DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4593#0071
54 THE ISLES AND SHRINES OF GREECE
candle-light" — and quietly stole back to bed. It was
not long before the paternal clergyman followed.
For their hospitality the monks made no charge,
but accepted with thanks the contribution we offered.
I was told that there were some sixty women and
some twenty men at this monastery, which serves as a
sort of hospital for the surrounding country, people
with mental as well as physical derangements being
sent here for cure.
By six o'clock in the morning the rain had ceased,
but the clouds hung heavy over the mountain-peak,
and it was too late to make the ascent. We decided,
therefore, to drive across the island to Samos on the
east side, where we might hire a sloop for Ithaca.
We said adieu to the monks and their mountain
shrine. The carriages which had brought us from
Argostoli, on the west side of Cephalonia, we had
retained over night, so that we were able to proceed
directly to Samos without retracing our steps. The
ride over the mountains, from which the clouds had
lifted, afforded one of the grandest views in the
Ionian Isles, the island of Zante appearing in the
south, and the rocky ridge of " far-seen" Ithaca
looming up to the east. Before noon we had reached
Samos. Some of the suitors of Penelope lived here.
It is situated in a beautiful bay on the strait which
divides Cephalonia from Ithaca. The town is small
and has no such importance as it had in Homer's
days, and probably could not furnish any rich
princely suitors to a modern Penelope. In the
small village hotel there were hanging two pictures
of very indifferent artistic quality, which, to the only
Americans on the island of- Cephalonia, were sugges-
candle-light" — and quietly stole back to bed. It was
not long before the paternal clergyman followed.
For their hospitality the monks made no charge,
but accepted with thanks the contribution we offered.
I was told that there were some sixty women and
some twenty men at this monastery, which serves as a
sort of hospital for the surrounding country, people
with mental as well as physical derangements being
sent here for cure.
By six o'clock in the morning the rain had ceased,
but the clouds hung heavy over the mountain-peak,
and it was too late to make the ascent. We decided,
therefore, to drive across the island to Samos on the
east side, where we might hire a sloop for Ithaca.
We said adieu to the monks and their mountain
shrine. The carriages which had brought us from
Argostoli, on the west side of Cephalonia, we had
retained over night, so that we were able to proceed
directly to Samos without retracing our steps. The
ride over the mountains, from which the clouds had
lifted, afforded one of the grandest views in the
Ionian Isles, the island of Zante appearing in the
south, and the rocky ridge of " far-seen" Ithaca
looming up to the east. Before noon we had reached
Samos. Some of the suitors of Penelope lived here.
It is situated in a beautiful bay on the strait which
divides Cephalonia from Ithaca. The town is small
and has no such importance as it had in Homer's
days, and probably could not furnish any rich
princely suitors to a modern Penelope. In the
small village hotel there were hanging two pictures
of very indifferent artistic quality, which, to the only
Americans on the island of- Cephalonia, were sugges-