f charioteers. Each member of the
society speaking on his own account, and all at the same time--a
circumstance I afterwards found not uncommon in other antiquarian and
literary societies at Athens--asked me if I was going to Athens:
+eis Athenas+ was the phrase. The Arab and a couple of Maltese alone said
"Ees teen Atheena." Entrapped into a reply by the classic sound, I
unwittingly exclaimed "Malista--Verily I am."

The shouts my new friends uttered on hearing me speak Greek cannot be
described. Their volubility was suddenly increased a hundredfold; and
had all the various owners of the multitudinous garments before me
arisen to reclaim their respective habiliments, it could hardly have
been greater. I could not have believed it possible that nine Greeks,
aided by two Maltese and a single Arab, could have created such a din.
The speakers soon perceived that it was utterly impossible for me to
hear their eloquent addresses, as they could no longer distinguish the
sounds of their own voices; so with one accord they disappeared, and ere
I had proceeded many steps again surrounded me, rushing forward with
their respective vehicles, into which they eagerly invited me to mount.
If their habiliments consisted of costumes run mad, their chariots were
not less varied, and afforded an historical study in locomotion. Distant
capitals and a portion of the last century must have contributed their
representatives to the motley assemblage. The tall Arab drove a superb
fiacre of the days of hoops, a vehicle for six insides; phaetons,
chariots, droschkies, and britskas, Strong's omnibus, and Rudhart's
stuhlwagen, gigs, cars, tilburies, cabriolets, and dogcarts, were all
there, and each pushing to get exactly before me. Lord Palmerston's
kingdom is doubtless a Whig satire on monarchy; the scene before me
appeared a Romaic satire on the Olympic games. I forgot my melancholy
sentiment, and resolved to join the fun, by attempting to dodge my
persecutors round the corners of the isolated houses and deep lime-pits
which King Otho courteously terms streets. I forgot that barbarians were
excluded from the Olympic games, not on account of the jealousy of the
Greeks, but because no barbarian could display the requisite skill. The
charioteers and their horses knew the ground so much better than I did,
that they blockaded me at every turn; so, in order to gain the rocky
ground, I started off towards the hill of the Phalerum pursued by the
_pancos