DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4996#0093
ENTRY INTO THE CONVENT. 75
coding ravine, among loose blocks of stone, rolled from the precipices
above, approached the convent walls, -which, although prison-like in
their exterior, had the reputation of enclosing a sort of rude comfort
within. There was an old watch-tower, but no look-out: the place
seemed utterly abandoned, and we crept, unbailed, and seemingly
unnoticed, under the high wall; and, having forgotten our intro-
ductory letter, seated ourselves in the shade, to wait for the camels,
under the aerial entrance, thirty feet from the ground, by which
alone admittance is obtained into this jealous stronghold. Two or
three small rusty cannon pointed down on our heads, seeming as if
they had dozed into the rust of untold years, and would be in
no hurry to awake to mischief. We had seated ourselves on the
ground, with our backs to the wall, and were dozing off from fatigue,
when we were startled by the grating of the iron door over our
heads, followed by the projecting of a long white beard, the turning
of a windlass, a descending rope with a bar across, and an inter-
rogation in modern Greek, to which neither of us could reply.
More beards now squeezed into the narrow trap-doorway, and signs
were made that we should mount. I caught hold of the rope, but
before properly securing my seat across the bar, the windlass be-
gan to turn, and I found myself suspended between heaven and
earth, grasping desperately the greasy rope, with my teeth set, and
my legs dangling, in momentary risk of a dangerous fall if my grasp
should relax, as it was about to do, when, at the critical moment, a
vigorous brother, suddenly pouncing on me from the door-way,
pulled me in safely, and tumbled me in a heap on the floor of the
corridor. All this passed in even less time than it takes to tell it.
Upon recovering breath after this perilous ascent, I found my-
self in presence of the Superior and several of the brethren. The
Superior, as I perceived at a glance, was not the venerable old man
mentioned by Stephens and Robinson, but a person of middle age,
grave, intelligent, and rather reserved in manner and appearance.
He welcomed me kindly; but without bestowing on me the holy
kiss, which, however evangelical, has come, in these evil days, as
the monks have at length discovered, to be matter of ungracious
coding ravine, among loose blocks of stone, rolled from the precipices
above, approached the convent walls, -which, although prison-like in
their exterior, had the reputation of enclosing a sort of rude comfort
within. There was an old watch-tower, but no look-out: the place
seemed utterly abandoned, and we crept, unbailed, and seemingly
unnoticed, under the high wall; and, having forgotten our intro-
ductory letter, seated ourselves in the shade, to wait for the camels,
under the aerial entrance, thirty feet from the ground, by which
alone admittance is obtained into this jealous stronghold. Two or
three small rusty cannon pointed down on our heads, seeming as if
they had dozed into the rust of untold years, and would be in
no hurry to awake to mischief. We had seated ourselves on the
ground, with our backs to the wall, and were dozing off from fatigue,
when we were startled by the grating of the iron door over our
heads, followed by the projecting of a long white beard, the turning
of a windlass, a descending rope with a bar across, and an inter-
rogation in modern Greek, to which neither of us could reply.
More beards now squeezed into the narrow trap-doorway, and signs
were made that we should mount. I caught hold of the rope, but
before properly securing my seat across the bar, the windlass be-
gan to turn, and I found myself suspended between heaven and
earth, grasping desperately the greasy rope, with my teeth set, and
my legs dangling, in momentary risk of a dangerous fall if my grasp
should relax, as it was about to do, when, at the critical moment, a
vigorous brother, suddenly pouncing on me from the door-way,
pulled me in safely, and tumbled me in a heap on the floor of the
corridor. All this passed in even less time than it takes to tell it.
Upon recovering breath after this perilous ascent, I found my-
self in presence of the Superior and several of the brethren. The
Superior, as I perceived at a glance, was not the venerable old man
mentioned by Stephens and Robinson, but a person of middle age,
grave, intelligent, and rather reserved in manner and appearance.
He welcomed me kindly; but without bestowing on me the holy
kiss, which, however evangelical, has come, in these evil days, as
the monks have at length discovered, to be matter of ungracious