Kos is celebrated8 not only for its size, loveliness, and fertility, but as the birthplace of Apelles and of Hippocrates; the inhabitants still venerate9 an enormous plane-tree under which the good physician is said to have dispensed10 his knowledge of healing. The city of Kos is on a fine plain, which gradually slopes from the mountain to the sea and is well covered with trees. The attractive town lies prettily11 along the shore, and is distinguished12 by a massive square mediaeval fortress13, and by round stone windmills with specially14 long arms.
As we came around the corner of Kos, we had a view, distant but interesting, of the site of Halicarnassus, the modern town of Boudroum, with its splendid fortress, which the Turks wrested15 from the Knights16 of St. John. We sail by it with regret, for the student and traveller in the East comes to have a tender feeling for the simple nature of the father of history, and would forego some other pleasant experiences to make a pilgrimage to the birthplace of Herodotus. Here, also, was born the historian Dionysius. And here, a few years ago, were identified the exact site and rescued the remains17 of another of the Seven Wonders, the Tomb of Mausolus, built in honor of her husband by the Carian Artemisia, who sustained to him the double relation of sister and queen. This monument, which exhibited the perfection of Greek art, was four hundred and eleven feet in circumference18 and one hundred and forty feet high. It consisted of a round building, surrounded by thirty-six columns surmounted19 by a pyramid, and upon the latter stood a colossal20 group of a chariot and four horses. Some of the beautiful sculpture of this mausoleum can be seen in the British Museum.
We were all the afternoon endeavoring to get sight of Patinos, which the intervening islands hid from view. Every half-hour some one was discovering it, and announcing the fact. No doubt half the passengers will go to their graves comforted by the belief that they saw it. Some of them actually did have a glimpse of it towards night, between the islands of Lipso and Arki. It is a larger island than we expected to see; and as we had understood that the Revelations were written on a small rocky island, in fact a mere21 piece of rock, the feat22 seemed less difficult on a good-sized island. Its height is now crowned by the celebrated monastery23 of St. John, but the island is as barren and uninviting as it was when the Romans used it as a place of banishment24.
We passed Astypat鎍, Kalyminos, Leros, and a sprinkling of islets (as if a giant had sown this sea with rocks), each of which has a history, or is graced by a legend; but their glory is of the past. The chief support of their poor inhabitants is now the sponge-fishery. At sunset we had before us Icaria and Samos, and on the mainland the site of Miletus, now a fever-smitten place, whose vast theatre is almost the sole remains of the metropolis26 of the Ionic confederacy. Perhaps the centre of Ionic art and culture was, however, the island of Samos, but I doubt not the fame of its Samian wine has carried its name further than the exploits of its warriors27, the works of its artists, or the thoughts of its philosophers. It was the birthplace of Pythagoras; it was once governed by Polycrates; there for a time Antony and Cleopatra established their court of love and luxury. In the evening we sailed close under its high cliffs, and saw dimly opposite Icaria, whose only merit or interest lies in its association with the ill-judged aerial voyage of Icarus, the soil of Daedalus.
Although the voyager amid these islands and along this historic coast profoundly feels the influence of the past, and, as he reads and looks and reflects, becomes saturated28 with its half-mysterious and delicious romance, he is nevertheless scarcely able to believe that these denuded29 shores and purple, rocky islets were the homes of heroes, the theatres of world-renowned exploits, the seats of wealth and luxury and power; that the marble of splendid temples gleamed from every summit and headland; that rich cities clustered on every island and studded the mainland; and that this region, bounteous30 in the fruits of the liberal earth, was not less prolific31 in vigorous men and beautiful women, who planted adventurous33 and remote colonies, and sowed around the Mediterranean34 the seeds of our modern civilization. In the present desolation and soft decay it is difficult to recall the wealth, the diversified35 industry, the martial36 spirit, the refinement37 of the races whose art and literature are still our emulation38 and despair. Here, indeed, were the beginnings of our era, of our modern life,—separated by a great gulf39 from the ancient civilization of the Nile,—the life of the people, the attempts at self-government, the individual adventure, the new development of human relations consequent upon commerce, and the freer exchange of products and ideas.
What these islands and this variegated40 and genial41 coast of Asia Minor might become under a government that did not paralyze effort and rob industry, it is impossible to say; but the impression is made upon the traveller that Nature herself is exhausted42 in these regions, and that it will need the rest or change of a geologic43 era to restore her pristine44 vigor32. The prodigality45 and avarice46 of thousands of years have left the land—now that the flame of civilization has burned out—like the crater47 of an extinct volcano. But probably it is society and not nature that is dead. The island of Rhodes, for an example, might in a few years of culture again produce the forests that once supplied her hardy48 sons with fleets of vessels49, and her genial soil, under any intelligent agriculture, would yield abundant harvests. The land is now divided into petty holdings, and each poor proprietor50 scratches it just enough to make it yield a scanty51 return.
