Tel & Fax +355 4 375429 E-mail: smarko@icc.al.eu.org Tirana Albania   The Media's Monitoring Center for the Minority in Albania  Monitoring Report for the election?s campaign for the Himara Municipality. In the program:   1. The written and electronic press for the selection of the candidates and the electoral propaganda. 2. What were the impacts of influences of Information and propaganda for the population, transmitted by the Albanian media in general? 3. What was Himara for the Albanian media? How politics has influenced the nationalist interpretations of the electoral campaign? What with the role of state institutions?  4. ODHIR report, that recognized Himara as Greek Ethnity Minority, as well as irregularities in the election?s campaign in Himara. Reaction post-Himara and the tensions between Greek-Albanian in the Albanian press. 1. The written and electronic press regarding the selection of the candidates and the electoral propaganda.  The Media?s Monitoring Center for the Minority and Ethnic Groups in Albania had observed closely the evolution of the election in the municipality of Himara in both phases. The team charged for the survey has as its objective to be informed for the election?s propaganda in the written as well in the electronic press. For this two teams were organized. The team in Tirana monitored the information from the national coverage written press and electronic media, while the local group was charged with the monitoring of the press in the district of Vlora. The idea of this initiative of the Center were compatible with the signals perceived in the beginning of the electoral campaign one month prior to elections. In the monitoring process were chosen the newspapers ?Koha Jonë?, ?Albania ?,?Gazeta Shqiptare?, ?Shekulli?, ? Zëri I Popullit?, ?Republika and ?Rilindja Demokratike?. For the electronic media were selected TVSH, TVA, KLAN, SHIJAK TV and TELENORBA. The work began by following and looking closely the interpretations and the first signals, that coincided with an internal quarrel within the Human Rights Party (HRP). In the beginning of the election campaign, the Albanian press had taken position in one direction, that of covering the specter of subjects that they represented, almost in two distinct camps, that of SP and DP. But suddenly after two weeks before October 01, the attention was diverted to the candidates that were competing for the municipality of Himara.  The first to take the step was ?Koha Jonë? with a bombastic title, according to which Greece had poured a lot of moneys in Himara in the benefit of the Human Rights Party (HRP) candidate. Immediately the press continued in the events happening in Himara, a municipality where the voting community was 9,000, very particular if compared with the other municipalities, that became the focal point of pre-electoral attacks against the cantidate of HRP. But, the press and especially the televisions intensify the electoral attacks in one direction, all the batteries against the ? Greek of HRP even of OMONIA?. A quite bizarre title was that of ?Shekulli? that entitled ? The Albanian Mato against the Greek Bollano?, that brought the nationalistic temperature in the highest levels. In the eve of the soccer match between Greece and Albania, the press and the electronic media, stimulated intentionally a political propaganda in sport, writing and making reportages and information, that were politicized, nationalizing the Albanian sport. Titles such as ? Greece surrenders before Albania ?, ? Greece in knee before Albania?, ?Greece Fall?, increased the nationalistic spirit of Albanian population, that didn?t considered it not as international sportive event, but rather as war of Albania towards Greece, that ended with an ?knock down for the Greek intentions in Albania?. The high political temperature, which was evident even in sport, has aimed to serve only to serve to the election campaign as consequence of the increased nationalist spirit in the eve of elections. 2. What was the general consequence of the influences of information and electoral propaganda for the population, transmitted by the press?  According to the conclusions reached by our journalists, the aim of increasing the nationalistic spirit was to win the elections for another reason, too. The Riviera is a very attractive regarding the position and nature had invested a lot in it. According to the opinion of many Himariotes, the abuses of Law 7501 for the land distribution, had brought big appetite to many people engaged in politics, to invest in this area. They think that the attack of the head of SP toward the electorate of HRP in Himara, labeled as ? criminals? have no valid basis and surprisingly isn?t linked with an diplomatic issue as is suggested by the right circles. The speech of Mr. Nano in Himara two days before the elections, was not without heavy consequences in an area that is populated 35% with comers from other parts of Albania, mainly from North Albania. Himara, whose population of 12,000, of which 9,000 having the right to vote, had to add even this other part in an abusive manner. Withn the exception of Himara, where exists a considerable working power, almost in all the other areas the population capable to work is in emigration in Greece and US. According to our surveys, in the voting lists in Himara (and its seven villages) were missing 25% of voters and were put names of dead persons. The nationalistic campaign had its impacts in Himara. The local population began to be treated as enemies with the newcomer population in Himara, but even with a military presence that became increasing. Meanwhile from our journalist in Dropulli and in Vlora, we learned that the nationalist spirit of the Albanian population took Chauvinist features, as a consequence of the fierce propaganda that was undertaken by the Albanian press. The very next day Nano undertook his speech in Himara, our office noticed that TVSH (Albanian State Television) had transmitted for  20 min the speech of SP chairman as headlines, a practice against the law for the election campaign. Meanwhile all the televisions and the radios treated as headlines the elections in the municipalities of Tirana and Himara. The reaction of the Albanian citizens and those of Greek nationality, seemed to be in a non-equivalent positioning, as the Albanian press had unreasonably poured all the batteries against every notion that was considered Greek.  Not only in Himara, dwelled by inhabitants of Greek Ethnicity Minority, but even in cities like Vlora, Tirana, the anti-Greek feelings and even the anti-Himariote feelings had surpassed the limits. In the electronic media of Vlora TV 6+1 and TV Amantia, began to be elaborated ideas and scenarios, that didn?t have to do with election purposes, but with an ultra nationalistic propaganda, that often used terms not understood by public opinion. So these media used terms such as ? Scenario to occupy Albania?, ? Get on arms and let?s go in Himara?, ?Himara is Albanian and there are no Greeks there?. But especially in the second round, where the attention was focused in the municipality of Himara, these media used chauvinist terminology creating thus a very suspense situation for many Himariotes and others living in Himara. Our journalists have observed that the pressure upon the Himariote-origin citizens, was of distinct chauvinist character, forgetting the fact it was election and not war. As result of these, the Greek-speaking Himariotes overall Albania, have felt themselves very inferior against the pressures requesting to them to be declared Albanians and not Greeks. Today, when the elections are over and not recognized by the HRP (with exception of Himara center) the climate between the Greek minority and the other part is tough and labile.   3. What was Himara for the Albanian media? Do politics influenced the nationalistic interpretation of electoral campaign? And what about the state?s institutions?  In the electoral campaign, especially in the second round, the Albanian didn?t made it clear why the SP candidate declare to be not a Greek speaking as in reverse the HRP candidate was not Albanian speaking. What was the difference with his rival? According to our opinion, the core issue was that the media treated the HRP or the Omonia candidate as ?Greek and adversary of the Albanians?, while the SP candidate was ?patriot and honest?. According to our contacts with both candidates and all the former Mayors of Himara for the last 10 years, one thing is particular - all speak fluent Greek, but in the previous elections, it was never discussed if the vote was for a Greek or Albanian party, for Greeks or Albanians. For the autoctonous Himariotes all are sons of Himara, but it?s unclear of the campaign against the candidate proposed by Omonia, Bolano. In the Albanian press an Olympic Gold medallist as Pirro Dhima, that was declared of Greek nationality from Himara in ?90, and now is defend the Greek colors, is accused that financed a campaign in the favor of the Greek candidate. The Albanian press treated this issue as a propaganda vehicle to attack all the himariotes that has taken the Greek nationality in Greece. Our reporters are interested to know if the SP candidate Mato has such document, but they have received a general answer ? we don?t know for sure, but all his relatives are with Greek documents?. Then the question is asked, why in his declarations in the Albanian press he said that he was Albanian and the candidate of Omonia was Greek. Few days ago before the second round of elections  in Himara, the right press launched he idea to declare HRP outlaw, as a party that don?t serve the national interests. In the same spirit, but in softer tones, was treated even by the left press when declared that ? mercenaries from Greece will vote in Himara ? ignoring the autoctonous migration factor with the same constitutional rights, in which are included even the Himariotes. But, according the foreign press agencies, Himara began to receive a special diplomatic and terminological treatment. The foreign agencies declared that in the second round of elections ? must be payed attention to Himara as there is voted for the Greek Etnic Minority?. The newspaper ?Koha Jone? in fact, went as far as to put forward the idea of a referendum for Himara, intending that this region wanted to be declared independent, but has neither argument not facts to show this. The last tension in the press was when two days before the second round voting, the Prime Minister Meta went in Himara, ending under a military and police threatening, from the police cars to the military ships of the navy. According to our reporters in Himara, the military pressure was the last escalation to frighten the voter in order ? to vote for the national interests?. Exactly in those days a alliance was created ? Alliance for the Nation? that gathered around the SP candidate all the Albanian parties against the candidate of HRP. It was the Albania press that was engaged totally to show the nationalistic-chauvinistic muscles against a representative of a party, that is in a governing coalition, but labeled as fervid Greek (!)    4. The ODHIR report, which recognized the Himara as Greek Ethnic Minority, as irregularities in the elections in Himara. Post Himara reactions and Greek-Albanian tensions in the Albanian press.  Our journalists in Himara have contacted the ODHIR observers during the second round of elections. 