READING THE NEW TESTAMENT,

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the peasants are quite as ready to break the one oath as the other, which I firmly believe to be the case.

I have occasionally attended Divine service at the Greek churches during my stay in the Islands. At Cephalonia I should probably have done so frequently had I not feared to give offence. On the Sunday after Easter, the 27th April, 1862, I was taken by a friend to the little church of the Archangel. The men all stood below in the stalls without seats. But there were not twenty men in the church. The women were chiefly in a latticed gallery above, though I observed the Countess Anino, with her son, underneath the gallery in the body of the church. The service began with chanted prayers and hymns. A priest then read from the Acts of the Apostles the miraculous escape of St. Peter from prison. Next he read from the 20th chapter of the Gospel of St. John from the 19th verse to the end.* All these passages were read clearly in the original Greek. With occasional help from my friend I was enabled to follow easily. There is but little difference between the original Testament and the modern Greek version which I possess, and was at that time studying. When the service was over, boxes and purses were handed together round the church for different objects of charity, into all of which one was expected to put a

In our own Church the Gospel for the day was from the same chapter, from the 19th to the 23rd verse.

trifle. I, however, who was then ignorant of this necessity, had about me only one piece of coin which I gave to the leader of the alms-bearing procession. I was not much impressed by the service. It appeared to me to be a very formal affair, in which crossings, and holy water, and bows to saints supplied the place of prayer and supplication. There was not much pretence of solemnity, or even of ordinary attention.

I afterwards learnt that my visit to the church had given rise to much gossip and criticism. It was suspected that I had only gone in order to laugh at their proceedings, which was very far from being the case. However, I deemed it best in future to abstain from entering churches during the performance of service, at least in Cephalonia.

The Earl of Carlisle, who visited Corfu in 1853, remarked, in the work he then published, that the Greek Church" encourages the perusal of the Holy Scriptures." This remark does not, I think, apply to the Ionian Islands; at least, my own long experience does not confirm the statement even as regards the capital. And it must be remembered that the attempt to disseminate a few printed extracts from the Gospels occasioned disturbances at Corfu, in the time of Sir Howard Douglas.* I believe there is very little, if any, circulation of the Scriptures in Cephalonia. In that island, an

* Vide page 148 of the History of the British Protectorate.

A PRIEST SHAVED AND FLOGGED.

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English Scripture-reader gave, about a twelvemonth ago, a Greek Testament to a native, who was sick at the time. The gift was thankfully received. The recipient was shortly afterwards visited by a priest, who, seeing the sacred volume, inquired by whom it had been given. The priest examined it and said, "It is just like ours; but you ought to read the Gospels only as printed in our books." Yet he made no offer to lend the invalid an orthodox copy. On another occasion a portion of the New Testament was read to a priest in the country, who said, “We have all that, but we have also some valuable additions." He did not, however, exhibit any of his books, nor indicate what was the nature of the so-called additions.

The English have not always sufficiently respected the religious prejudices of the natives, and have sometimes treated the clergy rather harshly. In the correspondence of Sir C. Napier, there is an amusing account of a priest who, after fighting in party quarrels, had secluded himself in a convent for twenty years. At this period a Colonel Travers was the Resident, and had been informed that the priest had concealed arms in his possession. The evidence of the fact, however, was very doubtful. "Be that as it may," continues Sir Charles, "Travers shaved and flogged him at Argostoli, and again at Lixuri. During his flogging he summoned all good Christians to the rescue." Yet of this priest Sir

Charles speaks rather favourably, as regards his general character.

The Ionian bishops are, at present, generally very respectable men. Some of them are greatly venerated and esteemed; although they are usually too violent in their politics to accord with English ideas of holy men. In former days they were less respectable. About forty years ago, Napier thus announced a new bishop: "Meanwhile to bless us, we have got a bishop appointed; an excellent pious man, who formerly lived by sheep stealing, which he now calls his pastoral life."

That the clergy of the Eastern Church are apt to be ambitious is not surprising, when it is remembered that the proud house of Romanoff sprang from a parish priest. The Archbishop of Corfu has great influence, which will probably be increased by the union with Greece, of which he has ever been the staunch and unflinching advocate. He is generally believed to be a secret partisan of Russia. But his popularity with the people is greatly increased by his devotion to the patron Saint Spiridion, whom he loves to style "the miracle-working saint."

The loss of time and money occasioned by the numerous holidays and fasts (which together swallow up more than a third of the Greek year) is an evil not confined to the Ionian Islands. The first day of Lent is always kept as a great holiday. In

1863, it occurred on the 23rd of February. At Cephalonia, nearly all the inhabitants promenaded the whole afternoon on the road leading from the back of the town to the sea. The military band attended; and the scene was very lively and gay. But it could not be compared to similar festas in Corfu, owing to the absence of picturesque dresses amongst the peasantry. The Cephalonian women rarely exhibit ornaments of any kind, whilst the males usually wear the plainest Turkish dresses. The most astonishing sight which I witnessed on this occasion, was a number of Greeks riotously drunk; a very rare case in that most temperate of countries. They appeared to select a day dedicated to religion, to break out into the most unusual excesses; thus reminding the stranger of the complete independence which exists between religion and morality in superstitious and half-civilized countries.

There is reason to hope that the majority of the Greek gentry are no longer the dupes of the pretended miracles of the priests. But many still deem it politic to appear to be very superstitious. One usurer, who had enriched himself at the expense of the people of a certain island, endeavoured to counterbalance his unpopularity by the exhibition of extreme piety. By the display of abject submission to the priest, by constant voluntary candle-holding, and by slobbering with his kisses every picture or holy relic that came in his way, he sought to win