CHAPTER XV

Leave Utraikee—­Dangerous Pass in the Woods—­Catoona—­Quarrel between the Guard and Primate of the Village—­Makala—­Gouri—­Missolonghi—­ Parnassus

Having spent the night at Utraikee, Byron and his friend continued their journey southward.  The reports of the state of the country induced them to take ten additional soldiers with them, as their road for the first two hours lay through dangerous passes in the forest.  On approaching these places fifteen or twenty of the party walked briskly on before, and when they had gone through the pass halted until the travellers came up.  In the woods two or three green spots were discovered on the road-side, and on them Turkish tombstones, generally under a clump of trees, and near a well or fountain.

When they had passed the forest they reached an open country, whence they sent back the ten men whom they had brought from Utraikee.  They then passed on to a village called Catoona, where they arrived by noon.  It was their intention to have proceeded farther that day, but their progress was interrupted by an affair between their Albanian guard and the primate of the village.  As they were looking about, while horses were collecting to carry their luggage, one of the soldiers drew his sword at the primate, the Greek head magistrate; guns were cocked, and in an instant, before either Lord Byron or Mr Hobhouse could stop the affray, the primate, throwing off his shoes and cloak, fled so precipitately that he rolled down the hill and dislocated his shoulder.  It was a long time before they could persuade him to return to his house, where they lodged, and when he did return he remarked that he cared comparatively little about his shoulder to the loss of a purse with fifteen sequins, which had dropped out of his pocket during the tumble.  The hint was understood.

Catoona is inhabited by Greeks only, and is a rural, well-built village.  The primate’s house was neatly fitted up with sofas.  Upon a knoll, in the middle of the village, stood a schoolhouse, and from that spot the view was very extensive.  To the west are lofty mountains, ranging from north to south, near the coast; to the east a grand romantic prospect in the distance, and in the foreground a green valley, with a considerable river winding through a long line of country.

They had some difficulty in procuring horses at Catoona, and in consequence were detained until past eleven o’clock the next morning, and only travelled four hours that day to Makala, a well-built stone village, containing about forty houses distinct from each other, and inhabited by Greeks, who were a little above the condition of peasants, being engaged in pasturage and a small wool-trade.

The travellers were now in Carnia, where they found the inhabitants much better lodged than in the Albanian villages.  The house in which they slept at this place resembled those old mansions which are to be met with in the bottoms of the Wiltshire Downs.  Two green courts, one before and the other behind, were attached to it, and the whole was surrounded by a high and thick wall, which shut out the prospect, but was necessary in a country so frequently overrun by strong bands of freebooters.