Conceal; he has been seen upon
several occasions to sit down upon an imaginary chair, the real article
of furniture being eighteen inches distant, and the stunning effect of
arriving suddenly in a sitting posture upon the hard stone of the
courtyard disabled him from rising; and even when assisted his legs were
evidently affected by the shock. His enemies declared (as they always
do) that he was the victim to an over-indulgence in the raki and wine of
Phyni. We generally knew him by the alias of "Roger," in memory of the
Ingoldsby Legends, where
"Roger the Monk
Got excessively drunk,
So they put him to bed,
And tucked him in."
There was no friend to bestow such care upon our Roger, he therefore lay
helplessly upon the bare stone until refreshing sleep restored his
eyesight and his perpendicular.
Our particular friend the head of the Church was a very different
character, and was a most simple-minded and really good religious man. I
employed a photographer of the Royal Engineers (kindly permitted by
Major Maitland, R.E.) specially to take his picture, as he sat every
morning knitting stockings, with a little boy by his side reading the
Greek Testament aloud, in the archway of the monastery.
