In that

and most elegant forms, and all the details of beauty. But those pretty islanders wear such singular dresses, that they must be really beautiful to appear such in so strange a costume. respect they resemble those of Argentiera; with this difference, that the women of Amorgo pass a large yellow handkerchief, made of fine wool, over the forehead and the lower part of the face, twist it round the head in the form of a turban, tie it be. hind, and suffer a long end of it to hang down the back. Amongst eastern nations, fashions are not, as with us, the fancies of a day, arising from instability and the caprice of luxury; but they are old and constant, and their origin is lost in the lapse of ages past. William and Henry were much amused with the Greek manner of fishing. They went out two or three evenings with the fishermen; who had in the stern of the boat a gridiron; on it they burnt pieces of wood, to attract the fish by means of the light; which, while they are follow. ing, the fishermen strike them with their harpoons,

CHAP.

"MY

CHAP. XXVIII.

Y dear nephews," said the colonel," since we are so near the celebrated little island of Nio, we must not omit visiting it. In the port of that island died the most illustrious poet that the world ever produced; I mean the immortal Homer. No less than seven illustrious cities disputed the right of having given birth to that most ancient of all the profane writers. Longinus, the most refined of critics, compares the Iliad to the mid-day, and the Odyssey to the setting sun; and observes, that the latter still preserves its original splendour and majesty, though deprived of its meridian heat. The wind was so favourable, that they soon landed in the port. As they entered the village, which is built on an eminence, they were met by the Turkish governor, who received them with much hospitality and politeness. William, anxious to know whether there were any remains of Homer's tomb, soon entered into conversation, and found the governor well acquainted with the works of the immortal bard. "You will find no vestiges whatever of his tomb," said the governor; "and very few of the modern Greeks retain any recollection of the honourable

burial which their ancestors gave their most favourite poet."

The island of Nio does not offer much, in its present state, to interest the traveller. Corn is the chief produce. Covetousness, and the pressing desire of enjoyment, which is stronger in men who live under oppression and misfortune, and to whom futurity is uncertain, have induced the inhabitants to cut down the fine woods which covered particular districts. This evil is less felt. on account of the mildness of the climate; and the shrubs suffice for the uses of the kitchen. The most remarkable custom there is the feast of St. Gregory, that is kept in the spring; dedicated, one may say, to the beetles, which are very common in those islands. On the eve of the feast, each family ought to make its necessary provision of water and vegetables; for if any were brought in on the feast-day, they would imagine the house must be filled with beetles. This precaution, nevertheless, is not sufficient to conjure away the insects: each head of a family ought to procure two or three, which he puts into a hollow reed, and throws them into the sea, at the same time uttering a thousand maledictions. Although long experience has demonstrated the inefficacy of that ceremony, and its imprecations, yet there is not a single inhabitant who does not scrupulously ob. serve it every year, though their houses are no

P 2

less

less infected. How blind is superstition, when time and ignorance have suffered it to strike deep its roots!

The colonel and his nephews took leave of the hospitable islanders, with some degree of regret, and embarked with a fine breeze for Rhodes. As they walked the quarter-deck, enjoying the different views of the surrounding islands: "One is led to imagine," said the colonel," that this multitude of islands must have formed a continent, in the early ages of the world. A sudden eruption of the waters of the Black Sea, earthquakes, and volcanoes, have perhaps everwhelmed this part of Greece, and rent it into a thousand pieces. Each of these islands, the remains of a country violently agitated, and sunk in a great measure by one of those wonderful catastrophes of nature, whose traces are so strongly marked on the surface of the globe, has, near it, islets, rocks, and sand-banks; fragments of its ancient junction with a neighbouring island, or with the continent. To the curious eye it is easy to trace some of those lines which united those divisions, and to be convinced that all of them once formed an immense continent. Every thing, then, in the universe, is subject to destruction; all created beings undergo different changes, and perish; the Creator alone is immutable and eternal. When the hardest and most solid substances, which apparently ought to brave the wreck of time, are pulverised by the fire of volcanoes,

volcanoes, and dissolved by the action of water and air, man, the creature of a day, disputes the remains of that country devoted to the powerful and constant agents of destruction; instead of engaging himself to cultivate and embellish the spot where he is fixed. Yielding to the fury of ambition, he quits pleasant occupations and useful labours; and arming himself with all the resources which the genius of devastation can engender, he covers with ruin and desolation an abode already exposed to the ravages of ages, and which he can only inhabit for a few short years. At the voice of the ambitious or the wicked, mankind are inflamed. with the rage of battle; they menace, they struggle, they destroy; nations devote themselves to hatred. and death; whole generations swim in blood; and heaps of slain form piles of horror and corruption, which incessant fury still tends to augment."

The wind continuing to favour the passage of our travellers, they were soon landed in the island of Rhodes. The capital, which bears the same name, is situated on the north-east side. It displays no remarkable curiosity, or monument of former times. Those streets, which were laid out with such ingenious art, and on so grand a scale; and that uniform series of buildings, which were raised and adorned by the hand of judicious taste, have been succeeded by narrow winding streets, and buildings destitute of grace, ornament, or regularity. There are, however, some remains, which still testify that the island was once possessed by