lives. They wore out the rocks with their knees in prayer;
the cliffs resounded with their groans; sometimes they banged their
breasts with a big stone, for a change; and some wore chains and iron
girdles round their emaciated forms; but they did nothing whatever to
benefit their kind. Still there is something grand in the strength and
constancy of their faith. They left their homes and riches and the
pleasures of this world, to retire to these dens and caves of the earth,
to be subjected to cold and hunger, pain and death, that they might do
honour to their God, after their own fashion, and trusting that, by
mortifying the body in this world, they should gain happiness for the
soul in the world to come; and therefore peace be with their memory!

On the tops of these rocks in different directions there remain seven
monasteries out of twenty-four which once crowned their airy heights.
How anything except a bird was to arrive at one which we saw in the
distance on a pinnacle of rock was more than we could divine; but the
mystery was soon solved. Winding our way upwards, among a labyrinth of
smaller rocks and cliffs, by a romantic path which, afforded us from
time to time beautiful views of the green vale below us, we at length
found ourselves on an elevated platform of rock, which I may compare to
the flat roof of a church; while the monastery of Barlaam stood
perpendicularly, above us, on the top of a much higher rock, like the
tower of this church. Here we fired off a gun, which was intended to
answer the same purpose as knocking at the door in more civilized
places; and we all strained our necks in looking up at the monastery to
see whether any answer would be made to our call. Presently we were
hailed by some one in the sky, whose voice came down to us like the cry
of a bird; and we saw the face and grey beard of an old monk some
hundred feet above us peering out of a kind of window or door. He asked
us who we were, and what we wanted, and so forth; to which we replied,
that we were travellers, harmless people, who wished to be admitted into
the monastery to stay the night; that we had come all the way from Corfu
to see the wonders of Meteora, and, as it was now getting late, we
appealed to his feelings of hospitality and Christian benevolence.

"Who are those with you?" said he.

"Oh! most respectable people," we answered; "gentlemen of our
acquaintance, who have come with us across the mountains from Mezzovo."