in a work which may
probably precede this in publication, that I as little wish to follow as
I would to anticipate him.[214] But some few observations are necessary
to the text. The Arnaouts, or Albanese, struck me forcibly by their
resemblance to the Highlanders of Scotland, in dress, figure, and manner
of living. Their very mountains seemed Caledonian, with a kinder
climate. The kilt, though white; the spare, active form; their dialect,
Celtic in its sound; and their hardy habits, all carried me back to
Morven. No nation are so detested and dreaded by their neighbours as the
Albanese; the Greeks hardly regard them as Christians, or the Turks as
Moslems; and in fact they are a mixture of both, and sometimes neither.
Their habits are predatory--all are armed; and the red-shawled Arnaouts,
the Montenegrins, Chimariots, and Gegdes, are treacherous;[215] the
others differ somewhat in garb, and essentially in character. As far as
my own experience goes, I can speak favourably. I was attended by two,
an Infidel and a Mussulman, to Constantinople and every other part of
Turkey which came within my observation; and more faithful in peril, or
indefatigable in service, are rarely to be found. The Infidel was named
Basilius; the Moslem, Dervish Tahiri; the former a man of middle age,
and the latter about my own. Basili was strictly charged by Ali Pacha in
person to attend us; and Dervish was one of fifty who accompanied us
through the forests of Acarnania to the banks of Achelous, and onward to
Messalonghi in AEtolia. There I took him into my own service, and never
had occasion to repent it till the moment of my departure.

When, in 1810, after the departure of my friend Mr. Hobhouse for
England, I was seized with a severe fever in the Morea, these men saved
my life by frightening away my physician, whose throat they threatened
to cut if I was not cured within a given time. To this consolatory
assurance of posthumous retribution, and a resolute refusal of Dr.
Romanelli's prescriptions, I attributed my recovery.[gg] I had left my
last remaining English servant at Athens; my dragoman was as ill as
myself, and my poor Arnaouts nursed me with an attention which would
have done honour to civilization. They had a variety of adventures; for
the Moslem, Dervish, being a remarkably handsome man, was always
squabbling with the husbands of Athens; insomuch that four of the
principal Turks paid me a visit of remonstrance at the Convent on the