10 observers as well as others from diplomatic representatives from Tirana, observers from the Society for Democratic Culture, members of Parliament from Greece and Albania, heads of institutions of Albanian secret service, of Ministry of Interior, militants of SP arrived from Vlora, but even officials of Prefecture of Vlora, journalist from Albania and abroad, all together added to fervid atmosphere of local election in the small municipality of Himara. The aggravated situation reached its peak when Himariotes emigrates were temporarily not allowed to travel to Himara for voting, requiring the intervention of international institutions. All the daily electoral pressure of the Albanian nationalistic press has embarked in Himara and was reflected in the extremist positioning. Our reporters inn Himara reported that the angry police situation, was certainly not a peaceful situation to go voting, but only a conflict that could explode in every moment. This situation was result of a political-nationalistic direction of the Albanian media, where several hot heads transformed the battle for the small municipality of Himara, as an argument where to began a in-perspective diplomatic conflict between Greece and Albania for the Himara question. Seen from this perspective, the nationalist spirit of the Albanian press has influenced in the violation of human rights and liberties in Albania, in the merging of xenophobia directed to the national minorities living in Albania. The high tension created in the elections in Himara and after that, is a gift, hyperbolized by the Albanian press, damaging the Albanian Greek minority. But the report of ODHIR, read immediately after the election?s day, had officially stated that ? the elections in the municipality of Himara were characterized by irregularities at least in three areas inhabited by the Greek ethnic minority?. This report was ?thunder in the blue sky? compared with the what the Albanian press had not accepted - treating Himara as inhabitants of Greek minority of Albania. Thus many newspapers began to react for this declaration labeling ODHIR as ?sold to the Greeks? and that they will never recognize such a declaration where Himara was a Greek ethnic minority. But the articles for the Himara have continued in the Albanian press, with extreme Nationalistic notes, where the firmness of many writers, requested that Himara don?t have nothing in common with Greece, but only with Albania. The declarations of the international institutions for Himara, began to take a smaller and smaller place in the Albanian press or began to be deformed, such as what happened with the declaration of the House of Representatives of the US and more specifically from the Republican Beniamin Gilman, that put a lot of attention to the elections in Himara, inhabitated by Greek Ethnic minority.  In the end, the report prepared by more than 10 journalist of the Media?s Monitoring Center for the Minority in Albania, has concluded that the Albanian press is caught by the nationalistic fever, that certainly will not serve to the objectives of Stability Pact for the Balkan?s region. According to our opinion, the press arised the question of Himara as national interest, under the supervision of the politicians. But the fact remains unclear who is the serious threatening for Albania, as its national security strategy does not determine an external threatening for Albania. Reasoning upon that, we think that, based in the Albanian Constitution, the human rights and those of the minorities, must be respected by all means. In Albania don?t exists a confident register for the population and a exact monitoring system certified by international experts for the minorities and their geographic location is missing, too. Our center, after consultations with the international experts for the minorities, as how to treat the issue of Greek Ethnic Minority in Albania, was advised to give the conclusions of the reports according to the conclusions given by ODHIR and OSCE. The decision was made to report officially for the Greek ethnic minority in Himara and in this framework to monitor the Albanian press. The single clause that exists in the report is the monitoring of the Albanian press and not the international press, even that of neighbor countries. While monitoring closely the Albanian press, there had not been a single official positioning of any Albanian institution that cover the human rights and freedom, even by the Helsinki Committee, or Institutions of media in general. Our center believes that the climate around the Greek Ethnic Minority issue in Himara is an attempt to install a power control, similar to Miloscevic?s,- which is violation of human rights and freedom for the Albanians in Cossovo, creating thus a unparalleled situation beginning with hate and ending in genocide. We think that the Albanian press didn?t learned from the Serb experience - instead, it is showing excessive nationalistic feelings, while in Albania still exist the free vote issue. The tolerance between the minorities and the Albanian population, was affected and the main influence for this happening was caused by politics. Perhaps under a nationalistic mood, the Albanian pseudo-politicians of all colors, showed that for remaining in the power, can use the nationalistic card, neglecting that above all are ?Human Rights and Freedom?, the respect for the Albanian law and Constitution, the International Chart for the Minorities. We think that this fabricated tension, but with consequences in the coexistence of ethnies in Albania, must be discouraged educating the press, used for the nationalistic purposes during the electoral local campaign in Albania.      Tirana October 30, 2000  For the Media's Monitoring Center for the Minority in Albania   Stavri Marko  Director
		The Associated Press Saturday, October 21, 2000; 2:34 PM    TIRANA Albania -- The Albanian Election Commission officially announced Saturday that the governing Socialist Paty won nationwide local elections held earlier this month.   The official commission statement said the Socialists had won 252 seats, the Democratic Party of former President Sali Berisha 118, with the remaining 28 seats spread among other parties.  Throughout the country, 398 seats in town councils were contested.  Voting in the second round Oct. 15 was marked by irregularities, some international observers said. They singled out the southern town of Himara, where they claimed a series of irregularities had occurred, including intimidation of election officials.  The Democratic Party boycotted second-round balloting. Berisha claimed there had been irregularities in a number of areas and said more than 200,000 Albanians were unable to cast their ballot due to inaccurate electoral lists.  The Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, however, said in its report that "the voting was carried out in an orderly manner."  The local election was considered a test for democracy amid the country's volatile mix of poverty and harsh political rivalries, as well as being an indicator for how next year's national elections may proceed.  Berisha's Democrats were the winners in Albania's last local elections, held in October 1996.                                                                                                                    Mare nga Washington Post                                                                                                                                Stavri Marko
			FREE MEDIA NETWORK Tirana Albania  The Center of the Monitoring and information of ethnic Minorities in Albania Press Declaration  In Italiano Dichiarazione stampa Il Centro del Monitoragio ed informazione di Minoranze etniche in Albania, informa instituzioni albanesi ed internazionali, che il clima del conflitto diplomatico Albania Greccia secondo le elezioni nel comune di Himara, il servizio segreto albanese SHISH hanno usato violenza fisica contro il cappo della missione questo centro servizio della stampa a Tirana Stavri Marko. Marko quello la presenta la minoranza etnica greca in Himara aveva dichiarato per un'agenzia internazionale di stampa, che ° Miloshevic e scappato via dalla Jugoslavia ma, il suo fantasma è arrivato in Albania, accusando per shovinismo l'attacco della stampa albanese contro la Minoranza etniche greca in Himara, quello si trova sono pressione terorrizato dai servizi albanesi. Questa dichiarazione e stato complicato doppo un incidente contro il giornalista Marko Il quale, doppo la visita del Primo Ministri Ilir Meta a Himara, lo ha preso (Marko) il meccanismo fotografico e poi buttare in mare davanti a molti giornalisti albanesi e stranieri attualmente in Himara. In tanto gli attacchi contro Marko hanno proseguito a Tirana dove la sua famiglia si trata davanti al terrore improvisanto dallo SHISH.  Per questa ragione Marko ha informato gli Instituzioni internazionali della media ed i diriti umani, il governo albanese e greco di quale dovranno sapere ogni responsabillita dalla sua famiglia, sarra responsabile il servizio albanese SHISH.   In English Tirana 17.10.2000  Press Declaration The Center of the Monitoring and information of ethnic Minorities in Albania, informs Albanian and international institutions, than the climate of the diplomatic conflict Albania and Greece, according the elections in municipal one of Himara, intelligence agency Albanian SHISH have used physical violence counter the cheff of the mission of this international center service of the press to Tirana Stavri Marko. Marko is Greek ethnic minority in Himara had declared for an international agency of press, than ° Miloshevic a long distance from Yugoslavia but, its ghost has arrived in Albania, accusing for shovinism the attack of the Albanian press counter the Greek Minority ethnic in Himara, terrorization from the Albanian Intelligent Services. This declaration has complicated the situation incident against, the journalist Marko which, in the visit of Premier Minister Ilir Meta to Himara, has taken (to Marko) the photographic mechanism to it and then to throw in sea in front of many Albanian and foreign journalists currently in Himara. The attacks to Marko have continued in Tirana where its family in front of the terror improvisatory from the SHISH. For this reason Marko it has informed the international Press Institutions Human Wright Watch, the Albanian and Greek Government which they will have to know every responsibility from its family, will be responsible Albanian Intelligent Service SHISH.   Tirana 17.10.2000
		THE EUROPEAN UNION CALLS ON ALBANIA                                              TO RESPECT THE RIGHTS OF THE GREEK MINORITY Brussels, 26 October 2000 (15:25 UTC+2)   One of the basic criteria for the future development of the EU-Albanian relations is the respect of democratic principles, human rights and the rights of the minorities, responded the European Union Council to a question by Greek Euro-deputy Michalis Papagiannakis concerning the schools of the Greek minority in Albania.  The Greek Euro-deputy, elected with the Coalition of the Left party, had asked if the EU Council is going to make a demarche to the Albanian government which violates the constitutional right of the members of the ethnic Greek minority to get an education in their mother-tongue.                                                                                                                                                               Stavri Marko
		FOREIGN VISITOR ABOUT HIMARA
