124 AIASALUK NOT ON THE SITE OF EPHESUS.

thousand pieces of silver; so mightily grew the word of God, and prevailed.”—(Acts, xix., 19, 20.)

I sat down upon a fragment of marble beside one of the Christian huts, and read the message which Jesus, by his servant John, sent unto "the Church of Ephesus" forty years after this event. I felt the truth and fulfilment of these words: "Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen, and repent and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent."

The imperfectly informed traveller is liable to suppose that the ruins of the Saracenic castle and city of Aiasaluk mark the site of Ephesus, as some gentlemen whom we found there had concluded, and were about to depart. Aiasaluk* is the successor of Ephesus, and was built out of its ruins by the Saracens about five hundred years ago. Hence the rich materials of the ancient capital of proconsular Asia are seen strewed everywhere amid the ruins of the modern town; in the walls of the deserted mosques, the decayed mausoleums, and in the arches and channel of the dilapidated aqueduct that stretches across the plain from the castle to the mountain. The modern Aiasaluk is nearly as desolate as the ancient Ephesus, if we except the thousand storks and their nests, perched upon her castle battlements, crumbling minarets, and dome-crowned tombs.

* Aiasaluk is said to be derived from ayıos coλoyos, the Holy Theologian, the popular name of St. John, whose memory is embalmed throughout this part of Asia Minor.