The daily intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Territory [i.e. Wash.]) 1876-1881, 1877-12-29

These are oar ech-Hshermeu, said
our guide. - We bounded from stone to
stone. in order to get nearer these curl
ous industrials whose savage mien in
spired rs with very scanty sympathy.
We were in the vicinity Of the fam
isbed and fever. i'm pregnated village of
Skupon, once the famous town Of Orch
omenes, one Of the richest and most OPP
ulent cities in IGreece. Upon the bor-
ders Of marsh eight or ten human be-
ings were standing in strange attitudes.
They entered the water mp to their
knees, remsined immovable Is herons
sitting their prey; then returning to the
bank, they seated themselves upon
stones, scratched their legs with pecu-
liar care, which ct distance appeared
to 10, from their maculated condition,
spotted Is the skin of leopard. Al
most naked, they spent their days ip
the marshes, agitstiLg the Shiny waters
with sticks.
The lseches,:: (which live ia the clumps
of rushes, are started in consider able
numbers. and attach themselves to the
legs of the fishermen. When their legs
are covered, the leeches are carefully
picked Of and placed in baskets pierced
with holes and filed with moist moss.
At this occupation these men can earn
twenty francs q day. but the fishing
season only lasts for two or three
months, and ct its close the moiety Of
their gains has bsen already spent in
debauchery.
Nothing 10 more hideous thsn the in
terror OF these cabins in which these
miserable people spend 9 portion Of
the night in brutal drunkenness, re-
plscing their impoverished blood by
asphodal whisky, which inAames and
gangrenes the thousand little sbrasures
made by the leeches No Greek will
consent to do this work, which is solely
undertaken BY the waits and strays who
inundste the ports Of the Levant.
At . distance from his companions
at An old fisherman. detaching the
lseches which he had succeeded In
catching, and nothing was more horri-
bic than TO behold his emacistsd and
bleeding limbs covered with the vsFo-
cious animals, which he Was sndeAvor-
ing to remove with feeble and tremb-
hing hand. His gasping voice posssssed
the sound Of . choking moribund; his
chest reeembled the skin Of come
starved animal; his eyes. yelled by their
puruleat lids, had no speculation in
them, and an old straw hat, without .
crown. laid hare skull one mass OF
sores; while, above oil. emspated from
his body the vague odor Of alcohol.
"For thirty years." ssid our guide.
''this men has come here to 6sh for
leechcs. No one knows his name or
country. He does not know himself
when he was born or from whence he
comes"
It 10 not rare occurrence to find
some fishermen amass a considerable
sum Ut the end Of . season. It is not
only their own legs they expose to the
leschss. but those Of horses. which they
purchase in the country. The poor 81.
FINALS which are offered rs . feast, pre-
cent CHASTITY spectacle. with their sides
torn aud their legs raw aud bleeding.
They know 10 well the suffering that
await them each day that they offer all
the resistance IF which they are caps-
bic. But their already enfeebled
strength yields to blows. aud the agita.
ton of the water during the brief
struggle but seems to attract greater
number of leeches. BY degrees they
u1nnknnGlnoss audu more. yielding to the
- 81 1hs enemy, until their