[19] “Towards the lower part of Tempe, these cliffs are peaked in a very singular manner, and form projecting angles on the vast perpendicular faces of rock which they present towards the chasm; where the surface renders it possible, the summits and ledges of the rocks are for the most part covered with small wood, chiefly oak, with the arbutus and other shrubs. On the banks of the river, wherever there is a small interval between the water and the cliffs, it is covered by the rich and widely spreading foliage of the plane, the oak, and other forest trees, which in these situations have attained a remarkable size, and in various places extend their shadow far over the channel of the stream.... The rocks on each side of the vale of Tempe are evidently the same; what may be called, I believe, a coarse bluish-gray marble, with veins and portions of the rock in which the marble is of finer quality.”--Holland’s _Travels in Albania, &c._ [20] The Amphictyonic Council was convened in spring and autumn at Delphi or Thermopylæ, and presided at the Pythian games which were celebrated at Delphi every fifth year. [21] “This spot, (the field of Mantinea,) on which so many brave men were laid to rest, is now covered with rosemary and laurels.”--Pouqueville’s _Travels in the Morea_. [22] For the accounts of the upas or poison tree of Java, now generally believed to be fabulous, or greatly exaggerated, see the notes to Darwin’s _Botanic Garden_. [23] “The court most to be admired of the Alhambra is that called the court of the Lions; it is ornamented with sixty elegant pillars of an architecture which bears not the least resemblance to any of the known orders, and might be called the Arabian order.... But its principal ornament, and that from which it took its name, is an alabaster cup, six feet in diameter, supported by twelve lions, which is said to have been made in imitation of the Brazen Sea of Solomon’s temple.”--Burgoanne’s _Travels in Spain_. [24] “Sept des plus fameux parmi les anciens poëtes Arabiques sont désignés par les écrivains orientaux sous le nom de _Pleïade Arabique_, et leurs ouvrages étaient suspendus autour de la Caaba, ou Mosque de la Mecque.”--Sismondi, _Littérature du Midi_. [25] “The distress and fall of the last Constantine are more glorious than the long prosperity of the Byzantine Cæsars.”--Gibbon’s _Decline and Fall_, &c. vol. xii. p. 226. [26] See the description of the night previous to the taking of Constantinople by Mahomet II.--Gibbon’s _Decline and Fall_, &c. vol. xii. p. 225. [27] “This building (the Castle of the Seven Towers) is mentioned as early as the sixth century of the Christian era, as a spot which contributed to the defence of Constantinople; and it was the principal bulwark of the town on the coast of the Propontis, in the last periods of the empire.”--Pouqueville’s _Travels in the Morea_. [28] See the account from Herodotus of the supernatural defence of Delphi.--Mitford’s _Greece_, vol. i. p. 396-7.