	The ALBANIAN RIVIERA   If one crossed the Llogara pass, an unbelievable view opens Korfu over the whole Albanian Riviera until. Himara is the largest locality at this coast. The city is suitable in the best way as place of residence. It is not completely as beautiful as the surrounding villages, offers however the necessary infrastructure, in order to be able to enjoy the stay. The whole bay of Himara a beautiful, animated sand beach pulls itself along. Who requires somewhat more peace, lonelier to deserted beaches and bays in the environment can look up with the auto or to foot. The coast of the Albanian Riviera is from unbelievable beauty. In the hills along the coast are castles and several decorations of villages, which are inhabited partly by Greeks. A trip into nature opens unknown and varied planting and animal worlds. In in or two-day trips all objects of interest of south Albania can be achieved.  Much workstation at fantastic beaches  Our small group of seven people (under it four Albanians) has it into a small little house in the center Himaras strikes. We spent the days by the majority at the beaches - once also one night. The environment inquired we usually to foot. Our favourite beach was situated about one hour north of Himara. The way there was an experience for itself. The vegetation from Olivenhainen changed again and again to forest, to large shrubs, to small shrubs, to other shrubs, to rock. Among us the surf of the azure sea brauste. Unknown nature offered many beautiful pictures. Beside already everyday donkeys, sheep and butterflies also several times turtles met us. The beach was almost two kilometers long and few bathing the distributed itself in the best way. Two small restaurants offered cool beverages and blow fish.  Other, somewhat more remote beaches around Himara are completely deserted approximately. One is then a small king over the bay just okkupierte. As such the life in full courses can be enjoyed: Sun, beach, sea, peace, recovery. The sea is of indescribable clarity, the peace by no human impairments is disturbed, the temperatures of water and air is angenem to hot. As subjects however only some small fish are offered to the king. These lonely bays are attainable often only by boat. However one is responsible in this fantastic isolation for food supply. Water against the thirst or the salt on the skin is naturally also not available flowing. Even for sufficient shadows be ensured, can it must become nevertheless often very hot.  As there would be only one coast  The Albanian Riviera, by which became Albanians usually simply only " the coast " (bregu) mentioned, in the northern section approximately around the Llogara pass as the national park avowedly. The region has perfect the climate for summer vacation. The temperatures sink hardly ever under 30°C. The lack of precipitation even often leads to a causing concern water scarceness. The dryness entails naturally also again and again smaller shrub fires.  The coast rises immediately steeply, so that already few kilometers rise from the Ioni sea summit from over 2'000 meters height. This mountains separate the region from the interior hermetically. Owing to the separatingness of the area it remained to a large extent exempted from umweltzerstoerrerischen influences. Only some barracks and many shelters cloud the landscape. The clarity of the water is singular and exceeds the quality of many other places in the Mediterranean. The slopes of the hills were bepflanzt during the communist time with olive or Zitrusbaeumen. These monokulturen are today by the majority neglected, coin/shape however nevertheless still the landscape.  Naturally one does not live on beautiful weather and fantastic beaches alone. The overslept Himara, which offers something on the day hardly, transforms in the evening into lively driving. All guests and the whole population Himaras seem to have appeared itself at the bank promenade. The cool evening hours are used to the pleasure. All loading is opened to deep into the night. The restaurants and Cafés are filled up to the last workstation. The children are before a small railway queue. The road is still for a long time full with people. Only at eleven o'clock becomes it more calmly. Nevertheless the last business did not close yet. And in the Disco hammer the basses still for a long time.  New old hope into the tourism  The further development of the tourism to the Albanian Riviera can be forecast only with difficulty. Despite all beautifulnesses and although at the moment no larger dangers threaten foreign guests than tourists in other southern countries, there will be hardly west Europeans, who will coin/shape this development. Perhaps ever more adventurer to Albania, petrols normal tourist will travel however still for a long time the holidays places in the Mediterranean area, removed better concerning infrastructure, will prefer, which can be achieved with favorable flights. This only alone already, because holidays in Albania not yet until in the detail ahead-flat leave themselves.  As in the past probably above all albansiche bath holiday-makers become to Himara to drive, cash into the region bring (beside the immigrant workers in Greece) and modifications to arrange in the future. The tourism responsible persons were reprimanded this year already the native tourism to have sufficient promoted. Still however many are the way too far. That could change with increasing development of the roads. Perhaps soon even Kosovaren will bathe in the ionischen sea.  In addition, it is to be required that " the coast " will remain exempted from landscape-changing developments. Because only so it can retain their attractions. Here a suited middle course to find, would require some planning and the penetration of laws. Of it however hardly something is to be felt. A first victory could however already register environmental protection: The Kozession for the reduction was again extracted from a Greek enterprise by sand, with which the gravel beaches were adorned by Korfu, after protests of most diverse environment organizations. It remains hoping that the politicians will consider the meaning of the soundness of the environment also in the future with their decisions.  Also in the next summer  Also in the next summer I will drive again to the coast. If also you should have desire to enjoy with a small group of Albanians the summer in Himara use the opportunity and contact the editorship.                                                                                                                          Lars Haefner
				VOL I LONDON J. RODWELL," NEW BOND STREET. 1835.                                                                               TRAVELS IN NORTHERN GREECE. FIRST JOURNEY CHAPTER I. EPIRUS Arrival on the coast of Albania-Av1ona, Aulon:-:- Kanina- Erikh6, Oricum-River Celydnus -Sazona Island, Sason-;- Acroceraunia -Palasa, Palææstus- Aspri Ruga -Corfu - Forty Saints, Onchesmus or Anchiasmus-Nivitza-Delvino -Morzena~ Theriakhates-Arghyrokastro- Valiare Khan-Labovo - Tepeleni - Aoi Stena-Bantza-Course of the ? Vjosa' below Tepeleni - Family and Court of Aly Pasha" .. DEC. 9, l804 . Aulon, which preserves its ancient name in the usual Romaic form of Avlona converted by the Italians into Valona, is about a mile and half distant from the sea-beach, and has eight or ten minarets. On the sea' side there is a tolerable wharf, with an. apology for a fort, in the shape of a square inclosure of ruinous walls, with towers and a few cannon. The town occupies a hollow thickly grown with olive trees, among which are some gardens of herbs mixed with cypresses, poplars, and fruit trees. Beyond, are rugged hills entirely covered with olives, and to the northward a woody plain extending for a considerable distance, and forming a low shore except just at the northern entrance of the gulf, opposite to the island Sazona, where are some white cliffs of small elevation separated from the plain by a lagoon, containing salt works and a fishery. Two miles southward of the town rises a steep hill, on the summit of which is the ruinous castle of Kanina, and on a ridge branching from it to the southward the scattered houses of a Turkish village of the same name overtopped by two small minarets. Kanina is a name which occurs in the Byzantine history. It was built upon a Hellenic site, as appears by some remains of masonry of that age among the walls. Not far to the southward of the height of Kanina, begins a range of steep mountains separated only by a narrow valley from the Acroceraunia,, which mountain presents the same forbidding aspect on this side as towards the sea, and forms a narrow steep ridge, woody; rocky, and terminating in a sharp summit which closes the valley about ten miles from the extremity of the gulf. This valley is a part of the district of Khimara, and contains a large village named Dukai in Greek Dukadhes, below which at the southern extremity of the gulf is the harbour named Pashaliman by the natives, and Porto Raguseo by the Italians, near the mouth of a river which flows from the peak of the Acroceraunia through the valley of Dukadhes. Eastward of the mouth of the river is a succession of lagoons, in the midst of which are the ruins of Oricum, on a desert site now called Erikho-the last syllable accented as in the ancient word, and E substituted for 0, which was not an uncommon dialectic change among the ancients. The river of Dukadhes would seem from Ptolemy to have been the Celydnus, although its position does not exactly agree with his order of names, which places the Celydnus between Aulon and Oricum. Porto Raguseo I take to be the Panormus which Strabo describes as the port of Oricum. The gulf of Avlona being surrounded, for the "most part, by high mountains, is subject to sudden and violent squalls. When the wind blows strong from the westward, the road of Avlona is not considered safe, and the usual anchorage is under Sazona, the ancient Sason, notorious among the Romans as a station of pirates. This island is most conveniently placed to shelter this great bay just at the mouth of the Adriatic, and affords a safe entrance on either side into the bay; for the cliffs in front of the lagoons of Av1oa, the island itself, and the cape which forms the extreme point of the Acroceraunian ridge, are all equally bold. The latter remarkable promontory is now called Glossa (perhaps its ancient name), and by the Italians Lin- guetta. The depth of the gulf between Sazona and Avlona is from 10 to 15 fathoms, and towards the southern extremity much greater, except near Oricum where, as well as near Avlona, the depth is from 2 to 4 fathoms. Every where the bottom is a tough mud, deposited from the surrounding mountains. Among a few ships now lying in the road of Avlona, is a Ragusan vessel loading fossil pitch from 'the mine mentioned by Strabo. The mountain, at the foot of which this mineral is found, is about three hours to the eastward of Avlona, and being conspicuous from off the coast, is marked in the Italian charts under the name of Montagna della Pegola. Its real name is Kudhesi. Another ship is from Constantinople, bound to Palermo with corn; a third, which has been three months from Venice, is of the species of Adriatic vessels called a Pielago, which differs not much from the Manzera and Trabaccolo. It has a main-mast of a single stick, from Fiume, almost as large as the main-mast of our ship, and twice as long. These vessels make quick passages with a fair wind, but are very unfit to contend with the Etesian breezes of summer, and still less with the equally obstinate and much more violent southerly gales in the autumn and winter. In the month of October, 1802, I made a passage of ten days in one of these vessels, from Corfu to Trieste, through the Dalmatian islands, touching at several of them in the way. In the present season it is not uncommon for them to be four months in making the passage in the opposite direction between the two ports. During the Etesian winds in summer, instances often occur of these vessels putting into the 'Rhizonic Gulf, or 'Bocche di Cattaro?, with a contrary wind, when the masters proceed to Venice by land, make an agreement for the disposal of their cargo, and return to the Bocche before the ship has sailed. In the winter the Bocchesi seldom pass their gulf, but leaving a man aDd boy aboard, join their families on shore, and there remain till the spring. Dec. 10 Having sailed out of the gulf in the night with a light breeze at north, we speak a vessel from Alexandria bound direct to Tunis, with pilgrims returning from Mecca. Dec. 11. At noon at the foot of the Acroceraunian peak, on the slope below which stands the village Palasa, a name resembling that of the place where, according to Lucan, Caesar landed from Brundusium previously to his operations against Pompey in Illyria, but which Caesar names Pharsalus. There can be little doubt that, in this instance, the poet is more correct than the great captain, who was so negligent of geography; (in Greece at least), that he has not named the place in Thessaly, where he gained the greatest of all his victories: so that this is the only passage in the commentaries where the word Pharsalus occurs. Caesar's chief consideration in selecting his place of debarkation on this coast, was to avoid the harbours likely to be in the hands of the enemy, and to make himself master of Oricum, Apollonia, and Dyrrhachium, before Pompey could arrive from Macedonia. Trusting, therefore, to his protecting fortune to carry him through the perils both of the enemy and the season, he embarked seven legions and six hundred cavalry at Brundusium, in ships of burthen, for want of any others, arrived on tile day after his departure at the Ceraunia, where he found a quiet station for the ships in the midst of rocks and dangerous places ; and having immediately landed his troops, sent back the ships to Italy the same night. By this promptitude, Pompey arrived from Candavia in time only to save