his right hand must have been that of Acrathos, the river to be poured from his left must have been the stream which, now divided into innumerable runnels, irrigates the steep vineyards cultivated by the laborious ascetics of St. Anne. The low undulating ground of the isthmus is fenced out by a steep ridge, running across the peninsula, and properly constituting its boundary. Here, says Mr. Bowen, A few soldiers of the armed body which the holy community keeps in its pay are stationed to keep out robbers, women, and female animals of all kinds. No mare, cow, she-cat, hen, &c., has been, from immemorial custom, admitted into the precincts of the holy mountain.' (P. 59.) From hence the outline of the mountain rises gradually, and in the main continuously, until it suddenly attains its maximum elevation near the southern extremity. It consists of a central ridge, supported on either side by projecting ranges with deep valleys intervening. This, as it rises towards the peak of Athos, gradually draws nearer to the western shore, which is accordingly more abrupt and precipitous than the eastern one. The latter, on the other hand, is necessarily more broken in outline, has more extensive and fertile valleys, with a greater amount of shelter for timber. The inland parts, if so narrow a slip of land can be said to have any, the sloping sides, that is, of the narrow valleys, are well-cultivated, rich, and smiling. The principal valley is that of the Caryæ, near the centre of the peninsula, and descending to the great monastery of the Iberians. It has on its right bank the dorsal ridge of the mountain, on its left a range of scarcely inferior height, separating it from the woody vale of Batopedion. Athos itself, a magnificent cone, with its summit slightly rounded, rises sheer from the sea to the altitude of nearly seven thousand feet, and sends out spurs to the east and south, forming the two capes which terminate the peninsula in this direction. The lower part of the mountain consists of gneiss and clay-slate, which appear about the southern promontory of St. George; the superincumbent mass is a primitive marble, white, or greyish white, which gives the highest peak a singular and striking effect by rising bare above the woody and bosky steeps, and being brought out into strong relief by the deep shadows which lie in its multitudinous crevices. The ascent of Athos may be made from the monastery of Laura, which lies at its foot, in Belon likens it to a pear. (P, 97.) The epitomiser of Strabo calls it ὄρος μαστοειδές, οξύτατον, ὑψηλότατον. Ρ. 331., ed. Gesner, about seven hours,-six hours, that is, on the back of a mule, and the remainder, which is only accessible to bipeds feathered or unfeathered, as you best can. The laboriousness of the undertaking, and the uncertainty of obtaining a view, have deterred most travellers from the task, Mr. Bowen among the rest. Indeed we have only been so fortunate as to discover two descriptions of the ascent; one by Belon, who saw from hence the isles of Sciathos, Scyros, Lemnos, Thasos, Samothrace, and Imbros; and the other by the learned author of the Flora Græca,' who only saw a few sub-alpine plants. † John Commenus, a physician of Bucharest, to whom we are indebted for a minute description of Athos, written at the commencement of the last century, asserts roundly that the adventurous traveller, or pious pilgrim, who climbs to the summit, may behold both Constantinople and the Cyclades, in utter violation of all geographical possibility §; exactly as the epitomiser of Strabo has insulted the sister science of astronomy, by reporting that the sun shines upon the summit three hours before it can be seen from the shore. Yet Colonel Leake considers that with a clear sky, the principal Macedonian and Thracian summits, Mount Ida, the Euboean mountain Ocha, Dirphe, and Telethrium, and the Thessalian summits Othrys, Pelion, and 'Ossa, might all be connected by the sextant, and possibly the Bithynian with the Macedonian Olympus.' ¶ It is a vain endeavour to depict the natural features of the peninsula, without telling the reader something about its clothing. The hill-sides and upland levels are covered with forests of oak, beech, and chestnut, the latter generally occupying the higher positions. At a still higher elevation, the central ridge, the southern portion of it, at all events, is crested by a belt of pines, from which the peak of Athos rises abrupt and naked. The eastern shore is also partially clothed with pines at the end nearest to the isthmus, although the ground is for the most part devoid of timber in that quarter. Both on Athos and on the neighbouring mainland planes grow beside the streams. They are frequently of enormous size, so large that the monks were * P. 97. † Dr. Sibthorpe's 'First Voyage in the Grecian Seas,' 1787; published in Walpole's Travels in various Countries of the East,' p. 40. | Προσκυνητάριον τοῦ ἁγιόν ὄρους τοῦ ̓́Αθωνος, κ.