We now heard a holloing and shouting, which portended the arrival of the mules, and, bidding adieu to the old hermit of the tower, I mounted a mule; the others were lightly loaded with my effects, and we scrambled up a steep rocky path through a thicket of odoriferous evergreen shrubs, our progress being assisted by the screams and bangs inflicted by several stout acolytes, a sort of lay-brethren, who came down with the animals from the convent.
Monastery of St. Laura--Kind Reception by the Abbot--Astonishment of the Monks--History of the Monastery--Rules of the Order of St. Basil--Description of the Buildings--Curious Pictures of the Last Judgment--Early Greek Paintings; Richness of their Frames and Decorations--Ancient Church Plate--Beautiful Reliquary--The Refectory--The Abbot's Savoury Dish--The Library--The MSS.--Ride to the Monastery of Caracalla--Magnificent Scenery.
We soon emerged upon a flat piece of ground, and there before us stood the great monastery of
It appeared like an ancient fortress, surrounded with high blank walls, over the tops of which were seen numerous domes and pinnacles, and odd-shaped roofs and cypress-trees, all jumbled together. In some places one of those projecting windows, which are called shahneshin at Constantinople, stood out from the great encircling wall at a considerable height above the ground; and in front of the entrance was a porch in the Byzantine style, consisting of four marble columns, supporting a dome; in this porch stood the agoumenos, backed by a great many of the brethren. My servant had, doubtless, told him what an extraordinarily great personage he was to expect, for he received me with great deference; and after the usual bows and compliments the dark train of Greek monks filed in through the outer and two inner iron gates, in a sort of procession, with which goodly company I proceeded to the church, which stood in the middle of the great court-yard. We went up to the screen of the altar, and there everybody made bows, and said "Kyrie eleison," which they repeated as quickly and in as high a key as they could. We then came out of the church, and the agoumenos, taking me by the hand, led me up divers dark wooden staircases, until we came into a large cheerful room well furnished in the Turkish style, and having one of the projecting windows which I had seen from the outside. In this room, which the agoumenos told me I was to consider as my own, we had coffee. I then presented the letter of the patriarch; he read it with great respect, and said I was welcome to remain in the monastery as long as I liked; and after various compliments given and received he left me; and I found myself comfortably installed in one of the grand--and, as yet, unexplored--monasteries of the famous sanctuary of Mount Athos: better known in the Levant by the appellation of [Greek: Agios Oros], or, as the Italian hath it, Monte Santo.