it appears to have been, a grand refort of fanciful devotees and
fecluded hermits, a nurfery of faints, another Athos or holy
mountain.
W e were fupplied with corn for our horfes and with provir
lions from a village by the head of the lake; where are veftiges
of antient building. There probably was Thymbria, a village
in Caria, within four ftadia or half a mile of Myus; by which
was a Charonium or facred cave; one o f thofe which the antients
fuppofed to communicate with the infernal regions, and to ba
filled with the deadly vapours of lake Avernus. We purchafed
water from the huts in Myüs at a dear rate; and fiffi taken in
the lake with a fmall trident.
T he old nuifance of Myus, gnats, fwarmed already in the
air, teafing us exceedingly j and, toward the evening, the in-
fide of our tent Was blackened with flies cluttering round about
the poles. One of our men, thinking to expell and deftroy
them by a fudden explofion of gunpowder, procured a momentary
riddance, and fet fire to the canvas in three or four places.
C H A P . LI.
The lake of Myus— An ijlet— A rock in the lake— Another ijlet
— Another— JunSlion o f the lake 'with the Mceander— Altars
and niches.
T H E lake of Myus is vifible both from Priene and Miletus.
It is much longer than it is broad. The water is infipid, and
not drinkable. We obferved the inbat here as at Smyrna j a
breeze lightly ikimming along the fmooth furface, then fpring-
ing gently up, and increafing with the day; the waves agitated,
and moving in regular progrefiion toward the {bore. On the
edges and round about it are fquare towers and ruinous cattles,
befides
befides one at Myus; ereifed in times of war or rapine, to
fecure and command the pafles.
T he lake has in it feveral rocky iflets. One, near Myus, is
furrounded with an ordinary wall inclofing the ruin of a church.
The water is fo {hallow, that we once waded acrofs. It was
chofen as the beft point of view for a drawing of the city and
mountain. Our fervant found there the nett of fome water-fowl
in a hole of the wall, filled with large eggs, fpeckled with red.
Among the rubbifh was a marble with a fepulchral infcription,
“ Heraclides fon of Sotades, Neocore, or ‘Temple-Sweeper, to He-
“ cate.” This temple was perhaps by the Charonium near Thymbria.
The Neocori had the general care of the temples, to which
they belonged j and the office was accounted very honourable.
It was fometimes conferred on cities, and is found infcribed
among their titles.
L ower down the lake is a rock, which I vifited in a boat, or
rather a few boards badly fattened together. I had with me the
Swifs and one of the natives. It is joined to the continent by a
low fand-bank, and has a wall o f defpicable patch-work round
it. Mount Titanus is the margin of the lake on that fide. Our
return to Myus was attended with fome rifque. It was evening,
our float flight, the gale ftrong, and the fea rough.
I was defirous to go down the lake to its mouth. The Inbat?
feemed regular, and it was expected would waft us pleafantly
back. We embarked in the morning in a large boat, but could
procure no fail. We rowed to a pidrurefque iflet, beyond the
rock, covered with ruins of a monaftery, and found an infcription
in Greek over the door-way of the church, but the letters
fo difguifed by ligatures exceedingly complicated, that I could
neither copy nor decypher it. On a. couple of marbles in the
wall is carved a double hatchet, and under it the name of the
proprietor, “ Jupiter of Labranda.” This deity was much wor-
fhipped in Caria, to which province Myus once belonged. We
Y A13“