MIEABELLO
119
or landing-places alone being down on the shore. The two principal villages are Podstrana, the ancient Petuntium, and Jesenice, the ancient Nareste. From both of them bridle-paths and rough roads lead into the Poljica. And soon, round a point, Almissa comes into view, the little town clustered at the foot of a steep rock crowned by the old pirate stronghold, Castle Mirabello; above it again, yet much higher up and apparently inaccessible, the remains of a great square fortress, the Starigrad. But Almissa, though seemingly quite close, is not so easily reached; the river Cetina, the longest in Dalmatia, debouches here, and its rapid stream brings down much alluvial matter which runs out in spurs of land and shallows, rendering navigation difficult and constituting the pre-eminent importance of Almissa as a freebooters’ port in days when long-range artillery was unknown. Almissa is now a bright and clean little town at the foot of its castle, with which it is connected by walls. Behind it is the deep and gloomy deft of the Cetina gorge, through which the river comes swirling in a very rapid flood, heavy rains having swollen the stream till it submerged the meadows by its mouth. Near the landing-place is a capital little inn, the Dinara, with clean bedrooms