Dyrrhachium. Appian, though he does not specify in what part of the Ceraunian mountains the landing was made, shows that it was very near to Oricum, for he agrees with Caesar in representing Oricum to have been taken within a day from the time of the landing: he adds that Caesar marched by night; that on account of the rugged and difficult country, he divided his forces into several bodies, which were reunited at day- break, and that the Oricii having declared their unwillingness to resist the Roman Consul, the commander of the garrison delivered up the keys to Caesar. The distance of the site of 0ricum from the sshore below Palasa, seems perfectly to agree with these circumstances; and there is in, fact a small harbour below Palasa, though it seems rather diminutive for the force which Caesar disembarked. The Strada Bianca, so called in the Italian charts and known to the Greeks by the synonym Aspri Ruga, is a broad torrent-bed very conspicuous at sea, which, "originating in the summit of the mountain of Palasa, descends directly to the sea to the northward of that village. To the southward of Palasa is a succession of villages on the side of the mountain, as far as the entrance of the Channel of Corfu, all formerly belonging to the Khimariote league; but these, from Port Palerimo southward, are now in the hands of Aly Pasha. Khimara, which now gives name to the Acroceraunian range, is a town, a little to the northward of Port Palerimo, th.e ancient Panormus, described by Strabo as a harbour in the midst of the Ceraunian mountains. The great summit at the northern end of Corfu, named Pandokratora, and by the Italians Salvator, is now a conspicuous object to the south by east, and a little to the eastward of it the northern Cape of Corfu, named St. Catherine. Maslera and Salmastraki are in a line off the north west Cape of Corfu, and farther fastward ?_2TL@×H' (Ital. Fanu), forming .................... Page 80 ...............On the summit of which stands the kastro, or for tress. This castle is nothing more than a small square enclosure containing a house, a church, and two four-pounders. Having brought a letter to the Bulu-bashi, or commandant, I land as soon as we arrive, and take shelter from the rain in his small apartment, which is the only one. in the place having a chimney. On the side of the hills bordering the southern division of the port are a few cornfields and vineyards, which; together with some sheep on the hills, are tended by the tell soldiers who garrison, the fort. Five of these are Musulmans, including the Bulu-bashi and his son; the others are Greeks. At the extremity of the northern harbour the hills are well cultivated, but these form part of the territory of the town of Khimara, which possesses the exclusive right of fishery in that division of the bay. A gale accompanied with rain, which comes on at night from the southeast, brings a ship of Dultjuni, in Italian, Dulcigno, into the harbour, bound to that ,place from Alexandria. As the Dulciniotes have the reputation of being inclined to piracy, the garrison is alarmed, and prepares for defence. Indeed they had already been put upon the alert by our arrival, for our boat being from Corf{l, the governor suspected some Russian treachery, and before my cot was conveyed into the castle, it was searched, lest it should contain concealed arms. Last summer a French pirate boat, which was afterwards destroyed at Fanu by one of the British ships of war on this station, put into Palerimo, after having plundered some Maltese vessels under English colours ; the Khimariotes formed a design of attacking it, on the plea of its being a pirate, but probably with a view of plunder; not agreeing however among themselves, the project failed. Jan. 11. The wind shifts to the westward, and the weather clears up at noon. At 1, accompanied by a servant, and preceded by one of the Corfiote boatmen and a guard from the castle, I proceed on foot to Khimara, no beast of burden being proccurable, and the road scarcely admitting of their being employed. The captain of the Dulciniote, a bearded Turk, about seventy years of age, had offered to land me in the Bay of Khimara, and thus to save the detour along the side of the mountain ; but when we came alongside his ship, his authority proved insufficient to obtain a party to row the boat. It appears that they are afraid of the Khima- riotes. After crossing the ridge at the extremity of the northern bay, and climbing along the side of the hills which overhang the sea beyond it, we arrive at the end of an hour's walk from the castle, upon a little valley and beach where are some flocks. To the right, the sides of the mountains are grown with velanidhies, or oaks, which pro- duce the vallonea ; they still preserve their last year's leaves, but can hardly be called evergreens. We meet some shepherds to whom the sailor, with a few words of greeting, presents his snuff-box;, the common compliment in Albania, and in these in- dependent districts a necessary propitiation. In return the shepherds call off their dogs, which had made a general charge upon us. We soon arrive in sight of Khimara, situated on the top of a pointed hill, and enter upon the cultivated land which surrounds it, consisting of extensive vineyards, some fields of wheat just springing up, and others of barley, which the peasants are ploughing, and will sow as soon as they can catch a short interval of fair weather. On a high summit under the mountains on the right is a monastery of the Panaghia, on the left the port of Khimara, near the shore of which are some water-mills, turned by a rivulet from the mountain. The harbour is exposed to the west, but affords good shelter to small vessels from any other wind, and has a fine beach. There is another more open spiaggia, two miles farther to the north, immediately below the town, where boats are hauled up on the beach. Here is a small plain which, with the side of the hill between this plain and the village, is the best cultivated part of the territory of Khimara. Immediately below the village are some gardens, containing vines, olives, cypresses, and fruit-trees. At half-past three we arrive at the house of Capt. Zakharias, the son of George, vulgarly called Zakho-Ghiorghi, for whom have a letter of introduction from Z. the collector, my host of the Forty Saints. The house is as humble a dwelling as any captain's in Albania. In the inner room a fire in the middle of the floor, and a mattrass spread by the side of it, are the luxuries speedily arranged for me; Capt. George, who has attained the ordinary bounds of life, and has never been absent from his native village except three years passed in the Neapolitan service, expresses his de- light at seeing an Englishman here for the first time. Two Germans some years ago, calling themselves Englishmen, left a certificate with Capt. Constantine Andrutzi, which proves the imposture. Capt. Z.'s family consists of a son, the widow of another son killed in the service of the King of Naples, and two or three of his children. All are employed in preparing supper, but principally the widow. The dishes are baked, and a dingy towel spread close to the cinders, serves both for table and tablecloth. The Captain, and the sailor from the boat, who is honoured as a guest, are the only persons who join the table. After supper all the heads of houses friendly to Zakho-Ghiorghi come in and seat themselves cross-legged around the fire. They relate their adventures in the Neapolitan or other services, for most of the Khimariotes seek a livelihood as soldiers abroad. One states that he was in the war of Italy with Buonaparte, who made many inquiries of him concerning this part of Albania, and told him at Trieste, that he meant to send 40,000 men to Corfu, and as many more to Avlona. They all speak with pride of their liberty, meaning their exemption from Turkish oppression, at the same time lament their own internal anarchy and dissensions, and agree that they should be happy to receive the blessing of good government from the hands of any sovereign in Europe except the Turk, whom they are always determined to resist. They neither pay the kharatj nor any other tax, except a contribution of thirty paras a head per annum to Ibrahim Pasha of Berat, for the liberty of trading to his ports. The right of pasturage on the lands of the town of Khimara, that of gathering velanidhi on the mountains, and that of fishing in the northern bay of Palerimo are enjoyed in common by all the inhabitants. Maize is grown in the plain adjacent to the northern beach, where the two torrents, which embrace the town, overflow in the winter, and prepare the land for receiving that grain. Wheat is produced within the territory, more than sufficient for the annual consumption of the place in favorable seasons; but for two or three years past they have hardly reaped enough for six months. Velanidhi, a small quantity of wheat in good years, and sometimes a little wine, which is of a dry kind and without flavour, are the only exports. The mountain behind Khimara is said to abound in firs suited for masts, which might be brought down at a small expense, and would be a profitable undertaking, if poverty and dissension admitted of it. The village, or city as the natives are pleased to qualify it, of Khimara, more commonly pronounced according to the Italian 6"6@NT
	Extracts from the book                                                        Journals  of  a  landscape  painter  in   Albania and  Greece Publisher : Century Hutchinson Ltd Author : Edward Lear 1812-1888   Forword: Lear was the twentieth of twenty-one children of his family born in 1812 in London. His passion for paintings made that a commission from the Earl  of Derby to nominated him to make paintings from Italy and Greece. In 1848 he made an unplanned trip in Albania after a meeting with Sir Stratford Kenn, England Ambassador in Istanbul, that provided him with the necessary papers for such a travel in the Ottoman Empire. Starting from Thesalonika, Lear enters in Albania, from which goes in Korfu, Parga and Arta, before ending in the Temple valley and mount Olympus. The parts here described only the travel in that region of Albania, located in the Southwest part of present Albania, in the shores of Ionian sea, called Himara (or Chimara in ancient texts)   The original book contains his wonderful paintings. The book was first published in England in 1851.   OCTOBER 21  A bright sun and clear sky seem to foretell prosperity in the beginning of my Khimariot journey, the most romantic as well as the most novel of my own (or anybody else's) Albanian wanderings. I shall have six days for the excursion: longer than that I must not stay, for by the 30th I should be at ArghyroKastro, or at least, Tepelene; and on the 7th of November at Yannina, a plan of arrangement necessary by way of timing steamers for Malta. Messrs. J. and S. having politely volunteered to accompany me as far as Kanina, I waited for them till past ten, grieving over the loss of what I always consider the best part of the day; hours, moreover, are valuable in a tour of this kind, apart from the loss of mountain shadows when the sun is high. After unpleasant potterings and fussings, horses brought without saddles, etc. etc., we at length moved off, attended by Anastasio, my Khimariot guide, and the black Margiann whose employment was to supply his masters with pipes unlimited. After having passed a ruined fort by the sea-side and the outskirt olive-grounds south of Avlona, a strong and steep pull brought us over evil ledges of precipitous ascent to Kanina: but the journey was not rendered more pleasant by my hosts, for Herr J-, being very slow, stopped every ten minutes for tobacco, and entreated Herr S-, who was of the liveliest, not to be so rapid; thereby arose contentions betwixt the two, and the effect of the constant jarring was to make me reflect on friends who do not dwell in unity .By degrees we reached the fortress, one of the most commanding positions I have seen in Albania. On the one hand, you have the wide sea beyond Avlona, its bay, and the Island Sazona; on the other, Tomohr and Kudhesi, with inland torrents and, woods, and gorges infinite. This crowning fort of Kanina  occupies the highest point of the hill, and has long since been a heap of ruins, though the area of its walls still remain; below stands the modern town with its two or three mosques and scattered little houses. Some of the lower parts of the wall seem of very ancient workmanship, but I grew tired of poking into all the corners of the old citadel, the brothers being full of weary tales and surmises concerning its downfall. Among other matters, they say it was long the residence of the widow of Manfred of Sicily. At eleven we went down to the town, and therein to the gallery of a Dervish's house, where two Cogias brought us coffee and pipes, after which our sitting broke up, and my late hosts returned to Avlona, leaving me in charge of the Khimariote, who, with a Pietone, sent with me by the Turkish police, formed my whole retinue. Down the opposite side of the hill of Kanina we rode. A small knapsack contained all my property (the fewest articles of toilet ever known to have been taken by a Milordos Ingliz)-a plaid and greatcoat (for there are snowy mountains to cross) and a large stock of drawings materials. I had arranged about payment of expenses by giving Anastasio, who is a trustworthy servant of the Casa J-, a sum of money, from which he is to defray all the outlay, and account to me for the same, though I anticipate no great prodigality, as I am to live at the houses of the natives and go from village to village experiencing the full measure of Khimariote hospitality.  