s wave, streams flow, the mountain fir
Nodding above; behold Black Acheron!
Once consecrated to the sepulchre.
Pluto! if this be hell I look upon,
Close shamed Elysium's gates; my shade shall seek for none!

The Acheron, which they crossed in this route, is now called the
Kalamas, a considerable stream, as large as the Avon at Bath but
towards the evening they had some cause to think the Acheron had not
lost all its original horror; for a dreadful thunderstorm came on,
accompanied with deluges of rain, which more than once nearly carried
away their luggage and horses. Byron himself does not notice this
incident in Childe Harold, nor even the adventure more terrific which
he met with alone in similar circumstances on the night before their
arrival at Zitza, when his guides lost their way in the defiles of
the mountains--adventures sufficiently disagreeable in the advent,
but full of poesy in the remembrance.

The first halt, after leaving Zitza, was at the little village of
Mosure, where they were lodged in a miserable cabin, the residence of
a poor priest, who treated them with all the kindness his humble
means afforded. From this place they proceeded next morning through
a wild and savage country, interspersed with vineyards, to Delvinaki,
where it would seem they first met with genuine Greek wine, that is,
wine mixed with resin and lime--a more odious draught at the first
taste than any drug the apothecary mixes. Considering how much of
allegory entered into the composition of the Greek mythology, it is
probable that in representing the infant Bacchus holding a pine, the
ancient sculptors intended an impersonation of the circumstance of
resin being employed to preserve new wine.

The travellers were now in Albania, the native region of Ali Pasha,
whom they expected to find at Libokavo; but on entering the town,
they were informed that he was further up the country at Tepellene,
or Tepalen, his native place. In their route from Libokavo to
Tepalen they met with no adventure, nor did they visit Argyro-castro,
which they saw some nine or ten miles off--a large city, supposed to
contain about twenty thousand inhabitants, chiefly Turks. When they
reached Cezarades, a distance of not more than nine miles, which had
taken them five hours to travel, they were agreeably accommodated for
the night in a neat cottage; and the Albanian landlord, in whose
demeanour they could discern none of that cringing, downc