The Lion of Janina; Or, The Last Days of the Janissaries

A savage, barren, inhospitable region lies before us, the cavernous valley of Seleucia-a veritable home for an anchorite, for there is nothing therein to remind one of the living world; the whole district resembles a vast ruined tomb, with its base overgrown by green weeds. Here is everything which begets gloom-the blackest religious fanaticism, the darkest monstrosities of superstition-while an eternal malediction seems to brood like a heavy mist over this region, created surely by God's left hand, scattering abroad gigantic rocky fragments, smiting the earth with unfruitfulness, and making it uninhabitable by the children of men.