he lived, I do not know; but
from its appearance this must be a very ancient establishment. By Roman,
perhaps, is meant Greek, for Greece is called Roumeli to this day; and
the Constantinopolitans called themselves Romans in the old time, as in
Persia and Koordistan the Sultan is called Roomi Padischah, the Roman
Emperor, by those whose education and general attainments enable them to
make mention of so distant and mysterious a potentate. Afterwards
Petrus, Authentes or Waywode of Moldavia, sent his protospaithaire, that
is his chief swordsman or commander-in-chief, to found a monastery on
the Holy Mountain, and supplied him with a sum of money for the purpose;
but the chief swordsman, after expending a very trivial portion of it in
building a small tower on the sea-shore, pocketed the rest and returned
to court. The waywode having found out what he had been at, ordered his
head to be cut off; but he prayed so earnestly to be allowed to keep his
head and rebuild the monastery of Caracalla out of his own money, that
his master consented. The new church was dedicated to St. Peter and St.
Paul, and ultimately the ex-chief swordsman prevailed upon the waywode
to come to Caracalla and take the vows. They both assumed the same name
of Pachomius, and died in the odour of sanctity. All this, and many more
legends, was I told by the worthy agoumenos, who was altogether a most
excellent person; but he had an unfortunate habit of selecting the most
windy places for detailing them, an open archway, the top of an external
staircase, or the parapet of a tower, until at last he chilled my
curiosity down to zero. In all his words and acts he constantly referred
to brother Joasaph, the second in command, to whose superior wisdom he
always seemed to bow, and who was quite the right-hand man of the abbot.

My friend first took me to the church, which is of moderate size, the
walls ornamented with stiff fresco pictures of the saints, none of them
certainly later than the twelfth century, and some probably very much
earlier. There were some relics, but the silver shrines containing them
were not remarkable for richness or antiquity. On the altar there were
two very remarkable crosses, each of them about six or eight inches
long, of carved wood set in gold and jewels of very early and beautiful
workmanship; one of them in particular, which was presented to the
church by the Emperor John Zimisces, was a most curious specimen of
ancient jewelle