Page:Travels & discoveries in the Levant (1865) Vol. 1.djvu/366

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
316
TRAVELS AND DISCOVERIES

inserted in the wall of the church called Kyria, the other in that of the church of St. George. The sculpture, which is covered with whitewash, is coarse and late. In the wall of the church Kyria is a relief representing a funeral feast, and in the pavement the fragment of a decree.

Between the port and the upper town is a castle, which stands on a height a little way inland, and is called τὸ πέρα κάστρον. In one of the walls is an escutcheon with the arms of the Grand Master, John de Lastic.137 Within the castle is a little church dedicated to the Panagia. The jamb of the entrance doorway to the castle is a block of marble, inscribed with a dedication of a temple and certain statues by Nikodamos, son of Aratogenes, priest of the Dioscuri.138

To the west of Damos is a small valley leading down to the shore. Here is a church dedicated to St. Michael (Tasiarches), and close by it a well of excellent water, with a square aperture built of marble. This well appears ancient. Near this well is a cave, called 'μπρόστινα μέρη, which extends, as I was told, for about 450 paces into the earth. Out of it has been dug, probably for centuries, a red clay, which supplies material for a pottery at the mouth of the cave. Here I found a potter at work with a wheel, which has, probably, not changed its form since the time of the ancients. It consisted of a lower disk, τροχός, turned by the foot, and con- nected Avith a smaller upper disk, μικρὸς τροχός by a spindle, ῥόκα. A lump of clay having been placed on the upper disk is fashioned as it revolves by a wooden lathe held in the hand. On a Greek