τ.λ., σπουδῇ καὶ δαπάνῃ τοῦ ἐξοχωτάτου ἰατροῦ κυρίου Ἰωάννου τοῦ Κομμηνοῦ· ἵνα δίδωται χάρισμα τοῖς εὐσεβέσι διὰ ψυχικὴν αὐτοῦ σωτηρίαν. Published in 1701, and reprinted in 1708 by Montfaucon, Palæographia Græca, lib. vii. § Palæogr. Gr. p. 452. Strabo, p. 331. Tour in Northern Greece, vol. iii. p. 128. accustomed, as lately as the sixteenth century, to hollow out their boles for fishing canoes. It was probably thus that they learned their present practice of building boats where they fell the timber, and dragging them ready made to the sea. † The wood is most abundant along the eastern shore, from the greater shelter afforded by the valleys; and there are considerable forests on the opposite side, whenever the hills recede from the sea. The south-western promontory is nearly bare, the natural result as well of its extreme abruptness, as of its exposure to the midday sun. In some parts of the mountain the forest has been cleared, leaving open park-like pastures, dotted with solitary trees; in others, the timber trees are mixed with, or give way to, underwood, chiefly evergreens, as the ilex, bay, and arbutus andrachne. The vine, fig, and olive are extensively cultivated, and principally in the immediate neighbourhood of the monasteries. Pot-herbs of all kinds are raised, and a little Indian corn, but the ordinary cerealia are nearly unknown, and the grain which is consumed is almost wholly imported. There are orangeries at Batopedion, and peach-gardens at Caryæ; and the hazel is so abundant in the vicinity of the latter place, as to have given name to it: its fruit, as all Mr. Curzon's readers know, forms one of the principal export commodities of Athos. It is probable that a much larger proportion of the land would have been cleared and turned into pasture, had there been an effectual demand for it. But as the consumption of animals is checked by the rigid rule by which the monks are forbidden to eat flesh, so it is needless to say that their production is prevented by the equally rigid rule which excludes all things feminine from the peninsula. It is popularly believed that no animal of that sex can live upon it; but neither divine nor human prohibitions can keep out the feræ naturæ: 'rats and mice,' says Colonel Leake, and even smaller deer, as Mr. Bowen can bear witness, multiply and devour them and they are obliged to confess their obligations to the queen bee, without whose assistance they would be deprived of one of their staple productions.' But wild animals of far greater dignity roam and, we presume, breed in the forests. The stag and roe-buck, the fox and wild cat, the wild boar and the hare, are in the list of the Fauna presented to Dr. Sibthorpe less than sixty years ago; but bears and wolves were, and, it is to be supposed, are still wholly unknown.§ Bullocks, chiefly of an * Belon, p. 84. † Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iii. p. 130. Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iii. p. 135. Walpole's Travels, p. 439. iron gray breed, rams, and he-goats, are brought from the monastic granges on and without the isthmus to feed on the mountains or browse the underwood, and, on rare occasions, one of them is killed for the benefit of an exiled patriarch, an invalid Caloyer, a Turk, or a visitor. Caryæ, the village-metropolis, can hardly support a regular butcher, and certainly cannot be plagued with a Smithfield. An unexpected guest, whose appetite has been whetted by the keen sea and mountain air, cannot hope with any confidence for an extemporaneous chop or steak, and must generally be contented with a monastic cock, hardened in involuntary celibacy, or a brace of the wild pigeons which haunt the mountains, descendants, it may be, of the very breed which, as Ælian would have us believe, first appeared there in the storm which dashed to pieces the ill-starred fleet of Darius.