DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9840#0290
236 DESCRIPTION OF A CAVERN [CHAP.
The olive-trees of Sarko were not, however, burnt;
and a cavern which exists in the mountain to the west
of the village, and the entrance of which could not be
approached and filled up from above like those of Melid-
hdni or Vaffe, served as a place of refuge and security
for the villagers, whenever Ate " cried havock, and let
slip the dogs of war,1-1 against the Christians of this
neighbourhood.
We took up our abode with a brother of the Arch-
bishop"^ Oekondmos, who is himself a native of Sarko,
and who had promised, before I left Megalo-Kastron, to
meet me here. He had already arrived, and, since he
is as intelligent as he is obliging, I spent some very
agreeable hours with him, learning much from him, as
I had also done in Megalo-Kastron, about the present
condition, ecclesiastical as well as eivil, of the island,
and respecting the principal events of the ten years1
war.
March 8.
The entrance of the cavern of Sarko is in a valley
to the west of the village. We were less than a quarter
of an hour in reaching it. The Oekondmos did not
feel any wish to explore its recesses, and his ample
clerical robes would have suffered severely had he en-
tered it with us. We were in the cavern about three
hours. I made no measurements of its dimensions, as
we descended through its dark passages, and will there-
fore begin my description from the deepest and most
distant part to which we penetrated.
We found ourselves, at last, in an apartment nearly
circular, and about thirty feet in diameter : the ground
is partly covered with water, which prevents me from
attempting to explore some openings seen in the rocks
at the sides of the chamber, as might in all probability
be done in the months of July or August. Return-
ing, we leave this chamber by a passage fifty feet long,
and so narrow that there is only room for one person to
pass at a time: it is low throughout, and in many places
The olive-trees of Sarko were not, however, burnt;
and a cavern which exists in the mountain to the west
of the village, and the entrance of which could not be
approached and filled up from above like those of Melid-
hdni or Vaffe, served as a place of refuge and security
for the villagers, whenever Ate " cried havock, and let
slip the dogs of war,1-1 against the Christians of this
neighbourhood.
We took up our abode with a brother of the Arch-
bishop"^ Oekondmos, who is himself a native of Sarko,
and who had promised, before I left Megalo-Kastron, to
meet me here. He had already arrived, and, since he
is as intelligent as he is obliging, I spent some very
agreeable hours with him, learning much from him, as
I had also done in Megalo-Kastron, about the present
condition, ecclesiastical as well as eivil, of the island,
and respecting the principal events of the ten years1
war.
March 8.
The entrance of the cavern of Sarko is in a valley
to the west of the village. We were less than a quarter
of an hour in reaching it. The Oekondmos did not
feel any wish to explore its recesses, and his ample
clerical robes would have suffered severely had he en-
tered it with us. We were in the cavern about three
hours. I made no measurements of its dimensions, as
we descended through its dark passages, and will there-
fore begin my description from the deepest and most
distant part to which we penetrated.
We found ourselves, at last, in an apartment nearly
circular, and about thirty feet in diameter : the ground
is partly covered with water, which prevents me from
attempting to explore some openings seen in the rocks
at the sides of the chamber, as might in all probability
be done in the months of July or August. Return-
ing, we leave this chamber by a passage fifty feet long,
and so narrow that there is only room for one person to
pass at a time: it is low throughout, and in many places