The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1871-12-28
A CELIBATE ELYSIUM.
A Community Of Seven Thousand Men
and No Women.

A correspondent has discovered 9
community, numbering at present
about seven thousand souls, which
has fioUrished for many centuries
though no woman has ever been per,
mitted or known to set foot in the
country. Few of the inhabitants h.
says, have any definite idea of what 8
woman is. The whole class of ideas
and sensations ordinarily associated
with the words mother, sister, wife,
and sweetheart are to them unknown
and what is equally singular, crime is
also unknown, or nearly so, while on
every side are to be seen evidences OF
temperance, piety, and good order
The home of this eccentric but happy
people is in the easternmOst of the
three peninsulas which project from
the north coast of the Greek Archi-
peIago. 1t was anciently called Acte,
now Monte Sancto, and is about forty
miles in length, and from two to nine
miles across. 1t terminates in Mt
AthCs, a cOnical mass of limestone
rising abruptly to a height of SIX
thousand five hundred feet. Between
this bold headland and the coast is 8
beautiful plateau, clothed Throughout
with woodland, which is gay with
flowers, rich with OdOrs, merry with
songs of birds, and canOpied by the
brightest of all blue skies. The culti-
waited fields are all diversified with
groves of oak and chestnut, while
olives and figs are here indigenous
To this secret paradise the sons, but
not the daughters, of Eve are admit
ted, and such has been the custom as
far back as history reaches; the penin-
sula being religiously guarded at all
points against the approach OfwOmani
no matter how sanity she might be,
The inmates are natives of every part
of the Turkish Empire where the
Greek language is spoken and are con-
signed to tine societies either in in
fancy or in early life by their fanatical
parents. The first years are spent in
tilling the land, tending the vines
helping in the hOusewOrk, or engaged
in some handieraft. For three years
the candidate is a prObatiOner; then
if he has proved himself able to keel
his monastic VOWS, he receives his
first tonsure and becomes a monk
The discipline is severe, ordinary
CuuTCu SGINlCcS SCNCu nOuIS q udJ
extraordinary fourteen, ndsleep five
One hundred and fifty-nine days in
the year they have one meal only q
day, and at this eggs, fish, cheese
wine and oil are forbidden. The pro.
hibitiOn of woman extends to the sex
universally. From time immemOria
no COW, mare, goose, duck, hen Ol
female of any kind has ever been per-
mitted to make acquaintance witt
hill or valley, farm-yard or kitchen
in the Mt. Athos territory. In select
ing meat for the table, the creates
care is taken to have it of the male
variety, and q body of soldiers is EN-
ployed by the societies to keep the
sacred shores from being desecrateC
by the tread of any female whatever
Yet, in spite of all these stringent re
gulations, the birds continue to mate
and feminine fleas and mosquitoes Il
rear their young, to the everlasting
scandal of all the pious old bachelor
on the peninsula. There are in the
converts some good libraries, contain
ing about fifty thousand volumes il
all, and manuscripts seven hundred
years old are by no means uncommon
Altogether, these venerable male nun:
| have jolly time of it.