98 GREEK SUPERSTITIONS. vents them from practising more nonsense in public than their catholic brethren of the west. The Turks indeed hold the Greek rites in the utmost contempt, and their picture-worship in perfect abhorrence; their own faith being intimately connected with the spirituality of the Deity, of whom they cannot endure any corporeal representations. I once had a conversation with a respectable Turkish agà upon this subject, who assured me that if the "Greek dogs" were not such idolaters he should have some respect for them; but when he saw them led by such ignorant and sordid impostors as he knew their priests to be, he could not possibly restrain his indignation and contempt. He then asked me why the English Franks never bowed down to kiss pictures, and why they did not cross themselves? and when I explained to him some of the chief articles of the Protestant faith and the discipline of our church, which discards all ceremonies that tend to debase the mind, and retains those only which are necessary to add dignity to religious worship, he exclaimed that all this was very good (xaλà xaλà); but that we were no more Christians than he was; meaning to pay us the greatest compliment in his power. Certainly the Greek priests exert very few endeavours to enlighten their countrymen, since ignorance and credulity is the source from which they derive the greatest part of their revenues. They teach their flocks therefore just as much of Christianity as is necessary for their craft, instruct them more in legends and miracles of saints than in the life and doctrines of their Saviour, inculcate a lively faith in purgatory, with the efficacy of masses, crossings, and the tedious repetition of prayers, just as if divine like human charity could be forced by sturdy importunity: hence attendance upon ceremonious institutions counterbalances the neglect of religious duties, and the people, unimpressed with the true stamp of devotion, possess a most adulterated system, not only of faith, but of morality. I trust however that the time is not far distant when these abominations shall cease for ever. The Greek clergy of Ioannina were numerous, and many of them very poor: some followed various professions, but especially husbandry and fishing: these were distinguishable from the laity only by a high round cap and a beard flowing over the breast: a Greek priest despises the tonsure as an innovation of the Latin church; he is only allowed to marry once, and his wife must be a virgin; if he marries a second time, he is silenced, and termed an apopapas. Monks or caloyers are bound by a vow of continency, and from them the bishops and other dignitaries of the church are generally selected. The Archbishop of Ioannina was appointed by the Patriarch of Constantinople, on the recommendation of the vizir: he had four suffragan bishops under him, viz. of Vellas (or Konizza), Argyro-Castro (or Drinopolis), Delvino, and Paramithia. His jurisdiction was very limited, for Ali Pasha would permit neither priests nor laity to possess more power than was absolutely necessary within his dominions. 100 DIFFICULTIES IN ALI'S HISTORY. CHAPTER V. HAVING proceeded thus far in the journal of our residence at Ioannina, during the course of which I have been necessarily led to bring forward many characteristic traits of its late celebrated ruler, I am induced to think that a more detailed account of his adventurous life, in which the causes of his uncommon success may be connected with their effects, will not prove unacceptable to my readers. The earlier parts of this wild and romantic history never can be very accurately and authentically described, since they rest upon oral traditions, or accounts which have been compiled from those traditions after a long intervening time: and though I have perused an immense number of such records, I never met with two that agreed with each other, either in the relation of facts or the developement of motives. In all such cases it is necessary to be well acquainted with the character of the persons from whom we receive information, and to know what have been their opportunities of acquiring it. For my own part, I found none more able or willing to impart this information than the old Albanian governors of cities, fortresses and seraglios, which we visited in our DOCUMENTS FOR ALI'S HISTORY. * 101 excursions: these men were the early friends of Ali in his youth, sharers of his toils, and partners of his success: still even their accounts are subject in a great degree to exaggeration from vain glory, and their chronological arrangement to disorder from defect of memory; the errors therefore that proceed from these sources must be corrected by a careful and discriminating comparison of written documents, as well as from the observations of those persons who have had the good fortune to view and sagacity to connect the chain of political events, in the secluded seats of literature and science. On one occasion, which will be hereafter mentioned, I was fortunate enough to gain some elucidation of Ali's early history from the great actor in its scenes: had I been more skilled in the Romaic language, I should not have despaired of receiving an authentic detail of the whole from his own mouth. The latter portion of his history, after its hero had established a name, and connected his dominions in political union with surrounding nations, offers itself much more advantageously to investigation and research. However before we enter upon the biographical part of this memoir, let us take a cursory view of that curious and warlike people, whose valour was the basis of their chieftain's aggrandizement, and the bulwark of his power. But in this description the reader must bear in mind that the character of the Albanian is referred back a few years, to that time when, like the Indian hunter, he stalked free and lawless over his native mountains. His peculiar habits, manners, and customs were considerably I met with a detailed account of the Life of Ali Pasha written by an Albanian poet in Romaic verse, and procured a transcript of it from some of Signore Psalida's scholars; but the young rogues, in their hurry to get the reward, wrote it in so confused and illegible a hand that it has been of little service to me in my labours. 102 ALBANIA AND ITS INHABITANTS. altered by the despotic sway and consolidated power of Ali Pasha; and though the general elements of his character may have remained the same, yet the strong collision of external circumstances wore down many rough points and prominent features in its configuration. The country now called ALBANIA is difficult of definition. It was at first confined to the little district of Albanopolis,* (now Albassan) in Southern Illyricum, afterwards called New Epirus. From this insignificant origin, the courage of its increasing inhabitants, shown especially during the weak disorderly reigns of the Byzantine emperors, have extended the limits, or rather the name of ALBANIA over greatest part of Illyricum and Epirus; so that in the present day it borders to the N. upon Bosnia, to the E. upon Macedonia and Thessaly, to the S. upon Acarnania and the Ambracian Gulf, to the W. upon the Ionian Sea and the Adriatic; though the Albanians by no means form the chief population within these limits, being interspersed with numerous tribes of Servians, Bulgarians, Valachians, Osmanlis, and Romaic or modern Greeks: so that in the same town it is not uncommon to hear spoken the Turkish, Romaic, Bulgarian, Valachian, and Albanian languages, and sometimes a patois, or mixture of them all. Albania is not unfrequently divided into Upper and Lower, though the boundary line of these divisions is very undefined: they might perhaps with great propriety be styled Illyrian and Epirotian Albania.† * Ptolemy the geographer, who flourished in the reigns of Hadrian and Antoninus is the first upon record who makes mention of it. ̓Αλβάνων ΑλβανόTOλIS 1. iii. c. 12. Dion Cassius enumerating the Roman conquests in Asia Minor, makes mention of Albania and calls it 'Aλßavíav Tùy èkeî, as if in contradistinction to an Albania elsewhere. The districts which are generally acknowledged in the country are as follow. Scutari, Upper and Lower Dibra, Croia, Dulcigno, Duratzo, Tiranna, Albassan, Ochri, Avlona, Berat, Musachia, Desnitza, Scrapari, Koritza, Kolo |