Diary of a Drug Fiend

CHAPTER V AT TELEPYLUS LuncH consisted of fish of a kind that we had never seen before; long, thin bodies with beaks like sword- fish. We were very hungry; but they would have tasted exquisite under any circumstances. The meal continued - with cheese, honey, and medlars ; and ended gloriously ~ with real Turkish coffee ; not one cup but as many as we wanted; and Benedictine. We had drink the rough, strong wine of the country with-the meal; and to us it tasted as if it had been the best red wine ever made. It had not been submitted to any chemical process. There was a sort of vitality inherent in it. It was primitive like all the arrangements of the Abbey, but the freshness and naturalness of everything made more than amends even to our culti- vated palates. We were apparently sitting down to lunch. with a choice selection of Olympian Deities; and the food seemed to be in keeping! Besides that, we had no time to be critical; we were overwhelmed by the beauty of our surround- -ings. Far away to the west, a line of hills ran out into the sea, the farther peaks were over fifty miles away, yet in that ‘translucent atmosphere of spring they stood out sharply. We could even see in front of the range a small, dark line of crags which jutted out parallel with them and about ten miles nearer. Thence the coast line swept towards us in a complex curve of indescribable beauty and majesty. Telepylus being itself on a promontory, there was nothing to break the mighty stretch of sea between us and the distant range with its twin cones which overhang the principal city 315