ASCEND TO THE ACROPOLIS OF GERME. 59

Having arrived, through pines and fruit trees, at the bottom of the valley, which separates the village from the opposite mountain, at nine o'clock we ascended on the other side. The road was a stony path, in some places nearly perpendicular, through pines of the most magnificent growth; here, too, the effects of the dreadful hurricane were strongly marked in the multitude of trees rooted up, or broken off at different heights from the ground.

The same tree or shrub which we had remarked yesterday, was here in great abundance. The leaf rather resembled that of the tea-tree, though it was not jagged at the edges, and the taste was strongly astringent. The people of Debrè called it Kara-gatch, and told us they used it to make charcoal for their gunpowder. But Karagatch," the black tree," is a name generally given by the Turks, who know nothing of Linnæus, to all trees that do not bear fruit.

We at length arrived at a level space, where stood a hut, and tents of Turcomans; thence the road continued to wind round the base of the acropolis, till we reached the village of Germè at a quarter past ten.

60

ASCEND THE ACROPOLIS.

Riding some little way beyond this, we left Milcom and Suleiman with the horses at a fountain, and, accompanied by our guide, mounted the steep hill of the acropolis. We had not ascended far before we came to a small but very fertile level space, belting the basement of the acropolis.

The ascent from hence was difficult, and it was some time before we discovered the road. The appearance of this stupendous acropolis was imposing in the extreme; of enormous height, with precipitous rocks, as if shaped by art. The city walls were seen all along the summit, as well as in various parts of the steep below, in all states of preservation, and of varied construction. Part of them was of very early date, the stones being large and polygonal; the others are for the most part of large squared stone; but there were some of small ones, evidently reparations of a much later date.

About midway up, we saw a beautiful little building, apparently a mausoleum, in the most perfect preservation. It was a small square room abutted against, and partly inserted into the rock, having a handsome doorway. On one of the side

ILLUSTRATION OF ISAIAH CHAP. XXII. 61

walls were festoons between the heads of Isis, and on the other the same, with the caput bovis between the festoons.

We looked in vain for some inscription to inform us whose memory this beautiful edifice was intended to perpetuate. Nothing appeared upon the spot to convey the smallest information, and I was reminded of the prophet's appropriate words, "What hast thou here? and whom hast thou here, that thou hast hewed thee out a sepulchre here, as he that heweth him out a sepulchre on high, and that graveth an habitation for himself in a rock ?”*

I think there is another part of this chapter, the three last verses, that may be illustrated by a reference to ancient tombs. "I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place; and they shall hang upon him all vessels of small quantity, from the vessels of cups, even to all the vessels of flagons."

"In that day, saith the Lord of hosts, shall the nail that is fastened in the sure place be removed, and be cut down, and fall; and the burden that was upon it shall be cut off for the Lord hath spoken it."

* Isaiah xxii. 16.

62

THE "NAIL" IN A SURE PLACE.

If the sure place can be supposed to mean the sepulchre, or the treasury, and frequently, as in the sepulchres of the kings of Jerusalem, and the tombs of the kings of Pergamus, the sepulchres were converted into treasure houses, then the tombs in the island of Milo will be a happy illustration, within which I have myself seen nails fixed all round above the places where the bodies were deposited, and upon these nails were fixed "vessels of small quantity," vases of all forms and sizes.*

Ascending still, we indeed found a Roman sepulchral inscription:

Ἡ πατρὶς Τίτον Φλαυνιανὸν Κλέωνα τὸν ἀξιολογωτατον·

"The most praiseworthy Titus Flavianus Cleon is honoured by his native city."

It is barely possible that this is the individual for whom this mausoleum was constructed; but there is no proof of it.

The sepulchres of Suleiman, (see vol. i. p. 88,) resemble those of Milo, and from their immense number, the city might have been named Necropolis, "the city of the dead."