Page:Travels & discoveries in the Levant (1865) Vol. 1.djvu/384

332 Greeks present congratulated me with the most unfeigned satisfaction, all, except the proprietor of the field. He became utterly downcast, and was suddenly troubled with doubts as to the boundaries of his property; and when he found on which side of the footpath I intended to pursue my diggings, declared that the ownership of that half of the field had always been a matter of dispute between him and his father-in-law. This statement was evidently an invention of the moment, put forth as the ground of a lawsuit, in case I discovered a great treasure.

How I should have disposed of this unexpected difficulty I know not, but just at this moment a messenger came up from the harbour in hot haste, to tell me that the Turkish steamer which was to take me away had arrived, and that, the anchorage being dangerous, the captain was anxious that I would embark as soon as possible. Here was an end of all my excavations, just at the moment when I seemed to have hit upon the track of a more promising part of the cemetery; but the opportunity of getting away safely was one which I was not likely to have again; so I reluctantly left the scene of my last discovery, and embarked with all haste.

Before I left Calymnos, the Greek who had recommended me to dig in that particular spot waited on me for a bakshish, and told me that about twenty years ago he opened that very grave in the early morning, and without the permission of the owner, who surprised him at his work. He would not tell me what he had found in it; but I gathered from