During the night the steamer had come to Chios (Scio), and I rose at dawn to see—for we had no opportunity to land—the spot almost equally famous as the birthplace of Homer and the land of the Chian wine. The town lies along the water for a mile or more around a shallow bay opening to the east, a city of small white houses, relieved by a minaret52 or two; close to the water's edge are some three-story edifices53, and in front is an ancient square fort, which has a mole54 extending into the water, terminated by a mediaeval bastion, behind which small vessels find shelter. Low by the shore, on the north, are some of the sturdy windmills peculiar55 to these islands, and I can distinguish with a glass a few fragments of Byzantine and mediaeval architecture among the common buildings. Staring at us from the middle of the town were two big signs, with the word "Hotel."
To the south of the town, amid a grove56 of trees, are the white stones of the cemetery57; the city of the dead is nearly as large as that of the living. Behind the city are orange orchards58 and many a bright spot of verdure, but the space for it is not broad. Sharp, bare, serrated, perpendicular59 ridges60 of mountain rise behind the town, encircling it like an amphitheatre. In the morning light these mountains are tawny61 and rich in color, tinged62 with purple and red. Chios is a pretty picture in the shelter of these hills, which gather for it the rays of the rising sun.
It is now half a century since the name of Scio rang through the civilized63 world as the theatre of a deed which Turkish history itself can scarcely parallel, and the island is vigorously regaining64 its prosperity. It only needs to recall the outlines of the story. The fertile island, which is four times the extent of the Isle25 of Wight, was the home of one hundred and ten thousand inhabitants, of whom only six thousand were Turks. The Greeks of Scio were said to differ physically65 and morally from all their kindred; their merchants were princes at home and abroad, art and literature flourished, with grace and refinement of manner, and there probably nowhere existed a society more industrious66, gay, contented67, and intelligent. Tempted68 by some adventurers from Samos to rebel, they drew down upon themselves the vengeance69 of the Turks, who retaliated70 the bloody71 massacre72 of Turkish men, women, and children by the insurrectionists, with a universal destruction. The city of Scio, with its thirty thousand inhabitants, and seventy villages, were reduced to ashes; twenty-five thousand of all ages and both sexes were slain73, forty-five thousand were carried away as slaves, among them women and children who had been reared in luxury, and most of the remainder escaped, in a destitute74 state, into other parts of Greece. At the end of the summer's harvest of death, only two thousand Sciotes were left on the island. An apologist for the Turks could only urge that the Greeks would have been as unmerciful under like circumstances.
None of the first-class passengers were up to see Chios,—not one for poor Homer's sake; but the second-class were stirring for their own, crawling out of their comfortables, giving the babies a turn, and the vigilant75 flea76 a taste of the morning air. When the Russian peasant, who sleeps in the high truncated77 frieze78 cap, and in the coat which he wore in Jerusalem,—a garment short in the waist, gathered in pleats underneath79 the shoulders, and falling in stiff expanding folds below,—when he first gets up and rubs his eyes, he is an astonished being. His short-legged wife is already astir, and beginning to collect the materials of breakfast. Some of the Greeks are making coffee; there is a smell of coffee, and there are various other unanalyzed odors. But for pilgrims, and pilgrims so closely packed that no one can stir without moving the entire mass, these are much cleaner than they might be expected to be, and cleaner, indeed, than they can continue to be, and keep up their reputation. And yet, half an hour among them, looking out from the bow for a comprehensive view of Chios, is quite enough. I wished, then, that these people would change either their religion or their clothes.
Last night we had singing on deck by an extemporized80 quartette of young Americans, with harmonious81 and well-blended voices, and it was a most delightful82 contrast to the caterwauling, accompanied by the darabouka, which we constantly hear on the forward deck, and which the Arabs call singing. Even the fat, good-humored little Moslem83 from Damascus, who lives in the pen with the merchant-prince of that city, listened with delight and declared that it was tyeb kateer. Who knows but these people, who are always singing, have some appreciation84 of music after all?