Before 1 P.M. we reached the shore and made for a little cove (there are many like it on the coast east of Plymouth) where a spring of pure and icy fresh water gushes from the foot of a rock into the sea and offers a natural halting-place for all who travel between Khimara and Avlona. Kria Nera is the name of this sea-side station, and it was pleasant to rest on a carpet thrown down on the smooth sand beneath the high rocks which shut in this little nook. Several peasants with their horses are resting here, and Anastasio and the policeman join them in a lunch of bread and cheese; beyond them are grey cliffs and green dun heights-a strip of white sand and the long promontory of Linguetta stretching out into the gulf; the clear splashing sea at my feet and above all the bright streaked sky. A quiet half-hour in such a scene crowds many a reflection into the tablets of thought, but such can have no place in journals. Of the peasants halting at this natural khan with my own party, most are Khimariots, going to Berat or other mid-districts of Albania; others are Berati. These wild and rugged men have in general a forlorn and anxious look, and are clad in blanket-like capotes, their caps mostly white. 'Some,' saith Anastisio, 'two years ago, were in Greece "roba fina de ladri ",'l but now Albania is purged of danger and romance, thieves and rebellion, from end to end. But it is past one, and time to set off once more, for there are four long hours to Draghiadhes, the first Khimariot village. The pathway is ever along the side of the gulf, and rises far above the blue, blue water . Anything more frightful than these (so-called) paths along the iron rocks of Acroceraunia it is not easy to imagine: as if to baffie invaders, the ledges along which one went slowly now wound inward, skirting ravines full of lentisk and arbutus, now projected over the bald sides of precipices, so that, at certain unexpected angles, the rider's outer leg hung sheer over the deep sea below. To the first of these surprising bits of horror-samples of the highways of Khimara I had come all unknowingly, my horse turning round a sharp rocky point and proceeding leisurely thence down a kind of bad staircase without balustrades; I declined, however, trying a second similar pass on his back and at the first spot where there was safe footing dismounted. Meanwhile the Khimariote, who ever and anon kept shouting, ? Kakos dromos, Signore  ?, fired off his pistol at intervals, partly, as he said, from ? allegria  ?  and partly to prevent anyone meeting us in this dire and narrow way. When we had overcome the last of the Kakos dromos-lo! a beautiful scene opened at the narrow end of the gulf, which lay like a still and dark lake below the high wall of Khimara territory. Draghiadhes, the door, as it were, of Acroceraunia, stands on a height immediately in front, while the majestic snowy peak of Tchika (the lofty point so conspicuous from Corfu, and on the southern side of which stand the real Khimariot villages), towers over all the scene, than which one more sublime, or more shut out from the world, I do not recollect often to have noticed. At the sea-side I stole time for a short sketch, and then remounting, our party rode on over the sands to nearly the end of the gulf, whence we turned off to the left, and gradually ascended to Draghiadhes. Flocks of sheep, and most ferocious dogs abounded as we climbed higher; and Anastasio never wearied of injunctions as to the awful character of the dogs of Khimara, especially of the two first villages. 'It is true, ' said he, '1 am responsible for your life, but at the same time you must do just as I bid you; for if you look at a dog of Khimara, there will hardly be anything but some of your largest bones left ten minutes afterwards! ' which unfettered poetical flight seemed about to become a fact in the case of the Pietone, who shortly had to defend himself from some ten of these outrageous beasts; they assailed him spite of all manner of missiles, and the battle's issue was waxing doubtful when some shepherds called off the enemy. As we advanced nearer to the town Anastasio's cheerfulness seemed to increase. 'Mi conoscono tutti,' said he, as each peasant hailed him by the title of Capitano'. With some he stopped to laugh and converse; others he saluted after the fashion of Albanian mock-skirmishes, drawing pistols or yataghan from his girdle and seizing their throats with many yells, and between whiles he kept up a running accompaniment of a Greek air, sung at the top of an immense voice and varied by pistol shots at irregular intervals. We passed the village of Radima high above us, and after I had contrived to take another sketch the scene momentarily grew finer as the descending sun flung hues of crimson over the lonely, sparkling town of Draghiadhes and the bright peaks of the huge Tchika.  Presently we came to the oak-clad hills immediately below the town, where narrow winding paths led upwards among great rocks and spreading trees, worthy of Salvator Rosa and not unlike the beautiful serpentara of Olevano. I have never seen more impressively savage scenery since I was in Calabria. Evening or early morn are the times to study these wild southern places to advantage; they are then alive with the inhabitants of the town or village gathering to or issuing from it ; here were sheep crowding up the narrow rock-stairs-now lost in the shade of the foliage-now bounding in light through the short lentisk- huge morose dogs, like wolves, walking sullenly behind-shepherds carrying lambs or sick sheep, and a crowd of figures clad in thick large trousers and short jackets and bearing immense burdens of sticks or other rustic materials. These last are the women of Draghiadhes, for here, and at the next village (Dukadhes), the fair sex adopt male attire, and are assuredly about the oddest-looking creatures I ever beheld. Worn and brown by hard labour in the sun, they have yet something pensive and pleasing in the expression of the eye, but all the rest is unfeminine and disagreeable. They are, as far as I can learn, the only Mohammedan women in these regions who do not conceal their faces- whether it be that their ancestors were Christians and turning to the faith of the Prophet did not think it worth while in so remote a place as Khimara to adopt articles of such extra expense as veils, I know not-but such is the fact, and they are the only females of their creed whose faces I ever saw. ? But,' said Anastasio, 'when we have passed " Tchika, and are in true Khimara, out of the way of these Turks, then you will see women like women and not like pigs. Ah, Signor mio! these are not women !-these are pigs, pigs-Turks-pigs, I say! For all that, they are very good people, and all of them my intimate friends. But, Signore, you could not travel here alone.? And, although Anastasio certainly made the most patronising use of his position as interpreter, guide, and guard, I am inclined to believe that he was, in this, pretty near the truth, for I doubt if a stranger could safely venture through Acroceraunia unattended. Assuredly also all the world hereabouts seemed his friends, as he boasted, for the remotest and almost invisible people on far-away rocks shouted out' Capitano' as we passed, proving to me that I was in company with a widely known individual.  At length we reached Draghiadhes, the houses of which were by no means pretty, being one and all like the figures of 'H was a House' in a child's spelling-book. Alas! for the baronial castle or the palazzo of Italy! the whole place had the appearance of a gigantic heap of dominoes just thrown down by the Titans. Sunset had given place to shadowy dusk as we passed below two of the  very largest plane trees I ever beheld, where, in the centre of the village, the trouser-wearing damsels of Draghiadhes were drawing water at a fountain-a strange, wild scene. Many came out to greet Anastasio and all saluted me in a friendly manner, nor was there the least ill-bred annoyance, though I was evidently an object of great curiosity. Sending on the horses to the house we were to sleep at, we first went to one of Anastasio's friends,who would take it as a 'dispetto' if he did not visit him. I sat on the steps outside and sketched: the rocks of Calabria, with figures such as are to be seen only in Albania, gathered all around-how did I lament my little skill in figure drawing and regret having so much neglected it ! The long matted hair and moustache-the unstudied and free attitude-the simple folds of drapery-the expression of the individual-the grouping of the masses-all heighten the inconceivable originality of these scenes. Let a painter visit Acroceraunia-until he does so he will not be aware of the grandest phases of savage, yet classic, pictures- queness-whether Illyrian or Epirote-men or mountains; but let him go with a good guide or he may not come back again. Acroceraunia is untravelled ground and might not be satisfactory to a solitary tourist.  It was dark when we returned to the upper part of the town and I was ushered into my host's house for the night-a large room on the ground floor--all rafters above and planks below, with a fireplace and fire in the middle of one end and with carpets and cushions (of no very inviting appearance) on either side of the hearth. On to one of these I threw myself and waited patiently for all further occurrences. Presently our host (whose name is Achmet Zinani and who is a tall, thin, ancient Mohammedan, clad all in red save a white kilt), having made me a speech profuse of compliments through Anastasio, brings two cups of coffee, and supper is supposed to be about to follow. Dirty and queer and wild, as this. place is, it is far better than those Gheghe-holes, Tirana and Elbasan-at least the novelty and fine subjects for painting all about one, and the friendly relation in which the stranger stands with regard to the natives, makes him prefer Khimara, even at the outset. Previously to supper Achmet Zinani prayed abundantly, going through the numerous genuflexions and prostrations of Mohammedan devotion in the centre of the room. After this the meal commenced. The plan of Khimariot hospitality is this: the guest buys a fowl or two and his hosts cook it and help him to eat it. We all sat round the dish and I, propping myself sideways on cushions, made shift to partake of it as well as I could; but a small candle being the only light allotted to the operation, I was not so adroit as my co-partners, who fished out the most interesting parts of the excellent fowl ragout with astonishing dexterity and success. The low round plate of tin was a perpetual shelter for eight or nine little cats, whom we pulled out from beneath by their tails at momentary intervals, when they wailed aloud, and rushed back again, pleased even by feeling the hot fowl through the table, as they could not otherwise enjoy it. After the ragout had nearly all been devoured and its remains consigned to the afflicted cats, there came on a fearful species of cheese soup, with butter, perfectly fabulous as to filthiness; and after this, there was the usual washing of hands, a la turque, and the evening meal was done. Supper over, we all sat in a semicircle about the fire. Some six or eight of the townsmen came -a sort of soiree-and drinking cups of coffee was the occupation for some hours. Albanian only is spoken and very little Greek understood here. About ten or eleven all but the family gradually withdrew; the old gentleman, Achmet, and the rest of the Albanians rolled them- selves up in capotes and slept, Anastasio placed himself across my feet, with his pistols by his side; and as for me, with my head on my knapsack managed to get an hour or two of early sleep, though the army of fleas, which assailed me as a new-comer, not to speak of the excursion cats, who played at bo-peep behind my head, made the rest of the night time of real suffering, the more so that the great fire nearly roasted me, and was odious to the eyes, as a wood fire must needs be. Such are the penalties paid for the picturesque. But one does not come to Acroceraunia for food, sleep, or cleanliness.   