* Dogs are kept for security, and tom-cats for amusement. Mules are the ordinary beasts of burden, and probably slip in as neuter, epicene, or doubtful. Not less singular than this strange region are the persons and habitations of its occupants, for natives they are not. The monasteries, properly so called, are twenty in number, and are dispersed over every part of the peninsula.† These have their several estates, both within the territory of Athos and elsewhere; they have each the right of self-government, as well as a share in the government of the community. But besides these, there is a class of religious houses subordinate to the others, and without any independent corporate existence. These are called Asceteria (ἀσκήτηρια or μονίδια), and are subject to one or other of the principal monasteries, being governed by an officer (dikaios) appointed by them. They answer in this re Elian, H. V., i. 15.; Athenæus, ix. 11. † On the eastern shore, beginning at the isthmus, are Chiliantariu, Sphigmenu, Batopedion with its dependent asceterion of St. Demetrius, Pantocrator, the asceteria of St. Elias and St. Basil, Stauroniceta, Iberon with its asceterion of St. John Baptist, Philotheu, Caracalla, Mylopotamus in ruins, and Laura at the south-eastern point. Dependent on Laura, and adjoining it, are the asceteria of St. Paul, St. Demetrius, St. Antony, St. Peter of Athos, St. Gregory Palamas, Cerasia, Capsocalybia, and St. Anne, the last occupying the south-western headland. Proceeding hence along the western shore, we have St. Paul, St. Dionysius, St. Gregory; Simopetra with its asceterion of the Trinity, Xeropotamus, the Russians', with its asceterion of St. Mary, Xenophon with a dependent asceterion, and Dochiariu. Inland, between Chiliantariu and the last-named monastery, are Zographu and Castamonitu, and near Caryæ, in the centre of the peninsula, is Cutlumush. spect to the cells and priories depending on the great abbeys in the Western Church. To the monasteries and their dependent asceteria must be added an innumerable quantity of cells and hermitages (ɛɛia) grouped round the asceteria, clustered together, or standing solitary, in almost every part of the holy mountain. Colonel Leake estimates them at not less than three hundred.* All these are inhabited solely by the monks or caloyers (kaλóyɛpot) and their lay-servants, or, to speak more literally, seculars (KooμKoí). A large proportion of the caloyers commence their career in the latter capacity, and are afterwards admitted into the monasteries, on condition of giving their labour for the good of the community. Those, however, who bring with them such a contribution as is regarded as a fair equivalent for labour, are freed from the obligation to menial service. The sum which entitles them to this privilege is variable, but appears at present to be equivalent to about 167. The small proportion of the monks who enter into holy orders belong principally to this class; and their onerous ritual duties occupy their time as completely, and are as effectual a bar to mental cultivation, as the physical labour of their more humble brethren. The monks are divided into three progressive classes: on entering the monastery they undergo a novitiate (pacopopia) of three years; from which they advance to the degree of the Lesser Habit (τὸ μικρὸν σχῆμα οι μάνδιον), and, in rare instances except at the hour of death, to that of the Greater Habit (Tò μéya kai ȧyyεxikov oxiμa). The Lesser Habit, although practically the condition in which they pass their lives, is properly regarded as prospective, and the caloyer who is invested with it is expressly stated to receive it as an earnest of the Greater Habit. On admission the candidate pledges himself to abide perpetually in the monastic life, in celibacy, temperance, and piety, in obedience to the superior and to all the brotherhood. On admission to the highest order he repeats the same vows, and adds a solemn renunciation of the world and the things that are therein, according to the commandment of the Lord.' He is then invested with the cowl, and scapular, or analabus, the latter in token of his taking up the cross.† The discipline is severe, the services long and laborious. Mr. Bowen says: The services in the churches of Athos last six or seven hours every day; and on great festivals or fasts, eleven or twelve hours, or *Northern Greece, vol. iii. p. 134. † Goar, Rituale Græcorum, pp. 468-519. |