T he form o f trial inftituted on thisoccafion pafled early into
Attica j where by the fea-fide, without the Piraeusi at a place
■ called Phreattys, was a tribunal, at which fugitives for involuntary
murder were permitted to appear on any new accufation and
to plead from their veffeLj.the judges fitting on the fhore.
T h e y were puniffied, i f found guilty 4 but ; if acquitted) had
liberty to depart and fulfil the term o f their banifhment.
•T he ./Egmetans preferved two famous Hatties,: named Damia
and Auxefia, or Ceres and Proferpine, at. Oea, twenty ftadia or
two-miles and a half; from th e city. The Athenians demanded
the yearly offerings, which the Epidaqrfens, from ^hqm they
were taken, had agreed to- make ’ to Minerva Polias and
Eredtheus j or the images, which they regarded as their
property, being formed o f their facted Olive, by command o f
the Delphic oracle. Their dtfpiite isrecorded by Herodotus*
and Paufanias, in the Jfecond century, relates, that he faw the
goddeffes and facrificed to them as at Eleufis.
T h e prefent town, it may be conje<3ured, was Oea. It
Hands on the acclivity of a fteep rock* which perhaps was preferred
to the old fite, as lefe.expofed to the ravages -of corfairs
and other plunderers. It is in the way to the mountain Pan-
hellenius, from which it is feparated by a ©arrow valley, which
winds and runs far into the ifland. It is diftant about three
quarters of an hour from the fea, where neareft, the track narrow
and rough. The houfes are mean, in number about four hundred,
rjfingoa the Hope, with flat roofs and terraces of gravel, f t is
remarkably, feee from gnats and other troublefoastee infodfcs.- The
wells afford good water, hut the air is accounted unhealthy.
On a fummit above the town are feme windmills, and ciftems
or refervoirs, with the rubbifh of:a fortrefsi.enedted; by the
Venetians in 1654. The .houfes, which in idy-6 amounted to
about fourfcore, have beendemoliflied, with the two churches4
one o f which was for the Latin or Catholic p reeks, and had in
• it
it a monument o f a Venetian governor, of marble: The dEgine-
tans have a bifhop, and lo many churches, fcattered over the
ifland, that, as they affirm/ the number equals the days in the
year, i VWe had tlxis place in view at the: temple of Jupiter/ and
afterwards-1 paffed two days in it with a Greek o f Athens, $he
governor * 00 Turk refiding there. I then re-vifited theruip,
and was near an hour and a half riding to it, though in a flrait
line it is not f far off. I was mounted on a low mule, with a-
guide on foot„ the track rough and bad.
T b -e foil of ASgina is, as defcribed by Strabo, very ftony,
especially the bottoms^ and naked, but in fome places not
unfertile In grain * Befides coin, it produces olives, grapes, ahd
plenty-:of almonds.- Perhaps no ifland abounds more in doves,
-pigeons, and partridges. O f the latter, which have red legs, we
fprungTeveralreovies p and our caraboucheri -or captain caught
on© with hfe* hands. It has been related, that the ^ginetans
annually, Wagei war with the feathered -race; carefully'e©lle<aing
hr breaking their eggs/ to present their multiplying, and in
Cpnfequence: a-.'yearly famine. ■ They have no hares, foxes, or
afrolvtsO The rjtersiin.f1fummer? We sdl- dry/ Thb M m d e or
governor :%rhed thel revenuei df'fh e lhatfdAighibr3foir twelve
purfes-V About half this rum was repaid yetfrty-by'fhe caratch-
mohey, os poll-tax.
1 S?A purfe is y o o piafiers^
D C H A P .