where we pitched our tent-and asked us, mysteriously, in the few words of Italian of which he was master, whether we were English or French; saying, on my acknowledging to belong to the former locomotive nation, "Inglez! buono"-immediately putting my assertion to the test, by asking for a knife and fork out of our canteen. He volunteered his services as guide and Cicerone to the labyrinth, which we purposed visiting next morning, and, on the plea of laying in a provision of twine, tapers, &c., extracted a sum of money in advance, which would have purchased all the hemp and wax in the village. His own stores, however, furnished the required articles, which had already been used and paid for a hundred times over by former travellers.

We set out at day-break, and, at about half a mile from the village, reached a bridge thrown across a crystal stream that gushes out of a ravine in the wide-spreading roots of Mount Ida. On the margin of the torrent stands an extremely picturesque ruin, over

272

RUINS OF GOTYNA.

shadowed by a group of wide-spreading plane trees. A dilapidated bridge affords a passage across the stream, which, however, is fordable at most seasons of the year. The surface of the plain, on the left, is strewed as far as the eye can reach with fragments of marble columns, building stones, and ruins; the remains of Gotyna.

At about a mile and a half from our sleeping-place is the village of Avenuson, which is a much more inviting locale than Agius Decca, being embosomed in groves of fruit trees, and watered by a limpid rivulet. Soon after passing this village, the pathway to the labyrinth strikes off to the right, ascending the steep mountain, on the acclivity of which this wonder of the world is situated. It requires a scramble of three quarters of an hour to reach it; for, although but a short distance from the road, it is elevated at least six hundred feet above the plain, and the pathway is obstructed by rocks and bushes.

The entrance cannot be discerned until within one hundred paces of it. It faces the

NATURAL CAVERNS.

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south, and is evidently one of the natural caverns so common in the island, and indeed in the sides of all mountains of the same geological character.

From this vestibule, a passage of considerable width, but obstructed by huge blocks of rock, leads for some distance into the heart of the mountain, when, turning sharply to the left, and diminishing suddenly to a width and height of between four and five feet, it continues in that direction for about eighty paces. This inconvenient boyau is the only passage in the labyrinth that obliges one to bend the back. At its termination, we arrived at a kind of star chamber, (I mean a chamber in the form of a star), from which passages branch off in all directions, leading to other chambers, where new radii conduct still further into the interior of the mountain, forming, indeed, a very intricate net-work, of which some idea may be formed by those who are acquainted with the purlieus of St. Giles's, by merely imagining a succession of subterranean seven dials.

VOL. II.

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274

CHARLATANERIE OF THE GUIDES.

The roof of all these numerous passages and chambers is one uninterrupted even surface, for though they differ materially in height, yet this irregularity is chiefly caused by the greater or less accumulation of stones and rubbish heaped upon the floors, over which the adventurer has sometimes to make his way at the risk of his neck. Some of the chambers, however, are entered by steps, the floors being sunk, but even of these the roof is invariably on the same hanging level.

The passages are sufficiently complex and tortuous to puzzle any one who visits them for the first time, but to persons accustomed to thread their mazes, like our guides, I should say the huge hanks of twine and extravagant supply of torches and wax-tapers were called for merely by the "charlatanerie" of their profession; and I feel persuaded that, bearing in mind the before-noticed peculiarity in the formation of the roof of this extraordinary place, any one provided with plenty of wax candles, presence of mind, a box of lucifers, and the organ of locality, ought to find his

APPEARANCE OF THE INTERIOR.

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way out of it. The direction of the chain of hills is east and west; their composition a soft limestone, disposed in thin parallel strata, underlying slightly north. Recollecting, therefore, that the roof is always the under part of the same stratum-it is clear that all the passages which are on an inclined plane parallel to that of the roof must run north and south-whilst those which are level must be in the direction of the range of hills, and cannot, therefore, lead to the entrance, facing the south, which must, consequently, be sought for, by attaining the very highest level of the passages on an inclined plane.

One passage that we followed, with every appearance of caution on the part of our guides, brought us, after divers windings, to a small chamber, of which the roof having given way to the constant action of a trickling stream, and formed numerous stalactites, has assumed the appearance of the interior of a Gothic spire. The water is constantly dripping, and some charitable person has furnished the chamber with an earthenware