OCTOBER 22  Before daylight all were on foot and Anastasio had made a capital basin of coffee and toast, an accomplishment he had learned of Giorgio. Anxious to see the bright sun after the night's penance, I ran to the door; but hardly had I gone three steps from it when I felt myself violently pulled by the collar and dragged backwards before I had time to resist; a friendly assault on the part of Achmet and Anastasio, the motion of which was adequately explained by a simultaneous charge of some thirty immense dogs, who bounced out from the most secluded corners and would straightway have breakfasted on me had I not been o aptly rescued; certainly the dogs of Khimara are the most formidable brutes I haveyet seen, and every wall and lane here seems alive with them.  '0 Signore!' said Anastasio, in a tone between anger and vexation, tanto sciocco vuoi essere! Ti dico-sarai mangiato-amazzato-e se non vuoi far a modo mio, e tutto do che ti dico di far qui in Khimara, sei morto; non voglio andar piu in avante cosl; non andrai mai piu fuor di vista mia ! ?. So I promised I would in future be obedient, for after all it was plain that the Khimariote was in the right.  I decided on making a drawing at Draghiadhes before starting for Dukadhes, the next village, where I am to sleep tonight; for beyond that is the great pass of the Tchika mountain, which shuts in the Khimara coast, and to arrive at the further side of it would require more time than could be found today without hurrying. So I sat above the huge planes and drew the view towards the gulf, very Poussinesque and fine, some twenty picturesque fellows sitting smoking round me, all infinitely polite. One of them who speaks Italian volunteers a list of the Khimariote villages in their consecutive order, from Draghiadhes. All of these I cannot hope to see; but I would fain get as far as Khimara, which gives its name to the whole district. About nine we left Draghiadhes and began to ascend towards the hill of Dukadhes, first through a tract of low wood and then by an uninteresting gorge, down which the wind came with frightful force, making it very difficult to keep a footing on the loose stones of the watercourse, which was our road. Higher up in the pass the violence of this sudden and furious mountain storm was such that both Anastasio and myself were knocked down more than once, and towards the summit we could only advance by clinging from rock to rock.  At the highest part of the pass a most singular scene opens. The spectator seems on the edge of a high wall, from the brink of which giddy elevation he looks down into a fearfully profound basin at the roots of the mountain. Above its eastern and southern enclosures rises the giant snow-clad Tchika in all its immensity, while at his very feet, in a deep, dark green pit of wood and garden, lies the town or village of Dukadhes, its houses scattered like milk-white dice along the banks of a wide torrent, which finds its way to the gulf between the hill he stands on and the high western ridge dividing the valley from the sea. To this strange place, perhaps one of the most secluded in Europe, I began to descend, and as we slowly proceeded halted more than once to sketch and contemplate. Shut out as it stood by iron walls of mountain, surrounded by sternest features of savage scenery, rock and chasm, precipice and torrent, a more fearful prospect and more chilling to the very blood I never beheld-so gloomy and severe-so unredeemed by any beauty or cheerfulness. After a weary ride over rugged in Greece places in the bottom of this hollow land of gloom, we stopped at length at one of the houses of the village-standing, like every dwelling of Dukadhes, in the midst of a little garden or courtyard. Its general appearance was very like my last night's abode, only that we had to climb up a very odious ladder to the family 'reception-room'-which, besides being several shades dirtier than that of Achmet Zinani, had not the advantage of being on the first floor. Most of these houses consist of two stories, the upper floor, divided into two or three chambers, being allotted to the women of the family, the lower being a single large room serving for general purposes. It was half past one when we arrived, and before I go out to sketch Anastasio cooks a lunch of eggs roasted and fried in butter, of which he partakes with the Pietone. This last accomplished person does not indulge in shoes, and I observe that when his hands are occupied he holds his pipe in his toes and does any other little office with those, to us, useless members. Throughout the whole of the day's journey I have seen numbers of women carrying burdens of incredible size and weight-from one hundred and fifty to one hundred and eighty pounds, I am assured, is no unusual loading. These poor creatures are indeed little like women in appearance, for their faces are worn into lines and furrows of masculine hardness by excessive and early toil; and as they labour pitifully up the rocky paths, steadying their steps with a staff, or cross the stony torrent beds, bent nearly double beneath their loads, they seem less like human beings than quadrupeds. A man's blood boils to see them accompanied by a beast of a husband or brother, generally on horseback, carrying-what?-nothing but a pipe! And when he is tired of smoking, or finds himself overclad, he gives the women his pipe to hold, or throws his capote over her load! The ponderous packages of wool, grain, sticks, etc., borne by these hard-worked creatures are hung to their neck by two strong straps; the dress is dark blue, with a blue handkerchief on the head-dark full trousers-no petticoat or apron-and red worked woollen gaiters. They are short and strongly made in person, with very light hair; their eyes are almost universally soft grey, and very pretty, but the rest of the face, apart from the worn and ground-down expression, is too broad and square in form to be prepossessing. In the afternoon I made drawings of Dukadhes, a gloomy sky and threatening storm adding to the inherent melancholy of the landscape. The lines around the town are on too gigantic a scale, and its houses too destitute of the picturesque to supply much employment for the pencil; and the chilling sullenness of this dreary abyss of terror did not incline me to devote much time to its ungracious qualities. I was accompanied in my researches by Sulio, the Pietone, Anastasio being engaged in finding mules for the morrow's ascent, since horses go no farther than this place-the threshold of Khimara; and I give the last hour of daylight to delineating a tree full of Albanian idlers who sit smoking tranquilly on the gnarled wide-spreading branches of a huge ilex which hangs over a precipice-as wild a piece of poetical painting as Salvator might wish for. At sunset the indescribable dark terror of this strange place was at its full; yet, unwilling to retreat to my night's prison till the last moment, I lingered on a rock in the middle of the ravine, while crowds gathered round me., saying, ' Scroo, scroo, scroo, ' after their fashion, and were greatly pleased at my drawing them. At length it became quite dusk and I went reluctantly to my second night-home in Khimara. The loft had a more comfortable appearance by firelight than by day, inasmuch as its mysterious and suggestive gloom was more prepossessing than its bare walls. A rug was, as before, laid for me on the farther corner, fitting in between the wall and the wood fire, which is always made on a square sort of hearth projecting into the room. Two pillows, also, were in readiness; but mistrusting these adjuncts of luxury, I wrapped myself in plaids and coats, with my knapsack under my head. It is needless to say the traveller reposes by night in the same dress he wears by day, for it is by no means possible to change it on all occasions. Vuno, however, Anastasio's native town, is held out to me, with what degree of truth or poetry I know not, as a sort of metropolitan abode of the luxuries and graces which are to atone for all privations endured previously to reaching that favoured spot. Meanwhile he informs me that, supposing I am desirous of seeing as much of Khimariote manners and society as is possible, he has asked two gipsies ( ! ) to pass the evening with us, they being great performers on the guitar, which they accompany with the voice, and as not improbably we might have a dance also he had invited a Christian-one of his own friends (from Arghyro Kastro) staying at present in Dukadhes-to dine with us, a gentleman whose long dishevelled hair fell most dramatically over his shoulders and who, like the rest of the 'society', rejoiced in bare feet and gaiters. In fact, my arrival at Dukadhes seemed the signal for a sort of universal soiree; and I was to promote the general hilarity by the gift of an unlimited quantity of wine-an arrangement I willingly acceded to for the sake of witnessing 'life in Khimara'. In an hour or two came in the usual round tin table, preceded by napkin and water, precursors of a good dish of hashed mutton and a plain roast fowl which, with tolerable wine, made no bad supper. After the repast is done a process of sweeping always goes on, a mere form, but never neglected by these people; unwilling to incommode me, they swept all round me carefully, and now there was nothing to do but to announce the visitors. Presently the company came, and queer enough it was! The two Messieurs Zingari, or gipsies, are blacksmiths by profession and are ;lad in dark-coloured garments, once white, now grey-brown ; the contrast between them and the Albanians round them, nearly all of have light hair and florid complexions, is very striking. The gipsy, all grin and sharpness, who plays second fiddle is continually bowing and ducking to me ere he squats down ; but the elder, or first performer, is absolutely one of the most remarkable-looking creatures ever beheld; his great black eyes, peering below immensely thick arched brows, have the most singular expression of cunning and ferocity, and his black moustache and beard enclose a mouth which, when shut, argues all sorts of tragic obstinacies, but on opening discloses a grin of brilliant ivory from ear to ear. Take him for all in all, anything so like diabolical South Sea idol I never yet saw living. At first the entertainment was rather slow. The gipsies had two guitars, but they only tinkled them with a preparatory coquettishness, ill, another friend dropping in with a third mandolino, a pleasing discord was by degrees created and increased to a pitch of excitement that seemed to promise brilliant things for the evening's festivities.  