During my sojourn at Trooditissa no arrivals of despairing wives
occurred, but in the exhausted conditions of the finance throughout the
island, it would have been the height of folly to have desired an
increase of family, and thereby multiply expenses; possibly the
uncertainty respecting the permanence of the English occupation may
deter the ladies, who may postpone their pilgrimage to the monastery
until their offspring should be born with the rights of British
subjects.
I have described the origin of the ecclesiastical retreat at Trooditissa
as nearly as possible according to the viva-voce history related by the
monks. It is impossible to gauge the opinions of the world, as
individuals differ as much in nervous structure and in theological
creeds as they do in personal appearance; some may accept the monks'
belief implicitly, while others may suggest that the original occupant
of the cave was some unknown hermit secluded from the world, whose
solitary lamp burning before the Virgin had attracted the attention of
the shepherds from the mountain opposite. The old man may have fallen
down a precipice and died, leaving his lamp still alight; but it would
be unfair to interfere with the original legend, which must remain with
the usual clouds and uncertainties that obscure the tales of centuries.
About 250 feet above the monastery the ridge of a spur afforded a level
space beneath some tall pines which threw a welcome shade, and would
have been a convenient camping-ground.
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