pipes, or
listen to a story, which saves them the trouble of thinking or speaking.
The Albanians did not scream and chatter as the Arabs do, or as their
ladies were doing in the houses, but they lounged about the bazaars
listlessly, ready to pick a quarrel with any one, and unable to fix
themselves down to any occupation; in short they gave me the idea of
being a very poor and proud, and good-for-nothing set of scamps.

_November 2nd._--The next morning at five o'clock I was on horseback
again, and after riding over stones and rocks, and frequently in the bed
of a stream, for fourteen hours, I arrived in the evening at Yanina. I
was disappointed with the first view of the place. The town is built on
the side of a sloping hill above the lake; and as my route lay over the
top of this hill, I could see but little of the town until I was quite
among the houses, most of which were in a ruinous condition. The lake
itself, with an island in it on which are the ruins of a palace built by
the famous Ali Pasha, is a beautiful object; but the mountains by which
it is bounded on the opposite side are barren, yet not sufficiently
broken to be picturesque. The scene altogether put me in mind of the
Lake of Genesareth as seen from its western shore near Tiberias. There
is a plain to the north and north-west, which is partially cultivated,
but it is inferior in beauty to the plains of Jericho, and there is no
river like the Jordan to light up the scene with its quick and sparkling
waters as it glistens among the trees in its journey towards the lake.

I went to the house of an Italian gentleman who was the principal
physician of Yanina, and who I understood was in the habit of affording
accommodation to travellers in his house. He received me with great
kindness, and gave me an excellent set of rooms, consisting of a bed
room, sitting room, and ante-room, all of them much better than those
which I occupied in the hotel at Corfu: they were clean and nicely
furnished; and altogether the excellence of my quarters in the
dilapidated capital of Albania surprised me most agreeably.

The town appears never to have been repaired since the wars and
revolutions which occurred at the time of Ali Pasha's death. The houses
resemble those of Greece or southern Italy; they are built, some of
stone, and some of wood, with tiled roofs. On the walls of many of them
there were vines growing. The bazaars are poor, yet I saw very rich arms
displayed in s