SCUTARI.       53

PLATE: FOUNTAIN AT SCUTARI.

and as these are the only periods at which they are known to emit a sound, the credulous in such matters - and in the East they are not few - have decided that their sharp thrilling cry is one of agony; and that they are compelled, during the continuance of the elemental warfare, to narrate to each other the catalogue of crime which has cut them off from the repose of the grave, and condemned them to everlasting wandering over the face of waters !

But in describing the peculiarities of the great Asiatic Cemetery, the "Silver City" of Scutari, to which it is so striking an appendage, must not be passed over without notice. Its gleaming houses crowd the graceful point of land which forms the termination of the mountain-chain that shuts in the Asian side of the Bosphorus, and then falls back only to be bathed at its base by the wider and wilder waves of the Sea of Marmora. Nothing can be imagined more perfectly beautiful point, and throws the long shadows of its arrowy minarets far across the ripple of the Boshorus towards the European shore; and then, where the rocky coast, at the base of which it is set like a pearl, recedes before the billows of the Propontis, is itself overshaded by the majestic Bulgurlhu Daghi, dark and frowning, and standing out amid the clear blue of heaven in stern defiance, a mark for the storm and the tempest; while as the sun-light falls upon the shimmering waters at its foot, towards which the hanging gardens of the principal dwellings lovingly incline, clothing the rocky descent with fringes of changeful embroidery, its graceful outlines are lengthened or widened in fairy circles as the fitful breeze plays over the surface of the glittering sea. Clusters of houses are framed in by luxuriant foliage; imperial kiosques, painted in rainbow tints, give an air of midsummer gladness to its shores; verdure descends in rich masses to the very lip of the two seas by which it is laved; and not an arrow's flight from its quay stands the "Maiden's Tower," a small and picturesque castle, built upon so diminutive a rock that its foundations cover the whole surface, and give to the edifice the appearance of floating upon the waves.

The little fortress, with its lofty tower and castellated walls, as also the subject of a legend; and thus it runs: - A certain Sultan, whose name is now forgotten, had a most fair daughter, the only child which had been vouchsafed to him by the Prophet, and on whom his heart was anchored, as on his best hope. Beautiful as a Houri, graceful as a Peri, and gay as the summer wind when it sweeps over the rose-garden of Nishapor, the girl was growing into womanhood, when the anxious father consulted a celebrated astronomer an her future destiny; who, after having carefully turned over the party-coloured pages of the mysterious volume of human, fate, uttered the frightful prophecy, that, in her eighteenth year, she was to become the prey of a serpent.