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1
scant
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| adj.不充分的，不足的；v.减缩，限制，忽略 | |
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abode
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| n.住处，住所 | |
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volcanic
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| adj.火山的；象火山的；由火山引起的 | |
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renown
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| n.声誉，名望 | |
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shrine
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| n.圣地，神龛，庙；v.将...置于神龛内，把...奉为神圣 | |
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minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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situated
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| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
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celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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venerate
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| v.尊敬，崇敬，崇拜 | |
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dispensed
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| v.分配( dispense的过去式和过去分词 )；施与；配（药） | |
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prettily
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| adv.优美地；可爱地 | |
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distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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fortress
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| n.堡垒，防御工事 | |
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specially
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| adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地 | |
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wrested
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| （用力）拧( wrest的过去式和过去分词 )； 费力取得； （从…）攫取； （ 从… ） 强行取去… | |
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knights
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| 骑士； （中古时代的）武士( knight的名词复数 )； 骑士； 爵士； （国际象棋中）马 | |
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remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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circumference
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| n.圆周，周长，圆周线 | |
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surmounted
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| 战胜( surmount的过去式和过去分词 )； 克服（困难）； 居于…之上； 在…顶上 | |
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colossal
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| adj.异常的，庞大的 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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feat
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| n.功绩；武艺，技艺；adj.灵巧的，漂亮的，合适的 | |
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monastery
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| n.修道院，僧院，寺院 | |
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banishment
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| n.放逐，驱逐 | |
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isle
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| n.小岛，岛 | |
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metropolis
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| n.首府；大城市 | |
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warriors
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| 武士，勇士，战士( warrior的名词复数 ) | |
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saturated
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| a.饱和的，充满的 | |
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denuded
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| adj.[医]变光的，裸露的v.使赤裸( denude的过去式和过去分词 )；剥光覆盖物 | |
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bounteous
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| adj.丰富的 | |
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prolific
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| adj.丰富的，大量的；多产的，富有创造力的 | |
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vigor
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| n.活力，精力，元气 | |
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adventurous
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| adj.爱冒险的；惊心动魄的，惊险的，刺激的 | |
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Mediterranean
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| adj.地中海的；地中海沿岸的 | |
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diversified
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| adj.多样化的，多种经营的v.使多样化，多样化( diversify的过去式和过去分词 )；进入新的商业领域 | |
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martial
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| adj.战争的，军事的，尚武的，威武的 | |
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refinement
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| n.文雅；高尚；精美；精制；精炼 | |
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emulation
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| n.竞争；仿效 | |
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gulf
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| n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂 | |
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40
variegated
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| adj.斑驳的，杂色的 | |
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genial
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| adj.亲切的，和蔼的，愉快的，脾气好的 | |
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42
exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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geologic
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| adj.地质的 | |
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pristine
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| adj.原来的，古时的，原始的，纯净的，无垢的 | |
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prodigality
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| n.浪费，挥霍 | |
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avarice
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| n.贪婪；贪心 | |
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crater
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| n.火山口，弹坑 | |
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48
hardy
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| adj.勇敢的，果断的，吃苦的；耐寒的 | |
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vessels
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| n.血管( vessel的名词复数 )；船；容器；（具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的）人 | |
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50
proprietor
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| n.所有人；业主；经营者 | |
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51
scanty
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| adj.缺乏的，仅有的，节省的，狭小的，不够的 | |
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52
minaret
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| n.（回教寺院的）尖塔 | |
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53
edifices
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| n.大建筑物( edifice的名词复数 ) | |
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54
mole
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| n.胎块；痣；克分子 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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grove
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| n.林子，小树林，园林 | |
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cemetery
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| n.坟墓，墓地，坟场 | |
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orchards
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| （通常指围起来的）果园( orchard的名词复数 ) | |
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perpendicular
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| adj.垂直的，直立的；n.垂直线，垂直的位置 | |
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ridges
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| n.脊( ridge的名词复数 )；山脊；脊状突起；大气层的)高压脊 | |
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tawny
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| adj.茶色的，黄褐色的；n.黄褐色 | |
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tinged
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| v.（使）发丁丁声( ting的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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civilized
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| a.有教养的，文雅的 | |
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regaining
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| 复得( regain的现在分词 )； 赢回； 重回； 复至某地 | |
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physically
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| adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律 | |
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industrious
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| adj.勤劳的，刻苦的，奋发的 | |
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contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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tempted
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| v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词） | |
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vengeance
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| n.报复，报仇，复仇 | |
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retaliated
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| v.报复，反击( retaliate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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massacre
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| n.残杀，大屠杀；v.残杀，集体屠杀 | |
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slain
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| 杀死，宰杀，杀戮( slay的过去分词 )； (slay的过去分词) | |
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destitute
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| adj.缺乏的；穷困的 | |
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vigilant
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| adj.警觉的，警戒的，警惕的 | |
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flea
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| n.跳蚤 | |
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truncated
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| adj.切去顶端的，缩短了的，被删节的v.截面的( truncate的过去式和过去分词 )；截头的；缩短了的；截去顶端或末端 | |
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frieze
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| n.(墙上的)横饰带，雕带 | |
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underneath
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| adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面 | |
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extemporized
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| v.即兴创作，即席演奏( extemporize的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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harmonious
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| adj.和睦的，调和的，和谐的，协调的 | |
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delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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Moslem
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| n.回教徒，穆罕默德信徒；adj.回教徒的，回教的 | |
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appreciation
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| n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨 | |
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