Page:The Six Voyages of John Baptista Tavernier.djvu/65
unlike that of Smyrna, at the foot whereof runs a Rivulet, after it has made a thousand Mæanders in the Meadows. The City seems to have been very large, for you may discern upon the top of the Gates the compass of the Walls, with several square Towers, some of which are still standing: and there is one very remarkable, having two Chambers in it, one of which is a very fair one, the Walls and Pavement whereof are Marble.
The famous Temple of Diana stood at the bottom of the Hill, near one of the Gates of the City. There remains nothing of it at present but the great Portal, which is entire. The Vaults of the Arches under ground stand to this day, and are very large, but all full of nastiness. We went in with Lanthorns; and though you must creep to get in, by reason that the Wind has almost stopt up the Hole, by gathering the Dust about it, yet when you are in, you may go upright for the Arches are high and fair, and little the worse. Near the Gate lye four or five Columns upon the Ground, and near to that a Fountain, ten Foot in Diameter, and two deep. The People of the Country report, that it was the Fountain wherein St. John Baptiz'd the Christians. For my part, as I have seen in the Indies several Pagods and Edifices much more beautiful than ever the Temple of Ephesus could be; I believe it rather to have been a Basin wherein the People put their Offerings, of which there are several such that belong to the Indian Pagods. The Greeks and Armenians, but above all the Franks, when they go to Ephesus always endeavour to break off some piece of that Basin, to carry it away with 'em as a Relick: but the Stone is so hard, that they can break off but very little at a time.
Not far from the Temple appears another Gate of the City, over which there lyes a great Stone seven or eight Foot square, with an emboss'd Figure of Q. Curtius that Famous Roman, who threw himself, Horse and Arms into the gaping Earth, for the good of his Country. Many Merchants have offer'd Money for liberty to carry it away, but cannot obtain leave. About five hundred Paces from Ephesus is the Grotto which they call the Seven Sleepers, at the bottom of the same Hill where the City was built.
From Ephesus we went to Scalanova, which is not above two Leagues off. By that time you come half the way, the little River that runs by Ephesus falls into the Sea; in the mouth whereof there are always a great number of Greek Barks fishing for Sturgeon. Of the Spawn of this Fish they make Caveare, and drive a great Trade in it in those Parts: then they take the most delicate and smallest Entrails of that Fish, which they fill with the same Spawn, of which they make a kind of a flat Pudding, as long as a Bisket, which they call Botargo. This they dry in the Smoak, and cut it afterwards in slices to eat. Upon this and the Cuttle-fish the Greeks generally feed during their Lent, which is very austere.
Scalanova is a Port of which I have already spoken, and thither we came by seven a Clock in the Evening; where the Governour of the Place, more civil than usually the Turks are accustom'd to be, made us very welcom.
In the Evening one of our Janizaries had quarrel'd with one of our Servants, who thereupon had beaten him; and therefore he complain'd to the Fellow's Master, who not giving him that satisfaction which he desir'd, thereupon the Turk study'd to be reveng'd upon the whole Company. For this reason, upon some pretence or other, he went before, the better to bring about his design. We staid till the Morning, and then departed early from Scalanova, and by Noon we came with good Stomachs to the Mosquee near Ephesus, where we had been the day before: And some of the Company thought it a very convenient place to dine in, i'the shade; thereupon we sent for our Provisions, with a Boracho of Wine, and another of Water, and fell to eating in the Passage into the Mosquee, not dreaming any harm. We had not been long at it, when we perceiv'd two or three Turks about two hundred Paces off, who came from a Village very near to the Mosquee. I knowing the custom of the Country better than they, told them, that they were certainly coming to pick a quarrel with us, and therefore caus'd them to hide the Bottle of Wine immediately; for it was then the Turks Ramezan, or Lent; during which time Wine is strictly forbidden. These two ill-contriv'd and ill-clad Fellows were the Janizaries of the place, whom the Cadi had sent, upon the information of our Janizary (who knowing we had eaten in the same place before, as indeed we had done, made no question but we would do so again) thinking to surprize usas