As I had to make a choice between foregoing the sights of Smyrna and the ruins of Ephesus-fifty miles off by rail-I preferred the former. My party of friends from Berlin University went out by rail to the ancient city, and described the ruins, especially of the great Temple of Diana, as especially interesting, although scarcely one stone was left upon another. "If the glory of Ephesus was great," says a recent writer," its ruin is remarkable. What remains attests its vastness, but of that magnificence naught but 343 feet, but the great Temple of the Sun, which we saw at Baalbec, was almost as large, and its columns were even larger. Seven of the latter, with their entablature rising seventy-five feet, still remain, while at Ephesus not a fragment stands erect. What gives the latter its special interest is its association with sacred history from the persecutions of St. Paul, who fought with beasts and beast-like men at Ephesus. The story of his visits is told in Acts xviii., xix. and xx. From his prison cell in Rome he fragments exist. It has a character of desolation of its own. The population has passed away from the site, and of the monuments of marble scarcely enough remains above ground to mark their sites." Many of its smaller columns were carried off to embellish Constantinople, Rome, Pisa, and other cities. What became of the many statues that adorned its temples we cannot tell, unless they were burned for lime or buried beneath the soil. The great Temple of Diana was one of the largest and most famous in the world. It measured 164 by subsequently wrote the Epistle to the Ephesians. Here, also, St. John is believed to have retired after his return from his banishment to Patmos. Here, too, according to tradition, the Virgin Mary went to live with the beloved disciple, and here she died and was buried. Here was held the famous Council of Ephesus, and here is said to be the tomb of Mary Magdalene. The Grotto of the Seven Sleepers is a place of interest to Mohammedans as well as Christians. Tradition reports that during the persecution of the Christians in the reign of Diocletian, A.D. 283, seven men and a dog went here for refuge, and, falling asleep, did not wake for two hundred years. When they awoke and entered the city they did not recognize the people, the money nor the language; everything was changed and the city had all become Christian. This tradition was received by Mahomet and embodied in the Koran, and the Mohammedans have great veneration for the dog Ketmehr and allow him a place in Paradise. The blue waves of the Mediterranean. It was a most refreshing experience. In the glorious afternoon light our ship warped slowly out of the harbour. The townsfolk came down by hundreds to the quay, which looked like the stage of some great amphitheatre surrounded by its background of mountains. Among our new passengers was a lady in a cinnamon-coloured dress. Although deck passengers, this lady and her servant took refuge at first on the flat roof of a small structure isolated names of the Seven Sleepers, engraved in gold or precious stones, are supposed to act as a powerful charm to avert evil, and may be purchased in the talisman bazaar in-Smyrna. Smyrna was in ancient times a great school for rhetoricians and philosophy. It was called the Forest of Philosophy and the Asylum of the Muses and Graces. Before reembarking on the steamer for Constantinople I joined my my Berlin University friends and rowed to the breakwater for a final dip in the from the crowding hundreds of other passengers. Finding this rather a bleak spot to sleep on in the open air she transferred her rugs, her parrot cage and her other belongings to the bridge connecting the fore and after decks, where she improvised a sort of tent by spreading a rug over the railing and effectually obstructing all passage through the gangway. Another of our passengers was a Jewess, who wore a most sumptuous dress embroidered with most beautiful lace. As we glided from the shore the golden sunset faded into olive green and ashen grey, and the red light on the mountains deepened from ruddy crimson |