Anastasio, also, catching the melodious infection, led the performers by his own everlasting Greek refrain-sung at the full power of a tremendous voice and joined in by all present in the first circle-for how many more than the chorus had entered the room, remaining seated ,r standing behind, and the whole formed, in the flickering light of the wood torches, one of the most strange scenes imaginable. Among the auditors were the padrona of the house (a large lady in extensive trousers), her daughter (a nice-looking woman), and two pretty little girls, her grandchildren-all unveiled, as is the mode in Dukadhes. As the musical excitement increased, so did the audience begin to keep time with their bodies, which this people, even when squatted, move with the most curious flexibility .An Albanian, in sitting on the ground, goes plump down on his knees, and then bending back crosses his legs in a manner wholly impracticable to us who sit on chairs from infancy. While thus seated he can turn his body half round on each side as if on a pivot, the knees remaining immovable; and of all the gifted people in this way that I ever saw, the gipsy guitarist was pre-eminently en- dowed with gyratory powers equal almost to the American owl, which, it is said, continues to look round and round at the fowler as he circles about him till his head twists off. Presently the fun grew fast and furious, and at length the father of song-the hideous idol-gipsy-became animated in the grandest degree; he sang and shrieked the strangest minor airs with incredible accompaniments, tearing and twangling the guitar with great skill and energy enough to break it into bits. Everything he sang seemed to delight his audience, which at times was moved to shouts of laughter, at others almost to tears. He bowed backwards and forwards till his head nearly touched the ground and waved from side to side like a poplar in a gale. He screamed-he howled-he went through long recitatives and spoke prose with inconceivable rapidity; and all the while his auditors bowed and rocked to and fro as if participating in every idea and expression. I never saw a more decided instance of enthusiastic appreciation of song, if song it could be called, where the only melody was a wild repetition of a minor chorus-except at intervals, when one or two of the Toskidhes' characteristic airs varied the musical treat.  The last performance I can remember to have attended to appeared to be received as a capo d'opera: each verse ended by spinning itself out into a chain of rapid little Bos, ending in chorus thus: 'Bo, bo-bo-bo, BO !-bo, bobobo, BO ! '-and every verse was more loudly joined in than its predecessor, till at the conclusion of the last verse, when the unearthly idol-gipsy snatched off and waved his cap in the air-his shining head was closely shaved, except one glossy raven tress at least three feet in length-the very rafters rang again to the frantic harmony: 'Bo, bo-bo-bo, bo-bo-bo, bo-bo-bo, bobobo, BO!'-the last 'BO ! uttered like a pistol-shot and followed by a unanimous yell. Fatigue is so good a preparation for rest that after this savage mirth had gone on for two or three hours I fell fast asleep and heard no more that night. OCTOBER 23  I am awaked an hour before daylight by the most piercing screams. Hark!-they are the loud cries of a woman's voice, and they come nearer-nearer-close to the house. For a moment the remembrance of last night's orgies, the strange place I was lying in and the horrid sound by which I was so suddenly awakened made a confusion of ideas in my mind which I could hardly disentangle, till, lighting a phosphorus match and candle, I saw all the Albanians in the room sitting bolt upright and listening with ugly countenances to the terrible cries below. In vain I ask the cause of them; no one replies; but one by one, and Anastasio the last, all descend the ladder, leaving me in a mystery which does not make the state of things more agreeable; for though I have not 'supped full of horror' like Macbeth, yet my senses are nevertheless 'cooled to hear so dismal a night shriek'.  I do not remember ever to have heard so horrid and deadly a sound as that long shriek, perpetually repeated with a force and sharpness not to be recalled without pain; and what made it more horrible was the distinct echo to each cry from the lonely rocks around this hideous place. The cries, too, were exactly similar and studiedly monotonous in measured wild grief. After a short time Anastasio and the others, returned, but at first I could elicit no cause for this startling the night from its propriety. At length I suppose they thought that, as I was now irretrievably afloat in Khimara life, I might as well know the worst as not; so they informed me that the wailings proceeded from a woman of the place whose husband had just been murdered. He had had some feud with an inhabitant of a neighbouring village (near Kudhesi) nor had he returned to his house as was expected last night; and just now, by means of the Khimariot dogs, whose uproar is unimaginable, the head of the slain man was found on one side of the ravine, immediately below the house I am in, his murderers having tossed it over from the opposite bank, where the body still lay. This horrid intelligence had been taken (with her husband's head) to his wife, and she instantly began the public shrieking and wailing usual with .all people in this singular region on the death of relatives. They tell me this screaming tragedy is universal throughout Khimara, and is continued during nine days, commonly in the house of mourning, or when the performers are engaged in their domestic affairs. In the present instance, however, the distressed woman, unable to control her feelings to the regular routine of grief, is walking all over the town, tearing her hair and abandoning herself to the most frantic wretchedness. These news, added to the information that it is raining, and that the weather may probably prevent my leaving this delightful abode throughout this or who knows how many more days, are no cheerful beginning for the morning, for one may be fixed here for some time, since the Tchika pass is impracticable in stormy weather. But towards eight the rain ceased; and although a drizzling mist still continued to fall the roba was packed under lots of covers and we started on mules, with bad saddles and packthread stirrups. Bidding adieu to the harem until my return, I was soon out of Dukadhes, spite of tile multitude of dogs ready to devour me at every garden and wall. A rude track leads across the valley; ascending gradually, now over undulations of uncultivated turf or rich fern, and now dipping by rough ledges and slanting paths into tremendous chasms, which convey torrents from the northern face of Tchika to the river of Dukadhes, west of tile valley.  Advancing nearer to the pass, the giant Tchika appeared more formidable at each approach-its pine-clad sides black in the sullen misty cloud; but as we descended the last cliff-walled abyss at the foot; of the ridge or spur of the mountain which closes eastward the valley- plain of Dukadhes, driving clouds came furiously down, and thence-forth, to my great vexation, no more of the pass was visible. Toilfully we wound upwards, for an hour or more, among rocks and superb pines, now and then a cloud rolling away to disclose vistas of cedar-like firs deep below or high above in air. It would be difficult to see a finer pass even for foreground objects: such variety of crag and shrub-such huge pine trunks slanting over precipices, or lying along the side of the path like ante-mundane caterpillars crawling out of the way of the deluge. At the top of t11e pass the driving fog became thinner, the 'shrubless crags seen through the mist' assumed their distinct shapes, and we entered magnificent forests of beautiful pine and undergrowth of grey oak, with here and there a space of green turf and box trees, where great black and orange lizards were plentifully crawling. At half past ten we began to descend, and soon emerged from the clouds into bright sunlight, which lit up all the difficulties of what is called the Strada Bianca or Aspri Ruga-a zigzag path on the side of the steepest of precipices, yet the only communication between Khimara and Avlona towards the north. The track is a perfect staircase, and were you to attempt to ride down it you would seem at each angle as if about to shoot off into the blue sea below you; even when walking down one comes to an intimate knowledge of what a fly must feel in traversing a ceiling or perpendicular wall. Half-way down the descent the long flat island of Fan6, north of Corfu, is visible, and soon afterwards the end of Monte St. Salvador in Corfu itself-a merry sight, and something of a   foreshadowing of England in this far-away land. Immediately below t11e Strada Bianca lies a long tract of land between sea and mountain, showing the position of nearly all the Khimariote villages, the whole territory between the Adriatic and the western wall of hill being known generally as 'Khimara'. Lower down in the descent a migration of Khimariotes-the most restless of people-met us ; some eighty or one hundred women laden as never women were elsewhere-their male relations taking it easy up the mountain-the ladies carrying the capotes as well as babies and packages. 'Heavens! ' said I, surprised out of my wonted philosophy of travel, which ought not to exclaim at anything, 'how can you make your women such slaves?' '0 Signore,' said Anastasio, 'to you, as a stranger, ; it must seem extraordinary ; but the fact is we have no mules in Khimara-that is the reason why we employ a creature so inferior in strength as a woman is ( un animale tanto poco capace) ; but there is no remedy, for mules there are none and women are next best to mules. Vi assicuro, Sionore, although certainly far inferior to mules, they are really better than asses, or even horses ?. That was all I got for my interference. These Khimariote women were of all ages, and many of them very pretty; their dress was a full white petticoat, with an embroidered woollen apron (worn behind, and not before! ) The men were white capoted, strong-looking fellows, walking with all that nonchalance and air of superiority so characteristic of Albanians; almost all the individuals spoke to Anastasio as a general acquaintance. The whole party is on the way to Avlona to work in the olive grounds there through the winter.  After having cleared the descent of Strada Bianca-a weary penance, the last part of it a little shortened by a steep flight of stairs cut in the perpendicular rock-we arrived at that extraordinary torrent which, descending in one unbroken white bed from the very mountain-top down its seaward face, is known by mariners as 'il fiume di Strada Bianca' or Aspri Ruga. Without doubt this is a very remarkable scene of sheer mountain terror; it presents a simple front of rock-awful from its immense magnitude-crowned at its summit with snow and pines and riven into a thousand lines all uniting in the tremendous ravine below-which, though now nearly dry, is in winter a torrent of destructive magnitude. Crossing this great watercourse, our route lay at the foot of the hills, through ground more and more cultivated and cheerful, and about 1 p.m. we reached the village of Palasa . Here we halted, after a good morning's work, in a sort of piazza near a disreputable-looking church, sadly out of repair. A few Khimariotes were idling below the shady trees, and Anastasio was   soon surrounded and welcomed back to his native haunts, though I perceived that some bad news was communicated to him, as he changed colour during the recital of the intelligence and clasping his hands exclaimed aloud with every appearance of real sorrow. The cause of this grief was, he presently informed me, the tidings of the death of one of his cousins at Vuno, his native place, a girl of eighteen whose extreme beauty and good qualities had made her a sort of queen of the village, which, said Anastasio, I shall find a changed place owing to her decease. 