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CHAPTER XII. THE MONASTERY OF TROODITISSA. T HE monastery of Trooditissa had no architectural pretensions ; it looked like a family of English barns that had been crossed with a Swiss chalet. The roofs of six separate buildings of considerable dimensions were arranged to form a quadrangle, which included the chapel, a long building at right angles with the quadarangle, which had an upper balcony beneath the roof, ko as to form a covered protection to a similar arrangement below, and an indescribable building which was used by the monks as their store for winter provisions. .The staircases were outside, as in Switzerland, and entered upon the open-air landings or balconies ; these were obscure galleries, from which doors led to each separate apartment, occupied by the monks and fleas. The obscurity may appear strange, as the balconies were on the outside, but the eaves of the roof at an angle of about 480 projected some feet as a protection from the winter's snow, and occasioned a darkness added to the gloom of blueish grey gneiss which formed the walls and the deep brownish red of the tiled roof. The great walnut-tree overshadowed a portion of the mule stables that formed a continuation of the

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