2. The most ancient settlements of the Doric race, of which any historical accounts are extant, were, as we before ascertained,(862) the country at the foot of Olympus and Ossa, near the valley of TEMPE. In this district there were two sanctuaries, bearing the character of the highest antiquity, viz., the Pythium, on the ridge of Olympus, near a steep mountain-pass leading to Macedonia; and the altar in the ravine of the Peneus,(863) from which the god himself was called Τεμπείτας; and in an inscription discovered near this spot, on the banks of the river between Tempe and Larissa, are the words ΑΠΛΟΥΝΙ ΤΕΜΠΕΙΤΑ, “To Apollo of Tempe.”(864) From another inscription found in this district we gather an account of certain native Thessalian festivals, at which branches of laurel were carried round, that were doubtless procured from the groves in the valley of Tempe; whither also the Delphians every eight years, at the expiration of the sacred period, sent the Pythian theori, who, after the performance of a sacrifice, broke the expiatory branch from the sacred laurel-tree.(865) According also to the admission of the Delphians themselves, the temple of Apollo at Tempe was more ancient than their own, since a perfect expiation could only be performed in that sanctuary. In accordance with the tradition that Apollo himself, after having slain the Python, fled to the altar at Tempe to be purified from the pollution, the sacred boy, at each return of the appointed day, went to Tempe by a certain path,(866) in imitation of the god whom he honoured, in order to return home amidst the joyful songs of the choruses of virgins, as δαφνηφόρος, or _laurel-bearer_. The religious usages at this festival will be investigated hereafter; here we will only consider the route which the procession took. It led through Thessaly and Pelasgia (that is, through the plain of the Peneus, which stretches to the south as far as Pheræ); then through the country of the Malians and Ænianes, over mount Œta, through Doris and the western part of Locris;(867) avoiding in a remarkable manner the shorter and more frequented road from Thessaly through Thermopylæ, over Phocis, and through the pass of Panopeus and Daulis to Delphi. The reasons of this deviation may have been the opposition offered in early times by hostile tribes from the eastern side of Delphi to the peaceable march of sacred processions; and also that the theoria might in its progress pass through the second settlements of the Dorians, between Œta and Parnassus, where doubtless the worship of Apollo had likewise prevailed.(868)