'I loved her, ' said he, 'with all my heart, and had we been married, as we ought to have been, our lives might have been most thoroughly happy. ' Having said thus much, and begging me to excuse his grief, he sat down with his head on his hand, in a mood of woe befitting such a bereavement. Meanwhile I reposed till the moment came for a fresh move onwards, when Io! I with the quickness of light the afflicted Anastasio arose and ran to a group of women advancing towards the olive trees, among whom one seemed to interest him not a little, and as she drew nearer I perceived that she was equally affected by the chance meeting; finally they sat down together and conversed with an earnestness which convinced me that the newcomer was a friend, at least, if not a sister, to the departed and lamented cousin of Vuno6. It was now time to start, and as the mules were loading the Khimariote girl lingered, and I never saw a more exquisitely handsome face than hers: each feature was perfectly faultless in form, but the general expression of the countenance had a tinge of sternness, with somewhat of traces of suffering; her raven tresses fell loose over her beautiful shoulders and neck and her form from head to foot was majestic and graceful to perfection; her dress, too, the short, open Greek jacket or spencer, ornamented with red patterns, the many-folded petticoat and the scarlet embroidered apron, admirably became her . She was a perfect model of beauty, as she stood knitting, hardly bending beneath the burden she was carrying-her fine face half in shade from a snowy handkerchief thrown negligently over her head. She vanished when we were leaving Palasa, but reappeared below the village and accompanied Anastasio for a mile or more through the surrounding olive grounds, and leaving him at last with a bitter expression of melancholy which it was impossible not to sympathise with. ' Ah, Signore, said Anastasio, 'she was to have been my wife, but now she is married to a horrid old man of Avl6na, who hates her, and she hates him, and so they will be wretched all their lives.' 'Corpo di Bacco! Anastasio, why you told me just now you were to be married to the girl who has just died at Vuno'. 'So I was, Signore; but her parents would not let me marry her, so I have not thought about her any more-only now that she is dead I cannot help being very sorry ; but Fortina, the girl who has;  just gone back, was the woman I loved better than anybody. ' 'Then why didn't you marry her?' 'Perche, perche,' said the afflicted Anastasio, 'perche, I have a wife already, Signore, in Vuno, and a little girl six years old. Si signor, si.' So much for the comfortable arrangement prevalent throughout this  country1-0f marriages being arranged beforehand by the parents of the parties, independently of the individuals most concerned in the matter, for the refusal of a bride by the bridegroom, if the lady be once brought so far as his house, is strongly resented by her family-not-withstanding which, Anastasio, by his own account, greatly rebelled against orthodox Greek rules and told his parents that if his bride (a girl of Arghyro-Kastro and a relative of his mother's kinsmen) were not sufficiently agreeable or good-looking he would not have her at all ; and therefore they were obliged to connive at their wilful son's seeing his betrothed ere they set out, lest the chief of the bride's house should be outraged by a refusal at the eleventh hour. This occurred at Delvino ; and his account of being permitted to look at the lady through the opening of a door was amusing-how she was sitting down, and how he said : 0, Signora, camminate! Camminate, per l'amor del cielo; - perche voleva vedere se non zoppicasse. From Palasa to Dhrymadhes (the next in the line of Khimara villages) the route is comparatively uninteresting, except inasmuch as the great featlires of the Khimara country-the bright blue sea on one hand and the high mountain-wall on the other-were always attractive. About half past two we arrived at another deep fissure or torrent- chasm, cloven from the heart of the mountains to the sea, and here, perched and thrust in all possible positions among the rocks of the ravine, stands Dhrymadhes, more magnificent in its situation than any of the places I had hitherto seen in Acroceraunia, and not a little resembling Atrani, or Amalfi, or Canalo in Calabria, though the beauty of architecture in those Italian places is ill supplied by the scattered and formless collection of houses that hangs on the brink of the craggy gorge, through whose narrow sides remote peeps of the lofty summits of Tchika are visible. Sending on Anastasio and the mules to a house he indicated on the farther side of the ravine, I remained behind to sketch, and was soon , surrounded by curious observers; all, however, treated me with the greatest good breeding, and one old gentleman begged me, in Italian, to favour him by taking some coffee in his house. The Khimariotes are in the habit of using the Italian tongue more than any natives of Albania, a practice induced by their wandering lives and frequent intercourse with Corfu, Naples, etc. To sketch Dhrymadhes hastily was impossible; so, trusting to draw it on my return, I hurried onward round the head of the gorge, and found Anastasio at the house of one of his uncles-a quiet, unpretending dwelling, reminding me of many at Sorrento or other Italian places. The civilisation of this part of Albania seems indeed (speaking of the indoor enjoyments of life) far beyond what I have yet seen; and my surprise was great on observing the clean whitewashed walls of the rooms I was taken to-the rows of jugs, plates, etc., on shelves-the chairs and four-post bedstead, with tidy furniture, and every other comfort in proportion. ' Zia mia ! said Anascisio, of a nice-looking, middle-aged woman- and 'my uncle' was a fine specimen of a Palikar, in appearance venerable, perfectly gentlemanlike in manner, and speaking Italian fluently. All Khimariotes have great store of adventures to tell you and one might collect a good book of anecdotes from these roving people. 'My uncle' was one of the Khimariotes taken by All pasha as hostages, and was long imprisoned at Yannina; he was also in the French-Neapolitan service, and more lately one of Lord Byron's suite at  Missolonghi; so that he had seen a variety of life. Promising if possible to stay with these good-natured people on my return, and having partaken of some very tolerable wine, I left them, and as the mules were to go back hence to , Dukadhes the little roba I had with me was strapped on the backs of two women {according to Anastasio, the best mode of conveyance in default of better) and sent onward to Vuno. Rapidly as a traveller but glances at a country in this mode of journeying, the pencil conveys a far better idea of it, and in a few lines, than an inexperienced pen can hope to do with any amount of description ; it is sufficient, therefore, to say that all Himara is full of picturesqueness well worthy the study of a landscape painter. A wild tract of rugged nature succeeds to Drymadhes, and in one hour I reached Lliates, the third village; it consisted of a little knot of houses standing in gardens of olives, an oasis of cultivation which seems a rare exception to the general barrenness of this part of Khimara, though closer to the sea there appears to be a considerable portion of more fertile land. After a halt of ten minutes at Lliattes, where some of Anastasio's invisible friends brought us some fresh water at his call, I am again walking over rock and plains or lentisk, till I reach the last ravine, previously to arriving at Vuno, a deep chasm between red cliffs, much like those in the neighbourhood of beautiful Civita Castellana, and which, according to Anastasio, runs widening to the sea, and renders all progress by land impossible, except by the track we are now pursuing, at the very root of the mountains. The view of Corfu above this long perspective of ravines is exceedingly beautiful and tempted me to linger till the setting sun warned me to hasten. The bright orb went down like a globe of red crystal into the pale sea and the fiery-hued wall of jagged Acroceraunian mountains above us on our left grew purple and lead-coloured, yet there was still half an hour's hard walking to be accomplished; and before I turned the angle of the little ravine of Vuno there was only light enough to allow of a vague impression of a considerable town filling up the end of the gorge, without being able to discern the numerous excellencies of a place of which Anastasio was constantly remarking in a triumphant tone,  ? Ma, Signore, quando si vede Vuno ?  as if Paris or Istambul were nothing to it. We passed what seemed a large building, which my guide said was' Casa di Babba' , the house of his uncle, who was head of the family (his father having been a second son), and soon came to the paternal roof, now the property of his own eldest brother; for Anastasio is a secondo-genito and obliged to get his living a la Khimariote as he can: his mother still resides in her deceased husband's house, as do Anastasio's wife and child, besides Kyr Kostantino Kasnetzi, the eldest brother, with his children, he being a widower. All this domestic crowd, joined to a great variety of nephews and cousins, were waiting to receive us as we entered a courtyard, from whence we ascended to a spacious kitchen, where the females of the family saluted me with an air of timidity natural to persons who live ill such Oriental seclusion. The manners of Anastasio towards this part of the community appeared to me to savour a good deal of the relation between master and slave ; and now that my guide is at home he walks about with a dignified and haughty nonchalance very different from the subdued demeanour of the domestic in the Casa J- at Avlona. I was led again up stairs, to a large octagonal room, panelled and closeted and fitted up with sofas, etc., in the usual Turkish style; but the presence of many et cetera announces a people of very different habits to those of the wild Gheghe or rude inhabitants of Dukhadhes.  A small four-post bedstead stands in one corner; half a dozen side tables, adorn the sides of the room, with intervening chairs; the walls are White-washed; there are chests of drawers; the centre of the ceiling is tastefully ornamented with dried grapes, hung in patterns; and round four of the sides of the chamber shelves, thickly covered with jugs and other crockery-ware, complete the list of domestic small comforts. The windows are very small, and several loopholes in the exceedingly thick walls allude distinctly to the days of predatory warfare, when people shot their enemies out of the first-floor window. No sooner was I settled, glad enough to rest on the low sofa, than Anastasio's little girl, exquisitely pretty child of three years of age, with eyes like black beads, came into the room, very cleanly and nicely dressed down she sat, and taking my hand in hers began to sing in the prettiest manner possible, with as little shyness as if she had known me all through her short life. Next came the Capo di Casa, the eldest brother, Kostantino, a rough but prepossessing fellow, with moustache enough for ten. He spoke no Italian, so our converse was confined to Greek commonplaces, while Anastasio talks in his stead, and assures me that his brother is a man of extreme wisdom and attainments, and by profession a doctor . '0 Signore! e un uomo che sa assai-per Bacco! sa tutto ! E medico. Two years ago there was a boy of Vuno who threw a stone at another little boy j he broke his head and filled it full of bones: full, I say I pieno, : pieno, djco, di osse ; osse orande ed osse piccole, pieno, pieno ? but the learned man (tanto dotto e) pulled them all out-tutte, tutte-si, Signore-every one! and the little boy lived for ever afterwards in great health and prosperity. After the usual preliminary coffee, two or three Vuniote cousins came in, and among them one who had been at Corfu and Vido, where he had picked up some very lively and energetic samples of the English language more surprising than proper, with which he seasoned his broken Italian oddly enough. His stories were numberless, and there was no help but to hear them. One of the least comprehensible was of a lord, a grandissimo my1ordos, who had a cootter-con tanti marinari : e con questo cootter il gran lordos sempre girava il mondo ogni anno-e sempre aveva un vescovo dentro il cotter;  but the name of this circumvoyaging lord, or that of the marine bishop, I could not learn. Supper, consisting of a fowl excellently boiled and stewed, was brought in by Anastasio and his brother, and they waited while I ate but I gave them decidedly to understand that I would take my meal with the family while in their house, for as I had been hail fellow we met with all the gipsies and dirty people of Draghiadhes and Dukadhes: I did not see why I should be more magnificent in Vuno, especially, I had here a chance of seeing somewhat of decent Khimariote ways.