We left Kalabaki by Meteora, and reached Trikhala about sunset. The solitude of the town and the vastness of the cemeteries gave one the creeps; and hearing that the plague was in the town at that moment, I mounted again, and rode four hours further to a khan and slept there.
Next day we rode to Phersala (twelve hours); but the plague being there also, we proceeded a further four hours to a khan under Thaumaco (sixteen hours' riding). From Meteora to Phersala is one uninterrupted plain which I thought would never end. I saw many villages, but much misery--especially in Trikhala and Phersala.
Next day we got to Zituni (six hours) about noon. I did not venture to stay on account of the plague, and passed on to Molo, at which we arrived in the evening, passing through the Straits of Thermopylæ.
Molo is a village of only 200 houses, and yet forty persons had died of the plague in it in the last three days. The terrified inhabitants had fled to the mountains, and we found only two hangees (men attached to the han) to receive us. We meant to have slept here, but the cats and dogs howled so terribly (always a symptom of the plague) that I could not sleep in comfort; so as the moon shone bright, we mounted and rode six hours further to a village opposite Parnassus, passing in safety the fountain famous for robbers who are almost always stationed there. The scenery here is very fine and romantic. In six hours more, after crossing two little plains besides that of Chæronæa, we arrived at Livadia (February 3rd). What between the cold, the horror of the plague, and the fatigue, it had been an appalling journey."
[44] The Gardiki massacre took place about 1799. In Ali's youth, his tower had been stormed by the people of Gardiki and his mother and sister outraged--at least, so he said. He nursed his revenge for forty years, and then gratified it by massacring the whole population of the village.
[45] Author of a valuable account of Greece at this time.
ATHENS--TO ZANTE FOR SALE OF PHIGALEIAN MARBLES--RETURNS TO ATHENS--FEVER--SPENCER STANHOPE--TRIP TO MARATHON, ETC.--RAMAZAN--LIVING OUT IN THE COUNTRY--A PICNIC AT SALAMIS--PRESENTED WITH A BLOCK OF PANATHENAIC FRIEZE--TRIP TO ÆGINA--LEAVES ATHENS FOR ITALY.