after which we courted sleep beneath the soothing
influences of tales of love and war as related by our AEsculapian friend,
who undeniably proved himself to have been a very Don Quixote. Early the
following morning we were again afoot, and a few partridges, hares, and
quail rewarded our exertions. Amongst the hills, where most of the game
was shot, I noticed several old Roman tombs. Many of these were merely
large shapeless blocks of stone, while others were of the proper
sarcophagus form, ornamented with sculptures of considerable merit. On
some were depicted men in armour, with shields and long straight swords,
while others had two men with lances aimed at a deer between them. The
absence of anything like moulding on the sides proves their great
antiquity. In its place we find a rather graceful pattern, vines with
leaves and grapes predominating; or, as in other cases, choruses of
women holding hands and dancing. In no instance did I detect anything
denoting immorality or low ideas, so prevalent in the sculptures of
intermediate ages. Amongst these tombs, as also on the sites of the
ancient towns, curiosities and coins are found. Of the last, small
Hungarian silver pieces, and large Venetian gold pieces, are the most
numerous; although Roman copper coins are by no means rare. Stones
engraved with figures of Socrates and Minerva were shown to me, as
having been found in the province, and it is only two years since, that
two golden ear-rings of fifteen drachms weight, and about the size of
pigeons' eggs, were dug up in the neighbourhood of Blato. About the same
time a ring was found, of which the Pacha obtained possession. It was of
iron, set with a stone only three tenths of an inch in diameter, on
which were most beautifully engraved no fewer than nine figures of
classical deities.

The ensuing day I devoted to a double expedition to Boona and Blagai.
The former of these is about six miles distant, on the plain from
Mostar. It consists of a few houses built by the rebellious Ali Pacha,
who was Vizier at the time of Sir Gardner Wilkinson's visit to
Herzegovina. That functionary's villa, which is now the country-house of
the British Consul, is a moderate-sized yellow house, with little to
recommend it save its situation at the confluence of the Boona and the
Narenta. The former is spanned by a large bridge of fourteen arches,
upon one of which is a Turkish inscription, from which it appears that
it was repaired by the