DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4593#0353
324 THE ISLES AND SHRINES OF GREECE
dow and then jumped out again, while cuckoos in
the vale conscientiously counted the hours. We
adjusted our appetites to a breakfast which was an
exact repetition of our supper. Two swallows came
in and flew round the room. "What do you call
them?" I asked the proprietor. "XeXiSdw," he
answered, and the Homeric form ^eXtSwy is also
used.
We took a morning stroll in the vale, the beauties
of which grow by acquaintance. The whole valley
was vocal with bird songs. For a long distance
the road is lined with oaks and plane-trees, whose
trunks form a wall or palisade, their roots washed
by the rushing river, which sometimes overflows its
banks. Neither here nor at Larissa could I see
Homer's silver-eddying (apyvpoSwrjs) river. It was
freighted with silt or clay, and in Dakota they
would have called it the " Little Muddy."
For centuries the Vale of Tempe has been famed
for its beauty. It has fairly won its reputation.
The comparison must be made not with the world
as we know it, not with Chamouni or Zermatt or
the great canons in the Rockies and Sierras of our
own land, but with other parts of Greece. Compared
especially with Attica, the Vale of Tempe must
have furnished a contrast then as now delightful to
the traveller. It is said that Pompey, fleeing through
the vale after his defeat at Pharsalus, drank, at the
end of a forty-mile ride, of the waters of the
Peneius.
We returned to Larissa for the night, and the
next morning started for Metcora and the mid-air
monasteries. To do this we were obliged to go
dow and then jumped out again, while cuckoos in
the vale conscientiously counted the hours. We
adjusted our appetites to a breakfast which was an
exact repetition of our supper. Two swallows came
in and flew round the room. "What do you call
them?" I asked the proprietor. "XeXiSdw," he
answered, and the Homeric form ^eXtSwy is also
used.
We took a morning stroll in the vale, the beauties
of which grow by acquaintance. The whole valley
was vocal with bird songs. For a long distance
the road is lined with oaks and plane-trees, whose
trunks form a wall or palisade, their roots washed
by the rushing river, which sometimes overflows its
banks. Neither here nor at Larissa could I see
Homer's silver-eddying (apyvpoSwrjs) river. It was
freighted with silt or clay, and in Dakota they
would have called it the " Little Muddy."
For centuries the Vale of Tempe has been famed
for its beauty. It has fairly won its reputation.
The comparison must be made not with the world
as we know it, not with Chamouni or Zermatt or
the great canons in the Rockies and Sierras of our
own land, but with other parts of Greece. Compared
especially with Attica, the Vale of Tempe must
have furnished a contrast then as now delightful to
the traveller. It is said that Pompey, fleeing through
the vale after his defeat at Pharsalus, drank, at the
end of a forty-mile ride, of the waters of the
Peneius.
We returned to Larissa for the night, and the
next morning started for Metcora and the mid-air
monasteries. To do this we were obliged to go