custom is curiously commemorated in the names of two of the highest mountains in the island, one of which is called Vigli, "the watch," the other Mero Vigli (🇬🇷), "the day-watch."

Since the Greek war of independence, the greater security of the Archipelago has led the Calymniotes to desert their old fortified city, and to build a new one a little lower down the mountain-side. This town is situated on the neck of land half-way between Linaria and the harbour of Pothia. At this latter place a second town is growing up, which will probably some day be the capital.

The houses are very studiously whitewashed outside, and from their extreme regularity and uniformity of size, look, at a distance, like those cubes of chalk which are given to beginners to draw from. Inside, I missed the neatness and comparative cleanliness of the Rhodian peasant's