DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5541#0566
Chap." xxx.]
THE HARP A SV.
533
first man : I regretted that I had not acquired a greater
facility in talking Turkish.
The heat to-day was quite overpowering, as the following
statement will show, the thermometer being placed in the
draught of an open window to the north.—Noon 83° Fahr.;
2 p.m. 86; 4 p.m. 87; 6 p.m. 83; 7 p.m. 78. In the evening
a shaded walk beneath my window was the favourite
rendezvous of the young women of the village. They were
all good-looking, but one of them, about 22 or 23 years of
age, was a perfect specimen of Lydian or Ionian beauty.
A sculptor might have chosen her face as a model for a
Venus or a Diana. My Greek host and his sister had sur-
prised me much by the extent of the information they
possessed and the anxious wish they showed for more, on
a great variety of subjects, convincing me that the Greeks
have great capabilities for knowledge and acquirements, if
their mental faculties were allowed to expand, and their
energies well directed; but, owing to the want of education
and of an enlightened government, their moral character is
at present at a very low ebb.
Monday, October 17.—Nazeli Bazaar to Aidin Ghiuzel
Hissar eight hours.* The road by which we travelled
amongst vineyards, olive-grounds, and fig-plantations, was
excellent the whole way to Aidin, and with very little
trouble might be made practicable even for carriages.
It was bounded on each side by high hedge-rows full
of lofty reeds, forming an agreeable shade. Two miles
from Nazeli we were opposite the valley of the Harpa
Su (the Arpasus of the ancients), on the south bank of
the Mieander. Numerous guard-houses, coffee-houses, and
huts were passed at regular distances during the course
of the day, the latter well supplied with large earthen-
ware jars filled with water for the use of travellers. At the
fifth mile many shafts of fluted Doric columns were lying in
* The proper name of the town is Ghieuzel Hissar, but it is called Aidin Ghiu-
zel Hissar, as being in the province of Aidin, and to distinguish it from others of
the same name, signifying Beautiful Castle. It is often called simply Aidin.
THE HARP A SV.
533
first man : I regretted that I had not acquired a greater
facility in talking Turkish.
The heat to-day was quite overpowering, as the following
statement will show, the thermometer being placed in the
draught of an open window to the north.—Noon 83° Fahr.;
2 p.m. 86; 4 p.m. 87; 6 p.m. 83; 7 p.m. 78. In the evening
a shaded walk beneath my window was the favourite
rendezvous of the young women of the village. They were
all good-looking, but one of them, about 22 or 23 years of
age, was a perfect specimen of Lydian or Ionian beauty.
A sculptor might have chosen her face as a model for a
Venus or a Diana. My Greek host and his sister had sur-
prised me much by the extent of the information they
possessed and the anxious wish they showed for more, on
a great variety of subjects, convincing me that the Greeks
have great capabilities for knowledge and acquirements, if
their mental faculties were allowed to expand, and their
energies well directed; but, owing to the want of education
and of an enlightened government, their moral character is
at present at a very low ebb.
Monday, October 17.—Nazeli Bazaar to Aidin Ghiuzel
Hissar eight hours.* The road by which we travelled
amongst vineyards, olive-grounds, and fig-plantations, was
excellent the whole way to Aidin, and with very little
trouble might be made practicable even for carriages.
It was bounded on each side by high hedge-rows full
of lofty reeds, forming an agreeable shade. Two miles
from Nazeli we were opposite the valley of the Harpa
Su (the Arpasus of the ancients), on the south bank of
the Mieander. Numerous guard-houses, coffee-houses, and
huts were passed at regular distances during the course
of the day, the latter well supplied with large earthen-
ware jars filled with water for the use of travellers. At the
fifth mile many shafts of fluted Doric columns were lying in
* The proper name of the town is Ghieuzel Hissar, but it is called Aidin Ghiu-
zel Hissar, as being in the province of Aidin, and to distinguish it from others of
the same name, signifying Beautiful Castle. It is often called simply Aidin.