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CHAPTER XIX.

THE APOCALYPTIC CHURCHES.

THYATIRA.

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Khan.

Road to Thyatira. - Aspect of country. — Adala. Anecdote. Hospitality of Turks. Mode of feeding horses.-Hill of lava.-The Katakekaumene.-Its extent.

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Cotton plant.-Tumulus of Halyattes and others.Gygæan lake.-Temple of Diana.- Jemeordum. - Mode of preserving hay and straw. Desolation of surrounding country. Burial-grounds.-Basins and wells.-Morass.Malaria. Marmora. Origin of name. - Houses and

church.

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- Leeches. Accident. - Turcoman chief. -His district. Thyatira.-Ancient history.-Present name.— Site of palace of Cesars. Sarcophagi. - Church of St. John. - Church of St. Basil.-Mosque. - Old cypress- Turkish cemetery.- Ancient fragments.- Extent and population of modern town. - Bazaars. Khan.Armenian church.-Greek school and church.-Service.A baptism. Visit to aga.-" Economus.". His wife.Infidel doctor.--Discussion.

tree.

THYATIRA is somewhat farther from Philadelphia in a north-westerly, than Laodicea is in a south-easterly, direction. The moon shone

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brightly two hours before sunrise, as we rode out of the gate of Ala Shehr and crossed over the wide plain watered by the Hermus and one of its branches, leaving Tmolus and its rugged peaks on our left; whence as we receded the scope of vision became enlarged, and those peaks proved to be only the outline of a lower ridge, above which the towering summits of the noble mountain, hitherto concealed, now developed themselves. The country, rich in resources but devoid of living agents, teems only with the dead. In a ride of six hours to Adala, we passed cemetery after cemetery, silent, large, and full, and but two solitary villages.

Before entering Adala, we forded the main branch of the Hermus, called Careechaee, measuring perhaps a hundred yards in width; and observed a cart-track, the only symptom of a vehicle on wheels that we met with in the interior of Asia Minor. The village contains about eighty Turkish families and a few poor Greeks who have apartments in the khan. Every town and large village in Turkey is provided with this accommodation for strangers. Those in the capital have already been described. A country khan is very simi

lar.

It consists of four walls forming a

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square, with a gate locked at night. In the enclosure are small rooms, with a door or window opening into the public quadrangle: the door has a key, and the window sometimes a shutter, but never any glass. For two or three pence a day, a stranger may hire a room for a longer or shorter period. The traveller is thus provided with a shelter for his bed, and a spot where he may place his goods and cook his food, if he be furnished, as is usual, with every necessary for that purpose. The porter of the khan generally keeps a caféné, where a cup of sugarless coffee may be procured; and the village will always supply coarse bread; but with these exceptions, the stranger is dependent entirely on his own resources. In a place of this description, as we were eating a cold fowl in the open quadrangle, a Turkish traveller, who entered the khan shortly after our arrival, unceremoniously came up to us and proceeded to help himself. The act wore the appearance of rudeness, but was not intended as such; for hospitality is carried to excess among the Moslims. When they are eating, any passer-by may join them; and we should have been as welcome to his kabab* as he considered him

* A roasted scrap

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self to our fowl. The horses stand with singular patience while their masters refresh themselves: they are not accustomed to be fed in the middle of the day; and though the journey may be one of twelve or fourteen hours and the traveller offer to pay for the animals' provender, yet the sooreejee invariably declines to allow them to eat between morning and evening.

We had scarcely left Adala on the road to Marmora, which is more than half-way thence to Thyatira, when suddenly we came upon a long ridge of lava, black, barren, and irregular, as if recently ejected; about a mile in length, and of considerable breadth. The straightness of the line is remarkable, and the absence of any large mountain, to which its probable origin may be assigned, is still more so. Nevertheless, indications of volcanic eruptions in the neighbourhood are numerous: at intervals of five miles from one another, are three pits called "The Bellows," which were, doubtless, volcanoes; and it is supposed that the hills immediately above them were formed by the cinders they threw up. Ancient geographers speak of this tract of country under the appellation of " KαTanɛnavμévn,”* (Katakekaumene,) or "The burnt

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* This part of Lydia was known by the name of Mæonia.

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THE KATAKEKAUMENE.

up," applying the name to a district more than sixty miles from east to west, and fifty from north to south; and thus including Philadelphia, Laodicea in Lydia, and Hierapolis in Phrygia, all of which places are known to have suffered greatly from volcanic agency. The hot springs that have continued for upwards of two thousand years in and around Hierapolis sufficiently indicate the existence of subterranean furnaces; and that these extended far beyond the Katakekaumene is evident from the fact that Laodicea of Lycaonia was called "Laodicea Combusta." The whole surface of the surrounding country was formerly covered with ashes, and the stones and hills in the neighbourhood still continue black, exhibiting the action of fire.

At the foot of the ridge of lava above mentioned, and for several miles in the vicinity, the cotton plant grows wild. The cotton had been picked by the peasants, but much still remained adhering to the trees, covering them with a natural fleecy hosiery whose snow-white hue contrasted strikingly with the jetty blackness of the volcanic stone.

In two hours we found ourselves once again opposite, though eight miles from, Sardis, while in the west was seen the tumulus of Haly

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