W e left the conful’s houfe on Sunday the laft day of September,
in the evening, and palling the river Meles, rode with the
caftle-hill of Smyrna on our right hand to a gap in the wall of
the pomoerium. We crolfed the bed of a torrent, and foon arrived
at Sedicui, a fmall but pleafant village, a few miles diftant.
We palled the night at a houfe, which Mr. Lee, who had accompanied
us, rented of a Turk j the alylum, where afterwards
we had refuge from the plague and Smyrna.
W e were on horfeback again at five in the morning, before
day-break, going fouthward. A firing of camels was in motion at
the fame time, the foremoll with a bell fattened about his neck
and tinkling. The dawn foon after began to difclofe the blue
tops of the mountains, and the fun riling coloured the Iky with
a rich variety of tints. The air was fdft and fragrant. We
palled by an ordinary bridge or two over water-courfes, then
dry; and through a wet bottom and a heath covered with pines,
wild thyme, and many large thickets of myrtle in flower. On the
Hopes of the mountains were feveral villages. We difmounted
about eight at a coffee-fhed Handing by the fide of the road near
a hut, called Olalanazzi. One of the rivers, which we crolfed
in travelling along the coall, rifes there from four heads. The
ftreams foon unite in a clear brook, and wind in the lhade over
a clean gravelly bed, with gentle cafcades and a pleafing murmur.
In it were many fmall filhes and tortoifes. Each fource
is enveloped with bulhes of myrtle intermixed with plane-trees j
and the hut is between two, which are about fifty yards afunder.
The agreeable frelhnefs and verdure produced by thefe lively
currents afford a moll grateful relief to the thirlly fun-burnt traveller.
That the antient Ionians were not infenfible to the
charms of the Ipot may be inferred from the velliges of buildings
near it, and from the remnants of marble.
. A f t e r drinking coffee we went on, and entering a hollow
way fliaded with pines, came in view of a ruined caravanfera or
building
building for the reception of travellers, near an extenfive plain.
Here a llream defcends through a pleafant vale, in which are
fome fcattered cottages, named Terrenda, with a mill, by which
we dined on a green plat, when we returned. Among the low
bulhes, on a gentle riling clofe by, are fome marble fragments j
and, fearching about, we found by the road an infcription,
which has belonged to an heroum or fepulchre. It was well
cut on a fquare Hone, and perhaps near the fite of the edifice.
At ten we paffed by Hortena, a llraggling village. On the left
hand is a fmall Turkilb burying-ground by a fountain, and vef-
tiges of building. We arrived an hour after at Tourbali, where
we dined by a well near the khan under a Ipreading tree, and
were much incommoded by dull and wind. The roof of the
liable was fupported by broken columns, and in the wall was a.
piece of doric frieze, with lome fragments removed, it is likely,,
from the ruins of Metropolis.
W e were told here, that the road'farther on was befet with
Turcomans. Thefe, as is fuppofed, are the defcendants of the
Nomades Scythae or Shepherd Scythians j and are bulled, as of
old, in breeding and nurturing cattle ; leading, as then, an urt-
fettled life, not forming villages and towns with liable habitations,
but flitting from place to place as the feafon and their
convenience directs j chuling their llations, and overfpreading
without controul the vail negledted pallures of this defert empire.
They were early a nuifance to the Greeks, and in a
treaty with one of the Sultans, the emperor requires him to pu-
nilh as many of them as were his fubjedts, and had trefpaffed on.
their territories. They are there faid to live by theft and robbery,
an article in which likewile the uniformity of charadter
has been preferved. They vary in favagenefs and violence, as
the refpedtive clans happen to be more or lefs humanized by lo-
cial intercourfe. and attention to civil life.
T he aga of Tourbali and our Armenians, would have per-
fuaded us to Hay until the next mornings but as it was not yet.
noon