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will not serve to bar the new-born aspirations of the Hellenes; and many impatient eyes are already turning towards the land of promise, where the dozing Porte still holds its sway.
As we stand, Pelion is far to the right; in front of us is Ossa; and to the left the domes and cusps of mightier Olympus tower over all, sagaciously assigned of old as the abode of shadowy deities, whose priests found these inaccessible heights as convenient to their cult as modern ecclesiastics have sometimes proved the labyrinths of controversial theology to be to theirs. Farther again to the west stretches in long perspective a range of snowy peaks, till the faint outlines of Epirus and Albania close the view. There is something in the breadth of this horizon, the rich plain and royal sweep of mountain-crests, that recalls the panorama of Alps and level Lombardy, viewed from the towers of Turin.
After all this brilliancy and breadth, how strangely narrow and dim the interior of the mosque seems when we descend! We stand awhile on the threshold of the inner court, corresponding to the choir or chancel of a Christian church. Worshippers enter one by one, kick off their slippers, pay their devotions, and so depart; and all the time a muezzin, kneeling on a carpet and leaning his back against a wall, chants monotonously and discordantly from the Koran.
There is not much winter shooting in the immediate environs of Larissa. The great fenceless, almost treeless, plain, with its monotonous tracts alternately of ploughed land, dead stubble, or withered weeds, seems to harbour little winged game after the quails have left. Bustard, it is true, are tolerably plentiful; but they are keenly looked after by local gunners, who may be seen bringing them in for sale, slung on the saddles of their mules or ponies.
But our kind friends in Larissa were determined to provide us amusement of the kind dear to Englishmen, and the Demarch arranged for us an expedition to the preserves of a Turkish landowner, distant about ten miles from the city, on the southern spurs of Mount Ossa.
It was a glorious morning when we set out. Not a cloud floated in the sky, the gale had subsided, there was a delicious freshness in the air, and to the north Mount Olympus rose clear and glistering, betokening steady weather. As above mentioned, there is only one street in Larissa over which a carriage can be driven, and as this does not lead in the direction we wished to go, a long detour had to be made after leaving the eastern gate of the city; here axle-deep in ploughed fields, there bumping through Moslem cemeteries, and wholly over ways which any London cab-driver would pronounce impassable. However, after a couple of miles of this work, we gained the new Greek road running straight and fair to Hagyia, and the procession of three carriages rattled on at a good pace. A diversion was caused in crossing a stream some five miles from the start, where two small grebes were sighted on the water. A great loading of guns took place. The English chasseurs were invited to descend and open the sport; but they waived the privilege, declaring the birds not to be ducks, but only plongeurs, and therefore not worth powder and shot. It was clear that their motives were misunderstood, and that they were suspected of having