afternoon it struck
him suddenly that as he did not care for antiquities, perhaps we might
come to an arrangement; and the end of the affair was that he gave me
one of the ancient crosses which I had seen when I was there before, and
put the one the monk had to sell in its place; certain pieces of gold
which I produced rendering this transaction satisfactory to all parties.
This most curious and beautiful piece of jewellery has been since
engraved, and forms the subject of the third plate in Shaw's 'Dresses
and Decorations of the Middle Ages,' London, 1843. It had been presented
to the monastery by the Emperor John, whom, from what I was told by the
agoumenos, I take to have been John Zimisces. It is one of the most
ancient as well as one of the finest relics of its kind now existing in
England.

On the evening of the second day my man returned from Xeropotamo with
the information that he had found a small Greek brig, and had engaged to
give the patron or captain eleven hundred piastres for our passage
thence to the Dardanelles the next day, if I could manage to be ready in
so short a time. As fortunately I had purchased all the manuscripts
which I wished to possess, there was nothing to detain me on Mount
Athos; for I had now visited every monastery excepting that of St. Anne,
which indeed is not a monastery like the rest, but a mere collection of
hermitages or cells at the extreme point of the peninsula, immediately
under the great peak of the mountain. I was told that there was nothing
there worth seeing; but still I am sorry that I did not make a
pilgrimage to so original a community, who it appears live on roots and
herbs, and are the most strict of all the ascetics in this strange
monastic region.

All of a sudden, as we were walking quietly together, the agoumenos
asked me if I knew what was the price of nuts at Constantinople.

"Nuts?" said I.

"Yes, nuts," said he; "hazel-nuts: nuts are excellent things. Have they
a good supply of nuts at Constantinople?"

"Well," said I, "I don't know; but I dare say they have. But why, my
Lord, do you ask? Why do you wish to know the price of hazel-nuts at
Constantinople?"

"Oh!" said the agoumenos, "they do not eat half nuts enough at Stamboul.
Nuts are excellent things. They should be eaten more than they are.
People say that nuts are unwholesome; but it is a great mistake." And so
saying, he introduced me into a set of upper rooms that I had not
previously entered,